Dublin.
[Footnote 3: Amongst the Inquisitions of the county of Cork which are
preserved in the Rolls Office of Chancery, there is one which relates to
Vincent Gookin, and was taken at Mallow, on the 14th of August, 1638; and
is probably an inquisition _post mortem_.]
* * * * *
"STABIT QUOCUNQUE JECERIS."
(Vol. vii., p. 65.)
This little Query may perhaps come under the category you mention in the
address of your opening Number for the year, although it might be a
sufficient reply merely to say that it was the legend round the common Manx
halfpenny, encircling the three legs of man on its reverse; but when we
consider these three conjoined limbs in their awkward and impossible
position, the propriety of the legend may be doubted, and its presence
attributable only to the numismatic necessity of accompanying the figure
with its motto. The following epigram has been composed by some Manxman
thoroughly convinced of the propriety of the application:
"Reader! thou'st seen a falling cat,
Light always on his feet so pat;
A shuttlecock will still descend,
Meeting the ground with nether end;
The persevering Manksman thus,
A shuttlecock or pauvre puss;
However through the world he's tost--
However disappointed, crost--
Reverses, losses, Fortune's frown,
No chance or change can keep him down.
Upset him any way you will,
Upon his _legs_ you'll find him still.
For ever active, brisk, and spunky,
_Stabit jeceris quocunque_."
Where, however, we perceive in the last line the rhyme has destroyed the
metre of the Latin poet, if the words be really a classical quotation,
which I should wish to form into a Query for some of your readers.
But the emblem, as the famous _Triquetra_, is one of the most ancient and
celebrated of antiquity. It figures on the oldest coins of Metapontum; and
subsequently on many of those of Sicily, particularly on those of Palermo
and Syracuse, as _island_ cities; for to islands, from one use of its name
in the Greek word [Greek: CHÊLÊ], as a jutting promontory, a break-water,
or a jetty, was it more especially appropriated. Hence it is even now borne
in the Neapolitan blazon for Sicily: as Britain, if she followed the
continental examples, would be entitled to quarter it in her full imperial
escutcheon, not only for Man, but for Malta; by which latter it was early
taken as the device. But under this distinctive name as _Chele_, it only
figured the potency which all pointed or angular forms and substances
possessed insensitively or in a triple degree. To understand this, we
should consider the force that all pointed or sharp instruments possess:
the awl, the wedge, the adze, are well known for their assistance to the
mechanic; and the transference of the idea to non-physical aid was so easy,
and so consonant to the human mind, that, when we speak of the acuteness of
an intellect, the point of an epigram, the keen edge of a sarcasm, we are
scarcely conscious that we indulge at all in the maze of metaphor.
Nor was the adaptation of the figure less suitable to the purposes of
superstition, by which it {240} was seized on, both for the purpose of
driving away the evil one or forcing him to appear: all edged tools, or
angular forms, gave complete mastery over him. Therefore, the best method
of obtaining sight of the otherwise invisible spirits of the air, is by
putting the head beneath the legs, the human fork or angle--the true Greek
_chele_--as it is also used by Saxo-Grammaticus in a dialogue between
Bearco and Ruta, to see Odin riding on the whirlwind:
"_Bearco._ At nunc ille ubi sit qui vulgo dicitur Othin
Armipotens, uno semper contentus ocello;
Dic mihi Ruta, precor, usquam si conspicis illum?
_Ruta._ Adde oculum proprius et _nostras prospice chelas_,
Ante sacraturus victrici lumina signo,
Si vis presentem tuto cognoscere Martem.
_Bearco._ Sic potero horrendum Frigæ spectare maritum," &c.
So boys in the north put their heads between their legs to see the devil
looking over Lincoln: and I am indebted to a mention of my _Shakspeare's
Puck and his Folk-lore_ in the _Maidstone Journal_ for the proof that this
belief still exists in Ireland from an anecdote told by Curran, who, in the
absence of a Währwolf on which to try its efficacy, would prove it on a
large mastiff by walking backwards to it in this posture, "while the animal
made such a grip at the poor barrister's hinder region, that Curran was
unable to _sit_ with any gratification to himself for some weeks
afterwards."
Permit me to refer such readers as are curious to know more on this
subject, to the above work, p. 73. But if you still can find room for a
continental proof of the efficacy of a pair of shears as very powerful
_chele_, not only for driving away Satan, but altogether banishing him from
earth, allow me to adduce from a most excellent collection of tales,
Traditions of the Bavarian Territories (_Sagenbuch der Baierischen Lande_),
just published by Herr A. Schöppner, under the auspices of the ex-king, the
following tale, No. 757, "Die Scharfe Scheere" (The Sharp Scissors):
"Outside the parish church of Münnerstadt, you see a gravestone with a
pair of shears sculptured on it. He who rests under it was a pious
tailor, who was often disturbed by the Devil in his devotions. The
latter appeared to him frequently, and whispered him to throw plenty of
cabbage into his hell (a technical German term for its receptacle, I
know not if usual amongst the English gentle craft), and otherwise
played him many insidious pranks. Our tired Schneider complained of the
evil to a pious hermit, who advised him, the next time the Prince of
Darkness made his appearance, to take the shears and _cut off his
tail_. The tailor resolved to follow his advice; and, on the next
visitation, he lopped the tail clean from his body. The Devil halloed
out murder! went off, and ever afterwards left the tailor in peace. But
the shears remained a long time as an heirloom in the family, and their
form was sculptured on his tombstone in remembrance. Since then, the
Devil walks through Münnerstadt without a posterial adornment, and
therefore not now recognisable; which is the reason that many people
assert that there is no longer any Devil."
Well might Herrick, in his _Hesperides_, inculcate:
"Hang up _hooks and shears_ to scare
Hence the hag that rides the mare."
WILLIAM BELL, Phil. Doc.