[26] "St. Patrick, we are told, floated to Ireland on an altar stone. Among other wonderful things, he converted a marauder into a wolf and lighted a fire with icicles."--James A. Froude, Reminiscences of the High Church Revival. (Letter V.)
[28] Jesuits in North America, pp. 34, 35.
[29] Herrera, dec. 4, lib. 8, cap. 5, 159.
[32] American Antiquarian, November, 1886, p. 334.
[33] Dorman, Primitive Superstitions, p. 380, quoting Herrera, dec. 3, p. 262.
[35] Admiral Smyth's translation in Hakluyt Society, London, 1857, vol. 21, p. 9.
[37] Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, p. 173.
[38] "Estos mascan cierta yerba, y con el zumo rocian las soldados estando para dar batalla." Gomara, ibid., p. 179.
[40] Father Dobrizhoffer, quoted by Spencer, Eccles. Institutions, cap. 10, sec. 630.
[41] Catlin, N. A. Indians, London, 1845, vol. 2, p. 232.
[43] Spencer, Eccles. Institutions, cap. 10, pp. 780, 781, quoting Stubb's Constitutional History of England.
[44] Ibid., sec. 630, p. 781, quoting Turner (Geo.), Nineteen Years in Polynesia.
"In every part of the globe fragments of primitive languages are preserved in religious rites." Humboldt, Researches, London, 1814, vol. 1, p. 97.
"Et même Jean P. C., Prince de la Mirande, escrit que les mots barbares & non entendus ont plus de puissance en la Magie que ceux qui sont entendus." Picart, vol. 10, p. 45.
The medicine-men of Cumana (now the United States of Colombia, South America) cured their patients "con palabras muy revesadas y que aun el mismo médico no las entiende." Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, p. 208.
The Tlascaltecs had "oradores" who employed gibberish--"hablaban Gerigonça." Herrera, dec. 2, lib. 6, p. 163.
In Peru, if the fields were afflicted with drought, the priests, among other things, "chantaient un cantique dont le sens était inconnu du vulgaire." Balboa, Hist. du Pérou, p. 128, in Ternaux-Compans, vol. 15.
[46] Assiniboine and Saskatchewan Exped., London, 1860, vol. 2, p. 155.
[47] Cockayne, Leechdoms, vol. 1, p. xxx.
[48] "The belief in the magic power of sacred words, whether religious formulas or the name of gods, was also acknowledged [i.e., in Egypt] and was the source of a frightful amount of superstition.... The superstitious repetition of names (many of which perhaps never had any meaning at all) is particularly conspicuous in numerous documents much more recent than the Book of the Dead."--Hibbert, Lectures, 1879, pp. 192, 193.