M. De le Chambre insists upon it that the inclinations of

people may be known from consulting the lines on the hands, there being a very near correspondence between the parts of the hand and the internal parts of the body, the heart, liver, &c., " whereon the passions and inclinations much depend." He adds, however, that the rules and precepts of Chiromancy are not sufficiently warranted, the experiments on Ts^hich they stand not being well verified.
DACTYLIOMAIfCT.
^■^ This is a sort of divination performed by means of a ring. It was done as follows : — viz. by holding a ring, suspended by a fine thread, over a round table, on the edge of wliich w^ere made a number of marks with the 24 letters of the alphabet. The ring, in shaking or vibrating over the table, stopped over certain of the letters, which, being joined to- gether, composed the required answer. But this operation was preceded and accompanied by several superstitious cere- monies ; for, in the first place, the ring was to be conse- crated with a great deal of mystery ; the person holding it was to be clad in linen garments to the very shoes, his head was to be shaven all round, and he was to hold vervein in his hand. And before he proceeded on anything the gods were first to be appeased by a formulary of prayers, &c.
The whole process of this mysterious rite is given in the 29th book of Ammianus Marcellinus.
EXTISPICIUil.
(From exta and sjAcere, to view, consider.)
■ The name of the officer who showed and examined the entrails of the victims was Extispex.
GASTEOMAXCY, GEOMANCY, HYDEOMAXCT. 457
This method of divination, or of drawing presages relative to futurity, was much practised throughout Greece, Mhere there were two families, the Jamida; and Chjtid(E, conse- crated or set apart particularly for the exercise of it.
The Hetrurians, in Italy, were the first Extispices, among whom likewise the art was in great repute. Lucan gives us a fine description of one of these operations in his first book.
GASTKOMAJNCT.
This species of divination, practised among the ancients, was performed by means of ventriloquism.
There is another kind of divination called by the same name, which is performed by means of glasses, or other round transparent vessels, within which certain figures appear by magic art. Hence its name, in consequence of the figures appearing as if in the interior of the vessels.
GEOMANCY
"Was performed by means of a number of little points or dots, made at random on paper, and afterwards consider- ing the various lines and figures which these points present ; thereby forming a pretended judgment of futurity, and de- ciding a proposed question.
Polydore Virgil defines Geomancy a kind of divination performed by means of clefts or chinks made in the ground, and he takes the Persian Magi to have been the inventors of it. {JDe invent, rer. lib. i. c. 23.)
Geomancy is formed of the Greek 7?/, terra, earth ; and fiatTEia, divination ; it being the ancient custom to cast little pebbles on the ground, and thence to form their con- jecture, instead of the points above mentioned.
HYDROMANCY, 'YcpofxavrsLa.
The art of divining or foretelling future events by means of water, and is one of the four general kinds of divination : the other three, as regarding the other elements, — viz. fire and earth, — are denominated Pj-romaucy, Aeromancy, and Geomancy, already mentioned.
The Persians are said by Varro to have been the first in-
-4o8 DIYINATION.
ventors of Hydromancy, observing also that Numa Pompi- iius and Pythagoras made use of it.
There are various Hydromantic machines and vessels, which are of a singularly curious nature.
0:S-EIEOCRITICA
Is the art of interpreting dreams, or a method of foretell- ing future events by means of dreams.
ONOMAIs^CY, OE O^fOMAMANCT,
Is the art of divining the good or bad fortune which will befall a man from the letters of his name. This mode of di^ination was a very popular and reputable practice among the ancients.
The Pythagoreans taught that the minds, actions, and successes of mankind were according to their fate, genius, and name ; and Plato himself inclines somewhat to the same ■opinion.
Thus Hippolytus was observed to be torn to pieces by his own coach horses, as his name imported ; and thus Aga- memnon signified that he should linger long before Troy ; Priam that he should be redeemed out of bondage in his childhood. To this also may be referred that of Claudius Itutilius : —
Nominibus certis credam decurrere mores ? Moribus aut Potius nomina certa dari ?
It is a frequent and no less just observation in history, that the greatest empires and states have been founded and destroyed by men of the same name. Thus, for instance, ■Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, began the Persian monarchy, and Cyrus, the son of Darius, ruined it ; Darius, son of Hys- taspes, restored it ; and again, Darius, son of Asamis, utterly ■ overthrew it. Phillip, son of Amyntas, exceedingly enlarged the kingdom of Macedonia ; and Phillip, son of Antigonus, wholly lost it. Augustus was the first emperor of Eome, Augustulus tlie last. Constantino first settled the empire of Constantinople, and Constantino lost it wholly to the Turks.
There is a similar observation that some names are con- stantly unfortunate to princes, — e. g. Caius, among the
ONTCOMATs'CT OR ONTMA>'CT, A5fD ORNITHOMANCT. 459
Eomans ; Jolin in Erance, England, and Scotland ; and Henry in France.
One of the principal rules of Onomancy, among tlie Py- tliagoreans, was, that an even number of vowels in a name signified an imperfection in the left side of a man, and an odd number in the right. Another rule, about as good as this, was, that those persons were the most happy in whose names the numeral letters, added together, made the greatest sum ; for this reason, say they, it was that Achilles van- quished Hector, the numeral letters in the former name amounting to a greater number than the latter. And doubt- less it was from a like principle that the young Eomans toasted their mistresses at their meetings as often as their names contained letters.
" Ifaevia sex cyathis, septem Justina bibatur !"
Hhodingius describes a singular kind of Onomantia. Theo- dotus, King of the Goths, being curious to learn the success of his wars against the Boraans, an Onomantical Jew ordered him to shut up a number of swine in little stys, and to give some of them Eoman, and others Gothic names, with diffe- rent marks to distinguish them, and there to keep them till a certain day ; which day having come, upon inspecting the stys they found those dead to which the Gothic names had been given, and those alive to which the Eoman names were assigned : upon which the Jew foretold the defeat of the Goths.
OXTCOMANCT, OB ONYMANCY.
This kind of divination is performed by means of the finger nails. The ancient practice was to rub the nails of a youth with oil and soot, or wax, and to hold up the nails thus pre- pared, against the sun, upon which there were supposed to appear figures or characters which showed the thing required. Hence, also, modern Chiromancers call that branch of their art which relates to the inspection of nails, Onycomancy.
ORNITHOMANCY
Is a kind of divmation, or method of arriviug at tlie know- ledge of futurity, by means of birds ; it was among the Greeks what Augury was among the Eomans.
460 DITII^'ATIOK.
PTEOMAI^CT,
A species of divination performed by means of fire.
The ancients imagined they could foretell futunty by in- specting fire and flame ; for this purpose they considered its direction, or which way it turned. Sometimes they threw pitch into it, and if it took fire instantly they considered it a favourable omen.
PSTCOMANCT, on SCIOMANCT.
An art among the ancients of raising or calling up the manes or souls of deceased persons, to give intelligence of things to come. The witch who conjured up the soul of Samuel, to foretell Saul the event of the battle he was about to give, did so by Sciomancy.
EHABDOMANCT
"Was an ancient m.ethod of divination performed by means of rods or staves. St. Jerome mentions this kind of divi- nation in his commentary on Hosea, chap. vi. 12, where the prophet says, in the name of God, 3Iy people ask counsel at their stocks; and their staff declareth unto them: which pas- sage that father understands of the Grecian Rhahdomancy.
The same is met with again in Ezekiel, xxi. 21, 22, where the prophet says, For the king of Babylon stood at the part- ing of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divina- tion : he made his arrows bright ; or, as St. Jerome renders it, he mixed his arrows ; he consulted with images ; he looked in the liver.
If it be the same kind of divination that is alluded to in these two passages, Rhahdomancy must be the same kind of superstition with Belomancy : these two, in fact, are gene- rally confounded. So much, however, is certain, that the instruments of divination mentioned by Hosea are different from those of Ezekiel : though it is possible they might use rods or arrows indifferently ; or the military men might use arrows, and the rest rods.
