OBSERVATIONS
ON THE
POPULAR ANTIQUITIES
OF
GREAT BRITAIN:

CHIEFLY ILLUSTRATING

THE ORIGIN OF OUR VULGAR AND PROVINCIAL CUSTOMS, CEREMONIES, AND SUPERSTITIONS.

BY

JOHN BRAND, M.A.,
FELLOW AND SECRETARY OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF LONDON.

ARRANGED, REVISED, AND GREATLY ENLARGED, BY
SIR HENRY ELLIS, K.H., F.R.S., SEC. S.A., &c.
PRINCIPAL LIBRARIAN OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

A NEW EDITION, WITH FURTHER ADDITIONS.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. III.

LONDON:

HENRY G. BOHN, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN
1855

CONTENTS OF VOL. III.

[p.1]

SORCERY OR WITCHCRAFT.

WAIVING the consideration of the many controversies formerly kept up on this subject, founded on misinterpretation of various passages in the sacred writings, it is my purpose in the present section to consider witchcraft only as a striking article of popular mythology; which, however, bids fair in another century to be entirely forgotten.

Witchcraft is defined by Reginald Scot, in his Discovery, p. 284, to be, "in estimation of the vulgar people, 'a supernatural work between a corporal old woman and a spiritual devil;" but, he adds, speaking his own sentiments on the subject, "it is, in truth, a cozening art, wherein the name of God is abused, prophaned, and blasphemed, and his power attributed to a vile creature." Perkins defines witchcraft to be "an art serving for the working of wonders by the assistance of the Devil, so far as God will permit;" and Delrio, "an art in which, by the power of the contract entered into with the Devil, some wonders are wrought which pass the common understanding of men."

Witchcraft, in modern estimation, is a kind of sorcery (especially in women), in which it is ridiculously supposed that an old woman, by entering into a contract with the Devil, is enabled in many instances to change the course of Nature, to raise winds, perform actions that require more than in- [p.2] human strength, and to afflict those that offend her with the sharpest pains.¹

King James's reason, in his Daemonology, why there are or were twenty women given to witchcraft for one man, is curious. "The reason is easy," as this sagacious monarch thinks, "for, as that sex is frailer than man is, so is it easier to be entrapped in these grosse snares of the Divell, as was over well proved to be true by the serpent's deceiving of Eva at the beginning, which makes him the homelier with that sexe sensine." His majesty, in this work, quaintly calls the Devil "God's ape and hangman."

Gibbon, in his Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, viii. ed. 1789-90, p. 157, speaking of the laws of the Lombards, A.D. 643, tells us: "The ignorance of the Lombards, in the state of Paganism or Christianity, gave implicit credit to the malice and mischief of witchcraft; but the judges of the seventeenth century might have been instructed and confounded by the wisdom of Rotharis, who derides the absurd superstition, and protects the wretched victims of popular or judicial cruelty." He adds in a note: "See Leges Rotharis, No. 379, p. 47. Striga is used as the name of witch. It is of the purest classic origin (Herat. Epod. v. 20; Petron. c. 134); and from the words of Petronius (quae Striges comederunt nervos tuos) it may be inferred that the prejudice was of Italian rather than barbaric extraction."

Gaule, in his Select Cases of Conscience, touching Witches and Witchcrafts, 1646, observes, p. 4: "In everyplace and parish, every old woman with a wrinkled face, a furred brow, a hairy lip, a gobber tooth, a squint eye, a squeaking voice, a scolding tongue, having a rugged coate on her back, a skull-cap on her head, a spindle in her hand, a dog or cat by her side, is not only suspected but pronounced for a witch. ... [p.3] Every new disease, notable accident, miracle of Nature, rarity of art, nay, and strange work or just, judgment of God, is by them accounted for no other but an act or effect of witchcraft." He says, p. 10: "Some say the devill was the first witch when he plaied the impostor with our first parents, possessing the serpent (as his impe) to their delusion (Gen. iii.) ; and it is whispered that our grandame Eve was a little guilty of such kind of society."

Henry, in his History of Great Britain, iv. 543, 4to., speaking of our manners between A.D. 1399 and 1485, says: "There was not a man then in England who entertained the least doubt of the reality of sorcery, necromancy, and other diabolical arts."

According to the popular belief on this subject, there are three sorts of witches: the first kind can hurt but not help, and are with singular propriety called the black witches.

The second kind, very properly called white ones, have gifts directly opposite to those of the former; they can help, but not hurt. By the following lines of Dryden, however, the white witch seems to have a strong hankering after mischief:

"At least as little honest as he could,
And like white witches mischievously good."

Gaule, as cited before, says: "According to the vulgar conceit, distinction is usually made between the white and the black witch; the good and the bad witch. The bad witch they are wont to call him or her that workes malefice or mischiefe to the bodies of men or beasts; the good witch they count him or her that helps to reveale, prevent, or remove the same."

Cotta, in the Tryall of Witchcraft, p. 60, says: "This kinde is not obscure, at this day swarming in this kingdom, whereof no man can be ignorant who lusteth to observe the uncontrouled liberty and licence of open and ordinary resort in all places unto wise men and wise women, so vulgarly termed for their reputed knowledge concerning such deceased persons as are supposed to be bewitched." The same author, in his Short Discoverie of Unobserved Dangers, 1612, p. 71, says: "The mention of witchcraft doth now occasion the remembrance in the next place of a sort (company) of practitioners whom our custome and country doth call wise men and wise women, re- [p.4] puted a kind of good and honest harmless witches or wizards, who by good words, by hallowed herbes, and salves, and other superstitious ceremonies, promise to allay and calme divels, practices of other witches, and the forces of many diseases."

Perkins by Pickering, 8vo. Cambr. 1610, p. 256, concludes with observing: "It were a thousand times better for the land if all witches, but specially the blessing witch, might suffer death. Men doe commonly hate and spit at the damnifying sorcerer, as unworthie to live among them, whereas they flie unto the other in necessitie, they depend upon him as their God, and by this meanes thousands are carried away to their finall confusion. Death, therefore, is the just and deserved portion of the good witch."

Baxter, in his World of Spirits, p. 184, speaks of those men that tell men of things stolen and lost, and that show men the face of a thief in a glass, and cause the goods to be brought back, who are commonly called white witches. "When I lived," he says, "at Dudley, Hodges, at Sedgley, two miles off, was long and commonly accounted such a one, and when I lived at Kederrainster, one of my neighbours affirmed, that, having his yarn stolen, he went to Hodges (ten miles off), and he told him that at such an hour he should have it brought home again and put in at the window, and so it was; and as I remember he showed him the person's face in a glass. Yet I do not think that Hodges made any known contract with the devil, but thought it an effect of art."

The third species, as a mixture of white and black, are styled the grey witches; for they can both help and hurt.

Thus the end and effect of witchcraft seems to be sometimes good and sometimes the direct contrary. In the first case the sick are healed, thieves are bewrayed, and true men come to their goods. In the second, men, women, children, or animals, as also grass, trees, or corn, &c., are hurt.

The Laplanders, says Scheffer, have a cord tied with knots for the raising of the wind: they, as Ziegler relates it, tie three magical knots in this cord; when they untie the first there blows a favourable gale of wind; when the second, a brisker; when the third, the sea and wind grow mighty, stormy, and tempestuous. This, he adds, that we have reported concerning the Laplanders, does not in fact belong to them, but to the Finlanders of Norway, because no other writers mention [p.5] it, and because the Laplanders live in an inland country. However, the method of selling winds is this: "They deliver a small rope with three knots upon it, with this caution, that when they loos, the first they shall have a good wind; if the second, a stronger; if the third such a storm will arise that they can neither see how to direct the ship and avoid rocks, or so much as stand upon the decks, or handle the tackling." The same is admitted by King James in his Daemonology, p. 1 17. See also the notes to Macbeth.

Pomponius Mela, who wrote in the reign of the Emperor Claudius (P. Mela, iii. c. 6), mentions a set of priestesses in the Island of Sena, or the Hedes Saints, on the coast of Gaul, who were thought to have the quality, like the Laplanders, or rather Finlanders, of troubling the sea, and raising the winds by their enchantments, being, however, subservient only to seafaring people, and only to such of them as come on purpose to consult them.

Ranulph Higden, in the Polychronicon, p. 195, tells us that the witches in the Isle of Man anciently sold winds to mariners, and delivered them in knots tied upon a thread, exactly as the Laplanders did.²

The following passage is from Scot's Discovery, p. 33: "No one endued with common sense but will deny that the elements are obedient to witches and at their commandment, or that they may, at their pleasure, send rain, hail, tempests, thunder, lightning, when she, being but an old doting woman, casteth a flint stone over her left shoulder towards the west, or hurleth a little sea-sand up into the element, or wetteth a broom-sprig in water, and sprinkleth the same in the air; or diggeth a pit in the earth, and, putting water therein, stirreth it about with her finger; or boileth hog's bristles; or layeth sticks across upon a bank where never a drop of water is; or buryeth sage till it be rotten: all which things are confessed by witches, and affirmed by writers to be the means that witches use to move extraordinary tempests and rain."

"Ignorance," says Osbourne, in his Advice to his Son, 8vo. Oxf. 16.36, "reports of witches that they are unable to hurt [p.6] till they have received an almes; which, though ridiculous in itselfe, yet in this sense is verified, that charity seldom goes to the' gate but it meets with ingratitude," p. 94.

Spotiswood, as cited by Andrews, in his Continuation of Henry's History of Great Britain, p. 503, says, "In the North" (of Britain) there were "matron-like witches and ignorant witches." It was to one of the superior sort that Satan, being pressed to kill James the Sixth, thus excused himself in French, "Il est homme de Dieu."

Camden, in his Ancient and Modern Manners of the Irish, says: "If a cow becomes dry, a witch is applied to, who, inspiring her with a fondness for some other calf, makes her yield her milk." (Gough's Camden, iii. 659.) He tells us, ibid.: "The women who are turned off (by their husbands) have recourse to witches, who are supposed to inflict barrenness, impotence, or the most dangerous diseases, on the former husband or his new wife." Also, "They account every woman who fetches fire on May-day a witch, nor will they give it to any but sick persons, and that with an imprecation, believing she will steal all the butter next summer. On May-day they kill all hares they find among their cattle, supposing them the old women who have designs on the butter. They imagine the butter so stolen may be recovered if they take some of the thatch hanging over the door and burn it."

The mode of becoming a witch, according to Grose, is as follows: "A decrepit superannuated old woman is tempted by a man in black to sign a contract to become his both soul and body. On the conclusion of the agreement³ he gives her a piece of money, and causes her to write her name and make her mark on a slip of parchment with her own blood. Sometimes, also, on this occasion, the witch uses the ceremony of putting one hand to the sole of her foot, and the other to the crown of her head. On departing, he delivers to her an imp or familiar.⁴ The familiar, in the shape of a cat or a kitten, [p.7] a mole, millerfly, or some other insect or animal, at stated times of the day, sucks her blood through teats on different parts of her body." There is a great variety of the names of these imps or familiars.

"A witch," (as I read in the curious tract entitled, Round about our Coal Fire,) "according to my nurse's account, must be a haggard old woman, living in a little rotten cottage, under a hill, by a wood-side, and must be frequently spinning at the door; she must have a black cat, two or three broom-sticks, an imp or two, and two or three diabolical teats to suckle her imps. She must be of so dry a nature, that if you fling her into a river she will not sink; so hard then is her fate, that, if she is to undergo the trial, if she does not drown, she must be burnt, as many have been within the memory of man."

The subsequent occurs in Cotgrave's English Treasury of Wit and Language, p. 298:

"Thus witches
Possess'd, ev'n in their death deluded, say
They have been wolves and dogs, and sailed in egge-shels⁵
Over the sea, and rid on fiery dragons,
Pass'd in the air more than a thousand miles
All in a night : the enemy of mankind
So pow'rfull, but false and falshood confident."

Whitaker, in his History of Whalley, 4to. 1818, p. 216, has given from a paper in the Bodleian library (MS. Dodsw. vol. lxi. p. 47) the confession of one of the poor persons in Pendle Forest, accused of witchcraft, in 1633, describing minutely the manner in which she was made a witch.

In the Relation of the Swedish Witches, at the end of Glanvil's Sadducismus Triumphatus, we are told that "the devil gives them a beast about the bigness and shape of a young cat, which they call a carrier. What this carrier brings they must receive for the devil. These carriers fill themselves so full sometimes, that they are forced to spew by the way, which spewing is found in several gardens where colworts grow, and not far from the houses of those witches. It is of a yellow colour like gold, and is called 'butter of witches," [p.8] p. 494. Probably this is the same substance which is called in Northumberland, fairy butter.

In a Discourse of Witchcraft, MS., communicated by John Pinkerton, Esq., written by Mr. John Bell, Minister of the Gospel at Gladsmuir, 1705, p. 23, on the subject of witches' marks, I read as follows: "This mark is sometimes like a little teate, sometimes like a blewish spot; and I myself have seen it in the body of a confessing witch like a little powder-mark of a blea (blue) colour, somewhat hard, and withal insensible, so as it did not bleed when I pricked it."

From the News from Scotland, &c., 1591 (a tract which will be more fully noticed hereafter), it appears that, having tortured in vain a suspected witch with "the pilliwinckes upon her fingers, which is a grievous torture, and binding or wrenching her head with a cord or rope, which is a most cruel torture also, they, upon search, found the enemy's mark to be in her forecrag, or forepart of her throat, and then she confessed all." In another the devil's mark was found upon her privities.

Dr. Fian was by the king's command consigned on this occasion "to the horrid torment of the boots," and afterwards strangled and burnt on the Castle-hill, Edinburgh, on a Saturday in the end of January, 1591.

The Sabbath of witches is a meeting to which the sisterhood, after having been anointed with certain magical ointments, provided by their infernal leader, are supposed to be carried through the air on brooms, coul-staves, spits, &c. Butler, in his Hudibras, I. iii. 105, has the following on this subject:

"Or trip it o'er the water quicker
Than witches when their staves they liquor,
As some report."

Reginald Scot, in his Discovery of Witchcraft, b. iii. c. i. p. 40, speaking of the vulgar opinion of witches flying, observes that the devil teacheth them to make ointment of the bowels and members of children, whereby they ride in the air and accomplish all their desires. After burial they steal them out of their graves and seeth them in a cauldron, till the flesh be made potable, of which they make an ointment, by which they ride in the air." Wierus exposes the folly of this opinion in his book De Praestigiis Daemonum, proving it to be a dia- [p.9] bolical illusion, and to be acted only in a dream. And it is exposed as such by Oldham (Works, 6th edit. p. 254):

"As men in sleep, though motionless they lie,
Fledg'd by a dream, believe they mount and flye;
So witches some enchanted wand bestride,
And think they through the airy regions ride."⁶

Lord Verulam tells us that "the ointment that witches use is reported to be made of the fat of children digged out of their graves; of the juices of smallage, wolfbane, and cinquefoil, mingled with the meal of fine wheat; but I suppose the soporiferous medicines are likest to do it, which are henbane, hemlock, mandrake, moonshade, or rather nightshade, tobacco, opium, saffron, poplar-leaves, &c."

There had been about the time of Lord Verulam no small stir concerning witchcraft. "Ben Jonson," says Dr. Percy, "has left us a witch song which contains an extract from the various incantations of classic antiquity. Some learned wiseacres had just before busied themselves on this subject, with
our British Solomon, James the First, at their head. And these had so ransacked all writers, ancient and modern, and so blended and kneaded together the several superstitions of different times and nations, that those of genuine English growth could no longer be traced out and distinguished."

The Witch Song in Macbeth is superior to this of Ben Jonson. The metrical incantations in Middleton's Witch are also very curious. As the play is not much known, the following is given as a specimen of his incantations:

"1 Witch. Here's the blood of a bat.
Hec. Put in that, oh put in that.
2 Witch. Here's libbard's bane.
Hec. Put in againe.
1 Witch. The juice of toade, the oile of adder.
2 Witch. Those will make the yonker madder.
Hec. Put in: ther's all, and rid the stench.
Firestone. Nay, here's three ounces of the red-hair'd wench.
All. Round, around, around," &c.⁷

[p.10]

At these meetings they have feastings, music, and dancing, the devil himself condescending to play at them on the pipes or cittern. They afterwards proceed at these assemblies to the grossest impurities and immoralities, and it may be added blasphemies, as the devil sometimes preaches to them a mock sermon. Butler has an allusion to something of this kind in Hudibras, III. i. 983:

"And does but tempt them with her riches
To use them as the devil does witches;
Who takes it for a special grace
To be their cully for a space,
That, when the time's expir'd, the drazels
For ever may become his vassals."

The Sabbath of the witches is supposed to be held on a Saturday; when the devil is by some said to appear in the shape of a goat, about whom several dances and magic ceremonies are performed. Before the assembly breaks up, the witches are all said to have the honour of saluting Satan's posteriors. (See King James's remarks on this subject in his Daemonology.) Satan is reported to have been so much out of humour at some of these meetings, that, for his diversion, he would beat the witches black and blue with the spits and brooms, the vehicles of their transportation, and play them, divers other unlucky trick's. There is a Scottish proverb, "Ye breed of the witches, ye can do nae good to yoursel."

They afterwards open graves for the purpose of taking out joints of the fingers and toes of dead bodies, with some of the winding-sheet, in order to prepare a powder for their magical purposes. Here also the devil distributes apples, dishes, spoons, or other trifles, to those witches who desire to torment any particular person, to whom they must present them. Here also, for similar purposes, the devil baptises waxen images. King James, in his Daemonology, book ii. chap. 5, tells us that "the devil teacheth how to make pictures of wax or clay, that by roasting thereof, the persons that they bear the name of may be continually melted or dried away by continual sickness."⁸

[p.11]

It appears from Strype's Annals of the Reformation, i. 8, under anno 1558, that Bishop Jewel, preaching before the queen, said: "It may please your grace to understand that witches and sorcerers within these few last years are marvellously increased within your Grace's realm. Your Grace's subjects pine away, even unto the death, their colour fadeth, their flesh rotteth, their speech is benumbed, their senses are bereft. I pray God they never practice further than upon the subject. .. This," Strype adds, "I make no doubt was the occasion of bringing in a bill, the next parliament, for making enchantments and witchcraft felony." One of the bishop's strong expressions is, "These eyes have seen most evident and manifest marks of their wickedness."⁹

Andrews, hi his Continuation of Henry's History of Great Britain, 4to. p. 93, tells us, speaking of Ferdinand Earl of Derby, who in the reign of Queen Elizabeth died by poison: "The credulity of the age attributed his death to witchcraft. The disease was odd, and operated as a perpetual emetic; and a waxen image with hair like that of the unfortunate earl, found in his chamber, reduced every suspicion to certainty."¹⁰

Jordane, the cunning witch of Eye, that they, at the request of Eleanor, Duchess of Gloucester, had devised an image of wax representing the king (Henry the Sixth), which by their sorcery a little and little consumed; intending thereby in conclusion to waste and destroy the king's person. Shakespeare mentions this, 2 Henry VI. act i. sc. 4.

[p.12]

Blagrave, in his Astrological Practice of Physick, p. 89, observes that "the way which the witches usually take lor to afflict man or beast in this kind is, as I conceive, done by image or model, made in the likeness of that man or beast they intend to work mischief upon, and by the subtilty of the devil made at such hours and times when it shall work most powerfully upon them by thorn, pin, or needle, pricked into that limb or member of the body afflicted." This is farther illustrated by a passage in one of Daniel's Sonnets: "The slie inchanter, when to work his will And secret wrong on some forspoken wight, Frames waxe, in forme to represent aright The poore unwitting wretch he meanes to kill, And prickes the image, fram'd by magick's skill, Whereby to vexe the partie day and night."¹¹

Again, in Diaria, or the Excellent Conceitful Sonnets of H. C. (Henry Constable), 1594:

"Witches which some murther do intend
Doe make a picture and doe shoote at it;
And in that part where they the picture hit,
The parties self doth languish to his end."

Coles, in his Art of Simpling, p. 66, says that witches "take likewise the roots of mandrake, according to some, or as I rather suppose the roots of briony, which simple folke take for the true mandrake, and make thereof an ugly image, by which they represent the person on whom they intend to exercise their witchcraft." He tells us, ibid. p. 26: "Some plants have roots with a number of threads, like beards, as mandrakes, whereof witches and impostors make an ugly image, giving it the form of the face at the top of the root, and leave those strings to make a broad beard down to the feet."

Sometimes witches content themselves with a revenge less mortal, causing the objects of their hatred to swallow pins, crooked nails, dirt, cinders, and trash of all sorts; or by drying up their cows and killing their oxen; or by preventing butter from coming in the churn, or beer from working. Sometimes, to vex squires, justices, and country parsons, fond of hunting, they change themselves into hares, and elude the speed of the fleetest dogs. [p.13] It was a supposed remedy against witchcraft to put some of the bewitched person's water, with a quantity of pins, needles, and nails, into a bottle, cork them up, and set them before the fire, in order to confine the spirit; but this sometimes did not prove sufficient, as it would often force the cork out with aloud noise, like that of a pistol, and cast the contents of the bottle to a considerable height. Bewitched persons were said to fall frequently into violent fits and to vomit needles, pins, stones, nails, stubbs, wool, and straw. See Trusler's Hogarth Moralized, art. Medley.

It is related in the Life of Lord Keeper Guildford, p. 131, that, when his lordship was upon the circuit at Taunton Dean, he detected an imposture and conspiracy against an old man charged with having bewitched a girl about thirteen years of age, who, during pretended convulsions, took crooked pins into her mouth, and spit them afterwards into bystanders' hands.¹² "As the judge went down stairs out of the court, an hideous old woman cried 'God bless your worship!' 'What's the matter, good woman?' said the judge. 'My lord,' said she, 'forty years ago they would have hanged me for a witch, and they could not; and now they would have hanged my poor son.' The first circuit his lordship went westward, Mr. Justice Rainsford, who had gone former circuits there, went with him; and he said that the year before a witch was brought to Salisbury, and tried before him. Sir James Long came to his chamber and made a heavy complaint of this witch, and said that if she escaped, his estate would not be worth anything, for all the people would go away. It happened that the witch was acquitted, and the knight continued extremely concerned; therefore the judge, to save the poor gentleman's estate, ordered the woman to be kept in gaol, and that the town should allow her 2s. Get. a week, for which he was very thankful. The very next assizes he came to the judge to desire his lordship would let her come back [p.14] to the town. And why? They could keep her for one shilling and sixpence there, and in the gaol she cost them a shilling more." p. 130.

[WITCHCRAFT. Our Wick contemporary gives the following recent instance of gross ignorance and credulity: "Not far from Louishurgh there lives a girl who, until a few days ago, was suspected of being a witch. In order to cure her of the witchcraft, a neighbour actually put her into a creed half- filled with wood and shavings, and hung her above a fire, setting the shavings in a blaze. Fortunately for the child and himself she was not injured, and it is said that the gift of sorcery has been taken away from her. At all events, the intelligent neighbours aver that she is not half so witch-like in her appearance since she was singed." Inverness Courier. Times, Dec. 8, 1845.]

In ancient times even the pleasures of the chase were checked by the superstitions concerning witchcraft. Thus, in Scot's Discovery, p. 152: "That never hunters nor their dogs may be bewitched, they cleave an oaken branch, and both they and their dogs pass over it."

Warner, in his Topographical Remarks relating to the South-western Parts of Hampshire, 1793, i. 241, mentioning Mary Dore, the "parochial witch of Beaulieu," who died about half a century since, says: "Her spells were chiefly used for purposes of self-extrication in situations of danger; and I have conversed with a rustic whose father had seen the old lady convert herself more than once into the form of a hare, or cat, when likely to be apprehended in wood-stealing, to which she was somewhat addicted." Butler, in his Hudibras, II. iii. 149, says, speaking of the witch-finder, that of witches some be hanged

"O for putting knavish tricks
Upon green geese and turkey-chicks,
Or pigs that suddenly diseas'd
Of griefs unnat'ral, as he guess'd."

Henry, in his History of Great Britain, i. 99, mentions Pomponius Mela as describing a Druidical nunnery, which, ; SHVS, "was situated in an island in the British sea, and conned nine of these venerable vestals, who pretended that they could raise storms and tempests by their incantations, [p.15] could cure the most incurable diseases, could transform themselves into all kinds of animals, and foresee future events."

For another superstitious notion relating to the enchantment of witchcraft, see Lupton's First Book of Notable Things, 1660, p. 20, No. 82. See also Guil. Varignana, and Arnoldus de Villa Nova.

In vexing the parties troubled, witches are visible to them only; sometimes such parties act on the defensive against them, striking at them with a knife, &c.

Preventives, according to the popular belief, are scratching or pricking a witch; taking the wall of her in a town or street, and the right hand of her in a lane or field; while passing her, by clenching both hands, doubling the thumbs beneath the fingers; and also by saluting her with civil words before she speaks; but no presents of apples, eggs, or other things must be received from her on any account.

It was a part of the system of witchcraft that drawing blood from a witch rendered her enchantments ineffectual, as appears from the following authorities: In Glanville's Account of the Daemon of Tedworth, speaking of a boy that was bewitched, he says: "The boy drew towards Jane Brooks, the woman who had bewitched him, who was behind her two sisters, and put his hand upon her, which his father perceiving, immediately scratched her face and drew blood from her. The youth then cried out that he was well." Blow at Modern Sadducism, 12mo. 1668, p. 148. In the First Part of Shakespeare's Henry the Sixth, act i. sc. 5, Talbot says to the Pucelle d'Orleans,

"I'll have a bout with thee;
Devil, or devil's dam, I'll conjure thee:
Blood will I draw on thee, thou art a witch."

Thus also in Butler's Hudibras:

"Till drawing blood o' the dames like witches,
They're forthwith cur'd of their capriches."

And again, in Cleveland's Rebel Scot:

"Scots are like witches; do out whet your pen,
Scratch till the blood come, they'll not hurt you then."

This curious doctrine is very fully investigated in Hathaway's trial, published in the State Trials. The following passage is in Arise Evan's Echo to the Voice from Heaven, [p.16] 1652, p. 34: "I had heard some say that, when a witch had power over one to afflict him, if he could but draw one drop of the witch's blood, the witch would never after do him hurt."

The Observer newspaper of March 6, 1831, copies the following from the newspaper called the Scotsman: "Witchcraft. During a thunder-storm last week in Edinburgh, an elderly female, who resides near Craigmillar, and who bears the reputation of being uncanny, went to a neighbour's house and asked for a piece of coal; being refused, she said 'they might repent that.' The female to whom this was said instantly concluded that she was bewitched, and was immediately seized with a great tremor. Some days after her husband, while under the influence of liquor, taken we presume to inspire him with sufficient courage for the task, along with another man, went to the house of the old woman, and, with a sharp instrument, inflicted a deep wound across her forehead, under the impression that scoring her above the breath would destroy her evil influence in time coming. The poor woman is so severely injured, that the sheriff has deemed it necessary to take a precognition of the facts."

Coles, in his Art of Simpling, p. 67, observes that, "if one hang misletoe about their neck, the witches can have no power of him. The roots of angelica doe likewise availe much in the same case, if a man carry them about him, as Fuchsius saith." In the comparatively modern song of the Laidley Worm, in Ritson's Northern Garland, p. 63, we read:

"The spells were vain ; the hag returnes
To the queen in sorrowful mood,
Crying that witches have no power
Where there is rown-tree wood!"

Butler in Hudibras,  II, iii, 291, says of his conjuror that

"Chase evil spirits away by dint
Of sickle, horse-shoe, hollow flint."

Aubrey tells us in his Miscellanies, p. 148, that "it is a the Bermudas they used to put iron into [p.17] the fire when a witch comes in. Mars is enemy to Saturn." He adds, ibid.: "Under the porch of Staninfield Church, in Suffolk, I saw a tile with a horseshoe upon it, placed there for this purpose, though one would imagine that holy water would alone have been sufficient. I am told there are many other similar instances."

Misson, in his Travels in England, p. 192, on the subject of the horseshoe nailed on the door, tells us: "Ay ant sou vent remarque un fer de cheval cloiie au seuils des portes (chez les gens de petite etoffe) j'ai demande a plusieurs ce que cela vouloit dire. On m'a repondu diverses choses differentes, mais la plus generale reponse a ete, que ces fers se mettoient pour empcher les sorciers d'entrer. Ils rient en disant cela, mais ils ne le disent pourtant pas tout-a-fait en riant; car ils croyent qu'il y a la dedans, ou du moins qu'il peut y avoir quelque vertu secrete; et s'ils n'avoient pas cette opinion, ils ne s'amuseroient pas a clpuer ce fer a leur porte."

In Gay's fable of the Old Woman and her Cats, the supposed witch complains as follows:

"Crowds of boys
Worry me with eternal noise;
Straws laid across my pace retard,
The horseshoe's nail d (each threshold's guard);
The stunted broom the wenches hide,
For fear that I should up and ride;
They stick with pins my bleeding seat,
And bid me show my secret teat."

In Monmouth street, probably the part of London alluded to by Aubrey, many horseshoes nailed to the thresholds are still to be seen (1797).¹³ There is one at the corner of Little Queen street, Holborn.

"That the horse-shooe may never be pul'd from your threshold," occurs among the good wishes introduced by Holiday in his comedy of the Marriage of the Arts, Sig. E b. Nailing of horseshoes seems to have been practised as well to keep witches in as to keep them out. See Ramsey's Elminthologia, p. 76, who speaks of nailing horseshoes on the witches' doors and thresholds. Douce's manuscript notes [p.18] say: "The practice of nailing horseshoes to thresholds resembles that of driving nails into the walls of cottages among the Romans, which they believed to be an antidote against the plague: for this purpose L. Manlius, A. U. C. 390, was named dictator, to drive the nail. See Lumisden's Remarks on the Antiquities of Rome, p. 148.

[One of the weaknesses of the late Duchess of St. Albans, which was displayed by her grace in early life, and one which did not fail to operate upon her actions, was that of an excessive degree of superstition. To such an extent, indeed, was the feeling carried by Mr. Coutts, as well as by herself, that they caused two rusty old broken horseshoes to be fastened on the highest marble step, by which the house at Holly Lodge was entered from the lawn. There are anecdotes of her dreams, often mentioned by herself, and attested to this day by those to whom they were related. The fantastic interpretation given to those chance visions by two different dream-readers both parties have lived to see verified, together with their own promised advantage therefrom. One was a dream which haunted her with such peculiar vividness for a length of time, that her mind was filled with it by day also; and when her dresser, and Anderson, the theatrical coiffeur, were preparing her for the theatre, she used to tell them of the dream of each preceding night, viz. "that she was tried for her life, sentenced to be hanged, and was actually executed." The hairdresser, who was considered skilful in the internal vagaries of the head, as well as its external decoration, used to say it was a fine dream, indicating she was to be a grand lady, and to hold her head very high, perhaps to attend the court.]

The bawds of Amsterdam believed (in 1687) that a horse-shoe, which had either been found or stolen, placed on the chimney-hearth, would bring good luck to their houses. They also believed that horses' dung, dropped before the house, and put fresh behind the door, would produce the same effect. See Putanisme d'Amsterdam, 12mo. pp. 56-7.

In Beaumont and Fletcher's play of Women Pleased are the following lines:

"The devil should think of purchasing that egg-shell
To victual out a witch for the Burmoothes."

To break the eggshell after the meat is out is a relique of [p.19] superstition thus mentioned in Pliny: "Hue pertinet ovorum, ut exsorbuerit quisquo, calices, cochlearumque, protinus frangi aut eosdem cochlearibus perforari." Sir Thomas Browne tells us that the intent of this was to prevent witchcraft;¹⁴ for lest witches should draw or prick their names therein, and veneficiously mischief their persons, they broke the shell, as Dalecampius has observed. Delrio, in his Disquisit. Magicae, lib. vi. c. 2, sect. 1, quaest. 1, has the following passage on this subject: "Et si ova comederint, eorum testas, non nisi ter cultro perfossas in catinum projiciunt, timentes neglectum veneficiis nocendi occasionem prsebere."

Scot, in his Discovery, p. 157, says: "Men are preserved from witchcraft by sprinkling of holy water, receiving consecrated salt, by candles hallowed on Candlemas-day, and by green leaves consecrated on Palm Sunday." Coles, in his Art of Simpling, p. 67, tells us that "Matthiolus saith that herba paris takes away evill done by witchcraft, and affirms that he knew it to be true by experience." Heath, in his History of the Scilly Islands, p. 120, tells us that "some few of the inhabitants imagine (but mostly old women) that women with child, and the first-born, are exempted from the power of witchcraft." The following occurs in Aubrey's Miscellanies, p. 147:

"Vervain and dill
Hinders witches from their will."

[SUPERSTITION IN THE FENS. A carpenter residing at Ely, named Bartingale, being lately taken ill, imagined that a woman named Gotobed, whom he had ejected from one of his houses, had bewitched him. Some matrons assembled in the sick man's chamber agreed that the only way to protect him from the sorceries of the witch was to send for the blacksmith, and have three horseshoes nailed to the door. An operation to this effect was performed, much to the anger of the supposed witch, who at first complained to the Dean, but was laughed at by his reverence. She then rushed in wrath [p.20] to the sick man's room, and, miraculous to tell, passed the Rubicon despite the horseshoes. But this wonder ceased when it was discovered that, in order to make the most of the job, Vulcan had substituted donkey's shoes. The patient is now happily recovering. Cambridge Advertiser.]

I find the subsequent in Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft, p 152: "To be delivered from witches, they hang m their entries 'an herb called pentaphyllon, cinquefoil, also an olive-branch; also frankincense, myrrh, valerian, verven, palm, antirchmon, &c. also hay-thorn, otherwise whitethorn, gathered on May-day." He tells us, p. 151: "Against witches, in some countries, they nail a wolf's head on the door. Otherwise they hang scilla (which is either a root, or rather in this place garlick) in the roof of the house, to keep away witches and spirits; and so they do alicium also. Item. Perfume made of the gall of a black dog, and his blood besmeared on the posts and walls of the house, drive them out of the doors both devils and witches. Otherwise: the house where herba betonica is sown is free from all mischiefs," &c.

[A respectable farmer near Helmsley having, within the last few months, lost a number of ewes and lambs, besides other cattle, imbibed the idea that they were bewitched by some poor old woman. He applied to a person called a wise man, who pretends to lay these malignant wretches, and who has, no doubt, made pretty good inroads upon the farmer's pocket, but without having the desired effect. The following are a few of the methods they practised. Three small twigs of elder wood, in which they cut a small number of notches, were concealed beneath a bowl, in the garden, according to the instructions of their advisers, who asserted that the sorceress would come and remove them, as she would have no power as long as they were there. Strict watch was kept during the night, but nothing appeared; yet strange, as they relate, on examination next morning, one of the twigs had somehow or other escaped from its confinement. The next night the twigs were replaced, and a few bold adventurers were stationed to watch; but about midnight they were much alarmed by a rustling in the hedge, and a shaking of the trees, and made their exit without any further discovery. As soon as a calf is dropt, they immediately lacerate the ear by slitting it with a knife; and in passing through the fields it is ridicu- [p.21] lous to see the young lambs sporting by the side of their dams, with a wreath or collar of what is commonly called rowan-tree round their necks: but all proves ineffectual, as they die thus foolishly ornamented, or perhaps rather disguised, with the emblem of ignorance." The Yorkshireman, A.D. 1846.]

Various were the modes of trying witches. This was sometimes done by finding private marks on their bodies ; at others by weighing the suspected wretch against the church Bible; by another method she was made to say the Lord's Prayer.¹⁵ She was sometimes forced to weep, and so detected, as a witch can shed no more than three tears, and those only from her left eye.¹⁶ Swimming a witch was another kind of popular ordeal. By this method she was handled not less indecently than cruelly; for she was stripped naked and cross bound, the right thumb to the left toe, and the left thumb to the right toe. In this state she was cast into a pond or river, in which, if guilty, it was thought impossible for her to sink.

Among the presumptions whereby witches were condemned, what horror will not be excited at reading even a part of the following item in Scot's Discovery, p. 15: "If she have any privy mark under her armpit, under her hair, under her lip, or *****, it is presumption sufficient for the judge to proceed and give sentence of DEATH upon her!!!" By the following caution, p. 16, it is ordered that the witch "must come to her arreignment backward, to wit, with her tail to the judge's face, who must make many crosses at the time of her approaching to the bar." King James himself, in his Daemonology, speaking of the helps that may be used in the trial of witches, says, "the one is, the finding of their marke and trying the imensibleness thereof."

Strutt, in his Description of the Ordeals under the Saxons, tells us that "the second kind of ordeal, by water,¹⁷ was to [p.22] thrust the accused into a deep water, where, if he struggled in the least to keep himself on the surface, he was accounted guilty; but if he remained on the top of the water without motion he was acquitted with honour. Hence, he observes, without doubt, came the long-continued custom of swimming people suspected of witchcraft. There are also, he further observes, the faint traces of these ancient customs in another superstitious method of proving a witch. It was done by weighing the suspected party against the church Bible, which if they outweighed, they were innocent; but, on the contrary, if the Bible proved the heaviest, they were instantly condemned."

In the Gent. Mag. for Feb. 1759, xxix. 93, we read: "One Susannah Haynokes, an elderly woman, of Wingrove, near Aylesbury, Bucks, was accused by a neighbour for bewitching her spinning-wheel, so that she could not make it go round, and offered to make oath of it before a magistrate; on which the husband, in order to justify his wife, insisted upon her being tried by the church Bible, and that the accuser should be present. Accordingly she was conducted to the parish church, where she was stripped of all her clothes, to her shift and under-coat, and weighed against the Bible; when, to the no small mortification of the accuser, she outweighed it, and was honorably acquitted of the charge."

In the MS. Discourse of Witchcraft, communicated by John Pinkerton Esq., written by Mr. John Bell, minister of the gospel at Gladsmuir, 1705, p. 22, I read: "Symptoms of a witch, particularly the witches' marks, mala fama, inability to shed tears, &c., all of them providential discoveries of so dark^a crime, and which like avenues lead us to the secret

King James, in his Daemonology, speaking of this mode of trying a witch, i.e. "fleeting on the water," observes that it appeares that God hath appointed for a supernatural signe of the monstrous impietie of witches, that the water shall refuse to receive them in her bosom that have shaken off them thereof "Water of baptism" and wilfully refused the benefit of detecting a witch by the burning of her house, or by burning any animal supposed to be bewitched by her as a hog or ox: these, it was held, would [p.23] force a witch to confess. There were other modes of trial, by the stool,¹⁸ and by shaving off every hair of the witch's body. They were also detected by putting hair, parings of the nails, and urine of any person bewitched into a stone bottle, and hanging it up the chimney.

In that rare play, the Witch of Edmonton, 1658, p. 39, act iv. sc. 1 (Enter Old Banks and two or three Countrymen), we read:

"O. Banks. My horse this morning runs most piteously of the glaunders, whose nose yesternight was as clean as any man's here now coming from the barber's; and this, I'll take my death upon't, is long of this jadish witch, mother Sawyer.
(Enter W. Hamlac, with thatch and a link.)
Haml. Burn the witch, the witch, the witch, the witch.
Omn. What hast got there?
Hand. A. handful of thatch pluck' d off a hovel of hers; and they say, when 'tis burning, if she be a witch, she'll come running in.
O. Banks. Fire it, fire it; I'll stand between thee and home for any danger.
(As that burns, enter the witch.)
1 Countryman. This thatch is as good as a jury to prove she is a witch.
O. Banks. To prove her one, we no sooner set fire on the thatch of her house, but in she came, running as if the divel had sent her in a barrel of gunpowder, which trick as surely proves her a witch as Justice. Come, come; firing her thatch? Ridiculous! Take heed, sirs, what you do: unless your proofs come better arm'd, instead of turning her into a witch, you'll prove yourselves starke fools."

[p.24]

Old Banks then relates to the justice a most ridiculous instance of her power: "Having a dun cow tied up in my back-side, let me go thither, or but cast mine eye at her, and if I should be hanged I cannot chuse, though it be ten times in an hour, but run to the cow, and, taking up her tail, kiss (saving your worship's reverence) my cow behinde, that the whole town of Edmonton has been ready ******* with laughing me to scorn." As does a countryman another, p. 58: "I'll be sworn, Mr. Carter, she bewitched Gammer Washbowl's sow, to cast her pigs a day before she would have farried; yet they were sent up to London, and sold for as good Westminster dog-pigs, at Bartholomew fair, as ever great-belly'd ale-wife longed for."

Cotta, in his Short Discoverie of the Unobserved Dangers, p. 54, tells us: "Neither can I beleeve (I speake it with reverence unto graver judgements) that the forced coming of men or women to the burning of bewitched cattell, or to the burning of the dung or urine of such as are bewitched, or floating of bodies above the water, or the like, are any trial of a witch." Gaule, in his Select Cases of Conscience touching Witches and Witchcraft, also (p. 75) mentions "some marks or tokens of tryall altogether unwarrantable, as proceeding from ignorance, humour, superstition. Such are 1. The old paganish sign, the witch's long eyes. 2. The tradition of the witches not weeping. 3. The witches making ill-favoured faces and mumbling. 4. To burn the thing bewitched, &c. (I am loth to speak out, lest I might teach these in reproving them). 5. The burning of the thatch of the witch's house, &c. 6. The heating of the horseshoe, &c. 7. The scalding water, &c. 8. The sticking of knives acrosse, &c. 9. The putting of such and such things under the threshold, and in the bedetraw, &c. 10. The sieve and the sheares, &c. 11. The casting the witch into the water with thumbes and toes tied across, &c. 12. The tying of knots, &c."

In A Pleasant Grove of New Fancies, by H. B., 8vo. Lond. 1657, p. 76, we have

"A charm to Inng in the witch.
To house the hag you must do this,
Commix with meal a little ****
Of him bewitch'd ; theii forthwith make
A little wafer, or a cake;
And this rarely bak'd will bring
The old hag in : no surer thing."

[p.25]

It occurs also among the following experimental rules whereby to afflict witches, causing the evil to return back upon them, given by Blagrave in his Astrological Practice of Physic, 1689: "1. Oneway is by watching the suspected party when they go into their house; and then presently to take some of her thatch from over the door, or a tile, if the house be tyled: if it be thatch, you must wet and sprinkle it over with the patient's water, and likewise with white salt; then let it burn or smoke through a trivet or the frame of a skillet: you must bury the ashes that way which the suspected witch liveth. "Tis best done either at the change, full, or quarters of the moon; or otherwise, when the witch's significator is in square or opposition to the moon. But if the witch's house be tiled, then take a tile from over the door, heat him red hot, put salt into the patient's water, and dash it upon the red-hot tile, until it be consumed, and let it smoak through a trivet or frame of a skillet as aforesaid. 2. Another way is to get two new horseshoes, heat one of them red hot, and quench him in the patient's urine; then immediately nail him on the inside of the threshold of the door with three nails, the heel being upwards; then, having the patient's urine, set it over the fire, and set a trivet over it; put into it three horse-nails and a little white salt. Then heat the other horseshoe red hot, and quench him several times in the urine, and so let it boil and waste until all be consumed: do this three times, and let it be near the change, full, or quarters of the moon; or let the moon be in square or opposition unto the witch's significator. 3. Another way is to stop the urine of the patient close up in a bottle, and put into it three nails, pins, or needles, with a little white salt, keeping the urine always warm. If you let it remain long in the bottle, it will endanger the witch's life; for I have found by experience that they will be grievously tormented, making their water with great difficulty, if any at all, and the more if the moon be in Scorpio, in square or opposition to his significator, when its done. 4. Another way is either at the new, full, or quarters of the moon, but more especially when the moon is in square or opposition to the planet which doth personate the witch, to let the patient blood, and while the blood is warm put a little white salt into it, then let it burn and smoak through a trivet. I conceive this way doth more afflict the witch than any of the other [p.26] three before mentioned." He adds, that sometimes the witches will rather endure the misery of the above torments than appear, "by reason country people ofttimes will fall upon them, and scratch and abuse them shrewdly."

I find the following in Articles to be enquired of within the Archdeaconry of Yorke, by the Church Wardens and Sworne Men, A. D. 163 (any year till 1640), 4to. Lond. b. L: "Whether there be any man or woman in your parish that useth witchcraft, sorcery, charmes, or unlawfull prayer, or invocations in Latine or English, or otherwise, upon any Christian body or beast, or any that resorteth to the same for counsell or helpe?"

Some persons were supposed by the popular belief to have the faculty of distinguishing witches. These were called witch-finders. Matthew Hopkins, one of the most celebrated witch-finders of his day, is supposed to have been alluded to by Butler, in the following lines of Hudibras, II. iii. 139:

"Has not this present parliament
A leger to the devil sent,
Fully empower'd to treat about
Finding revolted witches out;
And has not he, within a year,
Hang'd threescore of 'em in one shire?
Some only for not being drown'd,
And some for sitting above ground
Whole days and nights upon their breeches,
And feeling pain, were hang'd for witches;
Who after prov'd himself a witch,
And made a rod for his own breech."

The old, the ignorant, and the indigent (says Granger), such as could neither plead their own cause nor hire an advocate, were the miserable victims of this wretch's credulity, spleen, and avarice. He pretended to be a great critic in special marks, which were only moles, scorbutic spots, or warts, which frequently grow large and pendulous in old age, but were absurdly supposed to be teats to suckle imps. His ultimate method of proof was by tying together the thumbs and toes of the suspected person, about whose waist was fastened a cord, the ends of which were held on the banks of a river, by two men, in whose power it was to strain or slacken it.

The experiment of swimming was at length tried upon Hopkins himself, in his own way, and he was, upon the event, [p.27] condemned, and, as it seems, executed, as a wizard. Hopkins had hanged, in one year, no less than sixty reputed witches in his own county of Essex. See Granger's Biographical History, 1775, ii. 409. Compare also Dr. Grey's Notes on Hudibras, ii. 11, 12, 13,

In Gardiner's England's Grievance in Relation to the Coal Trade, p. 107, we have an account that, in 1649 and 1650, the magistrates of Newcastle-upon-Tyne sent into Scotland to agree with a Scotchman, who pretended knowledge to find out witches by pricking them with pins. They agreed to give him twenty shillings a-piece for all he could condemn, and bear his travelling expenses. On his arrival the bellman was sent through the town to invite all persons that would bring in any complaint against any woman for a witch, that she might be sent for and tried by the persons appointed. Thirty women were, on this, brought into the town-hall and stripped, and then openly had pins thrust into their bodies, about twenty-seven of whom he found guilty. His mode was, in the sight of all the people, to lay the body of the person suspected naked to the waist, and then he ran a pin into her thigh, and then suddenly let her coats fall, demanding whether she had nothing of his in her body but did not bleed; the woman, through fright and shame, being amazed, replied little; then he put his hand up her coats and pulled out the pin, setting her aside as a guilty person and a child of the devil. By this sort of evidence, one wizard and fourteen witches were tried and convicted at the assizes, and afterwards executed. Their names are recorded in the parish register of St. Andrew's. See Brand's History of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Nash, in his History of Worcestershire, ii. 38, tells us that, "14th May, 1660, four persons accused of witchcraft were brought from Kidderminster to Worcester Gaol, one Widow Robinson, and her two daughters, and a man. The eldest daughter was accused of saying that, if they had not been taken, the king should never have come to England; and, though he now doth come, yet he shall not live long, but shall die as ill a death as they; and that they would have made corn like pepper. Many great charges against them, and little proved, they were put to the ducking in the river: they would not sink, but swam aloft. The man had five teats, the woman three, and the eldest daughter one. When they went to search [p.23] the women none were visible; one advised to lay them on their backs and keep open their mouths, and then they would appear; and so they presently appeared in sight."

