THE SAXONS: BIRTH AND INFANCY.
By-and-by, when a few months have passed over the heads of the newly
married couple, and the young matron becomes aware that the prophecies
pointed at by the broken distaff and the doll’s cradle are likely to
come true, she is carefully instructed as to the conduct she must
observe in order to insure the well-being of herself and her child.
In the first place, she must never conceal her state nor deny it, when
interrogated on the subject; for if she do so, her child will have
difficulty in learning to speak; nor may she wear beads round her neck,
for that would cause the infant to be strangled at its birth. Carrying
pease or beans in her apron will produce malignant eruptions, and
sweeping a chimney makes the child narrow-breasted.
On no account must she be suffered to pull off her husband’s boots,
nor to hand him a glowing coal to light his pipe, both these actions
entailing misfortune. In driving to market she may not sit with her
back to the horses, nor ever drink at the well out of a wooden bucket.
Likewise, her intercourse with the pigsty must be carefully regulated;
for should she, at any time, listen over-attentively to the grunting
of pigs, her child will have a deep grunting voice; and if she kick
the swine or push one of them away with her foot, the infant will
have bristly hair on its back. Hairs on the face will be the result
of beating a dog or cat, and twins the consequence of eating double
cherries or sitting at the corner of the table.
During this time she may not stand godmother to any other child, or
else she will lose her own baby, which will equally be sure to die if
she walk round a new-made grave.
If any one unexpectedly throw a flower at the woman who expects to
become a mother, and hit her with it on the face, her child will have a
mole at the same place touched by the flower.
Should, however, the young matron imprudently have neglected any of
these rules, and have cause to fear that an evil spell has been cast
on her child, she has several very efficacious recipes for undoing
the harm. Thus if she sit on the door-step, with her feet resting on
a broom, for at least five minutes at a time, on several consecutive
Fridays, thinking the while of her unborn babe, it will be released
from the impending doom; or else let her sit there on Sundays, when the
bells are ringing, with her hair hanging unplaited down her back; or
climb up the stair of the belfry tower and look down at the sinking sun.
When the moment of the birth is approaching, the windows must be
carefully hung over with sheets or cloths, to prevent witches from
entering; but all locks and bolts should, on the contrary, be opened,
else the event will be retarded.
If the new-born infant be weakly, it is usual to put yolks of eggs,
bran, sawdust, or a glass of old wine into its first bath.
Very important for the future luck and prosperity of the child is the
day of the week and month on which it happens to have been born.
Sunday is, of course, the luckiest day, and twelve o’clock at noon,
when the bells are ringing, the most favorable hour for beginning life.
Wednesday children are _schlabberkinder_—that is, chatterboxes.
Friday bairns are unfortunate, but in some districts those born on
Saturday are considered yet more unlucky; while again, in other places
Saturday’s children are merely supposed to grow up dirty.
Whoever is born on a stormy night will die of a violent death.
The full or growing moon is favorable; but the decreasing moon produces
weakly, unhealthy babes.
All children born between Easter and Pentecost are more or less lucky,
unless they happen to have come on one of the distinctly unlucky days,
of which I here give a list:
January 1st, 2d, 6th, 11th, 17th, 18th.
February 8th, 14th, 17th.
March 1st, 3d, 13th, 15th.
April 1st, 3d, 15th, 17th, 18th.
May 8th, 10th, 17th, 30th.
June 1st, 17th.
July 1st, 5th, 6th, 14th.
August 1st, 3d, 17th, 18th.
September 2d, 15th, 18th, 30th.
October 15th, 17th.
November 1st, 7th, 11th.
December 1st, 6th, 11th, 15th.
I leave it to more penetrating spirits to decide whether these
seemingly capricious figures are regulated on some occult cabalistic
system, the secret workings of which have baffled my understanding, so
that I am at a loss to explain why January and April have the greatest,
June and October the least, proportion of unlucky days allotted to
them; and why the 1st and 17th of each month are mostly pernicious,
while, barring the 30th of May and September, no date after the 18th is
ever in bad odor.
