One day a fox entered a sculptor’s shop,
And found a marble head, when thus he spoke:
‘O Head! there is such feeling shown in thee
By art—and yet thou canst not feel at all!’
_Æsop’s Fables_.
It happened on a time that Virgil, who knew all things hidden or magical,
he being a magician and poet, having heard an oration, was asked what he
thought of it.
And he replied:
“It seems impossible for me to tell whether it is all introduction or
conclusion. It is like certain fish, of whom one is in doubt whether
they are all head or all tail, or the goddess Laverna, of whom no one
ever knew whether she was all head or all body, or both.”
Then the Emperor asked him who this deity might be, for he had never
heard of her.
And Virgil answered:
“Among the gods or spirits who were of the ancient times there was one
female, who was the craftiest and most knavish of all. She was called
Laverna; she was a thief, and very little known to the other deities, who
were honest and dignified, while Laverna was rarely in heaven or in the
country of the fairies. She was almost always on earth among thieves,
pickpockets, and panders; (she lived) in darkness. Once it happened that
she went to a great priest, in the form of a very beautiful, stately
priestess, and said to him:
“‘Sell me your estate. I wish to raise on it a temple to (our) god. I
swear to you on my body that I will pay thee within a year.’ {39}
“Therefore the priest gave her the estate. And very soon Laverna had
sold off all the crops, grain, cattle, and poultry. There was not left
the value of four farthings. But on the day fixed for payment there was
no Laverna to be seen. The fair goddess was far away, and had left her
creditor in the lurch—_in asso_.
“At the same time Laverna went to a great lord, and bought of him a
castle, well-furnished, with much land. But this time she swore _on her
head_ to pay in full in six months. And she did as she had done by the
priest; she stole and sold everything—furniture, cattle, crops; there was
not left wherewith to feed a fly.
“Then the priest and the lord appealed to the gods, complaining that they
had been robbed by a goddess. And it was soon found that the thief was
Laverna. Therefore she was called to judgment before all the gods. And
she was asked what she had done with the property of the priest, unto
whom she had sworn by her body to make payment at the time appointed.
And she replied by a strange deed, which amazed them all, for she made
her body disappear, so that only her head remained, and it cried:
“‘Behold me! I swore by my body, but body have I none.’
“Then all the gods laughed.
“After the priest came the lord, who had also been tricked, and to whom
she had sworn by her head. And in reply to him Laverna showed to all
present her whole body, and it was one of the greatest beauty, but
without a head, and from the neck there came a voice which said:
“‘Behold me, for I am Laverna, who
Have come to answer to that lord’s complaint
Who swears that I contracted debt with him,
And have not paid, although the time is o’er,
And that I am a thief because I swore
Upon my head; but, as you all can see,
I have no head at all, and therefore I
Assuredly ne’er swore by such an oath!’
“Then there was indeed a storm of laughter among the gods, who made the
matter right by ordering the head to join the body, and bidding Laverna
pay up her dues, which she did.
“Then Jove spoke and said:
“‘Here is a roguish deity without a duty, while there are in Rome
innumerable thieves, sharpers, cheats, and rascals—_ladri_, _bindolini_,
_truffatori e scrocconi_—who live by deceit. These good folk have
neither a church nor a god, and it is a great pity, for even the very
devils have their master Satan. Therefore I command that in future
Laverna shall be the goddess of all the knaves or dishonest tradesmen,
and all the rubbish and refuse of the human race, who have been hitherto
without a god or devil, inasmuch as they have been too despicable for the
one or the other.’
“And so Laverna became the goddess of all dishonest people. Whenever
anyone planned or intended any knavery or aught wicked, he entered her
temple and invoked Laverna, who appeared to him as a woman’s head. But
if he did his work badly and maladroitly, when he again invoked her he
saw only the body. But if he was clever, then he beheld the whole
goddess, head and body.