The Doctor adds that "it is not many years since a poor woman, who happened to be very ugly, was almost drowned in the neighbourhood of Worcester, upon a supposition of witchcraft; and had not Mr. Lygon, a gentleman of singular humanity and influence, interfered in her behalf, she would certainly have been drowned, upon a presumption that a witch could not sink."

It appears from a Relation printed by Matthews, in Long Acre, London, that, in the year 1716, Mrs. Hicks, and her daughter, aged nine years, were hanged in Huntingdon for witchcraft, for selling their souls to the devil, tormenting and destroying their neighbours, by making them vomit pins, raising a storm, so that a ship was almost lost, by pulling off her stockings, and making a lather of soap.

By the severe laws once in force against witches, to the disgrace of humanity, great numbers of innocent persons, distressed with poverty and age, were brought to violent and untimely ends. By the 33 Henry VIII. c. viii. the law adjudged all Witchcraft and Sorcery to be felony without benefit of clergy. By statute 1 Jac. I. c. xii. it was ordered that all persons invoking any evil spirit, or consulting, covenanting with, entertaining, employing, feeding, or rewarding any evil spirit; or taking up dead bodies from their graves to be used in any witchcraft, sorcery, charm, or enchantment, or killing or otherwise hurting any person by such infernal arts, should be guilty of felony without benefit of clergy, and suffer death. And if any person should attempt by sorcery to discover hidden treasure, or to restore stolen goods, or to provoke unlawful love, or to hurt any man or beast, though the same were not effected, he or she should suffer imprisonment and pillory for the first offence, and death for the second.

On March 11, 1618, Margaret and Philip Flower, daughters of Joane Flower, were executed at Lincoln for the supposed crime of bewitching Henry Lord Rosse, eldest son of Francis Manners, Earl of Rutland, and causing his death; also, for most barbarously torturing by a strange sickness Francis, second son of the said Earl, and Lady Katherine, his daughter; and also, for preventing, by their diabolical arts, the said earl [p.29] and his countess from having any more children. They were tried at the Lent Assizes before Sir Henry Hobart, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, and Sir Edward Bromley, one of the Barons of the Exchequer, and cast by the evidence of their own confessions. To effect the death of Lord Henry "there was a glove of the said Lord Henry buried in the ground, and, as that glove did rot and waste, so did the liver of the said lord rot and waste." The spirit employed on the occasion, called Rutterkin, appears not to have had the same power over the lives of Lord Francis and Lady Katherine. Margaret Flower confessed that she had "two familiar spirits sucking on her, the one white, the other black-spotted. The white sucked under her left breast, the black-spotted," &c. When she first entertained them, she promised them her soul, and they covenanted to do all things which she commanded them.

In the Diary of Robert Birrell, preserved in Fragments of Scottish History, 4to. Edinb., 1708, are inserted some curious memorials of persons suffering death for witchcraft in Scotland. "1591, 25 of Junii, Euphane M'Kalzen ves brunt for vitchcrafte. 1529. The last of Februarii, Richard Grahame wes brunt at ye Crosse of Edinburghe, for vitchcrafte and sorcery. 1593. The 19 of May, Katherine Muirhead brunt for vitchcrafte, quha confest sundrie poynts therof. 1603. The 21 of Julii, James Reid brunt for consulting and useing with Sathan and witches, and quha wes notably knawin to be ane counsellor with witches. 1605. July 24th day, Henrie Lowrie brunt on the Castel Hill, for witchcrafte done and committed be him in Kyle, in the parochin." The following is from the Gent. Mag. for 1775, xlv. 601: "Nov. 15. Nine old women were burnt at Kalisk, in Poland, charged with having bewitched and rendered unfruitful the lands belonging to a gentleman in that palatinate." For the Manks Statutes (Train's History of the Isle of Man, v. ii. p. 167).

By statute 9 Geo. II. c. v. it was enacted that no prosecution should in future be carried on against any person for conjuration, witchcraft, sorcery, or enchantment. However, the misdemeanour of persons pretending to use witchcraft, tell fortunes, or discover stolen goods by skill in the occult sciences, is still deservedly punished with a year's imprisonment, and till recently by standing four times in the [p.30] pillory. Thus the Witch Act, a disgrace to the code of English laws, was not repealed till 1736.

In the Statistical Account of Scotland, v. 240, parish of Old Kilpatrick, co. Dumbarton, we read: "The history of the Bargarran witches, in the neighbouring parish of Erskine, is well known to the curious. That this parish in the dark ages partook of the same frenzy, and that innocent persons were sacrificed at the shrine of cruelty, bigotry, and superstition, cannot be concealed. As late as the end of the last century a woman was burnt for witchcraft at Sandyford, near the village, and the bones of the unfortunate victim were lately found at the place. Ibid. p. 454, parish of Spott, co. East Lothian, Parochial Records. "1698: The Session, after a long examination of witnesses, refer the case of Marion Lillie, for imprecations and supposed witchcraft, to the Presbytery, who refer her for trial to the civil magistrate. Said Marion generally called the Rigwoody Witch. Oct. 1705: Many witches burnt on the top of Spott loan." Ibid. vii. 280, parish of East Monkland, co. Lanark: "Upon a rising ground there is still to be seen an upright granite stone, where, it is said, in former times they burnt those imaginary criminals called witches." Ibid. viii. 177, parish of Newburgh, co. Fife: "Tradition continues to preserve the memory of the spot in the lands belonging to the town of Newburgh, on which more than one unfortunate victim fell a sacrifice to the superstition of former times, intent on punishing the crime of witchcraft. The humane provisions of the legislature, joined to the superior knowledge which has, of late years, pervaded all ranks of men in society, bid fair to prevent the return of a frenzy which actuated our forefathers universally, and with fatal violence." The following is extracted from the Parish Records: "Newburgh, Sept. 18, 1653. The minister gave in against Kath'rine Key severall poynts that had come to his hearing, which he desyred might be put to tryell.

1. That, being refused milk, the kow gave nothing but red blood; and being sent for to e the kow, she clapped (stroked) the kow, and said the kow be weill, and thereafter the kow becam weill. 2. (A Similar charge.) 3. That the minister and his wife, having ane purpose to take ane child of theirs from the said Kathrine she had m nursing, the child would suck none woman's breast, being only one quarter old; but, being brought again [p.31] to the said Kathrine, presently sucked her breast. 4. That, thereafter the chyld was spayned (weaned), she came to sie the child and wold have the bairne (child) in her arms, and thereafter the bairne murned and gratt (weeped sore) in the night, and almost the day tyme; also, that nothing could stay her untill she died. Nevertheless, before her coming to see her and her embracing of her, took as weill with the spaining and rested as weill as any bairne could doe. 5. That she is of aue evill brutte and fame, and so was her mother before her." The event is not recorded. Ibid. ix. 74, parish of Erskine, is a reference to Arnot's Collection of Criminal Trials for an account of the Bargarran Witches. Ibid. xii. 197, parish of Kirriemuir, co. Forfar: "A circular pond, commonly called the Witch-pool, was lately converted into a reservoir for the mills on the Gairie; a much better use than, if we may judge from the name, the superstition of our ancestors led them to apply it."

Ibid. xiv. 372, parish of Mid Calder, county of Edinburgh: Witches formerly burnt there. The method taken by persons employed to keep those who were suspected of witchcraft awake, when guarded, was, "to pierce their flesh with pins, needles, awls, or other sharp-pointed instruments. To rescue them from that oppression which sleep imposed on their almost exhausted nature, they sometimes used irons heated to a state of redness." The reference for this is also to Arnot's Trials. Ibid, xviii. 57, parish of Kirkaldy, county of Fife, it is said: "A man and his wife were burnt here in 1633, for the supposed crime of witchcraft. At that time the belief of witchcraft prevailed, and trials and executions on account of it were frequent, in all the kingdoms of Europe. It was in 1634 that the famous Urban Grandier was, at the instigation of Cardinal Richelieu, whom he had satirized, tried, and condemned to the stake, for exercising the black art on some nuns of Loudun, who were supposed to be possessed. And it was much about the same time that the wife of the Marechal d'Ancre (see p. 9) was burnt for a witch, at the Place de Greve, at Paris." In the Appendix, ibid. p. 653, are the particulars of the Kirkaldy witches. The following items of execution expenses are equally shocking and curious:

[p.32]

Ibid. xx. 194, parishes of Dyke and Moy, county of Elgin and Forres, it is said: "Where the (parish) boundary crosses the heath called the Hardmoor, there lies somewhere a solitary spot of classic ground, unheeded here, but much renowned in Drury for the Thane of Glammis's interview with the wayward or weird sisters in Macbeth." Ibid. p. 242, parish of Collace, county of Perth; Dunsinnan Castle: "In Macbeth's time witchcraft was very prevalent in Scotland, and two of the most famous witches in the kingdom lived on each hand of Macbeth one at Collace, the other not far from Dunsinuan House, at a place called the Cape. Macbeth applied to them for advice, and by their counsel built a lofty castle upon the top of an adjoining hill, since called Dunsinnan. The moor where the witches met, which is in the parish of St. Martin's, is yet pointed out by the country people, and there is a stone still preserved which is called the Witches' Stone." For an account of the witches of Pittanweam, in the county of Fife, about the beginning of the last century, see the Edinb. Mag. for Oct. 1817, pp. 199-206.

Mr. Pennant, in his Tour in Scotland, tells us, p. 145, that the last instance of the frantic executions for witchcraft, of which so much has been already said, in the north of Scotland, was in June, 1727,¹⁹ as that in the south was at Paisley in [p.33] 1696, where, among others, a woman, young and handsome, suffered, and with a reply to her inquiring friends worthy a Roman matron, being asked why she did not make a better defence on her trial, answered, 'My persecutors have destroyed my honour, and my life is not now worth the pains of defending.' The last instance of national credulity on this head was the story of the witches of Thurso, who, tormenting for a long time an honest fellow under the usual form, of cats, at last provoked him so, that one night he put them to flight with his broad sword, and cut oft the leg of one less nimble than the rest: on his taking it up, to his amazement he found it belonged to a female of his own species, and next morning discovered the owner, an old hag, with only the companion leg to this. But these relations of almost obsolete superstitions must never be thought a reflection on this country as long as any memory remains of the tragical end of the poor people at Tring, who, within a few miles of our capital, in 1751, fell a sacrifice to the belief of the common people in witches; or of that ridiculous imposture in the capital itself, in 1762, of the Cock-lane ghost, which found credit with all ranks of people."

"April 22, 1751: At Tring, in Hertfordshire, one B—d—d, a publican, giving out that he was bewitched by one Osborne and his wife, harmless people above 70, had it cried at several market-towns that they were to be tried by ducking this day, which occasioned a vast concourse. The parish officers having removed the old couple from the workhouse into the church for security, the mob, missing them, broke the workhouse windows, pulled down the pales, and demolished part of the house; and, seizing the governor, threatened to drown him and fire the town, having straw in their hands for the purpose. The poor wretches were at length, for public safety, delivered up, stripped stark naked by the mob, their thumbs tied to their toes, then dragged two miles, and thrown into a muddy stream; after much ducking and ill usage, the old woman was thrown quite naked on the bank, almost choked with mud, and expired in a few minutes, being kicked and beat with sticks, even after she was dead: and the man lies dangerously ill of his bruises. To add to the barbarity, they put the dead witch (as they called her) in bed with her husband, and tied them together. The coroner's inquest have [p.34] since brought in their verdict wilful murder against Thomas Mason, William Myatt, Richard Grice, Richard Wadley, James Proudham, John Sprouting, John May, Adam Curling, Francis Meadows, arid twenty others, names unknown. The poor man is likewise dead of the cruel treatment he received." Gent. Mag. 1751, vol. xxi. p. 186.

In another part of the same volume, p. 198, the incidents of this little narrative are corrected: "Tring, May 2, 1717. A little before the defeat of the Scotch, in the late rebellion, the old woman Osborne came to one Butterfield, who then kept a dairy at Gubblecot, and begged for some buttermilk, but Butterfield told her with great brutality that he had not enough for his hogs: this provoked the old woman, who went away, telling him that the Pretender would have him and his hogs too. Soon afterwards several of Butterfield's calves became distempered, upon which some ignorant people, who had been told the story of the buttermilk, gave out that they were bewitched by old mother Osborne; and Butterfield himself, who had now left his dairy, and taken the public-house by the brook of Gubblecot, having been lately, as he had been many years before at times, troubled with fits, mother Osborne was said to be the cause: he was persuaded that the doctors could do him no good, and was advised to send for an old woman out of Northamptonshire, who was famous for curing diseases that were produced by witchcraft. This sagacious person was accordingly sent for and came; she confirmed the ridiculous opinion that had been propagated of Butterfield's disorder, and ordered six men to watch his house day and night with staves, pitchforks, and other weapons, at the same time hanging something about their necks, which she said was a charm that would secure them from being bewitched themselves. However, these extraordinary proceedings produced no considerable effects, nor drew the attention of the place upon them, till some persons, in order to bring a large company together, with a lucrative view, ordered, by anonymous letters, that public notice should be given at Window, Leighton, and Hempstead, by the crier, that witches were to be tried by ducking at Longmarston on the 22d of April. The consequences were as above related, except that a person has as yet been committed on the coroner's inquest except one Thomas Colley, chimney-sweeper; but several of [p.35] the ringleaders in the riot are known, some of whom live very remote, and no expense or diligence will be spared to bring them to justice." It appears, ibid. p. 378, that Thomas Colley was executed, and afterward hung in chains, for the murder of the above Ruth Osborne.

Such, it would seem, was the folly and superstition of the crowd, that, when they searched the workhouse for the supposed witch, they looked even into the salt-box, supposing she might have concealed herself within less space than would contain a cat. The deceased, being dragged into the water, and not sinking, Colley went into the pond, and turned her over several times with a stick. It appeared that the deceased and her husband were wrapped in two different sheets ; but her body, being pushed about by Colley, slipped out of the sheet, and was exposed naked. In the same volume, p. 269, is a minute statement of the Earl of Derby's disorder, who was supposed to have died from witchcraft, April 16, 1594.

In the Gent. Mag. also, for July 1760, vol. xxx. p. 346, we read: "Two persons concerned in ducking for witches all the poor old women in Glen and Burton Overy, were sentenced to stand in the pillory at Leicester." See another instance, which happened at Earl Shilton, in Leicestershire, in 1776, in the Scots Magazine for that year, xxxviii. 390.

The following is from the Gent. Mag. for Jan. 1731, i. 29, "Of Credulity in Witchcraft. From Burlington, in Pensilvania, 'tis advised that the owners of several cattle, believing them to be bewitched, caused some suspected men and women to be taken up, and trials to be made for detecting 'em. About three hundred people assembled near the governor's house, and a pair of scales being erected, the suspected persons were each weighed against a large Bible, but all of them vastly outweighing it: the accused were then tied head and feet together, and put into a river, on supposition that if they swam they must be guilty. This they offered to undergo in case the accuser should be served in the like manner; which being done, they all swam very buoyant, and cleared the accused. A like transaction happened at Frome, in Somersetshire, in September last, published in the Daily Journal, Jan. 15, relating that a child of one Wheeler being seized with strange fits, the mother was advised, by a cunning man, to hang a bottle of the child's water, mixed with some of its [p.36] hair, close stop't, over the fire, that the witch would thereupon come and break it. It does not mention the success; but a poor old woman in the neighbourhood was taken up, and the old trial by water-ordeal reviv'd. They dragg'd her, shiv'ring with an ague, out of her house, set her astride on the pommel of a saddle, and carried her about two miles to a millpond, stript off her upper cloaths, tied her legs, and with a rope about her middle, threw her in, two hundred spectators aiding and abetting the riot. They affirm she swam like a cork, though forced several times under the water; and no wonder, for, when they strained the line, the ends thereof being held on each side of the pond, she must of necessity rise; but by haling and often plunging she drank water enough, and when almost spent they poured in brandy to revive her, drew her to a stable, threw her on some litter in her wet cloaths, where in an hour after she expired. The coroner, upon her inquest, could make no discovery of the ringleaders: although above forty persons assisted in the fact, yet none of them could be persuaded to accuse his neighbour, so that they were able to charge only three of them with manslaughter."

Dr. Zouch, in a note to his edition of Walton's Lives, 1796, p. 482, says: "The opinion concerning the reality of witchcraft was not exploded even at the end of the seventeenth century. The prejudices of popular credulity are not easily effaced. Men of learning, either from conviction or some other equally powerful motive, adopted the system of Daemonology advanced by James I.; and it was only at a recent period that the Legislature repealed the Act made in the first year of the reign of that monarch, entitled an Act against Conjuration, Witchcraft, and dealing with Evil and Wicked Spirits."

Lord Verulam's reflections on witches, in the tenth century of his Natural History, form a fine contrast to the narrow and bigoted ideas of the royal author of the Daemonology, "Men may not too rashly believe the confession of witches, nor yet the evidence against them; for the witches themselves are imaginative, and believe oftentimes they do that which they do not; and people are credulous in that point, and ready to impute accidents and natural operations to witchcraft. It is worthy the observing that, both in ancient and late times (as in the Thessalian witches, and the meetings of witches that have been recorded by so many late confessions), [p.37] the great wonders which they tell, of carrying in the air, transforming themselves into other bodies, &c. are still reported to be wrought, not by incamtations or ceremonies, but by ointments and anointing themselves all over. This may justly move a man to think that these fables are the effects of imagination; for it is certain that ointments do all (if they be laid on anything thick), by stopping of the pores, shut in the vapours, and send them to the head extremely. And for the particular ingredients of those magical ointments, it is like they are opiate and soporiferous: for anointing of the forehead, neck, feet, backbone, we know is used for procuring dead sleeps. And if any man say that this effect would be better done by inward potions, answer may be made that the medicines which go to the. ointments are so strong, that if they were used inwards they would kill those that use them, and therefore they work potently though outwards."

In the play of the Witch of Edmonton, by Rowley, Dekker, Ford, &c. 1658, already quoted, act ii. sc. 1, the witch, Elizabeth Sawyer, is introduced gathering sticks, with this soliloquy:

"Why should the envious world
Throw all their scandalous malice upon me,
'Cause I am poor, deform'd, and ignorant,
And like a bow buckled and bent together
By some more strong in mischiefs than myself?
Must I for that be made a common sink
For all the filth and rubbish of men's tongues
To fall and run into ? Some call me witch;
And, being ignorant of myself, they go
About to teach me how to be one; urging
That my bad tongue (by their bad usage made so)
Forespeaks their cattle, doth bewitch their corn,
Themselves, their servants, and their babes at nurse.
This they enforce upon me, and in part
Make me to credit it."

Mr. Warner, in his Topographical Remarks relating to the South-western parts of Hampshire, already quoted, says: "It would be a curious speculation to trace the origin and progress of that mode of thinking among the northern nations which gave the faculty of divination to females in ancient ages, and the gift of witchgraft to them in more modern times. The learned reader will receive great satisfaction in the perusal of a dissertation of Keysler, entitled De Mulieribus fatidicis, ad [p.38] calc. Antiq. Select. Septen. p. 371. Much information on the same subject is also to be had in M. Mallet's Northern Antiquities, vol. i.; and in the Notes of the Edda, vol. ii."²⁰

In an account of witchcraft, the cat, who is the sine qua non of a witch, deserves particular consideration. If I mistake not, this is a connexion which has cost our domestic animal all that persecution with which it is, by idle boys at least, incessantly pursued. In ancient times the case was very different. These animals were anciently revered as emblems of the moon, and among the Egyptians were on that account so highly honoured as to receive sacrifices and devotions, and had stately temples erected to their honour.²¹ It is said that in whatever house a cat died, all the family shaved their eyebrows. No favourite lap-dog among the moderns had received such posthumous honours. Diodorus Siculus relates that a Roman happening accidentally to kill a cat, the mob immediately gathered about the house where he was, and neither the entreaties of some principal men sent by the king, nor the fear of the Romans, with whom the Egyptians were then negotiating a peace, could save the man's life.

The following particulars relating to a game in which a cat was treated with savage cruelty by our barbarous ancestors, [p.39] still or lately retained at Kelso²², are extracted from a Particular Description of the Town of Kelso, &c., by Ebenezer Lazarus, 8vo. Kelso, 1789, p. 144: "There is a society or brotherhood in the town of Kelso, which consists of farmers' servants, ploughmen, husbandmen, or whip-men, who hold a meeting once a year for the purpose of merriment and diverting themselves: being all finely dressed out in their best clothes, and adorned with great bunches of beautiful ribands on the crown of their heads, which hang down over their shoulders like so many streamers. By the beating of a drum they repair to the market-place, well mounted upon fine horses, armed with large clubs and great wooden hammers, about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, when they proceeded to a common field about half a mile from the town, attended all the way with music and' an undisciplined rabble of men, women, and children, for the purpose of viewing the merriment of a cat in barrel, which is highly esteemed by many for excellent sport. The generalissimo of this regiment of whipmen, who has the honourable style and title of my lord, being arrived with the brotherhood at the place of rendezvous, the music playing, the drum beating, and their flag waving in the air, the poor timorous cat is put into a barrel partly stuffed with soot, and then hung up between two high poles, upon a cross-beam, below which they ride in succession, one after another, besieging poor puss with their large clubs and wooden hammers. The barrel, after many a frantic blow, being broken, the wretched animal makes her reluctant appearance amidst a great concourse of spectators, who seem to enjoy much pleasure at the poor animal's shocking figure, and terminate her life and misery by barbarous cruelty." The author, having called the perpetrators of this deed by a name no softer than that of the "Savages of Kelso," concludes the first act with the following miserable couplet:

"The cat in the barrel exhibits such a farce
That he who can relish it is worse than an ass."

The second act is described as follows: "The cruel brotherhood having sacrificed this useful and domestic animal to the idol of cruelty, they next gallantly, and with great heroism, [p.40] proceeded with their sport to the destruction of a poor simple goose, which is next hung up by the heels, like the worst of malefactors, with a convulsed breast, in the most pungent distress and struggling for liberty; when this merciless and profligate society, marching in succession, one after another, each in his turn takes a barbarous pluck at the head, quite regardless of its misery. After the miserable creature has received many a rude twitch, the head is carried away." They conclude their sports with a clumsy horse-race. Our author has omitted to mention on what day of the year all this was done. He says, however, it is now left off.

In the remarkable account of witches in Scotland (before James the First's coming to the crown of England), about 1591, entitled News from Scotland: the damnable Life and Death of Dr. Fian²³ (printed from the old copy in the Gent. Mag. for 1779, xlix. 449), is the following: "Agnis Thompson confessed that, at the time when his Majesty was in Denmark, she being accompanied with the parties before specially named, took a cat and christened it, and afterwards bound to each part of that cat the chiefest parts of a dead man, and several joints of his body; and that in the night following the said cat was conveyed into the midst of the sea by all these witches sailing in their riddles or cieves, as is aforesaid, and so left the said cat right before the town of Leith, in Scotland; this done, there did arise such a tempest in the sea as a greater hath not been seen; which tempest was the cause of the perishing of a boat or vessel coming over from the town of Brunt Island to the town of Leith, wherein were sundry jewels and rich gifts, which should have been presented to the now Queen of Scotland, at her Majesty's coming to Leith. Again it is confessed that the said christened cat was the cause that the King's Majesty's ship, at his coming forth of Denmark, had a contrary wind to the rest of his ships then being in his company; which thing was most strange and true, as the King's Majesty acknowledged."

One plainly sees in this publication the foundation-stones of the royal treatise on Daemonology; and it is said "these con- [p.41] fessions made the king in a wonderful admiration," and he sent for one Geillis Dimcane, who played a reel or dance before the witches, "who upon a small trump, called a Jew's trump, did play the same dance before the King's Majesty, who, in respect of the strangeness of these matters, took great delight to be present at all their examinations." Who is there so incurious that would not wish to have seen the monarch of Great Britain entertaining himself with a supposed witch's performance on the Jew's-harp?

Warburton, on the passage in Macbeth, "Thrice the brinded cat had mew'd," observes that "a cat, from time immemorial, has been the agent and favourite of witches. This superstitious fancy is pagan and very ancient; and the original, perhaps, this: when Galinthia was changed into a cat by the Fates (says Antonius Liberalis, Metam. c. xxix); by witches (says Pausanius in his Baeotics); Hecate took pity of her and made her her priestess; in which office she continues to this day. Hecate herself too, when Typhon forced all the gods and goddesses to hide themselves in animals, assumed the shape of a cat. So, Ovid: 'Fele soror Pheebi latuit.'"

Hanway, in his Travels in Persia, i. 177, tell us that "cats are there in great esteem." Mention occurs in Glanvil's "Sadducismus Triumphatus," pp. 304, 306, of the familiars of witches sucking them in the shape of cats. In the description of the witch Mause, in the Gentle Shepherd, the following occurs:

"And vender's Mause;
She and her cat sit becking in her yard."

In Gay's Fable of "The Old Woman and her Cats," one of these animals is introduced as upbraiding the witch as follows:

"'Tis infamy to serve a hag
Cats are thought imps, her broom a nag;
And boys against our lives combine,
Because, 'tis said, your cats have nine."

The writer of a Journey through the Highlands of Scotland, inserted in the Scots Magazine, lxiv. 817, describing some of the superstitions of the country, says: "When the goodwife's cat is ill fed, consequently of a lean and meagre appearance, it is readily ascribed to the witches riding on them
in the night."

[p.42]

Trusler, in his Hogarth Moralized, p. 134, tells us, speaking of cats, it has been judiciously observed that "the conceit of a cat's having nine lives hath cost at least nine lives in ten of the whole race of them. Scarce a boy in the streets but has in this point outdone even Hercules himself, who was renowned for killing a monster that had but three lives." The Guardian, No. 61, adds: "Whether the unaccountable animosity against this useful domestic may be any cause of the general persecution of owls (who are a sort of feathered cats), or whether it be only an unreasonable pique the moderns have taken to a serious countenance, I shall not determine." The owl was anciently a bird of ill omen, and thence probably has been derived the general detestation of it, as that of the cat has arisen from that useful domestic's having been considered as a particeps criminis in the sorceries of witches. From a little black-letter book, entitled Beware the Cat, 1584, I find it was permitted to a witch "to take on her a catte's body nine times." The following passage occurs in Dekker's Strange Horse-Race, 4to. 1613: "When the grand Helcat had gotten these two furies with nine lives." And in Marston's Dutch Courtezan (Works, 8vo. 1633), we read: "Why then thou hast nine lives like a cat." See on this subject the British Apollo, 1708, vol. ii. No. I.²⁴

There is a very curious extract from a file of informations taken by some justices against a poor witch, preserved in the Life of the Lord Keeper Guildford, which forcibly satirises the folly of admitting such kind of evidence as was brought against them: "This informant saith he saw a cat leap in at her (the old woman's) window, when it was twilight; and this informant farther saith that he verily believeth the said cat to be the devil, and more saith not.'' It may be observed upon this evidence, that to affect the poor culprit he could not well have said less.

The ingenious artist Hogarth, in his Medley, represents with great spirit of satire a witch sucked by a cat and flying on a broomstick; it being said, as Trusler remarks, that the familiar with whom a witch converses sucks her right breast in shape of a little dun cat, as smooth as a mole, which when it [p.43] has sucked, the witch is in a kind of trance. See Hogarth Moralized, p. 116.

Steevens, on the passage in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, "If I do, hang me in a bottle, like a cat, and shoot at me," observes that, "in some counties in England, a cat was formerly closed up with a quantity of soot in a wooden bottle (such as that in which shepherds carry their liquor), and was suspended on a line. He who beat out the bottom as he ran under it, and was nimble enough to escape its contents, was regarded as the hero of this inhuman diversion." He cites also some passages that show it was a custom formerly to shoot with arrows "at a catte in a basket." They prove also that it was the custom to shoot at fictitious as well as real cats. A similar kind of sport seems to be alluded to in the following passage in Braithwaite's Strappado for the Devil, 1615, p. 162:

"If Mother Red-cap chance to have an oxe
Hosted all whole, how you'le fly to it,
Like widgeons, or like wild geese in full flocks,
That for his penny each may have his bitte:
Set out a pageant, whoo'l not thither runne?
As twere to whip the cat at Abington."

In Frost Fair, a very rare topographical print, printed on the River Thames in the year 1740, there is the following reference: "No. 6, Cat in the Basket Booth." Although it is doubtful whether it was used merely as an ale-booth, or intended to invite company to partake of the barbarous sport, it is equally a proof that Shakespeare's rustic game or play of the Cat and Bottle continued in use long after his days.

[A woman dressed in a grotesque and frightful manner was otherwise called a kitch-witch, probably for the sake of a jingle. It was customary, many years ago, at Yarmouth, for women of the lowest order, to go in troops from house to house to levy contributions, at some season of the year, and on some pretence, which nobody now seems to recollect, having men's shirts over their own apparel, and their faces smeared with blood. These hideous beldams have long discontinued their perambulations; but, in memory of them, one of the many rows in that town is called Kitty-witch row.]

[p.44]

FASCINATION OF WITCHES.

There is a vulgar saying in the north, and probably in many other parts, of England, "No one can say black is your eye;' meaning that nobody can justly speak ill of you. It occurs also in a curious quarto tract entitled the Mastive, or Young Whelpe of the Old Dog; Epigrams and Satyrs, Lond., no date. One of these is as follows:

"Doll, in disdaine, doth from her heeles defie
The best that breathes shall tell her black's her eye;
And that it's true she speaks, who can say nay,
When none that lookes on't but will sweare 'tis grey?"

I have no doubt but that this expression originated in the popular superstition concerning an evil, that is an enchanting or bewitching, EYE. In confirmation of this I must cite the following passage from Scot's Discovery, p. 291: "Many writers agree with Virgil and Theocritus in the effect of bewitching eyes, affirming that in Scythia there are women called Bithise, having two balls, or rather blacks, in the apples of their eyes.²⁵ These (forsooth) with their angry looks do bewitch and hurt, not only young lambs, but young children." He says, p. 35: "The Irishmen affirm that not only their children, but their cattle, are (as they call it) eye-bitten, when they fall suddenly sick."

In Vox Dei, or the great Duty of Self-Reflection upon a Man's own Wayes, by N. Wanley, M.A. and minister of the Gospel at Beeby, in Leicestershire, 1658, p. 85, the author, speaking of St. Paul's having said that he was, touching the righteousnesse which is in the law, blamelesse, observes upon it, "No man could say (as the proverb hath it) black was his eye" In Browne's Map of the Microcosme, 1642, we read: "As those eyes are accounted bewitching, qui geminam habent pupillam, sicut Illyrici, which have double-sighted eyes; so," &c.

[The following very curious particulars are taken from a recent number of the Athenaeum, 'Turning the Coal; a Countercharm to the Evil Eye.' It is necessary that persons [p.45] with the power of an evil eye go through certain forms before they can effect their object; and it is supposed that during these forms the evil they wish is seen by them, by some means, before it takes effect upon their victim. One of the simplest of these forms is looking steadfastly in the fire, so that a person seen sitting musing with his eyes fixed upon the fire is looked upon with great suspicion. But if he smokes, and in lighting the pipe puts the head into the fire, and takes a draw while it is there, it is an undeniable sign that there is evil brewing. Now, if any person observe this, and it being a common custom in the country to have a large piece of coal on the fire, the tongs be taken privately, and this coal be turned right over, with the exorcism uttered either privately or aloud, "Lord be wi' us," it throws the imagination of the evil-disposed person into confusion, dispels the vision, and thwarts for the time all evil intentions. Or if an individual who is suspected of having wished evil, or cast an "ill e'e," upon anything, enter the house upon which the evil is, and the coal be turned upon him, as it is termed, that person feels as if the coal was placed upon his heart, and has often been seen to put his hand to his breast, exclaiming, "Oh!" Nay, more; he is unable to move so long as the coal is held down with the tongs, and has no more power over that house.

Many a tale I have heard of such evil persons being thus caught, and held until they made offers for their release; or more generally, until that never-failing cure, "scoreing aboon the breath," was performed upon them. And this was somewhat serious, as it was performed with some charmed thing, such as a nail from a horseshoe.]

In Adey's Candle in the Dark, p. 104, we read: "Master Scot, in his 'Discovery,' telleth us that our English people in Ireland, whose posterity were lately barbarously cut off, were much given to this idolatry in the queen's time, insomuch that, there being a disease amongst their cattle that grew blinde, being a common disease in that country, they did commonly execute people for it, calling them eye-biting witches."

Martin, in his Description of the Western Islands of Scotland, p. 123, says: "All these islanders, and several thousands of the neighbouring continent, are of opinion that some [p.46] particular persons have an evil eye, which affects children and cattle. This, they say, occasions frequent mischances and sometimes death." In the same work, p. 38, speaking of the Isle of Harries, he says: "There is variety of nuts, called Moll uka Beans, some of which are used as amulets against witchcraft or an evil eye, particularly the white one: and, upon this account, they are wore about children's necks, and if any evil is intended to them, they say the nut changes into a black colour. That they did change colour I found true by my own observation, but cannot be positive as to the cause of it. Malcom Campbell, Steward of Harries, told me, that some weeks before my arrival there all his cows gave blood instead of milk for several days together: one of the neighbours told his wife that this must be witchcraft, and it would be easy to remove it, if she would but take the white nut, called the Virgin Mary's Nut, and lay it in the pail into which she was to milk the cows. This advice she presently followed, and, having milked one cow into the pail with the nut in it, the milk was all blood, and the nut changed its colour into dark brown. She used the nut again, and all the cows gave pure good milk, which they ascribe to the virtue of the nut. This very nut Mr. Campbell presented me with, and I keep it still by me."

In Heron's Journey through Part of Scotland, ii. 228, we read: "Cattle are subject to be injured by what is called an evil eye, for some persons are supposed to have naturally a blasting power in their eyes, with which they injure whatever offends or is hopelessly desired by them. Witches and warlocks are also much disposed to wreak their malignity on cattle." "Charms," the writer adds, "are the chief remedies applied for their diseases. I have been, myself, acquainted with an anti-burgher clergyman in these parts, who actually procured from a person, who pretended skill in these charms, two small pieces of wood, curiously wrought, to be kept in his father's cow-house, as a security for the health of his cows. It is common to bind into a cow's tail a small piece of mountain-ash wood, as a charm against witchcraft. Few old women are now suspected of witchcraft; but many tales are told of the conventions of witches in the kirks in former times."

["Your interesting papers," says a correspondent of the [p.47] Athenaeum, "upon 'Folk Lore,' have brought to my recollection a number of practices common in the west of Scotland. The first is a test for, as a charm to prevent, an 'ill e'e.' Any individual ailing not sufficiently for the case to be considered serious, but lingering, is deemed to be the object of 'an ill e'e,' of some one 'that 's no canny.' The following operation is then performed: An old sixpence is borrowed from some neighbour, without telling the object to which it is to be applied; as much salt as can be lifted upon the six-pence is put into a table-spoonful of water, and melted; the sixpence is then put into the solution, and the soles of the feet and palms of the hands of the patient are moistened three times with the salt water; it is then tasted three times, and the patient afterwards 'scored aboon the breath,' that is, by the operator dipping the forefinger into the salt water, and drawing it along the brow. When this is done, the contents of the spoon are thrown behind, and right over the fire, the thrower saying at the same time, 'Lord preserve us frae a' scathe!' If recovery follow this, there is no doubt of the individual having been under the influence of an evil eye."]

In Braithwaite's Two Lancashire Lovers, 1640, p. 19, in Camillas's speech to Doriclea, in the Lancashire dialect, he tells her, in order to gain her affections, "We han store of goodly cattell; my mother, though shee bee a vixon, shee will blenke blithly on you for my cause; and we will ga to the Davvnes and slubber up a sillibub; and I will looke babies in your eyes and picke sillycornes out of your toes: and wee will han a whiskin at every Rush-bearing, a wassel-cup at Yule, a seed-cake at Fastens, and a lusty cheese-cake at our Sheepe-wash; and will not aw this done bravely, jantle- wornan?" In her answer to this clown's addresses, she observes, among other passages, "What know you but I may prove untoward? and that will bring your mother to her grave; make you [pretty babe] put finger ith' eye, and turne the doore quite off the hinges." The above romance is said to have been founded on a true history: the costume appears to be very accurate and appropriate.

Volney, in his Travels in Egypt and Syria, i. 246, says: "The ignorant mothers of many of the modern Egyptians, whose hollow eyes, pale faces, swoln bellies, and meagre extremities make them seem as if they had not long to live, be- [p.48] lieve this to be the effect of the evil eye of some envious person, who has bewitched them ; and this ancient prejudice is still general in Turkey."

"Nothing," says Mr. Dallaway, in his Account of Constantinople, 1797, p. 391, "can exceed the superstition of the Turks respecting the evil eye of an enemy or infidel. Passages from the Koran are painted on the outside of the houses, globes of glass are suspended from the ceilings, and a part of the superfluous caparison of their horses is designed to attract attention and divert a sinister influence." That this superstition was known to the Romans we have the authority of Virgil: "Nescio quis teneros oculus mihi fascinat agnos." Ecl. iii.

The following passage from one of Lord Bacon's works is cited in Minor Morals, i. 24: "It seems some have been so curious as to note that the times when the stroke or percussion of an envious eye does most hurt are particularly when the party envied is beheld in glory and triumph."

Lupton, in his fourth Book of Notable Things, No. 81 (edit. 1660, p. 103), says: "The eyes be not only instruments of enchantment, but also the voyce and evil tongues of certain persons; for there are found in Africk, as Gellius saith, families of men, that, if they chance exceedingly to praise fair trees, pure seeds, goodly children, excellent horses, fair and well-liking cattle, soon after they will wither and pine away, and so dye; no cause or hurt known of their withering or death. Thereupon the custome came, that when any do praise anything, that we should say, God blesse it or keepe it. Arist. in Prob. by the report of Mizaldus."

In Boswell's Life of Johnson, iii. 200, it is observed: "In days of superstition they thought that holding the poker before the fire would drive away the witch who hindered the fire from burning, as it made the sign of the cross." In Scotland they say, "if ye can draw blud aboon the braith," the fascinating power of a witch's eyes will cease.

In the Statistical Account of Scotland, xv. 258, parish of Monzie, shire of Perth, we are told: "The power of an evil eye is still believed, although the faith of the people in witchcraft is much enfeebled."

In the same work, xviii. 123, parish of Gargunnock, county of Stirling, we read: "The dregs of superstition are still to [p.49] be found. The less informed suspect something like witchcraft about poor old women, and are afraid of their evil eye among the cattle. If a cow is suddenly taken ill, it is ascribed to some extraordinary cause. If a person when called to see one does not say, 'I wish her luck,' there would be a suspicion he had some bad design." Ibid. xiv. 526, parish of Auchterhouse, county of Forfar; extracts from the parish register: A fast to be kept July 9, 1646, for various reasons: among them, "4thly, Because of the pregnant scandal of witches and charmers within this part of the land, we are to supplicate the Lord therefore." The third is singularly curious: "Because of the desolate state and cure of several congregations, which have been starved by dry-beasted ministers this long time bygone, and now are wandering like sheep but (i.e. without) shepherds, and witnesseth no sense of scant." "6 Janaure, 1650: On that day the minister desired the session to make search every ane in their own quarter gave they knew of any witches or charmers in the paroch, and delate them to the next session." "July 18, 1652: Janet Fife made her public repentance before the pulpit, for learning M. Robertson to charm her child; and whereas M. Robertson should have done the like, it pleased the Lord before that time to call upon her by death." Ibid. xix. 354, parish of Bendothy, county of Perth: "I have known an instance in churning butter, in which the cream, after more than ordinary labour, cast up only one pound of butter, instead of four, which it ought. By standing a while to cool, and having the labour repeated over again, it cast up the other three pounds of butter."

"When Kitty kirned, and there nae butter came,
Ye, Mause, gat a' the wyte." Allan Ramsay.

In going once to visit the remains of Brinkburne Abbey, in Northumberland, I found a reputed witch in a lonely cottage by the side of a wood, where the parish had placed her, to save expenses and keep her out of the way. On inquiry at a neighbouring farmhouse, I was told, though I was a long while before I could elicit anything from the inhabitants in it concerning her, that everybody was afraid of her cat, and that she herself was thought to have an evil eye, and that it was accounted dangerous to meet her in a morning "black-fasting."

[p.50]

The Morning Herald of Friday, Aug. 16, 1839, affords an evidence of the belief in the fascination of witches still occasionally existing in London, in the instance of two lodgers, one of whom squinted, and the other, to avert the supposed consequences from the defect of the first, considered she could only protect herself by spitting in her face three times a day.

TOAD-STONE.

PENNANT, in his Zoology, 1776, iii. 15, speaking of the toad, with the Roman fables concerning it, adds: "In aftertimes superstition gave it preternatural powers, and made it a principal ingredient in the incantations of nocturnal hags:

'Toad, that under the cold stone
Days and nights hast thirty-one
Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
Boil thou first i'th' charmed pot.'

"We know by the poet that this was intended for a design of the first consideration, that of raising and bringing before the eyes of Macbeth a hateful second sight of the prosperity of Banquo's line. This shows the mighty powers attributed to this animal by the dealers in the magic art. But the powers our poet endues it with are far superior to those that Gesner ascribes to it. Shakspeure's witches used it to disturb the dead; Gesner's only to still the living.''

Pennant, in the volume already quoted, p. 154, speaking of the wolf-fish teeth, observes: "These and the other grinding teeth are often found fossil, and in that state called Bufonites, or Toad-stones : they were formerly much esteemed for their imaginary virtues, and were set in gold, and worn as rings."

Connected with this is a similar ancient superstition with regard to the setites or eagle-stone, concerning which, the same author (Zoology, i. 167) tells us: "The ancients believed that the pebble commonly called the setites or eagle-stone, was found in the eagle's nest, and that the eggs could not be hatched without its assistance. Many absurd stories have been raised about this fossil."

The same writer, in his Journey from Chester to London, [p.51] p. 264, speaking of the shrine of St. Alban, which contained the reliques of that martyr, "made of beaten gold and silver and enriched with gems and sculpture," says: "The gems were taken from the treasury, one excepted, which, being of singular use to parturient women, was left out. This was no other than the famous setites or eagle-stone, in most superstitious repute from the days of Pliny (lib. xxxvi. c. 21) to that of Abbot Geffry, refounder of the shrine." "We may add here," he continues, "another superstition in respect to this animal. It was believed by some old writers to have a stone in its head, fraught with great virtues, medical and magical. It was distinguished by the name of the reptile, and called the Toad-stone, Bufonites, Crapaudine, Krottenstein (Boet. de Boot de Lap. et Gem. 301, 303); but all its fancied powers vanished on the discovery of its being nothing but the fossile tooth of the sea-wolf, or some other flat-toothed fish, not unfrequent in our island, as well as several other countries." To this toad-stone Shakespeare alludes in the following beautiful simile:

"Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in its head."

Steevens, in his note upon this passage, says that Thomas Lupton, in his first Book of Notable Things, bears repeated testimony to the virtues of the tode-stone called crapaudina. In his seventh book he instructs how to procure it, and afterwards tells us: "You shall knowe whether the tode-stone be the ryght and perfect stone or not. Holde the stone before a tode, so that he may see it; and, if it be a right and true stone, the tode will leape towarde it, and make as though he would snatch it. He envieth so much that man should have that stone." In Lluellin's Poems, 8vo. Lond. 16/9, p. 85, are the following lines on this subject:

"Now, as the worst things have some things of stead,
And some toads treasure jewels in their head."

The author of the Gentle Shepherd (a beautiful pastoral in the Scottish dialect, that equals perhaps the Idyllia of Theocritus) has made great use of this superstition. He introduces a clown telling the powers of a witch in the following words:

[p.52]

"She can o'ercast the night, and cloud the moon,
And mak the deils obedient to her crune.
At midnight hours o'er the kirkyards she raves,
And howks unchristen'd weans out of their graves!
Boils up their livers in a warlock's pow,
Rins withershins about the hemlock's low;
And seven times does her pray'rs backwards pray,
Till Plotcok comes with lumps of Lapland clay,
Mixt with the venom of black taids and snakes;
Of this unsonsy pictures aft she makes
Of ony ane she hates; and gars expire
With slaw and racking pains afore a fire:
Stuck fou of prines, the divelish pictures melt;
The pain by fowk they represent is felt."

Afterwards she describes the ridiculous opinions of the country people, who never fail to surmise that the commonest natural effects are produced from supernatural causes:

"When last the wind made glaud a roofless barn;
When last the burn bore down my mither's yarn;
When brawny elf-shot never mair came hame;
When Tibby kirnd, and there nae butter came;
When Bessy Freetock's chuffy-cheeked wean
To a fairy turn'd, and could nae stand its lane;
When Wattie wander'd ae night thro' the shaw,
And tint himsel amaist amang the snaw;
When Mungo's mare stood still and swat with fright,
When he brought east the howdy under night;
When Bawsy shot to dead upon the green,
And Sarah tint a snood was nae mair seen;
You, Lucky, gat the wyte of aw fell out,
And ilka ane here dreads you round about," &c.

The old woman, in the subsequent soliloquy, gives us a philosophical account of the people's folly:

"Hard luck, alake ! when poverty and eild
Weeds out of fashion ; and a lanely bield,
With a sma cast of wiles, should in a twitch,
Gie ane the hatefu' name, a wrinkled witch.
This fool imagines, as do mony sic
That I'm a wretch in compact with auld Nick,
Because by education I was taught
To speak and act aboon their common thought."

This pastoral, unfortunately for its fame, is written in a dialect by no means generally understood. Had Mr. Addison known, or could he have read this, how fine a subject [p.53] would it have afforded him on which to have displayed his inimitable talent for criticism!

The subsequent, much to our purpose, is from the Life of Lord Keeper Guildford, p. 129: "It is seldom that a poor old wretch is brought to trial (for witchcraft) but there is at the heels of her a popular rage that does little less than demand her to be put to death; and if a judge is so clear and open as to declare against that impious vulgar opinion, that the devil himself has power to torment and kill innocent children, or that he is pleased to divert himself with the good people's cheese, butter, pigs, and geese, and the like errors of the ignorant and foolish rabble, the countrymen (the triers) cry, 'this judge hath no religion, for he doth not believe witches,' and so, to show they have some, hang the poor wretches."²⁶

A writer in the Gent. Mag. for March, 1736, vi. 137, says: "The old woman must, by age, be grown very ugly, her face shrivelled, her body doubled, and her voice scarce intelligible: hence her form made her a terror to children, who, if they were affrighted at the poor creature, were immediately said to be bewitched. The mother sends for the parish priest, and the priest for a constable. The imperfect pronunciation of the old woman, and the paralytic nodding of her head, were concluded to be muttering diabolical charms, and using certain magical gestures: these were proved upon her at the next assizes, and she was burnt or hanged as an enemy to mankind."

