The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical Part 37

Judge of their mutual astonishment when, on the following morning, they found their respective shocks undiminished. This course of events transpired for several nights, when each resolved in his mind to stand guard and solve the mystery. They did so, and on the following night met each other halfway between the respective shocks, with their arms full.

_Magnetic Cures._

The use of the magnet for the cure of diseases was known to the ancients. It was known to Aetius, who lived as early as the year 500. He says: "We are a.s.sured that those who are troubled with the gout in their hands or their feet, or with convulsions, find relief when they hold a magnet in their hands." Paracelsus recommended the magnet in a number of diseases, while Kircher tells us that it was worn around the neck as a preventive against convulsions and affections of the nerves.

About the end of the seventeenth century magnetic tooth-picks were made, and extolled as a secret preventive against pains in the teeth, eyes and ears.

_May Dew a Cure for Freckles._

The "Morning Post," (England,) issued for the 2d day of May, 1791, states that the day before, "being the first of May, according to annual and superst.i.tious custom, a number of persons went into the fields and bathed their faces with the dew on the gra.s.s, under the idea that it would render them beautiful."

_Singular Hindoo Vow._

The following extraordinary vow is performed by some of the Hindoos at their festival of _Charak Puja:_ Stretching himself on the ground on his back, the devotee takes a handful of moist earth, and placing it on his under lip, he plants in it some mustard seed, and exposes himself to the dews of the night and the heat of the day until the seeds germinate. In this posture the man must remain in a fixed, motionless condition, without food or drink, until the vegetable process liberates him, which will generally be about the fourth day.

_Satanic Superst.i.tions._

That the devil has a "cloven foot," which he cannot hide if it be looked for, is a common belief with the vulgar. There is a popular superst.i.tion in England relative to goats, that they are never to be seen for twenty-four hours together, and that once in that s.p.a.ce they pay a visit to the devil in order to have their beards combed.

_Healing by the King._

On the 18th of May, 1664, the following public advertis.e.m.e.nt was issued for the healing of the people by King Charles II.:-

NOTICE.

His sacred majesty having declared it to be his royal will and purpose to continue the healing of his people for the evil during the month of May, and then give over till Michalmas next, I am commanded to give notice thereof, that the people may not come up to the town in the interim and lose their labour.

NEWES, 1664.

_Hallow E'en Customs._

Burns says that "burning the nuts is a favorite charm. They name the lad and la.s.s to each particular nut, as they lay them in the fire; and accordingly, as they burn quietly together or start from beside one another, the course and issue of the courts.h.i.+p will be." In Ireland, when the young women would know if their lovers are faithful, they put three nuts upon the bars of the grates, naming the nuts after the lovers. If a nut cracks or jumps, the lover will prove unfaithful; if it begins to blaze or burn, he has a regard for the person making the trial. If the nuts, named after the girl and her lover, burn together, they will be married. This sort of divination is also practiced in England. Gay mentions it in his "Spell"-

"Two hazel nuts I threw into the flame, And to each nut I gave a sweetheart's name; This with _the loudest bounce_ me sore amaz'd, That in a _flame of brightest colour_ blaz'd; As _blaz'd the nut_, so _may thy pa.s.sion grow_, For 'twas thy nut that did so brightly glow."

Another charm consisted in eating an apple. "Take a candle and go alone to a looking-gla.s.s; eat an apple before it, and some traditions say you should comb your hair all the time; the face of your conjugal companion _to be_ will be seen in the gla.s.s, as if peeping over your shoulder."

A third is, "to dip your left s.h.i.+rt-sleeve in a burn where three lairds'

lands meet." "You go out, one or more-for this is a social spell-to a south-running spring or rivulet, where three lairds' lands meet, and dip your left s.h.i.+rt-sleeve. Go to bed in sight of a fire, and hang your wet sleeve before it to dry. Lie awake; and some time near midnight an apparition, having the exact figure of the party in question, will come and turn the sleeve, as if to dry the other side of it."

A fourth is performed as follows: "Take three dishes; put clean water in one, foul water in another, and leave the third empty; blindfold a person and lead him to the hearth where the dishes are ranged; he (or she) dips the left hand; if by chance in the clean water, the future husband or wife will come to the bar of matrimony a maid; if in the foul, a widow; if in the empty dish, it foretells with equal certainty no marriage at all. It is repeated three times, and every time the arrangement of the dishes is altered."

