150 TABOO AND GENETICS 



Among the Greeks and neighbouring nations 

 the women of Thessaly had a great reputation 

 for their charms and incantations. (7.) Among 

 the writers who speak of a beUef in their power 

 are : Plato, Aristophanes, Horace, Ovid, Virgil, 

 Tibullus, Seneca, Lucan, Menander, and Eurip- 

 ides. 



All of the northern European tribes believed 

 in the foresight of future events by women. 

 Strabo says of the Cimbri that when they took 

 the field they were accompanied by venerable, 

 hoary-headed prophetesses, clothed in long, 

 white robes. Scandinavians, Gauls, Germans, 

 Danes and Britons obeyed, esteemed and vener- 

 ated females who dealt in charms and incanta- 

 tions. These sacred women claimed to foretell 

 the future and to interpret dreams, and among 

 Germans, Celts and Gauls they were the only 

 physicians and surgeons. The druidesses cured 

 disease and were believed to have power superior 

 to that of the priests. (8.) The Germans 

 never undertook any adventure without consult- 

 ing their prophetesses. (9.) The Scandinavian 

 name for women endowed with the gift of 

 prophecy was fanae, fanes. The English form 

 is fay. The ceremonies of fays or fairies, like 

 those of the druidesses, were performed in 

 secluded woods.* 



Magic and medicine went hand in hand in 



♦Joan of Arc was asked during her trial if she were a fay. 



