 | The poems and prose writings of Sumner Lincoln Fairfield |  |
Vain were petitions murmured to the gods
Priapus and Cunina to dissolve
The spells of Fascinators; the evil eye
Of the Illyrian or Triballi sent
Its wonted glance into the trembling breast,
Possessing, as they feigned, the soul with fiends.
Vainly, they wore baccharis wreaths—in vain,
Their jasper, rhamn or laurel amulets
On brow or bosom hung! The magi dreamed.
Priapus and Cunina to dissolve
The spells of Fascinators; the evil eye
Of the Illyrian or Triballi sent
Its wonted glance into the trembling breast,
Possessing, as they feigned, the soul with fiends.
Vainly, they wore baccharis wreaths—in vain,
Their jasper, rhamn or laurel amulets
On brow or bosom hung! The magi dreamed.
The Barbarian inhabitants of Illyricum, Thrace and Mœsia were held, by the common superstition of the age, to be sorcerers and magicians; and various talismans or amulets were worn to ward off the dreadful influences of The Evil Eye. It is humiliating to perceive how little the common minds of our own day are exalted above those of heathen ignorance and irreligion.
| The poems and prose writings of Sumner Lincoln Fairfield | |