Both mother and child must be carefully watched over during the first
few days after the birth, and all evil influences averted. The visit
of another woman who has herself a babe at the breast may deprive
the young mother of her milk; and whosoever enters the house without
sitting down will assuredly carry off the infant’s sleep.
If the child be subject to frequent and apparently groundless fits of
crying, that is proof positive that it has been bewitched—either by
some one whose eyebrows are grown together, and who consequently has
the evil eye, or else by one of the invisible evil spirits whose power
is great before the child has been taken to church. But even a person
with quite insignificant eyebrows may convey injury by unduly praising
the child’s good looks, unless the mother recollect to spit on the
ground as soon as the words are spoken.
Here are a few specimens of the recipes _en vogue_ for counteracting
such evil spells:
“Place nine straws, which must be counted backward from nine to one, in
a jug of water drawn from the river _with_ the current, not _against_
it; throw into the water some wood-parings from off the cradle, the
door-step, and the four corners of the room in which the child was
born, and add nine pinches of ashes, likewise counted backward. Boil up
together, and pour into a large basin, leaving the pot upside down in
it. If the boiling water draws itself up into the jug” (as of course it
will), “that is proof positive that the child is bewitched. Now moisten
the child’s forehead with some of the water before it has time to cool,
and give it (still counting backward) nine drops to drink.”
The child that has been bewitched may likewise be held above a red-hot
ploughshare, on which a glass of wine has been poured; or else a glass
of water, in which a red-hot horseshoe has been placed, given to drink
in spoonfuls.
In every village there used to be (and may still occasionally be
found) old women who made a regular and profitable trade out of
preparing the water which is to undo such evil spells.
The Saxon mother is careful not to leave her child alone till it
has been baptized, for fear of malignant spirits, who may steal it
away, leaving an uncouth elf in its place. Whenever a child grows up
clumsy and heavy, with large head, wide mouth, stump nose, and crooked
legs, the gossips are ready to swear that it has been changed in the
cradle—more especially if it prove awkward and slow in learning to
speak. To guard against such an accident, it is recommended to mothers
obliged to leave their infants alone to place beneath the pillow either
a prayer-book, a broom, a loaf of bread, or a knife stuck point upward.
Very cruel remedies have sometimes been resorted to in order to force
the evil spirits to restore the child they have stolen and take back
their own changeling. For instance, the unfortunate little creature
suspected of being an elf was beaten with a thorny branch until quite
bloody, and then left sitting astride on a hedge for an hour. It was
then supposed that the spirits would secretly bring back the stolen
child.
The infant must not be suffered to look at itself in the glass till
after the baptism, nor should it be held near an open window. A very
efficacious preservative against all sorts of evil spells is to hang
round the child’s neck a little triangular bag stuffed with grains of
incense, wormwood, and various aromatic herbs, and with an adder’s
head embroidered outside. A gold coin sewed into the cap is also much
recommended.
Two godfathers and two godmothers are generally appointed at Saxon
peasant christenings, and it is customary that the one couple should
be old and the other young; but in no case should a husband and wife
figure as godparents at the same baptism, but each one of the quartette
must belong to a different family. This is the general custom, but in
some districts the rule demands two godfathers and one godmother for a
boy, two godmothers and one godfather for a girl.
If the parents have previously lost other children, then the infant
should not be carried out by the door in going to church, but handed
out by the window and brought back in the same way. It should be
carried through the broadest street, never by narrow lanes or by-ways,
else it will learn thieving.
The godparents must on no account look round on their way to church,
and the first person met by the christening procession will decide the
sex of the next child to be born—a boy if it be a man.
If two children are baptized out of the same water, one of them is
sure to die; and if several boys are christened in succession in the
same church without the line being broken by a girl, there will be war
in the land as soon as they are grown up. Many girls christened in
succession denotes fruitful vintages for the country when they shall
have attained a marriageable age.
