Ba : The Egyptian conception of the soul, which in the form of a man-headed bird left the body after death and winged its flight to the gods. It returned at intervals to the mummy for the. purpose of comforting it and reassuring it concerning immortality. Sometimes it grasps the ankh (q.v.) and the nif (q.v.) and is occasionally represented as flying down the tomb-shaft to the deceased, or perched on the breast of the mummy. It was sometimes carved on the lid of mummy cases. In the Book of the Dead a chapter promises abundance of food to the Ba, so that the conception does not appear to have been entirely spiritual.

Baalberith : According to Wierius. a demon of the second order; master of the infernal Alliance. He is said to be secretary and keeper of the archives of Hell.

Baalzeohon : Captain of the guard and sentinels of Hell, according to Wierius.

Baaras : A marvellous plant known to the Arabs as the "Golden Plant," and which is supposed to grow on Mount Libanus, underneath the road which leads to Damascus. It is said to flower in the month of May, after the melting of the snow, At night it can be seen by torchlight, but through the dav it is invisible. It was held to be of great assistance to alchemists in the transmutation of metals. It is alluded to by Josephus. (Lib. VIIl., Chap. 25.)

Babau : A species of ogre with which the nurses in the central parts of France used to frighten their charges.. He was supposed to devour naughty children in salad. The ending "au suggests a Celtic origin. For example, " Y Mamau," the Welsh for " fairies,"

Bablagora : Certain lakes of a gloomy nature. which lie between Hungary and Poland. which have figured in various stories of witchcraft, Pools, such as these, are often used for purposes of divination, as by gazing down into clear water the mind is disposed to contemplation. often of a melancholy character. This form of divination is termed Hydromancy" (q.v.) and is similar to crystal-gazing.

Babylonia: The conservative element in the religion of Babylonia was one of its most marked and interesting features. All the deities retained, even after they reached their highest development. traces of their primitive demoniac characters. and magic was never divorced from religion. The most outstanding god. were Ea, Anu and Enlil, the eider Bel. These formed a triad at the dawn of history. and appear to have developed from an animistic group of world spirits. Although Ea became specialised as a god of the deep. Anu as a god of the sky, and Enlil as an earth god, each had also titles which emphasised that they had attributes overlapping those of the others. Thus Ea was Enki, earth lord, and as Aa was a lunar deity, and he had also solar attributes. In the legend of Etana and the Eagle, his heaven is stated to be in the sky. Anu and Enlil as deities of thunder, rain and fertility. linked closely with Ea, as Dagan, of the flooding and fertilising Euphrates. Each of these deities were accompanied by demon groups. The spirits of disease were the " beloved sons of Bel"; the fates were the seven daughters of Anu the seven storm demons, including the dragon and serpent, were of En's brood. In one of the magical incantations translated by Mr. R. C. Thompson, occurs the following description of En's primitive monster form:

The head is the head of a serpent.

From his nostrils mucus trickles,

The mouth is beslavered with water:

The ears are those of a basilisk,

His horns are twisted into three curls,

He wears a veil in his head-band,

The body is a sun-fish full of stars,

The base of his feet are claws,

The sole of his foot has no heel;

His name is Sassu-wunnu,

A sea monster, a form of Ea.

En was "the great magician of the gods"; his sway over the forces of nature was secured by the performance of magical rites, and his services were obtained by mankind, who performed requisite ceremonies and repeated appropriate spells. Although he might be worshipped and propitiated in his temple at Eridu, he could also be conjured in reed huts. The latter indeed appear to have been the oldest holy places. In the Deluge myth, he makes a revelation in a dream to his human favourite, Pir-napishtim, the Babylonian Noah, of the approaching disaster planned by the gods. by addressing the reed hut in which he slept: "O, reed hut, hear; O, wall, understand." The sleeper received the divine message from the reeds. The reeds were to the Babylonian what rowan branches were to northern Europeans: they protected them against demons. The dead were buried wrapped in reed mats.

When the official priesthood came into existence it included two classes of magicians, the ' Ashipu." who were exorcists, and the "Mashmashu," the "purifiers." The Ashipu priests played a prominent part in ceremonies, which had for their object the magical control of nature: in times of storm, disaster, and eclipse they were especially active. They also took the p art of "witch doctors." Victims of disease were supposed to be possessed of devouring demons:

Loudly roaring above, gibbering below,

They are the bitter venom of the gods.

Knowing no care, they grind the land like corn: Knowing no mercy, they rage against mankind, They spill their blood like rain,

Devouring their flesh and sucking their veins. (Thompson's translation.)

It was the business of the Ashipu priests to drive out the demon. Before he could do so he had to identify it. Having done so, he required next to bring it under his influence. This he accomplished by reciting its history and detailing its characteristics. The secret of the magician's power was his knowledge. To cure toothache. for instance, it was necessary to know the "Legend of the Worm," which, vampire-like, absorbed the blood of victims, but specialised in gums. The legend relates that the worm came into existence as follows: Anu created the heaven, the heavens created the earth, the earth created the rivers, and the rivers created the canals, then the canals created marshes, and the marshes created the ".worm." In due time the worm appeared before Shamash, the sun god, and Ea, god of the deep, weeping and hungry. "What will you give me to eat and drink?" it cried. The gods promised that it would get dried bones and scented wood. Apparently the worm realised that this was the "food of death," for it made answer: "What are dry bones to me? Set me upon the gums that I may drink the blood of the teeth and take away the strength of the gums." When the worm heard this legend repeated, it came under the magician's power, and was dismissed to the marshes, while Ea was invoked to smite it, Different demons were exorcised by different processes. A fever patient might receive the following treatment:

Sprinkle this man with water,

Bring unto him a censer and a torch,

That the plague demon which resteth in the body of the man,

Like water may trickle away.

Another method was to fashion a figure of dough, wax, clay or pitch. This figure might be placed on a fire or mutilated, or placed in running water to be washed away. As the figure suffered, so did the demon it represented.

By the magic of the word of Ea.

A third method was to release a raven at the bedside of the

sick man so that It would conjure the demon of fever to take

flight likewise, Sacrifices were also offered, as substitutes

for patients, to provide food for the spirit of the disease.

A kid was slain and the priest muttered:

"The kid is the substitute for mankind;

He hath given the kid for his life,

He hath given the head of the kid for the head of the man.

A pig might be offered:

"Give the pig in his stead

And give the flesh of it for his flesh, The blood of it for his blood, etc."

The cures were numerous and varied. After the patient recovered the house was purified by the "mashmashu" priests. The ceremony entailed the sprinkling of sacred water, the burning of incense, and the repetition of magical charms. Houses were also protected against attack, by placing certain plants over the doorways and windows. An ass's halter seems to have been used, as horse-shoes have been in Europe, to repel witches and evil spirits.

The purification ceremonies suggest the existence of taboo. For a period a sick man was "unclean" and had to be isolated. To each temple was attached a "House of Light" in which fire ceremonies were performed, and a "House of Washing" where patients bathed in sacred water. Oil was also used as anointment to complete the release from uncleanness, floods were also tabooed at certain seasons, It was unlawful for a man to eat pork on the 30th of Ab (July-August) or the 27th of Tisri, and other dates. Fish, ox flesh, bread, etc. were similarly tabooed on specific dates. A man's luck depended greatly on his observance of these rules, But although he might observe all ceremonies, he might still meet with ill-fortune on unlucky days. On the festival day of Marduk (Merodach) a man must not change his clothes nor put on white garments, nor offer up sacrifices. Sure disaster would overcome a king if he drove out in a chariot, or a physician if he laid hands on the sick, or a priest who sat in judgment, and so on. On lucky days good fortune was the heritage of everyone. Good fortune meant good health in many cases, and it was sometimes assured by worshipping the dreaded spirit of disease called Ura. A legend related that this demon once made up his mind to destroy all mankind, His counsellor Ishun, however, prevailed upon him to change his mind, and he said, "Whoever will laud my name I will bless with plenty. No one will oppose the person who proclaims the glory of my valour. The worshipper who chants the hymn of praise to me will not be afflicted by disease and he will find favour in the eyes of the King and his nobles."

Ghosts-Among the spirits who were the enemies of mankind the ghosts of the dead were not the least virulent, and especially the ghosts of those who had not been properly buried. These homeless spirits (the grave was the home of the dead) wandered about the streets searching for food and drink, or haunted houses. Not infrequently they did real injury to mankind. Of horrible aspect, they appeared before children and frightened them to death. They waylaid travellers and mocked those who were in sorrow. The screech-owl was a mother who had died in childbed and walled her grief nightly in solitary places. Occasionally she appeared in monstrous form and slew wayfarers. Adam's "first wife Lilith" was a demon who had once been beautiful and was in the habit of deceiving lovers, and working ill against them. A hag, Labartu, haunted mountains and marshes and children had to be charmed against her attacks. She also had a human history. The belief that the spirits of the dead could be conjured from their graves to make revelations was also prevalent in Babylonia. In the Gilgamesh epic, the hero visits the tomb of his old friend and fellow-warrior Ea-Bani. The ghost rises like a "weird gust" and answers the various questions addressed to it with great sadness. Babylonian outlook on the future life was tinged by profound gloom and pessimism. It was the fate of even the ghosts of the most fortunate and ceremonially buried dead to exist in darkness and amidst dust. The ghost of EaBani said to Gilgamesh:

"Were I to inform thee the law of the underworld which I have experienced,

Thou wouldest sit down and shed tears all day long."

Gilgamesh lamented:

"The sorrow of the underworld hath taken hold upon thee."

Priests who performed magical ceremonies had to be clothed in magical garments. They received inspiration from their clothing. Similarly the gods derived power from the skins of animals with which they were associated from the earliest time. Thus En was clad in the skin of the fish-probably the fish totem of the En tribe.

The dead were not admitted to the heavens of the gods. When a favoured human being, like Utnapishtim, the Babylonian Noah, joined the company of the gods, he had assigned to him an island Paradise where Gilgamesh visited him. There he dwelt with his wife. Gilgamesh

was not permitted to land, and held converse with his immortal ancestor, sitting in his boat. The deities secured immortality by eating the "food of life" and drinking the "water of life." DONALD MACKENZIE.

Bacchic Mysteries : (See Greece).

Bachelor : The name given to his satanic majesty. when he appeared in the guise of a great he-goat, for the purpose of love intercourse with the witches.

Bacis : A famous augur of Beotia. Many persons who ventured to predict the future adopted the name of Bacis.

Bacon, Roger : was born near Ilchester in Somerset, in 1214. In his boyhood he displayed remarkable precocity, and in due time, having entered the order of St. Francis, he studied mathematics and medicine in Oxford and Paris. Returning to England, he devoted attention to philosophy and also wrote Latin, Greek, and Hebrew Grammars. He was a pioneer of astronomy and was acquainted with the properties of lenses, so that he may have foreshadowed the telescope. In the region of the mechanical sciences, his prophecies are noteworthy since he not only speaks of boats which may be propelled without oars, but of cars which may move without horses, and even of machines to fly in the air. To him we are indebted for important discoveries in the science of pure chemistry. His name is for ever associated with the making of gunpowder. and if the honour cannot be wholly afforded him, his experiments with nitre were at least a far step towards the discovery. His study of alchemical subjects led him, as was natural, to a belief in the philosopher's stone by which gold might be purified to a degree impossible by any other means, and also to a belief in the elixir of life whereby on similar principles of purification, the human body might be fortified against death itself. Not only might man become practically immortal by such means but, by knowledge of the appropriate herbs, or by acquaintance with planetary influences, he might attain the same consummation. As was natural in an ignorant age, Bacon was looked on with considerable suspicion which ripened into persecution. The brethren of his order practically cast him out, and he was compelled to retire to Paris, and to submit himself to a regime of repression. A prolific penman, he was forbidden to write, and it was not till 1266 that Guy de Foulques, the papal legate in England-subsequently Pope Clement IV.-hearing of Bacon's fame, invited him to break his enforced silence. Bacon hailed the opportunity and in spite of hardship and poverty, finished his Opus Majus, Opus Minus and Opus Tertium. These works seem to have found favour with Clement, for the writer was allowed to return to Oxford, there to continue his scientific studies and the composition of scientific works. He essayed a compendium of philosophy of which a part remains, but its subject-matter was displeasing to the ruling powers and Bacon's misfortunes began afresh. His books were burned and again be was thrown into prison, where he remained for fourteen years, and during that period it is probable that he continued to write, About 1202 he was again at liberty, and within the next few years - probably in 1294-he died. Bacon's works were numerous and, while many still remain in manuscript, about a dozen have been printed at various times. Many are obscure treatises on alchemy and deserve little attention, but the works he wrote by invitation of Clement are the most important. The Opus Majus is divided into six parts treating of the causes of error, the relation between philosophy and theology, the utility of grammar, mathematics, perspective and experimental science. The Opus Minus, of which only part has been preserved, was intended to be a summary of the former work. The Opus Teretium though written after the other two, is an introduction to them, and also in part supplementary to them. These works, large though they be, seem to have been only the forerunners of a vast work treating of the principles of all the sciences, which, however, was probably little more than begun. Much of Bacon's work and many of his beliefs must, of course, be greatly discounted, but judging the man in relation to his time, the place he takes is a high one. His devotion to the experimental sciences was the point wherein he differed from most from his contemporaries, and to this devotion is to be accounted the fame which he then possessed and still possess.

But no sketch of Bacon's life would be complete without some account of the legendary material which has gathered around his name, and by virtue of which he holds rank as a great magician in the popular imagination. When, in the sixteenth century, the study of magic was pursued with increased zeal, the name of Friar Bacon became more popular, and not only were the traditions worked up into a popular book, entitled The History of Friar Bacon, but one of the dramatists of the age, Robert Green, founded upon them a play, which was often acted, and of which there are several editions. The greater part of the history of Friar Bacon, as far as it related to that celebrated personage, is evidently the invention of the writer, who appears to have lived in the time of Queen Elizabeth; he adopted some of the older traditions, and filled up his narrative with fables taken from the common story books of the age. We are here first made acquainted with two other legendary conjurers, Friars Bungay and Vandermast and the recital is enlivened with the pranks of Bacon's servant Miles.

According to this legendary history, Roger Bacon was the son of a wealthy farmer in the West of England, who had placed his son with the parish priest to gain a little scholarship. The boy soon showed an extraordinary ability for learning, which was encouraged by the priest, but which was extremely disagreeable to the father, who intended him for no other profession but that of the plough. Young Bacon fled from home, and took shelter in a monastery, where he followed his studies to his heart's content, and was eventually sent to complete them at Oxford. There he made himself a proficient in the occult sciences, and attained to the highest proficiency in magic. At length he had an opportunity of exhibiting his skill before the court. and the account of his exploits on this occasion may be given as a sample of tile style of this quaint old history.

The king being in Oxfordshire at a nobleman's house, was very desirous to see this famous friar, for he had heard many times of his wondrous things that he had done by his art, therefore he sent one for him to desire him to come to the court. Friar Bacon kindly thanked the king by the messenger, and said that he was at the king's service and would suddenly attend him, 'but, sir,' saith he to the gentleman, 'I pray you make haste or else I shall be two hours before you at the court.' For all your learning", answered the gentleman, ' I can hardly believe this, for scholars, old men, and travellers, may lie by authority.' 'To strengthen your belief' said Friar Bacon, I could presently show you the last wench that you kissed withal, but I will not at this time.' ' One is as true as the other,' said the gentleman, and I would laugh to see either.' You shall see them both within these four hours,' quoth the friar. 'and therefore make what haste you can.' ' I will prevent that by my speed,' said the gentleman, and with that he rid his way; but he rode out of his way, as it should seem, for he had but five miles to ride, and yet was he better than three hours a-riding them, so that Friar Bacon by his art was with the king before he came.

"The king kindly welcomed him, and said that he long time had desired to see him, for he had as yet not heard of his like. Friar Bacon answered him, that fame had belied him, and given him that report that his poor studies had never deserved, for h believed that art had many sons more excellent than himself was. The king commended him for his modesty, and told him that nothing could become a wise man less than boasting: but yet withal he requested him now to be no niggard of his knowledge, but to show his queen and him some of his skill ‘I were worthy of neither art or knowledge,' quoth Friar Bacon, ' should I deny your majesty this small request ; I pray seat yourselves, and you shall see presently what my poor skill can perform.' The king, queen, and nobles sat them all down. They having done so, the friar waved his wand, and presently was heard such excellent music, that they were all amazed, for they all said they had never heard the like. ' This is,' said the friar, ' to delight the sense of hearing,-I will delight all your other senses ere you depart hence.' So waving his wand again. there was louder music heard, and presently five dancers entered, the first like a court laundress, the second like a footman, the third like a usurer, the fourth like a prodigal, the fifth like a fool. These did divers excellent changes, so that they gave content to all the beholders, and having done their dance they all vanished away in their order as they came in. Thus feasted two of their senses. Then waved he his wand again, and there was another kind of music heard, and whilst it was playing, there was suddenly before them a table, richly covered with all sorts of delicacies. Then desired he the king and queen to taste of some certain rare fruits that were on the table, which they and the nobles there present did, and were very highly pleased with the taste; they being satisfied, all vanished away on the sudden. when waved he his wand again, and suddenly there was such a smell, as if all the rich perfumes in the whole world had been then prepared in the best manner that art could set them out. Whilst he feasted thus their smelling, he waved his wand again, and there came divers nations in sundry habits, as Russians, Polanders, Indians, Armenians, all bringing sundry kinds of furs, such as their countries yielded, all which they presented to the king and queen. These furs were so soft to the touch that they highly pleased all those that handled them. Then, after some odd fantastic dances, after their country manner, they vanished away. Then asked Friar Bacon the king's majesty if that he desired any more of his skill. The king answered that he was fully satisfied for that time, and that he only now thought of something that he might bestow on him, that might partly satisfy the kindness he had received. Friar Bacon said that he desired nothing so much as his majesty's love, and if that he might be assured of that, he would think himself happy in it. ' For that,' said the king. 'be thou ever sure, in token of which receive this jewel,' and withal gave him a costly jewel from his neck. The friar did with great reverence thank his majesty, and said, ' As your majesty's vassal you shall ever find me ready to do you service; your time of need shall find it both beneficial and delightful. But amongst all these gentlemen I see not the man that your grace did send for me by; sure he hath lost his way, or else met with some sport that detains him so long; I promised to be here before him, and all this noble assembly can witness I am as good as my word - I hear him coming. With that entered the gentleman, all bedirted, for he had rid through ditches, quagmires, plashes, and waters, that he was in a most pitiful case. He, seeing the friar there, looked full angrily, and bid a plague on all his devils for they had led him out of his way. and almost drowned him. 'Be not angry, sir,' said Friar Bacon, 'here is an old friend of yours that bath more cause, for she hath tarried these three hours for you,'-with that he pulled up the hangings, and behind him stood a kitchen-maid with a basting-ladle in her hand-' now am I as good as my word with you, for I promised to help you to your sweetheart,-how do you like this? ' 'So ill,' answered the gentleman, 'that I will be avenged of you.' 'Threaten not,' said Friar Bacon, 'lest I do you more shame, and do you take heed how you give scholars the lie again; but. because I know not how well you are stored with money at this time, I will bear your wench's charges home.' With that she vanished away."

