SUPERSTITIONS CONNECTED WITH THE HUMAN SALIVA.
The most recent work on this subject is the extended monograph of Mrs. Fanny D. Bergen, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, now in press, and to the pages of which the author of this volume has contributed his own collection of data.
Reference may also be had, with advantage, to Brand’s Popular Antiquities, Reginald Scot’s “Discoverie of Witchcraft,” Black’s “Folk-Medicine,” Samuel Augustus Flemming’s “De Remediis ex Corpore Humano desumtis,” Lenormant’s “La Magie chez les Chaldéens,” and to the works of Pliny, Galen, “Saxon Leechdoms,” Levinus Lemnius, Beckherius, Etmuller, and many others.
John Graham Dalyell, “Superstitions of Scotland,” Edinburgh, 1834, has a chapter on the occult influences attributed to human saliva. When the Khonds of Orissa were about to sacrifice a human victim, they were wont to solicit the favor of having him spit in their faces; “sollicitent un crachat qu’ils s’étendront soigneusement.”—(“Les Primitifs,” Réclus, p. 368.)
In the ritual of the Hill Tribes of the Nilgherris, it is related:—
“Mada a craché dans les fontaines.”
(Quoted in “Les Primitifs,” p. 244.)
Frommann, in his “Tractatus de Fascinatione,” Nuremburg, 1675, speaks of the anointing of eyes with saliva, to cure blindness; this he compares to the use made by our Saviour of the same (p. 196).
“The Kirghis tribes apply to their sorcerers, or Baksy, to chase away demons, and thus to cure the diseases they are supposed to produce. To this end they whip the invalid until the blood comes, and then spit in his face.”—(“Chaldean Magic,” François Lenormant, London, 1873, p. 212.)
Many interesting practices connected with the human saliva, are given in Lady Wilde’s “Ancient Legends and Superstitions of Ireland,” Boston, 1888. See also “The Golden Bough,” James G. Frazer, M.A., London, 1890, vol. i. pp. 385, 386.