86 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



wi' a north, eye, spat dree times." Pliny speaks of spitting in the 

 bosom as a means of inducing the gods to grant any presumptu- 

 ous desire (veniam quoque a deis spei alicujus audacioris peti- 

 mus, in sinum spuendo), and Juvenal refers to the custom of 

 bespitting the upper folds of the toga (conspuere sinus) in order 

 to avert divine wrath provoked by haughtiness of speech ; and if 

 we go back nearly four centuries earlier to the Greek poet Theoc- 

 ritus, we find that the remedy prescribed by the English boor for 

 warding ofl: the influence of the evil eye was employed by the 

 rustics of that ancient time for precisely the same purpose. The 

 sixth idyl of this pastoral poet consists of a dialogue between two 

 herdsmen, Daphnis and Demoitas, of whom the latter, in the 

 course of conversation, remarks : " Lest I should be enchanted by 

 the evil eye, I spit three times into my breast " (u>s ^ /?ao-Kav0o> 

 Se rpk <ts ffwv errrvo-a *oA.7rov), and adds that in doing so he had fol- 

 lowed the advice of an old wizard. 



An ornament in the shape of a crescent moon (o-eA^vi's or 

 o-eAT/vwTKos) was worn by the Greeks or placed on the walls of their 

 houses as a irpopao-Kdviov or preservative against the evil eye, and 

 the lulunce, with which Roman women adorned their persons, 

 were also regarded as safeguards against witchcraft. We have 

 a survival of this superstition in the half moons so often seen on 

 harness and occasionally on buildings. Indeed, in Oriental coun- 

 tries all jewels are amulets, and are prized more for their occult 

 virtue than for their superficial beauty. The Romans hung a 

 fascinum in the form of a phallus round the necks of children 

 as a preventive against witchcraft, and the pieces of red coral 

 used by our teething infants to facilitate dentition are a reminis- 

 cence of this usage connected with the Priapian cult. The Dru- 

 denfuss, or pentagram (*), which the Tyrolese draws on the 

 threshold of his stable to protect his cattle against enchantment, 

 is a relic of Pythagorean mysticism and mediaeval magic. 



A dreadful tale of cruelty caused by the witchcraft delusion 

 comes to us from the Emerald Isle. A few months ago, at Bally- 

 vadlea, in the county of Tipperary, a woman named Bridget 

 Cleary had an attack of influenza or grippe, which, as is usually 

 the case with maladies of me% and beasts, was ascribed to demo- 

 niac influences. Her husband, a cooper by trade, got the notion 

 into his head that she had been " overlooked," and thereby spirited 

 away by a wicked fairy, who had taken possession of her body. 

 He called a family council, consisting of her father, an aunt, four 

 cousins, a couple of neighbors, and the village simplist, who unan- 

 imously confirmed his suspicion, and went to work to exorcise 

 and expel the evil spirit, so that the unfortunate woman might 

 return to herself and her friends. The simplist prepared a dis- 

 gusting decoction, which her husband poured down her throat, 



