In the next incantation La bella Marta is distinctly invoked from hell. I do not think that she is at all popularly regarded as infernal or evil, but that this was done to distinctly distinguish her from the saints–a matter which is strictly observed among the sorcerers.And as the priests have always taught the people that all spiritsnot sanctioned by the Church are devils, it indicates great constancy tothe customs of their ancestors that the peasants continue to adore them even as infernal.

"For this you should go into a wood or forest at midnight and look at a star, and say:–

Or in English:–

This is considered as a very serious, terrible, and powerful incantation or imprecation. The looking steadily at a star connects Martha apparently with Mater Matuta or Leucothea, the goddess of light, and Marta of the Day, for this star I suppose is Venus or the Morning Star. There is a portion of this incantation which occurs in others. This is the invoking several fives of priests and devils to enter into the soul and lifeof the one banned. This, both as regards a category of numbers and calling on the spirits to enter into the life and soul and body of some one, corresponds precisely to what is found in Chaldaean spells.

A Paracelsian, or almost any writer of the sixteenth century, would have recognised in this regarding the star an invocation of the astral spirit,especially as it is mysteriously connected with ordering spirits to possess a certain person. I do not doubt that there are in it strange relics of ancient beliefs; one thing is certain, it is regarded as very powerful by the witches, who recite it with deep feeling. And it is remarkable how passionately this witch spirit manifests itself when seriously relating spells or even while writing them down.

Bella Marta appears in one narrative as one of the benevolent witches of Benevento, and also as a dryad.

"Once there was in Benevento a great tree–o sia una quercia–probably an oak, in which there was a cavity. The peasants passing byit often saw a very beautiful woman, who disappeared they knew not where.

"But there was one young man who, moved by curiosity, said: 'I will come here early, and I will follow the lady, and find out where she dwells.' So he went to the wood, and quietly waited till she appeared, and then went after her till she came to the great oak and entered it as if it were a door.

"And then he also stepped in after, and lo, he found himself in a great and splendid palace! One might have walked three days in it from room to room without entering a new one–camminando tre giorni, non si sarebbe mai finito di girare–and all of marvellous beauty.

"When all at once a small white hand was laid on his shoulder, and a softsweet voice was heard saying, 'Welcome!' And turning, he saw the beautiful lady of the forest whom he had followed, and she said: 'Be not afraid, I welcome thee, and will make thee happy, for thou art a good youth. And I am the Bella Marta. Go thou and play, and always win, and when thou wilt have anything, pronounce this spell:–

"Qualunque cosa mi chiederai–betta Marta tu l'avrai. So, whenever you see a great oak in the forest, and repeat to it this incantation, you will do well."

Here Marta is unquestionably a dryad, and the contadino is RHŒCUS. Rhœcus was a great player–it was because he was absorbed in a game of draughts that he beat the bee who told the nymph who blinded the boy who cut down the tree which fell on the youth who had such a passion for gambling.

This may be all guess-work and pot-shot hunting or point-blank firing, but here in Tuscany the spirit of the olden time is still alive, and I am writing in sight of olive-trees and crumbling towers of the Middle Ages, and these stories of Rhœcus and the fair Martha, and the mystic oak,seem, I will not say more credible, but more connected and intelligible than they would in the North.

In the year 1846, in Florence, an English gentleman who had passed most of his life in Italy, consulted me gravely and seriously as to what numbers of several which he had chosen would win in a lottery. This spirit of play and chance and of inspiration connected with it enters deeply here into all Italian life, as it did of yore. Therefore I am not astonished that it was the first thought of the beautiful nymph. She knew her man.

