"But in truth the priests knew that this Madonna del Fuoco did many miracles, and revived those who had fallen dead, before they had ever done anything. (The sense here is that she did all this before she was claimed orknown as Christian.)

"The first that was known of her was that she appeared as a beautiful lady in a certain garden, and so all the neighbourhood began to talk of her and said it was Our Lady, or the Madonna.

"In Civitella there was an ancient and rich family. And in their fields there was a very small hoy who kept sheep and was dumb. One morning the lady came to him, and this child who was mute began to speak and said: 'Lady, I could never speak before, dumb I was from my birth. Thou art a miraculous virgin. Tell me what I must do to express my thanks.'

"And she replied: 'Go to the great family and tell them they must go to Rome for a certain large stone and send it to me, and that by doing this their race will never end, but if they neglect it their troubles will never cease.'

"This he did, but was treated as a lunatic. Yet while they did this there appeared before them great flashes of fire–gran fiaccole del fuoco–and they knew it was the Lady of Fire. So they sent for the stone, and as soon as the lady had it she ascended it and remained there as an image. So they bore it to a church and placed it there–e le misero nome, la Madonna del Fuoco, la Madonna Miraculosa–and called it the Lady of Fire and the Miraculous Madonna.

"And this family left it by will that the festival with miraculous fire should be continually kept up. And all peasants when they have any illness or bad crops, or any trouble, attend this ceremony."

Ottfried Müller and Preller observe from good authority that the Etruscans paid very great attention to thunder and lightning, and that all their principal gods and goddesses were believed to wield, during certain months, the terrible power. Traces of this continually reappear in the legends of Le Romagne, as the reader may find in several places in this work, such as the tale of the Spirito del Giuoco. I think that this, taken in connection with the witch belief that this Madonna del Fuoco is reallyone of their own spirits, indicates a pre-Christian origin for the Madonna del Fuoco. It may be, indeed, that she is Vesta, the Roman goddess offire, converted and Christianised. The miraculous stone refers possiblyto the flint from which fire is struck.

La Cavalletta is defined as "a locust or grasshopper," but as I understand, it is neither, but what is known in America as the Katydid, a cicada which indeed resembles the Oriental locust in its general shape, but is somewhat larger, and is of a clear green colour, its wings being quite like leaves. Its cry is like that of the locust, but much louder. It appears to play an important part among the superstitions of the Romanga. ¹

¹ "That animal which the French call sauterelle, we a grasshopper, is named Axxxx {{greek letters}} by the Greeks, by the Latines locusta, and by ourselves a locust. Again, between a cicada and that we call a grasshopper the {{continues on the bottom of the next page}} differences are very many, as may be observed in themselves, or their descriptions in Matthiolus Aldrovandus and Muffetus … Our word is borrowed from the Saxon Graest-hopp, which our ancestors, who never beheld the cicada, used for that insect which we yet call a grasshopper" (Pseudoxia Epidemica (Vulgar Errors), by Sir THOMAS BROWN, London, 1672).

I was first induced to notice it by hearing a woman sing a song, alla contdinesca, about it, in Romagnola, which I wrote down, and then received the following account in Italian:–

"The Cavalletta is an insect of a green colour with long legs. Itis a sign of good luck–e tanto di buon augurio. When it comes into a room one should at once close the windows to prevent its escaping, and if there should happen to be sleeping children in bed, so much thebetter. Then one should tie a thread to the leg of the Cavallettaand the other end to the bed, and say or sing:–

"Then when the child shall he of an age to understand this, he should be taught to sing, when he sees a Katydid:–

"But when the Cavalletta has been tied one hour to the cradle of the child, it must be freed, and the window opened, and it should be allowed to depart–not driven away–but suffered to leave at its own free will."

It is altogether impossible to separate the ancient folk-lore of the locust, grass hopper, and cricket, or cicada. FRIEDRICH remarks that in the magical practices of the ancients the grasshopper was supposed to possesssuch powers of divination that it was called xxxxxx {{greek letters}} orthe soothsayer. It often occurs on monuments as an amulet against evil. One which represents a Cupid holding a butterfly, while a grasshopper is close by on an ear of corn, seems to me to set forth the spirit of the song which I have cited.

