Welsh Folk-Lore Part 46

Never keep about thy house A white c.o.c.k or _black_ puss.

Cats are so tenacious of life that they are said to have nine lives. We have already spoken of witches transforming themselves into cats.

A singular superst.i.tion connected with cats is the supposition that they indicate the place to which the dead have gone by ascending or descending trees immediately after the death of a person.

The Rev. P. W. Sparling, Rector of Erbistock, informed me that one day a parishioner met him, and told him that his brother, who had lately died, was in h.e.l.l, and that he wished the Rector to get him out. Mr. Sparling asked him how he knew where his brother was, and in answer the man said that he knew, because he had seen his brother in the form of a white cat descend a tree immediately after his death. On further inquiry, the man stated that since the cat came _down the tree_, it was a sign that his brother had gone down to h.e.l.l; but had the cat _gone up the tree_, it would have shown that he had gone up to heaven.

I have heard it stated, but by whom I have forgotten, that if a _black_ cat leaves a house where a person dies, immediately after that person's death, it shows he has gone to the bad place; but if a white cat, that he has gone to heaven.

_Cows._

_Cows Kneeling on Christmas Morn._

In the upland parishes of Wales, particularly those in Montgomeryshire, it was said, and that not so long ago, that cows knelt at midnight on Christmas eve, to adore the infant Saviour. This has been affirmed by those who have witnessed the strange occurrence.

Cows bringing forth two calves are believed to bring luck to a farmer; but in some parts of Wales a contrary view is taken of this matter.

If the new born calf is seen by the mistress of the house with its head towards her, as she enters the cowhouse to view her new charge and property, it is a lucky omen, but should any other part of the calf present itself to the mistress's view, it is a sign of bad luck.

Witches were thought to have great power over cows, and it was not unusual for farmers to think that their cows, if they did not thrive, had been bewitched.

_Crickets_.

It is lucky to have crickets in a house, and to kill one is sure to bring bad luck after it. If they are very numerous in a house, it is a sign that peace and plenty reign there. The bakehouse in which their merry chirp is heard is the place to bake your bread, for it is a certain sign that the bread baked there will turn out well.

An aged female Welsh friend in Porthywaen told me that it is a sign of death for crickets to leave a house, and she proved her case by an apt ill.u.s.tration. She named all the parties concerned in the following tale:--"There were hundreds of crickets in . . . house; they were 'sniving,' swarming, all about the house, and were often to be seen outside the house, or at least heard, and some of them perched on the wicket to the garden; but all at once they left the place, and very soon afterwards the son died. The crickets, she said, knew that a death was about to take place, and they all left that house, going no one knew where."

It was not thought right to look at the cricket, much less to hurt it.

The warm fireplace, with its misplaced or displaced stones, was not to be repaired, lest the crickets should be disturbed, and forsake the place, and take with them good luck. They had, therefore, many snug, warm holes in and about the chimneys. Crickets are not so plentiful in Wales as they once were.

_Hare_.

_Caesar_, bk. v., ch. xii., states that the Celts "do not regard it lawful to eat the _hare_, the c.o.c.k, and the goose; they, however, breed them for amus.e.m.e.nt and pleasure." This gives a respectable age to the superst.i.tions respecting these animals.

Mention has already been made of witches turning themselves into hares.

This superst.i.tion was common in all parts of North Wales. The Rev. Lewis Williams, rector of Prion, near Denbigh, told me the following tales of this belief:--A witch that troubled a farmer in the shape of a hare, was shot by him. She then transformed herself into her natural form, but ever afterwards retained the marks of the shot in her nose.

Another tale which the same gentleman told me was the following:--A farmer was troubled by a hare that greatly annoyed him, and seemed to make sport of him. He suspected it was no hare, but a witch, so he determined to rid himself of her repeated visits. One day, spying his opportunity, he fired at her. She made a terrible noise, and jumped about in a frightful manner, and then lay as if dead. The man went up to her, but instead of a dead hare, he saw something on the ground as big as a donkey. He dug a hole, and buried the thing, and was never afterwards troubled by hare or witch.

