Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS.

CLARY (Horminum, Herminium).

Mizaldus, as great

a collector in his way, of curiosities as Pliny himself, affirms that the leaves of the garden-clary draw out thorns from the flesh, and accelerate difficult and protracted labours. Being mixed with wine they exhilarate the mind and excite the passions, provided they be taken in moderation; if indulged in too freely they affect the head by the potency of their odour.*

The Moon. Of all the superstitions attached to the moon, and they are by no means few-the strangest is one mentioned by Spartianus, and which I do not recollect meeting with in any other believer in the incredible. He says that those people, who hold the Moon to be a female, and so call her, will always be found slaves to women, while those, who consider the moon of the male gender, will always rule their wives. Now, of all the European nations there is, I believe, but one-the Ger

* "Folia hormini sativi, quæ nostra est Orvalla, trita aculeos ac spinas è corporibus detrahunt, morantesque partus et difficiles accelerant. Vino injecta mentem exhilarant, excussis animi nebulis, ac Venerem stimulant. Sed liberalius sumpta caput tentant odoris vi et gravitate.” Ant. Mizaldus, Memorabilium Centuria Novem.--Cent. ii., Apothegm 82, p. 27.

man, namely,—which does not make a lady of the moon, so that by every law of natural philosophy the rest of us must inevitably be henpecked.*

The Devil's Death.-Plutarch saith that his countriman, Epitherses, told him, that, "as he passed by sea into Italie, manie passengers being in his bote, in an evening when they were about the islands, Echinadæ, the wind quite ceased; and the ship driving with the tide was brought at last to Paxe. And whilst some slept, and others quafft, and others some were awake (perhaps in as ill case as the rest) after supper suddenlie a voice was heard calling 'Thamus!'-in such sort as every man marvelled. This Thamus was a pilot borne in Egypt, unknown to manie that were in the ship. Wherefore being twice called, he answered nothing; but the third time he answered; and the other with a louder voice commanded him that when he came to Palodes he should tell that the great God, Pan, was departed. Whereat every one was astonished (as Epitherses affirmed) and being in consultation what were best to do, Thamus concluded that if the wind were hie they must passe by with silence; but if the weather were calme, he must utter that which he had heard. But when they came to Palodes, and the weather calme, Thamus looking out towards the land, cried aloud that the great God, Pan, was dead; and immediatlie there followed a lamentable noise of a multitude of people as it were with great wonder and admiration. And because they were manie in the ship, they

"Sciendum doctissimis quibusque id memoriæ traditum, atque ita nunc quoque à Carrenis præcipuè haberi, ut qui Lunam fæmineo nomine ac sexu putaverit nuncupandam, is addictus mulieribus semper inserviat; at verò qui marem deum esse crediderit, is dominetur uxori, neque ullas muliebres patiatur insidias.”—Ælii Spartiani Antoninus Caracallus, p.413. HISTORIE AUGUSTE SCRIPTORES, vi.—8vo. Lugduni Batavorum, 1661.

said the fame thereof was speedilie brought to Rome, and Thamus sent for by Tiberius, the emperour, who gave such credit thereto that he diligentlie inquired and asked who that Pan was. The learned men about him supposed

that Pan was he who was the sonne of Mercurie and Penelope, and Eusebius saith that this chanced in the time of Tiberius, the emperour, when Christ expelled all divels."*

Reginald Scot, from whom I have taken the above, must needs spoil a very pretty tale of superstition by attempting to explain it into reason. He observes with laudable gravity that this was nothing more than “ a merrie gest devised by Thamus to make sport with the passengers, who were some asleepe, and some dronke, and some other at plaie, &c., whiles the first voice was used. And at the second voice, to wit when he should deliver his message, he being an old pilot knew where some voice was usuall by means of some echo in the sea, and thought he would (to the astonishment of them) accomplish his devise if the wether proved calme. Whereby may appeare that he would in other cases of tempests, &c., rather attend to more serious business than that ridiculous matter"-that is, Thamus cuts bad jokes in fine weather in order to show his passengers how serious he would be if a storm were to come on.

