Compton of Somersetshire, who practised physic, and pretends to strange
matters, related to him this story of Mr. Monpesson’s disturbance. The
physician told him, he was sure it was nothing but a rendezvous of
witches, and that for an hundred pounds he would undertake to rid the
house of all disturbance. In pursuit of this discourse, he talkt of many
high things, and having drawn my friend into another room, apart from
the rest of the company, said, he would make him sensible that he could
do something more than ordinary, and asked him who he desired to see;
Mr. Hill had no great confidence in his talk, but yet being earnestly
pressed to name some one, he said he desired to see no one so much as
his wife, who was then many miles distant from them at her home. Upon
this, Compton took up a looking-glass that was in the room, and setting
it down again, bid my friend look into it, which he did, and then, as he
most solemnly and seriously professeth, he saw the exact image of his
wife, in that habit which she then wore, and working at her needle in
such a part of the room, there also represented, in which and about
which time she really was, as he found upon enquiring upon his return
home. The gentleman himself averred this to me, and he is a sober,
intelligent, and credible person. Compton had no knowledge of him
before, and was an utter stranger to the person of his wife. The same
man is again alluded to, in the story of the witchcrafts of Elizabeth
Styles, whom he discovered to be a witch, by foretelling her coming into
a house, and going out again without speaking. He was by all accounted a
very odd person.”
THE DEMON OF JEDBURGH.
In 1752, when Captain Archibald Douglass, who was then on a recruiting
party in the South of Scotland, his native country, lay in the town of
Jedburgh, his serjeant complained to him that the house in which he was
quartered was haunted by a spirit, which had several times appeared to
him by candle light in a very frightful form. The captain, who was a man
of sense and far from being superstitious, treated the serjeant as a
person who had lost his reason, threatened to cane him as a coward, and
told him that goblins and spirits were beneath the notice of a soldier.
The captain the night following had a strange dream, in which he saw the
landlady of the inn, where the serjeant lay, in company with a great
number of other females, ascending in the air, some riding on brooms,
some on asses, and others on cats, &c. The landlady invited him to
accompany them in their aërial excursion, to which consenting, he got
upon a goat behind one of the women, and was carried with great velocity
to a large heath near London, which he well knew on their arrival.
When all the females had alighted, his ears were suddenly alarmed with a
thousand yells the most hideous that could be conceived, to the sound of
which they all danced in a circle. The captain was placed in the centre;
beholding all the wild vagaries with wonder and horror. When the music
had ceased and the dancing closed, suddenly he found himself by a
phalanx of infernal furies, whose forks were all aimed at his breast.
The horror of this scene suddenly awaked the captain, who was glad to
find himself safe and in a sound skin at his mother’s house, where he
lay that night.
The next morning the serjeant, like the knight of the sorrowful
countenance, waited on the captain for fresh orders, again declaring
that he had seen the apparition which had threatened his life. The
captain heard him with less impatience and inattention than he had the
preceding day, saying, I myself have had a restless night and a terrible
dream, but these things, I tell you again, are beneath the notice of a
soldier. However, continued the captain, I am resolved to sift this
matter till I discover the ground of your complaint. I have a notion
that you, like myself, have been making too free with the bottle. The
serjeant replied, most solemnly declaring that he was most perfectly in
his senses when he saw a frightful spectre standing at the side of his
bed, and which changing its appearance, retired in the shape of a great
black cat, jumping from the window over the church steeple. Now to let
your honour into a secret, continued the soldier, I was informed this
morning, that the landlady is neither more nor less than a witch, and
her goodman is second-sighted, and can tell, awake him from his sleep
when you please, the precise hour of the night, and the exact minute.
To cut short our story, the captain at night accompanied the serjeant,
well provided with fire arms, and a sword, to the chamber alluded to.
Having placed the arms upon the table, he lay down by the soldier’s side
in a bed without curtains, but enclosed with a frame of wainscoting with
sliding doors. At midnight, they heard three knocks on one of the
pannels, when the captain arose, ran to the door, which he found fast
locked, and having a candle, searched every corner of the room without
making any discovery. He lay down a second time, and about an hour after
again heard the knocking three distinct times as before. Attempting to
get up, the whole wainscoting tumbled down upon the bed, the violent
noise of which alarmed the serjeant, who cried out, the witch! the witch
is within! It was a considerable time before they could extricate
themselves from the boarding, but so sooner was the captain disentangled
than he saw a prodigious large sable cat flying to the window, at which
he fired a pistol, and shot off one of its ears.
