But the efficacy of the horse-shoe as a protector of people and buildings
depends not solely upon its arched shape, nor on its bifurcated form, nor
yet upon its fancied resemblance to a snake. Its relation to the _horse_
also gives it a talismanic value; for in legendary lore this animal was
often credited with supernatural qualities. An English myth ascribes to
the horse the character of a luck-bringer, and horse-worship was in vogue
among the early Celts, Teutons, and Slavs.
In Hindostan, also, the horse is regarded as a lucky animal; and when
an equestrian rides into a sugar-cane field in the sowing season, the
event is considered auspicious. In the same region the froth from a
horse’s mouth is thought to repel demons, which are believed to have
more fear of a horse than of any other animal. The natives of northern
India also believe that the horse was originally a wingéd creature, and
that the horny protuberances on his legs indicate where the wings were
attached.[140]
In the Norse mythology almost every deity has his particular steed, as
have most of the heroes of antiquity, for the heathen nations regarded
the horse as sacred and divine.[141]
Tradition says that when the city of Carthage was founded by Dido, the
Phœnician queen, in the ninth century B. C., a priestess of Juno dug
in the ground, by command of the oracle, and discovered the head of a
bullock. This was considered unsatisfactory, because bullocks and oxen
were servile animals under the yoke. Thereupon the priestess again turned
up the soil and found a horse’s head, which was reckoned auspicious, for
the horse, although sometimes yoked to the plough, was also symbolic
of war and martial glory. Therefore a temple of Juno was built on the
spot, and the figure of a horse’s head was adopted as an emblem by the
Carthaginians and stamped upon their coins.[142]
Dr. Ludwig Beck, in his “History of Iron,” states that in Teutonic
legends the horse was sacred to Wodan or Odin, who always rode, while
Thor either drove about in his chariot or went afoot. Thence it is, says
this writer, that the Devil of the Middle Ages is represented with the
hoofs of a horse.
The reputation of the horse as a prophetic and divinatory animal, even
among Christian peoples, is shown by various German traditions, of which
the following is an example. When the inhabitants of Delve, a village in
the Duchy of Holstein, were about to build a church, the choice of a
site was determined in this manner: An image of the Virgin was fastened
upon the back of a parti-colored mare, which was then allowed to roam at
will; and it was agreed that the church should be erected upon the spot
where the mare should be found the next morning. This proved to be a
neighboring bramble-thicket, and the new edifice was accordingly placed
there, and dedicated to “Our beloved Lady on the Horse.”[143]
The ancient belief in the oracular powers of the horse is well shown by a
custom formerly in vogue among the Pomeranians. On the outbreak of a war
a priest laid three spears at equal distances upon the ground in front of
the temple. Two other spears were then leaned transversely across them,
with their points resting in the earth. After a prayer the high priest
led up a sacred horse, and if he stepped with his right foot foremost
thrice in succession over the spears without stumbling, it was accounted
a good augury, otherwise not.[144]
A dragon-headed horse, emblematic of grandeur, having on its back the
civilizing book of the law, is one of the four great mythic animals of
the Chinese; and the Tibetans have a like symbol, which they use as a
luck-bringing talisman.
The association of the horse with luck is prominent in Indian myth as
well:—
The jewel-horse of the universal monarch, such as Buddha was to
have been had he cared for worldly grandeur, carries its rider
Pegasus-like through the air in whatever direction wished for,
and thus it would become associated with the idea of material
wishes, and especially wealth and jewels.[145]
Among the lower classes of the Hindus of Bombay, a notion is prevalent
that spirits are frightened by the sound of a horse’s hoofs; and this
superstition has been thought to explain the custom, in vogue among the
Hindus generally, of having a bridegroom ride a horse when on his way to
the bride’s residence.[146]
In Bokhara, when a horse stumbles in fording a stream, and the rider
thereby gets an involuntary wetting, it is considered a most fortunate
occurrence instead of a mishap. In the same country it is also accounted
lucky to meet an equestrian.[147]
One reason in favor of the theory which ascribes the horse-shoe’s weird
powers to its connection with a luck-bringing animal is the fact that
various portions of the equine frame serve as amulets in different
localities. Thus not only the horse-shoe but the hoof, or even a single
bone of the foot, may be used for this object.
In the island of Montserrat the two incisor teeth of a horse are carried
about as charms.[148] The popular belief of many people credits equine
hair with special virtues. “Honor abides in the manes of horses” is
a saying of Mohammed, and in Turkey a horse’s tail as an emblem is
significant of dignity and exalted position.
In certain villages of Brandenburg every new-born boy, before his first
bath, is placed upon a horse, the animal being brought into the chamber
for the purpose. This is thought to impart to the child manly qualities
for life. In other districts small children are allowed to ride a black
foal to facilitate the cutting of their teeth; and the neighings of
horses are believed to be of favorable import if listened to carefully.
The popular belief on this subject is exemplified in the German saying,
“He has horse-luck,” in reference to a piece of extraordinary good
fortune.[149]
The Irish think that the reason for the horse-shoe’s magical power is
because the horse and the ass were in the stable where Christ was born,
and hence are evermore blessed animals.
