[44] Mr. John Higson's _Notices of Droylsden_.
[45] See _Pictorial History of Lancashire_, p. 189, and Whitaker's
_History of Whalley_, p. 342.
[46] _History of Blackpool_, p. 332.
[47] In his _L'Allegro_, where he
"Tells how the drudging goblin sweat
To earn the cream-bowl duly set,
When, in one night, ere glimpse of morn,
His shad'wy flail had thresh'd the corn,
That ten day-labours could not end;
Then lies him down the _lubber-fiend_,
And stretch'd out all the chimney's length,
Basks at the fire his hairy strength,
And, cropful, out of doors he flings,
Ere the first cock his matin rings."
[48] _Pictorial History of Lancashire._
[49] _Sketches of Lancashire Life_, p. 192.
CHARMS AND SPELLS.
These may be placed in two classes--those directed against evil beings,
witchcraft, &c., and those which may be termed in their object curative
of "all the ills that flesh is heir to." First as to
CHARMS AND SPELLS AGAINST EVIL BEINGS.
These are usually supplied for a consideration by the fortune-tellers,
astrologers, or "wise men" of a neighbourhood. The following is a
correct copy of one of these documents which was found over the door of
a house in the neighbourhood of Burnley. Its occupier had experienced
"ill luck," and he thus sought protection from all evil-doers:--
"Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Trine, Sextile,
Dragon's Head, Dragon's Tail, I charge you all to gard this hause from
all evils spirits whatever, and gard it from all Desorders, and from
aney thing being taken wrangasly, and give this famaly good Ealth &
Welth."
Another individual, well known to the writer, was so far convinced that
certain casualties that happened to his cattle arose from the practice
of witchcraft, that he unconsciously resorted to Baal-worship, and
consumed a live calf in the fire, in order to counteract the influences
of his unknown enemies. At the same time, almost every door about his
house had its horse-shoe nailed to it as a charm, to protect all within
it from demons and witches.
A CHARM, WRITTEN IN CYPHER, AGAINST WITCHCRAFT AND EVIL SPIRITS.
Early in the nineteenth century, some men engaged in pulling down a
barn, or shippon, at West Bradford, about two miles north of Clitheroe,
were attracted by seeing a small square piece of wood fall from one of
the beams, and from it dropped a paper, folded as a small letter, but
measuring, when opened, 7¼ by 6 inches. A sort of superscription was in
large and unknown characters, and inside the paper was nearly covered
with a species of hieroglyphics, mixed with strange symbols; and in the
top left corner a table or square of thirty-six small squares, filled
with characters in red ink, the great bulk of the writing being in black
ink. The charm belongs to Jeremiah Garnett, Esq., of Roefield,
Clitheroe, and it was first deciphered by his brother, the late Rev.
Richard Garnett, of the British Museum, in May, 1825. It is this
gentleman's explanation, with a very few additions and corrections by
the present writer, the substance of which is now appended:--The table
in the top corner is a sort of magic square, called by astrologers "The
Table of the Sun." It consists of six rows of six small squares each,
and is so arranged that the sum of the figures in every row of six
squares, whether counted vertically, horizontally, or diagonally,
amounts to 111, and the sum total of the table to 666--a favourite
magical number, being that of "the beast."[50] To mystify the thing as
much as possible the numerals are expressed by letters, or rather by a
sort of cypher, chiefly formed from the Greek alphabet. Thus 1 is
represented by _a_; 2 = _e_; 3 = _i_; 4 = _o_; 5 = _u_; 6 = _l_; 7 =
_m_; 8 = _n_; 9 = _r_; and 0 = _z_. In a tablet, or space at the top of
the paper, flanking this table, are five mystical characters, or
symbols, in red ink. The first consists of the symbols of the sun, and
of the constellation Leo, which, in astrology, is "the sun's own house,"
and where, of course, he is supposed to have the greatest power. A word
in black-ink cyphers, under these symbols, is _Machen_, the cabalistic
name of "the third [or fourth] heaven;" and the Archangel Michael being
supposed to preside over the sphere [and to be the "Angel of the Lord's
Day"], his seal, or cypher, is introduced below these symbols--a series
of joined lines and swirls, like some long word written in one of the
older English shorthands. [This figure will be found under "The Lord's
Day," in the Heptameron of one Peter de Abano.] In cyphers below, in
black ink, is written his name, "Michael." The next cabalistic character
represents "the _Intelligence_ of the Sun," and over it, in cypher or
Greek letters, is written "intelligence." Under this is another
cabalistic symbol, denoting the "Spirit of the Sun," the word "spirit"
being written within it. In astrology, every planet is supposed to have
two beings, or spirits, attached to it, and called its Intelligence and
its Spirit. The last figure (which contains in a sort of quartering the
word _sigil_, seal) is "the seal of the Sun" himself, in astrological
language. All these symbols show that the charm was meant to be put in
operation on a Sunday, that being the day of the Archangel Michael, as
well as of the sun. These symbols and table occupy the upper third of
the paper, the remaining two-thirds being filled with the words of the
charm itself, in fourteen lines, of a sort of cypher-writing, in which
the five vowels are represented by a sort of arbitrary character, as are
most of the consonants, g, l, m, n, and p, being written as Greek
letters. The fourteen lines may be thus rendered in ordinary letters;
and it may be supposed that whoever pronounces the incantation, makes
the sign of the cross wherever it is indicated in the writing:--
Line 1. "apanton [or awanton] + hora + camab. + naadgrass + pynavet
ayias + araptenas.
2. "+ quo + signasque + payns [or pagns ? pagus] + sut gosikl +
tetragrammaton +
3. "inverma + amo + θ [apparently an abbreviation for _Theos_, God] +
dominus + deus + hora + [here a hole in the paper has destroyed a word]
+ fiat + fiat + fiat +
4. "ut dicitur decimo septimo capitulo Sancti Matthæi a vigesimo carmine
5. "fide demoveatis montes, fiat secundum fidem, si sit, vel fuerit
6. "ut cunque fascinum vel dæmon habitat vel perturbat hanc
7. "personam, vel hunc locum, vel hanc bestiam, adjuro te, abìre
8. "Sine perturbatione, molestia, vel tumultu minime, nomine
9. "Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sanctu. Amen. Pater noster qui es
10. "in cœlis, sanctificetur nomen tuum, veniat regnum tuum, fiat
voluntas
11. "tuo, sicut in cœlo etiam in terra, panem nostrum quotidianum da
12. "nobis in diem, et remitte nobis peccata nostra, etenim ipsi
13. "remittimus omnibus qui nobis debent; et ne nos inducas in tentat-
14. "-ionem, sed libera nos a malo. Fiat."
* * * * *
It will be seen that the first three lines of this charm are a sort of
gibberish, with an admixture of Greek and Latin words, constituting in
itself a charm, supposed to be efficacious in expelling or restraining
evil spirits. With the fourth line, then, we begin our translation.
"As it is said in the seventeenth chapter of St. Matthew, at the
twentieth verse, 'By faith ye may remove mountains: be it according to
[my] faith,'[51] if there is, or ever shall be, witchcraft [or
enchantment] or evil spirit, that haunts or troubles this person, or
this place, or this beast [or these cattle], I adjure thee to depart,
without disturbance, molestation, or trouble in the least, in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." [Then
follows the Lord's Prayer in Latin, ending with the word "Fiat" (be it
done), instead of Amen.] These words are endorsed or written outside the
paper in two lines:--
"Agla + On [or En] Tetragrammaton."
In a charm cited in the _Heptameron, or Mercurial Elements_ of Peter de
Abano, these are called "the three secret names." The first two are
names given to the Deity by the Jewish cabalists. The third (which is
also the last word in the second line of the charm) is one also
frequently in use amongst Talmudists and Jewish writers, meaning
literally "four-lettered," as descriptive of the sacred and
unpronounceable name ("Jehovah," written in Hebrew by four letters). The
word is here endorsed, as if to authenticate the whole charm, and to
show that it is the production of an artist who understood his business;
for "tetragrammaton," and "fiat," are words of such potency, that a
charm without them would be of no efficacy whatever. The Rev. Richard
Garnett adds to his account of this charm (in May, 1825):--"I should
think that the document is of no great antiquity, probably not more than
thirty or forty years old. It was doubtless manufactured by some country
'wise man,' a regular dealer in such articles. There are, I believe,
several persons within twenty miles of Blackburn, who still carry on a
trade of this sort."
* * * * *
[In the _Heptameron_, already quoted, is "The Conjuration of the Lord's
Day," which runs thus:--"I conjure and confirm upon you, ye strong and
holy angels of God ... [here follow various names of angels, including
those 'who rule in the fourth heaven'], and by the name of his star,
which is _Sol_, and by his sign, and by the immense name of the living
God, and by all the names aforesaid--I conjure thee, Michael, O! great
angel, who art chief ruler of the Lord's Day," &c.].
Amongst other charms against evil may be named that of our ancestors,
who, when eating eggs, were careful to break the shells, lest the
witches should use them to their disadvantage. We do the same for a
similar reason; it is accounted unlucky to leave them whole. They
avoided cutting their nails on a Friday, because bad luck would follow;
but we have improved upon their practice, and lay down the whole theory
as follows:--
"Cut your nails on a Monday, cut them for news;
Cut them on Tuesday, a new pair of shoes;
Cut them on Wednesday, cut them for health;
Cut them on Thursday, cut them for wealth;
Cut them on Friday, cut them for woe;
Cut them on Saturday, a journey you'll go;
Cut them on Sunday, you cut them for evil,
For all the next week you'll be ruled by the Devil."
Most grandmothers will exclaim, "God bless you!" when they hear a child
sneeze, and they sum up the philosophy of the subject with the following
lines, which used to delight the writer in days of his childhood:--
"Sneeze on a Monday, you sneeze for danger;
Sneeze on a Tuesday, you kiss a stranger;
Sneeze on a Wednesday, you sneeze for a letter;
Sneeze on a Thursday, for something better;
Sneeze on a Friday, you sneeze for sorrow;
Sneeze on a Saturday, your sweetheart to-morrow;
Sneeze on a Sunday, your safety seek,
The Devil will have you the whole of the week."
These lines may be taken either as charms or spells to produce the
effect predicted; or as omens or warnings of the results to follow. In
most parts of Lancashire it is customary for children to repeat the
following invocation every evening on retiring to bed, after saying the
Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed:--
"Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
Bless the bed that I lie on;
There are four corners to my bed,
And four angels overspread,
Two at the feet, two at the head.
