Note 119 — Chapter VII · Demons and Goblins.
Reading edition
From Mr. George Métivier.
Father Martin, the oracle of Gaulish divinity, has lavished floods of ink on Herodias. According to him she is the genius of the whirlwind—the “mid-day,” as well as a mid-night, demon. Here she continues to “ride on the whirlwind,” and “direct the storm.” Instead of driving her away with holy water, as our Catholic neighbours do, we fling a sickle at “La Vieille” with pious indignation, whenever the eddying straws announce her arrival in the harvest-field.
Near “Le Ras de Fontenay,” so infamous for its shipwrecks, the little island of Sain, off Finistère, was dedicated to He’ro Dias. There she presided over the oracle of “Sena,” the Hag. Her priestesses were nine shrivelled hags, and their island derived its appellation from the hag, their mistress. None but mariners, suitors for a bagful of favourable wind, were admissible to the presence of these ladies, who spent their time “sur le rocher désert, l’effroi de la nature,” in a very edifying manner—brewing storms, manufacturing hail, lightning, thunder, and so forth, and changing themselves into a variety of brutal forms—(Pomponius Mela).
That there is a two-headed serpent which caresses Dame Hérodias on a bas-relief of the temple of Mont-Morillon in Poitou, may be remembered en passant.
Editor’s Notes.
According to the old Latin “Romaunt de Renard,” Herodias loved John the Baptist. The jealous King caused him to be beheaded. His head, by her order, was carried to her, and she wished to kiss it, but the head turned away, and blew with so much violence that Herodias was blown into the air. Since then, St. John, faithful to his antipathy, has made her travel for ever in the deserts of the sky, and become the genius of the storm.
Some confound her with “Habunde,” who may have been a white lady, or one of those “genii” whom the Celts call “dusi.” Chronique de Philippe Mouskés, Tome II. Introduction p. 139.
Some also think that Herodias will, if anyone dances at harvest time, bring shipwreck and disasters at sea.—From Mr. Isaac Le Patourel.