ETRUSCAN ROMAN REMAINS




LOSNA.     91

the spirit of collection, first established by GRIMM, nothing was preserved, much less sought for, which was not fit, I will not say for young ladies, but even for the nursery. In fact, fairy tales suggest nothing as yet, even to well-informed people, but innocent, sweet, pretty, and amusing Mährchen. But the old myths out of which these grew were nothing of the kind. However, it has come to pass that most collectors, influenced by fear of the Major-General Reader, quietly pass over this element which was, if not the great guiding influence in myths of what we maycall the tertiary formation (or polytheism as it was passing into pantheism), was at least almost the chief. And if we wish to investigate the witchcraft of the first period, or this of the time when men had begun to regard Fertility and Reproduction, and such reviving influences as Light and Wine and gaiety as causes of life, we must turn over a vast amount ofwhat is fearfully "shocking" to all who do not seek "abditis rerum causis"– into the hidden causes of things. For it was out of whatcould most terrify and revolt man that all primitive sorcery and much secondary Shamanism were formed, and if we would know Man's early history we must not, or cannot, avoid such study. Religious magic, at present, has dropped this portion of its first state, only retaining, or returning to, the early fear or infernal agency, or devils and hell, as the chief motive power in duty and incentive to worship. To fully understand all that now exists, and have a clear idea of what we really believe–which no living believer has–we must understand man in the past Till we do we shall not comprehend the present nor clear the way for the future.

"Losna, that is Louna," says PRELLER, "appears on an Etruscan mirror with the half-moon associated with Pollux, on another monument as Lala, i.e., Lara, [greek word], with the sun-god Aplu." It is just possible that some tradition of such association with the sun may have given rise to the Tuscan story which is probably a mere fragment. In any case it is remarkable that in it there is an allusion to the sun and moon as an incestuous brother and sister.

I call the attention of the reader specially to the picture representing LOSNA. It is from a mirror which has for a century been frequently engraved in works on Etruscan art. This is now in my possession, and lies on my paper as I write. According to Corssen (Sprache der Etrusker, vol. i., p.346), who refers to Gerhard's Etruscan Mirrors, iii., 165, Ritschl, Cavendoni, Schoene, Benndorff, Helbig, &c., as discussing it, it is from Praeneste, also that Lusna was the original name,and that Losna is a dialectical form peculiar to Praeneste.

This mirror had greatly interested me. I had purchased in London one book simply because it contained an engraving of it, and had made with great

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LOSNA.     93


care three or four drawings of it from different works, with all of whichI was dissatisfied, and when my publisher, Mr. Fisher Unwin, went over my illustrations with me here in Florence, March 5, 1892, I threw "Losna" out–very unwillingly. I state simply the truth when I say that of all the mirrors ever made, it was this one in particular which I most desired to see; and I remember that it was much on my mind. On the afternoon of the following day I went by chance, or led by my Socratic demon, into ashop for odds and ends, or "curiosities," and there in a glass case, andvery much out of place, found an andient Etruscan mirror–the very one which had been engraved, and which I so longed to see. I need not say that I purchased it at once. I should mention that the engravinghere given is absolutely correct, having been made on a tracing or rubbing from the mirror itself, which is in a state of perfect preservation.

These mirrors were believed among the Etruscans to possess magic power. It is the same with the Chinese of the present day who make similar ones, the reason being this: The Chinese mirror, like the ancient, is polished on one side and has a picture, or more commonly an inscription, on the other. If we let the sun shine on the mirror and reflect it on a smooth white surface, the picture on the other side is distinctly visible in the reflection. I have heard explanations of this which did not satisfy me. About the year 1856 a daguerrotypist in the United States having cut two lines in a cross on the face of a copper plate found that though the cross was not perceptible on the back, yet that when reflected in sun light it could be distinctly seen in the reflection. Hence I inferred that the pressure on the face hardened the metal throughout, which perfectly explains the phenomenon. I suppose that the Etruscan mirrors when new had the same quality. Of which invention there is no mention, not even by J. Baptista Porta in his many recipes for making marvellous "mirrors."The same may be made of glass by annealing the picture. That is,we take a pattern in hard glass, cast a bed of soft glass about it, and when cold grind off and polish the surface, which will seem uniform. Butthe reflection against the sun will show the light from the soft glass as duller than that from the hard.