If any ill thing me betide,
Beneath your wings my body hide.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
Bless the bed that I lie on. Amen."[52]
The influence of the "_evil eye_" is felt as strongly in this county as
in any other part of the world, and various means are resorted to in
order to prevent its effects. "Drawing blood above the mouth" of the
person suspected is the favourite antidote in the neighbourhood of
Burnley; and in the district of Craven, a few miles within the borders
of Yorkshire, a person who was well disposed towards his neighbours is
believed to have slain a pear-tree which grew opposite his house by
directing towards it "the first morning glances" of his evil eye.[53]
Spitting three times in the person's face; turning a live coal on the
fire; and exclaiming, "The Lord be with us," are other means of averting
its influence.
In Lancashire our boys spit over their fingers in order to screw up
their courage to the fighting point, or to give them luck in the battle.
Sometimes they do this as a sort of asseveration, to attest their
innocence of some petty crime laid to their charge. Travellers and
recruits still spit upon a stone and then throw it away, in order to
insure a prosperous journey. Hucksters, market-people, &c., always spit
upon the first money they receive in the morning, in order to insure
ready sale and "good luck" during the day. "Hansell (they say) is always
lucky when well wet."
The ancients performed certain rites and ceremonies at the changes of
the moon; and hence that luminary has added some curious items to the
popular creed. _Old Mother Bunch's Garland_ is an authority on these
matters, and amongst many other things it teaches expectant females who
desire to pry into futurity, to cross their hands on the appearance of
the new moon, and exclaim--
"All hail! new Moon; all hail to thee!
I pray thee, good Moon, declare to me
This night who my true love shall be."
We have noticed, in the introductory chapter, various other minor charms
and spells to avert evil, or "bad luck," and to secure "good luck" or
fortune for a coming period, usually a year.
THE CROW CHARM AND THE LADY-BIRD CHARM.
The following charms are repeated by children throughout Lancashire and
Yorkshire:--
_Crow Charm._
"Crow, crow, get out of my sight,
Or else I'll eat thy liver and lights."
_Lady-Bird Charm._
"Lady-bird, lady-bird, eigh [hie] thy way home,
Thy house is on fire, thy children all roam;
Except little Nan, who sits in her pan,
Weaving gold laces as fast as she can."
I remember as a child sitting out of doors on an evening of a warm
summer or autumn day, and repeating the crow charm to flights of rooks,
as they winged home to their rookery. The charm was chanted so long as a
crow remained in sight, their final disappearing being to my mind strong
proof of the efficacy of the charm. The lady-bird charm is repeated to
the insect (the _Coccinella septempunctata_ of Linnæus), the common
Seven-spotted Lady-bird, to be found in every field and garden during
summer. The lady-bird is placed upon the child's open hand, and the
charm is repeated until the insect takes to flight. The warmth and
moisture of the hand no doubt facilitate this, although the child fully
believes in the moving power of the charm. The lady-bird is also known
as _lady-cow_, _cow-lady_, and is sometimes addressed as
"_Cusha-cow-lady_."[54]
One of the present editors has often joined in the lady-bird charm, in
the East Riding of Yorkshire, where it ran--
"Cusha-coo-lady, fly away home,
Thy house is a-fire and all thy bairns gone," &c.
PIMPERNEL.
According to a MS. on Magic, preserved in Chetham's Library, Manchester,
"the herb pimpernel is good to prevent witchcraft, as Mother Bumby doth
affirm;" and the following lines must be used when it is gathered:--
"Herb pimpernel I have thee found
Growing upon Christ Jesus' ground;
The same gift the Lord Jesus gave unto thee,
When He shed his blood upon the tree.
Arise up, pimpernel, and go with me,
And God bless me,
And all that shall wear thee. Amen."
Say this fifteen days together, twice a day; morning early fasting, and
in the evening full.--(_MS. Ibid._)
THE MOUNTAIN ASH, OR WICKEN OR WIGGEN TREE.
The anti-witching properties of this tree are held in very high esteem
in the northern counties of England. No witch will come near it; and it
is believed that its smallest twig crossing the path of a witch, will
effectually stop her career. To prevent the churn being bewitched, so
that the butter will not come, the churn-staff must be made of the
wiggen-tree. So cattle must be protected from witchery by sprigs of
wiggen over or in the shippons. All honest people wishing to have sound
sleep must keep the witches from their beds by having a branch of wiggen
at their bed-heads.[55]
The charms against the malevolence of witches and of evil beings were
very numerous. A horse-shoe nailed to the door protected the family
domicile; a _hag_-stone, penetrated with a hole, and attached to the key
of the stable, preserved the horse within from being ridden by the
witch; and when hung up at the bed-head, was a safeguard to the master
himself. A hot heater, put into the churn, kept witches and evil beings
from spoiling the cream or retarding the butter. The baking of dough was
protected by a cross, and so was the kneading-trough barred against
fiendly visitation. Another class of charms was of those used by and
amongst the witches themselves.
In the "Confession of James Device, prisoner at Lancaster," charged
with being a witch and practicing witchcraft, before "William Sands,
James Anderton, and Thomas Cowell, Esqrs.," we have the following
"charm" to get "_drink_ within one hour after saying the said prayer:"--
"Upon Good Friday I will fast while I may,
Untill I heare them knell
Our Lord's own bell.
Lord in his messe
With his twelve Apostles good;--
What hath he in his hand?
Ligh in leath wand:
What hath he in his other hand?
Heaven's doore keys.
Steck, Steck Hell door,
Let Chrizun child
Goe to its mother mild.
What is yonder that casts a light so farrandly?
Mine own dear Sonne that's naild to the tree.
He is naild sore by the head and hand;
And Holy harne Panne.
Well is that man
That Friday spell can,
His child to learne:--
A cross of Blue and another of Red,
As Good Lord was to the Roode.
Gabriel laid him down to sleep
Upon the ground of Holy weepe:--
Good Lord came walking by,
Sleepest thou, wakest thou, Gabriel?
No, Lord, I am sted with stick and stake,
That I can neither sleepe nor wake.
Rise up, Gabriel, and go with me,
The stick nor the stake shall never deere thee.
Sweet Jesus. Our Lord. Amen."
But James Device's charm was not the only one brought to light in this
memorable trial;--the witches themselves were liable to be bewitched by
others of superior power, nor were their domestic preparations
altogether free from the malevolent effects of an envious practitioner.
In these cases _counter charms_ were of frequent necessity, and none of
these seem to be of greater efficacy than the following one from the
"Examination of Anne Whittle, _alias_ Chattox [a celebrated Lancashire
witch], before Roger Nowell, Esq., of Read, April 2nd, 1612." "A charm
to help _drink_ that is forespoken or bewitched."
"Three biters hast thou bitten.
The Heart, ill Eye, ill Tongue.
Three bitter shall be thy Boote,
Father, Sonne, and Holy Ghost:--a God's name.
Five Paternosters, five Avies and a Creede,
In worship of five woundes of our Lorde."
The Scotch appear to have held similar notions on these subjects with
ourselves, for in Sinclair's "_Satan's Invisible World Discovered_" we
find the following charm, "To preserve the house and those in it from
danger at night:"--
"Who sains the house the night?
They that sains it ilk a night,
Saint Bryde and her brate;
Saint Colme and his hat;
Saint Michael and his spear;
Keep this house from the weir--
From running thiefe--
And burning thiefe--
And from and ill Rea:--
That be the gate can gae:--
And from an ill wight:--
That be the gate can light.
Nine reeds about the house;
Keep it all the night.
What is that what I see,
So red, so bright, beyond the sea?
'Tis he was pierced through the hands,
Through the feet, through the throat,
Through the tongue,
Through the liver and the lung.
Well is them that well may
Fast on Good Friday."
CHARMS TO CURE SICKNESS, WOUNDS, CATTLE DISTEMPER, ETC.
Many are the charms and spells which operate against disease or sickness
in two ways--they either ward it off, if it threaten; or if too late for
that, they dispel its virulence, and effect a marvellous cure. No
medical man, we are told, will rub ointment on a wound with the
forefinger of his right hand, because it is popularly accounted
venomous. A dead man's hand is said to have the power of curing wens and
other excrescences of the neck. Three spiders, worn about the neck, will
prevent the ague. A string with _nine_ knots tied upon it, placed about
the neck of a child, is reported to be an infallible remedy for the
whooping-cough. The same effect also follows from passing the child
_nine_ times round the neck of a she-ass, according to the popular creed
of the county. Formerly silver rings, made from the hinges of coffins,
were worn as charms for the cure of fits, or for the prevention of
cramp, or even of rheumatism. The superstition continues, though the
metal is of necessity changed, few coffins having now hinges of silver.
The stranger in Lancashire can be nowhere, in town or country, amongst
any considerable number of the humbler classes, without seeing on the
fingers of women chiefly, but occasionally of men, what are called
galvanized rings, made of two hoops, one of zinc, the other of copper,
soldered together. Many wear a belt to charm away rheumatism; brimstone
carried about the person is regarded as a sure remedy against cramp; so
also is placing the shoes under the bed, the toes peeping outwards.
These are the modern charms or cure-alls against disease. Fried mice are
yet given to children in some parts of Lancashire, to cure non-retention
of urine during sleep.
CHARMS FOR THE TOOTHACHE.
"The following," says the Rev. W. Thornber, of Blackpool, "is a foolish
charm, yet much accredited amongst us [in the Fylde] for the
toothache:"--
"Peter sat weeping on a marble stone.
Jesus came near and said, 'What aileth thee, O Peter?'
He answer'd and said, 'My Lord and my God!'
He that can say this, and believeth it for my sake,
Never more shall have the toothache."
Our "wise men" still sell the following charm for the cure of continued
toothache, but it must be worn inside the vest or stays, and over the
left breast:--
"Ass Sant Petter sat at the geats of Jerusalm our Blessed Lord and
Sevour Jesus Crist Pased by and Sead, What Eleth thee hee sead Lord my
Teeth ecketh hee sead arise and folow mee and thy Teeth shall never Eake
Eney moor. Fiat + Fiat + Fiat."[56]
VERVAIN, FOR WOUNDS, ETC.
A magical MS. in Chetham's Library, Manchester, of the time of Queen
Elizabeth, supplies the following metrical prayer, to be said in
gathering this herb:--
"All-hele, thou holy herb, Vervin,
Growing on the ground;
In the Mount of Calvary
There wast thou found;
Thou helpest many a grief,
And stanchest many a wound.
In the name of sweet Jesus
I take thee from the ground.
O Lord, effect the same
That I do now go about."
The following lines, according to the same authority, were to be said
when pulling it:--
"In the name of God, on Mount Olivet
First I thee found;
In the name of Jesus
I pull thee from the ground."
CHARMS TO STOP BLEEDING.