7 THE DIVI^-TS'& -ROD. 461
By the laws of tlie Frisones, it appears that the ancient inhabitants of Germany practised Ebabdomancy. The Scy- thians were likevrise acquainted with the use of it ; and Herodotus observes (lib. vi.) that the women among the Alani sought and gathered together fine straight wands or rods, and used them for the same superstitious purposes.
xVmong the various other kinds of divination not here mentioned may be enumerated — Chilomancij, performed with keys ; Alphitomancij or Aleiwomancy, by flour ; KeraunO' scopia^ by the consideration of thunder ; Alectromancy, by cocks ; Lithomanmj, by stones ; Eijchnomancy, by lamps ; Ooscopy, by eggs ; Licanomancy, by a basin of water ; Pal- jpitatim, Salisatio, 7ra\f.ioQ, by the pulsation or motion of some member, &c.
All these kinds of divination have been condemned by the fathers of the Church, and Councils, as supposing some compact with the devil. Fludd has written several treatises on divination and its different species ; and Cicero has two books of the divination of the ancients, in which he confutes the whole system. Cardan also, in his 4th book, De Sapientia, describes every species of them. — Demono- logia.
THE DR^INIlS^a ROD.
In the spring of 1847, [says Dr. Mayo,] being then at AYeilbach, in Nassau, a region teeming with underground sources of water, I requested the son of the proprietor of the bathing establishment — a tall, thin, pale, white-haired youth, by name Edward Seebold — to walk in my presence up and down a promising spot of ground, holding a divining fork of hazel, with the accessories recommended by M. de Tristan to beginners — tliat is to say, he held in liis right hand three pieces of silver, besides one liandle of the rod, while the handle which he held in his left hand was covered with thin silk.
The lad liad not made five steps, when the point of the divining fork began to ascend. He laughed with astonish- ment at the event, which was totally unexpected by him ;
462 THE DIYiyi>'G EOD.
and he said that he experienced a tickling or thrilling sensation in his hands. He continued to walk up and down before me. The fork had soon described a complete circle ; then it described another ; and so it continued to do as long as he walked thus, and as often as, after stopping, he re- sumed his walk. The experiment was repeated by him in my presence, with like success, several times during the ensuing month. Then the lad fell into ill health, and I rarely saw him. However, one day I sent for him, and begged him to do me the favour of making another trial ivith the divining fork. He did so, but the instrument moved slowly and sluggishly ; and when, having completed a semicircle, it pointed backwards towards the pit of his stomach, it stopped, and would go no farther. At the same time the lad said he felt an uneasy sensation, which quickly increased to pain, at the pit of the stomach, and he became alarmed, when I bade him quit hold of one handle of the divining rod, and the pain ceased. Ten minutes afterwards I induced him to make another trial : the results were the same. A few days later, when the lad seemed still more out of health, I induced him to repeat the experiment. Now, however, the divining fork would not move at all.
I entertain little doubt that the above performances of Edward Seebold were genuine. I thought the same of the performances of three English gentlemen, and of a G-erman, in whose hands, however, the divining rod never moved through an entire circle. In the hands of one of them its motion was retrograde, or abnormal : that is to say, it began by descending.
But I met with other cases, which were less satisfactory, though not uninstructive. I should observe that, in the bands of several who tried to use it in my presence, the divining fork would not move an inch. But there w^eretwo younger brothers of Edward Seebold, and a bath-maid, and my own man, in whose hands the rod played new pranks. "When these parties walked forwards, the instrument ascended, or moved normally ; but when, by my desire, they walked backwards, the instrument immediately went the other way. I should observe that, in the hands of Edward Seebold, the instrument moved in the same direction whether be walked forwards or backwards ; and I have mentioned
THE DIVIDING EOD. 463
that at first it described in liis Lands a complete circle. But with the four parties I have just been speaking of, the motion of the fork was always limited in extent. AYhen it moved normally at starting, it stopped after describiug an arc of about 225° ; in the same way when it moved abnor- mally at starting, it would stop after describiug an arc of about 135° ; that is to say, there was one spot the same for the two cases, beyond which it could not get. Then I found that, in the hands of my man, the divining rod would move even when he was standing still, although with a less lively action ; still it stopped as before, nearly at the same point. Sometimes it ascended, sometimes descended. Then I tried some experiments, touching the point with a magnetic needle. I found, in the course of them, that when my man knew which way I expected the fork to move, it invariably answered my expectations ; but when I had the man blind- folded, the results were uncertain aud contradictory. The end of all this was, that I became certain that several of those in whose hands the divining rod moves, set it in motion and directed its motion by the pressure of theip fingers, and by carrying their hands nearer to, or farther apart. In walking forwards, the hands are unconsciously borne towards each other ; in walking backwards, the reverse is the case.
Therefore, I recommend no one to prosecute these ex- periments unless he can execute them himself, and unless the divining rod described a complete circle in his hands ; and even then he should be on his guard against self- deception.
PosTSCEiPT. — I am now (May, 1851,) again residing at the bathing establishment of Weilbach, near Mayence ; and it was with some interest and curiosity that the other day I requested Mr. Edward Seebold, now a well- grown young man, in full health, to try his hand again with the divining rod. He readily assented to my request ; and he this time knew exactly what result I expected. But the experiment entirely failed. The point of the divining rod rose, as he walked, not more than two or three inches ; but this it does with every one who presses the two handles towards each other during the experiment. Afterwards the implement remained perfectly stationary.
464} WITCHCRAFT.
I think I am not at liberty to witlihold this result from the reader, whom it may lead to question, though it cannot in- duce myself to doubt, the genuineness of the former per- formances of Mr. E. S. — Trutlis in Popular Superstitions.
WITCHCEAET.
STOET OF THE LADY AXICE KTTELEE.
It was late in the twelfth century when the Anglo- Normans first set their feet in Ireland as conquerors, and before the end of the thirteenth,whenthe portion of that island which has since received the name of the English Pale, was already covered with flourishing towns and cities, which bore witness to the rapid increase of commerce in the hands of the enterprising and industrious settlers from the shores of Great Britain. The county of Kilkenny, attractive by its beauty and by its various resources, was one of the dis- tricts first occupied by the invaders, and at the time of which we are speaking, its chief town, named also Kilkenny, was a strong city with a commanding castle, and was in- habited by wealthy merchants, one of whom was a rich hanker and money-lender, named William Outlawe.
This William Outlawe married ■a lady of property named Alice Kyteler, or Le Kyteler, who was, perhaps, the sister or a near relative of a AVilHam Kyteler, incidentally men- tioned as holding the office of sheriif of the liberty of Kilkenny. William Outlawe died some time before 1302 ; and his widow became the wife of Adam le Blond, of Callan, of a family which, by its English name of White, held con- siderable estates in Kilkenny and Tipperary in later times. This second husband was dead before 1311 ; for in that year the Lady Alice appears as the wife of Bichard de VaUe ; and at the time of the events narrated in the fol- lowing pages, she was the spouse of a fourth husband, Sir John le Poer. By her first husband she had a son, named also William Outlawe, who appears to have been the heir to his father's property, and succeeded him as a banker.
STORY OF THE LADY ALICE KYTELER. 465
He was his mother's favourite child, and seems to have in- herited also a good portion of the wealth of the lad^^ Alice's second and third husbands.
