THE DEAD HAND.
Open, lock,
To the dead man's knock!
Fly, bolt, and bar, and band;
Nor move, nor swerve,
Joint, muscle, or nerve,
At the spell of the dead man's hand.
INGOLDSBY LEGENDS.
One of the most curious and widespread instances of deception and
credulity is the magic potency which has long been supposed to reside
in the so-called "Hand of Glory"--the withered hand of a dead man.
Numerous stories are told of its marvellous properties as a charm, and
on the Continent many a wonderful cure is said to have been wrought by
its agency. Southey, it may be remembered, in his "Thalaba, the
Destroyer," has placed it in the hands of the enchanter, King Mohareb,
when he would lull to sleep Zohak, the giant keeper of the Caves of
Babylon. And the history of this wonder-working talisman, as used by
Mohareb, is thus graphically told:
Thus he said,
And from his wallet drew a human hand,
Shrivelled and dry and black.
And fitting, as he spake,
A taper in his hold,
Pursued: "A murderer on the stake had died.
I drove the vulture from his limbs and lopt
The hand that did the murder, and drew up
The tendon strings to close its grasp,
And in the sun and wind
Parched it, nine weeks exposed."
From the many accounts given of this "Dead Hand," we gather that it
has generally been considered necessary that the hand should be taken
from a man who has been put to death for some crime. Then, when dried
and prepared with certain weird unguents, it is ready for use. Sir
Walter Scott, in the "Antiquary" has introduced this object of
superstition, making the German adventurer, Dousterswivel, describe it
to the assembled party among the ruins at St. Ruth's thus jocosely:
"De Hand of Glory is very well known in de countries where your worthy
progenitors did live; and it is a hand cut off from a dead man as he
has been hanged for murder, and dried very nice in de smoke of juniper
wood; then you do take something of de fatsh of de bear, and of de
badger, and of de great eber (as you do call ye grand boar), and of de
little sucking child as has not been christened (for dat is very
essential), and you do make a candle, and put into de Hand of Glory at
de proper hour and minute, with the proper ceremonials; and he who
seeketh for treasures shall never find none at all."
Possessed of these mystic qualities, such a hand could not fail to
find favour with those engaged in any kind of evil and enterprise;
and, on account of its lulling to sleep all persons within the circle
of its influence, was of course held invaluable by thieves and
burglars. Thus the case is recorded of some thieves, who, a few years
ago, attempted to commit a robbery on a certain estate in the county
Meath. To quote a contemporary account of the affair, it appears that
"they entered the house armed with a dead man's hand, with a lighted
candle in it, believing in the superstitious notion that a candle
placed in a dead man's hand will not be seen by any but by those by
whom it is used, and also that if a candle in a dead hand be
introduced into a house, it will prevent those who may be asleep from
awaking. The inmates, however, were alarmed, and the robbers fled,
leaving the hand behind them." Another story communicated by the Rev.
S. Baring-Gould, tells how two thieves, having come to lodge in a
public-house, with a view to robbing it, asked permission to pass the
night by the fire, and obtained it. But when the house was quiet the
servant girl, suspecting mischief, crept downstairs, and looked
through the keyhole. She saw the men open a sack, and take out a dry
withered hand. They anointed the fingers with some unguents, and
lighted them. Each finger flamed, but the thumb they could not
light--that was because one of the household was not asleep.
The girl hastened to her master, but found it impossible to arouse
him--she tried every other sleeper, but could not break the charmed
sleep. At last stealing down into the kitchen, while the thieves were
busy over her master's strong-box, she secured the hand, blew out the
flames, and at once the whole house was aroused.
Among other qualities which have been supposed to belong to a dead
man's hand, are its medicinal virtues, in connection with which may be
mentioned the famous "dead hand," which was, in years past, kept at
Bryn Hall, Lancashire. There are several stories relating to this
gruesome relic, one being that it was the hand of Father Arrowsmith, a
priest, who, according to some accounts, is said to have been put to
death for his religion in the time of William III. It is recorded that
when about to suffer he desired his spiritual attendant to cut off his
right hand, which should ever after have power to work miraculous
cures on those who had faith to believe in its efficacy. This relic,
which forms the subject of one of Roby's "Traditions of Lancashire,"
was preserved with great care in a white silk bag, and was resorted to
by many diseased persons, who are reported to have derived wonderful
cures from its application. Thus the case is related of a woman who,
attacked with the smallpox, had this dead hand in bed with her every
night for six weeks, and of a poor lad living near Manchester who was
touched with it for the cure of scrofulous sores.
