British Goblins Part 18

The actual origin of the phantoms of the spirit-world is to be found in the lawless and luxuriant fancy of primeval man. The creatures of this fancy have been perpetuated throughout all time, unto our own day, by that pa.s.sionate yearning in men for continued life and love, which is ineradicable in our nature. Men will not, they can not, accept the doubt which plunges an eternal future into eternal darkness, and separates them for ever from the creatures of their love. Hence, when the remorseless fact of Death removes those creatures, they look, with a longing which is indescribably pathetic, into the Unknown where their beloved have gone, and strive to see them in their spirit-life.

On this verge the finite mind must pause; to question that life is to add a terrible burden to all human woe; it need not be questioned. But to question the power of anything in that life to manifest itself to man through natural law, is to do what science has a right to do. 'The living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing ...

neither have they any more a portion for ever in any thing that is done under the sun.'[112]

FOOTNOTE:

[112] 'Eccles.' ix., 5, 6.

[Ill.u.s.tration: {SPRIG OF LILY OF THE VALLEY.}]

BOOK III.

QUAINT OLD CUSTOMS.

Where in an agede cell with moss and iveye growne, In which nor to this daye the sunn had ever showne, Their reverend British saint, in zealous ages paste, To contemplation lived, and did so truly faste, As he did onlie drink what chrystal [rivers] yields, And fed upon the leakes he gather'd in the fields: In memory of whom, in the revolving year, The Welchman on that daye that sacred herb doth wear.

_MS. in Bodleian Library._

CHAPTER I.

Serious Significance of seemingly Trivial Customs--Their Origins--Common Superst.i.tions--The Age we Live in--Days and Seasons--New Year's Day--The Apple Gift--Lucky Acts on New Year's Morning--The First Foot--Showmen's Superst.i.tions--Levy Dew Song--Happy New Year Carol--Twelfth Night--The Mari Lwyd--The Penglog--The Cutty Wren--Tooling and Sowling--St. Valentine's Day--St. Dewi's Day--The Wearing of the Leek--The Traditional St. David--St.

Patrick's Day--St. Patrick a Welshman--Shrove Tuesday.

I.

Numberless customs in Wales which appear to be meaningless, to people of average culture, are in truth replete with meaning. However trivial they may seem, they are very seldom the offspring of mere fooling. The student of comparative folk-lore is often able to trace their origin with surprising distinctness, and to evolve from them a significance before unsuspected. In many cases these quaint old customs are traced to the primeval mythology. Others are clearly seen to be of Druidical origin. Many spring from the rites and observances of the Roman Catholic Church in the early days of Christianity on Welsh soil--where, as is now generally conceded, the Gospel was first preached in Great Britain. Some embody historical traditions; and some are the outgrowth of peculiar states of society in medieval times.

Directly or indirectly, they are all a.s.sociated with superst.i.tion, though in many instances they have quite lost any superst.i.tious character in our day.

Modern society is agreed, with respect to many curious old customs, to view them as the peculiar possession of ignorance. It is very instructive to note, in this connection, how blandly we accept some of the most superst.i.tious of these usages, with tacit approval, and permit them to govern our conduct. In every civilised community, in every enlightened land on earth, there are many men and women to whom this remark applies, who would deem themselves shamefully insulted should you doubt their intelligence and culture. Men and women who 'smile superior' at the idea of Luther hurling inkstands at the devil, or at the Welsh peasant who thinks a pig can see the wind, will themselves avoid beginning a journey on a Friday, view as ominous a rainy wedding-day, throw an old slipper after a bride for luck, observe with interest the portents of their nightly dreams, shun seeing the new moon over the left shoulder, throw a pinch of salt over the same member when the salt-cellar is upset, tie a red string about the neck to cure nose-bleed, and believe in the antics of the modern spiritualistic 'control.' Superst.i.tion, however, they leave to the ignorant! The examples of every-day fetichism here cited are familiar to us, not specially among the Welsh, but among the English also, and the people of the United States--who, I may again observe, are no doubt as a people uncommonly free from superst.i.tion, in comparison with the older nations of the earth; but modesty is a very becoming wear for us all, in examining into other people's superst.i.tions.

Aside from their scientific interest, there is a charm about many of the quaint customs of the Welsh, which speaks eloquently to most hearts. They are the offspring of ignorance, true, but they touch the 'good old times' of the poet and the romancer, when the conditions of life were less harsh than now. So we love to think. As a matter of scientific truth, this idea is itself, alas! but a superst.i.tion. This world has probably never been so fair a place to live in, life never so free from harsh conditions, as now; and as time goes on, there can be no doubt the improving process will continue. The true halcyon days of man are to be looked for in the future--not in the past; but with that future we shall have no mortal part.

