Thaumaturgia Part 17

According to the accounts of the heathen mythologists, Prometheus, who, in the first times, had discovered a great number of secrets, having been delivered from the charms, by which he was fastened to mount Caucasus for stealing fire from heaven, in memory or acknowledgment of the favour he received from Jupiter, made himself of one of those chains, a ring, in whose collet he represented the figure of part of the rock where he had been detained--or rather, as Pliny says, set it in a bit of the same rock, and put it on his finger. This was the first ring and the first stone. But we otherwise learn, that the use of rings is very ancient, and the Egyptians were the first inventors of them; which seems confirmed by the person of Joseph, who, as we read (Genesis, chap, xi.) for having interpreted Pharoah's dream, received not only his liberty, but was rewarded with his prince's ring, a collar of gold, and the superintendancy of Egypt.

Josephus, in the third book of Jewish antiquities says, the Israelites had the use of them after pa.s.sing the Red Sea, because Moses at his return from Mount Sinai, found that they had forged the golden calf from their wives' rings, enriched with precious stones. The same Moses, upwards of 400 years before the wars of Troy, permitted the priests he had established, the use of gold rings, enriched with precious stones.

The high priest wore upon his ephod, which was a kind of camail, rich rings, that served as clasps; a large emerald was set and engraved with mysterious names. The ring he wore on his finger was of inestimable value and celestial virtue. Had not Aaron, the high priest of the Hebrews, a ring on his finger, whereof the diamond, by its virtues, operated prodigious things? For it changed its vivid l.u.s.tre into a dark colour, when the Hebrews were to be punished by death for their sins.

When they were to fall by the sword it appeared of a blood colour; if they were innocent it sparkled as usual.

It is observable that the ancient Hebrews used rings even in the time of the wars of Troy. Queen Jezebel, to destroy Nabath, as it is related in the first Book of Kings, made use of the ring of Ahab, King of the Israelites, her husband, to seal the counterfeit letters that ordered the death of that unfortunate man. Did not Judah, as mentioned in the 38th chapter of Genesis, abuse his daughter-in-law, Thamar, who had disguised herself, by giving her his ring and bracelets, as a pledge of the faith he had promised her?

Though Homer is silent in regard to rings, both in his Iliad and Odyssey, they were, notwithstanding, used in the time of the Greeks and Trojans; and from them they were received by several other nations. The Lacedemonians, as related by Alexander, ab. Alexandro, pursuant to the orders of their king, Lycurgus, had only iron rings, despising those of gold; either their king was thereby willing to retrench luxury, or to prohibit the use of them.

The ring was reputed, by some nations, a symbol of liberality, esteem, and friends.h.i.+p, particularly among the Persians, none being permitted to wear any, except they were given by the king himself. This is what may also be remarked in the person of Apollonius Thyaneus, as a token of singular esteem and liberality, received one from the great Iarchas, prince of the Gymnosophists, who were the ancient priests of India and dwelt in forests, as our ancient bards and druids, where they applied themselves to the study of wisdom, and to the speculation of the heaven and stars. This philosopher, by the means of that ring, learned every day the secrets of nature.

Though the ring found by Gyges, shepherd to the King of Lydia, has more of fable than of truth in it, it will not, however, be amiss, to relate what is said concerning Herodotus, Coelius, after Plato and Cicero, in the third book of his Offices. This Gyges, after a great flood, pa.s.sed into a very deep cavity in the earth, where having found in the belly of a brazen horse, with a large aperture in it, a human body of enormous size, he pulled from off one of the fingers a ring of surprising virtue; for the stone on the collet rendered him who wore it invisible, when the collet was turned towards the palm of the hand, so that the party could see, without being seen, all manner of persons and things. Gyges, having made trial of its efficacy, bethought himself that it would be a means for ascending the throne of Lydia, and for gaining the Queen by it. He succeeded in his designs, having killed Candaules, her husband. The dead body this ring belonged to was that of an ancient Brahman, who, in his time, was chief of that sect.

The rings of the ancients often served for seals. Alexander the Great, after the death and defeat of Darius, used his ring for sealing the letters he sent into Asia, and his own for those he sent to Europe. It is customary in Rome for the bridegroom to send the bride, before marriage, a ring of iron, without either stone or collet, to denote how lasting their union ought to be, and the frugality they were to observe together; but luxury herein soon gained ground, and there was a necessity for moderating it. Caius Marius did not wear one of gold till his third consuls.h.i.+p; and Tiberius, as Suetonius says, made some regulations in the authority of wearing rings; for, besides the liberty of birth, he required a considerable revenue, both on the father and grandfather's side.

