Part 5

In few countries was the spoken word more effective than in ancient Ireland; a sorcerer, whether a druid or not, would stand on one foot, with one arm outstretched and with one eye shut, and chant an incantation in a loud voice (37, i. 240). The grand weapon of the Irish poets by which they enforced their demands was the satire. A poet could compose a satire that would blight crops, dry up milch-cows, and raise an ulcerous blister on the face. A story is told (37, i. 454) of Senchán Torpest, chief poet of Ireland, who lived in the seventh century, that once when his dinner was eaten in his absence by rats, he muttered a satire beginning, ‘Rats, though sharp their snouts, are not powerful in battle,’ which killed ten of them on the spot. Shakespeare, and other Elizabethan writers, often refer to the belief that Irish bards could rhyme rats to death. The Irish =geis= or =geas= [pronounced gesh or gass], plural geasa [gassa], was the exact equivalent of an ordinary =tabu=, but people sometimes put an injunction on a person in some such form as ‘I place you under heavy geasa, which no true champion will break through, to do so and so.’ In this manner, the witch-lady forces Finn to search for the ring she had dropped into the lake; and Marbhan put the arch-poet Senchán Torpest under geasa to obtain a copy of a lost story. When the request was reasonable or just the abjured person could not refuse without loss of honour and reputation and probably in early days personal harm would accrue if the geasa were disregarded. The power of the geis was so strong that when Grania put Diarmuid under geasa of danger and destruction to elope with her, he was advised by his friends against his will to agree: Oisin said, ‘You are not guilty if the bonds were laid on you,’ and Osgar said, ‘It is a pitiful man that would break his bonds’ (25, 347, 8).

Sympathetic magic bulks largely in the life of backward peoples, not merely in the form of actions to be performed, but also in those to be abstained from. The ‘Thou shalt not’ is more in evidence than ‘Thou shalt.’ The prohibitions of savages and barbarians are now spoken of under the general term of =tabu=. Some tabus are rational from our point of view, others seem to us to be utterly irrational, but this does not affect their validity in any way. So much has been written on this subject by divers writers that only one or two examples need be given here. The subject is again referred to on p. 55.

The old Irish tale, the ‘Bruiden Dá Derga,’ tells of the destruction following the violation of tabus. Conaire, King of Ulster, was put under certain geasa by his father, such as: ‘Thou shalt not go desiul round Tara nor withershins round Bregia,’ ‘The evil beasts of Cerna must not be hunted by thee,’ ‘There shall not go before thee three Reds to the house of Red,’ and others. But on the way to Dá Derga’s Hostel ‘They went righthandwise round Tara, and lefthandwise round Bregia, and the evil beasts of Cerna were hunted by him, but he saw it not till the chase had ended.’ Then he saw three red men going before him to the house of Red, and Conaire says, ‘All my geasa have seized me to-night,’ and before the next day Conaire and all his host were destroyed in Dá Derga’s Hostel (66, xxii.). When Cuchulain was on his way to his last combat he met three hags, daughters of a wizard, all blind of the left eye. They were cooking a dog with poisons and spells on spits of a rowan tree. It was geis to Cuchulain to eat at a cooking-hearth, or to eat the flesh of a hound, but the women put him on his honour not to refuse the piece they offered him, so he took it, and all the strength went out of the left hand in which he took the food (66, iii.).

III. TALISMANS AND AMULETS

In the forms of magic we have hitherto considered, something is done by a human being, whether by action, representation, or word, but there is another branch of magic in which the virtue resides intrinsically in certain objects which are variously termed charms, talismans, amulets, or mascots. Those that transmit qualities or are worn for good luck may be termed =talismans=, while the term =amulet= may be restricted with advantage to those charms which are preventive in their action; but the same charm is in some cases employed for both these purposes. These objects are continuously effective without any action on the part of the preparer or wearer, as they possess power in their own right, but this is from very diverse causes.