It is worth noting that in Sicily the Mother of Light is invoked when salt is spilt (PITRÉ, Bib., vol. iv., p.144)–

La bella Marta is invoked when three girls, always stark-naked, consult the taróco, or cards, to know whether a lover is trueor who shall be married. This is, indeed, connected with the two incantations already given. According to PITRÉ, Saint Martha is one of those who are sometimes consulted in sorcery. Thus Archbishop TORRES (Ricordi di Confessori &c.; PITRÉ, Bib., vol. iv,, p. 148) excommunicates "those who utter prayers which are not approved, oreven disapproved of by the Holy Church, to bring about lascivious and dishonest love, and such are the prayers falsely attributed to Saint Daniel, Saint Marta, Saint Helena, and the like." The Mater Matuta, or Mother of the Dawn–that is, Venus–may very well have been the patroness of lovers and the Donna del Giorno, but it is difficult to connect the Martha of the Bible or the Provencal conqueror of the Tarascon with any such aiding and abetting of amours (to say

nothing of card-playing or divination) as we find in this Queen of Beautyand Fortune-telling.

As regards the three girls meeting to divine who shall be married,I think it is DION CASSIUS who remarks as regards divination by means ofashes, "Vel cum aliquem tres personas cogitare jubet, quibuscum matrimonii inire optet, tum tres ducunt sulcos in cinere" ("When three meet to find out whom they are to marry, they draw three lines in the ashes"). Thisconfirms in the main the antiquity of the rite. The reader will find more as regards this in the chapter on Divination by Ashes.

It may be observed that in the last incantation Bella Marta is addressed as being "fairer than any saint." Here the Romagnola stregeria, or witchcraft, which is utterly heathen and always jealous of RomanCatholic influence, shows itself

The festivals of the Mater Matuta, which were widely spread in Italy, were called Matralia or Martralia, may give some clue to the modern name of Marta. But I repeat here that I at first attached no significanceto the resemblance of the word Martha or Marta to Mater, though there is absolutely no reason why it may not have been derived from the latter, just as "pattering," or talking slang has been conjectured to have come from pater in the paternoster. But I have since found that M. L. F. Alfred Maury, in Les Fées du Moyen Age, had the same idea as to a perfectly analogous conception. He writes:–

"Les epithetes données sans cesse aux fées, sont celles de bonnes, bonnes dames, bonnes et franches pucelles. Ces qualifications nesont évidemment que la traduction du titre de bonæ donné aux parques, plutôt sans doute par anti phrase que par reconnaissance, et de puellæ attribué aussi bien aux nymphes qu'aux fata. Le nom de Matte donné à une fée célèbre d'Eauze, pour laquelle on avait reproduit la fable du Minotaure, semble venir du mort mater abrégé."

On this name Fraser (The Etruscans) has the following

"Max Müller also speculates (Science of Languages, vol. ii., p. 152) on the derivation of mane and matutæ. He says: From this it would appear that in Latin the root man, which in the other Aryan languages is best known in the sense of thinking, was at avery early time put aside, like the Sanskrit budh, to express therevived consciousness of the whole of Nature at the approach of the light of the morning, unless there was another totally distinct root peculiarto Latin expression of that idea.' "

Was this root possibly mat? It is worth observing that Tertullian observes that the Etruscan Venus was called Murtia (vide Dennis, Cities of Et., vol. i., p.58). And as Bella Marta is called the most beautiful of the spirits, is asso-

ciated with cards, and is identified with the morning star, it seems probable that she is a form of Aphrodite or Venus.

"Horstù dimmi, o buona Strega, che vuoi dire che non andavi a questi balli e giuochi di Diana o di Herodiade, ovvero sì come le chiamate, a quelli de la Donna?"–La Strega di Pico della Mirandola.

"Hecate trium potestatum numen est. Ipsa est enim Luna, Diana Proserpina."–SERVIUS.

It is remarkable that while witchcraft was regarded in later times among Northern races as a creation of Satan, it never lost in Italy a classic character. In this country the witch is only a sorceress, and she is oftena beneficent fairy. Her ruler is not the devil, but DIANA, with whom, asI shall show, there is associated HERODIAS. The latter, as presiding at the dances of the witches, was naturally connected with the Herodias of the New Testament, but there was an older Herodias, a counterpart of Lilith, the first wife of Adam, by whom she became the mother of all the minordevils or goblins.

