The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical Part 49

_Spellbound._

It was a popular belief in Scotland that the Duke of Monmouth was spellbound to Lady Henrietta Wentworth, the charm being lodged in the gold toothpick case which he sent to her from the scaffold.-_William Jones, F.S.A._

_Amulets Inserted under the Skin._

Devices to procure invulnerability are common in the Indo-Chinese countries. The Burmese sometimes insert pellets of gold under the skin with this view. At a meeting of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, in 1868, gold and silver coins were shown which had been extracted from under the skin of a Burmese convict, at the Andaman Islands. Friar Odoric speaks of the practice in one of the Indian Islands (apparently Borneo), and the stones possessing such virtue were, according to him, found in the bamboo, presumably the silicious concretions called _Tabas.h.i.+r_. Conti also describes the practice in Java of inserting amulets under the skin.

_Divining Rods._

Divination by the rod or wand is an imposition of the highest antiquity.

Hosea reproaches the Jews for believing in it: "My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their _staff_ declareth it unto them." (IV. 12.) It was a custom in vogue among the Chaldeans, among almost every nation with any pretence to scientific knowledge, and also among the wilder or ruder races, as the Alani and the ancient Germans. Dr. Henry states that after the Saxons and Danes had embraced Christianity, the priests were commanded by their ecclesiastical superiors to preach very frequently against _diviners_, sorcerers, augurers, and "all the filth of the wicked and the dotages of the Gentiles." The divining rod, _virgula divina_, or _baculus divinatorius_, was a forked branch of hazel, cut in the form of a Y, and was supposed to reveal not only the hidden spring, but mines of gold and silver, and any other concealed treasure.

The "Quarterly Review," in an early number, relates that a certain Lady Noel possessed the divining faculty: "She took a thin forked hazel twig, about sixteen inches long, and held it by the ends, the joint pointing downwards. When she came to the place where water was under the ground, the twig immediately bent, and the motion was more or less rapid as she approached or withdrew from the spring. When just over it, the _twig turned so quick as to snap, breaking near the fingers_, which, by pressing it, were indented and heated and _almost blistered_; a degree of agitation was also visible in her face. The exercise of the faculty is independent of any volition."

_Was.h.i.+ng but Once in a Lifetime._

No devout Spanish woman dares to bathe without the permission of her confessor. A female Bulgarian is permitted to wash only once in her life-on the day before her wedding; and in most South Sclavonian families the girls are rarely allowed to bathe-the women never.

_Looking Back._

The superst.i.tion of the ill-luck of looking back, or returning, is nearly as old as the world itself, having no doubt originated in Lot's wife "having looked back from behind him," when he was leaving the doomed city of the Plain. Whether walking or riding, the wife was behind the husband, according to a usage still prevalent in the East. In Robert's "Oriental Ill.u.s.trations" it is stated to be "considered exceedingly unfortunate in Hindostan for men or women to look back when they leave their house. Accordingly, if a man goes out and leaves something behind him which his wife knows he will want, she does not call him to turn or look back, but takes or sends it after him; and if some emergency obliges him to look back, he will not then proceed on the business he was about to transact."

_Toad-Stone Rings._

During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries a curious superst.i.tion was prevalent in England in connection with what was known as the toad-stone ring. The setting was of silver, and the stone was popularly believed to have been formed in the heads of very old toads. It was eagerly coveted by sovereigns, and by all persons in office, because it was supposed to have the power of indicating to the person who wore it the proximity of poison, by perspiring and changing color. Fenton, who wrote in 1569, says: "There is to be found in the heads of old and great toads a stone they call borax or stelon;" and he adds, "They, being used as rings, give forewarning against venom." Their composition is not actually known; by some they are thought to be a stone-by others, a sh.e.l.l; but of whatever they may be formed there is to be seen in them a figure resembling that of a toad, but whether produced accidentally or by artificial means, is not known, though, according to Albertus Magnus, the stone always bore the figure on its surface when it was taken out of the toad's head. Lupton, in his "One Thousand Notable Things," says: "A toad-stone, called crepaudina, touching any part envenomed, hurt or stung with rat, spider, wasp or any other venomous beast, ceases the pain or swelling thereof." The well known lines in Shakespeare are doubtless in allusion to the virtue which Lupton says it possesses-

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

And Lyly, in his Euphues, says-

"The foule toad hath a faire stone in his head."

_Royal Dinner Time._

The Khan of the Tartars, who had not a house to dwell in, who subsisted by rapine, and lived on mare's milk and horse flesh, every day after his repast caused a herald to proclaim, "That the Khan having dined, all other potentates, princes and great men of the earth might go to dinner."

_Throwing an Old Shoe._

The custom of throwing an old shoe after a person is still, in many rural districts, believed to propitiate success, as in servants seeking or entering upon situations, or about to be married. In Scripture, "the receiving of a shoe was an evidence and symbol of a.s.serting or accepting dominion or owners.h.i.+p; the giving back the shoe was the symbol of rejecting or resigning it." Hence the throwing of a shoe after a bride was a symbol of renunciation of dominion over her by her father or guardian; and the receipt of the shoe by the bridegroom, even if accidental, was an omen that the authority was transferred to him.

