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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029890088 
 
11". Morton, 
 Scitipt. 
 
 C. Potter. 
 Belt. 
 
 THE SPECTRE HUNTSMAN. 
 
 Page 153- 
 
TRADITIOJ^S, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 FOLK-LORE, 
 
 (CHIEFLY LANCASHIRE AND THE NOB.TH OF ENGLAND :) 
 
 CJeir aflinits to others in tDflrergsIiistriJiuteft lotalities; 
 
 EASTERN ORIGIN AND MYTHICAL SIGNIEICANOE. 
 
 CHAELES HAEDWICK, 
 
 i£ AUTHOR OF "history OF PRESTON AMD ITS EN'WRONS," "MANUAL FOR PATRONS AND MEMBERS 
 OF FRIENDLY SOCIETIES," ETC. 
 
 " Thou hast hid these things fr3m the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto 
 babes. "-^Jf ait/tew, c. xi. t. 25. 
 
 ** Every fiction that haa ever laid strong hold of human belief is the mistaken image of 
 IT, KflB. some great truth, to which reason will direct its search, while half reason is content with 
 laughing at the superstition, and unreason with disbelieving it." — Rev. J. Martineau. 
 
 Srtii'' 
 
 ' \n/..r 
 
 MANCHESTER : 
 A. IRELAND & CO., PALL MALL. ' 
 LONDON: 
 SIMPKIN,' MARSHALL & 00., STATIONERS' HALL COURT. 
 
 1872. 
 
 / 
 
 r^ 
 
(Hi 
 
 
 • ■ 
 
 Jt' 
 
 ■* 
 
HIS VEKT DEAE AND EVEE KIND FEIEND, 
 
 ELIZA COOK, 
 
 THIS WOEK IS APFEOTIONATELY INSCEIBED, 
 AS A VEEY HUMBLE BUT SINOEEE TEIBUTE 
 
 TO HEE POETIC GENIUS 
 
 AND 
 
 HEE PEIVATE WOETH, 
 
 BY ITS AUTHOE, 
 
 CHARLES HARDWICK. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 OuB nursery legends and popular superstitions are fast becoming 
 matters of history, except ia the more remote and secluded portions 
 of the country. The age of the steam engiae, and the electric battery, 
 and the many other practical adaptations of the triumphs of physical 
 science, is apparently not the one La which such "waifs and strays" 
 from the mythical lore of the dim and distant Past are very Kkely to 
 be much sought after or honoured. But now that the light of 
 modern investigation, and especially that ray furnished by recent 
 discoveries iu philological science, has been directed towards their 
 deeper and more hidden mysteries, profound philosophical historians 
 have begun to discover that from this apparently desolate literary 
 region much reliable knowledge may be extracted, leadiag to con- 
 clusions of the most iuterestiug and important kind, with reference 
 to the early history of our race. The labours of the brothers Grimm, 
 Dr. Adalbert Kuhn, Professor Max MiiUer, the Eev. G. W. Cox, and 
 others, have recently received considerable attention from philo- 
 sophic enquirers into the origia and early development of the people 
 from whom nearly aJl of the European, and some of the Asiatic, 
 modern nationalities have sprung. 
 
 It is found that many of these imperfect, and sometimes grotesque, 
 traditions, legends, and superstitions are, ia reaUty, not the " despi- 
 cable rubbish " which the "learned" have been La the habit of 
 regardiag them, but rather the crude ore, which, when skilfully 
 
VIU PREFACE. 
 
 smelted down, yields, abundantly, pure metal well worthy oi t e 
 literary hammer of the most profound student in general history, 
 ethnology, or the phenomena attendant upon psychological de- 
 velopment. 
 
 Professor Henry Morley, in the chapter on Ethnology, in his 
 " Enghsh Writers," after noticing " how immediately and easily 
 particular words, common in. their application, would become 
 aTaUable for common use," and " how often images of the seen would 
 become symbols of the unseen," truly says, " The world about us is not 
 simply mirrored, but informed with a true soul, by all the tongues that 
 syllable man's knowledge and his wants. The subtlest harmonies of 
 life and nature may lie hidden in the very letters of the alphabet." 
 
 The subject has been but recently introduced, in a thoroughly 
 popular form, to the Enghsh reader. Dasent's " Popular Tales from 
 the Norse," and occasional papers by local writers, iutensified and 
 extended the interest taken in this species of research. The pubhca- 
 tion, in 1863, by Mr. Walter K. Kelly, of his " Curiosities of Indo- 
 European Tradition and Folk-Lore," however, may be said to have 
 given a still greater impetus to popular investigation in this direc- 
 tion. This is largely to be attributed to the fact that he has sum- 
 marised ia a very pleasing manner much of the abstruse learning 
 of the German philologists and mythologists to whom reference has 
 already been made. 
 
 Whilst contemplating the pubUcation of some " Supplementary 
 Notes to the History of Preston and its Environs," the early chapters 
 of which, of course, would necessarily deal with what is termed 
 the " pre-historic period," Mr. Kelly's work came into my hands. 
 I was induced to considerably enlarge my plan, in consequence 
 of the value I immediately placed upon its contents, and of the 
 suggestion in the following paragraph, which appears in its prefabe : 
 
 " In not a few instances I have been able to illustrate Dr. Kuhn's 
 
PEEFACE. IX 
 
 principles by examples of the folk-lore of Great Britain and Ireland, 
 and would gladly have done so more copiously had matter for the 
 purpose been more accessible! My efforts in that direction have 
 made me painfully aware how much we are behind the Germans, not 
 only as to our insight into the meaning of such relics of the past, but 
 also as to our industry in collecting them. The latter defect is indeed 
 a natural consequence of the former, and it is to be hoped that our 
 local archaeologists will no longer be content to labour under either of 
 them when once they have found what far-reaching knowledge may 
 be extracted out of old wives' tales and notions. Only four years ago 
 the editor of "Notes and Queries" spoke hypotheticaUy (in the 
 preface to " Choice Notes ") of a time to come when the study of 
 folk-lore (he was I believe the inventor of that very expressive and 
 sterling word) should have risen from a pleasant pastime to the rank 
 of a science. Already his anticipation has been reaUsed, and hence- 
 forth every careful collector of a novel scrap of folk-lore, or of even a 
 weU-marked variety of an old type, may entertain a reasonable hope 
 that he has in some degree subserved the purposes of the ethnologist 
 and the philosophical historian." 
 
 In 1865-6 1 pubhshed a series of the "Supplementary Notes" referred 
 to, in the Preston Chcardian newspaper. The general favour with 
 which they were received, and the increasing interest I felt in the 
 subject, induced me to continue my researches, with the view to the 
 ultimate pubUcation of the present volume. The original papers, as 
 well as other essays afterwards pubhshed elsewhere, have not only 
 been carefully revised, and, in some instances, rearranged, but the 
 quantity of new matter added in each chapter is such as to render 
 the work in every respect much more complete, and more worthy of 
 being regarded as having, in some small degree, "subserved the 
 purposes of the ethnologist and the philosophical historian." I would 
 gladly persuade myself that I have, at least, rendered what many 
 
X PEEPACE. 
 
 regard as frivolous, and others as very abstruse and very " dry 
 reading," interesting, attractive, and instructive to the general reader. 
 If I succeed ia this respect, my chief object mil have been accom- 
 pHshed. 
 
 The various authorities reUed upon or quoted are sufficiently indi- 
 cated in the body of the work to render a catalogue of them here 
 unnecessary. I may add, however, that the principal portions of 
 the papers contributed by my friend, Mr. T. T. Wilkinson, P.E.A.S., 
 to the " Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Historic 
 Society," have siace been incorporated with a portion of the collection 
 of the late Mr. Jno. Harland, F.S.A., and pubUshed in a volume 
 by F. Warne and Co., entitled " Lancashire Folk Lore." 
 
 74, Halston Street, Hulme, 
 
 Manchester, April, 1872. 
 
CO.NTENTS, 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 THE EARLY INHABITANTS OF LANCASHIRE AND THE NEIGHBOURING COUNTIES, 
 ' AND REMAINS OF THEIR MYTHOLOGY AND LOCAL NOMENCLATURE. 
 
 Etymology. Philology. The Aryan theory of the common origin of moat of 
 the European races of men. Sanscrit. The Rig Vedas. Probable element of 
 truth at the base of Geoffrey of Monmouth's mythical History of the Britons. 
 The Brigantes. The Phoenicians. The Hyperboreans. Stonehenge. Bel or 
 Baal, the sun god. The Persian Ormusd. Temple of Mithras in Northumber- 
 land. The " Bronze age." The Cushites or Hamites of Ancient Arabia. 
 Palseoliths, or ancient stone weapons. The Belisama (Ribble). Altars dedi- 
 cated to Belatucadrus in the North of England. The Brigantes of the East, 
 Spain, Ireland, and the North of England. The Aryan Fire-god Agni, and his 
 retainers, the Brighus, etc. Altars in the North of England dedicated to 
 Vitires, Vetiris, or Veteres. Vithris (Odin). Vritra of the Hindoo Vedas. 
 Altars dedicated to Coecideus. The Styx, Acheron, and Cocytus of the Greeks. 
 The Coccium of Antoninus, at Walton, near Preston. Ancient local nomen- 
 clature. The Belisama. The Irish god Samhan. The Aryan god Soma. 
 The "heavenly soma." The amrita or nectar, the "drink of the gods." 
 Madhu. Mead. Brewing and lightening. Bel, the luminou^ deity of the 
 Britons. Deification of rivers. The Warf, the Lune, etc. The Solway and 
 Eden (Ituna of Ptolemy). Idunn, the goddess of youth and beauty. Swan 
 maidens. Eagle shirts. Frost giants, etc. The "Luck of Eden Hall." 
 Phallic symbols. The Dee (the Seteia of Ptolemy). Devas, deities, evil 
 fipirits, devils. The Severn, Sabrina, Varuna. War between the devas and 
 the asuras. The Vedic serpent, Sesha. The chark. Churning the sea, or 
 brewing soma. The lake of Amara, or of the gods, and the Sitanti mountains, 
 at the head of the Nile. The second Avatara of Vishn'u. The Setantii, 
 ancient inhabitants of Lancashire. The Humber (the Abus of Ptolemy). The 
 Vedic Arbhus. The Elbe. Elemental strife. The Wash (the Metaris of 
 Ptolemy). The Vidic Mithra, the friend of Varuna, the god of daylight. 
 Figurative interpretation. The origin of language. . . . Page !. 
 
XU CONTENTS, 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 PIHE OB SUN WOESHIP AND ITS ATTENDANT SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 Fire worship denounced by the earlier ecclesiastics. Remnant in modern times. 
 AUhalloween. Beltaiu fires. Derbyshire tindles and Lancashire teanlas. 
 African notions ofthe Sun and Moon. Bonfires. The gunpowder plot. Mid- 
 summer fires. The elder Aryan fire gods Agni and Ehudra, and their 
 attendants. Prometheus, the fire-bringer, the inventor of the chark, or 
 earliest fire-kindling instrument. Original or " need-fire." Cattle disease. 
 Fire superstitions. Burning wheels, etc. Sacrifices to the god Bel, and to the 
 sun god Fo or Frioco, in the North of England, etc. The feast of St. John the 
 Baptist. Bonefires. Dragons and serpents. Agni and the Midsummer 
 demons. Ahi and Kuyava the destroyers of vegetation. The great Vedic 
 serpent Sesha. St. George and other dragon slayers. Dragons, fiery serpents, 
 and huge worms of the North of England, " blasters of the harvest." The 
 Anglo-Saxon poem, Beowulf. The monster Grendel, of Hartlepool. Dragons 
 and imprisoned maidens, and treasure hid in caves. Merlin's prophecy. Bed 
 and white dragons. Dragon poison converted into medical balm. Figurative 
 interpretation. The thunderstorm reduces the heat, waters the parched earth, 
 and promotes vegetable growth. A modern hypothesis as to the origin of 
 dragon superstitions Page 28. 
 
 CHAPTEE in. 
 
 CHRISTMAS AND YULE-TIDE SUPERSTITIONS AND OBSERVANCES. 
 
 Christmas amusements. Date of the nativity. Remnants of pagan superstition 
 denounced by the Church. Etymology of the word Yule. Commencement 
 of the year at the vernal equinox. Old and new styles. Old style yet in 
 use in Lancashire. Clerical Denunciation of New Year's gifts. Curious 
 gifts on New Year's Day in Elizabeth's reign. The wassail bowl. The 
 Saxon " wacht heiP' and " drinc heil." Singular New Year's day super- 
 stitions. Meat, drink, money, and candles interred with the dead. No fire- 
 light or business credit given on New Year's day. Recent instances in Lanca- 
 shire. Divination at Christmas. Red and dark-haired visitors on New 
 Year's morn. Antagonism of the Celtic and Teutonic races. Forecasting 
 the weather. Twelve days sleep of the Vedic Eibhua in the house of the sun 
 god Savitar. The mistletoe and other plants sprung from the lightning. The 
 oak and the ash. The heavenly asvattha, the Jicus religiosa, of the Aryan 
 mythology, the prototype of the yggdrasil or cloud-tree of the Scandinavians. 
 Merlin's tree that covers Great Britain and Ireland. Jack and the bean-stalk. 
 Thorns blossoming on old Christmas eve. German Christmas trees. The 
 boar's head. The boar an Aryan type of the wind. His tusks the lightning. 
 Popular belief that pigs can see the wind Page 53. 
 
CONTENTS. XUl 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 EASTEK SUPERSTITIONS AND CEEEMONIES. 
 
 San dancing on Easter mom. Etymology of the word Easter. Original or need- 
 fire. Easter eggs. The red or golden egg an Aryan sun-type. Easter eggs 
 protection against fire. Handball playing by the clergy. Easter mysteries', 
 moralities, or miracle plays. Paschal or " pace " eggs. Lancashire " pace- 
 egging." Lifting of women on Easter Monday, and of men on the following 
 day, a custom still practised in Lancashire. Cross buns at Easter. Thor's 
 hammer. Ancient marriage oaks. Midlent or " mothering" Sunday. Simnel 
 cakes. Curious customs in Lancashire and Shropshire. Etymology of the 
 word " simnel." Braggat Sunday and Braggat ales. Lenten fare. Beans 
 and peas. Curious ancient and modern superstitions connected therewith. 
 Touching for the king's evil. Divine right of kings. . . Page 70. 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 MAY DAY CEREMONIES AND SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 Mock battle between summer and winter. The vernal equinox. Joy on the return 
 of Spring. Bell-ringing and horn blowing. Midnight gathering of wild flowers 
 and green branches of trees. May day garlands and decorations. Eush-bearing 
 in Lancashire. Well dressing in Derbyshire. The Eoman Floralia. May- 
 poles denounced by the Puritans. King James I. at Hoghton Tower, Lan- 
 cashire. Speech about " libertie to pipeing and honest recreation." Whitsun- 
 ales and Morris dances. Washington Irving's first sight of a Maypole at 
 Chester. Modern May-day ceremonies in Cheshire. Gathering hawthorn 
 blossom. The Mimosa catechu, or sacred thorn of India, sprung from the 
 lightning. The Glastonbury thorn. Singular superstition respecting it. 
 Children's love of wild flowers. May-day dew good for ladies' complexions. 
 May day dew, the milk of the Aryan heavenly cows (clouds), believed to increase 
 the milk of their earthly prototypes Page 83. 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 WITCHCBAFT. 
 
 The Lancashire witches — Dame Demdike, etc.. Witch superstitions of Aryan 
 origin. Dethroned retainers of the elder gods. The Fates or Destinies. 
 Waxen and clay images. The doom of Meleagor. Reginald Scot on witch- 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 craft in 1584. Opinions of Wieras, a German physician, in 1563. ^'°S"'f' 
 confessions of presumed witches. Numbers pat to death. The belief in 
 witchcraft countenanced by the church, the legislature, and the learned. Sii 
 Keuelm Digby's opinion. Singular medical superstitions. King James I. and 
 Agnes Simpson, the Scotch witch. The Lancashire witches and Charles I. 
 Witchcraft in Hertfordshire in 1761. Kalph Gardiner's Malicious Invective. 
 A Scotch witoh-findor. Matthew Hopkins. Laws relating to witchcraft in the 
 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Draci, cloud gods, or water-spiriti, 
 with hands perforated like colanders. Singular tradition of the dun cow at 
 Grimsargh, near Preston. Witches' influence on the butter and milk of cows, 
 Durham, Yorkshire, and Warwick dun cow traditions. Ked cow milk. Ushaa, 
 the Vedio dawn-goddess. Red heifers set apart for sacrifice. Guy of Warwick 
 and his porridge pot. Black, white, and grey witches. The Teutonic dea 
 matres, or mother godesses. The three Fates. The weird sisters of Shaks- 
 pere. The "theatrical properties" of witches of Aryan origin. The sieve, 
 the caldron, and the broom or besom. Witches spirits of the air. Hecate the 
 Pandemonium Diana. Personifications of elemental strife. The brewing of 
 storms. Aryan root of these superstitions. Hares disguised witches. Boa- 
 dicea's hare. The goddess Freyja and her attendant hares. Singular hare 
 superstition in Cornwall. " Mad as a March hare" Cats weather-wise 
 animals. Sailors say a frisky cat has got "a gale of wind in her tail," 
 Sailors' prejudice against commencing a voyage on a Friday. Singular charge 
 against the Knights Templars. The broom or besom represents the implement 
 with which the Aryan demi-gods swept the sky. A type of the winds. 
 Curious Lancashire custom : hanging out a besom when the lady of the 
 house is absent, to announce to bachelor friends that bachelor habits may be 
 indulged in. The broom the oldest wine-bush. Dutch broom-girls. Eight 
 classes of witches. Gipsies : their Eastern origin. Modern fortune tellers. 
 The witch's familiar. Singular Somerset, Middlesex, and Lancashire super- 
 stitions at the present day. Witchcraft amongst the Maories, and in Equa- 
 torial Africa. Deathbed of a Burnley witch, and transference of her familiar 
 spirit with her last breath Page 96. 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 PAIBIES AND BOGGAETS. 
 
 Puck or Robin Goodfellow. Peris, Pixies, and Ginns. Queen Mab. Lancashire 
 boggarts and fairies. The bargaist. The fairy of Mellor Moor, Lancashire. 
 Lumb Farm boggart, near Blackburn. "Boggart Ho' Clough," near Man- 
 chester. George Cheetham's boggart. The devil made a monk. The headless 
 dog or woman at Preston. Raising the devil. " Raw-head and bloody-bones." 
 Edwin Waugh's account of the Griselhurst boggart. The laying of boggarts. 
 Driving a stake through the body of a cock buried with the boggart. Sacred 
 or lightning birds. Superstitions about cocks and hens. Killing a Lanca- 
 shire wizard. Cruel sacrifice of chanticleer. Divining by means of a cook. 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 Boggarts Beared by a cook-orowing. The cock an emblem of iEsoulapiuB. 
 The black cock orow3 in the Niflhelm, or " land of gloom." The 
 lion afraid of a white cook. Father Morella's aooonnt of the revivification of 
 a dead cook. The cockatrice. A cruelly slaughtered cock and red cow's 
 niilk a sovereign remedy for consumption. The Scandinavian golden coloured 
 cook's crowing the signal for the dawn of the Eagnavock, ' ' the great day of 
 arousing.'' The Bindoos "cast out devils" by the aid of a cock slaughtered 
 as a saorifioe. Modern Jewish custom. Game cock feathers in the bed cause 
 a dying person to linger in pain. Hothersall Hall boggart, Lancashire, laid 
 beneath a laurel tree, watered with milk. Rowan, ash, and red, thread potential 
 against boggarts, witches, and devils. Scandinavian and German boggarts. 
 The Hindoo pitris or fathers. Zwergs, dwarfs, " ancients" or ancestors. Good 
 fairies, elves, etc. Lord DufBn transported by fairies from Scotland to Paris. 
 Classical ghost story. Singular superstition, of Eastern character, at Darwen, 
 Lancashire. A somewhat similar one in Australia. Fairy rings, their imagi- 
 nary and real origin Page 124 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 HUMAN INVISIBILITy, OR FERN SEED AND ST. JOHN'S WORT SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 Human invisibility. The helmet of Hades or Pluto, and the Teutonic " invisible 
 cap." Modern references to this singular superstition. Ferns luck- 
 bringing plants. Said to have sprung from the lightning. St. John's 
 wort. German story of accidental invisibility. St. John's eve. Fern- 
 seed a love charm. Samuel Bamford's Lancashire story in " Boggart 
 Ho' Clough," near Manchester. St. John superseded the Scandinavian Baldr. 
 The Osmunda regalis. Osmunda, one of the appellations of Thor. The 
 vervain a plant of spells and enchantments. The Sanscrit pama and the 
 modern fern. Origin of the name " Boggart Ho' Clough." . Page 143 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 THE SPECTRE HUNTSMAN AND THE FURIOUS HOST. 
 
 Hunting the white doe in the vale of Todmordeu, Lancashire. The " Gabriel 
 Eatohets." The wish-hounds. The " Gabriel hounds " in Yorkshire. The 
 classiOjOrion, " the mighty hunter." The classic white doe and its mediaeval 
 descendants. The fair maid of Kent. A fawn attendant on the Greek deities 
 of the morning. Odin, the wild huntsman, and the furious host. The Yule 
 host of Iceland. Personification of storm and tempest. Herod, the " Chasse 
 Maccabfii," and the wandering Jew. The " seven whistlers " in Lancashire 
 and Yorkshire. Restless birds believed to be the souls of the damned condemned 
 
XVI CONTENTS. 
 
 to perpetual motion, on the Bosphorus. The wandering Odin and his two ravens, 
 representing Thought and Memory. The wandering Jew's last appearance m 
 the flesh. Temporary death of the weather gods typical of the seasons. Odin 
 slain by the wild boar. Thammuz and the Greek Adonis. 0dm lord of the 
 gallows. Odin's spear. Eoland's " Durandalj" the sword of Chrysafio*, of 
 ThessBUS, and of Sigurd. Arthur's " Bxcalibur " and others. Their Aryan 
 prototype, Indra's thunderbolt. Magic cudgels. The lad and the "rascally 
 innkeeper." Indra and Vritra, and the Panis. Long Aryan winters. . Haokel- 
 berg's coit throwing. King Arthur's similar exploit in Northumberland. The 
 devil's doings at Kirkby Lonsdale, at Ley land church, and at Winwick. 
 Etymology of the word " Winwiok." Odin buried in the cloud mountain.. 
 Heroes slumbering in caves. Frederick Barbarossa, Henry the Fowler, 
 Charlemagne, and the renowned Arthur. Arthur's death and trans- 
 lation to Avalun. The Eildon Hills and the Sewing-shields castle 
 traditions. The " Helm wind," near Kirkoswald, Cumberland. Sir Tar- 
 quin's castle at Manchester. Arthur's battles on the Douglas. Arthur 
 still alive as a raven. The Gjallar horn. A Cheshire legend says Arthur 
 reposes in the "Wizard's Cave," at Alderley Edge. Ancient reputation of 
 Britain for tempests and pestilential storms. The departure of the genii. 
 A similar superstition in equatorial Africa. Irish superstitions. The 
 furious host. Wandering souls of the unquiet dead. The Aryan Maruts 
 and Ribhus. The approach of the furious host. The black coach legend. 
 The yelping hound. The stray hound of Odin. The Lancashure and 
 Dorsetshire black dog fiends. The "Trash" or "Skriker" of East Lanca- 
 shire. Cerberus and the Vedic Sarvari. Hcrmes and the Vedic Sfirameyas. 
 The howling dog, an embodiment of the wind and herald of death. Recent 
 example of the power of this superstition in Lancashire. Acute sense 
 of smell probably at the root of this personification. Dogs supposed to 
 be able to see spirits. Dr. Marigold's dog and the approach of domestic 
 storms. Will-o'-wisps, or souls of unbaptised children. The Maruts after 
 a storm assume the form of new-born babes, as Hermes returned to his 
 cradle after tearing up the forests. Odin sometimes chases the wild boar, 
 sometimes Holder, or Bertha, his wife. The hell-hunt. Hell or Hela, 
 the goddess of death. The English hunt. England the realm of Hela. 
 Niflheim, the world of mists, and the Greek Hades. Nastrond and the modern 
 Hell. After death punishment for crimes done in the body. Valhalla and the 
 Gothic Hell and Devil. Contrast between the Eastern and Northern notions 
 of Hell, and Shakspere's powerful description thereof. Wandering spirits of 
 the Greek and Aryan mythologies. Yorkshire ballad concerning the passage 
 of the soul over Whinney Moor. Cleveland belief in the efficacy of a gift of a 
 pair of shoes to a poor man. Salt placed on the stomach of a corpse. Salt an 
 emblem of eternity and immortality. Flights of birds. The seven whistlers. 
 The bellowing of cows. Odin and his host carry off cows. The Milky-way 
 or the kaupat to heaven. The Ashton heriot. Figurative character of Odin's 
 accessories. Examples from Greek arcbaeic art of the gradual evolution of 
 mythological personification from physical phenomena. Orpheus the Aryan 
 Arbhus. The nightmare. The Maruts. The Valkyrs or wild riders of 
 Germany. The " Black Lad" of Ashton-under-Lyne. The wild rider. The 
 demon Tjregeagle, or tyrant lord of Cornwall, and bis endless labours. Tam 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 O'Shanter and the witches. Bottomless pools. Sir Francis Drake and the 
 hearse drawn hy headless horses. The wish hounds. Poetic sympathy. The 
 Ashton "Black Lad" or tyrant lord. Bamford's poem "The Wild Kider." 
 Earthly heroes substituted for Odin. . . . . . . Page 153 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 GIANTS MYTHICAL AND OTHERWISE. 
 
 The Giant's Dance, Stonehenge. The Eamayana and giants of Ceylon. The 
 Wild men of Hanno, the Carthagenian. Gorillas. The giants of Lancashire, 
 Shropshire, Cornwall, Ireland, and India compared. Gogmagog and Corineus. 
 The Cyclops. Patagonian and other modern giants. Giants and monsters 
 according to Pliny. Shakspere's monsters. The Amorites. The giants Og 
 and Sihon. Remains of the ancient cities of Bashan. Sir Jno. Mandeville's 
 Indian giants. Red Indian traditions of giants and gigantic pachyderms. 
 Discoveries of huge fossil bones. Aryan ESkshasas or Atrins (devourers). 
 Giants and devils. Milton's fallen angels. The trolls and giants of Scandinavia. 
 Dethroned deities. The .^sir gods. Their overthrow by the light of the 
 Christian dispensation. Nikarr, an appellation of Odin, the Old Nick of 
 the present day. Giants degraded forms of original Aryan personifications 
 of the forces of nature. Ancient and modern examples. Allegory. Lord 
 Bacon's opinion. Passage into the heroes of romance. The King Arthur 
 legends. The Anglo-Saxon poem, Beowolf. The monster Grendel of Hartle- 
 pool. The Arthur legend of Tarquin and Sir Lancelot, at Manchester. The 
 Round table. Anacronisms in romance literature. The " Sangrael." Urien, 
 the Arthur of the North of England. The Welsh bards, Taliesin and Llywarch 
 Hen or the Old. Geoffrey of Monmouth and William of Newbury. Walter 
 Map. Giants' coits and erratic boulders. Lancashire and Cheshire giants, near 
 Stockport. Chivalry and the plundering Barons of the middle ages. Mythical 
 Dwarfs. Tom Thumb. Connection of Druidical with Brahminical super- 
 stition. Page 197 
 
 CHAPTEE XI. 
 
 "WEEBWOLVES AND THE TEANSMIGBATION OP SOULS. 
 
 Bodies of birds and animals supposed to be tenanted by the souls of men. Instances 
 from Shakspere. The Druids. The Egyptian, Pythagorian, and the Hindoo 
 Doctrines. The Taliesin romance. The bell-tolling ox at Woolwich. Were- 
 wolves. Irish werewolves. King John a werewolf. Greek and Roman were- 
 wolves. German werewolves. Swan shirts and eagle shirts. Irish Mermaids. 
 Bears. Detection of werewolves. Vampires. Witches transformed into cats. 
 Werewolves, like witches, burnt at the stake. The witches' magic bridle; which 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 transformed human beings into horses. Lancashire witches transformed into 
 greyhounds. Margery Grant, a recently deceased Scotch witch, sometimes trans- 
 formed into a pony, and sometimes into a hare. Men transformed into crocodiles. 
 Owl transformations. The owl, the baker, and the baker's daughter. Bakers 
 transformed into a cuckoo and a woodpecker. The White Doe of Rylstone. The 
 Manx wren, the robin, the stork, etc., each supposed to enshrine the soul of a 
 human being. Men transformed into leopards, etc., in Africa. Greek Lykan- 
 throphy. Aryan conception of the howling wind as a wolf. The souls of the 
 damned werewolves in Hell. The wolf a personification of the darkness of the 
 Night. Greek forms of this myth in Apollo and Latona his mother. Personifi- 
 cations of natural phenomena. Children suckled by wolves. . Page 224 
 
 CHAPTEE Xn. 
 
 SACKED AND OMINOUS BIEDS, ETC. 
 
 Sacred Birds. Beautiful Welsh legend of the robin. Stork legends in Germany. 
 Their nests built upon wheels (sun embliBms) placed on the roofs of house?. 
 Kemains in Danish "Kitchen middens." Birds of evil omen. The owl. 
 Shakspere's profound insight. Cuckoo superstitions. Transformation of 
 cuckoos into sparrow-hawks. The cuckoo the messenger of Thor. The wren 
 hunted to death in the Isle of Man, Ireland, and some parts of France. A 
 sacred bird in England. Swallows and Crickets. Eavens, crows, jackdaws, 
 etc., ominous birds. Lancashire superstitions of this class. The "Seven 
 Whistlers." The Woodpecker. Picus and Filumnus. Fire and soul bringers. 
 Weather prophets. The stormy petril, the heron, and the crane. The lady- 
 bird. Kats leaving ships about to founder at sea. . , . Page 242 
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 THE DIVINING OR WISH ROD AND SUPERSTITIONS RESPECTING TREES AND 
 
 PLANTS. 
 
 Searching for hidden treasure at Cuerdale, near Preston. Midnight excavations on 
 the site of the Roman station at Walton, near Preston. How to prepare-a .^ 
 divining rod. The rowan tree. Divination by upright rods. Recent attempt 
 to discover metalio ores by the divining rod. Anecdote of M. LinnsBus. Form 
 of the wish rod. The mystic number three. . The mistletoe. Neptune's 
 Trident. The horse shoe a divining instrument. Other divining instruments. 
 The mandrake. Resemblance in form to the human body. The caduceeus or 
 the rod of Hermes. Modern conjurer's magic wands. The palasa tree or the 
 "imperial mimosa" of the East. Aryan legend of its lightning origin. The 
 mountain ash, the thorn, etc. Bishop Heber's anecdote respecting the Hindoo 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 form of the superstition. African sacred trees. Recent instances of this supersti- 
 tion in England, Scotland, and Australia. The pastoral crook, and the lituus, 
 or staff of the ancient augurs, etc. Phallic symbols. Novel use of the Bible. 
 The divining rod but of recent importation into Cornwall. Recent instances of 
 divination or "dousing" for water. Finding drowned bodies. "CJorpse 
 candles." . , . . . . Page 252 
 
 CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 WELL WORSHIP AND SUPERSTITIONS CONNECTED WITH WATER, 
 
 (Veil worship. Medical virtues of water. iSymbol of purity. Sacred wells. St. 
 Helen's well, at Brindle, near Preston. Curious examples of local corruption 
 of names. Pin dropping. Pin wells in France, Wales, Scotland, Northumber- 
 land, and the West of England. A form of divination. Protection against 
 hanging. Other curious forms of this superstition. Curing rickets in children 
 and insanity. Reported miraculous cures. Well dressing. Recent death of 
 Margery Grant, a " Scotch witch," who worked cures with holy water. The 
 deification of rivers and streams. Ancient lake dwellings. Healing lake in 
 Scotland. Bottomless pools. Stagnant water. Jenny Greenteeth. " Niokar, 
 the soulless." ScotchKelpies. Burns's " Address to the Doil." Superstition 
 on the Solway. African s^iperstition of this class. . . . Page 267 
 
 CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Antiquity of the superstitions commented upon. The common origin of most of 
 them. Tenacity of superstition and traditionary lore. Some perhaps have 
 resulted from similar conditions, without any necessary connection with each 
 other. Supposed communication of America with Asia in ancient times, 
 Phallic worship in Central America. Singular custom in the Polynesian 
 Islands. Migration of the Miocene flora. The Atlantis of the Ancients. Super- 
 stitions in Abyssinia and the Malay Archipelago. Traditions and supersti- 
 tions frequently glide into each other. Instances. Scotch warriors at Preston. 
 Sunken churches. Secret passages beneath rivers. All ruined castles, 
 abbeys, etc., said to have been battered by Cromwell's cannon. Recent 
 discoveries in Sanscrit. Max Miiller's interpretation of Greek myths. 
 Anthropomorphism, or the personification of natural forces. Growth of a 
 myth. Vedic and other examples . Wordsworth's interpretation of Greek myths. 
 Figurative expression, the groundwork of all poetry, at the root of all language. 
 Shakspere's appreciation of the poetic value of popular mythology. Impor- 
 tance of the study of these despised superstitions to philological, ethnological, 
 and psychological science, as well as to the sound philosophical interpretation 
 of general history Page 283 
 
TRADITIONS, SUPEESTITIONS, 
 
 AND 
 
 FOLK-LORE. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 THE EAELY INHABITANTS OP LANCASHIRE AND THE NEIGHBOtmiNG COUNTIES, 
 AND BEMAINS OP THEIB MYTHOLOGY AND LOCAL NOMENCLATURE. 
 
 And tbiB oxir life, exempt from public haunt, 
 Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks. 
 Sermons in stones, and good in every thing. 
 
 Shakspere. 
 
 On several occasions, when discussing obscure questions of early 
 topography or ancient nomenclature, although readily acknowledging 
 the value of aU facts in connection with genuine etymological science, 
 I have recommended great caution in the use of this powerful but 
 somewhat capricious archfeological ally. I yet retain a strong im- 
 pression that this caution is stiU a necessary condition of truly 
 scientific historical or antiquarian research. Consequently, several 
 of the presumed etymologies in the present work are advanced with 
 diffidence, and with a thorough conviction that some of them may 
 prove to be iUusive. The suggestion of a probability, however, is a 
 very different thing to dogmatic assertion in such matters, a practice 
 which cannot be too much condemned. 
 
 It is not very many years since the writer of the article "Language," 
 in Knight's Cyclopaedia, felt it his duty, in introducing the subject, to 
 use the following strong expressions : — 
 
 " That division of grammar which is called etymology has been 
 disgraced by such peurile trifling, and has been pursued with such 
 an utter disregard to anything like scientific priaciples, as to create 
 in the minds of many persons a suspicion against everythiag pre- 
 sented to their notice under the name of etymology. Such persons 
 
2 TKADITIONS, SUPEKSTITIONS, 
 
 have viewed etymology as notliing else than a dexterous play ugm 
 words, and have looked upon etymologists as little better than in- 
 different punsters. That the generahty of writers upon this subject 
 scarcely deserve any better appellation wiU hardly be denied by 
 anyone who has studied etymology on true philological principles ; 
 and, if any doubt were entertaiaed upon the poiat, it would only be 
 necessary to refer to such works as Damm's ' Homeric Lexicon,' and 
 Lennep's ' Etymology of the Greek Language,' whifeh are fuU of such 
 wUd conjectures and such extravagant etymologies, that we cannot 
 be surprised that a study which has produtfed such results should 
 have been considered ridiculous and absurd." 
 
 The writer afterwards refers to the extent, and explains the nature 
 of the progress which had been made during the twenty or thirty 
 years previous to the date of his own paper. (1839). He justly 
 attributes this progress to the " comparison of many languages with 
 each other ;" but he especially insists that " nothing has perhaps 
 contributed to this improvement more than the discovery of Sanscrit 
 (for as it has been justly observed, it may properly be called a dis- 
 covery), which was found to bear such a striking resemblance both ui 
 its more important words and in its grammatical forms to the Latin 
 and Greek, the Teutonic and Sclavonic languages, as to lead to the 
 conclusion that aU must have been derived from a common source." 
 
 An able writer in the Saturday Review truly describes the science of 
 comparative philology as " the great discovery of modern scholar- 
 ship, the discovery which more than any other unites "distant ages 
 and countries in one tie of brotherhood." Hence its great value to 
 antiquarian students of every class. 
 
 Further investigation has fuUy demonstrated the truth of the 
 views thus expressed. Not only is the affinity of the languages now 
 admitted without dispute, but the consanguinity of the peoples and 
 the identity of many of their popular traditions and superstitions 
 - have been demonstrated with scientific precision by such writers as 
 the brothers Grimm, Dr. Kuhn, Dr. Eoth, Max MiiUer, Farrer, 
 Dasent, the Eev. G. W. Cox, and others, who have devoted special 
 attention to the subject. 
 
 This common ancestry is sometimes styled Indo-European ; but 
 the phrase being open to objection, as including more than the precise 
 facts justify, the term Aryan, or Arian, is now generally preferred. 
 Some wi-iters regard the Aryans as descendants of Japhet, and the 
 Semitic tribes as the progeny of Shem. In the latter they include 
 the Hebrews, the Phoenicians, the Arabs, and Ethiopians ■ and their 
 
AND FOLK-LOBE. 
 
 languages are radically distinct from those of the Aryan family. 
 The country about the upper Oxus river, now mainly included in the 
 dominions of the Khan of Bockhara, is generally agreed upon as the 
 locaUty from whence the various members of the Aryan family origin- 
 ally migrated, some northward and westward over Europe, and 
 others southward and eastward into India. The Kelts, the Teutons, 
 the Greeks, Latins, Letts, and Sclaves are all European branches of 
 this original stock. The Persians and the high caste Hindoos are the 
 principal descendants of the southern and south-eastern migration. 
 The chief elements of the British population at the present time are 
 Keltic, represented by the Welsh, Lrish, and Gaelic tribes, and the 
 Teutonic, which includes Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, and Danish and 
 Norse Scandinavians. 
 
 The non-Aryan races inhabiting Europe are" not relatively very 
 extensive or important. The chief are the Magyars and the Turks. 
 There are besides some Tatars and Ugrians in Eussia, a -few Bascjues 
 in the south-west of France and on the neighbouring Spanish fron- 
 tier, and the Laps and Fins in Northern Europe. 
 
 The oldest writings extant in the Sanscrit branch of the Aryan 
 tongue are termed the "Vedas." These works include a collection 
 of hymns chanted or sung by the earher south-eastern emigrants. 
 It is believed this collection was formed about fourteen hundred years 
 before the birth of Christ. According to ancient Hindoo authority, 
 these hymns are coeval with creation. It is asserted that Brahma 
 breathed them from his own mouth, or, in other words, that he 
 nulked them out from fire, air, and the sun. Some traditions state 
 that they were scattered abroad or lost ; and that a great sage, " Vyasa, 
 the arranger," colleeted them together about 5,000 years ago. Vyasa, 
 who was assisted in his labours by many other sages, taught the 
 Vedic Uterature or rehgion to four distinct pupUs. Payla learnt 
 the Eig Veda, Vais'ampayana the Yajur Veda, Jaimini the Sama 
 Veda, and Sumantu the Atharvan'a. The three first-mentioned are 
 named collectively the sacred Trayi, or the Triad. These versions 
 were afterwards much extended and commented upon by after sages. 
 The term Veda is derived from the Sanscrit root vid, which signifies 
 to know. It impUes the sum of aU knowledge. By another etymo- 
 logy it is held to imply revealed knowledge, or that species of wisdom 
 which contains within itself the evidence of its own truth. Eig is 
 from the root rich, to laud, and implies that the Vedic knowledge is 
 delivered in the form of hymns of praise. 
 
 Max MiiUer regards the .Vedas as containing the key note of all 
 
4 TEADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 religion, natural as weU as revealed. They exhibit a beUef in God, 
 a perception of the difference between good and evU, and a convictioii 
 that the Deity loyeth the one and hateth the other. The degenerate 
 rehgion of the modern Hindoos, and especiaUy the worship of 
 Krishnah, is described by a recent writer, as (m comparison with 
 that of the Vedas) " a moral plague, the ravages of which are as 
 appalling as they are astounding." 
 
 Walter Kelly says : — " The Sanscrit tongue, in which the Vedas 
 are written, is the sacred language of India ; that is to say, the oldest 
 language, the one which was spoken, as the Hindoos beheve, by the 
 gods themselves, when gods and men were in frequent fellowship 
 with each other, from the time when Yama descended from heaven 
 to become the first of mortals. This ancient tongue may not be the 
 very one which was spoken by the common ancestors of Hindoos and 
 Europeans, but at least it is its nearest and purest derivative ; nor is 
 there any reason to beUeve that it is removed from it by more than a 
 few degrees. Hence the supreme importance of the Sanscrit vo- 
 cabulary and literature as a key to the languages and supernatural 
 lore of ancient and modern Europe." 
 
 This discovery of the Sanscrit writings, and especiaUy of the Vedas, 
 has already exercised considerable influence upon etymological science. 
 Before its introduction the main element in such inquiries consisted 
 in the tracing backu-ards words coiTupted or obscure in modern EngUsh 
 to their origirlal roots in Keltic, Teutonic, Greek, or Latin. The Sans- 
 crit, however, being a written form of one of the earhest of the varieties 
 of these cognate tongues, gives the etymological student the advantage 
 of a flank or rear position, by means of which he may sometimes 
 decipher the meaning of a doubtful term, by the inverse or ascending 
 process, and thus gain some knowledge of its original meaning, 
 perhaps long since lost by the descendants of those who first intro- 
 duced it into the ancient language of Great Britain.* 
 
 It is by no means improbable that the idle historical legends re- 
 lated by Nennius and Geoffrey of Monmouth, respecting the arrival 
 
 * The P&ll Mall, Gazette, of January, 1867, contained a paragraph announcing the 
 sncoesB which had attended the labours of M. Lejean, who had been sent by the ' 
 Prench government " on a journey of scientific exploration to India and the Persian 
 Gulf." M. Lejean, in a letter from Abushehr (Bendershehr), reports to the French 
 Minister of Public Instruction, discoveries " of so extraordinary a nature," that the 
 writer in the Oazette "scarcely likes to repeat them without further confiiination." 
 Amongst other matters, he says : — " They extend from the oldest times to the 
 Alexandrine period, and from the Ajians to Buddhism. He speaks of having dis- 
 covered ante-Sanscrit idioms (langues palio-arienneaj ' still spoken between Kashmir 
 
AND FOLE-LOEE. 5 
 
 of Brutus and Ms Trojan followers in Britain, after the destruction 
 of Priam's imperial city by the aUied Greeks, may have just so much 
 foundation ia fact as might be furnished by a time-honoured tradi- 
 tion respecting the eastern home from which our remote ancestors 
 originally migrated. The natives of Britain, on first coming in con- 
 tact vrith the early merchants and traders from the Mediterranean 
 shores, would doubtless hear something of the lUad and the Enead, 
 with the heroes of which they might innocently confound their own 
 remote and vaguely conceived demideities or warhke human ances- 
 try. Notwithstanding the just contempt in which these legends are 
 held by modern historians, there stUl exists a kind of instinctive faith 
 that a very remote tradition, however much it may have been over- 
 laid and disfigured by relatively modern inventions, Ues at the base 
 of the main story. Emigrants from Iberia (situated between the 
 Caspian and the Euxine Seas) are said to have settled in Greece (the 
 Pelasgi), and in Tuscany and Spain (the Iberians). In Laurent's 
 " Ancient Geography" is the following passage : — " In the Caucasus 
 were found the Bruchi, the modern Burtani or Britani, a free tribe, 
 rich in silver and gold." It is not improbable that the advent of 
 emigrants of this tribe in England may underhe the legend of the 
 Trojan Brutus and his followers. Eastern Albania too may have 
 contributed, along with its neighbours, to the migratory hordes which 
 passed to the west. The earhest name by which Britain was known to 
 the Greeks and Eomans is Albion. The Gaels of Scotland still 
 speak of the island as Albin. In Merlin's famous prophecy, in 
 GeofErey of Monmouth's British History, the country is frequently 
 named Albania. The universal tradition of the North German and 
 Scandinavian tribes is that they came from the neighbourhood of the 
 Caucasus to the North West of Europe. An early Odin is said to 
 have introduced from the east the worship of the sun. Another at 
 the head of the Msir warriors imported the.Eunic alphabet. He is 
 styled Mid Othin. Two other chiefs of this name figure in their 
 legendary history. 
 
 Dr. Leigh held the opinion that the Brigantes, and especially the 
 Setantii, or the Lancashire portion of the then population, were a 
 mixed race, consisting of Kelts, Phoenicians, and Armenians. His 
 
 and Afghanistan by the mountain tribes,' and he undertakes to prove * that these 
 languages have a more direct connection with the European languages than Sanscrit. ' " 
 Should this prove correct, a careful analysis of this speech or tongue may throw much 
 light, either confirmative or otherwise, on many of the more recondite questions 
 discussed in this work. 
 
6 TKADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 only reason for this conjecture appears to have been basea on the 
 fact that one of the chief rivers was named Belisama, which, he 
 says, " in the Phoenician language, signifies the Moon or the Goddess 
 of Heaven," and that Eibel, now the name of the same river, 
 in the Armenian tongue signifies Heaven. Mr. Thornber says 
 "BeUsama means Queen of Heaven, and that the Eomans paid 
 divine honours to the Eibble under the title of Minerva Belisama." 
 This conjecture apparently rests on the statement of Leigh, and the 
 fact that the Eoman temple at Eibohester was dedicated to Miaerva. 
 There appears to be, however, some error here respecting the sex of 
 Bel. The Phoenician " Queen of Heaven," or " Queen of the 
 Stars," was named Astroarche or Astarte. She is supposed by some 
 to be identical with the Greek Juno, or Selene (the moon), by others 
 she is regarded as the planet Venus. The Armenians were a branch 
 of the Aryan family, and the Phoenicians, as I have before said, were 
 of the Semitic stock.* Sanchuniathon, the ancient Phoenician his- 
 torian, says that the Phoenicians worshipped the sun as " the only 
 lord of heaven," under the name Beelsamen, which was equivalent to 
 the Greek Zeus or the Latin Jupiter. Baal is formed from a root 
 which signifies, and is literally equivalent to, lord or owner. A 
 Maltese inscription " Malkereth Baal Tsor," is interpreted " King of 
 the city, Lord of Tyre." In the Septuagint Baal is called Hercules ; 
 in the Phoenician language Orcul, light of all. One writer adds "Baal 
 was Saturn ; others have considered Baal to be the planet Jupiter. 
 A supreme idol might easily be compared with those of other nations ; 
 hence arose this variety of opinions." 
 
 Amongst the many conjectures as to the origin of Stonehenge is 
 one put forth by Godfrey Higgins, that it was buUt by Druids, " the 
 priests of Oriental colonies, who emigrated from India." Mr. Davis, 
 the author of " Celtic Eesearches," refers to a passage in Diodorus 
 Siculus, in which it is stated, on the authority of Heoatseus, that a 
 round temple existed in Britain dedicated to Apollo. Mr. Davis con- 
 jectures that- Stonehenge is the edifice referred to. 
 
 The late Eev. John WiUiams, Archdeacon of Cardigan, in " Essays,"- 
 pubUshed in 1858, strongly advocates the "Hyperborean theory," 
 founded on the passage in Diodorus referred to. This view of the 
 case implies 'that the Hyperboreans migrated mainly by water from 
 
 *Baldwin, however, in hia recent work, " Prehistoric Nations," contends that the 
 Phcenicians, as well as the ancient Egyptians and others, were descended from the old 
 Cushite Arabs, and were therefore " Hamitic" rather than " Semitic" in their 
 origin. 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 7 
 
 Central Asia, not long after the days of Noah ; that they eventually 
 occupied Great Britain, Spain, and Gaul, west of the Alps ; that the 
 Druid priests of Stonehenge were in sympathy and constant com- 
 munication with those of Delphi ; that they were civihsed to a large 
 extent, and were intimately related by blood with the Pelasgians of 
 Ancient Greece. 
 
 The ancient name of this remarkable relic of the past is unfortu- 
 nately lost, "Stonehenge" being evidently of Saxon origin, and in 
 no way connected with its architects; the tale told by Nennius, about 
 the murder of four hundred and sixty British nobles, through the 
 treachery of Hengist, being a later romance invented to account for 
 its Saxon name, Stanhengist. W. G. Palgrave, in his " Central and 
 Eastern Arabia," describes the ruins of a "structure" which so nearly 
 resembles the famous WUtshu-e rehc, that he calls it an " Arabian 
 Stonehenge." He adds that the natives spoke of a similar ancient 
 edifice as still existing in a part of the country which he did not visit. 
 
 Sir John Lubbock in his " Pre-hifetoric Times," after alluding to 
 the mythical character of the expedition to Ireland of Aiu'ehus Am- 
 brosius and Merlin, as related by Geoffrey of Monmouth, in search of 
 the sacred materials employed in the erection of the megahthic edifice, 
 says the larger stones are evidently similar in hthological character 
 to the immense numbers yet strewn over Sahsbury plain, and locally 
 termed " Sarcens." He adds, — 
 
 " Stonehenge is generally considered to mean the hanging stones, 
 as indeed was long ago suggested by Wace, an Anglo-Norman poet, 
 who says : 
 
 Stanhengues ont mom Englois 
 Pieres pandues en Francois, 
 
 but it is surely more natural to derive the last syllable from the 
 Anglo-Saxon word ' ing,' a field ; as we have Keston, originally 
 Kyst-staning, the field of stone coffins. What more natural than that 
 a new race, finding this magnificent ruin, standing in sohtary gran- 
 deur on Sahsbury Plain, and able to learn nothing of its origin, 
 should caU it simply the j>T'a-ce of stoms ? What more unnatural than 
 that they should do so, if they knew the name of him in whose honour 
 it was erected ?" 
 
 After disposing of some other arguments in favour of a post-Eoman 
 date for the edifice, and expressing Ms conviction that this structure 
 and its kindred one at Abury were used as temples for worship. Sir 
 John Lubbock says,^ 
 
 " Stonehenge may then I think be regarded as a monument of the 
 
8 TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 Bronzs Age, though apparently it was not all erected at one time, 
 the inner circle of smaU nnwrought blue stones being probably older 
 than the rest ; as regards Abury, since the stones are all in their 
 nattiral condition, while those of Stonehenge are roughly hewn, it 
 seems reasonable to conclude that Abury is the older of the two, and 
 belongs either to the close of the Stone Age, or to the commencement 
 of that of Bronze." 
 
 Some writers regard the British or Keltic god Bel or BeU as not 
 immediately the Belus or Baal of the Asiatic nations, but that it 
 " designates an exalted luminous deitij, peculiar to the Celts." This is 
 the view of Jacob Grimm, and it is endorsed by W. K. Kelly. 
 Another writer thinks that " the general character of Asiatic idolatry 
 renders it hkely that Baal meant originally the true lord of the 
 universe, and that his u-orship deijcncrated into the worship of a power- 
 ful body in the material world." 
 
 The origin of the not yet entirely exploded superstition respecting 
 the " divine right of kings" may' have something to do with this pri- 
 meval sun or fire worship. The Anglo-Saxon princes claimed descent 
 from Odin or Woden, who, as will afterwards be shown, is evidently 
 the Teutonic representative of the Aryan Indra, or the luminous or 
 Hghtning god. A recent writer in the Gentleman's Magazine says : — 
 
 " Every king of Egypt considered himself a direct descendant of the 
 sun, and over his name was " Son of the Sun ; " and as the sun was 
 Phre, so each king was called Phre. As in the East at the present 
 time, the Ottoman Emperor is termed by the Arabs, " Sooltan ebn 
 Sooltan"- — Emperor son of an Emperor. The king considered that 
 his authority and the virtues and powers of his rule were direct 
 emanations from the solar disc. This idea is beautifully set forth in 
 a device from a tomb in the cemetery of El Emarna, where may be 
 observed Ammophis, with his queen and their chUdren, standing at a 
 VTindow or gallery of their palace, and are all engaged in throwing to 
 their subjects, who are standing below with hands upraised to receive 
 them, collars of distinction, vases, rings of money, symbols of life, 
 and other blessings. These gifts the disc of the sun, which is repre- 
 sented above, is in the act of bestowing upon them. The king and 
 his family were the only media of communication between the sun, 
 the source of aU blessings, and the people. This is significantly set 
 forth by the rays which projected life into their mouths, and infused 
 into their hearts courage, wisdom, and justice." 
 
 Prances Power Cobbe, in her " Cities of the Past," after visiting 
 the ruins of Baalbec, quotes several beautiful passages from Du 
 
AND FOLK-LOKE. 9 
 
 Perron's Ze7id Avesta, illustrative of the purity of the sentiment of the 
 earlier fire-worshippers. She says : — 
 
 " In what degree this high Persian faith (still existing in no ignoble 
 type among the Parsees of India) was connected with the sun-worship 
 of the gross Phoenician mythology, it is hard to conjecture. Perhaps 
 there was no relation at aU, and Baal (or Bel), the sun-god, never 
 received in his impure fanes the homage of a true worshipper of 
 Ormusd, the supremely wise Lord, of whom the Zend Avesta only tells 
 us his Ught is hidden under aU that shines. At least the faith of which 
 Hehogabalus was hierophant had faUen as low as ever the reUgious 
 sentiment of human nature may be debased. Yet does the ' golden 
 star,' Zoroaster, throw a mysterious halo over the fire worship of 
 East and "West ; that faith which blazed out in the Bactrian plains 
 before the davm of history, and which hghts yet its memorial fires 
 each midsummer eve ia the vales of the Christian Scotland and Ire- 
 land." 
 
 She might have added,, at least untU very recently, the hills and 
 dales of Lancashire and some other parts of England. 
 
 It is not improbable that before the corruption referred to took 
 place, the Keltic emigrants to this country may have arrived at their 
 western home, and so have introduced the worship of Baal or Bel in 
 something Hke its pristrne purity ; and hence the distinction between 
 the famous deity of HeHopohs and his presumed representative in 
 Britain. A semi-subterranean temple, dedicated to the worship of 
 Mithras, the Persian Sun or Apollo, was discovered in 1822 at House- 
 steads, Northumberland (Borcovicus), on the hne of the great Eoman 
 wall. Mr. Hodgson describes it ia detail in a contribution to the 
 Arch. ^L. O.S., vol.1. This worship appears to have belonged to the 
 debased form referred to. It evoked edicts from several Eoman empe- 
 rors decreeing its suppression, but without avail. This cruel and de- 
 grading superstition was, however, not introduced into the western 
 portion of the ." old world," untU shortly before the advent of 
 Christ. An altar, dedicated to this deity, found in the cave temple 
 at Houseseads, was erected A.D. 253. Eemains of Mithraic worship 
 have been found at York and Chester, and other places, including 
 Chesterholm (Vindolana), and Eutchester (Vindobala), on the hne 
 of the great Eoman wall. This worship of Mithras is evidently 
 but a corrupt descendant from the ancient Aryan adoration of Mithra, 
 the god of dayhght. 
 
 Erom these and other reasons, yet to be advanced, I am incUned to 
 regard the introduction of the British god Bel or BeU as appertaining 
 
10 TEABITIONS, SDPEESTITIONS, 
 
 to a much earlier epoch in our history than the advent of the Phceni- 
 cian merchants, who, most prohably, did visit the Behsama, Portus. 
 Setantiorum, and other harbours on the Lancashire and Cheshire 
 coast, for trading purposes, but at a relatively much more recent 
 period. - 
 
 Mr. John Baldwin, in his " Pre-historic Nations," contends that 
 the " Bronze Age ia Western Europe was introduced by a foreign 
 people of the Cushite race, culture, and religion, and that for a very 
 long period it was controlled and directed by their influence." He 
 further adds : — 
 
 " The first settlements of the Arabian Oushites in Spain md 
 Northern Africa cannot have been later than 5,000 years before the 
 Christian era. . . . Probably the Cushite race, religion, and 
 civilization first went to the ancient Finnic people of Britain, Gaul, 
 and the Scandinavian countries from Spain and Africa. The begia- 
 ning of the Bronze Age in these countries was much older than the 
 period of Tyre. The Tyrian establishments in those western coun- 
 tries seem to have been later than the Aryan immigration that created 
 the Keltic peoples and languages ; and it may be that the Tyrians 
 introduced the ' Age of Iron' not long after their arrival, for it was 
 evidently much older than the time of the Eomans." 
 
 Professor NUsson refers the ancient bronze instruments, etc., to 
 Phoenician influence, and describes some sciilpture on two stones on 
 a tumulus near Kivik, which, Mr. Baldwin observes, " even Sir John 
 Lubbock admits, ' may fairly be said to have a Phoenician or 
 Egyptian appearance.' " 
 
 Mr. Baldwin traces to Arabian Cushite colonies the very ancient 
 civilization of Egypt, Caldea, and the southern portion of India, as 
 well as Phoenicia and the western nations. Another stone, described 
 by Professor Nilsson, is an obeUsk symbolising Baal. Eeferring to 
 this monument, Mr. Baldwin says : — 
 
 " The festival of Baal or Balder, celebrated on midsummer night in 
 the upper part of Norway, reveals the Cushite race, for the midnight 
 fire in presence of the midnight sun did not originate in that latitude. 
 This festival of Baal was celebrated in the British Islands untU recent 
 times. Baal has given such names as Baltic, Great and Little Belt, 
 Eeltebm^ga, Baleshangen, and the Uke." He asks, "What other 
 people could have brought the worship of Baal to Western Europe in 
 pre-historic times ? We see them in the stone circles, in the ruinS at 
 Abury and Stonehenge, in the festival of Baal that lingered until our 
 own times ; and there is something for consideration in the fact that. 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 11 
 
 Arabia has still the ruins of ancient structures precisely like Stone - 
 henge. It is probable that the Arabians, or their representatives in 
 Spain and Noi-th Africa, went northward and began the Age of Bronze 
 more than 2,000 years before Gades [Cadiz] was built." 
 
 Mr. Baldwin draws a marked distinction between the modern 
 Mahomedan Semitic population of Arabia and their great Cushite, 
 Hamite, or Ethiopian predecessors. The former, he says, " are 
 compai-atively modern ia Arabia," they have " appropriated the 
 reputation of the old race," and have unduly occupied the chief 
 attention of modern scholars. 
 
 Dr. Hooker, at the meeting of the British Association in 1868, 
 described a race of men in a district of Eastern Bengal, who erect, at 
 the present day, monuments similar to those termed, in Western 
 Europe, Druidical. With his own eyes he had seen " dolmens" and 
 " cromlechs" not six months old. He says that they call a stone by 
 the same name as is given to it in the Keltic idioms of Wales and 
 Brittany, though, he adds, Uttle of the character of their language is 
 yet known. 
 
 Sir John Lubbock, referring to the very ancient stone weapons 
 found in. Denmark, Switzerland, Prance, England, and other 
 countries, termed palceoliths, says : — " Some implements of the same 
 type have been found ia Spain, in Assyria, and m India. The 
 latter have been described by Mr. Bruce Foote ; they were found in 
 the Madras and North Arcot districts, and are of quartzite, and in 
 several cases were found by Messrs. Foote and King, in situ, at depths 
 of from three to ten feet. The specimens figured will show how 
 closely they resemble our European specimens, and it is interesting 
 that in the words of Mr. Foote, ' the area, over which the lateritic 
 formations were spread, has undergone, as aheady stated, great 
 changes since their deposition. A great part of the formation has 
 been removed by denudation, and deep valleys cut into them are 
 now occupied by the alluvium of various rivers.' " 
 
 In several parts of Britain, and especially in Cumberland, altars 
 have been found dedicated by Eoman legionaries or their auxiliaries 
 to a god named Belatucadrus. Mr. Thomas Wright (Celt, Eoman, 
 and Saxon, p. 292), after referring to a small one erected at EUan- 
 borough by Juhus CivUis, says : — 
 
 " Several others dedicated to this deity have been found at Nether- 
 by, Castlesteads, Burgh-on-the-sands, Bankshead, and other places. 
 In some instances, as in an altar foimd at Drumburgh, the deity is 
 addressed by the epithet, deo sancto belatvoadro. In some altars he 
 
12 TEADITIONS, SUPEBSTITIONS, 
 
 is identified with Mars, as on one found at Plumpton WaU, dedicated 
 DEO MAETi BELATvcADRi BT NVMiNiB ATiGG. Several attempts have been 
 made to derive the name from Hebrew, Welsh, or Irish, and it has 
 been hastily taken for granted that this god was identical with the 
 Phcenician Baal. Altars to Belatucadms have been found at Kirkby 
 Thore, at Welp Castle, and at Brougham, in Westmorland. The one 
 at Brougham was dedicated by a man named Andagus, which sounds 
 like a Teutonic name." 
 
 Since the preceding paragraphs were written, I have seen in the 
 Manchester Natural History Museum, a rude altar dedicated to this 
 god, which, I am informed, was found some years ago at Eibchester, 
 on the Eibble. As I had not previously seen or heard of it, it is not- 
 mentioned in my pubUshed " History of Preston and its Environs," 
 The inscription is somewhat defaced, but the deo makti belatvoabei 
 is very distinct. It appears, Eke the one found at Plumpton WaU, to 
 have been dedicated to this god, and to the gods of the emperor 
 (nvminib avgg), or, as some think, to the reigning emperor himself. 
 The dedicator is JuHus AugustaHs, the prefect of some mihtary corps, 
 the name of which I cannot, at present, satisfactorily decipher. 
 
 The compounding of the name cf Baal or BeZ with other words is 
 common, as in the ancient name of the Eibble — Belisama. This 
 Belatucadrus appears to belong to this class, at least so far as cadrus 
 is concerned, for at Eisingham, in Northumberland, an altar was 
 found dedicated to mogont oad, which may perhaps mean, when 
 written in full, in the nominative case, mogontis cadrus. Horsley 
 imagined it probable that the cad had reference to the Oadeni, a 
 Caledonian tribe ; but Mr. Wright regards this as very doubtful. 
 The Welsh word cad means war, battle, tumult, etc. May not Cadrus, 
 therefore, be a Keltic synonyme for Mars ? 
 
 Other altars have been found dedicated to gods that may probably 
 be traced to an Eastern origin. One found at Birrens, in Scotland, 
 exhibits a winged deity, holding a spear in her right hand and a globe 
 in her left. The dedication is to the goddess Brigantia. Mr. Wright 
 says : — 
 
 " It was supposed this was the deity of the Brigantes, but I am not 
 aware that this country was ever called Brii/aiitia, and it is not pro- 
 bable the conqueror would worship the diety of a vanquished tribe. 
 I feel more inclined to think the name was taken from Brigantium, in 
 Switzerland, a town which occupied the site of the modern Bregentz. 
 An altar found at Chester was dedicated deae nymphae brig, which 
 in this case would be ' To the Nymph Goddess of Brigantium,' " 
 
AND POLK-LOEE. 13 
 
 Another ancient city styled Brigantiiim, now Briangon, was situ- 
 ated on an opposite spur of the Alps, in the country of the Taurini, 
 now Piedmont. Ancient geographers speak of a tribe of Thra- 
 cians, who were styled Briges. In Laurent's work, the river 
 at present named the Barrow, in Ireland, is termed the Birgus. 
 A people on the eastern coast of Ii-eland were called Brigantes, 
 and the name Brigantina is still retained in the province of GaUicia, 
 in Spain. Some authorities contend that the Gaedhels or Gaels, the 
 Gaelic or Erse element of oui population, origiaaUy entered Ireland 
 and the south-west of England from Spain. From Ireland they 
 spread, northward, to the western isles and highlands of Scotland, 
 and westward, to the Isle of Man and the North of England and 
 Wales. In one of the preserved extracts from the lost book of Drom 
 Sneachta, supposed to have been written before the advent of St. 
 Patrick, is what is termed " the Prime Story of Irruption and Migra- 
 tion." From this we learn that the ancient MUesian inhabitants 
 themselves had traditions respecting their advent from Spain, which 
 referred to the prior occupation of the country by two other 
 branches of the GaeUc race, viz., the Fu-bolgs and the Tuatha de 
 Dannan. The story says the Milesians left Sythia for Egypt, but 
 returned, and afterwards migrated to Spain by way of Greece. 
 After a long residence in the peninsula, they built the city of 
 Bragantia. About 1700 B.C., a colony of them landed at the mouth 
 of the Slaney, in Wexford, under the command of the eight sons 
 of MUesias or Galamah. In two battles they defeated their pre- 
 decessors, and divided the country amongst themselves. The 
 Cymri, another branch of the Keltic stock, on the contrary, entered 
 Britain from Gaul, and were, eventualLy, to a considerable extent, 
 driven upon the Gaehc tribes in the West of England and Wales 
 by the pressure of their Teutonic successors. Professor H. Morley says 
 that that portion of the population " in the North of England, who 
 battled against the gradual progress of expulsion," was " known as 
 Briganted, fighting thieves. Brigant is Welsh for thief and high- 
 lander." Brig and Brigant meanitig top or summit, in modern 
 Welsh, and Brigantwys the people of the summit, Brigantes has 
 doubtless only originally meant the dwellers in the MUy country. 
 The habits of the brigands of Greece, Spain, and Italy, of the 
 present day, sufficiently account for its apphcation to mountain 
 hordes organised for the purposes of plunder and bloodshed. 
 
 Perhaps the Aryan mythology will supply a common source for all 
 these local appellations. Walter K. KeUy (" Curiosities of Indo- 
 
14 TEADITIONS, SUPBKSIITIONS, 
 
 European Tradition") says: — " Agni, tlie god of fire (Latin, ignis), 
 has for retainers the Bhrigus and the Angirases. They are his priests 
 on earth whilst they dwell there in mortal form; and after death they 
 are his friends and companions in heaven. They are also the com- 
 panions of the clouds and storms" — in other words, personifications 
 of some characteristics of clouds and storms. He afterwards speaks 
 of " Blirigu, the father of a mythological family of that name." The root 
 of the word means "fulgent burning." The Bhrigus and a kindred 
 mythical race, the Phlegyans, incurred the displeasure of the gods. 
 The latter were conderaned to the torments of Tartarus. Bhrigu, 
 being an ancestor of the Brahmans, was more leniently treated. His 
 father, Varuna, however, sent him "on a penitential tour- to several 
 hells, that he might see how the wicked are punished, and be warned 
 by their fate." 
 
 The clouds and storms of the Alpine mountains and the Lancashire 
 and Yorkshire hUls would amply justify the appellation of the term 
 Brigantium, or the country of the Brigantes, in the minds of Aryan 
 emigrants, to both locahties. The Bhrigus, according to Dr. Kuhn, 
 were "brewers" of storms, or yielders of the heavenly soma, the 
 drink of the gods ; in other words, the distUlers of rain water, which 
 rendered the earth fruitful. The country of the Brigantes is the term 
 given by the Eoman historians to that part of England which hes 
 north of the Humber and the Mersey, and includes the lesser tribes 
 named the Volantii and the Setantii, or Sistuntii, which occupied the ■ 
 western or Lancashire coast, and perhaps that of Cumberland. 
 
 Another very common name on altars in the north of England is 
 Vitires, Vetiris, or Veteres. Mr. Thomas Wright regards this as a 
 " foreign deity," and thinks " it must have belonged to a national 
 mythology." But he adds, " As the altars were dedicated apparently 
 by people of widely different countries, they give us no assistance in 
 appropriating this deity. The word has been supposed to be identical 
 with Vithris, one of the names of the northern Odin, the Woden of 
 the Germans." This name for Odin has evidently some relationship 
 to the Vritra (or Ahi, the dragon) of the Hindoo Vedas. 
 
 Some altars have been found at Lancaster and in Cumberland, 
 dedicated to Cocidius or Cocideus. According to the Eavenna manu- 
 script, it is probable a temple to this god existed near the Eoman 
 Wall, of sufficient importance to name the place Eanococidi. The 
 name of this god may probably be traced to an Aryan source. I can, 
 however, at present, offer no better suggestion than that it may have 
 some reference to the Stygian ferryman, which is of Aryan origia. 
 
AND POLK-LORE. 15 
 
 The river or arm of the sea over which the dead are ferried, by 
 Charon, is variously named by the Greeks as the Styx, the Acheron, 
 and the Cocytus. Perhaps the latter term may hkewise furnish 
 a clue to the derivation of the name Coccium of the Itineries, 
 which I and others have placed at Walton, near Preston.* It 
 has previously been suggested by others that this station may 
 have been named after either the god Coeidius or the Emperor 
 Cocceius Nerva. The assumption that it was derived from Cocytus 
 or Coeidius would in no way vitiate the truthfulness of the usual 
 derivation from the Keltic cocli gioi, or red water, from the red rock 
 in the Eibble, as it is easy to imagine such a description to have been 
 given to the " river of death." That the station was named after 
 Coccieus Nerva is improbable, as all the known evidence, including 
 the site, coins, and the British foundation beneath the Eoman re- 
 mains, indicate it to have been one of Agricola's posts.- He entered 
 Lancashire in the year 79, and Nerva did not commence his reign 
 until 96. He only reigned about two years. 
 
 A very large proportion of the names of mountains and streams 
 in any part of Britaia are corruptions, in a greater or lesser degree, 
 of words belonging to the aboriginal or Keltic tongue. With the aid 
 of the Welsh, the Gaellio, and the Irish, the meaning of many can 
 be satisfactorily ascertained, such as the Darwen (Dwrgwen, white, 
 or beautiful stream), Wyre (gwyr, pure, Uvely), Old Man (alt maen, 
 high hUl), Pennigent (Penygwyn, white head or summit), or, which 
 I think better. Pen y gwynt, windy head or summit, from its exposed 
 situation. Others are, however, by no means so satisfactorily ex- 
 plained on similar grounds. Mr. Davies in a very able contribution 
 to the Philological Society's Transactions, on " The Eaces of Lanca- 
 shire," with reference to the Eibble, says : — 
 
 " The name of this well known river has much perplexed antiqua- 
 rian philologists. I can only venture to suggest that it may be com- 
 pounded of rhe (active, fleet), and bala (a shooting out, a discharge, 
 the outlet of a lake), and may refer to its rapid course as an estuary." 
 With our knowledge, from Ptolemy, of the existence of a " Behsama 
 Estuarium" on the Lancashire coast, in the second century, and 
 which can be otherwise shown, on the best available evidence, to 
 apply to the Eibble, the Ehi-beU, or Eiver BeH, is a much more satis- 
 factory derivation ; and more especially so as a god hel or heil of the 
 beltain fires is conceded (as I have previously shown) to the early 
 Keltic inhabitants of Britain. The altar, recently found at Eib- 
 
 * History of Preston and its Environs, p. 36. 
 
16 TRADITIONS, SUPEESTITIONS, 
 
 Chester, dedicated to the British god Belatueadrus, proves, at least, 
 that votaries of that deity dwelt in the Eibble vaUey, as weU as in 
 Cumberland, &c. 
 
 Godfrey Higgins, in his " Celtic Druids," speaks of Samhan or 
 Saman as " one of the gods, the most revered in Ireland." He 
 says : — " An annual solemnity was instituted to his honour, which is 
 yet celebrated on the evening of the first day of November, which yet 
 at this day is called the Oidhche Samhna, or the night of Samhan." 
 He further informs us that he was " also called Bal-Sah or Lord of 
 Death," and that " Samhan was also the sun, or rather the image of 
 the sun," and adds : — 
 
 ' ' These attributes of Samhan seem at first contradictory, but they 
 are not unusual amongst the heathen gods. With the Greeks, 
 Dionysos, the good Demiurge, is identified with Hades. In Egypt, 
 Osiris was the lord of Death ; with the Scandinavians, Odin, the 
 god beneficent, was, at the same time, King of the infernal regions. 
 This deity was above all the others whom we have named, but he 
 was below the supreme being Baal. If Samhan were the sun, as we 
 see he was, he answers to Mithra of the Persians, who was the 
 middle link between Oromasdes and Arimanes — between the Creator 
 and the Destroyer, and was caUed the Preserver."* 
 
 With the aid of the Hindoo Vedas, perhaps some Ught may be 
 thrown on this subject, as well as upon the origin of the names of 
 some other rivers in the neighbourhood, which have hitherto eluded 
 satisfactory explanation. 
 
 The gods of the Vedas appear to have been, more or less, personi- 
 fications of what were termed " the elements." The sun, the 
 moon, the sky or firmament, the dawn and evening twUight, the sea, 
 lightning, clouds, rain, wind, frost, fire, &c., and their attendsmt 
 active phenomena, contributed mainly to the construction of their 
 mythological edifice. Indra was god of the firmament, the earhest 
 thunderer, the forerunner of Zeus, Jupiter and Thor ; Agni was the 
 god of fire, and Soma was the deity who brought down to earth the 
 celestial Uquor, the "drink of the gods," the amrita of the Vedas, 
 the nectar of the Greeks. Soma was so designated because the 
 "soma plant, which the Hindoos now identify with the Asclepim 
 acida or Sarrostemma vimiiuile," contained "a milky juice of a sweetish 
 sub-acid flavour, which, being mixed with honey and other ingre- 
 
 * The Hindoo Trimftrtti op Triad, namely, Brahma, Vishn'u, and Siva, likewise 
 represents the Creator, the Preserver, and the Destroyer. 
 
AND FOLK-LORE. 17 
 
 dients, yielded to the enraptured Aryans the first fermented liquor 
 their race had ever known." All celestial or atmospheric pheno- 
 mena were na,ined from earthly objects. Clouds were called rocks 
 and cows, and the mountain streams of the former and the milk of 
 the latter were the Uquid nourishers and fertilisers of the soU. The 
 lightning god was beheved to pierce the rock or the rain cloud, and 
 so water the parched earth. Walter Kelly says : — 
 
 " The identity of the heavenly soma with the cloud- water, and the 
 close connection in which fire and soma are brought in various Aryan 
 legends, prove that the drink of the gods was conceived to be a pro- 
 duct of the storm. It appears also that the earthly soma was boiled 
 or brewed before it was fermented, whence it must have followed, as 
 a matter of course, that its divine counterpart should be supposed to 
 undergo the same process. Hence it is manifest that we cannot 
 claim for any of the later ages the credit of having invented the 
 metaphor involved in the common saying, ' It's brewing a storm.' 
 In that phrase, as in many others, we only repeat the thoughts of 
 our primeval ancestors." 
 
 Dr. Khun identifies the modern word brew with the brajj of the 
 Eig Veda, which has reference to the roasting of barley for brewing 
 purposes, and is intimately connected with the Bhrigus, beings who 
 " brewed and lightened" the heavenly soma out of the stormy phe- 
 nomena of the mountain regions. In the Welsh of the jjresent day, 
 brygu means to grow out, to overspread. One modern Welsh word, 
 brwysg, means drunk, and another brwys, fertile, luxuriant. The 
 double use of the term at the present time, is, therefore, in singular 
 harmony with the hypothesis of Khun, and adds much to its pro- 
 babOity. Kelly says : — " One of the synonyms of soma is madhu, 
 which means a mixed drink ; and this word is the methu of the 
 Greeks, and the mead of our own Saxon, Norse, and Celto-British 
 ancestors." 
 
 Near Eutchester, in Northumberland, the ancient Vindobala, is an 
 excavation made in the solid rock, the cause or use of which is not 
 with certainty known. It is 12 feet long, 4^ feet broad, and 2 feet 
 deep, " and has a hole close to the bottom at one end." It is locally 
 named the " Giant's Grave." It is not improbable, from remains dis- 
 covered near it, that it has had some connection with a temple dedi- 
 cated to the worship of Mithras. A manuscript by Sir David Smith, 
 preserved in Alnwick Castle, referring to this siagular excavation, 
 says : — " The old peasants here have a tradition that the Eomans 
 made a beverage somewhat Uke beer of the bells of heather (heath), 
 
18 TBADITIONS, STIPEESTITIONS, 
 
 and that this trough was used in the process of making such di-ink." 
 Dr. CoUingwood Bruce, commenting on the above, says:— "The 
 opinion long prevailed in Northumberland that the Picts had the art 
 of preparing an intoxicating Uquor from heather -bells, and that the 
 secret died with them." 
 
 The names of the gods underwent much change as time advanced, 
 and the race was scattered. Bel became the luminous deity of some of 
 the settlers in Britain ; Soma became a higher deity in importance 
 than Indra or Agni, and absorbed then attributes. In the Zend version 
 the drink soma is speUed haoma. The hymns addressed to Soma, in a 
 later age, are styled Sama Vedas. Hence it may easily be inferred the 
 Belisama of Ptolemy is a Latinised form of the British words which 
 indicated that the Eibble water was the " hquor of the gods" furnished 
 by Bel and Sama for the fertilisation of the earth. The hoary rocky 
 mountains of Pennygent, Ingleborough, and Pendle, and the storm- 
 clouds that contended with lightning about their summits, furnish 
 sufficiently characteristic natural phenomena to justify the appropri- 
 ateness of the appellation. This deification of rivers was by no means 
 an uncommon occurrence. Sir WiUiam Betham, in his " Gael and 
 Cymbri," says, expressly, " the Celt® were much addicted to the 
 worship of fountains and rivers as divinities. They had a deity 
 called Divona, or the river god." The "Wharf, which springs not far 
 from the soui'ce of the Eibble, received these honours from legionaries 
 of Eome or some of their auxiliaries, who appear to have worshipped 
 the stream as the water goddess " Verbeia." The Eoman name 
 appears to be merely a Latin form of the ancient British word of which 
 the modern name Wharf is a corruption. The Lrme, too, appears to 
 have had similar honours conferred upon it, as is evidenced by an 
 altar found at Skerton, near Lancaster, inscribed deo jalono. 
 The word Lhiic was anciently written Lone, and the hundred is still 
 named Lonsdale. Indeed, the personification of rivers is not yet 
 extinct. We speak of " Old Father Thames " to this day. 
 
 The Ituna Estuarium of Ptolemy is universally assigned to the 
 Solway, the chief river entering it being called the Eden at the present 
 time. As t and d are convertible, and the Latin i was pronounced c, 
 as on the continent now, Eduna most probably expresses to our ears 
 the ancient sound, which is the exact counterpart of the modem 
 one, the Latin terminal letter not entering into the question. Does 
 the Vedic and Teutonic mythologies throw any Ught on the derivation- 
 of this name ? Kelly says : — 
 
 " The cloud-maidens are known in the Vedas &BApas (waters), and 
 
AND POLK-LOEB. . 19 
 
 are styled brides of the gods (Devapatnis) and Ndvyah, i. e., navigators 
 of the celestial sea. Nearly related to them, but less divine, are the 
 Apsarases ; damsels whose habitat is between the earth and the sun. 
 They are the houris of the Vedie paradise, destined to deUght the 
 souls of heroes. Their name means either ' the formless ' or ' the 
 water going,' and they appear to have been personifications of the 
 manifold but iU-defined forms of the mists ; but other natural 
 phenomena may also have been represented under then- image." 
 
 EeUy further informs us that these inferior cloud-maidens possessed 
 raiment or " shirts of swan plumage," by means of which they 
 " transforn^ed themselves into water-fowl, especially swans." He adds 
 that " the Persian peris, and the German swan-maidens, changed 
 : their forms in the same way, and by the same means." Indeed, they 
 are " the originals " of these " swan-maidens," and are closely related 
 to the Elves, Mahrs, and Valkyries, of the Teutonic mythology. The 
 same writer further states that " Odin's Valkyries (riders in the wild 
 hunt) had their swan-shLrts, and the Norse goddess Freyja" (from 
 whence our Friday), "had her falcon-shirt,* which she lent to Loki, 
 when he went in quest of Thor's stolen hammer, and to rescue Idunn," 
 (elsewhere spelled Idhunn) " the goddess of youth, from captivity 
 among the frost giants. Thiassi, who kept her in custody, had an 
 eagle shirt, and his feUow giant, Suttungr, had another, in which he 
 pursued Odin;" 
 
 These wild riders of the stormy sky, Uke their prototypes in the 
 Vedas, personify or typify "rain senders." Mr. KeUy says, in the 
 Teutonic form of the myth, the manes of their horses " dropped dew 
 upon the earth, filled the drinking horns for the gods and the warriors 
 in Odin's haU ; and Uke them, white maidens, elves, and witches offer 
 fuU goblets and horns to thankless mortals, who usually run away 
 with the beaker after spilling its contents on the ground." 
 
 It is a somewhat singular circumstance that the most celebrated 
 rehct of this old pagan superstition, or myth, is preserved at Eden- 
 haU, on the bank of the very river to which I am referring. Tradi- 
 tion says the goblet was secured, in the orthodox way, by an ancestor 
 of the Musgraves, or one of his retainers, ages ago. Sir Walter Scott 
 has rendered the story immortal. He makes the following distich 
 salute the ears of the bold plunderer, as he hurriedly decamps from 
 
 the fairy revel : — 
 
 If this glass do break or fall, 
 Farewell the luck of EdenhaU. 
 
 »Tlie falcon, as well as the eagle, was a "firebringer or lightning-bird." 
 
20 TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 The " Luck of Edenhall," as the very ancient glass vessel is styled, 
 is believed to be of Venetian manufacture, and dates, probably, from 
 the century preceding the Norman conquest. 
 
 The Eev. G. W. Cox, in his valuable work on the " Mythology of 
 the Aryan Nations," ranks this cup amongst the numerous phallic 
 symbols. Eeferring to this subject, he says: — "We have seen the 
 myth starting from its crude and undisguised form, assume the more 
 harmless shape of goblets or horns of plenty and fertUity ; of rings 
 and crosses, of rods and spears, of mirrors and lamps. It has 
 brought before us the mysterious ships endowed with the powers of 
 thought and speech, beautiful cups in which the wearied sun siaks to 
 rest, the staff of wealth and plenty with which Hermes guides the 
 cattle of Hehos across the blue pastures of heaven, the cup of 
 Demeter into which the ripe fruit casts itseK by an irresistible im- 
 pulse. We have seen the symbols assume the character of tahsmanic 
 tests, by which the refreshing draught is dashed from the hps of the 
 gmlty ; and, finally, in the exquisite legend of the Sangreal the sym- 
 bols have become a sacred thing, only the pure in heart may see and 
 touch." 
 
 The goddess of youth (Idunn), with her attendant swans and water- 
 fowl, is not an inapt personification of the lovely Eden, in its lower 
 course ; while the wild moors and crags, where the eagles nestled, 
 and amongst which its many tributary streamlets spring, aptly enough 
 answers to the homes of the frost giants, who, in severe winters, held 
 captive the congealed waters. 
 
 It may be thought that this, being a Teutonic etymology, is not so 
 satisfactory as if it were Keltic. But its pertinence is corroborated 
 by the fact that, in the Welsh of the present day, edn means fowl or 
 bii'd, cdijn winged one, and ednyic spirit, essence. 
 
 Mr. Herbert Spencer, in his work on "First Principles," when 
 treating of "Laws in General," argues elaborately on the order in 
 which the sense of law, or a recognition of "that constant course of 
 procedure" which the term impUes, was gradually developed in the 
 human intellect. After showing that there are several derivative prin- 
 ciples, some earher arrived at than others from the relative frequency 
 of the occurring phenomena and their immediate influence upon, or of 
 " personal concern" to, the aboriginal savage, he has some observa- 
 tions very pertiaent to the present question. He says : — "The sohdifioa-, 
 tion of water at a low temperature is a phenomenon that is simple, 
 concrete, and of much personal concern. But it is neither so frequent 
 as those which we saw are earliest generalized, nor is the presence of 
 
AND POLK-LOBE. 21 
 
 'he antecedent so uniformly conspicuous. Though in all but tropical 
 jlimates, mid-winter displays the relation between cold and freezing 
 svith tolerable constancy; yet, during the spring and autumn, the 
 Dccasional appearance of ice in the mornings has not very manifest 
 Bonnection with the coldness of the weather. Sensation being so 
 Lnaccurate a measure, it is not possible for the savage to experience 
 the definite relation between a temperature of 32° and the congealing 
 of water; and hence the long-continued conception oi personal agency. 
 Similarly, but still more clearly, with the winds, the absence of 
 regularity, and the inconspicuousness of the antecedents, allowing 
 the mythological explanation to survive for a great period." 
 
 The names of the Severn and the Dee, and some other rivers or 
 estuaries, will admit of similar interpretation from similar sources. 
 Mr. KeUy says :—" The collective appellation of the Vedic gods is 
 Devas, and this name has passed into most of the Indo-European 
 languages ; for corresponding to the Sanscrit deva is the Latin deus, 
 Greek theos, Lithunian deivas, Lettish deios, Old Prussian deiws, 
 Irish dia, Welsh duw, Cornish duy. Amongst the German races the 
 word deva survives only in the Norse plural tivar, gods ; and amongst 
 those of the Sclave stock the Servians alone preserve a trace of it in 
 the word dnv, giant. The daevas of the Modes and Persians were in 
 early times degraded from the rank of gods to that of demons by a 
 rehgious revolution, just as the heathen gods of the Germans were 
 declared by the Christian missionaries to be devils ; and the modern 
 Persian div, and Armenian dev, mean an evil spfrit. Deva is derived 
 from div, heaven (properly ' the shining'), and means the heavenly 
 being." 
 
 This appears to be a satisfactory and conclusive answer to a very 
 pertinent question put by George Borrow in the last chapter of his 
 work on " Wild Wales." He says : — " How is it that the Sanscrit 
 devila stands for what is wise and virtuous, and the English devil for 
 all that is desperate and wicked ?" A similar answer is given to 
 this question by the fate which the Teutonic gods of Western Europe 
 underwent on the final triumph of Christianity. Dasent says : — 
 " They were cast down from honour, but not from power. They lost 
 their genial kindly influence as the protectors of men and the origin 
 of aU things good ; but their existence was tolerated ; they became 
 powerful for Ul, and degenerated into malignant demons." 
 
 In the Hindoo mythology, it appears revolutions took place at a 
 very early date. In the early Vedic hymns Deva is " addressed as 
 Dyanish pita, i.e., Heaven Father, and his wife is Mata Prithivi, 
 
22 TRADITIONS, SUPKESTITIONS, 
 
 Mother Earth. He is the Zeus Pater of the Greeks, the Jupiter of 
 the Eomans, the German Tius, and the Norse Tyr. Dyanish pita 
 was the god of the blue firmament, but even in the Vedic times his 
 grandeur was considerably on the wane. Indra, the new lord of the 
 firmament, had left him little more than a titular sovereignty in his 
 own domain, while Varuna, another heavenly monarch, who was still 
 in the plenitude of his power, commanded more respect than the roi 
 faineant, his neighbour. The aU-coveriag Varuna,* the Uranos of 
 the Greeks, was lord of the celestial sea and of the realm of hght 
 above it, that highest heaven in which the Fathers dwelt with their 
 King Yama. After the southern branch of the Aryans had entered 
 India, Varuna was brought down from the upper regions, to be thence- 
 forth the god of the earthly sea, which had then for the first time 
 become known to his votaries." 
 
 May not this Varun be possibly the true root of the name Severn ? 
 Etymologists are not at all agreed as to its derivation. Some say it 
 was anciently caUed Hafren, and that this term is identical with 
 Severn, the latter being merely a corruption of the former. This is 
 the prevalent opinion. The Severn, indeed, yet retains the name 
 Hafren, from its source to Llanidloes. Its principal upper tributary 
 which enters it a Httle below Welshpool is called the Vyrnwy. May 
 not this be the true Welsh root of the word ? If such be the case, 
 there is nothing improbable in the coniecture that Hafren is a Keltic 
 corruption of the Sanscrit Varun, especially as the/ and v are readily 
 " convertible." The Se may be a prefix, of which more anpn.t 
 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth, in his " British History," states that King 
 Locrin divorced his queen Guendoloena, and married a beautiful cap- 
 tive named Estrildis. On the death of the king, the divorced queen 
 commanded "Estrildis and her daughter Sabre to be thrown into 
 the river now called the Severn, and published an edict through all 
 Britain that the river should bear the damsel's name, hoping by this 
 to perpetuate her memory, and by that the infamy of her husband. 
 
 * " Varuna and the demon Vitri both derive their names from var, vri, to cover, to 
 enfold." 
 
 t Since the above was written, the Kev. G. W. Cox's " Mythology of the Aryan 
 Nations" has been published. At page 78, vol. 2, speaking of the youth of Paris, ths 
 seducer of Helen, he says :— " In his early life he has the love of Oin6n^, the child of 
 the river god Kebr6n, and thus a being akin to the bright maidens who, like AthSnS 
 and Aphroditft, are born from the waters." In a note he adds "that this name 
 Kebrfin is probably the same as fcievern, the intermediate forms leave little room fot 
 doubting." 
 
AND POLK-LOEE. 23 
 
 So that to this day the river is called in the British tongue Sabren, 
 which by the corruption of the name is, in another language, 
 Sabrina." 
 
 Milton, speaking of Sabrina as the goddess of the river, styles her 
 "the daughter of Locrine, that had the sceptre from his father 
 Brute." As the mythical or rather non-historical character of Brute 
 and his progeny is now almost universally conceded, it is not im- 
 probable that the river named the maiden (if she ever existed in 
 the flesh) rather than that her immersion changed its designation. 
 Sabrina, or Savrina (for the b and v are convertible), may therefore 
 but be the Latinized form of the old Welsh Hafren and the Sanscrit 
 Varuna, with the prefix se added thereto. 
 
 The Dee is described as the Seteia ^stuariun by Ptolemy. The 
 Eoman city Deva (Chester) was situated on its banks. The se is 
 generally regarded as a prefix in this case, and it may hkewise be so 
 in the word Severn. D and t being convertible, the names of the 
 river and city evidently spring fi-om one root. The Eev. John 
 Whitaker, the historian of Manchester, in interpreting the term 
 Se-tan-tiu, says it may mean " the inferior or southerly country of 
 water, and express the particular position of Lanoashhe with respect 
 to the Volantii and the sea."* 
 
 The Se, in these cases, may have a somewhat similar import, or it 
 
 may have reference to the Vedio great serpent Sesha, concerning 
 
 ■ which there is a curious story in the Hindoo poems. The Devas had 
 
 been at war with their enemies, the Asuras, and, being thirsty with 
 
 the work (or the country needing rain), a truce was agreed upon, and 
 
 * Since the above was written, I have seen, in Captain Speke's "Journal of the 
 Discovery of the Source of the Nile," the map of Eastern Equatorial Africa, which 
 accompanied a paper, published in the third volume of " Asiatic Researches, in 1801." 
 Speke, referring to this paper, says : — "It was written by Lieutenant WHford, from 
 the ' Purans' of the ancient Hindus. . . . It is remarkable that the Hindus have 
 christened the source of the Nile Amara, which is the name of a country at the north- 
 east corner of the Victoria N'y anza. This, I think, shows clearly, that the ancient Hindus 
 must have had some kind of communication with both the northern and southern ends 
 of the Victoria N'yanza." I find on this map, on the west side of the inland sea 
 styled "Lake of Amara or of the Gods," a range of hills named " Sitanta JJ/!»." 
 They are in close contiguity to the " Soma Giri" or " Mountains of the Moon," and 
 seem to be a lower or inferior branch of that range, bordering upon the waters of the 
 great lake. This appears to be a further confirmation of the high probability which 
 exists that some of the very ancient local nomenclature of Britain and Western 
 Europe is of Eastern origin. Ptolemy speaks not only of a people inhabiting the 
 district of which Lancashire forma a part, which he names the Setantii, but of a 
 harbour on the coast, the Pcrrtus Setantiorum, which I and others have fixed at the 
 Wyre. [See "History of Preston and its Environs." p. 36.] 
 
24 TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 both sides joined their efforts "in churning the ocean to procure 
 amrita" (or soma) "the drink of immortality. They took Mount ' 
 Mandara for a, churning stick, and wrapping the great serpent , Sesha 
 round it for a rope, they made the mountain spin round to and fro, 
 the Devas pulling at the serpent's tail, and the Asuras at its head. 
 Mount Mandara was more anciently written Manthara, and Manthara 
 is the Sanscrit name of the churning stick which is used by every 
 dairy in India."* The purely figurative character of this is easily , 
 seen. It is but another form of expressing the fertUization of the 
 earth by means of the rain which is engendered by the " strife of the 
 elements." The chumiing stick and cord are but another form of 
 the Hindoo pramantha, or fire churn, " or chark," by which the 
 sacred or "need-fire"- was produced amongst the Greeks and 
 Eomans, as weU as the Keltse and other Aryan tribes, before the 
 discovery of the use of flint and steel. The " chark" represented 
 the power of the sun, and it is not impossible our remote Eastern 
 ancestors were aware that the sun really does, in a sense, "churn" 
 or "brew" the ocean water, and distribute its vapours over mountain 
 and plain, and by this means convert even an otherwise barren 
 wilderness into a fertile garden, making it literally " blossom hke the 
 rose." 
 
 That this superstition has not yet become extinct in India is 
 attested by the following paragraph, which appeared in the news- 
 papers in the year 1869 : — " The inhabitants of Burmah have an 
 idea that pulling at a rope will produce rain. Two parties tug 
 against each other. One is a raining party, the other is a fair 
 weather party. By previous arrangement the rain party are allowed 
 to be victorious. On the occasion of the late continued drought this 
 proceeding was attended vfith the happiest results. t 
 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth says that an " invading king of the Huns, 
 named Humber, was defeated by Locrin on the banks of that river, 
 and drowned in its flood, on account of which it has since borne his 
 name." This, of course, is merely idle romance. Some writers con- 
 
 *The second "Avatftra" of Vishn'u was in the form of a tortoise, when Vishn'u 
 placed himself under the mountain Mandara, while the gods and demons churned the 
 Millcy Sea for ambrosia. This incarnation is called the Kurma. This churaing 
 appears to have produced other miraculous results. Amongst the " gifts" of the ocean 
 on this auspicious occasion, two especially fell to the share of Vishn'u himself, namely, 
 a miraculous jewel, named Kaustubha, and S'rl, the goddess of Beauty and Prosperity. 
 The "Venus of the Greeks was said to have been produced from the foam of the sea, 
 in the neighbourhood of the island Cythera, hence one of the numerous appellations 
 of the goddess— Oytherea. 
 
AND FOLK-LORE . 25 
 
 tend that the name was originally Chumber, that Northumberland 
 means North Oumri-land, of which the present Cumberland is arehc. 
 It is not improbable that the Mersey derived its name from Mercia, 
 or the territory from the boundary river. It, in conjunction with the 
 Humber, divided Northumbria from Mercia during the heptarchy. 
 The Mersey is stiU called the Cheshire Waters by some of the inhabit- 
 ants on the south-west of Manchester. 
 
 It is somewhat singular that no Eoman writer or Itinerary men- 
 tions the Humber. Ptolemy speaks of a river Abus, which is generally 
 identified with that stream, but this helps us not to the etymology of 
 the modern name. It is not altogether improbable, however, that 
 the Aryan mythology may throw some hght upon the ancient appella- 
 tions. We are informed by Max MliUer that, previous to the disper- 
 sion of the Aryan tribes, the Ehibus were called Arbhus, and that 
 this latter term is identical with the Greek Orpheus. From this root 
 likewise is derived the German Alb or Alp ; plural Elbe or Elfen ; 
 EngUsh EH, with its plural Elves. In the modern Welsh the word 
 elod means intelligence, spirit, elaeth spiritual being, and elford both 
 demon and intellectual existence. The Eev. G. W. Cox says that 
 Alpheios, the mythic huntsman, " is the child of the waters. . . . 
 He is, in short, the Elf, or water sprite, whose bhth-place is the Elbe, 
 or flowing stream." If the name of the German river Elbe (Albis) be 
 derived from this source, the>probabLhty is heightened that the Abus of 
 Ptolemy may have intimate relationship to the Aryan Arbhus, or 
 Eibhus. These mystic beings -were followers, Uke the Bhrigus and 
 the Maruts, of Agni and Indra, " personifications of fire and firma- 
 ment." Kelly says : — " The element of the Eibhus is rather that of 
 the sunbeams or the lightning, though they too rule the winds, and 
 sing, hke the Maruts, the loud song of the storm.* Then- name means 
 the 'artificers,' and not even the divine workman of Olympus was 
 more skilled than "they in all kinds of handicraft. The armour and 
 weapons of the gods, the chariots of the Asvins (deities of the dawn), 
 the thimderbolt and the Ughtning steed of Indra, were of their work- 
 manship. They made their old decrepid parents young and supple- 
 jointed again. But the feat for which they were most renowned is the 
 revival of the slaughtered cow on which the gods had feasted. Out 
 of the hide alone these wonder-working Eibhus reproduced the 
 perfect hving animal ; and this they did not once, but again and 
 again. In other words, out of a small portion of the imperishable cloud 
 
 * The modem Welsh word ahan signifies din, tumult, uproar. 
 
26 TEADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 that had melted away in rain and seemed destroyed, they reproduced its 
 whole form and substance." 
 
 Similar feats were ascribed to the Northern thunder-god, Thor, 
 whose practice it was to kill the two buck goats that drew his car, 
 cook them for supper, and bring them to life again next morning by 
 touching them with his hammer. 
 