If the child sleep through the christening ceremony, it will be pious
and good-tempered—but if it cries, bad-tempered or unlucky; therefore
the first question asked by the parents on the party’s return from
church is generally, “Was it a quiet baptism?” and if such has not been
the case, the sponsors are apt to conceal the truth.
In some places the christening procession returning to the house finds
the door closed. After knocking for some time in vain, a voice from
within summons the godfather to name seven bald men of the parish. This
having been answered, a further question is asked as to the gospel read
in church, and only on receiving this reply, “Let the little children
come to me,” is the door flung open, saying, “Come in; you have
hearkened attentively to the words of the Lord.”
The sponsors next inquiring, “Where shall we put the child?” receive
this answer:
“On the bunker let it be,
It will jump then like a flea.
Put it next upon the hearth,
Heavy gold it will be worth.
On the floor then let it sleep,
That it once may learn to sweep.
On the table in a dish,
Grow it will then like a fish.”
After holding it successively in each of the places named, the baby is
finally put back into the cradle, while the guests prepare to enjoy
the _tauf schmaus_, or christening banquet, to which each person has
been careful to bring a small contribution in the shape of eggs, bacon,
fruit, or cakes; the godparents do not fail to come, each laden with a
bottle of good wine besides some other small gift for the child.
The feast is noisy and merry, and many are the games and jokes
practised on these occasions. One of these, called the _badspringen_
(jumping the bath), consists in placing a washing trough or bath upside
down on the ground with a lighted candle upon it. All the young women
present are then invited to jump over without upsetting or putting
out the light. Those successful in this evolution will be mothers of
healthy boys. If they are bashful and refuse to jump, or awkward enough
to upset and put out the candle, they will be childless or have only
girls.
The _spiesstanz_, or spit dance, is also usual at christening feasts.
Two roasting-spits are laid on the ground crosswise, as in the
sword-dance, and the movements executed much in the same manner.
Sometimes it is the grandfather of the new-born infant, who, proud of
his agility, opens the performance singing:
“Purple plum so sweet,
See my nimble feet,
How I jump and slide,
How I hop and glide.
Look how well I dance,
See how high I prance.
Purple plum so sweet,
See my nimble feet.”
But if the grandfather be old and feeble, and the godfathers unwilling
to exert themselves, then it is usually the midwife who, for a small
consideration, undertakes the dancing.
It is not customary for the young mother to be seated at table along
with the guests; and even though she be well and hearty enough to have
baked the cakes and milked the cows on that same day, etiquette demands
that she should play the interesting invalid and lie abed till the
feasting is over.
Full four weeks after the birth of her child must she stay at home,
and durst not step over the threshold of her court-yard, even though
she has resumed all her daily occupations within the first week of the
event. “I may not go outside till my time is out; the Herr Vater would
be sorely angered if he saw me,” is the answer I have often received
from a woman who declined to come out on the road. Neither may she spin
during these four weeks, lest her child should suffer from dizziness.
When the time of this enforced retirement has elapsed, the young mother
repairs to church to be blessed by the pastor; but before so doing she
is careful to seek out the nearest well and throw down a piece of
bread into its depths, probably as an offering to the _brunnenfrau_ who
resides in every well, and is fond of luring little children down to
her.
With these first four weeks the greatest perils of infancy are
considered to be at an end, but no careful mother will fail to observe
the many little customs and regulations which alone will insure the
further health and well-being of her child. Thus she will always
remember that the baby may only be washed between sunrise and sunset,
and that the bath water should not be poured out into the yard at a
place where any one can step over it, which would entail death or
sickness, or at the very least deprive the infant of its sleep.
Two children which cannot yet talk must never be suffered to kiss each
other, or both will be backward in speech.
A book laid under the child’s pillow will make it an apt scholar; and
the water in which a puppy dog has been washed, if used for the bath,
will cure all skin diseases.
Whoever steps over a child as it lies on the ground will cause it to
die within a month. Other prognostics of death are to rock an empty
cradle, to make the baby dance in its bath, or to measure it with a
yard measure before it can walk.