Curiosities of Superstition Part 27

_This_ it is not difficult to accept. It seems fitting that presages should herald the death of kings and the revolutions of nations; but the mind cannot convince itself that the spirits of the dead will cross the shadowy borders to foretell the trivial accidents that chequer ordinary lives. Yet, as Johnson says: "A man on a journey far from home falls from a horse; another who is perhaps at work about the house, sees him bleeding on the ground, commonly with a landscape of the place where the accident befalls him. Another seer, driving home his cattle, or wandering in idleness, or musing in the suns.h.i.+ne, is suddenly surprised by the appearance of a bridal ceremony or funeral procession, and counts the mourners or attendants, of whom, if he knows them, he relates the names, if he knows them not he can describe the dresses."

Woodrow tells of "a popish lady," living near Boroughbridge, who dreamed that she saw a coach, and a lady in it, almost lost in the river. She directed her servants to watch during two nights, to guard against an accident, but nothing happened. "On the third night, pretty late, the Lady Shawfield came, and of a sudden the coach was overturned, and filled with water. The coachman got upon one of the horses, to save his life. The good and religious Lady Shawfield was for some time under water: and upon the cry rising, the popish lady's servants came to their a.s.sistance. With much difficulty, the coach and lady in it were got out of the water." And the Lady Shawfield, being laid upon the bank, gradually recovered her senses.

In the early months of the Commonwealth, while Mackenzie of Tarbat, afterwards Earl of Cromarty, was riding in a field among his tenants, who were manuring barley, a stranger "called that way on his foot, and stopped likewise, and said to the countrymen, 'You need not be so busy about that barley, for I see the Englishmen's horses tethered among it; and other parts mowed down for them.' Tarbet asked him how he knew them to be Englishmen, and if he had ever seen any of them? He said, 'No; but he saw them strangers, and heard the English were in Scotland, and guessed it could be no other than they.' In the month of July, the thing happened directly as the man said he saw it."

The influence exercised on the imagination by events in which we are deeply interested, and the manner in which our hopes or fears are mistaken for predictions, may be ill.u.s.trated by two examples from antiquity. On the day that Caesar and Pompey contended at Pharsalia for the mastery of the world, Cornelius, a priest and patrician of Padua, declared, under a sudden impulse of pa.s.sion, that he beheld the eddies and currents of a desperate battle, and the fall and flight of many of the combatants, eventually exclaiming: "Caesar has conquered!" His hearers laughed at him, but his words were afterwards verified, and it appeared that he had foretold not only the day, but the incidents, and the result of the famous battle in Thessaly. The anecdote is related on the authority of the "Noctes Atticae" of Aulus Gellius.

Dio Ca.s.sius tells a similar story about the a.s.sa.s.sination of the Emperor Domitian at Rome, by his freedman Stepha.n.u.s. "It is to be admired," he says, "that, as accurately proved by persons in either place, Apollonius Thyanaeus, ascending an eminence at Ephesus or elsewhere, cried out before the mult.i.tude: 'Well done, Stepha.n.u.s, well done! Strike the murderer! thou hast struck him, thou hast wounded him, he is slain!'" But it may well be supposed that a secret understanding existed between Apollonius and the murderer.

From "second sight" we pa.s.s on to "prediction" or "divination," another of the superst.i.tious modes by which humanity has endeavoured to read the book of the Future. In the north this power of prophecy was largely a.s.sumed by women, a circ.u.mstance of which Scott has made ample and picturesque use in more than one of his admirable fictions.

A woman foretold the tragical end of James I. of Scotland, in 1436. In the early stage of a journey from Edinburgh to Leith, and in the midst of the way, arose a woman of Ireland, who claimed to be a soothsayer, and as soon as she saw the king, she cried with a loud voice, saying, "My lord king, an ye pa.s.s this water, ye shall never turn again to live." The king was astonished at her words, for but shortly before he had fallen in with a prophecy, that in the self-same year the King of Scots should be slain.

And as he rode onward, he called to him one of his knights, and commanded him to return and speak with this woman, and ask of her what she would, and what she meant by her loud crying: and she began and told him what would befall the king if he pa.s.sed that water. The king asked her how she knew so much, and she said that Huthart told her so. "Sire," quoth the knight, "men may gallantly talk, nor take heed of yonder woman's words, for she is but a drunken fool, and wots not what she saith." And so with his folk he pa.s.sed the water called the Scottish Sea, towards S. John's town [Perth,] about four miles from the country of the wild Scots, and there, in a convent of Black Friars, outside the town, he held a great feast. In the course of the revel came "the said woman of Ireland, who called herself a divineress," and made several vain attempts to gain access to the king. Meanwhile the conspirators matured their plot, removed the king's guards, attacked him, and slew him.[70]

All the predictions which come true are preserved; we hear nothing of those which fail, for no one has an interest in recording or repeating them; hence an undue importance is gradually attached to what are nothing more than remarkable coincidences. Many others are prophecies "after the event." Others are based on a careful calculation of probabilities. As in the following example: An Orkney warlock, full of displeasure with James Paplay, a proud and haughty chief, with whose character, doubtless, she was well acquainted, broke forth into a torrent of predictive utterances: "Thou art now the highest man that ever thou shalt be! Thou art gone to shear thy corn, but it shall never do you good! Thou art going to set house with thy wife,--ye shall have no joy of one another. Oil shall not keep you and her; ye shall have such a meit-will [craving,] and shall have nothing to eat, but be fain to eat gra.s.s under the stones and wair (sea-weed) under the rocks." It was seriously a.s.serted that not only were these predictions--or menaces--uttered, but that they were all fulfilled; and it is possible that the prophet may have had something to do with their fulfilment.

