to the story. He sent to her, however, fifteen clerks, with
directions to watch her assiduously for fifteen days, never for an
instant losing sight of her. The clerks reported to him that they had
strictly obeyed his commands; that she had taken no nourishment, and
that yet she nevertheless preserved her full strength and health.
Whereupon the Bishop declared himself convinced, "as," adds Goerres, "it
was proper for a sensible man to do."

Among others of the holy persons who acquired the power of living on the
sacramental bread, may be mentioned St. Catharine of Sienna, Saint Rose
of Lima, Saint Collete, Saint Peter of Alcantara, and many others.

But if saints and other holy people were able, through miraculous power,
to live without food, the same ability was claimed for those who were
under the influence of demons and devils. Goerres[2] states that a person
possessed by a devil often loses all taste for food of any kind, and can
retain no nourishment in his body. Another symptom is a disgust which
is formed for the companionship of other persons. Thus a man was
tormented by a demon, who forced him to fly into the forests, where he
hid himself from mankind. One night he quit his house, and concealed
himself in a cavern, remaining there entirely without food for sixteen
days. Again he remained in the woods twenty-four days, neither eating
nor drinking during this period. Finally his children found him, and
taking him to a priest, had the devil exorcised, and he was cured.

Saint Prosper, of Aquitaine, speaks of a young girl possessed by a
devil, and who went seventy days without eating. Notwithstanding this
long fast, she did not become emaciated, because every night at twelve
o'clock a bird sent by the devil took a mysterious nourishment to her.

An astonishing feature in the cases of the diabolical abstaining from
food, is that, as in the holy instances, they exhibit various
manifestations of hysteria. Goerres, with a charming degree of
simplicity, details these symptoms and failing, under the influence of
the predominant idea which fills him, to recognize their real character,
ascribes them without hesitation to devilish agency. Thus he says:

"The functions of the organs of nutrition are sometimes profoundly
altered in the possessed, and these alterations are manifested by
violent cramps, which show the extent to which the muscular system is
affected. The hysterical lump in the throat is a frequent phenomenon i