In a Polyglot dictionary, published in the year 1625, by John Minshew, our attention was attracted by the following observations, under the article "RINGFINGER.--Vetus versiculus singulis digitis Annulum trebuens Miles. Mercator. Stultus. Maritus. Amator. Pollici adscribitur Militi, seu Doctor. Mercatorem a pollice secundum, stultorum, tertium. Nuptorum vel studiosorum quartum. Amatorum ultimum."

By which it appears, that the fingers on which annuli were anciently worn were directed by the calling, or peculiarity of the party. Were it

A soldier, or doctor, to him was a.s.signed the thumb.

A sailor, the finger next the thumb.

A fool, the middle finger.

A married or diligent person, the fourth or ring finger.

A lover, the last or little finger.

The medicinal or curative power of rings are numerous and, as a matter of course, founded on imaginary qualities. Thus the wedding ring rubbing upon that little abscess called the stye, which is frequently seen on the tarsi of the eyes, is said to remove it. Certain rings are worn as talismans, either on the fingers or suspended from the neck; the efficacy of which may be referred to the effects usually produced by these charms.

CHAPTER XX.

CELESTIAL INFLUENCES--OMENS--CLIMACTERICS--PREDOMINATIONS--LUCKY AND UNLUCKY DAYS--EMPIRICS, &C.

Astrologers, among other artifices, have used their best endeavours, and employed all the rules of their art, to render those years of our age, which they call climacterics, dangerous and formidable.

The word climacteric is derived from the Greek, which means by a scale or ladder, and implies a critical year, or a period in a man's age, wherein, according Ficinusological juggling, there is some notable alteration to arise in the body, and a person stands in great danger of death. The first climacteric is the seventh year of a man's life; the others are multiples of the first, as 21, 49, 56, 63, and 84, which two last are called the grand climacterics and the danger more certain. The foundation of this opinion is accounted for by Mark Ficimis as follows:--There is a year, he tells us, a.s.signed for each planet to rule over the body of a man, each of his turn; now Saturn being the most _maleficient_ (malignant) planet of all, every seventh year, which falls to its lot, becomes very dangerous; especially those of sixty-three and eighty-four, when the person is already advanced in years. According to this doctrine, some hold every seventh year an established climacteric; but others only allow the t.i.tle to those produced by multiplication of the climacterical s.p.a.ce by an odd number, 3, 5, 7, 9, &c. Others observe every ninth year as a climacteric.

Climacteric years are pretended, by some, to be fatal to political bodies, which, perhaps, may be granted, when they are proved to be so more than to natural ones; for it must be obvious that the reason of such danger can by no means be discovered, nor the relation it can have with any other of the numbers above mentioned.

Though this opinion has a great deal of antiquity on its side; Aulus Gellius says--it was borrowed from the Chaldeans, who possibly might receive it from Pythagoras, whose philosophy teemed much in numbers, and who imagined a very extraordinary virtue in the number 7. The princ.i.p.al authors on climacterics are--Plato, Cicero, Macrobius, Aulus Gellius.

Among the ancients--Argal, Magirus, and Solmatheus. Among the moderns--St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, Beda and Boethius, all countenance the opinion.

There is a work extant, though rather scarce, by Hevelius, under the t.i.tle of _Annus Climactericus_, wherein he describes the loss he sustained by his observatory, &c. being burnt; which it would appear happened in his grand climacteric, of which he was extremely apprehensive.

Astrologers have also brought under their inspection and controul the days of the year, which they have presumed to divide into _lucky_ and _unlucky_ days; calling even the sacred scriptures, and the common belief of christians, in former ages, to their a.s.sistance for this purpose. They pretend that the fourteenth day of the first month was a blessed day among the Israelites, authorised, as they pretend, by the several pa.s.sages out of Exodus, v. 18:--

"In the first _month_, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day at even," v.

40. Now, the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.

41. "And it came to pa.s.s, at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the self same day it came to pa.s.s, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt."

42. "It is a night to be much observed unto the Lord for bringing them out of the land of Egypt; that is that night of the Lord to be observed of all the children of Israel, in their generations."

