REGENT RECRUDESCENCE OF SUPERSTITION. 775 



without the intervention of an archangel. Indeed, almost every- 

 one has had a similar experience in looking for something on a 

 table or shelf in vain, and then finding it there a few moments 

 later. The momentary oversight may be due to mental abstrac- 

 tion or to a transient visual blur. The angels, we are assured, did 

 not lose by their fall this power of carrying off things invisibly, 

 which therefore remains an attribute of devils, and enables them 

 to indulge their propensity to steal without detection. They 

 sometimes pilfer fruit and grain, but seem to have a special fond- 

 ness for milk and eggs, a very simple diet, one would think, for 

 infernal spirits. Many persons who keep fowls are often sur- 

 prised that they do not get any eggs. The hen sits on the nest, 

 lays or at least cackles, but the nest is empty. If such a hen be 

 killed, plenty of eggs in a more or less advanced stage of develop- 

 ment will be found in the ovary, and the oviduct will prove to be 

 perfectly healthy and normal. From these facts a strictly logical 

 mind, like that of our learned doctor, can come to only one con- 

 clusion : a demon stole the eggs. The same is true of cows, goats, 

 and other lactiferous animals which grow lean and cease to give 

 milk, although they are provided with the most nutritious fodder. 

 " In such cases it is right to assume the workings of witchcraft, 

 and to apply the formula contra maleficium invisibilis dblationis 

 lactis, etc., of the Constance Benedictional." In the earlier cen- 

 turies of the Christian era, before this ritual existed, simpler 

 methods of exorcism were employed and are still effective, such as 

 blessing the stalls, the fodder, and the cows, and washing the 

 teats with holy water, which may be warmed if the animals are 

 sensitive to cold. Snarled tufts of hair or tangles of hemp indi- 

 cate demonism, and should be thrown into the fire with the 

 words " In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." 

 Dr. Bischofberger admits that " egg-stealing is more difficult to 

 stop, because the priest has less power over hens." The best rem- 

 edy is to surround the nests with consecrated things, so that the 

 demon can not get through without coming in contact with them ; 

 he will then probably desist. Granaries and fruit lofts are to be 

 protected in the same manner. 



In conclusion, the author of this manual of exorcism says, 

 " People fondly imagine that these cunning devices of the Prince 

 of Darkness may have been practiced in former centuries, but 

 that they have been dissipated by the light of the nineteenth cen- 

 tury like the mist before the sun." His thirty-seven years' expe- 

 rience as a priest prove this optimistic assumption to be wholly 

 unfounded. 



