CHAPTER VI.

Trial of Skill between the Thaumaturgists — It was admitted that the victor derived his Science from the Deity ; but it was founded on Natural Philosophy — The proofs of which are derived: 1st. From the conduct of the Thaumaturgists — 2nd. From their own assertions regarding Magic, that the Genii invoked by the Magicians, sometimes signified the Physical or Chemical agents accessory to the Occult Science ; sometimes the men who cultivated that Science — 3rd. The Magic of the Chaldeans embraced all the Occult Sciences.
Wherever divisions arose in the sacerdotal colleges, on account of interests involving power or glory, then combats of skill, analogous to those that constituted the triumphs of Zoroaster were exhibited; the attendant consequences were, the infusion of greater energy and the addition of increased lustre to the Occult Sciences. The multitude, at once the dupes of credulity and the slaves of fear, willingly revered as prodigies, myste- rious omens, and miracles, the unusual phenomena of nature ; but the Thaumaturgist had a more difficult task, when enlightened men were to be at the same time his rivals and his judges. The marvellous was then inves- tigated with critical severity. The fleeting apparition
110 HOW DECIDED BY THE ANCIENTS.
was not admitted as sufficient proof of the miracle, but a permanent effect was required. The miracle was to be displayed not by such dexterity as the ordinary necromancer could boast ;# but by the most consum- mate skill. The prodigy was required to stand out in bold relief, and to display unusual characters ; and, above all, it was requisite that the omen should have been predicted by the Thaumaturgist, and that it should happen at the precise moment indicated by his prophecy.f
Victorious in the trial of skill, conducted in accordance with these laws, the Thaumaturgist had no difficulty in establishing his claim to be considered as the disciple and interpreter of the Divinity. In short, that piety, which referred to divine inspiration every token of virtue in the mind, or in the deeds of man, naturally led to the particular study, acquirement, and practice of the Occult Sciences. The fruits of virtue, such as prudence, temperance, and courage, assimilate in degree, and, even between their most distinct extremes, admit of a parallel sufficiently palpable to exclude in general the necessity of imputing to them an extraneous origin ; it was not so with the results of science, always sur- rounded by the marvellous, its connection or reference to arts purely human, was studiously concealed.
These considerations, if we regard them without prejudice, would, I believe, absolve the Greek and Roman authors from the censure of having too readily
* In the present day, the Dalai-Lama punishes the priests of his religion, who deceive the people by swallowing knives or vomiting flames. — Timkowski, Voyage à Pékin, tome i, p. 460.
f Rabbi Meiraldabic. Semit. fedei. lib. i. Gaulm. n. De Vita et morte Mosis. nota, p. 208 — .9.
THE ANCIENT BELIEF IN MIRACLES SINCERE. 1 1 1
admitted into their narrations, pretended miracles only worthy of contempt. They not only believed, but they felt an obligation imposed on them to transmit to posterity those which their own religion required them to hold in reverence, as well as those consecrated by the worship of other nations. In performing this duty, and knowing, or at least suspecting the connection of miracles, with a mysterious knowledge emanating as they believed from the Gods, they, by their fidelity in detailing such miracles, preserved the history of their faith from oblivion.
Charlatanism or jugglery certainly intermingled with the operations of the Thaumaturgists as we shall have occasion to prove. But the tricks of legerdemain, sometimes truly astounding, that are exhibited by modern impostors in our theatres and public places, are not unfrequently founded on chemical and physical facts connected with magnetism, galvanism, electricity, and chemistry; although the vulgar charlatan depends for the secret of these deceptions merely on the possession of recipes, which only teach him how to practice ; but this does not entitle us to deny that the principles, whence such recipes are derived, should be ranked among the Sciences.
And this is what we discover in the temples as soon as the first glimmerings of historical light enable us to penetrate their obscurity. It is impossible to devote oneself to researches connected with the origin of the sciences, without perceiving that in the depth of these sanctuaries alone, one vast branch of ancient lore flourished ; and that this one constituted an all-important part of the mysteries of religion. All miracles, which
112 MAGIC A PART OF SACERDOTAL LORE.
cannot be referred to adroitness or imposture, were the fruits of this secret science ; they were, in short, real experiments in physics. The processes by which their success was to be secured formed an essential part of sacerdotal education. Who, it may be asked, originally conceived and arranged these scientific formularies ? Was it not the philosophical guardians of a code of doctrines recognized by their disciples under the name of Magic, Theurgic Philosophy,* and the Transcendental Science ?
