Belief in the Existence of Visible
Ghosts--Superstition among the People dwelling on the
Baltic Shores--A German Legend--Demons in the West of
Europe--Love, how plighted in Orkney--The Monster
Ymor--Origin of Fairies--The Duergar or Dwarfs--More
about Fairies--Brownies in Ireland and the Highlands
of Scotland--Nine Classes of Evil
Spirits--Vampires--Man's Double or Fetch--Churchyard
Ghosts--Souls of Suicides--Burial of Suicides and
Murderers at Cross Roads--Luther on Evil Spirits and
Witches.
A belief in the existence of visible ghosts on earth was general
before and after the middle ages. An old divine of our own country
says:--"I look upon it as a special piece of providence, that there
are, ever and anon, such fresh examples of apparitions and witchcraft
as may rub up and awaken their" [the people's] "benumbed and lethargic
minds into a suspicion at least, if not assurance, that there are
other intelligent beings besides those clothed in heavy earth or clay.
In this, I say, methinks the divine providence does plainly interest
the powers of the dark kingdom, permitting wicked men and women, and
vagrant spirits of that kingdom, to make leagues or covenants one with
another, and to make the confession of witches against their own
lives, and the miraculous feats they play, palpable evidence that
there are bad spirits" as well as good.
An author, who wrote on second sight, last century, under the name of
Theophilus Insulanus, considered all persons were irreligious who
entertained a doubt of the reality of apparitions of departed souls.
Another author thought ghosts were mere aerial beings without
substance that could pass through walls and other solid bodies at
pleasure. Ghosts commonly appeared in the same dress as the persons
whose spirits they represented were accustomed to wear when alive,
though the ghosts were sometimes clothed in white. The appearance of
spirits was generally accompanied by an unaccountable light. Dogs and
horses possess the faculty of seeing ghosts.
People living on the Baltic shores have a deity named Putseet, whom
they encourage to remain with them, by placing in their barns, every
night, tables with bread, butter, cheese, and ale thereon. If the
provisions are taken away, good fortune is expected; if left
untouched, bad luck is looked for. This spirit assists in thrashing,
churning, grinding, and sweeping the house at midnight.
The Northern nations regard spirits of this description as the souls
of men who gave themselves up, during life, to illicit pleasures, and
therefore were doomed, as a punishment, to wander about the earth for
a limited time, to assist mankind.
There is a legend in Germany of an extraordinary nature. Travellers
were shown a pair of brass gates, one of which had a crack, caused by
the following circumstance:--When a supreme monarch had given orders
for the building of a church, the devil came one day and asked what he
intended it for, to which the Emperor answered, "For a gaming-house,"
and Satan went away seemingly well pleased. A few days afterwards the
fiend returned, and seeing altars erected, asked what they were for.
The Emperor answered, "For gaming-tables," which encouraged the devil
to lend his assistance in the completion of the sacred building. Next
time Satan made his appearance he brought a pair of large brass gates
for the edifice, but happening to see a crucifix, he flung them down
with such force that one of the gates was damaged. For many years the
gates were objects of curiosity.
In the west of Europe, where superstition prevailed, there were many
formidable demons, whose history originated in Celtic, Teutonic, and
Eastern fables. In Orkney, even during the last century, lovers met
within the sacred circle of stones dedicated to Scandinavian deities,
to plight their love. Through a hole in one of the pillars the hands
of contracting parties were joined, and the vow made was called the
promise of Odin. To violate this vow, rendered the false one infamous
in all time coming.
In the body of the giant Ymir several maggots had been generated,
which, by order of the gods, partook of both human shape and reason.
These little beings, to which reference is also made in pages 88 and
90, possessed the most delicate figures, and always dwelt in
subterranean caverns or clefts in the rocks. They were remarkable for
their riches, activity, and malevolence, and were probably the modern
fairies of the north and west, who are usually described as beings of
small stature, and gaily dressed. These creatures, the offspring of
worms, possessed the power of making themselves visible and invisible.
They multiplied their species, and lived in a style of grandeur that
could not be surpassed by the greatest monarch on earth. They were
good friends to certain members of the human family, but bitter
enemies to others of Adam's posterity. With their elf arrows they
could kill or wound man and beast. They carried off children and
domestic animals, generally leaving vile creatures resembling the
children or animals carried away, so as to prevent the felony being
discovered.
Opinions originally entertained in this country relative to the dwarfs
have undergone considerable modifications, from the same attributes
being assigned to them as to the Persian peris. Fairies were supposed
to have brought many blessings to England, sending people pleasant
dreams, giving money to them in a mysterious manner, and causing the
nation to prosper. In remote times a brownie was attached to the home
of every considerable family in Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland.
Like men, some brownies were tall, and some of small stature. They
were industrious and faithful, if well treated in the way the Samogitae
did the Putseet. When a brownie once united himself to a family, he
seldom deserted it, but continued to serve generation after
generation. Burton speaks of nine classes of evil spirits:--First, the
false gods of the Gentiles, adored as idols, who gave oracles at
Delphos and elsewhere, whose prince was Beelzebub; second, the liars
and equivocators, as Apollo, Pythias, and the like; third, the
inventors of mischief, as Theutus, in Plato; fourth, malicious,
revengeful devils, whose prince was Asmodeus; fifth, coseners, such as
belong to magicians and witches, their prince being Satan; sixth,
aerial spirits, that corrupted the air, and caused plagues, thunder,
fires, and other calamities; seventh, a destroyer, causing wars,
tumults, and combustions; eighth, an accusing or calumniating devil,
that drove people to despair; and the ninth, tempters in divers
shapes, having mammon for their prince. Burton goes further. He
asserts that "no place is void, but all full of spirits, devils, or
other inhabitants; not so much as a hairbreadth is empty in heaven,
earth, or waters above or under the earth. The earth is not so full of
flies in summer as it is at all times of invisible devils."
