186 THE CURIOUS LORE OF PRECIOUS STONES
The
strong religious tone of these directions for the use of the mirror and
the fact that it is a priest who gives them, shows that there was a
disposition to tolerate the employment of such "white magic."
In
medieval times it was believed that the vision in the crystal was
produced through the agency of an indwelling spirit, and, therefore,
it was necessary to use some very potent spell to force this spirit to
enter the stone. Many of these ancient spells have been preserved, and
they contain a strange and incongruous mixture of religious and magical
formulas. In one of these, dating from the end of the fifteenth
century, after a recitation of a long and rambling conjuration, we
read, "And yen ask ye chylde yf he seethe any thyng, and yf no, let the mr begin
his conjuratyö agayn." As usual the scrying was done by a child, the
conjuration being spoken by the minister. An important part of the
conjuration consisted in the repetition of a number of divine names,
most of them originally Hebrew, but so much corrupted by reciters who
did not know their meaning that it is now exceedingly difficult to
interpret them correctly.
A
proof that this form of magic was often regarded as quite compatible
with religion is offered us in a passage from a sixteenth century
manuscript,18 where we read that the crystal should be laid
on the altar "on the Side that the gosp'ell is read on. And let the
priest say a mass on the same Side." If the conjuration is successful,
the same manuscript tells us that "these angells being once appeared
will not depart the glasse or stone untili the Sonne be sett except you
licence them. ' ' It also seems that "scrying" was looked upon as a
special gift, only granted to a favored few as a peculiar privilege,
and we
18 Sloane MS. 3851, f. 50b.