Why did Mahomet refuse to work miracles, declaring that the Almighty had denied to him the power ? We may reply, because the Occult Science of the Thaumatur- gists was unknown to him.f Why, in our own times, did Swedenborg surrounded by truly enlightened spectators, have recourse to a similar subterfuge, and affirm that his revelations being a sufficient miracle, those who refused to credit them, would not yield to the prodigies which they demanded as proofs of their truth ? j We may also reply, because he was aware the time for miracles was over. It is said mankind are too enlight- ened to believe in them. Is not this in other terms, to say, that that which constitutes a secret science, reserved exclusively for some privileged beings, has now stepped
* Theurgy is defined, " the power of performing supernatural acts by lawful means, as by prayer to the Deity." — Ed.
f This is too severe a censure on Mahomet, who, if we fully concur in his condemnation as an impostor, cannot be charged with making his ignorance the reason for not extending his impos- tures. It is a charge for which the author has no authority. — Ed.
t Swedenborg. Vera. Christ. Relat. p. 846, 850. De cœlo et inferno prœfatio. Abrégé des ouvrages de Swedenborg , par Daillant Latouche, 8vo. 1788, p. 37, 38, 293, 294.
WORKS OF ART REFERRED TO MAGIC. 1 1 3
into the vast domain of general science, accessible to all inquiring minds. Let us examine this opinion in its consequences. There can be no hesitation in admitting that four descriptions of prodigies narrated by the ancients cannot be rejected, and, therefore, that they ought at once to be acknowledged as facts.
1st. Arts, which come into common use, may pass for Divination or Magic, as long as the secret of displaying them is confined to a few individuals.
On Mount Larysium, in Laconia, the feast of Bacchus was celebrated in the commencement of spring; and ripe grapes were produced at this season to bear testimony to the power and beneficence of the God.# The priests of Bacchus were probably acquainted with the use of hot-houses and stoves.
Industrious men had carried the arts of working in iron into the Islands of Cyprus and of Rhodes ; an ingenious allegory personified them under the name of Telchines, Children of the Sun the Father of Fire, and of Minerva the Goddess of the Arts.f Ignorance and Fear added to the terror with which those who first appeared in arms were regarded ; and they were looked upon as magicians, whose very glance was to be guarded against.
* Pausanias, Laconia, cap. xxn.
f The name Telchines, was in reality derived from Telchinia, the ancient name of the Island of Crete, whence the Telchines originally emigrated to Rhodes. They were skilful workmen and the inventors of many useful arts, and were also the first who raised statues to the Gods. Ovida bestows upon them the power of assuming various shapes, of fascinating all animals with their eyes, and of causing hail and rain to fall when they pleased. Jupiter, envious of their power, destroyed them by a deluge. — Ed. " Metam. vu. 365. VOL. I. I
114 WORKS OF ART REFERRED TO MAGIC.
Acquainted with the treatment of metals, the Fins also figure, in the early poetry of Scandinavia, as sorce- rer-dwarfs, dwelling in the depths of the mountains. Two dwarfs inhabiting the mountains of Kallova, and skilful in forging and fabricating arms, consented, on hard conditions, to initiate the blacksmith Wailand, into the secrets of their art ; on which account he acquired much fame in the legends of the North for the excel- lency of the arms which he furnished to the warrior.*
In the esteem of men who knew only how to combat, the perfection of defensive armour and offensive weapons was so important, as to lead them to refer the art, which produced them, to supernatural agency. Enchanted arms, bucklers, cuirasses, helmets, on which every dart was blunted, every lance broken ; swords which pierced and could dissever any suit of armour, do not only be- long to the romances of Europe and of Asia, but they originated under the hammer of Vulcan; and their value was recited in the songs of Virgil, in the immor- tal verses of Homer, and also in the Sagas. Such arms were said to be fabricated by necromancers, or men who succeeded in obtaining the secrets of those wonder-workers.
2nd. The works of magic were circumscribed within the limits of science : and beyond these, ignorance was forced to supplicate its aid. Indeed, the bio- grapher of Apollonius of Tyana, ridicules the sense- lessness of those, who expected through magic to gain the crown in the combats of the Circus; or to
* Depping, Mémoires de la Société des Antiquaires de France, tome v. p. 223.
