ver did not belong to his religion, and he, passing the garden one day, beheld the statue of Diana crowned with roses and other flowers. And being in a rage,and seeing in the street a decayed cabbage, he rolled it in the mud, and threw it all dripping at the face of the goddess, saying:- "Behold, thou vile beast of idolatry, this is the worship which thou has from me, and the devil do the rest for thee!" Then the priest heard a voice in the gloom where the leaves were dense, and it said:- "It is well! I give thee warning, since thou hast made thy offering, some of the game to thee I'll bring; Thou'lt have thy share in the morning." All that night the priest suffered from horrible dreams and dread, andwhen at last, just before three o'clock, he fell asleep, he suddenly awokefrom a nightmare in which it seemed as if something heavy rested on his chest. And something indeed fell from him and rolled on the floor.And when he rose and picked it up, and looked at it by the light of the moon, he saw that it was a human head, half decayed. Another priest, who had heard his cry of terror, entered his room, andhaving looked at the head, said, "I know that face! It is of a man whom I confessed, and who was beheaded three months ago at Siena." And three days after, the priest who had insulted the goddess died. The foregoing tale was not given to me as belonging to the Gospel of the Witches, but as one of a very large series of traditions relating to Virgil as a magician. But it has its proper place in this book, because itcontains the invocation to and incantation of Diana, these being remarkablybeautiful and original. When we remember how these 'hymns' have been handed down or preserved by old women, and doubtless much garbled, changed,and deformed by transmission, it cannot but seem wonderful that so much classic beauty still remains in them, ...
