DKEAMS AND ILLUSIONS. 307 



goddess Carmenta, who was supposed to watch over 

 childbirth, derived her name from carmen, the magic 

 formula which was used to aid the delivery. The 

 name was also used for a prophetess, as Carmenta, the 

 mother of Evander. Servio tells us that the augurs 

 were termed carmentes* The Sanscrit may a, meaning 

 magic or illusion and, in the Veda, wisdom, is derived 

 from man, to think or know; from man we have 

 mantra, magic formula or incantation ; in Zend, man- 

 tlira is an incantation against disease, and hence we 

 have the Erse manadh, incantation or juggling, and 

 moniti in Lithuanian. The linguistic researches of 

 Pictet, Pott, Benfey, Kulm, and others show that in 

 primitive times singing, poetry, hymns, the celebration 

 of rites, and the relation of tales, were identical ideas, 

 expressed in identical forms, and even the name for a 

 nightingale had the same derivation. So also the 

 names of a singer, poet, a wise man, and a magician, 

 came from the same root. 



Among all historic and savage peoples it was the 

 general practice to use exorcism by means of magic 

 formulas and incantations, combined with the noise of 

 rude instruments ; this was part of the pathology, 

 meteorology, and demonology which dated from the 

 beginning of speech, and the first rude ideas of 

 fetishes and spirits have persisted in various forms 



* Serv. on the JEneid. What the oracles sang was termed 

 carmentis : the seers used to be called carmentes, and the books in 

 which their sayings vere inscribed were termed carmentorios. 



