Page:Popular medicine, customs and superstitions of the Rio Grande, John G. Bourke, 1894.pdf/13

Rh filings. Put upon this a tress of the girl you love and the 'Iman' will draw her to you. You must tell the name of the man or woman you love to the stone before it will act." When you wish a love-philter to act efficaciously, be sure to carry a piece of your lodestone in pocket. (M. A.)

At first glance, the ceremonial observances of the humble "curanderas" of our southwestern border would seem to be mummery, pure and simple; but a more careful examination may perhaps discover a distinguished ancestry for all these practices which at least cannot have been the invention of those who are yet addicted to them. No more rational principle can be adopted in a philosophical investigation into the origin of religions than that which teaches the importance of searching through the lore and custom of the folk for vestiges and tattered remnants, which, when patched together, bring to light their original purpose and design. It is simply a waste of time to look for the truth in the pages of poets and commentators, who, in nearly every case, distort, embellish, or conceal, instead of making a candid exposition of facts within their knowledge; not in all cases are their perversions to be characterized as mendacious; only too frequently have the ravages of time, the havoc of war, or the influx of foreign elements wrought changes in ceremonial, destroyed original records, or brought about an indifference to custom and ritual once deemed holy and essential, so that no recourse is left save an appeal to the generally never failing aid of folk-tradition as exemplified in folk-wont. This may possibly be the case in the lodestone ceremonial of the Rio Grande Valley; it may conserve in a hazy, distorted way, such as was to be expected from the ignorant minds through which it has been transmitted, a recollection of religious acts in which the pagan priesthood of ancient Rome did not disdain to indulge. Such, at least, would seem to be a not especially violent interpretation to be attached to the following words from the Latin poet, Claudian, who wrote during the reign of the Emperor Honorius, and about the year 409, when the Goths under Alaric sacked and pillaged the Eternal City.

Christianity had already gained possession of the Empire, and it is most probable that the rites which Claudian attempts to describe were already obsolescent or known only to the chosen few. His poem is entitled "The Magnet."

A stone there is by the name of Magnet, Colorless, unattractive, despised; Its lot is not to adorn the hair of the Caesars, Or the alabaster throat of the virgin, Nor does it set off as a clasp the warrior's tunic; Yet the powers of this dark stone are prized above the fairest gems.