{"collection":"myth-cosmogony","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_19900/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_19900","id":"gutenberg_19900","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19900","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - Other","Category: Mythology, Legends & Folklore","Occultism","Superstition","Trials (Witchcraft)","Witchcraft"],"text":"Produced by Fe\u00f2rag NicBhr\u00ecde, Sam W., and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE MYSTERIES OF ALL NATIONS:\n\nRISE AND PROGRESS OF SUPERSTITION,\nLAWS AGAINST AND TRIALS OF WITCHES,\nANCIENT AND MODERN DELUSIONS,\n\nTOGETHER WITH\n\nStrange Customs, Fables, and Tales\n\nRELATING TO\n\nMYTHOLOGY--DAYS AND WEEKS--MIRACLES--POETS AND SUPERSTITION--MONARCHS,\nPRIESTS, AND PHILOSOPHERS--DRUIDS--DEMONOLOGY--MAGIC AND\nASTROLOGY--DIVINATION--SIGNS, OMENS, AND WARNINGS--AMULETS\nAND CHARMS--TRIALS BY ORDEAL--CURSES AND EVIL WISHES--DREAMS\nAND VISIONS--SUPERSTITION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.\n\nBY JAMES GRANT.\n\nLEITH: REID & SON, 35 SHORE.\nEDINBURGH: W. PATERSON. LONDON: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, AND CO.\n\n[THE RIGHT OF TRANSLATION IS RESERVED.]\n\n\nREID AND SON, PRINTERS, LEITH.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nIn whatever light this work may be regarded by arch\u00e6ologists and\ngeneral readers, the writer submits it to the public, chiefly as the\nresult of antiquarian research, and actual observation during a period\nof nearly forty years. The writer does not attempt to define what\nsuperstition is, either in its broadest or most literal sense; but, as\nhe desires the expression to be understood, it may be considered to\nimply a fear of the Evil One and his emissaries, a trust in benign\nspirits and saints, a faith in occult science, and a belief that a\nconjunction of certain planets or other inanimate bodies is capable of\nproducing supernatural effects, either beneficial or prejudicial to\nman. Superstition, generally so called, has run through a course of\nages from sire to son, leaving it still deeply rooted in the minds of\nmany of the present generation.\n\nNot a few seeming repetitions in this work are not such in reality,\nbut are instances brought forward to mark the resemblance between the\nopinions prevalent in past and present times, and to illustrate the\nsimilarity of perverted views in various parts of the world.\n\nThe examples of superstition herein given are taken from an almost\nunlimited number, yet the writer confesses to have omitted many\ninteresting particulars. In proof of this it may be stated, that while\nthe last sheet of these pages was being revised, an esteemed friend\nwrote, saying: \"I can quite corroborate what you say of Ireland; for\nlately, on my way from Macroom to Glengariff, at a weird mountain\npass, the coach stopped to enable us to visit the hermitage of St.\nFinbar. There, beside a lonely lake, I saw a number of devotees,\nafflicted with various ailments, expecting to be healed through the\ngood offices of the departed saint.\"\n\nIn spite of a determination to omit unimportant matter and to be\nconcise, this volume has swelled out far beyond what was originally\nintended. The more the subject of superstition is studied, the more\ninteresting it becomes. One judges of a nation's strength by its\nvictories, of its industry by its products, of its wealth by its mines\nand cultivated fields, of its domestic condition by its diet and\ndress, of its moral condition by its laws, of its religion and\nintelligence by its literature; but before obtaining full knowledge of\na people's convictions, it is necessary to search into their\nsuperstitions. In these are discovered the secrets of man's inner\nlife, and by these also have been forged strong fetters, which have\nkept his soul in thraldom for ages.\n\nIf the author has succeeded in pointing out, that, notwithstanding the\nprogress of science and the advancement of civilisation and\nChristianity, some of the darker shadows that have disfigured past\nages are still floating over a portion of our social horizon, he feels\nhis labour will not have been altogether in vain. Like many of the\nghosts alluded to in the following pages, that of superstition needs\nonly the continued light of day to shine upon it, in order to make it\nvanish for ever.\n\n_January 1880._\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE RISE AND PROGRESS OF SUPERSTITION.\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n                                                                  PAGE\nRise and Progress of Superstition--The Serpent--Cain's Departure\nfrom the true Worship--Worship of the Sun, Moon, and Stars--Strange\nStory of Abraham--The Gods of Antiquity--Ether, Air, Land, and\nWater filled with living Souls--Guardian Angel--Cause of the\nFlood--Magic--How the Jews deceived the Devil--A Witch not\npermitted to live--Diviners, Enchanters, Consulters with familiar\nSpirits, and Necromancers proved a Snare to Nations--Charms worn by\nthe Jews--Singular Customs and Belief--Prognostication--Allegorical\nEmblems--Marriage Customs--Ceremonies at Death and Burials--Divination\namong all Nations--Observers of Times--Opinion concerning the\nCelestial Bodies--Power of Witches--Wizards--Necromancers' Power\nto call up the Dead                                                  1\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\nMen endowed with Prophetic Spirits--The Jews forbidden to consult\nthe Oracles of the Heathen--Schools of Prophets--Influence of\nMusic--The Prophetic Mantle--Way Revelations were made--Bath\nKol--Urim and Thummim--False Prophets Strangled or Stoned--Diabolical\nArt--Moloch--Seething a Kid in its Mother's Milk--The Smooth\nStones mentioned by Isaiah--Sheep-head and Sheep-head Broth--Casting\nSins into the Sea--Fasting among the Pharisees--Dust of Heathen\nCountries--The number 10--Angels that had the Care of Men--Predictions\nby Hebrew Women--Punishment in the Grave                            10\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\nEgypt steeped in Superstition--Power of Magicians--Obtaining\nVisions--Demons--Departed Heroes--Gods and Demi-gods--Altars or\nLiving Stones--Sacred Animals--Isis searching for Osiris--Leeks and\nOnions--Priests, Physicians, and Interpreters of Oracles--Sacrificing\nHuman Victims--Wax Figures--Magic--Teaching of the Egyptian\nPriests--Transmigration                                             14\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\nBabylon--The Chaldeans--Downfall of Babylon predicted--Worship of\nthe Medes and Persians--Sacred Fire--The Gaures--Births and Deaths\nin Early Times--A Narrow Bridge--An Immense Tree--Creation of\nProphets--A Stone to which Abraham tied his Camel--Adam and Eve's\nTrysting Place--Black Art--Ways of discovering whether a supposed\nCriminal was Guilty or Innocent--Looking into Futurity--Canaanites,\nSyrians, and Arabians--Strange Fables--Abraham breaking Heathen\nIdols--Altars--Religion of the Carthagenians and Tyrians--Supremacy\nof the Gods                                                         20\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\nGreek Religion and Superstition--Jupiter regarded as the\nPresident of the Law and Protector of Cities--Dreams and\nCharms--Sacred Stones--Omens of Evil--Sacrificing the Hair--Flight\nof Birds--Compassing the Altar to the Right--Love secured by\nMagic--Marriage Ceremonies--Way of protecting a Child from Evil\nSpirits--Divers Magical Ceremonies--Laws as to Dead Bodies--Fingers\nand Toes of Dead Men worn as Charms--Preparing a Body for\nBurial--Swine and Swine's Flesh--Drinking Toasts--Prophets consulted\nbefore Armies marched to Battle--Certain Words avoided--Sneezing--Evil\nOmens--Throwing a Person overboard to save a Ship                   26\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\nRoman Delusions and Customs--Tokens of Futurity--Drawing of Lots--Events\nforetold by reading the first passage that turned up on opening a\nBook--Lucky and Unlucky Stars--Fortune-tellers--Dreams--Omens\ndrawn from the Appearance of parts of Animals offered in\nSacrifice--Sibylline Books, Charms, and Incantations--Spirits\nobservers of Men's Actions--Unlucky Days--Dress of a Bride--Anointing\nDoor-posts and crossing the Threshold--Fire and Water--Bridal Feast\nand Nuptial Songs--Funeral Rites--Souls of Unburied Persons--Customs\nat a Deathbed, and Funeral Observances--Hobgoblins--Purifying\nwith Water and Fire--Appeasing the Manes--Dead Bodies used for\nMagical purposes                                                    34\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\nEthiopian Superstition--Heathen Indian Gods--Superstitious\nObservances at Marriages--Disposal of Dead Bodies--Different\nDegrees of Glory after Death--Reverence for the Cow--Detecting\nCriminals--Addressing Oracles--Astronomy--Eclipse of the\nMoon--Magic--John Gondalez                                          39\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\nWizard and Man-tiger--Man-lion--Sacrificing Children--Offerings\nto the Ganges--A Rajah offering himself as a Sacrifice--Various\nSuperstitious Ceremonies--King's Wives and Retainers going with\nthe Dead Monarch into another World--An eternal Succession of\nWorlds--Apes supposed to have Human Souls--Worshipping Demons--Drinking\nBlood--Prognosticating from the Cries of Beasts--Witchcraft and\nMagic--Singular Opinions and Customs--Foretelling Future Events\nat the New Moon--Discovering a False Swearer--Offerings to the\nSea and Winds--Superstition in China--Superstition in Japan         48\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nHEATHEN GODS AND GODDESSES.\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\nClassification of Gods and Goddesses--Primeval Parent\nChaos--Creation--Influence of Ether--Celestial Fire--Birth and\nBanishment of Cupid--Fate--Eternal Decrees--Throne of Jove--Fortune\nand Happiness--Misfortune and Misery--Rewards and Punishments--First\nMan and Woman--Pan the Emblem of all Things--Power of Heathen\nGods--Descriptions of Juno--Venus the Goddess of Love and\nBeauty--Rustics turned into Frogs--Vulcan--\u00c6olus--Momus the\nJester--The Carping God                                             59\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\nSatyrs described--Diana's Retirement--Pallas, the Goddess of\nShepherds--The vile Flora--Pomona deceived--Nymphs--River Gods\nand Goddesses--Sirens--Witch Circe--Infernal Deities--Passage\nto Tartarus--Palace of Pluto--Judges of Hell--Goddesses of\nDestiny--Furies--Night, Death, and Sleep--Tartarian Regions--Delights\nof the Elysian Fields--Festivals of Heathens--Sacrifices to\nDeities--Things sacred to Gods                                      65\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\nAchilles--Taking of Troy--Acrisius's Daughter--Danae and her\nson Perseus--Ardea changed into a Bird--Pluto's Invisible\nHelmet--Minerva's Buckler--Mercury's Wings--Medusa deprived of\nLife--Sea Monster--A Gorgon's Head--Stheno and Euryale--Minerva's\nRevenge--Serpents and Pegasus produced by Medusa's Blood--Tales by the\nDaughters of Minyas--Punishment by Bacchus--The Search of Cadmus for\nhis sister Europa--Halcyon's Sorrow--Transmigration--Exploits of\nHercules--Love Potion--Hymen--Jason's Adventures--Power and Cruelty of\nMedea--How a Favourable Wind was procured--Manner in which Orion came\ninto Existence--False Swearer punished--Palladium--Deeds of\nParis--Golden Apple--Marriage of Peleus and Thetis--Impiety of\nPentheus--Rhea and her Sons--Scylla turned into a Sea Monster       71\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMYTHOLOGY OF GERMANY, GREAT BRITAIN, SCANDINAVIA, ETC.\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\nMythology of Germany, Great Britain, and Scandinavia--The world\nNiflheim--The world Muspelheim--How Ymir was created--The cow\nAedhumla--Ymir's Offspring--Odin, the chief God--Valhalla--Queen\nFrigga--How the Seas, Waters, Mountains, and Heavens were\nmade--Chariots and Horses in Heaven--Night and Day--Evil-disposed\nMaidens--Creation of New Beings--Bridge between Midgard and\nAsgard--Sacred Fountain--Roots of the ash Yggdrasil--Baldur's Dreams\nand sad End--Loki, the Evil Spirit--Hel and her Brothers--Worship\nof Scandinavian Gods--Norsemen and their Ancient Gods and\nGoddesses--The Volsung Tale--Odin, Loki, and H\u00e6nir's Wanderings--The\nSword Gram--Sigurd's Exploits--What the Worshippers of Odin\nbelieved--Frodi's Maidens and Quern--Gods of the Laplanders--Sale\nof Winds--Lucky and Unlucky Days--Other Superstitions               85\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nNAMES OF DAYS, WHENCE DERIVED.\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\nThe Calendar--Names of Days, whence derived--The Power of\nJupiter--Influence of Zeus--The God Indra--Origin of the term\n\"Hours\"--Hours under Planetary Control--Coronation of a Persian\nKing--Evils transferred to the Turks and Kafirs--The Moon's\nControlling Power--Time reckoned by Moons--A Strange Story--Heathen\nGods--Thor's Palace--Thor's Power--Frigga's Abilities--Description of\nSeater or Crodo                                                     99\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nNAMES OF MONTHS, WHENCE DERIVED.\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\nNames of Months, whence derived--January--First of January,\nhow kept--New Year Gifts--February--Sacrifices for purging\nSouls--Second of February--Virtue of Candles--Shrove Tuesday--Eating\nPancakes--Partaking of Brose--Choosing a Valentine--March--April\ndedicated to Venus--First of May--May Poles and May Fires--Dispute between\nMen and Gods--Superstitious Customs in Scotland--Superstitious Ceremonies\nin England--June Marriages--July--August--September--October--Hallow-e'en\nCeremonies--December--Christmas Trees and Gifts--The Misletoe--Privileges\nin Leap Year--Yule Log--Christmas Festivities                      110\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMIRACLES PERFORMED BY HOLY PERSONS, AND THE INFLUENCE OF SACRED\nRELICS.\n\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\nSt. Peter, and Simon the Magician--Clement's Miracles and Death--St.\nAgnes--A Miraculous Circumstance--St. Blase's Power--St. Agatha's Holy\nLife--St. Patrick's Missionary Labours, and Expulsion of Reptiles from\nIreland--St. Germanus stilling the Raging of the Sea--St. David and\nthe Welsh Leeks--Stirrup Cup and Origin of \"Pledging\"--Elfrida's\nTreachery and Remorse--St. Benedict's Power--St. Dunstan cured by an\nAngel--The \u00c6olian Harp--St. Columba's Prophecy concerning Iona--Sacred\nDucks of Ireland--St. Paul binding a Dragon--Saints and Frogs--Friars\nand Jesuits--Father Mark proof against Fire--Virtue of Holy Water--St.\nNoel's Imprecation--St. Boniface--Pope Silvester assisted by\nSatan--Necromancing Popes--St. Januarius's Blood--St. Anthony's\nConflicts with the Devil--St. Anthony's Hog and Bees--A Tradition\nconcerning Melrose--St. Cuthbert--A Princess swallowed up by the\nEarth--Monk Waldevus's inexhaustible Stores--Holy Relics--Rusticus\nand his Hog                                                        130\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nPOETS AND SUPERSTITION.\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI.\n\nProphetic Verse--The Bardi--Bards maintained by Noblemen--Queen\nElizabeth and the Bards--Effects of Prophetic Sayings and of\nPipe Music--Messages to another World--Voices of Deceased Friends\nheard in the Gale--Human Forms in the Clouds--Evenings in the\nHighlands--Michael Scott--Constant Work for Evil Spirits--Stemming the\nTweed--How the Eildon Hills were formed--Ropes of Sand--Scott and his\nMagic Books buried at Melrose--Ossianic Poems--Stories by Bards    150\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII.\n\nShakspeare--An Outline of his Composition--\"The Tempest\"--Miranda\nbeseeching Prospero to allay the Wild Waters--Ariel's Readiness\nto serve his Master--The Witch Sycorax--Caliban's Evil Wish--Neptune\nchased--\"Midsummer Night's Dream\"--Exploits of a Fairy--Doings of\nPuck--Titania and her Attendants--Ghosts and\nSpirits--Song--\"Macbeth\"--Weird Sisters--Macbeth's Doom--Witches'\nCaldron--Macbeth admonished by Spirits--\"Antony and\nCleopatra\"--Dreadful Apparition--King's Death avenged              161\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII.\n\nThe Poet Gay--The \"Spell\"--Hobnelia--Lubberkin--Spells resorted\nto--Valentine Day--Ladybird sent on a Message of Love--Virtue of\nUnited Garters--Gipsies' Warnings--Knives sever Love--Story of\nBoccaccio--Apparition of a Deceased Lover--Poems by Burns--\"Address\nto the Deil\"--\"Tam o' Shanter\"                                     173\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX.\n\nSir Walter Scott--His Belief in Superstition--How his Tales of Fiction\nare composed--A Town-Clerk frightened by an Apparition--A Ghost that\ndid not understand Erse, but could communicate in Latin--Lovel and\nEdie Ochiltree--Discovery of Hidden Treasure--\"Rob Roy\"--Fairies'\nCaverns--Supposed Apparition in the Trossachs--Elfin People at the\nFirth of Forth--A Minister taken away by Fairies--Dame Glendinning's\nTale--Lines from \"Marmion\"--A Fairy Knight--Mysterious Steed       187\n\n\nCHAPTER XX.\n\nLord Byron taught Superstition--Byron and the Maid in Green--Bridge of\nBalgonie--Byron's Fear to ride over it--His Belief in Unlucky Days and\nPresentiments--Socrates's Demon--Monk Lewis's Monitor--Napoleon's\nWarnings--A Sorrowful Tale--Byron's Fortune told by a Sibyl--Hebrew\nCamyo--Abracadabra--Loch-na-Garr--Oscar of Alva--Byron's last\nInstructions                                                       197\n\n\nCHAPTER XXI.\n\nTale by Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd--Aikwood Castle--The\nWitch Henbane--Imps demanding Work--Michael Scott--Curious\nSport--Dreadful Threat--Rats transformed into the form of\nMen--Inventor of Gunpowder--Summoning Evil Spirits--Latin the\nLanguage best understood by Satin and his Emissaries--Holy Signs\nand Charms--Effects of a Friar's Blessing--Magic Lantern--Michael\nScott's Subscribed Conditions--Imps' Song--Dreadful Storm--Warlocks'\nHymn--Eildon Hill                                                  210\n\n\nCHAPTER XXII.\n\nAllan Ramsay--\"The Gentle Shepherd\"--Bauldy the Clown--Mause the\nreputed Witch--Praying Backwards--Sad Misfortunes--Supposed Power\nof the Devil to raise the Wind and send Rain and Thunder--Sir\nWilliam disturbed--Symon's Announcement--Promise to gain a\nLassie's Heart--Witches' Tricks--Longfellow's \"Golden Legend\"--\"Song\nof Hiawatha\"                                                       218\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMONARCHS, PRIESTS, PHILOSOPHERS, AND SUPERSTITION.\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIII.\n\nSuperstition--Commencement of Monarchy in Scotland--King Fergus I.\ncrowned on the Fatal Stone of Destiny--Signs, Assistance of Spirits,\nMagicians, and Fortune-tellers--Natholocus sends a Friend to consult\na Cunning Woman--Her Prediction--Constantine and Maxentius--A\nHeavenly Cross--A Famous Standard--Queen Guanora's Grave--Fear of St.\nMartin--The Church's Belief in Departed Saints--Relics venerated--King\nbewitched by Witches of Forres--Evil Signs--Sea Monster in the\nDon--Kenneth III. killed by an Infernal Machine--Virtue of\nPrecious Stones--Weird Sisters--Consulting a Pythoness--Predictions\nby Druids--Domitian's Death foretold by Astrologers--Simon Magus--A\nPlatonic Philosopher--The Emperor Julian instructed in Magic       234\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIV.\n\nLouis XI. and the Astrologer--A King's Enchanted Cap--David I. and\nthe Mysterious Stag--Merlin the Magician--Prophecies concerning\nQueen Elizabeth and Mary--Dragon Caverns--Predictions of Evil--Changing\na King's Love--The Holy Maid of Kent--Nobles put to Death for keeping\ncompany with Sorcerers--James I. of England and the Witches--Tranent\nWitches and Warlocks--Wise Wife of Keith--Two Hundred Witches\nsailing in Sieves--Raising Storms--Witch and Warlock Convention at\nNewhaven--Meeting of Witches at North Berwick--Witches tortured in\nHolyrood--The Devil's Mark--Bothwell's Fortune told--Witches and their\nAssociates burned                                                  242\n\n\nCHAPTER XXV.\n\nCromwell in league with the Devil--Cromwell consulting\nAstrologers--Memorable Days in the Life of Cromwell--Duke of\nHamilton warned of his Fate--Peden's Predictions--Traditions\nconcerning Peden--John Brown the Martyr--Linlithgow Loch\nSwans--Hereford Children--Great Comet--Conjunction of Saturn\nand Jupiter at Eventful Periods--Solomon's Power                   254\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTHE DRUIDS.\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVI.\n\nDruids laid claim to Supernatural Power--Representations of the Sun\nand Moon--Belief of Druids--Beltane Feasts--Arkite and Sabian\nSuperstition--Dancing to the Song of the Cuckoo--Initiation into\nthe Druidical Mysteries--The Goodmane's Land and the Guidman's\nFauld--Offerings to Demi-gods--Propitiating Beasts of Prey--Sacred\nCairns--Trees dedicated to Demons--Law forbidding Worship of the Sun,\nMoon, Fire, Rivers, Wells, Stones, or Forest Trees--Extracts from\nKirk-Session Records--Land dedicated to Satan--Midsummer and Hallow\nFires forbidden--Yule-day--Order of the General Assembly as to\nDruidical Customs--Old Customs ordered to be discontinued          262\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVII.\n\nDr. Stuart on the Druids--Their Deities, etc.--Gauls descendants\nof Dis--Funeral Rites--Slaves and Clients burned--What Pliny\nsays--Tallies used in making known the Will of Heaven--Walking\nthrough the Fire--Wonder-working Eggs--Easter Eggs represent\nDruidical Eggs--Origin of Druids--Wise Men of the East were\nprobably Druids--Island of Iona--Druidical Cairns--Stones of\nJudgment--Misletoe regarded as a Charm--Rings worn as Preventatives\nagainst Witchcraft--Stonehenge--Merlin the Magician--Stones brought\nfrom Africa by Giants--Graves of British Lords                     267\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nDEMONOLOGY.\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVIII.\n\nFirst Ideas of Demonology--Rabbinical Tradition--Adam's Marriage--The\nWicked Lilith--Egyptian Tradition--Arabian Worship of Genii--Christians'\nOpinions of Demons--Forms assumed by Evil Spirits--Demoniacal King--Duty\nof Inferior Demons--Task of Benign Spirits--Schools of Magic--Circassian\nOpinions--Belief of Indians--Situation of Hell--Men's Actions\nrecorded--Rewards and Punishments--How to frighten Demons--Treatment\nof the Sick--Attendant Angels--Worship of Gods--Foretelling Future\nEvents--Small-pox propagated by an Evil Genius--Souls of Deceased\nPersons--Effect of Charms                                          273\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIX.\n\nHeathen Devotion in Ceylon--Superstitious Customs among the Schismatic\nGreeks--Negro Belief in Fetishes--Charms--Magic taught by the\nPriests--Dead Persons metamorphosed into Serpents--How the Gaures\ndisposed of their Dead--Souls Blessed or Damned--Orders of Genii in\nMadagascar--Belief of the Caribbees--Brazilian Superstition--Peruvian\nTradition--American Indians--Demons in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth\nCenturies--Satan in France--Manes, Anima, and Umbra among the Greeks\nand Romans                                                         279\n\n\nCHAPTER XXX.\n\nVisible Ghosts--Superstition on the Baltic Shores--A German\nLegend--Demons in the West of Europe--Love, how plighted in\nOrkney--The Monster Ymir--Origin of Fairies--The Duergar or\nDwarfs--Brownies in Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland--Nine\nClasses of Evil Spirits--Vampires--Man's Double or Fetch--Churchyard\nGhosts--Souls of Suicides--Burial of Suicides and Murderers at Cross\nRoads--Luther on Evil Spirits and Witches                          284\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXI.\n\nBelief and Teaching of the Roman Catholic Church--Swedenborg's\nIntercourse with Spirits--Marcus Brutus and his Evil Genius--Cassius\nand Julius C\u00e6sar's Ghost at Philippi--Plutarch on Spectres--Socrates\non the same subject--Archbishop Bruno and the Spectre--A Haunted\nHouse--Spectre at Sea--Ghost of a Murdered Man in New South Wales  291\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXII.\n\nSpiritualism Past and Present--Magic taught in Leipsic--Spirit of\nMarshal Saxe--How Spirits were Invoked--Voices of Spirits--Mysterious\nDeath of a Magician--Unearthly Huntsman--Prediction and its\nFulfilment--An Estate lost at the Gaming Table--A Baron Shot--A\nMarriage prevented by an Apparition--Consulting a Witch--Raising the\nSpirit of a Murdered Man--A Murderer's Fate                        297\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXIII.\n\nAntonio the Rich--Dreadful Announcement from a Volcano's Mouth--Three\nGhosts--Mozart apprehensive of Death--Mozart writing a Requiem for\nhimself--Messenger from another World--Mozart's Death--Ghost of a\nLady--A Haunted House--Iron Cage--Youth starved to Death--Frightful\nDreams and Dreadful Sights--Dog frightened by a Spirit--Disturbed\nHouse--Duchess of Mazarin--Madame de Beauclair--Compact between the\nLiving and the Dead--A Lady's Death foretold by a Spirit           304\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXIV.\n\nSir George Villiers' Ghost--Duke of Buckingham Murdered--Lord\nLyttelton and others profaning Christmas--A Troubled Mind--Apparition\nof a Suicide--Neglected Warning--Ominous Hour--Lord Lyttelton found\nDead at the dreaded time--Death of an old Roman King--Alarming\nProdigies--Tales from the _Eddas_--A Scandinavian Warrior's Ghost--An\nIcelandic Lady's Ghost--Fear of approaching Calamities--Association of\nGhosts--Apparitions of Drowned Men--Christians not disturbed by\nSpectres--A Band of Demons--Priest exorcising Evil Spirits         312\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXV.\n\nA Mysterious Hunter--Man and Horse supposed to be\nDevils--Flagellation--Tales of the Scotch Highlands--Croaking\nRaven--Death of a suspected Witch--Resort of Witches and Evil\nSpirits--Spirits hastening to a Church--Black Man with Eyes like\nFire--Horse breathing Smoke and Flame                              318\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXVI.\n\nChurchmen subjected to the Onslaught of Demons--St. Maurus rebuking\nEvil Spirits--St. Romualdus' Conflict with Satan--St. Frances--St.\nGregory--Monk in Purgatory--Institution of the Thirty Masses for the\nDead--An Excommunicated Gentleman--St. Benedict and the Blackbird's\nSong--A Monk restored to Life--St. Benedict's Sister ascending to\nHeaven--St. Francis' Dominion over Living Creatures and the\nElements--St. Catherine's Power--St. Stanislaus' Miracles--A Dead Man\ngiving Evidence--The Dead refusing a Renewal of Life--St. Philip\nNerius and Evil Spirits--Spirits ministering to St. Erasmus--St.\nNorbert--Story relating to Henry I.--St. Margaret's Triumph--St.\nIgnatius--St. Stephen--Satan's Hatred of St. Dominick--St. Donatus\nendowing a Corpse with Speech--St. Cyriacus, St. Largus, and St.\nSmaragdus, the Martyrs--St. Clare--St. Bernard's Power--St. C\u00e6sarius'\nWonder-working Crook--St. Giles and the Hind--St. Euphemia's Guardian\nAngels--St. Francis' Spirit--St. Bridget--St. Denis' Spirit--St.\nTeresa and the Angels--St. Hilarian--St. Martin--St. Catherine's Body\ncarried by Angels to Mount Sinai--St. Francis Xaverius' Belief in\nVirtue of Bells--St. Nicholas--St. Ambrose--St. Lucy raising her Mother\nfrom the Dead--St. Anastasia sustained by Bread from Heaven--St.\nThomas enduring Martyrdom in Life and after Death--Penance of\nHenry II.--Barbarous Conduct of Henry VIII.--A Hungarian Legend    323\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMAGIC AND ASTROLOGY.\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXVII.\n\nMagic a Study among the Learned--Plato and Pythagoras travelled to\nlearn the Art, and taught it--Speakers made Eloquent by Magical\nArt--Virtue of Gems--How Jewels should be set--When they are to be\nGraven--Cures effected by Hippocrates--Democritus on Magic--Many\nCharms--Evil Spirits--Magicians sacrificing to the Planets--Magician's\nPower to produce Monstrous Creatures--Egyptian Magicians--Magical\nCircles--Throwing Old Shoes--Figures on Shoes--A Hangman's\nSoul--Directions for raising Ghosts and Spirits                    339\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXVIII.\n\nJosephus' Account of Astrology--Antediluvians acquainted with\nAstrology--Astrology after the Flood--Magicians in various\nNations--Compact and Confederation with Spirits--Feats of\nMagicians--A French Priest in compact with the Devil--Married\nto Venus--Turning Leather into Gold--A Novice in Magic destroyed\nby a Spirit--Principles of Magic--Lilly the Astrologer--Lilly\nconsulted by Royalists--Astrological Predictions                   349\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXIX.\n\nJudicial Astrology--Reading the Heavens--Lucky and Unlucky\nDays--Highland Superstitions--Climacterics--Astrologer and Charles\nIX.--Influence of the Moon--Official Air-gazers--Sacrificing to\nPlanets--Dryden's Faith in Astrology--Dryden calculating the\nNativity of his Children                                           356\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nDIVINATION AND ORACLES.\n\n\nCHAPTER XL.\n\nDivination--Heathen Gods giving Signs--Sortes Pr[oe]nestin\u00e6--St.\nAugustine's View of Divination--Sortes Sanctorum--Divination in the Greek\nand Latin Churches--Declarations of the Divine Will--How St. Consortia\nbecame a Nun--Hieroglyphic Texts--Divination among the Jews--Plutarch\non Oracles--Malthus' Belief in Oracles--A Missionary's Opinion--Sibylline\nOracles--Alectoromantia--Belomancy--Cleromancy--Napoleon's Belief\nin Cleromancy                                                      362\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSIGNS, OMENS, AND WARNINGS.\n\n\nCHAPTER XLI.\n\nCrying in Youth--Image of Opis--Man born to Trouble--Bacon's Belief in\nPresages--Dugdale's Foresight--Sir Thomas More's Power to judge of\nPassing Events--Erasmus at the Tomb of Becket--Sir Walter Raleigh's\nPredictions--What Tacitus foresaw--Solon's Predictions--Cicero's\nPredictions--Knox's Predictions--Queen Mary and Darnley--Death of\nThomas Maitland and of Kirkaldy of Grange predicted--Regent Murray\nwarned against going to Linlithgow--The Human Body a medium for\ndiscovering Future Events--Death Warnings--Appearance of Spirits   372\n\n\nCHAPTER XLII.\n\nOrnithomancy--Mohammed's Pigeons--Cock-crowing--Sacred Geese--Phenomenon\nat Rome--Divination by means of a Sieve--Capnomancy--Catoptromancy--\nDactyliomancy--Cledonism--Onomancy--Names--Romans toasting their\nMistresses--How Success in War was ascertained--Loss of Ships'\nColours--Regimental Standards--Consecrated Banners--Battle of the\nStandard--A Highland Superstition                                  380\n\n\nCHAPTER XLIII.\n\nCaution of our Ancestors--Magpies--Flight of Birds--Swarming of\nBees--Howling of Dogs--Lowing of Cattle--Crowing of Cocks--Stockings\nwrong side out--Sign of a Letter coming--Sneezing of a Cat--Various\nSigns and Omens--How to prevent Ill Luck--Reputed Witches--Print of a\nCaldron, what it denoted--Unlucky to pass over a Balance--When not to\npare your Nails--Touching a Dead Body--Funeral Processions--Storks--How\nto Sit--Marriages--A Prophetic Rhyme--Wedding Ring--Throwing Slippers,\nBesoms, Salt, and Rice after Newly-married Persons--Charms for Bridegrooms\nand Brides--Mothers and Children--Rules to be observed at Baptisms--How\nto treat Young Children                                            387\n\n\nCHAPTER XLIV.\n\nSweeping Floors--New Year and Christmas--\"First-Foots\"--Weather\nPrognostications--How to secure Favourable Gales--Superstitious\nCustoms--Corpse of one guilty of _Felo-de-se_--Finding of Persons\nwho die unseen--Superstitious Belief of Russian Seamen--Ancient\nCustoms of Scotland--Friday an Unlucky Day for commencing an Important\nUndertaking--Friday as a Marriage Day--Anecdote of a Ship called\n\"Friday\"--Loss of the Ship \"Amazon\"--Sunday a Favourable Day for\ncommencing a Voyage--Lawyers and Clergymen, how looked upon by Sailors\nat Sea--Rats deserting a Ship--Whistling to raise the Wind--Legend of\nVanderdecken or the Flying Dutchman--A Grandfather's Axe--Other Signs\nand Warnings                                                       393\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAMULETS AND CHARMS.\n\n\nCHAPTER XLV.\n\nAmulets and Charms among the Chaldeans, Jews, and Persians--Amulets\namong the Greeks and Romans--Ecclesiastics forbidden to wear\nAmulets and Phylacteries--Pericles' Amulet--Lord Bacon's Opinion\nof Charms--Effect of Music--Yawning and Laughing, Fear and\nShame--Diseases cured by Charms--Philosophers' Opinions of\nAmulets--Mr. E. Chambers on Amulets--Poets on Enchantments--A\nDairymaid's Charm--A Charm sent by a Pope to an Emperor            401\n\n\nCHAPTER XLVI.\n\nEar-rings buried by Jacob--Solomon's Belief in Spells--Reginald\nScot's Recipe for preserving Cattle--What Mr. Pennant says on\nCharms--Images Powerful Charms--The Egyptians' Confidence in Amulets\nand Charms--Evil Eye--Cold Iron--Holy Things used as Charms--Filing\nof St. Peter's Keys--Lustral Water--Uses of Snow--Keys of a Consecrated\nBuilding--Virtue of Consecrated Bread--Various Methods of securing\nLove--Indian Charms--Cure for Corns--Simple Plan for getting rid of a\nTroublesome Person--Curing the Hooping-cough, etc.                 409\n\n\nCHAPTER XLVII.\n\nHorse Shoes used as Charms--Spitting on Money to secure Luck--Fortunate\nPersons to deal with--Professor Playfair on Superstition--The\nLee Penny--Divers Charms--A Seer's Prescription--Grose on Sorcerers,\nMagicians, and Witches--Irish Shamrock--Praying to Swords--Irish\nSuperstition--Smugglers and Brigands addicted to\nSuperstition--Superstition in the East--Arab Charms--Ladies'\nArts                                                               415\n\n\nCHAPTER XLVIII.\n\nEarl of Derby's Death--A Queen Enchanted--Image of a young\nKing--Belgrave on Charms--Childebert's Device for detecting\nWitches--Witch Burned--Witch Ointment--Men-Wolves--Church Authorities'\nInstructions to Inquisitors--Killing by a Look or Wish--The King of\nSweden and his Witches--Witches' Help in War--Witches causing a\nPlague--Cattle Poisoned--Various Charms--An Angel's Charm to Pope\nLeo--Physicians' Faith in Charms--Inescation--Insemination--Egyptian\nLaws--Curing the King's Evil                                       421\n\n\nCHAPTER XLIX.\n\nPrecious Stones regarded as Objects of Virtue--Extravagance in\nJewellery accounted for--Abraham's Precious Stones--Altars called\nLiving Stones--Rod of Moses--Sacred Rings and Belts--The Month of\none's Nativity has connection with one or other of the Precious\nStones--Kings of England hallowing Rings--Ring preserved in\nWestminster Abbey--Iona Relics--The Green Stone of Arran--A Crystal\nkept as a Charm--A Conjuring Beryl--Prophetic Stones--The Coronation\nStone or Stone of Destiny                                          429\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nTRIALS BY ORDEAL.\n\n\nCHAPTER L.\n\nTrials by Ordeal resorted to in Ancient and Modern Times--Ordeal by\nmeans of Hot Iron--Plunging the Arm into Boiling Water or Oil--Walking\nBlindfold in Dangerous Places--Weighing a Witch--Extending the Arms\nbefore a Cross--Swallowing Consecrated Bread--Ordeal among the\nHindoos--Touching a Dead Body--An Inquest, how conducted long\nago--Dead Henry's Wounds--Sir George M'Kenzie's Opinion of Trial\nby Ordeal--Sir K. Digby on Trial by Ordeal                         438\n\n\nCHAPTER LI.\n\nA Popular Story--Theatberge, wife of Lothaire--Forbes's Memoirs--Trial\nby Wager of Battle--When Trial by Wager of Battle ceased--Trial by\nJury--Court of King's Bench deciding the Legality of Trial by\nBattle--Sir Walter Scott's Illustrations of Superstition and Trial\nby Battle in Olden Times                                           445\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nCURSES AND EVIL WISHES.\n\n\nCHAPTER LII.\n\nCurses, Excommunication, and Anathemas--Dir\u00e6, the Executioners of\nVengeance--Interment of Excommunicated Persons--Excommunication among\nthe Hebrews--Last Degree of Excommunication sometimes followed by\nBanishment or Death--Form of Excommunication used by Ezra and\nNehemiah--The Greek Church annually excommunicates Roman\nCatholics--The Druids resorted to Excommunication--Bishops\nexcommunicating Rats, Mice, Caterpillars, and other Insects and\nVermin--The Pope's Claim--Napoleon I. excommunicated--Victor Emmanuel\nexcommunicated--The Inquisition and its terrible Doings--The Pope's\nFearful Curse--Mr. Donald Cargill excommunicating the King and\nNobles--Indulgences, Pardons, and Penance                          453\n\n\nCHAPTER LIII.\n\nSt. Adelbert's Curse--Complexion of Blackamoors attributed to a Curse\nof Noah--False Accusation, and its Results--Ancestors of the Whelphs\nand Guelphs of Germany--An Interesting Legend--A Gipsy's Curse--A Cruel\nFather and Husband--Morrar-na-Shean--Restoration of Three Daughters--A\nGrateful Father--Ancestors of the Sinclairs of Caithness, and of the\nnoble family of Keith--The Curse of Moy--A Cruel Chieftain of Clan\nChattan--Swearing by the Hand of a Bride--Grant of Glenmorriston\nwaiting his Doom--Death of a Father and Lover--Maledictions and\nPrediction--Lady leaping from a Lofty Tower--The Monroes of\nFoulis--End of a Relentless Tyrant                                 462\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nDREAMS AND VISIONS OF THE NIGHT.\n\n\nCHAPTER LIV.\n\nThe Gift or Art of interpreting Dreams--Official Interpreters of\nDreams--Sleep, how portrayed--Goddess of Dreams--Greeks soliciting the\nInspiration of Dreams--Xenophon on Sleep--Prophetic Power of the\nDying--\u00c6sculapius's Discoveries in Dreams--Code of Menu--The\nSoma-drink--Josephus as a Seer--Dreadful Proposal by Josephus--His\nFortunate Escape--An Eastern Conjuror--Reading a Sealed Letter--A\nSultan warned of his Death in a Dream--Alexander's Death foretold in a\nDream--Records of Dreams in Westminster Abbey--Lord Falkland's\nDream--Rev. John Brown's Opinions--Early Christian Faith in Visions\nand Dreams--Death of a Friend foretold--The Devil's Sonata--Marriage\nof Queen Mary--Fatality of the Stuart Family--Death of Henry IV. of\nFrance                                                             469\n\n\nCHAPTER LV.\n\nDreaming Dictionaries--Dreaming of an Anchor--Sick\nPersons--Raiment--Fruit--Funerals--Dreams sometimes to be read\ncontrariwise--Dreaming of Darkness--Jewellery--Losing and finding\nProperty--Fowls and Eggs--Flying--Bagpipes, Dancing, and\nBanquets--Dreaming of Animals, Cakes, Corn, and Milk--Dreaming of\nCarrying and of being Carried--Angels, Spirits, and Children--Clergymen\nand Churches--A Broken Watch or Clock--Clouds--Falling--Flowers and\nFruit--Sailors' Dreams--Running Streams and Still Water--Ploughed\nGround and Green Fields--Presents--Glass, Hair, Fire, Cold, Tooth,\nKisses, and Knives--Leaping, Climbing, and Writing--Linen--The Sun,\nMoon, and Stars, Rainbow, Snow, Thunder, and Lightning             475\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nLAWS AGAINST AND TRIALS OF WITCHES.\n\n\nCHAPTER LVI.\n\nWitchcraft treated with Severity--Cutting out the Tongue--Laws of\n\u00c6thelstane--Witchcraft in England--Royal Writers--Sir Edward Cole's\nOpinion--Statute of Elizabeth against Sorcerers--Law of Mary Queen of\nScotland against Witches--Law against Witches abolished--Sir George\nMackenzie on Witchcraft--Extracts from Forbes's _Institute of the Law\nof Scotland_--Sir Matthew Hale a Believer in Witchcraft--Trial of Rose\nCullender and Ann Duny--Punishment of Witches, by whom first\ncountenanced--Pope John's Bull--Bishop Jewell--Lord Bacon and the Law\nagainst Witches--Fearful Slaughter of supposed Witches--_Malleus\nMaleficarum_, or Hammer for Witches--The last Persons executed in\nScotland and England for Witchcraft--First German Printers condemned\nto be burned as Sorcerers--Reginald Scot on the Fables of\nWitchcraft--Mr. E. Chambers's Views of Witchcraft                  482\n\n\nCHAPTER LVII.\n\nWitch-finders--Disasters ascribed to Witches--Witches' Familiars--John\nKinnaird--Patrick Watson and his Wife pricked--The Devil's\nSabbaths--Grandeur at Satan's Feasts--When Feasts ended--Transformation--A\nWitch-finder sent from Scotland to Newcastle--Complaints against\nWitches--Deception discovered--Trying Witches in Northumberland--Escape\nof a Witch-finder from Justice--Zeal of the Clergy in Scotland in\ncondemning Witches--Witch burned within the Sea-mark--Extracts\nfrom Kirk-session Records of Perth relative to Witchcraft--Witches\nat Kirkcaldy--A Clerical Witch-finder                              493\n\n\nCHAPTER LVIII.\n\nHiring a Witch to detect a Witch--Clerical Witch-finders--Agnew,\nthe Sturdy Beggar--A Distressed Family--Minister's Remonstrance\nand Advice--Fresh Afflictions--Prayer and Fasting--Spirits\nSpeaking--Minister's Reply--Application to the Synod for\nAdvice--Solemn Humiliation ordained by the Synod--Beggar suspected\nand hanged for Blasphemy--Bargarran Witches--An Esquire's\nDaughter bewitched--Physicians puzzled--Ministers' Visits\nto Bargarran--Presbytery ordering Days of Humiliation--Recourse\nto the Law--Catherine Campbell imprisoned--Girl's continued\nAffliction--Representation to His Majesty's Privy Council--Commission\nappointed to inquire into the case--Trial of Witches--Condemnation\nand Execution                                                      500\n\n\nCHAPTER LIX.\n\nVictims of Superstition--Lady Glammis--Her Trial for causing the\nDeath of her Husband and attempting to poison the King--Found\nGuilty, and Burned--Lady Fowlis an intended Victim--Image of\nthe young Lady of Balnagowan--Elf Arrows--Consulting Egyptians--Hector\nMunro's connection with Witches--Charge against Sir John Colquhoun\nand Thomas Carlips for consulting Necromancers--Love Philters and\nEnchanted Tokens--Bewitching Sir George Maxwell--Witch-marks\ndiscovered before the Sheriff of Renfrewshire--Commission appointed\nby the Privy Council to try Witches--Witches Burned--Intercourse\nwith Fairies--Another Witch Story                                  511\n\n\nCHAPTER LX.\n\nEdinburgh and Leith Witches--Black Catalogue--James VI. and the\nWitches--Complaint to the Scottish Privy Council of Barbarous\nConduct--Relics of Superstition--Witch-finders in Edinburgh and\nLeith--Royal Commission to Magistrates and Ministers to search\nfor and put Witches to Death--Wife of a Judge in Edinburgh meeting\na Witch's Fate--Repeal of the Laws against Witchcraft--Opposition\nto Acts being Repealed--Judge of the Supreme Courts against a\nChange of the Law--James Reid--Potter-row Witch--Alexander Hamilton,\nthe Warlock--The Devil and Hamilton burning a Provost's Mill--Bewitched\nMan--A habit-and-repute Witch--Young Laird of Duddingston--Major\nWeir and his Magical Staff--A Magical Distaff--Agnes Williamson,\na Haddingtonshire Witch--Elizabeth Bathgate of Eyemouth--Isabella\nYoung of Eastbarns burned at the Castlehill                        519\n\n\nCHAPTER LXI.\n\nThe Demon of Jedburgh--An Apparition--Witch shot in the form\nof a Cat--Auldearne Witch--Sabbath Meetings with Satan--Farmer\nBreadley--Disinterring Unbaptised Children--Singularly-constructed\nPlough and Team--Attempt to shoot a Minister--Borrowstounness\nWitches--A Pittenweem Witch--An Unearthly Horse--Merciful View\nof a Witch's Case--A Perthshire Witch--Water of Ruthven Well--A\nChangeling                                                         524\n\n\nCHAPTER LXII.\n\nWitchcraft in Aberdeen--Dean of Guild rewarded for his Diligence in\nburning Witches--Expense of burning Witches--The Marquis of Huntly's\nDesire to punish Witches--Action of the Presbytery anent Witches--Man\nunder the Protection of the Fairy Queen--Strathdown Witches--Riding on\nBrooms--Crossing the Spey in Riddles--Disappearance of Witches--Madge\nM'Donald of Tomintoul--Witches' Pool--A Mountain Tale--Girl\ncontrolling the Elements--Witch Burned--Caithness Witches--One of the\nEvil Sisterhood--Investigation by the Sheriff--Margaret\nNin-Gilbert--Helen Andrew--Shetland Witches--An Orkney Lady--Mary\nLamont of Innerkip                                                 529\n\n\nCHAPTER LXIII.\n\nNeither Police nor Medical Men much required in Olden\nTimes--Instrument of Torture--Torture declared Illegal--Berkly\nWitch--Attempt on the Life of Edward II.--Master John of\nNottingham--Escape of Coventry Necromancers from Justice--Rutland\nFamily bewitched--A Pendle Witch--Strange Narrative--Essex\nWitches--Witches of Northamptonshire--Bullet-proof Witch--Drawing\nBlood above the Temples--Anne Bodenham foretelling how a Law Plea\nwould be decided--Strange Proceedings--Discovering Concealed\nPoison--Performing Spirits--Ride to London through the Air--Impenitent\nWitch                                                              538\n\n\nCHAPTER LXIV.\n\nPaying Blackmail to Witches--Demon of Tedworth--A Persecuted Family\nprayed for--Unaccountable Sounds and Sights--Drummer found guilty of\nSorcery--Raising Storms--A Wizard in Cromwell's Army--Aldermen's\nChildren bewitched--Man kissed to Death--Witch unable to say the\nLord's Prayer--A Taunton Witch--Bewitched Cattle--Mode of discovering\na Witch--Selling a Soul to the Devil--Witch Executed--A Song of the\nSeventeenth Century                                                547\n\n\nCHAPTER LXV.\n\nElizabeth Style's Confession--Signing a Covenant with Blood--Alice\nDuke, Anne Bishop, and Mary Penny--Somerset Witches--Running backwards\nround a Church--Compact with Satan--Accusation against Sarah\nMorduck--A Judge's Opinion of Witchcraft--Supposed Sufferer from\nWitchcraft prayed for in the Church, and a Subscription raised for\nhim--Falsely accusing a Woman of Witchcraft--Witch and Stolen\nPlate--Charm for Sore Eyes--Flames issuing from a Bewitched Person's\nMouth--Tormenting a Witch--Jane Wenham's Witchcrafts and Trial--The\nlast Persons who suffered in England for Witchcraft--List of Persons\nwho suffered as Witches                                            552\n\n\nCHAPTER LXVI.\n\nScotchmen and Englishmen in America--Superstition in the Back\nSettlements--Witchcraft in New England--Rev. Cotton Mather's View\nof Witchcraft--Judges and Witnesses overawed by Witches--Bewitched\nPersons prayed for--Trial of Susan Martin--Absurd Evidence--Witchcraft\nin Sweden--Commission of Inquiry--Day of Humiliation appointed\non account of Witchcraft--Threescore and Ten Witches in a\nVillage--Children engaged in Witchery put to Death--The Devil bound\nwith an Iron Chain--An Angel's Warning Voice--Witch assaulting\nMinisters--Witches' Imps--Butter of Witches--Witches Punished--Horse\nBurned                                                             558\n\n\nCHAPTER LXVII.\n\nSuperstition in France--Pope John XXII. celebrated in the History\nof Sorcery and Magic--A Bishop skinned alive and torn by Horses\nfor Witchcraft--King Philippe and Superstition--Extracting Teeth\nwithout Pain--Berne Witch--Sorcerers in Navarre--Demoniacal\nOperations--Witches meeting their Deserts--Maria Renata's\nWitchcrafts--Nuns possessed of Devils--Jeanne D'Arc--Credulity of\nFrance and England--Fairies of Domremi--Charmed Tree--Sparkling\nSpring--Jeanne's Heavenly Mission--Maid at the head of Troops--Her\nAchievements--Siege of Orleans--Great Victories--Dauphin\nCrowned--Heroine Betrayed--Charmed Sword--Jeanne's Surrender--King's\nIngratitude--Great Rejoicing at the Maid's Downfall--Attempt to\nEscape--Trial and Condemnation--Maid Burned--A White Dove rising from\nher Ashes                                                          564\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nSUPERSTITION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.\n\n\nCHAPTER LXVIII.\n\nGenerality of Superstition--The Church and Superstition--St.\nMourie--Various Modes of Superstition--Charms--Lucky and Unlucky\nTimes--Sailors' and Fishermen's Delusions--Weddings, Funerals,\nand Baptisms--Spae-wives--May Dew--Holy-days--Kirk-session\nRecords--Fort-William Fisherman--Dipping in Fountains--Lochmanur--Holy\nWell of Kilvullen--Well of Craiguck--Superstition in the\nHighlands--Warlock Willox--Superstition in Dundee                  572\n\n\nCHAPTER LXIX.\n\nGhost at Sea--Ghosts in Edinburgh--Fear of Ghosts in\nGlasgow--Fortune-telling--Choice of Lovers, how decided--Irish\nStory--How a Ghost settled a Land Question--Prophecy respecting\nthe Argyll Family--Yetholm Gipsies--Curses--Superstition among\nFishermen--Superstition among Seamen--Providing for the Dead--A\nWarning--Blood Stains--Hallow-e'en at Balmoral--Faith in Dreams,\netc.                                                               583\n\n\nCHAPTER LXX.\n\nLizzie M'Gill, the Fifeshire Spae-wife--Predicting a Storm--Servants\nalarmed--Prediction fulfilled--Adam Donald, an Aberdeenshire\nProphet--His Predictions and Cures--His Marriage--The Wise Woman of\nKincardineshire--The Recruiting Sergeant--High-spirited Lady--Charmed\nRing and its Effects--Elopement and Marriage--An Enraged Father--Life\nin America--Strong-minded Women                                    597\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXI.\n\nSuperstition at Chelmsford--Woman Bewitched--Old Zadkiel--Incantation\nin Somerset--Turning the Bible and Key--Woman assuming the form of a\nHare--Ruling the Stars--Superstition in London--How to preserve Children\nfrom Disease--Dreams fulfilled--Virtue of Holly and Ivy--Legend\nconcerning the Tichborne Family--Romantic Divorce Case             608\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXII.\n\nSpiritualism--Spiritualism not a new Delusion--Phantoms at\na _Seance_--Juggling of a Medium--Unsuccessful Effort at a\nVulgar Deception--Spiritualists Exposed--A Medium's Deception\ndiscovered--Foolish Exhibitions--Russian Peasants and their House\nSpirits--Spirits' Care over Persons and Property--Death, Pestilence,\nWar, and other Evils foretold by Spirits--A Suggestion             622\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXIII.\n\nSuperstition in Roman Catholic Countries--Miracle-working\nImages, etc.--Image paying Homage to the Virgin Mary--Madonnas\nat Trastevere--Miraculous Cures--Superstitious Ceremony at\nDieppe--Blessing the Neva--Superstitious Belief of Napoleon's\nMother--Trust in Amulets--Zulu Superstition--Witchcraft forbidden\nby Great Britain--Eating Fetish--Superstition among the\nAshantees--Endeavour to prevent the Advance of the British\nArmy--Shah of Persia's Talismans--Indian Princes consulting\nFortune-tellers--Procuring Rain in India--Mysterious Lights on\nthe River St. Lawrence--The Queen of Hearts--Superstition in\nAmerica--Superstitious Artists--Hogarth's last Picture, \"The\nEnd of all Things\"                                                 629\n\n\n\n\nTHE RISE AND PROGRESS OF SUPERSTITION.\n\n\nCHAPTER I.\n\n      Rise and Progress of Superstition--The Serpent--Cain's\n      Departure from the true Worship--Worship of the Sun,\n      Moon, and Stars--Strange Story of Abraham--The Gods of\n      Antiquity--Ether, Air, Land, and Water filled with\n      living Souls--Guardian Angel--Cause of the\n      Flood--Magic--How the Jews deceived the Devil--A Witch\n      not permitted to live--Diviners, Enchanters,\n      Consulters with familiar Spirits and Necromancers\n      proved a Snare to Nations--Charms worn by the\n      Jews--Singular Customs and\n      Belief--Prognostication--Allegorical Emblems--Marriage\n      Customs--Divers Ceremonies at Death and\n      Burials--Divination among all Nations--Observers of\n      Times--Opinion concerning the Celestial Bodies--Power\n      of Witches--Wizards--Necromancers' Power to call up\n      the Dead.\n\n\nSuperstition has prevailed in every generation and country in the\nworld. There are people who think that even Adam and Eve were tainted\nwith this hateful delusion, and that their offspring of the second\ngeneration entertained opinions opposed to true religion. That man,\nsoon after the Creation, became acquainted with and yielded to the\ndoctrine of devils, scarcely admits of doubt. Those who conversed with\nour first parents must have learned from them the circumstances\nconnected with the temptation, fall, and expulsion from the Garden of\nEden. It is not unreasonable, then, to suppose that the serpent was\nlooked upon at an early period as something more than an ordinary\nearthly reptile. One can imagine Adam and Eve, when wandering in\nperplexity and fear, after their first great sin, starting at the\nsight of a serpent,--not being certain whether they beheld a reptile\nof flesh merely, or looked upon their old enemy that had betrayed them\nin their days of innocency. If they looked with suspicion on the\nserpent, it is natural to suppose that their children would learn to\nview this creeping animal as a creature endowed with supernatural\npowers, by which it could bring about evil, and perhaps good.\n\nCain, there is reason to conclude, departed from the true worship of\nthe Most High before his offering was refused, and ere he dipped his\nhands in his brother's blood. In Genesis iv. 26 there is an\nimplication that man had forsaken the right and holy religion prior to\nthe days of Seth. There is an opinion that men soon began to worship\nthe sun, moon, and stars, and that subsequently they paid homage to\nobjects which contributed to their preservation and to things that\nmight do them injury. The wandering Jew, Benjamin, one of the greatest\ntravellers in the East, gives an interesting account of solar worship\nin early times. The posterity of Cush, he tells us, were addicted to\nthe contemplation of the stars, and worshipped the sun as a god. Their\ntowns were filled with altars dedicated to this orb. At early morn the\npeople rose, and ran out of the cities to await the rising sun, to\nwhich on every altar there was a consecrated image, not in the\nlikeness of a man, but after the fashion of the solar orb, formed by\nmagic art. These artificial orbs, as soon as the sun rose, took fire,\nand resounded with a great noise, to the joy of the deluded devotees.\n\nMany Jewish doctors have condescended upon the precise time when man\nbegan to commit idolatry, and they name Enos as the first\nstar-worshipper. Arabian divines tell a story of Abraham being brought\nup in a dark cave, and at his first coming forth he was so much struck\nwith the appearance of the sun, moon, and stars, that he worshipped\nthem; and there are people who imagine that in the Book of Job they\ndiscover evidence of the heavenly host being adored in the time of the\nold patriarch of Uz.\n\nSome suppose that all the gods of antiquity were Egyptian kings,\nothers that they were Thessalian princes, others that they were Jewish\npatriarchs; while not a few are of opinion that they were kings of the\nseveral countries where they were worshipped. It has been supposed\nthat Saturn represented Adam; Rhea, Eve; Jupiter, Cain; Prometheus,\nAbel; Apollo, Lamech; Mercury, Jabal; Bacchus, Noah; and Phaeton,\nElias. Others imagine that Saturn came in place of Noah; Pluto, of\nSem; Neptune, of Japheth; Bacchus, of Nimrod; and Apollo, of Phut. A\nthird class of thinkers maintain that all the heathen gods centre in\nMoses, and the goddesses in Zipporah his wife, or in Miriam his\nsister. A fourth class hold that Saturn was Abraham; Rhea, Sarah;\nCeres, Keturah; Pallas, Hagar; Jupiter, Isaac; Juno, Rebecca; Pluto,\nIshmael; Typhon, Jacob; and Venus, Rachel. Such are examples of\nimaginary resemblances between real and fictitious persons or gods\nthat never had any existence except in the minds of fanatical\nromancers and a deluded people, whose faith was kept alive by\ndeception and artifice.\n\nIt was an early belief that ether, air, land, and water were full of\nliving spirits; and people believed, soon after man was created, that\nthe souls of just men, subsequent to death, had part of the universe\ncommitted to them. This opinion being once established, assistance was\nsought from the spirits of departed men and women, and efforts were\nmade in various ways to secure their favour. In course of time altars\nwere set up, temples consecrated, and sometimes victims offered to\nobtain favour from spirits and false gods. Some rabbis affirmed that\nthe angel Raziel was Adam's master, and taught him the Cabbala; and\nthat Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Elias, etc. had each\nhis guardian angel, who directed his thoughts and actions. Jewish\ndoctors assign to magic great antiquity; they assert that it was known\nto those who lived before the Flood. There is a tradition that one of\nthe causes of the Flood was the intercourse men had with demons.\nThough it has been stated by ancient historians that Abraham was given\nto magic, and that he taught it to his children, Josephus (obviously\noverlooking what had been written prior to his time, and forgetting\nwhat Moses had seen performed by the Egyptian priests before Pharaoh)\nthinks Solomon was the first who practised this art. The Jewish\nhistorian gives credit to the \"wisest man\" for inventing and\ntransmitting to posterity certain incantations for the cure of\ndiseases, and for the expulsion of evil spirits from the bodies of\nthose possessed with such demons. According to Josephus, the expulsion\nwas brought about by the use of a certain root sealed up in a wrapper,\nand held under the afflicted person's nose while the name of Solomon\nand words prescribed by him were pronounced. The learned historian\ndoes not seem to doubt the wonderful power of Solomon, but rather\nadvances statements corroborative of what he had heard, for he asserts\nthat he himself was an eye-witness to a like cure effected, by equally\nmysterious means, on a person named Eleazar in presence of the Emperor\nVespasian. Descendants of Abraham believed that their great ancestor\nwore round his neck a precious stone, the sight of which cured every\nkind of disease.\n\nSuppose we set aside these assertions as fables, we cannot deny that\nthe Jews were at an early period addicted to magical arts. This\npropensity, there can be no doubt, whenever first manifested, was\nincreased through the Hebrews' intercourse with the inhabitants of\nEgypt, Syria, and Chaldea.\n\nJews, who professed to work wonders by enchantments, gave directions\nhow to select and combine passages and proper names of Scripture that\nwould render supernatural beings visible, and bring about many\nsurprising results. The sacred word Jehovah, they said, when read with\npoints, multiplied by or added to a given number of letters, and\ncomposed into certain words, produced miraculous effects. By that\nsacred name and strange arrangements, their prophets, they thought,\nperformed miracles. The devil was supposed to have the power of\naccusing mortal man at the great day of propitiation, so the Jews\nendeavoured to appease him with presents. They believed that on that\nday only he had the power to bring a charge against them, and\ntherefore, to deceive him, they had recourse to a singular stratagem.\nIn reading the accustomed portion of the law, they left out the\nbeginning and the end,--an omission which was expected to cause Satan\nto overlook the important time. Those versed in magic could tell that\nthe five Hebrew letters of which the devil's name was composed\nconstituted the number 364, during which number of days he could not\naccuse them; and in some way or other unknown to us, in addition to\nthe plan of mutilating the law, they kept his mouth shut year after\nyear.\n\nWe find from the Holy Scriptures, that a witch was not permitted to\nlive,--that there should not be found among the Hebrews any that used\ndivination, an enchanter, a charmer, a consulter with familiar\nspirits, nor a necromancer, because the abominations of these\nmischievous people proved a snare to the nations that were driven out\nbefore the Israelites. Various opinions have been expressed regarding\nthe witch of Endor. Parties are not agreed as to whether she did or\ndid not bring up Samuel before Saul; but into their disputes it is\nunnecessary for us to enter. All that we mean to draw from the\nnarrative is, that if the King of Israel had recourse to a witch in\nhis hour of perplexity, superstition must have been general in the\nnation.\n\nReligiously disposed Jews wore upon their arms and foreheads two\npieces of parchment containing the ten commandments. These charms, or\nemblems of sanctity, or whatever they were called, were not allowed to\nbe worn by women or by men when they went to a funeral or approached a\ndead body.\n\nThe Jews confessed their sins to their rabbis, and the penance or\npunishment was commensurate with their guilt. It was not uncommon for\nJewish devotees to lash themselves, but the number of stripes did not\nat any time exceed thirty-nine. During the flagellation the penitent\nlay on the ground with his head to the north and his feet to the\nsouth, and it would have been considered profane to look to the east\nor west while the chastisement was being inflicted. A Jew would as\nsoon have eaten swine's flesh as look to the east or west while he was\nin a bath. Offenders were sometimes cursed in addition to their other\npunishments; hence, it is presumed, the more modern recourse to curses\nor denunciations. A doomed or cursed individual was consigned to the\npower of evil angels, and prayers were offered up that he might be\ntormented in life with every disease, and afterwards cast into eternal\ndarkness.\n\nAt the commencement of the Jewish Sabbath, half an hour before sunset\non Friday, every Jew was bound to have his lamp lighted, though he\nshould beg the oil. The women were required to light the lamps in\nmemory of Eve, who by her disobedience extinguished the light of the\nworld. Every Hebrew was obliged to pare his nails on Friday, beginning\nwith the little finger of the left hand, and then going to the middle\nfinger, after which he returned to the fourth finger, and then to the\nthumb and fore finger. In cutting the nails of the fingers of the\nright hand, he began with the middle finger, then proceeded to the\nthumb, and after that took the fore finger, the middle and fourth\nfingers, in the order stated. The parings were either buried or\nburned. The Hebrews believed that the sounding of a consecrated horn\ndrove away the devil.\n\nA curious custom prevailed among them in early times. The father of a\nfamily took a white cock, and each of his wives selected a hen, but\nsuch of them as were expectant mothers took both a cock and a hen.\nWith these fowls they struck their heads twice, and at every blow the\nhead of the family said, \"Let this cock stand in my room; he shall\ndie, but I shall live.\" Having said this, the neck of the fowl was\ndrawn and its throat cut; and either the dead fowl, or its value in\nmoney, was given to the poor. In the evening previous to the feast of\nexpiation, a man wishing to pry into futurity carried a lighted candle\nto the synagogue, and from particular appearances of the flame he\nprognosticated whether good was to follow him and his, or whether he\nand his family were to be overtaken by evil.\n\nAt their great feasts of tents or tabernacles (observed in memory of\ntheir living in tents in the wilderness) the Israelites went from\ntheir tents to the synagogue every day during the feast, bearing in\ntheir right hands branches of palms, myrtle, and willows, and in their\nleft hands branches of citron. When they reached the synagogue, they\nturned the branches first to the east, then to the south, next to the\nwest, and lastly to the north. These ceremonies were allegorical: the\npalm was an emblem of hypocrisy, the myrtle pointed to good works, the\nwillow represented the wicked, and the citron the righteous. At\nmarriages, while the young persons present held torches in their hands\nand sang the marriage song, the bride walked three times round the\nbridegroom, and he in turn walked thrice round her. In some\ncountries--Germany and Holland, for instance--the guests threw\nhandfuls of corn at the young wedded pair, telling them to \"increase\nand multiply.\" The newly married people drank a little wine, and then\nemptied the cup on the floor. At the wedding repast a roasted hen and\nan egg were presented to the bride, who, after partaking of them,\ndistributed the remainder to the guests. The hen had reference to the\nfruitfulness of the bride, and her delivery in childbirth.\n\nThe thumbs of a dead Jew were tied down close to the palms of his\nhands, to preserve the deceased from the devil's clutches. While the\nbody was being washed, an egg was put into a glass of wine, and the\ndeceased's head anointed with the mixture. Those who were not\nreconciled to the departed, before his death, kissed his great toe and\nasked pardon, lest he should accuse them at the great tribunal before\nthe Most High. When the body was carried away for interment, a person,\nwho remained behind, threw a brick after it, as a sign that all sorrow\nwas past. The nearest friends or relations walked seven times round\nthe grave, after each of them had driven a nail into the coffin. Hence\nthe saying in our own time, when one signifies his willingness to do a\nfriend a favour or kindness, \"I will drive a nail into your coffin.\"\nWhen the body was put into the grave, every person present threw a\nhandful of earth in after it.\n\nOn important occasions the Hebrews, like Pagans, consulted diviners,\nwho had recourse to various ways of divination. In the days of Joseph\nthere was divination by cups, one particular manner of proceeding\nbeing to observe how their wine sparkled when poured out. Casting or\ndrawing of lots was a favourite method of divination, not only among\nthe Jews, but among all nations. Mention is made of divination by\nmeans of household gods or images in human shape, prepared by\nastrologers under particular constellations, and made capable of the\nheavenly influences. The rabbis, in making some of these images,\nkilled a man who was a first-born son, wrung off his head, seasoned it\nwith salt, spices, etc., and then put a gold plate, bearing the name\nof an unclean spirit, under the head, which was fixed to a wall, and\nhad candles burning beside it. The images were consulted as oracles\nconcerning things accomplished but unknown, and regarding events in\nthe future.\n\nAmong the Jews there were observers of times who laid great stress on\ncertain seasons and critical moments, which they supposed depended on\nparticular positions of the heavenly bodies. A learned rabbi expressed\nthe opinion that the celestial bodies rewarded persons who put\nconfidence in them, and that consequently men acted wisely to\nreverence the stars and implore their assistance. Guesses at\nfuturities were made from the falling of a crumb of bread out of one's\nmouth or a staff from a man's hand, from a person sneezing, or the\nbreaking of a shoe-latchet.\n\nThe Hebrew witches were supposed to possess the power of doing\nmischief to man and beast by their occult science, and of changing the\nform of things. Witches used their wicked skill to allure maidens.\nThrough magical operations, a Jew endeavoured long ago to procure the\nlove of a Christian woman, but she was preserved from the power of his\ncraft by sealing herself with the sign of the cross. It was an ancient\nway of enchantment, to bring, by the power of magic, various kinds of\nbeasts together into one place, which were designated as the \"great\ncongregation\" and the \"little congregation.\" The great congregation\nconsisted of many of the larger animals, and the lesser was made up of\nnumerous smaller creatures, such as serpents, scorpions, and the like.\nWizards were famous fortune tellers; they pretended to be the\ninterpreters of all the most important occurrences of the world.\nAccording to the Hebrew laws, the deceivers, and those who consulted\nthem, were liable to be stoned. Necromancers obtained a footing among\nthe Jews. Such wicked people were accustomed to fast, go to\nburying-places, and there lie down, fall asleep, and pretend that the\ndead appeared to them in dreams or otherwise, and told them what was\ndesired. They also pretended to call up the dead by means of certain\nfumes and particular words. In cases where the spirits of dead men\nwere obstinate and refused to appear or answer when summoned in the\nmore simple form, recourse was had to the burning of portions of black\ncats, or the still more cruel method of cutting up young boys and\nvirgins.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II.\n\n      Men endowed with Prophetic Spirits--The Jews forbidden\n      to consult the Oracles of the Heathen--Succession and\n      Schools of Prophets--Burial of Prophets--Influence of\n      Music--The Prophetic Mantle--Way through which\n      Revelations were made--Bath Kol--Urim and\n      Thummim--False Prophets Strangled or Stoned--How False\n      Prophets were discovered--Recourse to Diabolical\n      Art--Moloch--Seething a Kid in its Mother's Milk--The\n      Smooth Stones mentioned by Isaiah--Oil and Candles\n      supposed to possess peculiar Virtues--The Saint\n      entombed near the Barbary shore--Sheep-head and\n      Sheep-head Broth--Casting Sins into the Sea--Custom of\n      Fasting among the Pharisees--Dust of Heathen\n      Countries--The number 10--Angels that had the care of\n      Men--Souls of Dead Persons whispered with a feeble\n      Voice--Hebrew Women who predicted when one would\n      die--Punishment in the Grave by the Devil.\n\n\nEvery person who has read the Old Testament, knows that the Hebrews\nhad among them extraordinary men really endowed with prophetic\nspirits. The Jews were forbidden to consult the oracles of the heathen\nnations round about them, but they were permitted to consult their own\ntrue prophets concerning that which was concealed from ordinary\npersons. There was a constant succession of prophets, and there were\nschools where young persons aspiring to the office of a seer were\ninstructed. Over each of these institutions a venerable prophet\npresided. At first the scholars were not inspired, but received\nprophecies from the mouth of their master or president. At Jerusalem\nthere was one of these schools within the second wall of the city. So\ngreat respect was paid to the prophetic character, that none were\nsuffered to be buried in Jerusalem but kings, descendants of David,\nand prophets. Though old prophets could not inspire their young\nstudents, they improved their natural faculties, and taught them how\nto subdue irregular emotions that hindered inspiration. That the minds\nof the prophets might be the better disposed to receive the proper\nimpulses, instrumental music was used in their devotions; and it is\nreported that at certain of their musical meetings the young men\nbecame so elated, that they manifested poetical genius as well as a\nprophetic spirit. When a young prophet gave unequivocal evidence of\nbeing inspired, he was installed into office by having the prophetic\nmantle (made of lamb's skin) thrown over his shoulders. Subsequent to\ninauguration, a prophet wore hair-cloth next his skin, and had a\nleather girdle round his loins.\n\nThe general way through which revelations were made to them was in\ndreams and visions, or by immediate inspiration. Their dreams were\nsometimes, indeed generally, sent for instruction or admonition; and\nin the prophetic dreams a clear and distinct impression was left\nthrough a real or imaginary communication with an apparition. At times\nthe prophets had overpowering visions when awake, during which mighty\nrevelations were made to them. When prophetic revelations ceased, the\nJews had recourse to Bath Kol, that is, the Daughter of Voice, or the\nDaughter of a Voice, because it succeeded, they say, the Oracular\nVoice delivered from the Mercy Seat when Urim and Thummim was\nconsulted.\n\nThe prophetic spirit being so common among the Hebrews, it became\nnecessary to adopt a method to prevent false prophets from deceiving\nthe people. To deter men from pretending they possessed a prophetic\nspirit, a severe punishment for every such pretence was\nappointed,--strangling or stoning to death. The manner of trying a\nfalse prophet was this: the judgments threatened by a prophet, and the\ngood things predicted by him, were observed. If the judgments declared\nwere not fulfilled, it was not regarded as conclusive evidence against\nhim, because it might be that the punishments were for some wise\nreason averted; but if the promised good did not come to pass, the\npredictor was condemned as a deceiver and false prophet. If the words\nof a prophet were fulfilled in one or more particulars, but not in\nall, he was not deemed worthy of credence. When once one was\ncondemned as a false prophet, no interest was powerful enough to save\nhim from death.\n\nThe trial of prophets prescribed by the Mosaic law was intended to\nprevent impostors pretending to be prophets, and to save the people\nfrom being enticed by wicked deceivers into idolatry. In the time of\nMoses there were many who had recourse to diabolical arts. The\noblation of children to Moloch being frequently mentioned, together\nwith other diabolical and divinatory arts, reasons appear for\nsupposing there was something magical in such superstitious rites, and\nthat thereby people consulted demons about things future or secret.\nMoloch was the principal idol of the Ammonites, but other nations took\nthe same idol for their chief god; for it appears from Pagan records,\nthat the different nations were so very accommodating with their gods\nthat they lent them to one another. Moloch seems to have been the same\nas Baal, both names signifying dominion, or more particularly the sun,\nthe prince of the heavenly bodies.\n\nThere can be no doubt but the passage in the Old Testament, \"Thou\nshalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk,\" was a warning to the\nHebrews not to follow the example of the heathen in connection with\nthe payment by the latter of their first fruits. Dr. Cudworth, writing\non this subject, says that he learned from the comments of an ancient\nKaraite upon the Pentateuch, that a superstitious rite prevailed among\nthe ancient idolators, of seething a kid in his mother's milk when\nthey had gathered in all their first fruits, and sprinkling the trees\nand fields with the broth, after a magical manner, to make them more\nfruitful in the following year. Spencer also observes that the Zabii\nused this kind of magical broth to sprinkle their trees and gardens,\nin hope of obtaining a plentiful crop.\n\nThe smooth stones mentioned by Isaiah, to which meat offerings were\noffered and drink offerings poured out, were anointed stones in the\nstreets, on which passengers poured on them oil from phials; but what\nadvantages were to result from the custom we are not fully informed.\nOil and candles were believed by the ancients to possess peculiar\nvirtues. Oil was often burned in honour of the dead; and the\nAlgerines, when on the water, tied bundles of wax candles together,\nand, with a pot of oil, threw them overboard as a present to the\nsaint, entombed near the Barbary shore, whom they regarded as their\nprotector. We believe few who partake of sheep-head or sheep-head\nbroth know that it is, or was, a custom with the Jews to serve up\nsheep-head on New Year's Day at their chief entertainment, as a\nmystical representation of the ram offered in sacrifice instead of\nIsaac. When a family or company sat down to this repast, each person\ntook a piece of bread, and, dipping it in honey, said, \"May this year\nbe sweet and fruitful.\" The Jews, to cast their sins into the depth of\nthe sea, sometimes went after dinner to the brink of a pond, if not\nnear the sea, and threw into the water a live fish, in the hope that\nit would carry away all their iniquities, never more to be found.\n\nIt was customary among the Pharisees not only to fast twice a week (on\nMonday and Thursday), but at periods of perplexity to fast thirteen\ndays consecutively. Sometimes, on account of such small trifles as\ndreams, they would abstain from food; but severe drought, pestilence,\nfamine, war, and inundations were sure to make them fast until nature\nwas nearly exhausted. The Hebrews held certain views and followed\nparticular customs with respect to the dust of heathen countries. Dust\nthat came from Gentile lands was reckoned so defiling, that the Jewish\nrulers would not permit vegetables to be brought from heathen\ncountries into the land of Israel, lest the detested particles should\nbe brought along with them. The number 10 was much noticed and used by\nthe Jews. The blessing of the bridegroom, which consisted of seven\nblessings, was of no avail unless delivered in the presence of ten\npersons. Angels, which were believed to have the care of men, were\nsupposed to ride unseen, on white horses, beside the objects of their\nattention.\n\nAmong the Jews there was a popular notion that the spirits of dead\npersons whispered in a feeble and peculiar way out of the dust; and it\nwas a common belief that the soul had no rest unless the body was\ninterred. There were women among the Hebrews who predicted how long\none would live, and pretended to know when he was to die. One of a\nJew's solemn prayers on the day of expiation was that he might be\ndelivered from the punishment of the devil in his grave,--a punishment\nsupposed to be inflicted by causing the soul to return to the body,\nbreaking the deceased's bones, and tormenting both soul and body for a\nseason. A similar form of prayer was used by the Mohammedans.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III.\n\n      Egypt steeped in Superstition--Power of Magicians--Way\n      of obtaining Visions--Demons--Deification of Departed\n      Heroes--Gods and Demi-gods--Altars or Living\n      Stones--Sacred Animals--Isis searching for\n      Osiris--Leeks and Onions--Priests were Physicians and\n      Interpreters of Oracles--Sacrificing Human\n      Victims--Wax Figures--Magic--Teaching of the Egyptian\n      Priests--Transmigration--Character of Men judged of\n      after Death.\n\n\nEgypt was a country steeped in superstition. The people believed in\nsorcery, magic, and enchantments; and there is the fullest evidence in\nthe sacred pages that the Egyptian magicians were able to perform\ndexterous feats that were truly surprising. Astronomy was studied with\na view to success in astrology, as the latter was a science much\nesteemed, and very lucrative. Public or state astrologers were\nconsulted in cases of emergencies. None dared to practise astrology,\nmagic, sorcery, or any of the various modes of divination unless\nauthorised by a master in the art, before whom he had \"spread the\ncarpet\" for prayer. To procure sublime visions, seers shut themselves\nup for a long time, without food or water, in a dark place, and prayed\naloud until they fainted. While in a swoon, strange visions appeared\nto them, and revelations made which sometimes filled the nation with\ngladness, and at other times spread mourning over the country. In\nadvanced ages, as well as in early times, men believed there were a\nmultitude of subordinate spirits, as ministers, to execute the behests\nof the supreme sovereign. To these spirits were committed the\nsuperintendence of all the different parts of nature, and their bodies\nwere imagined to be composed of that particular element in which they\nresided. Altars were built in the midst of groves, where the spirits\nwere supposed to assemble. Gratitude and admiration tended to the\ndeification of departed heroes and other eminent persons. This\nprobably gave rise to the belief of national and tutelar gods, as well\nas the practice of worshipping gods through the medium of statues cut\ninto human form. At one time demi-gods gradually rose in the scale of\ndivinities until they occupied the places of the heavenly bodies.\nThus, following ancient hyperbole, a king, for his beneficence, was\ncalled the sun, and a queen, for her beauty, was styled the moon. As\nthis adulation advanced into an established worship, the compliment\nwas reversed by calling planets or luminaries after heroes. And to\nrender the subject more reconcilable to reason, the Eastern priests\ntaught that the early founders of states and inventors of arts were\ndivine intelligences, clothed with human bodies. When celestial\ndivinities disappeared or were obscured from observation, men had\nrecourse to symbols of a temporary nature that produced fire. Altars\nof stone were built and consecrated in the name of the divinity whom\nit was intended to represent. Such altars were called animated or\nliving stones, from a belief that a portion of divine spirit resided\nin them, and the prayers and praises offered up before them were\nthought to be as acceptable as if addressed to the gods themselves.\nThat those altars or stones might be as near as possible to the\nobjects of worship represented, they were generally placed on the tops\nof mountains, or, in flat countries like Egypt, on high structures,\nthe works of men's hands. Many have attributed the building of the\npyramids to the worship of gods; but whether that was the purpose to\nwhich those majestic structures, that have puzzled learned men, were\ndevoted, we shall not venture to say. This, however, is certain that,\nthroughout the East, altars, statues, and pillars were erected for\nsuperstitious purposes upon mountains and other high places.\n\nHerodotus informs us that the ancient Egyptians were the first people\nwho gave names to their gods. Of Osiris, Isis, and the many other gods\nand sacred animals that were worshipped in Egypt, we shall say little\nat this part of our subject. The bull, it is well known, was one of\nthe most sacred animals. The priests affirmed that Apis was of divine\norigin, the cow that produced him having been impregnated with holy\nfire. Dogs, the Egyptians said, deserved homage because they guided\nIsis when she searched for the body of Osiris. She, it may be\nremembered, sought for the precious remains with true pertinacity till\nshe found them. To accomplish her purpose, she found it necessary to\ntransform herself into a swallow, to dry up the river Ph[oe]drus, and\nto kill with her glances the eldest son of a king. Her tears were\nsupposed to cause the inundation of the Nile. At times she had the\nhead of a cow, which identified her with the cow of whom the sun was\nborn. The hawk was deified because one of these birds brought to the\npriests of Thebes a book, tied round with a scarlet thread, containing\nthe rites and ceremonies to be observed in the worship of the gods.\nThe wolf was adored because Osiris arose in the shape of that animal\nfrom the infernal regions, and assisted Isis and her son Horus to\nbattle against Typhon. The cat was revered as an emblem of the moon,\nfor its various spots, fruitfulness, and activity in the night. The\ngoat (which, by the by, is said to be absent from the earth and\npresent with Satan a part of every twenty-four hours of the day, and\ncan never be seen from sunrise to sunrise without being lost sight of\nfor a longer or shorter time) was honoured as the representation of\nmanhood in full vigour, and was worshipped, from gratitude to the\ngods, for multiplying the people of the country. The crocodile was\nalso advanced to the dignity of a god. If one killed any of the sacred\nanimals designedly, he was put to death,--if involuntarily, his\npunishment was referred to the priests; but if a man killed a hawk, a\ncat, or an ibis, whether designedly or not, he died without mercy.\nDuring a severe famine, when the Egyptians became cannibals, not one\nof them was known to have tasted the sacred animals.\n\nAll revered animals were kept at great expense, and when they died\ncostly funerals took place. When the Apis died at Memphis, in the\nreign of Ptolemy the son of Lagus, his funeral cost not less than\n\u00a313,000 sterling. When a cat died, the family it belonged to expressed\ngreat grief, and prayed and fasted several days. In cases of fire,\nmore care was taken to preserve the feline animals than the most\nvaluable property in the house. Dead cats, which were almost\ninvariably embalmed, were sometimes carried from remote parts to be\ninterred in the city of Bubastis, and hawks and moles were buried with\ngreat solemnity at Butos, even though they should have died in foreign\ncountries. Juvenal mentions that leeks and onions were objects of\nworship, and others say that the lotus was also sacred in various\nparts of the East. The priests were both physicians and interpreters\nof oracles; they carefully observed the phenomena of nature, and\nregistered every uncommon occurrence. From such observations, they\ncalculated the results of other events of similar nature. Hence arose\nthe practice of divination, and afterwards that of dispensing oracles.\nOracles were erected in every part of Egypt. Even the sacred animals\nhad their several oracles. The Apis was consulted by observing into\nwhich of his chambers he entered. By a certain principle understood,\nthe omen was regarded as foretelling good or evil.\n\nThe barbarous custom of sacrificing human victims was long in force in\nEgypt, and prevailed down to the reign of Amasis, by whom it was\nabolished. Not to give too severe a shock to the superstitious\nfeelings of the people, wax figures, representing human beings, were\npermitted to be substituted for the living mortals. These customs\nwere, no doubt, what sorcerers and witches imitated at their midnight\nfeasts in after ages, and which led old women to imagine that, by\nmaking wax images of those whom they intended to injure, and sticking\nsharp instruments into them at one time, and at another time exposing\nthem to a scorching heat before a fire, they would wreak their\nvengeance upon the individuals whom the figures represented. We have\nit from more than one learned writer, that the cruel and gloomy\nworship of Egypt arose from a belief that Typhon was labouring\nincessantly to counteract the happiness of mankind. He was considered\nto be greedy and voracious, and that it was necessary to glut his\naltars with blood in order to appease his anger.\n\nMagic was a science in which the Egyptians excelled. Its attainment\nwas esteemed the highest exertion of human intellect. Some imagined\nthat the invention of magic exceeded human invention, and they\npretended that the angel who fell in love with the antediluvian women\ntaught it, and that the principles thereof were preserved by Ham after\nthe Deluge, and that he communicated them to his son Mizraim; but\nothers ascribed the invention to Hermes. Without either admitting or\ndenying these assertions, we can have no hesitation in stating that\nmuch of our superstition may be traced back to Egyptian religion and\ncustoms, and that the singular belief of the Egyptians was general,\nand long anterior to the time Jacob and his sons went down to that\ncountry.\n\nThe Egyptian priests, taking advantage of the people's credulity,\ntaught that the sun, moon, and whole host of heaven were endowed with\nintelligence, and exerted an influence over the destinies of men; and\nthey (the priests) pretended to work miracles, and obtain oracles and\nomens. They also laid claim to the power of interpreting dreams.\n\nThe Egyptians believed that the souls of men went into other bodies at\ndeath,--such as had been virtuous going into exalted bodies, but the\nvicious passing into mean reptiles and other contemptible creatures.\nAfter remaining in a state of punishment for a certain number of\nyears, they were supposed to pass into more exalted beings. Praise was\nnot bestowed indiscriminately upon every person who died, however\nexalted his position. Characters were given by judges, after inquiry\ninto the life and conduct of the deceased. The judges sat on the\nopposite side of a lake; and while they crossed the lake, he who sat\nat the helm was called Charon, which gave rise to the fable among the\nGreeks, that Charon conducted the souls of deceased persons into the\ninfernal regions.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV.\n\n      Babylon--The Chaldeans were Priests, Philosophers,\n      Astronomers, Astrologers, and Soothsayers--Downfall of\n      Babylon predicted--Worship of the Medes and\n      Persians--Devils confined in an Egg--Sacred Fire--The\n      Gaures--Births and Deaths in Early Times--A narrow\n      Bridge--An immense Tree--Creation of Prophets--A Stone\n      to which Abraham tied his Camel--Adam and Eve's\n      Trysting Place--Black Art--Ways of discovering whether\n      a supposed Criminal was Guilty or Innocent--Looking\n      into Futurity--Canaanites, Syrians, and\n      Arabians--Strange Fables--Abraham breaking Heathen\n      Idols--Worship of the Egyptian Thorn--Altars--Religion\n      of the Carthagenians and Tyrians--Supremacy of the\n      Gods.\n\n\nThe great city of Babylon owed its origin to the ambition of the proud\npeople who built the tower of Babel. In course of time Babylon rose to\ngreat grandeur, but superstition became so prevalent that it proved a\nsnare to the inhabitants. Like the heathen around, they worshipped\nfire and images. The Babylonians pretended to great skill in\nastrology, soothsaying, and magic. The Chaldeans, so called in a\nstrict sense, were a society of pretenders to learning, priests,\nphilosophers, astrologers, and soothsayers, who, it is said, dwelt in\na region by themselves, and the rest of the people were called\nBabylonians. While Babylon was in its glory, prophets predicted that\ndreadful judgments would befall it. And so it happened. On the very\nnight the destruction came, the king, alarmed by the mysterious\nhandwriting on the wall, consulted his magicians; and Daniel, who had\nbeen made master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and\nsoothsayers, made known the sad end of Belshazzar and his kingdom.\n\nThe Medes and Persians worshipped the sun, fire, water, the earth, the\nwinds, and deities without number. Human sacrifices, as in other\nidolatrous countries, were offered by them, and they burned their\nchildren in fiery furnaces appropriated to their idols. At first the\ngods they worshipped were Arimanius, the god of evil, and Oromasdes,\nthe giver of all good. Plutarch says that Oromasdes created several\ninferior gods or genii, and that Arimanius created many devils. The\nformer also created twenty-four devils, and enclosed them in an egg;\nbut the latter broke the egg, and by that means let out the demons,\nand created a mixture of good and evil. The religion of the Persians\nunderwent a variety of revolutions. Temples were built for the worship\nof fire, prior to which Magian priests kept the sacred fire burning on\nmountain tops under considerable difficulties. They fed it with wood\nstripped of the bark; they were prohibited from blowing the fire with\ntheir breath or with bellows, lest it should be polluted. Had one done\neither, he would have been punished with death. The Jews had the real\nfire from heaven, and the Magi pretended to have received theirs from\nthe upper regions likewise.\n\nThe Gaures held that the earth was inhabited at first by two persons.\nThey had a tradition that Eve brought twins into the world every day,\nand that for one thousand years death had no power over her seed. They\nbelieved that a select company of angels were appointed guardians of\nmankind, but that, notwithstanding this, evil increased: men grew\nwicked and perverse in their ways, and therefore the deluge was sent\nto sweep them away. The Gaures had their guardian angels for every\nmonth and day throughout the year, and to them they devoted their\nprayers. New Year's Day was a high day with them, and they had a great\nmany lucky and unlucky days.\n\nThe Persians hold that at the last judgment every man must pass along\na bridge no wider than a razor's edge; that the unbelievers and the\nwicked will certainly in their passage fall into hell, there to be for\never and ever tormented; but that the faithful shall be so guided and\nsupported that they shall pass the bridge swifter than a bird can fly\nthrough the air, and enter into paradise, and seat themselves on the\nbanks of the river of delight, which, they say, is shaded by a tree\nof such immense size, that if a man were to ride forty thousand years,\nhe would not pass the extent of one of its leaves. In Persia it was a\ncommon belief that there were many prophets living between the days of\nAdam and Mohammed, who were created before the world was made. Their\nprophets, according to history, were possessed of the power of working\nmiracles; and charms and amulets were common in the country.\n\nPilgrims who went to Mecca invariably kissed a black stone, regarding\nwhich there is a curious legend: Abraham, we are informed, tied his\ncamel to this stone when he went to sacrifice Ishmael, for the\nMohammedans represent Hagar as Abraham's lawful wife, and Ishmael his\nheir. There is another tradition, that when Abraham was about to build\nthe Kaaba, held in great veneration, the stones marched thither of\nthemselves ready hewn and polished, and that the black stone, being\nleft out when the building was completed, demanded of Abraham why it\nhad not been used in the sacred structure. The prophet told the stone\nnot to be disappointed, for he would cause it to be more honoured than\nany stone in the building, by commanding all the faithful to kiss it\nas they went in procession. The faithful people were wont to meet at\nthe place which they supposed was Adam and Eve's trysting place after\nthe expulsion, for it is related in one of their legends that the\nfirst man and woman wandered about the world, separately, hundreds of\nyears after the Fall.\n\nThe Persians were extremely addicted to the study and practice of the\nblack art and all magical incantations, supposing that by such\nmysterious operations they could influence the elements and all the\nproducts of nature. When any one was suspected to have died an\nunnatural death, the surviving relatives consulted spirits, with the\nview of discovering the cause of it. Sometimes the relatives alleged\nthat a spell had been cast on the spirits consulted, which prevented\ntheir giving answers to interrogatories. In that case, magicians were\nemployed to remove the fascination. A suspected murderer was submitted\nto a severe ordeal:--A particular liquid was poured upon the arm or\nthigh of the unfortunate person; but before the fluid was used it was\nboiled, while the supposed criminal's name was repeatedly mentioned.\nThe moment the liquid began to boil, they commenced to address their\nimaginary spirits in the following terms: \"Is the party on whom I pour\nthis water guilty or not? If he is, may it scald him and shrivel up\nhis skin.\" If the application of the boiling liquid did not injure the\nsuspected person he was declared innocent, but if it burned him he was\npronounced guilty. People anxious to know the result of approaching\nwarlike engagements put a vessel full of water, mixed with particular\ningredients, over a fire. As soon as the water commenced to boil they\nperformed magical incantations, which, as they imagined, irresistibly\nattracted the titular genius of their enemies, and obliged the spirit\nor god to plunge himself into it. In this painful situation they\nconfined him for a considerable time. When he had endured sufficient\npenance to humble him, he was questioned relative to the success of\nthe war. The information sought was delivered, as the people thought,\nthrough the appearance of the scum on the water. By turning a red-hot\npot upside down, attended with magical incantations, they imagined the\ncourage of their soldiers exposed to its heat could be raised.\n\nCanaanites, Syrians, and Arabians were all superstitious, and given to\nidolatry. These people had various idols, regarding which there are\nstrange fables. An idol worshipped by the Philistines and Syrians,\ncalled Derceto, has an interesting history. Near Askelon there was a\ndeep lake, abounding with fish. Not far from the lake stood the temple\nof this famous goddess, the mother of Semiramis, who had the face of a\nwoman, and the rest of her body resembling part of a fish, for which\nthe Syrians assigned the following reason:--Venus having conceived a\nhatred against Derceto, caused her to fall in love with a young\nSyrian, whom she subsequently murdered, and then threw herself into\nthe lake, where she was transformed into the shape of a fish with a\nwoman's face; for which reason the Syrians did not eat any fish, but\nworshipped them as gods. There is a legend of Abraham, before he left\nUr of the Chaldeans, which exhibits the contempt he had of idols. It\nis said he took an opportunity of breaking in pieces all the idols he\ncould reach, except Baal, and that he suspended about the neck of this\nidol the axe with which he had performed the destruction. The people\ncoming to see what had been done, supposed that Baal was the author of\nthe mischief. Some say that Abraham accomplished the exploit in his\nfather's shop during his absence, and that Terah, returning home,\ninquired how the work of destruction had taken place. Abraham told him\nthat the idols had quarrelled about an offering of flour that an old\nwoman had brought them, and that Baal had proved the strongest, and\nbroke all the rest to pieces.\n\nThe Arabians, Ishmael's offspring, were equally guilty of idolatry. So\nfar did they carry this sin, that they actually worshipped idols under\nthe shape of Egyptian thorns. In early times the thorns were adored in\nthe open fields, but subsequently altars and temples were erected for\ntheir worship. The Arabians worshipped Assaf under the shape of a\ncalf; and they had a goddess named Beltha, supposed to be the Venus of\nthe Greeks. The Sabeans were the principal worshippers of this\ngoddess; and such was their devotion to her, that they regularly\npresented to her a portion of their plunder.\n\nThe religion of the Carthaginians and Tyrians was horrid and\nbarbarous. Nothing of moment was undertaken without consulting the\ngods, which was done in various ridiculous ways. Hercules was the god\nin whom the people placed most confidence. He was invoked before they\nwent on any important expedition; and when their armies were\nvictorious, sacrifices were offered to him. One of the chief deities\nthat they worshipped was Urania, or the moon, to whom they appealed\nwhen overtaken by calamities, such as drought, excessive rain,\ndestructive hail, thunder, and dangerous storms. Urania was the queen\nof heaven mentioned in the Scriptures, to whom even the Jewish women\noffered cakes, etc. Carthaginians, in worshipping Saturn, offered up\nhuman sacrifices to him. Even princes and other great men were wont,\nin times of distress, to sacrifice their most beloved children to this\ndeity. People who had not any children of their own, purchased infants\nthat they might offer them as victims to this idol, with the view of\ninducing him to fulfil their desires. Diodorus relates that when\nAgathocles was going to besiege Carthage, the people imputed all their\nmisfortunes to the anger of Saturn, because, that instead of offering\nup to him children nobly born, he had been fraudulently put off with\nthe offspring of slaves and foreigners. To atone for past\nshortcomings, two hundred children of the best families in Carthage\nwere sacrificed, and further, to obtain the god's favour, three\nhundred adult citizens immolated themselves.