This may be taken as a sort of exemplification of the class of exhibitions which were probably the result of a superior knowledge of natural science, and which were exaggerated by popular imagination. They had been made, to a certain degree, familiar by the performances of the skilful jugglers who came from the east, and who were scattered throughout Europe; and we read not unfrequently of such magical feats in old writers. When the Emperor Charles IV. was married in the middle of the fourteenth century to the Bavarian Princess Sophia in the city of Prague, the father of the princess brought a waggonload of magicians to assist in the festivities. Two of the chief proficients in the art, Zytho the great Bohemian sorcerer, and Gouin the Bavarian, were pitted against each other, and we are told that after a desperate trial of skill, Zytho, opening his jaws from ear to ear, ate up his rival without stopping till he came to his shoes, which he spit out, because, as he said, they had not been cleaned, After having performed this strange feat, he restored the unhappy sorcerer to life again. The idea of contests like this seems to have been taken from the scriptural narrative of the contention of the Egyptian magicians against Moses.

The greater number of Bacon's exploits are mere adaptations of medieval stories, but they show, nevertheless, what was the popular notion of the magician's character. Such is the story of the gentleman who, reduced to poverty and involved in debt, sold himself to the evil one, on condition that he was to deliver himself up as soon as his debts were paid. As may be imagined without much difficulty, he was not in haste to satisfy his creditors, but at length the time came when he could put them off no longer, and then, in his despair, he would have committed violence on himself had not his hand been arrested by Bacon. The latter, when he had heard the gentleman's story, directed him to repair to the place appointed for his meeting with the evil one, to deny the devil's claim, and to refer for judgment to the first person who should pass "In the morning, after that he had blessed himself, he went to the wood, where he found the devil ready for him. So soon as he came near, the devil said: 'Nov,, deceiver, are you come? Now shall thou see that I can and will prove that thou hast paid all thy debts, and therefore thy soul belongest to me.' 'Thou art a deceiver,' said the gentleman, 'and gavest me money to cheat me of my soul, for else why wilt thou be thine own judge ?-let me have some others to judge between us.' 'Content,' said the devil, 'take whom thou wilt.' 'Then I will have,' said the gentleman, 'the next man that cometh this way.' Hereto the devil agreed. No sooner were these words ended, but Friar Bacon came by, to whom this gentleman spoke, and requested that he would. be judge in a weighty matter between them two. The friar said he was content, so b₉th parties were agreed; the devil told Friar Bacon how the case stood between them in this manner. ' Know, friar, that I seeing this prodigal like to starve for want of food, lent him money, not only to buy him victuals, but also to redeem his lands and pay his debts, conditionally that so soon as his debts were paid, that he should give himself freely to me to this, here is his hand '-showing him the bond. 'Now, my time is expired, for all his debts are paid, which he cannot deny.' 'This case is plain, if it be so that his debts are paid.' His silence confirms it,' said the devil, 'therefore give him a just sentence.' ' I will,' said Friar Bacon, 'but first tell me, '-speaking to the gentleman-' didst thou never yet give the devil any of his money back, nor requite him in any ways?' 'Never had he anything of me as yet,' answered the gentleman. 'Then never let him have anything of thee. and thou art free. Deceiver of mankind,' said he, speaking to the devil, 'it was thy bargain never to meddle with him so long as he was indebted to any; now how canst thou demand of him anything when he is indebted for all that he hath to thee? When he payeth thee thy money, then take him as thy due; till then thou hast nothing to do with him, and so I charge thee to be gone.' At this the devil vanished with great horror, but Friar Bacon comforted the gentleman, and sent him home with a quiet conscience, bidding him never to pay the devil's money back, as he valued his own safety."

Bacon now met with a companion, Friar Bungay, whose tastes and pursuits were congenial to his own, and with his assistance he undertook the exploit for which he was most famous. He had a fancy that he would defend England. against its enemies, by walling it with brass, preparatory to which they made a head of that metal. Their intent was to make the head speak, for which purpose they raised a spirit in a wood, by whose direction" they made a fumigation, to which the head was to be exposed during a month, and to be carefully watched, because if the two friars did not hear it before it had ceased speaking, their labour would be lost. Accordingly, the care of watching over the head while they slept was entrusted to Bacon's man Miles, The period of utterance unfortunately came while Miles was watching. The head suddenly uttered the two words, "Time is." Miles thought it was unnecessary to disturb his master for such a brief speech, and sat still, In half an hour, the head again broke silence with the words, "Time was." Still Miles waited until, in another half hour, the head said, "Time is past," and fell to the ground with a terrible noise. Thus, through the negligence of Miles, the labour of the two friars was thrown away.

The king soon required Friar Bacon's services, and the latter enabled him, by his perspective and burning-glasses, to take a town which he was besieging. In consequence of this success, the kings of England and France made peace, and a grand court was held, at which the German conjurer, Vandermast, was brought to try his skill against Bacon. Their performances were something in the style of Bacon's former exhibition before the king and queen. Vandermast, in revenge, sent a soldier to kill Bacon., but. in vain. Next follow a series of adventures which consist of a few medieval stories very clumsily put together among which are that known as the Friar and the Boy, that which appeared in Scottish verse, under the title of The Friars of Berwick, a tale taken from the Gesta Romanorum, and some others. A contention in magic between Vandermast and Bungay, ended in the deaths of both. The servant Miles next turned conjurer, having got hold of one of Bacon's books, and escaped with a dreadful fright, and a broken leg. Everything now seemed to go wrong. Friar Bacon " had a glass which was of that excellent nature that any man might behold anything that he desired to see within the compass of fifty miles round about him." In this glass he used to show people what their relations and friends were doing, or where they' were. One day two young gentlemen. of high birth came to look into the glass, and they beheld their fathers desperately fighting together, upon which they drew their swords and slew each other. Bacon was so shocked that he broke his glass, and hearing about the same time of the deaths of Vandermast and Bungay, he became melancholy, and at length he burnt his books of magic, distributed his wealth among poor scholars and others, and became an anchorite. Thus ended the life of Friar Bacon, according to "the famous history," which probably owed most of its incidents to the imagination of the writer.

Bacoti : A common name for the augurs and sorcerers of Tonquin. They are often consulted by the friends of deceased persons for the purpose of holding communication with them.

Baekstrom, Dr. Sigismund : (See Rosicrucians).

Bad : A Jinn of Persia who is supposed to have command over the wind". and tempests. He presides over the twenty-second day of the month.

Badger : To bury the foot of a -badger underneath one's sleeping-place is believed by the Voodoo worshippers and certain Gypsy tribes to excite or awaken love.

Bael : A demon cited in the Grand Grimoire (q.v.). and head of the infernal powers. It is with him that Wierius commences his inventory of the famous Pseudonomarchia Daemonum. He alludes to Bael as the first monarch of hell, and says that his estates are situated on the eastern regions thereof. He has three heads, one, that of a crab, another that of a cat. and the third that of a man. Sixty-six legions obey him.

Bagoe : A pythoness, who is believed to have been the Erithryean sibyl. She is said to have been the first woman to have practiced the diviner's art. She practised in Tuscany. and judged all events by the sound of thunder.

Bagommedes : a knight mentioned by Gautier in the Conte du Graal. It is said that he was fastened to a tree by Kay and left hanging head downwards, until released by Perceval. On Bagommede’s return to the court he challenged Kay, but was prevented by Arthur from slaying him.

Bahaman : A jinn who, according to - Persian tradition, appeased anger. and in consequence governed oxen, sheep. and all animals of a peaceful disposition.

Bahir : ("Brightness.") A mystical Hebrew treatise of the twelfth or thirteenth century. the work of a French rabbi, by name Isaac ben Abraham of Posquieres. commonly called " Isaac the Blind." (See Kabala).

Balan : son of Simeon, King of the Bulgarians. and a mighty magician. who could transform himself into a wolf whenever he desired. He could also adopt other shapes and render himself invisible. He is alluded to by Ninauld in his Lycantropie (page 100).

Balan : A monarch great and terrible among the infernal powers. according to Wierius. He has three heads, those of a bull, a man, and a ram. Joined to these is the tail of a serpent, the eyes of which burn with fire. He be-strides an enormous bear. He commands forty of the infernal legions. and rules over finesse, roses and middle courses.

Balaslus : To describe this stone in fewer words than I,eonardus has used would be impossible. It is "of a purple or rosy colour, and by some is called the placidus or pleasant. Some think it is the carbuncle diminished in its colour and virtue ; just as the virtue of the female differs from that of the male. It is often found that the external part of one and the same stone appears a balasius, and the internal a carbuncle, from whence comes the saying that the balasius is the carbuncle's house. The virtue of the balasius is to overcome and repress vain thoughts and luxury; to reconcile quarrels among friends; and it befriends the human body with a good habit of health. Being bruised and drunk with water, it relieves infirmities in the eyes, and gives help in disorders of the liver; and what is still more surprising, if you touch the four corners of a house, garden or vineyard, with the balasius, it will preserve them from lightning, tempest. and worms."

Balcoin, Marie : a sorceress of the country of Labour, who attended the infernal Sabbath in the reign of Henry IV of France. In the indictment against her it was brought forward that she had eaten at the Sabbatic meeting the ear of a little child. For her numerous sorceries she was condemned to be burnt.

Balkan Peninsula : (See Slavs; Greece, Modern; Vampire, etc.)

Ballou, Adin : A Universalist minister who in 1942 formed the Hopedale Community (q.v.). He was one of those whose doctrines prepared the way for spiritualism in America, and who, after that movement had been inaugurated, became one of its most enthusiastic protagonists              (See America, U.S. of.)

Balor : a mighty King of the Formorians, usually styled "Balor of the Evil Eye." in Irish mythical tales. It was believed that he was able to destroy by means of an angry glance. When his eyelid became heavy with years, it is said that he had it raised by means of ropes and pulleys, so that he might continue to make use of his magical gift; but his grandson, Lugh, the Sun-god, crept near him one day when his eyelid had drooped momentarily, and slew him with a great stone which sank through his eye and brain.

Balsamo, Peter : (See Cagliostro).

Baltazo : One of the demons who possessed a young woman of Laon, Nicole Aubry, in the year 1566. He went to sup with her husband, under the pretext of freeing her from demon-possession. which he did not accomplish. It was observed that at supper he did not drink, which shows that demons are averse to water.

Baltus, Jean Francois : A learned Jesuit who died in 1743. In his Reply go the History of the Oracles of Fontenelle, published in Strasbourg in 1709, he affirmed that the oracles of the ancients were the work of demons, and that they were reduced to silence during the mission of Christ upon the earth.

Banshee : An Irish supernatural being of the wraith type. The name implies "female fairy." She is usually the possession of a specific family. to a member or members of whom she appears before the death of one of them. Mr. Thistleton Dyer, writing on the Banshee says:

"Unlike, also, many of the legendary beliefs of this kind, the popular accounts illustrative of it are related on the evidence of all sections of the community. many an enlightened and well-informed advocate being enthusiastic in his vindication of its reality. It would seem, however, that no family which is not of an ancient and noble stock is honoured with this visit of the Banshee, and hence its non-appearance has been regarded as an indication of disqualification in this respect on the part of the person about to die. ' If I am rightly informed,' writes Sir Walter Scott, 'the distinction of a Banshee is only allowed to families of the pure Milesian stock, and is never ascribed to any descendant of the proudest Norman or the boldest Saxon who followed the banner of Strongbow, much less to adventurers of later dates who have obtained settlements in the Green Isle.' Thus, an amusing story is contained in an Irish elegy to the effect that on the death of one of the Knights of Kerry, when the Banshee was heard to lament his decease at Dingle-a seaport town, the property of those knights-all the merchants of this place were thrown into a state of alarm lest the mournful and ominous wailing should be a forewarning of the death of one of them, but, as the poet humorously points out, there was no necessity for them to be anxious on this point. Although, through misfortune, a family may be brought down from high estate to the rank of peasant tenants, the Banshee never leaves nor forgets it till the last member has been gathered to his fathers in the churchyard. The MacCarthys, O'Flahertys, Magraths, O'Neils, O'Rileys, O'Sulllvans, O'Reardons, have their Banshees, though many representatives of these names are in abject poverty.

"The Banshee,' says Mr. McAnally, 'is really a disembodied soul, that of one who in life was strongly attached to the family, or who had good reason to hate all its members. Thus, in different instances, the Banshee's song may be inspired by different motives. When the Banshee loves those she calls, the song is a low, soft chant, giving notice, indeed, of the close proximity of the angel of death, but with a tenderness of tone that reassures the one destined to die and comforts the survivors; rather a welcome than a warning, and having in its tones a thrill of exultation, as though the messenger spirit were bringing glad tidings to him summoned to join the waiting throng of his ancestors.' To a doomed member of the family of the O'Reardons the Banshee generally appears in the form of a beautiful woman, 'and sings a song so sweetly solemn as to reconcile him to his approaching fate.' But if, during his lifetime the Banshee was an enemy of the family, the cry is the scream of a fiend, howling with demoniac delight over the coming death agony of another of his foes.

"Hence, in Ireland, the hateful 'Banshee ' is a source of dread to many a family against which she has an enmity. 'It appears,' adds McAnally, 'that a noble family, whose name is still familiar in Mayo, is attended by a Banshee of this description-the spirit of a young girl, deceived, and afterwards murdered by a former head of the family. With her dying breath she cursed her murderer, and promised she would attend him and his forever. After many years the chieftain reformed his ways, and his youthful crime was almost forgotten even by himself, when one night, as he and his family were seated by the fire, the most terrible shrieks were suddenly heard outside the castle walls. All ran out, but saw nothing. During the night the screams continued as though the castle were besieged by demons. and the unhappy man recognised in the cry of the Banshee the voice of the young girl he had murdered. The next night he was assassinated by one of his follower', when again the wild unearthly screams were heard exulting over his fate. Since that night the 'hateful Banshee' has, it is said, never failed to notify the family, with shrill cries of revengeful gladness, when the time of one of their number has arrived."

"Among some of the recorded instances of the Banshee's appearance may be mentioned one related by Miss Lefrau, the niece of Sheridan, in the Memoirs of her grandmother, Mr. Frances Sheridan. From this account we gather that Miss Elizabeth Sheridan was a firm believer in the Banshee, and firmly maintained that the one attached to the Sheridan family was distinctly heard lamenting beneath the windows of the family residence before the news arrived from France of Mrs. Frances Sheridan's death at Blois. She added that a niece of Miss Sheridan made her very angry by observing that as Mrs. Frances Sheridan was by birth a Chamberlaine, a family of English extraction, she had no right to the guardianship of an Irish fairy, and that therefore the Banshee must have made a mistake. Then there is the well-known case related by Lady Fanshawe who tells us how, when on a visit in Ireland, she was a-wakened at midnight by a loud scream outside her window. On looking out she saw a young and rather handsome woman, with dishevelled hair, who vanished before her eyes with another shriek. On communicating the circumstance in the morning, her host replied, 'A near relation of mine died last night in the castle, and before such an event happens, the female spectre whom you have seen is always visible."

"This weird apparition is generally supposed to assume the form of a woman, sometimes young, but more often old. She is usually attired in a loose white drapery, and her long ragged locks hang over her thin shoulders. As night time approaches she occasionally becomes visible, and pours forth her mournful wail-a sound said to resemble the melancholy moaning of the wind. Oftentimes she is not seen. but only heard, yet she is supposed to be always clearly discernible to the person upon whom she specially waits. Respecting the history of the Banshee, popular tradition in many instances accounts for its presence as the spirit of some mortal woman whose destinies have become linked by some accident with those of the family she follows. It is related how the Banshee of the family of the O'Briens of Thomond was originally a woman who had been seduced by one of the chiefs of that race-an act of indiscretion which ultimately brought about her death."

Bantu Tribes : (See Africa.)

Baphomet : The goat-idol of the Templars (q.v.) and the deity of the sorcerers' Sabbath. The name is composed of three abbreviations: Tem. ohp. Ab, Templi omnium hominum pacis abhas, "the father of the temple of universal peace among men." Some authorities hold that the Baphomet was a monstrous head, others that it was a demon in the form of a goat. An account of a veritable Baphometic idol is as follows: "A pantheistic and magical figure of the Absolute. The torch placed between the two horns, represents the equilbrating intelligence of the triad. The goat's head, which is synthetic, and unites some characteristics of the dog, bull, and ass, represents the exclusive responsibility of matter and the expiation of bodily sins in the body. The hands are human, to exhibit the sanctity of labour; they make the sign of esotericism above and below, to impress mystery on initiates, and they point at two lunar crescents, the upper being white and the lower black, to explain the correspondences of good and evil, mercy and justice. The lower part of the body is veiled, portraying the mysteries of universal generation, which is expressed solely by the symbol of the caduceus. The belly of the goat is scaled and should be coloured green, the semicircle above should be blue; the plumage, reaching to the breast, should be of various hues. The goat has female breasts, and thus its only human characteristics are those of maternity and toil, otherwise the signs of redemption. On its forehead, between the horns and beneath the torch, is the sign of the microcosm, or the pentagram with one beam in the ascendant, symbol of human intelligence, which, placed thus below the torch, makes the flame of the latter an image of divine revelation. This Pantheos should be seated on a cube, and its footstool should be a single ball, or a ball and a triangular stool."

Wright (Narratives of Sorcery and Magic), writing on the Baphomet says :-" Another charge in the accusation of the Templars seems to have been to a great degree proved by the depositions of witnesses; the idol or head which they are said to have worshipped, but the real character or meaning of which we are totally unable to explain. Many Templars confessed to having seen this idol, but as they described it differently, we must suppose that it was not in all cases represented under the same form. Some said it was a frightful head, with long beard and sparkling eyes; others said it was a man's skull; some described it as having three faces; some said it was of wood, and others of metal; one witness described it as a painting (tabula picta) representing the image a man (imago hominis) and said that when it was shown to him, he was ordered to 'adore Christ, his creator.' According to some it was a gilt figure, either of wood or metal; while others described it as painted black and white. According to another deposition, the idol had four feet, two before and two behind; the one belonging to the order at Paris, was said to be a silver head, with two faces and a beard. The novices of the order were told always to regard this idol as their saviour. Deodatus Jaffet, a knight from the south of France, who had been received at Pedenat, deposed that the person who in his case performed the ceremonies of reception, showed him a head or idol, which appeared to have three faces, and said, 'You must adore this as your saviour, and the saviour of the order of the Temple' and that he was made to worship the idol, saying, 'Blessed be he who shall save my soul.' Cettus Ragonis, a knight received at Rome in a chamber of the palace of the Lateran, gave a somewhat similar account. Many other witnesses spoke of having seen these heads, which, however, were, perhaps, not shown to everybody, for the greatest number of those who spoke on this subject, said that they had heard speak of the head, but that they had never seen it themselves; and many of them declared their disbelief in its existence. A friar minor deposed in England that an English Templar had assured him that in that country the order had four principal idols, one at London, in the Sacristy of the Temple, another at Bristelham, a third at Brueria (Bruern in Lincolnshire), and a fourth beyond the Humber.

