Vomiting strange objects.
During exorcism, possessed people
frequently vomited unusual items: pins, yarn,
toads, worms, clothing, etc. Demonologists
believed that Satan placed these objects
within the possessed, as a sign that He had
entered into them. When the possessed person
was exorcised, they expelled these foreign
objects.
In some cases, allotriophagy was pure
chicanery. The possessed were *expected* to
cough up strange objects, and so several
people admitted that they'd faked
allotriophagy to make their possession more
believable. These people palmed small objects
and pretended to vomit them at an opportune
moment. Other cases appear genuine. Mentally
disturbed people were often considered
possessed. We can only assume that they
swallowed strange items, which they later
vomited up.
In modern Witchcraft, a sanctified
black-handled knife.
The word "athame" is of unknown
origin. James W. Baker suggests that it may
come from the Old French "attame"
(to cut or pierce). Other writers suggest
that "athame" comes from Basque, or
the Arabic phrase "Al-dhamme".
While we can't rule these possibilities out,
"attame" seems to be a much more
likely source. There's no evidence that such
a Basque or Arabic phrase was ever used in
the English language, while the loan-word
"attame" does indeed pop up
occasionally in early English.
The history of athames is equally unclear.
We don't have any evidence that Witches used
athames before the 20th century. They don't
appear in the Witch trials. Witches did
occasionally use knives, but there's no
indication that these knives were especially
blessed, called "athames", or had
to be of a specific color. On the other hand,
many 19th century Irish spells call for a
"black-handled" knife. This knife
is never referred to as an
"athame", but it is an important
tool in Irish folk magick.
It seems more likely that athames were
adopted from the ceremonial (or
"high" magickal) tradition. The
_Clavicula Salomonis_ (Key of Solomon), one
of the earliest and most famous grimoires of
high magick, lists black- and white-handled
knives amongst the various instruments a mage
must possess. The black handled knife is used
to cast the magickal circle, just as it is in
Witchcraft. Other cutting tasks are performed
with the white-handled knife.
When did these traditions merge? It's hard
to say. We have no solid evidence that
Witches used black- and white-handled knives
before the 20th century. So the simplest
explanation is that athames are not
traditional -- Gerald Gardner picked them up
from ceremonial magick. On the other hand, we
know that Witches have been using the
_Clavicula Salomonis_ for centuries. Laura
Malipiero, a 16th century Venetian Strega,
was arrested by the Inquisition for making
copies of this text, which the Church had
placed on its list of banned books. Thus we
can't rule out the possibility that athames
entered into Witchcraft traditions during the
Burning Times.
However this still doesn't explain where
the word "athame" came from. In
ceremonial magick the black-handled knife has
no special name. One 16th century copy of the
_Keys of Solomon_ (Sloane ms. 3847) does call
a white-handled knife an "arthana".
Aiden Kelly also points out that in "The
Master of the Crabs", a 1934 horror
story by Clark Ashton Smith, the magician's
ceremonial knife is called an
"arthame".
So the possible histories for the word
"athame" seem to be: 1) Athame is
an ancient but rare word that has entirely
disappeared from the historical record. 2)
Athame is a misunderstanding/variation of
"arthana", an uncommon English name
for a ceremonial magician's white-handled
knife. 3) Athames were invented by Gerald
Gardner, and were inspired either by
"The Master of Crabs" or the
English translation of the _Key of Solomon_
which mentioned arthanas. Gardner chose to
apply the name to the "Witchier"
black handled knife, rather than the more
"mundane" white-handled one.
