half-holyday), or the sheep will be attacked with disease during the
year. Cf. the well known saying that a spinning wheel is unlucky on
board a ship.
Fire must not be taken out of a house on Christmas Eve,[107] or else the
so-called "black ears" will grow among the barley. See _Suomen
Muinaismuisto-yhdistyksen, Aikakauskirja_, v. p. 109.
If the corn is found to be very much entangled when cut, it is said
that the farmer slept crooked in bed on Christmas Eve. In some villages,
on "Knuts Day," Jan. 13th, a young girl is dressed up as a bride, and
called "twenty-days' bride" (twenty days after Christmas), and driven
through the village. The day ends with a dance, and a collection for the
"bride," who is generally one of the poor. Straw, too, was laid on the
room floors in remembrance of the Saviour's bed. A light burnt all night
on the settle.[108] These customs still exist in some places.
A yule-cross used to be erected at the house-door on Christmas Eve.
To return to the Magyars. The bread at Christmas time is baked in
curious forms, just as it is in Finland, where, _e.g._, in Åbo, it is
made in the form of a fish, &c., and called "Kuse" and "Kasa," in other
parts in the form of animals, &c. (cf. the "Yuldoos" in Northumberland).
_New Year's Eve_ and _New Year's Day_.[109] Molten lead is cast into
water to see the future husband's trade. Watch which way the cock crows
on the dawn of the new year, for in that direction your future partner
will surely come. Turn your pillow at midnight (December 31st), and you
will see whom you are to marry, in your dreams. Any one born at midnight
will become a great person. Whosoever is whipped on New Year's Day will
be whipped every day in the new year! Indeed, anything done on this day
will be repeated during the year. It is unlucky to sow on this day, as
it prevents the hens laying. If you put on new linen you will cause your
skin to be covered with sores. New Year's morn is spent in wishing each
other a happy new year; just as, in many parts of England (_e.g._ Hull)
the juvenile population call and expect to receive their reward in the
shape of coin of the realm.
In Vienna they say: "to have Schweinsglück," or "Sauglück," _i.e._, "a
pig's luck," or a "sow's luck;" and so one sees in some houses a cook
appear, bearing a sucking pig on a tray, and wishing all a happy New
Year, expecting a New Year's box in return.
According to Paul Kelecsényi, the following custom is observed at
Kolony, in the county of Nyitra. Girls make a bonfire, and leap through
the flame. From their mode of leaping the spectators gather when the
girl will be married. The performance is accompanied by a song, of which
a few verses will suffice as a specimen:
"We lay a fire,
We lay it square,
At one corner sit five old men,
At the other sit good looking matrons,
At the third sit handsome young bachelors,
At the fourth sit pretty young maidens.
Then the fire is lighted.
John A's (the name of an unmarried man) is about to catch fire.
Let us extinguish it! (Susie.)
Oh! don't let us forsake the poor people!
Jane B's (generally John A's sweetheart) store house is about to
catch fire.
Let us....
Oh! don't...."
Then follow verses, like the following, and all more or less
unintelligible:
"How high the branch of the tree has grown,
[The tree] has sent out branches.
It is bending and bending across the ocean
Into the courtyard of John A.
Of [to?] pretty Helena with the silken yellow tresses."
See Erdélyi's _Folk-Songs and Stories_, vol. iii. pp. 148-150. "Szent
Iván Éneke."
_On St. John the Baptist's Day_[110] the glow-worm is gathered, and also
at dawn the medicinal herbs for certain cures (see supra). On this day
it is also customary to jump over "St. John's fire;" any person doing
this will not die during the year.
_On the Day of St. Paul's Conversion_ all the bears turn round in their
sleep in their winter dens.
_On the Night of St. Andrew's_ every girl will dream about her future
husband; if she manage to procure a shirt of a young man and place it
over-night under her pillow, she will so bewitch him that he will follow
her like her shadow.
_On Saturday before Easter_ all snakes, frogs, toads, &c., can be driven
away in the morning when the cattle's bell is heard.
_On Palm Sunday_, swallow without chewing three buds blessed by the
priest and brought from church, and this will prevent a sore throat.
_St. Martin._ On this day, in conformity with an old custom, the Jewish
community of Pozsony (Pressburg) yearly present a fat goose to the King
of Hungary. This deputation is always received personally.
_St. Michael._ The bier in Magyar is called "St. Michael's horse."
_St. Stephen._--See _Notes and Queries_, "Magyar and Finn Songs on St.