It is evident that in this capacity Herodias was confused with Diana. The latter had been as Hecate the ruler of all the witches, while Lilith-Herodias was the same among the Jews. There is a passage in Odericus Vitalis (born in England in 1075–Hist. Eccl. v.556) which illustrates this, that Diana was parent or protectress of goblins. It is as follows:–

"Deìnde Taurinus fanum Dianæ intravit. Zabulon que coram populo visibilem adstare coegit, quo viso ethnica plebs valde timuit. Nammanifeste apparuit eis æthiops niger et fuligo, barbam habens prolixam et scintillas igneas ex ore mittens. … Dæmon adhuc in eadem urbe degit et in variis frequenter formis apparens, neminem laedit. Hanc vulgus Gobelinum appellat."

("Then Taurinus entered the temple of Diana and compelled Zabulon to appear visibly before the people, who, being seen, was greatly dreaded by theheathen folk. For he plainly showed himself as a black, grimy Ethiopian, having a full beard and emitting sparks of fire from his mouth. The demon went forth often in the same town, appearing in many forms, yet injured no one. The common people called him Goblin, and declare that by the merits of Saint Taurinus he was withheld from doing harm.")

Here we have the Goblin as the familiar spirit of the temple of Diana, the witch-mother, just as the Jews declared that goblins were the children of Lilith-Herodias. How it was that the Shemitic myth came to unite withthe Græco-Roman is a matter for investigation. That it existed isproved by the testimony of several old writers.

In the Dæmonomagie of HORST (1818), a writer who was far beyond his time, I find the following:–

"In the indictments of witches it is generally stated that––, the party accused, acted with" (worshipped) "Diana and Herodias. It is very remarkable that we find this among the declarations of public Church council–that of Ancyra in the middle of the fifth century–just as in later witch-trials. It was asserted that certain women imagined that they flew by night through the air with Diana and Herodias. But as this was spoken of at the Council of Ancyra as a well-known thing, the belief must be much older, and I do not doubt that there exist much earlier historical records of this, which are unknown to me."

PAULUS GRILLANDUS, in his Treatise on Witches (1547), a great authority in its time, speaks several times to the same effect, that witches–putant Dianam et Herodiam esse veras deas–"think that Diana and Herodias are true goddesses, so deeply are they involved in the error of the pagans." And he deduces all the evil of their ways from thisfalse and heathenish beginning–ex qua omnes alii errores et illusiones successive dependent cum credant illas Dianam et Herodiadem esse veras deas. In which he very inconsistently ignores the fact that he has elsewhere declared Satan to be sole master of the entire sisterhood.

JEROME CARDANUS (De Subtilitate, 1. 19), in describing an altogether diabolical evocation by a sorcerer of his time (Quoties veneficus ille rem non divinam sed diabolicam facturus esset) says no word of the devil whatever, but represents Hecate, or Diana, as the leading spirit (Execratur illis precibus, Hecate dictante, primum adorandam, &c.). That Diana-Hecate was Queen of the witches in classic times is known from many authors; also that she was invoked in all chthonic, dark, or nocturnal sorcery. She was compared, as the goddess of the moon, to a cat which chases the star-mice. Herein she was like Bast of Bubastis, the cat-goddess of Egypt; and Freya, of the North, whose car is drawn by cats, is clearly a Norse Diana. What is remarkable, and to my purpose, is that while witches in Italy are supposed to do harm like Canidia of yore, they do it simply as sorceresses. The Catholic Church imposed on ihe popular belief in witchcraft much that was foreign to it, in Christian diabolism, and yet it is most remarkable that even to-day Diana, and not Satan, is the leader and ruler of Italian witches.