The few incidents relating to this family previous to the year 1324, which can he gathered from the entries on the Irish records, seem to show that it was not altogether free from the turbulent spirit wliich was so prevalent among the Anglo-Irish in former ages. It apppears that in 1302 Adam le Blond and Alice his wife intrusted to the keeping of William Outlawe the younger the sum of three thousand pounds in money, which WilHam Outlawe, for the better security, buried in the earth within his house, a method of concealing treasure wliich accounts for many of our anti- quarian discoveries. This was soon noised abroad ; and one night William le Kyteler, the sheriff above mentioned, with others, by precept of the seneschal of the libert}- of Kilkenny, broke into the house vi et armis, as the record has it, dug up the money, and carried it off, along ^A•ith a hundred pounds belonging to Wilham Outlawe him.self, which they found in the house. Such an outrage as this could not pass in silence ; but the perpetrators attempted to shelter themselves under the excuse that being dug up from the ground it was treasure-irove, and as sucli be- longed to the king ; and, when Adam le Blond and his wife Alice attempted to make good then- claims, the sheriff trumped up a charge against them that they had committed homicide and other crimes, and that they had concealed lioesia Outlawe (perhaps the s'ster of AYilliam Outlawe the younger), accused of theft, from the agents of justice, under which pretences he threw into prison all three, Adam, Alice, and Eoesia. They were, however, soon afterwards liberated, but we do not learn if they recovered their money. William Outlawe's riches, and his mother's partiality for him, appear to have drawn upon them both the jealousy and hatred of many of their neighbours, and even of some of their kindred, but they were too powerful and too highly connected to be reached in any ordinary way.
At this time, IMchard de Ledrcde, a turbulent intriguing prelate, held the see of Ossory, to wliich he had been con- secrated in 1318 by mandate from Pope John XXII., th&
VOL. II. u n
466 wiTCHCuArT.
same pontiff to wliom we owe the first bull against sorcery (contra inagos magicasque supersiitiones), which was the ground-work of the inquisitorial persecutions of the follow- ing ages. In 1324, Bishop Eichard made a visitation of his diocese, and "found," as the chronicler of these events informs us, " by an inquest in which were five knights and other noblemen in great multitude, that in the city of Kil- kenny there had long been, and still were, many sorcerers using divers kinds of witchcraft, to the investigation of which the Bishop proceeding, as he was obliged by duty of his ofiice, found a certain rich lady, called the Lady Alice Kyteler, the mother of William Outlawe, with many of her accomplices, involved in various such heresies." Here, then, was a fair occasion for displaying the zeal of a follower of the sorcery-hating Pope John, and also perhaps- for iadulging some other passions.
The persons accused as Lady Alice's accomplices were her son the banker AYilliam Outlawe, a clerk named Eobert de Bristol, John Gralrussyn, William Payn of Boly, Petro- nilla de Meath, Petronilla's daughter Sarah, Alice the wife of Henry the Smith, Annota Lange, Helena Galrussyn, Sysok Galruss\m, and Eva de Brounstoun. The charges brought against them were distributed under seven for- midable heads. Eirst, it was asserted that, in order to give effect to their sorcery, they were in the habit of denying totally the faith of Christ and of the Church for a year- or month, according as the object to be attained was greater or less, so that during the stipulated period they believed in nothing that the Church believed, and abstained from worshipping the body of Christ, from entering a church, from hearing mass, and from participating in the sacrament. Second, that they propitiated the demons with sacrifices of living animals, which they divided member from member, and offered, by scattering them in cross-roads, to a certain demon who caused himself to be called Eobin Artisson (Jilms Artis), who was "one of the poorer class of hell." Tliird, that by their sorceries they sought coun- sel and answers from demons. Eourth, that they used the ceremonies of the church in their nightly conventicles, pro- nouncing, with lighted candles of wax, sentence of excom-
STOET OF THE LADY ALICE KYTELER. 467
munication, even against the persons of their own husbands, naming expressly every member, from the sole of the foot to the top of the head, and at length extinguishing the candles with the exclamation "Fie! fie! fie! Amen." Pifth, that with the intestines and other inner parts of cocks sacrificed to the demons, with " certain horrible worms,'* various herbs, the nails of dead men, the hair, brains, and clothes of children which had died unbaptized, and other things equally disgusting, boiled in the skull of a certain robber who had been beheaded, on a fire made of oak-sticks, they had made powders and ointments, and also candles of fat boiled in the said skull, with certain charms, — which things were to be instrumental in exciting love or hatred, and in killing and otherwise afflicting the bodies of faithful Christians, and in efiecting various other purposes. Sixth, that the sons and daughters of the four husbands of the Lady Alice Kyteler had made their complaint to the Bishop, that she, by such sorcery, had procured the death of her husbands, and had so infatuated and charmed them, that they had given all their property to her and her son, to the perpetual impoverishment of their own sons and heirs ; in- somuch that her present husband, Sir John le Poer, was reduced to a most miserable state of body by her powders, ointments, and other magical operations ; but being warned by her maid-servant, he had forcibly taken from his wife the keys of her boxes, in which he found a bag filled with the " detestable" articles above enumerated, which he had sent to the Bishop. Seventh, that there was an unholy con- nexion between the said Lady Alice and the demon called Hobin Artisson, who sometimes appeared to her in the form of a cat, sometimes in that of a black shaggy dog, and at others in the form of a black man, with two tall and equally swarthy companions, each carrying an iron rod in his hand. It is added by some of the old chroniclers, that her offering to the demon was nine red cocks and nine peacocks' eyes, at a certain stone bridge at a cross-road ; that she had a certain ointment with which she rubbed a beam of wood "called a coulter," upon which she and her accomplices were carried to any part of the world they wished, without hurt or stop- page ; that " she swept the stretes of Kilkennie betweene compleine and twilight, raking all the filth towards the
468 "^ITCHCEAFT.
doores of hir sonne "William Outlawe, murmuring secretlie with hir selfe these words :
' To the house of WiUiain my sonne, Hie all the wealth of Kilkennie town ;' "
and that in her house was seized a wafer of consecrated bread, on which the name of the devil was written.
The Bishop of Ossory resolved at once to enforce in its utmost rigour the recent papal bull against offenders of this class ; but he had to contend with greater difficulties than he expected. The mode of proceeding was new ; for hitherto in England sorcery was looked upon as a crime of which the secular law had cognizance, and not as belonging to the ecclesiastical court ; and tliis is said to have been the first trial of the kind in Ireland that had attracted any public attention. Moreover, the Lady Alice, who was the person chiefly attacked, had rich and powerful supporters. The first step taken by the Bishop was to require the Chan- cellor to issue a writ for the arrest of the persons accused. But it happened that the Lord Chancellor of Ireland at this time was Koger Outlawe, Prior of the order of St. John of Jerusalem, and la kinsman of William Outlawe. This dig- nitary, in conjunction with Arnold le Poer, seneschal of Kilkenny, expostulated with the Bishop, and tried to per- suade him to drop the suit. When, however, the latter refused to listen to them, and persisted in demanding the writ, the Chancellor informed him that it was not customary to issue a writ of this kind, until the parties had been regu- larly proceeded against according to law. The Bishop indignantly replied that the service of the Church was above the forms of the law of the land ; but the Chancellor now turned a deaf ear, and the Bishop sent two apparitors with a formal attendance of priests to the house of William Outlawe, where Lady Alice was residing, to cite her in person before his court. The lady refused to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical court in this case ; and, on the day she was to appear, the Clianceller, Eoger Out- lawe, sent advocates, who publicly pleaded her right to defend herself by her counsel, and not to appear in person. The Bishop, regardless of this plea, pronounced against her
STORY OF THE LADY ALICE KYTELEK. 4G9
the sentence of excommunication, and cited her son William Outlawe to appear on a certain day and answer to the charge of harbouring and concealing his mother in defiance of the authority of the church.
On learning this, the seneschal of Kilkenny, Arnold le Poer, repaired to the priory of Ivells, where the Bishop was lodged, and made a long and touching appeal to him to mitigate his anger, until at length, wearied and provoked by liis obstinacy, he left his presence with threats of vengeance. The next morning, as the Bishop was departing from the priory to continue his visitation in other parts of the diocese, he was stopped at the entrance to the town of Kells by one of the seneschal's officers, Stephen le Poer, with a body of armed men, who conducted him as a prisoner to the castle of Kilkenny, where he was kept in custody until the day was past on which AVilliam Outlawe had been cited to appear in his court. The Bishop, after many protests on the in- dignity offered in his person to the Church, and on the pro- tection given to sorcerers and heretics, was obliged to submit. It was a mode of evading the form of law, characteristic of an age in which the latter was subservient to force, and the Bishop's friends believed that the king's officers were bribed by William Outlawe' s wealth. They even reported after- wards, to throw more discredit on the authors of this act of violence, that one of the guards was heard to say to another, as they led him to prison, " That fair steed ■which William Outlawe presented to our lord Sir Arnald last night draws well, for it has drawn the Bishop to prison."