CONTESTS OF MAGICIANS. 115
ensure success in their love; or in their commercial speculations.*
3rd. In the trials of strength, when opposing interests were to be settled between those who were the guardians and depositaries of the Occult Science ; as it was feared, that the limits of magical resource might be accidentally exposed to the profane and uninitiated, a tacit, formal compact existed among theThaumaturgists themselves, in the observance of which the interest of all, even the most exasperated rivals, was involved.
The Greek mythology did not admit one Deity to interfere with, or subvert the schemes or operations of another : and the same reciprocal safe-guard may be traced through most of the fairy tales, which have been borrowed from early tradition and handed down to us by our ancestors. At an epoch greatly antecedent to the first Odin, the heroic history of the north speaks of the cruel fate of a female magician ,f sentenced to a barbarous death by her whole tribe, for having instructed a Prince, whom she loved, in the means of contro- verting the schemes of a magician who was bent on his destruction. In a collection of wonderful tales of undoubted Hindoo originj, we find a female magician,
* Philostrat. Vit. Apollon, lib. vu. cap. xvi.
f Saxo Grammaticus, Hist. dan. lib. i.
J Tbe Hindoo origin of the Thousand and One Nights, main- tained by Hammer and Langlès, is denied by M. Silvestre de Sacy, who ascribes the composition of this collection to a Syrian Mussulman, of no earlier era than four centuries ago. (Memoir read at the Académie des Insertions et des Belles -Lettres, 31st July, 1829). That four hundred years ago, a compiler may have disse-
i2
116 CONTESTS OF MAGICIANS.
and one of the genii, strongly opposed to each other in their inclinations, yet bound, by a solemn treaty, restrain- ing each from any contravention of their schemes ; or from injuring the person of the other party. But, notwith- standing this agreement, they attempted to conquer each other, by other means ; but, neither consenting to yield, they ended by fighting outright, throwing
minated a collection of such of these tales as are known in Arabia and in Syria, is possible ; that he was a Mussulman, is evident from the pains he has taken to introduce Mussulmen, throughout the whole, with a total disregard of time or of country ; but it may still be asked, is this writer the original author ? I reply in the negative, because, 1st. Several of the narratives here brought together, may be found in the collections of the Hindoos, and of the Persians, which are of an earlier period, than the supposed date of this writer. 2nd. Judaism and Christianity were well known in Syria and in Arabia ; and the disciples of both, but espe- cially those of Christianity, must have played some part in tales invented within four hundred years, that is to say, nearly two centuries after the last of those famous Holy Wars, in which the standard of the Cross had more than once driven back the ensigns of Islamism, and yet we find no notice of other adversa- ries to the disciples of Mahomet than magicians and evil genii. 3rd. We retrace here the traditional existence in Asia, of pigmies ; men who have their heads beneath their shoulders ; and others having the head of a dog ; traditions which some very ancient Greek authors had gathered from the East ; but which had been subsequently, voted to oblivion, as absurd fables. 4th. Their Hindoo origin is evident ; from the history of the Brahman Pad- Manaba, a favourite of the God Vishnou (Fourteenth Night). A Mussulman could never have invented a fable so contrary to his own creed. If the Syrian compiler introduced it without mutilation, it undoubtedly was admitted because^the grounds of it were too familiar and too popular to risk any alteration.
CONTESTS OF MAGICIANS. 1 1 7
about jets of burning matter, which killed and wounded several spectators, and finally put an end to both combatants. #
If, instead of beings endowed with pretended super- natural powers, we substitute men like ourselves; the process and the result would have proved nearly the same. They only differed in one respect, namely, in the blind- ness of their fury, at the risk of betraying a secret which it was their interest to preserve, they employed weapons prohibited among magicians, and exhibited themselves to the vulgar, mortally wounded by the same magical implements which their prudence should have reserved to terrify or to punish the uninitiated.
4th. In such struggles, the triumph of a Thaumaturgist might possibly appear to his adversary less decisive than it would to his partizans ; particularly when the pretended miracle had been one of his own choosing, and one which he defied his rival to imitate : his antagonist might indeed recover his superiority by displaying, in his turn, a proof of his power which should secure to him the victory.
Nothing is better adapted to confirm these ideas than a glance at the manner in which the ancient magicians worked. Their art does not appear to have been the result of natural genius, nor assuredly of supernatural power ; but of the knowledge of secrets painfully acquired and with difficulty preserved. To work magically, there- fore, to conjure genii, or, so to invoke the Gods as to constrain them to apparent obedience, required very
* Mille et une Nuits, 4e Nuit, tome i. p. 318, (5e Nuit), ibid. p. 320—322.