"Some of the knights from the south added another circumstance in their confessions relating to this head. A templar of Florence, declared that, in the secret meetings of the chapters, one brother said to the others, showing them the idol, 'Adore this head. This head is your God and your Mahomet.' Another, Gauserand de Montpesant, said that the idol was made in the. figure of Baffomet (in figuram Baffometi); and another, Raymond Rubei, described it as a wooden head, on which was painted the figure of Baphomet, and he adds, 'that he worshipped it by kissing its feet, and exclaiming Xalla,' which he describes as 'a word of the Saracens' (verbum Saracenorum). This has been seized upon by some as a proof that the Templars had secretly embraced Mahometanism, as Baffomet or Baphomet is evidently a corruption of Mahomet; but it must not be forgotten that the Christians of the West constantly used the word Mahomst in the mere signification of an idol, and that it was the desire of those who conducted the prosecution against the Templars to show their intimate intercourse with the Saracens. Others, especially Von Hammer, gave a Greek derivation of the word, and assumed it as a proof that gnosticism was the secret doctrine of the temple

Baptism : It was said that at the witches' Sabbath children and toads were baptised with certain horrible rites. This was called the baptism of the devil.

Baptism of the line : A curious rite is performed on persons crossing the equator for the first time. The sailors who are to carry it out dress themselves in quaint costumes. The Father of the Line arrives in a cask, accompanied by a courier, a devil, a hair-dresser, and a miller. The unfortunate passenger has his hair curled, is liberally sprinkled with flour, and then has water showered upon him, if he is not ducked. The origin of this custom is not known, nor is it quite clear what part the devil plays in it. It is said, however, that it may be averted by tipping the sailors.

Baquet : A large circular tub which entered largely into the treatment which D'Eslon, the friend and follower of Mesmer, prescribed for his patients. Puysegur tells us in his book Du Maqnitisme Animal, that in the baquet were placed some bottles, arranged in a particular manner, and partly covered with water. It was fitted with a lid in which were several holes, through which parsed iron rods, connecting the patients, who sat round the contrivance, with the interior of the tub. The operator was armed with a shorter iron rod. While the patients waited for the symptoms of the magnetic treatment, someone played upon a pianoforte, a device which is frequently adopted at seances. The symptoms included violent convulsions, cries, laughter, and vomiting. This state they called the crisis, and it was supposed to hasten the healing process. A commission appointed in 1794 by the French government through the Faculte de Medecine and the Societe royale de Medecine, reported that such practices were exceedingly dangerous, and in nowise proved the existence of the magnetic fluid. Dr. Bell a " professor of animal magnetism" set up a similar institution in England in 1795, using a large oak baquet.

Bar-Lgura : (Semitic demon) Sits on the roofs of houses and leaps on the inhabitants. People so afflicted are called d'baregara.

Barqu : A demon in whose keeping was the secret of the Philosophers' stone.

Barguest, the : A goblin or phantom of a mischievous character, so named from his habit of sitting on bars or gates. It is said that he can make himself visible in the day time. Rich in the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana relates a story of a lady, whom he knew, who had been brought up in the country. She had been passing through the fields one morning, when a girl, and saw, as she thought, someone sitting on a stile: however, as she drew near, it vanished.

Barnaud, Nicholas : A medical doctor of the sixteenth century who claimed to have discovered the Philosophers' Stone. He published a great number of short treatises on the subject of Alchemy, which are contained in the third volume of the Theatrum Chimicum of Zetzner, published at Strasburg, in 1659.

Baron Chacs : (See Busardiar.)

Bartholomew : (See Dee.)

Barn : Caste of priests. (See Semites.)

Basil : an astrologer. (See Italy.)

Basilideans : A gnostic sect founded by Basilides of Alexandria, who claimed to hove received his esoteric doctrines from Glaucus, a disciple of the Apostle Peter. The system had three grades - material, intellectual, and spiritual, and possessed two allegorical statues, male and female. The doctrine had many points of resemblance to that of the Ophites (q.v.), and ran on the lines of Jewish Kabalism.

Bassantin, James : a Scottish astrologer, the son of the Laird of Bassantin, in the Merse, was born in the reign of James IV. ; and, after studying mathematics at the University of Glasgow, he travelled for farther information on the Continent. He subsequently went to Paris, where for some years he taught mathematics in the University. He returned to Scotland in 1562. The prevailing belief of that age, particularly in France, was a belief in judicial astrology. In his way home through England, as we learn from Sir James Melville's Memoirs, he met with his brother, Sir Robert Melville, who was at that time engaged, on the part of the unfortunate Mary, in endeavouring to effect a meeting between her and Elizabeth; when he predicted that all his efforts would be in vain; " for, first, they will never meit together, and next, there will neuer be bot discembling and secret hattrent (hatred) for a whyle, and at length captivity and utter wrak for our Quen by England." Melville's answer was, that he could not credit such news, which he looked upon as "false, ungodly, and unlawful;" on which Bassantin replied, "Sa far as Melanthon, wha was a godly thologue, has declared and written anent the naturall scyences, that are lawfull and daily red in dyvers Christian Universities; in the quhilkis, as in all other artis, God gives to some less, to some mair and clearer knawledge than till othirs; be the quhilk knawledge I have also that at length, that the kingdom of England sall of rycht fall to the crown of Scotland, and that ther are some born at this instant that sall bruik lands and heritages in England. Bot, alace, it will cost many their lyves, and many bluidy battailes will be fouchen first, and the Spaniatris will be helpers, and will take a part to themselves for their labours." The first part of Bassantin's prediction, which he might very well have hazarded from what he may have known of Elizabeth's character and disposition, and also from the fact that Mary was the next heir to the English throne, proved true. Bassantin was a zealous Protestant and a supporter of the Regent Moray. He died in 1569. His principal work is a Treatise or Discourse on Astronomy, written in French, which was translated into Latin by John Tornasesius (M. de Tournes), and published at Geneva in 1599. He wrote four other treatises. Although well versed for his time in what are called the exact sciences, Bassantin, or, as his name is sometimes spelt, Bassantoun, had received no part of a classical education. Vossius observes, that his Astronomical Discourse was written in very bad French, and that the author knew neither Greek nor Latin, but only Scots." Bassantin's Planetary System was that of Ptolemy.

Bat : There is an Oriental belief that the bat is specially adapted to occult uses. In the Tyrol it is believed that the man who wears the left eye of a bat may become invisible, and in Hesse he who wears the heart of a bat bound to his arm with red thread will always be lucky at cards.             (See Chagrin).

Bataille, Dr.: Author of Le Diable au XIX. Siecle. Under the pseudonym of Dr. Hecks he purports to have witnessed the secret rites and orgies of many diabolic societies, but a merely perfunctory examination of his work is sufficient to brand it as wholly an effort of the imagination.

Bathym, also called Marthim : a duke of the Infernal Regions. He has the appearance of a robust man, says Wierius, but his body ends in a serpent's tail. He be-strides a steed of livid colour. He is well versed in the virtues of herbs and precious stones. He is able to trans-port men from one place to another with wondrous speed. Thirty legions obey his behests.

Baton, the Devil's : There is preserved in the marche d' Ancune, Tolentino, a baton which it is said that the devil used.

Battle of Loquifer, The : a tale incorporated in the Charlemagne saga, supposed to have been written about the twelfth century. Its hero is Renouart, the giant brother-in-law of William of Orange, and the events take place on the sea. Renouart and his barons are on the shore at Porpaillart, when a Saracen fleet is seen. He is persuaded to enter one of the ships, which immediately set sail; and he is told by Isembert, a hideous monster, that the Saracens mean to flay him alive. Renouart, armed only with a huge bar of wood, kills this creature, and makes the Saracens let him go, while they return to their own country. It is arranged that Renouart will fight one Loquifer, a fairy giant and leader of the Saracens; and on the issue of this combat the war will depend. They meet on an island near Porpaillart. Loquifer is-in possession of a magical balm, which heals all his wounds immediately, and is concealed in his club; but Renouart, who is assisted by angels, at length succeeds in depriving Loquifer of his club, so that his strength departs. Renouart slays him, and the devil carries off his soul. The romance goes on to tell of a duel between William of Orange and Desrame, Renouart's father, in which the latter is slain. Renouart is comforted by fairies, who bear him to Avalon where he has many adventures. He is finally wrecked, but is rescued by mermaids, and awakes to find himself on the sands at Porpaillart, from which spot he had been taken to Avalon.

Bauer, George : who Latinized his name (a boor or husbandman) into "Agricola," was born in the province of Misnia, in 1494. An able and industrious man, he acquired a considerable knowledge of the principles of medicine, which led him, as it led his contemporaries, to search for the elixir vitae and the Philosopher's Stone. A treatise on these interesting subjects, which he published at Cologne in 1531, secured him the favour of Duke Maurice of Saxony, who appointed him the superintendent of his silver-mines at Chemnitz. In this post he obtained a practical acquaintance with the properties of metals which dissipated his wild notions of their possible transmutation into gold; but if he abandoned one superstition he adopted another, and from the legends of the miners imbibed a belief in the existence of good and evil spirits in the bowels of the earth, and in the creation of explosive gases and fire-damp by the malicious agency of the latter. Bauer died in 1555.

Bave : Daughter of the wizard Calatin. She figures in the famous Irish legend The Cattle Raid of Quelgny. By taking the form of one of Niam's handmaids she succeeded in enticing her away from Cuchulin, and led her forth to wander in the woods.

Bayemon : The grimoire of Pope Honorius gives this name as that of a powerful demon whom it addresses as monarch of the western parts of the Infernal Regions. To him the following invocation is addressed: "O King Bayemon, most mighty, who reigneth towards the western parts, I call upon thee and invoke thy name in the name of the Divinity. I command thee in the name of the Most High to present thyself before this circle, thee and the other spirits who are thy subjects. in the name of Passiel and Rosus, for the purpose of replying to all that which I demand of thee. If thou dost not come I will torment thee with a sword of heavenly fire. I will augment thy pains and burn thee. Obey, O King Bayemon.

Bealings Bells : In February, 1934, a mysterious outbreak of bell-ringing was heard at the residence of Major Moor, F. R.S.,-Bealings, near Woodbridge, Suffolk. From the 2nd of February to the 27th of March the bells of the house rang at frequent intervals, and without any visible agency. The Major meanwhile took careful note of the condition of the atmosphere, state of the wires, and any physical cause which might affect the bells, but, as Mr. Podmore justly points out, he omitted to take precautions against trickery in his own household, and has not even left on record the names of its members, or any facts concerning them.

Beans : A forbidden article of diet. The consumption of beans was prohibited by Pythagoras and Plato to those who desire veracious dreams, as they tend to inflate; and for the purpose of truthful dreaming, the animal nature must be made to lie quiet. Cicero, however, laughs at this discipline, asking if it be the stomach and not the mind with which one dreams?

Bearded Demon : The demon who teaches the secret of the Philosophers' Stone. He is but little known. The demon barbu is not to be confused with Barbatos, a great and powerful demon who is a duke in Hades, though not a philosopher; nor with Barbas, who is interested in mechanics. It is said that the bearded demon is so called on account of his remarkable beard.

Beaumont, John : Author of a Tretise on Spirits, Apparitions, etc., published in 1705. He is described as "a man of hyprochondriacal disposition, with a considerable degree of reading, but with a strong bias to credulity." Labouring under the affection, he saw hundreds of imaginary men and women about him, though, as he adds. he never saw anything in the night-time, unless by fire or candlelight, or in the moonshine. "I had two spirits," he says, "who constantly attended me, night and day. for above three months together, who called each other by their names; and several spirits would call at my chamber door, and ask whether such spirits lived there, and they would answer they did. As for the other spirits that attended me, I heard none of their names mentioned only I asked one spirit, which came for some nights together, and rung a little bell in my ear, what his name was, who answered Ariel. The two spirits that constantly attended myself appeared both in women's habit, they being of a brown complexion, about three feet in stature; they had both black loose net-work gowns, tied with a black sash about the middle, and within the net-work appeared a gown of a golden colour, with somewhat of a light striking through it. Their heads were not dressed in top-knots, but they had white linen caps on, with lace on them about three fingers' breadth, and over it they had a black loose net-work hood."

"I would not," he says, "for the whole world, undergo what I have undergone, upon spirits coming twice to me; their first coming was most dreadful to me, the thing being then altogether new, and consequently most surprising, Bees though at the first coming they did not appear to me but only called to me at my chamber-windows, rung bells, sung to me, and played on music, etc.; but the last coming also carried terror enough; for when they came, being only five in number, the two women before mentioned, and three men (though afterwards there came hundreds), they told me they would hill me if I told any person in the house of their being there, which put me in some consternation; and I made a servant sit up with me four nights in my chamber, before a fire, it being in the Christmas holidays, telling no person of their being there. One of these spirits, in women's dress, lay down upon the bed by me every night; and told me, if I slept, the spirits would kill me, which kept me waking for three nights. In the meantime, a near relation of mine went (though unknown to me) to a physician of my acquaintance, desiring him to prescribe me somewhat for sleeping, which he did, and a sleeping potion was brought me; but I set it by, being very desirous and inclined to sleep without it. The fourth night I could hardly forbear sleeping; but the spirit, lying on the bed by me, told me again, I should be killed if I slept; whereupon I rose and Sat by the fireside, and in a while returned to my bed; and so I did a third time, but was still threatened as before; whereupon I grew impatient, and asked the spirits what they would have? Told them I had done the part of a Christian, in humbling myself to God, and feared them not; and rose from my bed. took a cane, and knocked at the ceiling of my chamber, a near relation of mine then lying over me, who presently rose and came down to me about two o'clock in the morning to whom I said, "You have seen me disturbed these four days past, and that I have not slept: the occasion of it was, that five spirits, which are now in the room with me, have threatened to kill me if I told any person of their being here, or if I slept; but I am not able to forbear sleeping longer, and acquaint you with it, and now stand in defiance of them; and thus I exerted myself about them and notwithstanding their continued threats I slept very well the next night, and continued to do so, though they continued with me above three months, day and night."

Beausoleil, Jean du Chatelot, Baron de : German mineralogist and alchemist, who lived during the first half of the seventeenth century. He travelled over most European countries looking for metals with the aid of a divining ring. In 1626 his instruments were seized under the pretext thatthey were bewitched, and he himself imprisoned in the Bastille, where he died in 1645. In 1617 he published a work entitled Diorisinus, id est definitis verae philisophiae de materia prima lapidis philosophalis. Beausoleil was the greatest of French metallurgists of his time.

Bechard : A demon alluded to in the Key of Solomon as having power over the winds and the tempests. He makes hail, thunder and rain.

Bed : Graham's Magnetic A magnetic contrivance made use of by one Graham, physician and magnetist of Edinburgh. His whole house, which he termed the Temple of Hygeia, was of great magnificence, but particularly did splendour prevail in the room wherein was set the magnetic bed. The bed itself rested on six transparent pillars ; the mattresses were soaked with oriental perfumes; the bedclothes were of satin, in tints of purple and sky-blue. A healing stream of magnetism, as well as fragrant and strengthening medicines, were introduced into the sleeping apartment through glass tubes and cylinders. To these attractions were added the soft strains of hidden flutes, harmonicons, and a large organ. Permission to use this celestial couch, so soothing to shattered nerves, was accorded only to those who sent a written application to its owner, inclosing £50 sterling.

Bees : It is maintained by certain demonologists that if a sorceress ate a queen-bee before being captured, she would be able to sustain her trial and tortures without making a confession. In some parts of Brittany it is claimed for these insects that they are very sensitive to the fortunes and misfortunes of their master, and will not thrive unless he is careful to tie a piece of black cloth to the hive when a death occurs in the family, and a piece of red cloth when there is any occasion of rejoicing. So Linus writes that there are no bees in Ireland, and even if a little Irish earth be taken to another country. and spread about the hives, the bees will be forced to abandon the place, so fatal to them is the earth of Ireland. The same story is found in the Origines of Isodore. "Must we seek," says Lebrun, "the source of this calumny of Irish earth? No; for it is sufficient to say that it is a fable, and that many bees are to be found in Ireland."

Belin, Albert : A Benedictine, born at Besancon in 1610. His principal works are a treaty on talismans and a dissertation upon astral figures, published at Paris in 1671, and again in 1709. He also wrote Sympathetic Powder Justified, an alchemical work, and Adventures of an Unhnown Philosopher in the search for and the manufacture of the Philosopher's Stone. This latter work is divided into four books and speaks very clearly of the manner in which the stone is made. (Paris, 1664 and 1674).

Bell, Dr.: (See Spiritualism.)

Belle-Fleur, La : (See Antichrist.)

Bellenden, Sir Lewis : (See Scotland.)

Belli Paaro : A secret society of Liberia, Africa, the cult of which consists in a description of brotherhood with departed spirits. Dapper, an early author, says of this society: "They have also another custom which they call Belti Paaro, of which they say it is a death, a new birth and an incorporation in the community of spirits or soul with whom the common folk associate in the bush, and help to eat the offerings prepared for the spirits." This description is far from clear, but it is obvious enough that those who join the society desire to be regarded as spiritualised, or as having died and having been brought to life again; and that their society is nothing more than a con-fraternity of all those who have passed through this training in common.

Belloc, Jeanne : A sorceress of the district of Labour, in France, who in the reign of Henry IV. was indicted for sorcery at the age of 94 years. In answer to Pierre Delancre who interrogated her, she stated that she commenced to repair to the sabbatic meetings of Satan in the winter of the year 1609, that she was there presented to the Devil who kissed her, a mark of approbation which he bestowed upon the greatest sorcerers only. She related that the Sabbath was a species of bal masque, to which some came in their ordinary forms, whilst others joined the dance in the guise of dogs cats, donkeys, pigs and other animals.

Belocolus : A white stone with a black pupil, said to render its bearer invisible in a field of battle.

Belomancy : The method of divination by arrows, dates as far back as the age of the Chaldeans. It existed among the Greeks, and still later among the Arabians. The manner in which the latter practised it is described elsewhere,. and they continued its use though forbidden by the Koran. Another method deserves mention. This was to throw a certain number of arrows into the air, and the direction in which the arrow inclined as it fell, pointed out the course to be taken by the inquirer. Divination by arrows is the same in principle as Rhabdomancy (q.v.).

Belphegor : The demon of discoveries and ingenious inventions. He appears always in the shape of a young woman. The Moabites, who called him Baalphegor, adored him on Mount Phegor. He it is who bestows riches.

Benedict IX.: At a time when the papacy was much abused - about the tenth and eleventh centuries, the papal crown was more than once offered for sale. Thus the office fell into the hands of a high and ambitious family who held it for a boy of twelve - Benedict IX. As he grew older the boy lost no opportunity of disgracing his position by his depraved mode of life. But, like his predecessors in the papal chair, he excelled in sorcery and various forms of magic. One of the most curious stories concerning him tells how he made the Roman matrons follow him over hill and dale, through forests and across rivers, by the charm of his magic, as though he were a sort of Pied Piper.

Benemmerinnen : Hebrew witches who haunt women in childbirth for the purpose of stealing new-born infants.

Benjees, The : A people of the East Indies, given over to the worship of the Devil; and whose temples and pagodas are filled with horrible statues of him. The king of Calicut had a temple wholly filled with awful figures of the devil, and which was lighted only with the gleam of many lamps. In the centre was a copper throne, on which was seated a devil,. made of the same metal, with a large tiara on his head, three huge horns and four others which come out of his forehead. On his tongue and in his hand were two figures-souls, which the Indians say, he’s preparing to devour.