All mirrors are, according to ancient and modern superstition, repulsive to witches, or evil spirits, and good against the evil eye and its like.Fascinators–like basilisks–had their own terrible glance turned against them if they saw themselves reflected, "Si on luy presente un miroir, par endardement reciproque, ces rayons retournent sur l'autheur d'iceux." As a lunar-solar goddess, I believe that Losna was peculiarly associated with the mirror as a magic object. Philostratus declares that if a mirror be held before a sleeping man during a hail or thunder-storm, the storm will cease.

94     ETRUSCAN ROMAN REMAINS.

LARONDA.

Laronda in Tuscany is a very kind, benevolent spirit, who, strangely enough, is peculiar to, or who dwells in, caserme, or soldiers' barracks–"Sarebbe un spirito delle caserme dei militari. E molta buona."

She seems to be identified with the old Etruscan Larunda, or Lara, of whom Lactantius remarks: "Who can keep from laughter when he hears the silent goddess mentioned?¹ This is she whom they call Lara, or Larunda" (i., 20, 35). OVID speaks of her as the Dea muta, or silent goddess. But from a passage in PRELLER'S Mythology, I infer that she was specially known as good, since in reference to a prayer to her he remarks: "Here we plainly understand ein guter Geist–ein seliger"–a good or happy spirit.

But what is certainly very remarkable is that Larunda was especially the mother of the Lares compitales. "Compitum is a point whereseveral roads meet. At such a place the Romans erected large buildings with passages and rooms," literally corresponding to modern barracks. "Inthem all the people round about met to discuss business and hold festivals." Therefore the Lares compitalium were the guardian spirits ofsuch large public buildings, where great bodies of men lived, or met. And Larunda was literally then, as Larunda is now, the chief spirit of what corresponds most accurately to the modern caserme which is now the only building in Italy which is quite like the ancient compitum. All of which PRELLER illustrates with much learning, and of all this I knew nothing when I first ascertained what I have written of the modern Tuscan spirit. And when we read that these ancient buildings were the resort of boxers, actors, gladiators, and of political clubs, we may well infer that soldiers also occupied them.

In the course of time stories grow up or are attached to names with whichthey have very little real connection. Such a legend relating to Laronda is the following:–

"Laronda is the folleto of the casernes. Once she was a donna named Rosa who, during her life, was devoted to soldiers. After a while the officers noticed it and forbade her frequenting the barracks, at which she was so much grieved that she fell ill, and was long confined toher bed. Then the soldiers themselves missed her sadly, and so arrangedit that she could come secretly among them ; so for a time all went well.

"Among these soldiers was one who had a sweetheart who was a zingara or gypsy, as well as witch. Now the witch discovered that Rosa visitedthe caserme, and that all the soldiers were devoted to her, and that less for her beauty than for her gaiety and goodness; and with this the gypsy was ill-pleased and said to Rosa:–




¹ "Quis, quum audiat deam Mutam tenere risum queat? Hanc esse dicunt, ex qua sint nati Lares, et ipsam Laram nominant, vel Larundam." Which is what an ancient heathen might have said at seeing a Spanish Virgin Maryin an old French bonnet, or even some of her similitudes here, in Italy,which are ten times sillier and more laughter-moving than the rudest works of Roman times.

LEMURI.     95

" 'Rosa, oh, Rosa, oh, fair Rosa! it is true that I am not so beautiful as thou art, for I am a gypsy. And thou art esteemed by all the soldiers and my own lover loves thee, so I beg thee not to frequent the barracks any more!

" 'Per cio ti voglio pregare
Nelle caserme di non più andare !'

"Then Rosa replied frankly but resolutely, that she would yield nothing whatever to please her foolish jealousy, at which the other, in a rage, said: 'May my curse fall like lead upon thy head, nor wilt thou live long–but one year do I give thee.

  " 'E fin anno che tu camperai,
Tu non avrai che pene e guai.

" 'A year thou'lt live in pain and grief,
Ere death will come to bring relief.
 

" 'And since thou lovest soldiers so well, thou shalt have no rest after death, but shalt become il folletto della ronda (the spirit of thepatrol, or night-guard), and LA RONDA thou shalt be.'

