In Christian and Mediaeval Times 331 



great pain; and if the needles were stuck into its heart 

 or head, the bewitched person died. 



There were ways of escaping from the evil threatened 

 by the Atzman, one of which the following story from the 

 " Gesta Romanorum " illustrates : — 



A pious man went to Rome to visit Saint Peter and 

 Saint Paul ; and while he was gone, there came to his wife 

 a travelling scholar — as they are called — who be- 

 sought her in marriage. The woman replied that her 

 husband had gone to Rome, but if he were dead or if her 

 companion could slay him, she would prefer him before 

 all other men. 



He replied that he could easily kill him, and went out 

 and bought six pounds of wax and made of it an image. 



As the pious man entered the city of Rome, came one 

 to him and said, " O thou son of death, why goest thou 

 hither and thither? If none help thee, thou wilt to-day 

 be living and dead." 



The man said, " Why should this be ? " 



The stranger replied, " Come to my house and I will 

 show thee." 



Then he took him home, prepared for him a bath of 

 water, put him in it, gave into his hand a mirror, and said, 

 " Look therein ! " 



And he sat by his side and read in a book and spake 

 unto him, " Look in the mirror; what seest thou there?" 



He in the bath replied, — 



" I see in my house one who places a waxen image 

 on the wall and goes away and takes the cross-bow and 

 bends it and is about to shoot at the image ! " 



The stranger replied, " If thou valuest thy life, plunge 

 under the water when he is about to shoot.'' 



The man did so. The other read farther in the book 

 and said, " Look, what seest thou ? " 



