The Mysteries of All Nations | Page 4

of Heaven--Walking through the Fire--Wonder-working Eggs--Easter Eggs represent Druidical Eggs--Origin of Druids--Wise Men of the East were probably Druids--Island of Iona--Druidical Cairns--Stones of Judgment--Misletoe regarded as a Charm--Rings worn as Preventatives against Witchcraft--Stonehenge--Merlin the Magician--Stones brought from Africa by Giants--Graves of British Lords 267
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DEMONOLOGY.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
First Ideas of Demonology--Rabbinical Tradition--Adam's Marriage--The Wicked Lilith--Egyptian Tradition--Arabian Worship of Genii--Christians' Opinions of Demons--Forms assumed by Evil Spirits--Demoniacal King--Duty of Inferior Demons--Task of Benign Spirits--Schools of Magic--Circassian Opinions--Belief of Indians--Situation of Hell--Men's Actions recorded--Rewards and Punishments--How to frighten Demons--Treatment of the Sick--Attendant Angels--Worship of Gods--Foretelling Future Events--Small-pox propagated by an Evil Genius--Souls of Deceased Persons--Effect of Charms 273
CHAPTER XXIX.
Heathen Devotion in Ceylon--Superstitious Customs among the Schismatic Greeks--Negro Belief in Fetishes--Charms--Magic taught by the Priests--Dead Persons metamorphosed into Serpents--How the Gaures disposed of their Dead--Souls Blessed or Damned--Orders of Genii in Madagascar--Belief of the Caribbees--Brazilian Superstition--Peruvian Tradition--American Indians--Demons in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries--Satan in France--Manes, Anima, and Umbra among the Greeks and Romans 279
CHAPTER XXX.
Visible Ghosts--Superstition on the Baltic Shores--A German Legend--Demons in the West of Europe--Love, how plighted in Orkney--The Monster Ymir--Origin of Fairies--The Duergar or Dwarfs--Brownies in Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland--Nine Classes of Evil Spirits--Vampires--Man's Double or Fetch--Churchyard Ghosts--Souls of Suicides--Burial of Suicides and Murderers at Cross Roads--Luther on Evil Spirits and Witches 284
CHAPTER XXXI.
Belief and Teaching of the Roman Catholic Church--Swedenborg's Intercourse with Spirits--Marcus Brutus and his Evil Genius--Cassius and Julius C?sar's Ghost at Philippi--Plutarch on Spectres--Socrates on the same subject--Archbishop Bruno and the Spectre--A Haunted House--Spectre at Sea--Ghost of a Murdered Man in New South Wales 291
CHAPTER XXXII.
Spiritualism Past and Present--Magic taught in Leipsic--Spirit of Marshal Saxe--How Spirits were Invoked--Voices of Spirits--Mysterious Death of a Magician--Unearthly Huntsman--Prediction and its Fulfilment--An Estate lost at the Gaming Table--A Baron Shot--A Marriage prevented by an Apparition--Consulting a Witch--Raising the Spirit of a Murdered Man--A Murderer's Fate 297
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Antonio the Rich--Dreadful Announcement from a Volcano's Mouth--Three Ghosts--Mozart apprehensive of Death--Mozart writing a Requiem for himself--Messenger from another World--Mozart's Death--Ghost of a Lady--A Haunted House--Iron Cage--Youth starved to Death--Frightful Dreams and Dreadful Sights--Dog frightened by a Spirit--Disturbed House--Duchess of Mazarin--Madame de Beauclair--Compact between the Living and the Dead--A Lady's Death foretold by a Spirit 304
CHAPTER XXXIV.
Sir George Villiers' Ghost--Duke of Buckingham Murdered--Lord Lyttelton and others profaning Christmas--A Troubled Mind--Apparition of a Suicide--Neglected Warning--Ominous Hour--Lord Lyttelton found Dead at the dreaded time--Death of an old Roman King--Alarming Prodigies--Tales from the Eddas--A Scandinavian Warrior's Ghost--An Icelandic Lady's Ghost--Fear of approaching Calamities--Association of Ghosts--Apparitions of Drowned Men--Christians not disturbed by Spectres--A Band of Demons--Priest exorcising Evil Spirits 312
CHAPTER XXXV.