"As she threatened so it all came to pass, and the soldiers grieved for her death. But while they were sorrowing they were suddenly amazed to seeat a window the apparition of a lady of great beauty clad in white, who said:–

"Io sono la bella Rosa, I am the beautiful Rosa–but now I am dead I have become the Folletto della Ronda of the soldiers, and when night flees from the world of the eternals I will come to seek you, and whenyou hear me call, then open the windows to La Ronda."


There will be many to whom this adaptation of a modern pun to a word willquite suffice to destroy all connection with the classic Larunda. In this way we might utterly invalidate all and any tradition whatever, just as VOLTAIRE declared that the petrified shells found on mountain-tops had probably been scallop shells dropped by pilgrims from the Holy Land. ButLaronda was from very ancient times the guardian spirit of the public building, while this story turns upon a mere resemblance of the word to a technical term with a very different meaning. I think it most probable that some ingenious but ignorant person, hearing of Laronda, adapted it to the word for patrol or "round."

I have since heard it asserted that Laronda may be, or is, the spirit of any large building frequented by many people, such as a hotel. This seems to be the old and generally entertained idea, while I have no guaranteewhatever that the story is not a mere modern fabrication founded on a jest.

If Larunda be modern because there is a modern story fitted to thename, then of course any myth may be punned or conjectured out of existence.

LEMURI.

On asking if such a word as Lemures was known, I was told that Lemuri sono i spiriti dei campo-santi–"Lemuri are the spirits of the churchyards." This








98     ETRUSCAN ROMAN REMAINS.

thawed out to some seeker. But whether Tago or Terieg'h really be Tages Ileave for others to settle. Davus sum non Œdipus. For, as Johannes Practorius says in his Anthropodemus Plutonicus, that "allthis story of Tages may be a mere fable wherewith the devil, after his fashion, hath deluded and betrayed man with a wonder, that he mightuse the many superstitions which had their beginning in Tages, his fortune-telling and sorcery."

FANIO.

  "Hæ loca capripedes, Satyros, nymphasque teneræ
Finitimi fingunt et FAUNOS esse loquntur,
Quorum noctivago strepitu."
LUCRETIUS, iv., 584.
 


To a person of humanity and tender feelings there is something very touching or indescribably pitiful in the manner in which the people in Europe clung to their old gods and resisted Christianity. For it is not true at all, as is generally misrepresented, that they gladly took to the mystical, abstract, Hebrew-Persian Roman Catholic religion of professed love, and priestly and feudal oppression which they did not understand. Nor did they find any attractions in its making a duty of obedienceto cruel feudal tyrants, of asceticism, fasting, and dread of the devil. It was all forced on them, and they long resisted it. Despite cruel persecution (as Horst and Michelet observe), the peasants persisted in their devotion to the poor old forbidden gods, and every few years, so late as the fifteenth century, councils thundered at, colleges condemned, and priests burned people for heathen sacrifices. And they were not a few who thus clung to the ancient faith. They were all over Europe, and, as I have shown, there are some still left in the Toscana Romagna.

This old religion of nature was congenial to the people because they understood and deeply felt it. They had, as I hope the reader has, an impression that there is a spirit in the pathless woods, deep song in silent shade, life in the long- forgotten land of early days–homes of visionsin the old grey rocks with possible portals through which elves or theirown elfin thoughts may pass. They know the Voice of the Waterfall, and what the stone said when it was thrown at twilight into the well or silentpool "under the stars," and why the laurel crackled when it burned, and what words it said–these were all spirits, and they had learned the spirit-language from their fathers. There was an indescribably delightful, companionable sense in believing that there was a jolly, mischievous, familiar goblin who lived in the fire, or haunted the fireplace, who teased the girls and bothered the boys, and was "so sociable." All of these were like themselves, and within their natural compre

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100     ETRUSCAN ROMAN REMAINS.

you may continue it later an you will–is one of mankind making believe that they believed in misery. And the proof of it, reader, is very plain, and it is simply this–that wherever and whenever Christianity has any "superstitions" or elements quite in common with the old heathenism, there people are most truly religious. "Man is properly the only object which interests man ;" he feels and lives in Humanity and Nature, and never truly cares for what is remote from or is forced into these.

