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FOLK LORE:
OR,
SUPERSTITIOUS BELIEFS IN THE WEST OF
SCOTLAND WITHIN THIS CENTURY.
WITH
AN APPENDIX,
SHEWING THE PROBABLE RELATION OF THE MODERN FESTIVALS OF CHRISTMAS,
MAY DAY, ST. JOHN'S DAY, AND HALLOWE'EN, TO ANCIENT SUN
AND FIRE WORSHIP.
BY
JAMES NAPIER, F.R.S.E., F.C.S., &c.,
Author of Manufacturing Art in Ancient Times, Notes and Reminiscences
of Partick, &c., &c.
PAISLEY: ALEX. GARDNER.
1879
CONTENTS.
The doctrine taught concerning Satan, his motives and
influence in the beginning of this century, supplied the
popular mind with reasons to account for almost all the
evils, public and private, which befell society; and as the
observed ills of life, real or imaginary, greatly outnumbered
the observed good occurrences, the thought of Satan was
more constantly before the people's mind than was the
thought of God. Practically, it might be said, and said
with a very near approach to truth, that Satan, in popular
estimation, was the greater of the two; but theoretically,
the superiority of God was allowed, for Satan it was
believed, was permitted by God to do what he did. It
was commonly said, "Never speak evil of the Deil, for he
has a long memory." This Satanic belief gave rise to a
great amount of Folk Lore, and affected the whole social
system. Historians who take no account of such beliefs,
but regard them as trivialities, cannot but fail to represent
faithfully the condition and action of the people. Folk
Lore has thus an important historical bearing. Every age
has had its own living Folk Lore, and, beside this, a
residuum of waning lore, regarded as superstitious, and
so it is at the present day. When we speak of the Folk
Lore of our grandfathers and great-grandfathers, we believe
that we are speaking of beliefs which have past away,
beliefs from which we ourselves are free; but if we consider
the matter carefully we will find that in many
respects our beliefs and practices, although somewhat
modernized, are essentially little different from those of
last century. Among the better educated classes it may
be said that much of the superstitions of former times have
passed away, and as education is extended they will more
and more become eradicated; but at present, in our
rural districts especially, the old beliefs still linger in
considerable force. Many think that the superstitions of
last century died with the century, but this is not so; and
as these notions are curious and in many respects important
historical factors, I have thought it worth while
to jot down what of this Folk Lore has come under my
observation during these last sixty years.
In this collection I do not profess to include all that
may come under the head of Folk Lore, such, for example,
as the reading of dreams and cups, spaeing fortunes
by cards or other methods—that class of superstitions
by which designing persons prey upon weak-minded
people.
One principal object which I had in view in forming
this collection, was that it might supply a nucleus for
the further development of the subject. The instances
which I have adduced belong to one locality, the West
of Scotland, and chiefly the neighbourhood west of
Glasgow, but different localities have different methods
of formulating the same superstition. By comparison,
by separation of the local accretion from the constant
element, an approach to the original source and meaning
of a superstition may be obtained.
I have hope that the Folk Lore Society, just instituted,
will consider such details and variations, and endeavour
to trace their history and origin, and fearlessly give prominence
to the still existing superstitions, and exhibit
their degrading influence on society.
INTRODUCTORY.
he primary object of the following short
treatise is to give an account of some of
those superstitions, now either dead or in
their decadence, but which, within the
memory of persons now living, had a vigorous existence,
at least in the West of Scotland. A secondary
object shall be to trace out, where I think I can discover
ground for so doing, the origin of any particular
superstition, and in passing I may notice the duration
in time and geographical distribution of some superstitions.
But, on the threshold of our inquiry, it may be
of advantage to pause and endeavour to reach a mutual
understanding of the precise meaning of the word
Superstition—a word apparently, from the varied dictionary
renderings given of it, difficult to define. However
we may disagree in our definitions of the word, we
all agree in regarding a superstitious tone of mind as
weak and foolish, and as no one desires to be regarded
as weak-minded or foolish, we naturally repel from ourselves
as best we can the odious imputation of being
superstitious. There are few who seek to know what
superstition in its essence really is; most people are
satisfied to frame an answer to suit their own case, and
so it happens that we have a multiplicity of definitions
for the word, many of which are devoid of scientific
solidity, and others have not even the merit of intelligibility.
A recent definition, extremely elastic, was propounded
by a popular preacher in a lecture delivered
before the Glasgow Young Men's Christian Association
and reported in the newspapers,—"Superstition is Scepticism,"
which may be legitimately paraphrased "Superstition
is not believing what I believe." Although this
definition may be very gratifying to the self pride of
most of us, we must nevertheless reject it, and look for
a more definite and instructive signification, and for this
end we may very properly consult the meanings given in
several standard dictionaries and lexicons, for in them we
expect to find precision of statement, although in this instance
I believe we shall be disappointed. Theophrastus,
who lived several centuries before the Christian era,
defines "Superstition" according to the translation given
of his definition in the Encyclopædia Metropolitana, as
"A cowardly state of mind with respect to the supernatural,"
and supplies the following illustration: "The
superstitious man is one, who, having taken care to
wash his hands and sprinkle himself in the temple,
walks about during the day with a little laurel in his
mouth, and if he meets a weasel on the road, dares not
proceed on his way till some person has passed, or till
he has thrown three stones across the road."
Under "Superstition," in the Encyclopædia Metropolitana,
the following definitions are given:—
1st.—Excess of scruple or ceremony in matters of religion:
idle worship: vain reverence: a superfluous,
needless, or ill-governed devotion.
2nd.—Any religious observance contrary to, or not
sanctioned by, Scripture or reason.
3rd.—All belief in supernatural agency, or in the influence
of casual occurrences, or of natural phenomena
on the destinies of man which has no foundation
in Scripture, reason, or experience.
4th.—All attempts to influence the destiny of man by
methods which have no Scriptural or rational
connection with their object.
Walker's Dictionary:—
"Unnecessary fear or scruple in religion: religion
without morality: false religion: reverence of
beings not properly objects of reverence: over-nicety:
exactness: too scrupulous."
Chambers' Dictionary:—
"A being excessive (in religion) over a thing as if in
wonder or fear: excessive reverence or fear:
excessive exactness in religious opinions and
practice: false worship or religion: the belief in
supernatural agency: belief in what is absurd
without evidences: excessive religious belief."
These dictionary meanings do not, of course, attempt
to decide what should be the one only scientifically
correct significance of the term, but only supply the
varying senses in which the word is used in literature and
in common speech, but they suffice to show that it is
used by different persons with different significations,
each person apparently gauging first his own position,
and defining superstition as something which cannot be
brought to tell against himself.
After pondering over the various renderings, it occurred
to me that the following definition would embrace the
whole in a few words: Religion founded on erroneous
ideas of God. But when I set this definition alongside
the case of an otherwise intelligent man carrying in his
trousers' pocket a raw potato as a protection against
rheumatism, and alongside the case of another man
carrying in his vest pocket a piece of brimstone to prevent
him taking cramp in the stomach; and when I
consider the case of ladies wearing earrings as a preventive
against, or cure for, sore eyes; and, again, when
I remembered a practice, very frequent a few years
ago, of people wearing what were known as galvanic
rings in the belief that these would prevent their
suffering from rheumatism, I could not perceive any
direct connection between such superstitious practices
and religion, and the construction of a new definition
was rendered necessary. The following, I think,
covers the whole ground: Beliefs and practices founded
upon erroneous ideas of God and nature. With this meaning
the term "Superstition" is employed in the following
pages, and if the definition commend itself to the reader,
it will at once become apparent that the only way by
which freedom from superstition can be attained is to
search Nature and Revelation for correct views of God
and His methods of working. Notwithstanding our pretensions
to a correct religious knowledge, a pure theology,
and freedom from everything like superstition, it is
strange yet true, that, if we except the formulated reply
to the question in the Westminster Catechism, "What is
God," scarcely two persons—perhaps no two persons—have
exactly the same idea of God. We each worship a
God of our own. In one of the late Douglas Jerrold's
"Hedgehog Letters" he introduces two youths passing
St Giles' Church at a lonely hour, when the one addresses
the other thus:—"The old book and the parson
tell us that at the beginning God made man in his own
image. We have now reversed this, and make God in
our image." A sad truth, although not new; Saint Paul
made a similar remark to the philosophic Athenians;
but the remark applies not to this age or to Saint
Paul's age alone—its applicability extends to every
age and every people. As Goethe remarks, "Man
never knows how anthropomorphic he is." Our
minds instinctively seek an explanation of the cause
or causes of the different phenomena constantly
occurring around us, but instinct does not supply
the solution. Only by patient watching and consideration
can this be arrived at; but in former ages scientific
methods of investigation were either not known, or not
cared for, and so men were satisfied with merely guessing
at the causes of natural phenomena, and these guesses
were made from the standpoint of their own human
passionate intelligence. Alongside the intelligence everywhere
observable in the operations of nature they placed
their own passionate humanity, they projected themselves
into the universe and anthropomorphised nature. Thus
came men to regard natural phenomena as manifestations
of supernatural agency; as expressions of the wrath or
pleasure of good or evil genii, and although in our day
we have made great advances in our knowledge of
natural phenomena, the majority of men still regard the
ways of providence from a false standpoint, a standpoint
erected in the interests of ecclesiasticism. Churchmanship
acts as a distorting medium, twisting and displacing
things out of their natural relations, and although this
influence was stronger in the past than it is now, still
there remains a considerable residuum of the old influence
among us yet. For example, we are not yet rid of the
belief that God has set apart times, places, and duties
as specially sacred, that what is not only sinless but a
moral obligation at certain times and places becomes sinful
at other times and places. Ecclesiastical influence
thus familiarises us with the distinctions of secular and
sacred, and we hear frequent mention made of our duties
to God and our duties to man, of our religious duties
and our worldly duties, and we frequently hear religion
spoken of as something readily distinguishable from
business. But not only are these things separated by
name from one another, they are often regarded as opposites,
having no fellowship together. Hence has arisen
in many minds a slavish fear of performing at certain
times and in certain places the ordinary duties of life,
lest by so doing they anger God. In certain conditions
of society such belief, erroneous though it be, may have
served a useful purpose in restraining, and thereby so
far elevating a rude people, just as now we may see many
among ourselves restrained from evil, and influenced to
the practice of good, by beliefs which, to the enlightened
among us, are palpable absurdities.
Before reviewing the superstitious beliefs and practices
of our immediate forefathers, we may, I think, profitably
occupy a short time in gaining some general idea
of the prominent features of ancient Pagan religions, for
without doubt much of the mythology and superstitious
practice of our forefathers had a Pagan origin. I shall
not attempt any exhaustive treatise on this subject, for
the task is beyond me, but a slight notice of ancient theology
may not here be irrelevant. The late George
Smith, the eminent Assyriologist, says:—
"Upwards of 2000 years B.C. the Babylonians had
three great gods—Anu, Bel, and Hea. These three leading
deities formed members of twelve gods, also called
great. These were—
- Anu, King of Angels and Spirits. Lord of the city
Eresh.
- Bel, Lord of the world, Father of the Gods, Creator.
Lord of the city of Nipur.
- Hea, Maker of fate, Lord of the deep, God of wisdom
and knowledge. Lord of the city of Eridu.
- Sin, Lord of crowns, Maker of brightness. Lord of
the city Urr.
- Merodash, Just Prince of the Gods, Lord of birth.
Lord of the city Babylon.
- Vul, the strong God, Lord of canals and atmosphere.
Lord of the city Mura.
- Shama, Judge of heaven and earth, Director of all.
Lord of the cities of Larsa and Sippara.
- Ninip, Warrior of the warriors of the Gods, Destroyer
of wicked. Lord of the city Nipur.
- Nergal, Giant King of war. Lord of the city Cutha.
- Nusku, Holder of the Golden Sceptre, the lofty God.
- Belat, Wife of Bel, Mother of the great Gods. Lady
of the city Nipur.
- Ishtar, Eldest of Heaven and Earth, Raising the
face of warriors.
"Below these deities there were a large body of gods,
forming the bulk of the Pantheon; and below these
were arranged the Igege or angels of heaven; and the
anunaki or angels of earth; below these again came
curious classes of spirits or genii, some were evil and
some good."
The gods of the Greeks were numbered by thousands,
and this at a time when—according to classical scholars—the
arts and sciences were at their highest point of
development in that nation. Their religion was of the
grossest nature. Whatever conception they may have
had of a first cause—a most high Creator of heaven and
earth—it is evident they did not believe he took anything
to do directly with man or the phenomena of
nature; but that these were under the immediate control
of deputy-deities or of a conclave of divinities, who
possessed both divine and human attributes—having
human appetites, passions, and affections. Some of
these were local deities, others provincial, others national,
and others again phenomenal: every human
emotion, passion and affection, every social circumstance,
public or private, was under the control or guardianship
of one or more of these divinities, who claimed from
men suitable honour and worship, the omission of which
honour and worship was considered to be not only
offensive to the divinities, but as likely to be followed by
punishment. The vengeance of the deities was thought
to be avertable by the performance of certain propitiatory
deeds, or by offering certain sacrifices. The kind of
sacrifice required had relation to the particular department
over which the divinity was supposed to be
guardian; and these deeds and sacrifices were in many
cases most gross and offensive to morality. The phenomena
of nature, being under the direction of one or
more divinities, every aspect of nature was regarded as
an expression of anger or pleasure on the part of the
divinities. Thunder, lightning, eclipses, comets, drought,
floods, storms—anything strange or terrible, the cause of
which was not understood, was ascribed to the wrath of
some divinity; and men hastened to propitiate, as best
they might, the divinities who were supposed to be
scourging or threatening them. These deputy-gods
were supposed to occupy the space between the earth
and moon, and, being almost numberless and invisible,
their worshippers held them in the same dread as if they
possessed the attribute of omniscience.
For the purpose of guiding men in their relations
towards these gods, there existed a large body of men
whose office it was to understand the divinities, their
natures and attributes, and direct men in their religious
duties. This body of men acted as mediums between
the gods and the people, and not only were they held in
high esteem as priests, but frequently they attained great
power in the State. Often this priestly incorporation had
greater influence and control than the civil power; nor is
this to be wondered at, when we remember that they
were supposed to be in direct communication with the
holy gods, in whose hands were the destinies of men.
The sun, the giver and vivifier of all life, was the
primary god of antiquity, being worshipped by Assyrians,
Chaldeans, Phoenicians, and Hebrews under the name
of Baal or Bell, and by other nations under other names.
The priests of Baal always held a high position in the
State. As the sun was his image or symbol in heaven,
so fire was his symbol on earth, and hence all offerings
made to Baal were burned or made to pass through the
fire, or were presented before the sun. Wherever, in
the worship of any nation, we find the fire element, we
may at once suspect that there we have a survival of
ancient sun-worship.
The moon was regarded as a female deity, consort of
the sun or Baal, and was worshipped by the Jews under
the name of Ashtoreth, or Astarte. Her worship was of
the most sensual description. The worship of sun and
moon formed one system, the priests of the one being also
priests of the other.
Apart from the priestly incorporation of which we
have spoken, there was another class of men who assumed
knowledge of supernatural phenomena. These
were known as astrologers or star-gazers, wizards, magicians,
witches, sooth-sayers. By the practice of certain
arts and repetition of certain formula, these pretended
to divine and foretell events both of a public and private
nature. They were believed in by the mass of people,
and were consulted on all sorts of matters. By both the
civil and ecclesiastical authorities their practices and
pretensions were sometimes condemned, and themselves
forbidden to exercise their peculiar gifts, but nevertheless
the people continued to believe in them and consult
them. Their pretensions were considerable, extending
even to raising and consulting the spirits of the
dead.
This leads me to notice the ancient belief concerning the
souls of the departed. By almost all nations, Jews and
Gentiles, there was a prevailing belief that at death the
souls of good men were taken possession of by good spirits
and carried to Paradise, but the souls of wicked men were
left to wander in the space between the earth and moon,
or consigned to Hades, or Unseen World. These wandering
spirits were in the habit of haunting the living,
especially their relations, so that the living were surrounded
on every side by the spirits of their wicked
ancestors, who were always at hand tempting them to
evil. However, there were means by which these ghosts
might be exorcised. A formula for expelling wicked spirits
is given by Ovid in Book V. of the Fasti:—
"In the dread silence of midnight, upon the eighth
day of May, the votary rises from his couch barefooted,
and snapping his fingers as a sure preventative against
meeting any ghost during his subsequent operations,
thrice washing his hands in spring water, he places nine
black beans in his mouth, and walks out. These he
throws behind him one by one, carefully guarding against
the least glance backwards, and at each cast he says, 'With
these beans I ransom myself and mine.' The spirits of
his ancestors follow him and gather the beans as they
fall. Then, performing another ablution as he enters his
house, he clashes cymbals of brass, or rather some household
utensil of that metal, entreating the spirits to quit
his roof. He then repeats nine times these words,
'Avaunt ye ancestral manes.' After this he looks behind,
and is free for one year."
Some nations in addition to a personal formula for
laying the ghosts of departed relatives, had a national
ritual for ghost-laying, a public feast in honour of departed
spirits. Such a feast is still held in China, and also in
Burmah. In 1875 the following placard was posted
throughout the district of Rangoon, proclaiming a feast
of forty-nine days by order of the Emperor of China:—
"There will this year be scarcity of rice and plenty of
sickness. Evil spirits will descend to examine and inquire
into the sickness. If people do not believe this,
many will die in September and October. Should any
people call on you at midnight, do not answer; it is not
a human being that calls, but an evil spirit. Do not be
wicked, but be good."
But I do not propose to write a treatise on Pagan
theology, nor do I propose to trace in historical detail
the progress through which Christian and Pagan beliefs
have in process of time become assimilated,
when I have occasion, I may notice these things.
I intend, as I said at the beginning, to deal with
superstition, no matter from what source it may have
arisen, recognising superstition to be as already defined—beliefs
and practices founded upon erroneous
ideas of God and the laws of nature. In many things, I
believe, we are yet too superstitious, and our popular
theology, instead of aiding to destroy these erroneous
beliefs, aids them in maintaining their vitality. Orthodox
Christians believe in a general and also in a special providence;
the ancients, on the other hand, believed that
all events were under the control and direction of separate
and special divinities, so that when praying for certain
results, they addressed the divinity having control over
that phenomenon or circumstance by which they were
affected, and when their desires were gratified, they expressed
their thankfulness by offerings to that divinity.
If their desires were not granted, they regarded that circumstance
as a token of displeasure on the part of that
divinity, and besought the aid of their priests and sooth-sayers
to discover the reason of his anger, and offered
sacrifices and peace offerings. Now, orthodox Christians
in the same circumstances pray to God for special and
personal blessings, and when they are granted, they feel
grateful, and sometimes express their gratitude. A common
method of expressing this gratitude is by giving
something to the church. Thus we find in our church
records entries like the following:—
| | | £ S. D. |
| From —— ——, | As a
thank-offering for the recovery
of a dear child. | —— |
| " ——
——, | Peace-offering for reconciliation with
an old
friend. | —— |
| " ——
——, | Offering for the preservation of a
friend going
abroad. | —— |
| " ——
——, | Thank-offering for a fortunate transaction
in
business. | —— |
Such offerings are remarked upon favourably by the
leaders of the Church, and regarded as examples worthy
of being imitated by all pious Christians. But should the
prayers not be granted, there is no gift. The non-fulfilment
of their desires is regarded perhaps not altogether
as an evidence of God's displeasure, but at least as a
token that what was asked it was not His pleasure to
grant. They make little enquiry concerning the real
cause of failure, but take credit to themselves for humbly
submitting to God's will. This unenquiring submission
is often, however, both sinful and superstitious. Every
result has its cause, and it is surely our duty, as far as
observation and reason can guide us, to discover the
causes which operate against us. The great majority of
the afflictions and misfortunes which befall us are punishments
for the breakage of some law, the committal of
some sin physical or moral, and this being the case, it
behoves us to find out what law has been transgressed,
what the nature of the sin committed. This principle is
acknowledged by our religious teachers, but the laws which
have been broken, have not been wisely sought after.
The field of search has been almost exclusively the
moral, or the theological field; whereas the correct rule
is, for physical effects, look for physical causes; for moral
effects, moral causes. This rule has not been followed.
A few cases illustrative of what I mean will clearly demonstrate
the superstitious nature of what is a widely
diffused opinion among the religious societies of this
country at the present time.
Forty-six years ago, when cholera first broke out in
this country, it was immediately proclaimed to be a
judgment for a national sin; and so it was, but for a sin
against physical laws. I well remember the indignation
which arose and found expression in almost every pulpit
in the country, when the Prime Minister of that day, in
reply to a petition from the Church asking him to proclaim
a national fast for the removal of the plague, told
his petitioners to first remove every source of nuisance
by cleansing drains and ditches, and removing stagnant
pools, and otherwise observe the general laws of health,
then having done all that lay in our power, we could ask
God to bless our efforts, and He would hear us. All sorts
of absurd causes were seriously advanced to account for
the presence of this alarming malady. One party discovered
the cause in a movement for the disestablishment
of religion. Another considered it was a judgment from
God for asking the Reform Bill. The Radicals proclaimed
it to be a trick of the Tories to prevent agitation
for reform, and added that medical men were bribed to
poison wells and streams. The non-religious displayed
as great superstition in this matter as did the religious.
Large bills, headed in large type "Cholera Humbug,"
were at that time posted on the blank walls of the streets
of Glasgow. The feeling against medical men was then
so intense, that some of them were mobbed, and narrowly
escaped with their lives. In Paisley, considered
to be the most intelligent town in Scotland, a doctor, who
was working night and day for the relief of the sufferers,
had his house and shop sacked, and was obliged to fly
for shelter, or his life would have been sacrificed to the
fury of the mob.
When we read that epidemics which broke out in the
times of our forefathers, were ascribed to such absurd
causes as the introduction of forks, or because the nation
neglected to prosecute with sufficient vigour alleged cases
of compact with the devil, we wonder at and pity their
ignorance, and rejoice that we live in a more enlightened
age. But the fact is, that among the mass of the people
there is really no great difference between the present
and the past. There is a close family likeness in this
matter of superstition between now and long ago, and
this state of matters will continue so long as a knowledge
of physical science—that science which treats of the laws
by which God is pleased to overrule and direct material
things—is not made a religious duty. There are physical
sins and there are moral sins, and the punishment for the
first is apparently even more direct than for the second,
for in the case of physical sins we are punished without
mercy. Through neglect of these laws, we are
continually suffering punishment, shortening and making
miserable our own lives and the lives of those dependent
upon us; and periodically judgments descend on the careless
community, in the form of severe epidemics. Any
religion which advocates practices, or teaches doctrines
inconsistent with our physical, intellectual, or moral well-being,
cannot be from God, and vice versa; and this is a
strong argument in favour of Christianity as taught by its
Founder. I wish I could say the same of the Christianity
taught by our ecclesiastics, either Protestant or Catholic.
The introduction into the heathen world of the fundamental
truths that there is but one God, omnipotent and
omniscient, who overrules every event, that He has revealed
Himself through His Son as a God of love and mercy,
and that man's duty to Him is obedience to His laws,
was a mighty step in advance of the gross conceptions of
idolatry formerly prevalent among these nations. But
neither heathens nor Christians had for a long time any
clear idea that the overruling of God in Providence was
according to fixed laws. Being ignorant on this point,
they ascribed to unseen supernatural agency, working in
a capricious fashion, all phenomena which appeared to
differ from, or disturb the ordinary course of events.
Upon such matters heathen and Christian ideas commingled,
and thus heathen ideas and practices were incorporated
with Christian ideas and practices. Then,
when ecclesiastical councils met to determine truth, and
formulate their creeds, these combined heathen and
Christian ideas being accepted by them, became dogmas
of the Church, and henceforth those who differed from
the dogmatic creed of the Church, or advocated views in
advance of these confessions, were regarded as enemies
of truth. Naturally, as the Church became powerful
she became more repressive, and opposed all enquiry
which appeared to lead to conclusions different from
those already promulgated by her, and finally, it became
a capital offence to teach any other doctrines than those
sanctioned by the Church. The beliefs of the members
of these councils being, as we have already seen, a mixture
of heathen and Christian ideas, the Church thus became
a great conservator of superstition; and to show
that this was really so, we may adduce one example:—Pope
Innocent VIII. issued a Bull as follows:—"It has
come to our ears that members of both sexes do not
avoid to have intercourse with the infernal fiends, and
that, by this service, they afflict both man and beast, that
they blight the marriage bed, destroy the births of women
and the increase of cattle, they blast the corn on the
ground, the grapes of the vineyard and the fruits of the
trees, and the grass and herbs of the field." The promulgation
of this Bull is said to have produced dreadful
consequences, by thousands being burned and otherwise
put to death, for having intercourse with the fiends.
We regret to say such beliefs and such means of repressing
free enquiry were not confined to one branch of
the Christian Church. Protestants as well as Roman
Catholics, when they had the power, suppressed many of
the practices of heathenism after a cruel fashion, but at
the same time fostered the superstitions and Pagan beliefs
which had originated these practices, and punished those
who protested against these beliefs. The same method
of procedure is in operation at the present day. Nevertheless,
the introduction of Christianity into the heathen
world made a wonderful revolution in their religious
practices as well as in their beliefs. Their idols and the
symbols of their divinities were abolished, along with the
sacrifices offered to these. Their great festivals, at which
human sacrifices were offered and abominable practices
committed, were so modified as to be stripped of their
immorality and cruelty, and while being retained—retained
because they could not be utterly abolished—they
were Christianized,—that is, a Christian colouring was
given to them,—and they became Church festivals or
holydays,—a subject I will treat more fully of in another
chapter.
It is not, as I have already said, my intention to trace
the gradual development of our modern idea of Providence,
our ascription of universal government, of all direction
of the phenomena of nature and of life to the one
only omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent God, but
rather to place before the reader the practices and beliefs
which prevailed in this country during the early years of
the present century. And from this survey we shall discover
what a mass of old Pagan ideas still survived and
influenced the minds and practice of the people,—how
they yet clung to the notion that many of the phenomena
of nature and life were under the control of supernatural
agents, although they did not regard these agents,
as what in olden times they were considered to be—divinities,
but believed them to be a class of beings living
upon or within the earth, and endowed by the devil with
supernatural powers.
In the northern sagas, and in the old ballads and saintly
legends of the Middle Ages—supernatural agents who
played a prominent part—there are giants of enormous size
and little dwarfs who can make themselves invisible, and
do all sorts of good to their favourites, and harm to their
enemies. We are also introduced there to dragons and
other monsters which have human understandings, and,
guided by a wicked spirit, could do great mischief. Such
beings took the place of the ancient divinities, and in
many cases when the hero or saint is in great straits, in
combat with these evil spirits or fiends, Jesus Christ comes
to their assistance. One instance will exemplify this:
"O'er him stood the foul fiends,
And with their clubs of steel,
Struck him o'er the helmit
That in deadly swound he fell.
But God his sorrow saw,
To the fiends his Son he sent;
From the earth they vanished
With howling and lament.
The Christian hero thanked his God,
From the ground he rose with speed,
Joyfully he sheathed his sword,
And mounted on his steed."
Illustrations of "Northern Antiquities."
By the beginning of this century these ideas of the personel
of supernatural agencies had become slightly
modified in this country at least, giants and dragons
having given way to fairies, brownies, elves, witches, etc.
The Rev. Mr. Kirk, of Aberfeldy, published a work
descriptive of these supernatural beings. He says they
are a kind of astral spirits between angels and humanity,
being like men and women in appearance, and similar
in many of their habits; some of them, however, are
double. They marry and have children, for which they
keep nurses; have deaths and burials amongst them, and
they can make themselves visible or invisible at pleasure.
They live in subterranean habitations, and in an invisible
condition attend very constantly on men. They are very
fond of human children and pretty women, both of which
they will steal if not protected by some superior influence.
Women in childbed stand in danger of being taken, but
if a piece of cold iron be kept in the bed in which they
lie, the spirits won't come near. Children are in greater
danger of being stolen before baptism than after. They
sometimes, to supply their own needs, spirit away the milk
from cows, but more frequently they transfer the milk to
the cows of some person who stands high in their favour.
This they do by making themselves invisible, and silently
milking and removing the milk in invisible vessels.
When people offend them they shoot flint-tipped arrows,
and by this means kill either the persons who have
offended them or their cattle. They cause these arrows
to strike the most vital part, but the stroke does not
visibly break the skin, only a blae mark is the result
visible on the body after death. These flint arrow-heads
are occasionally found, and the possession of one of these
will protect the possessor against the power of these
astral beings, and at the same time enable him or her
to cure disease in cattle and women. These flints were
often sewed into the dresses of children to protect
them from the Evil-eye. There were many other means
of protection against the power of these beings, which we
shall have occasion to refer to again. There is one
method, however, which may be mentioned now. If,
when a calf is born, its mouth be smeared with a balsam
of dung, before it is allowed to suck, the fairies cannot
milk that cow. Those taken to fairyland lose the
power of calculating the lapse of time, although they are
not unconscious of what is going on around them.
Those spirited away to fairyland may be recovered by
their friends or relatives, by performing certain formula,
or—and this was often the method resorted to—by out-witting
the fairies, getting possession of their stolen
friends, and then doing or saying something which
fairies cannot bear, upon which they are forced to depart,
leaving the recovered party behind them.
