Prehistoric skulls have been found bearing evidence of the operation of trepanning, arising from the belief that the patient was possessed by devils which would be released by making a hole in the head. This treatment was apparently applied to epileptics. With the primitive instruments and ignorance of anæsthetics in that remote period it could hardly have been a pleasant experience.
The Greeks and Romans believed that the souls escaped with life through the aperture of the death wound, and the Moslems had a superstition that it was necessary in strangling a victim to relax the cord before death occurred, so as to allow the soul to escape.
Even to modern times it is customary to open a window of a death chamber.
Prohibition
A form of taboo in legend and tradition is prohibition either as to act or question.
The Biblical instance of Lot’s wife has its parallel in Eurydice, wife of Orpheus, who, killed on her wedding night, was redeemed on condition that Orpheus should not look back till she had reached the upper world. Forgetting the prohibition, he turned to see if she were following, and Eurydice was instantly caught back into Hades.
The story is a poetical rendering of the capture of Eurydice by Aëdonius, King of Thresprotia, called Pluto, on account of his cruelty. Orpheus obtained her return on conditions that were not fulfilled; therefore he lost her a second time.
The prohibition of Persephone to Psyche to look at the casket of Divine beauty until she reached the upper world and the consequence, is similar in idea, though the sequel is the result of feminine curiosity and devotion.
As examples of the forbidden question, the stories of Cupid and Psyche and Lohengrin may be quoted; in both instances curiosity as to name and origin was interdicted. Disregard of the command resulted in abandonment.
A more modern tradition is that of Melusina, who for her sins was condemned to become every Saturday a serpent from her waist downwards. She married Raymond, Count of Lusignan, and made him vow never to visit her on that day.