The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical Part 48

_Ordeal of Chewing Rice._

It is a common practice, in many parts of India, to oblige persons suspected of crimes to chew dry rice in the presence of the officers of the law. Curious as it may appear, such is the intense influence of fear on the salivary glands, that, if they are actually guilty, there is no secretion of saliva in the mouth, and chewing is impossible. Such culprits generally confess without any further efforts. On the contrary, a consciousness of innocence allows of a proper flow of fluid for softening the rice.

_Ordeal by Fire._

This ordeal was allowed only to persons of high rank. The accused had to carry a piece of red-hot iron for some distance in his hand, or to walk nine feet, blindfolded and barefooted, over red-hot ploughshares. The hand or foot was bound up and inspected three days afterwards; if the accused had escaped unhurt, he was p.r.o.nounced innocent; if otherwise, guilty.

_Ordeal of Touch._

At one time a superst.i.tion prevailed that if a murderer, at the inquest, or when on trial, touched the dead body of his victim, it would commence to bleed. On the trial, in Edinburgh, of Philip Standsfield, for the murder of his father, the following deposition was made by Mr. Humphrey Spurway:-

"When the chirurgeons had caused the body of Sir James to be, by their servants, sewen up again, and his grave-clothes put on, a speech was made to this purpose: 'It is requisite, now, that those of Sir James Standsfield's relations and nearest friends should take him off from the place where he now lies, and lift him into his coffin.' So I saw Mr.

James Rowe at the left side of Sir James' head and shoulder, and Mr.

Philip Standsfield at the right side of his head and shoulder; and, going to lift off the body, I saw Mr. Philip drop the head of his father upon the form, and much blood in hand, and himself flying off from the body, crying, 'Lord, have mercy upon me,' or 'upon us,' wiping off the blood on his clothes, and so laying himself over a seat in the church; some, supposing that he would swaiff or swoon away, called for a bottle of water for him."

Sir George McKenzie takes this notice of the above evidence, in his speech to the inquest:-

"But they, fully persuaded that Sir James was murdered by his own son, sent out some chirurgeons and friends, who, having raised the body, did see it bleed miraculously upon his touching it. In which G.o.d Almighty himself was pleased to bear a share in the testimonies which we produce: that Divine Power which makes the blood circulate during life, has oft-times, in all nations, opened a pa.s.sage to it after death upon such occasions, but most in this case."

_Chinese Veneration for the Lily._

Among the Chinese, should the lily blossom on New Year's day, it is regarded as a most happy omen, presaging the best of luck to the fortunate owner of the plant.

_The Pa.s.sion Flower._

This genus of plants received its name from some fanciful persons among the first Spanish settlers in America, who imagined that they saw in its flowers a representation of our Lord's Pa.s.sion-the filamentous processes being taken to represent the crown of thorns, the nail-shaped styles the nails of the cross, and the five anthers the marks of the wounds.

_Burned Wastes Replenished._

Mr. Veitch, the well-known author on "Coniferae," recently stated that the cones of many of the species on the Pacific coast never open and permit the seed to escape unless opened by a forest fire, when they fall out and replenish the burned waste. They hang on the trees for many generations-even for thirty years.

_Unlucky Stumbling._

When Mungo Park took his leave of Sir Walter Scott, prior to his second and fatal expedition to Africa, his horse stumbled on crossing a ditch which separated the moor from the road. "I am afraid," said Scott, "this is a bad omen." Park smilingly answered: "Omens follow them who look to them," and, striking spur into his horse, he galloped off. Scott never saw him again.

_Patagonian Superst.i.tions._

To the Patagonians the cry of the nightjar on the Cordillera betokens sickness, a certain toad-like lizzard mysteriously lames horses, a fabulous two-headed guanaco is a sure forerunner of epidemic disease, &c. To counteract the influence of these, charms and talismans are liberally employed.