A curious anecdote is related of a Scottish minister, who, on the day of the battle of Killiecrankie, was preaching at Anworth, and in his preface before his prayer, according to his usual mode of homely expression, began to this purpose: "Some of you will say, What news, minister? What news about Clavers, who has done so much mischief in this country? That man sets up to be a young Montrose, but as the LORD liveth, he shall be cut short this day. Be not afraid," added he, "I see them scattered and flying: and as the LORD liveth, and sends this message by me, Claverhouse shall no longer be a terror to G.o.d'S people. This day I see him killed--lying a corpse." And on that day, and at that hour, Claverhouse fell[71] (July 27th, 1689.)

In their anxiety to obtain a glimpse of the dread writing in the Book of Fate, men have resorted to divers strange expedients, applying to warlocks and witches, or seeking to wring a response to their questionings from the creatures of the Invisible World. The ceremony known as _Taghairm_, or "Echo," seems to have been peculiar to Scotland. The inquirer was wrapped in a cow's hide, his head being left free, and was carried by a.s.sistants to a solitary spot, or left under the liquid arch formed by the "sheeted column's silvery perpendicular" in waterfall or cataract: there he remained during the watches of the night, with phantoms fluttering round about him, from whence he was supposed to derive the burden of the oracular response he delivered to his comrades on the following day.

It is probable that this ceremony is the relic of some ancient form of ritual. At all events, the skins of animals played an important part in the old wors.h.i.+p. When the Thebans slew a cow on the festival of Jupiter Ammon, his image was clothed with the skin: all present in the temple then struck the carcase, which was buried in a consecrated place.

Pausanias records that a temple in honour of the soothsayer Amphiaraus, the reputed son of Apollo, stood in the territory of Oropus in Attica.

Votaries who resorted thither for the purpose of divination, underwent certain l.u.s.trations, or purifying rites, sacrificed a ram, and, in expectation of seeing visions, slept upon its skin.

Virgil, in one of the most elaborate scenes of the aeneid, represents to us a similar oblation as being offered at a consecrated fountain, where the priest, to prepare himself for the delivery of responses, slept on the skin:--

"Et caesarum ovium sub nocte silenti Pellibus incubuit stratis, somnosque petivit; Multa modis simulacra videt volitantia miris Et varias audit voces."[72]

It seems to have been an important part of the heathen ritual to make use of the skin of the sacrificed animal for the purposes of clothing. Lucian, describing the ceremonies practised in the temple of Hierapolis, says that, on his arrival, the head and eyebrows of the novice were shaved; a sheep was then sacrificed; he knelt on the skin, and covering his own head with the head and feet of the animal, prayed that his offering might be accepted while promising a worthier one.

The Spanish invaders of the New World discovered that the religion of its most civilised race, the Aztecs, was founded upon human sacrifices. The number of victims offered up to the Aztec G.o.ds is stated in figures which seem almost incredible. Peculiar to the Aztec kingdom was the horrid ceremony ent.i.tled "the flaying of men." The Aztecs having demanded the daughter of some neighbouring potentate as their queen, she was flayed on the very night of her arrival by command of their deity, and a young man clothed in her skin. In this originated the custom that a captive slave, distinguished by the name, the honours, and the ornaments of the divinity, should be sacrificed after a certain time; and another, clothed with his skin, then exacted contributions for the service of the G.o.ds, which no one, says Acosta, dared to refuse.

We have no s.p.a.ce to dwell on the various forms of divination that were wont to prevail. Almost everything in nature, from the stars of heaven to the clods of earth, was made to give indications of coming events. The historian of the darker Superst.i.tions of Scotland brings together a few striking ill.u.s.trations.

If a certain worm in a medicinal spring on the top of a hill in Strathdon, were found alive, it was a sign that the patient would live; and in a well of Ardwacloich, in Appin, if the patient were to die, a dead worm was found in it, and a live one, if he were to recover. In the district of Lorn, the figures a.s.sumed by an egg dropped into water were supposed to indicate the appearance of a future spouse. "Also, one of four vessels being filled with pure, and another with muddy water, the third with milk, and the fourth with meal and water; if the diviner blindfold dips his hand in the first, it augurs that his spouse shall be led to the nuptial couch in all her pristine purity; but otherwise if dipping in the second: if finding his way to the milk, a widow shall fall to his lot; and an old woman awaits him from the meal and water. Three vessels are used in the south of Scotland; one of them empty; and should fate direct the diviner hither, it augurs perpetual celibacy."

