St. Thomas Aquinas used to hold that angels and devils made the
atmosphere their battle-ground--the angels that live in the calm
upper spheres, the devils that fill the immensity of space;
and thus he accounted for the injurious changes of weather to
be experienced in certain countries. For the mortification and
the rout of these demons bells were consecrated and hung in
the church-spires, usually inscribed, “_Vivos voco, mortuos
plango, fulgura frango_” (I summon the living, I mourn
the dead, I scatter the thunder-storm); and their ringing
was thenceforth considered to be one of the potent means of
dispelling evil influences and of abating tempests. These evil
powers, according to medieval legend and belief, were able to
produce hail, thunder, and storms at their will, and those among
them called witches took aerial voyages exactly as the witches
of much later days were held to do, altho more particular
detail is given of their operations, as it is known that they
smeared their broomsticks with witch-salve, after which mounting
them, they could sail where they would through so much of this
atmosphere as was within their jurisdiction. “The air,” says
Rydberg, speaking of those days of the Dark Ages, “was saturated
with demoniacal vapors,” and specters, ghosts, and vampires
multitudinous added their horrors to the fertile imaginations of
the people.--_Harper’s Bazar_.
(729)
* * * * *
In the Kongo district insane people are treated by the native
doctors in the following manner: The patient’s hands are secured
by stout cords, and he is led to the doctor with a fowl and a
lighted firebrand balanced on his head. The doctor takes five
twigs from five different trees and strikes the patient with
each in turn, bidding the evil spirit depart from him. The
lighted stick is then plunged into some water, and as the fire
is quenched the evil spirit is supposed to leave the man’s body.
He may reenter it, however, so the fowl is killed and placed
on a stick at a cross-roads for an offering to the deposited
spirit. Then the man’s bands are loosened and he is free to go
as he chooses; but if he shows signs of the demon appearing in
him again, any one may kill him if his relatives do not object.
(730)