51. "And it came to pa.s.s, the self same day, that the Lord did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies." Also _Leviticus, chap. 23, v. 5._ "In the fourteenth day of the first month at even, is the Lord's pa.s.sover." _Numbers, chap. 28, v. 10._ "Four hundred and thirty years being expired of their dwelling in Egypt, even in the self same day they departed thence."

With regard to evil days and times, Astrologers refer to _Amos. chap. 5, v. 13._ "Therefore, the prudent shall keep silence in that time, for it is an evil time," and _chap. 6, v. 3_, "Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near;" also _Psalm 37, v.

19_, "They shall not be ashamed in the evil time; and in the days of famine, they shall be satisfied;" and _Jeremiah, chap. 46, v. 21_, "Also her hired men are in the midst of her, like fatted bullocks, for they are also turned back and are fled away together; they did not stand because the day of their calamity was come upon them, and the time of their visitation." And to _Job_ cursing the day of his birth, from the first to the eleventh verse. In confirmation of which may also be quoted a calendar, extracted out of several ancient Roman Catholic prayer books, written on vellum, before printing was invented, in which were inserted the unfortunate days of each month, which it would be superfluous to cite here.[142]

Roman History sufficiently proves that the nature of lucky and unlucky days owes its origin to Paganism; where it is mentioned, that that very day four years, the civil wars were begun by Pompey, the father; Caesar made an end of them with his son, Cneius Pompeius being slain; and that the Romans counted the 13th of February an unlucky day, because, on that day they were overthrown by the Gauls at Alba; and the Fabii attacking the city of the Recii, were all slain, with the exception of one man; also from the calendar of Ovid's "Fastorum," _Aprilis erat mensis Graecis auspicatissimus_; and from Horace, Book 2nd, Ode 13, cursing the tree that had nearly fallen upon it; _ille nefasto posuit die_.

The Pagans believed there were particular months and days which carried something fatal in them; those, for instance, upon which the state perhaps had lost a great battle; and under this impression, they never undertook any enterprise on these days and months. The twenty-fourth of February in the Bis.e.xtile years was considered so unlucky, that Valentinian (_Ammiam. Marcell. lib. 26. cap. 1._) being elected Emperor upon it, durst not appear in public under the apprehension of suffering the fatality of the day. Many other particular days might be quoted upon which generals of armies have constantly been favoured with fortune.

Timoleon (_Corn. Nepos_) won all his famous battles on his birthday.

Soliman (_Duverdier. Hist. des Turcs_) won the battle of Mohac, and took the fortress of Belgrade, and, according to some historians, the Isle of Rhodes, and the town of Buda on the 26th of August. But we find, in like manner, the same day lucky and unlucky to the same people. Ventidius, at the head of the Roman army, routed the Parthians, and slew their young king Pacorus who commanded them, on the same day that Cra.s.sus, another Roman general, had been slain, and his whole army cut in pieces by the same people. Lucullus having attacked Tigranes, king of Armenia, notwithstanding the vain scruples of his officers, who desired him to beware fighting on that day, which was noted in the Roman calendar as an unlucky one, ever since the fatal overthrow of the Romans by the Cimbri; but he, (Lucullus) despising the superst.i.tion, gained one of the most memorable battles recorded in Roman history, and changed the destiny of the day as he promised those who would have dissuaded him from the enterprise. And Valentinian's unlucky day was that on which Charles V, another Roman Emperor, promised himself the best good fortune. Friday is deemed on unlucky day for engaging in any particular business, and there are few, if any, captains of s.h.i.+ps who would sail from any port, on this day of the week for their destination.

The fishermen who dwell on the coasts of the Baltic never use their nets between All-saints and St Martin's; they would then be certain of not taking any fish through the whole year: they never fish on St Blaise's day. On Ash Wednesday the women neither sew nor knit, for fear of bringing misfortune upon their cattle. They contrive so as not to use fire on St. Laurence's day; by taking this precaution they think themselves secure against fire for the rest of the year.

This prejudice of lucky and unlucky days has existed at all times and in all nations; but if knowledge and civilization have not removed it, they have at least diminished its influence. In Livonia, however, the people are more than ever addicted to the most superst.i.tious ideas on this subject. In a Riga journal (_Rigaische Stadblatter_, No. 3657, anno 1822, edited by M. Sontag) there are several pa.s.sages relative to a letter from heaven, and which is no other than a catalogue of lucky and unlucky days. This letter is in general circulation; every body carries it about him, and though strictly forbidden by the police, the copies are multiplied so profusely as to increase the evil all attempts to destroy which have hitherto failed. Among the country people this idea is equivalent to the doctrine of fatality; and if they commit faults or even crimes, on the days which are marked as unlucky, they do not consider themselves as guilty, because they were predestined.