118 SOURCES OF MAGICAL KNOWLEDGE.
extensive preparations ; but over the nature and opera- tion of these, the veil of mystery was thrown. Plants and animals, collected in secret, were in various ways combined and subjected to the action of fire ; and scarcely one step was taken without the assistance of some formulary, or the consultation of books, the loss of which was almost equivalent to the loss of all magic power. Such were the sources of the power of the greater number of the Thaumaturgists, who were truly scholars of natural philosophy, and who were forced continually to seek in their sacred volumes the prescriptions, without which they could neither properly work out their charms nor display their delusions.
Traces of the existence of these books are found among a people fallen, in the present age, into the most lamentable barbarism, but whose traditions are con*, nected with a very ancient and probably an advanced state of civilization.* The Baschkirs believe that the black books, the text of which they allege originated in hell, give to their possessor, provided he is capable of interpreting them, an absolute empire over nature and demons. These books, together with the power which they conferred, generally descended by inheritance to the individual among the pupils of their possessor, whom he judged most worthy to succeed him.f Sound works on physics and on chemistry, as applied to the arts,
* The Baschkirs, like the Laplanders, the Bouraetes, the Os- tiaks, and the Samoiëdes have, from time immemorial, made use of hereditary family names. (E. Salverte, Essai sur les Noms d'Hommes, de Peuples, et de Lieux, tome i. p. 143).
f Annalen der Erd-, Volker- und Staaten-Kunde.
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might replace, with advantage the magic books of the Baschkirs : but we are still not much in the advance of the time, in which certain persons, indifferent as to either the enlightenment or the ignorance of mankind, would have assumed that such works could only emanate from the principle of evil. Let us now, however, consult the Thaumaturgists themselves on the nature of their art.
Apollonius* denied that he was of the number of the magicians : they are, says he, only the artizans of miracles. They are often stranded in their attempts ; but when they fail, they acknowledge that they have neglected to employ such a substance, or to burn such another. Inexpert charlatans, who permit the mechanism of their miracles to be seen ! Apollonius himself boasted that his science was the gift of God, the reward of his piety, his self-denial, and his austerity : and in order to produce miraculous eifects, he needed neither preparations nor sacrifice. His presumption, which equalled that of the Hindoo penitents, merely proves that he was a more accomplished Thaumaturgist, and one who could boast of a higher knowledge of his art than those whom he depreciated. What he says of the ordinary Thaumaturgist confirms our former assumption, that the sect were mere labourers in natural philosophy.
Chaerémon, a priest, and sacred writer (scriba sacer) taught the art of invoking the Gods, so as to force them to perform the miracles demanded of them. Porphyry,!
* Philostrat. vit. Apollon, lib. i. cap. n.
f Porphyry was born at Tyre in the year 233. He became a pupil of Origen, and afterwards of Longinus, who named him Porphyrius, implying " man in purple," or adorned with a kingly
120 SOURCES OF MAGICAL KNOWLEDGE.
in refuting Chaerémon, affirms that the Gods them- selves taught men the ceremonies and the spells by which they might be conjured.* But this is merely the attack of one school upon another ; a strife of words. The beings who obeyed the invocation were not those who dictated the rites by which the invocation was to be expressed. Iamblicus enables us to recognize a distinction between them.
In the attempt to explain the manner by which a man may acquire an influence over the genii, Iamblicus arranges these deities in two divisions ; the one higher divinities, from whom nothing could be obtained, but through prayer and the practice of virtue : these were the Gods of Porphyry. The other subordinate, corres- ponding to the obedient deities of Chaerémon, and they are thus described by the Theurgist, " spirits devoid of reason or discernment, and of intelligence; and only brought forward for particular purposes, although gifted with power in some measure greater than that which man possesses ; yet, they are forced to exercise their peculiar functions at his command, because he is en- dowed with reason and discernment, of which they are devoid; and which enable him to ascertain, and to amalgamate the properties of various existences."! Let
robe. His original name was Melech, which is the Syrian for King. He died at Rome, a.d. 304, towards the conclusion of the reign of Diocletian. He is chiefly celebrated for his writings against Christianity. — Ed.
