Ancient Rome and Modern Italy 33 



a mother suddenly goes dry, it may mean that a female animal 

 has found the placenta and secured abundant food for its own 

 young by merely devouring it. 158 



Should the magic of witchcraft and the remedies of folkmedicine 

 fail the nursing mother, divine assistance can be sought in the 

 local chapel of S. Benedetto. 159 She does well to suspend from her 

 neck a representation of that saint. In spite of his gender, he can 

 insure her baby a bountiful provision. If, however, the mother 

 does not feel quite sure of an effective intercession by the saint, 

 she may wear a small round white stone veined with red which 

 is perforated in the middle by a hole which was worn through by 

 the water of the stream in which it was found. These stones are 

 considered great treasures to be handed down from generation to 

 generation. 160 Sometimes it is a hippocampus or seahorse which 

 she has -somewhere on her person. The fish should be alive or 

 only recently dead. A bit of cloth, wrapped around it, protects 

 it and reduces the offensiveness of its odor. 161 Other lacteal charms 

 are the "Madonna's herb" (Balsamita minor), and a cloth con- 

 taining soil from a sacred place. 162 



The ancients set store by a milk-white stone which they call 

 galactitis, this being a derivative from the Greek word meaning 

 milk. 163 Nursing women believed that it promoted the lacteal 

 secretion. 164 They would also attach one to the neck of the baby 

 to better its flow of saliva. This ancient precedent would be 

 reason enough why Italian women of our time should be resorting 

 to the use of a white bead, or to an appendage of white coral. 

 They also depend upon milk-balls, cut out of ivory 165 or out of 

 chalcedony, 166 or one of 'its varieties, agate. 167 Jasper is another 

 milk-stone. 168 If an amulet of white coral be worn suspended 

 from the neck of even the infant, it ought, they say, to stimulate 

 the mother's provision of milk. 169 Additional aid may also be 

 sought from Saint Agatha, because in her martyrdom she lost her 

 breasts, however strange this reasoning may seem. 170 



When, in spite of everything that the fancy of doting parents 

 and the suggestions of the ignorant can inspire them to try, an 

 Italian nursling begins to waste away, one may conclude that 

 a snake is sucking the mother's breast at night after putting its 

 tail in the infant's mouth to keep it from crying. 171 



For the ailments of a mother which were connected with her 