Bensozia : According to Don Martin in his Religion de Gaulois, " chief deviless" of a certain Sabbatic meeting held in France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. She was, he says, the Diana of the ancient Gauls, and was also called Nocticula, Herodias, and "The Moon." One finds in the manuscripts of the church at Couserans. that the ladies of the fourteenth century were said to go on horseback to the nocturnal revelries of Bensozia. All of them were forced to inscribe their names in a Sabbatic catalogue along with those of the sorcerers proper, and after this ceremony they believed themselves to be fairies. There was found at Montmorillon in Poitou, in the eighteenth century, a portion of an ancient temple, a bas-relief with the figure of a naked woman carved upon it, and it is not unlikely, thinks Collin de Plancy, that this figure was the original deity of the Bensozia cult.

Beowulf : an Anglo-Saxon saga of great interest. The events in this poem probably took place about the fifth century. Beowulf, himself, was most likely one of the Sons of Light or Men of the Sun, whose business it was to light the powers of darkness until they themselves fell. It is related in this legend how Beowulf fought the monster, Grendel, and succeeded in defeating him-the giant escaping only by leaving his arm in Beowulf’s grip. But Grendel's mother, a mer-woman, came to revenge him and slew many people. Beowulf, hearing of this, took up the quarrel, and diving to the bottom of the sea, where her palace lay, killed her after a fierce fight. Later on Beowulf was made regent of Gothland, and afterwards king, and he reigned for about forty years. He was poisoned by the fangs of a dragon during a mighty struggle, and died from the effects.- He was. buried on a hill named Hronesnas, and was deeply mourned by his people.

Berande : A sorceress burnt at Maubec, in France, in 1577. She was confronted by a damsel whom she accused of sorcery, which the girl denied, whereat the beldame exclaimed, " Dost thou not remember how at. the last dance at the Croix du Pate, thou didst carry a pot of poison? The damsel at this confessed, and was burnt along with her accuser.

Bereschith : Universal Genesis, one of the two parts into which the Kabala was divided by the rabbins.

Berigard of Pisa : Alchemist. (1579 ? - 1664). Owing to his residing for many years at Pisa, this alchemist is commonly known by the appellation given above: but in reality he was not an Italian but a Frenchman, and his name was Claude Guillermet de Berigard, or, as it is some-times spelt, Beauregard. The date of his birth is uncertain, some authorities assigning it to 1579, and others placing it considerably later; but they are agreed in saying that Moulins was his native town, and that, while a young man, he evinced a -keen love for science in its various branches, and began to dabble in alchemy. He appears to have studied for a while at the Sorbonne, at Paris; and, having acquired some fame there on account of his erudition, he was appointed professor of natural philosophy at the University of Pisa. This post he held until the year 1640, whereupon he was assigned an analogous position at Padua, and it was probably in the latter town that his death occurred in 1664. His. most important contribution to scientific literature is Dubitationes in Dialogum Ealilaei pro Terrae immobilitate, a quarto published at Florence in 1632; but he was likewise author of Circulus Pisanus, issued at Udine in 1643, wherein he concerns himself chiefly with commenting on Aristotle's ideas on physics. Berigarde's writings are virtually forgotten nowadays, but they are interesting as documents illustrating the progress of scientific knowledge throughout the seventeenth century.

Berkeley, Old Woman of : (See England.)

Bermechobus : The supposed writings of St. Methodius of Olympus (martyred 311 A.D.) or the saint of the same name who was Patriarch of Constantinople and who died in 946. The real name of the work is Bea-Methodius, a contraction for Beatus Methodivo, which was misprinted "Bermechobus." The work is of the nature of a prophetic Apocalypse, and foretells the history of the world. It was handed down by the Gnostics and was printed in the Liber Mirabilis (q.v.). There are no grounds, however. for the supposition that the work should be referred to either of the saints above mentioned. It recounts how Seth sought a new country in the east and came to the country of the initiates, and how the children of Cain instituted a system of black magic in India. The author identifies the Ishmaelites with those tribes who overthrew the Roman power, and tells of a powerful northern people whose reign will be over-turned by Anti-Christ. A universal kingdom will thereafter be founded, governed by a prince of French blood, after which a prolonged period of justice will supervene.

Bernhelm : (See Hypnotism.)

Berthome du Lignon : called Champagnat, a sorcerer brought to trial at Montmorillon, in Poitou, in 1599. He confessed that his father had taken him to the Sabbath of the sorcerors in his youth, that he had promised the Devil his soul and his body, that His Satanic Majesty had shown him marks of his favour, and that he had even visited him in prison on the previous night. He further confessed having slain several persons and beasts with the magical powders given him by the Enemy of Mankind.

Bertrand, Alexandre : His Traite du Somnambulisme et du Magnetisme Animal en France : See Hypnotism; Spiritualism.

Beryl : Beryl, said to preserve wedded love. and to be a good medium for magical vision.

Bezoar : (red). A precious stone supposed to be possessed of magical properties, and found in the bodies of certain animals. At one time these stones would fetch ten times their weight in gold, being used as a remedy against poison and contagion; and for this purpose they were both taken internally, and worn round the neck. It is said that there are nine varieties of bezoar differing greatly in composition; but they may be generally divided into those which consist mainly of mineral and those which consist of organic matter. A strange origin was assigned to this stone by some of the early naturalists. It is said that the oriental stags when oppressed with years fed upon serpents, which renewed their youth. In order to counteract the poison which was absorbed into their system, they plunged into a running stream keeping their heads only above water. This caused a viscous fluid to be distilled from their eyes, which was indurated by the heat of the sun, and formed the bezoar.

Bhikshu : (See India.)

Biarbi: (See Fascination.)

Bible des Bohemians (See Tarot.)

Bible of the Devil : This was without doubt a grimoire (q.v.) or some such work. But Delancre says that the Devil informed sorcerers that he possessed a bible consisting of sacred books, having a theology of its own, which was dilated upon by various professors. One great magician, continues Delancre, who was brought before the Parliament of Paris, avowed that there dwelt at Toledo sixty-three masters in the faculty of Magic who took for their text-book the Devil's Bible.

Bibliomancy : A method of discovering whether or not a person was innocent of sorcery, by weighing him against the great Bible in the Church. If the person weighed less than the Bible, he was innocent.                  (See Witchcraft.)

Biffant : A little-known demon, chief of a legion who entered the body of one Denise de la Caille (q.v.) and who was obliged to sign with his claws the proces verbal of exorcisms.

Bifrons : A demon of monstrous guise who, according to Wierius, often took the form of a man well versed in Astrology and planetary influences. He excels in geometry, is acquainted with the virtues of herbs, precious stones and plants, and it is said that he is able to transport corpses from one place to another. He is also the one who lights the strange corpse-lights above the tombs of the dead. Twenty six of the infernal regions obey his behests.

Bigois or Bigotis : A sorcerer of Tuscany who, it is said, composed a learned work on the nature of prognostications, especially those connected with thunder and lightning. The book is said to be irretrievably lost. It is thought that Bigois is the same as Bagoe (q.v.), a sibly of Erithryea, but this is merely of the nature of surmise.

Binah: In the supreme triangle of the Kabala the three sides are reason, which they name Kether; necessity, Chochmah; and liberty, Binah.

Biragues, Flaminio de : Author of an infernal-facetious work entitled l'Enfer de la mere Cardine, which treats of the dreadful battle in Hell on the occasion of the marriage of Cerberus with Cardine (Paris, 1595 and '597.) It is a satire on the demonography of the times. Didot reprinted the work in 1793. The author was a nephew of a Chancellor of France, Rene de Biragues.

Birds : It is a common belief among savage tribes that the souls of the dead are conveyed to the land of the hereafter by birds. Among some West African peoples, for instance, a bird is bound to the body of the deceased and then sacrificed, so that it may carry the man's soul to the after-world. The Bagos also offer up a bird on the corpse of a deceased person for the same reason. The South Sea Islanders, again, bury their dead in coffins shaped like the bird which is to bear away their spirits, while the natives of Borneo represent Tempon-Telon's Ship of the Dead (q.v.) as having the form of a bird. The Indian tribes of North-West America have rattles shaped like ravens, with a large face painted on the breast. The probable significance is that the raven is to carry the disembodied soul to the region of the sun.

Birog: A Druidess of Irish legendary origin. She it was who, by her magic, brought Klan and Ethlinn together.

Blrraark: Australian necromancers. (See Necromancy.)

Biscar, Jeanette: A sorceress of the district of Labour in France, who was transported to the witches' Sabbath by the Devil in the form of a goat. As a reward she was suspended in mid-air head

Bisclaveret : The name of the were-wolf (q.v.) in Brittany. It is believed to be a human being, transformed by magic into a fearsome man-devouring beast, which roams about the woods, seeking whom it may slay.

Bitru: Otherwise called Sytry, a great Prince of Hell, according to the demonographer Wierius. He appeared in the form of a leopard with the wings of a griffin. But when he adopted a human appearance for the nonce it was invariably one of great beauty. It is he who awakes lust in the human heart. Seventy legions obey his commands.

Bitumen, in Magic: Bitumen was greatly used in magical practices. Images for the purpose of sympathetic magic were often made of this substance; and it was used in the ceremonies for the cleansing of houses in which any uncleanness had appeared - being spread on the floor like clay.

Black Earth: (See Philosopher's Stone.)

Black Hen, Fast of The : In Hungary and the adjacent countries it is believed that whoever has been robbed and wishes to discover tile thief must take a black hen and along with it fast strictly for nine Fridays. The thief will then either return the plunder or die. This is called "taking up a black fast" against anyone. A great deal of lore concerning black hens may be found in the works of Gubernatis and Friedrich.

Black Magic : Middle Ages. Black Magic as practised in medieval times may be defined as the use of supernatural knowledge for the purposes of evil, the invocation of diabolic and infernal powers that they may become the slaves and emissaries of man's will; in short, a perversion of legitimate mystic science. This art and its attendant practices can be traced from the time of the ancient Egyptians and Persians, from the Greeks and Hebrews to the period when it reached its apogee in the Middle Ages, thus forming an unbroken chain; for in medieval magic may be found the perpetuation of the popular rites of paganism - the ancient gods had become devils, their mysteries orgies, their worship sorcery.

Some historians have tried to trace the areas in Europe most affected by these devilish practices. Spain is said to have excelled all in infamy, to have plumbed the depths of the abyss. The south of France next became a hotbed of sorcery, whence it branched northwards to Paris and the countries and islands beyond, southward to Italy, finally extending into the Tyrol and Germany.

In Black Magic human perversity found the means of ministering to its most terrible demands and the possible attainment of its darkest imaginings. To gain limitless power over god, demon and man; for personal aggrandisement and glorification; to cheat, trick and mock; to gratify base appetites; to aid religious bigotry and jealousies ; to satisfy private and public enmities; to further political intrigue; to encompass disease, calamity and death-these were the ends and aims of Black Magic and its followers.

So widespread, so intense was the belief in the Powers of Evil that it may truly be said the Devil reigned supreme, if the strength and fervour of a universal fear be weighed against the weak and wavering manifestations of love and goodwill, peace and charity enjoined by religion in the worship of God.

Under the influence of this belief the world became to the mind and imagination of man a place of dread. At set of sun, at midnight, in twilight of dawn and eve, the legions of evil were abroad on their mission of terror. A running stream, a lake, or thick forest, held each its horde of malevolent spirits lying in wait for the lonely wayfarer, while the churchyard close to the House of God, the place of the gallows away from the habitation of man, the pestilential marsh, wilderness and mysterious cavern, the barren slopes and summits of mountains, were the dread meeting-places of the Devil and his myrmidons, the scenes of their infamous orgies, the temples of their blasphemous rites.

And the night was troubled by evil and ominous winds blowing from the Netherworld, heavy with the beating of the innumerable wings of the birds of ill-omen presaging woe; the darkness was faintly lit by the flitting phosphorescent forms of sepulchral larvae, waiting to batten on the souls arid bodies of man; of stryges infesting the tombs and desecrating the dead; of incubi and succubi surrounding the homes of the living to bring dishonour and madness to sleeping man and woman and beget monstrous and myriad life of ravenous vampires in search of victims for their feast of blood. Moon and stars might illumine the darkness, but in their beams were spells and enchantments, in their rising and waning the inexorable workings of Fate, while against their light could be seen the dishevelled or naked forms of warlock and witch passing overhead to their diabolical Sabbaths. The familiar happenings and actions of life might be nothing but the machinations of sorcery-to eat and drink might be to swallow evil; to look upon beauty in any form, the sesame to malign influence; to laugh, but to echo infernal mockery and mirth.

In this fruitful soil of superstition and grotesque ignorance, Black Magic sowed and reaped its terrible harvest of evil, persecution, madness and death. Such a state of mind must, of necessity, have induced a weakness of will and imagination specially prone to the influence of hypnotic suggestion by a stronger 'sill, and even more ready to fall an easy prey to self-hypnotism, which must have often been the result of such an atmosphere of foreboding and dread.

The simplest ailments or most revolting diseases, catalepsy and somnambulism, hysteria, and insanity, all these were traced to the power of Black Magic, caused through the conjurations of sorcery. It followed that curative medicine was also a branch of magic, not a rational science, the cures being nothing if not fantastic in the last degree-incantations and exorcisms, amulets and talismans of precious stones, metals or weird medicaments rendered powerful by spells; philtres and enchanted drinks, the cure of epilepsy by buried peach-blossoms, and though in the use of herbs and chemicals was laid the foundation of the curative science of to-day, it was more for their enchanted and symbolic significance that they were pre scribed by the magicians.

History shows us that the followers of the Black Art swarmed everywhere. In this fraternity as in others there were grades, from the pretenders, charlatans and diviners of the common people, to the various secret societies and orders of initiates, amongst whom were kings and queens, and popes, dignitaries of church and state, where the knowledge and ritual were carefully cherished and preserved in manuscripts, some of which are extant at the present day, ancient grimoires (q.v.), variously termed the Black, the Red, the Great Grimoire, each full of weird rites, formulae and conjurations, evocations of evil malice and lust in the names of barbaric deities; charms and bewitchments clothed in incomprehensible jargon, 'and ceremonial processes for the fulfillment of imprecations of misfortune, calamity, sin and death.

The deity who was worshipped, whose powers were invoked in the practice of Black Magic, was the Source and Creator of Evil, Satanas, Belial, the Devil, a direct descendant of the Egyptian Set, the Persian Ahriman, the Python of the Greeks, the Jewish Serpent, Baphomet of the Templars, the Goat-deity of the Witches' Sabbath. He was said to have the head and legs of a goat, and the breasts of a woman.

To his followers he was known by many names, among these being debased names of forgotten deities, also the Black One, the Black He-goat, the Black Raven, the Dog, the Wolf and Snake, the Dragon, the Hell-hound, Hell-hand, and Hell-bolt. His transformations were unlimited, as is indicated by many of his names; other favourite and familiar forms were a cat, a mouse, a toad, or a worm, or again, the human form, especially as a young and handsome man when on his amorous adventures. The signs by which he might be identified, though not invariably, were the cloven hoof, the goat's beard, cock's feathers, or ox's tail.

In all his grotesquery are embedded ancient mysteries and their symbols, the detritus of dead faiths and faded civilizations. The Greek Pan with the goat limbs masquerades as the Devil, also the goat as emblematic of fire and symbol of generation, and perhaps traces of the Jewish tradition where two goats were taken, one pure, the other impure, the first offered as sacrifice in expiation of sin, the other, the impure burdened with sins by imprecation and driven into the wilderness, in short, the scapegoat. In the Hebrew Kabala, Satan's name is that of Jehovah reversed. He is not a devil, but the negation of deity.

Beneath the Devil's sway were numberless hordes and legions of demons and spirits, ready and able to procure and work any and every evil or disaster the mind of man might conceive and desire. In one Grimoire it tells of nine orders of evil spirits, these being False Gods, Lying Spirits, Vessels of Iniquity, Revenge led by Asmodeus, Deluders by the Serpent, Turbulents by Merigum, Furies by Apollyon, Calumniators by Astaroth, and Tempters by Mammon. These demons again are named separately, the meaning of each name indicating the possessor's capacity, such as destroyer, devastator, tumult, ravage, and so forth.

Again each earthly vice and calamity was personified by a demon, Moloch, who devours. infants; Nisroch, god of hatred, despair, fatality; Astarte, Lilith and Astaroth, deities of debauchery and abortion; Adramelek, of murder, and Belial, of red anarchy.

According to the Grimoires, the rites and rules are multifarious, each demon demanding special invocation and procedure. The ends that may be obtained by these means are sufficiently indicated in the headings of the chapters : To take possession of all kinds of treasure; to live in opulence; to ruin possessions to demolish buildings and strongholds; to cause armed men to appear; to excite every description of hatred, discord, failure and vengeance; to excite tempests; to excite love in a virgin, in a married person; to procure adulteries; to cause enchanted music and lascivious dances to appear; to learn all secrets from those of Venus to Mars; to render oneself invisible; to fly in the air and travel; to operate under water for twenty-four hours; to open every kind of lock without a key, without noise and thus gain en-trance to prison, larder or charnel-house; to innoculate the walls of houses with plague and disease; to bind familiar spirits; to cause a dead body to revive to transform one's self; to transform men into animals or animals into men.

These rites fell under the classification of divination, bewitchments and necromancy. The first named was carried out by magical readings of fire, smoke, water or blood; by letters of names, numbers, symbols, arrangements of dots; by lines of hand or finger nails; by birds and their flight or their entrails; by dice or cards, rings or mirrors.

Bewitchments were carried out by means of nails, animals, toads or waxen figures and mostly to bring about suffering or death. In the first method nails were consecrated to evil by spells and invocations, then nailed crosswise above the imprint of the feet of the one who is destined for torment. The next was by selection of some animal supposed to resemble the intended victim and attaching to it some of his 'lair or garments. They gave it the name and then proceeded to torture it, in whole or part according to the end desired, by driving nails, red-hot pins and thorns into the body to the rhythm of muttered maledictions. For like purpose a fat toad was often selected, baptised, made to swallow a host, both consecrated and execrated, tied with hairs of the victim upon which the sorcerer had previously spat, and finally buried at the threshold of the bewitched one's door, whence it issued as nightmare and vampire for his undoing.

The last and most favoured method was by the use of waxen images. Into the wax was mixed baptismal oil and ash of consecrated hosts, and out of this was fashioned a figure resembling the one to be bewitched. It was then baptised, receiving the persons name in full; received the Sacraments, and next subjected to curses, torture by knives or fire; then finally stabbed to the heart. It was also possible to bewitch a person by insufflation, breathing upon them, and so causing a heaviness of their will and corresponding compliance to the sorcerer.

Necromancy (q.v.) was the raising of the dead by evocations and sacrilegious rites, for the customary purposes of evil. The scene of operation might be about pits filled with blood and resembling a shambles, in a darkened and suffocating room, in a churchyard or beneath swinging gibbets, and the number of ghosts so summoned and galvanized into life might be one of legion.

For whatever end, the procedure usually included profanation of Christian ritual, such as diabolical masses and administration of polluted sacraments to animals and reptiles ; bloody sacrifices of animals, often of children; of orgiastic dances, generally of circular formation, such as that of the Witches' Sabbath in which undreamed-of evil and abominations, all distortions and monstrosities of reality and imagination took part, to end in a nightmare of obscene madness.

For paraphernalia and accessories the sorcerers scoured the world and the imagination and mind of man, bending all things, beautiful or horrible to their service. The different planets ruled over certain objects and states and invocations, for such were of great potency if delivered under their auspices. Mars favoured wars and strife, Venus love, Jupiter ambition and intrigue, Saturn malediction and death.