Next morning the captain called the landlord, and enquired how long his
house had been haunted. The landlord replied, you must ask my wife, when
she returns home, for she is seldom in bed after midnight. Just as the
husband was so saying, the wife came into the kitchen, and falling into
a swoon upon seeing the captain, fell down prostrate on the floor,
discomposed her head-dress, and discovered a terrible wound on the left
side of her head and the want of an ear. The captain swore that he would
take her before the provost, in order that she might be committed for
trial, but the husband interfering, and the captain well knowing that he
could not continue in the country till the next circuit, contented
himself with telling the story among the circle of his friends, none of
whom had the least reason to doubt his veracity, as he was a gentleman
of strict honour, undaunted courage, and tried integrity.—It may be
inferred from this that witches have a capacity of changing their
outward form, and appearing in the shape of a cat, or the like, at the
will; but this might only be in the imagination of the captain and the
serjeant, for it would be hard to account for the loss of this witch’s
real ear, had she changed her body to that of the animal upon which the
captain supposed he had fired.
How to reconcile these and various similar stories to the standard of
common credence, is a task no less difficult than problematical; and to
ascertain the real cause of the scarcity, now-a-days, of such mysterious
and unaccountable occurrences, is at least a proof that the devil has
been losing latterly, from some cause or other, much of his ascendancy
over the human mind. To attempt to explain, or do away with the
supposition, that spirits, apparitions, demons, or other preternatural
agents, “hobgoblins damned,” or undamned, would be to attack the
fundamental parts of the christian religion, which we are told and
taught to believe constitutes a part of the law of the land. The wisest
philosophers, heroes, and vagrants, have all, from the remotest
antiquity downwards, testified to their appearance; and divines
themselves have been equally orthodox, and active in promulgating the
force of their testimony in support of the doctrine of preternatural
agency; which neither the supposition of a morbid imagination,
“contained in tabular views[65] of the various comparative degrees of
faintness, vividness, or intensity, supposed to exist between sensations
and ideas, when conjointly excited or depressed,” can account for on
rational principles, when the mind is curious to be divested of all
these presumed causes. That there are states and conditions of the mind,
when, from intensity of excitement, the imagination may be played upon
no one will deny; but that such causes should always have existed, is
equally as preposterous and absurd—still between these and imposture,
perhaps truth may lie; and then it is a point of scepticism that does
little honour to the social compact, to cast even a shade of doubt on
the moral character of a man, whose veracity was never before impeached
on any other subject.
THE GHOST OF JULIUS CÆSAR.
Marcus Brutus, one of the murderers of Julius Cæsar, being one night in
his tent, saw a monstrous figure come in about the third hour of the
night. Brutus immediately cried out, what art thou, a man or a god? and
why art thou come hither? The spectre answered, I am thy evil genius;
thou shalt see me at Philippi. Brutus calmly answered, I will meet thee
there. However, he did not go, but relating the affair to Cassius, who
being of the sect of Epicurus, and believing nothing of these matters,
told him it was a mere fancy; that there was no such thing as genii or
other spirits, which could appear to men; that even if they should
appear, they could not assume a human shape or voice, and had no power
over men. Though Brutus was somewhat encouraged by those reasons, he
could not entirely get the better of his uneasiness: but this very
Cassius, in the midst of the battle of Philippi, saw Julius Cæsar, whom
he had assassinated, riding up to him full speed, which terrified him so
much, that he fell upon his own sword.
_The ghosts of the slain at the battle of Marathon._
Pausanias writes, that four hundred years after the battle of Marathon,
there were still heard in the place where it was fought, the neighing of
horses, and the shouts of soldiers, animating one another to the fight.