In an ancient 8vo. MS. volume, described by Dr. Whitaker, in his
_History of Whalley_, entitled _Liber Loci Benedicti de Whalley_,
commencing with the translation of the convent from Stanlaw (in 1296)
and ending about the year 1346, are the following monkish charms (in
Latin) for stopping hæmorrhage:--
"_For staunching bleeding from the Nostrils, or from Wounds, an approved
remedy._--O God, be Thou merciful to this Thy servant N., nor allow to
flow from his body more than one drop of blood. So may it please the Son
of God. So his mother Mary. In the name of the Father, stop, O blood! In
the name of the Son, stop, O blood! In the name of the Holy Ghost, stop,
O blood! In the name of the Holy Trinity.
"_To staunch Bleeding._--A soldier of old thrust a lance into the side
of the Saviour: immediately there flowed thence blood and water,--the
blood of Redemption, and the water of Baptism. In the name of the Father
+ may the blood cease. In the name of the Son + may the blood remain. In
the name of the Holy Ghost + may no more blood flow from the mouth, the
vein, or the nose."
To particular persons was attached the virtue of stopping bleeding by a
word; and a woman of Marton, near Blackpool, whose maiden name was
Bamber, was so celebrated for her success, that she was sought for to
stop hæmorrhage throughout a district of twenty miles around.
TOUCHING FOR THE KING'S EVIL.
The records of the Corporation of Preston contain two votes of money, to
enable persons to go from Preston to be touched for the evil. Both are
in the reign of James II. In 1682, the bailiffs were ordered to "pay
unto James Harrison, bricklayer, 10_s._ towards the carrying of his son
to London, in order to the procuring of his Majesty's touch." And in
1687, when James was at Chester, the council passed a vote that "the
bailiffs pay unto the persons undermentioned each of them 5_s._ towards
their charge in going to Chester to get his Majesty's touch: Anne,
daughter of Abel Mope, ---- daughter of Richard Letmore."[57]
CURES FOR WARTS.
Steal a piece of meat from a butcher's stall or his basket, and, after
having well rubbed the parts affected with the stolen morsel, bury it
under a gateway at four lane ends, or, in case of emergency, in any
secluded place. All this must be done so secretly as to escape
detection; and as the portion of meat decays, the warts will disappear.
This practice is very prevalent in Lancashire, and two of my female
acquaintances having tried the remedy, stoutly maintain its
efficacy.[58]
The following superstition prevails in the neighbourhood of Manchester:
Take a piece of twine, making upon it as many knots as there are warts
to be removed; touch each wart with the corresponding knot; then bury
the twine in a moist place, saying at the same time, "There is none to
redeem it besides thee." As the process of decay goes on [in the twine]
the warts gradually disappear.[59]
A snail hung upon a thorn is another favourite spell against warts; as
the snail wastes away, so do the warts. Again, take a bag of stones,
equal in number with the warts to be destroyed, and throw them over the
left shoulder; the warts soon quit the thrower. But whoever chances to
pick up one or more of these stones, takes with them as many of the
warts, which are thus transferred from the loser to the finder of the
stones.
CURE FOR HYDROCEPHALUS IN CATTLE.
Dr. Whitaker mentions what he designates as "one practical superstition"
in the district about Pendle, and peculiar to that neighbourhood. "The
hydrocephalus (he says) is a disease incident to adolescent animals, and
is supposed by the shepherds and herdsmen to be contagious; but in order
to arrest the progress of the disease, whenever a young beast had died
of this complaint, it was usual, and it has, I believe, been practised
by farmers yet alive, to cut off the head and convey it for interment
into the nearest part of the adjoining county. Stiperden, a desert plain
upon the border of Yorkshire, was the place of skulls." Whitaker thinks
the practice may have originated in some confused and fanciful analogy
to the case of Azazel (Numbers xvi. 22), an analogy between the removal
of sin and disease--that as the transgressions of the people were laid
upon the head of the scape-goat, the diseases of the herd should be laid
upon the head of the deceased animal.[60]
CATTLE DISORDERS.--THE SHREW TREE IN CARNFORTH.
On an elevation in the township of Carnforth, in the parish of Warton,
called Moothaw [? Moot Hall], the ancient Saxon courts were held. Near
this place stood the "Shrew Tree" mentioned by Lucas, which, according
to rustic superstition, received so much virtue from plugging up a
number of living shrews, or field-mice, in a cavity prepared for their
reception in the tree, that a twig cut from it, when freely applied to
the backs of disordered cattle, would cure them of their maladies.[61]
CHARMS FOR AGUE.
"Casting out the ague" was but another name for "casting out the devil,"
for it was his possession of the sufferer that caused the body to shiver
and shake. One man, of somewhat better education than his neighbours,
acquired a reputation for thus removing the ague by exorcism, and was
much resorted to for many years for relief.
STINGING OF NETTLES.
This was at once removed by the saying aloud of some charm in doggerel
verse.
JAUNDICE.
Persons in the Fylde district suffering from this disorder were some
years ago cured at the rate of a shilling per head, by a person living
at the Fold, who, by some charm or incantation, performed on the urine
of the afflicted person, suspended in a bottle over the smoke of his
fire, was believed to effect most wonderful cures.
TO PROCURE SLEEP BY CHANGING THE DIRECTION OF THE BED.
There are two superstitions respecting restlessness. One is that it is
caused by the bed standing north and south, and that it will be cured if
the bedstead be so moved as to stand east and west. The other goes
further, and says that to effect a perfect remedy, not only must the
bedstead range east and west, but that the head must be towards the
east. One informant stated that this was because the earth revolved from
west to east, or in an easterly course.
FOOTNOTES:
[50] Revelation xiii. 18.
[51] This is not a literal quotation. The verse runs thus in the
ordinary version: "If ye have faith as a grain of mustard-seed, ye shall
say to this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall
remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you."
[52] This is noticed by the Rev. W. Thornber in his _History of
Blackpool_, p. 99; also in the _Oxford Essays_, 1858, p. 127; and the
late Rev. James Dugan, M.A., T.C.D., informed the writer that the Irish
midwives in Ulster use a very similar formula when visiting their
patients. They first mark each corner of the house, on the outside, with
a cross, and previously to entering repeat the following words:--
"There are four corners to her bed,
Four angels at her head:
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
God bless the bed that she lies on.
New Moon, new Moon, God bless me,
God bless this house and family."
[53] See Carr's _Craven Glossary_, vol. i. p. 137.--"Look, sir," said
Mr. Carr's informant, "at that pear-tree, it wor some years back, sir, a
maast flourishin' tree. Ivvry mornin, as soon as he first oppans the
door, that he may not cast his ee on onny yan passin' by, he fixes his
een o' that pear-tree, and ye plainly see how it's deed away."
[54] Mr. Robert Rawlinson in _Notes and Queries_, vol. iv. p. 55.
[55] See Hone's _Table Book_, vol. i. p. 674.
[56] Carr's _Glossary_, vol. ii. p. 264.
[57] Wm. Dobson, in _Notes and Queries_, 2nd series, vol. iv. p. 287.
[58] T. T. W., ibid., vol. ii. p. 68.
[59] H., ibid.
[60] _History of Whalley._
[61] Baines's _Lancashire_.
THE DEVIL, DEMONS, &c.
THE DEVIL.
The power of the devil, his personal appearance, and the possibility of
bartering the soul for temporary gain, must still be numbered among the
articles of our popular faith. Repeating the Lord's Prayer backwards is
said to be the most effectual plan for "raising the devil;" but when
the terms of the bargain are not satisfactory, his exit can only be
secured by making the sign of the cross and calling on the name of
Christ. In the neighbourhood of Blackburn a story prevails that two
threshers once succeeded in raising him through the barn floor; but on
their becoming alarmed at their success, he was summarily dismissed by
means of a vigorous thrashing on the head with the flails. His
partiality for playing at cards has long been proverbial, both in
Lancashire and elsewhere. A near relative of the writer firmly believed
that the devil had once visited their company when they had prolonged
their play into Sunday. How he joined them they never rightly knew, but
(as in the Danish legend respecting a similar visit) his presence was
first suspected in consequence of his extraordinary "run of good luck;"
and a casual detection of his _cloven foot_ completed the dispersion of
the players. It is not always, however, that he obtains the advantage;
for he has more than once been outwitted by a crafty woman or a cunning
priest. In the Lancashire tradition we find the poor tailor of Chatburn
stipulating for _three_ wishes, and, on the advice of his wife,
consulting the "holy father of Salley" in his extremity. When the fatal
day arrived, he freed himself from the bond by expressing as his last
wish, that his tormentor "were riding back to his quarters on a dun
horse, never to plague him more." The devil, it is said, gave a yell
which was heard to Colne, on finding that he had lost his man. Mr. Roby
in his _Traditions_, and the author of the _Pictorial History of
Lancashire_, give humorous engravings of this noted ride; and the sign
of "The Dule upo' Dun," over the door of the wayside inn, attests the
popular belief in the local tradition. From these and many other
instances it is evident that we have derived many of these superstitions
from the Saxon and Danish settlers in Northumbria. The essential parts
of each are identical, and as regards these particular bargains, it may
be added as a curious circumstance, that in no case is the bond held to
be binding unless it be signed with the blood of the person
contracting.[62]
Offering fowls to evil spirits appears to have been an ancient and
wide-spread practice. It was common to sacrifice a cock to the devil.
Burns, in his "Address to the Deil," says--"Some cock or cat your rage
must stop." Music and dancing are also associated in our popular
superstitions with witches, evil spirits, and the devil. The devils, it
is said, love music, but dread bells, and have a very delicate sense of
smells. In the _True and Faithful Relation of what passed between Dr.
Dee and some Spirits_, we learn that the devil appeared to the doctor
"as an angel in a white robe, holding a bloody cross in his right hand,
the same hand being also bloody," and in this guise he prayed, and
"anabaptistically bewailed the wickedness of the world."[63]
RAISING THE DEVIL.
The boys at the Burnley Grammar-school are said to have succeeded on one
occasion in raising the devil. They repeated the Lord's Prayer
backwards, and performed some incantations by which, as it is said,
Satan was induced to make his appearance through a stone flag on the
floor of the school-house. After he had got his head and shoulders well
out, the boys became alarmed, and began to hammer him down with the
poker and tongs. With much ado they drove him back; but the _black mark_
he had left on the flag was shown in proof of his appearance until the
school-house was repaired, a few years ago, when the floor was boarded
over, and the flagstone disappeared.
THE DEVIL & THE SCHOOLMASTER AT COCKERHAM.