_c.o.c.k-crowing an Omen of Victory._

Cicero quotes an instance where a Botian soothsayer promised victory to the Thebans from the crowing of a c.o.c.k. The same circ.u.mstance once served the Botians as an omen of victory over the Lacedaemonians.

_The Unicorn's Horn._

The unicorn's horn was considered an amulet of singular efficacy. It is now known that the object shown as such in various museums is the horn of the rhinoceros. They were sold at six thousand ducats, and were thought infallible tests of poison, just as Venitian gla.s.s and some sorts of jewels were. The Dukes of Burgundy kept pieces of the horn in their wine jugs, and used others to touch all the meat they tasted.

Drinking-cups of this kind were greatly esteemed in former times. In the inventory of jewels and plate in the Tower (1649), with cups and beakers of unicorn's horn, is entered, "A rinoceras cupp, graven with figures, with a golden foot," valued at 12. Decker, in "Gul's Hornbook," speaks of "the unicorn whose horn is worth a city."

_The Evil Eye in Spain._

In the Gitano language casting the evil eye is called _querelar nasula_, which simply means "making sick," and which, according to the common superst.i.tion, is accomplished by casting an evil look at people, especially at children, who, from the tenderness of their const.i.tution, are supposed to be more easily blighted than those of a more mature age.

After receiving the evil glance, they fall sick and die in a few hours.

The Spaniards have very little to say about the evil eye, though the belief in it is very prevalent, especially in Andalusia, among the lower orders. A stag's horn is considered a good safeguard, and on that account a small horn, tipped with silver, is frequently attached to the children's necks by means of a cord braided from the hair of a black mare's tail. Should the evil glance be cast, it is imagined that the horn receives it, and instantly snaps asunder. Such horns may be purchased in some of the silversmiths' shops at Seville.-_Borrow._

_Witchcraft Charms._

The charms by which witches worked were short rhymes at the different stages. In the fifteenth century an old dame was tried for using witchcraft in curing diseases, when the judges promised to liberate her if she would divulge her charm. This she readily did, and informed the court that the charm consisted in repeating the following words, after the stipulated pay, which was a loaf of bread and a penny-

"My loaf in my lap, My penny in my purse, Thou art never the better, And I am never the worse."

That was ludicrous indeed. Here is a "Charme for a Thorne"-

"Christ was of a Virgin born, And he was p.r.i.c.ked with a thorn; And it did neither bell nor swell, And I trust in Jesus this never will."

For "A Burning":-

"There came three angels out of the East; The one brought fire, the other brought frost- Out fire-in frost, In the name of the Father, and Son And Holy Ghost. Amen."

_A Mountain Highway._

During the occupation of Java by the English in May, 1814, it was unexpectedly discovered that in a remote but populous part of the island a road leading to the top of the mountain of Sumbeng, one of the highest in Java, had been constructed. The delusion which gave rise to the work had its origin in the province of Banyunas, in the territories of the Susunan, and the infection spread to the territory of the Sultan, and thence extended to that of the Europeans.

On examination, a road was found constructed twenty feet broad and from fifty to sixty miles long, and it was wonderfully smooth and well made.

One point which appears to have been considered necessary, was that this road should not cross rivers, and in consequence it wound in a thousand ways. Another point as peremptorily insisted upon, was that its course should not be interrupted by any private rights, and in consequence trees and houses were overturned to make way for it. The population of whole districts, occasionally to the amount of five or six thousand laborers, were employed on the road, and, among people disinclined to active exertion, the laborious work was nearly completed in two months-such was the effect of the temporary enthusiasm with which they were inspired.

It was found in the sequel that the whole work was set in motion by an old woman who dreamed, or pretended to have dreamed, that a divine personage was about to descend from heaven on the mountain in question.

Piety suggested the propriety of constructing a road to facilitate his descent; and it was rumored that divine vengeance would pursue the sacrilegious person who refused to join in the meritorious labor. These reports quickly wrought on the fears and ignorance of the people, and they heartily joined in the enterprise. The old woman distributed to the laborers slips of palm-leaves, with magic letters written upon them, which were charms to secure them against sickness and accidents. When this strange affair was discovered by the native authorities, orders were issued to desist from the work, and the inhabitants returned without a murmur to their usual occupations.

_A Buffalo's Skull._

Nowhere has superst.i.tion a greater power over the human mind than among the inhabitants of Java. Mr. Crawford relates that some years since it was accidentally discovered that the skull of a buffalo was superst.i.tiously conveyed from one part of the island to another. The point insisted upon was never to let it rest, but to keep it in constant progressive motion. It was carried in a basket, and no sooner was one person relieved from the load than it was taken up by another; for the understanding was that some dreadful imprecation was denounced against the man who should let it rest. In this manner the skull was hurried from one province to another, and, after a circulation of many hundred miles, it at length reached the town of Samarang, the Dutch governor of which seized it and threw it into the sea, and thus the spell was broken. The Javanese expressed no resentment, and nothing further was heard of this unaccountable transaction. None could tell how or where it originated.

_Superst.i.tious Notion of the Number One._