THE HISTORY OF MAGIC.

Otago Witness, Issue 3101, 20 August 1913, Page 75

THE HISTORY OF MAGIC.

ITS MYSTERIES .AND RITES

An interesting volume lias just been published by Messrs Wm, Rider and Son, London, giving a comprehensive exposition of “magic,” its rites and mysteries. India, the writer states, is above all others the country of illusionary wonders. Black magic has been perpetuated therein, as well as the origins,! traditions of fratricide imposed by the powerful on the weak, continued by dominant castes, and expiated by the pariahs. It may be said of India that she is the wise mother of all idolatries. Here is an extract from the ritual:—“ln order to become God the breath most bo retained —that ie to say, it must be inhaled as long as possible, till the chest is -well distended,—and in the second place the divine Om must he repeated inwardly 40 times while in this state. Expiration, in the third place, follows very slowly, the breath being men-

tally directed through the heavens to make contact with the universal ether. Those who would succeed, in this exercise must be blind, deaf, and motionless as a log of wood. The posture is on knees and elbows, with the face turned to the north. One nostril is stopped with a finger, the air is inhaled by the other, which is then also closed, the action being accompanied by dwelling in thought on the idea that God is the Creator, that He is in all animals, in the _ant even as in the elephant. The mind must be absorbed in these thoughts. Om is at first recited 12 times, and afterwards 24 times during each inspiration, and then as rapidly as possible. This regimen must be continued for three months —without fear, without remission, eating and sleeping little. In the fourth month the Devas will manifest; in the fifth you will have acquired all qualities of the Devatas; in the sixth you will be saved and will have become God.”

—Ancient Druids and the Mistletoe. — In a reference to the ancient the writer remarks upon the importance which these priests and physicians attached to the mistletoe. This and serpents’ eggs, he says, were their universal remedies, ‘‘because these substances attract the Astral Light in an especial manner. Lhe solemnity with which mistletoe was cut drew down upon this plant the popular confidence and rendered it powerfully magnetic. It came about in this manner that it worked marvellous cures, above all when it was fortified by the Druids with conjurations and charms. Let us not accuse our forefathers of over-credulity herein: it may be that they knew that which is lost to us. The progress of magnetism will some day reveal to ns the absorbing properties of mistletoe; we shall then understand the secret of those spongy growths which draw the unused virtue of plants and become surcharged with tinctures and savours. Mushrooms, truffles, gall on trees, and the different kinds of mistletoe will be employed with understanding by a medical science which will be new because it is old.” Early Description of Gipsies.—

“ At the beginning of the fifteenth century,” the author says in another part of the volume, “ hordes of unknown swarthy wanderers began to spread through Europe. Sometimes denominated Bohemians, because they claimed to come from Bohemia; sometimes Egyptians, because their leader assumed the title of Duke of Egypt, they exercised the arts of divination, larceny, and marauding. They were nomadic tribes, bivouacking in huts of their own construction; their religion Was unknown ; they gave themselves out to ne Christians, but their orthodoxy was more than doubtful. Among themselves they practised Communism and promiscuity, and in their divinations they made use of a strange sequence of signs, allegorical in form, and depending from the virtues of numbers. . . . Enemies of toil, they

respected neither property nor family; they dragged their women and children after them; they pestered the peace of honest house-dwellers with their pretended divinations.”

A writer, describing the fivst encampment of these people in the vicinitv f Paris, says that about August, 1427, “there came to the environs of Paris 21 so-called penitentiaries—a duke, earl, and 10 men, all on horses, saying that they were good Christians, originally of Lower Egypt. They stated further that in former times they were conquered and turned to Christianity, those refusing being put to death, while those who consented to baptism were left as rulers of the country. Some time subsequently the Saracens invaded them, and many wh'o were not firm in the faith made no attempt to withstand or defend their country, as in duty bound, but submitted, became Saracens, and adjured our Saviour. The Emperor of Germany, the King of Poland, and other miens having learned that the people renounced their faith so easily, becoming Saracens and idolaters, fell upon thorn and Conquered them again easilv. It appeared at first as if they had the intention to leave them in their own country, so that they might be led back to Christianity, but after deliberation in council the Emperor and the rest of the Kings ordained that they should never own land in their native country without the consent of the Pope, to obtain which they must journey to Rome. Thither they proceeded in a great body, the young and the old involving great suffering for the little ones. They made confession of their sins at Home, and the Pope, after considering with his advisers, imposed on them, by way of penance, a seven years’ wandering through the world, sleeping in no bed. Ugly and Black Women.—•

“ Some days afterwards, -being the day of the martvrdom of St. John the Baptist, or August 29, the general horde followed, and were not allowed to enter within Paris, but were lodged at the Chapello St. Denis. They numbered about 12u persons, including women and children. They stated that when they left their own country they consisted of 1000 or 1200 souls ; the others had died on the road, their king and queen among them; the survivors were still expecting to become possessors of worldly goods, for the holy father had promised them good and fertile lands when their penance was finished. “ Their children, both boys and girls, were the cleverest tricksters. Nearly all had their ears pierced, and in each ear were one or two silver rings, which they said were a sign of good birth in their own country; they were exceedingly dark and with woolly hair. The women wore the ugliest and blackest ever seen ; their faces were covered with stores, their hair was black as the tail of a horse . in a word, they were the most wretched creatures who had ever been seen in France within the memory of the oldest inhabitants. Their poverty notwithstanding, they had sorceresses among them who inspected the hand, telling what had happened to the person consulting them in their past life, and what awaited them in the future. They disturbed the peace of households, for they denounced husband to wife and wife to husband. And what

was still worse, while talking to people about their magic art, they managed to fill their purses by emptying those of their hearers. . . . The horde was ordered

away, and departed accordingly on Sep tember 8, proceeding towards Pontoise.”