38 Conception, Birth and Infancy in 



of Roman worship, but my reader may not know that, just as 

 the Roman Catholic of Italy has many specializing saints upon 

 whom to call in time of trouble, so the ancient Romans worshipped 

 many minor spirits each responsible in a particular field of activity. 

 From the time of birth on, the child came progressively under the 

 care of such powers: Cunina safeguarded him as he lay in his 

 cradle, Potina presided over his drinking, Edusa over his eating, 

 Statilinus assisted him to stand erect so that he would not become 

 bowlegged or knock-kneed, and, as Vaticanus had been by him at 

 his first cry, so Fabulinus superintended his first articulate 

 speech. 199 At that time the debate would start, we may suppose, 

 as to whether pater or mater received the earliest address. 



We have given only a sample of the divine protectors who were 

 supposed to watch over the very young. If all were known to 

 scholars, they might prove to be as numerous as the special saints 

 of Roman Catholicism or as the fairies in which a Protestant may 

 believe in a moment of poetic ecstasy. 



But the worship of pagan gods and the reverence of Catholic 

 saints are not nearly so interesting to some of us as are certain 

 ancient and modern dealings with the spirit world which adherents 

 of legitimate religion must ever disapprove. There is the great 

 kingdom of magic, in which the professional experts have been the 

 witches and warlocks who have gulled the simple-minded in every 

 age successfully. The boundary lines between it and the fields 

 of religion and medicine are not always easy to establish without 

 some irritation on the part of those whose life's work lies in these 

 two departments of learning. Even in our study of man's early 

 years we are bound to give some attention to the ars magica and 

 to some of the superstitions that are associated with it. 



The Romans believed that children were exposed not only to 

 the ordinary perils of accidents, bad health, and disease, but to 

 various evils for which occult influences, operations of magic, and 

 visitors from the spirit world might be held responsible. Witches 

 might use the black art for nefarious purposes of their own, or 

 put it to the service of clients who were intent on accomplishing 

 something beyond the normal powers of man and, in many cases, 

 something actually criminal. 



In all their activities witches and wizards have been able to 

 escape publicity by changing into animals or by using agents of 



