THE CHILD AS ORACLE-KEEPER AND ORACLE-
INTERPRETER.
Enfants et fous sont devins [Children and fools are soothsayers].
--_French Proverb._
Children pick up words as chickens peas,
And utter them again as God shall please.--_English Proverb_.
The fresh face of a child is richer in significance than the
forecasting of the most indubitable seer.--_Novalis_.
_Child-Oracles_.
"Children and fools speak the truth," says an old and wide-spread
proverb, and another version includes him who is drunken, making a
trinity of truth-tellers. In like manner have the frenzy of wine and the
madness of the gods been associated in every age with oracle and sign,
and into this oracular trinity enters also the child. Said De Quincey:
"God speaks to children also, in dreams and by the oracles that lurk in
darkness," and the poet Stoddard has clothed in exquisite language a
similar thought:--
"Nearer the gate of Paradise than we,
Our children breathe its air, its angels see;
And when they pray, God hears their simple prayer,
Yea, even sheathes his sword in judgment bare."
The passage in Joel ii. 28, "Your old men shall dream dreams, your young
men shall see visions," might stand for not a few primitive peoples,
with whom, once in childhood (or youth) and once again in old age, man
communes with the spirits and the gods, and interprets the events of
life to his fellows. The Darien Indians, we are told, "used the seeds of
the _Datura sanguinea_ to bring on in children prophetic delirium
in which they revealed hidden treasures" (545. II. 417).
One of the most curious of the many strange practices which the
conservatism of the Established Church of England has continued down to
the present is one in vogue at the parish church of St. Ives, in
Huntingdonshire. A certain Dr. Eobert Wilde, who died in 1678,
"bequeathed £50, the yearly interest of which was to be expended in the
purchase of six Bibles, not exceeding the price of 7_s_. 6_d_
each, which should be 'cast for by dice' on the communion table every
year by six boys and six girls of the town." The vicar was also to be
paid 10_s_. a year for preaching an appropriate sermon on the Holy
Scriptures. Public opinion has within recent years caused the erection
of a table on the chancel steps, where the dice-throwing now takes
place, instead of on the communion table as of old. Every May 26th the
ceremony is performed, and in 1888 we are told: "The highest throw this
year (three times with three dice) was 37, by a little girl. The vicar
(the Rev. E. Tottenham) preached a sermon from the words, 'From a child
thou hast known the Holy Scriptures'" (390 (1888). 113).
_The Child as Vision-Seer_.
In the history of the Catholic Church one cannot fail to be struck by
the part played by children in the seeing of visions, especially of the
Virgin. To St. Agnes of Monte Pulciano (A.D. 1274-1317), when fourteen
years of age, the Virgin appeared and told her she should build a
monastery before she died (191. 24); Jeanne de Maille (1332-1414) was
but eleven when the Virgin Mary with the infant Jesus came before her in
a vision; Catherine of Racconigi (1486-1547) was visited by the Virgin
when only five years of age (191. 108); in 1075, Hermann of Cologne,
while still a boy, saw in a vision the Virgin, who kissed him, and made
a secret deposit of food on a certain stone for his benefit. In 1858 a
vision of the Immaculate Conception appeared to Bernadetta Soubirous, a
sickly child of fourteen, at Lourdes, in the Hautes Pyrenees. No one
else saw this vision, said to have occurred on Shrove Tuesday (Feb. 11),
four years after Pius IX. had proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate
Conception. The vision lasted for fourteen successive days (191. 484).
On Jan. 17, 1871, the Virgin is alleged to have appeared at Pontmain to
several children, and a detailed account of the vision has been given by
Mgr. Guérin, chamberlain of Pius IX., in his _Vie des Saints_, and
this is digested in Brewer. The children who saw the apparition are
described as follows: "Eugène Barbedette was the second son of a small
farmer living in the village of Pontmain, in the diocese of Laval. He
was twelve years old, and his brother Joseph was ten. The other two
[Françoise Richer, Jeanne Marie Lebossé] were children from neighbouring
cottages, called in to witness the sight. The parents of the children,
the pastor of the village, Sister Vitaline, the abbot Guérin, all
present, could see nothing, nor could any of the neighbours of outlying
villages, who flocked to the place. Only the children mentioned, a sick
child, and a babe in the arms of its grandmother, saw the apparition."
The description of the Virgin, as seen by Eugène Barbedette that
starlight winter night, is quaint and naïve in the extreme: "She was
very tall, robed in blue, and her robe studded with stars. Her shoes
were also blue, but had red rosettes. Her face was covered with a black
veil, which floated to her shoulders. A crown of gold was on her head,
but a red line was observed to run round the crown, symbolic of the
blood shed by Christ for the sins of the world. Beneath her feet was a
scroll, on which were written these words: 'Mais priez, mes enfants,
Dieu vous exaucera, en peu de temps mon fils se laisse toucher' (Pray,
my children, God will hear you, before long my son will be moved)." Mgr.
