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Dusius, Inkubus, Faun, Waldgeist, keltischer Sexgeist, Gott?<

Blaze schrieb am 3. November 2003 um 3:54 Uhr (772x gelesen):

DUSIO
"Augustine (testimonio famoso) dice al quindicesimo libro della Citta di Dio, che i Silvani ed i Fauni (volgarmente detti Incubi), di molte volte sono stati maligni verso le donne, e che le hanno desiderate, e finalmente son giacuti con loro, e che alcuni demonj, chiamati da Franzesi Dusi del continuo vanno cercandotal disonestà, e mettonla ad effetto."--La Strega di Pico della Mirandola.

In what may be called the Irregular Minor Mythology of Anglo-Saxony, or Saxonyankeedom, and in which Jingo and the Dickens are prominent deities, there is one power known as the Deuce. I have always inclined to think that this word is only the Latin Deus, but philologists deduce it from a French goblin, one Dus, who is described as early as the fifth century as Dusius. Deus means God, while Dus, according to DU CANGE, is found in almost all the Slavonic, Celtic, and Teutonic tongues of Europe, always as a kind of devilkin, a seducer of virgins

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and a being of familiar, easy, make-yourself-at-home habits. It is true, however, that the word for God has been elsewhere made to do diabolical service. In English gypsy it is Dùvel, from the same Aryan root as Deus. Some years ago an English lady teaching religion to some gypsy children, asked them how the Creator was called? Whereupon a small traveller, thinking the name was wanted in Romany, cried out "Dùvel." Soon after there appeared in the newspapers an Appalling instance of Ignorance and Depravity, showing that the lower orders actually believed that the world and all things were made by the devil--à la MOLOCH or MALLOCH. For they do indeed sound very much alike (i.e., Duvel and Devil), and when we consider the extraordinary preponderance of power awarded to the devil in Catholic Christianity, it is a marvel that these names were not interchanged long ago.

Isidore of Seville (in Gloss) speaks of Dusii as demones. Another ancient authority declares that there are actually women so devoid of decency or so worldly-minded as to solicit the embraces of those demons, quos Galli Dusios nuncupant, qua assidue hanc peragunt immunditiam--"whom the French call Dusii because they so constantly persevere in such impurity." PAPIAS writes: "Dusios nominant quas Romani faunos ficarias vocant" ("They call those Dusii whom the Romans call Faunos ficarios"). THOMAS of CANTERBURY speaks of them as forest or sylvan gods in Prussia, and that the "gentiles" there dare not cut the woods consecrated to them. And a Codex of the eighth century, cited by Du CANGE, speaks of aliqui rustici homines, "some rustics who believe in witches, dusiolas and acquaticas or genisons."

But the word seems to exist in most Northern languages. ZEUSS gives Dusmus, diabolus, for Dusius. DIEFENBACH (Origines) finds a Prussian Dussia or Dussas, "perhaps dwœse, geist, a spirit." And VILLEMARQUÉ, gives as British or Breton, Dus, Duz, plural, Duzed, an incubus. Dus appears also in Old Friesic as Dûs, and in Middle High German as Daus. I conjecture that there was an Etruscan or Sabine Dus--the parent or origin of the domestic goblin, also of the fauns. There occurs very often on vases the fox-tailed, phallic, laughing god with a flat face and snubbed nose--always as wanton and indecent.

None of the authors whom I have cited mention any Italian equivalent for the word. I was therefore pleased at finding on inquiry that not only was the name at once recognised, but that the description of the goblin corresponded in every detail to that which appears in all the earlier writers. This is the more interesting because Dus, at present, in all the rest of Europe is little heard of, and may perhaps be put down as one of the gods gone to sleep. This is what was told me:--

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"Dusio is a mischievous little folletto, or goblin. He teases girls, sometimes he acts as a nightmare, very often he inspires lascivious dreams and has connection with women. Sometimes as a little imp not more than three inches high he perches on their pillows. He is not bad, but mischievous. He haunts houses and fireplaces."

Afterwards the following was first narrated and then written out for me:--

Dusio is a folletto--goblin or spirit-who sits on girls' shoulders. In a district of La Romagna there was a girl at service in a gentleman's family. In this palace the aunt of the proprietor had died. The family consisted only of two brothers, a young son, and a girl. After the aunt died, . . . the father also passed away. And after these deaths there was no peace in the house for strange noises.

"At first the girl was afraid, but she soon became accustomed to the sounds. Steps were heard all the time going up and down stairs, doors banging. Then Virginia--such was her name--beheld at times a form as of a lady dressed in black enter and sweep by. And then came the Dusio, who played her all kinds of wanton tricks, e faceva l'amore. Now Virginia did not like this, for she had a lover who wrote frequently to her, and she had carefully hidden these letters for fear lest i padroni or her masters and mistresses should find them. One night Dusio entered, and began his pranks. First he teased her in every way--faceva tutti i dispetti--and pulled all the bed-covering, sheets and all, from Virginia. Then he went and brought out some of her letters, and lighting them at the candle burned them all up in the scaldino, or brasier.

"The next day she went to walk with an old woman who was to her as a mother, to whom she told all the tricks which Dusio played, and how he was teasing the very life out of her. Then the old woman said Should he try to do that again say to him:--

"'Dusio--diosio--vattene via!
Vattene in pace che Dio ti benedica!

"'And then he will go away and trouble you no more.'

"But Virginia was so forgetful, or so much excited, that instead of repeating these words she said:--

"'Dusio, Dusio, cosa fai?'

That is, 'Dusio, Dusio, what are you doing?' And he, bursting into a loud laugh, said: 'Taking care lest your master and mistress find your letters.'"

I have omitted from this story some family details and their name and the place where it occurred. I was assured with great earnestness that it all really took place as I have given it. What is remarkable in it, beyond the fact that Dusio corresponds exactly to the wanton sprite Dusius of the old writers, is the word diosio in the incantation. My informant could not explain it. I think I have met with it before, but cannot remember where. I conjecture, haphazardly, that it is equivalent to " Thou who mayest be, or art, a god"--i.e., dio sia!

Prætorius has, in his Blockes Berges Berichtung (1669), something to say about Dusius, and of course in his fashion it is something quaint and strange. "It hath been observed," he states, "yea, and experienced and made known by many credible men, that the Sylvani or Little Forest men and Inni, which are otherwise commonly known as Incubos and Squatters (Auflröcker) are madly lewd

p. 129

for women. And there are others of the same kind whom the French call Dusii who are fully their equals in such impurity, so that it is verily a sin and a shame, and Giraldus, Livy, and Isidore l. 1, testify to it. But they have all been wrecked on the word Dusius. For it should be Drusius, and mean forest-devil, whom the Latins in the same sense call Silvanus. So that which Saint Augustine saith, that our ancestors of old time called these spirits and devils Druten is most probable, since the word agrees well with that of Druids who lived in wood and forests."

Which may or may not be. Dus is distinctly marked in all its early forms, although the intercalation of r is extremely common, even to children.

Pliny tells us that hand-mills were invented at Volsinii, and that some of them turned of their own accord (Pliny, xxxvi. 29), "from which," says Dennis, "it would appear probable that 'that shrewd and knavish sprite called Robin Goodfellow' was of Etruscan origin--a fact worthy the attention of all Etrusco-Celtic theorists." The reader will find in several chapters of this my book much to confirm this conjecture.

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