ritual · Roman

Charm for a dislocation

Any kind of dislocation may be cured by the following charm: Take a green reed four or five feet long and split it down the middle, and let two men hold it to your hips. Begin to chant: "motas uaeta daries dardares astataries dissunapiter" and continue until they meet. Brandish a knife over them, and when the reeds meet so that one touches the other, grasp with the hand and cut right and left. If the pieces are applied to the dislocation or the fracture, it will heal. And none the less chant every day: "huat haut haut istasis tarsis ardannabou dannaustra."

Commentarius · Commentary

A charm against dislocation and fracture, from Cato's De agricultura.

There are no words in it. Motas uaeta daries dardares astataries dissunapiter is a sequence of sounds parsable neither as Latin nor as any other known language; attempts to derive it from Etruscan, from Oscan or from a corrupted Latin phrase have been made repeatedly and have not carried conviction.

It works by sound and by setting, not by sense. Cato describes the rite in detail: a green reed four or five feet long is split lengthwise, two men hold the halves against the patient's hips and chant this until the halves meet; then they are cut with a knife and applied to the fracture. The charm is part of the mechanism, on a level with the reed.

It is not translated. The Russian section repeats the Latin unchanged: to translate nonsense would be to invent a meaning for it. The standard Russian Cato, in Sergeenko's version, does the same.

Fons · Source

AuthorCato

WorkDe Agricultura

Section160

Period2nd c. BC

Occasionhealing charm for dislocation or fracture

Classificatio · Taxonomy

CultureRoman

Formritual

FunctionsProtection

SphereHealing