Many thanks are no doubt due to Master Reginald for his explanation, which is only a few grains more incredible than the story it is intended to elucidate. If the particular spot in question produced echoes at one time of calm, it would always do so. How then could the secret be confined to Thamus? surely other seamen must have noticed the same phenomenon, and if so, how came they all to be silent when the whole court of Tiberius was in • Reginald Scot's DISCOVERIE OF WITCHCRAFT, 4to., London, 1584, cap. 4, p. 162.

an uproar at this wonder, and the emperor was sending far and wide for sages to explain it to him? The reader, I think, had better hold hard and fast by the miracle, and eschew the explanation.

King's Evil.-The Devonians believe that this disease may be cured by kissing seven virgins, the daughters of the same mother, for seven days successively.

Cauld Lod of Hilton.-The Cauld Lod is a species of Brownie haunting Hilton in the county of Durham,* and must not be confounded with Jack of Hilton, in Staffordshire, which is quite a different matter. This last is a little hollow image of brass, about twelve inches high, kneeling upon his left knee and holding his right hand upon his head,† having a little hole in the place of his mouth, about the bigness of a great pin's head, and another in the back about two thirds of an inch diameter, at which last hole it is filled with water, it holding about four pints and a quarter, which when set to a strong fire evaporates in the same manner as in an Æolipile, and, vents itself at the smaller hole at the mouth in constant blast, blowing the fire so strongly that it is very audible, and makes a sensible impression on that part of the fire where the blast lights.‡

With this image is or perhaps I should say, was— connected a singular custom, the service namely due from the Lord of Essington to the Lord of Hilton, about a mile distant. According to the ancient tenure the Lord of Essington, as mean lord, is bound to bring a goose every New Year's Day, and drive it round the fire, in the hall at Hilton, at least three times, while Jack is blowing up the flames. After this ceremony has been duly performed, the Lord of Essington is farther obliged, either * SUKTEES DURHAM, vol. ii., p. 26.

And his left " super veretrum erectum."

Dr. Plot's HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE, folio, Oxford, 1686, p.433.

by himself or bailiff, to carry the goose into the kitchen of Hilton Hall, and deliver it to the cook; when it is dressed, one of those doing service must bring it to the table of the lord paramount of Essington and Hilton, when he receives a dish of meat for himself in requital. It is little more than a hundred years since the bailiff of a mean, or sub-lord, actually rendered the ancient homage to his lord paramount; but Dr. Plot imagines this little brazen figure to have been originally a Priapid deity.

Devonshire. "It is usual in this neighbourhood (Exeter) with those who are affected by an ague, to visit at dead of night the nearest cross-road five different times, and there bury a new-laid egg. The visit is paid about an hour before the cold fit is expected; and they are persuaded that with the egg they shall bury their ague. If the experiment fail-the agitation it occasions may often render it successful-they attribute it to some unlucky accident that may have befallen them on the way. In the execution of this matter they observe the strictest silence, taking care not to speak to any one whom they may happen to meet. Similar customs prevailed in ancient days. Theocritus abounds with descriptions of them.

See his second and third Idyllia."*

Bleeding Corpses. It was at one time a very general belief, and it is not yet quite exploded among the ignorant, that the corpse of a murdered man will bleed if touched by his murderer. This popular fallacy is of very ancient date, and should appear to have been brought to Britain by the first invading Saxons from the forests of Germany, that cradle of so many dark and fearful superstitions. We have sufficient authority for tracing it up to this point, as we have evidence of its legal existence in the old Anglo-Saxon records.†

* Gentleman's Magazine for August, 1787, vol. Ivii. p. 719. See Edg. Can. 65. Ælf. Can. 35.

« ПредишнаНапред »