The following information concerning the government,
&c., of fairyland, is taken from Aytoun:—The queen of
fairyland was a kind of feudatory sovereign under Satan,
to whom she was obliged to pay kave, or tithe in kind;
and, as her own fairy subjects strongly objected to transfer
their allegiance, the quota was usually made up in
children who had been stolen before the rite of baptism
had been administered to them. This belief was at one
time universal throughout all Scotland, and was still prevalent
at the beginning of this century. Charms were
quite commonly employed to defend houses from the
inroads of the fairies before the infants were baptised;
but even baptism did not always protect the baby from
being stolen. During the period of infancy, the mother
required to be ever watchful; but the risks were especially
great before baptism. It is difficult to define
exactly the power which the queen of elfland had, for
besides carrying off Thomas the Rhymer, she was supposed
to have carried off no less a personage than James
IV. from the field of Flodden, and to have detained him
in her enchanted country. There was also a king of
elfland. From the accounts extracted from or volunteered
by witches, &c., preserved to us in justiciary and
presbyterial records, he appears to have been a peaceable,
luxurious, indolent personage, who entrusted the
whole business of his kingdom, including the recruiting
department, to his wife. We get a glimpse of both their
majesties in the confessions of Isabella Gowdie, in
Aulderne, a parish in Nairnshire, who was indicted for
witchcraft in 1662. She said—"I was in Downie Hills,
and got meat there from the queen of the fairies, more
than I could eat. The queen is brawly clothed in white
linen, and in white and brown cloth; and the king is a
braw man, well-favoured, and broad-faced. There were
plenty of elf bulls rowting and skoyling up and down,
and affrighted me." Mr. Kirk says "that in fairyland
they have also books of various kinds—history, travels,
novels, and plays—but no sermons, no Bible, nor any
book of a religious kind." Every reader of Hogg's
Queen's Wake knows the beautiful legend of the abduction
of "Bonny Kilmeny"; but in Dr. Jamieson's
Illustrations of Northern Antiquities we have found
amongst these heroic and romantic ballads another
legend more fully descriptive of fairyland. In this
legend, a young lady is carried away to fairyland, and
recovered, by her brother:—
"King Arthur's sons o' merry Carlisle
Were playing at the ba',
And there was their sister, burd Ellen,
I' the midst, amang them a'.
Child Rowland kicked it wi' his foot,
And keppit it wi' his knee;
And aye as he played, out o'er them a'.
O'er the kirk he gar'd it flee.
Burd Ellen round about the aisle
To seek the ba' has gane:
But she bade lang, and ay langer,
And she came na back again.
They sought her east, they sought her west,
They sought her up and down,
And wae were the hearts in merry Carlisle,
For she was nae gait found."
Merlin, the warlock, being consulted, told them that
burd Ellen was taken away by the fairies, and that it would
be a dangerous task to recover her if they were not well
instructed how to proceed. The instructions which Merlin
gave were, that whoever undertook the quest for her
should, after entering elfland, kill every person he met
till he reached the royal apartments, and taste neither
meat nor drink offered to them, for by doing otherwise
they would come under the fairy spell, and never again
get back to earth. Two of her brothers undertook the
journey, but disobeyed the instructions of the warlock,
and were retained in elfland. Child Rowland, her
youngest brother, then arming himself with his father's
claymore, excalibar—that never struck in vain—set out on
the dangerous quest. Strictly observing the warlock's
instructions, after asking his way to the king of elfland's
castle of every servant he met, he, in accordance with
these instructions, when he had received the desired information,
slew the servant. The last fairy functionary
he met was the hen-wife, who told him to go on a little
further till he came to a round green hill surrounded
with rings from the bottom to the top, then go round it
widershins (contrary to the sun) and every time he made
the circuit, say—"Open door, open door, and let me
come in," and on the third repetition of this incantation
they would open, and he might then go in. Having received
this information, he fulfilled his instructions, and
slew the hen-wife. Then proceeding as directed, he soon
reached the green hill, and made the circuit of it three
times, repeating the words before mentioned. On the
third repetition of the words the door opened, and he
went in, the door closing behind him. "He proceeded
through a long passage, where the air was soft and agreeably
warm, like a May evening, as is all the air in elfland.
The light was a sort of twilight or gloaming; but
there were neither windows nor candles, and he knew
not whence it came if it was not from the walls and roof,
which were rough and arched like a grotto, and composed
of a clear transparent rock incrusted with sheep's silver,
and spar and various bright stones." At last he came
to two lofty folding doors which stood ajar. Passing
through these doors, he entered a large and spacious
hall, the richness and brilliance of which was beyond
description. It seemed to extend throughout
the whole length and breadth of the hill. The superb
Gothic pillars by which the roof was supported
were so large and lofty, that the pillars of the
"Chaury Kirk or of the Pluscardin Abbey are no more
to be compared to them than the Knock of Alves is to
be compared to Balrimes or Ben-a-chi." They were of
gold and silver, and were fretted like the west window of
the Chaury Kirk (Elgin Cathedral), with wreaths of flowers,
composed of diamonds and precious stones of all
manner of beautiful colours. The key stones of the
arches, instead of being escutcheoned, were ornamented
also with clusters of diamonds in brilliant devices.
From the middle of the roof, where the arches met, was
hung, suspended by a gold chain, an immense lamp of
one hollowed pearl, and perfectly transparent, in the
centre of which was a large carbuncle, which, by the
power of magic, turned round continually, and shed
throughout all the hall a clear mild light like that of the
setting sun. But the hall was so large, and these dazzling
objects so far removed, that their blended radiance
cast no more than a pleasing mellow lustre around, and
excited no other than agreeable sensations in the eyes of
Child Rowland. The furniture of the hall was suitable
to its architecture; and at the further end, under a
splendid canopy, sitting on a gorgeous sofa of velvet, silk
and gold, and "kembing her yellow hair wi' a silver
kemb,"
"Was his sister Burd Ellen.
She stood up him before,
God rue or thee poor luckless fode (man),
What hast thou to do here?
And hear ye this my youngest brother,
Why badena ye at hame?
Had ye a hunder and thousand lives
Ye canna brook are o' them.
And sit thou down; and wae, oh wae!
That ever thou was born,
For came the King o' Elfland in,
Thy leccam (body) is forlorn."
After a long conversation with his sister, the two
folding doors were burst open with tremendous violence,
and in came the King of Elfland, shouting—
"With fi, fe, fa, and fum,
I smell the blood of a Christian man,
Be he dead, be he living, with my brand
I'll clash his harns frae his harn pan."
Child Rowland drew his good claymore (excalibar)
that never struck in vain. A furious combat ensued,
and the king was defeated; but Child Rowland spared
his life on condition that he would free his sister, Burd
Ellen, and his two brothers, who were lying in a trance
in a corner of the hall. The king then produced a small
crystal phial containing a bright red liquor, with which
he anointed the lips, nostrils, ears and finger tips of
the two brothers, who thereupon awoke as from a profound
sleep, and all four returned in triumph to "merry
Carlisle." The Rev. Mr. Kirk's descriptions of the subterranean
homes of the fairies and of their social habits
are just the counterparts of the fairyland of this beautiful
ballad legend. There can be little doubt that such
beliefs are but survivals in altered form of what were in
still more ancient times religious tenets. What were
formerly divinities have given place to the more lowly
fairies, brownies, &c., and from the position of Pagan
gods they have, through the opposing influence of
Christianity, been removed to the other side, and
became servants of the devil, actively opposing the
kingdom of Christ. Some have supposed that the fairies
may have originally been considered to be descendants
of the Druids, for some reason consigned to inhabit
subterranean caves under green hills in wild and lonely
glens. Others have identified them with the fallen angels.
One thing is certain, that the notion that there exists
supernatural men, women, and animals who inhabit subterranean
and submarine regions, and yet can indulge in
intercourse with the human race, is of very great antiquity,
and widely spread, existing in Arabia, Persia,
India, Thibet, among the Tartars, Swedes, Norwegians,
British, and also among the savage tribes of Africa. In
the west of Scotland there was a class of fairies who
acted a friendly part towards their human neighbours,
helping the weak or ill-used, and generally busying themselves
with acts of kindness; these were called "brownies."
The fairies proper were a merry race, full of devilment,
and malicious, tricky, and troublesome, and the cause of
much annoyance and fear among the people. Besides
these supernatural beings—brownies, fairies, &c.—there
existed a belief in persons who were possessed of supernatural
powers—magicians, sorcerers, &c. About the
Reformation period, these persons were considered to be
in the actual service of the devil, who was then thought
to be raising a more determined opposition than ever to
the spread of the kingdom of God, and adopting the
insidious means of enlisting men and women into his
service by conferring upon them supernatural powers; so
that by this contract they were bound to do mischief to
all good Christian people; and the more mischief they
could do the greater would be the favours they received
from their master. This belief was not confined to the
ignorant, but was equally accepted by the educated and
by the Church. Measures were taken to frustrate the
devil, and the faithful were recommended to make search
for those who had compacted with his Satanic Majesty,
and laws were enacted for the punishment of the compacters
when found. The faithful, under the belief that
they were fighting the battle of the Lord, brought
numbers of poor wretches to trial, many of whom,
strangely enough, believed themselves guilty of the crime
imputed to them. After trial and conviction, they were
put to death. The belief that the devil could and did
invest men and women with supernatural powers affected
all social relations, for everything strange and unaccountable—and,
in a non-scientific age, we can readily conceive
how almost everything would be brought into this
category—was ascribed to this cause, and each suspected
his or her neighbour; even the truest friendship was
sometimes broken through this suspicion. The laws
against witchcraft in this country were abrogated last
century, but the abrogation of the law could not be expected
to work any sudden change in the belief of the
people; at most, the alteration only paved the way for
the gradual departure of the superstition, and since the
abrogation of the law the belief has been decaying, but
still in many parts of the country it lingers on till the
present time, instances of which appear every now and
again in the newspapers of the day.
BIRTH AND CHILDHOOD.
hen
writing of fairies I noticed,—but as it
is connected with birth, I may here mention
it again,—a practice common in some
localities of placing in the bed where lay
an expectant mother, a piece of cold iron to scare the
fairies, and prevent them from spiriting away mother and
child to elfland. An instance of this spiriting away at
the time of child-bearing is said to have occurred in
Arran within these fifty years. It is given by a correspondent
in Long Ago:—"There was a woman near
Pladda, newly delivered, who was carried away, and on
a certain night her wraith stood before her husband
telling him that the yearly riding was at hand, and that
she, with all the rout, should ride by his house at such
an hour, on such a night; that he must await her coming,
and throw over her her wedding gown, and so she
should be rescued from her tyrants. With that she
vanished. And the time came, with the jingling of
bridles and the tramping of horses outside the cottage;
but this man, feeble-hearted, had summoned his neighbours
to bear him company, who held him, and would
not suffer him to go out. So there arose a bitter cry
and a great clamour, and then all was still; but in the
morning, roof and wall were dashed with blood, and the
sorrowful wife was no more seen upon earth. This,"
says the writer, "is not a tale from an old ballad, it
is the narrative of what was told not fifty years ago."
Immediately after birth, the newly-born child was
bathed in salted water, and made to taste of it three
times. This, by some, was considered a specific against
the influence of the evil eye; but doctors differ, and so
among other people and in other localities different
specifics were employed. I quote the following from
Ross' Helenore:—
"Gryte was the care and tut'ry that was ha'en,
Baith night and day about the bonny weeane:
The jizzen-bed, wi' rantry leaves was sain'd,
And sic like things as the auld grannies kend;
Jean's paps wi' saut and water washen clean,
Reed that her milk gat wrang, fan it was green;
Neist the first hippen to the green was flung,
And there at seelfu' words, baith said and sung:
A clear brunt coal wi' the het tangs was ta'en,
Frae out the ingle-mids fu' clear and clean,
And throu' the cosey-belly letten fa',
For fear the weeane should be ta'en awa'."
Before baptism the child was more liable to be
influenced by the evil eye than after that ceremony
had been performed, consequently before that rite
had been administered the greatest precautions were
taken, the baby during this time being kept as much
as possible in the room in which it was born, and
only when absolutely necessary, carried out of it,
and then under the careful guardianship of a relative,
or of the mid-wife, who was professionally skilled in all
the requisites of safety. Baptism was therefore administered
as early as possible after birth. Another reason
for the speedy administration of this rite was that, should
the baby die before being baptised, its future was not
doubtful. Often on calm nights, those who had ears to
hear heard the wailing of the spirits of unchristened
bairns among the trees and dells. I have known of an
instance in which the baby was born on a Saturday, and
carried two miles to church next day, rather than risk a
week's delay. It was rare for working people to bring
the minister to the house. Another superstitious notion
in connection with baptism was that until that rite was
performed, it was unlucky to name the child by any
name. When, before the child had been christened, any
one asked the name of the baby, the answer generally
was, "It has not been out yet." Let it be remembered
that these notions were entertained by people who were
not Romanists, but Protestants, and therefore did not
profess to believe in the saving efficacy of baptism,—who
could answer every question in the Shorter Catechism,
and repeat the Creed, and Ten Commandments, to the
satisfaction of elder and minister. But all this verbal acquaintance
with dogma was powerless to eradicate, even,
we may venture to say, from the minds of elder and
minister, the deeply-rooted fibres of ancient superstition,
which had been long crystallised in the Roman Catholic
Church, and could not be easily forgot in that of the
Protestant.
When a child was taken from its mother and carried
outside the bedroom for the first time after its birth, it
was lucky to take it up stairs, and unlucky to take it
down stairs. If there were no stairs in the house, the
person who carried it generally ascended three steps of a
ladder or temporary erection, and this, it was supposed,
would bring prosperity to the child.
A child born with a caul—a thin membrane covering
the head of some children at birth—would, if spared,
prove a notable person. The carrying of a caul on
board ship was believed to prevent shipwreck, and
masters of vessels paid a high price for them. I have
seen an advertisement for such in a local paper.
When baby was being carried to church to be baptised,
it was of importance that the woman appointed to
this post should be known to be lucky. Then she took
with her a parcel of bread and cheese, which she gave to
the first person she met. This represented a gift from
the baby—a very ancient custom. Again, it was of importance
that the person who received this gift should be
lucky—should have lucky marks upon their person.
Forecasts were made from such facts as the following
concerning the recipient of the gift:—Was this person
male or female, deformed, disfigured, plain-soled, etc.
If the party accepted the gift willingly, tasted it, and
returned a few steps with the baptismal party, this was a
good sign; if they asked to look at the baby, and blessed
it, this was still more favourable: but should this person
refuse the gift, nor taste it, nor turn back, this was tantamount
to wishing evil to the child, and should any
serious calamity befall the child, even years after, it was
connected with this circumstance, and the party who
had refused the baptismal gift was blamed for the evil
which had befallen the child. It was also a common
belief that if, as was frequently the case, there were
several babies, male and female, awaiting baptism together,
and the males were baptised before the females,
all was well; but if, by mistake, a female should be
christened before a male, the characters of the pair
would be reversed—the female would grow up with a
masculine character, and would have a beard, whereas
the male would display a feminine disposition and be
beardless. I have known where such a mistake has
produced real anxiety and regret in the minds of the
parents. We have seen that it was not until after baptism
that the child was allowed out of the room in which
it was born, except under the skilful guardianship of a
relative or the midwife; but, further than this, it was not
considered safe or proper to carry it into any neighbour's
house until the mother took it herself, and this it was
unlucky even for her to do until she had been to church.
Indeed, few mothers would enter any house until they
had been to the house of God. After this had been
accomplished, however, she visited with the baby freely.
In visiting any house with baby for the first time, it was
incumbent on the person whom they were visiting to put
a little salt or sugar into baby's mouth, and wish it well:
the omission of this was regarded as a very unlucky
omen for the baby. Here we may note the survival of a
very ancient symbolic practice in this gift of salt. Salt
was symbolical of favour or good will, and covenants of
friendship in very early times were ratified with this gift;
sugar, as in this instance, is no doubt a modern substitute
for salt. Among Jews, Greeks, and Romans, as
well as among less civilised nations, salt was used in
their sacrifices as emblematic of fidelity, and for some
reason or other it also came to be regarded as a charm
against evil fascinations. By Roman Catholics in the
middle ages, salt was used to protect children from evil
influences before they had received the sacrament of
baptism. This practice is referred to in many of the old
ballads and romances. In a ballad called The King's
Daughter, a child is born, but in circumstances which do
not admit of the rite of baptism being administered.
The mother privately puts the baby into a casket, and,
like the mother of Moses, sends it afloat, and as a protection
places beside it a quantity of salt and candles.
The words of the ballad are—
"The bairnie she swyl'd in linen so fine,
In a gilded casket she laid it syne,
Mickle saut and light she laid therein,
Cause yet in God's house it had'na been."
Let us return to the mother and child whom we left
visiting at a friend's house, and receiving the covenant of
friendship. It was unsafe to be lavish in praise of the
child's beauty, for although such commendation would
naturally be gratifying to the mother, it would at the same
time increase her fears, for the well faured ran the greatest
risk from evil influences, and of being carried off by the
fairies. There was also the superadded danger of the
mother setting her affections too much upon her child
and forgetting God, who then in jealousy and mercy
would remove it from her. This latter was a very widespread
superstition among religiously-minded people,
even among those who, from their education, ought to
have known better. I well remember the case of a
young mother,—a tender loving woman, who, quite in
keeping with her excitable affectionate nature, was passionately
fond of her baby, her first-born. But baby
sickened and died, and the poor mother, borne down
with grief, wept bitterly, like Rachel refusing to be comforted.
In the depth of her affliction she was visited by
both her pastor and elder. They admonished her to
turn her mind from the selfish sorrow in which she was
indulging, and thank God for His kindly dealing toward
her, in that He had removed from her the cause of sin on
her part. She had been guilty, they said, of loving the
baby too much, and God, who was a jealous God, would
not suffer His people to set their affections on any object
in a greater degree than on Himself; and therefore, He,
in his mercy toward her, had removed from her the object
of her idolatry. The poor woman in her agony could
only sob out, "Surely it was no sin to love my own child
that God gave me." The more correct term for such a
theological conception would not be superstition, but
blasphemy.
Another danger from which children required to be
shielded was the baneful influence of the evil eye.
Malicious people were believed to possess the power of
doing harm by merely looking upon those whom they
wished to injure. This belief is very ancient. From
Professor Conington's Satires of A. Persius Flaccus, I
extract the following notice of it:—"Look here—a
grandmother or a superstitious aunt has taken baby
from his cradle, and is charming his forehead and his
slavering lips against mischief by the joint action of her
middle finger and her purifying spittle; for she knows
right well how to check the evil eye. Then she dandles
him in her arms, and packs off the pinched little
hope of the family, so far as wishing can do it, to the
domains of Licinus, or the palace of Croesus. 'May he
be a catch for my lord and lady's daughter! May the
pretty ladies scramble for him! May the ground he
walks on turn to a rose-bed.' But I will never trust a
nurse to pray for me or mine; good Jupiter, be sure to
refuse her, though she may have put on white for the
occasion."
The Romans used to hang red coral round the necks
of their children to save them from falling-sickness, sorcery,
charms, and poison. In this country coral beads
were hung round the necks of babies, and are still used
in country districts to protect them from an evil eye.
Coral bells are used at present. The practice was originated
by the Roman Catholics to frighten away evil
spirits.
I have quite a vivid remembrance of being myself believed
to be the unhappy victim of an evil eye. I had
taken what was called a dwining, which baffled all
ordinary experience; and, therefore, it was surmised that
I had got "a blink of an ill e'e." To remove this evil
influence, I was subjected to the following operation,
which was prescribed and superintended by a neighbour
"skilly" in such matters:—A sixpence was borrowed
from a neighbour, a good fire was kept burning in the
grate, the door was locked, and I was placed upon a
chair in front of the fire. The operator, an old woman,
took a tablespoon and filled it with water. With the
sixpence she then lifted as much salt as it could carry,
and both were put into the water in the spoon. The
water was then stirred with the forefinger till the salt was
dissolved. Then the soles of my feet and the palms of
my hands were bathed with this solution thrice, and
after these bathings I was made to taste the solution three
times. The operator then drew her wet forefinger across
my brow,—called scoring aboon the breath. The remaining
contents of the spoon she then cast right over
the fire, into the hinder part of the fire, saying as she did
so, "Guid preserve frae a' skaith." These were the first
words permitted to be spoken during the operation. I was
then put in bed, and, in attestation of the efficacy of the
charm, recovered. To my knowledge this operation has
been performed within these 40 years, and probably in
many outlying country places it is still practised. The
origin of this superstition is probably to be found in
ancient fire worship. The great blazing fire was evidently
an important element in the transaction; nor was this a
solitary instance in which regard was paid to fire. I remember
being taught that it was unlucky to spit into the
fire, some evil being likely shortly after to befall those
who did so. Crumbs left upon the table after a meal
were carefully gathered and put into the fire. The
cuttings from the nails and hair were also put into the
fire. These freaks certainly look like survivals of fire
worship.
The influence of those possessing the evil eye was not
confined to children, but might affect adults, and also
goods and cattle. But for the bane there was provided
the antidote. One effective method of checking the evil
influence was by scoring aboon the breath. In my case,
as I was the victim, scoring with a wet finger was sufficient;
but the suspected possessor of the evil eye was
more roughly treated, scoring in this case being effected
with some sharp instrument so as to draw blood. I
have never seen this done, but some fifty years ago an
instance occurred in my native village. A child belonging
to a poor woman in this village was taken ill
and had convulsive fits, which were thought to be due to
the influence of the evil eye. An old woman in the
neighbourhood, whose temper was not of the sweetest,
was suspected. She was first of all invited to come and
see the child in the hope that sympathy might change
the influence she was supposed to be exerting; but as
the old woman appeared quite callous to the sufferings
of the child, the mother, as the old woman was leaving the
house, scratched her with her nails across the brow, and
drew blood. This circumstance raised quite a sensation
in the village. Whether the child recovered after this
operation I do not remember. Many other instances of
the existence of this superstitious practice in Scotland
within the present century might be presented, but I content
myself with quoting one which was related in a letter
to the Glasgow Weekly Herald, under the signature F.A.:—"I
knew of one case of the kind in Wigtownshire, in
the south of Scotland, about the year 1825, as near as
I can mind. I knew all parties very well. A farmer
had some cattle which died, and there was an old
woman living about a mile from the farm who was
counted no very canny. She was heard to say that
there would be mair o' them wad gang the same way.
So one day, soon after, as the old woman was passing
the farmhouse, one of the sons took hold of her and
got her head under his arm, and cut her across the
forehead. By the way, the proper thing to be cut with
is a nail out of a horse-shoe. He was prosecuted and
got imprisonment for it."
This style of antidote against the influence of an evil
eye was common in England within the century, as the
following, which is also taken from a letter which appeared
in the same journal, seems to show:—"Drawing blood from
above the mouth of the person suspected is the
favourite antidote in the neighbourhood of Burnley;
and in the district of Craven, a few miles
within the borders of Yorkshire, a person who was ill-disposed
towards his neighbours is believed to have
slain a pear-tree which grew opposite his house by
directing towards it 'the first morning glances' of his
evil eye. Spitting three times in the person's face;
turning a live coal on the fire; and exclaiming, 'The
Lord be with us,' are other means of averting its influence."
We must not, however, pursue this digression further,
but return to our proper subject. It was not necessary that
the person possessed of the evil eye, and desirous of inflicting
evil upon a child, should see the child. All that
was necessary was that the person with the evil eye should
get possession of something which had belonged to the
child, such as a fragment of clothing, a toy, hair, or nail
parings. I may note here that it was not considered
lucky to pare the nails of a child under one year old,
and when the operation was performed the mother was
careful to collect every scrap of the cutting, and burn
them. It was considered a great offence for any person,
other than the mother or near relation, in whom every
confidence could be placed, to cut a baby's nails; if
some forward officious person should do this, and baby
afterwards be taken ill, this would give rise to grave suspicions
of evil influence being at work. The same remarks
apply to the cutting of a baby's hair. I have seen
the door locked during hair-cutting, and the floor swept
afterwards, and the sweepings burned, lest perchance any
hairs might remain, and be picked up by an enemy. Dr.
Livingstone, in his book on the Zambesi, mentions the
existence of a similar practice among some African tribes.
"They carefully collect and afterwards burn or bury the
hair, lest any of it fall into the hands of a witch." Mr.
Munter mentions that the same practice is common
amongst the Patagonians, and the practice extends to
adults. He says that after bathing, which they do every
morning, "the men's hair is dressed by their wives,
daughters, or sweethearts, who take the greatest care to
burn the hairs that may be brushed out, as they fully
believe that spells may be wrought by evil-intentioned
persons who can obtain a piece of their hair. From the
same idea, after cutting their nails the parings are carefully
committed to the flames."
Besides this danger—this blighting influence of the evil
eye which environed the years of childhood—there was
also this other danger, already mentioned, that of being
spirited away by fairies. The danger from this source
was greater when the baby was pretty, and what fond
mother did not consider her baby pretty? Early in the
century, a labourer's wife living a few miles west of Glasgow,
became the mother of a very pretty baby. All who
saw it were charmed with its beauty, and it was as good as
it was bonnie. The neighbours often urged on the mother
the necessity of carefulness, and advised her to adopt
such methods as were, to their minds, well-attested safe-guards
for the preservation of children from fairy influence
and an evil eye. She was instructed never to leave the
child without placing near it an open Bible. One unhappy
day the mother went out for a short time, leaving the
baby in its cradle, but she forgot or neglected to place
the open Bible near the child as directed. When she
returned baby was crying, and could by no means be
quieted, and the mother observed several blue marks
upon its person, as if it had been pinched. From that
day it became a perfect plague; no amount of food or
drink would satisfy it, and yet withal it became lean.
The girn, my informant said, was never out its face, and
it yammered on night and day. One day an old highland
woman having seen the child, and inspected it carefully,
affirmed that it was a fairy child. She went the length
of offering to put the matter to the test, and this is how
she tested it. She put the poker in the fire, and hung a
pot over the fire wherein were put certain ingredients, an
incantation being said as each new ingredient was stirred
into the pot. The child was quiet during these operations,
and watched like a grown person all that was being
done, even rising upon its elbow to look. When the
operations were completed, the old woman took the
poker out of the fire, and carrying it red hot over to the
cradle, was about to burn the sign of the cross on the baby's
brow, when the child sprung suddenly up, knocked the
old woman down and disappeared up the lum (chimney,)
filling the house with smoke, and leaving behind it a
strong smell of brimstone. When the smoke cleared away,
the true baby was found in the cradle sleeping as if it
never had been taken away. Another case was related
to me as having occurred in the same neighbourhood,
but in this instance the theft was not discovered until
after the death of the child. The surreptitious or false
baby, having apparently died, was buried; but suspicion
having been raised, the grave was opened and the coffin
examined, when there was found in it, not a corpse, but a
wooden figure. The late Mr. Rust, in his Druidism Exhumed,
states that this superstition is common in the
North of Scotland, and adds that it is also believed that if
the theft be discovered before the apparent death of the
changling, there are means whereby the fairies may be
propitiated and induced to restore the real baby. One
of these methods is the following:—The parents or friends
of the stolen baby must take the fairy child to some
known haunt of the fairies, generally some spot where
peculiar soughing sounds are heard, where there are remains
of some ancient cairn or stone circle, or some green
mound or shady dell, and lay the child down there, repeating
certain incantations. They must also place beside
it a quantity of bread, butter, milk, cheese, eggs, and
flesh of fowl, then retire to a distance and wait for an
hour or two, or until after midnight. If on going back
to where the child was laid they find that the offerings
have disappeared, it is held as evidence that the fairies
have been satisfied, and that the human child is returned.
The baby is then carried home, and great rejoicing
made. Mr. Rust states that he knew a woman who,
when a baby, had been stolen away, but was returned by
this means.
MARRIAGE.
he next very important event in man's life is
marriage, and naturally, therefore, to this
event there attached a multitude of superstitious
notions and practices, many of
which, indeed, do still exist. The time when marriage
took place was of considerable importance. One very
prevalent superstition, common alike to all classes in the
community, and whose force is not yet spent, was the
belief that it was unlucky to marry in the month of May.
The aversion to marrying in May finds expression in the
very ancient and well-known proverb, "Marry in May,
rue for aye," and thousands still avoid marrying in this
month who can render no more solid reason for their
aversion than the authority of this old proverb. But in
former times there were reasons given, varying, however,
in different localities. Some of the reasons given were
the following:—That parties so marrying would be childless,
or, if they had children, that the first-born would be
an idiot, or have some physical deformity; or that the
married couple would not lead a happy life, and would
soon tire of each other's society. The origin of this
superstition is to be found in ancient heathen religious
beliefs and practices. We have already noticed the
ancient belief that the spirits of dead ancestors haunted
the living, and I have given a formula whereby a single
person could exorcise the ghosts of his departed relatives,
and I have also mentioned that national festivals to propitiate
the spirits of the dead were appointed by some
nations. Now, we find that among the Romans this
national festival was held during the month of May, and
during its continuance all other forms of worship were
suspended, and the temples shut; and further, for any
couple to contract marriage during this season was held
to be a daring of the Fates which few were found hardy
enough to venture. Ovid says—
"Pause while we keep these rites, ye widowed dames,
The marriage time a purer season claims;
Pause, ye fond mothers, braid not yet her hair,
Nor the ripe virgin for her lord prepare.
O, light not, Hymen, now your joyous fires,
Another torch nor yours the tomb requires!
Close all the temples on these mourning days,
And dim each altar's spicy, steaming blaze;
For now around us roams a spectred brood,
Craving and keen, and snuffing mortal food:
They feast and revel, nor depart again,
Till to the month but ten days more remain."
Superstitions of this sort linger much longer in the
country than in towns, and the larger the town the more
speedily do they die out; but, judging from the statistics
of late years, this superstition has still a firm hold of the
inhabitants of Glasgow, the second city of the Empire.
During the year 1874 the marriages in May were only
204, against 703 in June; but as the removal term occurs
at the end of May, that must materially affect the relations,
in this respect, between May and June, and accounts,
in part, for the great excess of marriages in June.
But if the average of the eleven months, excluding May,
be taken, then during that year there was a monthly
average of 441, against 204 in May—being rather more
than double. For the ten years preceding 1874, the
average of the eleven months was 388, against 203 in
May. As if to compensate for the restraint put upon
the people in May, Juno, the wife of Jupiter, after whom
June was named, and whose influence was paramount
during that month, took special guardianship over births
and marriages; hence June was a lucky month to be
born in or get married in, and thus June is known as the
marrying month. Here, again, our registers show that
the number of marriages are in June nearly double the
average of the other months, excluding May and June.
The average during the ten years is, for the ten months,
375 per month, whilst the average for June is 598. It
may be noticed in passing that, in Glasgow, January and
July stand as high as June, owing, doubtless, to the
holidays which occur during these two months making
marriage at those times more convenient for the working
classes.