This summary mode of proceeding against an ecclesiastic appears to have caused astonishment even in Ireland, and during the first day multitudes of people of all classes visited the Bishop in his confinement, to feed and comfort him, the general ferment increasing with the discourses he pronounced to his visitors. To hinder this, the seneschal ordered him to be more strictly confined, and forbade the admission of any visitors, except a few of the Bishop's especial friends and servants. The Bishop at once placed the whole diocese under an interdict. It was necessary to prepare imme- diately some excuse for these proceedings, and the seneschal issued a proclamation calling upon all who had any com-
470 WITCHCEArT.
plaints to make against the Bishop of Ossoiy to come forward ; and at an iuqnest held before the justices itine- rant, many grievous crimes of the Bishop were rehearsed, but none would venture personally to charge him with them. All these circumstances, however, show that the Bishop was not faultless ; and that his conduct would not bear a very close examination is evident, from the fact, that on more than one occasion in subsequent times he was obliged to shelter himself under the protection of the king's pardon for all past offences. AVilliam Outlawe now went to the archives of Kilkenny, and there found a form.er deed of accusation against the Bishop of Ossory for having defrauded a widow of the inheritance of her husband. The Bishop's party said that it was a cancelled document, the case having been taken out of the secular court ; and that William had had a new copy made of it to conceal the evidence of this fact, and had then rubbed the fresh parchment with his shoes in order to give his copy the appearance of an old document. However, it was delivered to the seneschal, who now offered to release his prisoner on condition of his giving sufficient bail to appear and answer in the secular court the charge thus brought against him. This the Bishop refused to do, and after he had remained eighteen days in confinement, he was unconditionally set free. ■ " -^
The Bishop marched from his prison in triumph, full- dressed in his pontifical robes, and immediately cited "WiUiam Outlawe to appear before him in his court on another day ; but before that day arrived, he received a royal writ, ordering him to appear before the Lord Justice of Ireland without any delay, on penalty of a fine of a thousand pounds, to answer to the king for having placed his diocese under interdict, and also to make his defence against the accusations of Arnald le Poer. He received a similar summons from the Dean of St. Patrick's, to appear before him as the vicarial representative of the Archbishop of Dublin. The Bishop of Ossory made answer that it was not safe for him to undertake the journey, because his way lay through the lands and lordship of his enemy, Sir Arnald ; but this excuse was not admitted, and the diocese was re- lieved from the interdict. l^ Other trials were reserved for the mortified prelate. On
STORY OF THE LADT ALICE KYTELER. 471
'fhe jNrouday after the Octaves of Easter, the seneschal, Arnalcl le Poer, held his court of justice in the judicial hall of the city of Kilkenny , and there the Bishop of Ossory resolved to present himself and invoke publicly the aid of the secular arm to his assistance in seizing the persons accused of sorcery. The seneschal forbade him to enter the court on his peril ; but the Bishop persevered, and, ^' robed in his pontificals, carrying in his hands the body of Christ (the consecraied host) in a vessel of gold," and at- tended by a numerous body of friars and clergy, he entered the hall and forced his way to the tribunal. The seneschal received him with reproaches and insults, and caused him to be ignominiously turned out of court. At the repeated protest, however, of the offended prelate, and the interces- sion of some influential persons there present, he was .allowed to return, and the seneschal ordered him to take his place at the bar allotted for criminals, upon which the Bishop cried out that Christ had never been treated so since he stood at the bar before Pontius Pilate. He then called upon the seneschal to cause the persons accused •of sorcery to be seized and delivered into his hands, and, upon his refusal to do this, he held open the book of the decretals, and said, " You, Sir Arnald, are a knight, and instructed in letters, and that jou may not have the plea of ignorance in this place, we are prepared here to .show in these decretals that you and your officials are bound to obey my order in this respect under heavy penalties."
" Gro to the church with your decretals," replied the seneschal, " and preach there, for here you will not find an attentive audience."
The Bishop then read aloud the names of the ofienders, and the crimes imputed to them, summoned the seneschal to deliver them up to the jurisdiction of the church, and re- treated from the court.
Sir Arnald le Poer and his friends had not been idle on their part, and the Bishop was next cited to defend himself against various charges in the parliament to be held at Dublin, while the Lady Alice indicted liim in a secular •court for defamation. The Bishop is represented as having •narrowly escaped the snares which were laid for him on his
472 AviTcncEArx.
way to Dublin. He there found tlie Irish prelates not mucli inclined to advocate his cause, because they looked upon him as a foreigner and an interloper, and he was spoken of as a truant monk from England, who came thither to repre- sent the " Island of Saints" as a nest of heretics, and to plague them with papal bulls of which they never heard before. It was, however, thought expedient to preserve the credit of the Church, and some of the more influential of the Irish ecclesiastics interfered to effect at least an out- ward reconciliation between the seneschal and the Bishop of Ossory. After encountering an infinity of new obstacles and disappointments, the latter at length obtained the neces- sary power to bring the alleged offenders to a trial, and most of them were imprisoned ; but the chief object of the Bishop's proceedings, the Lady Alice, had been conveyed secretly away, and she is said to have passed the rest of her life in England. AVhen her son, AYilliam Outlawe, was cited to appear before the Bishop in his court in the church of St. Mary at Ivillvenny, he went " armed to the teeth" with all sorts of armour, and attended with a A^ery formidable company, and demanded a copy of the charges objected against him, which extended through thirty-four chapters* Jle for the present was allowed to go at large, because no- body dared to arrest him ; and when the ofiicers of the crown arrived, they showed so ©penly their favour towards him, as to take up their lodgings at his house. At length, however; having been convicted in the Bishop's court at least of har- bouring those accused of sorcery, he consented to go into prison, trusting, probably, to the secret protection of the great barons of the land.
The only person mentioned by name as punished for the extreme crime of sorcery was Petronilla de Meath, who was, perhaps, less provided with worldly interests to protect her, and who appears to have been made an expiatory sacrifice for her superiors. She was, by order of the Bishop, six times flogged, and then, probably to escape a further repe- tition of this cruel and degrading punishment, she made a public confession, accusing not only herself, but all the others against whom the Bishop had proceeded. She said, that in all England, "perhaps in the whole world," there was not a ner.^on more deeply skilled in the practices of sorcery than,
STORY OF THE LADY ALICE KYTELER. 473
tlie Lady Alice Kjteler, who had been their mistress and teacher in the art. She confessed to most of the charges contained in the Bishop's articles of accusation, and said tliat she had been present at the sacrifices to the demon, and had assisted in making the ungaents of the intestines of the cocks offered on this occasion, mixed -with spiders and certain black worms like scorpions, with a certain herb called millefoil, and other herbs and worms, and with the brains and clothes of a cliild that had died without baptism, in the manner before related; that with these unguents they had produced various effects upon different persons, making the faces of certain ladies appear horned like goats ; that she had been present at the nightly conventicles, and with the assistance of her mistress had frequently pro- nounced the sentence of excommunication against her own husband, with all the ceremonies required by their unholy rites, and that she had been with the Lady Alice whea demon, Eobin Artisson, appeared to her. The wretched woman, having made this public confession, was carried out into the city, and publicly burnt. This, says the relator, was the first witch who was ever burnt in Ireland. .,- ^
The rage of the Bishop of Ossory appears now to have been, to a certain degree, appeased. LI e was prevailed upon to remit the offences of William Outlawe, enjoining him, as a reparation for his contempt of the Church, that Avithin the period of four years he should cover with lead the whole roof of his cathedral from the steeple eastward, as well as that of the chapel of the Ho]y Virgin. The rest of the Lady Alice's " pestiferous society" were punished in dif- ferent ways, with more or less severity ; one or two of them, we are told, were subsequently burnt ; others were flogged publicly in the market-place and through the city ; others were banished from the diocese ; and a few, like their mis- tress, fled to a distance, or concealed themselves so effectually as to escape the hands of justice.
