58 



RELICS OF POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS. 



classes of men. Deceitful brewers were supposed to lodge at the 

 bottom of the muddiest ; bad cooks under those that frothed 

 highest ; and quarrelsome wives in one that made an incessant 

 noise.^ They offered me a slice of a green serpent with a flat 

 head and sharp teeth, which they professed would infallibly make 

 me witty and brave ; but I chose rather to digest the affront than 

 the talisman. In one of their temples I found a piece of mirror, 

 which they thought an emblem of the deity, and endeavoured to 

 propitiate by striking a bell three times. I also saw gilt paper 

 lighted every evening before the sea-god, and comedies acted in 

 the street for his diversion ; but the witches stool was the most 

 fantastical torture ever devised ; and I added to it the long list of 

 provisions I have found for such creatures in every land my an- 

 chor has touched." 



"Who," rejoined the Calvinist, "has not heard of the ill-luck 

 betiding Friday, the doleful omen brought by a raven or a soli- 

 tary dove alighting on a house to the left side of the spectator ? 

 This rabbinical book, which you have brought me, gives farther 

 testimony on this subject. — 'We find,' says the author, 'seven 

 kinds of Diviners forbidden among the Hebrews, not because there 

 were no other, but because they were the most usual. 1. An ob- 

 server of times — 2. An enchanter — 3. A witch — 4. A charmer— 

 5. A consulter with familiar spirits — 6. A wizard — 7. A necro- 

 mancer. To these we may add an eighth. Consulting with the 

 staff: and a ninth out of Ezek. ch. 21. A consulter with en- 

 trails. — The first is a star-gazer : and his name, saith Aben Ezra, 

 is derived from Gnanan, a cloud. When he observes the stars or 

 clouds, he stands with his face eastward, his back westward, his 

 right hand towards the south, and his left hand towards the north : 

 else I find no reason why the Hebrews should term the eastern 

 the fore part of the world, and the western the back ; the south 

 part liamin, or the right hand, and the north part Shemol, or the 

 left. He is Menachesch, or a soothsayer, say the Rabbines, who, 

 because a morsel of bread falleth out of his mouth, or his staff 

 out of his hand, or a crow hath cawed upon him, or a goat pass- 

 ed him, or a serpent was on his right hand, or a fox on his left, 

 will say, ' Do not this or that to-day.' A witch or juggler is called 

 Mecascheph, a complexion-maker, a compounder of medicine, an 



* Vide, Kempfefs History of Japan. 