\n\nNimrod, the great-grandson of Noah, was an idolator, as were also his\ndescendants. Nineveh was the seat of his empire. As the sun and moon\nbecame early objects of worship among the Assyrians, so in later days\nthey adored the fire as their substitute,--a form of worship that was\ncommon among the ancients in many lands. The Assyrians published\nabroad that the gods of other nations could not stand before their\nfire-gods. A competition took place. A vast number of idols were\nbrought from foreign nations, but as they were composed of wood, the\ngod Ur (or fire) consumed them. After many contests, an Egyptian\npriest discovered a plan of destroying the reputation of this idol,\nwhich had become the terror of alien people. He caused the hollow\nfigure of an image to be made of perforated earth, with the holes\nstuffed with wax, and the large internal cavity filled with water. He\nthen challenged the god Ur to oppose his god Canopus,--a challenge\nwhich was accepted by the Chaldean priests. No sooner did the heat\nthat was expected to devour the Egyptian idol begin to take effect,\nthan, the wax being melted, the water gushed out and extinguished the\nfire. Before the Assyrian empire was joined to that of Babylon,\nNisroch was the god worshipped in Nineveh, and it was in the temple of\nthis idol that the great Sennacherib was murdered. This idol was in\nthe shape of a bird--a dove or an eagle--made, if we can believe the\nJewish rabbis, from a plank of Noah's ark. The people repented at the\npreaching of Jonah, but it was not long before they relapsed into\ntheir former idolatry and general wickedness.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V.\n\n      Greek Religion and Superstition--Whence the Greeks\n      derived their Religion--Jupiter regarded as the\n      President of the Law and Protector of\n      Cities--Entertainment of Strangers--Dreams and\n      Charms--Sacred Stones--Omens of Evil--Sacrificing the\n      Hair--Flight of Birds--Compassing the Altar to the\n      Right--Methods of discovering whether a Person was in\n      Love--Love secured by Magic--Marriage Ceremonies--Most\n      lucky time for Marriage--Way of protecting a Child\n      from Evil Spirits--Divers magical Ceremonies--Strange\n      Laws as to Dead Bodies--Fingers and Toes of Dead Men\n      worn as Charms to frighten away Ghosts--Preparing a\n      Body for Burial--Superstitious Customs--Swine and\n      Swine's Flesh--Drinking Toasts--How Strangers were\n      expected to behave in a Strange Land--Prophets\n      consulted before Armies marched to Battle--Certain\n      words avoided--Sneezing--Evil Omens--Throwing a Person\n      overboard to save a Ship.\n\n\nHerodotus was of opinion that the Greeks derived their religion and\nsuperstition from the Egyptians; Plutarch arrived at another\nconclusion; while many maintained that Orpheus brought the mysteries\nof religion into Greece. Whoever is right, this we know, that the\nGreeks became so prone to worship ancient deities, and so anxious to\ndo homage to all the divinities, that they erected altars to unknown\ngods, for fear they would fail in their duty to any power that could\nassist them in time of need. Above all gods, Jupiter was held in the\nhighest esteem. He was regarded as the president of law and justice,\nas the protector of cities, as governor and director of their\ncouncils, and as chief of their societies. To him they ascribed\nthunder, and supposed it was he who delivered them from the Persians,\nand who assisted them to buy and sell to advantage. They erected\naltars to him in the courts of their houses and before their gates.\nRegarding him as the god of strangers, they received and entertained\nvisitors with great ceremony. As a sign of fidelity, the right hand of\nfellowship was given to a stranger, to whom salt was presented, in\ntoken that his person would be safe under the entertainer's roof. A\nstranger's bottle was kept, and when a visitor arrived at the door the\nhead of the family and he joined feet together on the threshold. A cup\nof wine was drunk to an unknown person before his name was asked. To\nreturn respect to those in the house, the stranger did reverence to\nthe genius of the place, and saluted the ground with a kiss. When one\nsojourned in a strange land, he was expected to conform to the\nrecognised customs thereof; and on taking his departure he not only\nbade farewell to those with whom he had become acquainted, but took\nleave of their deities. When an important agreement was entered into,\nJupiter was sacrificed to, and called to witness the covenant.\n\nThe Greeks purified themselves after frightful dreams; they wore\ncharmed rings to protect themselves from witchcraft; they were\naccustomed to spit three times on seeing a madman; and they spat every\ntime the devil's name was mentioned in their hearing. Stones were\ncast at every cat and weasel met by one when commencing a journey,\nand the meeting of a bitch with whelps was carefully avoided. The\ncrowing of hens and the whistling of maidens were listened to with as\ngreat fear as the hissing of a serpent.\n\nIf a rat or a mouse ate a hole in one's clothes, evil, it was thought,\nwas about to befall the luckless owner. The people had days of good\nluck and of bad omen. They cut their hair, and sacrificed it to\nrivers. They marked the flight of birds, particularly that of the owl.\nOn seeing this night bird flying overhead at the battle of Salamis,\nthe soldiers considered it a good sign, took courage, and won the\nfight. When one was going round an altar, he took care to keep his\nright hand towards it. People anointed sacred stones in token of\nthankfulness, as Jacob poured oil on the stone he took for a pillow at\nBethel.\n\nTo know if one was in love, special notice was taken of his garland at\na feast, and from its appearance the wearer's feelings were supposed\nto be known, though it might be thought there was no necessity for\nsuch observation; for, according to an old proverb, \"Love and the\ncough can never be concealed.\"\n\nIf one could not secure a lady's affections in the usual way of\ncourting, he endeavoured to get something of hers into his possession\nin order to bewitch her. Having received a glove, a ring, or any other\narticle, he operated on it in a magical way, and thus obtained his\ndesire. If a lady's girdle was properly tied into a true-lover's knot,\nshe could not resist loving him who performed the charming trick.\nAnother way of softening a woman's heart was by throwing a bitten\napple into her lap. If she received it and ate the fruit, her\naffections were won. All the tokens and charms did not come from the\ngentleman's side, for it was not unusual for a lady, when she wanted\nto control a lover's affections, to send him charmed garlands, roses,\nor bitten apples.\n\nOn the wedding day, a bride, on coming to the house of her husband,\nfound the doors hung with garlands made of herbs, flowers, and plants\nconsecrated to certain gods and goddesses, which possessed peculiar\nvirtues suitable for the occasion. Cakes were bestowed on the bride on\nher marriage day; and there was a custom among the Greeks and Romans\nof combing her hair with a spear which had belonged to a man that lost\nhis life in a fight, or with a weapon that had been used in killing a\nman. If this was done, she was sure to have brave sons. As the bride\nrose to leave her father's house, she was carried over the threshold;\nand as she entered her husband's house, a practice similar to that\nobserved among other nations was followed,--throwing figs and other\nfruit at her head, as an omen of fruitfulness. It was also the custom\nfor a servant, on first coming into his new home, to have palm\nbranches and various ornaments placed on his head, to secure\nprosperity. As the bride was led into her chamber, there was a sieve\ncarried along with her, and a pestle hung at the door, implying that\nafterwards she was to assist in the household duties. When the bride\nand bridegroom were together in the house, they ate an apple between\nthem, to signify the pleasantness and harmony they were to enjoy in\nafter life. Recourse was had to augury, the day before the wedding, to\nascertain whether the married life was to be prosperous. Before the\nbride retired for the night, she was bathed with water drawn from nine\ndifferent springs. The time of the year the Grecians deemed most lucky\nfor marriage was the first month of winter. This was contrary to the\nviews of the Persians, who considered spring the proper season for\nentering into the matrimonial state. The Greeks thought it better to\nget married in the first or second quarter of the moon rather than\nwhen it was waning. General rules were at times departed from, for\noccasionally astrologers were consulted as to the most auspicious day\nand hour for the happy lovers being united.\n\nThrough magical influence, a husband could have been made to hate his\nwife; but, to regain his affections, a spider caught in early morn was\nconfined in a box, protected by charms, prepared for its reception.\nWhen a child came into the world, three men kept watch all night to\nkeep away evil spirits. One of those on guard was armed with an axe,\nanother with a pestle, and the third with a broom. Each protector kept\nhis implement swinging through the air, to prevent the approach of the\ndreaded beings. As soon as a child was born it was washed in water or\nwine, and wrapped in a cloth worn by the mother when she was a virgin.\nIn the cloth were wrought the image of the Gorgon and the snakes of\nthat monster's head, together with the likenesses of two dragons. When\nthe child was five days old, it was carried about the hearth to\nintroduce it to the Penates. Arrangements were then made for naming\nthe child. A feast was prepared, at which there were doves, thrushes,\ncoleworts, and toasted cheese, besides many other things. The feast\nwas kept up for seven days. The mother, in gratitude for her child,\nsacrificed to Diana, and the father returned thanks to the nymphs for\ngiving him a fruitful wife.\n\nIf the little stranger died in infancy, it had only a cold funeral\nwithout fire, or any burial service or mourning. Sons, as soon as they\nwere three years old, were registered in the tribe. A feast was then\nprepared, called \"the shearing feast,\" because at that time the\nyoungster's hair was cut, and consecrated to one of their gods.\n\nThe Athenians had a law, that if any one happened to discover a dead\nbody, whether of a friend or a stranger, he should cast earth on it\nthree times; and the Romans had a similar law. If a Greek omitted this\nduty, he was bound to make satisfaction by sacrificing a sow-pig. But\nsome went farther, and insisted that whoever saw a dead body and did\nnot cast dust upon it, was both a law-breaker and an accursed person.\nThe people feared that the gods underground were angry if the dead\nwere left uncovered with their kindred dust. No greater imprecation\ncould have been cast at an enemy than that he might not be covered\nwith the earth. Hence it was that the ancients stood in great fear of\ndeath on the ocean, for there their bodies could not be interred. When\none went to sea, it was not uncommon for him to tie a reward to his\nbody, that in case he should be drowned and his body found, the finder\nwould see it buried, and so become entitled to the treasure. Next to\nthe happiness of being assured that the body would be buried, was that\nof being interred in one's own country, and not among strangers. When\na man died far from home, frequent solemn invocations were made for\nhis soul, which, it was thought, could hear and understand what was\nsaid by friends even in distant lands. At the burial of one that was\nslain in battle, his comrades marched three times round the burning\npile or grave, shaking their arms, and throwing swords, bridles,\nbelts, and other articles into the fire or grave after the body. When\na soldier fell fighting in the field, and his body could not be found,\nhe was honoured with the carriage of an empty bier, and funeral\nceremonies as if his remains were present.\n\nIf a man killed himself, the hand with which the deed was committed\nwas cut off, and buried in another place to that in which the other\npart of the body was interred. If one man killed another in a\nrighteous cause, the slayer washed his hands and held up the weapon\nthat had been used towards the sun, with the blood on it, to show that\nhe feared not though the heavens as well as the earth knew what he had\ndone. The ancients were of opinion that if one were slain by a\nrelative, the blood could never be thoroughly wiped off the blade that\nhad cut down the individual. And for fear the Furies would avenge the\ndeath of one killed by a relation, amulets and spells were provided to\nprevent untoward events. The most powerful charms were supposed to be\nparts of the slain individual. Therefore the fingers, toes, and other\nextreme parts of the body were cut off and worn under the arm-pits, to\nprevent the murdered person's ghost taking revenge for the unlawful\ndeed. In preparing a body for burial, the Greeks took a piece of money\nand put it into the mouth, to give to the ferryman Charon. With the\nmoney a small quantity of pudding or cheese was put in for Cerberus,\nto propitiate him. As a corpse was being carried out to be interred,\nthe deceased was commended to the protection of the infernal gods. To\nburn a body was considered more honourable than to lay it in the cold\ngrave, for the Greeks thought that the divine and purer part of man\nwas carried by fire to the abode of the gods above. This belief\ninduced fanatical persons, when tired of life below, to burn\nthemselves, that they might all the sooner take their flight to the\nregions of bliss. If a high wind sprang up when a body was being\nconsumed by flames, it was regarded as a favourable omen. On the body\nbeing consumed, the fire was extinguished with red wine.\n\nAfter a funeral, the people fumigated the house with brimstone, and\ncleansed themselves by passing over a fire. They then kept a feast, or\nrather feasts, at which they sacrificed to Mercury, that he might\ncarry the soul of the deceased to the realms of happiness. At the same\ntime the ghosts of relations were sacrificed to. Those who petitioned\nthe gods had garlands about their necks, or green boughs in their\nhands. The branches were either laurel or olive, because the former\nsignified triumph, and the latter peace and goodwill.\n\nSwine and swine's flesh were held in high esteem by the Greeks and\nRomans, for various reasons--one of which was that Jupiter was nursed\nby a sow. It was the custom to drink healths or toasts, and the last\none before going to bed was to Mercury, that he might give sound sleep\nand pleasant dreams. Great men would, on a high occasion, drink to a\nfavourite, and hand him the cup to keep. When a person drank to the\nhealth of one he loved, he partook of part of the liquor, and poured\nthe remainder of the wine on the ground. Drinking cups in remote times\nwere made from bulls' horns. The Greeks consecrated their horses to\nthe sun, and before engaging in war they consulted their prophets and\ndiviners. In particular, they paid great attention to the utterances\nof Egyptian priestesses kept by them. Then, similar to the manner of\nthe Jews, Persians, and others, the Greeks consecrated to the gods, in\nthe event of obtaining victory, portions of goods secured from the\nvanquished; and even relations were offered in sacrifice to the gods\nsupposed to have given triumph to the victorious armies. A Greek\ngeneral did not think it lucky to march his forces before full moon,\nor until the seventh day of the month. Sacrifices were offered to the\nwater when an army came to a river,--a custom observed by other\nnations.\n\nCertain words were never pronounced by the Greeks. For instance, they\ncarefully withheld their lips from uttering \"prison;\" and if they\nhappened to hear what they thought an unlucky speech, they replied,\n\"Let it return to thine own head.\" So far did they carry their\nsuperstition, that if one heard an unfavourable expression when he was\nabout to drink, he would throw the liquor on the floor and call for\nanother cup. Sneezing was so superstitiously regarded, that it came to\nbe counted among the number of gods. It was deemed inauspicious if a\nhost sent his guests away from a feast without giving each of them a\npiece of cake, or such like, to take home. The cracking of a table and\nthe spilling of wine or salt were regarded as evil omens. When a Greek\nship was in danger in a storm, one of the crew or a passenger was\nchosen by lot, and thrown overboard, like Jonah, to appease the spirit\nthat ruled the winds and the waves.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI.\n\n      Roman Delusions and Customs--Augury--Election to the\n      Magistracy; Omens relative thereto--Tokens of\n      Futurity--Dire Misfortunes followed the Contempt of\n      Augurs--Drawing of Lots--Events foretold by reading\n      the first passage that turned up on opening a\n      Book--Lucky and Unlucky Stars--Fortune\n      Tellers--Dreams--Omens drawn from Appearance of parts\n      of Animals offered in Sacrifice--Sibylline Books,\n      Charms, and Incantations--Spirits going about to\n      observe Men's Actions--Unlucky Days--Dress of a\n      Bride--Marriage Ceremonies--Anointing Door-posts with\n      the Fat of Swine or of Wolves, and crossing the\n      Threshold--Fire and Water--Bridal Feast and Nuptial\n      Songs--Funeral Rites--Souls of Unburied Persons--The\n      Expiring Breath--Customs at a Deathbed; the Cypress\n      exhibited at Houses in which were Dead Bodies and\n      Funeral Observances--Hobgoblins and Lares--Purifying\n      with Water and Fire--Ghosts partial to Beans,\n      etc.--Offerings made to appease the Manes--Persons\n      reported to be Dead--Dead Bodies used for Magical\n      purposes.\n\n\nThe old Roman delusions and customs were as extraordinary as those of\nany nation with which history has made us acquainted. The augurs\npretended to foretell future events from the flight of birds and the\nchirping and feeding of fowls, and also from other appearances.\n\"Augurium\" and \"auspicium\" were generally used promiscuously.\nAuspicium was properly the foretelling of future events from the\ninspection of birds; augurium from any omen or prodigy whatever. The\naugurs are supposed to have derived tokens of futurity chiefly from\nfive sources--appearances in the heavens (such as thunder or\nlightning), from the singing or flight of birds, from the feeding of\nfowls, from the movements of quadrupeds, and from uncommon accidents.\nThe birds which chiefly gave omens by sound were ravens, crows, owls,\nand cocks,--and those by flight, eagles and vultures. Contempt of the\naugurs, and neglect of their intimations, were said to be followed by\ndire misfortunes. Omens coming from the left were generally supposed\nby the Romans to be lucky. Thunder on the left was regarded as a good\nsign, and so was the cawing of a crow on the same side; but it was\nconsidered more fortunate to hear the croaking of a raven on the right\nthan on the left. The Romans, as the Greeks had done before them, took\nomens from quadrupeds crossing their path or appearing in unaccustomed\nplaces. The augurs taught the people how to draw conclusions from\nsneezing, spilling salt, and other accidents, called dira.\n\nDrawing of lots was frequently resorted to by the Romans wishing to\npry into futurity. The lots were dice, or articles resembling those\ninstruments of chance. They were thrown into an urn filled with water,\nor cast as dice in the ordinary way. If there was any difficulty in\nascertaining the import of the dice throwing, the priests were\nemployed to interpret. Future events were frequently inquired into by\nan inquisitive person cutting the branch of a tree into small pieces,\nand distinguishing them by certain marks, and then scattering them at\nrandom on a white cloth. The searcher after knowledge having prayed to\nthe gods, took up the slips three times, and interpreted according to\nthe marks. Future events were often inquired into by reading the first\nline or passage which happened to turn up on opening a book, or by\nobserving the stars. It was supposed to be lucky to be born under a\ncertain star, and unlucky to come into the world under another.\nAstrologers were consulted regarding one's natal hour. Fortune-tellers\nand books of fate were consulted on the most trivial occasions; and\npersons aspiring to the magistracy, after saying their prayers in the\nopen air, had recourse to augury with the view of ascertaining whether\nthe gods favoured their cause.\n\nGreat attention was paid by the Romans to dreams, and persons of\ndisordered minds were supposed to possess the faculty of presaging\nfuture events. Omens of futurity were also drawn from the appearance\nof the entrails of animals offered in sacrifice to the gods. The flame\nand smoke from the altar were noticed, and so were the circumstances\nattending the driving, felling, and bleeding of the victim. Sibylline\nbooks were inspected by appointment of the senate at perilous times,\nas they were supposed to contain the fate of the Roman Empire. There\nwas something mysterious about the origin of the sibylline books. It\nis reported that a woman called Amalth\u00e6a, from a foreign country, came\nto Tarquin the Proud to sell nine sibylline books. Upon Tarquin\nrefusing to give her the price asked, she went away and burned three\nof them. Returning soon after, she sought the same price for the\nremaining six. Still the price was refused, and she went away and\nburned other three books. She again came to the king, and demanded the\nsame price for the three unconsumed volumes as she had asked for the\nnine. Tarquin, who first regarded the woman as a senseless old\ncreature, became surprised at her strange behaviour, and inquired at\nthe augurs what he should do. They advised him to give the woman the\nprice she demanded. The woman delivered the books, and, after desiring\nthat they should be carefully kept, disappeared, and was never seen\nagain.\n\nThe use of charms and incantations originated in the worship of the\nheathen gods. As people in this country believe that spirits, good and\nbad, go about at night, so did the Romans suppose that their gods went\nup and down the earth during the night to observe the actions of men.\nThe priests and others, when engaged in acts of piety or important\nbusiness, took care, when turning, to move to the right. Every Roman\navoided repeating words of bad omen. Certain days were reckoned\nunfortunate for the celebration of marriages. The month of May was\nthought an unlucky time for marriages being solemnized. The most\nfortunate time for weddings taking place was in the middle of June.\nThe dress of a bride on her marriage day was a long white robe and her\nface was covered with a veil, in token of her modesty; her hair was\ndivided with the point of a spear into six locks, and she was crowned\nwith flowers. No marriage was celebrated before recourse to auspices.\nThe nuptial ceremony was performed in the bride's father's house, or\nin the residence of the nearest relation. In the evening the bride was\nconducted to her husband's house, taken thither apparently by force\nfrom the arms of her mother or other relative, in memory of the\nviolence used to the Sabine women. Three boys, whose parents were\nalive, attended her; two of them supported her by the arms, while the\nthird walked before, bearing a flambeau of pine or thorn.\nMaid-servants followed with a distaff and wool, intimating that she\nwas to spin as matrons formerly did. Many relations and friends\nattended the nuptial procession. The young men repeated jests and made\nsport as she passed along. The bride bound the door-posts of her new\nhome with woollen fillets, and anointed them with the fat of swine or\nwolves, to prevent enchantments. She was lifted over the threshold, or\nlightly leaped over it, as it was thought ominous to put her foot upon\nit, because the threshold was sacred to Vesta, the goddess of virgins.\nBoth she and her husband touched fire and water, as all things were\nsupposed to be produced from these two elements. With the water their\nfeet were bathed. The husband gave a feast, and musicians attended and\nsang the nuptial song. After supper the bride was conducted to her\nbed-chamber by matrons who had been only once married, and laid on her\ncouch, which was covered with flowers; songs were then sung by young\nwomen before the chamber door till midnight. Next day another\nentertainment was given by the husband, when presents were sent to the\nbride by her friends and relations; and she began her family duties by\nperforming sacred rites.\n\nGreat attention was paid to funeral ceremonies. Many people believed\nthat the souls of the unburied were not admitted into the abodes of\nthe dead before they had wandered about the Styx at least a hundred\nyears. If one happened to discover an unburied body and did not throw\nearth on it, he was compelled to expiate his crime by sacrificing a\nhog to Ceres. When persons were at the point of death, their nearest\nrelation present endeavoured to catch the expiring breath with their\nmouth, as they believed the soul or living principle went out by the\nmouth. The nearest relation among the Romans closed the eyes and mouth\nof the deceased, after putting money into the mouth for the ferryman\nwho was to take the soul of the dead over the lake it had to cross. A\nbranch of cypress placed at the door where the deceased lay, indicated\nthat there was a dead body within. People were invited to public\nfunerals by a herald. Magistrates and priests were supposed to be\nviolated by seeing a corpse, and therefore the dead were generally\nburied at night with torch-light. At funeral processions pipers and\nother musicians attended, and women sang the funeral song or the\npraises of the deceased to the sound of the flute. By the law of the\ntwelve tables, the number of flute players was restricted to ten. Next\nfollowed actors and buffoons, who danced and sang, while one of them\nimitated the deceased's words and actions when alive. Before the\ncorpse there were carried the images of the deceased and of his\nancestors. The ancients buried their dead at their own houses, whence\narose the fear of hobgoblins, and a belief in lares, supposed to be\nthe souls of the deceased.\n\nWhen the body was laid in the tomb, the people present were sprinkled\nthree times with pure water by the priest, and when the friends\nreturned home they were again sprinkled. Beans, lettuces, bread, eggs,\netc. were laid in the tombs, in the belief that the ghosts would come\nand eat them. Offerings were made to appease the manes. If a person,\nfalsely reported to have been dead, returned home, he did not enter\nhis house by the door, but went into it through the roof. Dead bodies\nwere often violated for magical purposes, by stripping them of\nvaluable articles, or cutting off fingers, toes, or arms. Wax images\nof deceased persons were made, and, after a variety of ridiculous\nceremonies, burned on piles, from the tops of which eagles were let\nloose to convey to heaven the souls set free from the body.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII.\n\n      Ethiopian Superstition--Sacred Bread--Customs of\n      Ethiopian Monks--Heathen Indian Gods--Paraxacti and\n      her three Sons--Thirty thousand millions of Gods--Fate\n      of a Child written on its Forehead--Transmigration of\n      Souls--Seven Seas--Mountain of Gold--Adder of\n      monstrous size with a Hundred Heads--Vixnu--Dispute\n      between Bruma, Vixnu, and Rutrem--Curse pronounced\n      against the Thistle--Iranien the\n      Giant--Transformation--Morning Star--Vixnu's different\n      Forms--A King's Head kicked into the lowest\n      Abyss--Prediction by Soothsayers--A Tyrant's\n      Intentions frustrated--Vixnu's Guilt and Punishment;\n      his Marriages and supposed future\n      Appearance--Rutrem--A Son with Seven Heads--The Seven\n      Stars as Nurses--Parvardi's Loss of her Husband and\n      Birth of a Son--Rutrem's Revenge and its\n      Consequences--The Indians' Offering to the Sun--The\n      Ganges--The Giant Piamejuran--Superstitious\n      Observances at Marriages--Disposal of Dead\n      Bodies--Different degrees of Glory after\n      Death--Reverence for the Cow--Ways of detecting\n      Criminals--Addressing Oracles--Astronomy--Eclipse of\n      the Moon--Magic--John Gondalez.\n\n\nIn Ethiopia, superstition was general over the entire empire. The\nEthiopians used a sacred bread, called the corban. While this bread\nwas being made, the baker was obliged to repeat seven psalms. Upon\nevery loaf there were twelve impressions of the cross, and each cross\nwas within a square. Ethiopian monks slept on a mat spread on the\nground, and before lying down they stretched out their hands one\nhundred and fifty times in the form of a cross. Baptism was understood\nby the people of this empire to be a solemn ceremony that washed away\nall impurities; but the rite was observed by nearly all the ancient\nnations, in memory of the Deluge.\n\nIn an account of the empire of the Great Mogul, we find no end of\nsuperstitious observances. Each heathen Indian tribe had a separate\ngod. Some tribes even worshipped boiled rice; after the same manner\nthe Egyptians paid homage to leeks. Indian writers say that, in the\nbeginning, a woman, whose name was Paraxacti (brought into existence\nby the great Creator), had three sons,--the first named Bruma, who\ncame into life with five heads. He was endowed with the power of\ncreating all inferior beings. The name of the second was Vixnu,\nappointed lord of providence and preserver of all things formed by\nBruma. The third was named Rutrem, whose function or inclination was\nto destroy all things his other two brothers had made and preserved.\nRutrem, like his brother Bruma, had five heads. Bruma assumed the form\nof a stag; and, to punish him for a serious crime he committed when in\nthat shape, his brothers and thirty thousand millions of gods punished\nhim by cutting off one of his heads.\n\nAccording to the notions of Indian heathens, Bruma writes upon the\nforehead of every child an account of all that shall happen to him in\nthe world. It is reported of Vixnu that he metamorphosed himself at\npleasure. He first took the form and nature of a fish, and the second\nform assumed was that of a tortoise. The Indians believed there were\nseven seas in the world,--one of milk, of so delicious a nature that\nthe gods ate butter made of it. One day, when the gods wanted to feast\non the butter according to custom, they brought to the shore of the\nmilk sea a high mountain of gold, which supported fourteen worlds that\ncomposed the universe. The uppermost part of the mountain served for a\nresting place, and over it was brought an adder of monstrous size,\nhaving a hundred heads. The gods made use of this adder as a rope, in\norder to get at the butter more easily; but while they were attempting\nto procure the butter, the giants, who had a continual hatred against\nthe gods, drew the adder on the other side with so much violence that\nit shook the whole universe, and sunk it so low, that Vixnu, in his\ntortoise form, placed himself under it and supported it. Meanwhile the\nhundred-headed adder, being unable any longer to endure the pain the\ngods and giants inflicted on him, vomited poison upon the giants,\nwhich killed many of them on the spot. Vixnu afterwards assumed the\nform of a beautiful woman, and such of the giants as remained alive\nfell in love with the fair being. In this guise, he amused the giants\ntill the gods had eaten all the butter.\n\nIn his third incarnation, Vixnu changed himself into the form of a\nhog, in consequence of the following circumstance:--One day a contest\narose between the three gods, Bruma, Vixnu, and Rutrem, regarding the\nextent of their power. Rutrem undertook to go and hide himself, and at\nthe same time promised to submit himself to him who should first\ndiscover his head and feet; but if they could not find these parts,\nthen the baffled gods were to acknowledge him their superior. Bruma\nand Vixnu having agreed to this proposal, Rutrem vanished, and hid his\nhead and feet in places a great distance from each other, where he\nimagined they could not be found. Bruma, in the likeness of a swan,\ncommenced to search for the head, but, finding he could not obtain any\ntrace of it, he resolved to return home. Just, however, as he was\ngoing to give up the search, he met the thistle flower, which came and\nsaluted him, and showed the place where Rutrem had hid his head.\nRutrem, exasperated, cursed the flower, and forbade it ever to enter\nhis presence. For this reason, his followers prevented thistles being\nbrought into their temples in any part of the East Indies.\n\nFor the purpose of finding the feet, Vixnu transformed himself into a\nhog, and went from place to place digging into the earth, but without\nsuccess. For cogent reasons, Vixnu next assumed the form of a man and\nlion at the same time. Rutrem, it appears, conceived a strong\nfriendship for one Iranien, a mighty giant, and granted him the\nprivilege that no one should kill him either by day or by night.\nInstead of the giant proving grateful, he became proud and\noverbearing, and even insisted on being worshipped as a god. To punish\nthe giant, Vixnu suddenly appeared before him in the form of a cloud,\nand then, taking the monster shape of a being half-man half-lion,\nresolved to take vengeance on the ungrateful wretch. In the evening,\nwhen Iranien was standing at the threshold of his door, Vixnu sprang\nat him, tore him to pieces, and drank his blood. But the blood\naffected Vixnu so much that he became stupid. Vixnu's fifth\ntransformation was into a dwarf. At that time a cruel king's subjects\nappealed to Vixnu to relieve them of their oppressor, and, to carry\nout the people's desire, he, in the form of a dwarf, went to the city\nwhere the tyrant kept court. The dwarf begged from the king a grant of\nthree feet of ground whereon to build himself a house. The tyrant was\nabout to comply with the request, when the morning star, which\nattended the king in the character of secretary of state, suspected\nthere was treason in the case. It was common, when requests were\ngranted, for the king to take water into his mouth and pour some of it\ninto the hand of the suppliant, and therefore the secretary, by the\nassistance of magic, slipped imperceptibly down the prince's throat,\nin order to prevent the water being thrown out. The magic had not the\ndesired effect; for the king, finding something in his throat, forced\na sharp instrument into it, which put out one of the secretary's eyes,\nand the water gushed out, ratifying the agreement. Vixnu changed\nhimself into a monster so large that the whole earth was not\nsufficient to afford room for his feet. He then said to the king, \"You\nhave given me three feet of earth, and yet the whole world can\nscarcely contain one of my feet: where am I to place the other?\" The\ntyrant, seeing deserved wrath awaiting him, laid his head down before\nVixnu, who with one kick tossed it into the lowest abyss of hell. The\nwretched king, finding himself condemned to such a place of torment,\nbegged pardon and mercy of Vixnu, but all the favour he received was\none day's respite every year, to enable him to take part at a\nparticular ceremony, to be observed in commemoration of his own\ndownfall and punishment.\n\nVixnu's sixth form was that of a white man. He subdued many tyrants,\nand washed his hands in their blood. In this form he destroyed many\ngiants, and compelled all the apes in the country to attend him. The\nlast form Vixnu assumed was that of a black man, in which likeness his\ncunning and success were not less marked than when he was disguised in\nseveral of his former shapes. Here is another story told of\nhim:--There was a great tyrant named Campsen, a violent persecutor of\ngood men, who had a sister called Exudi. It happened that the\nsoothsayers, of whom there were many in the country, having consulted\nthe stars, told the king that Exudi would have eight children, and\nthat the youngest of them would kill him. This enraged the monarch so\nmuch that he destroyed seven of her children as soon as they were\nborn. Notwithstanding the natural affliction of the princess, she\nbecame pregnant for the eighth time, but, wonderful to relate, of no\nless a personage than the god Vixnu, who, unknown to her, succeeded in\nfinding a place in her womb. Fearing the child would be conveyed\nbeyond his reach as soon as it was born, the king placed spies\neverywhere to prevent the young prince's escape. The supposed father\nof the child succeeded in carrying him away, and placing him under the\ncare of shepherds far up the mountains. Every effort was made by the\nbaffled monarch to discover the young prince, and at last he found\nhim. Desiring to be the executioner himself, he went and laid hold of\nthe child to murder him. Just as the hand was raised to inflict the\nfatal blow, the prince vanished, and in his room appeared a little\ngirl, whom the tyrant also attempted to kill; but she too, after\nmocking the king, disappeared uninjured. Vixnu grew from boyhood to\nmanhood, when he raised an army against Campsen, whom he defeated and\nslew with his own hands, fulfilling the prediction of the soothsayers.\nVixnu married two wives, but, neither of them pleasing him, he\ndivorced them and espoused sixteen thousand shepherdesses. The people\nimagined that he would appear some time or another in the form of a\nhorse, but thought that until that metamorphosis took place he would\nwallow in a sea of milk, with his head supported by a beautiful snake.\n\nWe are informed that Rutrem, the third son of Paraxacti, was much\nrespected by the people, though, judging from the accounts transmitted\nto us, the wonder is that he was not detested. He married Parvardi,\ndaughter of a king, whose dominion was in the mountains, with whom he\nlived a thousand years; but his two brothers, Bruma and Vixnu, having\ndisapproved of the match, gathered together the thirty thousand\nmillions of gods, and went in search of him. Accordingly he was found\nand dragged away from his wife, which caused him to wander up and down\nthe earth in search of forbidden pleasures. One day the earth gave him\na son with seven heads; but as a nurse could not be got to bring up\nthe child, the seven stars undertook the task. Parvardi, disconsolate\nat the loss of her husband, went in search of him, but could not\ndiscover his place of abode. In her lonely state, she begged the gods\nwould give her a son,--a request that was complied with, for a\nman-child dropped out of the sweat of her forehead. In the meantime\nRutrem returned to his house, and, finding the child, became\nexceedingly enraged. His anger, however, turned into love on being\ninformed of the miraculous manner in which he was born. The king of\nthe mountains made a feast, to which the gods were invited, but\nRutrem, his son-in-law, was not asked. This want of respect provoked\nhim so much that he went to the banquet, and, laying hold of one of\nthe gods, tore off a handful of hair from his head. From the hair a\ngiant of enormous size started up, whose head reached to the\nfirmament, and struck the sun with so great violence that all its\nteeth were knocked out. For this reason, the Indians refused to offer\nanything to the sun but what could be eaten without teeth. Not\nsatisfied with knocking out the teeth of the sun, he bruised the moon\nso severely that the marks remain to the present day. He then killed\nseveral of the guests, among whom was his step-son, created from the\nsweat of his mother's forehead. Vinayaguien (that was the youth's\nname) lost his head, and had it replaced with that of an elephant. In\nthe disfigured state into which he was turned, his father dispatched\nhim in search of a wife as beautiful as his mother,--a task that\nproved endless, because there could not be found a woman equal in\nbeauty to his maternal parent.\n\nRutrem married the River Ganges, which was represented under the form\nof a blooming woman. At that time there was a giant named Piamejuran,\nwho had for several years undergone a severe penance for having\noffended Rutrem, but, becoming sensible of his offence, desired to be\nabsolved. The favour was granted him, with the privilege of reducing\nto ashes everything he laid his hands upon. The power with which he\nwas endowed proved his death. One day he went to the Ganges to bathe,\nand, lifting his hand to his forehead, it reduced him to dust.\n\nAt their marriages, the Indians were very superstitious, and paid\ngreat regard to omens. The consent of the parents being obtained, and\na fortunate day appointed, the parties met with the relations, when\nthe bridegroom threw three handfuls of rice on the head of the bride,\nand she cast an equal quantity at him. Part of the marriage ceremony\nconsisted of the fathers of both bridegroom and bride putting a piece\nof money and a small quantity of water into the bride's hand. This\nbeing done, the bridegroom hung a ribbon, with a coin attached to it,\nround her neck.\n\nAs soon as a man died, his beard was shaved, his body washed, lime put\ninto his mouth, and women rubbed his face with rice. When the body was\nburned, the deceased's ashes were thrown into the Ganges, for the\nwater of that river was supposed to have a virtuous and holy influence\non whatever it touched. The Brahmins believed that there were five\ndifferent degrees of glory after death. Bruma, with his wife\nSarassuadi, was in the fourth state attended by a large swan, on which\nhe rode abroad, this god being supposed to be exceedingly fond of\ntravelling. None but the most innocent were exalted to the fifth seat\nof glory.\n\nCows' dung was spread over the floors of Indian temples; and such was\nthe people's reverence for the cow, that when sacrificing they poured\nmilk on their altars. Their priests pretended that their gods had\noracles, by which they could foretell future events. When several\npersons were suspected of stealing anything, and the guilty one could\nnot be discovered by ordinary means, the priests wrote the names of\nthe suspected persons on different pieces of paper, and laid them down\nbefore the altar, and invoked their oracle, after which they locked\nthe doors, so that no person could get in. When they returned and\nfound any paper removed, the person whose name was on it was declared\nto be the criminal. On the priests addressing their oracles, they\nbecame so excited that they remained for hours seemingly in great\nagony. After recovering, they explained to the people the sayings of\nthe oracles. The Indians had tables of astronomy which they\nconsulted. When the moon was eclipsed, they believed she was fighting\nwith a black devil.\n\nThe Indians supposed that by means of magic a man could change himself\ninto the form of a lion or any other animal he chose. We have heard of\none John Gondalez, who changed himself into the shape of a lion, and\nin that form was shot by a Spaniard. The day on which Gondalez was\nfired at he was reported to be sick. A clergyman was called in to take\nhis confession. The pious man, in giving an account of what he saw and\nheard, said, \"I saw Gondalez's face and nose all bruised, and asked\nhim how he had received the injuries. He told me that he had fallen\nfrom a tree and nearly killed himself. After this he accused the\nSpaniard of shooting at him. The affair was inquired into by a Spanish\njustice of the peace. My evidence was taken, and I told what Gondalez\nhad said to me regarding his fall. The Spaniard swore that he had shot\nat a lion in a thick wood, where an Indian was not likely to be.\"\n\nGondalez was examined as to how he was not seen by the Spaniard when\nhe went to look for the lion; to which he replied that he ran away\nlest the Spaniard should kill him. As Gondalez's dealings with the\ndevil were well known to all in the neighbourhood, it was held that he\nhad received his injuries when roaming as a four-footed beast; and\ntherefore the justice discharged the Spaniard.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII.\n\n      John Gomez the Wizard and Man-tiger--Lopez the\n      Man-lion--Vermilion Marks rendered the Devil\n      powerless--Sacrificing Children--Offerings to the\n      Ganges--A Rajah offering himself as a\n      Sacrifice--Preventatives against Disease--Various\n      Superstitious Ceremonies--Sacrificing to the Gods of\n      the Four Winds--How the Devil was kept away--King's\n      Wives and Retainers going with the Dead Monarch into\n      the other World--An eternal Succession of Worlds--Apes\n      supposed to have Human Souls--Worshipping\n      Demons--Drinking Blood--Prognosticating from the Cries\n      of Beasts--Witchcraft and Magic--Singular Opinions and\n      Customs--Watching Graves, and providing for the\n      Dead--Foretelling Future Events at the New\n      Moon--Method of discovering a False Swearer--Offerings\n      to the Sea and Winds--Superstition in China--Chinese\n      Genealogy and Worship--Opinion of their Gods and\n      Goddesses--Sacrifices--Beggars--Magical Arts--False\n      Worship--Comfort of the Dead provided\n      for--Superstition in\n      Japan--Fortune-telling--Idols--Gods and\n      Goddesses--Five Hundred Children hatched from\n      Eggs--Human Souls supposed to reside in Inferior\n      Animals--Beasts held in great esteem--Statues of\n      Witches and Magicians placed in Temples in\n      Japan--Charms sold by Priests--Value of\n      Charms--Fortunate and Unfortunate Days--A Fairy in the\n      likeness of a Fox--A valuable Charm.\n\n\nThe gentleman (a clergyman) who told the story of John Gondalez, gives\nanother tale equally interesting. John Gomez, the chief of an Indian\ntown, was nearly eighty years of age, and reputed to be possessed of\nmore than ordinary shrewdness. His advice was preferred to that of all\nother chiefs. He seemed to be a very godly Indian, and very seldom\nmissed morning and evening prayers in the church. \"He was suddenly\ntaken ill,\" proceeds the clergyman; \"and one of his friends, fearing\nthat he might die without making confession, called me up at midnight,\ndesiring me to go presently to John Gomez to help him to die. I\ntherefore visited Gomez, who lay with his face muffled. He confessed,\nwept, and showed a willingness to die. I comforted him, after which I\nreturned home to refresh myself. Scarcely had I crossed the threshold\nof my house than I was called on to visit the sick man a second time,\nand give him extreme unction. As I anointed him on his nose, lips,\nhands, eyes, and feet, I perceived he was swollen black and blue. I\nwent home again, and after I had rested a little, an Indian called to\nbuy candles to offer up for the soul of John Gomez, who, he told me,\nhad departed. I went to the church, and found the grave being prepared\nfor the deceased. Two Spaniards, to whom I spoke, told me of a great\nstir being made in the town concerning the death of Gomez. Amused at\nthe information received, I desired a full and particular account of\nthe whole circumstances. They told me that Gomez was the chief wizard\nof the town--that he was often changed into a tiger, and in that form\nwalked about the mountains. Wondering at this statement, I went\nstraight to the prison, where, I was told, I might obtain information\non the subject. At the stronghold the officers communicated to me the\nwhole matter. There were witnesses, they said, who saw a lion and a\ntiger fighting, and presently lost sight of them, but saw in their\nplaces Gomez and a man named Lopez. Gomez returned home much bruised,\nand on his deathbed declared to his friends that Lopez had killed him.\nLopez was therefore taken into custody, and put in irons. The crown\nofficers investigated the case with great care, and found that the\nbody of Gomez was all bruised and torn in various places. Lopez, upon\nthis, was taken to Guatemala, and there hanged, the evidence against\nhim, in the estimation of the judges and people, being conclusive that\nhe had fatally injured Gomez while the former was in the shape of a\ntiger, and the latter in the likeness of a lion.\"\n\nThe inhabitants of Bisnagar, Deccan, and elsewhere believed that the\nmoment a priest marked any one on the forehead with vermilion, the\ndevil had no power over the person thus distinguished. At Samorin\nthere was a statue to which children were sacrificed. It was of brass,\nand, when heated by a furnace underneath it, the children were thrown\ninto its mouth and consumed. Flowers were scattered upon the altars\nduring the sacrifices, and herbs, steeped in the blood of a cock,\nperfumed the idol. The cock's throat was cut with a silver knife\ndipped in the blood of a hen. At the conclusion of the barbarous\nceremony, the priest walked backwards from the altar to the middle of\nthe chapel, where he threw a handful of corn over his head.\n\nThe Ganges, as is well known, was, and still is, worshipped by a large\nnumber of people. Vast numbers of pilgrims continually visit this\ngreat river. Formerly, if not now, they bathed in it in a peculiar\nfashion, holding short straws in their hands while they were\nperforming their ablutions. Gold and silver were often thrown into the\nstream, in testimony of admiration.\n\nAt Quailacara a remarkable ceremony took place once every twelve\nyears. On the morning of the important day, the rajah, who was both\nhigh priest and sovereign, offered himself a sacrifice to the gods. He\nfirst delivered an oration, and then with a sharp instrument cut off\nhis nose, lips, and ears, and concluded the tragical event by cutting\nhis throat. Similar ceremonies were performed in the same district by\nscores of deluded devotees, who bent their steps to the most\ncelebrated temples, where they cut off their flesh, piece by piece,\nand then stabbed themselves to death. Their bodies were burned, and\nthe ashes sold by the priests at high sums, as preservatives against\ndisease. When the people came to bathe in the Ganges in the month of\nMay, they erected piles of cows' dung, on which were placed baskets of\nrice, roots, and every description of vegetables. These were\nsurrounded with wood besmeared with butter, and set on fire. From the\nappearance of the smoke and flame, those present pretended to discover\nwhether the harvest was to be abundant or otherwise. At seed-time the\npriests took branches from trees, and walked in procession with them,\ngoing three times round the temples. A hole was then dug in the\nground, and water from the Ganges poured into it. In this hole cows'\ndung and the branches were put and set on fire, and from the\nappearance of the flames the arch-priest was enabled to foretell what\nwas to happen during the year. When a person was dying, he was carried\nto a river and dipped into it, that his soul and body might be\npurified. Happy was the individual who could be conveyed to the\nGanges, because its waters were supposed to be possessed of virtues\nthat did not exist in other rivers. Sometimes the hands of the dying\nperson were tied to a cow's tail, and the invalid dragged through the\nwater. If the cow emitted urine upon the person, it was considered a\nmost salutary purification. If the fluid fell plentifully upon the\nexpiring man, his friends testified their joy by loud acclamation,\nbelieving he was about to be numbered among the blessed. But when the\ncow did not supply the purifying liquid, the relatives showed their\ngrief, for they thought their dying friend was going to a place of\npunishment.\n\nAt Assam and elsewhere, when a person was sick, sacrifices were\noffered to the god of the four winds. If the patient died, servants\nwere kept beating on instruments of copper to keep away evil spirits,\nsupposed to be hovering round the corpse. There was a belief that if\nan evil spirit passed over a dead body, the soul would return to the\ninanimate remains. At a funeral procession, men surrounded the coffin\nwith drawn scimitars, to drive the devil away and help to confine him\nto his home of darkness. At a king's death, all his wives, ministers\nof state, and retainers surrounded the grave, and poisoned themselves,\nin order to accompany him into the other world. Horses, camels,\nelephants, and hounds were also interred along with his majesty, to be\nuseful to him in the world of bliss.\n\nIn Pegu, the people believed in an eternal succession of worlds, and\nimagined that, as soon as one would be burned, another would spring\nout of its ashes. They thought that people devoured by crocodiles went\nto a place of perpetual happiness. The people believed that asses had\nhuman souls, and, reversing the theory of Darwin that human beings\nwere the offspring of inferior animals, thought they were formerly\nmen; but, to punish them for crimes they had been guilty of, the gods\ntransformed them into their present shape. White elephants were much\nesteemed by the people. As the devil was worshipped, altars were\nerected in honour of him, and sacrifices were daily offered to appease\nhis wrath and obtain his favour. Devout persons refused to taste food,\nbefore throwing part of it behind them for the dogs or devils to eat;\nfor they imagined that every dog was possessed with evil spirits, if\nthe animal was not Satan himself. It sometimes happened that a man\nleft his house, swept clean and genteelly furnished, for the devil to\ntake possession of it for a whole month.\n\nOn entering into a solemn agreement, the natives of Siam drank each\nother's blood. They attentively listened to the groans and cries of\nwild beasts, and prognosticated from them, and believed in witchcraft.\nThey imagined, as spiritualists of the present time do, that answers\nwere received from deceased friends or relations. Natives of the\nPhilippine Islands had a notion that they could know, from seeing the\nfirst objects that presented themselves to them in the morning,\nwhether they would be successful or unsuccessful in their undertakings\nduring the day. If one of them happened to tread upon an insect when\nsetting out on a journey, he would proceed no further. The islanders\nof the Moluccas watched the graves of their deceased relations seven\nnights, for fear the devil would steal the body away, and during that\ntime the bed of the deceased was made as if he were alive. Further,\nvictuals were prepared for him, lest he should return to earth and\nrequire nourishment. Many of the people wore bracelets, and on the\nappearance of the new moon a hen's neck was cut, and the bracelets\ndipped into the blood. From the appearance of the ornaments after\nbeing taken out, future events were brought to light. When the people\nof Ceylon were called upon to make oath, they wrapped their right\nhands in a cloth the previous night, and when they appeared in court,\na caldron, containing a mixture of cows' dung and water, kept boiling\nover a strong fire, was in readiness for the deponents, subsequent to\nremoving the bandages, to immerse their hands therein. This being\ndone, their hands were again wrapped up until next day, when the\nfingers were rubbed with a linen cloth. He whose skin peeled off\nfirst, was declared to have spoken falsehoods; and he not only lost\nhis cause, but was compelled to pay a penalty to the king. At the\nMaldive Islands, offerings were made to the sea when a voyage was\nabout to be undertaken. Sacrifices were also offered to the winds,\nwhich was done by setting fire to a new boat, and consuming it to\nashes. But if one was too poor to offer a boat, he threw into the\nocean several cocks and hens; for it was the opinion that there was in\nthe water a god that ate such things as were offered in sacrifice. One\nwas warned not to spit against the wind when at sea. The ships and\nother vessels belonging to the people of these islands were\nconsecrated to the gods of the sea and the winds.\n\nSuperstition in China was, and still is, both general and absurd in\nthe extreme. The Chinese profess to have an uninterrupted genealogy of\ntheir kings for a period of twenty-four thousand years; but,\nnotwithstanding their pretensions to antiquity, learned men suppose\nthat these people are descendants of the Egyptians. On this difficult\nquestion, however, we do not propose to enter, and therefore proceed\nto notice a few of their ridiculous customs and notions. They have\nbeen idolaters for ages, and pay divine honours to numerous\ngods--particularly to Fo, who was deified and worshipped for more than\na thousand years before the Christian era. The Chinese say that Fo was\na king's son. As soon as the infant god was born, he could speak and\nwalk. When young, he had four philosophers to instruct him, and at the\nage of thirty he began to work miracles. Report has it that he was\nborn eight thousand times, and that his soul had passed through the\nbodies of many different animals. The doctrine of transmigration of\nsouls was part of the people's creed, and this doctrine is still\nbelieved in by the people generally. Cang-y was the god of the lower\nheavens, and had power over life and death. He had three spirits\nconstantly attending him, the first of whom sent rain to refresh and\nnourish the earth; the second was the god of the sea, to whom all\ntheir navigators made vows before going away with ships, and performed\nthem on their return home; and the third presided over births and war.\nThe great Chinese reformer, Confucius, was born four hundred and fifty\nyears before Christianity was preached. As soon as he was born, two\ndragomans came to guard him against harm, and the stars bowed\nthemselves before him. He married a wife, but, finding that she\nhindered him in his pursuit of knowledge, he put her away. He lived to\nthe age of seventy years, when he died of a broken heart at beholding\nthe evils around him. The highest honours were paid to him after\ndeath.\n\nHogs were offered in sacrifice to the gods. Wine was poured on the\nanimals' ears, and if they shook their heads at this operation they\nwere deemed proper objects to be offered, but if they remained\nmotionless they were rejected.\n\nOn the 14th August of every year sacrifices were offered by the people\nto their ancestors, and all who assisted them at the solemn ceremonies\nwere assured that they would receive particular favours from their\ndead relatives. Vast numbers of beggars constantly went about the\ncountry. If those mendicants were refused alms, they told the people\nthat their souls would pass into the bodies of rats, mice, snakes,\ntoads, and such other creatures as they knew the Chinese abhorred.\nThose mendicants told fortunes, and, if report speaks true, could\nraise the wind by striking the earth with a hammer of magical virtue.\nA ship captain, on going to sea, might have a fair wind and a\nprosperous voyage for a moderate sum. Divination was practised by\nmeans of household gods, of which there were many in the empire.\n\nConjurers and fortune-tellers were by law forbidden to frequent the\nhouses of civil or military officers under the pretence of prophesying\nimpending national calamities or successes, but the prohibition was\nnot understood to prevent them telling fortunes and casting nativities\nby the stars in the usual manner. Whenever signs of calamity were\nobserved in the heavens by the officers of the astronomical board, and\nthey failed to give faithful notice thereof; they were punished with\none hundred and twenty blows and two years' banishment. In later times\na law was passed against sorcerers and magicians, prohibiting them,\nunder pain of death, from employing spells and incantations,\ncalculated to agitate and influence the minds of the people. Killing\nby magic was by statute placed among the most serious classes of\noffences. Magicians who raised evil spirits by means of magical books\nand dire imprecations, or who burned incense in honour of the images\nof their worship when they assembled by night to instruct their\nfollowers, were strangled.\n\nIt was enacted by the Chinese laws, that if any members of a private\nfamily performed the ceremony of the adoration of heaven and of the\nnorth star, and lighted the lamps of the sky and of that star, they\nwere guilty of profanation, and liable to be punished with eighty\nblows. When a dead body was laid in the coffin, the mouth of the\ndeceased was filled with corn, rice, silver, and gold; and scissors,\ntied up in purses, were put into the coffin, that the departed person\nmight cut his nails as often as he pleased.\n\nThere was a sect in Japan called Jammabugi, who studied magic chiefly\namong the rocks and mountains. They procured a subsistence by\npretending to tell fortunes. They possessed an almost incredible\nnumber of idols, one of which was Abbuto, noted for curing inveterate\ndiseases, and for procuring a favourable wind at sea. To secure a\nquick passage, sailors and passengers were wont to throw money into\nthe ocean as an offering to this idol.\n\nThe Japanese had gods for almost everything. A most ridiculous account\nis given of their goddess of riches. When a mortal, she had no\nchildren by her husband, which caused her to supplicate the gods to\ngive her offspring. Her prayers were heard, and she produced five\nhundred eggs. Being afraid that if the eggs were hatched they would\nbring forth monsters, she packed them up in a box bearing a particular\nmark, and threw them into a river. An old fisherman found the box,\nand, seeing it full of eggs, carried it home to his wife. Not having a\nsufficient number of hens to hatch so many eggs, she put them into an\noven, and, to the surprise of the aged couple, every egg produced a\nchild. The two old people succeeded in bringing up the strange progeny\nto manhood, for they were all sons. They became robbers and beggars by\nturn; and it happened, one day during their rambles, that they came to\ntheir mother's house. From inquiries she made, it became clear that\nthe young ruffians were her own children. She kept them, and reared\nthem up to be virtuous and useful. She was afterwards taken up from\nthe earth to be among the gods, where she remains, attended by her\nfive hundred sons.\n\nApes and monkeys, as well as other creatures, were worshipped in\nJapan. So great faith did the people of that country put in the\ntransmigration of souls, that they had hospitals for the reception of\nanimals in whose bodies souls were supposed to reside. In a wood near\nJeddo there were many sacred animals, daily fed by priests. These\nanimals, the priests said, were animated by the souls of the most\nnoble and illustrious heroes that ever lived. The people had such a\nprofound veneration for stags, that they were to be seen in every\nstreet as numerous as the dogs in our country. If one killed a stag,\nnot only was he condemned to die, but the houses where the deed was\ncommitted were razed to the ground. Dogs were held in great esteem.\nThe inhabitants of every street were obliged to support a fixed number\nof them, they being quartered on the people like so many soldiers.\nWhen a dog died, it was buried among human remains. A man who killed a\ncanine creature was punished with death. Fish were looked upon as\nsacred. Near the capital was a river that was so plentifully stocked\nwith fish, that they thrust one another ashore, yet not one of them\nwas injured. The people believed that if they touched one of the finny\ntribe, they would be smitten with leprosy, and it was considered an\nunpardonable sin to eat any of them. A belief prevailed, that fish\npossessed the souls of naval officers. Statues of witches, magicians,\nand devils find places in the Japan temples.\n\nCharms were sold by the priests, which were represented to possess the\nvirtue of curing diseases and driving away the devil. Money was\nsometimes borrowed on security of charms, not to be repaid in this\nworld. A note was given, authorizing payment of the money in the land\nof spirits; and when the holder of the document died, his relations\nput it into his hand, believing that the debt would be duly paid to\nthe deceased. The Japanese thought certain days were more fortunate\nthan others. A table of their fortunate and unfortunate days was hung\nup in the passage of every house, for the guidance of the family when\nthey went out. This table of days was prepared by a celebrated\nastrologer of universal knowledge in all mysteries, whether relating\nto the stars, dreams, or omens. Like other men of note in the East, he\nwas born in a miraculous manner. His father was a prince, and his\nmother a fox. It appears that the lady fox being pursued by huntsmen,\nran to and obtained protection from his highness. The creature\ndiscovered herself to be a fairy, and, throwing off her false\nappearance, became a beautiful princess. The prince being enamoured\nwith her charms, married her, and had by her the celebrated astrologer\nspoken of. When he grew up he invented a set of mysterious terms,\nwhich he comprised within the compass of one verse, as a charm or\nprotection for such persons as were compelled to work on unlucky days;\nand every one who repeated the verse reverently on the morning of an\nunlucky day, was preserved from all the evils that would have\notherwise befallen him.\n\n\n\n\nTHE GODS AND GODDESSES OF HEATHEN NATIONS.\n\n\nCHAPTER IX.\n\n      The Classification of Gods and Goddesses--Primeval\n      Parent Chaos--Creation--Influence of Ether--The Human\n      Race in danger of Perishing--Celestial Fire--Birth of\n      Cupid--Banishment of Cupid from the Blest\n      Abodes--Cupid's Armour--Fate--Eternal Decrees--Throne\n      of Jove--Fortune and Happiness--Misfortune and\n      Misery--Twofold Nature--Rewards and Punishments--First\n      Man and Woman--Pan the Emblem of all Things--Power of\n      Heathen Gods--Descriptions of Juno--Venus the Goddess\n      of Love and Beauty--Rustics turned into\n      Frogs--Vulcan--\u00c6olus--Momus the Jester--The Carping\n      God's Fault-finding--Improper Position of the Bull's\n      Horns--Minerva as a House--Window in Man's Breast.\n\n\nWe do not intend to notice at great length the ancient opinions and\nwritings concerning the deities which heathen nations thought presided\nover the world and the heavens, and influenced the affairs of the\nspheres above and below; but as much of comparatively modern\nsuperstition has been traced to mythology, generally so called, we\ncannot pass without observation the history of the gods, nor avoid\ngiving such extracts therefrom as bear particularly on our subject,\n\"The Collected Mysteries of all Nations.\"\n\nThe gods and goddesses of heathen nations were classified as\nfollows:--1st, the celestial gods and goddesses; 2nd, the terrestrial\ndeities; 3rd, the marine and river gods and goddesses; 4th, the\ninfernal gods; 5th, the subordinate and miscellaneous deities; 6th,\nthe ascriptious gods, demigods, and heroes; and 7th, the modal\ndeities. Ancient writers speak thus:\n\n\"When the primeval parent Chaos, hoary with unnumbered ages, was first\nmoved by the breath of Erebus, she brought forth her enormous\nfirst-born Hyle, and at the same portentous birth the amiable almighty\nEros, chief of the immortals. They had no sooner come to light than\nthey produced the terrible Titans.\"\n\nAgain we are informed that--\"Ere the universe appeared; ere the sun\nmounted on high, or the moon gave her pale light; ere the vales were\nstretched out below, or the mountains reared their towering heads; ere\nthe winds began to blow, or the rivers to flow, or plants or trees had\nsprung from the earth; while the heavens lay hid in the mighty mass,\nand the stars were unknown, the various parts of which the wondrous\ncreation consists lay jumbled without form in the Abyss of Being.\"\nThere, it is said, they had lain for ever and ever if the breath of\nthe terrible Erebus, the spirit that dwelt in eternal darkness, had\nnot gone forth and put the mass into vital agitation.\n\nFrom another source we learn that, first of all, Chaos existed; next\nin order the broad Earth; and then Love appeared, the most beautiful\nof all things. Of Chaos sprang Erebus and dusty Night, and of Erebus\nand Night came Ether and smiling Day.\n\nThe Earth conceived by the influence of Ether, and brought forth man\nand every description of animal. The human race was in danger of\nperishing from the face of earth. Naked, needy, and ignorant, they\npassed their dreary days, living in caves and lurking in woods like\nwild beasts. They were alike destitute of laws and arts. Their food\nconsisted of herbs. Often were they compelled to fly before the\nmountain tigers and bears of the forest, while they were nearly frozen\nto death. Thus they lived in wretchedness until Prometheus came to\ntheir relief. He called Pallas, the goddess of wisdom, to his aid. By\nher assistance he mounted to heaven, where he secretly held the reed\nhe carried in his hand to the wheel of the sun's chariot. In this way\nhe obtained the celestial fire, and conveyed it to Earth, where he\npresented it to man. Prometheus did not stop here: he instructed man\nin arts and industry of almost every description.\n\nThere is an interesting account of Cupid. The goddess of beauty, we\nare informed, brought forth a delicate infant, whom she gave to the\nGraces to nurse. Unhappily, the child neither throve in person, nor\nput forth feathers to cover the wings which he had. Under this\naffliction, Cupid's mother and nurses had recourse to the most ancient\nand infallible Themis, who gave this answer: That love came, for the\nmost part, single into the world, but that the child would not thrive\nuntil his mother brought forth another son. Then the one would thrive\nin virtue of the other; but if the one died, the other could not long\nsurvive. Venus brought forth another son, Anteros. He no sooner came\ninto being, than his elder brother Cupid grew, and his wings were soon\nfledged. So strong did the little urchin become, that he flew to\nheaven. There he associated with the Muses, became intimate with\nMercury, kept company with Hymen, and grew in favour with every one\nexcept the implacable Momus. Unfortunately, Cupid became insolent and\nvain, behaving with arrogance to the superior powers. He made enmity\nreign where peace and concord should have been found. Feuds raged\namong the gods and goddesses on his account. To rid themselves of a\npest, the rulers of heaven called an assembly of the gods, to consider\nhow peace could be restored. Cupid was accused of being a public\nincendiary, a disturber of good order; and the fomenter of discord\nbeing found guilty, he was banished from the blest abodes; ordered to\nbe a retainer of Ceres and Bacchus on earth; and doomed to have his\nwings stripped of their feathers, that he might not again infest the\nconfines of heaven.\n\nCupid is now armed with two bows, one of which he bends with the aid\nof the Graces, to secure a happy smiling lot, and he with the other,\nblind-folded, lets fly his arrows, to the confusion and misery of many\nin life. Like his mother, he is constantly in want. He is eager,\nravenous, and wandering about bare-footed, without home or habitation,\nsleeping before doors or by the wayside, under the open sky. But at\nthe same time he is ever forming designs upon all that is beautiful,\nis forward, cunning, and fond of new tricks.\n\nFate mysteriously clings round this earth, the heavens, and the\ncreatures in the regions above and below. When Jupiter heard of the\ndeath of his son Sarpedon, in great grief he called on Mercury to go\ninstantly to the Fates, and bring from them the strong box in which\nthe eternal decrees are laid up. Mercury went to the Fatal Sisters,\nand delivered his message. The Sisters smiled, and told him that the\nother end of the golden chain which secured the box with the\nunalterable decrees was so fixed to the throne of Jove, that were it\nto be unfastened, the master's seat itself might be shaken.\n\nJupiter holds in his hands the unerring balance of fate. Close to his\nthrone stand the two inexhaustible urns--the one filled with good\nfortune and happiness, the other with misfortune and misery. Out of\nthese is mixed a dose of life to every mortal man; and as the draught\nis, so are one's days embittered with disasters, or made pleasant with\nserenity, ease, and prosperity. To every star is allotted a mind, and\nall things have their fixed irrevocable laws. The human nature is\ntwofold; and man, who lives well on earth, returns after death to the\nhabitations of his congenial star, and there leads a blessed life;\nbut, failing in his duties, he is doomed to live a thousand years in\na degraded state. Sometimes a human soul is destined to animate a\nwild beast, never to be relieved until it reattain the purest of its\nfirst and best existence.\n\nThe Goths and Vandals entertained the opinion that the first man and\nwoman were made of an ash-tree. Odin, it is said, gave them breath,\nHener endowed them with reason, and Lodur injected blood into their\nveins, and provided them with beautiful faces.\n\nPan has been represented as the emblem of all things, and among the\nlearned of early times he passed for the first and oldest of the\ndivinities. His person is composed of various and opposite parts--a\nman and a goat. According to the most ancient Egyptians and Greeks, he\nhad neither father nor mother, but sprang of Demogorgon at the same\ninstant with the Fatal Sisters, the Parc\u00e6.\n\nThe power of the heathen gods and goddesses is reported as truly\nwonderful. Apollo turned Daphne, whom he loved, into a laurel, and his\nboy Hyacinth into a violet. Mars was the son of Jupiter and Juno, or,\naccording to Ovid, of Juno alone, who conceived him at the smell of a\nflower shown her by the goddess Flora.\n\nJuno is esteemed the goddess of kingdoms and riches. She is\nrepresented as a majestic beautiful woman, riding in a golden chariot\ndrawn by peacocks, waving a sceptre in her hand, and wearing a crown\nset about with roses and lilies, and encircled with fair Iris, or the\nrainbow. She is also supposed to preside over matrimony and births,\nand is the guardian angel of woman.\n\nVenus is the goddess of love and beauty; she sprang from the foam of\nthe sea. As soon as she was born she was cast upon the island of\nCyprus, where she was educated, and afterwards being carried to\nheaven, was married to Vulcan. Her image is fair and beautiful; she is\nclothed with purple, glittering with diamonds. There are two Cupids on\nher side, while around her are the Graces. Her chariot is of ivory,\ndrawn by swans, doves, or swallows.\n\nWhilst Latona was wandering through the fields of Lycia, she desired\nto drink from a spring at the bottom of a valley, but the country\nrustics drove her away. In spite of her entreaties, they refused to\nallow her to slake her thirst, whereupon, in wrath, she, cursing them,\nsaid, \"May ye always live in this water!\" Immediately they were turned\ninto frogs, and leaped into the streams and pools, where they\ncontinued to exist.\n\nVulcan, notwithstanding his noble descent, is obliged to follow the\ntrade of a blacksmith. On account of his deformity, he was cast down\nfrom heaven into the isle of Lemnos. His leg was broken by the fall.\nHe erected a forge, where he makes thunderbolts for his father Jupiter\nand armour for the other gods. His servants are called Cyclops,\nbecause they have but one eye. Though Vulcan is unpleasant in the\nsight of others, Venus thinks him the most beautiful of all the\ndivinities.\n\n\u00c6olus keeps the winds under his power in a cave in the \u00c6olian Islands,\nwhere he dwells. He can raise storms and hurricanes, and restrain\ntheir rage at pleasure.\n\nMomus is a jester, mocker, or mimic. His life is spent in idleness,\nmerely observing the sayings and doings of the gods, and then\ncensuring and deriding them. For instance, when Neptune was made a\nbull, Minerva a house, and Vulcan a man, Momus was appointed to judge\nas to whom the greatest skill was manifested in creation. The carping\ngod disapproved of all. He found fault with the bull for not having\nhis horns before his eyes in his forehead, that he might be enabled to\npush the surer. He condemned the house, because it was fixed and could\nnot be carried away in case it was placed in a bad neighbourhood. But\nthe god, he said, who made man, was most imprudent because he did not\nmake a window in the human breast, that the thoughts might be seen.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER X.\n\n      Satyrs described--Diana's Retirement--Pallas, the\n      Goddess of Shepherds and Pasture--The vile\n      Flora--Pomona deceived--Celestial Nymphs--Terrestrial\n      Nymphs--River Gods and Goddesses--Sirens--Witch\n      Circe--Infernal Deities--Passage to Tartarus--Palace\n      of Pluto--Judges of Hell--Goddesses of\n      Destiny--Furies--Night, Death, and Sleep: by whom\n      presided over--Names of Monsters condemned in the\n      place of Punishment--Tartarian Regions--Delights of\n      the Elysian Fields--Food and Drink of Pagan\n      Gods--Festivals of Heathens--Colour of\n      Gods--Sacrifices to Deities--Things sacred to Gods.\n\n\nSatyrs are partly of human likeness and partly of bestial shape. They\nhave heads of human form, with horns and brutish ears; they have\ncrooked hands, rough hairy bodies, goats' legs and feet and tails. The\nchief of these monsters is the god Pan, the inventor of the musical\npipe.\n\nDiana, out of love to Chastity, avoids consort with men, retires into\nthe woods, and there diverts herself with hunting, whence she is\nreckoned the goddess of the woods and the chase. Pallas is esteemed\nthe goddess of shepherds and pasture, and is the reputed inventress of\ncorn, and is thought by some to be Ceres or Vesta. Flora is the\ngoddess of flowers. By a vile trade, she accumulated a vast amount of\nmoney, and made the people of Rome her heirs, who, in return, placed\nher among the divinities.\n\nFerona and Pomona are two goddesses of trees and fruits. The latter\nwas advised by the god Vertumnus to enter the matrimonial state in the\nguise of a hagged old woman; but without success, till he appeared to\nher as a fair young man, and then she felt the power of love, and\nyielded to his wishes. The Nymphs are a company of neat charming\nvirgins, living near the gardens of Pomona. They are of three\nclasses:--1st the Celestial Nymphs, called Genii, who guide the\nspheres and dispense the influences of the stars to things on earth.\n2nd, the Terrestrial Nymphs, as Dryades, who preside over the woods\nand live in the oaks; and Hamadryades, who are born and die with the\noaks; the Oreades, who preside over the mountains; the Nap\u00e6\u00e6, who\npreside over the groves and valleys; the Limnatides, who look after\nthe meadows and fields. 3rd, Marine Nymphs.\n\nAs the chief of the marine and river gods and goddesses, Neptune\nstands at the head. He is represented with black hair and blue eyes,\narrayed in a mantle of azure, holding a trident in his right hand, and\nembracing his queen with his left arm. He stands upright in his\nchariot, drawn by sea horses, and is attended by nymphs. Proteus is\nthe son of Neptune, but some say he is the offspring of Oceanus and\nTethys. His business is to tend the sea-calves. He can turn himself\ninto any shape. Triton, the son and trumpeter of Neptune, is a man to\nthe middle and a dolphin below; he has two fore feet, like those of\nhorses, and is provided with two tails. Oceanus is the son of C[oe]lum\nand Vesta, husband to Tethys, god of the sea, and father of the rivers\nand springs. Nereus, also the son of Oceanus and Tethys, is father of\nfifty daughters, called Nereides or Sea Nymphs. Pal\u00e6mon and his mother\nIno, together with the fisherman Glaucus, are reckoned among the sea\ndeities. The Sirens resemble mermaids, having the faces of women, but\nbodies of flying fish. They are reported to be excellent songsters,\nthat play on the Sicilian coasts, and tempt passengers on shore, where\nthey sing them asleep and kill them. Scylla and Charybdis are two\nother sea monsters. Scylla is the daughter of Phorcys, and beloved by\nGlaucus, whom therefore the witch Circe by her enchantments turned\ninto a rock, with dogs around her. Charybdis is a very ravenous woman,\nwho stole Hercules's oxen, for which crime Jupiter struck her dead\nwith a thunder-bolt, and then turned her into a gulf or whirlpool in\nthe Sicilian Sea. The Sea Nymphs are the Nereides already referred to.\nThe Naides or Naiades preside over fountains and springs; the\nPotameides preside over rivers, and Limniades over lakes.\n\nIn noticing the Infernal Deities, we shall describe the dismal\nregions, where wicked spirits dwell, and over which they are reported\nto preside. The name commonly given to these regions is Hades or\nTartarus, understood to signify hell. The passage leading thereto is a\nwide dark cave, through which one has to pass by a steep rocky descent\ntill he arrives at a gloomy grove and an unnavigable lake called\nAvernus, from which such poisonous vapours rise as to kill birds\nflying over it. Yet over this lake the souls of the dead must pass. To\nassist them, an old decrepit, long-bearded fellow, the oft-heard of\nCharon, attends with a ferry-boat to carry them to the other side, at\na fare not less than a halfpenny.\n\nAfter this there are four rivers to be passed over--Acheron, whose\nwaters are very bitter; the Styx, a lake rather than a river, and so\nsacred to the gods, that if any of them swore by it and broke his\noath, he was deprived of his godhead, and was prohibited from drinking\nnectar for a hundred years; the river Cocytus, which flows out of Styx\nwith a lamentable groaning, resembling the painful sounds and\nexclamations of the damned; the river Phlegethon, so called because it\nswells with waves of fire and streams of flames.\n\nThe souls having passed these rivers, are conducted to the palace of\nPluto, king of the infernal regions, where the gate is guarded by\nCerberus, a dog with three heads, whose body is covered with snakes in\nplace of hair. This dog is the porter of hell.\n\nPluto initiated funeral obsequies for the dead: he sits on a throne\ncovered with darkness, holding a key in his hand, and crowned with\nebony. Beside him is his queen Proserpina, whom he stole from Ceres.\n\nMinos, \u00c6acus, and Rhadamanthus are judges in hell. The first two are\nsons of Jupiter by Europa, and the last is his son by \u00c6gina. These\nare believed to judge the souls of the dead.\n\nThe Fates are named Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, and are the\ngoddesses of destiny. They order and manage the fatal thread of life.\nClotho draws the thread, Lachesis turns the wheel, and Atropos cuts\nthe string asunder when spun to a due length.\n\nThe Furies, called sometimes Eumenides, Dir\u00e6, and Manes, are the\ndaughters of Nox and Acheron: their names are Alecto, Tisiphone, and\nMeg\u00e6ra, and are known by the common name of Erinnys. They have faces\nlike women, their looks are full of terror, they hold lighted torches\nin their hands, and snakes and serpents cling to their necks and\nshoulders. Their office is to punish the crimes of wicked men, and to\ntorment and frighten them by following them with ghastly looks and\nburning material.\n\nErebus and Nox preside over darkness and the night; Mors over death;\nand Somnus is the god of sleep, who, by his servant Morpheus, sends\ndreams to men while asleep.\n\nBesides others, there are in the infernal regions the following\nmonsters:--The Centaurs, whose upper parts are human, but whose bodies\nand legs are those of a horse. They were begotten of a cloud by Ixion.\nGorgon is a monster with three heads. The Harpies, born of Oceanus and\nTerra, have the faces of virgins, and the bodies of birds with claws.\nTheir names are Ocypete, Aello, and Celeno. The Gorgons are Medusa,\nStheno, and Euryale, daughters of Phorcys and Cete. They have heads\ncovered with snakes instead of hair, which so terrifies beholders that\nthey immediately turn into stones. The Lami\u00e6 and Empus\u00e6 have each only\none eye and one tooth. They have faces, necks, and breasts like women,\nbut their bodies are covered with scales, and they have the tails of\nserpents. The Chim[oe]ra is a monster that vomits fire, and has the\nhead and breast of a lion, the belly of a goat, and the tail of a\ndragon. The Sphinx, begotten of Typhon and Echidna, has the head and\nface of a virgin, the wings of a bird, and the body of a dog. A riddle\nshe put forth being explained by [OE]dipus, so enraged her that she\nthrew herself from a rock and was killed.\n\nThe most famous of the condemned in the place of punishment are the\nGiants; they are great in stature, and have horrible feet, like\ndragons. They make war against the celestial gods, but never prevail,\nand are struck down to hell by Jupiter's thunder-bolts and the arms of\nthe gods. The principal offenders are Typhon, \u00c6g\u00e6on, Al[oe]us, and\nTityus; and, to prevent them rising again, the Island of Sicily is\nfixed on Typhon, and Mount \u00c6tna on \u00c6g\u00e6on, and Tityus is doomed to have\na vulture always gnawing his liver, which grows afresh every month.\nPhlegias fired Apollo's temple at Delphi, for which he was sentenced\nto have a great stone hung over his head, ready every moment to fall\nand crush him to pieces. Ixion, for an assault on Juno, was struck\ndown to hell, and tied to a wheel, which kept continually turning.\nSisyphus is a notorious robber, condemned to roll a stone up to the\ntop of a hill, which is made to roll down again immediately; and as he\nhas to begin and roll it up again as soon as it comes down, his labour\nis perpetual. The Danaides are fifty virgins (sisters), who all but\none, by the command of their father Danaus, slew their husbands on\ntheir wedding night. For this they were condemned to draw water out of\na deep well, to fill a tub whose bottom was full of holes like a\nsieve. Tantalus invited the gods to a feast, and, to improve their\ndivinity, he killed, boiled, and served up Pelops on the table before\nthem to eat. They refused to partake of this horrid dish, and\ncondemned Tantalus to stand in water which he could not drink, and to\nhave meat placed before him which he could not taste, though suffering\nthe pangs of hunger and thirst--a punishment he was to endure for\never.\n\nIn the Tartarian regions there is a place supposed to abound with all\nkinds of pleasures and delights, called Elysium, because thither the\nsouls of good men are conveyed after being freed from the body. This\nis the heathen paradise, consisting of pleasant plains, the most\nverdant fields, the shadiest groves, and the finest and most temperate\nair that can be found. After the souls of the pious have spent many\nages in these Elysian fields, they drink the water of the river Lethe,\nwhich makes them forget all things past; and then they return to the\nworld and pass into new bodies.\n\nThe Pagan deities have ambrosia for their food, and nectar for their\ndrink, both of which have the property of giving immortality to those\nwho partake of them.\n\nThe festivals of the heathens were many, as almost every deity was\nallowed sacred honours. In sacrificing, the animals offered to the\ncelestial deities were white, and those to the infernal gods were\nblack. To Jupiter a white ox was sacrificed; to Neptune, Mars, and\nApollo a bull, ram, and boar; to Ceres, milk, honey, and a sow-pig\nwere offered; to \u00c6sculapius, goats and poultry; to the Lares, a cock;\nto the Sun, a horse; to Juno, a she-lamb; to Venus, a dove; to Diana,\na crow; to Pan and Minerva, she-goats; and to the Fauns, kids.\n\nThe fir and vine were sacred to Bacchus, the cypress to Pluto, the\ncedar to the Furies, the ash to Mars, the oak to Jove, the laurel to\nApollo, the myrtle to Venus, the olive to Minerva, the poplar to\nHercules, the pine to Cybele, and the rose to Venus.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XI.\n\n      Achilles's Mother--Prediction concerning the taking of\n      Troy--Bravery, Armour, Love, and Death of\n      Achilles--Acrisius's Daughter--Danae and her son\n      Perseus--Ardea changed into a Bird--Pluto's Invisible\n      Helmet--Minerva's Buckler--Mercury's Wings--Medusa\n      deprived of Life--Sea Monster--A Gorgon's Head and its\n      Virtues--Stheno and Euryale not subject to Old Age or\n      Death--Minerva's Revenge against Medusa--Serpents in\n      Africa and Pegasus produced by Medusa's Blood--Tales\n      by the Daughters of Minyas--Punishment by Bacchus--The\n      Search of Cadmus for his sister Europa--Halcyon's\n      Sorrow--Transmigration--Strength and Exploits of\n      Hercules--Love Potion--Hymen--Jason's\n      Adventures--Power and Cruelty of Medea--How a\n      Favourable Wind was procured--Manner in which Orion\n      came into Existence--False Swearer\n      punished--Palladium--The Life and Deeds of\n      Paris--Golden Apple--Marriage of Peleus and\n      Thetis--Impiety of Pentheus--Rhea and her Sons--Scylla\n      turned into a Sea Monster.\n\n\nAchilles's mother being endowed with a prophetic spirit, knew that her\nson would lose his life at Troy. She dipped him in the river Styx, by\nwhich he was rendered invulnerable, except in the heel, by which he\nwas held during the operation. The seer Calchas announced that,\nwithout Achilles, Troy could not be taken. His mother, to keep him\nfrom danger, concealed him among King Lycomedes's daughters, disguised\nas a girl; but being discovered by Ulysses, he joined his countrymen,\nand sailed for the Trojan coast. After giving many proofs of his\nbravery and military prowess, he quarrelled with Agamemnon,\ncommander-in-chief of the Grecian army, and in disgust withdrew from\nthe contest. During the absence of Achilles, the Trojans were\nvictorious; but his friend Patroclus, clad in his armour, having\nrashly encountered Hector, fell by the hand of that hero. Achilles, to\nrevenge his death, resolved instantly to take the field. For this\npurpose, Vulcan, at the request of Thetis, made her son a complete\nsuit of armour and weapons. With these celestial arms, many of the\nTrojans were put to death. Achilles, falling in love with Polyxena, a\ndaughter of the Trojan king, whilst soliciting her hand in the temple\nof Minerva, was wounded by her brother Paris in the heel, which caused\nhis death.\n\nAcrisius, the son of Abas, king of Argos and Ocalea, being informed by\nan oracle that he would be put to death by his daughter Danae's son,\nconfined her in a tower, to prevent her having children; but without\neffect, for Jupiter, in a golden shower, entered the chamber of Danae,\nand she became the mother of Perseus. She and her infant son were\nthen, by order of Acrisius, exposed to the sea in a slender bark,\nwhich the wind drifted to Seriphus, where both were taken ashore by\nsome fishermen and carried to Polydectes, the king of the island. The\nking conceived a violent attachment to the mother, but sought the\ndestruction of the son. Danae and her son left Seriphus and went to\nLarissa. Danae built Ardea; and on its being burned, the inhabitants\nsaid it was changed into a bird. Perseus, by the aid of Pluto's\ninvisible helmet, Minerva's buckler, and Mercury's wings (the\nTalaria), and short dagger made of diamonds (called Herpe), deprived\nMedusa, one of the Gorgons, of life, and carried off her head in\ntriumph. He killed the sea monster to which Andromeda was exposed, and\nthen married her. A memorable battle ensued at their nuptials.\nPhineus, the uncle of Andromeda, who passionately loved her, entered\nwith a band of armed men, and attempted to carry her off by violence.\nBut Perseus made a brave resistance; and at last, finding himself on\nthe point of being overpowered, presented the Gorgon's head, which\ninstantly turned all his enemies to stone in the posture in which they\nwere then standing. Immediately after this he returned to Seriphus, in\ntime to protect his mother from the insult of Polydectes, to whom\nPerseus showed the Gorgon's head, which converted him into stone also.\nMedusa, it will be remembered, was the only one of the three Gorgons\nwho was mortal. Her sisters, Stheno and Euryale, were neither subject\nto old age nor death. She greatly surpassed the other two in elegance\nof figure and comeliness of face; but in nothing was her superiority\nmore remarkable than in the beauty of her locks. Minerva, provoked\neither because her temple had been profaned, or because her personal\ncharms had been slighted by Medusa, who had preferred her own beauty\nto that of the goddess, turned her fine hair, of which she boasted\ngreatly, into serpents, and gave to her eyes the power of converting\nto stone all at whom she looked. The blood which fell from Medusa's\nhead when Perseus carried it over Africa in his flight, was supposed\nto produce the numerous serpents which infest that country, and also\nthe winged horse Pegasus.\n\nBut to return to Acrisius. Let us see whether the prediction of the\nOracle, that foretold he would be put to death by his daughter's son,\nwas fulfilled. The fame of his grandson, after his remarkable\nadventures, having reached the ears of Acrisius, he went to Larissa to\nsee him, at the time Teutamis was celebrating funereal games in honour\nof his father. To this city Perseus had repaired with the view of\ndistinguishing himself among the combatants. Here he accidentally\nkilled, with a quoit, an old man, who was found to be his grandfather\nAcrisius, and thus verified the oracular prediction.\n\nAlcithoe and her sisters denied the divinity of Bacchus, and refused\nto join in his worship. Whilst the Theban women were employed\ncelebrating the orgies of that god, the daughters of Minyas (for that\nwas their father's name) continued at their looms. To enliven their\nhours of labour, one of them proposed that each in her turn should\nrelate some amusing tale, to which, the other sisters agreeing, she\nwith whom the idea originated was requested to begin. After hesitating\nfor some time which of her numerous collections would be most\nagreeable--whether Babylonian Dercetis changed to a fish or her\ndaughter to a dove, or Naias, who by magic transformed young men to\nfishes, or the tree the berries of which were formerly white, but\nturned to purple by being stained with blood--she preferred the last\nin consequence of its being little known. She then narrates the simple\nbut beautiful and affecting fable of Pyramus and Thisbe. Leuconoe\nnext, after mentioning the exposure of Mars and Venus, relates the\nhistory of Leucothoe, with whom Apollo fell in love, and afterwards\nturned into a rod of frankincense. To this she adds the fiction of\nClytie, whom the same god changed into a sunflower. Alcithoe being\nthen requested by her sisters to tell a story--despising as too common\nthe fables of Daphnis, a shepherd on Mount Ida, who, for violating his\nmarriage promise, was transformed to stone; of Scython, who changed\nhis sex; of Celemis, a nurse of Jupiter, converted to adamant; and of\nthe nymph Similax, and her lover Crocus, turned into flowers--prefers\nthe history of the fountain Salmacis, who conceived a violent\nattachment for Hermaphroditus, the son of Mercury and Venus. These\nsisters, having discontinued their narrating, remained still obstinate\nin their contempt of Bacchus, who, in revenge, changed their\nimplements into vines and ivy, and themselves into bats.\n\nCadmus, a son of Agenor, king of Ph[oe]nicia, and Telephassa or\nAgriope, was ordered by his father to go in search of his sister\nEuropa, whom Jupiter had carried away, and not to return unless he\nfound her. His search being unsuccessful, he is said to have consulted\nthe oracle of Apollo, by which he was commanded to build a city where\nhe saw a heifer standing on the grass, and call the country B[oe]otia.\nHaving found the heifer, he sent his men to a fountain for water,\nwhich was at no great distance, that he might offer a sacrifice in\ngratitude to the god. But the spring being sacred to Mars, a dragon\nguarded it, which devoured all his men. By the art of Minerva, he\novercame the dragon, and sowed its teeth, which grew up armed men,\nwho, on his throwing a stone amongst them, began to fight, and all\nwere killed except five, who assisted him in building Thebes. Hence\nPentheus, in addressing the Thebans, calls them Anguigen\u00e6, serpent or\nsnake-descended. The ferocity of the petty tribes who inhabit that\npart of Greece, and Cadmus's plan of subduing the natives by artfully\nexciting them to fight against each other until the strength and\nresources of the contending parties were quite exhausted,\nsatisfactorily explain the tale of the dragon, the armed men that\nsprang from his teeth, and the stone which he threw among them. He\nafterwards married Harmonia or Harmonie, the daughter of Mars and\nVenus, by whom he had one son and four daughters. In advanced life,\noppressed with sorrow at the fate of his daughter Ino and her two\nsons, he fled from Thebes to Illyricum, where he was changed into a\ndragon.\n\nHalcyone's husband, Ceyx, a king of Trachinia, was drowned while\nattempting to cross to Claros to consult the Oracle. Disconsolate in\nconsequence of his departure, she incessantly implored the gods for\nhis safe return. Juno, moved by her constant prayers for her husband\nafter his death, and compassionating the violence of her sorrow,\nentreated Somnus to send Morpheus, who, assuming the form and voice of\nCeyx, appeared in a dream, and informed her of his fate. Frantic with\ngrief, she ran to the beach, and, according to her dream, found the\nbody of Ceyx floating lifeless to the shore. The queen of Trachinia\nwas changed into a bird, in her attempt to reach by a bound the body\nof her husband, which she no sooner touched than it underwent the same\ntransformation. Their mutual attachments remaining, they continue to\nlive together as birds, distinguished by the same tenderness and\naffection which had marked their conjugal state when in the human\nform.\n\nHercules was possessed of the greatest physical strength. He had a\ngreat enemy in Hera, who, knowing that the child who should be born\nthat day was fated to rule over all the descendants of Perseus,\ncontrived to delay the birth of Hercules and hasten that of\nEurystheus. Eurystheus thus, by decree of fate, became chief of the\nPerseid\u00e6. While yet in the cradle, Hercules showed his divine origin\nby strangling two serpents sent by Hera to destroy him. In course of\ntime Eurystheus summoned Hercules to appear before him, and ordered\nhim to perform the labours which, by priority of birth, he was\nempowered to impose on him. Hercules, unwilling to obey, went to\nDelphi to consult the Oracle, and was informed that he must perform\nten labours imposed on him by Eurystheus, after which he should attain\nto immortality. The first labour imposed on him was to destroy the\nlion that haunted the forests of Nemea and Cleon\u00e6, and could not be\nwounded by the arrows of a mortal. Hercules boldly attacked the lion\nand strangled him. The second was to destroy the Learn\u00e6an hydra, which\nhe accomplished with the aid of Iolaus; but because he obtained\nassistance in his work, Eurystheus refused to reckon it. Hercules's\nthird labour was to catch the hind of Diana, famous for its swiftness,\nits golden horns, and brazen feet. The fourth was to bring alive to\nEurystheus a wild boar, which ravaged the neighbourhood of Erymanthus.\nThe fifth was to cleanse the stables of Augeas, king of Elis, where\nthree thousand oxen had been confined for many years; which task he\naccomplished in one day, by turning the rivers Alpheus and Peneus\nthrough the stables. For certain reasons this exploit was not counted.\nHis sixth was to destroy the carnivorous birds, with brazen wings,\nbeaks, and claws, which ravaged the country near the lake Stymphalis,\nin Arcadia. The seventh was to bring alive to Peloponnesus a bull,\nremarkable for its beauty and strength, which Poseidon had given to\nMinos, king of Crete, in order that he might sacrifice it; which\nMinos refusing to do, Poseidon made the bull mad, and it laid waste\nthe island. Hercules brought the bull on his shoulders to Eurystheus,\nwho set it at liberty. The eighth labour was to obtain the mares of\nDiomedes, king of the Bistones, in Thrace, which fed upon human flesh.\nThe ninth was to bring the girdle of Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons.\nThe tenth was to kill the monster Geryon, and bring his herds to\nArgos. These were all the labours originally imposed on Hercules; but\nas Eurystheus acknowledged only eight of them, Hercules was commanded\nto perform two more. The eleventh labour was to obtain the golden\napples from the garden of the Hesperides. Atlas, who knew where to\nfind the apples, brought them to Hercules, who meantime supported the\nvault of heaven. The last labour was to bring from the infernal\nregions the three-headed dog Cerberus. When Hercules brought the dog\nto Eurystheus, the latter, pale with fright, ordered him to be set at\nliberty, whereupon Cerberus immediately sank into the earth.\nHercules's servitude was now ended, but his great performances were\nnot. He fought with the centaurs and giants. When his period of\nslavery had ended, he married Dejanira; with her he went to Trachinia.\nAt the river Evenus he encountered the centaur Nessus. Nessus, under\npretence of carrying Dejanira over, attempted to offer her violence,\nwhich caused Hercules to slay him with a poisoned arrow. Nessus,\nbefore expiring, instructed Dejanira how to prepare a love potion for\nHercules. He erected an altar to Zeus Ken\u00e6os. In order to celebrate\nthe rite with due solemnity, he sent Lichas to Trachis for a white\ngarment. Dejanira, being jealous, anointed the robe with the philter\nshe had received from Nessus. Hercules put it on, and immediately the\npoison penetrated his bones. Maddened by the pain, he seized Lichas by\nthe feet and flung him into the sea. He tore off the dress, but it\nstuck to his flesh, which was thus torn from his bones. Dejanira,\nbeing informed of what had taken place, destroyed herself. Hercules\nrepaired to Mount [OE]ta, where he erected a funeral pile, and,\nascending it, commanded that it should be set on fire. The pile was\nsuddenly surrounded by a dark cloud, in which, amid thunder and\nlightning, he was carried up to heaven.\n\nHymen, the god of marriage, attended the celebration of marriage, and\nthe ancients believed the parties would be miserable during the\nremainder of their lives unless he attended.\n\nJason was a famous hero of antiquity. No sooner had he finished his\neducation under the centaur Chiron, than he went boldly to Pelias, who\nhad banished him, and mounted the throne, and demanded the kingdom.\nPelias, for various reasons, durst not appeal to arms, but, to\naccomplish the warlike youth's ruin, advised him to undertake an\nexpedition against \u00c6etes, king of Colchis, who had murdered their\nrelation Phryxus, and, on his return, promised to resign to him the\ncrown. To this proposal Jason agreed, and undertook the voyage to\nobtain the golden fleece, so celebrated in history under the name of\nthe Argonautic Expedition. After a series of wonderful adventures he\narrived at Colchis; and by the assistance of Medea, the king's\ndaughter, whom he promised to marry, he fulfilled the hard terms on\nwhich he was to accomplish the object of his voyage. By her aid and\ndirections, he was enabled to tame the bulls with horns and feet of\nbrass, which breathed nothing but fire, and to plough with them a\ncertain field; to kill a huge serpent, from whose teeth sprang up\narmed men; to destroy a dreadful dragon, which watched continually at\nthe foot of the tree on which the golden fleece was suspended; and\nthen to carry off the prize in the presence of all the Colchians, who\nwere equally confounded at his intrepidity and success. He returned to\nThessaly in great triumph, but his future life was rendered miserable\nby his infidelity, and the barbarous mode of revenge adopted by\nMedea, whom he married according to promise and carried to Greece.\nAfter many years' happiness, it may be remembered, he most\niniquitously divorced her. But she severely revenged his ingratitude\nby causing the death of his favourite Glauce, and the ruin of her\nfamily. Not satisfied with these acts of cruelty, she put two of\nJason's sons to death before his eyes, and then fled through the air\nin a chariot drawn by winged dragons. Having visited Corinth, she\nsettled at Athens. Other barbarous actions again forced her to have\nrecourse to her chariot. She returned to Colchis, where a\nreconciliation took place between her and Jason.\n\nWhen the princes of Greece had, in fulfilment of their oaths, taken up\narms to revenge the criminal conduct of Paris, Agamemnon, on account\nof his military talents, and being the brother of Menelaus, was\nappointed commander-in-chief of the combined forces. After the army\nhad assembled in the port of Aulis, Diana, provoked at his having\nkilled one of her favourite stags, prevented by contrary winds their\nsailing for Troy. On consulting the Oracle, the Greeks were informed\nthat Iphigenia, daughter of Agamemnon, must be sacrificed to appease\nthe enraged goddess, otherwise they must remain in harbour. Struck\nwith horror at this awful response, Agamemnon sternly refused to give\nup his daughter, and ordered the princes to return home with their\ntroops. But the winning eloquence of Ulysses and the urgent\nremonstrances of the other chiefs at last prevailed, and paternal\naffection yielded to military fame. Ulysses was then sent to Mycen\u00e6,\nto carry the beautiful Iphigenia to bleed on the altar of Diana. The\ninnocent victim's blood procured a favourable wind to the Grecian\nfleet.\n\nOrion sprang from Jupiter and Mercury. These gods promised to Hyricus,\na B[oe]otian peasant, who had entertained them hospitably, whatever he\nwould ask. Having no child, his wife being dead, and he being bound\nby promise not to marry again, requested a son. The gods then put\nwater into the hide of a bull, which Hyricus had offered to them in\nsacrifice on discovering their divinity, and ordered him to bury it in\nthe earth for nine months. At the end of that time, taking it out, he\nfound a lively boy.\n\nPalici, twin brothers, were sons of Jupiter and Thalia or \u00c6tna, a\ndaughter of Vulcan, who during her pregnancy prayed to be saved from\nthe fury of Juno, by being concealed in the bowels of the earth. Her\nrequest was granted, and Tellus at the proper time brought to light\nthe two boys. They were worshipped with great solemnity by the\nSicilians. Their temple stood near the lakes or springs, strongly\nimpregnated with sulphur, to which those who wished to put an end to\nquarrels by oath used to repair. False swearers were punished there in\na miraculous manner, whilst the innocent escaped without injury. Some\nsuppose that the perjured persons were destroyed by secret fire, while\nothers think they were drowned.\n\nPalladium was a statue of the goddess Pallas or Minerva, said to have\nfallen from heaven, near the tent of the king of Troy, when he was\nbuilding the Citadel. An ancient oracle declared that, so long as the\nPalladium remained within the walls, Troy could not be taken. On that\naccount it was kept with great care. The Greeks, aware of this\nprediction, sent Diomedes and Ulysses to carry it away during the\nnight--a feat which they accomplished.\n\nParis was a son of Priam, king of Troy. His father ordered him to be\nput to death at his birth, in consequence of his mother having dreamt\nthat she was delivered of a firebrand which reduced the city to ashes,\nand the augurs interpreting the dream to portend that the child would\noccasion the destruction of Troy. The persons appointed to despatch\nthe child, contented themselves with exposing him on Mount Ida, where\nhe was brought up by the shepherds. On account of his extraordinary\nstrength and courage in defending the flocks from ravenous beasts and\nrepelling the attacks of robbers, he was called Alexander. There he\npassed the early part of his life, and, whilst engaged tending his\nflock, gave judgment in the appeal of the three goddesses, Venus,\nJuno, and Minerva, who contended for the golden apple. Each\nendeavoured to bribe him: Juno promised him a kingdom, Minerva\nmilitary glory, and Venus the most beautiful woman in the world for\nhis wife. Upon the mind of the noble shepherd the promise made by\nVenus produced the deepest impression, and he adjudged the golden\napple to her. The decision of Paris, which gave great offence to the\nother two goddesses, provoked their wrath against the empire and\nnation, and caused the Trojan War, and all the evils and calamities to\nwhich that memorable struggle gave rise. His father subsequently\nreceived him at court, and treated him as his son. After spending some\ntime in his native city among the Trojan princes, Paris set out for\nthe court of Menelaus, king of Sparta, with a view to carry off his\nwife Helena, the most beautiful woman in the world, as the reward of\nthe judgment which he had pronounced in favour of Venus. The young\nTrojan met with a most welcome reception at the Spartan court; but he\nabused the laws of hospitality by prevailing on the queen to elope\nwith him. Though demanded back by all the princes who had sworn to\nprotect her, and threatened with the vengeance of the combined forces\nof Greece, he persisted in refusing their request. His father, on\naccount of Ajax carrying off his sister Hesione, encouraged him in his\nobstinacy and guilt. In consequence of this outrage, the Greeks\nimmediately commenced hostilities, which ended in the total\ndestruction of the city and kingdom of Troy.\n\nTo bring out more fully the story of the apple adjudged by Paris to\nVenus, it is necessary to notice what happened at the marriage of\nPeleus and Thetis. At the celebration of the nuptials, all the gods\nand goddesses were present except the goddess of discord, who,\nexasperated at not being invited, threw into the assembly a golden\napple with the inscription, \"Detur Pulchriori.\" At first all the\nfemale deities asserted their right to the apple; but subsequently it\nwas claimed by Juno, Minerva, and Venus only. These three agreed to\nrefer the matter to Jupiter. But the sovereign of Olympus, knowing\nthat it could not justly be given to Juno, and dreading the effects of\nher anger were it awarded to either of the other goddesses, advised\nthem to plead their cause before Paris. The decision of Paris, and the\nserious results thereof; are already known.\n\nPentheus foolishly refused to acknowledge the divinity of Bacchus. To\ncomplete his impiety, the Theban king sent his servants to bring the\ngod in chains before him. Assuming the appearance of one of his\nattendants, Bacchus allowed himself to be taken prisoner, and to be\ncarried into the presence of the king, to whom, under the character of\nAc[oe]tes, he related the transformation of the Tuscan sailors.\nDespising the narrative, Pentheus ordered him to be put to death.\nLoaded with fetters, the attendants of that prince shut him up in\nprison, from which he miraculously escaped. Pentheus then went out to\nsee the Bacchanals, and to learn their mysteries; but, approaching too\nnear, he was torn in pieces.\n\nQuirinus, son of Rhea Sylvia, sometimes called Ilia, a vestal virgin,\nthe daughter of Numitor, king of Alba Longa, was the twin brother of\nRemus. This princess, to extenuate her guilt, and to give divinity to\nher sons, declared that Mars, the god of war, was their father.\nAmulius, who had dispossessed his brother Numitor, killed the sons of\nthe latter, and made Rhea a vestal, and, to secure the crown to\nhimself and his descendants, ordered his niece to be burnt alive, and\nher infants thrown into the Tiber. The river at that time being\nswollen above its banks, the persons appointed to dispose of the\nchildren could not reach the main current. The cradle in which the\ntwins were exposed floated to a place of safety on dry ground; and the\ninfants were suckled by a wolf until found by Faustulus, the king's\nshepherd, who carried them to his house, where they were brought up as\nhis own children. Their youthful years were spent in feeding cattle.\nAfter they were grown up, Remus being taken prisoner by the servants\nof Amulius, Faustulus, anxious to preserve the captive, disclosed to\nRomulus the truth respecting their birth. He, with the assistance of a\nfew daring and resolute young men, killed Amulius, delivered his\nbrother, and restored their grandfather to the throne.\n\nAfter this event, the two brothers formed a design of building a city\non the mountains where they had spent the early part of their life.\nFrom its being unknown which of them was the elder, they had recourse\nto augury to decide which of them should have the honour of founding\nand governing the new city. To Remus six ravens appeared, and to\nRomulus twelve. The former claimed the sovereignty from the priority\nof his omen, and the latter from the greater number of the birds. Each\nbeing saluted king by his own party, a battle ensued, in which Remus\nwas killed. Others say that he was killed by Romulus, because he had,\nin contempt, leapt over the wall the latter was building when founding\nthe city of Rome. The measures which Romulus adopted to increase the\nnumber of his subjects, the plans he formed for the regulations of the\ncity, and the laws he enacted, discovered a surprising degree of\npolitical knowledge. His military talents were still more remarkable.\nHe conquered every nation which declared war against him. The Sabines\nand Romans having for a considerable time fought with great ferocity,\nand victory inclining to neither side, they coalesced, and Tatius, the\nking, was appointed joint sovereign of Rome with Romulus. After the\ndeath of Tatius, Romulus found himself sole master of the city. His\nprosperity rendered him insolent and tyrannical. When reviewing his\narmy, the senators, taking advantage of a storm that suddenly arose,\ntore him in pieces, and reported that he had been translated to\nheaven. The Romans, believing the story, deemed Romulus worthy of\ndivine honours, and accordingly ranked him among their gods under the\nname of Quirinus.\n\nScylla, a daughter of Phorcys, was turned by Circe into a sea-monster\nof a most hideous form, either from jealousy, because she was a\ngreater favourite with Glaucus, or at the request of that deity.\nAccording to some, she retained her original form and beauty down to\nthe waist; but others say she had six heads and as many throats, and\ninstead of hands had two claws. Her middle was compassed by dogs,\nwhich never ceased barking. The lower part of her body terminated in a\nlarge fish with a forked tail.\n\nThere was another Scylla, the daughter of Nisus, king of Megara, who\nconceived a violent passion for Minos when he was besieging her\nfather's capital. To ensure the fall of the city, she cut off from her\nfather's head, whilst he slept, a hair of purple colour, on which his\ngood fortune depended, and presented it to her lover. Possessed of\nthis charm, Minos soon carried the place, but he punished the perfidy\nof Scylla: she was thrown into the sea, and changed, according to one\naccount, into a fish, and, if we can believe another narrative, her\nform became that of a bird.\n\n\n\n\nMYTHOLOGY OF GERMANY, GREAT BRITAIN, SCANDINAVIA, ETC.\n\n\nCHAPTER XII.\n\n      Mythology of Germany, Great Britain, and\n      Scandinavia--Scandinavian Gods, Giants, and Elves--The\n      world Niflheim--The world Muspelheim--How Ymir was\n      created--The cow Aedhumla--Ymir's Offspring--Odin, the\n      chief God--Odin's Seat and Ravens--Valhalla--Queen\n      Frigga--How the Seas, Waters, Mountains, and Heavens\n      were made--Chariots and Horses in Heaven--Night and\n      Day--What a Wolf is to do--Three beautiful but\n      evil-disposed Maidens--Creation of New Beings--Bridge\n      between Midgard and Asgard--Sacred Fountain--Roots of\n      the ash Yggdrasil--Baldur's Dreams and sad End--Loki,\n      the Evil Spirit--Hel and her Brothers--Ignorance of\n      Giants, and Cunning of Dwarfs--Worship of Scandinavian\n      Gods--Norsemen and their Ancient Gods and\n      Goddesses--The Volsung Tale--Odin, Loki, and H\u00e6nir's\n      Wanderings--The Sword Gram--Sigurd's Exploits--What\n      the Worshippers of Odin believed--Frodi's Maidens and\n      Quern--Thor, and Subordinate Gods of the\n      Laplanders--Belief and Worship of the\n      Laplanders--Drums as Implements of Superstition--Sale\n      of Winds--Power of Demons--Lucky and Unlucky\n      Days--Other Superstitions.\n\n\nThe mythology of Germany, Great Britain, Scandinavia, and the other\nnorthern nations is as extraordinary as that of Greece and Rome. Every\nrace and nation under the heavens were at one time steeped in\nsuperstition to such an extent as to make people, living in\nenlightened ages, wonder that creatures endowed with reasoning powers\nshould ever have given themselves over to such vile delusions as some\nof our forefathers seem to have done. The adventures of the\nScandinavian gods, giants, and elves were not behind those of the gods\nand supernatural beings in the south and east. In the beginning of\ntime, we are informed, a world existed in the north called Niflheim,\nin the centre of which was a well from which sprang twelve rivers. In\nthe south was another world, Muspelheim--a light, warm, radiant world,\nthe boundary of which was guarded by Surt with a flaming sword. From\nNiflheim flowed cold streams called Elivaager, which, hardening into\nice, formed one icy layer upon the other, within the abyss of abysses\nthat faced the north. From the south there streamed forth the\nsparkling heat of Muspelheim; and as the heat and cold met, the\nmelting ice-drops became possessed of life, and produced, through the\npower of him who had sent forth heat, Ymir, the sire of the frost\ngiants. Ymir obtained his nourishment from four milky streams that\nescaped from the udders of the cow Aedhumla--a creature formed from\nthe melting frost. From Ymir there came forth offspring while he\nslept, viz. a man and woman, who emerged from under his left arm, and\nsons from his feet. Thus was produced the race of the frost giants.\nMeantime, as the cow Aedhumla licked the frost-covered stones, there\ncame forth the first day a man's hair, a head the second day, and a\nman, complete in all his parts, the third day. This man, Buri, had a\nson named Bor, who married Beltsa, one of the giant race, by whom he\nhad three sons, Odin, Vili, and Ve.\n\nOdin became the chief god, and ruled heaven and earth, and was\nomniscient. As ruler of heaven, his seat was Valaskjalf, from whence\nhe sent two black ravens, daily, to gather tidings of all that was\nbeing done throughout the world. As god of war, he held his court in\nValhalla, whither brave warriors went after death to revel in the\ntumultuous joys in which they took pleasure when on earth. Odin had\ndifferent names and characters, as many of the gods had. By drinking\nfrom Mimir's fountain, he became the wisest of gods and men. He was\nthe greatest of sorcerers, and imparted a knowledge of his wondrous\nart to his favourites. Frigga was his queen, and the mother of Baldur,\nthe Scandinavian Apollo; but he had other wives and favourites, and a\nnumerous progeny of sons and daughters. All over Scandinavian lands,\nbut particularly in Denmark, the people imagine that they hear his\nvoice in the storm.\n\nThe other two brothers were less famous, but they were gods, and\nassisted Odin to slay Ymir, and carry his body into the middle of\nGinnungagap, and formed from it the earth and heavens. Of his blood\nthe brothers made all the seas and waters, taking the gore that flowed\nfrom his body to form the impassable ocean which is supposed to\nencircle the earth. Of his bones they made the mountains, using the\nbroken splinters and his teeth for the stones and pebbles. From his\nskull they made the heavens, at each of the four corners of which was\nstationed a dwarf, of whom we shall hear more by-and-bye. Of Ymir's\nbrains clouds were formed, of his hair plants and herbs, and of his\neyebrows a wall of defence was made against the giants round Midgard,\nthe central garden or place of abode of the sons of men. The work of\nthe celebrated brothers was not ended by these achievements; for they\ntook the sparks that were cast out of the world Muspelheim, and,\nthrowing them over the face of the heavens, produced the sun, moon,\nstars, and fiery meteors, and so arranged them in their places and\ncourses, that days, months, and years followed. Allfader placed\nchariots and horses in heaven, where Night rode round the earth with\nher horse Hrimfaxi, from whose bit fell the rime-drops that every\nmorning bedewed the earth. After her course followed her son Day, with\nhis horse Skinfaxi, from whose shining mane light beamed. Mani\ndirected the course of the moon, and Sol drove the chariot of the sun.\nThey were followed by a wolf, which was of the giant race, and that\nwill in the end of time swallow, or assist to swallow, up the moon,\ndarken the sun's brightness, let loose the boisterous winds, and drink\nthe blood of every dying man.\n\nThree beautiful but evil-disposed maidens arrived at Asgard from the\ngiants' world, Jotunheim, by whom confusion and ill-will were spread\nover the world. Then the gods determined to create new beings to\npeople the universe. They gave human bodies and understanding to\ndwarfs, who had been generated within the dead body of Ymir, and who\ntook up their abodes in the bowels of the earth, in rocks, in stones,\nand in trees and flowers. Then Odin, with two companions, went forth\non an excursion to the earth, and created a man and woman; and from\nthis pair, whose abode was at Midgard, the human race sprang. A bridge\nof various colours, known to men as the rainbow, connected Midgard\nwith Asgard, and over this the gods rode daily to a sacred fountain.\nThis fountain lay at one of the three roots of the ash Yggdrasil,\nwhose branches spread over the whole earth and reached above the\nheavens. Under one of these roots was the abode of Hel, the goddess of\nthe dead, under another that of the frost giants, and under the third\nwas the dwelling of human beings.\n\nBaldur dreamt evil dreams of threatened danger to his life. He related\nthem to the gods, who endeavoured to protect him from injury. Frigga\nmade fire, water, iron, and all metals, stones, earth, plants, beasts,\nbirds, serpents, poison, and all diseases, swear that they would not\nhurt Baldur. Loki was displeased at this. He changed himself into the\nform of an old woman, and, inquiring the cause of Baldur's\ninvulnerability, was told by Frigga that all things, animate and\ninanimate, had sworn not to harm him, with the exception of one little\nshrub, the misletoe. Loki, rejoicing at the information he had\nreceived, procured this little shrub, and hastened with it to an\nassembly of the gods, where he placed it in the hands of the blind\nHoder, the god of war, who cast it at Baldur, and pierced him to the\nheart. Hermoder, the son of Odin, offered to proceed to Hel to release\nBaldur; and Hel, on hearing the request made, consented to let him go,\non condition that all things would weep for Baldur. All men, all\nliving beings, and all things wept except the witch Thock, who refused\nto mourn for the departed god. Baldur was therefore compelled to\nremain in Hel, where he will be to the end of the world.\n\nLoki was beautiful, and possessed of great knowledge and cunning. He\noften brought the gods into trouble, from which, however, through his\ncraft he extricated them. Hence he was regarded as the Evil Spirit.\nSometimes he was called Asa-Loki, to distinguish him from\nUtgarda-Loki, a king of the giants, whose kingdom lay at the uttermost\nlimits of the earth.\n\nHel, who dwelt under one of the three roots of the sacred ash\nYggdrasil, was the daughter of the wicked Loki. Hel, together with her\nbrother, the wolf Fenrir, and the serpent Jormundgand, was brought up\nin the giants' home of Jotunheim, where she remained until, at the\nrequest of the gods, Allfader sent for her and her brothers to destroy\nthem, as it was known that by their origin they would prove the\ninstruments of calamity. After casting the serpent that surrounded all\nlands into the deep ocean, he hurled Hel into Niflheim, and gave her\nauthority over nine worlds, in which she was to assign places to all\nwho died of sickness and old age. Her abode was surrounded by a high\nenclosure and massive gates. She was of fierce aspect, was inexorable,\nand would set no one at liberty who had once entered her domain. Her\ndish was hunger, her knife starvation, her servants slow-moving, her\nbed sickness, and her curtains wide-spread misery.\n\nWith Ymir perished all the giants except Bergelmir. It was a popular\nbelief that, through the power of giants, mountains and islands were\nraised, and that, by these monsters, mountains and rocks were hurled\nfrom their original sites. Notwithstanding the huge bulk and the\nnumber of heads and arms that many of the giants had, they were\nsupposed to be ignorant monsters, unable to cope with ordinary human\nbeings.\n\nThe Dwarfs, of whom an account is given in the _Eddas_, were cunning\nand crafty elves, and skilled in magic. Some gave them a place between\nmen and giants. It was believed that the dwarfs appeared under the\nforms of elves, brownies, and fairies. They used charms, and possessed\nall the skill of witches. It was in their power to raise storms, kill\npeople by their diabolical art, fly away with children, and even with\ngrown-up persons, through the air, or imprison them in caverns within\nthe earth. They assisted men to discover the precious metals, of which\nthey (the dwarfs) were very fond. Occasionally they were seen through\nan aperture of a hill, in their underground retreat, in palaces with\njasper columns, surrounded with vast treasures of gold and silver.\n\nThe Scandinavian gods were worshipped in spacious temples, or on stone\nheaps or altars. These sacred places were always near a consecrated\ngrove or tree and a sacred fountain. Human sacrifices were not\nuncommon at times of public calamities, such as war, disease, or\nfamine. Three great festivals were held every year, the first of which\nwas celebrated at the new year, in the Yule-month. On these occasions\nofferings were made to Odin for success in war, and to Freyr for a\npeaceful year. The chief victim was a hog, which was sacrificed to the\nlatter god, on account of swine having first instructed man to plough\nthe soil. Feasting and games occupied the whole month, therefore it\nwas called the Merry Month. Yule continues to be observed in several\nplaces at the present time, and points to the custom of sun worship\nand the adoration of the early gods of the north. The frumenty eaten\non Christmas eve or morning in England, and the sowans in Scotland,\nseem to be imitations of the offerings paid to Hulda or Berchta, to\nwhom the people looked for new stores of grain. The second festival\nwas in mid-winter, and the third in spring, when Odin was chiefly\ninvoked for prosperity and victory.\n\nThe mythology of the Scandinavians and our ancestors was in many\nrespects similar. It was from the principal gods of the northern\nnations that the names of the days of our week were taken, as will\nappear under the observations we shall make on the Calendar. But in\naddition to the chief gods there were inferior deities, who were\nsupposed to have been translated to heaven for their great deeds, and\nwhose greatest happiness consisted in drinking ale out of the skulls\nof their enemies in the hall of Wodin. The Norsemen delight to recount\nthe exploits of their ancient gods and goddesses and celebrated\nmythical persons. The Volsung Tale is often referred to with pleasure.\nVolsung, a descendant of Odin, was taken from his mother's womb by a\nsurgical operation, after six years' bearing. In his hall grew an oak,\nwhose branches spread out in every direction. In that hall, when\nVolsung's daughter was to be given away to Siggeir, king of Gothland,\nin came an old guest with one eye. In his hand he held a sword, which\nat one stroke he drove up to the hilt in the oak. \"Let him,\" said he,\n\"of this company who can pull it out, bear it, and none shall say he\nbore a better blade.\" Having said this, he disappeared, and was seen\nno more. Many tried to possess himself of the sword, but none could\ndraw it from the oak, till Sigmund, the bravest of Volsung's sons,\nlaid his hand upon its hilt. At his touch, it freed itself from the\nmighty oak; and the sword turned out to be the celebrated blade Gram,\nof which every Norseman has heard. Sigmund was armed with this weapon\nwhen he went out to battle against his brother-in-law, who quarrelled\nwith him about this very sword; for every one who knew its virtues was\nanxious to become its possessor. All perished in the fight except\nSigmund, who was saved by his sister Signy. Sigmund, after taking\nvengeance against his brother-in-law, took possession of the kingdom,\nwhich was his by inheritance. When Sigmund was stricken in years, he\nwent out to fight against the sons of King Hunding. Just as he was\nabout to prove victorious, a one-eyed warrior, of more than mortal\nmight, rushed at him with spear in hand. At the outstretched spear\nSigmund struck with his hitherto trusty blade, when it snapped in two.\nIn the one-eyed warrior's features he discovered the giver of the\nsword, who was no less famous a personage than Odin. Sigmund then knew\nthat his good fortune had departed from him, and he sank down on the\nbattle-field and died.\n\nThere is a legend of Odin, Loki, and H\u00e6nir in one of their many\nwanderings coming to a river side, where they saw an otter with a\nsalmon in its mouth. Loki killed the otter with a stone. Then the \u00c6sir\npassed on, and came at night to Reidmar's house to seek shelter. They\nshowed the otter and salmon to him, on which he cried to his sons to\nseize and bind them, for they had slain their brother, Otter. To make\ncompensation for what they had done, they agreed to pay any sum\nReidmar might name. Otter was flayed, and Reidmar commanded the \u00c6sir\nto fill the skin with gold, and cover it without that not a hair could\nbe seen. Odin sent Loki down to the dwellings of the black elves to\nobtain the precious metal. The cunning god caught Andvari, the dwarf,\nand compelled him to surrender all the gold he had accumulated. The\ndwarf begged and prayed that he might be permitted to retain one ring,\nfor it was the source of all his wealth, as ring after ring dropped\nfrom it. Loki was inexorable; not a penny-worth would he leave with\nthe dwarf. Seeing he could not retain the ring, the dwarf laid a\ncurse on it, and said it would prove a bane to every one into whose\npossession it might pass. Reidmar having all the gold except the ring\nlaid at his feet, filled the skin with the yellow ore, and set it up\non end. Odin poured gold over it until it was covered up. Reidmar\ncarefully looked at the skin, and declared that he saw a grey hair,\nand desired them to cover it also. Odin reluctantly drew out the ring,\nwhich he would fain have kept for himself, and laid it over the grey\nhair. Before the \u00c6sir departed, Loki repeated the curse which Andvari\nhad laid upon the ring. The curse began to take effect. Regin, one of\nReidmar's sons, asked for a share of the gold, but his father refused\nto give him any. This undutiful son and his brother Fafnir conspired\nagainst their sire, slew him, and took possession of the gold. Fafnir\nbeing the stronger brother, determined to keep the whole treasure to\nhimself; and not only that, but he threatened that unless Regin went\noff he would share his father's fate. Regin fled for his life, and his\nbrother assumed the form of a dragon, in which shape he lay on the\nGlistening Heath, coiled round his store of gold and precious things.\n\nSigurd requested Regin, who was the best of smiths, to forge him a\nsword. Two were made, but both broke at the first stroke. The broken\npieces of Gram were then obtained, and out of them Regin forged a\nblade that clave the anvil in the smithy, and cut a lock of wool borne\ndown to it by a stream. Armed with Gram, and mounted on Gran, his\nsteed, which Odin had instructed him to choose, Sigurd rode to the\nGlistening Heath, dug a pit in the dragon's path, and slew him as he\npassed over him on his way to drink at the river. Sigurd roasted the\nheart of Fafnir; and while it was being cooked, he tried it with one\nof his fingers to see if it were soft. The hot roast burned his\nfinger, which caused him to put it to his mouth. He tasted the\ndragon's blood, and instantly he understood the songs of birds.\nSigurd slew Regin, ate the heart, rode on Gran to Fafnir's lair, took\nthe spoil, and escaped with it.\n\nOn and on he rode, till on a lone fell he saw a flame; and when he\nreached it, it blazed all around a house. No horse but Gran could pass\nthrough that flame, and no man but Sigurd could guide him in his fiery\npath. Brynhildr, Atli's sister, who in consequence of giving victory\non the wrong side had the thorn of sleep thrust into her cloak by\nOdin, lay in the house in a deep sleep. She was under a curse to\nslumber there until a man bold enough to ride through the fire came to\nliberate her, and win her for his bride. Dashing onward to where the\nfair maiden lay, his first touch wakened her from the long sleep to\nwhich the cruel god had consigned her. They swore with a mighty oath\nto love each other, and she taught him runes and wisdom.\n\nSigurd's mission was not yet accomplished; so on he rode to King\nGiuki's hall, king of Frankland, whose queen was Grimhildr, who had\ntwo sons named Gunnar and Hogni, and a step-son called Guttorm, and\nwhose daughter was the lovely Gudrun. Sigurd, greatly attached to his\nlovely bride at the lone fell, purposed going back for her; but\nGrimhildr, who was skilled in the black arts, longed for the brave\nVolsung for her own daughter, and therefore prepared for him the\nphilter of forgetfulness. He quaffed it off, forgot Brynhildr,\nfraternised with Gunnar and Hogni, and married Gudrun. Giuki now\nwanted a wife for Gunnar, and the brothers with their bosom friend set\nout to woo. They chose Brynhildr, whom they found still sitting on the\nfell, waiting for Sigurd to come back. She had made it known, that\nwhoever could pass that flame should have her for his wife; so, when\nGunnar and Hogni reached the spot, the former rode at the flame, but\nhis horse swerved from the fierce fire; then, by Grimhildr's magic\narts, Sigurd and Gunnar changed shapes and arms, and Sigurd mounted\nGran, and the noble steed carried him through the flame. Thus\nBrynhildr was wooed and compelled to yield. That evening they were\nunited in wedlock; but when they retired to rest Sigurd unsheathed\nGram, and laid it between them. Next morning, when he arose, he took\nthe ring which Andvari had laid under a curse, and which was among\nFafnir's treasures, and gave it to Brynhildr as a gift, and she gave\nhim another ring in return. Then Sigurd returned to his companions in\nhis own shape; and Gunnar went and claimed Brynhildr as his bride, and\ncarried her home. No sooner was Gunnar wedded than the power of the\nphilter ceased to operate: he remembered all that had passed, and the\noath he had sworn to the fair Brynhildr. When she discovered that she\nhad been deceived, she engaged Gunnar to revenge her wrong. By charms\nand prayers the two brothers set on Guttorm, their half-brother, to\ntake vengeance, and the hero was pierced through with a sword while he\nlay in Gudrun's white arms. Though Sigurd turned and writhed in agony,\nhe had strength left to hurl Gram after the treacherous Guttorm as he\nfled. The keen blade cut him asunder, and his head rolled out of the\nroom. Brynhildr's love returned; and when Sigurd, who expired of his\nwound, was laid upon the pile, her heart broke. She in song predicted\nwoes that were to come, made them lay her side by side with Sigurd,\nwith Gram between them, and so went to Valhalla with her old lover.\nAndvari's curse was thus fulfilled.\n\nThe worshippers of Odin believed that at certain times the gracious\npowers showed themselves in bodily shape, passing through the land,\nand bringing blessings with them. On other occasions the gods were\nsupposed to ride through the air on clouds and storms, and speaking in\nawful voice as the tempest howled and the sea raged. They were also\nsupposed to be present in battle, fighting for votaries, and defeating\nthe wicked. The goddesses assisted women in times of peril; they\ntaught the maids to spin, and punished them if the wool remained long\non the spindles. It was supposed that Odin had a band of followers who\naccompanied him in the whirlwind. The wanderings of the gods are\nmentioned in the _Odyssey_, and the sanctity of the rites of\nhospitality, and the dread of turning a wanderer from the door,\noriginated lest the stranger should be a disguised being of exalted\ncharacter. Goddesses as well as gods were supposed to wander up and\ndown among men, telling them what was to happen. Freyja, the goddess\nof love and plenty, who presided over marriages, was one of these, and\nthe three moons, Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld, who determined the fate of\ngods and men, were also among the number.\n\nWe are informed that in Frodi's house were two maidens of the old\ngiant race, whom he had bought as slaves, and he made them grind his\nquern Grotti, out of which peace and gold were produced. He kept them\nat the mill, not giving them any longer rest than the time the\ncuckoo's note lasted. That quern turned out anything that the grinder\nchose, though formerly it had ground nothing but peace and gold. The\nmaidens ground and ground without ceasing. As Frodi was deaf to their\ncries for rest, they caused the quern to grind fire and war. While the\nquern went on making these evils, Mysing, the sea rover, came at night\nand slew Frodi and all his men, and carried away the hand-mill,\nmaidens and all. When at sea, the rover caused the maidens to grind\nsalt; and they performed their task until they ground as much as has\nkept the sea salt ever since that time.\n\nThor was the chief god of the Laplanders. They had also subordinate\ndeities, one of which was Storjunkarr, their household god. Wirchu\nArcha was a female deity worshipped by them. She was the goddess of\nold women. These deities were represented under the figure of\nunsculptured stones. Spirits, angels, and devils were worshipped by\nthose people. Souls of departed relations were also prayed to by the\nmore superstitious of the people. Magic was a famous art among them.\nWhen sacrificing to Thor, they smeared the head of his image with the\nvictim's blood; and when they made an offering to Storjunkarr, a\nthread was run through the right ear of the victim. When it was a\nreindeer that was sacrificed, the horns, head, and other parts were\ncarried to a mountain devoted to Storjunkarr, and deposited there, the\nanimal's tail being tied to one of the horns, and a red thread to the\nother.\n\nThe Laplanders used to sacrifice reindeers to the sun. In this\nceremony a white thread was put through the victim's right ear. In\nsacrificing to the sun, willows were used, but in their other\nsacrifices birch trees were employed. Many of their superstitions were\nsimilar to those of the Greeks, Romans, and Tartars.\n\nSo much were the Laplanders given to superstition, that they\nworshipped the first object that presented itself in the morning.\nEvery house and family had a deity. They had magical drums, which were\nconsulted in a particular manner on important occasions; and when they\nengaged in battle, these drums were carried to the scene of action. In\nconsequence of their supposed virtue, writers have said that drums\nwere originally implements of superstition in our armies rather than\ninstruments of music. Brass and copper rings, together with a hammer,\nwere appended to a drum. A woman was not allowed to touch a sacred\ndrum, nor was she permitted to go over the same road that it was\ncarried, within three days of its removal.\n\nLaplanders and Norwegians sold favourable winds to sailors and\ntravellers. A rope with three knots was given to the buyer, who, when\nhe wanted a gentle breeze, untied one of the knots; when he wished a\nfresh strong wind, he undid another; and when he desired storms and\ntempests, he unfastened the third. The first two descriptions of wind\nwere generally obtained for good purposes, but the third through\nwicked motives. By the unloosing of the third knot, many a shipwreck\nwas caused to bring about the death of a hated individual, and for the\npurpose of securing wreck cast ashore by the sea. Magicians could, the\nmoment they were born, control the winds that blew. In this way one\nmagician had power over the east wind, another of the south, a third\nof the west, and a fourth of the north. Magical shafts, which went\nthrough the air unseen, were thrown at enemies, and distempers were\ncaused by charms. Gans or demons were enticed by secret art to perform\nacts of malice and deeds of revenge.\n\nThe Laplanders had their lucky and unlucky days. They thought it was\nunlucky to meet a woman when they were going out to hunt. When a\nLaplander died, the house was deserted by the family, because it was\nsupposed the soul of the deceased remained near the inanimate body.\nWhen they buried their dead, they, like the ancient Danes, Saxons, and\nothers, deposited a hatchet, warlike implements, a steel, flint, and\ntinder-box with each body, under the impression that they would be\nuseful to the deceased in another world. Their witches--and they had\nmany--who were born in winter, were supposed to be able to make that\nseason cold, or comparatively mild, as they pleased.\n\n\n\n\nNAMES OF DAYS, WHENCE DERIVED.\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII.\n\n      The Calendar--Names of Days, whence derived--Worship\n      of Plants--Nature-Worship--The Power of\n      Jupiter--Influence of Zeus--The god Indra--Origin of\n      the term \"Hours\"--Hours under Planetary\n      Control--Coronation of a Persian King--Evils\n      transferred to the Turks and Kafirs--The Moon's\n      Controlling Power--Time reckoned by Moons--A strange\n      Story--Discovery of Maize, Beans, and Tobacco--Sayings\n      of an Old Writer--Heathen Gods--Thor's Palace--Thor's\n      Power--Frigga's Abilities--Description of Seater or\n      Crodo.\n\n\nThe Fates have apparently decreed that the Pagan religion and\nsuperstitions shall be kept in perpetual remembrance. If one examine\nheraldry, he will find traces of heathen mythology and superstition;\nif he look at the most famous of Great Britain's public buildings, he\nwill see emblems of the ridiculous; if he glance at the Calendar, he\nwill ascertain that months and days have been named after, or\nmentioned in connection with, mythological beings or objects of\nprofane adoration; and if he read the pages of the greatest authors,\nhe will discover much that has assisted to keep alive the embers of\nsuperstition. Passing over heraldry and ancient edifices, let us\ninquire whence the names of months and days are derived, and how\ncertain seasons are observed.\n\nThe Saxons called the day D[oe]g; whence the term. It is thought they\nobtained it from the Roman Dies, a Diis, the names of the Roman days\nhaving been taken from the planets, which were called Dii, or gods.\n\nIn noticing the first day of the week, we need scarcely give the\nreason for its being denominated \"Sabbath,\" as every Jew and Christian\nknows the reason why one day of the week is so called; but we shall,\nin carrying out the line of our narrative, take leave to make a few\nremarks as to the cause of that day being known as \"Sunday.\" The\nRomans called it Dies Solis, because it was dedicated to the worship\nof the sun; and the Saxons gave it the name Sunnan-d[oe]g, or\nSun's-day, for a similar heathenish cause. Whether the Saxons received\ntheir mythology from the Romans, or whether they had idols of their\nown, is a matter of doubt. The Romans worshipped the planets by the\nnames of some of their favourite deities; and there is a resemblance\nin the Latin characteristics to certain of those of the Saxons, though\nthey are in most instances different in their appellations. The names\nof the days of the week have no doubt been continued from the Saxons,\nwhatever the origin may have been.\n\nThe luminous body which gives title to our first day of the week was\nregarded by the ancient heathen with superstitious reverence, as it\nwas considered to be the superintending and governing power presiding\nover nature.\n\nThe adoration, therefore, that was paid to the sun was the most\nprevalent of all the errors of superstition. That this should have\nbeen the case among people ignorant of the existence of the great\nomnipotent Being, is not surprising; for how much more glorious were\nthe shining lights in the heavens, but more particularly the sun, than\nthe many objects worshipped by Pagans in our own and other lands!\nNature-worship was the foundation of all polytheistic religions; and\nthat the principal heathen deities were originally personifications of\nthe great luminary that gives light and heat to the earth, or of\ncertain influences thereof, admits of little doubt. The solar\ncharacter of numerous deities is clearly discernible. Jupiter had\npower over the phenomena of the skies. The future was known to him;\nthe destinies of human beings were in his hands. Strange appearances\nin the heavens, or wonderful events happening on the earth, were the\nsigns by which he made his pleasure or displeasure known. On special\noccasions sacrifices were offered to Jupiter, and his favour implored.\n\nZeus's influence was like that of the sun; he had the rule of the\nheavens and air, he directed the lightning, and guided the stars in\ntheir courses, and controlled the seasons. Prophecy belonged to him,\nand it was from this god Ph[oe]bus received oracular gifts. Indra was\na god of similar attributes; he was the great ruler of the firmament,\nand the upholder of the heaven and earth, and the god who created the\ndawn. He presided over the east, and was the god that sent rain and\nwielded the thunder-bolts. Many sacrifices were offered to him, and\nhomage was also paid in numerous ways. Baal was originally the god of\nthe sun, and ruler of nature. Some suppose that Baal was the same god\nas Moloch, to whom human sacrifices were offered, and whose worship\nalso consisted principally of purifications, mutilations, perpetual\nvirginity, and ordeals by fire. Bullocks, and even children, were\nsacrificed to Baal.\n\nThe origin of the term \"hour\" has been supposed by some authors to be\nderived from Hora, a surname given to the sun, the parent of time, and\ncalled by the Egyptians Horus. Hours are occasionally distinguished by\nthe epithet of \"planetary,\" from a supposition of the ancients that\nthe Sun, Venus, Mercury, the Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars\nalternately presided over them. The first hour of the first day of the\nweek was under the control of the Sun, the second under that of Venus,\nthe third of Mercury, the fourth of the Moon, the fifth of Saturn, the\nsixth of Jupiter, and the seventh of Mars. After such rotation, the\nsun governed the eighth hour, Venus the ninth, and so on through the\nwhole twenty-four hours.\n\nThe sun, moon, and stars have been considered by the people of nearly\nevery nation on the face of the earth to affect the destiny of mortals\nhere below. A story of the proceedings at the coronation of a Persian\nking is not without interest. The important ceremony of crowning could\nnot be performed before the lord of the astrologers--an officer of\ngreat importance--declared the lucky moments that a happy\nconstellation pointed out the time for placing the crown on the\nmonarch's head. It was recorded that about ten o'clock at night the\nchief of the astrologers and his companions, having been long\nobserving the position of the stars and conjunction of the planets,\nreturned to give notice to the prince and company that the fortunate\ntime for the coronation would be within twenty minutes. When the\ntwenty minutes were nearly expired, everything being in readiness, the\ngrand astrologer winked, and immediately the prince was made king.\n\nFor two years everything went well; but then the king's health began\nto decline. Sometimes he lay whole weeks together, languishing in his\nharem. In consequence of his majesty having indulged too freely in\nstimulants, the court physician applied his secret arts to counteract\nthe effect of the baneful liquids, but without any good result; and\nthe astrologers began to whisper that the monarch would not recover.\nThey could not, they reported, find in his horoscope that he had more\nthan six years to live after the date of his coronation; and they\npredicted that two of the years he had to survive would be spent in\nperpetual misery. The queen-mother quarrelled with the physician,\nasking him how it came to pass that her son was sick, and accused him\nof treason or ignorance. The man of healing art defended his own\nconduct, and blamed the stars or astrologers. He said that if the king\nlay in a languishing condition and could not recover, it was because\nthe astrologers had failed to observe the happy hour, or the aspect of\na fortunate constellation at the time of the coronation. This view of\nthe case was taken by many at court, and even by some of the\nastrologers themselves. One of those wise men made it plain to those\nwhom he addressed, that the moment fixed for the coronation was\ninauspicious; and afterwards, by arguments, satisfied the queen-mother\nand chief courtiers that the king's ill-health proceeded from his\ncoronation, which had been solemnized under unfortunate aspects. The\nking, his wives, and others believed the physician, and therefore it\nwas in vain the unlucky astrologer maintained the correctness of his\ncalculations.\n\nThe question now arose, What was to be done to rectify the mistake\nwhich had been committed? And at length it was resolved that the king\nshould change his name, and that a second coronation should take\nplace. Long deliberations took place before the second coronation was\nfixed. The astrologers at length agreed that the happy hour would be\nabout the time of the year that the sun was under the influence of a\ncertain planet, which, according to account, was to be on Tuesday the\ntwentieth of March, about nine in the morning. The new ceremony had\nthe desired effect, for the king became well again.\n\nNo sooner had the king improved in health than another danger\nthreatened the nation. A great and remarkable comet appeared, which\nfilled the people's minds with terror. All the Persian astrologers\ndeclared that the alarming sign signified wars, murders, seditions,\nconflagrations, dangerous diseases, overturning of kingdoms and\nstates, and all kinds of calamities; but, by means unknown to us, they\ntransferred all these evils on the Turks, Kafirs, and Christians, and\nso Persia escaped danger.\n\n_Monday_ was dedicated by the Saxons to the adoration of the moon,\nwhence it was called Mon-day, Moon-day, and Monan-d[oe]g. The Romans,\nas well as the Saxons, consecrated this day to the moon. They (the\nRomans) called it _Dies Lun\u00e6, feria secunda_; and anciently, on the\nfirst day of every lunar month, festivals were held in commemoration\nof the benefits bestowed during the former moon, and in gratitude for\nthe return of that luminary. The worship that was paid to the moon as\na deity, originated from causes similar to that assigned to the sun.\nIn Europe all avowed sincere adoration of these orbs has ceased, but\ntraces of sun and moon worship having been once common still remain.\nIn several parts of England it is customary to bless the new moon,\nwhile in Scotland people not only do the same, but in mock adoration\nthey bow to it at the same time.\n\nMany superstitious beliefs remain as to the influence of the moon. It\nis unlucky for one to have his hands empty when he first sees the new\nmoon, and it is regarded as a good sign if one has silver in his hand\nthe first time he sees it. It has, or is supposed to have, a great\neffect on the weather and sea. One often hears it said in times of\nstormy weather, \"We will not have a change before the new moon.\" It\ninfluences the affections of lovers to a very great extent. If a swain\nis halting between two opinions, viz. whether he will propose to such\na lady, let him invite her to take a walk with him by moonlight, and\nthe chances are ten to one, that if they go out together, they will be\nmarried. If one doubts this, he is advised to try it, and he will see\nhow warm the affections will become. If one is going to enter into an\nimportant undertaking, he will be wise to do so when the moon is\nfilling. People who are married in one of the first two quarters of\nthe moon, are more happy than those who enter into the matrimonial\nstate when it is on the wane; and, taking a sudden bound from the\nsublime to things that are common, we are compelled to say that not a\nfew consider the effects of the moon so great, that they would not\nkill their pigs but when it was on the increase. Then every one has\nheard of the effects the moon has on the human mind; whence the term\n\"lunacy.\" There are many tribes and nations that reckon time by moons,\nand not by years, as we now do. This reminds us of a story which shows\nthe credulity of the savages of North America, and how they calculated\ntime. It is this:--\n\nA Swedish minister was preaching a sermon one day to the savages, and\nwhen he had finished, an Indian orator stood up to thank him for his\ndiscourse, which had reference to our first parents eating the\nforbidden fruit. \"What you have told us,\" said the orator, \"is very\ngood. It is indeed bad to eat apples; it is better to make them all\ninto cider. We are much obliged by your kindness in coming so far to\ntell us those things which you have heard from your mothers. In\nreturn, I will tell you some of those we have heard from ours. In the\nbeginning, our fathers had only the flesh of animals to subsist on;\nand if they were unsuccessful in the hunt, they could get nothing to\neat. Two of our young hunters having killed a deer, made a fire in the\nwood, to broil part of the flesh. When they were about to satisfy\ntheir hunger, they beheld a beautiful woman descend from the clouds,\nand seat herself near the young men. They said to each other, 'It is a\nspirit that has smelt our broiled venison, and perhaps wishes to eat\nof it: let us offer some to her.' They presented her with the tongue.\nShe was pleased with the taste of it, and said, 'Your kindness shall\nbe rewarded. Come,' said she, 'to this place after thirteen moons, and\nyou will find something that will be of great benefit in nourishing\nyou and your children to the latest generation.'\n\n\"The hunters, deeply impressed with what the fair one had said,\nwatched with something like impatience the appearance and\ndisappearance of moon after moon, till the thirteenth moon had come\nand gone, and then they repaired to the spot where they were to\nreceive their reward. To their surprise, they found plants they did\nnot know, but which have been constantly cultivated ever since, to the\ngreat advantage of man. Where the woman's right hand had rested, they\nfound maize; where her left hand had touched the ground, they\ndiscovered beans; and where she had sat, tobacco grew luxuriantly.\"\n\nWe are accustomed to speak of the sun as \"he,\" and of the moon as\n\"she,\" but in many other countries the former is considered to be\nfeminine, and the latter masculine. In Hindoo mythology the moon is a\nmale deity, and is represented as the son of the patriarch Atri, who\nprocreated him from his eyes; but by others it is said the moon arose\nfrom the milk sea when it was churned by the gods to procure the\nbeverage of immortality. An old writer says that the sun supplies the\nmoon, when reduced by the draughts of the gods to a single ray; and in\nthe same proportion as the moon is exhausted by the celestials, it is\nreplenished by the sun, for the gods drink the nectar accumulated in\nthe moon during half the month; and from this being their food, they\nare immortal. When the remaining portion of the moon consists but of a\nfifteenth part, the Manes (infernal spirits, or inferior deities)\napproach it in the afternoon, and drink the remaining portion of\nnectar. And probably in this statement are to be found grounds for the\nsuperstitious belief that the time when the moon is increasing is more\nfortunate than when it is waning.\n\n_Tuesday_ was so called from Tiwes-d[oe]g, which signifies the day of\nTiw, or Tiu, a name for the old Saxon war god Tyr. Other names were\ngiven to it by the Romans and Germans. It was called by the Romans\n_Dies Martis, feria tertia_, from its having been dedicated to Mars.\nWormius, Marshall, and Sommes endeavour to prove that the day took its\nname from Thisa or Desa, the goddess of justice, the wife of Thor.\nTaking the views of any of the authors who have written on the\nsubject, it is plain that the day was named in honour of some\nmythological deity. Tyr did not belong entirely to the Northern\nmythology, but was known to the Germans as Ziu or Zio, and to\nAnglo-Saxons as Tiv.\n\nTyr, it will be remembered, was single-handed. When the gods prevailed\non the wolf Fenrir to allow himself to be bound with the bandage\nGleipner, Tyr put his right hand into the wolf's mouth, as a pledge\nthat he would be loosened. The gods refused to liberate the wolf,\nwhich in revenge bit off Tyr's hand. He and his enemy, the monster dog\nGarmr, met their death in the twilight battle of the gods.\n\nThe Roman divinity, Mars, was a war god, and seems to have been\noriginally an agricultural deity. To him propitiatory offerings were\npresented, as the guardian of fields and flocks; but as the shepherds\nwho founded the city of Rome were of a warlike disposition, it is\neasily understood how Mars became the god of war.\n\n_Wednesday_ signifies Wodin's-day or Odin's-day. Wodin or Odin, as is\nwell known, was a great Northern god. He was believed to be the god of\nwar, who gave victory, and revived courage in the conflict. He was\nalso worshipped as the god of arts and artists; and to him magnificent\ntemples were built, and sacrifices offered. He adopted as his children\nall those who were slain with swords in their hands; hence the\nhardihood and brilliant examples of courage displayed by Northern\nwarriors. He had two black ravens, that flew forth daily to obtain\ntidings of all that was being done throughout the world. His greatest\ntreasure consisted of his eight-footed steed Sleipner, his spear\nGungner, and his ring Draupner, by which he performed many strange\nacts. Frigga was his queen, but he had other wives and favourites, and\na numerous family of sons and daughters. By drinking at Mimir's sacred\nfountain, he became the wisest of gods and men. He is reputed to have\npossessed every power of witchcraft, prophecy, and transformation; and\nin the shape of a lion or other beast of prey, he, we are told,\ndestroyed whole armies.\n\n_Thursday_ (Thors-d[oe]g) was dedicated to the adoration of Thor, the\nbravest of the sons of Odin. Thor was the god of thunder; he had a\nmagnificent palace, which had five hundred and forty pillars, where he\nreceived and made happy the warriors who had fallen in battle. By the\nrolling of his chariot, thunder was produced. He had a smasher or\nmauler, made by cunning dwarfs, which, after being thrown at an enemy,\nhad the property of returning to him. It was believed by the Pagans\nthat he possessed marvellous power and might, and that all people in\nthe world were subject to him. In the air he governed the winds and\nclouds; and when displeased, he caused thunder, lightning, and\ntempest, with excessive rain, hail, and bad weather. When pleased with\nhis worshippers, he gave them favourable weather, and caused corn and\nfruit to grow abundantly, and kept away disease from man and beast.\n\nThe Laplanders represented Thor by the stump of a tree, rudely carved\nto represent a man; and they supplied him with flint and steel, that\nhe might strike fire when he wanted it. Moreover, they placed a hammer\nnear him, which they supposed he would use with force against evil\nspirits, for they thought he had sovereign authority over all the\nmischievous and malevolent spirits that inhabited the air, mountains,\nand lakes. High festivals were held in honour of this deity, as\nnoticed elsewhere, to supplicate for a propitious year, and at these\nfestivals every excess of extravagant and dissolute pleasure was not\nonly permitted, but was considered requisite.\n\n_Friday_ derived its name from Frigga, the wife of Odin. She, as well\nas her husband, possessed wonderful abilities, and, like Juno, was\nheld in the highest esteem and veneration for her power of procuring\neasy access into the world, and bestowing every felicity connected\nwith the softer endearments of life. Frigga was thought to be the\nmother of all the Pagan divinities of the Northern nations begotten by\nOdin.\n\nThe Romans dedicated this day to Venus; whence its name, _Dies\nVeneris, feria sexta_. That goddess having possessed many of the\nattributes for which Frigga was celebrated, many authors have supposed\nthem originally to have meant the same divinity.\n\n_Saturday_ has its name from Seater or Crodo, worshipped by the old\nSaxons. He was lean, had long hair and a long beard. In his left hand\nhe held up a wheel, and in his right he carried a pail of water,\nwherein were flowers and fruits. He stood on the sharp fins of the\nperch, to signify that the Saxons, for serving him, should pass,\nwithout harm, in dangerous and difficult places.\n\nThe seventh day of the week was dedicated by the Romans to Saturn, and\ncalled, in honour of him, _Dies Saturni, feria septima_. Seater or\nCrodo, and the Roman Saturn, have been considered by many to be the\nsame deity.\n\n\n\n\nNAMES OF MONTHS, WHENCE DERIVED.\n\n\nCHAPTER XIV.\n\n      Names of Months, whence derived--January--First of\n      January, how kept--Heathens and Christians--New Year\n      Gifts--February--Sacrifices for purging Souls--Second\n      of February, how kept--Virtue of Candles--Shrove\n      Tuesday--Eating Pancakes--Partaking of Brose--Choosing\n      a Valentine--March--Prognostications observed in this\n      Month--April dedicated to Venus--First of May--Roman\n      Floral Games--Queen of the May--May Poles and May\n      Fires--Dispute between Men and Gods--Superstitious\n      Customs in Scotland--Superstitious Ceremonies in\n      England--June regarded as the most favourable Month\n      for Fruitful\n      Marriages--July--August--September--October--Hallow-e'en\n      Ceremonies--November--All Hallows--Souls in\n      Purgatory--St. Leonard--St.\n      Britius--December--Christmas Trees and Gifts--The\n      Misletoe--Privileges in Leap Year--Yule Log--Christmas\n      Festivities.\n\n\nJanuary, it is generally admitted, derived that appellation from the\nLatin _Januarius_, in honour of Janus, one of the heathen divinities.\nJanus was supposed to preside over the gates of heaven. The Saxons\noriginally called this month Wolf-monat, and afterwards it was called\nAefter-Yule--After-Christmas. The first of January having been\nobserved by the heathens as a day of great rejoicing, and offering up\nprofane and superstitious sacrifices to Janus, the early Christians\nobserved it as a fast to avoid the appearance of doing honour to a\nheathen deity. The Grecians, at the commencement of every year, held\nfestive meetings to celebrate the completion of the sun's annual\ncourse. From that people the Romans borrowed the custom of observing\nthe first of January; and from the Romans our forefathers received it.\nIn giving New Year gifts, we follow the example of the ancients; and\nto receive such tokens of goodwill, was then, as now, considered\npropitious.\n\nThe name of February is taken from _Februa_, _Februta_, or\n_Februalis_, names of Juno, who presided over the purification of\nwomen; or, according to other authors, from _Februis expiatoriis_,\nsacrifices for purging souls, there having been a feast on the second\nday of this month, when sacrifices were offered to Pluto for the souls\nof the dead. This day was kept by certain Christians as a solemn\nfestival, in memory of the humiliation of the Virgin Mary, who\nsubmitted to the injunction of the law under which she lived. They\noffered up thanksgiving on this day, and paraded about with flambeaux\nand candles--proceedings which some thought were too close imitations\nof the Pagan customs of _brenning_--in honour of Juno. There is in\nthis instance a resemblance to the Pagan superstition; and from the\nburning of candles on the day we are referring to, they were, and are\nyet, lighted on occasions of danger, to avert evil. Persons in this\ncountry have been known to light candles, as a charm against thunder\nand lightning; and lighted candles, when once charmed (which it is\nsupposed can be done), are considered by the ignorant at home and\nabroad, to possess virtue sufficiently powerful to frighten away evil\nspirits. Such candles are sometimes placed in the hands of persons\nwhile in the agonies of death, to protect them from the evil one.\n\nShrove Tuesday, or Fasten's Eve, is a day observed in many lands. In\nolden times, after the people had made confession at this season, they\nwere permitted to indulge in festive amusements, although not allowed\nto partake of any repast beyond the usual substitutes for flesh; and\nhence arose the custom of eating pancakes and fritters, and partaking\nof brose, in Scotland, at this time. The brose was then made of\noatmeal and butter, with a ring in it. The bicker of brose being set\nin the middle of a table, the unmarried members of the family, and\ninvited friends who had not entered the matrimonial state, seated\nthemselves around and partook of the repast. They took spoonful about\ntill the ring was found, and then it was put into a second dish of\nbrose, and again into a third, and he or she who found the ring twice\nleft the table, assured of being married before another Fasten's Eve.\nAt a later hour of the evening, pancakes, sometimes called \"sauty\nbannocks,\" were made, and through their magical virtues future\nhusbands and wives were discovered. A large cake or bannock was\nprepared, in which a ring or other small article was put, and the\nyoung person whose lot it was to secure the piece of cake or bannock\nwith the concealed article was looked upon as being as lucky as the\nindividual who picked the ring twice out of the brose. While all this\nwas going on, unbounded mirth prevailed, and before the company broke\nup, dreaming cakes or bannocks were prepared, that every one might\ntake one and place it under his or her pillow. To make the cakes of\nany avail, the baker had to remain mute when preparing them, and the\nreceivers had, immediately after obtaining them, to slip off quietly\nto bed, when, if all the preliminaries had been duly observed, the\nsleeper's future companion in life appeared in a vision or dream of\nthe night.\n\nThe practice of choosing a valentine on the 14th of February is well\nknown. The first person of the opposite sex who was seen by an\nunmarried person on the morning of that day, was regarded as the\nvalentine for the year. Another way of finding out a valentine was to\ncast into a receptacle small billets, with (if the consulters were\nyoung women) bachelors' names on them, and then to draw them out\nlottery-wise. The bachelor whose name appeared on a billet thus\nextracted at random, became the valentine of the spinster to whose lot\nit fell. In this way a bevy of young ladies ascertained, in a few\nminutes, secrets they were most anxious should be disclosed. When the\ngentlemen were anxious to discover their valentines, they proceeded in\nthe same way, taking care, however, that the ladies for whom they had\nthe greatest affection should be named on the billets. A lady's\nvalentine was her knight for the year, and not unfrequently he became\nher husband. The amusements of Valentine's Day were very popular among\nall classes in the fifteenth century. It was customary at one time for\nboth sexes to give each other presents, but the ladies, through\nmodesty, or some other cause best known to themselves, have ceased to\nbestow gifts in their valentines. Many attempts have been made to\nabolish the heathen custom of young men drawing the names of young\nwomen, and _vice versa_, on this day, but without success.\n\nMarch was called after Mars, the god of war; but the Anglo-Saxons knew\nit as _Hraed-monat_, signifying rugged month, and _Hlyd-monat_,\nmeaning stormy month. Those who indulged in prognostications,\ncarefully observed the state of the weather in this month. Dry weather\nat this time portended a plentiful season, while a rainy month\nindicated scarcity of food.\n\nThe fourth month of the year, it is generally believed, derived its\nname, April, in allusion to the buds then beginning to open; but the\nold Anglo-Saxons called it _Eoster-monat_, in honour, some think, of\nthe goddess Easter. The Romans dedicated April to Venus, and\nfrequently called it _Mensis Veneris_ as well as _Aprilis_. The old\nand general custom of sending people useless errands on the first of\nApril is so well known that we do not require to say anything more\nabout it, than that it is thought to have originated in the acts of\nsending Christ backward and forward to various tribunals to secure His\ncondemnation.\n\nOn the first day of May the Romans offered sacrifices to Maia, the\nmother of Mercury. Apollo was the tutelar deity of this month. This\nday is observed with mirth, in imitation of the old Roman celebration\nof the days when the goddess Flora was worshipped. The Roman floral\ngames began on the 28th April, and continued a few days. At one time\nthese celebrations were conducted with obscenity, but by degrees the\namusements became more moral. It was customary during the middle ages\nfor rich and poor to go out on May-day, with music and other signs of\njoy and merriment, to gather flowers, and sip the dew before sunrise.\nThe people then decorated their houses with the flowers, conspicuous\namongst which was the hawthorn blossom. The most beautiful maid of the\ndistrict was chosen \"Queen of the May,\" and crowned with flowers. So\ngeneral was the custom of observing May-day in the reign of Henry\nVIII. that the Corporation of London went out a-Maying, and so did the\nking and queen. In England, France, Germany, and elsewhere, every\nvillage had its May-pole, till the May games were suppressed, or\nrather discouraged, on the ground that they were remnants of heathen\nsuperstition.\n\nThe Celts kindled their May-fires with much superstitious ceremony, a\ncustom which had its origin in the worship of Baal. The principal\nfestival of this worship was held in the beginning of May, but there\nwere similar ceremonies in November. On these occasions all the fires\nin the district were extinguished, under the pain of death. Needfire\nwas then obtained by friction, and all the fires were rekindled from\nwhat was regarded as the sacred flame. At times of public calamities\nand distress, the practice of kindling needfire was resorted to. It\nwas supposed to counteract sorcery, and stay disease among cattle.\nThese superstitious operations remind one of the story of Prometheus.\nThe myth runs thus:--\"During the reign of Zeus, men and gods, once\nupon a time, were disputing with one another. With the view of\noutwitting Zeus, Prometheus cut up a bull and divided it into two\nparts, hiding the meat and the intestines in the skin, and putting an\ninferior piece on the top, while he heaped the bones together and\ncovered them with fat. Zeus was asked to choose either of the lots,\nand, suspecting that an attempt was made to deceive him, he selected\nthe good portion; but, enraged at the stratagem, he took his revenge\non the mortals by withholding from them the fire necessary for the\ncooking of meat. Prometheus by his cunning art obtained fire in a\nhollow staff, and brought it to them; and he took from man the gift of\nforeseeing future events, but gave him the better gifts of hope and of\nfire.\" Down to a recent date, people in the north of Scotland cut a\ntrench in the ground; they then kindled a fire and dressed a repast of\nmilk and eggs, something like a custard. This being done, they kneaded\na cake of oatmeal, and toasted it before the fire. The custard was\nthen eaten, and the cake was broken into pieces and thrown into a bag,\nnot, however, before one of the pieces was burned black. Every one of\nthe company in turn was blindfolded, and drew out a piece of the cake;\nand he who drew out the burned piece was dedicated to Baal, in order\nto render the year fruitful. The person supposed to be devoted was\nthen compelled to leap three times over the fire, as symbolical of the\nsacrifices offered to this god in former ages.\n\nIn England there were Ram Feasts. At one of these a ram was roasted in\nits skin, and after it was cooked a great scramble took place for\npieces thereof, it having been thought good fortune would attend those\nwho secured a portion. Men and women partook of the feast.\n\nThe name of June was given in reverence to Juno, and was called\n_Sear-monat_ by the Anglo-Saxons. Mercury was regarded by the Romans\nas the deity who presided over this month. June is considered in the\npresent age as the most favourable period of the year for marriages.\n\nJuly was originally called _Quintilis_, or fifth month, in honour of\nJulius C\u00e6sar; but the Anglo-Saxons came to know this month as\n_Maed-monat_, or mead month, in consequence of it being the usual\nseason of the year for securing honey and making mead.\n\nSt. Swithin's Day (15th July) is observed in commemoration of this wet\nor rainy saint. He was of Saxon descent, and distinguished for his\npiety and learning. St. Swithin was buried in the churchyard of\nWinchester, and the consecrated spot where his remains rest has been,\nwe are told, the scene of frequent miracles. In consequence of the\nvirtues flowing from his body, it was resolved to convey his remains\nto the choir of the cathedral, but, on the day appointed for the\nremoval of his sacred dust, violent rain commenced, which continued\nwithout ceasing for forty days. From this circumstance, it was\ninferred that the intended removal of his remains was displeasing to\nSt. Swithin, and the intention was for a time abandoned. Subsequently\nhis body was transferred to another resting place, without the\nelements or the saint manifesting any displeasure. It is unnecessary\nto do more than recall to memory the wide-spread opinion, that if it\nrain on St. Swithin's Day, forty days wet weather will follow. Absurd\nas this superstition may appear, it has been believed in from the time\nof his death, in 862.\n\nSt. Margaret, whose festival falls to be held on the 20th July, was\nthe daughter of an idolatrous priest at Antioch. She became a convert\nto the Christian religion, from which she was sought to be seduced by\nOlybius, a ruler in the East who sought her hand in marriage. She\nrefused to forsake the true religion, or to become his wife; and her\nrefusal was fatal to her. The cruel monster put her to the most\ndreadful torments he could invent, and afterwards ordered her to be\nbeheaded, about the year 275. St. Margaret has been worshipped by the\nEastern and Western Churches, from her supposed power to assist\nfemales in childbirth. It is related that Satan, in the form of a\ndragon, swallowed her alive, but that she escaped unhurt from the\nmonster. Her girdle was long preserved in the abbey of St. Germain, in\nParis; and females were, it was generally believed, undoubtedly\nrelieved in their hour of suffering by the application of the sacred\nrelic.\n\nAugust, formerly called _Sextilis_, was named August in honour of the\nEmperor Augustus. And September still retains its original Roman\nname--that of the seventh month, though now really the ninth month--in\nconsequence of the change made by commencing the year in January\ninstead of March; but the Anglo-Saxons knew it by the name of\n_Gerst-monat_, or barley month, because their barley crop was usually\ngathered in in this month.\n\nOctober, known by the Saxons as _Wyn-monat_, or wine month, has long\nbeen regarded with peculiar interest, owing to the many superstitious\ncustoms observed in it. In Rome, a horse, called October, was\nsacrificed to Mars in this month; and the Greeks and Romans held many\nBacchanalian festivals in it, at which the people had recourse to\nmagic and divination. In the days of our ancestors the Hallow-e'en\nceremonies were more generally followed than they are by the present\ngeneration, but still in various places, particularly in the north of\nScotland, people observe them with mirth, mixed with superstitious\nfear of fairies, ghosts, and other supernatural beings, supposed to be\nthen at large, performing good and evil deeds. At this season,\nhowever, the most diabolical fiends are supposed to be chained in\ntheir abodes of darkness, or at all events prevented from venting\ntheir full wrath against the human race. The worst thing that Satan,\nassisted by all his emissaries, can do on Hallow-e'en, is to allot to\none an ill-looking, decrepit, or sour partner in life, or send him or\nher a great swarm of children; or perhaps do what is worse--prevent\nany offspring being given to loving married couples. Unmarried men and\nwomen are accustomed to meet at the house of a friend, to spend this\nevening in searching into futurity. Various are the charms and modes\nof divination they have recourse to. The first spell they try is\npulling kail-stocks in the dark with their eyes closed. There must be\nno attempt to pick what is thought the best stocks, but each person\nshould pull up the first plant that comes to hand. After every one has\nobtained a root, the company returns to the house to examine the\nstocks. A long straight plant denotes that the holder thereof is to\nget a fine-looking husband or wife, as the case may be; whereas one\nwho has unfortunately pulled a crooked, ill-shaped stock, may expect\nthat his or her conjugal companion will be deformed and uncouth. In\nproportion to the quantity of earth adhering to the root, so will the\nriches of the possessor be; and according to the sweet or sour taste\nof the stem's centre, so will the temper or disposition of the\nexpected partner be. The ceremony of pulling and tasting being over,\nthe stocks are deposited above the door, and careful notice is taken\nof the strangers who come in when they are there. Favourites are\ninvited in, but those whose presence is not desired are prevented, if\npossible, from crossing the threshold.\n\nThose in pursuit of pleasure and fortune next proceed to the\nstack-yard, and pull each a stalk of oats, and, by counting the grains\nupon the stem, the puller will ascertain the number of little branches\nthat will shoot forth from the family tree. It is peculiarly fortunate\nif the top grain be found on the stalk.\n\nIf a young man or single woman go to the barn three times to winnow\ncorn, an apparition resembling the future spouse will appear before\nthe chaff is separated from the third sieveful of grain. The like\nresult may be expected if one go unperceived to the peat-stack and sow\na handful of hempseed, or travel three times round it. Another way of\nrevealing one's husband or wife, is this:--Go to a ford through which\na funeral has passed, dip the sleeve of the shirt or chemise, and the\nwearer, on returning home and going to bed, after hanging the garment\nbefore the bedroom fire, will see the apparition of his or her object\nof affection turn the sleeve to dry the other side. To find the name\nof one's future spouse, one has nothing more to do than to go on\nHallow-e'en to a barn or kiln, throw into it a clew of blue thread,\nwhich the person begins to wind up into another clew, having of course\nkept hold of one end of the thread. Before the winding operation is\ncompleted, some one will take hold of the thread, and on the question\nbeing asked, \"Who holds?\" an answer will be returned, in which will\nappear the name of him or her the fates have destined to be the\ninquirer's partner in life.\n\nThese modes described of lifting the veil that conceals the future are\neasy, and the objects aimed at pleasant; but even Hallow-e'en has both\nits lights and shadows; and one has something more to do than to\ninquire into the affairs of affection and domestic bliss. From\ncuriosity or some other cause, a person may wish to know whether he or\nany of his neighbours will be taken away by the cold hand of death\nbefore another year. If he has such a wish, let him repair to a public\nhighway which branches off in three directions, and take his seat (a\nthree-legged stool is thought the best) in the centre of the road, a\nlittle before twelve at night. Simultaneously with the nearest clock\nstriking that hour, he will hear proclaimed the names of those who are\nto die in the parish before the next Hallow-e'en. The curious\nindividual should not omit to take with him a good many articles of\nwearing apparel. If he hear pronounced the name of any one whose life\nhe does not desire to prolong, he will do well to retain his property;\nbut if the name of one dear to him is sounded, he may rescue the\nperson from early doom by casting away one of the articles. The life\nof esteemed friends is precious in one's sight, but his own life is\ngenerally dearer, and therefore the listener should take care not to\ncast away every rag he has, lest his own name should be called after\nhe has parted with his last garment.\n\nAnother way of discovering one's future partner:--Let a person take up\na position before a mirror, eat an apple before it while combing his\nor her hair, and now and again holding out the apple, as if offering\nit to some one supposed to be standing on the right side. Before the\nhair is properly arranged and the apple eaten, the person whose\npresence is desired will appear in the attitude of accepting the\napple.\n\nBy the burning of nuts, it may be discovered whether lovers are to\nprove true or false to each other. One nut is taken to represent the\ngentleman, and another is named after the lady. Both nuts are laid in\nthe fire: if they consume quietly together, then it is learned that\nfortune has appointed the lady and gentleman to spend their lives in\nhappy union; but if one of the nuts start away, or should they both\nfly off in different directions, the individuals appealing to the\nfates are to understand that they will never be united in wedlock.\n\nNovember--gloomy November--was known as _Blot-monat_ (blood month) by\nthe Saxons, as it was the time when large numbers of sheep and cattle\nwere killed for sacrifices and for provisions.\n\nThe first day of November--All Saints or All Hallows--is a day of\ngeneral commemoration of all saints and martyrs in honour of whom no\nparticular days have been expressly assigned. The origin of this\nfestival is supposed to have been in 607, when Phocus, the emperor,\nwresting the Pantheon from the heathens, gave the splendid edifice to\nthe Christians. Boniface IV. consecrated it to the Virgin Mary and all\nthe saints of both sexes. The Pagan dedication of it was to Cybele and\nall the gods.\n\nThe second day of November is an important day in the eye of the\nChurch of Rome. On this day there are particular services in that\nChurch relative to the souls supposed to be in purgatory. Odilon,\nabbot of Cluny, enjoined, in the ninth century, the ceremony of\npraying for the dead. The practice became common after this, and the\nnext century a general festival was established, having for its object\nthe release of suffering souls. Persons dressed in black went round\nthe towns, ringing bells on the streets, every Sunday evening during\nthe month of November, calling upon the inhabitants to remember the\ndeceased suffering the expiatory flames of purgatory, and to join in\nprayer for the repose of their souls. The practice is still continued\nin some places, but an edict for its abolition was passed in the reign\nof Elizabeth. Praying for the dead, and offering sacrifices at their\ntombs, were early resorted to. Ovid ascribes the origin of the\nceremonies to \u00c6neas; and Virgil favours this idea in his fifth book.\nCertain saints declared that they heard the howlings of devils, as\nthey complained of the souls of men being taken away from them,\nthrough the alms and prayers of holy people.\n\nThe Romans held a festival which lasted eleven days, during which\nperiod they imagined that ghosts were not only relieved from\npunishment, but were suffered to wander round their tombs. In the\nRoman Catholic Church mass is performed for the repose of departed\nsouls; but it is requisite that those who desire to aid their deceased\nfriends should give substantial proof of sincerity. In the _Clavis\nCalendaria_ we read, \"When the Duke of Assuna was supplicated for\ncharity by a mendicant friar, he said, 'Put a pistole in this plate,\nmy lord, and you shall release that soul from purgatory, for which you\ndesign it.' The duke complying, was assured his charity had been\neffective. 'Say you so, holy man?' replied his grace; 'then I shall\ntake back my money for a future occasion, as you cannot, nor would\nyou, I am confident, if you were capable, again condemn the poor soul\nto its former endurance.'\"\n\nFrederick the Great of Prussia, desirous of recovering the revenues of\none of his forests from a monastery, demanded of the prior by what\ntitle it was held. To this question he received the prompt reply,\nthat the income had been given in consideration of the holy\nbrotherhood daily saying mass for the repose of the soul of one of his\nMajesty's ancestors. \"How much longer,\" said Frederick, \"will that\nholy work continue requisite?\" \"Sire,\" said the prior, whose\nexperience far surpassed that of the friar who had addressed the duke,\n\"it is not possible for me to speak of the precise time; but when it\nshall have been effected, I shall instantly despatch a courier to\ninform your Majesty.\"\n\nThe 6th November is sacred to St. Leonard. He was the friend of\ncaptives and all others in distress. If monkish legends can be\ncredited, the mere mention of his name by one bound in fetters was\nsufficient to break the chains wherewith he was secured, and cause the\nprison doors to open, seemingly of their own accord, that the captive\nmight go free. St. Leonard died in the year 500.\n\nOn festive and holy days at this period of the year, people strewed\nthe graves of their relatives and the churchyards with evergreens.\n\nMartinmas, now regarded in Scotland as the winter term-day, is\nobserved by Roman Catholics in honour of St. Martin, born in Pannonia\nin or about the year 316, who is reported to have performed many\nmiracles. Formerly, St. Martin's Day was one of great festivity.\nSports were entered into at the market cross and village green, and\nkept up till a late hour, when, by the ringing of a bell, the people\nwere warned to retire to their homes. It has been supposed that the\nMartinmas feeing markets, for the engagement of agricultural and other\nservants, originated at these sports. At those merry gatherings there\nwas invariably a large concourse of people, either taking part in or\nwitnessing the games; consequently the opportunity was taken advantage\nof by masters requiring servants, and by servants seeking employment.\n\nThe 13th of November is St. Britius's Day. He was a pupil of St.\nMartin, who prophesied that his youthful scholar would be subjected to\nmany severe afflictions, but that he would be appointed a bishop some\nday. The latter part of the prediction was fulfilled in 399, by the\nelection of St. Britius to the see of Jaurs, on the death of his\nmaster. The other part of St. Martin's prophecy also came to pass.\nGrievous slanders were circulated concerning St. Britius; and among\nother offences he was accused of being the father of a child by his\nlaundress. The people, enraged at the incontinence of their bishop,\nthreatened to put him to death; and they would have carried their\nthreat into execution, but for most extraordinary evidence coming from\nthe lips of a child only one month old. Holy St. Britius adjured the\ninfant, on the thirtieth day of its existence on earth, to tell who\nwas its father. Whether the infant revealed the name of its paternal\nparent, we are not informed; but this we are told, that it clearly and\naudibly testified that it had not sprung from the bishop's loins. This\nmiracle did not satisfy certain wicked people--they attributed the\nstrange occurrence to sorcery; and to give another test of his\ninnocence, St. Britius had recourse to the fiery ordeal. He, to show\nthat he was free from guilt, carried burning coals on his head to the\nshrine of St. Martin, without the cap he wore being burned or a hair\nof his head singed. This second miracle was also attributed to his\nintimacy with Satan, and he was expelled from the city for seven\nyears. At the end of that time he was restored to his dignities, which\nhe enjoyed until his death, in the year 444.\n\nSt. Britius was among the first who submitted to a fiery ordeal, but\nothers had been subjected to this mode of trial before him. The first\nappeal of this nature, we are informed, was that of Simplicius, a\nbishop of distinction, in the fourth century. Having been married\nbefore attaining his high ecclesiastical position, he was charged with\ncontinuing to partake of matrimonial indulgences. To prove his\ninnocence, the bishop's wife not only held burning coals in her lap\nwithout injury, but applied the coals to her breast without receiving\nhurt. He, too, submitted to various forms of fiery ordeal, and came\nout scatheless; and as their innocence was in this way manifested,\nthey were acquitted.\n\nFrom the strange custom of ordeal by water originated the practice of\nducking witches, but to the witch either sinking or swimming proved\nalike fatal. If she sank she was permitted to drown, and if she swam\nit was regarded as a proof of guilt, and was therefore forced below\nthe water and drowned. Sometimes the ordeal was by hot water. The bare\nlegs and arms were immersed in boiling liquid, and if they sustained\nno injury the accused was considered innocent.\n\nEdmund, the king and martyr, to whose memory the 20th of November is\nsacred, was the last titular of the East Angles. When the Danes first\nlanded in his district, in England, they defeated him, and when he\nfell into their hands they scourged him, bound him to a tree, pierced\nhim with many arrows, and afterwards beheaded him. Before being\ncaptured, Edmund offered to surrender himself to the Danes, provided\nthey would spare his subjects, and permit them to enjoy the privileges\nof Christians; but the invaders refused to listen to the proposition,\nhence the Church has regarded him as a martyr. His head was thrown\ninto a thicket, and lay there for twelve months, at the end of which\ntime the Christians found it in a perfect state, guarded by a wolf,\nwhich held the precious caput between its paws. Probably it never\nwould have been seen, but for the departed saint being heard uttering\nthe words, \"Here, here, here!\" Fifty years after the head was\ndiscovered, the body was found near the same spot. The remains of\nEdmund were buried in a remote place in the year 903, but in 1010 they\nwere exhumed and translated to London. In 1012 this human dust was\nremoved to the place whence it was taken.\n\nThe Danish invasion and murder of Edmund are ascribed to Bearn, a\ndissolute English nobleman. The story runs that Lodebrock, king of\nDenmark, having been alone in a boat, was driven by a tempest from the\nDanish coast to the Yare, in Suffolk. The inhabitants brought him to\nEdmund, who treated him with so much mildness and consideration, that\nhis affections were alienated from his own country. Among other\npastimes, the Dane was in the habit of hawking with Bearn, the king's\nhuntsman, who at length murdered him. A favourite hound belonging to\nLodebrock never quitted the body of its murdered master, except when\ncompelled by hunger. This being noticed, and Bearn being found guilty\nof the murder, he was sentenced to be put in Lodebrock's boat, without\nfood or instrument of navigation, and committed to the mercies of the\nsea. By a strange providence, he was carried to the very place in\nDenmark from which Lodebrock had been driven. The Danes, who knew the\nboat, and who had heard of the murder, examined Bearn on the rack as\nto his guilt. To avoid the just punishment of his crime, he affirmed\nthat Edmund was the author of the horrid deed. On hearing the false\ndeclaration, wrung from Bearn by torture, Hinguar and Hubba, sons of\nLodebrock, to avenge their father's death, sailed for East Anglia,\nwhere they killed Edmund.\n\nSt. Cecilia's Day is the 22d of November. She was a native of Rome,\nand suffered martyrdom in consequence of her embracing the Christian\nreligion. Her story is a remarkable one. It is related that she made a\nvow of chastity, but that nevertheless her parents compelled her to\nmarry a young nobleman named Valerianus, a heathen. On the evening of\ntheir wedding day, Cecilia told her husband that he must not enter her\nchamber, as she was nightly visited by an angel, who would destroy him\nwere he found in it. Surprised at the statement, but not alarmed, he\nsought an interview with the spirit, but she told him that could not\nbe unless he first became a Christian. He consented to change his\nreligion, and he and his brother Tibertius were baptized. Shortly\nafterwards the husband found his wife at prayers in her closet with an\nangel, like a beautiful youth, clothed with brightness, by her side.\nThe angel informed Valerianus that he and his brother would soon be\nbeheaded, and that Cecilia would be thrown into a cauldron of boiling\nwater, and scalded to death. All the predictions were fulfilled.\nCecilia's martyrdom took place about the year 230, though some\nauthorities suppose it happened earlier.\n\nThe 30th November is the anniversary of St. Andrew, the patron saint\nof Scotland. There is a wonderful legend regarding St. Andrew's Cross.\nThe cross, we are informed, appeared in heaven to Achaius, king of\nScots, and Hungus, king of the Picts, to encourage them to engage in\nbattle with Athelstane, king of England. Achaius and Hungus led on\ntheir forces, and were victorious. In acknowledgment of this wonderful\nmanifestation, they vowed to bear St. Andrew's Cross for ever on their\nensigns and banners.\n\nNovember was considered a good month for invalids being bled or\nphysicked, but every day was not considered equally lucky for applying\nthe lance or swallowing the draught. Almanacs were therefore sold,\nwith directions how to avoid the inauspicious times.\n\nDecember, it is generally believed, was consecrated to Saturn; others,\nhowever, think it was sacred to Vesta. In ancient times the Saxons\ncalled it _Midwinter-monat_ and _Yule-monat_. This last-mentioned name\npoints to the far-back period and high festivals held this month by\nthe Northern nations in honour of the sun. The evergreens with which\nhouses are decked, and Christmas trees with their gifts, are relics of\nthe symbols by which our heathen ancestors exhibited their belief in\nthe power of the sun to deck the earth anew with green, and to laden\nthe trees with rich fruit. The misletoe, exhibited at Christmas and\nthe New Year in almost every house, is looked upon as a semi-sacred\nthing, that possesses charms and confers privileges on people\npossessed of it, or who may come under the support from which it is\nsuspended. In olden times the ancient Britons believed their gods were\nin the oaks. When the misletoe berries were ripe, the Druids invited\nthe people to a great feast, and the oldest Druid, dressed in white,\nclimbed up the trees where the misletoe grew, and with a golden sickle\ncut it down, while the other Druids sang and prayed. We have various\naccounts of the misletoe, and of the strange superstitious proceedings\nin gathering it. The misletoe is supposed to be the golden bough which\n\u00c6neas made use of, to introduce himself to the Elysian regions. It is\noften worn about the neck of children, to prevent convulsions and pain\nwhen getting their teeth.\n\nNew Year's gifts and Christmas boxes were given by friends to friends\nin ancient times. Both the Greeks and Romans gave presents and\nentertainments during their annual superstitious meetings. Masses and\nprayers were offered for the safety of persons and ships, but more\nparticularly for vessels that went on long voyages. A box, devoted to\neach ship, was kept by the priest, into which money might be dropped,\nin order to give efficacy to the supplications of the Church; and\nthese boxes being opened at Christmas in each year, acquired the name\nof Christmas boxes. In course of time all presents given at this\nseason of the year were familiarly called boxes. Poor people begged\nbox money to enable them to supply the priest's box, that they might\nhave the benefit of his prayers.\n\nThe old salutation of \"a merry Christmas,\" like that of wishing \"a\nhappy New Year,\" adverted to the hospitality of the rich, whose\nspacious halls, crowded with tenants and neighbours, were scenes of\nboundless hospitality. Boar's-head is sometimes served on Christmas\nDay, to give expression of the abhorrence of Judaism. Plum-puddings\nare emblematical of the offerings of the wise men; and mince-pies,\nwith their pieces of paste over them in the form of a hay rack,\ncommemorate the manger in which the Saviour was first laid. Dancing\nand gambols have been among the Christmas amusements for a long series\nof years.\n\nThe wassail bowl was the vessel out of which our Saxon ancestors took\nsuch copious draughts, that legislative measures were adopted with the\nview of enforcing temperance. Wassail not only refers to a certain\nliquid preparation, but it is a term applied to drinking songs, which\nin the cider-producing counties were sung on the eve of the Epiphany,\nwhen libations were poured out to the apple-trees for a fruitful\nseason--a custom evidently followed in example of the heathen\nsacrifices to Pomona, the goddess of fruit-trees and orchards.\n\nDunstan, to check the vicious habit of excessive indulgence in\nintoxicating liquors, introduced the custom of marking or pegging\ndrinking-cups at certain places, to restrain the draught to a limited\nquantity. But the contrivance, instead of being attended with good\neffects, led to greater excess; for those who formerly strove to avoid\nintoxication, were now, they thought, obliged to drink to the \"pegs,\"\nit being understood that it was imperative to drain the vessel to the\npin.\n\nFrom the use of peg or pin-cups or tankards, may be traced phrases yet\nrepeated. When a person is in a cheerful mood, he is said to be in a\nmerry pin. Speaking of bringing a man \"down a peg,\" refers to a\nregulation which deprived a troublesome fellow of his turn of\ndrinking. When a person is dull, he is described as being \"a peg too\nlow.\" \"Getting on peg by peg,\" means that a man is gradually emptying\nhis cup.\n\nAnciently, confectionery was presented to the Fathers of Rome, made\nup in the forms of crosses, infants, etc., to which has been ascribed\nthe origin of bakers presenting their customers with cakes, or, as\nthey are sometimes called, \"Yule dough.\" It is supposed that the New\nYear's ode composed by the Poet Laureate was originally regarded as a\nYule song or Wassail song. For such verses Christmas carols were\nsubstituted, as being more appropriate for the season of the year,\nobserved with joy in honour of Christ's birth in Bethlehem.\n\n\n\n\nMIRACLES PERFORMED BY SAINTS AND OTHER HOLY PERSONS, AND THE INFLUENCE\nOF SACRED RELICS.\n\n\nCHAPTER XV.\n\n      Introductory--St. Peter and Simon the\n      Magician--Clement's Miracles and Death--St. Agnes the\n      Innocent--A Miraculous Circumstance--St. Blase's Power\n      over Men and Beasts--St. Agatha's Holy Life, Tortures,\n      and Wonder-working Veil--St. Patrick's Missionary\n      Labours, and Expulsion of Reptiles from Ireland--St.\n      Germanus stilling the Raging of the Sea--St. David and\n      the Welsh Leeks--The Stirrup Cup, and Origin of\n      \"Pledging\"--Elfrida's Treachery and Remorse--St.\n      Benedict's Power over the Elements--St. Dunstan cured\n      by an Angel; his Encounter with Satan--The \u00c6olian\n      Harp--St. Columba's Prophecy concerning Iona--The\n      Dream of Columba's Mother--Tragic Events--Prayer\n      answered--Sacred Ducks of Ireland--St. Paul binding a\n      Dragon--Saints and Frogs--Friars and Jesuits--Father\n      Mark proof against Fire--Virtue of Holy Water--St.