But the cavalletta is properly in legend the same as the cicada which was regarded as the emblem, and almost as the genius, of song and poetry, or the highest forms of intellect. The Greeks and old Italians lovedthis insect more than the nightingale, they associated it strangely witha higher genius and stronger powers of magic and prophecy. It was to them the herald of spring, a song of rivulets and fountains sparkling in the shade, a calling to green fields, a voice of the flowers.
Thus ANACREON sings:–

"We praise thee auspicious Cicada, enthroned like a king
On the tree's summit, thou cheer'st us with exquisite song,
Living on dew-drops, and all men bestow on thee honour
As the sweet prophet of summer–the Muses all love thee,
So does Apollo the golden who gave thee thy song."

Ulysses holding a cicada to Cerberus, as it occurs in gems, signifies thepower of evil or horror, captivated by genius or song. The old story was that these insects were once men and women, who, having heard the Musessing, were so enchanted or enraptured that they could think of nothing else–yes, they forgot all earthly things, including eating and drinking, and so starved to death in pure æsthetic absence of mind. So the Muses turned them into the beautiful cicadæ, which, when they have sung themselves out in summer shades, return to the Muses. Therefore the Athenian ladies wore golden cicadæ in their hair as a sign of culture and refinement, also to indicate their patriotic attachment to their small country or city, because it is said that the insect never quits the place where it is born.

The whole spirit of the ancient belief in the cicada, or grasshopper, as a prophetic spirit, and the genius of song, is perfectly reflected in this Romagnolo ballad, which is in reality a rough but very fine diamond. For it is beautiful to see how the refined old classic feeling that the cicada is the spirit of genius and poetry has survived among these humble peasants, and how as a mantis it is believed to be capable of bestowing genius on the little bambino. It is absolutely the same idea or inspiration, but in a far sweeter and nobler form, which made the Greek maiden wear a golden cicada in her hair, that induces the Italian mother to tie a cavalletta by the leg to her baby's cradle, and sing to it theincantation or prayer to give it talents or genius, or make of it a poet.

There is something very antique in all this, as well as original and beautiful, so that, taking all others into consideration, I have very little doubt that this ceremony, as well as its song, may have come to us from the early spring-time of Latin, Greek, or Etruscan song. Ancient!–why there is nothing of the kind here given which is not, as the Germans say, stone-old, among the mountains of La Romagna Toscana. Every idea there which has a form, took it in neolithic or certainly bronze times. Thisof the cavalletta can at least be proved to be almost prehistoric.

The original Romagnolo which was sung like all contadino songs to a monotonous air, which, like the words, gave the impression that it was being improvised, was as follows:–

It may be observed that this was described to me as Lo Spirito la Cavalletta– the Spirit Cavalletta. That is to say the insect is recognised as a spirit which was once human, just as it is set forth in the Latin or Greek legend. The ancient myth declares that the cicadæ were once very much refined maidens, who were turned to insects by the Muses. The modern incantation says that the katydid was in life–

Of those who attribute all of these identities in tradition to chance coincidences and "development under like causes," one can only say, as did the old orthodox Christian of the doctrine of atoms, and fortuitouscombinations, that it put upon the back of Chance more than it would bear.

"Now after this nobody would marry her; yet she was happy and contented, for she had all she desired, being long and well loved by her amante."

There is in this a little, as it were, of Cupid and Psyche, which beautiful myth doubtless grew out of some rude and simple old story of a girl and a spirit lover. I have no doubt that the tale as here given is a mere fragment. As among the Red Indians, we find loose pieces of stories, sometimes fitted into one another.

It cannot fail to strike the reader that there is a very loose moral tone–a gay and festive sensuousness evident in these tales. These folletti are all, when not terrible, very much like the Fauns and Sylvans, spirits of yore, from whom they are, beyond all doubt, legitimately descended. In fact the spirit of Dyonisia, the worship of Bacchus and Venus, and of Pan–of Dryads and Oreads, and a multitude of hard-drinking, free-loving, rakish divinities, all of whom, from great Jove himself down to the Satyrs, set the example of embracing every pretty woman who came in their way, could hardly be wanting among people who still actually invoke these deities by their old names. And this is–inter alia–a strong confirmation of the heathen antiquity of all this Tuscan lore.