Certain =stones= from their colour suggest flesh; thus garnets and carnelians are worn in the rough or worked into beads as amulets against skin diseases. Most precious stones are credited with distinctive properties, and some have a reputation for being unlucky, as for example the precious opal. The amethyst, as its name implies, was regarded by the ancient Greeks as a charm against becoming intoxicated; among the ancient Egyptians the amethyst corresponded to the Zodiacal sign of the Goat, and as the goat was an enemy to vines, so the amethyst was a foe to wine. Leland (43, 351) points out that it also ‘drives away bad thoughts and confers ripe and happy genius.’ Amber beads are carried by people of various races for weak eyes, and it is essential they should be looked through to strengthen the sight (43, 267). The electrical power of attraction of light objects by amber when rubbed was doubtless one cause of its supposed virtue. The several =metals= have their active magical properties. A lump of crude antimony in Italy is very efficacious when the following invocation is pronounced: ‘Antimony, who art of zinc and copper! thou most powerful, I keep thee ever by me, that thou mayest banish from me evil people, and bring good luck to me.’ Gold is the most genial or luck-bringing, and, as a woman said, ‘antimony is stronger than lead, because it consists of three metals, or rather always has in it copper and lead’ (43, 373-4).

=Colour= alone has its magical qualities, hence the frequency of red woollen thread or stuff in counter-charms against the evil eye, as an old saw expresses it: ‘Roan tree and red thread, will drive the witches aa wud’ (49, 156). For the same reason red coral is so greatly valued. Blue is of equal efficacy, hence the wearing of turquoise by so many Oriental and North African peoples, and blue beads are worn by people for much the same reason, that they suspend them round the necks of donkeys or camels.

When dealing with contagious magic, we saw that many objects are worn, in order that certain qualities of the animals from which they were obtained may be imparted to the wearer. The wild =boar’s tusk=, the acquisition of which is greatly desired by the natives of the Papuan Gulf as a mark of bravery, is coveted not so much as a personal ornament, as for the courage, ferocity, and daring which it is supposed to contain and to be capable of imparting to any one who wears it (33, 427). Probably this is the reason why boars’ tusks are so much prized all over New Guinea, where they are wrought into ‘ornaments,’ which are carried in the mouth or worn on the chest when on the war-path. In West Africa the =bones= from the legs of tortoises are much valued as anklets, in order to give the wearers endurance. The lower jaw-bone of the tortoise is worn by certain tribes as a preventive against toothache; in this case the reason would seem to be that as the tortoise has no teeth it cannot suffer from toothache, and thus freedom from toothache can be imparted by that edentulous jaw. The spinal bones of snakes are strung together for a girdle as a cure for backache (3, 237).

Africans, according to Arnot (3, 237), believe largely in preventive measures, and their charms are chiefly of that order. In passing through a country where leopards and lions abound, they carefully provide themselves with the =claws=, =teeth=, =lips=, and =whiskers= of those animals, and hang them around their necks, to secure themselves against being attacked. For the same purpose the point of an elephant’s trunk is generally worn by the elephant-hunters.

A large class of talismans consists of =models= or =representations of objects=, and the attributes of the original pass on to the symbol. The pig, perhaps on account of its abundant fecundity, was primarily sacred to the earth goddess, whether she was known as Demeter, Ceres, or by any other name. Leland points out (43, 255) that little gold and silver pigs were offered to Ceres, who was pre-eminently a goddess of fertility, and therefore of good luck and all genial influences. For these reasons they were worn by Roman ladies, and ‘=lucky pigs=’ are still very common charms, especially in South Germany.

The belief in the =evil eye= is not only widely spread, but extremely ancient, and in some places is still firmly rooted among the folk. ‘Overlooking’ may be intentional, but it is believed that many persons, without intention and even against their will, by the glance of their eye, have caused injurious effects; so that, in some cases, mothers would not venture to expose their infants to the look of their own fathers. Plutarch (18, 13) vouches for this, and admits that envy exerts an evil influence through the eyes, and adds that it is wise to employ charms and antidotes to turn aside these evil glances. A friend of his stated that some even fascinate themselves by their own gaze, and alluded to the story of Eutelidas, who, like Narcissus, fell a victim to the admiration he felt for his own likeness. Women and children seem to have been accounted by all old classical writers as the most liable to injury. Among the Greeks and Romans statues of Nemesis were erected which were adored and invoked to save their worshippers from fascination. In Rome, according to Pliny, special laws were enacted against injury to crops by incantation, excantation, or fascination (18, 15).

‘Eat not the bread of him that hath an evil eye’ is just as much a maxim to-day as it was in the time of Solomon, and Mr. Elworthy says (18, 107) in Naples, at the appearance of a person having this reputation, a cry of ‘Jettatore!’ is passed, and even in a crowded street it causes an instantaneous vanishing of everybody—a rush up entries, into shops, or elsewhere. Ever since the establishment of the religious orders, monks have had the special reputation of possessing the fatal influence. The last Pope but one, Pius the Ninth, was firmly believed to have had the evil eye. A Roman would candidly say: ‘Nothing succeeds with anybody or anything when he wishes well to it. When he went to St. Agnese to hold a great festival, down went the floor, and the people were all smashed together. Then he visited the column to the Madonna in the Piazza di Spagna, and blessed it and the workmen; of course, one fell from the scaffold the same day and killed himself’ (18, 23, 25).

