The belief in “ligatures” is one of the oldest and most universal of superstitions. Herodotus (II. 181) relates that Amasis who reigned in Egypt about the middle of the sixth century B. C., found himself thus afflicted when he married the Cyrenean princess Ladice. Notwithstanding the political importance of maintaining the alliance cemented by the marriage, he accused her of employing sorcery and threatened her with death. In her extremity she made a vow in the temple of Venus to send a statue of the goddess to Cyrene. Her prayer was heard and her life was saved.
[459] Gest. Treviror. Archiep. c. 19.—Lambert. Hersfeld. Annal. ann. 1074.—Höfler, Prager Concilien, p. xvi.
[460] Chron. Turon. ann. 1061.—Chron. Halberstadiens. (Leibnit. S. R. Brunsv. II. 127-8).—Gest. Treviror. c. 38 (Martene Ampl. Coll. IV. 181-2).
[461] Laws of Edward and Guthrum, 11.—Laws of Ethelred, v. 7.—Cnut Secular. 4 (Ed. Kolderup Rosenvinge p. 36).—Athelstan’s Dooms, I. 6.—Laws of Edward the Elder, 6.—Ll. Henrici lxxi. § 1.—Ingulph’s Chron. Contin. (Bohn’s Edition, p. 258).
[462] Olaf Tryggvesson’s Saga, 69, 70, 83 (Laing’s Heimskringla).—Kristinrettr Thorlaks oc Ketils, c. xvi.
For the intimate connection between sorcery and malignant spirits, see Finn Magnusen’s Priscæ Vet. Boreal. Mythologiæ Lexicon, s. v. Tröll, pp. 474 sqq.
[463] Wibaldi Epist. 157 (Martene Ampl. Coll. II. 352).—Baron. Annal. ann. 1181, No. 6-10.—C. 1 Extra. XLV. 3.—C. 2 Extra, v. 21.—Johan. Saresberiens. Polycrat. c. xxviii.
Catoptromancy was a practice duly handed down from classical times. Didius Julianus, during his short reign, found time to obtain foreknowledge of his own downfall and the succession of Septimius Severus, by means of a boy who with bandaged eyes looked into a mirror after proper spells had been muttered over him (Æl. Spartiani Did. Julian. 7), and Hippolytus of Porto gives us in full detail the ingenious frauds by which this and similar feats were accomplished (Refut. omn. Hæres. IV. 15, 28-40).
[464] Concil. Rotomagens. ann. 1189 c. 29 (Bessin, Concil. Rotomagens. I. 97).—Concil. Paris, ann. 1212 P. v. (Martene Ampl. Coll. VII. 105).—Cæsar. Heisterb. IV. 99.
[465] Cæsar. Heisterb. V. 2, 3.