Vestments and symbols proper to the occasion must be donned. The electric furs of the panther, lynx and cat added their quota of influence to the ceremonial. Colours also must be observed and suitable ornaments. For operations of vengeance the robe must be the hue of leaping flame, or rust and blood, with belt and bracelets of steel, and crown of rue and wormwood. Blue, Green and Rose were the colours for amorous incantations; whilst for the encompassing of death black must be worn, with belt of lead and wreath of cypress, amid loathsome incense of sulphur and assafoetida.

Precious stones and metals also added their influence to the spells. Geometrical figures, stars, pentagrams, columns, triangles, were used; also herbs, such as belladonna and assafoetida; flowers, honeysuckle, being the witches' ladder, the arum, deadly nightshade and black poppies; distillations and philtres composed of the virus of loathsome diseases, venom of reptiles, secretions of animals, poisonous sap and fungi and fruits, such as the fatal manchineel, pulverised flint, impure ashes and human blood. Amulets and talismans were made of the skins of criminals, wrought from the skulls of hanged men, or ornaments rifled from corpses and thus of special virtue, or the pared nails of an executed thief.

To make themselves invisible the sorcerers used an unguent compounded from the incinerated bodies of new-born infants and mixed with the blood of night-birds. For personal preparation a fast of fifteen days was observed. When that was past, it was necessary to get drunk every five days, after sundown, on wine in which poppies and hemp had been steeped.

For the actual rites the light must be that of candles made from the fat of corpses and fashioned in the form of a cross; the bowls to be of skulls, those of parricides being of greatest virtue; the fires must be fed with cypress branches, with the wood of desecrated crucifixes and bloodstained gibbets; the magic fork fashioned of hazel or almond, severed at one blow; the ceremonial cloth to be woven by a prostitute, whilst round about the mystic circle must be traced with the embers of a polluted cross. Another potent instrument of magic was the mandragore to be unearthed from beneath gallows where corpses are suspended, by a d6g tied to the plant. The dog is killed by a mortal blow after which its soul will pass into the fantastic root, attracting also that of the hanged man.

The history of the Middle Ages is shot through with the shadows cast by this terrible belief in Black Magic. Machinations and counter-machinations in which church and state, rich and poor, learned and ignorant were alike involved ; persecutions and prosecutions where the persecutor and judge often met the fate they dealt to the victim and condemned-a dreadful phantasmagoria and procession where we may find the haughty Templars, the blood-stained Gilles de Laval, the original of Bluebeard; Catherine de Medici and Marshals of France; popes. princes and priests. In literature also we find its trace, in weird legends and monstrous tales: in stories of spells and enchantments; in the tale of Dr. Faustus and his pact with the Devil, his pleasures and their penalty when his soul must needs pass down to Hell in forfeit; we may find its traces in lewd verses and songs. Art, too, yields her testimony to the infernal influence in pictures, sculptures and carvings, decorating palace and cathedral; where we may find the Devil's likeness peeping out from carven screen and stall, and his demons made visible in the horde of gargoyles grinning and leering from niche and corner, and clustering beneath the eaves.       K. N.                                                                (See Evocation; Familliars; Grimoires; Magic; Necromancy, etc.)

Black Mass : It is known from the confessions of witches sorcerers that the devil also has mass said at his Sabbath. Pierre Aupetit, an apostate priest of the village of Fossas, in Limousine, was burned for having celebrated the mysteries of the Devil's mass. Instead of speaking the holy words of consecration the frequenters of the Sabbath said: "Beelzebub, Beelzebub, Beelzebub." The devil in the shape of a butterfly. flew round those who were celebrating the mass, and who ate a black host, which they were obliged to chew before swallowing.

Black Pullet, The : A French magical publication supposedly printed in 1740, purporting to be a narrative of an officer who was employed in Egypt. While in Egypt the narrator fell in with a magician to whom he rendered considerable service, and who when he expired left him the secret of manufacturing a black pullet which had much skill in gold-finding. In it we find much plagiarism from the Comte de Gabalis (See Elementary Spirits,) and the whole work if interesting, is distinctly derivative. It contains many illustrations of talismans and magical rings. The receipt for bringing the black pullet into existences describes that a black hen should be set to hatch one of its own eggs, and that during the process a hood should be drawn over its eyes so that it cannot see. It is also to be placed in a box lined with black material. The chick thus hatched will have a particular instinct for detecting the places wherein gold is hidden.

Black Veil of the Snip of Thescus: (See Philosopher's Stone.)

Blaekwell, Anna : The most prominent disciple of Allen Kardec in this country. and the ablest exponent of his views. Miss Blackwell herself had psychic experiences-she had seen visions, and spirit forms had appeared on her photographs.

Blake, William : (1757-1927) Poet, Mystic. Painter and Engraver. is one of the most curious and significant figures in the whole history of English literature, and a man who has likewise exerted a wide influence on the graphic arts. He was born in London on the 29th of November, 1757. It would seem that his parents and other relatives were bumble folk, but little is known definitely about the family while their ancestry is a matter of discussion. Mr. W. B. Yeats, who is an ardent devotee of Blake, and has edited his writings, would have it that the poet was of Irish descent but though it is true that the name Blake is common in Ireland to this day, especially in Galway, Mr. Yeat's contention is not supported by much trustworthy evidence, and it is contradicted by Mr. Martin J. Blake in his genealogical work, Blake Family Records.

William manifested aesthetic predilections at a very early age, and his father and mother did not discourage him herein, but offered to place him in the studio of a painter. The young man demurred however, pointing out that the apprenticeship was a costly one, and saying generously that his numerous brothers and Sisters should be considered, and that it was not fair that the family's exchequer should be impoverished on his behalf. Thereafter engraving was suggested to him as a profession, not just because it necessitated a less expensive training than painting, but also as being more likely than the latter to yield a speedy financial return; and accepting this offer, Blake went at the age of fourteen to study under James Basire, an engraver whose plates are but little esteemed to-day, yet who enjoyed considerable reputation while alive, and was employed officially by the Society of Antiquaries. Previous to this a more noted manipulator of the burin, William Ryland, a protege of George III, bad been suggested as one who would probably give a capital training to the boy: but the latter, on being taken to see Ryland, evinced a strong dislike for him, and refused stoutly to accept his teaching, declaring that the man looked as though born to be hanged. And it is interesting to note that the future artist of the Prophetic Books was right, for only a few years later Ryland was convicted of forgery, and forfeited his life in consequence.

Blake worked under Basire for seven years, and during the greater part of his time the pupil was engaged mainly in doing drawings of Westminster Abbey, these being destined to illustrate a huge book then in progress, the Sepulchral Monuments of Richard. Gough. It is said that Blake was chosen by his master to go and do these drawings not so much because he showed particular aptitude for draughtmanship. as because he was eternally quarrelling with his fellow-apprentices: and one may well believe, indeed, that the young artist was convinced of his superiority to his confreres, and made enemies by failing to conceal this conviction, Whilst at the Abbey. Blake asserted that he saw many visions. In 1779, he entered the Royal Academy School, then recently founded: and here he continued his studies under George Moser, a chaser and enameller who engraved the first great seal of George III. Yet it was not to Moser that the budding visionary really looked for instruction, he was far more occupied with studying prints after the old masters, especially Michael Angelo and Raphael; and one day Rosa found him engaged thus, reproved him kindly but firmly, and told him he would be acting more wisely if he took Charles le Brun as his exemplar. He even hastened to show the pupil a volume of engravings after that. painter, so redolent. always of the worst tendencies of le grand siecle; and, with this incident in mind, it may be assumed that Blake was deeply grateful when, a little later he had shaken off the futile shackles of the Royal Academy. and began to work on his own account. He had to work hard, however, for meanwhile his affections had been engaged by a young woman, Catherine Boucher, and funds were of course necessary ere it was possible for the pair to marry. But Blake slaved manfully with his burin, engraving illustrations for magazines and the like; and in 1792 he had his reward, his marriage being solemnized in that year. His wife's name indicates that she was of French origin. and it would be interesting to know if she was related to Francois Boucher. or to the fine engraver of the French Empire, Boucher - Desnoyers; but waiving these speculations, it is pleasant to recall that the marriage proved a singularly happy one, Blake's spouse clinging to him lovingly throughout all his troubles and privations, and ever showing a keen appreciation of his genius. As regards Catherine's appearance there still exists a small pencil-drawing by Blake, commonly supposed to be a portrait of his wife; and it shows a. slim, graceful woman, just the type of woman predominating in Blake's other pictures ; so it may be presumed that she frequently acted as his model, or-for Blake had no fondness for drawing from nature- that her appearance gradually crystallised itself in his brain, and thus transpired in the bulk of his works.

After his marriage Blake took lodgings in Green Street, Leicester Fields; and feeling, no doubt, that engraving was but a poor staff for a married man to lean upon, he opened a print shop in Broad Street. He made many friends at this period, the most favoured among them being Flaxman, the sculptor; and the latter introduced him to Mr. Matthew, a clergyman of artistic tastes, who, manifesting keen interest in the few poems which Blake had already written, generously offered to defray the cost of printing them. The writer gladly accepted the offer and the result was a tiny volume, Poetical Sketches by W. B. Thus encouraged, Blake gave up his printselling business, while simultaneously he went to live in Poland Street, and soon after this removal he published his Songs of Innocence, the letterpress enriched by designs from his own hand. Nor was this the only remarkable thing about the book, for the whole thing was printed by the author himself, and by a new method of his own invention-a method which can scarcely be detailed here owing to lack of space, but which the reader will find described adequately in Mr. Arthur Hind's monumental History of Engraving and Etching. Blake lived in Poland Street for five years, and during this time he achieved and issued The Book of Thel, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, and the first book of The French Revolution. In 1792 he removed to Hercules Buildings, Lambeth; and while staying here he war forced by dire poverty to do much commercial work, notably a series of illustrations to Young's Night Thoughts, yet he found leisure for original drawing and writing also, and to this period of his life belong the Gates of Paradise and Songs of Experience. In a while he tired of London however, and so he went to Felpham, near Bognor, in Sussex, taking a cottage there hard by where Aubrey Beardsley was to live at a later date, and here he composed Milton, Jerusalem, and a large part of the Prophetic Books, while he made a new friend, William Hayley, who repeatedly aided him with handsome presents of money. The Sussex scenery, beside - afterwards to inspire Whistler and Conder-appealed keenly to the poet, and in one of his lyrics he exclaims

"Away to sweet Felpham, for Heaven is there," while to Flaxman he wrote :-"Felpham is a sweet place for study, because it is more spiritual than London. Heaven opens here on all sides her golden gates; her windows are not obstructed by vapours, voices of celestial inhabitants are more distinctly heard, and their forms more distinctly seen, and my cottage is also a shadow of their houses.

Yet Blake tired of Sussex as he had tired of his former home, and in 1903 he returned to London, taking a house in South Bolton Street. Here again he endured much poverty, and was then forced into doing illustrations to Virgil, and also a series of designs for Blair's Grave; but later his financial horizon was brightened by help from John Linnell, the landscape painter, and shortly after-wards the artist did some of his finest things, for instance his Spiritual Portraits, and his drawings for The Book of Job, while after completing these he commenced illustrating the Divine Comedy of Dante. In 1921 he again changed his home, taking up his abode now in Fountain Court, Strand, and here he continued to work at the Dante drawings; but only seven of them were ever published, for Blake's health was beginning to fail, his energies were slackening, and he died in 1927.

Sixteen years before his death Blake held a public exhibition of his drawings, engravings, illustrations and the like; and the affair was treated with haughty disdain, the only paper which saw fit to print a criticism being The Examiner, edited by Leigh Hunt. It is customary for BIake's idolators of to-day to attempt to heap scorn on those who thus expressed callousness towards his work, and to vituperate more particularly the many people among his contemporaries who showed him frank antagonism, but is not all this noisy blaming of his bygone enemies and critics unnecessarily severe? For it must be borne in mind that the artist came as a complete novelty, the mysticism permeating his pictures having virtually no parallel in English painting prior to his advent. And it should be remembered, too, that Blake as a technician has many grave limitations; and limitations which must have been exasperating to people accustomed to the art of that amazing century which begot masters like Ramsay, Gainsborough and Romney, Watteau and Fragonard, De la Tour and Clodion, all of them producing works eminently graceful and pre-emenently decorative. Now comparing him to any of there men, Blake's modelling appears sadly timid and amateurish, as witness his drawing of himself, or his copy of Laurence's portrait of Cowper; while passing to his draughtsmanship, this is frequently inaccurate, and nowhere embodies the fluency and charming rhythm reflected by nearly all the artists aforesaid. His colour again is often thin and tawdry; while as to his composition, he is admirable only on very rare occasions, the incontestable truth being that, in the bulk of his pictures, the different parts have little or no relation to one another. This is true especially of those of his works which include a vast assembly of figures, yet even in various others of simpler cast this lack of anything like arrangement is equally paramount, and to choose an example, one need only look at "The Door of Death" in America. This is two pictures rather than one, and the spectator's gaze wanders from side to side, fretted and bewildered.

It were injustice to Blake himself, to omit noting these technical flaws in his workmanship, yet it were no less unjust, if not actually ridiculous, to write at any length contrasting him with the other masters of his century; for his outlook and intention were wholly different from theirs, and, lacking their charm and decorative value, he transcends these men withal in divers respects. He is a prince among mystics, his finest drawings are flushed with weirdness and mystery, and he reincarnates visions and phantasies as no one else has done in line and colour, not even Rosetti. For Blake contrived to remain a child throughout the whole of his life, and so, for him, dreams were an actuality, the things he saw in his trances were real and living, and he perpetuated all these things with just that obvious and definite symbolism which a child would naturally use. When he wants to express "Vain Desires' he draws a man trying to reach the stars with the aid of an enormous ladder; in the "Resurrection of the Dead" he delineates actual bodies soaring heavenwards, and when his topic is morning, he shows a nude form shining from the dusky mountain tops; while for Blake "The Door of Death" is an actual stone portal, and when illustrating the text in Job, "With dreams upon my bed Thou scarest me," he is not content to depict a sleeper with a frightened expression on his face, but draws all around the sleeper the imaginary horrors which tormented him - serpents, chains, and distorted human creatures. Now in the hands of most men all this sort of thing would yield nothing but the laughable, yet somehow Blake's drawings, even those which are weakest technically, invariably possess just that curious air of distinction which is the dominant characteristic of all truly great pictures. In fine, he expressed the outlook of a child with a sublime mastery never vouchsafed to children.

If Blake the draughtsman and illustrator was a fierce iconoclast, turning his back resolutely on the styles current in his time, most assuredly Blake the poet, enacted a kindred role, evincing a sublime contempt for the trammels of Augustanism, and thus making straight the way for Burns, for Wordsworth, and for the divine Shelley. Yet just as Burns was tinged slightly by the typical failings of the pastoral century, so also Blake would seem to have found it difficult originally to break his shackles: for occasionally one finds him employing expletives, and this suggests that at first he thought with Pope and his school that verse is futile unless precise; while some of his pictures of child life in Songs of Innocence are unduly pretty and idyllic, almost as idyllic as the scenes in Goldsmith's Deserted Village. Unlike Lowry and Mr. Kenneth Grahame those exquisite adepts in the delineation of children, Blake shows only one side of child-life : for his children are nearly all out for a holiday, they are seldom vexed, or cross, or angry, and their eyes are hardly ever dim with tears. At least, however, they are prone to dream dreams and see visions: and it is significant that, in one poem, the writer describes a child unto whom are revealed things hidden from his

father's eyes :-

Father, O father! what do we here,

In this land of unbelief and fear ?

The land of dreams is better far

Above the light of the morning star."

That verse and many others besides, charm at once by a fusion of complete naturalness with rare beauty: and the genius of Blake in his earlier poems is really this, that with the simple language of childhood, and out of the simple events of child-life, he makes a noble and enduring art-an art, charged as surely as his own drawings with an air of distinction.

Had Blake contented himself with writing his Poetical Sketches, his Songs of Innocence and the subsequent Songs of Experience, the charge of madness could not well have been levelled at him by his contemporaries. It was his later writings like The Book of Thel and the Prophetic Books which begot this imputation, for in these later poems the writer casts his mantle of simplicity to the winds, he sets himself to give literary form to visions, and he is so purely spiritual and ethereal, so far beyond the realm of normal human speech, that mysticism frequently devolves into crypticism. His rhythm, too, is often so subtle that it hardly seems rhythm at all; yet even in his weirdest flights Blake is still the master, he still embodies that curious something which differentiates great art from the rank and file of asthetic products. And if, as observed before, the colouring in many of his water-colour drawings is sadly thin and poor, the very reverse is true, and true abundantly of the poems written towards the close of his life. Glowing and gorgeous tones are omnipresent in these, they have the barbaric pomp of Gautier's finest prose, the glitter and opulence of Berlioz’ or Wagner's orchestration, nay the richness and splendour of a sunset among towering mountains.

No account of Blake would be complete without some account of the literature which has grown up around his name, a literature whereof many items are more than worthy of the topic they celebrate. The earliest systematic biography of the master is that by Alexander Gilchrist, 1963, a book, the more valuable inasmuch as it contains many reproductions of Blake's drawings, notably the whole of the Job set : and since Gilchrist's day the artist's life has been rewritten by Alfred I. Story, 1993, and by Edwin J. Ellis, 1907, while his letters have been collected and annotated by Frederick Tatham, 1906. Much interesting and important matter concerning Blake is contained in The Life and Letters of Samuel Palmer, by A. W. Palmer, 1992 in A Memoir of Edward Calvert by Samuel Calvert, 1993, and in The Life of John Linnell by A. T. Story, 1992, while as regards critical studies of the master, perhaps the best is Swinburne's eloquent tribute, 1969, and further works of note are those of Richard Garnett, Mr. Arthur Symons and M. Basil de Selincourt. The student should also consult Ideas of Good and Evil by W. B. Yeats, 1903, and The Rosetti Papers by W. M Rossetti, 1903, while he will find it advisable to look also at an edition of the Job illustrations containing an able introduction by Mr. Laurence Binyon, 1906. To speak finally of editions of Blake's own writings these are of course numerous, but the only one which is really complete is that edited by E. J Ellis, 1906.              W. G. B.M.

Blanchfleur : Granddaughter of the Duke of Ferrara and heroine of the romance Florice and

Blanchefleur, which is probably of Spanish origin. She and Florice, son of the King of Murcia, loved each other from infancy, and she gave him a magical ring. He was banished for his love and

Blanchfleur was eventually shipped to Alexandria to be sold as a slave. Florice, however, found her there, partly by aid of the mystic ring, and they were happily united.

Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna : was born at Ekaterinoslav Russia, on the 31st of July, 1931. She was the daughter of Colonel Peter Hahn, a. member of a Mecklenburg family settled in Russia. She married, at the age of seventeen Nicephore Blavatsky, a Russian official in Caucasia, a man very much older than herself. Her married life was of short duration as she separated from her husband in a few months. The next year or so she occupied chiefly in travelling, Texas Mexico, Canada and India, were each in turn the scene of her wanderings, and she twice attempted to enter Tibet. on one occasion she managed to cross its frontier in disguise but lost her way, and after various adventures was found by a body of horsemen and escorted homewards. The period between 1949 and 1959, she described as the" veiled" time of her life, refusing to divulge anything that happened to her in these ten years, save stray allusions to a seven years' stay in Little and Great Tibet, or in a " Himalayan Retreat." In 1959 she returned to Russia, where she soon achieved distinction as a spiritualistic medium. Later on she went to the United States where she remained for six years, and became a naturalised citizen. She became prominent in spiritualistic circles in America about 1970. It was there that she founded her school of Theosophy. The idea occurred to her of combining her spiritualistic control" with Buddhistic legends about Tibetan sages, and she professed to have direct "astral" communication with two Tibetan mahatmas.

With the aid of Col. Henry Olcott, she founded in New York, in 1975, the Theosophical Society with a threefold aim: (1) to form a universal brotherhood of man; (2) to study and make known the ancient religions, philosophies and sciences (3) to investigate the laws of nature and develop the divine powers latent in man. In order to gain converts to Theosophy she was obliged to appear to perform miracles. This she did with a large measure of success, but her "methods" were on several occasions detected as fraudulent. Nevertheless her commanding personality secured for her a large following, and when she died, in 1991, she was at the head of a large body of believers in her teaching, numbering about 100,000 persons.            (See Theosophy.)

Blindfolding a Corpse : The Afritans of the Shari Hiver in Central America were wont to blindfold a corpse before burying it, to prevent it from returning to haunt the survivors.

Blockula : (See Scandinavia.)

Bluebeard : (See Gilles de Laval.)

Bodhisattva : is the official in the theosophical hierarchy who has charge of the religion and education of the world. He is the founder of religions, instituting these either directly or through one of his messengers, and after a faith has been founded, he puts it in charge of a Master, though. he still continues the direction of it.

Bodin, Jean : a jurisconsult and student of demonology, who died of the plague in 1596. An Angevin by birth, he studied law in youth and published his Republique, which La Harpe calls " the rerm of the spirit of law," but it is his Demonomanie des Sorciers by which he is known to occultists. In this work he defended sorcery, but propagated numerous errors. By his Colloquium heptaplomeron de abdites rerum sublimium varcanus he aroused very unfavourable opinions regarding his religious views. In it. he discusses in the form of dialogue the theological opinions of Jews, Mussulmans, and deists to the disadvantage of the Christian faith, and although he died a Catholic he professed in his time the tenets of Protestantism, Judaism, sorcery, atheism and deism. The Demonomanie was published in Paris, in 1591, and again under the title of Fleau des demons et des sorciers at Wiort, in 1616. In its first and second books Bodin demonstrates that spirits have communication with mankind, and traces the various characteristics and forms which distinguish good spirits from evil. He unfolds the methods of diabolic prophecy and communication, and those of evocation of evil existences of pacts with the Devil, of journeys through the air to the sorcerers' Sabbath, of infernal ecstasies, of spells by which one may change himself into a werewolf, and of carnal communion with incubi and succubi. The third book speaks of the manner of preventing the work of sorcerers and obviating their charms and enchantments, and the fourth of the manner in which sorcerers may be known. He concludes his study by refuting the work of John Wier or Wierius (q.v.) who, he asserts, was in error in believing sorcerers to be fools and people of unsound mind, and states that the books of that author should be burned "for the honour of God."

Sir Walter Scott says: "Bodin, a lively Frenchman, explained the zeal of Wierius to protect the tribe of sorcerers from punishment, by stating that he himself was a conjurer and the scholar of Cornelius Agrippa, and might therefore well desire to save the lives of those accused of the same league with Satan. Hence they threw on their antagonists' the offensive names of witch-patrons and witch-advocates, as if it were impossible for any to hold the opinion of Naudseus, Wierius, Scot, etc., without patronizing the devil and the witches against their brethren of mortality. Assailed by such heavy charges, the philosophers themselves lost patience, and retorted abuse in their turn, calling Bodin, Delrio, and others who used their arguments, witch-advocates, and the like, as the affirming and defending the existence of the crime seemed to increase the number of witches, and assuredly augmented the list of executions. But for a certain time the preponderance of the argument lay on the side of the Demonologists.

Boehme, Jakob: (1575-1624) : German Mystic. The name of this illustrious mystic and philosopher, who has excited so wide and lasting an influence, is sometimes spelt Beem or Behm, Behmon or Behmont, while commoner still is the form used at the head of this article; but it is probable that Jakob's name was really Bohme, for that spelling savours far more of bygone Germany than any of the multifarious others do. Born in 1575, at Altsteidenberg, in Upper Lusatia, the philosopher came of humble peasant stock, and accordingly his education consisted in but a brief sojourn at the village school of Seidenberg, about a mile from his own home, while the greater part of his childhood was spent in tending his father's flocks on the grassy sides of a mountain, known as the Landskrone. This profession doubtless appealed to a boy of speculative and introspective temperament, but betimes it transpired that Jakob was not strong enough physically to make a good shepherd, and consequently he left home at the age of thirteen, going to seek his fortune at Gorlitz, the nearest town of any size.

To this day Gorlitz is famous for its shoemakers, while in Boehme's time it was a very centre and stronghold of the cobbling industry; so it was to a cobbler that the boy went first in search of employment, and very soon he had found what he wanted. Unfortunately, the few authentic records of his career offer little information concerning his early years, but apparently he prospered tolerably well, it being recorded that in 1599 he became a master-shoemaker, and that soon afterwards he was married to Katharina, daughter of Hans Kantzschmann, a butcher. The young couple took a house near the bridge in Neiss Voistadt -their dwelling is still pointed out to the tourist-and some years later Boehme sought to improve his business by adding gloves to his stock in trade, a departure which sent him periodically to Prague to acquire consignments of the goods in question.

It is likely that Boehme began to write soon after becoming a master-cobbler, if not even at an earlier period, but it was not till he was approaching forty that his gifts became known and appreciated. About the year 1612, he composed a philosophical treatise, Aurora, oder die Morgenrote un Aufgang, and, though this was not printed till much later, manuscript copies were passed from hand to hand, the result being that the writer soon found himself the centre of a local circle of thinkers and scholars, many of them people far above him in the social scale. These did not say that the cobbler should stick to his last, but realised that his intellect was an exceptionally keen one:

and Boehme would no doubt have proceeded to print and publish his work but for an unfortunate occurrence, just that occurrence which has always been liable to harass the man of bold and original mind. In short, a charge of heresy was brought against him by the Lutheran Church; he was loudly denounced from the pulpit by Gregorius Richter, pastor primarius of Gorlitz, and anon, the town council, fearing to contend with the omnipotent ecclesiastical authorities, took possession of the original manuscript of Boehme's work, and bade the unfortunate author desist from writing in the meantime. So far as can be ascertained, he obeyed instructions for a little while, perhaps fearing the persecution which would await him if he did otherwise, but by 1619 he was busy again, compiling polemical and expository treatises; while in 1622, he wrote certain short pieces on repentance, resignation, and the like. These last were the only things from his pen which were published in book form during his lifetime, and with his consent, nor were they of a nature likely to excite clerical hostility; but a little later Boehme circulated a less cautious theological work, Der Weg zu Christa, and this was the signal for a fresh outburst of hatred on the part of the church, Richter storming from his pulpit once again. The philosopher, however, contrived to go unscathed, and, during a brief sojourn at Dresden, he had the pleasure of listening to sundry orations made in his praise by some of his admirers, whose number was now greatly increased, But Boehme was not destined to survive this triumph long, for, struck down by fever at Dresden, he was carried with great difficulty to his home at Gorlltz, and there he died in 1624, his wife being absent at the time

Boehme's literary output divides itself easily and naturally into three distinct sections, and indeed he himself observed this, and drew up a sort of specification wherein he virtually indicated his successive alms. At first he was concerned simply with the study of the deity, and to this period belongs his Aurora; next he grew interested in the manifestation of the divine in the structure of the world and of man, a predilection which resulted in four great works, Die Drei Principien Gottlichens Wes Wescus, Vom Dreifachen Leben der Menschen, Von der Menschwerdung Christi, and Von der Geburt and Bezlichnung Aller Wescu; while finally, he devoted himself to advanced theological speculations and researches, the main outcome being his Von Christi Testamenten and his Von der Chadenwahl: Mysterium Magnum. Other notable work" from his hand, are his seven Quellgeister, and likewise his study of the three first properties of eternal nature, a treatise in which some of his ardent devotees have found Sir Adam Newton's formulae anticipated, and which certainly resembles Schelling's Theogonische Natur.

Alchemist or not himself, Boehme’s writings demonstrate that he studied Paracclsas closely, while they also reflect the influence of Valentine Weigel, and of the earliest protestant mystic, Kaspar Schwenhfeld. Nor was it other than natural that the latter should appeal keenly to the philosopher of Gorlitz, he too being essentially a stout Protestant, and having little or nothing in common with the mystics of other forms of Christianity. That is to say, he is seldom or never dogmatic, but always speculative, true Teuton that he was; while his writings disclose none of those religious ecstasies which fill the pages of Santa Theresa, and he never talks of holding converse with spirits or angels, or with bygone saints; he never refers to miracles worked on his behalf, practically the one exception being a passage where he tells how, when a shepherd boy on the Landskrone, he was vouchsafed an apparition of a pail of gold. At the same time, he seems to have felt a curious and constant intimacy with the invisible world, he appears to have had a strangely perspicacious vision of the Urgrund, as he calls it, which is, being literally translated, primitive cause; and it was probably his gift in these particular ways, and the typically German clearness with which he sets down his ideas and convictions, which chiefly begot his vast and wide influence over subsequent people inclined to mysticism. Throughout the latter half of the seventeenth century, his works were translated into a number of different languages, and found a place in the library of nearly every broadminded English theologian; while they proved a great and acknowledged source of inspiration to William Law, the author of Christian Perfection and A Serious Call to a Devout Life. Since then, various religious bodies, regarding Boehme as their high priest, have been founded in Great Britain and in Holland ; while in America, too, the sect known as Philadelphians owe their dominant tenets to the mystic of Gorlitz. W. S. B-M.

Bogey : Perhaps derived from the Slavonic bog, god. Other forms of the name of this ancient sprite, spectre or goblin are bug-a-boo, boo (Yorkshire), boggart, bogle (Scotland), boggle, ho-guest, bar-guest, boll, boman, and bock. Bull-beggar is probably a form of bu and bogey allied to boll (Northern), an apparition.

Boguet Henri : Grand Justice of the district Saint Claude, in Burgundy, who died in 1619. He was the author of a work full of peurile and ferocious zeal against sorcerers. This book, published at the commencement of the seventeenth century, was latterly burnt because of the inhumanities which crowded its pages. It is entitled Discours des sorciers, with many instructions concerning how to judge sorcerers and their acts. It is, in short, a compilation of procedures, at the majority of which the author has himself presided, and which exhibit the most incredible absurdities and criminal credulity. In its pages we discover the proceedings against the unfortunate little Louise Maillat, who at the age of eight was possessed of eight demons, of Francoise Secretain, a sorceress, who had meetings with the said demons, and who had the Devil for her lover, and of the sorcerers Gros-Jacques and Willirmoz. Claude Gailiard and Roland Duvernois and many others figure in the dreadful role of the sanguinary author's dread judgments. Boguet details the horrible doings of the witches' Sabbath, how the sorcerers caused hail to fall of which they made a powder to be used as poison, how they used an unguent which carried them to the Sabbath, how a sorcerer was enabled to slay whom he would by means of a mere breath, and how, when arraigned before a judge they cannot shed tears. He further enlarges on the Devil's mark which was found on the skins of these unfortunates, of how all sorcerers and magicians possess the power of changing their forms into those of wolves, and how, for these offences they were burnt at the stake without sacrament, so that they were destroyed body and soul. The work terminates with instructions to judges of cases of sorcery, and is often known as the Code des Sorciers.

Boh : A magical word greatly used to frighten children. a Greek word is synonymous with the Latin

"Clamor signifying our English" cry;" and it is possible that the cry of the ox "boo' may have suggested this exclamation, as this sound would quite naturally be very terrifying to a young child. One also suspects some connection between this monosyllable and the " Bogle-boe' or "bwgwly" of Welsh people. According to Warton, it was the name of a fierce Gothic general, whose name like those of other great conquerors was remembered as a word of terror.

Bohmius, Jean : The author of a work entitled Pyschologie, a treatise on spirits, published at Amsterdam in 1632. Of its author nothing is known.

Bolomanoy : (See Belomancy.)

Bonati : A Florentine astrologer who flourished in the thirteenth century. H lived in a most original manner, and perfected the art of prediction. When the army of Martin IV, beseiged Forli, a town of the Romagna, defended by the Count of Montferrat, Bonati announced to the Count that he would succeed in repulsing the enemy, but that he would be wounded in the fray. The event justified his prediction, and the Count who had taken with him the necessary materials to staunch his wound in case the prophecy came true, became a devout adherent of astrology. Bonati became a Franciscan towards the close of his life, and died in 1300. His works were published by Jacobus Cauterus under the title of Liber Astronomicus, at Augsberg. in 1491.

Boniface VIII., Pope : who gained an unenviable notoriety in Dante's Inferno has been regarded by many as an exponent of the black art, and so romantic are the alleged magical circumstances connected with him that they are worthy of repetition. Boniface, a noted jurisconsult, was born at Anagni. about 1229, and was elected Pope in 1294. He was a sturdy protagonist of papal supremacy, and before he had been seated two years on the throne of St. Peter he quarrelled seriously with Phillippe le Bel, King of Prance, whom he excommunicated. This quarrel originated in the determination of the king to check in his own dominions the power and insolence of the church and the ambitious pretensions of the see of Rome. In 1303, Phillippe's ministers and agents, having collected pretended evidence in Italy, boldly accused Boniface of heresy and sorcery, and the king called a council at Paris to hear witnesses and pronounce judgment. The pope resisted, and refused to acknowledge a council not called by himself; but the insults and outrages to which he was exposed proved too much for him, and he died the same year, in the midst of these vindictive proceedings. His enemies spread abroad a report. that in his last moments he had confessed his league with the demon, and that his death was attended with "so much thunder and tempest, with dragons flying in the air and vomiting flames, and such lightning and other prodigies, that the people of Rome believed that the whole city was going to be swallowed up in the abyss." His successor, Benedict XI. undertook to defend his memory but he died in the first year of his pontificate (in 1304), it was said by poison, and the holy see remained vacant during eleven months. In the middle of June, 1305, a Frenchman, the archbishop of Bordeaux, was elected to the papal chair under the title of Clement V.

It was understood that Clement was raised to the papacy Boniface in a great measure by the king's influence, who is said to have stipulated as one of the conditions, that he should allow the proceedings against Boniface, which were to make his memory infamous. Preparations were again made to carry on the trial of Boniface, but the king's necessities compelled him to seek other boons of the supreme pontiff, in consideration of which he agreed to drop the prosecution, and at last, in 1312, Boniface was declared in the council of Vienne, innocent of all the offences with which he had been charged.

If we may place any faith at all in the witnesses who were adduced against him, Boniface was at bottom a freethinker, who concealed under the mitre, the spirit of mockery which afterwards shone forth in his country-man Rabelais, and that in moments of relaxation, especially among those with whom he was familiar, he was in the habit of speaking in bold-even in cynical-language, of things which the church regarded as sacred. Persons were brought forward who deposed to having heard expressions from the lips of the pope, which, if not invented or exaggerated, savour of infidelity, and even of atheism. Other persons deposed that it was commonly reported in Italy, that Boniface had communication with demons, to whom he offered his worship, whom he bound to his service by necromancy, and by whose agency be acted. They said further, that he had been heard to hold conversation with spirits in the night; that he had a certain "idol" in which a "diabolical spirit" was enclosed, whom he was in the habit of consulting; while others said he had a demon enclosed in a ring which he wore on his finger. The witnesses in general spoke of these reports only as things which they had heard; but one a friar, brother Bernard de Sorano, deposed, that when Boniface was a cardinal, and held the office of notary to Nicholas III., he lay with the papal army before the castle of Puriano, and he (brother Bernard) was sent to receive the surrender of the castle. He returned with the cardinal to Viterbo, where he was lodged in the palace Late one night, as he and the cardinal chamberlain were looking out of the window of the room he occupied, they saw Benedict of Gaeta (which was Boniface’s name before he was made pope) enter a garden adjoining the palace, alone, and in a mysterious manner. He made a circle on the ground with a sword, and placed himself in the middle, having with him a cock, and a fire in an earthen pot (in quadam olla terrea). Having seated himself in the middle of the circle, he killed the cock and threw its blood in the fire, from which smoke immediately issued, while Benedict read in a certain book to conjure demons. Presently brother Bernard heard ,' great noise (rumorem magnum) and was much terrified. Then he could distinguish the voice of some one saying "Give us the share," upon which Benedict took the cock, threw it out of the garden, and walked away without uttering a word. Though he met several persons on his way, he spoke to nobody, but proceeded immediately to a chamber near that of brother Bernard, and shut himself up. Bernard declared that, though he knew there was nobody in the room with the cardinal, he not only hear( him talking all night, but lie could distinctly perceive strange voice answering him.

Bonnevault, Pierre : A sorcerer of Poitou in the seventeenth century, who was arrested as he was on his way to the Devil's Sabbath. He confessed that on the first occasion he had been present at that unholy meeting he had been taken thither by his parents and dedicated to the Devil, to whom he had promised to leave his bones after death but that he had not bargained to leave his infernal majesty his immortal soul. He admitted that he called Satan master, that the Enemy of Man had assisted him in various magical acts, and that he, Bonnevault, had slain various persons through Satanic agency. In the end he was condemned to death. His brother Jean, accused of sorcery at the same time, prayed to the Devil for assistance, and was raised some four or five feet from the ground and dashed back thereon, his skin turning at the same time to a blue-black hue. He confessed that he had met at the Sabbath a young man through whom he had promised one of his fingers to Satan after his death. He also told how he had been transported through the air to the Sabbath, how he had received powders to slay certain people whom he named, and for these crimes he received the punishment of death.

Bonnevault, Maturin de : Father of the preceding also accused of sorcery, visited by experts who found upon his right shoulder a mark resembling a small rose, and when a long pin was thrust into this he displayed such signs of distress that it was judged that he must be a sorcerer, indeed, he confessed that he had espoused Berthomee de la Bedouche, who with her father and mother practised sorcery, and how he had gone to seek serpents and toads for the purposes of their sorceries. He said that the Sabbath was held four times yearly, at the feasts of Saint John the Baptist, Christmas, Mardi gras and Paques. He had slain seven persons by sorcery, and avowed that he had been a sorcerer since he was seven years of age. He met a like fate with his sons.

Book of Celestial Chivalry : Appeared in the middle of the sixteenth century. It is of Spanish origin; and treats of suppositious knightly adventures, in a semi-romantic, semi-mystical vein.

Book of Sacred Magic: (See Abraham the Jew.)

Book of Secrets : (See Kabala.)