There were many marriage observances of a religious
or superstitious character practised in ancient Rome
which were quite common among us within this century,
especially in the country districts, but which now are
either extinct or fast dying out. When a Roman girl
was betrothed, she received from her intended a ring
which she wore as evidence of her betrothal. When betrothed
she laid aside her girlish or maiden dress,—some
parts of which were offered as a sacrifice to
the household gods,—and she was then clothed in
the dress of a wife, and secluded from her former
companions, and put under training for her new
duties. When the time drew near for the consummation
of the ceremony, it became an important
consideration to fix upon a lucky day and hour for the
knot to be tied. With this object astrologers, sooth-sayers,
and others of that class were consulted, who, by
certain divinations ascertained the most auspicious
time for the union to take place in. When the day
arrived every occurrence was watched for omens. A crow
or turtle dove appearing near was a good omen: for these
birds symbolized conjugal fidelity. The ceremony was
begun by sacrificing a sheep to Juno, the fleece being
spread upon two chairs on which the bride and bridegroom
sat: then a prayer was said over them. The
young wife, carrying a distaff and spindle filled with
wool, was conducted to her house, a cake, baked by the
vestal virgins, being carried before her. The threshold
of the house was disenchanted by charms, and by annointing
it with certain unctuous perfumes; but as it
was considered unlucky for the new-made wife to tread
upon the threshold on first entering her house, she was
lifted over it and seated upon a piece of wool, a symbol
of domestic industry. The keys of the house were then
put into her hand, and the cake was divided among the
guests. The first work of the young wife was to spin
new garments for her husband. It will be seen that
many of these practices were mixed up with superstitious
notions, many of which were prevalent in this country
sixty years ago, and some of which still remain in country
districts. Sixty years ago when a young woman became
a bride, she in a great measure secluded herself from
society, and mixed but little even with her companions,
and on no account would she show herself at church
until after her marriage, as that was considered very unlucky.
The evening before the marriage her presents
and outfit were conveyed to her future home under the
superintendence of the best maid (bridesmaid), who
carried with her a certain domestic utensil filled with
salt, which was the first article of the bride's furnishing
taken into the house. A portion of the salt was sprinkled
over the floor as a protection against an evil eye. The
house being set in order, the best maid returned to the
bride's house where a company of the bride's companions
were met, and then occurred the ceremony of washing
the bride's feet. This was generally the occasion of
much mirth. And this was in all probability a survival
of an old Scandinavian custom under which the
Norse bride was conducted by her maiden friends
to undergo a bath, called the bride's bath, a sort
of religious purification. On the marriage day, every
trifling circumstance which would have passed without
notice at other times was noted and scanned for omens
of good or evil. If the morning was clear and shining,
this betokened a happy cheerful life; if dull and raining,
the contrary result might be anticipated. I have known
the following incidents cause grave concern about the future
prospects of the young couple:—A clot of soot coming
down the chimney and spoiling the breakfast; the
bride accidentally breaking a dish; a bird sitting on the
window sill chirping for some time; the bird in the cage
dying that morning; a dog howling, and the postman
forgetting to deliver a letter to the bride until he was a
good way off, and had to return. Some of these were
defined for good, but most of them were evil omens.
The ceremony was generally performed at the minister's
residence, which was often a considerable distance off.
The marriage party generally walked all the way, but if
the distance was unusually great, the company rode the
journey, and this was called "a riding wedding." There
were two companies—the bride's party and the bridegroom's
party. The bride's party met in the bride's parents'
house, the best man being with them, and the
groom's party met in his parents' house, the best maid
being with them—the males conducting the females to
their respective parties. At the time appointed the
bride's party left first, followed immediately by the
groom's party—each company headed by the respective
fathers. They so arranged their walk that both parties
would reach the minister's house together. As soon as
the ceremony was concluded, there was a rush on the
part of the young men to get the first kiss of the newly-made
wife. This was frequently taken by the clergyman
himself, a survival of an old custom said to have been
practised in the middle ages. This custom is referred
to in the following old song. The bridegroom, addressing
the minister, says:—
"It's no very decent for you to be kissing,
It does not look weel wi' the black coat ava,
'Twould hae set you far better tae hae gi'en us your blessing,
Than thus by such tricks to be breaking the law.
Dear Watty, quo Robin, it's just an auld custom,
And the thing that is common should ne'er be ill taen,
For where ye are wrong, if ye hadna a wished him
You should have been first. It's yoursel it's to blame."
The party now returned in the following order: first, the
two fathers in company together, then the newly-married
couple, behind them the best man and the best maid,
and the others following in couples as they might arrange.
There were frequently as many as twenty couples. On
coming within a mile or so of the young couple's house,
where the mother of the young good man was waiting,
a few of the young men would start on a race home.
This race was often keenly contested, and was termed
running the brooze or braize. The one who reached the
house first and announced the happy completion of the
wedding, was presented with a bottle of whiskey and a
glass, with which he returned to meet the marriage procession,
and the progress of the procession was generally
so arranged that he would meet them before they arrived
at the village or town where the young couple were to be
resident. He was therefore considered their first foot,
and distributed the contents of his bottle among the
party, each drinking to the health of the young married
pair, and then bottle and glass were thrown away and
broken. The whole party then proceeded on their way
to the young folks' house. To be the successful runner
in this race was an object of considerable ambition, and
the whole town and neighbourhood took great interest
in it. At riding weddings it was the great ambition of
farmers' sons to succeed in winning the braize, and they
would even borrow racing horses for the occasion.
The origin of this custom of running the braize—it was
so pronounced in the west county—has long been a puzzle
to antiquarians. Probably it is the survival of a custom
practised by our Scandinavian forefathers. A Scandinavian
hero or warrior considered it beneath his dignity to
court a lady's favour by submitting the matter of marriage
to her decision. When he saw or heard of a beauty
whom he decided to make his wife, he either went direct
and took her away by force from her home, or he gained
the right to make her his bride by success in battle with
his opponents. Often, however, one who was no hero
might gain the consent of the parents to his marriage
with their daughter, she having little or no voice in the
matter; and when she and her friends were on their way
to the church, some heroic but unapproved admirer, determined
to win her by force of arms, having collected
his followers and friends who were ever ready for a fight,
would fall upon the marriage cortege, and carry off the
bride. Under those circumstances there was often great
anxiety on the part of both the groom's and bride's
relations, who remained at home when they had reason
to apprehend that such attack might be made, and so,
whenever the marriage ceremony was over, some of the
company hasted home with the glad news; but commonly
youths stationed themselves at the church-door, ready to
run the moment the ceremony was over, and whether on
foot or horseback, the race became an exciting one. He
who first brought the good news received as a reward a
bowl of brose, and such brose as was made in those days
for this occasion was an acceptable prize. Although the
necessity for running ceased, the sport occasioned by
these contentions was too good and exciting to be readily
given up, but it came to be confined to those who were at
the wedding, and many young men looked forward
eagerly to taking part in the sport. The prize which
originally was brose, came to be changed to something
more congenial to the tastes and usages of the times, viz.,
a bottle of whiskey. In this way, I think, we may account
for the custom of "running the braize." It has been
mentioned already that the best man went with the bride
to the minister. His duty it was to take charge of the
bride and hand her over to the bridegroom, a duty now
performed by the bride's father, and in this now obsolete
custom, I think we may find a still further proof that the
management and customs of the marriage procession
were founded upon the old practice of wife-capture.
The best man is evidently just the bridegroom's friend,
who, in the absence of the bridegroom, undertakes to
protect the bride against a raid until she reaches the
church, when he hands her over to his friend the bridegroom.
To meet a funeral either in going to or coming from
marriage was very unlucky. If the funeral was that of a
female, the young wife would not live long; if a male,
the bridegroom would die soon.
After partaking of the braize's hospitality,—for the
bottle of whiskey was his by right,—the wedding party
proceeded to the house of the young couple, and in
some parts of Scotland, at the beginning of the century,
the young wife was lifted over the threshold, or first step
of the door, lest any witchcraft or ill e'e should be cast
upon and influence her. Just at the entering of the
house, the young man's mother broke a cake of bread,
prepared for the occasion, over the young wife's head.
She was then led to the hearth, and the poker and tongs—in
some places the broom also—were put into her
hands, as symbols of her office and duty. After this, her
mother-in-law handed her the keys of the house and
furniture, thus transferring the mother's rights over her
son to his wife. Again the glass went round, and each
guest drank and wished happiness to the young pair.
The cake which was broken over the young wife's head
was now gathered and distributed among the unmarried
female guests, and by them retained to be placed under
their pillows, so that they might dream of their future
husbands. This is a custom still practised, but what is
now the bridescake is not a cake broken over the bride's
head, but a larger and more elaborately-prepared article,
which is cut up and distributed immediately after the
marriage ceremony. Young girls still put a piece of it
under their pillows in order to obtain prophetic dreams.
In some cases, this is done by a friend writing the names
of three young men on a piece of paper, and the cake,
wrapped in it, is put under the pillow for three nights in
succession before it is opened. Should the owners of
the cake have dreamed of one of the three young men
therein written, it is regarded as a sure proof that he is to
be her future husband. After drinking to the health and
happiness of the young couple, the wedding party then
went to the house of the bridegroom's father where they
partook of supper, generally a very substantial meal;
and this being finished, the young people of the party became
restless for a change of amusement, and generally
all then repaired to some hall or barn, and there spent
the night in dancing. It was the custom for the young
couple, with their respective parents and the best man
and the best maid, to lead off by dancing the first reel.
Should the young couple happen to have either brothers
or sisters older than themselves, but unmarried, these
unfortunate brethren danced the first reel without their
shoes. Probably this has its origin in the old Jewish
custom of giving up the shoe or sandal when the right or
priority passed from one to another. For an instance of
this see Ruth iv. 7. Having danced till far on in the
morning of next day, the young couple were then conducted
home. The young wife, assisted by her female
friends, undressed and got to bed, then the young man
was sent into bed by his friends, and then all the marriage
party entered the bedroom, when the young wife
took one of her stockings, which had been put in bed
with her, and threw it among the company. The person
who got this was to be the first married. The best man
then handed round the glass, and when all had again
drank to the young couple, the company retired. This
custom was termed the bedding, and was regarded as a
ceremony necessary to the completion of the marriage;
and there can be little doubt that it is a survival of a
very ancient ceremony of the same family as the old
Grecian custom of removing the bride's coronet and
putting her to bed. This particular form of ceremony
was also found in Scotland, and continued to comparatively
modern times. Young Scotch maidens formerly
wore a snood, a sort of coronet, open at the top, called
the virgin snood, and before being put to bed on the
marriage night this snood was removed by the young
women of the party. This custom is referred to in
an ancient ballad.
"They've ta'en the bride to the bridal bed,
To loose her snood nae mind they had.
'I'll loose it,' quo John."
On the morning after some of the married women of
the neighbourhood met in the young wife's house and
put on her the curtch or closs cap (mutch), a token of the
marriage state. In my young days unmarried women
went with the head uncovered; but after marriage, never
were seen without a cap. On the morning after marriage
the best man and maid breakfasted with the young
couple, after which they spent the day in the country,
or if they lived in the country, they went to town for
a change. Weddings were invariably celebrated on a
Friday,—the reason for this preference being, as is supposed,
that Friday was the day dedicated by the Norsemen
to the goddess, Friga, the bestower of joy and happiness.
The wedding day being Friday, the walking-day
was a Saturday; and on Sunday the young couple,
with their best man and best maid, attended church in the
forenoon, and took a walk in the afternoon, then spent
the evening in the house of one of their parents, the
meeting there being closed by family worship, and a
pious advice to the young couple to practise this in their
own house.
If the bride had been courted by other sweethearts
than he who was now her husband, there was a fear that
those discarded suitors might entertain unkindly feelings
towards her, and that their evil wishes might supernaturally
influence her, and affect her first-born. This evil
result was sought to be averted by the bride wearing a
sixpence in her left shoe till she was kirked; but should
the bride have made a vow to any other, and broken it,
this wearing of the sixpence did not prevent the evil consequences
from falling upon her first-born. Many instances
were currently quoted among the people of first-born
children, under such circumstances, having been
born of such unnatural shapes and natures that, with the
sanction of the minister and the relations, the monster
birth was put to death. Captain Burt, in his letters from
the Highlands, written early in the eighteenth century,
says that "soon after the wedding day the newly-married
wife sets herself about spinning her winding sheet, and a
husband that shall sell or pawn it is esteemed among all
men one of the most profligate." And Dr. Jamieson
says—"When a woman of the lower class in Scotland,
however poor, or whether married or single, commences
housekeeping, her first care, after what is absolutely necessary
for the time, is to provide death linen for herself
and those who look to her for that office, and her next to
earn, save, and lay up (not put out to interest) such money
as may decently serve for funeral expenses. And many
keep secret these honorable deposits and salutary mementoes
for two or threescore years."
This practice was continued within my recollection.
The first care of the young married wife was still, in my
young days, to spin and get woven sufficient linen to
make for herself and her husband their dead claes. I can
well remember the time when, in my father's house, these
things were spread out to air before the fire. This was
done periodically, and these were days when mirth was
banished from the household, and everything was done
in a solemn mood. The day was kept as a Sabbath.
The reader will not fail to observe in some of these modern
customs and beliefs modified survivals of the old
Roman practices and superstitious beliefs.
DEATH.
t
is not surprising that the solemn period of
death should have been surrounded with
many superstitious ideas,—with a great variety
of omens and warnings, many of which,
however, were only called to mind after the event. In the
country, when any person was taken unwell, it was very
soon known over the whole neighbourhood, and all sorts
of remedies were recommended. Generally a doctor was
not sent for until the patient was considered in a dangerous
state, and then began the search for omens or
warnings. If the patient recovered, these premonitions
were forgotten, but if death ensued, then everything was
remembered and rendered significant. Was a dog heard
to howl and moan during the night, with his head in the
direction of the house where the patient lay; was there
heard in the silent watches of the night in the room
occupied by the sick person, a tick, ticking as of a watch
about the bed or furniture, these were sure signs of
approaching death, and adult patients hearing these
omens, often made sure that their end was near. Many
pious people also improved the circumstance, pointing
out that these omens were evidence of God's great mercy,
inasmuch as He vouchsafed to give a timely warning in
order that the dying persons might prepare for death,
and make their peace with the great Judge. To have
hinted, under such circumstances, that the ticking sounds
were caused by a small wood moth tapping for its mate,
would have subjected the hinter to the name of infidel
or unbeliever in Scripture, as superstitious people always
took shelter in Scripture.
Persons hearing a tingling sound in their ears, called
the deid bells, expected news of the death of a friend or
neighbour. A knock heard at the door of the patient's
room, and on opening no person being found, was a
sure warning of approaching death. If the same thing
occurred where there was no patient, it was a sign that
some relation at a distance had died. I was sitting once
in the house of a newly married couple, when a loud
knock was heard upon the floor under a chair, as if some
one had struck the floor with a flat piece of wood. The
young wife removed the chair, and seeing nothing, remarked
with some alarm, "It is hasty news of a death."
Next day she received word of the death of two of her
brothers, soldiers in India, the deaths having occurred
nearly a year before. There was no doubt in the mind
of the young wife that the knock was a supernatural
warning. The natural explanation probably was that the
sound came from the chair, which being new, was liable
to shrink at the joints for some time, and thus cause the
sound heard. This cracking sound is quite common
with new furniture.
If, again, some one were to catch a glimpse of a person
whom they knew passing the door or window, and on
looking outside were to find no such person there, this
was a sign of the approaching death of the person seen.
There were many instances quoted of the accuracy of
this omen, instances generally of persons who, in good
health at the time of their illusionary presence, died
shortly after. Another form of this superstition was connected
with those who were known to be seriously ill.
Should the observer see what he felt convinced was the
unwell person, say, walking along the street, and on
looking round as the presence passed, see no person, this
was a token of the death of the person whose spectre
was seen. I knew of a person who, on going home from
his work one evening, came suddenly upon an old man
whom he knew to be bed-ridden, dressed as was formerly
his wont, with knee breeches, blue coat, and red nightcap.
Although he knew that the old man had for some time
been confined to bed, so distinct was the illusion that he
bid him "good night" in passing, but receiving no reply,
looked behind and saw no one. Seized with fright, he
ran home and told what he had seen. On the following
morning it was known through the village that the old
man was dead. And his death had taken place at the
time when the young man had seen him on the previous
evening. This was considered a remarkably clear instance
of a person's wraith or spirit being seen at the time
of death. However, the seeing of a person's wraith was
not always an omen of death. There were certain rules
observed in relation to wraiths, by which their meaning
could be ascertained, but these rules differed in different
localities. In my native village a wraith seen during
morning, or before twelve noon, betokened that the person
whose wraith was seen would be fortunate in life, or
if unwell at the time, would recover; but when the wraith
was seen in the afternoon or evening, this betokened evil
or approaching death, and the time within which death
would occur was considered to be within a year. This
belief in wraiths goes back to a very early period of man's
history. The ancient Persians and Jews believed that
every person had a spirit or guardian angel attending him,
and although generally invisible, it had the power of becoming
visible, and separating itself for a time from the
person it attended, and of appearing to other persons in
the guise of the individual from whom it emanated. An
excellent example of this superstitious belief is recorded
in the Acts of the Apostles. When Peter, who was
believed to be in prison, knocked at the "door of the
gate" of the house where the disciples were met, the
young woman who went to open the door, on recognising
Peter's voice, was overjoyed, and, instead of opening, ran
into the house, and told the disciples Peter was at the
door. Then they said "It is his angel" (wraith). Thus
the whole company expressed their belief in attending
angels. The belief in wraiths was prevalent throughout
all Scotland. It is beautifully introduced in the song of
"Auld Robin Gray." When the young wife narrates her
meeting with her old sweetheart, she says, "I thought
it was his wraith, I could not think it he," and the belief
survives in some parts of the country to the present
day.
If a dying person struggled hard and long, it was
believed that the spirit was kept from departing by some
magic spell. It was therefore customary, under these
circumstances, for the attendants to open every lock in
the house, that the spell might be broken, and the spirit
let loose. J. Train refers to this superstition in his
Mountain Muse, published 1814:—
"The chest unlocks to ward the power,
Of spells in Mungo's evil hour."
After death there came a new class of superstitious
fears and practices. The clock was stopped, the looking-glass
was covered with a cloth, and all domestic animals
were removed from the house until after the funeral.
These things were done, however, by many from old custom,
and without their knowing the reason why such
things were done. Originally the reason for the exclusion
of dogs and cats arose from the belief that, if either
of these animals should chance to leap over the corpse,
and be afterwards permitted to live, the devil would gain
power over the dead person.
When the corpse was laid out, a plate of salt was placed
upon the breast, ostensibly to prevent the body swelling.
Many did so in this belief, but its original purpose was to
act as a charm against the devil to prevent him from disturbing
the body. In some localities the plate of salt
was supplemented with another filled with earth. A
symbolical meaning was given for this; that the earth
represented the corporeal body, the earthly house,—the
salt the heavenly state of the soul. But there was an
older superstition which gave another explanation for the
plate of salt on the breast. There were persons calling
themselves "sin eaters" who, when a person died, were
sent for to come and eat the sins of the deceased. When
they came, their modus operandi was to place a plate of
salt and a plate of bread on the breast of the corpse, and
repeat a series of incantations, after which they ate the
contents of the plates, and so relieved the dead person
of such sins as would have kept him hovering around
his relations, haunting them with his imperfectly purified
spirit, to their great annoyance, and without satisfaction
to himself. This form of superstition has evidently a
close relation to such forms of ancestor-worship as we
know were practised by the ancients, and to which
reference has already been made.
Until the funeral, it was the practice for some of the
relations or friends to sit up all night, and watch the
corpse. In my young days this duty was generally undertaken
by youths, male and female friends, who volunteered
their services; but these watchings were not
accompanied by the unseemly revelries which were common
in Scotland in earlier times, or as are still practised
in Ireland. The company sitting up with the corpse
generally numbered from two to six, although I have
myself been one of ten. They went to the house about
ten in the evening, and before the relations went to bed
each received a glass of spirits; about midnight there
was a refreshment of tea or ale and bread, and the same
in the morning, when the relations of the deceased
relieved the watchers. Although during these night
sittings nothing unbefitting the solemnity of the occasion
was done, the circumstances of the meeting gave
opportunity for love-making. The first portion of
the night was generally passed in reading,—some
one reading aloud for the benefit of the company,
afterwards they got to story-telling, the stories being
generally of a ghostly description, producing such a weird
feeling, that most of the company durst hardly look behind
them for terror, and would start at the slightest
noise. I have seen some so affected by this fear that
they would not venture to the door alone if the morning
was dark. These watchings of the dead were no doubt
efficacious in perpetuating superstitious ideas.
The reasons given for watching the corpse differed in
different localities. The practice is still observed, I believe,
in some places; but probably now it is more the
result of habit—a custom followed without any basis of
definite belief, and merely as a mark of respect for the
dead; but in former times, and within this century, it
was firmly held that if the corpse were not watched, the
devil would carry off the body, and many stories were
current of such an awful result having happened. One
such story was told me by a person who had received the
story from a person who was present at the wake where
the occurrence happened. I thus got it at second hand.
The story ran as follows:—The corpse was laid out in a
room, and the watchers had retired to another apartment
to partake of refreshments, having shut the door of the
room where the corpse lay. While they were eating
there was heard a great noise, as of a struggle between
two persons, proceeding from the room where the corpse
lay. None of the party would venture into the room,
and in this emergency they sent for the minister, who
came, and, with the open Bible in his hand, entered the
room and shut the door. The noise then ceased, and in
about ten minutes he came out, lifted the tongs from the
fireplace, and again re-entered the room. When he came
out again, he brought out with the tongs a glove, which
was seen to be bloody, and this he put into the fire. He
refused, however, to tell either what he had seen or heard;
but on the watchers returning to their post, the corpse
lay as formerly, and as quiet and unruffled as if nothing
had taken place, whereat they were all surprised.
From the death till the funeral it was customary for
neighbours to call and see the corpse, and should any
one see it and not touch it, that person would be haunted
for several nights with fearful dreams. I have seen
young children and even infants made to touch the face
of the corpse, notwithstanding their terror and screams.
If a child who had seen the corpse, but had not been
compelled to touch it, had shortly afterwards awakened
from a sleep crying, it would have been considered that
its crying was caused by its having seen the ghost of the
dead person.
If, when the funeral left the house, the company
should go in a scattered, straggling manner, this was an
omen that before long another funeral would leave the
same house. If the company walked away quickly, it
was also a bad omen. It was believed that the spirit of
the last person buried in any graveyard had to keep watch
lest any suicide or unbaptized child should be buried in
the consecrated ground, so that, when two burials took
place on the same day, there was a striving to be first at
the churchyard. In some parts of the Highlands this
superstition led to many unseemly scenes when funerals
occurred on the same day.
Those attending the funeral who were not near neighbours
or relations were given a quantity of bread and
cakes to take home with them, but relations and
near neighbours returned to the house, where their wives
were collected, and were liberally treated to both meat
and drink. This was termed the dredgy or dirgy, and to
be present at this was considered a mark of respect to
the departed. This custom may be the remnant of an
ancient practice—in some sort a superstition—which
existed in Greece, where the friends of the deceased,
after the funeral, held a banquet, the fragments of
which were afterwards carried to the tomb. Upon the
death of a wealthy person, when the funeral had left
the house, sums of money were divided among the
poor. In Catholic times this was done that the poor
might pray for the soul of the deceased. In the
Danish Niebellungen song it is stated that, at the burial
of the hero Seigfried, his wife caused upwards of
thirty thousand merks of gold to be distributed among
the poor for the welfare and repose of his soul. This
custom became in this country and century in Protestant
times an occasion for the gathering of beggars and
sorners from all parts. At the funeral of George Oswald
of Scotstoun, three miles from Glasgow, there were
gathered several hundreds, who were each supplied with
a silver coin and a drink of beer, and many were the
blessings wished. A similar gathering occurred at the
funeral of old Mr. Bogle of Gilmourhill, near Glasgow;
but when announcement was made that nothing was to
be given, there rose a fearful howl of execration and
cursing both of dead and living from the mendacious
crowd. The village of Partick in both these cases was
placed under a species of black-mail for several days by
beggars, who would hardly take any denial, and in many
instances appropriated what was not their own. I am
not aware that this custom is retained in any part of the
country now.
As the funerals fifty years ago were mostly walking
funerals, the coffin being carried between two spokes, the
sort of weather during the funeral had its omens, for in
these days the weather was believed to be greatly under
the control of the devil, or rather it was considered that
he was permitted to tamper with the weather. If the
day was fine, this was naturally a good omen for the
soul's welfare. I remember that the funeral of the only
daughter of a worthy couple happened on a wet day, but
just as the funeral was leaving the house the sun broke
through and the day cleared, whereupon the mother,
with evident delight, as she stood at the door, thanked
God that Mary was getting a good blink. Stormy
weather was a bad omen, being regarded as due to
Satan's influence. Burns refers to this belief in his
"Tam o' Shanter." When referring to the storm, he
says:—
"Even a bairn might understand
The deil had business on his hand."
The following old rhyme mentions the most propitious
sort of weather for the christening, marriage, and funeral:—
"West wind to the bairn when gaun for its name,
Gentle rain to the corpse carried to its lang hame,
A bonny blue sky to welcome the bride,
As she gangs to the kirk, wi' the sun on her side."
The wake in the Highlands during last century was a
very common affair. Captain Burt, in his letters from
Scotland, 1723, says that when a person dies the neighbours
gather in the evening in the house where the dead
lies, with bagpipe, and spend the evening in dancing—the
nearest relative to the corpse leading off the dance.
Whisky and other refreshments are provided, and this is
continued every night until the funeral.
Pennant, in his tour through the Highlands, 1772,
says that, at a death, the friends of the deceased meet
with bagpipe or fiddle, when the nearest of kin leads off
a melancholy ball, dancing and wailing at the same
time, which continue till daybreak, and is continued
nightly till the interment. This custom is to frighten off
or protect the corpse from the attack of wild beasts, and
evil spirits from carrying it away.
Another custom of olden times, and which was continued
till the beginning of this century, was that of announcing
the death of any person by sending a person
with a bell—known as the "deidbell"—through the town or
neighbourhood. The same was done to invite to the funeral.
In all probability, the custom of ringing the bell had its
origin in the church custom, being a call to offer prayers
for the soul of the departed. Bell-ringing was also considered
a means of keeping away evil spirits. Joseph
Train, writing in 1814, refers to another practice common
in some parts of Scotland. Whenever the corpse is
taken from the house, the bed on which the deceased
lay is taken from the house, and all the straw or heather
of which it was composed is taken out and burned in a
place where no beast can get at it, and in the morning
the ashes are carefully examined, believing that the footprint
of the next person of the family who will die will
be seen. This practice of burning the contents of the
bed is commendable for sanitary purposes.
WITCHCRAFT, SECOND-SIGHT, AND THE BLACK ART.
hat
the devil gave to certain persons supernatural
power, which they might exercise
at their pleasure, was a belief prevalent
throughout all Scotland during the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries. But at the same time
this compacting with the devil was reprobated, nay more,
was a capital offence, both in civil and ecclesiastical law,
and during these two centuries thousands of persons were
convicted and executed for this crime. But during the
latter part of the seventeenth century the civil courts refused
to convict upon the usual evidence, to the great
alarm and displeasure of the ecclesiastical authorities,
who considered this refusal a great national sin—a direct
violation of the law of God, which said—"Thou shalt
not suffer a witch to live." To arrest the punishment
which this direct violation of God's written law was supposed
to incur, prayers were offered, and fasts were appointed.
As samples of the kind of evidence on which reputed
witches were convicted and executed, I extract the following
from the Records of Lanark Presbytery, 1650:—"Likewise
he reported that the Commissioners and
brethren did find these poynts delated against Janet
M'Birnie, one of the suspected women, to wit:
"1st. That on a time the said Janet M'Birnie followed
Wm. Brown, sclater, to Robert Williamson's house
in Water Meetings, to crave somewhat, and fell in evil
words. After which time, and within four and twenty
hours, he fell off ane house and brake his neck.
"2nd. After some outcast between Bessie Achison's
house and Janet M'Birnie's house, the said Janet
M'Birnie prayed that there might be bloody beds and
a light house, and after that the said Bessie Achison
her daughter took sickness, and the lassie said there is
fyre in my bed, and died. And the said Bessie
Achison her gudeman dwyned.
"3rd. It was alleged that the said Janet M'Birnie was
the cause of the dispute between Newton and his wife,
and that she and others were the death of William
Geddese. And also that they fand against Marian
Laidlaw, another suspected, these particulars: that the
said Marian and Jean Blacklaw differed in words for
the said Marian's hay; and after that the said Jean
her kye died."
They were remitted for trial. In these same Records
there is in 1697 the following entry:—"Upon the recommendation
of the Synod, the Presbytery appoynts a
Fast to be keeped upon the 28th instant, in regard to
the great prevalence of witchcraft which abounds at
several places at this time within the bounds of the
Synod."
At this time the laws against witchcraft had become
practically a dead letter, but it was not till 1735 that
they were repealed. Still, the abolition of the legal
penalty did not kill the popular belief in the power and
reality of witchcraft; and even now, at this present day,
we find proof every now and again in newspaper reports
that this belief still lingers among certain classes. Within
these fifty years, in a village a little to the west of Glasgow,
lived an old woman, who was not poor, but had a
very irritable temper, and was unsocial in her habits. A
little boy having called her names and otherwise annoyed
her, she scolded him, and, in the heat of her rage, prophesied
that before a twelvemonth elapsed the devil
would get his own. A few months after this the boy
sickened and died, and the villagers had no hesitation in
ascribing the cause of death to this old woman. Again,
a farmer in the neighbourhood had bought a horse, and
in the evening a servant was leading it to the water to
drink, when this same old woman, who was sitting near
at hand, remarked upon the beauty of the horse, and
asked for a few hairs from the tail, which the servant
with some roughness refused. When the stable was
entered next morning the horse was found dead. On
the above circumstance of the old woman's request being
related to the farmer, he regretted the servant's refusal of
the hairs, and said that, if the same woman had asked
him, he would have given every hair in the tail rather
than offend her, showing thereby his undoubted belief in
the woman's power. Fortunately for her, she lived in a
storeyed building—in local vernacular, a land—or in all
probability her house would have been set on fire in
order to burn her. At the same time, while she was
hated and dreaded, everybody for their own safety paid
her the most marked respect. Had she lived a century
earlier, such evidence would have brought her to the
stake. In 1666, before the Lanark Presbytery, a woman
was tried for bewitching cattle:—
"The said William Smith said that she was the death
of twa meires, and Elizabeth Johnstone, his wife, reported
that she saw her sitting on their black meire's
tether, and that she ran over the dyke in the likeness
of a hare."