Domestic animals always have been considered as peculiarly susceptible to this evil influence. Cows are particularly liable to fascination in Scotland, while in England of all animals the pig is most often ‘overlooked.’ The Turk and the Arab think the same of their horses and camels; above all the Neapolitan cabman of to-day believes in the great danger to his horse from the eye of the jettatore.

The commonest of all ancient Egyptian amulets, except the scarab, was ‘the Eye of Osiris,’ as it is called by us. These mystic eyes were worn equally by the living and the dead as amulets; it being natural, from the associations of homœopathic magic, that representations of the eye itself should have been considered potent amulets against its malign influence. All the peoples round the Mediterranean employed representations of eyes as amulets. In Syria and Cairo necklaces composed of flat glass eyes are sold to the present day, and eye-designs protect the clothes, horse trappings, and many of the objects of daily use of the Moors (72, 211).

Plutarch declares that the objects that are fixed up to ward off witchcraft or fascination derive their efficacy from the fact that they act through the strangeness and ridiculousness of their forms, which fix the mischief-working eye upon themselves.

It was this firm belief, says Elworthy (18, 143), which led to the design of those extremely grotesque figures, of which the ancient Romans were so fond; indeed, anything that was ridiculous or indecent was supposed to be a corrective to the harmful influence of fascination. Amulets which protect against this power are of three classes: (1) Those the object of which was to attract upon themselves the harmful glance (those were necessarily exposed to view); (2) charms worn or carried secretly; and (3) written words of Scripture, Koran, and other sacred writings, or cabalistic figures and formulæ (18, 149).

The crescent moon was a symbol of many deities, Parvati, Devaki, and other Indian goddesses, Isis, Athena or Minerva, Artemis or Diana and the Madonna. Artemis or Diana was the patroness of domestic animals as well as of the wild creatures of the wood (21, 14); hence we may trace the extreme prevalence of amulets symbolic of their attributes upon horses. The crescent—that is the horned moon—and horns appear to be interchangeable: thus horns, in one form or another, are of all objects the most common as amulets against the evil eye, whether affecting man or beast; so much so, that at last it has come to be fully believed by the Neapolitans, that in default of a horn, in coral or other form, the mere utterance of the word corno or corna (‘horn’) is an effectual protection. In Italy, particularly in Naples, the cart harness is literally made up of charms and prophylactics, such as feathers, hair, brightly coloured ribbons, and especially objects of shining brass; of the last the crescent is the most common.

It would take too long to describe all the objects that are employed to counteract the evil eye in Italy alone. The following may be mentioned: fish, snakes, and various other animals, tigers’ teeth, keys, a hunchback (gobbo). A single pendent horn, whether of coral, shell, or metal is extremely common, as are miniature hands, these frequently have all the digits closed up except the index and little finger, which are fully extended. This is a potent gesture, and a Neapolitan’s right hand is almost constantly in that position pointing downwards, just as the hand-charms are made to hang downwards, as a prophylactic against unknown or unsuspected attacks (18, 261). Dr. Westermarck has recently (72, 211) given an illuminating description of the use and representations of the hand against the evil eye in Morocco.

On studying various kinds of talismans and amulets, it at once becomes evident that while some are credited with contagious sympathy, others are mimetic or symbolic, that is homœopathic in their action, while there are many others that owe their efficacy to an intimate relation with a spiritual being of some kind or other, or with a deity. The charms of this third group are to be regarded as =fetishes= so long as the recognition lasts that they are dependent for their virtue upon these extraneous beings; but when this belief is lost the charm becomes a mere talisman or amulet. The change from a fetish to a =luck-object= is constantly taking place owing to the despiritualising effect of increasing civilisation. To take one example, Mr. E. Lovett first drew my attention to the ‘=luck bones=’ that are worn by Whitby, and probably by other Yorkshire, fishermen, and another friend subsequently confirmed the fact that these bones not only bring good fortune but are safeguards against drowning. The bone in question being the =T=-shaped hyoid- or tongue-bone of a sheep, Mr. Lovett suggested that this bone might have something to do with Thor’s hammer. Later Professor Boyd Dawkins showed me the identical bone worn for a similar purpose by Manx fishermen, and it is worthy of note that there were Scandinavian settlements at both Whitby and the Isle of Man. I informed Herr E. Friedel of these facts and inferences, and he discovered (22, 412) that the men in the Berlin slaughter-yards have a similar custom, the end of the long arm of the bone being perforated for a thread that is fastened round the neck of the wearer. On looking into the archæological evidence he found that in the early iron age unmistakable representations of Thor’s hammer were worn as charms in Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein. In those early days there can be little doubt that the influence of the god passed into the models of his weapon, and that these objects partook of the nature of fetishes, but later the symbols of the god degenerated into luck-objects.

