The Queer, the Quaint and the Quizzical Part 50

The Bedui, a people found in the interior of Bantam, Java, have a superst.i.tious notion of the number _one_. It is an established rule among them to allot but one day for each of the different successive operations of husbandry,-one day for cutting down the trees and underwood; one day for clearing what has been so cut down; one day for sowing the grain; one for weeding the field; one for reaping; one for binding up the grain; one for carrying it home. If any part of what has been reaped cannot be carried home in one day, it is left to rot in the field.

_Thunder and Lightning._

Thunder and lightning have been fruitful sources of superst.i.tious terror. The ancients considered lightning as a visible manifestation of Divine wrath; hence whatever was struck with it was considered to be accursed and separated from human uses. The corpse of a person struck by lightning was never removed from the place where it fell; there it lay, and, with everything pertaining to it, was covered with earth and enclosed by a rail or mound. In some parts of the East, however, it is considered a mark of Divine favor to be struck by lightning. In England, formerly, during storms, bells were rung, and the aid of Saint Barnabas was invoked, in abbeys, to drive away thunder and lightning.

The bay-tree was commonly believed to afford protection from lightning.

It was also believed that if a fir-tree were touched, withered or burned by lightning, its owner would soon die. It was customary to place a piece of iron on the beer barrel, during a storm, to keep the beer from souring.

_Manna Marked with the Number Six._

In the _Cabala_, the number _six_ was considered to be one of potent mystical properties. The rabbinical writers a.s.sert that the manna, when it was found, was marked with the Hebrew _vau_, the equivalent of number six. As the world was created in six days; as a servant had to serve six years (Exodus xxi. 2); as the soil was tilled for six years (Exodus xxiii. 10); as Job endured six tribulations-so this number was typical of labor and suffering. Consequently it was impressed on the manna not only to show the Israelites that it fell but on six days, but also to warn them of the miseries they would undergo if they dared to desecrate the Sabbath day.

_The Seventh Son of the Seventh Son._

Grose remarks as a popular superst.i.tion that the seventh son of a seventh son is born a physician, having an intuitive knowledge of the art of healing all disorders, and sometimes the faculty of performing wonderful cures by touching only.

It is recorded as a superst.i.tion in Yorkshire (1819), that if any woman has seven boys in succession, the last should be bred to the profession of medicine, in which he would be sure of being successful.

In an article on "Fairy Superst.i.tions in Donegal," published in the _University Magazine_ for August, 1879, are the following statements respecting the seventh son: "It is not generally known that a particular ceremony must be observed at the moment of the infant's birth, in order to give him his healing power. The woman who receives him in her arms places in his tiny hand whatever substance she decides that he shall rub with in after life, and she is very careful not to let him touch anything until this shall have been accomplished. If silver is to be the charm, she has provided a sixpenny or threepenny bit; but as the coinage of the realm may possibly change during his lifetime, and thus render his cure valueless, she has more likely placed meal or salt upon the table, within reach. Sometimes it is determined that he is to rub with his own hair, and in this case the father is summoned and requested to kneel down before his new-born son, whose little fingers are guided to his head, and helped to close upon a lock of hair. Whatever substance a seventh son rubs with must be worn by his patients so long as they live."

_Virtue in the Number Seven._

In the ma.n.u.script on Witchcraft, by John Bell, a Scottish minister (1705), he says: "Are there not some who cure by observing number 7 after the example of Balaam, who used magiam geometricam (Numbers xxiii. 1), 'Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven oxen and seven rams,' etc. There are some witches who enjoin the sick to dip their shirt seven times in south-running water. Elisha sends Naaman to wash in Jordan seven times. Elijah, on the top of Carmel, sends his servant seven times to look for rain. When Jericho was taken they compa.s.sed the city seven times."

