"Quæstiuncula. Cur novis nuptis Mena appareat?

"Latet ibi mysterium magnum serpentis antiqui. Id quod et Romanis ignotum non fuit. Quia nova nupta super ingentem fascinum, id est membrum Priapi sedere jubebatur, qui erat in loco altiori, quem indicat Lucanus inquiens. Torvus stat, id est, stratum, pendulum, et erectum. In quod ascende batur gradibus ebore ornatis, hoc autem fiebat propterea, ut illarum pudicitiaim prior Deus delibasse videretur, docet ex Varrone Aurel. Augustinus lib. 6, Civit Dei, c. 9, et Lactantius, lib. I.

According to that strange book, the Delineatio Impotentiæ Conjugalis of John G. Simon, 1682, the serpent, if not conciliated and buried under thethreshold, prevented conception. Vide also De Natura Hermaphroditorum, of Caspar Bauhinus, 1614, containing interesting chapters on satyrs, fauns, &c. The tale of the Ælolian virgin and her serpent-love belongs to this series.

Last of all there was sent to me a very long paper stating that MENA or MERNA is a spirit who appears to brides in the Romagna Toscana in the formof a serpent. But only to those who know the proper invocation. Shouldthe serpent appear perpendicularly, at full length (i.e., Phallic), this means a long life, and happy ; if twisted up, it presages many sorrows, &c.; but if Mena comes as a woman, it forbodes unhappiness and discord. The incantation is as follows in such a case:–

Then if Mena appears as a serpent all is well ; but if not, the bride must sit for three nights under a juniper-tree by a running stream, and castinto it three juniper berries, make a fire of three twigs of birch (beto), throw the ashes into the brook, and repeat:–

Then the spirit will appear in the form of a fish, and bid the bride takeof the mud of the stream, mingle it with salt and oil, warm it, if possible, against the husband's body, make it into a box (or take a box) and put the mud into it shaped like fish, carry it into the church where the wedding took place.

If this name be Talena there is nothing in the description which connectsit with that of Talena, or Thalna, of the Etruscans, of whom Gerhard says, "Thalna, and Thalne, and perhaps also Talena … is on the Etruscan mirrors a goddess," of whom I may briefly say (to condense the mass of authorities whom he cites) has been believed to be a form of Venus,Juno, and Diana, none of whom is a nightmare. If it be Salenathere is no deity known to me with whom she corresponds.

The woman who sent me the information relative to these four spirits, adds in a postscript: "This is all which I have been able to learn from several people." I believe that the information was chiefly, if not all, derived from Volterra, but to what degree I could not verify.

Of this spirit I am very uncertain, and regarding him I know nothing. I find him entered among notes taken and neglected as "un piccolo spirito colla beretta," a goblin with a cap, probably a form of the Red Caps or House Goblins. He is, almost certainly, the ancient Picus, or red-headed wood pecker spirit.

Still later, while this work was being printed, I collected, or received in letters, accounts of, or tales relating to, a number of spirits, which, if fully translated, would have made perhaps sixty more pages, for which there is, of course, no space. These were briefly and in part as follows :–

Nurbia e la Pietra di Salute (cf. Nurbia, the spirit of disease, who is invoked while preparing the stone of health, or a pebble used to cure rheumatism, &c.).
Lamia, or the serpent-witch. A story and a long poem, now lost, Ifear
La Strega Zumia.
Il prete Stregone Arrimni ("The wizard-priest Arrimini").
La fata Julda. A tale. Including an account of the three spirits Trillo, Julio, and Burillo.
The Witch-spirits Gerda and Meta. With a tale.
The Baker Tozzi and his Daughter Fiorlinda. A tale.
La Penna Maligna. An indescribably revolting ceremony with incantation. From Volterra.
La Corda, or the Incantation of the Vintage (Roman Catholic).

To these I may add many poems or ballads all referring to witchcraft, andall, with one exception, as yet unpublished. These would fill about one hundred and fifty pages.