This belief in the ability of witches to convert themselves
into the appearance of animals at pleasure was
prevalent even during this century. In 1828, or there-about,
there died an old woman, who when alive had
gone about with a crutch, and it was reported of her,
and generally believed, that in her younger days she had
the power of witchcraft, and that one morning as she
was out about some of her unhallowed sports, disporting
herself in the shape of a hare, that a man who was out
with a gun saw, as he thought, in the moonlight, a hare,
and fired at it, breaking its leg; but it took shelter
behind a stone, and when he went to get the hare, he
found instead a young woman sitting bandaging with a
handkerchief her leg, which was bleeding. He knew her,
and upon her entreaty promised never to disclose her
secret, and ever after she went with a crutch. I have
heard similar stories told of other women in other localities,
showing the prevalence of this form of belief. As
those who had dealings with the devil were believed to
have renounced their baptism or their allegiance to
Christ, they never went to church, and hated the Bible.
Therefore, all who did not follow the custom of believers
were not only considered infidels, but as having enlisted
in the devil's corps, and such people in small localities
were kept at an outside, and suspected, being regarded
as capable of any wickedness, and untrustworthy. I
remember several persons, both men and women, against
intercourse with whom we were earnestly warned, and
were instructed that it was not even safe to play with
their children.
There were other supernatural powers thought to be
possessed by certain persons, which differed from witchcraft
in this, that they were not regarded as the result of
a compact with the devil, but in some cases were thought
to be rather a gift from God. For example, there was
second-sight, a gift bestowed upon certain persons without
any previous compact or solicitation. Sometimes the
seer fell into a trance, in which state he saw visions; at
other times the visions were seen without the trance condition.
Should the seer see in a vision a certain person
dressed in a shroud, this betokened that the death of
that person would surely take place within a year.
Should such a vision be seen in the morning, the person
seen would die before that evening; should such a vision
be seen in the afternoon, the person seen would die before
next night; but if the vision were seen late in the
evening, there was no particular time of death intimated,
further than that it would take place within the year.
Again, if the shroud did not cover the whole body, the
fulfilment of the vision was at a great distance. If the
vision were that of a man with a woman standing at his
left hand, then that woman will be that man's wife, although
they may both at the time of the vision be
married to others. It was reported that one having
second-sight saw in vision a young man with three women
standing at his left side, and in course of time each became
his wife in the order in which they were seen standing.
These seers could often foretell coming visitors to a
family months before they came, and even point out
places where houses would be built years before the
buildings were erected. The seer could not communicate
the gift to any other person, not even to those of his
own family, as he possessed it without any conscious act
on his part; but if any person were near him at the time
he was having a vision, and he were consciously to touch
the person with his left foot, the person touched would
see that particular vision. I had a conversation with a
woman who when young was in company with one who
had the gift of second-sight. They went out together
one Sabbath evening, and while sitting on the banks of
the Kelvin the seer had a vision, and touched my informant
with her left foot, and she also saw it. It rose
from the water like the full moon, and was transparent;
and in it she saw a young man whom she did not know,
and her own likeness standing at his left side. Before
many weeks were passed, a new servant-man came to the
farm where my informant was then serving, and whom
she recognised as the person whose image she had seen
in the vision, and in little more than a year after the two
were married.
Deaf and dumb persons were considered to possess
something like second-sight, by which they were enabled
to foretell events which happen to certain persons.
This is a very old belief. I extract the following from
Memorials of the Rev. R. Law:—
"Anno 1676.—A daughter of the laird of Bardowie,
in Badenoch parish, intending to go fra that to Hamilton
to see her sister-in-law, there is at the same time a
woman come into the house born deaf and dumb.
She makes many signs to her not to go, and takes her
down to the yaird and cutts at the root of a tree,
making signs that it would fall and kill her. That not
being understood by her or any of them, she takes the
journey—the dumb lass holding her to stay. When the
young gentlewoman is there at Hamilton, a few days
after, her sister and she goes forth to walk in the park,
and in their walking they both come under a tree. In
that very instant they come under it, they hear it shaking
and coming down. The sister-in-law flees to
the right, and she herself flees to the left hand, that
way that the tree fell, so it crushed her and wounded
her sore, so that she dies in two or three days' sickness."
Until about 30 years ago, a deaf and dumb man was
in the habit of visiting my native village, who was believed
to possess wonderful gifts of foresight. This dummy
carried with him a slate, a pencil, and a piece of chalk,
by use of which he gave his answers, and often he volunteered
to give certain information concerning the future;
he would often write down occurrences which he averred
would happen to parties in the village, or to persons
then present. He did not beg nor ask alms, but
only visited certain houses as a sort of friend, and information
of his presence in the village was quickly conveyed
to the neighbours, so that he generally had a large gathering
of women who were all friendly to him, and he was
never allowed to go away without reward. When any
stranger was present he would point them out, and write
down the initials of their name, and sometimes their
names in full, without being asked. He would also, at
times, write down the names of relatives of those present
who lived at a distance, and tell them when they would
receive letters from them, and whether these letters would
contain good or bad news. He disclosed the whereabouts
of sailor lads and absent lovers, detected thefts, foretold
deaths and marriages, and the names of the parties
on both sides who were to be married. He wrote of a
young woman, a stranger in the village, but who was present
on one of his visits, and was on the eve of being
married to a tradesman, that she would not be married
to him, but would marry one who would keep her counting
money; which came to pass. The tradesman and
she fell out, and afterwards she married a haberdasher,
and for a long time was in the shop as cashier. This
woman still lives, and firmly believes in the prophetic
gift of dummy. Another woman, a stranger also, asked
him some questions relative to herself; he shook his
head, and for a long time refused to answer, desiring her
not to insist. This made her the more anxious, and at
last he drew upon the slate the figure of a coffin. This
was all the length he would go. In less than twelve
months the woman was in her grave. During one of his
visits the husband of one of the women who attended
him was seriously ill, and the wife, a stout healthy woman,
was anxious to hear from dummy the result of her husband's
illness. He wrote that the husband would recover,
and that she would die before him; and she did die not
long after. In short, this dummy was a regular prophet,
and his predictions were implicitly believed by all who
attended upon him. In his case there was no pretension
to visions, the form which he allowed his gift to assume
was that of intuition. Some few men in the village suspected
the dummy's honesty, and thought that he heard
and assiduously and cunningly picked up knowledge of
the parties; but such doubts were regarded as bordering
upon blasphemy by the believers in dummy. I was never
present at any of these gatherings, but my information is
gathered from those who were present. Some months
ago I was talking to an ordinarily intelligent person on
this subject, and he gave it as his opinion that dumb
persons had their loss of the faculties of hearing and
speech recompensed to them in the gift of supernatural
knowledge, and he related how a certain widow lady of
his acquaintance had been informed of the death of her
son. This son was abroad, and she had with her in the
house a mute, who one day made signs to her that she
would never see her son again, and a few weeks after she
received word of his death.
There was another phase of supernatural power, different
from witchcraft, and which the devil granted to
certain parties: this was called the Black Airt. The
possession of this power was mostly confined to Highlanders,
and probably at this present day there are still
those who believe in it. The effects produced by this
power did not, however, differ much from those produced
by witchcraft. A farmer in the north-west of Glasgow engaged
a Highland lad as herd, and my informant also
served with this farmer at the time. It was observed by
the family that, after the lad came to them, everything
went well with the farmer. During the winter, however,
the kye became yell, and the family were consequently
short of milk. The cows of a neighbouring farmer were
at the same time giving plenty of milk. Under these
circumstances, the Highland lad proposed to his mistress
that he would bring milk from their neighbour's cows,
which she understood to be by aid of the black airt,
through the process known as milking the tether. The
tether is the rope halter, and by going through the form
of milking this, repeating certain incantations, the magic
transference was supposed capable of being effected.
This proposal to exercise the black airt becoming known
among the servants, they were greatly alarmed, and
showed their terror by all at once becoming very kind to
the lad, and very watchful of what he did. He was
known to have in his possession a pack of cards; and
during family worship he displayed great restlessness,
generally falling asleep before these services were concluded,
and he was averse to reading the Bible. One
night, for a few pence, he offered to tell the names of
the sweethearts of the two servant-men, and they having
agreed to the bargain, he shuffled the cards and said
certain words which they did not understand, and then
named two girls the lads were then courting. They
refused to give him the promised reward, and he told
them they would be glad to pay him before they
slept. When the two men were going to their bed,
which was over the stable, they were surprised to find
two women draped in black closing up the stable door.
As they stepped back, the women disappeared; but
every time they tried to get in, the door was blocked up
as before. The men then remembered what the lad had
said to them, and going to where he slept, found him in
bed, and gave him the promised reward. He then told
them to go back, and they would not be further disturbed.
Next morning, the servant-men told what had
taken place, and refused to remain at the farm any
longer with the lad; and the farmer had thus to part
with him, but he and the servants gave him little gifts
that they might part good friends. My informant believed
himself above superstition, yet he related this as
evidence of the truth of the black airt.
It is a very old belief that those who had made compacts
with the devil could afflict those they disliked with
certain diseases, and even cause their death, by making
images in clay or wax of the persons they wished to injure,
and then, by baptizing these images with mock
ceremony, the persons represented were brought under
their influence, so that whatever was then done to the
image was felt by the living original. This superstition
is referred to by Allan Ramsay in his Gentle Shepherd:—
"Pictures oft she makes
Of folk she hates, and gaur expire
Wi' slow and racking pain before the fire.
Stuck fu' o' preens, the devilish picture melt,
The pain by folk they represent is felt."
This belief survived in great force in this century, and
probably in country places is not yet extinct. Several
persons have been named to me who suffered long from
diseases the doctor could not understand, nor do anything
to remove, and therefore these obscure diseases
could only be ascribed to the devil-aided practices of
malicious persons. In some cases, cures were said to
have been effected through making friends of the supposed
originators of the disease. The custom not yet
extinct of burning persons in effigy is doubtless a survival
of this old superstition.
A newly-married woman with whom I was acquainted
took a sudden fit of mental derangement, and screamed
and talked violently to herself. Her friends and neighbours
concluded that she was under the spell of the evil
one. The late Dr. Mitchell was sent for to pray for her,
but when he began to pray she set up such hideous
screams that he was obliged to stop. He advised her
friends to call in medical aid. But this conduct on the
part of the woman made it all the more evident to her
relations and neighbours that her affliction was the work
of the devil, brought about through the agency of some
evil-disposed person. Several such persons were suspected,
and sent for to visit the afflicted woman; and,
while they were in the house, a relation of the sufferer's
secretly cut out a small portion of the visitor's dress and
threw it into the fire, by which means it was believed
that the influence of the ill e'e would be destroyed. At
all events, the woman suddenly got well again, and as a
consequence the superstitious belief of those who were in
the secret was strengthened.
CHARMS AND COUNTER CHARMS.
uring
these times when such superstitious
beliefs were almost universally accepted—when
the sources from which evils might
be expected to spring were about as numerous
as the unchecked fancies of men could make them—we
must naturally conceive that the people who believed
such things must have lived in a continual state
of fear. And in many instances this was really the
case; but the common result was not so, for fortunately
the bane and antidote were generally found together, and
the means for preventing or exorcising these devil-imposed
evils were about as numerous as the evils themselves.
I have already in a former chapter mentioned
incidentally some of these charms and preventives, but
as this incidental treatment cannot possibly cover the
field, I shall here speak of them separately.
Tennant, in his Tour through Scotland, states that
farmers placed boughs of the mountain ash in their cow-houses
on the second day of May to protect their cows
from evil influences. The rowan tree possessed a wonderful
influence against all evil machinations of witchcraft.
A staff made of this tree laid above the boothy or
milk-house preserved the milk from witch influence. A
churn-staff made of this wood secured the butter during
the process of churning. So late as 1860 I have seen
the rowan tree trained in the form of an arch over the
byre door, and in another case over the gate of the farmyard,
as a protection to the cows. It was also believed
that a rowan tree growing in a field protected the cattle
against being struck by lightning.
Mr. Train describes the action of a careful farmer's
wife or dairymaid thus:—
"Lest witches should obtain the power
Of Hawkie's milk in evil hour,
She winds a red thread round her horn,
And milks thro' row'n tree night and morn;
Against the blink of evil eye
She knows each andidote to ply."
The same author, writing in 1814, says:—"I am acquainted
myself with an Anti-Burgher clergyman who
actually procured from a person who pretended to such
skill in these charms two small pieces of carved wood,
to be kept in his father's cow-house as a security for the
health of his cows." The belief in the potency of the
rowan tree to ward off evil is no doubt a survival of
ancient tree worship. Of this worship, the Rev. F.W.
Farrar says:—"It may be traced from the interior of
Africa, not only in Egypt and Arabia, but also onwards
uninterruptedly into Palestine and Syria, Assyria,
Persia, India, Thibet, Siam, the Philippine Islands,
China, Japan, and Siberia; also westward into Asia
Minor, Greece, Italy, and other countries; and in most
of the countries here named it obtains at the present
day, combined, as it has been, in other parts with
various forms of idolatry." Were it our object, it could
also be shown that tree worship has been combined with
Christianity. The rowan tree was held sacred by the
Druids, and is often found among their stone monuments.
There is a northern legend that the god of
thunder (Thor), when wading the river Vimar, was in
danger of being swept away by its current, but that,
grasping a tree which grew on the bank, he got safely
across. This tree was the mountain ash, which was ever
after held sacred; and when these nations were converted
to Christianity, they did not fall away from their
belief in the sanctity of the rowan tree.
Not many years ago, I was told of a miraculous make
of butter which was reported to have occurred in the
west of Lanarkshire a short time before. One morning,
a farmer's wife in that district and her maid-servant
wrought at the kirn, but, do as they would, no butter
would appear. In this dilemma, they sat down to consider
about the cause, and then they recollected that a
neighbouring woman had come into the kitchen, where
the kirn was standing the previous evening, to borrow
something, but was refused. The servant was at once
despatched with the article in question, and half-a-dozen
eggs as a gift, to the old woman, and instructed to make
an apology for not having given the loan the evening
before. The woman received the gift, and gratefully
expressed her wish that the farmer and his wife would be
blest both in their basket and their store. The effect,
said my informant, was miraculous. Before the servant
returned, the butter began to flow, and in such quantity
as had never before been experienced.
Apropos of this superstition with reference to milk, the
following incident occurred not many years back in the
West Highlands. An old woman, who kept a few cows,
was in sore distress of mind because some of her ill-disposed
neighbours had cast an evil eye upon them, in
consequence of which their milk in a very short time
blinked (turned sour), and churn as she might, she could
never obtain any butter. She had tried every remedy she
knew of, or that had been recommended to her, but
without any good effect. At length, in her extremity,
she applied to the parish minister, and laid her case before
him. He patiently listened to her complaint, and
expressed great sympathy for her, and then very wisely
said, "I'll tell you how I think you will succeed in
driving away the evil eye. It seems to me that it has
not been cast on your cows, but on your dishes. Gang
hame and tak' a' your dishes down to the burn, and let
them lie awhile in the running stream; then rub them
well and dry with a clean clout. Tak' them hame and
fill each with boiling water. Pour it out and lay them
aside to dry. The evil eye cannot withstand boiling
water. Sca'd it out and ye'll get butter." The prescription
was followed, and a few weeks after the woman
called upon the minister and thanked him for the cure,
remarking that she had never seen anything so wonderful.
Mr. Joseph Train, from whose notes we have already
quoted, mentions a ceremony, not of a private but of a
public nature, and embracing a large district of country,
at the performance of which he was present. The
object to be obtained was the prevention of a threatened
outbreak of disease among the cattle. "In the summer
of 1810," says Mr. Train, "while remaining at Balnaguard,
a village of Perthshire, as I was walking along
the banks of the Tay, I observed a crowd of people
convened on the hill above Pitna Cree; and as I recollected
having seen a multitude in the same place the
preceding day, my curiosity was roused, so that I resolved
to learn the reason of this meeting in such an unfrequented
place. I was close beside them before any of
the company had observed me ascending the hill, their
attention being fixed upon two men in the centre. One
was turning a small stock, which was supported by two
stakes standing perpendicularly, with a cleft at the top,
in which the crown piece went round in the form a
carpenter holds a chisel on a grinding stone; the other
was holding a small branch of fir on that which was
turning. Directly below it was a quantity of tow spread
on the ground. I observed that this work was taken
alternately by men and women. As I was turning
about in order to leave them, a man whom I had seen
before, laid his hand on my shoulder, and solicited me
to put my finger to the stick; but I refused, merely to
see if my obstinacy would be resented; and suddenly
a sigh arose from every breast, and anger kindled in
every eye. I saw, therefore, that immediate compliance
with the request was necessary to my safety.
"I was soon convinced that this was some mysterious
rite performed either to break or ward off the power of
witchcraft; but, so intent were they on the prosecution
of their design, that I could obtain no satisfactory
information, until I met an old schoolmaster in the
neighbourhood, from whom I had obtained much insight
into the manners and customs of that district. He
informed me that there is a distemper occasioned by
want of water, which cattle are subject to, called in the
Gaelic language shag dubh, which in English signifies
'black haunch.' It is a very infectious disease, and,
if not taken in time, would carry off most of the cattle
in the country." The method taken by the Highlanders
to prevent its destructive ravages is thus: "All
fires are extinguished between the two nearest rivers,
and all the people within that boundary convene in a
convenient place, where they erect a machine, as above
described; and, after they have commenced, they continue
night and day until they have forced fire by the
friction of the two sticks. Every person must perform
a portion of this labour, or touch the machine in order
not to break the charm.
"During the continuance of the ceremony they appear
melancholy and dejected, but when the fire, which
they say is brought from heaven by an angel, blazes in
the tow, they resume their wonted gaiety; and while
one part of the company is employed feeding the flame,
the others drive all the cattle in the neighbourhood over
it. When this ceremony is ended, they consider the
cure complete; after which they drink whiskey, and
dance to the bagpipe or fiddle round the celestial fire
till the last spark is extinguished."
Here, within our own day, is evidently an act of fire-worship:
a direct worship of Baal by a Christian community
in the nineteenth century. There were other
means of preventing disease spreading among cattle
practised within this century. When murrain broke out
in a herd, it was believed that, if the first one taken ill
were buried alive, it would stop the spread of the disease,
and that the other animals affected would then soon recover.
Were a cow to cast her calf: if the calf were to be
buried at the byre door, and a short prayer or a verse of
Scripture said over it, it would prevent the same misfortune
from happening with the rest of the herd. If a sheep
dropped a dead lamb, the proper precaution to take was
to place the lamb upon a rowan tree, and this would
prevent the whole flock from a repetition of the mishap.
It was an old superstition that the body of a murdered
person would bleed on the presence or touch of the
murderer. We find this belief mentioned as far back as
the eleventh century. In an old ballad of that period
occurs the following passage:—
"A marvel high and strange is seen full many a time—
When to the murdered body nigh the man that did the crime,
Afresh the wounds will bleed. The marvel now was found—
That Hagan felled the champion with treason to the ground."
Several centuries after this, we find it mentioned in another
ballad, entitled "Young Huntin":—
"O white were his wounds washen,
As white as a linen clout,
But when Lady Maisry she cam' near,
His wounds they gushed out."
The reason for this marvel was ascribed by the Rev. Mr.
Wodrow, to the wonderful providence of God, who had
said, "thou shalt not suffer a murderer to live," and had,
in order that the command might be justly carried out,
provided the means whereby murderers might be readily
detected. This superstition certainly survived within
this century, and I have heard many instances adduced
to prove the truth of bleeding taking place on the introduction
of the murderer.
Another curious form of belief was prevalent among
some persons, that the body of a suicide would not
decay until the time arrived when, in the ordinary course of
nature, he would have died. This was founded upon
another belief, that there is a day of death appointed for
every man, which no one can pass; but as man is possessed
of a free will, he may, by his own wicked determination,
shorten the union of his soul and body, but
that there his power ends: he cannot in reality kill either
soul or body, for were he to possess this power, he would
possess the power to alter the decrees of God, which is a
power impossible for man to possess. This was a mad,
not deep, sort of metaphysics; but there was sufficient
method in its madness to cause it to gain the suffrages of
a large number of people. It was affirmed that those
who had examined into the matter had found that the
bodies of suicides were mysteriously preserved from decomposition
until the day arrived on which they would
naturally—that is, according to God's decree—have
died. About the year 1834, I was taking a walk along
the banks of the canal north of Glasgow, and sat down
beside a group of well-dressed men, who were conversing
on general topics, and amongst other things touched on
the matter of suicides—proximity to the canal probably
suggested the subject. One of the group pointed out a
quiet spot where he affirmed that Bob Dragon, an old
Glasgow celebrity, had been buried. Bob, he said, had
committed suicide; but his relations being aware that,
in consequence of this act, his property, according to
law, became forfeited to the Crown, had him buried
secretly in this out-of-the-way spot, and obtained another
corpse, which they put into the coffin in his house. But,
several years after, some persons who were digging at
this quiet spot on the canal bank discovered the real
body of Bob—the throat being cut—and the corpse
as fresh as the day on which the act was committed.
Bob's relations, on hearing of this discovery, gave the
finders a handsome gift to rebury the body and keep the
matter secret. Within the last ten years I have heard
the same affirmation made respecting persons who have
drowned themselves.
Persons whose yea is unvaryingly yea, and whose nay
is unvaryingly nay, generally resort to no form of oath or
imprecation to gain credence to their statements, for
their truthfulness is seldom called in question—at least,
where they are well known. But with those who are lax
in their statements—who tell the truth or tell lies just as
for the moment the one or the other appears to suit
them best—the case is different. When they speak
something strange or important, they find their veracity
questioned, and require to place themselves in circumstances
where it may be thought they are under compulsion,
for their own welfare, to speak the truth. Commonly,
they ask Providence to injure them in some way
if in the present instance they have said the thing which
is not true. Well, it was believed in the days of which I
write, and within my own day, that Providence did interfere
in this way, and many stories were current in
confirmation of this belief. One such will suffice as an
illustration. A married woman, enciente for the first
time, having had words with her husband about something
she denied having either said or done, wished
that, if her statement were untrue, she might never give
birth to the child. She was taken at her word, for she
lived many years in delicate health, but the child was
never born. The villagers who remembered her said
that at times she swelled as if she was about to be confined,
and at other times was as jimp as a young girl.
Akin to belief in the potency of such wishes as were
uttered as tests of truthfulness was doubtless the generally
accredited, though of course seldom witnessed, form of
compact with the devil. When a person agreed to serve
the devil, his Satanic Majesty caused the mortals who
sought his service and favour to place one hand under
their thigh and the other over their head, and wish
that the devil would take all that lay between their
hands if they were unfaithful to their vow. The form of
oath by expression of a wish was common to both Jews
and Gentiles.
There was another kind of wish which was believed to
obtain fulfilment during life, that was the expressed wish
of the innocent against those who had wronged them.
The belief in the fulfilment of such wishes was grounded
on the theological supposition that God in his justice
would in time punish the wrong-doer. I remember a
rather pertinent example of this: a proof they would have
said in former days—a coincidence we would say in
these days. A simple-minded—half-witted—young
woman was taken advantage of by a young man resident
in the neighbourhood, to the public scandal of the village.
He denied the paternity of the baby, and made
oath to that effect before the kirk-session. As he did so,
the girl, looking at him, wished that the hand he held up
might lose its cunning, as evidence of God's judgment
upon the false swearer. In less than a year from that
time a disease came into his right hand, and he was
never afterwards able to use it. Not many years ago, I
saw the same man going through the village selling tea,
and, as he passed along the street, many of the older
inhabitants remarked how wonderfully Poor Meg's wish
had been fulfilled.
Employment of certain charms to influence for good or
evil prevailed in this century to a great extent. Some
of these it is difficult to trace to their origin. About
forty years ago, a certain married couple lived unhappily
together. The wife did all she could to make her husband
comfortable, but still he abused her without cause.
At length, after suffering much, she applied to a woman
who professed to have power over the affections, and for
this purpose prepared love philters. The woman gave
her a charm, which was to be sewn between the lining
and cloth of her husband's vest without his knowledge.
She carried these instructions out, and with extraordinarily
successful results, for, while the husband wore
this vest, he never gave her so much as an angry word.
One Walter Donaldson was in the habit of beating
his wife, and making her life bitter. She made application
to Isabell Straguhan, who possesses magic influences,
who took pieces of paper and sewed them
thick with thread of divers colours, and put them in
the barn among the corn. From that time forth the
said Walter never lifted hand against his wife, nor did
once find fault with her whatsoever she did, and was
entirely subdued to her love.
The following was related to me as a fact, by a person
who said that he tried it:—There is a certain crooked
bone in a frog, which, when cleaned and dried over
a fire on St. John's eve, and then ground fine and
given in food to any person, will win the affections of the
receiver to the giver, and in young persons will produce
a desire for each other's society, culminating eventually
in marriage; also, when a married couple do not agree
well together, it will reconcile them, and bring about a
mutual affection.
At the commencement of this century, belief in the
influence of the mandrake plant over the affections still
existed in this country. Belief in this plant is as
old as history. Leah, the neglected wife of Jacob,
doubtless intended to influence her husband by the
use of it, whilst Rachel procured the plant for a different
purpose, but for both purposes it was considered efficatious,
and in both cases, the narrative shows, successful.
By both eastern and western nations this plant
was credited with wonderful powers, even to the extent
of working miracles. In this country it was believed to
be watched by Satan, but if the plant were pulled during
certain holy seasons, or by holy persons, Satan could
not only be robbed with impunity, but he would become
the servant of the person who pulled the plant, and do
for him whatever he desired; but woe to the unholy
person who attempted to pull the plant, especially at a
non-sacred time; he drops down dead, and Satan possesses
his soul.
It was a prevalent belief that the seventh son in a
family had the gift of curing diseases, and that he
was by nature a doctor who could effect cures by the
touch of his hand. It was reported that such a man
resided in Iona, who had effected cures by rubbing the
diseased part with his hand on two Thursdays and two
Sundays successively, doing so in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Ghost. It was requisite to the
cure that no fee should be taken by such endowed persons.
In the West of Scotland the formula of cure was
different in different localities; in some parts a mere
touch was all that was necessary, in others, and this was
the more general method, some medicine was given to
assist the cure.
Written charms were also believed in as capable of
effecting cures, or, at least, of preventing people from
taking diseases. I have known people who wore written
charms, sewed into the necks of their coats, if men, and
into the headbands of petticoats if women. These talismans,
in many cases, I have little doubt, did real good
in this way, that they supplied their wearers with a
courage which sufficed to brace up their nervous system—which
drove out fear, in fact,—a very important condition
for health, as physicians well know. These talismans
were so generally and thoroughly believed in, and
so numerous and apparently well-attested were the evidences
of their beneficial effects, that in years not long
past, medical men believed in their efficacy, and promulgated
various theories to account for it.
It was also an accepted belief that diseases could be
transferred to animals, and even to vegetables. Cures
held to be so effected were, according to one medical
theory, cures by "sympathy." A few instances, culled
from a work published during the latter half of the seventeenth
century (1663), entitled The Usefulness of
Experimental Philosophy, will illustrate this theory:—A
medical man had been very ill of an obstinate marasmar (?)
which so consumed him that he became quite
a skeleton, notwithstanding every remedy which he had
tried. At length he tried a sympathetic remedy: he
took an egg, and having boiled it hard in his own urine,
he then with a bodkin perforated the shell in different
parts, and then buried it in an ant-hill. As the ants wasted
the egg he found his strength increase, and he soon was
completely cured. A daughter of a French officer was
so tormented by a paronychia (?) for four days together,
that the pain kept her from sleeping; by the order of
a medical man she put her finger into a cat's ear, and
within two hours was delivered from her pain. And a
councillor's wife was cured of a panaritium (?) which
had vexed her for four days by the same means. In
both cases the cat had received the pain in its ear and
required to be held. The gout is cured by sympathy:
by the patient sleeping with puppies, they take the disease,
and the person recovers. A boy ill with the
king's evil could not be cured, his father's dog took to
licking the sores, the dog took the sores, and the boy
was completely cured. A gentleman having a severe
pain in the arm was cured by beating red coral with
oak leaves, and applying it to the part affected till suppuration:
a hole was then made in the root of an oak
towards the east, and the mixture put into it and the
hole plugged up with a peg of the same tree, and from that
time the pain did altogether cease; and when afterwards
the mixture was removed from the tree, immediately the
torments returned worse than before. Sir Francis Bacon
records a cure of warts: he took a piece of lard with
the skin on it, and after rubbing the warts with it the
lard was exposed out of a southern window to putrify,
and the warts wore away as it putrified. Harvey
tried to remove tumours and excrescences by putting
the hand of a dead person that had died of a lingering
disease upon them till the part felt cold. In general
the application was effective.
This idea of cure by sympathy retained its hold on
the people till this century, and is not yet entirely gone.
There was another theory, which we may call the magnetic
theory. The philosophy of this theory contended
that "The body when diseased resembled a gun; when
loaded, it contains powder and ball, which, by
the mere touch of a little spring, sets the whole
machinery of the gun in motion, whereby the
ball is expelled. So also the mere touch or outward
contact of certain bodies or substances has power, like
a magnet, to set in action the machinery of nature by
which the disease is dispelled—sometimes slowly, but
often suddenly like the bullet from the gun. Helmont
had a little stone, which, by plunging in oil of almonds,
imbued the oil with such sanative power that it cured
almost any disease. It was sometimes applied inwardly,
sometimes outwardly. A gentleman who had an
unwieldy groom procured for him a small fragment of
this stone, and, by licking it with the tip of his tongue
every morning, in three weeks he was reduced in bulk
round the waist by a span without affecting his general
health. A gentleman in France who procured a small
fragment of this stone cured several persons of inveterate
diseases by letting them lick it. The stone Lapis
Nephriticus bound upon the pulse of the wrist of the
left hand prevents stone, hysterics, and stops the flux
of blood in any part. A compound metal called electrum,
which is a mixture of all metals made under certain
constellations and shaped into rings and worn, prevents
cramps and palsy, apoplexy, epilepsy, and severe
pains; and in the case of a person in a fit of the
falling sickness, a ring of this metal put on the ring finger
is an immediate cure. A little yarrow and mistletoe
put into a bag and worn upon the stomach, prevents
ague and chilblains. A powder made of the
common mistletoe, given in doses of three grains at the
full of the moon to persons troubled with epilepsy, prevents
fits; and if given during a fit it will effect an
immediate and permanent cure. A woman with rupture
of the bladder was reported to have been cured
by wearing a little bag hung about her neck containing
the powder made from a toad burnt alive in a new pot.