Book of the Dead: An arbitrary title given to an Egyptian funerary work called pert em hru, the proper translation of which is: "coming forth by day," or ' manifested in the light." There are several versions or recensions of this work, namely those of Heliopolis, Thebes and Sais, these editions differing only inasmuch as they were edited by the colleges of priests founded at these centres. Many papyri of the work have been discovered, and passages from it have been inscribed upon the walls of tombs and pyramids. and on sarcophagi and mummy-wrappings. It is undoubtedly of extremely early date: how early it would indeed be difficult to say with any exactness, but in the course of centuries it was greatly added to and modified. In all, about 200 chapters exist, but no papyrus has been found containing. all these. The chapters are quite independent of one another, and were probably all composed at different times. The main subject of the whole is the beatification of the dead, who were supposed to recite the chapters in order that they might gain power and enjoy the privileges of the new life.

The work abounds in magical references, and it is its magical side alone which we can consider here. The whole trend of the Book of the Dead is thaumatmagic, as its purpose is to guard the dead against the dangers which they have to face in reaching the other world. As in most mythologies, the dead Egyptian had to encounter malignant spirits, and was threatened by many dangers before reaching his haven of rest. He had also to undergo judgment by Osiris, and to justify himself before being permitted to enter the realms of bliss. This he imagined he could in great part accomplish by the recitation of various magical formulae, and spells, which would ward off the evil influences opposed to him. To this end every Egyptian of means had buried with him a papyrus of the Book of the Dead, in which was contained at least all the chapters necessary to his encounter with such formidable adversaries as he would meet at the gates of Amenti (q.v.), the Egyptian Hades, and which would assist him in making replies during his ceremony of justification. First amongst these spells were the "words of power" (See "Egypt"). The Egyptians believed that to discover the" secret" name of a god was to gain complete ascendancy over him. Sympathetic magic was in vogue in Egyptian burial practice, for we find in Egyptian tombs of the better sort, paintings of tables laden with viands of several descriptions, the inscriptions attached to which convey the idea of boundless liberality. Inscriptions like the following are extremely common-" To the Ka or soul of so-and-so, 5,000 loaves of bread, 500 geese. and 5,000 jugs of beer." Those dedications cost the generous donors little, as they merely had the objects named painted upon the wall of the tomb, imagining that their kas or astral counterparts would be eatable and drinkable by the deceased. This of course is merely an extension of the neolithic savage conception that articles buried with a man had their astral counterparts and would be of use to him in another world.

Pictorial representation played a considerable part in the magical ritual of the Book of the Dead. One of the pleasures of the dead was to sail over Heaven in the boat of Ra, and to secure this for the deceased one must paint certain pictures and mutter over them words of power. On this, Budge in his Egyptian Magic says "On a piece of clean papyrus a boat is to be drawn with ink made of green abut mixed with anti water, and in it are to be figures of Isis, Thoth, Shu, and Khepera, and the deceased; when this had been done the papyrus must be fastened to the breast of the deceased, care being taken that it does not actually touch his body. Then shall his spirit enter into the boat of Ra each day, and the god Thoth shall take heed to him, and he shall sail about with him into any place that he wisheth. Elsewhere it is ordered that the boat of Ra be painted 'in a pure place,' and in the bows is to be painted a figure of the deceased; but Ra was supposed to travel in one boat (called Atet) until noon, and another (called Sektet) until sunset, and provision had to be made for the deceased in both boats. How was this to be done? On one side of the picture of the boat a figure of the morning boat of Ra was to be drawn, and on the other a figure of the afternoon boat; thus the one picture was capable of becoming two boats, And, provided the proper offerings were made for the deceased on the birthday of Osiris, his soul would live for ever, and he would not die a second time. According to the rubric to the chapter in which these directions are given, the text of it is as old, at least, as the time of Hesepti, the fifth king of the 1st. dynasty, who reigned about B.C. 4350, and the custom of painting the boat upon papyrus is probably contemporaneous. The two following rubrics from Chapters CXXXIII. and CXXXIV., respectively, will explain still further the importance of such pictures

"1. ' This chapter shall be recited over a boat four cubits in length. and made of green porcelain (on which have been painted) the divine sovereign chiefs of the cities; and a figure of heaven with its stars shall be made also, and this thou shalt have made ceremonially pure by means of natron and incense. And behold, thou shalt make an image of Pa in yellow colour upon a new plaque and set it at the bows of the boat. And behold, thou shalt make an image of the spirit which thou dost wish to make perfect (and place it) in this boat, and thou shalt make it to travel about in the boat (which shall be made in the form .of the boat) of Ra; and he shall see the form of the god Ra himself therein. Let not the eye of any man whatsoever look upon it, with the exception of thine own self, or thy father, or thy son, and guard (this) with great care. Then shall the spirit be perfect in the heart of Ra, and it shall give unto him power with the company of the gods; and the gods shall look upon him as a divine being like unto themselves; and mankind and the dead shall fall down upon their faces. and he shall be seen in the underworld in the form of the radiance of Ra.'

"2. 'This chapter shall be recited over a hawk standing and having the white crown upon his head, (and over figures of) the gods Tem, Shu, Tefnut, Seb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Suti, and Nephthys, painted in yellow colour upon a new plaque, which shall be placed in (a model of) the boat (of Ra) along with a figure of the spirit whom thou wouldst make perfect. These thou shalt anoint with cedar oil, and incense shall be offered up to then' on the fire, and feathered fowl shall be roasted. It is an act of praise to Pa as he journeyeth, and it shall cause a man to have his being along with Ra day by day, whithersoever the god vayageth; and it shall destroy the enemies of Ra in very truth regularly and continually.'"

It was understood that the words of power were not to be spoken until after death. They were "a great mystery" but "the eye of no man whatsoever must see it, for it is a thing of abomination for every man to know it. Hide it, therefore, the Book of the Lady of the Hidden Temple is its name." This would seem to refer to some spell uttered by Isis-Hathor which delivered the god Ra or Horns from trouble, or was of benefit to him, and it is concluded that it may be equally efficacious in the case of the deceased.

Many spells were included in the Book of the Dead for the purpose of preserving the mummy against mouldering, for assisting the owner of the papyrus to become as a god and to be able to transform himself into any shape he desired. Painted offerings were also provided for him in order that he might give gifts to the gods. Thus. we see that the Book of the Dead was undoubtedly magical in its character, consisting as it did of a series of spells or words of power, which enabled the speaker to have perfect control over all the powers of Amenti. The only moment in which the dead man is not master of his fate is when his heart is weighed by Thoth before Osiris. If it does not conform to the standard required for justification, he is cast out; but this excepted, an absolute knowledge of the Book of the Dead safeguarded the deceased in every way from the danger of damnation. So numerous are the spells and charms for the use of the deceased, that to merely enumerate them would be to take up a good deal of space. A number of the chapters consist of prayers and hymns to the gods. but the directions as to the magical uses of the book are equally numerous. and the conception of supplication is mingled with the idea of circumvention by sorcery in the most extraordinary manner.

Book of the Sum Total: (See Avicenna and Jean de Menug.)

Book of Thel : (See Blake.)

Boolya: (See Magic.)

Borack : Mahomet's mare which he has put in Paradise. She has a human face, and stretches at each step as far as the furthest sight can reach.

Boreal Virtue: (See Fludd.)

Born, Josephe-Francois: An alchemistical imposter of the seventeenth century, born at Milan, in 1627. In youth his conduct was so wayward that at last he was compelled to seek refuge in a church in dread of the vengeance of those whom. he had wronged. However, he speedily cloaked his delinquencies under the cloak of imposture and hypocrisy, and he pretended that God had chosen him to reform mankind and to re-establish His reign below. He also claimed to be the champion of the Papal power against all heretics and Protestants, and wore a wondrous sword which he alleged Saint Michael had presented him with. He said that he had beheld in heaven a luminous palm-branch which was reserved for him. He held that the Virgin was divine in nature, that she had conceived through inspiration, and that she was equal to her Son, with Whom she was present in the Eucharist, that the Holy Spirit was incarnate in her, that the second and third Persons of the Trinity were inferior to the Father. According to some writers Born proclaimed himself as the Holy Spirit incarnate. He was arrested after the death of Innocent X by order of the Inquisition, and on 3rd of January, 1661, condemned to be burnt as a heretic. But he succeeded in escaping to Germany where he received much money from the Queen Christina to whom he claimed that he could manufacture the Philosophers' Stone. He afterwards fled to Copenhagen, whence he wished to sail to Turkey. But he was tracked to a small village hard by and arrested along with a conspirator. He was sent back to Rome, where he died in prison, August 10th, 1695. He is the author of a work entitled, The Key of the Cabinet of the Chevalier Born (Geneva, 1691) which is chiefly concerned with elementary spirits, and it is this work which the Abbe de Villars has given in an abridged form as the Comte de Gabalis (q.v.).

Borroughs, George : (See America, U.S. of.)

Bors, Bohors or Boort : One of King Arthur's knights. He was associated with Sir Galahad and Lancelot in their search for the Holy Grail. He is the hero of many magical adventures; one of which we relate. During the quest for the Holy Grail, a damsel offers him her love, which he refuses; and she, with twelve other damsels, thereupon threatens to throw herself from a tower. Bors, though of a kindly disposition, thinks they had better lose their souls than his. They fall from the tower, Bors crosses himself, and the whole vanishes, being a deceit of the devil. After the quest is ended Bors comes to Camelot; he relates his adventures, which it is said were written down and kept in the Abbey of Salisbury.

Botanomancy : A method of divination by means of burning the branches of vervein and brier, upon which were carved the questions of the practitioner.

Bottle Imps : A class of German spirits, similar in many ways to Familiars. The following is the prescription of an old alchymist, given by the Bishop of Dromore in his Relics of Ancient Poetry, for the purpose of securing one of these fairies. First, take a broad square crystal or Venetian glass, about tree inches in breadth and length. Lay it in the blood of a white hen on three Wednesdays or three Fridays. Then take it and wash it with holy water and fumigate it. Then take three hazel sticks a year old; take the bark off them; make them long enough to write on them the name of the fairy or spirit whom you may desire three times on each stick, which must be fiat on one side. Bury them under some hill haunted by fairies on the Wednesday before you call her; and on the Friday following dig them out, and call her at night, or three, or ten o'clock, which are good times for this purpose. In order to do so successfully one must be pure, and face toward the East. When you get her, tie her to the glass.

Bourru : A monkish apparition spoken of in many tales as that of an imaginary phantom which appears to the Parisians, walking the streets in the darkest hours of the night, and glancing in at the windows of timid folk-passing and re-parsing a number of times. Nurses are wont to frighten their small charges with the Monk Bourru. The origin of the spectre is unknown.

Boville (or Bovillus), Charles de : A Picard who died about 1553. He desired to establish in his work De sensu the opinion, anciently held, that the world is an animal,-an idea also imagined by Felix Nogaret. Others works by Boville are his Lettres, his Life of Raymond Lully, his Traite des douze nombres, and his Trois Dialogues sur l'Immortalite de l'Ame, le Resurrection, et la Fin du Monde,

Bowls, Magical : (See Magic.)

Boxhorn, Mark Querius : A celebrated Dutch critic, born at Bergen-op.Zoom, in 1612. His Treatise on Dreams (Leyden 1639) is of great rarity.

Braccesco, Jean : A canon and alchemist of Brescia, who flourished in the seventeenth century He gave much study to the hermetic philosophy, and commented upon the work of Geber. His most curious work is The Tree of Life a dissertation upon the uses of the Philosophers' Stone in medicine. (Rome. 1542.)

Bradlaugh, Charles : A prominent member of the Committee of the London Dialectical Society, appointed in 1969 to investigate the alleged phenomena of spiritualism. He and Dr. Edmunds were among those who served on subcommittee No, 5, which held seances with Home, at which the phenomena were not at all satisfactory. The two investigators named therefore signed a minority report, containing a careful and critical treatment of the evidence.

Bragadini, Mark Antony : An alchemist of Venice, beheaded in 1595, because he boasted that he had. made Some gold from a recipe which he had received from a demon. He was tried at Munich, by order of Duke William IL. Two black dogs which accompanied him were also arrested, charged with being familiars, and duly tried. They were shot with an arquebuse in the public square.

Brahan Seer, The : Coinneach Odhar (Kenneth Ore). Although Coinneach Odhar is still spoken of and believed in as a seer throughout the Highlands, and especially in the county of Ross and Cromarty, his reputation is of comparatively recent growth. The first literary reference to him was made by Hugh Miller in his Scenes and Legends of the North of Scotland (1935). About half a century later a collection of the Seer's predictions was published by the late Mr. Alexander Mackenzie, Inverness, the author of several clan histories. Many of these alleged foretellings are of a trivial character. The most important prophecies attributed to Coinneach (Kenneth) are those which refer to the house of Seaforth Mackenzies. One, which is supposed to have been uttered in the middle of the seventeenth century, foretold that the last of the Seaforths would be deaf. It was uttered at Brahan Castle, the chief seat of the Seaforths, near Dingwall, after the seer had been condemned to death by burning, by Lady Seaforth for some offensive remark. He declared to her ladyship that he would go to heaven, but she would never reach it. As a sign of this he declared that when he was burned a raven and a dove would hasten towards his ashes. If the dove was the first to arrive it would be proved his hope was well founded. The same legend is attached to the memory of Michael Scott-a rather suggestive fact. According to tradition, Kenneth was burned on Chanonry Point, near Fortrose. No record survives of this event. The first authentic evidence regarding the alleged seer, was unearthed by Mr. William M. Mackenzie, editor of Barbour's Bruce, who found among the Scottish Parliamentary records of the sixteenth century an order, which was sent to the Ross-shire authorities, to prosecute several wizards, including Coinneach Odhar. This was many years before there was a Seaforth. It is quite probable that Kenneth was burned, but the legendary cause of the tale must have been a" filling in" of late tradition. Kenneth's memory apparently had attached to it many floating prophecies and sayings including those attributed to Thomas and Michael Scott. The sayings of "True Thomas" were hawked through the Highlands in Gaelic chap books, and so strongly did the bard appeal to the imaginations of the eighteenth century folks of Inverness, that they associate him with the Fairies and Fingalians (Fians) of the local fairy mound, Tom-na-hurich. A Gaelic saying runs, "When the horn is blown, True Thomas will come forth."

Thomas took the place of Fingal (Finn or Fionn) as chief of the " Seven Sleepers" in Tom-na-hurich, Inverness. At Cromarty, which was once destroyed by the sea, Thomas is alleged to have foretold that it would be thrice destroyed. Of course, the Rhymer was never in Cromarty and probably knew nothing about it. As he supplanted Fingal at Inverness, so at Cromarty he appear." to have supplanted some other legendary individual. The only authentic historical fact which remains is that Coinneach Odhar war a notorious wizard, and of mature years, in the middle of the sixteenth century. Wizards were not necessarily seers. It is significant that no reference is made to Kenneth in the letters received by Pepys from Lord Reay, regarding second-sight in the seventeenth century, or in the account of Dr. Johnson's Highland tour, although the learned doctor investigated the problem sympathetically.

In the Scottish Highlands no higher compliment could be paid to the memory of any popular man than to attribute to him the gift of "second sight." Rev. John Morrison, minister of Petty, near Inverness, who was a bard, was one of the reputed seers of this order. Many of his" wonderful sayings" were collected long after his death. Rev. Dr. Kennedy, a Dingwall Free Church minister, and a man of strong personality and pronounced piety, is reputed to have had not only the "gift of prophecy" but also the "gift of healing." He was himself a believer in "second sight" and stated that his father was able to foretell events. In his The Days of the Fathers in Ross-shire (1961), he makes reference to several individuals who were similarly "gifted" with what he believed to be a God-given power. One of his seers was reputed to have foretold the "Disruption" of the Church of Scotland about sixteen years before the event took place. By this time the seers had acquired the piety of the people who believed in them. Even the notorious Kenneth, the Brahan seer a Pagan and a wizard, became glorified by doubtful tradition, like the notorious Michael Scott, one of his prototype".

References to second sight in the Highlands are made in the following publications: Kirk's Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies Martin's Western Isles of Scotland; Deuterosophia (Second Knowledge) or a Brief Discourse concerning Second Sight by Rev. John Frazer (Edinburgh, Ruddiman, Aned and Co, 1763), Miscellanies by John Aubrey, F.R.S (London, 1696). That there is sufficient evidence to justify the serious investigation of "Second sight" phenomena in the Scottish Highlands, no doubt can remain. But that is no reason why the Bra Ii an Seer" legends should be accepted as genuine, especially when it is found that Kenneth died before the Seaforth branch of the Mackenzies came into existence. Whoever foretold the fall of that house. it was certainly not the "notorious wizard" of the Scottish Parliamentary records. No doubt, Kenneth made himself notorious by tyrannizing over a superstitious people in the sixteenth century, and was remembered on that account. During his lifetime he must have been credited with many happenings supposed to have been caused by his spells. After his death he gathered an undeserved reputation for prophecy and piety by the snowball process-a not unfamiliar happening in the past of the Scottish Highlands, where Sir William Wallace, St. Patrick, St. Bean, and others were reputed to have been giants who flung glaciated boulders from hill-top to hill-top across wide glens and over lochs of respectable dimensions. DONALD MACKENZIE.

Brahma Charin : (See India,)

Braid : (See Hypnotism.)

Breathings, The : One of the methods of yoga practice. There are three varieties of breathing amongst yogis: (s) by quite emptying the lungs. and holding them so as long as possible; (2) by filling the lungs as full as may be: and (3) by merely retaining whatever breath happens to be in them. 'It is thus possible to suppress thought, thereby saving up much vital force.

Bredis : French medium. (See France.)

Briah : In the Kabala, the third of the three stages of spirit progress, the three original ranks or classes. Men are called upon to proceed from the lower to the higher. In the Apocalypse Briah is represented as the feet of " the mighty angel with the face of the sun."

Briatic World : (See Kabala.)

Briccriu : surnamed "of the Poisoned Tongue": an Ulster chieftain mentioned in the myth of Cuchulain, a medieval Irish romance. It is said that upon one occasion he asked certain warriors to a feast, and started the question of which of them was the greatest. Conall, Laery, and Cuchulain, were selected, and a demon called " The Terrible" was requested to decide the point. He suggested who. ever could cut off his, The Terrible's, head to-day, and allow his own head to be cut off on the morrow, would be the most courageous, and therefore most deserve the title of champion. Cuchulain succeeded in beheading the devil, who immediately picked up his head and vanished. The next day he reappeared in his usual form in order to cut off Cuchulain's head. On his placing his head on the block, the demon told him to rise, and acknowledged that he was champion of Ireland.

Bridge of Souls : The superstition that the souls of the dead sought the other world by means of a bridge is pretty widely disseminated. The Rev. S. Baring Gould in his Book of Folklore says: "As peoples became more civilised and thought more deeply of the mystery of death, they conceived of, a place where the souls lived on, and being puzzled to account for the rainbow, came to the conclusion that it was a bridge by means of which spirits mounted to their abode above the clouds. The Milky Way was called variously the Road of the Gods or the Road of Souls. Among the Norsemen, after Odin had constructed his heavenly palace, aided by the dwarfs, he reared the bridge Bifrost, which men call the rainbow, by which it could be reached. It is of three colours; that in the middle is red, and is of fire, to consume any unworthy souls that would venture up the bridge. In connection with this idea of a bridge uniting heaven and earth, up which souls ascended, arose the custom of persons constructing bridges for the good souls of their kinsfolk, On runic grave-stones in Denmark and Sweden we find such inscriptions as these 'Nageilfr had this bridge built for Anund, his good son.' 'The mother built the bridge for her only son.' 'Holdfast had the bridge constructed for Hame, his father, who lived in Viby.' 'Holdfast had the road made for Igul and for Urn, his dear wife.' At Sundbystein, in the Uplands, is an inscription showing that three brothers and sisters erected a bridge over a ford for their father.