IV. DIVINATION

Men not only attempt to act directly upon nature, but they usually exhibit a keen desire to be guided as to the best course to take when in doubt, difficulty, or danger, and to be forewarned of the future. The practice of =divination= is by no means confined to professional magicians, or even to soothsayers, but any one may employ the accessory means.

Any object may be used in divination: thus in Europe, as in Torres Straits (29, v. 361), a stick may be dropped to indicate a direction to be taken; or coins may be spun or dice thrown. Divination by means of skulls was common in Torres Straits (29, v. 362); in this case the spirit of the dead person was supposed to give the required advice. Haruspication, or divination by means of certain viscera, was largely employed by the Romans, and I have several times seen a pig’s liver used in Borneo for the same purpose (28, 336, 354). In these instances the message, as indicated by the state of the particular viscus, was obtained from a deity. Other examples and varieties of divination are given by Tylor (71, i. 123).

V. PUBLIC AND PRIVATE MAGIC

Magic may be employed for public purposes or for private ends. In the former case it is almost invariably for the public weal, in the latter it is most frequently nefarious.

A. Public Magic.

Among some totemic peoples the men of a totem group perform magical ceremonies for the benefit of the community. The best examples of this =communal magic=, as it might be termed, are those described by Messrs. Baldwin Spencer and Gillen (64, 179-183) as practised by the Arunta tribe of Central Australia at the =intichiuma= ceremonies. For example, the headman of a local group of the Emu totem and some other Emu men opened a vein and allowed their blood to stream on a patch of smooth ground, until about three yards were saturated. On the hard surface of the clotted blood the sacred design of the Emu totem was painted with white, yellow, red, and black. It represented certain parts of the emu; two large patches of yellow indicated lumps of fat, of which the natives are very fond, but the greater part represented, by means of circles and circular patches, the eggs in various states of development, some before and some after laying. Various sinuous lines indicated parts of the intestine. Throughout the ceremony the headman was treated with the greatest deference, and no one spoke to him except in a whisper. The sacred wooden slabs (churinga) were placed on one side of the painting. In the intervals of a monotonous chant the headman explained the drawing. Three men wore a headdress which represented the long neck and small head of the emu; with a curious gliding movement they approached the spectators, occasionally stopping and moving only their heads, imitating the aimless gazing about of the bird.

The witchetty grub intichiuma ceremony (64, 170-179) is performed at a special cave, where lies a large block of quartzite surrounded by small rounded stones. The former represents the perfect insect, and the latter its eggs. The headman and his associates tap the large stone and chant songs, the burden of which is an invitation to the insect to lay eggs; the headman strikes each man with one of the small stones, saying, ‘You have eaten much food.’ Later they go to a large rock which they tap, and invite the animal to come from all directions and lay eggs. After various symbolic ceremonies they enter a long narrow booth made of bushes, which represents the chrysalis case from which the perfect insect emerges, and there they sing of the animal in its various stages and of the sacred stones.

There are many similar ceremonies which the men of a totem group make in order to increase or produce their particular totem; thus, taking the tribe as a whole, the object of these ceremonies is that of increasing the total food supply (64, 315-319). Among the Arunta and Ilpirra only the men of the totem are allowed to be present or to take part in the actual ceremony. During its progress there is always some ceremony, such as that of allowing the blood of young men of the totem to flow over the stone which is associated with the ancestors of the totem. The idea of this is to send the spirits of the animals out of the stone to replenish the stock of the totemic animal. After the ceremony, when, as a consequence, the animal or plant has become abundant, the men of all classes and totems go out and bring supplies into the main camp. No one as yet may eat it. The headman of the totem, in the presence of all in camp, solemnly eats a little and hands the remainder over to the men of the other totems, telling them to eat freely. If the headman did not eat a little he would lose the power of performing intichiuma successfully.