Etruscan Roman Remains in Popular Tradition

[Amanda Messenger]

III

As this twig is plucked up and broken in pieces, so shall also the spell be,
The burning fire shall devour it!
its fibres shall not again unite themselves to the trunk;
it shall not arrive at a perfect state of splendour!
The man who has cast the evil fate, his wife,
the violent operation, the pointing with the finger, the written spell, the curses, the sins,
The evil which is in my body, in my flesh, in my bruises,
may [all that] be broken in pieces and plucked up like this twig!
May the burning fire devour it this day!
May the evil fate depart, and may I behold the light again!

[Amanda Messenger]

IV

As this wool is rent so also shall the spell be,
The burning fire shall devour it!
It shall not return to the back of its sheep;
it shall not be offered for the garments of kings and gods!
The man who has cast the evil fate, his wife,
the evil spell, the finger pointing, the written spells, the curses, the sins,
the evil which is in my body, in my flesh, in my bruises,
may all [that] be rent like this wool!
May the burning fire devour it this day!
May the evil fate depart, and may I behold the light again!

[Amanda Messenger]

Like unto this are two other incantations, one applied to rending a banner, the other to tearing up a piece of frilled stuff. I call attention to the fact that these are so strikingly like the modern Tuscan both as regards subject, spirit, and general treatment, that the burden of disproof in reference to a common origin should in common sense fall on the sceptic. These Chaldæan cylinders speak of seventy-seven fevers--i.e., all diseases--as coming from the seven primary demons of disease. The Bogomile Slavonian heretics of the fourteenth century also recognised

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[Amanda Messenger]

the seventy-seven fevers and had an exorcism for them. And in an old German spell current in Pennsylvania we have as a cure for fever the following:--

"Good-morning, dear Thursday! Take away from--the seventy-seven fevers! O thou dear Lord Christ, take them away from him. . . ."

In the Chaldæan incantation against the plague (i.e., the seventy-seven personified) the operator must turn his face towards the setting sun. In the German spell he must not speak to any one till after sunrise, which involves the same idea.

[Amanda Messenger]

It is very remarkable that all over the world a black pebble of kidney shape is supposed to be one of the most powerful of amulets. At the Folk-Lore Congress of 1891, such stones were exhibited from widely different countries. I myself possess one which was brought from Missouri and presented to me by Miss Mary A. Owen, to which most extraordinary value and reverence was attached by the black Voodoos and their disciples. It had been kept with the most jealous care for many generations in the families of these sorcerers, and came originally from Africa. To become an ordinary Voodoo, the postulant must fast and watch, undergo revolting penances, and cultivate "power" and "will" all his life. But the possession of an authenticated "cunjerin'," or conjuring-stone, renders all this unnecessary, the owner by the mere act of possession becomes a grand past-master Voodoo, or multote, and requires no further initiation. Even the chief black sorcerer in Missouri, or the king, has never been able to get one. 1 It would be useless to attempt to palm off a similar black pebble for a real one, since it is said that there are in all North America only six-or rather five, mine being one of the half-dozen--and their possessors are all well known, as is every mark in the stones. Black believers have been known to make a pilgrimage of a thousand miles to be touched with this marvellous stone--or to hold it in the hand. I hold it in my left hand as I write, mildly trusting that I may thereby charm, or at least interest thee, O reader. It must, like all Voodoo amulets, be carried in a wrapping, or a bag, which may be closed by wrapping a string round. it, which must not, however, be tied, as that would prevent the free egress or ingress of the spirit which dwells in it. Once a week it should be dipped in, or touched with, whiskey, but I am assured that eau de Cologne will answer just as well, which it surely ought to do, since the recipe for it was given by an angel to Saint Elizabeth of Hungary.