* Euseb. Prcep. Evang. lib. v. cap. vm. ix. x. xi.
f Iamblicus. De Mysteriis, cap. xxxi. Invocationes et opera hominum adversus spiritus . . . " Est etiam aliud genus spirituum. . . indiscretum et inconsideratw/n, quod unam numéro potentiam est
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us suppose that we are attending a lecture on chemistry and natural philosophy. " There exist," the professor may say, " substances capable of producing extraordinary results, incapable of being effected by man, when assisted only by his natural faculties; such as eliciting sparks from ice, or the production of ice in a heated atmosphere : effects which have been produced although the substances displaying them operate without design and without discernment. Blind agents in themselves } they become miraculous instruments of power in the hands of the man, who, by the deductions of science, possesses the secret of skilfully applying their properties, and making them subservient to his purposes."* The
sortitum. . . unde unum uni tantum operi addictum est. . , Jussa et imperia violenta diriguntur ad spiritus nee utenles pro- pria ratione, nee judicii discretionisque principium possidentes. Cum enim cogitatio nostra habeat ratiocinandi, naturam atque discernendi qua res ratione se habet. . . spiritibus imperare solet, non utentibus ratione et ad unam tantum actionem determinatis. . . imperat, quia natura nostra intellectualis prœstantior est quam intellectu carens, et si illud in mundo latiorem habeat actionem." * At the meeting of the British Association, at Cambridge, in June, 1845, Professor Butigny amused the ladies by producing ice in a vessel at a glowing red heat. This was performed by making a deep platinum capsule red-hot ; and, at the same moment, liquid sulphurous acid, which had been preserved in the liquid state by a freezing mixture, and some water, were poured into the vessel. The rapid evaporation of the sulphurous acid during its volatilization when it entered into ebullition, a state which takes place at the freezing point, produced such an intense degree of cold, that a large lump of ice was immediately formed ; and, being- thrown out of the red-hot vessel, was handed round to the com- pany in the section. How powerful would have been the influence of such an experiment, if asserted to be a miracle, in a Pagan sanctuary. —Ed.
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professor may thus display with precision, latent influences rendered active in the service of chemistry and of philosophy ; and all that he can say of them has been said by Iamblicus, touching the genii of the second order.
The professor may then continue : — " When an ignorant person tries an experiment, without closely following processes which are put down for him, he will assuredly fail, if the employment of one only of the substances prescribed by science is neglected." If for the words ignorant persons, experiment, process, and substances, we substitute profane, religious observances, rites, divinities, or genii, the professor will have spoken as if he had translated two passages from Iamblicus, on the course to be followed in working miracles.*
Among the genii obedient to magical power, we are informed that some were to be conjured in the Egyptian, some in the Persian language.f Is not this a demon- stration that the ceremonies were preserved in the formulary of the philosophers, which each temple pre- served in their sacred language, so as to make them practical. The Egyptian priests worked a miracle by a process of which the Persian priests were ignorant ; while the latter either worked the same miracle by a different process, or set up another miracle equally brilliant in opposition to it.
To the mind that revolts at the idea of exalting physical agents into supernatural powers, let us exhibit
* Quando profani tractant sacra contra ritus, frustratur eventus. Iamblich. De Mysteriis, cap. xxx. " Uno praetermisso numine sine ritu, communis ipsa Religio finem non habet," ibid. cap. xxxiii.
f Origen, contr. Cels. lib. i.
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the divination based on the most simple operations of industry. What among the Romans, the disciples of those Etruscans who derived their original civilization from religion, and ascribed to it their entire existence, were the Gods to whom the Flamen appealed, at the feast celebrated in honour of Terra, the Earth, and the Goddess of Agriculture ? We recognize them by their names. The first was Vervator, implying the ploughing of the fallow land ; the second, Reparator, labour ; the third, Imporcitor, the sowing of the seed ; the fourth, Insitor, the operation which covers the seed ; the fifth, Ob ar at or, harmony ; the sixth, Occator, the weeding with the hoe ; and the seventh, Sarritor, the second weeding, and so on.# The priest only enumerated the operations of agriculture, and superstition converted them into divinities. The same superstition, regarded as a supernatural being the man whose talents pro- duced works above the ordinary capacity of his fellow mortals.