Plutarch also speaks of spectres seen, and dreadful howlings heard in
the public baths, where several citizens of Chœronea, his native town,
had been murdered. He says, that the inhabitants had been obliged to
shut up these baths, but that, notwithstanding the precaution, great
noises were still heard, and dreadful spectres frequently seen by the
neighbours. Plutarch, who is an author of acknowledged gravity and good
sense, frequently makes mention of spectres and apparitions;
particularly he says, that in the famous battle above alluded to,
several soldiers saw the apparition of Theseus fighting for the Greeks
and against the Persians.
_Familiar spirit or ancient Brownie._
It is recorded in Socrates, that after the defeat of the Athenian army
under the prætor Laches, as he was flying in company with the Athenian
general, and came to a place where several roads met, he refused to go
the same road that the others took, and the reason being asked him, he
answered that his genus, or familiar spirit, who frequently attended
him, dissuaded him from it; and the event justified the precaution, for
all those who went a different way, were killed, or made prisoners by
the enemy’s cavalry.
GIPSIES—EGYPTIANS.
In most parts of the continent the gipsies are called _Cingari_, or
_Zingari_; the Spaniards call them _Gitanos_, the French _Bohemiens_ or
_Bohemiennes_.
It is not certain when the Gipsies, as they are now termed, first
appeared in Europe; but mention is made of them in Hungary and Germany,
so early as the year 1417. Within 10 years afterwards we hear of them in
France, Switzerland and Italy. The date of their arrival in England is
more uncertain; it is most probable that it was not until near a century
afterward. In the year 1530, they are spoken of in the following manner,
in the penal statutes.
“Forasmuch as before this time, divers and many outlandish people
calling themselves Egyptians, using no craft nor feat of merchandize,
have come into this realm, and gone from shire to shire, and place to
place, in great company, and used great subtil and crafty means to
deceive the people; bearing them in mind that they, by palmistry,
could tell men’s and women’s fortunes; and so many times, by craft and
subtilty, have deceived the people of their money; and also have
committed many heinous felonies and robberies, to the great hurt and
deceit of the people they have come among,” &c.
This is the preamble to an act, by which the Gipsies were ordered to
quit the realm under heavy penalties. Two subsequent acts, passed in
1555 and 1565, made it death for them to remain in the kingdom; and it
is still on record, that thirteen were executed under these acts, in the
county of Suffolk, a few years before the restoration. It was not till
about the year 1783, that they were repealed.
The Gipsies were expelled France in 1560, and Spain in 1591: but it does
not appear they have been extirpated in any country. Their collective
numbers, in every quarter of the globe, have been calculated at 7 or
800,000[66]. They are most numerous in Asia, and in the northern parts
of Europe. Various have been the opinion relative to their origin. That
they came from Egypt, has been the most prevalent. This opinion (which
has procured them here the name of Gipsies, and in Spain that of
_Gittanos_) arose from some of the first who arrived in Europe,
pretending that they came from that country; which they did, perhaps, to
heighten their reputation for skill in palmistry and the occult
sciences. It is now we believe pretty generally agreed, that they came
originally from Hindostan; since their language so far coincides with
the Hindostanic, that even now, after a lapse of nearly four centuries,
during which they have been dispersed in various foreign countries,
nearly one half of their words are precisely those of Hindostan[67]; and
scarcely any variation is to be found in vocabularies procured from the
Gipsies in Turkey, Hungary, Germany, and those in England[68]. Their
manners, for the most part, coincide, as well as the language, in every
quarter of the globe where they are found; being the same idle wandering
set of beings, and seldom professing any mode of acquiring a livelihood,
except that of fortune-telling[69]. Their religion is always that of the
country in which they reside; and though they are no great frequenters
either of mosques or churches, they generally conform to rites and
ceremonies as they find them established.
Grellman says that, in Germany, they seldom think of any marriage
ceremony; but their children are baptized and the mothers churched. In
England their children are baptized, and their dead buried, according to
the rites of the church; perhaps the marriage ceremony is not more
regarded than in Germany; but it is certain they are sometimes married
in churches. Upon the whole, as Grellman observes, we may certainly
regard the Gipsies as a singular phenomenon in Europe. For the space of
between three and four hundred years they have gone wandering about like
pilgrims and strangers, yet neither time nor example has made in them
any alteration: they remain ever and every where what their fathers
were: Africa makes them no blacker, nor does Europe make them whiter.