It is said that the arch Spirit of Evil once took up his abode in
Cockerham, and so scared and disturbed the inhabitants of that quiet
place, that at length in public meeting, to consider how to free
themselves from this fiendish persecution, they appointed the
schoolmaster, as the wisest and cleverest man in the place, to do his
best to drive the devil away. Using the prescribed incantation at
midnight, the pedagogue succeeded in raising Satan; but when he saw his
large horns and tail, saucer eyes, and long claws, he became almost
speechless. According to the recognised procedure in such cases, the
devil granted him the privilege of setting three tasks, which if he
(Satan) accomplished, the schoolmaster became his prey; if he failed, it
would compel the flight of the demon from Cockerham. The first task, to
count the number of dewdrops on certain hedges, was soon accomplished;
and so was the second, to count the number of stalks in a field of
grain. The third task was then proposed in the following words,
according to a doggerel version of the tradition:--
"Now make me, dear sir, a rope of yon sand,
Which will bear washing in Cocker, and not lose a strand."
Speedily the rope was twisted of fine sand, but it would not stand
washing; so the devil was foiled, and at one stride he stepped over the
bridge over Broadfleet, at Pilling Moss. The metrical version of the
legend is scarcely worth printing.
OLD NICK.
According to Scandinavian mythology, the supreme god Odin assumes the
name of Nick, Neck, Nikkar, Nikur, or Hnikar, when he acts as the evil
or destructive principle. In the character of Nikur, or Hnikudur, a
Protean water-sprite, he inhabits the lakes and rivers of Scandinavia,
where he raises sudden storms and tempests, and leads mankind into
destruction. Nick, or Nickar, being an object of dread to the
Scandinavians, propitiatory worship was offered to him; and hence it has
been imagined that the Scandinavian spirit of the waters became, in the
middle ages, St. Nicholas, the patron of sailors, who invoke his aid in
storms and tempests. This supposition (which has a degree of probability
almost amounting to certainty) receives countenance from the great
devotion still felt by the Gothic nations towards St. Nicholas, to whom
many churches on the sea-shore are dedicated. The church of St.
Nicholas, in this situation at Liverpool, was consecrated in 1361; and,
says Mr. Baines,[64] "in the vicinity there formerly stood a statue of
St. Nicholas; and when the faith in the intercession of saints was more
operative than at present, the mariners were wont to present a
peace-offering for a prosperous voyage on their going out to sea, and a
wave-offering on their return; but the saint, having lost his votaries,
has long since disappeared." The Danish Vikings called the Scandinavian
sea-god _Hold Nickar_, which in time degenerated into the ludicrous
expression, "Old Nick."[65]
Another writer on this subject says:--We derive the familiar epithet of
"_Old Nick_" from the Norwegian Nök, the Norse Nikr, or the Swedish
Neck; and no further proof of their identity is required than a
comparison between the attributes possessed in common by all these
supernatural beings. The _Nök_ is said to require a human sacrifice once
a year, and some one is therefore annually missing in the vicinity of
the pond or river where this sprite has taken up its abode. The males
are said to be very partial to young maidens, whom they seize and drag
under the water; whilst those of the opposite sex are quite as
attractive and dangerous to the young fishermen who frequent the rivers.
The German _Nixes_ possess the same attributes. Both sexes have large
green teeth; and the male wears a green hat, which is frequently
mistaken by his victims for a tuft of beautiful vegetation. He is said
to kill without mercy whenever he drags a person down; and a fountain of
blood, which shoots up from the surface of the water, announces the
completion of the deed. A perfect identification of this with our own
popular belief is now easy. Nothing is more common at present than for
children who reside in the country to be cautioned against venturing too
near the water's brink, lest "_Green Teeth_" or "_Bloody Bones_" should
pull them in. "_Old Nick_" is said to lurk under the shady willows which
overhang the deep water; and the bubbles of gas which may be observed
escaping from the bottoms of quiet pools are attributed to the movements
of the water-sprites which lurk beneath.
DEMONOLOGY.
A recent writer in _Blackwood's Magazine_ asks if Demonology "was not a
vague spirit-worship, the ancient religion of the bulk of mankind?"
"This Demonology" (he continues) "may be said to have been imported into
Christianity in its early days. It was the universal belief of the Pagan
world, and not easily to be eradicated; as the early Church accepted
things pretty much as it found them, and turned them to account;
teaching that these objects of heathen awe and reverence were fallen
angels, whose power for evil had been permitted to exist uncontrolled
till the advent of our Saviour. The early Roman Church elaborately
imitated, if it did not exceed, the Greeks and Romans in their
demonology. Every class of men had their guardians, who practically
represented the _Dii minores_ or _minorum gentium_; the hills and dales
and woods had their patrons, the successors of the Orcades, Napææ, and
the Dryades; every kind of disease, from the toothache to the gout, had
its special healer, and even birds and beasts their spiritual
protectors." No one who has paid the most passing attention to the
folk-lore of this country can have failed to note amongst us, even yet,
the remnants of this curious superstition. In 1531, John Cousell, of
Cambridge, and John Clarke, of Oxford, two learned clerks, applied for
and obtained from Henry VIII. a formal license to practise sorcery, and
to build churches, a quaint combination of evil and antidote. They
professed power to summon "the sprytes of the ayre," and to make use of
them generally, and particularly in the discovery of treasure and stolen
property. Their seventh petition is to build churches, bridges, and
chapels, and to have cognizance of all sciences. One of their petitions
refers to a certain "noyntment" to see the sprytes, and to speak with
them dayly. Strange that Henry VIII. should have granted this license,
seeing that a statute was passed in his reign, making "witchcraft and
sorcery felony, without benefit of clergy."[66] Bishop Jewell, preaching
before Queen Anne, on the marvellous increase of witches and sorcerers,
after describing how the victims pined away, even unto death, loyally
concluded his sermon thus, "I pray God they never practise further than
upon the subject." The following charm or spell against St. Vitus's
Dance was, and very likely is still, in use in Devonshire. It was
written on parchment, and carried about by an old woman so afflicted:--
"Shake her, good Devil,
Shake her once well;
Then shake her no more,
Till you shake her in hell."
Some of our laws against sorcery remained unrepealed a little more than
forty years ago. The Irish law against sorcery was only repealed in
1831. So late as August, 1863, an old man of eighty was flung into a
mill-stream in the parish of Little Hedingham, being what is called
"swimming for a wizard," and he died of his maltreatment. One curious
book on Demonology is entitled "An Account of Demoniacs, and the power
of casting out Demons, both in the New Testament, and the four first
Centuries," by William Whiston, M.A. (London, 1737, 8vo). He observes
that "The symptoms of these demoniacal distresses were very different
from the symptoms of other diseases, and even included wild raving,
irregular convulsions of the body, unnatural contortions of the limbs,
or dismal malady of the mind, and came upon the unhappy patients by
terrible fits of paroxysms, to the amazement of the spectators, and the
horrible affection of the possessed, and included the sorest illness and
madness in the world." The same symptoms revived in the extraordinary
epidemic called the _hystero-demonopathy_, which visited Morzine, in
Savoy, in 1857. The persons afflicted were violently and unnaturally
convulsed; now rushed phrenetically into the woods, or to the river, now
were subject to fits of coma; were insensible to pain; believed
themselves to be haunted by evil spirits; were violent, but in their
violence injured no one; and exhibited generally symptoms not observed
in any known disorder.[67] The people of Morzine believed themselves
possessed by spirits of dead persons, a peculiarity which appears to
have occurred in many cases during the prevalence of the epidemic.
DEMON AND GOBLIN SUPERSTITIONS.
Among the more prominent of the demon superstitions prevalent in
Lancashire, we may instance that of the _Spectre Huntsman_, which
occupies so conspicuous a place in the folk-lore of Germany and the
North. This superstition is still extant in the Gorge of Cliviger, where
he is believed to hunt a milk-white doe round the Eagle's Crag in the
Vale of Todmorden, on All-Hallows' Eve. His hounds are said to fly
yelping through the air on many other occasions, and under the local
name of "_Gabriel Ratchets_," are supposed to predict death or
misfortune to all who hear the sounds.[68] The "_Lubber Fiend_," or
stupid demon, still stretches his hairy length across the hearth-stones
of the farm-houses in the same district, and the feats of the "_Goblin
Builders_" form a portion of the popular literature of almost every
locality. They are said to have removed the foundations of Rochdale
Church from the banks of the river Roach, up to their present elevated
position. Samlesbury Church, near Preston, possesses a similar
tradition. The "_Demon Pig_" not only determined the site of St.
Oswald's Church, at Warwick, but gave a name to the parish. The
parochial church at Burnley, it is said, was originally intended to be
built on the site occupied by the old Saxon Cross in Godly Lane; but,
however much the masons might have built during the day, both the stones
and the scaffolding were invariably found where the church now stands,
on their coming to work next morning. The local legend states that on
this occasion, also, the goblins took the form of _pigs_, and a rude
sculpture of such an animal, on the south side of the steeple, lends its
aid to confirm and perpetuate the story.
Our peasantry retain the notion so prevalent in North Germany, that the
_Night-mare_ is a demon, which sometimes takes the form of a cat or a
dog, and they seek to counteract its influence by placing their shoes
under the bed with the toes outwards, on retiring to rest.
The _Water Sprites_, believed in by our ancestors in the north of
England, still form a portion of the folk-lore of Lancashire and
Yorkshire. There is scarcely a stream of any magnitude in either county
which does not possess a presiding spirit in some part of its course.
The stepping-stones at Bungerley, near Clitheroe, are said to be haunted
by a malevolent sprite, who assumes almost as many shapes as Proteus of
old. He is not known by any particular designation, nor are there any
traditions to account for his first appearance; but at least _one_ life
in every _seven_ years is required to appease the anger of the spirit
of the Ribble at this place. It was at these stepping-stones that King
Henry VI. was treacherously betrayed by a Talbot of Bashall and others;
whence may have arisen a tradition of a malevolent spirit at that place.
Our local literature possesses Roby's traditions of "The _Mermaid_ of
Martin Mere," which has given permanence to the popular notions
respecting mermen and mermaids. The _Schrat_, or _Schritel_, of the
German nations, is identical with the more ancient _Skrat_ of the
Scandinavians. He is noted for making game of persons who are out late
at night. Occasionally he places himself on a cart, or other vehicle,
which then becomes so heavy that the horses are unable to move the load.