In Llanerfyl parish there is a story of a cottager who had only one cow, but she took to Llanfair market more b.u.t.ter than the biggest farmer in the parish. She was suspected of being a witch, and was watched. At last the watcher saw a hare with a tin-milk-can hanging from its neck, and it was moving among the cows, milking them into her tin-can. The man shot it, and it made for the abode of the suspected witch. When he entered, he found her on the bed bleeding.

It was supposed that there was something uncanny about hares. Rowland Williams, Parish Clerk, Efenechtyd, an aged man, related to me the following tale, and he gave the name of the party concerned, but I took no note of the name, and I have forgotten it:--A man on his way one Sunday to Efenechtyd Church saw a hare on its form. He turned back for his gun, and fired at the hare. The following Sunday he saw again a hare on the very same spot, and it lifted its head and actually stared at him.

The man was frightened and went to church; the third Sunday he again saw a hare on the very same form, and this hare also boldly looked at him.

This third appearance thoroughly convinced the man that there was something wrong somewhere, and he afterwards avoided that particular place.

The pretty legend of Melangell, called Monacella, the patroness of hares, is well known. One day the Prince of Powis chased a hare, which took refuge under the robe of the virgin Melangell, who was engaged in deep devotion. The hare boldly faced the hounds, and the dogs retired to a distance howling, and they could not be induced to seize their prey. The Prince gave to G.o.d and Melangell a piece of land to be henceforth a sanctuary. The legend of the hare and the saint is represented in carved wood on the gallery in the church of Pennant. Formerly it belonged to the screen. Hares were once called in the parish of Pennant Melangell _Wyn Melangell_, or St. Monacella's lambs. Until the last century no one in the parish would kill a hare, and it was believed that if anyone cried out when a hare was being pursued, "G.o.d and St. Monacella be with thee,"

it would escape.

_Haddock_.

The haddock has a dark spot on each side its gills, and superst.i.tion ascribes these marks to the impression of S. Peter's thumb and finger, when he took the tribute money out of the mouth of a fish of the same species in the sea of Galilee.

_Hedgehog_.

It was believed that hedgehogs sucked cows, and so firmly were the people convinced of this fact, that this useful little animal was doomed to death, and I have seen in many Churchwardens' accounts entries to the effect that they had paid sums of money for its destruction. The amount given in most parishes was two pence. I will give a few entries, from many that I have by me, to show that parishes paid this sum for dead hedgehogs.

In Cilcen Churchwardens' Accounts for the year 1710 I find the following entry:--

To Edward Lloyd for killing a hedgehog 00. 00. 02.

One hundred years afterwards I find in Llanasa Churchwardens' Accounts for 1810-1811 this entry:--

9 hedgogs ... ... ... 1. 6.

It was thought, should the cow's teats be swollen of a morning, that she had been sucked the previous night by a hedgehog.

Formerly dead hedgehogs could be seen in company with foxes, polecats, and other vermin suspended from the boughs of the churchyard yew trees, to prove that the Churchwardens paid for work actually done.

_Horse_.

A white horse figures in the superst.i.tion of school children. When the writer was a lad in school at Llanidloes, it was believed that if a white horse were met in the morning it was considered lucky, and should the boy who first saw the horse spit on the ground, and stealthily make the sign of a cross with his toe across the spittle, he was certain to find a coin on the road, or have a piece of money given to him before the day was over; but he was not to divulge to anyone what he had done, and for the working of the charm it was required that he should make sure that the horse was perfectly white, without any black hairs in any part of the body.

In Welshpool a like superst.i.tion prevails. Mr. Copnall, the master of the Boys' National School in that town, has kindly supplied me with the following account of this matter:--"It is lucky to meet a white horse on the road, if, when you meet it, you spit three times over your little finger; if you neglect this charm you will be unlucky. I asked the children if it signified whether it was the little finger on the right or left hand; some boys said the left, but the majority said it made no difference which hand."

It was said that horses could see spirits, and that they could never be induced to proceed as long as the spirit stood before them. They perspired and trembled whilst the spirit blocked the way, but when it had disappeared, then the horses would go on.

_Lady-bird_.