266 THE MAGIC OF JEWELS AND CHARMS
A
notable instance of the use of a saint's name to facilitate the
perpetration of a crime is afforded in the case of the poison known as
Aqua Tofana. This appears to have been a preparation of arsenic and was
concocted by a woman named Tofana, a native of Palermo, in Sicily, who
eventually took up her abode in Naples and devoted herself to the
preparation and sale of her poison in Naples, Borne and elsewhere. To
divert suspicion she used vials marked "Manna of St. Nicholas of Bari,"
and bearing the image of this saint. Most of her clients are said to
have been women who were anxious to rid themselves of their husbands,
and she must have had a large practice in this specialty, for so many
husbands died in Borne in a mysterious manner that in 1659 the
authorities finally took cognizance of the matter and instituted a
searching investigation. This revealed the fact that there existed in
Borne a secret society entirely composed of women who wished to
"remove" their husbands by poison. The leader of this society and many
of the members were duly executed, but Tofana does not seem to have
been molested.
Many
strange superstitions as to the saints prevail among the
Spanish-speaking inhabitants of New Mexico. If a saint whose aid has
been invoked fails to respond to the appeal, his image is shut up in
some receptacle until he vouchsafes to render the service desired. On
the other hand, if the image of a saint falls to the ground, this is
interpreted as a sign that the saint has performed a miracle. One means
of forcing a saint to perform a miracle was to hang the image head
downward ; this was especially recommended in the case of St. Anthony.
All strangers who presented themselves on St. Anthony's day or St.
Joseph's day were to be hospitably received and entertained, for one of
them might be the saint himself. Those who wished to read the future
were instructed to put the white of an egg in a glass of water
