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This precious relic, however, found but little favour with the Belgian ladies, and utterly failed to supersede their beloved Fascinum.
The same symbol also bore among the Romans the names of Tutunus, Mutinus, and Fascinum. Among the many places where this divinity was worshipped, Lampsacus, in Asia Minor, was the most noted on account of the obscene rites there practised.
It seems to have been a peculiarity in the superstitions as to the fascinum, that boys and women were specially susceptible to its influence; and in this respect, as well as in some of the symptoms of fascination, it bears a curious resemblance to the effects of modern witchcraft as practised in New England.
Tertullian, in his work "De Virginibus Velandis," states the same fact as Fracastorius, and says that among the heathens there are persons who are possessed of a terrible somewhat which they call Fascinum, effected by excessive praise: "Nam est aliquod etiam apud Ethnicos metuendum, quod Fascinum vocant, infeliciorem laudis et gloriae enormioris eventum." Gram.
Thence it was imported into Greece, where it was called Baskania, and was adopted by the Romans under the name of Fascinum.
This very primitive type of song took its rise in Etruria; it derives its name from Fescennium, an Etrurian town, though others connect it with fascinum, as if originally it were an attempt to avert the evil eye. Horace traces the history of this rude banter from its source in the harvest field to its city developments of slander and abuse, which needed the restraint of the law.
During a supper at the house of Metrius Florus, where, among others, Plutarch, Soclarus, and Caius, the son-in-law of Florus, were guests, a curious and interesting conversation took place on the subject of the Fascinum, which is reported by Plutarch in one of his Symposia.
There were said to be four qualities of touch, calidus, humidus, frigidus, et siccus, or hot, cold, moist, and dry, according to which persons were active or passive in the exercise of the fascinum.
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