They begin to tremble and perspire, as if sensible of the presence of
something diabolical; but after a short time "_Old Scrat_" slips off
behind, and disappears with a malicious laugh. In Lancashire we are no
strangers to Old Scrat and his doings. With many the name is merely a
synonyme for that of the devil; but our city carters are able to mark
the distinction, and have besides a goodly store of anecdotes respecting
the heavy loads which their horses have sometimes been compelled to
draw, when nothing could be seen except the empty cart. One of them
assured me that on such occasions his horses reared, and became almost
frantic; their manes stood erect; and he himself could see the wicked
imp actually dancing with delight between their ears. Another very
respectable person affirms that, not many years ago, as a funeral was
proceeding to church, the coffin became so heavy that it could not be
carried. On this being made known to a clergyman, who was present, he
offered up a short prayer, and commanded Old Scrat to take his own. This
was no sooner done than the excessive weight was felt no more, and the
corpse was carried forward to the place of interment. Similar
superstitions prevail in the more northern cities with but slight
variations; and hence sufficiently indicate their common origin. The
_Barguest_, or _Barn-ghaist_ of the Teutons, is also reported to be a
frequent visitor in Lancashire. The appearance of this sprite is
considered as a certain death-sign, and has obtained the local names of
"_Trash_" and "_Skriker_." He generally appears to one of the family
from whom Death is about to select his victim, and is more or less
visible, according to the distance of the event. I have met with persons
to whom the barguest [bar-ghaist, _i.e._, gate-ghost] has assumed the
form of a white cow, or a horse; but on most occasions "Trash" is
described as having the appearance of a very large dog, with very broad
feet, shaggy hair, drooping ears, and eyes "as large as saucers." When
walking, his feet make a loud splashing noise, like old shoes in a miry
road, and hence the name of "Trash." The appellation "_Skriker_" has
reference to the screams uttered by the sprite, which are frequently
heard when the animal is invisible. When followed by any individual he
begins to walk backwards with his eyes fixed full on his pursuer, and
vanishes on the slightest momentary inattention. Occasionally he plunges
into a pool of water, and at times he sinks at the feet of the persons
to whom he appears with a loud splashing noise, as if a heavy stone were
thrown into the miry road. Some are reported to have attempted to strike
him with any weapon they had at hand, but there was no substance to
receive the blows, although the Skriker kept his ground. He is said to
frequent the neighbourhood of Burnley at present, and is mostly seen in
Godly Lane, and about the parish church. But he by no means confines his
visits to the churchyard, as similar sprites are said to do in other
parts of England and Wales.[69]
DISPOSSESSING A DEMONIAC.
Richard Rothwell, a native of Bolton-le-Moors, born about 1563, a
minister of the Gospel, ordained by Dr. Whitgift, Archbishop of
Canterbury, who was called by his biographer, the Rev. Stanley Gower,
minister of Dorchester--"_Orbis terrarum Anglicarum oculus_" (the eye of
our English world), is said to have dispossessed one John Fox, near
Nottingham, of a devil; with whom he had a discourse, by way of question
and answer, a good while. Such dialogues are said to be frequent amongst
the Popish exorcists, but being rare amongst Protestants, is the more to
be observed, and not disbelieved, because vouched by so good a man. Mr.
Rothwell died at Mansfield, Notts, in 1627, aged sixty-four.[70]
[There is a long account of this contest with the devil in Rothwell's
_Life_, by Gower, pp. 178-183. After the devil had been driven out of
him, John Fox was dumb for three years, but afterwards had speech
restored to him, and wrote a book about the temptations the devil
haunted him with.]
DEMONIACAL POSSESSION IN 1594.
Towards the close of the sixteenth century, seven persons in Lancashire
were alleged to be "possessed by evil spirits." According to the
narrative of the Rev. John Darrell, himself a principal actor in the
scene, there lived in 1594 at Cleworth (now called Clayworth), in the
parish of Leigh, one Nicholas Starkie, who had only two children, John
and Ann; the former ten and the latter nine years of age. These
children, according to Mr. Darrell, became possessed with an evil
spirit; and John Hartlay, a reputed conjuror, was applied to, at the end
of from two to three months, to give them relief, which he effected by
various charms, and the use of a magical circle with four crosses, drawn
near Mr. Starkie's seat, at Huntroyd, in the parish of Whalley. Hartlay
was conjuror enough to discover the difference between Mr. Starkie's
table and his own, and he contrived to fix himself as a constant inmate
in his benefactor's family for two or three years. Being considered so
essential to their peace, he advanced in his demands, till Mr. Starkie
demurred, and a separation took place; but not till five other persons,
three of them the female wards of Mr. Starkie, and two other females,
had become "possessed," through the agency of Hartlay, "and it was
judged in the house that whomsoever he kissed, on them he breathed the
devil." According to the narrative, all the seven demoniacs sent forth a
strange and supernatural voice of loud shouting. In this extremity Dr.
Dee, the Warden of Manchester College, was applied to, to exorcise the
evil spirits; but he refused to interfere, advising that they should
call in some godly preachers, with whom he would, if they thought
proper, consult concerning a public or private fast; at the same time he
sharply reproved Hartlay for his fraudulent practices. Some remission of
violence followed, but the evil spirits soon returned, and Mr.
Starkie's house became a perfect bedlam. John Starkie, the son, was "as
fierce as a madman, or a mad dog;" his sister Anne was little better;
Margaret Hardman, a gay, sprightly girl, was also troubled, and aspired
after all the splendid attire of fashionable life, calling for one gay
thing after another, and repeatedly telling her "lad," as she called her
unseen familiar, that she would be finer than him. Ellinor, her younger
sister, and Ellen Holland, another of Mr. Starkie's wards, were also
"troubled;" and Margaret Byrom, of Salford, a woman of thirty-three, who
was on a visit at Cleworth, became giddy, and partook of the general
malady. The young ladies fell down, as if dead, while they were dancing
and singing, and "playing the minstrel," and talked at such a rate that
nobody could be heard but themselves. The preachers being called in,
according to the advice of Dr. Dee, they inquired how the demoniacs were
handled. The "possessed" replied that an angel, like a dove, came from
God, and said that they must follow him to heaven, which way soever he
would lead them. Margaret Hardman then ran under a bed, and began to
make a hole, as she said, that her "lad" (or familiar) might get through
the wall to her; and, amongst other of her feats, she would have leaped
out of the window. The others were equally extravagant in their
proceedings, but when they had the use of their feet, the use of their
tongues was taken away. The girls were so sagacious that they foretold
when their fits would come on. When they were about any game or sport,
they seemed quite happy; but any godly exercise was a trouble to them.
Margaret Byrom was grievously troubled. She thought in her fits that
something rolled in her inside like a calf, and lay ever on her left
side; and when it rose up towards her heart, she thought the head and
nose thereof had been full of nails, wherewith being pricked, she was
compelled to shriek aloud, with very pain and fear; sometimes she barked
and howled, and at others she so much quaked that her teeth chattered in
her head. At the sight of Hartlay she fell down speechless, and saw a
great black dog, with a monstrous tail and a long chain, running at her
open-mouthed. Six times within six weeks the spirit would not suffer her
to eat or drink, and afterwards her senses were taken away, and she was
as stiff as iron. Two nights before the day of her examination against
Hartlay, who was committed to Lancaster Castle, the devil appeared to
her in his likeness, and told her to speak the truth! On the 16th of
March, Maister George More, pastor of Cawlke, in Derbyshire, and Maister
John Darrell, afterwards preacher at St. Mary's, in Nottingham, came to
Cleworth, when they saw the girls grievously tormented. Jane Ashton, the
servant of Mr. Starkie, howled in a supernatural manner--Hartlay had
given her kisses, and promised her marriage. The ministers having got
all the seven into one chamber, gave them spiritual advice; but, on the
Bible being brought up to them, three or four of them began to scoff,
and called it--"Bib-le, Bab-le; Bible, Bable." The next morning they
were got into a large parlour, and laid on couches, when Maister More
and Maister Dickens, a preacher (and their pastor), along with Maister
Darrell and thirty other persons, spent the day with them in prayer and
fasting, and hearing the word of God. All the parties afflicted remained
in their fits the whole of the day. Towards evening every one of them,
with voice and hands lifted up, cried to God for mercy, and He was
pleased to hear them, so that six of them were shortly dispossessed, and
Jane Ashton in the course of the next day experienced the same
deliverance. At the moment of dispossession, some of them were miserably
rent, and the blood gushed out both at the nose and mouth. Margaret
Byrom said that she felt the spirit come up her throat, when it gave her
"a sore lug" at the time of quitting her, and went out of the window
with a flash of fire, she only seeing it. John Starkie said his spirit
left him, in appearance like a man with a hunch on his back, very
ill-favoured; Ellinor Hardman's was like an urchin; Margaret Byrom's
like an ugly black man, with shoulders higher than his head. Two or
three days afterwards the unclean spirits returned, and would have
re-entered had they not been resisted. When they could not succeed
either by bribes or entreaties, they threw some of them [the
dispossessed] violently down, and deprived others of the use of their
legs and other members; but the victory was finally obtained by the
preachers, and all the devils banished from Mr. Starkie's household.
Meanwhile Hartlay the conjuror, who seems to have been a designing
knave, after undergoing an examination before two magistrates, was
committed to Lancaster Castle, where, on the evidence of Mr. Starkie and
his family, he was convicted of witchcraft, and sentenced to death,
principally, as it is stated, for drawing the magic circle, which seems
to have been the least part of his offence, though the most obnoxious to
the law. In this trial _spectral evidence_ was adduced against the
prisoner, and the experiment was tried of saying the Lord's Prayer. When
it no longer served his purpose he endeavoured to divest himself of the
character of a conjuror, and declared that he was not guilty of the
crime for which he was doomed to suffer; the law, however, was
inexorable, and he was brought to execution. On the scaffold he
persisted in declaring his innocence, but to no purpose; the executioner
did his duty, and the criminal was suspended. While hanging, the rope
broke, when Hartlay confessed his guilt; being again tied up, he died,
the victim of his own craft, and of the infatuation of the age in which
he lived. On the appearance of Mr. Darrell's book, the _Narrative_ of
these remarkable events, a long controversy arose on the doctrine of
Demonology, and it was charged upon him by the Rev. Samuel Harsnet,
afterwards Bishop of Chichester and Norwich, and Archbishop of York,
that he made a trade of casting out devils, and that he instructed the
"possessed" how to conduct themselves, in order to aid him in carrying
on the imposition. Mr. Darrell was afterwards examined by the Queen's
Commissioners; and by the full agreement of the whole court, he was
condemned as a counterfeit, deposed from the ministry, and committed to
close confinement, there to remain for further punishment. The clergy,
in order to prevent the scandal brought upon the Church by false
pretensions to the power of dispossessing demons, soon afterwards
introduced a new canon into the ecclesiastical law, in these
terms:--"That no minister or ministers, without license and direction of
the bishop, under his hand and seal obtained, attempt, upon any pretence
whatever, either of possession or obsession, by fasting and prayer, to
cast out any devil or devils, under pain of the imputation of imposture,
or cozenage, and deposition from the ministry." Some light is cast upon
the case of Mr. Starkie's household by "A Discourse Concerning the
Possession and Dispossession of Seven Persons in one Family in
Lancashire," written by George More, a puritanical minister, who had
engaged in exorcising devils. This discourse agrees substantially with
Darrell's narrative, but adds some noteworthy facts: amongst others,
that he (Mr. More) was a prisoner in the Clinke for nearly two years,
for justifying and bearing witness to the facts stated by Darrell. He
also states that Mr. Nicholas Starkie having married a gentlewoman that
was an inheritrix [Ann, widow of Thurstan Barton, Esq., of Smithells,
and daughter and sole heiress of John Parr, Esq., of Kempnough, and
Cleworth, Lancashire], and of whose kindred some were Papists;
these--partly for religion, and partly because the estate descended but
to heirs male--prayed for the perishing of her issue, and that four sons
pined away in a strange manner; but that Mrs. Starkie, learning this
circumstance, estated her lands on her husband, and _his_ heirs, failing
issue of her own body; after which a son and daughter were born, who
prospered _well till_ they became "possessed."[71]
DEMONIACAL POSSESSION IN 1689.