A Mysterious Hunter--Man and Horse supposed to be Devils--Flagellation--Tales of the Scotch Highlands--Croaking Raven--Death of a suspected Witch--Resort of Witches and Evil Spirits--Spirits hastening to a Church--Black Man with Eyes like Fire--Horse breathing Smoke and Flame 318
CHAPTER XXXVI.
Churchmen subjected to the Onslaught of Demons--St. Maurus rebuking Evil Spirits--St. Romualdus' Conflict with Satan--St. Frances--St. Gregory--Monk in Purgatory--Institution of the Thirty Masses for the Dead--An Excommunicated Gentleman--St. Benedict and the Blackbird's Song--A Monk restored to Life--St. Benedict's Sister ascending to Heaven--St. Francis' Dominion over Living Creatures and the Elements--St. Catherine's Power--St. Stanislaus' Miracles--A Dead Man giving Evidence--The Dead refusing a Renewal of Life--St. Philip Nerius and Evil Spirits--Spirits ministering to St. Erasmus--St. Norbert--Story relating to Henry I.--St. Margaret's Triumph--St. Ignatius--St. Stephen--Satan's Hatred of St. Dominick--St. Donatus endowing a Corpse with Speech--St. Cyriacus, St. Largus, and St. Smaragdus, the Martyrs--St. Clare--St. Bernard's Power--St. C?sarius' Wonder-working Crook--St. Giles and the Hind--St. Euphemia's Guardian Angels--St. Francis' Spirit--St. Bridget--St. Denis' Spirit--St. Teresa and the Angels--St. Hilarian--St. Martin--St. Catherine's Body carried by Angels to Mount Sinai--St. Francis Xaverius' Belief in Virtue of Bells--St. Nicholas--St. Ambrose--St. Lucy raising her Mother from the Dead--St. Anastasia sustained by Bread from Heaven--St. Thomas enduring Martyrdom in Life and after Death--Penance of Henry II.--Barbarous Conduct of Henry VIII.--A Hungarian Legend 323
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MAGIC AND ASTROLOGY.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
Magic a Study among the Learned--Plato and Pythagoras travelled to learn the Art, and taught it--Speakers made Eloquent by Magical Art--Virtue of Gems--How Jewels should be set--When they are to be Graven--Cures effected by Hippocrates--Democritus on Magic--Many Charms--Evil Spirits--Magicians sacrificing to the Planets--Magician's Power to produce Monstrous Creatures--Egyptian Magicians--Magical Circles--Throwing Old Shoes--Figures on Shoes--A Hangman's Soul--Directions for raising Ghosts and Spirits 339
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
Josephus' Account of Astrology--Antediluvians acquainted with Astrology--Astrology after the Flood--Magicians in various Nations--Compact and Confederation with Spirits--Feats of Magicians--A French Priest in compact with the Devil--Married to Venus--Turning Leather into Gold--A Novice in Magic destroyed by a Spirit--Principles of Magic--Lilly the Astrologer--Lilly consulted by Royalists--Astrological Predictions 349
CHAPTER XXXIX.
Judicial Astrology--Reading the Heavens--Lucky and Unlucky Days--Highland Superstitions--Climacterics--Astrologer and Charles IX.--Influence of the Moon--Official Air-gazers--Sacrificing to Planets--Dryden's Faith in Astrology--Dryden calculating the Nativity of his Children 356
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DIVINATION AND ORACLES.
CHAPTER XL.
Divination--Heathen Gods giving Signs--Sortes Pr[oe]nestin?--St. Augustine's View of Divination--Sortes Sanctorum--Divination in the Greek and Latin Churches--Declarations of the