And there are many points in this popular belief which are much more ancient than Christianity. Thus in Venice, as in Florence, witchcraft is not at all a result of a compact with the devil, but a peculiar endowment, which may be transferred, even by a trick, to an innocent person. I will illustrate this with a story which I heard told in good faith in 1886 as having happened in Florence, and which has already appeared in my book on Gypsy Sorcery:–

"There was a girl here in the city who became a witch against her will. And how? She was ill in a hospital, and by her in a bed was una vecchiaammalata gravamente, e non poteva morire–an old woman seriouslyill, yet who could not die. And the old woman groaned and cried continually, 'Oimé! muoio!

A chi lasció? Non diceva che' ('Alas, I die! To whom shallI leave––') But she did not say what. Then the poor girl, thinking, of course, shd meant property, said: 'Lasciate à me–son tanto povera!' ('Leave it to me–I am so poor'). At once the old woman died, and la povera giovana se é trovato in eredita della streghoneria (the poor girl found she had inherited witchcraft).

"Now the girl went home to where she lived with her mother and brother. And having become a witch, she began to go out often by night; which the mother observing, said to her son: 'Qualche volta tu troverai tua sorella colla pancia grassa' ('Some day you will find your sister with child'). 'Don't think such a thing, mamma,' he replied. 'However, I will find out where it is she goes.'

"So he watched, and one night he saw his sister go out of the door sullo punto della mezza-notte (just at midnight). Then he caught her bythe hair and twisted it round his arm. She began to scream terribly, when–ecco !–there came running a great number of cats (e cominciarono à miolare, e fare un gran chiasso) they began to mew and make a great row, and for an hour the sister struggled to escape, but in vain, for her hair was fast, and screamed, while the cats screeched, till it struck one, when the cats vanished, and the sorella was insensible. But from that time she had no witchcraft in her and became a buona donna, or a good girl–come era prima–as she had been before."

There is nothing of a compact with Satan in this–it is a witch of Diana, bound to the spell of the moon, one of the cats of the night. In the Venetian stories a witch loses all her power if she is wounded and spills a drop of blood, or even if detected. It is true enough that the monks imported and forced into popular Italian superstition strong infusions of the devil. Yet with all this, in the main, the real Italian witch has nothing to do with Satan or a Christian hell, and remains as of yore a daughter of Diana. There is something almost reviving or refreshing in the thought that there is one place in the world–and that in papal Italy itself–where the poison of diabolism did not utterly prevail.

There are in the treatise on the Magic Walnut Tree of Benevento, by P. Pipernus (Naples, 1647), several passages in reference to Diana as Queen ofthe Witches, one of which is curious as it seems in a manner to identifyLamia with Lilith and Diana. It is to the effect that the witches who of yore seduced youths to their death, were the same with Lamia–a Lilith hebraeo, whence the Empusæ, Marmoliciæ or Lares and Lemures, appearing on one foot in various figures dedicated to Diana–in variis figuris Dianæ dedicatis. But Elias Schedius (see Dis Germanis, Amsterdam, 1648), has with great industry brought together from many sources, Hebrew and others, strong proof that Diana was identical with Lilith, the two being identified in the Roman Lucina:–

Luna meaning here, Diana.

Another singular remark is to the effect that there were as communities of

witches in ancient times the Eriphiæ, from Eriphia, the Michaleiæ, from Michala, Hecateiæ, Medeæ Circeæ, Thessalæ, in Sicilia Cyclopas Lestrygonas and Herodiades–"communiori vocabulo in aliquibus regionibus nuncupantur ex Idumæa Herodiade prope Jordani flumen habitante, choreis, ludisque venereis effuse fruente quæ multos et multas ad suum convictum trahebat, Dianæ ludorum memorans." In another passage, Pipernus conjectures that there was aHerodias earlier than the one who was the cause of the death of Saint John.

In the Slavonian spells and charms, which are generally very ancient, andof Oriental origin, Lilith appears the same as Herodias. She has twelvedaughters who are the twelve kinds of fever. This arrangement of diseases, or evil spirits, into categories of sevens, twelves, &c., is found in the Chaldæan magic as given by Lenormant. All things duly considered, I agree with Pipernus that there was a Herodias long before the lady of the New Testament who danced Herod off his head and the head off Saint John.