I deem this thing well worth dwelling on, that while in the folk-lore andfairy-tales of the rest of Europe there is but little account of fairies, brownies, elves, and sylvan goblins seducing maidens and abusing wives,it is in the Romagna at the present day their chief mission or amusement. A ringing melody of forest glee does not come more surely from the Waldhorn of a hunter when sounded by

some skilful woodcraftsman than a tale which is "naughty, but nice," to youthful sinners, comes when conversation turns on these mysterious beings. I could have made a very distinguished acquaintance indeed–namely, that of the Lord Chancellor–had I published in a book all the Merrie Tales of the kind which I have, or could have, heard of such "shoking"culpabilities–which seem to be almost the only kind of abilities now manifested by these "geniuses." In all which they are true steel to thetraditions of their ancestors, the dii minores, the minor or sylvan gods, of whom Pico della Mirandola–whose tomb is not far off fromhere–informs us that "Saint Augustin declares in the fifteenth bookof the City of God, that 'the Silvani and Fauni have many times sinned with women, who, however, greatly desired it, the end thereof being that they lay with them. And that certain demons, called by the French Dusii, went about continuallv seeking such carnal iniquity, and–mettendola ad effetto–putting it into effect.' "

All of these, as I have shown in chapters on them– Fauns, Silvani, and Dusii–still live in the Romagnola. There the contadina maiden half fears and half hopes in the forest shades, as twilight falls, tomeet with a handsome, roguish, leering, laughing lover; there, it may be, among reedy rocks, will rise from the whitening water of the headlong stream some irresistible Elf Ma–che volete? Girls will be girls!

This Cupra tale is much like one in BODINUS, where, however, the devil him self is the lover, and a girl of twelve his bonne fortune. Theymay both have come from a common source.

According to PRELLER (Römische Mythologie), there was on the coast of Picenum a goddess named Cupra, who is supposed to be a Juno, of Etruscan origin. Her temple was renewed by Hadrian. "But the nameis probably to be explained by the Sabine word cyprus (good), whence the Vicus Cyprius in Rome and a Mars Cyprius in Umbria." I donot feel authorised to suggest any connection between these names and that of the Cupra in the story. Nor do I insist on any positive identity of any of my discoveries with ancient ones. There may have been, for aught I know, mistakes or misunderstandings as regards any or all thesenames. I have simply written down what I gathered, and I dare say therewill be correctors enough in due time to verify or disprove it all.

All of the old Etrusco-Roman deities were in pairs, male and female, hence possibly the modern confusion as to certain names. They also "crossed"one another. "Thalna, or Cupra," says George Dennis (The Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, 1878), "was the Etruscan Hera or Juno, and her principal shrines seem to have been at Veii, Falerii, and Perusia. Like her counterpart among the Greeks and Romans, she appears to have been worshipped under other forms,

according to her various attributes, as Feronia, Uni, Eilithya-Lucothea." The incident of the leaves connects Cupra with classic lore. Gerard (Gottheit: der Etrusker, p.40) thinks Thalna is descriptive of Cupraas a goddess of births and light. We learn the name of Cupra from Strabo, v., p.241. Of which Noel des Vergers says in L'Etrurie et les Etrusques, Paris, 1862, that:–

"Junon, que Strabo appelle Cupra, bien que nous ne tronvious pas ce nom sur les monuments ceramiques ou les miroirs, avait comme Jupiter un templedans l'arx ou la citadelle des villes Etrusques."

It is probable that one of the earliest supernatural conceptions formed by man was that of the T'abu, or Taboo. It was that if the witch, or shaman, or conjuror wished to guard, or keep, or protect a certain property from depredators, he by magic power or spells caused the person trespassing to suffer. If a sorcerer or a chief had a valuable weaponor ornament, spells were pronounced over it to protect it, and if it were stolen some mysterious disease soon after attacked the thief. By a little judicious poisoning here and there of suspected offenders, the taboo of course soon came to be firmly believed in and dreaded. Naturally enough it was extended to trees bearing valuable fruit, fields and their crops, wives and cattle. Then in time everything belonging to priests and chiefs was tabooed. In the Pacific islands at the present day where the natives have not been civilised, it often happens that a man who has eaten fruit, or even touched an article belonging to a chief, though he did not know at the time that it was prohibited, will soon die of mere fear. The laws of taboo in Fiji and many other places were so numerous and intricate that if written out they would make a work quite as extensive and difficult to master as Blackstone's Commentary. Little by little it entered into every relation of life. Wherever the power of the priest came–and it went

everywhere–there was the terrible taboo. It sat by every fireside–it was with man when he awoke in the night; there were kinds offood which must not be eaten, certain positions which must not be assumed, thoughts which must not be entertained. There were words which must never be spoken, names of the dead which must never be uttered; and as people were named from things, therefore language was continually changing. Over all and under all and through all was the taboo, or will of the priest.