Stephen's Day," 6 S. viii. 487, and x. 485, with which we may compare
the following:--
VAUSENOTTES: La cérémonie de crier les _valantins_: les garçons se
nommoient _vausenots_ et les filles _vausenottes_: ces mots viennent de
_vouser_ ou _vauser_, qui eux-mêmes viennent de _vocare_, nommer, et de
_nuptiae_ noces: comme si l'on disoit appeler aux noces: aux mariages:
cette cérémonie s'est pratiquée longtemps dans le pays Messin. _Voyez
Valantin._
VALANTIN: Futur époux, celui qu' on désignoit à une fille le jour des
_brandons_, ou premier dimanche de carême, qui, dès qu'elle étoit
promise, se nommoit _valantine_: Et si son _valantin_ ne lui faisoit
point un present ou ne la regaloit avant le dimanche de la mi-carême,
elle le brûloit sous l'effigie d'un paquet de paille ou de sarment, et
alors les promesses de mariage étoient rompues et annuliés.
BRANDON: Tisson allumé, feu, flambeau: de-là ou a appelé _dimanche des
brandons_, le premier dimanche de carême, parce qu'on allumoit des feux
ce jour-là, il était encore nommé le jour de _behourdi_, _behourt_,
_bordes_, _bourdich_, termes qui signifioient une joûte une course de
lances. Il se nomme encore dans quelques provinces, le jour de _grand
feux_, des _valantins_, le jour des _bulles_ ou des _bures_, le dimanche
des _bordes_; au figuré, l'ardeur de l'amour et son flambeau, _brando_.
On appelle à Lyons, _brandons_, des rameaux verds auxquels on attache
des gâteaux, des oublies et des bugnes, le premier dimanche de carême.
BULE, _bulle_; Feu de rejouissance.
BORDE. One of the meanings of the diminutive of "borde," viz.:
"bordelle" "on a appliqué ensuite aux lieux de débauche."[111]
Heltay Gáspár, the typographer of Kolozsvár, wrote his book in 1552
against this custom as practised in Hungary.
The following Finnish superstitions at certain times may here be noted
for comparative purposes:--
_Lent._ Witches are said to have cut off the sheep's wool at this time,
and given it to the evil one; who in return gave them good luck with
their sheep and butter.
_Shrove Tuesday._ Women are not to spin on this day; because, if they
do, the sheep will suffer from diseases.
If the sun shines on this day there will be a fine summer. Much sledging
must be done if long flax is desired; and seven meals must be eaten
without drinking, if thirst is to be avoided during the summer heats.
_Good Friday._ It was not customary formerly to make a fire on this
day.
_Easter._ On Easter Eve cut off the wool from between the sheep's ears;
so the young folks burn straw and tar-barrels to frighten the Easter
witches (in the parishes of Wörå and Munsala). If anyone wishes to see
the witches, as they ride in mid-air on their broomsticks, he must sit
on the roof of a three-times-removed house. (Houses in Finland are built
of wood, and often sold and removed to another site.)
_May 1st._ As the weather is this day, so will the rest of the year be.
_Eve of St. John Baptist._ On this night the young girls go out into
rye-fields with bits of colored worsted, and tie them round the stalks
that are chosen. The stalks are then cut off just above the worsted.
Next morning the stalk that has grown the most during the night
foretells the future of the maiden. The red one foretells purity; green,
love; yellow, rejection; black, grief; blue, old maid; white, death;
speckled, an illegitimate child. The stalk is then taken up and placed
under the pillow, and whatever the sleeper then dreams will undoubtedly
happen.
A Finnish lady friend relates that she and one of her friends on this
night gathered nine different sorts of flowers, and, having made wreaths
of them, put them under their pillows--as it was said that next morning
there would be a lock of hair the colour of the future husband's found
in each wreath. In order to make sure, each of the young ladies, unknown
to the other, cut a lock off her own head and placed it in her friend's
wreath, but, unfortunately, one of the ladies also put a lock of her own
hair in her own wreath, and thus next day found she was doomed to have
two mates! In some parts, when the farmers return from church, they see
who can get home first, as that one will get his harvest in first the
following year.
In some places straw is burnt on this night, but it is more common to
burn wood (which fires are called Kokko). In some parts these fires are
burnt on Maunday Thursday night. In Honkojoki, after the Kokko is burned
two persons go and stand each on a wood stack, and begin throwing the
logs into a heap, each trying his best to throw more than his rival.