Richard Dugdale, called "The Surey Demoniac," was a youth just rising
into manhood, a gardener, living with his parents at Surey, in the
parish of Whalley, addicted to posture, and distinguished even at school
as a posture-master and ventriloquist. During his "possession" he was
attended by six Dissenting ministers--the Revs. Thomas Jolly, Charles
Sagar, Nicholas Kershaw, Robert Waddington, Thomas Whalley, and John
Carrington, who were occasionally assisted at the meetings held to
exorcise the demon by the Rev. Messrs. Frankland, Pendlebury, and Oliver
Heywood. According to the narrative, under their sanction, entitled _An
Account of Satan's entering in and about the Body of Richard Dugdale,
and of Satan's removal thence through the Lord's blessing of the
within-mentioned Ministers and People_, when Dugdale was about nineteen
years of age he was seized with an affliction early in 1689; and from
the strange fits which violently seized him, he was supposed to be
possessed by the devil. When the fit was upon him "he shewed great
despite [says the narrative], against the ordinary of God, and raged as
if he had been nothing but a devil in Richard's bodily shape; though
when he was not in his fits he manifested great inclination to the word
of God and prayer; for the exercise of which in his behalf he desired
that a day of fasting might be set apart, as the only means from which
he could expect help, seeing that he had tried all other means, lawful
and unlawful." Meetings were accordingly appointed of the ministers, to
which the people crowded in vast numbers. These meetings began on the
8th May, 1689, and were continued about twice a month till the February
following. At the first meeting the parents of the demoniac were
examined by the ministers, and they represented that "at Whalley
rush-bearing, on the James's tide, in July, 1688, there was a great
dancing and drinking, when Richard offered himself to the devil, on
condition that he would make him the best dancer in Lancashire." After
becoming extremely drunk he went home, where several apparitions
appeared to him, and presented to him all kinds of dainties and fine
clothing, with gold and precious things, inviting him at the same time
to "take his fill of pleasure." In the course of the day some compact,
or bond, was entered into between him and the devil, after which his
fits grew frequent and violent. While in these fits his body was often
hurled about very desperately, and he abused the minister and blasphemed
his Maker. Sometimes he would fall into dreadful fits; at others he
would talk Greek and Latin, though untaught; sometimes his voice was
small and shrill, at others hollow and hideous. Now he was as light as a
bag of feathers, then as heavy as lead. At one time he upbraided the
ministers for their neglect, at others he said they had saved him from
hell. He was weather-wise and money-wise by turns; he could tell when
there would be rain, and when he should receive presents. Sometimes he
would vomit stones an inch and a half square, and in others of his
trances there was a noise in his throat, as if he was singing psalms
inwardly. But the strongest mark of demoniacal possession consisted in a
lump, which rose from the thick of his leg, about the size of a mole,
and did work up like such a creature towards the chest of his body, till
it reached his breast, when it was as big as a man's fist, and uttered
strange voices. He opened his mouth at the beginning of his fits so
often, that it was thought spirits went in and out of him. In agility he
was unequalled, "especially in dancing, wherein he excelled all that the
spectators had seen, and all that mere mortals could perform. The
demoniac would for six or seven times together leap up, so as that part
of his legs might be seen shaking and quivering above the heads of the
people, from which heights he oft fell down on his knees, which he long
shivered and traversed on the ground, at least as nimbly as other men
can twinkle or sparkle their fingers; thence springing up into his high
leaps again, and then falling on his feet, which seemed to reach the
earth but with the gentlest and scarce perceivable touches when he made
his highest leaps." And yet the divines by whom he was attended most
unjustly rallied the devil for the want of skill in his pupil. The Rev.
Mr. Carrington, addressing himself to the devil, says, "Cease dancing,
Satan, and begone from him. Canst thou dance no better, Satan? Ransack
the old record of all past times and places in thy memory: canst thou
not there find out some other way of finer trampling? Pump thine
invention dry! Cannot that universal seed-plot of subtle wiles and
stratagems spring up one new method of cutting capers? Is this the top
of skill and pride, to shuffle feet and brandish knees thus, and to trip
like a doe, and skip like a squirrel? And wherein differs thy leapings
from the hoppings of a frog, or bounces of a goat, or friskings of a
dog, or gesticulations of a monkey? And cannot a palsy shake such a
loose leg as that? Dost thou not twirl like a calf that has the turn,
and twitch up thy houghs just like a spring-hault [? spring-galled]
tit?" In some of his last fits he announced that he must be either
killed or cured before the 25th March. This, says the deposition of his
father and mother, and two of his sisters, proved true; for on the 24th
of that month he had his last fit, the devil being no longer able to
withstand the means used with so much vigour and perseverance to expel
him; one of the most effectual of which was a medicine, prescribed, in
the way of his profession, by Dr. Chew, a medical practitioner in the
neighbourhood. Mr. Zachary Taylor asserts that the preachers,
disappointed and mortified at their ill success in Dugdale's case, gave
it out that some of his connexions were witches, and in contract with
the devil, and that, they supposed, was the cause why they had not been
able to relieve him. Under this impression they procured some of the
family to be searched, that they might see if they had not teats, or the
devil's mark; and they tried them by the test of saying the Lord's
Prayer. Some remains of the evil spirit, however, seem still to have
possessed Richard; for, though after this he had no fits, yet once, when
he had got too much drink, he was after another manner than drunken
persons usually are. In confirmation of which feats, not only the eight
ministers, but twenty respectable inhabitants, affixed their
attestations to a document prepared for the purpose; and three of the
magistrates of the district--Hugh, Lord Willoughby [of Parham], Ralph
Egerton, Esq., and Thos. Braddyll, Esq.--received depositions from the
attesting parties. This monstrous mass of absurdity, superstition, and
fraud--for it was beyond doubt a compound of them all--was exposed with
success by the Rev. Zachary Taylor, the Bishop of Chester's curate at
Wigan, one of the King's preachers in Lancashire; but the reverend
divine mixed with his censures too much party asperity, insisting that
the whole was an artifice of the Nonconformist ministers, in imitation
of the pretended miracles of the Roman Catholic priests, and likening it
to the fictions of John Darrell, B.A., which had been practised a
century before upon the family of Mr. Starkie, in the same county. Of
the resemblance in many of its parts there can be no doubt; but the
names of the venerable Oliver Heywood and Thomas Jolly form a sufficient
guarantee against imposition on their part; and the probability is that
the ministers were the dupes of a popular superstition in the hands of a
dissolute and artful family.[72]
FOOTNOTES:
[62] See _Transactions of Historical Society of Lancashire and
Cheshire_.
[63] Casaubon, extracted from Dee's MSS., P. I., p. 22, fol. 1659.
[64] _History of Lancashire_, vol. iv. p. 63.
[65] Hampson's _Medii Ævi Kal._, vol. i. p. 74.
[66] 33 Henry VIII., cap. 8.
[67] "The Devils of Morzine," in the _Cornhill Magazine_, April, 1865.
[68] See Roby's _Traditions of Lancashire_; Homerton's _Isles of Loch
Awe_ and _Choice Notes: Folk-Lore_, pp. 247-8.
[69] See _Transactions of Lancashire and Cheshire Historical Society_.
[70] _Magna Britannica_, by Rev. M. S. Cox, p. 1303.
[71] Baines's _Lancashire_.
[72] Baines's _Lancashire_.
DIVINATION.
This word, derived from _divinare_, to foretell, denotes a mode of
foretelling future events, and which, among the ancients, was divided
into two kinds, natural and artificial. Natural divination was prophecy
or prediction, the result of supposed inspiration or the divine
afflatus; artificial divination was effected by certain rites,
experiments, or observations, as by sacrifices, cakes, flour, wine,
observation of entrails, flight of birds, lots, verses, omens, position
of the stars, &c. In modern divination, two modes are in popular
favour--thrusting a pin or a key between the leaves of a closed Bible,
and taking the verse the pin or key touches as a direction or omen; and
the divining-rod, a long forked branch or twig of hazel, which being
held between the finger and thumb in a particular way, is said to turn
of itself when held near the earth over any hidden treasure, precious
metals, or over a spring of water. It has also been used to discover a
buried body of one murdered.
DIVINATION AT MARRIAGES.
The following practices are very prevalent at marriages in the districts
around Burnley, and they are not noticed in the last edition of Brand's
_Popular Antiquities_:--1. Put a wedding-ring into the _posset_, and
after serving it out, the unmarried person whose cup contains the ring
will be the first of the company to be married. 2. Make a common flat
cake of flour, water, currants, &c., and put therein a wedding-ring and
a sixpence. When the company are about to retire on the wedding-day the
cake must be broken, and distributed amongst the unmarried females. She
who gets the ring in her portion of the cake will shortly be married,
and the one who gets the sixpence will die an old maid.[73]
DIVINATION BY BIBLE AND KEY.
When some choice specimen of the "Lancashire Witches" thinks it
necessary to decide upon selecting a suitor from among the number of her
admirers, she not unfrequently calls in the aid of the Bible and a key
to assist in deciding her choice. Having opened the Bible at the passage
in Ruth: "Whither thou goest will I go," &c., and having carefully
placed the wards of the key upon the verses, she ties the book firmly
with a piece of cord, and having mentioned the name of an admirer, she
very solemnly repeats the passage in question, at the same time holding
the Bible suspended _by joining the ends of her little fingers_ inserted
under the handle of the key. If the key retain its position during the
repetition the person whose name has been mentioned is considered to be
rejected; and so another name is tried, till the book turns round and
falls through the fingers, which is held to be a sure token the name
just mentioned is that of an individual who will certainly marry her. I
have a Bible in my possession which bears evidence of having seen much
service of this description.[74]
ANOTHER LANCASHIRE FORM OF DIVINATION.