The same prescription was also said to have cured a
man of stone in the bladder."
Such theories left ample room for the creation of all
sorts of cure charms, and when such ideas prevailed
among the educated in the medical profession, we need
not be surprised that they still survive among many uneducated
persons, although two centuries have gone since.
In 1714 one of the most eminent physicians in Europe, Boerhaave,
wrote of chemistry and medicine:—"Nor even in this
affair don't medicine receive some advantage; witness
the cups made of regulus of antimony, tempered with
other metals which communicate a medicinal quality to
wine put in them, and it is ten thousand pities the
famous Van Helmont should have been so unkind to his
poor fellow creatures in distress as to conceal from us
the art of making a particular metal which he tells
us, made into rings, and worn only while one might say
the Lord's Prayer, would remove the most exquisite hæmorrhoidal
pains, both internal and external, quiet the
most violent hysteric disorders, and give ease in the severest
spasms of the muscles. 'Tis right, therefore, to
prosecute enquiries of this nature, for there is very frequently
some hidden virtues in these compositions, and
we may make a vast number of experiments of this kind
without any danger or inconvenience."
As it illustrates the theories just mentioned, we notice
here the influence attributed to the wonderful Lee
Penny. This famous charm is a stone set in gold. It
is said to have been brought home by Lochart of Lee,
who accompanied the Earl of Douglas in carrying Robert
the Bruce's heart to the Holy Land. It is called Lee
Penny, and was credited with the virtue of imparting to
water into which it was dipped curative properties,
specially influential to the curing of cattle when diseased,
or preventing them taking disease. Many people from
various parts of Scotland whose cattle were affected have
made application within these few years for water in
which this stone has been dipped. It is believed that
this stone cannot be lost. It is still in the possession of
the family of Lochart.
Ague, it was believed, could be cured by putting a
spider into a goose quill, sealing it up, and hanging it
about the neck, so that it would be near the stomach.
This disease might also be cured by swallowing pills
made of a spider's web. One pill a morning for three
successive mornings before breakfast.
There were numerous cures for hooping-cough of a
superstitious character, practised extensively during the
earlier years of this century, and some are still recommended.
The following are a few of these. Pass the
patient three times under the belly, and three times over
the back of a donkey. Split a sapling or a branch of the
ash tree, and hold the split open while the patient is
passed three times through the opening. Find a man
riding on a piebald horse, and ask him what should be
given as a medicine, and whatever he prescribes will
prove a certain cure. "I recollect," says Jamieson, "a
friend of mine that rode a piebald horse, that he used
to be pursued by people running after him bawling,—
"Man wi' the piety horse,
What's gude for the kink host?"
He said he always told them to give the bairn plenty of
sugar candy. Put a piece of red flannel round the neck
of a child, and it will ward off the hooping cough. The
virtue lay not in the flannel, but in the red colour. Red
was a colour symbolical of triumph and victory over all
enemies. Find a hairy caterpillar, put it into a bag, and
hang it round the neck of the child. This will prove a
cure. Take some of the child's hair and put it between
slices of bread and butter, and give it to a dog; if in
eating it, the dog cough, the child will be cured, and the
hooping cough transferred to the dog. A very common
practice at the present day is to take the patient into a
place where there is a tainted atmosphere, such as a byre
or a stable, a gas work, or chemical work. I have seen
the gas blown on the child's face, so that it might breath
some of it, and be set a coughing. If during the process
the child take a kink, it is a good sign. This idea must,
I think, be of modern origin.
It was believed that if a present were given, especially
if it were given to a sweetheart, and then asked back
again, the giver would have a stye on the eye. Again, a
stye on the eye was removable by rubbing it with a wedding
ring. I suspect these two superstitions are portions
of an ancient allegory, which, in time loosing their figurative
meanings, came to be treated as literal facts.
Warts, especially when they are upon exposed parts of
the body, are sometimes a source of annoyance to their
possessors, and various and curious methods were taken
for their removal. From their position on the body
they also were regarded as prognostications of good or
bad luck. To have warts on the right hand foreboded
riches; a wart on the face indicated troubles of
various kinds.
We have already noticed the cure recommended by the
learned Sir Francis Bacon. The following are a few of
the cures which were believed in within this century.
Rub the wart with a piece of stolen bacon. Rub the
wart with a black snail, and lay the snail upon a hedge
or dyke. As the animal decays so will the wart. Wash
the wart with sow's blood for three days in succession.
Upon the first sight of the new moon stand still and
take a small portion of earth from under the right foot,
make it into a paste, put it on the wart and wrap it
round with a cloth, and thus let it remain till that moon
is out. The moon's influence and the fasting spittle are
very old superstitions.
The moon or Ashtoreth, the consort of Baal, was the
great female deity of the ancients, and so an appeal to
the moon for the purpose of removing interferences with
beauty, such as skin excrescences, was quite appropriate.
Moon worship was practised in this country in prehistoric
times. Bailey, in his Etymological Dictionary,
under article "Moon," says, "The moon was an ancient
idol of England, and worshipped by the Britons in the
form of a beautiful maid, having her head covered, with
two ears standing out. The common people in some
counties of England are accustomed at the prime of the
moon to say 'It is a fine moon. God bless her.'"
From a custom in Scotland (particularly in the Highlands)
where the young women make courtesy to the new
moon by getting upon a gate or style and sitting astride,
they say—
"All hail to the moon, all hail to thee,
I prithee good moon declare to me
This very night who my husband shall be."
Every one knows the popular adage about having money
in the pocket when the new moon is first seen, and that
if the coins be turned over at the time, money will not fail
you during that moon. To see the new moon through
glass, however, breaks the charm. It was a prevalent belief
that if a person on catching the first glimpse of new moon,
were to instantly stand still, kiss their hand three times
to the moon, and bow to it, that they would find something
of value before that moon was out. Such practices
are evidently survivals of moon worship. How closely
does this last practice agree with what Job says (chap.
xxxi, 26),—"If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the
moon walking in brightness, and my heart hath been
secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand: this
also were an iniquity to be punished by the Judge: for I
should have denied the God that is above."
The good influence of the fasting spittle in destroying
the influence of an evil eye has been already referred
to in the previous pages, but it was also esteemed a
potent remedy in curing certain diseases. To moisten
a wart for several days in succession with the
fasting spittle removes it. I have often seen a nurse
bathe the eyes of a baby in the morning with her
fasting spittle, to cure or prevent sore eyes. I have
heard the same cure recommended for roughness of
the skin and other skin diseases. Maimonides
states that the Jews were expressly forbidden by their
traditions to put fasting-spittle upon the eyes on the
Sabbath day, because to do so was to perform work,
the great Sabbath crime in the eyes of the Pharisees
which Christ committed when he moistened the
clay with his spittle and anointed the eyes of the
blind man therewith on the Sabbath day. To both
Greeks and Romans the fasting spittle was a charm
against fascination. Persius Flaccus says:—"A grandmother
or a superstitious aunt has taken baby from his
cradle, and is charming his forehead and his slavering
lips against mischief by the joint action of her middle
finger and her purifying spittle." Here we find that it
is not the spittle alone, but the joint action of the spittle
and the middle finger which works the influence. The
middle finger was commonly, in the early years of
this century, believed to possess a favourable influence
on sores; or, rather, it might be more
correct to say that it possessed no damaging influence,
while all the other fingers, in coming into contact
with a sore, were held to have a tendency to defile,
to poison, or canker the wound. I have heard it asserted
that doctors know this, and never touch a sore but with
the mid-finger.
There were other practices and notions appertaining
to the spittle and spitting, some of which continue to
this day. To spit for luck upon the first coin earned or
gained by trading, before putting it into the pocket or
purse, is a common practice. To spit in your hand before
grasping the hand of a person with whom you are
dealing, and whose offer you accept, is held to clinch the
bargain, and make it binding on both sides. This is a
very old custom. Captain Burt, in his letters, says that
when in a bargain between two Highlanders, each of them
wets the ball of his thumb with his mouth, and then they
press their wet thumb balls together, it is esteemed a very
binding bargain. Children in their games, which are often
imitations of the practices of men, make use of the spittle.
When playing at games of chance, such as odds or evens,
something or nothing, etc., before the player ventures his
guess he consults an augury, of a sort, by spitting on the
back of his hand, and striking the spittle with his mid-finger,
watching the direction in which the superfluous
spittle flies, from him or to him, to right or left, and
therefrom, by a rule of his own, he determines what
shall be his guess. Again, boys often bind one another
to a bargain or promise by a sort of oath, which is completed
by spitting. It runs thus:
"Chaps ye, chaps ye,
Double, double daps ye,
Fire aboon, fire below,
Fire on every side o' ye."
After saying this, the boy spits over his head three times,
and without this the oath is not considered binding; but
when properly done, and the promise not fulfilled, the
defaulter is regarded as a liar, and is kept for a time at
an outside by his companions.
When two boys made an arrangement (I am speaking
of what was the custom fifty years back), either to meet
together at a stated time or to do some certain thing, the
arrangement was confirmed by each spitting on the
ground.
When a number of boys or girls were trying to find
out a puzzle or guess put to them, and which they failed
to unravel or answer, and when they were searching for
something which had been hidden from them, and which
they could not discover, the usual method of acknowledging
that they were outwitted was by spitting on the
ground; in the language of the day, they would be
requested to "spit and gie't o'er," that is, own that they
were beaten. The propounder of the puzzle, or the
party who had hidden the object, was then bound to
disclose the matter.
When two boys quarrelled, and one wet the other
boy's buttons with his spittle, this was a challenge to
fight or be dubbed a coward.
Mahomet held that bad dreams were from the devil,
and advised the dreamers to seek protection by addressing
a short prayer to God, and then spitting three times
over their left shoulder. He further counselled them
to tell the dream to no one, and by following these
instructions no harm, such as the dreams had foreshadowed,
would befall them.
In the case of a person bitten by a dog, a few hairs
taken from the dog's tail, and placed upon the wound
either upon or under a poultice, was regarded as a protection
from evil consequences, such as hydrophobia. I
know of an instance in which this remedy was applied
so lately as 1876. This practice is unmistakeably the
origin of the toper's proverb when suffering from headache
in the morning,
"Take a hair of the dog that bit you."
I will not enter into the subject of faith in the influence
of relics. Such beliefs existed in Scotland in my young
days, and it is almost unnecessary to say that belief in
such things is older than history. In my youth there was
also a belief in the virtue of precious stones, which
added a value to them beyond their real value as
ornaments. An investigation into this matter would tend
to throw much light upon many ancient practices and
beliefs, as each stone had its own symbolic meaning, and
its own peculiar influence for imparting good and protecting
from evil and from sickness, its fortunate possessor.
Probably John's description of heaven with its
windows of agate, its doors of pearls or carbuncles, its
foundations of amethyst, with sapphires blue, and sardines
clear and red, had relation to the popular beliefs
of the time. I have seen at Mill More, Killin, stones
which are reported to have been used by St. Fillan for
curing all sorts of diseases; and there are not a few persons
at the present day who wear certain polished stones
about their persons as a protective influence against certain
diseases.
The ancient Jews had a superstitious idea respecting
precious stones, which gave that strong desire for their
possession, which is still characteristic of the race.
The Diamond was an antidote to Satanic temptation.
Ruby made the possessor brave.
Topaz preserved the bearer against being poisoned.
Amethyst preserved from drunkenness.
Emerald promoted piety.
Sardonyx dispelled unholy thoughts.
There is a legend that God gave to Abraham a precious
stone which had the power of preserving him from
all kinds of sickness.
When any person was troubled with a morbid hunger
accompanied with pain in the stomach, it was believed
that that affliction was caused by the sufferer having
swallowed some animal, which continued to live in the
stomach, and that when this was empty it knawed
the stomach and produced the pain felt. Several strange
instances illustrative of the truth of this theory were current
in my native village. Let one case suffice. An old
soldier having on some long march been induced through
extreme thirst to drink from a ditch, had swallowed some
animal. Years after he was taken ill, and came home.
His hunger for food was so great that he could scarcely
be satisfied, and notwithstanding the great quantities of
food which he consumed, he became thinner and thinner,
and his hunger was accompanied with great pain. Doctors
could do him no good. At length he met with a
skilly old man, who told him that there was an animal in
his stomach, and advised him to procure a salt herring
and eat it raw, and on no account to take any drink, but
go at once to the side of a pool or burn and lie down
there with his mouth open, and watch the result. He
had not lain long when he felt something moving within
him, and by and bye an ugly toad came out of his mouth,
and made for the water. Having drank its fill, it was
returning to its old quarters, when the old soldier rose
and killed it. Many in the village had seen the dead
toad. After this the man recovered rapidly. Many
other stories of people swallowing asks (newts), and other
water animals which lived in their stomachs, and produced
serious diseases, were current in my young days.
This gave boys a great fear of stretching down and drinking
from a pool, or even a running stream.
DIVINING.
here
is another class of superstitions
which have prevailed from ages the most remote
to the present day, although now they
are dying out—at least, they are not now
employed to determine such important matters as they
once were. I refer to the practice of divining, or casting
lots. In early times such practices were regarded as a
direct appeal to God. From the Old and New Testaments
we learn that these practices were resorted to by
the Jews; but in modern times, and among Western
nations, the lot was regarded as an appeal to the devil as
much as to God. I have known people object to the lot
as a sinful practice; but, at the same time, they were in
the constant habit of directing their own course by such
an appeal, as, for instance, when they were about to
travel on some important business, they would fix that, if
certain events happened, they would regard such as a good
omen from God, and would accordingly undertake their
journey; but if not, they would regard the non-occurrence
as an unfavourable omen, and defer their journey, in
submission, as they supposed, to the will of God. In
modern times, the practice of casting lots to determine
legal or other important questions has been abandoned
by civilized nations; but the practice still exists in less
civilized communities, and is employed to determine
such serious matters as involve questions of life or death,
and it still survives among us in trivial matters, as games.
In my young days, a process of divining, allied to
casting lots, was resorted to by young women in order to
discover a thief, or to ascertain whether a young man
who was courting one of them was in earnest, and would
in the future become that girl's husband. The process
was called the Bible and key trial, and the formula was
as follows:—A key and Bible were procured, the key
being so much longer than the Bible that, when placed
between the leaves, the head and handle would project.
If the enquiry was about the good faith of a sweetheart,
the key was placed in Ruth i. 16, on the words, "Entreat
me not to leave thee: where thou goest I will go,"
etc. The Bible was then closed, and tied round with
tape. Two neutral persons, sitting opposite each other,
held out the forefingers of their right hands, and the person
who was consulting the oracle suspended the Bible
between their two hands, resting the projecting parts of
the key on the outstretched forefingers. No one spoke
except the enquirer, and she, as she placed the key and
Bible in position, repeated slowly the whole passage,
"Entreat me not to leave thee," John or James, or whatever
the name of the youth was, "for where thou goest
I will go," etc. If the key and Bible turned and fell
off the fingers, the answer was favourable; and generally
by the time the whole passage was repeated this
was the result, provided the parties holding up the
key and Bible were firm and steady. For the detection
of a thief, the formula was the same, with only
this difference, that the key was put into the Bible at the
fiftieth Psalm, and the enquirer named the suspected
thief, and then repeated the eighteenth verse of that
Psalm, "When thou sawest a thief then thou consentest
with him," etc. If the Bible turned round and fell, it
was held to be proof that the person named was the
thief. This method of divining was not frequently
practised, not through want of faith in its efficacy, but
through superstitious terror, for the movement of the key
was regarded as evidence that some unseen dread power
was present, and so overpowering occasionally was the
impression produced that the young woman who was
chief actor in the scene fainted. The parties holding the
key and Bible were generally old women, whose faith in
the ordeal was perfect, and who, removed by their age
from the intenser sympathies of youth, could therefore
hold their hands with steadier nerve. It is only when
firm hands hold it that the turning takes place, for this
phenomenon depends upon the regular and steady pulsations
in the fingers, and when held steadily the ordeal
never fails.
There were various other methods for divining or consulting
fate or deity. M'Tagart refers to a practice of
divining by the staff. When a pilgrim at any time got
bewildered, he would poise his staff perpendicularly, and
there leave it to fall of itself; and in whatever direction
it fell, that was the road he would take, believing himself
supernaturally directed. Townsmen when they wished
to go on a pleasure excursion to the country, and careless
or unsettled which way to go, would apply to this form of
lot. In the old song of "Jock Burnie" there occurs the
following verse:—
"En' on en' he poised his rung, then
Watch'd the airt its head did fa',
Whilk was east, he lapt and sung then,
For there his dear bade, Meg Macraw."
This practice was common with boys in the country fifty
years ago, both for determining where to go for pleasure,
or if in a game one of their number had hidden, and
could not be found, as a last resort the stick was poised,
and in whatever direction the stick fell, search was renewed
in that direction.
Such things as these seem trifling, and it would seem
folly to treat them seriously; but they were not always
trifling matters. Some of our Biblical scholars say that
it was to this kind of divining that the prophet Hosea
referred when he said, "Their staff declareth unto them,"
and at the present day there are nations who practice
such methods for determining important affairs of life.
The New Zealand sorcerers use sticks for divining,
which they throw into the air, and come to their decisions
by observing in which direction these sticks fall. Even
in such matters as sickness or bodily injury, the direction
in which the falling sticks lie, or it may be a certain stick
in the group, directs the way to a physician. In ancient
times the Magian form of divining was by staves or
sticks. The diviner carried with him a bundle of willow
wands, and when about to divine he untied the bundle
and laid the wands upon the ground; then he gathered
them and threw them from him, repeating certain words
as if consulting some divinity. The wands were of different
lengths, and their numbers varied from three to
nine, but only the odd numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 belonged to
heaven, the even numbers 2, 4, 6, 8 belonged to earth.
The Chinese divine after this fashion at the present day.
From such ideas has doubtless arisen the saying that
there is luck in odd numbers, a belief which, after a
fashion, still prevails.
The virtue and mysterious power of the divining rod
is still believed by many, and has frequently been resorted
to during this century for the purpose of discovering
water springs and metallic veins. The diviner
takes a willow wand with a forked end: the forked
points are held in his two hands, the other end pointing
horizontally in front of him, and as he walks slowly over
a field he watches the movements of the rod. When it
bends towards the earth, as if apparently strongly attracted
thereto, he feels certain he is passing over a spring or
metallic vein. But the phenomenon, it is believed, will
not take place with every one who may try it, there being
only certain parties, mediums as we would name them in
these days, who have the gift of operating successfully;
and such parties obtained great fame in countries and
districts where water was scarce, as they were able to
point out the exact spots where wells should be dug,
and also in such counties as Cornwall, where they could
point out the spots where a mine could profitably be sunk.
Again and again within these few years have warm controversies
been carried on in public papers on the question
of the reality of the virtue and power of the dousing
rod for discovering minerals or mineral veins. Some
have argued that a hazel rod is as perfect as a willow rod,
and have adduced instances of its successful application.
There was another form of divining essentially an appeal
to the lot, in which a stick was used, and which was
frequently employed to determine matters of considerable
importance. Boys resorted to it in their games in order
to determine between two parties, to settle for example
which side should take a certain part in a game, or which
of two lads, leaders in a game, should have the first
choice of associates. A long stick was thrown into the
air and caught by one of the parties, then each alternately
grasped it hand over hand, and he who got the last hold
was the successful party. He might not have sufficient
length of stick to fill his whole hand, but if by closing his
hand upon the end projecting from his opponent's hand,
he could support the weight of the stick, this was
enough.
The various methods of divining which are generally
regarded as modern inventions, such as the many forms
of divining by cards, the reading of the future from the
position of the leaves of tea in a tea-cup, etc., we will
pass by without comment, only remarking that the prevalence
among us still of such superstitious notions
shows that men, notwithstanding our boasted civilisation,
are still open to believe in mysteries which, to common
sense, are incredible, without exhibiting the slightest trace
of scepticism, and without taking any trouble to investigate
the truth of the pretensions, contenting themselves
with a saying I have often heard—"Wonderful things
were done of old which we cannot understand, and
God's hand is not yet shortened. He can do now
what He did then." And so they save themselves
trouble of reasoning, a process which, to the majority, is
disagreeable.
SUPERSTITIONS RELATING TO ANIMALS.
any
other superstitious notions still exist
among us with respect to certain animals,
which have, no doubt, had their
origin in remote times—some of them,
doubtless, being survivals of ancient forms of animal
worship. The ancient Egyptians worshipped animals, or
held certain animals as symbols of divine powers. The
Jews made a division of animals into clean and unclean,
and the ancient Persians held certain animals in detestation
as having a connection with the evil spirit; while
others were esteemed by them as connected with the
good spirit or principle. Other ancient nations held
certain animals as more sacred than others, and these
ideas still exist among us, modified and transformed to a
greater or less extent. The robin is a familiar example
of a bird which is held in veneration by the popular
mind. The legend of the robins in the Babes in the
Wood may have increased this veneration. There was a
popular saying that the robin had a drop of God's blood
in its veins, and that therefore to kill or hurt it was a sin,
and that some evil would befall anyone who did so, and,
conversely, any kindness done to poor robin would be
repaid in some fashion. Boys did not dare to harry a
robin's nest.
The yellow yite, or yellow hammer, was held in just
the opposite estimation, and although one of the prettiest
of birds, their nests were remorselessly harried, and their
young often cruelly killed. When young, I was present
at an act of this sort, and, as an illustration of courage
and affection in the parent bird, I may relate the circumstance.
The nest, with four fledglings, was about a quarter
of a mile outside the village. It was carried through
the village to a quarry, as far on the opposite side. The
parent bird followed the boys, uttering a plaintive cry all
the way. On reaching the quarry, the nest was laid on
the ground, and a certain distance measured off, where
the boys were to stand and throw stones at it. While
this was being done, the parent bird flew to the nest, and
made strenuous efforts to draw it away; and when the
stones were thrown, it flew to a little distance, continuing
its cry; and only flew away when it was made the
mark for the stones. These boys would never
have thought of doing the same thing to a nest
of robins. It was said to have a drop of the
devil's blood in its veins, and that its jerky and
unsteady flight was a consequence of this. The hatred
to the yellow hammer, however, was only local. The
swallow was also considered to have a drop of the deil's
blood in its veins; but, unlike the yellow hammer, instead
of being persecuted, it was feared, and therefore let
alone. If a swallow built its nest in a window-corner, it
was regarded as a lucky omen, and the annoyance and
filth arising therefrom was patiently borne with under the
belief that such a presence brought luck and prosperity
to the house. To tear down a swallow's nest was looked
upon as a daring of the fates, and when this was done by
the proprietor or tenant, there were many who would
prophesy that death or some other great calamity would
overtake, within a twelvemonth, the family of the perpetrator.
To possess a hen which took to crowing like
a cock boded ill to the possessor or his family if it were
not disposed of either by killing or selling. They were
generally sold to be killed. Only a few years ago I had
such a prodigy among a flock of hens which I kept about
my works, and one day it was overheard crowing, when
one of the workmen came to me, and, with a solemn
face, told the circumstance, and advised me strongly to
have it destroyed or put away, as some evil would surely
follow, relating instances he had known in Ireland. This
superstition has found expression in the Scotch proverb:
"Whistling maids and crowing hens are no canny about
a house."
Seeing magpies before breakfast was a good or bad
omen according to the number seen up to four. This
was expressed in the following rhyme, which varies
slightly in different localities. The following version was
current in my native village:—
"One bodes grief, two's a death,
Three's a wedding, four's a birth."
Chambers in his Scottish Rhymes has it thus:—
"One's joy, two's grief.
Three's a wedding, four's a birth."
I knew a man who, if on going to his work he had
seen two piets together, would have refrained from working
before he had taken breakfast, believing that if he did
so it would result in evil either to himself or his family.
If a cock crew in the morning with its head in at the
door of the house, it was a token that a stranger would pay
the family a visit that day; and so firm was the faith in this
that it was often followed by works, the house being redd
up for the occasion. I remember lately visiting an old
friend in the country, and on making my appearance I
was hailed with the salutation, "Come awa, I knew we
would have a visit from strangers to-day, for the cock
crowed thrice over with his head in at the door." If a
horse stood and looked through a gateway or along a road
where a bride or bridegroom dwelt, it was a very bad
omen for the future happiness of the intending couple.
The one dwelling in that direction would not live long.
If a bird got any human hair, and used it in building
its nest, the person on whose head the hair grew would
be troubled with headaches, and would very soon get
bald.
It is still a common belief that crows begin to build
their nests on the first Sabbath of March.
A bird coming into a house and flying over any one's
head was an unlucky omen for the person over whose
head it flew.
It was said that eggs laid upon Good Friday never
got stale, and that butter made on that day possessed
medicinal properties.
If a horse neighed at the door of a house, it boded
sickness to some of the inmates.
A cricket singing on the hearth was a good omen, a
token of coming riches to the family.
If a bee came up in a straight line to a person's face,
it was regarded as a forerunner of important news.
If a servant wilfully killed a spider, she would certainly,
it was said, break a piece of crockery or glass
during that day.
Spiders were, as they are still, generally detested in
a house, and were often very roughly dislodged; but
yet their lives were protected by a very old superstition.
There is an old English proverb—
"If you wish to live and thrive,
Let the spider run alive."
When my mother saw a spider's web in the house she
swept it away very roughly, but the spider was not wilfully
killed. If it was not seen it was considered all
right, but if it fell on the floor or was seen running along
the wall, it was brushed out of the room; none of us
were allowed to put our foot on it, or wilfully kill it.
This care for the life of the spider is probably due to the
influence of an old legend that a spider wove its web over
the place where the baby Christ was hid, thus preserving
his life by screening him from sight of those who sought
to kill him. Stories of a similar character are related in
connection with King Robert Bruce, and several other
notable persons during times of persecution, who, while
hiding in caves, spiders came and wove their webs
over the entrances, which, when their enemies saw, convinced
them that the parties they were in search of had
not taken refuge there, or the webs would have been
destroyed.
The common white butterfly was a favourite with children,
and to catch one and preserve it alive was considered
lucky. Care was taken to preserve them by
feeding them with sugar. But the dark brown and spotted
butterflies were always detested, and were named witch
butterflies. Ill luck, it was believed, would attend any
one who kept one alive, but to kill one was an unlucky
transaction, which would be attended by evil to the killer
before evening.
Beetles were held in aversion by most people, and if
one was found upon the person, if they were at all nervous,
it was sufficient to cause a fit, at least would set
them screaming with a shudder of detestation. But there
was a variety of small beetles with a beautiful bronze
coloured back, called gooldies by children, which were
held in great favour. They were sometimes kept by
children as little pets, and allowed to run upon their
hands and clothes, and this was not because of their
beauty, but because to possess a gooldie was considered
very lucky. To kill a beetle brought rain the following
day.
The lady bird, with its scarlet coat spotted with black,
was another great favourite with most people. Very few
would kill a lady bird, as such an act would surely be
followed by calamity of some sort. Children were eager
to catch one and watch it gracefully spreading out its
wings from under its coat of mail, and then taking flight,
while the group of youthful onlookers would repeat the
rhyme,
"Lady bird, lady bird, fly away home,
Your house is on fire, and your children at home."
or
"Lady lady landers, fly away to Flanders."
But these practices were not altogether confined to children.
Grown up girls, when they caught a lady bird,
held it in their hands, and repeated the following
couplet—
"Fly away east or fly away west,
And show me where lives the one I like best."
Its flight was watched with great anxiety, and when it
took the direction which the young girl wished, it was
not only a sort of pleasure, but a proof of the augury.
If a person on going to his work, or while going an
errand, were to see a hare cross the road in front of him,
it was a token that ill luck would shortly befall him.
Many under such circumstances would return home and
not pursue their quest until the next meal had been eaten,
for beyond that the evil influence did not extend. This
superstition is very old, but it is not in every country or
age connected with the hare. We have already seen in
a quotation from Ovid that this superstition existed in his
day, (page 2.) Probably the hare has been adopted in this
country from the belief that witches assumed the form of that
animal when on their nightly rambles, for how was the
wayfarer to know that the hare which he saw was not a
transformed witch, intent on working him mischief?
The cat was always a favourite in a family, and nothing
was more unlucky than for one to die inside the house.
I have known cases where, when such a misfortune
occurred, the family were thrown into great consternation,
surmising what possible form of evil this omen portended
to them. Generally when a cat was known to be ailing,
the animal was removed from the house and placed in
the coal cellar, or other outhouse, with plenty of food, and
kept there until it either recovered or died. With the
ancient Egyptians the cat was one of their favourite
animals. The death of a cat belonging to a family was
considered a great misfortune. Upon the occurrence of
such an event the household went into mourning, shaving
off their eyebrows, and otherwise indicating their sorrow.
In Scotland it was believed that witches often assumed
the cat form while exercising their evil influence over a
family.
It was pretty generally believed a few years ago that in
large fires kept continually burning there was generated
an animal called a salamander. It required seven years
to grow and attain maturity, and if the fires were kept
burning longer than that there was great danger that the
animal might make its escape from its fiery matrix, and,
if this should happen, it would range round the world,
destroying all it came in contact with, itself almost indestructible.
Hence large fires, such as those of blast
furnaces in ironworks, were extinguished before the expiry
of the seven years, and the embryo monster taken
out. Such an idea may have had its origin in a misinterpretation
of some of St. John's apocalyptic visions, or
may have been a survival of the legend of the fiery
dragon whose very breath was fire, a legend common
during the middle ages and also in ancient Rome.
Bacon, in his Natural History, says—"There is an
ancient tradition of the salamander that it liveth in the
fire, and hath force also to extinguish the fire"; and,
according to Pliny, Book X. chap. 67,—"The salamander,
made in fashion of a lizard, with spots like to
stars, never comes abroad, and sheweth itself only
during great showers. In fair weather, he is not seen;
he is of so cold a complexion that if he do but touch
the fire he would quench it."—Holland. This is quite
opposite to the modern notion of it that it was generated
in the fire, but such legends take transformations suitable
to the age and locality.