You and I, reader, feel the true spirit of old heathen religion when we walk in the forest and skirt the line of "thus far–and then no more–the language of the sounding sea to the sands upon the shore," or aresitting by the fire in silent night. We do not make it into goblins, butour own thoughts and memories become to us quite the same as spirits, for we feel or see how we can give them life or expressed thought in act orwords. Make this literal–not a mere figure of speech–and then, friend, you will be as happy as a heathen suckled in a creed outworn–yea, quite as well off–which was all that Wordsworth wished for, and was not unlike the desire of François Villon, who yearned for the ladies of the olden time.

It is a great pity, but pity 'tis 'tis true, that owing chiefly to the affected sentimental, or false influences of mediæval religionand its resultant "art," we do not really know what we ought to admire or "feel beautiful" over, or enthuse about, till somebody has told us how. Then we go and "do it." We do it by going to see all the placesprescribed by the hotel directions, "there and back, twenty-five francs for a party of four," and duly admiring them, and pass by without note a hundred spots even more beautiful. And verily such a doing thereof as I behold here among tourists in Italy to see what it is "the thing" to see (i.e., everything, according to Ruskin, Bædeker, and Co.), might draw tears from a millstone. A child or a peasant is better off–it or he takes Nature as it comes–naturally. The tourist who goes by precept may think that he can feel nature as a child, but he does not. You cannot serve God and Mammon together.

This old spirit of unaffected feeling of nature without "culture" is deeply impressed in all this Tuscan-Etruscan folk-lore, and I would that my heart could utter the thoughts which it often inspires. It was all summedup for the ancients in the single word Faunus. Faunus and the Fauni were the incarnation of forests, streams and fields, fairy-life and flowers. Therefore I was glad to find that this deity, who is only anotherform of Pan, still lives in the Romagnola, as is set forth in the following passages.

"FÁNIO is a wizard who comes in the form of a spirit." This appears to be the Euhemeristic conception of all the spirits in this yery primitive Tuscan

FÁNIO.     101

mythology. First a wizard, or a man of power on earth, who is rememberedafter death, and then is supposed to still haunt the scenes of his former life. What Fánio does was narrated as follows:–

"Fánio frightens peasants in the woods. He appears as a man leaping up with his hands wide open, thrown forward, or looks like a devil, scattering fire, and then laughs at the fear which he has caused. And whenthere is a wedding he often anticipates the bridegroom in his kisses, and when the husband comes and would embrace his wife he feels invisible blows and cuffs, which put him in a rage, when Fánio bursts out laughing, and says:–

  " 'Vuoi sapere chi sono?
Sono lo spirito Fánio,
Che cio che m'e piacuto in vita,
Mi piace al altro mondo;
Mi dovresti ringraziare,
Che ti ho risparmiato tanta fatica!'

(" 'Who I am ?–if you would know,
I'm the spirit Fánio!
What in life once gave me bliss,
Pleases me as much in this;
And I think that thanks are due
Unto me for helping you !')
 


"Then if the husband is vexed at this, and if his wife is angry and curses the goblin, he only torments her the more and returns as a nightmare todisturb her sleep."

It is not difficult to recognise in this Fánio the Faunus of the Latins. All of the characteristics attributed to him in the account agree accurately with what PRELLER relates:–

In some phases of popular belief Faunus appears as nearly allied to Silvanus, as a spirit of the forest, who lurks in deep shadows, in hidden caverns, or by rustling waterfalls, where he predicts fortunes or catches birds and chases the nymphs … The fauns as a class were much given to teasing and tormenting mortals in their sleep, so that they sometimes appear altogether as annoying imps–like the nightmare to us–againstwhich attacks people used all kinds of roots and quackeries, especially the root of the forest-peony (Waldpäonie), which had to be dug by men by night, else the great wood-pecker would peck out their eyes.But, above all, the women had to be on their guard against the fauns andSilvani, for these lecherous wood-goblins readily slipped into their beds, whence the popular name of Incubus for them." From their lechery they were called Faunificarii. 'Vel Incubones, vel Satyros, vel sylvestres quosdam homines quos nonulli Faunos picarios vocant' " (Hieran. in Isai, v.13, p.21).