From a physical manuscript in quarto, of the date of 1475, formerly in the collection of Mr. Herbert, of Cheshunt, now in my library, I transcribe the following charm against witchcraft: "Here ys a Charme for wyked Wych. In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, Amen. Per Virtutem Domini sint medicina mei pia Crux Ê et passio Christi Ê Vulnera quinque Domini sint medicina mei Ê Virgo Maria mihi succurre, et defende ab omni maligno demonio, et ab omni maligno spiritu: Amen. ÊaÊgÊlÊaÊ Tetragrammaton. Ê Alpha. Omega primogenitus, Ê vita, vita. Ê sapiencia, Ê Virtus, Ê Jesus Nazarenus rex judeorum, Ê fili Domini, miserere mei, Amen. Ê Marcus Ê Ma- [p.54] theus Ê Lucas Ê Johannes mihi succurrite et defendite, Amen. Ê Omnipotens sempiterne Deus, hunc N. famtilum tuum hoc breve scriptum super se portantem prospere salvet dormiendo, vigilando, potando, et precipue sompniando ab omni maligno demonic, eciam ab omni maligno spiritu Ê."

In Scot's Discovery, p. 160, we have "A Special Charm to preserve all Cattel from Witchcraft. At Easter, you must take certain drops that lie uppermost of the holy paschal candle, and make a little wax candle thereof; and upon some Sunday morning rathe, light it, and hold it so as it may drop upon and between the horns and ears of the beast, saying, 'In nomine Patris et Filii,' &c., and burn the beast a 'little between the horns on the ears with the same wax; and that which is left thereof, stick it cross-wise about the stable or stall, or upon the threshold, or over the door, where the cattle use to go in and out: and for all that year your cattle shall never be bewitched."

Pennant tells us, in his Tour in Scotland, that the farmers carefully preserve their cattle against witchcraft by placing boughs of mountain-ash and honeysuckle in their cowhouses on the 2d of May. They hope to preserve the milk of their cows, and their wives from miscarriage, by tying threads about them: they bleed the supposed witch to preserve themselves from her charms.

Gaule, as before cited, p. 142, speaking of the preservatives against witchcraft, mentions, as in use among the Papists, "the tolling of a baptized bell, signing with the signe of the crosse, sprinkling with holy water, blessing of oyle, waxe, candles, salt, bread, cheese, garments, weapons, &c. carring about saints' reliques, with a thousand superstitious fopperies;" then enumerates those which are used by men of all religions.²⁷ "1. In seeking to a witch to be holpen against a witch. 2. In using a certain or supposed charme, against an uncertaine or suspected witchcraft. 3. In searching anxiously for the witches signe or token left behind e her in the house under the thresh-hold, in the bed of straw, and to be sure to light upon it, burning evry odd ragge, or bone, or feather, that is to be found. 4. In swearing, rayling, threatning, cursing, and banning the witch, as if this were a right way to bewitch the witch from bewitching, 5, In banging and basting, scratching and clawing, to draw blood of the witch. 6. In daring  [p.55] and defying the witch out of a carnal security and presumptuous temerity."²⁸

The following passage is taken from Stephens's Characters, p. 375: "The torments therefore of hot iron and mercilesse scratching nayles be long thought uppon and much threatned (by the females) before attempted. Meanetime she tolerates defiance thorough the wrathfull spittle of matrons, in stead of fuell, or maintenance to her damnable intentions." He goes on "Children cannot smile upon her without the hazard of a perpetual wry mouth: a very nobleman's request may be denied more safely than her petitions for butter, milke, and small beere; and a great ladies or queenes name may be lesse doubtfully derided. Her prayers and amen be a charm and a curse: her contemplations and soules delight bee other men's mischiefe: her portion and sutors be her soule and a succubus: her highest adorations beyew-trees, dampish churchyards, and a fayre moonlight: her best preservatives be odde numbers and niightie Tetragramaton."

THE SORCERER, OR MAGICIAN.

A SORCERER or magician, says Grose, differs from a witch in this: a witch derives all her power from a compact with the devil: a sorcerer commands him, and the infernal spirits, by his skill in powerful charms and invocations: and also soothes and entices them by fumigations. For the devils are observed to have delicate nostrils, abominating and flying some kinds of stinks: witness the flight of the evil spirit into the remote parts of Egypt, driven by the smell of a fish's liver burned by Tobit. They are also found to be peculiarly fond of certain perfumes: insomuch that Lilly informs us that, one Evans having raised a spirit at the request of Lord Bothwell and Sir Kenelm Digby, and forgotten a suffumiga- [p.56] tion, the spirit, vexed at the disappointment, snatched him out of his circle, and carried him from his house in the Minories into a field near Battersea Causeway.

King James, in his Daemonologia, says: "The art of sorcery consists in divers forms of circles and conjurations rightly joined together, few or more in number according to the number of persons conjurors (always passing the singular number), according to the qualitie of the circle and form of the apparition. Two principal things cannot well in that errand be wanted: holy water (whereby the devil mocks the Papists), and some present of a living thing unto him. There are likewise certain daies and houres that they observe in this purpose. These things being all ready and prepared, circles are made, triangular, quadrangular, round, double, or single, according to the form of the apparition they crave. But to speake of the diverse formes of the circles, of the innumerable characters and crosses that are within and without, and out-through the same; of the diverse formes of apparitions that the craftie spirit illudes them with, and of all such particulars in that action, I remit it over to many that have busied their heads in describing of the same, as being but curious and altogether unprofitable. And this farre only I touch, that, when the conjured spirit appeares, which will not be while after many circumstances, long prayers and much muttering and murmurings of the conjurers, like a papist prieste despatching a huntting masse how soone, I say, he appeares, if they have missed one jote of all their rites; or if any of their feete once slyd over the circle, through terror of this fearful apparition, he paies himself at that time, in his owne hand, of that due debt which they ought him and otherwise would have delaied longer to have paied him; I meane, he carries them with him, body and soul.

"If this be not now a just cause to make them weary of these formes of conjuration, I leave it to you to judge upon; considering the longsomeness of the labour, the precise keeping of daies and houres (as I have said), the terribleness of the apparition, and the present peril that they stand in in missing the least circumstance or freite that they ought to observe: and, on the other part, the devill is gkd to moove them to a plame and square dealing with them, as I said before."

[p.57]

"This," Grose observes, "is a pretty accurate description of this mode of conjuration, styled the circular method; but, with all due respect to his Majesty's learning, square and triangular circles are figures not to be found in Euclid or any of the common writers on geometry. But perhaps King James learnt his mathematics from the same system as Doctor Sacheverell, who, in one of his speeches or sermons, made use of the following simile: 'They concur like parallel lines, meeting in one common centre.'"

The difference between a conjuror, a witch, and an enchanter, according to Minshew, in his Dictionary, is as follows: "The conjurer seemeth by praiers and invocations of God's powerful names, to compel the divell to say or doe what he commandeth him. The witch dealeth rather by a friendly and voluntarie conference or agreement between him and her and the divell or familiar, to have his or her turn served, in lieu or stead of blood or other gift offered unto him, especially of his or her soule. And both these differ from inchanters or sorcerers, because the former two have personal conference with the divell, and the other meddles but with medicines and ceremonial formes of words called charmes, without apparition."

Reginald Scot, in his Discourse on Devils and Spirits, p. 72, tells us that, with regard to conjurors, "The circles by which they defend themselves are commonly nine foot in breadth, but the eastern magicians must give seven."

Melton, in his Astrologaster, p. 16, speaking of conjurors, says: "They always observe the time of the moone before they set their figure, and when they have set their figure and spread their circle, first exorcise the wine and water which they sprinkle on their circle, then mumble in an unknown language. Doe they not crosse and exorcise their surplus, their silver wand, gowne, cap, and every instrument they use about their blacke and damnable art? Nay, they crosse the place whereon they stand, because they thinke the devill hath no power to come to it when they have blest it."

The following passage occurs in A Strange Horse-Race, by Thomas Dekker, 1613, signat. D. 3: "He darting an eye upon them, able to confound a thousand conjurers in their own circles (though with a wet finger they could fetch up a little divell)."

[p.58]

In Osborne's Advice to his Son, 8vo. Oxf. 1656, p. 100, speaking of the soldiery, that author says: "They, like the spirits of conjurors, do oftentimes teare their masters and raisers in pieces, for want of other imployment."²⁹

I find Lubrican to have been the name of one of these spirits thus raised; in the second part of Dekker's Honest Whore, 1630, is the following:

As for your Irish Lubrican, that spirit
Whom by 'preposterous charmes thy lust hath raised
In a wrong circle, him lie damne more blacke
Then any tyrant's soule."

A jealous husband is threatening an Irish servant, with whom he suspects his wife to have played false. In the Witch of Edmonton, 1658, p. 32, Winnifride, as a boy, says:

"I'll be no pander to him; and if I finde
Any loose Lubrick 'scapes in him, I'll watch him,
And, at my return, protest I'll shew you all."

The old vulgar ceremonies used in raising the devil, such as making a circle with chalk, setting an old hat in the centre of it, repeating the Lord's Prayer backward, &c. &c., are now altogether obsolete, and seem to be forgotten even amongst our boys.

Mason, in his Anatomie of Sorcerie, 1612, p. 86, ridicules "Inchanters and charmers they, which by using of certaine conceited words, characters, circles, amulets, and such-like vaine and wicked trumpery (by God's permission) doe worke great marvailes: as namely in causing of sicknesse, as also in curing diseases in men's bodies. And likewise binding some, that they cannot use their naturall powers and faculties, as we see in night-spells; insomuch as some of them doe take in hand to bind the divell himselfe by their inchantments." The following spell is from Herrick's Hesperides, p. 304:

"Holy water come and bring;
Cast in salt for seasoning;
Set the brush for sprinkling;

[p.59]

Sacred spittle bring ye hither;
Meale and it now mix together,
And a little oyle to either:

Give the tapers here their light,
Ring the saints-bell to affright
Far from hence the evill sprite."

The subsequent will not be thought an unpleasant comment on the popular creed concerning spirits and haunted houses. It is taken from a scene in Mr. Addison's well-known comedy of the Drummer, or the Haunted House: the gardener, butler, and coachman of the family, are the dramatis personae.

"Gardn. Prithee, John, what sort of a creature is a conjurer?
Butl. Why he's made much as other men are, if it was not for his long grey beard. His beard is at least half a yard long; he's dressed in a strange dark cloke, as black as a coal. He has a long white wand in his hand.
Coachm. I fancy 'tis made out of witch elm.
Gardn. I warrant you if the ghost appears he'll whisk you that wand before his eyes, and strike you the drum-stick out of his hand.
Butl. No; the wand, look ye, is to make a circle; and if he once gets the ghost in a circle, then he has him. A circle, you must know, is a conjurer's trap.
Coachm. But what will he do with him when he has him there?
Butl. Why then he'll overpower him with his learning.
Gardn. If he can once compass him, and get him in Lob's pound, he'll make nothing of him, but speak a few hard words to him, and perhaps bind him over to his good behaviour for a thousand years.
Coachm. Ay, ay, he'll send him packing to his grave again with a flea in his ear, I warrant him.
Butl. But if the conjurer be but well paid, he'll take pains upon the ghost and lay him, look ye, in the Red Sea and then he's laid for ever.
Gardn. Why, John, there must be a power of spirits in that same Red Sea. I warrant ye they are as plenty as fish. I wish the spirit may not carry off a corner of the house with him.

[p.60]

Butl. As for that, Peter, you may be sure that the steward has made his bargain with the cunning man beforehand, that he shall stand to all costs and damages."

Another mode of consulting spirits was by the berryl, by means of a speculator or seer, who, to have a complete sight, ought to be a pure virgin, a youth who had not known woman, or at least a person of irreproachable life and purity of manners. The method of such consultation is this: the conjuror, having repeated the necessary charms and adjurations, with the Litany, or invocation peculiar to the spirits or angels he wishes to call (for every one has his particular form), the seer looks into a crystal or berryl, wherein he will see the answer, represented either by types or figures: and sometimes, though very rarely, will hear the angels or spirits speak articulately. Their pronunciation is, as Lilly says, like the Irish, much in the throat.

In Lodge's Devils Incarnat of this Age, 1596, in the epistle to the reader, are the following quaint allusions to sorcerers and magicians: "Buy therefore this Christall, and you shall see them in their common appearance: and read these exorcismes advisedly, and you may be sure to conjure them without crossings: but if any man long for a familiar for false dice, a spirit to tell fortunes, a charme to heale disease, this only book can best fit him." Vallancey, in his Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, No. xiii. 17, says: "In the Highlands of Scotland a large chrystal, of a figure somewhat oval, was kept by the priests to work charms by; water poured upon it at this day is given to cattle against diseases: these stones are now preserved by the oldest and most superstitious in the country (Shawe). They were once common in Ireland. I am informed the Earl of Tyrone is in possession of a very fine one." In Andrews's Continuation of Henry's History of Great Britain, p. 388, we read: The conjurations of Dr. Dee having induced his familiar spirit to visit a kind of talisman, Kelly (a brother adventurer) was appointed to watch and describe his gestures." The dark shining stone used by these impostors was in the Strawberry Hill collection. It appeared like a polished piece of cannel coal. To this Butler refers when he writes:

"Kelly did all his feats upon
The devil's looking-glass, a stone."

[p.61]

In the Museum Tradescantianum, 1660, p. 42, we find an "Indian conjurer's rattle, wherewith he calls up spirits."

Lilly describes one of these berryls or crystals. It was, he says, as large as an orange, set in silver, with a cross at the top, and round about engraved the names of the angels Raphael, Gabriel, and Uriel. A delineation of another is engraved in the frontispiece to Aubrey's Miscellanies. This mode of inquiry was practised by Dr. Dee, the celebrated mathematician. His speculator was named Kelly. From him, and others practising this art, we have a long muster-roll of the infernal host, their different natures, tempers, and appearances. Dr. Reginald Scot has given us a list of some of the chiefs of these devils or spirits. These sorcerers, or magicians, do not always employ their art to do mischief; but, j on the contrary, frequently exert it to cure diseases inflicted! by witches, to discover thieves, recover stolen goods, to foretell future events and the state of absent friends. On this account they are frequently called White Witches.

Ady, in his Candle in the Dark, p. 29, speaking of common jugglers, that go up and down to play their tricks in fayrs and markets, says: "I will speak of one man more excelling in that craft than others, that went about in King James his time, and long since, who called himself the King's Majesties most excellent Hocus Pocus, and so was he called, because that at the playing of every trick he used to say: 'Hocus pocus,³⁰ tontus, talontus, vade celeriter jubeo,' a darke compo- [p.62] sure of words to blinde the eyes of beholders." Butler's description, in his Hudibras, of a cunning man or fortune-teller, is fraught with a great deal of his usual pleasantry:

"Quoth Ralph, not far from hence doth dwell
A cunning man, hight Sidrophel,
That deals in destiny's dark counsels,
And sage opinions of the moon sells;
To whom all people far and near
On deep importances repair;
When brass and pewter hap to stray,
And linen slinks out of the way;
When geese and pullen are seduc'd,
And sows of sucking pigs are chows'd;
When cattle feel indisposition,
And need th' opinion of physician;
When murrain reigns in hogs or sheep,
And chickens languish of the pip;
When yeast and outward means do fail
And have no pow'r to work on ale;
When butter does refuse to come,
And love proves cross and humoursome;
To him with questions and with urine
They for discovery flock, or curing."

Allusions to this character are not uncommon in our old plays. In Albumazar, 1634:

"He tells of lost plate, horses, and straye cattell
Directly, as he had stolne them all himselfe."

Again, in Ram Alley, or Merry Tricks, 4to. Lond. 1636, signat. B. iii.:

"Fortune-teller, a pretty rogue
That never saw five shillings in a heape,
Will take upon him to divine men's fate,
Yet never knows himselfe shall dy a beggar,
Or be hang'd up for pilfering table-cloaths,
Shirts, and smocks, hanged out to dry on hedges."

In the Character of a Quack-Astrologer, 1673, our wise man, "a gipsy of the upper form," is called "a three-penny [p.63] prophet that undertakes the telling of other folks' fortunes, meerly to supply the pinching necessities of his own." Ibid. signat. B. 3, our cunning man is said to "begin with theft; and to help people to what they have lost, picks their pocket afresh: not a ring or a spoon is nim'd away, but payes him twelve-pence toll, and the ale-drapers' often-straying tankard yields him a constant revenue: for that purpose he maintains as strict a correspondence with gilts and lifters as a mountebank with applauding midwives and recommending nurses: and if at any time, to keep up his credit with the rabble, he discovers anything, 'tis done by the same occult hermetic learning, heretofore profest by the renowned Moll Cut-purse."

They are still called "Wise Men" in the villages of Durham and Northumberland.

The following was communicated to the editor of the present work by a Yorkshire gentleman, in the year 1819: "Impostors who feed and live on the superstitions of the lower orders are still to be found in Yorkshire. These are called 'Wise Men,' and are believed to possess the most extraordinary power in remedying all diseases incidental to the brute creation, as well as the human race, to discover lost or stolen property, and to foretell future events. One of these wretches was a few years ago living at Stokesley, in the North Riding of Yorkshire; his name was John Wrightson, and he called himself 'the seventh son of a seventh son,' and professed ostensibly the trade of a cow-doctor. To this fellow, people, whose education it might have been expected would have raised them above such weakness, flocked; many to ascertain the thief, when they had lost any property; others for him to cure themselves or their cattle of some indescribable complaint. Another class visited him to know their future fortunes; and some to get him to save them from being balloted into the militia; all of which he professed himself able to accomplish. All the diseases which he was sought to remedy be invariably imputed to witchcraft, and although he gave drugs which have been known to do good, yet he always enjoined some incantation to be observed, without which he declared they could never be cured; this was sometimes an act of the most wanton barbarity, as that of roasting a game cock alive, &c. The charges of this man were always extravagant; [p.64] and such was the confidence in his skill and knowledge, that he had only to name any person as a witch, and the public indignation was sure to be directed against the poor unoffending creature for the remainder of her life. An instance of the fatal consequences of this superstition occurred within my knowledge, about the year 1800. A farmer of the name of Hodgson had been robbed of some money. He went to a 'wise man' to learn the thief, and was directed to some process by which he should discover it. A servant of his, of the name of Simpson, who had committed the robbery, fearing the discovery by such means, determined to add murder to the crime, by killing his master. The better to do this without detection, he forged a letter as from the 'wise man' to Mr. Hodgson, inclosing a quantity of arsenic, which he was directed to take on going to bed, and assuring him that in the morning he would find his money in the pantry under a wooden bowl. Hodgson took the powder, which killed him. Simpson was taken up, tried at York Assises, and convicted on strong circumstantial evidence. He received sentence of death, and when on the scaffold confessed his crime."

Vallancey, in his Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, No. xiii. 10, tells us that in Ireland they are called Tamans. "I know," says he, "a farmer's wife in the county of Waterford, that lost a parcel of linen. She travelled three days' journey to a taman, in the county of Tipperary: he consulted his black book, and assured her she would recover the goods. The robbery was proclaimed at the chapel, offering a reward, and the linen was recovered. It was not the money but the taman that recovered it."

In Strype's edition of Stow's Survey of London, B. i. 257, we read: "A.D. 1560, a skinner of Southwark was set on the pillory with a paper over his head, shewing the cause, viz. for sundry practices of great falsehood, and much untruth, and all set forth under the colour of southsaying."

Andrews, in his Continuation of Dr. Henry's History of Great Britain, p. 194, speaking of the death of the Earl of Angus in 1588, tells us, as a proof of the blind superstition of the age, "he died (says a venerable author) of sorcery and incantation. A wizard, after the physicians had pronounced him to be under the power of witchcraft, made offer to cure him, saying (as the manner of these wizards is) that he had [p.65] received wrong. But the stout and pious earl declared that his life was not so dear unto him as that, for the continuance of some years, he would be beholden to any of the devil's instruments, and died."

The following curious passage is from Lodge's Incarnate Devils, 1596, p. 13: "There are many in London now adaies that are besotted with this sinne, one of whom I saw on a white horse in Fleet street, a tanner knave I never lookt on, who with one figure (cast out of a scholler's studie for a necessary servant at Bocordo) promised to find any man's oxen were they lost, restore any man's goods if they were stolne, and win any man love, where or howsoever he settled it, but his jugling knacks were quickly discovered."

In Articles of Inquirie given in Charge by the Bishop of Sarum, A.D. 1614, is the following: "67. Item, whether you have any conjurers, charmers, calcours, witches, or fortune-tellers, who they are, and who do resort unto them for counsell?"

In the Statistical Account of Scotland, xii. 465, in the account of the parish of Kirkmichael, county of Banff, we read: "Among the branches into which the moss-grown trunk of superstition divides itself, may be reckoned witchcraft and magic. These, though decayed and withered by time, still
retain some faint traces of their ancient verdure. Even at present witches are supposed, as of old, to ride on broomsticks through the air. In this country, the 12th of May is one of their festivals. On the morning of that day they are frequently seen dancing on the surface of the water of Avon, brushing the dews of the lawn, and milking cows in their fold. Any uncommon sickness is generally attributed to their demoniacal practices. They make fields barren or fertile, raise or still whirlwinds, give or take away milk at pleasure. The force of their incantations is not to be resisted, and extends even to the moon in the midst of her aerial career. It is the good fortune, however, of this country to be provided with an anti-conjuror that defeats both them and their sable patron in their combined efforts. His fame is widely diffused, and wherever he goes crescit eundo. If the spouse is jealous of her husband, the anti-conjuror is consulted to restore the affections of his bewitched heart. If a near connexion lies confined to the bed of sickness, it is in vain to expect relief [p.66] without the balsamic medicine of the anti-conjuror. If a person happens to be deprived of his senses, the deranged cells of the brains must be adjusted by the magic charms of the anti-conjuror. If a farmer loses his cattle, the houses must be purified with water sprinkled by him. In searching for the latent mischief, this gentleman never fails to find little parcels of heterogeneous ingredients lurking in the walls, consisting of the legs of mice and the wings of bats; all the work of the witches. Few things seem too arduous for his abilities; and though, like Paracelsus, he has not as yet boasted of having discovered the philosopher's stone, yet, by the power of his occult science, he still attracts a little of their gold from the pockets where it lodges, and in this way makes a shift to acquire subsistence for himself and family."

There is a folio sheet, printed at London, 1561, preserved in a collection of Miscellanies in the archives of the Society of Antiquaries of London, lettered Miscel. Q. Eliz. No. 7, entitled, "The unfained retractation of Fraunces Cox, which he uttered at the pillery in Chepesyde and elsewhere, accordyng to the counsels commaundement anno 1561, 25th of June, beying accused for the use of certayne sinistral and divelysh artes." In this he says that from a child he began "to practise the most divelish and supersticious knowledge of necromancie, and invocations of spirites, and curious astrology. He now utterly renounces and forsakes all such divelish sciences, wherein the name of God is most horribly abused, and society or pact with wicked spirits most detestably practised, as uecromancie, geomancie, and that curious part of astrology wherein is contained the calculating of nativities or casting of nativities, with all the other magikes."

[WITCHCRAFT IN GUERNSEY. A little, bent, decrepit old man, apparently between 70 and 80 years of age, named John Laine, of Anneville, Vale parish, was placed at the bar of the court, under a charge of having practised the art of necromancy, and induced many persons in the country parishes to believe they were bewitched, or under the influence the devil; and that by boiling herbs to produce a certain perfume, not at all grateful to the olfactory nerves of demons by the burning of calves' hearts, and the sprinkling of celestial water, he would drive out of the bodies of the insane all visitants from the nether regions, and effectually cure all who [p.67] were afflicted of the devil. It appeared in evidence that the accused had the reputation of professing to be a necromancer that he had enjoyed it for the last twenty years at least; but of his having actually practised there was no complete proof brought before the court, except in relation to a recent case, wherein he was called upon to eject a proud devil that was supposed to have taken possession of an ignorant farmer, who not long since was elevated to the rank of Douzenier, and, therefore, legislator of Little Athens the truth being that the very dizzy altitude to which he had been raised had completely turned the poor man's brains. The court severely denounced the conduct of the accused, and openly declared that the ignorance and superstition prevailing in the country parts of the island those parts, they might have said, which claim and exercise the right of legislating for the town and among respectable families too, were at once lamentable and disgraceful. They, however, would not, merely upon the evidence before them, either commit Laine for trial, nor yet send him to prison, but gave him a sharp reprimand, and forbade him, on pain of corporal punishment, ever again to practise upon the credulity of the people. Guernsey Star.]

GHOSTS, OR APPARITIONS.

"A GHOST," according to Grose, "is supposed to be the spirit of a person deceased, who is either commissioned to return for some especial errand, such as the discovery of a murder, to procure restitution of lands or money unjustly withheld from an orphan or widow, or, having committed some injustice whilst living, cannot rest till that is redressed. Sometimes the occasion of spirits revisiting this world is to inform their heir in what secret place, or private drawer in an old trunk, they had hidden the title deeds of the estate; or where, in troublesome times, they buried their money or plate. Some ghosts of murdered persons, whose bodies have been secretly buried, cannot be at ease till their bones have been taken up, and deposited in consecrated ground, with all the rites of Christian burial. This idea is the remain of a [p.68] very old piece of heathen superstition: the ancients believed that Charon was not permitted to ferry over the ghosts of unburied persons, but that they wandered up and down the banks of the river Styx for an hundred years, after which they were admitted to a passage. This is mentioned by Virgil:

'Haec omnis quam cernis, mops inhumataque turba est:
Portitor ille, Charon; hi quos vehit unda, sepulti.
Nee ripas datur horrendas, nee rauca fluents,
Transportare prius quam sedibus ossa quierunt.
Centum errant annos, volitantque haec littora circum:
Turn, demum admissi, stagna exoptata revisunt.'

"Sometimes ghosts appear in consequence of an agreement made, whilst living, with some particular friend, that he who first died should appear to the survivor. Glanvil tells us of the ghost of a person who had lived but a disorderly kind of life, for which it was condemned to wander up and down the earth, in the company of evil spirits, till the day of judgment. In most of the relations of ghosts they are supposed to be mere aerial beings, without substance, and that they can pass through walls and other solid bodies at pleasure. A particular instance of this is given in Relation the 27th in Glanvil's Collection, where one David Hunter, neatherd to the Bishop of Down and Connor, was for a long time haunted by the apparition of an old woman, whom he was by a secret impulse obliged to follow whenever she appeared, which he says he did for a considerable time, even if in bed with his wife: and because his wife could not hold him in his bed, she would go too, and walk after him till day, though she saw nothing; but his little dog was so well acquainted with the apparition, that he would follow it as well as his master. If a tree stood in her walk, he observed her always to go through it. Notwithstanding this seeming immateriality, this very ghost was not without some substance; for, having performed her errand, she desired Hunter to lift her from the ground, in the doing of which, he says, she felt just like a bag of feathers. We sometimes also read of ghosts striking violent blows; and that, if not made way for, they overturn all impediment, like a furious whirlwind. Glanvil mentions an instance of this, in Relation 7th, of a Dutch lieutenant who had the faculty of seeing ghosts; and who, being prevented making way for one which [p.69] he mentioned to some friends as coming towards them, was, with his companions, violently thrown down, and sorely bruised. We further learn, by Relation 16th, that the hand of a ghost is ' as cold as a clod.'

"The usual time at which ghosts make their appearance is midnight, and seldom before it is dark; though some audacious spirits have been said to appear even by daylight: but of this there are few instances, and those mostly ghosts who have been laid, perhaps in the Red Sea (of which more hereafter), and whose times of confinement were expired: these, like felons confined to the lighters, are said to return more troublesome and daring than before. No ghosts can appear on Christmas Eve; this Shakspeare has put into the mouth of one of his characters in 'Hamlet.'

"Ghosts," adds Grose, "commonly appear in the same dress they usually wore whilst living; though they are sometimes clothed all in white; but that is chiefly the churchyard ghosts, who have no particular business, but seem to appear pro bono publico, or to scare drunken rustics from tumbling over their graves. I cannot learn that ghosts carry tapers in their hands, as they are sometimes depicted, though the room in which they appear, if without fire or candle, is frequently said to be as light as day. Dragging chains is not the fashion of English ghosts; chains and black vestments being chiefly the accoutrements of foreign spectres, seen in arbitrary governments: dead or alive, English spirits are free. One instance, however, of an English ghost dressed in black is found in the celebrated ballad of 'William and Margaret,' in the following lines:

'And clay-cold was her lily hand
That held her sable shrowd.'

This, however, may be considered as a poetical license, used, in all likelihood, for the sake of the opposition of lily to sable.

"If, during the time of an apparition, there is a lighted candle in the room, it will burn extremely blue: this is so universally acknowledged, that many eminent philosophers have busied themselves in accounting for it, without once doubting the truth of the fact. Dogs, too, have the faculty of seeing spirits, as is instanced in David Hunter's relation, above quoted; but in that case they usually show signs of [p.70] terror, by whining and creeping to their master for protection: and it is generally supposed that they often see things of this nature when their owner cannot; there being some persons, particularly those born on a Christmas eve, who cannot see spirits.

"The coming of a spirit is announced some time before its appearance by a variety of loud and dreadful noises; sometimes rattling in the old hall like a coach and six, and rumbling up and down the staircase like the trundling of bowls or cannon-balls. At length the door flies open, and the spectre stalks slowly up to the bed's foot, and opening the curtains, looks steadfastly at the person in bed by whom it is seen; a ghost being very rarely visible to more than one person, although there are several in company. It is here necessary to observe, that it has been universally found by experience, as well as affirmed by divers apparitions themselves, that a ghost has not the power to speak till it has been first spoken to: so that, notwithstanding the urgency of the business on which it may come, everything must stand still till the person visited can find sufficient courage to speak to it: an event that sometimes does not take place for many years. It has not been found that female ghosts are more loquacious than those of the male sex, both being equally restrained by this law.

"The mode of addressing a ghost is by commanding it, in the name of the three persons of the Trinity, to tell you who it is, and what is its business: this it may be necessary to repeat three times; after which it will, in a low and hollow voice, declare its satisfaction at being spoken to, and desire the party addressing it not to be afraid, for it will do him no harm. This being premised, it commonly enters its narrative, which being completed, and its requests or commands given, with injunctions that they be immediately executed, it vanishes away, frequently in a flash of light; in which case, some ghosts have been so considerate as to desire the party to whom they appeared to shut their eyes. Sometimes its departure is attended with delightful music. During the narration of its business, a ghost must by no means be interrupted by questions of any kind; so doing is extremely dangerous: if any doubts arise, they must be stated after the spirit has done s tale. Questions respecting its state, or the state of any of [p.71] their former acquaintance, are offensive, and not often answered; spirits, perhaps, being restrained from divulging the secrets of their prison-house. Occasionally spirits will even condescend to talk on common occurrences, as is instanced by Glanvil in the apparition of Major George Sydenham to Captain William Dyke, Relation 10th.³¹

"It is somewhat remarkable that ghosts do not go about their business like the persons of this world. In cases of murder, a ghost, instead of going to the next justice of the peace and laying its information, or to the nearest relation of the person murdered, appears to some poor labourer who knows none of the parties, draws the curtains of some decrepit nurse or alms-woman, or hovers about the place where his body is deposited. The same circuitous mode is pursued with respect to redressing injured orphans or widows: when it seems as if the shortest and most certain way would be to go to the person guilty of the injustice, and haunt him continually till he be terrified into a restitution. Nor are the pointing out lost writings generally managed in a more summary way; the ghost commonly applying to a third person ignorant of the whole affair, and a stranger to all concerned. But it is presumptuous to scrutinize too far into these matters: ghosts have undoubtedly forms and customs peculiar to themselves.

"If, after the first appearance, the persons employed neglect, or are prevented from, performing the message or business committed to their management, the ghost appears continually to them, at first with a discontented, next an angry, and at length with a furious countenance, threatening to tear them in pieces if the matter is not forthwith executed: sometimes terrifying them, as in Glanvil's Relation 26th, by appearing in many formidable shapes, and sometimes even striking them a violent blow. Of blows given by ghosts there are many instances, and some wherein they have been followed with an incurable lameness.

"It should have been observed that ghosts, in delivering [p.72] their commissions, in order to ensure belief, communicate to the persons employed some secret, known only to the parties concerned and themselves, the relation of which always produces the effect intended. The business being completed, ghosts appear with a cheerful countenance, saying they shall now be at rest, and will never more disturb any one; and, thanking their agents, by way of reward communicate to them something relative to themselves, which they will never reveal.

"Sometimes ghosts appear, and disturb a house, without deigning to give any reason for so doing: with these, the shortest and only way is to exorcise³² and eject them; or, as the vulgar term is, lay them. For this purpose there must be two or three clergymen, and the ceremony must be performed in Latin; a language that strikes the most audacious ghost with terror. A ghost may be laid for any term less than an hundred years, and in any place or body, full or empty; as, a solid oak the pommel of a sword a barrel of beer, if a yeoman or simple gentleman or a pipe of wine, if an esquire or a justice. But of all places the most common, and what a ghost least likes, is the Red Sea; it being related in many instances, that ghosts have most earnestly besought the exorcists not to confine them in that place. It is nevertheless considered as an indisputable fact, that there are an infinite number laid there, perhaps from its being a safer prison than any other nearer at hand; though neither history nor tradition gives us any instance of ghosts escaping or returning from this kind of transportation before their time."³³ [p.73] From the subsequent passage in Shakespeare the walking of spirits seems to have been enjoined by way of penance. The ghost speaks thus in Hamlet:

"I am thy father's spirit,
Doora'd for a certain terra to walk the night;
And for the day confin'd to fast in fires
Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature
Are burnt and purged away."³⁴

There is a passage in the Spectator, where he introduces the girls in his neighbourhood, and his landlady's daughters, telling stories of spirits and apparitions: how they stood, pale as ashes, at the foot of a bed, and walked over churchyards by moonlight; of their being conjured to the Red Sea, &c. He wittily observes that "one spirit raised another, and, at the end of every story, the whole company closed their ranks and crowded about the fire."

In the Statistical Account of Scotland, xxi. 148, parish of Monquihitter, in the additional communications from the Rev. A. Johnstone, we read: "In opinion, an amazing altera- [p.74] tion has been produced by education and social intercourse. Few of the old being able to read, and fewer still to write, their minds were clouded by ignorance. The mind being uncultivated, the imagination readily admitted the terrors of superstition. The appearance of ghosts and demons too frequently engrossed the conversation of the young and the old. The old man's fold, where the Druid sacrificed to the demon for his corn and cattle, could not be violated by the ploughshare. Lucky and unlucky days, dreams, and omens, were most religiously attended to, and reputed witches, by their spells and their prayers, were artful enough to lay every parish under contribution. In short, a system of mythology fully as absurd and amusing as the mythology of Homer obtained general belief. But now ghosts and demons are no longer visible. The old man's fold is reduced to tillage. The sagacious old woman, who has survived her friends and means, is treated with humanity, in spite of the grisly bristles which adorn her mouth; and, in the minds of the young, cultivated by education, a steady pursuit of the arts of life has banished the chimeras of fancy. Books, trade, manufacture, foreign and domestic news, now engross the conversation; and the topic of the day is always warmly, if not ingenuously, discussed. From believing too much, many, particularly in the higher walks of life, have rushed to the opposite extreme of believing too little; so that, even in this remote corner, scepticism may but too justly boast of her votaries."

The following finely written conversation on the subject of ghosts, between the servants in Addison's comedy of the Drummer, or Haunted House, will be thought much to our purpose.

"Gardener. I marvel, John, how he (the spirit) gets into the house when all the gates are shut.
Butler. Why, look ye, Peter, your spirit will creep you into an auger hole. He'll whisk ye through a key-hole, without so much as justling against one of the wards.
Coachman. I verily believe I saw him last night in the town-close.
Gard. How did he appear?
Coachm. Like a white horse.
Butl. Pho, Robin, I tell ye he has never appeared vet but m the shape of the sound of a drum.

[p.75]

Coachm. This makes one almost afraid of one's own shadow. As I was walking from the stable t'other night without my lanthorn, I fell across a beam, and I thought I had stumbled over a spirit.
Butl. Thou might' st as well have stumbled over a straw. Why a spirit is such a little thing, that I have heard a man, who was a great scholar, say, that he'll dance ye a Lancashire hornpipe upon the point of a needle. As I sat in the pantry last night counting my spoons, the candle methought burnt blue, and the spayed bitch looked as if she saw something.
Gard. Ay, I warrant ye, she hears him many a time and often when we don't."

The Spectator, accounting for the rise and progress of ancient superstition, tells us our forefathers looked upon nature with more reverence and horror before the world was enlightened by learning and philosophy, and loved to astonish themselves with the apprehensions of witchcraft, prodigies, charms, and enchantments. There was not a village in England that had not a ghost in it. The churchyards were all haunted. Every common had a circle of fairies belonging to it, and there was scarce a shepherd to be met with who had not seen a spirit. Hence Gay,

"Those tales of vulgar sprites
Which frighten'd boys relate on winter nights,
How cleanly milkmaids meet the fairy train,
How headless horses drag the clinking chain:
Night-roaming ghosts by saucer-eyeballs known,
The common spectres of each country town."

Shakespeare's ghosts excel all others. The terrible indeed is his forte. How awful is that description of the dead time of night the season of their perambulation!

"'Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn, and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to the world."

Thus also in Home's Douglas:

"In such a place as this, at such an hour,
If ancestry can be in aught believ'd,
Descending spirits have convers'd with man,
And told the secrets of the world unknown."

Gay has left us a pretty tale of an apparition. The golden mark being found in bed is indeed after the indelicate manner [p.76] of Swift, but yet is one of those happy strokes that rival the felicity of that dash of the sponge which (as Pliny tell us) hit off so well the expression pf the froth in Protogenes's dog. It is impossible not to envy the author the conception of a thought which we know not whether to call more comical or more pointedly satirical.

[The following singular account of an apparition is taken from a magazine of the last century: "As I was turning over a parcel of old papers some time ago, I discovered an original letter from Mr. Caswell, the mathematician, to the learned Dr. Bentley, when he was living in Bishop Stillingfleet's family, inclosing an account of an apparition taken from the mouth of a clergyman who saw it. In this account there are some curious particulars, and I shall therefore copy the whole narrative without any omission, except of the name of the deceased person who is supposed to have appeared, for reasons that will be obvious.

    "'To the Rev. Mr. Richard Bentley, at my Lord Bishop of Worcester's House in Park Street, in Westminster, London.

"'Sir, When I was in London, April last, I fully intended to have waited upon you again, as I said, but a cold and lameness seized me next day; the cold took away my voice, and the other my power of walking, so I presently took coach for Oxford. I am much your debtor, and in particular for your good intentions in relation to Mr. D., though that, as it has proved, would not have turned to my advantage. However, I am obliged to you upon that and other accounts, and if I had opportunity to shew it, you should find how much I am your faithful servant.

"'I have sent you inclosed a relation of an apparition ; the story I had from two persons, who each had it from the author, and yet their accounts somewhat varied, and passing through more mouths has varied much more; therefore I got a friend to bring me the author at a chamber, where I wrote it down from the author's mouth; after which I read it to him, and gave him another copy; he said he could swear to the truth of it, as far as he is concerned. He is the curate of Warblington, Batchelour of Arts of Trinity College, in Oxford, about six years standing in the University; I hear no ill report of his behaviour here. He is now gone to his curacy; [p.77] he has promised to send up the hands of the tenant and his man, who is a smith by trade, and the farmer's men, as far as they are concerned. Mr. Brereton, the rector, would have him say nothing of the story, for that he can get no tenant, though he has offered the house for ten pounds a year less. Mr. P. the former incumbent, whom the apparition represented, was a man of a very ill report, supposed to have got children of his maid, and to have murthered them; but I advised the curate to say nothing himself of this last part of P., but leave that to the parishioners, who knew him. Those who knew this P. say he had exactly such a gown, and that he used to whistle.

"'Yours, J. CASWELL.'           

"I desire you not to suffer any copy of this to be taken, lest some Mercury news-teller should print it, till the curate has sent up the testimony of others and self.

    "H. H. Dec. 15, 1695.

"Narrative. At Warblington, near Havant, in Hampshire, within six miles of Portsmouth, in the parsonage-house dwelt Thomas Perce the tenant, with his wife and a child, a manservant, Thomas, and a maid-servant. About the beginning of August, anno 1695, on a Monday, about nine or ten at night, all being gone to bed, except the maid with the child, the maid being in the kitchen, and having raked up the fire, took a candle in one hand, and the child in the other arm, and turning about saw one in a black gown walking through the room, and thence out of the door into the orchard. Upon this the maid, hasting up stairs, having recovered but two steps, cried out; on which the master and mistress ran down, found the candle in her hand, she grasping the child about its neck with the other arm. She told them the reason of her crying out; she would not that night tarry in the house, but removed to another belonging to one Henry Salter, farmer; where she cried out all the night from the terror she was in, and she could not be persuaded to go any more to the house upon any terms.

"On the morrow (i.e. Tuesday), the tenant's wife came to me, lodging then at Havant, to desire my advice, and have consult with some friends about it; I told her I thought it was a flam, and that they had a mind to abuse Mr. Brereton the [p.78] rector, whose house it was; she desired me to come up; I told her I would come up and sit up or lie there, as she pleased; for then as to all stories of ghosts and apparitions I was an infidel. I went thither and sate up the Tuesday night with the tenant and his man-servant. About twelve or one o'clock I searched all the rooms in the house to see if any body were hid there to impose upon me. At last we came into a lumber room, there I smiling told the tenant that was with me, that I would call for the apparition, if there was any, and oblige him to come. The tenant then seemed to be afraid, but I told him I would defend him from harm! and then I repeated Barbara celarent Darii, &c., jestingly; on this the tenant's countenance changed, so that he was ready to drop down with fear. Then I told him I perceived he was afraid, and I would prevent its coming, and repeated Baralipton, &c., then he recovered his spirits pretty well, and we left the room and went down into the kitchen, where we were before, and sate up there the remaining part of the night, and had no manner of disturbance.

"Thursday night the tenant and I lay together in one room and the man in another room, and he saw something walk along in a black gown and place itself against a window, and there stood for some time, and then walked off. Friday morning the man relating this, I asked him why he did not call me, and I told him I thought that was a trick or flam; he told me the reason why he did not call me was, that he was not able to speak or move. Friday night we lay as before, and Saturday night, and had no disturbance either of the nights.

"Sunday night I lay by myself in one room (not that where the man saw the apparition), and the tenant and his man in one bed in another room; and betwixt twelve and two the man heard something walk in their room at the bed's foot, and whistling very well; at last it came to the bed's side, drew the curtain and looked on them; after some time it moved off; then the man called to me, desired me to come, for that there was something in the room went about whistling. I asked him whether he had any light or could strike one, he told me na; 1 leapt out of bed, and, not staying to put on my clothes, went out of my room and along a gallery to the door, which I found locked or bolted; I desired him to unlock the door, for that I could not get in; then he got out of bed and opened the [p.79] door, which was near, and went immediately to bed again. I went in three or four steps, and, it being a moonshine night, I saw the apparition move from the bed side, and clap up against the wall that divided their room and mine. I went and stood directly against it within my arm's length of it, and asked it, in the name of God, what it was, that made it come disturbing of us? I stood some time expecting an answer, and receiving none, and thinking it might be some fellow hid in the room to fright me, I put out my arm to feel it, and my hand seemingly went through the body of it, and felt no manner of substance till it came to the wall; then I drew back my hand, and still it was in the same place. Till now I had not the least fear, and even now had very little; then I adjured it to tell me what it was. When I had said those words, it, keeping its back against the wall, moved gently along towards the door. I followed it, and it, going out at the door, turned its back toward me. It went a little along the gallery. I followed it a little into the gallery, and it disappeared, where there was no corner for it to turn, and before it came to the end of the gallery, where was the stairs. Then I found myself very cold from my feet as high as my middle, though I was not in great fear. I went into the bed betwixt the tenant and his man, and they complained of my being exceeding cold. The tenant's man leaned over his master in the bed, and saw me stretch out my hand towards the apparition, and heard me speak the words; the tenant also heard the words. The apparition seemed to have a morning gown of a darkish colour, no hat nor cap, short black hair, a thin meagre visage of a pale swarthy colour, seemed to be of about forty-five or fifty years old; the eyes half shut, the arms hanging down; the hands visible beneath the sleeve; of a middle stature. I related this description to Mr. John Lardner, rector of Havant, and to Major Battin of Langstone, in Havant parish; they both said the description agreed very well to Mr. P., a former rector of the place, who has been dead above twenty years. Upon this the tenant and his wife left the house, which has remained void since.

"The Monday after last Michaelmas-day, a man of Chadson, in Warwickshire, having been at Havant fair, passed by the foresaid parsonage-house about nine or ten at night, and saw a light in most of the rooms of the house; his [p.80] pathway being close by the house, he, wondering at the light, looked into the kitchen window, and saw only a light, but turning himself to go away, he saw the appearance of a man in a long gown; he made haste away; the apparition followed him over a piece of glebe land of several acres, to a lane, which he crossed, and over a little meadow, then over another lane to some pales, which belong to farmer Henry Salter my landlord, near a barn, in which were some of the farmer's men and some others. This man went into the barn, told them how he was frighted and followed from the parsonage-house by an apparition, which they might see standing against the pales, if they went out; they went out, and saw it scratch against the pales, and make a hideous noise; it stood there some time, and then disappeared; their description agreed with what I saw. This last account I had from the man himself, whom it followed, and also from the farmer's men.

"Tno. WILKINS, Curate of W."
"Dec. 11, 1695, Oxon."]

Gay, in imitation of the style of our old Ennius, Chaucer, gives us a fine description of one of these haunted houses:

"Now there spreaden a rumour that everich night
The rooms haunted been by many a sprite,
The miller avoucheth, and all thereabout
That they full oft hearen the hellish rout:
Some same they hear the gingling of chains,
And some hath heard the psautries straines,
At midnight some the heedless horse meet,
And some espien a corse in a white sheet,
And oother things, faye, elfin, and elfe,
And shapes that fear createn to itself."

The learned Selden observes, on this occasion, that there was never a merry world since the fairies left dancing and the parson left conjuring. The opinion of the latter kept thieves³⁵ in awe, and did as much good in a country as a justice of peace.

Bourne, chap, ii., has preserved the form of exorcising a [p.81] haunted house, a truly tedious process, for the expulsion of demons, who, it should seem, have not been easily ferreted out of their quarters, if one may judge of their unwillingness to depart by the prolixity of this removal warrant.

