SAXON SUPERSTITION—CONTINUED: ANIMALS, PLANTS, DAYS.
The cat, dedicated to Frouma, Frezja, or Holda, in old German times,
still plays a considerable part in Saxon superstition. Thus, to render
fruitful a tree which refuses to bear, it will suffice to bury a cat
among its roots.[57] Epileptic people may be cured by cutting off the
ears of a cat and anointing them with the blood; and an eruption at the
mouth is healed by passing the cat’s tail between the lips.
When the cat washes its face visitors may be expected, and as long as
the cat is healthy and in good looks the cattle will likewise prosper.
A runaway cat, when recovered, must be swung three times round the
hearth to attach it to the dwelling; and the same is done to a stolen
cat by the thief who would retain it. In entering a new house, it is
recommended to throw in a cat (sometimes also a dog) before any member
of the family step over the threshold, else one of them will die.
The dog is of less importance than the cat, except for its power of
giving warning of approaching death by unnatural howling.
Here are some other Saxon superstitions of mixed character:
1. Who can blow back the flame into a candle will become pastor.
2. New servants must be suffered to eat freely the first day they enter
service, else their hunger will never be stilled.
3. Who visits a neighbor’s house must sit down, even were it but for
a moment, or he will deprive the inhabitants of their sleep. (Why,
then, do Saxon peasants never offer one a chair? or is a stranger too
insignificant to have the power of destroying sleep?)
4. It is dangerous to stare down long into a well, for the well-dame
who dwells at the bottom of each is easily offended. But children are
often curious, and, hoping to get a look at her face, they bend over
the edge, calling out mockingly, “Brannefrà, Brannefrà, zieh mich än de
Brännen” (Dame of the well, pull me down into the well); but quickly
they draw back their heads, afraid of their own audacity, lest their
wish be in truth realized.
5. It is not good to count the beehives, or the loaves when they are
put in the oven.
6. Neither is it good to whitewash the house when the moon is
decreasing, for that produces bugs.
7. Who eats mouldy bread will live long.
8. Licking the platter clean at table brings fine weather.
9. On the occasion of each merrymaking, such as weddings, christenings,
etc., some piece of glass or crockery must be broken to avert
misfortune.[58]
10. Salt thrown on the back of a departing guest will prevent him from
carrying away the luck of the house. Neither salt nor garlic should
ever be given away, as with them the luck goes.
11. A broom put upside down behind the door will keep off the witches.
12. It is bad-luck to lay a loaf on the table upside down.
13. When foxes and wolves meet in the market-place, their prices will
rise (of course, as these animals could only be thus bold during the
severest cold, when prices of eggs, butter, etc., are at their highest).
14. A piece of bread found lying in the field or road should never be
eaten by the finder; nor should he untie a knotted-up cloth or a rag he
chances to discover, for the knot perhaps contains an illness.
15. Whoever has been robbed of anything, and wishes to discover the
thief, must select a black hen, and for nine consecutive Fridays must,
together with his hen, abstain from all food. The thief will then
either die or bring back the stolen goods. This is called taking up the
black fast against a person.
On this last subject an anecdote is told of a peasant of the village
of Petersdorf, who returned one day from the town of Bistritz, bearing
two hundred florins, which he had received as the price for a team of
oxen. Reaching home in a somewhat inebriated state, he wished to sleep
off his tipsiness, and laid himself down behind the stove, but took the
precaution of first hiding the money in a hole in the kitchen wall.
Next morning, on waking up, the peasant searched for his money, but
was unable to find it, having completely forgotten where he had put it
in his intoxication; so, in the firm belief that some one had stolen
the two hundred florins, he went to consult an old Wallachian versed
in magic, and begged him to take up the black fast against the man who
had abstracted the money. Before long people began to notice how the
peasant himself grew daily weaker and seemed to pine away. At last,
by some chance, he hit upon the place where the money was hidden, and
joyfully hurried to the Wallachian to counter-order the black fast. But
it was now too late, for the charm had already worked, and before long
the man was dead.