II.

In treating of customs, no other cla.s.sification is needful than their arrangement in orderly sequence in two divisions: first, those which pertain to certain days and seasons; second, those relating to the most conspicuous events in common human life, courts.h.i.+p, marriage, and death.

Beginning with the year: there is in Glamorgans.h.i.+re a New Year's Day custom of great antiquity and large present observance, called the apple gift, or New Year's gift. In every town and village you will encounter children, on and about New Year's Day, going from door to door of shops and houses, bearing an apple or an orange curiously tricked out. Three sticks in the form of a tripod are thrust into it to serve as a rest; its sides are smeared with flour or meal, and stuck over with oats or wheat, or bits of broken lucifer matches to represent oats; its top is covered with thyme or other sweet evergreen, and a skewer is inserted in one side as a handle to hold it by. In its perfection, this piece of work is elaborate; but it is now often a decrepit affair, in the larger towns, where the New Year is welcomed (as at Cardiff) by a midnight chorus of steam-whistles.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE NEW YEAR'S APPLE.]

The Christian symbolism of this custom is supposed to relate to the offering, by the Wise Men, of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the infant Jesus. The older interpretation, however, takes the custom back to the Druidic days, and makes it a form of the solar myth. In the three supporting sticks of the apple are seen the three rays of the sun, / , the mystic Name of the Creator; the apple is the round sun itself; the evergreens represent its perennial life; and the grains of wheat, or oats, Avagddu's spears. Avagddu is the evil principle of darkness--h.e.l.l, or the devil--with which the sun fights throughout the winter for the world's life.

Thousands of children in Wales seek to win from their elders a New Year's copper by exhibiting the apple gift, or by singing in chorus their good wishes. A popular verse on this occasion hopes the hearer will be blessed with an abundance of money in his pocket and of beer in his cellar, and draws attention to the singers' thin shoes and the bad character of the walking. In many cases the juvenile population parades the street all night, sometimes with noisy fife bands, which follow the death knell, as it sounds from the old church tower, with shrill peals of a merrier if not more musical sort.

In Pembrokes.h.i.+re, to rise early on New Year's morning is considered luck-bringing. On that morning also it is deemed wise to bring a fresh loaf into the house, with the superst.i.tion that the succession of loaves throughout the year will be influenced by that incident. A rigid quarantine is also set up, to see that no female visitor cross the threshold first on New Year's morning; that a male visitor shall be the first to do so is a lucky thing, and the reverse unlucky. A superst.i.tion resembling this prevails to this day in America among showmen. 'There's no showman on the road,' said an American manager of my acquaintance, 'who would think of letting a lady be first to pa.s.s through the doors when opening them for a performance. There's a sort of feeling that it brings ill-luck. Then there are cross-eyed people; many a veteran ticket-seller loses all heart when one presents himself at the ticket-window. A cross-eyed patron and a bad house generally go together. A cross-eyed performer would be a regular Jonah. With circuses there is a superst.i.tion that a man with a yellow clarionet brings bad luck.' Another well-known New York manager in a recent conversation a.s.sured me that to open an umbrella in a new play is deemed certain failure for the piece. An umbrella may be carried closed with impunity, but it must not be opened unless the author desire to court failure. The Chinese have the Pembrokes.h.i.+re superst.i.tion exactly, as regards the first foot on New Year's Day.

They consider a woman peculiarly unlucky as a first foot after the New Year has begun, but a Buddhist priest is even more unlucky than a woman, in this light.[113]

Another Pembrokes.h.i.+re custom on New Year's morning is quaint and interesting. As soon as it is light, children of the peasantry hasten to provide a small cup of pure spring water, just from the well, and go about sprinkling the faces of those they meet, with the aid of a sprig of evergreen. At the same time they sing the following verses:

Here we bring new water from the well so clear, For to wors.h.i.+p G.o.d with, this happy new year; Sing levy dew, sing levy dew, the water and the wine, With seven bright gold wires, and bugles that do s.h.i.+ne; Sing reign of fair maid, with gold upon her toe; Open you the west door and turn the old year go; Sing reign of fair maid, with gold upon her chin; Open you the east door and let the new year in!

This custom also is still observed extensively. The words 'levy dew'

are deemed an English version of Llef i Dduw, (a cry to G.o.d).