One smiles at Bourne's zeal in honour of his Protestant brethren, at the end of his tenth chapter. The vulgar, he says, think them no conjurors, and say none can lay spirits but popish priests: he wishes to undeceive them, however, and to prove at least negatively that our own clergy know full as much of the black art as the others do.³⁶

St. Chrysostom is said to have insulted some African conjurors of old with this humiliating and singular observation: "Miserable and woful creatures that we are, we cannot so much as expel fleas, much less devils." "Obsession of the devil is distinguished from possession in this: In possession the evil one was said to enter into the body of the man. In obsession, without entering into the body of the person, he was thought to besiege and torment him without. To be lifted up into the air, and afterwards to be thrown down on the ground violently, without receiving any hurt; to speak strange languages that the person had never learned; not to be able to come near holy things or the sacraments, but to have an aversion to them; to know and foretel secret things; to perform things that exceed the person's strength; to say or do things that the person would not or durst not say, if he were not externally moved to it; were the antient marks and criterions of possessions." Calmet, in Bailey's Dictionary.

"Various ways," says an essayist in the Gentleman's Magazine for October, 1732, ii. 1002, "have been proposed by the learned for the laying of ghosts. Those of the artificial sort are easily quieted. Thus when a fryer, personating an apparition, haunted the chambers of the late Emperor Josephus, the present king, Augustus, then at the Imperial Court, flung him out of the window, and laid him effectually. The late Dr. Fowler, Bishop of Gloucester, and the late Mr. Justice [p.82] Powell, had frequent altercations upon this subject. The bishop was a zealous defender of ghosts; the justice somewhat sceptical, and distrustful of their being. In a visit the bishop one day made his friend, the justice told him, that since their last disputation he had had ocular demonstration to convince him of the existence of ghosts. 'How,' says the bishop, 'what! ocular demonstration? I am glad, Mr. Justice, you are become a convert; I beseech you let me know the whole story at large.' 'My lord,' answers the justice, 'as I lay one night in my bed, about the hour of twelve, I was wak'd by an uncommon noise, and heard something coming up stairs, and stalking directly towards my room. I drew the curtain, and saw a faint glimmering of light enter my chamber.' 'Of a blue colour, no doubt,' says the bishop. 'Of a pale blue,' answers the justice; 'the light was follow'd by a tall, meagre, and stern personage, who seemed about seventy, in a long dangling rugg gown, bound round with a broad leathern girdle; his beard thick and grizly: a large fur cap on his head, and a long staff in his hand; his face wrinkled, and of a dark sable hue. I was struck with the appearance, and felt some unusual shocks; for you know the old saying I made use of in court, when part of the lanthorn upon Westminster Hall fell down in the midst of our proceedings, to the no small terror of one or two of my brethren:

'Si fractus illibatur orbis,
Impavidum ferient ruinse.'

But to go on: it drew near, and stared me full in the face.' 'And did not you speak to it?' interrupted the bishop; 'there was money hid or murder committed to be sure.' 'My lord, I did speak to it.' 'And what answer, Mr. Justice?' 'My lord, the answer was (not without a thump of the staff and a shake of the lanthorn), that he was the watchman of the night, and came to give me notice that he had found the street-door open, and that, unless I rose and shut it, I might chance to be robbed before break of day.' The judge had no sooner ended but the bishop disappeared." The same essayist (p. 1001) says: "The cheat is begun by nurses with stories of bugbears, &c., from whence we are gradually led to the traditionary accounts of local ghosts, which, like the genii of the ancients, have been reported to haunt certain family [p.83] seats and cities famous for their antiquities and decays. Of this sort are the apparitions at Verulam, Silchester, Reculver, and Rochester: the daemon of Tidworth, the black dog of Winchester, and the bar-guest of York. Hence also suburban ghosts, raised by petty printers and pamphleteers. The story of Madam Veal has been of singular use to the editors of Drelincourt on Death." And afterwards ironically observes: " When we read of the ghost of Sir George Villiers, of the piper of Hammel, the daemon of Moscow, or the German Colonel mentioned by Ponti, and see the names of Clarendon, Boyle, &c., to these accounts, we find reason for our credulity; till, at last, we are convinced by a whole conclave of ghosts met in the works of Glanvil and Moreton." Mr. Locke assures us we have as clear an idea of spirit as of body.

Allan Ramsay, in his Poems, 1721, p. 27, mentions, as common in Scotland, the vulgar notion that a ghost will not be laid to rest till some priest speak to it, and get account of what disturbs it:

"For well we wat it is his ghaist
Wow, wad some folk that can do't best,
Speak til't, and hear what it confest:
To send a wand'ring saul to rest
'Tis a good deed
Amang the dead."

In the Statistical Account of Scotland, xiii. 557, parish of Lochcarron, county of Ross, we read: "There is one opinion which many of them entertain, and which indeed is not peculiar to this parish alone, that a popish priest can cast out devils and cure madness, and that the Presbyterian clergy have no such power. A person might as well advise a mob to pay no attention to a merry-andrew as to desire many ignorant people to stay from the (popish) priest."

Pliny tells us that houses were anciently hallowed against evil spirits with brimstone! This charm has been converted by later times into what our satirist, Churchill, in his Prophecy of Famine, calls "a precious and rare medicine," and is now used (but I suppose with greater success) in exorcising those of our unfortunate fellow-creatures who feel themselves possessed with a certain teaziug fiery spirit, said by the wits [p.84] of the south to be well known, seen, and felt, and very troublesome in the north.³⁷

In the New Catalogue of Vulgar Errors, 1767, p. 71, I find the following: "I look upon our sailors to care as little what becomes of themselves as any set of people under the sun, and yet no people are so much terrified at the thoughts of an apparition. Their sea-songs are full of them; they firmly believe their existence: and honest Jack Tar shall be more frightened at a glimmering of the moon upon the tackling of the ship, than he would be if a Frenchman was to clap a blunderbuss to his head. I was told a story by an officer in the navy, which may not be foreign to the purpose. About half a dozen of the sailors on board a man-of-war took it into their heads that there was a ghost in the ship; and being asked by the captain what reason they had to apprehend any such thing, they told him they were sure of it, for they smelt him. The captain at first laughed at them, and called them a parcel of lubbers, and advised them not to entertain any such silly notions as these, but mind their work. It passed on very well for a day or two; but one night, being in another ghost-smelling humour, they all came to the captain and told him that they were quite certain there was a ghost, and he was somewhere behind the small-beer barrels. The captain, quite enraged at their folly, was determined they should have something to be frightened at in earnest, and so ordered the boat-swain's mate to give them all a dozen of lashes with a cat o'-nine-tails, by which means the ship was entirely cleared of [p.85] ghosts during the remainder of the voyage. However, when the barrels were removed, some time after, they found a dead rat, or some such thing, which was concluded by the rest of the crew to be the ghost which had been smelt a little before." Our author accounts for this philosophically: "A great deal may be said in favour of men troubled with the scurvy, the concomitants of which disorder are, generally, faintings and the hip, and horrors without any ground for them."

The following was communicated to me by a gentleman, to whom it had been related by a sea captain of the port of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. "His cook," he said, "chanced to die on their passage homeward. This honest fellow, having had one of his legs a little shorter than the other, used to walk in that way which our vulgar idiom calls 'with an up and down.' A few nights after his body had been committed to the deep, our captain was alarmed by his mate with an account that the cook was walking before the ship, and that all hands were upon deck to see him. The captain, after an oath or two for having been disturbed, ordered them to let him alone, and try which, the ship or he, should get first to Newcastle. But, turning out, on farther importunity, he honestly confessed that he had like to have caught the contagion, and on seeing something move in a way so similar to that which an old friend used, and withal having a cap on so like that which he was wont to wear, verily thought there was more in the report than he was at first willing to believe. A general panic diffused itself. He ordered the ship to be steered towards the object, but not a man would move the helm. Compelled to do this himself, he found, on a nearer approach, that the ridiculous cause of all their terror was part of a main-top, the remains of some wreck, floating before them. Unless he had ventured to make this near approach to the supposed ghost, the tale of the walking cook had long been in the mouths, and excited the fears, of many honest and very brave fellows in the Wapping of Newcastle-upon-Tyne."

Dr. Johnson, in his description of the Buller of Buchan, in Scotland, pleasantly tells us: "If I had any malice against a walking spirit, instead of laying him in the Red Sea, I would condemn him to reside in the Buller of Buchan."

Spirits that give disturbance by knocking are no novelties. Thus I find the following passage in Osborne's Advice to his [p.86] Son, 8vo. Oxf. 1656, p. 36. He is speaking of unhappy marriages, which, says he, "must needs render their sleepe unquiet, that have one of those cads or familiars still knocking over their pillow."

Could our author have known of the affair in Cock-lane, he might have been equally happy in alluding to Miss Fanny's scratching.

Allan Ramsay, in his Poems, p. 227, explains spelly coat to be "one of those frightful spectres the ignorant people are terrified at, and tell us strange stories of; that they are clothed with a coat of shells, which make a horrid rattling; that they'll be sure to destroy one, if he gets not a running water between him and it. It dares not meddle with a woman with child."

In the North of England ghost is pronounced "guest." The streets of Newcastle-upon-Tyne were formerly, according to vulgar tradition, haunted by a nightly guest, which appeared in the shape of a mastiff dog, &c., and terrified such as were afraid of shadows. This word is a corruption of the Anglo-Saxon gast, spiritus anima. I have heard, when a boy, many stories concerning it. The following is in Drake's Eboracum, p. 7, Appendix: "Bar-guest of York. I have been so frightened with stories of this bar-guest, when I was a child, that I cannot help throwing away an etymology upon it. I suppose it comes from the A.-S. bujsh, a town, and gast, a ghost, and so signifies a town sprite. N.B. That gast is in the Belgic and Teut. softened into gheest and geyst. Dr. Langwith." In Dr. Akenside's Pleasures of Imagination, b. i. we read:

"Hence by night
The village matron, round the blazing hearth,
Suspends the infant audience with her tales,
Breathing astonishment ! of witching rhymes,
And evil spirits ; of the death-bed call
To him who robb'd the widow, and devour'd
The orphan's portion ; of unquiet souls
Ilis'n from the grave to ease the heavy guilt
Of deeds in life conceal'd; of shapes that walk
At dead of night, and clank their chains, and wave
The torch of hell around the murd'rer's bed.
At every solemn pause the crowd recoil
Gazing each other speechless, and congeal'd
With shivering sighs; till eager for th' event,
Around the beldame all erect they hang,
Each trembling heart with grateful terrors quell'd."

[p.87]

[The following letter appeared in a recent number of the Athenaeum:

"Lower Wick, near Worcester.

"Your correspondent, Mr. Ambrose Merton, in his letter, which appeared in p. 886 of the Athenaeum of the 29th of August last, in speaking of Derbyshire, says, 'is not the neighbourhood of Haddon, or of Hardwicke, or of both, still visited by the coach drawn by headless steeds, drived by a coachman as headless as themselves? Does not such an equipage still haunt the mansion of Parsloes, in Essex?' Now, whether those places are still supposed to be so haunted I cannot say; but I well remember that, in my juvenile days, old people used to speak of a spectre that formerly appeared in the parish of Leigh, in this county, whom they called 'Old Coles;' and said that he frequently used, at the dead of night, to ride as swift as the wind down that part of the public road between Bransford and Brocamin, called Leigh Walk, in a coach drawn by four horses, with fire flying out of their nostrils, and that they invariably dashed right over the great barn at Leigh Court, and then on into the river Teme. It was likewise said that this perturbed spirit was at length laid in a neighbouring pool by twelve parsons, at dead of night, by the light of an inch of candle; and as he was not to rise again until the candle was quite burnt out, it was therefore thrown into the pool, and, to make all sure, the pool was filled up

'And peaceful after slept Old Coles's shade.'

Now, as this legend belongs to ghost instead of fairy lore, and as the scene of action was not in a reputed fairy locality, I therefore did not notice it in my little work 'On the Ignis Fatuus; or Will-o'-the-Wisp and the Fairies;' but it appears to be of kin to those mentioned by your correspondent.

"Upon my lately considering the tenor of this legend, I was led to think that 'Old Coles' must have been a person of some quality, and it induced me to look into Nash's History of Worcestershire, hoping it might throw some light upon the subject. Therein, in his account of Leigh (vol. ii. p. 73), the author says: 'This ancient lordship of the abbots of Pershore falling by the dissolution of monasteries into the king's hands, remained there till Elizabeth's time. The [p.88] tenants of the house and demense, both under the abbot and under the king and queen, were the Colles, of which family was Mr. Edward (Edmund) Colles,³⁸ 'a grave and learned justice of this shire, who purchased the inheritance of this manor,' whose son, William Colles,³⁹ succeeded him; whose son and heir, Mr. Edmund Colles, lived in the time of Mr. Habingdon, and being loaded with debts (which like a snow-ball from Malvern Hill gathered increase), thought fit to sell it to Sir Walter Devereux, Bart.'

"The Colleses were also possessed of the manor of Suckley.⁴⁰ There is a farm called Colles Place (vulgo Coles Place, or Cold Place), in Lusley, 'which is mentioned in a ledger of the Priory of Malvern, in the reign of Henry III. as belonging to the family of Colles.' See Nash, vol. ii. p. 400, which adjoins Leigh; and it shared the same fate, as appears by Nash's History, vol. ii. p. 397, as follows:

"'The manor of Suckley remained in the name of Hungerford till it passed, by purchase, from them to Mr. Edmunds Colles, of Leigh, in the reign of Elizabeth. He left it to his son, Mr. Williams Colles, whose heir, Mr. Edmund Colles, sold it to Sir Walter Devereux, knight and baronet.'

"Now, it is not improbable that the legend may have referred to the unfortunate Edmund Colles the second son, who having lost his patrimony, and perhaps died in distress, his spirit may have been supposed to haunt Leigh Court which was the seat of his joys in prosperity and the object of his regrets in adversity.

"JABEZ ALLIES."

The credulity of our simple and less sceptical forefathers peopled every deserted mansion, and "dismantled tower" in the three kingdoms with its

"Spirit of health, or goblin damn'd."

Few of the well-authenticated legends, rehearsed in the long and dreary nights of winter round the firesides of the neighbouring hamlets, travelled far beyond their immediate localities, and now, in the present age, with an increasing popu- [p.89] lation, which no longer allows the stately dwellings of past generations to remain untenanted, these tales of tradition founded on the evil lives or violent deaths of former possessors are rapidly fading away. We conclude this chapter with the following singular legend, widely differing from the generality of the stories usually handed down:

"The Home of the Spell-bound Giants. There is an apartment, says Waldron, in the Castle of Rushen, that has never been opened in the memory of man. The persons belonging to the castle are very cautious in giving any reason for it; but the natives unconnected with the castle, assign this, that there is something of enchantment in it. They tell you that the castle was at first inhabited with fairies, and afterwards by giants, who continued in the possession of it till the days of Merlin, who, by the force of magic, dislodged the greatest part of them, and bound the rest of them in spells, indissoluble, to the end of the world. In proof of this they tell you a very odd story: They say there are a great many fine apartments under ground, exceeding in magnificence any of the upper rooms. Several men of more than ordinary courage have, in former times, ventured down to explore the secrets of this subterranean dwelling-place, but none of them ever returned to give an account, of what they saw. It was therefore judged expedient that all the passages to it should be continually shut, that no more might suffer by their temerity. About some fifty or fifty-five years since, a person possessed of uncommon boldness and resolution begged permission to visit these dark abodes. He at length obtained his request, went down, and returned by the help of a clue of packthread which he took with him, which no man before himself had ever done, and brought this amazing discovery: 'That after having passed through a great number of vaults, he came into a long narrow place, which the farther he penetrated, he perceived that he went more and more on a descent; till having travelled, as near as he could guess, for the space of a mile, he began to see a gleam of light, which, though it seemed to come from a vast distance, was the most delightful object he ever beheld. Having at length arrived at the end of that lane of darkness, he perceived a large and magnificent house, illuminated with many candles, whence proceeded the light he had seen. Having, before he began the expedition, well fortified [p.90] himself with brandy, he had courage enough to knock at the door, which, on the third knock, was opened by a servant who asked him what he wanted? I would go as far as I can, replied our adventurer; be so kind therefore as to direct me how to accomplish my design, for I see no passage but that dark cavern through which I came. The servant told him he must go through that house; and accordingly led him through a long entry, and out at a back door. He then walked a considerable way, till be beheld another house more magnificent than the first; and, all the windows being open, he discovered innumerable lamps burning in every room.

"'Here also he designed to knock, but had the curiosity to step on a little bank which commanded a view of a low parlour, and, looking in, he beheld a vast table in the middle of the room, and on it extended at full length a man, or rather monster, at least fourteen feet long, and ten or twelve round the body. This prodigious fabric lay as if sleeping with his head upon a bool, with a sword by him, answerable to the hand which he supposed made use of it. The sight was more terrifying to our traveller than all the dark and dreary mansions through which he had passed. He resolved, therefore, not to attempt an entrance into a place inhabited by persons of such monstrous stature, and made the best of his way back to the other house, where the same servant who reconducted him informed him that if he had knocked at the second door he would have seen company enough, but could never have returned. On which he desired to know what place it was, and by whom possessed; the other replied that these things were not to be revealed. He then took his leave, and by the same dark passage got into the vaults, and soon afterwards once more ascended to the light of the sun.' Ridiculous as the narrative appears, whoever seems to disbelieve it, is looked on as a person of weak faith." Description of the Isle of Man, London edit., folio, 1731, pp. 98, 100.

[p.91]

GIPSIES.

THE gipsies, as it should seem by some striking proofs derived from their language,^4l came originally from Hindostan, where they are supposed to have been of the lowest class of Indians, namely Farias, or, as they are called in Hindostan, Suders. They are thought to have migrated about A.D. 1408 or 1409, when Timur Beg ravaged India for the purpose of spreading the Mahometan religion. On this occasion so many thousands were made slaves and put to death, that an universal panic took place, and a very great number of terrified inhabitants endeavoured to save themselves by flight. As every part towards the north and east was beset by the enemy, it is most probable that the country below Multan, to the mouth of the Indus, was the first asylum and rendezvous of the fugitive Suders. This is called the country of Zinganen. Here they were safe, and remained so till Timur returned from his victories on the Ganges. Then it was that they first entirely quitted the country, and probably with them a considerable number of the natives, which will explain the meaning of their original name. By what track they came to us cannot be ascertained. If they went straight through the southern Persian deserts of Sigistan, Makran, and Kirman, along the Persian Gulf to the mouth of the Euphrates, from thence they might get, by Bassora, into the great deserts of Arabia, afterwards into Arabia Petrsea, and so arrive in Egypt by the Isthmus of Suez. They must certainly have been in Egypt before they reached us, otherwise it is incomprehensible how the report arose that they were Egyptians.⁴²

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It seems to be well proved in this learned work that these gipsies came originally from Hindostan. A very copious catalogue is given of gipsy and Hindostan words collated, by which it appears that every third gipsy word is likewise an Hindostan one, or still more, that out of every thirty gipsy words eleven or twelve are constantly of Hindostan. This agreement will appear remarkably great, if we recollect that the above words have only been learned from the gipsies within these very few years, consequently after a separation of near four complete centuries from Hindostan, their supposed native country, among people who talked languages totally different, and in which the gipsies themselves conversed; for under the constant and so long continued influx of these languages, their own must necessarily have suffered great alteration.

In this learned work there is a comparison of the gipsies with the above caste of Suders: but I lay the greatest stress upon those proofs which are deduced from the similarity of the languages. In the supplement it is added that Mr. Marsden, whose judgment and knowledge in such matters are much to be relied upon, has collected, from the gipsies here, as many words as he could get, and that by correspondence from Constantinople he has procured a collection of words used by the Cingaris thereabouts; and these, together with the words by Ludolph in his Historia Æthiopica, compared with the Hindostan vulgar language, show it to be the same that is spoken by the gipsies and in Hindostan. See in the seventh volume of the Archaeologia, p. 388, Observations on the Language of the gipsies by Mr. Marsden; and ibid. p. 387, Collections on the Gipsy Language, by Jacob Bryant, Esq.

In the above work we read that, in 1418, the gipsies first arrived in Switzerland near Zurich and other places, to the number, men, women, and children, of fourteen thousand. The subsequent passage exhibits a proof of a different ten- [p.93] dency. "In a late meeting of the Royal Society of Gottingen, Professor Blumenbach laid before the members a second decad of the crania of persons of different nations contrasted with each other, in the same manner as in the first, and ranged according to the order observed by him in his other works. In the first variety was the cranium of a real gipsy, who died in prison at Clausenburg, communicated by Dr. Patacki of that place. The resemblance between this and that of the Egyptian mummy in the first decad was very striking. Both differed essentially from the sixty-four crania of other persons belonging to foreign nations, in the possession of the author: a circumstance which, among others, tends to confirm the opinion of Professor Meiners, that the Hindoos, from whom Grellman derives the gipsies, came themselves originally from Egypt." British Critic. Foreign Catalogue, ii. 226.⁴³

Harrison, in his Description of England prefixed to Holinshed's Chronicle, 1587, p. 183, describing the various sorts of cheats practised by the voluntary poor, after enumerating those who maim or disfigure their bodies by sores, or counterfeit the guise of labourers or serving men, or mariners seeking for ships which they have not lost, to extort charity, adds: "It is not yet full three score years since this trade began; but how it hath prospered since that time it is easie to judge, for they are now supposed of one sex and another to amount unto above ten thousand persons, as I have heard reported. Moreover, in counterfeiting the Egyptian royes, they have devised a language among themselves which they name canting, but others pedlers French, a speach compact thirty years since of English and a great number of odd words of their own devising, without all order or reason: and yet such is it as none but themselves are able to understand. The first deviser thereof was hanged by the neck, a just reward no doubt for his deceits, and a common end to all of that profession."

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The beggars, it is observable, two or three centuries ago, used to proclaim their want by a wooden dish with a moveable cover, which they clacked, to show that their vessel was empty. This appears from a passage quoted on another occasion by Dr. Grey. Dr. Grey's assertion may be supported by the following passage in an old comedy called the Family of Love, 1608:

"Can you think I get my living by a bell and a clack-dish?
By a bell and a clack-dish? How's that?
Why, begging, Sir," &c.

And by a stage direction in the second part of King Edward IV. 1619: "Enter Mrs. Blague, very poorly, begging with her basket and a clack-dish."

Sir Thomas Browne, in his Vulgar Errors, p. 286, gives this general account of the gipsies: "They are a kind of counterfeit Moors, to be found in many parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa. They are commonly supposed to have come from Egypt, from whence they derive themselves. Munster discovered, in the letters and pass which they obtained from Sigismund the Emperor, that they first came out of Lesser Egypt; that having turned apostates from Christianity and relapsed into Pagan rites, some of every family were enjoined this penance, to wander about the world. Aventinus tells us, that they pretend, for this vagabond course, a judgment of God upon their forefathers, who refused to entertain the Virgin Mary and Jesus, when she fled into their country."

Blackstone, in his Commentaries, has the following account of them: "They are a strange kind of commonwealth among themselves of wandering impostors and jugglers, who first made their appearance in Germany about the beginning of the sixteenth century. Munster, it is true, who is followed and relied upon by Spelman, fixes the time of their first appearance to the year 1417,⁴⁴ but as he owns that the first he ever saw were in 1529, it was probably an error of the press for 1517, especially as other historians inform us, that when Sultan Selim conquered Egypt, in 1517, several of the natives refused to submit to the Turkish yoke, and revolted under [p.95] one Zinganeus, whence the Turks call them Zinganees; but being at length surrounded and banished, they agreed to disperse in small parties all over the world, where their supposed skill in the black art gave them an universal reception in that age of superstition and credulity. In the compass of a very few years they gained such a number of idle proselytes (who imitated their language and complexion, and betook themselves to the same arts of chiromancy, begging and pilfering) that they became troublesome and even formidable to most of the states of Europe. Hence they were expelled from France in the year 1560: and from Spain 1591: and the government of England took the alarm much earlier, for in 1530 they are described, stat. 22 Hen. VIII. c. x., as an 'outlandish people calling themselves Egyptians, using no craft, nor feat of merchandize, who have come into this realm and gone from shire to shire, and place to place, in great company, and used great, subtle, and crafty means to deceive the people, and also have committed many heinous felonies and robberies.' Wherefore they are directed to avoid the realm, and not to return under pain of imprisonment and forfeiture of their goods and chattel;⁴⁵ and upon their trials for any felony which they may have committed, they shall not be intitled to a jury de medietate linguae. And afterwards it was enacted by statutes 1 and 2 Ph. and Mary, c. iv., and 5 Eliz. c. xx., that if any such persons shall be imported into the kingdom, the importers shall forfeit forty pounds. And if the Egyptians themselves remain one month in the kingdom, or if any person, being fourteen years old, whether natural-born subject or stranger, which hath been seen or found in the fellowship of such Egyptians, or which hath disguised him or herself like them, [p.96] shall remain in the same one month at one or several times, it is felony without benefit of clergy. And Sir Matthew Hale informs us that at one Suffolk assize no less than thirteen persons were executed upon these statutes a few years before the Restoration. But, to the honour of our national humanity, there are no instances more modern than this of carrying these laws into practice." Thus far Blackstone.

In the Art of Jugling and Legerdemaine, by S. E., 1612, is the following account: "These kinde of people about an hundred yeares agoe, about the twentieth yeare of King Henry the Eight, began to gather an head, at the first heere about the southerne parts, and this (as I am informed, and as I can gather) was their beginning. Certaine Egiptians banished their cuntry (belike not for their good conditions) arrived heere in England, who, being excellent in quaint tricks and devises, not known heere at that time among us, were esteemed and had in great admiration, for what with strangeness of their attire and garments, together with their sleights and legerdemaines, they were spoke of farre and neere, insomuch that many of our English loyterers joyned with them, and in time learned their craft and cosening. The speach which they used was the right Egyptian language, with whome our Englishmen conversing with, at last learned their language. These people continuing about the cuntry in this fashion, practising their cosening art of fast and loose and legerdemaine, purchased themselves great credit among the cuntry people, and got much by palmistry and telling of fortunes: insomuch they pitifully cosened the poore contry girles, both of money, silver spones, and the best of their apparrell, or any good thing they could make, onely to heare their fortunes." "This Giles Hather (for so was his name) together with his whore Kit Caiot, in short space had following them a pretty traine, he terming himself the king of the Egiptians, arid she the queene, ryding about the cuntry at their pleasure uncontrolld." He then mentions the statute against them of the 1st and 2d of Philip and Mary, on which he observes: "But what a number were executed presently upon this statute, you would wonder: yet, notwithstanding, all would not prevaile: but still they wandred, as before, up and downe, and meeting once in a yee-re at a place appointed: sometimes at the Devils Peake in Darbiskire, and otherwhiles at Ketbrooke by Black- [p.97] heath, or elsewhere, as they agreed still at their meeting." Speaking of his own time, he adds: "These fellows, seeing that no profit comes by wandring, but hazard of their lives, do daily decrease and breake off their wonted society, and betake themselves, many of them, some to be pedlers, some tinkers, some juglers, and some to one kinde of life or other."

Twiss, in his Travels, gives the following account of them in Spain: "They are very numerous about and in Murcia, Cordova, Cadiz, and Honda. The race of these vagabonds is found in every part of Europe; the French call them Bohemiens; the Italians Zingari; the Germans, Ziegenners; the Dutch, Heydenen (Pagans); the Portuguese, Siganos; and the Spaniards, Gitanos; in Latin, Cingari. Their language, which is peculiar to themselves, is everywhere so similar, that they are undoubtedly all derived from the same source. They began to appear in Europe in the fifteenth century, and are probably a mixture of Egyptians and Ethiopians. The men are all thieves, and the women libertines. They follow no certain trade, and have no fixed religion. They do not enter into the order of society, wherein they are only tolerated. It is supposed there are upwards of 40,000 of them in Spain, great numbers of whom are innkeepers in the villages and small towns, and are everywhere fortune-tellers. In Spain they are not allowed to possess any lands, or even to serve as soldiers. They marry among themselves, stroll in troops about the country, and bury their dead under water. They are contented if they can procure food by showing feats of dexterity, and only pilfer to supply themselves with the trifles they want; so that they never render themselves liable to any severer chastisement than whipping for having stolen chickens, linen, &c. Most of the men have a smattering of physic and surgery, and are skilled in tricks performed by sleight of hand. The foregoing account is partly extracted from Le Voyageur François, xvi., but the assertion that they are all so abandoned as that author says is too general."

In a provincial council held at Tarragona in the year 1591 there was the following decree against them: "Curandum etiam est ut publici Magistratus eos coerceant qui se Ægyptiacos vel Bohemianos vocant, quos vix constat esse Christian os, nisi ex eorum relatione; cum tamen sint mendaces, fures, et deceptores, et aliis sceleribus multi eorum assueti."

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The Gipsies are universally considered in the same light, i.e. of cheats and pilferers. Witness the definition of them in Dufresne, and the curious etchings of them by Callot. "Ægyptiaci," says Dufresne, "vagi homines, harioli ac fatidici, qui hac et iliac errantes exmanus inspectione futura praesagire se fingunt, ut de marsupiis incautorum nummos corrogent." The engraver does not represent them in a more favourable light than the lexicographer, for, besides his inimitable delineations of their dissolute manner of living, he has accompanied his plates with verses which are very far from celebrating their honesty.

Pasquier, in his Recherches de la France, has the following account of them: "On August 1 7, 1427, came to Paris twelve Penitents (Penanciers) as they called themselves, viz., a duke, an earl, and ten men, all on horseback, and calling themselves good Christians. They were of Lower Egypt, and gave out that not long before the Christians had subdued their country, and obliged them to embrace Christianity, or put them to death. Those who were baptized were great lords in their own country, and had a king and queen there. Some time after their conversion, the Saracens overran their country and obliged them to renounce Christianity. When the Emperor of Germany, the King of Poland, and other Christian princes, heard this, they fell upon them and obliged them all, both great and small, to quit their country and go to the Pope at Rome, who enjoined them seven years' penance to wander over the world without lying in a bed; every bishop and abbot to give them once 10 livres tournois, and he gave them letters to this purpose, and his blessing.

"They had been wandering five years when they came to Paris. They were lodged by the police out of the city, at Chapelle St. Denis. Almost all had their ears bored, and one or two silver rings in each, which they said was esteemed an ornament in their country. The men were very black, their hair curled; the women remarkably ugly and black, all their faces scarred (deplayez), their hair black, like a horse's tail, their only habit and old shaggy garment (flossoye) tied over their shoulders with a cloth or cord-sash, and under it a poor petticoat or shift. In short they were the poorest wretches it had ever been seen in France; and, notwithstanding their poverty, there were among them women who, by looking into [p.99] people's hands, told their fortunes et meirent contens en plusieurs manages; for they said, 'Thy wife has played thee false' (Ta femme t'a fait coup), and what was worse, they picked people's pockets of their money and got it into their own by telling these things by art, magic, or the intervention of the devil, or by a certain knack." Thus far Pasquier. It is added that they were expelled from France in 1561.

In the Statistical Account of Scotland, ii. 124, parish of Eaglesham, county of Renfrew, we read: "There is no magistrate nearer than within four miles; and the place is oppressed with gangs of gipsies, commonly called tinkers, or randy-beggars, because there is no body to take the smallest account of them."

In Scotland they seem to, have enjoyed some share of indulgence; for a writ of privy seal, dated 1594, supports John Faw, Lord and Earl of Little Egypt, in the execution of justice on his company and folk, conform to the laws of Egypt, and in punishing certain persons there named, who rebelled
against him, left him, robbed him, and refused to return home with him. James's subjects are commanded to assist in apprehending them, and in assisting Faw and his adherents to return home. There is a like writ in his favour from Mary Queen of Scots, 1553; and in 1554 he obtained a pardon for the murder of Nunan Small.⁴⁶ So that it appears he had staid long in Scotland, and perhaps some time in England, and from him this kind of strolling people might receive the name of Faw Gang, which they still retain.

In Lodge's Illustrations of British History, i. 135, is a curious letter of the Justices of Durham to the Earl of Shrewsbury, Lord President of the Council in the North, dated at Duresme, Jan. 19, 1549, concerning the Gipsies and [p.100] Faws: "Pleasyth yo good Lordship t'understaund, John Roland, oon of that sorte of people callinge themsellfes Egiptians, dyd before us accuse Babtist Fawe, Amy Fawe, and George Fawe, Egiptians, that they had counterfeate the kyngs ma ties g rea te geale; wherupon we caused th' above named Babtist, Amye, and George to be apprehended by th' officers, who, emongst other things, dyd find one wryting with a greate seall moche like to the kings ma tie great seall, which we, bothe by the wrytinge, and also by the seall, do suppose to be counterfeate and feanyd; the which seall we do send to your L. herwith, by post, for triall of the same. Signifieng also to yr L. that we have examynet the said Babtist, Amye, and George, upon the said matter; who doithe afierme and saye, with great othes and execracions, that they never dyd see the said seall before this tyme, and that they dyd not counterfeate it; and that the said John Roland is their mortall enemye, and haithe often tymes accused the said Babtist before this, and is moch in his debte, as appeareth by ther wrytinges rely to be shewed, for the whiche money the said John doithe falsly all he can agaynst them, and, as they suppose, the above named John Roland, or some of his complices, haithe put the counterfeate seall emongst there wrytings; with such lyke sayngs. Wherfor we have co'mit all th' above named Egiptians to the gaoll of Duresme, to such time as we do knowe your L. pleasor in the premises. And thus Almightie God preserve your good L. in moche honor. At Duresme this 19th of Januarye, 1549."

There is a well-known Scottish song entitled Johnny Faa, the Gypsie Laddie. There is an advertisement in the Newcastle Courant, July 27, 1754, offering a reward for the apprehending of John Fall and Margaret his wife, William Fall and Jane, otherwise Ann, his wife, &c., "commonly called or known by the name of Fawes," &c. Gipsies still continue to be called "Faws" in the North of England. According to Mr. Halliwell, Dictionary, p. 349, the term appears to be now confined to itinerant tinkers, potters, &c.

Gay, in his Pastorals, speaking of a girl who is slighted by fever, thus describes the Gipsies:

"Last Friday's eve, when as the sun was set
I, near yon stile, three sallow Gipsies met;

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Upon my hand they cast a poring look,
Bid me beware, and thrice their heads they shook;
They said that many crosses I must prove,
Some in my wordly gain, but most in love.
Next morn I miss'd three hens and our old cock,
And, off the hedge, two pinners and a smock." The Ditty.
The following beautiful lines on the same subject are from
Prior's Henry and Emma. Henry is personating a Gipsy.

"A frantic Gipsy now the house he haunts,
And in wild phrases speaks dissembled wants:
With the fond maids in palmistry he deals;
They tell the secret first which he reveals:
Says who shall wed, and who shall be beguil'd,
What groom shall get, and 'squire maintain the child."

Rogers, in his Pleasures of Memory, 1. 107, has also described the Gipsy:

"Down by yon hazel copse, at evening, blaz'd
The Gipsy fagot. There we stood and gaz'd;
Gaz'd on her sun-burnt face with silent awe,
Hertatter'd mantle, and her hood of straw;
Her moving lips, her caldron brimming o'er;
The drowsy brood that on her back she bore,
Imps, in the barn with mousing owlet bred,
From rifled roost at nightly revel fed;
Whose dark eyes flash'd thro' locks of blackest shade,
When in the breeze the distant watch-dog bay'd:
And heroes fled the Sibyl's mutter'd call,
Whose elfin prowess scal'd the orchard wall.
As o'er my palm the silver she drew,
And trac'd the line of life with searching view,
How throbb'd my fluttering pulse with hopes and fears
To learn the colours of my future years!"

Strype, in his Annals of the Reformation, ii. 611, mentions a book written by William Bullein, of Simples and Surgery, A.D. 1562, in which the author speaks of dog-leaches, and Egyptians, and Jews: all pretending to the telling of fortunes and curing by charms. They (dog-leaches) buy some gross stuff, with a box of salve and cases of tools, to set forth their slender market withal, &c. Then fall they to palmistry and telling of fortunes, daily deceiving the simple. Like unto the swarms of vagabonds, Egyptians, and some that call themselves Jews, whose eyes were so sharp as lynx. For they see all the people with their knacks, pricks, domifying, and figuring, with such like fantasies. Paining that they have [p.102] familiers and glasses, whereby they may find things that be lost. And, besides them, are infinite of old doltish witches with blessings for the fair and conjuring of cattel."

Since the repeal of the act against this class of people, which, if I mistake not, took place in 1788, they are said not to be so numerous as before; they still, however, are to be met with, and still pretend to understand palmistry and telling fortunes, nor do I believe that their notions of meum and tuum are one whit less vague than before. Perhaps, in the course of time, they will either degenerate into common beggars, or be obliged to take to a trade or a business for a livelihood. The great increase of knowledge in all ranks of people has rendered their pretended arts of divination of little benefit to them, at least by no means to procure them subsistence.

CUCKING-STOOL.

THE cucking-stool was an engine invented for the punishment of scolds and unquiet women, by ducking them in the water, after having placed them in a stool or chair fixed at the end of a long pole, by which they were immerged in some muddy or stinking pond. Blount tells us that some think it a corruption from ducking-stool,⁴⁷ but that others derive it from choking-stool.⁴⁸ Though of the most remote antiquity, [p.103] it is now, it should seem, totally disused. It was also called a tumbrel, a tribuch or trebuchet,⁴⁹ and a thew."⁵⁰

Henry, in his History of Great Britain, i. 214, tells us that "In Germany, cowards, sluggards, debauchees, and prostitutes, were suffocated in mires and bogs," and adds, "it is not improbable that these useless members and pests of human society were punished in the same manner in this island;" asking at the same time, in a note, "Is not the ducking-stool a relic of this last kind of punishment?"

In the Promptorum Parvulorum, MS. Harl. 221, Brit. Mus. "Esgn, or CUKKYN," is interpreted by stercoriso; and in the Doomsday Survey, in the account of the city of Chester, i. 262, we read: "Vir sive mulier falsam mensuram in civitate faciens deprehensus, iiii. solid, emendab.' Similiter malam cervisiam faciens, aut in CATHEDRA ponebatur STERCORIS, aut iiii. solid, dab prepotis."

Mr. Lysons, in his Environs of London, i. 233, gives us a curious extract from the churchwardens' and chamberlains' accounts at Kingston-upon-Thames, in the year 1572, which contains a bill of expenses⁵¹ for making one of these cucking-stools, which, he says, must have been much in use formerly, as there are frequent entries of money paid for its repairs. He adds, that this arbitrary attempt at laying an embargo upon the female tongue has long since been laid aside. It was continued, however, at Kingston to a late period, as appears from the following paragraph in the London Evening [p.104] Post April 27 to 30, 1745: "Last week a woman that keeps the Queen's Head alehouse at Kingston, in Surrey, was ordered by the court to be ducked for scolding, and was accordingly placed in the chair, and ducked in the river Thames, under Kingston Bridge, in the presence of 2000 or 3000 people."

Cole (MS. Brit. Mus. xlii. 285) in his extracts from Mr. Tabor's book, among instances of Proceedings in the Vice-Chancellor's Court of Cambridge, 1st Eliz., gives: "Jane Johnson, adjudged to the duckinge stoole for scoulding, and commuted her penance. Katherine Sanders, accused by the churchwardens of St. Andrewes for a common scold and slanderer of her neighbours, adjudged to the ducking-stool."

There is an order of the corporation of Shrewsbury, 1669, that "A ducking-stool be erected for the punishment of all scolds." See the History of the Town, 4to. 1779, p. 172. In Harwood's History of Lichfield, p. 383, in the year 1578, we find a charge, "For making a cuckstool with appurtenances, 8s."

Misson, in his Travels in England, p. 40, thus describes the cucking-stool. It may with justice be observed of this author that no popular custom escaped his notice: "Chaise. La maniere de punir les femmes querelleuses et debauchees est assez plaisante en Angleterre. On attache une chaise a bras a l'extremity de deux especes de solives, longues de douze ou quinze pieds et dans un eloignement parallele, en sorte que ces deux pieces de bois embrassent, par leur deux bouts voisins, la chaise qui est entre deux, et qui y est attachee par le cote comme avec un essieu, de telle maniere, qu'elle a du Jeu, et qu'elle demeure toujours dans 1'etat naturel et horisontal auquel une chaise doit etre afin qu'on puisse s'asseoir dessus, soit qu'on 1'eleve, soit qu'on 1'abaisse. On dressee un poteau sur le bord d'un etang ou d'une rivierre, et sur ce poteau on pose, presque en equilibre, la double piece de bois a une des extremitez de laquelle la choise se trouve an dessus de l'eau. On met la femme dans cette chaise, et on la plonge ainsi autant de fois qu'ilaete ordonne, pour rafraichir un peu sa chaleur immoderee." See Ozell's transl. p. 65.

In Whimzies, or a New Cast of Characters, 12mo. Lond. 1631, p. 182, speaking of a Xantippean, the author says: "He (her husband) vowes threfore to bring her in all disgrace [p.105] to the cucldny-stoole; and she vowes againe to bringe him, with all contempt, to the stoole of repentance."

[The following curious notices of it have not been previously quoted: "This month we may safely predict, that the days will be short, and the weather cold; yet not so great a frost as that there will be a fair kept on the Thames. Should all women be like to patient Grizel, then we might make Christmas-blocks of all the cucking-stools" Poor Robin, 1693.

"Since the excellent invention of cucking-stools, to cure women of their tongue combates, 999 years:

"Now if one cucking-stool was for each scold,
Some towns, I fear, would not their numbers hold;
But should all women patient Grizels be,
Small use for cucking-stools they'd have, I see."
                                            Poor Robin, 1746.]

In The New Help to Discourse, 3d edit. 12mo. 1684, p. 236, we read: "On a ducking-stool. Some gentlemen travelling, and coming near to a town, saw an old woman spinning near the ducking-stool; one, to make the company merry, asked the good woman what that chair was made for? Said she, you know what it is. Indeed, said he, not I, unless it be the chair you use to spin in. No, no, said she, you know it to be otherwise: have you not heard that it is the cradle your good mother has often layn in?"

In Miscellaneous Poems, &c., by Benjamin West, of Weedon Beck, Northamptonshire, 8vo. 1780, p. 84, is preserved a copy of verses, said to have been written near sixty years ago, entitled "The Ducking-stool." The description runs thus:

"There stands, my friend, in yonder pool,
An engine call'd a ducking-stool:
By legal pow'r commanded down,
The joy and terror of the town,
If jarring females kindle strife,
Give language foul, or lug the coif;
If noisy dames should once begin
To drive the house with horrid din,
Away, you cry, you'll grace the stool,
We'll teach you how your tongue to rule.
The fair offender fills the seat,
In sullen pomp, profoundly great.
Down in the deep the stool descends,
But here, at first, we miss our ends;

[p.106]

She mounts again, and rages more
Than ever vixen did before.
So, throwing water on the fire
Will make it but burn up the higher.
If so, my friend, pray let her take
A second turn into the lake,
And, rather than your patience lose,
Thrice and again repeat the dose.
No brawling wives, no furious wenches,
No fire so hot but water quenches.
In Prior's skilful lines we see
For these another recipe:
A certain lady, we are told,
(A lady, too, and yet a scold)
Was very much reliev'd, you'll say,
By water, yet a different way;
A mouthful of the same she'd take,
Sure not to scold, if not to speak."

A note informs us, "To the honour of the fair sex in the neighbourhood of R****y, this machine has been taken down (as useless) several years."

[According to the Chelmsford Chronicle, April 10, 1801: "Last week, a woman notorious, for her vociferation, was indicted for a common scold, at Kingston; and the facts being fully proved, she was sentenced to receive the old punishment of being ducked, which was accordingly executed upon her in the Thames by the proper officers, in a chair preserved in the town for that purpose; and as if to prove the justice of the court's sentence, on her return from the water's side, she fell upon one of her acquaintance, without provocation, with tongue, tooth, and nail, and would, had not the officers interposed, have deserved a second punishment, even before she was dry from the first."]

Borlase, in his Natural History of Cornwall, p. 303, tells us: "Among the punishments inflicted in Cornwall, of old time, was that of the cocking-stool, a seat of infamy where strumpets and scolds, with bare foot and head, were condemned to abide the derision of those that passed by, for such time as the bailiffs of manors, which had the privilege of such jurisdiction, did appoint."

Morant, in his History of Essex, i. 317, speaking of Canuden, in the hundred of Rochford, mentions "Cuckingstole Croft, [p.107] as given for the maintenance of a light in this church; as appears by inquisition, 10 Eliz."

In the Regiam Majestatem, by Sir John Skene, this punishment occurs as having been used anciently in Scotland: under "Burrow Lawes," chap. lxix., speaking of Browsters, i.e. "Wemen quha brewes aill to be sauld," it is said, "gif she makes gude ail, that is sufficient. Bot gif she makes evill ail, contrair to the use and consuetude of the burgh, and is convict thereof, she sail pay ane unlaw of aucht shillinges, or sal suffer the justice of the burgh, that is, she sail be put upon the cock-stule, and the aill sail be distributed to the pure folke."

These stools seem to have been in common use when Gay wrote his Pastorals; they are thus described in the Dumps, 1. 105:

"I'll speed me to the pond, where the high stool
On the long plank hangs o'er the muddy pool,
That stool, the dread of ev'ry scolding quean," &c.

["A ducking-stool, a relic of bygone times, and dread of all scolding women, has, by direction of the mayor of Ipswich, been painted and renovated, and suspended over the staircase leading to the council-chamber of the Town Hall, where it will remain a striking memento of the customs of our ancient 'townsfolke.'" Newspaper paragraph, 1843.]

In his xlviiith vol. (MS. Brit. Mus.) p. 172, Cole says: "In my time, when I was a boy, and lived with my grand-mother in the great corner house at the bridge foot next to Magdalen College, Cambridge, and re-built since by my uncle, Mr. Joseph Cock, I remember to have seen a woman ducked for scolding. The chair hung by a pulley fastened to a beam about the middle of the bridge, in which the woman was confined, and let down under the water three times, and then taken out. The bridge was then of timber, before the present stone bridge of one arch was builded. The ducking-stool was constantly hanging in its place, and on the back panel of it was engraved devils laying hold of scolds, &c. Some time after a new chair was erected in the place of the old one, having the same devils carved on it, and well painted and ornamented. When the new bridge of stone was erected, about 1754, this was taken away, and I lately saw the carved and gilt back of it nailed up by the shop of one Mr. Jackson, a [p.108] whitesmith in the Butcher Row, behind the town-hall, who offered it to me, but I did not know what to do with it. In October, 1776, I saw in the old town-hall a third ducking-stool of plain oak, with an iron bar before it to confine the person in the seat ; but I made no inquiries about it. I mention these things as the practice seems now to be totally laid aside." This was written about 1780. Mr. Cole died in 1782.

The stool is represented in a cut annexed to the Dumps, designed and engraved by Lud. du Guernier. There is a wooden cut of one in the frontispiece of the popular penny history of the Old Woman of Ratcliff Highway.