The flight of certain birds, or the meeting of certain animals on their first going out in the morning, are with them good or bad omens. They do not hunt on St. Mark's, or St. Catherine's day, on penalty of being unsuccessful all the rest of the year. It is a good sign to sneeze on Christmas day. Most of them are so prepossessed against Friday, that they never settle any important business, or conclude a bargain on that day; in some places they do not even dress their children. They do not like visits on Thursdays, for it is a sign they shall have troublesome guests the whole week.

In some districts of Esthonia, up the Baltic, when the shepherd brings his flocks back from the pasture, in spring for the first time, he is sprinkled with water from head to foot under the persuasion that this makes the cattle thrive. The malignity of beasts of prey is believed to be prevented by designating them not by their proper names, but by some of their attributes. For instance, they call the fox _hallkuhl_ (grey coat) the bear, _layjatyk_ (broad-foot), etc. etc. They also fancy that they can oblige the wolf to take another direction by strewing salt in his way. The howling of wolves, especially at day-break, is considered a very bad omen, predicting famine or disease. In more ancient times, it was imagined that these animals, thus asked their G.o.d to give them food, which he threw them out of the clouds. When a wolf seizes any of their cattle, they can oblige him to quit his prey, by dropping a piece of money, their pipe, hat, or any other article they have about them at the time. They do not permit the hare to be often mentioned, for fear of drawing it into their corn-fields. To make hens lay eggs, they beat them with an old broom. In families where the wife is the eldest child of her parents, it has been observed that they always sell the first calves, being convinced, that, if kept, they would not thrive. To speak of insects or mischievous animals at meal-times, is a sure way to make them more voracious.

If a fire breaks out, they think to stop its fury by throwing a black hen into the flames. This idea, of an expiatory sacrifice, offered to a malevolent and tutelary power, is a remnant of paganism. Various other traces of it are found among the Esthonians; for instance, at the beginning of their meals, they purposely let fall a piece of new bread, or some drops of liquor from a bottle as an offering to the divinity.

It is very offensive to the peasants, for any one to look into their wells; they think it will cause the wells to dry up.

When manna is carried into the fields, that which falls from the cart is not gathered up, lest mischievous insects and blights come upon the corn.

When an old house is quitted for a new one they are attentive in noting the first animal that dies. If it be an animal with hairy feet, the sign is good; but if with naked feet, some fowl, for instance, there will be mourning in the house; it is a sign of misery and bad success in all their undertakings. These, with a scrupulous adherence to lucky and unlucky days, are the prevailing popular superst.i.tions in the three duchies; a great number of which, especially among the Esthonians, are connected with their ancient mythology.

In reading that pleasant volume, by the late Sir Humphrey Davy, ent.i.tled _Salmonia_, it is impossible not to be struck with his remark respecting omens, which is here briefly noticed, with an account of others, which it is imagined have not yet found their way far into print, in order to account for such seeming absurdities.

"The search after food,[143] as we agreed on a former occasion, is the princ.i.p.al cause why animals change their places. The different tribes of wading birds always migrate when rain is about to take place; and I remember once in Italy, having been long waiting, in the end of March, for the arrival of double snipe, in the campagna of Rome; a great flight appeared on the third of April, and the day after, heavy rain set in, which greatly interfered with my sport. The vulture, upon the same principle, follows armies; and I have no doubt that the augury of the ancients was a good deal founded upon the observation of the instinct of birds. There are many superst.i.tions of the vulgar owing to the same source. For anglers, in spring, it is always unluckly to see single magpies; but two may always be regarded as a favourable omen; and the reason is, that in cold and stormy weather, one magpie alone leaves the nest in search of food, the other remaining sitting upon the eggs of the young ones: but, when two go out together, it is only when the weather is mild and warm, and favourable for fis.h.i.+ng.

"This reasoning will, in general, be found correct, and may be applied to solve many of the superst.i.tions in the country; but the case of the magpie is ent.i.tled to a little more consideration. The piannet, as we call her in the North of England, is the most unlucky of all birds, to see singly at any time; this, however, does not often happen, except a short time during incubation; they either appear in pairs or in families; but even this last appearance is as alarming to our grandmothers. The following distich shows what each forbodes:--'One sorrow, two mirth, three a wedding, four death.' This bird, indeed, appears to have taken the same place with us, as an omen of evil, that the owl had amongst the ancients. The nurse is often heard to declare that she has lost all hopes of her charge when she has observed a piannet on the house-top.