 Kelly further adds that in " the gloomy season of the winter sols- 
 tice the Ehibus sleep for twelve days in the house of the sun-god Savitar ; 
 then ihsywake up and prepare-the earth to clothe itself anew with vegetation, 
 and the ruozEN waters to flow a/jain." 
 
 The tributaries of the Humber are remarkable on account of their 
 liabilities to sudden floods ; and their constant recurrence, after long 
 periods of drought, would suggest to a primseval people the interfer- 
 ence of celestial beings which possessed the attributes assigned to 
 these Arbhus or Eibhus. Eeferring to the Greek form of this myth, 
 KeUy says : — 
 
 "We see how the cruder idea of the Eibhus sweeping trees and rocks 
 in wild dance before them by the force of their stormy song grew 
 under the beautifying touch of the Hellenic imagination into the 
 legend of that master of the lyre whose magic tones made torrents 
 piause and listen, rocks and trees descend, with delight from their mountain 
 beds, and moved even Pluto's unrelenting heart to pity." 
 
 The estuary on the opposite coast of Britain to the Severn, now 
 known as the "Wash, is called by Ptolemy, Metaris. May not this 
 name have had, originally, some connection with Varuna's friend 
 Mithra ? KeUy says : — 
 
 "When the sun was still a wheel, a store of gold, a swan or a 
 flamingo, an eagle, falcon, horse, and many other things, it was also 
 the eye of Varuna ; just as amongst the Anglo-Saxons and other 
 Germans it was held to be the eye of Woden. Varuna and Mithra 
 (the fi'iend), the god of daylight, used to sit together at morning on a 
 golden throne, and journey at even in a brazen car." 
 
 The sun, at the dawn at least, gUded the waves of the eastern 
 estuary, and shed its ruddier glow at evening on the western or 
 Severn sea. Under any interpretation, the coincidence of so many 
 names and half-hidden characteristics, to say the least, is very 
 remarkable. 
 
 There is nothing extravagant in this attempt to show that the 
 terms thus applied conveyed both a hteral, or earthly, as well 
 as a figurative, or celestial, meaning. AH mythology is fashioned out 
 of such materials. Primitive languages are limited in the number of 
 
AND FOLK-LOBE. " 27 
 
 their words, and, of necessity, are Hghly figurative. The tongues of 
 all the North American Indians, as well as those of the tribes of Aryan 
 and Semitic origin, markedly exhibit this peculiarity. Farrar, in his 
 essay on the " Origin of Language," says : — 
 
 "To call things which we have never seen before by the name of 
 that which most nearly resembles them is a practice of every- day hfe. 
 That children at first caU aU. men ' father ' and all women ' mother ' is 
 an observation as old as Aristotle. The Eomans gave the name of 
 Lucanian o.v to the elephant, and camelopanlns to the giraffe, just as 
 the New Zealanders are stated to have called horses large dogs. The 
 astonished Gaffers gave the name of cloud to the first parasol which 
 they had seen ; and similar instances might be adduced almost 
 indefinitely. They prove that it is an instinct, if it be not a neces- 
 sity, to borrow for the unknown the names already used for things 
 known." 
 
28 TRADITIONS, STJPEESTITIONS, 
 
 CHAPTEE 11. 
 
 FIBE OE SUN WORSHIP AND ITS ATTENDANT SUPEBSTITIONS. 
 
 Most glorious orb ! thou wert a worship, ere 
 
 The mystery of thy making was reveal'd ! 
 
 Thou earliest minister of the Almighty, 
 
 Which gladden'd, on their mountain tops, the hearts 
 
 Of the Chaldean shepherds, till they pour'd 
 
 Themselves in orisons ! Thou material God ! 
 
 And representative of the Unknown — 
 
 Who chose thee for his shadow ! 
 
 Byron. 
 
 Let us meditate on the adorable light of the divine ruler, 
 (Savitri, the sun) ; may it guide our intellects. 
 
 Vedic Hymn. 
 
 In bis own image the Creator made, 
 
 His own pure sunbeam (luicken'd, thee, O man I 
 
 Thou breathing dial I Since thy day began 
 The present hour was ever markt with shade. 
 
 W. Savage Landor. 
 
 I HAVE said that some remains of the fire worship of Bel or Beil, 
 untU very recently, might be found in Lancashire and the North of 
 England, as well as at present in Scotland and Ireland. Indeed, I 
 am inclined to think certain English customs of the peasantry, at 
 the present day, may, with perfect truthfulness, be referred to this 
 source, although the original objects of the ceremonies may have 
 been, either whoUy or in part, obliterated by time, or obscured by the 
 action of more recent rites and traditional observances. 
 
 Amongst these may be instanced a superstition prevalent in the 
 North of England and many other places, that a funeral procession, 
 when arrived at the churchyard, must move in the sun's course ; that 
 is, from east to west ; othervsdse evil resulted to the spirit of the 
 departed. This sentiment is not confined to reHgious ceremonies, 
 but is respected when passing the bottle in convivial assembhes ; and 
 in several other matters of ordinary every-day-Ufe. The fact that 
 Brand, and most of the earHer writers after the Eeformation, speak 
 of these superstitions as " Popish," in no way invaHdates the assign- 
 ment to them of an Aryan origin. As early as the eleventh century, 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 29 
 
 in the reign of Canute the Great, we find laws strictly prohibitiag 
 the people from worshipping, or venerating, " the sun, moon, sacred 
 groves and woods, and hallowed hills and fountains." Decrees were 
 again and again pronounced in vain against many of these practices 
 by the ecclesiastical authorities. In the canons of the Northumber- 
 land clergy, quoted by Willdns and Hallam, we read as follows : — 
 
 " If a king's thane deny this " (the practice of heathen superstition), 
 let twelve be appointed for him, and let him take twelve of his 
 kindred (or equals, maga), and twelve British strangers ; and if he 
 fail, then let him pay for his breach of law, twelve half-marcs : if a 
 landowner (or lesser thane) deny the charge, let as many of his 
 equals and as many strangers be taken as for a royal thane ; and if 
 he fan, let him pay six half-marcs : If a ceorl deny it, let as many of 
 his equals and as many strangers be taken for him as for the others ; 
 and if he faU, let him pay twelve orse for his breach of law." 
 
 This demonstrates that all classes, whatever their rank, found it 
 difficult to shake off the superstitions of their forefathers. Some of 
 them became amalgamated with more modern festive ceremonies, and 
 were eventually intermingled with the formulae of the Christian worship 
 itself. Sir Jno. Lubbock, in his recent work, " The Origin of Civihzation 
 and the Primitive Condition of Man," endorses this view. He says : 
 " When man, either by natural progress, or the influence of a more 
 advanced race, rises to the conception of a higher reUgion, he still 
 retaitis his old beliefs, which long linger on, side by side with, and yet in 
 utter opposition to, the higher creed. The new and more powerful 
 spirit is an addition to the old Pantheon, and diminishes the import- 
 ance of the older deities ; gradually, the worship of the latter sinks 
 in the social scale, and becomes confined to the ignorant and the young. 
 Thus a behef in witchcraft stUl flourishes among our agricultural 
 labourers and the lowest classes in our great cities, and the deities of 
 our ancestors survive in the nursery tales of our children. We must, 
 therefore, expect to find in each race, traces — nay, more than traces — 
 of lower rehgions." 
 
 In the Irish Glossary of Cormac, Archbishop of Cashel, written in 
 the beginning of the tenth century, the author says, in his time 
 " four great fires were hghted up on the four great festivals of the 
 Druids, viz., in February, May, August, and November." General 
 Valancey says the Irish have discontinued their November fires and 
 substituted candles ; whUe the Welsh, though they retain the fire, 
 " can give no reason for the illumination." AH Saints' Day is on the 
 first of November, and its vigU is termed AUhaUoween, or Nutcrack 
 
30 TEADITIONS, SUPEESTITIONS, 
 
 night.' These festivals had all reference to the seasons, and their 
 influence on the fruitfulness of the earth. Brand says "it is custo- 
 mary on this night with young people in the north of England to 
 dive for apples, or catch at them, when stuck upon one end of a kind of 
 hanging beam, at the other extremity of which is fixed a lighted 
 candle, and that with their mouths only, their hands being tied 
 behind their backs." Eobert Burns tells us that Halloween is 
 thought to be a "night when witches, devils, and other , mischief 
 making beings, are aU abroad on then- baneful midnight errands ; 
 particularly those serial people, the fairies, are said on that night to 
 hold a grand anniversary." Scotch girls, on this evening, pull, blind- 
 folded, cabbage stalks, in order to divine the size and figure of their 
 future husbands. Nuts- are roasted or flung into the fire for a 
 similar purpose both in Scotland and England. Gay describes the 
 latter ceremony as follows :: — 
 
 Two hazel nuts I threw into the flame, 
 And to each nut I gave a sweetheart's name ; 
 This with the loudest bounce me tore amazed, 
 That in a fiame of brightest colour blazed ; 
 As blated the nut so may thy passion grow. 
 For 'twas thy nut that did so brightly glow ! 
 
 We possess some interesting accounts of these gatherings in various 
 parts of Scotland during the latter portion of the last century. In 
 Perthshire, heath, broom, and dressings of flax were tied to poles, 
 lighted, and carried round the villages and fields. One minister says 
 the people " set up bonfires in every village. When the bonfire is 
 consumed, the ashes are carefully collected into the form of a circle. 
 There is a stone put in near the circumference, for every person of the 
 several families interested in the bonfire ; and whatever stone is 
 removed out of its place or injured before the next morning, the person 
 represented by that stone is devoted, oi fey, and is supposed not to . 
 Uve twelve months from that day. The people received the consecrated 
 fire from the Druid priests next morning, the virtues of which were 
 supposed to continue a year." A similar authority says, " the custom 
 of making a fire in the fields, baking a consecrated cake, &c., on the 
 1st of May is not yet quite worn out." 
 
 In Derbyshire these fires were caUed Tindles, and were kindled at 
 the close of the last century. In some locaUties the ceremony is called 
 a Tinley. Sir WUham Dugdale says, " On AU-Hallow Even the 
 master of the famUy anciently used to carry a bunch of straw, fired, 
 about his corne, saying — 
 
 " Fire and red low 
 Light on my teen low." 
 
AND FOLK-LOHE. 31 
 
 In Lancashire they are called tandles and teanlas. In Ireland May- 
 day eve is caUed neen na Bealtina, the eve of Bael fires. The practice 
 of divination by the roasting of nuts is yet common in Lancashire. 
 The hollow cinder, too, which leaps from a coal fire, is supposed to 
 augur wealth or death to the person against whom it strikes, in 
 proportion as its shape nearest resembles a purse or a coffin. 
 
 Mr. Thornber, the historian of Blackpool, and Mr. T. T. WUkinson, 
 of Burnley, author of a series of valuable papers on Lancashire super- 
 stitions pubUshed in the " Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshu-e 
 Historic Society," have furnished some curious information of a 
 local character with reference to this ancient fire-worship. The latter 
 says : — " Such fires are still hghted in Lancashhe, on HaUowe'en, 
 under the names of Beltains or Teanleas ; and even the cakes which 
 the Jews are said to have made in honour of the Queen of Heaven, 
 are yet to be found at this season amongst the inhabitants of the 
 banks of the Eibble. . . . Both the fires and cakes, however, 
 are now connected with superstitious notions respecting purgatory, 
 &c., but their origin and perpetuation will scarcely admit of doubt." 
 He further observes : — " The practice of ' causing children to pass 
 through the fire to Moloch,' so strongly reprobated by the prophet of 
 old, may be cited as an instance in which Christianity has not yet 
 been able to efface aU. traces of one of the oldest forms of heathen 
 worship." 
 
 Mr. Thornber says : — " The conjoint worship of the sun and 
 moon, the Samen and Sama, husband and wife of nature, has been 
 from these early times so firmly implanted that ages have not 
 uprooted it. Christianity has not banished it. . . . In rhy 
 youth, on Hallowe'en, under the name of Teanla fires, I have seen 
 the hills throughout the country illuminated with sacred flames, 
 and I can point' out many a cairn of fire-broken stones — the high 
 places of the votaries of Bel — where his rites have been performed 
 ' on the borders of the Eibble age after age. Nor at this day are 
 these mysteries sUenced ; with a burning whisp of straw at the point 
 of a fork on Sama's festival at the eve of AU-hallows, the farmer in 
 some districts of the Fylde encircles his field to protect the coming 
 crop from noxious weeds, the tare and darnel ; the old wife refuses 
 to sit the eggs under her crackUng hen after sunset ; the ignorant 
 boy sits astride a stUe, as he looks at the new moon ; the bride walks 
 not widdershins to church on her nuptial moon ; and if the aged 
 parent addresses not the young pair in the words of Hanno, the 
 Carthagenian in the Pcenula of Plautus, '0 that the good Bel- Samen 
 
32 TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 may favour them,' or, like the Irish peasant, ' The blessing of Sama 
 and Bel go with you ; ' still, we hare often heard the benediction,,;;' 
 ' May the sun shine bright upon you,' ia accordance with the old 
 adage, 
 
 ' Blest is tlie corpse the rain fell on, 
 Blest the bride on whom the sun shone.' " 
 
 M. Du Chaillu, in his recent " Journey into Ashango-land and 
 further penetration into Equatorial Africa," speaks of a certain super- 
 stitious reverence for fire and faith in its medical virtues by the 
 inhabitants of the region he traversed. He relates the foUowiag 
 beautiful story respecting their astronomical notions: — "I was not 
 always so sohtary in taking my nightly observations, for sometimes 
 one and another of my men or Mayola" (the king or chief), " would 
 stand by me. Of course, I could never make them comprehend what 
 I was doing. Sometimes I used to be amused by their ideas about 
 the heavenly bodies. Like all other remarkable natural objects, they 
 are the subject of whimsical myths amongst them. According to them, 
 the sun and moon are of the same age, but the sun brings dayhght 
 and gladness and the moon brings darkness, witchcraft, and death— 
 for death comes from sleep, and sleep commences in darkness. The 
 sun and moon, they say, once got angry with each other, each one 
 claiming to be the eldest. The moon said, ' Who are you, to dare to 
 speak to me ? You are alone ; you have no people. What ! are you 
 to consider yourself equal to me ? Look at me,' she continued, show- 
 ing the stars shining around her, ' these are my people ; I am not 
 alone in the world hke you.' The sun answered, ' Oh, moon, you 
 bring witchcraft, and it is you have kUled aU my people, or I should 
 have as many attendants as you.' According to the negroes, people 
 are more hable to die when the moon first makes her appearance and 
 when she is last visible. They say that she calls the people her 
 insects and devours them. The moon with them is the emblem of 
 time and death." ^ 
 
 The Teutonic tribes appear, contrary to the general faith of their 
 Aryan kindred, to have regarded the sun as a female and the moon as 
 amaledeity. Palgrave, in his "History of the Anglo-Saxons," says:— ' 
 " They had an odd notion that if they addressed that power as a god- 
 dess, their wives would be their masters." i 
 I am strongly inclined to think that the continuance of the practice I 
 of lighting bonfires on the 5th of November owes quite as much | 
 to the associations connected with the ancient teanla fires of Allhal- 
 low-e'en, as to any present Protestant horror of the treason of Guy 
 
AND FOLK-LOKE. 83 
 
 Fawkes and liis band of conspirators. It may be quite true that the 
 House of Commons, in February, 1605-6 did ordain that the 5th of 
 November should be kept as " a hoUday fob evee in thankfulness to 
 God for our deliverance, and detestation of the Papists ; " but 
 ordinances of this class seldom produce more than a temporary 
 excitement amongst large masses of the people. I remember, in my 
 youth, " assisting " at the celebration of several " bonfire days " 
 in Preston and its neighbourhood, sometimes as amateur pyro-, 
 technic artist, when we enjoyed our "fun" without any refer- 
 ence to Protestant or Catholic proclivities. Few, except the 
 better educated, knew what the " Gunpowder Plot " reahy meant. 
 Some associated it mainly with our own pyrotechnic efforts and other 
 attendant consumption of the explosive compound, on the then 
 special occasion. I rather fancy the ancient November " AUhaUow 
 fires " have in their decadence, merged into the modern " Gunpowder 
 Plot " bonfires ; and hence the reason why, in Some rural districts, 
 they yet abound, while they are fast disappearing from our more 
 populous towns. I was surprised to find, when riding on anomnibus 
 from Manchester for about five mUes on the Bury-road, on the 
 evening of a recent anniversary of this " hohday," that I could count, 
 aear and on the horizon, fires of this description by the dozen, and 
 yet, while in Manchester, I had remained ignorant of the fact that 
 bonfire associations were influencing the conduct of any section of 
 society. The merging of one superstition, custom, habit, or tradi- 
 tion, into another, is one of the most ordinary facts of history. 
 
 Mr. Eichard Edwards, in his "Land's End District," gives a very 
 graphic account of the bonfires hghted up in Cornwall on Mitlsum- 
 mer eve. Some of the details sufiiciently resemble those of our 
 northern " gunpowder plot " demonstrations to prove that a Guy 
 Fawkes and an Act of Parhament are not absolutely necessary to 
 make a bonfire festivity attractive to the descendants of the fire- 
 worshippers of old. He says : — 
 
 " On these eves a line of tar barrels, reheved occasionally by 
 large bonfires, is seen in the centre of each of the principal streets in 
 Penzance. On either side of this line, young men and women pass 
 up and down, svringing round their heads heavy torches made of large 
 pieces of folded canvas steeped in tar, and nailed to the ends of sticks 
 between three and four feet long ; the flames of some of these almost 
 equal those of the tar barrels. Eows of lighted candles, also, when 
 the air is calm, are fixed outside the windows or along the sides of 
 the streets. In St. Just and other mining parishes, the young 
 
84 TEADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 miners, mimicking their father's employments, bore rows of holes in 
 the rooks, load them -with gunpowder, and explode them ia rapid 
 succession by trains of the same substance. As the holes are not 
 deep enough to spht the rocks, the same Httle batteries serve for 
 many years. ... In the early part of the evening, chUdien 
 may be seen wreathing wreaths of flowers, — a custom in aU proba- 
 bility originating from the ancient use of these ornaments when they 
 danced around the fires. At the close of the fireworks in Penzance, 
 a great number of persons of both sexes, chiefly from the neighbour- 
 hood of the quay, used always, until within the last few years, to join 
 hand in hand, forming a long string, and run through the streets, 
 playing ' thread the needle,' heedless of the fireworks showered upon 
 them, and tofttimes leaping over the yet glowing embers. I have, on 
 these occasions, seen boys following one another, jumping through 
 flames higher than themselves. But whUe this is now done itmo- 
 cently, in every sense of the word, we aU know that the passing 
 of children through fire was a very common act of idolatry ; and the 
 heathen believed that all persons, and aU Uving things, submitted to 
 this ordeal, would be preserved from evil throughout the year." - 
 
 I remember well the bonfire processions during election periods, 
 at Preston, above forty years ago, in the palmy days of the late 
 Mr. Henry Hunt. It is not improbable that a remnant of the old 
 superstition hovered about them ; and that a latent behef in the 
 "luck-bringing" quahties of fire, to a sHght extent, influenced their 
 promoters. J 
 
 A few years ago I visited, in company with Mr. Thornber, a field 
 at Hardhorn, near Poulton, and was shown by that gentleman some 
 of the stones yet remaining of what he has for many years regarded 
 as the remains of a very ancient Teanlea cairn. Some of the stones 
 bore marks of fire. The mound must, however, have been neglected 
 for a length of time, inasmuch as the shrewd old farmer who had 
 destroyed it had no recollection or traditionary knowledge respecting j 
 the use to which it had been appropriated. But from the ashes and 
 other indications of fire which the upper portion of the cairn pre- 
 sented, the worthy husbandman felt confident that " it had bin a 
 blacksmith's forge i' th' olden time." | 
 
 G-odfrey Higgins in his " Celtic Druids," asserts, on the authority 
 of Hayman Eooke, that "so late as the year 1786, the custom of 
 lighting fires was continued at the Druid temple at Bramham, near 
 Harrowgate, Yorkshire, on the eve of the summer solstice." The 
 Bramham crags referred to present a singularly curious specimen of the 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 35 
 
 partial disintegration of huge rocks belonging to the millstone grit 
 series. Their present peculiar forms are not now attributed by the 
 learned to human agency, in any marked degree at least, but to 
 the denuding action of water, frost, and other geological conditions 
 or phenomena. Nevertheless, from the wild and even wehd aspect 
 of the group and its elevated site, it is by no means improbable that it 
 has been used in early times as a place of worship, or as the locality 
 for the performance of superstitious rites of the class referred to. 
 Doubtless, other locaUties of a similar character might be pointed out. 
 " Beacon Fell, " near "Parlick Pike," and the " Tandle HiUs," near 
 Eochdale, may have been used as places of public assembly, and for 
 the performance of similar superstitious observances. The same may 
 be said of Ingleborough, which yet exhibits remains of Keltic occupa- 
 tion. 
 
 This fire-worship, amongst a barbarous people, appears to have had 
 by no means a strange or unnatural origin. Mr. Walter KeUy, after 
 a very elaborate analysis, concludes that the Prometheus of the 
 Greeks and the Vedic Matarisvan are "essentially the same." " The 
 elder fire gods, Agni and Eudra," he says, " had a troop of fire-kind- 
 ling attendants, called Pramathas or Pramathas," and he regards 
 Prometheus as the Greek form of this word. He caUs attention to 
 the fact that Diodorus says of the celebrated Titan, that " according 
 to the mythographers he stole fire from the gods, but that in reahty 
 he was the inventor of the fire-making instrument." The discoverer 
 of the chark, or " fire-drUl," an instrument for obtaining fire by artifi- 
 cial means, would be so great a benefactor to a people that had to 
 suffer aU the inconveniences resulting from occasional fireless hearths, 
 that we may well understand why he should be invested by his 
 astonished and dehghted fellow-savages with mu-aculous or super- 
 natiu-al powers.* Doubtless the production of fire by the rubbing 
 together of two pieces of dry timber preceded this discovery, but, under 
 many circumstances, the operation must have been a most laborious 
 one, and ofttimes impracticable. But with the "chark" the result 
 was nearly as certain as when flint, steel, and tinder were employed 
 for this purpose. It was a very simple instrument indeed, but it has 
 nevertheless exercised a marvellous influence on the destinies of man- 
 kind. It consisted merely of a piece of soft dry wood with a hole drilled 
 
 *Du Chaillu, in his "Journey to Ashango-land," relates a story in which he sud- 
 denly struck a light with a luoifer match, to the astonishment of the benighted 
 Africans, who regarded the feat as an additional proof of his being the "Oguisi" or 
 " spirit " they had declared him to be. 
 
36 TRADITIONS, SIIPEKSTITIONS, 
 
 in its centre, into -wliicli a rod of hard wood, ash, or oak, was placed, 
 and caused to revolve with rapidity by a cord, passed round it, being 
 puUed and slackened at eacli end alternately. A wheel and its axle 
 have hence become types of the sun and the thunderbolt. Fire j)ro- 
 duced in this original way was considered sacred. Even the Greeks and 
 Eomans, as well as the Kelts, and some Christian populations until 
 recent times, adopted the same or a similar process in the hghting of 
 fires connected with religious ceremonies. Mr. Kelly says "the 
 Chm-ch has not quite yet succeeded in effacing the vestiges of their 
 heathen origin. This is especially evident in the usages of many dis- 
 tricts, where thepurity of theEaster fire (anideaborrowedfromPagan 
 tradition) is secured by deriving the kindling flame either from the 
 consecrated Easter candles, or from the new born and perfectly pure 
 element produced by the priest from flint and steel." The Vedio 
 chark was made from the wood of two sacred trees ; " the sand sprang 
 from heavenly fire sent down to earth, and the asvattha fi-om the 
 vessel which contained it." Kelly adds : — " The idea of marriage, 
 suggested by such a union of the two trees, is also developed in the 
 Veda vsdth great ampUtude and minuteness of detail, and is a vei^y 
 prominent element in the whole cycle of myths connected with the 
 chark." Doubtless, we have here exposed the root of the entire sys- 
 tem of phallic worship, stripped of much, if hot all, of the grossness 
 afterwards attendant upon it. It appears that amongst the Peruvians, 
 who were suu-worshipijers, the great national festival was held at the 
 summer solstice. They collected the rays of that luminary in a con- 
 cave mirror, by which means they rekindled their fires. Sometimes, 
 indeed, they obtained then- "need-fire" by friction of wood. Amongst 
 the Mexicans hkewise grand rehgious celebrations took place at the 
 close of the fifty-second year, when the extinguished fires were 
 rekindled " by the friction of sticks." This is a very general practice 
 amongst savage tribes at the present day. Mr. Angus says some of 
 the western tribes of Australia "have no means of kindling fire. 
 They say that it formerly came from the north." Should that of 
 one tribe unfortunately become extinguished, there was nothing for it 
 but journeying to a neighbouring encampment and borrowing a fight. 
 The Tasmanians are in the same predicament. The Fegeeans obtain 
 fire by friction. So do other South Sea Islanders, as well as manyof 
 the North American Indians. The Dacotahs and Iroquois use an 
 instrument not unlike the driUing bow at present employed for a 
 certain class of work in Europe. According to Father Gabian, fii'e 
 was utterly unknown to the natives of the Ladrone Islands "till 
 
AND FOLK-LOBE. 87 
 
 Magellan, provoked by their repeated thefts, burned one of their 
 villages. When they saw their wooden houses blazing, they first 
 thought the fire a beast which fed upon wood, and some of them, who 
 came too near, being burnt, the rest stood afar off, lest they should 
 be devoured or poisoned by this powerful animal." 
 
 The practice of kindling original or " needfire " from a super- 
 stitious reverence of its sacred character, is yet very common in 
 various parts of Germany, Scotland, and Ireland, and even in 
 England. Mr. Kemble quotes, from the Lanercoet Chronicle, of 
 the year 1268, a denunciation by the pious writer, of a practice 
 which " certain bestial persons, monks in garb but not in mind," 
 had taught the ignorant peasantry. This practice consisted in the 
 extraction of fire from wood by friction, and the setting up of what 
 he styles a " simulacrum Priapi," with a view to protect their cattle 
 from disease. This image of Priapus is supposed to refer to the 
 sun-god Fro or Fricco, who, according to Wolf, was worshipped until 
 a very recent period in Belgium, under the form of Priapus. Priapus, 
 the god of gardens or fertility, was the son of Bacchus and Venus. 
 In the more mountainous portions of Wales a remnant of evidently 
 heathen imageworship, of a somewhat similar character, survived tUl 
 relatively modern times. In the reign of Henry the Eighth, an idol, 
 or what old Fuller calls " a great lubberly image," was removed from 
 the diocese of St. Asaph, and pubhcly burnt in Smithfield. This 
 image was known by the name of " Darvell Gatheron;" and it 
 was said that the country people were in the habit of sacrificing 
 oxen and sheep to it. Hence its condemnation by the church 
 authorities. 
 
 Grimm refers to a remarkable instance of this superstition, which 
 occurred in the island of Mull as recently as 1767, which vividly 
 illustrates the " toughness " of tradition, as Dasent expresses it. He 
 says: — "In consequence of a disease amongst the black cattle, the 
 people agreed to perform an incantation, though they esteemed it a 
 wicked thing. They carried to the top of Carnmoor a wheel and 
 nine spindles, long enough to produce fire by friction. If the fire 
 were not produced before noon, the incantation lost its effect. They 
 faUed for several days running. They attributed this faUure to the 
 obstinacy of one householder, who would not let his fires be put out for 
 what he considered so wrong a pm-pose. However, by bribing his 
 servants, they contrived to have them extinguished, and on that 
 ■morning raised their fire. They then sacrificed a heifer, cutting in 
 pieces and burnuig., whUe yet alive, the diseased part. They then 
 
38 TEA.DITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 lighted their own hearths from the pile, and ended by feasting on the 
 remains. Words of incantation were repeated by an old man from, 
 Morven, who came as the master of the ceremonies, and who con- 
 tinued speaking all the time the fire was being raised. This man was 
 hving a beggar at Bellochroy. Asked to repeat the spell, he said the 
 sin of repeating it once had brought him to beggary, and that he 
 dared not say those words again." Many other instances might be 
 cited in Scotland- and Ireland; but the one most to the present 
 purpose is related by Mr. T. T. WUkinson, in which a Lancashire 
 man " unconsciously resorted to the old worship of Baal, and con- 
 sumed a Uve calf in a fire, in order to counteract the influences of his 
 unknown enemies." This indiTidual was well known to Mr. Wilkin- 
 son. He firmly beheved that witchcraft was at the root of ah his 
 troubles, and that his cattle had died in consequence of its spells, 
 It appears he had previously tried the famous Lancashire expedient 
 to render his stables and shippons proof against his supernatural ' 
 enemies — the naUing of horse-shoes on all his doors — without obtain- 
 ing the desired result ; so, in desperation, knowing the tradition, he 
 sacrificed a living caK to the fire god Bel ! 
 
 The following paragraph appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette, on the 
 29th of June, 1867 :— 
 
 "The accounts given by the Irish newspapers of the extent to 
 which the old superstition of fire-hghting on Midsummer eve still 
 prevails show how slowly the relics of Paganism disappear among 
 country people, and how natural it was that the old idolatries should 
 come at last to be known as the creed of the ' Pagana,' the dwellers 
 in villages. These Midsummer fires, hghted annually on the hills, 
 are simply rehcs of the worship of Bel. Beltane-day, or Belteine, 
 is still a May-day as well as a -Midsummer festival in the more 
 ignorant districts of Scotland as well as of Ireland, and similar super- 
 stitious practices are connected VTith the hghting of the fires ; and, 
 what is stOl more remarkable, the word is stiU used in some Scotch 
 almanacs as a term well-known to everybody. In a number of the 
 Scotsman a few years ago appeared the announcement that ' On 
 Beltane-day Mr. Eobertson was elected convener of the Trades of 
 Cannongate in Edinburgh.' The next year the following is to be 
 found: — 'On Beltane-day the weavers, dyers, etc., of the Cannon- 
 gate re-elected their ofiice bearers.' "* 
 
 * The Dundee Advertiser, Nov. 1869, contained the following paragraph :— 
 Hallowe'en at Balmokal Castle. — This time-honoured festival Was duly cele- 
 brated at Balmoral Castle on Saturday evening, in a manner not soon to be forgotten 
 
AND FOLK-LOBE. 89 
 
 The records of the Presbytery of Dingwall show that as recently 
 as the latter portion pf the seventeenth century, on the island of 
 Innis Maree, in Loch Maree, bulls were offered up as a sacrifice, and 
 milk offered on the hill sides as a hbation. In the year 1678, the 
 Presbytery took action against some of the Mackenzie family, "for 
 sacrificing a bull in a heathenish manner, in the island of St. Eufus, 
 for the recovery of the health of Cirstane Mackenzie, who was 
 formerly sick and valetudiaarie." Mr. Henderson, in his "Folk- 
 Lore of the Northern Counties," mentions an instance, " within 
 fifteen years ago," of " a herd of cattle, in that county (Moray) being 
 attacked with fever," when, " one of them was sacrificed by burning 
 aUve, as a propitiatory offering for the rest." 
 
 Mr. Eobert Hunt, in his "Drolls, Traditions, and Superstitions of 
 Old Cornwall," pubhshed in 1865, says that he has been informed 
 " that within the last few years a calf has been thus sacrificed by a 
 farmer in a district where churches, chapels, and schools abound." 
 He afterwards adds : — " While correcting these sheets I am informed 
 of two recent instances of this superstition. One of them was the 
 sacrifice of a caM by a farmer near Pontreath, for the purpose of re- 
 moving a disease which had long followed his horses and cows. The 
 other was the burning of a HvLng lamb, to save, as the farmer said, 
 "his flocks from spells which had been cast on 'em." 
 
 The Midsummer fires, at the vigil of St. John the Bajptist, and the 
 yule log ceremonies at Christmas, may be referred to a similar origin. 
 Brand says : — " The Pagan rites of this festival (Midsummer Eve) 
 
 by those who took part in the enjoyments of the evening. As tlje shades of evening 
 were closing in upon the Strath, numbers of torch-lights were observed approaching 
 the Castle, both from the cottages on the eastern portion of the estate and also those on 
 the west. The torches from the western side were probably the more numerous, and as 
 the different groups gathered together the effect was very fine. Both parties met in 
 front of the Castle, the torch-bearers numbering nearly one hundred. Along with 
 those bearing the torches were a great many people belonging to the neighbourhood. 
 Dancing was commenced by the torch-bearers dancing a " Huachan" in fine style, to 
 the lilting strains of Mr. Eoss, the Queen's piper. The effect was greatly heightened 
 by the display of bright lights of various colours from the top of the staircase of the 
 Tower. After dancing for some time, the torch-bearers proceeded round the Castle 
 in martial order, and as they were proceeding down the granite staircase at the north- 
 west corner of the Castle, the procession presented a singularly beautiful and romantic 
 appearance. Having made the circuit of the Castle, the remainder of the torches were 
 thrown in a pile at the south-west comer, thus forming a large bonfire, which was 
 speedily augmented with other combustibles until it formed a burning mass of huge pro- 
 portions, round which dancing was spiritedly carried on. Her Majesty witnessed the 
 proceedings with apparent interest for some time, and the company enjoyed themselves 
 none the less heartily on that account. Mr. Begg, distiller, Lochnagar, had also a 
 splendid bonfire on Cairnbeg, round which merry groups danced torch in hand. 
 
40 
 
 TBADITIONS, SUPBESTITIONS, 
 
 at the STimmer solstice may be considered as a counterpart of those 
 used at the -winter solstice at Yule-tide." The wheel, the type of the 
 sun, was common to both festivities. Darand describes the practice 
 at the feast of St. John, of rolling about a wheel, " to signify that 
 the sun, then occupying the highest place in the zodiac, was be- 
 ginning to descend." The old poet, Naogeorgus, describes the wheel 
 as being covered vnth straw, which was set on fire at the top of a 
 high mountain, and then despatched on its downward course. He 
 adds that the people imagined all their ill luck accompanied the 
 wheel in its descent. 
 
 The writer of the old homily Be Festo Sancti Johannis Baptistce, 
 when referring to these observances, speaks of three fires being' 
 kindled, one of which was called " a Bone fire ; another is clene 
 woode and no bones, and that is called a Wode fire, for people to sit 
 and wake thereby; the thu-d is made of wode and bones, and is 
 called Saynt Johanny's Fyre.* The first fyre, as a great clerke, 
 Johan BeUeth, telleth he saw in a certayne countrey, so in the 
 countrey there was soo greate hete the which causid that di-agons 
 to go together in tokenynge that Johan dyed in brennynge 
 love and charyte of God and man. . . . Then as these dragons 
 flewe in th' ayre, they shed down to the water froth of ther Kynde, 
 and 80 envenymed the waters, and caused moche people for to take 
 theyr deth thereby, and many dyrerse sykenesse. Wyse clerkes 
 knoweth well that dragons "hate nothyng more than the stenche of 
 brennynge bones, and therefore they gaderyd as many as they mighte 
 fynde, and brent them ; and so with the stenche thereof they drove 
 away the dragons, and so they were brought out of greete dysease." 
 
 Brand regards this as a " pleasant piece of absurdity;" but it ap- 
 pears that the quaint old writer, after aU, is but relating that which 
 was believed to be true in his own age, and which after-gained know- ■ 
 ledge enables us to distinguish as a remnant of the old Ayran super- 
 stition or myth, in a medifeval dress. These roUing fiery wheels, 
 burning brands, bonfires, and processions round fields, &c., are com- 
 mon to both the Keltic and Teutonic branches of the Aryan race, and 
 have evidently a similar origin. Kemble quotes an ancient Latin 
 
 *I have not met with a thoroughly satisfactory etymology of the word bon-fire. I' 
 may mean good fire, that is sacred fire, or bone-fire, as the old writer suggests ; but I 
 am inclined to think boon fire is worth consideration, as the ceremonies and sacrifioea 
 were performed in order to extract a boon, a gift, or favour from the god Bel. Tree 
 service rendered by a tenant to his lord, as part of his tenure, was called boon work. 
 Dr. Hibbert Ware records an old saying in the north of England to the effect that 
 when a man has been working for nothing he has "been served like a boon-shearer.", 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. " 41 
 
 MS., wHch he found among the Harleian collection, which gives a 
 precisely similar description of the St. John's fires. It is not impro- 
 bable that it may have been written by the "learned clerke Johan 
 Belleth," to whom the writer of the homily refers. Walter Kelly, 
 speaking of it says, " Here we have again the primitive Aryan dragon 
 Ahi, at his old work in the sultry midsummer weather." He con- 
 tends that all the details referred to, as attendant on the St. John's 
 fires, have been demonstrated by Dr. Kuhn to be " in striking accord- 
 ance with the Vedic legend of Indra's fight with the midsummer 
 demons. The passage quoted by Kemble, besides stating expressly 
 that the course of the blazing wheel was meant to represent the de- 
 scent of the sun from its solstitial height, brings the St. Johir's fires 
 in immediate connection with the dragons that poison the waters, 
 just as did the demon Vritra, otherwise called Ahi, the dragon. He 
 possessed himself of the sun-wheel and the treasures of Heaven, 
 seized the (white) women, kept them prisoners in his cavern, and laid 
 a curse on the waters, untU Indra released the captives and took off 
 the ciu:se. The same conception is repeated in countless legends of 
 mountains that open on St. John's day, when the imprisoned white 
 women come forth, and the hour approaches in which the speU laid 
 upon them and upon the btuied treasures will be broken. . . 
 Here we see at once that the German" (and Keltic) " custom was 
 nothing else than a dramatic representation of the great elemental 
 battle portrayed in the sacred books of the southern Aryans. In the 
 one the blaziug wheel stands on the top of the hill, in the other the 
 sun stands on the summit of the cloud mountain. Both descend 
 from then- heights, and both are extinguished, the sun in the cloud 
 sea, behind the cloud mountain, the wheel in the river at the foot of 
 the hill." One name given to a combatant on the dragon's side is 
 Kuyava, which is interpreted the " harvest spoiler, or the spoiled 
 harvest." The following passage in the Eig Veda is uttered by Indra, 
 when he resolves to, destroy the monster, — "Friend Vishnu, stride 
 vastly ; sky give room for the thunderbolt to strike ; let us slay 
 Vritra and let loose the waters." His worshippers hkewise exclaim, — 
 " When, thunderer, thou didst by thy might slay Vritra, who stopped 
 up the streams, then thy dear steeds grew." 
 
 The Eev. G. W. Cox says : — " The Nemean hon is the offspring of 
 Typhon, Orthros, or Echidna ; in other words it is sprung from 
 Vritra, the dark thief, and Ahi, the throtthng snake of darkness, and 
 it is- as surely slain by Heracles as the snakes which had assaulted 
 him in his cradle. Another child of the same horrid parents is the 
 
42 TEADITIONS, STjPEESTITIONS, 
 
 Lernaian Hydra, its very name denoting a monster who, like the 
 Sphinx or the Panis, shuts up the waters and causes drought. It 
 has many heads, one being immortal, as the storm must constantly 
 supply new clouds, whUe the vapours are driven off by the sun into 
 space. Hence the story went that although Heracles could burn 
 away its mortal heads, as the sun burns up the clouds, still he can 
 but hide away the mist or vapour itself, which at its appointed time 
 must again darken the" sky." i 
 
 Dr. Kuhn contends that the clothing of wheels with straw and the 
 ext^guishing of them when set on fire by immersion in a river, as ia 
 done in the vine-growing districts of Germany, vsith the view to 
 secure a good harvest, is to be referred to this source. In support of 
 his view, he enters into an elaborate philological argument to show 
 that yava must have originally meant grass in general, afterwards 
 cereal grasses, and that its root gave birth to the name of the grain 
 from which the oldest bread-stuff known was made. He says — "But 
 I go stUl further, and I believe that Kuyava was also regarded as the 
 spoUer of vegetation in general, who parched up the plants used in 
 making the fermented hquor, soma, and amongst these plants the 
 Hindus included yava, which, in this case, meant barley or rice. It 
 will be seen in the sequel that the demon possesses himself also of the 
 heavenly soma (the moisture of the clouds), that he is robbed of it by 
 Indra, and that the Uke conception is found also among the Greeks 
 and the Germans. This, then, sufficiently explains the- hope of a 
 good wine year, which was associated vfith the victory in the above- 
 described German customs." 
 
 The Venerable Bede, in his treatise on the " Nature of Things," 
 gives us what may be termed the scientific view respecting raia and 
 hghtning which obtained about his time. It is singularly in accord- 
 ance with Dr. Kuhn's interpretation of the myth now under consi- 
 deration. He says : — 
 
 "Lightning is produced by the rubbing together of clouds, after 
 the manner of flints struck together, the thunder occurring at the 
 same time, but sound reaches the ears more slowly ^lan Ught the 
 eyes. For aU things the coUision creates fire. Some say that while 
 air draws water in vapour from the depths, it draws also fire heat- 
 wise, and by their contact the horrid crash of thunder ia produced ; 
 and if the fire conqtier, it will be injurious to fruits; if water benejieid; 
 but that the fire of lightning has so much the more penetrative power, 
 from being made of subtler elements than that which is in use 
 by us." 
 
AND FOLK-LOBE. 48 
 
 It is merely necessary that the rhetorical figure, personification, be 
 freely appUed to this passage, with due reverence towards the ancient 
 superstitions, and the mythic element which hes at the root of these 
 singular customs is reproduced. 
 
 It is evident the whole have reference to the influence of the burn- 
 ing heat of the midsummer sun, which induces long droughts, and 
 parches the soil and the vegetation ; and to . the delight engendered 
 -when that heat is mitigated, and the scorched earth is again rendered 
 fruitful by copious showers, the product of the thunderstorm. And 
 to this source, Mr. Kelly justly contends, may be referred all the 
 supernatural dragon stories of our ntirseries, whether fought " by 
 Pagan or Christian champions, from Apollo, Hercules, and Siegfried, 
 down to St. George, and to tha,t modern worthy More, of MorehaU, 
 
 Who slew the dragon of Wantley." 
 
 The learned Pettingall has shown that the dragon slain by the 
 Enghsh champion and patron, St. George, was, by the ancient 
 Orientals, engraved on amulets, and that it was intended to symbohse 
 the vu-tues of Mithras, the sun. He says, " From the Pagans the 
 use of these charms passed to the Basihdians, and in their Abraxas, 
 the traces of the antient Mithras and the more modern St. George, 
 are equally visible. In the dark ages, the Christians borrowed their 
 superstitions from the heretics, but they disguised the origin of them, 
 and transformed into the saint the sun of the Persians and the arch- 
 angel of the Gnostics."* 
 
 Dr. WUson, when speaking of the art examples pertaining to wha^ 
 is termed, in "Western Europe, the " Stone age," says, — 
 
 " In no single case is any attempt made to imitate leaf or flower 
 
 * Since the above was written the following paragraph has appeared in the news- 
 papers ; — 
 
 An Apology for Fire Worship. — Tuesday, the 21st March, 1866, being the entrance 
 of Sol mto the zodiacal sign of the Ram, there was held at the Persian Embassy, 
 Avenue d' Antin, Paris, the festival of Nourous Sultaniez, or New Year's Day of the 
 Shah. His Excellency Hassan AJi Khan presided over a large assemblage of distin- 
 guished guests, and informed them in the course of the festivity that they were cele- 
 brating a red-letter day as old as nineteen centuries before the birth of Christ, first insti- 
 tuted by Djemohid, of the dynasty of Pischdadiens, who origiuated the solar compu- 
 tation of years. His excellency proceeded to recall the fire-worship of his country, 
 which sprang from the primaeval idolatry having for object that great luminary. It 
 was stiR to fire that he fondly looked for the regeneration of Persia. Tire had changed 
 the face of Europe. With the steam engine, the railroad, the electric spark, the 
 screw or paddle ship, far more than in gunpowder or rifled cannon, fire was the great 
 benefactor that would bless one day the land of his forefathers, who had instinctively 
 worshipped that element in secret anticipation of what was to come. The remarks of 
 his excellency were cordially received. 
 
u 
 
 TKADITIONS, SDPEKSTITIONS, 
 
 bird, beast, or any simple, natural object ; and when in the bronze 
 work of the later Iron period, imitative forms at length appear, they 
 are chiefly the snake and dragon shapes and patterns, borrowed 
 seemingly by Celtic and Teutonic wanderers, with the wild fancies of 
 their mythology, from the far Eastern cradle-land of their birth." 
 
 Marsden, in his " History of Sumatra," says that during an 
 ecUpse, the natives make " a loud noise with sounding instruments, 
 to prevent one luminary from- devouring the other, as the Chinese, 
 to frighten away the dragon, a superstition that has its source in the 
 ancient systems of astronomy (particularly the Hindu), where the 
 nodes of the moon are identified with the dragon's head and tail." 
 
 The dragon was the standard of the West Saxons, and of the 
 English previous to the Norman Conquest. It formed one of the 
 supporters of the Eoyal arms borne by aU our Tudor monarchs, with 
 the exception of Queen Mary, who substituted the ejigle. Several of 
 the Plantagenet kings and princes inscribed a figure of the dragon 
 on their banners and shields. Peter Langtoffe says, at the battle of 
 Lewis, fought in 1264 : — 
 
 The King (Henry III.) schewed forth his schild his Dragon full austere. 
 Another authority says the said king ordered to be made " a dragon 
 in the manner of a banner, of a certain red silk embroidered with 
 gold ; its tongue Hke a flaming fire must always seem to be moving ; 
 its eyes must be made of sapphire, or of some other stone suitable for 
 that purpose." 
 
 Notwithstanding the transformations which several of them may 
 have undergone from relatively modern local influences, there can be 
 little doubt the fiery-dragon and the numerous huge worm traditions of 
 the North of England enshrine relics of Aryan superstitions. Besides 
 the dragon Ahi, we have the Vedio great serpent Sesha, to which 
 reference has been made in the first chapter of this work. We find- 
 the Devas, when at war with their enemies the Asuras, agreed to atraoe 
 in order that they might " churn the ocean," and so procure some 
 soma or drink of the gods, or milk the heavenly cows (the clouds) 
 wherewith to slake their grievous thirst. They coU^ this great 
 serpent around a hill or mountain in the sea, and used him as a rope 
 under whose action the hill spun rapidly round until the heavenly 
 liquor (rain water)was procured in sufficient quantity. The famous 
 Lambton worm, when coiled round a hill, was pacified with copious 
 draughts of milk, and his blood flowed freely when he was pierced 
 by the spear heads attached to the armour of the returned crusader. 
 
 * Sir Bernard Burke says the legend asserts that the knight consulted a witch as to 
 
AND POLE-LOEE. ' , - 45 
 
 The Linton worm coiled itself round a liiU, and by its poisonous 
 breatk, destroyed the neighbouring animal and vegetable hfe. The 
 knight who destroyed it used burning pitch in the operation. The 
 contractions of this huge worm in dying, are said to have left indented 
 spiral hnes on the sides of Warmington hiU. The PoUard worm is 
 described as " a venomous serpent which did much harm to man and 
 beast," while that of Stockburn is designated as the " worm, dragon, 
 or fiery flying serpent which destroyed man, woman, and child." 
 These worms were said to have been slain by the spears or swords 
 of knights, evidently modern substitutes for the thunderbolt of 
 Indra, the ancient Aryan "god of the firmament." A bond fide 
 slain worm, however, seems from the records to have been a very 
 small affair in comparison with the gigantic monsters of the 
 Durham traditions. Towards the end of the seventeenth century, 
 a writer of the family history of the SomerviUes, referring to 
 the worm which John Somervihe slew, in the reign of Wilham 
 the Lion, avers that it was "in length three Scots yards, and 
 somewhat bigger than an ordinary man's leg, with a head more 
 proportionable to its length than greatness, in form and colour like to 
 our common mun-edders." As the valour of Indra fertihsed the 
 earth ; so virtue of a similar quahty in a high degree procured broad 
 lands for the earthly champion, from his grateful sovereign. 
 
 It is by no means improbable, if, as Mr. D. Haigh contends, in his 
 " Conquest of Britain by the Saxons," the scene of the fine old Anglo- 
 Saxon poem Beowulf, was near Hartlepool, in the county of Durham, 
 that these monster worm traditions of the north of England may be 
 the remains of the mythic superstitions therein embodied.''" The 
 
 the beet method of attacking the monster serpent or dragon, as this worm is some- 
 times styled. The witch duly instructed him, and he was victorious in the combat 
 which followed. A condition, however, was attached, namely that the knight should 
 follow up the achievement by slaying as a kind of sacrifice the first living thing he 
 met. If he failed in this, *' for nine generations the lords of Lambton would never 
 die in their beds." It was intended that a dog should be placed so as to immediately 
 attract the eye of the conqueror, but unfortunately the plot was accidentally marred, 
 and the knight's father first confronted him. Lambton refused to fulfil the condition, 
 under such cifeumstanoes. It is stated to be a fact that afterwards nine successive 
 lords of Lambton died otherwise than in their beds. 
 
 * Mr. Haigh fixes Heorot, the site of the mead-hall, or banqueting house of 
 Hrothgar, chief or king of the Scyldings, at Hartlepool. King Oswy, brother and 
 successor of St. Oswald, consecrated his daughter Elfleda to the service of God as a 
 nun, as an act of thanksgiving for his victory over the pagan Mercian King Penda, 
 at Winwidfield, near Leeds (some say near Winwiok, Lancashire.) Elfleda was 
 placed in the monastery called Herut-ed (Hartlepool), which is believed to be the 
 Heorot of the oldest Anglo-Saxon poem extant. 
 
46 TRADITIONS, SUPEESTITIONS, 
 
 giant and sprite Grendel, the " Ghost-slayer," and his equally 
 sanguinary mother, are evidently personifications of evU influences, 
 After Beowulf had despatched the male monster, he proceeded to the 
 pool, in the deptJis of which he successfully contended with the female, 
 As he and his followers sat in the deep shadow -of the wood over- 
 hanging the "bottomless" pool "they saw along the water many of 
 the u'orm kind, strange sea dragom, also in clefts of the ness Nickers 
 lying." Professor Henry Morley, in his " EngUsh Writers," gives a 
 summary of the poem, the following passage in which demonstrates 
 the great antiquity of this superstition : — 
 
 " Afterward the broad land came under the sway of Beowulf. He 
 held it well for fifty winters, until in the dark nights a dragon, whicli 
 in a stone mound watched a hoard of gold and cups, won mastery. 
 It was a hoard heaped up in sin, its lords were long since dead ; the 
 last earl, before dying, hid it in the earth-cave, and for three hundred 
 winters i]iQ<jreut scather]xe\dL the cave, until some man, finding by chance 
 a rich cup, took it to his lord. Then the den was searched while theworm 
 slept ; again and again when the dragon awoke there had been theft. 
 He found not the man, but wasted the whole land with fire ; nightly, the 
 fiendish air-Ayer made fire grow hateful to the sight of men. Then it 
 was told to Beowulf. . . . He sought out the dragon's den and 
 fought vsdth him in awful strife. One wound the poison-worm struck 
 in the flesh of Beowulf. . . . Then, while the warrior-king sat 
 deathsick on a stone, he sent his thanes to see the cups and dishes ki 
 the den of the dread twiHght-flyer. ... He said, ' I for this 
 gold have wisely sold my life ; let others care now for the people's 
 need. I may be here no longer.' " 
 
 Mr. John Mitchell Kemble, who published an amended'prose trans- 
 lation of Beowulf, in 1833, considered the poem to be founded upon 
 legends which existed anterior to the conquest of the northern part 
 of Britain by the Angles. Beowulf he regarded as the name of a god, 
 one of the ancestors of Woden, and who appears in the poem " as a 
 defender, a protecting and redeeming being." The hero belonged to 
 the tribe of Geats or Goths. This word etymologists trace to the 
 Anglo-Saxon geotan and geat, which imply a pouring forth. One of 
 Odin's names amongst the gods, according to the Edda, was Gautr, 
 the god of abundance. The monster Grendel is thus described in the 
 English summary of tha poem by Professor Henry Morley : — 
 
 " The grim guest was Grendel, he that held the moorSj the fen, 
 and fastness. Forbidden, the homes of mankind, the daughters of 
 Cain brought forth in darkness misshapen giants, elves, and 
 
AND POLK-LOKE. 47 
 
 orkens, such giants as long warred with God, and he was one of 
 these." The reference to the daughters of Cain would seem to sug- 
 gest an interpolation by a transcriber after the introduction of Christi- 
 anity. 
 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth relates a story of a certain mythic King 
 of Northumbria named Morvidus, who was less fortunate than 
 Beowulf, inasmuch as he lost his hfe, and gained nothing for his 
 people by its sacrifice. But then, we are informed, he " was a most 
 cruel tja-ant." It appears that the land north of the Humber was 
 invaded in great force by a king of the Moreni (near Boulogne). He 
 was defeated by Morvidus, who abused his victory by the most 
 monstrous acts of cruelty. Whilst thus engaged, Geoffrey informs 
 us that " there came from the coasts of the Irish Sea a most cruel 
 monster, that was continually devouring the people upon the sea 
 coasts. As soon as he heard of it, he ventured to go and encounter 
 it alone. When he had in vain spent all his darts upon it, the 
 monster rushed upon him, and with open jaws swallowed him up 
 hke a small fish." 
 
 These dragon monsters are often found in connection with im- 
 prisoned maidens, and treasures buried in caves or the inner recesses 
 of mountains. Some mythographers regard the maiden as a personi- 
 ficatioji of the dawn imprisoned by the darkness of the night, and 
 afterwards freed by the rays of the sun. In the Vedic myths, besides 
 AM, the throtthng snake, and Vritra, the dragon, there is Pani, the 
 thief and seducer, who stole the cows of Indra from then- heavenly 
 pastures, hid them in his dark cloud cave, and attempted to corrupt 
 Sarama (the dawn), when, at the bidding of the Ughtning god, she 
 demanded the restoration of the plundered cattle. Max MiiUer, the 
 Eev. G. W. Cox, and others, contend that these incidents underhe 
 most of the mythical epics of ah the Aryan nations. They say 
 that the siege of Troy, even, "is a reflection of the daily siege 
 of the East by the solar powers that every evening are robbed of 
 their brightest treasures in the West." 
 
 The celebrated medieval metrical romance, "Kyng Ahsaunder," 
 translated into Enghsh verse, in the thirteenth century, by an 
 unknown author, is a complete repertoire of these dragon, worm, and 
 monster superstitions. According to it, the hero was the son of a 
 magician who appeared to his mother in the form of a great di-agon 
 of the air. At his birth " the earth shook, the sea became green, the 
 sun ceased to shine, the moon appeared and became black, the 
 thunder crashed." The original is said to have been written by 
 
48 TBADITIONS, SUPEBSTITIONS, 
 
 Simeon Seth, keeper of the imperial wardrobe at Constantinople, 
 about the year 1060. It is founded on Oriental legends, and was 
 translated and enlarged into Latin and French before the EngHsh 
 version appeared. Many of its monstrosities are evidently degraded 
 forms of Grecian and other Aryan myths. ^ 
 
 The celebrated prophecy of Merhn, in Geoffrey of Monmouth's 
 "History of Britain," is full of mahgnant dragons, white and red, 
 which fight furiously, and " cast forth fire with their breath." The 
 red dragon, in one instance, the prophet says, shall return to his 
 proper manners, and turn his rage upon himself. Therefore shall 
 the recenge of the Thunderer show itself, for er cry field shall disappointth 
 hushamlman. Mortahty shall snatch away the people, and make a 
 desolation over aU countries." 
 
 Dragons, huge worms, and serpents appear frequently to be con- 
 founded in Merlin's prophecy.* One sentence reads thus : " She 
 shall be encompassed with the adder of Lincoln, who with a horrihle 
 hiss shall give notice of his presence to a multitude of dragons. Then 
 shaU the dragons encounter and tear one another to pieces. The 
 winged shall oppress that which wants wings, and fasten its claws 
 into the poisonous cheeks." In another instance, the Aryan dragon, ' 
 or harvest destroyer, is very apparent. Merhn says : — " To him shall 
 succeed a husbandman of Albania, at whose back shall be a serpent. 
 He shah be employed in ploughing the ground, that the country may 
 become white with corn. The serpent shall endeavour to diffuse his poison, 
 in order to blast the ha r rest." Again he says: — "There shall be a miser- 
 able desolation of the kingdom, and the floors of the harvests shall 
 return to the fruitful forests. The white dragon shall rise again, and 
 invite over a daughter "of Germany. Our gardens shall be again 
 replenished with foreign seed, and the red one shall pine away at the 
 end of the pond. After that shah the German worm be crowned, and 
 the brazen prince buried." Merlin's red and white dragons aie 
 intended directly to personify the British and Saxon races of men, as 
 the red and white roses in after time served as emblems of the houses 
 of Lancaster and York ; but the origin of the mythic form of expres- 
 sion is very apparent. 
 
 * Professor Owen (Palaeontology, page 312) gives " slow-worms, serpents," as tie 
 English equivalent of Ophidia, the name of his eleventh order of the class Reptilia. 
 Hence the confusion of traditionary worms, serpents, and dragons ia not quite so 
 absurd as modern non-scientific persons generally imagine. The Eev. G. W. Cox, 
 referring to the Greek aspect of these mythic monsters, says: — "When the word 
 Dragon, which is only another form of Dorkas, the clear-eyed gazelle, became the 
 name for serpents, these mythical beings were necessarily transformed into snakes." 
 
AND FOLK-LORE. 49 
 
 The Saxon Chronicle contains a paragraph under the date 798, 
 which illustrates the power of this superstition in the North of 
 England at that period. The passage itself hkewise suppUes sufficient 
 evidence to connect its interpretation with the Aryan myth under 
 consideration. We read: "A. 793. This year dire forewarnings came 
 over the land of the North-humbrians, and miserably terrified the 
 people ; these were excessive whirlwinds and lightnings ; and Jienj 
 dragons were seen flying in the air. A great famine soon followed these 
 tokens." 
 
 Mr. Baring-Gould says, — " In a Slovaldan legend the dragon 
 sleeps in a mountain cave through the winter months, but at the 
 equinox bursts forth. ' In a raoment the heaven was darkened and 
 became black as pitch, only illumined by the fire which flashed from 
 the dragon's jaws and eyes. The earth shuddered, the stones rattled 
 dovm the mountain sides into the glens ; right and left, left and right, 
 did the dragon lash his tail, overthrowing pines and bushes, and 
 snapping them as reeds. He evacuated such floods of water that the 
 mountain torrents were full. But after a whUe his power was ex- 
 hausted ; he lashed no more with his tail, ejected no more water, 
 and spat no more fire.' " Mr. Gould adds, — " I think it unpossible 
 not to see in this description a spring-tide thunderstorm." 
 
 The following paragraph, pubUshed in the Calcutta Englishman last 
 year (1871), demonstrates that this class of superstition still hngers 
 in India : — 
 
 " An Astronomical Prediction. — The Urdu Akhbar says that Maiilvi 
 Mohammed SaUmuz-yaman, the famous astronomer of Eampur, 
 whose deductions have generahy turned out right, has foretold that 
 in the comuig year (1872) a blaze of hght resembhng a shooting star, the 
 like of which no mortal has yet seen, wih be visible in the sky. 'It 
 will dazzle the eyes of the people of particular places with lustre, and, 
 after remaining for a ghari {i.e., 24 minutes), will vanish. The direc- 
 tion in which it wUl make its appearance wiH be the North Pole, and 
 accordingly the people of northern countries will see it distinctly. 
 Probably the natives of China and Persia will hkewise have a sight of 
 it. The effect of this meteor will be that the extent of the globe over 
 which its hght wiU fall will be visited by famine during the year, and 
 a large number of the people inhabiting it will be destroyed, while 
 vegetation wUl be also scanty.' " 
 
 Veritable comets appear to have at times been confounded with 
 these fiery dragons. On the death of Aurehus Ambrosius, brother to 
 Uther, father of the renowned Arthur, according to Geoffrey of Mon- 
 
50 TEAX)ITIONS, SUPEKSTITIONS, 
 
 mouth, "there appeared a star of wonderful magnitude and bright- 
 ness, darting forth a ray, at the end of which was a globe of fife, m 
 form of a dragon, out of whose mouth issued two rays, one of which 
 seemed to stretch out itself beyond the extent of Gaul, the other 
 towards the Irish sea, and ended in seven lesser rays." 
 
 Geoffrey further informs us that, after Uther's first great victory, 
 " remembering the explanation which Merlin had made of the star 
 above mentioned, he commanded two dragons to be made of gold, in 
 likeness of the dragon whjch he had seen at the ray of the star. As 
 soon as they were finished, which was done with wonderful nicety of 
 workmanship, he made a present of one to the cathedral church of 
 Winchester, but reserved the other for himseM to be carried along witli 
 him to his wars. From this time, therefore, he was called Uther 
 Pendragon, which, in the British tongue, signifies the dragon's head; 
 the occasion of this appellation being Merlin's prediction, fi'om the 
 appearance of the dragon, that he should be king." The same 
 "historical " romancer likewise informs us that the redoubtable Arthur 
 himself, after he had embarked at Southampton, on his expedition ■ 
 against Eome, about midnight, dm-ing a brisk gale, in a dream, "saw 
 a bear flying in the air, at the noise of which aU the shores trembled; 
 also a terrible dragon flying from the west, which enlightened the 
 country with the brightness of its eyes. "When these two met they 
 began a dreadful fight ; but the dragon, with its fiery breath, burned 
 the bear which often assaulted him, and threw him down scorched to 
 the ground." This, of course, was interpreted to augur Arthur's 
 victory over the Emperor. Singulai-ly enough, as has been before 
 observed, we find, in authentic history, that the " Golden Dragon " was 
 the standiu-d of the Sa.ron kings of Wessex. When Cuthxed defeated 
 " Ethelbald the Proud," King of Jlercia, at Beorgforda (Burford, in 
 Oxfordshii-e), in 752, "the golden di-agon, the ensign of Wessex," was 
 borne by liis general, EtheUiuu, termed " the presumptuous alder- 
 man," owing to a previous unsuccessful act of rebeUion. 
 
 Dragon superstitions appear to have been earnestly beheved by 
 mediaeval alchemists, and even early chemists and physicians. An 
 old German work on alchemy (1625) informs us, as " a great wonder 
 and very strange," that the dragon contains the greatest " medica- 
 ment," and that "there is a dragon hves in the forest who has no 
 want of poison ; when he sees the sun or fire he spits venom, wMeh 
 flies about fearfully. No hving animal can be cured of it ; even the 
 basilisk does not equal him. He who can properly Mil this serpent 
 has overcome aU his danger. His colours increase in death ; physio 
 
AND FOLK-LOBE. 51 
 
 is produced from his poison, which he entirely consumes, and eats 
 his own venomous tail. This must be accomplished by him, in order 
 to produce the noblest balm. Such great virtue as we will point out 
 herein that all the learned shall rejoice." 
 
 The poison spitted out on sight of the sun or fire is evidently 
 analagous to the breath of the Aryan dragon Ahi, who scorched the 
 earth. The conqueror of the said dragon takes the place of Indra, 
 who, by discharging his lightning spear into the rain cloud, subdues 
 the monster, and converts his poison (excessive heat), into a medicine 
 or bahn, which aids in the fertilisation of the earth. 
 
 This is in accordance with the Greek legend, which asserted that 
 Jilsculapius or Asklepios, the godof medicine, "wrought his wonderful 
 cures through the blood of Gorgo." Hence the serpent became his 
 symbol. At Epidaurus the god was supposed to manifest himself in 
 the form of a yellowish brown snake, abundant in that neighbom'hood. 
 It frequented the temple, was large in size, but harmless and easily 
 tamed. The Eev. G. W. Cox, says, "throughout HeUas, Asklepios 
 remained the healer and restorer of life, and accordingly the serpent 
 is everywhere his special emblem, as the mythology of the Liuga 
 would lead us to expect." Again he says, "the symbol of the 
 PhaUos in its physical characteristics suggested the form of the 
 serpent, which thus became the emblem of life and heahng, and as 
 such appears by the side of the Hellenic Asklepios, and in the 
 brazen crucified serpent venerated by the Jewish people untU it was 
 destroyed by Hezekiah." 
 
 According to. the Edda, the Scandinavians beheved that after the 
 various gods had, for a considerable time, alternately overthrown 
 each other, the "fiery snake" would consume "universal nature 
 with aU-destroyiag flames." The word "Edda" means "Mother of 
 Poetry." The contents of the Edda have been styled " haK oriental 
 and half northern." 
 
 Kemains of ancient serpent worship have been recently discovered 
 iu America and in Scotland. Some writers indeed regard the temples, 
 at Abury and Stonehenge as belonging to this class. One m North 
 America, described by Mr. Squier, is a mound 700 feet long, fashioned 
 in the form of a serpent. At the recent meeting of the British Asso- 
 ciation in Edinburgh, Mr. John S. Phene, F.G.S., described a mound of 
 this character, which he had discovered in Argyleshire. A large cairn 
 forms the head of the monster, which is 300 feet in length. The spinal 
 column, with its sinuous windings, is distinctly marked out by carefuUy 
 adjusted stones, now covered with peat. To detect the exact form of the 
 
52 TEADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 entire reptile, it is necessary that the whole should be seen at one -view 
 from above. A megahthic chamber was found beneath the head of the 
 serpent, or saurian, which contained burnt earth and bones, charcoal, 
 and charred nutshells, and a flint implement with the edge serrated 
 hie a saw. The mound is described as being la a remarkably perfect 
 condition, considering its great antiquity. 
 
 Some writers, and notably one, some years ago in " Chambers's 
 Journal," discoursing on dragon superstitions, have suggested, as re- 
 mains of the traditionary Moa of New Zealand is still said to be found 
 in some portions of the islands, that our early ancestors may have had 
 a sUght knowledge of the existence of some of the huge saurian rep- 
 tiles, known to us geologically in the fossil condition. This attempt 
 to give a naturahstic solution of the problem at first sight is very 
 plausible ; but it falls to the ground at once, when the nature of 
 geological time is taken into consideration. The earhest remains of 
 man, including the flint implements in the higher river gravels, per- 
 tain to what LyeU terms the post-phocene period. The huge hzards or 
 saurians of the ooHtic period had become extinct countless ages pre- 
 viously. The same may be said, though in a relatively lesser degree, of 
 the huge Dinotherium found in the Upper Miocene formation. Some 
 writers, indeed, who advocate the hypothesis of man's descent by 
 " natural selection" or " evolution," from the lower animals, contend 
 that some antitype of humanity may have Uved in the Miocene period, 
 but of this we have no evidence. The extinct gigantic animals, found 
 in connection with the oldest known remains of man, are pachyderms, 
 which in no way resemble, either in then- habits, or by the most 
 strained metaphor, in their forms, the dragons and serpents of 
 the Aryan mythology or their modern descendants in British histoiy 
 and tradition. The discovery of then- bones has undoubtedly had 
 something to do with giants and other monsters of the mythic 
 class, of which more will be said in another chapter. 
 
AND FOLK-LOEB. 63 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 CHRISTMAS AND YULE-TIDE SUPEESTITIONS AND OBSEEVANOES. 
 
 Here's merry Cliiiatmas come again. 
 
 With all it ever used to bring ; 
 The mistletoe and carol strain, 
 The holly in the window pane, 
 And all the bloom from bill and plain 
 
 That Winter's chilly hand can fling. 
 
 It comes with roar of city beUs ; 
 
 It cornea with many a village chime ; 
 And many a village grand-dame tells 
 Of places where the white ghost dwells, 
 Of demon forms and robbers' cells, 
 
 And all the tales for Christmas time. 
 
 Eliza Cooh. 
 
 If there by any possibility existed a doubt that the rehgion of the 
 Messiah was one of love and not of gloom, the sunny side of the 
 argument would be amply vindicated by the fact that, from the 
 earhest Christian times, the anniversary of the advent of the Saviour 
 was always celebrated with becoming social enjoyment. " Merrie 
 Christmas," indeed, in spite of hail and rain, and sleet, and snow, 
 the blustering of old Boreas, and the frigid embrace of " Jack Frost," 
 has passed into a proverb. The mass of the British people, notwith- 
 standing their characteristic constitutional phlegm, contrive to be- 
 come conspicuously social at Christmas tide. They appear to have 
 been too closely occupied with business affau'S during the greater por- 
 tion of the year to indulge much in the hearty humour and frank 
 good-will which unquestionably form important elements in the 
 national idiosyncrasy. Their habitual taciturnity, however, influenced 
 by some law whose action is diametrically opposed to that which 
 determines the elemental routine, generally thaws on the approach of 
 Christmas. It is not too much to say that, at this period of the 
 year, the manly generous side of the Enghsh character is seen to 
 most advantage. Under the genial influence of Christmas associa- 
 tions, even stern, plodding " men of business" leave their weU-worn 
 official stools and well-thumbed ledgers, and enjoy heartily the 
 
54 TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 Christmas meal of roast beef and plum pudding in company with 
 their relatives and friends. Nay, at this festive season, we have seen 
 the veriest old " money-grubbers" of the city, the most cool and calcu- 
 lating of the habitues of the stock-exchange, dance and froUc, and 
 aid the juveniles of their social chcles in the perpetration of practical 
 Christmas jokes, the compounding of " snap-dragon," the fashianing 
 of mistletoe bushes, etc., to the infinite dehght of the youngsters and 
 then- own evident personal gratification. There is, undoubtedly, a 
 time and a season for aU things ; and the British pubhc especially 
 appear for ages to have resolved that " Christmas time" is the 
 season for the exercise of grateful memories, for the interchange of 
 social kindness, the propagation of the great principle of progressive 
 civihsation, " peace and good- will to man," — yes, and Ukewise, for 
 the temperate indulgence in harmless mirth, and hearty, jovial 
 laughter. 
 
 Christmas is the season in which pantomimes flourish. By the 
 bye, who ever heard of a pantomime that was not a " Christmas" 
 one ? I am certain I would not myself, — and I feel certain the 
 most boisterous of the young imps who giggle themselves into a 
 frightful condition of side-ache and cheek-ache when witnessing the 
 tricks and jokes,. stale or otherwise, of clown and pantaloon, and the 
 perpetually unfortunate pohceman, would endorse the sentiment, — 
 I would not walk two streets' length, no, not two yards, to witness 
 the best pantomime in the world on Midsummer's eve ! One would 
 as soon think of asking the cook, as a special mark of her personal 
 regard, to give us a tm-n or two on the spit, accompanied by a copious 
 basting with rancid butter ! But it is quite a different affah on 
 Christmas Eve, or " boxing night." The pantomime is, in every 
 sense, unquestionably the property of " dear old Christmas," and 
 then, and then only, can its roUicking fun, farce, fancy, and fairy 
 marvels be thoroughly understood or enjoyed. 
 
 Pantomime, among the Greeks and Eomans, as well as the Chinese, 
 Persians, and other Oriental peoples, was a dramatic performance, in 
 which action and gesticulation formed the most prominent features. 
 The modern haUet is, perhaps, its most legitimate descendant at the 
 present day. The name, however, is derived from two Greek words, 
 which signify mimicry or ' ' imitation of everything. ' ' The modern pan- 
 tomime, therefore, with its universal hash of fun and frohc, of fairies 
 and fiends, deities and dragons, of ghosts, gobhns, and giants, of bui'- 
 lesque and ballet, painting and punning, of music and mountebank- 
 ing, responds moat accurately to the classical etymon. 
 
AND FOLK-LOBE. 55 
 
 Althoiigh the profuse but somewliat indiscriminate hospitality, and 
 some of the ruder of the Christmas games and ceremonies of our 
 mediaeval ancestors, have dechned or fallen into general disuse, the 
 anniversary of the advent of the founder of the national rehgion yet 
 remains the chief season set apart especially for genial social rater- 
 course, the gathering together of relatives and friends, the interchange 
 of mutual good-wiU, and of festive enjoyment. 
 
 After discussing the various opinions, facts, and conjectures ad- 
 vanced by others respecting the origin of " yule logs" and Christmas 
 fires. Brand says : " However this may be, I am pretty confident that 
 the yule block wiLl be found, in its first use, to have been only a 
 counterpart of the Midsummer fires, made within doors because of 
 the cold weather at this vsdnter solstice, as those in the hot season at 
 the summer one, are kindled in the open au'." 
 
 Precisely so ; yet, as the Midsummer fires were not kindled for the 
 sake of the warmth they afforded, but as a kind of incantation or a 
 propitiatory sacrifice to the fire god or the elements generally, if the 
 two had a common origin, we may reasonably expect to find a similar 
 principle or motive at the root of the Christmas observances. At the 
 summer solstice the sun's heat parched the earth and burnt the vege- 
 tation. Hence the propitiatory ceremony of the fire worshippers. 
 At the winter solstice his feeble rays were insufficient to the require- 
 ments of vegetable existence, and the severe cold added to the priva- 
 tions of both and man and beast. Hence the existence of a corres- 
 ponding sentiment and corresponding ceremonial observances. 
 
 Brand further says : " On the night of this eve om- ancestors were 
 wont to hght up candles of an uncommon size, called Christmas 
 candles, and lay a log of wood upon the fire, called a yule-clog or 
 Christmas block, to niuminate the house, and, as it were, turn night 
 into day. ,This custom is, in some measure, stiO. kept up in the 
 north of England." 
 
 The early Christians were, and the learned of more modern times 
 are, divided in opinion as to the precise day of the Nativity. The 
 feast of the Passover and that of the Tabernacles have each found 
 powerful advocates. According to St. Chrysostom, the primitive 
 Christians celebrated the Christmas and Epiphany feasts at one and 
 the same time. They were not separated till the councU of Nice, in 
 the year 325. Amongst the Armenians, notwithstanding, the two 
 feasts were jointly celebrated tiU as recently as the thirteenth cen- 
 tury. It has been urged by some that, as shepherds were watching 
 their flocks by night in the open an-, the birth of Christ could 
 
56 TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 scarcely have occurred in the winter season. But so long as one 
 time was accepted by the universal Church, it appeared to be of little 
 moment which theory was adopted. Sir Isaac Newton, in his " Com- 
 mentary on the Prophecies of Daniel," accounts for the choice of the 
 25th December on the ground of its being the winter solstice. He 
 shows, likewise, that other feasts were originally fixed at the cardiaal 
 points of the year. " The first calendars having been so arranged by 
 mathematicians at pleasure, without any ground in tradition, the 
 Christians afterwards took up what they found in the calendars." 
 
 There can be Uttle doubt that this view of the question is correct, 
 and that many of the curious customs and ceremonies, which were 
 for centm-ies rehgiously observed throughout the land, and many of 
 which stUl hnger about the hohday celebrations of remote districts, 
 have an origiu older than Christianity itself. The most orthodox and 
 exemplary writers of the middle ages acknowledge this, and contend 
 that the practice of the early Christians of appropriating the festive 
 seasons of their heathen converts was productive of good results. 
 
 The testimony of Thomas Warmstry, whose now rare tract, en- 
 titled " A Vindication of the Solemnity of the Nativity of Christ," 
 was pubhshed iu 1648, is strongly m favour of this view. He says : 
 " If it doth appeare that the time of this festival doth comply with 
 the time of the heathen's Saturnalia, this leaves no charge of impiety 
 upon it ; for since things are best cured by their contraries, it was 
 both wisdom and piety in the ancient Christians (whose work it was 
 to convert the heathens from such as well as other superstitions and 
 miscarriages) to vindicate such times from the service of the devill, 
 by appoynting them to the more solemne and especiall service of 
 God. The hlaws are fooHsh and vain, not countenanced by the 
 church." 
 
 The " blazes" here referred to are evidently the yule logs and im- 
 mense candles, which the worthy pastor denounces with orthodox 
 precision. " Blazes" and " Pandemonium" are yet synonymous 
 terms, in vulgar mouths, in many parts of Lancashire. Some of 
 the ceremonies of this period, however, meet with his somewhat 
 quahfied approval. He says : " Christmas Ka riles, if they be such as 
 are fit for the time, and of holy and sober composures, and used with 
 Christian sobriety and piety, they are not unlawful!, and may be 
 profitable if they be sung with grace in the heart. New Yeare's gifts, 
 if performed without superstition, may be harmless provocations to 
 Christian love and mutuall testimonies thereof to good purpose, and 
 never the worse because the heathens have had them at the like 
 times." 
 
AND POLK-LOBB. 57 
 
 One important attribute of the Yule log resulted from the fact that 
 each succeeding brand received its kindhng fire from the remains of 
 its predecessor ; hence its supposed supernatural influences. Herrick 
 siugs : — ■ 
 
 With tlie last year's brand 
 Light the new block, and 
 
 Por good success in his spending, 
 On your psaltries play, 
 That sweet luck may 
 
 Come while the log is a teending. 
 
 Etymologists have laboured hard to get at the root of the word 
 Yule ; some of them, however, with but indifferent success. Brand 
 says : — " I have met with no word of which there are so many and 
 such different etymologies as this of Yule, of which there seems 
 nothing certain but that it means Christmas." Some writers, in- 
 cluding the venerable Bede, derive it from hveol, the Anglo-Saxon 
 form of our modern English word wheel, which, as I have aheady 
 shown, is one of the Aryan types of the sun. Bede, I think, assigns 
 the true meaning to the term when he says it is so named " because 
 of the return of the sun's annual course, after the winter solstice." 
 According to Mr. Davies (Cel. Res. p. 191), the god Bel or Beh was 
 called Hu. Mallet in his " Northern Antiquities," says : — " All 
 Celtic nations have been accustomed to the worship of the sun ; 
 either as distinguished from Thor," (?Bel) "or as considered his 
 symbol. It was a custom that everywhere prevailed in ancient times 
 to celebrate a feast at the winter solstice, by which men testified their 
 joy at seeing this great luminary return again to this part of the 
 heavens. This was the greatest solemnity in the year. They called 
 it in many places Yole or Yuul, fe-om the word Hiaul and Haul, 
 which, even at this day, signifies the Sun in the languages of Bass- 
 Britagne and Cornwall." 
 
 Brand objects to this etymology, on the ground that it "is giving 
 a Celtic derivation of a Gothic word (two languages extremely differ- 
 ent.)" This objection, however, faUs to the ground with the dis- 
 covery of the fact that both languages have a common origin, and 
 that the several races and thefr superstitions are but separate develop- 
 ments of Aryan blood and Aryan mythology. In modern Welsh 
 gwyl means a festival or hohday, and this may be the true root of the 
 word gule, in the phrase " the gule of August," or Lammas-day. 
 But the Welsh gimjl may itself be derived fr-om the same root as yule, 
 which, to our ears, now only signifies, as Brand says, " Christmas," 
 or the festive season. Heuh, in modern Welsh, means to " shine as 
 
58 TKADITIONS, SUPEESTITIONS, 
 
 the sun." In India the term Huli festival is applied to the cere- 
 monies attendant upon the sun's entering into the spring quarter 
 at the vernal equinox. 
 
 In ordinary life we meet with very few persons who are aware of the 
 fact that the practice of regarding the first of January as the oom- 
 menoement of a new year is of very modern origin, in England, at 
 least. Prior to 1752, in most legal or oflS.cial matters, and in private 
 records, the year commenced on the 25th of March. At this time an 
 Act of Parhament was passed which " du-ected that the legal year 
 which then commenced in some parts of this country in March, and 
 in others in January, should universally be deemed to begin on the 
 first of January." This wlU appear to many as a strange sj)ecies of 
 legislation, savouring somewhat of the vanity and irreverence for 
 which Canute, the great Danish King of England, rebuked his cour- 
 tiers, when he ironically commanded the tide to cease flowing, lest, 
 forsooth, it should damp his royal shoe-leather. The commencement 
 of the year, as has been before observed, being not a fact in physics, 
 but a conventional or civil arrangement for human convenience, is 
 therefore a legitimate subject for legislative interference, with the 
 view to arrive at a uniformity of style, and so facihtate business 
 operations and the enquiries of historians and students of science.- 
 
 The practice of celebrating the new year's advent on the first of 
 January appears to have obtained to a considerable extent in England 
 long prior to its legal recognition. The famous Puritan writer, 
 Prynne, in his " Histrio-Mastrix, or a Scourge for Stage Players," 
 published in 1632, has the following slashing tirade against the festive 
 observances of this period : — 
 
 " If we now parallel our grand disorderly Christmases with these 
 Eoman Saturnals and heathen festivals, or our New Yeare's Day (a 
 ohiefe part of Christmas), with their festivity of Janus, which was 
 spent in mummeries, stageplays, dancing, and such hke enterludes, 
 wherein fidlers and others acted lascivious effeminate parts, and 
 went about their towns and cities in women's apparel ; whence 'the 
 whole Cathohcke Church (as Alchuvinus and others write), appointed 
 a solemn pubhke faste upon this our New Yeare's day (which fast it 
 seems is now forgotten), to bewail these heathenish enterludes, sports, 
 and lewd idolatrous practices which have been used on it ; }}rohibiting 
 all (Mni'stimu, wider pain of cxcommiinication, from ohsei-vinfj the calends, 
 or first of January (which ice now call New Yeare's Day), as holy, ani 
 from sending abroad New Yeare's Oifts upon it (a custom noie too frequent), 
 it heiiiij a ni^re relique of paganisme and idolatry, dcriccdfrom the heathen 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 69 
 
 Romans' feast of twofaced Janioi, and a practice so execrable unto 
 Christians that not only the whole Catholicke Church, but even four 
 famous Councils" [and an enormous quantity of other authorities 
 which it is useless to quote] " have positively prohibited the solemniza- 
 tion of New Yeare's Day, and the sendimj abroad of New Yeare's Gifts, 
 under an anathema and excommunication." 
 
 Although there can be no doubt that the practices referred to were 
 in existence prior to the introduction of Christianity, yet the threat of 
 excommunication and anathema failed to root them out of the heart 
 of the mass of the population, and they survive to the present day. 
 Some of the gifts made to sovereign princes on the advent of the new 
 year were not only valuable, but often quaint in device, and some- 
 times, according to modern ideas, in singularly bad taste. The 
 accomplished scholar, soldier, and courtier, Sir Philip Sidney, on the 
 New Year's Day of 1678, presented to Queen Ehzabeth a " cambric 
 chemise, its sleeves and collar wrought with black work and edged 
 with a small bone lace of gold and silver. "With it was a pair- of ruffs 
 interlaced with gold and silver, and set with spangles which alone 
 weighed four ounces." His friend Fullte Greville likewise presented 
 an embroidered chemise. On another occasion of a similar character, 
 (1581), " Sidney made three characteristic presents — a gold-handled 
 whip, a golden chain, a heart of gold, as though in token of his entu-e 
 subservience to her Majesty, and his complete surrender of himself to 
 the royaJ keeping. On one occasion, the Earl of Ormond presented 
 to the Queen " a golden phoenix, whose wings and feet ghttered with 
 rubies and diamonds, and which rested on a branch covered with 
 other precious stones. Sir Christopher Hatton tendered a cross of 
 diamonds, furnished with a suitable motto ; also a gold fancy, 
 imaging a dog leading a man over a bridge, and garnished with many 
 gems." Lord and Lady Cobham each presented a satin petticoat 
 elaborately ornamented. Her Majesty, on New Year's Day, it ap- 
 pears, did not disdain to receive presents from her servants and 
 tradesmen. Nichols, in his " Eoyal Progresses," records that a 
 laundress soHcited the Queen's acceptance of three pocket handker- 
 chiefs and a "tooth cloth." One domestic sought favour with a 
 Unen and another with a cambric nightcap. Apothecaries presented 
 packets of green ginger, orange candy, and " that kind of stuff." A 
 butler's offering consisted of a meat knife, " with a bone handle and 
 a motto carved thereon," while the dustman tendered " two bolts of 
 cambric," the head gardener a silver-gilt porringer, with a " snaO. 
 sticking to an oak-leaf for handle," and the " sergeant of the pastry " 
 
60 TBADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 a " great quince pie with gilt ornaments." The Queen, in return, 
 presented her courtiers, etc., with " gilt plate, showing her esteem by 
 the quantity of the article" apportioned to each recipient. In his 
 preface Nichols remarks that " the only remains of this custom at 
 court now is that the two chaplains in waiting, on New Year's Day, 
 have each a crown piece laid under their plates at dinner." 
 
 Old Thomas Warmstey, as we have seen, held much milder lan- 
 guage on this subject than Prynne. He regarded the gifts as " harm- 
 less provocations to Christian love, and mutual testimonies thereof to 
 good purpose," notwithstanding their heathen origin. The practice 
 is by no means extinct at the present time. In many towns shop- 
 keepers present their customers, on New Year's Day, with candles, 
 nutmegs, spices, etc., in token of good wiU. 
 
 Brand speaks of an ancient custom, which is yet retained in many 
 places on New Year's Eve : " Young women went about with a 
 Wassail Bowl of spiced ale, with some sort of verses that were sung 
 by them as they went from door to door." This hquor was some- 
 times called "Lamb's Wool," although it is difl&cult to conjecture now 
 for what reason. In the " olden time" it appears to have been com- 
 pounded of ale, sugar, nutmeg, toast, and roasted apples or crabs. 
 The wassail bowl originally meant a health -drinking vessel, and is of 
 very ancient origin. The name is derived from two Anglo-Saxon 
 words ivces heel, which signify "be in health," "wax (grow) in health," 
 or in modern phrase, " good health." 
 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth refers to the Saxon practice of health drink- 
 ing on important occasions, when describing the visit of the British 
 King Vortigern to the palace of Hengist, the chieftain of the Teutonic 
 warriors then recently arrived in Britain. During the banquet, 
 Eowena, the beautiful daughter of Hengist, " came out of her cham- 
 ber bearing a golden cup of wine, with which she approached the 
 King, and making a low courtsey, said to him, 'Lanerd' (lord) 
 ' King, wacht heU ! ' The King, at the sight of the lady's face, was 
 on a sudden both surprised and inflamed with her beauty, and, call- 
 ing to his interpreter, asked him what she said, and what answer he 
 should make her. ' She caUed you Lord King,' said the interpreter, 
 ' and offered to drink your health. Your answer to her must be, 
 ' Drinc heil!' Vortigern accordingly answered ' Drinc heU ! ' and 
 bade her drink ; after which he took the cup from her hand, kissed 
 her, and drank himself. From that time to this it has been the 
 custom in Britain, that he who drinks to anyone says 'Wacht heil!' 
 and he that pledges him answers ' Drinc hdlf " 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 61 
 
 In process of time, the practice of drinking healths on solemn or 
 festive occasions was confounded with ordinary tippling, and the term 
 wassail became applied indiscriminately to all festive intemperance. 
 Hamlet says, speaking of the drinking habits of the usurper, 
 Claudius — 
 
 The King doth wake to-night, and takes his rouse, 
 Keeps wassel and the swaggering np-spring reels ; 
 And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenish down, 
 The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out 
 The triumph of his pledge. 
 
 The Antiquarian Eepertory (1775) contains a rude wood-cut of a 
 bowl carved on an oaken beam, which had formed a portion of an 
 ancient chimney recess. The vessel rests on the branches of an apple 
 tree, alluding perhaps. Sir Henry Ellis suggests, to "part of the 
 materials of which the Uquor was composed." On one side the word 
 Wass-heil is inscribed, and on the other Brinc-heile. A commentator 
 on this rehc informs us that it represents a Wassel Bowl, so beloved 
 of yore by our hardy ancestors, " who, on the vigil of the New Year, 
 never failed to assemble round the glowing hearth with their cheerful 
 neighbours, and then, in the spicy Wassel Bowl (which testified the 
 goodness of their hearts) drowned every former animosity — an 
 example worthy of modern imitation. Wassel was the word, Wassel 
 every guest returned, as he took the circling goblet from his friend, 
 whilst song and civil mirth brought in the infant year." 
 
 A work entitled " Naogeorgus," but generally styled the "Popish 
 Kingdom," pubhshed in 1570, and translated by Barnabe Googe, thus 
 refers to the New Year's Day ceremonies of the time : — 
 
 The next to this is New Teare's Day, whereon to every frende 
 
 They costly presents in do bring, and Newe Yeare's gif tes do sende ; 
 
 These giftes the husband gives his wife, and father eke the child. 
 
 And maister on his men bestowes the like with favour milde ; 
 
 And good beginning of the yeare they wishe and wishe againe. 
 
 According to the auncient guise of hsathen people vaine. 
 
 These eight days no man doth require his dettes of any man. 
 
 Their tables do they furnish out with all the meate they can ; 
 
 With march paynes, tartes, and custards great, they drink with staring eyes, 
 
 They rowte and revell, feede and feaste, as merry all as pyes ; 
 
 As if they should at th' entrance of this New Yeare hap to die, 
 
 Yet would they have their belUes full, and auncient friends allie. 
 
 I remember, very recently, at the conclusion of a pubhc jubilee 
 dinner, within a very few miles from Manchester, one of the guests 
 suddenly died of apoplexy. This sad event, of course, caused the ad- 
 journment of the festive gathering. The reason I refer to it here is 
 
62 TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 merely to state that I heard, to my surprise, one of the country visitors 
 say, in a very consolatory tone, " WeU, poor Joe, God rest Ms soul! 
 He has, at least, gone to his long rest wi' a bally fuU o' good me-at, 
 and that's some consolation." This seems to illustrate the meaning of 
 the last couplet in the quotation from " Naogeorgus," the sentiment 
 in which appears to have some affinity to the Greek and Eoman 
 notions of providing the dead with food and money to aid their 
 passage across the Styx. 
 
 TheEev. S. Baring-Gould, ia his "Curious Myths of the Middle Ages," 
 says " it is a singular fact that only the other day I heard of a man in 
 Cleveland (Yorkshire) being buried two years ago with a candle, a penny, 
 and a bottle of wine in his coffin : the candle to Ught him along the 
 road, the penny to pay the ferry, and the wine to nourish him as he 
 went to the New Jerusalem. I was told this, and this explanation 
 was given to me by some rustics who professed to have attended 
 the funeral. This looks to me as though the shipping into the 
 other land were not regarded merely as a figure of speech, but as a 
 reaUty." 
 
 One writer says the " high feast of Yule lasted untU the twelve days 
 be passed," and consequently included our new year and tweHthnight 
 festivities. During this period a strdhg superstition yet obtains in 
 Lancashire and Yorkshhe respecting fire. A singular instance of this 
 recently occmTed to a friend of mine within three miles of Manchester. 
 Seeing a cottage door open, he entered, and asked the good woman of 
 the house to give him a light for his cigar. He was somewhat 
 astonished at her inhospitable response: "Nay, nay, I know better 
 than that." ■ " Better than what ?" he inquired. " Why, better than 
 give a Ught out of the house on New Year's Day ! " He contrived, not- 
 withstanding, to ignite his cigar vfithout the woman's assistance, and 
 she seemed content. She had forgotten the best half of the condition, 
 however, and committed the very blunder she sought to avoid. Accord- 
 ing to Sir Henry EUis, in the North of England the superstition 
 ordains that you " never allow any to take a hght out of your house on 
 New Year's Day ; a death in the household, before the expiration of 
 a year, is sure to occur if it be allowed." 
 
 Sir Henry EUis Ukewise mentions a curious superstition stiU exist- 
 ing in Lincolnshire. It is considered unlucky to let anything be taken 
 out of the house on New Year's Day, before something has been 
 brought into it. The importation of the most insignificant article, 
 even a piece of coal, is, it appears, sufficient to prevent the misfor- 
 tunes oecuring, which the contrary action, it is believed, would render 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 63 
 
 « 
 
 inevitable during some portion of the year. This sentiment is 
 expressed in the following popular rhyme : — 
 
 Take oi\t, then take in, 
 Bad luck will begin ; 
 Take in, then take out, 
 Good hick comes about. 
 
 A remarkable instance of the strength of the superstitious reverence 
 for this day, or rather of the popular belief in the prophetic character of 
 any incident occurring thereon, recently happened in Manchester. A 
 pubhcan, name Tilley, refused to serve a glass of whisky -ore credit 
 during the New Year's Day's festivities, on the score that it was 
 " unlucky" so to do. He said he preferred making the man a pre- 
 sent of the Uquor to the committal of any such act. The refusal so 
 exasperated the thirsty customer that he stabbed the landlord in the 
 abdomen, and, as the wound proved fatal, he was condemned to death 
 for wilful raurder, but the sentence was afterwards commuted to penal 
 servitude for hfe. Thus the faith in the tradition produced a more 
 tragic result than the most superstitious could have dreaded from, its 
 ignoration. Singularly enough, owing to the first day of the year 
 happening on Sunday, the usual festival was postponed till the following 
 day ; so it appears in this instance the superstition accompanied the 
 merry-makiug without reference to the date. 
 
 This practice of "bringing in the New Year" with festive rejoicing 
 is 6titL a very common one, especially in the north of England. A singu- 
 lar superstition in connection with it is evidently of very ancient origin. 
 It is considered to be an unlucky omen if the first person who enters 
 a house on the imorning of the first of January happens to be a 
 female. 
 
 Another unlucky omen is yet very commonly respected in Lanca- 
 shire and elsewhere, even amongst comparatively educated people, at 
 this festive season. It is considered to bode misfortune if the first 
 person who enters your house on New Year's morning has a fair com- 
 plexion and Ught hair. I have never heard this very popular preju- 
 dice satisfactorily accounted for. I can only suggest that it most 
 probably arose from the fact that amongst the Keltic tribes, or the 
 earhest Aryan immigrants, dark hair prevailed, as amongst the Welsh, 
 Cornish, and Irish of the present day ; and that when they afterwards 
 came in contact with the Teutonic branch, as enemies, they found 
 their mortal foes to possess fair skins and hght hair. They conse- 
 quently regarded the intrusion into their household, at the commence- 
 ment of the year, of one of the hated race, as a sinister omen. The 
 
64 TKADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 beards and hair of the ancient Aryan gods were golden or red, or fire- 
 coloured. The Teutonie Thor, in this respect, was the counterpart 
 of Indra and Agni. Eed hair, no doubt, would have its admirers, 
 where these gods were worshipped ; and, of course, it would fall into 
 contempt when the reverse was the case. The German early Chris- 
 tians, it appears, not only condemned Thor to the lower regions, but 
 carried their disUke to the very colour of his hair. Hence the pro- 
 verb, " Eother-bart, Teufelsart," or " Eed-beard, devil-steered." 
 They went so far, indeed, as to assert, without any other authority 
 than the speciahty of his personal chaf acter, that the beard of the 
 arch-traitor, Judas Iscariot, was of this obnoxious colour. Dryden 
 refers to it in the triplet which he despatched to Jacob Tonson, as a 
 specimen of his power as a satirist, and which caused the celebrated 
 publisher to deal more hberaUy than previously with the poor and 
 angry poet. Dryden's lines are : 
 
 With leering look, bull-faced, and freckled fair. 
 With two left legs, with Judas-colovtied hair, 
 And frowsy pores that taint the ambient air. 
 
 KeUy says the prejudice is of German and not of Eastern origin. 
 Hence it is not improbable that the dethronement of the red-haired 
 gods may have been at the root of the German antipathy. But the 
 true Kelt does not simply abhor, on New Year's Day, the red hair of 
 the Dane, but the brown or flaxen, or amber locks of the German as 
 well. Indeed, black or dark hair and complexion are the chief objects 
 of his concern in the individual who first enters his domicile on the 
 dawn of the New Year.* Many householders feast their friends on 
 New Year's Eve, and send out shortly before midnight one of the party, 
 with dark hair, expressly " to bring in the New Year," as it is termed. 
 I remember, some time ago, the landlady of one of the Preston hotels, 
 being unmarried, was in the habit of rewarding the fortunate dark- 
 haired gentleman with a kiss for his propitious entrance into her 
 hostelry on the morning of this festivity. Of course, the fan- one had 
 nothing but frowns and harsh words if a Ught-haired interloper 
 happened to first cross her threshold. 
 
 Mr. T. T. Wilkitison, in his "Popular Customs and Superstitions 
 in Lancashii-e," referring to the practice of divination at this season 
 of the year, says: — "When a Lancashire damsel desires to know 
 
 * Since the above was written, I have learned that, in some localities, light-haired 
 men are preferred. This superstition may, therefore, perhaps, arise, as I have 
 suggested, from prejudice of race, and equally apply to Teuton and Kelt, and, con- 
 sequently, subject to local modification. 
 
AND FOLK-LOBE. 65 
 
 what sort of a husband she will have, on New Year's Eve she pours 
 some melted lead into a glass of water and observes what forms the 
 drops assume. When they resemble scissors, she oonohides that she 
 must rest satisfied with a tailor ; if they appear in the form of a ham- 
 mer, he wiU be a smith or a carpenter ; and so of the others. I have 
 met with many instances of this class in which the example given did 
 not admit of easy contradiction." 
 
