lished. The real witch-story is very often only a
frame, so to speak, the real picture within it being the _arcanum_ of a
long _scongiurazione_ or incantation, and what ingredients were used to
work the charm. I have given numbers of these real witch-tales in my
"Etruscan-Roman Remains," and a few, such as "Orpheus and Eurydice,"
"Intialo," and "Il Moschone," in this work.

Lady Vere de Vere, who has investigated witchcraft as it exists in the
Italian Tyrol, in an admirable article in _La Rivista_ of Rome (June
1894)--which article has the only demerit of being too brief--tells us
that "the Community of Italian Witches is regulated by laws, traditions,
and customs of the most secret kind, possessing special recipes for
sorcery," which is perfectly true. Having been free of the community for
years, I can speak from experience. The more occult and singular of
their secrets are naturally not of a nature to be published, any more
than are those of the Voodoos. Some of the milder sort may be found in
the story of the "Moscone, or Great Fly," in this work. The great secret
for scholars is, however, that these pagans and heretics, who are the
last who cling to a heathen creed out-worn in Europe--these outcast
children of the Cainites, Ultra-Taborites, and similar ancient
worshippers of the devil, are really the ones who possess the most
valuable stores of folk-lore, that is to say, such as illustrate the
first origins of the religious Idea, its development, and specially the
evolution of the Opposition or Protestant principle.

As regards the many legends in this book which do not illustrate such
serious research, it is but natural that witches, who love and live in
the Curious, should have preserved more even of them than other people,
and it was accordingly among her colleagues of the mystic spell that
Maddalena found tales which would have been long sought for elsewhere, of
which this book is a most convincing proof in itself; for while I had
resolved on second thought to make it one of simple local tales, there
still hangs over most--even of these--a dim, unholy air of sorcery, a
witch _aura_, a lurid light, a something eerie and uncanny, a restless
hankering for the broom and the supernatural. Those tales are
Maddalena's every line--I pray thee, reader, not to make them mine. The
spirit will always speak.

Very different, indeed, from these are the contributions of Marietta
Pery, the _improvvisatrice_, though ev