to dance naked and mad–even among those in the first court circles–but I must declare that the traditions of antiquity all point to a certain Syrian-Indo-Persian origin for all this. MOSES MAIMOND tells us that when the sun rose the daughters of the ancient Persians danced naked, singing to music. DELANCRE, writing of witches, observed that witches didthe same as Persian girls at sacrifices in this respect. Now to this day the dancing women of India and Persia are of common stock and origin. Tradition says that a certain king of India once sent ten thousand dancersand musicians as a present to the king of Persia, and that they all turned out to be irreclaimable vagabonds. And all of these dancers in all times formed a close corporation. It was only professionals who danced. So that, taking everything into consideration, I think it possible, if not probable, that Herodias, mother and daughter, belonged to the very ancientif not honourable company of witches and gypsies, and that their name, while coinciding with that of Herod, had been attached in earlier times toa form of Lilith. And it is not impossible that the chance coincidence of this name of Herodias with that of the earlier witch-queen, had as much to do with raising the Idumean damsel to celebrity among the witches asher share in the decapitation of Saint John. For, justly considered, this latter gives us no reason at all why she should have been preferred tosuch position, while her bearing such a name would account for it all.

There are many people in Italy, and I have met such, who, while knowing nothing about Diana as a Roman goddess, are quite familiar with her as Queen of the Witches. One day I had brought to me as an invaluable secret of witch-lore something which had been treasured up by the sisterhood for a long time. What was my astonishment to find that it was an old chemical trick, which, discovered by some disciple of Paracelsus or Scheele, became common in books of "natural magic" in the last century, and was familiar to me in my tenth year in the Boy's Own Book. This is simply acomposition of nitrate of silver and mercury, or silver and mercury in aqua-fortis, which, when put into a flask, causes an incrustation like foliage, whence it is called the Tree of Diana. That name was enough for myinnocent witches who, not doubting that it was a deep work of dark magic, had treasured it up accordingly, perhaps for generations, and gave it to me with the superscription: Albero di Diana–ta Mga (magia) delle Streghe (The Tree of Diana, the magic mistress of the Witches).

On one occasion I was given as a great find in the way of sorcery and witch-craft, some poetry which I soon found consisted of about one hundred and fifty lines from Ariosto. Truly it was full of supernatural diabolical description, but it was not exactly what I wanted. At which my friend who had written it out was very much astonished, declaring that as it wasall about supernatural things she

thought it must be all right. And–"Dove diavolo avete pigliato tuttoquesto coglionerie?" I asked in the words of Cardinal d'Este–"Wheredidst thou rake out this trash?" "Ma Signore, I got it from an old woman who had kept it for a long time as streghoneria," i.e., magic.

As regards Diana, it may be observed that in the Roman times she was specially worshipped by fugitive slaves, "perhaps because they hid themselvesin the forests. Thus it may be that the witches and wizards as outcasts inherited a certain predilection for her. As goddess of secrecy and of sorcery she would also be the patroness of those who shunned the day and intercourse with mankind. Witches, outlaws, broken men, runaway slaves, minions of the moon, and all the Children of the Night were under her protection, and it is pleasant to think that in ages when there was such enormous oppression of the unfortunate, that the victims had, if not a God, atleast a goddess to whom they could pray.

As the same spirits of rock and river, fountain, cavern, and forest, are believed in and invoked as in the earliest Tuscan time, so the same offerings continue to be made to them as of yore. And when asking for information on the subject, I promptly received several explanations or illustrations of what the auditors understood by votive gifts. It must be understood that these differ entirely in spirit and in form from anything whichis given to saints.

"Yes. For instance, if a contadino passes by a grove or a rock where folletti or fairies or spirits live, he will there put into the ground money or pins to please them, and say:–

"Or it may be that he passes by a fountain or a stream, when he will throw his gift into it and repeat the same words, adapted to it."

But I was further informed on the subject in these words:–

"Offerings to spirits or folletti? Si. When a spirit comes by night into a house and causes much annoyance as a nightmare, sitting on people's breasts, and stifling them, when, if they show fear, the folletto will tear all the covering from them, pull them out of bed, and depart with a roar of laughter.

"To prevent this, make him an offering. What he likes best is three sunflowers, laid outside on the window-sill. Then say:–

"And when this is done and said, the spirit will cease from troubling–non potra più darle noia–and the weary will be at rest."

The next illustration is very curious:–

"Sometimes goblins and witches meet in groves or gardens, and should any one care to know who or what they are, let him watch from a window at midnight. And he will see forms assembling under the trees, with one who is capo, or their head, who gives orders. If they appear in human forms they are spirits who pass freely as they will, and therefore remain as they are. But if they are witches and wizards, they come in the shapesof goats, kids, moles, or other animals, because when they leave their homes they also leave their human forms asleep in their beds, even to their shirts, and so must assume the appearance of or become animals.