There was one person concerned in the foregoing events whom the Bisliop had not forgotten nor forgiven. That was Arnald le Poer, the seneschal of Kilkenny, who had so strenuously advocated the cause of AYilliam Outlawe and his mother, and who had treated with so much rudeness the- JBishop himself
474 "^'ITCHCEAFT.
The Latin narrative of this history, published for the • Camden Society by tlie TQ'iter of this paper, gives no further information respecting him ; hut we learn from other sources that the Bishop now accused him of heresy, had him ex- communicated, and obtained a writ by which he was com- mitted prisoner to the castle of Dublin. Here he remained in 1328, when Eoger Outlawe was made Lord Justice of Ireland, who attempted to mitigate his sufferings. The Bishop of Ossory, enraged at the Lord Justice's humanity, .accused him also of heresy and of abetting heretics ; upon which a parliament was called, and the difterent accusations having been duly examined, Arnald le Peer himself would probably have been declared innocent and liberated from confinement, but before the end of the investigation he died in prison, and his body, lying under sentence of excommuni- cation, remained long unbimed.
The Bishop, who had been so great a persecutor of heresy in others, was at last accused of the same crime himself, and the case being laid before the Archbishop of Dublin, he appealed to the apostolic see, fled the country privately, and repaired to Italy. Subsequent to this, he appears to have experienced a variety of troubles, and he suffered banish- ment during nine years. He died at a very great age in 1360. The Bishop's party boasted that the " nest" of sor- cerers which had infested Ireland was entirely rooted out by the prosecution of the Lady Alice Kyteler and her accom- plices. It may, however, be well doubted if the belief in witchcraft were not rather extended by the publicity and magnitude of these events.
Ireland would no doubt afibrd many equally remarkable cases in subsequent times, had the chroniclers thought them as well worth recording as the process of a lady of rank, which involved some of the leading people in the English Pale, and which'agitated the whole state during several suc- cessive years. — Wright'' s Karratives of Sorcery and Magic, Yol. J.
AFItlCAN WITCnES. 475
APEICA:sr WITCHES.
Obeah, a pretended sort of witchcraft, arising from a superstitious credulity prevailing among the negroes, has ever been considered as a most dangerous practice, to sup- press which, in our "West India colonies, the severest laws have been enacted. The Obeah is considered as a potent and most irresistible spell, withering and paralyzing, by in- describable terrors and unusual sensations, the devoted victim. One negro who desires to be revenged on another, and is afraid to make an open and manly attack on his ad- versary, has usually recourse to this practice. Like the witches' cauldi'on in Macbeth, it is a combination of many strange and ominous things. Earth gathered from a grave, human blood, a piece of wood fastened in the shape of a coffin, the feathers of the carrion crow, a snake or alligator's tooth, pieces of egg-shell, and other nameless ingredients, compose the fatal mixture. The whole of these articles may not be considered as absolutely necessary to complete the charm, but two or three are at least indispensable.
Mr. Long gives the following account of the fui^niture of the house of an Obi-woman, or African witch, in Jamaica : "The whole inside of the roof (which was of thatch), and every crevice of the walls, were stuck with the implements of her trade, consisting of rags, feathers, bones of cats, and a thousand other articles. Examining further, a large earthen pot or jar, close covered, contained a prodigious quantity of round balls of earth or clay, of various dimensions, large and small, whitened on the outside, and variously com- pounded, some with hair and rags, or feathers of all sorts, and strongly bound with twine ; others blended with the upper section of the skulls of cats, or set round with cats' teeth and claws, and with human or dogs' teeth, and some glass beads of different colours. There were also a great many egg-shells filled with a viscous or gummy substance, the qualities of which were neglected to be examined ; and many little bags filled with a variety of articles, the par- ticulars of which cannot, at this distance of time, be recol- lected." Shakespeare and Drydcn have left us poetical accounts of the composition of European Obies or charms.
476 WITCHCRArT.
Tvitli wliicli, and with more historical descriptions, the above may be compared. The midnight hours of the professors of Obi are also to be compared with the witches of Europe. Obi, therefore, is the serpent- worship. The Pythoness, at Delphos, was an Obi-woman. "With the serpent-worship is joined that of the sun and moon, as the governors of the visible world, and emblems of human nature and of the god-head ; and to the cat, on account of her nocturnal prowlings, is ascribed a mysterious relationship to the moon. The dog and the wolf, doubtless for the same reason, are similarly circumstanced.
It will of course be conceived that the practice of Obeah can have little effect unless a negro is conscious that it is practised upon him, or thinks so ; for, as the whole evil consists in the terrors of a superstitious imagination, it is of little consequence whether it be practised or not if he only imagines that it is. But if the charm fails to take hold of the mind of the proscribed person, another and more certain expedient is resorted to — the secret administration of poison This saves the reputation of the sorcerer, and effects the pur- pose he had in view.
An Obeah man or woman (for it is practised by both sexes) is a very dangerous person on a plantation ; and the practice of it is made felony by law, punishable with death where poison has been administered, and with trans- portation where only the charm has been used. But num- bers have, and may be swept off by its infatuation before the crime is detected ; for, strange as it may appear, so much do the negroes stand in awe of these Obeah professors, so nuich do they dread their malice and their power, that, though knowing the havoc they have made and are still making, they are afraid to discover them to the whites ; and others, perhaps, are in league with tliem fv"^r sinister purposes of mischief and revenge.
A negro under the infatuation of Obeah can only be cured of his terrors by being made a Christian : refuse him this . boon, and he sinks a martyr to imagined evils. A negro, in short, considers himself as no longer under the influence of this sorcery when he becomes a Christian. And instances are known of negroes wlio, being reduced by the fatal influence of Obeah to the lowest state of deiection and debilitv. from:
ArRiciJS^ wncKES. 477
wliicli there ^ere little hopes of recovery, hare been sur- ? prisingly and rapidly restored to health and cheerfulness by { being baptised Christians. The negroes believe also in ap- - paritions, and stand hi great dread of them, conceiving that they forebode death, or some other great evil, to those whom they visit, — in short, that the spirits of the dead come npou the earth to be revenged upon those who did them evil when in life. Thus we see that, not only from the remotest anti- quity, but even among slaves and barbarians, the belief in supernatural agencies has been a popular creed, — not, in fact, confined to any distinct race or tribe of people ; and, what is still more surprising, there is a singular and most remarkable identit}^ in the notion or conception of their infernal ministry.
In the British West Indies, the negroes of the windward coast are called Mandingoes, a name which is here taken as descriptive of a peculiar race or nation. There seems reason, however, to believe that a Mandingo or Mandlnga-mviM is properly the same with an Obi-man. A late traveller in Brazil gives us tlie following anecdotes of the Mandinga and Mandbigueiro of the negroes in that country : — " One day,'* says Mr. Koster, " an old man (a negro named Apollinario) came to me with a face of dismay to show me a ball of leaves, tied up with a plant called cyj)o, which he had found under a couple of boards, upon which he slept, in an out- house. The ball was about the size of an apple. I could not ima- gine what had caused his alarm until he said that it was Mandinga which had been set for the purpose of killing him ; and he bitterly bewailed his fate, that at his age any one should wish to hasten his death, and to carry him from this world, before our Lady thought fit to send him. I knew that two of the black women were at variance, and suspicion fell upon one of them, who was acquainted with the old Mandin- gueiro of Engenho A^'elho ; therefore she was sent for. I judged that the Mandinga was not set for ApoUonario, but for the negress whose business it was to sweep the out-house. I threatened to confine the suspected woman at Gara unless she discovered the whole aftair. She said the Mandinga was placed there to make one of the negresses dislike her fellow slaves, and prefer her to tlie other. Tlie ball of Mari' dinga was formed of five or six kinds of leaves of trees, among which was the pomegranate leaf; there were likewise two or
47s TTITCHCEAFT.
three bits of rag, each of a peculiar kind ; ashes, which were the bones of some animals ; and there might be other ingre- dients besides, but these were what I could recognise. This woman either could not from ignorance, or would not, give any information respecting the several things of which the ball was composed. 1 treated this matter of the Mandin- ga seriously, from knowing the faith which not only many of the negroes have in it, but also some of the mulatto people. There is another name for this kind of charm ; it is called feitigo, and the initiated are called /ezYepero*. Of these there was formerly one at the plantation of St. Joam, who became so much dreaded that his master sold him to be sent to- Maranham."