A belief in Fairies was widespread, and has survived, in remote districts, down even to our own time:

"Oft fairy elves Whose midnight revels by a forest side Or fountain, some belated peasant sees, Or dreams he sees, while overhead the moon Sits arbitress, and nearer to the earth Wheels her pale course, they on their mirth and dance Intent, with jocund music charm his ear: At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds."[73]

It is not easy to reconcile the conflicting details of the disposition, manners, habits, and influence of these liliputian spirits which we meet with in the early writers. But on a general survey it appears that they were very diminutive; in their intercourse with mortals sometimes good-tempered, sometimes malignant; that they loved and married, and had offspring; that they were very merry, and loved to dance upon the green, and fill the air with choral music; that they possessed stores of gold and silver, which they distributed freely; that they were invisible, but could at will present themselves to mortals; that they were very timid, and would inflict a summary punishment upon intruders. Their influence was at its highest on Friday, at noon, and at midnight.

Kirk, the Scotch minister of Aberfoyle, who died in 1688, relates some other particulars of the "good people." Their substance, he says, is denser than air; too subtle to be pierced, and, like that of Milton's angels, reuniting when divided, or when any attempt is made to cleave it asunder. Their voice is like unto whistling. They change their places of abode every quarter of the year, floating near the surface of the earth; and persons gifted with the second sight have often had fierce encounters with them. The Highlanders, to preserve themselves and their cattle against them, went regularly to church on the first Sunday of every quarter, though they might not return during the interval. At the name of G.o.d or JESUS they vanished into thin air. They were of both s.e.xes, and like mankind, they were mortal.

"Some meagre allusions appear to the Queen of the Fairies, and especially by King James, whose immediate knowledge may have been derived from the vignettes in Olaus Magnus, and the words of his own unhappy subjects, who perished on account of their credulity. Alexoun Perisoma was convicted, on her confession, of repairing to the 'queen of Elfame,' with whom she was familiar. Jean Wire (1670) declared that, while she taught a school at Dalkeith, a woman desired to be employed 'to speik to the Queen of Fairie, and strike ane battell in hir behalf with the said Queen.'" The name of t.i.tania is familiar enough to all lovers of English literature. There was a necromancer or wizard, in the reign of Charles I., who affirmed he had an incantation--"O Micol, Micol, regina Pigmiorum, veni,"--that t.i.tania could not resist. Lilly tells us that when it was tested at Hurst wood, first a gentle murmurous sound was heard; then rose a violent whirlwind, which swelled into a hurricane; and lastly the Fairy Queen appeared in all her radiance.

Fairies generally dwelt in subterraneous abodes; in the interiors of gra.s.sy hillocks, whence issued dulcet sounds and flashes of weird light; sometimes the side of a hill opened, and exposed them to the gaze of the belated wayfarer. No doubt they were seen everywhere by the potent gaze of imagination; on the meads and in the groves, or curled up among the bending flowers; for

"Visions as poetic eyes avow, Hang from each leaf, and cling to every bough."

They were reputed to be well skilled in the medical art, and to favoured mortals they sometimes imparted their knowledge. It is difficult to understand why they were credited with the abstraction of children, and with the subst.i.tution of other beings in their place. For this curious kind of theft was commonly attributed to them. A "wise woman"--a dealer in simples and herbal potions--having failed to cure a child, declared that "the bairn had been taken away, and an elf subst.i.tuted."

Besides the fairies, Scotland could boast of its spirits of the waters, just as Germany had its Loreleys and Ondines.

We can gather, however, no definite information respecting the water-kelpie, the water-horses, or the water-bull, or of another anomalous animal called sh.e.l.ly-coat. Describing Lochlomond, Graham says:--"It is reported by the countrymen living thereabouts, that they sometimes see the hippopotam or water-horse, where the river Cudrie falls into it, a mile west of the church of Buchanan." A river known as the Ugly Burn, in the county of Ross, springing from Loch Glaish, was regarded with awe by all the countryside, as the retreat of the water-horse and other spiritual beings. Shetland is represented as having possessed a handsome water-horse which, when mounted, carried the rider into the sea. Mr. Dalyell, writing in 1835, says, that the water-bull is still believed to reside in Loch Awe and Loch Rannoch, nor, he adds, are witnesses wanting to bear testimony to the fact. It was reputed to be invulnerable against all except silver shot; though no one had put it to the proof. In the Isle of Man certain persons who saw the water-bull in a field were unable to distinguish him from one of the ordinary terrestrial species, nor did the cows show any disposition to avoid him. But his progeny always turned out to be a rude lump of flesh and skin, without bones.

The spirit of the sea was believed to be malicious, and capable of inflicting injury. Allusions are frequent to "sea-trowis, meermen, meermaids, and a number of little creatures coming from the sea" in response to spell and charm. Nor must we forget the practice of pouring out libations to the aquatic divinities. A century ago, in Crawford Muir, when a tenant was evicted and another took his place, he cut the throat of a black lamb and threw it into a stream, with a malediction both upon stream and lamb.

To this futile department of human error we can, however, devote no more s.p.a.ce. To treat it adequately we should need at least a couple of volumes as closely printed as the present.