\n      Noel's Imprecation--Men-wolves--Stories about\n      Bees--Strange Story about the Host--Blood-stained\n      Jews--Miracles--St. Boniface--Pope Silvester assisted\n      by Satan--Necromancing Popes--St. Januarius's\n      Blood--St. Anthony's Conflicts with the Devil--St.\n      Anthony's Hog and Bees--A Tradition concerning\n      Melrose--St. Cuthbert--Waves of Blood--Strange\n      Narrative--A Princess swallowed up by the Earth--Monk\n      Waldevus's inexhaustible Stores--Holy Relics--Rusticus\n      and his Hog.\n\n\nIn laying down rules for our own guidance in carrying on this work, we\nresolved to make few allusions to the miracles and mysteries related\nin the Old Testament. We also determined to avoid reference to\nChristian rites, ceremonies, and performances, either in early or\nlater times, when that could be accomplished without materially\naffecting the subject of superstition generally so called; but as an\nimportant link would be left out were we to refrain from giving a few\nexamples of miracles wrought, or said to have been wrought, by holy\npersons connected with Christian churches, we are under the necessity\n(considering those persons have had numerous base imitators) of\ndeparting to a certain extent from our original plans, and of devoting\nthis chapter to the \"Miracles performed by Saints and other Holy\nPersons\" since the dawn of Christianity.\n\n_St. Peter_, whom the Roman Catholics place at the head of the list of\nbishops of Rome, did undoubtedly perform miracles; but tradition tells\nus of so many strange circumstances concerning him, that at least a\nfew of the relations must be regarded as nothing better than romance.\nWe are informed that he went to Rome to oppose Simon, the celebrated\nmagician; that at their first interview, at which Nero was present,\nthe magician flew up into the air, but that the devil, who assisted\nhim up, let him fall from a great height to the ground, by which his\nlegs were broken. This tradition was long believed; and a reddish\nstone, supposed to be blood-stained, was pointed out as the stone on\nwhich Simon received his injuries.\n\nWe read that _Clement_, the third bishop of Rome, was banished by\nTrajan beyond the Euxine Sea; that there he caused a fountain to\nspring up miraculously for the benefit of Christians; and that he\nconverted the whole country to the true faith. These acts provoked the\nEmperor so much that he ordered him to be thrown into the sea, with an\nanchor fastened to his neck. On the anniversary of his death, the sea\nebbed to the place where he had been drowned, though three miles from\nthe shore; that on its retiring there appeared a most magnificent\ntemple of the finest marble, and in the temple a monument containing\nthe saint's body; that the sea continued thus to retire every year on\nthe same day, and did not return for a week, that worshippers might,\nwithout apprehension of danger, perform their devotions in honour of\nthe holy martyr. In connection with these ceremonies, a most wonderful\ncircumstance occurred, even more strange than what has been related of\nthe temple. One year a mother left her young infant in the temple, and\non her return next year she found her child not only alive, but in\nperfect health. Gregory of Tours and many others gave credit to this\nstory.\n\n_St. Agnes_ was so great a favourite that her festivals were\ncelebrated with more than ordinary pomp. She was descended from a\nRoman family of rank and opulence, and endowed by nature with great\npersonal beauty. She was beheaded at the early age of thirteen, in the\nyear 306. By the sentence of her judge, she was ordered to be treated\nin a most shameful manner, but through a providential interposition\nshe was saved from the ignominy her persecutors intended for her.\nAfter that event the Roman women worshipped her. The parents of St.\nAgnes were blessed with a vision while praying at her tomb, in which\nshe appeared to them in white raiment, with a lamb standing by her\nside, being the universally acknowledged emblem of innocence. On the\nfast held on St. Agnes's Day, two of the whitest lambs that could be\nprocured were presented at her altar, and afterwards carefully reared\nuntil they were shorn. Their wool was then hallowed, and converted\ninto white cloth for holy garments. Rural virgins were said to\npractise singular rites, in keeping St. Agnes's Fast, for the purpose\nof discovering their future husbands.\n\nIn the time of Liberius, a Roman of wealth and rank, named John,\nhaving no children, resolved to make a gift of his whole substance to\nthe Holy Virgin. With the consent of his wife, the entire estate was\ntherefore conveyed to Mary, whom they thenceforth jointly entreated in\ntheir prayers to let them know by some token in what manner she chose\nto dispose of it. Their prayers were heard. On the night of the 4th\nAugust, when the heat was great at Rome, there was a miraculous fall\nof snow, which covered part of the Esquiline Mount. The same night\nJohn and his wife were advised in their dreams to build a church on\nthe ground which they should find covered with snow. Next morning they\nwent to acquaint Pope Liberius with what had happened. Strange to say,\nthe Pope had had a similar dream. A grand procession of the whole\nclergy, in which the Pope walked himself, attended by crowds of\npeople, went to the above-mentioned mount, and having discovered the\nsnow-covered spot, the Pope laid the foundation of a magnificent\nchurch there, long known as Saint Mary in the Snow.\n\n_St. Blase_, who suffered martyrdom by decapitation in the year 289,\nafter having been cruelly whipped and scourged, wrought numerous\nmiracles of an extraordinary nature. Shortly before his decease, he\nprayed that whosoever sought his help in consequence of disease in the\nthroat, or any sickness, he might have the assistance desired. After\nthis, all who implored the aid of the saint were heard and healed. In\nhis lifetime he saved from death a devout widow's son, who, without\nhis assistance, would have been choked by a fish bone. Even the wild\nbeasts of the field were under the saint's control. A wolf that had\ncarried away a poor person's pig, was forced by the holy man to bring\nback another animal of equal value. In honour of St. Blase, candles\nwere offered to him, which, through the very act of devotion, were\nrendered holy, and became serviceable for all pious uses.\n\n_St. Agatha_ performed many miracles. Quintianus, the governor of\nCatania, smitten with her beauty and extraordinary accomplishments,\nendeavoured to gain her affections, but was unsuccessful. Consequently\nhis love turned into inveterate hatred, which ended in the fair Agatha\nbeing scourged and cast into a loathsome prison. The Pagan ruler\ncommanded her to sacrifice to heathen deities, but she adhered to her\nChristian principles in spite of his wrath, which found vent in\nburning her with hot irons and cutting off her breasts. To manifest\nthe displeasure of heaven, the walls of her prison were thrown down by\nsome unseen power, and two of the governor's servants were deprived of\nlife in a mysterious manner when torturing her. Her enemy had intended\nother and more fearful cruelties, but, in answer to her earnest\nprayers, death stepped in and relieved her from every trouble. In\nCatania a church was built and dedicated to St. Agatha, and her sacred\nveil, which she had often used to conceal her lovely features from the\nlustful Quintianus, was placed in it, to protect that city from the\neruptions of Mount \u00c6tna, and the earthquakes so frequent in Sicily.\nThis valuable relic was long preserved by those who believed in its\nefficacy. It not only had power over the mountain and internal fires,\nbut it conveyed virtue to everything it touched, similar to that which\nitself possessed. There were few Catanians who did not obtain, through\nthis veil, sovereign protections from evil.\n\n_St. Patrick_, the apostle and father of the Hibernian Church, and\npatron or tutelar saint of Ireland, was a Briton by birth, having been\nborn at Kilpatrick, near Dumbarton, in the year 377. When about\nsixteen years of age he was taken prisoner and conveyed to Ireland,\nwhere he was sold as a slave. Escaping from his master, he returned to\nthe place of his nativity. When in exile, he saw the evils arising\nfrom Paganism, and resolved to do what he could to convert the Irish\nPagans to Christianity. In due time he entered into his missionary\nlabours with indefatigable zeal, and proved to be the blessed means of\nconverting the benighted Irish to the true faith. The miracles\nattributed to him are numerous, the most noted of which is the\nexpulsion of reptiles from the Irish soil. It was he who made the\nshamrock--the Irish national emblem--so famous.\n\n_St. Germanus_, bishop of Auxerre, and _St. Lupus_, bishop of Troyes,\nwere sent to Britain by Celestine, the forty-second bishop of Rome, in\nthe year 429, to preach Christianity. The two missionaries, on their\nway, passed through Paris; thence they pursued their journey to the\nsea-side, and embarked. On the ocean a storm was raised by the devil,\nwhen Germanus, who was asleep, awoke just as the vessel was on the\npoint of sinking, and having rebuked the sea and poured a few drops of\noil into it, the raging of the waves ceased. Germanus, after safely\nlanding in Britain, restored to sight a blind girl by the application\nof certain relics he possessed.\n\n_St. David_ was a learned, elegant, and zealous saint, reported to\nhave performed miracles. The Welsh regarded him as their tutelar\nsaint, and annually held festivals in his honour. In answer to the\nsaint's prayers in the year 640, the Britons, under King Cadwallader,\ngained a complete victory over the Saxons. From a garden near the\nbattle-field, he caused leeks to be pulled and stuck in the caps of\nthe British warriors, to enable them to distinguish each other,\nwhereas the opposing parties, through want of a distinguishing badge,\nmistook friends for foes, and cut one another to pieces. From this\ncircumstance sprang the custom of the Welsh wearing leeks in their\nhats on St. David's Day. Tradition says that the birth of this saint\nwas predicted thirty years before the event took place; that a spirit\nconstantly attended him, to minister to his wants; that the waters of\nBath received their excellent qualities from his benediction; that he\nhealed the sick; and that he even restored the dead to life.\n\n_Edward_, the martyr, was crowned King of the West Saxons, when a\nyouth, by Archbishop Dunstan, who had espoused his cause in opposition\nto the wishes of Elfrida, his step-mother, who desired to secure the\nthrone for her own son Ethelred. Four years after his accession,\nEdward was hunting one day in Dorsetshire, near Elfrida's castle, and\ntook the opportunity of paying her a visit, unattended by any of his\nretinue. After what was thought an agreeable interview, he mounted his\nhorse to ride away, and when in the act of drinking the stirrup-cup, a\nservant, instigated by Elfrida, stabbed him behind. The youthful\nprince, finding himself wounded, put spurs to his steed, but, becoming\nfaint from loss of blood, fell from the saddle and was killed. The\nfoul deed struck the nation with so much dread, that subsequently\nevery man secured the protection of a staunch friend before he would\nventure in public to drain the wassail-bowl. Hence arose the\nexpression of \"pledging,\" when partaking of the cheerful glass.\nElfrida, seized with remorse, strove to atone for her guilt, but could\nnot get rid of the heavy load that constantly weighed her down. At\nlength she gave way to despair, her conscience causing her to imagine\nthat a monstrous fiend was always on the watch to drag her down to the\nplace of everlasting torment. When alone, in the still hours of the\nnight, she imagined she felt the infernal being's grasp, and, to\nprotect herself, she had recourse to charms.\n\n_St. Benedict_ possessed the power of performing miracles. Not only\ncould he control the actions of man in a way that showed his\nsupernatural ability, but he also set the elements at defiance. In the\nyear 529, Benedict, with a few devotees selected from the many pious\nmen around him, went to Monte Casino, where idolatry prevailed, and\nbroke the images in Apollo's temple; they then founded a monastery\nthere, and instituted the order after the saint's name. The manner of\nthis Christian's death is not mentioned, but it is supposed to have\nbeen easy and natural. When the Goths invaded Italy, they attempted to\nburn him in his cell. Fiercely did the flames rage around him, but\nthey could not burn so much as a hair of his head. This preservation\nstill more enraged the heathen, who threw him into a close hot oven,\nand kept him there till next day. To their surprise, when the oven\nwas opened, they found the saint safe--neither his body being scorched\nnor his clothes singed.\n\n_St. Dunstan_ was thought by the ignorant people to be in league with\ninfernal spirits. When a boy, disease brought him to the point of\ndeath, but he was restored to health by medicine brought to him by a\nspirit riding in a storm. Feeling himself well again, Dunstan repaired\nto the church to return grateful thanks. Satan met him on the way,\nsurrounded him with numerous fierce-looking black dogs, and\nendeavoured to defeat his pious intention. Nothing daunted, the holy\nsaint pursued his way, and, by the assistance of an angel that came to\nhis help, he defeated the devil and his black dogs. Dunstan found the\nchurch door shut; and to save time, lest Satan should overtake them\nbefore entering the sacred edifice, the angel carried him through the\nroof to the proper place of devotion. At another time, while St.\nDunstan was working at his forge, the devil attempted to lead him into\nevil paths. The evil spirit appeared, not in a hideous form, but as a\nbeautiful young lady, all smiles and endearments. Though the hook was\nskilfully concealed, the deception did not succeed: the saint knew the\narch-fiend, and suddenly taking a pair of red-hot tongs from the fire,\nseized the fiend's nose with them, whereby the nasal organ was\ndisfigured for ever. The \u00c6olian harp is thought to have been invented\nby St. Dunstan, and he is said to have been able to play upon that\ninstrument without touching a string thereof. At one time, in\nconsequence of the high esteem in which harps were held, every person\nof rank was supposed to possess one of these instruments, and to be\nable to perform on it. Slaves were prohibited from performing on this\nsacred instrument. Creditors were prevented by law from seizing for\ndebt a gentleman's harp, though everything else he possessed might be\nsold to discharge his obligations.\n\n_St. Columba_ was the apostle of the Highlands and Western Islands of\nScotland, and founder of the famous cathedral of Iona, long regarded\nas the mother church of the Picts. Concerning this building he wrote\nthe prophetic lines, which have been in part verified:\n\n    \"O sacred dome of my beloved abode!\n    Whose walls now echo to the praise of God;\n    The time shall come when lauding monks shall cease,\n    And howling herds here occupy their place;\n    But better ages shall hereafter come,\n    And praise re-echo in this sacred dome.\"\n\nStriking miracles were ascribed to him; his prophecies almost\ninvariably came to pass, and he had marvellous visions. Columba's\nmother dreamed, one night before his birth, that a person of\nsuperhuman mien and figure presented her with a veil of the most\nbeautiful texture; that in a short time the giver resumed possession\nof his gift, and, raising it up, it flew through the heavens.\nGradually the veil extended itself on all sides, till it spread over\nmountains and plains. Grieved at the loss of such a valuable article,\nshe expressed her sorrow; but he who had given and taken away,\ncomforted her with the assurance that it was an emblem of the child\nsoon to be born, who, he assured her, would prove a blessing to the\nnation. One day, while the saint was a youth, a young girl, pursued by\na barbarian, came running to him for protection; but before he could\nlift his slender arm to save her, the monster pierced her through with\na spear. One who witnessed the tragic deed exclaimed, \"Ah! how long\nwill this atrocious crime remain unpunished?\" To this question Columba\nreplied, \"The soul of the murderer may yet be in hell as soon as that\nof the murdered is in heaven.\" Scarcely had he uttered these words,\nthan the unhappy criminal fell a lifeless corpse. At another time the\nsaint observed a man falling from a considerable height, and beseeched\nan angel to uphold him. The good man's prayer was heard: a heavenly\nmessenger, with a speed swifter than that of lightning, came to the\nrescue, and the man escaped unhurt.\n\nIn olden times there were sixteen ducks that usually swam about a\ncertain lake in Ireland; but when any injury was done to the church or\nclergy they flew away, and did not return until satisfaction was given\nand reparation made for the wrong perpetrated. During the absence of\nthe ducks, the water of the lake, naturally clear, became corrupt and\nsmelt so badly that man and beast refused to taste it. If any person\ninjured one of those birds, condign punishment was sure to overtake\nhim. A kite having caught one of them, flew to a tree with it, but\nimmediately all the ravenous bird's members became so powerless that\nit could not devour its prey. At another time a fox caught a second\nbird of the flock, but he had better, we are told, have let it alone,\nfor next day the greedy animal was found dead near the lake, with the\ninnocent duck sticking in its throat.\n\n_St. Paul_, bishop of Leon, was entreated by the inhabitants of a\nseaport in Ireland to deliver them from a dragon that had killed many\npeople. The pious bishop assured them of help, provided they repented\nand renounced their superstitions. They promised to do all he required\nof them. An altar was prepared, whereon he said mass. Then he went out\nand, with a loud voice, commanded the dragon to come before him.\nImmediately it appeared with open mouth and rolling eyes, and cast\nitself at the saint's feet. St. Paul cast a stole round its neck, and,\nfixing his staff in the ground, bound the dangerous creature so that\nit could not hurt any one after that time.\n\nA holy saint, being disturbed one day by the croaking of a number of\nfrogs in a pool near the church, went and smote the waters with his\nstaff. Presently the frogs ceased their noise, and never croaked\nagain.\n\nOnce upon a time a rivalship existed between the Austin friars and the\nJesuits. The father-general of the Austin friars was dining with the\nJesuits, and, on the table-cloth being removed, he entered into a\nformal discourse touching the superiority of the monastic order, and\ncharged the Jesuits with assuming the title of \"Fratres,\" while they\nheld not the three vows which other monks were obliged to consider\nsacred. The general was very eloquent and authoritative. On the\ncontrary, the superior of the Jesuits being unlearned, though shrewd\nin many respects, preferred to see a miracle performed, to prove the\nsuperiority of his order, rather than enter into a controversy. He\ntherefore proposed that one of his friars and an Austin friar should\nshow which of them would most readily obey his superior. The Austin\nfriar consented. The Jesuit then, turning to the holy friar Mark, who\nwas waiting on them, said, \"Brother Mark, our companions are cold; I\ncommand you, in virtue of the obedience you have sworn to me, to bring\ninstantly, in your hands, some burning coals from the kitchen fire,\nthat our friends may warm themselves over your hands.\" Father Mark\nobeyed, and, to the astonishment of the Austin friars, brought on his\npalms a supply of red burning coals, that whoever thought proper might\nwarm himself. The father-general, with the rest of his brethren, stood\namazed. He looked wistfully at one of his monks, as if he wished to\ncommand him to perform a similar exploit; but the Austin monk, who\nunderstood what was meant, said, \"Reverend father, forbear; do not\ncommand me. I am ready to fetch fire in a chafing dish, but not in my\nbare hands.\" The triumph of the Jesuits was complete: the miracle was\nnoised about to their advantage. But the Austin friars could never\naccount for the miracle, nor could they imitate it.\n\nA priest in Ireland, travelling in Ulster, was forced to pass a night\nin a forest. He, and a boy who accompanied him, lighted a fire under\nthe branches of a tree. Scarcely had they seated themselves than a\nwolf came near, and spoke as follows:--\"Fear nothing; I am of a race\nof men-wolves, from which every seven years, by force of an\nimprecation made by St. Noel, two from among us, a male and a female,\nare constrained to lay aside the outward shape of reasonable\ncreatures, and live in the form of wolves for seven years. At the end\nof that period other two men-wolves are sent out, and the former two\nreturn, if they survive the dangers of wolf-life. Not far from this\nplace, my wife, who is the female wolf, lies very unwell, and I\nbeseech you to go and comfort her.\" So the priest, ever ready to\nperform a good act, went to see the sick wolf. She was in the hollow\nof a tree, suffering great pain. He administered comfort to the\ninvalid, but possessed not the power of changing her into her natural\nshape. The male wolf conducted the priest back to the fire, remained\non watch all night to keep the other wolves away, and in the morning\ndirected the priest how to go.\n\nA French peasant, whose bees were dying of disease, was advised to go\nto the communion, carry off the host, and blow it into one of his\nhives. He did as recommended, but the result proved different to what\nhe expected. Some time afterwards he discovered that his bees were\ndead. On examining the hive, he was amazed to find that the host put\namong the honey-combs was turned into a beautiful infant--cold,\nhowever, in the arms of death. Intending to bury the child's body in\nthe church, he was proceeding thither, when, on the way to the sacred\nedifice, the infant vanished. This unhallowed use of the host brought\na curse on the neighbourhood. The people were so chastised by divers\ncalamities, that the country was depopulated, and became like a\nwilderness.\n\nAnother peasant, having communicated on Easter Day, received the host\ninto his mouth; but instead of using it according to sacred rules, he\nlaid it among his bees, thinking that by doing so he would bring all\nthe bees in the neighbourhood, with their honey, to his hives. So far\ndid his project succeed; but the bees brought no fruit which the\nwicked peasant could desire. They hummed melodious music, and built a\nsmall wax church at the time the wicked wretch thought they should be\ncollecting honey for him. One day, walking near the hive into which he\nhad put the host, the bees came out, and stung him nearly to death.\nRemorse seized him, and in bitter anguish he went to the priest to\nconfess his fault. As the case was an extraordinary one, the priest\nconsulted the bishop, who advised that the parishioners, headed by the\npriest, should go in procession to the hives. On the people's arrival,\nthe bees testified their joy by their melodious humming. In the hive\ninto which the host had been put an altar of wax was found, and a\nsacred relic lying thereon.\n\nIn 1399 a woman and her daughter engaged to procure consecrated hosts\nfor a band of wicked Jews, who intended to use them for unhallowed\npurposes. The woman went to a church and stole three hosts when the\nfriars were at dinner. Having received the hosts, the Jews assembled\nin a cellar, threw them contemptuously on a table, and stabbed them\nwith a dagger. Blood spurted out from the dagger holes, and covered\nthe faces of the impious men. The marks could not be washed away, so\nthat they, Cain-like, bore unmistakeable signs of guilt to the day of\ntheir death. Blood also ran on the cellar floor, and could not by any\nmeans be removed. The Jews being terrified, sent two men to bury the\nhosts in a field. As the men passed a pious youth, named Paul, who had\ncharge of two oxen, the hosts flew up in the air, and became like\nbeautiful butterflies. At the sight of these, the oxen kneeled down on\nthe ground. Paul, on becoming acquainted with what had happened,\nhastened to a magistrate to give information against the wicked\npeople. Instead of being believed, he was cast into prison as a base\nfellow. In answer to his prayers, the prison gates opened of\nthemselves; so he went out, and again presented himself before the\njudge. This time Paul's word was taken. The case was reported to the\nbishop, who ordered the hosts to be collected for preservation.\nProceedings were taken against the Jews: they were burned, and their\ngoods confiscated. By order of the king, a church was built at the\nplace where the hosts appeared to Paul as butterflies. Many miracles\nwere afterwards wrought there. From that time to the year 1604 no\nfewer than 382 were performed, the most notable ones being the raising\nof thirty-six persons from the dead.\n\n_St. Boniface_, the apostle of Germany, slept one night in a tent\npitched in an open plain. In the still dark hours a bright light\nsuddenly appeared, in which he saw St. Michael, who spoke words of\nencouragement to him. After devotional services in the forenoon, he\nordered his steward to prepare dinner, but the servant told him he had\nnothing in that barren place to set on the table. \"What!\" replied the\napostle, \"has he that fed his people forty years in the wilderness\nnothing to give his servant and his attendants?\" Having said this, he\nordered the cloth to be spread on the table, and immediately a large\nbird came flying with a fish, sufficient to feed the whole company for\na day.\n\nAnother good story is told of St. Boniface. When he was a child, he\nobserved a fox running away with a hen belonging to his mother. He\nhastened to the church, and prayed that the hens and chickens, which\nhis mother fed in her back-yard to maintain herself and little family,\nmight be preserved. To his astonishment, on returning home, the fox\nappeared before him with the hen, unhurt, in its mouth. Crouching like\na spaniel, the beast of prey laid the fowl at the child's feet, and\nfell down dead.\n\nPope Silvester II. is reported to have reached the Papal chair by\nSatan's assistance. In his youth Silvester was a monk, but he deserted\nthe monastery, and became a follower of the devil. He went to Spain in\nsearch of magical instruction. Being introduced to a Saracen\nphilosopher skilful in magic, he became his disciple. But his stay\nwith the learned man was short; for seeing a valuable book of\nnecromancy belonging to his instructor, he stole it. Fleeing to a\nplace of safety, he studied the black art very closely. His\nintercourse with Satan was frequent. Through the devil's assistance,\nhe became an archbishop, and subsequently a pope, upon condition that,\nafter his death, he would become the absolute property of the black\nfiend. During his popedom he kept a brazen head, which he regularly\nconsulted concerning diabolical subjects. Desirous to know how long he\nwould reign, Silvester betook himself to the devil for information. In\nanswer to a question, the wicked spirit informed him that if he stayed\naway from Jerusalem he would live to an old age. A few years after\nthis information, Silvester imprudently went to the Holy City, where\nhe was suddenly seized with fever. Before his senses left him he\nrepented, and confessed his familiarity with Satan. He desired that,\nafter death, his hands and tongue might be cut off, because with them\nhe had served the devil; that his mutilated body should be put into a\ncart, with horses having no driver, and that wherever they halted,\nafter being started, his body should be buried there. All being done\nas requested by the dying pope, the horses stopped when they came to\nthe church of Lateran, and there he was interred. Whatever became of\nhis soul, it is plain the devil did not let his body alone. Shortly\nbefore the death of many popes who succeeded him, his bones were heard\nto rattle, and his tomb was seen to sweat. By these signs people knew\nwhen the dissolution of a pope was nigh. This narration may seem\nstrange to the present generation, but to people living in olden\ntimes it was not considered very extraordinary. Report says that\neighteen popes, who succeeded one another, were necromancers.\nBenedictus IX. was, through his wickedness and sorcery, called\nMaledictus. He was killed, we are told, by the Devil in a wood. After\nhis death, a hermit met his body, in the form of a bear, with a mitre\non his head. The hermit, so the story goes, asked him how it happened\nthat he was metamorphosed. \"Because,\" said he, \"in my popedom I lived\nwithout law, and now I wander like a beast.\"\n\n_St. Januarius_, the patron saint of Naples, suffered martyrdom about\nthe end of the third century. When he was beheaded, a pious lady\nsecured a small quantity of his blood, which, report says, has been\npreserved in a bottle ever since, without losing a grain of its\nweight. The blood is usually congealed, but when brought near the\nsaint's carefully preserved head, it is miraculously liquified. The\nexperiment is, or at least was, made twice a year by the Neapolitans.\nWhen there is an eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the saint's head is, or\nwas, carried in procession, in order to render the outbreak harmless.\n\n_St. Anthony_ had serious conflicts with the Devil in bodily shape,\nwhen victory was generally declared in favour of the good man. The\nsaint performed miracles, and was famed for curing the disease called\nafter his name. In youth he was a swine-herd, and afterwards became\nthe patron saint of swine-herds. To do him honour, the Romanists were\nwont to keep a hog at the public expense, which was venerated, and\ndesignated St. Anthony's hog. A picture or an image of the saint, hung\nup in a house, kept away the plague from the dwelling. As the relics\nof this saint were capable of curing St. Anthony's fire, so were those\nof St. Lucia useful in removing toothache, and those of St. Apollonia\nwere infallible remedies in cases of hydrophobia.\n\nThe history of Melrose is made up in great part of romance and\nsuperstitious traditions. Melrose, Malerose, or Mull-ross, signifying\na bare promontory, derived its name from a young princess, who was\nobliged to fly from her home on an island of the Greek Archipelago, in\nconsequence of her too close intimacy with a lover to whom she was\nsincerely attached. In her country a breach of the seventh commandment\nby a young female was visited by death. As soon as her guilt became\nknown, she, to save her life, fled in search of an asylum, where she\nmight have time and opportunity to atone for her guilt. Certain good\npriests whom she consulted, directed her to sail northwards to an\nisland called Hibernia; and, moreover, the priests offered to\naccompany her wherever she went, for the good of her soul. They\naccordingly set sail, and landed at a port on the north-east coast of\nScotland. She and her companions went inland, and settled down at\nMelrose, on the banks of the Tweed, where she erected an abbey. St.\nCuthbert was an abbot at Melrose before he removed to Lindisfarne, now\ncalled Holy Island, where he was appointed bishop of St. Peter's\nChurch at the latter place. He died at Holy Island in the year 687,\nand was buried in a stone coffin there. Eleven years after the\ninterment he was taken out of the grave, when it was found that the\nbody was free from corruption.\n\nThree years afterwards, Abbot Edred stealthily removed the body,\ncarrying it from town to town for seven years. Many of the inhabitants\nof Holy Island, on learning that the saint's body was taken away, left\ntheir property, and went south after it. In consequence of the\npersecution then raging in England, the body, it was resolved, should\nbe conveyed to Ireland for its greater security. The bishop, abbot,\nand others engaged in transporting the body, went on board a ship with\ntheir sacred treasure, intending to cross the Channel. A storm was\nencountered, three waves were turned into blood, and the ship was\ndriven ashore, and cast on its side. A volume, containing the\nEvangelists' writings, in letters of gold and having its boards set\nwith precious stones, fell from the vessel into the sea, which caused\nthe saint to appear in a vision to one of the monks, and commanded him\nto search the shore for the book. He searched and found it, and, to\nhis surprise, it appeared more beautiful than before, seeming to have\nbeen polished with a heavenly hand. On attempting to remove the body\nagain, it became heavy and difficult to carry, which greatly perplexed\nthose bearing the burden; but their difficulty was of short duration,\nfor they perceived a bridle on a tree, and a red horse running toward\nthem, which, on its approach, offered to carry St. Cuthbert's body.\nAccepting the proffered service, the body was put on the mysterious\nanimal's back, which carried it to Crake Minster. Thence it was\nconveyed to Chester, where it remained a hundred and ten years. At the\ntermination of that time it was removed to Ripon, to be laid beside\nthe body of St. Wilfrid; but it was not destined to remain there more\nthan a few months. As war, which had devastated the country, had\nceased, St. Cuthbert's body was lifted with the intention of bringing\nit back to Chester; but the bearers halting with it at Wardenlaw,\ncould not remove it again, as it seemed to be fastened to the ground.\nThis caused the monks to pray for three days, and instructions were\nasked as to how the body was to be disposed of. Their prayers were\nheard: it was revealed to Eadmer, one of the monks, that the body\nshould be taken to Durham, as its last resting-place. The\nextraordinary heaviness of the remains was no longer felt; it was\nremoved thither, and deposited in the abbey in the year 997, where it\nlies to the present day.\n\nAnother story of St. Cuthbert is related. He lived on the borders of\nthe Pictish territory, where many people went to him for instructions.\nAt this time the king's daughter was injured by a young man, whom the\nprincess spoke of as \"the solitary young man who dwelleth hard by.\"\nGreatly incensed, the king went to St. Cuthbert, thinking that he was\nthe guilty person, and accused him of committing the crime. For\nunknown reasons, the princess stated, and persisted in saying, that\nthe holy man was the offender. Knowing his innocence, the saint prayed\nthat the work of iniquity should be laid open, and that by some token\nit would be made known that the accusation was false. A sign was soon\ngiven; for scarcely had the supplication been made than the earth on\nwhich the princess stood suddenly opened with a hissing noise, and\nswallowed her up. The king, struck with terror, and in great distress\nat the loss of his daughter, implored the saint to restore the\nprincess. This petition the holy father granted, clogging it, however,\nwith the condition, that thenceforward no woman should resort to him.\nFrom that time a woman was never seen approaching his place of\nseclusion; and more than that, the restriction was extended to all the\nPictish churches dedicated to him.\n\nIn connection with the history of Melrose, there is a tale of a monk\nnamed Waldevus, who increased the corn in the granaries belonging to\nthe monastery in the villages of Eildon and Gattonside, out of which\nwere fed, in a time of scarcity, four thousand poor people for three\nmonths, without any diminution of the first quantity, until the fruits\nof harvest were gathered, and then the store began to diminish\naccording to the quantities withdrawn from it. Waldevus's tomb was\nopened twelve years after his death, which took place about the middle\nof the twelfth century, when his body was found entire, and his\ngarments undecayed. In the year 1240 Waldevus's place of sepulchre was\nagain opened, but his remains were then decayed. Those who were\npresent carried away some of the small bones, leaving the rest of the\nashes to repose in peace. William, son of the Earl of Dunbar, was one\nof the company present: he secured one of the saint's teeth, which\nturned out to be a valuable prize, for by it many wonderful miracles\nwere performed.\n\nWaldevus and his corn reminds us of Rusticus and his hog. Two\nChristian pilgrims, we are informed, were travelling in Poland, when\nthey were hospitably entertained by Rusticus, then a Pagan peasant,\nafterwards converted, and promoted to sovereignty. They arrived at his\nresidence when he was preparing to give an entertainment on the\noccasion of the birth of a son. A hog was killed for the feast, to\nwhich the wearied travellers were invited; and rumour has it, that\nthey did ample justice to the good things, particularly to the hog's\nflesh, set before them. To show their gratitude, they resolved to work\na miracle for the everlasting benefit of their host and his family.\nHalf of the hog remained uneaten, and over it they prayed earnestly\nthat it might never be consumed, but become a constant source of\nsupply to the family. Their prayers were heard; and the swine's flesh\nremained undiminished in weight, however freely slices were carved\nfrom it for hungry mortals. Such was the effect produced on Rusticus's\nmind by this miracle, that he forsook heathenism and became a\nChristian.\n\n\n\n\nHOW THE POETS HAVE FANNED THE FLAME OF SUPERSTITION.\n\n\nCHAPTER XVI.\n\n      Prophetic Verse--Druids called Bardi--The Bardi as\n      Instructors--Virtue of Serpents' Eggs--Bards\n      maintained by Noblemen--Queen Elizabeth and the\n      Bards--Effects of Prophetic Sayings, and of Pipe\n      Music--Message, how conveyed to another World--Voices\n      of Deceased Friends heard in the Gale--Human Forms in\n      the Clouds--Evenings in the Highlands--Michael\n      Scott--Constant Work for Evil Spirits--Stemming the\n      Tweed--How the Eildon Hills were formed--Place of\n      Torment--Ropes of Sand--Scott and his Magic Books\n      buried at Melrose--Ossianic Poems--Stories by Bards.\n\n\nPoets have done much to fan the flame of superstition. They have\nindulged in prophetic verse, and handed down to posterity the strange\nbelief of our ancestors. Certain Druids, called Bardi, were well known\nto be versed in astrology. They are supposed to have been the same, in\nparticular respects, among the Britons as the Sophi among the Greeks,\nor the Magi among the Persians. Having been chosen from the best\nfamilies in the land, the Bardi were held in the highest esteem by the\ncommon people; and the children of the chiefs were instructed by them.\nTheir practical verses were never written, but given to their pupils\n_viva voce_, that they might assist in conveying them orally to the\npeople. The Bardi dealt in particular charms, such as serpents' eggs,\ngathered in a particular way, and under certain phases of the moon.\nThese eggs were imagined to be effectual for the gaining of law-suits,\nand for the securing of the good graces of princes. The Vates (another\nclass of Druids), if not the Bardi, sought for omens among the\nentrails of victims offered in sacrifice.\n\nThe Bards, at various periods, possessed uncommon privileges, but\nthese were from time to time diminished or increased, according to the\ncaprice of those under whose government they lived. Almost every\nnobleman of distinction maintained bards in his family, and treated\nthem with great consideration. Queen Elizabeth, however, acted\ndifferently: she ordered bards and minstrels to be hanged as traitors,\nas she believed they instigated rebellion by their songs. Bards\nfollowed clans to the field, where they eulogized the chiefs, and sang\nin extravagant verse the deeds of the favourite warriors. Before a\nbattle, they went from tribe to tribe, or from clan to clan, exhorting\nand encouraging by prophetic sayings, in which success to friends was\nforetold and the doom of enemies pronounced. In the tumult of fight,\nwhen the bards' voices could not be heard, they were succeeded by\npipers, who with inspiring warlike strains kept alive the enthusiasm\nthe composers of verse had kindled. After the contest was sounded, the\nbards were employed to honour the memory of the brave that had fallen\nin battle, to celebrate the deeds of those who survived, and to excite\nto future acts of heroism. The piper was called upon, in turn, to\nsound mournful lamentations for the slain. In poetical language, the\npeople were told that the dead sympathized with the living left behind\nto maintain the honour of their clans or country. Messages were given\nto dying friends, that they might be delivered to the spirits of\nrelatives in another world. Highlanders imagined they heard, in the\npassing gale, the voices of departed relatives, and in their solitude\nthey beheld the forms of their fathers in the bright clouds. In cases\nof emergency, the spirit of the mountains gave friendly warnings,\nwhich enabled cautioned ones to avoid dangers, that otherwise could\nneither be foreseen nor prevented.\n\nTraditional poetry is highly esteemed by the mountaineers. It is a\nfavourite pastime with the Highlanders, when seated round the evening\nfire, to relate and listen to tales of witches, fairies, etc., and to\nsing the soul-stirring songs of their native bards. Formerly, those\nwho could recount the deeds of Fingalian times were special\nfavourites. To such persons every door was open, and every table free.\nNothing but ignorance could lead inhabitants of towns to suppose that\nHighlanders spend their winter months in gloomy solitude. Except where\npoverty or sickness prevails, the winter evenings among the mountains\nhave something bewitching about them. The day's toil being over,\nneighbours come in, and parents and children, masters and servants,\nfriends and relations, hold social intercourse in the same apartment,\nwhere there blazes a hearty fire of peats and bog-fir. None of the\nyoung women remain idle; for while the joke and merry laugh go round,\none knits, a second sews, a third spins, and a fourth handles a\ndistaff. Once the happy conversation has commenced, the wind may blow,\nthe tempest roar, without disturbing the friendly group. There may be\nnow less highly-gifted bards in the Highlands, romance and chivalry\nmay have yielded to other ideas and pursuits, but still much of the\nsame characteristic spirit remains: the love of ancient tradition and\nsong exists, and the superstitions of bygone ages are unforgotten.\nThose who do not venerate their poets, and have respect to the early\nhistory of their country, are a dull, besotted people.\n\nNot unfrequently were poets and other men of genius regarded as\nwizards or magicians. As an instance, we refer to the history of\nMichael Scott, the celebrated philosopher and poet, who lived in the\nthirteenth century. He was a native of Fife, and in early life became\nversant in occult science. After studying in Scotland, he went to\nOxford and Paris, where he attained wonderful proficiency in\nphilology, mathematics, natural philosophy, and theology. He visited\nother foreign countries--in particular, Norway, Germany, and Spain.\nHis fame spread over the whole of Europe. His knowledge of natural\nmagic procured for him the appellations of enchanter, magician,\nwizard. His works recommended him to the favourable notice of\nFrederick II. of Germany, by whom he was appointed his royal\nastrologer. To Scott, it is reported, the heavens were as a great\nbook, wherein was written not only the history of nations, but of\nindividuals also. In the vaulted heavens, he declared, man might read\nhis own fortune. He predicted when, where, and how the Emperor\nFrederick's death would take place. Scott returned to Scotland, when\nhe had the honour of knighthood conferred on him. He performed almost\ninnumerable miracles; and so thoroughly was he believed to be in\nleague with the Devil, that he was tried for sorcery, but through his\ninfluence in high quarters, or his subtle arts, he escaped the fangs\nof the law. Tradition says that upon a certain occasion, being\nembarrassed by evil spirits, he undertook to find the wicked ones\nconstant employment. Not a few strange feats were gone through, which\nScott thought were impossible for Satan himself to perform.\nNevertheless, they were done. One day, the spirits demanded more work;\nand the wizard ordered that a dam-head should be built across the\nTweed at Kelso, to prevent the flow of the river. Next morning the\nwork was found completed. More work was demanded; and this time Scott\nrequested that the Eildon Hill, which had only one cone, should be\ndivided into three parts. Away went the infernal spirits in great glee\nto perform the task assigned them. On the sun rising the following\nday, the hill had three cones, as are to be seen at the present time.\nBack came the wicked beings to intimate that the task was\naccomplished. This Sir Michael well knew meant a determination to have\nmore work, or to claim him in accordance with an agreement between\nhim and Satan. Scott remembered he had sold himself to his Satanic\nMajesty, but did not forget that he was entitled to a respite so long\nas he could procure diabolical work for Satan's favourite imps.\n\"What,\" Scott asked himself; \"is next to be done? Am I to order the\nworld to be turned upside down, and perhaps perish in the ruins? or am\nI to demand the evil spirits, which torment me night and day, to bring\ndown the sun, moon, and stars, and leave the universe in perpetual\ndarkness? No,\" replied he, mentally; \"to do so, would be to make\nmyself more of a fiend than they that take pleasure in gathering\ntogether into the place of torment those who have persistently\ndisobeyed the dictates of reason. Shall I then at once surrender\nmyself to the merciless tyrants, and thereby free the world from an\ninstrument of unrighteousness? Ah!\" exclaimed Scott, \"life is sweet,\nand death bitter; let me prolong my days to the utmost limits allowed\nto man.\" Exhausted, Sir Michael leaned back on the seat whereon he\nsat. Long watching, deep study, and vexatious encounters with the evil\nones so exhausted him that he fell into a disturbed sleep. In his\ndreams he beheld the place of torment with all its horrors. The fiery\nlake looked more dismal than anything he had heard described, or what\nhe could have imagined. Within were many known faces; every one\nendeavoured to excel the other in his endeavour to make the place what\nit was intended to be--a place of torment. No one repented of his\nwicked deeds or expected mercy. The gates of the unholy place were\nthrown open, and in went the chief spirit that had so often communed\nwith Scott. Like a furnace door, the gate was closed after him. What\ntook place may be imagined. Again the red-hot gate turned on its\nhinges, and out came Satan, with a thousand of his swiftest\nmessengers, to bring home Sir Michael, against whom a charge was\npending of breach of bargain. Horror-stricken, the sleeper started to\nhis feet, and to his great relief found none but his old familiar\nspirits before him. \"Work, more work,\" said the spirits. \"Yes, work,\nendless work,\" shouted Scott. \"Go,\" said he, \"and make the sea-sand\ninto ropes.\" With a gloomy countenance the fiends departed, never to\nreturn to molest the enchanter. For aught that is known, says the\nlegend, the spirits may still be endeavouring to perform the\nimpossible task of making ropes out of sea-sand. All parties are not\nagreed as to how Sir Michael Scott died, nor where he was interred,\nbut the general belief as to where his remains rest is, that he was\nburied, together with his magic books, at Melrose Abbey.\n\nAssuming that the poems asserted to be those of Ossian are authentic,\nwe see there was in his time a general belief that ghosts and spirits\nfloated through the air, that the dead revisited the earth, that the\ndestiny of man was under the control of supernatural beings, and that\nthe astonishing power of witches was real, and not imaginary. This is\nabundantly proved (always assuming the authenticity of the Ossianic\npoems) by the work before us, from which we take the following\nquotations:--\n\n      \"Fingal advanced his steps wide through the bosom of\n      night, to where the trees of Loda shook amid squally\n      winds.... I beheld the dark moon descending behind thy\n      resounding woods. On thy top dwells the misty Loda,\n      the house of the spirits of men. I saw a deer at\n      Crona's stream; a mossy bank he seemed through the\n      gloom, but soon he bounded away. A meteor played round\n      his branching horns; the awful faces of other times\n      looked from the clouds of Crona. These are the signs\n      of Fingal's death. The king of shields is fallen, and\n      Caracul prevails. 'Rise, Comala, from thy rock;\n      daughter of Sarno, rise in tears. The youth of thy\n      love is low; his ghost is on our hills.'...\n\n      \"Autumn is dark on the mountains; grey mists rest on\n      the hills. The whirlwind is heard on the heath. Dark\n      rolls the river through the narrow plain. A tree\n      stands alone on the hill, and marks the slumbering\n      Connal. The leaves whirl round with the wind, and\n      strew the grave of the dead. At times are seen here\n      the ghosts of the departed, when the musing hunter\n      alone stalks over the heath....\n\n      \"The deer of the mountain avoids the place, for he\n      beholds a dim ghost standing there. The mighty lie, O\n      Malvina! in the narrow plain of the rock.\n\n      \"Often did I turn my ship, but the winds of the east\n      prevailed. Nor Clutha ever since I have seen, nor\n      Moina of the dark-brown hair. She fell in Balclutha,\n      for I have seen her ghost. I knew her as she came\n      through the dusky night, along the murmur of Lora: she\n      was like the new moon, seen through the gathered mist,\n      when the sky pours down its flaky snow, and the world\n      is silent and dark. 'Raise, ye bards,' said the mighty\n      Fingal, 'the praise of unhappy Moina. Call her ghost,\n      with your songs, to our hills, that she may rest with\n      the fair of Morven, the sunbeams of other days, the\n      delight of heroes of old.'...\n\n      \"The night passed away in song; morning returned in\n      joy. The mountains showed their grey heads; the blue\n      face of ocean smiled. The white wave is seen tumbling\n      round the distant rock; a mist rose slowly from the\n      lake. It came in the figure of an aged man along the\n      silent plain. Its large limbs did not move in steps,\n      for a ghost supported it in mid air. It came towards\n      Selma's hall, and dissolved in a shower of blood.\n\n      \"The king alone beheld the sight; he foresaw the death\n      of the people....\n\n      \"'My spirit, Connal, is on my hills: my corse on the\n      sands of Erin. Thou shalt never talk with Crugal, nor\n      find his lone steps in the heath. I am light as the\n      blast of Cromla. I move like the shadow of mist!\n      Connal, son of Colgar, I see a cloud of death: it\n      hovers dark over the plains of Lena. The sons of green\n      Erin must fall. Remove from the field of ghosts.' Like\n      the darkened moon, he retired in the midst of the\n      whistling blast. 'Stay,' said the mighty Connal,\n      'stay, my dark-red friend. Lay by that beam of heaven,\n      son of the windy Cromla! What cave is thy lonely\n      house? What green-headed hill the place of thy repose?\n      Shall we not hear thee in the storm? in the noise of\n      the mountain stream? when the feeble sons of the wind\n      come forth, and, scarcely seen, pass over the\n      desert.'...\n\n      \"'Sons of Cona!' Fingal cried aloud, 'stop the hand of\n      death. Mighty was he that is low; much is he mourned\n      in Sora! The stranger will come towards his hill, and\n      wonder why it is so silent. The king is fallen, O\n      stranger! The joy of his house is ceased. Listen to\n      the sound of his woods. Perhaps the ghost is murmuring\n      there! But he is far distant, on Morven, beneath the\n      sword of foreign foe.'\n\n      \"Lorma sat in Aldo's hall. She sat at the light of a\n      flaming oak. The night came down, but he did not\n      return. The soul of Lorma is sad. 'What detained thee,\n      hunter of Cona? thou didst promise to return. Has the\n      deer been distant far? Do the dark winds sigh round\n      thee on the heath? I am in the land of strangers; who\n      is my friend but Aldo? Come from the sounding hills, O\n      my best beloved.'\n\n      \"Her eyes are turned towards the gate. She listens to\n      the rustling blast. She thinks it is Aldo's tread. Joy\n      rises in her face! But storm returns again, like a\n      thin cloud on the moon.... His thin ghost appeared on a\n      rock, like a watery beam of feeble light, when the\n      moon rushes sudden from between two clouds, and the\n      midnight shower is on the field. She followed the\n      empty form over the heath. She knew that her hero\n      fell. I heard her approaching cries on the wind, like\n      the mournful voice of the breeze, when it sighs on the\n      grass of the cave!\n\n      \"She came. She found her hero! Her voice was heard no\n      more. Silent she rolled her eyes. She was pale, and\n      wildly sad! Few her days on Cona. She sank into the\n      tomb. Fingal commanded his bards; they sang over the\n      death of Lorma. The daughters of Morven mourned her\n      for one day in the year, when the dark winds of autumn\n      returned.\"\n\nIn Ossianic times there were prophets and prophetesses, who were\nconsulted by the chiefs of armies and by the common people on\nimportant occasions. Even a thousand years after the time of Ossian,\nthe bards uttered their prophetic sayings. We have the story of five\nbards passing an October night in the house of a chief, who, like his\nguests, was a poet, entertaining their hearers with poetic\ndescriptions of the night. The first bard delivered himself thus:\n\n      \"Night is dull and dark. The clouds rest on the hills.\n      No star with green trembling beam; no moon looks from\n      the sky. I hear the blast in the wood, but I hear it\n      distant far. The stream of the valley murmurs, but its\n      murmur is sullen and sad. From the tree, at the grave\n      of the dead, the long-howling owl is heard. I see a\n      dim form on the plain! It is a ghost! it fades, it\n      flies. Some funeral shall pass this way: the meteor\n      marks the path. The distant dog is howling from the\n      hut of the hill. The stag lies on the mountain moss:\n      the hind is at his side. She hears the wind in his\n      branchy horns. She starts, but lies again. The roe is\n      in the cleft of the rock; the heath-cock's head is\n      beneath his wing. No beast nor bird is abroad, but the\n      owl and the howling fox. She on a leafless tree; he in\n      a cloud on the hill. Dark, panting, trembling, sad,\n      the traveller has lost his way. Through shrubs,\n      through thorns he goes, along the gurgling mill. He\n      fears the rock and the fen. He fears the ghost of\n      night. The old tree groans to the blast; the falling\n      branch resounds. The wind drives the weathered burs,\n      clung together, along the grass. It is the light tread\n      of a ghost! He trembles amidst the night. Dark,\n      dusky, howling night, cloudy, windy, and full of\n      ghosts! The dead are abroad! My friends, receive me\n      from the night.\"\n\nThe second bard says:\n\n      \"The wind is up. The shower descends. The spirit of\n      the mountain shrieks. Woods fall from high. Windows\n      flap. The growing river roars. The traveller attempts\n      the ford. Hark! that shriek! He dies! The storm drives\n      the horse from the hill, the goat, the lowing cow.\n      They tremble as drives the shower, beside the\n      mouldering bank. The hunter starts from sleep, in his\n      lonely hut; he wakes, the fire decayed. His wet dogs\n      smoke around him. He fills the chinks with heath. Loud\n      roar two mountain streams, which meet beside his\n      booth. Sad on the side of the hill the wandering\n      shepherd sits. The tree resounds beside him. The\n      stream roars down the rock. He waits for the rising\n      moon to guide him to his home. Ghosts ride on the\n      storm to-night. Sweet is their voice between the\n      squalls of wind. Their songs are of other worlds. The\n      rain is past. The dry wind blows. Streams roar and\n      windows flap. Cold drops fall from the roof. I see the\n      starry sky. But the shower gathers again. The west is\n      gloomy and dark. Night is stormy and dismal. Receive\n      me, my friends, from night.\"\n\nThe third bard sings:\n\n      \"The wind still sounds between the hills, and whistles\n      through the grass of the rock. The firs fall from\n      their place. The turfy hut is torn. The clouds\n      divided, fly over the sky, and show the burning stars.\n      The meteor, token of death, flies sparkling through\n      the gloom. It rests on the hill. I see the withered\n      form, the dark-browed rock, the fallen oak. Who is\n      that in his shroud beneath the tree by the stream? The\n      waves dark tumble on the lake, and lash its rocky\n      sides. A maid sits sad beside the rock, and eyes the\n      rolling stream. Her lover promised to come. She saw\n      his boat, when yet it was light, on the lake. Is this\n      his broken boat on the shore? Are these his groans on\n      the wind? Hark! the hail rattles around. The flaky\n      snow descends. The tops of the hills are white. The\n      stormy wind abates. Various is the night, and cold.\n      Receive me, my friends, from night.\"\n\nThe fourth bard takes up the theme thus:\n\n      \"Night is calm and fair; blue, starry, settled is\n      night. The winds, with the clouds, are gone. They sink\n      behind the hill. The moon is up on the mountain. Trees\n      glister; streams shine on the rock. Bright rolls the\n      settled lake; bright the stream of the vale. I see the\n      trees overturned; the shocks of corn on the plain.\n      The wakeful hind rebuilds the shocks, and whistles on\n      the distant field. Calm, settled, fair is night! Who\n      comes from the place of the dead? That form with the\n      robe of snow; white arms with dark-brown hair! It is\n      the daughter of the chief of the people--she that\n      lately fell! Come, let us view thee, O maid! thou that\n      hast been the delight of heroes! The blast drives the\n      phantom away; white, without form, it ascends the\n      hill. The breeze drives the blue mist slowly over the\n      narrow vale. It rises on the hill, and joins its head\n      to heaven. Night is settled, calm, blue, starry,\n      bright with the moon. Receive me not, my friends, for\n      lovely is the night.\"\n\nThe fifth bard chants:\n\n      \"Night is calm, but dreary. The moon is in a cloud in\n      the west. Slow moves that pale beam along the shaded\n      hill. The distant wave is heard. The torrent murmurs\n      on the rock. The cock is heard from the booth. More\n      than half the night is past. The housewife, groping in\n      the gloom, rekindles the settled fire. The hunter\n      thinks the day approaches, and calls his bounding\n      dogs. He ascends the hill, and whistles on his way. A\n      blast removes the clouds. He sees the starry plough of\n      the north. Much of the night is to pass. He nods by\n      the mossy rock. Hark! the whirlwind is in the woods! A\n      low murmur in the vale! It is the mighty army of the\n      dead returning from the air. The moon rests behind the\n      hill. The beam is still on the lofty rock. Long are\n      the shadows of the trees. Now it is dark all over.\n      Night is dreary, silent, and dark. Receive me, my\n      friends, from the night.\"\n\nThe chief replies:\n\n      \"Let clouds rest on the hills, spirits fly, and\n      travellers fear. Let the winds of the woods arise, the\n      sounding storms descend. Roar streams, and windows\n      flap, and green-winged meteors fly! Let the pale moon,\n      from behind the hills, enclose her head in clouds!\n      Night is alike to me, blue, stormy, or gloomy the sky.\n      Night flies before the beam when it is poured on the\n      hill. The young day returns from his clouds, but we\n      return no more.... Raise the song, and strike the\n      harp; send round the shells of joy. Suspend a hundred\n      tapers on high. Maids and youths, begin to dance. Let\n      some grey bard be near me to tell the deeds of other\n      times, of kings renowned in our land, of chiefs we\n      behold no more. Thus let the night pass until morning\n      shall appear on our hills. Then let the bow be at\n      hand, the dogs, the youths of the chase. We shall\n      ascend the hill with day, and awake the deer.\"\n\nFrom the foregoing, we obtain a glimpse of the superstitions and\ncustoms of remote ages. Greek mythology is confessedly the creation\nof poets; and to the bards of our own country we are indebted for some\nof our strangest fictions. Fletcher of Saltoun must have been fully\naware of the poetic influence; for he expressed himself as willing to\nlet any one who pleased make the laws, if he were permitted to compose\nthe national ballads.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVII.\n\n      Shakspeare--An Outline of his Composition--\"The\n      Tempest\"--Ship at Sea in a Storm--Miranda beseeching\n      Prospero to allay the Wild Waters--Ariel's Readiness\n      to serve his Master--The Witch Sycorax--Ariel kept in\n      a Cloven Pine twelve years--Caliban's Evil\n      Wish--Mischief by Ariel--Neptune chased--Charmed\n      Circle--Miracles--\"Midsummer Night's Dream\"--Exploits\n      of a Fairy--Doings of Puck--Charmed Flower--Titania\n      and her Attendants--Ghosts and\n      Spirits--Song--\"Macbeth\"--Weird Sisters--Hecate and\n      the Witches--Magic Arts--Macbeth's Doom--Witches'\n      Caldron--Macbeth admonished by Spirits--Eight Kings\n      and Banquo's Spirit--Noblemen warned by a\n      Spirit--\"Antony and Cleopatra\"--Dreadful\n      Apparition--King's Death avenged.\n\n\nShakspeare, the immortal English poet, born in the year 1564, has\nassisted in no small degree to spread the knowledge of superstition.\nSo opportunely do his works come to support our statements, that we\nare induced to give, in prose and verse, an outline of certain\nportions of his compositions touching the many mysterious subjects on\nwhich he wrote.\n\nIn the _Tempest_ there is a ship at sea in a storm, with thunder and\nlightning. On board are the master, boatswain, mariners, Alonso,\nSebastian, Antonio, Ferdinand, Gonzalo, and others. The ship is\nthought to be in danger; but Gonzalo tells his companions to take\ncomfort, for he thought the boatswain had no drowning mark upon him,\nhis complexion being perfectly gallows-like. \"If,\" said Gonzalo, \"he\nbe not born to be hanged, our case is miserable.\" The mariners thought\nall was lost, and went to prayers.\n\nMiranda beseeched Prospero, whom she addressed as father, to allay the\nwild waters in their roar, and not suffer a brave vessel that had\nnoble creatures in her to sink. Prospero laid aside his magic garment;\nand while Miranda slept, Ariel declared his readiness, at the request\nof Prospero, to swim, to dive into the fire, to ride on the curled\nclouds. In answer to Prospero's inquiry whether the spirit had\ndirected the tempest according to instructions, Ariel answered that he\nhad boarded the ship, joined Jove's lightnings, and made Neptune's\nbold waves tremble. Ariel, who thought his services were most valuable\nto his master, craved his liberty; for Ariel was a bound servant of\nProspero for a specified time. Prospero reminded the spirit that he\nhad freed him from torment; and asked if he remembered the witch\nSycorax, famed for her sorceries, and who had, by the aid of her most\npotent ministers, put him (Ariel) into a cloven pine, within whose\nrift he remained imprisoned for twelve years, tormented so greatly\nthat his groans made the wolves howl, and penetrated the breast of\nevery bear. Sycorax could not, proceeded Prospero, undo what she had\ndone; it was his art alone that made the pine gape and set him free.\nThen he threatened the spirit that if he again murmured, he would send\nan oak, and peg him in its knotty trunk till he had howled away twelve\nwinters. The spirit asked pardon, and declared his readiness to obey\nProspero's commands. Prospero promised that if he did so, he would\ndischarge him in two days. \"Go,\" said Prospero, \"make thyself like to\nthe nymph o' the sea; be subject to no sight but mine; invisible to\nevery eye-ball else. Go take this shape, and hither come in't: hence\nwith diligence.\" Miranda having been awakened, was invited by Prospero\nto visit his slave Caliban, son of Sycorax, then dead. Ariel here came\nbefore his master, who was pleased with his appearance.\n\nOn Prospero calling to Caliban, \"Thou poisonous slave, got by the\nDevil himself,\" to come forth, Caliban appeared and said, \"As wicked\ndew as e'er my mother brush'd with raven's feather from unwholesome\nfen, drop on you both!\" For this, replied Prospero, thou shalt be\ntortured this night.\n\nAlonso, Sebastian, Antonio, Gonzalo, Adrian, and Francisco escaped to\nan island, which to them seemed to be a desert. Caliban found them;\nand a conspiracy was entered into to kill Prospero and secure the\nperson of Miranda. Solemn and strange music was heard, and several\nstrange shapes appeared at a banquet. Thunder rolled, and lightning\nflashed: Ariel, in the form of a harpy, clapped his wings upon the\ntable, and the banquet vanished. Prospero gave Ferdinand a rich\ncompensation to make amends for past austere punishments; and that\ncompensation was nothing less than the hand of Miranda. He recommended\nthem to be prudent before their nuptials, and told them that if they\ndisregarded his injunctions in this respect, they would have hate and\ndiscord between them. Ariel, by an unseen power, induced Caliban and\nothers whom Prospero desired to have in his cell, to repair thither;\nbut before reaching it they were hunted by divers spirits in the shape\nof hounds, that chased them to the lime groves, where they were\nsecured as prisoners.\n\nProspero, addressing the elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and\ngroves, those that on the sands with printless foot chased the ebbing\nNeptune, the demi-puppets that by moonshine made the sour-green\nringlets which ewes would not bite, those whose pastime was to make\nmidnight mushrooms, reminded them that he had, among other mighty\ndeeds, by their aid, rifted. Jove's stout oak, plucked up the pine and\ncedar, and roused sleepers in the grave. But this rough magic, he\ninformed them, he would abjure, after working his airy charms. This\nbeing done, he would break his staff, bury it deep in the earth, and\ndrown his book. Ariel re-entered, and after him Alonso, Gonzalo,\nSebastian, Antonio, Adrian, and Francisco, and stood charmed within a\ncircle which Prospero had made.\n\nGonzalo exclaimed, \"All torment, trouble, wonder, and amazement\ninhabit here! Some heavenly power guide us out of this fearful\ncountry!\" Prospero made himself known to the king as the wronged Duke\nof Milan. Pardon was sought, and the dukedom resigned. Alonso craved,\nthat if he were Prospero, he should give them particulars of his\npreservation, and how he met them there, having, but three hours\nbefore, been wrecked upon the shore, where he had lost his dear son\nFerdinand. A door was opened, and Ferdinand and Miranda were\ndiscovered playing at chess. Sebastian declared this to be a most high\nmiracle. Ariel, who had been instructed by Prospero to go to the ship\nand bring the master and boatswain to him, entered with these\nworthies. In answer to the question, \"What is the news?\" the boatswain\nanswered, \"The best news is, that we have safely found our king and\ncompany; the next, our ship--which, but three glasses since, we gave\nout split--is tight and yare, and bravely rigged, as when we first put\nout to sea.\" The boatswain, in answer to another query how they came\nthither? replied, if he were awake, he would strive to tell. He\nremembered hearing strange noises--roaring, shrieking, howling,\njingling chains, and more diversity of sounds, all horrible; and when\nthey were wakened (for they had been asleep), they found themselves at\nliberty. Prospero, pointing out Caliban, told his friends, \"This\nmis-shapen knave's mother was a witch; and one so strong that she\ncould control the moon, make flows and ebbs.\" Prospero invited the\nking and his train to take rest in his cell, where he would tell the\nstory of his life, and in the morning bring them to their ship and\ngive them auspicious gales; then, addressing Ariel, he concluded,\n\"Chick, that is thy charge; to the elements, be free, and fare thee\nwell!\"\n\nIn the _Midsummer Night's Dream_ Shakspeare brings forward a fairy at\na wood near Athens. The fairy, in answer to Puck's question whither it\nwandered, replied that it went over hill, over dale, through bush,\nthrough brier, over park, over pale, through flood, through fire. It\nwandered everywhere, swifter than the moon's sphere; it served the\nfairy queen to dew her orbs upon the green. Puck told the fairy that\nthe king would keep revels there that night, and advised that the\nqueen should not come within his sight; for Oberon was fell and wroth,\nbecause she, as her attendant, had a lovely boy, a sweet changeling,\nand that jealous Oberon would have the child to be a knight of his\ntrain to trace the forests.\n\nThe fairy asked Puck if he was not the knavish spirit that frightened\nthe maidens of the villagery, that skimmed milk, and sometimes\nlaboured in the green, and bootless made the housewife churn, and\nsometimes made the drink to bear no barm, and whether Puck did not\nmislead night wanderers, and then laugh at their harm, and do the work\nof hobgoblins? Puck acknowledged that the fairy spoke aright; said he\nwas the merry wanderer of the night, playing pranks, and making people\nlaugh. A smart angry discussion took place between Oberon and Titania\nas to which of them was to have the little changeling boy. They parted\nin rage, Oberon threatening to torment Titania. Oberon summoned Puck\nto attend him, and bring the herb he once showed him, the juice of\nwhich, laid on sleeping eyelids, made man or woman dote upon the next\ncreature seen. Having this herb's juice, Oberon would watch Titania\nwhen she was asleep, and drop the liquor into her eyes, that when she\nwakened she might pursue the first object she cast eyes on with the\nsoul of love, whether it should be lion, bear, wolf, or bull, or\nmeddling monkey, or busy ape. The delusion accomplished, he would give\nher another herb to remove the charm, but not before she gave up the\nboy.\n\nPuck found the charmed flower; and while Oberon was to streak\nTitania's eyes with some of the juice thereof, Puck was to anoint the\neyes of the disdainful youth with another quantity of it, that he\nmight be compelled to adore a sweet Athenian lady in love with him.\nPuck was then dismissed with instructions to meet Oberon before the\nfirst cock-crow. Titania, in another part of the wood, distributed her\nattendants, some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds, some to war\nwith bats for their leathern wings to make small elves' coats, and\nsome to keep back the clamorous owl that nightly hooted at the quaint\nspirits. Having given her instructions, she fell asleep. This was\nOberon's opportunity--and one he did not neglect. He squeezed the\nflower on Titania's eyelids, and disappeared.\n\nTitania wakened with eyes fixed on Bottom, who, by Puck's art, had an\nass's head. Nevertheless, she thought him wise and beautiful. She\ninstructed her attendant fairies to be kind and courteous to the\ngentleman, and to feed him with apricots, dewberries, purple grapes,\ngreen figs, and mulberries. Then they were to steal the honey-bags\nfrom bumble bees for his service, and to crop their waxen thighs, and\nlight them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes, to show her love to bed; and\nfurther, to pluck the wings from butterflies, to fan the moonbeams\nfrom his sleeping eyes. By Puck's mistake, the love juice was laid in\nabsence of the fair Athenian lady, and so the object desired was not\nobtained. In consequence of this, much confusion and misunderstanding\nfollowed. To prevent a fight, Oberon, whom Puck addressed as \"king of\nshadows,\" ordered the night to be overcast with drooping fog, that the\nrivals might be led astray. Other instructions were given, which Puck\nsuggested should be done quickly, as in the distance shone Aurora's\nharbinger, at whose approach ghosts, wandering here and there, trooped\nhome to churchyards. Damned spirits, he said, that had burial in\ncross-ways and floods, had already gone to their wormy beds, lest day\nshould look on their shame. Oberon began to pity Titania, and,\ntouching her eyes with an herb, her love for the loathsome visage she\nhad admired for ever vanished.\n\nThe _Midsummer Night's Dream_ concludes with the following song, if we\nexcept Puck's address:\n\n    \"Now, until the break of day,\n    Through this house each fairy stray,\n    To the best bride-bed will we,\n    Which by us shall blessed be;\n    And the issue, there create,\n    Ever shall be fortunate.\n    So shall all the couples three\n    Ever true and loving be:\n    And the blots of nature's hand\n    Shall not in their issue stand;\n    Never mole, hare-lip, nor scar,\n    Nor mark prodigious such as are\n    Despised in nativity,\n    Shall upon their children be,--\n    With this field-dew consecrate,\n    Every fairy take his gait;\n    And each several chamber bless,\n    Through this palace with sweet peace:\n    E'er shall it in safety rest,\n    And the owner of it blest.\n           Trip away,\n           Make no stay;\n    Meet me all by break of day.\"\n\nIn gleaning from _Macbeth_, we shall pass over the weird sisters'\npredictions as lightly as possible, without breaking the connecting\nlinks, though we are greatly tempted to incorporate a considerable\npart of this play into our collection of tales and traditions, seeing\nthat, in our opinion, none of Shakspeare's works bring out more\ngraphically the superstition of past ages than the poet's _Macbeth_.\n\nThe play is represented as beginning in an open place, where, in a\nthunder-storm, three witches appeared and disappeared without doing\nany important deed of darkness. They met again on a heath, in another\nthunder-storm. One of them told the other hags that she had been away\nkilling swine. Another told tales of a sailor's wife who had gone to\nAleppo, and threatened to sail thither in a sieve. Macbeth and Banquo\ndiscovered the witches and saluted them. Through the women's subtlety,\nthe fiend entered Macbeth's heart, and induced him to form the bloody\nplans of removing all obstacles in the way of his obtaining the crown,\nand handing it down to his descendants. First one victim, and then\nanother, fell under his treachery. He was sorely troubled: the ghost\nof Banquo haunted him.\n\nHecate joined the witches on the heath, and upbraided them for trading\nand trafficking with Macbeth without consulting her, the mistress of\ntheir charms. Away the witches were sent, with instructions to meet at\nthe pit of Acheron in the morning. There Macbeth was to know his\ndestiny. Vessels and spells the hags were to provide, while Hecate was\nto catch a vaporous drop that hung on the corner of the moon, before\nit touched the ground. That drop, distilled by magic sleights, would\nraise such sprites, that by the strength of their illusion would draw\nMacbeth to confusion. Such, Hecate declared, would be his doom for\nspurning fate, scorning death, and bearing his hopes above wisdom,\ngrace, and fear.\n\nThe three witches met in a dark cave, and, while the thunder rolled\nwithout, they boiled a cauldron of hellish soup, the ingredients of\nwhich may be gathered from the following lines:--\n\n      1 _Witch_.    \"Thrice the brindled cat hath mew'd.\n\n      2 _Witch_.    Thrice; and once the hedge-pig whined.\n\n      3 _Witch_.    Harper cries: 'Tis time, 'tis time.\n\n      1 _Witch_.    Round about the cauldron go;\n                    In the poison'd entrails throw.--\n                    Toad, that under coldest stone,\n                    Days and nights has thirty-one\n                    Swelter'd venom sleeping got,\n                    Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.\n\n      _All._        Double, double toil and trouble;\n                    Fire, burn; and, cauldron, bubble.\n\n      2 _Witch_.    Fillet of a fenny snake,\n                    In the cauldron boil and bake;\n                    Eye of newt, and toe of frog,\n                    Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,\n                    Adder's fork, and blind-worm's sting,\n                    Lizard's leg, and owlet's wing,\n                    For a charm of powerful trouble,\n                    Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.\n\n      _All._        Double, double toil and trouble;\n                    Fire, burn; and, cauldron, bubble.\n\n      3 _Witch_.    Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf;\n                    Witches' mummy; maw and gulf\n                    Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark;\n                    Root of hemlock, digg'd i' the dark;\n                    Liver of blaspheming Jew;\n                    Gall of goat; and slips of yew,\n                    Silver'd in the moon's eclipse;\n                    Nose of Turk, and Tartar's lips;\n                    Finger of birth-strangled babe,\n                    Ditch delivered by a drab,--\n                    Make the gruel thick and slab:\n                    Add thereto a tiger's chaudron,\n                    For the ingredients of our cauldron.\n\n      _All._        Double, double toil and trouble;\n                    Fire, burn; and, cauldron, bubble.\n\n      2 _Witch_.    Cool it with a baboon's blood;\n                    Then the charm is firm and good.\n\n      _Hecate._     O, well done! I commend your pains;\n                    And every one shall share i' the gains.\n                    And now about the cauldron sing,\n                    Like elves and fairies in a ring,\n                    Enchanting all that you put in.\n\n                                 SONG.\n\n                        'Black spirits and white,\n                          Red spirits and grey;\n                        Mingle, mingle, mingle,\n                          You that mingle may.'\n\n      2 _Witch_.   By the pricking of my thumbs,\n                   Something wicked this way comes:--\n                   Open, locks, whoever knocks.\"\n\nMacbeth appeared and demanded what the midnight hags were about. The\nreply was, \"A deed without a name.\" He entreated them, by that which\nthey professed, to answer him. One of the witches asked whether he\nwould rather have his answer from their mouths or from their masters'.\nOn Macbeth desiring to see the masters, witch No. 1 directed that the\nblood of a sow that had eaten her nine farrow, and grease that had\nbeen sweaten from the murderer's gibbet, should be thrown into the\nflame. Accompanied by a clap of thunder, an armed head rose, and\nadmonished Macbeth to beware of Macduff. Another demon, more potent,\nin the shape of a bloody child, rose and bade Macbeth be courageous;\nto laugh to scorn the power of man, for none born of woman could harm\nhim. A second child, after the first had descended into the bowels of\nthe earth, told the king that he would not be vanquished till great\nBirnam wood to high Dunsinane hill should come against him. The\nmonarch was admonished to ask no more, but he disregarded the warning.\n\"Why sinks that cauldron? and what noise is this?\" he asked. Eight\nkings, and Banquo following, appeared to Macbeth's vision. The whole\nvision, if such it could be called, surprised him greatly; but no part\nof it so much as the spirit of Banquo, whom he had cruelly put to\ndeath with the intention of frustrating destiny, as revealed to him by\nthe weird sisters, when he first met them on the heath. Seeing the\nking dejected, the witches, to cheer him, danced and sang for a time,\nand then suddenly disappeared.\n\nBefore Macbeth had time to recover from his reverie, a messenger\narrived to inform him that Macduff, whom he dreaded, had fled to\nEngland. So greatly was he exasperated by the tidings, that he\ndeclared his intention of seizing Macduff's castle, giving to the\nsword his wife, babes, and all his other relations of whatever degree.\nThis threat he partly carried into execution.\n\nThe day of vengeance was near. Macbeth, mad with fear and ambition,\nstrove to avert the evil brooding over him, but he could not succeed.\nThe fiat had gone forth: he was king, as the weird sisters had\nforetold he would be, but all his bloody deeds, and the scheming of\nhis queen, unscrupulous like himself, could not change the decree.\nBirnam wood seemed to come to Dunsinane, and Banquo's seed came in due\ntime to inherit the throne the fates had reserved for them.\n\nIn _King Henry the Sixth_ more light is thrown on the doings of evil\nspirits. On a deep dark night, the time when owls cried, dogs howled,\nspirits walked, and ghosts broke up their graves, a spirit rose, in\ncompliance with certain ceremonies for making demons appear.\nBolingbroke inquired of the evil one what would become of the king?\nThe reply was, \"The duke yet lives that Henry shall depose. But him\noutlive, and die a violent death.\" In answer to the question, \"What\nfate awaits the Duke of Suffolk?\" came the reply, \"By water shall he\ndie.\" The Duke of Somerset was advised by the spirit to shun castles.\nHaving thus delivered itself, the evil spirit descended to the burning\nlake. Farther on in the piece we are told of a witch that was\ncondemned to be burned at Smithfield.\n\nPassing from _Henry the Sixth_, we come to _Antony and Cleopatra_, and\nproceed to glean a few sentences bearing on superstition.\n\nCharmian, addressing Alexas in a flattering manner, asked where was\nthe soothsayer he praised so much. The soothsayer, who was immediately\nforthcoming, told those who listened to him that he knew \"things\" from\nnature's book of secrecy. A banquet was prepared, at which Charmian\nasked the soothsayer to give him good luck. \"I make not, but foresee,\"\nwas the response. Charmian, Alexas, and their companions seek to hear\ntheir fortunes told, but the soothsayer did not choose to reveal\nanything important at that time.\n\nWe shall take leave of Shakspeare by noticing, in a few sentences, the\nghost of Hamlet's father.\n\nBernardo, Marcellus, and Horatio were met at a late hour to talk over\na dreadful apparition that had disturbed the two former on the\nprevious night, when they were startled by the same apparition--a\nghost making its appearance. They observed it resembled the king who\nwas dead. Horatio charged it to speak, but it stalked away without\ndeigning a reply. It reappeared, but suddenly vanished on hearing the\ncock crow. How long elapsed we are not informed; but on a certain\nnight, just after the clock had struck twelve, Hamlet, Horatio, and\nMarcellus were engaged in earnest conversation when they were alarmed.\nThe first entreats the ghost to say wherefore it visited them. It\nbeckoned to Hamlet to follow it; and he did so, despite those who were\nwith him, and saw the spirit as well as he did. The ghost's tongue was\nunloosed, and thus it spake: \"Lend thy serious hearing to what I shall\nunfold: My hour is almost come, when I must render up myself to\nsulphurous and tormenting flames. I am thy father's spirit; and, for\nthe day, confined to fast in fires, till the foul crimes, done in my\ndays of nature, are burnt and purged away. Were I not forbidden to\ntell the secrets of my prison-house, I could a tale unfold that would\nharrow up thy soul; freeze thy young blood; make thy eyes start; and\nmake thy locks part like quills upon the fretful porcupine: but this\neternal blazon must not be. If ever thou didst love thy father,\nrevenge his foul and most unnatural murder.\" \"Murder!\" exclaimed\nHamlet. \"Murder,\" said the ghost, \"most foul, as in the best it is.\"\n\"Reveal it,\" gasped Hamlet, \"that I may with swift wings sweep to my\nrevenge.\" \"Thou shouldst be duller than the fat weed that rots itself\non Lethe's wharf, wert thou not to stir in this,\" ejaculated the\nspirit. The ghost continued: \"It has been given out, that, when\nsleeping in mine orchard, a serpent stung me to death; but know thou\nthat the serpent that did sting thy father now wears his crown....\nSleeping within my orchard, as my custom was in the afternoon, on my\nsecure hour thy uncle stole with cursed juice of hebenon in a vial,\nand did pour the leprous distilment into mine ears, that curdled my\nblood. Thus was I, by a brother's hand, despatched from crown and\nqueen; cut off in the blossoms of my sin, unprepared, disappointed,\nand, without extreme unction, sent to my account with all my\nimperfections on my head. O, horrible! most horrible! Let not the\nroyal bed be a couch for luxury and damned incest. Farewell; the\nglow-worm shows the morning to be near, and begins to pale his\nineffectual fire: Adieu! Remember me.\" The king's death was avenged.\nThe treacherous queen, and he who murdered the monarch, drank a\npoisoned cup, and thus received measure for measure.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XVIII.\n\n      The Poet Gay--The \"Spell\"--Hobnelia--Lubberkin going\n      to Town--A Maiden fine--Spells resorted to--Marking\n      the Ground, and turning three times round--Hempseed as\n      a Charm--Valentine Day--A Snail used in\n      Divination--Burning Nuts--Pea-cods as a\n      Spell--Ladybird sent on a Message of Love--Pippin\n      Parings--Virtue of United Garters--Love\n      Powder--Gipsies' Warnings--Knives sever Love--Story of\n      Boccaccio--Apparition of a Deceased Lover--Poems by\n      Burns--\"Address to the Deil\"--\"Tam o' Shanter.\"\n\n\nJohn Gay, the old English poet, writes in his _Spell_:\n\n    \"Hobnelia, seated in a dreary vale,\n    In pensive mood rehearsed her piteous tale;\n    Her piteous tale the winds in sighs bemoan,\n    And pining Echo answers groan for groan.\n        I rue the day, a rueful day I trow,\n        The woeful day, a day indeed of woe!\n    When Lubberkin to town his cattle drove,\n    A maiden fine bedight he kept in love;\n    The maiden fine bedight his love retains,\n    And for the village he forsakes the plains.\n    Return, my Lubberkin, these ditties hear,\n    Spells will I try, and spells shall ease my care.\n        With my sharp heel I three times mark the ground,\n        And turn me thrice around, around, around.\n    When first the year I heard the cuckoo sing,\n    And call with welcome note the budding spring,\n    I straightway set a-running with such haste,\n    Deb'rah that won the smock scarce ran so fast;\n    Till, spent for lack of breath, quite weary grown,\n    Upon a rising bank I sat adown,\n    Then doff'd my shoe, and, by my troth, I swear,\n    Therein I spy'd this yellow frizzled hair,\n    As like to Lubberkin's in curle and hue,\n    As if upon his comely pate it grew.\n        With my sharp heel I three times mark the ground,\n        And turn me thrice around, around, around.\n    At eve last summer no sleep I sought,\n    But to the field a bag of hempseed brought,\n    I scattered round the seed on every side,\n    And three times in a trembling accent cry'd:\n    This hempseed with my virgin hand I sow,\n    Who shall my true love be, the crop shall mow.\n    I straight look'd back, and if my eyes speak true,\n    With his keen scythe behind me came the youth.\n        With my sharp heel I three times mark the ground,\n        And turn me thrice around, around, around.\n    Last Valentine, the day when birds of kind\n    Their paramours with mutual chirping find,\n    I early rose, just at the break of day,\n    Before the sun had chas'd the stars away;\n    Afield I went, amid the morning dew,\n    To milk my kine (for so should housewives do).\n    The first I spy'd, and the first swain we see,\n    In spite of fortune shall our true love be;\n    See, Lubberkin, each bird his partner take,\n    And canst thou then thy sweetheart dear forsake?\n        With my sharp heel I three times mark the ground,\n        And turn me thrice around, around, around.\n    Last May-day fair I searched to find a snail\n    That might my secret lover's name reveal;\n    Upon a gooseberry bush a snail I found,\n    For always snails nearest sweetest fruit abound.\n    I seiz'd the vermin, home I quickly sped,\n    And on the hearth the milk-white embers spread.\n    Slow crawl'd the snail, and, if I right can spell,\n    In the soft ashes mark'd a curious L:\n    O may this wonderous omen luck prove!\n    For L is found in Lubberkin and love.\n        With my sharp heel I three times mark the ground,\n        And turn me thrice around, around, around.\n    Two hazel nuts I threw into the flame,\n    And to each nut I gave a sweetheart's name,\n    This with the loudest bounce me sore amaz'd,\n    That in a flame of brightest colour blaz'd.\n    As blaz'd the nut, so may thy passion grow,\n    For 'twas thy nut that did so brightly glow.\n        With my sharp heel I three times mark the ground,\n        And turn me thrice around, around, around.\n    As pea-cods once I pluck'd, I chanc'd to see\n    One that was closely fill'd with three times three,\n    Which, when I crop't, I safely home convey'd,\n    And o'er the door the spell in secret laid,\n    My wheel I turn'd, and sung a ballad new,\n    While from the spindle I the fleeces drew;\n    The latch mov'd up, when who should first come in,\n    But in his proper person--Lubberkin.\n    I broke my yarn, surpris'd the sight to see,\n    Sure sign that he would break his word with me.\n    Eftsoons I joined it with my wonted slight,\n    So may his love again with mine unite.\n        With my sharp heel I three times mark the ground,\n        And turn me thrice around, around, around.\n    This lady-fly I take from off the grass,\n    Whose spotted back might scarlet red surpass.\n    Fly, lady-bird, north, south, or east, or west,\n    Fly where the man is found that I love best.\n    He leaves my hand; see, to the west he's flown,\n    To call my true love from the faithless town.\n        With my sharp heel I three times mark the ground,\n        And turn me thrice around, around, around.\n    I pare my pippin round and round again,\n    My shepherd's name to flourish on the plain,\n    I fling th' unbroken paring o'er my head,\n    Upon the grass a perfect L I read;\n    Yet on my heart a fairer L is seen\n    Than what the paring marks upon the green.\n        With my sharp heel I three times mark the ground,\n        And turn me thrice around, around, around.\n    This pippin shall another trial make,\n    See from the core two kernels brown I take;\n    This on my cheek for Lubberkin is worn,\n    And Boobyclod on t' other side is borne.\n    But Boobyclod soon drops upon the ground,\n    A certain token that his love's unsound,\n    While Lubberkin sticks firmly to the last;\n    O were his lips to mine but joined so fast!\n        With my sharp heel I three times mark the ground,\n        And turn me thrice around, around, around.\n    As Lubberkin once slept beneath a tree,\n    I twitch'd his dangling garter from his knee;\n    He wist not when the hempen string I drew.\n    Now mine I quickly doff of inkle blue;\n    Together fast I tye the garters twain,\n    And while I knit the knot, repeat the strain:\n    Three times a true-love's knot I tye secure,\n    Firm be the knot, firm may his love endure.\n        With my sharp heel I three times mark the ground,\n        And turn me thrice around, around, around.\n    As I was wont, I trudged last market day\n    To town with new-laid eggs preserved in hay.\n    I made my market long before 'twas night,\n    My purse grew heavy, and my basket light.\n    Straight to the 'pothecary's shop I went,\n    And in love powder all my money spent;\n    Behap what will, next Sunday, after prayers,\n    When to the ale-house Lubberkin repairs,\n    The golden charm into his mug I'll throw,\n    And soon the swain with fervent love shall glow.\n        With my sharp heel I three times mark the ground,\n        And turn me thrice around, around, around.\n    But hold: our Lightfoot barks and cocks his ears,\n    O'er yonder stile see Lubberkin appears.\n    He comes, he comes, Hobnelia's not bewray'd,\n    Nor shall she, crown'd with willow, die a maid.\n    He vows, he swears he'll give me a green gown;\n    O dear! I fall adown, adown, adown.\"\n\nGay also writes:\n\n    \"Last Friday's eve, when, as the sun was set,\n    I, near yon stile, three sallow gipsies met,\n    Upon my hand they cast a poring look,\n    Bid me beware, and thrice their heads they shook;\n    They said that many crosses I must prove,\n    Some in my worldly gain, but most in love.\n    Next morn I missed three hens and our old cock,\n    And off the hedge two pinners and a smock.\n    I bore these losses with a Christian mind,\n    And no mishap could feel while thou wert kind;\n    But since, alas! I grew my Colin's scorn,\n    I've known no pleasure, night, or noon, or morn.\n    Help me, ye gipsies, bring him home again,\n    And to a constant lass give back her swain.\n    Have I not sat with thee full many a night,\n    When dying embers were our only light,\n    When every creature did in slumber lie,\n    Besides our cat, my Colin Clout, and I?\n    No troublous thoughts the cat or Colin move,\n    While I alone am kept awake by love.\n    Remember, Colin, when at last year's wake\n    I bought the costly present for thy sake:\n    Could thou spell o'er the posy on thy knife,\n    And with another change thy state of life?\n    If thou forget'st, I wot I can repeat,\n    My memory can tell the verse so sweet:\n    'As this is grav'd upon this knife of thine,\n    So is thy image on this heart of mine.'\n    But woe is me! such presents luckless prove,\n    For knives, they tell me, always sever love.\"\n\nIn the story of _Isabella_, by Boccaccio, there are touching incidents\nof the apparition of a deceased lover appearing to his mistress. The\ntale is thus rendered by Keats:\n\n    \"It was a vision. In the drowsy gloom,\n      The dull of midnight, at her couch's foot\n    Lorenzo stood and wept: the forest tomb\n      Had marr'd his glossy hair, which once could shoot\n    Lustre into the sun, and put cold doom\n      Upon his lips, and taken the soft lute\n    From his lorn voice, and passt his loomed ears\n    Had made a miry channel for his tears.\n\n    Strange sound it was, when the pale shadow spoke;\n      For there was striving in its piteous tongue,\n    To speak as when on earth it was awake,\n      And Isabella on its music hung:\n    Languor there was in it, and tremulous shake,\n      As in a palsied Druid's harp unstrung;\n    And through it moaned a ghostly under-song,\n    Like hoarse night gusts sepulchral biers among.\n\n    Its eyes, though wild, were still all dewy bright\n      With love, and kept all phantom fear aloof\n    From the poor girl by magic of their bright,\n      The while it did unthread the horrid woof\n    Of the late darkened time--the murd'rous spite\n      Of pride and avarice--the dark pine roof\n    In the forest--and the sodden turfed dell,\n    When, without any word, from stabs it fell.\n\n    Saying moreover, 'Isabel, my sweet!\n      Red whortle-berries droop above my head,\n    And a large flint-stone weighs upon my feet,\n      Around me beeches and high chesnuts shed\n    Their leaves and prickly nuts; a sheep-fold bleat\n      Comes from beyond the river to my bed:\n    Go shed one tear upon my heather-bloom,\n    And it shall comfort me within the tomb.\n\n    'I am a shadow now, alas! alas!\n      Upon the skirts of human nature dwelling\n    Alone: I chaunt alone the holy mass,\n      While little sounds of life around me knelling,\n    And glossy bees at noon do fieldward pass,\n      And many a chapel bell the hour is telling,\n    Paining me through: these sounds grow strange to me,\n    And thou art distant in humanity.'\"\n\nLet us now see what Burns, the never-to-be-forgotten Scottish poet,\nsays in his _Address to the Deil_ and _Tam o' Shanter_. In his own\nfelicitous way he brings out the belief the ancient inhabitants had of\nvisible devils, water-kelpies, spunkies, witches, charms, spells, and\nmany other forms of superstition.\n\nADDRESS TO THE DEIL.\n\n    \"O thou! whatever title suit thee,\n    Auld Hornie, Satan, Nick, or Clootie,\n    Wha in yon cavern grim an' sootie,\n                  Closed under hatches,\n    Spairges about the brunstane cootie,\n                  To scaud poor wretches.\n\n      Hear me, auld Hangie, for a wee,\n    An' let poor damned bodies be;\n    I'm sure sma' pleasure it can gie,\n                  E'en to a deil,\n    To skelp and scaud poor dogs like me,\n                  An' hear us squeel?\n\n      Great is thy pow'r, and great thy fame;\n    Far kend and noted is thy name:\n    An' tho' yon lowin' heugh's thy hame,\n                  Thou travels far;\n    An' faith! thou's neither lag nor lame,\n                  Nor blate nor scaur.\n\n      Whyles ranging like a roarin' lion\n    For prey, a' holes and corners tryin';\n    Whyles on the strong-winged tempest flyin',\n                  Tirling the kirks;\n    Whyles, in the human bosom pryin',\n                  Unseen thou lurks.\n\n    I've heard my reverend grannie say,\n    In lanely glens you like to stray;\n    Or where auld ruined castles grey\n                  Nod to the moon,\n    Ye fright the nightly wand'rer's way,\n                  Wi' eldritch croon.\n\n      When twilight did my grannie summon\n    To say her prayers, douce honest woman!\n    Aft yont the dyke she's heard you bummin'\n                  Wi' eerie drone;\n    Or, rustlin', thro' the boortrees comin',\n                  Wi' heavy groan.\n\n      Ae dreary, windy, winter night,\n    The stars shot down wi' sklentin' light,\n    Wi' you, mysel', I got a fright,\n                  Ayont the lough;\n    Ye, like a rash-bush stood in sight,\n                  Wi' waving sough.\n\n      The cudgel in my nieve did shake,\n    Each bristled hair stood like a stake,\n    When wi' an eldritch stour, quaick--quaick--\n                  Amang the springs,\n    Awa ye squatter'd like a drake,\n                  On whistling wings.\n\n      Let warlocks grim, and wither'd hags,\n    Tell how wi' you on ragweed nags,\n    They skim the muirs, and dizzy crags,\n                  Wi' wicked speed;\n    And in kirk-yards renew their leagues\n                  Owre howkit dead.\n\n      Thence countra wives, wi' toil an' pain,\n    May plunge an' plunge the kirn in vain;\n    For oh! the yellow treasure's ta'en\n                  By witching skill;\n    An' dawtet, twal-pint Hawkie's gaen\n                  As yell's the bill.\n\n      Then mystic knots mak great abuse,\n    On young guidman, fond, keen, and crouse,\n    When the best wark-lume i' the house,\n                  By cantrip wit,\n    Is instant made no worth a louse,\n                  Just at the bit.\n\n      When thaws dissolve the snawy hoord,\n    An' float the jinglin' icy-boord,\n    Then water-kelpies haunt the foord,\n                  By your direction,\n    An' 'nighted trav'llers are allured\n                  To their destruction.