Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 48.djvu/96

86 wi' a north eye, spat dree times." Pliny speaks of spitting in the hosom as a means of inducing the gods to grant any presumptuous desire (veniam quoque a deis spei alicujus audacioris petirmus, in sinum spuendo), and Juvenal refers to the custom of bespitting the upper folds of the toga (conspuere sinus) in order to avert divine wrath provoked by haughtiness of speech; and if we go back nearly four centuries earlier to the Greek poet Theocritus, we find that the remedy prescribed by the English boor for warding off the influence of the evil eye was employed by the rustics of that ancient time for precisely the same purpose. The sixth idyl of this pastoral poet consists of a dialogue between two herdsmen, Daphnis and Demoitas, of whom the latter, in the course of conversation, remarks: "Lest I should be enchanted by the evil eye, I spit three times into my breast" (ὥς μἡ βασκανθῶ δέ τρὶς ὲμὸν ἔπτνσα κόλπον), and adds that in doing so he had followed the advice of an old wizard.

An ornament in the shape of a crescent moon (σεληνίσκος or σεληνίσκος) was worn by the Greeks or placed on the walls of their houses as a προκάνιον or preservative against the evil eye, and the lulunæ, with which Roman women adorned their persons, were also regarded as safeguards against witchcraft. "We have a survival of this superstition in the half moons so often seen on harness and occasionally on buildings. Indeed, in Oriental countries all jewels are amulets, and are prized more for their occult virtue than for their superficial beauty. The Romans hung a fascinum in the form of a phallus round the necks of children as a preventive against witchcraft, and the pieces of red coral used by our teething infants to facilitate dentition are a reminiscence of this usage connected with the Priapian cult. The Drudenfuss, or pentagram (*), which the Tyrolese draws on the threshold of his stable to protect his cattle against enchantment, is a relic of Pythagorean mysticism and mediæval magic.

A dreadful tale of cruelty caused by the witchcraft delusion comes to us from the Emerald Isle. A few months ago, at Ballyvadlea, in the county of Tipperary, a woman named Bridget Cleary had an attack of influenza or grippe, which, as is usually the case with maladies of men and beasts, was ascribed to demoniac influences. Her husband, a cooper by trade, got the notion into his head that she had been "overlooked," and thereby spirited away by a wicked fairy, who had taken possession of her body. He called a family council, consisting of her father, an aunt, four cousins, a couple of neighbors, and the village simplist,who unanimously confirmed his suspicion, and went to work to exorcise and expel the evil spirit, so that the unfortunate woman might return to herself and her friends. The simplist prepared a disgusting decoction, which her husband poured down her throat.