"Now, these witches do much harm by pulling up plants and breaking boughsto make beds for their love-making, and so the contadini or the owners of the gardens or groves, spread hay or leaves or herbs as an offering, and say while so doing:–

"And this is the power which they have, that if they assume the form of goats, they can take people who are not witches, be they gentle or simple,in their sleep, away to their witch-meetings, and so they choose the most beautiful youths and girls to make love with. Now, among the wizards and witches are even princes and princesses, who, to conceal their debauchery and dishonour, take the goat form and carry away partners for the dance, bearing them on their backs; and so they fly many miles in a few minutes, and go with them to distant cities or other places, where they feast, drink, dance, and make love. But when dawn approaches they carry thesepartners home again, and when they awake they think they have had pleasant dreams. But indeed their diversion was more real than they suppose.

"But if they look about they will always find in their room some money, be it copper or silver, for this witch-money must always be paid. And when they find it, or any pins or needles, they ought to cast them all into a running river or current, for thus they will be freed (revenged on potrebbe essere venadetta) from witchcraft."

The object of laying sunflowers on the window-sill, according to ancient symbolism, is to detect or find out the offender; that is to signify to him that he is found out or known. Thus, in accordance with this, ALBERTUS MAGNUS informs us that if any man has been robbed, if he will sleep with sunflowers under his pillow, he will dream who was the thief. For it is an emblem of the sun which shines on–that is, who sees and searches out–all things. And as an image of the day it frightens away spirits of darkness.

The third illustration, while it apparently flies wide of the mark, is extremely valuable in really explaining one reason at least why coins and pins are thrown into fountains. And it is of very great importance as casting quite a new light on the cause of the transformation of witches intoanimals. For in all the many works which I have read on witchcraft I donot remember to have seen it explained why witches assume the shapes of animals. According to this probably ancient theory, their bodies–asBAPTISTA PORTA and many more believed–remain asleep while the soul goes forth, or else the witch-ride is only dreamed. According to my Romagnola authority, the witch-soul, for want of a better shape, enters into some animal.

And yet further. In the works of PRÆTORIUS and others I have met with mention of people who had often gone on goats to the Sabbat and returned, yet who had never been wizards or witches. There is a story in several books of a man who said he was wicked enough to have done so several times in his youth, but who had discontinued the practice. I confess that this puzzled me much, and often till I heard this explanation of it. Those who took the goat-ride were not wizards, but the mere dupes or victims of the stregoni. Still, they had enjoyed the frolic, and were willing to have such dreams again. What the basis for it all was I do notknow, but incline to think that persons, while under the influence of opiates or narcotics, were taken to wild-dances, then dosed again and takenhome, as happened to the shoemaker described by Shakespeare.

In Italy women carry a scaldino, a receptacle exactly in the form of a basket, but made of glazed earthenware. It is filled with ashes andcharcoal, and is so common that there are as many of them in Italy as there are inhabitants–at least, in the north. And as they are very often put under the garments next to the body, it is not remarkable that the idea that the very agreeable warmth would be impregnating should have occurred. It was known in earliest times, and Spenser has told us in the "Faerie Queene" how a beautiful lady, falling asleep, was exposed to the rays of the sun, which, entering her person, caused her to bear a child.

The Tuscan, more poetical or more classically-minded than the Dutchman, believes that the hand-stove makes the donna incinta, or enceinte, but with a folletto or pretty airy fairy, the rule of whoselife is "light come, light go," since it is but a short time in the womb, and escapes, or is born unnoted at night, vanishing unnoted, like air.

When a girl or woman suspects that she has thus been made a madre,or mother, should she desire to see her offspring she repeats the following lines:–

So he cometh in a dream, or it may be in reality–who knows? Who knows anything of it all, or in what life they live who believe in these things? Something

must be seen or imagined, else how can these people maintain these fancies from age to age, from father to child, ever on. Or is all life a dream?

And yet how they can do it appears intelligible on reflection. When a man is not entirely absorbed by the life of cities, in factories, counting-houses, or "society," and when he is at home "in woodlands wild where the sweet birdes singe," then nature, or his instinct for companionship, makes him feel as if there were souls in trees, a spirit dwelling in the hearth, under the threshold, even in the scaldino of glowing coals. The polypanthiestic stage, when man was passing from the phase of making gods of every object, to that of feeling one spirit in all, must have been coeval with a somewhat greater development of social life, yet when out-of-doors, rural or wild life or nature stillexerted a deep influence. In such a life we gladly surround ourselves with strange companions, and believe that nature, which is so wonderful and apparently inspired with life and thought as a whole, also exists in separate beings. Men do not reason this out in these words, but Red Indians or Tuscan peasants feel it and act in its spirit.

