A correspondent of the Athenæum, in a letter, dated Naples, January 3rd, 1847, mentions another very striking phenomenon. He was standing on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean, accompanied by an Italian friend. The air was perfectly tranquil, and yet in a moment he felt himself grasped and encircled, as it were, by an unseen and irresistible power, and, in spite of his struggles, he felt himself sailing through the air at a balloon speed. After a few moments of his aërial travelling, he was pitched halfway down the cliff into the centre of an empty lime-kiln, not far from the sea. Nor was he alone; there was another heavy fall; for his friend stood opposite him. As they were encircled by a force, equal at all points, though the shock was violent, they fell on their feet, but sank directly to the ground, and there sat gazing at one another, unable either to move or speak. Happily, no bones were broken; but so severe were the internal injuries experienced, as to confine them to their beds for some time, and they expect the internal effects of their involuntary and dangerous voyage to remain for a considerable time.
As the population of the coasts of the Mediterranean are exceedingly ignorant and superstitious, it is not surprising that the people in the neighbourhood said that the Shal’ombre, the evil spirits, in the lime-kiln, must have drawn the travellers in; and attributed their deliverance to the intercession of the souls in purgatory for the acts of charity they had performed!
To avoid any calamities, which the mariners of Naples generally attribute to demoniacal influence, they resort to the practice of witchcraft. Few are the barks that venture to the coral fishery, or the coasting-trade, without having a magician on board. Persons of this class, however, who practise the art supposed to be required at sea, or who even reveal it to others, cannot receive absolution from an ordinary confessor. It is comprehended under the head of “malaficia,” one of the reserved sins to be found in the printed list of directions appended to every confessional in Italy.
And yet, were witchcraft available in any case, it could not be in connexion with the natural operation, which the mariners call “trombe di mare.” The travellers suffered, in fact, from a strong wind, connected with the phenomenon of a water spout, observed, for the most part, at sea, but sometimes also on shore. Its usual appearance is that of a dense cloud, like a conical pillar, which seems to consist of condensed vapour, and is seen to descend with the apex downwards. When over the sea, there are generally two cones, one projecting from the cloud, the other from the water below it. They sometimes unite, and then a flash of lightning is observed; on other occasions, they disperse before any junction takes place. The effect appears to be, at least partly, electrical; the cones being in opposite states, the positive and negative attraction ensue; and, when union takes place, which is indicated by the flash, the bodies are restored to their equilibrium.
The magicians on the coast practise what they call the art of “cutting” the “trombe.” As soon as it is seen approaching in the direction of a boat, the wizard goes forward, sends all the crew aft, that they may not be eye-witnesses of what he does; and using certain signs or words, and making a movement with his arms as if in the act of cutting, the enemy falls in two, and disappears.
We are reminded by these circumstances of “the news from the country,” which the Spectator describes as brought to him by sir Roger de Coverley. One part of it was, that Moll White was dead, and that about a month after one of the baronet’s barns fell down, which led to the shrewd remark: “I do not think the old woman had anything to do with it.” Nor do we think that the wizard of the Mediterranean has anything to do with “cutting the wind.” The probability is, that he seizes on the time for his movements, which, from experience, he knows to precede the dispersion of the cloud, and thus acquires credit to which he has not the slightest claim.
This chapter may appropriately be concluded by a reference to the waters of the earth, which are often represented as endued with a supernatural power. The Ilissus, rising on Mount Hymettus, to the east of Athens, and overflowing its banks, furnishes a supply of excellent water to the monastery of Sergiani. On one side, are three small caverns in the rock, with double entrances; apparently the work of nature, but probably aided by art. They are still supposed, as they have been during past ages, to have a mystic virtue; and “no remedy,” says Dodwell, is considered so efficacious for a sick child as “to drag it two or three times from one cave to another; by which it is either killed or cured. Several ancient wells are observed in the rock on each side of the river. Near these, the foundation of a wall crosses the bed of the Ilissus.”
Springs, in various parts of this and other countries, alternately ebbing and flowing, have been, and are still, in some cases, supposed to be under the ban of witchcraft. And yet the phenomena are easily explained by natural laws. If the shorter end of a bent tube, A, whose branches are of an unequal length, be placed in a basin of water, and the air is drawn from it, we have a syphon, which will decant the water into any vessel. Now such tubes as these are naturally formed in the earth, and if the water be drained into a cavity, B, having a syphon-like channel, C, it is evident that it will flow as long as the syphon can act, and it will then cease.
Seneca describes a spring near to Tempe, in Thessaly, the waters of which are fatal to animals, and penetrate iron and copper. Yet, it is probable, as Dr. Thomson states, that “this spring contained either free sulphuric acid, or a highly acidulous salt of that acid. This acid has been detected in a free state, as well as hydrochloric acid, in the water of the Rio Vindagre, which descends from the volcano of Paraiè, in Columbia, South America. Sulphuric acid is also found in the waters of other volcanic regions. The sour springs of Byron, in the Genessee country, about sixty miles south of the Erie canal, contain sulphuric acid. Such waters would rapidly corrode both iron and copper, converting the former into green, the latter into blue vitriol—sulphates of both metals.”[E]