Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 9, 1898.djvu/107

Rh he resides, he heard the same thing the other day as to the hen-turkey. I don't know whether you would consider it worth recording in connection with the above that some men (foreigners) are credited with the power of causing conception in girls : first, by a fixed gaze, or glare of the eyes ; and when this has caused the girl to feel helpless and motionless, the man sends his hot breath over her face, and if she possesses no power of resistance the harm is done. This was told me by a woman who believed that her own sister had been seduced in this manner when a girl. She said the man was a stranger to her sister, a foreigner, "an Italian, or something like that," very dark, with black eyes and hair. She told me the story as a reason for not letting girls, especially fair girls, have any acquaintance with foreigners. She said she believed her sister never saw the man but on the one occasion. [The belief in the power of visual intercourse, at all events on the part of mythical beings, is found in the sagas of many peoples. See Legend of Perseus, vol. i. p. 142. A curious Bulgarian legend is given from the Sbornik, the great national collection of folklore, by Madame Schischmanoff in Légendes Religieuses Bulgares (Paris, Leroux, 1896), p. 127. It runs that when God had created the world, all the saints assembled in council to decide how mankind was to multiply ; and it was agreed that this should be done by means of a glance. The saints then went to dinner. Saint John Chrysostom being their cook and waiter. When they had tasted the soup, they said : "John, the soup is not salt enough ; put some salt in it." Then John took a handful of salt, and pretended to sprinkle it in the soup, but without letting a grain fall. The saints tasted it again, but still found it not salt enough. The process was repeated, with the same result. Then Saint John put the salt into the soup, and the saints were at last satisfied. Saint John improved the occasion to persuade them to rescind their resolution, and to make the present arrangement. His fellow-saints acclaimed his wisdom, crying : "John, thy mouth is golden !" Thereupon his mouth actually became gilded, and he acquired the surname of Chrysostom. — .]