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[Amanda Messenger]

LEAD AND ANTIMONY

"Talismani erano pietre, o gemme co pezzetti di metallo . . . in forza di quale si credeva avessero straordinarie virtú, e singolari, ma la frequenza loro, e il credito venne da' Gnostici, e da Basilidiano, de quali assai parla nel suo libro, santo Ireneo."--Arte Magica Distrutta, MAFFEI, 1757

[Amanda Messenger]

"Non solùm verò in plantis quæ vestigium habent vitæ, sed etiam in lapidibus aspicere licet, imitationem et participationem, quandam luminum supernorum."--Proclus de Sacrificio et Magia (Interpre MARSILIO FICINO), LUGDUNI, 1577

[Amanda Messenger]

A piece of lead ore is supposed to possess peculiar virtue as an amulet against malocchio, or to bring luck. Of these I have seen three, two of which I possess, with the invocation which must be pronounced when one is tied up in the usual red woollen bag. Far more potent, however, are the old Roman sling-stones, or pointed slugs of lead, of which such numbers are everywhere found, and of which I have two, which I bought for a half-franc each, as talismans for the evil eye. But more effective still is a lump of crude antimony. This is supposed

[Amanda Messenger]

ROMAN SLING-STONE

to also contain zinc and copper, which give it great power. For these I have also the scongiurazioni, which are as follows. I believe them, however, to be imperfectly recalled:--

[Amanda Messenger]

"Antimonio che sei di zingo e di rame:
Il più potente ti tengo sempre con me,
Perche in mi alontani le cattive gente,
Da me alontanera,
E la buona fortuna a me attirerai!"

("Antimony, who art of zinc and copper!
Thou most powerful, I keep thee ever by me,
That thou mayest banish from me evil people,
And bring good luck to me.")

[Amanda Messenger]

That for lead was obtained for me, written in the following words, verb. et lit.:--

"Antimogno che di piombo sei
Non ai la stessa forza della zingo e rame,
Ma prestati per la forza che in ai
Tutte le chattive persone da me alontanerai
Ela buona fortuna mi attirerai!"

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("Thou antimony, who art lead,
Not having the force of zinc and copper,
But grant that by the power which thou hast,
That thou wilt keep all evil people from me!")

[Amanda Messenger]

It will be observed that in both of these invocations great stress is laid on the virtue of copper, which is probably derived from the old Roman religious feeling regarding it, as the "body" of bronze. But after much weary inquiry, owing to the difficulty which my informant had to put her ideas into form, I elicited these ideas: "The metals have all their occult virtues and their light--that is, their lustre--when broken; deep in the earth, and in darkness, this light still shines in itself; it is a light dreaded by evil beings. Copper and gold have the reddest light; this is the most genial, or luck-bringing; and copper is supposed to form part of antimony. Antimony is stronger than lead, because it consists of three metals, or rather always has in it copper and lead."

[Amanda Messenger]

There is strong confirmation of this theory in Cardanus (De Rerum Varietate, xvi., 8, 9) and Peter of Aries (Sympathia septem metallorum et septem selectorum lapidum ad planetas. Paris, 1711), or as it is set forth by Nork in his Etymologisch-symbolisch-mythologisches Realwörterbuch:--

"What the stars are in the nightly heaven, that are the gleaming metals in the dark abyss of the earth, therefore it is intelligible that those earthly gatherers of light should be associated with the heavenly ones, and as the worship of light was concentrated in the sun and planets, so unto every leading planet there was assigned a glittering metal according to its degree of radiance."

[Amanda Messenger]

This is also curious since it suggests the source whence Novalis drew his famed simile that miners are inverted astrologers, reading in the earth the past, just as other seers read in the heavens the future. And it seemed to linger quaintly in the fancy that copper and antimony and lead have all their "light" and magic mystic power.

A few days ago I bought in an old shop an amulet of lead ore in which a piece of copper was embedded. This was, as the American negroes say, "a mighty strong cunjerin' stone." So I purchased it for a franc--the bargain including two little old bronze Etruscan images, one of Aplu and the other of god Nosoo, or the deus incognitus.

[Amanda Messenger]

Apropos of this shop, it was one where the prezzi fissi principle was carried out, that is, of fixed prices marked on the wares. This does not mean at all in Italy that a dealer will not take less, but that he binds himself not to take any more. The price is convenient as giving a basis for a bargain. Its being "fixed," according to the Italian idea, is that the piece of paper marked is "fisso," i.e., fixed,

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