Horse Shoes used as Charms--Spitting on Money to
secure Luck--Fortunate Persons to deal with--Methods
of securing Cattle against Accidents--Effect of
Herbs--Professor Playfair on Superstition--The Lee
Penny--How to prevent Toothache--Divers Charms--A
Seer's Prescription--Lating the Witches--Grose on
Sorcerers, Magicians, and Witches--Man carried away by
an Evil Spirit--Irish Shamrock--Praying to
Swords--Irish Superstition--Smugglers and Brigands
addicted to Superstition--Charm found on a
Smuggler--Superstition in the East--Arab
Charms--Ladies' Arts.
Horse shoes have long been regarded as most valuable charms. Such
shoes, nailed on the back of doors, keep out witches and evil spirits.
Horse shoes are also safe-guards on board of ships and boats. To
secure good luck in a market, the vendor is in the habit of rubbing or
spitting on the first money obtained for goods sold. The good or bad
luck of cattle-salesmen and petty merchants, superstitious people
think, depends very much on the first purchaser. In the early part of
the day a reduced price is sometimes accepted from a person reputed to
be lucky, while business will not be entered into under any conditions
with uncanny people.
In Suffolk an abortive calf is buried under the path along which the
cows go to the fields, to prevent them being accidentally injured. One
description of herb given to a horse prevents the horse-shoer pricking
the animal's feet; and another, put into a man's shoes, enables him to
travel more than forty miles a day without becoming wearied. Moon-wort
is a powerful charm that loosens locks, fetters, and shoes from
horses' feet. In olden times it was a stratagem in warfare to lead the
enemy's horsemen upon a heath where moon-wort grew plentiful, for, in
passing over it, the horses were sure to lose their shoes. In
Aristotle's time, rue hung about the neck as an amulet prevented
witchcraft. Rue was called an herb of grace, because the Romanists
used it on Sundays in their exorcisms.
Professor Playfair, in a letter to Mr. Brand, dated from St. Andrews,
in 1804, says: "In private breweries a live coal was thrown into the
vat, to prevent the interference of the fairies. A cow's milk no fairy
could take away, if a burning coal was conducted across her back and
under the belly immediately after she calved. Witches and evil spirits
were prevented from entering a dwelling-house if the lower end of the
crook or iron chain by which the pots were suspended over the kitchen
fire was raised up a few links before the inmates retired to bed. It
was a common opinion in Scotland and England, that a woman may, by
means of charms, convey her neighbour's cow's milk to her own dairy.
When a cow's milk was charmed away, a small quantity of rennet was
taken from all suspected persons and put into an egg-shell full of
milk, and when that obtained from the charmer mingled with it, it
presently curdled. Some women used the root of groundsel as a
protection against the produce of their dairy being charmed, by
putting it among their milk and cream."
The Lee Penny, the property of a Scotch gentleman, was a charm known
far and wide. Many were the cures effected by it, _i.e._ if tradition
speaks true. This charm, when applied externally to man or beast,
proved better than all known healing medicine, and, when water in
which it had been dipped was given to man or beast to drink, it
produced an effectual cure. Nails driven into an oak tree prevented
toothache. A halter that had been used in suspending a criminal, when
tied round the head, prevented headache. A dead man's hand dissipated
tumours of the glands, by stroking the affected part nine times with
it; but the hand of a man who had been hanged was the most
efficacious. Chips cut from a gallows, when carried in a bag suspended
from the neck, cured the ague. A stone with a hole in it, tied to the
key of a stable door, deterred witches stealing the horses and riding
them over the country at night. If a man or woman were afflicted with
fits, he or she might be cured by partaking of broth in which a human
skull had been boiled. This last-mentioned cure was not uncommon in
the beginning of the present century.
A young girl, about sixteen years of age, being seized with fits, a
seer was consulted, and he prescribed brose made from oatmeal and the
"broo of a dead man's skull." That a cranium might be obtained, a
grave was violated, and a body mutilated. The brose was prepared
according to directions, and given to the afflicted girl. As might be
expected, the matter created no small excitement in Perthshire, in
which county the superstitious acts were perpetrated; but though the
whole affair was looked on with disapproval by the better educated
classes, and proceedings were taken by the authorities against the
guilty parties, the death knell of superstition was not rung; for in
that county a belief in witches, spirits, and charms still exists.