While this spirit of nature still existed, SHAKESPEARE wrote under its inspiration, and artists painted, and all art came from it. And since it died out, what we call poetry and art are imitations of what they really did who lived in it.

What is most curious as regards this having a child begotten by fire in such a familiar domestic manner is that the very oldest story of the kind in existence is Etruscan. The tale is told by DIONYS, OVID, and PLUTARCH, and runs thus:–

"Tarquinius and his wife, the wise Tanaquil, were seated at their meal, while Ocris, the captive daughter of the king of Corniculum, waited on them. As she went to the fire to throw into it the usual offering to the Lar familiaris there came out of the flames a fascinum (phallus). Alarmed at this she told it to Tanaquil, who bade her dress herself in bridal array and sit on the hearth. She did so, and conceived from the heat, and bore a son, Servius Tullius. And it was said that when he once slept his hair appeared to be like flames."

This is effectively in another form the story of the child begotten by the Scaldino. The reader will observe that Dusio, Cupra, Attilio or the lar familiaris who is the spirit of the fireplace, in these Tuscan tales, always seduces a maid servant And this suggests a remark which the reader would do well to bear in mind. It is that, taking them alltogether, one with another–modern popular Tuscan tales, spells, incantations, and observances or descriptions of spirits–and comparing them with what is given by Latin writers, we find the ancient continuallyconfirming the extreme antiquity of the modern. Be it a tract here, a small observance there, now an herb in an incantation, and anon a couplet in a charm, they continually interlace, cross, touch, and coincide. I find these unobserved small identities continually manifesting themselves, and they form a chain of

intrinsic evidence which is as valuable to a truly critical scholar as any historical or directly traditional confirmation. That fire was a creature, or a living existence (as is still recognised by the Church of England) was believed in by all religions of all ages, as is illustrated by Schedius and Friedrich with a vast array of authorities. That it should as a spirit be capable of begetting spiritual children was a natural sequence. I think therefore that, all things duly considered, we have in the belief in the Scaldino a probably well-established continuation of the old Etruscan tale of the goblin of the fire and the fair queen's daughter, fallen to a servant-maid.

It is worth remarking that in the Tomba Golini at Orvieto, as in Pompeii,a fascinum, or phallus, was depicted over the oven or fireplace, probably to signify the spirit of the fireside.

I was astonished to find that the name Artemisia is known only as that ofa strega–here a vampire–who sucks the blood of the dead in their graves. This indicates some connection with Diana as a witch of the evil kind. The name was promptly recognised, but I could learn nothing more regarding her. PRELLER identifies Diana Artemis with Hecate. As to which as with all others, I leave it to the more learned to investigate, examine, prove or disprove to their heart's content, I only professing to record, as in every case, what was told me.

"Here is an ancient description of the dress of the fairies : 'They wear a red conical cap ; a mantle of green cloth inlaid with wild flowers; green pantaloons, buttoned with bobs of silk, and silver shoon. They carry quivers of arrow-slough, and bows made of the ribs of a man buried where "three lairds" lands meet; their arrows are made of bog-reed tipped with white flints and dipped in the dew of hemlock; they ride on steeds whose hoofs would not "dash the dew from the cup of a harebell." ' " –Anonymous.

There are in the Romagna Tuscana a class of goblins or fairies who are almost identical with the Irish Leprachaun who possesses treasures which are yielded only under compulsion. I could not learn that the Italian elf has any other name than Il Folletto colla Beretta–the imp with the cap. He was described as follows:–

"When mysterious noises and knocks or a rummaging sound are heard in yourrooms by night, and you are sure it is made by unearthly visitors, prepare for them by putting a lighted lamp in the room, and covering it over with an earthen pot, but very carefully so that not a gleam can be seen.

"Then when you hear a noise in the room, uncover the light as quickly as possible, and if goblins are there catch the cap from one if you can and say:–

Which is in Romagnola:–

"Then the spirit, to redeem his cap, will tell where a treasure is concealed."

This is classic enough. "They knew in Italy," says PRELLER (Römische Mythologie, p. 488), "a class of spirits who knew where treasures were hidden, and who guarded them. They were called Incubones, and wore caps (the symbols of their hidden secret natures). If any one can steal these caps he can compel them to tell where these treasures are hidden" (PETRONIUS, s.38 ; see GRIMM, Deutsche Mythologie, 479).