The goat has been associated both in ancient and
modern times with the devil, or evil spirit, who is depicted
with horns, hoofs, and a tail. In modern times,
he was supposed to haunt streams and woods in this
disguise, and to be present at many social gatherings.
He was popularly credited with assisting, in this disguise,
in the instruction of a novice into the mysteries of Freemasonry,
and was supposed to allow the novice to ride
on his back, and go withershins three times round the
room. I have known men who were anxious to be admitted
into the order deterred by the thought of thus
meeting with the devil at their initiation.
While staying at Luss lately, I was informed that a
mill near to Loch Lomond had formerly been haunted
by the goat demon, and that the miller had suffered
much from its mischievous disposition. It frequently let
on the water when there was no grain to grind. But one
night the miller watched his mill, and had a meeting
with the goblin, who demanded the miller's name, and
was informed that it was myself. After a trial of strength,
the miller got the best of it, and the spirit departed.
After hearing this, I remembered that the same story,
under a slightly different form, had been told me when a
boy in my native village. This was the story as then
told:—A certain miller in the west missed a quantity of
his meal every day, although his mill was carefully and
securely locked. One night he sat up and watched,
hiding himself behind the hopper. After a time, he was
surprised to see the hopper beginning to go, and, looking
up, he saw a little manakin holding a little cappie in his
hand and filling it at the hopper. The miller was so
frightened that this time he let him go; but, in a few
minutes, the manakin returned again with his cappie.
Then the miller stepped out from his hiding-place, and
said, "Aye, my manakin, and wha may you be, and
what's your name?" To which the manakin, without
being apparently disturbed, replied, "My name is Self,
and what's your name?" "My name is Self, too,"
replied the miller. The manakin's cappie being by
this time again full, he began to walk off, but the miller
gave him a whack with his stick, and then ran again to
his hiding-place. The manakin gave a terrible yell,
which brought from a hidden corner an old woman, crying,
"Wha did it? Wha did it?" The manakin
answered, "It was Self did it." Whereat, slapping the
manakin on the cheek, the old woman said, "If Self
did it, Self must mend it again." After this, they both
left the mill, which immediately stopped working. The
miller was never afterwards troubled in this way, and, at
the same time, a goat which for generations had been
observed at gloaming and on moonlight nights in the
dell, and on the banks of the stream which drove the
mill, disappeared, and was never seen again.
To meet a sow the first thing in the morning boded
bad luck for the day.
If a male cat came into the house and shewed itself
friendly to any one, it was a lucky omen for that person.
To meet a piebald horse was lucky. If two such
horses were met apart, the one after the other, and if
then the person who met them were to spit three times,
and express any reasonable wish, it would be granted
within three days.
If a stray dog followed any person on the street, without
having been enticed, it was lucky, and success was
certain to attend the errand on which the person was
engaged.
SUPERSTITIONS CONCERNING PLANTS.
uperstitions
connected with plants were
more numerous than those connected with
animals. We have already noticed widespread
prevalence of tree worship in early
times. The Bible is full of evidence bearing upon this
point, from the earliest period of Jewish history until the
time of the captivity. Even concerning those Kings of
Judah and Israel who are recorded to have walked in
the ways of their father David, it is frequently remarked
of them that they did not remove or hew down the groves,
but permitted them to remain a snare to the people. In
several instances the word translated grove cannot properly
be applicable to a grove of trees, but must signify
something much smaller, for it is in these instances described
as being located in the temple. It can therefore
refer only to a tree or stump of a tree, or it may be only
the symbol of a tree. The story of the tree of good and
evil, and the tree of life, has been the origin of many
superstitious notions regarding trees. The notion that
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was an apple
tree, caused the apple to have a great many mystic meanings,
and gave it a prominent place in many legends, and
also brought it into prominence as a divining medium.
In many parts of Scotland the apple was believed to have
great influence in love affairs. If an apple seed were
shot between the fingers it was understood that it would,
by the direction of its flight, indicate the direction from
which that person's future partner in life would come.
If a couple took an apple on St. John's eve and cut it in two,
and if the seeds on each half were found to be equal in
number, this was a token that these two would be soon
united in marriage; or if the halves contained an unequal
number of seeds, the one who possessed the half with the
greater number would be married first. If a seed were
cut in two, it denoted trouble to the party holding the
larger portion of the seed. If two seeds were cut, it
denoted early death or widowhood to one of the parties.
If the apple were sour or sweet, the flavour indicated the
temper of the parties. There was a practice common
among young people of peeling an apple in an unbroken
peel, and throwing the peeled skin over the right shoulder
in order to ascertain from the manner in which it fell,
first, whether the person who threw it would be married
soon, and second, the trade or profession of the person to
whom they would be married. If the skin after being thrown
remained unbroken, they would be married soon, and the
person to whom they would be married was ascertained
from the form which the fallen skin presented; this form
might assume the shape of a letter, in that case it was
the initial letter of the unknown parties name, or it might
assume the form of some trade tool, &c. Imagination
had free scope here. The apple tree itself was considered
a lucky tree to have near a house, but its principal virtue
lay in the fruit.
Holly. This name is probably a corruption of the
word holy, as this plant has been used from time immemorial
as a protection against evil influence. It was
hung round, or planted near houses, as a protection
against lightning. Its common use at Christmas is
apparently the survival of an ancient Roman custom,
occurring during the festival to Saturn, to which god the
holly was dedicated. While the Romans were holding this
feast, which occurred about the time of the winter solstice,
they decked the outsides of their houses with holly; at
the same time the Christians were quietly celebrating the
birth of Christ, and to avoid detection they outwardly
followed the custom of their heathen neighbours, and
decked their houses with holly also. In this way the
holly came to be connected with our Christmas customs.
(See chapter on Festivals.) This plant was also regarded as
a symbol of the resurrection. The use of mistletoe along
with holly is probably due to the notion that in winter the
fairies took shelter under its leaves, and that they protected
all who sheltered the plant. The origin of kissing
under the mistletoe is considered to have come from our
Saxon ancestors, who regarded this plant as dedicated
to Friga, the goddess of love.
The Aspen was said to have been the tree on which
Judas hanged himself after the betrayal of his Master,
and ever since its leaves have trembled with shame.
The Ash had wonderful influence. The old Christmas
log was of ash wood, and the use of it at this time was
helpful to the future prosperity of the family. Venomous
animals, it was said, would not take shelter under its
branches. A carriage with its axles made of ash wood
was believed to go faster than a carriage with its axles
made of any other wood; and tools with handles made
of this wood were supposed to enable a man to do
more work than he could do with tools whose handles
were not of ash. Hence the reason that ash wood is
generally used for tool handles. It was upon ash
branches that witches were enabled to ride through the
air; and those who ate on St. John's eve the red buds
of the tree, were rendered invulnerable to witch influence.
The Hazel was dedicated to the god Thor, and, in the
Roman Catholic Church, was esteemed a plant of great
virtue for the cure of fevers. When used as a divining rod,
the rod, if it were cut on St. John's Day or Good Friday,
would be certain to be a successful instrument of divination.
A hazel rod was a badge of authority, and it
was probably this notion which caused it to be made
use of by school masters. Among the Romans, a hazel
rod was also a symbol of authority.
The Willow, as might be expected, had many superstitious
notions connected with it, since, according to
the authorized version of the English Bible, the
Israelites are said to have hung their harps on
willow trees. The weeping willow is said to have, ever
since the time of the Jews' captivity in Babylon, drooped
its branches, in sympathy with this circumstance. The
common willow was held to be under the protection of
the devil, and it was said that, if any were to cast a
knot upon a young willow, and sit under it, and thereupon
renounce his or her baptism, the devil would confer
upon them supernatural power.
The Elder, or Bourtree had wonderful influence as a
protection against evil. Wherever it grew, witches were
powerless. In this country, gardens were protected by
having elder trees planted at the entrance, and sometimes
hedges of this plant were trained round the garden.
There are very few old gardens in country places in which
are not still seen remains of the protecting elder tree.
In my boyhood, I remember that my brothers, sisters, and
myself were warned against breaking a twig or branch
from the elder hedge which surrounded my grandfather's
garden. We were told at the time, as a reason for this
prohibition, that it was poisonous; but we discovered
afterwards that there was another reason, viz., that it was
unlucky to break off even a small twig from a bourtree
bush. In some parts of the Continent this superstitious
feeling is so strong that, before pruning it, the gardener
says—"Elder, elder, may I cut thy branches?" If no
response be heard, it is considered that assent has been
given, and then, after spitting three times, the pruner
begins his cutting. According to Montanus, elder wood
formed a portion of the fuel used in the burning of
human bodies as a protection against evil influences;
and, within my own recollection, the driver of a hearse
had his whip handle made of elder wood for a similar
reason. In some parts of Scotland, people would not
put a piece of elder wood into the fire, and I have seen,
not many years ago, pieces of this wood lying about unused,
when the neighbourhood was in great straits for
firewood; but none would use it, and when asked why?
the answer was—"We don't know, but folks say
it is not lucky to burn the bourtree." It was
believed that children laid in a cradle made in
whole or in part of elderwood, would not sleep well, and
were in danger of falling out of the cradle. Elder
berries, gathered on St. John's Eve, would prevent the
possessor suffering from witchcraft, and often bestowed
upon their owners magical powers. If the elder were
planted in the form of a cross upon a new-made grave,
and if it bloomed, it was a sure sign that the soul of the
dead person was happy.
The Onion was regarded as a symbol of the universe
among the ancient Egyptians, and many curious beliefs
were associated with it. It was believed by them that it
attracted and absorbed infectious matters, and was
usually hung up in rooms to prevent maladies. This
belief in the absorptive virtue of the onion is prevalent
even at the present day. When a youth, I remember
the following story being told, and implicitly believed
by all. There was once a certain king or nobleman
who was in want of a physician, and two celebrated
doctors applied. As both could not obtain the situation,
they agreed among themselves that the one was to try
to poison the other, and he who succeeded in
overcoming the poison would thus be left free to fill the
situation. They drew lots as to who should first take
the poison. The first dose given was a stewed toad, but
the party who took it immediately applied a poultice of
peeled onions over his stomach, and thus abstracted all
the poison of the toad. Two days after, the other doctor
was given the onions to eat. He ate them, and died.
It was generally believed that a poultice of peeled onions
laid on the stomach, or underneath the armpits, would
cure any one who had taken poison. My mother would
never use onions which had lain for any length of time
with their skins off.
So lately as 1849, Mr. J.B. Wolff, in the Scientific
American, states that he had charge of one hundred
men on shipboard, cholera raging among them; they
had onions on board, which a number of the men
freely ate, and these were soon attacked by the
cholera and nearly all died. As soon as this discovery
was made, the eating of the onions was forbidden. Mr.
Wolff came to the conclusion that onions should never
be eaten during an epidemic; he remarks, "After
many years experience, I have found that onions
placed in a room where there is small-pox, will blister
and decompose with great rapidity,—not only so, but
will prevent the spread of disease;" and he thinks
that, as a disinfectant, they have no equal, only keep
them out of the stomach.
It was believed that, when peeling onions, if an onion
were stuck on the point of the knife which was being
used, it would prevent the eyes being affected.
The common Fern, it was believed, was in flower at
midnight on St. John's Eve, and whoever got possession
of the flower would be protected from all evil influences,
and would obtain a revelation of hidden treasure.
St.-John's-Wort. In heathen mythology the summer
solstice was a day dedicated to the sun, and was believed
to be a day on which witches held their festivities. St.-John's-Wort
was their symbolical plant, and people were
wont to judge from it whether their future would be
lucky or unlucky; as it grew they read in its progressive
character their future lot. The Christians dedicated this
festive period to St. John the Baptist, and the sacred
plant was named St.-John's-Wort or root, and became a
talisman against evil. In one of the old romantic ballads
a young lady falls in love with a demon, who tells her
"Gin you wish to be Leman mine,
Lay aside the St.-John's-wort and the vervain."
When hung up on St. John's day together with a
cross over the doors of houses it kept out the
devil and other evil spirits. To gather the root on St.
John's day morning at sunrise, and retain it in the house,
gave luck to the family in their undertakings, especially
in those begun on that day. Plants with lady attached
to their names were in ancient times dedicated to some
goddess; and in Christian times the term was transferred
to the Virgin Mary. Such plants have good qualities,
conferring protection and favour on their possessors.
From the earliest times the Rose has been an emblem
of silence. Eros, in the Greek mythology, presents a
rose to the god of silence, and to this day sub rosa, or
"under the rose," means the keeping of a secret. Roses
were used in very early times as a potent ingredient in
love philters. In Greece it was customary to leave bequests
for the maintenance of rose gardens, a custom
which has come down to recent times. Rose gardens
were common during the middle ages. According to
Indian mythology, one of the wives of Vishna was found
in a rose. In Rome it was the custom to bless the rose
on a certain Sunday, called Rose Sunday. The custom
of blessing the golden rose came into vogue about the
eleventh century. The golden rose thus consecrated
was given to princes as a mark of the Roman Pontifs'
favour. In the east it is still believed that the first rose
was generated by a tear of the prophet Mahomet, and
it is further believed that on a certain day in the year
the rose has a heart of gold. In the West of Scotland
if a white rose bloomed in autumn it was a token of
early death to some one, but if a red rose did the same,
it was a token of an early marriage. The red rose, it
was said, would not bloom over a grave. If a young
girl had several lovers, and wished to know which of
them would be her husband, she would take a rose leaf for
each of her sweethearts, and naming each leaf after the
name of one of her lovers, she would watch them till one
after another they sank, and the last to sink would be
her future husband. Rose leaves thrown upon a fire
gave good luck. If a rose bush were pruned on St.
John's eve, it would bloom again in the autumn. Superstitions
respecting the rose are more numerous in England
than in Scotland.
The Lily had a sacredness associated with it, probably
on account of Christ's reference to it. It was employed
as a charm against evil influence, and as an antidote
to love philters; but I am not aware of any of these uses
being put in practice during this century.
The four-leaved Clover had extraordinary influence in
preserving its possessor from magical and witch influence,
and enabled their possessors also to see through any deceit
or device which might be tried against them. I have
seen a group of young women within these few years
searching eagerly for this charmed plant.
The Oak, from time immemorial, has held a high place
as a sacred tree. The Druids worshipped the oak, and
performed many of their rites under the shadow of its
branches. When Augustine preached Christianity to the
ancient Britons, he stood under an oak tree. The
ancient Hebrews evidently held the oak as a sacred tree.
There is a tradition that Abraham received his heavenly
visitors under an oak. Rebekah's nurse was buried under
an oak, called afterwards the oak of weeping. Jacob
buried the idols of Shechem under an oak. It was
under the oak of Ophra, Gideon saw the angel sitting,
who gave him instructions as to what he was to do to
free Israel. When Joshua and Israel made a covenant
to serve God, a great stone was set up in evidence
under an oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord.
The prophet sent to prophesy against Jeroboam was
found at Bethel sitting under an oak. Saul and his sons
were buried under an oak, and, according to Isaiah, idols
were made of oak wood. Abimelech was made king by
the oak that was in Shechem. From these proofs we need
not be surprised that the oak continued to be held in
veneration, and was believed to possess virtues overcoming
evil. During last century its influence in curing
diseases was believed in. The toothache could be cured
by boring with a nail the tooth or gum till blood came,
and then driving the nail into an oak tree. A child with
rupture could be cured by splitting an oak branch, and
passing the child through the opening backwards three
times; if the splits grew together afterwards, the child
would be cured. The same was believed in as to the
ash tree. In the Presbytery Records of Lanark, 1664:—"Compeirs
Margaret Reid in the same parish, (Carnwath),
suspect of witchcraft, and confessed she put a woman
newlie delivered, thrice through a green halshe, for
helping a grinding of the bellie; and that she carried a
sick child thrice about ane aikine post for curing of it."
Such means of curing diseases were practised within this
century, and many things connected with the oak were
held potent as curatives.
MISCELLANEOUS SUPERSTITIONS.
lamour
was a kind of witch power which
certain people were supposed to be gifted
with; by the exercise of such influence they
took command over their subjects' sense of
sight, and caused them to see whatever they desired that
they should see. Sir Walter Scott describes the recognised
capability of glamour power in the following
lines:—
"It had much of glamour might,
Could make a lady seem a knight.
The cobwebs on a dungeon wall,
Seem tapestry in lordly hall.
A nutshell seem a gilded barge,
A sheeling seem a palace large,
And youth seem age, and age seem youth,
All was delusion, nought was truth."
Gipsies were believed to possess this power, and for
their own ends to exercise it over people. In the ballad
of "Johnny Faa," Johnny is represented as exercising
this power over the Countess of Cassillis—
"And she came tripping down the stairs,
With a' her maids before her,
And soon as he saw her weel faured face,
He coost the glamour o'er her."
To possess a four-leaved clover completely protected
any one from this power. I remember a story which I
heard when a boy, and the narrator of it I recollect
spoke as if he were quite familiar with the fact. A certain
man came to the village to exhibit the strength of a
wonderful cock, which could draw, when attached to its
leg by a rope, a large log of wood. Many people went
and paid to see this wonderful performance, which was
exhibited in the back yard of a public house. One
of the spectators present on one occasion had in his
possession a four-leaved clover, and while others saw,
as they supposed, a log of wood drawn through the yard,
this person saw only a straw attached to the cock's leg
by a small thread. I may mention here that the four-leaved
clover was reputed to be a preventative against
madness, and against being drafted for military service.
One very ancient and persistent superstition had regard
to the direction of movement either of persons or
things. This direction should always be with the course
of the sun. To move against the sun was improper and
productive of evil consequences, and the name given to
this direction of movement was withershins. Witches in
their dances and other pranks, always, it was said, went
withershins. Mr. Simpson in his work, Meeting the
Sun, says, "The Llama monk whirls his praying cylinder
in the way of the sun, and fears lest a stranger
should get at it and turn it contrary, which would take
from it all the virtue it had acquired. They also build
piles of stone, and always pass them on one side, and
return on the other, so as to make a circuit with the
sun. Mahommedans make the circuit of the Caaba in
the same way. The ancient dagobas of India and
Ceylon were also traversed round in the same way, and
the old Irish and Scotch custom is to make all movements
Deisual, or sunwise, round houses and graves,
and to turn their bodies in this way at the beginning
and end of a journey for luck, as well as at weddings
and other ceremonies."
To go withershins and to read prayers or the creed
backwards were great evils, and pointed to connection
with the devil. The author of Olrig Grange, in an early
poem, sketches this superstition very graphically:—
"Hech! sirs, but we had grand fun
Wi' the meikle black deil in the chair,
And the muckle Bible upside doon
A' ganging withershins roun and roun,
And backwards saying the prayer
About the warlock's grave,
Withershins ganging roun;
And kimmer and carline had for licht
The fat o' a bairn they buried that nicht,
Unchristen'd, beneath the moon."
If a tree or plant grew with a twist contrary to the direction
of the sun's movement, that portion was considered
to possess certain powers, which are referred to in
the following verse of an old song:—
"I'll gar my ain Tammy gae doun to the Howe
And cut me a rock of the widdershins grow,
Of good rantree for to carry my tow,
And a spindle of the same for the twining o't."
Pennant refers to some other practices in Scotland in
his day, that were no doubt survivals of ancient heathen
worship. Such as on certain occasions kindling a fire,
and the people joining hands and dancing three times
round it south-ways, or according to the course of the
sun. At baptisms and marriages they walked three times
round the church sun-ways. The Highlanders, in going
to bathe or drink in a consecrated fountain, approach it
by going round the place from east to west on the south
side. When the dead are laid in their grave, the grave
is approached by going round in the same manner. The
bride is conducted to the spouse in presence of the minister
round the company in the same direction; indeed,
all public matters were done according to certain fixed
ideas in relation to the sun, all pointing to a lingering
ray of sun worship.
If a fire were slow or dour to kindle, the poker was
taken and placed in front of the grate, one end resting
on the fender, the other on the front bar of the grate,
and this, it was believed, would cause the fire to kindle
quickly. This practice is still followed by many, but being
compelled now to give an apparently scientific reason
for their conduct, they say that it is so placed to produce
a draught. But this it does not do. The practice
originated in the belief that the slow or dour fire
was spell-bound by witchcraft, and the poker was so
placed that it would form the shape of a cross with the
front bar of the grate, and thus the witch power be destroyed.
In early times when the poker was placed in
this position, the person who placed it repeated an Ave
Marie or Paternoster, but this feature of the ceremony
died out, and with it the reason for the practice was forgotten.
I have seen it done in private houses, and very
frequently in the public rooms of country inns. Indeed,
in such public rooms it was the common practice when
the servant put on a fire, that after sweeping up the dust
she placed the poker in this position, and left the room.
Probably she had no idea why she did it, but merely followed
the custom.
In a general chapter, such as this, I can find room for
some things which could not properly find a place in
other chapters. The subject of omens has by no means
been exhausted. The late George Smith, in his work
upon the Chaldean Account of Genesis, says that in
ancient Babylonia, 1600 B.C., everything in nature was
supposed to portend some coming event. Without much
exaggeration, the same might be said of the people of
this country during the earlier part of this century.
On seeing the first plough in the season, it was lucky
if it were seen coming towards the observer, and he or
she, in whatever undertaking then engaged, might be
certain of success in it; but, if seen going from the
observer, the omen was reversed.
If a farmer's cows became restive without any apparent
cause, it foreboded trouble to either master or mistress.
On going on any business, if the first person met with
was plain-soled, the journey might be given up, for, if
proceeded with, the business to be transacted would
prove a failure; but, by turning and entering the house
again, with the right foot first, and then partaking of food
before resuming the journey, it might be undertaken
without misgiving.
It was unlucky to walk under a ladder set up against
a wall, but if passing under it could not be avoided, then,
if before doing so, you wished for anything, your wish
would be fulfilled.
It was unlucky to eat twin nuts found in one shell.
If the eye or nose itched, it was a sign that the person
so affected would be vexed in some way that day. If
the foot itched, it was a sign that the owner of the foot
was about to undertake a strange journey. If the elbow
itched, it betokened the coming of a strange bedfellow.
If the right hand itched, it signified that money would
shortly be received by it; and, if the left hand itched,
that money would shortly have to be paid away.
If the ear tingled, it was a sign that some one was
speaking of the person so affected. If it were the right
ear which did so, then the speech was favourable; if the
left ear, the reverse. In this latter case, if the persons
whose ears tingled were to bite their little fingers, this
would cause the persons speaking evil of them to bite
their tongues.
To break a looking-glass, hanging against a wall, was a
sign that death would shortly occur in the family.
If a daughter's petticoat was longer than her frock, it
shewed that her father loved her better than her mother
did.
If you desired luck with any article of dress, it
should be worn first at church.
If a person unwittingly put on an article of dress outside
in, it was an omen that he or she would succeed in
what they undertook that day; but it was requisite that
this portion of dress should remain with the wrong side
out until night, for, if reversed earlier, the luck was reversed
also.
To weigh children was considered an objectionable
practice, as it was believed to injure their health, and
cause them to grow up weakly.
If a child cut the upper teeth before the lower, it was
very unlucky for the child.
If a cradle were rocked when the child was not in it,
it was said to give the child a headache; but if it so
happened that the child was too old to be rocked in a
cradle, but its baby clothes were still in the house, then
this incident portended that its mother would have
another baby.
To make a present of a knife or a pair of scissors, and
refuse to accept anything in return, was said to cut or
sever friendship between giver and receiver.
If, at a social gathering, a bachelor or maid were placed
inadvertently betwixt a man and his wife, the person so
seated would be married within a year.
If a person in rising from table overturned his chair,
this shewed that he had been speaking untruths.
To feel a cold tremor along the spine was a sign that
some one was treading on the spot of earth in which the
person so affected would be buried.
If a person spoke aloud to himself, it was a sign that
he would meet with a violent death.
If a girl married a man the initial letter of whose name
was the same as her own, it was held that the union
would not be a happy one. This notion was formulated
into this proverb—
"To change the name and not the letter.
Is a change for the worse, and not for the better."
If thirteen people sat down to dinner, the first who
rose from table would, it was said, either die or meet
with some terrible calamity within a year's time.
When burning caking coal it often happens that a
small piece of fused matter is projected from the fire.
When this took place the piece was searched for and
examined, and from its shape certain events were prognosticated
concerning the person in whose direction it
had fallen. If shaped like a coffin it presaged death, if
like a cradle it foretold a birth. I have seen such an
incident produce a considerable sensation among a group
sitting round a fire.
To find the shoe of a horse and hang it behind the
house door was considered to bring good luck to
the household, and protection from witchcraft or evil
eye. I have seen this charm in large beer shops in London,
and I was present in the parlour of one of these
beer shops when an animated discussion arose as to
whether it was most effective to have the shoe nailed behind
the door, or upon the first step of the door. Each
position had its advocates, and instances of extraordinary
luck were recounted as having attended each position.
If a youth sat musing and intently looking into the
fire, it was a sign that some one was throwing an evil
spell over him, or fascinating him for evil. When this
was observed, if any one without speaking were to take
the tongs and turn the centre coal or piece of wood in the
grate right over, and while doing so say, "Gude preserve us
frae a' skaith," it would break the spell, and cause the intended
evil to revert on the evil-disposed person who was
working the spell. I have not only seen the operation performed
many times, but have had it performed in my own
favour by my worthy grandmother, whose belief in such
things could never be shaken.
If the nails of a child were cut before it was a year old,
the chances were that it would grow up a thief.
To spill salt while handing it to any one was unlucky,
a sign of an impending quarrel between the parties; but
if the person who spilled the salt carefully lifted it up
with the blade of a knife, and cast it over his or her shoulder,
all evil consequences were prevented. In Leonardo
de Vinci's celebrated painting of the Last Supper, the
painter has indicated the enmity of Judas by representing
him in the act of upsetting the salt dish, with the right
hand resting on the table, grasping the bag.
If a double ear of corn were put over the looking glass,
it prevented the house from being struck by lightning. I
have seen corn stalks hung over a looking glass, and was
told that it brought luck.
It was customary for farmers to leave a portion of their
fields uncropped, which was a dedication to the evil spirit,
and called good man's croft. The Church exerted itself
for a long time to abolish this practice, but farmers, who
are generally very superstitious, were afraid to discontinue
the practice for fear of ill luck. I remember a farmer as
late as 1825 always leaving a small piece of a field uncropped,
but then did not know why. At length he gave
the right of working these bits to a poor labourer, who
did well with it, and in a few years the farmer cultivated
the whole himself.
Water that had been used in baptism was believed to
have virtue to cure many distempers. It was a preventive
against witchcraft, and eyes bathed with it would
never see a ghost.
To see a dot of soot hanging on the bars of the grate
indicated a visit from a stranger. By clapping the hands
close to it, if the current produced by this, blew it off at
the first clap, the stranger would visit that day. Every
clap indicated the day before the visit would be made.
This is still a common practice, of which the following
lines taken from Glasgow Weekly Herald, 1877, is a
graphic illustration:—
"Rab—
Eh! Willie, come your wa's, and peace be wi' ye;
Wi' a' my heart, I'm truly glad to see ye.
Wee Geordie, wha sat gazing in the fire,
In that prophetic mood I oft admire,
Declar'd he saw a stranger on the grate—
And Geordie's auguries are true as fate.
He gied his hands a dap wi' a' his micht,
And said that stranger's coming here the nicht,
Wi' the first clap it's off. Ye see how true
Appears the future on wee Geordie's view.
What's in the wind, or what may be the news,
That brings ye here, in heedless waste o' shoes?"
An eclipse of the sun was looked on as an omen of
coming calamity. This is a very ancient superstition,
and remained with us to a very late date, if it is even
yet extinct. In 1597, during an eclipse of the sun, it is
stated by Calderwood that men and women thought the
day of judgment was come. Many women swooned, the
streets of Edinburgh was full of crying, and in fear some
ran to the kirk to pray. I remember an eclipse about
1818, when about three parts of the sun was covered.
The alarm in the village was very great, indoor work was
suspended for the time, and in several families prayers
were offered for protection, believing that it portended
some awful calamity; but when it passed off there was a
general feeling of relief.
Fishers on the West Coast believe that were they to
set their nets so that in any way it would encroach
upon the Sabbath, the herrings would leave the district.
Two years ago I was told that herrings were very plentiful
at one time at Lamlash, but some thoughtless person
set his net on a Sabbath evening. He caught none, and
the herrings left and never returned.
I know several persons who refuse to have their likeness
taken lest it prove unlucky; and give as instances
the cases of several of their friends who never had a day's
health after being photographed.
In addition to the many forms of superstition which
we have been recalling, there were, and still are a great
many superstitions connected with the phenomenon of
dreaming, but as the notions in this series were very
varied, differing very much in different localities, and
everywhere subject less or more to the fancy of the interpreter,
and as I believe that the notions and practices
now in vogue in this connection are of comparatively
recent origin, I will not enter upon the subject.
Survivals of Ancient Sun and Fire Worship.
istory
and prehistoric investigations have
shown quite clearly that prehistoric man
worshipped the Sun, the giver and vivifier
of all life, as the supreme God. To the
sun they offered sacrifices, and at stated periods celebrated
festivals in his honour; and at these festivals
bread and wine and meat were partaken of, with observances
very similar in many respects to the practices of
the Jews during their religious feasts. But although the
sun was the supreme deity, other objects were also worshipped
as subordinate deities. These objects, however,
were generally in some manner representative of sun attributes;
for example, the Moon was worshipped as the
spouse of the Sun, Venus as his page. The pleiades and
other constellations, and single stars were also deified;
the rainbow and the lightning were sun servants, the elements,
the sun's offspring. Many animals and trees
were reverenced as representatives of sun attributes.
Above all, fire was worshipped as the truest symbol of
the sun upon earth, and all offerings and sacrifices in
honour of the sun were presented through fire; thus sun
and fire worship became identified.
In Britain sun-worship appears to have been purer in
prehistoric than it afterwards was in historic times, purer
also than the sun-cult of historic Egypt, Greece, or
Rome; that is, there appears to have been in British sun-worship
less of polytheism than prevailed in Egypt,
Greece, or Rome. But during the historic period, the
numerous invasions and the colonizations of different portions
of this country by the Romans and other nations,
who brought with them their special religious beliefs and
formulæ of worship, caused the increase of polytheism
by the commingling of the foreign and native elements
of belief, and later on, these were mixed with Christianity,
and in these mixings all the elements became modified,
so that now it is very difficult to separate with certainty
the aboriginal, invasional, and Christian elements.