At one time a custom prevailed in Lancashire, called "lating the
witches." It was observed on the eve preceding the 1st November, when
witches were supposed to be busier than usual. The ceremony of lating
was gone through in this way:--The poorer neighbours called at the
houses of the more opulent, and at the door demanded lighted candles
to carry in procession. We say demanded them at the door, because it
would have been unlucky for those receiving the candles to cross a
threshold then, and it would have been equally unlucky for any one of
them to enter a house that night from which his or her candle was
received, if the light was extinguished before the lating was
concluded. Candles were given out according to the number of inmates
of a house--one for every person--but it was optional for one to carry
his own candle, or to find a substitute who would sally out for him to
frighten the witches. The custom originated in the belief that if a
lighted candle were carried about from eleven to twelve o'clock at
night without being extinguished, the person it represented would be
proof against witches during the year, but if the candle went out it
foreboded evil.
Grose, in describing the difference between a sorcerer, magician, and
witch, speaks highly of the power of charms and invocations. "A
witch," he tells us, "derives all her power from a compact with the
devil, while a sorcerer commands him and the infernal spirits by his
skill in charms and invocations, and also soothes and entices them by
fumigations; for the devils," he continues, "are observed to have
delicate nostrils, abominating and flying from some kinds of stinks.
Witness the flight of the evil spirits into the remote parts of Egypt,
driven by the smell of fishes' liver burned by Tobit. The devil and
spirits," he tells us, "are, on the other hand, peculiarly fond of
certain perfumes."
Lilly writes that one Evans, having raised a spirit, at the request of
Lord Bothwell and Sir K. Digby, and forgotten a suffumigation, the
spirit, enraged, snatched him out from his circle, and carried him
from his house in the Minories into a field near Battersea.
The shamrock is held sacred by the Irish. It became a custom among
Irish soldiers, when going to battle, to conceal about their persons
bunches of shamrock, to say certain prayers to their swords, to make
crosses upon the earth, and thrust the points of their weapons into
the ground, under the impression that by so doing they would secure
success in the field. The shamrock was highly esteemed by lovers. An
exchange of this plant frequently took place between betrothed persons
in the same way as engagement rings are exchanged in our time. In
Ireland many people continue to put faith in incantations and spells.
Women's hair is thought to be a precious amulet; hence the custom of
wearing hair bracelets, guards, and other such like ornaments.
Smugglers and brigands are much addicted to superstition. On the
apprehension of one Jackson, a smuggler, who died in Chichester, there
was found in his possession a linen purse containing the following
charm:
"Ye three holy kings,
Gaspar, Melchior, Balthasar,
Pray for us now and at the hour of death."
The charm had actually touched the heads of three kings at Cologne,
and was thought by the smuggler to be an effectual protection against
accidents, headaches, falling sickness, witchcraft, and various kinds
of mischief. Jackson died suddenly, but this did not prove the charm
to be worthless, as he lost it before his end came.
Various nations in the East entertained superstitious opinions
concerning serpents and reptiles. They attributed numberless powers of
good and evil to these reptiles. A belief prevailed, that if one
killed a snake, the whole race to which it belonged would persecute
the cruel individual. When any one was bitten by a serpent, a
sovereign remedy was found in a particular stone. Such valuable stones
were rare, and consequently they were greatly prized, even, more so
than gold.
Arabs believed that the smoke of burnt hair taken from a Christian's
head would cure a patient, whatever the disease was under which he
laboured. They also wore enchanted rings, and carried herbs to
strengthen their arms in the day of battle.
A young lady thought she could discover the social position and
character of her future husband, by pulling a large flower and taking
off the leaves and petals one by one, while she repeated,
"Rich man, poor man, farmer, ploughman, thief."
The one who happened to be named at plucking the last leaf or petal
was, she supposed, to be her husband. Another way: pluck an even ash
leaf, and keep it in the hand, saying,
"The even ash leaf in my hand,
The first I meet shall be my man;"
then put the leaf into the glove, and say,
"The even ash leaf in my glove,
The first I meet shall be my love;"
and then put it into the bosom, and repeat,
"The even ash leaf in my bosom,
The first I meet shall be my husband."
Immediately after this the future husband will make his appearance.
Another method: After nightfall the sighing maiden may walk through
the garden with a rake in her left hand, and throw hemp seed over her
right shoulder while she keeps repeating,
"Hemp seed I set, hemp seed I sow,
The man that is my true love come after me and mow."
Sure enough, we are assured, the future husband will appear beside the
fair sower with a scythe, ready to cut down the crop when it grows.
We are further assured that a lady would succeed quite as well, were
she, on going to bed, to place her shoes so as to form the letter T,
and say,
"Hoping this night my true love to see,
I place my shoes in the form of a T;"
or were she, on retiring for the night, to write the alphabet on small
pieces of paper, and put them into a basin of water, with the letters
downwards,--in the former case she would in her dreams perceive her
future husband, and in the latter she might expect to find, in the
morning, the first letter of his name turned upwards, and all the
other letters downwards, as she had left them.