And Loye the smith doth looke to horse, and smithes of all degree;
If they with iron meddle here, or if they goldsmithes bee.
In certain countries blacksmiths and farriers have always been credited
with supernatural faculties, and it seems, therefore, reasonable thus to
explain the origin of some portion of the alleged mystic virtues of their
handiwork, the iron horse-shoe, although indeed this view does not appear
to have been advanced hitherto.
Among ourselves, and in some of the principal European countries,
blacksmiths are highly respectable members of society, although they
do not usually deal in occult science. But in portions of the Russian
empire, as in the province of Mingrelia, the Caucasus, and neighboring
regions, blacksmiths do enjoy a certain reputation as magicians. Solemn
oaths are taken upon the anvil instead of upon the Bible. In Abyssinia
and in the Congo country all iron-workers have the reputation of
sorcerers, and among the Tibbous of central Africa they are treated
with great deference. When an inhabitant of the Orkney Islands wishes
to obtain an amulet, he applies either to a farrier, or to his son or
grandson; and the Roumanian gypsies are mostly blacksmiths, their wives
obtaining a livelihood by mendicancy, the practice of divination, and the
interpretation of dreams; while both men and women are thought to have
the faculty of summoning to their aid powerful spirits of the air.[100]
In Morocco, at the present day, there still exists a community of
dwarfish artisans, workers in metals, magicians, and adepts in the
healing art, who make little books which are used as portable amulets;
and the Haratin, who inhabit the Drah valley, deem it sinful even
to mention by name these dwarfs, whom they consider entitled to
extraordinary respect.
Each member of this mysterious tribe of pigmy smiths is said to wear a
_haik_, or outer garment, having upon the back a representation of an
eye, a symbol suggestive of the Cyclops of old.[101]
There was, indeed, as we have seen, a common opinion throughout a great
part of Europe that the earliest smiths were supernatural beings; for it
was reasoned that the marvelous process of melting and fashioning iron
could not have been conceived by man, but must have originated through
magical agencies.
In Germany blacksmith’s forges were often situated on highways remote
from settlements, and were the resort of travelers and teamsters, who
stopped either to have a horse shod, or to obtain veterinary advice.
Quite naturally these smithies, like the modern crossroads variety
stores, became little centres of sociability and gossip, and even of
conviviality. Moreover, questionable characters sometimes frequented
these places, and hence their reputation was not always savory. But
the blacksmith himself, by virtue of his calling, was looked upon with
respect, even after his craft had ceased to inspire the vulgar with
mysterious awe.[102]
In south Germany and the Tyrol, when a blacksmith rests from his work
on a Saturday evening, he strikes with his hammer three blows upon
the anvil, thereby chaining up the Devil for the ensuing week. And so
likewise, while hammering a horse-shoe into shape, he strikes the anvil
instead of the shoe every fourth or fifth blow, and thus makes doubly
secure the chain wherewith Satan is bound.[103]
Blacksmiths are usually clever enough to recognize the Devil, even when
disguised as a gentleman.
Once upon a time the Evil One appeared at the door of a smith in the
village of Gossensass, on the Brenner road, Tyrol, and wished to have his
two horses shod. When the work was done, he inquired how much he should
pay; but the shrewd smith refused to take any money, and only stipulated
that his customer should never enter the shop again, which the Devil
promised and went away.[104]
The magicians of Hindostan, when treating cases of alleged demoniacal
possession, after the performance of other mystic rites, are wont to
sprinkle the patient with water from a blacksmith’s shop, the water
having been endowed with additional virtue by the repeated immersion of
iron.[105]
In northeast Scotland a cure for rickets consists in having the child
bathed by a blacksmith in the water-trough of the smithy. Then he is laid
on the anvil and iron implements are passed over him, the use of each
being asked, and the ceremony is followed by a second bath. To insure the
efficacy of this process, three blacksmiths of the same name must take
part in it.[106]
In Henderson’s “Folk-Lore of the Northern Countries of England,” p. 187,
mention is made of a remarkable method of treatment intended for the
development of sickly, puny children who are thought to be under the
influence of an evil spell which retards their growth,—a notable instance
of survival of the old belief in the blacksmith’s magical powers. Very
early in the morning the little patient is brought to the shop of a smith
of the seventh generation, if such can be found, and laid quite naked
on the anvil. The blacksmith raises his hammer thrice as if to strike
a glowing horse-shoe, each time letting it gently fall on the child’s
body,—a simple ceremony, but vastly promotive of the child’s physical
welfare, in the minds of its rustic parents.
The farriers of the Arabs inhabiting the oases of the great Sahara desert
are exempt from taxes and enjoy numerous privileges. Of these the most
important and striking, as showing the honor accorded to the men of this
craft, is the following:—
When, on the battlefield, a mounted farrier is hard pressed by enemies,
he runs the risk of being killed so long as he remains upon his horse
with weapons in his hand. But if he alights, kneels down, and with the
corners of his hooded cloak or _burnous_ imitates the movements of a pair
of bellows, thus revealing his profession, his life is spared.[107]
The Baralongs of South Africa regard the art of smelting and forging
as sacred, and, when the metal begins to flow, none are permitted to
approach the furnaces except those who are initiated in the mysteries of
the craft.[108]
In Finland, also, blacksmiths are held in profound respect, and the
greatest luxuries are none too good for them. They are presented with
brandy to keep them in good humor; and a Finnish proverb says, “Fine
bread always for the smith, and dainty morsels for the hammerer.”[109]
Among certain tribes of the west coast of equatorial Africa the
blacksmith officiates also as priest or medicine-man, and is a chief
personage in the community, which often embraces several adjacent
villages. Indeed, there appears to be a quite general belief in different
portions of Africa that metal-workers as a class are superior beings,—of
higher origin than their fellow-tribesmen. When a savage people, without
a knowledge of farriery, acquired by conquest a new territory, and found
therein blacksmiths plying their vocation, they naturally regarded these
artisans with wonder, not unmixed with fear.[110]
Moreover, the early association, in mythology and tradition, of
metal-working and sorcery, appears to explain in a measure, as already
suggested, the reason for the magical properties popularly ascribed to
horse-shoes and to iron articles generally.