INCANTATION ( Lat. incantatio, front in mature, to enchant, from in, in eantare, fre quentative of eancre, to sing). The employment of song for magical purposes. In consequence of the excitement by rhythmieal utter ance, verse has from early times been supposed to possess a divine element. Vergil and Horace represent songs as able to bring down from heaven the moon and the stars; and such influ ence, in these poets only fanciful. was at an earlier period commonly ascribed to sacred verses. It was further believed that both gods and ghosts were placated by song; and it is a universal feature of worship that in all cere monies chants are employed which have been handed down front antiquity, preserved with scrupulous exactitude, and supposed to exert supernatural effect. In ancient times every function of human life was accompanied with in cantations, presumed to be as essential as were the natural means employed. Poetic it was supposed. had power to summon and banish demons, to raise and disperse storms, to bestow sunshine and rain, to grant success in war and in love, to inflict and remove disease, to cause crops to grow, wither, or remove front one granary to another. to make cattle breed and bees swarm, to bring success to the fisherman and hunter, and so on indefinitely. Song, when used for magic ends, is often reinforced by appropriate motions and actions, and frequently recited by a shaman ( IIIVIlieine-man, magician). Thus, among Navahos the rite called the Mountain Chant, pri marily intended for the cure of disease, consti tutes an elaborate festival of nine days' duration. It is explained by a myth, to which the songs allude. These form sequences, of which the order must not he (-hanged. and among them are prayers of a simple character, which recite the nature of the sickness, entreat that it may he healed, and end with an assertion that the work is accomplished. Similarly. ancient Babylonian of an exorcistic character. directed against, diseases conceived as evil spirits. or dinarily begin with enumerating the effects of the malady or names of the hostile powers, ex press the desire of the suppliant for recovery, and conclude with an invocation to Heaven and Earth, who are besought to deliver the sufferer.
These also were often associated with ritual, for the performance of which directions are given. Of course, with the songs are sometimes employed other agencies, as when in the Odyssey the hero, injured by a boar's tusk, has his hurt bound by the sons of Autolyens, who then proceed to em ploy an incantation, supposed to stanch the wound. In process of time the ceremonies em ployed in such cases fell into disuse, and the words of such charms became half intelligible, or altogether meaningless. It seems to have been always usual that the miraculous healer should recite his rhymes in a low tone of voice, in such a manner as to be unintelligible to spectators, whose sense of mystery was thereby heightened. Considering the tenacity of it might be expected that sonic of these formula• should have a history. 'For instance, a German incan tation recorded in the tenth century, and evi dently of heathen origin, relates that while cer tain deities were riding in the forest, a horse dislocated his leg, which the gods wished to heal; Woden was successful by means of an in. eantation. A similar charm at a later time ap pears in Christian form. Peter and 'John re placing the deities, and Christ taking the place of \Voden as the healer. In the nineteenth cen tury, a form of this incantation was still in use in Shetland, but accompanied by an elaborate ceremony, every part of which was regarded as essential, and which included the use of a thread spun from black wool and having nine knots. wound about the sprained part. At the present day the custom remains in force among simple peoples. In English nursery lore the habit of incantation survives in sonic simple rhymes of children and young people, as, for example, in verses directed against rain. or those addressed to the moon and stars in order to obtain auguries as to the future mate. Consult the authorities referred to under MAGIC.