The romantic literature of Ireland affords evidence of the existence of
a species of horse-worship in that country in former ages, and tradition
says that in the olden time there were horses endowed with human
faculties.[150] We learn from Tacitus, moreover, that the Teutonic peoples
used white horses, as the Romans used chickens, for purposes of
augury, and divined future events from different intonations
of neighings. Hence it probably is that the discovery of
a horse-shoe is so universally thought lucky, some of the
feelings that once attached to the animal itself still
surviving around the iron of its hoof. For horses, like dogs
and birds, were universally accredited with a greater insight
into futurity than man himself.[151]
The horse is seen among the insignia of Kent, the first of the
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, and is displayed at the present time on the shields
of the houses of Hanover and Brunswick.[152]
One of the most solemn forms of oath taken on the eve of battle required
a warrior to swear “by the shoulder of a horse and the edge of a sword”
that he would not flee from the enemy even if the latter should be
superior in strength.[153]
At the time of the conquest of Peru, the Indian aborigines were amazed at
the sight of the Spanish horsemen, believing that man and horse were one
creature. And it is said that Pizarro owed his life to this superstitious
belief; for on one occasion, when pursued by the natives, he fell from
his horse, and the Peruvians who witnessed the mishap, believing that
one animal had by magic divided itself into two, gave up the pursuit in
dismay.[154]
M. D. Conway, in his “Demonology and Devil-Lore,” asserts that the
Scandinavian superstition known as the “demon-mare” is the source of the
use of the horse-shoe against witches. In Germany there is a saying in
reference to the morbid oppression sometimes experienced during sleep or
while dreaming, and which is a symptom of indigestion, “The nightmare
hath ridden thee.”
This elvish mare rides horses also, and in the morning their manes are
found all tangled and dripping with sweat.
Grimm says that the traditional idea of the Nightmare seems to waver
between the ridden animal and the riding, trampling one, precisely as the
Devil is sometimes represented as riding men, and again as taking them on
his back after the manner of a horse.
According to a Bavarian popular belief, the Nightmare is a woman, who is
wont to appear at the house-door of a morning, invariably requesting the
loan of some article. In order to get rid of her at night, one should
say: “Come to-morrow and receive the three white gifts.” The next morning
the woman comes, and is given a handful of flour, a handful of salt, and
an egg.[155]
In the north of England, naturally perforated stones are hung up by the
side of the manger to prevent the Night Hag from riding the horses. In a
rare book of the sixteenth century, entitled “The Fower Chiefest Offices
belonging to Horsemanship, by Tho. Blundenill, of Newton Flotman, in
Norffolke,” the following curious charm is given as a remedy for horses
affected with the nightmare:—
Take a Flynt Stone that
hath a hole of hys owne
kynde, and hang it ouer
hym and wryte in a bill:
_In nomine patris_, etc.
Saint George our Ladyes Knight,
He walked day so did he night
Until he hir found,
He hir beate and hir bounde,
Till truely hir trouth she him plyght
That she woulde not come within the night.
There as Saint George our Ladyes Knight
Named was three tymes, Saint George.
And hang this Scripture ouer him, and let him alone. With such
proper charmes as thys is, the false Fryers in tymes past were
wont to charme the money out of the playne folkes purses.
Drink offerings were anciently poured from vessels made from horses’
hoofs; and witches are popularly supposed to drink with avidity the water
which collects in equine hoof-tracks. German writers on early traditions
and folk-lore agree in ascribing to the horse-shoe divers magical
properties, whose origin is vaguely connected with the ancient pagan
conception of the horse as a sacrificial animal.[156]
According to a popular poetic fancy of the ancient Teutons, horses,
Wodan’s favorite and darling animals, were endowed with the gifts
of speech and prophecy during the twelve days between Christmas and
Epiphany. At this holy season they were wont to put their heads together,
and impart to each other confidentially their experiences and trials of
the past year; and this communion of equine spirits was the sole pleasure
vouchsafed to the noble animals, and atoned in a measure for the hard
work which was their lot.
Even nowadays many peasants do not venture to harness their horses at
Christmas time, and do not even speak of the animals by name, but make
use of pet epithets and circumlocutions when they have occasion to refer
to them. On Christmas night, hostlers often sleep in the manger or under
it, and their dreams at such times are prophetic for the coming year, for
in their sleep they can hear what the horses are saying.
In order to impart health and vigor to the animals without incurring the
expense of extra fodder, the hostler walks at Epiphany season by night
three times around the village church, carrying in his uplifted hands a
bundle of hay, which he afterwards feeds to the horses; or on Christmas
night he steals some cabbage, which is then mixed with the fodder; or,
before going to the midnight Christmas Mass, he lays on the manure-heap
a quantity of hay called the “Mass hay,” and on his return from church
this is given to the horses. Some peasants have a yet more simple method
of promoting the welfare of their horses, which consists in laying the
cleaning-cloth upon a hedge on the evenings of Christmas, New Year’s
Day, or Epiphany, and afterwards grooming the animals with the dew-laden
cloth.[157]
In the popular mind horses are credited with extraordinarily keen
faculties for detecting ghosts and haunted places, which they
instinctively scent from afar. The Thuringian peasant does not beat
his horse when the latter refuses to proceed along some gloomy forest
road; for the whip is useless against spiritual obstacles, whereas a
_Paternoster_ devoutly repeated is usually much more effective.
It is a Bohemian superstition that a horse sees everything magnified
tenfold, and that this is the reason why the noble animal submits to
being led by a little child.[158]
When a Brandenburg rustic has bought a horse in a neighboring town and
rides him homeward, he dismounts at the boundary line of his own village,
and, gathering a handful of his native soil, he throws it backward over
the line to prevent the animal’s being bewitched. In Bohemia the chief
signs of bewitchment in a horse are thought to be shivering, profuse
sweating, and emaciation. A charm against this consists in drawing one’s
shirt inside out over one’s head, and using it as a wherewithal to groom
the animal,—a method which may be acceptable to superstitious jockeys
and hostlers, but which will hardly commend itself to a fastidious
horse-owner.[159]