"So the youth married her, and she had a beautiful boy. But one night asthe mother held it there came the spirit Floria, who took the child and put it under the bed, and said to the husband:–

"And further that if he would slay the witch, she would ever protect him and the babe, and come every night to visit him.
"Then the youth seized the witch by the hair and bound her to the bed, and she howled and blasphemed horribly (from midnight) till three o'clock.Then her witch-power left her, and she be came as othet women, and said to her husband:–

"Then (the husband) gave her a blow with a hammer and slew her, so that she died. And from this time he always loved the spirit of Floria."

In this tale, which was collected and sent to me by Peppino, it is properly Floria who gives the blow with the hammer, and it is evident that Floria is the real mother of the child, and that the witch came after the marriage in the wife's form. Floria–Flora–was certainly equivalent with Horta, who in Etruscan times was one with Nortia–Fortuna–who drove the nails of Fate. I forget now whether it is in the work of Inghirami or that of Eduard Gerhard that she is twice depicted as holdinga hammer. Padre Secchi follows Müller (Etrusker, iii, 3, 7)in declaring that Horta, an Etruscan

goddess, equivalent to Salus, gave name to Orte, and that she is distinctfrom Nortia, or Fortuna, the great goddess of Volsinii. "A distinction between her and Fortuna is indicated by Tacitus" (vide Dennis Cities of Etruria, vol. i., p. 140 in note). But these very objections prove that Nortia of the hammer was regarded as one with Horta by many. And this legend of Peppino agrees curiously with it. Dennis suggests that Horta was a goddess of gardens, therefore a synonyme with Flora. Pomona was also a form of Flora, and in her legend, by a strange change, itis not the witch who takes a female form, but Vertumnus who appears to her as an old woman. Confused as all this seems, I believe this legend tobe ancient or classic. But it is very significant indeed that on Etruscan vases the hammer specially occurs as the implement of death in the hands of the equivalent of Nemesis, as in this tale. It is, in fact, the invariable symbol of death, and is in the hands of Charun and all the demons. Lanzi gives a beautiful female spirit holding it.

The crosses and garlands alluded to, refer to the "guirlanda delte strege," or Witches' Ladder, elsewhere described.

I am indebted to Mrs. Hayllar for the information that there is a spirit named Ra, who is much talked of in Volterra. I had not far to go for knowledge as to this folletto, for the first native of the town, a young shoemaker, who was questioned on the subject, at once narratedthe following:–

"Ra is a spirit who protects children. When they are in danger the parents apply to him, and li incanta, charm him with these words:–

"Then the child will awake free from pain or trouble, secured from all danger, especially from that of falling into the balze (precipices, subterranean pits or cavities) of San Giosto in Volterra.

"This spirit Ra was known in Volterra in the year 1001, for just in that year he protected a little child which had been enchanted to him, which fell from a height of several yards in the balze, but upon

a pile of broom-plant (ginestra). Then the peasants came running to save him, but he kept crying, 'Ra! Ra!' and when they had let him down a ladder, he would not climb it. And while they stood above there came astrange signore, who said: 'Ye cannot save him; I only can do it by supernatural power. I am the spirit Ra, and now ye shall see how I will effect it.'

"Saying this, he stamped thrice on the ground, when there rose a great mass of broom-plants growing, by means of which, as from branch to branch of a tree, they descended and brought up the child."

I am indebted to Professor Senator Comparetti for the suggestion that Ra may be Rhea Sylvia. The Etruscans made all their deities male and female. Rhea Cybele, the wife and sister of Cronos, and mother of Jupiter, was specially the patroness of ravines, cliffs, and rocks (Die Götter und Heroen. von Stoll). And it is as at home in ravines that Ra appears. Rhea was also a nursing goddess, or protector of children. The change of sex is of no consequence, for, as we have seen, Cupra and Siera have changed theirs, and this was even commoner of yore. In the story Ra raises a poor child from an abyss by means of the broom-plant, and it is a curious coincidence that Deus exaltat humiles (God exalteththe lowly) was always in the Middle Ages the motto accompanying the ginestra, both being worn by Louis the Pious of France in 1234 (Helyot. Description of knightly and monkish orders. German version, 1756).