“Laverna was not more chaste than she was honest, and had many lovers and
many children. It is said that, not being bad at heart, she often
repented her life and sins; but do what she might she could not reform,
because her passions were so inveterate. And if a man had got any woman
with child, or any maid found herself _incinta_, and would hide it from
the world and escape scandal, they would go every day to invoke Laverna.
{40} Then, when the time came for the suppliant to be delivered, Laverna
would bear her in sleep during the night to her temple, and after the
birth cast her into slumber again, and carry her back to her bed. And
when she awoke in the morning she was ever in vigorous health and felt no
weariness, and all seemed to her as a dream.
“But to those who desired in time to reclaim their children Laverna was
indulgent, if they led such lives as pleased her and faithfully
worshipped her. And this is the manner of the ceremony and the
incantation to be offered to Laverna every night:
“There must be a set place devoted to the goddess, be it a room, a
cellar, or a grove, ever a solitary place. Then take a small table of
the size of forty playing-cards set close together, and this must be hid
in the same place, and going there at night. . . .
“Take the forty cards and spread them on the table, making of them, as it
were, a close carpet on it. Take of the herbs _paura_ {41a} and
_concordia_ and boil the two together, repeating meanwhile:
“‘Fo bollire la mano della concordia,
Per tenere a me concorde.
La Laverna, che possa portare a me
Il mio figlio e che possa
Guardarmelo da qual un pericolo!
“‘Bollo questa erba ma non bollo l’erba.
Bollo la _paura_ {41b} che possa tenere lontano
Qualunque persona, e se le viene,
L’idea a qualchuno di avvicinarsi,
Possa essere preso da paura,
E fuggire lontano!’”
“I boil the cluster of _concordia_
To keep in concord and at peace with me
Laverna, that she may restore to me
My child, and that she, by her favouring care,
May guard me well from danger all my life!
“I boil this herb, yet ’tis not it which boils;
I boil the _fear_ that it may keep afar
Any intruder, and if such should come
[To spy upon my rite], may he be struck
With fear, and in his terror haste away!”
“Having said this, put the boiled herbs in a bottle, and spread the cards
on the table, one by one, saying:
“‘Batezzo queste quarante carte
Ma non batezzo le quarante carte.
Batezzo quaranta dei superiori
Alla dea Laverna che le sue
Persone divengono un vulcano
Fino che la Laverna non sara
Venuta da me colla mia creatura.
E questi dei dal naso dalla bocca,
E dall’ orecchie possino buttare
Fiammi di fuoco e cenere,
E lasciare pace e bene alia dea
Laverna, che possa anche essa
Abbracciare i suoi figli,
A sua volunta!’”
“I spread before me now the forty cards,
Yet ’tis not forty cards which here I spread,
But forty of the gods superior
To the deity Laverna, that their forms
May each and all become volcanoes hot,
Until Laverna comes and brings my child.
And till ’tis done, may they all cast
Hot flames of fire and coals from their lungs,
And leave her in all peace and happiness,
And still embrace her children at her will.”
* * * * *
The character of Virgil is here clearly enough only an introduction by
the narrator, in order to make a Virgilian tale or narrative. But the
incantation, which I believe to be _bonâ fide_ and ancient, is very
curious and full of tradition. The daring to conjure the forty gods that
they may suffer till they compel Laverna to yield is a very bold and
original conception, but something like it is found very often in Italian
witchcraft. It is of classic origin. In the witchcraft manufactured by
the Church, which only dates from the last decade of the fifteenth
century, it never occurs. The witches of Sprenger and Co. never lay any
of the Trinity under a ban of torture till a desire is accomplished, nor
are they ever even invoked.
_La femme comme il faut_, or “the only good woman,” is a very ungallant
misogamic corner tavern sign once common in France. It represents a
headless woman. Perhaps she was derived from some story like this of
Laverna. It recalls the inhuman saying: “The only good (Red) Indian is a
dead Indian.”
Laverna is in this tale another form of Diana. There are also traces of
Lucina in the character.