 The prophetic character of the weather during this period is a super- 
 stition common to all the Aryan tribes. So strongly is this charac- 
 teristic of the season felt in Lancashire, at the present day, that 
 many country people may be met with who habituaUy found their 
 "forecast," as the late Admiral Fitzroy would term the operation, on 
 the appearance of the heavens on Old Christmas Day. Mr. T. T. 
 Wilkinson relates a singular instance of this superstition, which 
 shows the stubbornness of traditional lore, even when subjected to 
 the power and influence of legislative enactments. He says : — 
 " The use of the old style in effect is not yet extinct in Lancashire. 
 The writer knows an old man, E. H., of Habergham, about 77 years 
 of age, who always reckons the changes of the seasons in this man- 
 ner. He alleges the practice of his grandfather and father in support 
 of his method, and states with much confidence that ' Perhment 
 didn't change t' seasons wen they chang'd day o' t' month.' " 
 
 The New Year's advent is stiU beheved to be a period especially 
 favourable for divination of various kinds. A work named the 
 " Shepherd's Kalender," pubhshed in 1709, soberly informs us that 
 , " if New Year's Day in the morning open with dusky red clouds, it 
 denotes strifes and debates among great ones, and many robberies to 
 happen that year." 
 
 The " weatherwise " placed much rehance on the prophetic aspect 
 of the heavens at this period. A' clergyman at Kii-kmiohisl, quoted by 
 Sir John Sinclair, says, with reference to the practices of some of his 
 parishioners, — " On the first night of January they observe with 
 anxious attention the disposition of the atmosphere. As it is 
 calm..or boisterous ; as the wind blows from the north or the south, 
 from the east or the west, they prognosticate the nature of the weather 
 tm the conclusion of the year. The first night of the new year when 
 the wind blows from the west they caU dar-na-coille, the night of the 
 fecundation of the trees ; and from the circumstance has been derived 
 the name in the Gselic language. Their faith in the above signs is 
 couched in verses thus translated :— ' The wind of the south wiU pro- 
 duce heat and fertility ; the wind of the west mUk and fish ; the 
 
66 TRADITIONS, SUPEBSTITIONS, 
 
 wind of the north cold and storm ; the wind from the east fruit on 
 the trees.' " 
 
 A curious custom of this class is mentioned by Sir Henry Ellis, 
 termed " Apple-howhng," as being well known in Sussex, Devon, 
 and elsewhere. Troops of boys gather round the orchards on New 
 Year's Eve, and chant the following ditty : — 
 
 Stand fast root, bear well top. 
 Pray God send us a howling crop ; 
 Every twig, apples big ; 
 Every bough, apples enow ; 
 Hats full, caps full, 
 Full quarter sacks full. 
 
 The practice of divining or " forejcasting " the character of the 
 weather, and influencing the vegetation of the coming year, by cere- 
 monies and observations of atmospheric effects, at its commencement, 
 or on New Year's Day, appears to be prefigured m the ancient Aryan 
 mythology. On this subject Walter Kelly says: — "In the gloomy 
 season of the winter solstice the Eibhus" (demi-gods, who aid in the 
 ruling of the Ughtning and storms) " sleep for twelve days in the 
 house of the sun-god Savitar ; then they wake up and prepare the 
 earth to clothe itself anew with vegetation, and the frozen waters to 
 flow again. It appears certain, from some passages in the Vedas, 
 that twelve nights about the winter solstice were regarded as prefigur- 
 ing the character of the weather for the whole year. A Sanscrit text 
 is noticed by Weber, which says expressly, ' The twelve nights are an 
 image of the year.' The very same belief exists at this day in 
 Northern Germany. The peasants say that the calendar for the 
 whole year is made in the twelve days between Christmas and 
 Epiphany, and that as the weather is on each of these days so wiU it 
 be on the corresponding month of the ensuing year. They believe 
 also that whatever one dreams on any of the twelve nights wiU come 
 to pass within the next year." 
 
 Before the introduction of the New Style, previously referred to, 
 this weather fore-casting was indulged in at the end of March. 
 Brand gives an old rhyme which demonstrates the truth of 'this ; 
 
 March said to Aperill, 
 
 I see three hogs upon a hUl ; 
 
 But lend your first three days to me. 
 
 And I'll be bound to gar them dee. 
 
 The first it sail be wind an' weet. 
 
 The next it sail be snaw an' sleet. 
 
 The third it sail be sic a freeze. 
 
 Sail gar the birds stick to the trees. 
 But when the borrowed days were gane, 
 The three silly hogs came hirplin hame. 
 
AND FOLK-LOKE. 67 
 
 Mr. Henderson, in his recent work on the " Folk-Lore of the 
 Northern Counties," says, "Old people presage the weather of the 
 coming season by that of the last three days of March, which they 
 call the 'borrowing days,' and thus rhjine about : 
 
 March borrowed from April 
 Three days, and they were ill ; 
 The first o' them war wind an' weet. 
 The next o' them war snaw an' sleet. 
 The last g' them war wind an' rain, 
 Which gaed the silly pair ewes come toddling hame. 
 
 The mistletoe and the oak were both of sacred, or "hghtning" 
 origia amongst the Aryans, and the medicinal, mythical, or magical 
 character yet attributed to the former both by the Teutons and Kelts, 
 had, doubtless, one common origin. Walter Kelly says the mistletoe 
 "possesses, in a high degree, aU the virtues proper to botanic hghtning, 
 as is imphed ia its Swiss name, donnerhesen, 'thunderbesom,' and its 
 mode of growth is conformable ia aU particulars to its exalted 
 mythical character. It is a parasite, and hke the asvattha and the 
 rowan, it is everywhere beheved to spring from seed deposited by 
 birds on trees. "When it was found on the oak, the Druids ascribed 
 its growth directly to the gods ; they cliose the tree ; and the bu-d was 
 then- messenger, perhaps a god in disguise." The mistletoe was sup- 
 posed to protect the homestead from fire and other disaster ; and, 
 hke many other mysterious things, it was beheved to be potent in 
 matters relating to courtship and matrimony. It is to this sentiment 
 we owe the practice of kissing under the bush formed of holly and 
 mistletoe during the Christmas festivities. 
 
 This matrimonial element in the mysticism which attaches to the 
 mistletoe is artistically presented in the Scandinavian mythology. 
 Freyja, the mother of Baldr, had rendered him invulnerable against 
 aU things formed out of the then presumed four elements, fire, air, 
 earth, and water. The mistletoe was believed to grow from none of 
 these elements. Another version is that she swore aU. created things 
 never to hurt this the "whitest" and most loved of all the CEsir ; 
 but she overlooked one insignificant branch of the mistletoe, and it 
 was by an arrow fashioned from it that the bright day-god, Baldr, 
 the Scandinavian counterpart of Apollo and Bel, was kUled by the 
 bhnd Hodr or Helder. The gods, however, restored him to hfe, and 
 dedicated the mistletoe to his mother, who is regarded as the counter- 
 part of the classical Venus. Hence its importance in affairs of love 
 and courtship. It is not improbable that the far-famed dart of Cupid 
 may have some relationship to the mistletoe arrow to which the beau- 
 tiful Baldr succumbed. In a Vedic incantation, translated by Dr. 
 
68 TRADITIONS, SUPEESTITIONS, 
 
 Knhn, this death-dealing power of the mistletoe is ascribed to a branch 
 of the asvattha. 
 
 The medicinal quaUties of the mistletoe were also ia high repute. 
 " This heahng virtue, which the mistletoe shares with the ash," says 
 Kelly, "is a long-descended tradition, for 'the Jcustha the embodiment of 
 the soma,' a healing plant of the highest renown among the Southern 
 Aryans, was one of those that grew beneath the heavenly asvattha." 
 This heavenly asvattha is the ficiis religiosa, or "world tree," "out of 
 which the immortals shaped the heavens and the earth ;" and it is 
 supposed to be the prototype of the yggdrasU, the cloud-tree of the 
 Norsemen, " an ash (Norse askr), the tree out of which the gods formed 
 the first man, who was thence called Askr. The ash was also among 
 the Greeks, an image of the clouds, and the mother of men." The 
 Christmas tree of the Germans, recently imported into this coimtry, 
 no doubt originated in these ancient mythical superstitions. 
 
 The wide-spread traditionary behef in this world- overspreading 
 tree is confirmed by a passage in Merhn's celebrated prophecy. The 
 magician says, " After this shall be produced a tree upon the Tower 
 of London, which, having no more than three branches, shall over- 
 shadow the surface of the whole island." Of course Merlin is speaking 
 figuratively of the future prospects of Britain, and refers to the 
 domination of London as the metropohtan city of the British empire. 
 Nevertheless, the origin of the mythical language used for this pur- 
 pose appears to admit of no doubt. 
 
 The famous beanstalk up which the renowned " Jack," of nursery 
 story, climbed till he' reached cloud-land, the abode of fairies and 
 giants, is, unquestionably, a remnant of the Scandinavian yggdrasil, 
 or cloud-tree. Beans and peas, as will be hereafter shown, in the 
 Aryan myths, were connected with celestial fire, and with departed 
 spirits. This Gothic skiey realm has likewise its counterpart in the 
 Greek Phseakian domain, or "cloudland geography," as Mr. Oox aptly 
 expresses it. 
 
 A certain reverence for both the oak and the ash exists yet in the 
 minds of others better educated than the peasantry of England. 
 The phrase, " Our hearts of oak," may shortly be superseded by 
 " Our iron-clads," but the figure of speech, as apphed to the fighting 
 sailor, and not to the craft, wiU long survive the era of the con- 
 version of the ships. The oak and the ash are weather-prophets 
 at this day. An old rhyme says : — • 
 
 If the oak's before the ash, 
 We shall only get a splash ; 
 If the ash precede the oak, 
 We shall surely get a soak. 
 
AND FOLK-LORE. 69 
 
 This, of course, refers to the priority in the time of hudding or 
 coming into leaf. 
 
 Other Christmas customs and superstitions appear to distinctly 
 exhibit an Aryan origin. The white-thorn is supposed to possess 
 supernatural power, and certain trees of this class, in Lancashire 
 called Christmas thorns, are beheved to blossom only on Old Christ- 
 mas Day. Mr. "Wilkinson says that, in the neighbourhood of Burnley, 
 many persons will yet travel a considerable distance "at midnight, in 
 order to witness the blossoming." In the Arboretum at Kew gardens. 
 Miss Pratt informs us, in her " Flowers, and their Associations," 
 there is a tree of this kind which "is often covered with its clusters 
 while the snow surrounds it." The thorn, as I shall afterwards show, 
 was an Aryan "hghtning plant," and, therefore, supposed to be en- 
 dowed with supernatural properties. 
 
 The boar's, head yet forms a prominent object amongst the tra- 
 ditionary dishes of Christmas festivities. Amongst the impersona- 
 tions of natural phenomena in the Aryan mythology, the wild boar 
 represented the " ravages of the whuiwind that tore up the earth." 
 The boar is an animal connected with the storm and lightning, in aU 
 the Indo-European mythologies. KeUy says : — "Boars are winds, and- 
 their white flashing tusks were looked upon by the southern Aryans 
 and the Greeks, as weU. as by the Germans, as images of the hght- 
 ning." There exists yet a traditionary superstition very prevalent in 
 Lancashire and its neighbourhood to the effect that pigs can " see the 
 wind." I accidentally heard the observation made not long ago, in 
 the city of Manchester, in what is termed " respectable society," and 
 no one present audibly dissented. One or two individuals, indeed, 
 remarked that they had often heard such was the case, and seemed 
 to regard the phenomenon as related to the strong scent and other 
 instincts peculiar to animals of the chase. Indeed, Dr. Kuhn says 
 that in "Westphalia this phase of the superstition is the prevalent one. 
 There pigs are said to smeU the wind. No one except myself, in the 
 Manchester instance referred to, appeared to have any knowledge of 
 the origin of the tradition, or that it was, at least, between three and 
 four thousand years old, and, in aU probabihty, very much older. 
 
70 TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 EASTER SUPERSTITIONS AND CEREMONIES. 
 
 Gentle Spring ! in Bunshine clad, 
 
 Well do'st thou thy power display ! 
 For Winter maketh the light heart sad. 
 
 And thou, thou maketh the sad heart gay ! 
 He sees thee, and calls to his gloomy train, 
 i The sleet, and the snow, and the wind, and the rain. 
 
 And they shrink away, and they flee in fear, 
 
 When thy merry step draws near- 
 Winter giveth the fields and trees, so old. 
 
 Their beards of icicles and snow ; 
 And the rain, it raineth so fast and cold, 
 
 We must cower over the embers low; 
 And snugly housed from the wind and weather. 
 Mope like birds that are changing feather ; 
 But storm retires, and the sky grows clear. 
 
 When thy merry steji draws near. 
 
 Translation hy Zongfellow from tht French of 
 
 Charles D'Orleans, XV. centuri/. 
 
 Her feet beneath her petticoat, 
 Like little mice steal in and out, 
 
 As if they feared the light : 
 And, oh ! she dances such a way, 
 No sun upon an Easter day 
 
 Is half so fine a sight. 
 
 Sir John Suckling. 
 
 Many scarcely yet obsolete ceremonies and superstitions peculiar to 
 the spring time of the year may likewise be traced to the ancient fire 
 or sun worship, and other Aryan sources. That the sun rose on 
 Easter-day, and danced with dehght in honour of the resurrection of 
 Christ, is evidently an ancient superstition engrafted on an orthodox 
 Christian tenet. This sun-dancing belief is thus rebuked in the 
 " Athenian Oracle" : — 
 
 " Why does the sun at his rising play more on Easter-day than 
 Whitsunday ? The matter of fact is an old weak, superstitious error, 
 and the sun neither plays nor works on Easter- day more than any 
 other. It's true, it may sometimes happen to shine brighter that 
 morning than any other ; but, if it does, 'tis purely accidental. In 
 some parts of England they call it the lamb-playing, which they look 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 71 
 
 for, as soon as the sun rises, in some clear sirring or water, and is 
 nothing but the pretty reflection it makes from the water, which they 
 may find at any time, if the sun rises clear and they themselves early, 
 and unprejudiced with fancy." 
 
 Sir Thomas Browne, referring to this subject, says: — "We shall 
 not, I hope, disparage the Eesm-rection of om- Eedeemer if we say 
 that the sun doth not dance on Easter-day ; and though we would 
 willingly assent to any sympathetieal exultation, yet we cannot con- 
 ceive therein any more than a tropical expression." 
 
 These extracts are sufficient to show the " toughness" of the tradi- 
 tionary behef, and that its probable origin is of an earher date than 
 the Christian festivities of Easter. Some derive the term Easter 
 fi'om the Saxon Oster, to rise; others "from one of the Saxon god- 
 desses, called Eastre, whom they always worshipped at thi'! season." 
 Others, again, prefer the Anglo-Saxon root, signifying a storm, "the 
 time of Easter being subject to the continual recurrence of tempes- 
 tuous weather." 
 
 The procuring of original or "need-fire," from flint and steel at 
 this season, has been previously referred to. At Beading, in 1559, it 
 appears by the churchwardens' account, yet extant, that 5s. 8d. was 
 " paid for makynge of the PaschaU and Eunte Taper." Two 
 years previously, one made for the abbey chm-ch of Westminster 
 weighed three hundred pounds ! 
 
 A quaint old writer, in a work called " The Festival," pubhshedin 
 1511, referring to these "need-fires," says : — " This day is called, in 
 many places, Godde's Sondaye: ye knowe well that it is the maner 
 at this day to do the fyre out of the haU, and the blaoke wynter 
 brandes, and aU thyngs that is foule with fume and smoke shah be 
 done awaye, and there the fyre was shall be gayly arayed with fayi-e 
 floures, and strewed with grene rysshes all aboute." 
 
 The coloured- eggs thrown into the an- or knocked against each 
 other,at Easter, by adults as weU as children, are, doubtless, rem- 
 nants of the Aryan myth, which typified the renovated sun of the 
 spring season by a red or golden egg. Schwartz says it was a custom 
 among the Parsees to distribute red eggs at their spring festival. De 
 Gebelua, m his " Eehgious History of the Calendar," traces this 
 Easter custom to the ancient Egyptians, Persians, Gauls, Greeks, 
 Eomans, and others, " amongst aU of whom an egg was an emblem 
 of the universe, the work of the Supreme Divinity." In the nursery 
 tale of " Jack and the Bean-stalk," evidently descended from an 
 Aryan source, one of the hero's feats is the abduction from the giant's 
 
72 TRADITIONS, SUPEKSTITIONS, 
 
 castle in " eloudland" of the hen that, at the bidding of its owner, 
 laid golden eggs. 
 
 Brand says : — " BeUthus, a ritualist of a,ncient times, tells us that 
 it was customary in some churches for the bishops and arch- 
 bishops themselves to play with the inferior clergy at hand-ball, and 
 this, as Durand asserts, even on Easter-day itself. Why they 
 should play at hand-ball at this time, rather than any other game. 
 Bourne teUs us he has not been able to discover ; certain it is, how- 
 ever, that the present custom of playing at that game on Easter 
 hoUdays for a tansy-cake has been derived from thence. Erasmus, 
 speaking of the proverb, Mea est jnia, that is, ' I got the ball,' tells us 
 that it signifies ' I've obtained the victory ; I am master of my 
 wishes.' " 
 
 Brand seems to have hit upon the most probable origin of this baU- 
 playing, which appears to be but another form of the Easter egg- 
 throwing ; but, in consequence of his non-acquaintance with the 
 Sanscrit writings and the common Aryan origin of the greater portion 
 of the modern European populations, he sets it forth with great diffi- 
 dence. He says : — " It would, perhaps, be indulging fancy too far to 
 suppose that the bishops and governors of the churches, who used to 
 play at hand-ball at this season, did it in a mystical way, and with 
 reference to the triumphal joy of the season." 
 
 Mysteries, morahties, or mu-acle plays were performed at Easter, 
 either by, or with the sanction of, the ecclesiastical authorities. In 
 the " Sleaford-Gild Account Book" there is an entry, under the date 
 1480, as follows : — " Payd for the EyitiuaU of ye play for the Ascen- 
 cion, and the wrytyng of spechys, and payntyng of a garment for God, 
 iij. s. viij. d." 
 
 In the Eed Book of the Corporation of Kilkenny there is an entry 
 at Midsummer, in 1586, which states that one Eichard Cogan played 
 the part of Christ. His fee for the performance is not stated, but 
 Henry Jiloore received eightpence for acting the Devil, whUe the 
 Kilkenny baker was only rewarded with sixpence for personating 
 the Archangel Michael. 
 
 Similar observances obtained untU recently at other spring festivals, 
 aU having, doubtless, a common origin.* They evidently refer to the 
 
 * The hawthorn, as will be shown in the following chapter, was invested with much 
 superstillous reverence, and especially in connection with the spring festivals ; and, 
 singularly enough, Mr. John Ingram, in his delightful ' ' Flora Symbolica," informs 
 us that the hawthorn is, in "florigraphy," an emblem of Hope. This is, evidently, 
 no accidental coincidence. 
 
AND FOLK-LOKE. 73 
 
 iucreasing power of the sun, the passing away of the winter storms, 
 and the joy of the people at the prospect of an abundant supply of 
 the products of the earth. Reginald Scot, in his "Discovery of 
 Witchcraft," pubUshed in 1584, says : — 
 
 "In some countries they run out of the doors in time of tempest, 
 blessing themselves with a cheese" (another sun emblem, owing to 
 its form), "whereupon was a cross made with a rope's end, upon 
 Ascension Day. — Item, to hang an egg, laid on Ascension Day, in 
 the roof of the house, preserveth the same fi-om all hurts." 
 
 During the last thu-ty or forty years two Easter customs seem to 
 have dechned rapidly in Lancashire and the North of England. 
 Many troupes of boys, and, in some instances, grown-up persons, not 
 very long ago, decorated themselves with ribbons, or party-coloured 
 paper in the most fantastic style, and saUied forth during Easter week 
 "a pace-egging," as it was termed. One of then- number rejoiced 
 in the euphonious cognomen of '.' Tosspot." His face was blacked 
 with soot, and he carried a basket on his arm for the purpose of 
 receiving contributions in the shape of "pace" or " PaschaH" eggs. 
 Of course, the sovereign substitute for all commercial articles, current 
 coin of the realm, was equally acceptable to the dingy and somewhat 
 diaboUcal-looking treasru-er; for the said "Tosspot" bore remarkable 
 resemblance, both in complexion and some other characteristics, to the 
 "Old Nick" of the Norsemen. These "pace-egging" gentry generally 
 wore wooden swords, with which rival troupes, meeting in the streets, 
 occasionally entered into mimic combat that was not always blood- 
 less in its result. The troupe sometimes played a kind of rude drama, 
 in which I remember a certain knight having mortally wounded an 
 enemy, vociferously called out for a "doctor," offering the sum of ten 
 pounds as a special fee for his immediate appearance. Others sang 
 some barbarous rhymes, evidently modern versions of older strains, 
 in which Lords Nelson and Collingwood figured conspicuously. I 
 remember well, in my younger days, having taken a part in more 
 than one of these performances at Preston. In the neighbourhood 
 of Blackburn, men, vsith blackened faces, dressed in the skins 
 of animals and otherwise disfigured, paraded the streets and lanes on 
 these occasions, and, I suppose, obtained much " pace-egg" money, 
 from the terror they inspired. It is not very many years ago since I 
 met a troupe of this class in the village of Walton -le- dale, near 
 Preston, that levied its "black-mail" with considerable success. 
 
 I am inclined to think that the mummery practised at Easter, in 
 Lancashire, resulted merely from the transfer of the May-day games, 
 
74 TEADITIONS, SDPBESTITIONS, 
 
 the orgies of tlie "Lord of Misrule," the "hobby-horse," the Morris 
 dancers, &o., to this festival. The time of holding of holidays', and the 
 character of the anmsements, vary in different localities, and they are 
 not unfrequently blended one with another, when the original purport 
 of each has ceased to be remembered or regarded in the light of a 
 religious festival. The May-day mummeries in London, in Brand's 
 days, and even yet, appear to have borne some resemblance to the 
 Lancashire Easter performances. He says : — 
 
 " The young chimney sweepers, some of whom are fantastically 
 dressed in girls' clothes, with a great profusion of brick-dust, by way 
 of paint, gilt paper, &c., making a noise with their shovels and 
 brushes, are now the most striking object in the celebration of May- 
 day in the streets of London." 
 
 The obtaining of alms, or rather "largesses," as they would term 
 it in " the olden time," appears to have been the chief object of both 
 parties. Indeed, this element in the performance it appears was not 
 confined to the sweeps of London or the " Tosspots" of Lancashire, 
 for Brand further observes : — 
 
 "I remember, too, that in walking that same morning, between 
 Houndslow and Brentford, I was met by two distinct parties of girb, 
 with garlands of flowers, who begged money of me, saying, ' Pray, 
 sir, remember the garland.' " 
 
 The other custom -referred to consisted in the " Hfting" of women 
 by men on Easter Monday, and the indulgence in a simiLar freak, on 
 the following day, by the fair sex, on their mascuhne friends, by way 
 of retahation. It was commonly performed in the public streets, and 
 caused much amusement ; but it was a rude and indehcate piece of 
 practical joking, which can very well be dispensed with, notwith- 
 standing the faith of some that the practice was originally intended 
 to typify the Eesurrection of Christ. 
 
 Bayard Taylor, in his "Byeways of Europe," gives an interesting 
 account of Andorra, a httle repubho situated in the heart of the 
 Pyrenees, between Prance and Spain. This secluded state has 
 enjoyed an independent existence since the days of Charlemagne, 
 and the manners and customs of its inhabitants are of the most 
 simple and primitive character. Mr. Taylor refers to a singular 
 custom that obtains amongst them, and which bears some resem- 
 blance to the Lancashire one just referred to. He says, "Before 
 Easter, the unmarried people make bets, which are won by whoever, 
 on Easter morning, can first catch the other and cry out, 'It is 
 Easter, the eggs are mine !' Tricks, falsehoods, and deceptions of all 
 
AND FOLK-LOBE. 76 
 
 kinds are permitted ; the young man may even surprise the maiden 
 m bed, if he can succeed in doing so. Afterwards they all assemble 
 in pubHc, relate their tricks, eat then- Easter eggs, and finish the day 
 with songs and dances." 
 
 Cakes and buns are baked at this season, which are supposed to 
 possess supernatural properties. Sir Henry Ellis says, "It is an old 
 behef that the observance of the custom of eating buns on Good 
 Friday protects the house from fire, and several other vii'tues are 
 attributed to these buns." 
 
 In "Poor Eobm's Ahnanack" for 1733, is the following :— 
 
 Good Friday comes this month, the old woman runs 
 With one or two a penny hot-cross buns, 
 Whose virtue is, if you believe what's said, 
 They'll not grow mouldy like the common bread. 
 
 The baking of cross -buns at Easter is evidently but a legitimate de- 
 scendant of the cake baking of the olden festivities. Some consider 
 the cross on the buns as an addition since the introduction of Christi- 
 anity ; others think it may be the remains of an older observance. 
 Dr. Kuhn, speaking of the crosses on ancient boundary and bridal 
 oaks, says an oak formerly grew in a wood near Dahle, around which 
 newly-married couples danced three times, and afterwards cut a 
 cross on it. This cross, he contends, originally represented " Thor's 
 hammer, the consecrator of marriage." The latter was unquestion- 
 ably one form of the many phaUio symbols. Mr. Baring-Gould notices 
 the prohibitions issued at various times against the carrying about 
 of ploughs and ships, especially on Shrove Tuesday, because 
 they were phaUic symbols. A writer in the Quartciiy Mur/azine, 
 although he considers the planting of the old boundary oak as a 
 Saxon institution, yet regards the placing of the cross thereon as 
 a withdrawal of the tree " from the dominion of Thor or Odin." 
 Kelly, in reply to this, says : — " More or less it did so in Christian 
 times, but previously to then the cross as well as the tree may have 
 belonged to Thor." The cross, in some of its varied forms, has 
 evidently been used as a mythical type from the earUest period of 
 traditional history. I remember, only a very few years ago, when on 
 a visit to Brampton, in Cumberland, being shown, in the neighbour- 
 hood, the locahty on which one of these ancient marriage oaks had 
 grown for ages. It had only recently been cut down, to the chagrin 
 of many of the neighbouring inhabitants. 
 
 A writer in " Once a Week," referring to this subject, says, "Do 
 our Eituahsts eat hot cross-buns on Good Friday ? Perhaps they 
 
76 TEADITIONS, SUPEESTITIONS, 
 
 do not, but consider the consumption .of such cakes to he a weak 
 concession to the childish appetites of those who would not duly 
 observe then- Lenten fastings ; and who, had they lived in the days 
 of George III., would have been among the crowds who clustered 
 beneath the wooden porticos of the two "royal," and rival, bun- 
 houses at Chelsea. But there is the cross-mark on the surface of 
 the bun to commend it to the minds which are favourably dispbsed 
 to symboUsm ; and there is the history of the cross-bun itself, which 
 goes back to the time of Cecrops, and to the liba offered to Astarte, 
 and to the Jewish passover cakes, and to the eucharistic bread, or 
 cross-marked wafers, mentioned in St. Chrysostom's Liturgy, and 
 thence adopted by the early Christians. So that the Good Friday 
 bun has antiquity and tradition to recommend it ; and, indeed, its 
 very name of bun is but the obhque boun, from bous, the sacred ox, 
 the semblance of whose horns was stamped upon the cake. There, 
 too, they also did duty for the horns of Astarte, in which word some 
 philologists would affect to trace a connection with Easter. The 
 substitution by the Greeks of the cross-mark in place of the horn- 
 mark would seem to have chiefly been for the easier division of the 
 round bun into four equal parts. Such cross-marked buns were 
 fjund at Herculaneum." 
 
 The "simnels" eaten on Mid-Lent, or " Mothering" Sunday, are, 
 doubtless, but modern representatives of the ancient festive cake. On 
 Simnel Sunday young persons especially visit their aged parents, and 
 make them presents of various kinds, but chiefly of rich cakes. 
 It is said by some to have been originally called "Mothering Sunday" 
 from a practice which formerly prevailed of visiting the mother church 
 or cathedral, for the purpose of making Easter or Lenten offerings. 
 
 The word "simnel" has given rise to much discussion amongst 
 etymologists. It is variously spelled sinmc??, symnel, or, in Lancashire 
 especially, simUinii. It is not improbable that it possesses some 
 relationship to the Anglo-Saxon syniel or symbel, a feast. Bailey and 
 Dr. CoweU derive it from the Latin simila, fine flom-. The popular 
 notion is that the father of Lambert Simnel, the pretender to the 
 throne in the reign of Henry VII., was a famous baker of these cakes, 
 and that they retain his name in consequence of his great reputation 
 in confectionery art. This, however, cannot be correct, as simnels 
 are referred to long before his time. It is far more probable that the 
 trade gave the name to the man, as in the cases of smith, baker, 
 tailor, glover, etc. These cakes, like brides'-cakes, are generally 
 profusely decorated. 
 
AND FOLK-LOBE. 77 
 
 It is not improbable that the name " simnel" was in Saxon times 
 employed to designate a finer or superior kind of bread or cake. It 
 occurs in the " Lay of Havelock the Dane," a French romance, 
 abridged by Geoffroi Gaimer, the Anglo-Norman trouvere. This 
 "Le Lai de Aveloc," Professor Morley says, belongs to the first half 
 of the twelfth century. He considers it to have been founded on " an 
 Enghsh tradition that must have been extant in Anglo-Saxon times, 
 for Gaimer speaks of it as an ancient story." The lay says that when 
 the fisherman Grim, the founder of the town of Grimsby, " caught the 
 great lampery, he carried it to Lincoln, and brought home wastels, 
 simnels, his bags full of meal and corn, neats' flesh, sheep and swine's 
 flesh, and hemp for the making of more Unes." 
 
 Since the above was written, the following paragraph on this subject 
 appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine : — 
 
 "Simnel Cakes. — A well-known Lancashire antiquary some time 
 since stated that this term ' originally meant the veri/ finest bread. 
 Pain demain is another term for it, on account of its having been 
 used as Sunday bread' (if a conje'ctxire may be hazarded, it is possible 
 there may be some connexion with the shew bread and heathen votive 
 offerings, as in India and China) ' at the Sacrament. The name 
 appears in Mediseval Latin as simanellus, and may thus have been 
 derived from the Latin simila — fine flour. In Wright's 'Vocabu- 
 laries' it appears thus: — 'Hie artocopus — symnelle.' This form was in 
 use duriag the fifteenth century. In the ' Dictionarius ' of John de 
 Garlande, compiled at Paris in the thirteenth century, it appears 
 thus : — ' Simeneus — -placentm — simnels.' Such cakes were stamped 
 with the figure of Christ or of the Virgin.' Is it not a httle singular 
 that this custom of making these cakes, and also the practice of 
 assembling in one place to eat them, should be confined to Bury ? 
 Such is the fact. No other town or district in the United Kingdom is 
 known to keep up such a custom.* As stated above, much labour has 
 been expended to trace its origin, but without success. "t 
 
 * This is an error. Bury is certainly famous for its simnels, but other towns in 
 Lancashire, and elsewhere, both keep up the custom and boast of the quality of their 
 confectionery. 
 
 "f The harshness and general painfulness of life in old times must have been much 
 relieved by certain simple and affectionate customs which modern people have learned 
 to dispense vrith. Amongst these was a practice of going to see parents, and especially 
 the female one, on the mid Sunday of Lent, taking for them some little present, such 
 as a cake or a trinket. A youth engaged in this amiable act of duty was said to go 
 a-mothering, and thence the day itself came to be called Mothering Sunday, One can 
 readily imagine how, after a stripling or maiden had gone to service, or launched in 
 
78 TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 Mid-Lent Sunday is like-wise called Braggat or Braggot Sunday, 
 from the custom of drinking " mulled" or spiced ale on that day. The 
 word is believed to be derived from the ancient British bragawd, 
 which signifies a liquor of this class. The Braggat ales drunk on 
 Braggat Sunday have, no doubt, intimate connection with the buns 
 and cake of the other spring festivities. The solid and fluid elements, 
 in some form or other, appear to be indispensible in all festivegather- 
 ings, religious or otherwise. Bacchus and Ceres, or Dionysos and 
 Demeter, were jointly honoured at the festivals attendant upon the 
 celebration of the Eleusinian mysteries. Shakspere makes Sir Toby 
 Belch exclaim, on Malvolio's interference with their noisy festive 
 roystering, "Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall 
 be no more cakes and ale ? " 
 
 In an old glossary of the Lancashire dialect, published in 1775, 
 "carlings" are described as "Peas boiled on Care Sunday, i.e., the 
 Sunday before Palm Sunday." "Parched" peas, or peas fried in 
 pepper, butter, and salt, form yet a favourite dish amongst the poorer 
 classes in the north of England on " Carling Sunday." A tradition, 
 indeed, stUl exists, which asserts that, during a very severe famine, 
 a vessel opportunely arrived in one of the ports, laden with a cargo of 
 peas, to the great deUght of the inhabitants ; and the " carhng" feast 
 is regarded as a memorial of the event. 
 
 independent housekeeping, the old bonds of filial love would be brightened by this 
 pleasant annual visit, signalised, as custom demanded it should be, by the excitement 
 attending some novel and perhaps surprising gift. Herrick, in a canzonet addressed 
 to Maneme, says : — 
 
 "I'll to thee a simnel bring, 
 
 'Gainst thou go a-mothering ; 
 
 So that, when she blesses thee, 
 
 Half that blessing thou'lt give me." 
 He here obviously alludes to the sweet cakes which the young person brought to the 
 female parent as a gift ; but it would appear that the term "simnel" was in reality 
 applicable to cakes which were in use all through the time of Lent. . . . We learn 
 from Ducange that it was usual in early times to mark the simnels with a figure of 
 Christ or of the Virgin Mary, which would seem to show that they had a rehgious 
 signification. We know that the Anglo-Saxon, and indeed the German race ia general, 
 were in the habit of eating consecrated cakes at their religious festivals. Our hot cross 
 buns at Easter are only the cakes which the pagan Saxons ate in honour of their god- 
 dess Eastre, and from which the Christian clergy, who were unable to prevent people 
 from eating, sought to expel the paganism by marking them with the cross. It is 
 curious that the use of these cakes should have been preserved so long in this locality, 
 and still more curious are the tales which have arisen to explain the meaning of the 
 name, which had been long forgotten. Some pretend that the father of Lambert 
 Simnel, the well-known pretender in the reign of Henry VII. , was a baker, and the 
 first maker of simnels, and that in consequence of the celebrity he gained by the acts of 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 79 
 
 Peas and beans have had symboUcal oi: sacred characteristics from 
 the earliest times. Beans were regarded by the Greeks and Eomans, 
 according to Phitarch, as higlily potent in the invocation of the main's 
 of the departed. Brand says : " There is a great deal of learning in 
 Erasm-fts's Adages concerning the reUyioiis use of beans, which were 
 thoiight to belong to the dead. An observation which he gives us of 
 Pliny, concerning Pythagoras's interdiction of this pulse is highly 
 remarkable. It is ' that beans contain the souls of he dead.' For 
 which cause also they were used in the Paeentalia." He 
 further adds : " Eidiculous and absurd as these superstitions may 
 appear, yet it is certain that our carlings thence deduce theif origin." 
 
 There is not, after all, anything very ridiculous or absurd about 
 the matter, when the common Aryan origin of these traditionary 
 superstitions is considered. May not the Eoman ParentaUa, or tlie 
 offering of oblations" or sacrifices, consisting of Hquors, victims, and 
 garlands, at stated periods, on the tombs of parents, have had some 
 remote connection with the "mothering" customs referred to, on Mid- 
 
 his son, the cakes have retained his name. There is another story current in Shrop- 
 shire, which is much more picturesque, and which we tell as nearly as possible in the 
 words in which it was related to ua. Long ago there lived an honest old couple, boast- 
 ing the names of Simon and Nelly, but their surnames are not known. It was their 
 custom at Easter to gather their children about them, and thus meet together once a 
 year under the old homestead. The fast season of Lent was just ending, but still they 
 had left some of the unleavened dough which had been from time to time converted 
 into bread during the forty days. Nelly was a carefid woman, and it grieved her to 
 waste anything, so she suggested that they should use the remains of the Lenten dough 
 for the basis of a cake to regale the assembled family. Simon readily agreed to the 
 proposal, and further reminded his partner that there were still some remains of their 
 Christmas plum-pudding hoarded up in the cui^board, and that this might form the 
 interior, and be an agreeable surprise to the young people when they had made their 
 way through the less tasty crust. So far, all things went on harmoniously ; but when 
 the cake was made, a subject of violent discord arose, Sim insisting that it should he 
 boiled, while Nell no less obstinately contended that it should be baked. The dispute 
 ran from words to blows, for Nell, not choosing to let her province in the household be 
 thus interfered with, jumped up, and threw the stool she was sitting on at Sim, who on 
 his part seized a besom, and applied it with right good will to the head and shoulders 
 of his spouse. She now seized the broom, and the battle became so warm that it might 
 have had a very serious result, had not Nell proposed as a compromise that the cake 
 should be boiled first and afterwards baked. This Sim acceded to, for he had no wish 
 W further acquaintance with the heavy end of the broom. Accordingly, the big pot 
 was set on the fire, and the stool broken up and thrown on to boil it, whilst the besom 
 and broom furnished fuel for the oven. Some eggs, which had been broken in the scufile, 
 were used to coat the outside of the pudding when boiled, which gave it the shining 
 glosait possesses as a cake. This new and remarkable production in the art of confec- 
 tionery became known by the name of the cake of Simon and Nelly, but soon only the 
 first half of each name was alone preserved and joined together, and it has ever since 
 been known as the cake of Sim-Nel, or Simnel.— CAamSers's Book of Days. 
 
80 TRADITIONS, SUPEBSTITIONS, 
 
 Lent Sunday? Amongst other objects of the Eoman ceremonial, 
 it appears that of an atonement to the ghosts of the departed 
 was inchided. The storing of peas and beans for the Lenten season 
 was carefully attended to in the middle ages, especially at the rehgious 
 houses. A French work, printed at Paris, in 1^565, entitled "Quadra- 
 gesimale Spnituale," gives some curious information on this subject. 
 Speaking of the Lenten fare, the writer says : — ■ 
 
 "After salad we esA, fried beanes, by which we understand confes- 
 sion. When we would have beanes well sooden, we lay them in steepe, 
 otherwise they will never seeth Idndly. Therefore, if we propose to 
 amend our faults, it is not sufi&cient barely to confess them at all 
 adventure, but we must let our confession lie in steepe in the water of 
 Meditation." He further adds : " Eiver water, which continually 
 moveth, runneth and floweth, is very good for the seething of pease." 
 
 It appears that the modern Greeks have a custom of depositing 
 parboiled wheat with the dead on interment. Gregory says the cere- 
 mony was intended to " siynijie the resurrection of the body." Eefer- 
 ring to peas as an element of the Aryan mythology, Walter Kelly 
 says ; " The plant and the fruit are in some way or other related to 
 celestial fire. It may be that they were regarded in this, hght because 
 they belong to the class of creeping or climbing plants to which such 
 relations were pre-eminently attributed ; at all events, the fact that 
 they represented something in the vegetation of the sky is substan- 
 tiated by numerous details in their mythical history." 
 
 According to Dr. Kuhn and Schwartz, the flying dragons that poison 
 the air and the waters let fall peas in such quantities that they filled 
 the wells and rendered the water so foul that cattle refused to partake 
 thereof. In the German traditions the Zwergs, the forgers of Thor's 
 lightning hammer, were so fond of peas that they plundered the fields 
 of the husbandman, after rendering themselves invisible by means of 
 their " caps of darkness." Peas with sour crout are yet eaten ia 
 Berlin on Thursday (Thor's day), from immemorial habit. Mann- 
 hardt speaks of their medical as well as mystical properties, and says 
 that their relation to the lightning is evidenced by the- fact of their 
 being used as hazel nuts, and the thunderbolts (certain fossil shells 
 and meteoric stones) to augment the fertility of the corn seed. 
 
 A singular custom formerly existed on Maundy Thursday, or the 
 Thursday preceding Easter, when royal personages distributed alms 
 to poor persons. It was named Maundy Thursday from the baskets 
 (or mounds) which contained the gifts. In the " Festival," pubhshed 
 in 1511, it is said to have been hkewise called " Shore Thursday," 
 
ANB FOLK-LORE. 81 
 
 because " anciently people would that day shere theyr hedes and 
 clypp theyr berdes, and so make them honest against Easter-day." 
 After the distribution of the alms in meat, drink, clothing, and money, 
 it was customary for royalty, in imitation of the humUity of Jesus 
 Christ, to wash the feet of the recipients of their bounty. James 11. 
 was the last of our monarchs who performed this ceremony in person. 
 He was likewise the last who successfully (?) " touched" for the cure 
 of the "king's evil," a conclusive reason to the old Jacobites that his 
 successors were all usurpers ! 
 
 This, however, did not appear to have been the orthodox faith in 
 earlier times. Aubrey, in his "Miscellanies" (1696), gravely relates 
 that the manner La which the king's evil was cured by the " touch of 
 the king does much puzzle our philosophers (?); for, whether our 
 kings were of the house of York or Lancaster, it did the cure for the 
 most part!" He further informs us that the seventh son of a seventh 
 son possessed the regal power ; but he quaUfies the important fact 
 by the condition that it must be "a seventh son, and no daughter 
 between, and in pure wedlock." He likewise adds, "The touch of a 
 dead hand hath wrought wonderful effects." This' last superstition 
 is still current in Lancashire. In the time of James II., the remedial 
 power of the "king's touch," in cases of scrofula, was firmly beUeved 
 in by others than the vulgar ; for, it appears, the corporation of 
 Preston voted the sum of five shillings each to two poor women 
 afflicted with this disease, towards their expense lq traveUing to 
 Chester, which city his Majesty had honoured with a special visit 
 at the time, to avail themselves of the supposed potency inherent 
 in the royal digits, under such circumstances. This superstition 
 was not entirely discountenanced by those in authority until the 
 reign of George III. 
 
 This belief ia the supernatural authority of monarchs is but a 
 remnant of the long supposed "divine right" of kings to govern, 
 which resulted from the conviction that they could trace theia- pedi- 
 grees back to the deities themselves. Shakspere, even, puts into the 
 mouth of the murderer and usurper, Claudius, King of Denmark, the 
 foUovfing sentence : — 
 
 Let him go, Gertrude. Do not fear our person 
 There's such divinity doth hedge a king. 
 That treason can but peep to what it would. 
 Acts little of his wiU. 
 
 This superstition is by no means confined to civilized, or semi-civihzed 
 nations. It is almost a universal feelbg amongst savage tribes. 
 
82 TEADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 The ignorant serf of Eussia believed, and indeed yet believes, that if 
 the deity were to die the emperor would succeed to his power and 
 authority. Speke, referring to a very childish but nevertheless very 
 great potentate, who ruled the territory adjacent the Victoria 
 N'yanza, says, "I found that the Waganda have the same absurd 
 notion here as the Wangambo have m Karague, of Kamrasi's super- 
 natural power in being able to divide the waters of the Nile in the 
 same manner that Moses did the Eed Sea." 
 
AND FOLK-LORE. 
 
 83 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 MAY-DAY OEEEMONIES AND SUPEESTITIONS. 
 
 Rejoice, Oh Englisli hearts, rejoice ! 
 
 Rejoice, Oh lovers dear ; 
 Rejoice, Oh city, town, and country, 
 Rejoice, eke every shire. 
 For now the fragrant flowers 
 Do spring and sprout in seemly sort ; 
 The little birds do sit and sing. 
 
 The lambs do make fine sport. 
 Up then, I say both young and old. 
 
 Both man uud maid amaying, 
 With drums and guns that bounce aloud. 
 And merry tabor playing. 
 
 Old May-day Song. 
 
 The May- day festivities and superstitious ceremonies belong to the same 
 antique or pagan class as those prsYiously described. The Irish anti- 
 quary, O'Brien, says that the practice of hghting fires in. honour of the 
 god Bel, on May-day, gave the Irish name " Mina-Bealtine " to the 
 flowery month. Brand says : " In honour of May-day, the Goths and 
 Southern Swedes had a mock battle between summer and winter, which 
 ceremony is retaiaed in the Isle of Man, where the Danes and Norwe- 
 gians had been for a long time masters . ' ' This , evidently, is a remnant 
 of an Aryan myth. Palus Magnus says, the "Northern natives have 
 a custom to welcome the returning splendour of the sun with dancing, 
 and mutually to feast each other, rejoicing that a better season for feast. 
 iag and hunting was approached." ToUet quaintly says: "Better 
 judges may decide that the institution of this festival originated from 
 the Eoman FloraUa, or from the Celtic La Beltiue, while I conceive 
 it derived to us from our Gothic ancestors." The theory of the com- 
 mon Aryan source of these festive rites reconciles Toilet's conception 
 with the decision of the "better judges," for whose opinion he 
 evidently entertains profound respect. The Rev. Mr. Maurice, in his 
 learned work on " The Antiquities of India," contends that the May- 
 day festivities were originally inaugurated at the vernal equinox, and 
 that they pertained to a " phaUic festival to celebrate the generative 
 
84 TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 powers of nature." From tHs stand-point he argues that they are 
 the remains of very ancient ceremonies well known to Egypt, India, 
 and other places. His reasoning on this subject is very learned and 
 ingenious. He says : — 
 
 " When the reader calls to mind what has already been observed, 
 that, owing to a precession of the equinox, after the rate of seventy- 
 two years to a degree, a total alteration has taken place through all 
 the signs of the ecUptic, insomuch that those stars which formerly 
 were in Aries have now got into Taurus, and those of Taurus into 
 Gemini ; and when he considers also the difference before mentioned, 
 occasioned by the reform of the calendar, he will not wonder at the 
 disagreement that exists in respect to the exact period of the year on 
 which the great festivals were anciently kept, and that on which, ia 
 imitation of primaeval customs, they are celebrated by the moderns. 
 Now, the vernal equinox, after the rate of that precession, certainly 
 could not have coincided with the first of May less than four thousand 
 years before Christ, which nearly marks the sera of creation, which, 
 according to the best and wisest of chronologers, began at the vernal 
 equinox, when all nature was gay and smiling, and the earth arrayed 
 in its loveUest verdure, and not, as others have imagined, at the 
 dreary autumnal equinox, when that nature must necessarily have its 
 beauty declining, and that earth its verdure decaying. I have Httle 
 doubt, therefore, that May-day, or at least the day on which the sun 
 entered Taurus, has been immemorably kept as a sacred festival 
 from the creation of the earth and man, and was originally intended 
 as a memorial of that auspicious period and that momentous 
 
 event On the general devotion of the ancients to the 
 
 worship of the bull I have had frequent occasion to remark, and more 
 particularly in the Indian history, by their devotion to it at that period — 
 ' Aperit cum comibus annum Taiirus.' 
 
 ' When the bull with his horns epeneth the vernal year.' I ob- 
 served that all nations seem anciently to have vied with each 
 other in celebrating that bhssful epoch ; and that the moment the sun 
 entered the sign Taurus, were displayed the signals of triumph and 
 the incentives to passion ; that memorials of the universal festivity 
 indulged in at that season are to be found in the records and customs 
 of people otherwise the most opposite in manners and most remote in 
 situation. I could not avoid considering the circumstance as a strong 
 additional proof that mankind originally descended from one great 
 family, and proceeded to the several regions in which they finally 
 settled, from one common and central spot ; that the Apis, or sacred 
 
AND FOLK-LORE. 85 
 
 bull of Egypt, was only the symbol of the sun in the vigour of 
 vernal youth ; that the bull of Japan, breaking with his horn the 
 mundane egg, was evidently connected with the same bovine species 
 of superstition, founded on the mixture of astronomy and mythology." 
 
 According to Mr. Maurice's calculation, the vernal equinox could 
 not have coincided with the first degree of Aries later, at the latest, 
 than eighteen hundred years before Christ. The festival of the 
 vernal equinox would then be celebrated on the first of April. The 
 modern "April fool" freaks are regarded by many writers as relics 
 of these festivities. In India this is termed the Huh fesLival. It has 
 previously been shown that, in modern Welsh, hmlo means to shine 
 as the sun. Heulog likewise means sunny or sunshiny. 
 
 The original purport of most of the May-day ceremonials was 
 unquestionably a demonstration of joy at the return of spring. 
 Eome, speaking of the tower of Magdalen College, Oxford, and its 
 famous peal of ten beUs, says, "On May-day the choristers assemble 
 on the top to usher in the spring." Oxonians of the "olden time," 
 appear to have welcomed the season not simply by blowing lustily 
 through cows' horns, but by drinking deeply from cups fashioned 
 therefrom. Heme says this blowing and drinking was done "upon 
 the jollities of the first of May, to remind people of the pleasantness 
 of that part of the year, which ought to create mirth and gaiety." 
 
 In the north of England, especially. Bourne informs us, that the 
 more youthful portion of the villagers, of both sexes, were in the 
 habit, at midnight, on the eve of May-day, of rendezvousing in some 
 neighbouring wood, with the view of gathering green branches of 
 trees and wild flowers, from which they made garlands, etc., and 
 carried them in procession during the day. Some of these garlands 
 were afterwards deposited in the neighboming churches ; others 
 decorated the doors and windows of the villagers' residences. It 
 appears that the gathering of these woodspoUs was accompanied by 
 much clangour of rude music, including the blowing of cows' horns, 
 previously referred to. Stubbs, the Puritan, in his "Anatomy of 
 Abuses," pubUshed in 1585, rebukes this custom on account of the 
 immoralities which such midnight forest gatherings would doubtless 
 give rise to. And yet the practice was very common, and was counte- 
 nanced by the highest in rank in the kingdom. King Henry VIII. 
 and his Queen, Katherine of Arragon, and the courtiers, are reported 
 to have much enjoyed this species of pastime. 
 
 Stubbs thus describes the custom he denounces : — 
 
 " Against May, every parish, town, and village assembled them- 
 
86 TRADITIONS, SUPEESTITIONS, 
 
 selves together, both men, women, and children, old and young, even 
 all indifferently, and either going all together or dividing themselves 
 into companies, they go, some to the woods and groves, some to the 
 hills and mountains, some to one place, some to another, where they 
 spend all the night in pastimes, and in the morning they return, 
 bringing with them birch boughs and branches of trees, to deck their 
 assembly withal." 
 
 Chaucer, in his " Court of Love," makes reference to the May-day 
 ceremonies of his time, and says that early in the morning " fourth 
 goth al the Court, both most and lest, to fetehe the flouris fresh, 
 and braunch and Home." 
 
 The supposed appropriateness of May-day for love-making is 
 referred to by Shakspere in "A Midsummer Night's Dream." 
 • Lysander, in the first act, wishing to further his suit to Hermia, 
 
 says : — 
 
 If thou lovest me, then, 
 Steal from thy father's house to-morrow pight ; 
 And in the wood, a league without the town, 
 Where I did meet thee once with Helena, 
 To do observance of a mom of May, 
 There wUl I stay for thee. 
 
 Again, in the fourth act, when Theseus and his hunting party 
 discover the two pairs of sweethearts asleep in the wood, the Duke, in 
 reply to a query by Egeus, says : — 
 
 N-o doubt, tJiey rose up early, to observe 
 Tlie rite of May ; and, heaoing our intent, 
 Come here in grace of our solemnity. 
 
 Herrick, in a quaint lyric on this subject, says : — 
 
 There's not a budding boy or girl, this day. 
 Bat is got up and gone to bring in May ; 
 A deal of youth ere this is come 
 Back, with white-thorn laden home. 
 
 Milton thus magnificently apostrophises the advent of the "flowery 
 
 month" : — 
 
 Now the bright morning star, day's harbinger. 
 Comes dancing from the East, and leads with her 
 The flow'ry May, who from her green lap throws 
 The yellow cowslip and the pale primrose. 
 
 Hail, bounteous May ! thou dost inspire 
 
 Mirth and youth and fond desire ; 
 
 Woods and groves are of thy dressing. 
 
 Hill and dale doth boast thy blessing. 
 Thus we salute thee with our early song, 
 And welcome thee and wish thee long. 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 87 
 
 Old Stowe thus quaintly describes the May-day doings in the 
 beginning of the seventeenth century : — 
 
 " On May-day, in the morning, every man, except impediment, 
 would walbe into the sweete meadowes and greene woods, there to 
 rejoyce their spirites with the beauty and savour of sweete flowers, 
 and with the harmony of birds praysing God in their kind. I find 
 also that in the moneth of May the citizens of London, of all estates, 
 lightly in every parish, or sometimes two or three parishes joyning. 
 together, had their several! Mayings, and did fetch in Maypoles, with 
 diverse warKke shewes, with good archers, morice dauncers, and 
 other devices, for pastime aU day long, and towards the evening they 
 had stage playes and bonfieers in the streets." 
 
 Polwhele, in his " History of Cornwall," describes a spring 
 festival, said to be of very ancient origin, annually celebrated at 
 Helston on the 8th of May, named the " Furry," or gathering. 
 The day opens with singing and the beating of drums and 
 kettles. The whole population rush out of the town into the 
 country, and return garlanded with leaves and flowers, in which 
 guise they caper about the streets, and enter unmolested each 
 others' houses to congratulate their neighbours on the return of 
 spring. 
 
 The young people of Spotland, in the parish of Eochdale, are yet 
 in the habit of assembUng on the hill sides on the first Sunday in 
 May, and exchanging congratulations on the return of spring. They 
 drink to each others' health in hquor supphed by the pure mountain 
 streamlets — no inapt substitute for the "heavenly soma" of the Vedic 
 hymns. No doubt, some genuine love-making, as well as much Ucen- 
 tiousness, has resulted from the observance of such ceremonies. It 
 was formerly a custom, for milkmaids especially, in various parts 
 of the country, to dance around a "garland" decorated with articles 
 of value, very much after the fashion of the rush-bearers of Lancashire 
 at the present day. The latter adorn theii- rush-cart and its contents 
 with goblets, watches, and other pohshed metal articles, lent by friends 
 for the occasion. Brand, speaking of the milkmaids in the neigh- 
 bourhood of London, says : — 
 
 " They used to dress themselves in holiday guise on this morning, 
 and come in bands with fiddles, whereto they danced, attended by a 
 strange-looking pyramidal pile, covered with pewter plates, ribands, 
 and streamers, either borne by a man upon his head or by two men 
 upon a hand-barrow ; this was called their garland." 
 
 Doubtless, the " well-dressing," or the decoration of springs and 
 
OO TBADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 fountains witli flowers, yet very common in some counties, and 
 especially in Derbyshire^ either owes its origin to the Eoman 
 Floralia, or to a stUl older custom, the common Aryan root of both. 
 Dr. Stukeley, the celebrated antiquary, writing in 1724, speaks of a 
 May-pole near Horn Castle, Lincolnshire, on a spot " where probably 
 stood an Hermes in Eoman times." He adds : " The boys annually 
 keep up the festival of the Floralia on May-day, making a pro- 
 cession to this hill with May gads (as they call them) in their hands. 
 This is a white willow wand, the bark peeled off, ty'd round with 
 cowslips, a thyrsus of the Bacchanals. At night they have a 
 bonefire, and other merriment, which is really a sacrifice or re- 
 ligious festival." 
 
 The old Puritan writers seem to have entertained a most profound 
 horror of the ancient May-day festivities. Friar Tuck was pronounced 
 a remnant of popery ; maid Marian was the scarlet lady herself ; and 
 the hobby-horse was consigned to the limbo of defunct pagan sujter- 
 stitions. A May-pole was an abomination equalled only in atrocity 
 by a " Whitsun-ale " or a "Morris-dance." Old Stubbs calls the 
 May -pole a "stinking idol," and says it was brought home with 
 " great veneration," hence his malediction. The attendant cere- 
 mony he describes as follows : " They have twenty or forty yoke of 
 oxen, every ox having a sweet nosegay of flowers tied to the tips of 
 his horns ; and these oxen draw home the May-pole, covered aU over 
 with flowers and herbs, bound round with strings from the top to the 
 bottom, and sometimes painted with variable colours, having two or 
 three hundred men, women, and children following it with great 
 devotion." Stubbs evidently knew that the May-pole was of pagan 
 origin, if he was ignorant of its phaHic character. 
 
 The court, however, favoured some of these pastimes. King James 
 I. received a deputation on the subject during his stay at Hoghton 
 Tower ; and at Myerscough, near Preston, in Lancashire, he made a 
 " speeche about Ubertie to piping and honest recreation." This was 
 followed by his famous proclamation, levelled chiefly against the 
 " Puritans and precise people of Lancashire." This action culminated 
 in the stiU more celebrated " Book of Sports." Charles I., in 
 1638, republished "his blessed father's declaration," which decreed 
 that " after the end of Divine service, his good people be not dis- 
 turbed, letted, or discouraged from any lawful recreation ; such as 
 dancing, either men or women ; archery for men, leaping, vaulting, 
 or any other such harmless recreations ; nor from having of May- 
 Games, Whitsun Ales, and Morris Dances, and the. setting up of 
 
AND FOLK-LORE. 89 
 
 May-poles, and other sports therewith used ; so as the same may be 
 had in due and convenient time, without impediment or neglect of 
 Divine Service. And that women shall have leave to carry rushes to 
 the church, for the decoration of it according to their old custom. 
 But withall his Majesty doth hereby account stiU as prohibited all 
 unlawful games to be used, on Sundays only, as bear and bull bait- 
 ings, interludes, and, at all times, in the meaner sort of people, 
 as by law prohibited, bowling." 
 
 Our ancestors appear to have regarded the playing at "bowls as an 
 especially dignified recreation, and to have guarded by statute the 
 game from any profanation by the vulgar. Old Strype records that 
 owing to threatened disturbances in the North of England, a strict 
 search was made, in every part of the kingdom, on the night of 
 Sunday, the 10th July, 1569, for vagrants, beggars, gamesters, 
 rogues, or gypsies. It resulted in the apprehension of thirteen 
 thousand " masterless men." The chief offence with which they 
 were charged was that they had no visible mode of living, " except 
 that which was derived from wreZaw/uZ games, especially of bowhng, and 
 maintenance of archery." 
 
 The sight of a May-pole, so offensive to the Puritan of old, excited 
 a very different train of thought in the imagination of Washington 
 Irving, on his first visit to this country. He says :— 
 
 " I shall never forget the delight I felt on first seeing a May-pole. 
 It was on the banks of the Dee, close by the picturesque old bridge 
 that stretches across the river from the quaint Uttle city of Chester. 
 I had already been carried back into former days by the antiquities of 
 that venerable place, the examination of which is equal to turning 
 over the pages of a black letter volume, or gazing on the pictures in 
 Froissart. The May-pole on the margin of that poetic stream com- 
 pleted the illusion. My fancy adorned it with wreaths of flowers, and 
 peopled the green bank with aU the dancing revelry of May-day. The 
 mere sight of this May-pole gave a glow to my feeUngs, and spread a 
 charm over the country for the rest of the day ; and, as I traversed a 
 part of the fair plain of Cheshire, and the beautiful borders of "Wales, 
 and looked from among swelling hUls down a long green valley, 
 through which ' the Deva wound its wizard stream,' my imagination 
 turned aU into a perfect Arcadia." 
 
 The Laureate, in his beautiful poem, " The May Queen," has most 
 happily pourtrayed the buoyant, joyous heart-feeling of the modern 
 juvenile representative of the mythical Maid Marian of old. EHza 
 Cook, in one of the most successful of her many truly national songs, 
 
90 TRADITIONS, SUPBESTITIONS, 
 
 has hit off the spirit of the ancient May-day festivities with remark- 
 able truthfuhiess and power : — 
 
 My brave land ! my brave land ! oh, may'st thou be my grave-laud ! 
 
 For firm and fond will be the bond that ties my breast to thee. 
 When Summer's beams are glowing, when Autumn's gusts are blowing, 
 When Winter's clouds are snowing, thou art stiU right dear to me. 
 But yet methinks I love thee best 
 When bees are nursed on white-thorn breast. 
 When spring-tide pours in — sweet and blest — 
 
 And Mirth and Hope come dancing ; 
 When music from the feathered throng 
 Breaks forth in merry marriage-song. 
 And mountain streamlets dash along. 
 Like molten diamonds glancing ! 
 
 Oh ! pleasant 'tis to scan the page. 
 Rich with the theme of by-gone age ; 
 When motley fool and learned sage 
 
 Brought garlands for the gay pole ; 
 When laugh and shout came ringing out 
 From courtly knight and peasant lout. 
 In " Hurrah for merry England, and 
 
 The raising of the May-pole ; " 
 When the good old times had carol rhymes, 
 With morris games and village chimes ; 
 When clown and priest shared cup and feast. 
 And the greatest jostled with the least, 
 
 At the "raising of the May-pole." 
 
 The people of Lancashire, until very recently, kept the May-day 
 festival with considerable eclat. Indeed, it is by no means forgotten 
 at the present day. The main streets of Preston, Manchester, and 
 other towns, duriag "the good old coaching time," presented a 
 remarkably gay appearance, in consequence of the horses being 
 decorated, and some of them profusely, with ribbons and other festive 
 ornaments. 
 
 The decoration of horses with flowers and ribbons, the raising of 
 May-poles, and the attendant dances and games, are yet far from 
 obsolete in many parts of England. A few years ago I attended a 
 May-day gathering at a village in North Cheshire ; but the danoeraf 
 as weU as the May Queen, were aU children, and the spectgijiors 
 chiefly ladies and gentlemen from Manchester and its neighbourhood. 
 It was a very pretty sight, and was patronised by the neighbouring 
 "squire" (E. E. Warburton)* and his family, but it lacked the 
 
 * Mr. Warburton is the author of several capital hunting and other songs, in the 
 dialect of North Cheshire. 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 91 
 
 healthy rusticity which I had anticipated from the hearty enjoyment 
 of lusty farm lahourers and their sweethearts in the old-fashioned 
 May-day dance. 
 
 The Eev. Jno. E. Sedgwick, of St. Alban's Church, Cheetwood, 
 Manchester, has recently revived the May-day games ; but, although 
 termed May-day festivities, the decoration of the May-pole, the 
 crowning of the May Queen, etc., which I visited, took place, 
 in 1867, in Whit-week, which is the great Manchester holiday. 
 The children looked pretty with their pink sashes and wreaths of 
 green leaves, and evidently enjoyed themselves much. With this 
 exception, however, the affair was in httle distinguishable from 
 ordinary hoUday sports, and it certainly lacked the necessary rusticity 
 to suggest any strong sympathy with the rural festival of the "olden 
 time." 
 
 The practice of gathering hawthorn blossoms, where practicable on 
 the 1st of May, stiU. continues, and in many localities superstition 
 lingers respecting the supernatural properties of this tree. The 
 hanging up in the homestead of a white thorn branch procured on 
 May-day was supposed to act as an antidote to the machinations of 
 witchcraft. Both the white and black thorn are considered as repre- 
 sentatives of the Mimosa catechu, the sacred thorn of India, which, 
 being sprung from hghtning, was supposed to be endowed with super- 
 natural properties. Amongst the Germans "wishing" or "divining" 
 rods were made from both the black and the white thorn. Walter 
 Kelly says, "The wood of the thorn (ramnos) was used by the Greeks 
 for the dr illin g stick of their pyreia (or fire-producing chark), and 
 it was held by them to be prophylactic against magic, as the white 
 thorn was by the Eomans, among whom it was used for marriage 
 torches." 
 
 I have referred, ia a preceding chapter, to the superstition re- 
 specting the blossoming of the Christmas thorn at midnight, on Old 
 Christmas eve. The legend has, no doubt, intimate relationship to 
 the presumed supernatural attributes of the celebrated Glastonbury 
 thorn, and its progeny. The original plant, according to CoDinson's 
 "History of Somersetshire," was the dry hawthorn staff which St. 
 "TosepF' of Arimathea stuck into the ground when weary with 
 journeying. 
 
 In one of the Coventry Mysteries, "The Miraculous Espousal of 
 Mary and Joseph," the blossoining of the rod of the latter is the sign 
 that he is the destined husband of the former. When the feeble old 
 man unwilhngly appears before the "bishop Issachar," he is surprised 
 
92 TRADITIONS, SUPEESTITIONS, 
 
 to see Ills staff break out into flower. Issachar is equally astonished, 
 and exclaims : — 
 
 A mercy ! mercy ! mercy ! lord, we crye ! 
 The blyssyd of God we see art thou ! 
 
 Here may he see a merveyl one, 
 A ded stok beryth fflours ffre. 
 
 Joseph, in hert, with outen mone, 
 Thou may'st be blyth, with game and gle, 
 
 A mayd to wedde, thou must gone, 
 Be this meracle I do wel se ; 
 
 Mary is here name. 
 
 This superstition bears evident marks of near relationsbip to some of 
 both the Greek and the Indoo, as well as other Eastern mythical faiths. 
 The blossoming staff of Joseph appears to be but a reproduction of the 
 budding thyrsus of the Bacchanals and of Hermes, which is regarded 
 as a phaUie symbol, typical of the reproductive forces of nature. In 
 the Teutonic mythology the fyKot, or revivifying hammer of Thor, 
 as previously shown, likewise reproduces a phallic symbol. 
 
 So highly were branches and blossoms from the Glastonbury thorn 
 esteemed that Bristol merchants exported large quantities. The 
 Puritans, in Ehzabeth's reign, cut down one of its stems, and the 
 other was demoHshed during the "Great EebeUion." CoUinson 
 says, "It is strange to see how much this tree was sought after by 
 the credulous; and, though a common thorn. Queen Anne, King 
 James, and many of the nobihty of the realm, even when the times 
 of monkish superstition had ceased, gave large sums of money for 
 small cuttings from the original." 
 
 Some authorities regard this Christmas flowering thorn as a variety 
 of the cratmgus monoijyna , or common hawthorn, probably brought by the 
 early crusaders from Palestine. If this be true, it throws some Mght 
 on the origin of the reverence in which it was held by the pilgrims to 
 the shrine of St. Joseph at Glastonbury. 
 
 The sacred character of the white thorn especially, appears to 
 have become interwoven with a great variety of superstitious belief. 
 A writer ia the Quarterly Review for July, 1863, treating of " Sacred 
 Trees and Flowers," says, "The white thorn is one of the trees most 
 in favour with the small people" [the fairies] ; "and both in Brittany 
 and in some parts of Ireland it is held unsafe to gather even a leaf 
 from certain old and sohtary thorns which grow in sheltered hollows 
 of the moorland, and are the fairies' trysting places. But no 'M 
 (/host' dares to approach the white thorn." The writer attributes this 
 peculiar sanctity of the white thorn to the behef that the crown 
 
AND rOLK-LOEE. 93 
 
 placed in derision on the head of Christ, previous to his crucifixion, 
 was made from branches of this tree ; and, doubtless, at the present 
 day, such may be mainly the case, although, as the writer himself 
 observes, modern botanical researches have taught us that the fact 
 "camiot have been so." Kelly says we know more than even this ; 
 "we know that the white thorn was a sacred tree before Christianity 
 existed, so that we must needs invert the statement of the writer 
 in the Quarterly, and conclude that the ancient sanctity of 
 the aubepine, or white thorn, was what gave rise to the 
 mediseval behef." He further contends that the excerpt rehed 
 upon by the writer, from Sir John MandevUle, who flourished 
 ui the earher portion of the fourteenth century, shows on 
 its face that the old wanderer was "an unconscious witness 
 to the enduring vitaUty of the Aryan tradition that invested 
 the hawthorn with the virtues of a tree sprung from the hghtning." 
 The passage referred to is curious. Sir John says, "Then was our 
 Lord ylad into a gardyn . . . and there the Jews scorned hym, 
 and maden hym a croune of the braunches of the albespyne, that is 
 white thorn, that grew in the same gardyn, and seten yt on hys heved. 
 . . . And, therefore, hath the white thorn many virtues. For he 
 that beareth a braunch on hym thereof, no thondere, no ne manner 
 of tempest may dere [hurt] him ; ne in the hows that yt is ynne may 
 non evil ghost entre." 
 
 The knowledge of the traditionary faith in the sanctity of this tree 
 invests with considerable interest the eagerness of children, resident 
 in populous towns, to obtain a sprig of hawthorn blossom from any 
 stranger returning from the country with a few branches of this May 
 trophy. I have had scores of apphcations of this class for the small 
 branches which I have carried in my hand from Old Trafford to Man- 
 chester. But, of course, children exhibit a similarly eagerly desire to 
 obtain possession of flowers, and especially wild flowers, of every 
 class. Longfellow has beautifully said : — 
 
 In the cottage of the ruijest peasant, 
 
 In ancestral homes whose crumbling towers, 
 Speaking of the Past unto the Present, 
 
 Tell us of the ancient games of Flowers ; 
 In all places, then, and in all seasons, 
 
 Flowers expand their light and soul-like wings, 
 Teaching us, by most persuasive reasons, 
 
 How akin they are to human things ; 
 And with child like, credulous affection, 
 
 We behold their tender buds expand ; 
 Emblems of our own great resurrection, 
 
 Emblems of the bright and better land. 
 
94 TBADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 Amongst the other vurtues aserihed to dew gathered on May-day 
 morning, its supposed power over the complexion yet finds behevers. 
 OldPepys, in his most interesting, if sometimes stupid, diary, says :— 
 " My wife away down with Jane and W. Hewer to Woolwich, in order 
 to a Uttle ayre, and to lay there to-night, and so to gather May dew 
 to-morrow morning, which Mrs. Turner hath taught her is the only 
 thing in the world to wash her face with ; and I am contented with 
 it." KeUy says : " The Aryan idea, that the rain clouds were cows, 
 has been well preserved among the Northern nations. . . . It is 
 a very common opinion that rain and dew, the milk of the heavenly 
 cows, are capable of increasing the milk of the earthly cows ; hence a 
 dewy May morning is welcomed as giving promise of a good dairy 
 year." Mannhardt speaks of a practice in North Germany of tying a 
 May bush to the taU of the leading cow on May-day morning, ui order 
 that she may brush up the potent dew, and so increase the contents 
 of her udder. But the strangest faith in the potency of May-dew is 
 related by Sir John Mandeville. The quaint old traveller seriously 
 assures us that in Ethiopia there are male and female diamonds that 
 enter into matrimonial relationship and have offspring ! Nay, he 
 declares that he himself has " often tymes assayed it," and found that 
 the precious stones do grow year by year, on one condition, namely, 
 that they be well wetted with May-dew ! He says : — 
 
 "And ther be sume of the gretnesse of a bene, and sume als grete as 
 an haselle note. And thei ben square and poynted of here owne kinde, 
 bothe aboven and benethen, withouten worchinge of mannes bond. 
 And thei growen to gedre, male and femele. And thei ben norysscht 
 with the dew of Hevene. And thei engendren comounly, andbryngen 
 forthe smale children, that multiplyen and growen aUe the year. 
 I have often tymes assayed, that gif a man kepe hem with a htyUe of 
 the roohe, and wete hem with May dew ofte sithes, thei schulle growe 
 everyche yeer ; and the small wole waxen grete." 
 
 Sir Kenelm Digby, two centuries ago, in a letter to the younger 
 Winthorp, governor of New England, expresses his great faith in 
 the efficacy of dew in the cure of dehriums, frenzies, and manias; 
 but he does not intimate any preference for dew gathered on May- 
 day. All dew does not appear, however, to have possessed these 
 curative qualities. Some, indeed, was of a maUgnant or deadly 
 character. Ariel, in "the Tempest," speaks of "the deep nook" in the 
 harbour 
 
 where once, 
 Thou call'dst me up at midnight to fetch dew 
 From the still-vext Bennothes, 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 95 
 
 Caliban, when yenting his rage on Prospero and Miranda, can find 
 no stronger curse than the following : — 
 
 As wicked dew as e'er my mother brush'd 
 With raven's feather from unwholesome fen. 
 Drop on you both ! 
 
 May not this dew superstition have relationship, La some of its phases, 
 to the classic myth of Kephalos (the head of the sun), Procris (the 
 dew), and Eos (the east or morning) ? Mr. Cox says " it sprung from 
 three simple phrases, one of which said, ' The sun loves the dew ; ' 
 while the second said that ' the morning loves the sun ; ' and the third 
 added that ' the sun killed the dew.' " Hence both the good and 
 evil iafluences attendant thereon. 
 
96 TEADITIONS, SUPBBSTITI0N3, 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 ■WITCHCRAFT. 
 
 What are these, 
 So wither'd and so wild in their attire; 
 That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth, 
 And yet are on't ? Live you ? or are you aught 
 That man may question ? 
 
 The county of Lancaster especially has been famous for its 
 ■witches — or infamous, rather, if the reader prefer the latter epithet. 
 Certainly, the hanging of the poor old women from Pendle side, for 
 their supposed sorcery, is neither a legislative nor a judicial f6at to 
 feel very proud of, especially in these days of " spirit-rapping 
 mediums " and dark seance performers, who supply ■writing done by 
 invisible hands, and cause heads to be thumped by mahgnant imps 
 in the shape of discordant fiddles, trumpets, and tambourines. This 
 modern necromancery, it must not be forgotten, is performed under 
 aristocratic patronage, and for a monetary consideration which would 
 have rejoiced greatly the hearts that beat ■wildly beneath the weather- 
 worn skins of poor old Dame Demdike and her compeers. Truly, 
 popular superstition, as well as tradition, is "tough." Forms, man- 
 ners, and customs may change externally, but it requires the lapse 
 of long, long periods of time to totally eradicate from the imagination 
 of an entire people all faith in any mystery, however absurd to modern 
 scientific minds, to which their ancestors once clung ■with simple 
 earnest truthfulness. The witchcraft of the old Demdike and Chat- 
 tox school, in all its essential features, is derived from the early 
 superstitions of our Eastern Aryan progenitors. Nay, the mystical 
 character of many of its more ■vulgar " stage properties," such as caxd- 
 drons, besoms, sieves, hares, cats, &c., ■was recorded with all due 
 solemnity in the Eig Vedas of the Southern Aryans, some three 
 thousand two hundred years ago. Pliny says that, in his day, the 
 
AND FOLK-LORE. 97 
 
 Britons celebrated magic rites with so many similar ceremonies that 
 one might suppose them to have been instructed therein by the Per- 
 sians. In the Britain of our day, after passing through both Keltic, 
 Teutonic, Greek, and Eoman channels, these superstitions yet exist 
 either in the traditionary lore of the rustic population, or the more 
 elevated art forms with which poetry, sculpture, and painting have 
 clothed them. The diamond crystal and the charred wUlow branch 
 are near relatives of the carbon family ; and it may truly he said that 
 a simiLar relationship exists between the weird "folk lore" of the 
 wild moorlands or the lonely mountain glens and the noble artistic 
 creations of a Shakspere, a Walter Scott, an Ovid, a Homer, an 
 ApeUes, or a Phidias. Truly, " one touch of Nature makes the whole 
 world kin," and especially if that touch be given by a finger which has 
 been dipped deeply in the dark pool of mysticism. 
 
 Witches appear, on the whole, and in more modern times especially, 
 to typify evil or mahgnant influences, and are not unfrequently 
 degraded forms of the deities of a preceding mythology. Kelly, on 
 the authority of Schwartz and others, speaks of the "human witches " 
 of Northern nations as " degenerate and abhorred representatives of 
 the ancient goddesses and their attendants, who were themselves 
 developments of the primitive conception of the cloud-ioomen ; but 
 witches, even in their degraded state, exhibit a multitude of charac- 
 teristics by which we can recognise the originals of whom they are 
 but loathsome caricatures. Their alleged May-day meetings, for 
 instance, on the Brocken, the Blocksberg, and at Lucken Hare, in 
 the Eildon HiUs, are not, as commonly supposed, merely reminis- 
 cences of certain .popular gatherings in heathen times, but were 
 originally assemblages of goddesses and then- retinues, making their 
 customary progress through the land at the opening of the spring, 
 and visible to their beheving votaries in the shifting clouds about the 
 summits of the mountains. Even the May-day night dances of the 
 witches, with the devil for the master of the ceremonies in the shape 
 of a buck goat, are but coarse representations of weather tokens of the 
 ^ early spring ; they are analogous in all but their ughness to the 
 dances of the nymphs, led by the goat-footed Pan at the same glad 
 season of the year amongst the clouds on the windy mountain tops of 
 Arcadia." The witch revelling at Alloway Khk, as detailed in several 
 Scottish traditions, and rendered immortal by the genius of Burns, 
 seems to confirm this view. 
 
 Amongst the infernal deities of classical mythology were the Fates 
 or Destinies, named Parcse. They were, like Shakspere's weird sisters. 
 
98 TEADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 three in number,, and are said by some to have been the offspring of 
 Erebus and Nox, and by others of Jupiter and Themis. Their mode 
 of divination was a spinning process. When determining the future 
 life or career of a mortal, Glotho held the distaff, ■ while Lachesis 
 did the spinning and Atropos cut, the thread. According to Ovid, 
 these divuiing deities were equally successful in their occult labours 
 when without, as when with, some necessary "staple" on which to 
 exercise their spinning ingenuity or 8_kill. 
 
 Witches were supposed to compass the death of any obnoxious 
 individual by making an image of the victim in wax. As this slowly 
 melted before a fire, or under other apphed heat, it was believed the 
 original would in Hke manner sicken and decay. Images were 
 frequently formed of other materials, and maltreated in some 
 form or other, to produce similar results. This superstition yet 
 obtains to a great extent in the East and elsewhere. Dubois, io his 
 "People of India," speaks of magicians who make smaU images in 
 mud or clay, and write the names of the objects of their animosity 
 on the breasts thereof. These are afterwards pierced with thorns or 
 otherwise mutilated, "so as to communicate a corresponding injury 
 to the person represented." 
 
 There is considerable affinity, in this phase of the superstition, to 
 the classic solar myth which records the doom of Meleager. The 
 Moerse, the three sisters, or the Fates, informed Althaea, the mother 
 of the future hero, when in his cradle, that her son would die when 
 a certain brand they pointed out on the hearth was totally consumed. 
 She instantly snatched it away, plunged it into water, and hid it in 
 a secret place. In later years, Meleager slew a brother of Althaea, 
 which so exasperated the mother that she laid her curse upon her 
 son. She brought out the brand from its hiding place, and flung it 
 on the fire. As it burnt away, the strength of the hero decayed, 
 and, with the extinguishing of its last spark, he expired. Mr, Cox 
 says Meleager's life is that " of the sun, which is bound up with the 
 torch of day; when the torch burns out he dies." 
 
 The gradual change of the old Aryan superstition into its more 
 modern form would seem to be indicated by a passage in the writings 
 of Pomponius Mela, who flourished in the reign of the Emperor 
 Claudius. The old writer, describing what his translator terms a 
 "Druidical nunnery," says it "was situated in an island in the 
 British sea, and contained nine of these venerable vestals, who pre- 
 tended that they could raise storms and tempests by their incanta- 
 tions, could cure the most incurable diseases, could transform 
 themselves into all kinds of animals, and foresee future events." 
 
AND FOLK-LOKE. 99 
 
 Eeginald Scot, in his "Disooverie of "Witchcraft," puWished in 
 1584, describes the nature of the faith in this superstition as it 
 existed in his day, and for ridiculing whicli he was covered with 
 obloquy, and his book was not only "refuted" by King James I. and a 
 host of others, but it was ignominiously consigned to the flames by 
 the hands of the common hangman. This shrewd old writer says : 
 
 "No one endued with common sense but will deny that the ele- 
 ments are obedient to witches and at their commandment, or that 
 they may, at their pleasure, send rain, hail, tempests, thunder, 
 Ughtning, when she, being but an old doting woman, casteth a flint 
 stone over her left shoulder towards the west, or huiieth a httle sea' 
 sand up into the element, or wetteth a broom-sprig in water, and 
 sprinkleth the same in the an- ; or diggeth a pit in the earth, and, 
 putting water therein, stu-reth it about with her finger ; or boileth 
 hogs' bristles ; or layeth sticks across upon a bank where never was 
 a drop of water ; or burieth sage till it be rotten ; all which things 
 are confessed by witches, and affirmed by writers to be the means 
 that witches used to move extraordinary tempests and rain." 
 
 The elaborate titlepage of this curious work, vividly illustrates the 
 condition of the pubUc mind on this subject in the sixteenth and 
 seventeenth centuries: — "Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft ; Famihars; 
 and their power to kill, torment, and consume the bodies of men, 
 women, and children, or other creatures by disease or otherwise ; 
 their flying in the Air etc. : To be but imaginary Erronious con- 
 ceptions and novelties ; wherein also the lewde, unchristian practises 
 of Witchmongers, upon aged, melancholy, ignorant and superstitious 
 people in extorting confessions by inhumane terrors and Tortures is 
 notably detected. Also the knavery and confederacy of Conjurors. 
 The impious blasphemy of Inchanters. The imposture of Sooth- 
 sayers, and infidehty of Atheists. The delusion of Pythonists, 
 Figure-casters, Astrologers, and vanity of Dreamers. The fruitlesse 
 ■ beggerly act of Alchimistry. The horrible act of Poisoning and aU 
 the tricks and conveyances of jugghng and legerdemain are fuUy 
 deciphered. "With many other things opened that have long lain 
 hidden: though very necessary to be known for the undeceiving of 
 Judges, Justices, and Juries, and for the preservation of poor, aged, 
 deformed, ignorant people ; frequently taken, arraigned, condemned 
 and executed for "Witches, when according to a right understanding, 
 and a good conscience. Physic, Food, and necessaries should be 
 ad mini stered to Mm. "Whereunto is added a treatise upon the 
 nature and substance of Spirits and Divels, &o., all written and 
 
100 TKADITIONS, SUPEKSTITIONS, 
 
 published in Anno 1584. By Ebginald Soot, Esquire^ Printed by 
 E. C. and are to be sold by Giles Calvert dwelling at the Black 
 Spread-Eagle, at the West-End of Pauls, 1651." 
 
 Wierus, a German physician, iadeed, in 1563, published a work, 
 in which he undertook the refutation of many of the so-caEed facts 
 and phenomena which were beUeved to pertain to witchcraft, but he 
 apparently dared not to venture a direct denial of the existence of 
 sorcery or demoniacal possession. He, however, did much, con- 
 sidering the conditions by which he was surrounded. He thanked 
 God that his labour had not been ia vain, but that it had " in many 
 places caused the cruelty against innocent blood to slacken." He 
 claimed, and certainly deserved, the civic wreath, for having saved 
 the hves of so many of his feUow-citizens. 
 
 Doubtless, in addition to the genuine superstition, there existed, as 
 at the present time, a certain' amount of imposture in connection 
 therewith, although, owing to the heavy penalties inflicted by the 
 law, the credulous element may be supposed to have largely pre- 
 ponderated. It is somewhat remarkable that the celebrated Pendle 
 witches, Demdike, Chattox, &c., were pronounced genuine sorcerers, 
 and were hanged accordingly, at Lancaster, in the year 1612 ; while 
 the eight from Samlesbury, near Preston, were acq-uitted, because 
 they were suspected to be not the genuine article, but a fraudulent 
 imitation thereof. 
 
 So thoroughly saturated was the pubhc mind with a behef in witch- 
 craft, unto a relatively recent period, that hundreds were yearly 
 executed for this supposed crime. HoweU, in his " State Trials," 
 estimates that, in one hundred and fifty years, thirty thousand 
 persons suffered death as witches in England alone ! 
 
 Bishop Jewel, when preaching a sermon before Queen Elizabeth, 
 exhorted her Majesty to use her authority to check the "tremendous 
 operations of the devil by exterminating his agents, the witches and 
 wizards, who were then very numerous." 
 
 Eeginald Scot gives us a very graphic full-length portrait of the 
 devil of popular superstition in the sixteenth century. He says, 
 " Our mothers' mayds terrifie us with the ouglie devil, with homes 
 on his head, fier in his mouth, a huge tayle in his breach, eies Hke 
 basons, fangs like a boar, claws like a tiger, a skin like a bear, and a 
 voice roaring like a lion." 
 
 A Keltic hau-y wood-demon was called Dus, hence our modern "the 
 Deuce." A similar Teutonic monster was named Scrat, hence our 
 ".Old Scratch." 
 
AND POLK-LOKE. 101 
 
 In 1633, seventeen Pendle -witclies were condemned to die ; but 
 Charles I. pardoned them. Strange as it may appear, some of 
 them confessed themselves guUty. Such is the fascinating influence 
 of superstition, that imposture itself gradually yields to its power. 
 There is an old Lancashire saying that if a man wiU only tell a lie 
 a certain number of times he wHl eventually himself regard it as a 
 truth. One of the seventeen Pendle witches last referred to, Margaret 
 Johnson, in her confession said, "Good Friday is one constant day 
 for a generaU meetinge of witches, and that on Good Friday last 
 they had a generall meetinge neere Pendle Water syde." One of 
 the Samlesbury "impostors," a girl named Grace Sowerbutts, stated 
 that she had been induced to join the sisterhood, and she gave an 
 account of the means adopted to acquire the diabohcal potency, which, 
 it appears, was not considered satisfactory by the judges, even of 
 that day. Flying over Eibble with their "famOiars" was one of the 
 ordinary feats of the gang, according to this youthful witch. Perhaps 
 Grace's face wanted the orthodox number of wrinkles to gain her 
 credence in an affau- of so much mystery and importance at that 
 period. 
 
 A remarkable instance of this species of delusion occurred at 
 Salem, in New England, in 1682. During the excitement which pre- 
 vailed in Massachusetts at this time, about twenty persons were put 
 to death for witchcraft. One woman confessed that she had ridden 
 from Andover to a witch meeting on a broomstick. She added that 
 the stick broke, and that the lameness under which she at the time 
 suffered resulted from the accident. Her daughter and grand- 
 daughter confirmed her evidence, and declared they all signed 
 Satan's book together. Others confessed to equally strange delusions. 
 And yet, it appears the inhabitants of Ehode Island formed an ex- 
 ception to the rule, for they declared "there were no witches on 
 earth, nor devils, —except the New England ministers, and such 
 as they!" 
 
 Hallam notices a parallel case of delusion recorded in the "Memoirs 
 of Du Clercq," which happened at Arras, in 1459. He says :— 
 
 "A few obscure persons were accused of 'vauderie, or witchcraft.' 
 After their condemnation, which was founded on confessions obtained 
 by torture, and afterwards retracted, an epidemical contagion of 
 superstitious dread was diffused aU around. Numbers were arrested, 
 burned ahve, by order of a tribunal instituted for the detection of 
 this offence, or detained in prison ; so that no person in Arras thought 
 himself safe. It was believed that many were accused for the sake 
 
102 TEA.DITIONS, SUPEBSTITIONS, 
 
 of their possessions, which were confiscated to the use of the churcii. 
 At length the Duke of Burgundy interfered, and put a stop to the 
 persecutions." 
 
 That the fraudulent element most probably entered largely into 
 the motives of witch prosecutions is attested by some instances iu 
 connection with the Lancashire trials. Mr. Crossley, in the republi- 
 cation of " Potts's Discovery of Witches," by the Chetham Society, 
 says " the main interest in reviewing this miserable band of victims 
 will be felt to centre in Alice Nutter. Wealthy, well-conducted, 
 well-connected, and placed probably on an equaUty with most of the 
 neighbouring famiUes, and the magistrates before whom she was 
 committed, she deserves to be distinguished from the companions 
 with whom she suffered, and to attract an attention which has never 
 yet been directed to her. That James Dervice, on whose evidence 
 she was convicted, was instructed to accuse her by her own nearest 
 relatives, and that the magistrate, Eoger NoweU, entered as a confede- 
 rate into the conspiracy against her on account of a long-disputed 
 boundary, are allegations which tradition has preserved, but the 
 truth or falsehood of which, at this distance of time, it is scarcely 
 possible satisfactorily to examine. Her mansion, Rough Lee, is stUl 
 standing, a very substantial and rather fine specimen of the houses 
 of the inferior gentry, temp. James I., but now divided into cottages." 
 
 It was hkewise suspected by the magistrates that a seminary priest, 
 named Thompson, alias Southworth, had instigated the girl Sower- 
 butts to make the charges in the Samlesbury case previously re- 
 ferred to. 
 
 Some excuse for the popular frenzy on the subject may be found 
 in the fact that not only did the king and the highest legal authorities 
 in the land recognise the crimes of sorcery and witchcraft, but 
 dignitaries of the church, Hke Bishop Jewel, in EUzabeth's reign, 
 complained of the great increase in the number of these offenders. 
 Such men as Su- Thomas Brown, indeed, went so far as to stigmatise 
 the sceptical on the subject as guilty of atheism. 
 
 Sir Kenelm Digby seems to have doubted. Nevertheless, in Ms 
 " Observations on the Eehgio Medici," after expressing his doubts, he 
 adds : — " Neither do I deny there are witches ; I only reserve my 
 assent till I meet with stronger motives to carry it." Sir Kenelm, 
 however, notwithstanding his scepticism about witchcraft, could 
 swaUow tolerably large doses of the marvellous. In a letter to J. 
 Winthorp, jun., governor of New England, he says : — 
 
 "For all sorts of agues, I have of late tried the following magnetical 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 103 
 
 experiment with infallible success. Pare the patient's nails when the 
 fit is coming on, and put the parings into a Httle bag of fine linen or 
 sarsanet, and tie that about a live eel's neck in a tub of water. The 
 eel will die and the patient wUl recover. And if a dog or hog eat 
 that eel they will also die." 
 
 He adds, " I have known one that cured aU deliriums and frenzies 
 whatsoever, and at once taking, with an elixer made of dew, nothing 
 but dew purified and nipped up in a glass and digested 15 months 
 tin all of it has become a grey powder, not one drop of humidity 
 remaining. This I know to be true, and that first it was as black as 
 ink, then green, then grey, and at 22 months' end it was as white 
 and lustrous as any oriental pearl. But it cured manias at fifteen 
 months' end." 
 
 The sapient James I., of England, before he left his northern 
 kingdom, was so profoundly agitated on hearing the rumour that 
 one Agnes Sampson and two hundred other Scotch witches "had 
 sailed in sieves from Leith to North Berwick church to hold a 
 banquet with the devil," that he ordered the wretched woman 
 to be put to the torture in his presence, and appeared to feel 
 pleasure in questioning her during her suffering. It was after- 
 wards affirmed that Agnes and her two hundred weird sisters "had 
 baptised and drowned a black cat, thereby raising a dreadful 
 storm," which had nearly proved fatal to a ship that carried the 
 superstitious monarch. The poor woman, though she protested her 
 innocence to the last, perished at the stake, supphcating in vain for 
 mercy from the king and her Christian fellow-subjects. Strange 
 to say, the second batch of witches condemned at Lancaster in 1633, 
 but pardoned by Charles I., were accused of similarly interfering 
 with the weather during a royal cruise. A letter in the State Paper 
 Office, written May 16, 1634, by Sir William Pelham to Lord 
 Conway, contains the following : — 
 
 " The greatest news from the country is of a huge pack of witches 
 which are lately discovered in Lancashire, whereof 'tis said 19 are 
 condemned, and that there are at least 60 already discovered, and yet 
 daily there are more revealed : there are divers of them of good 
 abUity, and they have done much harm. I hear it is suspected that 
 they had a hand in raising the great storm, wherein his Majesty 
 [Charles^I.] was in so great danger at sea in Scotland." 
 
 The writer of the article "Hertfordshire," in "Knight's Cyclo- 
 pedia," has the following singular reference to the behef in witch- 
 craft in that part of England, about the middle of last century : — 
 
104 TEADITIONS, SUPEBSTITIONS, 
 
 " There has been no pubhe event since [temp. Charles I.) of any 
 moment connected with the county ; but a circumstance ■which 
 occurred in April of the year 1751, deserves notice as marking the 
 extent of popular ignorance and barbarity at that period. A pubhcan- 
 near Tring being troubled with fits, conceived that he was bewitched 
 by an old woman named Osborne. Notice was given by the crier 
 that two witches were to be tried by ducking ; and in consequence a 
 vast mob assembled at the time appointed. The old woman and her 
 husband, who had been in Tring workhouse, were removed into the 
 church for safety ; but the mob obtained possession of the old man 
 and the old woman, whom they then dragged two miles to a muddy 
 stream, ducked them and otherwise so maltreated them that the 
 woman died on the spot, and the man with difficulty recovered. 
 Thomas CoUey, one of the perpetrators, was executed on the spot ; 
 but so strong was the infatuation of the populace, that it was thought 
 necessary to have a guard of more than 100 troopers to escort the 
 cavalcade to the place of execution." 
 
 Yes, the ignorance and infatuation had ceased to be "respectable," 
 which fact, doubtless, has a marvellous influence on our mental and 
 moral optics, when contemplating many other historical delusions, as 
 well as those connected vsdth supposed vsdtches and their malevolent 
 doings. 
 
 A singular instance of combined delusion and imposture with re- 
 spect to witchcraft, is related in Ealph Gardiner's " maUcious invective 
 against the government of Newcastle-on-Tyne," entitled "England's 
 Grievance Discovered in Eelation to the Coal-Trade," and pubhshed 
 in 1655. It appears that about five or six years previously, the 
 magistrates of the borough had sent two of their sergeants into Scot- 
 land, "to agree with a Scotch-man, who pretended knowledge to 
 find out Witches by pricking them with pins, to come to Newcastle, 
 where he should try such who should be brought to him, and to have 
 twenty shillings a peece for all he could condemn as witches, and 
 free passage thither and back again." Many poor women were sub- 
 jected to much indignity by this fellow, who caused them to he 
 stripped partisclly naked, when he inserted pins into various parts 
 of then- flesh, to find a place from which no blood would issue, as he 
 pretended. On one occasion, however, he was detected and com- 
 pelled to acknowledge that a respectable woman, whom he had grossly 
 treated and condemned, was "not a child of the DevU," as he had 
 previously insisted. It appears that this worthy afterwards visited 
 other parts of Northumberland, "to try women there, where he got 
 
AND rOLK-LOEE. 105 
 
 some three pound a peece." The author adds, "it was conceived if 
 he had staid he would have made most of the women in the North 
 Witches for mony." He gives the names of fifteen poor wretches 
 who were hanged at Newcastle at this impostor's instigation, and 
 says, " These poor souls never confessed anything, but pleaded 
 innocence : And one of them by name Margaret Brown beseeched 
 God that some remarkable sign might be seen at the time of their 
 execution, to evidence then- innocence, and as soon as ever she was 
 turned off the ladder, her blood gushed out upon the people to the admira- 
 tion of the beholders!" The said witch finder at length met with the 
 fate he so richly merited. He was, in the words of the indignant 
 author, " laid hold on in Scotland, cast into prison, indicted, ar- 
 raigned, and condemned for such hke vUlainie exercised in Scotland. 
 And upon the gaUows he confessed he had been the death of about 
 two hundred and twenty women in England and Scotland for the 
 gain of twenty shUhngs a peece, and beseeched forgiveness. And 
 was executed." Singularly enough, our author himself met with a 
 similar untimely fate, but for a very different crime, as appears from 
 the following MS. note, in the copy of Gardiner's work before the 
 present writer,, purporting to be extracted from a "MS-. Life of 
 Barnes, p. 420" : — "Upon some methods agreed on for reformation 
 of Manners in. the Town according to that clause in the charter 
 which empowers them to make By-laws, there was one Gardiner writ 
 a maUcious Invective against the Government of Newcastle, but he 
 got his Eeward, being afterwards at York hanged for Coyning." 
 
 The celebrated "witchfinder," Hopkins, was equally unfortunate 
 with his Scotch compeer. Some individuals, with more acumen than 
 the superstitious masses, took it into their heads to experiment upon 
 Hopkins himself. Accordingly they seized him, tied his thumbs and 
 toes together, after his own fashion, when operating on others. On 
 placing him on the water he swam as buoyantly as his victims. 
 "This," says one writer, "cleared the country of him, and it was a 
 great pity that they did not think of the experiment sooner." 
 Hopkins's method of discovering witches is, at least, as old as the 
 days of PUny the elder. 
 
 In the "Covntrey Ivstice," by "Michael Dalton, Lincoln's Inn, 
 Gent," pubhshed in 1618, are some curious illustrations of the 
 state of the law with regard to witchcraft, at the period. The 
 author says : — 
 
 " Now against these witches the lustioes of peace may not alwaies 
 expect direct euidence, seeing all their works are the works of dark- 
 
106 TKADITIONS, SUPEBSTITIONS, 
 
 nesse, and no witnesses present with them to accuse them : Anf? 
 therefore for their better discouerie, I thought good here to insert' 
 certaine obseruations out of the booke of discouery of the Witches 
 that were arraigned at Lancaster, Ann. Dom. 1612, before Sir lames 
 Althani, and Sir Edw. Bromely ladges of Assise there. 
 
 " 1. They haue ordinarily a familiar, or spirit, which appeareth 
 to them. 
 
 "2. Their said familiar hath some bigg or place vpon their body, 
 where he sucketh them. 
 
 " 3. They haue often pictures of clay, or waxe (hke a man, &c.) 
 found in their house. 
 
 " 4. If the dead body bleed, vpon the Witches touching it. 
 
 '• 5. The testimony of the person hurt, vpon his death. 
 
 "6. The examination and confession of the children or servants 
 of the Witch. 
 
 " 7. Their owne voluntary confession, which exceeds aU other 
 euidence." 
 
 Bodin, a French writer, ia his " Demonomanie des Sorciers, " 
 published iu 1587, says, " On haK-proof or strong presumption, the 
 judge may proceed to torture." The judge might, moreover, in Ms 
 opinion, lie with impunity, and promise a suspected person a pardon 
 on confession, without the iatention of carrying it into effect. But 
 this is not much from a man, who could cite with approval and even 
 relish, the decision of a magistrate that a person "who had eaten iiesh 
 on a Friday should be burned aUve unless he repented, and if he 
 repented, yet he was hanged out of compassion." Yet this same 
 Bodin was a Protestant, forsooth ! 
 
