Dr. Moresin was an eye-witness to the following usages in Scotland. They
take, on their return from church, the newly-baptized infant, and
vibrate it three or four times gently over a flame, saying, and
repeating it thrice, “Let the flame consume thee now or never.”
Martin relates, that in the Western Islands, the same lustration, by
carrying of fire, is performed round about lying-in women, and round
about children _before they are christened_, as an effectual means to
preserve both the mother and infant from the power of evil spirits. This
practice is similar to an ancient feast at Athens, kept by private
families, called Amphidromia, on the fifth day after the birth of the
child, when it was the custom for the gossips to run round the fire with
the infant in their arms, and then, having delivered it to the nurse,
they were entertained with feasting and dancing.
There is a superstition that a child who does not cry when sprinkled in
baptism will not live.
Among the ancient Irish, the mother, at the birth of a man child, put
the first meat into her infant’s mouth upon the point of her husband’s
sword, with wishes that it might die no otherwise than in war, or by
sword. Pennant says, that in the Highlands, midwives give new-born babes
a small spoonful of earth and whisky, as the first food they take.
Giraldus Cambrensis relates, that “at the baptizing of the infants of
the wild Irish, their manner was not to dip their right arms into the
water, that so as they thought they might give a more deep and incurable
blow.” Mr. Brand deems this a proof that the whole body of the child was
anciently commonly immersed in the baptismal font.
In 1795 the minister of the parishes of South Ronaldsay and Burray, two
of the Orkney islands, describing the manners of the inhabitants, says:
“Within these last seven years, the minister has been twice interrupted
in administering baptism to a female child, _before the male child_, who
was baptized immediately after. When the service was over, he was
gravely told he had done very wrong; for, as the female child was first
baptized, she would, on her coming to the years of discretion, most
certainly have a strong beard, and the boy would have none.”
The minister of Logierait, in Perthshire, describing the superstitious
opinions and practices in that parish, says: “When a child was baptized
privately, it was, not long since, customary to put the child upon a
clean basket, having a cloth previously spread over it, with bread and
cheese put into the cloth; and thus to move the basket three times
successively round the iron crook, which hangs over the fire, from the
roof of the house, for the purpose of supporting the pots when water is
boiled, or victuals are prepared. This” he imagines, “might be anciently
intended to counteract the malignant arts which witches and evil spirits
were imagined to practise against new-born infants.”
It is a vulgar notion, that children, prematurely wise, are not
long-lived, and rarely reach maturity. Shakspeare puts this superstition
into the mouth of Richard the Third.
Bulwer mentions a tradition concerning children born open-handed, that
they will prove of a bountiful disposition and frank-handed. A character
in one of Dekker’s plays says, “I am the most wretched fellow: sure some
_left-handed_ priest christened me, I am so unlucky.”
The following charms for infancy are derived from Herrick:
“Bring the holy crust of bread,
Lay it underneath the head;
’Tis a certain charm to keep
Hags away while children sleep.”
* * * * *
“Let the superstitious wife
Neer the child’s heart lay a knife;
Point be up, and haft be down,
(While she gossips in the towne;)
This, ’mongst other mystick charms,
Keeps the sleeping child from harmes.”
* * * * *