i62 TABOO AND GENETICS 



have her dealings, however. When this notion 

 of the alUance between demons and women had 

 become a commonplace, " the whole tradition 

 was directed against woman as the Devil's 

 instrument, basely seductive, passionate and 

 licentious by nature." (24.) Man's fear of 

 woman found a frantic and absurd expression 

 in her supposed devil-worship. As a result, the 

 superstitions about witchcraft became for cen- 

 turies not only a craze, but a theory held by 

 intelligent people. 



Among the female demons who were especially 

 feared were : Nahemah, the princess of the 

 Succubi ; Lilith, queen of the Stryges ; and 

 the Lamiae or Vampires, who fed on the living 

 flesh of men. Belief in the Vampires still 

 persists as a part of the folklore of Europe. 

 Lilith tempted to debauchery, and was variously 

 known as child-strangler, child-stealer, and a 

 witch who changed true offspring for fairy or 

 phantom children.* The figure of the child- 

 stealing witch occurs in an extremely ancient 

 apocryphal book called the Testament of Solo- 

 man, and dates probably from the first or 

 second century of the Christian Era. (25.) 



Laws against the malefici (witches) were 

 passed by Constantine. In the Theodosian 

 Code {Lib. 9. Tit. 16. Leg. 3.) they are 



*The name of Lilith carries us as far back as Babylon, and 

 in her charms and conjurations we have revived in Europe the 

 reflection of old Babylonian charms. 



