CUSTOMS AND SUPERSTITIONS CONNECTED WITH BIRTH, MARRIAGE, AND
DEATH.
In the Isle of Man, as elsewhere, a number of curious customs and
superstitions have naturally grouped themselves about the important
events of Birth, Marriage, and Death.
BIRTH
From the birth of a child, till after it was baptised, it was customary
to keep in the room where the woman was confined, a _peck_, or wooden
hoop, about three or four inches deep, and about twenty inches in
diameter, covered with a sheep’s skin, and resembling the head of
a drum, which was heaped with oaten cakes and cheese, of which all
visitors may freely partake, and small pieces of cheese and bread,
called _blithe meat_, were scattered in and about the house for the
Fairies. The woman who carried the infant to church for baptism, was
also supplied with bread and cheese, to give to the first person she
met on the way, in order to preserve her charge from evil influences.
After returning from church, the remaining part of the day, and often
a great part of the night, was spent in eating and drinking, to which
“the whole country round” was invited, and they, in return, gave
presents to the child. If, after child-birth, a woman did not recover
her usual strength as soon as expected, she was then declared to be the
victim of an “Evil Eye.” (see p. 78.) Some neighbour is soon suspected
of having given the envenomed glance; and to counteract its malignancy,
a square piece was secretly cut out of some part of her garment, and
burnt immediately under the nose of the afflicted woman. This was
considered an infallible cure.—_Train._
The baby, also, was supposed to be especially liable to be affected by
the “Evil Eye” before baptism, and it was considered that the best
way to prevent this was to keep it constantly within the same room in
which it was born. Children were also supposed to be much more liable
to abduction by Fairies before the same ceremony. (see p. 34.) From the
time that a woman was delivered of a child, till thanksgiving for her
safe recovery was offered up by some divine, or until the consecrated
candle[128]—which was kept in her room at this time—was burnt, it was
deemed requisite, as a protection for herself against the power of evil
spirits, that she should keep her husband’s trousers beside her in the
bed, to prevent her infant being carried off by the Fairies, before
being secured from their grasp by baptism. A person was invariably
appointed for its special protection, and when she had occasion to
leave the child in the cradle she would place the tongs, which must be
made of iron, across it till her return.
Another specific to ward off evil from babies was to put salt in their
mouths as soon as possible after their birth. In connection with this
it may be noted that, as it was once the custom to expose infants in
order that they might die, this practice may have been resorted to
as a means of prevention. For, if the child had once partaken of any
food, it could not be exposed. It was deemed most unlucky to cut their
hair or nails before they were a year old, and, if it was done, the
fragments were carefully burned. A posthumous child was supposed to
have the gift of second-sight (see p. 162.); and the seventh son of a
seventh son, and a child born on Hallowe’en had powers of intercourse
with the unseen world.
A child born with a caul—a thin membrane covering the head—would
probably be notorious in some way. This caul was supposed to be
a preventive against shipwreck and drowning, and was accordingly
purchased by sailors. This idea of the value of a caul was wide-spread,
as would appear from numerous advertisements in the newspapers. One of
these, which appeared in the London _Times_ in 1835, was as follows:—“A
Child’s Caul to be disposed of, a well-known preservative against
drowning, &c., price 10 guineas.” And a caul has been advertised for
sale in a Liverpool paper in this year (1891).
MARRIAGE.
Waldron describes a Manx Wedding in his time, 1726, as follows:—“The
match is no sooner concluded than besides the banes (sic) of matrimony
being publicly asked in the Church three Sundays, notice is given to
all friends and relations, tho’ they live ever so far distant. Not one
of these, unless detained by sickness, fail coming, and bring something
towards the feast; the nearest of kin, if they are able, commonly
contribute most, so that they have vast quantities of fowls of all
sorts. * * *
They have Bride-men, and Bride-maids, who lead the young couple, as in
England, only with this difference, that the former have ozier-wands
in their hands, as an emblem of superiority, they are preceded by
musick, who play all the while before them the tune _The Black and the
Grey_,[129] and no other ever is used at weddings. When they arrive at
the Churchyard, they walk three times round the Church, before they
enter it. The ceremony being performed, they return home and sit down
to the feast; after which they dance in the Manx fashion, and, between
that and drinking, pass the remainder of the day.” This Marriage-Feast
was a lavish if not a sumptuous repast, and is described by the same
writer as follows:— “Broth is served up in wooden piggins, every man
having his portion allowed him. This they sup with shells called
_sligs_, very much like our mussel shells, but larger. I have seen a
dozen capons in one platter, and six or eight fat geese in another;
hogs and sheep roasted whole, and oxen divided but into quarters.”