This done, the logs are counted, and, if found to be an odd number, it
is regarded as an omen of misfortune. The girls are dressed in white on
this night. In the southern parts of the country stones used to be
rolled down the hill sides on this night. The houses are decorated on
the outside with young birches and inside with leafy boughs, &c. For
dressing with flowers and leaves at this time see _Hofberg_,
"Digerdöden."
_St. Bartholomew._--According to some, seed ought to be sown this day.
_St. Matthew's Day._--People disguise themselves so as not to be
recognised. A sledge, too, is drawn by a ram, with a straw man as
driver.
_St. Thomas's Eve._--A Swedish superstition regards this as the goblins'
special night, and one story (_Hofberg_, "Tomten") relates how no one
would go into a smithy that night on this account, and if anyone looked
through the door he would see the goblins forging silver bars, or
"turning their own legs under the hammer."
In the Highlands, even in modern times, there were May-Day bonfires, at
which the spirits were implored to make the year productive. A feast was
set out upon the grass, and lots were drawn for the semblance of a human
sacrifice; and whoever drew the "black piece" of a cake dressed on the
fire was made to leap three times through the flame.[112]
In many parts of France the sheriffs or the mayor of a town burned
baskets filled with wolves, foxes, and cats, in the bonfires at the
Feast of St. John; and it is said that the Basques burn vipers in wicker
panniers at Midsummer, and that Breton villagers will sacrifice a snake
when they burn the sacred boat to the goddess who assumed the title of
St. Anne.[113]
Varga also gives the following information on numbers:
_13_ is very unlucky.[114] If thirteen sit down to table, one will die.
_9_ also plays an important part. See folk-medicine. Hydrophobia breaks
out in nine days, weeks, months, or years. Nine different ingredients
often make up the mixture--nine different shoots of nine different
trees. If a cow be bewitched, a cure with nine ants' nests is used. Most
medicines are taken nine times; the patient has to bathe nine times, &c.
&c.
_7_ is very superstitious. The seventh child plays an important part in
everything; only a seventh child can lift hidden treasures. A seventh
child seven years old has great magic power. In digging for treasures
seven people club together, each member removes seven spades-full of
earth in one night. Seven times seven, or seventy-seven is also a magic
number. The devil's grandmother is 777 years old.
_3_ very often occurs in fairy-tales. It is an important number with
witches. It is said there are 33,333 witches in Hungary.
_Superstitions about Animals._
It would be more easy to enumerate those animals about which there are
not superstitions, but we will give a few instances from Varga.
_The Death-Bird_ (a kind of small owl).--If the death-bird settles on
the roof, and calls out three times "kuvik," somebody will die in that
house.
_The Owl._--The well-known servant of witches. It procures them the
required number of snakes, lizards, &c.
_The Cuckoo._--It will tell you how many years you have to live. It
sucks the milk out of the udder of the cow. There is also another bird
credited with this.
_The Crowing-hen._--See _supra_. p. xlvi.
_The Swallow_ and stork are favourite birds. To catch a swallow is very
unlucky. To disturb its nest will set the roof on fire. If you kill it,
your arm will shrivel up. Of this bird the people say that it dies; of
all others, they perish. (A human being "dies" = "meghal" in Hung. =
"stirbt" in German; an animal "perishes" = "megdöglik," = "crepirt.") If
you see the first swallow, stroke your face and sing, "I see a swallow;
I wash off the freckles"--and the freckles will disappear. The stork is,
also, a sacred bird. It must not be caught or killed; to disturb its
nest will set the house on fire. He who sees for the first time in the
year a stork standing, will be very lazy during the year; if flying,
then fresh and very healthy.
_Lark_, _Plover_,[115] _Quail_, and _Pigeon_.--When Christ was hiding
himself he went among some underwood, his pursuers were about to follow
him there, when the lark rose and sang: "Nincs, nincs, nincs, nincs,
nincs, sehol itten." (He is not--he is nowhere here). The pursuers were
about to leave, when out of malice the quail flew up and called "Itt
szalad, itt szalad" (Here he runs, here he runs); the pursuers thereupon
returned, and Christ took refuge in a shrubbery; then the plover flew up
and cried "bú vik, bú vik" (he is hiding), and the pigeon added "a
bokorban, a bokorban" (in the bush). Christ blessed the lark, hence it
rises high up in the sky and sings merrily, whereas the three other
birds were accursed to never fly on a tree, but to hide themselves among
grass, in the mud, in old ruins.
See Arany László "Magyar Népmeséinkröl" (On our Magyar Popular Tales),
a paper read before the Kisfaludy Society on May 29, 1867. Cf.