The art of treating metals was deified under the name of Vulcan. The Telchines, the earliest artificers in iron known among the Greeks, were at first regarded as magicians, but subsequently looked upon as demi gods, genii, and malevolent demons. The Fifes, (fairies, fay es, or genii) f were famed in Scotland as excelling in
* Servius in Virgil. Géorgie, lib. i. vers. 21. et seq. et Varro de Re rust. lib. i. cap. i. The names of the other divinities ■were Subruncinator, Messor, Convector, Conditor, Promitor. The improvement of the soil was also under a divinity named Ster- quilinius, or, Stercilinius .
t There is no part of the world, and no portion of the history of the human race, that is devoid of superstitious observances ;
124 SOURCES OF MAGICAL KNOWLEDGE.
art.# And to a similar belief we, probably, owe the proverbial expression ' to work like fay es.' " The
and the predilection for the wild, the wonderful, and the terrible may be regarded as universal. Even in the present day, when Science and a rational Theology have dissipated, in a great degree, these illusions, still the vestiges of them remain, and impress sentiments which although they are endeavoured to be concealed, yet, are strongly felt.
No subject would be more interesting than an inquiry into the origin of the superstitions of uncivilized tribes : but it is of too com- prehensive a character to be entered upon in this place ; we shall, therefore, content ourselves with tracing, to their birth place, a few of the most popular delusions in the olden times of our own country. TheFayes and Fairies are evidently of Scandinavian origin, although the name of Fairy, is supposed to be derived from, or rather a modification of the Persian Peri, an imaginary benevolent being, whose province it was to guard men from the maledictions of evil spirits ; but with more probability it may be referred to the Gothic Fagur, as the term Elves is from Alfa, the general appellation for the whole tribe. If this derivation of the name of Fairy be admitted, we may date the commencement of the popular belief in British Fairies to the period of the Danish conquest. They were supposed to be diminutive aerial beings, beautiful, lively, and beneficent in their intercourse with mortals/ inhabiting a region called Fairy
[Land
* Suidas verbo Telchines. See the article on Telchines in the Dictionnaires de la Fable de Noël et de Chompré et Millin. — Men who attached to the worship of nature, or the Goddess of the Earth, (Cybêle, Magna Mater, etc. ), introduced into many places the art of working in metals ; and were known in different coun- tries under different names — Telchines, Curates, Idœan Dactyles, Corybantes, etc. ; but all pertained to the same priesthood, and transmitted their knowledge from generation to generation. It is on this account, that ancient writers sometimes confound them, and at other times assert that some were the ancestors of others. Diod. Sic. Strabo. Pausanius.
a Remains of Kirk White, vol. i. p. 34.
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gnomes," say the Cabalists, " are people of small stature, guardians of hidden treasures, of mines, and of
Land, Alf-heinner ; commonly appearing on earth at intervals — when they left traces of their visits, in beautiful green-rings, where the dewy sward had been trodden in their moonlight dances. The investigations of science have traced these rings to a species of fungus, Agaricus oreades ; but imagination still leads us, willingly, back to the traditional appearances of these diminutive beings in the train of their Queen ; and, whilst in the mind's eye, we see her asleep, cradled on a bed of violets, ever canopied
" With sweet musk roses and with eglantine,"
we also behold her tiny followers dancing away the midnight hours to the sound of the most enchanting music. In Scotland the exist- ence of Fairies was believed in the seventeenth century; and in some places in the Highlands, the belief is not yet extinct.* No idea is attempted to be given of the situation of the "countree of Fairie •" but the favourite haunts of its people on earth are green hills romantic glens, and inaccessible water- falls. At a linn, or water- fall on the river Crichup in Dumfriesshire, is a cell or cave, called the Elf's Kirk, where the fairy people, " the imaginary inhabitants of the linn were supposed to hold their meetings. "b So late as 1586, a woman named Alison Pearson, was tried, convicted and burnt, for holding intercourse with and visiting her Majesty of Faire land. The indictment runs thus : " for hanting and repair- ing with the gude neighbours, and Queene of Elfland, thir divers years by-past, as she had confest ; and that she had friends in that court, which were of her own blude, who had gude acquaint- ance of the Queene of Elfland ; and that she was seven years ill handled in the court; of Elfland." Can a stronger proof be adduced of the awful abuse of power into which mortals may be betrayed, when the mind is enfeebled by credulity and superstition ?
[One
Sinclair's Statistical account of Scotland, vol. xiii. p. 243. Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, vol. n. p. 206.