\n\n      An' aft your moss-traversing spunkies\n    Decoy the wight that late and drunk is;\n    The bleezin', curst, mischievous monkeys\n                  Delude his eyes,\n    Till in some miry slough he sunk is,\n                  Ne'er mair to rise.\n\n      When masons' mystic word an' grip\n    In storms an' tempests raise you up,\n    Some cock or cat your rage maun stop,\n                  Or, strange to tell,\n    The youngest brother ye wad whip\n                  Aff straught to hell!\n\n      Lang syne, in Eden's bonnie yaird,\n    When youthfu' lovers first were pair'd,\n    An' a' the soul of love they shared,\n                  The raptured hour,\n    Sweet on the fragrant flowery swaird\n                  In shady bower!\n\n      Then you, ye auld, sneck-drawing dog!\n    Ye came to Paradise _incog._,\n    An' played on man a curs\u00e8d brogue,\n                  (Black be your fa'!)\n    An' gied the infant world a shog,\n                  'Maist ruined a'.\n\n      D'ye mind that day, when in a bizz,\n    Wi' reekit duds and reestit gizz,\n    Ye did present your smoutie phiz\n                  'Mang better folk,\n    An' sklented on the man of Uz\n                  Your spitefu' joke?\n\n      An' how ye gat him in your thrall,\n    An' brak him out o' house an' hall,\n    While scabs and blotches did him gall\n                  Wi' bitter claw,\n    An' lowsed his ill-tongued wicked scaw,\n                  Was warst ava?\n\n      But a' your doings to rehearse,\n    Your wily snares an' fechtin' fierce,\n    Sin' that day Michael did you pierce,\n                  Down to this time,\n    Wad ding a Lallan tongue, or Erse,\n                  In prose or rhyme.\n\n      An' now, auld Cloots, I ken ye're thinkin'\n    A certain Bardie's rantin', drinkin',\n    Some luckless hour will send him linkin'\n                  To your black pit;\n    But faith, he'll turn a corner, jinkin',\n                  And cheat you yet.\n\n      But, fare ye weel, auld Nickie-ben!\n    O wad ye tak a thought and men'!\n    Ye aiblins might--I dinna ken--\n                  Still hae a stake--\n    I'm wae to think upon yon den,\n                  Even for your sake!\"\n\n\nTAM O' SHANTER.\n\n    \"When chapman billies leave the street,\n    And drouthy neebors, neebors meet,\n    As market days are wearing late,\n    An' folk begin to tak the gate;\n    While we sit bousing at the nappy,\n    An' gettin' fou an' unco happy,\n    We think na on the lang Scots miles,\n    The mosses, waters, slaps, an' styles,\n    That lie between us and our hame,\n    Where sits our sulky sullen dame,\n    Gathering her brows like gathering storm,\n    Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.\n\n      This truth fand honest Tam o' Shanter,\n    As he frae Ayr ae night did canter;\n    (Auld Ayr, wham ne'er a toun surpasses,\n    For honest men and bonny lasses.)\n\n      O Tam! hadst thou but been sae wise,\n    As ta'en thy ain wife Kate's advice!\n    She tauld thee weel thou was a skellum,\n    A blethering, blustering, drunken blellum;\n    That frae November till October\n    Ae market-day thou was na sober;\n    That ilka melder, wi' the miller,\n    Thou sat as lang as thou had siller;\n    That ev'ry naig was ca'd a shoe on,\n    The smith and thee gat roaring fou on;\n    That at the L--d's house, even on Sunday,\n    Thou drank wi' Kirkton Jean till Monday.\n    She prophesy'd that, late or soon,\n    Thou would be found deep drown'd in Doon;\n    Or catch'd wi' warlocks in the mirk,\n    By Alloway's auld haunted kirk.\n\n      Ah, gentle dames! it gars me greet,\n    To think how mony counsels sweet,\n    How mony lengthen'd sage advices,\n    The husband frae the wife despises!\n\n      But to our tale: Ae market night\n    Tam had got planted unco right;\n    Fast by an ingle, bleezing finely,\n    Wi' reaming swats, that drank divinely:\n    And at his elbow, Souter Johnny,\n    His ancient, trusty, drouthy crony;\n    Tam lo'ed him like a vera brither;\n    They had been fou for weeks thegither.\n    The night drave on wi' sangs an' clatter;\n    And aye the ale was growing better:\n    The landlady and Tam grew gracious,\n    Wi' favours, secret, sweet, and precious;\n    The souter tauld his queerest stories;\n    The landlord's laugh was ready chorus:\n    The storm without might rair and rustle,\n    Tam did na mind the storm a whistle.\n\n      Care, mad to see a man sae happy,\n    E'en drown'd himself amang the nappy;\n    As bees flee hame wi' lades o' treasure,\n    The minutes wing'd their way wi' pleasure:\n    Kings may be blest, but Tam was glorious,\n    O'er a' the ills o' life victorious!\n\n      But pleasures are like poppies spread--\n    You seize the flow'r, its bloom is shed!\n    Or like the snow-fall in the river,\n    A moment white--then melts for ever;\n    Or like the borealis race,\n    That flit ere you can point their place;\n    Or like the rainbow's lovely form,\n    Evanishing amid the storm.--\n    Nae man can tether time nor tide:\n    The hour approaches Tam maun ride--\n    That hour, o' night's black arch the key-stane,\n    That dreary hour he mounts his beast in,\n    And sic a night he taks the road in,\n    As ne'er poor sinner was abroad in.\n\n      The wind blew as 'twad blawn its last;\n    The rattlin' showers rose on the blast:\n    The speedy gleams the darkness swallow'd;\n    Loud, deep, and lang the thunder bellow'd;\n    That night a child might understand\n    The deil had business on his hand.\n\n      Weel mounted on his grey mare, Meg--\n    A better never lifted leg--\n    Tam skelpit on through dub and mire,\n    Despising wind, and rain, and fire;\n    Whiles holding fast his guid blue bonnet;\n    Whiles crooning o'er some auld Scots sonnet;\n    Whiles glow'ring round wi' prudent cares,\n    Lest bogles catch him unawares;\n    Kirk-Alloway was drawing nigh,\n    Whare ghaists and houlets nightly cry.\n\n      By this time he was 'cross the foord,\n    Whare in the snaw the chapman smoor'd;\n    And past the birks and meikle stane,\n    Whare drucken Charlie brak's neck bane;\n    And thro' the whins, and by the cairn,\n    Whare hunters fand the murder'd bairn;\n    And near the thorn, aboon the well,\n    Whare Mungo's mither hang'd hersel.--\n    Before him Doon pours all his floods!\n    The doubling storm roars thro' the woods;\n    The lightnings flash from pole to pole;\n    Near and more near the thunders roll;\n    When glimmering thro' the groaning trees,\n    Kirk-Alloway seem'd in a bleeze;\n    Thro' ilka bore the beams were glancing,\n    And loud resounded mirth and dancing.\n\n      Inspiring bold John Barleycorn!\n    What dangers thou canst make us scorn!\n    Wi' tippenny we fear nae evil;\n    Wi' usquebae we'll face the devil.--\n    The swats sae ream'd in Tammie's noddle,\n    Fair play, he cared na deils a boddle.\n    But Maggie stood right sair astonish'd,\n    Till, by the heel and hand admonish'd,\n    She ventured forward on the light;\n    And, wow! Tam saw an unco sight!\n    Warlocks and witches in a dance;\n    Nae cotillon brent new frae France,\n    But hornpipes, jigs, strathspeys, and reels\n    Put life and mettle in their heels.\n    A winnock-bunker in the east,\n    There sat auld Nick in shape o' beast;\n    A towzie tyke, black, grim, and large,\n    To gie them music was his charge:\n    He screw'd his pipes and gart them skirl\n    Till roof and rafters a' did dirl.\n    Coffins stood round like open presses,\n    That shaw'd the dead in their last dresses;\n    And by some devilish cantrip sleight,\n    Each in its cauld hand held a light,\n    By which heroic Tam was able\n    To note upon the haly table,\n    A murderer's banes in gibbet airns;\n    Twa span-lang, wee unchristen'd bairns,\n    A thief, new cutted frae a rape,\n    Wi' his last gasp his gab did gape:\n    Five tomahawks, wi' blude red-rusted;\n    Five scimitars, wi' murder crusted;\n    A garter which a babe had strangled;\n    A knife a father's throat had mangled,\n    Whom his ain son o' life bereft,\n    The grey hairs yet stack to the heft\n    Wi' mair o' horrible and awfu'\n    Which ev'n to name wad be unlawfu'.\n\n      As Tammie glowr'd, amaz'd and curious,\n    The mirth and fun grew fast and furious:\n    The piper loud and louder blew,\n    The dancers quick and quicker flew;\n    They reel'd, they set, they cross'd, they cleekit\n    Till ilka carlin swat and reekit,\n    And coost her duddies to the wark\n    And linket at it in her sark!\n\n      Now Tam, O Tam! had they been queens\n    A' plump an' strapping, in their teens;\n    Their sarks, instead o' creeshie flannen,\n    Been snaw-white seventeen hunder linen!\n    Thir breeks o' mine, my only pair,\n    That ance were plush o' guid blue hair,\n    I wad hae gi'en them aff my hurdies,\n    For ae blink o' the bonnie burdies!\n\n      But wither'd beldames auld and droll,\n    Rigwoodie hags wad spean a foal,\n    Louping and flinging on a crummock,\n    I wonder didna turn thy stomach.\n\n      But Tam kenn'd what was what fu' brawlie,\n    There was a winsome wench and walie,\n    That night enlisted in the core,\n    (Lang after kenn'd on Carrick shore!\n    For monie a beast to dead she shot,\n    And perish'd monie a bonnie boat,\n    And shook baith meikle corn and bear,\n    And kept the country side in fear).\n    Her cutty sark o' Paisley harn,\n    That while a lassie she had worn,\n    In longitude though sorely scanty,\n    It was her best, and she was vauntie:\n    Ah! little kenn'd thy reverend grannie,\n    That sark she coft for her wee Nannie,\n    Wi' twa pund Scots ('twas a' her riches),\n    Wad ever graced a dance o' witches!\n\n      But here my muse her wing man cour:\n    Sic flights are far beyond her power:\n    To sing how Nannie lap and flang,\n    (A souple jade she was an' strang),\n    An' how Tam stood like ane bewitch'd,\n    An' thought his very een enrich'd:\n    Even Satan glowr'd and fidg'd fu' fain,\n    And hotch'd and blew wi' might and main:\n    Till first ae caper, syne anither,\n    Tam tint his reason a' thegither,\n    And roars out, 'Weel done, Cutty sark!'\n    And in an instant all was dark;\n    And scarcely had he Maggie rallied,\n    When out the hellish legion sallied.\n\n      As bees bizz out wi' angry fyke,\n    When plundering herds assail their byke;\n    As open pussie's mortal foes,\n    When, pop! she starts before their nose;\n    As eager runs the market crowd,\n    When 'Catch the thief!' resounds aloud,--\n    So Maggie runs, the witches follow,\n    Wi' monie an eldritch screetch and hollow.\n\n      Ah, Tam! Ah, Tam! thou'll get thy fairin'!\n    In hell they'll roast thee like a herrin'!\n    In vain thy Kate awaits thy comin'!\n    Kate soon will be a waefu' woman!\n    Now do thy speedy utmost, Meg,\n    And win the key-stane o' the brig;\n    There at them thou thy tail may toss,\n    A running stream they darena cross.\n    But ere the key-stane she could make,\n    The fient a tail she had to shake!\n    For Nannie, far before the rest,\n    Hard upon noble Maggie press'd,\n    And flew at Tam wi' furious ettle;\n    But little wist she Maggie's mettle--\n    Ae spring brought aff her master hale,\n    But left behind her ain grey tail:\n    The carlin caught her by the rump,\n    An' left poor Maggie scarce a stump.\n\n      Now, wha this tale o' truth shall read,\n    Ilk man and mother's son take heed:\n    Whene'er to drink you are inclined,\n    Or cutty sarks run in your mind,\n    Think ye may buy the joys o'er dear,\n    Remember Tam o' Shanter's mare.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XIX.\n\n      Sir Walter Scott, the \"Great Unknown\"--His belief in\n      Superstition--How his Tales of Fiction are composed--A\n      Town-Clerk frightened by an Apparition--A Ghost that\n      did not understand Erse, but could communicate in\n      Latin--Lovel and Edie Ochiltree--Discovery of Hidden\n      Treasure by Occult Science--\"Rob Roy\"--Fairies'\n      Caverns--Supposed Apparition in the Trossachs--Elfin\n      People at the Firth of Forth--A Minister taken away by\n      Fairies--Dame Glendinning's Tale--Lines from\n      \"Marmion\"--A Fairy Knight--Mysterious Steed.\n\n\nSir Walter Scott, the \"Great Unknown,\" was sensibly affected by his\ncountry's tales of witches, fairies, and ghosts. Whether the fear he\nentertained proceeded from early impressions, or whether an awe\nimperceptibly crept over him, through his frequent communings with old\npeople (when he was in more advanced life) who had no doubt of the\nexistence of witches and spirits, good and bad, visiting the earth,\nand performing acts of benevolence or malevolence, according to the\ninclination or caprice of the uncanny or unearthly agent, we cannot\nsay; but of one thing there can be no doubt, that even in years of\nmaturity he believed there were spirits that appeared to men, and\nassisted them to perform actions they could not have done without\nsuperhuman aid, and that by such beings future events were made known.\nWere it not for the dash of superstition he threw here and there into\nhis tales, they would be comparatively of a commonplace description.\nLike other writers of fiction, or authors whose writings rest on a\nslender foundation of truth, Sir Walter Scott often brings forward a\nwitch, wizard, gipsy, fairy, ghost, and other spirits. A haunted\ncastle, a fortune-teller, and a good or evil genius are as\nindispensable in a good story as a cruel parent, a rich uncle, and a\ndisappointed lover. None knew better than the great Scottish novelist\nhow to work on his readers' feelings; and hence his success.\n\nSir Walter tells, in the _Antiquary_, a story of Rab Tull, the\ntown-clerk, being in an old house searching for important documents,\nbut who was obliged to go to bed without finding them. The bodie had\ngot such a custom of tippling and tippling with his drunken cronies,\nthat he could not sleep without his punch, and as usual he took his\nglass that evening. In the middle watches of night he had a fearful\nwakening--he was never himself after it--and was stricken with the\ndead palsy that very day four years. He thought he heard the bed\ncurtains move, and out he looked. Before him appeared an old gentleman\nin a queer-fashioned dress. Rab, greatly frightened, asked the\napparition (for it was a spirit that stood before him) what it\nwanted. The spirit answered in an unknown tongue. Rab replied in Erse,\nbut the spirit did not seem to understand this language. In his\nstrait, the clerk bethought him of two or three words of Latin he used\nin making out the town's deeds; and no sooner had he tried the strange\nobject before him with these, than out came such a blatter of Latin,\nthat Rab Tull--who with all his pretensions was no great scholar--was\noverwhelmed. It then made a sign to Rab to follow it. He followed\nup-stairs and down-stairs to a tower in a corner of the house. There\nthe ghost pointed out a cabinet, and suddenly disappeared. In a drawer\nof that repository the missing deed was found.\n\nLovel, after shooting M'Intyre in a duel, fled from justice, under the\nguidance of old Edie Ochiltree. Exhausted by excitement and a long\nwalk through a thicket, they reached a cave with narrow entrance,\nconcealed by the boughs of an oak. Passing through the aperture, not\nmuch larger than a fox-hole, they reached the interior. Lovel was led\nto a narrow turnpike stair leading to a church above. In the evening\nthey reached a spot which commanded a full view of the chancel in\nevery direction. Ere long, Lovel was startled by the sound of human\nvoices. Two persons, with a dark lantern, entered the chancel. After\nconversing together some time in whispers, Lovel recognised the voice\nof Dousterswivel, pronouncing in a smothered tone, \"Indeed, mine goot\nsir, dere cannot be one finer hour nor season for dis great\npurpose.... I will show you all de secrets dat art can show--ay, de\nsecret of de great Pymander.\" The other individual turned out to be\nSir Arthur Wardour, and their business evidently had reference to the\ndiscovery of hidden treasure, by means of consulting the heavenly\nbodies or some friendly spirit. Before Sir Arthur and Dousterswivel\nleft the ruins of St. Ruth, they found a casket containing gold and\nsilver coins. These two worthies, along with Mr. Oldenbuck, set out,\non another occasion to search for treasure at the ruins of St. Ruth.\nArrived at the scene of operations, the Antiquary addressed the adept\nDousterswivel: \"Pray, Mr. Dousterswivel, shall we dig from east to\nwest, or from west to east? or will you assist us with your triangular\nvial of May-dew, or with your divining-rod of witch-hazel?\" This was\nsaid tauntingly, yet nevertheless they proceeded to dig, in the hope\nof finding treasure; and sure enough, a chest containing ingots of\nsilver to the value of a thousand pounds was discovered. Dousterswivel\nclaimed the credit of bringing about the discovery. Mr. Oldenbuck\nrefused to give him any credit, telling him that he came without\nweapons, and did not use charms, lamen-sigel, talisman, spell-crystal,\npentacle, magic-mirror, nor geomantic figure. \"Where,\" asked the\nAntiquary, \"be your periapts, and your abracadabras, man? your\nMay-fern, your vervain--\n\n      \"Your toad, your crow, your dragon, and your panther,\n      Your sun, your moon, your firmament, your adrop,\n      Your Lato, Azoch, Zernich, Chibrit, Heautarit,\n      With all your broths, your menstrues, your materials,\n      Would burst a man to name?\"\n\nDousterswivel, like all others who resort to enchantments, believing\nin the existence of hobgoblins and divination, was not certain but his\nown art had really contributed to the success of his party. Chagrined\nat the treatment of Mr. Oldenbuck, and separated for a time from Sir\nArthur, he was glad to enter into conversation with Edie Ochiltree,\nwho witnessed the finding of the treasure with a keen eye to future\noperations. Edie had surreptitiously obtained possession of the\ntreasure box-lid, and on it he and the conjurer were able to decipher,\n\"Search number one.\" The old beggar, who knew many of the traditions\nof the country, told Dousterswivel that the remains of Malcolm the\nMisticot were, along with a large amount of gold and silver, buried\nsomewhere at St. Ruth. Moreover, he recited the old prophecy:\n\n    \"If Malcolm the Misticot's grave were fun',\n    The lands of Knockwinnock are lost and won.\"\n\nThey resolved to return to the ruins of St. Ruth at midnight to make\nanother search, not on account of Sir Arthur or Mr. Oldenbuck, but for\nthemselves. Neither gold nor silver were found; but those engaged in\nthe search got a fright, one supposing he saw evil spirits rising from\nthe earth's bowels, and the other that he was chased by a ghost on\nhorseback. A series of interesting incidents connected with adventure,\nlove, and crime follow. Dousterswivel was discovered to be an\nimpostor; certain persons engaged in a dark plot were cut off by\ndeath, but the virtuous were rewarded.\n\nSir Walter Scott, in _Rob Roy_, makes mention of an eminence or mound\nnear the upland hills, whence the Forth springs, supposed by the\npeople in the neighbourhood to contain within its unseen caverns the\npalaces of fairies; and in his Notes to _Rob Roy_ it is stated that\nthe lakes and precipices, amidst which the river Forth has its birth,\nare still, according to popular tradition, haunted by elfin people. In\none note the reader is informed that the Rev. Robert Kirk, who died at\nAberfoyle in the year 1688, was supposed to have been taken away by\nfairies. Mr. Kirk was walking near his manse on a _Dun Shie_, or fairy\nmound, when he sank down apparently in a faint, and seemingly died.\nThe body was supposed to be buried, but shortly afterwards he appeared\nin living form to a friend, to whom he told that he was not dead, but\nin fairyland, whither he was carried at the time he fell down in a\nswoon. The reverend captive gave directions how he might be rescued by\nhim; but the person who was appointed to perform the prescribed\nceremony failed to proceed as directed, and Mr. Kirk, who had been\ntwice seen after his supposed death, never appeared again.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAs we are writing of Rob Roy's country, and of an incident connected\nwith the fate of a minister there, we suddenly break the thread of our\nnarrative, to introduce the particulars of a most extraordinary\ncircumstance connected with another clergyman in that quarter.\n\nA few years ago, about 1870, a most respectable gentleman belonging to\nEdinburgh, devoid of superstitious fear, told the writer: \"In the\nautumn I was enjoying the retirement and grandeur of the Trossachs and\nsurrounding district. The lake, the hill, the dale, and, above all,\nthe people, interested me. Often was I in the humble cot, and,\nalthough a sojourner, I became acquainted with families in the more\nexalted positions in society. Among others, I gained the friendship of\na venerable clergyman, whose charity and piety were known far and\nnear.\n\n\"While I had my residence in the Trossachs Hotel, the clergyman, I was\ntold, one day was dangerously ill. Next morning, before starting with\na few friends up Loch Katrine, I sent to inquire after the invalid's\nhealth. The answer returned conveyed the impression that he was fast\nsinking. We proceeded up the lake, and came back by the last boat for\nthe day. We took outside seats on the coach, and while turning a\ncorner of the road, about half-way between the lake and the hotel, I\nand several other passengers (including the captain of the Loch\nKatrine steamer and the driver) observed a gentleman passing us, whom\nwe all declared was the clergyman. Trusting our sight, we thought it\nmost extraordinary that a man, considered to be dying in the morning,\nshould be seen in the evening on the highway, far from home.\n\n\"The steamboat being unusually late of arriving at her destination,\nthe sun had gone down, and the shades of night were closing over us\nbefore half our journey by coach could be accomplished, still it was\nnot so dark when the figure of the pious minister appeared but that\none might not only see the figure of a man, but observe his every\nfeature. The sight struck all, who recognised in the traveller the\ninvalid minister with amazement, and some with fear. On the coach\narriving at the hotel, a messenger was despatched to inquire after the\nreverend gentleman's health. The answer received disclosed the\nstartling intelligence that the clergyman had expired shortly before\nthe time we saw his figure walking with slow step and sad countenance\ntowards Loch Katrine.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBut we now return to Sir Walter Scott's works. Those who have read the\n_Monastery_ (and who have not?) may recollect of Dame Glendinning\ntelling Tibb what she had seen on a Hallowe'en in her youth--which was\nas follows:--\n\n\"Aweel, aweel, I had mair joes than ane, but I favoured nane o' them;\nand sae, at Hallowe'en, Father Nicolas the cellarer--he was cellarer\nbefore his father, Father Clement, that now is--was cracking his nuts\nand drinking his brown beer with us, and as blithe as might be, and\nthey would have me try a cantrip to ken wha suld wed me; and the monk\nsaid there was nae ill in it, and if there was, he would assoil me for\nit. And awa' I went into the barn to winnow my three weights o'\nnaething--sair, sair, my mind misgave me for fear of wrang-doing and\nwrang-suffering, baith; but I had aye a bauld spirit. I had not\nwinnowed the last weight clear out, and the moon was shining bright\nupon the floor, when in stalked the presence of my dear Simon\nGlendinning, that is now happy. I never saw him plainer in my life\nthan I did that moment; he held up an arrow as he passed me, and I\nswarf'd awa' wi' fright. Muckle wark there was to bring me to mysel'\nagain, and sair they tried to make me believe it was a trick o' Father\nNicolas and Simon between them, and that the arrow was to signify\nCupid's shaft, as the Father called it; and mony a time Simon wad\nthreep it to me after I was married--gude man, he liked not it suld be\nsaid that he was seen out o' the body!--But mark the end o' it, Tibb:\nwe were married, and the grey-goose wing was the death o' him, after\na'!\"\n\nThe following lines appear in _Marmion_ in reference to a combat with\na goblin knight:--\n\n    \"Soon as the midnight bell did ring,\n    Alone, and armed, forth rode the King\n    To that old camp's deserted round:\n    Sir Knight, you well might mark the mound,\n    Left hand the town,--the Pictish race\n    The trench, long since, in blood did trace;\n    The moor around is brown and bare,\n    The space within is green and fair.\n    The spot our village children know,\n    For there the earliest wild flowers grow;\n    But woe betide the wandering wight,\n    That treads its circle in the night!\n    The breadth across, a bowshot clear,\n    Gives ample space for full career;\n    Opposed to the four points of heaven,\n    By four deep gaps is entrance given.\n    The southernmost our monarch passed,\n    Halted, and blew a gallant blast;\n    And on the north, within the ring,\n    Appeared the form of England's king,\n    Who then a thousand leagues afar,\n    In Palestine waged holy war:\n    Yet arms like England's did he wield,\n    Alike the leopards in the shield,\n    Alike his Syrian courser's frame,\n    The rider's length of limb the same:\n    Long afterwards did Scotland know\n    Fell Edward was her deadliest foe.\n\n    The vision made our monarch start,\n    But soon he manned his noble heart,\n    And in the first career they ran,\n    The Elfin Knight fell horse and man;\n    Yet did a splinter of his lance\n    Through Alexander's visor glance,\n    And razed the skin--a puny wound.\n    The king, light leaping to the ground,\n    With naked blade his phantom foe\n    Compelled the future war to show.\n      Of Largs he saw the glorious plain,\n      Where still gigantic bones remain,\n        Memorial of the Danish war;\n      Himself he saw amid the field,\n      On high his brandished war-axe wield,\n        And strike proud Haco from his car,\n      While all around the shadowy kings,\n      Denmark's grim ravens cowered their wings.\n    'Tis said that, in that awful night,\n    Remoter visions met his sight,\n    Foreshowing future conquests far,\n    When our sons' sons wage northern war;\n    A royal city, tower and spire,\n    Reddened the midnight sky with fire;\n    And shouting crews her navy bore,\n    Triumphant, to the victor shore.\n    Such signs may learned clerks explain,\n    They pass the wit of simple swain.\n\n    The joyful king turned home again,\n    Headed his host and quelled the Dane;\n    But yearly, when returned the night\n    Of his strange combat with the sprite,\n      His wound must bleed and smart;\n    Lord Gifford then would gibing say,\n    'Bold as ye were, my liege, ye pay\n      The penance of your start.'\n    Long since, beneath Dunfermline's nave,\n    King Alexander fills his grave,\n      Our Lady give him rest!\n    Yet still the nightly spear and shield\n    The elfin warrior doth wield,\n      Upon the brown hill's breast;\n    And many a knight hath proved his chance\n    In the charmed ring to break a lance,\n      But have all foully sped;\n    Save two, as legends tell, and they\n    Were Wallace wight, and Gilbert Hay.--\n      Gentles, my tale is said.\"\n\nOne of Sir Walter Scott's poetic effusions has reference to a popular\nstory concerning a fairy knight:--\n\n\"Osbert, a bold and powerful baron, visited a noble family in the\nvicinity of Wandlebury, in the bishopric of Ely. Among other stories\nrelated in the social circle of his friends (who, according to custom,\namused each other by repeating ancient tales and traditions), he was\ninformed, that if any knight, unattended, entered an adjacent plain by\nmoonlight, and challenged an adversary to appear, he would be\nimmediately encountered by a spirit in the form of a knight. Osbert\nresolved to make the experiment, and set out, attended by a single\nsquire, whom he ordered to remain without the limits of the plain,\nwhich was surrounded by an ancient entrenchment. On repeating the\nchallenge, he was instantly assailed by an adversary, whom he quickly\nunhorsed, and seized the reins of his steed. During this operation,\nhis ghostly opponent sprang up, and darting his spear like a javelin\nat Osbert, wounded him in the thigh. Osbert returned in triumph with\nthe horse, which he committed to the care of his servants. The horse\nwas of a sable colour, as well as his whole accoutrements, and\napparently of great beauty and vigour. He remained with his keepers\ntill cock-crowing, when, with eyes flashing fire, he reared, spurned\nthe ground, and vanished. On disarming himself, Osbert perceived that\nhe was wounded, and that one of his steel boots was full of blood.\nGervase adds, that as long as he lived, the scar of his wound opened\nafresh on the anniversary of the eve on which he encountered the\nspirit.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XX.\n\n      Lord Byron taught Superstition by his Nurse and\n      others--Byron and the Maid in Green--The Maid's\n      Keepsake or Charm--Bridge of Balgonie--Byron's fear to\n      ride over it--His belief in Unlucky Days and\n      Presentiments--Socrates's Demon--Monk Lewis's\n      Monitor--Napoleon's Warnings--A Sorrowful Tale--A\n      Strange Story--Qualities of Mind descending from Sire\n      to Son--Byron's Fortune told by a Sybil--Hebrew\n      Camyo--Abracadabra--Loch-na-Garr--Oscar of\n      Alva--Byron's last Instructions.\n\n\nLord Byron, who was taught superstition by his nurse, became\nacquainted with the peculiar belief of the Highlanders while, in early\nlife, he dwelt within sight of \"dark Loch-na-Garr.\" When wandering\nabout Pannanich, the shepherds told him many strange legends, and the\nold dames often enticed him into their huts to amuse him with fairy\ntales and witch stories. It was thought by the old crones that the\nwonderful boy had communings with more uncanny neighbours than these\nsimple-minded people, who no more doubted the existence of witches and\nfairies than they doubted that the Dee flowed from the mountains to\nthe sea. If report spoke true, he was often heard in conversation with\nintelligent beings, though to ordinary human eyes no other form but\nthat of his own was seen. After his fame was wide-spread, an old\nwoman, who lived in a little straw-thatched cottage by the roadside\nnear Balmoral, declared that she expected that he would enlighten the\nworld, for she had often seen him with those who could instruct him\nand tell him of past and future events. One of those persons, she\nsaid, was a little maid dressed in green, whose beautiful face,\nflowing hair, and agile figure were faultless. Frequently was she seen\nclimbing steep precipices on which human foot was never known to rest,\nand bring him flowers, and even the eagles' nests were not beyond her\nreach. While the young and middle-aged would wonder who she was, the\naged shook their heads. Whoever the fair little maid was, one thing in\nconnection with her was exceedingly strange. Either Byron did not know\nher relations and home, or, for reasons he kept to himself, he chose\nto conceal them. Her merry laugh, clear as the sound of a silver bell,\nor her sweet voice in song, was generally what indicated her approach.\nAt one time she would emerge from a thicket, and rise at another, like\na spectre from behind a rock. Her disappearance was equally\nmysterious. At their last parting she gave him a keepsake or charm,\nwhich he long wore, suspended by a ribbon, round his neck, and it was\nnot till he threw it aside that he became unfortunate and unhappy. We\ncannot vouch for the truth of this story; but if Byron did not hold\nintercourse with unearthly beings, he has, by his writings and speech,\nleft room for simple-minded people who have read his works and\nhistory, to suppose that he did. His belief in presentiment was very\nstrong, as also visionary warnings of imminent danger or impending\ncalamities.\n\nA school-fellow of Byron had a small pony, and one day they went to\nthe Don to bathe. When they came to the bridge of Balgownie, the young\npoet remembered the old prophecy:\n\n    \"Brig o' Balgownie! wight is thy wa',\n      Wi' a wife's ae son, an' a mare's ae foal,\n    Down shalt thou fa'.\"\n\nHe immediately stopped his companion, who was then riding, and asked\nhim if he recollected the prophecy, saying, that as they were both\nonly sons, and as the pony might be \"a mare's ae foal,\" he would\nrather ride over first, because he had only a mother to lament him\nshould the bridge fall, whereas he, his companion, had both a father\nand mother to grieve for him if he perished. Byron, however, was not\nthe only one who put faith in such prophecies. Leslie says, \"Persons\nhave been known to dismount when they came to the brig o' Balgownie,\nand send their horses over before them.\"\n\nByron had a belief in unlucky days. He once refused to be introduced\nto a lady because the day was Friday; and on this day of the week he\nwould not visit his friends. \"Something,\" he said, \"whispered to me at\nmy wedding that I was signing my death warrant. I am a great believer\nin presentiments. Socrates's demon was no fiction; Monk Lewis had his\nmonitor, and Napoleon many warnings. At the last moment I would have\nretreated if I could have done so.\"\n\nThe poet had a high opinion of Monk Lewis. Here are two stories told\nby Byron:\n\n\"Whilst Lewis was residing at Mannheim, every night at the same hour,\nhe heard, or thought he heard, in his room, when he was lying in bed,\na crackling noise like that produced by parchment or thick paper. This\ncircumstance caused inquiry, when it was told him that the sounds were\nattributable to the following cause:--The house in which he lived had\nbelonged to a widow who had an only son. In order to prevent him\nmarrying a poor but amiable girl to whom he was attached, he was sent\nto sea. Years passed, and the mother heard no tidings of him nor of\nthe ship in which he had sailed. It was supposed the vessel had been\nwrecked, and that all on board had perished. The reproaches of the\ngirl, the upbraidings of her own conscience, and the loss of her\nchild, crazed the old lady's mind. Her only pursuit was to turn over\nthe gazettes for news. Hope at length left her: she did not live long,\nand continued her old occupation after death.\"\n\nThe other story runs thus:\n\n\"Two Florentine lovers, who had been attached to each other almost\nfrom childhood, made a vow of eternal fidelity. Mina was the name of\nthe lady; her husband's I forget, but it is not material. They\nparted. He had been some time absent with his regiment, when, as his\ndisconsolate lady was sitting alone in her chamber, she distinctly\nheard the well-known sound of his footsteps, and, starting up, beheld\nnot her husband, but his spectre, with a deep ghastly wound across his\nforehead. She swooned with horror. When she recovered, the ghost told\nher that in future his visits should be announced by a passing bell,\nand the words distinctly whispered, 'Mina, I am here!' Their\ninterviews became frequent, till the woman fancied herself as much in\nlove with the ghost as she had been with the man. But it was soon to\nprove otherwise. One fatal night she went to a ball. She danced, and,\nwhat was worse, her partner was a young Florentine, so much the\ncounterpart of her lover, that she became estranged from the ghost.\nWhilst the young gallant conducted her in the waltz, and her ear drank\nin the music of his voice and words, a passing bell tolled. She had\nbeen accustomed to the sound till it hardly excited her attention,\nand, now lost in the attractions of her fascinating partner, she\nheard, but regarded it not. A second peal!--she listened not to its\nwarnings. A third time the bell, with its deep and iron tongue,\nstartled the assembled company, and silenced the music. Mina turned\nher eyes from her partner, and saw, reflected in the mirror, a form, a\nshadow, a spectre: it was her husband. He was standing between her and\nthe young Florentine, and whispered, in a solemn and melancholy tone,\nthe accustomed accents, 'Mina, I am here!' She instantly fell down\ndead. The two ghosts walked out of the room arm in arm.\"\n\nByron believed that the quality of mind descended from sire to son,\nand contended that any passion might be worn out of a family by\nskilful culture. To his uncle, who was very superstitious, and fed\ncrickets, he ascribed his superstition; to another of his ancestors,\nwho died laughing, he ascribed his buoyant spirits. Two of his\nrelations had such an affection for each other, that they both died at\nthe same time. \"There seems,\" he said, \"to have been a flaw in my\nescutcheon there, or that that loving couple have monopolised all the\nconnubial bliss of the family.\"\n\nByron's superstition was so great that it led him to have his fortune\ntold by a sybil. It was prophesied that his twenty-seventh and\nthirty-seventh years would prove unlucky to him. Some people have\nthought that the prophecy was fulfilled: he was married in his\ntwenty-seventh, and died in his thirty-seventh year.\n\nHe was convinced that the principal charms of the Scotch resembled\nthose of other nations. He was not ignorant of the supposed virtue of\nthe mountain ash as an antidote against witchcraft. Everything\npertaining to superstition was interesting to him. He had stored up in\nhis memory many curious anecdotes. On being told of a particular race\nof men skilled in Cabala, who by a single gaze of their \"evil eye\"\ncould level an enemy to the earth and occasion instantaneous death,\nand of parents who had handsome children hanging cameos round their\nnecks to protect them from the evil consequences of a wicked eye, his\nLordship said, \"I remember reading somewhere that Serenus Samonicus,\npreceptor to a young Gordian, recommended the Abracadabra or\nAbrasadabra as a charm or amulet in curing agues, and preventing other\ndiseases.\"\n\nA Hebrew Camyo, supposed to have been handed down from father to son\nsince the building of the first temple, has a similar effect. Lucky is\nthe circumcised Jew who has, in the time of need, the good fortune to\nhave the Hebrew charm applied to his leprously-inclined body; and\nthrice fortunate is he, whoever he may be, that has it constantly at\nhis command, and can claim it as his family relic.\n\nThe word Abracadabra or Abrasadabra must be written on parchment, or\nother suitable substance, in the manner below, omitting in every new\nline the last letter of the former line, so that the whole may form a\nkind of inverted cone:\n\n      A b r a c a d a b r a\n       A b r a c a d a b r\n        A b r a c a d a b\n         A b r a c a d a\n          A b r a c a d\n           A b r a c a\n            A b r a c\n             A b r a\n              A b r\n               A b\n                A\n\nByron looked as if he had added greatly to his stock of knowledge when\nhe learned that, which way soever the letters of the charms might be\ntaken, beginning from the lower point and ascending from the left to\nthe right, they make the same word.\n\nTo every one who has read _Loch-na-Garr_, it must be evident that\nByron believed, or wished it to appear that he believed, like the\nHighlanders, that the voices of the dead were heard in the storm, that\nthe souls of departed heroes rode on the wind, and that the dark\nclouds encircled the forms of chieftain sires that added lustre to\ntheir country's glory. But the poet shall speak for himself:--\n\n    \"Away, ye gay landscapes, ye gardens of roses!\n      In you let the minions of luxury rove;\n    Restore me the rocks where the snow-flake reposes,\n      Though still they are sacred to freedom and love:\n    Yet, Caledonia, beloved are thy mountains,\n      Round their white summits though elements war;\n    Though cataracts foam 'stead of smooth-flowing fountains,\n      I sigh for the valley of dark Loch-na-Garr.\n\n    Ah! there my young footsteps in infancy wander'd;\n      My cap was the bonnet, my cloak was the plaid:\n    On chieftains long perish'd my memory ponder'd,\n      As daily I strode through the pine-cover'd glade;\n    I sought not my home till the day's dying glory\n      Gave place to the rays of the bright polar star;\n    For fancy was cheer'd by traditional story,\n      Disclosed by the natives of dark Loch-na-Garr.\n\n    'Shades of the dead! have I not heard your voices\n      Rise on the night-rolling breath of the gale?'\n    Surely the soul of the hero rejoices,\n      And rides on the wind, o'er his own Highland vale.\n    Round Loch-na-Garr, while the stormy mist gathers,\n      Winter presides in his cold icy car:\n    Clouds there encircle the forms of my fathers;\n      They dwell in the tempests of dark Loch-na-Garr.\n\n    'Ill-starr'd, though brave, did no visions foreboding\n      Tell you that fate had forsaken your cause?'\n    Ah! were you destined to die at Culloden,\n      Victory crown'd not your fall with applause:\n    Still were you happy in death's earthy slumber,\n      You rest with your clans in the caves of Braemar;\n    The pibroch resounds to the piper's loud number,\n      Your deeds on the echoes of dark Loch-na-Garr.\n\n    Years have roll'd on, Loch-na-Garr, since I left you,\n      Years must elapse ere I tread you again:\n    Nature of verdure and flowers has bereft you,\n      Yet still are you dearer than Albion's plain.\n    England! thy beauties are tame and domestic\n      To one who has roved o'er the mountains afar:\n    O for the crags that are wild and majestic!\n      The steep frowning glories of dark Loch-na-Garr!\"\n\nIn _Oscar of Alva_ will also be found something of popular\nsuperstition. Passing over a part of the tale, Byron says:--\n\n    \"From high Southannon's distant tower\n      Arrived a young and noble dame;\n    With Kenneth's lands to form her dower,\n      Glenalvon's blue-eyed daughter came.\n\n    And Oscar claimed the beauteous bride,\n      And Angus on his Oscar smiled;\n    It soothed the father's feudal pride\n      Thus to obtain Glenalvon's child.\n\n    Hark to the pibroch's pleasing note!\n      Hark to the swelling nuptial song!\n    In joyous strains the voices float,\n      And still the choral peal prolong.\n\n               *   *   *   *   *\n\n    But where is Oscar? Sure 'tis late:\n      Is this a bridegroom's ardent flame?\n    While thronging guests and ladies wait\n      Nor Oscar nor his brother came.\n\n    At length young Allan join'd the bride;\n      'Why comes not Oscar?' Angus said:\n    'Is he not here?' the youth replied;\n      'With me he roved not o'er the glade.'\n\n               *   *   *   *   *\n\n    'O search, ye chiefs! O search around!\n      Allan, with these through Alva fly;\n    Till Oscar, till my son is found,\n      Haste, haste, nor dare attempt reply.'\n\n    Three days, three sleepless nights, the chief\n      For Oscar searched each mountain cave\n    Then hope is lost: in boundless grief\n      His locks in grey torn ringlets wave.\n\n               *   *   *   *   *\n\n    Days rolled along: the orb of light\n      Again had run his destined race;\n    No Oscar bless'd his father's sight,\n      And sorrow left a fainter trace.\n\n    For youthful Allan still remain'd,\n      And now his father's only joy:\n    And Mora's heart was quickly gain'd,\n      For beauty crown'd the fair-hair'd boy.\n\n    She thought that Oscar low was laid,\n      And Allan's face was wondrous fair:\n    If Oscar lived, some other maid\n      Had claim'd his faithless bosom's care.\n\n    And Angus said, if one year more\n      In fruitless hope was pass'd away,\n    His fondest scruples should be o'er,\n      And he would name their nuptial day.\n\n    Slow roll'd the moons, but blest at last\n      Arrived the dearly destined morn;\n    The year of anxious trembling past,\n      What smiles the lovers' cheeks adorn!\n\n    Hark to the pibroch's pleasing note!\n      Hark to the swelling nuptial song!\n    In joyous strains the voices float,\n      And still the choral peal prolong.\n\n    Again the clan, in festive crowd,\n      Throng through the gate of Alva's hall;\n    The sounds of mirth re-echo loud,\n      And all their former joy recall.\n\n    But who is he whose darken'd brow\n      Glooms in the midst of general mirth?\n    Before his eyes' far fiercer glow\n      The blue flames curdle o'er the hearth.\n\n    Dark is the robe which wraps his form,\n      And tall his plume of gory red;\n    His voice is like the rising storm,\n      But light and trackless is his tread.\n\n    'Tis noon of night, the pledge goes round,\n      The bridegroom's health is deeply quaff'd;\n    With shouts the vaulted roofs resound,\n      And all combine to hail the draught.\n\n    Sudden the stranger chief arose,\n      And all the clamorous crowd are hush'd;\n    And Angus' cheek with wonder glows,\n      And Mora's tender bosom blush'd.\n\n    'Old man!' he cried, 'this pledge is done;\n      Thou saw'st was duly drunk by me:\n    It hail'd the nuptials of thy son:\n      Now will I claim, a pledge from thee.\n\n    While all around is mirth and joy,\n      To bless thy Allan's happy lot,\n    Say, had'st thou ne'er another boy?\n      Say, why should Oscar be forgot?'\n\n    'Alas!' the hapless sire replied,\n      The big tear starting as he spoke;\n    When Oscar left my hall, or died,\n      This aged heart was almost broke.\n\n    'Thrice has the earth revolved her course\n      Since Oscar's form has bless'd my sight;\n    And Allan is my last resource,\n      Since martial Oscar's death or flight.'\n\n    ''Tis well,' replied the stranger stern,\n      And fiercely flashed his rolling eye;\n    'Thy Oscar's fate I fain would learn:\n      Perhaps the hero did not die.\n\n    'Perchance if those whom most he loved\n      Would call, thy Oscar might return;\n    Perchance the chief has only roved;\n      For him thy beltane yet may burn.\n\n    'Fill high the bowl the table round,\n      We will not claim the pledge by stealth;\n    With wine let every cup be crown'd:\n      Pledge me departed Oscar's health.'\n\n    'With all my soul,' old Angus said,\n      And fill'd his goblet to the brim;\n    'Here's to my boy! alive or dead,\n      I ne'er shall find a son like him.'\n\n    'Bravely, old man, this health hath sped;\n      But why does Allan trembling stand?\n    Come, drink remembrance of the dead,\n      And raise thy cup with firmer hand.'\n\n    The crimson glow of Allan's face\n      Was turn'd at once to ghastly hue;\n    The drops of death each other chase\n      Adown in agonizing dew.\n\n    Thrice did he raise the goblet high,\n      And thrice his lips refused to taste;\n    For thrice he caught the stranger's eye\n      On his with deadly fury placed.\n\n    'And is it thus a brother hails\n      A brother's fond remembrance here;\n    If thus affection's strength prevails,\n      What might we not expect from fear?'\n\n    Roused by the sneer, he raised the bowl,\n      'Would Oscar now could share our mirth!'\n    Internal fear appall'd his soul;\n      He said, and dash'd the cup to earth.\n\n    'Tis he! I hear my murderer's voice!'\n      Loud shrieks a darkly gleaming form;\n    'A murderer's voice!' the roof replies,\n      And deeply swells the bursting storm.\n\n    The tapers wink, the chieftains shrink,\n      The stranger's gone--amidst the crew\n    A form was seen in tartan green,\n      And tall the shade terrific grew.\n\n    His waist was bound with a broad belt round,\n      His plume of sable stream'd on high;\n    But his breast was bare, with the red wounds there\n      And fixed was the glare of his glassy eye.\n\n    And thrice he smiled, with his eye so wild,\n      On Angus bending low the knee:\n    And thrice he frown'd on a chief on the ground,\n      Whom shivering crowds with horror see.\n\n    The bolts loud roll from pole to pole,\n      The thunders through the welkin ring;\n    And the gleaming form, through the mist of the storm,\n      Was borne on high by the whirlwind's wing.\n\n    Cold was the feast, the revel ceased,\n      Who lies upon the stony floor?\n    Oblivion press'd old Angus' breast,\n      At length his life-pulse throbs once more.\n\n    Away! away! let the leech assay\n      To pour the light on Allan's eyes:\n    His sand is done--his race is run;\n      O! never more shall Allan rise:\n\n    But Oscar's breast is cold as clay,\n      His locks are lifted by the gale:\n    And Allan's barbed arrow lay\n      With him in dark Glentanar's vale.\n\n    And whence the dreadful stranger came,\n      Or who, no mortal wight can tell;\n    But no one doubts the form of flame,\n      For Alva's sons knew Oscar well.\n\n    Ambition nerved young Allan's hand,\n      Exulting demons wing'd his dart;\n    While Envy waved her burning brand,\n      And pour'd her venom round his heart.\n\n    Swift is the shaft from Allan's bow;\n      Whose streaming life-blood stains his side?\n    Dark Oscar's sable crest is low,\n      The dart has drunk his vital tide.\n\n    And Mora's eye could Allan move,\n      She bade his wounded pride rebel;\n    Alas! that eyes which beam'd with love\n      Should urge the soul to deeds of hell.\n\n    Lo! seest thou not a lonely tomb\n      Which rises o'er a warrior dead?\n    It glimmers through the twilight gloom:\n      O! that is Allan's nuptial bed.\n\n    Far, distant far, the noble grave\n      Which held his clan's great ashes stood;\n    And o'er his corse no banners wave,\n      For they were stain'd with kindred blood.\n\n    What minstrel grey, what hoary bard,\n      Shall Allan's deeds on harp-strings raise?\n    The song is glory's chief reward,\n      But who can strike a murderer's praise?\n\n    Unstrung, untouch'd the harp must stand,\n      No minstrel dare the theme awake;\n    Guilt would benumb his palsied hand,\n      His harp in shuddering chords would break.\n\n    No lyre of fame, no hallow'd verse,\n      Shall sound his glories high in air:\n    A dying father's bitter curse,\n      A brother's death-groan echoes there.\"\n\nThe incidents immediately preceding Byron's death show that, to his\nlast moments, he entertained what is generally regarded as\nsuperstitious sentiments. He thought it possible for him to waken from\nthe sleep of death, and torment those he desired to punish. Perceiving\nthat he was seriously ill, he called his faithful attendant Fletcher,\nand gave him several directions. The servant expressed a hope that he\n(his master) would live many years. To this Byron replied, \"No, it is\nnow nearly over;\" and then added, \"I must tell you all, without losing\na single moment. Now pay attention--You will be provided for--Oh, my\npoor dear child, my dear Ada!--could I but see her--give her my\nblessing--and my dear sister Augusta and her children--you will go to\nLady Byron, and say--tell her everything.\" Here his Lordship seemed to\nbe greatly affected; his voice failed him so much that it was\ndifficult to understand what he said. After remaining silent for a\nshort time, he raised his voice and said, \"Fletcher: now if you do not\nexecute every order which I have given you, I will torment you\nhereafter, if possible.\" These were nearly the last words he spoke,\nhaving very soon afterwards fallen into an easy sleep, from which he\nnever awoke.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXI.\n\n      Tale by Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd--Aikwood\n      Castle--Black Pages in Livery--The Witch Henbane--Imps\n      demanding Work--Michael Scott--Curious Sport--Dreadful\n      Threat--Rats transformed into the form of\n      Men--Inventor of Gunpowder--Witches'\n      Operations--Summoning Evil Spirits to torture a\n      Man--Latin the Language best understood by Satan and\n      his Emissaries--Holy Signs and Charms--Two\n      Captives--Effects of a Friar's Blessing--Magic\n      Lantern--Man blown into the Air--Michael Scott's\n      Sealed and Subscribed Conditions--Imps' Song--Spirits\n      in the forms of Crows--Dreadful Storm--Warlocks'\n      Hymn--Eildon Hill.\n\n\nHogg, the Ettrick Shepherd, whose memory will long be remembered in\nScotland, particularly in the Border counties, introduces, in his\n_Three Perils of Man_, a party of travellers approaching Aikwood\nCastle, about nine miles from Melrose. The edifice scarcely seemed to\nbe the abode of man. \"Is that now to be my residence, Yardbire?\" said\nthe beautiful Delany. \"Will you go away, and leave Elias and me in\nthat frightsome and desolate-looking mansion?\" \"Thou art in good\nhands,\" said the friar. \"But thou art perhaps going into a place of\ndanger, and evil things may await thee. Here, take thou this, and keep\nit in thy bosom; and, by the blessing of the Holy Virgin, it will\nshield thee from all malevolent spirits, all enchantments, and all\ndangers of the wicked one.\" As he said this, he put into her hand a\nsmall gilded copy of the four Evangelists, which she kissed and put\ninto her bosom. All the rest of the company saw the small volume, and\ntook it for a book of the black art. Close to the castle gate there\nappeared three pages in black livery, although a moment before there\nwas no living creature there. They seemed to have risen out of the\nground. All at once the horses and mules on which the travellers rode\nbecame restive; at this, the elves set up a shout, and skipped about\nwith the swiftness of lightning. Hearing the noise, the great master\nasked his only attendant, Gourlay, \"What is the meaning of the\nuproar?\" \"It is only Prim, Prig, and Pricker making sport,\" replied\nthe servant.\n\nAs soon as the mighty master knew of the friar and his companions\nbeing in the castle, he ordered them to be treated as spies. The old\nwitch Henbane, who acted as housekeeper, and the three pages, were\ncalled into the presence of the wizard, to receive instructions from\nhim. First the imps threatened Gourlay, and then rushed on Michael\nhimself, as if they would tear him to pieces, and cried out with one\nvoice:\n\n    \"Work, master, work; work we need;\n    Work for the living, or for the dead:\n    Since we are called, work we will have,\n    For the master, or for the slave.\n    Work, master, work. What work now?\"\n\nMichael Scott (no doubt the reader has by this time discovered that he\nwas the master of the castle), to keep the restless beings at work,\ntold them to give Gourlay three varieties of punishment, but no more.\nThey soon began their wicked pranks, first changing the seneschal from\none grotesque form to another. Quickly transforming him into a dog,\nthey chased him up and down and round about with a pan at its tail.\nNext they made him assume the shape of a hare, while to all appearance\nthey became collie dogs. An exciting chase followed over hill and\ndale, but the poor hare succeeded in eluding its pursuers, and\nreturned to the master, who, by one touch of his divining rod, changed\nGourlay into his own natural shape. As soon as the poor ill-used\nservant recovered speech, he threatened to cut his throat, that he\nmight be freed from his severe bondage. Michael dared him to do such a\nthing, as he had him wholly in his power, dead or alive. \"Were you to\ntake away your life by a ghastly wound,\" said the wizard, \"I would\neven make one of these fiendish spirits enter into your body,\nreanimate it, and cause you to go about with your gaping wound,\nunclosed and unpurified, as when death entered thereat.\" \"Cursed be\nthe day that I saw you, and ten times cursed the confession I made,\nthat has thus subjected me to your tyranny!\" exclaimed Gourlay.\n\nMichael again asked what living creatures were in the castle. The\nservant replied, \"I again repeat it, that there is no mortal thing in\nthe castle but the old witch, and perhaps two or three hundred rats.\"\n\"Call out those rats,\" said Michael; \"marshal them up in the court,\nand receive the visitors according to their demerits.\" At the same\ntime the master gave the servant a small piece of parchment, with red\ncharacters traced on it, and told him to put it above the lock-hole of\nthe door. \"It shall serve as a summons, and Prig, Prim, and Pricker\nshall marshal your forces,\" continued the wizard. The citation was\neffective: the running and screaming of rats were heard in every\ncorner of the castle, and forthwith a whole column of armed men\nmarched into the court, led by the three pages, and headed by the\nseneschal in grey mantle and cap. In walked the strangers, and passed\nbetween two ranks of men, or rather rats, the appearance of which\nraised a suspicion that they were spirits or elves.\n\nThe friar, it should be noticed, was the great philosopher and chemist\nwho invented gunpowder, and made many other wonderful discoveries, for\nwhich he was in danger of being burnt as a wizard and necromancer.\n\nThe friar, followed by his companions, found entrance to a room, where\nthey expected to meet the great enchanter Michael, but instead of him\nthey beheld an old woman, so busily engaged with something on the\nfire, that she scarcely deigned to notice their entrance. She had a\nwooden tube, with which she blew up the fire, and then spoke through\nit, saying:\n\n    \"Sotter, sotter, my wee pan,\n    To the spirit gin ye can;\n    When the scum turns blue,\n    And the blood bells through,\n    There's something aneath that will change the man.\"\n\nThe crone continued her orgies, one time blowing her fire, again\nstirring the liquid in the caldron, and then making it run from the\nend of a stick that she might note its gelidity. All her operations\nwere being gone through to call up certain familiar spirits whose\npresence she desired.\n\nIn another apartment sat Michael Scott. He wore a turban of crimson\nvelvet, ornamented with mystic figures in gold, and on the front of it\nwas a dazzling star. His eyes were bright and piercing, resembling\nthose of a serpent. He was stout-made, and had a strong bushy beard,\nturning grey. On beholding Charlie Scott (he alone entered the\nwizard's _sanctum sanctorum_), the wizard stamped three times on the\nfloor, and in a moment Prim, Prig, and Pricker stood beside him.\n\"Work, master, work--what work now?\" demanded they. \"Take that burly\nhousebreaker, bind him, and put him to the test,\" were the\ninstructions they received. When the elves were about to seize\nCharlie, he drew his sword, and thrust out right and left, but his\nblade did nothing more than whistle through vacancy. In an instant he\nwas thrown down and bound with cords. The master and his familiars\nthen had a conversation in Latin (the language best understood by\nSatan and his emissaries) concerning the prisoner's baptism. They\nstripped him, and were about to begin a painful operation, when\nCharlie, bound though he was, succeeded in crossing himself and\npronouncing a sacred name. That instant the pages started back\ntrembling, and their weapons fell from their hands. Another of the\ncompany was thrown down and bound by the imps; but when they attempted\nto seize the friar, they could not so much as touch his frock. The\nfair Delany stood trembling behind the pious father; and on the fiends\nfeeling their want of power over him, they rushed at the young virgin.\nBut the moment they touched her garments, they retired in dismay. The\nfriar, remembering that the maid had the blessed Gospel concealed in\nher bosom, concluded that in that precious book she found protection.\nAs to his own personal safety he had no fear, as he possessed a charm,\nproof against Satan himself. \"He drew his cross from below his\nfrock--that cross which had been consecrated at the shrine of Saint\nPeter, bathed in holy water, and blessed with many blessings from the\nmouths of ancient martyrs--had done wondrous miracles in the hands of\nsaints of former days--and lifting that reverently on high, he\npronounced the words from holy writ, against which no demon or false\nspirit's power could prevail. In one moment the three imps fled\nyelling from the apartment.\" At the same time the countenance of the\nenchanter fell, and his whole body quaked. The friar then unloosed\nthose that were bound.\n\n\"Great and magnificent Master of Arts,\" said the friar, addressing\nMichael Scott, \"we are come to thee from the man that ruleth over the\nborders of the land, and leadeth forth his troops to battle. He\nsendeth unto thee greeting, and beseecheth to know of thee what shall\nbefall unto his people and to his house in the latter days. It is thy\ncounsel alone that he asketh, for thou art renowned for wisdom and\nforesight to the farthest corners of the earth. The two nations are\nengaged in a great and bloody contest, and high are the stakes for\nwhich they play. The man who sent us entreateth of thee to disclose\nunto thy servants who shall finally prevail, and whether it behoveth\nhim to join himself to the captain of his people. He hath moreover\nsent unto thee, by our hand, these two beautiful captives, the one to\nbe thine handmaiden, and the other to be thy servant, and run at thy\nbidding.\"\n\nThe wizard, highly flattered, listened with patience to the friar, and\nanswered that the request made would take many days to consider, as he\nhad to deal with those who were more capricious than the changing\nseasons, and more perverse than opposing winds and tides. Reluctantly\nthe friar and his friends were prevailed on to remain at the goblin\ncastle, and how it fared with them we shall soon see.\n\nGourlay was summoned into the presence of Scott, who instructed him to\nprovide an entertainment for the strangers. In due time the steward\nappeared with his rod of office in his hand, and with great ceremony\nmarshalled his guests upstairs to an apartment, where there was a\ntable covered with rich viands in great abundance. A few graceless\nfellows in the company began to eat and drink before a blessing was\nasked, and seemingly fared well. But with the holy friar it was\ndifferent. In conformity with a good old custom, he lifted up his\nhands, closed his eyes, and, leaning forward, repeated his oft-said\nstereotyped phrases. In his respectful attitude, he came in close\ncontact with what appeared to be a beautiful smoking sirloin of beef.\nSo near was he to it that he actually breathed upon it, and was nearly\novercome by its savoury flavour. Never had blessing a more baneful\neffect on meat: when the friar opened his eyes the beef was\ngone--there was nothing left but an insignificant thing resembling the\njoint of a frog's leg, or that of a rat.\n\nA contention arose between Michael Scott and the friar as to which of\nthem could perform the most wonderful feats; and when the former\ndiscovered that he was in conversation with no less a personage than\nthe Primate of Douay, author of the book of arts, he was much pleased.\nBy means of a curious lantern, he made it appear that the mountain\nCape-Law was rent and divided into three parts. This was only an\noptical delusion, but he in reality blew poor Gourlay into the air by\nan explosion of gunpowder, the composition and power of which were\nunknown to the wizard, or to any one except the friar. The master\ncould not bear the idea of being outdone by any one. He strode the\nfloor in gloomy indignation. \"Look,\" he shouted, \"at that mountain on\nthe east. It is known to you all--the great hill of Eildon. You know\nand see that it is one round, smooth, and unbroken cone.\" He then gave\nthree knocks with his heel on the floor, and called the names of his\nthree pages, Prig, Prim, and Pricker. As at other times, these\ninfernal spirits were before him, exclaiming, \"Work, master, work;\nwhat work now?\" \"Look at that mountain yclept the hill of Eildon. Go\nand twist me it into three.\" The imps looked with Satanic glare. \"The\nhill is granite,\" said one. \"And five arrows' flight high,\" said\nanother. \"And seventy round the base,\" said the first. \"All the power\nof earth and hell to boot are unmeet to the task,\" added the third. In\nan imperious manner, the master declared the thing must be done. \"I\nknow my conditions; they are sealed and subscribed, and I am not to be\ndisobeyed,\" continued he. The three pages began singing:\n\n                  \"Pick and spade\n                  To our aid!\n                  Flaught and flail,\n                  Fire and hail:\n    Winds arise, and tempests brattle,\n    And, if you will, the thunders rattle.\n                  Come away,\n                  Elfin grey,\n    Much to do ere break of day!\n    Come with spade, and sieve, and shovel;\n    Come with roar, and rout, and revel;\n    Come with crow, and come with crane,\n    Strength of steed, and weight of wain.\n    Crash of rock, and roar of river,\n    And, if you will, with thunders shiver!\n                  Come away,\n                  Elfin grey;\n    Much to do ere break of day.\"\n\nAs they sang the last line, they sped away, in the forms of three\ncrows, toward Eildon Hill.\n\nThat night was a dreadful one. A storm burst forth in all its fury,\nsweeping over hill and dale. The woods roared and crashed before the\nblast, and a driving rain dashed with such violence on the earth, that\nit seemed as if a thousand cataracts poured from the western heaven to\nmix with the tempest below. Now and again eldritch shrieks, as of some\none perishing, were heard, and then the voices of angry spirits,\nyelling through the tempest, reached the ear. One of the inmates of\nthe castle was reminded, by the raging storm, of the warlocks' hymn:\n\n          \"Pother, pother,\n          My master and brother,\n          Who may endure thee,\n          Thus failing in fury?\n    King of the tempest that travels the plain\n    King of the snow, and the hail, and the rain,\n    Lend to thy lever yet seven times seven,\n    Blow up the blue flame for bolt and for levin,\n    The red forge of hell with the bellows of heaven!\n          With hoop and with hammer!\n          With yell and with yammer,\n          Hold them in play\n          Till the dawn of day!\n          Pother, pother!\n          My sovereign and brother.\n          O strain to thy lever,\n          This world to sever\n          In two or in three--\n          What joy it would be!\n    What toiling and mailing, and mighty commotions!\n    What rending of hills, and what roaring of oceans!\n    Ay, that is thy voice, I know it full well;\n    And that is thy whistle's majestic swell;\n    But why wilt thou ride thy furious race\n    Along the bounds of vacant space,\n    While there is tongue of flesh to scream,\n    And life to start, and blood to stream?\n          Yet pother, pother!\n          My sovereign and brother\n    And men shall see, ere the rising sun,\n    What deeds thy mighty arm hath done.\"\n\nMichael Scott and his guests kept watch together during the eventful\nnight; and when the friar and Charlie stepped out to the battlements\nin the morning, they beheld the great mountain of Eildon, which before\nthen had but one cone, piled up in three hills, as described by us in\nchapter XVI.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXII.\n\n      Allan Ramsay--\"The Gentle Shepherd\"--Bauldy the\n      Clown--Mause the reputed Witch--A Witch's\n      Crantraips--Praying Backwards--Sad Misfortunes\n      attributed to Mause--Supposed Power of the Devil to\n      raise the Wind and send Rain and Thunder--Mause's\n      Reflections--Sir William disturbed--Symon's\n      Announcement--Promise to gain a Lassie's Heart--Doings\n      of the supposed Witch--Witches' Tricks--Longfellow's\n      \"Golden Legend\"--\"Song of Hiawatha.\"\n\n\nAllan Ramsay, who wrote in the first half of the eighteenth century,\ndoes not appear to have believed in witches or evil spirits. He,\nhowever, like other poets, found it convenient to introduce\nsuperstition into his poetical effusions. This will be seen from the\nfollowing extracts from his _Gentle Shepherd_.\n\n                                BAULDY.\n        \"What's this?--I canna bear't!--'tis worse than hell,\n      To be sae burnt with love, yet daurna tell!\n      O Peggy! sweeter than the dawning day;\n      Sweeter than gowany glens or new-mawn hay;\n      Blyther than lambs that frisk out o'er the knows;\n      Straighter than aught that in the forest grows;\n      Her een the clearest blob of dew outshines;\n      The lily in her breast its beauty tines;\n      Her legs, her arms, her cheeks, her mouth, her een,\n      Will be my dead, that will be shortly seen!\n      For Pate looes her--waes me!--and she looes Pate\n      And I with Neps, by some unlucky fate,\n      Made a daft vow. O, but ane be a beast,\n      That makes rash aiths till he's afore the priest!\n      I darna speak my mind, else a' the three,\n      But doubt, wad prove ilk ane my enemy.\n      'Tis sair to thole;--I'll try some witchcraft art,\n      To break with ane, and win the other's heart.\n      Here Mausy lives, a witch that for sma' price\n      Can cast her cantraips, and gie me advice.\n      She can o'ercast the night, and cloud the moon,\n      And make the deils obedient to her crune;\n      At midnight hours, o'er the kirk-yard she raves,\n      And howks unchristen'd weans out of their graves;\n      Boils up their livers in a warlock's pow;\n      Rins withershins about the hemlock low;\n      And seven times does her prayers backwards pray,\n      Till Plotcock comes with lumps of Lapland clay,\n      Mixt with the venom of black taids and snakes:\n      Of this unsonsy pictures aft she makes\n      Of ony ane she hates,--and gars expire\n      With slow and racking pains afore a fire,\n      Stuck fu' of pins; the devilish pictures melt;\n      The pain by fowk they represent is felt.\n      And yonder's Mause: Ay, ay, she kens fu' weel,\n      When ane like me comes rinning to the deil!\n      She and her cat sit beeking in her yard:\n      To speak my errand, faith, amaist I'm fear'd!\n      But I maun do't, tho' I should never thrive:\n      They gallop fast that deils and lasses drive.\n\n               *   *   *   *   *\n\n        How does auld honest lucky of the glen?\n      Ye look baith hale end fair at threescore-ten.\n\n                            MAUSE.\n        E'en twining out a thread with little din,\n      And beeking my cauld limbs afore the sun.\n      What brings my bairn this gate sae air at morn?\n      Is there nae muck to lead? to thresh nae corn?\n\n                           BAULDY.\n        Enough of baith: but something that requires\n      Your helping hand employs now all my cares.\n\n                         MAUSE.\n        My helping hand! alake, what can I do,\n      That underneith baith eild and poortith bow?\n\n                         BAULDY.\n        Ay, but you're wise, and wiser far than we;\n      Or maist part of the parish tells a lie.\n\n                          MAUSE.\n        Of what kind wisdom think ye I'm possest,\n      That lifts my character aboon the rest?\n\n                          BAULDY.\n        The word that gangs, how ye're sae wise and fell,\n      Ye'll maybe tak it ill gif I should tell.\n\n                          MAUSE.\n        What folk say of me, Bauldy, let me hear;\n      Keep naething up, ye naething have to fear.\n\n                          BAULDY.\n        Well, since ye bid me, I shall tell ye a'\n      That ilk ane talks about you, but a flaw.\n      When last the wind made Glaud a roofless barn;\n      When last the burn bore down my mither's yarn;\n      When Brawny, elf-shot, never mair came hame;\n      When Tibby kirn'd, and there nae butter came;\n      When Bessy Freetock's chuffy-cheeked wean\n      To a fairy turn'd, and cou'dna stand its lane;\n      When Wattie wander'd ae night thro' the shaw\n      And tint himsell amaist amang the snaw;\n      When Mungo's mare stood still and swat wi' fright,\n      When he brought east the howdy under night;\n      When Bawsy shot to dead upon the green;\n      And Sara tint a snood was nae mair seen;--\n      You, lucky, gat the wyte of a' fell out;\n      And ilka ane here dreads ye round about,--\n      And say they may that mint to do ye skaith:\n      For me to wrang ye I'll be very laith;\n      But when I neist make groats, I'll strive to please\n      You with a firlot of them mixt with pease.\n\n                       MAUSE.\n        I thank ye, lad!--Now tell me your demand;\n      And, if I can, I'll lend my helping hand.\n\n                          BAULDY.\n        Then, I like Peggy; Neps is fond of me;\n      Peggy likes Pate; and Patie's bauld and slee,\n      And looes sweet Meg; but Neps I downa see.\n      Could ye turn Patie's love to Neps, and then\n      Peggy's to me, I'd be the happiest man.\n\n                          MAUSE.\n        I'll try my airt to gar the bowls row right;\n      Sae gang your ways and come again at night;\n      'Gainst that time I'll some simple things prepare,\n      Worth all your pease and groats, tak ye nae care.\n\n                          BAULDY.\n        Well, Mause, I'll come, gif I the road can find;\n      But if ye raise the deil, he'll raise the wind;\n      Syne rain and thunder, maybe, when 'tis late\n      Will make the night sae mirk, I'll tine the gate.\n      We're a' to rant in Symie's at a feast,--\n      O! will ye come, like badrans, for a jest?\n      And there you can our different haviours spy;\n      There's nane shall ken o't there but you and I.\n\n                          MAUSE.\n        'Tis like I may: But let na on what's past\n      'Tween you and me, else fear a kittle cast.\n\n                          BAULDY.\n        If I aught of your secrets e'er advance,\n      May ye ride on me ilka night to France!\n\n                          MAUSE.\n        This fool imagines--as do many sic--\n      That I'm a witch in compact with Auld Nick,\n      Because by education I was taught\n      To speak and act aboon their common thought:\n      Their gross mistake shall quickly now appear;\n      Soon shall they ken what brought, what keeps me here.\n      Now since the royal Charles, and right's restor'd,\n      A shepherdess is daughter to a lord.\n      The bonny foundling that's brought up by Glaud,\n      Wha has an uncle's care on her bestow'd,--\n      Her infant life I sav'd, when a false friend\n      Bow'd to the usurper, and her death design'd,\n      To establish him and his in all these plains\n      That by right heritage to her pertains.\n      She's now in her sweet bloom, has blood and charms\n      Of too much value for a shepherd's arms.\n      None know't but me!--And if the morn were come,\n      I'll tell them tales will gar them a' sing dumb.\n\n               *   *   *   *   *\n\n                          SIR WILLIAM.\n        How goes the night? does day-light yet appear\n      Symon, you're very timeously asteer.\n\n                          SYMON.\n        I'm sorry, sir, that we've disturb'd your rest;\n      But some strange thing has Bauldy's spirit opprest,\n      He's seen some witch, or wrestled with a ghaist.\n\n                          BAULDY.\n        O! ay; dear sir, in troth, 'tis very true;\n      And I am come to make my plaint to you.\n\n                          SIR WILLIAM.\n        I lang to hear 't.\n\n                          BAULDY.\n                           Ah! sir, the witch ca'd Mause,\n      That wins aboon the mill amang the haws,\n      First promis'd that she'd help me with her art,\n      To gain a bonny thrawart lassie's heart.\n      As she had trysted, I met wi'er this night;\n      But may nae friend of mine get sic a fright!\n      For the curst hag, instead of doing me good--\n      The very thought o't's like to freeze my blood!\n      Rais'd up a ghaist, or deil, I kenna whilk,\n      Like a dead corse in sheet as white as milk;\n      Black hands it had, and face as wan as death.\n      Upon me fast the witch and it fell baith,\n      And gat me down, while I, like a great fool,\n      Was labour'd as I wont to be at school.\n      My heart out of its hool was like to loup;\n      I pithless grew with fear, and had nae hope;\n      Till, with an elritch laugh, they vanished quite.\n      Syne I half dead with anger, fear, and spite,\n      Crap up and fled straight frae them, sir, to you,\n      Hoping your help to gie the deil his due.\n      I'm sure my heart will ne'er gie o'er to dunt,\n      Till in a fat tar-barrel Mause be burnt!\n\n               *   *   *   *   *\n\n                          SIR WILLIAM.\n        Troth, Symon, Bauldy's more afraid than hurt;\n      The witch and ghaist have made themselves good sport.\n      What silly notions crowd the clouded mind,\n      That is through want of education blind!\n\n                          SYMON.\n        But does your honour think there's nae sic thing\n      As witches raising deils up through a ring?\n      Syne playing tricks--a thousand I could tell--\n      Cou'd ne'er be contriv'd on this side hell.\n\n                          SIR WILLIAM.\n        Such as the devil's dancing in a moor,\n      Amongst a few old women craz'd and poor,\n      Who were rejoiced to see him frisk and lowp\n      O'er braes and bogs with candles in * * *\n      Appearing sometimes like a black-horn'd cow,\n      Aft-times like Bawty, Badrans, or a sow;\n      Then with his train through airy paths to glide,\n      While they on carts, or clowns, or broomstaffs ride;\n      Or in an egg-shell skim out o'er the main,\n      To drink their leader's health in France or Spain;\n      Then aft by night bumbaze hare-hearted fools,\n      By tumbling down their cupboards, chairs, and stools.\n      Whate'er's in spells, or if there witches be,\n      Such whimsies seem the most absurd to me.\"\n\nTo glean from Cowper, Wordsworth, Tennyson, and the many other poets\nwho have contributed to superstitious lore, would swell this portion\nof our work (_The Poets and Superstition_) to an undue proportion; and\ntherefore we take leave of the poets, after giving extracts from\nLongfellow, whose talented effusions are not only read and appreciated\nin America and England, but over the whole world.\n\n\nFROM \"THE GOLDEN LEGEND.\"\n\n                        LUCIFER.\n    \"Hasten! hasten!\n    O ye spirits!\n    From its station drag the ponderous\n    Cross of iron, that to mock us\n    Is uplifted high in air!\n\n                        VOICES.\n    O, we cannot!\n    For around it\n    All the saints and guardian angels\n    Throng in legions to protect it;\n    They defeat us everywhere!\n\n                        THE BELLS.\n              Laudo Deum verum!\n              Plebem voco!\n              Congrego clerum!\n\n                        LUCIFER.\n    Lower! lower!\n    Hover downward!\n    Seize the loud, vociferous bells, and\n    Clashing, clanging, to the pavement\n    Hurl them from their windy tower!\n\n                        VOICES.\n    All thy thunders\n    Here are harmless!\n    For these bells have been anointed,\n    And baptised with holy water!\n    They defy our utmost power.\n\n                        THE BELLS.\n              Defunctos ploro!\n              Pestem fugo!\n              Festa decoro!\n\n                        LUCIFER.\n    Shake the casements!\n    Break the painted\n    Panes, that flame with gold and crimson;\n    Scatter them like leaves of autumn,\n    Swept away before the blast!\n\n                        VOICES.\n    O, we cannot!\n    The archangel\n    Michael flames from every window,\n    With the sword of fire that drove us\n    Headlong out of heaven, aghast!\n\n                        THE BELLS.\n              Funera plango!\n              Fulgura frango!\n              Sabbata pango!\n\n                        LUCIFER.\n    Aim your lightnings\n    At the oaken,\n    Massive, iron-studded portals!\n    Sack the house of God, and scatter\n    Wide the ashes of the dead!\n\n                        VOICES.\n    O, we cannot!\n    The apostles\n    And the martyrs, wrapped in mantles,\n    Stand as warders at the entrance,\n    Stand as sentinels o'erhead!\n\n                        THE BELLS.\n              Excito lentos!\n              Dissipo ventos!\n              Paco cruentos!\n\n                        LUCIFER.\n    Baffled! baffled!\n    Inefficient,\n    Craven spirits! leave this labour\n    Unto Time, the great destroyer!\n    Come away, ere night is gone!\n\n                        VOICES.\n    Onward! onward!\n    With the night wind,\n    Over field and farm and forest,\n    Lonely homestead, darksome hamlet,\n    Blighting all we breathe upon!\"\n\n\nTHE SONG OF HIAWATHA.\n\n    \"Should you ask me whence these stories?\n    Whence these legends and traditions,\n    With the odours of the forest,\n    With the dew and damp of meadows,\n    With the curling smoke of wigwams,\n    With the rushing of great rivers,\n    With their frequent repetitions,\n    And their wild reverberations,\n    As of thunder in the mountains?\n      I should answer, I should tell you:\n    'From the forests and the prairies,\n    From the great lakes of the Northland,\n    From the land of the Ojibways,\n    From the land of the Dacotahs,\n    From the mountains, moors, and fenlands,\n    Where the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah,\n    Feeds among the reeds and rushes.\n    I repeat them as I heard them\n    From the lips of Nawadaha,\n    The musician, the sweet singer.'\n\n               *   *   *   *   *\n\n    Can it be the sun descending\n    O'er the level plain of water?\n    Or the red swan floating, flying,\n    Wounded by the magic arrow,\n    Staining all the waves with crimson,\n    With the crimson of its life-blood,\n    Filling all the air with splendour,\n    With the splendour of its plumage?\n      Yes, it is the sun descending,\n    Sinking down into the water;\n    All the sky is stained with purple,\n    All the water flushed with crimson!\n    No; it is the red swan floating,\n    Diving down beneath the water;\n    To the sky its wings are lifted,\n    With its blood the waves are reddened\n      Over it the star of evening\n    Melts and trembles through the purple\n    Hangs suspended in the twilight.\n    No; it is a bead of wampum\n    On the robes of the Great Spirit,\n    As he passes through the twilight,\n    Walks in silence through the heavens!\n      This with joy beheld Iagoo,\n    And he said in haste, 'Behold it!\n    See the sacred star of evening!\n    You shall hear a tale of wonder;\n    Hear the story of Osseo,\n    Son of the evening star Osseo.\n      'Once, in days no more remembered,\n    Ages nearer the beginning,\n    When the heavens were closer to us,\n    And the gods were more familiar,\n    In the Northland lived a hunter,\n    With ten young and comely daughters,\n    Tall and lithe as wands of willow;\n    Only Oweenee, the youngest,\n    She the wilful and the wayward,\n    She the silent, dreamy maiden,\n    Was the fairest of the sisters.\n      'All these women married warriors,\n    Married brave and haughty husbands;\n    Only Oweenee, the youngest,\n    Laughed and flouted all her lovers,\n    All her young and handsome suitors,\n    And then married old Osseo,\n    Old Osseo, poor and ugly,\n    Broken with age and weak with coughing,\n    Always coughing like a squirrel.\n      'Ah, but beautiful within him\n    Was the spirit of Osseo,\n    From the evening star descended,\n    Star of evening, star of woman,\n    Star of tenderness and passion!\n    All its fire was in his bosom,\n    All its beauty in his spirit,\n    All its mystery in his being,\n    All its splendour in his language!\n      'And her lovers, the rejected,\n    Handsome men with belts of wampum,\n    Handsome men with paint and feathers,\n    Pointed at her in derision,\n    Followed her with jest and laughter,\n    But she said, \"I care not for you,\n    Care not for your belts of wampum,\n    Care not for your paint and feathers,\n    Care not for your jests and laughter:\n    I am happy with Osseo!\"\n      'Once to some great feast invited,\n    Through the damp and dusk of evening\n    Walked together the ten sisters,\n    Walked together with their husbands;\n    Slowly followed old Osseo,\n    With fair Oweenee beside him;\n    All the others chatted gaily,\n    These two only walked in silence.\n      'At the western sky Osseo\n    Gazed intent, as if imploring,\n    Often stopped and gazed imploring\n    At the trembling star of evening,\n    At the tender star of woman;\n    And they heard him murmur softly,\n    \"_Ah, showain nemeshin, Nosa!_\n    Pray, pity me, my father!\"\n      '\"Listen!\" said the elder sister,\n    \"He is praying to his father!\n    What a pity that the old man\n    Does not stumble in the pathway,\n    Does not break his neck by falling!\"\n    And they laughed till all the forest\n    Rang with their unseemly laughter.\n      'On their pathway through the woodlands\n    Lay an oak by storms uprooted,\n    Lay the great trunk of an oak-tree\n    Buried half in leaves and mosses,\n    Mouldering, crumbling, huge and hollow.\n    And Osseo, when he saw it,\n    Gave a shout, a cry of anguish,\n    Leaped into its yawning cavern,\n    At one end went in an old man,\n    Wasted, wrinkled, old, and ugly;\n    From the other came a young man,\n    Tall and straight and strong and handsome.\n      'Thus Osseo was transfigured,\n    Thus restored to youth and beauty;\n    But, alas for good Osseo,\n    And for Oweenee, the faithful!\n    Strangely, too, was she transfigured.\n    Changed into a weak old woman,\n    With a staff she tottered onward,\n    Wasted, wrinkled, old, and ugly!\n    And the sisters and their husbands\n    Laughed until the echoing forest\n    Rang with their unseemly laughter.\n      'But Osseo turned not from her,\n    Walked with slower step beside her,\n    Took her hand, as brown and withered\n    As an oak-leaf is in winter,\n    Called her sweetheart, Nenemoosha,\n    Soothed her with soft words of kindness,\n    Till they reached the lodge of feasting,\n    Till they sat down in the wigwam,\n    Sacred to the star of evening,\n    To the tender star of woman.\n      'Wrapt in visions, lost in dreaming,\n    At the banquet sat Osseo;\n    All were merry, all were happy,\n    All were joyous but Osseo.\n    Neither food nor drink he tasted,\n    Neither did he speak nor listen,\n    But as one bewildered sat he,\n    Looking dreamily and sadly,\n    First at Oweenee, then upward\n    At the gleaming sky above them.\n      'Then a voice was heard, a whisper,\n    Coming from the starry distance,\n    Coming from the empty vastness,\n    Low and musical and tender;\n    And the voice said, \"O Osseo!\n    O my son, my best beloved!\n    Broken are the spells that bound you,\n    All the charms of the magicians,\n    All the magic powers of evil;\n    Come to me; ascend, Osseo!\n      '\"Taste the food that stands before you;\n    It is blessed and enchanted,\n    It has magic virtues in it,\n    It will change you to a spirit.\n    All your bowls and all your kettles\n    Shall be wood and clay no longer;\n    But the bowls be changed to wampum,\n    And the kettles shall be silver;\n    They shall shine like shells of scarlet,\n    Like the fire shall gleam and glimmer.\n      '\"And the women shall no longer\n    Bear the dreary doom of labour,\n    But be changed to birds, and glisten\n    With the beauty of the starlight,\n    Painted with the dusky splendours\n    Of the skies and clouds of evening!\"\n      'What Osseo heard as whispers,\n    What as words he comprehended,\n    Was but music to the others,\n    Music as of birds afar off,\n    Of the whippoorwill afar off,\n    Of the lonely Wawonaissa\n    Singing in the darksome forest.\n      'Then the lodge began to tremble,\n    Straight began to shake and tremble,\n    And they felt it rising, rising,\n    Slowly through the air ascending,\n    From the darkness of the tree-tops\n    Forth into the dewy starlight,\n    Till it passed the topmost branches;\n    And behold! the wooden dishes\n    All were changed to shells of scarlet!\n    And behold! the earthen kettles\n    All were changed to bowls of silver!\n    And the roof-poles of the wigwam\n    Were as glittering rods of silver,\n    And the roof of bark upon them\n    As the shining shards of beetles.\n      'Then Osseo gazed around him,\n    And he saw the nine fair sisters,\n    All the sisters and their husbands,\n    Changed to birds of various plumage.\n    Some were jays, and some were magpies,\n    Others thrushes, others blackbirds;\n    And they hopped and sang and twittered,\n    Perked and fluttered all their feathers,\n    Strutted in their various plumage,\n    And their tails like fans unfolded.\n      'Only Oweenee, the youngest,\n    Was not changed, but sat in silence,\n    Wasted, wrinkled, old, and ugly,\n    Looking sadly at the others;\n    Till Osseo, gazing upward,\n    Gave another cry of anguish,\n    Such a cry as he had uttered\n    By the oak-tree in the forest.\n      'Then returned her youth and beauty,\n    And her soiled and tattered garments\n    Were transformed to robes of ermine,\n    And her staff became a feather,\n    Yes, a shining silver feather!\n      'And again the wigwam trembled,\n    Swayed and rushed through airy currents,\n    Through transparent cloud and vapour,\n    And amid celestial splendours\n    On the evening star alighted,\n    As a snow-flake falls on snow-flake,\n    As a leaf drops on a river,\n    As the thistle-down on water.\n      'Forth with cheerful words of welcome\n    Came the father of Osseo,\n    He with radiant locks of silver,\n    He with eyes serene and tender.\n    And he said, \"My son, Osseo,\n    Hang the cage of birds you bring there,\n    Hang the cage with rods of silver,\n    And the birds with glistening feathers,\n    At the doorway of my wigwam.\"\n      'At the door he hung the bird-cage,\n    And they entered in and gladly\n    Listened to Osseo's father,\n    Ruler of the star of evening,\n    As he said, \"O my Osseo!\n    I have had compassion on you,\n    Given you back your youth and beauty,\n    Into birds of various plumage\n    Changed your sisters and their husbands;\n    Changed them thus because they mocked you\n    In the figure of the old man,\n    In that aspect sad and wrinkled,\n    Could not see your heart of passion,\n    Could not see your youth immortal;\n    Only Oweenee, the faithful,\n    Saw your naked heart and loved you.\n      '\"In the lodge that glimmers yonder,\n    In the little star that twinkles\n    Through the vapours, on the left hand,\n    Lives the envious Evil Spirit,\n    The Wabeno, the magician,\n    Who transformed you to an old man.\n    Take heed lest his beams fall on you,\n    For the rays he darts around him\n    Are the power of his enchantment,\n    Are the arrows that he uses.\"\n\n      'Many years, in peace and quiet\n    On the peaceful star of evening\n    Dwelt Osseo with his father;\n    Many years in song and flutter,\n    At the doorway of the wigwam,\n    Hung the cage with rods of silver,\n    And fair Oweenee, the faithful,\n    Bore a son unto Osseo,\n    With the beauty of his mother,\n    With the courage of his father.\n      'And the boy grew up and prospered,\n    And Osseo, to delight him,\n    Made him little bows and arrows,\n    Opened the great cage of silver,\n    And let loose his aunts and uncles,\n    All those birds with glossy feathers,\n    For his little son to shoot at.\n      'Round and round they wheeled and darted,\n    Filled the evening star with music,\n    With their songs of joy and freedom;\n    Filled the evening star with splendour,\n    With the fluttering of their plumage;\n    Till the boy, the little hunter,\n    Bent his bow and shot an arrow,\n    Shot a swift and fatal arrow,\n    And a bird, with shining feathers,\n    At his feet fell wounded sorely.\n      'But, O wondrous transformation!\n    'Twas no bird he saw before him,\n    'Twas a beautiful young woman,\n    With the arrow in her bosom!\n      'When her blood fell on the planet,\n    On the sacred star of evening,\n    Broken was the spell of magic,\n    Powerless was the strange enchantment,\n    And the youth, the fearless bowman,\n    Suddenly felt himself descending,\n    Held by unseen hands, but sinking\n    Downward through the empty spaces,\n    Downward through the clouds and vapours,\n    Till he rested on an island,\n    On an island, green and grassy,\n    Yonder in the big sea-water.\n      'After him he saw descending\n    All the birds with shining feathers,\n    Fluttering, falling, wafted downward,\n    Like the painted leaves of autumn;\n    And the lodge with poles of silver,\n    With its roof like wings of beetles,\n    Like the shining shards of beetles,\n    By the winds of heaven uplifted,\n    Slowly sank upon the island,\n    Bringing back the good Osseo,\n    Bringing Oweenee, the faithful.\n      'Then the birds, again transfigured,\n    Resumed the shape of mortals,\n    Took their shape, but not their stature;\n    They remained as little people,\n    Like the pigmies, the Puk-Wudjies;\n    And on pleasant nights of summer,\n    When the evening star was shining,\n    Hand in hand they danced together\n    On the island's craggy headlands,\n    On the sand-beach low and level.\n      'Still their glittering lodge is seen there,\n    On the tranquil summer evenings,\n    And upon the shore the fisher\n    Sometimes hears their happy voices,\n    Sees them dancing in the starlight!'\"\n\n\n\n\nMONARCHS, PRIESTS, PHILOSOPHERS, AND SUPERSTITION.\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIII.\n\n      Generality of Superstition--Commencement of Monarchy\n      in Scotland--King Fergus I. crowned on the Fatal Stone\n      of Destiny--Signs, Assistance of Spirits, Magicians,\n      and Fortune-tellers--Natholocus sends a Friend to\n      consult a Cunning Woman--Her Prediction\n      verified--Constantine and Maxentius--A Heavenly\n      Cross--A Famous Standard--Queen Guanora's Grave--Fear\n      of St. Martin--The Church's Belief in the Intercession\n      of Departed Saints--Relics venerated--King bewitched\n      by Witches of Forres--Evil Signs during Elthus\n      Alipes's Reign--Sea Monster in the Don--Kenneth III.\n      killed by an Infernal Machine--Virtue of Precious\n      Stones--Weird Sisters--Consulting a\n      Pythoness--Predictions by Druids--Domitian's Death\n      foretold by Astrologers--Simon Magus--A Platonic\n      Philosopher charged with Sorcery--The Emperor Julian\n      instructed in Magic.\n\n\nIn speaking of superstition, it may be truly said, \"As with the\npeople, so with the priest; as with the subjects, so with the\nmonarch.\" In the humble cot the peasant is deluded and overawed by\nsuperstition; in the church the priest lays claim to supernatural\npower; and crowned heads have played a not unimportant part among the\nbelievers in and performers of the occult science, which has so long\nheld the souls of men in bondage. We have it on record that a monarch\nhas been made to tremble by the sayings of an old woman, supposed to\nbe in league with the prince of darkness. A king and his army have\nbeen kept from battle by the movements of a harmless quadruped, or by\nthe flight of a bird, unaware that before sunset it would be the\neagle's portion. Other sovereigns have supported their tyranny over a\ndown-trodden people by an arrogant pretension to an authority derived\nin a mysterious manner from another world.\n\nAncient historians date the commencement of monarchy in Scotland from\nFergus I., who was crowned according to the superstitious custom of\nthe age in which he reigned. He was seated on the fatal stone of\ndestiny, to be afterwards described. Both before and after the\nintroduction of Christianity into Scotland, not a freebooting\nexcursion was undertaken before seeking a sign; not a friend was to be\ngained without asking the assistance of a generous spirit or fairy;\nand not an enemy to be overcome till the magicians and fortune-tellers\nsecured the aid of unearthly creatures, either good or bad. When\nNatholocus's cruelty and oppression excited an insurrection, he had\nrecourse to cunning people, supposed to be in league with Satan. He\nsent one of his particular friends to a distant island to an old\nwoman, said to be skilled in necromancy, to inquire whether any of his\ncourtiers were seeking his destruction. The sorceress, having\nconsulted her familiar spirits, answered that Natholocus would die a\nviolent death by the hand of one of his most intimate friends. On\nbeing pressed to disclose by whose hand the blow would be struck, she\nreplied, \"By thine own.\" The messenger reproached the woman, and told\nher that he entertained the greatest friendship for his master. He was\nafraid to tell Natholocus what the fortune-teller had said, and\ntherefore entertained him with such false predictions as he knew would\ninspire confidence. For what reason we are not informed, but this is\ncertain that the servant's friendship turned into hatred, and before\nlong he verified the witch's prophecy.\n\nConstantine, the son of Constantius Chlorus, being proclaimed his\nfather's successor, caused Maxentius to declare war against\nConstantine. The latter, although a heathen, implored the true Deity\nto assist him. His prayers were heard. As he was marching with his\narmy, about mid-day, he, and all who were with him, beheld in the\nheavens a bright cross of light, with an inscription over it, \"By\nthis, conquer.\" Constantine was greatly surprised at the vision, and\nthe troops were equally astonished. On the following night a holy\nbeing appeared to him, and ordered him to make a representation of\nwhat he had seen in the sky, and use it for an ensign in battle. Next\nmorning he called workers of fine material, and instructed them to\nmake a standard according to tracings he prepared. It was made,\nadorned with gold and sparkling precious stones; and we scarcely\nrequire to say that Constantine was victorious when he fought under\nsuch a famous standard.\n\nQueen Guanora, widow of Arthur, was, after the king's fall, about the\nmiddle of the sixth century, taken prisoner, and kept as such during\nthe remainder of her life at Dunbar. She was buried at Meigle; and, if\ntradition can be trusted, every female walking over her grave is\ndoomed to perpetual sterility. Speaking of the grave reminds us of a\nson of Clotaire, who was desirous of executing vengeance against his\nenemy Bason. He was prevented from doing so by the latter fleeing to\nSt. Martin's Church for sanctuary. The prince, fearing that an invasion\nof the church would displease the saint, wrote a letter, and placed it\non the glorified individual's tomb, requesting to be informed if he\nwould be guilty of an outrage against religion were he to drag Bason\nfrom the church. For reasons best known to the saint, he did not\nreturn an answer. This mode of obtaining information may now be\nconsidered ridiculous; but it was not considered so, even in the\nChurch, in the eighth century. After due inquiry and consideration,\nthe second Council of Nice, in the year 787, declared that the Church\nhad always believed it lawful and useful to invoke the intercession\nof departed saints, and to venerate their relics.\n\nDuff, the son of Malcolm, having established Culen, son of Indulph,\nPrince of Cumberland, set out for the Hebrides, where great predatory\ndisorders prevailed. He summoned the thanes of the isles to appear\nbefore him, and swore that if any of them should oppress the poorer\ninhabitants, he would visit the actors with condign punishment. His\nthreats not being enough to deter the depredators, active measures\nwere taken to punish the offenders. Meantime the king fell into a\nlanguid sickness, which baffled the skill of his physicians. A rumour\nwas circulated that he was suffering under the incantations of certain\nfar-famed witches at Forres. The report reaching the king's ears, he\ncaused certain confidential servants to investigate the case secretly.