Pennant says that the young women in Scotland determine the figure and size of their prospective husbands by _drawing cabbages blindfolded_.

"They must go out, hand in hand, with eyes shut, and pull the first they meet with. Its being little, straight or crooked, is prophetic of the size and shape of the grand object of all their spells-the husband or wife. Earth sticking to the roots indicates a fortune."

_St. Agnes' Eve._

Formerly this was a night of great import to maidens who desired to know whom they were to marry. Of such it was required that they should not eat on this day, and those who conformed to the rule called it fasting St. Agnes' fast. Ben Jonson says-

And on sweet St. Agnes' night, Please you with the promis'd sight, Some of husbands, some of lovers, Which an empty dream discovers.

Old Aubrey gives a form whereby a lad or la.s.s was to attain a sight of the fortunate lover. "Upon St. Agnes' night you take a row of pins, and pull out every one, one after another, saying a Pater Noster, sticking a pin in your sleeve, and you will dream of him or her you shall marry."

-Her vespers done Of all its wreathed pearls her hair she frees; Unclasps her warmed jewels one by one; Loosens her fragrant boddice; by degrees Her rich attire creeps rustling to her knees.

Half hidden, like a mermaid in sea-weed, Pensive awhile she dreams awake, and sees, In fancy, fair St. Agnes in her bed, But dares not look behind, or all the charm is fled.-_Keates._

_St. Patrick's Birthday._

Saint Patrick, according to ancient lore, having been born at Kilpatrick, Scotland, landed near Wicklow, in the year of grace 433.

Originally there was a dispute, according to Lover, as to the true anniversary of this renowned saint, some supposing the eighth and others the ninth to be the correct day. The humorist represents a priest as settling the difficulty as follows:-

Says he, "Boys, don't be fighting for eight or for nine; Don't be always dividing-but sometimes combine; Combine eight with nine, and seventeen is the mark, So let that be his birthday." "Amen," says the clerk.

So they all got blind drunk-which completed their bliss, And we keep up the practice from that day to this!

_Wa.s.sailing the Orchards._

In Devons.h.i.+re, according to Brand, on the eve of the Epiphany, the farmer and his men, with a large pitcher of cider, visit the orchard, and, encircling one of the best bearing trees, they drink the following toast three several times:-

"Here's to thee, old apple tree, Whence thou may'st bud, and whence thou may'st blow, And whence thou may'st bear apples enow!

Hats full! caps full!

Bushel-bushel-sacks full!

And my pockets full too! Huzza!"

This done, they return to the house, to find the doors bolted by the ladies, who will not open until some one guesses what is on the spit, and which is the reward of him who names it. Some are so superst.i.tious as to believe that if they neglect this ceremony, the trees will bear no apples that year. In allusion to a similar ceremony practiced in Suss.e.x and Ess.e.x on New Year's eve, Herrick, in his "Hesperides," says-

"Wa.s.sail the trees, that they may bear You many a plum, and many a pear; For more or less fruits they will bring, As you do give them wa.s.sailing."

_Cutting Off the Fiddler's Head._

A very singular merriment in the Isle of Man is mentioned by Waldron, in his history of that place. He says that "during the whole twelve days of Christmas there is not a barn unoccupied, and that every parish hires fiddlers at the public charge. On twelfth-day the fiddler lays his head in some one of the girls' laps, and a third person asks who such a maid, or such a maid shall marry, naming the girls then present one after another; to which the fiddler answers, according to his own whim, or agreeably to the intimacies he has taken notice of during this time of merriment. But whatever he says is as absolutely depended upon as an oracle; and if he happens to couple two people who have an aversion to each other, tears and vexation succeed the mirth. This they call cutting off the fiddler's head; for after this he is dead for the whole year."

_Striking with Nettles._

A painful and mischievous custom prevailed on May eve in the south of Ireland so late as the year 1825. "It was a common practice for school boys, on that day, to consider themselves privileged to run wildly about with a bunch of nettles, striking at the face and hands of their companions, or any other person whom they felt they could a.s.sault with impunity."

_Singular Burial Customs._