_Hofberg_, Horsgötten.
_Newt._--If you swallow a newt with the water drawn from a well, it will
grow quite a monster in your stomach, and eat its way through. The
monster will have a head as a calf; immense immoveable eyes; a skin like
a human being; its voice like a baby's, and its head covered with fur,
like that of a wild cat.
_Snake._--There is a snake in every house; if it creep out of its hole,
some great misfortune will happen. It is therefore unlucky to disturb
it. The skin of a snake caught before St. George's Day, drawn over a
stick, makes a powerful weapon; it will break iron in two.
_Snakes and Frogs._[116]--If a snake or frog get into a man's stomach,
it can be allured out by placing some steaming milk near the mouth of
the patient. If they die inside, the patient has to take internally some
powderized stork's stomach. [Cf. "Liber Quartus Practicae Haly," cap.
49, "De eius medela qui leporem marinum aut ranam biberit," p. 207,
verso (Leyden, 1523)]. The so-called frog-rain; the frogs drop from the
clouds, or that they are drawn up by the clouds from lakes, &c.
_Lizard_, see "Quinsy" and "St. George's Day," pp. xlix. and li.
_Cat._--The black cat is a favourite disguise of the witch. When the cat
is cleaning herself, you must observe at whom she looks first, when
finished; the person so looked at will go to a ball, or some other
amusement. If the cat uses one paw only, a guest will arrive; he will
come from the direction in which the cat stroked her paw the last time.
If a cat be uneasy, &c., it will rain.
_Donkey._--There are three indents on the bulrush as if made with teeth.
The tradition is, that the donkey on which Christ sat commenced to
nibble the reed, but before it had time to bite it off, Christ rode
away. The traces of the teeth are still plainly visible. The cross on
the donkey's back is said to be the stains left by Christ's blood, as it
ran down on both sides.--Arany László _loc. cit._
_Raven._--There is a well-known Magyar folk-song commencing the thus:--
"The raven washes his brood on Good Friday."
_Clocks._--The ticking of the clock-beetle forbodes death in the house.
_Dog._--The witch will sometimes appear as a black dog. If a dog whine
in his sleep, it is a sign of conflagration; if it bark in its sleep,
robbers are due. If a dog howl,[117] it smells a dead body, and somebody
will die in the house.
_The Sow_ with a litter of nine, _the Horse_ without a head, _the Bull_
with horns pointing downwards, are favourite forms assumed by witches.
_The Tortoise._--When Christ was walking on earth, He appeared as a
beggar, and begged for alms at a Jew's house. The mistress of the house
was very mean; and in order not to be obliged to give anything, she hid
under a trough used for kneading bread, and told her little girl to say
that she was not to be found. When the girl said that her mother was not
at home, Christ replied: "May she never be able to get home!" The girl
waited in vain for her mother to come forth; and when she opened the
closet door, an ugly thing crawled out, with a trough-like shield grown
to its back. This is the origin of the tortoise.
_Superstitions about Plants._
Varga supplies the following notes on this subject:
_Deadly Nightshade_ works miracles in folk-medicine. One of its uses is
to cure maggots in beasts. It is not used internally nor applied
externally. The medicine-man approaches the plant wherever it grows,
makes a hole into the ground close to the root, then bends the plant
gently down, sticks the top of it into the hole and buries it, taking
care not to break the plant. Then he repeats the following formula:--"Do
you hear, deadly nightshade? I herewith bury you, and will not again
liberate you until the maggots that have got into the left rump of John
So-and-So's cow clear out from there."
_Vervain_ or "lock-opening herb."--Open the skin on the palm of your
hand, place a small leaf of vervain under the skin and let the wound
heal over; then at the touch of such hand all locks and bars will open.
All the more famous brigands of old are said to have had such power.
_Clover._--Clover with four leaves is very lucky.
_Wolf's-milk._--The milky juice oozing from the broken stem of this
plant will beautify the skin.[118]
_The Wolf's-bane leaf_, the ökörfark kóró (lit. the dried oxtail)[119],
and _the Rue_ are very important herbs in folk-medicine.
Some other plants are said to have had this power, that if at dusk you
switch with them three times in the air you hit the witch, and you can
hear her moaning.
_The Lily_ is the flower of the dead. If any body be executed innocent,
three yellow lilies will grow on his grave.
_Superstitions about Stones._
_The Diamond_ is blown, like glass, by thousands and thousands of snakes
in caves, who bury them in the sand.
_The Carbuncle_ glows in the dark.