"Come conosci tu Buovo? Mi sapresti dare notizia alcuna di esso?"–I Reali di Francia.

It is an extraordinary fact that one may ask a hundred peasants or other humble folk in Tuscany for mythical folk-lore and not find a trace thereof, and then meet with one who would seem to be the chronicler, or keeper of a museum of such curiosities. This is just the same among American Red Indians, and it was explained to me in Florence, as it had been in America, by the fact that in certain families only are such records preserved. Thus, while my very intelligent friend, Signora la Marchesa di T., could not by the most masterly and adroit cross-questioning elicit from her maid, who was of Volterra, the least indication of any knowledge of such things as sorcery or spirits, I, on the contrary, got from the young shoemaker of that ancient ville much that was marvellous, and, thereamong, the following relative to the spirit Bovo:–

"Volterra was not the first name of our city, for that was Antona, the second Voltona, and the third Volterra. In the time when it was called Antona there lived a prince called Bovo di Antona, who

was held by the people to he a stregone, or wizard; they also saidhe was immensely rich, because he had made a golden chariot with four horses of gold, and when in his last illness he reclined (si fece adagiare) in it, and there died after long suffering. And when dead, his spirit appeared and ordered that they should set in motion the grand carriage bearing his body, and going forth from Volterra unto a mountain called Chatini (Catini), which is in sight of the city, there bury him. This was done, and the people believe that the chariot and the body of the king still exist. For there have been many excavations in which they have found relics of ancient days recording the epoch of this Bovo di Antona, and in recent times they found, le sue carte, his records with pictures representing his age (raffiguranti i medesimi tempi), but they have not found as yet the great chariot.

"After this burial the spirit of Bovo returned at night to his palace, which he adorned with all possible magnificence, and illuminated brilliantly.¹ And all the multitude seeing this illumination and festival could not imagine what it meant, knowing that the prince Bovo was alone. Butone evening certain bold spirits among them, moved by curiosity, knockedat the gate, but there was no reply. After midnight they heard merry laughter, and then they knocked again, when the gate opened by magic, but inan instant all was dark, and the people entering found all things as they had been in the time of the late king's life.

"Then they knew not what had become of all that splendour which they had seen from the outside, and concluded it must be done by the spirit of Bovo. So it was decided that the boldest four among them should remain there the following night, which they did. And at midnight all the carpets and tapestries began to wave and move, and all the furniture changed into objects of great value. Then they decided to invoke the spirit of Bovo, which being done, he appqared, wrapped in a great white cloak, and when asked what he required" (i.e., what made him restless and haunt the palace), "replied:–

" 'Never having been loved by woman in all my life, I wish that this palace shall be inhabited by a beautiful girl, to whom I will appear as a beautiful youth. Should my subjects not succeed in finding such a bella donna, then I shall be confined in this palace, disturbing the peace of the citizens. But if it should be done, in recompense I will appear to him who brought it to pass. At midnight he may invoke the spirit of Bovo and I will ever aid to do him good.' "

This is evidently only the beginning of a legend. Buovo of Antona as a hero of popular romance is well known. There are poems on him, and Reinerhas written a monograph on the subject, showing that he was one of the champions of Christendom, and, in fact, our old friend Bevis of Southampton. But I suspect that in this particular case a local folletto with a similar name has borrowed the fame of the mediæval hero. For, having read the popular romance of Buovo di Antona, which forms the fourth part, or 142 pages, of the Reali di Francia (Florence, 1890), I find that there is not in it a single point of resemblance to the hero of this story, and that, far from having lived unloved, thechampion wooed and wedded the beautiful Drusiana, who died of grief for him forty days after his death. The only Antona recognised in the chronicle is very evidently the seaport of Southampton in England, founded by Bovetto and named after his queen, Librantona.