 Walhurgar, writing in the following century, is not much less toler- 
 ant of judicial mendacity. He does not, indeed, recommend direct 
 lying, but equivocation. The judge may inform the suspected that 
 her confession wQl induce in him favourable action, that a new 
 house should be bmlt for her, and that it wiU tend to the saving of 
 her Ufe. And yet, after the poor deluded creature has committed 
 herself, he regards it as perfectly just and honourable that the 
 sapient administrator of the law should inform her that his action in 
 burning her will be favourable to the commonwealth, that her new ■ 
 house will be of wood at the stake, and that the destruction of her 
 body wOl tend to the salvation of her soul ! 
 
 In Wiirtzburg, as recently as 1749, a girl was burnt aUve as a 
 legally condemned practitioner of witchcraft. Witches were burned 
 in Scotland till 1772, and in France in 1718. The severe acts passed 
 
AND FOLK-LOEB. 107 
 
 ifl the reign of James I., condemnatory of witchcraft, were not re- 
 pealed till the 9th George II. (1736). 
 
 'There appears to have been three kinds of witches — the black, the 
 white, and the grey. The black had power only for evil, the white 
 for good, and the grey possessed authority both in matters good and 
 evil. These seem to have originally been merely personifications of 
 the black, white, and grey-coloured clouds of the Aryan elemental 
 conflicts. Perhaps Shakspere formed his principal group of three 
 from the circumstance that the destiny of his hero was iuflueneed to 
 some extent by one of each class. Many altars, of the period of the 
 Roman occupation, dedicated to the decs matres, or mother goddesses, 
 have been found in various parts of the north of England. It is 
 beheved they were introduced by Teutonic auxiharies. These deities 
 have undergone much change in their transference to more modern 
 superstitions ; but some of their attributes may be detected without 
 difficulty. Mr. Thomas Wright, in "Celt, Eoman, and Saxon," says: 
 " They are sometimes regarded as the three Fates — ^the norni of 
 the north, the wmleyrian of the Anglo-Saxons (the weird sisters, trans- 
 formed in Shakspere into three witches) disposing of the fates of 
 individuals, andJleaUng out hfe and death. But they are also found 
 distributing rewards and punishments, giving wealth and property, 
 and conferring fruitfulness. They are the three fairies who are often 
 introduced in the fairy legends of a later period, with these same 
 characteristics." 
 
 I have said that many of the "theatrical properties" of medieval 
 witchcraft may be traced to an Aryan origin. The chief of these, the 
 cauldron, is familiar to all from Shakspere's admirable pictures in 
 Macbeth. I have previously referred to the fact that the phrase 
 "brewing a storm" is derived from this source. Cauldron stories are 
 common amongst ancient tribes. Guy of Warwick's " porridge pot" 
 is of this class. KeUy says, speaking of the "gemi of the Ughtning, ■ 
 the beings who brewed and hghtned in the storm," — 
 
 " If the Bhrigus or their associates were brewers they must needs 
 have had brewing utensUs ; at the very least they must have had a 
 brewing pot ; and therefore we are justified in referring back the origin 
 of the witches' cauldron to the remotest antiquity. Perhaps the oldest 
 example of such a vessel of which there is any distinct record is the 
 cauldron which Thor carried off from the giant Hymir, to brew 
 drink for the gods at Oegir's harvest feast. It was five mUes deep, 
 and modern expounders of the Eddie myths are of opmion that it 
 was the vaulted sky." 
 
108 TKADITIONS, SUPEESTITIONS, 
 
 It must be borne in mind that the "heavenly liquor," so much 
 vaunted, was neither more nor less than rain water, "brewed" by the 
 action of the storm deities and their assistants, whether dignified by 
 the name of soma, amrita, or nectar. 
 
 Eobert Hunt, in his " Superstitions of Old Cornwall," describes 
 the modus operandi of a celebrated witch at Fraddam, when engaged 
 in brewing a hquor of "wondrous potency," which clearly exhibits the 
 " eleraental strife" that Ues at the base of these superstitions. She 
 " collected with the utmost care aU. the deadly things she could obtain, 
 with which to brew her famous drink. In the darkest night, in the 
 midst of the wUdest storms, amidst the flashings of hghtnings and 
 the beUowings of the thunder, the witch was seen riding on her black 
 ram-cat over the moors and mountains in search of her poisons. At 
 length aU was complete — the horse-drink was boiled, the heU-broth 
 was brewed. It was in March, about the time of the equinox ; the 
 night was dark, and the King of Storms was abroad." 
 
 Olaus Magnus speaks of the storm-raising powers and propensities 
 of the Scandinavian witches as amongst their most remarkable 
 attributes. 
 
 The sieve, amongst all nations of the Aryan stock, and even of 
 some others, has been regarded as a mythical implement of this class. 
 Witches used them as boats, notwithstanding their inabihty to float 
 on water, The supernatural, of course, easily overcame so trifling a 
 physical difficulty. The premier weird woman in Shakspere's 
 group, referring to the scoff she had received from a sailor's wife, 
 says : — 
 
 Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master of the Tiger ; 
 But in a sieve I'll thither sail, 
 And, like a rat without a tail, 
 I'll do, I'll do, I'll do. 
 
 It is not improbable that witch-sailing would be originally through 
 the air rather than on the water. The sieve, amongst the Aryans, 
 was a cloud emblem ; the implement by means of which water was 
 filtered into rain-drops. The upper regions were more affected by 
 witches than the oceanic " waste of waters." In the opening scene 
 in Macbeth, the weU-known trio, at the conclusion of their seance, 
 "hover through the fog and filthy air." They appear to have inti- 
 mate relationship to the clouds and the weather : — 
 
 1st Witch — When shall we three meet again. 
 
 In thunder, lightning, or in rain ? . 
 
 2nd Witch- When the hurly-burly's done ; 
 When the battle's lost and won. 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 109 
 
 Though unable to totally wreck the seaman's bark, the first witch 
 assures her companions that "it shall be tempest toss'd." When 
 Banquo asks Macbeth, " Whither are they vanished ?" the latter 
 answers : — 
 
 Into the air ; and what seemed corporal melted 
 As breath into the wind. 
 
 In his letter to his wife, he likewise observes: "They made them- 
 selves — air, into which they vanished." Hecate, in the thhd act, 
 after giving instructions to the weird host, says : — 
 
 I'm for the air ; this night I'll spend 
 
 Unto a dismal and a fatal end. 
 
 G-reat business must be wrought ere noon : 
 
 Upon the comer of the moon 
 
 There hangs a vapourous drop profound 
 
 I'll catch, ere it come to the ground ; 
 
 And that distiU'd by magic sleights, 
 
 Shall raise such artificial sprights. 
 
 As by the strength of their illusion. 
 
 Shall draw him on to his confusion. 
 
 And previous to departing, Hecate farther says : — 
 
 Hark, I am called ; my little spirit, see. 
 Sits in a foggy cloud, and stays for me. 
 
 Hecate, in the classical mythology, is the Pandemonium name for 
 Diana. This goddess was known by the latter appellation on earth, 
 and by that of Luna in heaven. Hence the absurdity of converting 
 her into a burly masculine basso in the so-called "Locke's music," 
 introduced with very questionable taste into Shakspere's subHme 
 tragedy of Macbeth. Proserpina, the wife of Pluto, is confounded 
 with Hecate. She was supposed to preside over sorceries and incan- 
 tations. 
 
 Grimm, although he, in one of his tales, speaks of "angels drawing 
 water in a perforated vessel," seems not to have clearly interpreted 
 the mythic import of the sieve. He, however, expressly says that it 
 "appears to be a sacred archaic implement to which marvellous 
 powers were attributed." Liebrecht speaks of a tribe of water-spirits, 
 or cloud-gods, the Draci of Languedoc, with "hands perforated hke 
 colanders." The Grecian Naiads, with their urns, and the various 
 river gods, from old Tiber or Hissus to Father Thames, are but more 
 artistic modifications of a similar thought. 
 
 There is a tradition, in the neighbourhood of Grimsargh, near 
 Preston, to the effect that during some drought, "in the olden time,' 
 
110 TEADITIONS, SUPEESTITIONS, 
 
 a gigantic dun cow appeared and gave an almost unlimited supply of 
 milk, which saved the inhabitants from death. An old woman — of 
 the witch fraternity, I suspect — ^however, with the view to obtain from 
 the beast more than the usual number of paUs-full, rmlked the cow with 
 a sieve, riddle, or colander, which, of course, never became fuU, as the 
 precious liquid passed through the orifices into a vessel below. When 
 fuU, the latter was replaced by an empty one of a similar character. 
 The tradition adds that the cow either died of grief, on detecting the 
 • imposture, or from sheer exhaustion, I forget which. A locahty is 
 stUl pointed out, named " Cow Hill," where gossips aver that, in 
 relatively recent times, the huge bones of the said cow were disin- 
 terred. Over the porch of a house on the way from Goosnargh to 
 Longridge, I remember, not very long ago, seeing a large bone, 
 apparently a rib, placed in a conspicuous position. This was stated- 
 to have been a portion of the skeleton so disinterred. I fancied at 
 the time that, in Polonius's phraseology, the bone in question was 
 suggestive of something " very like a whale." It is not irnprohable, 
 however, that at some early period, the remains of the huge extinct 
 ox, the bos primigenius, or even the elephas primigenim or fossil mam- 
 moth, may have been exhumed in the neighbourhood of Grimsargh. 
 Many bones and skulls of the former have been dredged from the bed 
 of the Eibble, and others taken from the fluvial drift excavated ia 
 the valley when preparing for the' foundations of the piers of the rail- 
 way bridges in the neighbourhood of Preston. Bones of two species of 
 fossil elephant, two species of rhinoceros, and other extinct pachy- 
 derms of huge dimensions, have recently been found in connection 
 with early flint implements, indicative of the presence of man, in 
 -the fresh water gravel belonging to what LyeU terms the f)ost- 
 pliocene period of the earth's history, both in France and in several 
 parts of England. Some such discovery, grafted upon the ancient 
 Aryan tradition respecting the heavenly cows, or rain-giving clouds, 
 opportunely rescuing the parched vegetation from premature decay, 
 might very easily eventuate in such a tradition as the one current 
 in Grimsargh at the present day. 
 / Some of the deeds of the Saxon giant, the celebrated Guy of 
 
 Warwick, appear to enshrine elements of myths of a similar cha- 
 racter. In the " Huddersford Wiccamical Chaplet," we read : — 
 
 By gallant Guy of Warwick slain 
 Was Colbrand, that gigantic Dane. 
 Nor could this desp'rate champion daunt 
 A dun cow bigger than elephaunt ; 
 
AND FOLK-LORE. HI 
 
 But he, to prove hia courage sterling, 
 
 Hia whinyard in her blood embrued. 
 
 Hp out from her euormoua side a sirloin, 
 
 And in hia porridge-pot her brisket stew'd, 
 
 Then butcher'd a wild boar, and eat him barbiou'd. * 
 
 We have here the cow, or rain cloud, the boar, typical of the 
 lightning, and the human giant or warrior substitute for Indra or 
 Odin, in the Aryan and Teutonic mythologies. 
 
 The ribs of the gigantic dun cow, said to have been slain by the 
 redoubtable Guy, are still preserved at Warwick. A similar rib is 
 to be seen in the church of St. Mary Eedchffe, at Bristol, and 
 another at Chesterfield. At an inn in Lincolnshire, a huge scapula 
 is exhibited as a rehc of the famous dun cow. The tradition at 
 Bristol asserts that, at some former period, the said bovine monster 
 supphed the whole of the city with milk. This coincides with the 
 Grimsargh tradition. One Warwick legend too asserts that the cow had 
 been driven mad by the overmilking of a witch. Another says that 
 the cow was slain by Guy during a season of great scarcity, and that 
 the consumption of its flesh saved the inhabitants from perishing of 
 famine. The large rib in the Toljambe Chapel, Warwick, is said to 
 measure seven feet four inches in length, and from twelve to thirteen 
 inches in circumference. Frank Buckland, in his "Curiosities of 
 Natural History," says, "the ribs of the dun cow at Warwick and 
 the gigantic rib at St. Mary's Eedoliffe Church, Bristol, are the 
 bones of whales." 
 
 Tom Brown ("Amusements for the Meridian of London," 1700) 
 mentions a remarkable superstitious reverence for the milk of a red 
 cow^. Eeferring to the Green Walk, St. James's Park, London, he 
 says : " There were a cluster of senators talking of state affairs, and 
 the price of corn and cattle, and were disturbed with the noisy Milk 
 folk crying : ' A can of Milk, ladies ; a can of Red Cow's MUk, sirs ? ' 
 This appears to be a remnant of the Aryan reverence for the heavenly 
 fire or the hghtning,. which they beheved to be typified in the red 
 breast of the robin, the red mutch of the woodpecker, and the red 
 colour of other " fire-bringers." 
 
 In the Vedas, the dawn is symbohsed by the goddess Ushas, by 
 philologists regarded as the prototype of the Greek Eos, and the 
 Latin Aurora. The ruddy light on the eastern horizon which pre- 
 ceded the sunrise, was regarded as a herd of red cows attendant upon 
 
 * A pig roasted whole, seasoned with apices, and basted with wine, was said to be 
 "barbecued." The term is believed to have been imported from the West Indies. 
 
112 TBADITIONS, SUPEBSTITIONS, 
 
 her. In the Vedic hymns she is sometimes -addressed as a quail. 
 Kelly says, "Vartika, the Sanscrit name of the bird, corresponds 
 etymologically with ortyx, its Greek name ; an3. in the myths of 
 Greece and Asia Minor the quaU is a symbol of light and heat." 
 
 The early Greek mythology has preserved some remains of this 
 bovine personification of the ruddy davrn clouds. Mr. Gladstone, ia 
 " Juventus Mundi," says, "Although animal worship has played so 
 considerable a part in the reHgions of the East, the traces of it ia 
 Homer are few, and, with one exception, they are also faint. That 
 exception is the extraordinary sanctity attaching, in the Twelfth 
 Odyssey, to the Oxen of the Sun, which I have treated as belonging 
 to the Phoenician system, and as foreign to the Olympian rehgion." 
 Notwithstanding this, the evidence in favour of the Aryan origin 
 of the myth seems indisputable. Dr. Benisch, in one of his exposi- 
 tions of "Maimonides and Kimchito" to members of the Society of 
 Hebrew Literature, on the 80th of March, 1871, stated that he was 
 engaged in a comparison of the Semitic and Aryan tongues, with a 
 view to establish many more points of contact than are usually 
 admitted to exist between these two families of speech. 
 
 Bed cow's milk is an important element in a recipe for the cure of 
 consumption in Dr. Sampson Jones's " Medicine Boke," pubhshed in 
 the latter portion of the seventeenth century. Red is especially 
 mentioned as the colour of the heifer set apart for sacrifice for the 
 purification of sin in Numbers, chapter 19 ; and scarlet is specified as 
 the colour of one of the articles " cast into the midst of the burning 
 of the heifer." Thousands of persons yet believe that there is more 
 warmth in red flannel than in either black, white, blue, or yellow. 
 
 On some pubHc-house signs it is not uncommon to refer to the 
 liquor sold within as the "dun cow's nulk." On one, between York 
 and Durham, we read the following : — 
 
 Oh, come you from the east, 
 Oh, come you from the weat. 
 If ye will taste the Dun Obw's milk, 
 Y'U say it is the beat. 
 
 The Durham legend of St. Cuthbert's dun cow is well known in the 
 North of England. The eccentric saint would not permit a cow to 
 approach his sacred residence at Lindisfarne. He excused himself 
 for this strange freak by averring that " where there is a cow there 
 must be a woman, and where there is a woman there must be 
 mischief." Has not the Scotchman's " mountain dew'-' some 
 figurative relationship to the Aryan heavenly soma ? 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 118 
 
 A belief in the influence of witches on the mUk and butter yielding 
 habits of cows is yet very widely entertained. In his " Ancient and 
 Modern Manners of the Irish," Camden says : " If a cow becomes dry 
 a witch is applied to, who, inspning her with a fondness for some 
 other calf, makes her yield her mUk." He further observes that they 
 slaughter all hares found amongst their cattle on May-day, from a 
 beUef that they are witches, who, having designs on their butter, have 
 assumed this form the better to effect then- purpose. Other authori- 
 ties speak of the general beUef lq witches sucking the dugs of cows in 
 the form of hares. A writer in the Atheiucum, as recently as 1846, 
 refers to a certaia Scotch witch, who, he says, " has been seen a 
 hundred times milking the cows in the shape of a hare." A Scotch 
 witch, recently deceased, named Margery Scott, firmly beHeved that 
 she had been frequently transmuted iuto a hare and hunted by dogs. 
 
 Mr. Eobert Hunt, in his "DroUs, Superstitions, and Traditions of 
 Old Cornwall," relates a very amusing story about "the witch of 
 Treva." Being without food, the husband of the old crone, who 
 doubted her pretended supernatural power, asked, as a proof to which 
 he would yield, that she would walk to St. Ives and back, a distance 
 of five miles, and procure some substantial human victuals. This 
 she undertook to effect in the space of half-an-hour. The man kept 
 his eye on her for some time, after she started on her strange errand, 
 " and at the bottom of the hiU he saw his wife quietly place herself on 
 the ground and disappear. In her place a fine hare ran on at its fuU 
 speed." He further adds that the woman returned witliin the pre- 
 scribed time, and brought with her "good flesh and taties, aU ready for 
 aiting !" When the said crone was carried to her grave, she caused 
 much amazement and even terror by her mad pranks. "When they 
 were about half way between the house and the church, a hare started 
 from the roadside and leaped over the coffin. The terrified bearers let 
 the corpse fall to the ground, and ran away. Another lot of men took 
 up the coffin and proceeded. They had not gone far when puss was 
 suddenly seen seated on the coffin, and again the coffin was abandoned." 
 After considerable labour and much tribulation, we are informed the 
 parson commenced "the ordinary burial service, and there stood the 
 hare, which, as soon as the clergyman began ' I am the resurrection 
 and the Hfe,' uttered a diabolical howl, changed into a black, un- 
 shapen creature, and disappeared!" 
 
 One of the Saxon forms of the goddess Freyja, according to Mann- 
 hajrdt, has hares for trainbearers, and another walks at night in the 
 fields of Aargau, accompanied by a hare of silver-grey colour. The 
 I 
 
114 TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 prevalent superstition that a hare crossing the highway before any 
 person prognosticated ill-fortune, doubtless, has its origin in the 
 witchcraft association. Perhaps the story' of the hare's nest, to 
 which children are sent in search of eggs at Easter, in Swabia and 
 Hesse, according to Meier, is the original of our "mare's nest," ani 
 has some reference to the supposed supernatural attributes of the 
 animal. Mannhardt says the hare is reputed to be a fire and sou] 
 bringer ; that many kinder-briinnen (baby fountains) are so named 
 from this circumstance ; and that children are supposed to be pro- 
 cured from the hare's form, as well as from the parsley bed. We 
 learn from Ceesar that the Ancient Britons held the hare in reverence, 
 and refused, therefore, to kUl it for food. 
 
 Sir Jno. Lubbeok, LyeU and others are of opinion that to the 
 existence of this feehug may be attributed the almost total 
 absence of the bones of the hare amongst the debris of the ancient 
 Swiss lake dwellings, and the kjokkenmodings or shell mounds 
 of Deniiiark. The superstition yet exists amongst the Laplanders 
 of the present day. According to Burton, the Somal Arabs reject 
 it as the Hottentot men do, although their women may partake of it 
 as food, and M. Schlegel informs us that the Chinese entertain a 
 prejudice against the animal. Owing to a false impression respecting 
 the hare chewing its cud, the Jews pronounced it to be unclean, and 
 therefore rejected it as food. Boadicea, Queen of the loeni, when 
 she had harangued her soldiers, opened the drapery around her 
 bosom and let go a hare, which she had concealed. The frightened 
 animal's antics, according to the then orthodox laws of divination, 
 indicated a successful issue to the pending expedition. The warrior 
 queen improved the occasion, led her enthusiastic troops against the 
 highly disciphned Eoman legions, and vanquished them. 
 
 Kelly is satisfied of the Aryan origin of the animal's supernatural 
 reputation. He says, — " The hare is no doubt mythically coimected 
 with the phenomena of the sky, but upon what natural grounds it 
 has been credited with such meteoric relations is a point not yet 
 determined. I incHne to think it wiU be found to he, in part at least, 
 in the habits which the animal displays about the time of the vernal 
 equinox, and which have given rise to the popular saying, " as mad 
 as a March hare." And perhaps this very restlessness in rough 
 weather has been the cause of the animal being regarded as a dis- 
 guised witch, actively engaged in " brewing storms." 
 
 Cats, as weU as hares, have the reputation of beiag weather ■wise; 
 hence their association with witches or "wise women." Hecate was 
 
AND FOLK-LOBE. 115 
 
 upposed to frequently assume the feline form. Shakspere's -witches 
 vidently held it in reverence. One says, with great solemnity, on a 
 Qomentous occasion, " Thrice the brindled cat hath mew'd." A 
 'ery strong behef yet obtains, amongst persons better educated than 
 he Lancashire peasantry, that cats can see better in the dark than 
 n the hght, and that they possess nine Uves, or, in other words, that 
 hey require killing nine times, before they remain permanently 
 iefunct. The author of "Choice Notes" says that saUors have a 
 5rm beUef that the presence of a dead hare on board ship is certain 
 to bring about bad v^eather. They likewise object to having cats on 
 joard, and when one happens to be more frisky than usual, like a 
 ' mad March hare," they have a saying that " the cat has got a gale 
 jf wind in her taU." The same authority says that the throwing of 
 a, cat overboard will infallibly bring on a storm. Mannhardt says, in 
 Germany, anyone who, during his lifetime, may have made cats his 
 enemies, is certain to be accompanied to the grave with wind and 
 rain. A writer in Notes and Queries refers to a Dutch superstition of 
 this class, in which a rainy wedding day is supposed to result from 
 the bride's neglecting to feed her eat. Walter KeUy thinks " the 
 question why the chariot of the goddess Freyja was drawn by eats, 
 and why Holda was attended by maidens riding on cats, or them- 
 selves disguised in feline form, is easUy solved. Like the lynx, and 
 the owl of Pallas Athene, the cat owes its celestial honours above all to 
 its eyes, that gleam in the dark like fire, but the belief in its super- 
 natural powers may very probably have been corroborated by the 
 common observation that the cat, like the stormy boar, is a weather 
 wise animal." 
 
 This connection of the goddess Freyja (whence our Friday) with 
 the fehne personification of stormy weather, may lay at the root of 
 the prejudice of sailors against commencing a voyage on that day. 
 That this superstition has yet strong hold on the nautical imagination, 
 was recently (1871), attested by the fact that, in consequence of the 
 loss of the ill-fated turret-ship, "Captain," which had left port on a 
 Friday, the " Agincourt," in order to satisfy the clamour of the crew, 
 did not leave Gibraltar on the presumedly fatal day. The departure 
 of the last-named war-ship on the Saturday, however, did not prevent 
 her striking on the "Pearl Eock" shortly afterwards. THs fact 
 might, perhaps, stagger Jack's faith for a moment, but superstition 
 is tougher than actual experience in many of its phases, and Friday 
 win stiU be a black letter day in the sailor's calendar. 
 
 HaUam, in Ms "View of the State of Europe during the Middle 
 
116 TBADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 Ages," wken discussing the probabilities of the guUt or innocence of 
 the Knights Templars, concerniag which there still exists great 
 diversity of opinion, refers to the evidence adduced by M. yon 
 Hammer as the most difficult of refutation. This authority contends 
 that the adoption of the infamous practices of the Gnostic super- 
 stition, which the Templars are said to have imported from the 
 East, is proved by certain obscene sculptures found in secret places in 
 edifices erected by the members of this order in various parts of Europe. 
 He says these scandalous figures resemble those in the Gnostic 
 churches. HaUam adds, however, "The Stadinghi, heretics of the 
 thirteenth century, are charged, in a bull of Gregory IX., with 
 exactly the same profaneness, even including the black cat [canis aut 
 gattus niger] as the Templars of the next century. This is said by 
 Von Hammer to be confirmed by sculptures." May not these coinci- 
 dences have arisen from the common Aryan origin of the pagan 
 superstitions ; and, in some instances, at least, in the figurative 
 meaning of the sculptures referred to ? There was a famous "cat 
 stone" in Leyland old church, which was said to be the " devil in the 
 form of a cat," who "throttled" an individual that witnessed his 
 removal, by night, of the stones used by the builders of the ehuich 
 in the day-time. The morals, as weU as the manners, of the thir- 
 teenth century were very different to those of the nineteenth ; and 
 yet I could point out, within Lancashire and Cheshire, at least two 
 instances, where obnoxious sculpture of this class has been preserved 
 from mediaeval times to the present day. 
 
 The notorious besom or broomstick is an instrument in the opera- 
 tions of witchcraft common to all the Aryan nations. According to 
 the '^Asiatic Eegister," for 1801, the Eastern, as well as the European 
 witches, "practice their spells by dancing at midnight, and the 
 principal instrument they use on such occasions is a broom." It is 
 regarded as "a type of the winds, and therefore an appropriate 
 utensil in the hands of the witches, who are wind makers and 
 workers in that element." 
 
 Dr. Kuhn says, " In the Mark, an old broom is burned in orderto 
 raise a wind. Sailors, after long toiling against a contrary wind, on 
 meeting another ship sailing in an opposite direction, wiU throw an 
 old broom before the vessel, which, they contend, wiU reverse the 
 wind, and consequently cause it to blow in their favour." 
 
 Burns , in his " Address to the Deil, ' ' makes his witches and wai-locks 
 «'skim the muirs and dizzy crags" on "ragweed nags," "wi' wicked 
 speed," Witches notoriously ride swiftly and easily through the 
 
AND FOLK-LOBE. 117 
 
 kir astride of a broomstick.* Hence this superstition may be said to 
 sersonify the light scudding clouds that pass rapidly across the sky, 
 md herald squally weather. Dr. Kuhn regards the broom as the im- 
 jlement used by the Aryan demi-deities in sweeping the sky ; for that 
 !uch was a portion of the duty devolving upon its riders may be 
 nferred from the stUl existing Hartz tradition that witches must 
 lance away all the snow upon the Blocksberg, on the first of May. 
 
 The hanging out of a broom when a man's wife is from home, to 
 ntimate to the husband's unmarried friends that the usual matri- 
 monial restraint is temporarily suspended, and that bachelor fare and 
 bachelor habits will be the order of the day, for a time, is yet well 
 blown ia Lancashire. I am not aware how far it is practised or 
 mderstood in other parts of the country, neither have I been able to 
 5nd a satisfactory explanation of its origin. As the " Lancashire 
 sritohes" of the present day do "work their spells" upon their masculine 
 Eriends, though iu a more pleasing form and agreeable manner than 
 their haggard and aged predecessors, it is not improbable that the 
 amblem of power may have accompanied the transmission of the 
 Dnce dreaded appellation. Brooms, after being used in the per- 
 formance of divers mythical ceremonies, were hung up in houses, and 
 regarded, like pieces of the rowan or mountain ash-tree, as powerful 
 Bharms against the entrance of evO. doers. Perhaps the "bachelor 
 busband" of by-gone times removed the broom to the outside of the 
 bouse with the view to destroy its power over the interior, as well as 
 bo inform his roystering friends that the coast was clear, and that 
 there existed no impediment to unlimited jollification.! Dr. Kuhn 
 says in several parts of WestphaUa, at Shrovetide, cows' horns are 
 decorated with white besoms with white handles. After the house 
 
 * The Peudle witches, on leaving Malkin tower, mounted their familiar spirits, 
 In the form of horses, and quickly vanished. 
 
 t Since the above was written, I have noticed, in Larwood and Hotten's " History 
 of Signboards," a representation of a public-house "bush" copied from a MS. of the 
 fourteenth century. The implement, in this instance, is evidently a common broom 
 or besom. Hence it is not at all improbable that the Lancashire Benedicts but hang 
 out the earliest known tavern or inn sign. The authors of the work referred to say : 
 " The bush certainly must be counted amongst the most ancient and popular of signs. 
 Traces of its use are not only found amongst Eoman and other old world remains, 
 but during the middle ages we have evidence of its display." Kelly says " the broom 
 must originally have been supposed, like the sieve, to be used for some purpose or 
 cither in the economy of the upper regions." Perhaps in the brewing of the "heavenly 
 soma," and hence its appropriateness as an emblem of " good liquor" of a terrestrial 
 character. - 
 
118 TRADITIONS, SUPEESTITIONS, 
 
 has been swept by them, they are hung, as a kind of talisman, over 
 or near the door of the cow-house. Have these white besoms any 
 relationship to those ornamental ones formerly much hawked in 
 England by German peasant girls, who likewise sung in the streets 
 the once popular song, " Buy a broom ? " 
 
 Gaule says there were " eight classes of witches distinguished by 
 their operations : first, the diviner, gipsy or fortune telling witch ; 
 second, the astrologian, star-gazing, planetary, prognosticating witch; 
 third, the chanting, canting, or calculating witch, who works by signs 
 or numbers ; fourth, the venefick, or poisonous witch ; fifth, the exoi« 
 cist, or conjuring witch ; sixth, the gastromantick witch ; seventh, 
 the magical, speculative, sciential, or arted witch ; eighth, the necro- 
 mancer." 
 
 Many of the practices of the modern gipsies seem to have 
 much in common with the older witchcraft. Fortune teUing, divina- 
 tion, &c., appear to be their chief professional avocations at the pre- 
 sent time, notwithstanding the magisterial rigour to which such 
 imposture is subjected. Much learned discussion has been evoked 
 concerning the origin of this singular people. They appear to have 
 been first generally noticed in Europe about the beginning of the 
 fifteenth century. Some are said, however, to have arrived in Swit- 
 zerland somewhat earUer. They were styled gipsies because "they 
 were beHeved to have wandered into Europe from Egypt. Their lan- 
 guage, and their superstitions, however, show their true origin to have 
 been Indian. Some writers contend that they left that country at the 
 time of the celebrated Timour's invasion, early in the fifteenth 
 century, and that their first resting place being in the country called 
 Zinganen, near the mouth of the Indus, probably explains why in 
 some countries they are called Zingari. Their next resting place 
 being Egypt most probably gave rise to their BngHsh appellation, 
 On the whole it seems not improbable that they spring from the 
 pariahs or lowest caste of Hindoos, now named Suders. The glass 
 globe or egg-shaped instrument, in which they profess to detect super- 
 natural revelations, appears to belong either to the sun image or 
 thunderbolt type of the Aryan mythology. Some of their conjuring, 
 juggling, and other feats of skill are suggestive of a similar paternity, 
 But the identity of the languages, in several essentials, notwithstand- 
 ing much corruption of the gipsy dialects, in consequence of theu' 
 admixture with those of other nations, is perhaps the most conclusiTe 
 proof of the Hindoo origin of these Zingari tribes. 
 
 The superstitious belief in the supernatural yet exists in Lancastoi 
 
AND rOLK-LOEE. ■ 119 
 
 IS well as in other counties of England, to a much greater extent than 
 tiighly educated people are apt to imagine. Gipsies ply their trade ' 
 with, profit, and "wise women" and witches are by no means extinct. 
 The county of Somerset has recently fui-nished two remarkable 
 illustrations of this. The following appeared in the pubHc press' in 
 June, 1871 :— 
 
 "Lingering Superstition. — At Wincanton, ia Somersetshire, the 
 magistrates have had before them a charge arising out of the behef 
 in witchcraft which stiU prevails in that county. Ann Green accused 
 a labourer named WUham Higham of assaulting her. It appeared 
 that the defendant had long laboured under the delusion that he was 
 ' overlooked ' by the complainant, and in order to break the spell he 
 stabbed her twice. The sleeves of the garments which were worn by 
 the complainant were produced in court, saturated with blood. The 
 prisoner gravely informed the Bench that he did it to destroy Mrs. 
 Green's power over him, but that he had not yet found any rehef. 
 The prisoner's mother said she had not been able to rest for a fort- 
 night past, as he was constantly saying that Mrs. Green was ' over- 
 looking ' him, and that it would kill him. He was ordered to find 
 sureties or to be imprisoned for three weeks." 
 
 The following " went the round of the papers" in July, 1870 : — 
 " A strange case of superstition has been brought before the magis- 
 trates of Wincanton, in Somerset. A young man named Lamb, 
 fancying that a certain young woman, Mary Crees, had bewitched 
 him, rushed upon her, seized her by the throat, and pulhng out his 
 penknife, attempted to wound her. In reply to the Bench he said, 
 'She overlooks I; that's as true as the hat's in my hand, and I 
 wanted to draw blood to stop her.' Two years ago he fell down in a 
 fit on seeing her." 
 
 The Manchester Examiner and Times, of June 24th, 1871, contained 
 the foUowing " short leader" : — 
 
 " The metropohtan pohce have been engaged in a laudable attempt 
 at putting down fortune-telhng. They made a ' raid ' the other even- 
 ing upon several professors of the cabahstic art, and in one house 
 found thirty or forty young women waiting to have their ' fortunes 
 told.' Perhaps the most important of the gentlemen arrested on the 
 occasion was a Mr. George Shepherd, who, however, appeared in 
 handbills printed for extensive circulation under the name of ' Pro- 
 fessor Cicero, of Eome, Palestine, Jerusalem, and the Holy Land.' 
 His rooms were fitted up with aU the symbols of his craft, in every 
 branch of which he professed to be an adept. The fees varied from 
 
120 TRADITIONS, SUPEKSTITIONS, 
 
 sixpence to half-a-erown, according to the nature of the service 
 rendered) and a list was found ia the place showing the number of 
 visitors — ^that is, customers — in so many consecutive weeks. These 
 figures, which have a certain Laterest as throwing hght upon the 
 prevalence of popular credulity, ran as follow : 662, 250, 502, 380, 
 512, 513, 430, 89, 466. In Easter-week, iucluding Good Friday, 
 there were only 217 callers, proving that the attractions of a holiday 
 outweigh even those of a visit to a modern temple of divination. But 
 the subject has a serious as well as a romantic side. The four ' Pro- 
 fessors ' were all 'found guilty, ' and committed to gaol for three 
 calendar months with hard labour. Probably no effectual stop ■will 
 be put to a very siUy practice until the dupes are convicted as weU as 
 the prime agents. It is perfectly well known that fortune-teUing is 
 illegal, and a penalty should attach to aU who figure in the transac- 
 tion, whether as seconds or principals." 
 
 The following appeared in a Manchester paper in 1865 : — 
 " Superstition in Saiford. — At the Salford Town Hall, yesterday, 
 John Ehodes, apparently a respectable man, living at 226, Eegent 
 Road, was charged, under the Vagrancy Act, with telling fortunes. 
 A girl, named Ellen Cooper, stated that she saw the prisoner at his 
 house, on Tuesday. After she had told him the date of her nativity, 
 the prisoner cast her horoscope, and told her what she might expect 
 would be her future fortune. For this she paid a shUUng, which she 
 understood was his regular charge. During the time the girl was 
 there, several other females called on a similar errand, but did not 
 stay. From information given by the girl, Cooper, two detective 
 officers called at the prisoner's house on Thursday, where they found 
 him with a female standing beside him, whose future destiny he was 
 busy calculating, aided by an astrological work and a large slate. On 
 the latter were what was apparently intended as a representation of 
 the movements of the heavenly bodies. In the prisoner's house the 
 officers found a large number of books, including ' An Introduction to 
 Astrology,' by WiUiam LiUy ; ' Raphael's Prophetic Alphabet'; 
 ' Occult Philosophy,' by CorneUus Agrippa (in manuscript) ; a work 
 on horary astrology, &c. Besides these, six large volumes were seized, 
 which were fiUed with the names and the dates of the nativities of his 
 cUents, neatly surrounded, in each case, with hieroglyphics. In addi- 
 tion to these were manuscripts with forms of invocations to spirits to 
 do the will and bidding of the invoker ; also love spells, and forms for 
 invoking evil destinies. The text of one of these was as follows :— 
 ' I adjure and command you, ye strong, mighty, and powerful 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 121 
 
 ipirits, who are rulers of this day and hour, that ye obey me in this 
 ny cause by placing my husband in his former situation under the 
 [rent Brewery Company, and I adjure you to banish all his enemies 
 )ut of his way and to make them to crouch in humiliation unto him 
 md acknowledge all the wrongs they have done unto him, and I bind 
 rou by the name of Almighty God, and by our Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 )y His precious blood, and on pain of everlasting damnation, that you 
 abour for him and complete and accomphsh the whole of this my 
 soil and desire, and not depart till the whole of this my will and 
 iesire be fulfilled, and when you have accompHshed the whole of these 
 ny commands you shall be released from all these bonds and 
 lemands, and this I guarantee through the blood of the Eedeemer and 
 )n pain of my future happiness. Let angels praise the Lord, 
 imen.' Amongst the papers found there was sufficient evidence that, 
 imongst the prisoner's many hundreds of chents, there were those 
 who moved in a sphere of hfe not pecuUar to the poorer classes. 
 Mr. Eoberts defended the prisoner. Mr. Trafi'ord said the practice 
 svas so mischievous that he could not let the prisoner off without 
 some punishment ; he must therefore send him to prison for seven 
 lays." 
 
 From the following, which appeared in the Neiv Zealand Herald in 
 1865, it appears the beUef in witchcraft produces serious results 
 amongst the Maories: — 
 
 "From Kawhia we hear of wars and rumours of wars, instigated 
 probably by the desu-e of the semi-friendly natives there to be put on 
 rations and receive pay. Hone Wetere (John Wesley) late native 
 magistrate there, who was deposed from his oflS.ce four years ago for 
 the abduction of a native woman, the wife of a sawyer named Wright, 
 bas been adding to the interest of native proceedings at the present 
 time by the commission of a most brutal murder. It seems that this 
 late learned interpreter of the law had, with a zeal worthy of 
 Matthew Hopkins, condemned an old Maori woman of 'makutu,' or 
 witchcraft, and punished her by his own hands, cutting off her head 
 on the spot. This may appear to Auckland phUo-Maories as some- 
 thing startling and, perhaps, out of the way, but to us here it is no 
 extraordinary event. It is only a few years since two natives in our 
 iistrict murdered a man and woman for the same reason, and cooked 
 a, copper Maori over their grave. Much about the same time, at 
 Kawhia, a native and his wife pulled the heart out of theh- hving child 
 under the impression that the poor infant was bewitched." 
 
 M. Paul B. Du ChaiUu, in his " Journey to Ashango-land," relates 
 
122 TBADITIONS, STJPEESTITIONB^ 
 
 many striking instances of the popular belief .in witchcraft -which 
 exists in Western Equatorial Africa. He says : — 
 
 " As usual I heard a harrowing tale of witchcraft in the course of 
 the day. Pew weeks pass away in these unhappy -villages without 
 something of this kind happening. A poor fellow was siuguig a 
 mournful song, seated on the ground ia the village street ; and on 
 enquiring the cause of his grief I was told that the chief of the 
 village neal: his ha-ying died, and the magic doctor having declared 
 that five persons had bewitched him, the mother, sister, and brother 
 of the poor mourner had just been ruthlessly massacred by the excited 
 people, and his own house and plantation burnt and laid waste," 
 He describes at length the ceremonies attending the drinking of 
 the mboundou, or the ordeal by poison, which he -witnessed at Ma- 
 yolo. If the poison kills the suspected person he is pronounced 
 guilty ; but if, as in three instances he -witnessed, the drinker 
 should, after severe spasms, vomit the deadly potion, he generally 
 recovers, and is declared innocent of the charge of witchcraft pre- 
 ferred against him. 
 
 From these instances, and others which might be adduced, it is clear 
 that this superstition is a very ancient and a very universal one, in 
 some form, and therefore, not necessarily of exclusively Aryan origui ; 
 but that it may result from similar conditions to which humanity is, or 
 has been, subjected in various parts of the globe. It is not impossible, 
 however, that the African instances referred to may have some very 
 remote connection -with the Aryan superstitions of a similar character, 
 for M. Du ChaiUu expressly declares his belief that the ancestors of 
 the present inhabitants of Western Equatorial Africa migrated from 
 the east. He says : — " The migration of the tribes, as I have 
 already observed, seems to have foUowed the same laws as migrations 
 among ourselves ; I did not meet with a single tribe or clan who said 
 they came from thq west ; they aU. pointed to the east as the place 
 they came from." 
 
 Mr. T. T. WUkinson gives the foUo-wing very graphic description ot 
 a Burnley witch, but recently deceased : — 
 
 " Most nations of all ages have been accustomed to deck the graves 
 of their dead -with appropriate flowers, much as we do at present, 
 The last words of the dying have, from the earhest times, been consi- 
 dered of prophetic import ; and, according to Theocritus, some one 
 of those present have endeavoured to receive into his mouth the last 
 breath of a dying parent or friend, 'as fancying the soul to pass outidA 
 it and enter into their own bodies,' Few would expect to find this 
 
AND FOLK-LOBE. 123 
 
 singular custom still existing in Lancashire, and yet such is the fact. 
 Witchcraft can boast her votaries in this county even up to the 
 present date, and she numbers this practice amongst her rites and 
 ceremonies. Not many years ago, there resided in the neighbourhood 
 of Burnley, a female whose malevolent practices were supposed to 
 render themselves manifest by the injuries she inflicted on her neigh- 
 bours' cattle ; and many a lucky-stone, many a stout horse shoe and 
 rusty sickle, may now be found behind the doors or hung from the 
 beams of the cow-houses and stables belonging to the farmers in that 
 locaUty, which date their suspension from the time when this good old 
 lady held the country side in awe. Not one of her neighbours ever 
 dared to offend her openly; and if she at any time preferred a request 
 it was granted at all hazards, regardless of inconvenience and 
 expense. If in some thoughtless moment any one spoke slightingly 
 either of her or her powers, a corresponding penalty was threatened 
 as soon as it reached her ears, and the loss of cattle, personal health, 
 or a general ' run of bad luck' soon led the offending party to think 
 seriously of making peace with his powerful tormentor. As time 
 wore on she herself sickened and died ; but before she could ' shuffle 
 off this mortal coU,' she must needs transfer her familiar spirit to some 
 trusty successor. An intimate acquaintance from a neighbouring 
 township was consequently sent for in aU haste, and on her arrival 
 was immediately / closeted with her dying friend. What passed 
 between them has never fully transpired, but it is coniidently affirmed 
 that, at the close of the interview this associate received the icitch's last 
 breath into her mouth, and with it the familiar spirit. The dreaded 
 woman thus ceased to exist, but her powers for good or evil were 
 transferred to her companion ; and on passing along the road from 
 Burnley to Blackburn we can point out a farm-house at no great 
 distance, with whose thrifty matron no neighboring farmer will yet 
 dare to quarrel." 
 
 This superstition respecting the reception of the spirit of the dyiag 
 by inhaling the last breath, must have existed from a very remote 
 antiquity. Psyche, the Greek personification of the soul, as a word, 
 originally, simply meant breath. From the butterfly being the 
 emblem of Psyche, the word became the name of the beautiful insect 
 Ukewise. The Zulus call a man's shadow his soul, which would seem 
 to be analagous to our churchyard ghost and the umbra of the 
 Eomans. The Zulus hold that a dead body can east no shadow, 
 because that appurtenance departed from it at the close of Ufe. 
 
124 TRADITIONS, SUPEESTITIONS, 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 FAIRIES AND BOGfiAKTE 
 
 There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, 
 Thau are dreamt of in your philosophy! 
 
 Shahspere. 
 
 In my youthful imagination, some forty odd years ago, "boggarts," 
 ghosts, or spirits of one kind or another, in Lancashire, appeared, to 
 use Falstaff's phrase, to be "as plentiful as blackberries." "Boggart," 
 by some writers is regarded as the Lancashire cognomen for " Puck" 
 or "Eobiu GoodfeUow." Certainly there are, or were, many boggarts 
 whose mischievous propensities and rude practical jokings remind us 
 very forcibly of the eccentric and erratic goblin page to the fairy king, 
 so admirably deUneated by Shakspere in his "Midsummer Night's 
 Dream" : — 
 
 Fairy — Either I mistake your shape and making quite. 
 Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite, 
 Called Robin GoodfeUow ; are you not he 
 That fright the maidens of the villagery ; 
 . Skim milk ; and sometimes labour in the quern. 
 And bootless make the breathless housewife chum ; 
 And sometimes make the drink to bear no barm ; 
 Mislead night wanderers, laughing at their harm ; 
 Those that hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck, 
 You do their work, and they shall have good luck : 
 Are not you he ? 
 
 Puclc — Thou speakest aright ; 
 I am that merry wanderer of the night, 
 I jest to Oberon and make him smile. 
 When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile, 
 Neighing in likeness of a filly foal ; 
 And sometimes lurk I in a gossip's bowl. 
 In very likeness of a roasted crab ; 
 And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob. 
 And on her withered dewlap pour the ale. 
 The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale. 
 Sometimes for three-foot stool mistaketh me. '. . 
 
AND FOLK-LOBE. 125 
 
 Ben Jonson makes Eobia Goodfellow say — 
 
 " Sometimes I meet them like a man, 
 Sometimes an ox, sometimes a hound. 
 And to a horse I turn me can, 
 To trip and trot about them round. 
 
 But if to ride, 
 
 My back they stride. 
 More swift than wind away I go : 
 
 O'er edge and lands. 
 
 Through pools and ponds, 
 I whirry laughing. Ho ! ho ! ho ! " 
 
 There is some diversity and variety of colouring in the various 
 fau-y types presented in different localities, but they have sufficient in 
 common to justify perfect faith in their near relationship, whether 
 they are styled Peris, as in Persia, Pixies, as in Devonshire, Ginns, 
 as in Arabia, Gnomes or Elves, amongst the Teutons, or "the Lepra- 
 chaun" or " Good people," of the sister Island. The finest modern 
 artistic reahsation of the fairy kingdom is unquestionably to be found 
 in Shakspere's " Midsummer Night's Dream." Hovr strangely, yet 
 how beautifully and consistently, has he there woven together his 
 etherial conceptions with the grosser, as well as with the more 
 elevated aspect of our common humanity ! How exquisite is the 
 poetry in which the visions of his imaginations are embodied ! The 
 fairy-King Oberon thus describes his queen^ Titania's, bower : — 
 
 I know a bank whereon the wild thyme blows. 
 Where oxslips and the nodding violet grows ; 
 Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, 
 With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine ; 
 There sleeps Titania, some time of the night, 
 Lulled in these flowers with dances and delight, 
 And there the snake throws her enamelled skin. 
 Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in. 
 
 And again at the close of the play. Puck says — 
 
 Now it is the time of night, 
 That the graves all gaping wide. 
 Every one lets forth his sprite 
 In the church-way paths to glide : 
 And we fairies that do run 
 By the triple Hecat's team, 
 From the presence of the sun, 
 Following darkness like a dream, 
 Now are frolic. 
 
 Witches, fairies, ghosts, and boggarts seem to have become inti- 
 mately amalgamated in the repertoire of modern superstition. Doubt- 
 less many of them have a common origin, and are but separate 
 
126 TRADITIONS, SUPEKSTITIONS, 
 
 developments, mythical or artistic, of the universal tendency of 
 primitive peoples to personify, or render more tangible to the ruder 
 sense, their conceptions of those forces of nature, the laws governing 
 which are, to them, hidden in the delusive gloom of ignorance. 
 " Peeorin" is a general term for aU things of this character that create 
 fear in the otherwise intrepid heart of a "Lancashire lad." Mr. 
 Edwin Waugh, whose songs in the dialect are not more remarkable 
 for their quaint humour and homely pathos than for their idiomatic 
 truthfulness, aptly illustrates the minghng of the various supernatural 
 terrors to which I have referred, in his admirable ballad, " What ails 
 thee, my son Eobin." The mother, alarmed at the lad's melancholy 
 mood, says, inquiringly : — 
 
 Neaw, arto fairy -stricken ; 
 Or arto gradely ill ? 
 Or hasto bin wi' th' witches 
 I'th cloof , at deep o'th neet ? 
 
 Eobin replies — 
 
 'Tisn't lung o'th feeorin' 
 
 That han to do wi' th' dule ; 
 
 There's nought at thus could daunt mo, 
 
 I'th oloof, by neet nor day ; 
 
 It's yon blue een o' Mary's : 
 
 They taen my life away. 
 
 Queen Mab appears to have been equally as mischievous an elf as 
 Puck. Shakspere says, — 
 
 This is that very Mab 
 That plats the manes of horses in the night, 
 And bakes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs, 
 Which, once entangled, much misfortune bodes. 
 
 Mab, however, like Puck, seems to have had a large element of 
 humour in her composition, which is delineated with marveUous 
 grace and brilliancy in the celebrated speech of Mercutio, in "Eomeo 
 and Juliet." 
 
 Boggarts, in some cases, appear to have been anything but 
 unwelcome guests. King James I,, in his " Dsmonologie," describes 
 the spirit called a "brownie" as something that " appeared like a 
 rough man, and haunted divers houses without doing any evile, but 
 doing, as it were, necessarie turnes up and downe the house ; yet some 
 were so blinded as to beleeve that their house was all the sonsier, as 
 they called it, that such spirits resorted there." 
 
 Mr. T. T. Wilkinson relates some good stories of Lancashire 
 goblins, who are believed to have determined the sites of Eochdale, 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. J 27 
 
 Burnley, Samlesbury, and some other churches, by removing the 
 stones and scaffolding of the builders in the night time. There is 
 likewise a legend of this class in connection with the church at Win- 
 wich, near Warrington, and another at Whaley-bridge, in Derbyshire. 
 Indeed, these goblin church builders are very common throughout 
 the land. In some cases the sprite assumes the form of the arch- 
 fiend himself. Eeferring to the famous boggart of Syke Lumb farm, 
 near Blackburn, Mr. "Wilkinson says : — 
 
 " When in a good humour, this noted goblin wiU milk the cows, 
 puU the hay, fodder the cattle, harness the horses, load the carts, and 
 stack the crops. When irritated by the utterance of some unguarded 
 expression or marked disrespect, either from the farmer or his 
 servants, the cream mugs are then smashed to atoms ; no butter can 
 be obtained by churning ; the horses and other" cattle are turned 
 loose, or driven into the woods ; two cows will sometimes be found 
 fastened in the same stall ; no hay can be pulled from the mow ; and 
 aU the while the wicked imp sits grinning with dehght upon one of 
 the cross beams in the barn. At other times the horses are unable 
 to draw the empty carts across the farm yard ; if loaded they are 
 upset ; whilst the cattle tremble with fear, without any visible cause. 
 Nor do the inmates of the house experience any better or gentler 
 usage. During the night the clothes are said to be violently torn from 
 off the beds of the offending parties, whilst, by invisible hands, they 
 themselves are dragged down the stone stairs by the legs, one step at 
 a time, after a more uncomfortable manner than we need describe." 
 
 Mr. Wilkinson relates an anecdote of a near relation of his own, 
 who, although, "not more imbued with superstition than the 
 majority," firmly believed that he had once seen " a real dwarf or 
 fairy, without the use of any incantation. He had been amusing 
 himseK one summer evening on the top of Mellor Moor, near Black- 
 burn, close to the remains of the Eoman encampment, when his 
 attention was arrested by the appearance of a dwarf-Mke man, attired 
 in fuU hunting costume, with top boots and spurs, a green jacket, red 
 hairy cap, and a thick hunting whip in his hand. He ran briskly 
 along the moor for a considerable distance, when, leaping over a low 
 stone waU, he darted down a steep dechvity, and was soon lost to 
 sight." 
 
 One of the best descriptions of a Lancashire boggart or bargaist * 
 that I have met with, was written by the late Crofton Croker, and 
 
 * Sir Walter Scott thought bargaist to be the German bahrgeist, the spirit of the bier, 
 alluding to its presence foretelling death. The word is variously written, barguest and 
 
128 TBADITIONS, SUPEBSTITIONS, 
 
 published in Eoby's "Traditions of Lancashire." I may just remark, 
 en passant, that the word " traditions," as appUed to nearly the whole 
 of these stories, is a sad misnomer. The tales might, perhaps with 
 propriety, be termed nouvelletes, or little novels ; but when put forth 
 as " traditions," in the true acceptation of the term, they are worse 
 than useless, for they are calculated' equally to mislead both the 
 antiquary and the coHeotor of " folk lore." Croker makes the scene 
 of his story what was once a retired and densely wooded dell, or deep 
 valley, in the township of Blackley, near Manchester, called to this 
 day, " Boggart Ho' Clough." This boggart sadly pestered a worthy 
 farmer, named George Cheatham, by " scaring his maids, worryiiig 
 his men, and frightening the poor children out of their senses, so that,, 
 at last, not even a mouse durst shew himself indoors at the farm, as 
 he valued his whiskers, after the clock had struck twelve." This 
 same boggart, however, had some joUy genial quahties. His voice, 
 when he joined the household laughter, on merry tales being told and 
 practical jokes indulged in, around the hearth at Christmastide, is 
 described as " smaU. and shriU," and as easily " heard above the rest, 
 like a baby's penny trumpet." He began to regard himself at last as a 
 "privileged inmate" and conducted himself in the most extraordinary 
 manner, snatching the children's bread and butter out of their hands, 
 and interfering with their porridge, nulk, and other food. His 
 "invisible hand" knocked the furniture about in the most approved 
 modern style of goblin or spiritual manifestation. Yet, this mis- 
 chievous propensity did not prevent him from occasionally performing- 
 some kindly acts, such as churning the cream and scouring the pans 
 and kettles ! Truly, he' was a "tricksty sprite." Croker refers to 
 one circumstance which he regards as " remarkable," and which will 
 remind modern readers very distinctly of a "spiritual" exhibition 
 which recently attracted much public attention. He says — "the 
 stairs ascended from the kitchen ; a partition of boards covered the 
 ends of the steps, and formed a closet beneath the staircase. Fi'om 
 one of the boards of this partition a large round knot was accidently 
 displaced, and one day the youngest of the children, while playing 
 with the shoe-horn, stuck it into this knot-hole. Whether or not the 
 aperture had been formed by the boggart as a peep-hole to watch the 
 
 boguest being amongst its forms. A very slight provincial change would make the 
 latter hoguerst, from whence, probably, the Lancaahire boggart. The Cymric word 
 bwg, which represents, according to Mr. Gamett, the modern bag, bugbear, and hob- 
 goblin, has evidently intimate relation to the root of the word. This sprite is often 
 confounded with others, and is subjected to much local variation. 
 
AND FOLK-LOBE. 129 
 
 motions of the family, I cannot pretend to say. Some thought it was, 
 for it was called the boggart's peep-hole ; but others said that they 
 had remembered it before the shrill laugh of the boggart was heard 
 in the house. However this may have been, it is certain that the 
 horn was ejected with surprising precision at the head of whoever put 
 it there ; and either in mirth or in anger the horn was darted forth 
 with great velocity, and struck the poor child over the ear." To say 
 the least of it, it is rather remarkable that the mere substitution of the 
 words structure or cabinet ior closet, and trumpet for horn, to say nothing 
 of the pecuhar quahty of the boggart's voice, should make the whole 
 so eloquently suggestive of the doings of a certain "Mr. Ferguson" 
 and his friends the Davenport Brothers, and other " spiritual mani- 
 festations" recently so much in vogue. AU this supernatural mounte- 
 banking was, it appears, taken in good part by Mr. Cheetham's family, 
 and when the children or neighbours wished for a httle excitement 
 they easUy found it in "laking," that is, playing, with this eccentric 
 and pugnacious disembodied spirit.* 
 
 But Mr. Boggart eventually returned to his old avocations, and 
 
 midnight noises again disturbed the repose of the inmates of the 
 
 haunted house. Pewter pots and earthen dishes were dashed to the 
 
 floor, and yet, in the morning they were found perfectly uninjured, 
 
 and in their usual places. To such a pitch at last did matters reach, 
 
 : that George Cheetham and his family were observed one day by 
 
 . neighbour John Marshall suUenly foUovraig a cart that contained their 
 
 : household goods and chattels. What transpired is best told in Mr. 
 
 : Croker's own words : — 
 
 ,, « '"Well, Georgy, and soa you're leaving th'owd house at last,' said 
 it MsjshaU. 
 
 ; " 'Heigh, Johnny, my lad, I'm in a manner forced to it, thou sees,' 
 ; repUed the other, ' for that wearyfu' boggart torments us soa, we can 
 -,.. neither rest neet nor day for't. It seems loike to have a maUce 
 ''^ agains t' young uns, an' it ommost kills my poor dame at thoughts 
 "j on't, and soa, thou sees, we're forced to flit like.' 
 
 " He had got thus far in his complaint when, behold, a shrill voice, 
 ;,' from a deep upright churn, the topmost utensil on the cai-t, called out, 
 *'. ' Ay, ay, neighbour, we're flitting, you see.' 
 
 '"Od rot thee,' exclaimed George, "If I'd known thou'd been 
 •^ flitting too, I wadn't ha' stirred a peg. Nay, nay, it's no use, MaUy,' 
 
 «, *QUEET.-Has the Lancashire and Yorkshire word "lake," meaning "to play," 
 ■jjS anything in common with the modern word "larking," now so much in vogue ? 
 
 J 
 
130 TRADITIONS, STJPBESTITIONS, 
 
 he continued, turning to Ms wife, ' we may as weel turn back again 
 to th'owd house, as be tormented in another not so convenient.' " 
 
 In Florence of Worcester's Chronicle, under the date, 1138, a 
 singular story is related, which explains " how the devil, in the shape 
 of a black dwarf, was made a monk." From some of the details, it 
 appears to embody, ia no sHght degree, the popular superstition 
 regarding the mischievous Puck. On three distiuct occasions the 
 cellars of a monastery at Prum, in the arch-diocese of Treves, had 
 been invaded, bungs wantonly withdrawn from casks, and good wine 
 spUled on the floor. The abbot, in despair, at length ordered the 
 bungholes to be " anointed round with chrism." On the foUowing 
 morning "a wonderfully dwarfish black boy" was foimd "clinging by 
 the hands to one of the bungs." He was released, dressed in a monk's 
 habit, and made to associate with the other boys. He, however, 
 never uttered a word, either in public or private, or tasted food of any 
 kind. A neighbouring abbot pronounced him to be a devil lurking in 
 human form; and, the chronicle informs us, " while they were in the 
 act of stripping off his monastic dress, he vanished from their hands 
 Uke smoke." 
 
 This sort of superstition was devotedly respected by even such men 
 as Martin Luther. He tells us of a demon who officiated as famulm 
 in a monastery. He was a good hand at an earthly bargain too, and 
 insisted on having full measure for his money, when employed to fetch 
 beer for the monks. 
 
 I remember in my youth hearing a story of a headless boggart that 
 haunted Preston streets and neighbouring lanes. Its presence was 
 often accompanied by the rattling of chains. I forget now what was 
 its special mission. It frequently changed its form, however, but 
 whether it appeared as a woman or a black dog, it was always head- 
 less. The story went that this boggart or ghost was at length "laid" 
 by some magical or religious ceremony in Walton Church yard. I 
 have often thought that the story told by Weaver, a Preston anti- 
 quary, in his " FuneraU Monuments," printed in 1631, and which I 
 have transcribed at page 149 of the " History of Preston and its 
 Environs," may have had some remote connection with this tradition. 
 He relates how Michael Kelly, the celebrated Dr. Dee's compimion, 
 together with one Paul Wareing, " invocated some of the infernal 
 regiment, to know certain passages in the Ufe, as also what might bee 
 knowne by the devils foresight, of the manner and the time of the 
 death of a noble young gentleman then in his wardship." He 
 further relates how, on the following evening they dug up in Laif 
 
AND FOLK-LOKB. 131 
 
 (Walton) Cliurch yard,, the corpse of a man recently buried, when, 
 " by their incantations, they made him (or rather some evU spirit 
 through his organs) to speake, who delivered strange predictions con- 
 cerning the said gentleman." From the whole of this narration, it is 
 evident that Weaver honestly behoved some special sorcery or diablerie 
 had been perpetrated in the localities referred to. 
 
 This belief that the devil made use of other organs than his own, in 
 giving expression to his thoughts or opinions was shared in by the 
 learned. Melancthon teUs us of an Italian girl who was "possessed" 
 with a devU, and who, although she knew no Latia, quoted Virgil 
 fluently (at least Satan did through her organ of speech), when ques- 
 tioned by a Bolognese professor. This anecdote is rather unpleasantly 
 suggestive of certain recent clairvoyant exhibitions. 
 
 Amongst other youthful terrors to which I remember being sub- 
 jected, one had reference to a mythic monster styled " raw head and 
 bloody bones." This boggart appeared to partake of the cannibal 
 nature of some of the giants and ogres in our nursery tales, one of which, 
 on the approach of the redoubtable " Jack, the Giant KiUer," called out 
 to his wife, " I smell fresh meat ! " or according to the popular rhyme — 
 Fee, fo, fam, I smell the blood of an EngUshmaii ! 
 Be he alive or be he dead, I'll grind his bones to salt and bread !' 
 
 The said "raw head and bloody bones," I was seriously informed, 
 preferred to breakfast on the bodies of naughty children, nicely 
 roasted ! I can likewise remember well being told that boggarts 
 especially loved to haunt and otherwise annoy those who refused to 
 believe in their existence. After experience, I need scarcely say, has 
 demonstrated the contrary to be much nearer the truth. 
 
 Mr. Edwin Waugh, in his " Grave of Grislehurst Boggart," gives 
 a vivid picture of this species of superstition as it stUl exists in Lan- 
 cashire. The story is admirably told in a conversation between the 
 author, an old weaver and his dame, and is replete vrith characteristic 
 traits. It seems this boggart, although it was supposed to be " laid" 
 in the most orthodox manner, stiU troubled the neighbourhood. The 
 old dame declares — "It's a good while sin it were laid; an' there 
 were a cock buried wi'it, we a stoop (a stake) driven through it. It 
 're nooan settled with a Uttle, aw'U uphowd yo." 
 
 " ' And do you really think,' said the author, ' that this place has 
 been haunted by a boggart ? ' 
 
 "'Has bin — be f ar I ' repUed the dame. 'It is neaw ! Yodd'n 
 soon find it eawt, too, iv yo Hve't oppo th' spot. It's very mich iv it 
 wouldn't may yor yure fair ston of an end, othur with one marlock or 
 
132 TRADITIONS, SUPEKSTITIONS, 
 
 another. There's noan so mony folk oppo tHs country side at likes 
 to go deawn yon lone at after delit (daylight), aw con tell yo.' 
 
 " ' But it's laid and buried,' repUed the author, 'it surely doesn't 
 trouble you much now.' 
 
 " ' Oh, well,' said the old woman, 'iv it doesn't, it doesn't; so there 
 needs no moor. Aw know some folk winnut beUeve sich things- 
 there is some at'U beheve naught at o' iv it isn't fair druven into 
 um, wilto, shalto ; but this is a different case, mind yo. Eh, never 
 name it ; thoose at has it to dhyel wi knows what it is ; but thoose at 
 knows naught abeawt sich like — whau, it's Hke summat an' nawt 
 talkin' to 'um abeawt it ; so we'n e'en lap it up where it is.' " 
 
 This boggart, from its doings, appears to have been an exact 
 counterpart of George Cheetham's plague. On Mr. Waugh inquiriag 
 if the weaver never thought of digging into the grave in order to 
 satisfy his curiosity on the matter, the old lady broke in with— 
 " Naw ; he'll delve noan theer, nut iv aw know it. . . . Nor no 
 mon elze dar lay a finger oppo that greavrad. Joseph Penton'a a 
 meeterly bowd chap, an' he's ruvren everything up abeawt this 
 country side, welly, but he dar not touch Gerzlehus' Boggart for his 
 skin ! An' I howd his wit good, too, mind yo ! " 
 
 The Grislehurst dame seems to have placed some emphasis on the 
 fact, when their ghost or boggart was " laid," that "there was a cock 
 buried vn' it." This ceremony resulted, doubtless, from a lingering 
 remnant of the ancient and almost universal superstition that the 
 soul departeth from the body in the form of a bird. This Dr. Kuhn 
 regards as intimately connected vsith the Aryan belief respecting birds 
 being soul-bringers. I am not aware, however, whether the barn- 
 door fowl is included amongst the numerous Ughtning birds, which 
 KeUy describes as having "nestled in the fire-bearing tree," of wMch 
 the clouds formed the foliage, and the sun, moon, and stars the fruit, 
 
 In WiUsford's "Nature's Secrets" (1658), is, however, thefoUoraig 
 passage, which shows the connection of the common fowl with stormy 
 weather : — 
 
 "The vigUant 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, and that fi'om 
 fair to foul, or the contrary ; but when the hen crows, good men 
 expect a storm within doors and without. If the hen or chickens in the 
 morning come late fe-om their roosts (as if they were constrained by 
 hunger), it presages much rainy weather." 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 133 
 
 The Eomans used fowls in divination. Mohammed, too, is said to 
 have included amongst his domestic pets a white cock, which he 
 regarded as his friend, and considered that it protected him from the 
 machinations of witchcraft, of genii and devils, and of the evil eye. 
 
 Mr. T. T. Wniiiason relates a curious anecdote, which he had, a 
 few years ago, from a respectable gentleman, in the neighbourhood of 
 Burnley, about "killing a witch." His informant was one of the 
 farmers engaged in the mystical ceremony, the object of which was 
 the destruction of a wizard who had wrought sad havoc amongst his 
 neighbours' cattle. He says : — " They met at the house of one of 
 their number, whose cattle were then supposed to be under the 
 influence of the wizard; and, having procured a hve cock chicken, 
 they stuck him full of pins and burnt him ahve, whilst repeating some 
 magical incantation. . . . The wind suddenly rose to a tempest, 
 and threatened the destruction of the house. Dreadful moanings, as 
 of some one in intense agony, were heard from without, whilst a, sense 
 of horror seized upon all within. At the moment when the storm 
 was at the wildest, the wizard knocked at the door, and, in piteous 
 tones, desired admittance. They. had previously been warned, by the 
 ' wise man' they had consulted, that such would be the case, and had 
 been charged not to yield to their feehngs of humanity by allowing 
 him to enter." The violent death of the cock, it appears, was neces- 
 sary to raise the storm. The seq[uel of the story informs us that 
 exposure to its violence killed the presumed wizard in the course of 
 a week. 
 There is a superstition in Cornwall that the crowing of a cock at 
 ■ midnight indicates that the angel of death is passing over the house. 
 ' Mr. Hunt relates the following anecdote, from which it appears that 
 chanticleer is largely credited in that district with supernatural 
 ' attributes : — 
 
 ; " A farmer in Towednack having been robbed of some property of 
 f. no great value, was resolved, nevertheless, to employ a test which he 
 had heard the 'old people' resorted to for the purpose of catching a 
 f thief. He invited all his neighbours into his cottage, and when they 
 <f, were assembled, he placed a cock under the 'brandice' (an iron 
 .j: vessel formerly much employed by the peasantry in baking, when this 
 ^ process was carried out on the hearth, the fuel being furze and ferns). 
 !f,: Every one was directed to touch the brandice with his, or her third 
 jiji finger, and say, ' In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
 ^ -speak.' Every one did as they were directed, and no sound came 
 from beneath the brandice. The last person was a woman, who 
 
134 TBADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 occasionally laboured for the farmer in Ms fields. She hung back, 
 hoping to pass unobserved amidst the crowd. But her very anxiety 
 made her a suspected person. She v^as forced forward, and most 
 unwillingly she touched the brandice, when, before she could utter 
 the words prescribed, the cock crew. The woman feU faint on the 
 floor, and, iwhen she recovered, she confessed herseM to be the thief, 
 restored the stolen property, and became, it is said, ' a changed 
 character from that day.' " 
 
 Shakspere appears to have been fully aware of the prevalence of a 
 superstition which attributed to ghosts and wandering spirits a whole- 
 some dread of the sonorous tones of chanticleer's early morning song. 
 In the first scene in Hamlet, on the departure of the ghost, Bernardo 
 
 It was about to speak when the cook crew. 
 
 Horatio answers : — 
 
 And then it started like a gnilty thing 
 Upon a fearful summons. I have heard 
 The cook that is the trumpet of the mom, 
 Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat. 
 Awake the god of day ; and, at his warning. 
 Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air, 
 The extravagant and erring spirit hies 
 To his confine : and of the truth herein 
 This present object made probation. 
 
 To which Marcellus adds : — 
 
 It faded on the crowing of the cock. 
 Some say, that ever 'gainst that season comes. 
 Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, 
 This bird of dawning singeth all night long : 
 And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad. 
 The nights are wholesome ; then no planets strike. 
 No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, 
 So haJlow'd and so gracious is the time. 
 
 And again; Puck, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, referring to the 
 morning star or early dawn, which awakeneth chanticleer, says :— 
 
 My fairy lord, this must be done vriith haste ; 
 
 For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast. 
 
 And yonder shines Aurora's haibinger ; 
 
 At whose approach, ghosts, wandering here and there. 
 
 Troop home to churchyards ; damned spirits all. 
 
 That in cross-ways and floods have burial. 
 
 Already to their wormy beds are gone ; 
 
 For fear lest day should look their shames upon. 
 
 They vrilfully themselves exile from light. 
 
 And must for aye consort with black-browed night. 
 
AND FOLK-LOKK. 185 
 
 Not SO, however, -with the fairies, for Oberon rejoins : — 
 
 But we are spirits of another sort : 
 I with the morning's love have oft made sport ; 
 And, like a forester, the groves may tread, 
 Even till the eastern gate, all fiery red, 
 Opening on Neptune wish fair blessed beams. 
 Turns into yellow gold his salt-green streams. 
 
 The cock was one of the attendants or emblems of J^sculapius or 
 Asclepius, the god of medicine of the Greek mythology, and this 
 fowl was commonly sacrificed to him. In addition to his knowledge 
 in the art of heaUng disease, he possessed the power of raising 
 the dead to life. He was believed to be the son of Apollo. 
 According to Plato, the last words of Socrates were, "Criton, we owe 
 a cock to Asclepius." This bird, as well as the serpent, was one of 
 his sacred emblems. 
 
 The Roman god Janus is regarded by many to be in some respects 
 a Latin form of the Greek Asclepius. He opens the year and the 
 daily morning, and is the porter of heaven. One of his pecuhar 
 emblems was a cock, by the means of whose matutinal song he was 
 supposed to announce the approach of the dawn. 
 
 The crowing of a cock of the colour of gold is to be the signal of 
 the dawn of Ragnavock, " the great day of arousing," according to 
 Scandinavian mythology. A black cock is hkewise said to crow in 
 the Niflhdm, or " land of gloom." 
 
 J. Bossewell, in " "Workes of Armourie" (1597), says: — "The 
 lyon dreadeth the white cocke, because he breedeth a precious stone 
 called aUectrieium, like to the stone that bright Calcedonius, and 
 for that the cocke beareth such a stone, the lyon specially abhorreth 
 him." The stone referred to was said to be similar to a dark crystal, 
 and about the size of a bean. 
 
 A most astounding story affirming the supernatural attributes of 
 ' chanticleer is related in Pinkerton's " General Collection of Voyages 
 and Travels." In the "Voyage to Congo," a Capuchin "missioner," 
 named Father MoroUa, relates the following remarkable incident with 
 the utmost gravity and evidently with perfect faith in the veracity of 
 the story: — On the capture of a certain town by the army of Sogno, 
 a large cock was found with an iron ring attached to one of its legs. 
 The unfortunate rooster was speedily placed in the pot and boiled in 
 the most orthodox fashion. When, however, his captors were about 
 to commence their improvised feast, to their astonishment the cooked 
 "pieces of the cock, though sodden and near dissolved, began to move 
 
136 TBADITIONS, SUPEESTITIONS, 
 
 about, and unite into the form they were in before, and being so 
 united, the restored cock immediately raised himself up, and jumped 
 out of the platter upon the ground, where he walked about as well as 
 when he was first taken. Afterwards he leaped upon an adjoiaiag 
 wall, where he became new-feathered all of a sudden, and then took 
 his flight to a tree hard by, where, fixing himself, he, after three 
 claps of his wings, made a most hideous noise, and then disappeared. 
 Every one may imagine what a terrible fright the spectators were in 
 at this sight, who, leaping with a thousand Ave-Marias in their 
 mouths from the place where this had happened, were contented to 
 observe most of the particulars at a distance." 
 
 The fabulous animal, the cockatrice, was beHeved to result from a 
 " venomous egg" laid by an aged cock, and hatched by a toad. The 
 monster had the head and breast of the dunghill champion, and 
 " thence downwards the body of a serpent." Toads are frequently 
 referred to by old writers in connection with witches and witchcraft. 
 
 In a MS. "Medycine Boke," belonging to Dr. Sampson Jones, of 
 Bettws, Monmouthshire (1650-90), is the following strange recipe, 
 entitled, " Cock water for a consumption and cough of the lungs":— 
 " Take a running cock and pull (pluck) him aUve, then kiU him and 
 cutt him in pieces and take out his intrals and wipe him cleane, hreake 
 the bones, then put him into an ordinary stiU with a pottle of sack 
 and a pottle of red cow's milk," etc., etc. 
 
 The mythical character and medical quahties of red cow's milk 
 have been referred to in the previous chapter. 
 
 Lightning birds were supposed to come " down to earth either as 
 incorporations of the hghtning, or bringing with them a branch 
 charged with latent or invisible fire." The eagle or the falcon was 
 the form which Agni, the fire-god, assumed on such occasions. The 
 fire-birds were very numerous, and included the woodpecker, the robin, 
 the wren, the owl, the cuckoo, the stork, the swallow, and the hoopoe, 
 KeUy quotes the Herefordshire rhyme as evidence that the ancient 
 superstition res]pecting the wren is stiU aUve in England, as well as 
 in France, Scotland, Wales, and the Isle of Man. The 
 there say : — 
 
 Robin Redbreast and Jenny Wren 
 Are God Almighty's cook and hen. 
 
 In Lancashire, however, the rhyme is : — 
 
 A robin and a wren 
 Are God's coolj and hen. 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 137 
 
 And it is generally followed by the intimation that 
 
 A spink and a sparrow 
 
 Are the devil's bow and arrow. 
 
 To kUl or rob the nests of these sacred birds was supposed to hazard 
 the destruction of the culprit's residence by lightning. A Cornish 
 rhyme says : — 
 
 Those who kill a robin or a wran 
 
 WiK never prosper, boy or man. 
 
 In the "laying" of the redoubted Grislehurst boggart, it is not im- 
 probable, as ghosts are not easily coffined in a corporeal sense, that 
 some superannuated old rooster, who had disturbed the bodily rest, 
 and scared the wits of the neighbouring rustics by some untoward 
 cock-a-doodle-doing, furnished all that .was really "laid" in the mys- 
 terious grave referred to. An impression may have been entertaiaed 
 that the troublesome elf who had turned the household topsy-turvy 
 had made the said rooster's corpus his temporary earthly tabernacle. 
 Perhaps the "wise men" of the hamlet vainly imagined that nought 
 was required but the driving of a "stoop" through the feathered 
 repository to utterly "squelch" its ghostly occupant. 
 
 Since the above was written, a paragraph from the Carnatic Telegraph 
 has "gone the round of the press," relating to the "casting out of 
 devils," as at present practised in India. From this, it appears that 
 the cock is, with the Hindoos as with the Lancashire peasant, a most 
 potent instrument in the subjugation of troublesome spirits. The 
 Hindoo exorcist tied his patient's hair in a knot, and then with a 
 naU attached it to a tree. Muttering some " incantatory" stanzas, 
 he seized a Uve cock, and, holding it over the poor girl's head with 
 one hand, he, with the other, cut its throat. The blood-stained knot 
 of hair was left attached to the tree, which was supposed to detain 
 the demon. It is firmly beUeved that one " or a legion thus exorcised 
 wlU. haunt that tree tiU he or they shall choose to take possession of 
 some other unfortunate." 
 
 In a work pubhshed in 1869, entitled " Count Teleki ; a Story of 
 Modern Jewish Life and Customs, by Eca," the author describes a 
 ceremony called the "Keparoth or atoning sacrifice," in which the 
 common barn-door fowl plays an important part. The penitent 
 "whirled a cock around his head, saying, ' This is my atonement, this 
 is my ransom. This cock goeth to death, but may I be gathered and 
 enter into a long and happy Hfe and into peace.' This he repeated 
 three times. . . . The sacrifice consists of a cock for the male. 
 
138 TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 and a hen for a female. A white fowl is preferred to any other, in 
 allusion to the words of the prophet, ' Though your sins be as scarlet 
 they shall become white as snow.' A pregnant woman t^,kes three, 
 two hens and one cock, one hen for herself and the other two for the 
 unborn infant — ^the hen lest it should be a girl, and the cock lest it 
 shoxild be a boy." The fowls are immediately afterwards handed 
 over to the Jewish butcher to be killed. 
 
 A yet very prevalent superstition asserts that a person at the point 
 of death finds serious difSculty in " shuffling off this mortal coil" 
 should there happen to be any game cock feathers in the bed on 
 which he hes. Pigeons' feathers are likewise said to prolong the 
 agonies of death. 
 
 In France, a black cock is the chief instrument employed to raise 
 the devU, and extract from the fiend sums of money. The incanta- 
 tion must be performed at a locality where four roads meet or two 
 cross each other. 
 
 Mr. Wilkinson, referring to the HothersaU HaU boggart, says it 
 " is understood to have been 'laid' under the roots of a large laurel 
 tree, at the end of the house, and will not be able to molest the 
 family so long as that tree exists. It is a common opinion in that 
 part of the country that the roots have to be moistened with milk on 
 certain occasions, in order to prolong its existence, and also to pre- 
 serve the power of the speU under which the gobhn is laid." 
 
 The laurel here appears to be invested with the mythical properties of 
 the ash and the rowan trees, which were supposed to possess irresistible 
 power over " witches, fairies, and other imps of darkness. " The 
 author of "Choice Notes" quotes an Aberdeenshire couplet, which 
 asserts that 
 
 Rowan, ash, and red thread 
 Keep the devils frae their speed. 
 
 and further adds : — " It is a common practice with the housewives in 
 the same district to tie a piece of red worsted thread round their 
 cows' tails previous to turning them out to grass for the first time in 
 the spring. It secures their cattle, they say, from an evil eye, from 
 being eKshot by fairies, etc." The red thread is here, like the berries 
 of the rowan, the mutch of the woodpecker, the red breast of the 
 robin, etc., in the Aryan myths, typical of the lightning. 
 
 In many nooks and corners of Lancashire, and some other parts 
 of England, other stories may be found, many of which point to the 
 Puck or Eobin Goodfellow of the fairy mythology as their most 
 probable prototype. 
 
AND FOLK-LORE. 139 
 
 Eoby says : — " The English Puck (the Lancashire Boggart), the 
 Scotch Bogie, the French Goblin, the Gobelinus of the Middle Ages, 
 and the German Kobold, are probably only varied names for the 
 Grecian Khobalus, — whose sole dehght consists in perplexing the 
 human race, and evoking those harmless terrors that constantly hover 
 round the miads of the timid. So, also, the German Spuck, and the 
 Danish Spogel, correspond to the northern Spog ; whilst the German 
 Hud kin, and the Icelandic Puki, exactly answer to the character of 
 the EngUsh Eobin Goodfellow." 
 
 These English domestic sprites or elves that seem to claim a species 
 of ktQship to those they alternately torment and render substantial 
 aid, clearly find their counterparts ia the ghost and fairy lore of 
 other nations. Kelly says, "Many similar tales are told of the 
 German Zwergs, or dwarfs, who are the same race of little people as 
 the elves and fairies that live ia the hearts of green hills and mounds 
 in Great Britain and Ireland. Often does it happen that a whole 
 colony of these Zwergs effects an exodus from a German district, 
 because the people have given them some offence, or ' have become 
 too knowing for them;' and on these occasions there is always a river 
 to be crossed." This was ever a difficulty, but not an unconquerable 
 one, with the German elves. In England and Scotland a certain 
 class of gobUn or ghost found a running stream an impassable 
 barrier. Poor Tarn o'Shanter's mare Meg demonstrated the truth 
 of this by the sacrifice of her caudal appendage. Grimm says that 
 many facts tend to show a near relationship between elves of this 
 class and the souls of men. The ordinary ghosts of the present day, 
 whether voluntary visitors or obedient servants of "spirit mediums," 
 are supposed to be the souls of the departed. Eelly says, on the 
 authority of Kuhn and Schwartz, "Some of the many names by 
 which the Zwergs are known in North Germany mean the ' ancients ' 
 or the 'ancestors,' and mark the analogy between the beings so 
 designated and the Hindoo Pitris or Fathers ; whilst other names — 
 Holden {i.e., good, kind) in Germany ; good people, good neighbours, 
 in Ireland and Scotland — connect the same elves with the Manes of 
 the Eomans." The Pitris of the Hindoos seem to furnish the g6rm 
 of "good fairies," the fairy godmother, the Persian Pepis, the Arabic 
 Ginns, the chief of the followers of Oberon and Titania, and of the 
 kindlier phase in the character of Puck, Eobin Goodfellow, or the 
 Lancashire bogie, or domestic boggart, but the larking propensity of 
 this sprite may possibly have resulted from a more modern addition 
 to the spirit lore of the Northern Aryan people. 
 
140 TRADITIONS, SUPBKSTITIONS, 
 
 Mr. Jno. Aubery, Fellow of the Eoyal Society, in his "Miscellanies 
 pubHshed in 1696, gives what he styles "a Collection of Hermeti 
 Philosophy," which exhibits an astonishing amount of superstitioi 
 even amongst the presumedly learned men of the age. Amongj 
 other things he informs his readers, on the authority of a letter froi 
 a "learned friend," ia Scotland, that a certain Lord Duffin wa 
 suddenly transported, by fairies, from his residence in MoraysMn 
 and that he was "found the next day in Paris, in the French kiag' 
 cellar, with a silver cup in his hand!" Such a feat was worthy o 
 the sprite who could put a " girdle round the earth in forty minutes.' 
 Truly, as Ben Johnson's Puck says, he could "travel swifter thai 
 the wind with a load of humanity on his back." 
 
 Our ordinary stories of church-yard ghosts, and other apparition 
 and "spiritual manifestations," have much more in common wit] 
 the "folk-lore" of classical antiquity than is generally known. Then 
 is a story told by Phny the younger, which so much resembles ma,w 
 that we have heard in youth, that nothing is required but a ehangi 
 of name, place, and date, to thoroughly domesticate it amongst ue 
 It is related as follows, in Melmoth's translation of PUny's letters; 
 
 "There was at Athens a large and spacious house which lay unde 
 the disrepute of being haunted. In the dead of the night a nois 
 resembhng the clashing of iron was frequently heard, which, if yoi 
 listened more attentively, sounded hke the rattling of chains ; at firs 
 it seemed at a distance, but approached nearer by degrees ; imme 
 diately afterwards a spectre appeared in the form of an old man 
 extremely meagre and ghastly, with a long beard and disheveUei 
 
 hair, ratthng the chains on his feet and hands By thi 
 
 means the house was at last deserted, being judged by everybody ti 
 be absolutely uninhabitable ; so that it was now entirely abandonei 
 to the ghost. However, in hopes that some tenant might be founi 
 who was ignorant of this great calamity which attended it, a bil 
 was put up giving notice that it was either to be let or sold. II 
 happened that the philosopher Athenodorus came to Athens at this 
 time, and, reading the bill, inquired the price. The extraoidinarj 
 cheapness raised his suspicion ; nevertheless, when he heard thf 
 whole story, he was so far from being discouraged that he was morf 
 strongly inclined to hire it, and, in short, actually did so. When ii 
 drew towards evening, he ordered a couch to be prepared for hiio a 
 the fore part of the house, and, after caUiag for a light, together 
 with his pen and tablets, he directed aU his people to retire. But 
 that his mind might not, for want of employment, be open to m 
 
AND rOLK-LORE. 141 
 
 vain terrors of imaginary noises and spirits, he applied himself to 
 writing with the utmost attention. The iirst part of the night passed 
 with usual sUenoe, when at length the chains began to rattle ; how- 
 ever he neither lifted up his eyes nor laid down his pen, but diverted 
 his observation by pursuing his studies with greater earnestness. 
 The noise increased, and advanced nearer, tiU it seemed at the door, 
 and at last in the chamber. He looked up, and saw the ghost exactly 
 in the manner it had been described to him ; it stood before him, 
 beckoning with his finger. Athenodorus made a sign vnth his hand 
 that it should wait a httle, and then threw his eyes again upon his 
 papers ; but, the ghost stOl rattling his chains in his ears, he looked 
 up, and saw him beckoning as before. Upon this he immediately 
 arose, and, with the hght in his hand, followed it. The ghost slowly 
 stalked along, as if encumbered with his chains, and turning into, the 
 area of the house, suddenly vanished. Athenodorus, being thus 
 deserted, made a mark, with some grass and leaves, where the spirit 
 left him. The next day he gave information to the magistrates, and 
 advised them to order that spot to be dug up. This was accordingly 
 done, and the skeleton of a man in chains was there found ; for the 
 body having lain for a considerable time in the ground, was putrefied 
 and mouldered a'way from the fetters. The bones, being collected 
 together, were pubUoly buried, and thus, after the ghost was appeased 
 by the proper ceremonies, the house was haunted no more." 
 
 I was forcibly struck vnth the pecuharly Eastern character of a 
 traditionary observance related to me during my investigation of the 
 remains found in the ancient British tumulus at Over Darwen, in 
 Lancashire, in November, 1864. I was informed that the country 
 people spoke of the mound as a locahty haunted by "boggarts," and 
 that chUdren were in the habit of taking off their clogs or shoes, 
 under the influence of some such superstitious feeling, when walking 
 past it in the night time. 
 
 Keppel, in his "Visit to the Indian Archipelago," refers to a 
 somewhat similar superstition in Northern AustraUa. The natives 
 wiU not willingly approach graves at night alone; "but when they 
 are obhged to pass them, they carry a fire stick to keep off the spirit 
 of 'darkness." 
 
 It is perhaps scarcely necessary that I should refer to the fact that 
 recent naturahsts have satisfactorily demonstrated that the green 
 circles termed "fairy rings," have nothing "supernatural" in their 
 character, being simply a result of the growth of a species of fungus. 
 Not long ago, "the learned" contended that they resulted from some 
 
142 TKADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 obscure kind of electric action. Sir Walter Scott, who held tliis 
 opinion, sneeringly refers to them as "electrical rings, which Tulgar 
 credulity supposes to be traces of fairy revels." Thousands of Eng- 
 lish peasants, yes, and many presumedly much wiser people, never- 
 theless, yet firmly adhere to the ancient faith. Singularly enough, 
 Shakspere seems almost to have intuitively guessed at their true origin, 
 When Prospero, for the last time invokes the aid of the supernatural 
 he exclaims : — 
 
 Ye elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes and groves ; 
 And ye that on the sands with printless feet 
 Do chase the ebbing Neptune, and do fly him 
 When he comes back ; you demi-puppets, that 
 By moonshine do the green-sour ringlets make. 
 Whereof the ewe not bites ; and you, whose pastime 
 Is to make midnight mnshrooms. 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 143 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 FEBN-SEED AND ST. JOHN S-WOET SUPEESTITIONS. 
 
 I had 
 No medicina, sir, to go invisible, 
 No feru-seed in my pocket. 
 
 Sen Jonion. 
 
 Most peoples have, in some form or other, preserved the traditionary 
 superstition that fern-seed was miraculously endowed with the power 
 of rendering its possessor invisible. The great hero of our boyish 
 days, the redoubtable "Jack, the giant-kUler, " had his "coat of 
 darkness," which conferred upon its proprietor this marvellous pe- 
 cuharity. In the classical mythology, the helmet given to Hades or 
 Pluto hkewise possessed the power of rendering the wearer invisible. 
 In the Teutonic, the "invisible cap" of the Nibelungenhed pos- 
 sessed a similar property. 
 
 Shakspere makes Gadshill allude to it ia a metaphorical sense. 
 He is anxious to impress upon the mind of the chamberlain of the 
 hostelry, near the scene of Falstaff's famous robbing exploit, that 
 although he was engaged in an Ulegal enterprise, he was in league 
 with companions of such high social status that the officers of the 
 law would be unable to perceive their criminahty if detected. He 
 says : — " We steal as in a castle, cock-sure ; we have the receipt of 
 fern-seed, we walk invisible." Beaumont and Fletcher, in the " Fair 
 Maid of the Inn," have the following reference to this superstition : — 
 
 Had you not G-yges' ring ? 
 Or the lierb that gives invisibility ? 
 
 In a curious tract, pubhshed in the reign of Elizabeth, entitled 
 " Plaine Percevall, the Peacemaker," the following passage occurs: — 
 " I thinke the mad slave hath tasted on a fernstalke, that he walkes so 
 invisible." 
 
 Fairies, of course, possessed the power of rendering themselves 
 
144 TRADITIONS, SUPEBSTITIONS, 
 
 visible, or otherwise, at pleasure. Oberon, in A Midsummer Night 
 Dream, says : — 
 
 But who comes here ? 
 
 I am invisible, and I will 
 
 Overhear their conference. 
 
 Spirits of any class, of course, possessed this power, and its com 
 plement, that of being visible, at pleasure. Prospero, in the Tempesi 
 says to Ariel : — 
 
 Go make thyself like to a nymph o' the sea ; 
 Be subject to no sight but mine ; invisible 
 To every eyeball else. 
 
 All ferns, according to German authorities, and especially th( 
 "seed" thereof, possessed the quahty usually described as "Inol 
 bringing." According to Panzer, the devil was compelled to fulfi 
 the wish of any person in possession of the seed of this plant ; anc 
 Meier tells us that in Swabia the peasants beheve that the possessioi 
 of this seed, obtained from his Satanic majesty between the hours 
 of eleven and twelve o'clock on Christmas night, will enable one 
 man to do the work of twenty or thirty others not so favoured, 
 Browne, inhis "Britannia's Pastorals," speaks of "the wonderous one 
 night seeding feme;" and Eichard Bivot, in his " Pandsemonium," 
 pubHshed in 1648, quaintly informs us that "much discourse hath 
 been about gathering of fern seed (which is looked upon as a magical 
 herb) on the night of Midsummer-eve ; and I remember I was told 
 of one who went to gather it, and the spirits whisk't by his ears hke 
 bullets, and sometimes struck his hat and other parts of his body; 
 in fine, although he apprehended he had gotten a quantity of it, and 
 secured it in papers, and a box besides, when he came home he found 
 all empty." 
 
 Kelly says, — " The summer solstice is a favourite season for gather- 
 ing plants of the Ughtning tribe, and particularly the springwort and 
 fern. It is beUeved in the Oberpfalz that the springwort, or St, 
 John's wort (johanniswurzel) as some call it, can only be found 
 among the fern on St. John's night. It is said to be of a yellow 
 colour, and to shin p. in the night hke a candle ; which is just what 
 is said of the mandrake in an Anglo-Saxon manuscript of the tenth 
 or eleventh century. Moreover, it never stands stUl, but hops about 
 continually, to avoid the grasp of men. Here, then, in the lumi- 
 nosity and power of nimble movement attributed to the springwort, 
 we have another remarkable tradition signifying the transformation 
 of the lightning into the plant." 
 
AND POLK-LOEE. 145 
 
 The following translation from a German poem, beautifully illus- 
 trates the Teutonic form of this superstition : — 
 
 The young maid stole through the cottage door, 
 And blushed as she sought the plant of power. 
 " Thou silver glow-worm, lend me thy light, 
 I must gather the mystic St. John'a-wort to-night ; 
 The wonderful herb whose leaf will decide 
 If the coming year shall make me a bride !" 
 
 And the glow-worm came 
 
 With his silvery flame, 
 
 And sparkled and shone 
 
 Through the night of St. John. 
 A nd soon as the young maid her love-knot tied 
 
 With noiseless tread 
 
 To her chamber she sped, 
 Where the spectral moon her white beams shed, 
 "Bloom here, bloom here, thou plant of power. 
 To deck the young bride in her bridal hour !" 
 But it drooped its head, that plant of power. 
 And died the mute death of a voiceless flower ; 
 And a withered leaf on the ground it lay. 
 More meet for a burial than a bridal day. 
 And when a year was passed away, 
 All pale on her bier the young maid lay ! 
 
 And the glow-worm came 
 
 With its silvery flame. 
 
 And sparkled and shone 
 
 Through the night of St. John ; 
 And they closed the cold grave o'er the maid's cold clay. 
 
 Vernaleken says the Slavocks believe that any person approaching 
 too near to the fern, at the time of its "efflorescence," wiU be over- 
 come by drowsiness, and that beiags of a supernatural character will 
 successfully resist any attempt to lay hands on the plant. Bivot has 
 a statement to a somewhat similar effect. 
 A remarkable story respecting the magical quahty of fern seed is 
 , related by Jacob Grimm, in his " Deutsche Mythologie." It is said 
 ' to be a popular one with the people of Westphaha. A man, in search 
 
 ■ of a foal, passed through a meadow on Midsummer's Eve, when some 
 
 ■ ripening fern seed fell into his shoes. He did not return home untU 
 : the foUowing morning, when he was astonished to find that his wife 
 " and chUdren appeared utterly unconscious of his presence. When 
 ? he caHed out to them, "I have not found the foal," the greatest 
 -'alarm and confusion foUowed, for the members of his household 
 ■'■•could hear his voice but faUed to detect his person. Fancymg he 
 -was hiding in jest, his wife caUed out his name. He answered, 
 
 :•-" here I am right before you. Why do you caU me ?" This but 
 
 E 
 
146 TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 increased their terror. The raan perceiving that he was, to them 
 invisible, thought it not improbable that something in his shoes 
 which felt like sand, might really prove to be fern seed. He accord- 
 ingly pulled them off, and as he scattered the grains on the floor 
 resumed his visibUity to the eyes of his astounded family. 
 
 In an ancient " Calendar of the Eomish Church," the 23rd June, 
 the vigU of the nativity of John the Baptist, is stated to be prolific 
 in supernatural phenomena. Amongst others we are informed that 
 "waters are swum in during the night, and are brought ia vessels 
 that hang for the purposes of divination;" that "fern is in great 
 estimation with the vulgar, on account of its seed." We are further 
 informed that " herbs of different kinds are sought with many cere- 
 monies." Monsieur Bergerac, in his " Satyrioal Characters," trans- 
 lated " out of the French, by a Person of Honour," in 1658, makes 
 a magician of the period enumerate amongst his many powers 
 and duties the "wakening of the country fellow on St. John's eve 
 to gather his hearb, fasting and in sUence." Brand says that 
 " a respectable countryman, at Heston, in Middlesex," had stated to 
 him that he had often been "present at the ceremony of catckmg 
 the fern seed at midnight on the eve of St. John the Baptist. The 
 attempt, he said, was often unsuccessful, for the seed was to fall into 
 the plate of its own accord, and that, too, without shaking the plant." 
 
 Eeferring to our Lancashu-e superstitions Mr. T. T. Wilkinson 
 says: — "Fern seed is stiU said to be gathered on the Holy Bible, 
 and is beUeved to be able to render those invisible who wiH dare to 
 take it ; and herbs for the use of man and beasts are still coUeoted 
 when their proper planets are ruling in the heavens." 
 
 Ceremonies on St. John's Eve are likewise regarded as very potent 
 in matters matrimonial. Bivot describes a party of fair ladies wko 
 say, — " We have been told divers times that if we fasted on Mid- 
 summer Eve, and then at twelve o'clock at night laid a cloth on the 
 table, with bread and cheese, and a cup of the best beer, setting 
 ourselves down as if we were going to eat, and leaving the door of 
 the room open, we should see the persons whom we should afterwards 
 marry, come into the room and drink to us." 
 
 The beUef in the power of fern seed in the domain over 
 Cupid is said to preside, stiU. lingers in various parts of Lanoashirfc 
 The best story of this class that I have met with, is related by Samuel 
 Bamford, in his " Passages in the Life of a Eadical." One Bangle, 
 a Lancashire youth, "of ardent temperament but bashful withal,' 
 had become enamoured of the daughter of a neighbouring fanner. 
 
AND POLK-LOEE. 147 
 
 " His modest approaches had not been noticed by the adored one ; 
 and, as she had danced with another youth at Bury fair, he imagined 
 she was irrecoverably lost to him, and the persuasion had driven him 
 melancholy. Doctors had been applied to, but he was no better ; 
 philters and charms had been tried to bring down the cold hearted 
 maid, but all in vain. ... At length sorcerers and fortune- 
 telLers were thought of, and 'Limping Billy,' a noted seer, residing 
 at Eadoliffe Bridge, having been consulted, said the lad had no chance 
 of gaining power over the damsel, unless he could take St. John's 
 fern seed ; and if he could but secure three grains of that, he might 
 bring to him whatever he wished, that walked, flew, or swam." 
 
