[1] I was once myself made to contribute, involuntarily, to this kind of literature. Forty years ago I published a Folk-lore bock entitled "The Poetry and Mystery of Dreams," in which the explanations of dreams, as given by Astrampsychius, Artemidorus, and other ancient oneirologists, were illustrated by passages from many poets and popular ballads, showing how widely the ancient symbolism had extended. A few years ago I found that some ingenious literary hack had taken my work (without credit), and, omitting what would not be understood by servant girls, had made of it a common sixpenny dream-book. [2] Vide an extremely interesting paper on "The Origin of Languages and the Antiquity of Speaking Man," by Horatio Hale. ["Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science," vol. xxv.] As I had, owing to studies for many years of baby-talk and jargons, long ago arrived at Mr. Hale's conclusions, I was astonished to learn that they have been so recently formed by anybody. [3] Vide "Practical Education," by C. G. Leland (London: Whittaker and Co., 1888), in which this faculty is fully discussed, pp. 184-213. [4] "It is said that if the bones of a green frog which has been eaten by ants are taken, those on the left side will provoke hatred, and those on the right side excite love" ("Div. Cur.," c. 23).... "One species of frog called rubeta, because it lives among brambles, is said to have wonderful powers. Brought into an assembly of people it imposes silence. If the little bone in its right side be thrown into boiling water it chills it at once. It excites love when put into a draught" ("Castle Saint Angelo and the Evil Eye," by W. W. Story). [5] According to Pliny, the tooth of a wolf hung to the neck of an infant was believed to be an efficient amulet against disease; and a child's tooth caught before it falls to the ground and set in a bracelet was considered to be beneficial to women. Nat. Hist. lib. xxvi., cap. 10 ("Castle Saint Angelo and the Evil Eye," by W. W. Story). [6] This cannot fail to remind many readers of the land-- "Where the cock never crew, Where the sun never shone and the wind never blew." [7] Of the seventh son, Pipernus remarks in his book, "De Effectibus Magicis" (1647): "Est ne sanandi superstitiosus modus eorum, qui orti sunt die Parasceves, et quotquot nullo foemines sexu intercedente, ac ab ortu septimi masculi legitimo thoro sunt nati? memorat Vairus, I. de fascinatione, II. Del Rius, lib. i., part 21. Garzonius nel Serraglio. J. Cæsar Baricellus secundus scriptor in hort. genialé." [8] "Über Marcellus Burdigalensis, von Jacob Grimm. Gelesen in der Academie der Wissenschaften," 28 Juni, 1847 (Berlin. Dummler). In this work, as well as in the German Mythology, by the same author, and in Rudolf Roth's "Litteratur und Geschichte des Veda" (Stuttgart, 1846), the reader will find, as also in the works of the elder Cato and Pliny, numbers of these incantations.