The wounds given to the image were supposed to be productive of similar stounds of love in the tender heart of the maiden whom it represented.
A female form, of melting wax,
Mess John surveyed with steady eye,
Which ever an anon he pierced,
And forced the lady loud to cry.—P. 84.
The same horrid rites were observed on the continent. For Grilland (de Sortilegiis) says: Quidam solent apponere imaginem cerae juxta ignem ardentem, completis sacrificiis, de quibus supra, & adhibere quasdam preces nefarias, & turpia verba, ut quemadmodum imago illa igne consumitur & liquescit, eodem modo cor mulieris amoris calore talis viri feruenter ardeat, etc. Malleus Malefic. T. H., p. 232.
It cannot be doubted that these rites have been transmitted from heathenism. Theocritus mentions them as practiced by the Greeks in his time. For he introduces Samoetha as using similar enchantments, partly for punishing, and partly for regaining her faithless lover.
But strew the salt, and say in angry tones,
“I scatter Delphid’s, perjured Delphid’s bones.”
—First Delphid injured me, he raised my flame,