 Two friends, Plant, a country botanist, and Chu-rup, a bird catcher, 
 agreed to accompany Bangle in his expedition in search of the potent 
 fern seed. Plant said he knew where the finest specimens of the 
 herb grew, and led the way to the " Boggart Ho' Clough," referred to 
 in the preceding chapter. The three worthies assembled on the Eve 
 of St. John, at midnight, in this then thickly wooded glen. As a 
 part of the necessary cabahstic implements. Plant brought an earthen 
 dish, " brown and roof " [rough] , Chirrup a pewter platter, which he 
 regarded as "breet enough" for their purpose; Bangle's contribution, 
 which he described as "teed wi' web an' woof," and "deep enough," 
 was " a musty dun skuU, with the cap sawn off above the eyes, and 
 left flapping like a Ud by a piece of tanned scalp, which still adhered. 
 The interior cavities had also been stuffed with moss and hned with 
 clay, kneaded with blood from human veins, and the youth had 
 secured the skuU to his shoulders by a twine of three strands made of 
 unbleached flax, of undyed wool, and of woman's hau-, from which 
 also depended a raven black tress, which a wily crone had procured 
 from the maid he sought to obtain. ... A sUence, hke that 
 of death, was around them, as they entered the open platting. 
 Nothing moved either in tree or brake. Through a space in the 
 fohage the stars were seen pale in heaven, and a crooked moon hung 
 in a bit of blue, amid motionless clouds. AH was stUl and breathless, 
 as if earth, heaven, and the elements were aghast. . . . Gasping, 
 and with cold sweat oozing on his brow. Plant recollected that they 
 were to shake the fern with a forked rod of witch hazel, and by no 
 means must touch it with their hands. . . . Plant drew his knife, 
 and stepping into a moonhghted bush, soon returned with what was 
 wanted, and then went forward.' The green knowe [knoll] , the old 
 oaks, the encircled space, and the fern were now approached ; the 
 latter stiff and erect in a gleamy Ught. . . . Plant knelt on one 
 
148 TEADITIONS, SUPEESTITIONS, 
 
 knee, and Held hia dish under the fern. Chirrup held his broad 
 plate next below, and Bangle knelt and rested the skull directly under 
 both on the green sod, the Hd being up. Plant said ;— 
 
 Good St. John, this seed we crave, 
 We have dared ; shall we have? 
 
 " A voice responded — 
 
 Now the moon is downward starting, 
 Moon and stars are now departing ; 
 
 Quick, quick ; shake, shake ; 
 He whose h^art shall soonest break. 
 
 Let him take. 
 
 " They looked, and perceived by a glame that a venerable foim, in a 
 loose robe, was near them. 
 
 "Darkness came down like a swoop. The fern was shaken; the 
 upper dish flew into pieces ; the pewter one melted ; the skull emitted 
 a cry, and eyes glared in its sockets ; Ughts broke ; beautiful children 
 were seen walking in their holiday clothes, and graceful female forms 
 sung mournful and enchanting airs. The men stood terrified and 
 fascinated ; and Bangle, gazing, bade ' God bless 'em.' A crash 
 followed as if aU the timber in the kloof was being splintered and torn 
 up ; strange and horrid forms appeared from the thickets ; the men 
 ran as if sped on the wind. They separated and lost each other." 
 
 Plant lay unconscious at home for three days, and " Chirrup was 
 found on the White Moss, raving mad and chasing the wild birds ; as 
 for poor Bangle, he found his way home over hedge and ditch, run- 
 ning with supernatural and fearful speed — ^the skull's eyes glaring at 
 his back, and the nether jaw grinning and jabbering frightful and 
 unintelligible sounds. He had preserved the seed, however, and, 
 having taken it from the skull, he buried the latter at the cross road 
 from whence he had taken it. He then carried the spell out, and Ms 
 proud love stood one night by his bedside in tears. But he had done 
 too much for human nature — ^in three months after she followed his 
 corpse, a real mourner, to the grave." 
 
 KeUy gives several illustrations of the varied forms in which the 
 superstitions respecting this "lightning plant" are presented in other 
 countries, which throw additional Ught upon some of the incidents in 
 Bamford's story. He says : — " Besides the powers already mentioned, 
 fern has others which distinctly m*k its affinity with thunder and 
 lightning. ' In places where it grows the devil rarely practises his 
 glamour. He shuns and abhors the house and the place where it is, 
 
AND FOLK-LOBE. 149 
 
 and thunder, lightning and hail rarely fall there.'* This is ra ap- 
 parent contradiction with the Polish superstition, according to which 
 the pluckiag of fern produces a violent thunderstorm ; but it is a 
 natural superstition, that the hitherto rooted and transformed thunder- 
 bolt resumes its pristine nature, when the plant that contained it is 
 taken from the ground. In the Thuringian forest fern is caUed 
 irrkracet, or bewUdering weed (from irren, to err, go astray), because 
 whoever treads on it unawares loses his wits, and knows not where 
 he is. In fact, he is in that condition of mind which we EngUsh 
 caU 'thunderstruck,' and which Germans, Eomans, and Greeks have 
 agreed in denoting by exactly corresponding terms. He has been 
 crazed by a shock from the Ughtning with which the fern is charged 
 like a Leyden jar. Instances of a similar phenomenon occur in the 
 legends of India and Greece." 
 
 The forms of beauty, referred to by Bamford as appearing amongst 
 the uncouth and "jabbering " sprites on this momentous occasion, 
 are suggestive of the legend of the "bright-day god " Baldr. Long- 
 fellow says, — " Now the glad, leafy Midsummer, full of blossoms and 
 songs of nightingales is come ! Saint John has taken the flowers 
 and festival of heathen Balder." It appears that Freyja, in exacting 
 an oath from aU created things never to harm this ' ' whitest and most 
 beloved of the gods," inadvertently overlooked one of the lightning 
 plants. It was an arrow formed from the branch of the mistletoe, 
 flung by the hand of the bhnd Hodr or Helder, with which Baldr was 
 struck dead. Baldr, says the legend, was buried in the true Scandi- 
 navian fashion. His body was placed by the ^Esir on a funeral pyre, 
 raised on the deck of a ship, and whilst the former was in flames 
 the latter was floated seaward. The " St. John's-wort " seems to 
 have superseded the mistletoe in the modern tradition. As both were 
 "Ughtning plants," this however is not specially remarkable. 
 
 Ferns belong to the class Cryptogamia, or non-floweriug plants. 
 They produce no seed, in a true sense, but fructify by means of the 
 sporules, or spores, deposited in thecm, on the under side of the fronds. 
 It was formerly beUeved that they did produce seed, and old botanists 
 describe it as "too minute and obscure" to be readily detected. 
 Singularly enough, the St. John's-wort (Hypericum), of which there 
 are several species found in Lancashire, is generally confoimded in 
 these traditions with the Osmunda Regalis, or royal fern, or, as it is 
 sometimes improperly styled, the "flowering fern," which, of course, 
 
 *■ Jacob Grimm. 
 
150 TEADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 is an absurdity, as expressing neither more nor less than the flower- 
 ing non-flowering plant ! The name is said to be of Saxon origin, 
 Osmunda being one of the appellations of Thor, who, as we have pre- 
 viously seen, was the " consecrator of marriage." The sponilea are 
 very numerous and minute. The common St. John's-wort (Hypericum 
 Vulgare. lAn.) bears a yeUow flower, and produces, of course, regular 
 seeds. HiU, in his "British Herbal," pubHshed in 1756, says, "A 
 tincture of the flower made strong in white wine is recommended 
 greatly by some against melancholy ; but of these quahties we speak 
 with less certaiaty, though they- deserve a fan- trial." 
 
 Mr. John Ingram, in his "Flora SymboUca," says, — "Vervain, 
 or wild verbena, has been the floral symbol of enchantment from time 
 immemorial," Ben Jonson says : — 
 
 Bring your garlands, and with reverence place 
 The vervain on the altar. 
 
 Mr. Ingram adds, — " In some country districts this small insigni- 
 ficant flower stm retains a portion of its old renown, and old folks 
 tie it round the neck to charm away the ague ; with many it stOl has 
 the reputation of securing affection from those who take it to those 
 who administer it ; and stUl in some parts of France do the peasantry 
 continue to gather the vervain, with ceremonies and words known 
 only to themselves ; and to express its juices under certain phases of 
 the moon. -At once the doctors and conjurors of their village, they 
 alternately cure the complaints of their masters or fill them with 
 dread ; for the same means which reheve their aUments enable them 
 to cast a spell on their cattle and on the hearts of their daughters. 
 They insist that this power is given to them by vervain, especially 
 when the damsels are young and handsome. The vervain is stm the 
 plant of speUs and enchantments, as it was amongst the ancients." 
 
 A superstitious feeling yet prevails that the burning of fern attracts 
 rain. A copy of a royal proclamation is preserved in the British 
 Museum, enjoining the country people not to burn the fern on the 
 waysides during a "royal progress " of the merry monarch, Charles II. 
 
 The confusion which exists in the minds of the vulgar respeotiag 
 two very distinct classes of these plants, all, however, of hghtning 
 origin in the Ai-yan mythology, is thus commented upon by Kelly ;— 
 " It is also a highly significant fact that the marvellous root (Si 
 John's-wort) is said to be connected with fern ; for the johnsroot or 
 John's hand is the root of a species of fern fPolypodium Filix mm. LiQ.), 
 which is applied to many superstitious uses. The fern has large pin- 
 nate fronds, and is thus related to the mountain ash and the mimosffi. 
 
AND FOLK-LOEB. 151 
 
 In fact, says Kuhn, it were hardly possible to find in our cUmate a 
 plant whicli more accurately corresponds in its whole appearance to 
 the original signification of the Sanscrit name parna as leaf and 
 feather. Nor does the relationship between them end here, for fern, 
 Anglo- Saxon /«acn.. Old German /aram, farn, and Sancrit ■parna, are 
 one and the same word. It is also worthy of note that whereas one 
 of the German names of the rowan means boarash (eberesche), so 
 also there is a fern (Polypodium Filix arboratica) which is called in 
 Anglo-Saxon eoferfarn, eferfarn, that is boar-fern. In all the Indo- 
 European mythologies the boar is an animal connected with storm 
 and Ughtniag." 
 
 Mr, Edwin Waugh, in his " Sketches of Lancashire Life and 
 Localities," mentions a curious fact relative to this famous " Boggart 
 Ho' Clough," which is not without its significance. He says he was 
 informed that a lawyer, anxious to describe the locaUty in a legal 
 document, had found, on referring to some old title deeds, that a 
 " family of the name of ' Bowker' had formerly occupied a residence 
 situate in or near the clough ; and that their dweUing was designated 
 ' Bowker's HaU.' " The lawyer very naturally adopted this as the 
 true origin of the name. Yet Mr. Waugh informs us that the "testi- 
 mony of every writer who notices the spot, especially those best 
 acquainted with it, inclines to the other derivation." 
 
 Feehng some curiosity as to the true origin of this bit of local 
 nomenclatm-e, I some time ago visited the place, in company with 
 Mr. Waugh. While we were resting at the farmhouse at the head 
 of the clough, I asked a buxom maid if she had ever seen a boggart 
 in the neighbourhood. She candidly confessed that she had not- 
 On my pressing her hard as to whether she knew any one who had 
 been more fortunate, or unfortunate, as the case might be, she said 
 firmly, after a sUght scrutiny of my countenance and figure — " Yes ; 
 Sam Bamford has ! " I put similar questions about an hour after- 
 wards to the maid at the "Bell" public-house, in Moston Lane, 
 which, to my surprise, elicited exactly similar responses. I pressed 
 this girl stm further on the subject ; and at length she frankly said,— 
 " I don't think any body, as I know, has sin a boggart i'th clough 
 except Bamford, 'bout it be Edwin Waugh. Ye've heard of him, no 
 doubt!" The girl was astounded on my informing her that Mr. 
 Waugh was present ; and still more so when she witnessed the amuse- 
 ment which his supposed interview with the redoubtable boggart 
 created amongst the party. 
 
 That there have existed traditions of boggarts, ghosts, &c., hi the 
 
152 TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 neighbourhood, as in other places, from time immemorial, cannot 
 admit of a doubt; but I nevertheless suspect that the corruption 
 referred to by Mr. Waugh has fixed the precise locaUty of, at least, one 
 of the stories to which I have referred. Once call a place " Boggart 
 Ho' Clough," and especially such a place, and I can easily imagine, 
 in a very short time, that many of the floating traditions of the neigh- 
 bourhood would fasten themselves upon it. This being afterwards 
 rendered more definite by the action of literary exponents of tradi- 
 tionary lore, is quite sufficient to explain the whole of the phenomena 
 pertaining to the question in dispute. It must not be forgotten, 
 either, that by the vernacular appellation the clough is not necessarily 
 supposed to be haunted, but the " hall" merely, which stood in it, or 
 somewhere in its neighbourhood. 
 
 On the line of the Eoman WaU, to the north of Haltwhistle, Dr. 
 CoUingwood Bruce speaks of " a gap of bold proportions having the 
 ominous name of Boglehole." Doubtless many other locahties could 
 be pointed out where a nomenclature of a similar kind obtains, and 
 is still beheved in by many not necessarily otherwise uneducated 
 people. 
 
AND FOLK-LORE, 103 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 THE SPBOIEE HUNTSMAN AND THE FTJBIOUS HOST. 
 
 He tlie seven birds hath seen that never part, 
 Been the seven whistlers on their mighty rounds, 
 
 And counted them 1 And oftentimes will start, 
 For overhead are sweeping Gabriel's hounds, 
 
 Doomed with their impious lord the flying hart, 
 To chase for ever on aerial grounds. 
 
 Wordsworth. 
 
 " Amongst the most prominent of the demon superstitions prevalent 
 in Lancashire," says Mr. T. T. Wilkinson, " we may first instance 
 that of the Spectre Huntsman, which occupies so conspicuous a place 
 iu the folk-lore of Germany and the north. This superstition is still 
 extant in the gorge of Chyiger, where he is believed to hunt a milk 
 white doe round the Eagle's Crag, in the vale of Todmorden, on 
 AH Hallows Eve. His hounds are said to fly yelping through the air 
 on many other occasions, and, under the local name of ' Cfahriel 
 Ratchets,' are supposed to predict death or misfortune to aU who hear 
 the sounds." 
 
 This superstition is known ahout Leeds, and other places in York- 
 shire, as " Gabble Retchet" and refers more especially to the belief 
 that the souls of unbaptised children are doomed to wander in this 
 stormy fashion about the homes of their parents. 
 
 These peculiar superstitions appear to have nearly died out, or to 
 have become merged into some other legends based on the action of 
 the Aryan storm gods, Indra, Eudra, and their attendant Maruts or 
 Winds, both in Great Britain and fceland. According to a writer in 
 the Quarterly Review, of July, 1836, the wild huntsman still hngers 
 ip Devonshire. He says, " the spectre pack which hunts over Dart- 
 moor is called the ' wish hounds,' and the black ' master' who follows 
 the chase is no doubt the same who has left his mark on Wistman's 
 Wood," a neighbouring forest of dwarf oaks. 
 
 The late Mr. Holland, of Sheffield, referring to this superstition, in 
 1861, says, "I can never forget the impression made upon my own 
 
-154 TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 mind when once arrested by the cry of these Gabriel hounds as I 
 passed the parish church of Sheffield, one densely dark and very still 
 night. The sound was exactly Kke the greeting of a dozen beagles 
 on the foot of a race, but not so loud, and highly suggestive of ideas 
 of the supernatural." Mr. Holland has embodied the local feeliag 
 on this subject in the following sonnet : — 
 
 Oft have I heard my honoured mother-say. 
 
 How she has Kstened to the Gabriel hoimda— 
 Those strange unearthly and mysterious sounds, 
 
 Which on the ear through murkiest darkness f eU ; 
 
 And how, entranced by superstitious spell, 
 The trembling villager not seldom heard. 
 In the quaint noise of the nocturnal bird 
 
 Of death premonished, some sick neighbour's knelL 
 
 I, too, remember once at midnight dark. 
 
 How these sky-yelpers startled me and stirred 
 My fancy so, I could have then averred 
 
 A mimic pack of beagles low did bark. 
 
 Nor wondered I that rustic fear should trace 
 A spectral huntsman doomed to that long moonless chase. 
 
 In classic mythology this wild hunt myth is paralleled by the 
 career of Orion, the " mighty hunter, the cloud raging ui wild freedom 
 over hills and dales." Seeking to make the beautiful Aero his bride, 
 he is blinded by her father, who caught him asleep. After reeovering 
 his sight by a journey towards the rising sun, he vainly endeavours 
 to seize upon and punish his enemy. In his wanderings he meets 
 with and is beloved by Artemis (Diana), one of the dawn godesses, 
 The Eev. G. W. Cox says, " It is but the story of the beautiful cloud 
 left in darkness when the sun goes down, but recovering its briUiance 
 when he rises again in the east." After his death, being so nearly 
 akin to the powers of light, Asklepios " seeks to raise him from the 
 dead, and thus brings on his own doom from the thunderbolts of 
 Zeus — a myth which points to the blotting out of the sun from the 
 sky by the thundercloud, just as he was rekindling the faded vapours 
 which He motionless 'on the horizon." Orion's hound afterwards 
 became the dog-star, Suius. Hence our name dog days for parching 
 weather. , 
 
 This chasing of the white doe or the white hart by the spectre 
 huntsman has assumed various forms. According to Aristotle a 
 white hart was killed by Agathocles, king of Sicily, which a thousand 
 years beforehand had been consecrated to Diana by Diomedes.' 
 Alexander the Great is said by Pliny to have caught a white stagi 
 placed a collar of gold about its neck, and afterwards set it foe, 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 155 
 
 Succeeding heroes have, in after days, been announced as the 
 capturers of tHs famous wHte hart. Juhus Csesar took the place of 
 Alexander, and Charlemagne caught a white hart at both Magde- 
 bourg, and in the Holstein woods. In 1172, Wilham the Lion is 
 reported to have accomplished a similar feat, according to a Latm 
 mseription on the waUs of Lubeck Cathedral. Tradition says the 
 white hart has been caught on EothweU Hay Common, in Yorkshu-e, 
 and in Windsor Forest. 
 
 Dean Stanley, in his " Historic Memorials of Westminster Abbey," 
 uiforms us that the great northern entrance of that truly historic pile 
 was erected in the reign of Eichard II., and that once "it contained his 
 well-known badge of the White Hart, which stiU remains, in colossal 
 proportions, on the fragile partition which shuts off the Muniment 
 Room from the southern triforium of the Nave." It appears that the 
 badge was first adopted in honour of his mother, Joan, the Fair Maid 
 of Kent, at a tournament in 1396. It had, however, du-ect reference 
 to the tradition which asserted that the famous white hart of Ca3sar 
 had been caught at Besastine, near Bagshot, in Windsor Forest. 
 Its identity was said to have been proved by a collar of gold about 
 its neck, which bore the following inscription : — "Nemo me tang at : 
 Cmsaris sum." The badge was so popular amongst the friends of 
 Eichard, that Bolingbroke, when Henry iv!, had much difficulty in 
 suppressing it. Its frequent adoption as an inn sign is Ukewise 
 attributed to this circumstance. 
 
 In early Greek art, the deities of the morning, Athena, Apollo and 
 Artemis, are commonly, if not invariably, associated with a fawn 
 with a gleam of hght on its breast. The hart in these legends appears 
 to typify the dawn, and, in conjunction with some other elements 
 of the myth, imphes the daUy sequence of light and darkness. 
 
 The spectre huntsman, so very popular in Scandinavian and German 
 tradition, is the Teutonic deity Odin or Woden, from whence our 
 Wednesday. Woden is claimed by the early Angle and Saxon kings of 
 the heptarchy as their common ancestor. This god had many names, 
 each descriptive of some special quahty or attribute. Amongst others 
 he was styled Wunsch, from which we have the Anglo-Saxon wisk, 
 and the modern EngHsh wish, in the sense in which it is used in the 
 divining or wish rod (German wiinschehuthe), In Devonshire the 
 term " wishtness " is stUl retained, and is employed to designate "all 
 'upearthly creatures and their doings." Indra and Eudra are regarded 
 Ets the Aryan prototypes of Odin. Some of their chief characteristics 
 -'ire retained in the doings of the "wild huntsman" and his followers 
 
156 TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 that form the dramatis personce of the "furious host." Eellv 
 describes the first phase of this legend as follows : 
 
 " Mounted on his white or dappled grey steed, the wild huntsman 
 may always be recognised by his broad-brimmed hat, and his mde 
 mantle, from which he is surnamed Hakelbarend or Hakelberg, an 
 old word signifjdng mantle-wearer. The hooting owl, Tutursel, flies 
 before him, and ravens, birds peculiarly sacred to Woden, accompany 
 the chase. Whoever sees it approach must faU flat on the ground 
 or shelter himself under any odd number of boards, nine or eleven, 
 otherwise he will be borne away through the air and set down hun- 
 dreds of miles away from home, among people who speak a strange 
 tongue. It is stiU more dangerous to look out of the window when 
 Odin is sweeping by. The rash man is struck dead, or at least gets 
 a box on the ear that makes his head swell as big as a bucket, and 
 leaves a fiery mark on his cheek. In some instances the offender 
 has been struck blind or mad. There are certain places where Woden 
 is accustomed to feed his horse or let it graze, and in those places the 
 wind is always blowing. He has also a preference for certain tracks, 
 over which he hunts again and again at fixed seasons, from which 
 circumstance districts and villages in the old Saxon land received the 
 name of Woden's way. Houses and barns in which there are two or 
 three doors opposite each other are very liable to be made thorough- 
 fares by the wild hunt." 
 
 Mr. Baring-Gould, in his " Iceland, its Scenes and Sages," describes 
 this superstition, as he heard it from his guide Jon, who related it to 
 him under the title of the " yule host." He says, — " Odin, or Wodin, 
 is the wild huntsman who nightly tears on his white horse over the 
 German and Norwegian forests and moor-sweeps, with his legion of 
 heU-hounds. Some luckless woodcutter, on a still night, is returning 
 through the pine woods ; the air is sweet-scented with matchlesspine 
 fragrance. Overhead the sky is covered with grey vapour, but a mist 
 is on all the land ; not a sound among the fir tops ; and the man 
 starts at the click of a falling cone. Suddenly his ear catches a dis- 
 tant waU ; a moan rolls through the interlacing branches ; nearer and 
 nearer comes the sound. There is the winding of a long horn waxing 
 louder and louder, the baying of hounds, the rattle of hoofs and paws 
 on the pine tree tops. A blast of wind rolls along, the firs bend as i 
 withes, and the woodcutter sees the wild huntsman and his rout 
 reeUng by in frantic haste. . . . The wild huntsman chases the 
 wood spirits, and he is to be seen at cockcrow returning with the 
 little Dryads hanging to his saddle-bow by their yellow locks." J 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 157 
 
 The personification of the strife of the elements in stormy weather 
 js here very apparent. As the name of Odin or other of his special 
 appellations became lost or corrupted, mysterious personages, or 
 heroes of another and more mortal stamp, became confounded mth 
 the spectre huntsman. Herod, the murderer of the Jewish children, 
 is evidently referred to by the French peasants of Perigord, when they 
 speak of " La chasse Herode." This seems to have resulted from the 
 corruption of Hrodso (the renowned), one of the titles apphed to Odin. 
 
 At Blois, the wild hunt is called the " chasse Maccabei," from the 
 foUowiag supposed reference to it in the Bible : — " Then it happened 
 that through all the city, for the space almost of forty days, there 
 were seen horsemen running in the air, in cloth of gold, and armed 
 with lances hke a band of soldiers. And troops of horsemen in array, 
 encounteriag and running one against another, with shaking of shields 
 and multitudes of pikes, and drawing of swords, and casting of darts, 
 and ghttering of golden ornaments and harness of all sorts. Where- 
 fore every man prayed that that apparition might turn to good." 
 (II. Maccabeus, v. 2 to 4.) 
 
 In Brittany and Picardy the peasants, in the midst of sudden storms 
 or whirlwinds, which throw down trees and steeples, are stiU in the 
 habit of crossing themselves, and exclaiming " G'est le juif errant qui 
 passe." This evidently demonstrates that the legendary story of the 
 wandering Jew, the spectre hunt of Odin, and the superstitions 
 associated with the seven whistlers, have been confounded or 
 "dovetailed," as it were, one into the other. Indeed, in its com- 
 bined form, remnants may yet be found in Lancashire. Mr. James 
 Pearson, in a contribution to " Notes and Queries," of September 
 30th, 1871, testifies to this in the following terms : — 
 ' " The Seven Whistlees. — One evening a few years ago, when cross- 
 'ing one of our Lancashire moors, in company with an intelligent old 
 ''man, we were suddenly startled by the whistling overhead of a covey 
 ')f plovers. My companion remarked that when a boy the old people 
 • ionsidered such a circumstance a bad omen, ' as the person who heard 
 'he wandering Jews,' as he called the plovers, ' was sure to be over- 
 ^''aken with some ill luck.' On questioning my friend on the name 
 
 iven to the birds, he said, ' There is a tradition that they contain the 
 < - ouls of those Jews who assisted at the crucifixion, and in consequence 
 . 'ere doomed to float in the air for ever.' When we arrived at the 
 ;->')ot of the moor, a coach, by which I had hoped to complete my 
 ,iS^umey, had already left its station, thereby causing me to finish the 
 it'^stance on foot. The old man reminded me of the omen." 
 
ISS TEADlTlOKS, StPERSTlTlOKS, 
 
 Another Writer, "A. S.," in "Notes and Queries," October 21, 1871 
 says : — " During a thunderstorm which passed over this district" 
 (Kettering, in Yorkshire), " on the evening of September 6, on whicli 
 occasion the lightning was very vivid, an unusual spectacle was 
 witnessed; immense flocks of birds were flying about, uttering doleful 
 affrighted cries, as they passed over the locaUty, and for hours they 
 kept up a continual whistling hke that made by sea birds. There 
 must have been great numbers of them, as they were also observed at 
 the same time, as we learn by the pubUc prints, in the counties of 
 Northampton, Leicester, and Lincoln. The next day, as my servant 
 was drivtag me to a neighbouring village, this phenomenon of the 
 flight of bu'ds became the subject of conversation, and on asking him 
 what birds he thought they were he told me they were what were 
 called The Seven Whistlers, and that whenever they were heard it 
 was considered a sign of some great calamity, and that the last time 
 he heard them was the night before the great Hartley colliery explo- 
 sion ; he had also been told by soldiers that if they heard them they 
 always expected a great slaughter would take place soon. Curiously 
 enough, on taking up the newspaper the foUowiug morning, I saw 
 headed in large letters — ' Terrible CoUiery Explosion at Wigan,' etc., 
 etc. This I thought would confirm my man's beUef ui 'the Seven 
 Whistlers.' " 
 
 I have heard it seriously asserted in discussion by geologists and 
 mining engineers, that a low state of the barometer generally, if not 
 invariably, accompanies a certain class of accidents iu coal pits. 
 Perhaps this peculiar atmospheric condition may explain the coinci^ 
 dences referred to. 
 
 Another contributor of the same date, " Viator," gives the follow- 
 ing Eastern illustration of this superstition, — " It strikes me as curiouB 
 that Mr. Pearson should hear on a Lancashire moor a tradition or 
 superstition so similar to that which I have heard on the Bosphorns 
 with reference to certain flocks of birds, about the size of a thrush, 
 which fly up and down the channel, and are never seen to rest on the 
 land or water. I was informed by the man who rowed the cdquMi 
 they were the souls of the damned, and condemned to perpetual 
 motion." 
 
 There is a legend of Odin wandering over the earth, accompanied 
 by his two ravens, one of which represented Thought and the other 
 Memory. Mr. Princeps had a picture in the Eoyal Academy Exhibi- 
 tion in 1871, illustrating this tradition. 
 
 The last time the wandering Jew is said to have appeared wywfW 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 159 
 
 persona was in the year 1604, when he was believed to have been seen 
 three times in France. As his appearance was invariably accompanied 
 with violent and destructive tempests, the peasantry concluded that his 
 mode of locomotion was of a supernatural character, and that the fierce 
 blasts of the storm god (or fiend) hurled him from place to place. Since 
 the French visits referred to, it seems that the wandering Jew's advent 
 has not been able to gain much credence. Several times, however, 
 attempts in this direction have been made. Eeferring to the subject. 
 Brand says : — " I remember to have seen one of these imposters some 
 years ago in the north of England, who made a very hermit-Uke 
 appearance, and went up and down the streets of Newcastle with a 
 long train of boys at his heels, muttering, ' Poor John alone, alone ! ' 
 I thought he pronounced his name in a manner singularly plaiutive." 
 In a note Brand adds that " Poor John alone" is "otherwise ' Poor 
 Jew alone.' " He mentions a portrait of this man, painted for Sir 
 WiUiamMusgrave, Bart., which was inscribed "Poor Joe alone!" which 
 corresponds with the name of a then recent pretender of this class, 
 as recorded by Mathew Paris, on the authority of an Armenian arch- 
 bishop, who, in 1228, visited the monastery at St. Albans. 
 
 The earher gods of the heathens were supposed, notwithstanding 
 their immortahty, to be occasionally subjected to a kind of temporary 
 death. Baldr, the bright day god, was slain by a stroke of a mistletoe 
 branch, wielded by the hand of the bhnd Hodr ; the Python overcame 
 ApoUo ; and such is sometimes the strange inconsistency of early 
 traditions and their after development, that the grave of Zeus was a 
 sacred spot to the Ancient Greeks. The spectre huntsman appears 
 to have been subjected to some such death, or protracted trance, 
 periodically. 
 
 Odin rode on his dappled grey steed only in rough weather. His 
 
 mortal enemy seems to have been the wild boar. This animal is also 
 
 a favourite mythic form of expression in Merlin's famous prophesy. 
 
 • The Germans have a legend that in the form of Hackelberg, or the 
 
 - mantle wearer, on one occasion he was heard to inquire for the 
 
 -- " stumpy tail " that he knew from a vision was destined to overcome 
 
 ! • him. At a great hunt he killed the animal, and fancied that he had 
 
 :^' practically given the lie to his dream of the previous night. In his 
 
 triumph he kicked the slain brute contemptuously ; but the tusk of 
 
 if/the dead animal (an Aryan personification of the hghtning) piercing 
 
 -jiihis leg, inflicted a wound, from the effects of which he died, or, in 
 
 ^isother words, fell into a deep trance. This evidently represents the 
 
 season of calm weather, during which the spectre huntsman and his 
 
 ..howling pack rest from their labours. 
 
160 TEADITIONS, SUPEESTITIONS, 
 
 This -wild boar legend has near mythological affinity to the 
 Greek one, respecting Adonis, who, -whilst hunting, was mortally 
 wounded in the thigh by a wild boar. The waters of the river Adonis 
 assume, at a certain season of the year, a deep red hue, which was 
 said to be caused by the blood of Adonis. Modern investigation has 
 attributed this phenomenon to periodical heavy rains, which bring 
 large quantities of red earth iato the river. In Syria, Thammuz, an 
 older prototype or counterpart of Adonis, was worshipped, which 
 worship was denounced by Ezekiel, six centuries before Christ, as 
 amongst the abominations of Judah. MUton, in " Paradise Lost," 
 says : — 
 
 Thammuz came next behind, 
 Whose annual wound in Lebanon allur'd 
 The Syrian damsels to lament his fate 
 In amorous ditties aU a summer's day, 
 While smooth Adonis from his native rook 
 Kan purple to the sea, supposed with blood 
 Of Thammuz yearly wounded. 
 
 Adonis alternately abode with Aphrodite in heaven and Persephone 
 in heU. This has been held to be "typical of the burial of seed, 
 which, in due season, rises above the ground for the propagation of 
 its species," or of the " annual passage of the sun from the northern 
 to the southern hemisphere." 
 
 Odin was sm-named the lord of the gaUows, or the god of the 
 hanged, because human sacrifices were offered to him in this fashion; 
 and because he had hanged himseK for nine days on the mighty tree 
 YggdrasU. Hence the superstition in Germany, and not unknown 
 in England, that the act of committing suicide by hanging creates a 
 storm. 
 
 The temporary death, or state of coma, of these weather gods is 
 very significant. When Indra or Odin hurled his spear, the weapon, . 
 with most commendable loyalty, sa a rule, returned to the hand of its 
 proprietor. Thor's hammer or lightning club, was, generally, equally 
 accommodating. But at the conclusion of the autumnal storms, 
 the implement remained buried in the earth, where, Uke some animals, 
 it may be said to have hybernated. It was not until the return of 
 spring that the potent weapon was restored to the grasp of the 
 thundering deity. 
 
 The analogy of the weapons of these gods to the lightning ia 
 forcibly illustrated by the Scandinavian legend, which asserts that 
 Odin lent his spear in the form of a reed to King Erich in order to 
 ensure him the victory in a battle against Styrbjorn. The reed, in 
 
AND FOLK-LORE. 161 
 
 its flight, assumed the form of a spear, and struck with blindness the 
 whole of the opposing army. 
 
 The pecuUar form of this weapon of the gods has undergone many 
 changes in mythical lore. It is the sword of Eoland, "Durandal," 
 which Mr. Cox says "is manifestly the sword of Chrysaor." It is 
 that of Theseus and that of Sigurd. It is Arthur's famous sword 
 " Excahbm-," as weU. as the one which no one could draw from the 
 iron anvil sheath, embedded in stone, but himself. It is Odin's sword, 
 "Gram," stuck in the roof tree of Volsung's hall. Mr. Cox says: — 
 " Like aU other sons of HeUos, Arthur has his enemies, and King 
 Eience demands as a sign of homage the beard of Arthur, which 
 gleams with the splendour of the golden locks or rays of Phoibos 
 Akersekomes. The demand is refused, but in the mediaeval romance 
 there is room for others who reflect the glory of Arthur, while his 
 own splendour is for a time obscured. At Camelot they see a maiden 
 with a sword attached to her body, which Arthur himself cannot draw. 
 In the Knight BaUn, who draws it, and who ' because he was poorly 
 arrayed put him not far in the press,' we see not merely the humble 
 Arthur, who gives his sword to Sir Kay, but Odysseus, who in his 
 beggar's dress shrinks from the brilliant throng that crowds his 
 ancestral haU." CambeU, in his "Tales of the West Highlands," 
 says : — " The Manx hero, Olave, of Norway, had a sword with a 
 Celtic name, Macabuin." It reappears in many of the fairy tales. 
 In some popular stories it becomes an ordinary cudgel, with magical 
 properties, leaps of its own accord out of the lad's bag who owned it, 
 and severely punishes the rascally innkeeper who stole the buck-goat 
 that spat gold, the hen that layed the golden eggs, and a table that 
 covered itself with a sumptuous repast, without human aid. The 
 stick, hke Indra's spear, returned to its owner's hand on the com- 
 pletion of the innkeeper's oastigation. Different versions of the 
 legend are found in Yorkshire, Germany, and various other parts of 
 Europe. KeUy says : — " The table, in this story, is the aU-nourish- 
 ing cloud. The buck-goat is another emblem of the clouds, and the 
 gold it spits is the golden light of the sun that streams through the 
 fleecy covering of the sky. The hen's golden egg is the sun itself. 
 The demon of darkness has stolen these things ; the cloud gives no 
 raia, but hangs dusky in the sky, veiling the hght of the sun. Then 
 the hghtning spear of the ancient storm-god, Odin, leaps out from 
 the bag that concealed it (the cloud again), the robber faUs, the rain 
 patters down, the sun shines once more." In other words we have 
 the Sanscrit Vritra, the dragon, or " dark thief," steahng the herds 
 
162 TRADITIONS, SUPEBSTITIONS, 
 
 of Indra, and hiding them in the cave of the Panis (the dark cloud), 
 and the weapon of the hghtning god effecting their hberation. 
 
 It is said that, in the " elevated and inland region of Arya, tte 
 wiater was a rigorous season of seven months' duration, and it has 
 been suggested that the dormant condition of the hghtning, or the 
 sun god's weapon, is symbohcal of the fact. LyeU and others contend 
 that geological evidence indicates that the winters were long and 
 severe during the period when the makers of the " palsohths," or 
 rude flint implements, which have recently attracted so much atten- 
 tion, Uved on the banks of the Somme, near Amiens and Abbeville, and 
 in other localities in England and Northern Europe. These implements 
 are beUeved to furnish the most reUable evidence of the earUest existence 
 of man yet discovered. If such was the condition of the country on 
 the arrival of the Aryan emigrants, four different classes of facts — 
 mythological, philological, geological, and arohseological — seem to be 
 in perfect harmony with each other. 
 
 Kelly says, " in some places local tradition makes Hackelberg a 
 mere man ; in others an enormous giant. At Eocklum, near Wolfen- 
 buttel, the existence of a group of hUls is accounted for by saying that 
 they are composed of the gravel which Hackelberg once threw out of 
 his shoe as he passed that way with the wild hunt." SimilaT 
 traditions are not unknown in Lancashire and other parts of Britain. 
 It is stated in Knight's "Old England" that "there were formerly 
 three huge upright stones near Kennet, not far from Abury, the 
 country people called them from time immemorial, ' The Devil's 
 Coits.' They could be playthings, it might readily be imagined, for 
 no other busy idler. But the good folks of Somersetshire, by a sort 
 of refinement of such hacknied traditions, hold that a great stone, 
 near Stanton Drew, now called ' HackeU's Coit,' and which formerly 
 weighed thirty tons, was thrown from a hill about a mUe off, by a 
 mortal champion, Sir Jno. Hautville." 
 
 Dr. J. CoUingwood Bruce, in his " WaUet-Book of the Eoman 
 Wall," relates the following Northumberland tradition : — " To the 
 north of SewingsheUds, two strata of sandstone crop out to the day; 
 the highest points of each ledge are called the King and Queen's-crag, 
 from the following legend. King Arthur, seated on the furthest rock, 
 was talking with his queen, who, meanwhile, was engaged in arranging 
 her ' back-hair.' Some expression of the queen's having offended his 
 majesty, he seized a rock which lay near him, and, with an exertion 
 of strength for which the Picts were proverbial, he threw it at her, a 
 distance of about a quarter of a InUe ! The queen, with great dex- 
 
AND FOLK-LOBE. Igg 
 
 terity, caught it upon her comb, and thus warded off the blow; the 
 stone fell between them, where it hes to this very day, with the marks 
 of the comb upon it, to attest the truth of the story. It probably 
 weighs about twenty tons." * 
 
 This method of accounting for the deposition of the large boidders 
 and other erratic rocks of the glacial drift period of modern geology 
 is common in Lancashire and the North of England. Odia, or 
 Hackelberg, is, of course, in these legends, converted iato the devU, 
 as iu Kennet. He is supposed to have built a bridge over the Kent 
 a Uttle above Kendal, and another over the Lune, at Kirkby Lonsdale ; 
 and it is said that in leapiag from the lulls on the Yorkshire side of 
 the valley into Lancashire, his apron string broke, and a large mass 
 of scattered rocks which he in the valley fell to the earth in conse- 
 quence. The present writer was once shown, near Hutton Eoof, a 
 hoUow in the mountain Hmestone of which the HiU is formed, which 
 he was seriously told had been named, from time immemorial, the 
 " Devil's Footpriat," and was still held to be irrefragible evidence of 
 the truth of the legend referred to. The hole in the rock did certainly 
 bear some shght resemblance to the impression of a cow's hoof on 
 some plastic substance ; but it in reality is an ordinary hmestone 
 cavity, of a somewhat unusual form. 
 
 The removing of stones in the night by the devil on the occasion of the 
 building of churches appears to have some remote connection with the 
 ancient superstition now under consideration. Lancashire has many 
 such stories. The wild boar, or demon pig, played some such pranks at 
 Winwick. A rude sculpture, " resembhng a hog fastened to a block by 
 the collar," has been found amongst the carved stones which decorated 
 the ancient church. In this, Mr. B. Baines says, " superstition sees 
 the resemblance of a monster in former ages, which prowled over the 
 neighbourhood, inflicting injury on man and beast, and which could 
 only be restrained by the subduing power of the sacred edifice." Mr. 
 T. T. Wilkinson says "The Goblin Builders" are "said to have 
 removed the foundations of Eochdale Church from the banks of the 
 river Eoach up to their present elevated position. Samlesbury Church 
 near Preston, possesses a similar tradition. The demon pig not 
 only determined the site of St. Oswald's Church at Winwick, but 
 gave a name to the parish. t The parochial church at Burnley, it 
 
 *QnEiiT : — May not the "marks of the comb " be, in reality, strise resulting from 
 glacial action ? 
 
 tSince this was written, I have been told in a public company, in Manchester, by 
 an intelligent man, that the squeaking of a pig did give the name to Winwick. My sug- 
 
164 TEABITIONS, SUPEESTITIONS, 
 
 is said, was originally intended to be buUt on the site of tlie old 
 Saxon cross, in Godly-lane ; but, however much the masons might 
 haye built during the day, both the stones and the scaffolding were 
 invariably found where the chxirch now stands, on their conung to 
 work next morning. The local legend states that on this occasion 
 also, the goblin took the form of a pig, and a rude sculpture of such 
 an animal, on the south side of the steeple, lends its aid to perpetu- 
 ate and confirm the story." 
 
 Miss Farington, in her paper on Leyland Church, read before 
 the Lancashire and Cheshire Historic Society, refers to several carved 
 stones which decorated the ancient structure, and amongst others to 
 what was termed the " cat stone." She says — " To this relic 
 appends the usual story of the stones "being removed by night (in 
 this case from Whittle to Leyland), and the devil, in the form of a 
 cat, throttling a person who was bold enough to watch." This tra- 
 dition I have often heard spoken of myself by the inhabitants of the 
 neighbourhood. 
 
 The cat, as I have shown in a previous chapter, Uke the boar, was 
 an Aryan personification of storm and tempest. 
 
 When the Hackelberg-Odin was killed by the boar's tusk, in accord- 
 ance with his last request, he was interred at the spot to which his 
 favourite steed unguided bore him. He is beUeved to have been 
 buried in the " enchanted or cloud mountain," which the supersti- 
 tious, however, still insist upon finding on the earth. He is supposed 
 to lie in a secluded spot on some lone moorland side, the way to 
 which no curious enquirer ever trod a second time. Hence the many 
 traditions of heroes slumbering in caves, awaiting the signal for 
 future battle, and their triumph over the enchantment that has held 
 them for a,ges speU-bound. Frederic Barbarossa — he of the red 
 beard Kke Odin — is yet believed by the German peasantry to rest in 
 a cavern, surrounded by his knights, in the Kyflfhauser mountain, 
 "leaning his head upon his arm, at a table through which his heard 
 has grown, or around which, according to other accounts, it has 
 grown twice. When it has thi-ice encircled the table he wiU awake 
 up to battle. The cavern glitters with gold ajid jewels, and is as 
 bright as the sunniest day. Thousands of horses stand at mangers 
 filled with thorn bushes instead of hay, and make a prodigious noise 
 as they stamp on the ground and rattle their chains. The old Kaiser 
 
 gestion that the old name of the brook, the " Wynwede, " with the common' suffix 
 " wick," a village, was sufficient to explain the etymology, was, of course, laughed at 
 as a relatively very prosaic affair indeed. 
 
AND FOLK-LOBE. 165 
 
 sometimes wakes up for a moment and speaks to his visitors. He 
 once asked a herdsman who had found his way into the Kyffhauser, 
 ' Are the rayens [Odin's birds] stUl flying about the mountain? ' The 
 man rephed that they were. ' Then,' said Barbarossa, ' I must 
 sleep a hundred years longer.' " From many details in this super- 
 stition, Mannhardt clearly identifies Frederic and his companions 
 with Odin and his wild host. 
 
 Similar stories are told of the Emperor Henry the Fowler, who is 
 said to be entranced in the Sudemerberg, near Groslar. Charlemagne 
 and his enchanted army are beUeved to slumber in several different 
 locaUties. In Britain, Armorica, Normandy, and other places, the 
 caverned hero, who has superseded Odin, is the renowned Arthur, 
 who is expected yet to re-appear, and restore the glory of the ancient 
 British race. Grimm shows that the medieval Germans beUeved 
 that " Arthur, too, the vanished King, whose return is expected by 
 the Britons, and who rides at the head of the nightly host, is said to 
 dwell vrith his men at arms in a mountain ; Fehcia, SybUla's 
 daughter, and the goddess Juno, live with him, and the whole army 
 are well provided vsdth food, drink, horses, and clothes." 
 
 It appears that the earliest poetical writer in the EngUsh ver- 
 nacular, at the commencement of the thirteenth century, Layamon, 
 in his "Brut or Chronicle of Britain, a Poetical Semi-Saxon Para- 
 phrase of the Brut of "Wace," first engrafted this legend on the Arthu- 
 rian romances. According to him, Arthur, when dying, addressed 
 Constantine, his successor, as follows : — " I will fare to Avalun to the 
 fairest of ah maidens, to Argante, the Queen, an elf most fair, and 
 she shall make my wounds all sound ; make me all whole with 
 heahng draughts. And afterwards I will come again to my 
 kingdom and dweU with the Britons with mickle joy." Layamon 
 further adds : — " Even with the words there approached from the sea 
 a httle short boat fioating with the waves, and two women therein 
 wondrously formed ; and they took Arthur anon, and bare him 
 quickly, and laid him softly down, and forth they gan depart. Then 
 was it accompUshed that Merhn whilom said, that mickle care 
 should come of Arthur's departure. The Britons beheve yet that he 
 is aUve and dwelleth in Avalun with the fairest of all elves, and the 
 Britons even yet expect when Arthur shaU return." Amongst the 
 Welsh bards, after the appearance of Geoffrey's History, fairy land 
 was designated "Ynys yr Avallon," or the " Island of the Apple 
 Trees." 
 
 Sir Walter Scott, in his " Demonology and Witchcraft," relates a 
 
166 TE4DITI0NS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 tradition, in which he makes Thomas the Ehymer the hero, but this 
 Kelly contends is a blunder, and cites the following passage, quoted 
 by Sir Walter himself, from Leyden's " Scenes of Infancy," in proof 
 of his view that the eaverned warriors referred to were King Arthur's 
 Knights: — 
 
 Say who is he with summons loud and long 
 Shall bid the charmed sleep of ages fly, 
 Roll the long sound through Eildon's oavems vaat, 
 While each dark warrior kindles at the blast ; 
 The horn, the falchion grasp with mighty hand. 
 And peal proud Arthur's march from Fairy -land ? 
 
 Sir Walter Scott's version of the legend is as follows : — "A daring 
 horse-jockey sold a black horse to a man of venerable and antique 
 appearance, who appointed the remarkable hillock upon EiLdon HUls, 
 called the Lucken Hare, as the place where, at twelve o'clock at night 
 he should receive the price. He came, his money was paid in ancient 
 coin, and he was invited by his customer to view his residence. The 
 trader in horses followed his guide in the deepest astonishment 
 through several long ranges of stalls, in each of which a horse stood 
 motionless, while an armed warrior lay equally still atthe charger's feet. 
 ' All these men,' said the wizard in a whisper, ' will awaken at the 
 battle of Sheriffmoor.' At the extremity of this extraordinary depot 
 hung a sword and a horn, which the prophet pointed out to the horse 
 dealer as containing the means of dissolving the spell. The man, m 
 confusion, took the horn and attempted to wind it. The horses 
 instantly started in their stalls, stamped, and shook their bridles, the 
 men arose and clashed their armour, and the mortal, terrified at the 
 tumult he had excited, dropped the horn from his hand. A voice 
 like that of a giant, louder even than the tumult around, pronounced 
 these words : — 
 
 Woe to the coward that ever he was bom. 
 
 That did not draw the sword before he blew the horn ! 
 
 A whirlioind expelled the horse dealer from the cavern, the entrance 
 to which he could never find again." 
 
 In the neighbourhood of Kirkoswald, on the Eden, in Cumberland, 
 a district prohfic in Arthurian legends, it is said that " a peculiar wind 
 called the Helmwind, sometimes blows with great fury in this part of 
 the country. It is believed by some persons to be an electrical. 
 phenomenon." Perhaps this fact may have some remote connection . 
 with the superstition under consideration. 
 
 Sir Walter remarks that although his legend refers to Sheriffmoor, 
 
AND POLK-LOEE. 167 
 
 and 1715, a similar story is related in the reign of Elizabeth by 
 Eeginald Soot. Indeed, it is told with some variations in several 
 localities, both ia the Highlands and in the northern coimties of 
 England. In Hodgson's "Northumberland" it is described ia the 
 following terms : — 
 
 "Immemorial tradition has asserted that King Arthur, his queen, 
 Guenever, his court of lords and ladies, and his hounds, were en- 
 chanted in some cave of the crags, or in a haU below the castle of 
 Sewiagshields, and would continue entranced there tUl some one 
 should first blow a bugle-horn, that lay on a table near the entrance 
 of the haU, and then, with "the sword of the stone," cut a garter, 
 also placed there beside it. But none had ever heard where the 
 entrance to this enchanted haU was, till the farmer at Sewiagshields, 
 about fifty years since, was sitting knitting on the ruins of the castle, 
 and his clew fell, and ran downwards through a rush of briers and 
 nettles, as he supposed, into a deep subterranean passage. Pull in 
 the faith that the entrance into King Arthur's haU was now dis- 
 covered, he cleared the briery portal of its weeds and rubbish, and, 
 entering a vaulted passage, followed, in his darkling way, the thread 
 of his clew. The floor was infested with toads and lizards ; and the 
 dark wings of bats, disturbed by his unhallowed intrusion, flitted 
 fearfully around him. At length his sinking courage was strengthened 
 by a dim, distant Ught, which, as he advanced, grew gradually brighter, 
 tOl, aU at once, he entered a vast and vaulted hall, in the centre of 
 which, a fire without fuel, from a broad crevice in the floor, blazed 
 with a high and lambent flame, that showed aU the carved walls and 
 fretted roof, and the monarch and his queen and court reposing 
 around, in a theatre of thrones and costly couches. On the floor, 
 beyond the fire, lay the faithful and deep-toned pack of thirty couple of 
 hounds; and, on a table before it, the spell-dissolving horn, sword, 
 and garter. The shepherd reverently, but firmly, grasped the sword, 
 and as he drew it leisurely from its rusty scabbard, the eyes of the 
 monarch and his courtiers began to open, and they rose tiU they sat 
 upright. He cut the garter; and, as the sword was being slowly 
 sheathed, the spell assumed its ancient power, and they all sank 
 gradually to rest ; but not before the monarch had lifted up his eyes 
 and hands, and exclaimed : — 
 
 woe betide that evil day 
 On which this witless wight was bom, 
 Who drew the sword — the garter cut, 
 But never blew the bugle-horn. 
 
168 TEABITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 Terror brought on loss of memory, and the shepherd was unable to 
 give any correct account of his adventure, or to find agaia the 
 entrance to the enchanted hall." 
 
 The Arthur legend is repeated, with some shght variations, by the 
 country people about Alderl6y Edge, Cheshire. The sleepiag warriors 
 are said to repose ia the recesses of a place called the " Wizard's 
 Cave." 
 
 An old Cornish legend avers that King Arthur is stUl aUve in the 
 form of a raven ; and certain superstitious people refuse to shoot 
 these birds, from a fear that they might iaadvertently destroy the 
 mythic warrior. 
 
 King Arthur and his knights have been so popular in Lancashire, 
 that the Eev. John Whitaker, the historian of Manchester, seriously 
 relates the story of Sir Tarquin and Lancelot of the Lake as an 
 historical event pertaining to this county. According to him, Tarquia's 
 castle was at Manchester, and the lake from which Sh Lancelot de- 
 rived his surname the now almost thoroughly drained Martin Mere. 
 He contends that discovered remains demonstrate that three of the 
 battles won by Arthur, and ascribed by tradition to the neighbourhood 
 of the Douglas, were fought near Wigan and Blackrod. Geoffrey of 
 Monmouth, however, only mentions one battle as being fought on the 
 banks of the Douglas. He says : — 
 
 " The Saxons, under the command of Colgrin, were attempting to 
 exterminate the whole of the British race. They had also entirely 
 subdued aU that part of the island which extends from the Humber 
 to the sea of Caithness. . . . Hereupon he (Arthur) marched 
 to (towards) York, of which, when Colgrin had intelligence, he met 
 him with a very great army, composed of Saxons, Scots, and Picts, 
 by the river Duglas, where a battle happened with the loss of the 
 greater part of both armies. Notwithstanding, the victory fell to 
 Arthur, who pm-sued Colgrin to York, and there besieged him." 
 
 The " historical " Arthur, how£ver, has long been looked upon by 
 the best historians as a mythical or fictitious personage, the repre- 
 sentative, or impersonation as it were, of the national valour -and 
 superstition.* Dr. Kuhn and others regard aU the stories of these 
 caverned heroes as merely relatively modernised forms of Odin 
 and his terrible host. They refer the weapon suspended in the 
 cave to "that of HermdaUr, the Sverdiis or sword god, and warder 
 of Bifrost Bridge," to whom belongs the " Gjallar horn with which 
 
 * See the following chapter. 
 
AND FOLK-LORE. 169 
 
 he will warn the gods that the frost giants are advancing to storm 
 Valhalla." The mighty conflict in which they expect to be engaged 
 "will be fought before the end of the world, when heaven and earth 
 shall be destroyed, and the ^sir gods themselves shall perish, and 
 their places shall be filled by a new creation and new and brighter 
 gods." This dark mjrth is by some writers regarded as a foreshadow- 
 ing of the downfall of paganism and the advent of a higher civilisation 
 and purer rehgion under the Christian dispensation. 
 
 Tempests and the howling of the wind appear to have been regarded 
 with superstitious reverence from the earUest times in the British 
 islands. Plutarch speaks of the return to Delphos from Britain of 
 a certain grammarian, named Demetrius, who related some curious 
 stories with respect to the then but Uttle known country. Amongst 
 other things the travelled sage narrated to Plutarch and his friends 
 the following story : — " There are many desert islands scattered about 
 Britain, some of which have the name of being the islands of genii 
 and heroes ; that he had been sent by the emperor, for the sake of 
 describing and viewing them, to that which lay nearest to the desert 
 isles, and which had but few inhabitants ; all of whom were esteemed 
 by the Britons sacred and inviolable. Very soon after his arrival 
 there was great turbulence in the air, and many portentous storms ; 
 the winds became tempestuous, and fiery whirlwinds rushed forth. 
 When these ceased, the islanders said that the departure of some one 
 of the superior genii had taken place. For, as a Ught when burning, 
 say they, has nothing disagreeable, but when extinguished, is offensive 
 to many ; so likewise lofty spirits afford an illumination benignant 
 and mild, but their extinction and destruction frequently, as at the 
 present moment, excite winds and storms, and often infect the atmos- 
 phere with pestilential evils. Moreover, that there was one island 
 there, where Saturn was confined by Briareus in sleep : for that sleep 
 had been devised for his bonds ; and that around him were many 
 genii as his companions and attendants." 
 
 Singularly enough, M. Du Chaillu, in his " Journey to Ashango- 
 land," found a similar superstition to obtain amongst the "West Coast 
 Equatorial Africans. They beheve that the Oguisi or " spirit " brings 
 the plague amongst them in the form of a whirlwind. An impression 
 got abroad that the white man who was advancing into then- terri- 
 tories was the veritable Qguisi, and consequently, owing to their fetich 
 superstition, they expected disaster therefrom. He says : — "The King 
 of the Niembouai, like most of the other monarchs of these regions, 
 did not show himself on my arrival — he was absent until about noon 
 
170 TRADITIONS, SUPEBSTITIONS, 
 
 to-day. I have been told that the reason why the chiefs keep away 
 from the villages untU I have been m them some time is, that they 
 have a notion that I bring with me a whirlwind which may do them 
 some great harm ; so they wait until it has had time to blow away 
 from the village before they make their appearance." 
 
 It is somewhat remarkable that the tradition of the " wild hunt," 
 or the " furious host," has become obsolete, or nearly so, in Ireland, 
 inasmuch as that country has preserved, with much minuteness, 
 many other Aryan myths. What does remain in Ireland, however, 
 is singularly in accordance with the properties assigned to the elder 
 storm gods, Indra and Eudra, and their followers, the Ehibus and 
 the Maruts, in the Eig Veda. 
 
 A writer in the AihentBum, in 1847, makes the foUowiug observa- 
 tions : — "The ideas of the Irish peasantry respectiag the state of 
 departed souls are very singular. According to the tenets of the 
 church to which the majority of them belong, the soids of the de- 
 parted are either in paradise, heU, or purgatory. But popular belief 
 assigns the air as a fourth place of suffering, where imquiet souls 
 wander about until their period of penance is past. On a cold, or 
 wet, or stormy night, the peasant wiU exclaim with real sympathy 
 ' ilusha I God help the poor souls that are in the shelter of the 
 ditches, or under the eaves this way !' And the good 'chanathee' or 
 mother of a family will sweep the hearth, that the poor souls may 
 warm themselves when the family retires. The conviction that the 
 spirits of the departed sweep along with the storm or shiver iu the 
 driving rain, is singularly wild and near akin to the Scandinavian 
 myth." The identity of this superstition with some of the Aryan 
 myths, is very easily perceived. KeUy says: — "Indra has for friends 
 and followers the Maruts, or spirits of the vrinds, whose host consists, 
 at least in part, of the souls of the pious dead ; and the Eibhus, who 
 are of similar origin, but whose element is rather that of the sun- 
 beams or the Ughtning, though they too rule the winds, and sing 
 like the Maruts the loud song of the storm." 
 
 The same writer gives the following graphic description of the 
 popular feeUng and action on the approach of this mythic cavalcade:— 
 " The first token which the furious host gives of its approach is alow 
 song that makes the hearer's flesh creep. The grass and the leaves 
 of the forest wave and bow in the moonshrae as often as the stram 
 begins anew. Presently the sounds come nearer and nearer, and swell 
 into the music of a thousand instruments. Then bursts the hurricane, 
 and the oaks of the forest come crashing down. The spectral appearance 
 
AND FOLK-LORE. 171 
 
 often presents itself in the shape of a great black coach, on which 
 sit hundreds of spirits singing a wonderfully sweet song. Before it 
 goes a man, who loudly warns everybody to get out of the way. All 
 who hear him must instantly drop down with their faces to the 
 ground, as at the coming of the wild hunt, and hold fast by some- 
 thing, were it only, a blade of grass ; for the furious host has been 
 known to force many a man into its coach and carry him hundreds 
 of miles away through the air." 
 
 The black coach version of the legend of the furious host yet 
 survives in the North of England. Mr. Henderson says : — " Night 
 after night, too, when it is sufficiently dark, the headless coach whirls 
 along the rough approach to Langley HaU, near Durham, drawn by 
 black and fiery steeds." In a work entitled " Eambles in North- 
 umberland," it is referred to in the following terms: — ""When the 
 death-hearse, drawn by headless horses, and driven by a headless 
 driver, is seen about midnight, proceeding rapidly, but without noise, 
 towards the churchyard, the death of some considerable person in the 
 parish is sure to happen at no distant period." It is Ukewise referred 
 to in Eees' Diary as a "vision of a coach drawn by six black swine, and 
 driven by a black driver." 
 
 Grose says : — " We sometimes read of ghosts striking violent blows ; 
 and that, if not made way for, they overturn aU impediment, like a 
 furious whirlwind." Yet singularly enough in the same paragraph, 
 speaking on the authority of GlanvU of the apparition of an old 
 woman, he informs us that " if a tree stood in her walk," the specta- 
 tor "observed her always to go through it." Notwithstanding this 
 feat, the old lady must have had some materiaUty about her, for on 
 being lifted from the ground by human hands at her request, her 
 ghostship "felt just like a bag of feathers." 
 
 " The furious host" seems to have dififered in some legends from 
 the "wild hunt " of Odin and his followers, and yet iu others they 
 appear as it were in combination. Indeed, the name Woden, itself, 
 signifies the " Furious One;" and hence, doubtless, we have the hnk 
 which legitimately connects them together. '^ Wud" stUl signifies 
 "mad" in some existing Scottish dialects. The hounds of the 
 " spectre huntsman " are believed to be human souls transformed into 
 air ; which in their wild career strip the hedges of the hnen placed 
 there to dry ; they eat up or scatter abroad meal and the ashes that 
 lay on the peasant's hearth. The hound sometimes left behind in 
 the household, through which the wild hunt has passed, is supposed 
 to repose on the hearth for a whole year, during which time it lives 
 
172 TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 upon ashes, and howls and whines, until the spectre horseman returns, 
 when it jumps on its feet, wags its tail with joy, and rejoins its 
 ancient comrades. Kelly says : — " There is only one way amongst 
 the Germans of ridding the house sooner of the unwelcome guest, 
 and that is to hrew beer in eggshells. The hound watches the opera- 
 tion and exclaims 
 
 Though I am now as old as the old Bohemian wold, 
 Yet the like of this I ween, in my life I ne'er have seen. 
 
 And it goes, and is seen no more. On Christmas evenings especially, 
 that is to say, at the season of the winter solstice, it is very unsafe to 
 leave linen hanging out of doors, for the wild huntsman's hounds will 
 tear it to pieces." The soughing of the wind through crevices, -win- 
 dows, or doorways in buUdings, or narrow passages in the MUs, like 
 that at Chviger, was beheved to be the howling of Odin's hounds, and 
 to indicate the passage of " the furious host." 
 
 This spectre hound or dog is a very common sprite in Lancashire. 
 I remember weU. being terrified in my youth iu Preston, by Christmas 
 recitals of strange stories of its appearance, and the misfortune which 
 its howUng was said to forebode. The Preston black dog was without 
 a head, which rendered the said howling stOl more mysterious to my 
 youthful imagination. A gentleman recently related to me a story 
 respecting this " dog-fiend," which he had direct from a Manchester 
 tradesman's own lips, who thoroughly beheved in the supernatural 
 character of his nocturnal assailant. This tradesman, a Mr. Drabble, 
 assured my friend that the celebrated black headless dog-fiend, on one 
 occasion, about the year 1825, suddenly appeared before, or rather 
 behind, him, not far from the then Collegiate Church ; and, placing 
 its fore paws upon his shoulders, actually ran him home at a rapid 
 rate, in spite of his strenuous resistance. He was so terrified at the 
 incident that he rushed iuto bed in his dirty clothes, much to the 
 surprise and dismay of his family. This particular dog-boggart is 
 believed yet by many to have been " laid " and buried under the dry 
 arch of the old bridge across the IrweU, on the Salford side of the 
 river ; and that the spell to which it has been subjected will endure 
 for 999 years, which, I suppose, in vulgar as well as legal parlance, 
 is supposed to be nearly equivalent to the more comprehensive term — 
 " for ever." 
 
 In Larwood and Hotten's "History of Signboards," I find the 
 following : — "This Black Dog may have derived its name from the 
 canine spectre that stiU frightens the ignorant and fearful in the rural 
 districts, just as the terrible Dun Cow and the Lambton Worm were 
 
AND POLK-LOKE. 173 
 
 the terror of the people in olden times. Near Lyme Eegis, Dorset, 
 there is an alehouse which has this black fiend in all his ancient 
 ugUness painted over the door. Its adoption there arose from a legend 
 that the spectral black dog used to haunt at nights the kitchen fire of 
 a neighbouring farm-house, formerly a EoyaUst mansion, destroyed 
 by Cromwell's troops. The dog would sit opposite the farmer ; but 
 one night a little extra Uquor gave the man additional courage, and 
 he struck at the dog, intending to rid himself of the horrid thing. 
 Away, however, flew the dog, and the farmer after him, from one 
 room to another, until it sprang through the roof, and was seen no 
 more that night. In mending the- hole, a lot of money fell down, 
 which, of course, was connected in some way or other with the dog's 
 strange visit. Near the house is a lane stUl called Dog Lane, which 
 is now the favourite walk of the black dog, and to this genius loci the 
 sign is dedicated." 
 
 I am inclined to think that the "Trash" or "Skriker" described 
 by Mr. WUMnson, of Burnley, has some relationship to the strayed 
 hound of Odin, and more especially so, as the spectre huntsman is 
 well known ia the neighbourhood of the Cliviger gorge. He says: — 
 
 " The appearance of this sprite is considered a certain death-sign, 
 and has obtained the local names of 'Trash' or 'Skriker.' He 
 generally appears to one of the family from which death is about to 
 select his victim, and is more or less visible according to the distance 
 of the event. I have met with persons to whom the barghaist has 
 assumed the form of a white cow or a horse ; but on most occasions 
 'Trash' is described as having the appearance of a large dog, with 
 very broad feet, shaggy hair, drooping ears, and 'eyes as large as 
 saucers.' When walking, his feet make a loud splashing noise, Hke 
 old shoes in a miry road, and hence the name of ' Trash.' The 
 appellation, ' Skriker,' has reference to the screams uttered by the 
 sprite, which are frequently heard when the animal is invisible. 
 When foUowedby any individual, he begins to walk backwards, with 
 his eyes fixed full on his pursuer, and vanishes on the slightest 
 momentary inattention. Occasionally he plunges into a pool of 
 water, and at other times he sinks at the feet of the person to whom 
 he appears with a loud splashing noise, as if a heavy stone was thrown 
 into the miry road. Some are reported to have attempted to strike 
 him with any weapon they had at hand, but there was no substance 
 present to receive the blows, although the Skriker kept his ground. 
 He is said to frequent the neighbourhood of Burnley at present, and 
 is mostly seen in Godly Lane and about the Parochial Church ; but 
 
174 TRADITIONS, STJPEESTITIONS, 
 
 he by no means confines his visits to the churchyard, as similar 
 sprites are said to do in other parts of England and Wales." 
 
 Grose tells us that dogs have " the faculty of seeing spirits," and 
 he instances the case of one David Hunter, a neatherd to the Bishop 
 of Down and Connor, whose dog accompanied him quietly, when, from 
 an impulse he was unable to restrain, he wandered after the appari- 
 tion of an old woman by which he was haunted. " But," Grose adds, 
 " they usually show signs of terror, by whiniag 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." 
 
 Max Miiller etymologicaUy identifies the classic Cerberus or Ker- 
 beros with the Vedic Sarvari, " the dog of night, watching the path 
 to the lower world." Grimm says that the dog is an embodiment of 
 the wind and an attendant of the dead both in the mythology of the 
 Germans and the Arians, and that both these attributes are conspicu- 
 ous in the wild hunt superstitions. Dogs, he adds, see ghosts, as well 
 as the goddess of death, Hel, although she is invisible to human 
 eyes. Kuhn contends that the name of Yama's canine messengers, 
 Sarameyas, was borne in Greek form, by the messenger of the Greek 
 gods, Hermeias or Hermes, the conductor of the shades of the de- 
 parted to the realm of Hades. With the aid of Athene, Hermes con- 
 ducted Heracles in safety, with the dog Kerberos, out of Hades. 
 
 In the " Merry Devil of Edmonton " (1631) is the following refer- 
 ence to this superstition : — 
 
 I know thee well ; I heare the watchfull dogs, 
 With hollow howling, tell of thy approach ; 
 The hghts bume dim, affrighted with thy presence ; 
 And this distempered and tempestuous night 
 Tells me the ayre is troubled with some devilL 
 
 The superstition that the howling of a dog, especially in the night 
 time, portends the death of some person in the immediate neighbour- 
 hood, is yet, at the present day, firmly behoved in, even by the 
 middle, and by no means uneducated, classes in Lancashire.' 1 
 listened, not very long ago, to the serious recital of a story by one 
 who heard the howhng and knew well the party whose death imme- 
 diately followed. He himself, being sick at the time, deemed his own 
 end approaching, but was relieved of his terror on being informed 
 that a well-known neighbour had just expired. 
 
 It is by no means improbable that the extremely dehcate sense of 
 smell possessed by some of the canine species or varieties, as especi- 
 
AND FOLK-LOBE. 175 
 
 ally exhibited ia the scenting of game and carrion or putrid flesh, 
 may have influenced the original personification of the dog as an 
 attendant on the dead. 
 
 ChEirles Dickens, in a recent Christmas story, describes, with 
 his usual feUcity, a rather singular phase of this " howUng hound " 
 superstition. It appears that Dr. Marigold's dog, true to the instincts 
 of his blustering race, could snuff an approaching storm of a " domes- 
 tic " character with the most unerring precision. Certainly there are 
 locahties in which the blasts of old Boreas, and the storm songs of 
 the Maruts, are infinitely more disagreeable than they are in certain 
 others. To encounter them alone on the bleak mountain top, or in a 
 wild gorge, Uke that of CHviger, on an " old-fashioned Christmas " 
 or New Year's-eve, is not productive of exactly the same kind of 
 satisfaction as results from attentively listening to their wild har- 
 monies when seated in a warm corner of one's own " snuggery," with 
 plenty of good cheer, and a select few of tried old friends partaking 
 of the hospitality characteristic of the season. Dr. Marigold, who is 
 neither more nor less than the witty and loc[uacious " Cheap John," 
 of mock-auction renown, thinks, very properly, that his peripatetic 
 place of business was a very unsuitable locaUty for domestic hurri- 
 canes. He says : — " We might have had such a pleasant Hfe. A 
 roomy cart, with the large goods hung outside, and the bed slung 
 underneath it when on the road, an iron pot and kettle, a fire-place 
 for the cold weather, a chimney for the smoke, a hanging-sheK and a 
 cupboard, a dog, and a horse. What more do you want ? You draw 
 off on a bit of turf in a green lane or by the roadside, you hobble your 
 old horse and turn him grazing, you hght your fire upon the ashes of 
 the last visitors', you cook your stew, and you would not call the 
 Emperor of France your father. But have a temper in the cart, fling- 
 ing language and the hardest goods in stock at you, and where are 
 you then ? Put a name to your feelings ! My dog knew as well 
 when she was on the turn as I did. Before she broke out, he woidd 
 give a howl, and bolt. How he knew it was a mystery to me, but the 
 sure and certain knowledge of it would wake him up out of his soundest 
 sleep, and he would give a howl and bolt. At such times I wished 
 I was him." 
 
 The large "saucer eyes" of Skriker, and his "vanishing on the 
 shghtest momentary inattention," are suggestive of some connection 
 with hghtning or the ignis-fatuus, or wild fire ; and, singularly enough, 
 Ifind WUl-o'-whisp traditions bear considerable resemblance to those 
 which appertain to the furious host. Mr. Thoms, in his " Shaks- 
 
176 TBADITIONS, SUPEBSTITIONS, 
 
 pere Notelets," has some curious information on this subject. H« 
 
 According to some these phantoms are believed to be the soulf 
 of children who have died unbaptised ; while others agaia believe 
 them to be the restless spirits of wicked and covetous men, who have 
 not scrupled, for the sake of their own aggrandisement, to remove 
 their neighbours' landmarks. In Brittany, we learn from ViUe- 
 marque, the Porte-brandon appears in the form of a child bearing a 
 torch, which he turns Uke a burrdng wheel ; and with this it is said 
 he sets fire to the viUsges, which are sometimes suddenly in the 
 middle of the night wrapped in flames. In Lusatia, where these 
 wandering children are also supposed to be the souls of unbaptised 
 children, they are believed to be perfectly harmdess, and to be reheved 
 from their destiaed wanderings as soon as any pious hand throws a 
 handful of consecrated ground after them." 
 
 This form of superstition prevails yet to a considerable extent in 
 the north of England and Scotland. 
 
 The Maruts or storm-wiads of the Sanscrit myths, who rode on 
 tawny-coloured horses, roared like Hons, shook the mountains, and 
 tore up trees, when their wild work was done. Max MuUer informs 
 us, assumed again, " according to their wont, the form of new born 
 babes," a phrase which, as Mr. Cox justly observes, "exhibits the 
 germ, and more than the germ, of the myth of Hermes returning like 
 a child to his cradle after tearing up the forests." Hermes, as a per- 
 sonification of both the gentle breeze and the stormy wind, gives forth 
 soothing as well as martial music, and his plaintive breath was sup- 
 posed " to waft the spirits of the dead to their unseen home." Crantz 
 says the Greenland Esquimaux " lay a dog's head by the grave of a 
 child, for the soul of a dog can find its way everywhere, and wiU show 
 the ignorant babe the way to the land of souls." The Parsees place 
 a dog before the dying, from a similar superstitious beUef. 
 
 There is much probabUity in the suggestion that Shakspere had 
 some of these superstitions in view when he placed in the mouth of 
 Macbeth, while contemplating the murder, and its consequences, of 
 the " gracious Duncan," the following magnificent metaphors : — 
 
 And Pity, like a naked new-born babe. 
 Striding the blast, or Heaven's cherubim, horsed 
 Upon the sightless couriers of the air. 
 Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, 
 That tears shall drown the wind ! 
 
 The furious host, in the German versions, is sometimes " a caval- 
 cade of the dead," and not exactly a wild hunt, in the ordinary 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 177 
 
 acceptation of the term. Kelly says : — " Sometimes it gallops tkrough 
 the stormy air as a herd of mid boars ; but the spirits of which it 
 consists generally appear ia human form. They are of both sexes 
 and of all ages, souls of unchristened babes being included among 
 them ; for Holda or Bertha often joins the hunt." When Odin rides 
 at the head of a full field, he is beUeved to chase a horse or a wild 
 boar ; but when he alone appears at the heels of his yelping pack, it 
 " is in pursuit of a woman with long snow-white breasts. Seven 
 years he follows her ; at last he runs her down, throws her across his 
 horse, and carries her home." These seven years are regarded by com- 
 mentators as having reference to the seven winter months of the year, 
 during which "the speU bound" lightning and storm god was unable, 
 owing to the prevailing cold weather, to continue in active chase of his 
 flying bride. This latter myth concerning the chased maiden seems 
 to be the counterpart or prototype of the spectre huntsman, who "is 
 behevedto pursue a miLk-white doe round the Eagle's Crag, in the 
 Vale of Todmorden, on All-Hallow Eve," as related by Mr. Wilkinson. 
 In Germany the wild hunt chases a whole flock of elfish beings, the 
 moss-wifekins and wood-maidens, whose lives are bound up with those 
 of the forest trees. Holda and Bertha are but local or characteristic 
 appellations for the goddess Freyja (whence our Friday), the wife of 
 Odin. In some parts of Germany the wild hunt is called the dead 
 hunt (Heljagd), and, in others, the English hunt (die Engelshe jagdj, 
 which are synonymous, England being but, at one period, "another 
 name for the nether world." Hel or Hela, was the name of both the 
 Scandinavian and German goddess of death. Kuhn, referring to the 
 dispute whether the ancient locality of departed souls was Great 
 Britain or Brittany,'decides in favour of the former, and informs us 
 that the German peasants to this day use such expressions as the 
 following: "How the bells are ringing in England!" "How my 
 children are crying in England!" when referring to the nether or 
 lower regions. 
 
 The dismal realm of Hela, which was a journey of nine days' dreary 
 descent from Heaven, was termed Niflheimr, the world of mists. It 
 was said to be situated under one of the roots of the great world-tree, 
 YggdrasU, but it appears not to have been regarded, Uke the modern 
 Hel, as a place of torment or punishment for sins committed on earth. 
 It seems to have had more relationship to the Greek Hades. All de- 
 parted souls, good and evU, dwelt in Hela's realm, with the exception 
 of those of heroes slain in battle, which were conveyed at once to Val- 
 halla, by Odin himself. Kelly says :— 
 
178 TEADITIONS, SUPEKSTITIONS, 
 
 "But tke idea of retribution after death for crimes done in the bod; 
 was not unknown to German paganism. It was part of the Aryai 
 creed, and the Vedas Speak of the goddess Nirriti, and her dreadfu 
 world Naraka, the destined abode of all guUty souls. It is not con 
 eeivable that such a tradition could have died out, even for a time 
 amongst any of the pagan Indo-Europeans." 
 
 In support of his position, Kelly cites the foHowiag passage fron 
 Kemble's " Saxons in England ": — - 
 
 " For the .perjurer and the secret murderer Nastrond existed, i 
 place of torment and punishment — the strand of the dead — ^fiUed wit! 
 foulness, peopled with poisonous serpents, dark, cold, and gloomy 
 the kingdom of Hel was Hades, the invisible, the world of shadows 
 Nastrond was what we caU Hell." 
 
 Kelly further contends that as "the heaven of the (Aryan) Pitris ii 
 often called 'the world of good deed, the world of the righteous,' aii( 
 as they themselves were spirits of hght and ministers of aU good men 
 there is strong reason for inferring, although the fact is nowhsK 
 expressly stated, that the inhabitants of the opposite world beeam( 
 spirits of darkness, and confederates of aU the evil powers." H( 
 adds, — "If this conjecture prove to be well founded, it wiQ haw 
 brought to light another remarkable instance of the contiauity o: 
 Aryan tradition." 
 
 The Eev. G. W. Oox, however, scarcely indorses this view of tlif 
 Gothic Hell and DevH. He says, — " Hel had been hke Persephone 
 the queen of the unseen land, — in the ideas of the northern tribes, a 
 land of bitter cold and icy walls. She now became not the queen o: 
 Niflheim, but Niflheim itself, whUe her abode, though gloomy enough- 
 was not whoUy destitute of material comforts. It became the HeU 
 where the old man hews wood for the Christmas fire, and where the 
 Devil in his eagerness to buy the flitch of bacon yields up the ijiar- 
 veUous quern which is 'good to grind almost anything.' It was noi 
 so pleasant, indeed, as Heaven, or the old ValhaUa, but it was better 
 to be there than shut out in the outer cold beyond its padlocked gates, 
 But more particularly the Devil was a being who under pressure of 
 hunger might be drawn into acting against his own interest, in othei 
 words he might be outwitted, and this character of a poor or stupid 
 devil is almost the only one exhibited in Teutonic legends. In fact, 
 as Professor Max MiiUer remarks, the Germans, when they had been 
 ' indoctrinated with the idea of a real devil, the: Semitic Satan or 
 Diabolus, treated him in the most good-humoured manner ;' nor is it 
 easy to resist Dr. Dasent'e conclusion that ' no greater proof can be 
 
AND FOLK-LORE. 179 
 
 given of the small hold which the Christian Devil has taken of the 
 Norse mind than the heathen aspect under which he constantly 
 appears, m.i the ludicrous way in which he is always outwitted.' " 
 Mr. Cox adds, in a note, that it has " been said of Southey that he 
 could never think of the devil iwithout laughing. This is but saying 
 that he had the genuine humour of our Teutonic ancestors." 
 
 Dasent, in, his "Popular Tales from the Norse," says, — "The 
 Christian notion of Hell is that of a place of heat, for in the East, 
 whence Christianity oaipe, heat is often an intolerable torment, and 
 cold, on the other hand, everything that is pleasant and delightful. 
 But to the dwellers in the North heat brings with it sensations of joy 
 and comfort, and life without fire has a dreary outlook ; so their Hel 
 ruled in a cold region over those who were cowards by impUcation, 
 whUe the mead-cup went round and huge logs blazed and crackled in 
 ValhaUa for the brave and beautiful who had dared to die on the field 
 of battle. But under Christianity the extremes of heat and cold have 
 met, and Hel, the cold, uncomfortable goddess, is now our HeU, where 
 flames and fires abound, and where the devils abide in everlasting 
 flame." 
 
 How grandly has Shakspere expressed the various traditionary 
 forms respecting the lost soul's lodgment or condition after death, 
 in "Measure for Measure." In act 3, scene 1, Claudio exclaims: — 
 
 Ay, but to die and go we know not where, 
 To Ke in cold obstruction, and to rot ; . 
 This sensible warm motion to become 
 A kneaded clod ; and the delighted spirit 
 To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside 
 In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice ; 
 To be imprisoned in the viewless winds, 
 And blown with restless violence round about 
 The pendent world ; or to be worse than worst 
 Of those, that lawless and incertain thoughts 
 Imagine howling ! 'tis too horrible ! 
 The wearied and most loathed worldly life. 
 That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment 
 Can lay on nature, is a paradise 
 To what we fear of death. 
 
 It is a common superstition yet, that the ghosts of persons, 
 murdered or otherwise, not buried in consecrated ground, cannot rest, 
 but must wander about in search of the means of Christian sepulture. 
 This superstition obtained amongst the Greeks and Latins. The 
 ghosts of unburied bodies, not possessing the obolus or fee due to 
 Chafon, the ferryman of the Styx or Acheron, were unable to obtain a 
 lodging or place of rest. They were, therefore, compelled to wander 
 
180 TEADITIONS, SUPEESTITIONS, 
 
 about the banks of the river for a hundred years, when the Portitm 
 " ferryman of hell" passed them over, in forma pauperis. Hence ■ 
 sacred nature of the duty of surviving relatives and friends um 
 the most trying circumstances. The celebrated tragedy of Antigo: 
 by Sophocles, owes its chief interest and pathos to the popular fa: 
 on this subject. 
 
 Brand on the authority of Aubrey, states that, amongst the vul^ 
 in Yorkshire, it was believed, "and, perhaps, is in part stiU," thi 
 after a person's death, the soul went over Whiimey Moor ; and ( 
 about 1624, at the funeral, a woman came (Uke a Prsefica) and su) 
 the following song : — 
 
 This ean night, this ean night. 
 
 Every night and awle. 
 Fire and fleet (water) and candle-light, 
 
 And Christ receive thy sawle. 
 
 When thou from hence doeat pass away. 
 
 Every night and awle. 
 To Whinny-Moor [silly poor] thou comest at last, 
 
 And Christ receive thy sawle. 
 
 If ever thou gave hosen or shoon [shoes], 
 ^ Every night and awle. 
 
 Sit thee down and put them on, 
 And Christ receive thy sawle. 
 
 But if hosen and shoon thou never gave naen. 
 
 Every night and awle, 
 The whinnes shall prick thee to the bare beane. 
 
 And Christ receive thy sawle. 
 
 Prom Whinny-Moor that thou mayst pass, 
 
 Every night and awle, 
 To Brig of Dread thou comest at last. 
 
 And Christ receive thy soul. 
 
 From Brig of Dread, ua brader than a thread. 
 
 Every night and awle. 
 To purgatory fire thou com'st at last, 
 
 And Christ receive thy sawle. 
 
 If ever thou give either milke or drink. 
 
 Every night and awle, 
 The fire shall never make thee shrink, 
 
 And Christ receive thy sawle. 
 
 But if milk nor drink thou never gave naen, 
 
 Every night and awle. 
 The fire shall bum thee to the bare beane. 
 
 And Christ receive thy sawle. 
 
 In the "Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border," this song is printe( 
 with one or two sUght variations, with the title of a "Lyke-Wal 
 
AND FOLK-LOEB. 181 
 
 Dirge." Sir Walter Scott likewise quotes a passage from a MS. 
 in the Cotton Library, descriptive of Cleveland in the northern part 
 of Yorkshire, in Elizabeth's reign, which aptly Ulustrates this custom. 
 It is as follows : — 
 
 " When any dieth certaine women sing a song to the dead bodie, 
 recitrag the journey that the partye deceased must goe, and they are 
 of behefe (such is their fondnesse) that once in their hves it is good 
 to give a pair of new shoes to a poor man, for as much as after this life 
 they are to pass barefoote through a great launde, full of thorns and 
 farzen, except by the meryte of the ahnes aforesaid they have redemed 
 the forfeyte ; for at the edge of the launde an olde man shall meet 
 them with the same shoes that were given by the partie when he was 
 lyving, and after he had shodde them, dismisseth them to go through 
 thick and thia without scratch or scaUe." 
 
 According to Mannhardt and Grimm a pair of shoes was deposited 
 in the grave, in Scandinavia and Germany, for this very purpose. In 
 the Henneberg district, on this account, the name todtenschuh, or 
 "dead shoe" is applied to a funeral. In Scandinavia the shoe is 
 named helsko, or " hel-shoe." 
 
 It is customary yet in some parts of the North of England to place 
 a plate filled with salt on the stomach of a corpse soon after death. 
 Lighted candles too, are sometimes placed on or about the body. 
 Eeginald Scot says, in his " Discourse concerning Devils and Spirits," 
 on the authority of Bodin, that " the devil loveth no salt in his meat, 
 for that is a sign of eternity, and used by God's commandment in aU 
 sacrifices." Douce, speaking of this practice, particiilarly in Leicester- 
 shire, says it is done with the view of preventing air from getting into 
 the bowels and swelling the body. Herriek, in his " Hesperides," 
 says : — 
 
 The Soul is tlie Salt. 
 The body's salt the soul is, which, when gone, 
 The flesh soon sucks in putrifaotion. 
 
 According to the learned Moresin the devil abhorreth salt, it being 
 the emblem of eternity and immortaUty. It is not Uable to cor- 
 ruption itself, and it preserves other substances from decay. Hence 
 its superstitious or emblematical import. 
 
 The screaming of certain birds, as we have already seen, foreboded 
 disaster. In some districts the midnight flight of flocks of migratory 
 seafowl are believed to be the cause of the noises in the atmosphere, 
 which the peasant's imagination translates into the rush of the 
 furious host. Mr. Yarrell, in " Notes and Queries," says that flocks 
 
182 TEADITIONS, SUPEESTITIONS, 
 
 of bean-geese, from Scandinavia and Scotland, when flying ove: 
 various parts of England, select very dark nights for their migra 
 tions, and that their flight is accompanied hy a very ioud and verj 
 peculiar cry. The " seven whistlers," referred to by Wordsworth 
 and others already.quoted, in some instances appear to be curlews 
 whose screams are beheved by fishermen to announce the approacl 
 of a tempest. 
 
 The bellowing of cows at unseasonable hours was likewise regarded 
 as an announcement of death, as well as the howHngof the dog. Oowe 
 in the Aryan mythology represented the rain clouds. Odin and his host, 
 nevertheless, seem to have fancied the earthly article. They were 
 said to carry cows away, mUk them dry, and,iin about three' days, 
 generally return them, but not always. It was idle for the farmer to 
 refuse complying, as when the furious host appeared, the fattest 
 animals in the stalls became restive, and' on being let loose suddenly 
 disappeared. 
 
 The Lancashire peasant, in some districts, still believes the " MUky 
 Way " to be the path by which departed souls enter Heaven. Mr. 
 Benjamin Brierley, in one of his Lanca,shire stories, places in the 
 mouth of one of his strongly marked provincial characters, the follow- 
 ing expression, — "When tha goes up 'th cow lone (lane) to th' better 
 place," and he assures me that he has often heard the expression from 
 the Hps of the peasantry. The Germans entertain a similar behef in 
 the '* Milky Way " being the spirit path to: heaven. In Friesland its 
 name is kaupat, or cowpath. The giving of a cow to the poor, wUle 
 on earth, was considered to confer upon the donor the power to pass 
 with certainty the fearful GjaUar bridge ; for, as in the Vedic super- 
 stition, a cow, (or cloud,) would be present to aid his soul to make the 
 passage in safety. Mannhardt informs us that " hence it was of yore 
 a funeral custom in Sweden, Denmark, England, Upper and Lower 
 Germany, that a cow should follow the coffin to the churchyard. This 
 custom was partially continued until recent times, being accounted 
 for on the ground that the cow was a gift to the clergy for saying 
 masses for the dead man's soul or preaching his funerai sermon." 
 
 It is not improbable that the "mortuary" or "heriot" of the 
 olden time, which rendered the gift of a cow to the churchj on the 
 death of a parishioner, as a condonement of possibly unpaid dues, a 
 necessary condition of clerical favour, was based on some such super- 
 stition. It was customary, in some places, to drive the cow in the 
 procession of the funeral cortege to the place of sepulture. Mr. E. 
 Baines, speaking of the manor of Ashton-under-Lyne, says : — " The 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 183 
 
 obnoxious feudal heriot, consisting of the best beast on the farm, 
 required to be given to the lord, on the death of the farmer, was a 
 cruel and unmanly exaction, in illustration of which there are many 
 traditionary stories in the manor of Ashton, and no doubt in other 
 manors. The priest, as well as the lord of the manor, claimed his 
 heriot, called a mortuary in these early times, on the death of his 
 parishioners, as a kind of expiation for the personal tithes, which the 
 deceased in his lifetime had neglected to pay." He adds that the 
 custom was in Ashton for " holy kirk " to take the best beast, and the 
 lord of the manor the second best. 
 
 To those who treated Odin with proper respect when he and his 
 hunters passed by, he is said to have dropped a horse's leg or haunch, 
 which turned to gold. Those who mocked him received a similar 
 present, or " moss-wifekin's foot, with the green shoe upon it." But 
 the Hmb in the latter case became foetid, and the horrible stench 
 resultiag therefrom defied aU attempts to remove it. 
 
 All of these legends have been resolved into figurative and sometimes 
 highly poetic descriptions of natural phenomena, and especially what 
 is termed the "elemental strife." The horse's leg thrown down by 
 Odin. represents the crooked Ughtning's flash ; the gold its brightness, 
 and the stench its sulphurous odour. The wild boars which he hunts 
 are stormy wind-clouds ; ithe fair ladies the hght white scudding 
 vapours that seem to coquette with the squally wind. Odin's broad- 
 brimmed hat is the dark cloud, and his mantle the starry heavens. 
 Kelly says — " The moss-wifekins and wood-maidens are female ele- 
 mentary spirits brought down to the earth from the clouds to become 
 genii of the forest, and when they are chased in whole flocks — or, in 
 other words, when the leaves are blown off the trees — ^this is but a 
 modification of the older conception of flying clouds. . . The wild 
 huntsman loves to ride through houses that have two outer doors 
 directly opposite to each other; that is to say, in plain prose, a 
 thorough draft, more or less strong, from one door to the other." 
 
 Mr. Euskin, in his recent lectures at Oxford, as " Slade Professor of 
 Fine Art," gives an admirable example from paintings on an ancient 
 vase, of the maimer ia which Greek artistic genius gradually evolved 
 from out of natural phenomena, their mythological personifications. 
 He says, — 
 
 " First you have Apollo ascending from the sea ; thought of as the 
 physical sunrise : only a circle of light for his head ; his chariot horses 
 seen foreshortened, black against the daybreak, their feet not yet 
 risen above the horizon. Underneath is the painting fi-om the 
 
184 TRADITIONS, SUPEKSTITIONS, 
 
 opposite side of the same vase : Athena as the morning breeze, and 
 Hermes as the morning cloud, flying across the waves before sunrise. 
 At the distance I now hold them from you, it is scarcely possible for 
 you to see that they are figures at all, so like are they to broken frag- 
 ments of flying mist ; and when you look close you will see that as 
 ApoUo's face is invisible in the circle of Ught, Mercury's is invisible in 
 the broken form of cloud ; but I can tell you that it is conceived as 
 reverted, looking back to Athena ; the grotesque appearance of feature 
 in the front is the outline of his hair. These two paiatings are 
 exceedingly rude, and of the archseic period ; the deities being yet 
 thought of chiefly as physical powers in violent agency." 
 
 Max MiiUer contends that the earher Aryan name for the Ebibus, 
 namely Arbhus, is identical with the Greek Orpheus. Philologists, 
 by the aid of the earlier Sanscrit writings, have been enabled to get 
 at the roots of many Greek names, which formerly defied investiga- 
 tion. We see in the musical influence of Orpheus over trees, rocks, 
 and mountaia torrents, but a highly artistic development of the 
 original Aryan storm-wind myth. By certain well understood philo- 
 logical steps, the term Arbhus has passed, ia its Teutonic descent, 
 into Albs, Alb, or Alp, which in the plural yields Elbe and Elfen, the 
 equivalents of our EngUsh Elf and Elves. 
 
 Another remnant of the Aryan nomenclature of the train of Odui, 
 the wild huntsman, may be found in the word maxt or maur, as 
 presented in the English word nightmare, and the French couchemar, 
 which are evidently descended from the Maruts or windgods of the 
 Vedas. The nightmare is known to result chiefly from that form of 
 dyspepsia termed flatulent. The corruption of the word ia Enghsh 
 to mare has given rise to some singular blunders, and none greater 
 or more absurd than that perpetrated by PuseU, the Royal Acade- 
 mician, in his celebrated picture of " The Nightmare," in which he 
 represents the fiend in equine form bestraddUng his unhappy victim. 
 KeUy says he can find accounts of the nightmare assuming the forms 
 of a mouse, a weasel, a toad, and even a cat, but never that of a 
 horse or a mare, except in the picture referred to. The fact is, the 
 genuine nightmare is the rider who plies his spurs and grips the 
 reins, and not a mare that has usurped the function of a jockey. 
 Aubrey, in his " Miscellanies," describes one phase of the super- 
 stition as a remnant of witchcraft. " To hinder the nightmaie, they 
 hang in a string a flint with a hole in it. It is to prevent the night- 
 mare, viz., the hag, from riding their horses, who wUl sometimes 
 sweat at night. The flint thus hung does hinder it." Brand ob- 
 
AND FOLK-LOKE. 185 
 
 serves that "ephialtes, or nightmare, is called by common people 
 witch-riding." He traces the superstition to the Gothic or Scandi- 
 navian Mara, " a spectre of the night." 
 
 In classical mythology Pan was regarded as the author of sudden 
 frights or groundless alarms. Dr. Adam, in his " Eoman Antiquities," 
 says that Paunus and Sylvanus were " supposed to be the same with 
 Pan." He further adds, — " There were several rural deities called 
 Pauni, who were believed to occasion the nightmare." 
 
 It is not improbable that the modern equine form of the hag 
 may have resulted from ordinary punning. LlueUin (1679) has the 
 following stanza, which refers to the power of coral over the night- 
 mare. Hence the prejudice in favour of coral beads for children 
 which obtains to this day : — 
 
 Some the night-mare hath prest 
 
 With that weight on their breast. 
 No retumes of their breath can passe. 
 
 But to ns the tale is addle. 
 
 We can take off her saddle. 
 And turn out the night-mare to grasse. 
 
 Another old writer, Holiday, in his "Marriage of the Arts," depre- 
 cates the practice of "relying on charms, " that your stables may bee 
 alwies free froni the queene of the gobHns." He, however, makes 
 the night-hag equestrian or jockey, and not equine. Herrick, too, 
 m his " Hesperides," is both correct and expUcit on the subject. 
 He says : — 
 
 Hang up hooks and shears to scare 
 Hence the hag that rides the mare , 
 Till they be all over wet 
 With the mire and the sweat ; 
 This observed, the manes shall be 
 Of your horses all knot free. 
 
 The term "n^htmare," in some instances, may have been appUed 
 to a witch transformed into a mare by means of a magic bridle, and 
 ridden with great viol^ce by the very party at whose bed-side she 
 had previously metamorphosed into a steed, qn the back of which 
 she had galloped to the witches' revel. If the man-horse contrived 
 to sHp off the bridle, and throw it over the witch's head, she im- 
 mediately became transformed into a mare, and was frequently, 
 according to popular beUef, subjected to much harsh usage. There 
 appears, however, to be little doubt that the night-mares are legiti- 
 mately descended from the Aryan Maruts, the "couriers of the air," 
 who rode the winds in the "wild hunt," or "furious host," headed 
 
186 TRAX)ITIONS, SUPEBSTITIONS, 
 
 by Odin, or the renowned spectre horseman of mediseval legends. 
 Kelly says, "these riders, in all other respects identical with the 
 Maruts, are in some parts of Germany called Wabriderske, i.e., 
 Valkyts. In some of the tales that are told of them they still 
 retain their old diviae nature ; in others they are brought down to 
 the level of mere earthly witches. If they ride now ia stables, 
 without locomotion, it is because they swept of old through the air 
 on their divine coursers. Now they steal by night to the beds of 
 hinds and churls ; but there was a time when they descended from 
 ValhaUa to conceive, ia the embrace of a mortal, the demigod whom 
 they afterwards accompanied to the battle-field, to bear him thence 
 to the hall of Odin." 
 
 I entertain a strong impression that the singular ceremony prac- 
 tised at Ashton-under-Lyne, at Easter, styled " Riding the Black Lad," 
 contains some remnant of the tradition of the spectre huntsman. Its 
 origia is confessed on aU hands to be extremely doubtful. The 
 severities of a Sir Ealph Assheton, ia the reign of Henry VI., may have 
 had something to do with it, but they alone could scarcely have per- 
 petuated the legend and its accessories. The custom of perambulat- 
 ing the parish boundaries, stiU in use ia many parts of England, and 
 which, in my own youth, was performed with much solemnity by the 
 Corporation of Preston, may likewise have had some influence upon 
 the practice. At the close of the Preston perambulation, it was 
 customary for the younger spirits "to leap the colt-hole," as it was 
 termed, the said " colt-hole " being a ditch or fosse on Preston Marsh. 
 Some unlucky wights occasionally fell into the said ditch, to the 
 infinite amusement of the graver dignitaries, as well as to the merri- 
 ment of the holiday schoolboys attendant. Dr. Hibbert Ware, 
 referriag to the Ashton custom, says : — " An effigy is made of a man 
 in armour, and the image is deridiagly emblazoned with some emblems 
 of the occupation of the first couple that are hnked together in the 
 course of the year." The story of the enforcing of the weeding of 
 " Carr gulds " (an obnoxious plant) from the land by Sir Kalph's 
 rough riding, may have had some foundation in fact ; but it is rather 
 strange a successor should have " abolished the usage for ever, and 
 reserved from the estate a smaU sum of money, for the purpose of 
 perpetuating, in an annual ceremony, the memory of the dreaded 
 visits of the Black Knight." 
 
