The History of Initiation - The Masonic Trowel

184 HISTORY OF INITIATION.
wood or bark of the birch tree, in magical form ; either
in a circle described from east to west by the south in
;
a triangle ; in a direct line from the top to the bottom ;
or by a retrograde movement from the bottom to the
top ;
17
from left to right, or from right to left, according
to the circumstances of each peculiar case ; every form
being adapted to its own particular service. They were
frequently carved on walking sticks, 18 sword scabbards,
implements of husbandry, and other articles of common
use. Those which were intended to bring woe and destruction
on their enemies were termed Noxious; those
which were used to avert calamity, to prevent shipwreck,
to obtain the affections of a beloved female, to
counteract the treachery of an enemy, &c., were called
Favourable; and those which were invested with the
mind. Traces of this practice are still visible in most of the countries
of Europe ;
and even our own land, though enlightened by the perfection
of science, exhibits in every province, many evidences of the prevalence
of superstition,
in the implicit reliance placed by our rustic
population in amulets, charms, and incantations.
17 Mai. North. Ant., vol. i., p. 146.
18
Verstegan tells us, that the people " used to engrave upon certain
square sticks about a foot in length, or shorter or longer as they
pleased, the courses of the moones of the whole yeare, whereby they
could alwayes certainly tel when the new moones, ful moones, and
changes should happen, as also their festival dayes and such a j carved
stick they called an Al-mon-aght, that is to say, Al-moon-heed, to wit,
the regard or observation of all the moones and ; here hence is deryved
the name of Almanack." (Rest. Dec. Int., p. 58.)
19 In our own country this practice was very prevalent a century or
' :
two ago. King James, in his Dsemonology, (b. ii., c. 5,) tells us that
the devil teacheth how to make pictures of wax or clay, that by roast-
ing thereof, the persons that they bear the name of may be continually
melted, or dried away by continual sickness. Blagrave, in his astrological
practice of Physic, (p. 89) observes, that the way which the
witches usually take for to afflict man or beast in this kind as is, I
conceive, done by image or model, made in the likeness of that man or
beast they intend to work mischief upon and ; by the subtility of the
devil, made at such hours and times when it shall work most powerfully
upon them by thorn, pin, or needle, pricked into that limb or
member of the body afflicted."
" Witches Tvhich some murther do intend
Doe make a picture and doe shoote at it ;
And in that part where they the picture hit,
The parties self doth languish to his end."
Constable's Diaria. Decad. II., Son. 2, 1594.
(Yid. Brand's Popul. Ant., vol. ii., p. 376.)