It is remarkable that, while the etymology of Ohi has been sought in the names of ancient deities of Egypt, and in that of the serpent in the language of the coast, the actual name of the evil deity, or Devil, in the same language appears to- have escaped attention. That name is written by Mr. Ed- wards, Obboney ; and the bearer of it is described as a malicious deity, the author of all evil, the inflictor of perpe- tual diseases, and whose anger is to be appeased only by human sacrifices. This evil deity is the Satan of our own faith ; and it is the worship of Satan which, in all parts of the world, constitutes the essence of sorcery.
If this name of Obboney has any relation to the Ob of Egypt, and if the Ob, both anciently in Egypt, and to this day in the west of Africa, signifies "a serpent," what does this discover to our view but that Satan has the name of serpent among the Negro nations as well as among those of Europe ? How it has happened that the serpent, which, in some systems, is the emblem of the good spirit, should iu others be the emblem of the evil one, is a topic which belongs to a more extensive inquiry. This is enough for our present satisfaction, to remember that the profession of, and belief in sorcery or witchcraft, supposes the existence of two deities, — the one the author of good, and the other the author of evil ; the one worshipped by good men for good things and good purposes, and the other by bad men forbad things and purposes ; and that this worship is sorcery and the worshippers sorcerers.
It will be seen that, since African charms are to prevent
YA:srpiEEs. 479^
evil, and others to procure it, the first belong to the worship, and are derived from the power, of the good spirit ; and the second are from the opposite source. It is to be concluded, then, that the superstition of Obi is no other than the prac- tice of and belief in the worship of Ohboney or Oboni, the evil deity of the Africans, the serpent of Africa and of Eiu-ope, and the old serpent and Satan of the Scriptures ; and that the witchcraft of the negroes is evidently the same with our own. It might, indeed, be further shown that the latter have their temporary transformations of men into alligators, wolves, and the like ; as the French have their loups-garoux, the G-ermans their war-wolves, wolf-men, and the rest. — ■ Thaumaturffiaj or Elucidations of the Marvellous.
YAMPIEES.
account of a yampire, taken feom the jewish lettees (lettees juiyes),lettee 137.
"We have just had in this part of Hungary a scene of vampirism, which is duly attested by two officers of the tri- bunal of Belgrade, who went down to the places specified, and by an officer of the emperor's troops at Graditz, who was an ocular witness of the proceedings.
In the beginning of September there died in the village of Kisilova, three leagues from Graditz, an old man who was sixty-two years of age. Three days after he had been buried he appeared in the night to his son, and ashed him for something to eat ; the son having given him something, he ate and disappeared. The next day the son recounted to his neighbours what had happened. That night the father did not appear, but the following night he showed himself, and asked for something to eat. They know not whether the son gave him anything or not, but the next da}^ he was found dead in his bed. On the same day five or six persons fell suddenly ill in the village, and died one after the other in a few days.
The officer or bailiff of the place, when informed of what had happened, sent an account of it to the tribunal of Bel-
480 VAMPIRES.
grade, wliicli despatclied to the village two of these officers and an executioner to examine into this affair. The impe- rial officer from whom we have this account repaired thither from Graditz, to be witness of a circumstance which he had so often heard spoken of.
They opened the graves of those who had been dead six weeks. When they came to that of the old man, they found liim with his eyes open, having a line colour, with natural respiration, nevertheless motionless as the dead; whence they concluded that he was most evidently a vampire. The executioner drove a stake into his heart ; they then raised a -pile and reduced the corpse to ashes. jS^o mark of vampirism was found either on the corpse of the son, or on the others.
Thauks be to God, we are by no means credulous. AVe avow that all the light whicli science can throw on this fact discovers none of the causes of it. Nevertheless, we cannot refuse to believe that to be true which is juridically attested, and by persons of probit3^ "We will here relate what hap- pened in 1732, and which is inserted in the Glaneur, JN'o, XVIII.
OXnEE INSTAIv^CES OF GHOSTS — CO^'TIXUATIO^^ OP THE GLEANER.
In a certain canton of Hungary, named in Latin Oppida Heidamim, beyond the Tibisk, vulgo Theiss, — that is to say, between that river which waters the fortunate territory of Tokay and Transylvania, — the people known by the name of Heyducs believe that certain dead persons, whom they call vampires, suck all the blood from the hving, so that these become visibly attenuated, whilst the corpses, like leeches, till themselves with blood iu such abundance, that it is seen even oozing through the pores. This opinion has just been ^confirmed by several facts which cannot be doubted, from the rank of the witnesses who have certified them. "We wiU here relate some of the most remarkable.
About five years ago, a certain Heyduc, inhabitant of Madreiga, named Arnald Paul, was crushed to death by the fall of a waggon-load of hay. Thirty days after his death four persons died suddenly, and in the same manner in which,
YAMPIRES. 481
according to the tradition of the country, those die Tvho are molested by vampires. They then remembered tliat this Arnald Paul had frequently related that, in the environs of Cassovia, and on the frontiers of Turkish Servia, he had often, been tormented by a Turkish vampire ; for they believe, also, that those who have been passive vampires during life become active ones after their death, — that is to say, that those who have been sucked suck also in their tarn ; but that he had found means to cure himself by eating earth from the grave of the vampire, and smearing himself with his blood, — a precaution wliich, however, did not prevent him from becoming also a vampire after his death, since, on being exhumed forty days after his interment, they found on his corpse all the indications of an arch-vampire. His body was red, his hair, nails, and beard had all grown again, and his veins were replete with fluid blood, which flowed from all parts of his body upon the winding-sheet which encompassed him. The Hadnagi, or baillie of the village, in whose pre- sence the exhumation took place, and who was skilled in vampirism, had, according to custom, a very shaip stake driven into the heart of the defunct Arnald Paul, and which pierced his body through and through, which made him, as they say, utter a frightful shriek, as if he had been alive : that done, they cut off" his head and burnt the whole body. After that they performed the same on the corpses of the four other persons who died of vampirism, fearing that they in their turn might cause the death of others.
All these performances, however, could not prevent the recommencement of similar fatal prodigies towards the end of last year (1732), — that is to say, five years after, — when several inhabitants of the same village perished miserably. In the space of three months seventeen persons of difierent sexes and difierent ages died of vampirism ; some without being ill, and others after languishing two or three days. It is reported, amongst other things, that a girl named Sta- noska, daughter of the Heyducq Jotiiisto, who went to bed in perfect health, awoke in the middle of the night in a great trembling, uttering terrible shrieks, and saying that the son of Heyducq Millo, who had been dead nine weeks, had nearly strangled her in her sleep. She fell into a languid state from that moment, and at the end of three days she
VOL. II. I I
482 a:mulets and cHx\.ii3iS.
died. "What this girl had said of Millo's son made him known at once for a vampire : he was exhumed, and found to be such. The principal people of the place, with the doctors and surgeons, examined how vampirism could have sprung up again after the precautions they had taken some years before.
They discovered at last, after much search, that the de- funct Amald Paul had killed not only the four persons of whom we have spoken, but also several oxen, of which the new vampires had eaten, and, amongst others, the son. of Millo. Upon these indications they resolved to disinter all those who had died within a certain time, &c. Amongst forty, seventeen were found with all the most evident signs of vampirism ; therefore they transfixed their hearts, and cut off their heads also, and then cast their ashes into the river.
All the informations and executions we have just men- tioned were made juridically, in proper form, and attested by several officers who were garrisoued in the country, by the chief surgeons of the regiments, and by the principal inha- bitants of the place. The verbal process of it was sent, to- wards the end of last January, to the Imperial Council of "War at Vienna, which had established a military commission to examine into the truth of all these circumstances.
