In Greece and Italy 317 



all the dainty cakes tliat women fashion in the kneading 

 tray, mingling blossoms manifold] with the white wheaten 

 flour, all that is wrought of honey sweet, and in soft olive 

 oil, all cakes fashioned in the semblance of things that fly, 

 and of things that creep, lo, here they are set before 

 him." 



Less innocent were some of the uses to which wax was 

 put, and we learn that wax images among the ancients were 

 used by sorcerers with the expectation of working harm to 

 their fellow-men. In his " Laws,'' in the chapter relating 

 to poisoning and sorcery, Plato has the following advice 

 to offer, for although he evidently does not himself heartily 

 believe in the efficacy of these waxen images he recognizes 

 the power they exert over the minds of the people : — 



" And when men are disturbed in their minds at the 

 sight of waxen images fixed either at their doors, or in a 

 place where three ways meet, or on the sepulchres of 

 parents, there is no use in trying to persuade them that 

 they should despise all such things because they have no 

 certain knowledge about them. 



" But we must have a law in two parts, concerning poi- 

 soning, in whichever of the two ways the attempt is made, 

 and we must entreat, and exhort, and advise men not to 

 have recourse to such practices, by which they scare the 

 multitude out of their wits, as if they were children, com- 

 pelling the legislator and the judge to heal the fears which 

 the sorcerer arouses, and to tell them in the first place, that 

 he who attempts to poison or enchant others knows not 

 what he is doing, either as regards the body (uiiless he has 

 a knowledge of medicine), or as regards his enchantments 

 (unless he happens to be a prophet or diviner). Let the 

 law, then, run as follows about poisoning or witchcraft : 

 He who employs poison to do any injury, not fatal, to a 

 man himself, or to his servants, or any injury, whether fatal 