These customs have now fallen into disuse. But the blowing of horns,
the day before and the morning of the wedding, is still continued.
It was formerly usual for the lover to employ a go-between called
a _dooinney-moyllee_, “a praising man,” to court and win over his
mistress to accept his addresses. It was also part of his duty to
get the parents to consent to the match, and to arrange the marriage
portion with them.
Train, writing about marriages fifty years ago, says that “when two
persons agreed to become united in matrimony, and this had been
proclaimed in the parish church on three several Sundays, all the
relations and friends of the young people were invited to the bridal,
and generally attended, bringing with them presents for the ‘persons
about to begin the world.’ Their weddings, as in Galloway, were
generally celebrated on a Tuesday or a Thursday. The bridegroom and
his party proceeded to the bride’s house, and thence with her party
to church—the men walking first in a body and the women after them.
On the bridegroom leaving his house, it was customary to throw an old
shoe after him, and in like manner an old shoe after the bride on
leaving her house to proceed to church, in order to ensure good luck to
each respectively; and if, by stratagem, either of the bride’s shoes
could be taken off by any spectator on her way from church, it had
to be ransomed by the bridegroom. On returning from church, the bride
and bridegroom walk in front, and every man, with his sweetheart, in
procession, often to the number of fifty. The expenses of the wedding
dinner and drink are sometimes paid by the men individually. It was
formerly the custom after the marriage had been performed for some of
the most active of the young people to start off at full speed for
the bridegroom’s house, and for the first who reached it to receive a
flask of brandy. He then returned in all haste to the wedding party,
all of whom halted and formed a circle. He handed spirits first to the
bridegroom, next to the bride, and then to the rest of the company in
succession, each drinking to the health of the new-married couple.
After this, the party moved onwards to the bridegroom’s house, on their
arrival at the door of which the bridecake was broken over the bride’s
head, and then thrown away to be scrambled for by the crowd usually
attendant on such occasions. The girls present were especially anxious
to secure a piece to place under their pillows, that they might dream
of their future husbands, as this ceremony is supposed to strengthen
the dreaming charm.” The writer has heard this ceremony somewhat
differently related by men still living, who have taken part in it.
They say that there was a race among the young men from the church
to the house, and that the first to arrive got the cake, and broke a
portion of it over the bride’s head when she reached the threshold.
In his notes on Customs and Superstitions in Vol. XXI. of the Manx
Society, William Harrison adds the following particulars to Waldron’s
account of Weddings, which, he says, obtained about 20 years before the
time he wrote (_i.e._, about 20 years after Train’s account):—“After
the ceremony, on coming out of the church, money is thrown amongst
the idlers, who generally congregate about, for which they scramble.
This is also done in passing any public place on the way home. On
returning home, some of the most active of the young people start off
at full speed for the bride’s house, and he who arrives there first
is considered best man, and is entitled to some peculiar privilege in
consequence. Occasionally, when the wedding party is attended by their
friends on horseback, some severe riding takes place, and it is well if
all ends without an accident. After the feast the remainder of the day
is spent with the utmost hilarity in dancing and other amusements.”
DEATH.
Many were the omens which preceded the solemn event of death. If
the dogs howled more loudly than usual, if the deathwatch[130] was
distinct in the sick person’s room, if his or her wraith was seen
by anyone, and if the strains of the funeral psalm were heard, then
death was near. When death ensued the corpse was laid on what was
called a “straightening board”, a trencher with salt[131] in it and a
lighted candle were placed on the breast, and the bed, on which the
straightening board lay, was generally strewed with strong scented
flowers. It was then waked, as we shall see, and carried to the grave,
wrapped in a winding-sheet and on an open bier (_carbad_, in Manx).