From many indications it seems more than probable
that the sun-cult in prehistoric Britain was very similar,
even in many minor points, to the solar worship of
the ancient Peruvians. At the same time, there is not
the slightest probability that these two widely separated
sun-cults ever had a common point of historical connection,
nor, in order to explain their similarities, is such an
historical explanation necessary. Quite sufficient is the
explanation that both possessed in common a human
nature, emotional and intellectual, moving on the same
plane of childlike intelligence, and that both from this
common standpoint had regard to the same striking and
regularly recurring scenes of natural phenomena. Prescott
thus describes the worship of these ancient Peruvians:—"The
Sun was their primary God; to it was
built a vast temple in the capital, more radiant with
gold than that of Solomon's; and every city had a
temple dedicated to the sun, and blasphemy against
the sun was punished with death. The principal festivals
of the year were at the equinoxes and solstices.
That at midsummer was the grandest. It was preceded
by a three days' fast; then every one who had time and
money visited the city. Great fires were kindled from
the sun's rays or by friction, from which sacred fires
people kindled their hearth;" all household fires having
previously been extinguished. Poor countries and
districts, where the arts were in a backward condition,
instead of having temples like the Peruvians, dedicated
mountains and stone circles to the great luminary. It
is the all but universal opinion that in this country, centuries
before the Christian era, the religion of the people
was Druidism; but this is merely the name of a system,
and is equivalent to our saying that the present religion
of our country is Presbyterianism, a statement which
conveys no idea of the nature of our religious worship.
The Druids were a priestly order who governed the country,
and directed the worship of the people, the principal
objects of worship being, as we have already said, the
sun and fire. "The Druids," says the late Rev. James
Rust, "formed an ecclesiastico-political association, and
professed to explain the deep mysteries respecting God
and man, and were the sacerdotal rulers, and called in
consequence Druids or mystery-keepers. They were
not allowed to commit anything to writing respecting
their mysteries, and no one was allowed to enter their
order till after a prolonged probation, terminating in
swearing most solemnly to keep their mysteries secret
for ever; and by this means they obtained great power
and influence over all classes of the people."
Concerning the name Druid, the writer in the Encyclopedia
Metropolitana says, "The name Druid is derived
from deru, an oak." The Druids were an order of
priests; they were divided into three classes, resembling
the Persian magi. The first class were the Druids
proper; they were the highest nobility, to whom was entrusted
all religious rites and education. The second
class were the bards; they were principally employed in
public instruction, which was given in verse. The third
class was called Euvates; whose office it was to deliver
the responses of the oracles, and to attend the people
who consulted them. The knowledge of astronomy
and computation of time possessed by the Druids was
of a high order, and, no doubt, was the form of worship
imported from Chaldea.
It is known that the Phoenicians had colonized Britain
at least 1000 years B.C., and doubtless they would bring
with them their form of worship, their gods being the
sun, the moon, and fire. We may here find a very early
source for the institution of sun-worship in these islands,
if we can believe that such a very partial colonization as
was effected by the Phoenicians could work a religious
similarity throughout the entire island. I think it probable
that sun-worship existed before the Phoenicians
came to the island, but they may have elevated its
practice. Following the writer in the Encyclopedia
Metropolitana, we are told that in addition to their
worship of the sun, the Druids "held sacred the spirits
of their ancestors, paid great honour to mountains,
lakes, and groves. Groves of oak were their temples,
and their places of worship were open to heaven, such
as stone circles. They had also a ceremony of baptism,
dipping in the sacred lake, as an initiatory rite, and
had also a sacrament of bread and wine. They paid
great reverence to the egg of the serpent, the seed of
the oak, and above all, the mistletoe that grew upon the
oak; and they offered in sacrifice to the sun and fire,
men and animals."
Many of the localities where their worship was observed
in this country can still be identified through the
names which these places still bear. One or two are
here given, because they refer to sun-worship:—
Grenach (in Perthshire), means Field of the Sun.
Greenan (a stream in Perthshire), means River of the
Sun.
Balgreen (a town in Perthshire and other counties),
means Town of the Sun.
Grian chnox (Greenock), means Knoll of the Sun.
Granton, means Sun's Fire.
Premising, therefore, that sun-worship and Druidical
customs form the original base of all our old national
festivals, we will now direct attention to the great festival
of
The term Yule was the name given to the festival of
the winter solstice by our northern invaders, and means
the Festival of the Sun. One of the names by which the
Scandinavians designated the sun was Julvatter, meaning
Yule-father or Sun-father. In Saxon the festival was
called Gehul, meaning Sun-feast. In Danish it is Juul;
in Swedish Oel. Chambers supposes that the name is
from a root word meaning wheel. We have no trace of
the name by which the Druids knew this feast. The
Rev. Mr. Smiddy in his book on Druidism in Ireland,
says, "Their great feast was that called in the Irish
tongue Nuadhulig, meaning new all heal, or new
mistletoe. When the day came the priests assembled
outside the town, and the people gathered shouting
all heal. Then began a solemn procession into the
forests in search of the mistletoe growing on the favourite
oak. When found, the priests ascended the
tree, and cut down the divine plant with a golden knife,
which was secured below upon a linen cloth of spotless
white; two white bulls were then conducted to the spot
for the occasion, and there sacrificed to the sun god.
The plant was then brought home with shouts of joy,
mingled with prayers and hymns, and then followed a
general religious feast, and afterwards scenes of boisterous
merriment, to which all were admitted."
From other accounts of this sun feast at the winter
solstice in this country, we are given to understand that
besides white bulls there were also human victims offered
in sacrifice. The mistletoe gathered was divided among
the people, who hung the sprays over their doorways as
a protection from evil influences, and as a propitiation to
the sylvan deities, and to form sheltering places for those
fairy beings during the frosts. The day after the sacrifices
was kept as a day of rejoicing, neighbours visited
each other with gifts, and with expressions of good will.
From all I have been able to gather respecting this
great sun feast at the winter solstice as it was celebrated
in this country in prehistoric times, I am of opinion that
the sacrifices were offered to the sun on the shortest day,
to propitiate his return, and that that day was a day of
great solemnity, but that the day following when the
mistletoe was distributed and hung up, was a day of rejoicing
and thanksgiving on this account, that the sacrifices
had proved acceptable and efficacious, the sun
having returned again to begin his course for another
year, and this day was the first day of the year.
I am aware that the Romans appointed the first of January
as the first day of the year as early as B.C. 600, and
dedicated it to the goddess Stranoe. This, however, could
not affect the inhabitants of Britain, at least not until the
Roman invasion, and this influence did not reach our
northern counties. There can be little doubt, I think,
that the great festival of the Romans, the Saturnalia, held
in honour of Saturn, the father of the gods, and which
lasting seven days, including the winter solstice, was introduced
into this country, and in course of time became
identified with the Druidical festival of the natives.
Other elements conspired to modify the ancient druidical
festival. After the Romans withdrew their armies from
the island at the commencement of the fifth century,
other invaders took their place. Saxons, Jutes, Angles,
and Normans occupied large tracts of the country;
but as these were mostly all sun-worshippers, their festivals
and ceremonies would, for the most part, coincide
with the native usages, and whatever peculiarities they
might bring with them in the matter of formulas, would
take root in the localities where they were settled, and
eventually the indigenous and introduced formulas would
coalesce. Another element which materially influenced
and, vice versa, was materially influenced by Pagan formulæ,
was Christianity. Introduced into Rome at a very
early period, it was for a long time opposed as subversive
of the established religion of the empire. Now, during
the festival of the Saturnalia, the Romans decorated their
houses, both inside and out, with evergreens, the Christian
converts refraining from this were easily discovered
and set upon by the people, were brought before the
judges and condemned, in many cases, to death, for their
infidelity to the national gods. But as a result of this
severity the Christians learned to be politic, and during
the Saturnalia, hung evergreens round their houses, while
they kept festival within doors in commemoration of the
birth of Christ. This Christian festival, with its heathen
attachments, soon spread throughout the Roman empire,
and thus became introduced into Britain also. It appears
however, that the day on which this feast was kept differed
in different localities, until towards the middle of the fourth
century Julius I., Bishop of Rome, appointed the 25th
December as the festival day for the whole Church, an
edict which was universally obeyed. As was to be expected,
many of the ceremonies and superstitious beliefs
emanating from the Saturnalia were merged in the customs
of the Christian feast, and do still survive in modified
forms till the present day. In many of our Christmas
customs we can thus perceive the influence of the self-preservation
policy of the early Roman Christians, and
in the survival of many other pagan customs in this
and other of our festivals, we can trace the influence
of another policy, the worldly-wise policy of the Roman
Church.
At the close of the sixth century, Pope Gregory sent St.
Augustine, or Austin, to this country as a missionary, and
by his preaching, many thousands of the people were
converted to Christianity. This Pope's instructions to
Augustine concerning his treatment of heathen festivals,
were that "the heathen temples were not to be destroyed,
but turned into Christian churches; that the oxen
killed in sacrifice should still be killed with rejoicing,
but their bodies given to the poor, and that the refreshment
booths round the heathen temples should be
allowed to remain as places of jollity and amusement for
the people on Christian festivals, for it is impossible to
cut abruptly from hard and rough minds all their old
habits and customs. He who wishes to reach the
highest place must rise by steps, and not by jumps."
From the enunciation of this policy, we can readily
understand how the festive observances connected with
heathen worship remained in the Christian observance.
I have stated what is supposed to have been the Druidical
manner of keeping this festival of the winter solstice, but
I have not seen any account of how the festival was observed
in this country when Augustine arrived as missionary.
I have no information concerning the manner
in which the oxen were sacrificed, nor the character of
the refreshment booths round the temples. We know
that there were booths in connection with heathen
temples where women were kept, but whether this practice
was indigenous in Britain, or was imported into
this country by the Romans, or whether Pope Gregory
may have written without any special knowledge of the
customs here, but merely from his knowledge of heathen
customs in general, we do not know. Nothing is said in
these instructions about changing the day of keeping the
festival from the solstice to the 25th of December. It is
probable that no change of date was made at this time, at
all events we may, from the following circumstance, infer
that the change, if made, did not reach the northern
portion of the island. Haco, King of Norway, in the
the tenth century fixed the 25th December as the day for
keeping the feast of Yule. King Haco's fixing on this
particular date would be a resultant from the Romish
edict, for the Norwegians were at this time Christians,
although their Christianity was a conglomerate of
heathen superstition and church dogma.
According to Jamieson, the eve of Yule was termed by
the Northmen Hoggunott, meaning Slaughter night, probably
because then the cattle for the coming feast were
killed. During the feast, one of the leading toasts was
called minnie, meaning the cup of remembrance, and Dr.
Jamieson thinks that the popular cry which has come
down to our times as Hogmany, trol-lol-lay, was originally
Hogminne, thor loe loe, meaning the feast of Thor. After
the Reformation, the Scotch transferred Hogmanay to
the last day of December, as a preparation day for the
New Year. The practice of children going from door to
door in little bands, singing the following rhyme, was in
vogue at the beginning of this century in country places
in the West of Scotland:—
"Rise up, gudewife, and shake your feathers,
Dinna think that we are beggars,
We're girls and boys come out to-day,
For to get our Hogmanay,
Hogmanay, trol-lol-lay.
"Give us of your white bread, and not of your gray,
Or else we'll knock at your door a' day."
This rhyme has a stronger reference to Yule or Christmas
than to the New Year, and is doubtless a relic of pre-Reformation
times.
At the Reformation, the Scottish Church, probably
following the dictum of Calvin, who condemned Yule as
a pagan festival, forbade the people to observe it because
of its heathen origin; but probably the more potent reason
was that it was a Romish feast, for no objection was
made against keeping the New Year or hansell Monday,
on which occasion practices similar to those of Yule were
observed, and I believe it was the non-condemnation of
these later festivals which enabled the Scottish Church
to abolish Yule. In fact, it would appear that the Yule
practices were simply transferred from a few days earlier
to a few days later, and thereby retained their original connection
with the close of the year. Prior to the Church interference
there is no evidence that the first of January
was observed by the people as a general feast, but even
with this safety valve of a popular and yearly festival, the
Church encountered great difficulty in abolishing Yule.
A few instances of the opposition of the people will
suffice.
The Glasgow Kirk Session, on the 26th December,
1583, had five persons before them who were ordered to
make public repentance, because they kept the superstitious
day called Yule. The baxters were required to
give the names of those for whom they had baked Yule
bread, so that they might be dealt with by the Church.
Ten years after this, in 1593, an Act was again passed by
the Glasgow Session against the keeping of Yule, and
therein it was ordained that the keepers of this feast were
to be debarred from the privileges of the Church, and also
punished by the magistrates.
Notwithstanding these measures, the people still inclined
to observe Yule, for fifty-six years after, in 1649,
the General Assembly appointed a commission to make
report of the public practices, among others, "The
druidical customs observed at the fires of Beltane,
Midsummer, Hallowe'en, and Yule." In the same
year appears the following minute in the session-book of
the Parish of Slains.—(See Rust's Druidism Exhumed.)
26th Nov., 1649.—"The said day, the minister and
elders being convened in session, and after invocation
of the name of God, intimate that Yule be not kept,
but that they yoke their oxen and horse, and employ
their servants in their service that day as well as on
other work days."
Dr. Jamieson quotes the opinion of an English clergyman
in reference to such proceedings of the Scotch
Church:—"The ministers of Scotland, in contempt of
the holy-day observed by England, cause their wives
and servants to spin in open sight of the people upon
Yule day, and their affectionate auditors constrain their
servants to yoke their plough on Yule day, in contempt
of Christ's nativity. Which our Lord has not left unpunished,
for their oxen ran wud, and brak their necks
and lamed some ploughmen, which is notoriously
known in some parts of Scotland." By going back to
the time of the Reformation, and finding what then were
the practices of the people in the celebration of the Yule
festival, and then by comparing these with the practices
in vogue at the commencement of this century during the
New Year festivities, we shall be led to conclude that the
principal change effected by the Church was only respecting
the time of the feasts, and we can thus perceive that
the veto was not directed against the practices per se, but
only against the conjunction of these practices, Pagan in
their origin, with a feast commemorative of the birth of
Christ. As they could not hold Christmas without retaining
the Yule practices along with it, they resolved to
abolish both.
Let us then pursue this retrospect and comparison.
About the time of the Reformation the day preceding
Yule was a day of general preparation. Houses were
cleaned out and borrowed articles were returned to their
owners. Work of all kind was stopped, and a general
appearance of completion of work was established; yarn
was reeled off, no lint was allowed to remain on the rock
of the wheel, and all work implements were laid aside.
In the evening cakes were baked, one for each person,
and duly marked, and great care was taken
that none should break in the firing, as such an
accident was a bad omen for the person whose cake
met with the mishap. These cakes were eaten at
the Yule breakfast. A large piece of wood was placed
upon the fire in such time that it would be kindled
before twelve p.m., and extreme care was taken that
the fire should not go out, for not only was it unlucky,
but no one would oblige a neighbour, with a kindling
on Yule.
On Yule eve those possessing cattle went to the byre and
stable and repeated an Ave Marie, and a Paternoster, to
protect their cattle from an evil eye.
On Yule morning, attention was paid to the first person
who entered the house, as it was important to know
whether such a person were lucky or otherwise. It was
an unfriendly act to enter a house on Yule day without
bringing a present of some kind. Nothing was permitted
to be taken out of the house on that day; this prohibition
of course, did not extend to such things as were
taken for presents. Servants or members of the family
who had gone out in the morning, when they returned to
the house brought in with them something, although it
might only be some trivial article, say for instance, garden
stuff. This was done that they might bring, or, at
least, not cause bad luck to the household. Masters or
parents gave gifts to their servants and children, and
owners of cattle gave their beasts, with their own hand
their first food on Yule morning. After mass in church,
a table was spread in the house with meat and drink,
and all who entered were invited to partake. On
this day neighbours and relations visited each other,
bearing with them meat and drink warmed with condiments,
and as they drank they expressed mutual wishes
for each other's welfare. If not a Christian day, it was
at least a day of good will to men. In the evening, the
great family feast was held. In the more northern
parts, where the Scandinavian national element was
principally settled, a boar's head was the correct dish at
this feast, and, by the better class, was always provided;
but the common people were content with venison, beef,
and poultry, beginning their feast with a dish of plum
porridge. A large candle, prepared for the occasion, was
lighted at the commencement, and it was intended to
keep in light till twelve p.m., and if it went out before
it was regarded as a bad omen for the next year; and what
of it was left unconsumed at twelve o'clock was carefully
laid past, to be used at the dead wake of the heads
of the family.
Now, let us compare with this the practices current at
Hogmanay (31st December), and New Year's Day, about
the commencement of this century. In doing so, I will
pass over without notice many superstitious observances
which, though curious and interesting, belong rather
to the general fund of superstitious belief than to the
special festival at New Year, and confine myself to those
which were peculiar to the time. In my grandfather's
house, between sixty and seventy years ago, on the 31st
December (Hogmanay), all household work was stopped,
rock emptied, yarn reeled and hanked, and wheel and
reel put into an outhouse. The house itself was white-washed
and cleaned. A block of wood or large piece of
coal was put on the fire about ten p.m., so that it would
be burning briskly before the household retired to bed.
The last thing done by those who possessed a cow or
horse was to visit the byre or stable, and I have been
told that it was the practice with some, twenty years
before my recollection, to say the Lord's Prayer during
this visit. After rising on New Year's Day, the first care
of those who possessed cattle was to visit the byre or
stable, and with their own hands give the animals a feed.
Burns followed this habit, and refers to it in one of his
poems:—
"A gude New Year I wish thee, Maggy,
Hae, there's a rip to thy auld baggie."
The following was the practice in my father's house in
Partick, between fifty and sixty years ago, on New Year's
day:—On Hogmanay evening, children were all washed
before going to bed. An oat bannock was baked for each
child: it was nipped round the edge, had a hole in the
centre, and was flavoured with carvey (carroway) seed.
Great care was taken that none of these bannocks should
break in the firing, as such an occurrence was regarded
as a very unlucky omen for the child whose bannock
was thus damaged. It denoted illness or death during
the year. Parents sat up till about half-past eleven,
when the fire was covered, and every particle of ash
swept up and carried out of the house. All retired to
bed before twelve o'clock, as it was unlucky not to be
in bed as the New Year came in. A watchful eye was
kept on the fire lest it should go out, for such an
event was regarded as very unlucky, and they would
neither give nor receive a light from any one on New
Year's day. Neither fire, ashes, nor anything belonging
to the house was taken out of it on that day. In the
morning we children got our bannocks to breakfast.
They were small, and it was unlucky to leave any portion
of them, although this was frequently done. The first-foot
was an important episode. To visit empty-handed
on this day was tantamount to wishing a curse on the
family. A plane-soled person was an unlucky first-foot;
a pious sanctimonious person was not good, and a hearty
ranting merry fellow was considered the best sort of first-foot.
It was necessary for luck that what was poured out
of the first-foot's gift, be it whiskey or other drink, should
be drunk to the dregs by each recipient, and it was requisite
that he should do the same by their's. It was
against rule for any portion to be left, but if there did
happen to be an unconsumed remnant, it was cast out.
With any subsequent visitor these particulars were not
observed. I remember that one year our first-foot was
a man who had fallen and broken his bottle, and cut and
bleeding was assisted into our house. My mother made
up her mind that this was a most unfortunate first-foot,
and that something serious would occur in the family
during that year. I believe had the whole family been
cut off, she would not have been surprised. However, it
was a prosperous year, and a bleeding first-foot was not
afterwards considered bad. If anything extraordinary
did occur throughout the year, it was remembered
and referred to afterwards. One New Year's day
something was stolen out of our house; that year
father and mother were confined to bed for weeks;
the cause and effect were quite clear. During the
day neighbours visited each other with bottle and
bun, every one overflowing with good wishes. In
the evening the family, old and young, were gathered
together, those who during the year were out at service,
the married with their families, and at this meal the best
the family could afford was produced. It was a happy
time, long looked forward to, and long remembered by
all.
Beltane or Beilteine means Baals fire, Baal (Lord) was
the name under which the Phoenicians recognized their
primary male god, the Sun: fire was his earthly symbol
and the medium through which sacrifices to him were
offered. Hence sun and fire-worship were identical. I
am of opinion that originally the Beltane festival was
held at the Spring equinox but that its original connection
with the equinox, in process of time was forgotten,
and it became a festival inaugurative of summer. There
is some difference of opinion as to the particular day on
which the Beltane festival was held in this country. Dr.
Jamieson, Dr. R. Chambers, and others who have studied
this subject say that the 1st May (old style) was Beltane
day. Professor Veitch; in his History and Poetry of the
Scottish Border, (p. 118,) says, speaking of the Druids:—"They
worshipped the sun god, the representative of
the bright side of nature—Baal, the fire-giver—and
to him on the hill tops they lit the fire on the end of
May, the Beltane." And again, in his remarks on
Peblis to the Play, (p. 315,) he says:—"The play was not the
name for a stage play, but indicated the sports and
festivals which took place at Peebles annually at Beltane,
the second of May, not the first of May, as is
usually supposed. These had in all probability come
in place of the ancient British practice of lighting fires
on the hill tops in honour of Baal, the sun god, hence
the name Baaltein, Beltane, i.e. Baal's fire. The
Christian Church had so far modified the ceremonial
as to substitute for the original idolatrous practice
that of a day of rustic amusements. A fair or market
at the same period which lasted for eight days had also
been instituted by Royal charter. But even the practice
of lighting fires on the hill tops was late in dying
out, with the usual tenacity of custom it survived for
long all memory of its original meaning."
The Professor writes very positively as to Beltane day
being the second day of May, not the first day as is supposed.
The Royal Charter granted to the Burgh of
Peebles for holding a fair or market on Beltane day, is
given in the Burgh Records of Peebles, p. 85:—"As also
of holding, using, enjoying, and exercising within the
foresaid Burgh weekly market days according to the use
and custom of the said Burgh, together with three fairs,
thrice in the year, the first thereof beginning yearly
upon the third day of May, called Beltane day, the
same to be held and continued for the space of forty-eight
hours thereafter." The date of the Charter is
1621, but it is evident that the third of May had been
previously kept as Beltane day. The Professor is also
mistaken in stating that the Beltane fair of Peebles was
to be kept for eight days. The third fair, held in August,
continued eight days, but the fairs in May and June were
kept for two days according to the Charter. That there
were two days known as Beltane at the beginning of last
century is evident from a book of Scotch proverbs published
in 1721 by James Kelly, A.M., in which occurs
the following,—
"You have skill of man and beast,
Ye was born between the Beltans."
In all probability the discrepancy as to the day originated
through the Church substituting a Christian festival for a
heathen one; and although the date was changed, yet
through force of custom the name of the old festival was
retained, and in localities where the power of the Church
was comparatively weak, the older, the original day for
the festival would probably be kept as well as the newly
appointed Church festival. This view of the matter is
rendered probable from the fact that the Church did institute
a great festival, to be held on the third of May, to
commemorate the finding of the cross of Christ. The
legend is as follows:—When the Empress Helena was at
Jerusalem about the end of the third century, she discovered
the cross on which Christ was crucified, and had
it conveyed to the great church built by Constantine
her son. This cross was exhibited yearly to the people,
and many miracles were wrought by it. A festival, as I
have said, was instituted in commemoration of the discovery,
and this was held on the third of May, and was
called Rood or rude day. Churches were built and dedicated
to the Holy Rood, among which was that which is
now Holyrood Palace. Where the Church was powerful,
as in Edinburgh and Peebles, Rood day would be the
important festival, and Beltane would gradually become
incorporated with it, the names Beltane day and Rood
day becoming synonymous. Thus we may account for
Edinburgh and Peebles keeping Beltane on the third day
of May, while in Perth and other northern counties where
the Church influence was weaker, the festival would be
kept according to the older custom on the first of May.
In Druidical times the people allowed their fires to go
out on Beltane eve, and on Beltane day the priests met
on a hill dedicated to the Sun, and obtained fire from
heaven. When the fire was obtained, sacrifices were
offered, and the people danced round the fire with shoutings
till the sacrifices were consumed; after which they
received portions of the sacred fire with which to rekindle
their hearths for another twelve months. Besides
mountains, there were evidently other localities where
sacrifices and the ritual of Sun-worship were observed,
and which received appropriate names in accordance
with their character as sacred places. Some of these
names still survive, as for instance:—
Ard-an-teine—The light of the fire.
Craig-an-teine—The rock of the fire.
Auch-an-teine—The field of the fire.
Tillie-bet-teine—The knoll of the fire; and so through
a great many other names of places we find traces of the
Baal and fire worship. So widespread and numerous are
the names which recall this ritual, that we can see quite
clearly that the spirit of their religion thoroughly dominated
the people. In Ireland, at Beltane, the Pagan
Kings are said to have convoked the people for State
purposes. The last of these heathen kings convoked a
grand assembly of the nation to meet with him on Tara,
at the feast of Beltane, which the old chroniclers say was
the principal feast of the year.
Respecting this feast, Dr. Jamieson says, introducing
a quotation from O'Brien, "Ignis Bei Dei Aseatica ea lineheil,
or May-day, so called from large fires which the
Druids were used to light on the summits of the highest
hills, into which they drove four-footed beasts, using certain
ceremonies to expiate for the sins of the people.
The Pagan ceremony of lighting these fires in honour of
the Asiatic god Belus gave its name to the entire month
of May, which to this day is called Me-na-bealtine, in
the Irish, Dor Keating." He says again, speaking of
these fires of Baal, that the cattle were driven through
them and not sacrificed, the chief design being to
avert contagious disorders from them for the year. And
quoting from an ancient glossary, O'Brien says, "The
Druids lighted two solemn fires every year, and drove
all four-footed beasts through them, in order to preserve
them from contagious distempers during the current
year." I am inclined to think that these notices describe
a sort of modified or Christianized Beltane,
that driving the cattle through the fire was a substitute
for the older form of sacrificing cattle to the sun.
Until very lately in different parts of Ireland, it was
the common practice to kindle fires in milking yards
on the first day of May, and then men, women, and
children leaped through them, and the cattle were driven
through in order to avert evil influences. They were
also in the habit of quenching their fires on the last day
of April, and rekindling them on the first day of May.
In certain localities in Perthshire, so lately as 1810, (I
have referred to this before), the inhabitants collected
and kindled a fire by friction, and through the fire thus
kindled they drove their cattle in order to protect them
against disease, and at the same time they held a feast
of rejoicing.
As already mentioned, the Romans held several festivals
at the beginning of summer, and many of their observances
on these occasions were introduced into this
country, and became incorporated with the Beltane practices.
For example, the Romans held a festival in honour
of Pales, the goddess of flocks and sheepfolds. The
feast was termed Palilia. Lempriere states that some
of the ceremonies accompanying the feast consisted in
"burning heaps of straw, and in leaping over them; no
sacrifices were offered, but purifications were made with
the smoke of horse's blood, and with the ashes of a calf
that had been taken from the belly of its mother after
it had been sacrificed, and with the ashes of beans;
the purification of the flocks was also made with the
smoke of sulphur, also of the olive, the pine, the laurel,
and rosemary. Offerings of mild cheese, boiled wine,
and cakes of millet were afterwards made. Some call
this festival Palilia, because the sacrifices were offered
to the divinity for the fecundity of their flocks." There
was also a large cake prepared for Pales, and a prayer
was addressed to the divinity by shepherds, as thus given
by Dr. Jamieson:—
"O let me propitious find,
And to the shepherd and his sheep be kind;
Far from my flocks drive noxious things away,
And let my flocks in wholesome pastures stray.
May I, at night, my morning's number take,
Nor mourn a theft the prowling wolf may make.
May all my rams the ewes with vigour press,
To give my flocks a yearly due increase."
The Romans held another festival in honour of the
goddess Flora. It began on the 28th April, and lasted
three days. The people wore garlands of flowers, and
carried them about with branches of newly-budded trees.
There was much licentiousness connected with this
feast.
Reference has already been made to another Roman
festival which was celebrated early in May. This was
called the Lamuralia, and its purport was to propitiate
the favour of the ghosts or spirits of their ancestors. I
am of opinion that the English May feasts are a survival
of the Floralia, and, as kept during the middle ages,
were not free from some of the indecencies of the
Floralia. In my remembrance, the first of May, in the
country west of Glasgow, was honoured by decking the
houses with tree branches and flowers. Horses were
also similarly decked. The Church did not attempt to
abolish these heathen festivals, but endeavoured to
dominate them, and substitute for legends of heathen
origin connected with them legends of Church origin.
In this they partly succeeded. The following account of
the Beltane festival, as it was kept in some districts in
Perthshire at the close of last century, taken from the
statistical accounts of certain parishes, will shew how
persistent these ancient customs were, and also how some
other festivals latterly became amalgamated and identified
with Beltane:—
"In the Parish of Callander, upon the first day of
May," says the minister of the parish, "all the boys in
the town or hamlet meet on the moors. They cut a
table on the green sod, of a round shape, to hold the
whole company. They kindle a fire, and dress a repast
of eggs and milk in the consistence of a custard.
They knead a cake of oatmeal, which is baked at the
fire upon a stone. After the custard is eaten up, they
divide the cake into as many portions, and as similar
as possible, as there are persons in the company.
They blacken one of these portions with charcoal
until it is perfectly black. They put all the
bits of cake into a bonnet. Every one blindfolded draws
a portion—he who holds the bonnet is entitled to the
last. Who draws the black bit is the devoted person to
be sacrificed to Baal, whose favour they mean to implore
in rendering the year productive of substance for man
and beast. There is little doubt of these human sacrifices
being once offered in the country, but the youth
who has got the black bit must leap through the flame of
the fire three times." I have myself conversed with old
men who, when boys, were present at, and took part in
these observances; and they told me that in their grandfathers'
time it was the men who practised these rites,
but as they were generally accompanied with much
drinking and riot, the clergy set their faces against the
customs, and subjected the parties observing them to
church discipline, so that in course of time the practices
became merely the frolic of boys.
In the Parish of Logierait, Beltane is celebrated by
the shepherds and cowherds in the following manner.
