By the law of mental association that seems to run through nearly all this business of charming, the piece of white lime-accretion from the roof of this cave will save or cure from madness. Simpler charms are such as this brass ring, worn by a patient in Brumana hospital to keep him from falling sick. As it had not fulfilled its end, he gladly gave it me. More expensive ones are those of the Maronites. They are little purses for the scrip, with a rough sketch of the Virgin and Child on the cover; and these little purses are kept in covers wrought in silk, and gold and silver wire, and beads.
The superstitions of the poor people sometimes take a comical aspect, though at the same time they are infinitely sad. Only the other day, a woman, probably touched with that mysterious and multiform disease of the nerves called hysteria, was given some grapes by a male neighbour. Some of these grapes were spotted; and she took it into her head that a love-spell had been applied to them by him—which I believe was not the case, though such things are done sometimes—and in an excited state she followed him about. Our mission-doctor heard of the case, and went to her house, finding a lot of people there, by their own wrought-up condition further stimulating her complaint. He promptly turned them all out, and, making her sit down, calmly assured her that he would not go until the evil spirit that possessed her had departed. After awhile she seemed quieter, but something had to be done; so he lanced one of her feet, and drew blood. Possibly the blood-letting itself was a good thing; but the impression on the woman's mind was wholesome; and when he opened the door she was handed to her friends in her right mind.
The personality of spells is a subject closely connected, I take it, with the Evil Eye, and is at the root of stone-casting, tying rags on trees, &c. It must surely be involved in the idea of the influence of the "eye," the essential being of an individual, going forth to give or receive cursing or blessing.