¹ The sequel indicates that this was only done temporarily, by magicillusion or glamour.

Attilio, Atiglio, Ottilio or Tilio–for I cannot quite determine his name–is a buon folletto–a merry devil, very much the same as Dusio, or a jolly Brownie in English folk-lore. But he is anawful tease, especially of servant-girls, to whom, however, he makes love and with whom he behaves quite like Dusio, sharing their couch, and in grateful return doing all the housework for them, and making them no end of presents. And it must be reluctantly admitted that despite his immoralcharacter Attuio is very popular with them.

GUISEPPE PITRÉ, who certainly cannot be accused of credulity remarks (Bib., vol. xviii., p.163), that if we listen to what people ofthe lower class relate, in all honesty, we must remain uncertain whetherthese men and women are a prey to continual visions or whether we ourselves are dreaming with our eyes wide open. For my own part, I firmly believe that in very credulous communities there are people, especially girls,who honestly believe that they see, and sometimes hear and touch, supernatural beings. There are powers latent in us of which we have no comprehension whatever, and one of these is that of creating sensations, that isof reproducing or forming from Memory any sensations, be they of touch or taste, which we have once experienced.

Unless this be true, I absolutely cannot explain many things which I met with among the believers in all these marvels. The strege, with all their tricks, believe in their own art, and carry fetishes. And that there are girls who have Attilios and Dusios, and people who catch glances of Faflon in the vineyards at sunset and in the wine cellar at midnight, cannot be denied. So all life is for them a fine-land fairyland, or a witch and devil dream, according to their disposition or freedom from dyspepsia.

The following is the history and mystery of ATTILIO, as it was narrated to me on the 1st of January, 1891, by a Maddalena from Rocca Casciano:–

"Attilio is a good goblin, but he does everything he can think of to worry servant-girls. There was once a very pretty one, but she had harsh andexacting padroni" (superiors–master or mistress). "Well, ithappened that every day for three days, when the poor girl had cooked the dinner, and gone to spread the table, she found on returning that all the food had been overturned and scattered about. The maid wept bitterly, but she did not know what to do. Was she scolded?–indeed shewas, till she was almost mad.

"But when the dinner was ruined on the third day in the same manner, the master and mistress were tutti arrabiati. Then they said that theywere tired of going out to the trattoria to dinner, and that she must do the best she could a rifare to dress up the remains. So she went into the kitchen, sorrowfully enough, and felt more sorrowful still when she looked over the wreck, and saw how little could be made of it. When all at once she heard the sweetest voice close by her sing these words:–

"And as she stood amazed and speechless, lo there stood before her the most beautiful young fellow she had ever seen in all her life. He was dressed in old style with long stockings, and velvet tunic, with long curlinggolden locks and a little velvet cap with a white feather, and the maid felt as if she could fall down and worship him, he was so elegant and stylish." And what he sang was in English:–

"To which the girl, quite enraptured, could only answer, 'Si–si–yes, indeed!' Then Attilio sang:–

"You may suppose that the girl was pleased. And he sang on:–

"When lo! at a touch the dinner was all right again, and when the girl served it the padroni said they had never enjoyed such a nice meal.And every day Attilio did most of the work and was always with her, and she could see him though he was invisible to every one else."

It is remarkable that while in all the Oriental and German or French mediæval tales it is a knight or favoured man who wins the love of a spirit, the Italian rather give the fairy lovers to girls. This is a very curious point in folk-lore.

The Dusio and Faun, and every one of the prototypes of Robin Goodfellow and Puck, and the House-Brownie are represented as frolicking sprites, always misleading girls. In the North, under chaster influences, these wanton sprites soon sobered down into very moral beings, not going beyond boyish mischief. But in Italy nothing has changed, and so they stillremain the same rogues among the girls which they were even while satyrshopped about in the woods, and lemures prowled near tombs and witches took out men's hearts–and people were all so happy!

