Ancient Rome and Modern Italy 51 



It is quite natural for a certain type of mother to associate some 

 Christian procedure with the various superstitions of a magical 

 sort. In order to rid her baby of its worms, she may put it across 

 her knees and murmur in its ears an incantation. Then she blesses 

 it with the sign of the cross and so makes doubly sure of their 

 exit. 297 She thinks that merely marking her child's belly with a 

 cross in ink should work the same result. 298 Who will decide 

 whether it is a medical or a magical remedy in the thought of a 

 woman of Perugia when she takes an ascarid that her baby has 

 spued from its mouth, mashes it up, and administers it in the child's 

 pap or in some water which contains powdered egg-shells? Swal- 

 lowing this should make the child emit more of its worms — a sort 

 of homoeopathic process, she may suppose. 299 



There is a curious Italian superstition that one of the causes of 

 worms is the emotion of terror. 300 For this reason an Abruzzese 

 mother will not bring her swaddled infant in front of a mirror, lest 

 it take fright and so become infested with parasites. 301 Kissing 

 the child on the forehead is said to bring worms into its intes- 

 tines, but you can prevent it, we are told, by merely saying Crisce 

 cappomonde. 301 



We may next turn to some of the other troubles besides cutting 

 teeth and playing host to intestinal and stomachic parasites which 

 vex the opening years of life. Again we shall consider not what 

 the reputable Italian pediatrician would prescribe for them but 

 rather certain remedies that are to be found in use among unedu- 

 cated people. Their superstitious ideas can often make them seem 

 like old Romans who have suddenly come to life again to deal with 

 the latest generation of their descendants. We may work down 

 (or up, whichever my reader may decide the process is) from some 

 that are more purely medical to those that are partly or wholly of 

 an occult or magical nature. 



In sufficiently backward communities a suckling who is suffering 

 from the disease called sprue or thrush may have the head of a 

 frog put in its mouth, 302 and a child who regurgitates its milk has 

 the tail of a live tench inserted there. 303 Oral ulcerations may lead 

 an ignoramus of Umbertide to swab off the victim's tongue and 

 clean his mouth with the end of a cat's tail. 304 An easy cure for 

 such ailments is to have a shepherd, malodorous from his sheepskin 

 garments and the care of animals, merely kiss the baby, or spit in 