A Welsh song sung on New Year's Day, in Glamorgans.h.i.+re, by boys in chorus, somewhat after the Christmas carol fas.h.i.+on, is this:

Blwyddyn newydd dda i chwi, Gwyliau llawen i chwi, Meistr a meistres bob un trwy'r ty, Gwyliau llawen i chwi, Codwch yn foreu, a rheswch y tan, A cherddwch i'r ffynon i ymofyn dwr glan.

A happy new year to you, Merry be your holidays, Master and mistress--every one in the house; Arise in the morning; bestir the fire, And go to the well to fetch fresh water.

FOOTNOTE:

[113] Dennys, 'Folk-Lore of China,' 31.

III.

Among Twelfth Night customs, none is more celebrated than that called Mary Lwyd. It prevails in various parts of Wales, notably in lower Glamorgans.h.i.+re. The skeleton of a horse's head is procured by the young men or boys of a village, and adorned with 'favours' of pink, blue, yellow, etc. These are generally borrowed from the girls, as it is not considered necessary the silken fillets and rosettes should be new, and such finery costs money. The bottoms of two black bottles are inserted in the sockets of the skeleton head to serve as eyes, and a subst.i.tute for ears is also contrived. On Twelfth Night they carry this object about from house to house, with shouts and songs, and a general cultivation of noise and racket. Sometimes a duet is sung in Welsh, outside a door, the singers begging to be invited in; if the door be not opened they tap on it, and there is frequently quite a series of _awen_ sung, the parties within denying the outsiders admission, and the outsiders urging the same. At last the door is opened, when in bounces the merry crowd, among them the Mary Lwyd, borne by one personating a horse, who is led by another personating the groom. The horse chases the girls around the room, capering and neighing, while the groom cries, 'So ho, my boy--gently, poor fellow!'

and the girls, of course, scream with merriment. A dance follows--a reel, performed by three young men, tricked out with ribbons. The company is then regaled with cakes and ale, and the revellers depart, pausing outside the door to sing a parting song of thanks and good wishes to their entertainers.

The penglog (a skull, a noddle) is a similar custom peculiar to Aberconwy (Conway) in Carnarvons.h.i.+re. In this case the horse's skull is an attention particularly bestowed upon prudes.

Mary Lwyd may mean Pale Mary, or Wan Mary, or h.o.a.ry Mary, but the presumption is that it means in this case Blessed Mary, and that the custom is of papal origin. There is, however, a tradition which links the custom with enchantment, in connection with a warlike princess, reputed to have flourished in Gwent and Morganwg in the early ages, and who is to be seen to this day, mounted on her steed, on a rock in Rhymney Dingle.[114]

The cutty wren is a Pembrokes.h.i.+re Twelfth Night custom prevailing commonly during the last century, but now nearly extinct. A wren was placed in a little house of paper, with gla.s.s windows, and this was hoisted on four poles, one at each corner. Four men bore it about, singing a very long ballad, of which one stanza will be enough:

[Music: O! where are you go-ing? says Mil-der to Mel-der, O! where are you go-ing? says the youn-ger to the el-der; O! I can-not tell, says Fes-tel to Fose; We're go-ing to the woods, said John the Red Nose, We're go-ing to the woods, said John the Red Nose!]

The immediate purpose of this rite was to levy contributions. Another such custom was called 'tooling,' and its purpose was beer. It consisted in calling at the farm-houses and pretending to look for one's tools behind the beer cask. 'I've left my saw behind your beer cask,' a carpenter would say; 'my whip,' a carter; and received the tool by proxy, in the shape of a cup of ale. The female portion of the poorer sort, on the other hand, practised what was called sowling, viz., asking for 'sowl,' and receiving, accordingly, any food eaten with bread, such as cheese, fish, or meat. This custom is still maintained, and 'sowling day' fills many a poor woman's bag. The phrase is supposed to be from the French _soul_, signifying one's fill.

FOOTNOTE:

[114] Vide W. Roberts's 'Crefydd yr Oesoedd Tywyll,' 1.

IV.

Connected with St. Valentine's Day, there is no Welsh custom which demands notice here; but it is perhaps worthy of mention that nowhere in the world is the day more abundantly productive of its orthodox crop--love-letters. The post-offices in the Princ.i.p.ality are simply deluged with these missives on the eve and morning of St. Valentine's.

In Cardiff the postmaster thinks himself lucky if he gets off with fifteen thousand letters in excess of the ordinary mail. Nineteen extra sorters and carriers were employed for this work on February 14th, 1878, and the regular force also was heavily worked beyond its usual hours. The custom is more Norman than Cambrian, I suppose; the word Valentine comes from the Norman word for a lover, and the saint is a mere accident in this connection.

V.