Not only the ancient Jews but the heathens regarded this number of great efficacy in religious ceremonies. Apuleius says: "Desirous of purifying myself, I wash in the sea, and dip my head in the waves seven times, Pythagoras having thought that this number is, above all others, most proper in the concerns of religion."

The Bektashi dervishes of Turkey have many superst.i.tious beliefs in connection with their girdle, cap and cloak. One ceremony with the stone worn in the girdle is rather striking. The Sheikh puts it in and out _seven_ times, saying: "I tie up greediness, and unbind generosity. I tie up anger, and unbind meekness. I tie up ignorance, and unbind the fear of G.o.d. I tie up pa.s.sion, and unbind the love of G.o.d. I tie up the devilish, and unbind the divine."

In Lane's "Modern Egyptians," mention is made of a ridiculous ceremony for the cure of a pimple on the edge of the eyelid. The person affected with it goes to any seven women of the name of Fa't'meh, in seven different houses, and begs from each of them a morsel of bread; these seven morsels const.i.tute the remedy.

A curious French ma.n.u.script belonging to the latter part of the thirteenth century has a singular ill.u.s.tration of the number seven. It is a miniature,-a wheel cut into seven rays, and composed of seven concentric cordons. The rays form seven compartments divided into as many cordons, containing in each cordon one of the seven pet.i.tions of the Lord's prayer, one of the seven sacraments, one of the seven spiritual arms of justice, one of the seven works of mercy, one of the seven virtues, and one of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost.-_William Jones, F.S.A._

_Onomancy._

The notion that an a.n.a.logy existed between men's names and their fortunes is supposed to have originated with the Pythagoreans; it furnished some reveries for Plato, and has been the source of much wit to Ausonius. Two leading rules in what was called Onomancy were, first, that an even number of vowels in a man's name signified something amiss in his left side; an uneven number, a similar affection in the right; so that between the two perfect sanity was little to be expected. Secondly, of two compet.i.tors, that one would prove successful the numeral letters in whose name, when summed up, exceeded the amount of those in the name of his rival; and this was one of the reasons which enabled Achilles to triumph over Hector.

_Mystic Gifts._

Chrysostom says that the three gifts of the three Magi-gold, myrrh and frankincense-were mystic gifts, signifying that Christ was king, man and G.o.d.

_Exterminating Vermin._

In France it is believed that water from the well of the Church of St.

Gertrude of Nivelles will drive away rats and mice if sprinkled about the house. Earth from the tomb of St. Ulric, at Augsbourg, is believed to possess the same virtue. In Scotland it was the custom to paste the following rhyme against the wall of the house-

"Ratton and mouse, Lea' the puir woman's house; Gang awa' owre by to the mill, And there ye'll a' get ye'r fill."

The Bulgarians beat copper pans all over the house on the last day of February, calling out at the same time, "Out with you, serpents, scorpions, fleas, bugs and flies!" A pan held by a pair of tongs is put outside in the courtyard.

_Perforated Stones._

Creeping through perforated stones was a Druidical ceremony, and is practiced in the East Indies. Barlase mentions a stone in the parish of Marsden, Cornwall, through which many persons have crept for pains in their backs and limbs, and many children have been drawn for the rickets. He adds that two bra.s.s pins were carefully laid across each other on the top edge of this stone, for oracular purposes.

_St. Helena Coins._

Among amulets in repute in the Middle Ages were the coins attributed to St. Helena, the mother of Constantine. These and other coins marked with a cross were thought especially efficacious against epilepsy, and are generally found perforated for the purpose of being worn suspended from the neck.

_Weighing a Witch._

At Wingrave, in Buckinghamshire, in 1759, a case occurred of the old popular witchcraft trial by weighing against the church Bible. One Susannah Hameokes, an elderly woman, was accused by a neighbor of being a witch. The overt act offered in proof was, that she had bewitched the said neighbor's spinning-wheel, so that she could not make it go round either one way or the other. The complaining party offered to make oath of the fact before a magistrate, on which the husband of the poor woman, in order to justify his wife, insisted that she should be tried by the church Bible, and that the accuser should be present. The woman was accordingly conducted by her husband to the ordeal, attended by a great concourse of people, who flocked to the parish church to see the ceremony. Being stripped of nearly all her clothes, she was put into one scale and the Bible into another, when, to the no small astonishment and mortification of her accuser, she actually outweighed it, and was honorably acquitted of the charge.

