It may, however, be objected that all these quotations are of course later than 480 B.C.; and therefore prove nothing as to ‘the primitive and original forms of magic in Italy and Greece’. Indeed, in the _Bacchae_, for instance, and in Plato, _Rep._ ii. 364 A, the magic referred to may reasonably be regarded as exotic and not native to Greece. But fortunately we find the word ἑπαοιδή, in the magical sense, in Homer (_Od._ xix. 457), which takes this group of words in this sense far back beyond 480 B.C. The Homeric use of the word in this sense, however, will not avail against any one who chooses to maintain--though it is impossible to prove, and difficult to believe--that the Greeks originally knew no magic, and borrowed it in Homeric or pre-Homeric times from some neighbouring people. And though the fact that the Twelve Tables ordained punishment for the man ‘qui malum carmen incantassit’ in all reasonable probability indicates that ‘singing’ in the evil sense was a practice already at the time rooted in Italy and not newly imported from abroad; still in this case, as in the case of the Homeric ἑπαοιδή, the objection may be made--though it cannot be supported by anything approaching proof or even probability--that the Italians, as well as the Romans, alone amongst early peoples were incapable of developing the belief for themselves. As against this objection we can only fall back on the evidence of comparative philology. And that evidence is particularly interesting, because, as interpreted by O. Schrader (_Reallexikon der Indogermanischen Altertumskunde_, ii. 974), it shows that amongst the Indo-European peoples much the most common expression for doing magic is ‘singing’. The presumption that ‘singing’ of the magical kind goes back to Indo-European times is as strong as any that linguistic evidence can produce. For the Slavonian, Lithuanian, and Teutonic words I will refer to Schrader’s _Reallexikon_, ii. 975. Of the Greek and Latin words I may mention βασκαίνω and βασκανία, which are connected with βάζω, ‘speak’; γόης and γοητεύω with γόος, ‘howling’; _fascinum_ and _fascinare_ with _fari_.