There is also a whole set of rhymes and formulas for exorcising
thieves, and forcing them to return whatever they have taken; but these
would be too lengthy to record here.
Of the plants which play a part in Saxon superstition, first and
foremost is the fulsome garlic—not only employed against witches, but
likewise regarded as a remedy in manifold illnesses and as an antidote
against poison. Garlic put into the money-bag will prevent the witches
from getting at it, and in the stables will keep the milk from being
abstracted, while rubbed over the body it will defend a person against
the pest.
To the lime-tree are also attached magic qualities, and in some
villages it is usual to plant a lime-tree before the house to keep
witches from entering.
Much prized is the lilac-bush. Its blossoms, made into tea, are good
for the fever; and the bush itself is often reverently saluted with
bent knee and uncovered head. Many of the formulas against sickness are
directed to be recited while walking thrice round a bush of lilac.
The first strawberry-blossom, if swallowed by whoever finds it, will
keep him free from sickness during that year.
The four-leaved shamrock here, as elsewhere, is considered to confer
particular luck on the finder, but only when he carries it home without
having to cross over water of any sort. Laid in the prayer-book, a
four-leaved shamrock will enable its possessor to distinguish witches
in church.
The common houseleek, here called _donnerkraut_ (thunder-herb), will
protect from lightning the roof on which it grows.
Animals beaten with a switch of privet or dog-wood will die or fall
sick.
Larkspur hung over the stable door will keep witches from entering.
The _Atropa belladonna_ (called here _buchert_) renders mad whoever
tastes of it, and in his madness he will be compelled blindly to obey
the will of whoever has given him of this herb to eat; therefore it
is here said of a man who behaves insanely that “he must have eaten
buchert.”
Whoever kills an adder under a white-hazel bush, plants a pea in the
head of this adder, and then buries it in the earth so that the pea can
strike root, has only to gather the first flower which grows from the
pea and wear it in his cap in order henceforward to have power over
all witches in the neighborhood. But let him beware of the witches,
who, knowing this, are ever on the lookout to catch him without the
pea-flower and to do him an injury.
A particular growth of vine-leaf, whose exact definition I have not
succeeded in rightly ascertaining, is eagerly sought for by Saxon girls
in some villages. Whoever finds it sticks it in her hair, and thus
decorated she has the right to kiss the first man she meets on her
homeward way. This will insure her speedy marriage. A story is related
of a girl who, meeting a nobleman driving in a handsome four-in-hand
carriage, stopped the horses, and begged leave to kiss him, to the
gentleman’s no small astonishment. He resigned himself, however, with
a good grace when he had grasped the situation, and gave the kiss as
well as a golden piece to the fair suppliant. The proper romantic
_dénouement_ of this episode would have been for the gentleman to lead
home as bride the maiden thus cast in his path by fate, but we are not
told that he pushed his complacence quite so far.
A whole volume might be written on the subject of agrarian
superstition, of which let a few examples here suffice.
In many villages it is customary for the ploughman, going to work for
the first time that year in the field, to drive his plough over a
broomstick laid on the threshold of the court-yard.
The first person who sows each year will have meagre crops. During the
whole sowing-time no one should give a kindling out of the house. It is
never allowable to sow in Holy Week.
To insure the wheat against being eaten by birds, the sowing should be
done in silence before sunrise, and without looking over the shoulder.
Also earth taken from the church-yard will keep birds off the field.
Whoever lies down to sleep in a new-ploughed furrow will fall ill; nor
must the women be allowed to sew or spin in the cornfield, for that
would occasion thunder-storms; while washing the hands in the field
will cause the house to burn.
In obstinate droughts it is customary in some places for several girls,
led by an old woman, and all of them absolutely naked, to repair at
midnight to the court-yard of some neighboring peasant, whose harrow
they must steal, and with it proceed across the field to the nearest
stream, where the harrow is put afloat with a burning light on each
corner.
The harvest will be bad if the cuckoo comes into the village and cries
there.