These fauns and silvani of Tuscan belief are very much allied to the mischievous household goblins. They all make naughty love to women, and act as incubi, or nightmares, and cause wild dreams. Quite the same spirits were known of old in Assyria. Lenormant says (Magie Chaldaienne):–
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QUERCIOLA.     103

It may be remarked that nearly all the spirits which occur in this peasant mythology are of the nature of the fauns. Also that while the Romagnolacontadino has retained old Etruscan names of gods, and those of the minor sylvan and rural deities, such as Sylvanio, Fano, and Paló, he has not the great Latin gods. Bacchus is commonly enough sworn by,but I could gather no information regarding him, save that he was "the god of wine, and therefore must be the same as Faflon." The best treatiseswhich I have met on the Fauns, Satyrs, Silvani, Incubi, &c., form chapters in that strange work by C Bauhinus, 1667, entitled De Hermaphroditis, &c.

The peony was, on account of its red colour, regarded as great protectionagainst the fauns as nightmares. PRÆTORIUS (Anthropodemus Plutonicus; Von Alpmännrigen, 1666) mentions that people, to keep away the Incubus, wear round their necks, or hanging from them, "flints, corals, or peony roots."

It is worth observing that the ceppo sacro, a holy log of wood which is burned on Christmas Eve–the yule-log of the North–is taken with due observance and incantation to the fauns or other spirits of the forest For, despite his immoral and mischievous conduct, FÁnio is a general favourite, as was Faunus of old, for many reasons not too far to find, but not worth specifying.

In a work on Faunus, Del Dio Fanno, e de suoi segnaci di Odoard Gerhard (Eduard Gerhard, Naples, 1825), the author declares that whatever deity he may have been, mixed and mingled as he was with others, is not difficult to determine. The truth is that all these minor spirits of forests and fields, firesides and bedrooms, were naturally familiar and mischievous creatures, as much alike as romping schoolboys, therefore all nightmares; teasers of girls, therefore seducers, and consequently wanton and gay. They were in reality more distinguished by names than by natures.

QUERCIOLA.

This word refers to an herb or small plant which, as in the case of rue, rosalaccio, and others, is by mysterious association also a fairy. Querciuola is properly, in Italian, a small oak-tree, but, as inmany other instances, it has been transferred from one plant to another in Romagnolo. What I learned of it (given to me with specimens of the plant), is as follows:–

"When one has quarrelled with a lover, one should go and sit beside the plant called Querciola, wherever it is growing, because the fairy of that name is a great friend to lovers. So when one is distant, or separated, be it as to the heart or place, the other sits by the herb and sings:–

104     ETRUSCAN ROMAN REMAINS

  " 'Fata Querciola!
Sei tanto bella quanto buona
A ti mi vengo raccomandare,
Che il mio bene
A mi tu faccia ritornare.

Fata Querciola!
Ai fatto tanto bene
A tante persone
Anch' jo voglio sperare
Che di me non ti di me
Vorrai dimenticare.

Fata Querciola!
Sei tanto bella e altra tanto buona
Ti chiedo una grazia sola
E spero non me la vorra negare,
E lo mio amore
Mi farai ritornare.

Fata Querciola!
Sofrirei tante pene ;
Se da me non tornasse il mio bene,
Ma da me le conviene si ritornare,
Perche la fata me l'ha promesso,
Di farlo ritornare sotto al mio tetto.

(" 'Fairy Querciola!
Thou art good as fair ;
Let me hope and not in vain,
That thou wilt send happiness
Unto me again!

Fairy Querciola!
Thou hast blest so many,
Send a blessing unto me,
Let me hope that I, though humble,
May not forgotten be!

Fairy Querciola !
Fair as thou art good ;
One favour I implore,
Which I hope thou'lt not deny:
Make him who was my lover
Return to me once more.

Fairy Querciola!
I shall suffer sore
Unless my love as lover
Comes back as once before.
But, fairy, thou hast promised me,
And what thou sayst will surely be,
He'll seek my roof once more.' ")
 






Title Page / Table of Contents / List of Illustrations /

Introduction / Introduction Part 2 /

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Moon Magic
O:.B:.C:. Index / History / Essays & Articles / Spirit Visions / Research & Theories / The Ways & Teachings / Initiation O:.B:.C:. / The Elements / Traditional Ritual / Sacred Text /

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