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precious stones : they are an ingenious race, friendly to mankind, and providing the children of the wise with
One of the tricks of the Scottish elves, for they were not always beneficent, was stealing new-born infants and replacing them with monsters. These thefts were committed in order to enable them to pay tithe to theDevil with the stolen child instead of one of their own brood, a tribute which they were obliged to pay every seventh year. A beautiful child, of Caerlaveroc, in Nithsdale, was thus changed, on the second day of its birth, and its place supplied by a hideous elf. The servant to whom the changeling was entrusted in the absence of her mistress, however, discovered the trick. She could not perform her other work owing to the fretfulness of the changeling ; but the elf, hearing her complain, started up and per- formed all her work, and on her mistresses approach returned to to the cradle. She told her mistress her discovery, and at the same time said : ' I'll wirk a pirn for the wee diel.' With this intention she barred every outlet in the room ; and, when the em- bers were glowing, undressed the elf, and threw it upon the fire. It uttered the wildest and most piercing yells, and in a moment the fairies were heard moaning, and rattling at the window boards and the door. ' In the name o'God bring back the bairn,' cried the servant : — the window flew up ; the earthly child was laid un- harmed on the mother's lap, while its grisly substitute flew up the chimney with a loud laugh."*
Another description of Scottish elves was the Brownies ; a race of beings both diminutive and gigantic, benevolent and knavish. The former was the most common, and are described by Mr. Cromekb as, " small of stature, covered with short curly hair, with brown matted locks, and clad in a brown mantle which reached to the knee, with a hood of the same colour." They were fond of sweet cream, honey, and other dainties, portions of all of which were generally left for them, as if by accident, in some part of the dwelling ; the brownies being forbidden by the higher powers to accept of wages
[or
a Cromek's Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song, p 308. " Cromek's Remains, p. 330, et seq.
SOURCES OF MAGICAL KNOWL EDGE. 127
all the money they require."* Credulity peopled the mines in several countries of Europe with genii ; they
or bribes. They, nevertheless, revenged themselves when inten- tionally neglected, and they could
"Bootless make the breathless housewife churn; And sometimes make the drink to bear no barm." This brownie was the same kind of sprite as the goblin- groom of the English, " who," says Dr. Hibbert, " was an inmate of many houses so late as the seventeenth century ;"a and also the same as a sprite named Putscet, whom the Samogitœ, a people on the shores of the Baltic — who remained idolaters in the fifteenth century — invoked to live with them ; and for whom, according to Mr. Douce,b a table, covered with bread, butter, cheese, and ale, was placed every night in the barn ; and which, we may ven- ture to add, was regularly cleared before morning. The northern nations regarded these sprites as the souls of men of libertine habits, doomed to wander on the earth, and to labour for mankind, for a certain fime, as a punishment of their crimes.0 In Orkney and Shetland, the belief in such sprites continued even in the eighteenth century. " A domestic spirit of this kind," says Dr. Hibbert, " was the inmate of the house of Ollaberry about a century ago."
In Shetland we find numerous traditions of the Duergar, or Scandinavian dwarfs, under the name of Trows. They are stated to be malevolent beings, partaking of the nature of men in having material bodies, and of the nature of spirits in the power of making themselves invisible. Besides the name Trows, they are also called familiarly guide folk ; and are still believed to exist. They live on beef and mutton, and drink milk like mortals ; are much addicted to music and dancing ; and are great quacks,
[compounding
a Hibbert's Description of the Shetland Islands, p. 467. b Illustrations of Shakespeare. c Olaus Magnus.
* Revue Encyclopédique, tome xxxi. p. 714. Le Comte de Ca- balis, ou Entretiens sur les Sciences secretes. Second entretien, pages 48 et 49.
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were known under the appearance of small, but robust brown men, always prepared to punish the indiscretion of the profane person that intruded on their labours. All that has been said of these genii, or gnomes, might hold good of the miners themselves, at a time when their art, pursued in obscurity, was exclusively destined to increase the riches, and maintain the power of the enlightened classes. But the veil of allegory, which graced the tales* "of the East, is now rent, and the labourers in the iron mines are no longer the genii of these subterranean workshops. Sensitive as they are described to have been to the kindness of Princes, who
compounding many salves, and performing many special miracu- lous cures. Like the English fairies, they are also addicted to the stealing of children, and leaving their own unholy progeny in their places.
" While around the thoughtless matrons sleep, Soft o'er the floor the treacherous fairies creep,
And bear the smiling infant far away : How starts the nurse, when, for the lovely child, She sees at dawn a gaping idiot stare. a
It is melancholy to reflect that these superstitions still exist in any portion of the British Empire. That they were not expelled when Christianity was introduced into Shetland, is attributed by Dr. Hibbert, to their being " conveniently subservient to the office of exorcism, which constituted a lucrative part of the emo- luments of the inferior Catholic clergy, with which Orkney and Shetland were at one time overrun. "b The whole history of these imaginary beings is, indeed, a melancholy picture of human reason degraded to a state of the most abject slavery beneath the tyranny of Credulity and Superstition. — Ed.
a Erskine's additions to Collins' Ode on the Superstitions of the Highlands.
b Hibbert's Scotland, p. 451.