 Spelman, in his "Icenia," referring to the TUney legend concern- 
 ing Tom Hickathrift and his giant slaying, clearly shows that the 
 "monstrous giant," slain by Tom, armed with his axle and wheel, 
 
AND POLK-LOEE. 187 
 
 like the Cornish Tom the Tiakheard, and his followers, was none 
 other than the tyrant lord of the manor who sought by violence to 
 rob his copy-hold tenants out of their right of pasture ia the common 
 field. 
 
 Samuel Bamford, ia his poem of the " WUd Eider," relates a legend 
 not uncommon in various parts of the country, about a Sir Ashton 
 Lever, a lover of a descendant of the Black Knight, who seems to 
 have rivalled him in horsemanship. Bamford, in a note, says : — 
 " He was an excellent bowman and a fearless rider, and tradition has 
 handed down stories of feats of horsemanship analogous to those 
 recited in the baUad, accompanied with sage intimations that no horse 
 could have carried him save one of more than earthly breed or human train- 
 ing." The narrow valley of the Tame, ia the neighbourhood of 
 Ashton, is as likely as the gorge at CUviger to be haunted by the 
 storm-rider or the wild hunt. Siagularly enough, Mr. Baiaes, ia his 
 History of Lancashire, relates miautely the particulars of two tre- 
 mendous storms which devastated the locahty, one in 1817, and the 
 other 26 years previously. They both created much dismay, and the 
 latter, he says, caused " an iavoluntary expression of horror through- 
 out the whole place." A neighbouring exposed hill is named the 
 " Wild Bank." Around it storms often rage with g;reat fury. In one 
 of the Welsh triads, we find that the " three embellishing names of 
 the wind" are "Hero of the World, Architect of Bad Weather, and 
 Assaulter of the Hnis." It has been previously shown the spectre 
 huntsman of Dartmoor is styled the " Black Master," which lends 
 further probability to the hypothesis advanced. 
 
 Siace the bulk of the preceding pages in this chapter were written, 
 I obtaiaed a copy of Mr. E. Hunt's recently pubUshed work, entitled 
 " Popular Eomances of the West of England ; or the Drolls, Tradi- 
 tions, and Superstitions of Old Cornwall." In it I find several curious 
 and hi^ily interesting variations of the legend or myth of the spectre 
 huntsman, or the furious host, which exhibit not only the connection 
 of the wandering Jew tradition with that of the hunt of Odin and his 
 followers, but which I conceive throw much light upon, and, to a large 
 extent, countenance the hypothesis I have submitted, that the legend 
 of the celebrated black knight, or " black lad," of Ashton-under-Lyne, 
 retains, along with more modern additions, something of the original 
 Aryan personification of the "elemental strife " previously described. 
 Speakiag of the "demon Tregeagle," a well-known legendary hero 
 of " Old Cornwall," he says : — 
 
 " Who has not heard of the wUd spirit of Tregeagle ? He haunts 
 
188 TRADITIONS, SUPEBSTITIONS, 
 
 equally the moor, the rocky ooasta, and the blown sandhills of Corn- 
 wall. From north to south, from east to west, this doomed spirit is 
 heard of, and to the day of judgment, he is doomed to wander, pursued by 
 avenging fiends. For ever endeavouring to perform some task by 
 which he hopes to secure repose, and being for ever defeated. Who 
 has not heard of the howling of Tregeagle ? When the storms come 
 with all their strength from the Atlantic, and urge themselves upon 
 the rocks around Land's End, the howls of the spirit are louder than the 
 roaring of the winds. When calms rest upon the ocean, and the waves 
 can scarcely form upon the resting waters, low waitings creep along the 
 coast. These are the wailings of this wandering soul. When midnight is 
 on the Moor or on the mountains, and the night winds whistle amidst 
 the rugged cairns, the shrieks of Tregeagle are distinctly heard. We 
 know that he is pursued by the demon dogs, and that till day-break he 
 must fly with aU speed before them. The voice of Tregeagle is every- 
 where, and yet he is unseen by human eye. Every reader will at 
 once perceive that Tregeagle belongs to the mythologies of the oldest 
 nations, and that the traditions of this wandering spirit in Cornwall, 
 which centre upon one tyrannical magistrate, are but the appropriation 
 of stories which belong to every age and country." 
 
 Here we have clearly a combination of the doings of the Teutonic 
 spectre huntsman, Odin, and of his prototypes the Aryan storm gods, 
 Indra and Ehudra, and their attendant Maruts and the Ehibus ; the 
 waUings of the homeless souls of the Irish and other legends ; the 
 interminable toil of the Wandering Jew ; and the more modern tra- 
 dition of the hard-hearted lord of the soU, whose deeds have rendered 
 his name odious to the commonalty. The latter worthy modern tra- 
 dition asserts, as in the case of the Ashton " Black Knight," to have 
 been a relatively recent bond fide " tyrannical magistrate," and a 
 " rapacious and unscrupulous landlord," and " one of the Tregeagles 
 who once owned Trevorder near Bodmin." At his death the fiends 
 were anxious to get immediate possession of the soul of this " gigantic 
 sinner;" but the hardened murderer, terrified at his fate, "gave to 
 the priesthood wealth, that they might fight with them, and save 
 his soul from eternal fire." On one occasion it is said that his 
 wandering spirit actually gave evidence in a court of justice, when 
 the fiends in vain endeavoured to carry him off. The power of the 
 priesthood prevailed, but only with the condition attached that the 
 wretched sinner should undertake " some task difficult beyond the 
 power of human nature, which might be extended far into eternity," 
 with the view that the power of repentance might gradually exert its 
 
AND FOLE-LOEB. 189 
 
 ameliorating influence. His only hope for ultimate salvation was 
 perpetual toil. The demons could not molest him so long as he con- 
 tinued his labour. 
 
 The first labour to which he was subjected was the emptying of 
 Dosmery Pool, a mountain lake, some miles in circumference. This, 
 in itself no sUght task, was beUeved to be rendered more difficult 
 from the supposed fact that the said pool was bottomless, inasruuch 
 as tradition asserted that " once on a time" a thorn bush which had 
 been sunk near its centre had re-appeared in Falmouth harbour. 
 One churchman, it is said, nevertheless thought the plan not suffi- 
 ciently hopeless. He therefore suggested that the only lading or 
 baling utensil employed by the miserable sinner should be a Umpet 
 shell with a sufficiently large hole in it to seriously augment the 
 necessary labour. The demon kept his eye on Tregeagle, and en- 
 deavoured to divert his attention from his toU, in order that he might 
 lay hold of him. But although he raised many tempests, stiU the 
 doomed one continued to labour. On one occasion, however, the 
 fiends were nearly " too many " for the eternal toiler. Mr. Hunt's 
 description of this terrible struggle is so strikingly suggestive of one 
 of the myths to which I have referred its origin, that I give it entire. 
 He says ; — 
 
 " Nature was at war with herself, the elements had lost their 
 balance, and there was a terrific struggle to recover it. Lightnings 
 flashed and coiled hke fiery snakes around the rocks of Eoughtor. 
 Fire-balls fell on the desert moors and hissed in the accursed lake. 
 Thunders pealed through the heavens, and echoed from bill to hiU. ; 
 an earthquake shook the solid earth, and terror was on aU living. 
 The winds rose and raged with a fury which was irresistible, and 
 hafl. beat so mercilessly on all things that it spread death around. 
 Long did Tregeagle stand the ' pelting of the pitiless storm,' but at 
 length he yielded to its force and fled. The demons in crowds were at his 
 heels. He doubled, however, on his pursuers and returned to the lake ; 
 but so rapid were they that he could not rest the required moment 
 to dip his shell in the now seething waters. Three times he fled 
 round the lake, and the evil ones pursued him. Then feeling that 
 there was no safety for him near Dosmery Pool, he sprang swifter 
 than the wind across it, shrieking with agony, and thus — since the 
 devils cannot cross water, and were obHged to go round the lake — he 
 gained on them and fled over the moor. Away, away went Treg- 
 eagle, faster and faster, the dark spirits pursuiug, and they had 
 nearly overtaken him, when he saw Eoach Eock and its^ chapel 
 
190 TEADITIONS, SUPEESTITIONS, 
 
 before him. He rushed up the rocks, with giant power clambered to 
 the eastern wiadow, and dashed his head through it, thus securing 
 the shelter of its sanctity. The defeated demons retired, and long 
 and loiid were their wild waitings in the air. The iohabitants of the 
 moors and of the neighbouring towns slept not a wink that night." 
 
 This "wUd hunt" is, in some respects, suggestive of Tarn 
 O'Shanter's narrow escape from the devU and the witches at Kirk 
 Alio way. 
 
 In his "Address to the DeU," Burns associates both the devil. and 
 witches with stormy weather. He says, of the former : — 
 
 Whylea raging like a roaring lion, 
 I"or prey a' holes an' comers tryin ; 
 Whyles on the strong-wiag'd tempest flyin' ; 
 Tirlin the kirks. 
 
 And again : — 
 
 Let warlocks grim, and wither'd hags. 
 Tell how wi' you, on ragweed nags, 
 They skim the moors an' dizzy crags, 
 Wi' wicked speed. 
 
 But this is rather corroborative than otherwise of the hypothesis of 
 their common origia. I have previously shown that witches were de- 
 scended from the Aryan storm gods or their attendants. Shakspere 
 appears to have been fuUy cognisant of their elemental origia, or, in 
 other words, of their supposed power over "the elements," for he 
 makes Macbeth, in his extremity, exclaim :— 
 
 I conjure you, by that which you profess 
 
 (Howe'er you came to know it), answer me : 
 
 Though you untie the winds, and let them fight 
 
 Against the churches : though the yesty waves 
 
 Confound and swallow navigation up ; 
 
 Though bladed com be lodg'd, and trees torn down ; ' 
 
 Though castles topple on their warders' heads ; 
 
 Though palaces and pyramids do slope 
 
 Their heads to their foundations ; tho' the treasure 
 
 Of nature's germins tumble altogether. 
 
 Even till destruction sicken, answer me 
 
 To what I ask you. 
 
 The tradition that Dosmery Pool was bottomless, reminds, me of a 
 similar presumed phenomenon in the neighbourhood of Prestpn, wliic^ 
 I have often heard referred to in my youth with imphcit- faith. It 
 was confidently asserted that a large pit near the footpath leading 
 from Moor Park to Cadley Mill was of the bottomless class, . Doubt- 
 less it was, at that time, a very deep pit, though I believe now it is 
 nearly if not entirely dry in the summer season. There was like^^s,? 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 191 
 
 a pit on Preston Moor which was supposed to be bottomless. A 
 similar belief once obtained respecting the " Stone Delph," from 
 which the material was quarried for the tower of the Parish Church, 
 Preston, taken down in 1814. I can yet well remember being con- 
 vinced of the absurdity of this legend by an older companion, a 
 good swimmer and diver, bringing up some mud and a stone from the 
 bottom. The stone delph referred to is situated in the present bed 
 of the Eibble, at the foot of the steep brow in Avenham Park. The 
 sinking of water into the caverns of limestone rocks, as in Derby- 
 shire, and at Malham Cove, in Yorkshire, and other places, may 
 have originated the notion of "bottomless pits;" but I am inclined 
 to think that demonology has, likewise, had something to do with 
 these legends. 
 
 The mother of the mythic monster Grendel, in the ancient Anglo- 
 Saxon poem, Beowulf, lived in a pool or mere on which fire floated 
 at night, and the depth of which was so great that the wisest living 
 person knew not its bottom. This mere is supposed to be the sheet 
 of water from which Hart-le-pool, in the county of Durham, takes 
 its name. 
 
 Tregeagle was next employed on the shore near Padstow, to make 
 "trusses of sand and ropes of sand With which to bind them." Of 
 course, each recurring tide swept away the result of his toil, and, 
 according to the tradition, "the ravings of the baffled soul were 
 louder than the roarings of the winter tempest." He was afterwards 
 removed, by the power of the priesthood, to the estury of the Loo, 
 and ordered to carry sand across to Porthleven. A fiend mahciously 
 tripped him up, and the contents of his huge sack, it is said, furnished 
 the material of the sandbank which forms the bar that destroyed the 
 harbour of Ella's. Town. Yet we learn that "the sea was raging 
 with the irritation of a passing storm" at the time of the mishap, 
 which clearly indicates the origin of the legend. Tregeagle's last 
 location was at the Land's End, where Mr. Hunt says "he would 
 find no harbour to destroy and few people to terrify. His task was 
 to sweep the sands from Porthcurnow Cove round the headland 
 called Tol-Peden-Penwith, into Nanjisal Cove. Those who know 
 that rugged headland, with its cubical masses of granite, pUed in 
 Titanic grandeur one upon another, will appreciate the task ; and 
 when to all the difficulties are added the strong sweep of the Atlantic 
 current, — ^that portion of the GuH Stream which washes our southern 
 shores, — it wOl be evident that the melancholy spirit has, indeed, a 
 task which must endure to the world's end. Even until to-day is 
 
192 TEADITIONS, SUPEBSTITIONS, 
 
 Tregeagle labouring at his task. In calms his wailing is heard ; and 
 those sounds which some call the 'soughing of the wind,' are known 
 to be the moanings of Tregeagle ; while the coming storms are pre- 
 dicted by the fearful roarings of this condemned mortal." 
 
 It is very certain that we have here a singularly curious variation 
 of the popular legend of the " Wandering Jew," and the myth of the 
 " spectre huntsman," or the " furious host." The yelping hounds of 
 the latter are not wanting to complete the picture, for Mr. Hunt telle 
 us that " the tradition of the Midnight Hunter and his headless 
 hounds, always, in Cornwall, associated with Tregeagle, prevails every- 
 where. The Abbot's Way, on Dartmoor, an ancient road wMch 
 extends into Cornwall, is said to be the favourite coursing ground of 
 the 'wish or whisked hounds of Dartmoor,' called also the 'yeU 
 hounds.' The valley of the Dewerstone is also the place of their 
 midnight meetings. Once I was told at Jump, that Sir Francis Drake 
 drove a hearse into Plymouth at night with headless horses, and that 
 he was followed by a pack of ' yelling hounds ' without heads. If dogs 
 hear the cry of the wish hounds they all die." 
 
 The performance attributed to Sir Francis Drake is unquestionably 
 a relatively modernised version of the mythical black coach story pre- 
 viously referred to as one form of the furious host legend. The effect 
 of the cry of the wish hounds on the canine race in Cornwall is similar 
 to that attributed to their compeers in Lancashire, only the death 
 resultant is always that of a human being in the northern loeahty. 
 
 Mr. Hunt seems to doubt Mr. Kemble's etymology of the term 
 " wish," when he says : — " In Devonshire, to this day, aU magical or 
 supernatural deaUngs go under the common name of wishtness. Can 
 this have any reference to Woden's name ' Wyse?' " Mr. Hunt, how- 
 ever, acknowledges that " Mr. Kemble's idea is supported by the fact 
 that ' there are Wishanger (Wisehanger , or Woden's Meadow,) one about 
 four miles south-west of Wanborough, in Surrey, and another near 
 Gloucester.' " He acknowledges, likewise, on the authority of Jabez 
 AUies, that there is a Wishmoor, which may have such an origin, in 
 Ledstone, Delamere, Worcestershire. Mr. Hunt thinks that the 
 word "wish" is intimately "connected with the west country word 
 'whist,' meaning more than ordinary melancholy, a sorrow which has 
 something weird about it." Polwhele, in his "Wishful Swain of 
 Devon," says it is "an expression used by the vulgar to express 
 local melancholy ;" and he adds, — " There is something sublime in 
 this impersonation of ivishness." It is not at all improbable that both 
 these etymologies point to a common origin. The deeds of the spectre 
 
AND FOLK-LOKE. 193 
 
 huntsman and the furious host, a " cavalcade of the dead," are not 
 calculated to impress on the human imagination anything repugnant 
 to the "melancholy sorrow with something weird surrounding it," to 
 which Mr. Hunt refers. 
 
 This supposed sympathy of "the elements " with human joy, or 
 sorrow, or suffering, is evidently a very ancient superstition. In 
 Lancashire we have yet the saying — 
 
 Happy is the bride that the sun shines on ; 
 Happy is the corpse that the rain rains on. 
 
 Shakspere has beautifully Ulustrated this presumed sensitiveness, not 
 only of " the elements," but of animated nature, to the perpetration 
 of deeds of darkness and blood by perverted humanity, in the follow- 
 ing lines, which he places in the mouth of Lennox, on the morning 
 after the murder of Duncan, by his host, Macbeth : — 
 
 The night has been unruly ; where we lay, 
 
 Our chimneys were blown down ; and, as they say, 
 
 Lamentings heard i'the air ; strange screams of death ; 
 
 And prophesying, with accents terrible. 
 
 Of dire combustion and confused events. 
 
 New hatched to the woeful time. The obscure bird 
 
 Clamoured the live-long night ; some say the earth 
 
 Was feverous, and did shake. 
 
 The sentiment is stiU further Ulustrated, with singular feUcity, in the 
 dialogue which foUows, between Eosse and an old man : — 
 
 Old Man. Three score and ten I can remember well ; 
 
 Within the volume of which time I have seen 
 
 Hours dreadful and things strange ; but this sore night 
 
 Hath trifled former knowings. 
 Bosse. Ah ! good father, 
 
 Thou Bee'st the heavens, as troubled with man's act, 
 
 Threaten his bloody stage. By the clock 'tis day, 
 
 And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp. 
 
 Is it night's predominance, or the day's shame, 
 
 That darkness does the face of earth entomb, 
 
 When living light should kiss it ? 
 Old Mam. 'Tis unnatural, 
 
 Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last, 
 
 A falcon, towering in her pride of place. 
 
 Was, by a mousing owl, hawked at and killed. 
 Boise. And Duncan's horses, (a thing most strange and certain), 
 
 Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race. 
 
 Turned wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out. 
 
 Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make 
 
 War with mankind. 
 Old Man. 'Tis said, they eat each other ! 
 Bosse. They did so ; to the amazement of mine eyes. 
 
 That looked upon't. 
 
194 TRADITIONS, SUPEKSTITIONS, 
 
 The Ashton "Black Knight " traditions, doubtless, to some extent 
 influenced the colouring of Bamford's poem, " The Wild Eider." Mr 
 Hunt quotes from a somewhat similar modern ballad, entitled " Treg 
 eagle or Dozmare Poole; an Anciente Cornish Legend," by John Pen 
 warne, in which, however, he states the author has taken considerablf 
 liberties with the tradition. Tregeagle is transformed into a kind o: 
 Faust, and the black hunter, whose " dread voyce they hearde it 
 wynde," is no other than the arch-fiend himself. 
 
 They heard hys curste hell houndea runn yelping behynde, 
 And hys steede loude on the eare ! 
 
 Although, in compHance with his contract with the demon, " the 
 rede bolte of vengeaunce shot forth wyth a glare, and strooke him a 
 corpse to the grounde," 
 
 Stylle as the trayeller pursues hys lone waye 
 
 In horroure at nighte o'er the waste, 
 He hears Syr Tregeagle with shrieks rnshe awaye, 
 He hears the Black Hunter pursuing his preye, 
 
 And shrynkes at hie bugle's dread blaste. 
 
 Here we find Odin (the spectre huntsman), by successive degrees, 
 transformed into Sir Tregeagle, with a black knight attendant. The 
 pair does not inaptly represent the Sir Ashton, of Bamford's poem, 
 and the " Black Lad " of the Ashton Legend. The term " Th' Owd 
 Lad " is a common expression in several parts of Lancashire, and 
 means hteraUy " Old Nick," or the devil.* 
 
 Both knights were baffled in affairs of the heart, and the doom of 
 the one resembles that of the other. Bamford concludes his poem 
 with the following stanzas : — 
 
 But strangest of all, on that woe-wedding night, 
 A black horse was stabled where erst stood the white ; 
 The grooms, when they found him, in terror quick fled, 
 His breath was hot smoke, and his eyes burning red ; 
 He beat down a strong wall of mortar and crag. 
 He tore his oak stall as a dog would a rag, 
 And no one durst put forth a hand near that steed 
 Till a priest had read Ave, and pater, and creed. 
 
 * Mr. Eoby's version of the tradition states that a half-witted lad meet Sir Ealpli 
 Ashton, when driving a cow towards the Knight's residence. The boy, who was 
 unacquainted with his superior, in answer to qustiona, said his father was dead, and 
 he was driving the cow to Sir Kalph's as the heriot due under the circumstance. He 
 further asked if the stranger did not think that, on Sir Kalph's death, -the devil, M' 
 master, would demand his soul as heriot. The question so astonished the Knight that 
 he sent the cow back to the poor vridow. Dr. H-ibbert Ware mentions a similar 
 tradition, but the Knight'a name is not llalph, but Kobert Ashton. 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. igg 
 
 And then he came forth, the strange beautiful thing, 
 "With speed that could lead a wild eagle on wing ; 
 And raven had never spread plume on the air 
 Whose lustrous darkness with his might compare. 
 He bore the young Ashton — none else could him ride— 
 O'er flood and o'er fell, and o'er quarry pit wide ; 
 The housewife, she blest her, and held fast her child, 
 And the men swore both horse and his rider were wild. 
 
 And then when the knight to the hunting field came. 
 
 He rode as he sought rather death than his game. 
 
 He halloo'd through woods where he wandered of yore, 
 
 But the lost Lady Mary he never saw more ! 
 
 And no one durst ride in the track where he led, 
 
 So fearful his leaps, and so madly he sped ; 
 
 And in his wild phrenzy he gallop'd one day 
 
 Down the church steps at Bochdale, and up the same way. 
 
 The practice of giving a local name and local significance to this 
 tradition and its hero has been previously shown to be by no means 
 unusual. At Fontainebleau Odin is transformed into Hugh Capet ; 
 the ancient British king, Hegla, rode at the head of the hunt on the 
 banks of the Wye, in the reign of Henry 11. ; -King Arthur, in 
 Normandy, Scotland, and other places, is elevated to the post of 
 honour ; in Sleswig it is the Duke Abel ; and at Danzig it is Theor- 
 doric the Great. Wordsworth, in the lines quoted at the head of 
 this chapter, designates the personage who hunts with Gabriel's 
 hounds as an "impious lord." 
 
 The mythical connection between unwearied but unwilling toU and 
 arrogance and presumption is referred to by the Eev. G. W. Cox in 
 the foHowing terms : — " The myth of Ixion exhibits the sun as bound 
 to the four spoked wheel which is whirled round everlastingly in the 
 sky.* In that of Sisyphos we see the same being condemned to the 
 daily toil of heaving a stone to the summit of a hiU from which it 
 immediately roUs down. This idea of tasks unwillingly done, or of 
 natural operations as accomphshed by means of punishment, is found 
 also in the myth of Atlas, a name which Kke that of Tantalos denotes 
 endurance and suffering, and so passes into the notion of arrogance 
 and presumption." In a note he adds, — " The Hellenic Atlas is 
 simply the Vedic Skambha." 
 
 * " This wheel reappears in the Gaelic story of the Widow and her Daughters, 
 Campbell, ii. 265, and in Grimm's German tale of the Iron Stove. The treasure house 
 of Ixl6n, which none may enter without being either destroyed like Hesioneus or 
 betrayed by marks of gold or blood, reappears in a vast number of popular stories, and 
 is the foundation of the story of Bluebeard." 
 
196r TRADITIONS, SUPBESTITIONS, 
 
 The story of thfi "spectre huntsman," under various modifications, 
 is found iu diflferent parts of the country. They seem invariably to 
 suggest the common origia to which I have referred, however much 
 it may be obscured by relatively modern additions or poetic em- 
 behshments. 
 
AND FOLK-LOBE. 197 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 felANTS, MYTHICAL AND OTHEEWISE. 
 
 His other parts besides 
 Prone ou the flood, extended long and large. 
 Lay floating many a rood, -in bulk as huge 
 As whom the fables name of monstrous size ; 
 Titanian, or Earth-born, thait warfd on Jove, 
 Briareoa or Typhon, whom the den 
 By ancient Tarsus held, or that sea beast 
 Leviathan, which <xod of all His works 
 Created hugest that swim the ocean stream. 
 
 Milton.. 
 
 Amon&st the traditionary beings which linger yet in the legends of 
 nearly every race or tribe, few are more universal than those relatiog 
 to giants or men of colossal size and superhuman power. Geoffrey 
 of Monmouth gravely informs us that, before the arrival of his 
 legendary Trojan, Brutus, Britain was "called Albion, and was in- 
 habited by none but a few giants." According to the same authority, 
 Ireland was originally peopled by a similar race of monsters. He 
 asserts that the magician Merhn transported the materials for the 
 building of Stonehenge from the Irish mountain. ZUlaraus, to Salis- 
 bury Plain. Merlin assured Uther Pendragon that the stones were 
 "mystical, and of a medical virtue," and that "the giants of old 
 brought them from the furthest coasts of Africa, and placed them in 
 Ireland while they inhabited that country." 
 
 The ancient Britons believed Stonehenge to have been built by 
 giants, hence its name, in their language, Choir-gaur, which signifies 
 the "Giant's Dance." 
 
 The earhest reHable notice of the British Islands is, however, to 
 be found in the work " De Mundo," section three, attributed to 
 Aristotle (b.c. 340). The vwiter says : — " Beyond the PiUars of 
 Hercules is the ocean which flows round the earth. In it are two 
 very large islands, called Britiannic ; these are Albion and lerne." 
 
 The Eamayana, which is the next Sanscrit work in point of age 
 to the Vedas, gives a singular account of the conquest of Ceylon, in 
 which some mythic giants and monsters appear together with monkey 
 
198 TRADITIONS, SITPERSTITIONS, 
 
 warriors. Eama, by the aid of celestial weapons, conq[uered demons. 
 He obtained his wife, Sita, by snapping the bow of her gigantic 
 father. The said bow was conveyed from place to place by an eight- 
 wheeled carriage, drawn by eight hundred men! His wife having 
 been carried off through the sky by the demon monarch of Ceylon, 
 " at whose name heaven's armies flee," Eama entered into an alliance 
 with Sugriva, king of the monkeys, whose general, Hanuman, at 
 the head of his monkey army, aided Eama in the conquest of Ms 
 enemy's territory. The demon king was slain, and Sita recovered. 
 The latter successfully underwent the ordeal of walking through 
 blazing fire, in order to demonstrate her purity. 
 
 The confasion which existed in ancient times respecting wild men, 
 monsters, and some kind of gigantic ape or monkey, has had some 
 little hght thrown upon it by the recent experiences of M. Du ChaiUu 
 in Equatorial Africa. In his " Journey to Ashango-land," he says : — 
 
 "After reconsidering the whole subject, I am compelled also to state 
 that I think it highly probable that gorillas, and not chimpanzees, as 
 I was formerly inclined to think, were the animals seen and captured 
 by the Carthagenians under Hanno, as related in the 'Periplus.' 
 Many circumstances combine in favour of this conclusion. One of 
 the results of my late journey has been to prove that gorUlas are 
 nowhere more common than on the tract of land between the bend 
 of the Fernand Vaz and the seashore ; and, as this land is chiefly of 
 alluvial formation, and the bed of the river constantly shifting, it is 
 extremely probable that there were islands here in the time of 
 Hanno. The southerly part of the land is rather hiUy, and, even 
 if it were not then an island, the Cajrthagenians, in rambhng a short 
 distance from the beach, would see a broad water (the Fernand Vaz) 
 beyond them, and would conclude that the land was an island. . . 
 The passage in the 'Periplus,' which I mentioned in 'Equatorial 
 Africa,' is to the following effect : — ' On the third day after sailing 
 from thence, passing the streams of fire, we came to a bay called tke 
 Horn of the South. In the recess was an island hke the first, 
 having a lake, and in this there was another island full of wild men. 
 But much the greater part of them were women with hairy bodies, 
 whom the interpreters called gorillas. . . . But, pursuing them, 
 we were not able to take the men ; they aU escaped from us by their 
 great agility, being cremnohates (that is to say, climbing precipitous 
 rocks and trees), and defending themselves by throwing stones at us. 
 We took three women, who bit and tore those who caught them, and 
 were unwilling to follow. We were obliged, therefore, to Mil them, 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 199 
 
 and took their skins off, which skins were brought to Carthage, for 
 we did not navigate further, provisions iDecoming scarce.'" Du 
 ChaiUu adds his opinion that " the hairy men and women met with 
 wfire males and females of the Trolodytes gorilla. Even the name 
 ' gorilla, ' given to the animal in the ' Periplus,' is not very greatly 
 different from its native name at the present day, 'ngina' or 'ngOla,' 
 especially in the indistinct way in which it is sometimes pronounced." 
 
 Mr. Eobert Hunt seems to regard the giants of " old Cornwall " as 
 something genericaUy distinct from those depicted in Mr. Dasent's 
 translation of Asbjornsen and Moe's collection of "Norse Tales." 
 He says : — 
 
 " May we venture to believe that the Cornish giant is a true Celt, 
 or may he not belong to an earUer race ? He was fond of home, and 
 we have no record of his ever having passed beyond the vsdlds of Dart- 
 moor. The giants of Lancashire, and Cheshire, and Shropshire have 
 a family Ukeness, and are no doubt closely related ; but if they are 
 cousins to the Cornish giants, they are cousins far removed." 
 
 So far from entertaining a doubt as to the common origin of these 
 mythical monsters, on account of the diversity of local costume 
 in which they are presented, I rather feel disposed to express 
 astonishment at the vast amount of similarity they yet retain, after 
 being subjected for centuries to so many diverse influences. The 
 Titans and the Cyclops, of the polished Greeks, some of whom are 
 said to have covered nine acres of land when laid on the earth ; the 
 Goemagot, who succumbed in the famous wrestling match to the 
 Trojan chief Corineus, on the cliff at Plymouth, and who, according 
 to GeofErey of Monmouth, was twelve cubits high, and tore up huge 
 oak trees as if they were hazel wands ; that prince of pedestrians. 
 Bolster, immortalised by the pencil and burin of George Cruickshank, 
 who took his six miles at a stride, over a Cornish valley, without dis- 
 comfort ; the troUs and giants of the Norse, who, like their Greek 
 cousins, warred with the ascendant gods ; the ogres and huge club- 
 wielding monsters of our nursery days, that in Lancashire, as in other 
 parts of En'gland (Cornwall included), yielded to the prowess of the 
 redoubtable " Jack-the-Giant-KiUer," or "Jack the Tinkeard," pre- 
 sent too many corresponding family features and mental and physical 
 coincidences to permit a serious doubt of their common parentage. 
 The Teutonic giants of the German tales collected by the brothers 
 Grimm, bear unmistakable relationship both to those of Cornwall and 
 the north of England. Indeed, "Gogmagog," the very name of the 
 Shropshire colossus who was located in the ruins of the Eoman city 
 
200 TEADITIONS, STJPEESTITIONS , 
 
 Urioonium, is preserved in that of the Cornish giant wrestler above 
 referred to. There are Gog-Magog hills, too, near Cambridge ; and 
 the Corporation of London yet retains the huge wooden images which 
 represent this mythic monster split into two, and converted into the 
 giant warders of the ancient city — the weU-known Gog and Magog. 
 I have seen at Norwich two huge wooden dolls, which, if they do not 
 actually represent the said Gog and Magog, are evidently intended as 
 portraits of some very near relatives of those ponderous mis-shapen 
 relics of the past. 
 
 Much useless discussion has been devoted to the attempt to show 
 that mankind, or at least some portion thereof, in the " pre-historic 
 time," was of Cyclopean or gigantic stature. AU known evidence of 
 a reliable character, however, condemns this hypothesis as untenable. 
 The power of ignorance and rumour to magnify small facts into mons- 
 trous fictions is aptly illustrated by the story of the famous three 
 black crows. The deeds of a man of uncommon stature, or extraordin- 
 ary strength, would furnish, under certain circumstances, a sufficient 
 modicum of truth to lay the foundation of a most extravagant myth. 
 "We have a modern illustration of the proneness of ignorant or super- 
 stitious persons to hyperbole in matters of this kind, in the statements 
 of early voyagers anent the aborigines of Patagonia. Our early school 
 geographies informed us that this then relatively unknown portion of 
 South America was peopled by a race of giants. Indeed, I think it 
 was even intimated that these colossi were most probably the bom 
 fide descendants of the supposed mythical monsters of the days, of 
 old. Some Spanish officers, in 1785, measured several of these 
 Patagonian giants, and they reported that the greatest monster of 
 the lot only reached seven feet one inch and a quarter ! I can never 
 remember England being without two or three exhibited giants, who 
 would look with contempt upon such pretensions to the honours of 
 the caravan, to say nothing of the "reception-room" of such "gentle- 
 manly freaks of nature" as Chang, the Chinese Anak, Mons. Brice, 
 or Captain Bates, with his colossal wife, nee Miss Swan. But 
 Captain "WaUis informs us that, on his earefuUy measuring several 
 of these Patagonian prodigies, he found that the stature of the 
 greater part of them ranged between five feet ten inches and six feet ! 
 The well-known regiment of grenadiers raised by Frederick WUham 
 the First, of Prussia, whould have completely dwarfed these once 
 celebrated Patagonian Titans. One of them, a Swede, measured eight 
 feet six inches. " O'Brien, the Irish giant," who died in 1783, was 
 eight feet four inches in height. His real name was Byrne. His 
 
AND FOLK-LOBE. 201 
 
 skeleljon is preserved in the museum of the Eoyal College of Surgeons, 
 London. Chang, at nineteen years of age, was said to be seven feet 
 nine and a half iuches in height. He stated that a deceased sister 
 was eight inches taller than himself ! The proneness to exaggeration 
 or hyperbole to which I have referred was shared in even by such men 
 as Juhus Csesar and Tacitus ; or, at the least, they dealt largely in 
 the article at second-hand. They believed and recorded the then 
 vulgar notion that the German " barbarians," our own ancestors, 
 were a race of gigantic men. 
 
 Indeed the behef in giants and other monsters was almost universal 
 amongst the more educated section of the Eoman people. Phny 
 speaks of the existence of men in India whose height exceeded five 
 cubits. He assures his readers, on the most unimpeachable authority, 
 that " they are never known to spit, are not troubled with pain in the 
 head or teeth, or grief of the eyes, and seldom or never complain of 
 any soreness in any other parts of the body, so hardy are they, and of 
 so strong a constitution, through the moderate heat of the sun." He 
 likewise talks of a people who, having no heads, stand on their necks. 
 These monsters were said to carry their eyes in their shoulders. He 
 describes the ChoromandEe as a savage people, without a distinct 
 speech. Their bodies were rough and hairy. They gnashed their 
 teeth and made a hideous noise. Their eyes were red, and their 
 teeth of the canine order. This same India, according to Phny, 
 possessed a great variety of other monstrosities, such as men without 
 noses, men with feet a cubit long, while those of their wives were so 
 small that they were caUed " sparrow-footed." 
 
 That such stories were ordinarily accepted as true, even in Shaks- 
 pere's days, is attested by the fact that the great poet and dramatist 
 places in the mouth of OtheUo, in his eloquent defence before the 
 senate of Venice, when explaining his method of coiu-tship, the 
 following words : — 
 
 Wherein I spoke of most disastrous chances, 
 
 Of moving accidents, by flood and field ; 
 
 Of hair-breadth scapes i'th imminent deadly breach ; 
 
 Of being taken by the insolent foe 
 
 And sold to slavery ; of my redemption thence 
 
 And portance in my travel's history ; 
 
 Wherein of antres vast, and deserts idle, 
 
 Bough quarries, rocks, and hills whose heads touch heaven, 
 
 It was my hint to speak, such was the process ; 
 
 And of the Cannibals that each other eat, 
 
 The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads 
 
 Do grow beneath their shoulders. 
 
202 TEABITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 Again, in the Tempest, after the appearance of Prospero's magic 
 repast, Sebastian says, — 
 
 Now I will believe 
 That there are unicorns ; that in Arabia 
 There is one tree, the Phoenix' throne ; one phcenix 
 At this hour reigning there. 
 
 And Gonzala adds, — 
 
 When we were boys, 
 ■ Who would believe that there were mountaineers 
 Dew-lapp'd like bulls, whose throats had hanging at them 
 Wallets of flesh ? or that there were such men. 
 Whose heads stood in their breasts. 
 
 The Amorites, the most important tribe of the aborigines of 
 Palestine, are described ia the Jewish Eabbinical writiags as of enor- 
 mous stature. Amos indeed, speaks of them, figuratively, as beiag 
 as high as cedars and as strong as oaks. It is stated in Deuteronomy 
 that the iron bed of Og, Kiag of Bashan, was nine cubits long and 
 four in breadth. This bed, however, by some, is beheved to have 
 been really a kind of divan. The Eabbinical writers were not, how- 
 ever, content with even a literal interpretation of these passages. 
 In the Jalkut Shimoni we are told that Moses informed Azrael, the 
 Angel of Death, that the dimensions of Og and Sihon were so great 
 that they escaped drovraing at the great Deluge, the water of which 
 reached no higher than their ancles ! According to the Serachir, Og 
 placed his feet on the fountains of the Great Deep, and, by putting 
 his hand on the windows of Heaven, he stopped the Deluge! On 
 the water being made so hot, however, that the monster's lower 
 extremities became parboiled, he was compelled to desist. He never- 
 theless mounted the ark, and survived the great catastrophe. He 
 was said to consume daily one thousand oxen, one thousand head 
 of game, and one thousand measures of wine. He was a famous 
 hand at uplifting mountains and other objects of similarly trifling 
 magnitude ! He met with a mishap, however, whilst conveying a 
 rock "three miles in extent," with which he proposed to annihilate 
 the IsraeHtish army at one blow! We are further informed that 
 Joshua, who was ten ells high, perceiving that the rock was crumb- 
 Hng to pieces around the giant's shoulders, struck him on the ancle 
 with an axe ten eUs in length, and thus lamed him for life. Sihon 
 was BO powerful that no creature on earth could withstand him. It 
 seems, however, thiat he derived his strength not altogether from his 
 immense physique, but from a demon with which he was connected, 
 inasmuch as the Israelites speedily vanquished both him and hia 
 
AND FOLK-LORE. 203 
 
 gigantic Amorite foUowers, after the said demon had heen effectually 
 confined in chains. The Amorites may have been men of large 
 stature in comparison with the surrounding tribes. This is by no 
 means improbable. Two recent travellers, Mr. Porter and the Eev. 
 Cyril Graham, testify to the Cyclopian character of the remains of 
 some of the ancient cities of Bashan, which they succeeded in dis- 
 covering, after infinite toil and fatigue, the former in 1853 and the 
 latter in 1857. Some of the houses are described as being built of 
 immense masses of squared stones of the neighbouring basalt rock, 
 without mortar or other cement, with an enormous basaltic "flag" 
 for the roof, and a similar one for a door or gateway. Some of the 
 latter Mr. Graham found still in position, and capable of being turned 
 on the stone pivots which supplied the place of hinges. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, in his " Juventus Mundi," contends that the "Cy- 
 clops, a godless race," are the children of Poseidon, and that Poseidon 
 (the Greek Neptune) was the chief god of the Phoenicians. He adds, 
 " Syria was inhabited by Canaanites ; and it has been observed that 
 the names given in Scripture to that race indicate great stature and 
 physical force, which became the basis of a tradition that they were 
 a race of giants. To the Greek mind this would naturally convey 
 that they were the children of Poseidon, as the Phoenician god." 
 
 The ruins at Baalbeo, and the sites of other ancient Phoenician 
 cities, present numerous specimens of colossal masonry, of most 
 extraordinary dimensions. In a wall at Baalbec three large blocks of 
 stone are described as still in situ, at the height of twenty feet from 
 the ground, which measure each twelve feet in width, twelve feet in 
 depth, and sixty feet in length. Mr. John D. Baldwin, in his " Pre- 
 historic Nations," contends that the ancient Phoenicians were of 
 Cushite of Hamite origia. Speaking of their stupendous architectural 
 remains, he says : — 
 
 " The Cushite origia of these cities is so plain that those most 
 influenced by the strange monomania which transforms the Phoe- 
 nicians into Semites now admit that the Cushites were the first 
 civilizers in Phoenicia. These old builders, whose sculpture produced 
 such astonishing effects in coarse rock, resorted to wood and metal 
 for the finish and ornamentation of their work. The stone they used 
 was not Parian marble, therefore they covered it with ornament of 
 another material, and ' what remains of their monuments is not the 
 monument itself, but the gross support that served to bear the whole 
 system of decoration under which the stone was concealed.' " 
 In relatively recent times, India appears to have been regarded as 
 
204 TEADITIONS, STJPEKSTITIONS, 
 
 especially the land of giants, marvels, and enchantments. Honest 
 old Sir John Mandeville, in his quaint, credulous, iimocent way, tells 
 us that there are, in one of the Indian islands, "folks of great stature, 
 as giants, and they be hideous to look upon, and they have but one 
 eye, and that is in the middle of the front, and they eat nothing but 
 raw flesh and raw fish." He further adds that they were clothed in 
 the skins of beasts, they drank milk, preferred man's flesh to aU other 
 food, and they had no houses to live in. In another Indian island. 
 Sir John tells us he was informed that giants dwelt " of great stature- 
 some fifty cubits long ;" but he adds, with commendable caution, "I 
 saw none of these, for I had no lust to go to those partes, because no 
 man cometh neither into that Isle nor into the other, but he is 
 devoured anon. Men say that many times the giants take men into 
 the sea out of their ships and bring them to land, two in one hand 
 and two in another, eating them going, all raw and all quick." 
 
 The extravagance manifested in these giant legends may have 
 arisen from two distinct sources, besides the one to which I have 
 alluded. In the first place giant did not originally mean bulk or 
 extraordinary height. The Hebrew word nephilim, used in the Bible, 
 according to Dr. Derham, is sometimes employed to signify " violent 
 men," and it is translated by a word carrying such a meaning by 
 several ancient writers. He considers that " monsters of rapine and 
 wickedness " are referred to rather than giants in stature. And it is 
 perfectly true that vice and violence are almost always characteristic 
 of these legendary huge-limbed gentry ; whUe the conqueror, who 
 represents the better morals of the age of the myths, is generally of 
 the dimensions of ordinary humanity. 
 
 The discovery of certain fossil bones of colossal size for a time 
 seemed to countenance the behef in the physical existence of this 
 mythic race. Buffon, indeed, describes and figures large bones as the 
 remains of giants, which are now weU known to pertain to a species 
 of extinct fossil elephant. 
 
 In a letter from Dr. Mather to Dr. Woodward, pubhshed in the 
 Eoyal Society's Transactions, reference is made to a" discovery, at 
 Albany, in New England, in 1705, of enormous bones and teeth. 
 The doctor calls them the bones of a giant, and refers to them as 
 corroborative of the statement in Genesis, e. 6, v. 4. The bones 
 in question, however, turned out to belong to the great American 
 fossil pachyderm, the Mastodon gigantevs. There is a tradition amongst 
 the red Indians, that a race of men, relatively large in stature, existed 
 contemporaneously with these animals, and that both were destroyed 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 205 
 
 by the Great Spirit -with thunderbolts. One account says, — that "as 
 a troop of these terrible quadi-upeds were destroying the deer, the 
 bisons, and the other animals created for the use of the Indians, the 
 " Great Man," slew them all with his thunder, except the Big Bull, 
 who, nothing daunted, presented his enormous forehead to the bolts, 
 and shook them off as they fell, till, beiag at last wounded ia the side, 
 he fled towards the great lakes, where he is to this day." 
 
 Dr. Hitchcock, ia one of his geological works, informs us that 
 " FeUx Plater, Professor of Anatomy at Basle, referred the bones of 
 an elephant, found at Lucerne, to a giant at least rdneteen feet high, 
 and, in England, similar bones were regarded as those of the fallen 
 angels !" 
 
 The discovery of remains of a fossil elephant beneath the cliff at 
 Plymouth was not very long ago held by some to furnish demonstra- 
 tive evidence not only of the strictly historical character of Geoffrey 
 of Monmouth's idle romance respecting the landiag of Brute and his 
 Trojans ia England, but of the precise locaUty where the mythic 
 champion wrestler, Ooriaeus, hurled the equally mythic giant, Gog- 
 magog, from the chff iuto the sea ! * 
 
 At Coggeshall, in. Essex, similar remains have been found. One 
 of the earhest notices of these interesting discoveries is by old Norden, 
 who says that at CoggeshaU "ther were to be seene 2 teeth of a 
 monstrous man or gyant of so great magnitude and weight as 100 of 
 anie men's teeth in this age cannot countervayle one of them." 
 
 White Watson aUudes to the discovery, last century, of the skull of 
 a fossil elephant, at Wirksworth, in Derbyshire, which was commonly 
 beheved at the time to be the brain-pan of an enormous giant. 
 
 In the second place, it does not appear a difficult matter to recog- 
 nise in these giant legends, one form in which the memory of the 
 dethronement of the gods of the various Aryan myths has been 
 preserved. In fact, the very feats performed by the giants in Corn- 
 wall, such as the hurhng of huge rocks, and striding across valleys, 
 are, as I have previously shown, attributed in Lancashire and the 
 north of England to the devil. A tradition yet exists that the 
 
 * Since the above was written, I have cut from a newspaper the following astound- 
 ing paragraph :— " A story is told of a large cave just discovered near St. Josephs, 
 Mo., in which was a human skeleton, thirty-eight feet six inches long, with a head 
 six feet in circumference. Where is Bamum?" I suspect, however, that even 
 Bamum would fancy this story is a little "too good to be true." The mendacious 
 Palstaff regretted that " the world was given to lying," and yet his mythical one 
 dour's conflict (by Shrewsbury clock) with the valiant Hotspur, was a rational hoax in 
 ;omparison to the above. 
 
206 TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 Roman highways, which cross each other not far from Fulwood 
 Barracks, near Preston, extended from the North Sea to the South 
 Sea, and from the East Sea to the West Sea, and that the dsTil 
 made them himself in one night. Indeed ia mythical and tradition- 
 ary lore, giants and devils are frequently convertible personages. 
 
 Mr. A. Eussel Wallace, in his " Malay Archipelago," tells us that 
 the present inhabitants of the island of Java, " who now only bmld 
 rude houses of bamboo and thatch," look upon the ruins of the 
 colossal edifices, the remarkable examples of ancient sculpture, and 
 other evidences of the extinct civilization amidst which they dwell, 
 "with ignorant amazement," and regard them as " the undoubted 
 productions of giants or of demons." The mythology of the Southern 
 Aryans presents a similar confusion ; their tribe of demons, the Eak- 
 shasas or Atrins (devourers), Kelly regards as the " earhest originals 
 of the giants and ogres of our nursery tales. They can take any form 
 at will, but their natural one is that of a huge mis-shapen giant 
 ' like a cloud,' with hair and beard of the colour of red lightning 
 They go about open-mouthed, gnashing their monstrous teeth and 
 snuffing after human flesh. Their strength waxes most terrible in 
 twilight, and they know how to increase its effect by all sorts of magic. 
 They carry off their human prey through the air, tear open the hving 
 bodies, and with their faces plunged amongst the entrails they suek 
 up the warm blood as it gushes from the heart. After they have 
 gorged themselves they dance merrily." These Rakshasas, certainly 
 look very like the originals of the monsters described by Sir John 
 Mandeville. 
 
 The story of the Titans, overthrown by Zeus, and cast into Tartarfls, 
 is the Hellenic form of this giant myth, which Milton has imitated 
 in his Paradise Lost, where Satan and his host, formerly angels and 
 archangels, are hurled from heaven into the bottomless pit. Milton's 
 devils are, in fact, veritable giants. Speaking of Satan, the poet 
 
 describes him as 
 
 In bulk as huge 
 As whom the fables name of monstrous size ; 
 Titanian or Earth-bom, that warr'd on Jove, 
 Briareos or Typhon, whom the den 
 By ancient Tarsus held, or that sea beast 
 Leviathan, which God of all His works 
 Created hugest that swim the ocean stream. 
 
 Again, speaking of his ponderous weapon, he says, — 
 
 His spear, to equal which the tallest pine 
 Hewn on Norwegian hills to be the mast 
 Of some great admiral, were but a wand. 
 
AND FOLK-LOKE. 207 
 
 The "mission" of these Pandemonium giants is precisely analagous 
 to that of the rest of the fraternity. Satan says to Beelzebub, — 
 
 Of this be sure, 
 To do ought good never will be our task, 
 But ever to do ill our sole delight, 
 As being the contrary to His high will 
 Whom we resist. I£ then His providence 
 Out of our evil seek to bring forth good, 
 Our labour must be to pervert that end, 
 And out of good still to find means of evil. 
 
 The trolls and giants of the Norse traditions are evidently but 
 other forms of the common myth, notwithstanding the metamorphoses 
 which they, ia some respects, seem to have undergone. Dasent points 
 out some kinder qualities which the giants occasionally exhibit. He 
 says : — " One sympathises, too, with them, and almost pities them as 
 the representatives of a simple primitive race, whose day is past and 
 gone, but who still possessed something of the innocence and virtue 
 of ancient times, together with a stock of old experience, which, 
 however useful it might be as an example to others, was quite useless 
 to help themselves." Yet he regards them as the embodiment of 
 "sheer brute force," which yields to the "slight and hssom foe" 
 representing virtue and reason. The "upstart Mair gods," to whom 
 they arg opposed, are described as endowed with " that diviner wrath 
 which, though burning hot, was still under the control of reason." 
 The troUs, on the contrary, are subject to wild paroxysms of merely 
 brutal animal rage, which discloses their true parentage. The fact 
 that their enemies, the ^sir gods, were afterwards dethroned, and 
 stigmatised, along with the classical deities, as cacod^mons, and 
 became associated with the giants as evil spirits, will perhaps explain 
 why some of the race have been endowed with attributes which do 
 not pertain to the rest. It appears that they knew of then- common 
 destiny ; that they sometimes suspended hostilities, and even inter- 
 married; and looked forward with joint melancholy gloom to that, 
 to them, awful day, "the twilight of the gods," when both should 
 faU before the light of the Christian revelation. 
 
 The Venerable Bede, in describing the martyrdom of St. Alban, 
 expressly states that the magistrate or judge " was standing at the 
 altar, and offering sacrifice to devils," the said devils being the gods 
 of the Eomans. He afterwards informs us that, when the bishops 
 Germanicus and Lupus were on a voyage to Britain, " on a sudden 
 they were obstructed by the malevolence of demons, who were jealous 
 that such men should be sent to bring back the Britons to the faith. 
 
208 , TBADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 They raised storms and darkened the sky with clouds." Their efforts 
 were fruitless, nevertheless, as the piety of the bishops prevailed 
 against them. The Old Nick of the English, UteraUy the devil, is 
 but one form of Odin dethroned. Professor Henry Morley, in his 
 " BngUsh Writers," says, — " Odin, under the name of Nikarr, from a 
 root signifying stroke of violence, which appears in the Greek viKn 
 victory ; in the Latin necare and Anglo-Saxon nacan, to MU ; and in 
 the Enghsh Knock ; having been first cut up into Nickers, has become 
 the Old Nick of more recent times." 
 
 Dasent speaks of the trolls " as more systematically mahgnant than 
 the giants, and with the term were bound up notions of sorcery and 
 unholy power." He justly adds, — 
 
 " But mythology is a woof of many colours, in which the hues are 
 shot and blended, so that the various races of supernatural beings are 
 shaded off and fade away almost imperceptibly into each other ; and 
 thus, even in heathen times, it must have been hard to say exactly 
 where the giant ended and the troU began. But when Christianity 
 came in and heathendom fell ; when the godlike race of the ^sir 
 became evil demons instead of good genial powers, then all the objects 
 of the old popular behef, whether ^sir, giants, or troUs, were mingled 
 together in one superstition, as ' no canny.' They were all trolls, all 
 malignant, and thus it is that, in these tales, the traditions about 
 Odin and his underlings, about the frost giants, and about sorcerers 
 and wizards, are confused and garbled ; and all supernatural agency 
 that plots man's iU is the work of trolls, whether the agent be the arch 
 enemy himself, or giant, or witch, or wizard." 
 
 Mr. Hunt appears to regard some of the giant traditions of Corn- 
 wall as having direct reference to the aboriginal inhabitants of the 
 country. There may be some truth in this, as the existence of such 
 demi-giants as his Tom, who defeated giant Blunderbus by the skilful 
 employment of the wheel and axle of his wagon, would seem to indi-' 
 cate. The wheel and axle, however, is an Aryan sun emblem, and 
 one type of the " chark " or "fire-bringing" instrument, invented, 
 according to the Greeks, by Prometheus. This unquestionably de- 
 monstrates its descent from the ancient solar myths. Conquered men 
 driven to the caves and mountain fastnesses, and addicted to violence 
 and cruelty, would soon be described figuratively by language which 
 UteraUy referred to older superstitions ; just as we now designate 
 sanguinary savages as monsters, fiends, and even " devils incarnate." 
 This, no doubt, offers the most probable interpretation of the Gog- 
 Magog story, as weU as of many others of its class. Dasent says,— 
 
AND FOLK-LOKE. 209 
 
 " Between this outcast nomade race, which wandered from forest 
 ) forest, and from fell to fell, without a fixed place of abode, and the 
 Id natural powers and frost giants, the minds of the race which 
 iored Odin and the ^sir soon engendered a monstrous man-eating 
 ross-breed of supernatural beings, who fled from contact with the 
 itruders as soon as the first great struggle was over, abhorred the 
 ght of day, and looked upon agriculture and tillage as a dangerous 
 inovation which destroyed their hunting fields, and was destined 
 .naUy to root them out from off the face of the earth." 
 ' Mackenzie informs us that the Esquimaux with whom he conversed 
 lad a tradition that the English were giants, with wings, who could 
 ;iLl with a glance of their eye, and swallow at a mouthful an entire 
 leaver. 
 
 If the European emigrants who have conquered North America 
 rom the Bed Indian, and nearly extirpated his race, had been as 
 uperstitious as their forefathers were some two or three thousand 
 'ears ago, we should have had a similar class of mixed myths 
 'estilting from their warhke contact. Indeed, we have, notwith- 
 itanding the influence of Christianity, some faint indications that the 
 luperstitious element in this direction has not yet completely died out. 
 
 Many of these mythic giants are httle more than degraded forms 
 )f the original Aryan personifications of the forces of Nature. Eivers 
 lave been deified, and so have mountains. Atlas was a giant, who 
 leld the earth on his shoulders. The one-eyed Cyclops, with the 
 ieformed Vulcan at their head, forging thunderbolts in a cave at 
 Mount Etna, personify volcanic force. Giants were supposed to be 
 buried ahve at the base of such mountains as Etna, Stromboli, and 
 Vesuvius, and their struggles to free themselves the cause of the 
 sarthquakes and other terrestrial convulsions to which the locaUties 
 were specially subjected. The whirlpool and rock in the Straits of 
 Messina, which cause no special alarm to modern navigators, created 
 3b much terror in the minds of ancient sailors, and made such havoc 
 of their fraU craft, that they became regarded as mahoious demons, 
 and were named Scylla and Charybdis. The noise of the furious 
 waves, dashing upon the rocky cavernous coast, fancy likened to the 
 howlmg of dogs and wolves. Hence the fable that a female monster, 
 surrounded by troops of such animals, prowled a,bout the neighbour- 
 hood, awaiting the opportunity of devouring mariners wrecked on the 
 coast. The celebrated basaltic rock in the north of Ireland was caUed 
 the "Giant's Causeway" simply because the early mhabitants, know- 
 ing nothmg of geology, thought it a result of superhuman or demo- 
 
210 TEADITIONS, SUPEESTITIONS, 
 
 niaoal labour. The equally celebrated cave in Derbyshire, doubtless, 
 received the name of the " Devil's Hole " for a similar reason. Many 
 of Mr. Hunt's Cornish giants hve in the violently upheaved masses 
 of granite which receive the Atlantic tempests in their -wildest fury. 
 Some, indeed, having become more modernised, Uve in castles on the 
 rocky mountains. Others of these myths have become entangled 
 with the Tregeagle traditions, which, I have previously shown, 
 embody much of the Teutonic "wild hunt" or "furious host" 
 superstitions. 
 
 The Eev. George W. Cox, in his "Mythology of the Aryan Nations," 
 contends that the beings spoken of as Cyclops in the lUiad and the 
 Odessey, are personifications of distinct natural forces. The former he 
 says " are manifestly the dazzUng and scorching flashes which plough 
 up the storm-clad heavens." In the latter the phenomenal features 
 are of a very different character. Polyphemos is " the son of Posei- 
 don (Neptune) and the nymph Thoosa ; in other words he is emphati- 
 cally the chUd of the waters, and of the waters only — the huge mists 
 which wrap the earth in a dark cloud." The one-eyed monster, 
 bUnded by Odysseus, is the sun himself, shorn of his beams, glaring 
 ghastly through the blackening mist. He says : — " This terrible 
 being may be seen drawn with wonderftJ. fideUty to the spirit of the 
 old myth in Turner's picture of the overthrow of the troops sent by 
 Cambyses to the shrine of the Lybian Ammon ; and they who see 
 the one-eyed monster glaring dovpn on the devoted army, where the 
 painter was probably utterly unconscious that he was doing more than 
 representing the simoom of the desert, wiU recognise at once the 
 unconscious accuracy with which the modern painter conveys the old 
 Homeric conception of Polyphemos. In this picture, as in the storms 
 of the desert, the sun becomes the one great eye of an enormous 
 monster, who devours every living thing that crosses his path, as 
 Polyphemos devoured the comrades of Odysseus. The blinding of 
 this monster is the natural sequel when his mere brute force is pitted 
 against the craft of his adversary. In his seeming insignificance and 
 his despised estate, in his wayworn mien and his many sorrows, 
 Odysseus takes the place of the Boots or Cinderella of Teutonic folk- 
 lore ; and as the giant is manifestly the enemy of the bright being 
 whose splendours are for the time being hidden beneath a veil, so it 
 is the representative of the sun himself who pierces out his eye; and 
 thus Odysseus, Boots, and Jack the Giant Killer ahke overcome and 
 escape from the enemy, although they may be said to escape with the 
 skin of theif teeth." 
 
AND POLK-LOKE. 211 
 
 Grimm relates a Norwegian legend, vMch clearly indicates that 
 many of these gigantic monsters of the old mythologies were simply 
 impersonations of elemental strife or powerful natural forces. Olaf, 
 the saint and king, being anxious to build a very large church without 
 taxing heavily his people, bargained with a giant or troll, who under- 
 took the labour on condition that he should receive as his reward the 
 sun and the moon, or, in. default, the royal saint himself. "When the 
 immense structure was nearly completed, Olaf wandered about in 
 sore dismay, wondering how the giant's demand could be met. 
 Suddenly he heard a chUd crying ia the inside of a hUl or smaU 
 mountain. On listening attentively, he overheard a giantess say 
 to the child these words: — "Hush! hush! to-morrow. Wind and 
 Weather, your father, will come home and bring with him the sun and 
 the moon, or St. Olaf himself." It appears that the simply calling 
 an evil spirit by his name was sufficient to utterly annihilate him. 
 So Olaf marched up with a bold front to the giant, and said, — " Wind 
 and Weather, you have set the spire awry !" The giant suddenly fell 
 from the top of the edifice, and was smashed to pieces. And further, 
 each piece was found to have become converted into a flint stone ! 
 
 Giants were introduced pretty freely, especially during the earher 
 period of modern Enghsh literature, into allegorical works both in 
 prose and poetry. There is a forcible illustration of this in Stephen 
 Hawe's "Pastime of Pleasure." Prince Graunde Amour, goes forth 
 in search of adventures. False Eeport, a dwarf, deceives him, but 
 he slays a giant with three heads, named Imagination, Falsehood, 
 and Perjury. John Bunyan, too, has his Giant Despair, etc.', and 
 others will readily occur to the reader's mind. In the Arthurian 
 romance of Sir Gawayne, that hero is said to have been endowed 
 with " supernatural increase and decline of strength that corresponded 
 to the movement of the sun." This is not without significance, as a 
 personification of natural force. It corresponds, too, in a remarkable 
 degree, with Mr. Cox's interpretations of some of the elder Greek, 
 myths. 
 
 Lord Bacon, in his " "Wisdom of the Ancients," referring to what 
 is called the allegorical theory, as a method of interpretiag the antient 
 mythology, says, — "I freely and willingly confess that I am inchned 
 to the opinion, that not a few of the fables of the antient poets 
 contained from their very origin a hidden mystery and aUegory, for 
 who can be so obstinately bUnd to evidence, that, when he hears that 
 after the extermination of the giants. Fame was brought forth as a 
 posthumus sister to them, he does not immediately apply the story 
 
212 TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 to these party murmurs and seditious rumours wHcli are wont to 
 spread themselves amongst a people for awhile after the suppression 
 of rebellions ? Or when he hears that the giant Typhon cut away 
 and carried off the sinews of Jupiter, and that they were stolen from 
 him, and restored to Jupiter by Mercury ; how can he but perceive 
 immediately that this is to be referred to powerful rebellions, by 
 which the sinews of kings, their revenue and authority, are cut out ; 
 yet not so but by mildness of address and wisdom of edicts, as it 
 were by stolen means, the miads of subjects within a short time are 
 reconciled, and the power of kings restored to them. Or when lie 
 hears that in that memorable expedition of the gods against the 
 giants, the ass of Silenus became by his braying an instrument of 
 great value in dispersing these giants ; must he not clearly see that 
 this was imagined of those vast projects of rebels, which are mostly 
 dissipated by light rumours and vain consternation ? There is also 
 another not unimportant an indication of the existence of a hidden 
 and involved sense ; namely, that some of the fables are so absurd 
 and senseless in their outward narration, that they seem to show 
 their natm-e at first sight, and cry for exposition by means of a 
 parable. Above aU, one consideration has been of great weight and 
 importance with me — that most of the fables of mythology appear by 
 no means to have been invented by those who relate them, such as 
 Homer, Hesiod, and the rest ; for where it clearly made manifest to 
 us that they proceeded from that age and those authors by whom they 
 are celebrated, and thence transmitted to us, we should surely, I con- 
 jecture, not have been induced to expect anything great or lofty from 
 such an origin as this. But he who considers the subject more 
 attentively wiU discover that they are related to posterity as things 
 already received and beUeved, not then for the first time imagiaed 
 and offered to mankind. And this it is which has iacreased their 
 estimation in my eyes, as being neither discovered by the poets them- 
 selves nor belonging to their age, but a kind of sacred rehcs, the light 
 air of better ages, which, passing through the traditions of earlier nations, 
 have been breathed into the trumpets and pipes of these Grecians." 
 
 The passage of these giant traditions into the romances of modem 
 chivalry may easily be traced. King Arthur himself was a hero of . 
 colossal proportions. He is stiU thought, as we have already seen, 
 like Barbarossa and others, to lie entranced iu the recesses of more 
 than one mountain. He was attended by the magician Merlin, 
 and he and his followers performed superhuman feats. He slew 
 many giants of prodigious size, including Kitho, who had clothed 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 213 
 
 himself in furs made from the beards of vanquished kings, and the 
 Spanish giant, who had borne away Helena, the niece of Hoel, and 
 fled with her to the top of St. Michael's Mount. 
 
 In Pulci's "Morgante Maggiore," Orlando, one of Charlemagne's 
 Paladins, slays the two giants, Passamont and Alabaster, and con- 
 verts, or rather accepts of the miraculous conversion of, a third, 
 Morgante, to Christianity. 
 
 The hero, Beowulf, the Geat, in the oldest Anglo-Saxon poem 
 extant, is beheved by Kemble and others to be a personified warrior 
 form of Gautr, Odin's name in the Edda, as the god of abundance. 
 The giant Grendel, whom he slew, was a mahgnant demon that 
 carried desolation around. He is described as holding "the moors, 
 the fen, and fastnesses." Professor Morley, in his EngUsh summary 
 of the poem, says, — "Forbidden the homes of mankind, the daughters 
 of Cain brought forth in darkness misshapen giants, elves, and orkens, 
 such giants as warred long with God, and he was one of these." 
 This giant is beheved to have had his haunt at Hartlepool, on the 
 coast of Durham. His mother, who was a kind of aquatic demon, 
 was thought to occupy a "bottomless" j)ool, from which the town, 
 in part, takes its name. 
 
 The King Arthur legend, which the Eev. John Whitaker locates at 
 Manchester, notwithstanding its relatively modern Norman-French 
 externals, stiU exhibits a strong flavoxir of the older traditions. Ac- 
 cording to an episode in the "Morte Darthur," this Saxon champion. 
 Sir Tarquin, or Torquin, was giant enough to conquer and capture 
 three knights in one encounter. Indeed, he is sometimes described 
 as the " Giant." There is a tradition yet extant in the neighbour- 
 hoods that the said Tarquin threw the huge stone, which hes by the 
 roadside near Longford Bridge, from his residence at Knot MiU, to 
 its present location, a distance of nearly two miles. The stone really 
 is the pedestal of an ancient cross, similar to the many yet to be seen 
 in various parts of Lancashire and Cheshire. It presents, however, 
 the peculiarity of two square mortise holes for the support of the 
 upright shaft. These, popular tradition says, Tarquin expressly 
 made for the insertion of his thumb and finger when engaged in hurl- 
 ing the ponderous mass as a " quoit " or plaything. It is Ukewise said 
 to have been used, at some distant period, as a " plague-stone," and 
 that the two holes were fiUed with vinegar or some other disinfectant. 
 This story is not improbable. The sacred character of such a reHc 
 would add to the faith of the neighbouring inhabitants in the efficacy 
 of the means adopted to avoid infection. It is said that provisions. 
 
214 TEADITIONS, SUPEESTITIONS, 
 
 etc., were left on or near the stone by the country people, andtliat 
 the towns-folk deposited the understood price in one of the holes con- 
 taining the vinegar, which was heheved to render the coins innocuous 
 as plague conductors. Sir Lionel of Liones, the first of the brothers 
 of Sir Lancelot of the Lake, who succumbed to Tarquin's prowess 
 whilst endeavouring to rescue the three captives referred to, teUs us, 
 " He never beheld so stout a knight, so handsome a man, and so weU 
 accoutered a hero." He Uved in a plain, surrounded by a dense 
 forest. His castle, John "Whitaker says, was formed out of the ruins 
 of the Eoman fortress at Castlefield, Manchester. Sir Ector de Matris, 
 another brother of Sir Lancelot, rambling in search of adventures, 
 and hearing that " within a mile was a eastle, strong and weU 
 ditched, and by it, upon the left hand, a ford ; and that over this 
 grew a fair tree, on the branches of which were hung the shields 
 of the many gaUant knights who had been overcome by the owner of 
 the castle ; and at the stem was a basin of copper, with a Latia 
 inscription, which challenged any knight to strike it, and summon 
 the castellans to a contest. Ector came to the place, saw the shields, 
 recognised many that belonged to his associates at the Bound Table, 
 and particularly noticed his brother's. Fired at the sight, he beat 
 violently on the basin, and then gave his horse drink at the ford. 
 And immediately a knight appeared on horseback behind him, and 
 called him to come out of the water. He turned himself directly. 
 He engaged the knight, was conquered, and taken prisoner by him." 
 The story goes on to relate that — " The brother of both these unfor- 
 tunate heroes. Sir Lancelot, whom we left sleeping before, in the 
 forest adjoining to the castle, had been carried from thence by enchant- 
 ment, and confined for some time." He, however, recovered Ms 
 liberty, and " in the midst of a highway he heard that a knight dwelt 
 very near, who was the most redoubted champion that ever eonsted, and had 
 conquered, and now kept in prison, no less than sixty -four of King , 
 Arthur's knights. He hastened to the place. He came to the ford 
 and tree, and let his horse drink at the ford, and then beat upon the 
 basin with the end of his spear. This he did so long and so heartily, 
 that he drove the bottom out ; and yet no one answered. He then 
 rode along the gates of the castle almost half an hour. At last he 
 descried Sir Torquin coming upon the road vrith a captive knight. 
 He advanced and challenged him. The other gallantly accepted the 
 challenge, defying him and aU his fellowship of the Bound Table. 
 They fought. The encounter lasted no less than four hours. Sir 
 Lancelot at last slew his antagonist, took the keys of his castle, and 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 215 
 
 released all the prisoners within it, who instantly repaired to the 
 armoury there, and furnished themselves completely." 
 
 In a succeeding adventure, a few days afterwards, Sir Lancelot 
 encountered in the forest, at the entrance of a village, what the 
 romance terms a "foul churl," who "dashed at him with a great 
 club, full of iron spikes." Sir Lancelot, in return, drew his sword, 
 and "smote hiin dead upon the earth." He proved to be the porter 
 of a neighbouring castle, inhabited by "two great giants, well 
 armed save their heads, and with two horrible clubs in their hands." 
 Lancelot, nothing daunted, -with his shield, "warded off one giant's 
 stroke, and clove the other with his sword from the head downward 
 to the chest. When the first giant saw that he ran away mad with 
 fear; but Sir Lancelot ran after him, and smote him through the 
 shoulder, and shove him down his back, so that he fell dead." This 
 victory released "a band of sixty ladies and young damsels," some of 
 whom had been imprisoned by the giants during seven years. 
 
 A correspondent of the Irish Times, in a recent paper on "Legends 
 of the Tichborne FamUy," says, — " The preservation of the Bound 
 Table, or what was shown as such by Henry VIII. to Charles of 
 France, is due to them. This table is, I beheve, shown ia what are 
 the remains of the ancient chapel or church of St. Stephen, Win- 
 chester. It is now riddled with OromweU's buUets, having been 
 unsuccessfully defended against him by one of the Tichbornes and 
 Lord Ogle. Whether at such a table ever sat 
 
 The faultless king, 
 That passionate perfection, 
 
 matters httle. Who would not now say with the bard, 
 
 I know the Round Table, my friend of old. 
 
 We know it through its offsprings, 'Elaine,' 'Enid,' 'Guinevere,' 
 and a host of others. The table, with its twenty-four names, is the 
 origin of our romance of romances — la creme de la creme — of legends !" 
 Mr. Timbs, in "Historic Ninepins," says, "the existing repre- 
 sentative Bound Table is of wood, and is preserved at Winchester, 
 and hangs upon the interior eastern wall of the County HaU. The 
 decorations of the table indicate a date not later nor much earlier 
 than the reign of Henry VIII. , and the figure of Arthur has been 
 repainted within the time of Uving memory." King Edward III. 
 founded an order in commemoration of the British warrior, and in 
 1344 entertained the knights at Windsor Castle at a Bound Table 
 ■ two hundred feet in diameter. 
 
216 
 
 TBADITIONS, STJPEESTITIONS, 
 
 Several circular mounds in various parts of England, including 
 a remarkable one near Penrith, are by traditionary wisdom each 
 honoured with the name of "King Arthur's Bound Table." Bishop 
 Percy tells us that the term "round table" is not a speciality of 
 the Kiag Arthur legends, but that it is common to all the ages of 
 chivalry. In support of this he refers to Dugdale's description of a 
 grand tournament given by Eoger de Mortimer, at Kenilworth, in 
 the reign of Edward the First. Dugdale says, — "Then began the 
 Bound Table, so called by reason that the place wherein they 
 practised those fea,ts was environed with a strong waU made in a 
 round form." This is confirmed by an expression common with 
 Matthew Paris, when describing jousts and tournaments. He styles 
 them " Hastiludia MemtB Eottinda." Wace makes mention of the 
 Bound Table of Arthur in his metrical romance, but Geoffrey of 
 Monmouth has no reference to it; either in his pretended "History," 
 or in his "Life of MerUn." Nevertheless in the romance, the 
 "Morte Darthur," it is expressly stated that Merlin made it "in 
 token of the roundness of the world." It is evidently, hke other circu- 
 lar forms, a sun type, or phaUic symbol. EUis, in his " Specimens of 
 the Early English Eomances," on the authority of the metrical one 
 of which Merlin is the hero, says,-^" The Bound Table was intended 
 to assemble the best knights in the world. High birth, great strength, 
 activity and skiU, fearless valour, and firm fideUty to their suzerain 
 were indispensably requisite for an admission into this order. They 
 were bound by oath to assist each other at the hazard of their own 
 lives ; to attempt singly the most perilous adventures ; . to lead, when 
 necessary, a life of monastic sohtude; to fly to arms on the first 
 summons ; and never to retire from battle till they had defeated the 
 enemy, unless when night interfered and separated the combatants." 
 The number of knights belonging to the order appears to have varied 
 at different times ; but one hundred or upwards is most generally 
 referred to. The table was originally constructed by the magician 
 MerUn for Uther Pendragon, Arthur's father. It passed from him 
 to Leodigan, King of CarmaUde, the father of Guenevere, the wife of 
 Arthur. The famous round table formed part of the dower of the 
 queen on her marriage with the popular hero. 
 
 The manner in which traditions sometimes become interwoven 
 with legends of more modern date is aptly illustrated by the fact 
 Tecorded in the " Vetus Ceremoniale " MS., and endorsed by Du 
 Cange, " that the chivalrous order of the Knights of the Bound Table 
 was instituted by King Arthur and the Duke of Lancaster." If Arthur 
 
AND FOLK-LORE. 217 
 
 ever lived at all, he lived in the fifth and sixth centuries. Geoffrey 
 of Monmouth says, after being mortally wounded, "he gave up the 
 crown of Britain to his kinsman, Constantine, the son of Cader, Duke 
 of Cornwall, in the five hundred and forty-second year of our Lord's 
 iacarnation." Eoger de Poictou, the first Earl of Lancaster, flourished 
 ia the twelfth ; and Henry, the first Duke, about a couple of centuries 
 afterwards ! But dates are little regarded by those who traffic in the 
 " mythic lore " of the mysterious " olden time." 
 
 The Eev. G. W. Cox successfully shows that the principal materials 
 of the Arthurian legends are identical with those which underlie the 
 Hindoo, Grecian, Teutonic, and other Aryan myths. He contends 
 that Arthur is another phase of Achilleus, or Sigurd, or Perseus. 
 He says, — " Bound him are other brave knights, and these not less 
 than himself must have their adventures ; and thus Arthur and Bahn 
 answer respectively to Achilleus and Odysseus in the Aehaian hosts. 
 A new element is brought into the story with the Bound Table, which 
 forms part of the dowery of Guinevere." This dowery he regards as 
 the equivalent of, and as fatal to him as the treasures of the Argive 
 Helen were to Menelaus. Eeferring to the " San Grseal," he says, — 
 " This mystic vessel is at once a storehouse of food as inexhaustible 
 as the table of the Ethiopians, and a taUsmanic test as effectual as 
 the goblets of Oberon and Tristram. The good Joseph of Arimathea, 
 who had gathered up in it the drops of blood which fell from the 
 side of Jesus when pierced by the centurion's spear, was nourished 
 by it alone thiough his weary imprisonment of two and forty years ; 
 and when at length, having either been brought' by him to Britain, 
 or preserved in heaven, it was carried by angels to the pure Titurel, 
 and shriaed in a magnificent temple, it supplied to its worshippers 
 the most deUcious food, and preserved them in perpetual youth. As 
 such it differs in no way from the horn of Amaltheia, or any other of 
 the oval vessels which can be traced back to the emblem of the 
 Hindu Sacti." He afterwards adds, — " The myth which corrupted 
 the worshippers of Tammuz in the Jewish temple has suppUed the 
 beautiful picture of unselfish devotion which sheds a marvellous glory 
 on the career of the pure Sir Galahad." 
 
 The Arthur of romance is in fact the creation of writers of a later 
 age, or later ages, than the conquest of Britain by the Angles and 
 Saxons, and not of contemporary bardic historians. The British 
 chieftaiQ, who fought against Ida and his Angles in the North of 
 England, and whose territory is beheved to have extended from the 
 Clyde to the Bibble, with a varying boundary on the east, is named 
 
218 TEADITIONS, SUPEBSTITIONS, 
 
 Urien. He is the great hero of the bard TaUesin. Amongst his 
 other great quahties, the poet enumerates the following : — "Protector 
 of the land, usual with thee is headlong activity and the drinking of 
 ale, and ale for drinking, and fair dwelling and beautiful raiment." 
 Llywarch Hen, or the old, another Keltic poet, born about the year 
 490, incidentally mentions Arthur as chief of the Cymry of the 
 south, or, as Professor Morley puts it, " what Urien was in the 
 north, Arthur was ia the south." Llywarch Hen was present at the 
 bloody battle in which his lord Geraint (one of the knights intro- 
 duced into the succeeding romances), and a whole host of British 
 warriors perished. The said bard Kkewise brought away the head of 
 Urien in his mantle, after his decapitation by the sword of an assassin. 
 
 Amongst the kings and lords who attended Arthur's first feast at 
 "CarHon," in Wales, was, according to Sir Thomas Malory's "Mort 
 Darthur," "King Uriens of Gore, with four hundred knights with 
 him." 
 
 The earliest of the written Arthurian romances are to be found in 
 the History of the Britains ascribed to Nennius, but who he was, or 
 when the work was compiled, is not known. Some ascribe it to the 
 end of the eighth, others to the end of the tenth century. Geoffrey 
 of Monmouth pubhshed his historical romance in the twelfth century. 
 He, however, in his dedicatory epistle to Eobert, Earl of Gloucester, 
 acknowledges, somewhat regretfully, that he "found nothing said" 
 about Arthur and several other of his mythical Kings in either Gildas 
 or Bede. WLUiam of Malmesbury, in the first part of his history, speaks 
 of this semi-mythic warrior in the following terms : " That Arthur, 
 about whom the idle tales of the Bretons (nugas Britonum) craze to 
 this day, one worthy not to have misleading fables dreamed about him, 
 but to be celebrated in true history, since he sustained for a long time 
 his tottering country, and sharpened for war the broken spirits of his 
 people." This was most probably written a few years before, the ap- 
 pearance of Geoffrey's work. About forty years afterwards, his country- 
 man, Gerald, condemned Geoffrey's history as spiirious. He had arri- 
 ved at this conclusion in the following singular manner. One Melerius, 
 a Welshman of Caerleon, had "an extraordinary familiarity with un- 
 clean spirits," and he was enabled, by "their assistance, to fortel future 
 events. . . . He knew when anyone spoke falsely in his presence, 
 for he saw the devil, as it were, leaping and exulting on the tongue 
 of the liar. ... If the evU spirits oppressed him, too much the 
 Gospel of St. John was placed on his bosom, when, Hke birds, they 
 immediately vanished; but when that book was removed, and the 
 
AND FOLK-LORE. 219 
 
 History of the Britons by Geoffry Arthur was substituted in its place, 
 they instantly reappeared in great numbers, and remained a longer 
 time than usual on his body and on the book ! !" WiUiam of New- 
 berry, too, some half a century after the pubhcation of Geoffrey's 
 work, repudiated it in the following emphatic manner : — " A certain 
 writer has come up in our times to wipe out the blots on the Britons, 
 weaving together ridiculous figments about them, and raising them 
 with impudent vanity high above the virtue of the Macedonians and 
 the Eomans. This man is named Geoffrey, and has the by-name of 
 Arturus, because he cloaked with the honest name of History, 
 coloured in Latin phrase, the fables about Arthur, taken from the 
 old tales of the Bretons, with increase of his own. . . . More- 
 over,' in his book, that he calls the History of the Britons, how 
 saucily and how shamelessly he hes almost throughout, no one, 
 unless ignorant of the old histories, when he falls upon that book, 
 can doubt." WUHam concludes with the following emphatic sentence : 
 " Therefore, as in all things we trust Bede, whose wisdom and sin- 
 cerity are beyond doubt, so that fabler with his fables shall be 
 straightway spat out by us all." Geoffrey's work was, as Professor 
 Morley observes, " a natural issue of its time, and is, indeed, the 
 source of one of the purest streams of Enghsh poetry." It was after- 
 wards abridged, translated, versified, and paraphrased. New fancies 
 were added, sometimes from Breton traditions, and sometimes from 
 the fertile braias of more modern poets and writers of romance. 
 The "Mort Artus," "The Quest of the Sangreal," and the 
 "Lancelot of the Lake" stories were written by Archdean "Walter 
 Map, the friend of Gerald de Barri, commonly called Geraldus 
 Cambrensis. Map flourished during the latter portion of the twelfth 
 century. In 1485, Caxton printed a complete collection of the 
 Arthur legends, "after a copy," as he says, "unto me delivered, 
 which copy Sir Thomas Malorye did take out of certain books of 
 French and reduced it into English." It is entitled, "A Book of 
 the noble Hystoryes of King Arthur, and of eerten of his Knyghtes, 
 which book was reduced in to Englysshe by Sir Thomas Malory, 
 Knight." 
 
 Some other giant traditions yet hold their ground iu Lancashire 
 and the neighbourhood. One at Worsley, near Manchester, the seat 
 of the Earl of Ellesmere, appears to be but a dupUcation of the 
 Tarquin legend. Perhaps the immense tunnehng, and the miles of 
 underground canal in connection with the Bridgewater Trust coUieries, 
 and other results of Brindley's engineering skill, may have influenced 
 
220 THADITIONS, SUPEKSTITIONS, 
 
 the relatively modern viiLgar rniad in the transference of the locality 
 of Tarquin's stronghold from Castle-field to Worsley. Or perhaps 
 the second adventure of Sir Lancelot, when he encountered the "foul 
 churl" and his giant masters, may have fastened itseK upon this 
 locality. 
 
 Dorning Easbotham, 1787, visited the township of Turton, in 
 Lancashire, for the purpose of inspecting what he described as the 
 " Hanging or Giant's Stone." He says : — 
 
 "The tradition of the common people is that it was thrown by a 
 certain giant, upon a certain occasion (the nature of which they do 
 not specify), from Winter Hill, on the opposite range, to this place ; 
 and they whimsically fancy that certain little hoUows in the stone 
 are the impression made by the giant's hand at the time he threw 
 it ; but I own I could not find out the resemblance which was noticed 
 to me. It appears, however, to have long excited attention ; for, 
 though it is a hard grey moor-stone, a rude mark of a cross, of about 
 seven inches by six, hath, apparently, at a very distant period of 
 time, been cut upon the top of it. It is elevated upon another piece 
 of rock ; and its greatest length is fourteen feet, its depth in the 
 thickest part five feet eight inches, and its greatest breadth upon the 
 top, which is nearly flat, about nine feet. A thorough-going anti- 
 quarian would caU this a Druidical remain." 
 
 Traditions of this class are very common, especially in districts 
 were huge rocks lay apparently unconnected with the general 
 mountain masses. As I have previously observed, striated boulders, 
 brought from a great distance by what geologists term the " glacial 
 drift," are especially regarded as debris resulting from giant warfare 
 or amusement. Many rocks of this class lying to the south of Pendle 
 HiU, near Great Harwood, I am informed, are stiH looked upon by 
 the vulgar as stones which have been hurled by giants from the 
 surrounding hUls. If we regard them as the "frost giants" of the 
 Scandinavian myths, it is by no means an inapt personification of 
 the gigantic force exhibited by iceberg or glacier action. 
 
 A tradition in the neighbourhood of Stockport yet asserts that on 
 the site of a ruined building, with the remains of a moat, called 
 " Arden or Harden Hall," on the southern bank of the river Tame, 
 an ancient castle once existed. John o'Gaunt is said to have slept 
 in it. The tradition, moreover, further informs us that at some very 
 remote period a huge giant occupied the same fortress, and that he 
 and a colossal rival, on the Bother or Mersey at Stockport, carried 
 on a long desultory warfare by throwing stones and shooting arrows 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 221 
 
 at each, other. The Arden monster, at length becoming disgusted at 
 the tediousness of this ineffectual style of combat, assembled his 
 retainers, attacked the Stockport giant in his stronghold, slew him, 
 and utterly exterminated his followers. 
 
 May not this tradition have some remote connection with the strug- 
 gles between the Christian Northumbrians and the Mercian pagans in 
 the seventh century ? The Mersey formed then the boundary line 
 between the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, as it now separates Lancashire 
 from Cheshire. Or, as John o'Gaunt is mixed up in some way with 
 it, may not an old legend have become confounded with events atten- 
 , dant upon some of the insurrectionary movements of the early 
 Norman barons, or of the Wars of the Eoses ? Stockport was once a 
 strongly fortified position, and is yet considered one of the " keys of 
 the county of Lancaster." 
 
 The giant and the ogre seem to have eventually passed into the 
 tyrant lord, who imprisoned in the dungeons of his strong castle 
 captive knights who succumbed to his prowess, and fair maidens 
 wkom he had abducted. The magical or sorcery element, likewise, 
 is still to be found cUnging to similar modern stories ; and, notwith- 
 standing the more polished manners and elegant costume in which 
 they are presented, they quite as much partake of the character of 
 the nursery tales about champions and ogres of the " Jack the Giant 
 Killer " type, as modern gentlemen do of their savage aboriginal 
 ancestry. Hallam, referring to the plundering barons of the "middle 
 ages," and the legends engrafted upon their ferocious deeds, says : — 
 " Germany appears to have been, upon the whole, the country where 
 downright robbery was most unscrupulously practised by the great. 
 Their castles, erected on almost inaccessible heights among the 
 woods, became the secure receptacles of predatory bands, who spread 
 terror over the country. From these barbarian lords of the dark 
 ages, as from a living model, the romances are said to have drawn 
 their giants and other disloyal enemies of true chivalry." 
 
 The giants, as I have shown, are evidently of an age much earlier 
 than the medissval barons, but they and their doings may have 
 furnished nuclei around which the older myths may be said to have 
 re-crystaUised themselves. HaUam, again, when discussing the 
 question of chivalry, refers to the connection of the relatively modern 
 romances and the older traditions. He says : — 
 
 " The real condition of society, it has sometimes been thought, 
 might suggest stories of knight errantry, which were wrought up 
 into the popular romances of the middle ages. A baron, abusing the 
 
222 TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 advantage of an inaccessible castle ia the fastnesses of the Black 
 Forest or the Alps, to pillage the neighbourhood and confine travellers 
 in his dungeon, though neither a giant nor a Saracen, was a monster 
 not less formidable, and could, perhaps, as little be destroyed without 
 the aid of disinterested bravery. Enight errantry, indeed, as a pro- 
 fession, cannot rationally be conceived to have had any existence, 
 beyond the precints of romance. Yet there seems no improbability 
 in supposing that a knight, journeying through uncivilised regions 
 in his way to the Holy Land, or to the court of a foreign sovereign, 
 might find himself engaged in adventures not very dissimilar to those 
 which are the theme of romance. We cannot indeed expect to find 
 any historical evidence of such incidents." 
 
 The disinterested chivalrous motive of the knight-errants of 
 mediffival romance appears to have intimate relationship to the 
 unselfishness of the heroes of the Greek solar myths, whose toU was 
 always undergone for the benefit of others rather than themselves. 
 The knight-errants' devotion- to their " lady-loves," especially in 
 some of its features, seems allied to the solar heroes' love for the 
 dawn goddesses. 
 
 If "giants" rejoresent so many mythical characteristics it is not 
 unlikely that something of the kind may be found in connection with 
 their corporeal antitheses, the dwarfs. Timbs, in his " Historic 
 Ninepins," has the following pertinent remarks on this subject : — 
 
 " Tom Thumb, it is conjectured, if the truth should be discovered, 
 would be found to be a mythological personage. His adventure 
 bears a near analogy to the rite of adoption into the Brahminical 
 order, a ceremony which stOl exists in India, and to which the Eaja 
 of Tanjore submitted many years ago. In Dubois's work there is an 
 account of a diminutive deity, whose person and character are 
 analogous to those of Tom Thumb. He, too, was not originally a 
 Brahmin, but became one by adoption, like some of the worthies in 
 the Eamayana. Compare the multiphcity of Tom Thumb's meta- 
 morphoses with those of Taliesin, as quoted by Davies, we shall then 
 see that this diminutive personage is a slender but distinct thread of 
 communication between the Brahminical and Druidical superstitions.* 
 
 * At page 34, reference is made to the so-called "Druid temple at Bramham, near 
 Harrowgate, Yorkshire." These huge rocks, locally termed " Bramham Crags," are 
 not situated in either a parish, township, or hamlet of that name. Does the appella- 
 tion Bramha-m throw any additional light on Mr. Timbs's suggestion? If it be 
 merely an accidental coincidence, it is certainly a remarkable one, and deserves 
 further consideration. 
 
AND POLK-LOEB. 223 
 
 Even independent of the analogy between his transformations and 
 those of Tahesin, his station in the court of King Arthur (evidently 
 the mythological Arthur), marks him as a person of the highest 
 fabulous antiquity in thij island ; while the adventure of the cow, 
 to which there is nothing analogous in Celtic mythology, appears to 
 connect him with India." 
 
 In the mythology of the southern Aryans, there are demon dwarfs, 
 as weU as the demon giants previously referred to. The former are 
 termed Panis. Vishnu, at the request of Indra, assumed the form 
 of a dwarf, and obtained the famous boon of three paces from BaU, 
 the conqueror of the gods. According to the Eamayana, then "the 
 thrice -stepping Vishnu assumed a miraculous form, and with three 
 paces took possession of the worlds. For with one step he occupied 
 the whole earth, with a second the eternal atmosphere, and with a 
 third the sky. Having then assigned to the Asura BaU an abode in 
 Patala (the infernal region), he gave the empire of the three worlds 
 to Indra." 
 
224 TKADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 CHAPTEE XI. 
 
 ■WILEEWOLVES AND THE TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS. 
 
 Thou almost makes me waver in my faith, 
 
 To hold opinion with Pythagoras, 
 
 Tkat souls of animals infuse themselves 
 
 Into the trunks of men ; thy currish spirit 
 
 Governed a wolf, who, hanged for human slaughter. 
 
 Even from the gallows did hiB fell soul fleet. 
 
 And whilst thou layest in thy unhallowed dam, 
 
 Infused itself in thee ; for thy desires 
 
 Are woMsh, bloody, starved, and ravenous. 
 
 Skakspere. 
 
 There may still be traced in Europe, and even in England, some 
 remains of the Eastern belief in metempsychosis, or the transmigra- 
 tion of souls. The superstitious reverence for the robin, the ■wren, 
 and other birds of the Aryan lightning class, points to the beUef ihat 
 the bodies of birds and animals were supposed to be sometimes 
 tenanted by the souls of men, and even by the gods themselves ; or 
 at least, that the latter did frequently assume their forms for some 
 special purpose or other. Several nursery stories, such as " Beauty 
 and the Beast," " The White Cat," " Little Bed Biding Hood," etc., 
 yet very popular amongst others than the juvenile section of the 
 population, point in a similar direction. These stories are no mere 
 modern inventions. Mr. Cox regards " Beauty and the Beast " but 
 as one form of the Greek myth " Eros and Psyche." One of the 
 favourite feats of the celebrated British magician, Merhn, was the 
 conversion of men into beasts. Cffisar says : " It is especially the 
 object of the Druids to inculcate this — that souls do not perish, but, 
 after death, pass into other bodies ; and they consider that, by this 
 belief more than anything else, men may be led to cast away the fear 
 of death, and to become courageous. Shakspere has several remark- 
 able references to this superstition, one of which is quoted at the head 
 of this chapter. Another instance occurs in Hamlet, in the scene 
 where Opheha, in her mental aberration, quotes snatches of old 
 ballads. She says, " They say the owl was a baker's daughter. 
 Lord, we know what we are, but we know not what we may be. 
 God be at your table." 
 
AND POLK-LOKE. 225 
 
 Caliban, when remonstrating with the drunken Stephano and 
 Trinculo, on their dallying with the fine clothes at the mouth of 
 the cave of Prospero, instead of taking the magician's life at once, 
 says ;— 
 
 I will have none on't ; we shall lose our time, 
 And all be turned to barnacles, or to apes 
 With foreheads villainous low. 
 
 The elfin sprite Puck, after placing the ass's head on to Bottom, 
 and terrifying Peter Quince's celebrated amateur corps dramatique, 
 exclaims : — 
 
 I'll follow you, I lead you about a round 
 
 Through bog, through bush, through brake, through briar ; 
 
 Sometimes a horse I'U be, sometimes a hound, 
 
 A hog, a headless bear, sometimes a &e ; 
 
 And neigh, and bark, and grunt and roar, and bum. 
 
 Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn. 
 
 Another instance will be found in " The Twelfth Night," where 
 the clown, under the pretence of his being " Sir Topas, the Curate," 
 questions MalvoHo, when confined in a dark room, as a presumed 
 lunatic : — 
 
 McU. — I am no more mad than you are ; make the trial of it in any constant 
 question. 
 
 Clown. — What is the opinion of Pythagoras concerning wUd-fowl? 
 
 Mai.— Tha,t the soul of our grandam might haply inhabit a bird. 
 
 Clxmn. — What thinkest thou of his opinion? 
 
 Mdl. — I think nobly of the soul, and no way approve his opinion. 
 
 Gkmn. —Fare thee weU. Remain thou still in darkness : thou shalt hold the opinion 
 of Pythagoras ere I will allow of thy wits, and fear to kiU a woodcock, lest thou dis- 
 possess the soul of thy grandam. Fare thee well. 
 
 At an early age, "Walter Savage Landor transmitted to Dr. Samuel 
 Parr an essay on the origin of the religion of the Druids. His 
 biographer, John Forster, thus summarises its argument: — "It ap- 
 peared to Landor that Pythagoras, who settled in Italy, and had 
 many followers in the Greek colony of the Phocseans at Marseilles, 
 had engrafted on a barbarous and bloodthirsty rehgion the human 
 doctriae of the metempsychosis ; for that finding it was vain to say, 
 'Do not murder,' as none ever minded that doctrine, he frightened 
 the savages by saying, ' If you are cruel even to beasts and insects,, 
 the cruelty wUl fall upon yom-selves ; you wiU be the same.' He ex- 
 plained also the ' beans ' of the old philosopher in the exact way that 
 Coleridge took credit for afterwards originating ; though in this both 
 moderns had been anticipated by sundry other discoverers, beginning 
 with Plutarch himself." The answer of the " kindly old scholar " is 
 
226 TRADITIONS, SUPEESTITIONS, 
 
 both learned and characteristic. He says, " I thank you for your very 
 acute and masterly reasoning about Pythagoras, but I am no convert 
 to his being in Gaul ; for the doctrine of transmigration is much 
 older, and prevailed among the Celts and Scythians long before 
 Pythagoras. It is believed, even now, in the north of Europe, and 
 would naturally suggest itself to any reflecting barbarian. However, 
 you have done very weU in your hypothesis." 
 
 According to Herodotus, the Egyptians were the first who beheved 
 in the immortaUty of the soul. After the demise of the body the 
 soul was supposed to pass from one of the lower animals to another, 
 until it had been duly located in the forms of aU, terrestrial, aquatic, 
 and winged. After this had been accomphshed, the human form was 
 again assumed. Three thousand years were considered necessary to 
 the effecting of this complete metempsychosis. 
 
 The Pythagorean doctrine appears to have been originally regarded 
 in the Hght of a piirification. One commentator thus summarises, 
 it : — " The souls, previous to their entering into human bodies, 
 floated in the airj from whence they were inhaled by the process of 
 breathing at the moment of bhth. At the moment of death, they 
 descended into the lower world, where they were probably supposed 
 to dwell a certain number of years, after which they again rose into 
 the upper world, and floated in the air, untU they entered into new 
 bodies. When by this process their purification had become com' 
 plete, the souls were raised to higher regions, where they continued 
 to exist, and to enjoy the presence and company of the gods." 
 
 It is a general , opinion that the history of no ancient sage or 
 philosopher has been so much obscured as that of Pythagoras. The 
 fables and miracles interwoven into the biographies of Porphyrius, 
 Diogenes Laertius, and lambhcus, have largely contributed to this 
 result. 
 
 The Indoo doctrine, although differing shghtly in detail, presents 
 sufficient resemblance both to that of Pythagoras and that of the 
 Egyptians to suggest their common origin. All agree in averring 
 that the souls of men, after death, pass into other bodies. A most 
 reUgious Ufe, however, amongst the Indoos, exempted the individual 
 from the penalty of the metempsychosis, the soul, on its departure, 
 being immediately absorbed into the divine essence. Mr. Colebrooke, 
 in the Transactions of the Eoyal Asiatic Society, pubUshed a transla- 
 tion of some extracts from the Brahma-sutrcts, or aphorisms on the 
 Vedenta doctrine by Badarayana, amongst which is the following, 
 bearing on this subject : — 
 
AND FOLK-LOBE. 227 
 
 " The soul passes from one state to another invested with a subtle 
 frame, consisting of elementary partides, the seed or rudiment of a 
 grosser body. Departing from that which it occupied, it ascends to 
 the moon, where, clothed with an aqueous form, it experiences the 
 recompence of its works ; and whence it returns to occupy a new body 
 with resulting influence of its former deeds. But he who has attained 
 the true knowledge of God does not pass through the same stages of 
 retreat, but proceeds directly to reunion with the Supreme Being, 
 with which he is identified, as a river at its confluence with the sea 
 merges therein altogether. His vital faculties and the elements of 
 which his body consists are absorbed completely and absolutely ; both 
 name and form cease ; and he becomes immortal without parts or 
 members." 
 
 In the Welsh romance, " The History of Taliesin," composed not 
 earUer than the thirteenth century, though often attributed to the 
 sixth (the era of the poet) is a curious story of successive transforma- 
 tions. Caridwen, the wife of Tegid Voel, had an ugly son she 
 desired to make learned as a set-off to his deformity. She procured 
 a cauldron, and proceeded to boil a charmed mixture in order to 
 procure " the three blessed drops of the grace of inspiration. " 
 Dtiriag her absence, the three charmed drops flew from the cauldron 
 on to the finger of one of her watchers, and he, sucking his finger, to 
 reheve himself of the pain, imbibed the inspu'ation. In fear, he took 
 to his heels, and she ran after him. What followed is thus given in 
 Professor Morley's summary of the romance iu Enghsh : — 
 
 "And he saw her and changed himself into a hare. But she 
 changed herseK into a greyhound and turned him. And he ran 
 towards a river and became a fish. But she, in form of an otter, 
 chased him until he was fain to become a bird. Then she, as a 
 hawk, followed him, and gave Mm no rest in the sky. Just as he 
 was in fear of death, he saw a heap of winnowed wheat on the floor 
 of a barn, arid dropped among the wheat and turned himself into one 
 of the grains. Then she transformed herself into a high-crested 
 black hen, and scratched among the wheat with her feet, and found 
 him out and swallowed him." 
 
 From this germ the woman, in due course, was dehvered of a son, 
 who, after some romantic adventures, was named Taliesin, " the 
 shining forehead." The three drops had done their work effectually, 
 it seems, for he became a perfect prodigy. 
 
 Nash, in his " Christ's Teares over Jerusalem," pubHshed in 1618, 
 records a curious instance of faith in this transformation superstition 
 
228 TEADITIONS, SUPEBSTITIONS, 
 
 in England. He says, " They talk of an oxe that told the bell at 
 Wolwitch, and howe from an oxe he transformed himself to an old 
 man, and from an old man. to an. infant, and from an infant to a 
 young man." 
 
 In an old work, entitled a " Help to Discourse," published in 1683, 
 is the following passage: — ^"Q. Wherefore hath it anciently been 
 accounted good luck if a wolfe crosse our way, but iU lucke if a hare 
 erosse it ? — K. Our ancestors, in times past, as they were merry 
 conceitfid,. so 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 and trouble ; but iU lucke if a hare erost and escaped them, 
 that they had not taken her. ' ' Lupton, in ' ' Notable Thiags, ' ' published 
 in 1660, refers to Pliny as reportiag "that men in ancient times did 
 fasten upon the gates of their towns the heads of wolves, whereby to 
 put away witchery, sorcery, or enchantment, which many hunters 
 observe or do to this day, but to what use they know not." Werenfels 
 informs us that when a " 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. Brand, referring to the supersti- 
 tion; which asserts that if a wolf first sees a man, the latter is suddenly 
 steuck dumb, says, " To the relators of this.Icahgar wishes as many 
 blows as at different times, he had seen^ wolves without losing his 
 voice. This is well answered." He further notices the behef " tAat 
 vien are sometimes transformed into %volves, and again from wolves into 
 men," and adds, "Of this vulgar error, which is as old as Phny's 
 time, that author exposes the falsehoods." 
 
 Many other authorities refer' to this superstition'. Giraldus Cam- 
 brensis relates a story of a priest being addressed one evening, 
 on his way from Ulster to Meath, by a wolf, who informed him 
 that he belonged to a certain sept or clan in Ulster, " two of whom, 
 male and female, were every seven years compelled, through a 
 curse laid on them, by St. NataUs, to depart both from thehr 
 natural form and from their native soU." They therefore took 
 the form of wolves. If aUve at the end of seven years, two 
 others of the sept "took their places under like conditions, and 
 the first pair returned to their pristine nature and country." Cam- 
 den expresses his disbeUef of a story he heard in Tipperary, that 
 there were men who every year were turned into wolves. Gervase, 
 of TUbury, speaks of were-wolves being common in England in 
 his time (the thirteenth century) ; and reference is made to a 
 woH-woman in the Mabinogion, or fairy tales of the Welsh, of 
 
AND POLK-LORE. '229 
 
 about the same period. King John, of England, was suspected of 
 heiag a were-wolf. It is asserted in an old chronicle that, in some 
 such capacity, he uttered such frightful noises, after he was laid in 
 his grave, in Worcester Cathedral, that the pious monks dug up his 
 body, and removed it from the consecrated ground.. One of the 
 mediaeval metrical romances, by an unknown EngUsh author, refers 
 to this superstition. It is a translation of the " Boman de Quillaume 
 de Paleme," and is entitled the " Eomanee of WiUiam the Werwolf." 
 
 Herodotus says the Greeks and Scythians settled on the shores of 
 the Black Sea regarded the Neurians as wizards, and asserted that 
 each individual was for a few days in the year transformed into a 
 wolf. He speaks of a race of men who slept for six months at a time, • 
 and of others who could change themselves at will into the shape of 
 wolves, and as easily resume their original form when desirable. 
 He talks likewise of the Troglodites, or cave dwellers, a race of men, 
 who having no human language, screeched Uke bats, and fed upon 
 reptiles. They were Ukewise remarkable for their swiftness of foot. 
 
 Some of the Greek traditions represent the transformation of a 
 man iato a were-wolf as a punishment for having sacrificed a human 
 victim unto a god. The offender was taken to the edge of a lake ; 
 he swam over, and, on reaching the other side, was changed into a 
 woK. In this condition he remained, roaming abroad with others 
 of the species, for a period of nine years. If during this time he had 
 abstained from eating human flesh, he resumed his original from, 
 which, however, had not been exempt from the influence of increased 
 age. There is remarkable coincidence in some respects between this 
 myth and that related by Geraldus Cambrensis previously referred to, 
 the significance of which Kelly justly regards as " worthy of note." 
 
 The Eomans believed in the existence of the man- wolf, but attri- 
 buted the phenomenon to magical arts. Petitonius has recorded an 
 incident which presents this superstition in a very graphic form. 
 One Niceros, at a banquet given by Trimalohio, relates the following 
 story : — 
 
 " It happened that my master was gone to Capua to dispose of 
 some second-hand goods, i took the opportunity, and persuaded our 
 guest to walk with me to our fifth milestone. He was a valiant 
 soldier, and a sort of grim water-drinking Pluto. About cock-crow, 
 when the moon was shining as bright as mid- day, we came amongst 
 ■the monuments. My friend began addressing himself to the stars, 
 but I was rather in a mood to sing or count them ; and when I 
 turned to look at him, lo! he had already stripped himself and laid 
 
230 TKAMTIONS, SUPEESTITIONS, 
 
 down ids clothes near him. My heart was in my nostrils, and I stood 
 like a dead man ; but he made a mark round his clothes, and on a 
 sudden became a wolf. Do not think I jest ; I would not He for any 
 man's estate. But to return to what I was saying. When he became 
 a wolf he began howling, and fled into the woods. At first I hardly 
 knew where I was, and afterwards, when I went to take up his clothes, 
 they were turned into stone. Who then died with fear but I ? Yet 
 I drew my sword, and went cutting the air right and left, till I 
 reached the viUa of my sweetheart. I entered the court-yard. I 
 almost breathed my last, the sweat ran down my neck, my eyes were 
 dim, and I thought I should never recover myself. My Melissa 
 wondered why I was out so late, and said to me, ' Had you come 
 sooner you might at least have helped us, for a wolf has entered the 
 farm and worried aU our cattle ; but he had not the best of the joke, 
 for all he escaped, for our slave ran a lance through his neck.' When 
 I heard this I could not doubt how it was, and, as it was clear day- 
 light, I ran home as fast as a robbed innkeeper. When I came to 
 the spot where the clothes had been turned into stone, I could find 
 nothing except blood. But when I got home I found jny friend, the 
 soldier, in bed, bleeding at the neck like an ox, and a doctor dressiag 
 his wound. I then knew that he was a turnskin ; nor would I ever 
 have broke bread with him again, no not if you had MUed me." 
 
 In Germany many strange stories are told respecting these trans- 
 formations. The result of wounding a were-wolf generally appears 
 to be that the human shape is speedily resumed, but the iajury 
 inflicted remains notwithstanding. One of these stories is to the 
 foUowing effect : — A farmer and his wife were haymaking together, 
 when suddenly the wife requested her husband to throw his hat at 
 any wild beast that might come in his way. She then immediately 
 disappeared. Soon afterwards a wolf was perceived to be swimming 
 across a neighbouring river in the direction of the party of haymakers. 
 The farmer, remembering his wife's injunction, threw his hat at the 
 wolf, which the ravenous beast seized and tore to pieces. One of the 
 men, however, stabbed the wolf with a pitchfork. This dissolved the 
 spell ; the woK-form disappeared, but the dead body of the farmer's 
 wife lay on the ground before the eyes of the astonished spectators ! 
 
 These transformations are beUeved, in some instances, to be 
 effected by a mere change of the external covering, Uke that of the 
 cloud-maidens referred to in chapter I. of the present work. These 
 mythical ladies were said to possess " shirts of swan plumage," by 
 means of which they "transformed themselves into water foul, 
 
AHD FOLK-LOKE. 231 
 
 especially swans." The " frost-giants," Thiassi and Suttungr, had 
 each an "eagle-shirt," in which disguise they warred against the 
 gods. The possession of these feathery garments was essential to 
 their retention of the power of transformation. A variety of myths, 
 fairy stories, etc., have sprung from the supposed capture and 
 marriage of these maidens by men who have discovered them bath- 
 ing, and stealthily appropriated their magic raiment. These swan- 
 shirts, in the more modern myths, become the supernatural garments 
 of the fairies, mermaids, etc., married to mortals, and without which 
 they find it impossible to leave their husbands and resume their elfic 
 nature. 
 
 On the west coast of Ireland the fishermen are loth to kiU the seals, 
 which once abounded in some locaUties, owing to a popular supersti- 
 tion that they enshrined " tlie souls of thim that were drowned at the 
 flood." They were supposed to possess the power of casting aside 
 their external skins, and disporting themselves in human form on the 
 sea-shore. If a mortal contrived to become possessed of one of 
 these outer coverings belonging to a female, he might claim her and 
 keep her as his bride. This seems to point to the origin of the stories 
 about " mermaids " and some similar sea monsters. 
 
 Dr. Hertz gives many examples of the prevalence of the were-wolf 
 superstition ia Germany. In some mstances the bear occupies the 
 place of the wolf. A girdle made of wolf or bear skin is supposed yet 
 to possess the power of transforming a man into one or other of these 
 animals. The skin of a man who has been hanged is considered 
 equally potent. The girdle must have a buckle which possesses 
 seven tags or tongues, and it is powerless when not affixed to the 
 body. One were-wolf could carry a cow in his mouth. He devoured 
 human beings, too, as well as cattle. He had, however, taught his 
 wife how to treat him when in his lupine form. " She used to un- 
 buckle his belt, and he became a rational man again." The woK 
 and the murderer were frequently hung on the same gaUows, hence 
 the old Saxon name for this structure, varagtreo, or woH-tree. The 
 mere certain recognition of a were-wolf is generally sufficient -to 
 dissolve the speU. In cases of doubt, steel or iron is thrown over 
 the suspected animal. If this be done to a genuine were-wolf, " the 
 skin splits crosswise on the forehead, and the naked man comes out 
 through the opening." Eelly adds, "It frequently happens that the 
 were-wolf is frozen, that is to say, invulnerable by ordinary weapons 
 or missiles. In that case he must be shot with elder-pith, or with 
 balls made of inherited sUver." The were-wolf of the eastern portion 
 
232 TRADITIONS, SUPEESTITIONS, 
 
 of the continent of Europe appears to be confounded with the vam- 
 pire superstition, as in the Sclavonic tongues the same word is used 
 to designate both these mythic monsters. 
 
 Baron Langon, La his " Evenings with Prince Cambaceres," relates 
 a story of a vampire, or blood-sucker, named Eafin, on the authority 
 of the celebrated Eouohe. The astute chief of the poHce, if not 
 absolutely imposed upon, was, certainly, much perplexed with the 
 case. He says, — "I gave orders to have Eafin arrested, and he was 
 placed in confinement. I paid bim a visit. He was strongly bound, 
 and in spite of his cries, suppUoations, and resistance, I resolutely 
 plunged into his flesh a surgical instrument, which, without produc- 
 ing any injury, would cause an effusion of blood. When he perceived 
 my object he became furiously irritated, and made inconceivable 
 efforts to attack me. He threatened, me with his future revenge; 
 but, heedless of his violence, I thrust the instrument into him. No 
 sooner did the first drop of blood appeax than the six old wounds 
 opened afresh. All efforts to stop the bleeding proved fruitless — and 
 Eafin died." Some of the witnesses regarded the affair as a pohce 
 trick, Fouche says, — " As to myself, I have sifted the matter deeply, 
 and I am perplexed to the last degree. I cannot admit the reahty of 
 vampires ; yet it is certain that I witnessed the facts I have stated." 
 Two women were said to have pined away and died, owing to their 
 intercourse with this man. 
 
 As recently as the year 1718, a solemn judicial enquiry took place 
 at Caithness respecting the sufferings of one WOham Montgomery, 
 who was reduced to a most miserable condition owing to the "gambols 
 of a legion of cats." In Eirkpatrick Sharpe's introduction to Law's 
 " Memorials," we read that the said Montgomery's man servant 
 averred that the fehne disturbers of his master's peace "spoke among 
 themselves." The hypochondriac, at length, driven to desperation, 
 attacked the enemy with "broadsword and axe," and utterly routed 
 the catterwaUing conclave, killing some and wounding others. The 
 said oats turned out to be veritable witches, as was proved by the 
 fact that two neighbouring " old women died immediately, and a 
 third lost a leg, which, having been broken by a stroke of the hatchet,, 
 withered and dropped off." 
 
 It was customary, as recently as the sixteenth century, to punish 
 alleged were-wolves as remorselessly as supposed witches. Many 
 suffered at the stake. KeUy says, on the authority of Boquet (Dis- 
 cours des Sorciers), that "a gentleman, looking out one evening from 
 a window of his chateau, saw a hunter whom he knew, and asked 
 
AND FOLK-LOEB. 233 
 
 the man to bring Mm, something on his return from the chase. The 
 hunter was attacked in the plain by a great wolf, and, after a sharp 
 conflict, cut off one of the fore paws with his hunting knife. On his 
 way back he called at the chateau, and putting his hand into his 
 game bag, to show the gentleman the wolf's paw, he drew out a 
 human hand with a gold ring, which the gentleman at once recog- 
 . nised as his wife's. He looked for her, and found her in the kitchen 
 with one arm concealed under her apron, and, on uncovering it, saw 
 that the hand was gone. The lady was brought to trial, confessed (!), 
 and was burnt at Eyon. Boquet says he had this story from a trust- 
 worthy person who had been on the spot a fortnight after the event." 
 
 In Denmark, Iceland, Germany, and the North of England, there 
 exist many similar stories, but they are more or less connected with 
 witchcraft, with which, indeed, they seem to have much in common. 
 The chief feature is the transformation of a man into a horse, by a 
 woman throwing a magic halter over his head whUe he is lying in 
 bed. The woman, who is a disguised witch, then mounts the horse 
 and gallops to the trystiag place, where her compeers meet to revel. 
 If the man-horse can contrive to slip the magic bridle from his head, 
 and throw it over that of the woman, she is suddenly transformed 
 into a mare, and in turn is ridden almost to death by her previous 
 victim. One witch-mare, at Yarrowfoot, a few years ago, according 
 to Mr. Henderson, was found afterwards to be shod in the usual 
 manner, and sold to her own husband, who, on removing the bridle, 
 saw standing before him his wife, with a horse shoe nailed to each 
 hand and foot ! GlanvU, in Ms "Saducismus Triumphatus," relates 
 an instance in which a "great army of witches" was charged with 
 performing this horse transformation feat on a large scale, at Blocula, 
 in Sweden, in 1669. 
 
 There is a German story of a joiner at BiiU, who, being troubled 
 with the nightmare, saw the elf enter his room, tMough a hole, in 
 the shape of a cat. He caught the animal and nailed one of its 
 paws to the floor. In the morning he was surprised to find his 
 feline prisoner transformed into a handsome young woman perfectly 
 naked. He married her, however; but, after they had had three 
 children, she disappeared suddenly, in the form of a cat, tMough 
 the hole by wMch she had entered, her husband having inadvertently 
 removed the material with which he had blocked it up. 
 
 In East Prussia, they have a story of a girl, who, without her 
 knowledge, was every evening transformed into a cat, and awoke 
 much fatigued. One night her lover caught a cat, which had regu- 
 
234 TRADITIONS, SDPEESTITIONS, 
 
 larly tormented and scratched Mm at niglit, and secured it in a' sack. 
 The next morning he found the oat transformed into his naked sweet- 
 heart. The story adds she was cured by the parson of the parish. 
 
 In 1633, a "second batch" of Lancashire witches was tried, foimd 
 guilty, and sentenced to death, at Lancaster ; but after more elabo- 
 rate iavestigation into the circumstances, first at Chester, under the 
 presidency of the bishop, and afterwards at London, by the physicians 
 and surgeons to the king, and again by the king himself, Charles I., 
 fully convinced of their innocence, extended to them his royal pardon. 
 The deposition of the principal witness, "Edward Robinson, sonne 
 of Edmond Robinson, of Pendle Forest, mason, taken at Padihain, 
 before Richard Shuttleworth 9,nd John Starkey, Esquires, two of 
 his Majestie's Justices of Peace," affords curious evidence of the 
 strength of this superstition Uttle more than two centuries ago. The 
 deponent sayeth that at the time he was occupied in "gettinge BuUas 
 liee sawe two grey hounds, vizt., a blacke and a browne one, come 
 runninge over the next field towards him. He verilie thioketh the 
 one to be Mr. Butters and the other to be Mr. Robinsons, the said Mr. 
 Butter and Mr. Robinson then havinge such Uke. And the said 
 Grey Hounds came and fawned on him, they having about their 
 necks either of them a ColLer, to either of which CoUers was tyed a 
 strynge, which Collers, as this Informer affirmeth, did shine hke 
 gold, and he thinkinge that some either of Mr. Butters or Mr. 
 Robinsons famihe should have followed them, but seeinge noe bodie 
 to followe them, hee tooke the said Grey-hounds thinkinge to hunte 
 with them, and presentUe a hare did rise verie neere before him, at 
 the sight whereof he cried ' Loo, loo, loo,' but the doggs would not 
 runn, wherevpon hee beinge verie angrie. tooke them, and with the 
 string that were at their Collers tyed either of them to a httle bush 
 at the next hedge, and with a rodd that he had in his hand hee 
 beate them, and instead of the blacke grey-hound one Dickensons 
 wife stud vpp, a-neighbour whom this Informer knoweth, and instead 
 of the browne Greyhound a little Boy, whom this Informer knoweth 
 not, at which sight this Informer being afrayd, endeavoured to runn 
 awaie, but beinge stayed by the woeman, vizt. Dickensons wife, shee 
 put her hand into her pocket, and pulled forth a piece of silver much 
 like to a fayre shillinge, and offered to give it him to hold his tongue, 
 and not to tell, which hee refused, sayinge, 'nay, thou art a witch,' 
 wherevpon shee put her hand into her pocket againe, and pulled out 
 a thing like unto a bridle that gingled, which shee put on the httle 
 Boyes head which stood vpp in the browne greyhounds stead, where- 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 235 
 
 vpoB the said Boye stood vpp a white horse. Then ymmediatlie 
 the said Dickensons wife tooke this Informer before her ypon the 
 said horse." As in the case previously referred to, the party galloped 
 off to a feast of witches. It is true Dr. Webster, who carefully 
 examined the witness, informs us, in his "Display of Witchcraft," 
 that "the boy Eobiuson, in more mature years, acknowledged that 
 he had been instructed and suborned to make these accusations by 
 his father and others, and that, of course, the whole was a fraud." 
 Nevertheless, the beUef in the probability of such transformations 
 must have been very general and deeply rooted, otherwise such im- 
 postors could not have practised their villainy vnth the impunity they 
 did. Witches, we have previously seen, were often transformed into 
 •hares. Margery Grant, the recently deceased Scotch witch, referred 
 to in a previous chapter, "beheved herseK to be transmutable, and 
 avers that she was^ at times, actually changed by evil-disposed per- 
 sons into a pony or a hare, and rode for great distances, or hunted 
 by dogs, as the case might be." 
 
 Mr. A. Eussel Wallace, in his "Malay Archipelago," says that 
 it is yet /'universally beheved in Lombock that some men have the 
 power, to turn themselves into crocodiles, which they do for the sake 
 of devouring their enemies, and many strange tales are told of such 
 transformations. He adds that the islands of Bah and Lombock, 
 situated to the east of Java, "are the only islands in the whole 
 Archipelago in which the Hindoo reUgion still maintains itself — and 
 they form the extreme point of the two great zoological divisions of 
 the Eastern hemisphere." 
 
 The owl and the eagle, both Ughtning birds of the Aryan mytho- 
 logy, received divine honours from the Greeks. The eagle was Jove's 
 emblem, the owl that of Pallas, or Athene. The latter was some- 
 times called Glaucopis, or " owl-eyed," significant of the super- 
 natural hght which was presumed to radiate from her hghtning orbs. 
 The owl is not the only bird that is beheved to have been trans- 
 formed into a human being skUled in the art of baking bread. 
 The cuckoo and the woodpecker have been subjected to a similar 
 metamorphosis. The legend of the owl and the baker's daughter 
 appears to be stUl popular in Gloucestershire. The story is generally 
 told with a view to prevent children and others from indulging in 
 harsh conduct towards the poor. Douce relates the legend in the 
 following terms: — 
 
 "Our Saviour went into a baker's shop where they were baking, 
 and asked for some bread to eat : the mistress of the shop immedi- 
 
236 lEADITIONS, SUPEESTITIONS, 
 
 ately put a piece of dough into the oven to bake for him ; but was 
 reprimanded by her daughter, who, insisting that the piece of dougli 
 was too large, reduced it to a very small size ; the dough, however, 
 immediately began to swell, and presently became a most enormous 
 size, whereupon the baker's daughter cried out, 'Heugh, heugh, 
 heugh !' which owl-Hke noise probably induced our Saviour to trans- 
 form her into that bird for her wickedness." 
 
 Dasent, in his "Popular Tales from the Norse," gives a very 
 minute version of this tradition, in which the purely heathen super- 
 stition is related with the nomenclature modernised. The names, 
 however, are its only Christian attributes. It markedly exhibits the 
 tendency of the vulgar to confound one mystery or tradition with 
 another, to which I have previously referred. Dasent gives the story 
 as follows : — 
 
 "In those days, when our Lord and St. Peter wandered upon 
 earth, they came once to an old wife's house, who sat baking. Her 
 name was Gertrude, and she had a red mutch on her head. They 
 had walked a long way, and were both hungry, and our Lord begged 
 hard for a bannock to stay their hunger. Yes, they should have it. 
 So she took a Httle tiny piece of dough and rolled it out, but as she 
 roUed it, it grew untU it covered the whole griddle. 
 
 "Nay, that was too big; they couldn't havathat. So she took a 
 tinier bit still ; but when that was rolled out it covered the whole 
 griddle just the same, and that bannock was too big, she said ; they 
 couldn't have that either. 
 
 " The third time she took a still tinier bit — so tiny that you could 
 scarce see it ; but it was the same story over again — the bannock was 
 too big. 
 
 " ' Well,' said Gertrude, ' I can't give you anything ; you must just 
 go without, for ah these bannocks are too big.' 
 
 " Then our Lord waxeth wroth, and said. ' Since you loved me so 
 Uttle as to grudge me a morsel of food, you shall have this punish- 
 ment — you shall become a bird and seek your food between bark and 
 bole, and never get a drop to drink save when it rains.' 
 
 "He had scarce said the last word before she was turned into 
 a great black woodpecker, or Gertrude's bird, and iiew from her 
 kneading trough right up the chimney ; and till this very day you 
 may see her flying about, with her red mutch on her head, and her 
 body aU black, because of the soot in the chimney ; and so she hacks 
 and taps away at the trees for her food, and whistles when rain is 
 coming, for she is ever athirst, and then she looks for a drop to cool 
 her tongue." 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 237 
 
 Brand informs us that "the woodpecker's cry denotes wet." 
 
 Grimm tells a German version of the story, in which the hard- 
 hearted baker is a man, but whose wife and six daughters were made 
 of more charitable materials. They privately bestowed what he had 
 pubhcly refused, and were rewarded by being converted into the 
 "seven stars" (the Pleiades), while the baker was transformed into a 
 cuckoo. The cuckoo is believed to continue his spring cry only so 
 long as the "seven stars" are visible in the heavens. Another version 
 says the cuckoo was a baker's or miller's man. He cheated the poor, 
 and "when the dough swelled by God's blessing in the oven, he drew 
 it out and nipped off a portion of it, crying each time "gukuk," 
 which signifies " look ! look !" For this crime he was converted into 
 a cuckoo, and condemned to the perpetual repetition of the monoto- 
 nous cry. 
 
 A Lancashire superstition exists referred to in Oha]pter IX., in 
 which the plover is identified as the transmuted soul of a Jew. At 
 least, when seven of them are seen together, they are called the 
 "seven whistlers," and their musical chorus bodes ill or harm to 
 those who hear it. The tradition represents them as the " souls of 
 those Jews who assisted at the crucifixion, and in consequence were 
 doomed to float in the air for ever." 
 
 jVordsworth, in his beautiful poem, "The White Doe of Eylstone," 
 has preserved the memory of a Yorkshire tradition which asserts that 
 the soul of the lady founder of Bolton Abbey revisited the ruias of 
 the venerable pUe, in the form of a spotless white doe. 
 
 When Lady Aaliza mourned 
 
 Her son, and felt in her despair. 
 
 The pang of unavailing prayer ; 
 
 Her son in Wharfs abysses drowned, 
 
 The noble boy of Egremound, 
 
 'From which affliction, when God's grace 
 
 At length had in her heart found place, 
 
 A pious structure fair to see, 
 
 Rose up this stately Priory ! 
 
 The lady's work, —but now laid low ; 
 
 To the grief of her soul that doth come and go. 
 
 In the beautiful form of this innocent doe : 
 
 Which, though seemingly doomed in its breast to sustain 
 
 A softened remembrance of sorrow and pain, 
 
 Is spotless, and holy, and gentle, and bright, — 
 
 And gUdes o'er the earth like an angel of light. 
 
 The Manx wren, the robin, and the stork are supposed to be in- 
 habited by the souls of human beings. MacTaggart, speaking of the 
 wren, says, — " Manx herring fishers dare not go to sea without one 
 
238 TEADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 of these birds taken dead -vfith them, for fear of disasters and storms. 
 Their tradition is of a sea spirit that hunted the herring traek, 
 attended always by storms, and at last it assumed the figure of a 
 wren and flew away. So they think that when they have a dead 
 wren with them aU is snug. The poor bird had a sad hfe of it in 
 that singular island. When one is seen at any time, scores of Manx- 
 men start and hunt it down." The stork in Prussia, on the contrary, 
 is protected from injury, owing to the belief that "he is elsewhere a 
 man." Gervase of Tilbury informs us that in England it was re- 
 garded as both bird and man. It was a very wide-spread behef that 
 the human soul left its earthly tabernacle in the form of a bird. The 
 "Milky- way" is, in Finland and Lithuania, the "Birds' way," or the 
 " Way of Souls." Grimm teUs us that every member of a certain 
 PoUsh noble family are turned into eagles at death. He adds the 
 eldest daughter of the Pileck line, if they die immarried, are trans- 
 formed into doves, but, if married, into owls. KeUy relates an anecdote 
 of a gentleman in Soho, London, who beUeved that the departing soul 
 of his brother-in-law, in the form of a bird, tapped at his window at 
 the time of his death. The mother and sister, in Grimm's story of " The 
 White and the Black Bride," push the true bride into the stream. 
 At the same or the following moment a snow-white swan is discovered 
 swimming gracefully down the river. , 
 
 M. Paul B. Du Chaillu, in his recent work, " A Journey to Ash- 
 ango-Land ; and further penetration into Equatorial Africa," gives 
 two curious illustrations of the existence of a beUef in men being 
 sometimes transformed into beasts. He says, — 
 
 " I cannot avoid relating in this place a very curious instance of 
 a strange and horrid form of monomania which is sometimes dis- 
 played by these primitive negroes. It was related to me so circum- 
 stantially by Akondogo, and so well confirmed by others, that I 
 cannot help fully beUeving in aU the principal facts of the case. Poor 
 Akondogo said that he had had plenty of trouble in his day , that a 
 leopard had killed two of his men, and that he had a great many 
 palavers to settle on account of these deaths. Not knowing exactly 
 what he meant, I said to him, ' Why did you not make a trap to catch 
 the leopard ? ' To my astonishment, he replied, ' The leopard was 
 not of the kind you mean. It was a man who had changed himself 
 into a leopard, and then became a man again.' I said, 'Akondogo, 
 I will never believe your story. How can a man be turned into a 
 leopard ?' He again asserted that it was true, and gave me the follow- 
 ing history : — ' Whilst he was in the woods with his people, gatheriag 
 
AND FOLK-LORE. 239 
 
 india-rubber, one of his men disappeared, and, notwithstanding all 
 their endeavours, nothing could be found of him but a quantity of 
 blood. The next day another man disappeared, and in searching for 
 Mm more blood was found. AH the people got alarmed, and Akondogo 
 sent for a great doctor to drink the mboundou, and solve the mystery 
 of these two deaths. To the horror and astonishment of the old 
 chief, the doctor declared it was Akondogo's ovm chUd (his nephew 
 and heir), Akosho, who had killed the two men. Akosho was sent 
 for, and, when asked by the chief, answered that it was truly he who 
 had committed the murders ; that he could not help it, for he had 
 been turned into a leopard, and his heart longed for blood ; and that 
 after each deed he had turned into a man again. Akondogo loved 
 his boy so much that he would not beheve his own confession, untU 
 the boy took him to a place in the forest where lay the two bodies, 
 one with the head cut off, and the other with the belly torn open. 
 Upon this, Akondogo gave orders to seize the lad. He was bound 
 with ropes, taken to the village, and then tied in a horizontal position 
 to a post, and burnt slowly to death, aU the people standing by untU 
 he expired.' 
 
 "I must say the end of the storyjseemed to me too horrible to 
 hsten to. I shuddered, and was ready to curse the race that was 
 capable of committing such acts. But on careful enquh-y, I found it 
 was a case of monomania with the boy Akosho, and that he really 
 was the murderer of the two men. It is probable that the super- 
 stitious belief of these morbidly imaginative Africans in the trans- 
 formation of men kito leopards, being early instilled into the minds of 
 their children, is the direct cause of murders being committed under 
 the influence of it. The boy himself, as well as Akondogo and aU 
 the people, behoved he had reaUy turned into a leopard, and the cruel 
 punishment was partly in vengeance for witchcraft, and partly to 
 prevent the committal of more crimes by the boy in a similar way, 
 for, say they, the man has a spirit of witchcraft." 
 
 Again, after informing us that the Ashango people beHeved 
 (not knowing that he was really wounded in his disastrous retreat 
 from their country), that he, being "Oguisi," or "the spirit," was 
 invulnerable, and that their poisoned arrows glanced from his body 
 without doing bim any injury, he further adds, that Magonga, one 
 of his native guides, said "he had heard that at one time I had 
 turned myself into a leopard, had hid myself in a tree, and had 
 sprung upon the Mouaou people as they came to make war upon my 
 men; that at other times I turned myseH into a gorilla, or into 
 
240 lEADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 an elephant, and struck terror and death among the Mouaou and 
 Mobana. Magongo finished his story by asking me for a ' war fetich,' 
 for he said I must possess the art of making fetiches, or I and my 
 men could pot have escaped so miraculously." 
 
 It is necessary to remind the reader that Du ChaOlu and others 
 have failed to find any remains of ancient civilization on the western 
 coast of Equatorial Africa, and that he expressly states -his behef in 
 the native tradition that the ancestors of the present tribes migrated 
 from the east. 
 
 The Eev. G. W. Cox, in his " Mythology of the Aryan Nations," 
 referring to the origin of Greek " Lykanthropy," says, — " The ques- 
 tion to be answered is, whence came the notions that men were changed 
 into wolves, bears, and birds, and not into hons, fishes, or reptiles. ; 
 and to this question Comparative Mythology seems to me to furnish" 
 a complete answer ; nor can I disavow my behef that this loathsome 
 vampire superstition was in the first instance purely the result of a 
 verbal equivocation which, as we have seen, has furnished so fruitful 
 a source of myths." Mr. Cox regards the superstition to have 
 originated in " that confusion between Leukos bright, as a general 
 epithet, and the same word Lukos as a special name for the wolf, 
 from which sprung first the myth of the transformation of Lycaon, 
 and then probably the widespread superstition of Lykanthropy." 
 
 Eespecting the Eastern origin of this superstition, Kelly says, — 
 "The were-woK tradition has not been discovered with certainty 
 amongst the Hindoos, but there is no European nation of Aryan 
 descent in which it has not existed from time immemorial. Hence 
 it is certain that the tradition itself, or the germs of it more or less 
 developed, must have been brought by them all from Arya ; and if 
 Dr. Schwartz has not actually proved his case, he seems at least to 
 have conjectured rightly in assigning, as one of these germs, the 
 Aryan conception of the howling wind as a wolf. The Maruts and 
 other beings who were busy in the storm assumed various shapes. 
 The human form was proper to many or aU of them, for they were 
 identical with the Pitris or Fathers, and it would have been a very 
 natural thought, when a storm broke out suddenly, that one or more 
 of these people of the. air had turned into wolves for the occasion. 
 It was also a primeval notion that there were dogs and wolves 
 amongst the dwellers in heU ; and Weber, who has shown that this 
 belief was entertained by the early Hindoos, is" of opinion that these 
 infernal animals were real were-wolves, that is to say, men upon 
 whom such a transformation had been inflicted as a punishment." 
 
AND FOLK-LOBE. 241 
 
 The darkness of night is personified by the wolf in the folk-lore of 
 the Teutonic nations. It is the Fenris of the Edda. In this sense 
 the mythic wolf and " Little Eed Eiding Hood" are transparent enough. 
 The ruddy glow of the evening sunlight is extinguished in the dark- 
 ness of night. The Eev. G. W. Cox says that in one version of the 
 story " Little Eed Cap escapes his mahce as Memnon rises again 
 from Hades." This resurrection typifies the dawn springing from 
 the darkness of the night on the following morning, 
 
 The Greek myth developed into the story that Zeus, when visiting 
 Lycaon, was fed by his numerous sons with human flesh, and that 
 he, in his anger at such treatment, turned them aU. into wolves. 
 Similar transformations are frequent in the classical myths. Kirke 
 turned the followers of Odysseus into swine, and CaKsto was turned 
 into a bear by the anger of Aitemis. 
 
 This were-woH, or man-wolf, myth, from the Anglo-Saxon wer, a 
 man, has doubtless undergone much change and mutilation in its 
 descent to modern times. The earher Apollo of the Greeks, at the 
 time of Homer even, was not the Sun-god he afterwards became. 
 He was the "god of the summer storms," and, as such, he himself 
 appeared in the form of a wolf. His mother, Latona, as KeUy observes, 
 was regarded as " the dark storm-cloud, escorted at Jove's command 
 by the North wind," and she " came as a she-wolf from Lycia to the 
 place where she was delivered of her twins. ... In mythical 
 language, ApoUo was the son of Zeus ; that is to say, he was Zeus 
 in another form. The two gods were, in fact, hke Indra and Ehudra, 
 only different personifications of the same cycle of natural pheno- 
 mena." 
 
 The Laureate, in his recent poem, " The Coming of Arthur," has 
 the following beautiful poetic illustration of that which, no doubt, 
 underlies much of the were-wolf superstitions :" — 
 
 Thick with wet woods, and many a beast therein. 
 And none or few to scare or chase the beast ; 
 So that wild dog and wolf and boar and bear 
 Came night and day, and rooted in the fields, 
 And wallow'd in the gardens of the king. 
 And ever and anon the wolf would steal 
 The children and devour, but now and then. 
 Her own brood lost or dead, lent her fierce teat 
 To human sucklings ; and the children, housed 
 In her foul den, there at their meal would growl, 
 And mock their foster-mother on four feet, 
 Tni, straighten'd, they grew up to wolf-like men. 
 Worse than the wolves. 
 
242 TRADITIONS, STJPEKSTITIONS, 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 SACKED AND OMINOUS BIRDS, ETC. 
 
 The fatal cuckoo, on yon spreading tree, 
 Hath Bounded out your dying knell already. 
 
 Cowley. 
 
 y( Amongst the various lightning birds of the Aryan mythology, some 
 were regarded as portentous of evil ; others, as the robin, the stork, and 
 the v^oodpecker, on the contrary, were regarded with favour, and 
 especially protected. The red breast of the robia, the red legs of the 
 stork, and the red mutch of the woodpecker, were beheved to result' 
 from their Hghtniag origin. In Germany the robin is held in as much 
 regard as it is in England. The Anglo-Saxon name, Hrodhbeorht, or 
 Hrodhbriht, signifies flamebright, which was one of the appellations 
 of Thor. In illustration of the reverence paid to the redbreast, a 
 wi-iter in " Notes and Queries " relates the following beautiful story, 
 which he had from his nurse, a native of Ceermarthenshire : — 
 
 " Far, far away, is a land of woe, darkness, spirits of evU, and_/jr«. 
 Day by day does the little bird bear in his bill a drop of water to 
 quench the flame. So near to the burning stream does he fly, that 
 his dear little feathers are scorched ; and hence he is named Bron- 
 rhudchjn {i.e., breast-burned, or breast-scorched). To serve Httle 
 children, the- robin dares approach the infernal pit. No good child 
 will hurt the devoted benefactor of man. The robin returns from the 
 land of fire, and therefore he feels the cold of winter far more than 
 his brother birds. He shivers in the brumal blast ; hungry he chirps 
 before your door. Oh ! my child, then, in gratitude throw a few 
 crumbs to poor redbreast." 
 
 I have not to this day forgotten the sense of shame and sorrow witk 
 which I was overwhelmed, when, as a boy, being permitted for the 
 first time to discharge a fowUng-piece at a small bird in a shrubbery, 
 I discovered that the feathered songster whose life I had taken was a 
 robin-redbreast. 
 
 The stork is, in Germany especially, ever a welcome guest, and 
 wheels (sun emblems) are placed on the roofs of houses in Hesse, in 
 
AND FOLK-LOBE. 243 
 
 order to encourage the storks to build their nests thereupon. Their 
 presence is supposed to render the building safe against the ravages 
 of fire. Mannhardt mentions an instance in which, to avenge the 
 abstraction of her young, it is said a stork carried a flaming brand 
 in her beak, threw it into the nest, and thus set the house on fire. 
 The German name for stork, Grimm says, is literally child or soul- 
 briager. Hence the beUef that the advent of infants is presided 
 over by this bird, which obtains so largely in Denmark and Germany- 
 
 Amongst the remains of birds and animals consumed as food by 
 the framers of the Danish " kjokkenmoddings," or shell-mounds, the 
 absence of the bones of the domestic fowl, two species of swallow, 
 the sparrow and the stork, has been commented upon by several 
 archsBologists. This is attributable, doubtless, to the sacred character 
 with which they were invested by the inhabitants of the district when 
 the said mounds were formed. For a similar reason, as has been 
 previously observed, no bones of the hare have been found in these 
 ancient "kitchen-middens." 
 
 Amongst the, birds of evil omen, the owl appears to rank with 
 the foremost. Bourne says, " If an owl, which is reckoned a most 
 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." Chaucer 
 speaks of the " owl eke that of deth the bode bringeth." Amongst the 
 Eomans its appearance was regarded as a most certain portent of death. 
 In the year 312, on the day on which Constantine saw the vision of the 
 cross in the heavens, with the legend "In hoc signo vinces," Zosimus, 
 the pagan historian, informs us that his opponent, MaxentiuS, was 
 disconcerted by the adverse portent of a flight of owls. Speaking of 
 the prodigies which were said to accompany the passing away of 
 Augustus Csesar, Xiphilinus says that an " owl sung on the top of the 
 Curia." Our EUzabethan and later poets often refer to this super- 
 stition. In one of Eeed's old plays we have : — 
 
 When screech owls eroak upon the chimney tops, 
 It's certaia then you of a corse shall hear. 
 
 Spencer speaks of " the iil-fac'd owl, death's dreadful messenger," 
 and Pennant, when describing what is called the tawny owl, says, 
 "this is what we call the screech owl, to which the foUy of super- 
 stition had given the power of presaging death by its cries." Shaks- 
 pere makes Lennox say, on the night of the murder of Duncan, that— 
 
 The obscure bird 
 Clamoured the Urelong night. 
 
244 TRADITIONS, SXJPEKSTIIIONS-, 
 
 Puck, in Midsummer Night's Dream, says, — 
 
 Now the hungry lion roars, 
 
 And the wolf be-howls the moon ; 
 Whilst the heavy ploughman snores. 
 
 All with weary task fordone. 
 Now the wasted brands do glow. 
 
 Whilst the scritch-owl, scritohing loud. 
 Puts the wretch, that lies in woe. 
 
 In remembrance of a shroud. 
 
 Eeferring to the advent of the Duke of Gloucester, afterwards King 
 Eichard III., King Henry says : — 
 
 The owl shriek'd at thy birth ; an evil sign ! 
 
 The night crow cry'd, aboding luckless time ; 
 
 Dogs howled, and hideous tempests shook down trees. 
 
 And again, in Julius Csesar, on the night of the murder of the great 
 
 dictator, Casca, amongst the numerous other prodigies which he 
 
 witnessed says : — 
 
 And yesterday the bird of night did sit. 
 Even at noon-day, upon the market place. 
 Hooting and shrieking. 
 
 The rejoinder put into the mouth of Cicero, shows that Shakspere, 
 while he appreciated the dramatic value of the " folk-lore" of super- 
 stitious people Uke the terrified Casca, was fully aUve to the foUy of 
 the popular interpretation of the phenomena referred to. He says : 
 
 Indeed, it is a strange-dispos'd time ; 
 
 But men may construe things after their fashion 
 
 Clean from the purpose of the things themselves. 
 
 This is stiD. more markedly indicated in the dialogue between 
 Hotspur and Owen Glendower, in the first part of Kiag Henry IV. : — 
 
 Olmdower : At my nativity 
 
 The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes. 
 Of burning cressets ; and at my birth 
 The frame and huge foundation of the eaith 
 Shaked like a coward. 
 
 Hotspur : Why, so it would have done 
 At the same season, if your mother's cat 
 Had but kittened, though yourself had ne'er been bom. 
 
 Glendower: I say the earth did shake when I was born. 
 
 Sotspur : And I say the earth was not of my mind. 
 If you suppose as fearing you it shook. 
 
 Glendower: The heavens were all on fire, the earth did tremble. 
 
 Sotspur : 0, then the earth shook to see the heavens on fire. 
 And not in fear of your nativity. 
 Diseased nature often times breaks forth 
 In strange eruptions : oft the teeming earth 
 Is vrith a kind of cholic piached and vexed. 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 245 
 
 By tlie imprisoning of unruly wind 
 Within her womb ; which for enlargement striving, 
 ^ Shakes the old beldam earth, and topples down 
 Steeples and moss-grown towers. 
 
 In the Greek mythology the owl was the symbol of Athene. Hence, as 
 before observed, she was styled "Glaucopis," or owl-eyed. According to 
 Payne Enight, this symbol was adopted for the wise goddess because 
 the owl was "a bird which seems to surpass all other creatures in 
 acuteness of organic perception, its eye being calculated to observe 
 objects which to all others are enveloped in darkness, its ear to hear 
 sounds distinctly, and its nostrils to discriminate effluvia with such 
 nicety that it has been deemed prophetic, from discovering the putri- 
 dity of death even in the first stages of disease." As in the case of 
 the dog, referred to in Chapter IX., it is by no means improbable 
 that the extremely deUcate sense of smeU possessed by the owl, lies at 
 the root of this superstition. Its after development into a prophetic 
 power respecting approaching death, even without previous disease, 
 can easily be understood, after the original physical conditions had 
 entered into the mythical realm of legend and superstition. 
 
 The cuckoo is generally regarded, like the owl and the raven, as a 
 bird of ill omen. According to Mannhardt, on first hearing its note, 
 the German peasant rolls himself on the grass, as he does when he 
 hears thunder. The observance of this ceremony is supposed to 
 insure to the individual freedom from aches and pains during the 
 year. It is considered to be unlucky to hear the cuckoo for the first 
 time without coin in the pocket. The more fortunate peasants yet 
 instinctively turn over then- money to insure " luck" on first hearing 
 this bird's cry. ■ 
 
 The old EngHsh rhyme is well known in Lancashire : — 
 
 Cuckoo, cherry tree, 
 
 Good bird tell me, 
 
 How many years have I to live. 
 
 In some places there is a triple rhyme, the last line reading thus : 
 
 How many years before I dee ? (die). 
 
 I remember well indulging in my youth, with other boys, in the 
 divination described by Sir Henry EUis, as follows: — "Easy to 
 foretel what sort of summer it would be by the position in which 
 the larva of Cicada (Aphrophora) spuvtaria was found to He in 
 the froth (cuchoo-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 said spume was fully believed to have been deposited 
 upon the vegetation by the expectoration of the cuckoo. 
 
246 ; . THADITIONS, SXIPEESTITION'S, 
 
 Cuckoos are believed to become sparrowhawks in winter. The Eev, 
 H. B. Fristram, at a recent meeting of the British Association, M4 
 at Newcastle-on-Tyne, stated when he once remonstrated wi& a man 
 for shooting a cuckoo, "the defence was that it was well known that 
 sparroiohatvkes turned into cuckoos ia. the summer." Grimm states that 
 in Germany, after St. John's day, about the time when it becomes 
 mute, the cuckoo is beheved to change into a hawk. Eeferriag ta 
 these facts, Kelly pertinently asks, as "the form of the cuckoo 
 remotely resembles that of the falcon tribe, may we hazard, a con- 
 jecture that hence, in German tradition, that bird in some degree 
 represents the fire-bringing falcon of the Aryans ?" Mannhardt says, 
 " The cuckoo is the messenger of Thor, the god in whose gift were 
 health and strength, length of days, and marriage blessings, and 
 therefore it is that people call upon the bird to tell how long they 
 have to live, how soon they will be married, and bow many children 
 they, shall have; and that in Schaumberg the person who acts at a 
 wedding as master of the ceremonies carries a cuckoo on his staff." 
 
 Kelly says :— -" The cuckoo's connection vrith storms and tempests 
 is not clearly determined, but the owl's is indisputable. Its cry is 
 believed in England to foretell rain and haU, the latter of which is 
 usually accompanied with Kghtning, and the practice of naUing it to 
 the barn door, to avert the lightning, is common throughout Europe, 
 and is mentioned by Palladius in his treatise on agriculture." 
 
 The vpren, as I have shovm in a previous chapter, is mercilessly 
 hunted to death in the Isle of Man, although he partakes of the 
 sanctity of the robin in most parts of England. Not so in Ireland, 
 however. General Valiancy says : — "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 com- 
 mands he is still hunted and killed 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 is made in every village, of men, women, and children, 
 singing an Irish catch importing him to be the king of ah birds." 
 
 The wren is sometimes treated in a similar manner in the south of 
 France. It is generally, however, regarded as a sacred bird, as in 
 England and Scotland. To take its hfe or to rob its nest even, in 
 the Pays de Caux, is regarded as a crime of such atrocity that it 
 wiU "bring clown the lightning" upon the homestead of the offender. 
 Eobert Chambers, in his "Popular Ehymes," has the following 
 couplet on this subject ; — 
 
AND POLK-LOEE. 247 
 
 Malisons, malisons, mair than ten. 
 That harry the Ladye of Heaven's hen ! 
 
 It ■would seem from these facts that the poor Utile bird has met with 
 a somewhat similar fate to that of Odin and the rest of the ^sir 
 gods, and has been transformed, occasionally at least, into a spirit 
 of evU. 
 
 InPerigord, according to De Nore, the swallow is called "LaPoule 
 de Dieu," and is regarded as " the messenger of life." The cricket, 
 too, is held in similar estimation. May not the latter have acquired 
 its reputation from its fondness of the domestic hearth, and its pre- 
 sumed immunity fi;om the effects of fire ? 
 
 The raven, sacred to Odin and ApoUo, the German and Greek 
 forms of the Aryan Eudra, was, and indeed is yet, pre-eminently the 
 bird of iLL-omen. Lady Macbeth, in the fulness of her murderous 
 impulse, exclaims : — 
 
 The raven himself is hoarse 
 That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan 
 Under my battlements. 
 
 And Hamlet, impatient at the grimaces of the actor, representiag, in 
 the play, the murderer of his father, exclaims : — 
 
 Leave thy damnable faces and begin. Come — 
 The croaking raven 
 Doth bellow for revenge. 
 
 And, again, OtheUo says : — 
 
 Oh, it comes o'er my memory 
 As <3oth the raven o'er the infected house, 
 Boding to all. 
 
 AH know what powerful use Edgar Allan Poe has made of this "grim, 
 ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore," in his marvel- 
 lous poem, " The Eaven." 
 
 The raven's power of scenting carrion from a great distance may 
 have originally influenced, as in the case of the dog and owl, its 
 selection as a personification of impending death or other calamity. 
 
 The raven was the standard of the Scandinavian vikingrs, as the 
 eagle was of the Ancient Eomans, and is of the French of the present 
 day. Asser, in his "Life of Alfred the Great," when describing a 
 victory gained by that king near Kynwith Castle says : " they gained 
 a very large booty, and among other things the standard called 
 Eaven ; for they say that the three sisters of Hindwai and Hubba, 
 daughters of Lodobroch, wove that flag and got it ready in one day. 
 They say, moreover, that in every battle, wherever that flag went 
 before them, if they were to gain the victory, a hve crow would 
 
248 TKADIIIONS, STIPEESTITIONS, 
 
 appear flying in the middle of the flag ; but if they were doomed to 
 be defeated it would hang down motionless, and this was often proved 
 to be so." Doubtless much of the still Ungering aversion for crows, 
 ravens, and magpies, is but the remains of the dislike of our Anglo- 
 Saxon ancestors to the emblem of their once dreaded mortal enemies, 
 or it is, perhaps, more probable that each people had preserved a 
 similar traditionary faith in the supernatural character of the bird 
 from their common remote ancestors. Indeed, reference is made to 
 the raven as a war emblem in the fragment of heroic Anglo-Saxon 
 poetry, containing part of a description of the battle at Finnesburg, 
 which was found on the cover of a MS. of homilies, in the library at 
 Lambeth Palace, by Dr. Hicks, in the sixteenth century. On the 
 defeat of the warriors, the MS. says, — " The raven wandered, swart 
 and saUow brown." There is, as I have previously observed, 
 in Chapter IX. , a tradition in Cornwall that King Arthur is yet alive 
 in the form of a raven, and superstitious persons yet refuse to Mil the 
 bird from a behef in its truth. 
 
 Many other bu-ds possess somewhat similar attributes to the raven, 
 such as crows, magpies, jackdaws, &e. Eamesey (Elminthologia, 
 1668) 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 croaking of crows and ravens foreboded rain. In this particular 
 they resembled the woodpecker. It was, nay, it is yet held that to 
 see a crow on the left hand is a sinister omen.- In the " Defensative 
 against the Poyson of supposed Prophesies," by the Earl of North- 
 ampton, pubUshed in 1583, we find the following :—" The flight of 
 many crowes upon the left side of the campe made the Eomans very 
 much afrayde of some badde lucke ; as if the greate god Jupiter had 
 nothing else to do (said Carneades) but to drive jaek-dawes in a flock 
 together." 
 
 The evil boding of the " seven whistlers," or flock of plovers, in 
 Lancashire, has been previously referred to. In Lancashne and 
 the north of England magpies are termed pyanots. The old 
 formula, which attributes certain results as the consequence of 
 their appearance, is stUl firmly beUeved in, viz.: — "One for sor- 
 row, two for mirth, three for a wedding and four for death." 
 Intelligent persons, yet, from mere habit, on the sight of a magpie, 
 involuntary turn round three times, or mark a cross with the 
 toe on the ground, in order to avert the calamity supposed to be 
 attendant upon its untoward presence. The original name, when 
 fuUy expressed, appears to have been maggott pie. Shakspere 
 
AND FOLK-LOKE. 249 
 
 mentions it under this designation, when, in Macbeth, he refers to 
 its use in divination. He says : — 
 
 Augurs and understood relations have 
 
 By maggot pies, and clioughs, and rooks, brought forth 
 
 The secret'st man of blood. 
 
 The woodpecker, perhaps, of all the fire-bringing birds, has most 
 permeated the ancient mythologies. The Latins named it Picus, 
 whose brother (or double), Pilumnus, was the god of bakers and 
 millers. In early times the millers pounded then- corn with a pestle, 
 and ^ituOT signified both pestle and javehn, which are equally types 
 of the thunderbolt. The tapping of the beak of the woodpecker was 
 regarded as partaking of a similar character. On the birth of a child 
 it was customary at Eome to prepare a couch for Pilumnus and 
 Pieumnus, who were beheYed to bring the fire of hfe, and were sup- 
 posed to remain until the yitality of the infant was indisputable. 
 The Eomans hkewise styled the woodpecker Martus and Feronius, 
 from the god Mars and the Sabine goddess Feronia. The name 
 Peronia is indicative of fire or soul bringing, and is intimately con- 
 nected with that of Phoroneus, the Prometheus of a Peloponessian 
 legend, relating to the original procuration of the heavenly fire. Dr. 
 Kuhn says both names are identical with the epithet commonly 
 apphed to the Aryan fire-god Agni, Churanyu, which signifies '! one 
 who pounces down, or bears down rapidly." 
 
 Picus was the son of Saturn, and the first King of Latium, as well 
 as a fire-bringing bird. This, KeUy observes, "is only another way 
 of saying that he, too, hke Manu, Minyas, Minos, Phoroneus, and 
 other fire-bringers, is the first man ; and therefore it is that, under 
 the name of Pieumnus, he continued in latter times to be the guar- 
 dian genius of children, along with his brother Pilumnus." 
 
 A remarkable coincidence between the Anglo-Saxon pedigree of 
 Odin, which makes Beav, or BeovoH, one of his ancestors, and the 
 story of the first King of Latium, is noticed by Grimm. Beewolf — 
 that is, bee-eater — is the German name for the woodpecker. 
 
 Many other birds were behoved to forecast the weather, such as the 
 barn door fowl, the stormy petril, the heron, and the crane, all of which 
 appear but to be modifications of the Aryan hghtning birds so often 
 referred to. In the Greek version of the myth, the raven represents 
 the dark cloud. Originally, however, the cloud referred to was 
 white ; but Apollo, having sent his favourite bird to the fountain for 
 water, was imposed upon by the feathered idler and glutton ; he, 
 therefore, turned his plumage black, and condemned him as a 
 
250 TRADITIONS, SUPEBSTITIONS, 
 
 punishment to a continuous croaking for water to quench his thirst. 
 Amongst insects, the lady-bird appears to' have been a fire-bringer, 
 and is yet much in vogue in matters of augury. Gay says : — 
 
 This lady-fly I take from off the grass, 
 Whose spotted back might scarlet red surpass. 
 Fly lady-bird, north, south, or east or west. 
 Fly where the man is found that I love best. 
 
 I know not whether the dandehon can be classed among the light- 
 ning plants, but I remember well the blowing away of its ripened 
 winged seeds with the view to ascertain the time of the day, as well 
 as to solve much more profound mysteries. 
 
 In the "Athenium Oracle" the following curious rejoinder appeaxs 
 to the query: — " Why rats, toads, ravens, screech owls, are ominous ; 
 and how they came to foreknow fatal events ?" The writer rephes : 
 ' ' Had the querist said unlucky instead of ominous he might e^sUy 
 have met with satisfaction ; a rat is so because it destroys many a 
 Cheshire cheese, &c. A toad is unlucky because- it poisons." [This 
 is now known to be erroneous.] "As for ravens and screech owls, 
 they are just as unlucky as cats, when about their courtship, because 
 they make an ugly noise, which disturbes 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 almanac makers, fore- 
 telling events after they are come to pass : they foUow great armies, 
 as vultures, not as foreboding battle, but for the dead men, dogs, 
 horses, &c., which, especially in a march, must be daily left behind 
 them. But the foolish observations made on their croaking before 
 death, etc., are for the most part pure humour, and have no grounds 
 besides foolish tradition or a sickly imagination." Old Eeginald Scot, 
 as early as the sixteenth century, stoutly contended "that to prog- 
 nosticate that guests approach to your house on the chattering of 
 pies or haggisters, [a Kentish term for magpie,] is altogether vanity 
 and superstition." 
 
 The Shipping Gazette, in April, 1869, contained a communication 
 entitled "A Sailor's Notion about Eats," in which the following passage 
 occui-s : — " It is a weU authenticated fact that rats have often been 
 known to leave ships in the harbour previous to their being lost at 
 sea. Some of those wiseacres who want to convince us against the 
 evidence of our semes wiU caU this superstition. As neither I have 
 time, nor you space, to cavil with such at present, I shall leave them 
 alone in their glory." It is difl&cult to decide whether the supersti- 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 251 
 
 tion, the bad logic, or the self-sufficiency of the writer of this 
 sentence most predominates. It is a pity he did not edify the 
 "wiseacres" as to how "the evidence of our senses" could by any 
 possibility bring us in contact with, the motive of rats, with whom 
 we have had no intercourse either of a mental or moral kind. But 
 perhaps the said " Shipmaster" has, after taking rats into his councU. 
 rejected their advice, and lost his bark in consequence. Truly it is a 
 difficult matter to determine where abject superstition ends and ordi- 
 nary credulity begins. The fact that rats do sometimes migrate 
 from one ship to another, or from one barn or corn stack to another, 
 from various causes, ought to be quite sufficient to explain such 
 "evidence of our senses " as informs us that " rats have often been 
 known to leave ships in harbour ^?-«'iom« to their being lost at sea.'' 
 If they left the ship at all in harbour, it, of necessity must have 
 been before the vessel was lost at sea. The error Ues in the 
 assertion, without the slightest "evidence of om- senses" to support 
 it, that sailor rats are genuine Zadkiels, and can peep into futurity 
 by the aid of some supernatural power denied to mariners of the 
 genus homo. 
 
 This superstition, nevertheless, is evidently one of considerable 
 antiquity. Shakspere refers to it in the Tempest. Prospero, de- 
 scribing the vessel in which himself and daughter had been placed 
 with the view to their certain destruction at sea says : — 
 
 They hurried us aboard a bark ; 
 Bore us some leagues to sea ; where they prepared 
 A rotten carcase of a boat, not rigsed, 
 Nor tackle, sail, nor mast ; the very rats 
 Instinctively had quit it. 
 
252 TRADITIONS, SUPEKSTITIONS, 
 
 CHAPTEE Xin. 
 
 THE DIVINING OR "TVISH"-B0D, AND SUPEESTITIONS RESPECTING TREES 
 
 AND PLANTS. 
 
 Some sorcerers do boast they have a rod 
 
 Gather'd with vowes and sacrifice, 
 And (borne about) wiU strangely nod 
 
 To hidden treasure, where it lies ; 
 Mankind is (sure) that rod divine. 
 
 For to the wealthiest ever they iiicliTul 
 
 S. Sheppard, 1651. 
 
 Faith in the power of the "wish" or "divining rod" is by no 
 means extinct in the North of England. In modern times it is chiefly 
 beheved to be potent in the detection of metaUio veins, hidden 
 treasure, or subterranean springs of water. Our ancestors, however, 
 held that this mystic instrument was endowed with the faculty of 
 bringing " luck " or good fortune to its possessor, and of causing his 
 shghtest wish or desire to receive fulfilment. I have a faint recollec- 
 tion of a story relative to the use of the divining rod, with the view 
 to ascertain the locahiy of the "buried treasure," since discovered, 
 in the valley of the Eibble, near Preston, and now known as the 
 celebrated " Cuerdale hoard." This treasure, in all human proba- 
 bility, was consigned to the earth immediately after the famous battle 
 of Brunanburh, in the earUer portion of the tenth century. Although 
 it remained undisturbed about nine hundred years, a tradition sur- 
 vived, which asserted that the place of the deposit could be seen from 
 the promontory overlooking the vaUey on which Walton, or " Law," 
 Church is situated. The late Mr. B. P. AUen, of Preston, remem- 
 bered a farmer ploughing deeply the whole of an extensive field in 
 the neighbourhood, in the hope of discovering the long-lost treasure, 
 some professor of the art of divination by the " wish rod " having 
 pronounced in favour of the probability of a successful result. Sin- 
 gularly enough, even after the accidental discovery of the treasure 
 chest of the days of Athelstan, the country people of the neighbour- 
 hood stUl nursed the memory of the tradition with great fondness, 
 firmly believing that the " find " referred to was but a foretaste of 
 what was to come. I was forcibly struck with the tenacity of this 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 253 
 
 species of tradition, when engaged digging on the site of the Eoman 
 station at the junction of the Darwen and the Eibble, in 1855. The 
 turning up of a few scattered brass coins of the higher empire, led to 
 a rumour that we had come upon " th' buried goud" at last, and caused 
 us some inconvenience. The Cuerdale hoard, it must be remembered, 
 consisted entirely of coins, marks, and bracelets and other ornaments 
 in silver. Mr. Martland, who farmed the land at the time, told me 
 some curious stories respecting this mound at Walton-le-Dale, which 
 would indicate that treasure-seekers had been more than once prac- 
 tising their vocation in the neighbourhood. Some thirteen or four- 
 teen years previously, a hole nine or ten feet long was dug in one 
 night by some unknown persons. A silver coin (most probably 
 Eoman) was found on the filling up of the trench. Mr. Martland 
 likewise remembered hearing of a somewhat similar hole having been 
 excavated between forty or fifty years previously, under equally mys- 
 terious circumstances, and not far from the same spot. The locality 
 was watched every evening for a fortnight, before the hole was filled 
 up, with the view to ascertain whether the midnight excavators would 
 resume their laboxirs. Nothing was discovered which either identified 
 the parties or explained their object. The general impression, how- 
 ever, was that they were treasure hunters, and that they had acted 
 under some magical or supernatural direction. 
 
 In a manuscript of the early part of the seventeenth century, by 
 John Bell, the necessary formulsB for the procuration and preparation 
 of the divining rod are thus described : — 
 
 " When you find in the wood or elsewhere, on old walls or on high 
 hills or rocks, a rowan which has grown out of a berry let fall from a 
 bird's bill, you must go at twUight in the evening of the third day 
 after our Lady's day, and either uproot or break off the said rod or 
 tree ; but you must take care that neither iron or steel come nigh it, 
 and that it do not fall to the ground on the way home. Then place 
 the rod under the roof, at a spot under which you have laid sundry 
 metals, and in a short time you will see with astonishment how the 
 rod gradually bends under the roof towards the metals. When the 
 rod has remained fourteen days or more in the same place, you take 
 a knife or an awl which has been stroked with a magnet, and pre- 
 viously stuck through a great Frogroda (?), slit the bark on all sides, 
 and pour or drop in cock's blood, especially such as is drawn from 
 the comb of a cock of one colour ; and when this blood has dried the 
 rod is ready, and gives manifest proof of the efficacy of its wondrous 
 nature." 
 
254 TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 The same writer referring to the subject of rabdomanteia or rod 
 divination, relates the following, on the authority of Theophylact :— 
 " They set up two staffs, andhaving whispered some verses and incan- 
 tations, the staffs fell by the operations of demons. Then they con- 
 sidered which way each of them fell, forward or backward, to the right 
 or left hand, and agreeably gave responses, having made use of the 
 fall of their staffs for their signs," 
 
 This superstition appears to have been very prevalent in the 
 earliest times. The divination of the Chaldeans has passed into a 
 proverb. Bzekiel refers to it, and Hosea denounces the Jews for 
 their faith in such heathen ceremonies. He exclaims — "My people 
 ask counsel at their stocks, and their «ta^ declareth unto them." It 
 was practised by the Alani, according to Herodotus, and we have the 
 authority of Tacitus for the estimation in which it was held by the 
 ancient Germanic tribes. 
 
 Sir Henry EUis refers to an effort by miners to discover a metallic 
 lode, by means of the divining rod, as recently as 1842. He thus 
 describes the experiment : — " The method of procedure was to cut the 
 twig of a hazel or an apple tree, of twelve months' growth, into a forked 
 shape, and to hold this by both hands in a peculiar way, walking 
 across the land until the twig bent, which was taken as an indication 
 of the locality of a lode. The person who generally practices this 
 divination boasts himself to be the seventh son of a seventh son. The 
 twig of hazel bends in his hands to the conviction of the miners that 
 ore is present ; but then the pecuhar manner in which the twig is held, 
 bringing muscular action to bear upon it, accounts for its gradual 
 deflection, and the cu-cumstance of the strata walked over always 
 containing ore, gives a further credit to the process of divination." 
 
 The following curious anecdote, referring to this subject, appears 
 in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1752 : — " M. Linnffius, when he was 
 upon his voyage to Scania, hearing his secretary highly extol the 
 virtues of his divining wand, was willing to convince him of its in- 
 sufficiency, and for that purpose concealed a purse pi one hundred 
 ducats under a ranunculus which grew by itself in a meadow, and hid 
 the secretary find it if he could. The wand discovered nothing, and 
 M. Linneeus's mark was soon trampled down by the company who were 
 present ; so that when M. Linnaeus went to finish the experiment by 
 fetching the gold himself, he was utterly at a loss where to seek it. 
 The man with the wand assisted him, and pronounced it could not 
 lie the way they were going, but quite the contrary, so pursued the 
 direction of his wand, and actually dug out the gold. M. Linnseus 
 
4ND FOLK-LOEE. 255 
 
 adds that such another experiment would be sufficient to make a 
 proselyte of him." LOly relates an effort of his to discover hidden 
 treasure by the di-vining rod. He, however, frankly confesses that he 
 failed in his object. 
 
 The divining rod in form resembled the letter Y, and, indepen- 
 dently of its other magical qualities, owed some of its supposed power 
 to its form and the number of its limbs. The pecuhar and regular 
 equiangular form of the branches of the mistletoe, doubtless, had much 
 iafluence in its selection as a mystical plant endowed with super- 
 natural properties. The number three, and its multiple nine, together 
 with the mystic Abracadabra, the double triangle of the Gnostics, 
 have been regarded from the most remote ages as of mystical import. 
 The association of the "seventh son of a seventh son" (another 
 mystic number) with the procedure, is likewise indicative of a mathe- 
 matical element at the root of this superstition. 
 
 Mr. Gladstone, in his "Juventus Mundi," says, — "With respect 
 to the Trident" (of Poseidon or Neptune), " an instrument so unsuited 
 to water, it appears evidently to point to some tradition of a Trinity, 
 such as may stiLl be found in various forma of Eastern rehgion, other 
 than the Hebrew. It may have proceeded, among the Phoenicians, 
 from the common source of an older tradition ; and this seems more 
 probable than its direct derivation from the Hebrews, with whom, 
 however, we know that the Phoenicians had intercourse." 
 
 The horseshoe, which is so frequently seen nailed to stable and 
 shippon doors, as a charm against the machinations of witches, is 
 said to owe its virtue chiefly to its shape. Any other object present- 
 ing two points or forks, even the spreading out of the two fore-fingers, 
 is said to possess simUar occult power, though not in so high a degree 
 as the rowan wish-rod. In Spain and Italy forked pieces of coral are 
 in high repute as witch scarers. A crescent formed of two boar's 
 tusks is frequently appended to the necks of mules, to protect the 
 animals from witchcraft; The boar's tusk I have previously shown 
 to be an Aryan lightning emblem. 
 
 KeUy is of opinion that the mandrake, on account of its form and 
 supposed hghtning origin, possessed, in common with the wish-rod, the 
 power of conferring good fortune on its possessor. The root of the 
 mandrake is beUeved to bear some resemblance to a human being, 
 and appears to have been used in England by sorcerers as an image 
 of the victim operated upon, as weU as figures made of clay or wax. 
 In his " Art of Simphng," Coles says that witches " take likewise the 
 roots of the mandrake, according to some, or, as I rather suppose. 
 
256 TEADITIONS, SUPEESMJCIONS, 
 
 the roots of hriony, 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 adds— 
 " Some plants have roots with a number of threads, like beards, as 
 mandrakes, whereof witches and imposters make an ugly image, 
 giving it the form of a face at the top of the root, and leave those 
 strings to make a broad beard down to the feet." Dr. Kuhn and others 
 are of opinion that the form of the wish-rod originated in a somewhat 
 similar idea ; or rather that the two superstitions had, in this respect, 
 a common origin. It appears that these rods are yet dressed like 
 dolls in some parts of Germany, and that they are occasionally 
 attached to the body of a ohUd about to be christened. Sohonwerth 
 informs us that in the Oberpfalz the newly-cut wish-rod is formally 
 baptised, and the sign of the cross made over it three times by the 
 operator. Kelly adds — " This is not all. In every instance the 
 divining or wish rod has a forked end. This is an essential point, 
 as aU authorities agree in declaring. Now a forked rod (or a ' forked 
 raddish ') is the simplest possible image of the human figure." 
 
 The English mandrake, used by witches and treasure hunters, is, 
 as Coles observes, the hriony, the veritable atropa mandragora not 
 being found in the northern portion of the continent of Europe. It 
 flourishes luxuriantly in the Grecian islands. Mr. John Ingram, in 
 his " Elora SymboHca," says the mandragora is " the emblem of 
 rarity.'" He adds, — "Amongst the Oriental races the mandrake, 
 probably on account of its foetid odour and venomous properties, is 
 regarded with intense abhorrence ; the Arabs, Eichardson says, call 
 it 'the devil's candle,' because of its shiny appearance in the night; 
 a circumstance thus alluded to by Moore in his ' LaUa Eookh' : — 
 
 Such rank and deadly lustre dwells, 
 
 As in those hellish fires that light 
 
 The mandrake's charmed leaves at night. 
 
 ' ' There is an old, deeply-rooted superstition connected with this 
 ominous plant, which we have reason to beHeve is not yet altogether 
 eradicated from the minds of the uneducated, that the mandrake 
 grows up under the gallows, being nourished by the exhalations from 
 executed criminals ; and that when it is puUed out of the ground it 
 utters lamentable cries, as if possessed of sensibility : 
 
 The phantom shapes - oh, touch them not — 
 
 That appal the murderer's sight, 
 Lurk in the fleshy mandrake's stem, 
 
 That shrieks when pluok'd at night. 
 
AJSD FOLK-LOKB. 257 
 
 So says Moore in verse, only repeating what many have said gravely 
 in prose. 
 
 " Another terrible qnahty imputed to this wretched plant was that 
 the person pulling it out of the ground would be seriously injured by 
 its pestilential effects, some even averring that death speedily resulted 
 from them ; in order therefore to guard agaiast this danger, the sur- 
 rounding sou was removed, and the plant fastened securely to a dog, 
 so that when the animal was driven away he drew up the root, and 
 paid the penalty of the deed." 
 
 Dr. Kuhn contends that this human form was given to the man- 
 drake and the wish rod because both were believed to be of divine or 
 supernatural origin, and represented a species of demi-god, of the 
 hghtning tribe. Kelly contends that " a comparison with ancient 
 Hindoo usages fuUy confirms the truth of this conclusion. The 
 human form is expressly attributed in the Eig Veda and other 
 Sanscrit books to the pieces of asvattha wood used for kindling sacred 
 fire — so many inches for the head and neck, so many for the upper 
 and lowej: parts of the trunk, the thighs and legs respectively — and 
 the operator is warned to be very careful where he churns, for per- 
 dition win issue from most parts of the arani, whereas he who churns 
 in the right spot wUl obtain fruition of all his wishes ; he will gain 
 wealth, cattle, sons, heaven, long Ufe, love, and good fortune. Evi- 
 dently the tabular part or block of the chark is equivalent to the 
 wish-rod, and the reason of this is that they are both embodiments 
 of the hghtning." 
 
 Doubtless, as has been contended by Dr. Kuhn and many others, 
 the caduceus or rod of Hermes may be referred to a similar origin ; 
 that it is, in fact, but the Greek development of the origiaal Aryan 
 myth. The wands of conjurers, the batons of mUitary commanders, 
 and even the sceptres of monarchs, together with Neptune's trident 
 and Jove's thundering implement, may without extravagance be 
 assigned to a similar origin. 
 
 The divining rod was made either of hazel, the rowan or mountain 
 ash, or some other of the European representatives of either the 
 palasa tree, or the " imperial mimosa of the East." The story of the 
 origin of these trees, as related in the Veda, is somewhat curious. 
 It exhibits the root of the superstitious reverence, so common amongst 
 all the Aryan tribes, in which certain trees and plants are held, and 
 of the beHef in their medical and magical properties. It appears that 
 the demons had stolen the heavenly soma, or drink of the gods, and 
 cellared it in some mythical rock or cloud. The falcon (a lightning 
 
 B 
 
258 TEADITIONS, SUPEBSTITIONS, 
 
 bird) undertook to restore to the thirsty deities their rauch prized 
 Uquor. The feathered hero triumphed, but he gained his honours at 
 the expense of a claw and a plume, of which an arrow from one of 
 " the enemy " deprived him during his retreat. Both fell to the earth 
 and took root. From the feather sprung the parna or palasa tree, 
 which possessed red sap and bore scarlet blossoms. , From the claw 
 a species of thorn was developed. This Dr. Kuhn contends is the 
 Mimosa catechu, or the "imperial mimosa" referred to. The falcon 
 being regarded as a lightning god, the plants and trees sprung from 
 him were supposed to possess largely the divine attributes of their 
 progenitor. The Aryan tribes, on migrating into distant lands, 
 found, of com-se, that the botanical characteristics of then- new homes 
 differed from those pertaining to that they had left. They, there- 
 fore, selected what, to them, appeared the nearest representatives of 
 the parna and the minwsa, and endowed them with then- supernatural 
 properties. Amongst the most reverenced in Europe were the fern, 
 which appears to be but a modern form of the word parna; the 
 mountain ash, or rowan ; the hazel, and the black and white thorn, 
 and the spring- wort or St. John's-wort. KeUy says : — " Among the 
 many Enghsh names of the mountain ash are witohen tree, witch 
 elm, witch hazel, witch wood ; quicken tree, quick beam [quick — alive, 
 beam, German haum — ^tree); roan tree, roun tree, rowan. These last 
 three synonymes are from the Norse tongues, and denote, as Grimm 
 conjectures, the runic or mysterious and magic character of the tree." 
 
 Several pecuharities of the mountain ash coirespond with others 
 which characterise the Hindoo palasa. Both bear red berries, and 
 then- leaves are profusely luxuriant. These characteristics are sup- 
 posed to correspond to the blood shed by the falcon and the form of 
 his lost feather. The spikes of the thorn, by a sinular process of 
 reasoning, are identified with the claw detached by the arrow of the 
 pursuing demon. 
 
 The late Bishop Heber, referring to the mimosa of India, relates 
 facts which clearly identify some of the superstitions of the East 
 with others in Britain. He appears likewise to have anticipated that 
 time would disclose their common origin. He says : — "NearBoit- 
 poor, in Upper India, I passed a fine tree of the mimosa genus, with 
 leavep, at a Uttle distance, so much resembhng those of the mountain 
 ash, that I was for a moment deceived, and asked if it did not bring 
 fruit. They answered no ; but that it was a very noble tree, being 
 called the imperial tree, for its excellent properties ; that it slept all 
 night, and awakened and was ahve aU day, withdrawing its leaves if 
 
AND POLK-LOEE. 259 
 
 anyone attempted to touch them. Above all, however, it was useful 
 as a preservative against magic. A sprig worn in the turban, or sus- 
 pended over the bed, was a perfect security against aU speUs, evil 
 eye, etc.; inasmuch as the most formidable wizard would not, if he 
 could help it, approach its shade. One indeed, they said, who was 
 very renowned for his power, (like Lorinite, in the Kehama,) of killing 
 plants and drying up their sap with a look, had come to this very tree 
 and gazed on it intently ; but, said the old man, who told me this 
 with an air of triumph, look as he might, he could do the tree no 
 harm. I was amazed and surprised to find the superstition which in 
 England and Scotland attaches to the rowan tree here applied to a 
 tree of nearly similar form. What nation has in this been the 
 imitator ? Or from what common centre are these common notions 
 derived?" 
 
 M. Du Chaillu, in his second journey to Western Equatorial Africa, 
 found a similar superstitious reverence for certain trees amongst the 
 negro inhabitants. He says : — " At an Ishogo village named Diamba, 
 which we passed about two o'clock, I saw two heads of the gorilla 
 (male and female) stuck on two poles placed under the village tree in 
 the middle of the street. In explanation of this I may mention here 
 that in almost every Ishogo and Ashango village which I visited there 
 was a large tree standing about the middle of the main street, and 
 near the mbuiti or idol-house of the village. The tree is a kind of 
 Ficus, with large, thick, and glossy leaves. It is planted a sapling 
 when the village is first built, and is considered to bring good luck to 
 the inhabitants as a talisman. If the sapling hves, the villagers con- 
 sider the omen a good one ; but if it dies, they all abandon the place 
 and found a new village elsewhere. This tree grows rapidly, and 
 soon forms a conspicuous object, with its broad crown jrielding a 
 pleasant shade in the middle of the street. Fetiches, similar to those 
 I have described in the account of Eabolo's village, on the Fernand 
 Vaz, are buried at the foot of the tree ; and the gorillas' heads on 
 poles at Diamba were no doubt placed there as some sort of fetich. 
 The tree, of course, is held sacred. An additional charm is lent to 
 these village trees by the great number of httle social birds {SycoUm, 
 three species) which resort to them to build their nests amongst the 
 fohage. These charming Uttle birds love the society of man as well as 
 that of their own species. They associate in these trees, sometimes 
 in incredible quantities, and the noise they make with their chu-ping, 
 ,chattmg, and fuss in buUding their nests and feeding their young is 
 often greater even than that made by the negroes of the village." 
 
260 TEADITIONS, SUKEESTITIONS, 
 
 The Caledonian Mercury, a "?ery few years ago, publisHed tbe folkcwing 
 paragraph, which clearly demonstrates that the superstitious reverence 
 for the mountaia ash still exists ia a most unmistakable maimer in 
 North Britain : — 
 
 " Superstition in Stratlieam. — ^It is. not many years ago since two 
 woman were seen pulling the tether in a field a few miles from Crieff, 
 with what object everyone knows. Even, more recently a Crieff mer- 
 chant, who had adopted the motto " Pay to-day and trust to-morrow," 
 had a piece of rowan tree suspended over his doorway, and after his 
 death a bit of the same wood was found, in each of his pockets as a 
 preventive against the power of witches. At this moment an honest 
 farmer in a neighbouring parish has a branch of the rowan tree above 
 his byres, and it is said that every stranger who enters his gates 
 passes under this magic wood." 
 
 The author of " Sylvan Sketches," (1825), informs us, on the 
 authority of Lightfoot, that "in the Highlands of Scotland, at the 
 birth of an infant, the nurse takes' a green stick of ash, one end of 
 which she puts into the fire, and while it is burning receives in a 
 spoon the sap that ooses from the other, which she administers to the 
 child as its first food." The infant Zeus, of the Greeks, was first 
 fed by the Melian nymphs with honey " the fruit of the ash," and with 
 goat's milk. KeUy says : — 
 
 " There was a positive, as well as a mythic, reason why the Greeks 
 should give the ash a name signifying sweetness, because the Frasdnus 
 omus, a species of ash indigenous in the south of Europe, yields 
 manna from its sUt bark. They may also have conceived that honey 
 dropped upon the earth as dew from the heavenly ash, for Theophrastus 
 mentions a kind of honey which fell in tha.t form from the air, and 
 which was therefore called aeromelia." 
 
 Weber and Dr. Kuhn refer to a passage in one of the sacred books 
 of the Hindoos, in which an analogous practice ia referred to. It 
 reads, " The father puts his mouth to the right ear of the new-born 
 babe, and murmurs three times, ' Speech ! speech !' Then he gives 
 it a name, ' Thou art Veda ;' that is its secret name. Then he mixes 
 clotted milk , honey, and butter, and feeds the babe with it out of 
 pure gold." Eef erring to this subject, Kelly exclaims : — 
 
 " Amazing toughness of popular tradition ! Some thousands of 
 years ago the ancestors of this Highland nurse had known the 
 Fraxinus omus in Arya, or on their long journey through Persia, 
 Asia Minor, and the south of Europe, and they had given its honey- 
 lilce juice as divine food to their children ; and now their descendant, 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 261 
 
 imitating their practice in tlie cold North, but totally ignorant of its 
 true meaning, puts the nauseous sap of her native ash into the 
 mouth of her hapless charge, because her mother, and her grand- 
 mother, and her grandmother's mother had done the same thing 
 before her. " The reason,' we are told by a modern native authority, 
 ' for giving ash-sap to new born children in the Highlands of Scot- 
 land, is, first, because it acts as a powerful astringent ; and secondly, 
 because the ash, in common vsdth the rowan, is supposed to possess 
 the property of resisting the attacks of witches, fairies, and other 
 imps of darkness.'^' Mr. KeUy regards the astringent argument as 
 evidently not the reason why the practice was first adopted, but an 
 excuse, and a bad one, for its continuance. In many places mothers 
 yet pass their infants through spHt ash trees in the belief that it will 
 cure them of, or protect them from, the rickets or rupture. 
 
 Brand regards the Christian pastoral crook, as well as the "lituus 
 or staff with the crook at one end, which the augurs of old carried 
 as badges of their profession, and instruments in the superstitious 
 exercise of it, " as originally intimately connected with the diviniag rod. 
 He refers to Hogarth's " Analysis of Beauty," in which the great 
 satirical artist gives an engraving of what he terms a " Imus naturce," 
 which represents a "very elegant" branch of the asli tree. Brand 
 seems to endorse Mr. Grosthng's opinion, as expressed in the " Anti- 
 quarian Eepertory," who says, " I should rather style it a distemper 
 or distortion of nature ; for it seems the effect of a wound Ijy some 
 insect, which, piercing to the heart of the plant with its proboscis, 
 poisons that, while the bark remains uninjured and proceeds in its 
 growth, but formed into various stripes, flatness, and curves, for 
 want of the support which nature designed it. The beauty some of 
 these arrive at might well consecrate them to the fopperies of heathen- 
 ism, and their rarity occasions imitations of them by art. The pas- 
 toral staff of the Church of Eome seems to have been formed from the 
 vegetable Htui, though the general idea is, I know, that it is an im- 
 itation of the shepherd's crook." Gostling's paper is accompaniedl)y 
 engravings of " carved branches of the ash." Brand speaks of one of 
 these curious " freaks of nature," which he saw in the possession of 
 an old woman at Beeralstown, in Devonshire, as " extremely beauti- 
 ful." He was very anxious to purchase it, but the old lady refused 
 to " part with- it on any account, thinking it would be unlucky to do 
 so." 
 
 Several modern writers on comparative mythology class the wish 
 or divining rod amongst the numerous forms which the stauros, as a 
 
262 TEADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 phallio emblem, has presented itself. The Eev. Gr. W. Cox, in his' 
 " Mythology of the Aryan Nations," is very explicit on this point. 
 He says, — " The wooden emblem carries us, however, more directly to 
 the natural mythology of the subject. The rod acquired an inherent 
 vitaUty, and put fgrth leaves and branches in the Thyrsoi of the 
 Dionysiae worshippers and the Seistron of Egyptian priests. It 
 became the tree of hfe, and reappeared as the rod of wealth and 
 happiness given by ApoHon to Hermes, the mystic spear which Abaris 
 received from the Hyperborean Sun-god, and which came daily to 
 Phoibus in his exUe laden with aU good things. It was seen as the 
 Utuus of the augur, the crooked staff of the shepherd, the sceptre of 
 the king, and the divining rod which pointed out hidden springs or 
 treasures to modern conjurors. In a form which adhered stiQ more 
 strictly to the first idea the emblem became the stauros or cross of 
 Osiris, and a new source of mythology was thus laid open. To the 
 Egyptians the cross thus became the symbol of immortahty, and the 
 god himself was crucified to a tree which denoted his fructifying 
 power. . . . It is peculiar neither to the Egyptians nor AssyrianSj 
 neither to Greeks, Latins, Gauls, Germans or Hindus." Mr. Cox 
 includes among its various forms the " trident of Poseidon or Proteus, 
 and the fyKot or hammer of Thor, which assumes the form of a cross 
 pattee." Increase of wealth by natural fruition evidently hes at the 
 root of many of the myths which relate to hidden treasures, whether 
 buried in the interior of mountains or elsewhere, as weU as to the 
 properties of magic pm-ses, festive tables, cornucopise, etc. 
 
 The following paragraph appeared in the newspapers in March, 
 1866. It appears, from it, that in the eastern counties the bible has 
 superseded the " wish-rod" as an instrument of divination : — 
 
 "Novel Use foe the Bible. — At the Norwich assizes, on Wednesday, 
 the case of Creak v. Smith was tried. It was an action for slander, 
 the slanderous words imputed to the defendant being as follows: — 
 ' You are the thief, and no other man. You have robbed the father- 
 less and the motherless, and got in at the window. I can prove it by 
 the turn of the Bible.' One of the witnesses for the plaintiff ex- 
 plained what was meant by the expression, ' I'U prove it by the turn 
 of the Bible.' He said that the defendant had told him that a friend 
 of his, having asked him whether he had ever heard anything about 
 the Bible being turned, bade him come to his house and he would 
 show him what it was. That evening, when this person went home, 
 he told his wife what he had said to defendant, and she went through 
 the ceremony, which was done by holding a Bible by a string, twisting 
 
AND POLK-LOEE. 263 
 
 it round, and as it was turning calling out the names of all in the 
 house until she came to the plaintiff's name last of aU, when it turned 
 round the other way, showing that he was the guilty man. This 
 ceremony was performed by her a second time by the husband's 
 bedside, with the same triumphant result. — The jury gave a verdict 
 for 20s. damages." 
 
 Since most of the above was written I have read the following, in Mr. 
 Eobert Hunt's " TroUs, Traditions, and Superstitions of Old Cornwall," 
 which seems to throw a doubt upon the antiquity of the divining rod, 
 at least as far as Cornish mining is concerned. The statement, however, 
 in no way invaHdates the fact that the hazel, ash, and other trees 
 were held in great veneration from the most remote antiquity either 
 in Cornwall or elsewhere : — 
 
 " It may appear strange to many that having dealt with the super- 
 stitions of the Cornish people, no mention has been made of the 
 Divining Eod (the Bowzing Rod, as it is called), and its use in the 
 discovery of mineral lodes. This has been avoided, in the first place, 
 because any mention of the practice of " rfow^ni// " would lead to a 
 discussion, for which this work is not intended ; and in the second 
 place, because the use of the hazel-twig is not Cornish. The 
 divining or dowzing rod is certainly not older than the German miners, 
 who were brought over by Queen Ehzabeth to teach the Cornish 
 to work the mines, one of whom, called Schutz, was some time 
 Warden of the Stannaries. Indeed there is good reason for behoving 
 that the use of this wand is of more recent date, and consequently, 
 removed from the periods which are sought to be illustrated by this 
 collection. The divining rod belongs no more to them than do the 
 modern mysteries of twirhng hats, of teaching tables to turn, and — 
 in their wooden way — to talk." 
 
 Of course, as Mr. Hunt assigns not the good reason referred 
 to for his statement, it can but be regarded as the expression of an 
 individual opinion. It may, perhaps, be locally true, either whoUyor 
 in part. However, whatever may be its value, in such matters it is 
 incumbent on the earnest seeker after truth to conceal no apparently 
 incongruous facts or hostile opinions. 
 
 The writer of an article on " Stick and Table Turning," pubhshed 
 in " All the Year Bound," makes the following comments on the 
 manner in which this superstition exhibits itself during the present 
 generation : — 
 
 " A good deal of attention was paid by the newspapers to certain 
 alleged achievements of two diviners, or dowsers, about twenty years 
 
264 TEADITIONS, SUPEBSTITIONS, 
 
 ago. They were West of England men, named Adams and Mapstone, 
 A farmer near Wedmore, in Somerset, wishing for a supply of water 
 on his farm, apphed to Mapstone. Mapstone used a hazel rod in the 
 u^ual way, and when he came over a particular spot declared that 
 water would be found fifteen or twenty feet beneath the surface. 
 Digging was therefore coromenced at that spot, and water appeared 
 at a depth of nineteen feet. The other expert, Adams, who claimed 
 to have been instrumental ia the discovery of nearly a hundred springs 
 ia the West of England, went one day by invitation to the house of 
 Mr. Phippen, a surgeon, at Wedmore, to dowse for water. He 
 walked about in the garden behind Mr. Phippen' s house untU the 
 stick became so agitated that he could not keep it steady ; it bent 
 down at a spot which he asserted must have clear water underneath 
 it. Mr. Phippen caused a digging to be made, and water was really 
 found at the spot indicated. As a means of testing Adams's powers 
 in relation to metals, three hats were placed in a row in the kitchen, 
 and three sUver spoons under one of the hats. Adams walked among 
 the hats, and his rod told him which of them covered the treasure. 
 Then three kinds of valuables, gold, silver, and jewels, were placed 
 under three hats, one kind under each, and he found out which was 
 which. On one occasion he dowsed for water in the grounds of the 
 Eev. Mr. Poster, of Sodbury, in Gloucestershire. Usiag the same 
 method as before, he announced the presence of water at a particular 
 spot, twenty feet beneath the surface. A pamphlet pubhshed by Mr. 
 Phippen concerning these curious facts attracted the attention of Mr. 
 Marshall, partner in the great flax factory at Leeds. Water was 
 wanted at the mill , and the owners were willing to see whether dows- 
 iug could effect anything in the matter. Mr. Marsha.ll invited Adams 
 to come down and search for springs. On one occasion, when blind- 
 folded, Adams failed, but hit the mark pretty neaarly in the second 
 attempt, excusing himself for the first failure on the ground that ' he 
 was not used to be bUndfolded.' Of the main experiments, Mr. 
 Marshall afterwards said, ia a letter to the newspapers, ' I tested 
 Adams by taking him over some deep borings at our manufactory, 
 where he could have no possible guide from anything he could see ; 
 and he certainly pointed out nearly the position of the springs, as 
 shown by the produce of the bore-holes, some being much more pro- 
 ductive than others. The same was the result at another factory, 
 where Adams could have had no guide from what he saw, and could 
 not have got information otherwise.' " 
 
 This superstition has been imported into Australia, where it seems 
 
AND POLK-LOKE. 265 
 
 to flourish with remarkable vigour, notwithstanding the boasted 
 enlightenment and civilization of the race and age. The following 
 paragraph, which appeared in a Melbourne newspaper in the early 
 part of the year 1867, speaks for itself : — 
 
 " In the area of Kiora, lying to the southward of Ararat, the settlers, 
 who are very anxious to discover springs of water upon their selections, 
 have engaged the services of an old man, apparently between sixty 
 and seventy years of age, who professes to discover springs by the aid 
 of a divining rod. He has already pointed out two spots where he 
 confidently states water will be found at a moderate depth, and the 
 farmers are now engaged in practically proving his skill. We are 
 told that the diviner holds a slender strip of steel between the finger 
 and thumb of both hands, and walks about the land with it in this 
 position. When water is approached, the rod trembles violently, and 
 the motion ceases as the place is left. One of the settlers, Mr. 
 Tom kins, with the view of testing his accuracy, had the diviner 
 blindfolded (after pointing out the spot where water would be found) 
 and taken to another portion of his land, but he states that the motion 
 of the rod led him, with but Uttle hesitation, back to the same place. 
 The old man refuses to take money for his services till water be 
 obtained, and when proved to exist asks £3 from each individual. 
 He states that the rod was owned by his father, and that it wiU not 
 iadicate water in the hands of any of his brothers. While engaged 
 at Kiora he showed some of the farmers letters which he had received 
 from a number of squatters engaging his services on their stations ia 
 a similar capacity ; and he left to fulfil these engagements, with a 
 view of returning for payment when the sinking is concluded. He 
 professes to name within three feet of the depth at which water will 
 be obtained, but cannot say if it will prove fresh or salt." 
 
 A superstition somewhat akin to that in which the divining rod 
 plays so prominent a part, still lingers in various parts of the country. 
 It is beUeved that a loaf of wheaten bread, containing a quantity of 
 quicksilver in its centre,' wiU, on being placed in a running stream, 
 rest over the spot where a drowned body lies. The experiment was 
 tried very recently, and an account of it appeared in the newspapers. 
 In this instance, however, the " faithful believers " were grievously 
 disappointed, as the loaf floated past the spot where the body was 
 afterwards discovered. . 
 
 Another form of this superstition is referred to by Dr. Eandal 
 Caldicot, who, evidently, lacked not faith in its efficacy. He says, — 
 " When any Christian is drowned in the river Dee, there will appear 
 
266 TKADITIONS, SUPBESTITIONS, 
 
 over the water where the corpse is, a light, by which means they 
 do find the body, and it is therefore called the holy Dee." 
 
 Aubrey, in his " Miscellanies, quotes a letter addressed to Mr. 
 Baxter, referring to the Welsh " corpse-candle " superstitions, in 
 which the writer naively says that the light " doth as much resemble 
 a material candlelight as eggs do eggs." 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 
 
 267 
 
 CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 WELL WOBSHIP AND SUPEESTITIONS CONNECTED WITH WATER. 
 
 I can see the place as it was of yore, 
 Wlien its crystal richea would ripple and pour 
 From a fountain channel fresh and dank, 
 'Mid flowering ruBh and grassy bank ; 
 When the pale cheek left the city wall, 
 . And the courtier fled the palace haU, 
 
 To seek the peaceful shadows that fell 
 On the waters of the "Holy Well." 
 
 Some birds came to plume their wing, 
 
 And lave their beaks in the healing spring ; 
 
 And gorgeous butterflies stopp'd to play 
 
 About the place on a sultry day. 
 
 Folks came from the east and came from the west, 
 
 To take at that fountain health and rest ; 
 
 From the north and the south they came to dwell, 
 
 By the far-famed stream of the " Holywell." 
 
 Eliza Cook. 
 
 Perhaps no ancient superstition has had a more enduring existence 
 than what Mr. Hunt terms "well-worship." This may have arisen, 
 to some extent, from the fact that water, under certain conditions, 
 possesses undoubted "medical virtues." The necessity of personal 
 cleanliness to ensure ordinary comfort, and the value of aqueous 
 agency in its achievement, would doubtless exercise some influence, 
 even in remote times. Add to this the horrors of a "water famine," 
 the intense suffering resulting from prolonged thirst, and we can well 
 imagine that the early tribes of men who worshipped fire would 
 feel a corresponding reverence for what may be termed its 
 natural complement — water. The sun's heat was powerless for 
 good, nay, it was potent for evil, unless in close alliance with the 
 "gentle rain from heaven." From their union springs the warm 
 moisture essential to vegetable growth. Water, too, in more modern 
 times, has been largely employed as a symbol of purity ; and, in the 
 Roman Catholic Church, especially, has been consecrated to reUgious 
 purposes, and rendered "holy." It is, indeed, employed by aU 
 Christian sects, in the rite of baptism, as symbohsing purity. Hence 
 
268 TRADITIONS, SUPBESTITIONS, 
 
 it is not surprising that many springs, and especially in the neighbour- 
 hood of religious houses, should in the middle ages have been invested 
 with a sacred character, or that superstition of a more ancient and a 
 heathen origia should yet, as it were, haunt their precincts. On this 
 subject Mr. Eobert Hunt makes the following eloquent and pertinent 
 observations: — "The purity of the liquid impresses itself, through- 
 the eye, upon the mind, and its power of removing aU impurity is felt 
 to the soul. ' Wash and be clean,' is the murmuring caU of the waters, 
 as they overflow their rocky basins, or grassy vases, and deeply sunk 
 in depravity must that man be who could put to unholy uses one of 
 nature's fountains. The iuner Hfe of a well of waters, burstiug frona 
 its grave in the earth, may be rehgiously said to form a type of the 
 soul purified by death, rising into a glorified existence and the fulness 
 of hght. The tranquil beauty of the rising waters, whispering the 
 softest music, Hke the healthful breathing of a sleeping infant, sends 
 a feehng of happiness through the soul of the thoughtful observer, 
 and the inner man is purified by its influence, as the outer man 
 is cleansed by ablution." 
 
 Many such wells as those in connection with the " Old Friary," at 
 Preston, which gave the name to Ladywell-street, in that borough, 
 like that which performed a similar office for the now notorious 
 " HoUyweU street," near the Strand, in London, have passed away, 
 and left nothing behiud but the street nomenclature referred to. 
 Others, however, Hke the St. Mary's weU, at the foot of the hfll on 
 which the old priory of Penwortham was situated, yet retain, in many 
 minds, not only their reputation for the medical value of their waters, 
 but a vague remnant of reverence and even superstition is stUl to a 
 large extent associated with them. 
 
 A spring in the parish of Brindle, near Preston, has some tradi- 
 tionary associations in connection with it which I am inclined to 
 think date back far iato pagan antiquity, nothwithstanding the fact 
 that it has been for centuries named " St. Helen's weU." The name 
 has become corrupted by the neighbouring peasantry in a most sin- 
 gular manner. On my first visit to the locality, I inquired of an 
 elderly woman if she could inform me in what direction I should pro- 
 ceed to find St. Helen's loell. She at first said she had never heard 
 of such a place, but after considerable hesitation she at length ex- 
 claimed with some animation, in the dialect of the district, " Oh ! it 
 ull be Stelling well yo mean, I'll be bun." A writer under the sig- 
 nature, " Leicestriensis," in vol. 6, p. 152, of " Notes and Queries," 
 speaking of a St. Austin's well, near Leicester says : — " On making 
 
AND FOLK-LOKE. 269 
 
 some inquiries, a few years ago, of the ' oldest inhabitant ' of the 
 neighbourhood, respecting St. Augustine's well, he at first pleaded 
 ignorance of it, but at length, suddenly enlightened, exclaimed, ' Oh! 
 you mean Tosting's well.' " Cakes baked for the lace-makers' feasts 
 iu Buckinghamshire, ia honour of St. Andrew, their patron saint, are 
 locally termed " Tandry Cakes." These are both curious and instruc- 
 tive specimens of the manner in which names of places and persons 
 undergo changes ia their transmission from generation to generation 
 by popular tradition. 
 
 , St. Helen's well, which is now sadly neglected, is situated about a 
 mile and a half to the south-west of the -village of Brindle. Dr. 
 Kuerden, who resided in the neighbourhood, thus refers to it, about 
 two centuries ago : — 
 
 " Over against Swansey House, a Httle towards the hiU, standeth 
 an ancient fabric, once the manor house of Brindle, where hath been 
 a chappel belonging to the same, and, a httle above it, a spring of 
 very clear water rushing straight upwards into the midst of a fayre 
 fountain, walled square about in stone and flagged in the bottom, 
 very transparent to be seen, and a strong stream issuing out of the 
 same. The fountain is called Saint Ellen's Well, to which place the 
 vulgar neighbouring people of the Eed letter do much resort, with 
 pretended devotion, on each year upon St. EUen's day, where and 
 when out of a foohsh ceremony they offer or throw into the well pins, 
 which there being left may be seen a long time after by any visitor to 
 that fountain." 
 
 There is a St. Helen's weO, near Sefton, in West Lancashire, into 
 which pins were formerly thrown by the credulous, as at Brindle. 
 
 The superstitions connected with this " pin dropping " into certain 
 wells are somewhat varied in character. They, however, seem to 
 have generally some relation to divination or fortune-telling, and 
 appear to have found their chief patrons in the fair sex. The weU 
 superstitions of this class are widely spread. Dudley CosteUo teUs us 
 that in many parts of Brittany they keep a very watchful eye over the 
 morals of the young women. The fountain of Bobdihs, near Landi- 
 vidian, is famous as an ordeal to test propriety of conduct. The pin 
 which fastens the habit shirt is dropped into the water, and if it touch 
 the bottom with the point dovmwards the girl is freed from all sus- 
 picion ; if, on the contrary, it turns the other way and sinks head 
 foremost, her reputation is irretrievably damaged. 
 
 The author of "Wanderings in Brittany" informs us that there is 
 a "magic well" of this class at or near Barenton, to which peasants 
 
270 TRADITIONS, SUPBESTITIONS, 
 
 yet bring their cliilclren when ill of fever, having faith in the heahng 
 powers of the water. He thus describes the manner in which the 
 deity of the spring is invoked: — " Yon say 'Eis! Eis ! Fontaine de 
 Barenton,' dropping a pin the while into the spring, whereupon it 
 breaks into ripples and bubbles ; if it laughs you are to be fortunate ; if 
 it remains mute you will be unlucky. Tradition and poetry both say 
 the water fizzes around a sword point, but we had nothing larger 
 than pins to try it with, and to these it responded gaily." He adds 
 that " when the country was in great want of rain, a procession 
 was formed to the fountain, and the priest dipped the foot of the cross, 
 out of the church, into the water, after which rain is sure to fall abun- 
 dantly. This ceremony has been successful very lately." The same 
 writer refers to another superstition, in connection with the "magic 
 well," which plainly indicates its pagan origin. He says : — " The 
 peasants beheve the priests can punish them by sprinkling water from 
 the spring on the large stone, the Perron of Merlin, above the well, 
 which brings rain throughout the whole parish for many days." 
 
 " Seleucus," in " Notes and Queries," speaks of a well, with a super- 
 stition connected with it similar to the one at Brindle, in the Welsh 
 peninsula of Gower. It is caUed the " Cefyn Bryn or the Holy Well." 
 He says, "it is stUl supposed to be under the especial patronage of- 
 the Virgin Mary, and a crooked pin is the offering of every visitor to 
 • its sacred precincts. It is beUeved that if this pin be dropped in with 
 fervent faith, aU the many pins which have ever been thrown into it 
 may be seen rising from the bottom to greet the new one. Argue the 
 impossibility of the thing, and you are told, it is true it never happens 
 now, such earnestness of faith being, ' alas !' extinct." 
 
 In the same work, vol. 6, p. 28, Eobert Eawhnson speaks of a sprmg 
 near Wooler, in Northumberland, locally known as " Pin Well." He 
 says " the country maids, in passing this spring, drop a crooked pin 
 into the water. In Westmorland there is also a pin well, into the 
 water of which rich and poor drop a pin in passing. The superstition ^ 
 in both cases consists in the behef that the well is under the charge 
 of a fairy, and that it is necessary to propitiate the little lady by a pre- 
 sent of some sort : hence the pin, as most convenient. The crooked 
 pin of Northumberland maybe explained upon the received hypothesis 
 in folk-lore, that crooked things are lucky things, as a ' crooked six- 
 pence,' &c." 
 
 Mr. Hunt, in his chapter on the " Superstitions of the WeUs," gives 
 numerous examples of its prevalence in the remote West of England. 
 The water in the weU of St. Ludvan formerly miraculously enlarged 
 
AND FOLK-LOKE. * 271 
 
 the sense of sight, and loosened the tongue of the true believer ; but 
 a demon that the good saint, after a terrible struggle, exorcised from 
 out the body of a child and laid in the Eed Sea, in his rage, " by 
 spitting in the water," destroyed • its efficacy in these matters. But 
 it is beheved still that any child baptised in its waters is certain never 
 to succumb to the genius of Calcraft, and his hempen instrument of 
 death. " On a cord of sUk," however, we are informed that " it is 
 stated to have no power." Some years back, notwithstanding, a 
 woman was actually hanged here for the murder of her husband, 
 whom she had poisoned with arsenic in order to clear the way 
 for a more favoured lover. As she was born near the magic well, 
 and was supposed to have been baptised with its waters, the greatest 
 consternation prevailed in the neighbourhood. The much prized 
 fountain had lost its cherished virtue ! What was to be done 
 under such a lamentable state of things ? The necks of the in- 
 habitants would in future be in equal jeopardy with those of the 
 rest of her Majesty's subjects ! It was, however, by some inde- 
 fatigable enquirer, at last discovered that a mistake had been made ; 
 the murderer had not been born in the parish, and consequently had 
 not been baptised with the -Uquid which flowed from the well of St. 
 Ludwiu. Great was the joy of the iahabitants on the receipt of this 
 welcome news. The spring not only recovered its ancient prestige, 
 but became more famous than ever. 
 
 The GulveU Well, in Fosses Moor, answered the demands of lone 
 married women or love-sick spinsters respecting their absent husbands 
 or sweethearts. Mr. Hunt relates how a mother, one Jane Thomas, 
 with her babe in her arms, recently, after a severe mental struggle, 
 obeyed the injunction of an old hag, a " sort of guardian of the well," 
 and tested its efficacy. " She knelt on the mat of bright green grass 
 which grew around, and leaning over the well so as to see her child's 
 face in the water, she repeated after her instructor, 
 
 Water, water, "tell me truly, 
 la the man I love duly 
 , jj! On the earth or under sod. 
 
 Sick or well — in the name of God ! 
 
 Some minutes passed in perfect silence, and anxiety was rapidly 
 turning cheeks and Ups pale, when the colour rapidly returned. There 
 was a gush of clear water from below, bubble rapidly followed bubble, 
 sparkling brightly in the morning sunshiae. Full of joy the young 
 mother rose from her knees and exclaimed, ' I am happy now.' " It 
 appears that if the party inquired after should be sick, the water 
 
272 TRADITIONS, SUPEESTITIONS, 
 
 bubbles, but in a filthy, muddy, condition. If lie should be dead, it 
 remains perfectly quiescent, to the dismay of the person seeking 
 information. 
 
 There is a singular superstition attached to the weU of St. Keyne, 
 " namely, that whichever of a newly-married couple should first drink 
 thereof was to enjoy the sweetness of domestic sovereignity ever after." 
 Eeferring to this superstition, Mr. Hunt says : — " Once, and once 
 only, have I paid a visit to this sacred spot. Then and there I found 
 a lady drinking of the waters from her thimble, and eagerly contending 
 with her husband that the right to rule was hers. The man, how- 
 ever, mildly insisted upon it that he had the first drink, as he had 
 rushed before his wife, and, dipping his fingers into the waters, had 
 sucked them. This, the lady contended, was not drinking, and she, 
 no doubt, through life had the best of the argument." 
 
 There is one weU in Cornwall which has long had a reputation for 
 the cure of insanity. Carew, in his " Survey," describes the formula 
 adopted to ensure a successful result : — " The water running from 
 St. Nun's well fell into a square and enclosed walled plat, which 
 might be filled at what depth they Hsted. Upon this wall was the 
 frantic person put to stand, his back towards the pool, and from 
 thence, with a sudden blow in the breast, tumbled headlong into the 
 pond; where a strong fellow, provided for the nonce, took him and 
 tossed him up and down, alongst and athwart the water, till the 
 patient by foregoing his strength had somewhat forgot his fury. 
 Then was he conveyed to the church, and certain masses said over 
 him ; upon which handling, if his right wits returned, St. Nun had 
 the thanks ; but if there appeared small amendment, he was bows- 
 sened again and again, while there remained in him any hope of life 
 or recovery." 
 
 A well on the line of the Eoman Wall, near WaUtown, in Northum- 
 berland, has two distinct traditions attached to it and its neighbour- 
 hood ! It is locally termed the " King's WeU," or " King Arthur's 
 WeU." Hutchison says : — " TraveUers are shown a weU among the 
 cliffs, where it is said PauUnus baptised King Egbert ; but it is more 
 probable it was Edwin, king of Northumberland." Dr. CoUingwood 
 Bruce says : — " The weU has no doubt been a place of historical in- 
 terest and importance, but unhappUy modern drainage is robbing it 
 of its treasures. Another interesting circumstance is connected with 
 this locahty. In the crevices of the whin-rock near the house chives 
 grow abundantly. The general opinion is that we are indebted for 
 these plants to the Eomans, who were much addicted to the use of 
 
AND rOLK-IiOEE. 279 
 
 these and kindred vegetables. Most of the early writers refer to this 
 subject ; let the reader take a passage from Camden : — ' The fabulous 
 tales of the common people concerning this Wall, I doe wittingly and 
 wilfuUy overpasse. Yet this one thing which I was enformed of by men 
 of good credit, I will not conceals from the reader. There continueth 
 a settled perswasion among a great part of the people there about, 
 and the same received by tradition, that the Eoman soldiers of the 
 marches did plant here every where in old time for their use certain 
 medicinable herbs, for to cure wounds ; whence it is that some emperic 
 practitioners of chirurgery in Scotland, flock here every year in the 
 beginning of summer, to gather such simples and wound-herbes ; the 
 Tertue whereof they highly commend as found by long experience, 
 and to be of singular efficacy.' " 
 
 Many wells have been famous for the cure of " rickety " children. 
 The mothers generally plunged them-Jhree times into the irater, as they 
 drew them three times through the cleft rowan or ash tree, with a 
 similar object. In my youth I remember being solemnly informed, 
 on bathing for the first time at the cold bath below the Maudlands, 
 on Preston Marsh, that three distinct plunges into the fearfully cold 
 Uquid was the orthodox number, especially if medical benefit was the 
 object sought. 
 
 The "Maddern or Madron Well, in Cornwall," and another, appear- 
 to be the only wells in that district that, like the one in Brindle, properly 
 come under the designation of "pin u-elb." The curative propei-ties of 
 the former were held in very high repute. Bishop Hale, of Exeter, 
 relates, in his " Great Mystery of Godliness," a singular anecdote re- 
 specting its presumed miraculous power. Eeferring to the case of a 
 well-known cripple, he says, " This man, for sixteen years, was forced 
 to walke lipon his hands, by reason of the ^ews of his leggs were soe 
 contracted that he cold not goe or walke on his feet, who upon moni- 
 tion in a dream to wash in that well, which accordingly he did, was 
 suddenly restored to the use of his limbs ; and I sawe him both able 
 to walk and gett his own maintenance. I found here was neither art 
 nor collusion — the cure done, author our invisible God," etc. 
 
 In a MS., dated 1777, formerly in the Ubrary of Thomas Artie, 
 Esq., and pubhshed by Davis Gilbert, P.E.S., in his "Parochial 
 History of Cornwall," there is some curious information respecting 
 this class of superstitions, which throws some Ught on the practices, 
 formerly of ordinary occurrence, at St. Helen's WeU, Brindle. The 
 writer says : — 
 
 " In Madron W&U — and, I have no doubt, in many others— may 
 
274 TEABITIONS, SUPEESTITIONS, 
 
 be found frequently the pins which have been dropped by maidens 
 desirous of knowing ' when they were to be married.' I once witnessed 
 the whole ceremony performed by a group of beautiful girls, who had 
 walked on a May morning from Penzance. Two pieces of straw, 
 about an iach long each, were crossed and the pin run through them. 
 This cross was then dropped into the water, and the rising bubbles 
 carefully counted, as they marked the number of years which would 
 pass ere the arrival of the happy day. This practice also prevailed 
 amongst the visitors to the well at the foot of Monacuddle Grove, 
 near St. Austell. On approaching the waters, each visitor is expected 
 to throw in a crooked pin ; and, if you are lucky, you may possibly 
 see the other pins rising from the bottom to meet the most recent 
 offering. Bags and votive offerings to the genius of the waters are 
 hung around many of the weUs." 
 
 We have accounts of similar customs in North Britain and in the 
 Hebrides. J. F. Campbell, in his "Popular Tales of the "West High- 
 lands," says : — " Holy healing wells are common all over the High- 
 lands, and people still leave offerings of pins and naUs, and bits of 
 rag, though few would confess it. There is a weL. in Islay, where I 
 myself have, after drinking, deposited copper caps amongst a hoard 
 of pins and buttons, and similar gear, placed in chinks in the rocks 
 and trees at the edge of the 'Witches WeU.' There is another well 
 with simUar offerings freshly placed beside it, in an island in Loch 
 Meree, in Eoss-shire, and many similar weUs are to be found in other 
 places in Scotland." 
 
 A spring in connection with the ancient abbey at Glastonbury retained 
 its reputation for sanctity and medical virtue untU a very recent period. 
 In consequence of some astounding, or, indeed, miraculous cure sup- 
 posed to have been effected by its agency, immense numbers of 
 invahds flocked to it in the years 1750 and 1751. It is said that, in 
 the month pf May, in the latter year, ten thousand persons visited 
 Glastonbury, under the influence of this superstition. 
 
 Since the above was written, the following paragraph, from the 
 Banffuhire Journal, has come under my notice. It demonstrates the 
 retention to the present day not only of the ancient superstition re- 
 specting weUs, but likewise of some others to which I have referred 
 in previous chapters : — 
 
 "A Modern Scotch Witch. — On the 23rd of February, there 
 died at Mill of Eibrae, parish of Porglen, Margaret Grant, at the 
 advanced age of 69 years ; and as she represented a class which is 
 regarded as becoming very few in number in the present day, two 
 
AND FOLK-LOKB. 275 
 
 or three remarks on the chief features of her character may not be 
 vinaoceptable. Margaret was superstitious, and fully and firmly 
 beUeyed, up to her dying day, that she possessed power to remove or 
 avert the iUs and aliments of both man and beast, especially of the 
 latter; and this by means of various incantations, ceremonies, and 
 appliances — such as fresh cuttings of 'ra'n tree,' some of which she 
 always carried about with her. She would carefully place so many 
 before and so many behind the particular beast she meant to benefit. 
 Another potent charm was what she caUed 'holy water,' taken, no 
 doubt, from some 'old and fabulous well.' This she also generally 
 carried along with her, and used partly in sprinkling the pathway of 
 the individuals she designed to bless — ^the rest to be mixed in common 
 water to wash the hands and face. In the case of such as she was 
 desicous should prosper, and be defended from evil, she would go 
 round and round their dwellings, carrying along a rod of her wonder- 
 working ' ra'n tree' — and this was usually done at a very early hour 
 in the morning. She also believed herself to be transmutable, and 
 that she was at times actually changed by evil-disposed persons into 
 a pony or hare, and rode for great distances, or was hunted by dogs, 
 as the case might be. We have heard of several other strange en- 
 chantments which Margaret practised when she had opportunity, and 
 was allowed. But in aU her foibles there was ever conspicuous the 
 design of doing good." 
 
 Prom this it would appear that Margaret Grant was a witch of the 
 white kind, they having, as I have previously shown, power only for 
 good. The black were potent only for evil, and the grey ones were a 
 combination of the other two. 
 
 I have previously referred to the " well-dressiags," or the decora- 
 tion of springs and fountains, yet very common in some counties, and 
 BBpeeially in Derbyshire, and suggested that they owe their origin to 
 the Eoman Floralia, or to a still older custom, the common Aryan 
 root of both. Crofton Croker speaks of the existence of "well 
 - worship " in Ireland ; Dr. O'Conner, in his " Travels in Persia," 
 notices its prevalence in the East ; and Sir William Betham, in his 
 "Grael and Cymbri," says, "The Celtae were much addicted to the 
 worship of fountains and rivers as divinities." He adds, " They had 
 a deity called Divona, or the river god." It seems, therefore, very 
 clear that this superstition, in one form or another, is not only widely 
 disseminated, but that its origin may, with safety, be ascribed to a 
 very remote period in the history of humanity. 
 
 The deification of rivers and streams appears to have very generally 
 
276 TRADITIONS, SUPBKSTITIONS, 
 
 prevailed amongst the ancients. Young and beautiful ■women, under 
 the general name of Naiads, in the Greek and Eoman mythologies, 
 were beheved to preside over brooks, springs, and rivers. Many of 
 the heroic personages described by the early Greek poeta are said to 
 be the offspring of nymphs of this class. 
 
 Each river was supposed to be under the protection of its presiding 
 deity. Their sources were especially sacred, and religious ceremonies 
 were performed in their immediate vicinity. As at the CUtumnus, 
 so beautifully described by Byron, in " Childe Harold's Pilgrimage," 
 temples were erected near the fountains which gave them birth, and 
 small pieces of money were frequently thrown into their crystal 
 streams with the view to the propitiation of the presiding deities. 
 Sacrifices were offered to them, and no bather was allowed to lave 
 his limbs near the source of any consecrated stream, because the con- 
 tact of the naked body was held to pollute the water. Sir John 
 Lubbock, in his dissertation on the lacustrine dwellings which have 
 recently been discovered ia Alpine districts of Europe, as well as in 
 some other locahties, has the following pertinent observations on this 
 subject : — 
 
 "It has been suggested that the early inhabitants of Switzerland 
 may have worshipped the Lakes, and that the beautiful bracelets, 
 etc., may have been offerings to the gods. In fact, it appears- from 
 ancient writers that among the Gauls, Germans, and other nations, 
 many lakes were regarded as sacred. M, Aymard has^ collected 
 several instances of this kind. According to Cicero, Justin, and 
 Strabo, there was a lake near Toulouse in which the neighbouring 
 tribes used to deposit offerings of gold and silver. Tacitus, VngU, 
 and Pliny also mention the existence of sacred lakes. Again, so 
 late as the sixth century, Gregory of Tours, who is quoted by M. 
 Troyon and M. Aymard, teUs us that on Mount Helanus there was a 
 lake which was the object of popular worship. Every year the in- 
 habitants of the neighbourhood brought to it offerings of clothes, 
 skins, cheeses, cakes, etc. Traces of a similar superstition may stiU 
 be found lingering in remote parts of Scotland and Ireland ; in the 
 former country I have myself seen a sacred spring siuTounded by the 
 offerings of the neighbouring peasantry, who seemed to consider pence 
 and half-pence as the most appropriate and agreeable sacrifice to the 
 spirit of the waters." 
 
 A correspondent of the Inverness Courier states, as recently as last 
 year (1871), that he had recently witnessed a strange instance of the 
 existence of this superstition, " at a loch in the district of Strathnaver, 
 county of Sutherland." The editor says, — 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 
 
 277 
 
 "Dipping in the loch for the purpose of effecting extraordinary 
 cures is stated to be a matter of periodical oocui-rence, and the 14th 
 appears to have been selected as immediately after the beginning of 
 August hi the old style. The hour was between midnight and one 
 o'clock, and the scene, as described by our correspondent, was absurd 
 and disgraceful beyond beUef, though not without a touch of weird 
 interest, imparted by the darkness of the night and the superstitious 
 faith of the people. ' The impotent, the halt, the lunatic, and the 
 tender infant were aU waiting about midnight for an immersion in 
 lioehmanur. The night was cahn, the stars countless, and meteors 
 were occasionally shooting about in all quarters of the heavens above. 
 A streaky white belt could be observed in the remotest part of the 
 firmament. Yet with ah this the night was dark — so dark that one 
 could not recognise friend or foe but by close contact and speech. 
 About fifty persons, all told, were present near one spot, and I beUeve 
 other parts of the loch side were similarly occupied, but I cannot 
 vouch for this — only I heard voices which would lead me so to infer. 
 About twelve stripped and walked into the loch, performing their 
 ablutions three times. Those who were not able to act for them- 
 selves were assisted, some of them being led willingly and others by 
 force, for there were cases of each kind. One young woman, strictly 
 guarded, was an object of great pity. She raved in a distressing 
 manner, repeating rehgious phrases, some of which were very earnest 
 and pathetic. She prayed her guardians not to immerse her, saying 
 that it was not a communion occasion, and asking if they could caU 
 tHs righteousness or faithfulness, or if they could compare the loch 
 and its virtues to the right arm of Christ. These utterances were 
 enough to move any person hearing them. Poor girl ! what possible 
 good could immersion do to her? I would have more faith in a 
 shower-bath appHed pretty freely and often to the head. No male, 
 so far as I could see, denuded himself for a plunge. Whether this 
 was owing to hesitation regarding the virtues of the water, or whether 
 any of the men were ailing, I could not ascertain. These gatherings 
 take place twice a year, and are known far and near to such as put 
 behef in the speU. But the climax of absurdity is in paying the loch 
 in sterling coin. Forsooth, the cure cannot be effected without money 
 cast into the waters ! I may add that the practice of dipping in the 
 loch is said to have been carried on from time immemorial, and it is 
 alleged that many cures have been effected by it.' " 
 
 Some pools, streams, or lakes, such as Acheron and Avernus, were 
 a,ssociated with the infernal regions, or the nether world, and its 
 
278 TRADITIONS, STTPERSTITIONS, 
 
 mythical inhabitants. The mother of the monster Grendel, slain by 
 the Anglo-Saxon hero, Beowulf, aceordiag to the ancient poem, dwelt 
 in the recesses of a bottomless pool, beneath the dark sh£,dow of a 
 dense wood in the neighbourhood of Hartlepool, on the coast of 
 Durham. The Scottish Kelpie is a kind of "mischievous water 
 spirit said to haunt fords and ferries at night, especially in storms." 
 Bums says in his " Address to the DeU :" — 
 
 When thowes dissolve the snawy hoord. 
 An' float the jinglin icy-boord, 
 Then water-kelpies haunt the foord, 
 
 By your direction : 
 An 'nighted travellers are aUur'd 
 
 To their destruction. 
 An' aft your moss-traversing spunkies 
 Decoy the wight that late and drunk is : 
 The bleezin, cm'st, mischievous monkeys 
 
 Delude his eyes. 
 Tin in some miry slough he sunk is, 
 
 Ne'er more to rise. 
 
 In the same poem Bums refers to the devil himself as an aquatic 
 spirit. He says : — 
 
 Ae dreary, windy, winter night, 
 
 The stars shot down wi' sklentin' light, 
 
 Wi' you, mysel I got a fright 
 
 Ayout the lough ; 
 Te, like a rash-bush, stood in sight 
 
 Wi' waving sough. 
 The cudgel in my neive did shake. 
 Each bristl'd hair stood like a stake. 
 When wi' an eldritch, stoor quaick-quaick 
 
 Amang the springs, 
 Awa ye squattered, like a drake. 
 
 On whistling wings. 
 
 Commenting on this poem, Allan Cunningham relates a character- 
 istic anecdote. He says, — " The Prince and Power of the air is a 
 favourite topic of rustic speculation. An old shepherd told me he 
 had, when a boy, as good as seen him. ' I was,' said he, ' returning 
 from school, and I stopped tiU the twilight groping trouts in a hum, 
 when a thunder storm came on. I looked up, and just before me a 
 cloud came down as dark as night — the queerest-shaped cloud I ever 
 saw ; and there was something terrible about it, for when it was close 
 to me, I saw as plain as I see you, a dark form within it, thrice the 
 size of any earthly man. It was the Evil One himself, there's nae 
 doubt o' that. ' Samuel,' I said, ' did you hear his clovenfoot on the 
 ground ? ' ' No,' repUed he, ' but I saw ane of his Jwrns — and 0, 
 
AND FOLK-LOEB. 279 
 
 what waves o' fire were rowing after him ! ' The Devil frequently 
 makes his appearance in our old mysteries, but he comes to 
 work unmitigated mischief, and we part with him gladly. The 
 'Honiie,' ' Satan,' ' Nick,' or ' Clootie,' who Hves in the imaginations 
 of the peasantry, is not quite such a reprobate, though his shape is 
 anything but prepossessing. Nor is he an object of much alarm ; 
 a knowledge of the scriptures and a belief in heaven are considered 
 sure protectors ; and a peasant will brave a suspicious road at mid- 
 night if he can repeat a psalm." 
 
 The horn and the cloven foot in such intimate connection with the 
 descent over the burn of a mysterious dark cloud accompanied by 
 waves of fire, is suggestive of the Aryan thunder and rain clouds and 
 of their attendant Ughtniag god. The peasant's faith in. the efficacy of 
 a psalm in overcoming the evil iofluence is rather corroborative of this, 
 as the superstitious fear for the dethroned gods of the old mythology 
 long survived the introduction of Christianity in the country. It is 
 yet firmly believed ia Lancashire that, after going through some 
 mysterious magic formula, and repeating the Lord's prayer hackwards, - 
 that his' Satanic majesty will appear in the centre of a circle pre- 
 viously defined. In my youth, "raising the devil," was not con- 
 sidered by the knowing ones to be a particularly arduous task ; the 
 getting rid of him, afterwards, was the great difficulty. Some con- 
 tended that the recital of a certain psalm or other passage from the 
 scriptures was alone efficacious. Others held that holy water was 
 his especial abhorrence, and that the repetition of the Lord's prayer, 
 in its proper order, was essential to success. 
 
 I remember well, when very young, being cautioned against ap- 
 proaching to the side of stagnant pools of water partially covered with 
 vegetation. At the time, I firmly believed that, if I disobeyed this 
 instruction, a certain water "boggart " named " Jenny Greenteeth " 
 would drag me beneath her verdant screen and subject me to other 
 tortures besides death by drowning. This superstition is yet very 
 common in Lancashire. 
 
 In "Brother Fabian's Manuscript" there is a description of a 
 water-sprite, which appears to be one of the many singular forms 
 which the memory of the dethroned ^sir god, Wodin or Odin, has 
 assumed in the popular imagination : — 
 
 Where, by the marishes, bloometh the bittern, 
 Niokar, the soullesa one, sits with his ghittem ; 
 Sits inconsolable, friendless and foeless. 
 Waiting his destiny, Niokar the soulleBS. 
 
280 TEADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 Sir Noel Paton, E.S.A., has recently exhibited a picture of this 
 mythic sprite, treated with great esthetic power and poetic sympathy. 
 The colour, the Hght and shade, the surrounding accessories, as 
 well as the quaint melancholy features of the " doomed one," and 
 his still quainter frog-Uke feet, aU combine to leave a single har- 
 monious emotional impression. This is further enhanced by the 
 presence of the partially obscured moon and the solitary star, as 
 well as the sedges and other plants, which, with the lonely bittern, 
 (now extinct in Britain) affect marshy places ; and by the Batrachian 
 reptile which crawls from the water towards the feet of the "fallen 
 god," who, whilst patiently awaiting his destiny, luUs his senses to 
 sleep with the music of his ghittern, a singularly old-fashioned instru- 
 ment apparently allied to the modern guitar. This myth is evidently 
 one form of the popular superstition which connected natural pheno- 
 mena of a peculiar character with the memory of Nickarr (old Nick), 
 or the dethroned Odin of our Teutonic ancestors. Nickarr, it has 
 previously been shown, was one of the appellations pertaining to this 
 deity. 
 
 The Scotch Kelpies were supposed to be delighted with the last 
 agonies of drowning men and of mai'iners in distress. Thomas 
 Landseer, in the notes which accompany his adnurable illustrations 
 of Burns' poem, says : — " It is not twenty years since the piercing 
 shrieks and suppUcations for help, of a passage boat's company, which 
 had been landed on a sandbank at low water, in the Solway Firth, 
 instead of on the Cumberland coast, and who found, as the moon rose 
 and the haze dispersed, that |ihey were in mid-channel, with a strong 
 tide setting fast in upon them, were mistaken by the people, both on 
 the Scotch and EngUsh shores, for the waihngs of Kelpies ! The 
 consequence was that the unhappy people (whose boat had drifted 
 from them before their fatal error was discovered) were drowned ; 
 though nothing had been easier, but for the rooted superstition of 
 their neighbours ashore, than to have effectually succoured them." 
 
 The same writer makes the following sensible observations re- 
 specting the superstitions referred to by Burns. The poet, however, 
 evidently attributed the phenomena to natural causes : — " This pro- 
 pensity to attribute natural effects to supernatural causes is one of 
 the best known and least inteUigible phenomena of the human mind. 
 We are always rejecting the evidence of our senses, to tamper with 
 the imaginary evidence supplied by analogous reasoning upon mere 
 abstract principles. The good wife never dreamed of referring her 
 alarms to the natural objects around her. A humming drone, at 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 281 
 
 twilight by the waters, a, rustling in the leaves of the trees about her 
 cottage — if these did not bespeak the presence of the devil, what the 
 
 i 1 else could they indicate ? Thus our poet proceeds to tell us 
 
 that beyond the same loch, he himself had a visible encounter with 
 something like, indeed, to a hunch of rushes, waving and shaking in the 
 wind ; and after an admirable description of the emotions of fear, by 
 which he was oppressed, he incidentally mentions that the Great 
 Unknown did certainly, with an abrupt and hasty flight, take away 
 Hke a drake ; but even the appropriate note of the fluttering fowl 
 never once awakened his suspicion that it might be the fowl proper 
 and not the foul fiend !" 
 
 M. Du ChaiUu, in his " Journey to Ashango-land," relates a sin- 
 gular legend, beheved in by the natives of Aviia, respecting a series 
 of rapids and a singularly picturesque waterfall which he discovered 
 on the river Ngouyai, and which bears some resemblance to the 
 popular legend about Wayland Smith and to those already referred 
 to. He says : — "Like all other remarkable natural objects, the falls of 
 the Ngouyai, have given rise, in the fertile imaginations of the negroes, 
 to mythical stories. The legend runs that the main falls are the 
 work of the spirit Tougamou, who resides there, and who was in old 
 times a mighty forger of iron ; but the rapids above are presided over 
 by Nagoshi, the wife of Samba, who has spoiled this part of the river 
 ia order to prevent people from ascending and descending. The falls 
 to which the name Samba is given he a good day's journey below the 
 Pougamou, but, from the description of the natives, I concluded they 
 were only rapids Hke the Nagoshi above. The Fougemou is the only 
 great fall of water. It takes its name from the spirit (mbuiri) who 
 is said to have made it, and who watches it constantly, wandering 
 night and day round the falls. A legend on this subject was related 
 to us with great animation by our Aviia guide, to the following effect : 
 In former times people used to go to the falls, deposit iron and char- 
 coal on the river side and say, ' Oh ! mighty Fougamou, I want this 
 ii'on to be worked into a knife or hatchet,' (or whatever implement it 
 might be), and, in the morning, when they went to the place, they 
 found the weapon finished. One day, however, a man and his son 
 went with their iron and charcoal, and had the impertinent curiosity 
 to wait and see how it was done. They hid themselves,— the father, 
 in the hollow of a tree, and the son, amongst the boughs of another 
 tree. Fougamou came with his son and began to work, when sud- 
 denly the son said, ' Father, I smeH the smeU of people ! ' The 
 father replied, ' Of course you smeU people, for does not the iron and 
 
282 TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 charcoal come from the hands of people ? ' So they worked on. But 
 the son again interrupted his father, repeating the same words, and 
 then Fougamou looked round and saw the two men. He roared with 
 rage., and, to punish the father and son, he turned the tree in which 
 the father was hidden into an ant-hill, and the hiding place of the 
 son into a nest of black ants. Since then Fougamou has not worked 
 iron for the people any more." 
 
 In another place, Du Chaillu says, — " I was much amused by the 
 story one of the men related about the dry and wet seasons. The re- 
 markable dryness of the present season had been talked over a good 
 deal, and it was this conversation which led to the story. As usual 
 with the African, the two seasons were personified, Nchanga, being 
 the name of the wet, and Enomo that of the dry season. One day, 
 the story went, Nchanga and Enomo had a great dispute as to which 
 was the older, and they came at last to lay a wager on the question, 
 which was to be decided in an assembly of the people of the air or 
 sky. Nchanga said, ' When I come to a place rain comes.' Enomo 
 retorted, ' "When I make my appearance the rains goes.' The people 
 of the air all listened, and, when the two disputants had ceased, 
 they exclaimed, ' Verily, verily, we cannot tell which is the eldest, 
 you must be both of the same age,' " 
 
AND FOLK-LORE. 283 
 
 CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 OONOLUSION. 
 
 More strange than true. I never may believe 
 
 These antique fables, nor these fairy toys. 
 
 Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, 
 
 Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend 
 
 More than cool reason ever comprehends. 
 
 The lunatic, the lover; and the poet 
 
 Are of imagination all compact ; 
 
 One sees more devils than vast hell can hold ; 
 
 That is the madman : the lover, all as frantic, 
 
 Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt ; 
 
 The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling. 
 
 Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven, 
 
 And, as imagination bodies forth 
 
 The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen 
 
 Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing 
 
 A local habitation and a name. 
 
 Such tricks hath strong imagination : 
 
 That, if it would but apprehend some joy. 
 
 It comprehends some bringer of that joy ; 
 
 Or, in the night, ima^ning some fear. 
 
 How easy is a bush supposed a bear. 
 
 Skakspere. 
 
 In the preceding chapters the chief object I have had in view has 
 been to show that- many superstitions and legends yet, or recently, 
 famihar to the people of onr northern counties, were, like their 
 congeners in other portions of Europe, descendants from one 
 common parentage. I have dealt almost entirely with that species 
 of folk-lore which I think has been originally communicated orally 
 from one generation to another, and not so much with that which 
 may be termed the literary fictions of Europe and the East, except 
 in so far as there is good reason to know that the latter are 
 bunt upon the former. Still Oriental scholars assure us that "many 
 of oiu' best European fictions, as weU siagle stories as whole col- 
 lections, may be traced from Europe to Arabia, and from Arabia 
 to India, and that the Indian form of the story or collection almost 
 invariably hears the marks of an earlier origin than any other form, and 
 
284 TEADITIONS, STJPEESTITIONS, 
 
 appears to be, if not the original form, at least the oldest surviving 
 one."* 
 
 Doubtless many other traditionary observances, now nearly obsolete, 
 might be traced to a similar origin to that which I have ascribed to 
 those treated of in this work. Sufficient, however, I beheve, has 
 been done to demonstrate the fact that many of them are of much 
 greater antiquity than has generally been supposed. A national 
 rehgion may be changed in a relatively short period of time, but 
 superstition and tradition, in some form or other, hold their own 
 amongst the populace for ages after their original significance has 
 perished. t Hallam, referring to the rehgious condition of the 
 Britons at the time of the heptarchy, says " the retention of 
 heathen superstitions was not incompatible, in that age, with a 
 cordial faith" in Christianity. 
 
 The late war in Mexico has afforded a striking modern instance of 
 the truth of this proposition. The Christianity of the native Mexican 
 Indians, according to a writer in the Pall Mall Gazette (July, 1867), 
 "is of a very crude and undeveloped kind, and indeed it is very 
 doubtful whether in some parts of the country it has ever really 
 eradicated the old reUgion. But it is quite certain that it has not eradi- 
 cated the old superstitions. Just as many Pagan feasts in Southern 
 Italy have been converted into Christian feasts by mere change of 
 name, so has the Christianity of the Mexicans been grafted on to their 
 old behef and superstitions, and although they may not quite have 
 beheved that the arrival of the Emperor Maximilian was reaUy the 
 
 * Penny Cyclop., article Syntipas. — Syntipas is tlie "title of a collection of stories 
 written in Greek, and bearing the name of Michael Andreopulus, but the collection 
 is evidently translated from an Oriental work. . . Many of the stories of Syntipas 
 are found in an Arabic manuscript of the 'Arabian Nights,' in the British Museum. 
 The whole style of the stories points evidently to an Indian origin." The same may 
 be said of the collection named Pancha Tantra, the original of the Eablea of Pilpay, 
 and some other Indian stories." 
 
 t Sir John Lubbock, in his " Pre-historic Times," says, — "Nor vnll tradition 
 supply the place of history. At best it is untrustworthy and short-lived. Thus in 
 1770 the New Zealanders had no recollection of Tasman's visit. Yet this took place 
 in 1643, less than 130 years before, and must have been to them an event of the 
 greatest possible importance and interest. In the same way the North American 
 Indians soon lost all tradition of De Soto's expedition, although 'by its striking 
 incidents it was so well suited to impress the Indian mind.'" This is no doubt true 
 in relation to many matters which leave behind no religious or superstitious element. 
 When this, however, is superadded, tradition becomes, as Dasent expresses it, re- 
 markable for its toughness, or enduring vitahty. Other authorities say, however, that 
 on Cook's arrival, the tradition of Tasman's visit was preserved amongst the natives 
 of the Tonga or Friendly Islands. 
 
AND FOLK-LOBE. 285 
 
 fulfilment of the long promised second advent of their ancient god 
 Quetzalcoatle, yet he nevertheless had a white face and a yellow 
 beard, and came from the West in a ship, and was of an illustrious 
 descent, and there is no doubt of the fact that the Mexican Indians 
 received him with open arms, and with a more or less superstitious 
 veneration, looking to him for the regeneration of their country and 
 for a release from the dominion of the Spanish Creoles." 
 
 The Maories, hke several branches of the Aryan race, deified, 
 during hfe, some of their own warriors. "Watches and white men 
 also were at first regarded as deities ; the latter," says Sir John 
 Lubbock, " not perhaps unnaturally, as being armed with thunder 
 and hghtning." The Dyaks of Sarawak regard the late Sir James 
 Brooke as a species of deity. After explaining the conditions under 
 which they Uved previous to his advent amongst them, and the vast 
 amehoration in the conditions of their existence attendant upon his 
 rule, Mr. Alfred Eussel Wallace, in his "Malay Archipelago," says, — 
 
 " And the unknown stranger who had done all this for them, and 
 asked for nothing in return, what could he be ? How was it possible 
 for them to reahse his motives ? Was it not natural that they should 
 refuse to beheve he was a man ? for of pure benevolence combined 
 with great power, they had had no experience amongst men. They 
 naturally concluded that he was a superior being, come down upon 
 earth to confer blessings upon the afflicted. In many villages where 
 he had not been seen, I was asked strange questions about him. 
 Was he not as old as the mountains ? Could he not bring the dead 
 to hfe ? And they firmly beheve that he can give them good harvests, 
 and make then- fruit trees bear an abundant crop." 
 
 Historians are now pretty generally satisfied, from the combined 
 evidences of philology, ethnology, and tradition, that the bulk of the 
 European nations had a common origin in the East, and that some 
 Asiatic tribes are descendent from the same original stock. I am not, 
 however, insensible to the value of the fact that the early action and 
 thought of all tribes or nations present a certain amount of resem- 
 blance, on account of the similar conditions to which each has been 
 subjected. The aborigines of Austraha, the South Sea Islands, and 
 America, procured fire by means of an instrument similar to the 
 "chark" of the modern Hindoos and their Aryan ancestors, but they 
 did not give it the same name. The modern Jews, of Semitic origin, 
 sacrifice the common fowl on the eve of the Feast of the Atonement. 
 The belief in the mystical character of chanticleer is equally shared by 
 the Lancashire and Cornish peasant, the Norseman, the Welshman, 
 
286 TEADITIONS^ SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 the ancient Eoman, the modern Hindoo, and some of the North- 
 African tribes. Mr. Lapham, in describing the "Animal Mounds" of 
 Wisconsin, speaks of one carved into the shape of a great serpent, 
 in Adams County. He says, — " Conforming to the curve of the hUl, 
 and occupying its very summit, is the serpent, its head resting neaj: 
 the point, and its body ■winding back for seven hundred feet, in 
 graceful undulations, terminatiug in a triple coU at the tail. The 
 entire length, if extended, would be not less than one thousand 
 feet. . . . The outHne of the work is clearly and boldly defined. 
 . . . The neck of the serpent is stretched out, and sHghtly 
 curved, and its mouth is opened wide, as if in the act of swaUowiug 
 or ejecting an oval figure, which rests partially within the distended 
 jaws. This oval is formed by an embankment of earth, without any 
 perceptible opening, four feet in height, and is perfectly regular in 
 outHne, its transverse and conjugate diameters being one hundred 
 and sixty, and eighty feet, respectively." This looks, certainly, very 
 like the gigantic Scotch serpent mound, referred to at page 51 of this 
 work, and the huge worm hUls of Durham and the North of Eng- 
 land. Sir John Lubbock has treated this branch of the subject 
 exhaustively in his recent work on "The Origin of Civilization and 
 the Primitive Condition of man." 
 
 The Arabs and other Semitic tribes worshipped the sun as well as 
 the Aryans. The sun and fire worship, likewise, was found to obtaia 
 in more than one state on the discovery of South America. Many 
 writers have arrived at the conclusion that "there was communi- 
 cation between the Old World and America in very remote times." 
 Mr. Baldwin (Prehistoric Nations, p. 393) contends that " the 
 antiquities of Mexico and Central America reveal reUgioiis symbols, 
 devices, and ideas nearly identical with those found in all countries of 
 the Old World where Cushite communities formerly existed. They show 
 us planet worship with its usual orphic and phallic accompaniments. 
 Humboldt, having traveled in America, and observed remains of these 
 civihzations, was convinced that such communications formerly 
 existed. He found evidence of it in the reUgious symbols, the architec- 
 ture, the hieroglyphics, and the social customs made manifest by the 
 ruins, which he was sure came from the other side of the ocean ; and, 
 in his view, the date of this communication was older than ' the present 
 division of Asia into Chinese, Mongols, Hindus,' etc. Humboldt did 
 not observe symbols of phaUic worship, but the Abbe Brasseur de 
 Bourbourg shows that they were described by Spanish writers at the 
 time of the Conquest. He points out that they were prevalent in the 
 
AND POLK-LORE. 287 
 
 countries of Mexico and Central America, being very abundant at 
 Colliuaoan, on the Gulf of California, and at Panuco. Colbuacan was 
 a flourishing city, and the capital of an important kingdom ; ' there,' 
 he says, 'phallic institutions had existed from time immemorial.' At 
 Panuco phallic symbols abounded in the temples and on the pubhc 
 monuments. These, with the serpent devices, the sun worship, and 
 the remarkable knowledge of astronomy that existed in connection 
 with them, show a system of rehgion of which the Abbe is constrained 
 to say : ' Asia appears to have been the cradle of this rehgion, and of 
 the social institutions which it consecrated.' " The ancient traditions 
 preserved by the inhabitants seem to countenance this view. They 
 speak of a race of "bearded white men who came across the ocean 
 from the East." 
 
 A writer in a recent number of the Gentleman's Magazine has the 
 foUowing pertinent remarks on this curious and interesting subject: — 
 " One fact corroborative of the idea that the Old World, or at least 
 some of the inhabitants of Asia, were once aware of the existence 
 of America before its discovery by Columbus, is that many of the 
 Arabian ulema with whom I have conversed on this subject are fully 
 convinced that the ancient Arabian geographers knew of America ; 
 and, in support of this opinion, point to passages in old works in 
 which a country to the west of the Atlantic is spoken of. An Arab 
 gentleman, a friend of mine, General Hussein Pasha, in a work he 
 has just written on America, called 'En-Nesser-Et Tayir,' quotes 
 from Djeldeki and other old writers to show this." 
 
 This writer favours the view that the Chinese, at a very remote 
 period, became acquainted with the American continent, via the Pacific 
 Ocean. Some writers regard the inscription on the celebrated Dighton 
 rock, on the east bank of the Taunton river, as Phoenician. This, 
 however, has been disputed. Others regard it as commemorative of 
 an Indian triumph at some remote period. 
 
 Dr. Charles Frederick Winslow, in his recently pubHshed work, 
 "Force and Nature," expresses himself strongly in favour of the 
 truth of the presumed ancient communication between the Asian 
 and the American continents. He says : — 
 
 " In order to sustain this position, I might, were it admissible, 
 adduce here, as collateral proof, an important and hitherto un- 
 pubhshed fact, of an archaeological character, in addition to my 
 geographical and geological observations made upon the coasts and 
 islands of the Pacific Ocean. The fact is this, brought to my know- 
 ledge- by an unusually extensive practice of my profession, that a 
 
288 TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 uniform custom of dorsocision has existed throughout the Polynesian 
 islands from periods unknown, and beyond all tradition, embracing 
 alike New Zealand, Esther Island, Tahiti, the Marquesas, and 
 Hawaii — a rite wholly different from, but similar in its results to, the 
 Jewish one of circumcision ; and that this has been performed at 
 the eighth or ninth year in all of them, and transmitted by father to 
 ^on, with undeviating precision, from generation to generation. A 
 fact of this character so deeply rooted in the moral, social, and tra- 
 ditional life of many peoples thus widely distributed throughout that 
 vast ocean, so remotely separated from each other, and without inter- 
 course, indicates even more strongly than colour, caste or language, 
 not only the unity of their progenitors, but also the widespread 
 existence of a single race, the vestiges of which were left here and 
 there above the waters when the land sank between America and 
 Asia, and received the older seas into a new basin." 
 
 Various hypotheses have been suggested as to the direction in 
 which the flora of the "Old World," and especially of the mioeene 
 division of the tertiary formations, migrated to America, or vice versa. 
 Heer, the celebrated Swiss naturalist, favours the Atlantic route, and 
 regards certain important relations between the fauna of the con- 
 tinents of Europe and America as corroborative, to some extent, at 
 least, of the truth of the statement of the Egyptian priests to Plato, 
 that there, at one time, existed a continent named Atlantis, in the 
 midst of the space now occupied by the Atlantic ocean. Sir Charles 
 LyeU, however, on geological grounds, dissents from this view, and 
 rather inclines to the one propounded by Dr. Asa Gray and Mr. Ben- 
 tham, that the route of the migration was in the opposite or Pacific 
 direction, " and took a course four times as long across America and 
 the whole of Asia." LyeU says, — "It is the enormous depth and 
 width of the Atlantic which makes us shrink from the hypothesis of 
 a migration of plants, fitted for a sub-tropical climate in the Upper 
 Miocene period, from America to Europe, by a direct course from 
 west to east. Can we not escape from this difiiculty by adopting the 
 theory that the forms of vegetation common to recent America and 
 Miocene Europe, first extended from east to west across North 
 America and passed thence by Behring's Straits and the Aleutian 
 Islands to Kamtschatka, and thence by land, placed between the 40th 
 and 60th parallels of latitude where the Kurile Islands and Japan are 
 now situated, and thence to China, from which they made their way 
 across Asia to Europe ?" 
 
 Mr. Consul Plowden, in a report to the Earl of Clarendon, a few 
 
AND FOLK-LOEB. 289 
 
 years ago, mentions some Abyssinian superstitions which much 
 resemble others of Aryan origin. Although the Abyssinians are said 
 to be descended from the Semitic* branch of the human family, it 
 must not be forgotten that Christianity has prevailed amongst them 
 from a very early period; and, consequently, sympathetic iatercourse 
 must have taken place in the less remote past between them and some 
 of the offshoots of the Aryan stock. Mr. Plowden says, — 
 
 " The Abyssinians are superstitious; they behave in the efficacy of 
 amulets ; of writings in jargon mixed with Scripture ; iu the charms of 
 Mussulmans to control the haU and the rain ; in spirits of the forest 
 and the river ; in omens ; in fortune-tellers ; and in devils that may 
 be cast out by spells from their human victims, quoting the authority 
 of the New Testament for their behef — to these they attribute epilepsy 
 and other incurable diseases. One absurdity has, however, led to the 
 death of many innocent individuals ; all workers in iron, and some 
 others, are supposed to convert themselves into hyenas, and to prey 
 invisibly on their enemies, and many have been slaughtered in this 
 belief. This singular idea, which is universal and tenacious, has its 
 parallel ia the ' loup-garou ' of France and the ' wehr-wolf ' of 
 Germany." 
 
 Speakiag of the natives of Minahasa, the north-east promontory of 
 the island Celebes, in the Malayan Archipelago, Mr. Eussel Wallace, 
 after commending their modern quaUties, refers to their original con- 
 dition when first discovered by Europeans. He says, — 
 
 " Their rehgion was that naturally engendered in the undeveloped 
 human mind by the contemplation of grand natural phenomena and 
 the luxuriance of tropical nature. The burning mountain, the torrent 
 and the lake, were the abode of their deities ; and certain trees and 
 birds were supposed to have especial influence over men's actions and 
 destiuy. They held wild and exciting festivals to propitiate these 
 deities or demons ; and believed that men could be changed by them 
 into animals, either during life or after death." 
 
 These superstitions would themselves suggest some remote con- 
 nection with India ; and, singularly enough, Mr. Wallace, in his map 
 of the Malay Archipelago, just includes them within the boundary 
 line which divides the Hindoo-Malayan from the Austro-Malayan 
 region of this district. Indeed, as has been before observed, he shows 
 
 ' This is denied, however, as we have ak-eady seen, by Mr. Baldwin, who traces 
 the ancient Ethiopians, as weU as the Egyptians and Phoenicians, from the Cushites 
 of Arabia. 
 
 T 
 
290 TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 that in the neighbouring island of Bali, the religion of the Brahmins 
 still obtains, and that magnificent ruins of their temples stUl exist in 
 the island of Java. Therefore it is not improbable some of these now 
 reclaimed savages may be only degenerate descendants from the 
 origiaal Hindoo-Aryan stock. 
 
 There is doubtless much force ia HaUam's observation that "simi- 
 larity of laws and customs may often be traced to natural causes in 
 the state of society rather than to imitation." Yet the strong 
 tendency of all humanity to imitation of every kind, the "toughness 
 of tradition," and the longevity of superstitious belief, are neverthe- 
 less equally powerful agents in the mental development of humanity, 
 and demand the most careful consideration and regard, when the 
 nature and character of progressive civilization, in any age or 
 country, is subjected to philosophical analysis. 
 
 It will be seen from the preceding chapters, that many traditions and 
 superstitions appear iasensibly to ghde iato each other. Sometimes 
 two or more seem, as it were, to overUe one another, or to have 
 become indeed even more intimately compounded. With regard to 
 superstitions, this is very apparent in those which relate to witchcraft, 
 werewolves, transformations, the furious host, the spectre huntsman, 
 giants, heroes, tyrant lords, etc. This is paralleled by many traditionary 
 beliefs both general and local. In whatever part of the country stands 
 a ruined castle or abbey or other reUgious establishment, the nearest 
 peasant or even farmer, wiU assure an enquirer that it was battered into 
 ruin by Oliver Cromwell ! Here the secretary Cromwell, of Henry the 
 Eighth's reign, and the renowned Protector of the following century 
 are evidently amalgamated. Indeed the redoubted Oliver himself seems 
 to have absorbed all the castle-destroying heroes of the national history. 
 Old Time included. The Arthur legends appear to have been con- 
 structed upon a somewhat similar principle. At the " pass of the 
 Eibble," near Preston, the site of Cromwell's victory over the Duke 
 of Hamilton, every human skull which is dug up or washed by the 
 swollen river from out of its banks, is beUeved to pertain to a " Scotch 
 warrior " who feU in that battle. Scottish armies have crossed the 
 pass on several occasions from the days of Athelstan to those of the 
 " Young Pretender," but tradition has fused them nearly all into one. 
 
 The sites of ruined churches, abbeys, etc., are believed yet to 
 entomb the ancient edifices, and superstitious people say that, by 
 applying the ear to the earth at midnight, on Christmas eve, they 
 can hear the bells ringing. It is not unHkely, when this practice 
 was a common one, that the sound of some distant bells might occa- 
 
AND FOLK-LORE. 291 
 
 sionally be feebly conducted by the earth, and give countenance to 
 this very universal superstition. The strength of this species of 
 traditionary faith was forcibly illustrated, a few years ago, at the 
 "Maudlands," Preston. Historical records and dispovered remains, 
 as well as tradition, marked the locality as the site of a Mediseval 
 Hospital, dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen. A " square mound," 
 evidently an artificial earthwork, was a conspicuous object. Learned 
 antiquaries regarded this as of Boman construction, although no 
 actual remains had been discovered to attest the truth of the conjec- 
 ture. Popular superstition, however, declared that the mound re- 
 sulted from the pressure of the steeple of the church of the Hospital, 
 which was entombed beneath it, and that the truth of this could be 
 attested on any Christmas-Eve by the experiment referred to. 
 Doubts being entertained as to the Koman character of the work, 
 some local antiquaries caused excavations to be made in the mound. 
 So prevalent was this superstition, that, on the discovery of a small 
 brick chamber, scores of people eagerly visited the spot, and retired 
 fuUy convihced they had seen a portion of the steeple of the sunken 
 edifice, and that its discovery demonstrated the truth of the ancient 
 tradition! Singularly enough, in this instance, " antiquarianism " 
 and " folk-lore " proved equally at fault. Eemaius of pottery, bulbous 
 shaped tobacco pipe bowls, called by the populace both " fairy pipes" 
 and"CromweU pipes," etc., together with documentary and other 
 evidence, enabled me, in my " History of Preston and its Environs," 
 to demonstrate that the mound in question was the most modern 
 structure then on the ground ; that it formed part of the defences of 
 Preston constructed by Colonel Eosworm, after the capture of the town 
 by the Parhamentary troops under Sir John Seaton, in 1643; and that 
 the small brick chamber, in all probability, was the remains of a 
 powder and "match" magazine. However satisfactory this appears 
 to intelligent historical students and general readers, still the sunken 
 church and the Christmas-Eve bell-ringing yet finds favour with some 
 not otherwise ignorant persons. A precisely similar legend is im- 
 pUcitly believed by many in connection with the Boman outwork on 
 Mellor HiU, on the line of ancient road from Manchester to Eibchester. 
 Ancient castles and monasteries were supposed to have under- 
 ground means of intercommunication. One tradition of this class, 
 near Preston, presents some remarkable features. In my youth I 
 and the public generally firmly believed that some such work as 
 the celebrated "Thames tunnel" had, ages ago, been constructed 
 beneath the bed of the Bibble and its broad vaUey, to enable the 
 
292 TKADITIONS, SUPEBSTITIONS, 
 
 monks at Tulketh to comrminicate with the inmates of the priory 
 on the opposite table land at Penwortham. In the "History of 
 Preston and its Environs," I have endeavoured to sift out the little 
 truth that may underHe this strange tradition. Finding good evi- 
 dence that each of these promontories had been occupied as outposts 
 or specula in connection with the Koman station at the " Pass of 
 the Eibble,." previously referred to, I have suggested that it is not 
 improbable the results of the rude system of telegraphy then in 
 use would be sufficient to utterly confound the ignorant peasantry 
 of the day, who would be unable to account for the rapid commimi- 
 cation of intelligence except by means of a secret underground passage. 
 The monks from Evesham, on the estabhshment of their " cell " at 
 Penwortham, might, from pohcy, countenance the tradition of their 
 predecessors, especially in troubled times, on account of the impression 
 of power which such a beHef would naturally engender amongst the 
 more ignorant of the population. This way of accounting for the trans- 
 mission of secret information and even war material is by no means an 
 uncommon one amongst uneducatedpeople in various parts of the world. 
 In Abyssinia, according to Mansfield Parkyns, the people firroly beheve 
 that the German missionaries had " in the course of only a few 
 days, perforated a tunnel all the way (from Adowa) to Massowa, on 
 the coast of the Bed Sea, a distance of above a hundred and fifty 
 mUes, whence they were to obtain large supplies of arms, ammuni- 
 tion, etc." 
 
 In the churchyard at Eibchester the remains of a Eoman temple 
 dedicated to Minerva have been discovered. Long before this, how- 
 ever, a singular tradition was current respecting it. Leland, King 
 Henry the Eighth's antiquary, after visiting the spot, says : — " Ther 
 is a place wher the people fable that the Jues had a Temple." 
 Doubtless the edifice discovered in the early part of the present century 
 was the temple referred to. In the middle period of Christianity in 
 England, the only old, or indeed, different religion to their own, 
 known to the mass of the people, would be the Jewish. Hence the 
 confounding of the Pagan Romans with their Israehtish successors. 
 
 The Athenmum (Feb. 1868) contained the following paragraph, 
 which affords a marked modern illustration of this tendency to the 
 confusion of various traditions in the popular mind : — 
 
 " Samson Mohammedan. — At Miss Heraud's reading of ' Samson 
 Agonistes,' the Eev. Henry AUon, who presided, mentioned a fact 
 illustrative of the way in which tradition deals with ancient legends. 
 As he stood on the site of the Temple of Gaza, two learned Mussul- 
 
AND POLK-LOEE. 293 
 
 mans assured Mr. AUon that Samson was not a Jew but a Mussulman, 
 and that he puUed down the temple, not on the head of the PhUistines, 
 but on that of the assembled Christians who had persecuted the 
 Mohammedans." 
 
 I have before observed that the European languages referred to are 
 not asserted to have sprung from the Sanscrit, but that aU, on the contrary, 
 have a common source. The Vedic hymns, however, are the oldest 
 preserved specimens of any of these cognate tongues.* Considerable 
 change must have taken place in the southern Ai-yan speech before 
 the period when they were written ; yet they retain to a great extent, 
 reUable evidence of the common origin of the languages referred to. 
 Max Muller is very explicit on this subject. He says, — 
 
 "Even in the Veda, where dyu occurs as a masculine, as an active 
 noun, and discloses the same germs of thought which in Greece and 
 Eome grew iato the name of the supreme god of the firmament, Dyu, 
 the deity, the lord of heaven, the ancient god of light, never assumes 
 any powerful mythological vitahty, never rises to the rank of a supreme 
 deity. In the earlier Usts of Vedic deities, Dyu is not included, and 
 the real representative of Jupiter in the Veda is not Dyu, but Indra, 
 a name of Indian growth, and unknown in any other independent 
 branch of Aryan language. Indra was another conception of the 
 bright sunny sky, but, partly because its etymological meaning was 
 obscured, partly through the more active poetry and worship of cer- 
 tain Eishis, this name gained a complete ascendancy over that of 
 Dyu, and nearly extinguished the memory in India of one of the 
 earhest, if not the earliest, name by which the Aryans endeavoured 
 to express their first conception of the deity. Originally, however, 
 and this is one of'the most important discoveries which we owe to 
 the study of the Veda — originally Dyu was the bright heavenly deity 
 in India as well as ia Greece." 
 
 The early mythology of the Aryans, and doubtless of aU other 
 savage nations, was more or less a species of, perhaps unconscious, an- 
 thropomorphism or a personification of the powers or forces of nature. 
 This is beautifully illustrated by a superstition yet existant among 
 
 * la Chapter I. I have referred to the reported discovery hy the French savan, 
 M. Lejean, of a spoken language between Kashmir and Affghanistan containing 
 dder idioms than Sanscrit, and nearer in affinity to the cognate European 
 tongues. At a recent meeting of the Philological Society, Professor Goldstiloker 
 mentioned, as a curious fact, that, in old Sanscrit musical manuscripts, the word laya 
 occurs with the same meaning as in French and English. The word iaj/a has not yet 
 found its way into any Sanscrit glossary. 
 
294 TEADITIONS, SUPEBSTITIONS, 
 
 the Ojibbeway Indians in North America. North-west of Fort Garry 
 lies the lake Manitobah, which has recently given its name to the new 
 province formed out of the Bed Eiver region. This name is derived 
 from the circumstance that a "mysterious voice" is said to be 
 occasionally heard at night in a small island in its midst. The 
 Indians never approach it, believing it to be the home of the 
 Manitobah, or the " Speaking God." The " voice " is said to result, 
 as in the case of Charybdis, from the beating of the waves upon the 
 rooks and shingle of the shore. One writer says : — " Along the 
 northern coast of the island there is a long low clifiP of fine grained 
 compact limestone, which, under the stroke of the hammer, chnks 
 like steel. The waves beating on the shore at the foot of the cliff 
 cause the fallen fragments to rub agaiast each other, and to give out, 
 a sound resembling the chimes of distant church bells. This pheno- 
 menon occurs when the gale blows from the north, and then, as the 
 winds subside, low, wailing sounds, like whispering voices, are heard 
 in the air. Travellers assert that the effect is very impressive, and 
 they have been awakened at night under the impression that they 
 were Ustening to church bells."* 
 
 The kind of personification referred to would, in the case of pri- 
 meval man, have certainly but a very remote affinity to that con- 
 scious artistic personification employed by the cultivated poets and 
 sculptors of after ages. Mr. G. W. Cox, in his "Mythology of the 
 Aryan Nations," presents this distinction in very forcible language. 
 He says, — 
 
 " The sun would awaken both mornful and inspiriting ideas, ideas 
 of victory and defeat, of toil and premature death. He would be the 
 Titan, strangling the serpents of the night before he drove his chariot 
 up the sky ; and he would also be the being who, worn down by 
 unwilling labour undergone for men, sinks wearied into the arms of 
 
 * How charmingly this is illustrated by the childish faith with which we have, all 
 placed large whelk or other univalve shells to the ear, and, after listening with 
 wonder for a time at the musical murmurings there heaxd, exclaimed that the tide was 
 then flowing landward. Wordsworth refers to this in the following beautiful lines : — 
 
 I've seen 
 
 A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract 
 
 Of inland ground, applying to his ear 
 
 The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell. 
 
 To which, in silence hush'd, his very soul 
 
 Listened intently ; for murmuring from within 
 
 Were heard sonorous cadences, whereby. 
 
 To his belief, the monitor expressed 
 
 Mysterious union with its native sea. 
 
AND rOLK-LOEE. ■ 295 
 
 the mother who bore him in the morniag. Other images would not be 
 wanting ; the dawn and the dew and the violet clouds would not be 
 less real and living than the sun. In his rising from the east he 
 would quit the fair dawn, whom he should see no more till his labour 
 drew towards its close. And not less would he love and be loved by 
 the dew and by the morning herself, while to both his Ufe would be 
 fatal as his fiery car rose higher in the sky. So would man speak of 
 aU other things also ; of the thunder and the earthquake and the 
 etorm, not less than of summer and of winter. But it would be no 
 personification, and still less would it be an allegory or metaphor. It 
 would be to him a veritable reality, which he examined and analysed 
 as httle as he reflected on himself. It would be a sentiment and a 
 beUef, but in no sense a religion." 
 
 In other words, primEeval savages did not work artistically, but 
 simply observed, thought, and expressed themselves in the only 
 manner in which they were able. 
 
 Kelly describes the usual course of a myth as " beginning in a 
 figurative explanation of meteoric facts, it next became a hieratic 
 mystery, and then descended from the domain of religion to that of 
 magic and popular story." 
 
 I have previously observed that the word " Edda," the title of the 
 work which records the wild mythical cosmogany of the Scandinavian 
 race, (a mixture of oriental and northern legend), means " Mother of 
 Poetry." Language itself is largely made up of figures of speech, or 
 as Jean Paul Eichter says it is a " dictionary of faded metaphors," 
 the original meaning of which is fully understood but by the philolo- 
 gist. It is not surprising, therefore, that the unknown should, tinder 
 certain conditions, be figuratively described by means of the known, 
 or that personifications of this class eventuated in the belief in 
 absolute personal existences, in the minds of doubtless well-meaning, 
 but, nevertheless, ignorant men. A few verses from H. H. Wilson's 
 translation of the Vedic hymns will show the nature of this per- 
 sonification : — 
 
 "Dyaus (Sky) father, and Prithivi (Earth) kind mother,* Agni 
 (Fire) brother, ye Vasus (Bright ones) have mercy on us." 
 
 ■ " How long is it that the dawns have risen ? How long wUl they 
 rise? 
 
 * May not this Prithivi be the forerunner of the Greek Demeter and the Roman 
 Ceres, as weU as of the harvest qneen, or " kern-baby," and the "meU-doU" of the 
 autnmnal festivals of the North of England? 
 
296 TRADITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS, 
 
 "Those mortals who beheld the pristine Ushas dawning have 
 passed away : to us she is now visible, and they approach who will 
 behold her in after times. 
 
 " Ushas, endowed with truth, who art the sister of Bhava, the 
 sister of Varuna, be thou hymned first of the gods. 
 
 " Unimpeding divine rites, although wearing away the ages of man- 
 kind, the dawn shines the Hkeness of the mornings that have passed, 
 or that are to be for ever, the first of those that are to come. 
 
 " She shines upon us like a young wife, rousing every hving being 
 to go to his work. The fire had to be kindled by men : she brought 
 hght by striking down darkness. 
 
 " She rose up, spreading far and wide, and moving towards every 
 one she grew in brightness, wearing her brilliant garment. The 
 mother of the cows, the leader of the dogs, she shone gold-coloured, 
 lovely to behold. 
 
 " She, the fortunate, who brings the eye of the god, who leads the 
 white and lovely steed (of the sun), the Dawn was seen revealed by 
 her rays, with brilliant treasures she foUows every one. 
 
 " Thou, who art a blessing when thou art near, drive far away the 
 unfriendly ; make the pastures wide, give us safety. Eemove the 
 haters, bring treasures. Eaise up wealth to the worshipper, thou 
 mighty Dawn. 
 
 " Shine for us with thy best rays, thou bright Dawn, thou who 
 lengthenest our life, thou the love of all, who givest us wealth in cows, 
 horses, and chariots." 
 
 Max Miiller thus further illustrates the process of the transition 
 referred to : — 
 
 " To us it is clear that the story of Zeus descending as a golden 
 rain into the prison of Danae was meant for the bright sky delivering 
 the earth from the bonds of winter, and awaking in her a new hfe by 
 the golden showers of spring. Many of the stories that are told 
 about the love of Zeus for human and half human heroines have a 
 similar origin.* The idea which we express by the phrase, " King 
 
 * How beautifully and how truly has Eliza Cook expressed this sentiment, withou 
 any reference to, or even knowledge of, the philologist's interpretation of the Grecian 
 or Aryan myth, in one stanza, in her poem entitled " A Thing of Beauty is a Joy for 
 ever " : — 
 
 Oh ! " beautiful for ever " is the sheen 
 
 Of April's sun, that, with a bridegroom's smile, 
 Nestles in nature's breast of balmy green ; 
 With larks to sing a marriage song, the while 
 
AND FOLK-LOEE. 297 
 
 by the grace of God," was expressed- in ancient language by calling 
 Kings the descendants of Zeus. This simple and natural conception 
 gaye rise to innumerable local legends. Great famUies and whole 
 tribes claimed Zeus for their ancestor ; and as it was necessary in 
 each case to supply him with a wife, the name of the country was 
 naturally chosen to supply the wanting link in these sacred genealo- 
 gies. Thus jEacus, the famous king of ^giaa, was fabled to be the off- 
 spring of Zeus. This need not have meant more than that he was a 
 powerful, wise, and just king. But it soon came to mean more. 
 .iEacus was fabled to have been really the son of Zeus, and Zeus is 
 represented as carrying off iEgina and making her the mother of 
 
 Jlacus It is said that Zeus in the form of a bull carried 
 
 off Europd. This means no more if we translate it back into Sanscrit, 
 than that the strong rising sun (Vrishan) carries off the wide-shining 
 dawn. This story is alluded to again and again in the Veda. Now 
 Minos, the ancient King of Crete, required parents ; so Zeus and 
 Europa were assigned to him." 
 
 The fabled ravishment of Leda by Jupiter in the form of a swan is 
 capable of a like interpretation. Light clouds were called swans, 
 and Mr. Cox regards a white mist, in this instance, to form an 
 equivalent to the golden shower of the Danae legend. 
 
 In Kke manner the myth which fabled that (Edipus married his 
 mother after murdering his father, is divested of its revolting features. 
 It is held to imply no more than that the sun destroys the darkness 
 and sinks at evening into the twilight from whence he- sprung. 
 
 Max Miiller, in his "History of Sanscrit Literature," points out 
 that similar meanings clearly underlie the Vedic myths. He says : 
 
 "It is fabled that Prajapati, the Lord of Creation, did violence to 
 his daughter. But what does it mean ? Prajapati, the Lord of 
 Creation, is the name of the sun ; and he is called so because he 
 protects all creatures. His daughter Ushas is the dawn. And when 
 it is said that he was in love with her, this only means that, at 
 sunrise, the sun runs after the dawn, the dawn being at the same 
 time called the daughter of the sun, because she rises when he 
 approaches. In the same manner it was said that Indra was the 
 seducer of Ahalya, this does not imply that the god Indra committed 
 such a crime ; but Indra means the sun, and Ahalya the night ; 
 
 The " bridal of the earth and aky " is seen 
 
 Before the priest that bars all greed and guile ; 
 
 With bhssful promise there shaU soon be born 
 Fair offspring in red grapes and yellow corn. 
 
298 TEABITIONS, SUPBESTITIONS , 
 
 and as the night is seduced and rained by the sun of the morning, 
 therefore is Indra called the paramour of Ahalya." 
 
 This throws a new and satisfactory Hght upon what has long been 
 regarded as a serious blot upon the morals of the ancient Greeks, as 
 exhibited by the conduct of the most exalted of the deities which 
 figure ia their picturesque and poetic, but certainly not very decorous, 
 mythological theogony. 
 
 Mr. Euskin, in his lecture on " Light," dehvered at Oxford recently, 
 gives several excellent examples of Greek personifications of this 
 class. He concludes as foUows : — 
 
 " Then join with these the Northern legends connected with the 
 air. It does not matter whether you take Dorus as the son of ApoUo 
 or the son of Helen ; he equally symbolizes the power of hght ; while 
 his brother .iBolus, through all his descendants, chiefly ia Sisyphus, 
 - is confused or associated with the real god of the winds, and repre- 
 sents to you the power of the air. And then, as this conception 
 enters into art, you have the myths of D^dalus, the flight of Icarus, 
 and the story of Phrixus and HeUe, giving you contiaual associations 
 of the physical air and Hght, ending with the power of Athena over 
 Corinth as well as over Athens. Now, once having the clue, you can 
 work out the sequels for yourselves better than I can for you ; and 
 you will soon find even the earhest or slightest grotesques of Greek 
 art become full of interest to you. For nothing is more wonderful 
 than the depth of meaning which nations in their first days of thought, 
 Uke children, can attach to the rudest symbols ; and what to us is 
 grotesque or ugly, Uke a little child's doU, can speak to them the 
 loveliest things." 
 
 We have already seen, in Chapter X., that Lord Bacon regarded 
 the great mass of the Greek myths as allegories. Another ingenious 
 mode of interpreting the artistically beautiful mythology of the 
 Greeks is eloquently expressed by Wordsworth, in his poem, "The 
 Excursion" : — 
 
 In that fair clime, the lonely Herdsman, stretched 
 On the soft grass through half a summer day, 
 With music lulled his indolent repose ; 
 And, in some fit of weariness, if he. 
 When his own breath was silent, chanced to hear 
 A distant strain, far sweeter than the sounds 
 Which his poor skill could make, his fancy fetched 
 Eyen from the blazing chariot of the Sun 
 A beardless youth who touched a golden lute. 
 And filled the illumined groves with ravishment. 
 The mighty Hunter, lifting up his eyes 
 Towards the crescent Moon, with grateful heart 
 
AND FOLK-LOEB. 299 
 
 Called on the lorely Wanderer who bestowed 
 
 That timely light to share his joyous sport. 
 
 And hence a beaming Goddess with her nympha 
 
 Across the lawn and through the darksome grove 
 
 (Not unaccompanied with tuneful notes 
 
 By echo multiplied from rook or cave) 
 
 Swept in the storm of chase, as moon and stars 
 
 Glance rapidly along the clouded heaven 
 
 When winds are blowing strong. The traveller slaked 
 
 His thirst from rill or gushing fount, and thanked 
 
 The Naiad. Sunbeams upon distant hills 
 
 Gliding apace, with shadows in their train, 
 
 Might, with smaU help from fancy, be transformed 
 
 Into fleet Oreads sporting visibly. 
 
 The Zephyrs, fanning, as they passed, their wings. 
 
 Lacked not for love fair objects whom they wooed 
 
 With gentle whisper. Withered boughs grotesque. 
 
 Stripped of their leaves and twigs by hoary age, 
 
 From depth of shaggy covert peeping forth 
 
 In the low vale, or on steep mountain side ; 
 
 And sometimes intermixed with stirring horns 
 
 Of the live deer, or goat's depending beard ; 
 
 These were the lurking Satyrs, a wild brood 
 
 Of gamesome deities ; or Pan himself. 
 
 The simple shepherd's awe-inspiring god. 
 
 This figurative or poetical element ia the classical mythology would, 
 doubtless, be understood by the more cultured sections of the ancient 
 populations of the later period, at least to a certain extent. For 
 instance; Ovid distinctly states that under the name Vesta direct 
 reference is made to fire. Socrates, too, understood nothing more 
 than the north wind in the name Boreas. I have previously referred 
 to the statement of Diodorus Siculus, that although the mytho- 
 graphers spoke of Prometheus stealing fire from heaven, they merely 
 intended to imply that he was the inventor of the " chark," or fire- 
 producing instrument. Some, if not all, of the earlier Greek writers, 
 however, including Homer and Hesiod, appear, like the mass of the 
 populace, to have treated their mythic personages as actual concrete 
 beings. 
 
 Farrer, in his " Origin of Language," forcibly illustrates the figura- 
 tive character of much of our ordinary every-day speech. He says, — 
 " The continual metaphors by which we compare our thoughts and 
 emotions to the changes of the outer world — sadness to a cloudy sky, 
 cahn to the silvery rays of the moonlight, anger to waves agitated by 
 the wind— are not, as Schelling observed, a mere play of the imagina- 
 tion, but are an expression, in two different languages, of the same 
 thought of the Creator, and one serves to interpret the other. ' Natiu-e 
 is visible spirit, spirit invisible nature.'" 
 
300 TKAX)ITIONS, SUPERSTITIONS. 
 
 Shakspere is supposed to have founded some portions of his Tem- 
 pest on a narrative of the shipwreck of Sir John Somers on one of 
 the Bermuda islands. These islands were then uninhabited by man, 
 and generally beUeved to be "enchanted." Old Stowe, in his 
 " Annals," speaking of this shipwreck, among other thiugs, says 
 these islands " were, of all nations, said and supposed to be enchanted 
 and inhabited with witches and devills, which grow by reason of 
 accustomed monstrous thunder, storms, and tempests." One of 
 Shakspere's commentators, referring to this passage, says, — " This 
 account by old Stowe of the elemental growth and generation of the 
 hags and imps and devils and abortions of the island, is fearfully fine. 
 Cahban and Sycorax and Setebos, might well be Lmagined to have 
 first glared into life through the long fermenting incantation of 
 ' accustomed monstrous thunder.'" Euskin says "the whole play of 
 the Tempest is an allegorical representation of the powers of true, 
 and, therefore, spiritual, Hberty, as opposed to true, and, therefore, 
 carnal and brutal, slavery. There is not a sentence nor a rhyme 
 sung or uttered by Ariel or Caliban throughout the play which has 
 not this under meaning." 
 
 Herbert Spencer has truly said, "We too often forget that not only 
 is there ' a soul of goodness in things evil,' but very generally also, 
 a soul of truth in things erroneous." 
 
 Thus, these despised and contemned traditionary superstitions of 
 our progenitors are found, nevertheless, to enshrine much valuable 
 material, by a careful study of which we may obtain a deeper insight 
 into some of the more subtle or hidden features of the human soul, 
 the nattire and progress of man's intellectual growth, of the origin 
 and development of language as a medium of mental intercommunion, 
 and of the true natural basis on which rest some of the greatest 
 triumphs of plastic and poetic art that have astonished, delighted, 
 and instructed mankind for countless generations. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abbeys, ruined, 290. 
 
 Abracadabra, 256. 
 
 Abury, 8. 
 
 Adonis, 160. 
 
 Mik gods, the, 67, 169, 207. 
 
 .^scnlapius (Asklepios), 51, 135, 154. 
 
 AgDi, 14, 16. 
 
 Abi, tbe Dragon, 14, 41, 44, 47, 51. 
 , Alchemy, 50. 
 
 Alectricium, a precious stone, 135. 
 
 AUhalloween, 29. 
 
 Alisaunder, Kyng, romance, 47. 
 
 Allegorical theory of Greek Myths, 211, 
 298. 
 
 Amara, lake, 23. 
 
 America, its ancient connection with 
 Asia, 286. 
 
 Apple howling, 66. 
 
 Apollo, 241, 249, 298. 
 
 Arian races, 2, 112, 162, 283, 289. 
 
 Arthur, King, 50, 161, et seq., 21 1, et seq., 
 
 241, 248, 272. 
 Ashton black lad, 187, et seq. 
 Ash trees, 68, 117, 150, 253, et seq. 
 Asuras, 23, 44. 
 Asvattha, 68, 257. 
 AsTins, 25. 
 Athens, 245, 298. 
 Athenian ghost, 140. 
 Aubepine, see thorn. 
 Avalnm, island of, 165 
 
 Baal, Bel, 6, 10, 28, 31, 38, et seq., 57, 
 
 67, 83. 
 Baalbeo, 8. 
 
 Baker's daughter, the, 235. 
 Baldr, 10, 67, 149, 159. 
 
 Ball-playing, Easter, 7?. 
 
 Bargaist, 127. 
 
 Bears, 231. 
 
 Beauty and the Beast, 224. 
 
 Bean- geese, 182. 
 
 Beanstalk, 68. 
 
 Beans, 68, 79, 225. 
 
 Belatucadrus, 11, 16. 
 
 Belisama, 6, 12, 15, 18. 
 
 Beltain fires, 31, 34, 83. 
 
 Beltane-day, 38. 
 
 Besoms, 96, 101, 116. 
 
 Beowulf, 45, etseq., 2)3, 249. 
 
 Bible, divination by, 262. 
 
 Birds, lightning, 224, 335, 238, 242, et seq. 
 
 Birds, sacred and ominous, 67, 101, 132, 
 
 136, 157,237, 242, etseq. 
 Black dog, see hound. 
 Black lad, Ashton, 187, et seq. 
 Blossoming staffs, 91. 
 Bluebeard, 195. 
 Boadicea's hare, 114. 
 Boars, 69, 111, 159, 163, 183, 255. 
 Boggarts, 124, et seq., 138, 184. 
 Boggart Ho' Clough, 128, 147, 151. 
 Bones, huge fossil, 110. 
 Bonfires, 30, 33, 40. 
 Book of Sports, 88. 
 Bottomless pools, 189, et seq., 213. 
 Boulders, erratic, 162, 221. 
 Boundary perambulation, 186. 
 Braggat Sunday, 78. 
 Brahmin temples at Java, etc., 290. 
 Bramham rocks, Yorkshire, 34, 223. 
 Brewing storms, 14, 17, 107, 114, 132, 
 
 156, et seq. 
 Brigantes, 5, 12, 
 
302 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 BrigUB, 14. 
 
 Briony, 256. 
 
 Broom, see besom. 
 
 Bronze age, 10, 44. 
 
 Brownies, 126. 
 
 Bratns and his Trojans, 5, 23, 197. 
 
 Baddhigm, 4. 
 
 Bugbear, 128. 
 
 Bull or Bovine worship, 84, 112. 
 
 Buns, see cross-buns and cakes. 
 
 Bush (Inn sign), 117. 
 
 Cabalistic art, 119. 
 
 Cakes, 76, 77. 
 
 Cauldrons, 96, 107. 
 
 Calendar, the, 56. 
 
 Candles, Christmas and Easter, 55, 60, 71 . 
 
 Car gulds, 186. 
 
 Carling Sunday, 78. 
 
 Carols, Christmas, 56, 
 
 Castles, ruined, 290. 
 
 Cats, 96, 114, 164, 224, 232, 233. 
 
 Cat, the white, 224. 
 
 Cavalcade of the dead, 176. 
 
 Caverned heroes, 164, et seq. 
 
 Chark, 24,35, 91, 208, 257, 285. 
 
 Charon, 15, 179. 
 
 Chasse Maccabei, 157. 
 
 Cheetham's George, boggart, 128. 
 
 Cheshire May games, 90. 
 
 Chivalry, origin of, 221. 
 
 Chives, 272. 
 
 Christmas observances and superstitions, 
 
 .IS, etseq., 134, 144, 290. 
 Church-builders, goblin, 127. 
 Churches, sunken, 290. 
 Cinderella, 210. 
 Cloud-maidens, 18, 47, 97. 
 Cloud-land, 68, 72. 
 Cloud- water, 17, 110. 
 Coach, black, legend, 171, 192. 
 Coccideus, 14. 
 Coccium, 15. 
 
 Cocks and hens, see fowls, barn door. 
 Cockatrice, 136. 
 Colt-hole at Preston, 186. 
 Comets, 49. 
 Coral, 265. 
 Corpse-candles, 266. 
 
 Country Justice in 1618, 105. 
 
 Cow- path, see milky- way. 
 
 Cows, heavenly, 47, 182. 
 
 Cows, dun, etc., 110, 112, 182. 
 
 Crickets, 274. 
 
 Crocodiles, 235. 
 
 Cromwell's castle battering, 290. 
 
 Cross-buns and crosses, 73, 75, 262. 
 
 Crows, 248. 
 
 Cuckoo, 235, 237, 245, et seq. 
 
 Cudgel, magic, 161. 
 
 Cuerdale hoard, 252. 
 
 Cushites, 6, 10, 203, 286, 289. 
 
 Cyclopean cities, etc., 203. 
 
 Cyclops, 203, 209. 
 
 Cymri, 13. 
 
 Darvell Gatheron, 37. 
 
 Davenport Brothers, 129. 
 
 Dawn, the, 47, 95, 111. 
 
 Dead, food for the, 61. 
 
 Dese Matres, 107. 
 
 Dee, river, 21. 
 
 Demon pigs, 163. 
 
 Deva, 21, 44, 298. 
 
 Devil, 21, 97, 100, 130, 137, 144, 163, 17f 
 
 181, 190, 194, 206, 278, 289. 
 Dew, 94. 
 
 Diamonds, male and female, 94. 
 Divination, 30, 64, 91, 134, 155, see wis! 
 
 rod, 218, 252 et seq., 269, et seq. 
 Dogs, 130, 171, et seq., 240, 244. 
 Dorsocision, 288. 
 Dosmery pool, 189. 
 Dowzing rod, 268. 
 Dragons, 40, et seq., 80. 
 Dragon slayers, 43 
 
 Druids, 6, 11,29,34,67,98, 221,224, 24( 
 Dwarfs, 130, 139, 211, 222. 
 
 Eagles, 235, 238. 
 
 Easter superstitions and ceremonies, 7 
 
 et seq. 
 Eden, river, 18. 
 Egg, the, a sun-type, 71, 161. 
 Eggs, Easter, 71, 73, 114. 
 Elephants, fossil, 204. 
 Elves, 19, 25, 184. 
 Eos, see dawn. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 808 
 
 Equinox, Temal, 83. 
 Erratic boulders, 162, 221. 
 Evil, see king's^vil. 
 
 Fairies, 92, 107, 124, et seq., 143. 
 
 Falcons, 257. 
 
 Familiar spirit, transfer of, 123. 
 
 Fates, the, 97. 
 
 Feathers, cock and pigeon, 138. 
 
 Fern-seed, 143, et seq., 258. 
 
 Fetishes, 240, 259. 
 
 Fire, need, 24, 36,71. 
 
 Fire-worship, 9, 16, 28, 38, et seq., 267, 285. 
 
 Floralia, flowers, and well-dressing, 74, 83, 
 
 87, 93, 122, 275. 
 Fortune telling, 119. 
 Fossil bones, gigantic, 204. 
 Fowls, barn-door, 132, etseq., 253, 285. 
 Freyja, 19, 67, 113, 115, 149, 177. 
 Friday, Good, 75, 101. 
 Frost giants, 19, 26, 169, 231. 
 Furious host, 153, et seq. 
 
 Gabriel Ratchets, 153, 181. 
 
 Gaels, 5, 13. 
 
 Gallows, 160, 256. 
 
 Garland, the, 44, 87. 
 
 Geoffrey of Monmouth, 5, 22. 
 
 Gertrude's bird, 236. 
 
 Giants, 17, 111, 162, 186, 197,et«eq., 290. 
 
 Ghosts, 92, 130, 134, 140, 151, 171, 179. 
 
 Gipsies, 118. 
 
 Gjallar bridge, and horn, 166, 182. 
 
 Glastonbury thorn, 91. 
 
 Gnostics, 43, 116. 
 
 Goblin church builders, 163. 
 
 Gogmagog, 199, 208. 
 
 Goodfellow, Bobin, variations of, 124, 138. 
 
 Gorillas, 198, 239, 259. 
 
 Greenteeth, Jenny, 279. 
 
 Grendel, 46, 213. 
 
 Gunpowder Plot, 32. 
 
 Guy of Warwick, 110. 
 
 Hakelberg, 156, 162, 164. 
 Halloween, 30, 38. 
 Halter, magic, 233. 
 Hares, 96, 113, 228, 243. 
 Hart, white, 154, 177. 
 
 Harvest blaster, 41, 48. 
 
 Havelock the Dane, lay of, 77. 
 
 Hecate, 109, 115. 
 
 Hel or Hela, 177, et seq., 240. 
 
 Helmwind, the, 166. 
 
 Heorot (Hartlepool), 45, 191. 
 
 Heriot, 182, 194. 
 
 Heroes, oaverned, 164, et seq. 
 
 Hobgoblin, 128. 
 
 Hopkins, witchfinder, 105. 
 
 Horse-shoes, 38, 255. 
 
 Hound, Odin's, and the headless, 171, 
 
 et seq., 192. 
 Howling dog, see hound. 
 Hull, Indian festival,^68, 85. 
 Humber, river, 24. 
 Huntsman, Spectre, 163, et seq., 290. 
 
 Idhun, the goddess of youth, 19. 
 
 Indra, 8, 16, 22, 41, 45, 153, et seq.> 
 
 222, 298 
 Invisibility, 80, 143, et seq. 
 Iron forgers, mythic, 281. 
 Ituna sestuarium, 18. 
 
 Jaok-and-the-Bean-stalk, 68, 71. 
 Jackdaws, 248. 
 
 Jack-the-giant-killer, 210, et seq. 
 Jew, wandering, 167, et seq , 237 . 
 Jewish temple at Kibohester, 292. 
 
 Kelpies, water, 278, 280. 
 King's-evil, touching for, 81. 
 Kings, divine right of, 8, 81. 
 Kjokkenmoddings, 243. 
 Kuyava, the harvest spoiler, 41. 
 
 Lady-bird, 250. 
 
 Lake dwellings, 114, 276. 
 
 Lakes, sacred and medicinal, 276, et seq. 
 
 Lambton worm, 44. 
 
 Lent-Mid, Sunday, 76. 
 
 Lifting of women at Easter, 74. 
 
 Lituus, or Augur's staff, 261. 
 
 Lizards, huge fossil, 52. 
 
 Luck of Eden Hall, 19. 
 
 Lykanthropy, 240. 
 
 Maidens, imprisoned, 47. 
 
304 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Magpiea, 248, 250. 
 
 Mandrakes, 144, 255. 
 
 Mare's nest, 114. 
 
 Marriage, 36, 67, 75, 91,, 146. 
 
 Marats, 19, 153, 176, 184, 188, 240. 
 
 May-day superstitions and ceremonies, 
 
 74, 83, et seq., 97, 113. 
 Mead, 17, 260. 
 Medicines, 50, 68, 80, 94, 102, 112, 136, 
 
 271, et seq. 
 Merlin, 48. 
 Mermaids, 231. 
 Mersey, river, 25, 
 Metempsychosis, 224, et seq. 
 Midsummer fires, 38. 
 Milesians, 13. 
 Milk, red cow's, HI. 
 Milky-way, 182,238. 
 Mimosa catechu, 257. 
 Miocene flora, migration of, 288 
 Mistletoe, 67, 149, 255. 
 Mithras, 9, 16, 43. 
 Moa, remains of, 51. 
 Monkey tribes, 197. 
 Monsters, see dragons and giants. 
 Moon and Sun, African notions of, 32. 
 Morris dancing, 88. 
 Mother goddesses, 107. 
 Mothering Sunday, 76. 
 Mysteries, moralities, or miracle plays, 
 
 72, 91. 
 Myths, growth of, 26, 98, 114, 159, 165, 
 176, 183, 209, 298, et seq. 
 
 Nativity, time of the, 55. 
 
 Need-fire, see fire. 
 
 New Year, 56, et seq. 
 
 New Year's gifts, 58. 
 
 New Year's day superstitions, 62. 
 
 Nickers, "Old Nick," 46, 73, 194, 208,278." 
 
 Nightmare, 184, 233. 
 
 November fires, 32. 
 
 Oak, the, 67, 75. 
 
 Obolus, 179, 181. 
 
 Odin, 8, 14, 16, 19, 46, 75, 155, et seq , 279. 
 
 Ogres, 206, 222. 
 
 Ogiusi (African spirit), 35, 169, 239. 
 
 Orion, 154. 
 
 Oromasdes, 9, 16. 
 Orpheus, 184. 
 Osmanda regalis, 149. 
 Owls, 193, 235, 243. 
 
 Pace-egging, 73. 
 
 Palm Sunday, 78. 
 
 Pani, 47, 220. 
 
 Pantomimes, 54. 
 
 Peas, 68, 78. 
 
 Penigent, mountain. 
 
 Personifications, mythical, 16, et seq., 18c 
 
 209, 298. 
 Phallic worship and emblems, 20, 36, 71 
 
 83, 88, 92, 216, 262, 286. 
 Phoenicians, 6, 203. 
 Picumnus, 249. 
 Pilumnus, 249. 
 Pitris, or fathers, 139, 240. 
 Plague stones, 213. 
 Plants, lightning, 67, 69, 80, 144, et seq 
 
 252, et seq. 
 Plovers, 237. 
 Poison, ordeal by, 122. 
 Polyphemus, 210. 
 Predictions, or Prophecy, 49, 50, 65, Hi 
 
 245, 248. 
 Prometheus (Pramathas) 36, 249. 
 Puck, 124, et seq., 225. 
 Pyanots, 248. 
 Pythagoras, 79, 225. 
 
 Quetzalcoatle, Mexican god, 285. 
 
 Rain, 17, 23, 26. 
 
 BS,ksbasas (demons), 206. 
 
 Ramayana, 197. 
 
 Eats, 250. 
 
 Eavens, 165, 168, 247, et seq. 
 
 " Eaw-head-and-bloody bones," 131. 
 
 Red thread, berries, etc., 110, 112, 138. 
 
 Ribhus, 25, 66, 184, 188. 
 
 Ribble, the, 6, 15, 18. 
 
 Riding Hood, Little red, 224, 241. 
 
 Rings, fairy, 141. 
 
 River worship, 18, 275, et seq. 
 
 Robin, 237, 242. 
 
 Roby's traditions, 128. 
 
 Rods, divining, etc., 91, 155, 252, etseq. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 805 
 
 Round table, see table round. 
 Bowan, see ash. 
 Kudra, 153, 247. 
 Bush-bearing, 71, 87. 
 
 Sailors' superstitionSj 115, llfi, 250. 
 Salt, 181. 
 
 St. John's eve, 39, 144. 
 St. John's-wort superstitions, 14.3, et. seq. 
 Sampson, a Mahommedan, 292. 
 Sangreal, 20, 217, 219. 
 Sanscrit, 3, 5, 293. 
 Seals, 231. 
 
 Seasons, wet and dry, 68, 282, 
 Secret passages, 290. 
 Semitic races, 2, 11, 112, 289. 
 Serpents, 24, 41,45, 51,286. 
 Seaha, serpent, 23, 44. 
 Setantii, 5, 14, 23. 
 Setantiorum, Portus, 10, 23. 
 ■ Seven Whistlers, see whistlers. 
 Shere-Thursday, 80. 
 Sieves, 96, 108. 
 Simnels, 76, et seq. 
 Skriker, 173, 175. 
 Solar myths, 43, 98, 208, 211, 
 Soma, 16, 18, 23, 31, 42, 44, 68, 108, 117, 
 
 257. 
 Soul bringers, 243, 249. 
 Souls, damned, wandering or unquiet, 158, 
 
 170,179,231. 
 Speaking god at Manitobah, 294. 
 Spectre huntsman, see huntsman. 
 Spectre-hound, see hound. 
 Storm brewing, 14, 17, 107, 132, 156, 
 
 et seq. 
 Spiritualism and Spirit-rapping, 96, 129, 
 
 131, 
 Spring-wort, see St. John's-wort. 
 Stonehenge, 6. 
 Stone weapons, 10, 43, 162. 
 Stork, 237, 242. 
 Style, old and new, 58, 65, 
 Sun-dancing, 70, 83. 
 „ Sun-worship, 8, 28, 32, et seq., 57, 70, 
 P' see Fire worship. 
 |, Swan maidens, 19,230. 
 ''\ Swallows, 248, 247. 
 
 Swords and spears, mythical, 161 . 
 
 Table, round, 214, et seq., 262. 
 
 Taliesin, Romance of, 227. 
 
 Tarquin's castle at Manchester, 168, 213. 
 
 Teanla fires, 31, 34. 
 
 Templars, Knights, 116. 
 
 Thor, 16, 26, 57, 64, 75, 80, 93, 107, 130, 
 
 160,242,262. 
 Thorns, sacred, 69, 72, 86, 91, 258. 
 Three, magic number, 255, 273. 
 Thunder, Anglo-Saxon notions of, 42, 49. 
 Thunderstorms, 49, 67, 156, et seq, 
 Tom Thumb, 222. 
 Trash, dog-fiend, 173. 
 Transmigration, 1 13, 222, 224, et seq., 289. 
 Torchlight processions, 34, 39, 
 Treasures, hidden or buried, 41, 46, 195, 
 
 252, 262. 
 Trees, sacred or lightning, 67, 252, 259. 
 Tregeagle, 187, et seq., 210, 
 Trident, 255, 257, 262. 
 Trimnrtti or Triad, 16, 273. 
 Trolls, see giants. 
 Tyrant lord or magistrate, 187, et seq., 
 
 222, 290. 
 
 Underground passages, 291. 
 Urien, the Arthur of the North of Eng- 
 land, 217. 
 Ushas, see dawn. 
 
 Vampires, 232. 
 
 Varuna, 14, 22, 26. 
 
 Vedas and Vedic literature, 3, 16, 295, 
 
 Vishnu, 41, 222. 
 
 Vritra, 14, 22, 41,47, 161. 
 
 Wandering Jew, 157, et seq. 
 
 Wash, the, 26. 
 
 Wassail bowl, 60, 
 
 Wells and water, superstitions respecting, 
 
 80, 87, 267, et seq. 
 Werewolves, 224, et seq., 289, 
 Whales' bones, 110, 111. 
 Wheel, sun type, 36, 40, 57. 
 Whinney-moor, a soul path, 180, 
 Whistlers, seven, 157, 181, 237, 248, 
 Whitsun ales, 88. 
 White doe, 154,237. 
 
300 
 
 INDEX, 
 
 Wild huntsman, 19, 69, 133, 187, ot acq. 
 Willo'-whisp, 175. 
 Wish-rod, 91, 155, 252, et seq. 
 WiahtneBs, 155, 192. 
 
 Witchcraft, 38, 45, 73, 91, 96, et seq., 126, 
 133, 184, 232, et seq., 255, 261, 274. 
 Woodpecker, 235, 236, 242, 248, et seq. 
 
 Wren, 237, 240. 
 
 Yggdrasil, or cloud tree, 68. 
 
 Yule tide and yule logs, 55, et seq., 83. 
 
 ZwergB, 80, 139. 
 
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