Fascination
From Latin fascinare, to enchant. The word in its general, acceptation signifies charm, enchant, to bewitch, by the eyes, the looks; generally, to charm or enchant; to hold or keep in thraldom by charms, by powers of pleasing. 66 A belief in Fascination (strictly so called) appears to have been very generally prevalent in most ages and countries. For its existence in Greece and Rome we may quote the wish of Theocritus that an old woman might be with him to avert this ill by spitting, or the complaint of Menalcas, in Virgil, that some evil eye has fascinated his lambs. The Romans, indeed, with their usual passion for increasing the host of heaven, deified this power of ill, and enrolled a god "fascinus" among their objects of worship. Although he was a numen," the celebration of his rites was intrusted by a singular incongruity, to the care of the vestal virgins; and his phallic attribute was suspended round the necks of children and from the triumphal chariots. Lucretius, writing Of Natural Witchcraft for Love, etc., says: "But as there is fascination and witchcraft by malicious and angry eyes unto displeasure, so are there witching aspects tending contrariwise to love, or, at the least, to the procuring of good will and liking. For if the fascination or witchcraft be brought to pass or provoked by the desire, by the wishing or coveting any beautiful shape or favour, the venom is strained through the eyes, though it be from afar, and the imagination of a beautiful form resteth in the heart of the lover, and kindleth the fire where it is afflicted. And because the most delicate, sweet and tender blood of the beloved doth there wander, his countenance is there represented, shining in his own blood, and cannot there be quiet, and is so haled from thence, that the blood of him that is wounded, reboundeth, and slippeth into the wounder."
Varius, Prior of the Benedictine Convent of Sta. Sophia in Benevento, published a Treatise, De Fascino, in 1589. He first points to whole nations which have been reported to possess the power of fascination. Thus the idolatrous "Biarbi" and "Hamaxobii," on the authority of Olaus Magnus, are represented to be "most deeply versed in the art of fascinating men, so that by witchcraft of the eyes, or words, or of aught else (a very useful latitude of expression) they so compel men that they are no longer free, nor of sane understanding, and often are reduced to extreme emaciation, and perish by a wasting disease." He then proceeds to similar marvels concerning animals. Wolves, if they see a man first, deprive him of all power of speech; a fact yet earlier from Theocritus. The shadow of the hyæna produces the same effect upon a dog; and this sagacious wild beast is so well acquainted with its own virtue, that whenever it finds dog or man sleeping, its first care is to stretch its length by the side of the slumberer, and thus ascertain his comparative magnitude with its own. If itself be larger of the two, then it is able to afflict its prey with madness, and it fearlessly begins to nibble his hands or paws (whichever they may be) to prevent resistance; if it be smaller, it quietly runs away. It may be as well to know, (though not immediately bearing on fascination), that an attack from an hyæna, if it approaches on the right hand, is peculiarly dangerous; if from the left, it may be beaten off without much trouble. Lastly, tortoises lay their eggs and afterwards hatch them, as is very credibly affirmed, by virtue of their eyes alone. 66 دو
The tenth chapter of the First Book of Vairus inquires: "An aliqui se fascinare possint ? a question which is decided in the affirmative, by the example of the Basilisk of Narcissus, and of one less known, though equally unfortunate, Eutelis. In the twelfth chapter he affirms, that the more wicked any person is, the better is he adapted to exercise evil fascination. From this book we may extract two useful cautions : Let no servant ever hire himself to a squinting master, and let jewellers be cautious to whose hands, or rather eyes, they intrust their choicest wares." A friend of Vairus told him, that he had seen a person who was gifted with an eye of such fascinating power, that once while he was looking attentively on a precious stone of fine water, exquisite cutting, and admirable polish, in the hands of a lapidary, the jewel of its own accord split into two parts.
In his Second Book, after disputing against "natural" fascination, which he treats as visionary, Vairus determines that all fascination is an evil power, attained by tacit or open compact with the devil.
A second writer on this matter is John Lazarus Gutierrez, a Spanish physician, who may be believed to be equally well qualified for the consideration of mystery. His Opusculum de Fascino appeared in 1653. On his own experience he does not state much, but in his Dubium (III.) he cites Mendoza for an account of a servant of a Tyrolese nobleman, who could bring down a falcon from her very highest flight by steadily looking at her. From Antonius Carthaginensis, also, he produces two other wonders. The first, of a man in Guadalazara, who was in the habit of breaking mirrors into minute fragments solely by looking at them; the second, of another in Ocana, who used to kill his own children, as well as those of other folks, by the contagion of his eyes; nay, still more, occasionally, in like manner, to be the cause of death to many valuable horses. From Cardan, Gutierrez extracts the following symptoms by which a physician may determine that his patient is fascinated:- Loss of colour, heavy and melancholy eyes, either overflowing with tears or unnaturally dry, frequent sighs, and lowness of spirits, watchfulness, bad dreams, falling away of flesh. Also, if a coral or jacinth worn by him loses its colour, or if a ring, made of the hoof of an ass, put on his finger, grows too big for him after a few days' wearing. According to the same writer, the Persians used to determine the sort of fascination under which the patient laboured, by binding a clean linen cloth round his head, letting it dry there, and remarking whether any and what spots arose on it.