Guérin thus comments upon the miracle: "In order to make herself
manifest to men, the Holy Virgin has chosen rather the simple eyes of
childhood; for, like troubled waters, sinful souls would have but ill
reflected her celestial image" (191. 26).
_Flower- and Animal-Oracles_.
Mr. Newell has a chapter on "Flower-Oracles" (313. 105-114), in which he
gives many illustrations of the practice noted in the lines of that
nature-loving mediaeval German singer, with which he prefaces his
remarks:--
"A spire of grass hath made me gay;
It saith I shall find mercy mild.
I measured in the self-same way
I have seen practised by a child."
"Come look and listen if she really does:
She does, does not, she does, does not, she does.
Each time I try, the end so augureth.
That comforts me,--'tis right that we have faith."
The ox-eye daisy, the common daisy, the marguerite, the corn-flower,
the dandelion, the rose, the pansy, the clover, and a score of other
flowers and plants (to say nothing of bushes and trees) have their
leaves and petals pulled off, their seeds counted, their fruit examined,
their seed-tufts blown away, their markings and other peculiarities
deciphered and interpreted to determine the fortune of little
questioners, the character of the home they are to live in, the clothes
they are to be married in, what they are to ride in, the profession they
are to adopt, whether they are to marry, remain single, become monk or
nun, whether they are to be drowned or hanged, rich or poor, honest or
criminal, whether they are to go to hell, purgatory, or paradise.
The use of drawing straws or blades of grass from the hand to determine
who is "it," or who shall begin the game, the blowing of the dandelion
in seed, the counting of apple-pips, or the leaves on a twig, and a
hundred other expedients belong to the same category. All these are
oracles, whose priest and interpreter is the child; first, in "those
sweet, childish days that were as long as twenty days are now," and then
again when love rules the heart and the appeal to the arbitrament of
nature--for not alone all mankind but all nature loves a lover--is made
in deepest faith and confidence. In the golden age of childhood and in
the springtime of love all nature is akin to man. The dandelion is
especially favoured as an oracle of children, and of those who are but
"children of a larger growth." To quote from Folkard (448. 309):--
"The dandelion is called the rustic oracle; its flowers always open
about 5 A.M. and shut at 8 P.M., serving the shepherd for a clock.
'Leontodons unfold
On the swart turf their ray-encircled gold,
With Sol's expanding beam the flowers unclose,
And rising Hesper lights them to repose.'--_Darwin_.
As the flower is the shepherd's clock, so are the feathery seedtufts his
barometer, predicting calm or storm. These downy seedballs, which
children blow off to find out the hour of day, serve for other oracular
purposes. Are you separated from the object of your love? Carefully
pluck one of the feathery heads; charge each of the little feathers
composing it with a tender thought; turn towards the spot where the
loved one dwells; blow, and the seed-ball will convey your message
faithfully. Do you wish to know if that dear one is thinking of you?
blow again; and if there be left upon the stalk a single aigrette, it is
a proof you are not forgotten. Similarly, the dandelion is consulted as
to whether the lover lives east, west, north, or south, and whether he
is coming or not.
'Will he come? I pluck the flower leaves off,
And, at each, cry yes, no, yes;
I blow the down from the dry hawkweed,
Once, twice--hah! I it flies amiss!'--Scott."
Many interesting details about flower-oracles may be read in the pages
of Friend (453) and Folkard (448) and in Mr. Dyer's chapters on
_Plants and the Ceremonial Use_ (435. 145-162), _Children's
Rhymes and Games_ (435. 232-242), etc.
Beasts, birds, and insects are also the child's oracles. Mr. Callaway
tells us that among the Amazulu, when cattle are lost, and the boys see
the bird called _Isi pungumangati_ sitting on a tree, "they ask it
where the cattle are, and go in the direction in which it points with
its head." The insect known as the _mantis_, or "praying insect,"
is used for a similar purpose (417. 339). In the Sollinger forest
(Germany), on St. Matthew's day, February 24, the following practice is
in vogue: A girl takes a girl friend upon her back and carries her to
the nearest sheep-pen, at the door of which both knock. If a lamb is the
first to bleat, the future husbands of both girls will be young; if an
old sheep bleats first, they will both marry old men (391. II. 10).