In regard to which transaction I marvel that I have never yet seen it treated by any writer from a modern society-Christian practical point of view. Suppose a lady, an intelligent, accomplished widow, who had a good thing of it as wife of the governor-general of–say Cathay. The governor dies and his brother succeeds to the appointment, and marries the widow(a thing actually commanded in the Old Testament, and a common custom inthe later time), or it may be the fraternal divorced wife. Uprises a clergyman of a new sect, with eccentric new views, who has tremendous influence among the people, and informs the governor that his marriage is illegal. And then fancy the feelings of Herodias! On one hand, divorce–perhaps death or poverty–with a charming daughter just coming out;on the other, a prophet of the wildest description. And it was considered to be such a remarkably natural, trifling, and commonplace thing in those days to put anybody to death who was in your way, if you had the power to do it–just as CALVIN did with SERVETUS when the latter got in his way, or as some millions of heretics were disposed of–somefor their money–by Mother Church. And so Herodias did what I believe a very great majority of worldly-minded High or Low Church Christian matrons and mammas would do to-day under the same circumstances–if they could–and put Saint John out of the way.

What I most wonder at in this story is, who was this Herodias–what was her blood, what were her "havings," or belongings? There is nothing whatever, after all, in this story of commonplace revenge to accountfor her being taken up and made to occupy the position of joint-queen with Diana of an immensely widelyspread confederacy of sorcerers and witches. Above all, how came it that her daughter, presumably a Roman or Jewishyoung lady, who had been respectably

brought up, danced a gypsy can-can pas seul before Herod and his court? The mediæval writers have it that she "tombelede," or tumbled, i.e., threw flip-flaps, and "made the wheel" (as POCAHONTAS usedto do for the common soldiers in Virginia–as I have read), but then they knew nothing about it. Or was she perhaps really one of those Syrian-Hindoo-with-a-touch-of-Persian dancers–actually gypsies–who in those days strayed about to every corner of the Roman empire?

There were mixed marriages in those days, even as there are now, and there lives at present in England a lady with a very great title, who was once a dancing Hungarian gypsy. One of these ballerine might have wedded Herod's brother. Assuredly the dance which Miss Herodias executed wasnot the holy Chagag which David danced before the Lord (2 Sam. vi.), the sight of which had, however, such an effect on the king's daughter Michal. And yet even the holy Chagag was considered a vulgar performance–Princess MICHAL called it shameless–from which we mayinfer what kind of a wasp or busy-bee performance the aftersupper tipsy-chorean bayadere posing of Mademoiselle Erodiade must have been! No, it was not the Chagag which Rabbi DAVID KIMICHI says wasdanced to the singing of the forty-seventh Psalm, but a very different kind of a gag indeed, and in faster time.

But admitting that there was–'tis a mere conjecture, my cousin–a strain of Syrian-gipsy–witch and devil-blood in these Herodiades–I can well understand how the whole sisterhood of fortune-tellers andsorceresses took up the story, and made the most of it–how one of their kind had bewitched a tetrarch, and played Lola Montez queen in a kind of Hamlet drama.

The dance was in ancient days something so wild and passionate, so bewildering and maddening, that we of the present day can form no conception ofits real nature. I can remember when TAGLIONI, and ELLSLER, and CARLOTTAGRISI, and CERITO turned the heads of the world, as no dancer has ever done since. Before them others had maddened the multitude still more, so it went back in compound ratio till we come to the witch-times. Now, whether witches and wizards ever practised sorcery or not–whatever that was–one thing is certain, that bands of male and female sinners believing themselves to be inspired by the devil–and I doubt notbeing very much inclined to raise him in a general way–went forth by moonlight, armed with sundry brooms, divers pitchforks, certain goats, et cætera, did drink, dissipate, and dance all night.

Dance! I should think so! PRÆTORIUS says: "But the dances of the sorcerers make people mad and raging, so that the women lose the fruit of their bodies," Now it may be natural for certain females everywhere in every country

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