[The best account of the ducking-stool yet published will be found in Mr. Wright's Archaeological Album.]

BRANKS, ANOTHER PUNISHMENT FOR SCOLDING WOMEN.

"THEY have an artifice at Newcastle-under-Lyme and Walsall," says Dr. Plott, in his History of Staffordshire, p. 389, "for correcting of scolds, which it does too, so effectually and so very safely, that I look upon it as much to be preferred to the cucking-stool, which not only ednagers the health of the party, but also gives the tongue liberty 'twixt every dipp, to neither of which this is at all liable; it being such a bridle for the tongue as not only quite deprives them of speech, but brings, shame for the transgression and humility thereupon before 'tis taken off: which being put upon the offender by order of the magistrate, and fastened with a padlock behind, she is led round the town by an officer, to her shame, nor is it taken off till after the party begins to show all external signes imaginable of humiliation and amendment." Dr. Plott, in a copper-plate annexed, gives a representation of a pair of branks. They still preserve a pair in the town court at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where the same custom once prevailed. See Gardiner's England's Grievance of the Coal Trade, and Brand's History of that Town, ii. 192.

[p.109]

DRUNKARD'S CLOAK.

IT appears from Gardiner's England's Grievance in Relation to the Coal Trade, that in the time of the Commonwealth the magistrates of Newcastle-upon-Tyne punished scolds with the branks (just described), and drunkards by making them carry a tub with holes in the sides for the arms to pass through, called the Drunkard's Cloak, through the streets of that town. See Brand's History of Newcastle, wherein is also given a representation of it in a copper-plate, ii. 192.

PILLIWINKES; OR PYREWINKES.

THE pilliwinkes have been already noticed as a torture formerly used in Scotland for suspected witches. We have the following notice of them in Cowel's Law Interpreter: "PYRE-WINKES. Johannes Masham et Thomas Bote de Bury, die Lunse proxime ante Festum Apostolorum Symonis et Judse, anno regni Henrici Quarti post Conquestum tertio, malitia et conspiratione inter eos inde prsehabitis quendam Robertum Smyth de Bury ceperunt infra predictam villam, et ipsum infra domum dicti Johannis Masham in ferro posuerunt et cum cordis ligaverunt, et super pollices ipsius Uoberti quoddam instrumentum vocatum PYREWINKES ita stride et dure posuerunt, quod sanguis exivit de digitis illius." Ex Cartular. Abbatise Sancti Edmundi. MS. fol. 341.

PILLORY.

ON the subject of this punishment the reader is referred to Douce's Illustrations of Shakspeare, and of Ancient Manners, i. 146-150, where several varieties of the method of inflicting it are graphically represented. One of the oldest names of the pillory was Collistrigium, from the stretching out or projection of the head through a hole made in the pillory for that purpose, or through an iron collar or carcan sometimes [p.110] attached to the pillar itself. In early times, in England, it was the punishment most commonly inflicted upon thievish millers and bakers. An interesting article upon the history of this punishment, and of its abolition, in the different States of Europe, will be found in the Penny Cyclopaedia, xviii. 159.

OMENS.

"L. Paullus Consul iterura, cum et, bellum ut cum Rege Perse gereret, obtigisset; ut ea ipsa die domum ad vesperum rediit, filiolam suam tertiam, quse turn erat admodura parva, osculans animum advertit tristiculam: quid est, inquit, mea tertia? quid tristis es? Mi pater, inquit Persa periit. Turn ille arctius puellam complexus, accipio OMEN, inquit, meafilia: erat enim mortuus catellus eo nomine." Cic. DE DIVINAT. lib. i. sect. 46.

THE word Omen is well known to signify a sign, good or bad, or a prognostic. It may be defined to be that indication of something future, which we get as it were by accident, and without our seeking for.

A superstitious regard to omens seems anciently to have made very considerable additions to the common load of human infelicity. They are now pretty generally disregarded, and we look back with perfect security and indifference on those trivial and truly ridiculous accidents which alternately afforded matter of joy and sorrow to our ancestors.⁵¹ Omens [p.111] appear to have been so numerous that we must despair of ever being able to recover them all: and to evince that in all ages men have been self-tormentors, the bad omens fill a catalogue infinitely more extensive than that of the good.

"Omens and prognostications of things," says Bourne, Antiq. Vulg. p. 20, "are still in the mouths of all, though only observed by the vulgar. In country places especially they are in great repute, and are the directors of several actions of life, being looked upon as presages of things future, or the determiners of present good or evil." He specifies several, and derives them with the greatest probability from the heathens, whose observation of these he deduces also from the practice of the Jews, with whom it was a custom to ask signs. He concludes all such observations at present to be sinful and diabolical. The following lines, which have more truth than poetry in them, are from Withers's Abuses Stript and Whipt, 8vo. Lond. 1613, p. 167:

"For worthlesse matters some are wondrous sad,
Whom if I call not vaine I must terme mad.
If that their noses bleed some certaine drops,
And then again upon the suddaine stops,
Or, if the babling foule we call a jay,
A squirrell, or a hare, but crosse their way,
Or, if the salt fall towards them at table,
Or any such like superstitious bable,
Their mirth is spoil'd, because they hold it true
That some mischance must thereupon ensue."

The subsequent, on the same subject, from Dryden and Lee's Œdipus, act iv. sc. 1, need no apology for their introduction:

"For when we think fate hovers o'er our heads,
Our apprehensions shoot beyond all bounds,
Owls, ravens, crickets seem the watch of death;
Nature's worst vermin scare her godlike sons;
Echoes, the very leavings of a voice,
Grow babbling ghosts and call us to our graves:
Each mole-hill thought swells to a huge Olympus,
While we, fantastic dreamers, heave, and puff,
And sweat with an imagination's weight;
As if, like Atlas, with these mortal shoulders
We could sustain the burden of the world."

In the Statistical Account of Scotland, xiv. 541, parish of Forglen, in the county of Banff, we read: "Still some charms [p.112] are secretly used to prevent evil; and some omens looked to by the older people."⁵²

Dr. Hickes, in a letter to Dr. Charlett, Master of University College, Oxford, dated Jan. 23, 1777, and preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, mentions "the OMENS that happened at the coronation of K. James the Second, which," says he, "I saw: viz. the tottering of the crown upon his head; the broken canopy over it; and the rent flag hanging upon the White Tower when I came home from the coronation. It was torn by the wind at the same time the signal was given to the tower that he was crowned. I put no great stress upon these omens, but I cannot despise them ; most of them, I believe come by chance, but some from superior intellectual agents, especially those which regard the fate of kings and nations." See the Supplement to Seward's Anecdotes, p. 81. Of this unfortunate monarch, his brother, Charles the Second, is said to have prophesied as follows, with great success: the king said one day to Sir Richard Bulstrode, "I am weary of travelling, I am resolved to go abroad no more: but when I am dead and gone, I know not what my brother will do; I am much afraid when he comes to the throne he will be obliged to travel again." Ibid. p. 51.

Gay, in his fable of the Farmer's Wife and the Raven, ridicules, in the following manner, some of our superstitious omens:

"Why are those tears? why droops your head?
Is then your other husband dead?
Or does a worse disgrace betide?
Hath no one since his death applied?
Alas ! you know the cause too well.
The salt is spilt, to me it fell;
Then, to contribute to my loss,
My knife and fork were laid across,

[p.113]

On Friday too ! the day I dread
Would I were safe at home in bed!
Last night, (I vow to Heav'n 'tis true,)
Bounce from the fire a coffin flew.
Next post some fatal news shall tell!
God send my Cornish friends be well!
That raven on yon left-hand oak
(Curse on his ill-betiding croak)
Bodes me no good. No more she said,
When poor blind Ball, with stumbling tread,
Fell prone ; o'erturn'd the pannier lay,
And her mash'd eggs bestrew'd the way.
She, sprawling in the yellow road,
Rail'd, swore, and curst: Thou croaking toad,
A murrain take thy whoreson throat!
I knew misfortune in the note.
Dame, quoth the raven, spare your oaths,
Unclench your fist, and wipe your clothes;
But why on me those curses thrown?
Goody, the fault was all your own;
For, had you laid this brittle ware
On Dun, the old sure-footed mare,
Though all the ravens of the hundred
With croaking had your tongue out-thunder'd,
Sure-footed Dun had kept her legs,
And you, good woman, sav'd your eggs."

"Nothing is more contrary to good sense than imagining everything we see and hear is a prognostic either of good or evil, except it be the belief that nothing is so." Secret Memoirs of the late Mr. Duncan Campbell, 8vo. Lond. 1732, p. 60.

Aubrey, in his Remains of Gentilisme, notices several portents which happened before changes of government in his time. At Sir Thomas Trenchard's, at Lichyat in Dorset, on the first day of the sitting of the parliament, 1641, while the family were at dinner, the sceptre fell out of the king's hand, in plaister, in the hall. At his majesty's trial the head of his cane fell off. And before Cromwell's death a great whale came to Greenwich. He notices, also, the tearing of the canopy at James the Second's coronation, in returning from the Abbey: adding, "'twas of cloth of gold (and my strength I am confident could not have rent it), and it was not a windy day."

[At Islip, co. Oxon, it is reckoned very unlucky to transplant parsley.]

[p.114]

CHILD'S CAUL, OR SILLY HOW.⁵³

CAULS are little membranes found on some children, encompassing the head, when born. This is thought a good omen to the child itself, and the vulgar opinion is, that whoever obtains it by purchase will be fortunate, and escape dangers. An instance of great fortune in one born with this coif is given by Ælius Lampridius, in his History of Diadumenus, who came afterwards to the sovereign dignity of the empire. This superstition was very prevalent in the primitive ages of the church. St. Chrysostom inveighs against it in several of his homilies. He is particularly severe against one Praetus, a clergyman, who, being desirous of being fortunate, bought such a coif of a midwife.⁵⁴

In France it is proverbial: "etre ne coiffe'e" is an expression⁵⁵ signifying that a person is extremely fortunate. This [p.115] caul, thought medical in diseases, is also esteemed an infallible preservative against drowning: and, under that idea, is frequently advertised for sale in our public papers and purchased by seamen. Midwives used to sell this membrane to advocates, as an especial means of making them eloquent. They sold it also for magical uses. Grose says that a person possessed of a caul may know the state of health of the party who was born with it: if alive and well, it is firm and crisp: if dead or sick, relaxed and flaccid.⁵⁶

Sir Thomas Browne thus accounts for this phenomenon. "To speak strictly," he says, "the effect is natural, and thus to be conceived: the infant hath three teguments, or membranaceous filmes, which cover it in the womb, i.e. the corion, amnios, and allantois; the corion is the outward membrane, wherein are implanted the veins, arteries, and umbilical ves- [p.116] sels, whereby its nourishment is conveyed; the allantois, a thin coat seated under the corion, wherein are received the watery separations conveyed by the urachus, that the acrimony thereof should not offend the skin: the amnios is a general investment, containing the sudorous, or thin serosity perspirable through the skin. Now about the time when the infant breaketh these coverings, it sometimes carrieth with it, about the head, apart of the amnios or nearest coat: which, saith Spigelius, either proceedeth from the toughness of the membrane or weaknesse of the infant that cannot get clear thereof, and therefore herein significations are natural and concluding upon the infant, but not to be extended unto magical signalities, or any other person."⁵⁷

In the north of England, and in Scotland, a midwife is called a howdy or howdy wife. I take howdy to be a diminutive of how, and to be derived from this almost obsolete opinion of old women. I once heard an etymon of howdy to the following effect: "How d'ye," midwives being great gossipers. This is evidently of a piece with Swift's "all eggs under the grate."

I copied the subsequent advertisement from the London Morning Post, No. 2138, Saturday, Aug. 21st, 1779: "To the gentlemen of the navy, and others going long voyages to sea. To be disposed of, a Child's Caul. Enquire at the Bartlet Buildings Coffee House in Holborn. N.B. To avoid unnecessary trouble the price is twenty guineas."

I read also an advertisement, similar to the above, in the Daily Advertiser, in July 1790.

In the Times newspaper for February 20th, 1813, the following advertisement occurred: "A Child's Caul to be sold, in the highest perfection. Enquire at No. 2, Church Street, Minories. To prevent trouble, price twelve pounds." And, in the same newspaper for February 27th, 1813, two adver- [p.117] tisements of cauls together: "CAUL. A Child's Caul to be sold. Enquire at No. 2, Greystoke Place, Fetter Lane." "To persons going to sea. A Child's Caul, in a perfect state, to be sold cheap. Apply at 5, Duke Street, Manchester Square, where it may be seen."

[And again, May 8th, 1848, "A Child's Caul. Price six guineas. Apply at the bar of the Tower Shades, corner of Tower Street. The above article, for which fifteen pounds was originally paid, was afloat with its late owner thirty years in all the perils of a seaman's life, and the owner died at last at the place of his birth."]

Weston, in his Moral Aphorisms from the Arabic, 8vo. Lond. 1801, p. xii., gives the following: "The caul that enfolds the birth is the powerful guardian, like the sealring of a monarch, for the attainment of the arch of heaven, where, in the car of a bright luminary, it is crowned and revolved." As a note, he says: "The superstition of the caul comes from the East; there are several words in Arabic for it. It is not out of date with us among the people, and we often see twenty-five and thirty guineas advertised for one."

Lampridius, speaking of Diadumenus, says: "Solent deinde pueri pileo insigniri naturali, quod obstetrices rapiunt et advocatis credulis vendunt, siquidem causidici hoc juvari clicuntur: at iste puer pileum non habuit, sed diadema tenue, sed ita forte ut rumpi non potuerit, venis intercedentibus specii nervi sagittarii." Douce observes on this: "One is immediately struck with the affinity of the judge's coif⁵⁸ to this practice of antiquity. To strengthen this opinion it may be added, that, if ancient lawyers availed themselves of this popular superstition, or fell into it themselves if they gave great sums to win these cauls, is it not very natural to suppose that they would feel themselves inclined to wear them?"

Sir Thomas Browne says: "Thus we read in the Life of Antonius, by Spartianus, that children are sometimes born [p.118] with this natural cap, which midwives were wont to sell to credulous lawyers, who held an opinion that it contributed to their promotion."

In the Athenian Oracle, iii. 84, we read: "Some would persuade us that such as are born with cauls about their heads are not subject to the miseries and calamities of humanity, as other persons are to expect all good fortune, even so far as to become invulnerable, provided they be always careful to carry it about them. Nay, if it should by chance be lost, or surreptitiously taken away, the benefit of it would be transferred to the party that found it." In Digby's Elvira, act v., Don Zancho says:

"Were we not born with cauls upon our heads?
Think'st thou, chicken, to come off twice arow
Thus rarely from such dangerous adventures?"

In Jonson's Alchymist, Face says:

"Yes and that
Yo' were born with a cawl o' your head."

Melton, in his Astrologaster, p. 45, mentions this superstition: "22. That if a child be borne with a cawle on his head he shall be very fortunate." See also upon this subject Le Brun in his Superstitions Anciennes et Modernes.

I am of opinion that the vulgar saying, "Oh, you are a lucky man ; you were wrapped up in a part of your mother's smock," originated in this superstition. In the Athenian Oracle, iii. 84, speaking of this cawl, the authors say: "We believe no such correspondences betwixt the actions of human life and that shirt."

In Willis's Mount Tabor, or Private Exercises of a Penitent Sinner, 1639, p. 89: "There was one special remarkable thing concerning myself, who being my parents' first son, but their second child (they having a daughter before me), when I came into the world, my head, face, and foreparts of the body were all covered over with a thin kell or skin, wrought like an artificial veile; as also my eldest sonne, being likewise my second childe, was borne with the like extraordinary covering : our midwives and gossips holding such children as come so veiled into the world, to be very fortunate (as they call it), there being not one child amongst many hundreds that are so borne; and this to fall out in the same manner both to the [p.119] father and the sonne being much more rare," &c. He goes on to make religious reflections thereupon, which are foreign to our present purpose. He entitles this chapter, "Concerning an extraordinary Veile which covered my Body at my comming into the World."

In Advice to a Painter, a poem, printed for J. Davis, 1681, 4to. (no place), is the following passage, canto ii. p. 2:

"Barking bear-ward
Whom pray'e dont forget to paint with's staff,
Just at this green bear's tail,
Watching (as carefull neat-herds do their kine)
Lest she should eat her nauseous secundine.
Then draw a hawthorn bush, and let him place
The heam upon't with faith that the next race
May females prove."

With this explanation at p. 13: "This alludes to a little piece of superstition which the country people use, carefully attending their calving cows, lest they should eat their after burthen, which they commonly throw upon a hawthorn bush, with stedfast belief that they shall have a cow-calf the next year after." Heam is explained to mean "the same in beasts as the secundine or skin that the young is wrapped in."

SNEEZING.

SNEEZING has been held ominous from times of the most remote antiquity.⁵⁹ Eustathrus upon Homer has long ago observed, that sneezing to the left was unlucky, but prosperous to the right. Aristotle has a problem: "Why sneezing from noon to midnight was good, but from night to noon unlucky." St. Austin tells us that "the ancients were wont to go to bed again, if they sneezed while they put on their shoe."

Xenophon having ended a speech to his solders with these words: viz. "We have many reasons to hope for preserva- [p.120] tion; "they were scarce uttered when a soldier sneezed: the whole army took the omen, and at once paid adoration to the gods. Then Xenophon, resuming his discourse, proceeded: "Since, my fellow-soldiers, at the mention of your preservation, Jupiter has sent this omen," &c. Cambridge's Scribleriard, b. iii. note on 1. 199.⁶⁰

In Hormanni Vulgaria we read: "Two or three neses be holsom; one is a shrewd token. Bi'na aut terna sternutatio salutaris; solitaria vero gravis." Hornmannus de Miraculis Mortuorum, cap. clxiii., cites Scot, c. 57, for the following passage on the subject: "Si duae sternutationes fiant omni nocte ab aliquo, et illud continuitur per tres noctes, signo est, quod aliquis vel aliqua de domo morietur vel aliud damnum domui continget vel maximum Lucrum."

In Alexander Boss's Appendix to Arcana Microscomi, p. 222, we read: "Prometheus was the first that wisht well to the sneezer, when the man, which he had made of clay, fell into a fit of sternutation, upon the approach of that celestial fire which he stole from the sun. This gave original to that custome among the Gentiles in saluting the sneezer. They used also to worship the head in sternutation, as being a divine part and seat of the senses and cogitation."

When Themistocles sacrificed in his galley before the battle of Xeres, and one of the assistants upon the right hand [p.121] sneezed, Euphrantides, the soothsayer, presaged the victory of the Greeks and the overthrow of the Persians. See Plutarch, in his Life of Themistocles.

The Rabbinical account of sneezing is very singular. It is that, "sneezing was a mortal sign even from the first man, until it was taken off by the special supplication of Jacob. From whence, as a thankful acknowledgment, this salutation first began, and was after continued by the expression of Tobim Chaiim, or vita bona, by standers by, upon all occasions of sneezing." Buxtorf. Lex. Chald.

The custom of blessing persons when they sneeze has without doubt been derived to the Christian world,⁶¹ where it generally prevails, from the time of heathenism.⁶² Carolus Sigonius, in his History of Italy, would deduce it, but most certainly erroneously, from a pestilence that happened in the time of Gregory the Great, that proved mortal to such as sneezed.

In the Gent. Mag. for April 1771, are the following remarks on sneezing, from Historical Extracts, transl. from the New History of France, begun by Velley, continued by Villaret, and now finishing by Gamier: "Of Sneezing. The year 750 is commonly reckoned the era of the custom of saying God bless you, to one who happens to sneeze, It is said that, in the time of the pontificate of St. Gregory the Great, [p.122] the air was filled with such a deleterious influence, that they who sneezed immediately expired. On this the devout pontiff appointed a form of prayer, and a wish to be said to persons sneezing, for averting them from the fatal effects of this malignancy. A fable contrived against all the rules of probability, it "being certain that this custom has from time immemorial subsisted in all parts of the known world. According to mythology, the first sign of life Prometheus' s artificial man gave was by sternutation. This supposed creator is said to have stolen a portion of the solar rays; and filling with them a phial, which he had made on purpose, sealed it up hermetically. Pie instantly flies back to his favourite automaton, and opening the phial held it close to the statue; the rays, still retaining all their activity, insinuate themselves through the pores, and set the factitious man a sneezing. Prometheus, transported with the success of his machine, offers up a fervent prayer, with wishes for the preservation of so singular a being. His automaton observed him, remembering his ejaculations, was very careful, on the like occasions, to offer these wishes in behalf of his descendants, who perpetuated it from father to son in all their colonies. The Rabbies, speaking of this custom, do likewise give it a very ancient date. They say that, not long after the creation, God made a general decree that every man living should sneeze but once, and that at the very instant of his sneezing his soul should depart without any previous indisposition. Jacob by no means liked so precipitate a way of leaving the world, as being desirous of settling his family affairs, and those of his conscience; he prostrated himself before the Lord, wrestled a second time with him, and earnestly entreated the favour of being excepted from the decree. His prayer was heard, and he sneezed without dying. All the princes of the universe, being acquainted with the fact, unanimously ordered that, for the future, sneezing should be accompanied with thanksgivings for the preservation, and wishes for the prolongation, of life. We perceive, even in these fictions, the vestiges of tradition and history, which place the epocha of this civility long before that of Christianity. It was accounted very ancient even in the time of Aristotle, who, in his Problems, has endeavoured to account for it, but knew nothing of its origin. According to him, the first men, prepossessed with the ideas concerning the head, as [p.123] the principal seat of the soul, that intelligent substance governing and animating the whole human system, carried their respect to sternutation, as the most manifest and most sensible operation of the head. Hence those several forms of compliments used on similar occasions amongst Greeks and Romans: Long may you live! May you enjoy health! Jupiter preserve you."⁶³]

There are some superstitions relating to sneezing mentioned in the notes to the variorum edition of Minutius Felix, p. 243. See also Chevraeana, i. 170, and Beloe's Herodotus, iii. 105. Pliny, in addition to what has been already quoted, says that to sneeze to the right was deemed fortunate, to the left and near a place of burial the reverse.

The custom has an older era. Apuleius mentions it three hundred years before; as does Pliny⁶⁴ also in his problem, "cur sternutantes salutantur." Petronius Arbiter too describes it.⁶⁵ Caelius Rhodoginus has an example of it among [p.124] the Greeks, in the time of Cyrus the younger;⁶⁶ and it occurs as an omen in the eighteenth Iclyllium of Theocritus.⁶⁷ In the Greek Anthology it is alluded to in an Epigram.⁶⁸

The custom here noticed was found by our first navigators in the remotest parts of Africa and the East. When the King of Mesopotamia sneezes, acclamations are made in all parts of his dominions. The Siamese wish long life to persons sneezing; for they believe that one of the judges of hell keeps a register wherein the duration of men's lives is written, and that, when he opens this register and looks upon any particular leaf, all those whose names happen to be entered in such leaf never fail to sneeze immediately. See the Dictionn. des Origines.

Hanway, in his Travels into Persia, tells us that sneezing is held a happy omen among the Persians, especially when repeated often. There is a pretty story on this subject in Menagiana, tom. iii. ad finem:

"Un petit-maitre, apres mauvaise chance,
Sortoit du jeu la tabatiere en main.
Uri gueux passoit, qui vient a lui soudain
Lui demandant 1'aumone avec instance.
Des deux cotez grande etoit 1'indigence.
II ne me reste, ami, dit le joueur
Que du tabac. En vueux tu? Serviteur,
Repond le gueux, qui n'etoit pas trop nice,
Nul besoin n'ai d'eternuer, seigneur,
Chacun me dit assez, Dieu vous benisse."

[p.125] Sir Thomas Browne, on the authority of Hippocrates, says that "sneezing cures the hiccup, is profitable to parturient women, in lethargies, apoplexies, catalepsies. It is bad and pernicious in diseases of the chest, in the beginning of catarrhs, in new and tender conceptions, for then it endangers abortion."

Sneezing being properly a motion of the brain suddenly expelling through the nostrils what is offensive to it, it cannot but afford some evidence of its vigour, and therefore, saith Aristotle, they that hear it [Greek], honour it as something sacred and a sign of sanity in the diviner part, and this he illustrates from the practice of physicians, who in persons near death use sternutatories (medicines to provoke sneezing), when if the faculty arise, and sternutation ensues, they conceive hopes of life, and with gratulation receive the sign of safety. Thus far Sir Thomas Browne.

In Langley's abridgment of Polydore Vergil, fol. 130, it it is said: "There was a plague whereby many as they neezed dyed sodeynly, werof it grew into a custome that they that were present when any man neezed should say, 'God helpe you.' A like deadly plage was sometyme in yawning, wheribre menne used to fence themselves with the signe of the crosse: bothe which customes we reteyne styl at this day."

To the inquiry, "Why people say, 'God bless you,' when any one sneezes," the British Apollo, ii. No. 10, (fol. Lond. 1709,) answers: "Violent sneezing was once an epidemical and mortal distemper, from whence the custom specified took its rise. In one of Martial's epigrams. We find that the Romans had the same custom; and not improbably derived from the same reason." The same work, iii. No. 15, adds: "But 'tis a mistake to think that sneezing is any more a sign of recovery now than formerly; for it is still sometimes a forerunner of dangerous distempers, as catarrhs and epilepsies, which have likewise been sometimes epidemical. And this is the occasion of the custom of blessing people when they sneeze."

Gaule, in his Mag-astromancers posed and puzzel'd, p. 181, with various other vain observations and superstitious ominations thereupon, mentions "the sneezing at meat." In Howel's Proverbs, fol. Lond. 1059, the following occurs: "He hath sneezed thrice, turn him out of the hospital;" that [p.126] is, he will now do well. You need keep him no longer as a patient, but may discharge him. In the Rules of Civility, 1685 (translated from the French), we read, p. 64: "If his lordship chances to sneeze, you are not to bawl out, 'God bless you, sir,' but pulling off your hat, bow to him handsomely, and make that obsecration to yourself." In the Schoole of Slovenrie, or Cato turn'd wrong side outward, translated out of Latine into English Verse, to the use of all English Christendome except Court and Cittie; by R. F., Gent., 4to. Lond. 1605, p. 6, is the following:

"When you would sneeze, strait turne yourselfe into your neibour's face:
As for my part, wherein to sneeze, I know no fitter place;
It is an order, when you sneeze good men will pray for you;
Marke him that doth so, for I thinke he is your friend most true.
And that your friend may know who sneezes, and may for you pray,
Be sure you not forget to sneeze full in his face alway.
But when thou hear'st another sneeze, although he be thy father,
Say not God bless him, but Choak up, or some such matter, rather."

The original of this ironical advice runs thus:

"Sternutare volens vicino obvertito vultum:
Quo potius vertas vix reor esse locuia.
Mas habet ut quidam bene sternutantibus optent,
Id tibi qui faciat forsan amicus erit.
Quo sciat ergo suum te sternutasse sodalem,
Illius ad faciem sit tua versa velim.
Tu tamen in simili causa bona nulla preceris,
Vel tua si graviter sternutet ipsa parens."

The following are found in Robert's Keuchenii Crepundia, p. 113:

Sternutamentum.

"Sternutamentum medici prodesse loquuntur:
Sterno tamen mentem, critici sic esse loquuntur."

Idem.

"Sim vitium, sim morbusve, Salus mihi sufficit: ana De mhili prescribe pari medicamine: prosit."

It is received at this day in the remotest parts of Africa. So we read in Codignus, that upon a sneeze of the emperor of Monotapha, there passed acclamations through the city. And as remarkable an example there is of the same custom in the remotest parts of the East, in the Travels of Pinto.

Sir Thomas Browne supposes that the ground of this ancient [p.127] custom was the opinion the ancients held of sternutation, which they generally conceived to be a good sign or a bad, and so upon this motion accordingly used a "Salve," or Zev awaovy as a gratulation from the one, and a deprecation from the other.⁶⁸

DREAMS.

[Greek]. Hom.

"Omnia quse sensu volvuntur vota diurno,
Pectore sopito re'ddit arnica quies.
Venator defessa toro cum membra reponit,
Mens tamen ad silvas, et sua lustra redit.
Judicibus lites, aurigfe somnia currus,
Vanaque nocturnis meta cavetur equis.
Me quoque musarum stadium, sub nocte silenti
Artibus assuetis sollicitare solet."
        Claudiani in lib. iii. de Raptu Proserpinse. Prefat.

"Dreams are but the rais'd
Impressions of premeditated things,
Our serious apprehension left upon
Our minds, or else th' imaginary shapes
Of objects proper to the complexion
Or disposition of our bodies."
                Cotgrave's English Treasury of Wit and Language, p. 263.

DREAMS, as the Sacred Writings inform us, have on certain occasions been used as the divine mediums of revelation. The consideration of them in this view is foreign to our present purpose. The reader, inquisitive on this head, may be referred to Amyraldus on Divine Dreams, as translated by Ja. Lowde, 8vo. Lond. 1676. Dreams, as connected with our present design, may either come under the head of Omens or that of Divination. Homer has told us that the dream comes [p.128] from Jupiter, and in all ages and every kingdom the idea that some knowledge of the future is to be derived from them has always composed a very striking article in the creed of popular superstitions.⁶⁹

Cornelius Agrippa, in his Vanity of Sciences, p. 105, speaking of Interpretation of Dreams, says: "To this delusion not a few great philosophers have given not a little credit, especially Democritus, Aristotle, and his follower, Themistius; Sinesius, also, the Platonic; so far building upon examples of dreams, which some accident hath made to be true, that thence they endeavour to persuade men that there are no dreams but what are real. But as to the causes of dreams, both external and internal, they do not all agree in one judgment. For the Platonics reckon them among the specific and concrete notions of the soul. Avicen makes the cause of dreams to be an ultimate intelligence moving the moon in the middle of that light
with which the fancies of men are illuminate while they sleep. Aristotle refers the cause thereof to common sense, but placed in the fancy. Averroes places the cause in the imagination. Democritus ascribes it to little images or representatives separated from the things themselves; Albertus, to the superior influences which continually flow from the skie through many specific mediums. The physicians impute the cause thereof to vapours and humours; others to the affections and cares predominant in persons when awake. Others joyn the powers of the soul, celestial influences, and images together, all making but one cause. Arthemidorus and Daldianus have written of the interpretation of dreams; and certain books go about under Abraham's name, whom Philo, in his Book of the Gyants and of Civil Life, asserts to have been the first practiser thereof. Other treatises there are, falsified under the names of David and Salomon, wherein are to be read nothing but meer dreams concerning dreams. But Marcus Cicero, in his Book of Divination, hath given sufficient reasons against [p.129] the vanity and folly of those that give credit to dreams, which I purposely here omit."⁷⁰

Henry, in his History of Great Britain, vol. iii. p. 575, tells us: "We find Peter of Blois, who was one of the most learned men of the age in which he flourished, writing an account of his dreams to his friend the Bishop of Bath, and telling him how anxious he had been about the interpretation of them; and that he had employed for that purpose divination by the Psalter. The English, it seems probable, had still more superstitious curiosity, and paid greater attention to dreams and omens than the Normans; for, when William Rufus was dissuaded from going abroad on the morning of that day on which he was killed, because the Abbot of Gloucester had dreamed something which portended danger, he is said to have made this reply: 'Do you imagine that I am an Englishman, to be frighted by a dream, or the sneezing of an old woman?'

In the Sapho and Phao of Lilly (the play-writer of the time of Queen Elizabeth), 4to. Lond. 1584, are some pleasant observations on dreams, act iv. sc. 3: "And can there be no trueth in dreams? Yea, dreams have their trueth. Dreames are but dotings, which come either by things we see in the day, or meates that we eate, and so the common sense pre- [p.130] ferring it to be the imaginative. I dreamed," says Ismena. "mine eye-tooth was loose, and that I thrust it out with mj tongue. It fortelleth," replies Mileta, "the losse of a friend; and I ever thought thee so full of prattle, that thou wouldest thrust out the best friend with thy tatling."

Gaule, in his Mag-astromancers posed and puzzel'd, p. 181, gives us, among many other vain observations and superstitious ominations thereupon "the snorting in sleep," "the dreaming of gold, silver, eggs, gardens, weddings, dead men, dung," &c.

The following from Cicero will be thought to contain some pleasantry on the subject of dreams: "Cicero, among others, relates this: a certain man dreamed that there was an egg hid under his bed; the soothsayer to whom he applied himself for the interpretation of the dream told him that in the same place where he imagined to see the egg there was treasure hid; whereupon he caused the place to be digged up, and there accordingly he found silver, and in the midst of it a good quantity of gold, and, to give the interpreter some testimony of his acknowledgment, he brought him some pieces of the silver which he had found; but the soothsayer, hoping also to have some of the gold, said: 'And will you not give me some of the yolk too?" Lowde's Amyraldus on Divine Dreams, p. 22.

Reginald Scot, in his Discovery of Witchcraft, p. 102, informs us of "the art and order to be used in digging for money, revealed by dreams." "There must be made," says he, "upon a hazel wand three crosses, and certain words must be said over it, and hereunto must be added certain characters and barbarous names. And whilst the treasure is a digging, there must be read the psalms De profundis, &c., and then a certain prayer; and if the time of digging be neglected, the devil will carry all the treasure away."

The knitting a true-love-knot to see the person one is to marry in a dream has been already noticed from the Connoisseur, and some verses on the occasion, similar to those already quoted, are preserved in Aubrey's Miscellanies, p. 137.

Gregory, in his Posthuma, Episcopus Puerorum, p. 113, mentions a singular superstition: "Some are so superstitiously given as upon the night of St. Gregorie's day to have their [p.131] children asked the question in their sleep, whether they have anie minde to book or no; and if they saie yes, they count it a very good presage; but iff the children answer nothing, or nothing to that purpose, they put them over to the plough."

Every dream, according to Wolfius, takes its rise from some sensation, and is continued by the succession of phantasms in the mind. His reasons are, that, when we dream, we imagine something, or the mind produces phantasms; but no phantasms can arise in the mind without a previous sensation. Hence neither can a dream arise without some previous sensation.

Here it may be stated, say Douce's MS. notes, that, if our author meant a previous sensation of the thing dreamt of, it is certainly not so.

Lord Bacon observes that the interpretation of natural dreams has been much laboured, but mixed with numerous extravagancies, and adds that at present it stands not upon its best foundation. It may be observed that in our days, except amongst the most ignorant and vulgar, the whole imaginary structure has fallen to the ground.

Physicians seem to be the only persons at present who interpret dreams. Frightful dreams are perhaps always indications of some violent oppression of nature. Hippocrates has many curious observations on dreams. Ennius of old has made that very sensible remark, that what men studied and pondered in the daytime, the same they dreamed on at night. I suppose there are few who cannot from their own experience assent to the truth of his observation.

In the Gent. Mag. for Jan. 1799, vol. lxix. p. 33, are some curious rhymes on the subject of dreams, from the Harl. MS. 541, fol. 228 b:

"Upon iny ryght syde y may leye, blessid Lady to the y prey
Ffor the teres that ye lete, upon your swete Sonnys feete;
Sende me grace for to slepe, and good dremys for to mete;
Slepyng wakyng till morrowe day bee:
Owre Lorde is the freute, our Ladye is the tree;
Blessid be the blossom that sprange lady of the.
In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.''

"He that dreams he hath lost a tooth shall lose a friend (he has lost one), and he that dreams that a rib is taken out of his side shall ere long see the death of his wife." See [p.132] Lowde's Amyraldus, p. 22. Thus Shylock, in the Merchant of Venice, says

"There is some ill a brewing towards my rest,
For I did dream of money-bags to-night."

Bishop Hall, in his Characters of Vertues and Vices, speaking of the superstitious man, observes: "But, if his troubled fancie shall second his thoughts with the dreame of a faire garden, or greene rushes, or the salutation of a dead friend, he takes leave of the world, and sayes he cannot live. ... There is no dream of his without an interpretation, without a prediction: and, if the event answer not his exposition, he expounds it according to the event." In Sir Thomas Overbury's Character of a faire and happy Milkmaid is the following passage: "Her dreames are so chaste that she dare tell them; only a Fridaies dream is all her superstition, that she conceales for feare of anger."

Melton, in his Astrologaster, p. 45, No. 13, says, "that if a man be drowsie it is a signe of ill lucke. 18. That, if a man dreame of egs or fire, he shall heare of anger. 19. That to dreame of the devil is good lucke. 20. That to dreame of gold is good lucke, but of silver ill." He observes in No. 33, in which he will find few of a different opinion, "that it is a very ill signe to be melancholy."

In the Country-mans Counsellor, 12mo. Lond. 1633, p. 330, by way of dialogue, I find the following to our purpose: "Q. What credit or certainty is there to be attributed to dreames, and which are held the most portendous and significant? A. These, as they are observed by experience, and set downe by authors. To dreame of eagles flying over our heads, to dreame of marriages; dancing, and banquetting, foretells some of our kinsfolkes are departed; to dreame of silver, if thou hast it given to thyselfe, sorrow; of gold, good fortune; to lose an axle toth or an eye, the death of some friend; to dream of bloody teeth, the death of the dreamer; to weepe in sleepe, joy; to see one's face in the water, or to see the dead, long life; to handle lead, to see a hare, death; to dream of chickens and birds, ill luck," &c.

In the twelfth book of a Thousand Notable Things are the following interpretations of dreams: "28. If a woman dream she is kindling a fire, it denotes she will be delivered of a male [p.133] child. To dream you see a stack of corn burnt, signifies famine and mortality. If a sick person dreams of a river or fountain of clear water, it denotes a recovery. 29. If a young man dreams lie draws water out of a well, it signifies he will be speedily married. To dream that he has a glass full of water given him, signifies marriage. 30. To dream of seeing a barn well stored, signifies marriage of a rich wife. 31. If a woman dreams of being delivered of a child, yet is not big, it is a sign she shall at length be happily brought to bed. If a maid dream the same dream, it signifies banquet, joy, and succeeding nuptials. 32. To dream of little rain and drops of water, is good for plowmen. 33. To dream of being touched with lightning, to the unmarried signifies marriage; but it breaks marriages made, and makes friends enemies. 34. To dream of having or seeing the forehead of a lion, betokens the getting of a male child. 35. To dream of roasted swine's flesh, signifies speedy profit. To dream of drinking sweet wine, betokens good success in law." Ibid, book vi. 11, we read: "To dream that you go over a broken bridge, betokens fear; to have your head cut off for a heinous offence, signifies the death of friends; to make clean the hands, betokens trouble; to see hands filthy and foul, betokens loss and danger; to feed lambs, signifies grief and pain; to take flies, signifies wrong or injury. Mizaldus." Ibid, book v. 33, it is stated that, "To dream that eagles fly over your head doth betoken evil fortune; to dream that you see your face in water, signifies long life; to follow bees, betokens gain or profit; to be married, signifies that some of your kinsfolks is dead; to dream that you worship God, signifies gladness; to look in a glass, doth portend some issue, or a child; to have oil poured upon you, signifies joy." Also ibid. 6, "To see monks in one's dream, doth portend death or calamity; to see fat oxen, betokens plenty of all things; to lose an eye or a tooth, signifies the death of some friend, or of a kinsman, or some other evil luck; to dream to be dumb, foreshews speedy gladness; to see oxen plow, betokens gain; to enter into waters, betokens evil. Artemidorus."

And, in the fourth book, we read: 46. "To kill serpents in your dream, signifies victory; to see sails of ships is evil; to dream that all your teeth are bloody, it signifies the death of the dreamer; but that the teeth are drawn out, signifies the [p.134] death of another; that birds enter into a house, signifies loss; to weep, betokens joy; to handle money, signifies anger; to see dead horses, signifies a lucky event of things. Artemidorus." Ibid. 11, it is said: "He that sleepeth in a sheep's skin shall see true dreams, or dream of things that be true." [The curious reader will not be displeased to possess the entire Dictionary of Dreams, which we here extract from a North country chap-book, entitled the Royal Dream Book:

Acorns. To dream of acorns, and that you eat one, denotes you will rise gradually to riches and honour.
Acquaintance. To dream that you fight with them, signifies distraction.
Altar. To dream you are at the altar kneeling is bad.
Anchor. To dream of an anchor, part in the water, the other part on land, and that a male or female stumbles over it, is a sure sign that the male will in time become a sailor, and the female will be married to one.
Ants or Bees. To dream of ants denotes that you will live in a great town or city, or in a large family, and that you will be industrious, happy, well married, and have a large family.
Angel. To dream you see an angel or angels is good, to dream you are one is better; but to speak with, or call upon them, is of evil signification.
Anger. To dream you have been provoked to anger, shows that you have many powerful enemies.
Angling. To dream of angling betokens affliction and trouble.
Apparel. To dream you lose your wearing apparel shows your character will be injured by an enemy.
Apparitions. To dream you see ghosts, &c., denotes to a certainty that people you fancy your enemies, are perhaps your best friends.
Arrest. To dream that you are arrested, or that you are taken late by a constable, signifies want of wit, and that the party dreaming shall love fiddlers.
Asp. The person that dreams of the asp or adder, is thereby betokened to have store of money and rich wives.
Bathing. To dream you bathe and the water seems clear, shows you are sure to prosper every thing will go well with you; but if the water appears muddy, you will be apt to meet with shame and sorrow.
Ball. To dream that you see persons dance at a ball, or that you are engaged in a ball yourself, signifies joy, pleasure, recreation, and inheritance.
Banquets. To dream of banquets is very good and prosperous, and promises great preferment.
Barn. To dream that you see a barn stored with corn, shows that you shall marry well, overthrow your adversaries at law, or grow rich.
Basin. To dream of a basin, signifies a good maid; and to dream that you eat or drink therein, shows love for the servant-maid.
Bathing. To dream you bathe in a clear fountain, signifies joy; but to bathe in stinking water, signifies shame.

[p.135]

Beans. To dream you are eating beans, signifies you have a rich, inexpert, but cruel enemy.
Bed. To dream you are in bed, and it changes to a green field, and you see two doves coming, implies that the dreamer will be married at the end of the month.
Bedside. To dream of sitting by a maid's bedside or talking with her, is a sign of marriage, especially if the person dreams he goes between the sheets, then it is most certain.
Beggars. To dream of poor folks or beggars entering into a house, and carrying away anything, whether it be given them or they steal it, denotes great adversity.
Blind. To dream of being blind, threatens the dreamer with want of money.
Blind-man's-buff. To dream that one plays at blind-mind's-buff, signifies prosperity, joy, and pleasure.
Blindness. To dream you are blind, denotes extreme poverty.
Blackbird. To dream you see and hear a blackbird and thrush singing upon the same tree, a female will have two husbands, and a male two wives.
Boat. For a female to dream she is in a boat, falls in the water, and is rescued by a male, shows he will become her husband to a certainty.
Bonnet. To dream that you have lost a bonnet or shoes, denotes that you will quickly get married.
Bread. To dream of bread is good; particularly so, if you make and bake it yourself.
Brewing and Baking. To dream of brewing and baking, is a sign of an ill housewife, who lies dreaming in bed when she should be at work, and doing her business.
Briars. To dream of being pricked with briars, shows that the person dreaming has an ardent desire to something, and that young folks dreaming thus are in love, who prick themselves in striving to gather their rose.
Bridge. To dream of crossing a bridge, denotes that the dreamer will leave a good situation to seek a better.
Buildings. To dream of unfinished buildings, signifies a future prospect for a dreamer, who must encounter privations for a time, but will to a certainty become happy.
Bullock. If you dream a bullock pursues you, beware of some powerful enemy, particularly if the dreamer is a female. If a cow, a female is the enemy.
Buried. To dream yourself or friend is buried, foretells a serious fit of illness.
Buying. To dream you buy ail sorts of things which one useth, is good; to buy that which is only for victuals and relief, is good for the poor; but to the rich and wealthy, it signifies expenses and great charge.
Cage. To dream that a maid lets a bird out of a cage, is a sign she will not long hold her modesty, but as soon as she can get a customer she will part with her virtue.
Cakes. To dream one makes them, signifies joy and profit ; that you will thrive in all your undertakings.

[p.136]

Candle. Ho dream a candle burns bright and clear, denotes a pleasing letter from your sweetheart; but if the candle's blaze gets dull, you will be disappointed.
Cat. If a man dreams of a cat, and he caress her, and she scratches him, his sweetheart is a spiteful termagant. If a female dreams of a cat that acts similarly, she may rest assured that she has a rival.
Church. To dream that you are in the church, and that the parson and pulpit are in white, and that he preaches a sermon to your taste, shows speedy marriage.
Climbing. To dream you are climbing a tree, and gain the top, shows you will rise to preferment, or your love will succeed.
Clouds. To dream of white clouds, signifies joy and prosperity; black clouds, trouble.
Coach. To dream of a coach drawn by four horses, and that the dreamer is delighted with the jaunt, either he or she may expect something will transpire to give joy and satisfaction in a month after ; perhaps marriage if single.
Coals. To dream you see dead coals, signifies expedition in business ; and to dream you see burning coals, threatens you with shame and reproach.
Combating. To dream of combating with any one is ill to all men, for besides shame he shall have hurt; it also signifies much strife and contention.
Cradle. Implies that marriage is certain; therefore we wish the dreamer all happiness.
Cream. To dream that you see cream spilt upon you, signifies the infusion of some grace from above.
Cuckoo. If you dream you hear the cuckoo, your sweetheart will prove coquette.
Cupid. If you dream Cupid breaks his dart, your love will change. If he breaks his bow, you are likely to die an old maid.
Dark. To dream of being in the dark, and that he loses his way in riding, or in going up a high steeple or high stairs, signifies that they so dreaming shall be blinded by some passion, and have much trouble.
Daggers. To dream of them, denotes the person dreaming to have some hot contest with others.
Dairy. To dream you are in a dairy, skimming the cream off the milk, and that your sweetheart partakes of the cream, denotes him inclined to luxury. But if he drinks the milk, it is a sign of frugality.
Dancing. To dream that you are dancing, and enjoying all the pleasures of life in quick succession, denotes grief, poverty, and despair, after great enjoyment.
Death. To dream of death, denotes happiness and long life.
Devil. To dream of the devil, denotes many troubles. If he appears in fire, immediate misfortune will befall you. If he vanishes in smoke, expect a returning calm.
Diffidence. To dream that your sweetheart is sulky and diffident, proves his intentions are pure.
Dress. To dream of being dressed fine and gay and cheerful, shows that the dreamer will be blessed with good health.