_The Garnet._ While the person who wears these stones is healthy the
garnet is of a beautiful red colour; when the wearer ails the stones
turn pale.
_The Opal_ is an unlucky stone.
_Sundries._[120]
_Astronomy._ The milky way came about in this way. The driver of a cart
of straw was very drunk; the straw was badly loaded and fell off in all
directions as the drunken driver drove his horses irregularly over the
way.
*Comets forebode a great war or the pest.
Many people get out at the left side of the bed, pull on the left side
first of their trousers, the left sleeve of their coat, and undress left
first because it is good for toothache.
*If your palm itches, you receive money; rub it to your hair, and you
get as much money as you touched hairs.
*Right eye itching, you will cry; left eye, you will be merry; whose
eyes jump about will get beaten.
*Singing in right ear, bad news; left, good news.
If a family gets into a new house, somebody will die; a dead body's eyes
left open, he is looking for somebody to follow him. If you pity an
animal when it is being slaughtered it dies very slowly.
*If a knife, fork, or scissors drop and stick upright in the ground, a
guest will arrive. If by accident one more plate is laid on the table
than necessary, a very hungry guest will come.
Where there is a baby in the house, you must sit down or you will take
away its sleep. If you stare at the baby, you spoil it with your eye. To
counteract this, put your hat on the child's head or spit on the baby.
If the mischief is already done, drop a piece of live coal into a glass
of water, and make the child drink of it, and bathe his eyes with the
water. At the same time wish the "spoiling" back to the person from whom
it came.
If a spider lowers itself on somebody at night, it is lucky; in the
daytime, unlucky.
*If the fire is noisy (a series of small explosions) there will be high
words or some scrimmage in the house. If you dream of fire, you will be
robbed. If in your dream you see yourself as bride or bridegroom, you
will die. If you dream that you are dead, you get married. If, at meals,
you sit between two brothers or sisters, you will get married.
If a woman in the family-way looks into the window, where there is a
corpse, the baby will be dumb. If the woman sends away a beggar, she
will bear twins.
In stormy weather stick a hatchet in the threshold, and the hail-clouds
will roll by. *Make the sign of a cross with the poker against the sky
and the rainbow will appear.
When it rains and the sun shines too, the devil beats his wife. If it
thunders without lightning, the devil has got hold of a poor sinner. If
you abuse the rain, the angels cry and the devil tears his hair.
If the cow is bewitched and will not allow herself to be milked, place
the pail over her head; or go to the cemetery, procure a decayed old
wooden cross, and beat the animal with it.
If the cow kicks, cover her head with an old apron and stick holes
through the apron with the pitchfork. *The witch will feel the stabbing
from the prongs. If the witch has taken away the milk of the cow,
procure nine ants'-nests,[121] bury this with nine pieces of bread on
the road over which the cattle goes, so that the cow may step over it.
Then after three days knead the bread and soil together and make the cow
eat it, and her milk will be restored.
Or pour some of the milk into a fiery oven, and the fire will burn the
witch who spoilt the cow.
It is not good to look at a cow while calving, because her milk will not
come. The first week's milk is to be given to the poor, or it will be
difficult to milk the cow afterwards.
Do not call a child "a frog," or it will with difficulty learn to talk.
Do not step over it, or you stop its growing. Do not say thanks for a
medicine, or it will lose its power. Do not wish the fisher or hunter
"good luck," or he will have a poor day. To meet a priest is unlucky; to
meet a Jew lucky.
If a child suffers from epileptic fits, take the shirt it has worn
during one of the fits and wrap it around one of the (wooden) crosses in
the cemetery, this will cure the child; but the person who removes it
will catch the disease. When a child loses its first tooth, the mother
ought to eat the tooth in a piece of bread, and then she will never
suffer from toothache. When a child sees a swallow for the first time in
Spring, it must spit several times into the palms of its hands and
pretend to wash its face; this will prevent freckles.
The following is said to cure abscesses: Boil together peas, beans,
lentils, and millet in a new pot, and when the mess is ready bathe the
affected place therein; then take pot and contents at dawn to the
cross-roads, and dash it to the ground. The abscesses will disappear,
the first person who steps over the mess will get them.
When sweeping the house the dust must not be swept towards the door but
from it, and the sweepings burnt; then luck will never desert the house.
A loaf that has been cut should never be placed so that the cut part
faces the door, because that would cause lack of bread.
When the bread is taken from the oven, if a few red-hot cinders be
thrown into the oven it is as good as throwing them down your enemy's
throat!