In CATLIN'S great work on the North American Indians there is the portrait of a Chippeway emaciated to a living skeleton. There was, about fifty years since in his country, in a remote place, a vast mass of virgin copper, which was regarded with superstitious reverence. The sorcerers of the tribe had decreed that any Indian who should guide a white man to this great nugget would surely be accursed and die. One man, tempted by gifts, and in an hour of temporary freethought, broke the ban and led a white trader to the mysterious manitou. Then came the reaction. He believed himself to be accursed, and so pined away. A traveller in Fiji has recorded that a native having once by mere accident touched something which belonged to a chief, and learned that it was taboo, died in a few days from terror.

An accurate and impartial history of the development of taboo, or prohibition, would be the history of religion and of the human race. As regards church property it became known as sacrilege–the conversion of sacred things to secular uses. The exempla of the preachers of the Middle Ages show us the doctrine of taboo carried to the extremes of absurdity. RABELAIS ridiculed these extravagances, but the shafts of his wit fell back blunted, even as the arrows of the scoffer missed the mark when shot at a leaf taken from the Holy Decretals. But taboo is yet strong everywhere. I can remember that once when I was a very small boy I unwittingly–this was in a New England village–injured a pamphlet or book which had been lent by the local clergyman. "Don't you know," exclaimed a lady who was reproving me, "that that book belongs to Dr L–––?" And I was aghast, for I felt that the crime was far greater than if the injured property had belonged to one of the laity.

Making every allowance for the natural limitations and necessities of Evolution, taboo was productive of some good but also of great evil.At present, its old mission being worked out among enlightened people, the bad is predominant. Under the influences of the Church it was so freely, so recklessly, and so unscrupulously applied that millions of lives were crushed by it or made needlessly miserable. It enforced celibacy; it compelled injudicious charity, which enlarged the area of poverty insteadof relieving it; it made idleness, coloured by super-

stition, holy; it exalted in every way the worthless idle shaman, or sorcerer, above the productive citizen; it laid great curses and eternal damnation on trifling offences, on no offences, and on the exercise of natural human rights and privileges. And it still contrives to do so to an extent which few realise. For the prohibition or punishment, or causing suffering in any form whatever, when it is applied to anything which is not in itself wrong, is taboo. But what is wrong? That which injures others. And what are injuries? Firstly, those which the law defines as to person and property, directly or indirectly, in law or equity. Secondly, those which are conventional and spring out of our artificial social conditions. These are mostly of the feelings, or sentimental–regarding which it becomes us to exercise the strictest discipline over ourselves, and to make the utmost allowance for others.

It is as regards these conventional and sentimental wrongs in social relations, and in really artfcial matters, that taboo, be it religious or secular, makes its tyranny most keenly felt. Not to wander too widely from the subject, I can only say that a vast amount of all social injustice does not spring, as is generally assumed, or supposed, from unavoidable current causes, but from mere custom and use derived from tradition. He who will look carefully, honestly, and above all boldly, into this, will be astonished to learn how powerful still is the old shaman ofthe very earliest stage of barbarism. The demon of the Threshold–he who lay in wait at the very entrance of the first hut of humanity–is still lurking by thine though thou seest him not.

It would be interesting to know how many objects which were regarded as accursed and bedevilled owed their evil repute in the beginning to taboo. During the Middle Ages, and indeed from earlier times, the walnut-tree was regarded as being dear to demons and specially chosen by witchesas a place of meeting. Among the Romans it typified darkness or evil, hence it was believed that if it stood near an oak they mutually injured one another, because the latter was sacred to Jove, the god of lightning, the principle of light (NORK, Realwörterbuch, vol. iii., p. 387. FRIEDRICH). In the earliest mythologies the nut was an erotic symbol. On the bridal night the married pair among the Jews praise God for planting the nut-tree in the Garden of Eden; and among the Romans it was a custom spargere nuces to scatter nuts on such occasions. "But as sensual passion is allied to sin, it is plain that the walnut-tree is also a demoniac symbol. The Rabbis declared that the devil chose it for a favourite resting-place, and advised people never to sleep under it, because every twig thereof has nine leaves, and on every leaf dwells a devil" (FRIEDRICH, Symbolik, p.315).

BUNSEN ((Rom. iii., 3, 210), tells us that there once stood in thePiazza della

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