Such was the declaration of the Hadnagi Barriarar and the ancient Heyducqs, and it was signed by Battuer, first lieutenant of the regiment of Alexander of Wurtemburg, Clickstenger, surgeon-in-chief of the regiment of Frustem- burch, three other surgeons of the company, and Gruoichitz^ captain at Stallach. — Phantom World, Vol. ii.
AMULETS AND CHAEMS.
Bovle, says the author of the Demonologia, is per- suaded that some of these external medicam.ents answer ; for that, being himself subject to a bleeding from the nose, and obliged to use several remedies to check this discharge, he found the moss of a dead man's skull, though only applied so as to touch the skin until the-
AMTJLETS A-^B CHAEMS. 483
moss became warm from being in contact witb it, to be the most efficacious remedy. A remarkable instance of this nature was communicated to Zwelfer, by the chief physician to the states of Moravia, who, having prepared some troches, or lozenges of toads, after the manner of Van Helmont, not only found that, being worn as amulets, they preserved him, his domestics, and friends from the plague, but that, when applied to the carbuncles or buboes, a consequence of this disease, in others, they found themselves greatly relieved, and many even saved by them.
The learned Dr. "Warburton is evidently wrong when he assigns the origin of these magical instruments to the age of the Ptolemies, which wasnot more than SOOyearsbefore Christ. Eor Galen tells us that the Egyptian king, Nechepsus, who lived 630 years before the Christian era, had written that a greenjaspercutintotheformof a dragon surrounded with rays, if applied externally, would strengthen the stomach and organs of digestion. We have, moreover, the authority of the Scriptures in support of this opinion ; for what were the ear-rings which Jacob buried under the oak of Sechem, as related in Genesis, but amulets ? And we are informed by Josephus, in his Antiquities of the Jews (lib. viii. c. ii. Vc), that Solomon discovered a plant efficacious in the cure of epilepsy, and that he employed the aid of a charm or spell for the purpose of assisting its virtues. The root of the herb was concealed in a ring, which was applied to the nostrils of the demoniac: and Josephus remarks that he himself saw a Jewish priest practise the art of Solomon with com» plete success in the presence of Vespasian, his sons, and the tribunes of the Eoman army. jSTor were such means confided to the dark and barbarous ages. Theophrastus pronounced Pericles to be insane, because he discovered that he wore an amulet about his neck ; and in the declining era of the Boman Empire this superstitious custom was so general, that the Emperor Garacalla was induced to make a public edict, ordaining that no man should wear any super- stitious amulets about his person.
Dr. Chamberlayne's anodyne necklace for a long time was the sine qua non of mothers and nurses, until its virtue was
484 AMULETS AND CHAEMS.
lost by its reverence being destroyed, and tbose wbicli have succeeded it have nearly run their race. The Grey Liver- vrort was at one time thought not only to have cured hydro- phobia, but, by wearing it about the person, to have prevented the bite of mad dogs. Calvert paid devotions to St. Hubert for the recovery of his son, who was cured by this means. The son also performed the necessary rites at the shrine, and was cured not only of the hydrophobia, "but of the worser frenzy with which his father had instilled him." Cramp rings were also used, and eel-skins tied round the limbs, to prevent this spasmodic aftection ; and sticks laid crosswise on the floor on going to bed have also performed the like service. jN'umerous are the charms, amulets, and incantations used even in the present day for the removal of warts. We are told by Lord Yerulam (vol. iii. p. 234) that, when he was at Paris, he had above a hundred warts on his hands, and that the English ambassador's lady, then at court, and a woman far above superstition, removed them all by rubbing them with the fat side of the rind of a piece of bacon, which was afterwards nailed to a post with the fat side towards the south. " In five weeks," says my lord, '' they were all removed."
As Lord Verulam is allowed to have been as great a genius as this country ever produced, it may not be irrelevant to the present subject to give, in his own words, what he has observed respecting the power of amulets. After deep me- taphysical observations in nature, and arguments in palliation of sorcery, witchcraft, and divination, effects that far out- strip the belief in amulets, he observes, " We should not reject all of this kind, because it is not known how far those contributing to superstition depend on natural causes. Charms have not their power from contracts with evil spirits, but proceed wholly from strengthening the imagination, in the same manner that images and their influence have pre- vailed in religion ; being called, from a diflerent way of use and application, sigils, incantations, and spells.
There are many enthusiastic and equally credulous authors who have encouraged the belief in the reality of philters, and who adduce facts in confirmation of their opinions, as in ail doubtful cases. Among these may
AMULETS AND CHAE:^rs. 485
be quoted A"an Helmont, who says that, by holding a certain herb in his hand, and afterwards taking a little dog by the foot with the same hand, the animal followed him wherever he went, and quite deserted his former master. He also adds that philters only require a confirmation of Mumia. [By Mumia is here understood that which was used by some ancient physicians for some kind of implanted spirit, found chiefly in carcases, when the infused spirit is fled ; a kind of sympathetic influence, communicated from one body to another, by which magnetic cures, etc. were said to be per- formed.] On the principle of sympathetic influence he ac- counts for the phenomena of love transplanted by the touch of an herb ; " for," says he, " the heat communicated to the herb, not coming alone, but animated by the emanations of the natural spirits, determines the herb towards the man, and identifies it to him. Having then received this ferment, it attracts the spirit of the other object magnetically, and gives it an amorous motion." But all this is mere absurdity, and has fallen to the ground with the other irrational hypo- thesis from the same source. — Bemonologia.
0^' TKE OBIGi:S- AND SUPEESTITIOUS n^TrLITENCE OF EIIfGS.
According to the accounts of the heathen mythologists, Prometheus, who, in the first times, had discovered a great number of secrets, having been delivered from the charms by which he was fastened to Mount Caucasus for stealing fire from heaven, in memory or acknowledgment of the favour he received from Jupiter, made himself of one of those chains a ring, in whose collet he represented the figure of part of the rock where he had been detained, — or rather, as Pliny says, set it in a bit of the same rock, and put it on his finger. This was the first ring and the first stone. But we otherwise learn that the use of rings is very ancient, and the Egyptians were the first inventors of them ; which seems confirmed by the person of Joseph, who, as we read (Grenesis, chap, xi.) for having interpreted Pharaoh's dream, re- ceived not only his liberty, but was rewarded with his
486 AMULETS A]!TD CHAEMS.
prince's ring, a collar of gold, and the superintendency of Egypt.
JosepHus, in the third Book of Jewish Antiquities, says the Israelites had the use of them after passing the Eed Sea, because Moses, at his return from Mount Sinai, found that they had forged the golden calf from their wives' rings, en- riched with precious stones. The same Moses, upwards of 400 years before the wars of Troy, permitted to the priests whom hehad established the use of gold rings, enriched with precious stones. The high priest wore upon his ephod, which was a kind of camail, rich rings, that served as clasps : a large emerald was set and engraved with mysterious names. The rin^ he wore on his finger was of inestimable value and celes- tial virtue. Had not Aaron, the high priest of the Hebrews, a ring on his finger, vrhereof the diamond, by its virtues, operated prodigious things ? For it changed its vivid lustre into a dark colour, when the Hebrews were to be punished by death for their sins. AVhen they were to fall by the sword it appeared of a blood-red colour ; if they were inno- cent it sparkled as usual.
It is observable that the ancient Hebrews used rings even in the time of the wars of Troy. Queen Jezebel, to destroy Nabath, as it is related in the first Book of Kings, made use of the ring of Aliab, King of the Israelites, her husband, to seal the counterfeit letters that ordered the death of that unfortnnate man. Did not Judah, as mentioned in the 38th chapter of Genesis, give to his daughter-in-law, Thamar, who had disguised herself, his ring and bracelets as a pledge of the faith he had promised her.