With regard to this winding-sheet, Merick, who was Bishop of Man from
1577 to 1600, and who supplied Camden with a brief account of the Isle
for his _Britannia_, made the extraordinary statement that the women
of the Island wore them during their lives to remind them of their
mortality. This was contradicted by later historians, who pointed out
that these so-called shrouds were merely the blankets, plaids, or
shawls which the women habitually wore. Waldron wrote about death and
funerals in Man 160 years ago as follows:—
“When a person dies, several of his acquaintances come and sit up with
him, which they call the Wake[132] (_Farrar_, in Manx). The Clerk of
the Parish is obliged to sing a Psalm, in which all the company join;
and after that they begin some pastime to divert themselves, and
having strong beer and tobacco allowed them in great plenty.... As to
their Funerals, they give no invitation, but everybody, that had any
acquaintance with the deceased, comes either on foot or horseback. I
have seen sometimes at a Manks burial upwards of a hundred horsemen,
and twice the number on foot: all these are entertained at long tables,
spread with all sorts of cold provision, and rum and brandy flies about
at a lavish rate. The procession of carrying the corpse to the grave is
in this manner: When they come within a quarter of a mile from Church,
they are met by the Parson, who walks before them singing a psalm, all
the company joining with him. In every Churchyard there is a cross
round which they go three times before they enter the Church. But these
are the funerals of the better sort, for the poor are carried only on
a bier,[133] with an old blanket round them fastened with a skewer.”
There were formerly crosses on the roads leading to the Parish
Churches. When funerals passed, “the corpse”, says Train, “was usually
set down at these stones, that all the people attending might have an
opportunity of praying for the soul of the deceased.” He also tells us
that “one of this description was lately to be seen at Port-y-Vullin,
on the wayside leading from Ramsey to St. Maughold, and another near
Port Erin.” It would seem that before 1594, when it was forbidden
by Statute, it was customary to carry bells and banners before the
dead. Colonel Townley, who visited the Island towards the end of the
eighteenth century, describes a funeral entertainment as follows:
“The concourse of people, upon the occasion, was wonderful, and the
quantity of provisions prepared ... was as wonderful; but not more so
than the speedy mode of dispatching them; for the people of this Island
(I mean the country farmers and their good wives, together with many
handicraft-people) esteem a funeral attendance as one of their very
first entertainments.”
Lord Teignmouth, when in the Isle of Man in 1835, was informed that
persons walking in the neighbourhood of a Churchyard sometimes found
themselves entangled in a crowd, which suddenly vanished—a sign that
foreboded a funeral. It was supposed that when the funeral hymn was
sung in a low key that it was a sign of another death.
It is a practice at the present day for the relatives of the deceased
to attend the parish church the next Sunday but one after the funeral
and to sit down throughout the service.
SECOND-SIGHT.
Closely connected with death is the curious superstition about
_Second-sight_, because it is with reference to death that its visions
almost always occur. It may be defined as the faculty of seeing future
events by means of a spectral exhibition of the persons to whom such
events relate, accompanied with signs denoting their fate. This
superstition is more prevalent among Gaelic peoples than others. Dr.
Johnson, when on his tour in Scotland and the Western Isles, remarks
upon it as follows:—“Second-sight is an impression made either by
the mind upon the eye, or by the eye upon the mind, by which things
distant or future are perceived and seen as if they were present....
Things distant are seen at the instant when they happen. This receptive
faculty, for power it cannot be called, is neither voluntary nor
constant. The appearances have no dependence upon choice; they cannot
be summoned, detained, or recalled—the impression is sudden, and the
effect often painful.” People who have a hairy cross on their breasts,
or whose eyebrows meet, often have the faculty of _Second-sight_, and
so, as we have already seen, had those of posthumous birth. Such people
if they go into a Churchyard on the Eves of the New Year, of St. Mark’s
Day and of Midsummer Day can tell who will be buried in it during the
ensuing year. A child whose eye touches water in baptism has no chance
of becoming second-sighted.