[p.137]

Drinking. To dream you drink cold water is good to all; but hot signifieth sickness and hinderance of affairs.
Eating. To dream you see others eating, is a bad omen. But if you dream you are asked to eat, and partake of those things which you like best, some relief perhaps will follow.
Earthquake. To dream of an earthquake warns you to be cautious and careful.
Execution. To dream of the execution of offenders and of those dismal places where some are ready to be executed, shows that you will suddenly be sought after for relief, by some that are in great want.
Eyes. To dream you lose your eyes, is a very unfavourable omen; it denotes a decay of circumstances, loss of friends, and death of relations; in fact everything unhappy, even the loss of liberty.
Fairs. To dream of going to fairs threatens the person so dreaming with having his pocket picked, which is usually done in such places.
Fall. If you dream that you fall into the mire, and are covered with filth, if a servant, you will lose your character.
Farce. To dream you see a farce, denotes good success in business; to see one often denotes damage, because recreation is too often an hinderance to business.
Father-in-law. To dream one sees his father-in-law, either dead or alive, is ill.
Feasting. To dream you are at a feast and cannot enjoy it, shows you will have disappointment. To dream your sweetheart enjoys it, a male or female friend will deprive you of your favourite.
Fields. To dream of fields and pleasant places, shows to a man that lie will marry a discreet, chaste, and beautiful wife; and to women it betokens a loving and prudent husband, by whom she shall have beautiful and prudent children.
Fighting. To dream of fighting, signifies opposition and contention; and, if the party dreams he is wounded in fighting, it signifies loss of reputation and disgrace.
Flies. To dream of flies or other vermin, denotes enemies of all sorts.
Flying. To dream you are flying, is not good; it denotes the dreamer is too presumptuous, and vainly ambitious and romantic.
Friend. To dream you see a friend dead, denotes hasty news, and a legacy. If the friend is a female, you will be married instanter.
Garden. To dream you are walking in a garden, and the trees are all bare and fruitless, is a very bad omen. It shows that your friends will become poor, or that you will lose their friendship. If the garden in its bloom is of a very favourable nature, it promises everything to a farmer; in short, prosperity at large.
Grave. To dream of an open grave, foretells sickness and disappointment.
Grapes. To dream of eating grapes at any time, signifies profit; to tread grapes, signifies the overthrow of enemies; to gather white grapes, signifies gain; but to gather black grapes, signifies damage.
Guineas. To dream of gold is a good omen; it denotes success in your present undertakings, after experiencing difficulties.

[p.138]

Hair. To dream you comb your hair, and it seem very long and fine, shows you will have many joys of short duration.
Hat. To dream your hat is torn and dirty, signifies damage and dishonour; but to dream that you have a hat on that pleases you, denotes joy, profit, and success in business.
Hatred. To dream of hatred, or of being hated, whether of friends or enemies is ill, for one may have need of all the world.
Heart's-ease. You will be married well, and live happy, if you dream of this innocent flower in bloom.
Hen and chickens. To dream of a hen and chickens, shows you will be married to a widow or widower with many children.
Horse. To dream you are mounted on a fine young horse, and that you are well dressed, with the horse or mare gaily caparisoned, denotes you will marry some rich person, who will make you happy.
Husbandry. To dream of a plough, denotes success in life, and a good marriage.
Ice. To dream of ice, shows that the person you would wish to be your companion for life is cool, of an amiable temper, free from choleric passions, and faithful.
Image. To dream of an image or statue, signifies children.
King. To dream you see the king and queen, signifies gain, honour, and joy.
Knave. For a man to dream he is a knave, is a sign he will grow rich; but for a man to dream he is concerned with knaves, shows he will have many lawsuits.
Kissing. To dream you are kissing a pretty maid, shows an evil design. In love, it shows that your sweetheart, though she loves you, will act more cautiously.
Kittens are harmless diverting creatures. To dream of them signifies many children.
Knife. To dream you bestow a knife upon any one, signifies injustice and contention.
Ladder. To dream that you ascend a ladder, signifies honour; but to dream that you descend a ladder betokeneth damage.
Letter. To dream you send a letter to your sweetheart, or others unsealed, shows secrets will be exposed.
Lying. To tell a lie in a dream is not good, except by players and jesters who practise it.
Marry. To dream you marry, denotes damage, sickness, melancholy, and sometimes death.
Maids. To dream you obtain a maid, signifies joy; to dream you take away a maid by force, signifies weeping. If a maid dream that she has let a bird out of its cage, she ought to be very watchful over herself.
Money. To dream of losing money is in old folks a sign of short life; in young folks it signifies loss of modesty and honour.
Music. To dream you hear melodious music, signifies that the party dreaming shall suddenly hear some very acceptable news.
Nosegay. To dream of gathering or making nosegays is unlucky showing our best hopes shall wither as flowers do in nosegays.

[p.139]

Nun. To dream you turn nun, denotes confinement, or it shows you will be disappointed by your lover, or crossed by a rival.
Oven. To dream you see an oven burning hot, signifies joy.
Pit. To dream you fall into a pit, and cannot get out easily, denotes some serious calamity; that your sweetheart is false, and will prefer another.
Purse. To dream you find an empty purse, bodes the dreamer is lazy.
Quarrelling. To dream that you are quarrelling, denotes that some unexpected news will reach you, and that your sweetheart is about to be married to another.
Rainbow. To dream you see a rainbow in the sky, betokens your changing your present state and manner of life; to dream you see the rainbow in the east, is a good omen to the poor and sick, for the former will recover their estates, and the latter their health; if you dream you see it in the west, to the rich it is good, to the poor a bad sign; to dream you see a rainbow directly over your head, or near you, signifies a change of fortune, and most commonly the death of the dreamer, and ruin of his family. Note also, that in your dreams, the rainbow on your right hand is good, on the left ill, and you must judge the right and left by the sun.
Ring. To dream your lover puts a ring on your finger of the wrong hand, generally shows he is deceitful, and not to be trusted; to dream of a ring is favourable.
Riding. To dream of riding in a coach, and that you sit at ease and are much pleased therewith, denotes the person to be proud, and will spare no cost to gratify their vanity.
Shipwreck. To dream you suffer shipwreck, the ship being overwhelmed or broken, is most dangerous to all, except those who are detained by force; for to whom it signifies release and liberty.
Silk. To dream you are clothed in silk, signifies honour; but to dream that you trade with a stranger in silk denotes profit and joy.
Soldiers. To dream that you see soldiers, may prove literally true, or that you may very soon see such persons.
Serpents denote a prison, and the dreamer will encounter many dangers.
Swimming. To dream of swimming or wading in the water is good, so that the head be kept above water.
Sweetheart. If a man dream of a sweetheart that is absent, and she seems to be more fair than usual, it is a sign that she is chaste and constant ; but if she looks pale, black, or sickly, be assured she hath broke her faith, and is become altogether inconstant.
Thunder. To dream of thunder, signifies afflictions of divers and sundry causes; chiefly to the rich: for the poor it signifies repose.
Trees. To dream you see trees in blossom, denotes a happy marriage with the present object of your affections, and many children, who will all do well in life.
Treasure. To dream you find treasure hid in the earth is evil, whether it be little or great.
Tombs. To dream you are erecting a tomb signifies marriages, weddings, and birth of children; but if you dream that the tomb falls to ruin, it signifies sickness, and destruction to him and his family. To have a [p.140] sepulchre or tomb, or to build one, is good for a servant, for he shall have one that will survive him; in short, it is a good dream in general to both rich and poor.
Thieves. To dream of thieves is good or bad, according as the dream is circumstanced.
Water. To dream you are drinking water, denotes great trouble and adversity; to the lover it shows your sweetheart is false, and prefers another, and will never marry you.
Weeping. To dream one weeps and grieves, whether it be for any friend departed, or for any other cause, it is joy and mirth for some good act.
Wife. If a man dreams he sees his wife married to another, it signified) a change of affairs.
Writing. When dreaming of writing a letter to your sweetheart, if you put it in the post, you will have a pleasing return, but to trust it into other hands, shows your secrets will be exposed.
Yarrow. To dream of this weed, which is in general most abundant in churchyards, denotes to the married, deaths in the family; and to the single that the grim tyrant will deprive them of the first object on whom they rest their affections.
Yellow Flowers predict love mixed with jealousy, and that you will have more children to maintain than what justly belong to you.
Yew Tree. An indication of the funeral of a very aged person, by whose death the dreamer will derive some benefit, or a protecting hand among the relations of the deceased person.
Yeast. To dream of yeast denotes that what you next undertake will prosper, and that your wife will soon be in the family-way. If a single man, your sweetheart's love will increase. To a maiden, her lover will be rich, and very like a brewer or baker. To dream that they are kneading dough with yeast, is a sure sign of being comfortable for life.]

In a Strange Metamorphosis of Man transformed into a Wildernesse, Deciphered in Characters, 1634, under No. 37, the Bay Tree, it is observed: "Nor is he altogether free from superstition; for he will make you beleeve that, if you put his leaves but under your pillow, you shall be sure to have true dreames."

In the old play of the Vow-Breaker, or the Fair Maid of Clifton, 1636, act iii. sc. i., Ursula speaks: "I have heard you say that dreames and visions were fabulous; and yet one time I dreamt fowle water ran through the floore, and the next day the house was on fire. You us'd to say hobgoblins, fairies, and the like, were nothing but our owne affrightments, and yet o' my troth, cuz, I once dream'd of a young batchelour, and was ridd with a night-mare. But come, so my conscience be cleere, I never care how fowle my dreames are."

[p.141]

"'Tis a custom among country girls to put the Bible under their pillows at night, with sixpence clapt in the book of Ruth, in order to dream of the men destined to be their husbands." See Poems by Nobody, 8vo. Lond. 1770, p. 199, note.

Various are the popular superstitions, or at least the faint traces of them, that still are made use of to procure dreams of divination, such as fasting St. Agnes' Fast; laying a piece of the first cut of a cheese at a lying-in, called vulgarly in the North the groaning cheese, under the pillow, to cause young persons to dream of their lovers; and putting a Bible in the like situation, with a sixpence clapped in the book of Ruth, &c. Various also are the interpretations of dreams given by old women, but of which the regard is insensibly wearing away.

[If you would wish to be revenged on a lover by tormenting him with hideous dreams, take a bird's heart and at twelve o'clock at night stick it full of pins, and a semblance of him will appear before you in great agony.⁷¹]

Strutt, describing the manners of the English, Manners and Customs, iii. 180, says: "Writing their name on a paper at twelve o'clock, burning the same, then carefully gathering up the ashes, and laying them close wrapp'd in a paper upon a looking-glass, marked with a cross, under their pillows, this should make them dream of their love."

THE MOON.

THE Moon, the ancient object of idolatrous worship, has in later times composed an article in the creed of popular superstition. The ancient Druids had their superstitious rites at the changes of the moon. This planet, as Dr. Johnson tells us, has great influence in vulgar philosophy. In his memory, he observes, it was a precept annually given in one of [p.142] the English almanacs, to kill hogs when the moon was increasing, and the bacon would prove the better in boiling.

In the Husbandman's Practice or Prognostication for ever, 8vo. Land. 1664, p. 108, we are told to "Kill swine in or neer the full of the moon, and flesh will the better prove in boiling;" and that (p. Ill), "Kill fat swine for bacon (the better to keep their fat in boiling) about the full moon." Also (p. 110), "Shear sheep at the moon's increase: fell hand timber from the full to the change. Fell frith, copice, and fuel at the first quarter. Lib or geld cattle, the moon in Aries, Sagittarius, or in Capricorn."

The following is in Curiosities, or the Cabinet of Nature, 12mo. Lond. 1637, p. 231: "Q. Wherefore is it that we gather those fruits which we desire should be faultlesse in the wane of the moone, and gueld cattle more safely in the wane than in the increase? An. Because in that season bodies have lesse humour and heate, by which an innated putrefaction is wont to make them faulty and unsound."

[The influence of the moon over mental and corporeal diseases, its virtue in all magical rites, its appearances as predictive of evil and good, and its power over the weather and over many of the minor concerns of life, such as the gathering of herbs, the killing of animals for the table, and other matters of a like nature, were almost universally confided in as matters of useful and necessary belief in the sixteenth century; and it is stated on reasonable authority that the relics of this belief are still to be traced among our rural population.

Shakespeare has many allusions to these impressions, but they have not been quite so fully illustrated by the commentators as might have been anticipated from the extent of their researches. Perhaps we are in some measure indebted for them to the poet's own imagination. He alludes to the moon as the "sovereign mistress of true melancholy;" informs us that she makes men insane when "she comes more near to the earth than she was wont;" and that, when "pale in her anger, rheumatic diseases do abound." Hecate tells the witches

"Upon the corner of the moon
There hangs a vaporous drop profound,"

efficacious in the invocation of spirits. The great dramatist [p.143] also alludes to its eclipses and sanguine colour as positive indications of corning disasters.

With respect to the passage just cited from Macbeth, it may be observed that the moisture of the moon is constantly alluded to. In Newton's Directions for Health, 1574, we are told that "the moone is ladie of moysture;" and in Hamlet, she is called the moist star. Shakespeare, indeed, in the Midsummer Night's Dream, appears to have imitated a passage to this effect in Lydgate's Storie of Thebes,

"Of Lucina the moone, moist and pale,
That many showre fro heaven made availe."

The power of witches over this planet is often mentioned, and Prospero describes one "so strong that could control the moon." The notion is of great antiquity, and the reader will call to mind the clouds of Aristophanes, where Strepsiades proposes the hiring of a Thessalian witch to bring down the moon, and shut her in a box, that he might thus evade paying his debts by the month!]

The subsequent very singular superstitions respecting the moon may be found in the Husbandman's Practice or Prognostication, above quoted, p. 110: "Good to purge with electuaries, the moon in Cancer; with pills, the moon in Pisces; with potions, the moon in Virgo. Good to take vomits, the moon being in Taurus, Virgo, or the latter part of Sagittarius; to purge the head by sneezing, the moon being in Cancer, Leo, or Virgo; to stop fluxes and rheumes, the moone being in Taurus, Virgo, or Capricorne; to bathe when the moone is in Cancer, Libra, Aquarius, or Pisces; to cut the hair off the head or beard when the moon is in Libra, Sagittarius, Aquarius, or Pisces. Briefe Observations of Husbandry: Set, sow seeds, graft, and plant, the moone being in Taurus, Virgo, or in Capricorn, and all kind of come in Cancer; graft in March at the moone's increase, she being in Taurus or Capricorne."

Among the preposterous inventions of fancy in ancient superstition occurs the moon-calf, an inanimate shapeless mass, supposed by Pliny to be engendered of woman only. See his Natural History, B. x. c. 64.

"They forbidde us, when the moone is in a fixed signe, to put on a newe garment; why so? Because it is lyke that it [p.144] wyll be too longe in wearing, a small fault about this towne, where garments seldome last till they be payd for. But theyr meaning is, not that the garment shall continue long, in respect of any strength or goodnes in the stuffe; but by the duraunce or disease of him, that hath neyther leysure nor liberty to weare it." Defensative against the Poyson of supposed Prophecies, by the Earl of Northampton, 4to. Lond. 1583.

In Tusser's Five Hundred Points of Husbandry, under February, are the following lines:

"Sowe peason and beans in the wane of the moone
Who soweth them sooner, he soweth too soone:
That they, with the planet, may rest and rise,
And flourish with bearing, most plentiful wise."

On which is the following note in Tusser Redivivus, 8vo. Lond. 1744, p. 16: "Planetary influence, especially that of the moon, has commonly very much attributed to it in rural affairs, perhaps sometimes too much; however, it must be granted the moon is an excellent clock, and, if not the cause of many surprising accidents, gives a just indication of them, whereof this of peas and beans may be one instance: for peas and beans, sown during the increase, do run more to hawm and straw, and, during the declension, more to cod, according to the common consent of countrymen. And I must own I have experienced it, but I will not aver it so that it is not liable to exceptions."

Werenfels, in his Dissertation upon Superstition (transl. 8vo. Lond. 1748), p. 6, speaking of a superstitious man, says: "He will not commit his seed to the earth when the soil, but when the moon, requires it. He will have his hair cut when the moon is either in Leo, that his locks may stare like the lion's shag, or in Aries, that they may curl like a ram's horn. Whatever he would have to grow, he sets about it when she is in her increase; but for what he would have made less, he chooses her wane. When the moon is in Taurus, he never can be persuaded to take physic, lest that animal, which chews its cud, should make him cast it up again. If at any time he has a mind to be admitted into the presence of a prince, he will wait till the moon is in conjunction with the sun; for 'tis then the society of an inferior with a superior is salutary and successful."

[p.145]

In the old play of the Witch of Edmonton, 4to. 1658, p. 14, young Banks observes: "When the moon's in the full, then wit's in the wane."

"It is said that to the influence of the moon is owing the increase and decrease of the marrow and brain in animals; that she frets away stones, governs the cold and heat, the rain and wind. Did we make observations, we should find that the temperature of the air hath so little sympathy with the new or full moon, that we may count as many months of dry as wet weather when the return of the moon was wet, and contrariwise; so true is it, that the changes of the weather are subject to no rule obvious to us. 'Twere easy to shew that the reason of the thing is directly against the popular opinion." Gent. Mag. for Sept. 1734, iv. 489, from Bayle.

The hornedness of the new moon is still faintly considered by the vulgar as an omen with regard to the weather. They say, on that occasion, the new moon looks sharp. In Dekker's Match me in London, act i., the king says: "My lord, doe you see this change i' the moone? sharp homes doe threaten windy weather."

[In Whimzies, or a New Cast of Characters, 12mo. Lond. 1631, p. 173, the author, speaking of a Xantippean, says: "A burre about the moone is not halfe so certaine a presage of a tempest as her brow is of a storme."]

Dr. Jamieson, in his Etymolog. Dictionary of the Scottish Language, v. Mone, says that in Scotland "it is considered as an almost infallible presage of bad weather if the moon lies sair on her back, or when her horns are pointed towards the zenith. It is a similar prognostic when the new moon appears with the auld moon in her arms, or, in other words, when that part of the moon which is covered with the shadow of the earth is seen through it. A brugh, or hazy circle round the moon, is accounted a certain prognostic of rain. If the circle be wide, and at some distance from the body of that luminary, it is believed that the rain will be delayed far some time; if it be close, and as it were adhering to the disc of the moon, rain is expected very soon." [One of these superstitions is thus alluded to in the Ballad of Sir Patrick Spence,

[p.146]

"Late, late, yestreen, I saw the new moone
Wi' the auld moone in her arme;
And I feir, I feir, my deir master,
That we will come to harme."]

Bailey tells us that the common people, in some counties of England, are accustomed at the prime of the moon to say: "It is a fine moon, God bless her;" which some imagine to proceed from a blind zeal, retained from the ancient Irish, who worshipped the moon, or from a custom in Scotland (particularly in the Highlands), where the women make a courtesy to the new moon; and some Englishwomen still retain a touch of this gentilism, who getting up upon, and sitting astride on, a gate or stile, the first night of the new moon, thus invoke its influence

"All hail to the moon, all hail to thee!
I prithee, good moon, declare to me,
This night, who my husband shall be."

The person, says Grose, must presently after go to bed, when they will dream of the person destined to be their future husband or wife. In Yorkshire they kneel on a ground-fast stone. Aubrey, in his Miscellanies, gives the following account of the superstition: "At the first appearance of the new moon after New Year's Day (some say any other new moon is as good), go out in the evening and stand over the spars of a gate or stile, looking on the moon and say

All hail to the moon, all hail to thee!
I prithee, good moon, reveal to me
This night who my husband (wife) shall be.

You must presently after go to bed. I knew two gentle-women," says our credulous author, "that did this when they were young maids, and they had dreams of those that married them." [In Yorkshire, according to the same authority, when they practise this expedient, "they kneel on a ground-fast atone."]

Dr. Jamieson has quoted these words as used in Scotland, in a different form, from the Rev. J. Nichol's Poems, i. 31, 32:

"O, new moon, I hail thee!
And gif I'm ere to marry man,
Or man to marry me,
His face turn'd this way fasts ye can,
Let me my true love see
This blessed night!"

[p.147]

A note adds: "As soon as you see the first new moon of the new year, go to a place where you can set your feet upon a stone naturally fixed in the earth, and lean your back against a tree; and in that posture hail or address the moon in the words of the poem. If ever you are to be married, you will then see an apparition exactly resembling the future partner of your joys and sorrows."

[In some parts of the country, even at the present day, it is supposed to be unlucky to look at the new moon for the first time through a window.]

In the Secret Memoirs of the late Mr. Duncan Campbell, 8vo. Lond. 1732, p. 62, we read, in the chapter on omens: "To see a new moon the first time after her change on the right hand, or directly before you, betokens the utmost good fortune that month; as to have her on your left, or behind you, so that in turning your head back you happen to see her, foreshews the worst: as also they say, to be without gold in your pocket at that time is of very bad consequence."

In Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, xii., 8vo. Edinb. 1794, p. 457, the minister of Kirkmichael, under the head of Superstitions, &c., says: "That fear and ignorance incident to a rude state have always been productive of opinions, rites, and observances which enlightened reason disclaims. But among the vulgar, who have not an opportunity of cultivating this faculty, old prejudices, endeared to them by the creed of their ancestors, will long continue to maintain their influence. It may therefore be easily imagined that this country has its due proportion of that superstition which generally prevails over the Highlands. Unable to account for the cause, they consider the effects of times and seasons as certain and infallible. The moon in her increase, full growth, and in her wane, are, with them, the emblems of a rising, flourishing, and declining fortune. At the last period of her revolution they carefully avoid to engage in any business of importance; but the first and middle they seize with avidity, presaging the most auspicious issue to their undertakings. Poor Martinus Scriblerus never more anxiously watched the blowing of the west wind to secure an heir to his genius, than the love-sick swain and his nymph for the coming of the new moon to be noosed together in matrimony. Should the planet happen to be at the height of her splendour [p.148] when the ceremony is performed, their future life will be a scene of festivity, and all its paths strewed over with rosebuds of delight. But when her tapering horns are turned towards the north, passion becomes frost-bound, and seldom thaws till the genial season again approaches. From the moon they not only draw prognostications of the weather, but, according to their creed, also discover future events. There they are dimly pourtrayed, and ingenious illusion never fails in the explanation. The veneration paid to this planet, and the opinion of its influences, are obvious from the meaning still affixed to some words of the Gaelic language."

In Druidic mythology, when the circle of the moon was complete, fortune then promised to be the most propitious. Agreeably to this idea, rath, which signifies in Gaelic a wheel or circle, is transferred to signify fortune. They say "ata rath air" he is fortunate. The wane, when the circle is diminishing, and consequently unlucky, they call mi-rath. Of one that is unfortunate they say, "ata mi-rath air."

In the same work, the minister of Portpatrick tell us: "A cave in the neighbourhood of Dunskey ought also to be mentioned, on account of the great veneration in which it is held by the people. At the change of the moon (which is still considered with superstitious reverence) it is usual to bring, even from a great distance, infirm persons, and particularly rickety children, whom they suppose bewitched, to bathe in a stream which pours from the hill, and then dry them in the cave;" and in the parishes of Kirkwall and St. Ola, co. of Orkney, "They do not marry but in the waxing of the moon. They would think the meat spoiled, were they to kill the cattle when that luminary is wanting. ... On going to sea, they would reckon themselves in the most imminent danger, were they by accident to turn their boat in opposition to the sun's course."

Dr. Jamieson says: "This superstition, with respect to the fatal influence of a waning moon, seems to have been general in Scotland. In Angus, it is believed that if a child be put from the breast during the waning of the moon, it will decay nil the time that the moon continues to wane. In Sweden great influence is ascribed to the moon, not only as regulating the weather, but as influencing the affairs of human life in general. The superstitious of our own countrymen, and of [p.149] the Swedes, on this head, equally confirm the account given by Caesar concerning the ancient Germans, the forefathers of both. 'As it was the custom with them,' he says, 'that their matrons, by the use of lots and prophecies, should declare whether they should join in battle or not, they said that the Germans could not be victorious if they should engage before the new moon.' (Bell. Gall. 1. i. c. 50.) They reckoned new or full moon the most auspicious season for entering on any business." The Swedes do not carry this farther than they did, for Tacitus assures us that they commenced undertakings at the period of full or new moon, considering those the most auspicious times.

A similar superstition prevailed amongst the Irish, for, according to Duchesne,⁷² when they saw the new moon, they knelt down, recited the Lord's Prayer, at the end of which they cried, with a loud voice, "May thou leave us as safe as thou hast found us."

Park, in his Travels in the Interior of Africa, speaking of the Mandingoe tribe of Indians, says: "On the first appearance of a new moon they view it as newly created, and say a short prayer: this seems to be the only visible adoration those negroes who are not Mahometans offer to the Deity. This prayer is pronounced in a whisper, the person holding up his hands before his face; at the conclusion they spit upon their hands, and rub them over their faces. They think it very unlucky to begin a journey, or any other work of consequence, in the last quarter of the moon. An eclipse, whether of sun or moon, is supposed to be effected by witchcraft. The stars are very little regarded; and the whole study of astronomy they view as dealing in magic .... If they are asked for what reason they pray to the new moon, they answer, because their fathers did so before them."

He tells us, in another place: "When the Mahometan Feast of Bhamadan was ended, the priests assembled to watch for the appearance of the new moon, but the evening being cloudy, they were for some time disappointed; on a sudden, this delightful object showed her sharp horns from behind a cloud, and was welcomed with the clapping of hands, beating of drums, firing of muskets, and other marks of rejoicing."

[p.150]

Butler, in his Hudibras, part ii. canto iii. I. 239, touches on the subject of lunar superstitions; speaking of his conjuror, he tells us:

"But with the moon was more familiar
Than e'er was almanac well-wilier;
Her secrets understood so clear,
That some believ'd he had been there;
Knew when she was in fittest mood
For cutting corns or letting blood;
When for anointing scabs or itches,
Or to the bum applying leeches;

"When sows and bitches may be spay'd,
And in what sign best cider's made;
Whether the wane be, or increase,
Best to set garlic or sow pease:
Who first found out the man i' th' moon,
That to the ancients was unknown."

It appears that corns ought to be cut after the moon has been at full; at least, so we are told in the British Apollo, fol. Lond. 1710, No. x.:

"Pray tell your querist if he may
Rely on what the vulgar say,
That, when the moon's in her increase,
Its corns be out they'll grow apace;
But if you always do take care,
After the full your corns to pare,
They do insensibly decay,
And will in time wear quite away:
If this be true, pray let me know,
And give the reason why 'tis so:"

It is answered:

"The moon no more regards your corns
Than cits do one another's horns:
Diversions better Phoebe knows
Than to consider your gall'd toes."

M. Stevenson, in the Twelve Moneths, 4to. Lond. 1661, p. 19, tell us that "horses and mares must be put together in the increase of the moone, for foales got in the wane are not accounted strong and healthfull."

In Thomas Lodge's Incarnate Divells, 4to. Lond. 1596, p. 44, is the following notice of a curious lunar superstition: "When the moone appeareth in the spring time, the one home spotted, and hidden with a blacke and great cloud, from the first day of his apparition to the fourth day after, it [p.151] is some signe of tempests and troubles in the aire the sommer after."

The Rev. Mr. Shaw, in his Account of Elgin and the shire of Murray (see the Appendix to Pennant's Tour), informs us that at the full moon in March the inhabitants cut withies of the misletoe or ivy, make circles of them, keep them all the year, and pretend to cure hectics and other troubles by them. Dr. Johnson, in his Journey to the Western Islands, tells us, they expect better crops of grain by sowing their seed in the moon's increase.

In Barnabe Googe's translation of Naogeorgus's Popish Kingdome, 4to. Lond. 1570, fol. 44, we have the following lines concerning moon superstitions:

"No vaine they pearse, nor enter in the bathes at any day,
Nor pare their nayles, nor from their hed do cut the heare away;
They also put no childe to nurse, nor mend with doung their ground,
Nor medicine do receyve to make their erased bodies sound,
Nor any other thing they do, but earnestly before
They marke the moone how she is placed, and standeth evermore."

[Howell records an old proverb, "so many days old the moon is on Michaelmas-day, so many floods after." This maxim also occurs in the work of Stevenson, quoted above.]

Martin, in his Description of the Western Islands of Scotland, p. 174, speaking of Skie, says: "The natives are very much disposed to observe the influence of the moon on human bodies, and for that cause they never dig their peats but in the decrease; for they observe that, if they are cut in the increase, they continue still moist and never burn clear, nor are they without smoak, but the contrary is daily observed of peats cut in the increase. They make up their earthen dykes in the decrease only, for such as are made at the increase are still observed to fall."

The ancients chiefly regarded the age of the moon in felling their timber: their rule was to fell it in the wane, or four days after the new moon, or sometimes in the last quarter. Pliny advises it to be in the very moment of the change, which happening to be in the last day of the winter solstice, the timber, he says, will be incorruptible.

Melton, in his Astrologaster, p. 56, tells us that "St. Augustine in his Enchiridion, sayth that it is a great offence for any man to observe the time and course of the moone when [p.152] they plant any trees or sowe any corne; for he sayth, none puts any trust in them but they that worship them: believing there is some divine power in them, according to those things they believe concerning the nativities of men."

In Lloyd's Stratagems of Jerusalem, 4to. 1602, p. 286, we read: "At any eclipse of the moone the Romans would take their brazen pots and pannes and beate them, lifting up many torches and linckes lighted and firebrandes into the aire, thinking by these superstitious meanes to reclaime the moone to her light. So the Macedonians were as superstitious as the Romanes were at any eclipse of the moone. Nothing terrified the Gentils more in their warres than the eclipse of the sunne and the moone. There was a lawe in Sparta that every ninth yeare the chief magistrates called Ephori would choose a bright night without moone-light, in some open place, to behold the starres, and if they had seene any star shoot or move from one place to another, straight these ephori accused their kings that they offended the gods, and thereby deposed them from their kingdome. So did Lysander depose King Leonidas."

In Annotations on Medea, &c., Englished by Edward Sherburn, Esq., 8vo. Lond. 1648, p. 105, the author says: "Of the beating of kettles, basons, and other brazen vessells, used by the ancients when the moone was eclipsed (which they did to drowne the charmes of witches, that the moon might
not heare them, and so be drawne from her spheare as they supposed), I shall not need to speake, being a thing so generally knowne, a custom continued among the Turks at this day: yet I cannot but adde, and wonder at, what Joseph Scaliger, in his annotations upon Manilius, reports out of Bonincontrius, an ancient commentator upon the same poet; who affirmes that, in a towne of Italy where he lived (within these two centuries of yearesj, he saw the same peece of Paganisme acted upon the like occasion."

In the General History of China, done from the French of P. Du Halde, 8vo. Lond. 1736, iii. 88, we are told: "The very moment the inhabitants perceive the sun or moon begin to be darkened, they fall on their knees and beat the ground with their forehead; at the same time is heard a dreadful rattling of drums and kettle-drums throughout Pekin, according to the persuasion the Chinese formerly had that by this [p.153] noise they assisted the sun or moon, and prevented the celestial dragon from devouring such useful planets. Though the learned, and people of quality, are quite free from this ancient error, and are persuaded that eclipses are owing to a natural cause, yet such a prevalence has custom over them, that they will not leave their ancient ceremonies: these ceremonies are practised in the same manner in all parts of the empire."

The subsequent passage is in Osborne's Advice to his Son, 8vo. Oxford, 1656, p. 79: "The Irish or Welch, during eclipses, run about beating kettles and pans, thinking their clamour and vexations available to the assistance of the higher orbes."

From a passage, Dr. Jamieson says, in one of Dunbar's poems, it should appear to have been customary, in former times, to swear by the moon:

"Fra Symon saw it ferd upon this wyse,
He had greit wounder; and meris by the mone,
Freyr Robert has richt weil his devoir done."

[And the practice is mentioned more than once by Shakespeare. Our readers will recollect how Juliet reproves her lover for availing himself of that mode of testifying his affection:

"O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,
That monthly changes in her circled orb,
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable."

Yet however inconstant may be that light, who amongst us has not felt in all its witchery the truth of the same poet's description:

"How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony."]

MAN IN THE MOON.

THIS is one of the most ancient as well as one of the most popular superstitions. It is supposed to have originated in the account given in the book of Numbers, xv. 32 et seq , of [p.154] a man punished with death for gathering sticks on the Sabbath-day.

In Ritson's Ancient Songs, 8vo. 1790, p. 34, we read: "The man in the moon is represented leaning upon a fork, on which he carries a bush of thorn, because it was for 'pye-chynde stake' on a Sunday that he is reported to have been thus confined. In the Midsummer Night's Dream, Peter Quince, the carpenter, in arranging his dramatis personae for the play before the duke, directs that 'One must come in with a bush of thorns and a lantern, and say, he comes in to disfigure, or to present, the person of moonshine,' which we afterwards find done. 'All that I have to say,' concludes the performer of this strange part, 'is, to tell you that the lantern is the moon; I, the man in the moon; this thorn bush, my thorn bush; and this dog, my dog.' And such a character appears to have been familiar to the old English stage. Vide also Tempest, act ii. sc. 2."

The man in the moon is thus alluded to in the second part of Dekker's Honest Whore, 4to. Lond. 1030, signat. D. 2: "Thou art more than the moone, for thou hast neither changing quarters, nor a man standing in thy circle with a bush of thornes."

Butler, describing an astrologer, says:

"He made an instrument to know
If the moon shine at full or no;
That would as soon as e'er she shone, straight
Whether 'twere day or night demonstrate;
Tell what her d'meter fan inch is,
And prove that she's not made of green cheese.
It would demonstrate that the man in
The moon's a sea Mediterranean,
And that it is no dog nor bitch
That stands behind him at his breech,
But a huge Caspian sea, or lake,
With arms, which men for legs mistake;
How large a gulf his tail composes,
And what a goodly hay his nose is;
How many German leagues by th' scale
Cape Snout's from Promontory Tail."

A complete collection of the old superstitions connected with the man in the moon, with all the ballads on the subject, will be found in Halliwell's Introduction to A Midsummer Night's Dream, 8vo. 1841.

[p.155]

SECOND SIGHT.

I RANK this among omens, as it is an indication of some future thing, which the persons to whom it is communicated get, as it were, by accident, and without their seeking for, as is always the case in divination. Dr. Johnson, who, a few years before his death, visited the scene of the declining influence of second sight, has superseded every other account of it by what he has left us on the subject. "We should have had little claim," says he, "to the praise of curiosity, if we had not endeavoured with particular attention to examine the question of the second sight. Of an opinion received for centuries by a whole nation, and supposed to be confirmed through its whole descent by a series of successive facts, it is desirable that the truth should be established, or the fallacy detected.

"The second sight is an impression made either by the mind upon the eye, or by the eye upon the mind, by which things distant or future are perceived and seen as if they were present. A man on a journey, far from home, falls from his horse; another, who is perhaps at work about the house, sees him bleeding on the ground, commonly with a landscape of the place where the accident befalls him. Another seer, driving home his cattle, or wandering in idleness, or musing in the sunshine, is suddenly surprised by the appearance of a bridal ceremony, or funeral procession, and counts the mourners or attendants, of whom, if he knows them, he relates the names; if he knows them not, he can describe the dresses. Things distant are seen at the instant when they happen. Of things future I know not that there is any rule for determining the time between the sight and the event.

"This receptive faculty, for power it cannot be called, is neither voluntary nor constant. The appearances have no dependence upon choice: they cannot be summoned, detained, or recalled. The impression is sudden, and the effect often painful. By the term second sight seems to be meant a mode of seeing superadded to that which nature generally bestows. In the Erse it is called taisch; which signifies likewise a spectre or a vision. I know not, nor is it likely that the Highlanders ever examined, whether by taisch, used for [p.156] second sight, they mean the power of seeing or the thing seen.

"I do not find it to be true, as it is reported, that to the second sight nothing is presented but phantoms of evil. Good seems to have the same proportion in those visionary scenes as it obtains in real life.

"That they should often see death is to be expected, because death is an event frequent and important. But they see likewise more pleasing incidents. A gentleman told me that, when he had once gone far from his own island, one of his labouring servants predicted his return, and described the livery of his attendant, which he had never worn at home; and which had been, without any previous design, occasionally given him.

"It is the common talk of the Lowland Scots, that the notion of the second sight is wearing away with other superstitions; and that its reality is no longer supposed but by the grossest people. How far its prevalence ever extended, or what ground it has lost, I know not. The islanders of all degrees, whether of rank or understanding, universally admit it, except the ministers, who universally deny it, and are suspected to deny it in consequence of a system, against conviction. One of them honestly told me that he came to Sky with a resolution not to believe it.

"Strong reasons for incredulity will readily occur. This faculty of seeing things out of sight is local, and commonly useless. It is a breach of the common order of things, without any visible reason or perceptible benefit. It is ascribed only to a people very little enlightened; and among them, for the most part, to the mean and ignorant.

"To the confidence of these objections it may be replied, that, by presuming to determine what is fit and what is beneficial, they presuppose more knowledge of the universal system than man has attained, and therefore depend upon principles too complicated and extensive for our comprehension; and that there can be no security in the consequence, when the premises are not understood: that the second sight is only wonderful because it is rare, for, considered in itself, it involves no more difficulty than dreams, or perhaps than the regular exercises of the cogitative faculty: that a general opinion of communicative impulses, or visionary representa- [p.157] tions, has prevailed in all ages and all nations; that particular instances have been given, with such evidence as neither Bacon nor Boyle has been able to resist; that sudden impressions, which the event has verified, have been felt by more than own or publish them: that the second sight of the Hebrides implies only the local frequency of a power which is nowhere totally unknown; and that, where we are unable to decide by antecedent reason, we must be content to yield to the force of testimony.

"By pretension to second sight, no profit was ever sought or gained. It is an involuntary affection, in which neither hope nor fear are known to have any part. Those who profess to feel it do not boast of it as a privilege, nor are considered by others as advantageously distinguished. They have no temptation to feign, and their hearers have no motive to encourage the imposture. To talk with any of these seers is not easy. There is one living in Sky, with whom we would have gladly conversed; but he was very gross and ignorant, and knew no English. The proportion in these countries of the poor to the rich is such, that, if we suppose the quality to be accidental, it can rarely happen to a man of education; and yet on such men it has sometimes fallen.

"To collect sufficient testimonies for the satisfaction of the public or ourselves would have required more time than we could bestow. There is against it, the seeming analogy of things confusedly seen and little understood; and for it, the indistinct cry of national persuasion, which may perhaps be resolved at last into prejudice and tradition." He concludes with observing: "I never could advance my curiosity to conviction; but came away, at last, only willing to believe." This question of second sight has also been discussed by Dr. Beattie in his Essays, 8vo. Edinb. 1776, pp. 480-2.

In Macculloch's Western Islands of Scotland, 1819, ii. 32, the author says: "To have circumnavigated the Western Isles without even mentioning the second sight would be unpardonable. No inhabitant of St. Kilda pretended to have been forewarned of our arrival. In fact it has undergone the fate of witchcraft; ceasing to be believed, it has ceased to exist."

Jamieson (Etymolog. Dict. Supplement) defines second sight, a power believed to be possessed by not a few in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, of foreseeing future events, [p.158] especially of a disastrous kind, by means of a spectral exhibition to their eyes, of the persons whom these events respect, accompanied with such emblems as denote their fate. He says: "Whether this power was communicated to the inhabitants of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland by the northern nations who so long had possession of the latter, I shall not pretend to determine; but traces of the same wonderful faculty may be found among the Scandinavians. Isl. rammskyyn, denotes one who is endowed with the power of seeing spirits: 'qui tali visu prseter naturam praeditus est, ut spiritus et dsemones videat, opaca etiam visu penetret.' Verel. Ind. The designation is formed from rammur viribus pollens, and skygn videns; q. powerful in vision."

Rowlands, in his Mona Antiqua Restaurata, p. 140, note, tells us: "The magic of the Druids, or one part of it, seems to have remained among the Britons even after their conversion to Christianity, and is called Taish in Scotland; which is a way of predicting by a sort of vision they call second sight; and I take it to be a relic of Druidism, particularly from a noted story related by Vopiscus, of the Emperor Diocletian, who, when a private soldier in Gallia, on his removing thence, reckoning with his hostess, who was a Druid woman, she told him he was too penurious, and did not bear in him the noble soul of a soldier; on his reply that his pay was small, she, looking steadfastly on him, said that he needed not be so sparing of his money, for after he should kill a boar she confidently pronounced he would be emperor of Rome, which he took as a compliment from her; but seeing her serious in her affirmation, the words she spoke stuck upon him, and was after much delighted in hunting and killing of boars, often saying, when he saw many made emperors, and his own fortune not much mending, I kill the boars, but 'tis others that eat the flesh. Yet it happen'd that, many years after, one Arrius Aper, father-in-law of the Emperor Numerianus, grasping for the empire, traitorously slew him, for which fact being apprehended by the soldiers and brought before Diocletian, who being then a prime commander in the army, they left the traytor to his disposal, who asking his name, and being told that he was called Aper, i.e. a boar, without further pause he sheathed his sword in his bowels, saying, et hunc aprum eum cceteris, i.e. 'Even this boar also to the rest;' which [p.159] done, the soldiers, commending it as a quick, extraordinary act of justice, without further deliberation, saluted him by the name of emperor. I bring this story here in view, as not improper on this hint, nor unuseful to be observed, because it gives fair evidence of the antiquity of the second sight, and withall shows that it descended from the ancient Druids, as being one part of the diabolical magic they are charg'd with; and upon their dispersion into the territories of Denmark and SSwedeland, continued there in the most heathenish parts to this day, as is set forth in the story of the late Duncan Campbell." In the Ode on the Popular Superstitions of the Highlands of Scotland, by Collins, I find the following lines on this subject:

"How they, whose sight such dreary dreams engross,
With their own vision oft astonish'd droop,
When, o'er the wat'ry strath, or quaggy moss,
They see the gliding ghosts unbodied troop.
Or, if in sports, or on the festive green,
Their destin'd glance some fated youth descry,
Who now, perhaps, in lusty vigour seen,
And rosy health, shall soon lamented die.
To monarchs dear, some hundred miles astray,
Oft have they seen fate give the fatal blow!
The seer, in Sky, shriek'd as the blood did flow,
When headless Charles warm on the scaffold lay!"

See on this subject some curious particulars in Aubrey's Miscellanies, p. 187.

In Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, iii. 380, the minister of Applecross, in the county of Ross, speaking of his parishioners, says: "With them the belief of the second sight is general, and the power of an evil eye is commonly credited; and though the faith in witchcraft be much enfeebled, the virtue of abstracting the substance from one milk, and adding to another, is rarely questioned."

May not the following passage from Waldron's Description of the Isle of Man (Works, folio, p. 139) be referred to this second sight? "The natives of the island tell you that, before any person dies, the procession of the funeral is acted by a sort of beings, which for that end render themselves visible. I know several that have offered to make oath that, as they have been passing the road, one of these funerals has [p.160] come behind them, and even laid the bier on their shoulders, as though to assist the bearers. One person, who assured me he had been served so, told me that the flesh of his shoulder had been very much bruised, and was black for many weeks after. There are few or none of them who pretend not to have seen or heard these imaginary obsequies, (for I must not omit that they sing psalms in the same manner as those do who accompany the corpse of a dead friend,) which so little differ from real ones, that they are not to be known till both coffin and mourners are seen to vanish at the church doors. These they take to be a sort of friendly demons; and their business, they say, is to warn people of what is to befall them; accordingly, they give notice of any stranger's approach by the trampling of horses at the gate of the house where they are to arrive. As difficult as I found it to bring myself to give any faith to this, I have frequently been very much surprised, when, on visiting a friend, 1 have found the table ready spread, and everything in order to receive me, and been told by the person to whom I went that he had knowledge of my coming, or some other guest by these good-natured intelligencers. Nay, when obliged to be absent some time from home, my own servants have assured me they were informed by these means of my return, and expected me the very hour I came, though perhaps it was some days before I hoped it myself at my going abroad. That this is fact I am positively convinced by many proofs."

SALT FALLING, &c.

SALT falling towards a person was considered formerly as a very unlucky omen. Something had either already happened to one of the family, or was shortly to befall the persons spilling it.⁷³ It denoted also the falling-out of friends.

Dr. Nathaniel Home, in his Daemonologie, p. 58, enumerates among bad omens, "the falling of salt towards them at the table, or the spilling of wine on their clothes;" saying [p.161] also, p. 60, "How common is it for people to account it a signe of ill-luck to have the salt-cellar to be overturned, the salt falling towards them?"

The subsequent quotations are from Roberti Keuchenii Crepundia, 8vo. Amstel. 1662, p. 215:

"Salinum Eversum.

Prodige, subverso casu leviore salino,
Si mal venturum conjicis omen: adest."

"Idem.

Deliras insulse; salem sapientia servat:
Omen ab ingenio desipiente malum."

"Idem.

"Perde animam temulente, cades; sic auguror omen;
Non est in toto corpore mica salis."

Bishop Hall, in his Characters of Vertues and Vices, 1608, speaking of the superstitious man, says: "If the salt fall towards him he looks pale and red, and is not quiet till one of the waiters have poured wine on his lappe." I have been at table where this accident happening, it has been thought to have been averted by throwing a little of the salt that fell over the left shoulder.

Mr. Pennant,⁷⁴ in his Journey from Chester to London, p. 31, tells us: "The dread of spilling salt is a known superstition among us and the Germans, being reckoned a presage of some future calamity, and particularly that it foreboded domestic feuds; to avert which it is customary to fling some salt over the shoulder into the fire, in a manner truly classical:

"Mollivit aversos Penates,
Farre pio, saliente mica." Horat. lib. iii. Od. 23.

Both Greeks and Romans mixed salt with their sacrificial cakes; in their lustrations also they made use of salt and water, which gave rise in after-times to the superstition of holy water. Stuckius, in his Convivial Antiquities, p. 17, tells us that the Muscovites thought that a prince could not show a greater mark of affection than by sending to him salt from his own table.

[p.162]

Selden, in his notes on the Polyolbion, Song xi., observes of salt, that it "was used in all sacrifices by expresse command of the true God, the salt of the covenant in Holy Writ, the religion of the salt, set first and last taken away, as a symbole of perpetual friendship, that in Homer [Greek], he sprinkled it with divine salt, the title of [Greek], the cleanser, given it by Lycophron, you shall see apparent and apt testimonie of its having had a most respected and divinely honoured name."

It has been observed by Bailey, on the falling of salt,⁷⁵ that it proceeds from an ancient opinion that salt was incorruptible; it had therefore been made the symbol of friendship; and if it fell, usually, the persons between whom it happened thought their friendship would not be of long duration.

Gaule, in his Mag-astromancers Pozed and Puzzel'd, p. 181, reckons among vain observations and superstitious ominations thereupon, "the spilling of the wine, the overturning of the salt." He afterwards, in p. 320, tells us: "I have read it in an orthodox divine, that he knew a young gentleman who, by chance spilling the salt of the table, some that sate with him said merrily to him that it was an ill omen, and wish't him take heed to himselfe that day: of which the young man was so superstitiously credulous, that it would not go out of his mind; and going abroad that day, got a wound, of which he died not long after."

In Melton's Astrologaster, p. 45, this occurs in a "Catalogue of many Superstitious Ceremonies," No. 26, "That it is ill-lucke to have the salt-sellar fall towards you." Gayton, in his Art of Longevity, 4to. 1659, p. 90, says:

"I have two friends of either sex, which do
Eat little salt, or none, yet are friends too,
Of both which persons I can truly tell,
They are of patience most invincible,
Whom out of temper no mischance at all
Can put no, if towards them the salt should fall!"⁷⁵

[p.163]

In the British Apollo, fol. Lond. 1708, i. No. 24, it is said:

" Wee'l tell you the reason
Why spilling of salt
Is esteem'd such a fault:
Because it doth ev'rything season.
Th' antiques did opine
'Twas of friendship a sign,
So serv'd it to guests in decorum;
And thought love decay'd
When the negligent maid
Let the salt-cellar tumble before them."

