“There must be a set place devoted to the goddess, be it a room, a cellar, or a grove, ever a solitary place. Then take a small table of the size of forty playing-cards set close together, and this must be hid in the same place, and going there at night. . . .
“Take the forty cards and spread them on the table, making of them, as it were, a close carpet on it. Take of the herbs paura [41a] and concordia and boil the two together, repeating meanwhile:
“‘Fo bollire la mano della concordia,
Per tenere a me concorde.
La Laverna, che possa portare a me
Il mio figlio e che possa
Guardarmelo da qual un pericolo!“‘Bollo questa erba ma non bollo l’erba.
Bollo la paura [41b] che possa tenere lontano
Qualunque persona, e se le viene,
L’idea a qualchuno di avvicinarsi,
Possa essere preso da paura,
E fuggire lontano!’”“I boil the cluster of concordia
To keep in concord and at peace with me
Laverna, that she may restore to me
My child, and that she, by her favouring care,
May guard me well from danger all my life!“I boil this herb, yet ’tis not it which boils;
I boil the fear that it may keep afar
Any intruder, and if such should come
[To spy upon my rite], may he be struck
With fear, and in his terror haste away!”
“Having said this, put the boiled herbs in a bottle, and spread the cards on the table, one by one, saying:
“‘Batezzo queste quarante carte
Ma non batezzo le quarante carte.
Batezzo quaranta dei superiori
Alla dea Laverna che le sue
Persone divengono un vulcano
Fino che la Laverna non sara
Venuta da me colla mia creatura.
E questi dei dal naso dalla bocca,
E dall’ orecchie possino buttare
Fiammi di fuoco e cenere,
E lasciare pace e bene alia dea
Laverna, che possa anche essa
Abbracciare i suoi figli,
A sua volunta!’”“I spread before me now the forty cards,
Yet ’tis not forty cards which here I spread,
But forty of the gods superior
To the deity Laverna, that their forms
May each and all become volcanoes hot,
Until Laverna comes and brings my child.
And till ’tis done, may they all cast
Hot flames of fire and coals from their lungs,
And leave her in all peace and happiness,
And still embrace her children at her will.”
The character of Virgil is here clearly enough only an introduction by the narrator, in order to make a Virgilian tale or narrative. But the incantation, which I believe to be bonâ fide and ancient, is very curious and full of tradition. The daring to conjure the forty gods that they may suffer till they compel Laverna to yield is a very bold and original conception, but something like it is found very often in Italian witchcraft. It is of classic origin. In the witchcraft manufactured by the Church, which only dates from the last decade of the fifteenth century, it never occurs. The witches of Sprenger and Co. never lay any of the Trinity under a ban of torture till a desire is accomplished, nor are they ever even invoked.
La femme comme il faut, or “the only good woman,” is a very ungallant misogamic corner tavern sign once common in France. It represents a headless woman. Perhaps she was derived from some story like this of Laverna. It recalls the inhuman saying: “The only good (Red) Indian is a dead Indian.”
Laverna is in this tale another form of Diana. There are also traces of Lucina in the character.
VIRGIL AND THE UGLY GIRL.
“Though her ugliness may scare,
Money maketh all things fair.”Proverb.
“Gelt—wie lieb’ich Dich.”—How truly I love thee! or, “Money—how I love thee!”—German Jest.