The belief in the faculty of _Second-sight_ was formerly very prevalent
in the Island. According to Higden, it was the reputed prerogative of
Manxmen, for he says, “There, ofte by daye time, men of that Islande
seen men that bey dede to fore honde, byheeded or hole, and what dethe
they dyde. Alyens setten there feet upon feet of the men of that
londe for to see such syghts as the men of that londe doon.”[134]
Sacheverell, who was Governor of the Isle of Man from 1692‒1696, says
that this power was sometimes derived by inheritance, and transmitted
from father to son, and he remarks that there were people who would
attest to having seen apparitions of funeral solemnities on the
large barrow called “Fairy Hill” in Rushen. He does not altogether
believe in this, however, “but as to the light being generally seen
at people’s deaths, I have some assurances so probable, that I know
not how to disbelieve them; particularly an ancient man, who has been
long clerk of a parish, has affirmed to me that he almost constantly
sees them upon the death of any of his own parish; and one Captain
Leathes, who was chief magistrate of Belfast, and reputed a man of
great integrity, assured me that he was once shipwrecked on the
Island, and lost the greater part of his crew; that when he came on
shore the people told him he had lost thirteen of his men, for they
saw so many lights going toward the church, which was the just number
lost. Whether these fancies proceed from ignorance, superstition, or
prejudice of education, or from any traditional or veritable magic,
which is the opinion of the Scotch divines concerning second-sight; or
whether nature has adapted the organs of some persons for discerning of
spirits, is not for me to determine.” This belief is not yet extinct,
for “corpse-lights” seen about the bed of the patient are still
supposed to be the certain forerunners of death.[135]
Bishop Wilson gives, in his Pocket-Book, the following instance of a
supernatural warning:—“Mar., 1721. Two boats of Ballaugh, being at sea,
but not any distance without hearing each other, y^e men in each boat
heard a voice very distinctly repeating these words—“Churr hoods,” a
term used by fishermen to raise the anchor. They immediately did so,
and well it was for them, for a violent storm arose in half-an-hour’s
time, so y^t as it was they had enough to save their boat and their
lives. This is well attested. N.B.—Mr. Corlett assured me y^t the very
same thing happened once to the boat he was in, only with the addition
y^t y^e master of y^e boat saw y^e appearance of a man.”[136]
It was formerly supposed, as already stated, that families had
_Second-sight_ by succession, and it was also supposed that the only
way to be freed from it was by a man who had it marrying a woman
affected in the same way. Waldron, who gives several instances of the
possession of this faculty, was evidently much impressed by them, as
he declared himself “positively convinced by many proofs.” He stated
that the Manx consider that the warnings caused by these mock funerals
were the work of friendly demons, who even condescended to warn a host
of the arrival of an unexpected guest, and servants of the return of
a master who had not been expected. “As difficult as I found it”, he
says, “to give any faith to this, I have frequently been very much
surprised, when, on visiting a friend, I have found the table ready
spread and everything in order to receive me, and been told by the
person to whom I went, that he had knowledge of my coming, or some
other guest, by those good natured intelligencers. Nay, when obliged
to be absent some time from home, my own servants have assured me they
were informed by these means of my return, and expected me the very
hour I came, though, perhaps, it was some days before I hoped it myself
at my going abroad.”
He then gives the following account of
MOCK FUNERALS.
“The natives of this Island tell you that before any person dies, the
procession of the funeral is acted by a sort of beings which, for that
end, render themselves visible. I know several that, as they have been
passing the road, one of these funerals has come behind them, and even
laid the bier on their shoulders, as though to assist the bearers. One
person, who assured me he had been served so, told me that the flesh of
his shoulder had been very much bruised, and was black for many weeks
after. There are few or none of them who pretend not to have seen or
heard these imaginary obsequies (for I must not omit to say that they
sing psalms in the same manner as those do who accompany the corpse of
a dead friend), which so little differ from real ones that they are not
to be known till both coffin and mourners are seen to vanish at the
church doors.”
[Footnote 128: The churching of a woman, in the Manx language, is
called _lostey-chainley_, from the practice of burning a candle, in
former times, during this service.]
[Footnote 129: This was a popular tune in the time of Charles II., and
it continued in vogue till the end of the last century.]
[Footnote 130: This sound was really produced by a small wood-moth.]
[Footnote 131: Sometimes earth as well as salt was laid on the corpse,
the former being an emblem of the corruptibility of the body, the other
of the incorruptibility of the soul.]
[Footnote 132: Watching with the dead was an ancient custom of the
Church. Pennant, in his _Tour of Scotland_, speaks of it as follows:
“The evening after the death of any person, the relations or friends
of the deceased meet at the house attended by bag-pipe or fiddle; the
nearest of kin, be it wife, son, or daughter, opens a melancholy ball,
dancing and greeting (_i.e._, crying) at the same time.”]
[Footnote 133: Burial in coffins, as a universal custom, did not begin
in England before the end of the seventeenth century.]
[Footnote 134: Polychronicon, A.D. 1482, Rolls series.]
[Footnote 135: Its frequency in earlier times may be reasonably
attributed to the greater prevalency of marshy ground over which such
phenomena as the _ignis fatuus_, or Will-o’-the-wisp, would often be
seen.]
[Footnote 136: Manx Note Book, Vol. II., p. 87.]
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