Though Homer is silent in regard to rings, both in his Iliad and Odyssey, they were, notwithstanding, used in the time of the Greeks and Trojans, and from them they were received by several other nations. The Lacedemonians, as related by Alexander ab. Alexandre, pursuant to the orders of their king, Lycurgus, had only iron rings, despising those of gold: either their king was thereby willing to retrench luxury or to prohibit the use of them.
The ring was reputed by some nations a symbol of libe- rality, esteem, and friendship, particularly among the Per- sians, none being permitted to wear any except they were
AMULETS AND CHAEMS. 487
given by the king himself. This is what may be also re- marked in the person of ApoUoneus Thyaneus,who, as a token of singular esteem and liberality, received one from the great larchas, prince of the Gymnosophists, who were the ancient priests of India, and dwelt in forests, as our ancient bards and Druids, where they applied themselves to the study of wisdom, and to the observation of the heaven and the stars. This philosopher, by the means of that ring, learned every ■day the secrets of nature.
Though the ring found by Gryges, shepherd to the King of Lydia, has more of fable than of truth in it, it will not, however, be amiss to relate what is said concerning Hero- dotus Cojlius, after Plato and Cicero, in the third Book of liis Offices. This Gryges, after a great flood, passed into a very deep cavity in the earth, where, having found in the belly of a brazen horse, with a large aperture in it, a human body of enormous size, he pulled off from one of the fingers a ring of surprising virtue ; for the stone on the collet ren- dered him who wore it invisible, or when the collet was turned towards the palm of the hand, the party could see, without being seen, all manner of persons and things. •Gyges, having made trial of its efficacy, bethought himself that it would be a means for ascending the throne of Lydia, and for gaining the queen to wife. He succeeded in his de- signs, having killed Caudaules, her husband. The dead body to whom this ring belonged was that of an ancient Brahman, who, in his time, was chief of that sect.
In a Polyglot dictionary, published in the year 1625, by John Minshew, our attention was attracted by the following observations under the article "Ema Pin gee :" — " Yetus versiculus siugulis digitis Annulum trebuens Miles, Mer- cator, Stultus, Maritus, Amator. PoUici adscribitur Militi, seu Doctor. Mercatorum a pollice secundum, stul- torum, tertiura. Nuptorum vel studiosorum quartum. Amatorum ultimum."
By which it appears that the fingers on which annuli were anciently worn were directed by the calling or peculiarity • of the party. "Were it
A soldier or doctor, to him was assigned the thumb ;
A sailor, the fijiger next the thumb ;
488 AMULETS ASD CHAEMS.
A fool, the middle finger ;
A married or diligent person, the fourth or ring finger ;
A lover, the last or little finger.
The medicinal or curative powers of rings are numerous, and, as a matter of course, founded on imaginary qualities. Thus the wedding ring rubbed upon that little abscess called the stye, which is frequently seen on the tarsi of the eyes, is said to remove it. Certain rings are worn as talis- mans, either on the fingers or suspended from the neck, the efficacy of which may be referred to the effects usually pro- duced by these charms. — Thaumaturgia.
XAECOTICS.
There is reason to believe that the Pagan priesthood ^ere under the influence of some narcotic during the display of their oracular powers ; but the eff'ects produced would seem rather to resemble those of opium, or perhaps of stra- monium, than of prussic acid. Monardus tells us, that the priests of the American Indians, whenever they were con- sulted by their chiefs, or cacifpies, as they are called, took certain leaves of the tobacco, and cast them into the fire, and then received the smoke thus produced in their mouths, in consequence of which they fell down upon the ground ; and that after having remained for some time in a stupor, they recovered, and delivered the answers, which they pretended to have received during their supposed intercourse with the world of spirits. The sedative powers of the garden lettuce were known in the earliest times. Aniong the fables of antiquity we read, that after the death of Adonis, Yenus threw herself upon a bed of lettuces, to lull her grief The sea-onion, or squill, was administered by the Egyptians in cases of dropsy, under the mystic title of the Eye of Typhon. The practices of incision and scarifica- tion were employed in the camp of the Greeks before Troy, and the application of spirit to wounds was also under- stood, for we find the experienced iS'estor applying a
WELSH FAIKIES. 4S9
cataplasm, composed of clieese, onion, and meal, mixed np
■with the wine of Pramnos, to the wounds of Machaon. — Demonologia.
; J_ TAIEIES.
WELSH EAIEIES.
Amongst other tales connected with Pantshonshenkin, is the following: —
A young man had just quitted an adjacent farm-house early one fine summer's morning, when he heard a little bird singing in the most enchanting strain on a tree close by : allured by the melody, he sat down under it until the music ceased, when he arose, supposing a few minutes only had elapsed, but his surprise may well be imagined, when he saw the tree withered and barkless. Ecturning full of astonishment to the house, he found that changed too, and no one within but an old man whom he had never seen before. He asked him what he was doing there? upon which the old man abruptly enquired who was he that dared insult him in his own house ? " In your own house ! where's my father and mother," said he, " whom I left here a few minutes since, while I listened to the most charming music under yon tree, which, when I arose, was withered and leafless, and all things, too, seemed changed." " Under the tree!— music! — what is your name ?" "John," said he. " Poor John," cried out the old man, " I heard my grandfather, who was your father, often speak of you, and long did he bewail your absence ; fruitless enquiries were made of you, but old Catti Madlen, of Brechfa, said that you were under the power of fairies, and would not be re- leased until the last sap of that sycamore tree was dried up." " Enibrace, embrace, my dear uncle, your nephew!" The old man was about to embrace him, but he suddenly crumbled into dust !
In ancient days, a door in a rock near the lake was found open upon a certain day every year, — I think it was May- day ; those who had the curiosity and resolution to enter, were conducted by a secret passage which terminated in a
490 FAIEIES.
small island in tlie centre of the lake : here the visitors were surprised with the prospect of a most enchanting garden, stored with choicest fruits and flowers, and inhabited by the Tjlwyth Teg, or Eair Family, a kind of fairies, whose beauty could be equalled only by the courtesy and affability which they exhibited to those who pleased them : they gathered fruits and flowers for each of their guests, enter- tained them with the most exquisite music, disclosed to them many secrets of futurity, and invited them to stay as long as they should find their attention agreeable ; but the island was secret, and nothing of the produce must be carried away. The whole of this scene was invisible to those who stood without the margin of the lake ; only an indistinct mass was seen in the middle, and it was observed that no bird would fly over the water, and that a soft strain of music at times breathed with rapturous sweetness in the breeze of the morning.
It happened upon one of these annual visits that a sacri- legious wretch, when about to leave the garden, put a flower, with which he had been presented, in his pocket ; but the theft boded him no good. As soon as he had touched unhallowed ground, the flower vanished, and he lost his senses. Of this injury the Fair Family took no notice at the time ; they dismissed their guests with their accustomed courtesy, and the door was closed as usual, but their resentment ran high, for though, as the tale goes, the Tylwyth Teg and their garden undoubtedly occupy the spot to this day, though the birds still keep at a respectful dis- tance from the lake, and some broken strains of music are still heard at times, yet the door which led to the island was never reopened, and from the date of this sacrilegious act, the Cymry have been unfortunate.
Some time after this, an adventurous person attempted to draw off the water, in order to discover its contents, when a terrific form arose from the midst of the lake, commanding him to desist, or otherwise he would, drown the country. — Cambrian Superstitions.
SPIEITUAL MANIFESTATION'S. 491
SPIEITUAL MANIFESTATIONS.
Amongst the various mysterious mariifestations that have been treated of in the preceding pages, few have created more attention than the so-called spii'itual manifestations ; "which, originating in America, have yet not been wholly con- fined to that continent. It will be our endeavour to give the reader, first, a succinct and impartial narrative of the movement ; and, secondly, by the help of kindred phenomena we may somewhat attempt to elucidate the mystery.
This movement originated in the village of Hydesville, township of Arcadia, Wayne county, Nevv York, at the close of March, I84S, or, more accurately, on the 11th of Dec. 1847. A Mr. Michael AVeekman was troubled about this period with knockings, without being able to detect their cause. Soon after this his house was occupied by Mr. John