Few of the descendants of the aboriginal Gipsies are to be found any
where in Europe, and in England less than any where else. The severity
of the police against this description of the degenerate vagabonds
existing at the present day, have considerably thinned their phalanxes,
and brought them to something like a due sense of the laws and
expectations of civilized society. What remains of them, nevertheless,
contrive one way or other to elude the vigilance of the laws by
different masked callings, under which they ostensibly appear to carry
on their usual traffic.
The modern Gipsies pretend that they derive their origin from the
ancient Egyptians, who were famous for their knowledge in astronomy and
other sciences; and, under the pretence of fortune-telling, find means
to rob or defraud the ignorant and superstitious. To colour their
impostures, they artificially discolour their faces, and speak a kind of
gibberish or cant peculiar to themselves. They rove up and down the
country in large companies, to the great terror of the farmers, from
whose geese, turkeys, and fowls, they take considerable contributions.
When a fresh recruit is admitted into the fraternity, he is to take the
following oath, administered by the principal marauder, after going
through the annexed forms:—
First, a new name is given to him, by which he is ever after to be
called; then standing up in the middle of the assembly, and directing
his face to the _dimber damber_, or principal man of the gang, he
repeats the following oath, which is dictated to him by some experienced
member of the fraternity; namely, “I, Crank Cuffin, do swear to be a
true brother, and that I will, in all things, obey the commands of the
great tawny prince, and keep his counsel, and not divulge the secrets of
my brethren.
“I will never leave nor forsake the company, but observe and keep all
the times of appointment, either by day or by night, in every place
whatever.
“I will not teach any one to cant, nor will I disclose any of our
mysteries to them.
“I will take my prince’s part against all that shall oppose him, or any
of us, according to the utmost of my ability; nor will I suffer him, or
any one belonging to us, to be abused by any strange _Abrams_,
_Rufflers_, _Hookers_, _Paillards_, _Swaddlers_, _Irish Toyles_,
_Swigmen_, _Whip Jacks_, _Jackmen_, _Bawdy Baskets_, _Dommerars_,
_Clapper Dogeons_, _Patricoes_, or _Curtals_; but will defend him, or
them, as much as I can, against all other outliers whatever. I will not
conceal aught I win out of _Libkins_[70], or pun the _Ruffmans_[71], but
will preserve it for the use of the company. Lastly, I will cleave to my
_Doxy-wap_[72], stifly, and will bring her _Duds_[73], _Margery
Prators_[74], _Goblers_[75], _Grunting Cheats_[76], or _Tibs of the
Buttery_[77], or any thing else I can come at, as _winning_[78] for her
wappings.”
The canters, it would appear, have a tradition, that from the three
first articles of this oath, the first founders of a certain boastful,
worshipful fraternity, (who pretend to derive their origin from the
earliest times) borrowed both the hint and the form of their
establishment; and that their pretended derivation of the first word
_Adam_ is a forgery, it being only from the first _Adam Tyler_[70]. At
the admission of a new brother, a general stock is raised for _booze_ or
drink, to make themselves merry on the occasion. As for peckage or
eatables, this they can procure without money, for while some are sent
to break the ruffmans, or woods and bushes, for firing, others are
detached to filch geese, chickens, hens, ducks, or mallards, and pigs.
Their morts, or women, are their butchers, who presently make bloody
work with what living things are brought to them; and having made holes
in the ground under some remote hedge, in an obscure place, they make a
fire, and boil or broil their food; and when it is done enough, fall to
work tooth and nail; and having eaten more like beasts than human
beings, they drink more like swine than men, entertaining each other
during the time with songs in the canting dialect. As they live, so they
lie together, promiscuously, and know not how to claim a property either
in their goods or children; and this general interest ties them more
firmly together, than if all their rags were twisted into ropes, to bind
them indissolubly from a separation, which detestable union is farther
consolidated by the preceding oath.
They stroll up and down all summer-time in droves, and dexterously pick
pockets while they are telling fortunes; and the money, rings, silver
thimbles, &c. which they get, are instantly conveyed from one hand to
another, till the remotest person of the gang (who is not suspected,
because they come not near the person robbed) gets possession of it; so
that in the strictest search, it is impossible to recover it, while the
wretches, with imprecations, oaths, and protestations, disclaim the
thievery.