But the most curious fact which we learn from Gutierrez is that the Spanish children in his time wore amulets against fascination, somewhat resembling those in use among the Romans. The son of Gutierrez himself wore one of these; it was a cross of jet, ("agavache") and it was believed that it would split if regarded by evil eyes, thus transferring their venom from the child upon itself. In point of fact, the amulet worn by young Gutierrez did so split one day, while a person was steadfastly looking at him; and, in justice to the learned physician, we must add, that he attributes the occurrence to some accidental cause, and expresses his conviction that the same thing would have happened under any other circumstances. Throughout his volume, indeed, all his reasoning is brought forward to explode the superstition.
A third similar work is that of John Christian Fromman, a physician of Saxe-Coburg, who published his Tractatus de Fascinatione in 1675.
We have already learned from Vairus, that all those who are immoderately praised, especially behind their backs, Fascination persons of fair complexion, and of handsome face or figure, particularly children, are most exposed to fascination, and this notion probably arose from such children attracting from strangers more attention than others less indebted to nature. It was an impression of his own personal beauty which induced Polyphemus to put in practice the spitting charm which Cotattaris had taught him. So we read in Theocritus, Frommann adds, that children in unwashed baby linen are easily subject to fascination, and so also is any fair one who employs two lady's maids to dress her hair; moreover, that all those who lie in bed very late in the morning, especially if they wear nightcaps, all who break their fast on cheese or peas, and all children who, having been once weaned, are brought back to the breast, will, even against their inclination, be gifted with the power of fascinating both men and beasts.
In order to ascertain whether a child be fascinated, three oak apples may be dropped into a basin of water under its cradle, the person who drops them observing the strictest silence; if they swim the child is free, if they sink it is affected; or a slice of bread may be cut with a knife marked with three crosses, and both the bread and the knife left on the child's pillow for a night; if marks of rust appear in the morning the child is fascinated. If on licking the child's forehead with your tongue a salt taste is perceived, this also is an infallible proof of fascination. 66 66
The following remedies against fascination rest upon the authorities either of Vairus or Frommann, or both of them; several of them may be traced to Pliny :- An invocation of Nemesis; the root of the Satyrios Orchis ;" the skin of a hyæna's forehead; the kernel of the fruit of a palm tree; Alyssum" (madwort) hung up anywhere in the house; the stone "Catochites;" spitting on the right shoe before it be put on; hyssop; lilies; fumigations; sprinklings; necklaces of jacinth, sapphire, or carbuncle; washings in river water, provided silence be kept; licking a child's forehead, first upward, next across, and lastly up again, and then spitting behind its back; sweeping its face with the bough of a pine tree; laying it on the ground, covered up in a linen cloth, and then sprinkling it in the form of a cross, with three handfuls of earth, dug where the eaves drop, and brought thence at three separate times within an hour; laying turf from a boy's grave under a boy's pillow, from a girl's under a girl's; silently placing near a child the clothes in which it was baptized; if, as is sometimes the case, a child appears to derive no benefit from washing, taking three scrapings from the plaster of each of the four walls of its bedroom, and sprinkling them on its linen; three "lavements three spoonfuls of milk; giving in a drink the ashes of a rope in which a man has been hanged; drawing water silently, and throwing a lighted candie into it in the name of the Holy Trinity, then washing the patient's legs in this water, and throwing the remainder behind its back in the form of a cross; hanging up the key of the house over the child's cradle; laying on it crumbs of bread, a lock with the bolt shut, a looking-glass, or some coral washed in the font in which it was baptized; hanging round its neck fennel seeds, or bread and cheese. " of Vairus states, that huntsmen, as a protection against fascination, were used to split an oak plant, and pass themselves and their dogs between it. As amulets against love fascination, he recommends sprinkling with the dust in which a mule has rolled itself; a bone which may be found in the right side of a toad; or the liver of a chameleon. Vida has given a highly elaborate description of one who possessed this destructive power in his eye, after enjoining especial caution respecting those who are permitted to look at the silkworms. Some instances of yet more modern belief in fascination than those to which we have referred above, may be found collected in Brand's Popular Antiquities. It appears even in our own days to be prevalent among the inhabitants of the western islands of Scotland, who use nuts, called Molluca beans, as amulets against it. Dallaway, in his Account of Constantinople remarks, that "Nothing can exceed the superstition of the Turks respecting the evil eye of an enemy or infidel. Passages from the Koran are painted on the outside of the houses, globes of glass are suspended from the ceiling, and a part of the superfluous caparison of their horses is designed to attract attention and divert a sinister influence."
Delrio has a very short notice of fascination; he divides it into "Poetica seu Vulgaris," that resulting from obscure physical causes, which he treats as fabulous ; "Philosophica," which he considers to be contagion; and "Magica," to which he heartily assents.