In the Rules of Civility, 12mo. Lond. 1695 (transl. from the French), p. 134, we read: "Some are so exact, they think it uncivil to help anybody that sits by them either with salt or with brains; but in my judgment that is but a ridiculous scruple, and, if your neighbour desires you to furnish him, you must either take out some with your knife, and lay it upon his plate, or, if they be more than one, present them with the salt, that they may furnish themselves."

Salt was equally used in the sacrifices both by Jews and Pagans; but the use of salt in baptism was taken from the Gentile idolatry, and not from the Jewish sacrifices. Salt, as an emblem of preservation, was ordered by the law of Moses to be strewed on all flesh that was offered in sacrifice. But among the Pagans it was not only made use of as an adjunct, or necessary concomitant of the sacrifice, but was offered itself as a propitiation. Thus in the Ferialia, or Offerings to the Diis Manibus, when no animal was slain:

"Parva petunt Manes, pietas pro divite grata est
Munere ; non avidos Styx habet una Deos
Tegula porrectis satis est velata coronis,
Et parcae fruges, parvaque mica salis."

"The Manes' rights expenses small supply,
Their richest sacrifice is piety.
With vernal garlands a small tile exalt,
A little flour and little grain of salt."

That the flour and salt were both designed as propitiatory offerings to redeem them from the vengeance of the Stygian or infernal gods, may be proved from a like custom in the Lemuria, another festival to the Diis Manibus, where beans [p.164] are flung instead of the flour and salt; and when flung, the person says,

"His, inquit, redimo, meque, meosque fabis." Fast. lib. v.
"And with these beans I me and mine redeem."

"It is plain, therefore, that the salt in the former ceremony was offered as a redemption, which property the Papists impiously ascribe to it still; and the parva mica, a little grain, is the very thing put into the child's mouth at present." Seward's Conformity between Popery and Paganism, p. 53. Ibid. p. 50, we read: "Then he, the priest, exorcises and expels the impure spirits from the salt, which stands by him in a little silver box; and, putting a bit of it into the mouth of the person to be baptized, he says, 'Receive the salt of wisdom, and may it be a propitiation to thee for eternal life.'" By the following extract from Dekker's Honest Whore, 1635, the taking of bread and salt seems to have been used as a form of an oath or strong asseveration:

"Scene 13.

"He toolee tread and salt by this light, that he would
Never open his lips."

It is also said

"He damned himself to hel, if he speak on't agein."

Of the oath of bread and salt, see Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, i. 236.

Waldron, in his Description of the Isle of Man (Works, fol. p. 187), says: "No person will go out on any material affair without taking some salt in their pockets, much less remove from one house to another, marry, put out a child, or take one to nurse, without salt being mutually interchanged; nay, though a poor creature be almost famished in the streets, he will not accept any food you will give him, unless you join salt to the rest of your benevolence." The reason assigned by the natives for this is too ridiculous to be transcribed, i.e. the account given by a pilgrim of the dissolution of an enchanted palace on the island, occasioned by salt spilled on the ground.

In the Statistical Account of Scotland, xvi. 121, parish of Killearn, co. Sterling, we read: "Superstition yet continues [p.165] to operate so strongly on some people, that they put a small quantity of salt into the first milk of a cow, after calving, that is given any person to drink. This is done with a view to prevent skaith (harm), if it should happen that the person is not canny."

Camden, in his Ancient and Modern Manners of the Irish, says: "In the town when any enter upon a public office, women in the streets, and girls from the windows, sprinkle them and their attendants with wheat and salt. And before the seed is put into the ground, the mistress of the family sends salt into the field." Gough's Camden, fol. 1789, iii. 659. See also Memorable Things noted in the Description of the World, p. 112.

Willsford, in his Nature's Secrets, p. 139, tells us: "Salt extracted out of the earth, water, or any mineral, hath these properties to foreshew the weather; for, if well kept, in fair weather it will be dry, and apt to dissolve against wet into its proper element; on boards that it hath lain upon, and got into the pores of the wood, it will be dry in fair and serene weather, but when the air inclines to wet it will dissolve; and that you shall see by the board venting his brackish tears; and salt-sellers will have a dew hang upon them, and those made of mettal look dim against rainy weather."

Park, in his Travels in the Interior of Africa, tells us: "It would appear strange to an European to see a child suck a piece of rock salt as if it were sugar; this is frequent in Africa; but the poorer sort of inhabitants are so rarely indulged with this precious article, that to say, 'A man eats salt with his victuals,' is to say he is a rich man."

In the order for the house at Denton, by Tho. Lord Fairfax, among Croft's Excerpta Antiqua, p. 32, I find, "For the chamber let the best fashioned and apparell'd servants attend above the salt, the rest below."

["If salt fall tow'rds him, he looks pale and red,
Stares as the house were tumbling on his head,
Nor can recover breath till that mishap
Be purg'd by shedding wine into his lap.
        Tate's Characters, 1691, p. 21.]

Reginald Scot, in his Discovery of Witchcraft, p. 95, observes that "to recount it good or bad luck when salt or wine falleth on the table, or is shed, is altogether vanity and super- [p.166] stition." See also Mason's Anatomy of Sorcery, 4to. Lond. 1612, p. 90. Melton, in his Astrolagaster, p. 45, No. 27, observes that "If the beere fall next a man it is a signe of good luck."⁷⁶

SHOE OMENS.

THE casual putting the left shoe on the right foot, or the right on the left, was thought anciently to be the forerunner of some unlucky accident. Scot, in his Discovery of Witchcraft, tells us: "He that receiveth a mischance will consider whether he put not on his shirt the wrong side outwards, or his left shoe on his right foot." Thus Butler, in his Hudibras:

"Augustus, having b' oversight
Put on his left shoe 'fore his right,
Had like to have been slain that day
By soldiers mutin'yng for pay."

The authority of Pliny is cited in a note.⁷⁷

Similar to this, says Grose, is putting on one stocking with the wrong side outward, without design; though changing it alters the luck.

A great deal of learning might be adduced on the subject of shoe superstitions.⁷⁸ For the ancient religious use of the shoe, see Stuckius's Convivial Antiquities, p. 228.

[p.167]

In the Statistical Account, of Scotland, xiv. 541, parish of Forglen, in the county of Banff, we read; "The superstition of former times is now much worn out. There remains, however, still a little. There are happy and unhappy feet. Thus, they wish bridegrooms and brides a happy foot; and, to prevent any bad effect, they salute those they meet on the road with a kiss. It is hard, however, if any misfortune happens when you are passing, that you should be blamed, when neither you nor your feet ever thought of the matter. The tongue too must be guarded, even when it commends: it had more need, one would think, when it discommends. Thus, to prevent what is called forespeakiug, they say of a person, God save them: of a beast, Lucksairit."

[Train, in his History of the Isle of Man, ii. 129, says: "On the bridegroom leaving his house, it was customary to throw an old shoe after him, and in like manner an old shoe after the bride on leaving her home to proceed to church, in order to ensure good luck to each respectively; and, if by stratagem either of the bride's shoes could be taken off by any spectator on her way from church, it had to be ransomed by the bridegroom."]

Leo Modena, speaking of the customs of the present Jews, tells us that "some of them observe, in dressing themselves in the morning, to put on the right stocking and right shoe first, without tying it; then afterward to put on the left, and so to return to the right; that so they may begin and end with the right side, which they account to be the most fortunate." Transl. by Chilmead, 8vo. Lond. 1650, p. 17.

Gaule, in his Mag-astromancers posed and puzzel'd, p. 181, does not leave out, among vain observations and superstitious ominations thereupon, the "putting on the hose uneven, or a crosse, and the shooe upon the wrong foot; the band [p.168] standing awry; the going abroad without the girdle on and "the bursting of the shoe-lachet" In Pet. Molinsei Vates, p. 218, we read: "Sicorrigia calcei fracta est, ominosum est."

James Mason, Master of Artes, in the Anatomie of Sorcerie, 4to. Lond. 1612, p. 90, speaking of "vaine and frivolous devices, of which sort we have an infinite number also used amongst us," enumerates "foredeeming of evill lucke, by pulling on the shooe awry."

It is accounted lucky by the vulgar to throw an old shoe after a person when they wish him to succeed in what he is going about. There was an old ceremony in Ireland of electing a person to any office by throwing an old shoe over his head.⁷⁹

Grose, citing Ben Jonson saying "Would I had Kemp's shoes to throw after you," observes, perhaps Kemp was a man remarkable for his good luck or fortune, throwing an old shoe or shoes after any one going on an important business is by the vulgar deemed lucky. See instances of this in Reed's Old Plays, xii. 434.

Shenstone, the pastoral poet, somewhere in his works asks the following question: "May not the custom of scraping when we bow be derived from the ancient custom of throwing the shoes backwards on the feet?" and in all probability it may be answered in the affirmative.

In Gayton's Festivous Notes upon Don Quixote, p. 104, is the following passage, which will be thought much to our purpose: "An incantation upon the horse, for want of nailing his old shoes at the door of his house when he came forth; or because, nor the old woman, nor the barber, nor his niece, nor the curate, designed him the security of an old shooe after [p.169] him." So in the Workes of John Heywoode, newlie imprinted, 1598:

"And home agayne hitherward quicke as a bee,
Now, for good Incite, cast an olde shooe after mee."

I find the following in the Raven's Almanacke: "But at his shutting in of shop could have beene content to have had all his neighbours have throwne his olde shooes after him when hee went home, in signe of good lucke." In Ben Jonson's Masque of the Gypsies, 1640, p. 64, we find this superstition mentioned:

3 Gypsie.     "Hurle after an old shoe,
                     I'le be merry what here I doe."

See Beaumont and Fletcher's Honest Man's Fortune, p. 3979, and the Wild Goose Chace, p. 1648.

LOOKING-GLASS OMENS.

To break a looking-glass is accounted a very unlucky accident. Should it be a valuable one this is literally true, which is not always the case in similar superstitions. Mirrors were formerly used by magicians in their superstitious and diabololical operations,⁸⁰ and there was an ancient kind of divina- [p.170] tion by the looking-glass;⁸¹ hence, it should seem, has been derived the present popular notion. When a looking-glass is broken, it is an omen that the party to whom it belongs will lose his best friend. See the Greek Scholia on the Nubes of Aristophanes, p. 169. Grose tells us that "breaking a looking-glass betokens a mortality in the family, commonly the master."

In the Memoires de Constant, premier valet de chambre de 1'Empereur, sur la vie privee de Napoleon, 1830, Bonaparte's superstition respecting the looking-glass is particularly mentioned: "During one of his campaigns in Italy, he broke the glass over Josephine's portrait. He never rested till the return of the courier he forthwith despatched to assure himself of her safety, so strong was the impression of her death upon his mind."

In a list of superstitious practices preserved in the Lite and Character of Harvey the famous Conjurer of Dublin, 1728, p. 58, with "fortune-telling, dreams, visions, palmestry, physiognomy, omens, casting nativities, pasting urine, drawing images," there occur also "mirrors."

Willsford, in his Nature's Secrets, p. 138, tells us: "Mettals in general, against much wet or rainy weather, will seem to have a dew hang upon them, and be much apter to sully or foul anything that is rubbed with the mettal; as you may see in pewter dishes against rain, as if they did sweat, leaving a smutch upon the table cloaths; with this Pliny concludes as a sign of tempests approaching.

"Stones against rain will have a dew hang upon them; [p.171] but the sweating of stones is from several causes, and sometimes are signs of much drought. Glasses of all sorts will have a dew upon them in moist weather; glasse-windows will also shew a frost, by turning the air that touches them into water, and then congealing of it."

In the Marriage of the Arts, by Barton Holiday, 1630, is the following: "I have often heard them say 'tis ill luck to see one's face in a glasse by candle-light."

TINGLING OF THE EARS, &c.

IN Shakspeare's Much Ado About Nothing, Beatrice says: "What fire is in mine ears!" which Warburton explains as alluding to a proverbial saying of the common people that their ears burn when others are talking of them. On which Reed observes that the opinion from whence this proverbial saying is derived is of great antiquity, being thus mentioned by Pliny: "Moreover is not this an opinion generally received that when our ears do glow and tingle some there be that in our absence doe talke of us?" Philemon Holland's translation, b. xxviii. p. 297; and Browne's Vulgar Errors. Sir Thomas Browne says: "When our cheek burns, or ear tingles, we usually say somebody is talking of us, a conceit of great antiquity, and ranked among superstitious opinions by Pliny. He supposes it to have proceeded from the notion of a signifying genius, or universal Mercury, that conducted sounds to their distant subjects, and taught to hear by touch."⁸² The following is in Herrick's Hesperides, p. 391:

"On himselfe:
One eare tingles; some there be
That are snarling now at me;
Be they those that Homer bit,
I will give them thanks for it."

[p.172]

Mr. Douce's MS. notes say: "Right lug, left lug, wilk lug lows?" If the left ear, they talk harm; if the right, good. Scottish, J.M.D. Werenfels, in his Dissertation upon Superstition, p. 6, speaking of a superstitious man, says: "When his right ear tingles, he will be cheerful; but, if his left, he will be sad."

Gaule, in his Mag-astromancers Posed and Puzzel'd, p. 181, has not omitted, in his list of "Vain Observations and Superstitious Ominations thereupon," the tingling of the ear, the itching of the eye, the glowing of the cheek, the bleeding of the nose, the stammering in the beginning of a speech, the being over-merry on a sudden, and to be given to sighing, and to know no cause why."

Dr. Nathaniel Home, in his Daemonologie, or the Character of the crying Evils of the present Times, 1650, p. 61, tells us: "If their eares tingle, they say it is a signe they have some enemies abroad, that doe or are about to speake evill of them: so, if their right eye itcheth, then it betokens joy full laughter; and so, from the itching of the nose and elbow, and severall affectings of severall parts, they make severall predictions too silly to be mentioned, though regarded by them."

In the third IdyIlium of Theocritus, the itching of the right eye occurs as a lucky omen:

[Greek]

thus translated by Creech, 1. 37;

[p.173]

"My right eye itches now, and shall I see My love?"⁸³

Douce preserves the following superstition on measuring the neck, extracted from Le Voyageur a Paris, iii. 223: "Les anciennes nourrices, quand 1'usage toit de leur laisser les filles jusqu'e, ce qu'on les donnat a un mari, persuadoient a ces credules adolescentes que la grosseur du cou etoit de moyen d'apprecier leur continence; et pour cela elles le mesuroient chaque matin. Retenue par une telle epreuve, la fille sage dut tirer vanite de la mesure; de la 1'usage des colliers." In Petri Molinsei Vates, p. 218, we read: "Si cui riget collum, aut cervicis vertebrae sunt obtortse, prsesignificatio est futuri suspendii."⁸⁴

To rise on the right side is accounted lucky; see Beaumont and Fletcher's Women Pleased, at the end of act i. So, in the old play of What you Will: "You rise on your right side to-day, marry." Marston's Works, 8vo. 1633, signat, R. b. And again, in the Dumb Knight, by Lewis Machin, 4to. 1633, act iv. sc. 1, Alphonso says:

"Sure I said my prayers, ris'd on my right side,
Wash'd hands and eyes, put on my girdle last;
Sure I met no splea-footed baker,
No hare did cross me, nor no bearded witch,
Nor other ominous sign."

In the old play called the Game at Chesse, 4to. p. 32, we read:

"A sudden fear invades me, a faint trembling
Under this omen,
As is oft felt, the panting of a turtle
Under a streaking hand."

Answer.

"That boads good lucke still.
Signe you shall change state speedily,
For that trembling
Is alwayes the first symptom of a bride."

[p.174]

OMENS RELATING TO THE CHEEK, NOSE, AND MOUTH.

MELTON, in his Astrologaster, p. 45, No. 7, observes, that "when the left cheek burnes, it is a signe somebody talks well of you; but if the right cheek burnes, it is a sign of ill." Grose says that, when a person's cheek or ear burns, it is a sign that some one is then talking of him or her. If it is the right cheek or ear, the discourse is to their advantage: if the left, to their disadvantage. When the right eye itches, the party affected will shortly cry; if the left, they will laugh.

In Ravenscroft's Canterbury Guests, or a Bargain Broken, 4to. p. 20, we read: "That you should think to deceive me! Why, all the while I was last in your company, my heart beat all on that side you stood, and my cheek next you burnt and glow'd."

Itching of the nose. I have frequently heard this symptom interpreted into the expectation of seeing a stranger. So in Dekker's Honest Whore, Bellefont says:

"We shall ha guests to day,
I'll lay my little maidenhead, my nose itcheth so."

The reply made by her servant Roger further informs us that the biting of fleas was a token of the same kind. In Melton's Astrologaster, p. 45, No. 31, it is observed that, "when a man's nose itcheth, it is a signe he shall drink wine;" and 32, that "if your lips itch, you shall kisse somebody."

Poor Robin, in his Almanac for 1695, thus satirises some very indelicate superstitions of his time in blowing the nose: "They who, blowing their nose, in the taking away of their handkercher look stedfastly upon it, and pry into it, as if some pearls had drop'd from them, and that they would safely lay them up for fear of losing:

These men are fools, although the name they hate,
Each of them a child at man's estate."

The same writer ridicules the following indelicate fooleries then in use, which must surely have been either of Dutch or [p.175] Flemish extraction: "They who, when they make water, go streaking the walls with their urine, as if they were framing some antic figures, or making some curious delineations; or shall piss in the dust, making I know not what scattering angles and circles; or some chink in a wall, or little hole in the ground to be brought in, after two or three admonitions, as incurable fools."

The nose falling a bleeding appears by the following passage to have been a sign of love; "Did my nose ever bleed when I was in your company? and, poor wench, just as she spake this, to shew her true heart, her nose fell a bleeding." Boulster Lectures, 12mo. Lond. 1640, p. 130.

Launcelot, in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, says: "It was not for nothing that my nose fell a bleeding," &c.; on which Steevens observes that, from a passage in Lodge's Rosalynde, 1592, it appears that some superstitious belief was annexed to the accident of bleeding at the nose: "As he stood gazing, his nose on a sudden bled, which made him conjecture it was some friend of his." To which Reed adds: "Again, in the Duchess of Malfy, 1640, act i. sc. 2:

'How superstitiously we mind our evils!
The throwing down salt, or crossing of a hare,
Bleeding at nose, the stumbling of a horse,
Or singing of a creket, are of power
To daunt whole man in us.'

Again, act i. sc. 3: 'My nose bleeds.' One that was superstitious would count this ominous, when it merely comes by chance."

In Bodenham's Belvedere, or Garden of the Muses, 1600, p. 147, on the subject of 'Feare, Doubt," &c., he gives the following simile from some one of our old poets:

"As suddaine bleeding argues ill ensuing,
So suddaine ceasing is fell feares renewing."

Melton's Astrologaster, p. 45, observes: "8. That when a man's nose bleeds but a drop or two, that it is a sign of ill lucke. 9. That when a man's nose bleeds one drop, and at the left nostril, it is a sign of good lucke, but, on the right, ill."

Grose says a drop of blood from the nose commonly foretells death, or a very severe fit of sickness; three drops are [p.176] still more ominous.^83a Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, edit. 4to. 1621, p. 214, says that "to bleed three drops at the nose is an ill omen."

If, says Grose, in eating, you miss your mouth, and the victuals fall, it is very unlucky, and denotes approaching sickness.

HEAD OMENS.

GAULE, in his Mag-astromancers Posed and Puzzel'd, p. 183, very justly gives the epithets of "vain, superstitious, and ridiculous," to the subsequent observations on Heads: "That a great head is an omen or a sign of a sluggish fool," (this reminds one of the old saying, "Great head and little wit"); "a little head, of a subtile knave; a middle head, of a liberal wit; a round head, of a senseless irrational fellow; a sharp head, of an impudent sot," &c. Our author's remarks, or rather citation of the remarks, upon round heads above, seem not to have been over-well timed, for this book was printed in 1652, and is dedicated to the Lord General Cromwell.

There is a vulgar notion that men's hair will sometimes turn grey upon a sudden and violent fright, to which Shakespeare alludes in a speech of Falstaff to Prince Henry: "Thy father's beard is turned white with the news." See Grey's Notes on Shakspeare, i. 338. He adds: "This whimsical opinion was humorously bantered by a wag in a coffee-house, who, upon hearing a young gentleman giving the same reason for the change of his hair from black to grey, observed that there was no great matter in it; and told the company that [p.177] he had a friend who wore a coal-black wig, which was turned grey by a fright in an instant."

By the following passage, a simile in Bodenham's Belvedere, or the Garden of the Muses, 1600, it should seem that our ancestors considered "heaviness" as an omen of some impending evil, p. 160:

"As heaviness foretels some harme at hand,
So minds disturb'd presage ensuing ills."

In Secret Memoirs of the late Mr. Duncan Campbell, 1732, p. 61, in the chapter of Omens, we read: "Others again, by having caught cold, feel a certain noise in their heads, which seems to them like the sound of distant bells, and fancy themselves warned of some great misfortune."^84a

HAND AND FINGER-NAILS.

SIR THOMAS BROWNE admits that conjectures of prevalent humours may be collected from the spots in our nails, but rejects the sundry divinations vulgarly raised upon them. Melton, in his Astrologaster, giving a catalogue of many superstitious ceremonies, tells us: "6. That to have yellow speckles on the nailes of one's hand is a greate signe of death." He observes, ibid. 23, that, "when the palme of the right hand itcheth, it is a shrewd sign he shall receive money."⁸⁵ In Reed's Old Plays, vi. 357, we read:

"When yellow spots do on your hands appear,
Be certain then you of a corse shall hear."⁸⁶

[The fore-finger of the right hand is considered by the [p.178] vulgar to be venomous; and consequently is never used in applying anything to a wound or bruise.]

To a person asking in the British Apollo, fol. Lond. 1708, vol. i. No. 17, the cause of little white spots which sometimes grow under the nails of the fingers, and why they say they are gifts, it is answered: "Those little spots are from white glittering particles which are mixed with red in the blood, and happen to remain there some time. The reason of their being called gifts is as wise an one as those of letters, winding-sheets, &c., in a candle."

Washing hands, says Grose, in the same basin, or with the same water, that another person has washed in, is extremely unlucky, as the parties will infallibly quarrel. No reason is is given for this absurd opinion.

Burton, in his Melancholy, edit. 1621, p. 214, tells us that a black spot appearing on the nails is a bad omen.

To cut the nails upon a Friday, or a Sunday, is accounted unlucky amongst the common people in many places. "The set and statuary times," says Browne, "of paring nails and cutting of hair, is thought by many a point of consideration, which is perhaps but the continuation of an ancient superstition. To the Romans it was piacular to pare their nails upon the Nundinae, observed every ninth day, and was also feared by others on certain days of the week, according to that of Ausonius, Ungues Mercurio, Barham Jove, Cypride Crines." Barton Holiday deprecates the omen, "that you may never pare your nailes upon a Friday." In Thomas Lodge's Wit's Miserie and the World's Madnesse; discovering the Devils Incarnat of this Age, 4to. Lond. 1596, he says, speaking of Curiositie, p. 12: "Nor will he paire his nailes on White Munday to be fortunate in his love."⁸⁷

In Albumazar, a Comedy, 4to. Lond. 1634, signat. B. 3 b., we read:

"He puls you not a haire, nor paires a naile,
Nor stirs a foote, without due figuring
The horoscope."

The Jews, however, (superstitiously, says Mr. Addison, in his Present State of that people, p. 129), pare their nails on a Friday. [p.179] Gaule, in his Mag-astromancers Posed and Puzzel'd, p. 187, ridicules the popular belief that "a great thick hand signes one not only strong but stout; a little slender hand, one not only weak but timorous; a long hand and long fingers betoken a man not only apt for mechanical artifice, but liberally ingenious; but those short, on the contrary, note a foole, and fit for nothing; an hard brawny hand signes dull and rude; a soft hand, witty but effeminate; an hairy hand, luxurious; longe joynts signe generous, yet, if they be thick withall, not so ingenious; the often clapping and folding of the hands note covetous, and their much moving in speech, loquacious; an ambidexter is noted for ireful, crafty, injurious; short and fat fingers mark a man out for intemperate and silly; but long and leane, for witty; if his fingers crook upward, that shewes him liberal, if downward, niggardly; long nailes and crooked, signe one brutish, ravenous, unchaste; very short nailes, pale, and sharp, show him false, subtile, beguiling; and so round nails, libidinous; but nails broad, plain, thin, white, and reddish, are the tokens of a very good wit."

A moist hand is vulgarly accounted a sign of an amorous constitution. The Chief Justice, in the Second Part of King Henry the Fourth, enumerates a dry hand among the characteristics of age and debility.

I have somewhere read, but I have forgotten my authority, that the custom of kissing the hand by way of salutation is derived from the manner in which the ancient Persians worshipped the sun; which was by first laying their hands upon their mouths, and then lifting them up by way of adoration, a practice which receives illustration from a passage in the Book of Job, a work replete with allusions to ancient manners: "If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness; and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand." Chap. xxxi. v. 26, 27.

On the passage in Macbeth

"By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.''

Steevens observes: "It is a very ancient superstition that all sudden pains of the body, and other sensations which could not naturally be accounted for, were presages of somewhat that was shortly to happen." Hence Mr. Upton has ex- [p.180] plained a passage in the Miles Gloriosus of Plautus: "Timeo quod rerum gesserim hie, ita dorsus totus prurit."

In Dekker's Dead Terme, 1607, signat. D. b., is found the following: "What by ting of the thumbs (at each other while the company are walking in St. Paul's) to beget quarrels." This singular mode of picking a quarrel occurs in Romeo and Juliet, act i. sc. 1; in Randolph's Muses' Looking-Glass, &c.

In Lodge's Incarnate Devils, 1596, p. 23, is the following: "I see contempt marching forth, giving mee the fico with his thombe in his mouth, for concealing him so long from your eie-sight." In the Rules of Civility, 1685, p. 44, we read: "'Tis no less disrespectful to bite the nail of your thumb by way of scorn and disdain, and, drawing your nail from betwixt your teeth, to tell them you value not this what they can do; and the same rudeness may be committed with a fillip."

Doubling the thumb. Hutchinson, in his History of Northumberland, ii. ad finem, 4, tells us: "Children, to avoid approaching danger, are taught to double the thumb within the hand. This was much practised whilst the terrors of witchcraft remained; and even in the beginning of the present century much of those unhappy prejudices possessed the minds of the vulgar. It was the custom to fold the thumbs of dead persons within the hand, to prevent the power of evil spirits over the deceased; the thumb in that position forming the similitude of the character in the Hebrew alphabet which is commonly used to denote the name of God."

CANDLE OMENS.

THE fungous parcels, as Sir Thomas Browne calls them, about the wicks of candles are commonly thought to foretell strangers.⁸⁸ In the north, as well as in other parts of England, they are called letters at the candle, as if the forerunners, of [p.181] some strange news. These, says Browne, with his usual pedantry of style, which is well atoned for by his good sense and learning, "only indicate a moist and pluvious air, which hinders the avolation of the light and favillous particles, whereupon they settle upon the snast." That candles and lights, he observes also, "burn blue and dim at the apparition of spirits, may be true, if the ambient air be full of sulphureous spirits, as it happens often in mines."

Melton, in his Astrologaster, p. 45, says: "28. That if a candle burne blew, it is a signe that there is a spirit in the house, or not farre from it."

A collection of tallow, says Grose, rising up against the wick of a candle, is styled a winding-sheet, and deemed an omen of death in the family. A spark at the candle, says the same author, denotes that the party opposite to it will shortly receive a letter. A kind of fungus in the candle, observes the same writer, predicts the visit of a stranger from that part of the country nearest the object. Others say it implies the arrival of a parcel.

Dr. Goldsmith, in his Vicar of Wakefield, speaking of the waking dreams of his hero's daughters, says: "The girls had their omens too, they saw rings in the candle."

Jodrell, in his Illustrations of Euripides, i. 127, tells us, from Brodaeus, that among the Greeks the votary was sensible of the acceptation of his prayer by the manner in which the flame darted its ejaculation. If the flame was bright, this was an auspicious omen, but it was esteemed the contrary, if it corresponded with the description of the sacrifice in the Antigone of Sophocles:

"When, from the victim, lo! the sullen flame
Aspir'd not; smother'd in the ashes still
Lay the moist flesh, and, roll'd in smoke, repell'd
The rising fire." Franklin, ii. 57.

Sir Thomas Browne, in his Hydriotaphia, p. 59, speaking of the ancients, observes: "That they poured oyle upon the pyre was a tolerable practise, while the intention rested in facilitating the ascension; but to place good omens in the quick and speedy burning, to sacrifice unto the windes for a dispatch in this office, was a low form of superstition."

Willsford, in his Nature's Secrets, p. 120, tells us: "If [p.182] the flame of a candle, lamp, or any other fire, does wave or wind itself where there is no sensible or visible cause, expect some windy weather. When candles or lamps will not so readily kindle as at other times, it is a sign of wet weather neer at hand. When candles or lamps do sparkle and rise up; the little fumes, or their wicks swell, with things on their mushrooms, are all signs of ensuing wet weather."

The innkeepers and owners of brothels at Amsterdam said to account these "fungous parcels" lucky, when they burn long and brilliant, in which case they suppose them to bring customers. But when they soon go out, they imagine the customers already under their roofs will presently depart. See Putanisme d'Amsterdam, 12mo. 1681, p. 92. They call these puffs of the candle "good men."

The Hon. Mr. Boyle, in his Occasional Reflections upon several Subjects, 8vo. Lond. 1665, p. 218, makes his "Meditation 10th upon a thief in a candle which, by its irregular way of making the flame blaze, melts down a good part of the tallow, and will soon spoil the rest, if the remains are not rescued by the removal of the thief (as they call it) in the candle."

In Secret Memoirs of the late Mr. Duncan Campbell, 8vo, Lond. 1732, p. 62, the author says: "I have seen people who, after writing a letter, have prognosticated to themselves the ill success of it, if by any accident it happened to fall on the ground; others have seemed as impatient, and exclaiming against their want of thought, if through haste or forgetfulness they have chanced to hold it before the fire to dry; but the mistake of a word in it is a sure omen that whatever requests it carries shall be refused."

"The Irish, when they put out a candle, say, 'May the Lord renew, or send us the light of Heaven!'" Gent. Mag. 1795, p. 202.

[p.183]

OMENS AT THE BARS OF GRATES, PURSES, AND COFFINS.

A FLAKE of soot hanging at the bars of the grate, says Grose, denotes the visit of a stranger,⁸⁹ like the fungus of the candle, from that part of the country nearest the object. Dr. Goldsmith, in his Vicar of Wakefield, among the omens of his hero's daughters, tells us, "purses bounded from the fire." In the north of England, the cinders that bound from the fire are carefully examined by old women and children, and according to their respective forms are called either coffins or purses; and consequently thought to be the presages of death or wealth: aut Ccesar aut nullus. A coal, says Grose, in the shape of a coffin, flying out of the fire to any particular person, betokens their death not far off.

In the Secret Memoirs of Mr. Duncan Campbell, p. 61, is the following observation: "The fire also affords a kind of divination to these omen-mongers; they see swords, guns, castles, churches, prisons, coffins, wedding-rings, bags of money, men and women, or whatever they either wish or fear, plainly deciphered in the glowing coals."

Willsford, in his Nature's Secrets, p. 120, tells us: "When our common fires do burn with a pale flame, they presage foul weather. If the fire do make a buzzing noise, it is a sign of tempests near at hand. When the fire sparkleth very much, it is a sign of rain. If the ashes on the hearth do clodder together of themselves, it is a sign of rain. When pots are newly taken off the fire, if they sparkle (the soot upon them being incensed), it presages rain. When the fire scorcheth and burneth more vehemently than it useth to do, [p.184] it is a sign of frosty weather; but if the living coals do shine brighter than commonly at other times, expect then rain. If wood, or any other fuel, do crackle and break forth wind more than ordinary, it is an evident sign of some tempestuous weather neer at hand; the much and suddain falling of soot presages rain."

Ramesey, in his Elminthologia, 8vo. Lond. 1668, p. 271, making observations on superstitious persons, says: "If the salt fall but towards them, or the fire, then they expect anger: and an hundred such-like foolish and groundless conceits." In Petri Molinsei Vates, p. 219, we read: "Si flamma ex cineribus subito erupit, felicitatis omen est."

The subsequent childish sport, so elegantly described by Cowper, Poems, ed. 1798, i. 272, may not improperly be referred to the ancient fire divinations:

"So when a child, as playful children use,
Has hurnt to tinder a stale last year's news,
The flame extinct, he views the roving fire
There goes my lady, and there goes the squire,
There goes the parson, oh! illustrious spark,
And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk!"

THE HOWLING OF DOGS.

A SUPERSTITIOUS opinion vulgarly prevails that the howling of a dog by night in a neighbourhood is the presage of death to any that are sick in it.⁹⁰ I know not what has given rise to this: dogs have been known to stand and howl over the bodies of their masters, when they have been murdered, or died an accidental or sudden death: taking such note of [p.185] what is past, is an instance of great sensibility in this faithful animal, without supposing that it has in the smallest degree any prescience of the future. Shakespeare ranks this among omens:

"The owl shriek'd at thy birth ; an evil sign!
The night-crow cry'd aboding luckless time;
Dogs howl'd, and hideous tempests shook down trees."

The howling of dogs, says Grose, is a certain sign that some one of the family will very shortly die. The following passage is in the Merry Devil of Edmonton, 4to. 1631:

"I hear the watchful dogs
"With hollow howling tell of thy approach,"

and the subsequent is cited in Poole's English Parnassns, voce Omens:

"The air that night was fill'd with dismal groans,
And people oft awaked with the howls
Of wolves and fatal dogs."

So Willsford, in his Nature's Secrets, p. 131: "Dogs tumbling and wallowing themselves much and often upon the earth, if their guts rumble and stinke very much, are signs of rain or wind for certain." Gaule, in his Mag-astromancers Posed and Puzzel'd, p. 181, inserts in his long list of vain observations and superstitious ominations thereupon, "The Dogs Howling."

.Dr. Nathaniel Home, in his Daemonologie, p. 60, says: "If doggs houle in the night neer an house where somebody is sick, 'tis a signe of death." Alexander Ross, in his Appendix to Arcana Microcosmi, 8vo. Lond. 1652, p. 218, says: "That dogs by their howling portend death and calamities is plaine by historic and experience. Julius Obsequens (c. 122) showeth that there was an extraordinary howling of dogs before the sedition in Rome about the dictatorship of Pompey; he showeth also (c. 127) that before the civil wars between Augustus and Antonius, among many other prodigies, there was great howling of dogs, near the house of Lepidus the Pontifice. Camerarius tells us (c. 73, cent, i.) that some German princes have certain tokens and peculiar presages of their deaths; amongst others are the howling of dogs. Capitolmus tells us tiiat the dogs by their howling presaged [p.186] the death of Maximinus. Pausanias (in Messe) relates that before the destruction of the Messenians, the dogs brake out into a more fierce howling than ordinary [Greek]: and we read in Fincelius that, in the year 1553, some weeks before the overthrow of the Saxons, the dogs in Mysiuia flocked together, and used strange howlings in the woods and fields. The like howling is observed by Virgil, presaging the Roman calamities in the Pharsalick war:

'Obscaenique canes, importunaeque volucres Signa dabant.'

"So Lucan, to the same purpose: 'Flebile ssevi latravere canes;' and Statius, 'Nocturnique caenurn gemitus.'"

To one inquiring in the British Apollo, 1708, i. No. 26, "Whether the dogs howling may be a fatal prognostic, or no?" it is answered, "we cannot determine, but 'tis probable that out of a sense of sorrow for the sickness or absence of his master, or the like, that creature may be so disturbed."

In the Memoirs of Mr. Duncan Campbell, we read, p. 76: "I have some little faith in the howling of a dog, when it does not proceed from hunger, vows, or confinement. As odd and unaccountable as it may seem, those animals scent death, even before it seizes a person."

Douce's Notes say: "It was formerly believed that dogs saw the ghosts of deceased persons. In the Odyssey, b. xvi., the dogs of Eumseus are described as terrified at the sight of Minerva, though she was then invisible to Telemachus. The howling of dogs has generally been accounted a sign of approaching death."

Armstrong in his History of the Island of Minorca, p. 158, says: "We have so many owls, that we are everywhere entertained with their note all night long.

'Solaque culminibus ferali carmine bubo
Visa queri, et longas in fletum ducere noctes.
                                Virg. Æn. iv. 1. 462.

The ass usually joins in the melody, and when the moon is about the full, the dog likewise intrudes himself as a performer in the concert, making night hideous."

[p.187]

CATS, RATS, AND MICE.

OMENS were drawn by ancient superstition from the coming in and going out of strange cats, as the learned Moresin informs us.⁹¹ Melton, in his Astrologaster, p. 45, tells us: "29. That when the cat washes her face over her eares, wee shall have great store of raine."⁹²

Lord Westmoreland, in a poem "To a Cat bore me company in Confinement," says:

"-------------scratch but thine ear,
Then holdly tell what weather's drawing near."

And we read in Peele's play of the Novice:

"Ere Gib our cat can lick her eare."

The cat sneezing appears to have been considered as a lucky omen to a bride who was to be married the next day.⁹³

In Southey's Travels in Spain, we read: "The old woman promised him a fine day to-morrow, because the cat's skin looked bright."

It was a vulgar notion that cats, when hungry, would eat coals. In the Tamer tamed, or Woman's Pride, Izamo says to Moroso, "I'd learn to eat coals with an hungry cat:" and, in Bonduca, the first daughter says, "They are cowards: eat coals like compell'd cats."

Herrick, in his Hesperides, p. 155, mentions,

"True calendars, as pusses eare
Wash't o're to tell what change is neare."

[p.188]

Gaule, in his Mag-astromancers Posed and Ptizzel'd, p. 181, ranks "the cats licking themselves," among "Vain Observations and Superstitious Ominations thereupon." In Willsford's Nature's Secrets, &c., 1658, p. 131, speaking of the weather's prediction, he says: "Cats coveting the fire more than ordinary, or licking their feet and trimming the hair of their heads and mustachios, presages rainy weather."

Mr. Park's Notes in his copy of Bourne and Brand's Popular Antiquities, p. 92, say: "Cats sitting with their tails to the fire, or washing with their paws behind their ears, are said to foretell a change of weather."

In the Supplement to the Athenian Oracle, p. 474, we are told: "When cats comb themselves (as we speak) 'tis a sign of rain; because the moisture which is in the air before the rain, insinuating itself into the fur of this animal, moves her to smooth the same and cover her body with it, that so she may the less feel the inconvenience of winter; as, on the contrary, she opens her fur in summer that she may the better receive the refreshing of the moist season." It is added, "The crying of cats, ospreys, ravens, and other birds, upon the tops of houses, in the night-time, are observed by the vulgar to pre-signify death to the sick."

[Sailors, as I am informed on the authority of a naval officer, have a great dislike to see the cat, on board ship, unusually playful and frolicsome: such an event, they consider, prognosticates a storm: and they have a saying on these occasions, that "the cat has a gale of wind in her tail." There may, in this, be something better than mere superstition. The fur of the cat is known to be highly electrical; possibly, therefore the change which takes place in the state of the atmosphere, previously to a storm, may have some powerful effect on the animal's body, and elate her spirits to a more than usual degree. The playfulness of the cat, therefore, may perhaps be a natural sign of the coming weather, and to be accounted for on just and philosophical principles.]

Rats gnawing the hangings of a room, says Grose, is reckoned the forerunner of a death in the family. He mentions also the following to the like purport: "If the neck of a child remains flexible for several hours after its decease, it portends that some person in that house will die in a short time."

[p.189]

Melton, in his Astrologaster, p. 45, tells us: "24. That it s a great signe of ill lucke if rats gnaw a man's cloathes."

Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, edit. 4to. 1621, p. 214, says: "There is a feare, which is commonly caused by prodigies and dismal accidents, which much troubles many of us, as if a mouse gnaw our clothes."⁹⁴

Willsford, in his Nature's Secrets, p. 134, says: "Bats or flying mice, coming out of their holes quickly after sunset, and sporting themselves in the open air, premonstrates fair and calm weather."

CRICKETS, FLIES.

IT is a lucky sign to have crickets in the house.⁹⁵ Grose says it is held extremely unlucky to kill a cricket, perhaps from the idea of its being a breach of hospitality, this insect taking refuge in houses. Melton, in his Astrologaster, p. 45, says: "17. That it is a signe of death to some in that house where crickets have been many yeares, if on a sudden they [p.190] forsake the chimney." Gay gives the following, in his Pastoral Dirge, among the rural prognostications of death:

"And shrilling crickets in the chimney cry'd."

So also in Reed's Old Plays:

"And the strange cricket i' th' oven sings and hops."

The voice of the cricket, says the Spectator, has struck more terror than the roaring of a lion.

The following line occurs in Dryden's and Lee's Œdipus:

"Owls, ravens, crickets, seem the watch of death."

Pliny, in his Natural History (book xxix.), mentions the cricket as much esteemed by the ancient magicians; there is no doubt but that our superstitions concerning these little domestics have been transmitted to us from his times.

Gaule, in his Mag-astromancers Posed and Puzzel'd, p. 181, mentions, among other vain observations and superstitious ominations thereupon, "the crickets chirping behind the chimney stock, or creeping upon the foot-pace."

Ramesey says, in his Elminthologia, 8vo. Lond. 1668, p. 271: "Some sort of people, at every turn, upon every accident, how are they therewith terrified! If but a cricket unusually appear, or they hear but the clicking of a death-watch, as they call it, they, or some one else in the family, shall die."

In White's Selborne, p. 255, that writer, speaking of crickets, says: "They are the housewife's barometer, foretelling her when it will rain; and are prognostic sometimes, she thinks, of ill or good luck, of the death of a near relation, or the approach of an absent lover. By being the constant companions of her solitary hours, they naturally become the objects of her superstition. ... Tender insects that live abroad either enjoy only the short period of one summer, or else doze away the cold uncomfortable months in profound slumber: but these residing, as it were, in a torrid zone, are always alert and merry: a good Christmas fire is to them like the heat of the dog-days. ... Though they are frequently heard by day, yet is their natural time of motion in the night."

Dr. Nathaniel Home, in his Daemonologie, 1650, p. 59, after saying that, "by the flying and crying of ravens over their houses, especially in the dusk of evening, and where one is sick, they conclude death," adds, "the same they conclude [p.191] of a cricket crying in a house where there was wont to be none."

Willsford, in his Nature's Secrets, p. 135, says: "Flies in the spring or sommer season, if they grow busier or blinder than at other times, or that they are observed to shroud themselves in warm places, expect then quickly for to follow, either hail, cold storms of rain, or very much wet weather; and if those little creatures are noted early in autumn to repair into their winter quarters, it presages frosty mornings, cold storms, with the approach of hoary winter. Atonies or flies swarming together, and sporting themselves in the sun-beams is a good omen of fair weather."

ROBIN REDBREAST.⁹⁶

THE Guardian, No. 61, speaking of the common notion that it is ominous or unlucky to destroy some sorts of birds, as swallows and martins, observes that this opinion might possibly arise from the confidence these birds seem to put in us by building under our roofs; so that it is a kind of violation of the laws of hospitality to murder them. As for robin red-breasts in particular, 'tis not improbable they owe their security to the old ballad of the Children in the Wood. The subsequent stanza of that well-known song places them in a point of view not unlikely to conciliate the favour of children:

"No burial this pretty pair
Of any man receives,
Till robin redbreast painfully
Did cover them with leaves."

Of the robin redbreast, says Grey on Shakespeare, ii. 226, it is commonly said, that if he finds the dead body of any rational creature he will cover the face at least, if not the whole body, with moss; an allusion probably to the old ballad. The office of covering the dead is likewise ascribed to the ruddock or robin, by Drayton, in his poem called "The Owl."

"Cov'ring with moss the dead's unclosed eye,
The little redbreast teacheth charitie."

[p.192]

Thus also in Cymbeline, act iv. sc. 2:

"The ruddock would
With charitable hill (O bill, sore shaming
Those rich-left heirs that let their fathers lie
Without a monument!) bring thee all this;
Yea, and furr'd moss besides, when flowers are none,
To winter-ground thy corse."

Again in Reed's Old Plays, vi. 358:

"Call for the robin redbreast and the wren,
Since o'er shady groves they hover,
And with leaves and flow'rs do cover
The friendless bodies of unburied men."

An essayist in the Gent. Mag. for Sept. 1 735, v. 534, observes: "It is well known the ancient Romans relied very much upon birds in foretelling events; and thus the robin redbreast hath been the cause of great superstition among the common people of England ever since the silly story of the Children in the Wood. One great instance of this is their readiness to admit him into their houses and feed him on all occasions; though he is certainly as impudent and as mischievous a little bird as ever flew."

In Stafford's Niobe dissolved into a Nilus, 12mo. Lond. 1611, p. 241, it is said: "On her (the nightingale) wakes Robin in his redde livorie: who sits as a crowner on the murthred man; and seeing his body naked, plays the sorrie tailour to make him a mossy rayment." Thus, in Herrick's Hesperides, pp. 49, 126:

"Sweet Amarillis, by a spring's
Soft and soule-melting murmurings,
Slept : and thus sleeping thither flew
A robin redbreast; who at view
Not seeing her at all to stir,
Brought leaves and mosse to cover her."

"To the Nightingale and Robin Redbreast.

"When I departed am, ring thou my knell,
Thou pittifull and pretty Philomel:
And when I'm laid out for a corse, then be
Thou sexton (redbreast) for to cover me."

Pope thus speaks of this bird:

"The robin redbreast till of late bad rest,
And children sacred held a martin's nest."

[p.193]

Thomson, in his Winter, thus mentions the familiarity of this bird:

"One alone,
The redbreast sacred to the household gods,
Wisely regardful of th' embroyling sky,
In joyless fields and thorny thickets leaves,
His shiv'ring mates, and pays to trusted man
His annual visit."

Mr. Park has inserted the following note in his copy of Bourne and Brand's Popular Antiquities, p. 92: "There is also a popular belief in many country places that it is unlucky either to kill or keep robins. This is alluded to in the following lines of a modern poet, which occur in an ode to the Robin:

'For ever from his threshold fly,
Who, void of honour, once shall try,
With base inhospitable breast,
To bar the freedom of his guest;
O rather seek the peasant's shed,
For he will give thee wasted bread,
And fear some new calamity,
Should any there spread snares for thee.'
            J. H. Pott's Poems, 8vo. 1780, p. 27."

[ "Thus I would waste, thus end my careless days,
And robin redbrests, whom men praise
For pious birds, should, when I die,
Make both my monument and elegy.
            Cowley's Sylva, 1681, p. 51.]

