Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/180

172 their flocks near, when they are induced to follow whither the sound of music leads them, and to join in the dance with those beings who are always as beautiful as they are malicious.

What we call "Will o' the Wisps" or "St. Elmo's Fires" are considered to be the souls of unbaptised infants, who, dying in their birth, or untimely strangled by wicked mothers, are carried off immediately by demons who are waiting, all ready and on the look-out for such a possibility.

Healing waters are also widely believed by the peasantry to exist, if only their locality could be discovered. These healing waters will, if obtained, cure every malady and sorrow which has baffled the care and skill of the most experienced physician and of the most careful nursing.

A CURIOUS SUPERSTITION. LEMENS ROMANUS, speaking of the idolatry of the ancient Egyptians, states that "alii crepitus ventris pro numinibus habendos esse docuerunt." Minucius Felix also bears testimony to this, as well as Lactantius, Origines, Hieronymus, and others. Cæsarius attributes the same superstition to the Greeks: Among the Romans such an occurrence during religious ceremonies was of evil omen. Cato in his "Oratio de Sacrilegio commisso" lays down the etiquette of the subject minutely: "Domi cum auspicamus," he says, "servi, ancillae, si quis eorum sub centone crepuit, quod ego non sensi, nullum mihi vitium facit. Sicut ibidem servo aut ancillae dormienti evenit, quod comitia prohibere solet, ne is quidem mihi vitium facit." Martial in one of his