Attilio is certainly here a lar familiaris, a spirit of the fireplace, a sprite who ever since the days of Tarquin and Tanquil has seduced the servant-maid in Tuscan families, even as he seduced Ocris, "she who waited on the table" of yore. He is in the kitchen and he cooks the dinner, and is altogether of the fireplace. Of his existence I have but a single authority or witness. He corresponds alto gether to the French Lutin.

(La Madre del Giorno, or Mother of the Day.)

"Nam et Romulus post mortem Quirinus factus est, et Leda Nemesis, et Circe Marica, et Ino, postquam se precipitavit in Mare, Lucothea, Mater que Matuta."–LACTANTIUS, Div. Institut. de falsa Religione,lib. i., cap. 21.

By far the most prominent character in the popular mythology of Tuscany, or of that which is not Catholic, is La bella Marta, also called Madre del Giorno, or the Mother of the Day. I was at first misled by the name into believing that it was Saint Martha confused, as are Saints Antony and Simeon, with old heathen deities. But I soon found that she had nothing in common with the Martha of the Bible, nor the one of Roman Catholic hagiology whose image conquering the Tarascon I copied in the cloister at Arles in 1846. I have, indeed, very little doubt that this beautiful Martha is a transformation of the ancient Mater Matuta, inwhich I am guided not so much by the resemblance of name as by the fact that she has as Beinahme, or attribute, that of del giorno, "of the day."

"There was," writes MÜLLER, "in the haven Pyrgoi, the great and richly endowed temple of a goddess who was generally called by the Greeks Leukothea. … It was doubtless the honoured Mater Matuta, worshipped since the time of Servius in Rome in the Volscican land and also in Etruria. The Greek and Roman antiquaries classed the two as one. However, in Rome this Mater Matuta was regarded much more as a goddess of the morning than as of the sea, for her name clearly means the Mother of the Day, and when the Greeks translated it to Leukothea, or white goddess, they may have thought more of early morning light than on the white foam of the sea. The mother of the light of day could readily be regardedas the deity which led man to daylight; for which reason, as it would appear, STRABO called her Eileithyia. Accord ing to this the goddess of Pyrgoi was one of the dawn, and of mankind."

The Bella Marta of Tuscany dwells in forests or fields, and, though a spirit of the day, is worshipped by night. This, however, is to be explained by the fact that all "spirits" are connected with the old religion, nowcalled witchcraft, and that its rites are conducted in secrecy and obscurity. Martha is favourable to lovers and conjugal love. The following incantation, which tells its own story, indicates clearly as can be the fact that the sylvan gods are still literally worshipped like saints, and are not merely evoked like goblins. A wife or girl who is jealous of her lover goes by night to the most beautiful garden to which she has access, and kneeling pronounces:–

In English:–

Title Page / Table of Contents / List of Illustrations / Introduction / Introduction Part 2 / Turn to Page / 18-30 / 31-43 / 44-60 / 61-75 / 76-90 / 91-104 / 105-118 / 119-131 / 132-144 / 145-154 / 155-166 / 167-176 / 177-187 / 188-197 / 198-207 / 208-217 / 218-227 / 228-237 / 238-247 / 251-262 / 263-274 / 275-284 / 285-295 / 296-307 / 308-317 / 318-328 / 329-338 / 339-350 / 351-361 / 362-376 / Index / Acor-Dion / Dion-Invo / Invo-Orph / Ovid-Tour / Tozz-Zumi / O:.B:.C:. Index / History / Essays & Articles / Spirit Visions / Research & Theories / The Ways & Teachings / Initiation O:.B:.C:. / The Elements / Traditional Ritual / Sacred Text / copyright 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 Gregory S. Van Etten This web site hosted by Acorn Products. All rights reserved