\nDonevald, master of the fort at Forres, having learned that the _bonne\namie_ of a soldier there was the daughter of a witch, apprehended the\ndamsel, and learned from her the whole secret concerning a diabolical\nplot to torture his Majesty. Means were taken to secure the wretches\nconcerned when engaged in their devilish art. So carefully were the\nfaithful servants' plans laid, that they could tell what part each\ntraitorous one performed. While one of them turned, upon a wooden spit\nbefore the fire, a wax image of the king, fashioned as was supposed by\nSatan, another of them sang her charms, and poured a liquid slowly\nupon the image. According to the interpretation of these wicked women,\nthe vocal charm kept his Majesty awake; that while the effigy was\nexposed to the fire and moistened with the liquor, he would sweat and\nconsume away; and that when the image dissolved away, the king would\ncease to exist. The women declared they had been hired by the nobles\nof Murray--who were highly displeased at their king for oppressing\nthem and compelling them to betake themselves to labour unsuitable to\ntheir rank--to perform the cruel acts. The implements of enchantment\nwere destroyed, the witches burned, and the king recovered. This was\nbut a mere respite to his Majesty: the friends upon whom he relied\nturned their hands against him, and before long his mangled body lay\nburied in the bed of the river Findhorn.\n\nElthus Alipes, or Swiftfoot, being a worthless prince, was confined in\nprison to the day of his death. Historians record many evil signs seen\nduring his short reign--two years. An ominous comet, and shoals of\nmonstrous fishes resembling human beings, swimming with half their\nbodies above the water, and having black skin covering their heads and\nnecks, were among the portentous appearances. Spalding, in his history\nof the troubles of Scotland in his own time, describes a sea monster\nseen in the river Don in the month of June 1635. It had, says the\nhistorian, a head like a great mastiff dog, hands, arms, and breast\nlike a man, short legs and a tail. Spalding concluded that the\nappearance of such a monster did not come as a sign of good to\nAberdeen.\n\nKenneth III. became a victim to revenge, an inordinate taste for\nmagnificence, and superstition. Kenneth, it appears, for reasons well\npleasing to the Church, visited the shrine of St. Palladius at Fordun;\nand on returning home he fell into a snare laid for him. Around the\ncastle of Fettercairn were grounds well stocked with beasts of chase,\nand there the king intended to indulge in the manly exercise of\nhunting. The owner of that place, Lady Fenella, a relative of\nConstantine and Grime, having a long deep-rooted hatred against\nKenneth, conceived the design of bringing him to an untimely end. With\nthis object in view, she built a grand tower, containing an infernal\nmachine for throwing javelins or sharp-pointed lances at any one who\nshould handle a golden apple, set with precious stones, held in the\nhand of a bronze statue of Kenneth that stood in the centre of a room.\nShe invited him to become her guest--an invitation he accepted. After\ndinner, the perfidious woman conducted him into the tower, professedly\nto see and admire the exquisite furnishings with which it was\ndecorated. In his fondness for grandeur, he lingered to admire the\nelegant figures and flowers; the rich tapestry, interwoven with gold;\nand the statue with its golden apple. Just at the moment the king's\neyes rested on the statue, Fenella stepped forward and said, \"Sire,\nthis is a statue of your Majesty; I have given it the most adorned\nplace in my castle, that all may perceive in what veneration I hold\nyou. The apple you behold is intended as a present to you, beloved\nmonarch--unworthy indeed of your acceptance, yet an expression of the\ngood-will of the donor. The inserted gems are an emerald, a hyacinth,\na sapphire, a topaz, a ruby, an azure, emitting an antidote against\npestilence and deadly poison.\" Having thus excited the king's\ncuriosity, she abruptly left the apartment, seemingly with the\nintention of bringing some other strange article for his inspection.\nMeantime Kenneth, left alone and charmed with the apple, commenced\nhandling it. In an instant the secret machinery, being set in motion,\ndischarged a shower of deadly darts against the king, who fell\nmortally wounded on the floor. The traitorous Fenella, rejoicing at\nher bloody cruelty, mounted a swift steed and fled far away before her\nact of treachery became known. Had she remained in Scotland, a cruel\ndeath would have been her doom, but she escaped to Ireland, and was\nlost sight of.\n\nFenella is reported as pointing out to the king pretended special\nvirtues, to be found in the gems that ornamented the golden apple. And\nno doubt the credulous monarch believed what she said, because we have\nit on record, that not only in the tenth century, but long before and\nafter it, both pagans and professing Christians believed that precious\nstones possessed greater virtues than even that which she ascribed to\nthe settings of her golden apple.\n\nThe story of Macbeth and the three witches, noticed in chapter XVII.,\ndoes not require to be repeated. Greater men than Macbeth were wont to\nconsult fortune-tellers. A Druid told Alexander Severus that he would\nbe unhappy. Vopiscus relates that the prince, having consulted the\nGaulish Druids whether the empire should remain in his family,\nreceived the answer, that no name would be more glorious in the empire\nthan that of the descendants of Claudius.\n\nTitus Flavius Domitian, who commanded himself to be called by the\nnames by which the Most High is known, and who passed the greatest\npart of his time in catching flies and killing them with a bodkin,\nbecame suspicious of his best friends, and his fears were increased by\nthe predictions of astrologers. He was so frightened, that, to prevent\nsudden surprise, he caused a wall of shining stones to be built round\nthe terrace where he usually walked, that he might perceive, as in a\nlooking-glass, whether any one was approaching him. His precautions\nwere unavailing: he perished by the hand of an assassin, as was\nforetold.\n\nIt is reported that St. John was thrown into a cauldron of boiling\noil, by order of the Emperor Domitian, but that he came out unhurt. He\nwas then at Rome, and from thence he was banished to the Isle of\nPatmos.\n\nLucius Apuleius, a Platonic philosopher of the second century, having\nmarried a lady of fortune against the wish of her relatives, they\npretended that he had made use of sorcery to gain her heart and money.\nHe was dragged before Claudius Maximus, on the charge of being a\nmagician. In his defence he said, \"Do you wonder that a woman should\nmarry again after living thirteen years a widow? It is much more\nwonderful that she did not marry sooner. You think that magic must\nhave been employed to induce a widow of her age to marry a young man;\non the contrary, this very circumstance shows how little occasion\nthere was for magic.\" He continued: \"She was neither handsome nor\nyoung, nor such as could in any way tempt him to have recourse to\nenchantments.\" He also took notice of many inconveniences which\nattended the marrying of widows, and spoke highly of the advantages of\na maid over a widow. \"A handsome virgin,\" said he, \"let her be ever so\npoor, is abundantly portioned; she brings to her husband a heart quite\nnew, together with the flowers and first fruits of her beauty. It was\nwith great reason,\" he argued, \"that husbands set so great value upon\nvirginity; all the other goods which a woman brought her husband were\nof such a nature that he might return them if he had a mind, but the\nflowers of virginity could not be given back; they remained in the\npossession of the first husband.\" Through his eloquence he escaped\npunishment, and the odium of being branded a sorcerer.\n\nMaximus, the celebrated cynic philosopher and magician of Ephesus,\ninstructed the Emperor Julian in magic. Certain historians say it was\nthrough his teaching that the apostacy of Julian originated. When the\nemperor went in search of conquests, the magician promised him\nsuccess, and even predicted that his triumphs would be more numerous\nand brilliant than those of Alexander. After the death of Julian,\nMaximus was nearly sacrificed by the soldiers, but his friends\nsucceeded in saving his life. He retired to Constantinople.\nSubsequently he was accused of magical practices before the Emperor,\nand beheaded at Ephesus in the year 366.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIV.\n\n      Louis XI. and the Astrologer--A King's Enchanted\n      Cap--David I. and the Mysterious Stag--Merlin the\n      Magician--Prophecies concerning Queen Elizabeth and\n      Mary--Merlin's Mother--His mysterious Birth--Dragon\n      Caverns--Predictions of Evil--Strange Sights and\n      Sounds in the Air--Changing a King's Love--The Holy\n      Maid of Kent--Nobles put to Death for keeping company\n      with Sorcerers--James I. of England and the\n      Witches--His Queen in Danger--Marriage of the King and\n      Queen--Tranent Witches and Warlocks--Wise Wife of\n      Keith--Engagements to serve the Devil--Satan's Respect\n      of Persons--Two Hundred Witches sailing in\n      Sieves--Mischief at Sea--Raising Storms at Sea--Witch\n      and Warlock Convention at Newhaven--Meeting of Witches\n      at North Berwick--Dead Men's Joints used for Magical\n      Purposes--Witches tortured in Holyrood--The Devil's\n      Mark--Strange Confessions--Bothwell's Fortune\n      told--Witches and their Associates burned.\n\n\nAn astrologer told Louis XI. that a lady to whom he was fondly\nattached would die in a few days, and the prediction was fulfilled.\nThe king caused the astrologer to be brought before him in an upper\nchamber, and commanded the royal servants to throw the prophet out of\nthe window on a certain signal being given. As soon as the astrologer\nwas dragged before the king, the latter said, \"You who pretend to be a\nforeteller of events, and know so exactly the fate of others, tell me\ninstantly when and in what way your end will come.\" \"Sire,\" replied\nthe astrologer, knowing he had much to fear, but without displaying\nalarm, \"I shall die just three days before your Majesty.\" On hearing\nthis the king's countenance changed from rage to concern, if not\nalarm; and instead of giving the signal of death, he dismissed the\nastrologer in peace, heaped honours on him, and took special care to\nprolong his life.\n\nKing Erricus of Sweden publicly confessed that he was a magician. He\nhad an enchanted cap, which he pretended enabled him to control\nspirits, and to turn the wind into any direction he pleased. So firmly\ndid his subjects believe in his supernatural powers, that when a storm\narose they would exclaim, \"Ah! the king has got on his magic cap.\"\n\nDavid I. founded the abbey of Holyrood. By tradition we are informed\nthat, in the year 1128, he, while out hunting in the royal forest near\nEdwinsburg, was miraculously delivered from a stag at bay by the\ninterposition of an arm, wreathed in smoke, brandishing a cross of the\nmost dazzling brilliancy. At the sight of it the stag fled. The cross\nremained as a celestial relic in the royal hand. In consideration of\nthis deliverance, strengthened by a vision, the foundations of\nHolyrood were laid. The same tradition further tells us that the\nmiraculous cross was enshrined in silver, and placed on the high\naltar, where it remained until the fatal battle of Durham, when David\nII. was captured with his cross and crown.\n\nMerlin was a noted magician and astrologer, who prophesied many things\nthat came to pass in England hundreds of years after his death.\nProphesying of the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and Mary, he says:\n\n    \"Then shall the masculine sceptre cease to sway,\n    And to a spinster the whole land obey;\n    Who to the Papal monarchy shall restore\n    All that the Ph[oe]nix had fetched thrice before.\n    Then shall come in the faggot and the stake,\n    And they of convert bodies bonfires make;\n    Match shall this lioness with C\u00e6sar's son,\n    From the Pontific sea a pool shall run,\n    That wide shall spread its waters, and to a flood\n    In time shall grow, made red with martyrs' blood.\n    Men shall her short unprosp'rous reign deplore,\n    By loss at sea, and damage to the shore;\n    Whose heart being dissected, you in it\n    May in large characters find Calice writ.\"\n\nThose acquainted with the history of Queen Mary's time, can have no\ndifficulty in discovering the circumstances to which the several\nprophetic sayings refer; nor can they fail to be satisfied that the\nfollowing lines apply to Queen Elizabeth, and the state of England at\nthe time she swayed the sceptre:\n\n    \"From th' other ashes shall a Ph[oe]nix rise,\n    Whose birth is thus predicted by the wise;\n    Her chief predominant star is Mercury,\n    Jove shall with Venus in conjunction be.\n    And Sol, with them, shine in his best aspect;\n    With Ariadne's crown, Astrea deckt,\n    Shall then descend upon this terrene stage:\n    (Not seen before since the first golden age).\n    Against whom all the Latian bulls shall roar,\n    But at Jove's awful summons shall give o'er.\n    Through many forges shall this metal glide,\n    Like gold by fire re-pured, and seven times try'd,\n    Her bright and glorious sunbeams shall expel\n    The vain clouds of the candle, book, and bell.\n    Domestic plots, and stratagems abroad,\n    French machines, and the Italianated god,\n    The Spanish engine, Portuguized Jew,\n    The Jesuitic mine, and politic crew\n    Of home-bred vipers: let their menaces come\n    By private pistol, or by hostile drum;\n    Though all these dogs chase her with open cry,\n    Live shall she, lov'd and fear'd, then sainted die.\"\n\nMerlin's early history was as strange as his prophecies were singular.\nFor reasons best known to herself, his mother refused to reveal his\nfather's name. She was daughter of King Demetrius, who reigned about\ntwo hundred years after Christianity was introduced into England. King\nVortigern was obliged to fly into Wales from the fury of Hengist, and,\nfearing that he would be pursued thither, commenced building a\nstronghold on the Welsh soil. Though the ground appeared to be firm,\nit turned out that every stone laid sank suddenly into the ground.\nWith the intention of discovering the cause of this mystery, the king\nsent for his wizards and bards. After consultation, the wise men\ninformed him that his castle could never be built until the stones\nwere cemented with the blood of a male child begotten without a\nfather. The king, believing what he was told, sent his servants to\nsearch for such a child. On their way the messengers arrived at\nMarlborough, where they observed two boys fighting. One of these was\nyoung Merlin, whom they heard taunted by his youthful antagonist of\nbeing an imp that never had a father. This was enough: Merlin and his\nmother were seized and carried before the king.\n\nIn answer to the king's inquiries, the mother, not knowing the danger\nto which she was exposing little Merlin, told him that her boy never\nhad a father. Her tale was believed; but Vortigern had compassion on\nthe youth, who was fair and comely, and not only spared his life, but\ntook him into his house. When Merlin learned all the particulars\nregarding the mysterious disappearance of the foundation stones, and\nthe charm proposed by the wizards and bards, he told the king that his\nwise men were alike destitute of learning and natural penetration.\n\"Know,\" said he, \"that under the ground where your Majesty intends to\nbuild your castle is a deep lake, which has swallowed up all your\nbuilding materials, and that under the water there are two stone\ncaverns which contain two dragons. Dig deep into the earth, and you\nwill discover that what I have said is true,\" concluded Merlin. The\nking commanded that a search, such as the youth had recommended,\nshould be commenced under his (Merlin's) directions. Means were taken\nto drain the lake, which was discovered without difficulty, and, true\nenough, two horrible dragons were found. On the caverns being opened,\nthe monsters, one red and the other white, rushed at each other. A\nterrible conflict took place between them, ending in the red dragon's\ndeath.\n\nMerlin, in reply to the king's inquiries as to what all this\nportended, informed his Majesty that evil days were drawing near--that\nthe time was not far distant when the Britons would be compelled to\nfly before the Saxons, and seek refuge among the caves and mountains\nof the earth, and that many of them would perish, for the red dragon\nsignified the Britons, and the white monster the Saxons. But he\nassured the king that the Saxons would not always triumph, as a boar\nwould come from the forest and devour the white dragon. Merlin\npredicted for Vortigern disappointments, defeats, and at last a\nmiserable death, all of which came to pass.\n\nIt is reported of Merlin, that after King Vortigern was driven from\npower, he sought to amuse him in his solitude by bringing strange\nsights before his eyes, and causing pleasant sounds to salute his\nears. The king supposed he heard melodious music in the air, and\nimagined that shepherds and shepherdesses, in rustic costume, danced\nbefore him. At times eagles and falcons were seen pursuing their prey;\nand whatever bird the king wished for his dinner, fell down dead, as\nif shot by a fowler. Hares and hounds were also made to appear in the\nclouds, for the king's amusement. On his castle-tower he could stand\nand watch a stag hunt with all the vividness of an ordinary chase.\nMerlin professed to have the power of transforming a man into a beast,\nand of making a man or woman look like a wild animal.\n\nIn the year 1474 the Duchess of Bedford was charged with having, by\nthe aid of an image of lead made like a maid, turned the love of King\nEdward IV. from Dame Elianor Butteler, daughter of the Earl of\nShrewsbury, to whom he was affianced, and transferred the royal\naffections to her own daughter.\n\nThe Holy Maid of Kent, a nun of great sanctity, having, according to\ncommon belief in the time of Henry VIII., the gift of prophecy, and\nthe power of working miracles, pronounced the doom of speedy death\nagainst that monarch for his marriage with Anne Boleyn. She was\nattainted in Parliament, and, along with several accomplices,\nexecuted. So extraordinary were her miracles, and her predictions so\nstriking, that even Sir Thomas More believed in her.\n\nIn the year 1521 the Duke of Buckingham was put to death in\nconsequence of certain actions he was guilty of in conjunction with a\nmagician; and in 1541 Lord Hungerford was beheaded for inquiring at\nfortune-tellers how long Henry VIII. would be king. In 1562 the Earl\nand Countess of Lennox were found guilty of treason, and of holding\nintercourse with sorcerers.\n\nThe story of King James VI. of Scotland and I. of England, and the\nwitches who attempted to drown him and his queen at sea, enables us to\njudge of the credulity of the age in which this Solomon lived. The\nking having resolved to marry, sought the hand of Princess Anne of\nDenmark. In the month of July 1589 the Earl Marischal was despatched\nto Copenhagen with a suitable retinue to conclude the match. He found\nthe Court of Denmark ready to listen to his proposals, and the lady so\nwilling to comply, that little time was lost in arranging the match.\nHasty preparations were made, and the marriage was solemnised by\nproxy. A fleet of twelve sail was fitted out to convey the young queen\nto Scotland. Through unforeseen circumstances, the queen's departure\nwas long after the time originally intended. At last the fleet sailed;\nand it encountered such a fearful storm, that the ships were driven\nback to the coast of Norway. Owing to the lateness of the season, and\nthe disabled state of the vessels, it was resolved that the queen\nshould not again expose herself to the dangers of an angry sea that\nseason.\n\nWhen news reached the king of his queen's unfortunate misadventure, he\nresolved to proceed on a voyage of discovery in search of her. On the\n22nd of October he embarked at Leith, taking with him his chancellor,\nchaplain, and a few courtiers. After a stormy passage of five days the\nking landed at Upsal, where the queen was waiting. On the 23rd of\nNovember the king and princess were married in a more solemn manner\nthan they had been some time previously by proxy, and they went to\nCopenhagen to spend the winter. In Denmark the king spoke learnedly to\nthe great men of the state, whom he convinced of his superior\nknowledge: he disputed on predestination and other favourite topics.\nAfter six months delay, he departed for his kingdom, and on May-day\n1590, he, his youthful bride, and splendid train arrived in Leith.\n\nThe coronation ceremony, performed with great solemnity, was gone\nthrough on the 17th of May at Holyrood House. After three sermons, the\nqueen's shoulders and part of her breast were uncovered, and the holy\noil poured thereon, subsequent to which the crown was put on her head.\nOn the Tuesday following the queen made her public entrance into\nEdinburgh, where she was received with extraordinary marks of\nrejoicing. At the city gate a municipal orator greeted her Majesty\nwith an address in Latin, and then from a gilded globe, resting over\nthe gate, a little fellow, representing an angel, descended and\ndelivered to the queen the keys of the city.\n\nJames was convinced that the storms which kept him and his queen so\nlong from meeting were the results of diabolical agencies. After his\nreturn to Scotland, suspicion fell on a dangerous gang of witches and\nwarlocks at Tranent, and the king resolved to inquire into the whole\ncase, with the laudable design of getting rid of such wicked subjects\nshould he find them guilty. A man named David Seytoun, who held the\nappointment of deputy bailiff of Tranent, had a young female servant\nnamed Geillis Duncan, celebrated among the town's people for her skill\nin curing diseases. Seytoun, becoming suspicious that she was in\nleague with Satan, questioned her closely without receiving\nsatisfactory answers. Not to be defeated, he first put her to the\ntorture, which he thought he had a right to do in virtue of his\noffice, and then searched her person for devil's marks. One of those\nsure tokens of witchcraft being found on her throat, she was committed\nto prison. There she made a full confession, in which many persons\nwere implicated. She admitted that the cures effected by her were\nbrought about by means of witchcraft.\n\nOf those said to have been associated with this woman in her guilty\ndeeds, the most noted were Dr. John Fian, sometimes called John\nCunningham, and three women, named Agnes Sampsoun, Euphame\nMackalzeane, and Barbara Napier. Fian was a schoolmaster at Tranent, a\nsmall town on the south side of the Firth of Forth, and about nine\nmiles east of Edinburgh. He admitted that he was an agent of the evil\none. One night, he said, the devil appeared to him, and induced him to\nbecome his servant, under the promise that he would never want if he\nserved him faithfully and well. The offer being tempting, the\nunscrupulous doctor became an instrument of evil. That there might be\nno mistake about the bargain, the devil put his mark on Fian's person.\nFrom that time the doctor was a sorcerer: he was often carried away in\nthe night to visit distant places of the world, and was present at,\nand took part in, all the nightly meetings of witches held in the\nLothians. He rose so high in the devil's favour, that he was appointed\nregistrar and secretary of the conventions. One night Fian was carried\nthrough the air to North Berwick, where he found a number of witches\nand sorcerers assembled listening to Satan preaching to them from a\npulpit. He implored them to give up all slavish fears of him; promised\nthem great rewards so long as they were his servants, and assured\nthem, that so long as they had hairs on their bodies they would\nreceive no injury. He exhorted them to do all the evil they could,\nand to eat and drink and be merry. One night when Fian was riding home\nalong a dreary road, in danger of losing his way, Satan came to his\nassistance, and put four candles on the horse's ears, which enabled\nthe traveller and his servant to see as well as if it were day.\n\nThe three women mentioned occupied good places in society. Agnes\nSampsoun was known as the wise wife of Keith; she, too, had knowledge\nof the healing art. In her confession she said that, after her\nhusband's death, the devil appeared to her and offered her great\nriches if she would abandon all that was good, and serve him, the\nlover of evil. At times Satan appeared as a man, but more frequently\nlike a black dog. On one occasion, when she was attending Lady\nEdmestoune, who was unwell, the devil came to her at night in the\nshape of a dog, and informed her that the lady would die. He then\ninquired where the lady's daughters were, for he wanted to have one of\nthem. The witch, however, protested against such an outrage as the\ncarrying away of a dying lady's daughter, and the dog went away\nhowling into a well in the garden. At a later hour that night, when\nthe young ladies were walking in the orchard, the evil one, disguised\nas before, rushed at them, seized one of them, and attempted to drag\nher into the well. Agnes, seeing this, laid hold of the lady, and sent\nthe dog away howling. On another occasion Agnes and other witches\nwanted assistance from Satan at the bridge of Faulstruther, and, to\nsecure this, they threw a cord into the river while some magical words\nwere being repeated. Presently the devil seized the end of the cord\nthat was in the water, and they drew him to land. After an assurance\nfrom them that they had been good servants to him, he gave them a\ncharm by which they could perform wonderful works.\n\nEuphame Mackalzeane was the daughter of Lord Cliftounhall. It would\nappear that when this lady bore her first child, she consulted Agnes\nSampsoun as to how she could best get rid of her pains, which she\ndreaded much. Agnes, willing to relieve the amiable lady of every pang\nnature was prone to, transferred the pains to a dog. Time passed on,\nand another child was about to be brought into the world by Euphame\nMackalzeane. Agnes was again called in, and the pains were conveyed to\na cat.\n\nBarbara Napier was of a respectable family also, but nearly all the\nother associates in their guilt were in poverty. Satan, like human\nbeings on earth, made more of the rich than of the poor; for while he\nassigned exalted places to Dr. Fian and the ladies of birth, he\nappointed a poor peasant, called Grey Meal, to be doorkeeper at the\nwitches' meetings.\n\nMore than one of the witches said that on Hallow-eve upwards of two\nhundred witches went to sea in riddles or sieves, and that,\nnotwithstanding their perforated vessels, they were quite dry and\ncomfortable, faring on the best food, and drinking the richest wines.\nAt another time, Dr. Fian, Agnes Sampsoun, one Robert Griersoun, and\nothers, left Prestonpans in a boat, proceeded to a ship at sea, went\non board and made merry on good wine, after which they sank the vessel\nwith all her crew. Dr. Fian stated, on being put to the torture, that\nSatan had told him and others, before the event, that he would make a\nhole in the queen's ship on the way from Denmark, and force her to\nreturn to her own country. Having intelligence that the queen was at\nsea, they held a meeting at Broomhills, where it was resolved they\nshould go out to the ocean and raise a storm, to endanger her\nMajesty's life. They took steps accordingly, and threw a dog into the\nwater, whereby the wind became boisterous, the sea rose, and the ships\nwere damaged. Other diabolical means were resorted to, to endanger\nthe queen's fleet. A meeting of witches was held at Prestonpans, when\nthe following ceremonies were gone through:--First, one of the witches\nheld a finger on the one side of the chimney crook, and another witch\nput one of her fingers on the other side; then they put a cat three\ntimes through or under the links of the crook; they next tied four\njoints of dead men's fingers to the four feet of the cat; and then the\nanimal was conveyed to Leith pier and thrown into the water. Cats were\nalso thrown into the sea at other places on the Firth of Forth. By\nthese means a dreadful storm was raised, which wrecked many\nships--amongst them the ferry-boat sailing between Leith and Kinghorn,\nwith all on board. The fiendish crew, disappointed at the safety of\nthe queen, determined to endeavour to drown the king. More cats were\ncast into the sea during his Majesty's voyage to Denmark; but all\ninfernal arts proved ineffectual, as the king had a charmed life.\nPrior to their Majesties' return, another convention was held, at\nwhich Satan himself was present. He promised to raise a mist when the\nroyal ships were coming home, which would cause them to land in\nEngland. According to Dr. Fian, the devil threw something like a\nfoot-ball into the sea. This caused a dense fog to rise; yet, in spite\nof all their plans, James and his queen arrived safe in Leith.\n\nNot long afterwards, more plots were entered into with the view of\ndoing harm to the king. On Lammas-eve a grand convention was held at\nthe Fairyhills, Newhaven, at which were present thirty of the\nprincipal witches and sorcerers in the country. The devil, the\npresiding genius, expressed a fear that their designs would be\nfrustrated unless unusual measures were resorted to. He promised to\ngive them an image of wax; and directed them to hang up and roast a\ntoad, and then to lay the drippings of the toad mixed with wine, an\nadder's skin, and a certain part of the forehead of a newly-foaled\nfoal, in the way where the king was to pass, or to hang the\npreparation in a position where it might drop on his body. These plans\nagain miscarried; for the king escaped the dangers of them all.\n\nAt Hallow-eve of the year 1590 there was a meeting of witches and\nsorcerers, including those already named, in the church of North\nBerwick. According to all accounts, three hundred women and a few men\nwere present. They danced across the churchyard; and when they reached\nthe church door the women first paid their homage, turning six times\nround widderschinnes, and, following them, the men performed the same\nceremony nine times. The devil, it was seriously asserted, took his\nplace in the pulpit, around which old-like men, holding black candles\nin their hands, stood. Satan appeared as a black man, with a beard\nlike that of a goat and a nose resembling a hawk's beak, and having on\na black gown, and a black skull-cap on his head, and he read from a\nblack book the names of those summoned to the meeting. The names,\nhowever, were not the real or proper names of the persons, but\nnicknames, by which they were known in the gang. The devil exhorted\nhis hearers to pursue a course of evil, and assured them that the more\nmischief they did to mankind, the better he would be pleased with\nthem. After their master's address, loud revelling was indulged in.\nGraves were opened, and the joints of two dead men taken out for\nmagical purposes.\n\nWhen information reached the king's ears of the doings of this wicked\ncrew, he resolved to inquire into the case himself. Dr. Fian and a\ngood many witches were tortured in Holyrood House, in presence of\nJames, who took great delight in listening to their forced false\nconfessions. Agnes Sampsoun was stripped naked, that the devil's mark\nmight be discovered; but as it could not at first be seen, her body\nwas shaved, that what was looked for might not pass unnoticed. Of\ncourse it was found, and the unfortunate woman confessed her guilt.\nShe said that Bothwell had consulted her as to the length of time the\nking was to live. She had a spirit that regularly attended her in the\nform of a dog, and it told her that in consequence of his Majesty's\npiety and wisdom he was proof against incantations. The notorious\nsorcerer Richard Graham confessed that the Earl of Bothwell had asked\nhim for supernatural assistance to hasten the king's death. He said\nBothwell had informed him that it had been predicted by a necromancer\nin Italy that he (Bothwell) would become rich and powerful; that he\nwould slay two men; and would be accused before the king for two\ncapital crimes, but would be forgiven for the one, but not for the\nother. Bothwell was satisfied that up to the time he consulted Graham\nthe prophecy was fulfilled; and now, he said, the time was come for\neither him or the king being despatched. Barbara Napier, a witch\nagainst whom James had a bitter feeling, was acquitted, on her trial,\nby the jury, very much to the king's annoyance. Dr. Fian, Agnes\nSampsoun, Euphame Mackalzeane, and many of their associates in\nsupposed guilt, after mock trials, were burned.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXV.\n\n      Cromwell in league with the Devil--Cromwell\n      consulting Astrologers--Memorable Days in the Life of\n      Cromwell--Singular Narrative--Duke of Hamilton warned\n      of his Fate--Peden's Predictions--Traditions\n      concerning Peden--John Brown the Martyr--Linlithgow\n      Loch Swans--Hereford Children--Great\n      Comet--Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter at Eventful\n      Periods--Solomon's Power over Evil Spirits and over\n      the Beasts of the Field.\n\n\nFabulous relations are given in connection with the career of\nCromwell. We are told he was in league with the devil, to whom he\nsold himself for a brief period of power among a people whom he\nruled with a rod of iron, and trampled their rulers under his feet.\nThat Cromwell used to consult astrologers, there can be little doubt.\nHe was accustomed to obtain advice from Lilly, the wizard, before\nentering into any important engagement. In particular, he sought\nthe assistance of Lilly before he entered Parliament, and when he\nbesieged Dunkirk. The 3rd of September was a memorable day in the\nlife of Cromwell, for on a 3rd of September he fought his two most\nfamous battles, and on a 3rd of September he yielded up the\nghost--circumstances that gave colour to the reports circulated\nconcerning the help and protection he received from Satan. Colonel\nLindsay was responsible for the extraordinary stories spread abroad\naffecting the character of the dictator. From the colonel's statement,\nit appears that on the morning of the 3rd September 1651, the day on\nwhich the battle of Worcester was fought and the forces of Charles II.\nwere routed, Cromwell and Lindsay entered a dark wood near the\nbattlefield. Lindsay, unaware of the object Cromwell had in view in\nbeing in such a gloomy place, and thinking he perceived something\nstrange in the appearance of his leader, was seized with horror and\ntrembling, which prevented him going farther. Cromwell proceeded a\nshort distance alone. He was met by an old man with a roll of\nparchment in his hand, which he gave to Cromwell, who perused it\ncarefully. An altercation took place between Cromwell and the old man\nor devil, during which Lindsay heard Cromwell say, \"This is but for\nseven years; I was to get twenty-one.\" The being to whom he spoke,\nreplied that only seven years could be given. Cromwell, modifying his\ndemands, craved fourteen years, but the old man was inexorable. \"Seven\nyears, and no more,\" he sternly replied. And the document, whatever\nwas its real meaning or tendency, was signed by the two parties, with\nthe \"seven years\" undeleted. As soon as the signatures were adhibited,\nCromwell hastily returned to Lindsay, standing in amazement, and said\nwith great emotion, \"Now the battle is ours!\" Cromwell and Lindsay\nwere soon at their posts in the field, the former resolute and\nhopeful, the latter dismayed and irresolute. To retain his proper\nplace in the field was Lindsay's intention; but after the first charge\nhis courage forsook him, and he fled as fast as his charger could\ncarry him, although no man pursued. The king's troops were beaten,\nleaving Cromwell master of the position. Prior to the result of the\nday's engagement being communicated by mortal man to Lindsay, he made\nknown to a clergyman what had taken place in the morning, finishing\nhis statement in these words: \"I am sure the king's forces are beaten,\nand I am certain Cromwell will die this day seven years, for he has\nsold himself to the devil, who will not fail to claim him then.\"\n\nEver after this memorable day, Cromwell regarded the 3rd of September\nauspicious to him, as well he might; for in addition to the events at\nWorcester, it was on the same day of that month, in 1650, that he\ngained the battle of Dunbar. Years rolled on, in the course of which\nCromwell encountered numerous dangers, and escaped conspiracies and\nplots, provoked by serious crimes, yet he survived to breathe his last\non downy pillows, on the anniversary of his great triumphs at Dunbar\nand Worcester. Neither the clang of swords nor the roar of guns\ndisturbed his last moments, but a dreadful commotion raged all around.\nNature seemed to have lashed itself into a rage: a high wind, such as\nhad never been heard before by the oldest inhabitants, unroofed houses\non land, and caused wrecks at sea. In the midst of the tempest were\nheard shrieks, not of men, but of spirits revelling in the gale, as it\ncarried destruction and death over the country. Notwithstanding\nCromwell's body being embalmed and put into a leaden coffin, the\nstench therefrom became so insufferable, that the remains had to be\nimmediately consigned to the grave, and afterwards the funeral\nceremonies were performed over an empty coffin,--so at least says\nEchard, on whose authority we give the foregoing particulars\nconcerning the Lord Protector. Though Cromwell's dust was interred in\nWestminster, it was not permitted to rest there. In January 1661, on\nthe anniversary of the death of Charles I., his decayed body was\ndisinterred and conveyed to Tyburn, where it was hanged on a gallows,\nthen cut down, and the trunk cast into a pit, while the head was set\nup on a pole at Westminster Hall.\n\nThe Duke of Hamilton, who was executed in the year 1649, was warned of\nhis fate by a witch. She said the king would be put to death, and that\nhe would be his successor. This prediction being delivered somewhat\nambiguously, Hamilton misunderstood its meaning. His impression was\nthat he was to obtain the crown (which led him to act treacherously\ntowards his Majesty), whereas the beldam meant that he would succeed\nthe king on the scaffold.\n\nPeden, one of the celebrated Covenanters, who was persecuted for\nrighteousness' sake, foretold many of the woes that Scotland would\npass through before the Church could have peace. The good old man died\na natural death in his bed, and his bones were decently interred by\nthe Boswells of Auchinleck in their family vault, under the deep\nshadows of wide spreading plane-trees. This honour coming to the ears\nof the soldiers in the garrison of Sorn, forty days after the\ninterment, they cruelly rifled the tomb of its dead. There is a\ntradition in the district to the present day, that when the soldiers\nburst open the coffin and tore off the shroud, there came a sudden\nblast like a whirlwind, though the day had previously been without a\nbreath of stirring air, which caught up the shroud, and twisted it\nround a large projecting branch of one of the plane-trees. From that\nday the branch withered away, and remained, for ages like a black\nshrivelled arm uplifted to heaven, as a protest against the\nsacrilegious crime. This is only one of the many wondrous tales\nconcerning Peden, who was known far and wide as \"The Prophet.\" Peden's\nremains were carried to the hill above Cumnock, where the common\ngallows stood, and there, in spite of the remonstrances of the\nBoswells and the Countess of Dumfries, suspended on the gibbet. When\ncut down, the body was interred, like that of a felon, at the foot of\nthe gallows-tree. At that time the churchyard of Cumnock was in the\ntown, but the old residenters, generation after generation, on seeing\ntheir end approaching, desired to be buried beside the old prophet.\nThus the gallows-hill of Cumnock became the ordinary burying-ground of\nthe town. Two old thorn bushes mark the spot where the prophet's ashes\nrest, in the midst of the remains of those he loved while in the land\nthat groaned under the despotic sway of relentless tyrants.\n\nThough Peden died, as we have stated, a natural death, he suffered\ngreat persecution in his life on account of his religion. His\npersecutors, who often pursued him as a beast of prey, at last seized\nhim, confined him a prisoner in Edinburgh Castle, immured him in a\ndungeon on the Bass Rock, and sentenced him, along with sixty others,\nto banishment in America, then a penal settlement. Chained together,\nPeden and his companions were marched to Leith, and conveyed on board\na ship for London, from thence to be taken to Virginia. Seeing his\ncompanions in bonds dejected, Peden shouted out to them, in presence\nand hearing of their guard, \"Fear not, brethren, the ship is not yet\nbuilt that will take us either to Virginia or any foreign plantation.\"\nUneasiness was felt on board the ship, in consequence of a report\nbeing spread among the prisoners that thumbkins and other instruments\nof torture were to be used to them as implements of punishment. Peden\nassured his fellow-passengers that their fears were groundless, for,\nsaid he, neither thumbkins nor bodkins would hurt them. A tedious\nvoyage of a fortnight brought them to London. When they were about to\nbe put on board the vessel that was to carry them to Virginia, the\ncaptain of the foreign ship, discovering the character of those\nintended to be banished, declared that no authority in the world would\ncompel him to go to sea with them. As another ship could not be\nprocured, the prisoners were set at liberty, as Peden predicted.\nFortunately for the discharged persons, they were befriended by Lord\nShaftesbury, an ancestor of the present Lord Shaftesbury, who, along\nwith other friends, provided for their immediate wants.\n\nOne morning, while Peden was at his devotions, a young girl fourteen\nyears old began to mock him. The good man, turning an eye of pity on\nher, said, \"Poor thing, thou laughest and mockest, but a sudden and\nsurprising judgment on thee will soon stay the laughter of many.\" This\nwas when he was in confinement on the Bass Rock. Shortly afterwards a\nswift gust of wind swept her into the sea, where she was lost.\n\nAlexander (this was his Christian name) Peden said to a brother and\nsister during his last illness, \"You will all be displeased at the\nplace where I shall be buried at last. I could have wished to lie in\nthe grave of my beloved Richard Cameron; but I shall not be allowed to\nrest where you lay me, though my bones shall at last be glorified.\"\n\nPeden foretold the early and violent death of the martyr John Brown.\nAddressing Mrs. Brown one day, he said, \"Isabel, you have got a good\nman to be your husband, but you will not enjoy him long; prize his\ncompany, and keep linen beside you for his winding sheet, for you will\nneed it when you are not looking for it, and it will be a bloody one.\"\nBrown had a presentiment, too, that his end would be a tragical one.\nThe end did come early. Claverhouse, who had been searching for him as\nwell as for several other Covenanters, suddenly surprised him one\nmorning, and ordered the dragoons to bring him in front of his\n(Brown's) house, where stood his weeping wife and helpless children.\n\"Go to your prayers,\" shouted Claverhouse, \"for immediately you shall\ndie.\" Mrs. Brown exclaimed, \"This is the day I have expected;\" and\nBrown, while addressing a few farewell words to his beloved spouse,\nsaid calmly, \"Isabel, this is what I told you of before we were\nmarried.\" Mrs. Brown was dragged from the side of her husband, who\nstood resigned to his fate. \"Fire!\" cried Claverhouse, and instantly\nthe martyr fell, pierced through by half a dozen bullets.\n\nAccording to Wodrow, the Scottish historian, the swans which were on\nLinlithgow Loch when the English obtained the mastery in Scotland,\ndisappeared. On the king's return, the swans came back. Their flight\nwas considered to foreshadow evil to the royal family, and their\nreappearance was regarded as a happy omen.\n\nSo great was the consternation caused about the middle of the\nseventeenth century by prodigious apparitions, that lamentations were\nheard in every dwelling. Women who were with child brought forth\nprematurely. At Hereford the town-clerk's wife bore three children at\na birth, who, we are told, had all teeth, and spoke immediately after\nthey were born. One said, \"The day is appointed that no man can shun;\"\nanother asked, \"Who will be sufficient to bury the dead?\" and a third\npredicted that \"there will not be enough of corn to feed the hungry.\"\nEach having thus expressed himself, expired.\n\nIn the year 1680 a great comet appeared, striking every beholder with\nawe. The terror partly arose from the fact that Kepler, the\nastronomer, had calculated that the conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter\nin Leo, which happens only once in eight hundred years, and which took\nplace at the time of the appearance of this comet, would have an evil\ninfluence on the Romish Church. The consternation was increased by\nmathematicians declaring that the comet was six times longer than\nthat which portended the death of Pope Alexander VII. These\nconjunctions were believed to have been always attended with important\ncircumstances on earth. Tycho Brah\u00e9 reckoned them thus:--The first, he\nsaid, was under Enoch; the second under Noah; the third under Moses;\nthe fourth under Solomon; the fifth under a greater than Solomon; the\nsixth under Charlemagne, when the Romans were subdued; and the seventh\nconjunction was at the time first mentioned. Those who have made\nthemselves acquainted with the cruel persecutions in the year 1680 and\nsubsequent years, will not refuse to admit that, whether Kepler did or\ndid not know beforehand through astronomical calculations what dire\ncalamities were to take place on account of truth, his words prepared\nmany for coming danger, and emboldened them to struggle on until\nProtestantism triumphed over Papacy.\n\nIn the _Day of Rest_ for September 1877 we find the following\nstatement relative to Solomon:--\"Eastern traditions inform us that\nSolomon possessed the secret power of expelling demons; that he\ncomposed spells by which diseases were removed; and that he left\nbehind him exorcisms by which devils were driven away, never to\nreturn. In wild exaggerated stories in the Talmud, Solomon is credited\nwith having dominion over the wild beasts, and over the birds of\nheaven, and over the creeping beasts of earth, and over all devils and\nspirits of darkness. He understood the languages of them all, and they\nunderstood him. On one occasion, proceeds the legend, when the wise\nking's heart was influenced with wine, he commanded that all the wild\nbeasts, birds, and creeping things of earth, and also the devils and\nspirits of darkness, should be gathered together, that they might\ndance before him. And what is most wonderful, if the Rabbis lie not,\nevery one that was summoned appeared before Solomon, and took part in\nthe great dance.\"\n\n\n\n\nTHE DRUIDS.\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVI.\n\n      Druids laid claim to Supernatural Power--Functions\n      exercised by Druids--Representations of the Sun and\n      Moon--Belief of Druids--Beltane Feasts--Arkite and\n      Sabian Superstition--Dancing to the Song of the\n      Cuckoo--Holy Liquor--Initiation into the Druidical\n      Mysteries--The Goodmane's Land and the Guidman's\n      Fauld--Places frequented by Fairies--Good Manes gave\n      Plentiful Crops--Offerings to Demi-gods--Propitiating\n      Beasts of Prey--Sacred Cairns--Trees dedicated to\n      Demons--Law forbidding Worship of the Sun, Moon, Fire,\n      Rivers, Wells, Stones, or Forest Trees--Extracts from\n      Kirk-Session Records--Land dedicated to\n      Satan--Midsummer and Hallow Fires forbidden--Yule-day,\n      how kept--Order of the General Assembly as to\n      Druidical Customs at the Fires at Beltane, Midsummer,\n      Hallow-e'en, and Yule--Old Customs ordered to be\n      discontinued.\n\n\nIn our introduction to _The Poets and Superstition_ we noticed briefly\nparticular classes of Druids--the Bardi and Vates. We now proceed to\ngive fuller details of the Druids, a class of people who played a not\nunimportant part among the nations in olden times. There were male and\nfemale Druids; the latter generally called Druides. Both the men and\nwomen laid claim to supernatural power and knowledge.\n\nThe Druids were expert at legerdemain, and, by their astonishing\nexploits, sustained among an ignorant people a reputation of being\nmagicians. They devoted much time to the study of astrology, observing\nclosely the heavenly bodies, through which they pretended they could\npredict events kept secret from ordinary mortals. The Druids exercised\nthe functions of magistrates, priests, teachers, and physicians. As\njudges, their authority was unlimited; they desired the people to\nbelieve that not only had they the power of imposing punishment in\nthis world, but that they might sentence offenders to torment in the\nworld beyond the grave.\n\nThe Arch-Druid wore a gold chain round his neck, from which was\nsuspended a gold plate, having engraved thereon, \"The gods require\nsacrifice,\" and on the front of the Druid's cap was a golden\nrepresentation of the sun, and a silver representation of a half moon.\n\nThey believed in one supreme being; supposed that the soul was\nimmortal; and thought the spirit of man began to exist in the meanest\ninsect, and that it proceeded through the lower orders of existence,\nrising at every new birth until it reached the human body. When the\nsoul animated the human form, a knowledge of good and evil dawned upon\nthe being, who then became responsible for the thoughts and actions of\nlife. If one chose evil instead of good, the soul, it was asserted,\nwent after death into an inferior grade of animal life, low in\nproportion to the sinfulness of that existence. Those who chose the\nbetter part became at last so exalted that evil had no power over\nthem, and they were happy for ever and ever. It was also believed that\nthe beatified soul retained the love of its country and relations, and\nthat the spirits of the good sometimes returned to earth, and became\nprophets among mankind, that they might assist in teaching divine\nthings, and oppose the evil one.\n\nThe Druids were worshippers of Bel, Beal, Bealan, from whence come the\nBeltane or Bealteine feasts, of which they observed four of\nconsiderable importance every year, viz. those of May-eve,\nMidsummer-eve, and of the eve of the 1st of November, and of the eve\nof the 10th of March. With Druidical religious rites were blended\nArkite and Sabian superstition. Dancing round the May-pole, old\nauthors say, took its rise from the Druidical custom of dancing on the\ngreen to the song of the cuckoo. Taliesin, the Druidical bard,\ninforms us that those who joined in the mystical movements went\naccording to the course of the sun, as they attached much importance\nto the ceremony of going three times round their sacred circle from\nthe east to west. At the celebration of sacred mysteries there was a\ncaldron for the preparation of a decoction from plants held in high\nesteem. This liquor being holy, possessed rare virtues, one of which\nwas the power of inspiring those who partook thereof, or to whom it\nwas applied. The caldron was kept boiling a year and a day. During\nthis time, at certain hours and under particular planets, plants\npossessed of peculiar properties were collected and added to the\ncaldron's contents.\n\nNot only did the sacred liquor, properly applied, enable one to see\ninto futurity, but it was supposed to confer immortality on those who\nbathed in it. Further, by its application, the dead might have been\nbrought to life again. All the sacred utensils and the company\nassembled at mystical feasts were purified with the decoction.\n\nInitiation into the Druidical mysteries was something dreadful. None\nbut those of strong nerve could successfully pass through the ordeal,\nall of which took place at night. Every one admitted into the\nfraternity bound himself by a solemn oath, like a freemason, not to\ncommit to writing or divulge the secrets revealed to him.\n\nIn various parts of the country there were \"the goodmane's land and\nthe guidman's fauld,\" to cultivate which it was supposed would be\nfollowed by dire calamities. These places were, according to popular\nopinion, frequented by fairies and other supernatural beings. Music\nwas often heard, and dancing seen, at such places. There, too, people\nare reported to have been enticed into subterranean abodes, and\nretained for years. Places dedicated to gods and demi-gods lay\nuncultivated, though the surrounding ground bore good crops. For these\nacts of self-denial in permitting ground to remain waste which might\nhave been producing good fruit, \"the good neighbours\" sent untold-of\nblessings. To secure prosperity, goodmanes attached themselves to\ndeserving persons and families, making their crops plentiful, causing\ntheir cows to have calves, and giving milk in abundance. We have an\naccount of how offerings were presented to those demi-gods at stated\noccasions. The people made a circle on the ground, in which they\nkindled a fire, and then cooked a mess, consisting of milk, butter,\neggs, and meal, for the beings whose favour they desired to secure for\nthe first time, or whose continued good service was wished. Cakes were\nbaked and offered to the manes in this manner: piece after piece was\nbroken off the cake or bannock and thrown over the left shoulder,\nwhile the desire was expressed aloud, that those to whom the offering\nwas made would preserve the cattle, horses, and other animals and\nsubstance from the power of evil spirits. In the same way, or after a\nfashion somewhat similar, beasts of prey were propitiated.\n\nThen there were sacred cairns, consisting of stones thrown together by\npassers by, every one adding his stone. If any one removed these\ncairns, or part thereof, superstitious people predicted evil to the\nspoiler. The late Rev. James Rust, in his _Druidism Exhumed_, mentions\nthat circles stood on the spot where one of the extensive\nmanufactories at Grandholm, near Aberdeen, has been built. The people,\nshocked at the removal of the Druidical works, predicted retributive\njustice to those who disturbed the sacred relics. For a long time\nevery misadventure to the company, or to individuals connected\ntherewith, was attributed to the sacrilegious action.\n\nTrees were sometimes dedicated to demons. The people worshipped such\ntrees, holding them in the highest esteem that any earthly thing could\nbe regarded. It was a capital offence to cut off a branch or shoot\nfrom one of them. King Cnut passed a law forbidding the worship of\nthe sun, moon, fire, rivers, wells, stones, or forest trees of any\nkind.\n\nMr. Rust gives the following extracts from the Kirk Session records of\nthe parish of Slains, which bear upon Druidical superstitions:--\n\n      \"18th November 1649.--The sd day the Minister and\n      Elderis being conveinit in Sessione ... the Minister\n      askit at ye Elderis for delationes, and desyrit them\n      to try if yer was aney hallowe fyres set on be aney of\n      the parochiners upon a hallarse evine. The sd day the\n      Minister requirit of the Elderis if they knew aney\n      peices of land within the paroche that was calit the\n      goodmane's land or fauld, or dedicated to Satane, or\n      lattine by unlabourit. They sed yer was ane peice land\n      in Brogane calit Garlet or guidman's fauld, within\n      Andrew Robes tak that was not labourit this manie\n      yeires, for quhat respect they knew not. The Minister\n      desyrit them to try qrfr it lay unlabourit.\"\n\n      \"25th November 1649.--... Intimat that yr be no\n      Midsumer, no hallow fyres, under the paine of the\n      haveris of them to be condinglie punishit.\"\n\n      \"Sessione the 30th December 1649.--The sd day the\n      Minister and Elderis being conveinit in Sessione ...\n      compeirit Thomas Patersone, and confessit that yr was\n      a peice land in his rowme calit the goodmane's fauld,\n      quhilk was this long time unlabourit. He is ordainit\n      to labour it, and promist to do so efter Whitsonday,\n      qn it was for faching. The sd day the Minister did\n      inquyr of the Elderis that knew of aney that\n      superstitiouslie keipit Yoolday. They did all report\n      that it was not keipit, that they did not yoke yr\n      pleuches, but yokt their work-horses.\"\n\nIn the same year (1649) the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland\nappointed a commission of their own number to report to the next\nGeneral Assembly as to the Druidical customs observed at the fires at\nBeltane, Midsummer, Hallow-e'en, and Yule. All the old customs were\nordered to be discontinued, and the people warned against kindling\nfires for superstitious purposes.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVII.\n\n      Dr. Stuart On the Druids--Their Deities--Augury--Human\n      Victims--Nature of the Gods--Gauls descendants of\n      Dis--Funeral Rites--Slaves and Clients burned--What\n      Pliny says--Tallies used in making known the Will of\n      Heaven--Walking through the Fire--Barbarous mode of\n      discovering Future Events--Wonder-working\n      Eggs--Colours of Eggs, and by whom worn--Virtue of\n      Globule of Ink--Easter Eggs represent Druidical\n      Eggs--Origin of the Druids dated from the Dispersal of\n      Babel--Arch-Druid of the Mountains--Wise Men of the\n      East were probably Druids--Island of Iona--Druidical\n      Cairns--Stones of Judgment--Mr. Rust's\n      Opinion--Misletoe regarded as a Charm--Rings worn as\n      Preventatives against Witchcraft--Legend concerning\n      Stonehenge--A Famous General--Merlin the\n      Magician--Stones brought from Africa by Giants--Graves\n      of British Lords.\n\n\nDr. Stuart, writing of the Druids, says their chief deity was Mercury,\nof whom they have many images. They also worship Apollo and Mars, and\nJupiter and Minerva. They held a meeting at a certain time of the year\nin a consecrated spot. They used rites of augury from the slaughter of\nhuman victims. According to Strabo, three classes of persons were much\nvenerated among the Gauls--the Bards, Druids, and Soothsayers.\n\nC\u00e6sar, from whom Dr. Stuart largely borrows, tells us that the whole\nof the Gallic nation was exceedingly superstitious. People of\ndistinction who laboured under the more fatal diseases, and those who\nengaged in battles and other dangerous undertakings, either immolated\nhuman beings, or vowed that they would immolate themselves. They\nemployed the Druids as their ministers at those sacrifices. It was\nthought the divine nature of the immortal gods could not be\npropitiated but by human life being substituted for human life. There\nwere, C\u00e6sar continues, effigies of immense magnitude, interwoven with\nosiers, filled with living men. Then these former being ignited, the\nlatter perished in the flames. The people thought that the sacrifices\nof guilty human victims, apprehended in the act of theft, robbery, or\nany other crime, were more agreeable to the immortal gods than those\nof innocent persons; but when the supply of culprits failed,\nnon-guilty victims were sacrificed. All the Gauls boasted that they\nwere descended from Dis as their father--a tradition communicated to\nthem by the Druids. Funeral rites, considering the culture of the\nGauls, were magnificent and sumptuous. Everything dear to the\ndeceased, when alive, was carried into the fire. Even the animals did\nnot escape; and, to manifest high esteem for a person of note, his\nslaves and clients who were beloved by him, were cremated together\nafter the obsequies demanded by justice had been performed.\n\nPliny writes that the Druids exhibited the herb vervain in the\nexercise of their rites. They had tallies, consisting of sprigs lopped\nfrom a fruit-bearing tree, marked in a particular manner, thrown into\na garment or covered with a veil, and drawn out by chance, through\nwhich means, it was supposed, the will of heaven was made known.\n\nFrom various sources of information we know that the Druids had\nrecourse to sortilege by fire. It was customary for a nobleman to take\nthe entrails of a sacrificed animal in his hands, to walk barefooted\nthree times through the embers of an expiring fire, and then carry\nthem to a Druid performing at the altar. If the nobleman escaped\nunhurt, it was reckoned a good omen, but if injured, it was deemed\nunlucky to the country and himself. When a victim was put to death by\nthe sword, the Druids who investigated the deed, pretended to discover\nfuture events by the manner in which he fell, the flavouring of the\nreeking blood, and the quivering of the body in the agonies of death.\n\nThe wonder-working eggs possessed by the Druids were insignia of a\nsacred character, set in gold, and worn suspended from the neck.\n\nThe Rev. John B. Pratt, in his work on the Druids, says: \"These eggs\nwere wholly artificial. Some of them were blue, some white, a third\nsort green, and a fourth regularly variegated with all these colours.\nThey are said to have been worn by different orders--the white by the\nDruids; the blue by the presiding bards; the green by the Vains; and\nthose with the three colours blended were pendants of the disciples.\nThat the secret of manufacturing these amulets was totally unknown in\nBritain, except to the Druids, is thought most probable; and the\nsecret of discovering things by looking into a globule of ink, which,\nit is asserted by some, the Egyptian jugglers still possess, may be a\nremnant of the ancient sortilege by means of the Druid's egg.\"\nProbably the coloured eggs children play with at Easter were anciently\nintended to represent the Druidical eggs.\n\nMr. Pratt concludes, that if it be true that the Druids came from the\nEast, and that the traces of their existence there run back, as some\nsuppose, into the remotest antiquity, \"it is not altogether\npreposterous,\" he continues, \"to suppose that their origin is to be\ndated from the dispersion at Babel.... Balaam, the Eastern magician,\nwas probably the Arch-Druid of the mountainous country in which he\nlived. The offerings he made were at the high places of Baal, and for\nthe purpose of enchantments, although he was not ignorant of the Most\nHigh.... The magi, or wise men of the East, probably were Druids, who,\nfrom their knowledge of astronomy, at once detected the star which\nindicated the fulfilment of Balaam's prophecy.\"\n\nThe earliest name borne by the island of Iona, so far as known in\nmodern times, was Innis-nan Druidneach, or Isle of the Druids. The\nDruids retained their power not only in Iona until the year 563 or\n564, but also on the mainland and in the islands. Mullingar is\nsupposed to have been the last place in Ireland where the Druids had\na residence. In the beginning of the last century a number of gold\ncoins, found on the hill Karn Bre, near Truro, were thought to be\nDruidical coins. Some of them, Mr. Davies thinks, were impressed with\nrude hieroglyphics, symbolical of Ceridiven. Objects of different\nkinds are combined in one compound figure. To an arc or half moon is\nadded the head of a bird, probably symbolical of the mother of the\nmystical egg. On other coins found there, magical ceremonies are\nrepresented, and on others the mystical sow appears sketched out.\n\nIn Druidical times there were rocking stones, or stones of judgment.\nThey were large, some of them weighing fifty tons, and having sharp\nedges, on which they stood nicely balanced. A rocking stone of\njudgment, says Mr. Rust, \"had been intended to test difficult\nquestions, which could not be proved, disproved, or solved in the\nordinary way, or for want of evidence, or which required the divine\ninterposition of some particular deity, likely a bloodthirsty one; for\nas they had different deities, different temples, and different\naltars, they had also different judgment stones attached to them, and\ndifferent ordeals through which the tried individuals, whether\ndevotees, criminals, or captives, had to pass. These judgment stones\nhad been anciently very common.\" According to the number of times a\nstone oscillated or refused to oscillate, the Druids determined to\nconvict or acquit the suspected person.\n\nOf the misletoe, and the esteem in which it was held by the Druids, we\nhave written in page 127. This parasitical plant was regarded as a\ncharm of no ordinary virtue. But the misletoe was only one of many\narticles they had possessing occult virtue.\n\nGlass rings, manufactured by Druidical priests, were worn by the\nancient Britons, as preventatives against witchcraft and the\nmachinations of evil spirits.\n\nA ridiculous legend is told concerning Stonehenge, the supposed\nDruidical temple near Salisbury. Aurelianus Ambrosius, a famous\ngeneral of the ancient Britons, of Roman extraction, was, at the\nrequest of the Britons, sent over with ten thousand men to assist them\nagainst the Saxons, whom Vortigern had invited into Britain. Ambrosius\nhad such successes against the Saxons that the Britons chose him for\ntheir king, and compelled Vortigern to give up to him all the western\nparts of the kingdom divided by the Roman highway, called Watling\nStreet. Ultimately Ambrosius became sole monarch of Britain. Geoffrey\nsays that this monarch built Stonehenge. Ambrosius, we are told,\ncoming to a monastery where lay buried three hundred British lords who\nhad been massacred by Hengist, resolved to perpetuate the memory of\nthis action by raising a monument over their remains.\n\nBy the advice of Tremounus, Archbishop of Caerleon, Ambrosius\nconsulted Merlin, the celebrated magician, as to how he should\nproceed. Merlin recommended him to send to Ireland for certain great\nstones, called _chorea gigantum_, the giant's dance, placed in a\ncircle on a hill called Killaci, which had been brought there by\ngiants from the farthest borders of Africa. A strong force was, in\naccordance with this advice, sent to Ireland, but the king of that\ncountry derided the folly of the Britons in undertaking such a\nridiculous expedition, and opposed them in battle. The Irish king was\nvanquished, and, by the direction and assistance of Merlin, who had\naccompanied the expedition, the wonderful stones were conveyed to\nSalisbury, and, by order of Ambrosius, placed over the graves of the\nBritish lords. These gravestones are what are now called Stonehenge.\nSuch stories, as may be expected, are discredited by historians, but\nour best antiquaries disagree as to the origin of these monuments of\nantiquity.\n\nGale, Dickenson, and others say the Druids borrowed their philosophy\nand religion from the Jews and Eastern heathen nations. Our older\nantiquarians believe that cromlechs are Druidical altars, in\nimitation of older heathen altars--a theory supported by reference to\nthe stones called Petroma, near the temple of Eleusinian Damater in\nArcadia: The Philistines pointed to the Deluge in their hieroglyphics\nof the serpent and mundane egg, the history which the serpent is\nsupposed to designate being that of Noah, and the egg being reckoned\nan emblem of the ark, from the circumstance of it containing the\nrudiments of future life. The serpent is not unfrequently represented\nwhen reference is made to the betrayal of Eve.\n\nPeople making acknowledgment to the gods for continual benefits,\nsurrendered part of their increase for the service of the altar.\nEgyptian offerings consisted of fruits and herbs, while shepherds\noffered firstlings of their flocks. For this cause the Egyptians\ndisliked shepherds almost with the cruel hatred Cain bore his brother\nAbel.\n\nAs the oak and misletoe were sacred to the Druids, so were they to the\nIsraelites in their days of declension. And in Greece we find the\nfamous oracle of Jupiter at the oaks of Dodona. To the ancient\ninhabitants of Italy the misletoe was a sacred emblem; and the golden\nbranches of Virgil were none other than those of the misletoe.\n\nAs the Druids studied the heavenly bodies as a book (so says Origen),\nthe heathen learned through the discovery of a new star the birth of a\ngreat person. From Virgil, it appears, it was commonly imagined the\ngods sent stars to point the way to their favourites in perplexity.\nThe Jews entertained similar opinions.\n\nAccording to Suckford, the ancients believed that heroes and other\ngreat men were transferred at death to some bright planet. In\nconsequence of such belief, eminent persons were deified. Julius C\u00e6sar\nwas canonised, because it was thought he was translated to a new star,\ndiscovered at the hour of his death.\n\n\n\n\nDEMONOLOGY.\n\n\nCHAPTER XXVIII.\n\n      First Ideas of Demonology--Rabbinical\n      Tradition--Adam's Marriage--The Wicked\n      Lilith--Demons--Egyptian Tradition--Arabian Worship of\n      Genii--Christians' Opinions of Demons--Forms assumed\n      by Evil Spirits--Demoniacal King--Duty of Inferior\n      Demons--Task of Benign Spirits--Schools of Magic--What\n      was taught in them--Circassian Opinions--Belief of\n      Indians--Situation of Hell--Men's Actions\n      recorded--Rewards and Punishments--How to frighten\n      Demons--Treatment of the Sick--Condemning Spirits to\n      Everlasting Punishment--Attendant Angels--Worship of\n      Gods--Foretelling Future Events--Small-pox propagated\n      by an Evil Genius--Souls of Deceased Persons--Dread of\n      Evil Spirits--Effect of Charms.\n\n\nTo the Chaldeans we are indebted for the first ideas of demonology.\nFrom Chaldea the notions of demonology spread to Persia, Egypt, and\nGreece; but, as stated in another part of these pages, a belief in\nspirits or genii and of witchcraft prevailed at an early period of\nman's existence. There is an ancient Rabbinical tradition, no doubt\nvery absurd, but illustrative of early notions of superstition, that\nAdam was first married to a sorceress named Lilith, or the mother of\ndevils. She refused submission to Adam, and disregarded commandments\nconveyed to her by angels. She persisted in her disobedience; and\nhaving one day, in a more than ordinary state of impiety, invoked the\nname of Jehovah, according to the rules of the Cabala, she ascended\ninto the air and disappeared. Lilith was feared by divers nations.\nWhen children died of diseases not properly understood, their deaths\nwere attributed to Lilith, who was supposed to carry out her wicked\npurposes as an a\u00ebrial spectre. Newly married pairs were accustomed to\ninscribe the names of angels on the inside partitions of their houses,\nand the names of Adam and Eve and the words \"Begone, Lilith,\" on the\noutside walls. The name Lilith was given to women suspected of holding\nintercourse with demons. The legends of Lilith were transmitted from\npeople to people until they came down to the Jews, who believed them.\nThis people were wont to inscribe on their bed-posts the words, \"Et\nzelo Chuizlilith,\" that the sleepers might be delivered by Lilith from\ndreams.\n\nDemon was a term applied by the Greeks and Romans to certain genii or\nspirits who made themselves visible to men, with the intention of\ndoing them either good or harm. The Jews and early Christians ascribed\na malignant nature to demons, the former endeavouring to trace their\norigin to intercourse between man and supernatural beings, and the\nlatter maintaining that they were the souls of departed human beings,\npermitted to visit the earth to assist those they favoured, and punish\npersons against whom they or their favourites had a grudge. Certain\nspirits were supposed to be celestial, others watery, some airy, and\nnot a few of them fiery. Tertullian said: \"Spirits flew through the\nair faster than any winged fowl. Unless commissioned to act, they\nremained passive, neither doing good nor evil; but the evil spirits\nwent and came at the devil's command, and both classes of spirits were\nat man's service if he only knew how to summon them into his\npresence.\"\n\nThe ancient Egyptians had a tradition, that at a far past period men\nrebelled against the gods, and drove them away. Upon this taking\nplace, the gods fled into Egypt, where they concealed themselves under\nthe form of different animals; and this was the first reason assigned\nfor the worship of inferior creatures. A leading principle in the\nreligion of the ancient Arabians was their belief in fairies or genii.\nThey thought that these genii attended people through life; that\nevery man had two of these waiting on him, the one good and the other\nevil; that all evil actions were committed at the instigation of the\nevil spirit in the absence of the good genii, who sometimes went with\nmessages to the celestial regions. The Arabians further believed these\ngenii were continually at war with each other, which, the people\nconsidered, accounted for the contending passions in their minds.\nTheir principal genius was Hafedhah, to whom the people, on setting\nout on a plundering expedition, prayed he would send them a strong\ngenius to assist them.\n\nIn the middle ages conjuration was regularly practised in Europe, and\ndevils were supposed to appear under decided forms. A devil would\nappear either as an angel of light, or as a monster in hideous shape.\nAn anonymous writer, discussing the subject, says: \"A devil would\nappear either like an angel seated in a fiery chariot, or riding on an\ninfernal dragon, and carrying in his right hand a viper, or assuming a\nlion's head, a goose's feet, and a hare's tail, or putting on a\nraven's head, and mounted on a strong wolf. Other forms made use of by\ndemons were those of fierce warriors, or old men riding upon\ncrocodiles, with hooks in hand. A human figure would arise, having the\nwings of a griffin; or sporting three heads, one of them being like\nthat of a toad, the other resembling that of a cat; or defended with\nhuge teeth and horns, and adorned with a sword; or displaying a dog's\nteeth, and a large raven's head; or mounted upon a pale horse, and\nexhibiting a serpent's tail; or gloriously crowned, and riding upon a\ndromedary; or presenting the face of a lion; or bestriding a bear, and\ngrasping a viper. There were also such shapes as those of archers or\nbowmen. A demoniacal king would ride on a pale horse, assume a\nleopard's face and griffin's wings; or put on three heads, one of a\nbull, another of a man, and a third of a ram, with a serpent's tail\nand the feet of a goose; and in this appearance sit on a dragon, and\nbear in his hand a lance and flag; or, instead of being thus employed,\ngoad the flanks of a furious bear, and carry on his fist a hawk. Other\nforms were those of a goodly knight; or of one who bore lance, ensign,\nand even sceptre; or of a soldier, either riding on a black horse, and\nsurrounded with a flame of fire; or wearing on his head a duke's\ncrown, and mounted on a crocodile; or assuming a lion's face, and,\nwith fiery eyes, spurring on a gigantic charger, or, with the same\nfrightful aspect, appearing in all the pomp of family distinction, on\na pale horse; or clad from head to foot in crimson raiment, wearing on\nhis bold front a crown, and sallying forth on a red steed.\"\n\nTo inferior demons was assigned the duty of carrying away condemned\nsouls, and superior benign spirits had the pleasing task of conveying\nfrom earth the souls of the blessed.\n\nToledo, Seville, and Salamanca were great schools of magic. The\nteachers taught that all knowledge might be obtained by the assistance\nof fallen angels. These teachers were skilled in the abstract\nsciences, in alchemy, in the various languages of mankind, and of the\nlower animals, divinity, magic, and prophecy. They professed to\npossess the power of controlling the winds and waters, and of\ninfluencing the stars. They also pretended to be able to cause\nearthquakes, spread diseases or cure them, release souls out of\npurgatory, to influence the passions of the mind, procure the\nreconciliation of friends or foes, engender discord, and induce mania\nand melancholy.\n\nThe Circassians sprinkled holy water over their friends' graves, and\nthe priests tolled bells near them to keep evil spirits from the\nbodies. Affectionate relations visited the burying grounds from time\nto time, to repeat prayers for the repose of the dead, who, they\nthought, continued to be acquainted with the affairs of the world.\n\nWhen an Indian became ill, the Brahmin prayed over him; for it was\nbelieved that two spirits, one good and the other bad, attended the\ndying at the hour of death. If the expiring person lived a commendable\nlife, he was conveyed in a flying chariot to a place of happiness; but\nif he was wicked, the evil spirit carried him before a dread tribunal,\nto be judged according to his works. Deceased was then sent back to\nwander on the earth ten days, in the shape of a magpie. For this\nreason the people always fed a magpie for ten days after the death of\na relation, imagining that the bird might possess their friend's soul.\n\nIndians believed in former times, whatever they may do now, that hell\nwas situated at a great distance below the world, and that there was a\npresident in it called Yhamadar. Under him, a secretary named\nXitragupten wrote down a man's good and bad actions, and presented his\nrecord to the president the instant the deceased's soul came before\nhim. This infernal president was reported to have been very equitable,\ndistributing rewards and punishments according to justice. Some souls\nwere supposed to be sent back to inhabit inferior bodies in this\nworld, while others were tormented in the most cruel manner in the\ninfernal regions. If a dying person laid hold of a cow by the tail,\nand a Brahmin poured water over his hand, and put a sum of money into\nit (the hand), the soul would be protected from the power of demons.\n\nIn Pegu, copper vessels or bells were used to frighten demons that\nwanted to disturb the repose of the dead. There the priests pretended\nto know what was most agreeable and acceptable to evil spirits, and\nprofessed to be able to appease their anger. A grand entertainment was\nsometimes made for the devil, at which the friends of a sick man\ndanced to the sound of vocal and instrumental music. These heathens\nbelieved devils had bodies as well as souls, and that, although\nimmortal, they had the same passions as men. They believed, also, that\nthe devils or demons had power to foretell future events, and that all\ndreams happened in consequence of their promptings. They therefore\nconsulted such devils nearly after the manner the witches of Great\nBritain were accustomed to do.\n\nWhen a person in Cochin-China was at the point of death, his male\nrelations surrounded his bed, brandishing their sabres and other\nwarlike weapons, to drive away the demons, which they supposed were\nhovering around him to seize his soul the instant it was liberated\nfrom the body. When a prince died, the priests held a consultation, in\norder to discover what demon it was that caused the sad event; and\nwhen they made the discovery, which they invariably did, they in a\nsolemn manner condemned the evil spirit to everlasting punishment. The\ninhabitants of the Molucca Islands were under the impression, like\nother heathens and Christians too, that two angels attended on every\nperson on earth, the one seeking his good, and the other his eternal\nhurt. The good angel prompted the individual to holy actions, while\nthe malignant one was constantly instigating him to shun the right\npath. The people worshipped the air under the name of Lanitho, which\nwas subject to another being or spirit named Lanthila, but they had\nmany gods they consulted on all occasions of importance. If it was\nconsidered necessary to consult a Nito or god, the people assembled\nunder cloud of night, with tapers burning, and, after pronouncing\nmysterious words, called on their god to appear. As soon as the\nprescribed forms were gone through, Nito entered with one of the\npeople, who, while under the demoniacal influence, foretold future\nevents. A few families in that island claimed to have the power of\nwitchcraft vested in them from generation to generation.\n\nBeing often afflicted with small-pox, the people conjectured the\ndisease was propagated by an evil genius; and, to frighten the demon\nfrom their homes, images were placed on the house-tops. If one\naccidentally met a funeral or saw a corpse on the road, he returned\nhome in haste. If the unlucky person was a woman carrying a child in\nher arms, her consternation was great, for it was imagined the soul of\nthe deceased hovered in the air near the corpse, and endeavoured to\ninjure the living, particularly young children. To protect their\nchildren from demons, parents tied charmed beads round the infants'\nnecks. Indeed the people lived in constant dread of evil spirits; and,\nto frustrate their evil intentions, they, in addition to the\npreventatives already mentioned, always kept consecrated articles\nunder their pillows.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXIX.\n\n      Heathen Devotion in Ceylon--Superstitious Customs\n      among the Schismatic Greeks--Negro Belief in Fetishes\n      or Genii--Charms and Sacred Rings and Belts--Magic\n      taught by the Priests--Dead Persons metamorphosed into\n      Serpents--How the Gaures disposed of their Dead--Modes\n      of discovering whether Souls were Blessed or\n      Damned--Orders of Genii in Madagascar--Devil\n      Worship--Belief of the Caribbees--Brazilian\n      Superstition--Peruvian Tradition--Devil Worship among\n      the American Indians--Demons in the Sixteenth and\n      Seventeenth Centuries--Satan in France--Manes, Anima,\n      and Umbra among the Greeks and Romans.\n\n\nIn Ceylon, when the heathens' prayers were not answered, they repaired\nto the most gloomy parts of their sacred groves, and offered up red\ncocks to the devil, where they supposed he and his imps and attendants\ndelighted to dwell. And when any of the people were sick, they devoted\na red cock to one of their genii. The priest, in offering the cock,\nmade it known that the fowl was given only on condition that the\ninvalid would be cured. It was believed that all the sacrifices\noffered to these genii were carried by them to heaven, to be presented\nto Buddha. To discover whether a patient's sickness was caused by a\ngood or evil spirit, a bow of the first little stick that could be\nfound was prepared, and on the bow-string the operator hung a small\nchisel, and holding the bow by the two extremities, named all the gods\nand devils he thought of. As soon as the name of the good or evil\nspirit that caused the disease was pronounced, the bow turned round.\nBy means of bows the natives of Ceylon were also enabled to foretell\nfuture events.\n\nAmong the schismatic Greeks, an infant, previous to its baptism, was\ncrossed by the priest, who commanded the devil to come out of the\nchild, for it was believed an unclean spirit resided in it before\nbaptism. After baptism, the priest hung a cross of gold, silver, or\ntin about the child's neck, which, in accordance with usual custom,\nwas worn till death. If at death one was found without his cross, his\nbody was cast into the ground without sacred ceremonies.\n\nThe negroes had fetishes or genii similar to the Manitous of the North\nAmericans, and the ancient Fauns or Sylvans of the Romans. To these\nfetishes the negroes paid great respect. Particular kinds of birds,\nfishes, and trees were looked upon as fetishes; and certain of them\nwere accounted the guardians of hills, mountains, and streams. Negroes\nsupposed that if one broke off a branch from a sacred tree, he would\nimmediately cause the destruction of their crops. They had stones\nresembling the Roman terminal-stones. Fetishes were consulted by the\npeople as oracles; and when they appeared in living form to return\nanswers, it was generally as black dogs. Large fetishes were kept for\nthe protection of houses; and the people carried small ones about\nthem, sometimes suspended from their necks, and sometimes concealed\nunder their arm-pits, for their protection. Negro women hung charms\nround their infants' necks, to protect them from harm. Children four\nyears of age had sacred rings round their legs and arms, to protect\nthem from evil spirits. This was not all: mothers went the length of\nmaking their children wear bandages adorned with fetishes, to\nstrengthen the little ones and keep away demons. Thursday was set\napart for the worship of fetishes. The priests studied magic, and\ninstructed the people in the art thereof. It was a belief among the\nnegroes, that at death they were metamorphosed into serpents, and for\nthat reason they would not kill or injure one of these reptiles.\n\nBecause the Gaures thought decomposed bodies polluted the earth, they\ndid not bury their dead. They had round towers as receptacles for\ntheir departed friends, whose bodies were let down to their final\nresting-place through an aperture in the roof. During the first three\ndays after the body had been laid in the tower, it was thought to be\nin danger of being carried away by the devil. It therefore became\nnecessary for the friends to keep watch, in order to prevent Satan\nhaving an opportunity to torment the soul as it winged its way to the\ncelestial regions. On or before the fourth day the soul was in a place\nof torment or happiness. On this, the fourth day, the priests\nprognosticated the future state of the deceased. The discovery was\nmade in this way: the dead body was laid on its back, with the eyes\nturned towards heaven, and the vultures being permitted to come and\nfeast on the deceased, it was considered a certain sign that the soul\nhad gone to bliss if the right eye was taken out first, but it was an\nequally sure omen that it had gone to a place of punishment if the\nleft eye was the first devoured. Another mode of ascertaining the\nstate of happiness or misery of a soul was by the movements of a dog\nnear a corpse. If the animal went close to it, then were the relatives\nconvinced the soul was in a state of bliss, but if the dog could not\nbe tempted to go near the body, they despaired of their friend\nescaping everlasting torment.\n\nThe islanders of Madagascar entertained the opinion that there were\ndivers orders of genii or spirits; that some of them directed the\nmotions of the stars and planets, and that others had power over the\nair, the meteors, the sea, and men. Besides these genii there was\nanother order of spirits, male and female, who married and had\noffspring. They made known future events to man, and performed\nsuperhuman actions, such as are done by Scotch fairies. The natives of\nMadagascar also believed in the existence of phantoms and ghosts. To\nprotect themselves, their friends, and property from the power of\nSatan, they, at stated times, with javelins in hand, danced, to the\nbeat of drum, to drive away evil spirits.\n\nThe Floridans worshipped the devil in various ways. In the Caribbee\nIslands the inhabitants had a great variety of omens and\nsuperstitions. They thought bats were supernatural creatures, whose\nduty it was to watch over mortal man during night. These people\nconsulted relics of deceased friends as to things past and future. The\nBoias, the native medico-priests, had each his particular genii, whom\nhe pretended to summon to his assistance by humming certain words and\nburning tobacco. These genii were conjured in the night time, at a\nplace without fire or light. The Boias were reported to have possessed\nthe power of killing enemies by means of charms. The Caribbees\nascribed diseases to Maboia; and whenever they were desirous of\nknowing the result of any illness with which they were afflicted, they\npresented an offering to Maboia, and sent for a Boia in the night,\nwho, on his arrival, ordered the fires to be extinguished. In presence\nof the patient, he smoked a quantity of tobacco, rubbed another\nportion of the weed into powder, and blew it up in the air. From\ncertain appearances the priest discovered the cause of the disease,\nand ascertained what would be the result thereof. If the patient was\nto die, the priest gave his assurance that the spirits would receive\nthe dying individual into their blessed abode.\n\nThe Brazilians had domestic gods, which they consulted; and their\npriests were fortune-tellers and interpreters of dreams. After a\nfriend died, the relations carried provisions to the grave every day\nfor a short time, under the impression that the nourishment brought\nwould prevent the deceased's spirit from dying.\n\nThe Peruvians had a tradition that a man of extraordinary form and\ncharacter, whose name was Choun, came from the north into their\ncountry; that he levelled mountains, filled up valleys, and opened\npassages for himself through places inaccessible to ordinary man. It\nis related that this being having been offended by the inhabitants of\nthe plains, changed part of the ground which was fruitful into a sandy\ndesert, forbade the rain to fall, and dried up the plants.\nSubsequently he had compassion on the erring people, and opened the\nsprings, so that the rivers once more flowed. Choun was worshipped\ntill the appearance of a more mighty god called Pachacamac, who, on\nhis coming, metamorphosed into wild beasts the former inhabitants that\nhad done homage to Choun. The people had superstitious opinions\nconcerning comets and rainbows. They drew predictions from dreams,\nfrom signs on earth, and from appearances in the heavens.\n\nIn olden times there was a system of devil worship among the American\nIndians; and almost everywhere, in the sixteenth and seventeenth\ncenturies, demons made themselves seen and felt in nearly every part\nof the earth. In France, Satan had his witches, imps, and other\ninferior demons, who carried out his wicked purposes. At Lyons the\ndevil appeared in the shape of a little woman, and, by cunning\nstratagem, led many persons into serious crimes. In the year 1612 the\nevil one, in the appearance of a beautiful woman, allured some Paris\ngentlemen into paths of sin. As a good deal of scandal was the result,\nthe justices and physicians of the city commenced an inquiry, which\nended in it being discovered that the apparently beautiful lady was\nthe evil spirit of a woman that had been hanged shortly before. Great\nexcitement prevailed at St. Steven's Church, Mascon, through the devil\nopening graves, raising the dead, and destroying the vintage.\n\nThe Greeks and Romans affirmed that, after the dissolution of the\nbody, every man possessed three different kinds of ghosts or spirits,\ndistinguished by the names of Manes, Anima, and Umbra. The Manes, it\nwas supposed, descended into the infernal regions, the Anima ascended\nto the skies, and Umbra hovered about the tomb, seemingly unwilling to\ndepart from the body.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXX.\n\n      Belief in the Existence of Visible\n      Ghosts--Superstition among the People dwelling on the\n      Baltic Shores--A German Legend--Demons in the West of\n      Europe--Love, how plighted in Orkney--The Monster\n      Ymor--Origin of Fairies--The Duergar or Dwarfs--More\n      about Fairies--Brownies in Ireland and the Highlands\n      of Scotland--Nine Classes of Evil\n      Spirits--Vampires--Man's Double or Fetch--Churchyard\n      Ghosts--Souls of Suicides--Burial of Suicides and\n      Murderers at Cross Roads--Luther on Evil Spirits and\n      Witches.\n\n\nA belief in the existence of visible ghosts on earth was general\nbefore and after the middle ages. An old divine of our own country\nsays:--\"I look upon it as a special piece of providence, that there\nare, ever and anon, such fresh examples of apparitions and witchcraft\nas may rub up and awaken their\" [the people's] \"benumbed and lethargic\nminds into a suspicion at least, if not assurance, that there are\nother intelligent beings besides those clothed in heavy earth or clay.\nIn this, I say, methinks the divine providence does plainly interest\nthe powers of the dark kingdom, permitting wicked men and women, and\nvagrant spirits of that kingdom, to make leagues or covenants one with\nanother, and to make the confession of witches against their own\nlives, and the miraculous feats they play, palpable evidence that\nthere are bad spirits\" as well as good.\n\nAn author, who wrote on second sight, last century, under the name of\nTheophilus Insulanus, considered all persons were irreligious who\nentertained a doubt of the reality of apparitions of departed souls.\n\nAnother author thought ghosts were mere a\u00ebrial beings without\nsubstance that could pass through walls and other solid bodies at\npleasure. Ghosts commonly appeared in the same dress as the persons\nwhose spirits they represented were accustomed to wear when alive,\nthough the ghosts were sometimes clothed in white. The appearance of\nspirits was generally accompanied by an unaccountable light. Dogs and\nhorses possess the faculty of seeing ghosts.\n\nPeople living on the Baltic shores have a deity named Putseet, whom\nthey encourage to remain with them, by placing in their barns, every\nnight, tables with bread, butter, cheese, and ale thereon. If the\nprovisions are taken away, good fortune is expected; if left\nuntouched, bad luck is looked for. This spirit assists in thrashing,\nchurning, grinding, and sweeping the house at midnight.\n\nThe Northern nations regard spirits of this description as the souls\nof men who gave themselves up, during life, to illicit pleasures, and\ntherefore were doomed, as a punishment, to wander about the earth for\na limited time, to assist mankind.\n\nThere is a legend in Germany of an extraordinary nature. Travellers\nwere shown a pair of brass gates, one of which had a crack, caused by\nthe following circumstance:--When a supreme monarch had given orders\nfor the building of a church, the devil came one day and asked what he\nintended it for, to which the Emperor answered, \"For a gaming-house,\"\nand Satan went away seemingly well pleased. A few days afterwards the\nfiend returned, and seeing altars erected, asked what they were for.\nThe Emperor answered, \"For gaming-tables,\" which encouraged the devil\nto lend his assistance in the completion of the sacred building. Next\ntime Satan made his appearance he brought a pair of large brass gates\nfor the edifice, but happening to see a crucifix, he flung them down\nwith such force that one of the gates was damaged. For many years the\ngates were objects of curiosity.\n\nIn the west of Europe, where superstition prevailed, there were many\nformidable demons, whose history originated in Celtic, Teutonic, and\nEastern fables. In Orkney, even during the last century, lovers met\nwithin the sacred circle of stones dedicated to Scandinavian deities,\nto plight their love. Through a hole in one of the pillars the hands\nof contracting parties were joined, and the vow made was called the\npromise of Odin. To violate this vow, rendered the false one infamous\nin all time coming.\n\nIn the body of the giant Ymir several maggots had been generated,\nwhich, by order of the gods, partook of both human shape and reason.\nThese little beings, to which reference is also made in pages 88 and\n90, possessed the most delicate figures, and always dwelt in\nsubterranean caverns or clefts in the rocks. They were remarkable for\ntheir riches, activity, and malevolence, and were probably the modern\nfairies of the north and west, who are usually described as beings of\nsmall stature, and gaily dressed. These creatures, the offspring of\nworms, possessed the power of making themselves visible and invisible.\nThey multiplied their species, and lived in a style of grandeur that\ncould not be surpassed by the greatest monarch on earth. They were\ngood friends to certain members of the human family, but bitter\nenemies to others of Adam's posterity. With their elf arrows they\ncould kill or wound man and beast. They carried off children and\ndomestic animals, generally leaving vile creatures resembling the\nchildren or animals carried away, so as to prevent the felony being\ndiscovered.\n\nOpinions originally entertained in this country relative to the dwarfs\nhave undergone considerable modifications, from the same attributes\nbeing assigned to them as to the Persian peris. Fairies were supposed\nto have brought many blessings to England, sending people pleasant\ndreams, giving money to them in a mysterious manner, and causing the\nnation to prosper. In remote times a brownie was attached to the home\nof every considerable family in Ireland and the Highlands of Scotland.\nLike men, some brownies were tall, and some of small stature. They\nwere industrious and faithful, if well treated in the way the Samogit\u00e6\ndid the Putseet. When a brownie once united himself to a family, he\nseldom deserted it, but continued to serve generation after\ngeneration. Burton speaks of nine classes of evil spirits:--First, the\nfalse gods of the Gentiles, adored as idols, who gave oracles at\nDelphos and elsewhere, whose prince was Beelzebub; second, the liars\nand equivocators, as Apollo, Pythias, and the like; third, the\ninventors of mischief, as Theutus, in Plato; fourth, malicious,\nrevengeful devils, whose prince was Asmodeus; fifth, coseners, such as\nbelong to magicians and witches, their prince being Satan; sixth,\na\u00ebrial spirits, that corrupted the air, and caused plagues, thunder,\nfires, and other calamities; seventh, a destroyer, causing wars,\ntumults, and combustions; eighth, an accusing or calumniating devil,\nthat drove people to despair; and the ninth, tempters in divers\nshapes, having mammon for their prince. Burton goes further. He\nasserts that \"no place is void, but all full of spirits, devils, or\nother inhabitants; not so much as a hairbreadth is empty in heaven,\nearth, or waters above or under the earth. The earth is not so full of\nflies in summer as it is at all times of invisible devils.\"\n\nPsellus founded a system of demonology, which had for its basis the\nnatural history and habitation of demons. His first class consisted of\nfiery devils, that wandered in the regions near the moon, but were\nprevented from entering that luminary. They displayed their power in\nblazing stars, in counterfeit suns, moons, and meteoric lights, and\nprevented foul weather. These demons, we are informed, occasionally\nresided in the furnaces of Hecla, Etna, or Vesuvius. His second class\nwas made up of a\u00ebrial devils, that inhabited the atmosphere, caused\ntempests, thunder, and lightning, rended asunder trees, burned down\nsteeples and houses, struck men and beasts, showered stones, wool, and\nfrogs from the skies; counterfeited in the clouds the battles of\narmies, raised whirlwinds, fires, and corrupted the air so as to\nspread disease. The third class was terrestrial devils, such as lares,\ngenii, fauns, satyrs, wood-nymphs, foliots, robin-goodfellows, or\ntrulli. The fourth class was aqueous devils, as the various\ndescriptions of water nymphs. The fifth class consisted of\nsubterranean devils, known by the name of Getuli or Cobals. They\npreserved treasure in the earth, and prevented it being suddenly\nrevealed; they were also the cause of horrible earthquakes. Psellus's\nsixth class of devils was named lucifugi. They delighted in darkness,\nentered into the bowels of men, and tormented those whom they\npossessed with frenzy and the falling sickness. An opinion prevailed\nthat devils possessed corporeal frames, capable of sensation; that\nthey could feel and be felt; that they could injure and be hurt; that\nthey were nourished with peculiar food; that they did not hurt cattle\nfrom malevolence, but through a desire to obtain natural temperate\nheat and moisture from the animals they killed; that they disliked the\nsun's rays; and that they attained a great age.