_Poetry of Omens._

Omens const.i.tute the poetry of history. They cause the series of events which they are supposed to declare to flow into epical unity, and the political catastrophe seems to be produced not by prudence or by folly, but by the superintending destiny. The numerous tokens of the death of Henry IV. are finely tragical. Mary de Medicis, in her dream, saw the brilliant gems of her crown change into pearls, the symbol of tears and mourning. An owl hooted until sunrise at the window of the chamber to which the king and queen retired at St. Denis, on the night preceding her coronation. During the ceremony, it was observed, with dread, that the dark portals leading to the royal sepulchre, beneath the choir, were gaping and expanded. The flame of the consecrated taper held by the queen was suddenly extinguished, and twice her crown nearly fell to the ground. The prognostications of the misfortunes of the Stuarts have equally a character of solemn grandeur; and we are reminded of the portents of Rome when we read how the sudden tempest rent the royal standard on the Tower of London. Charles I., yielding to his destiny, was obstinate in the signs of evil death. He refused to be clad in the garments of Edward the Confessor, in which all his predecessors had been arrayed, and he would be attired in white velvet. Strongly did the Earl of Pembroke attempt to dissuade him-for the prophecy of the misfortunes of the _white king_ had long been current; but his entreaties were in vain, and Charles was crowned invested with the raiment which indicated his misfortunes.-_Quarterly Review._

_House Crickets._

It is singular that the house cricket should, by some weak persons, be considered a lucky, and by others an unlucky, inmate of a dwelling.

Those who hold the former opinion consider its destruction the means of bringing misfortune on their habitations. "In Dumfriesshire," says Sir William Jardine, "it is a common superst.i.tion, that if crickets forsake a house which they have long inhabited, some evil will befall the family-generally the death of some member is portended. In like manner, the presence or return of this cheerful little insect is lucky, and portends some good to the family."

_Sitting Cross-Legged._

Sir Thomas Browne tells us that to sit cross-legged, or with our fingers pectinated or shut together, is accounted bad, and friends will dissuade us from it. The same conceit religiously possessed the ancients; but Mr.

Park says: "To sit cross-legged, I have always understood, was intended to produce good or fortunate consequences. Hence it was employed as a charm at school, by one boy who wished well for another, in order to deprecate some punishment which both might tremble to have incurred the expectation of. At a card-table I have also caught some superst.i.tious players sitting cross-legged, with a view of bringing good luck."-_Brand._

_The Death-Watch._

This name has been given to a harmless little insect which lives in old timber, and produced a noise which somewhat resembles the ticking of a watch. It is simply the call of the insect to another of its kind, when spring is far advanced. The general number of distinct strokes in succession is from seven to nine, or eleven, and the noise exactly resembles that produced by tapping moderately with the finger nail upon a table, and, when familiarized, the insect will readily answer to the tap of the nail. The noise used to be regarded as an omen of death in the family, and is mentioned by Baxter in his "World of Spirits." Swift ridicules the superst.i.tion as follows:-

"A wood worm, That lies in old wood, like a hare in her form, With teeth or with claws it will bite, it will scratch, And chamber-maids christen this worm a death-watch; Because, like a watch, it always cries click: Then woe be to those in the house that are sick!

For, sure as a gun, they will give up the ghost, If the maggot cries click when it scratches the post, But a kettle of scalding hot water injected, Infallibly cures the timber affected; The omen is broken, the danger is over, The maggot will die, the sick will recover."

_Sundry Rural Charms._