When a Lancashire damsel desires to know what sort of a husband she will
have, on New Year's Eve she pours some melted lead into a glass of
water, and observes what forms the drops assume. When they resemble
scissors, she concludes that she must rest satisfied with a tailor; if
they appear in the form of a hammer, he will be a smith or a carpenter,
and so on of others. The writer has met with many instances of this
class, in which the examples given did not admit of easy contradiction.
DIVINATION BY THE DYING.
Dying persons, especially if they have been distinguished for piety when
in health, are considered to possess, for a short time, the spirit of
prophecy. Hence many persons are then anxious to see them, in order that
they may divine the _future_ by means of their oracular words. They also
_know_ persons who have died before them. This is a curious remnant of
the old Greek and Roman belief. Homer makes Hector foretell the death of
Achilles, _Iliad_, v. 355. Virgil causes Orodes to foretell the death
of Mezentius, _Æneid_, x. 739. Cicero also furnishes another instance,
_De Divin._ lib. ii.
SECOND-SIGHT.
Though this faculty of seeing into the future has usually been regarded
as limited to Scotland, and there chiefly possessed by natives of the
Highlands, there have been individuals in Lancashire who have laid claim
to the possession of this species of foresight. Amongst those in the
Fylde district was a man named Cardwell, of Marton, near Blackpool, who
foretold deaths and evil events from his vision of things to come. Men
of superior ability were credulous enough to visit him, and to give
implicit faith to his marvellous stories. The real form of second-sight
is the seeing of the wraith, spirit, or ghost of one about to die; and
in one notable instance Cardwell's second-sight failed him utterly. On
seeing something in a vision, he concluded that his own child was about
to die, and so strong was his own faith in this delusion that he carried
sand to the churchyard to be ready for its grave. The death, however,
did not happen: the child grew to maturity, and retaining robust health,
lived for many years afterwards.
SPIRITS OF THE DYING AND THE DEAD.
1. Persons born during twilight are supposed to be able to _see_
spirits, and to know who of their acquaintance will die next.
2. Some say that this property also belongs to those who happen to be
born _exactly_ at twelve o'clock at night.
3. The spirits of persons about to die, especially if the persons be in
distant lands, are supposed to return to their friends, and thus predict
the calamity. While the spirit is thus _away_, the person is supposed to
be in a _swoon_, and unaware of what is passing. His _desire_ to see his
friends is also necessary; he must have been _thinking_ of them. I am
not aware that these spirits ever _speak_.
4. If no one in a family can _see_ a spirit, most can hear them, and
hence strange noises are supposed to indicate death or misfortune to
distant friends.
CASTING LOTS, ETC.
This is a species of divination or consulting of fate by omen. Great
faith is placed by most in casting lots. Putting numbers in a box or bag
is the common practice, and then drawing them out at random. Scripture
was once quoted to the writer in proof that this mode of deciding
doubtful matters was of God's appointment, and therefore could not
fail. "The lot is cast into the bag, but the _disposal_ thereof is the
Lord's." (Prov. xvi. 33; 1. Sam. xiv. 41.) When boys do not wish to
divide anything they decide "who must take all" by drawing "short-cuts."
A number of straws, pieces of twine, &c., of different lengths, are held
by one not interested; each boy draws one, and he who gets the _longest_
is entitled to the whole.
FOOTNOTES:
[73] T. T. W., in _Notes and Queries_, vol. ii. p. 117.
[74] T. T. W., in _Notes and Queries_, vol. ii. p. 5.
MISCELLANEOUS FOLK-LORE.
DRUIDICAL ROCK BASINS.
Dr. Borlase, in his _Antiquities of Cornwall_, notices the existence of
Druidical Rock Basins, which appear to have been scooped out of the
granite rocks and boulders which lie on the tops of the hills in the
county. Several such cavities in stones are found on Brimham Rocks,
near Knaresborough, and they have also been found at Plumpton and
Rigton, in Yorkshire,[75] and on Stanton Moor, in Derbyshire. The writer
first drew attention to the fact of similar Druidical remains existing
in Lancashire in a paper read before the Historical Society of
Lancashire and Cheshire, in December, 1864. They are found in
considerable numbers around Boulsworth, Gorple, Todmorden, and on the
hills which separate Lancashire from Yorkshire between these places.
Commencing the enumeration of the groups of boulders, &c., containing
rock basins, with the slopes of Boulsworth, about seven miles from
Burnley, we have first the Standing Stones, mostly single blocks of
millstone grit, at short distances from each other on the north-western
side of the hill. One is locally termed the Buttock Stone, and near it
is a block which has a circular cavity scooped out on its flat upper
surface. Not far from these are the Joiner Stones, the Abbot Stone, the
Weather Stones, and the Law Lad Stones [? from _llad_, British,
sacrifices]. Next come the Great and Little Saucer Stones, so named from
the cavities scooped out upon them. The Little Chair Stones, the Fox
Stones, and the Broad Head Stones lie at no great distance, each group
containing numerous like cavities. Several of these groups are locally
named from resemblance to animals or other objects, as the Grey Stones
and the Steeple Stones on Barn Hill, and one spur of Boulsworth is
called Wycoller Ark, as resembling a farmer's chest or ark. On Warcock
Hill several groups of natural rocks and boulders are locally named
Dave or Dew Stones. On the surface of one immense Dave Stone boulder is
a perfect hemispherical cavity, ten inches in diameter. The surface of
another contains an oblong basin of larger dimensions, with a long
grooved channel leading from its curved contour towards the edge of the
stone. On a third there are four circular cavities of varying
dimensions, the largest in the centre, and three others surrounding it,
but none of these is more than a few inches in diameter. At the Bride
Stones, near Todmorden, thirteen cavities were counted on one block, and
eleven on another. All the basins here and elsewhere are formed on the
_flat_ surfaces of the blocks; their upper surfaces being always
parallel to the lamination of the stone. Along Widdop Moor we find the
Grey Stones, the Fold Hole Stones, the Clattering Stones, and the
Rigging Stones; the last named from occupying the rig or ridge of the
hills in this locality. Amongst the Bride Stones is an immense mass of
rock which might almost be classed among the rocking stones. It is about
twenty-five feet in height, at least twelve feet across its broadest
part, and rests on a base only about two feet in diameter. The Todmorden
group contains the Hawk Stones, on Stansfield Moor, not far from
Stiperden Cross, on the line of the Long Causeway (a Roman road); the
Bride Stones, near Windy Harbour; the Chisley Stones, near Keelham; and
Hoar Law, not far from Ashenhurst Royd and Todmorden. The rock basins on
these boulders are very numerous, and of all sizes, from a few inches in
diameter and depth to upwards of two feet. The elliptical axes of some
of these basins did not appear to the writer to have been caused by the
action of wind or water, or to follow any regular law. Lastly, taking
for a centre, Gorple,[76] about five miles south-east of Burnley is
another extensive group of naked rocks and boulders. Close to the
solitary farm-house there are the Gorple Stones; and at a short distance
the Hanging Stones form conspicuous objects in the sombre landscape. On
Thistleden Dean are the Upper, Middle, and Lower Whinberry Stones, so
named from the "whinberry" shrubs, with which this moor abounds. The
Higher and Lower Boggart Stones come next, and these are followed by the
Wicken Clough, and other minor groups of stones. Above Gorple Bottom is
another set of grey stones; and these are followed by the Upper, Middle,
and Lower Hanging Stones, on Shuttleworth Moor.[77] The rock basins here
are very numerous, and mostly well defined. There are forty-three
cavities in these Gorple, Gorple Gate, and Hanging Stones, ranging from
four to forty inches in length, from four to twenty-five in breadth, and
from two to thirteen inches in depth.
Dr. Borlase confidently asserts that the ancient Druids used these rock
basins for baptismal and sacrificial purposes--a conjecture which the
authors of the _Beauties of Derbyshire_ admit to be probable; and so
does Higgins in his elaborate work on the _Celtic Druids_. The
supposition is supported by the fact of their occurring in such numbers
mostly _on the tops of hills_, in so many counties, and in such
different materials as the granite and the millstone-grit
formations.[78] Whether they have been formed by natural or artificial
means is still a matter of dispute. On the whole the writer's opinion
is, that the rock basins of Scilly, Cornwall, Derbyshire, Yorkshire, and
East Lancashire are partly natural, and partly artificial; the former
being comparatively few, and easily distinguished by their varying
depths and forms.[79] Whether wholly or partially natural or artificial,
he thinks it safe to conclude that they have been appropriated by the
Druids to their religious worship, as furnishing the means by which they
could offer their sacrifices and perform their ablutions. They would
also suffice for baptism, and preserve the rain or the dew from being
polluted by touching the earth. The Tolmen on the neighbouring hills[80]
may be taken as an additional reason for associating Druidical worship
with such remains. These contain small basins on the summits, which
differ in no respect from those here enumerated. They have, therefore,
most probably been used for similar purposes. Those above described form
a curious chapter in the oldest folk-lore of Lancashire.
ELVES AND FAIRIES.
"Like elves and fairies in a ring."--_Macbeth._
England has ever been full of the favourite haunts of those pleasantest
of all the supernatural sprites of childhood and superstition--elves and
fairies. Volumes might be filled with the stories of their feats and
pranks in all parts of England; and our greatest poet has for ever
embalmed this superstition in the richest hues of poetic imagery and
fancy--especially in his _Midsummer Night's Dream_. The _Fairies_, or
"Hill Folk," yet live amongst the rural people of Lancashire. Antique
tobacco-pipes, "formerly belonging to the fairies," are still
occasionally found in the corners of newly-ploughed fields. They
themselves still gambol on the grassy meads at dewy eve, and their
revels are yet believed to be witnessed at times by some privileged
inhabitants of our "calm sequestered vales." It is generally stated
that, in order to see one of these diminutive beings, the use of
ointments, four-leaved clover, or other specific preparations, is
necessary; but a near relative of the writer, not more imbued with
superstition than the majority, firmly believed that he once saw a real
dwarf or fairy, without the use of any incantation. He had been amusing
himself one summer evening on the top of Mellor Moor, near Blackburn,
close to the remains of the Roman encampment, when his attention was
arrested by the appearance of a dwarf-like man, attired in full hunting
costume, with top-boots and spurs, a green jacket, red hairy cap, and a
thick hunting whip in his hand. He ran briskly along the moor for a
considerable distance, when, leaping over a low stone wall, he darted
down a steep declivity, and was lost to sight. The popular opinion of
the neighbourhood is, that an underground city exists at this place;
that an earthquake swallowed up the encampment, and that on certain days
in the year the hill folk may be heard ringing their bells, and
indulging in various festivities. Considerable quantities of stone,
which still remain around the ditches of this rectangular place, may
have suggested the ideas of a city and an earthquake. On other occasions
the fairies are supposed to exhibit themselves in military array on the
mountain sides; their evolutions conforming in every respect to the
movements of modern troops. Such appearances are believed to portend the
approach of civil commotions, and are said to have been more than
usually common about the time of the rebellion in 1745-6. This would
suggest an explanation of a more rational character. [Doubtless the
mirage, Fata Morgana, or Spectral appearances of the Hartz mountains.]