\n\nOf all the kinds of demons we have heard of, the most loathsome are\nthe vampires. Horst speaks of a vampire as a \"dead body which\ncontinues to live in the grave, which it leaves, however, by night for\nthe purpose of sucking the blood of the living, whereby it is\nnourished and preserved in good condition, instead of becoming\ndecomposed like other dead bodies.\" Fischer, who believed there were\nvampires, informs us that the bite of a vampire left no mark upon the\nperson, but that the bite speedily proved fatal, unless counteracted\nby the injured person eating some of the earth from the vampire's\ngrave, and smearing himself with his blood. These precautions had only\na temporary effect, if at all successful; for the bitten victim,\nsooner or later, became a vampire himself--died and was buried, but\ncontinued to follow the examples of old vampires in nourishing\nthemselves, infecting others, and propagating vampirism.\n\nDown to the middle of the last century there was a belief in vampirism\nin the east of Europe. This form of superstition created much anxiety\nin the public mind, none knowing when he might be bitten by one of\nthose hated demons, and be thereby transformed into a vampire. Men of\nscience bore testimony in favour of vampirism with seeming\ntruthfulness and ability, worthy of a better subject.\n\nIn England every man was supposed to have his \"double\" or \"fetch.\" The\nappearance of a fetch created great uneasiness in the mind of the\nperson witnessing the apparition. It was taken as foreboding death or\nserious calamity to the being represented.\n\nThere were also churchyard ghosts in England, whose duty it was to\nwatch bodies over which church rites had not been performed after\nviolent death. In Scotland and England there were peculiar\nsuperstitious views concerning the souls of suicides. Authoritative\ndecrees prohibited graveyard gates being opened to permit the bodies\nof such persons being carried through them for interment. If relations\npersisted in depositing the remains of a friend who had committed\nsuicide, it was necessary for them to take the dead body over the\ngraveyard wall after sunset. But in most cases the bodies of suicides\nand murderers were buried at a \"cross road,\" with a stake driven\nthrough the corpse, to prevent its ghost rising to frighten or harm\ninnocent people.\n\nThe precaution of driving a stake through the body did not always\nprove effectual, if countless tales related of ghosts being seen in\nthe vicinity of such unhallowed burying-grounds be true. Surprise need\nnot be expressed at such superstition prevailing in a country where\nfaith in witchcraft still lingers, and in which, at no very remote\ntime, the statutes against witches were in full force. The State and\nthe Church believed in the existence of demons and witches.\n\nLuther's opinions on the subject of the agency and operations of evil\nspirits may be inferred from his _Colloquia_. \"Many devils,\" he says,\n\"are in woods, in waters, in wildernesses, and in dark poolly places,\nready to hurt and prejudice people; some are in the thick black\nclouds, which cause hail, lightnings, and thunderings, and which\npoison the air, the pastures, and grounds.\"\n\nIn a conversation on witchcraft, Luther said he had no compassion on\nwitches: he would burn every one of them. He reminded the people,\nthat, according to the old law, the priests threw the first stones at\nsuch malefactors. Luther said his mother had undergone infinite\nannoyance from one of her neighbours who was a witch. This witch could\nthrow a charm upon a child, which would make it cry itself to death. A\npastor having punished the witch for some of her wicked tricks, she\ncast a spell on him by means of some earth he had walked upon. The\ngood man fell sick of a malady, which no remedy could remove, and\nshortly thereafter died. Luther was satisfied the devil, through his\nprophets, could, and did, foretell future events; that he (the devil)\nwas so skilled that he could cause death even by the leaf of a tree;\nthat he had more boxes and pots full of poison, wherewith he destroyed\nmen, than all the apothecaries in the world had of healing medicine.\nThe devil, Luther thought, was so crafty that he could deceive our\nsenses. He caused one to think he saw something he saw not, and to\nhear thunder or a trumpet he heard not. Men, he argued, were possessed\nby the devil, corporeally and spiritually. Those whom he possessed\ncorporeally were mad people.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXI.\n\n      Belief and Teaching of the Roman Catholic\n      Church--Instructions to Ecclesiastics in reference to\n      Demons--Swedenborg's Intercourse with Spirits--Marcus\n      Brutus and his Evil Genius--Cassius and Julius C\u00e6sar's\n      Ghost at Philippi--Phantom Soldiers and\n      Horses--Plutarch on Spectres--Socrates on the same\n      subject--Archbishop Bruno and the Spectre--A Haunted\n      House--A Child's Ghost--Spectre at Sea--Ghost of a\n      Murdered Man in New South Wales--A Haunted House--A\n      Spectre at Sea.\n\n\nThe belief and teaching of the Roman Catholic Church lead to a\nconviction that there are many evil spirits who act on men immediately\nby forming in the imagination representations and phantasies of an\nevil nature. The subjects of Satan, on whom his tyranny is chiefly\nexercised, are those who wilfully come under the empire of the prince\nof darkness, such as magicians, sorcerers, and persons who have\nrenounced their baptism.\n\nIn a summary of instructions for the guidance of ecclesiastics,\nentitled _De Instructione Sacerdotum_, which appeared about the middle\nof the seventeenth century, we find in substance the following:--\n\n      \"Magic is produced by the power of demons. In reality\n      there is no power existing in the magician, for the\n      effects are produced by the devil at the command of\n      the magician. In the first place, demons produce\n      effects by transferring bodies with great rapidity\n      from one place to another. For they have power over\n      all inferior things, natural and artificial, in this\n      respect; and, moreover, they are endowed with\n      wonderful agility, which enables them to pass in an\n      instant from one place to another, however remote.\n      Secondly, demons produce effects by the occult\n      application of natural causes, and by accelerating\n      their actions, for their knowledge is incredible. They\n      understand the nature and properties of everything in\n      the mineral, vegetable, and animal worlds, and they\n      know where everything is. Hence they sometimes produce\n      trees, fruits, and animals in an incredibly short\n      space of time. They often effect cures by the occult\n      use of medicines, or by entering the body and\n      expelling evil humours. Thirdly, they perform\n      prodigies by acting on the senses. The compacts\n      between the demons and magicians are based upon\n      engagements mutually entered into. The magician\n      promises to obey the demon, and the demon, on his\n      part, promises to work for him and at his bidding. The\n      compact is sometimes entered into with great\n      solemnity, with the demon seated on a throne,\n      surrounded by a host of evil spirits, as attendants\n      and witnesses.\"\n\nSwedenborg entertained the conviction that the world of spirits held\ncommunion with certain favoured persons in this life; and up to the\nperiod of his death, in the year 1772, he pretended to have\nintercourse with spirits of celestial origin and those of deceased\nmen. Swedenborg frequently narrated the wonders of other worlds, and\nparticularly those of the infernal regions.\n\nThere are endless accounts of spirits appearing to men on earth. Here\nare a few of them:--Marcus Brutus, one of the murderers of Julius\nC\u00e6sar, being one night in his tent, saw a monstrous figure coming in\nabout the third hour of night. Brutus immediately cried out, \"What art\nthou, a man or a god? and why art thou come hither?\" The spectre\nanswered, \"I am thy evil genius; thou shalt see me at Philippi.\"\nBrutus, with feigned calmness, answered, \"I will meet thee there.\"\nDisordered, however, in body, and disturbed in mind, Brutus related\nthe affair to Cassius, who, being of the sect of Epicurus, told Brutus\nthat what he supposed he saw was nothing more than mere fancy; that\nthere were no such things as genii or other spirits which could appear\nto man; that even if they should appear, they could not assume a human\nshape or voice, and had no power over men. Though Brutus was somewhat\nencouraged by what Cassius said, he could not entirely overcome his\nuneasiness. In the midst of the battle of Philippi, Brutus thought he\nsaw Julius C\u00e6sar, whom he had assassinated, riding to him at full\nspeed, which so terrified him that he fell upon his own sword. Cassius\nalso fell there under the hand of his freedman Pindarus.\n\nPausanius writes that, four hundred years after the battle of\nMarathon, there were heard, in the place where it was fought, the\nneighing of horses, and the shouts of soldiers animating one another\nto the fight. Plutarch also speaks of spectres seen and dreadful\nhowlings heard in the public baths, where several citizens of\nCh[oe]ronea, his native town, had been murdered. He says that the\ninhabitants had been obliged to shut up these baths, but that,\nnotwithstanding this precaution, great noises continued to be heard,\nand dreadful spectres were frequently seen by the neighbours. Plutarch\nfrequently makes mention of spectres and apparitions; particularly he\nsays, that, in the famous battle above alluded to, several soldiers\nsaw the apparition of Theseus fighting for the Greeks and against the\nPersians.\n\nIt is recorded in Socrates, that after the defeat of the Athenian army\nunder the pr\u00e6tor Laches, as he was flying in company with the Athenian\ngeneral, and came to a place where several roads met, he refused to go\nthe same road that the others took, and the reason being asked him, he\nanswered that his genius, or familiar spirit, who frequently attended\nhim, dissuaded him from it; and the event justified the precaution,\nfor all those who went a different way from him were killed or made\nprisoners by the enemy's cavalry.\n\nWhen Bruno, Archbishop of Wirtzburgh, a short time before his sudden\ndeath, was sailing with Henry III., he descried a terrific spectre\nstanding upon a rock which overhung the foaming waters, by whom he was\nthus hailed; \"Ho! bishop, I am thy evil genius. Go whither thou\nchoosest, thou art and shalt be mine. I am not now sent for thee, but\nsoon thou shalt see me again.\"\n\nA house at Athens was haunted by a spirit which roamed through the\napartments at night, seemingly dragging a heavy chain after it.\nAthenodorus, the philosopher, hired the house, with the intention of\ndiscovering the cause of so much alarm to the inmates. One night,\nwhile pursuing his studies, he was startled by hearing what seemed to\nbe the rattling of chains. On looking up he beheld a spectre enter his\napartment and make a sign to him to follow. The philosopher rose and\nfollowed the ghost, which went into the courtyard and disappeared. The\nphilosopher marked the spot where the spectre vanished, and on the\nfollowing day caused a search to be made. The result was that the\nskeleton of a man in chains was discovered. The bones were publicly\nburned, and the ghost never again appeared.\n\nA lady, while going along a dreary path one evening to see a sick\nchild, was frightened by a strange sight before her. The mysterious\nobject represented her friend's child dead, and wrapt in its winding\nsheet, floating up in the air heavenwards. It is almost needless to\nsay that just about that time the sick child died.\n\nMany years ago, when a ship of war was one night off the African\ncoast, the officer on watch became deeply affected in a manner he\ncould not explain, and became partially insensible, and could not\nrouse himself before a cold hand touched him. He then beheld a white\nfigure walking away. It turned round, and in the face he beheld the\nfeatures of a brother in England. The spectre, after remaining a few\nseconds, vanished. On arriving in Great Britain, the officer\ndiscovered that his brother died on the very night he saw the\napparition.\n\nA ghost story was related for the first time about twenty years ago,\nof the ghost of a murdered man appearing in the colony of New South\nWales. A farmer named Fisher, in the prime of life and unmarried,\nsuddenly disappeared, leaving \u00a34000 worth of property behind him. A\nneighbour called Smith reported that Fisher had gone to England, and\nthat he was authorized to act for him in all business matters during\nhis absence. The statement was received as a fact; but a strange\ncircumstance changed public opinion. An old man named Ben Weir, who\nhad a small farm near that of Fisher, was returning home one night\nfrom Sydney, when he beheld farmer Fisher with a severe wound on the\nforehead, and blood flowing from it. When Weir got within a few paces\nof the figure, it disappeared. He could not rightly comprehend the\nmeaning of all this, and did not mention what he had seen, lest his\nneighbours would say he had been drunk. A few nights afterwards he had\noccasion to pass the spot where Fisher had appeared, and there again\nthe farmer stood before him as before. Weir could not now remain\nsilent. He went to a justice of the peace and told his tale. At first\nthe justice would not credit his informant, but subsequently he\ninstructed an inquiry to be made. Marks of blood were discovered at\nthe spot where the ghost appeared, and in a pond, a little distance\noff, Fisher's dead body was found. Smith was consequently arrested,\nand tried before the late Sir Francis Forbes. His guilt was\nestablished, and he was sentenced to death. Before his execution he\nconfessed that he alone had murdered Fisher at the very spot where\nWeir saw the murdered man's ghost.\n\nAn account is given of a house that was haunted at Bow last century. A\nyoung girl declared one morning that a cold hand had been laid on her\nabout midnight. This proved to be the hand of death. She sickened, and\nbefore many suns went down she lay in her winding sheet. Then followed\na series of strange annoyances, which gave rise to the report that the\nhouse was haunted. So dreadfully were the inmates frightened, that\nthough the house contained many apartments upstairs and downstairs,\nthey took refuge in a small room on the ground floor. Night and day\nstrange noises were heard, and furniture and other articles were flung\nabout by unseen hands. A gentleman, a friend of the family, hearing of\nwhat was going on, engaged to solve the mystery. Entering an apartment\nupstairs, he observed the furniture moving about the floor, although\nno living being could be seen. Stones and bricks were thrown through\nthe window; a staff danced round the room; dishes were thrown at his\nhead. He examined every hole and corner, but could not discover any\nperson or thing by which the articles were made to move. Fearing the\npresence of evil spirits, he hastened out, closing the door after him.\nIt was instantly opened, and chairs, stools, candlesticks, and dishes\nwere hurled after him. The worst had not come. While all the family\nwere standing in amazement, a small boiler with hot water moved from\none side of the grate to the other, the poker and tongs stood up and\nexchanged places, the pots and pans clattered loudly, and a small\ntable was lifted into the air. A witch residing in the neighbourhood\nbeing suspected of causing the mischief, a noted wizard undertook to\nsolve the mystery. He ordered the dancing staff to be burned. When it\nwas blazing up, a suspected witch entered in great agony. She asked\nfor a drink of water to quench her burning thirst. Those cognisant of\nthe facts concluded that the perpetrator of the mischief was\ndiscovered. She was apprehended, tried, and acquitted for want of\nsufficient evidence. As she left the court she was heard to mutter, \"I\nshall be revenged.\" She kept her word. The following night, the\nannoyance, which had ceased during her incarceration, recommenced with\ndouble fury. The inmates of the house, who had previously escaped\nwithout bodily injury, were struck by invisible persons, who, as often\nas they dealt their blows, shouted, \"Take that;\" while at the same\ntime the furniture was knocked against the walls and broken to pieces.\nThe inmates fled for their lives, and the house was shut up for many\nyears, none daring to occupy the haunted house.\n\nA young man at sea was alarmed, one night, to see an apparition of his\nmother standing before him. She delivered a message concerning family\nbusiness. So frightened was he that he could not reply or put any\nquestions to the spirit, although he earnestly desired to speak. After\ndelivering the message, the apparition slowly retired, went over the\nship's bulwarks, dropped gently into the sea, and floated away. The\nlast glimpse he had of the unearthly figure was on the crest of a wave\nnear the vessel's stern. On his return home he learned that his mother\nhad died at the time he had seen her ghost. What was more strange, she\nleft a message for him similar to that which the apparition delivered.\nOn his next voyage the young man told his companions that on the\nprevious night he had seen his mother floating in the water like a\nmermaid, and that she had made a sign for him to come to her. Next\nnight a storm arose; the ship was in great danger, the decks were\nswept, and the young man was washed away. His last words were,\n\"Mother, I come.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXII.\n\n      Spiritualism Past and Present--Coffee-house\n      Keeper--Magic taught in Leipsic--Intercourse with and\n      Control over Spirits--Spirit of Marshal Saxe called\n      up--How Spirits were Invoked--Voices of Good and Evil\n      Spirits--A Terrified Company--Mysterious Death of a\n      Magician--Unearthly Huntsman--Prediction and its\n      Fulfilment--An Estate lost at the Gaming Table--A\n      Baron Shot--A Marriage prevented by an\n      Apparition--Strange Sights and\n      Sounds--Murder--Consulting a Witch--Raising the Spirit\n      of a Murdered Man--A Murderer's Fate.\n\n\nWriters generally supposed to be well informed have said that\nspiritualism is a system of professed communication with the unseen\nworld, which originated in America about the year 1848. Others have\nendeavoured to trace the origin of spiritualism to the writings of\nSwedenborg. Both parties are in error. Long before Swedenborg's time,\nand anterior to Columbus discovering America, spiritualism in various\nforms was believed in in Scotland, England, Ireland, all over Europe,\nand elsewhere. Reginald Scot, in the year 1584, wrote against\nwitchcraft and demonology; but so general was the belief in\nspiritualism, and so abhorrent were the opinions of Scot, that his\nbook was ordered to be burned by the common hangman. Let those who\nclaim for America the discovery of spiritualism, real or feigned, read\n1 Samuel., and they will perceive how much they have been\ndeceived. We may return to spiritualism as looked upon in the present\ntime; meanwhile we shall continue our own course, proving, step by\nstep, the former belief in spiritualism, or what we prefer to call\ndemonology.\n\nA coffee-house keeper in Leipsic, named Schrepfer, studied and taught\nmagic as an art. He boasted of his intercourse with and control over\nspirits, whose presence, he alleged, could be commanded at any time.\nOwing to a degrading insult offered him, he left Leipsic, none knew\nwhither, but after a lapse of time he appeared at Dresden, where his\nmagical skill attracted many followers. His reputation reached Prince\nCharles of Saxony, who had been instrumental in causing the magician\nto depart from Leipsic; he visited Schrepfer, apologised for what he\nhad done, and requested him to give manifestations of his supernatural\nart. He accepted the apologies, and exhibited many difficult\noperations in the science of magic. The prince requested Schrepfer,\nwho had the power of calling before him the ghost of any one, however\nlong dead, to bring up the ghost of Marshal Saxe, Charles's uncle, in\nthe hope that information would be obtained regarding a vast amount of\nhidden treasure the deceased was supposed to have concealed from his\nrelatives. This was a few years after the Chevalier de Saxe died, yet\nthe magician readily agreed to comply with the request. The place\nchosen for commanding the spirit to appear was Prince Charles's palace\nin Dresden. On the appointed night, the prince and a large company of\nfriends assembled in the apartment named for the purpose. Everything\nbeing in readiness, the door and windows were secured, that none\npossessed of mere human strength could effect an entrance. Schrepfer\nretired into a corner of the room, knelt down, and, with many\nmysterious ceremonies, invoked the spirits to come to his aid. A\nconsiderable time elapsed before they obeyed. While waiting he was\nunder great agitation, being wet with sweat, and bordering on\nconvulsions. At length a loud noise was heard at the windows, followed\nby other noises of a peculiar description, not easily described. The\nsecond sounds Schrepfer announced as the voices of good spirits come\nto help him. A short time afterwards frightful yelling was heard,\nwhich came, he declared, from malignant spirits, whose presence, he\naffirmed, was also essential. By this time the prince and his friends\nwere filled with horror, wishing that the scene was over; but their\ncourage had to stand more severe tests. Schrepfer continuing his\ninvocations, the door suddenly opened with violence, and something\nresembling a black globe rolled into the room. It was surrounded with\nsmoke or cloud, in the midst of which appeared to be a human face like\nthe countenance of the Chevalier de Saxe. In a loud and angry voice\nthe form inquired why it was disturbed. Great consternation prevailed\namong the spectators at such a sight. Charles did not venture to say a\nword concerning the concealed treasure, neither did his uncle's ghost.\nKneeling down, the terrified prince besought the magician to dismiss\nthe apparition, a request easier asked than could be complied with.\nNearly an hour elapsed before Schrepfer, by his invocations, succeeded\nin dismissing the spirit. Just at the moment all thought that it had\nvanished, the closed door was again burst open, and the hideous form\npresented itself again to view. General terror prevailed, every one\nthinking he was about to be snatched away to the place of everlasting\ntorment. None but the magician remained firm. He continued reiterating\nexorcisms until the apparition finally disappeared. The spectators\ndispersed, filled with amazement, and satisfied of Schrepfer's\nsupernatural powers. Schrepfer's fame became great: gentlemen resorted\nto his night meeting to be initiated in his mysteries. For this\npurpose they accompanied him into a grove near Leipsic; and one night,\nwhen he was about to exhibit something more wonderful than his\nfollowers had ever seen, his earthly career suddenly terminated. While\nhis disciples waited in great expectation, he retired to a quiet spot\nto make the requisite invocations. In a few minutes the report of a\npistol resounded through the forest; his admirers rushed to the spot,\nand found him shot through the heart. A few thought he had shot\nhimself; the more superstitious ones however, came to the conclusion\nthat the deed was done by the devil. Whether the unfortunate magician\nterminated his existence by his own hand remains doubtful, but one\nthing the most of old people believed--that, having sold himself to\nthe evil spirit, his time was come to go down to the dark abode; and\nsuch being the case, it mattered little by what instrument the deed\nwas perpetrated. The demon sent to call Schrepfer hence might have\nfired the shot, or caused the magician to be his own executioner; yea,\nthe foul fiend could have caused an elf shot or the glance of an evil\neye to effect the fatal catastrophe.\n\nLudovicus Adolisius, lord of Immola, sent one of his secretaries on\nimportant business to Ferrara. On the way the secretary met one on\nhorseback, dressed like a huntsman, with a hawk upon his fist, who\naddressed him by name, and desired him to request his master to meet\nhim (the huntsman) at the place they then were, at the same hour next\nday, when he would discover things of no mean importance, which\nconcerned his master and his estate. In the apparent huntsman the\nsecretary discovered the apparition of his master's father. The\nsecretary returned and delivered the important message to his lord.\nHis lordship being afraid that evil was intended, sent one of his\nsubordinates to meet the apparition. At the time and place appointed,\nthe spirit appeared in the likeness it had done the previous day. It\nlamented the son's absence, on account of the strange revelations that\nwould have been made had he come himself. \"Return to your master,\"\nsaid the apparition, \"and tell him that in twenty-two years, one\nmonth, and one day, he will lose the governorship of the city.\" Like a\nsmall cloud the spirit vanished. At the very time predicted, Philip,\nDuke of Milan, besieged the city, and the water being frozen, he was\nenabled to pass the moat, and having scaled the walls, surprised the\ncity, and took Ludovicus prisoner.\n\nAn Italian of mean birth, named Carlo Stella, ingratiated himself into\nthe good favour of Baron Cattaneo, a nobleman, who unfortunately was\nover fond of wine and the gaming-table. The former induced the latter\nto play for no less a stake than the baron's whole estates. The\nunlucky nobleman lost, and in the moment of excitement made over all\nhis property to the wicked Stella. Next day the baron, remembering\nwhat had taken place, went to Stella, and expressed the hope that the\nconveyance he had given the previous day would be returned. Stella\ntold him that he could not give up the document, for he had destroyed\nit, looking on the whole proceeding as a farce. A few days afterwards\nthe baron was found shot through the brain, and then Stella produced\nthe document which he pretended had been destroyed. In virtue of the\nconveyance, the holder of it came into possession of a large sum of\nmoney and many acres of land, together with two noble castles,\npleasantly situated. Being thus raised into an elevated position, he\nsought in marriage a lady of rank. He was accepted, and an early day\nwas fixed for the nuptial ceremony. Bride and bridegroom, priest, and\nrejoicing friends were assembled at the appointed time in the church,\nand the service was about to begin, when a man stained with blood\nentered the sacred building. He looked Stella sternly in the face, and\nthen retired. Every one was horror-stricken, but none appeared so much\naffected as the bridegroom. He fainted, and had to be carried out\nwithout the marriage taking place. Next day he seemed better, and\narrangements were entered into for having the pair (we cannot say\nhappy pair) united in wedlock in the evening. As formerly, all were\nassembled, and the priest was about to begin the ceremony, when the\nlights went out, leaving the company standing in consternation. A dark\ncloud, which had obscured the moon, passed away, and then her pale\nrays partially lighted up the edifice. At this instant the bloody\nfigure appeared, walked forward to Stella, whispered in his ear, and\nthen vanished. So disconcerted were all parties that the marriage was\nagain delayed, and ultimately it was resolved, on the part of the lady\nand her father, that the engagement should be broken off. Stella\nbecame troubled, sleep forsook him, horrid sounds reached his ears in\nthe night, and the bloody apparition that had frightened him in the\nchurch frequently appeared to his sight. The cause of the strange\nsights and sounds was known to himself; those around were ignorant\nwhence they proceeded. All may be explained in a few words. Stella had\nmurdered the baron, and the bloody figure was his ghost. Disappointed\nand humbled, Stella resolved to consult a noted witch, of whom he had\nheard much. Arriving at her cottage, he handed her a purse of gold,\nand promised her a greater reward if she would send to the lower world\nthe spirit that disturbed him. The old hag complied, received the\nmoney, counted it, spat on it, put it into a weasel-skin purse, and\nthen into her pocket. With much ceremony she put a powder into the\nfire, which caused a blue flame to arise. In its midst the living form\nof the murdered baron appeared. The witch tried to reduce the spirit\nto her power, but the task proved a difficult one, for more than once\nit was nigh breaking through the circle she had formed. At last her\nmagic charms prevailed, and the spirit descended into the bowels of\nthe earth, exclaiming, \"Murderer, we shall soon meet again.\" Stella's\nmind was greatly disturbed; he drank deep to drown his care, but peace\nwas far from him. In company he was the gayest of the gay, but when\nalone in the still hours of night he would groan and start in his\nsleep, as if endeavouring to escape from some one. Already he seemed\nto be enduring the torments of internal fire. Drink, drink, more\ndrink, he would call for, and then, mounting his horse, would ride ten\nor twelve miles without knowing whither he was going. One day he rode\nfarther than usual, all the time his horse going at full speed, while\nnow and again he looked behind him as if pursued. Several people, who\nwitnessed Stella's mad career, feared that evil would happen him\nbefore he went much farther. Their fears were not groundless, for\nbefore him, where the road took a sharp turn, was a bridge that\nspanned a deep flowing river; and unless the animal was carefully\nguided, there was danger of him plunging into the water instead of\ntaking the bridge. Nearer and nearer he approached the dangerous spot,\nswifter and swifter the horse went, urged on by the spurs that pierced\nits sides. Excited and more excited the rider became. Both man and\nbeast appeared to be doomed; and so it proved. Over the fence they\nwent, and in a few minutes Stella's body was carried over a fall into\na deep boiling pool, out of which it could never be recovered.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXIII.\n\n      Antonio the Rich--Soul sold to the Devil--Dreadful\n      Announcement from a Volcano's Mouth--Three Ghosts--A\n      Thrilling Story--Human Remains found behind a\n      Stove--Mozart apprehensive of Death--A Strange\n      Visitor--Mozart writing a Requiem for himself--The\n      Stranger's Return--Messenger from another\n      World--Mozart's Death--Ghost of a Lady--The White\n      Lady--A Haunted House--Terrified Servants--Iron\n      Cage--Youth starved to Death--Frightful Dreams and\n      Dreadful Sights--Dog frightened by a Spirit--Ghost\n      sinking into the Earth--Deserting a Disturbed\n      House--Duchess of Mazarin--Madam de Beauclair--Compact\n      between the Living and the Dead--A Lady's Death\n      foretold by a Spirit--The Prediction fulfilled.\n\n\nIn the reign of Henry VIII., Mr. Gresham, a London merchant, coming\nhome from Palermo (wherein resided one Antonio, generally called the\nRich, who at one time had two kingdoms mortgaged to him), heard a\nstrange voice that filled him with alarm. Antonio had accumulated a\nvast amount of riches, in ways not altogether in accordance with the\neighth commandment. His money was given in loan at shamefully high\nrates of interest, and both principal and interest were often\nrecovered by oppression. In fact, gold seemed to be his god: for it he\nappeared to live; for it, his poor neighbours asserted, he had sold\nhis soul to the devil. Mr. Gresham being detained at Strombuli by\ncontrary winds, he, with eight sailors, ascended a burning mountain\nthere. Approaching the crater as near is they could with safety, they\nheard a hideous noise proceeding from the volcano's mouth, and a voice\ncrying aloud \"Dispatch, dispatch, haste, the rich Antonio is coming!\"\nTerrified, the company hastened down the mountain, which, before they\nreached the level country, vomited out fire. At Palermo Mr. Gresham\ninquired for Antonio, and was informed that he died at the very time\nthe voice proclaimed from the scorching flames, \"Antonio is coming.\"\nMr. Gresham, on his return to England, reported the strange\ncircumstances to the king, who had the facts confirmed by the\nmariners' oaths. So deeply was Mr. Gresham impressed with what he had\nheard, that he abandoned commerce, distributed nearly all his riches\namong his friends and the poor, and spent the remainder of his days in\npious works.\n\nA learned professor of moral philosophy in K\u00f6nigsberg, when a young\nman, was presented by William I. of Prussia with a small benefice in\nthe interior of the country, at a considerable distance from\nK\u00f6nigsberg. On taking possession of the parsonage, he slept in the\nbedroom which had been occupied by his predecessor, then dead. While\nlying awake in bed one morning, the curtains of his bed being drawn\naside, he beheld the figure of a man dressed in a loose gown, standing\nat a reading desk, whereon lay a large book, the leaves of which he\nappeared to turn over. On each side of the figure stood a little boy,\non whom he now and again looked earnestly. His countenance, pale and\ndisconsolate, indicated distress of mind. At length the figure closed\nthe book, and taking the children, one in each hand, he walked slowly\nwith them across the room, and disappeared behind an iron stove at the\nfarthest end of the apartment. The young parson was deeply affected by\nthe sight, but thought it prudent to divulge nothing at the time\nconcerning the apparitions. In nearly all Lutheran churches of the\nPrussian dominion, it was customary to procure and hang up in some\npart of the church the portraits of the pastors who had held the\nliving. On looking, soon after seeing the three figures, at the\nportraits suspended in one of the aisles, he was astonished to\ndiscover in the last-placed picture an exact likeness of the man he\nhad beheld in his bed-chamber. The sexton, with whom he entered into\nconversation, told him that he remembered several incumbents. \"The\nlast one,\" said he, \"we considered as one of the most learned and\namiable men who had ever resided among us. His character and\nbenevolence endeared him to all his parishioners; but he was carried\noff in the midst of his days by a lingering illness, the cause of\nwhich has given rise to many unpleasant reports. It is, however,\ncommonly believed that he died of a broken heart.\" The new incumbent's\ncuriosity being excited, he pressed the sexton to disclose what more\nhe knew of the subject. \"Nothing respecting it,\" answered he, \"is\nabsolutely known, but scandal has propagated a story of his having\nformed a criminal connection with a young woman in the neighbourhood,\nby whom, it is asserted, he had two sons. As confirmation of the\nreport, I know that there were two children who were seen at the\nparsonage--boys of about four or five years of age; but they suddenly\ndisappeared, some time before the decease of their supposed father,\nalthough to what place they were sent, or what became of them, all are\nignorant. It is equally certain that the surmises and unfavourable\nopinions formed respecting them reached his ears, and precipitated the\ndisorder of which he died.\" This information recalled to the new\npastor's mind, and seemed to give proof, of the existence of all that\nhe had seen. Soon after, when winter approached, it became necessary\nto light fires in various apartments in the parsonage. Some difficulty\nwas experienced in heating the room in which the figures of the man\nand two boys had appeared, as the stove not only smoked, but emitted\nan offensive smell. Having procured the assistance of a tradesman to\nmake an inspection, he discovered in the inside, at the farthest\nextremity, the bones of two small human bodies, corresponding exactly\nin size, as well as in other respects, with the description of the two\nboys who had been seen at the parsonage.\n\nMozart, the celebrated composer, was extremely apprehensive of death,\nand at all times he laboured under profound melancholy. The\ncircumstances attending the composition of his last piece were\nremarkable. One day, when his spirits were unusually depressed, a\nstranger, of a tall dignified appearance, was introduced. His manners\nwere grave and impressive. He told Mozart that he came to request he\nwould compose a solemn mass, as the requiem for the soul of a friend\nrecently lost, and whose memory he was desirous of commemorating by\nthis solemn service. Mozart undertook the task, and engaged to have it\ncompleted in a month. The stranger immediately paid a hundred ducats\nfor the piece, and departed. This visit, somehow, had a serious effect\non the mind of Mozart. He brooded over it for some time, then,\nsuddenly calling for writing materials, began to compose with\nextraordinary ardour. Severe application to his studies brought on\nfainting fits, and failing health compelled him to suspend his work.\n\"I am writing this requiem for myself,\" said he abruptly; \"it will\nserve for my funeral service.\" This impression never left him. At the\nexpiration of the month the mysterious stranger appeared, and demanded\nthe requiem. \"I have found it impossible,\" said Mozart, \"to keep my\nword; the work has interested me more than I had expected, besides I\nhave extended it beyond my first design. I shall require another month\nto finish it.\" The stranger made no objection, but, observing that for\nthis additional trouble it was but just to increase the price, laid\ndown fifty ducats more, and promised to return at the time appointed.\nAstonished at the stranger's proceeding, Mozart ordered a servant to\nfollow the singular person, to find out who he was. The servant,\nhowever, lost sight of him, and returned unable to communicate the\ndesired information. Mozart, persuaded that the stranger was a\nmessenger from the other world sent to warn him that his end was fast\napproaching, applied himself with fresh zeal to the requiem, and, in\nspite of the exhausted state of his body and mind, completed it before\nthe expiration of the month. On the day named the stranger returned,\nbut Mozart was no more.\n\nThe ghost of a lady who died in the fifteenth century from the effects\nof her husband's cruel treatment, long after her decease haunted the\ncastles of the allied families of Brandenburg, Baden, and Darmstadt,\nand other places far distant. The ghost was generally called \"the\nWhite Lady,\" in consequence of it appearing in white dress and in the\nveil, through the folds of which a faint light glimmered. She glided\nhither and thither along the corridors and apartments of castles and\npalaces. Her appearance gave certain indication that a member of the\nfamily at whose residence she showed herself was about to expire. At\nanother part of the country a white lady invariably looked in at the\nwindow of a house where a person was dying; and, at a third place, a\nwoman hovered in the air over the abode of one taking leave of earth.\n\nAt the commencement of the first French Revolution, Lady Pennyman and\nher daughters retired to Lisle, where they hired a large house at a\nsmall rent. During their residence in this abode, the lady received\nfrom her husband, Sir John Pennyman, a draft for a large sum, which\nshe carried to a banker in the town, and requested to have it cashed.\nShe received a considerable portion of the money in silver, and, as\nshe had several calls to make, she requested the banker to send the\nmoney in a parcel to her house. The parcel was committed to the care\nof a porter; and on the lady inquiring whether he understood from her\ndirections the place to which he was to proceed, the man replied that\nhe was perfectly aware of the place described--that it was called the\n\"Haunted House.\" She paid little attention to his remarks at the time,\nbut a few weeks afterwards his words were recalled to her recollection\nin a manner that surprised her. The housekeeper came to Lady Pennyman,\nand said that two of the servants, who had accompanied her ladyship\nfrom England, had that morning given warning, and expressed a\ndetermination to quit her ladyship's service, on account of being\nterrified, night after night, by mysterious voices in their\napartments. This caused her ladyship, who was a woman of strong nerve\nand an unbeliever in all that related to ghosts and haunted houses, to\nsleep in a room evacuated by one of the servants, hoping that, by so\ndoing, her domestics would change their minds and remain. She was\ngreatly surprised to see in the room a large iron cage, and much\nastonished to hear the legend respecting it. It was related that a\nlate proprietor of the house, a young man of great property, had in\nhis minority been confined in that apartment by an uncle, his\nguardian, until the privations and divers acts of cruelties he was\nexposed to ended fatally. Often had the youth been kept for days in\nthe iron cage without food. The unfeeling relative inherited the\nnephew's wealth, but, like all ill-gotten gear, it did not bring\nhappiness. Frightful dreams and dreadful sights compelled the uncle to\nleave the mansion, where he had murdered by inches a comely, docile\nyoung man, once the comfort of a fond mother and loving father. For a\nfew nights nothing of an alarming nature occurred; she began to hope\nthat confidence would be restored in her household, and that she would\nbe enabled to return in peace to her own proper sleeping apartment.\nHer expectations were not fulfilled. One night she was awakened by the\nsound of footsteps in the haunted chamber, generally known as the\n\"cage chamber,\" while her son, a young man, who had just returned from\nsea, was annoyed by loud knocking at his bedroom door, and strange\nfigures appearing before him. A friend, hearing of the noises and\napparitions, resolved to sleep in the \"cage room,\" that he might\nascertain, if possible, who or what it was that disturbed the family.\nLocking himself and a faithful dog into the \"cage chamber,\" he retired\nto rest, confident that he was secure against every intruder, whether\nmaterial or airy. His assurance was of short duration. He had not lain\nlong before his dog leaped into the bed, howling and terrified. The\nchamber door slowly opened, and a pale, thin, sickly youth came in,\nwalked to the iron cage in the centre of the room, leaned against the\niron bars, and, after remaining a short time, retired by the way he\nentered. The gentleman rose quickly to follow the ghost. On reaching\nthe door, it was fastened on the inside, as he had left it before\ngoing to bed. His courage, however, did not fail him, and he continued\nto watch the retiring figure. The youth descended the stair-case with\nslow measured steps to the ground floor, when the form sank into the\nearth. Every one was now convinced that the house was haunted: a panic\nensued, which ended in Lady Pennyman and her family abruptly leaving\nthe disturbed habitation.\n\nIt is well known that the celebrated Duchess of Mazarin was a\nfavourite of King Charles II., and Madame de Beauclair was a lady\nadmired and beloved by his brother and successor, James II. Between\nthese ladies there was an uncommon friendship. The two beauties were\nallotted handsome apartments in Stable Yard, St. James's, but, for\nobvious reasons, they had little conversation with the outer world. It\nwas agreed between the ladies, that she who should be first taken away\nby death, would return, if possible, and give the survivor an account\nof what was doing in the other world. This promise was often repeated;\nand the duchess happening to fall sick, and her life despaired of,\nMadame de Beauclair reminded her of their agreement. Her Grace replied\nshe might depend upon her performing what she had promised. These last\nwords passed between them not more than an hour before the lady's\ndeath. Years passed on, yet not a voice or sign came from the dead.\nMadame de Beauclair concluded that there was no such thing as\nexistence after death. Probably her mind would have remained\nunchanged, had not the Duchess of Mazarin at last appeared to her.\nOne evening Madame de Beauclair was sitting alone, when she happened\nto turn her eyes to a corner of the apartment, and lo! before her\nstood the form of the departed duchess. The figure moved through the\nroom, approached near the lady, and, looking with great sweetness,\nsaid, \"Beauclair, between the hours of twelve and one this night you\nwill be with me.\" Having said this, the spirit vanished. So convinced\nwas Madame de Beauclair, though in excellent health and spirits, that\nher dissolution was at hand, that she sent for her friends, to whom\nshe gave tokens of friendship, and summoned a clergyman to administer\nspiritual consolation. All who visited the lady endeavoured to\ndissuade her from giving way to thoughts which there seemed not the\nleast probability of being verified. \"Talk not to me,\" she said to\nthose who imagined she was labouring under a singular delusion, \"with\nthe view of making me believe that my eyes and ears have deceived me:\nmy time is short, and I would not have the small space allowed me to\nbe with you wasted in vain delusion. I know I have seen the Duchess of\nMazarin, and am convinced that her words will come true.\" Twelve\no'clock was about to strike, yet, to all appearance, Madame de\nBeauclair continued in good health. Another attempt, to no purpose,\nwas made to remove all apprehension of early dissolution. The only\nresponse that came was, \"I am already sick at heart.\" Her countenance\nsuddenly changed, and before half an hour expired she had entered the\nworld of spirits.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXIV.\n\n      Sir George Villiers' Ghost warning his Son of\n      Danger--Warnings Neglected--Duke of Buckingham\n      Murdered--Apparitions do not lie--Lord Lyttelton and\n      others profaning Christmas--A Troubled\n      Mind--Apparition of a Suicide--Neglected\n      Warning--Deception of Friends--Accusing a Ghost of\n      Falsehood--Approach of the Ominous Hour--Alarm--Lord\n      Lyttelton found Dead at the dreaded time--Death of an\n      old Roman King--Alarming Prodigies--Tales from the\n      _Eddas_--A Scandinavian Warrior's Ghost--An Icelandic\n      Lady's Ghost--Spectral Appearance--Mysterious Death of\n      a Herdsman--Fear of approaching Calamities--Man beaten\n      to Death by a Ghost--Association of Ghosts--Demon in\n      the shape of a Seal--Apparitions of Drowned\n      Men--Christians not disturbed by Spectres--A Band of\n      Demons thirty strong--Priest exorcising Evil\n      Spirits--Spirits frightened away.\n\n\nAn officer in the king's service at Windsor Castle, in the beginning\nof the seventeenth century, when a boy, was taken much notice of by\nSir George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham's father. The officer,\nafter he had reached manhood, was lying in bed one night, awake and in\ngood health, when he perceived a venerable form draw near his bed. The\napparition (for so it turned out to be) asked him if he knew who he\nwas. The frightened gentleman told the apparition that the figure of\nthe deceased Sir George Villiers stood before him. The apparition\nreplied that he was right, and that he (the gentleman) must go and\nacquaint Sir George's son, that unless he ingratiated himself into the\ngood opinion of the people, he would soon be cut off. Next morning the\ngentleman began to think his senses had deceived him, and therefore he\ndid not deliver the message. Next night the apparition appeared in a\nterrible aspect, and told him that, unless he complied with his\ncommands, he could not expect peace of mind. A promise to obey was\npromptly made. Again the gentleman tried to persuade himself that he\nhad been dreaming, and a second time broke his word. A third night the\nspectre appeared, reproaching him with breach of promise, and, after\nagain requesting him to deliver the message to the duke, uttered\nthreats of fearful punishment in case of non-compliance. Delay seemed\ndangerous, so the gentleman hastened to London, where the Court then\nwas, and entrusted Sir Ralph Freeman, who was married to a lady nearly\nallied to the duke, with the message. Sir Ralph communicated with the\nduke, who, however, could not receive the messenger, but sent him word\nthat next day he was going to hunt with the king, and that he would\nmeet him at Lambeth Bridge at five o'clock in the morning, where, if\nthe gentleman attended, he would speak to him. Sir Ralph, being\nsatisfied of the importance of having the message correctly delivered,\naccompanied the gentleman to the appointed place of meeting. The\nmessenger and the duke spoke privately for nearly an hour. Neither Sir\nRalph nor his servants could hear what was said, but they observed\nthat several times the duke laboured under great emotion. The duke\nrode off to meet the king, and the gentleman and Sir Ralph returned\ntogether. The man told Sir Ralph that when he mentioned certain facts\nto the duke, he swore that he could not have come to the knowledge of\nthem except through the devil, for the particulars he disclosed, as a\ntoken of him being sent by his deceased father, were profound secrets.\nThe duke returned from the hunting-field before the morning was past,\nand retired with his mother to her private apartments for two or three\nhours. On coming out his countenance was troubled. He received other\nwarnings, which were disregarded. The result may be anticipated. His\nGrace was stabbed on the 23d August 1628 by John Felton, a\ndiscontented lieutenant, at Portsmouth. When the news of the duke's\nmurder was brought to his mother, she received it with grief, but\nwithout surprise. She had long foreseen what would happen.\n\"Apparitions,\" she said, \"did not lie.\"\n\nLord Lyttelton, in the winter of 1778, left the metropolis with a\nparty of loose and dissipated companions to profane the Christmas by\nriotous debaucheries, at his country house, near Epsom. They had not\nlong abandoned themselves to their desperate orgies, before a sudden\ngloom came over the party by their host becoming extraordinarily\ndepressed in spirits and dejected of countenance. All his vivacity\ndeparted, and he fled from his guests. Urged to make known the cause\nof his uneasiness, he revealed the secret. He told them, that the\nprevious night, after retiring to bed, and his light extinguished, he\nheard a noise resembling the fluttering of a bird at his window.\nLooking to the window, he saw the figure of an unhappy female whom he\nhad betrayed, and who in consequence had committed suicide, standing\nin the window recess. The form approached the foot of his bed, and,\npointing her finger to a dial which stood on the mantel-piece,\nannounced that if he did not take warning and repent, his life and\nsins would be concluded at the same hour of the third day after the\nvisitation. By a preternatural light in the chamber he observed\ndistinctly everything around him. While the warning spirit was\nspeaking, he saw the time was twelve o'clock. Darkness came, and the\napparition disappeared. Lord Lyttelton's companions laughed at his\nsuperstitious fears, and endeavoured to convince him that he must have\nmistaken a dream for a real spiritual visitation. He felt somewhat\nrelieved by what they said, but was not altogether convinced or\nreassured. The fatal night approached, and, with the connivance of\nLord Lyttelton's attendants, the guests put all the clocks in the\nhouse an hour and a half too fast. They kept his lordship as lively as\npossible, but when ten o'clock struck he was silent and depressed;\neleven struck, the depression deepened; twelve struck: \"Thank God; I\nam safe!\" exclaimed the nobleman: \"the ghost was a liar, after\nall!--some wine--what a fool I was to be cast down by such a\ncircumstance! But,\" continued he, \"it is time for bed; we shall be up\nearly, and out with the hounds to-morrow. By my faith, it is half-past\ntwelve; so good night.\" He went to his chamber, ignorant that the\nominous hour was not yet past. His guests, notwithstanding their\navowed unbelief, remained together in fearful dread. They heard the\nvalet descending from his master's room; it was just twelve o'clock.\nLord Lyttelton's bell rang violently; the company ran to his\napartment, and found the unhappy nobleman lying in bed lifeless, with\nhis countenance terribly convulsed.\n\nShortly before the death of an old Roman king, several prodigies of an\nalarming nature appeared. When he first became sick there arose a\nviolent tempest of wind, which blew down the cross from one of the\nchurches. After this followed a terrible earthquake, which shook the\nwhole city. Moreover an old eagle, a domestic of the royal palace,\nthat had lived there many years, took wing the day before the king's\nsickness began, and flew away no one knew whither; then the bells of\nthe imperial chapel rang thrice of their own accord in the space of\ntwelve hours. Strange apparitions were seen at midnight, some of them\nhovering in the air, and others of them lurking about the palace\ncourt. In particular, a funeral procession, consisting of unearthly\nbeings, was observed one night going along the principal thoroughfare\nfrom the palace to the place of sepulchre, where the royal remains\nwere soon afterwards laid.\n\nFrom the _Eddas_ we learn that when these singular works were written\nor compiled, a belief must have prevailed of the existence of ghosts,\nspirits, and demons in various forms. We therefore propose giving a\nfew examples of ghost stories from the _Eddas_:--After the death of\nHelge (a Scandinavian warrior), a maid witnessed, in the evening, his\nghost, with a numerous train, riding into the cairn where Helge's\nremains were deposited. The brave damsel inquired whether it was an\nillusion she saw, to which the ghost replied that it was not. When the\nmaid told Sigrum, Helge's widow, what she had seen, the faithful\nmourning wife hastened to the cairn, and, on searching it, sure enough\nthere was the shade of her dead husband. It addressed her thus: \"Thou,\nSigrum, art the cause of Helge lying here, slain by the dew of sorrow.\nThou weepest burning tears, maid of the sun-glowing south; but we will\ndrink the precious mead together, though we have lost gladness and\nlands. Now are the brides closed in the cairns, and the princely\nmaidens laid beside us.\" Sigrum made a couch in the cairn, and invited\nthe spirit to rest there from all trouble, saying, \"Son of the\nYlfinga, I will sleep in thy arms as formerly, when my hero lived.\" To\nthis the ghost replied, \"No longer will I say thou art unfaithful,\nsince thou consentest to sleep in the embrace of the dead. And yet\nthou livest, offspring of kings. Let the pale steed tramp the steeps\nof the air. In the west must we be, by the bridge Vindhjalen, ere the\ncock in Walhalla wakes the sons of victory.\"\n\nFar back in the history of time, the ghost of a lady that died in\nIceland, whose deathbed commands were disregarded, returned to punish\nthe living for disregarding her injunctions. The lady's corpse was\nconveyed to a distant place of sepulchre. As the interment could not\ntake place the first day, the bearers, with their dead burden, reposed\nin a house over night. At midnight an apparition of the lady glided\nthrough the kitchen, and, on the night when the conductors of the\nfuneral returned home, a spectral appearance, resembling a half moon,\nmoved round the mansion in a direction opposite to that of the sun,\nand continued its revolution until the domestics retired to rest.\nThis apparition appeared every night for a week, and was pronounced by\ncertain wise sages as a presage of pestilence and death. A herdsman at\nthe mansion was, shortly after the lady's death, persecuted by demons,\nand one morning he was found dead in bed. One Thorer, who himself had\npredicted that the apparitions were come to give warning of\napproaching calamities, was the next victim. One evening he was set\nupon by the shepherd's ghost, and so fearfully beaten that he died in\nconsequence thereof. Evils continued to multiply: Thorer and the\nherdman's ghost associated themselves together in persecuting the\ninhabitants, several of whom fell victims to their rage. At times\nunseen agents upset tables and chairs, flung kitchen utensils about in\nall directions, and on other occasions a demon in the shape of a seal\nrose from the earth, to the dismay of a whole household. Thorodd, the\nmaster of the family, in crossing a river in a boat, was, along with\ntwo of his servants, drowned. Apparitions of the drowned men walked\nabout Thorodd's old residence, but the appearances did not much\ndisturb the people, who were Christians, as they believed that the\nspectres of such persons as had been favourably received by the\ngoddess Rana were accustomed to show themselves after death. So fast\ndid the demons increase in number that they became a great band of\nthirty, the exact number of people supposed to have had a period put\nto their existence by demons. Many fled from the neighbourhood,\nfearing that, if they remained, they would ere long be dead men, and\ntheir spirits infernal demons. Possibly their fears would have been\nrealized, had not a pious priest exorcised the evil spirits. By a\nplentiful application of holy water and celebration of a solemn mass,\nthey were frightened away, to return no more.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXV.\n\n      A Mysterious Hunter--Man and Horse supposed to be\n      Devils--Extraordinary Talents of the suspected\n      Hunter--Signs of Uneasiness--Terrible Shrieks--Groans\n      of Despair--Tortured Spirits--Severe\n      Flagellation--Disappearance of the Flagellant--Tales\n      of the Scotch Highlands--Witches in the shape of Hares\n      worried by Dogs--Croaking Raven--Death of a suspected\n      Witch--Resort of Witches and Evil Spirits--Spirits\n      hastening to a Church--Dogs in Pursuit--Black Man with\n      Eyes like Fire--Horse breathing Smoke and\n      Flame--Witch's Ghost and Demons sinking into the\n      Earth.\n\n\nA strange tale of a mysterious hunter is given in the _Letters_ of\nLord Lyttelton, the truth of which, it is said, was attested by\ngentlemen whose veracity was beyond question. We give an abridged\nversion of the tale:--\n\nIn the early part of --------'s life he attended a hunting club at\ntheir sports, when a stranger of genteel appearance, and well mounted,\njoined the chase, and was observed to ride with a degree of courage\nand address that called forth the utmost astonishment of every one\npresent. The beast he rode was of amazing power; nothing stopped them;\nthe hounds could never escape them; and the huntsman, who was left far\nbehind, swore that the man and his horse were _devils from hell_. When\nthe sport was over, the company invited this extraordinary person to\ndinner: he accepted the invitation, and astonished the company as much\nby the powers of his conversation, and by his elegance of manners, as\nby his equestrian prowess. He was an orator, a poet, a painter, a\nmusician, a lawyer, and a divine; in short, he was everything, and the\nmagic of his discourse kept the drowsy sportsman awake long after his\nusual hour. At length, however, wearied nature could be charmed no\nmore, and the company began to steal away by degrees to their repose.\nOn his observing the society diminish, he discovered manifest signs of\nuneasiness; he therefore gave new force to his spirits, and new charms\nto his conversation, in order to detain the remaining few some time\nlonger. This had some little effect; but the period could not be long\ndelayed when he was to be conducted to his chamber. The remains of the\ncompany retired also; but they had scarce closed their eyes, when the\nhouse was alarmed by the most terrible shrieks that were ever heard;\nseveral persons were awakened by the noise; but, its continuance being\nshort, they concluded it to proceed from a dog which might be\naccidentally confined in some part of the house; they very soon,\ntherefore, composed themselves to sleep, but were again soon awakened\nby shrieks and cries of still greater terror than the former. Alarmed\nat what they heard, several of them rang their bells, and when the\nservants came, they declared that the horrid sounds proceeded from the\nstranger's chamber. Some of the gentlemen immediately arose to inquire\ninto this extraordinary disturbance; and while they were dressing\nthemselves for that purpose, deeper groans of despair, and shriller\nshrieks of agony, again astonished and terrified them. After knocking\nsome time at the stranger's chamber door, he answered them as one\nawakened from sleep, declared he had heard no noise, and, rather in an\nangry tone, desired he might not be again disturbed. Upon this, they\nreturned to their chambers, and had scarce began to communicate their\nsentiments to each other, when their conversation was interrupted by a\nrenewal of yells, screams, and shrieks, which, from the horror of\nthem, seemed to issue from the throats of damned and tortured spirits.\nThe gentlemen listened attentively, and traced the sounds to the\nstranger's room, the door of which they instantly burst open, and\nfound him upon his knees in bed, in the act of scourging himself with\nthe most unrelenting severity, his body streaming with blood. On\ntheir seizing his hands to stop the strokes, he begged them, in the\nmost ringing tone of voice, as an act of mercy, that they would\nretire, assuring them that the cause of their disturbance was over,\nand that in the morning he would acquaint them with the reasons of the\nterrible cries they had heard, and the melancholy sight they saw.\nAfter a repetition of his entreaties, they retired; and in the morning\ntwo of them went to his chamber, but he was not there, and, on\nexamining the bed, they found it to be one gore of blood. Upon further\ninquiry, the groom said that, as soon as it was light, the gentleman\ncame to the stable, booted and spurred, and desired his horse might be\nimmediately saddled, and appeared to be extremely impatient till it\nwas done, when he vaulted into his saddle, and rode out of the yard at\nfull speed. Servants were immediately sent into every part of the\nsurrounding country, but not a single trace of him could be found;\nsuch a person had not been seen by any one, nor has he since been\nheard of.\n\nTales are related in the Scotch Highlands of witches being mortally\nworried by dogs while they (the witches) appeared in the likeness of a\nhare. They are so similar in all essential particulars, that one is\ninclined to think that they are different versions of the same story.\nHere, at all events, is one version:--A hunter, one early morning,\nobserved an old woman prowling about a glen in a suspicious manner.\nWishing to know what she was about, he watched her movements, and\nsucceeded in getting so near her that he was able to recognise her\nfeatures. She was a near neighbour of his own, held in good repute by\nall in the district. Observing him approaching, the old woman walked\naway quickly, to avoid him recognising her; but, as the hunter was\nlikely to overtake her, she transformed herself into the likeness of a\nhare, and darted away at great speed. The hunter's dog gave chase,\nand, after a long run, seized her. At that instant a shriek arose\nthat made the hills echo and re-echo. Hurrying forward to call off his\ndogs, the hunter came within a few paces of the spot where the\nstruggle was going on, when a raven rose from the ground and flew\naway, croaking angrily. A pool of blood marked the place, and his two\ndogs lay dead. On returning home, he learned that the old woman whom\nhe had seen transformed into a hare lay dangerously ill in her house.\nAt night she died. The same night another neighbour of the woman was\nreturning home, whistling to keep up his courage, for he had to pass\nthe old parish church and burying-ground, and walk through a wood, the\nfavourite resort of witches and evil spirits. As the deep shadows of\nthe forest were beginning to conceal the moon from view, he was\nstartled by the appearance of a woman running in the direction of the\nchurch. She asked if she could reach it by twelve o'clock. He answered\nthat he thought she could if she ran fast. His impression was that the\nvoice, face, and figure were those of the woman the hunter had\nsurprised in the morning. A little farther on he met two hounds\ncoursing along at great speed. In a few minutes he met a black man\nriding on a black horse. The horseman inquired whether the traveller\nhad seen a woman, and two dogs pursuing her. On replying in the\naffirmative, the horseman asked a second question, whether he thought\nthe dogs would overtake her before she went the length of the old\nchurch? With a faltering voice he said it was likely they would. The\nfrightened traveller, more dead than alive, observed that the black\nman had eyes like balls of fire, and that his horse breathed smoke and\nflame. As swift as his feet could carry him, the pedestrian hastened\nhomeward, trusting that the terrors of the night were past, yet\nfearing and trembling exceedingly. Having to pass the old woman's\nhouse, and seeing a light, he went in, and then learned that she was\ndead. He had no doubt that the human-like figure he saw running on\nfoot towards the church was the spirit of the departed witch, and that\nthe pursuers were demons. After condoling with the bereaved relations,\nhe took his departure from an abode cursed with the presence of a\nwitch's remains. Scarcely had he crossed the threshold before he\nobserved the black horseman riding swiftly towards the house, with the\nwoman lying across the saddle-bow, and the two dogs following close\nbehind. In an instant, man, woman, horse, and dogs sank into the\nground.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXVI.\n\n      Leading Churchmen subjected to the Onslaught of\n      Demons--Warfare with the Devil in corporeal\n      shape--Triumph of Churchmen--St. Maurus rebuking a\n      Troop of Evil Spirits--St. Romualdus' Five Years'\n      Conflict with Satan--The Faculty of St. Frances--St.\n      Gregory's Detection of the Devil entering a Man--A\n      Greedy Monk denied Christian Burial--Monk in\n      Purgatory--Institution of the Thirty Masses for the\n      Dead--An Excommunicated Gentleman of Rome hiring Pagan\n      Witches and Sorcerers--What befell them--St. Benedict\n      and the Blackbird's Song--A Monk restored to Life--St.\n      Benedict's Sister ascending to Heaven like a White\n      Dove--St. Francis' Dominion over Living Creatures and\n      the Elements--St. Catherine's Power over Evil\n      Spirits--St. Stanislaus' Miracles--A Dead Man giving\n      Evidence in a Court of Justice--The Dead refusing a\n      Renewal of Life--St. Philip Nerius and Evil\n      Spirits--Spirits ministering to St. Erasmus--St.\n      Norbert closing the Mouths of Evil Spirits--Story\n      relating to Henry I.--St. Margaret's Triumph--St.\n      Ignatius' Command over Devils--St. Stephen curing\n      Persons possessed of Devils--Satan's Hatred of St.\n      Dominick--St. Donatus endowing a Corpse with\n      Speech--St. Cyriacus, St. Largus, and St. Smaragdus,\n      the Martyrs--St. Clare--St. Bernard's Power--St.\n      C\u00e6sarius' Wonder-working Crook--St. Giles and the\n      Hind--St. Euphemia's Guardian Angels--St. Francis'\n      Spirit in Chariot of Fire--Devils blowing the Fire of\n      Discord--St. Bridget's Intercourse with Angels--St.\n      Denis' Spirit--St. Teresa and the Angels--St. Hilarian\n      a Match for Satan and his Sorcerers--Her Miracles--St.\n      Martin's Wonderful Power--St. Catherine's Body carried\n      by Angels to Mount Sinai--St. Francis Xaverius' Belief\n      in Virtue of Bells--St. Nicholas' Piety and\n      Powers--St. Ambrose's Power over Necromancers and\n      Spirits--St. Lucy raising her Mother from the\n      Dead--St. Anastasia sustained by Bread from\n      Heaven--St. Thomas enduring Martyrdom in Life and\n      after Death--Penance of Henry II.--Barbarous Conduct\n      of Henry VIII.--A Hungarian Legend.\n\n\nIf reliance can be placed on tradition and the writings of\nbiographers, good men (particularly those of them who took a leading\npart in the ancient Church) were subjected to dreadful onslaughts by\nSatan. Not only had they to contend with invisible spirits of\ndarkness, but they were compelled to carry on a continual warfare\nwith the devil, in corporeal shape, seeking to seduce them from their\nfaith. None were more frequently or fiercely assailed than the\ncanonised saints of the old Catholic Church. To their praise, however,\nbe it remembered, that almost invariably the Churchmen, sooner or\nlater, triumphed. Having good consciences, and being protected by\nwonder-working relics, the saints defied the enemy of mankind. Those\nseeking lengthened information on the subject should consult _The\nLives of the Saints, and the Calendars_, published by learned men, who\nbelieved what they wrote, and spoke that which they thought to be\ntrue. The subjoined sketches, read in connection with chapter XV.,\nbear out what is affirmed.\n\nSt. Maurus had an encounter with Satan and a whole squadron of his\nmonsters in bodily shape. At Maurus' rebuke the troop vanished, but\nnot before they made the monastery shake, and brought the affrighted\nmonks to their knees.\n\nSt. Romualdus may be said to have had a five years' conflict with\nSatan in visible forms. St. Frances had the faculty of seeing evil\nspirits when people beside her perceived nothing but natural forms.\nSt. Gregory witnessed the devil entering into a man who indulged in\nand loved lies. A monk who determined to throw off his habit and\nforsake the monastery, was set upon by the devil in the form of a\nblack dog. Other monks who broke their vows shared no better. Because\na monk had been guilty of hoarding up a large sum of money, contrary\nto the rules of his order, he was denied Christian burial, and his\nbody was cast upon a dunghill. After mass was said for the miser\nthirty days, the deceased monk appeared to a brother of his order and\ntold him that he had been in purgatory till that day. From this\nblessed liberation St. Gregory instituted the custom of saying thirty\nmasses for the dead. A gentleman in Rome, who was excommunicated by\nSt. Gregory for unlawfully putting away his wife, hired certain pagan\nwitches and sorcerers to torment the holy Pope. They caused the devil\nto enter into the Pope's horse, that it might cast the rider and crush\nhim to death. The holy father, becoming aware of the plot, cast out\nthe devil, and struck the witches and sorcerers with blindness. St.\nGregory was entreated to restore the witches and sorcerers to sight,\nbut he refused to do so, lest they should be tempted to return to\ntheir wicked art, and read books of magic and necromancy.\n\nSt. Benedict had his encounters with the tempter. One day the devil\ntransformed himself into a little blackbird, which fluttered about\nhim, and sang so sweetly that he was nearly drawn away from his\ndevotions and led into sin. By a higher power than his own he overcame\nthe enemy. He stripped himself of his clothes, and, casting himself on\na thicket of briars and thorns, mangled his body so severely that\nblood ran from him in streams. The devil on one occasion endeavoured\nto hinder the building of a monastery, and at another time he cast a\nstone at a young monk and killed him. St. Benedict, in his goodness,\nput the devil to flight, and restored the monk to life. This saint,\nwhile watching over the spiritual welfare of the monks with whom he\nwas associated, observed the devil riding on a mule to the monastery,\nand entering into an aged monk possessed of a covetous heart. Penance\nand a trust in holy relics drove the evil spirit away, and brought the\nmonk to a proper frame of mind. When a pious sister of St. Benedict\ndied, he saw her spirit in the likeness of a white dove ascending to\nheaven.\n\nSt. Francis, a devout servant of great sanctity, had dominion over all\ncreatures. Fire, air, water, and earth were also subject to him. He\ndrove away wicked spirits; he gave sight to the blind, speech to the\ndumb, health to those in decay, and life to the dead. The elements\ncould not affect him. He walked upon fire, held his hands in a\nburning hot oven without sustaining injury; and he and a companion\npassed over the sea upon his cloak spread on the waves.\n\nSt. Catherine resisted the devil in various guises. On one memorable\noccasion she witnessed two thieves being conveyed to the place of\nexecution, and tortured, in a cart. Instead of lamenting their sins,\nthey behaved like demons. Though no one else beheld anything unearthly\nnear the culprits, St. Catherine saw a multitude of devils provoking\nthem to blaspheme and curse. Having compassion on the unhappy men, she\nwent into the cart beside them, drove the evil spirits away, and\nbrought the condemned men to repentance before expiating their crimes.\n\nSt. Stanislaus performed miracles, and, as for evil spirits, he made\nthem fly as chaff before the wind. He cured sickness, and even gave\nlife to the dead. One instance of his supernatural power is worthy of\nremembrance. Stanislaus bought a piece of ground from a man named\nPeter, but received no receipt for the price paid. Peter died, and\nthen his heirs, to please the king, who desired to do Stanislaus an\ninjury, sought to have the land restored to them. An order of court\nwas about to be issued for the restoration of the land to Peter's\nheirs, when the saint craved three days to bring forward proof of the\nmoney having been paid. Accordingly an adjournment took place.\nMeantime Stanislaus fasted, prayed, and watched. At the termination of\nthe time appointed, the saint, having offered up the holy sacrifice of\nmass, went to Peter's grave and caused it to be opened; then, touching\nthe body with his crosier, the dead man came to life, followed the\nsaint to the court, testified, to the astonishment of all, that the\nland had been lawfully bought, and duly paid for. After this no one\ncould dispute the ownership of the land, which, we ought not to omit\nsaying, had been bought for the Church. St. Stanislaus offered Peter a\nrenewal of life for many years, but he who had been dead chose to\nreturn to the grave rather than to live longer a life of trouble. He\ntold the saint he was in purgatory, and that he had yet something more\nto suffer for his sins, but still he would prefer undergoing his\ndeserved punishment, that at last he might be free. St. Stanislaus\naccompanied Peter to the grave. Peter laid himself down in the dust,\nand the ground was closed over him, in the presence of a multitude of\npeople.\n\nSt. Philip Nerius encountered three infernal spirits while in the\nproper discharge of his Christian duties; and the ghosts of deceased\npersons were visible to him. After the saint's death he appeared to\nhis favourite followers, environed with a glorious light. Spirits\nministered to St. Erasmus, at one time breaking the fetters wherewith\nhe was bound, and at another speaking comforting words to him when he\nwas sad at heart. St. Norbert had the power of controlling devils, and\ncasting them out of possessed persons. Evil spirits went about in his\ntime revealing all the sins of professing Christians, until St.\nNorbert closed their mouths in reference to such shortcomings as had\nbeen confessed to a priest. After the saint's death, he appeared to\ndivers persons who knew him in life.\n\nThe following story is told of Henry I.:--At the time he was dying, a\nhermit saw the devil, in human shape, running in the direction where\nthe emperor lay. \"Whither passest thou?\" demanded the hermit. \"I am\ngoing,\" said the fiend, \"to be present at his Majesty's death.\" \"Come\nagain,\" said the hermit, \"and tell me how far thou hast succeeded.\"\nWithin a short time Satan returned, howling and crying out, \"Woe, woe\nto us, we are cozened, and have lost our labour; all our slight and\npower have come to nought; the angels have confounded us and driven us\naway. As the works and merits of the soul were examined and weighed in\nthe balance, in presence of us and the angels, and our scale began to\nsink down with the weight of his sins, there stepped in a burned man\nwith a golden cup and put it into the other scale, which caused it to\ndescend with great force. Seeing this, the angels cried out 'Victory,'\nand conveyed away the soul with them, leaving us nothing but shame,\nignominy, and confusion.\" The renowned martyr St. Lawrence turned out\nto be the burned man the devil saw with the cup.\n\nSt. Margaret at one time had a severe encounter with a serpent that\nappeared with death in his looks. She triumphed then as well as at\nother times. The enemy wounded her sorely and often, but she was\ncured, and ever afterwards had peace.\n\nSt. Ignatius had a strange command over the devils, who abhorred and\npersecuted him as their great enemy. Both at Paris and Rome the devils\nappeared to him in ugly shapes. Before he prevailed they nearly choked\nhim, and scourged him so sorely that he did not recover for some time.\nIn St. Ignatius' life-time the arch-fiend seems to have had\nconsiderable power. At one time he possessed a child, a woman, and a\nsoldier, and raised tempests and furious storms. How far the mischief\nwould have been continued no one can tell, had not this saint\nwithstood him to the face. It fell upon a time that the holy fathers,\nin a certain Loretto college, were greatly disturbed night and day by\ndevils making a hideous noise, and appearing like black-a-moors, cats,\nbears, and other beasts. Recourse was had by saying holy mass,\nprayers, sprinkling holy water, using exorcisms, and applying relics\nof saints, without effect. Father Ignatius' assistance was ultimately\nsolicited; and he, without much difficulty, drove away the tormentors\nas if they had been as many mice.\n\nSt. Stephen exercised great control over Satan. The saint cured no\nfewer than threescore and thirteen persons possessed of devils.\n\nSatan had a deadly hatred against St. Dominick, and often endeavoured\nto destroy his soul and body. St. Donatus was another mark at which\nthe devil shot his fiercest arrows; but a man who raised the dead, as\nthis saint did, did not stand in fear of an evil spirit. St. Donatus\nraised to life a woman that died suddenly without informing her\nhusband where she had concealed a sum of money belonging to him. From\nthe mouth of the grave the resuscitated woman told where the treasure\nlay. A dishonest creditor was proved to be a false swearer and cheat\nby a corpse endowed with speech by St. Donatus.\n\nSt. Cyriacus, St. Largus, and St. Smaragdus drove evil spirits not\nonly out of afflicted persons, but out of the country. Cyriacus, in\nparticular, was so famous for his power over evil spirits, that\nprinces in distant lands solicited his assistance to banish the demons\nto their own peculiar place of torment.\n\nThe holy virgin, St. Clare, though a feeble woman, fought and\nprevailed over the devil that came to her in the form of a black man.\n\nSt. Bernard cured persons possessed of devils, and he performed\nmiracles with a crook of St. C\u00e6sarius. The former used his staff as a\nmiracle-working instrument.\n\nSt. Giles was miraculously preserved by a hind sustaining him with her\nmilk in a cave; and such was the saint's care over the helpless\nanimal, that on two occasions he drew a line on the ground over which\na pack of hounds chasing the hind could not pass, although there was\nnothing visible to restrain them.\n\nSt. Euphemia had her guardian angels that protected her from the\nviolence of her enemies, who sought to burn her in an oven full of\npitch, brimstone, and tow. She came out of the oven unhurt, but two\nmen who laid hands on her were consumed by the flames. Wild beasts\nrefused to devour her in their dens, and iron lost its force on her.\nSt. Euphemia's time came however, and she met her fate as a martyr\nwith Christian fortitude.\n\nSt. Francis' spirit appeared in a chariot of fire, sweeping through\nthe air. Over a city distracted by factions and civil broils, he saw\nthe devils very jocund, blowing the fire of discord. With a loud voice\nhe commanded the spirits to depart; they obeyed him, and the city was\nrestored to peace and concord.\n\nSt. Bridget possessed the faculty of witnessing angels, and enjoyed\nthe privilege of having them for her companions; nevertheless, she had\nto sustain many conflicts with the devil. One time she saw Satan in a\ndreadful shape, with a hundred hands and as many feet. Terrified, she\nfled from the horrid monster and took shelter near a holy relic, where\nshe was safe. In a sad hour of affliction the spirit of St. Denis\nappeared to her, and told her he would be her protector ever\nafterwards. She certainly, if report be true, turned out to be a saint\nendowed with extraordinary power, which enabled her to give sight to\nthe blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, and health to the\nsick; and, moreover, we are informed that she raised ten dead persons\nto life. On account of these miracles, and for her most holy life,\nPope Boniface IX. canonised her, and put her in the number of the\nsaints.\n\nSt. Gregory of Tours recounts numerous miracles wrought by St. Denis\nin life, and after his death. St. Teresa had glorious visions; and\nafter, in her walks and seclusions, had the company of angels with\nbeautiful countenances and corporeal shapes. In particular, one angel\nof the order of the Seraphim attended her in times of danger with a\nflaming sword, to drive back her enemies. Among St. Teresa's other\npowers was one of no mean importance--the power of delivering souls\nout of purgatory. Her faith in holy water was great, for by its force\nshe swept away devils as by a mighty river.\n\nSt. Hilarian was a match for Satan and his sorcerers. A young man,\ndesperately in love with a lady of rare beauty and chastity, who\nrejected his advances, applied to certain sorcerers, ministers of the\ntemple of Esculapius. By means of their evil devices the damsel began\nto love her admirer extravagantly; indeed, so much so, that her\nemotions savoured more of madness than of true affection. Her parents\nlaid her at St. Hilarian's feet, and he immediately drove out a devil\nthat had taken possession of the maiden, both bodily and mentally. At\none time St. Hilarian did what at first seemed invaluable service to\nthe neighbourhood in which he lived. The people besought him to send\nrain, as their crops were withering away, and their cattle dying of\nthirst. He sent what they desired, but the rain bred serpents and\nvenomous creatures, which destroyed the fruits of the earth and\ninjured the inhabitants. Like St. Patrick, he drove away the reptiles,\nand healed the people who had been wounded by them. St. Hilarian also\nconsumed, as with fire, a dragon of enormous size which swallowed\noxen, devoured men, and laid waste the country far and near.\n\nSt. Martin, like many other saints, possessed the wonderful power of\nbringing the dead to life. It was said he had dominion over devils and\nmen, over the heavens and the elements, over diseases, and over all\nbirds and beasts of the field.\n\nSo holy was St. Catherine, that, when she died, angels carried her\nbody to Mount Sinai and buried it there, that her persecutors might\nnot discover where she was laid. From her place of sepulture a sweet\nsmell long continued to pervade the neighbourhood.\n\nAlthough it would appear that all saints had many gifts and graces,\ncertain of them possessed peculiar talents denied to others. St.\nFrancis Xaverius, for instance, held the elements in his power. He was\nalmost constantly at war with the devil and the flesh. To frighten\naway the one he kept ringing a bell by night, and to subdue the other\nhe wore a hair shirt, lived on spare diet, and slept on hard boards or\nlay on the cold ground.\n\nSt. Nicholas was so uncommonly good a Catholic, that, even when an\ninfant at the breast, he would not suck his mother's breast but once\non the Wednesdays and Fridays. He, too, controlled the winds and\nwaves, and sent the evil spirit away howling through the tempest.\n\nSt. Ambrose, of ever blessed memory, controlled sorcerers and\nnecromancers, and made even the evil spirits obedient to him. On the\nday of the saint's death the devils flew away, crying that they were\ntormented by St. Ambrose.\n\nSt. Lucy raised her mother from the dead, and conquered demons.\n\nSt. Anastasia had power over Satan, and was for two months sustained\nby bread from heaven. And what shall we say of St. Thomas and many of\nthe other saints who triumphed so gloriously in their day? St. Thomas,\nArchbishop of Canterbury, we are told, endured martyrdom twice--once\nin life, and again after death. To subdue the flesh, he scourged\nhimself until the blood ran down his body. He kept long night vigils,\nand wore a hair shirt. In a vision he was told that he would\nillustrate the Church with his blood--a prediction that was fulfilled.\nIt being proved that Henry II. was implicated in the foul deed, he had\nto do penance in public and private before being absolved. Many years\nafterwards, Henry VIII. commanded the dead saint to be summoned before\nhim, and having condemned him as a traitor, directed his name to be\nerased from the catalogue of saints; forbade, under pain of death, his\nday to be celebrated, or his name to be mentioned as a saint; and\nordered that his name should be blotted out of every book and calendar\nin which it appeared. The revengeful king also commanded that the\nsaint's relics should be burned, and the ashes thereof scattered to\nthe winds.\n\nWith the following old tale in verse we close our collected\ninformation on Demonology--a tale founded upon one of the most\nextraordinary events recorded in the annals of the human mind. Not a\ncentury and a half ago all the circumstances which form the romance,\nwith the addition of many others nearly as ridiculous, were not only\nfirmly believed by the peasants of a few Sclavonian villages, among\nwhom they were supposed to have happened, but were received as truths,\nand seriously commented upon by learned divines and physicians of the\nsurrounding provinces. A superstition somewhat similar appears to have\nprevailed in Bohemia and Silesia previous to the days of Dr. Henry\nMore, who details several of the stories to which it gave rise, in his\n_Philosophical Works_:--\n\n    \"I left the chaulkie Cliftes of olde Engl\u00f2nde,\n      And paced thro' many a Countrie faire to see,\n    Thorowe the Reaulme of Greece and Holie-Londe,\n      Untill I journeied into sadde Hongr\u00ece.\n\n    I sawe olde Cecrops' Towne, and famous Rome;\n      But Davyd's holie place I liked beste:\n    I sawe dire Sightes before I found my Home,\n      But much the direst at the Towne of Peste.\n\n    It was a goodlie Citie, fayre to see;\n      By its prowde Walles and towering Mosques it gave\n    A delicate Asp\u00e8ct to the Countr\u00e8e,\n      With its Bridg of Boates acrosse the Danow's Wave.\n\n    Yet manie thinges with Woe I did surveie;\n      The Stretes were overgrowne with spiery grasse;\n    And, though it was upon a Sabbath-daie,\n      No Belles did ringe to calle the Folke to Masse.\n\n    The Churchyardes all with Barrs were closed fast,\n      Like to a sinfulle and accursed place;\n    It shewd as though the Judgment-daie were past,\n      And the Dedde exiled from the Seate of Grace.\n\n    At last I met an old sadde Man, and asked\n      Where a tired Traveller maye finde repose.\n    The Old Man shook his Hed, and wold have passed;\n      But I caught him by his Arme and held his Clothes.\n\n    'Straunger,' said he, 'in Marie's name departe!'\n      (Soe saying, wold agen have passed me by);\n    His hollow Voyce sank depe into my Harte:\n      Yet I wold not let him goe, but asked Why?\n\n    'It now is Morne,' quoth he, 'the Sun shines brighte,\n      And the Springe is blithe, save in the Walles of Peste;\n    But, were it Winter wylde, and a stormie Nighte,\n      Not here, O Straunger, sholdst thou seeke to reste;\n\n    'Though Rayne in Torrents powred and cold Winds blew,\n      And thou with travelling tired and with Hunger pale.'\n    'Though the Sun,' sed I, 'shine brighte and the Daie be new,\n      I will not goe, till I have herd thy Tale.'\n\n    This woefull Wight then took me by the Hande;\n      (His, like a Skeletonne's; was bonie and cold).\n    He seemed as though he scarse cold goe nor stande,\n      Like one o'er whom full fourscore years had rold.\n\n    We came together to the Market-Crosse,\n      And the Wight all woe-begon spake not a Word.\n    No living thinge along our Waie did passe,\n      (Though dolours Grones in evrie House I herd).\n\n    Save one poore Dogge that walked athwart a Court,\n      Fearfullie howling with most pyteous Wayle.\n    The sadde Man whistled in a dismall sort,\n     And the poore thinge slunk away, and hid his Tayle.\n\n    I felt my verie Bloud creepe in my vaynes;\n      My Bones were icie-cold; my Hayr on ende.\n    I wishd myself agen uponn the Playnes,\n      Yet cold not but that sadde old Man attende.\n\n    The sadde old Man sate down upon a Stone,\n      And I sate on another by his Side;\n    He heaved mournfullie a pyteous Grone,\n      And then, to ease my doubts, himself applied.\n\n    'Straunger!' quoth he, 'Behold my Visage welle,\n      And graspe this bonie Hand so thinne agenn!\n    How manie Winters thinkest thou I telle?'\n      I answered doubtinglie: 'Three-Score and Tenn.'\n\n    'Straunger! not fourty yeares agoe I lay\n      A puling Infant in my Nurse's arms:\n    Not fourty daies agoe two Daughters gay\n      Did blesse my Vision with their dawning Charms.\n\n    'Yet now I am an olde and worn-out Man,\n      And evrie droppe of Bloud hath left my Vaynes;\n    Als' my fayr Daughters twaine lie cold and wan\n      And bloudless, bound in Deathe's eternal Chaynes.\n\n    'Straunger! This Towne, so pleasant to our sightes,\n      With goodlie Towers and running Streames so faire,\n    Whilom for tender Maydes and doughtie Knightes\n      From all Hungaria's Londe the Prize did beare.\n\n    'But now, the verie fewe that here remayne\n      Are sobbing out their Breath in sorie Guise;\n    All that might flie, have fled this mournfull playne\n      But onlie I, who wishe to close mine eyes.\n\n    'Seaven Weekes are gon since owr Townesfolke beganne\n      To wax both pale and sadd, yet none knewe why:\n    The ruddiest Visage yellowe seemed and wanne,\n      Our stoutest Youthes for very cold did cry.\n\n    'Some Doctours sed the Lakes did Agewes breede,\n      But Springe returning wold the same disperse;\n    Whyles others, contrarie to Nature's creede,\n      Averred the Heate itself wold make us worse.\n\n    'And though we leugh at these, like Doaters fonde,\n      Or Menn that love in Paradox to deale;\n    Yett, as the Sunn grew warme, throughout the Londe,\n      All Menn the more did wintr\u00ece shiverings feele.\n\n    'One miserable Wight did pyne and wane,\n      And on the seaventh Daie gave upp the Ghoste;\n    His Corse was oped by a Chirurgeon of fame\n      Who found that evrie dropp of bloud was loste.\n\n    'Nathless, our People though they pined and pined,\n      Yet never did our appetites decaye;\n    Whole Oxen scarse suffised when we dined,\n      And we cold drinke whole hogsheds of Tokaye.\n\n    'Soone Hundereds evrie daye gave up the Ghoste,\n      (Els' we a Famine in our Lande had bredde).\n    And, to repayr the Bloud that we had loste,\n      Our Beastes we killd and ate, but never bledde.\n\n    'Thus, by the Eve, our Colour freshe arose,\n      And we did look agen more briske and gay.\n    All Nighte deepe Slumbers did our Eye lidds close,\n      But worse and worse we wax by Breake of Daie.\n\n    'There was a taylour, Vulvius by name,\n      Who long had dwelt at Peste in honest pryde;\n    A Godlie Man he was esteemed by Fame,\n      And since some twelvemonths of a Feaver dyde.\n\n    'Now when at last this straunge Disease had growne\n      To suche a Highte as neer was heard afore,\n    Among the reste in our unhappie Towne\n      My youngest Daughter was afflicted sore.\n\n    'One Nighte it happed, as she was slepyng laied,\n      Her wayting Girle at Midnight left her roome\n    To fetch some possett, brothe, or gellie, made\n      To quelle the plague that did her life consume.\n\n    'When, as she softly shut the Doore, she heard\n      An heavie Thinge come lumbering upp the Stayres,\n    Whereon the buried Tailour soone appeard\n      And She (poor Mayd) full loud 'gan saye her Prayres.\n\n    'Shrowded he was, as when his Corse was laied\n      Under the Earthe, and buriall Service redde;\n    Nor yet was he a Ghoste, for his Footsteppes made\n      A Noyse more hevie than a Tunne of Ledde.\n\n    'She sawe him ope my Daughter's chamber-Doore,\n      And had no Spirit to persewe nor flie,\n    And Vulvius agen, in half an houre,\n      Lumbered downe Stayres yett much more hevilie.\n\n    'This Storie herd, I cold not chuse, but smild\n      To think the seelie Mayd such Feares cold shake,\n    Yet the next Nighte, to prove such Phan'sies wild,\n      I kept myself untille Midnighte awake;\n\n    'Whenn as the Midnight-Houre was past, I heard\n      An hevie thinge come lumbering upp the Stayre;\n    The Tailour Vulvius to my Sights appeard--\n      I could not follow to my Daughter fayre.\n\n    'Next Day, untoe a Convent nighe I hied,\n      And found a reverend Father at his prayer;\n    I told him of the Wonderres I had spied,\n      And begged his ghostlie Counsel I may share.\n\n    'Together to Sainct Stevenn's Churche we went,\n      And he a Prayer on evrie Gravestone made,\n    Till at the Tailour Vulvius' Monument\n      We stopped--we broughte a Mattocke and a Spade;\n\n    'We digged the Earthe wherein the Tailour lay;\n      Tille at the Tailour's Coffin we arrived,\n    Nor there, I weene, much Labour found that Day,\n      For evrie Nayle was drawen and the Hinges rived.\n\n    'This Sighte was straunge--but straunger yet remaynd,\n      When from the Corse the cered Clothes we tore;\n    The Veynes seemed full of Bloud, the Lipps distained,\n      All dripping with my Daughter's new-suck'd gore.\n\n    'When through own Towne this Sighte we had proclaimed,\n      A dismall Horrour chilled our Townsmen's hartes;\n    The Vampyre (So our Priest the Tailour nam'd)\n      Their Midnight-sleeps disturbed with feaverish startes.\n\n    The Churchyardes straight were ransacked all throughout\n      With Pick-ax, Shovell, Mattocke, and with Spade;\n    But evrie Corse that we did digge thereout,\n      Did shewe like living Menn in Coffins laied.\n\n    'It was the Corses that our Churchyardes filled,\n      That did at Midnight lumberr up our Stayres;\n    They suck'd our Bloud, the gorie Banquet swilled,\n      And harrowed everie Soule with hydeous Feares.\n\n    'And nowe the Priestes burnd Incense in the Quire,\n      And scattered Ave-Maries o'er the Graves,\n    And purified the Church with lustrall Fire,\n      And cast all thinges prophane to Danowe's Waves.\n\n    'And they barr'd with Boltes of Iron the Churchyard-pale\n      To keepe them out; but all this wold not doe;\n    For when a Dead-Man has learn'd to draw a naile,\n      He can also burst an iron Bolte in two.'\n\n    The sadde old Man was silent--I arose,\n      And felt great Grief and Horrour in my Breste.\n    I rode nine Leagues before I sought repose,\n      And never agen drew nigh the Walles of Peste.\"\n\n\n\n\nMAGIC AND ASTROLOGY.\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXVII.\n\n      Magic a Study among the Learned--Plato and Pythagoras\n      travelled to learn the Art, and taught it--How to\n      subdue a Furious Bull--How to make a tough Fowl\n      tender--Eagles' Feathers--Power of a Small\n      Fish--Speakers made Eloquent by Magical Art--Virtue of\n      Gems--How Jewels should be set--When they are to be\n      Graven--Various Magical Operations--Cures effected by\n      Hippocrates--Democritus on Magic--Many Charms--Evil\n      Spirits--Magicians sacrificing to the Planets--Vessels\n      and other articles used for Magical purposes--Success\n      in Magic--Magician's Power to produce Monstrous\n      Creatures--Egyptian Magicians--Horses' and Asses'\n      Heads--Magical Circles--Throwing Old Shoes--Figures on\n      Shoes--A Hangman's Soul--Directions for raising Ghosts\n      and Spirits.\n\n\nMagic was, in ancient times, a favourite study among the learned.\nPlato, Pythagoras, and other men of note, travelled over many\ncountries to learn this art. After studying for a long time, they\npublicly communicated the knowledge of magic to students from every\nquarter of the globe. The knowledge acquired by magicians, if real,\nwas wonderful. One discovered that, by tying a bull to a fig tree, the\nanimal, though of a furious nature, instantly became subdued. The same\nauthority states that, by hanging an old tough fowl on the same\ndescription of tree, it would become tender. Another professor of\nmagic taught that the feathers of an eagle, mixed with those of other\nbirds, would consume them, and that a small fish called Remora could\nstop the progress of a ship at sea. Magicians supplied precious stones\nto public speakers, the possession of which made them eloquent, and\nbrought them into favour with princes. A certain gem carried in a\nhusband's pocket made him love his wife, and enabled him to overcome\nhis enemies. Coral was a preventative against witchcraft, hence the\nfashion of ladies and children wearing necklaces and bracelets of this\nmaterial. Hyacinth brought down rain, obscured the sun, and preserved\nfrom lightning. One stone resisted drunkenness, so that the bearer\ncould be able to drink freely without becoming intoxicated. A\nchalcedony made the wearer lucky at law, increased the vigour of one's\nbody, and prevented illusions of the devil. Those acquainted with\nmagical art concluded that all stones possessed virtues, infused into\nthem by the influence of planets. Alexander, Hermes, Zoroaster, and\nseveral other ancients, entertained this opinion. Magicians were the\nfirst to set stones in rings--an invention which, if not beneficial to\nman and woman, has helped to adorn their persons.\n\nGems used for magical purposes required to be set in such metals as\nhad affinity with the planets whereby they (the gems) were influenced.\nThe image of Saturn should be made in lead; of Sol, in gold; of Luna,\nin silver; of Jupiter, in tin; of Mars, in iron; of Venus, in copper;\nof Mercury, in quicksilver. A proper time should be observed for the\ngraving of magical figures. If love is to be procured, the graving\nmust be done under proper and friendly aspects, as in the hour of\nVenus. Such signs as ascend in the day must be taken in the day. If\nthey increase in the night, then the work must be done in the night.\nWise men tell us that an olive planted by a virgin will thrive, but if\nby an unchaste woman it will wither. If a serpent be found in a hole,\nit may be safely pulled out by the left hand, but to attempt to do so\nwith the right would be dangerous.