This elf with the red cap and a scanty shirt is common in Roman mural paintings and on Etruscan vases. He spread all over the world, unto Germanyand the Scandinavian countries, even the Algonkin Indians of America gothim from the Norsemen. But it is very probable that the Etruscans or their neighbours had him first of all. Which, however, I leave for more learned men to determine. It is, however, certain that the Red Indians and Romagnolo peasants are the only people at the present day who really believe in him as existing.

It is not improbable that the goblin with the red cap is derived from thered headed wood-pecker Picus, who was in the earliest times believed in Italy to be a

The Italian house-goblins, like those of the North, are given to imitating sounds. One of the sixteenth century writers tells us that the day before a party of merchants arrive at a country house the people dwelling therein often hear the Elves imitating the sound of scales rattling as if making weight, the ring of money, and all the circumstance of buying and selling. And it is very remarkable that, as one may see by the Etruscan Museum of Gori, the red-cap goblins of ancient Italy are sometimes represented with weights and scales and behaving like merchants. But in all countries they are given to holding fairs, as Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market" bears witness. He who finds himself in such fairs may buy diamonds and pearls by the pound for a penny, but he must escape ere theyclose, or he will come to woes. And ere a visitor arrives his voice maybe heard, and the night before a rain or a storm the little people make sounds as of a shower or the blowing of winds when all is still.

A writer in the Philadelphia News sums up the different names by which the wee folk are known. These are "fairies, elves, elfe-folks, fays, urchins, ouphes, ell-maids, ell-women, dwarfs, trolls, norns, nisses, kobolds, duende, brownies, necks, stromkarls, fates, little wights, undines, nixes, salamanders, goblins, hobgoblins, poukes, banshees, kelpies, pixies, moss people, good people, good neighbours, men of peace, wild women, white ladies, peris, djinns, genii, and gnomes."

Making allowance for mere synonyme, all of these are to be found in earlyItalian lore, and they still exist in the mountains. But in reality they may be found all the world over, be it in Eastern lands or in America.

There is a passage in Heine's preface to his Germany which must appeal to

every collector of folk-lore. In speaking of the traditions and tales of the humbler rural folk he says:–

"I have here given more than one of these which I myself heard by hearthsin huts, narrated by some vagabond beggar or old and blind grandmother, but the strange, uncanny reflection which the flickering fire of twigs cast on the face of the narrator, and the beating of the hearts of the hearers who listened in happy silence I could not render, and these rustic, well-nigh barbaric stories when deprived of that lose their wondrous and secret charm."

Heine had been, as we may gather from his life, perhaps half a dozen times in such scenes, and heard, it may be, about as many tales of the Grimm kind. I wonder what he would have written had he been for years almost constantly among gypsies and witches, especially the latter, and seen and felt to perfection the survival of the strange wild classic strega, whose soul is still inspired with early Latin or Etruscan sorcery, and from whose inner life was ever and anon flashing out something far more uncanny and unearthly than all the flames of twigs which he had ever seen. Many a time have I been awed at these living dreams, these for gotten visions of yore, incarnate in strange women, who spoke of an old, old faith, long in its grave, once held by a race whose very language is now as unknown, as their origin. And I avow that this has ever moved me as a sincere lover of antiquity as a real romance, without equal in this our age of prose.

She was seated by the table on which was one of those simple, beautiful long brass lamps with three lights, such as have come down unchanged sincethe Roman time; in her hand she held a scaldino, which was all the fire for warmth known to her; in the window grew herbs of deeply mystical meaning, not for show but for sorcery, when I by chance asked her if people found many objects of antiquity where she dwelt. And reflecting aninstant as usual–which always inspired a marvellously antique-wild expression which suggested classic art–she said:–

"Molti. Strangers come to us and dig up vases, black and yellow, which our ancestors made long ago. There at Cesena, for example. Cesena, is in the Romagna. Sometimes the contadini, excavating the groundfor a building, find medals as well as antique vases, thousands of yearsold.

"And these were all made for witches according to their belief, and all these things are of magic and witchcraft, for in those times all the land was full of witches. And the reason why they are found in secret places and old ruins and the like is this: When the priests came in, they would not let the witches be buried in the campo santi, because they saidthe witches and wizards were scomunicati excommunicated.

"So they arranged it to bury one another, and when one witch died the others interred her secretly in her own cellar or house¹ with her vasesand witch-medals, and all the things which she used in her art. And before dying she taught all her secrets to the others. And this is why it iswe never find them buried in

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¹ As the Etruscan tombs were often exact copies of the homes of the departed, this idea would be very naturally formed by the peasantry.

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