In bringing in the corn a few heads of garlic bound up in the first
sheaf will keep off witches.
* * * * *
The most important days in Saxon superstition are Sunday, Tuesday, and
Friday.
Whoever wears a shirt sewed by his mother on a Sunday will die.
According to another version, however, a shirt which has been spun,
woven, and sewed entirely on Sundays is a powerful talisman, which will
render all enemies powerless against the wearer, and bring him safely
through every battle.
Wood cut on a Sunday serves to heat the fire of hell. Sunday children
are lucky, and can discover hidden treasures.
In some districts no cow or swine herd would lead his animals to
pasture on any other day but a Tuesday.[59]
Thursday is in many places the luckiest day for marriages, also for
markets.
On Friday the weather is apt to change. It is a good day for sowing
and for making vinegar, but a bad one for baking, or for starting on a
journey. In some places it is considered unsafe to comb the hair on a
Friday—therefore the village school on that day presents a somewhat
rough and unkempt appearance.
Rain upon Good Friday is a favorable omen.
On Easter Monday the lads run about the towns and villages sprinkling
with water all the girls and women they meet. This is supposed to
insure the flax growing well. On the following day the girls return the
attention by watering the boys.[60]
On Easter Monday the cruel sport of cock-shooting is still kept up in
many Saxon villages. The cock is tied to a post and shot at till it
dies a horrible lingering death. Sometimes the sport is diversified by
blindfolding the actors, who strike at their victim with wooden clubs.
Between Easter and Pentecost none should either marry or change their
domicile.
On Pentecost Monday it is sometimes customary to elect three of the
girls as queens, who, dressed up in their finest clothes, preside at
church and at the afternoon dance.
In one village it is usual on Pentecost Sunday at mid-day, when the
bells are ringing, to encircle each fruit-tree with a rope made of
twisted straw.
The fires on St. John’s Day, and the belief that hidden treasures are
to be found, are also prevalent among the Saxons.
No one should bathe or wade into a river on the 29th of June, Feast of
SS. Peter and Paul, for fear of drowning, it being supposed that this
day requires the sacrifice of a human victim.
Before the 24th of August no corn should be garnered, because only
after that date do the thunder-storms cease, or as the people say, “the
thunder-clouds go home.”
The night of St. Thomas (December 21st), popularly considered to
be the longest night in the year, is the date consecrated by Saxon
superstition to the celebration of the games which elsewhere are usual
on All-Halloween. Every girl puts her fate to the test on that evening,
and there are various ways of so doing, with onions, flowers, shoes,
etc.
One way of interrogating Fate is with a sharp knife to cut an apple in
two. If in doing so no seed has been split, then the wish of your heart
will be fulfilled.
Similar games are also practised on Sylvester night (December 31st),
which night is also otherwise prophetic of what is to happen during
the coming year. If it be clear, then the fowls will lay many eggs
that year, and bright moonlight means full granaries. A red dawn on
New-year’s Day means war, and wind is significant of the pest or
cholera.
FOOTNOTES:
[57] An old German saying, “Hier liegt der Hund begraben”—and which
is equivalent to saying, That now we penetrate the true meaning of
something not previously understood—has been explained in the same way
in Büchner’s “Geflügelte Worte:” There the dog lies buried; that is why
the tree bears fruit.
[58] The Greeks also observed this at their banquets in order to
appease the gods.
[59] In the Harz and Westphalia Tuesday is considered the luckiest day
for entering on a new service.
[60] This custom, which appears to be a very old one, is also prevalent
among various Slav peoples, Poles, Serbs, etc. In Poland it used to be
_de rigueur_ that the water be poured over a girl who was still asleep;
so in each house a victim, usually a servant-maid, was selected, who
had to feign sleep, and patiently receive the cold shower-bath which
was to insure the luck of the family during that year. The custom
has now become modified to suit a more delicate age, and instead of
formidable horse-buckets of water, dainty little perfume-squirts have
come to be used in many places.