One Lancashire Fairy tale runs thus:--
Two men went poaching, and having placed nets, or rather sacks, over
what they supposed to be rabbit holes, but which were in reality
fairies' houses, the fairies rushed into the sacks, and the poachers
(believing them to be rabbits), content with their prey, marched
homewards again. One fairy missing another in the sack, called out (the
story was told in the broad Lancashire dialect)--"Dick" (dignified name
for a fairy), "where art thou?" To which fairy Dick replied,--
"In a sack,
On a back,
Riding up Barley Brow."
The story has a good moral ending; for the men were so frightened that
they never poached again.[81]
The Rev. William Thornber[82] characterizes the elves and fairies as
kind, good-natured creatures, at times seeking the assistance of
mortals, and in return, liberally rewarding them. They have a favourite
spot between Hardhorn and Staining, at a cold spring of water called
"Fairies' Well" to this day. Most amusing stories of fairies are told
around that district. A poor woman, when filling her pitcher at the well
just named, in order to bathe the weak eyes of her infant child, was
mildly accosted by a handsome man, who presented her with a box of
ointment, and told her it would be a specific remedy. She was grateful
for the gift, but love for her child made her somewhat mistrustful; so
she first applied the ointment to one of her own eyes. Shortly
afterwards, she saw her benefactor at Preston, stealing corn from the
mouths of the sacks open for sale, and, much to his amazement, accosted
him. On his inquiry how she could recognise him, since he was invisible
to all else around, she told him how she had used his ointment, and
pointed to the powerful eye; when he immediately struck it out. A
milkmaid, observing a jug and a sixpence placed at her side by some
invisible being, filled the jug with milk, and took the money; this was
repeated for weeks, till, overjoyed with her good fortune, she could not
refrain from imparting it to her lover; but the jug and sixpence never
appeared again. A ploughman when engaged in his daily labour, heard a
plaintive cry, "I have broken my _speet_."[83] Hastily turning round,
the ploughman beheld a lady, holding in her hand a broken _spittle_, a
hammer, and nails, and beckoning him to repair it. He did so, and
instantly received a handsome reward; and then the lady vanished,
apparently sinking into the earth.
FOLK-LORE.
Under this general head we bring together a few scattered notices not
naturally falling under any precise classification, but all showing the
nature and character of common and popular notions, beliefs, and
superstitions. Where, however, the subject will admit of it, many
examples of this Folk-lore will be found in later pages, under the
general head of "Superstitions."
FOLK-LORE OF ECCLES AND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD.
A very curious book exhibits some of the usages of our ancestors in this
part of the county, early in the reign of James I., entitled _The Way to
the True Church ... directed to all that seek for Resolution; and
especially to all his loving Countrymen of Lancashire, by John White,
Minister of God's Word at Eccles_. [White was vicar of Eccles only a few
months--from May, 1609.] The fifth edition or "impression" is a folio,
printed at London, 1624, but the Preface is dated Oct. 29th, 1608. White
complains of "the prodigious ignorance" which he found among his
parishioners when he entered upon his ministrations, and he proceeds
thus to tell his own tale:--"I will only mention what I saw and learned,
dwelling among them, concerning the saying of their prayers; for what
man is he whose heart trembles not to simple people so far seduced [or
so ill-taught] that they know not how to pronounce or say their daily
prayers; or so to pray that all that hear them shall be filled with
laughter? And while, superstitiously, they refuse to pray in their own
language with understanding, they speak that which their leaders [Roman
Catholic priests] may blush to hear. These examples I have observed from
the common people:
"'_The Creed._
"'Creezum zuum patrum onitentem Creatorum ejus anicum, Dominum nostrum
qui sum sops, virgini Mariæ, crixus fixus, Ponchi Pilati audubitiers,
morti by Sonday, father a fernes, scelerest unjudicarum, finis a
mortibus. Creezum spirituum sanctum, eccli Catholi, remissurum
peccaturum, communiorum obliviorum, bitam et turnam again.'
"'_The Little Creed._
"'Little creed, can I need
Kneele before our Ladies' knee;
Candlelight, candles burne,
Our Ladie pray'd to her dear Sonne
That we all to heaven might come.
Little creed. Amen.'
"This that followeth they call--
"'_The White Paternoster._
"'White Paternoster, Saint Peter's brother,
What hast i' th' t' one hand? White book leaves.
What hast i' th' t' other hand? Heaven yate keys.
Open heaven yates, and steyk [shut] hell yates:
And let every crysome child creep to it own mother.
White Paternoster, Amen.'
"'_Another Prayer._
"'I bless me with God and the rood,
With his sweet flesh and precious blood;
With his cross and his creed,
With his length and his breed,
From my toe to my crown,
And all my body up and down,
From my back to my breast,
My five wits be my rest;
God let never ill come at ill,
But through Jesus' own will,
Sweet Jesus, Lord, Amen.'
"Many also use to wear vervain against blasts; and, when they gather it
for this purpose, first they cross the herb with their hand, and then
they bless it thus:--
"'Hallowed be thou, Vervain,
As thou growest on the ground,
For in the Mount of Calvary,
There thou wast first found.
Thou healedst our Saviour Jesus Christ,
And staunchedst his bleeding wound;
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
I take thee from the ground.'
"And so they pluck it up and wear it. Their prayers and traditions of
this sort are infinite, and the ceremonies they use in their actions are
nothing inferior to the Gentiles in number and strangeness. Which any
man may easily observe that converseth with them."[84]
TREE BARNACLES; OR, GEESE HATCHED FROM SEA-SHELLS.
The learned and venerable John Gerarde, author or translator of _A
History of Plants, or Herball_; first published in folio in 1597, has
the following marvellous story respecting barnacle-shells growing on
trees, and giving birth to young geese; not as a thing which some
wonder-monger had related to him, but as what he had seen with his own
eyes, and the truth of which he could, therefore, and does, most
solemnly avouch.
"There are found in the north parts of Scotland, and the isles adjacent
called Orcades, certain trees, whereon do grow certain shell-fishes, of
a white colour, tending to russet; wherein are contained little living
creatures; which shells in time of maturity do open, and out of them
grow those little living things; which, falling into the water, do
become fowls, whom we call barnacles, in the North of England brant
geese, and in Lancashire tree geese; but the others that do fall upon
the land perish and do come to nothing. Thus much by the writings of
others, and also from the mouths of people of those parts, which may
very well accord with truth. But _what our eyes have seen and hands have
touched, we shall declare_. There is a small island in Lancashire called
The Pile of Foulders [or Peel of Fouldrey] wherein are found the broken
pieces of old and bruised ships, some whereof have been cast thither by
shipwreck, and also the trunks or bodies, with the branches, of old
rotten trees, cast up there likewise; whereon is found a certain spume
or froth, that in time breedeth unto certain shells, in shape like those
of the mussel, but sharper pointed, and of a whitish colour; wherein is
contained a thing in form like a lace of silk, finely woven as it were
together, as of a whitish colour, one end whereof is fastened unto the
inside of the shell, even as the fish of oysters and mussels are. The
other end is made fast unto the belly of a rude masse or lump, which in
time cometh to the shape and form of a bird; when it is perfectly formed
the shell gapeth open, and the first thing that appeareth is the
foresaid lace or string; next come the legs of the bird hanging out; and
as it groweth greater it openeth the shell by degrees, till at length it
is all come forth and hangeth only by the bill. In short space after it
cometh to full maturity and falleth into the sea, where it gathereth
feathers and groweth to a fowl, bigger than a mallard and lesser than a
goose; and black legs and bill, or beak, and feathers black and white,
spotted in such a manner as is our magpie (called in some places a
pie-annet), which [not the magpie, but the barnacle-hatched fowl] the
people of Lancashire call by no other name than a tree goose; which
place aforesaid, and all those parts adjoining, do so much abound
therewith, that one of the best is bought for 3_d._; For the truth
hereof, if any doubt, may it please them to repair to me, and I shall
satisfy them by the testimony of good witnesses(!).... They spawn as it
were in March and April; the geese are formed in May and June, and come
to fulness of feathers in the month after." "There is another sort
hereof, the history of which is _true, and of mine own knowledge_; for
travelling upon the shores of our English coast between Dover and
Romney, I found the trunk of an old rotten tree, which (with some help
that I procured by fishermen's wives, that were there attending their
husbands' return from the sea) we drew out of the water upon dry land.
On this rotten tree I found growing many thousands of long crimson
bladders, in shape like unto puddings newly filled, before they be
sodden, which were very clear and shining; at the nether end whereof did
grow a shell-fish, fashioned somewhat like a small mussel, but much
whiter, resembling a shell-fish that groweth upon the rocks about
Guernsey and Jersey, called a limpet. Many of these shells I brought
with me to London, which, after I had opened, I found in them living
things, without form or shape; in others, which were nearer come to
ripeness, I found living things that were very naked, in shape like a
bird; in others, the birds covered with soft down, the shell half open,
and the bird ready to fall out, which no doubt were the fowls called
barnacles.... That which I have seen with my eyes and handled with my
hands, I dare confidently avouch and boldly put down for verity.... We
conclude and end our present volume with this wonder of God. For which
God's name be ever honoured and praised." This author figures the
_Britannica Conchæ Anatifera_, or the breed of barnacles; the woodcut
representing a tree growing by the sea, with leaves like mussel shells,
opening, and living creatures emerging; while others, swimming about in
the sea beneath, are perfect goslings! Well may the old herbalist call
this "one of the marvels of this land; we may say of the world." Dr.
Charles Leigh, in his _Natural History of Lancashire_, gravely labours
to refute the notion that barnacles grow into geese, as had been
asserted by Speed and others.