That by which they were said to get the most money, was, when young
gentlewomen of good families and reputation, have happened to be with
child before marriage, a round sum is often bestowed among Gipsies, for
some mort to take the child; and, as in these cases it was never heard
of more by the true mother and family, so the disgrace was kept
concealed from the world; and, in the event of the child surviving, its
parents are never known.
The following account of these wandering beings, is taken from Evelyn’s
Journal, which throws some light on their degeneracy from the primitive
tribes.
“In our statutes they are called Egyptians, which implies a counterfeit
kind of rogues, who ‘being English or Welsh people,’ disguise themselves
in uncouth habits, smearing their faces and bodies, and framing to
themselves an unknown, canting language, wander up and down; and under
pretence of telling fortunes, curing diseases, &c. abuse the common
people, trick them of their money, and steal all that is not too hot or
too heavy for them. See several statutes made against them, 28 Henry
VIII. c. 10. 1 & 2. Philip and Mary, c. 4 & 5. Eliz. c. 20.
“The origin of this tribe of vagabonds called _Egyptians_, and popularly
Gipsies, is somewhat obscure; at least the reason of the denomination is
so. It is certain, the ancient Egyptians had the name of great cheats,
and were famous for the subtilty of their impostures, whence the name
might afterwards pass proverbially into other languages, as is pretty
certain it did into the Greek and Latin, or else the ancient Egyptians,
being much versed in astronomy, which in those days was little better
than Astrology, the name was on that score assumed by these _diseurs de
bonne avanture_, as the French call them, or tellers of good fortune. Be
this as it may, there is scarce any country in Europe, even at the
present day, but has its Egyptians, though not all of them under this
denomination: the Latins called them _Egyptii_; the Italians, _Cingani_,
and _Cingari_; the Germans, _Zigeuna_; the French, _Bohemiens_; others
_Saracens_, and others _Tartars_, &c.
Munster, Geogr. L. III. c. 5. relates, that they made their first
appearance in Germany, in 1417, exceedingly tawny and sun-burnt, and in
pitiful array, though they affected quality, and travelled with a train
of hunting dogs after them, like nobles. He adds, that they had
passports from King Sigismund of Bohemia, and other princes. Ten years
afterwards they came into France, and thence passed into England.
Pasquier, in his Recherches, L. IV. c. 19, relates the origin of the
Gipsies thus: On the 17th of April, 1427, there came to Paris twelve
penitents, or persons, as they said, adjudged to penance; viz. one duke,
one count, and ten cavaliers, or persons on horseback; they took on
themselves the characters of Christians of the Lower Egypt, expelled by
the Saracens; who having made application to the Pope, and confessed
their sins, received for penance, that they should travel through the
world for seven years, without ever lying in a bed. Their train
consisted of 120 persons, men, women, and children, which were all that
were left of 1200, who came together out of Egypt. They had lodgings
assigned them in the chapel, and people went in crowds to see them.
Their ears were perforated, and silver buckles hung to them. Their hair
was exceedingly black and frizzled; their women were ugly, thieves, and
pretenders to telling of fortunes. The bishop soon after obliged them to
retire, and excommunicated such as had shewn them their hands.
By an ordinance of the estates of Orleans, in the year 1560, it was
enjoined, that all these impostors under the name of _Bohemians_ and
_Egyptians_, do quit the kingdom on the penalty of the gallies. Upon
this they dispersed into lesser companies, and spread themselves over
Europe. The first time we hear of them in England was three years
afterwards, viz. anno 1563.
Ralph Volaterranus, making mention of them, affirms, that they first
proceeded or strolled from among the Uxii, a people of Persis or Persia.
(See GIPSIES.)
The following characteristic sketch of one of the primitive gipsies, is
ably delineated in the popular novel of Quentin Durward; with which we
shall close this article:
Orleans, who could not love the match provided for him by the King,
could love Isabelle, and follows her escort. Quentin, however, unhorses
him, and sustains a noble combat with his companion the renowned Dunais;
till a body of the archers ride up to his relief. The assailants are
carried off prisoners, and our victorious Scot pursues his dangerous
way, under uncertain guidance, as the following extract will shew: