The Mysteries of All Nations Part 29

From rainbows, shepherds and sailors predicted the state of the weather.

"A rainbow in the morning is the shepherd's warning; A rainbow at night is the sailor's delight."

When peac.o.c.ks cry, be sure rain will early fall; and when the night owl screeches from the ruined tower, look for a storm; so also, if the cat is seen was.h.i.+ng its face with its fore paws, expect a gale. When ocean birds flock on sh.o.r.e, a tempest is brewing on the sea.

Seamen and fishermen's wives can secure a favourable gale for their husbands by going to a chapel after ma.s.s, and blowing the dust on the door in the direction the vessels have gone.

When a person is dying, no one in the house, of whatever age, should be permitted to sleep. When one expires, the clock should be immediately stopped, and the dial plate covered with a towel, and mirrors and pictures should be concealed, or their faces turned to the wall. All the cats belonging to the house ought to be caught and confined till after the funeral. That a necessity prevails for putting the feline animals out of the way, will be understood by the existing generation, when they understand that if a cat cross a corpse, and afterwards pa.s.s over a living person in a rec.u.mbent posture, that individual will be deprived of sight. When a dead body is dressed and laid out, the relatives would do well to put a Bible below the head, and one plate with salt, and another plate with a piece of green turf, on the breast. The corpse of every one guilty of _felo-de-se_ should be buried either in a remote spot not customarily used as a place of burial, or near to a cross road; but if the relatives of any such unhappy person insist on having the remains interred in the ordinary place of sepulchre, they are expected to carry the corpse over the burying-ground wall, and inter it after sunset. It is believed that if a person die unseen, they who first discover the body will meet his death in a similar manner. This superst.i.tious belief often prevents seamen and fishermen picking up and taking ash.o.r.e dead bodies discovered at sea. Seamen have not yet risen above these superst.i.tious delusions. A few years ago a Russian s.h.i.+p was lying in Leith Docks, when one of the crew fell overboard and was drowned. As long as there was a chance of rescuing the man, his companions did everything they could to save him; but as soon as they discovered that their comrade was dead, they rushed into the forecastle of their vessel, and refused to search for the body, believing that they who first beheld the corpse after being brought to the surface, would, sooner or later, meet a watery grave.

No person who understands the ancient customs of Scotland will think of commencing to make a new garment at the end of the year, if it cannot be finished before the new year comes in; nor will any one commence to make an article of clothing on Sat.u.r.day, unless it can be ready for wearing on the Sunday. Friday is also an unlucky day for commencing any important undertaking. Some people refuse to be bled or physicked on a Friday. In certain parts of the country, Friday is the usual day for young men and women being united in wedlock, but at other places it is supposed bad luck would cleave to them during the whole of their lives if they were married on that day. It is believed by old crones that children born on Friday are doomed to misfortune.

Friday night's dreams are sure to come true. It is well known, seamen dislike going to sea on Friday. Mr. Fenimore Cooper relates a very extraordinary anecdote in reference to Friday. He says:

"A wealthy merchant of Connecticut devised a notable scheme to give a fatal blow to the superst.i.tion of Friday being an unlucky day. He caused the keel of a very large s.h.i.+p to be laid on a Friday; he named her the 'Friday'; he launched her on a Friday; he gave the command of her to a captain whose name was Friday; and she commenced her first voyage on a Friday, bound for China with a costly cargo; and in all respects she was one of the n.o.blest and best-appointed s.h.i.+ps that ever left the port. The result was, neither s.h.i.+p nor crew was ever heard of afterwards. Thus his well-meant plan," adds Mr. Cooper, "so far from showing the folly of superst.i.tion, only confirmed seamen in their absurd belief."

Another instance may be given of a splendid s.h.i.+p sailing on a Friday being lost, as was supposed by the superst.i.tious, through the imprudence of sending her to sea on the sixth day of the week. We refer to the West India steamer "Amazon," whose sad fate is a matter of history. Other examples might be given of s.h.i.+ps beginning their voyages on Friday being lost; and, to the present time, sailors will tell you that more misfortunes happen to vessels leaving port on Friday than to s.h.i.+ps departing on any other day of the week. Sailors consider Sunday a favourable day for commencing a voyage. They are averse to proceed to sea if a lawyer or clergyman is on board. They think the presence of one of these gentlemen raises a tempest that puts their craft in peril. This superst.i.tion is probably founded on the biblical story of Jonah in his flight to Tars.h.i.+sh, when such a mighty tempest was raised as to endanger the lives of those who manned the vessel that conveyed him from Joppa. Sailors are of opinion that it is lucky to have women or children on board a s.h.i.+p. Time was when they objected to sail with a native of Finland as one of the crew, thinking that the Finns were leagued with Satan, and that if they were offended, they took their revenge by raising adverse winds and causing accidents to happen. Old sailors objected to have dogs on board, but cats were held sacred; and if all tales be true, Puss often secured favourable winds, and prevented s.h.i.+pwreck. When rats are seen deserting a s.h.i.+p ready for sea, it is regarded as an evil omen. In calm weather, sailors whistle to raise the wind; but in a gale they neither whistle themselves, nor permit others to do so. It is unlucky to wear the clothes of a fellow-sailor who dies at sea before the termination of the voyage. It is thought unlucky to break up an old boat--a fact which accounts for so many useless boats being seen at fis.h.i.+ng villages. If a man be drowned in or from a boat, sailors and fishermen are reluctant to put to sea again with her. It is an evil sign to see sharks following a s.h.i.+p. Inadvertently turning a hatch upside down, is considered an unfavourable sign. A four-footed beast should not be named at sea. A child's caul hung in the cabin, prevents the s.h.i.+p from sinking. A legend of Vanderdecken, the Flying Dutchman, is believed by seamen. It runs thus:--

Three hundred years ago a large Dutch Indiaman, commanded by Mynheer Vanderdecken, attempted to round the Cape of Good Hope against a head wind. His vessel was frequently driven back, but he doggedly persevered, in spite of many signs and warnings of failure, and declared that he would double the Cape, though he sailed till the day of judgment. For this impious saying, and disregard of signs and warnings, the s.h.i.+p and wicked captain, with his crew, were doomed to sail continually in the lat.i.tude of the Cape, without doubling it.

Sailors have a.s.serted that, in the midnight gale, the s.h.i.+p may be seen, with her antique build and rig, and the figure of Vanderdecken, on the p.o.o.p, giving orders to his ghostly crew, contending with the wind and waves, which they can never overcome.

One day in the Middle Ages, as a troop of Condottieri crossed the Roman country, a young peasant, named Attendole, stood under an oak to admire them. Some of the soldiers invited him to join their company.

The peasant was inclined to follow them, but being undecided he said, "I will throw the axe I hold in my hand against this oak, and if it enter far enough into the bark to remain fixed, I will be a soldier."

So saying, he threw the axe with so much violence that it entered the tree deep and stuck fast. From that moment all hesitation was over: tearing himself from his friends, he joined the troop. Because it was with all his force he decided what his vocation was to be, his comrades called him Sforza. He fought in more than one hundred battles, and, after having served in Rome and at Milan, he at an advanced age perished while endeavouring to save one of his own pages from drowning. He left a son, who, like his father, gained renown. He rose so high in Italy as to be considered a suitable match for Bianca Visconti, the heiress of Milan. Their son Galeazza, Duke of Milan, used to look on the fair city and say, "See what I owe to my grandfather's axe!"

Warnings of approaching death are given in various ways. There are ancient families to whom the ghosts of their ancestors appear before the death of the chiefs or heads of the families. In one instance we have heard that the ghost of an old murdered lady keeps wandering through the castle halls shortly before any of the family dies; and in another instance it is said that a mysterious light blazes from the lofty battlements before the n.o.ble proprietor is laid low in death.

The falling of his portrait or statue is a sure presage of a great man's death. Archbishop Laud, going into his study (which no one could enter without him being present, as he invariably locked the door and kept the key), found his portrait one day lying on its face on the floor. He was extremely perplexed, for to him it was as his death knell, and he commenced setting his house in order. The sad summons was not long of coming, and death took him for its own.

AMULETS AND CHARMS.

CHAPTER XLV.

Amulets and Charms among the Chaldaeans, Jews, and Persians--Amulets among the Greeks and Romans--Ecclesiastics forbidden to wear Amulets and Phylacteries--Amulets and Charms very numerous--Pericles' Amulet--Lord Bacon's Opinion of Charms--Cramp Rings and Eel Skins--Moss off a Dead Man's Skull--How to remove Warts--Cure for St. Vitus'

Dance--Effect of Music--Kittens and Pigeons used as Cures--Yawning and Laughing, Fear and Shame--Diseases cured by Charms--Surprise a Cure for Hooping-cough--A Mad Dog's Bite--Touch of a Torpedo--Philosophers'

Opinions of Amulets--Bane and Antidote--Mr. E.

Chambers on Amulets--Poets on Enchantments--A Dairymaid's Charm--A Charm sent by a Pope to an Emperor.

Amulets and charms were in great variety among the Chaldaeans, Jews, and Persians. They were also held in estimation among the Greeks and Romans, chiefly on account of their supposed virtue in exciting or conquering the pa.s.sion of love. The Council of Laodicea forbade ecclesiastics to wear amulets and phylacteries, on pain of degradation. St. Jerome was likewise opposed to their use.

Nevertheless, although amulets and charms are not held in the same repute they once were, their efficacy is not supposed to be entirely gone. Among early Christians amulets and charms were acknowledged to possess peculiar virtues beneficial to man. Amulets and charms were, and are, so numerous that it would be a herculean task to give an account of one half of them. Where the inhabitants were dest.i.tute of medical resources, amulets and charms were employed for the alleviation of bodily suffering. Pericles wore an amulet about his neck, as such charms were supposed to be capable of preserving the wearers from misfortune and disease. Lord Bacon was of opinion that if a man wore a planet seal, it might aid him in obtaining the affection of his sweetheart, give him protection at sea and in battle, and make him more courageous. Cramp rings and eel skins were worn round the limbs, to prevent sickness; and people were sometimes cured by laying sticks across each other in front of their beds at night. Moreover, the sticks thus placed prevented demons approaching the couch of rest.

The moss off a dead man's skull, says the great Mr. Boyle, is an effectual remedy against bleeding at the nose. We are told by Lord Verulam, that when he was at Paris he had above one hundred warts on his hands, and that they were removed by the English amba.s.sador's lady rubbing them with a piece of bacon, afterwards nailed to a post. In five weeks the bacon, being exposed to the sun, melted away, and the warts disappeared.

St. Vitus' dance was cured by the sufferer visiting the tomb of the saint, near Ulm, every May. The bites of certain reptiles are rendered harmless by music. Dr. Sydenham orders, in cases of iliac pa.s.sion, a live kitten to be laid on the abdomen. Pigeons, split alive and applied to the soles of the feet, are efficacious in fevers and convulsions. Quincey says that yawning and laughing are infectious, and so are fear and shame; and from these, by a system of reasoning peculiarly his own, he endeavours to prove that amulets may be sufficient to counteract, if not to entirely hinder, infection.

Throughout the Mohammedan dominions the people were convinced that charms were indispensable to their well-being. By charms they cured every kind of disease, provided predestination had not determined that the sick man's days were at an end. Surprise, it is urged, removes the hooping-cough; looking from a precipice, or seeing a wheel turn swiftly, causes giddiness. "Why then," asks a wise man, "may not amulets or charms, by their secret influence, produce the effects ascribed to them? Who can comprehend by what impenetrable means the bite of a mad dog produces hydrophobia? Why does the touch of a torpedo induce numbness? When these causes and effects are explained,"

he concludes, "so may the virtue of amulets be accounted for." Ancient philosophers laid it down, as a proof of ignorance, the condemnation of a science not easily understood. In this way the advocates of amulets and charms have been enabled to silence people who have had the hardihood to throw odium on their superst.i.tions. Believers in amulets and charms remind us that it is a well-ascertained fact in nature, that for every bane there is an antidote. Wherever the stinging nettle grows, the slimy stem of the dock is near; whenever the wasp stings, honey gathered by the industrious bee may be had, without going far, to put on the injured part; when the cold is most intense without, the fire burns brightest within; and if there be evil spirits seeking man's hurt, there are good angels hovering round him for his protection.

Mr. E. Chambers, who published his _Cyclopaedia, or A Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences_, in 1728, says that an amulet (_amuletum_) is a kind of medicament hung about the neck or other part of the body to prevent or remove diseases. Amulets, he proceeds, are frequently nothing else than spells or charms, consisting of quaint words and characters, supposed to have the virtue of warding off ill.

And Mr. Chambers informs his readers, under the word "charm," that a charm is a magic power or spell, by which, with the a.s.sistance of the devil, sorcerers and witches are supposed to do wondrous things, far surpa.s.sing the power of nature.

Ancient poets, who were of a superst.i.tious turn of mind, attached no small importance to amulets and charms. One of them says:

"Enchantments pluck out of the sky, The moon though she be plac'd on high; Dame Circe with her charms so fine, Ulysses' mates did turn to swine: The snake with charms is burst in twain, In meadows where she doth remain.

These herbs did Meris give to me, And poysons pluckt at Pontos, For there they grow and multiply, And do not so amongst us.

With these she made herself become A wolf, and hid her in the wood; She fetched up souls out of the tombe, Removing corn from where it stood."

The following is an old translation from Virgil:

"From thence a virgin priest is come From out Ma.s.syla land, Sometimes the temple there she kept, And from her heavenly hand The dragon meat did take: she kept Also the fruit divine, With herbs and liquors sweet that still To sleep did men incline.

The minds of men (she saith) from love With charms she can unbind, In whom she list: but others can She cast to cases unkind.

The running streams do stand, and from Their course the stars do wreath, And souls she conjure can: then shalt See sister underneath The ground with roring gape and trees, And mountains turn upright."

Ovid is made to say:

"The river I can make retire Into the fountains whence they flow, (Where at the banks themselves admire) I can make standing waters go; With charms I drive both sea and cloud, I can make it calm and blow aloud, The viper's jaws, the rocky stone, With words and charms I break in twain; The force of earth congeal'd in one, I move, and shake both woods and plain; I make the souls of men arise, And pull the moon out of the skies.

And thrice she spake the words that caus'd Sweet sleep and quiet rest; She staid the raging of the sea, And mighty floods supprest."

Other poets, writing of charms, say:

"With charms the corn is spoiled so As that it vades the barren gra.s.s; With charms the springs are dried low, That none can see where water was.

The grapes from vines, the mast from oaks, And beats down fruit with charming strokes.

She plucks each star out of his throne, And turneth back the raging waves; With charms she makes the earth to cone, And raises souls out of their graves: She burns men's bones as with fire, And pulleth down the lights from heaven, And makes it snow at her desire, Even in the midst of summer season.

The course of nature ceased quite, The air obeyed not his law, The day delayed by length of night, Which made both day and night to yaw; And all was through that charming gear, Which caus'd the world to quake for fear.

They talked with tongues of birds, Consulting with the salt sea coasts, They burst the snake with witching words, Soliciting the spiritual ghosts; They turn the night into the day, And also drive the light away: And what is 't that cannot be made By them that do apply this trade."

Sir Thomas Brown mentions that a chalked tile at each corner of a field and one in the centre thereof were rural charms that prevented weeds growing; and the three following charms are given in Herrick's _Hesperides_:

"This I'le tell ye by the way, Maidens when ye leavens lay, Cross your dough, and your dispatch Will be better for your batch.

In the morning when ye rise, Wash your hands and cleanse your eyes, Next be sure to have a care To disperse the water farre, For as farre as that doth light, So farre keeps the evil spright.

If ye fear to be affrighted, When ye are (by chance) benighted; In your pocket for a trust Carry nothing but a crust; For that holy piece of bread Charms the danger and the dread."