_The Child as Oracle in the Primitive Community._
In primitive social economy the services of the child, as an
unprejudiced or oracular decider of fates and fortunes, were often in
demand. In the community of Pudu-vayal, in the Carnatic (southeastern
India), "when the season for cultivation arrives, the arable land in the
village is allotted to the several shareholders in the following manner:
The names of each lot and each share-holder are written on pieces of
the leaf of the palm-tree, such as is used for village records, and the
names of each division of land to be allotted are placed in a row. A
child, selected for the purpose, draws by lot a leaf with the name of
the principal share-holder, and places under it a number, thus,--
1--Tannappa. 2--Nina. 3--Narrappa. 4--Malliyan.
It is thus settled by lottery that Tannappa and his under-share-holders
are to cultivate the land of the principal share lotted under No. 1.
Tannappa next proceeds to settle in the same way each
under-shareholder's portion included in his principal share, and so on,
until the sixty-four shareholders receive each his allotment (461. 32)."
At Haddenham, in the county of Buckingham, England, a somewhat similar
practice survived: "The method of deciding the ownership, after the
meadow was plotted out, was by drawing lots. This was done by cutting up
a common dock-weed into the required number of pieces to represent the
lots, a well understood sign being carved on each piece, representing
crows' feet, hog-troughs, and so on. These were placed in a hat and
shaken up. Before this could be done, however, notice must be given by
one of the men, calling out, at the top of his voice, 'Harko,' and using
some sort of rigmarole, calling people to witness that the lots were
drawn fairly and without favour.... The hat being shaken up, and one of
the boys standing by, looking on with the greatest interest, is pitched
upon as a disinterested person to draw the lots, and each owner had to
'sup up' with the lot that fell to him" (461.270).
In the manor of Aston, in the parish of Bampton, Oxfordshire, a like
custom prevailed: "When the grass was fit to cut, the grass stewards and
Sixteens [stewards] summoned the freeholders and tenants to a general
meeting, and the following ceremony took place: Four of the tenants came
forward, each bearing his mark cut on a piece of wood, which, being
thrown into a hat, were shaken up and drawn by a boy. The first drawing
entitled its owner to have his portion of the common meadow in set one,
the second drawn in set two, etc., and thus four of the tenants have
obtained their allotments. Four others then came forward, and the same
process is repeated until all the tenants have received their
allotments" (461. 166).
In Kilkenny, "when the division is made out, lots are prepared. Each man
takes a bit of stick or particular stone, well marked; these are
enveloped in a ball of clay, and a child or stranger is called to place
each ball upon some one of the lots, by which each man's share is
determined" (461. 141).
The Kaffir boy who is to tend the calves in the kraal, while his fellows
sport and romp about, is selected by lot: "As many blades of grass as
there are boys are taken, and a knot is made on the end of one of them.
The biggest boy holds the blades between the fingers and thumb of his
closed hand, and whoever draws the blade with the knot has to act as
herdsman" (543. 221). Nowadays, children are employed to turn
roulette-wheels, sort cards, pick out lottery-tickets, select lucky
numbers, set machinery going for the first time, and perform other like
actions; for, though men are all "children of fortune," there is
something about real children that brings luck and prospers all
enterprises of chance and hazard.
Unconscious action and selection by children have no doubt profoundly
influenced individual men and society at times. De Quincey tells us that
"the celebrated Dr. Doddridge is said to have been guided in a primary
act of choice, influencing his whole after life, by a few chance words
from a child reading aloud to his mother." The story of the conversion
of drunken John Stirling by the naïve remark of his four-year-old boy,
as the mother was reading Matthew xxv. 31-33, "Will father be a goat,
then, mother?" finds parallels in other lives and other lands (191.356).
Here may be considered as belonging some of the "guessing-games,"
certain of which, in forms remarkably like those in use to-day, were
known to the ancients, as Mr. Newell has pointed out, from references in
Xenophon and Petronius Arbiter (313. 147-152).
_Oracular Games_.
As we of to-day see in the sports and games of children some resemblance
to the realities of life of our ancestors of long ago, and of those
primitive peoples who have lingered behind in the march, of culture, so
have the folk seen in them some echo, some oracular reverberation, of
the deeds of absent elders, some forecast of the things to come.
Among the Shushwap Indians of British Columbia, the following belief is
current regarding twins: "While they are children their mother can see
by their plays whether her husband, when he is out hunting, will be
successful or not. When the twins play about and feign to bite each
other, he will be successful; if they keep quiet, he will return
empty-handed" (404. 92).
In Saxon Transylvania, "when children play games in which dolls and the
like are buried, play church, or sing hymns in the street, it is thought
to foretell the approaching death of some one in the place" (392
(1893).18).
Similar superstitions attach to others of the games and sports of
childhood, in which is reproduced the solemn earnest of an earlier
manhood; for, with some peoples, the conviction that what is acted in
pantomime must occur at a later date in all its reality, finds ready
acceptance, and hence children are sometimes even now debarred from
carrying out some of their games, from a vague fear that ill will come
of them in the manner indicated.