In Scotland, water from under a bridge, over which the living pass
and the dead are carried, brought in the dawn or twilight to the
house of a sick person, without the bearer's speaking, either in
going or returning, is called _Unspoken Water_.
The modes of application are various. Sometimes the invalid takes
three draughts of it before anything is spoken. Sometimes it is
thrown over the houses the vessel in which it was contained being
thrown after it. The superstitious believe this to be one of the
most powerful charms that can be employed for restoring a sick
person to health.
The purifying virtue attributed to water, by almost all nations, is
so well known as to require no illustration. Some special virtue has
still been ascribed to silence in the use of charms, exorcisms, &c.
I recollect, says Mr. Jamieson, being assured at Angus, that a
Popish priest in that part of the country, who was supposed to
possess great power in curing those who were deranged, and in
exorcising demoniacs, would, if called to see a patient, on no
account utter a single word on his way, or after arriving at the
house, till he had by himself gone through all his appropriate forms
in order to effect a cure. Whether this practice might be founded on
our Lord's injunction to the Seventy, expressive of the diligence he
required, Luke x. 4, "Salute no man by the way," or borrowed from
heathen superstition, it is impossible to ascertain. We certainly
know that the Romans viewed silence as of the utmost importance in
their sacred rites. Hence the phrase of Virgil,---
"Fida silentia sacris."
_Fauere sacris, fauere linguis_, and {41}_pascere
linguam_, were forms of speech appropriated to their sacred
rites, by which they enjoined silence, that the act of worship might
not be disturbed by the slightest noise or murmur. Hence also they
honoured Harpocrates as the god of silence; and Numa instituted the
worship of a goddess under the name of _Tacita_.
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