They assemble in the fields and dress a dinner of milk
and eggs. This dish they eat with a sort of cake baked
for the occasion, having small lumps or nipples raised all
over its surface. These knobs are not eaten, but broken
off, and given as offerings to the different supposed powers
or influences that protect or destroy their flocks, to the
one as a thank-offering, to the other as a peace-offering.
Mr. Pennant, in his Tour through Scotland, thus describes
the Beltane observances as they were observed at
the end of last century. "The herds of every village
hold their Beltane (a rural sacrifice.) They cut a square
trench in the ground, leaving the turf in the middle.
On that they make a fire of wood, on which they dress
a large caudle of eggs, oatmeal, butter, and milk, and
bring besides these plenty of beer and whiskey. Each
of the company must contribute something towards the
feast. The rites begin by pouring a little of the caudle
upon the ground, by way of a libation. Every one then
takes a cake of oatmeal, on which are raised nine square
knobs, each dedicated to some particular being who is
supposed to preserve their herds, or to some animal
the destroyer of them. Each person then turns his
face to the fire, breaks off a knob, and, flinging it over
his shoulder, says—'This I give to thee,' naming the
being whom he thanks, 'preserver of my sheep,' &c.; or
to the destroyer, 'This I give to thee, (O fox or eagle),'
spare my lambs,' &c. When this ceremony is over
they all dine on the caudle."
The shepherds in Perthshire still hold a festival on the
1st of May, but the practices at it are now much modified.
As may readily be surmised, there were a great many
superstitious beliefs connected with Beltane, some of
which still survive, and tend to maintain its existence.
Dew collected on the morning of the first day of May is
supposed to confer witch power on the gatherer, and give
protection against an evil eye. To be seen in a field at
day-break that morning, rendered the person seen an object
of fear. A story is told of a farmer who, on the first
of May discovered two old women in one of his fields,
drawing a hair rope along the grass. On being seen, they
fled. The farmer secured the rope, took it home with
him, and hung it in the byre. When the cows were
milked every spare dish about the farm-house was filled
with milk, and yet the udders remained full. The farmer
being alarmed, consigned the rope to the fire, and then
the milk ceased to flow.
It was believed that first of May dew preserved the
skin from wrinkles and freckles, and gave a glow of youth.
To this belief Ferguson refers in the following lines:—
"On May day in a fairy ring,
We've seen them round St. Anthon's spring,
Frae grass the caller dew to wring,
To wet their een;
And water clear as crystal spring,
To synd them clean."
To sun worshippers no season would be better calculated
to excite devotional feelings towards the great
luminary than the period when he attained the zenith of
his strength. It is probable, therefore, that as his movements
must have been closely observed, and his various
phases regarded by the people, in the language of Scripture,
"for signs and for seasons, for days and for years,"
that the turning points in the sun's yearly course, the
solstices, would naturally become periods of worship.
That the Summer solstice was an important religious
period is rendered probable from the following curious
observation concerning Stonehenge, which appeared in
the Notes and Queries portion of the Scotsman newspaper
for July 31, 1875. The Scotsman's correspondent
states that "a party of Americans went on midsummer
morning this year to see the sun rise upon Stonehenge.
They found crowds of people assembled. Stonehenge,"
continues the writer, "may roughly be described
as comprising seven-eighths of a circle, from the
open ends of which there runs eastward an avenue having
upright stones on either side. At some distance
beyond this avenue, but in a direct line with its centre,
stands one solitary stone in a sloping position; in front
of which, but at a considerable distance, is an eminence
or hill. The point of observation chosen by the excursion
party was the stone table or altar near the head
of, and within the circle, directly looking down. The
morning was unfavourable, but, fortunately, just as the
sun was beginning to appear over the top of the hill,
the mist disappeared, and then, for a few moments, the
onlookers stood amazed at the spectacle presented to
their view. While it lasted, the sun, like an immense
ball, appeared actually to rest on the isolated stone of
which mention has been made. Now, in this," says
a writer in the New Quarterly Magazine for January,
1876, commenting upon the statement of the Scotsman's
correspondent, "we find strong proof that Stonehenge
was really a mighty almanack in stone; doubtless also
a temple of the sun, erected by a race which has long
perished without intelligible record."
I think it is not a very fanciful supposition to suppose,
from the still existing names of places in this country
bearing reference to sun-worship, that there were other
places than Stonehenge which were used as stone almanacks
"for signs and for seasons," and also for temples.
Grenach in Perthshire, meaning Field of the Sun,
where there is a large stone circle, may have been such
a place; and Grian-chnox, now Greenock, meaning Knoll
of the Sun, may have originally marked the place where
the sun's rising became visible at a certain period of the
year, from a stone circle in the neighbourhood. As far
as I have been able to discover, there remains to us little
trace of the manner in which the midsummer feast was
kept in this country in prehistoric times, but so far as
traces do remain, they appear to indicate that it was
celebrated much after the same manner as the Scottish
Celts are said to have celebrated Beltane. Indeed, the
Celtic Irish hold their Beilteme feast on the 21st June,
and their fires are kindled on the tops of hills, and each
member of a family is, in order to secure good luck,
obliged to pass through the fire. On this occasion also,
a feast is held. A similar practice was common in West
Cornwall at midsummer. Fires were kindled, and the
people danced round them, and leaped singly through
the flames to ensure good luck and protection against
witchcraft. The following passage occurs in Traditions
and Hearthside Stories of West Cornwall, by William
Bottreill, 1873:—"Many years ago, on Midsummer
eve, when it became dusk, very old people in the west
country would hobble away to some high ground whence
they obtained a view of the most prominent high hill,
such as Bartinney-Chapel, Cambrae, Sancras Bickan,
Castle-au-dinas, Cam-Gulver, St. Agnes-Bickan, and
many other beacon hills far away to the north and east
which vied with each other in their midsummer night
blaze. They counted the fires, and drew a presage
from the number of them. There are now but few
bonfires to be seen on the western heights; yet we
have observed that Tregonan, Godolphin, and Carnwath
hills, with others far away towards Redruth, still
retain their Baal fires. We would gladly go many
miles to see the weird-looking, yet picturesque dancers
around the flames, on a cairn or high hill top, as we
have seen them some forty years ago." The ancient
Egyptians had their midsummer feasts, as also had the
Greeks and Romans. During these festivals, we are told
that the people, headed by the priests, walked in procession,
carrying flowers and other emblems of the season
in honour of their gods. Such processions were continued
during the early years of the Christian Church, and
the Christian priests in their vestments went into the
fields to ask a blessing on the agricultural produce of the
year. Towards the beginning of the twelfth century the
Church introduced the Feast of God, and fixed the 19th
June for its celebration. The eucharistic elements were
declared to be the actual presence of God, and this, the
consecrated Host or God himself was carried through the
open streets by a procession of priests, the people turning
out to do it honour, kneeling and worshipping as it
passed. This feast of God may have absorbed some of
the ancient midsummer practices, but the Feast of St.
John's Day, which is held upon the 24th June, has in
its customs a greater similarity to the ancient sun feast.
On the eve of St. John's day, people went to the woods
and brought home branches of trees, which they fixed
over their doorways. Towards night of St. John's Day,
bonfires were kindled, and round them the people danced
with frantic mirth, and men and boys leaped through the
flames. Leaping through the flames is a common practice
at these survivals of sun festivals, and although done
now, partly for luck and partly for sport, there can be
little doubt but that originally human sacrifices were then
offered to the sun god.
There was quite a host of curious superstitions connected
with this midsummer feast, especially in Ireland
and Germany, and many of these were similar to those
connected with the feast of Hallowe'en in Scotland. In
Ireland, in olden times, it was believed that the souls of
people left their sleeping bodies, and visited the place
where death would ultimately overtake them; and there
were many who, in consequence, would not sleep, but
sat up all night. People also went out on St. John's eve
to gather certain plants which were held as sacred, such
as the rose, the trifoil, St. John's wort, and vervain, the
possession of which gave them influence over evil. To
catch the seed of the fern as it fell to the ground on St.
John's eve, exactly at twelve o'clock, was believed to
confer upon the persons who caught it the power of rendering
themselves invisible at will.
In my opinion, the great prehistoric midsummer festival
to the sun god has diverged into the two Church
feasts, Eucharist and St. John's day; but St. John's day
has absorbed the greater share of old customs and superstitious
ideas, and so numerous are they that the most
meagre description of them would yield matter for an
hour's reading.
The northern nations, like the Hebrews, began their
day in the evening. Thus we have Yule Eve, and
Hallow Eve (Hallowe'en), the evenings preceding the
respective feasts. The name Hallowe'en is of Christian
origin, but the origin of the feast itself is hidden in
ancient mythology. The Celtic name for the autumn
festival was Sham-in, meaning Baal's Fire. The Irish
Celts called it Sainhain, or Sainfuin; Sain, summer,
and Fuin, end,—i.e., the end of summer. The Hebrews
and Phoenicians called this festival Baal-Shewin, a name
signifying the principle of order. The feast day in
Britain and Ireland is the first of November. The
Druids are said on this day to have sacrificed horses to
the sun, as a thank-offering for the harvest. An Irish
king, who reigned 400 A.D., commanded sacrifices to be
made to a moon idol, which was worshipped by the
people on the evening of Sain-hain. Sacrifices were
also offered on this night to the spirits of the dead, who
were believed to have liberty at this season to visit their
old earthly haunts and their friends,—a belief this, which
was entertained by many ancient nations, and was the
origin of many of the curious superstitious customs still
extant in this country on Hallowe'en. Dr. Smith, commenting
in Jamieson's Dictionary on the solemnities of
Beltane, says, "The other of these solemnities was held
upon Hallow Eve, which in Gaelic still retains the
name of Sham-in,—this word signifying the Fire of
Peace, or the time of kindling the fire for maintaining
peace. It was at this season that the Druids usually
met in the most central places of every country to
adjust every dispute and decide every controversy. On
that occasion, all the fires in the country were extinguished
on the preceding evening, in order to be
supplied next day by a portion of the holy fire which
was kindled and consecrated by the Druids. Of this, no
person who had infringed the peace, or become obnoxious
by any breach of law, or guilty of any failure in duty,
was to have share, till he had first made all the reparation
and submission which the Druids required of him.
Whoever did not, with the most implicit obedience,
agree to this, had the sentence of excommunication
passed against him, which was more dreaded than
death; none being allowed to give him house or fire,
or shew him the least office of humanity, under the
penalty of incurring the same sentence." The ancient
Romans held a great and popular festival at the end of
February, called the Ferralia. At this season, they
visited the graves of their departed friends, and offered
sacrifices and oblations to the spirits of the dead; they
believed that the spirits of the departed, both the good
and the bad, were released on that particular night, and
that, if they were not propitiated, these spirits would
haunt throughout the coming year their undutiful living
relatives. In all probability, though the time of celebration
is different, these Roman ceremonies and the
Hallowe'en ceremonies in this country had a common
origin. In the year 610, the Bishop of Rome ordained
that the heathen Pantheon should be converted into a
Christian church, and dedicated to all the martyrs; and
a festival was instituted to commemorate the event.
This was held on the first of May, and continued to be
held on this day till 834, when the time of celebration
was altered to the first of November, and it was then
called All Hallow, from a Saxon word, Haligan, meaning
to keep holy. This change was doubtless made in
order to supply a Christian substitute for some heathen
festival—in all probability the festival of Sham-in,
which, as we have seen, was an old Druidical feast.
Some time after this alteration in the time of holding
the feast in honour of the martyrs, in 993, another
festival was instituted for the purpose of offering prayers
for the souls of those in purgatory, and this feast was
kept on the second of November, and was called All
Souls. The following legend was either invented as a
plausible reason for instituting this additional feast, or
the legend, being previously well known and accepted as
truth, was really the bona fide reason for the institution:—"A
pilgrim, returning from the Holy Land, was compelled
by storm to land upon a rocky island, where he
found a hermit, who told him that among the cliffs of
the island was an opening into the infernal regions,
through which huge flames ascended, and where the
groans of the tormented were distinctly audible. The
pilgrim, on his return, told the Abbot of Clugny of
this, and the Abbot appointed the second day of
November to be set apart for the benefit of souls in
purgatory, which was to be kept by prayers and almsgiving."
It is easy to perceive that, while in the
festival of Hallowe'en we have the survival of the old
Druidical festival of thank-offering to the sun-god for the
ingathering of the fruits of the earth, we have also in
these two festivals of All Saints and All Souls the survival
of the ancient Ferralia, or festival to the dead,
when offerings were made to both good and bad spirits,
to prevent them haunting the living; and thus we can
account for the prevalence of the numerous superstitions
concerning ghosts and evil spirits connected with the
festival of Hallowe'en. That these Church feasts were
regarded as the substitute for the Ferralia of Pagan
Rome is verified by Father Meagan in his work on The
Mass. We quote from Jamieson:—"Such was the devotion
of the heathen on this day by offering sacrifices
for the souls in purgatory, by praying at the graves,
and performing processions round the churchyards
with lighted tapers, that they called the month the
month of pardons, indulgences, and absolutions for
souls in purgatory; or, as Plutarch calls it, the purifying
month, or season of purification, because the living
and dead were supposed to be purged and purified on
these occasions from their sins by sacrifices, flagellations,
and other works of mortification." Plutarch, I think,
must have referred to the month of February as the
purifying month. Father Meagan has not referred to
the change of date made by the Church. Doubtless the
Christian Church, in instituting these festivals, intended,
by divesting them of their heathen basis, to christianise
the people; but, like Naaman of old, the worshippers,
while they worshipped in the buildings in conformity
with the regulations of their new teachers, yet retained
many of their old Pagan beliefs and ceremonies, and
even their teachers were not thoroughly de-Paganised,—and
so the old and new commingled and crystallized
together.
In all the four festivals we have been considering,
there survive relics of fire-worship, and through
all there runs a similarity of observance and belief; but
the special practices are not everywhere joined to the
same festival in all localities. In this part of the country,
the special observances connected with Hallowe'en were,
in other parts of the country, observed in connection
with the summer festival. Now, however, we are glad
to say, these superstitious ceremonies and beliefs in their
old gross forms are fast passing away, or have become so
modified that we can scarcely recognise their relations to
the old fire-worship.
In 1860, I was residing near the head of Loch Tay during
the season of the Hallowe'en feast. For several days
before Hallowe'en, boys and youths collected wood and
conveyed it to the most prominent places on the hill
sides in their neighbourhood. Some of the heaps were
as large as a corn-stack or hay-rick. After dark on
Hallowe'en, these heaps were kindled, and for several
hours both sides of Loch Tay were illuminated as far as
the eye could see. I was told by old men that at the
beginning of this century men as well as boys took part
in getting up the bonfires, and that, when the fire was
ablaze, all joined hands and danced round the fire, and
made a great noise; but that, as these gatherings
generally ended in drunkenness and rough and
dangerous fun, the ministers set their faces against
the observance, and were seconded in their efforts
by the more intelligent and well-behaved in the
community; and so the practice was discontinued
by adults and relegated to school boys. In the statistical
account of the parish of Callander, the same practice
is referred to. It is stated that "When the bonfire was
consumed, the ashes of the fire were carefully collected
in the form of a circle, and a stone put in near the circumference
for every person in the several families concerned
in getting up the fire; and whatever stone is
moved out its place or injured before next morning, the
person represented by the stone is devoted or fey, and is
supposed not to live twelve months from that day." In
all probability this devoted person was in olden times offered
as a sacrifice to the fire god on the great day of
sacrifice, which was the festival day. The belief that
the spirits of the dead were free to roam about on
that night is still held by many in this country. Indeed,
where the forms of the feast have all but disappeared,
the superstitious auguries connected with it survive.
Burns particularises very fully the formulæ of Hallowe'en,
as practised in Ayrshire in his day, and as this
poem is well known, it would be superfluous to follow
it in detail here; but I cannot refrain from drawing
attention to the suggestions which one of the practices
which he mentions affords in favour of the supposition
that it is a relic of an ancient form of appeal to
the fire god—I refer to the practice of burning nuts. It
seems likely that in ancient times the priests, who claimed
prophetic power through the reading of auguries, used
this method of deciding the future at this particular season
of the year, and chiefly during the holding of the
feast.
Although I have confined my remarks to the four
feasts, Yule, Beltane, Midsummer, and Hallowe'en, because
they are the oldest and most properly national,
there were a number of other heathen feasts, emanating
principally from Roman practice, which the Church converted
into Christian feasts, notably what is now called
Candlemass. On the second day of February, the Romans
perambulated their city with torches and candles
burning in honour of Februa; and the Greeks at this
same period held their feast of lights in honour of Ceres.
Pope Innocent explains the origin of this feast of Candlemass.
He states that "The heathens dedicated this
month to the infernal gods. At its beginning Pluto stole
away Proserpine, and her mother Ceres sought for her in
the night with lighted torches. In the beginning of this
month the idolaters walked about the city with lighted
candles, and as some of the holy fathers could not extirpate
such a custom, they ordained that Christians should
carry about candles in honour of the Virgin Mary."
This method of keeping the feast of Candlemass does
not now prevail in this country; so far as the laity are
concerned, the festival may be said to have died out, but
according to Dr. Brewer, the festival is kept by the Roman
Catholic Church as the time for consecrating the candles
used in the Church service.
Formerly there were other public festivals, as Lammas,
Michaelmass, &c., which the Church had substituted for
heathen feasts which have ceased to be public festivals,
and I trust we may indulge the hope that the time is not
far distant when, instead of all such festive relics of
heathenism, the Church and people will substitute one
daily festival of obedience to the honour of the founder
of Christianity, viz., the festival of a righteous life.
- Acts of Assembly against keeping Popular Festivals, 155
- Acts of Sessions against keeping Yule, 155
- Ague, A Cure for, 95
- All Hallow's Festival, its Origin, 177
- Animals in People's Stomachs, 103
- Anthropomorphism, 5
- Appendix, 143
- Appointment of 25th December for Christmas, 152
- Apple, The, Superstitions concerning, 122
- Aspen, Superstitions connected with, the 124
- Ash, Superstitions connected with, the 124
- Ashtoreth, The, of the Jews, 10
- Augustine's, St., or Austin's Mission, 152
- Auguries connected with Funerals, 64
- Aytoun on Fairyland, 21
- Baal, Name of Sun-God, 10, 161
- Babies Carried off by Fairies, 34, 40
- Babies to be taken up a Stair first time taken out, 31
- Bannocks at Yule and New-Year's Day, 160
- Baptism, Early Practices at, 31
- Baptismal Water, 140
- Bedding at Weddings, 53
- Beetles, Superstitions connected with, 116
- Beilteine, Baal's Fire, 161
- Belief in Fairies in this Country, 27
- in Ghosts Visiting People, 176
- in Witchcraft still Survives, 68
- Beltane, 161
- Customs in Ireland, 166
- Festival in Perthshire, 168
- Day, First of May, 162
- Held in some Counties on 3rd May, 162
- Birds Flying over a Person's Head, 114
- Black Art, The, 75
- Blessing the Candles to be Used in Church, 181
- Bonfires at Hallowe'en, 179
- Bonny Kilmeny, 22
- Booths in connection with Temples, 153
- Bottreill's Hearth Stories of West Cornwall, 173
- Boutree, or Bourtree, Defence against Evil-Eye, 126
- Breaking Looking-Glass on the Wall, 137
- Bride's Cake, Practices connected with, 51
- Bull of Innocent VIII. against making Compacts with the Devil, 17
- Candlemas, Relation of, to Festival of Februa, 181
- Casting of Calf by Cows Prevented, 84
- Cats Dying in the House not Lucky, 117
- Caul, Child's, its Influence, 32
- Celtic Irish hold Beltane at Midsummer, 172
- Celtic Names of Places indicate Sun-Worship, 149
- Ceremonies on St. John's Day, 174
- Changing of Babies by Fairies, 46
- Charms and Counter Charms, 79
- Child Rowland in Elfland, 26
- Children Cutting Teeth, 137
- Cholera, its First Visit to this Country, 14
- National Fast for, Refused, 15
- Christianity consistent with Nature, 16
- Christian Creeds not always consistent with Nature, 16
- Christmas Fixed to be kept on the 25th December, 152
- Church's, The, Enactments against Devil's Devices, 27
- Church, The, Punishing Deviation from her Creed, 17
- Clover, Four-Leaved, its Influence, 130
- Coal Explosions, Prognostics concerning, 138
- Cock Crowing with his Head to the Door, 114
- Cold Tremour, foreboding Death, 138
- Coral Beads, their Influence, 36
- Cornwall, Beltane Fires in Midsummer, 172
- Cows, Restive, foreboding Evil, 136
- Cricket in the House, 114
- Cure for an Evil Eye, 36
- Cutting the Nails of Young Children, 139
- Deaf and Dumb possessing Second Sight, 72
- Death Warnings, 56
- Defending the Bride against Evil Influences, 51, 54
- Deid Bell, 66
- Deification of Stars, 145
- Devil conferring Supernatural Power, 28
- Making Compacts with the, 77
- Dew-Collecting on First May, 170
- Different Nations modifying Customs, 151
- Dirgy, or Dredgy, after Funerals, 63
- Disease Transferred to the Lower Animals, 92, 96
- Divining by Bible and Key, 106
- Double Ears of Corn, 139
- Dousing Rod to find Springs or Mineral Veins, 109
- Dress put on Wrong Side Out, 137
- Druids, 147
- Druidism in Ireland, 150
- Druidical Customs at Beltane, 164
- Duties of New-Married Wife in Old Times, 55
- Ear Tingling, 137
- Ecclesiastical Influence Leading to Wrong Ideas of God, 6
- Eclipses Portending Evil, 141
- Eggs Laid upon Good Friday, 114
- Elder, or Bourtree, The, 125
- English Opinions of Yule Feasts in Scotland, 156
- Evil Eye, Influence of, 30, 35, 37
- Exorcising Ghosts, 11
- Extracts from Presbytery Records on Witchcraft, 67
- Fairy Legend, A, 119
- Fairies, What They Are, 26
- Fairies, Brownies, and Elfs, by Rev. Mr. Kirk, 19
- Fairyland, its Government, 21
- Family Feasts at New-Year, 161
- Fascinating Children Prevented, 139
- Fasting Spittle, 98
- Feast of God, 173
- Feasts to Evil Spirits, 12
- Ferralia Festival like Hallowe'en, 176
- Ferns, Common, its Seed, 128
- Festivals of Druids at Winter Solstice, 153
- Fire, the Earthly Symbol of the Sun, 10
- Fire-Worship in Scotland in 1810, 84
- Fires Kindled on Mountains at Midsummer, 173
- First of May Customs, 167
- First-Footing at Yule, 156
- First-Foot to Present a Gift, 160
- Flora, Goddess, her Feast at Beltane, 167
- Floralia, or First of May Observances, 167
- Foot Itching, Sign of, 137
- Formula for Exorcising Ghosts, 11
- Forks, their First Use and Effects of, 15
- Four-Leaved Clover, 130
- Funeral Customs, 63
- Guardian Angels, 59
- Gems, their Significance, 102
- Glamour, 132
- Giants and Dwarfs of Middle Ages, 19
- Girl's Petticoat Longer than Frock, Omen of, 137
- Goat, Beliefs concerning, 119
- Goodman's Croft, 140
- Golden Rose, 129
- Gods of the Babylonians, B.C. 2000, 7
- Greeks in Classical Times, 8
- God, Different Ideas concerning, 5
- Haco Fixing 25th December for holding Christmas, 154
- Hades, 11
- Hallowe'en Practices, 175
- Hallowe'en Practices in Perthshire, 180
- Hand over Hand Divining, 110
- Hand Itching, its Meaning, 137
- Hansel Monday, 155
- Hare Crossing Road, Seeing a, 117
- Hazel, The, 125
- Hen, A, Crowing like a Cock, 113
- Herring-Fishing on Sabbath, its Consequences, 142
- Hogmanay, 154
- Hooping-Cough, Cure for the, 95
- Holly, The, 123
- Holy Fire, 176
- Holyrood, Origin of, 163
- Horse Shoe, Protection from Witchcraft, 139
- Horse, A, Neighing Towards a House, 114
- Human Hair in Birds' Nests, 114
- Hydrophobia, How to Prevent, 101
- Influence of Charms, 89
- Influence of May Dew, 170
- Influences, The Evil, Communicated by Dress, 39
- Initial Letters of Man and Wife's Name, 138
- Intermixing of Heathen with Christian Practices, 18
- Intercourse held with Infernal Fiends, 17
- Isabella Goudie's Confessions, 22
- Itching of the Nose, 136
- Jamieson, Dr. on Pales' Customs, 167
- Killing Spiders, 115
- Kirk, Rev. Mr., on the Nature of Fairies, 20
- Knife Presented as a Gift, 138
- Ladybirds, 116
- Lammas Festival, 181
- Lamuralia, an Ancient Festival, 167
- Lee Penny, The, 95
- Legend of Burd Ellen, 22
- Legend of Purgatory, 177
- Lily, The, 130
- Like Wakes: and reasons for keeping them, 61
- Love Charms, 89
- Luck for new dress, How to procure, 137
- Lucky Animals, 120
- Lucky People to meet first, 32
- Making Effigies to Torment People, 77
- Mandrake, its Influence, 90
- Marriage Customs Sixty Years Ago, 46
- Party meeting a Funeral, 51
- Marrying in May, 43
- Merlin the Wizard, 23
- Metals made under certain Constellations, 93
- Michælmas, 181
- Midfinger free from Canker, 99
- Midsummer Feast among the Ancients, 173
- Festivals in this Country, 170
- Milk Bewitched, 81
- Milking the Tether, 75
- Mistletoe Gathering, 150
- Modern Superstitions, 34
- Money given to Poor at Funerals, 64
- Moon Worship, 98
- Murders discovered by Bleeding of Corpse, 85
- Murrain in Cattle Prevented, 84
- Mutes have Supernatural Gifts, 72
- Names of Places connected with Fire Worship, 164
- Natural Phenomena ascribed to Divinities, 9
- New Year's Day, an Ancient Roman Festival, 151
- Observances, 159
- Festival, 154
- New Moon, Prognostics, 98
- New Zealand Divining, 108
- Oak, a Sacred Tree, 131
- Oaths to Satan, 88
- O'Brien on Beltane, 165
- Observances at Loch Tay on Hallowe'en, 178
- Odd Numbers Lucky, 109
- Old Religions mixing with Christianity, 179
- Omens connected with Bees, 115
- Onion, a Disinfectant, 127
- Origin of Hallowe'en, 177
- Overturning Chair on Leaving Table, 138
- Pales, Goddess of Flocks, 166
- Palilia, Ancient Festival, 166
- Pennant's Account of Beltane in the Highlands, 169
- People Selling themselves to the Devil, 27
- Person first met in the Morning, 136
- Peruvian Ancient Sun Worship, 146
- Phoenicians in Britain 1000 B.C., 148
- Photographs not Lucky, 142
- Place at Dinner, 138
- Plants Gathered on St. John's Eve, 174
- Plough first seen in Season, 136
- Portends for Good or Evil, 136
- Prayers Unanswered, Cause not Sought, 14
- Prayers to the Gods, 13
- Precious Stones: their Virtue, 102
- Preparations made for Yule, 156
- Priests, their Office and Power, 9
- Professor Veitch on Beltane, 162
- Providence—General and Special, 18
- Purgatory, Proof for, 172
- Recovering Stolen Babies, 40
- Red Colour a Charm, 80
- Relics in Curing Diseases, 102
- Repeal of Law against Witchcraft, 68
- Ringing Bells at Funerals, 66
- Robin Redbreast, 111
- Rocking an Empty Cradle, 137
- Rood Day Changed to Beltane, 162
- Roman Festivals in Spring, 166
- Rose, an Emblem of Silence, 129
- Running the Broose, 49
- Rowan Tree Protection against Witchcraft, 79
- Sacred Fire Practice this Century, 83
- Salamander, The, 118
- Salt: its Influence, 33
- to Spill: its Significance, 139
- Scissors Presented as a Gift, 138
- Scoreing aboon the Breath, 38
- Second Sight, 71
- Session: Acts against keeping Yule, 155
- Seventh Son a Doctor, 90
- Sheep Prevented Casting their Lambs, 84
- Sham-in, Ancient Feast of Druids, 175
- Shepherds keeping Beltane in Perthshire, 169
- Sin Eaters, 60
- Speaking Aloud to One's Self, 138
- Spell to make a Fire Kindle, 135
- Spider, A Legend concerning, 115
- Spittle Confirming Bargain, 100
- Spittle, Customs connected with, 100
- Social Habits of Elfland, 26
- Sorcerers, 108
- Souls of the Departed, 11
- Sooth Sayers, 10
- Sow to Meet in the Morning, 120
- St. Augustus, 152
- St. John's Day Festival, 174
- St. John's Wort: a Talisman, 128
- Stealing Children and Youths by Fairies, 21
- Star Gazers, 10
- Stonehenge, 171
- Strangers on the Grate, 140
- Stye, Cause of, 96
- Stye, Cure for, 97
- Suicides, Superstition relating to, 85
- Sun Worship in Ancient Times, 146
- Sun, Primary God of the Ancient, 9
- Survival of Sun Worship, 145
- Superstitious Rites with a Corpse, 60
- Superstition, Meaning of, 2
- Swallows, Omens connected with, 112
- Sympathetic Cures, 91
- Thank-offering for Answer to Prayer, 13
- Theory of Curing by Charms, 91
- Touching for Disease, 91
- Touching of a Corpse to Prevent Dreaming of it, 63
- Twin Nuts in One Shell, 136
- Visions, Seeing, 72
- Visit to Stonehenge on Midsummer, 171
- Warts, Cure for, 97
- Weighing Children Unlucky, 137
- Willow, The, 125
- White Butterfly, 115
- Wishes Fulfilled, 87
- Wishes against Self: an Oath Fulfilled, 88
- Withershins, 133
- Witches, A, Account of Fairyland, 22
- Witches Changing their Shape, 70
- Wizards, 10
- Wodrow's Opinion on Murdered Corpse Bleeding, 85
- Woman Carried away by Fairies in Arran, 29
- Wraiths, 58
- Written Charms, 91
- Yellow Hammer, The, 112
- Yule: its Meaning, 149
- Yule converted into Christmas, 154
- Yule Observances Transferred to New Year's Day, 157