MAGIC
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MAGIC
ing-place of the precious relics. There the fame of the three kings increased. The prominence given to all the feasts connected with the season of the Nativity — the transfer to that season of the mirth and joy of the old Saturnalia — the setting apart of a distinct day for the commemoration of the Epiphany in the 4th century — all this added to the veneration with which they were regarded. When Milan fell into the hands of Frederick Barbarossa (A.D. 1162), the influenco of the archbishop of Cologne prevailed on the emperor to transfer them to that city. The Milanese, at a later period, consoled themselves by forming a special confraternity for per- petuating their veneration for the magi by tlie annual performance of a " Mystery" (Moroni, /. c.) ; but the glo- ry of possessing the relics of the first Gentile worship- pers of Christ remained with Cologne. (For the later mediiBval developments of tlie traditions, comp. Joan, von Hildesheim, in Quart. Rev. iKxvni, 433.) In that proud cathedral which is the glory of Teutonic art the shrine of the Three Kings has for six centuries been shown as the greatest of its many treasures. The tab- ernacle in which the bones of some whose real name and history are lost forever lie enshrined in honor, bears witness, in its gold and gems, to the faith with which the story of the wanderings of tlie Three Kings has been received. The reverence has sometimes taken stranger and more grotesque forms. As the patron saints of travellers they have given a name to the inns of earlier or later date. The names of Melchior, Caspar, and Balthasar were used as a charm against attacks of epilepsy (Spanheim, Dub. Ecunrj. xxi).
Compare, in addition to authorities already cited. Trench, Star of the Wise Men. (Lond. 1850) ; Upham, Wise Men of the East (N.Y. 1869) ; J. F. JMliller, in Her- zog's Real-Encyklop. s. v. Magi ; Triebel and IMiegius, in Crit. Sacri (Thes. Nov. ii. 111, 118); and Ehoden, in Crif. Sacri {Thes. Theol. Phil, ii, 69), For the Talmudic views of the magi, see Lakemej^er, Observ. ii. 132 sq.
Other monographs on the general subject have been written by Nothna.ijel (Viteb. 1652), Miiller (Tigur. 1660), Stolberg (Viteb. 1663), Olearius (Lips. 1671), and Moller (Altd. 1688).
Magic (only occurs in the A. V, at Wisd, xvii, 7, finyiKi) s. V. Ttxi'i'l, "art magic;" but the term "magi- cian" [q. V.J is frequent), a word used to designate the power iir art of working wonders beyond the range of science or natural skill. It is derived from the Greek, and refers ultimately to the moi/i (q. v.), who were an- cienth' regarded as its depositaries or exjierts. The magical arts spoken of in the Bible are those practiced by the Egyptians, the Canaanites, and their neighbors, the Hebrews, the Chakteans, and probably the Greeks. In our treatment of this subject we shall substantially adopt Mr. Poole's elaborate article in Smith's Diet, of Bible.
I. Position of Mar/ic in relation to Relif/ion and Phi- losophy in Ancient Times. — The degree of the civiliza- tion of a nation is not the measure of the importance of magic in its convictions. The natural features of a country are not the priniar}' causes of what is termed superstition in its inhabitants. With nations as with men— and the analogy of Plato in the " Republic" is not always false — the feelings on which magic fixes its hold are essential to the mental constitution. Contrary as are these assertions to the common opinions of our time, inductive reasoning forbids our doubting them.
1. With the lowest race magic is the chief part of re- ligion. The Nigritians, or blacks of this race, show this in tlieir extreme use of amulets and their worship of ob- jects which have no other value in their eyes but as having a supposed magical character through the in- fluence of supernatural agents. With tlie Turanians, or corresponding whites of the same great family— we use the word white for a group of nations mainly yel- low, in contradistinction to black — incantations and witchcraft occupy the same place, Shamanism charac- terizing their tribes in both hemispheres. In the days of Herodotus the distinction in this matter between the
Nigritians and the Caucasian population of North Africa was what it now is. In his remarkable account of the journey of the Nasamonian young men — the Nasamo- nes, be it remembered, ^vere '• a Libyan race," and dwell- ers on the northern coast, as the historian here says — we are told that the adventurers passed through the in- habited maritime region, and the tract occupied by wild beasts, and the desert, and at last came upon a plain with trees, where they were seized by men of small stature, who carried them across marshes to a town of such men black in complexion. A great river, ruiming from west to east, and containing crocodiles, flowed by that town, and all that nation were sorcerers (tQ tovq oii-oi cnriKOVTO dvbpunrovc, yorjrag ilvai -Truvrac, ii, 32, 33). It little matters whether the conjecture that the great river was the Niger be true, which the idea adopted by Herodotus tliat it was the upper Nile seems to favor : it is quite evident that the Nasamones came upon a nation of Nigritians beyond the Great Desert, and were struck with their fetishism. So, in our own days, the traveller is astonished at the height to which this superstition is carried among the Nigritians, who have no religious practices that are not of the nature of sorcery, nor any priests who are not magicians, and ma- gicians alone. The strength of this belief in magic in these two great divisions of the lowest race is shown in the case of each by its having maintained its hold in an instance in which its tenacity must have been severely tried. The ancient Egj'ptians show their partly-Nigri- tiaii origin not alone in their ph3-sical characteristics and language, but in their religion. They retained the strange, low nature-worship of the Nigritians, forcibly combining it Avith more intellectual kinds of belief, as they represented their gods with the heads of animals and the bodies of men, and even connecting it ^vith truths which point to a primeval revelation. The Rit- ual, which was the great treasury of Egyptian belief, and explained the means of gaining future happiness, is full of charms to be said, and contains directions for making and for using amulets. As the Nigritian goes on a journey hung about with amulets, so amulets were placed on the Egyptian's embalmed body, and his soul went on its mysterious way fortified with incantations learned while on earth. In China, although Buddhism has established itself, and the system of Confucius has gained the power its positivism would insure it with a highly-educated people of low type, another belief still maintains itself which there is strong reason to hold to be older than the other two, although it is usually sup- posed to have been of the same age as Confucianism ; in this religion magic is of the highest importance, the distinguishing cliaracteristic by which it is known,