The bridge as a means of passage for the soul from this earth to eternity must have been known also to the Ancients for in the cult of Demeter, the goddess of Death, at Eleusis, where her mysteries were gone through, in order to pass at once aiter death into Elyisium, there was an order of Bridge priestesses; and the goddess bore the name of the Lady of the Bridge. In Rome also the priest was a bridge-builder pontifex., as he undertook the charge of souls. In Austria and parts of Germany it is still supposed that children's souls are led up the rainbow to heaven. Both in England and among the Chinese it is regarded as a sin to point with the finger at the bow. With us no trace of the idea that it is a Bridge of Souls remains. Probably this was thought to be a heathen belief and was accordingly forbidden, for children in the North of England to this day when a rainbow appears, make a cross on the ground with a couple of twigs or straws, "to cross out the bow." The West Riding recipe for driving away a rainbow is "Make a cross of two sticks and lay four pebbles on it, one at each end."

Brig of Dread, The : There is an old belief, alluded to by Sir Walter Scott, that the soul, on leaving the body, has to pass over the Brig of Dread, a bridge as narrow as a thread, crossing a great gulf. If the soul succeed in passing it he shall enter heaven, if he falls off he is lost.

Brimstone : Pliny says that houses were formerly hallowed against evil spirits by the use of Brimstone.

Brisin : An enchantress who figures in the Morte d'Arthur. She plays an important part in the annunciation of Galahad and the allurement of Lancelot.

British National Association of Spiritualists : A society formed in 1973, mainly through the instrumentality of Mr. Dawson Rogers, to promote the interests of spiritualism in Great Britain. It numbered among its original vice-presidents and members of council the most prominent spiritualists of the day-Benjamin Coleman, Mrs. Makdongall Gregory, Sir Charles Isham, Messrs. Jacken, Dawson Rogers. and Moreli Theobald, Drs. Wyld, Stanhope Speer. and many others-while many eminent people of other lands joined the association as corresponding members. The B.N.A.S. in 1992 decided to change its name to "The Central Association of Spiritualists." Among its committees was one for systematic research into the phenomena of spiritualism, in which connection some interesting scientific experiments were made in 1979. Early in 1992 conferences were held at the Association's rooms, presided over by Professor Barrett, which resulted in the formation of the Society for Psychical Research. Many members of the latter society were recruited from the council of the B.N.A.S., such as the Rev. Stainton Moses, Dr. George Wyld, Messrs. Dawson Rogers, and Morell Theobald. The B.N.A .S. was at first associated with the Spiritualist, edited by W. H. Harrison, but in 1979 the reports of its proceedings were transferred to Spiritual Notes, a paper which, founded in the previous year, came to an end in 1991, as did also the Spiritualist. in the latter year Dawson Rogers founded Light, with which the society was henceforth associated. From the beginning of its career, the B.N.A .5. has held itself apart from religious and philosophical dogmatism, and has included among its members spiritualists of all sects and opinions.

British Spiritual Telegraph : Spiritualistic journal. (See Spiritualism.)

Britten, Mrs. Emma Hardinge : Mrs. Emma Hardinge, afterwards Mrs. Hardinge Britten, was a distinguished "inspirational" speaker, a native of London, but whose first championship of spiritualism was carried out in America. In 1965 she came to Britain with the intention of retiring from active service, but was persuaded by the spiritualists there to continue her labours. Her eloquent extempore lectures, delivered presumedly under spirit control, dealt often with subjects chosen by the audience, and were of a lofty and erudite character. She was the author of a History of Modern American Spiritualism, and a careful, if biased resume' of spiritualism in all parts of the world, entitled Nineteenth Century Miracles.

Broceliande : A magic forest in Brittany, which figures in the Arthurian legend. It was in this place that Merlin was enchanted by Nimue or Viviana, Lady of the Lake, and imprisoned beneath a huge stone. The name Broceliande is often employed as symbolic of the dim unreality of legendary scenery.

Brohou, Jean : A physician of Coutarces, in the seventeenth century. He was the author of an Almanack or Journal of Astrology, with prognostications for the year 1572, (Rouen, 1571), and a Description d'une Merveilleuse et Prodiigeuse Comete, with a treatise on comets, and the events they prognosticate (Paris, 1569).

Broichan, or Druid : (See Celts.)

Broom : In Romania and Tuscany it is thought that a broom laid beneath the pillow will keep witches and evil spirits away.

Broomstick : Witches were wont to ride through the air on switches or broomsticks, on their nocturnal journey to the Sabbath. Does the broomstick magically take the place of a flying home?

Brotherhood of the Trowel : An esoteric society which sprang up at Florence towards the end of the fifteenth century, which was composed of eminent architects, sculptors and painters; and continued in existents for over four hundred years. Their' patron was St. Andrew, whose festival was commemorated annually by ceremonies allied to the old Mysteries.

Brothers of Purity : An association of Arab philosophers founded at Bosra in the tenth century.. They had forms of initiation, and they wrote many works which were afterwards much studied by the Jews of Spain

Brown, John Mason: on prophecy by American medicine man.              (See Divination.)

Browne, Sir Thomas : A learned English medical man who died in 1692 at an advanced age. Besides his famous Religio Medici and Urn Burial, he was chiefly celebrated by the manner in which he combatted popular errors in a work entitled Pseudodoxia Epadinium. an essay on popular errors,-an examination of many circumstances in his time received as veritable facts, and which he proved to be false or doubtful. But frequently the learned author replaces one error by another, if on the whole his book is wonderfully accurate considering the date of its composition. The work is divided into seven books, the first of which deals with those errors which spring from man's love of the marvellous; the second, errors arising from popular beliefs concerning plants and metals, the third, absurd beliefs connected with animals; the fourth book treats of errors relative to man; the fifth, errors recorded by pictures; the sixth deals with cosmographical and historical errors; and the seventh, with certain commonly accepted absurdities concerning the wonders of the world. For the publication of this work he was charged with atheism, which drew from him his famous Religio Medica

Bruhesen, Peter Van : A Dutch doctor and astrologer who died at Bruges, in 1571. He published in that town in 1550 a Grand and Perpetual Almanack in which he scrupulously indicated by the tenets of judicial astrology the correct days for bathing, shaving, hair-cutting and so forth. The work caused offence to a certain magistrate of Bruges who plied the tonsorial trade, with the result that there appeared against Bruhesen's volume another Grand and Perpetual AImanack, with the flippant subtitle a scourge for empirics and charlatans. This squib was published by a rival medico, Francois Rapaert, but Peter Haschaerts, a surgeon, and a protagonist of astrological science, warmly defended Bruhesen in his Astrological Buckler.

Bruillant : One of the actors mentioned in the Grand Saint Graal. He it was who discovered the Grail Sword in Solomon's ship, and with it slew Lambor. For this use of the holy sword, however, the whole of Britain suffered, for no wheat grew, the fruit trees bare no fruit, and there was no fish in the sea. Bruillant himself was punished with death.

Buckingham, Duke of : (See England.)

Buddhic Plane : (See Intuitional World.)

Buer : According to Wierius, a demon of the second class. He has naturally the form of a star, and is gifted with a knowledge of philosophy and of the virtues of medicinal herbs. He gives domestic feliticy and health to the sick. He has charge over fifteen legions.

Buguet : A French photographer who came to London in 1874 and there produced spirit photographs with considerable skill. Many persons claimed to recognise their friends in the spirit pictures, and even after Buguet bad been arrested, and had confessed that he had resorted to trickery, there were yet a number of persons who refused to believe that he was a fraud, and thought that he had been bribed to confess trickery of which he was innocent. (See Spirit Photography.)

Bune : According to Wierius a most powerful demon, and one of the Grand Dukes of the Infernal Regions. His form is that of a man. He does not speak save by signs only, He removes corpses, haunts cemeteries, and marshals the demons around tombs and the places of the dead. He enriches and renders eloquent those who serve him. Thirty legions of the infernal army obey his call. The demons who own his sway called Bunis, are regarded by the Tartars as exceedingly evil. Their power is great and their number immense. But their sorcerers are ever in communication with these demons by means of whom they carry on their dark practices.

Burgot, Pierre : A werewolf, burned at Besancon in 1521 with Michel Verdun (q.v.).

Burial with Feet to the East : It was formerly the custom among Christians to bury their dead with the feet towards the east and head towards the west. Various reasons are given for this practice, some authorities stating that the corpse was placed thus in preparation for the resurrection, when the dead will rise with their faces towards the east. Others think this mode of burial is practised in imitation of the posture of prayer.

Burma : A country east of India and south of China, and a province of British India, inhabited by an indigenous stock of Indo-Chinese type which originally migrated from Western China, at different periods, and which is now represented by three principal divisions, the Talaings, the Shans, and the Bama, or Burmese proper, although groups of several other allied races are found in the more remote portions of the country. The civilised part of the community, which, roughly speaking, is perhaps one half of the population, recognizes a religion the constituents of which are animism (q.v.) and Indian Brahmanic demonolatry, modified to some extent by Buddhistic influences, and this cult is steadily making progress in the less enlightened and outlying tribes. We have here to do only with that portion of the popular belief which deals with the more directly occult and with superstition, and we shall refrain from any description of Burmese religion proper which presents similar features to those cults from which it takes its origin, and which are fully described elsewhere.

The Burmese believe the soul immaterial and independent of the body, to which it is only bound by special attraction. It can quit and return to the body at will, but can also be captured and kept from returning to it. After death the' soul hovers near the corpse as an invisible butterfly, known as leippya. A witch or demon may capture the leippya while it wanders during the hours of sleep, when sickness is sure to result. Offerings are made to the magician or devil to induce him to release the soul. The Kachins of the Northern Hills of Burma believe that persons having the evil eye possess two souls, the secondary soul being the cause of the malign influence.

Belief in Spirits.-Belief in spirits, mostly malign, is very general in Burma, and takes a prominent place in the religious belief of the people. The spirits of rain, wind and the heavenly bodies are in that condition of evolution which usually result' in their becoming full-fledged deities, with whom placation gives place to worship.

But the spirits of the forest are true demons with well-marked animistic characteristics. Thus the nat or seiktha dwells in every tree or grove. His nature is usually malign, but occasionally we find him the tutelar or guardian of a village. In any case he possesses a shrine where he may be propiatiated by gifts of food and drink. Several of these demoniac figures have almost achieved godhead, so widespread have their cults become, and Hmin Nat, Chiton, and Wannein Nat, may be instanced as fiends of power. the dread of which has spread across extensive districts. The nats are probably of Indian origin, and although now quite animistic in character may at one time have been members of the Hindu pantheon. Many spirit families such as the Seikkaso, Akathaso, and Bommaso, who inhabit various parts of the jungle trees, are of Indian origin. The fulfillment of every wish depends upon the nats or spirits, who are all powerful as far as man is concerned. They are innumerable. Every house' has its complement, who swarm in its several rooms and take up their abode in its hearth, door-posts, verandahs, and corners. The nats also inhabit or inspire wild beasts, and all misfortune is supposed to emanate from them. The Burmans believe' that the more materialistic dead haunt the living with a malign purpose. The people have a great dread of their newly deceased ancestors, whom they imagine to haunt. the vicinity of their dwellings for the purpose of ambushing them. No dead body may be carried to a cemetery except by the shortest route, even should this necessitate the cutting a hole in the wall of the house. The spirits of those who have died a violent death haunt the scene of their fatality. Like the ancient Mexicans (See Ciupipiltin), the Burmans have a great dread of the ghosts of women who have died in childbed. The Kachins believe such women to turn. into vampires (swawmx) who are accompanied by their children when these die with them. The spirits of children are often supposed to inhabit the bodies of cats and dogs. The Burmans are' extremely circumspect as to how they speak and act towards the inhabitants of the spirit-world, as they believe that disrespect or mockery will at once bring down upon them misfortune or disease. An infinite' number of guardian spirits is .included in the Burman demonological system, and these are chiefly supposed to be Brahmanic importations. These dwell in the houses like the evil nats, and are the tutelars of village communities, and even of clans. They are duly propitiated, at which ceremonies rice, beer, and tea-salad are offered to them. Women are employed as exorcists in a case of driving out the evil nats, but at the festivals connected with the guardian nats they are not permitted to officiate.

Necromancy and Occult Medicine.-Necromancy is of general occurrence among the Burmese. The weza or wizards are of two kinds, good and evil, and these are again each subdivided into four classes, according to the materials which they employ, as, for example, magic squares, mercury or iron. The native doctors profess. to cure the diseases caused by witchcraft, and often specialise in various ailments. Besides being necromantic, medicine is largely astrological. There is said to be in Lower Burma a town of wizards at Kale Thaungtot on the Chindwin River, and many journey thence to have' the effects of bewitchment neutralised by its chief. Sympathetic magic is employed to render an enemy sick. Indian and native alchemy and cheiromancy are exceedingly rife. Noise is the universal method of exorcism, and in casc3 of illness the patient is often severely beaten, the idea being that the fiend which possesses him is the sufferer.

Mediums and Exorcists.-The tumsa or natsaw are magicians, diviners, or "wise" men and women who practise their arts in a private' and not in a hierophantic capacity among the' rural Burmans. The wise man physician who works in iron (than weza) is at the head of his profession, and sells amulets which guard the purchasers from injury. female mediums profess to be the spouses of certain nats, and can only retain their supernatural connection with a certain spirit so long as they are wed to him. With the exorcists training is voluntary and even perfunctory. But with the mediums it is severe and prolonged. Among the civilised Burmans. a much more exhaustive apprenticeship is demanded. Indeed a thorough and intricate knowledge of some' departments of magical and astrological practice is necessary to recognition by the brotherhood, the entire art of which is medico-magical. consisting of the exorcism of evil spirits from human beings and animals. The methods employed are such as usually accompany exorcism among all semi-civilised peoples, that is, dancing, flagellation of the afflicted person, induction of ecstasy, oblation to the' fiend in possession, and noise'.

Prophecy and Divination.-These are purely popular in Burma, and not hierophantic, and in some measure are controlled by the use of the Deitton, an astrological book of Indian origin. The direction in which the blood of a sacrificed animal flows, the knots in. torn leaves, the length of a split bamboo pole, and the whiteness or otherwise' of a hard-boiled egg, serve among others as methods of augury. But by far the most important mode of divination in use in Burma is that by means of the' bones of fowls. It is indeed universal as deciding all the difficulties of Burmese existence. Those' wing or thigh bones in which the' holes exhibit regularity are chosen. Pieces of bamboo are inserted into these holes, and the resulting slant of the stick defines the augury. If the stick slants outwards it decides in favour of the measure under test, If it slants inwards, the omen is unfavourable. Other methods of divination are by the entrails of animals and by the contents of blown eggs.

Astrology.-Burmese astrology derives both from Indian and Chinese' sources, and powerfully affects the entire people. Every Burman is fully aware from his private astrologer, of the' trend of his horoscope regarding the near future, and while active and enterprising on his lucky days, nothing will induce him to undertake any form of work should the day be' pyatthadane or ominous. The' Bedinsaya, or astrologers proper, practise a fully developed Hindu astrology, but they are few in number, and are practically neglected for the' rural soothsayers, who follow the Chinese system known as Hpewan, almost identical with the Taoist astrological tables of Chinese' diviners. From this system are' derived horoscope's, fortune's, happy marriage's, and prognostications regarding business affairs. But in practice' the' system is often confounded with the Buddhist calendar and much confusion results. The Buddhist calendar is in popular use', whilst the' Hpewan is purely astrological. Therefore' the Burman who is ignorant of the latter must perforce consult an astrologer who is able' to collate the two regarding his lucky and unlucky days. The' chief horoscopic influences are day of birth, day of the week, which is represented by the' symbol of a certain animal, and the position of the dragon's mouth to the terminal syllables of the day-names.

Magic.-Burmese magic consists in the' making of charms the' manufacture of occult medicine which will cause' hallucination, second sight, the prophetic state, invisibility, or invulnerability. It is frequently "sympathetic." (See Magic) and overlaps into necromancy and astrology. It doe's not appear to be at all ceremonial, and is to a great extent unsophisticated, save where it has been influenced by Indian and Buddhist monks, who also draw on native sources to enlarge their own knowledge.

LITERATURE.-Temple, The Thirty-seven Nats, 1906; Scott and Hardiman, Gazeteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States, 1900-1901 The Indian Antiquary, Vols. XVII.-XXXVI.; Fielding Hall, The Soul of a people.

Busardier : An alchemist of whom few particulars are on record. He' lived at Prague' with a noble Courtier. Falling sick and feeling the approach of death, he' sent a letter to his friend Richtausen, at Vienna, asking him to come' and stay with him during his last moments, Richtausen set out at once but on arriving at Prague found that Busardier was dead. On inquiring if the adept had left anything behind him the' steward of the nobleman with whom he' had lived stated that only some powder had been left which the' nobleman desired to preserve. Richtausen by some' means got possession- of the powder and took his departure. On discovering this the nobleman threatened to hang his steward if he' did not recover the powder. The steward surmising that no one but Richtausen could have taken the' powder, armed himself and set out in pursuit. Overtaking him on the road he' at the point of the pistol, made Richtausen hand over the' powder. Richtausen however contrived to abstract a considerable quantity. Richtausen knowing the' value' of the' powder presented himself to the Emperor Ferdinand, himself an alchemist, and gave him a quantity of the' powder. The Emperor assisted by his Mine Master, Count Russe', succeeded in converting three' pounds of mercury into gold by means of one grain of the powder. The Emperor is said to have commemorated the event by having a medal struck bearing the effigy of Apollo with the caduceus of Mercury and an appropriate' motto.

Richtausen was ennobled under the title of Baron Chaos.

Mr. A. E. White in his Lives of the Alchemists states that "Among many transformations performed by the same' powder was one by the Elector of Mayence, in 1651. He made' projections with all the' precautions possible to a learned and skilful philosopher. The powder enclosed in gum tragacanth to retain it effectually, was put into the wax of a taper, which was lighted, the' wax being then placed at the bottom of a crucet. These preparations were undertaken by the Elector himself. He poured four ounces of quicksilver of the wax, and put the whole' into a fire covered with charcoal above, below and around. Then they began blowing to the utmost, and in about half an hour on removing the coals, they saw that the melted gold was over red, the' proper colour being green. The baron said the matter was yet too high and it was necessary to put some silver into it. The Elector took some coins out of his pocket, put them into the melting pot, combined the liquefied silver with the matter in the crucet, and having poured out the whole' when in perfect fusion into a lingot, he found after cooling, that it was very fine gold, but rather hard, which was attributed to the lingot. On again melting, it became exceedingly soft and the Master of the Mint declared to His Highness that it was more than twenty-four carats and that he had never seen so fine a quality of the precious metal."

Butter, Witches' : The devil gives to the witches of Sweden cats which are called carriers, because they are' sent by their mistresses to steal in the neighbourhood. The greedy animals on such occasions cannot forbear to satisfy their own appetite's. Sometimes they eat to repletion and are obliged to disgorge their stolen meal. Their vomit is always found in kitchen gardens, is of a yellow colour, and is called witches' butter.

Byron, Lord (See Haunted Houses.)

Byron, Sir John: (See Haunted Houses.)