SWALLOWS, MARTINS, WRENS, LADY-BUGS, SPARROWS, AND TITMOUSE.

IT is held extremely unlucky, says Grose, to kill a cricket, a lady-bug, a swallow, martin, robin redbreast, or wren: perhaps from the idea of its being a breach of hospitality, all these birds and insects alike taking refuge in houses. There is a particular distich, he adds, in favour of the robin and wren:

"A robin and a wren
Are God Almighty's cock and hen."

[p.194]

A note in Mr. Park's copy of Bourne and Brand, p. 92, says: "When a boy, I remember it was said, in consonance with the above superstition, that

"Tom Tit and Jenny Wren
Were God Almighty's cock and hen:
and therefore to be held sacred."

Persons killing any of the above-mentioned birds or insects, or destroying their nests will infallibly, within the course of the year, break a bone, or meet with some other dreadful misfortune. On the contrary, it is deemed lucky to have martins or swallows build their nests in the eaves of a house, or in the chimneys. In Six Pastorals, &c., by George Smith, Landscape Painter, at Chichester, in Sussex, 4to. Lond. 1770, p. 30, the following occurs:

"I found a robin's nest within our shed,
And in the barn a wren has young ones bred.
I never take away their nest, nor try
To catch the old ones, lest a friend should die.
Dick took a wren's nest from his cottage side
And ere a twelvemonth past his mother dy'd!"

Its being accounted unlucky to destroy swallows is probably a pagan relic. We read in Ælian that these birds were sacred to the penates, or household gods of the ancients, and therefore were preserved. They were honoured anciently as the nuncios of the spring. The Rhodians are said to have had a solemn anniversary song to welcome in the swallow. Anacreon's ode to that bird is well known.

Willsford, in his Nature's Secrets, p. 134, says: "Swallows flying low, and touching the water often with their wings, presage rain."

"Sparrows," he adds, "in the morning early, chirping, and making more noise than ordinary they use to do, foretells rain or wind; the tit-mouse, cold, if crying pincher." "Birds in general that do frequent trees and bushes, if they do fly often out, and make quick returns, expect some bad weather to follow soon after."

Alexander Ross, in his appendix to the Arcana Microscomi, p. 219, informs us that "in this land, of late years, our present miseries and unnatural wars have been forewarned by armies of swallows, martins, and other birds, fighting against one another."

[p.195]

Gaule, in his Mag-astromancers Posed and Puzzel'd, p. 181, takes notice, among other vain observations and superstitious ominations thereupon, "the swallows falling down the chimney."

In Lloyd's Stratagems of Jerusalem, 1602, p. 285, it is repeated that the swallow is a classical bird of omen. "By swallows lighting upon Pirrhus' tents, and lighting upon the mast of Mar. Antonius' ship, sayling after Cleopatra to Egipt, the soothsayers did prognosticate that Pirrhus should be slaine at Argos in Greece, and Mar. Antonius in Egipt." "Swallowes," he adds, "followed King Cyrus going with his army from Persia to Scythia, as ravens followed Alexander the Great at returning from India and going to Babilon; but as the Magi tolde the Persians that Cyrus should die in Scythia, so the Chaldean astrologers told the Macedonians that Alexander the Great, their king, should die in Babilon, without any further warrant but by the above swallowes and ravens."

Colonel Vallancey, in the 13th number of his Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis, p. 97, speaking of the wren, the augur's favourite bird, says that "the Druids represented this as the king of all birds. The superstitious respect shown to this little bird gave offence to our first Christian missionaries, and, by their commands, he is still hunted and killed by the peasants on Christmas Day, and on the following (St. Stephen's Day) he is carried about hung by the leg in the centre of two hoops crossing each other at right angles, and a procession made in every village, of men, women, and children, singing an Irish catch, importing him to be the king of all birds. Hence the name of this bird in all the European languages Greek, [Gr.], Trochilus, Basileus; Rex Avium; Senator; Latin, Regulus; French, Roytelet, Berichot, but why this nation call him Bosuf-de-Dieu I cannot conjecture; Welsh, Bren, King; Teutonic, Koning Vogel, King Bird; Dutch, Koriije, little King."

Berchot is rendered in Cotgrave's Dictionary of old French, "the little wrenne, our ladies henne." In the livre vii. de la Nature des Oyseaux, par P. Belon, fol. Par. 1555, p. 342, we read: "Due roytelet. Les Grecs 1'ont anciennement nomme Trochylos, Presuis, ou Basileus, et les Latins Trochylus, Senator, Regulus. Il est diversement nomme en Francois; cai [p.196] les ims client le Roy Bertauld, lea autres un Berichot, les autres un Bceuf-de-Dieu. Aristote tlit que, pour ce qu'il est nomme senateur et roy, il a combat contre l'aigle. Le roytelet, de si petite stature, fait nuisance a 1'aigle, qui maistrise touts autres oyseaux."

[On this subject the following occurs in the Literary Gazette, in an account of a meeting of the British Archaeological Association: "Reference was made to a French dictionary of the 16th century, as giving 'roitelet' (little king), 'roy des oiseaux' (king of the birds), and 'Roy Bertrand' for this bird. Now, roitelet is still the common, indeed the only familiar, French name for the wren: and the notion of his being a king runs through his appellations in many other languages beside. One's first impression, on learning this from a search through several dictionaries is, that the royal title must have been originally meant for the golden-crested wren, to which the names of 'Regulus' (Sylvia Regulus, Regulus cristatus) and 'roitelet' are now generally confined by naturalists, and have arisen from his crest, though several other larger and more important birds can boast a similar head-gear. The Greeks called both the wren and some kind of crested serpent (the cobra de capelho?) [Greek] (little king); while the Spaniards term the former reyezuelo, and the latter reyecillo, both diminutives ofrey(king). The Latin regulus (the same) seems till recent times to have included all kinds of wrens; and the following names from other tongues seem as generally applied: Italian reatino (little king); Swedish kungs-fogel (king-fowl); Danish, fugle-konge (fowl-king). Moreover, some of the kingly names given to the wren apply better to the Troglodytes, or common wren, than to the Regulus or golden-crest; such are the German zaun-konig (hedge-king), the Italian re di siepe, di macchia (king of the hedge, bush), the former being notoriously fond of sticking to his hedge, while the latter often sings on the top of a tree; the Dutch winter-koninkje (little winter-king) is applicable to both equally, if derived, as seems likely, from their singing in the winter. How 'the poor little wren, the most diminutive of birds,' either achieved this greatness, or came to have it thrust upon him, still remains to be explained; the superstition, like so many still kept up in Christian countries, probably dates from heathen times. Another Danish name for [p.197] the common wren, Elle-konge (the alder-king), (German, Erlkbnig), and that for the wag-tail (motacilla alba, a kindred bird), Elle-kongens datter (the alder-king's daughter), give another glimpse of mythological allusion. The Swedes, I may add, also call the willow-wren (motacilla trochilus) sparfkung; the Danes spurre-konge (sparrow-king). With regard to the hunting of the wren mentioned at the meeting in question as still kept up in Ireland, the Isle of Man, and France, it may be added, that in Surrey, and probably elsewhere in England, he is to this day hunted by boys in the autumn and winter, but merely 'for amusement and cruelty' as my informant worded it, so that there the practice has not even the excuse of superstition; and the poor little 'king of birds' dies 'unwept, unhonored, and unsung.' It is curious that there should exist a very general contrary superstition, embodied in well-known nursery-lines, against killing a wren. Can this be a relic of the olden pagan notion of his kingly inviolability yet struggling with the Christian (?) command for his persecution at Christmas? In the child's distich, however, the wren is female, which it often is in provincial speech, Jenny or Kitty Wren; while the redbreast is as usual male, Robin. Mr. Halliwell gives the English version of the Hunting of the Wren in his Nursery Rhymes (2d ed. 1843), at page 180; and the Isle of Man Hunting of the Wran at page 249."]

I should suppose the name of "Troglodytes, c'est-a-dire entrants es cavernes," from the nature of this bird's nest, which Belon thus describes: "La structure du nid de ce roytelet, tel qu'il le fait communement, a la couverture de chaunae, qui dedens quelque pertuis de muraille, est compose en forme ovale, couvert dessus et dessous, n'y laissant qu'unseul moult petit pertuis, par lequel il y peult entrer."

Pliny says: "Dissident Aquilse et Trochilus, si credimus, quoniam rex appellatur avium," edit. Harduin. i. 582, 27. He further tells us what a singular office the wren performs in Egypt to the crocodile: "Hunc (i.e. crocodilum) saturum cibo piscium, et semper esculento ore, in litore somno datum, parva avis, quse Trochilos ibi vocantur, rex avium in Italia, invitat ad hiandum pabuli sui gratia, os primum. ejus assultim repurgans, mox dentes, et intus fauces quoque ad hanc scabendi dulcedinem quam maxime hiantes."

[p.198]

Aubrey, in his Miscellanies, 2d edit. 8vo. p. 45, having mentioned the last battle fought in the north of Ireland between the Protestants and the Papists, in Glinsuly, in the county of Donegal says: "Near the same place a party of the Protestants had been surprised sleeping by the Popish Irish, were it not for several wrens that just wakened them by dancing and pecking on the drums as the enemy were approaching. For this reason the wild Irish mortally hate these birds to this day, calling them the devil's servants, and killing them wherever they can catch them; they teach their children to thrust them full of thorns; you'll see sometimes on holidays a whole parish running like madmen from hedge to hedge a wren-hunting."

In Sonnini's Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt, translated from the French, 4to. Lond. 1800, pp. 11, 12, we have the following account of Hunting the Wren: "While I was at La Ciotat, near Marseilles, in France, the particulars of a singular ceremony were related to me, which takes place every year at the beginning of Nivose (the latter end of December); a numerous body of men, armed with swords arid pistols, set off in search of a very small bird which the ancients call Troglodytes (Motacella Troglodytes, L. Syst, Nat, edit. 13, Anglice the common wren), a denomination retained by Guenau de Montbellard, in his Natural History of Birds. When they have found it (a thing not difficult, because they always take care to have one ready), it is suspended on the middle of a pole, which two men carry on their shoulders, as if it were a heavy burthen. This whimsical procession parades round the town; the bird is weighed in a great pair of scales, and the company then sits down to table and makes merry. The name they give to the Troglodytes is not less curious than the kind of festival to which it gives occasion. They call it at La Ciotat, the Pole-cat, or pere de la becasse (father of the wood-cock), on account of the resemblance of its plumage to that of the woodcock, supposed by them to be engendered by the polecat, which is a great destroyer of birds, but which certainly produces none.

["Hunting the wren has been a pastime in the Isle of Man from time immemorial. In Waldron's time it was observed on the 24th December, which I have adopted, though for a century past it has been observed on St. Stephen's day. This sin- [p.199] gular ceremony is founded on a tradition, that in former times, a fairy, of uncommon beauty, exerted such undue influence over the male population, that she, at various times, induced by her sweet voice numbers to follow her footsteps, till by degrees she led them into the sea, where they perished. This barbarous exercise of power had continued for a great length of time, till it was apprehended that the island would be exhausted of its defenders, when a knight-errant sprung up, who discovered some means of countervailing the charms used by this syren, and even laid a plot for her destruction, which she only escaped at the moment of extreme hazard, by taking the form of a wren. But, though she evaded instant annihilation, a spell was cast upon her by which she was condemned, on every succeeding New Year's day, to reanimate the same form with the definitive sentence, that she must ultimately perish by human hand. In consequence of this well-authenticated legend, on the specified anniversary, every man and boy in the island (except those who have thrown off the trammels of superstition) devote the hours between sunrise and sunset to the hope of extirpating the fairy, and woe be to the individual birds of this species who show themselves on this fatal day to the active enemies of the race; they are pursued, pelted, fired at, and destroyed, without mercy, and their feathers preserved with religious care, it being an article of belief, that every one of the relics gathered in this laudable pursuit is an effectual preservative from shipwreck for one year, and that fisherman would be considered as extremely foolhardy, who should enter upon his occupation without such a safeguard."⁹⁷ When the chase ceases, one of the little victims is affixed to the top of a long pole with its wings extended, and carried in front of the hunters, who [p.200] march in procession to every house, chanting the following rhyme:

'We hunted the wren for Robbin the Bobbin,
We hunted the wren for Jack of the Can,
We hunted the wren for Robbin the Bobbin,
We hunted the wren for every one.'

"After making the usual circuit and collecting all the money they could obtain, they laid the wren on a bier and carried it, in procession, to the parish churchyard, where, with a whimsical kind of solemnity, they made a grave, buried it, and sung dirges over it in the Manks language, which they called her knell. After the obsequies were performed, the company, outside the churchyard wall, formed a circle, and danced to music which they had provided for the occasion.

"At present there is no particular day for pursuing the wren;⁹⁸ it is captured by boys alone, who follow the old custom, principally for amusement. On St. Stephen's day a group of boys go from door to door with a wren suspended by the legs, in the centre of two hoops, crossing each other at right angles, decorated with evergreens and ribands, singing lines called Hunt the Wren.

"If, at the close of this rhyme, they be fortunate enough to obtain a small coin, they gave in return a feather of the wren; and before the close of the day, the little bird may sometimes be seen hanging almost featherless. The ceremony of the interment of this bird in the church-yard, at the close of St. Stephen's day, has long since been abandoned; and the seashore or some waste ground was substituted in its place."⁹⁹]

[p.201]

HARE, WOLF, OR SOW, CROSSING THE WAY, &c.

BISHOP HALL, in his Characters of Vertues and Vices, so often cited, speaks of this superstition when treating of the superstitious man, observing that "if but a hare crosse him in the way, he returnes." Melton, too, in his Astrologaster, p. 45, informs us that "it is very ill lucke to have a hare cross one in the highway." Burton, also, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, edit. 4to. 1621, p. 214, observes: "There is a feare which is commonly caused by prodigies and dismall accidents, which much trouble many of us, as if a hare crosse the way at our going forth," &c. The omen of the hare crossing the way occurs with others in the old play of the Dumb Knight, by Lewis Machin, act iv. sc. 1, in a passage already quoted. It is found also in Ellison's Trip to Benwell, lx.:

"Nor did we meet, with nimble feet,
One little fearful lepus,
That certain sign, as some divine,
Of fortune bad to keep us."¹⁰⁰

Ramesey, in his Elminthologia, 8vo. Lond. 1668, p. 271, speaking of superstitious persons, says: "If an hare do but cross their way, they suspect they shall be rob'd or come to some mischance forthwith." Mason, in the Anatomie of Sorcerie, 1612, p. 85, enumerates among the superstitious persons of his age those who prognosticate "some misfortune if a hare do crosse a man."

Sir Thomas Browne tells us: "If a hare cross the highway there are few above three score years that are not per- [p.202] plexed thereat, which, notwithstanding, is but an augurial terror, according to that received expression, 'Inauspicatum dat iter oblatus lepus.' And the ground of the conceit was probably no greater than this, that a fearful animal passing by us portended unto us something to be feared; as, upon the like consideration, the meeting of a fox presaged some future imposture. These good or bad signs, sometimes succeeding according to fears or desires, have left impressions and timorous expectations in credulous minds for ever." The superstitious notion of a hare crossing the road being an ill omen is prevalent in Hungary: see Dr. Townson's Travels in Hungary. He says: "This superstition is very ancient, and is mentioned in a very old Latin treatise called Lagrographie, 4to. Edinb. 1797."

Dr. Nathaniel Home, in his Daemonologie, 8vo. Lond. 1650, p. 60, says: "If an hare, or the like creature, cross the way where one is going, it is (they say) a signe of very ill luck. In so much as some in company with a woman great with childe have, upon the crossing of such creatures, cut or torne some of the clothes off that woman with childe, to prevent (as they imagine) the ill luck that might befall her. I know I tell you most true; and I hope in such a subject as this, touching these superstitions, I shall not offend in acquainting you with these particulars."

The ancient Britons made use of hares for the purpose of divination.¹⁰¹ They were never killed for the table. It is perhaps from hence that they have been accounted ominous by the vulgar. See Caesar's Commentaries, p. 89.

I find the following in a Help to Discourse, 1633, p. 340: "Q. Wherefore hath it anciently beene accounted good lucke, if a wolfe crosse our way, but ill luck if a hare crosse it? A. Our ancestors, in times past, as they were merry conceited, so [p.203] were they witty; and thence it grew that they held it good lucke if a wolf crost the way and was gone without any more danger or trouble; but ill luck, if a hare crost and escaped them, that they had not taken her." Lupton, in his third book of Notable Things, 1660, p. 52, says: "Plinie reports that men in antient times did fasten upon the gates of their towns the heads of wolves, thereby to put away witchery, sorcery, or enchantment, which many hunters observe or do at this day, but to what use they know not."

Werenfels says, p. 7: "When the superstitious person goes abroad he is not so much afraid of the teeth as the unexpected sight of a wolf, lest he should deprive him of his speech."

Grose tells us: "If going on a journey on business a sow cross the road, you will probably meet with a disappointment, if not a bodily accident, before you return home. To avert this, you must endeavour to prevent her crossing you: and if that cannot be done, you must ride round on fresh ground; if the sow is with her litter of pigs, it is lucky, and denotes a successful journey."

According to the following passage in Ellison's Trip to Benwell, lix., it should seem that swine appearing in sight, in travelling, was an omen of good luck:

"Neither did here
In sight appear
Of swine, foul, dreadful nomen;
Which common fame
Will oft proclaim
Of luck, dire, wretched omen."

The following is from Copley's Wits, Fits, and Fancies, 1614, 4to.: "A plaine country vicar perswaded his parishioners, in all their troubles and adversities, to call upon God, and thus he said: 'There is (dearlie beloved) a certaine familiar beast amongst you called a hogge; see you not how toward a storme or tempest it crieth evermore, Ourgh, Ourgh? So must you likewise, in all your eminent troubles and dangers, say to yourselves, Lourghd, Lourghd, helpe me.'"

The meeting of a weasel is a bad omen. See Congreve's comedy of Love for Love. In Secret Memoirs of the late Mr. Duncan Campbell, 8vo. 1732, p. 60, we read: "I have known people who have been put into such terrible appre- [p.204] bensions of death by the squeaking of a weasel, as have been very near bringing on them the fate they dreaded."

In Dives and Pauper, fol. 1493, the firste precepte, chap. 46: "Some man hadde levyr to mete with a froude or a frogye in the way than with a knight or a squier, or with any man of religion, or of holy churche, for than they say and leve that they shal have gold. For sumtyme after the metyng of a frogge or a tode they have resceyved golde wele I wote that they resseyve golde of men or of wymen, but nat of frogges ne of todes, but it be of the devel in lyknesse of a frogge or a tode these labourers, delvers, and dykers, that moost mete with frogges and todes, been fulle pore comonly and but men paye them their hyre, they have lytel or nought."

Willsford, in his Nature's Secrets, 1658, p. 130, tell us: "Beasts eating greedily, and more than they used to do, prenotes foul weather; and all small cattel, that seeme to rejoyce with playing and sporting themselves, foreshews rain. Oxen and all kind of neat, if you do at any time observe them to hold up their heads, and snuffle in the air, or lick their hooves, or their bodies against the hair, expect then rainy weather. Asses or mules, rubbing often their ears, or braying much more than usually they are accustomed, presages rain. Hogs crying and running unquietly up and down, with hay or litter in their mouths, foreshews a storm to be near at hand. Moles plying their works, in undermining the earth, foreshews rain; out if they do forsake their trenches and creep above ground in summer time, it is a sign of hot weather; but when on a suddain they doe forsake the valleys and low grounds, it foreshews a flood neer at hand; but their coming into meddows presages fair weather, and for certain no floods. The little sable beast (called a flea), if much thirsting after blood, it argues rain. The lamentable croaking of frogs more than ordinary does denote rainy weather. Glow-worms, snayles, and all such creatures, do appear most against fair weather; but if worms come out of the earth much in the daytime it is a presage of wet weather; but in the summer evenings it foreshews dewy nights, and hot days to follow."

Melton, in his Astrologaster, p. 46, says: "16. That it is a very unfortunate thing for a man to meete early in a morning an ill-favoured man or woman, a rough-footed hen, a shag-hair'd dog, or a black cat.''

[p.205]

Shaw, in his History of Moray, tells us that the ancient Scots much regarded omens in their expeditions: an armed man meeting them was a good omen:^l02 if a woman barefoot crossed the road before them, they seized her and fetched blood from her forehead: if a deer, fox, hare, or any beast of game appeared, and they did not kill it, it was an unlucky omen.

In Secret Memoirs of the late Mr. Duncan Campbell, 8vo. Lond. 1732, p. 61, we read: "Some will defer going abroad, though called by business of the greatest consequence, if on going out they are met by a person who has the misfortune to squint. This turns them immediately back, and, perhaps, by delaying till another time what requires an immediate despatch, the affair goes wrong, and the omen is indeed fulfilled, which, but for the superstition of the observer, would have been of no effect."

We gather from a remarkable book entitled the Schoole-master, or Teacher of Table Philosophy, 4to. Lond. 1583, B. iv. cap. 8, that in the ages of chivalry it was thought unlucky to meet with a priest, if a man were going forth to war or a tournament.^l03

The following superstitions among the Malabrians are related in Phillips's account of them, 12mo, 1717: "It is interpreted as a very bad sign if a blind man, a Bramin, or a washerwoman, meets one in the way; as also when one meets a man with an empty panel, or when one sees an oil-mill, or if a man meets us with his head uncovered, or when one hears [p.206] a weeping voice, or sees a fox crossing the way, or a dog running on his right hand, or when a poor man meets us in our way, or when a cat crosses our way: moreover, when any earthen-pot maker or widow meets us, we interpret it in the worst sense; when one sprains his foot, falls on his head, or is called back; presently the professors of prognostication are consulted, and they turn to the proper chapter for such a sign, and give the interpretation of it."

["Easy to foretel what sort of summer it would be by the position in which the larva of Cicada (Aphrdphora) spumaria was found to lie in the froth (cuckoo-spit) in which it is enveloped. If the insect lay with its head upwards, it infallibly denoted a dry summer; if downwards, a wet one."]

THE OWL.

"Iran owl," says Bourne, p. 71, "which is reckoned a moat abominable and unlucky bird, send forth its hoarse and dismal voice, it is an omen of the approach of some terrible thing: that some dire calamity and some great misfortune is near at hand." This omen occurs in Chaucer:

"The jelous swan, ayenst hys deth that singeth,
The oule eke, that of deth the bode bringeth."
                        Assembly of Foules, fol. 235.

It is thus mentioned by Spenser:

"The rueful strich still wayting on the beere,
The whistler shril, that whoso heares doth die."

Pennant, in his Zoology, i. 202, informs us that the appearance of the eagle owl in cities was deemed an unlucky omen. Rome itself once underwent a lustration, because one of them strayed into the Capitol.¹⁰⁴ The ancients held them in [p.207] the utmost abhorrence,¹⁰⁵ and thought them, like the screech owl, the messengers of death. Pliny styles it, "Bubo funebris et noctis monstrum."¹⁰⁶ Thus also Virgil, in the lines already quoted from Armstrong's History of Minorca, in a former page.

In Bartholomseus, De Proprietatibus Rerum, by Berthelet, fol. 166, is the following: "Of the oule. Divynours telle that they betokyn evyll; for if the owle be seen in a citie, it signifyeth distruccion and waste, as Isidore sayth. The cryenge of the owle by nyght tokeneth deathe, as divinours conjecte and deme." Gaule, in his Mag-astromancers Posed and Puzzel'd, p. 181, does not omit, in his Catalogue of vain observations and superstitious ominations thereupon: "The owles scritching."

"When screech owls croak upon the chimney tops,
It's certain then you of a corse shall hear."
                        Reed's Old Plays, vi. 357.

Alexander Ross informs us, in his appendix to the Arcana Microcosmi, p. 218, that Lampridius and Marcellinus, among other prodigies which presaged the death of Valentinian, the [p.208] emperor, mention an owle which sate upon the top of the house where he used to bathe, and could not thence be driven away with stones. Julius Obsequens (in his Book of Prodigies, c. 85) shewes that a little before the death of Cornmodus Antoninus, the emperor, an owle was observed to sit upon the top of his chamber, both at Rome and at Lanuvium. Xiphilinus, speaking of the prodigies that went before the death of Augustus, says, that the owl sung upon the top of the Curia. He shews, also, that the Actian war was presignified by the flying of owls into the Temple of Concord. In the year 1542, at Herbipolis, or Wirtzburg, in Franconia, this unlucky bird, by his scrieching songs, affrighted the citizens a long time together, and immediately followed a great plague, war, and other calamities. About twenty years ago I did observe that in the house where I lodged, an owl, groaning in the window, presaged the death of two eminent persons, who died there shortly after."

In Rowland's More Knaves yet; the Knaves of Spades and Diamonds, with new Additions, I find the following account of "The Country Cunning Man:"

"Wise gosling did but hear the scrich owle crie,
And told his wife, and straight a pigge did die.
Another time (after that scurvie owle)
When Ball, his dog, at twelve o'clocke did howle,
He jogg'd his wife, and ill lucke, Madge did say,
And fox by morning stole a goose away.
Besides, he knowes foule weather, raine, or haile,
Ev'n by the wagging of his dun cowe's taile.
When any theeves his hens and duckes pursew,
He knowes it by the candles burning blew.
Or if a raven cry just o're his head,
Some in the towne have lost their maidenhead.
For losse of cattell and for fugitives,
He'll find out with a sive and rustie knives.
His good daies are when's chaffer is well sold,
And bad daies when his wife doth braule and scold."

Willsford, in his Nature's Secrets, p. 134, says: "Owls whooping after sunset, and in the night, foreshews a fair day to ensue; but if she names herself in French (Huette) expect then fickle and unconstant weather, but most usually rain."

Mason, in the Anatomie of Sorcerie, 4to. Lond. 1612, p. 85, ridicules the superstition of those persons of his age, that are "the markers of the flying or noise of foules: as they [p.209] which prognosticate death by the croaking of ravens, or the hideous crying of owles in the night." Marston, in Antonio and Mellida, Works, 1633, says:

"'Tis yet dead night, yet all the earth is cloncht
In the dull leaden hand of snoring sleepe:
No breath disturbs the quiet of the aire,
No spirit moves upon the breast of earth,
Save howling dogs, night crowes and screeching owles,
Save meager ghosts, Piero, and blacke thoughts."

Grey, in his Notes on Shakespeare, ii. 175, observes: "Romani L. Crasso et C. Marcio Coss. bubone viso lustrabant." See a remarkable account of an owle that disturbed Pope John XXIV. at a council held at Rome. Fascic. Rer. expetendar. et fugiendar. p. 402. Brown's edit.

The following is an answer to a query in the Athenian Oracle, i. 45: "Why rats, toads, ravens, screech owls, &c., are ominous; and how they come to foreknow fatal events? Had the querist said unlucky instead of ominous he might easily have met with satisfaction: a rat is so, because he destroys many a good Cheshire cheese, &c. A toad is unlucky, because it poisons (later discoveries in natural history deny this). As for ravens and screech owls, they are just as unlucky as cats, when about their courtship, because they make an ugly noise, which disturbs their neighbourhood. The instinct of rats leaving an old ship is, because they cannot be dry in it, and an old house, because, perhaps, they want victuals. A raven is much such a prophet as our conjurors or almanack makers, foretelling things after they are come to pass: they follow great armies, as vultures, not as foreboding battle, but for the dead men, dogs, horses, &c., which (especially in a march) must daily be left behind them. But the foolish observations made on their croaking before death, &c., are for the most part pure humour, and have no grounds besides foolish tradition, or a sickly imagination."

Speaking of the tawny owl, p. 208, Pennant observes: "This is what we call the screech owl, to which the folly of superstition had given the power of presaging death by its cries." The Spectator says that a screech owl at midnight has alarmed a family more than a band of robbers. And, as Grose tells us, a screech owl flapping its wings against the windows of a sick person's chamber, or screeching at them, [p.210] portends that some one of the family shall shortly die. Moresin, in his Papatus, p. 21, mentions among omens the hooting of owls in passing: "Bubonum bubulatum in transitu." Shakespeare, in his Julius Caesar, act i. sc. 6, has the following passage:

"The bird of night did sit
Ev'n at noon-day upon the market-place
Routing and shrieking."

The noise of the owl, as a foretokening of ill, is also mentioned in Six Pastorals, &c., by George Smith, landscape painter, at Chichester, in Sussex, 4to. Lond. 1770, p. 33:

"Within my cot, where quiet gave me rest,
Let the dread screech owl build her hated nest,
And from my window o'er the country send
Her midnight screams to bode my latter end."

Pennant, in his Zoology, i. 219, says that "a vulgar respect is paid to the raven, as being the bird appointed by heaven to feed the prophet Elijah, when he fled from the rage of Ahab. [And from the following passage, it would seem that the cuckoo was a bird of deadly omen

"Are you ready? The fatal cuckoo, on yon spreading tree,
Hath sounded out your dying knell already."
        Cowley's Love's Riddle, 1681, p. 111.]

Moresin includes the croaking of ravens among omens. "Corvorum crocitatum super tecto," Papatus, p. 21. Gay, too, in his pastoral called the Dirge, has noted this omen:

"The boding raven on her cottage sat,
And, with hoarse croakings, warn'd us of our fate."

Bishop Hall, in his Characters of Vertues and Vices, p. 87, speaking of the superstitious man, tells us, "that if he heare but a raven croke from the next roofe he makes his will." He mentions also a crow crying even or odd. "He listens in the morning whether the crow crieth even or odd, and by that token presageth the weather." The following lines are found in Spenser:

"The ill-fac'd owle, death's dreadful messenger;
The hoarse night raven, trompe of doleful dreere."

So, in Shakespeare's Othello:

"---------------it comes o'er my memory
As doth the raven, o'er the infected house,
Boding to all."

[p.211]

And again, in the Second Part of Antonio and Mellida; 1633:

"Now barkes the wolfe against the full cheekt moone,
Now lyons halfe-clam'd entrals roare for food.
Now croaks the toad, and night crowes screech aloud,
Fluttering 'bout casements of departing soules.
Now gapes the graves, and through their yawnes let loose
Iraprison'd spirits to revisit earth."

The following passages from old English poets on this subject are found in Poole's English Parnassus, v. Omens.

"Ravens.

"Which seldom boding good,
Croak their black auguries from some dark wood."

And again:

"Night jars and ravens, with wide stretched throats,
From yews and hollies send their baleful notes
The om'nous raven with a dismal chear
Through his hoarse beak of following horror tells,
Begetting strange imaginary fear,
With heavy echoes like to passing bells."

Alexander Ross informs us, that "by ravens, both publick and private calamities and death have been portended. Jovianus Pontanus relates two terrible skirmishes between the ravens and the kites in the fields lying between Beneventum and Apicium, which prognosticated a great battle that was to be fought in those fields. Nicetas speaks of a skirmish between the crowes and ravens, presignifying the irruption of the Scythians into Thracia. Appendix to Arcana Microcosmi, p. 219. He adds, p. 220: "Private men have been forewarned of their death by ravens. I have not only heard and read, but have likewise observed divers times. A late example I have of a young gentleman, Mr. Draper, my intimate friend, who, about five or six years ago, being then in the flower of his age, had, on a sudden, one or two ravens in his chamber, which had been quarrelling upon the top of the chimney; these he apprehended as messengers of his death, and so they were; for he died shortly after. Cicero was forewarned, by the noise and fluttering of ravens about him, that his end was near. He that employed a raven to be the feeder of Elias, may employ the same bird as a messenger of death to others. We read in histories of a crow in Trajan's time that in the Capitoll spoke (in Greek) all things shall be well."

[p.212]

Macaulay, in his History of St. Kilda, p. 165, tells us; "The truly philosophical manner in which the great Latin poet has accounted for the joyful croakings of the raven species, upon a favourable chaunge of weather, will in my apprehension (see Georgics, b. i. v. 410, &c.) point out at the same time the true natural causes of that spirit of divination, with regard to storms of wind, rain, or snow, by which the sea-gull, tulmer, cormorant, heron, crow, plover, and other birds, are actuated some time before the change comes on." He observes, p. 174: "Of inspired birds, ravens were accounted the most prophetical. Accordingly, in the language of that district, to have the foresight of a raven, is to this day a proverbial expression, denoting a preternatural sagacity in predicting fortuitous events. In Greece and Italy, ravens were sacred to Apollo, the great patron of augurs, and were called companions and attendants of that god." Ibid, p, 176: he says that, "according to some writers, a great number of crows fluttered about Cicero's head on the very day he was murdered by the ungrateful Popilius Laenas, as if to warn him of his approaching fate; and that one of them, after having made its way into his chamber, pulled away his very bed-clothes, from a solicitude for his safety."

Bartholomseus, De Proprietatibus, by Berthelet, 27 Hen. VIII. f, 168, says: "And as divinours mene the raven hath a maner virtue of meanyng and tokenynge of divination. Am therefore among nations^ the raven among foules was halowec to Apollo, as Mercius saythe."

Pennant, in his Zoology, ut supra, p. 220, speaking of the carrion crow, tells us: "Virgil says that its croaking fore boded rain. It was also thought a bird of bad omen, especially if it happened to be seen on the left hand:

'Saepe sinistra cava praedixit ab ilice cornix.'"

Thus also Butler, in his Hudibras:

"Is it not om'nous in all countries
When crows and ravens croak upon trees?"
                    Part ii. canto iii. 1. 707.

"If a crow cry,*' says Bourne, p. 70, "it portends some evil." In Willsford's Nature's Secrets, p. 133, we read: "Ravens and crows, when they do make a hoarse, hollow, and sorrowful noise, as if they sobbed, it presages foul wea- [p.213] ther approaching. Crows flocking together in great companies, or calling early in the morning with a full and clear voice, or at any time of the day gaping against the sun, foreshews hot and dry weather: but if at the brink of ponds they do wet their heads, or stalk into the water, or cry much towards the evening, are signs of rain.¹⁰⁷

In the Earl of Northampton's Defensative against the Poyson of supposed Prophesies, 1583, we read: "The flight of many crowes upon the left side of the campe made the Romans very much afrayde of some badde lucke: as if the greate God Jupiter had nothing else to doo (sayd Carneades) but to dryve jacke dawes in a flock together."

Bartholomseus says, f. 168, of the crowe "Divynours tell, that she taketh hede of spienges and awaytynges, and teacheth and sheweth wayes, and warneth what shal fal. But it is ful unleful to beleve, that God sheweth his prevy counsayle to crowes as Isidore sayth. Among many divynacions divynours meane that crowes token reyne with gredynge and cryenge, as this verse meaneth,

'Nunc plena comix pluviam vocat improba voce:
That is to understonde,
Nowe the crowe calleth reyne with an eleynge voyce.'"

In the Supplement to the Athenian Oracle, p. 476, we are informed that "people prognosticate a great famine or mortality when great flocks of jays and crows forsake the woods; because these melancholy birds, bearing the characters of Saturn, the author of famine and mortality, have a very early perception of the bad disposition of that planet."

In the Secret Memoirs of Mr. Duncan Campbell, p. 60, it is said: "Some will defer going abroad, though called by business of the greatest consequence, if, happening to look out of the window, they see a single crow." Ramesey, in his Elminthologia, 1668, p. 271, says: "If a crow fly but over the house and croak thrice, how do they fear, they, or some one else in the family, shall die."

"The woodpecker's cry denotes wet. Buzards, or kites, when they do soar very high and much to lessening them- [p.214] selves, making many plains to and again, foreshews hot weather, and that the lower region of the air is inflamed, which for coolnesse makes them ascend."

In the Dialogue of Dives and Pauper, fol. 1493, first precepte, 46th chapter, we read: "Some bileve that yf the kyte or the puttock fle ovir the way afore them that they should fare wel that daye, for sumtyme they have farewele after that they see the puttock. so fleynge; and soo they falle in wane by leve and thanke the puttocke of their welfare and nat God, but suche foles take none hede howe often men mete with the puttok so fleynge and yet they fare nevir the better: for there is no folk that mete so oft with the puttoke so fleynge as they that begge their mete from dore to dore. Cranes soaring aloft, and quietly in the air, foreshews fair weather; but if they do make much noise, as consulting which way to go, it foreshews a storm that's neer at hand. Herons, in the evening, flying up and down, as if doubtful where to rest, presages some evill approaching weather."

Nash, in his Christ's Teares over Jerusalem, 1613, p. 185, speaking of the plague in London, says: "The vulgar menialty conclude therefore it is like to increase, because a hearnshaw (a whole afternoone together) sate on the top of Saint Peter's Church in Cornehill. They talk of an oxe that told the bell at Wolwitch, and howe from an oxe he transformed himselfe to an old man, and from an old man to an infant, and from an infant to a young man. Strange prophetical reports (as touching the sicknes) they mutter he gave out, when in truth they are nought els but cleanly coined lies, which some pleasant sportive wits have devised to gull them most grossely."

Werenfels says, p. 6: "If the superstitious man has a desire to know how many years he has to live, he will enquire of the cuckoo." See Halliwell's Popular Rhymes, p. 221.

The chattering of a magpie is ranked by Bourne, p. 71, among omens. "It is unlucky," says Grose, "to see first one magpie, and then more: but to see two, denotes marriage or merriment; three, a successful journey; four, an unexpected piece of good news; five, you will shortly be in a great company." See the verses in Halliwell, ibid. p. 168. In the Dialogue of Dives and Pauper, fol. Pynson, 1493, superstitious practices then in use, and [p.215] censured by the author, we find the following: "Divynaciones by chyterynge of byrdes, or by fleyinge of foules."

The ancient augurs foretold things to come by the chirping or singing of certain birds, the crow, the pye, the chough, &c.: hence perhaps the observation, frequent in the mouths of old women, that when the pye chatters we shall have strangers.

It is very observable, that, according to Lambarde, in his Topographical Dictionary, p. 260, Editha persuaded her husband to build a monastery at Oseney, near Oxford, upon the chattering of pies. Magpies are ranked among omens by Shakespeare¹⁰⁸. Reginald Scot, in his Discovery of Witchcraft, p. 95, says: "That to prognosticate that guests approach to your house, upon the chattering of pies or haggisters (haggister in Kent signifies a magpie) is altogether vanity and superstition."

In Lancashire, among the vulgar, it is accounted very unlucky to see two magpies (called there pynots, in Northum- [p.216] berland pyanots) together: thus, in Tim Bobbin's Lancashire Dialect, 8vo. 1775, p. 31: "I saigh two rott'n pynots (lion-gum) that wur a sign o bad fashin; for I heard my gronny say hoode os leef o seen two owd harries (devils) os two pynots."

The magpie continues to be ominous in Scotland. The Glossary to the Complaynt of Scotland, 8vo. Edinb. 1801, v. Piett, a magpie, observes that "it is, according to popular superstition, a bird of unlucky omen. Many an old woman would more willingly see the devil, who bodes no more ill luck than he brings, than a magpie perching on a neighbouring tree."

Gaule, in his Mag-astromancers Posed and Puzzel'd, p. 181, notices among vain observations, "the pyes chattering about the house."

Dr. Nathaniel Home, in his Daemonologie, 8vo. Lond. 1650, speaking of popular superstitions, p. 59, tells us: "By the chattering of magpies they know they shall have strangers. By the flying and crying of ravens over their houses, especially in the dusk evening, and where one is sick, they conclude death: the same they conclude by the much crying of owles in the night, neer their houses, at such a time."

Alexander Ross, in his Appendix to the Arcana Microcosmi, p. 219, tells us, that "in the time of King Charles the Eighth of France, the battle that was fought between the French and Britans, in which the Britans were overthrown, was foreshewed by a skirmish between the magpies and jackdaws."¹⁰⁹

[p.217]

[The following extract respecting the dove is taken from the old ballad of the Bloody Gardener:

"As soon as he had clos'd his eyes to rest,
A milk white dove did hover on his breast;
The fluttering wings did beat, which wak'd him from his sleep,
Then the dove took flight, and he was left.
To his mother's garden, then, he did repair,
For to lie, and lament himself there;
"When he again the dove did see sitting on a myrtle tree
With drooping wings, it desolate appear'd.
'Thou dove, so innocent, why dost thou come?
O hast thou lost thy mate, as I have done?
That thou dost dog me here, all round the vallies fair.'
When thus he'd spoke, the dove came quickly down,
And on the virgin's grave did seem to go,
Out of its milk-white breast the blood did flow;
To the place he did repairj but no true love was there.
Then frighted to his mother he did go,
And told her what there did to him appear,
Saying, 'I fear that you have kill'd my dear;
For a dove, I do declare, did all in blood appear,
And if that she be dead, I'll have my share.'
His mother hearing what he then did say,
Told him of the wicked deed straightway;
She in distraction run, and told him what she'd done,
And where the virgin's body lay.
He nothing more did say, but took a knife,
Farewell, the joy and pleasure of my life!'
He in the garden flew, and pierc'd his body through,
'Twas cursed gold that caused all this strife.
These two lovers in one silent tomb were laid,
And many a briny tear over them was shed;
The gardener, we hear, was apprehended there,
And now all three are in their silent graves."]

The quaint author of A strange Metamorphosis of Man transformed into a Wildernesse, deciphered in Characters, 12mo. Lond. 1634, speaking of the goose, says: "She is no witch, or astrologer, to divine by the starres, but yet hath a shrewd guesse of rainie weather, being as good as an almanack to some that beleeve in her."

We read in Willsford's Nature's Secrets, p. 132, that "the offspring or alliance of the capitolian guard, when they do make a gaggling in the air more than usual, or seem to fight, being over greedy at their meat, expect then cold and winterly weather." Also, ibid. p. 134: "Peacocks crying loud and [p.218] shrill for their lost To does proclaim an approaching storm." We read in the eleventh book of Notable Things, by Thomas Lupton, 8vo. Lond. 1660, No. 10, p. 311, that "the peacock, by his harsh and loud clamour, prophesies and foretells rain, and the oftener they cry, the more rain is signified." Theophrastus and Mizaidus are cited: "and Paracelsus saies, if a peacock cries more than usual, or out of his time, it foretells the death of some in that family to whom it doth belong." As also, ibid.: "Doves coming later home to their houses than they are accustomed to do presages some evil weather approaching." So, ibid. p. 133: "Jackdaws, if they come late home from foraging, presages some cold or ill weather neer at hand, and likewise when they are seen much alone." So, ibid. p. 132: "Ducks, mallards, and all water-fowls, when they bathe themselves much, prune their feathers, and flicker, or clap themselves with their wings, it is a sign of rain or wind." The same with "cormorants and gulls."

[It is reckoned by many a sure sign of death in a house, if a white pigeon is observed to settle on the chimney.

Dotterels. (From a Hampshire correspondent.) Within the last few days several strong flights of this highly esteemed migratory feathered visitant have been observed in the hilly districts around Andover. The shepherds, who are prone to study the habits of such birds of passage who visit that extensive range of downs called Salisbury Plain (upon which latter they may be almost said to spend their lives), hold the following trite saying among them, and as they are guided as to the management of their flocks, in a great measure, by the signs of the seasons, there can be no doubt but that the adage carried some weight with it:

"When dotterel do first appear, it shews that frost is very near;
But when that dotterel do go, then you may look for heavy snow."]

In Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, iii. 478, the minister of Arbirlot, in the county of Forfar, informs us, "The sea-gulls are considered as ominous. When they appear in the fields, a storm from the south-east generally follows; and when the storm begins to abate, they fly back to the shore."

Ibid. i. 32, parish of Holywood, Dumfreisshire: "During the whole year the sea-gulls, commonly called in this parish [p.219] sea-maws, occasionally come from the Solway Frith to this part of the country; their arrival seldom fails of being followed by a high wind and heavy rain, from the south-west, within twenty-four hours; and they return to the Frith again as soon as the storm begins to abate."

Willsford, in his Nature's Secrets, p. 134, says: "Seameivs, early in the morning making a gaggling more than ordinary, foretoken stormy and blustering weather."

Moresin ranks the unseasonable crowing of the cock among omens. As also the sudden fall of hens from the house-top.¹¹⁰ These fowl omens are probably derived to us from the Romans, at whose superstitions on this account Butler laughs in his Hudibras. [The proverb says:

"If the cock crows on going to bed,
He's sure to rise with a watery head;"

i.e. it is sure to prove rainy the next morning.]

In Willsford's Nature's Secrets, 8vo. Lond. 1658, p. 132, we read: "The vigilant cock, the bird of Mars, the good housewife's clock and the Switzer's alarum, if he crows in the day time very much, or at sun-setting, or when he is at roost at unusual hours, as at nine or ten, expect some change of weather, and that suddenly, but from fair to foul, or the contrary; but when the hen crows, good men expect a storm within doors and without. If the hens or chickens in the morning come late from their roosts (as if they were constrained by hunger) it presages much rainy weather."

In the British Apollo, fol. 1708, vol. i. No. 64, to a query,

"When my hens do crow,
Tell me if it be ominous or no?"

[p.220]

It is answered:

"With crowing of your hens \ve will not twit ye,
Since here they every day crow in the city;
Thence thought no omen."

Park, in his Travels in the Interior of Africa, has the following passage: "While journeying on, Johnson, the interpreter, discovered a species of tree for which he had made frequent inquiry. He tied a white chicken to the tree by its leg to one of the branches, and then said that the journey would be prosperous. He said the ceremony was an offering or sacrifice to the spirits of the woods, who were a powerful race of beings, of a white colour, with long flowing hair."

Werenfels, in his Dissertation upon Superstition, p. 7, says, speaking of a superstitious man: "When he returns home, he will often be in fear, too, lest a cockatrice should be hatched from his cock's egg, and kill him with its baneful aspect." He had given the following trait of his character before: "When he goes out of doors, he fears nothing so much as the glance of an envious eye."

"Mischiefs are like the cockatrice's eye;
If they see first, they kill; if seen, they die." Dryden.

I recollect nothing at present which seems to have been derived into modern superstition from the ancient mode of deducing omens from the inside of animals, unless it be that concerning the merry thought, thus noticed by the Spectator: "I have seen a man in love turn pale and lose his appetite from the plucking of a merry thought."

In the British Apollo, fol. Lond. 1708, i. No. 84, is the following query: "For what reason is the bone next the breast of a fowl, &c., called the merry thought, and when was it first called so? A. The original of that name was doubtless from the pleasant fancies that commonly arise upon the breaking of that bone, and 'twas then certainly first called so, when these merry notions were first started."

In Lloyd's Stratagems of Jerusalem, p. 285, we are told: "Themistocles was assured of victory over King Xerxes and his huge army by crowing of a cocke, going to the battle at Artemisium, the day before the battell began, who having obtained so great a victory, gave a cocke in his ensigne ever." Ibid. We read: "The first King of Rome, Romulus, builded his kingdom by flying of fowles and soothsaying. So [p.221] Numa Pompilius was chosen second King of Rome by flying of fowles. So Tarquinius Priscus, an eagle tooke his cappe from his head and fled up on high to the skies, and after descended, and let his cappe fall on his head againe, signifying thereby that he should be