It has been denied, however, that Father Arrowsmith was hanged for
"witnessing a good confession," and Mr. Roby, in his "Traditions of
Lancashire," says that, having been found guilty of a rape, in all
probability this story of his martyrdom, and of the miraculous
attestation to the truth of the cause for which he suffered, were
contrived for the purpose of preventing the scandal that would have
come upon the Church through the delinquency of an unworthy member. It
is further said that one of the family of the Kenyons attended as
under-sheriff at the execution, and that he refused the culprit some
trifling favour at the gallows, whereupon Arrowsmith denounced a curse
upon him, to wit, that, whilst the family could boast of an heir, so
long they never should want a cripple--a prediction which was supposed
by the credulous to have been literally fulfilled. But this story is
discredited, the real facts of the case, no doubt, being that he was
hanged "under sanction of an atrocious law, for no other reason but
because he had taken orders as a Roman Catholic priest, and had
endeavoured to prevail upon others to be of his own faith." According
to another version of the story, Edmund Arrowsmith was a native of
Haydock, in the parish of Winwick. He entered the Roman Catholic
College of Douay, where he was educated, afterwards being ordained
priest. But in the year 1628 he was apprehended and brought to
Lancaster on the charge of being a priest contrary to the laws of the
realm, and was executed on 26th August, 1628, his last words being
"Bone Jesu."[33] As recently as the year 1736, a boy of twelve years,
the son of Caryl Hawarden, of Appleton-within-Widnes, county of
Lancaster, is stated to have been cured of what appeared to be a fatal
malady by the application of Father Arrowsmith's hand, which was
effected in the following manner: The boy had been ill fifteen months,
and was at length deprived of the use of his limbs, with loss of his
memory and impaired sight. In this condition, which the physicians had
declared hopeless, it was suggested to his parents that, as wonderful
cures had been effected by the hand of "the martyred saint," it was
advisable to try its effects upon their afflicted child. The "holy
hand" was accordingly procured from Bryn, packed in a box and wrapped
in linen. Mrs. Hawarden, having explained to the invalid boy her hopes
and intentions, applied the back part of the dead hand to his back,
stroking it down each side the backbone and making the sign of the
Cross, which she accompanied with a fervent prayer that Jesus Christ
would aid it with His blessing. Having twice repeated this operation,
the patient, who had before been utterly helpless, rose from his seat
and walked about the house, to the surprise of seven persons who had
witnessed the miracle. From that day the boy's pains left him, his
memory was restored, and his health became re-established. This mystic
hand, it seems, was removed from Bryn Hall to Garswood, a seat of the
Gerard family, and subsequently to the priest's house at
Ashton-in-Makerfield. But many ludicrous tales are current in the
neighbourhood, of pilgrims having been rather roughly handled by some
of the servants, such as getting a good beating with a wooden hand, so
that the patients rapidly retraced their steps without having had the
application of the "holy hand."
It is curious to find that such a ghastly relic as a dead hand should
have been preserved in many a country house, and used as a talisman,
to which we find an amusing and laughable reference in the "Ingoldsby
Legends":
Open, lock,
To the dead man's knock!
Fly bolt, and bar, and band;
Nor move, nor swerve,
Joint, muscle, or nerve,
At the spell of the dead man's hand.
Sleep, all who sleep! Wake, all who wake!
But be as dead for the dead man's sake.
The story goes on to tell how, influenced by the mysterious spell of
the enchanted hand, neither lock, bolt, nor bar avails, neither
"stout oak panel, thick studded with nails"; but, heavy and harsh, the
hinges creak, though they had been oiled in the course of the week,
and
The door opens wide as wide may be,
And there they stand,
That wondrous band,
Lit by the light of the glorious hand,
By one! by two! by three!
At Danesfield, Berkshire--so-called from an ancient horseshoe
entrenchment of great extent near the house, supposed to be of Danish
origin--is preserved a withered hand, which has long had the
reputation of being that presented by Henry I. to Reading Abbey, and
reverenced there as the hand of James the Apostle. It answers exactly
to "the incorrupt hand" described by Hoveden, and was found among the
ruins of the abbey, where it is thought to have been secreted at the
dissolution.
FOOTNOTES:
[33] Baines's "Lancashire," iii., 638; Harland and Wilkinson's
"Lancashire Folklore," 158-163.