* Thousand and one Nights.
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instituted festivals in their honour, they no longer hasten to their aid when their necessities are great, nor can they now be saved by their grateful intervention.
We may sometimes trace the means by which such metamorphoses were accomplished.* Agamede, in Homer, implies a woman devoted to the good of others, and intimately acquainted with the properties of all medicinal herbs. Orpheus, a wise emissary of the Gods,f who, by the charms of metrical verse, and the harmony of language, drew around him the rude people whom he came to civilize, as well as the wild beasts of the forest.j The historians, quoted by Diodorus, represent the mysterious arts of Circe and Medea as purely natural,^ especially where their know- ledge rested on the efficacy of poisons and their antidotes : but mythology has, nevertheless, preserved the reputation of iEetes' daughter as an invincible magician. The poets, who succeeded Homer, represent Orpheus as being versed in Magic : || and Theocritus describes Agamede as the rival of Circe and Medea^[ in the magical arts.
The Egyptian priests, who ranked next in order to
* Homer. Odyss. lib. iv. v. 226. Iliad, lib. xi. v. 737—739.
t Horat. De Art. Poet. vers. 390—393.
+ Pausanius asserts that he was deeply versed in magic. Many, among whom Aristotle is placed by Cicero, doubted altogether the existence of Orpheus : but there are many reasons for believ- ing that such a person existed, without crediting the absurd legends interwoven with the traditions concerning him. — Ed.
§ Diod. Sic. lib. n. cap. i. et vi.
|| Euripid. Iphigen. in Aulid. vers. 11, 12. Cyclop, vers. 642.
5[ Theocrit. Idyll, n. vers. 15 — 16. VOL. I. K
130 SOURCES OF MAGICAL KNOWLEDGE.
the sovereign Pontiff, are called magicians in the ordinary translations of Exodus, while their arts are styled enchantments. Mr. Drummond,* an archaeologist, who has made deep researches into the language and history of the Hebrews, considers these interpretations as incorrect: according to him the text implies secret, not magical working ; and the title of the priests chartomi, derived from a word which signifies to engrave hieroglyphics, expresses nothing further than the knowledge they possessed of hieroglyphics in general.
Who, we may inquire, were the prophets consulted by Pythagoras at Sidon ; and from whom he received sacred instructions ? They were the descendants of Mochus,f the physiologist, a sage, deeply versed in the phenomena of nature ; and the inheritors of the knowledge of his science. If Justin does not scruple to admit the reality of the greater proportion of the miracles ascribed to Apollonius of Tyana, he could have observed in them only dazzling proofs of the noble science of the Thaumaturgists. }
In conclusion, the learned Moses Maimonides § has demonstrated that the ground-work of Chaldean Magic lay substantially in an extensive acquaintance with the resources of the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms. One object of such knowledge was to acquire the power of indicating the propitious time when the magical results
* Mr. Drummond. Memoir on the Antiquity of the Zodiacs of Esneh and Dendera, 8vo. London, 1823, pages 19, 21.
f He was a native of Sidon, and is regarded as the founder of the philosophy of anatomy. — Ed.
% S. Justin. Quest, et Repond, ad Orthodox, Quest. 24.
§ Moses Maimonides. More Nevochim. lib. in. cap. xxxvn.
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might be expected ; that is to say, the moment in which the season, the temperature, and the state of the atmos- phere, gave a reasonable hope of success, in working by means of. physical and chemical agents ; or which aided the learned observer in predicting natural phenomena, that could not be foreseen by the multitude. Intro- duced into the sanctuary of the Occult Science, the mystery of Magic vanishes : we see in it only the school where the various branches of natural science were taught; and we admit in their literal sense all the assertions of mythology and of history, regard- ing men and women invested by the talented foun- ders with the possession of their secret, and who not unfrequently became superior to their masters. To this end, it was sufficient, after having submitted to trials imposed with a view of insuring discretion, that the pupil should give himself up to the zealous study of the Secret Science; and his perseverance and capacity only could enable him to extend its limits ; the advan- tages of which he afterwards reserved to himself, or partially communicated to the objects of his particular regard.
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132 AIM OF ANCIENT MAGIC.