_Superst.i.tion about the Caul._

One of the superst.i.tions that still clings to seafaring life, is the confidence in the virtues of a child's caul, as a preservative against drowning. The caul is a thin membrane found encompa.s.sing the head of some children when born; it was considered a good omen for the child itself, and productive of good fortune and security from danger to the purchaser. The superst.i.tion was so common in the primitive church that St. Crysostom felt it his duty to inveigh against it in many of his homilies. In later times midwives sold the caul at enormous prices to advocates, "as an especial means of making them eloquent," and to seamen as "an infallible preservative against drowning." In Ben Jonson's "Alchemist" Face says to Dapper-

"Ye were born with a caul o' your head."

In Digby's "Elvira" (Act V.), Don Sancho says-

"Were we not born with cauls upon our heads?

Think'st thou, chicken, to come off twice arow Thus rarely from such dangerous adventures?"

The caul is alluded to in a _rondeau_ by Claude de Malleville, born 1597. "_Il est ne coiffe_" is a well-known expression, describing a lucky man, and indicating that he was born with a caul. Weston, in his "Moral Aphorisms from the Arabic" (1801), says that the superst.i.tion came from the East, and that there are several Arabic words for it.

_The Will-with-a-Wisp._

This phenomenon, known also as "Jack-with-a-Lantern" and "Ignis fatuus,"

has terrified many a simple-minded rustic, whereas it is simply the phosphuretted hydrogen gas which rises from stagnant waters and marshy grounds. Its origin is believed to be in the decomposition of animal substances. Collins has left us some fine lines upon this phenomenon, beginning-

"Ah, homely swains! your homeward steps ne'er lose; Let not dank Will mislead you to the heath; Dancing in murky night o'er fen and lake, He glows to draw you downward to your death, In his bewitch'd, low, marshy willow brake."

At Bologna, in 1843, the painter Onofrio Zanotti saw this phenomenon in the form of globes of fire, issuing from between the paving-stones in the street, and even about his feet. They rose into the air and disappeared; he even felt their heat when they pa.s.sed near him.

_Cramp Rings._

These rings were supposed to cure cramp and the "falling sickness." They are said to have originated as far back as the middle of the eleventh century, in a ring presented by a pilgrim to Edward the Confessor, which, after that ruler's death, was preserved as a relic in Westminster Abbey, and was applied for the cure of epilepsy and cramp. Hence appears to have arisen the belief that rings blessed by English sovereigns were efficacious in such cases, and the custom of blessing for distribution large numbers of cramp rings on Good Friday, which continued in existence down to the time of Queen Mary. The accomplished Lord Berners, amba.s.sador to Spain in the time of Henry VIII., wrote from Saragossa to Cardinal Wolsey: "If your grace remember me with some cramp rings ye shall doo a thing muche looked for; and I trust to bestow thaym with G.o.ddes grace."

_Horseshoes._

An ancient superst.i.tion existed that horseshoes kept witches out of the house. It was a common practice to nail them to the threshold, stipulated, however, that the shoe was to be one that had been found. In Gay's fable of "The Old Woman and her Cats," the supposed witch makes the following complaint:-

"-Crowds of boys Worry me with eternal noise; Straws laid across, my pace r.e.t.a.r.d; The horseshoe's nailed (each threshold's guard); The stunted brooms the wenches hide, For fear that I should up and ride."

_Breaking a Piece of Money._

It was an ancient custom to break a piece of gold or silver in token of a verbal contract of marriage and promises of love; one half of the coin was kept by the woman, the other half was retained by the man.

_Love Charms._

Theocritus and Virgil both introduce women into their pastorals, using charms and incantations to recover the affections of their sweethearts.

Shakespeare represents Oth.e.l.lo as accused of winning Desdemona "by conjuration and mighty magic." In Gay's "Shepherd's Week," these are represented as country practices-

"Strait to the 'pothecary's shop I went, And in love-powder all my money spent, Behap what will, next Sunday, after prayers, When to the ale-house Lubberkin repairs, These golden flies into his mug I'll throw, And soon the swain with fervent love shall glow."

Throwing bay leaves into the fire, or bruising poppy flowers in the hands, was believed to influence the love of others. In Herrick's "Hesperides" is given "a charm or an allay for love"-

"If so a toad be laid In a sheep-skin newly flay'd, And that ty'd to a man, 'twill sever Him and his affections ever."