Ancient Rome and Modem Italy 45 



grotesque, or terrifying: they compelled the attention of that 

 menacing glance. 



Other charms besides the locket might be hung from the neck 

 or worn elsewhere on the person. Sometimes natural objects were 

 put to this prophylactic use. Among those that might protect a 

 baby were the notably large horns of the stag-beetle. 237 The 

 amulet'ic use of insects is by no means an outmoded practice among 

 uneducated Sicilians even now. 238 



In Roman antiquity nurses would put a bit of garlic, Allium 

 sativum, in the swaddling-clothes of their little charges. It was 

 considered to be an effective avertive for keeping out of the house 

 the vampirical creatures who molested children: the hawthorn that 

 was planted in the window might have let some of them slip by! 

 Merely eating three cloves of garlic every morning would keep evil 

 spirits from entering your body, but that regimen might be diffi- 

 cult even for an Italian baby to follow. 239 There were also Ro- 

 mans who believed that the skin and tooth of a wolf would protect 

 the helpless young. 240 One might imagine that this superstition 

 went back to the days when a wandering wolf served as godmother 

 to Romulus and Remus. Then there were charms that were manu- 

 factured to represent various magically protective plants and ani- 

 mals. These were made with varying degrees of artistry out of 

 metal or other material. Gold in itself, no matter in what form 

 it might be employed to adorn the baby, would reduce, the Romans 

 thought, any harm which sorceries could work. 241 



In modern Italy and its adjacent islands there are superstitious 

 people who will not place their full dependence for baby's well- 

 being upon the rites of baptism and the supervision of Christian 

 powers. While a representation of the Madonna with her own 

 Bambino looks down upon the sleeping child, and tiny bags con- 

 taining relics of the saints are tied to the bars of the crib, 242 and 

 the family keeps close by a small container of holy water which 

 was blessed on Palm Sunday, timorous, superstitious Italians are 

 prone to supplement all this religious or semi-religious provision 

 by amuletic objects and occult agencies which they believe will 

 work against disease, magic, or the spirits of evil that are ever be- 

 setting the young and helpless. We may, indeed, discover a quaint 

 admixture of what passes for Christianity and what, if truly named, 

 is nothing but heathen superstition. Thus, south Italians, if they 



