Gospel of the Witches
Charles Leland
If the listener has ever met with the works of the learned folk-lorist G. Pitré, or the articles contributed by “Lady Vere de Vere” to the Italian Rivista, or that of J. H. Andrews to folk-lore, he will be aware that there are in Italy great numbers of
strege, fortune-tellers or witches, who divine by cards, perform strange ceremonies in which spirits are supposed to be invoked, make and sell amulets, and, in fact, comport themselves generally as their reputed kind are wont to do, be they Black Voodoos in America or sorceresses anywhere.
But the Italian /strega/ or sorceress is in certain respects a different character from these. In most cases she comes of a family in which her calling or art has been practised for many generations. I have no doubt that there are instances in which the ancestry remounts to mediaeval, Roman, or it may be Etruscan times. The result has naturally been the accumulation in such families of much tradition. But in Northern Italy, as its literature indicates, though there has been some slight gathering of fairy tales and popular superstitions by scholars, there has never existed the least interest as regarded the strange lore of the witches, nor any suspicion that it embraced an incredible quantity of old Roman minor myths and legends, such as Ovid has recorded, but of which much escaped him and all other Latin writers.
Duration - 3h.
Author - Charles Leland.
Narrator - Betsy Chang.
Published Date - Sunday, 22 January 2023.
Copyright - © 1899 Charles Leland ©.
Location:
United States
Description:
If the listener has ever met with the works of the learned folk-lorist G. Pitré, or the articles contributed by “Lady Vere de Vere” to the Italian Rivista, or that of J. H. Andrews to folk-lore, he will be aware that there are in Italy great numbers of strege, fortune-tellers or witches, who divine by cards, perform strange ceremonies in which spirits are supposed to be invoked, make and sell amulets, and, in fact, comport themselves generally as their reputed kind are wont to do, be they Black Voodoos in America or sorceresses anywhere. But the Italian /strega/ or sorceress is in certain respects a different character from these. In most cases she comes of a family in which her calling or art has been practised for many generations. I have no doubt that there are instances in which the ancestry remounts to mediaeval, Roman, or it may be Etruscan times. The result has naturally been the accumulation in such families of much tradition. But in Northern Italy, as its literature indicates, though there has been some slight gathering of fairy tales and popular superstitions by scholars, there has never existed the least interest as regarded the strange lore of the witches, nor any suspicion that it embraced an incredible quantity of old Roman minor myths and legends, such as Ovid has recorded, but of which much escaped him and all other Latin writers. Duration - 3h. Author - Charles Leland. Narrator - Betsy Chang. Published Date - Sunday, 22 January 2023. Copyright - © 1899 Charles Leland ©.
Language:
English
Opening Credits
Duration:00:00:11
01 preface
Duration:00:11:18
02 chapter i
Duration:00:05:15
03 chapter ii
Duration:00:09:43
04 chapter iii
Duration:00:04:53
05 chapter iv
Duration:00:05:35
06 chapter v
Duration:00:05:38
07 chapter vi
Duration:00:03:00
08 chapter vii
Duration:00:06:03
09 chapter viii
Duration:00:07:38
10 chapter ix
Duration:00:12:45
11 chapter x
Duration:00:06:02
12 chapter xi
Duration:00:12:25
13 chapter xii
Duration:00:09:45
14 chapter xiii
Duration:00:09:24
15 chapter xiv
Duration:00:04:45
16 chapter xv
Duration:00:14:08
Appendix a
Duration:00:35:19
Appendix b
Duration:00:16:34
Ending Credits
Duration:00:00:18