"Another prejudice, indulged even by our good wives, is that of destroying the feathers of the pigeon instead of saving them to stuff beds, etc. They say, that if they were to do so, it would only prolong the sufferings of the death-bed; and when these are more than usually severe, it is attributed to this cause, and the reason given 'because the bird has no gall' is to them quite conclusive, but to me, perfectly irrelevant and unsatisfactory. A belief amongst boys, that to harm or disturb the nests of the redbreast or swallow is unlucky, appears very general throughout the kingdom; and the keen bird-nester, who prides himself on the quant.i.ty of eggs blown and strung bead-fas.h.i.+on, here often gets mortified by finding his trophies destroyed by the housewife who considers their presence as affecting the safety of her crokery ware. This belief may have been encouraged, if not invented, for a humane purpose: but how are we to account for the efficacy of the Irish stone in curing swellings caused by venomous reptiles, by merely being rubbed upon the part affected? The fullest faith in the practice appears to have prevailed in the country at no distant period, and is yet far from extinct. The swallow and the cuckoo are generally hailed as harbingers of spring and summer, but, perhaps, many of our readers are not aware that it is only lucky to hear the cuckoo, for the first time in the season, upon soft ground in contradistinction to hard roads, and with money in the pocket, which the youngster is sagely advised to be sure then to turn over. Perhaps the season of the year may satisfactorily explain all these observances. Several superst.i.tious customs are mentioned regarding bees, some of which are not practised in the north; yet it is fully believed that the death of the stock of hives too often foretells the flitting of the bee-master. Wet cold years, unfavourable to the insects, are also equally so to the farmer upon thin clays, which border the moors, where bees are mostly kept. Has the use of the mountain ash, 'rowan tree' [Pyrus aucuparia, _Gaertner_,] as a charm against witchcraft, ever been accounted for? The belief in its efficacy must be very old if we are to credit some of Shakspeare's commentators, who give this word as the true reading in Macbeth, instead of 'Aroint thee, witch!'

"It often happens that the careless observer has, for the first time, his attention called forcibly to some appearance of nature by accidental circ.u.mstances: if at all superst.i.tious, he immediately prognosticates the most disastrous consequences from that which a little observation would have convinced him was but a phenomenon a little more conspicuous than usual. The northern lights are said to have caused much consternation when first observed; and they have lately been viewed with more than ordinary interest, as it appears from the _Newcastle Chronicle_, the last autumn (1830), when they were more than usually brilliant, some of the inhabitants of Weardale were convinced they saw, on one occasion, very distinctly, the figure of a man on a white horse, with a red sword in his hand, move across the heavens; and are, no doubt, now certain that it foretold the present eventful times. Even this belief may be accounted for on such accidental coincidences, or even philosophically, by a.s.suming as a fact that this phenomenon is the result of an electrical change in the atmosphere, and that such a change usually precedes rain. Now, if such happen in spring or in summer, and before such a quant.i.ty of rain as is found to affect the harvest, it may too often betoken scarcity, discontent, and turbulence, as such are the times when all grievances, either real or imaginary, are brought forward for redress. The origin of the superst.i.tion of sailors, of nailing a horse-shoe to the mast, is to me unaccountable, unless it may have been, like the following trial of the credulity of the superst.i.tious by some person for amus.e.m.e.nt:--Sailors sometimes make a considerable pecuniary sacrifice for the acquisition of a child's caul, the retaining of which is to infallibly preserve them from drowning.

"Some years ago, a pretty wide district was alarmed by an account of the beans [Faba vulgaris var. equina] being laid the wrong way in the pod that year, which most certainly foreboded something terrible to happen in a short time, and this produced much consternation amongst those who allow their imaginations to run riot. The whole of the terrible omen was this: the eye of the bean was in the pod towards the apex, instead of being towards the footstalk, as might appear at first sight to be its natural position; and some were scarcely convinced that this was the natural position of the beans in the pod ever since the creation, even on being shown the pod of the preceding year with the seed in the same position.

"As yet, however, I fear we must sum up in the words of Davy:--

"_Phys._ But how can you explain such absurdities as Friday being an unlucky day, and the terror of spilling salt, or meeting an old woman?