Psellus founded a system of demonology, which had for its basis the
natural history and habitation of demons. His first class consisted of
fiery devils, that wandered in the regions near the moon, but were
prevented from entering that luminary. They displayed their power in
blazing stars, in counterfeit suns, moons, and meteoric lights, and
prevented foul weather. These demons, we are informed, occasionally
resided in the furnaces of Hecla, Etna, or Vesuvius. His second class
was made up of aerial devils, that inhabited the atmosphere, caused
tempests, thunder, and lightning, rended asunder trees, burned down
steeples and houses, struck men and beasts, showered stones, wool, and
frogs from the skies; counterfeited in the clouds the battles of
armies, raised whirlwinds, fires, and corrupted the air so as to
spread disease. The third class was terrestrial devils, such as lares,
genii, fauns, satyrs, wood-nymphs, foliots, robin-goodfellows, or
trulli. The fourth class was aqueous devils, as the various
descriptions of water nymphs. The fifth class consisted of
subterranean devils, known by the name of Getuli or Cobals. They
preserved treasure in the earth, and prevented it being suddenly
revealed; they were also the cause of horrible earthquakes. Psellus's
sixth class of devils was named lucifugi. They delighted in darkness,
entered into the bowels of men, and tormented those whom they
possessed with frenzy and the falling sickness. An opinion prevailed
that devils possessed corporeal frames, capable of sensation; that
they could feel and be felt; that they could injure and be hurt; that
they were nourished with peculiar food; that they did not hurt cattle
from malevolence, but through a desire to obtain natural temperate
heat and moisture from the animals they killed; that they disliked the
sun's rays; and that they attained a great age.
Of all the kinds of demons we have heard of, the most loathsome are
the vampires. Horst speaks of a vampire as a "dead body which
continues to live in the grave, which it leaves, however, by night for
the purpose of sucking the blood of the living, whereby it is
nourished and preserved in good condition, instead of becoming
decomposed like other dead bodies." Fischer, who believed there were
vampires, informs us that the bite of a vampire left no mark upon the
person, but that the bite speedily proved fatal, unless counteracted
by the injured person eating some of the earth from the vampire's
grave, and smearing himself with his blood. These precautions had only
a temporary effect, if at all successful; for the bitten victim,
sooner or later, became a vampire himself--died and was buried, but
continued to follow the examples of old vampires in nourishing
themselves, infecting others, and propagating vampirism.
Down to the middle of the last century there was a belief in vampirism
in the east of Europe. This form of superstition created much anxiety
in the public mind, none knowing when he might be bitten by one of
those hated demons, and be thereby transformed into a vampire. Men of
science bore testimony in favour of vampirism with seeming
truthfulness and ability, worthy of a better subject.
In England every man was supposed to have his "double" or "fetch." The
appearance of a fetch created great uneasiness in the mind of the
person witnessing the apparition. It was taken as foreboding death or
serious calamity to the being represented.
There were also churchyard ghosts in England, whose duty it was to
watch bodies over which church rites had not been performed after
violent death. In Scotland and England there were peculiar
superstitious views concerning the souls of suicides. Authoritative
decrees prohibited graveyard gates being opened to permit the bodies
of such persons being carried through them for interment. If relations
persisted in depositing the remains of a friend who had committed
suicide, it was necessary for them to take the dead body over the
graveyard wall after sunset. But in most cases the bodies of suicides
and murderers were buried at a "cross road," with a stake driven
through the corpse, to prevent its ghost rising to frighten or harm
innocent people.
The precaution of driving a stake through the body did not always
prove effectual, if countless tales related of ghosts being seen in
the vicinity of such unhallowed burying-grounds be true. Surprise need
not be expressed at such superstition prevailing in a country where
faith in witchcraft still lingers, and in which, at no very remote
time, the statutes against witches were in full force. The State and
the Church believed in the existence of demons and witches.
Luther's opinions on the subject of the agency and operations of evil
spirits may be inferred from his _Colloquia_. "Many devils," he says,
"are in woods, in waters, in wildernesses, and in dark poolly places,
ready to hurt and prejudice people; some are in the thick black
clouds, which cause hail, lightnings, and thunderings, and which
poison the air, the pastures, and grounds."
In a conversation on witchcraft, Luther said he had no compassion on
witches: he would burn every one of them. He reminded the people,
that, according to the old law, the priests threw the first stones at
such malefactors. Luther said his mother had undergone infinite
annoyance from one of her neighbours who was a witch. This witch could
throw a charm upon a child, which would make it cry itself to death. A
pastor having punished the witch for some of her wicked tricks, she
cast a spell on him by means of some earth he had walked upon. The
good man fell sick of a malady, which no remedy could remove, and
shortly thereafter died. Luther was satisfied the devil, through his
prophets, could, and did, foretell future events; that he (the devil)
was so skilled that he could cause death even by the leaf of a tree;
that he had more boxes and pots full of poison, wherewith he destroyed
men, than all the apothecaries in the world had of healing medicine.
The devil, Luther thought, was so crafty that he could deceive our
senses. He caused one to think he saw something he saw not, and to
hear thunder or a trumpet he heard not. Men, he argued, were possessed
by the devil, corporeally and spiritually. Those whom he possessed
corporeally were mad people.