f all the knaves or dishonest tradesman, with the whole rubbish andrefuse of the human race, who have been hitherto without a god or a devil,inasmuch as they have been too despicable for the one or the other.' "And so Laverna became the goddess of all dishonest and shabby people. "Whenever any one planned or intended any knavery or aught wicked, he entered her temple, and invoked Laverna, who appeared to him as a woman's head. But if he did his work of knavery badly or maladroitly, when he again invoked her he saw only the body; but if he was clever, thenhe beheld the whole goddess, head and body. "Laverna was no more chaste than she was honest, and had many lovers and many children. It was said that not being bad at heart or cruel, she often repented her life and sins; but do what she might, she could not reform, because her passions were so inveterate. "And if a man had got any woman with child or any maid found herself enceinte, and would hide it from the world and escape scandal,they would go every day to invoke Laverna. "Then when the time came for the suppliant to be delivered, Laverna would bear her in sleep during the night to her temple, and after the birthcast her into slumber again, and bear her back to her bed at home. And when she woke in the morning, she was ever in vigorous health and felt no weariness, and all seemed to her as a dream. "But to those who desired in time to reclaim their children, Laverna was indulgent if they led such lives as pleased her and faithfully worshipped her. "And this is the ceremony to be performed and the incantation to be offered every night to Laverna. "There must be a set place devoted to the goddess, be it a room, a cellar, or a grove, but ever a solitary place. "Then take a small table of the size of forty playing cards set closetogether, and this must be hid in the same place, and going there at night... "Take forty cards and spread them on the...