\n\nLearned writers on magic say that if one take a new knife, and cut a\nlemon with it while the operator is expressing words of hatred or\ndislike against a person he or she may wish evil to, the object of\nhatred will feel uneasy, and become unwell. If a live pigeon be cut\nthrough the heart while an evil wisher is venting curses against a\nfriend or neighbour, the individual against whom the evil wishes are\nmade will suffer in body and mind. A man will be put in great fear if\nhis image, prepared according to the arts of magic, be suspended by a\nsingle hair or thread, however far distant he may be from the scene of\noperation. If a person suffering from toothache or asthma catch a live\nfrog before sunrise, and spit into its mouth, immediate relief will be\nthe result. If the plague or any epidemic disease threaten a village\nor town, the disorder will be stayed by a live toad being suspended\nfor three or four days in a chimney. The dried body of a dead toad,\nworn in the breast, prevents the possessor of the charm from being\ninjured by any infectious disease. Hippocrates had great honours\nconferred on him on account of the cures he effected by the\napplication of certain parts of reptiles to disordered persons. The\nheart of a toad, suspended by a blue ribbon round the neck, will cure\nthe king's evil. Rape seed, sown with cursing and imprecation, grows\nbetter, we are told, than when the seed is blessed. If one wear a\ngirdle of civet-cat skin in battle, he will escape unhurt. Those\nskilled in such secrets say they can be easily explained. In their\narguments they point to the antipathy of certain natural things,\nanimate and inanimate, to other things in nature. The wing of a bat\nand the heart of a lapwing repel evil spirits and wicked passions; the\nbustard flies off when a horse comes in sight, and the hart bounds\naway at the sight of a ram or viper; a lion trembles at the crowing of\na cock. If one swallow the heart of a lapwing, mole, or weasel, taken\nfrom the animal when alive, it will improve his understanding, and\nenable him to prophesy.\n\nDemocritus says that if one cut the tongue out of a live frog, and lay\nit on a woman's breast opposite her heart, she will be compelled to\nanswer every question put to her. Dogs will never attack a person that\nhas a weasel's tail in his pocket or breast, provided the appendage\nhas been severed from the little animal when it was alive. If one has\na chameleon's tongue, cut out before the creature's death, he may defy\nall the sharpers in the world. If the blood of a civet-cat be\nsprinkled on the doors and windows of a house, witches and sorcerers\nwill be prevented from entering it or molesting the inmates thereof.\nIf an enemy desire to render any one hateful to friends and\nneighbours, it may be done by the touch of an ointment composed of the\nashes of a calcined ankle-bone of a man, oil extracted from the left\nfoot of the same body, and the blood of a weasel. Civet-cat gut tied\nround a man's left arm, makes all the ladies look on him with favour;\nand civet-cat skin worn as a cap, protects the wearer against the art\nof witches. If a stone that has been in a mad dog's mouth be put into\nale handed round at a feast, discord will take place. If a bone taken\nfrom a toad's left side be secretly put into any part of a woman's\ndress, it will kindle her love into a burning flame; but if the\ncorresponding bone of the toad's right side be used, the most ardent\nlove of the woman will be cooled. If the snaffle of a bridle be made\nof a sword that has killed a man, the rider may with ease control a\nhorse, however wild the animal may be; and if a sword that has been\nused in beheading a person be dipped in wine, it will impart a\nmedicinal virtue to the liquor.\n\nPliny is accountable for a few of the foregoing and many other similar\nstories, all of which were believed at one time.\n\nFires kindled with human fat or oil frightens away evil spirits. On\nthe other hand, vapours exhaled from certain suffumigations induce\nspirits to appear. The lungs of an ass, when burned, drive evil\nspirits away. Magicians say that if gold or silver be hid when the\nmoon is in conjunction with the sun, and the place be perfumed with\nsaffron, henbane, and black poppy, the treasure will never be\nfeloniously carried away, for spirits will constantly watch over it.\nThe blood of doves, lapwings, and bats possesses peculiar\nvirtues--attracting spirits to places where they may be required to\nappear, and exciting love passions.\n\nMagicians, when sacrificing to the planets with the view of securing\ntheir diabolical ends, throw into the flames such things as raise a\npleasant perfume when they wish to perform good actions; but when they\ndesire to bring about wicked results, they raise disagreeable smells.\nWhen soliciting the aid of the sun, it was customary to take the brain\nof an eagle or the blood of a white cock; when appealing to the moon,\nthe blood of a goose was supposed to be good; when sacrificing to\nSaturn, the brain of a cat and the blood of a bat were indispensable;\nwhen soliciting Jupiter's assistance, the blood of a swallow or stork\nand the brains of a hart were recommended; when sacrificing to Mars,\nthe blood of a man or of a black cat was thought best; and when\nMercury was sacrificed to, the brain of a fox or of a weasel and the\nblood of a magpie were burned on the altar.\n\nAll instruments, vessels, and other things used for magical purposes\nwere recommended to be new; and when a magical missive was to be\nwritten, the parchment was prepared from the skin of a black kitten,\nthe pen was a feather plucked from a live crow or raven, and the ink\nconsisted of human blood, or a preparation of calcined cuttle-fish\nbones, nutgalls, and rain water, prepared in the day and hour of\nSaturn.\n\nIn order to secure success in the magical art, it was necessary for\nthe operator to have his whole soul in his work, otherwise his labour\nwas in vain. Ancient philosophers have informed us that when the human\nmind is intent upon magical work, it is joined with the mind and\nintelligence of the stars, and hence the wonderful result of secret\nart.\n\nMagicians pretended to possess the power of producing monstrous\ncreatures, even devils. They could, if their statements can be relied\nupon, create a cockatrice by artificially hatching an egg in a\npreparation of arsenic and the poison of serpents. The ashes of a\nburned duck, treated in a magical manner, produced a huge toad.\nNumerous writers conclude that there are two species of toads--the one\nproduced by ordinary generation, and the other by devilish science.\nPlutarch and more modern writers say that frogs descend from the\nclouds in rain. Egyptian magicians produced proof of mice, frogs, and\nserpents growing out of earth and flowers. It was said that Damnatus\nHispanus could make them in any number he pleased.\n\nBy certain charms, magicians could place a horse or an ass's head upon\na man's shoulders, and change the head of an inferior animal into that\nof a human pate.\n\nMagicians attached great importance to their circles. One of the\nfraternity, when about to proceed with his secret art, clothed himself\nwith a black robe reaching to the knee, and under that a white garment\nof fine linen. He then took his position in the centre of the place\nwhere he intended to perform his conjurations, and, throwing his old\nshoes about ten yards from the circle, put on consecrated sandals with\ncurious figures on each. (Here we may observe that not a few\nantiquarians are of opinion that from these practices arose the custom\nof persons throwing old shoes after newly-wedded pairs and others for\nluck, and of shoemakers making fanciful outlines on shoes by means of\npegging and stitching.) With a magical wand of hazel the magician\nstretched forth his arm to the four winds, turning himself round to\nevery wind, and beseeching his \"master\" to consecrate the circle. All\nthese ceremonies being performed, he claimed the consecrated ground as\na defence from all malignant spirits, that they might not have power\nover his soul or body.\n\nThe most suitable time for making circles was during bright\nmoonlight, or when storms of wind or thunder were raging, because then\nthe infernal spirits were nearer the earth than at other times, and\ncould more easily hear the invocations of those who sought their\nassistance. Magical circles were recommended to be formed at dark\nlonely places--either in woods or deserts, or in places where three\nways met, or among ruins of castles, abbeys, or monasteries, or on the\nsea-shore. But if the conjuration was to raise the ghost of one\ndeceased, the fittest places for the purpose were spots where persons\nhad been slain, woods in which suicides had been committed,\nchurchyards, and burying-vaults. If any one doubts the correctness of\nwhat is here stated, perhaps he will change his mind after reading the\nfollowing story:--\n\n\"A certain hangman, passing the image of our Lady, saluted her, and\ncommended himself to her protection. Afterwards, while he prayed\nbefore her, he was called away to hang an offender, but his enemies\nslew him by the way. And lo! a certain priest, who walked nightly\nabout every church in the city, rose that night to go to our Lady's\nchurch. In the churchyard he saw the ghosts of many dead men. On\ndemanding what was the matter, he was told that the hangman was slain,\nand that the devil demanded his soul, but which our Lady said was\nhers, and that the judges were at hand to hear the cause. The priest\nhaving made up his mind to be at the trial, hid himself behind a tree.\nWhen the judges had taken their seats, the hangman was brought forward\npinioned, and proof adduced that his soul belonged to the devil. On\nthe other side it was pleaded by our Lady, that at the hour of death\nthe hangman commended his soul to her. The judges gave sentence that\nthe hangman's soul should return to his body until he made sufficient\nsatisfaction. The priest was called from his hiding-place and sent to\nthe Pope with a rose of rare beauty, and instructions to crave the\nprayers of his Holiness for the poor man.\" Although we are not made\nacquainted with the result of the application to the Pope, there can\nbe little doubt but that, through our Lady and his Holiness, Satan\nlost his eagerly desired victim.\n\nDirections are given by the learned how to raise ghosts and evil\nspirits. To raise the ghost of one who had hanged himself, the\nexorcist was to provide himself with a straight hazel wand, and bind\nthe head of an owl with a bunch of St. John's-wort to the end thereof.\nThis done, he was to repair to a place where a miserable wretch had\nstrangled himself, and at twelve o'clock at night, while the body\nremained suspended, begin his conjurations. First, he was directed to\nstretch forth his wand towards the four corners of the world, saying,\n\"I conjure and exorcise thee, thou distressed spirit, to present\nthyself here and reveal unto me the cause of thy calamity--why thou\ndidst offer violence to thine own life, where thou art now in being,\nand where thou wilt hereafter be?\" Then, gently striking the body nine\ntimes with the wand, he was to demand the spirit of the deceased to\nreveal unto him what secrets he wished made known, whether these\nreferred to the past or future. The conjuration being thrice repeated,\nwe are assured the spirit would rise and answer the exorcist's\nquestions. Directions were next given for laying the spirit, and that\nmight be done by burying the body naked with lime, salt, and sulphur.\nIf the ghost which the exorcist consulted was of one who died a common\ndeath, and received the usual burial, it was essential to dig the body\nout of the grave at twelve o'clock at night; and while the exorcist\nheld a torch in his left hand, he was to smite the corpse three times\nwith his consecrated rod, held in the right hand, and demand answers\nto his questions. When the ceremonies were gone through in a regular\nway, the interrogatories were truly answered. A caution was offered to\nthe practiser of this art. The magician of no great experience was\ntold that if the constellation and position of the stars at his\nnativity were not favourable, it would be dangerous for him to\nencounter a ghost for fear of being slain, as the ghosts of men could\neasily destroy magicians not protected by the stars.\n\nMagicians were instructed how to raise the spirits Paymon, Bathin, and\nBarma, and secure their assistance. These spirits, though of various\nranks and orders, were of one power, ability, and nature, and the mode\nof raising them is the same. The magician who desired to consult with\nthese spirits had to appoint a night in the waxing of the moon, when\nthe planet Mercury reigned, at eleven o'clock at night. But for four\ndays before the appointed night he was required to shave his beard\nevery morning, change his linen, and put on a consecrated girdle made\nof a black cat's skin. When all was prepared for the summoning of the\nspirits, the magician was instructed to enter a dark parlour or\ncellar, to light seven candles, and draw a circle with his own blood.\nWhen the candles were lighted, it was essential for the magician to\nprotect himself with two drawn swords, and consecrate the circle, so\nthat all evil spirits might be expelled. Everything being ready, the\nconjuration commenced in these words: \"I conjure and exorcise you, the\nthree gentle and noble spirits of the power of the north, by the great\nand dreadful name of your king, and by the silence of the night, and\nby the holy rites of magic, and by the number of the infernal legions,\nI adjure and advocate you that without delay ye present yourselves\nhere before the northern quarter of the circle, all of you, or any one\nof you, and answer my demands.\" This, we are informed, had to be\nrepeated three times, and then the three spirits appeared, or one of\nthem by lot, if the others were engaged elsewhere. Before their\nappearance, they sent in advance three swift hounds in pursuit of a\nhare, which ran round the circle for seven and a half minutes. After\nthis chase more hounds came in, and after all a little ugly\nEthiopian, who snatched the hare from the hounds. Next was heard a\nhunter's horn, and a herald on horseback came galloping swiftly with\nthree hunters behind him upon black horses. After riding round the\ncircle seven times, they stood at the northern quarter. The magician\nthen demanded the demons to be faithful and obedient, which they\nreadily agreed to be. Valuable information was obtained from the\nspirits, who gave the magician the powerful girdle of victory, which,\non being tied about him, enabled him to conquer armies, and all men,\nhowever powerful. The spirits also were compelled to bring, at the\nmagician's bidding, the richest treasure earth could afford, and to\nreveal the positions of hidden gold and silver mines.\n\nThe spirits could bestow the gift of invisibility, and the\nforeknowledge of the change of the weather; they could teach the\nexorcist how to raise storms and tempests, and how to calm them again;\nthey could bring news in an instant of the result of any battle or\nother important event, wherever it took place. They could also teach\nthe language of birds, and how to fly unseen through the air.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXVIII.\n\n      Josephus' Account of Astrology--Antediluvians\n      acquainted with Astrology--Astrology after the\n      Flood--Magicians in various Nations--The Spirit\n      Bokim--Compact and Confederation with Spirits--Long\n      Life and Magical Power--Feats of Magicians--A French\n      Priest in compact with the Devil--Married to\n      Venus--Turning Leather into Gold--A Novice in Magic\n      destroyed by a Spirit--Principles of\n      Magic--Implements, Materials, and Doings of\n      Magicians--Piercing Sight--Lilly the Astrologer--Lilly\n      consulted by Royalists--Astrological Predictions\n      concerning Fires, Plagues, Famine, War, and the\n      Fortunes of Great Persons.\n\n\nJosephus says that the antediluvians were well acquainted with\nastrology, and inscribed the principles thereof on pillars to preserve\nthem to posterity from the Flood; for it was by this art, he believes,\nthat they were enabled to foresee the coming Deluge. Subsequent to the\nFlood, the Assyrians were the first people who turned their attention\nto astrology. The Chaldeans, Egyptians, and Arabians soon became\nacquainted with the art, and by perseverance brought it to perfection\nand high estimation. In several nations none but those skilled in\nastrology were admitted to the administration of sacred rites or to\nthe management of state affairs.\n\nIn China, by the sacrifice of blood and the repetitions of several\nsuperstitious invocations to the sun and moon, devils were brought up\nfrom their place of abode, if not repose. In Tartary the magicians\noffered to the ocean, the mountains, and the stars, divers sorts of\nincense, by which means the spirits were compelled to appear. In the\nEast and West Indies the power of magic was equally powerful. Greek\nand Roman magicians invocated spirits by prayers to the moon, and\nsacrifices of milk, honey, and blood. In our own country, incantation\nand conjuration, as already observed, were by no means uncommon.\n\nWhen Chiancungi and his sister Napala first attempted to call up\nspirits, they began with the spirit Bokim, in the twentieth degree.\nThey commenced their operations in a vault hung round with black\ncloth. Having drawn their circle of the order of thrones and the seven\nplanets, and stamped their magical characters in the centre thereof,\nthey proceeded to the ceremonies of conjuration without anything\nappearing. This caused them to become so desperate that they left the\ncircle and betook themselves to the most detestable branch of\nmagic--compact, or confederacy; through which they obtained from Bokim\n155 years of life, and almost unlimited magical power, on the\ncondition that in return their bodies and souls should at last be\ngiven to him. They performed strange miracles in every country. By the\nassistance of these magicians, the Tartars destroyed above one hundred\nships belonging to the Chinese. Many a loss did they bring upon those\nagainst whom they had a private grudge, or against whom they were\nhired. Kingdoms were ruined, children slain, fruits withered, corn\nblasted, silk destroyed, navigation impeded, and adult lives\nsacrificed. Chiancungi had numerous public contests with magicians of\nseveral countries in magical science, in which art he was said to\nexcel them all.\n\nLewis Gawfridi, a French priest, was another famous magician, who had\ncompact with the devil of a closer relationship than common men of his\ncraft could pretend to have. He served Satan for fourteen years in\nperforming detestable works--sacrificing children, worshipping the\ndevil in various shapes, and tempting people to become magicians, and\nto take part in disgraceful nocturnal conventions.\n\nA wonderful relation is given in support of the belief of magicians\nhaving power over spirits. The story is this:--A newly-married man\nwas amusing himself with his companions, when, in case he should lose\nhis wedding ring, he put it on the finger of a statue of Venus.\nReturning to take his ring, he found the finger so bent that the\nornament intended for his bride could not be removed. At night the\nimage of Venus appeared to him and said, \"Thou hast espoused me, and\nshalt not enjoy the society of any other woman.\" Again returning to\nthe statue in the morning he found the finger straight, and discovered\nthat the ring was gone. So greatly was he troubled, that he consulted\na magician, who put him on a plan of obtaining his ring and releasing\nhim of his engagement with Venus. The magician wrote a letter to a\nprincipal spirit in the dominion to which Venus belonged, and, giving\nit to the unhappy young man, instructed him to watch at a certain time\nand place, when he would see a troop of spirits pass by him, one of\nwhich, he said, would be seated on a chariot; and he it was for whom\nthe letter was written. The young man, on acting as directed, espied\nthe spirits, and gave the letter to the one for which it was intended.\nAs soon as the fiend read its contents he burst into a rage,\nexclaiming, \"How long shall we be subject to this accursed magician?\"\nWith hesitation, he called on a most beautiful woman near the chariot,\nand commanded her to return the ring to its owner, an order she\nreluctantly obeyed.\n\nHenry Cornelius Agrippa, who was born at Cologne in 1486, was an\nastrologer and magician. When travelling, he paid his hotel bills with\npieces of horn, which appeared as gold to those to whom they were\npresented. A foolish fellow entered Agrippa's study, and raised the\ndevil therein during the magician's absence. The novice, being unable\nto subdue the fiend, lost his life. On Agrippa coming home, he found\nseveral spirits dancing on the house-top. He ordered them to enter the\ndead body, which they did, and then he cast it into a pit. Though\nAgrippa seldom left his study or conversed with any one, he was well\nacquainted with everything going on at home and abroad. People were of\nopinion that a black dog he kept was an evil spirit, which duly\ninformed him of what was taking place far and near.\n\nEvery magical charm had its first principles according to certain\nlaws; and the garments worn by magicians were manufactured and\nstitched at stated hours. The time was generally in the hour of Luna\nor of Saturn, in the moon's increase. Their needles were made of\nhedgehog's prickles, or bones of animals, as iron or steel possessed\nvirtues not always favourable to magic. Their ointments were of man's\nfat, blood, hog's grease, oil, etc. Their characters were ancient\nHebrew, and their speech in the learned languages; their fires were\nkindled with sweet wood and oil or resin; and their candles, of the\nfat of men and children. Their vessels were earthenware; their\ncandlesticks had three feet, of dead men's bones. Their capes were\nlike pyramids, with lappets or ears on each side, and lined with fur.\nTheir gowns were, for ordinary purposes, long, reaching to the ground,\nand lined with fox-skin. Their girdles were three inches broad, having\ncabalistical names, signs, and circles inscribed thereon.\n\nSome magicians had such piercing sight that they could discover\neverything, however carefully concealed, and look into futurity with a\ncertainty of making known what was to come to pass. Lilly the\nastrologer was a great authority in England. He was consulted by the\nRoyalists, (with the king's privity) as to whether the king would\nescape from Hampton Court, and whether he would or should sign the\npropositions of Parliament. For giving his opinion on these and a few\nother subjects, the astrologer received \u00a320. In Lilly's _Astrological\nPredictions_ in 1648 occurs the following passage:--\n\n\"In the year 1656, the aphelium of Mars, who is the general\nsignification of England, will be in Virgo, which is assuredly the\nascendant of the English monarchy, but Aries of the kingdom. When this\napsis, therefore, of Mars shall appear in Virgo, who shall expect less\nthan a strange catastrophe of human affairs in the commonwealth,\nmonarchy, and kingdom of England? There will then, either in or about\nthese times, or near that year, appear in this kingdom so strange a\nrevolution of fate, so grand a catastrophe and great mutation unto\nthis monarchy and government, as never yet appeared; of which, as the\ntime now stands, I have no liberty or encouragement to deliver my\nopinion--only, it will be ominous to London, unto her merchants at\nsea, to her traffic on land, to her poor, to her rich, to all sorts of\npeople inhabiting in her or her liberties, by reason of consuming\nfires and devastating plagues.\"\n\nAccomplished events, even those which happened in his own time, and\ninformation obtained from the writings of ancient astrologers, enabled\nLilly to predict important results. We find in a work _On the Probable\nEffects of the Great Conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter_, that \"the\nmean or second greatest conjunction that happened in 1603\"--Lilly was\nborn in 1602--\"was in the eighth degree of Sagittarius, the opposite\nsign of the ascendant of London. They were nearly conjoined the\ngreater part of the year in which Queen Elizabeth died; and there was\na severe plague in London, whereof died, in 1603 and 1604, more than\n68,000 persons; and the year after, or in 1605, the Gunpowder Plot was\nnearly being carried into execution.\n\n\"The next conjunction happened in the seventh degree of Leo, in 1623.\nWithin two years after, King James I. died; and there was also a\nsevere plague in London, which carried off 35,417 persons, in 1625;\nand, what was observable, in 1639 there was a great eclipse of the\nsun, in ten degrees of Gemini, in opposition to the place of the first\nconjunction, in 1603; and exactly when Mars arrived to ten degrees of\nPisces, or in quartile to both places, the Long Parliament began; and\nnear the same time the Scots and English disagreed; and when Charles\nI. applied to the citizens of London, they refused to lend him money\nto be employed against them. It is also remarkable that Leo, the sign\nwhere the conjunction happened, was the ascendant in King Charles's\nnativity; and how unfortunate he was afterwards till his death, is\npretty well known.\n\n\"The next took place in 1643, in the sign of Pisces, which found the\nking and his subjects in open arms, and was followed by dreadful civil\nwars in England, that terminated in beheading the king.\"\n\nWhether Lilly did really foresee what he pretended had been revealed\nto him, we shall not here affirm or deny, but, there can be no doubt,\nmany strange circumstances following his predictions went far to\nsupport his claim to the prophetic mantle. Further quotations from the\nsame work will supply additional matter for reflection:--\n\n\"The fourth conjunction in this trigon took place in 1663, in\nSagittarius, again opposite to the ascendant of London. The year after\nfollowed a war with the Dutch, and in 1665 they took our valuable\nHamburgh fleet; and in that year also was the great plague in London,\nthat carried away 68,586 people. This was followed by the dreadful\nfire of London, in 1666, that destroyed 13,200 houses, and consumed\nnearly 400 streets.\n\n\"The next happened in Leo, in 1682, and was repeated in 1683, when\nLord William Russell was beheaded; and, two years after, Charles II.\ndied.\n\n\"The next was in seven degrees of Aries, the ascendant of England, in\n1702. That year King William died, and war commenced with France. In\nshort, whoever takes his ephemeris in one hand and history in the\nother, will have no difficulty in convincing himself of the efficacy\nof such configurations; and though, by changing the signs, they may\nvary the effects and also the places most subject to their influence,\nyet it will appear that the observations of different authors (wherein\nthey all agree that England is most passive to the fiery trigon) are\nfounded on truth.\n\n\"The conjunction under consideration happened in the earthy\ntriplicity, to which Ptolemy refers to Europe in general; however, the\nplaces most particularly under the sign Virgo are France, and more\nespecially Paris; and some authors say Lyons, and the principal port\nof the Turkish dominions. Indeed it is curious to observe that the\nTurks have got possession of nearly all the places said by Ptolemy to\nbe under this sign, wherein the conjunction happened, and I have no\ndoubt will most sensibly feel the effects of it; neither will Russia\nand some parts of Germany and Switzerland escape its influence.\n\n\"As the signs of Sagittarius and Pisces are also afflicted, and\nJupiter so oppressed by the conjunction, Spain and Portugal will\nlikewise be sensible of their effects; neither do I like the\nmischievous position of Mars in Taurus, the ascendant of Ireland,\nparticularly as he is upon the mid-heaven, and so near the mundane\nquartile of Saturn and Mars.\n\n\"Most authors agree that evil configurations in Virgo are generally\nattended with bloodshed, and that configurations in earthly signs have\nmore signification of feuds, dissatisfaction, and secret contrivances\namong the common people, than they have of wars and differences\nbetween kings and rulers, who are more properly denoted by princely or\nfiery signs.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XXXIX.\n\n      Judicial Astrology--Reading the Heavens--Lucky and\n      Unlucky Days discovered--Kings' and Queens' Unlucky\n      Days--Highland Superstitions--Climacterics--Priests\n      foretelling Children's Future Destiny--Astrologer and\n      Charles IX.--Influence of the Moon--Official\n      Air-gazers--Sacrificing to Planets--Children born\n      under different Phases of the Moon--Dryden's Faith in\n      Astrology--Dryden calculating the Nativity of his\n      Children--Predictions concerning his Son fulfilled.\n\n\nJudicial astrology, it is supposed, was invented in Chald\u00e6a, and\nthence transmitted to the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans, but there are\npersons who think it commenced with the Arabs.\n\nAstrologers, in reading the heavens, had recourse to a semicircle\nwhich they called Position, by which they represented the six great\ncircles passing through the intersection of the meridian and horizon,\nand dividing the equator into twelve equal parts. The spaces included\nbetween these circles were styled the Twelve Houses, which referred to\nthe twelve triangles marked in their theme, placing six of these\nhouses above and six underneath the horizon. The first of the houses\nunder the horizon towards the east they named the Horoscope, or House\nof Life; the second, the House of Wealth; the third, the House of\nBrothers; the fourth, the House of Parents; and so on to the twelfth\nhouse, each having reference to a particular subject. All matters\nrelating to issue, diseases, wedlock, death, religion, honour,\nfriendship, and woe could be foretold by astrologers.\n\nIn the time of the civil wars the royalists and the rebels had their\nastrologers as well as their soldiers; and the predictions of the\nformer had great influence over the latter. By means of astrology,\nlucky and unlucky days were discovered. Thursday was the unlucky day\nof Henry VIII. He, his son Edward VI., Queen Mary, Queen Elizabeth,\nand many other illustrious persons, died on a Thursday, as had been\nforetold; and we have already pointed out that the 3d of September was\na memorable day in the life of Cromwell.\n\nThe Highlanders of Scotland entertained many superstitions in regard\nto the moon as well as in reference to the sun. A Highlander would not\nwillingly commence any serious undertaking in the waning of the\nmoon--such as marrying, flitting, or going on a far journey. When the\nroth, rath, or circle of the moon was full, then was the lucky time\nfor beginning serious or important matters.\n\nAstrologers have employed all the rules of their art to show that the\nyears of man's age, called climacterics, are dangerous, even\nthreatening death. The first climacteric is in the seventh year of\nlife, the rest are multiples of the first--as 21, 49, 56, 63, and 84,\nwhich two last are called the grand climacterics. Marc Ficinus\naccounts for the foundation of this opinion. He says there is a year\nassigned for each planet to rule over the body of a man, each in his\nturn; and that Saturn, being the most malignant planet of all, every\nseventh year (which falls to its lot) becomes very dangerous,\nespecially those of 63 and 84, when the person is advanced in years.\n\nThere were those who pretended that the climacteric years were fatal\nto political bodies as well as to individuals. Pythagoras based his\ncalculations very much on numbers. He thought considerable importance\nshould be attached to the number 7.\n\nIn France the new-born child was often presented naked to the\nastrologer, who read the first lineaments in its forehead, and the\ntransverse lines in its hands, and from these he wrote down its future\ndestiny. Catherine de Medicis brought Henry IV., then a child, to old\nNostradamus, to ascertain the youth's destiny. An astrologer having\nassured Charles IX. that he would live as many days as he would turn\non his heels in one hour, his Majesty, putting faith in the\nprediction, performed the exercise of revolving, as directed, every\nmorning during the prescribed period of an hour.\n\nThe Egyptian astronomers held that the moon influenced all sudden\nmatters of importance, but others not less learned affirmed that\nportentous events were regulated by wandering stars. Seneca speaks of\na custom which prevailed, of appointing official air-gazers to give\nnotice of an approaching storm, similar to the practice at the present\nday, of having persons at meteorological stations throughout the\ncountry to forecast the state of the weather. When they observed a\ncloud which indicated a hail-shower, they warned the people in order\nthat they might protect their crops. The peasants, to propitiate the\nplanets, offered in sacrifice fat cocks and white lambs; and the poor,\nwho had neither fowls nor four-footed beasts to offer, cut their\nthumbs, in the full expectation that this insignificant libation of a\nfew drops of human blood would secure the favour of the heavenly\nbodies, and avert the threatened calamity.\n\nA child born on the first day of the new moon is likely to live long\nand happy, if it survives infancy. The child born on the second day\nof the moon shall grow strong, and be noted for wisdom. This day is\nfortunate in many respects. If one wishes to inquire into secrets,\nlet him begin before the clock strikes the midnight hour. The infant\nborn on the third day will never want an influential friend to lend\nhim a helping hand in time of need. The fourth day is not quite so\nlucky, and the infant who comes into the world will require to be\nhonest and diligent, to support an honourable position in life. The\nchild born on the fifth day of the moon will turn out to be fickle\nand capricious. It is a good day, however, for beginning any new\nundertaking--particularly for laying the foundation of a building.\nPromises made on the sixth day will be long of being fulfilled. On\nthis day people ought to take good heed to their ways, for on it they\nare very liable to err. The parents of children born at this time had\nbetter nurse the little ones tenderly, for nothing but scrupulous\nattention will sustain them through the dangers of youth. Dreams of\nthe seventh day of the moon must not be revealed. Long life is\npromised to the child born this day; and if a person be stricken with\nsickness on it, a speedy cure will be effected. Tricksters and all\nsorts of dishonest people will be disappointed on the eighth, ninth,\nand tenth days of the moon; and children born on any of these days\nwill be blessed with long life and health, if they escape certain\ncontingencies known to the wise. The child born on the eleventh day\nwill go far from home, and may expect to die in a foreign country,\nunless he make a fortune and return home, or have an estate left him.\n\nThe child born on the twelfth day of the moon will be wise and\nlong-lived; but the infant born on the following day will be of slow\nunderstanding--in fact, will be a stupid creature, unless the\ndisadvantage can be overcome by hard study. Children born on the\nfourteenth will excel in everything they may apply their minds to, or\nwhich they may take in hand. Every girl who comes into the world on\nthe fifteenth will be beautiful, and have many admirers. Those born on\nthe sixteenth day may expect to have many enemies; and those who are\nborn on the seventeenth day are not likely to become rich by their own\nindustry, but they may look for money from rich friends. The man-child\nborn on the eighteenth day of the moon is likely to rise to honour and\ndistinction, after encountering much opposition in his upward career.\nHe or she born on the nineteenth day will require to pray for grace to\nsubdue the natural disposition. The individual born that day will be\nchurlish, perverse, and combative; and the infant who first draws the\nbreath of life on the following day will be covetous and parsimonious.\n\nThe infant born on the twenty-first day of the moon may possess a\nstrong constitution, but it is not certain that the mind will be\nvigorous. If the child of the twenty-second day survive infancy, long\nlife will be awarded it, though much grief will be met with in life's\nrough path. Fair promises, with certain drawbacks, are made to\nchildren of the twenty-third day; and infants of the twenty-fourth day\nwill be good-tempered, perhaps sottish. One who has been born on the\ntwenty-fifth day of the moon had better walk carefully, lest adversity\nand danger overtake him. The young lady who has been born on the\ntwenty-sixth day will, in all probability, be courted and married by a\nrich gentleman, who will ardently love her. Those born on the\ntwenty-seventh day must not expect to become famous; and children born\non the twenty-eighth day are more likely to be pious than rich. The\ntwenty-ninth day of the moon does not promise prosperity to the\nchildren born on it; if they rise in the world, it will be in spite of\ngreat opposition, even from those near, if not dear, to them.\n\nDryden put faith in judicial astrology, and used to calculate the\nnativity of his children. On the birth of his son Charles, he caused\nthe exact minute of his coming into the world to be noted. He\ncalculated the child's nativity, and observed with grief that he was\nborn in an evil hour; for Jupiter, Venus, and the sun were all under\nthe earth, and the lord of his ascendant afflicted with a hateful\nsquare of Mars and Saturn. Dryden told his friends that if the child\nlived to the eighth year, he would narrowly escape a violent death on\nhis very birthday; but if he should then overleap danger, he would in\nhis twenty-third year be under the same influence; and if he should\nescape the second time, the thirty-third or thirty-fourth year would\nprove fatal. The boy's eighth birthday was looked forward to with\ngreat anxiety by his parents. On the dreaded day, Dryden, with the\nview of keeping him indoors and away from danger, gave him a double\nexercise in Latin. Charles was complying with his father's command,\nwhen a stag pursued by hounds was seen making towards the house. The\nnoise reached the servants' ears, and they rushed out to see the\nchase. A manservant seized Charles by the hand, and took him out with\nhim. Just as they reached the gate, the stag, being at bay, made a\nbold rush and leaped over the court wall, which, being old and low,\nthe dogs followed, threw down a part thereof, and the unfortunate boy\nwas buried in the ruins. He was much bruised, so that he was six weeks\nin a dangerous state. In the twenty-third year of the son's age he was\nat Rome, where he fell from an old tower belonging to the Vatican,\nwhich so greatly injured his head that he never fully recovered the\naccident. In his thirty-fourth year he was bathing in the Thames with\nanother gentleman, when he was seized with cramp while in the water,\nand drowned before assistance could reach him. Thus the father's\nastrological calculations proved correct.\n\n\n\n\nDIVINATION AND ORACLES.\n\n\nCHAPTER XL.\n\n      Divination--Heathen Gods giving Signs--Sortes\n      Pr[oe]nestin\u00e6--St. Augustine's View of\n      Divination--Sortes Sanctorum--Divination in the Greek\n      and Latin Churches--Ceremonies at the Consecration of\n      Bishops, etc.--Declarations of the Divine Will--How\n      St. Consortia became a Nun--Responses--Hieroglyphic\n      Texts--Oracles--Sorcery and Divination among the\n      Jews--Training of Rabbins--Bath-Kool--Death of a\n      Friend foretold--Recovery from Sickness made\n      known--Plutarch on Oracles--Malthus's Belief in\n      Oracles--A Missionary's Opinion--Sibylline\n      Oracles--Various Modes of\n      Divination--Alectoromantia--Belomancy--Divination by\n      means of Rods--Cleromancy--Napoleon's Belief in\n      Cleromancy--Questions and Answers.\n\n\nDivination is an art of foretelling future events by supernatural\nmeans. The word is generally understood to denote fortune-telling or\nsorcery, performed in divers ways--such as by the inspection of\nplanets, stars, clouds; consulting spirits, witches, magicians;\nwatching the flight of birds, inspecting the entrails of beasts and\nhuman victims, and examining the lines of the hand. But it is not\nnecessary to extend the list here, as the various methods of\ndivination will be enumerated and explained as we proceed. It was a\nmaxim with the heathen nations of antiquity, that, if there were gods,\nthey cared for men; and if they had any regard for the human family,\nthey would give signs of their will. The Sortes Pr[oe]nestin\u00e6 were\nfamous among the Greeks; and this superstition passed into Christian\nnations.\n\nSt. Augustine did not disapprove of divination being resorted to,\nprovided it was not used for worldly purposes. Gilbert of Nogent says\nthat in his time (about the beginning of the twelfth century) it was\ncustomary, at the consecration of bishops, to consult the Sortes\nSanctorum, to ascertain the success, fate, and other particulars of\ntheir episcopate. Many divines held that the lot was conducted by\nProvidence. Though several popes about the eighth century disapproved\nof divination, and classed it among Pagan superstitions, traces of\nthis mode of searching into futurity were found in after ages in the\nGreek and Latin Churches.\n\nUpon the consecration of a bishop, after laying the Bible upon his\nhead, the book was opened, and the first verse that the eye fell on\nwas supposed to throw light on the bishop's future career. A bishop of\nRochester, at his consecration by Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury,\nhad a happy presage in these words: \"Bring hither the best robe, and\nput it on him.\" But the answer of the Scriptures at the consecration\nof St. Lietbert, Bishop of Cambray, was still more propitious: \"This\nis my beloved son.\" The death of Albert, Bishop of Liege, was reported\nto have been made known to him by these words, which the archbishop\nwho consecrated him found on opening the New Testament: \"And the king\nsent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought; and he went\nand beheaded him in prison.\" The Primate, greatly moved, embraced the\nnew bishop, and said: \"My son, having given yourself up to the sacred\noffice, carry yourself righteously and devoutly, and prepare yourself\nfor the trial of martyrdom.\" The bishop was afterwards murdered by the\ntreacherous connivance of Henry VI.\n\nDe Garlande, Bishop of Orleans, became so odious to his clergy that\nthey sent a complaint against him to Pope Alexander III., concluding:\n\"Let your apostolical hands put on strength to strip naked the\niniquity of this man, that the curse prognosticated on the day of his\nconsecration may overtake him; for, the gospel being opened according\nto custom, the first words that appeared were: 'And the young man,\nleaving his linen cloth, fled from them naked.'\"\n\nWilliam of Malmesbury relates that Hugh de Montaigne, Bishop of\nAuxerre, was obliged to go to Rome to answer several charges brought\nagainst him by some of his chapter, touching his morals; but his\nfriends urged as undoubted testimony of his chastity the prognostic on\nthe day of his consecration: \"Hail Mary, full of grace.\"\n\nPiously-inclined people not unfrequently went to church with the\nintention of receiving a declaration of the divine will, by hearing\nwords of Scripture read or sung at the moment of the person's\nentrance. St. Anthony, when irresolute about his retirement, went to a\nchurch, where on entering he heard the words: \"Go, sell all thou hast,\nand give it to the poor, then come and follow me.\" These expressions\nterminated his wavering: he withdrew to his solitude, leaving wealth\nand friends behind, and took up his abode in an old ruin on the top of\na hill, where he spent many years of rigorous seclusion. He became the\nmighty oracle of the valley of the Nile.\n\nIt is reported that Clovis, the first Christian king of France,\nmarching against Alaric, king of the Visigoths, sent nobles with\npresents to be offered at the tomb of St. Martin, and with\ninstructions to endeavour to bring him a favourable augury, while he\nhimself prayed for supernatural help. His messengers had no sooner\nentered the sacred place than they heard the priest chanting: \"Thou\nhast girded me with strength for war; thou hast subdued under me those\nthat rose up against me.\" Encouraged by this favourable prognostic,\nClovis girded on his armour, engaged in battle, and gained a complete\nvictory.\n\nPeter de Blois, who lived in the twelfth century, says in a letter to\nReginald, whose election to the see of Bath had long been strenuously\nopposed, that he believed he would soon be established in his diocese,\nfor he (De Blois) had dreamed two nights successively of being at\nReginald's consecration; and also, that being anxious to know the\ncertain meaning of his dreams by lots and the psalter, his dreams were\nconfirmed by the words turning up to him: \"Moses and Aaron among the\npriests.\"\n\nSt. Consortia, in her youth, was passionately courted by a young man\nof a very powerful family, though he knew she had formed the design of\ntaking the veil. Knowing that a refusal would expose her parents to\nmany inconveniences, if not to positive danger, she desired a week to\ndetermine whether she would become his wife. At the expiration of that\ntime her lover came to know her answer. \"I can neither accept you nor\nrefuse the offer,\" said she; \"but if you agree to it, let us go to the\nchurch and lay the holy gospel on the altar, and say a joint prayer,\nthen we will open the book, to be informed of the divine will.\" He did\nas suggested, and the first words that met the eyes of both were:\n\"Whosoever loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me.\"\nThis was enough: the lovers acquiesced in the decree, and she became a\nnun.\n\nResponses were given in the heathen temples through certain objects,\nsuch as the tinkling of the caldrons at Dodona, the rustling of the\nsacred laurel, the murmuring of streams, or by the action of sacred\nanimals. In the Egyptian hieroglyphic texts the gods speak in an\noracular manner, and their consultation by the Pharaohs is mentioned.\nOracles were used by the Hebrews. Their oracles were by word of mouth,\ndreams, visions, and prophetical sayings. They were also in use\nthroughout Babylonia and Chald\u00e6a; but the Grecian oracles possessed\nthe highest reputation for truthfulness, the most renowned of which\nwas the Delphic oracle. The precedence of consulting this oracle was\ndetermined by lots; and sacrifices were offered by the inquirers, who\nwent, with laurel crowns on their heads, and delivered their\nquestions carefully sealed. There was a secondary class of oracles or\nprophetic persons in Greece. One was situated at Oropus, in Attica,\nbeing the shrine of a deified magician. Those who consulted it fasted\na whole day, abstained from wine, sacrificed a ram to Amphiaraus, and\nslept on the skin in the temple, where futurity was opened up to them\nthrough dreams. The oracle of Trophonius, which owed its origin to a\ndeified seer, was given in a cave into which the votary entered,\nbathed, and anointed himself, while holding a honeyed cake. He\nobtained the desired knowledge by what he saw and heard. Written\noracles existed of the prophecies of celebrated seers, and were\npreserved in the acropolis of Athens. Among the Arabs divination was,\nand is, greatly practised, and also among the Celtic people. Oracular\nanswers were usually couched in dark ambiguous terms; and it was\nthought that at times the information was given by demons.\n\nLightfoot proved that the Jews, after their return from Babylon,\ngradually abandoned themselves to sorcery and divination. The Talmud\nabounds with directions for the due observance of superstitious rites.\nMany Jews were highly esteemed, after the destruction of their holy\ncity, for their pretended skill in magic. Rabbins were trained in the\nschool of Zoroaster; they interpreted dreams, cured the sick, healed\nwounds, and detected thefts, through their intercourse with superior\nbeings.\n\nBath-Kool, daughter of the voice, was the name given by the Jews to an\noracle in the second temple, which, according to report, was destined\nto supply the defect of the Urim and Thummim, the mysterious oracles\nof former and greater days. Of Bath-Kool many stories are related.\nWhen two Rabbins went to consult this oracle concerning the fate of\nanother Rabbin, they passed before a school, in which they heard a boy\nreading: \"And Samuel died.\" On inquiry they subsequently found that\ntheir friend was no longer a dweller among men. Two other Rabbins\nwent to visit Acha in his sickness, and as they proceeded on their way\nthey agreed to hear what Bath-Kool would pronounce on the fate of\ntheir brother. Immediately on their going to the sacred place\nappointed for inquirers, they heard a voice saying: \"The candle is\ngoing out; let not the light be extinguished in Israel.\" By these\nwords they were assured that the sickness was not unto death. Acha\nrecovered.\n\nPlutarch wrote a treatise on the ceasing of oracles; and Van Dale, a\nDutch physician, published a volume to prove that they did not cease\nat the dawn of Christianity, as had been supposed by early Christians.\nMalthus laboured to prove that there were real oracles, such as could\nnot be reasonably attributed to any artifices of priests or\npriestesses; but he thought several of the oracles became silent\nbefore the Church and the prayers of saints. A pious missionary in\nIndia gave it as his opinion that the devil gave oracles there, but\nthat he became meek wherever the gospel was preached. This religious\nman was not singular in his opinion, for most of the Fathers of the\nChurch believed it was the devil that gave oracles. Pagan priests went\nto sleep in their temples, that they might receive responses in their\ndreams, and that they might with greater certainty play the prophet.\nThe sibylline oracles were held in so great veneration among the\nancients, that nothing of importance was undertaken without consulting\nthem.\n\nThat divination was used and believed in by the Hebrews, is proved by\nthe Scripture injunctions against divinations. The Jews were told not\nto have among them any that used divination, or any observers of\ntimes, or enchanters, or witches, or charmers, or consulters with\nfamiliar spirits, or wizards, or necromancers, or star-gazers, or\nmiracle-mongers, or seekers of oracles.\n\nOne species of divination was performed by laying an agate stone on a\nred-hot hatchet. This is known as Axinomancy. The agate was called\nsacred, as it was regarded as a preservative against the poison of\nreptiles. Pliny has written a whole chapter on the virtues of agates.\n\nThere was an art among the Greeks known as Alectoromantia, by which\nfuture events were made known by means of a cock's movements. A circle\nwas made on the ground, and divided into twenty-four equal parts, in\neach of which spaces was written one of the letters of the alphabet,\nand upon each of these letters was laid a grain of wheat. This done,\nthe fowl was turned loose, and watched to ascertain the order in which\nthe grains were picked up. The letters corresponding to those grains\nwere formed into words, and supplied an answer to important questions.\n\nBelomancy was a kind of divination by arrows, practised among various\nnations in the East, but chiefly among the Arabians. It was performed\nin different ways. One was to mark a parcel of arrows, and put eleven\nor more of them into a case. These were drawn out, and according to\ntheir marks future events were judged. Another way was to have but\nthree arrows, upon one of which was written an injunction to do a\ncertain thing; upon another a warning against doing it; and upon the\nthird there was no writing. These were put into a quiver, out of which\none of the arrows was drawn at random. If it happened to be the one\nwith the injunction, the thing regarding which there was a\nconsultation was done; if it chanced to be the arrow with the warning,\nthe matter was let alone; but if the arrow without an inscription, a\nsecond drawing took place. Kings going out to war frequently consulted\nwith arrows and images, and according to the drawing or flight of an\narrow was it determined which city or town should be first besieged.\nThe king of Babylon resorted to Belomancy before assaulting\nJerusalem. When he came to a place where two roads met, one led to the\ncity of Rabbath, and the other to Jerusalem. There he wrote the names\nof the two cities upon several arrows which were mixed together\npromiscuously in a quiver, and a boy who was unacquainted with the\nmatter drew out one, and the name Jerusalem being on it, the king\ndetermined to lead his army towards that city.\n\nDivination by means of rods prevailed among the Magi, Chald\u00e6ans, and\nScythians, whence it passed to the Sclavonians, and thence to the\nGermans. The women among the Alani gathered straight rods or wands,\nand used them in their superstition. In Sheppard's _Epigrams_ we find:\n\n    \"Some sorcerers do boast they have a rod,\n      Gathered with vows and sacrifice,\n    And borne about will strangely nod\n      To hidden treasure where it lies;\n    Mankind is sure that rod divine,\n      For to the wealthiest ever they incline.\"\n\nThe notion still prevails in England and elsewhere, that water and\nprecious treasure could be discovered, though far below the surface of\nthe earth, by carefully and skilfully handling the divining rod. Men\nof scientific knowledge have been believers in the occult power\nascribed to the divining rod, while others, who have considered the\nsubject, regard the supposed power of this rod as a delusion, and\nascribe the whole phenomenon to the effect of a strong impression on\nthe mind of the operator.\n\nCleromancy was performed by the throwing of dice. At Brura, a city of\nAchaia, there was a temple and a celebrated oracle of Hercules, where\nsuch as consulted the oracle threw four dice, the points whereof being\nobserved by the priest, he was supposed to draw an answer from them.\nThe great Napoleon was a firm believer in various modes of\nsuperstition, particularly in Cleromancy. A curious book on divination\nwas found in Bonaparte's cabinet of curiosities at Leipsic, during the\nconfusion that ensued there after the defeat of the French army. It\nwas looked upon by him as a sacred work, and he was accustomed to\nconsult it prior to his most hazardous undertakings. The book, which\nwas upwards of five hundred years old, was written in German. It\ncontained a table called the Oraculum, at the top of which was a\ncolumn of dots or points similar to those on dice, but arranged in\nsomewhat different order. The way of proceeding to inquire what was\nabout to happen, was by asking questions, and the answer, whether good\nor bad, was according to the number and position of the dots opposite\nto the interrogatives. There was also a table containing the letters\nof the alphabet from A to Q, disposed of in a particular manner, the\nexact position of which had to be observed in prying into futurity.\nBut as it is not our province to instruct any one in occult science,\nwe shall not further explain the method of procuring answers to the\nquestions propounded.\n\nInformation on almost every subject might be asked, if not obtained.\nAmong the list of questions we find:--\"Shall I obtain my wish? Shall I\nhave success in my undertaking? Shall I gain or lose my cause? Shall I\nhave to live in foreign parts? Shall I have to travel? Will the\nstranger return from abroad? Shall I recover my stolen property? Does\nthe person love and regard me? Will the marriage be prosperous? Will\nmy wife have a son or a daughter? Will the patient recover from his\nillness? Will the prisoner be released? Shall I be lucky or unlucky\nto-day? What does my dream signify?\"\n\nAmong many answers and advices there are:--\"What you wish for, you\nwill shortly obtain. Be very cautious what you do this day, lest\ntrouble befall you. If you marry this person, you will have enemies\nunlooked for. The patient should be prepared to leave this world. She\nwill have a son, learned and wise. You had better decline this love,\nfor it will neither be constant nor true. Your travels are in vain;\nyou had better stay at home. You must not expect to regain that which\nyou have lost. You will obtain a great fortune in another country. You\nmay have many impediments in the accomplishment of your pursuits.\nBeware! an enemy is endeavouring to bring you into strife and\nmisfortune. This day is unlucky, therefore alter your intentions. Your\nfortune will soon be changed into misfortune.\"\n\nThere were unlucky days, on which one was advised not to consult the\nOraculum: for instance, January 1, 2, 4, 6, 11, 12, and 20 were looked\non as particularly unpropitious. The 1st, 17th, and 18th February were\nlucky, and so were the 14th and 16th March. Besides those mentioned,\nthere were unfortunate days in all the months of the year. If a person\nwished to avoid meeting with severe disappointment, he was not to\ninquire twice in one day regarding the same subject.\n\n\n\n\nSIGNS, OMENS, AND WARNINGS.\n\n\nCHAPTER XLI.\n\n      Crying in Youth--Image of Opis--New-born Babes--Man\n      born to Trouble--How Man's Time is spent--Bacon's\n      Belief in Presages--Dugdale's Foresight--Sir Thomas\n      More's Power to judge of Passing Events--Erasmus at\n      the Tomb of Becket--Sir Walter Raleigh's\n      Predictions--What Tacitus foresaw--Solon's\n      Predictions--Cicero's Predictions--Philosophers'\n      Observance of Signs and Omens--Knox's\n      Predictions--Queen Mary and Darnley--Death of Thomas\n      Maitland and of Kirkaldy of Grange predicted--Regent\n      Murray warned against going to Linlithgow--Belief in\n      Physiognomy--Natural Phenomena--The Human Body a\n      medium for discovering Future\n      Events--Phrenology--Hairy People--The Finger\n      Nails--Unaccountable Sounds--Death\n      Warnings--Appearance of Spirits.\n\n\nIf the Romans were right in considering that crying in youth portended\nill-fortune in old age, there can be little doubt it has been decreed\nthat man's existence shall be more embittered with disappointments\nthan sweetened with unalloyed pleasures; for it is nearly as common\nfor children to cry as it is for them to come into the world. Parents\nmay pray to their favourite gods for wise, happy children; expectant\nmothers may wear suspended from their girdles the image of Opis, in\nthe fond expectation that their offspring shall find a smooth passage\nthrough life; and nurses may bring new-born babes into contact with\nsacred things before defiled hands have touched their tender\nskins,--yet the sad experience of every man and woman is, that\nmisfortunes overtake them sooner or later. True, some people are more\nfortunate than others, but none are exempted from grief and pain.\nHave we not the best authority for saying that \"man is born to\ntrouble, as the sparks fly upwards.\" This being so, every member of\nthe human family must submit to his destiny, strive against it how he\nmay.\n\nSince the time the old serpent beguiled Eve, to the present day, the\nhalf of man's time has been spent in bringing about prosperity and\naverting evil. He watches the signs of the times; he seeks for tokens\nand omens, as these, he supposes, are often sent for his guidance.\nThat warnings were given to our fathers and mothers of old in\nmysterious ways, they fully believed; and if sent to them, there is no\ngood reason for supposing, say our aged relations, that they should\nnot be sent to us. Lord Bacon believed in presages; and so did other\nlearned men of his time. Dugdale anticipated the approaching scenes in\n1641, when many ancient monuments were destroyed. So convinced was he\nof their early destruction, that he hurried on his itinerant labours\nof taking sketches and engraving inscriptions, to preserve their\nhistory and appearance for future times. Sir Thomas More was enabled\nto judge from passing events of what was to happen in after years.\nErasmus, when looking at the tomb of Becket at Canterbury, wished that\nthe jewels with which it was loaded had been given to the poor; \"for,\"\nsaid he, \"those who have heaped up all this mass of treasure will one\nday be plundered, and fall a prey to rapacious tyrants in power.\" His\nprediction was literally fulfilled twenty years after it was uttered.\nSir Walter Raleigh regarded omens, and from these predicted truly.\nTacitus foresaw the calamities which long desolated Europe on the fall\nof the Roman empire, and wrote concerning the future events five\nhundred years before they happened. Solon predicted many of the\nmiseries that overtook the Athenians. Aristotle collected remarkable\ninformation concerning predictions. Cicero always judged of the\naffairs of the republic by prediction; and he not only told what was\nto happen in his own time, but he also foretold important things that\ncame to pass long after his death. Philosophers, however, did not\npretend to have the second sight, or to possess any superhuman powers;\nbut the art of prediction, if art it could be called, was acquired,\nthey confessed, by carefully observing signs and omens.\n\nFew put more confidence in signs and omens than Knox, the great\nreformer, did; and he himself foresaw several events, and the fate of\ncertain persons. When condemned to a galley in Rochelle, he predicted\nthat within two or three years he would preach the gospel at St.\nGiles's, in Edinburgh, which, improbable though it was at the time,\nhappened as he had foretold. Of Queen Mary and Darnley he said, that\nin justice she would be made an instrument of retribution, and that he\n(the king) would be overthrown. Knox predicted the death of Thomas\nMaitland, and of Kirkaldy of Grange; and he solemnly warned the Regent\nMurray against going to Linlithgow, where he was assassinated. The\ncommon people imagined that Knox was not only a preacher, but a\nprophet. A Spanish friar foretold the death of Henry IV. of France.\nThe king's friends made known to him that his life was in danger, but\nhe disregarded the prediction, and, before a year went round, the\nfriar's words were verified.\n\nNone of the persons we have named laid claim to the prophetic gift.\nTheir predictions rested chiefly or solely on the observation of what\nwas passing around them. The augury to which they trusted was more\nphysical than divine. Some believed in physiognomy, others relied on\nthe appearance of the political horizon, and so on. The foolhardy\nmariner sees the barometer falling, and perceives the blackened\nheavens, yet he goes to sea with his frail craft: the storm overtakes\nhim, and he, his crew, and ship are lost in the mighty deep. The\nprudent sailor takes warning: he observes the black clouds gathering\nover his head, and hears the distant thunder; he stays in port until\nthe disturbed elements cease their raging, and he lives to go to sea\nagain and again. If the weather be propitious, we may expect a\nplentiful harvest; if a horse is given to stumbling, he is likely to\ncome down some day; if the lakes are frozen, skaters may be expected\nto be drowned; and if men and women will bathe, we may calculate with\ncertainty that some of them will go beyond their depths and perish in\nthe water. Then again, if a man be diligent in business, we may expect\nhim to become rich; but if he be slothful, he has nothing to look for\nbut poverty. If an individual persist in a course of crime, he will,\nto an almost absolute certainty, be punished. All this is easily\nunderstood by the dullest-headed person, but it is not every one who\ncan comprehend the more secret science that enables the initiated in\ndeep subjects to gain knowledge from such trifles as air-bubbles or\nspiders' webs.\n\nEverything connected with the human body is a medium through which\nfuture events may be foretold. A pale complexion has its\nsignification, and so has a ruddy face. The hands and veins are\nspecial objects of observation, and so are the nails of one's fingers.\nFrom the colour, shape, and marks on nails, there are, or at least\nwere, people who could read a person's fortune from infancy to old\nage.\n\nPhrenology is a favourite science among ourselves; and so was it with\nthe ancients, who, however, understood the science in a somewhat\ndifferent light to what people of the present time do, and therefore\nwe shall give an outline of their observations and deductions. The\nancients supposed that a moderately large head denoted a\nwell-conditioned person, studious, and possessed of a good memory and\nunderstanding. Those with large heads were supposed to be dull and\nstupid, gluttonous, rough in their manners, frequently melancholy,\nand predisposed to madness.\n\nOne with a head too large for the body, and having a thick neck and\nextended veins, was generally strong and of a martial spirit. When the\nhead was long and of conical shape, the person was generally impudent\nand rash; and, if sprightly in early life, was supposed to lose spirit\nand vivacity before reaching the age of thirty years. A\nwell-proportioned head, but slightly compressed at the sides, denoted\na person of good apprehension, proceeding from the spirits domiciled\nthere. A spherical head denoted inconstancy, forgetfulness, and want\nof discretion. A small head was looked on as an evil sign. The person\nhaving such a head was supposed to be vicious and ill-conditioned in\nmany respects, in consequence of the spirits being confined in a\nnarrow compass, and unable to exercise their functions. A person with\na spherical head seldom lived beyond middle age. A long oblique head\ndenoted lust and intemperance, and a flat cranium caused one to have a\nsimilar disposition.\n\nA large head and broad brow indicated slowness, but laboriousness. A\nlittle forehead denoted obstinacy, wickedness, and weakness of\nintellect, yet conceited and given to mischief. According to\nAristotle, a square forehead denoted magnanimity and courage. A person\nwith a forehead without wrinkles showed that he was honest, but at the\nsame time contentious, fond of law, and void of devotion. A forehead\npointed at the temples, signified shallow capacity, vanity, and want\nof courage.\n\nThose with hanging eyebrows were thought to be fraudulent, bold, and\nunmerciful. A person with a depressed forehead was put down as\nservile, cowardly, and fearful. Of the lines of the forehead, those\nwhich were straight or bent towards the nose foretold good fortune. If\nthey were very crooked or approaching the form of a semicircle, they\nforeboded evil. Simple and straight lines were the signs of\nsimplicity, honesty, and truth. Many lines signified changes in life,\nand the fewness of lines spoke of evenness and simplicity. When the\nlines increased or decreased, they gave warning of approaching changes\nin person and fortune. If the lines on the forehead near the hair of\nthe head were broad, long, and not winding, they denoted eventful\nchanges in the person's life; for it was believed that the first line\nnext the hair referred to Saturn, that below it to Jupiter, and the\nnext below it to Mars. If the third line mentioned was longer than the\nothers, and not broken or discontinued, and having a cross upon it,\nthe person was looked upon as one courageous and ambitious, and who\nwould be fortunate in war; but if the line was broken or discontinued,\nor had a semicircular form, dangers and misfortunes were supposed to\nbe threatened. If there were no more than three lines that bended at\nthe extremities, the person was marked to be a prattler; and if the\nindividual was a woman, she was put down as a scold or abusive person.\nHairy people were among those on whom fortune smiled; whereas\nsmooth-faced, beardless men were numbered among the despicable and\ndespised ones.\n\nFortune-telling by means of the finger nails was not uncommon. The\nancient practice was to rub the nails with oil and soot or wax, and to\nhold up the nails, thus prepared, against the sun; and upon the\ntransparent horny substance were supposed to appear figures or\ncharacters, which gave the answer required. In more recent times,\npeople have been found predicting by means of nails of the hand, and\ntelling the disposition of persons with certain descriptions of nails.\nHowever absurd it may appear, we shall give examples of this\nsuperstition:--A person with broad nails is of gentle nature, timid,\nand bashful. Those whose nails grow into the flesh at the points or\nsides are given to luxury. A white mark on the nail bespeaks\nmisfortune. Persons with very pale nails are subject to much\ninfirmity of the flesh, and persecution by neighbours and friends.\nPeople with narrow nails are ambitious and quarrelsome. Lovers of\nknowledge and liberal sentiment have round nails. Indolent people have\ngenerally fleshy nails. Small nails indicate littleness of mind,\nobstinacy, and conceit. Melancholy persons are distinguished by their\npale or lead-coloured nails; and choleric martial men, delighting in\nwar, have red and spotted nails.\n\nParticular marks on the person were looked on as having reference to\none's destiny. A mole on the chin told that the person thus adorned\nwould be prosperous and esteemed. A mole on the right breast denoted\nsudden accidents and reverse of fortune; one on the left breast was a\nsign of success and of an amorous disposition. The mole on the right\nbreast foretold that the issue would be girls; that on the left\nindicated that the children would be boys. A mole under the left\nbreast of a man was a sign of him having an unsettled mind, fond of\nrambling, and light in his conduct. A similar mark under a lady's left\nbreast showed her to be sincere in love. A mole on the right knee gave\ntokens of the person so marked being destined to trouble and\nmisfortunes. A mole on the left knee portended a good spouse, with\ngreat riches, to the happy individual so marked. A mole on either foot\nforeboded sudden illness, or unexpected misfortune, and one on any\npart of the shoulders indicated imperceptible decline and gradual\ndecay in health and fortune. There were many other ways of divining\nthe fate and dispositions of man, such as by the hand, foot, hair,\nmouth, ears, tongue, eyes, chin, walk, conversation, and complexion;\nbut as it would be unprofitable to treat all these separately, we pass\nthem without further notice in this chapter.\n\nMysterious knockings and unaccountable noises were indicative of the\ndeath of a relative. Warnings of this description were common and\nbelieved in. Educated people, as well as the ignorant, were victims of\nthis kind of superstition. In the beginning of the last century a\nhighly respectable gentleman in England was one night surprised by a\nsudden knock at the street door, so loud that he thought an attempt\nwas being made to break it open. Springing from bed, he seized a brace\nof pistols, and was hastening to the door, when a second knock, louder\nthan the first, was heard. A third knock followed just as he was\nwithdrawing the bolt, but on looking out not a single person was to be\nseen, though it was clear moonlight, and nothing to prevent him seeing\na long way off. Next post brought a letter informing him that a near\nrelation in London had died just at the time the knocking alarmed him\nand his family, for they too heard the startling sounds. The disturbed\npersons firmly believed that, in one way or another, the knockings had\nreference to their friend's death.\n\nA few years afterwards, the same gentleman, sitting one night at\ntwelve o'clock with a sick brother, heard a noise, as of the driving\nof nails into a coffin, in the workshop of an undertaker, who was a\nneighbour. The gentleman thought it was very unkind of the undertaker,\nan intimate acquaintance of the sick person, to disturb him. As soon\nas the noise of nail-driving ceased, other and more disagreeable\nsounds reached his ears. The street door was opened, and, as he\nthought, two or three men went upstairs with a coffin. He naturally\nsuspected that all this was a forerunner of his brother's death; and\nso it turned out to be. The invalid died next day at noon. Those who\nlive in our time may think that the gentleman was insane, and that\nwhat he heard resulted from him having a diseased brain. If he was\nlabouring under delusions, others must have been deranged too; for it\nwas not uncommon in those days for an undertaker and his family to be\nadvised of an early order to make a coffin by the sound of planes and\nhammers at work in the workshop. Gravediggers were not without their\nearly notices of funerals. Sometimes the church bell would toll at\nmidnight, the graveyard gate would be thrown open by unseen hands, and\na living form be seen to enter alone; or it might be that the whole\nfuneral cortege which would appear in the flesh a few days later,\ncould be observed in spirit in the dreary hours of night. If the\ndeceased person had lived a good and holy life, his spectre appeared\nin a pleasant, comely form; but if his career was a wicked one, he\npassed in a hideous shape, probably attended by infernal spirits.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XLII.\n\n      Ornithomancy--Mohammed's Pigeons--A Gigantic\n      Fowl--Cock-crowing--Sacred Geese saving a\n      City--Phenomenon at Rome before C\u00e6sar's Death--Young\n      Swallows--Virtue of a Goose's Tongue--Crows'\n      Hearts--Divination by means of a Sieve--Detection\n      of Crime--Capnomancy--Catoptromancy--Dactyliomancy--\n      Cledonism--Onomancy--Names--Romans toasting their\n      Mistresses--How Success in War was ascertained--Loss of\n      Ships' Colours--Importance attached to Regimental\n      Standards--Consecrated Banners--Flag of the\n      Prophet--Battle of the Standard--A Highland\n      Superstition.\n\n\nOrnithomancy was a popular way of searching into futurity. Mohammed\nhad holy pigeons, which came to his ears and conversed with him about\nthings that were to happen. And the Prophet, it will be recollected,\ngave an account of a multitude of angels that appeared to him in all\nkinds of shapes, some of which were in the form of birds. One of the\nangel birds resembled a white cock, so prodigiously large that its\nheight extended from the first to the second heavens--a distance of\nfive hundred years' journey, according to the rate we usually travel\non earth. Many Mohammedans will have it that the sacred bird was even\nlarger than what we have stated. They assert that the fowl's head\nreached to the seventh heavens; and in describing him, they say his\nwings were decked with carbuncles and pearls, and that he extended his\npinions from the east to the west to a distance proportionate to his\nheight. This winged creature was represented as the chief angel of the\ncocks, and was said to crow so loud every morning that every living\ncreature, except men and fairies, heard it. Following the example of\nthis great bird, the smaller cocks, before sunrise, herald that bright\nluminary as he speeds to the west.\n\nWhen the Gauls under Brennus had scaled the Capitol without arousing\neven the sentinels or the watch-dogs, the sacred geese, kept in the\ncourt of the temple in honour of Juno, heard the approach of the enemy\nand commenced cackling. The patrician, Manlius, struck with the noise,\nroused his fellow-soldiers--the Gauls were discovered, attacked, and\ndriven back. Thenceforth Roman geese were fattened, but not eaten. A\ngolden image of a goose was made to commemorate their vigilance, and\nupon a certain day in every year one was placed in a litter, and\ncarried in state about the city, while a dog was impaled upon a stake,\nto denote the national contempt for that animal. A singular\ncircumstance happened at Rome about twenty-four hours before C\u00e6sar's\ndeath. A little bird was observed to direct its flight towards the\nsenate-house, consecrated by Pompey, whilst a flock of other birds was\nseen to follow in close pursuit, apparently to destroy the little\nbird, or to deprive it of a sprig of laurel it carried through the\nair. The bird was overtaken, and torn to pieces by its pursuers.\n\nWe are told that if one take young swallows and put them in a pot to\ncook them, he will, on taking off the lid, find two of the swallows\nkissing each other, and two turning one from the other. If the kissing\nbirds be dissolved in oil of roses, they will prove effectual, when\napplied according to custom, in securing the affections of the most\nblooming young lady in the parish; but in making use of the birds\nfound back to back, for creating sympathetic feelings, they require to\nbe pounded into an ointment, and applied to the eyelids of him or her\nwhose affections are sought. If the tongue of a goose be cut out when\nthe fowl is alive, and laid on the breast of a man or woman when\nasleep, he or she will confess every sin of life. When a man carried\nthe heart of a male crow, and his wife the heart of a female crow,\nthey lived in peace and happiness. It was customary with the good\nhousewives of England, on placing eggs in a nest for incubation, to\nswing a lighted candle over them, as a charm to prevent hawks, crows,\nand other birds of prey, flying away with the young birds hatched from\nthe eggs.\n\nDivination by means of a sieve was often resorted to. The sieve was\nsuspended after the operator had repeated a particular form of words,\nand, by certain manipulations, information was obtained concerning\nthefts, etc. The names of suspected parties were repeated while the\nimplement was made to turn round; and on the guilty person being\nnamed, the sieve, instead of turning swiftly and steadily, began to\noscillate and shake. This was a very ancient practice, in which great\nfaith was put. Theocritus mentions a woman who was very skilful in her\nart. At times the sieve was suspended by a thread, or fixed at the\npoint of a pair of scissors, giving it room to turn, and naming, as\nbefore, the suspected persons. Coscinomancy was practised in England\nat no distant date.\n\nDivination by means of smoke (Capnomancy) was in use among the\nancients in their sacrifices. It was a good sign when the smoke rose\nlight and straight. If, on the contrary, the smoke ascended dark and\ndense, evil was foretold.\n\nCatoptromancy was a species of divination performed by the aid of a\nmirror. This method of divination was common among the Achaians. The\nmode of procedure was, when one was sick and in danger of death, to\nlet down a mirror into a fountain before the temple of Ceres, and,\nfrom the appearance of the glass, to judge what was to be the\nresult--whether the sickness was to be removed, or death to take\nplace. If a ghastly, disfigured face was seen, it was regarded as a\ncertain evidence of death; but if the patient's face appeared fresh,\nhealthy, and comely, it was a sign of recovery.\n\nDactyliomancy was divination performed by means of a ring. The ring\nwas suspended by a thread above a round table, on the edge of which\nletters of the alphabet were marked. The ring, in shaking or vibrating\nover the table, stopped over certain of the letters, which, on being\nconnected, supplied the answer asked. But the operation was preceded\nand accompanied by several superstitious ceremonies. In the first\nplace, the ring had to be consecrated; the person from whose hand it\nwas suspended required to be clothed in linen garments; his head had\nto be shaven all round; and he required to hold vervain in his hand.\n\nCledonism denoted divination drawn from words only occasionally\nuttered. Cicero observes that the Pythagoreans made observations not\nonly of the words of gods, but those of men also. Accordingly the\npeople thought it was unlucky to pronounce at meal-time such words as\nconveyed peril, evil consequences, sickness, death, estrangement of\nfriends, or the displeasure of their deities. In another sense\nCledonism seems to be divination drawn from the movements of birds,\nsuch as those noticed in another part of our work.\n\nOnomancy, Onomamancy, or Onomatomancy, was the art of divining the\ngood or bad fortune of man from the letters of his name. This mode of\ndivination was popular among the ancients. The Pythagoreans taught\nthat the mind, actions, and successes of mankind were according to\ntheir fate, genius, and name. Plato, who recommended parents to give\ntheir children happy names, was inclined to think they were right, and\nadduced grounds for maintaining his opinion. Some of the Bible\nworthies are referred to in support of Onomancy; and a certain profane\nwriter calls attention to tippling Meroe, supposing she would drink\nher wine without water. Hippolitus was torn to pieces by his own\ncoach-horses, as his name imported; Agamemnon signified that he should\nlinger long before Troy; Priam, that he should be redeemed out of\nbondage in his childhood. The greatest empires and states have been\nfounded and destroyed by men of the same name. Cyrus, the son of\nCambyses, established the Persian monarchy; and Cyrus, the son of\nDarius, ruined it; Darius, son of Hystaspes, restored it; and again,\nDarius, son of Asamis, overthrew it. Philip, son of Amyntas, greatly\nenlarged the kingdom of Macedonia; and Philip, son of Antigonus, lost\nit. Augustus was the first emperor of Rome; Augustulus, the last.\nConstantine founded the empire of Constantinople, and Constantine lost\nit. Some names are unfortunate to princes: Caius, among the Romans;\nJohn and Henry of France, and John of England and Scotland. One of the\nprincipal rules of this kind of divination among the Pythagoreans was,\nthat an even number of vowels in a name signified an imperfection in\nthe left side of a man, and an odd number in the right side. Another\nrule was, that the persons were the most happy in whose names the\nnumeral letters added together, made the greatest sum; for which\nreason, it was alleged, Achilles vanquished Hector, the numeral\nletters in the former name amounting to a greater number than in the\nlatter. From a like idea, the young Romans toasted their mistresses at\ntheir meetings as often as their names contained letters. Theodotus,\nking of the Goths, being anxious to ascertain the success of his wars\nagainst the Romans, consulted a Jew, who ordered him to shut up a\nnumber of swine in styes, and to give some of them Roman and others\nGothic names, and there to keep them until a certain day. The Jews'\ninstructions were complied with; and, on inspecting the styes at the\nappointed time, it was discovered that the animals which had received\nthe Gothic names were dead, and those to which the Roman names had\nbeen assigned were alive. From these circumstances, the fortune-teller\ntruly predicted the defeat of the Goths.\n\nThere was an old superstition among seamen, which is supposed to\nlinger among them still,--we mean the evil that was feared would\nfollow the total loss or tearing of a ship's colours. Sailors would\nhave been less grieved at all their sails being split, their spars\ncarried away, and their masts gone by the board, than at being\ndeprived of their colours. The loss or tearing of a flag was a sign of\nmisfortune, both to the vessel and the crew.\n\nSoldiers, particularly those in Highland and Irish regiments, were\nequally credulous. Vast importance was attached to the preservation of\ntheir standards, and hence in some instances the great bravery that\nhas been displayed in preventing the enemy carrying away a standard. A\nbrave Highlander, or courageous Irish soldier, would rather die than\nsurrender the flag of his company. Not only did the loss of regimental\ncolours bring disgrace for the time on those whose duty it was to\ndefend them, but it portended future defeats and demoralisation.\n\nConsecrated banners were common in times when almost every man was a\nsoldier. \"_Go, conquer by this_\" was the motto inscribed on ensigns of\nseveral nations. In the devices of standards were found the eagle, the\nwolf, the horse, the boar, the lion, and often a figure of Victory or\nMars. The \"Flag of the Prophet\" was the sacred banner of the\nMohammedans. It was composed of the turban of the Koreish, captured by\nMohammed. A black flag was afterwards substituted in its place,\nconsisting of a curtain that used to hang in front of the door of\nAyeshah's (one of the Prophet's wives) tent. The Mohammedans regarded\nthis flag as a most sacred relic. Subsequent to passing through\nseveral hands, it was brought to Europe by Amurath III. It was kept in\na costly casket, and deposited in a chapel, guarded by emirs. The\nbanner used to be unfolded when war broke out, and carefully laid\naside, as stated, when peace was restored.\n\nIn the history of the \"Battle of the Standard,\" which took place on\nCutton Moor, near Northallerton, between the English and Scots, at\nwhich the Scots lost 10,000 men, the success of the English was\nreported to have been due to their having consecrated banners with\nthem. The battle derived its name from the circumstance of a\nflag-staff being attached to a waggon in the army's centre, bearing at\nits top the consecrated host, and the banners of St. John of Beverley,\nSt. Peter of York, and St. Wilfred of Ripon.\n\nA superstition long lingered in the Scottish Highlands, that it was\nunlucky for a clansman to learn any handicraft engaged in by\nLowlanders. If a Highland youth left his native mountains and engaged\nin mercantile or mechanical pursuits, his friends thought he turned\neffeminate. For warfare he became unsuited, either as a leader or\nfollower. The prowess of his ancestors forsook him, he became\nincapable of handling the bow or spear skilfully, and, what was worse,\nhe carried ill luck with himself and to his companions wherever he\nwent. Powerful clans have been beaten in the open field by opposing\nclansmen of inferior numbers, solely through the circumstance of the\nformer having in their ranks men who had imprudently, in an evil hour,\napprenticed themselves to the vulgar callings of life. To be a soldier\nwas honourable, to be a tiller of the ground was not a disgrace, to be\na cattle reiver was not a crime, but for a clansman to condescend to\nearn his bread by ordinary industry in a workshop, could not fail to\nbring discredit and misfortune on himself and kindred, however remote\nthe relationship might be. To this superstition the nation is\nindebted for the many stalwart Highlanders who have fought England's\nbattles, and won them too, at home and abroad. Ask the decrepit old\nwoman, leaning on her staff, far up yonder glen, the cause of the\nexpiring zeal among the mountain youths to study the art of war, and\nshe will tell you in effect what we have said; and will add, that\nthrough the intimacy that has long existed between Highlanders and\nLowlanders, and the frequent evictions that have brought a scandal on\nour nation, her country no longer remains a recruiting ground for\narmies.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XLIII.\n\n      Caution of our Ancestors--A Magpie crossing one's\n      Path--What four Magpies betokened--The Poet and the\n      Magpies--More about Magpies--Flight of Birds--Swarming\n      of Bees--Howling of Dogs--Lowing of Cattle--Crowing of\n      Cocks--Dogs' Power of Sight--Stockings wrong side\n      out--Evil effect of Suspended Eggs--Burning Fish\n      Bones--Sign of a Letter coming--Sneezing of a\n      Cat--Various Signs--The sight of a Fox foreboding\n      Evil--Owls and Ravens--Various Signs and Omens--How to\n      prevent Ill Luck--Reputed Witches crossing the\n      Path--Highland Superstition--Print of a Caldron, what\n      it denoted--Unlucky to pass over a Balance--How to see\n      in the Dark--When not to pare your Nails--Touching a\n      Dead Body--Funeral Processions--Storks and Storks'\n      Hearts--How to Sit--Marriages--A Prophetic\n      Rhyme--Favourable and Unfavourable Times for\n      Marriages--Unfortunate to lose or break a Wedding\n      Ring--Rules to be observed in taking possession of a\n      House--Throwing Slippers, Besoms, Salt, and Rice after\n      Newly-married Persons--Charms for Bridegrooms and\n      Brides--Mothers and Children--More about\n      Marriages--Rules to be observed at Baptisms--How to\n      treat Young Children.\n\n\nMark the caution of our ancestors: If a magpie crossed one's path when\nsetting out on a journey, his mission, whatever it happened to be, was\ncertain to prove unsuccessful, unless the traveller immediately\ncrossed himself--a ceremony he invariably performed--and thus the\nunfavourable influence of the hateful bird ceased. In the south of\nEngland, people supposed that if a person saw four magpies at one\ntime, he would soon lose by death a dear friend. But an old English\npoet, writing of magpies, says:\n\n    \"One is a sign of sorrow; two are a sign of mirth;\n    Three are a sign of a wedding; and four a sign of birth.\"\n\nThe chattering of one of these birds in the morning bespeaks the\narrival of a stranger before evening. It is thought unlucky to kill a\nmagpie or a swallow. The congregating of magpies on a house-top\nprecedes an important event, in which the inmates are interested. If a\nbird fly through a window, it is a sign that one of the inmates will\nsoon die. If a pigeon, which does not belong to any one of the family,\ncome into a house, it forebodes death to the occupant of the domicile.\nThe alighting of a swarm of bees on a dead tree or on the withered\nbough of a living tree, signifies that the owner of the tree will soon\npass through death's portal. The howling of dogs, the lowing of\ncattle, and the crowing of cocks at night, foretell the death of some\nperson in the neighbourhood. Dogs are supposed by not a few people to\nsee death as it enters a dwelling; and hence, in their opinion, the\ncause of that quadruped's frequent dismal howling.\n\nWhen one, by mistake, puts on his stockings in the morning wrong side\nout, he secures good luck for that day at least. Birds' eggs hung up\nin a house, prevent good luck entering that dwelling. He who wishes to\nthrive should abstain from burning fish bones. A spark in the candle\ngives notice that a letter is coming. If the cat sneeze or cough,\nnothing is more certain than that one person, at least, in the house\nwill soon have a cold. When one's ears tingle, lies are being told\nabout him. When his cheeks burn, he is assured people are talking\nabout him. If the right eye itches, good luck is expected; and when\nthe left eye waters, misfortune is looked for. When the nose itches,\nvexation--probably the death of friends--is expected. The meeting of a\nfox, or the seeing of one crossing the path, presages the attempt of\nan impostor to commit a fraud at the expense of the traveller. Owls or\nravens appearing on important occasions, portend unlucky events. If a\nweasel be met in the morning, it is necessary to turn three times on\nthe heel and throw three stones, to prevent ill luck. It is more lucky\nto meet a man than a woman as a first-foot. Every person is advised to\navoid meeting a cat, when going on an important mission. It is also\nunlucky to meet a pig; and it is thought prudent to return home when a\nhare or a reputed witch crosses the path ere the morning dew\ndisappears before the sun. A man leading or riding on a mare with\nfoal, is cautioned against allowing the animal to go in the track of a\nwolf; because, if she place a hoof on the spot where that ravenous\nbeast's foot has been, she will cast her foal.\n\nTime was, in Great Britain as in the East, when almost every one,\nwhether walking, riding, or sailing in a boat, went with the sun, when\nsetting out on a journey, or proceeding to sea. The Highlanders of\nScotland invariably went _deiseal_, or to the right, at every meeting\nof importance. They went to the right, around the grave, with the\ncorpse--to the right three times around the consecrated well before\ndrinking. The company at a marriage went three times round the house\nbefore crossing the threshold. Companies, on taking their seats at\ntable, were expected to turn to the right. Even at the present day,\nthe loving-cup and decanters are handed to the right around the social\nboard. When one lets salt fall on the floor or table, he should not\nomit to cast a small quantity of the condiment over his left shoulder.\nBeware of passing the salt at table unless it be asked for, and of\nplacing your fork and knife cross-ways.\n\nWhen one sneezed, he did not evoke Jupiter to save him, the same as\nthe people of some other countries did, but he, or some of his\nfriends present, said _Deiseal_. When an infant was born, the midwife\nencircled it three times right about with a burning candle. These\ncustoms were no doubt commenced by the Highlanders in honour of the\nsun, which they once worshipped; but in later times people did as\ntheir forefathers and foremothers had done, through a superstitious\nbelief, thinking that by so doing they would prevent evil\nconsequences, and secure good fortune.\n\nIt is unlucky to leave the print of a caldron in the ashes after\ntaking the utensil off the fire. If people are wise, they will not\npass over a balance, or take up fire with a sword. To enable a person\nto see in the dark, he is recommended to anoint his eyes with a salve\nprepared from the right eye of a hedgehog, boiled in oil, and\npreserved in a brazen vessel. A blackamoor is an unlucky first-foot.\nIf the chickens do not come out readily to feed in the morning, the\nowner may make up his or her mind to meet with disappointments before\nnight.\n\nIt was formerly, if not now, unlucky to pare your nails on Sunday or\nFriday. To prevent one dreaming about a dead person he has seen, it is\nnecessary to touch the body. To secure money being always in one's\npocket, he is advised to keep a bent sixpence, or a coin with a hole\nin it, in his purse; to take it out and spit on it at every new moon;\nand to return it to the pocket while wishing himself good luck.\n\nIt is unlucky to look at a funeral through a door or a window. Should\none wish to gaze on the melancholy procession, he ought to take his\nposition in the open air. The family will be fortunate on the roof of\nwhose house a stork builds its nest; and if any one take the heart of\na stork, and tie it up in the skin of a hawk or of a vulture, no enemy\ncan conquer him so long as he carries the charm attached to his right\narm. To sit with one's hands closed is bad, but to sit cross-legged\nsecures good fortune. At a card-table, people occasionally sit in the\nlatter position, with the view of bringing lucky deals.\n\nA bride should not be married in a white satin dress. That a\nnewly-married couple may have no obstacles in the way of prosperity,\nevery one meeting them going to church to be united, or returning home\nafter the hymeneal knot is tied, should retrace his steps with them a\nshort distance. No small importance is attached to the old rhyme:\n\n    \"Blessed is the bride that the sun shines on;\n     Blessed is the corpse that the rain rains on.\"\n\nMarriages at the festival of St. Joseph are carefully avoided as\nunfortunate. All fast-days and vigils should also be avoided as\nmarriage-days, they being considered inauspicious. The first day of\nMay continues in many lands to be held in great esteem, and the 12th\nof that month is a high day among the witches. At that time they may\nbe seen dancing on the surface of lakes, brushing the dew off the\ngrass, milking cows in their folds, and flying through the air, or\nescaping from pursuers in the shape of hares.\n\nIf a married woman lose her wedding ring, she has reason to fear the\nestrangement of her husband's affections. If she break it, she thinks\nthere is danger of the matrimonial tie being soon severed by death. If\na newly-married couple go into a clean-swept house, they expect to be\npoor all their days; but if the house be but indifferently cleaned,\nand the precaution taken to throw salt and a small quantity of coals\nin at the door before any furniture or household goods are carried\nacross the threshold, good luck is expected. As a warning, however, to\npersons who might wish to injure their neighbours, we think it right\nto say that, down to the time we write, it is considered that any one\nremoving from a dwelling with clean-swept floors, has reason to expect\ngrief and trouble in his new abode. Every one knows that slippers,\nbesoms, salt, and rice should be thrown after a newly-wedded pair; and\nthat a cake must be broken over a bride's head when she first enters\nthe house of her husband; but it is not so well known that a\nbridegroom should have silver--say sixpences--and salt in his shoes,\nwhen he first approaches the marriage bed, and that the bride should\navoid putting her bare feet on the floor when preparing to retire for\nthe night with her future companion in life. If these precautions be\nneglected, there is danger of the wedded pair being deprived of little\nprattlers around their fire in the early days of their wedded life,\nand of having sons or daughters to comfort them in declining years. A\nmother should not enter a neighbour's house after having an infant\nbefore she is \"kirked\"; nor should she carry her child even to her\nnearest and dearest friend's abode before the little one has been\nbaptized.\n\nIt is unlucky for a bridegroom to have for his \"best-man\" one who is\nnot his blood relation. It is unlucky for a \"best-man\" to have on a\nblack coat at a marriage; it is an omen of evil to the bride and\nbridegroom. If a bride slip her foot or her horse stumble when\nproceeding to church to be married, it is regarded as an evil sign;\nand if the bridegroom come down when on his way to meet his betrothed,\nbefore the hymeneal knot is tied, misfortunes are expected. If he has\nto cross a stream, and his bonnet or hat fall into the water, his\ndeath is not far distant. A bride's glove should not be taken off\nbefore the bridegroom's is removed, preparatory to their joining hands\nin wedlock before the clergyman. If any part of a dinner-set or\ntea-set be broken at a marriage or baptismal feast, it is a sign that\nmisfortunes are coming.\n\nIf two children--a boy and a girl--are baptized in church on the same\nday, and the latter be sprinkled before the former, the girl's\nrelations have reason to fear that in ripe years she will have a\nbeard. If a mother or nurse do not give bread and cheese to the first\nperson she meets when going to church with a child to be baptized, it\nis questionable whether the infant's career through life shall prove\nprosperous. The \"first-foot,\" on receiving his bread and cheese, is\nexpected to return a short distance with the child, to show his good\nwill.\n\nIf a person, who is a stranger, leave a house wherein there is an\nunbaptized child, particularly if it be a girl, without eating or\ndrinking, the infant's beauty is in danger of being taken away. It is\nunlucky to let a child see its face in a mirror before it is a year\nold. When an infant is suspended by the dress with its head downwards\nfor a few seconds after being washed in the morning, it prevents an\nevil eye from affecting the little one that day.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XLIV.\n\n      Floors should not be swept at Night--Fires at New Year\n      and Christmas--Presents at New Year and\n      Christmas--Lucky and Unlucky \"First-Foots\"--Looking\n      through a Ladder--Sneezing--Air Bubbles on Tea--Tea\n      Stalks--Stepping out with the Left Foot--Left Shoe to\n      be put on first--Weather Prognostications--How to\n      secure Favourable Gales--Superstitious Customs at time\n      of Death--Corpse of one guilty of _Felo-de-se_, how to\n      be Buried--Finding of Persons who die\n      unseen--Superstitious Belief of Russian\n      Seamen--Ancient Customs of Scotland--Friday an Unlucky\n      Day for commencing an Important Undertaking--Friday as\n      a Marriage Day--Anecdote of a Ship called\n      \"Friday\"--Loss of the Ship \"Amazon\"--Sunday a\n      Favourable Day for commencing a Voyage--Lawyers and\n      Clergymen, how looked upon by Sailors at Sea--It is\n      Lucky to have Women and Children at Sea--Dogs and Cats\n      at Sea--Rats deserting a Ship--Whistling to raise the\n      Wind--Deceased Sailors' Clothes--Old Boats not to be\n      Broken up--Reluctance to go to Sea in a Boat from\n      which a Person has been Drowned--Sharks following a\n      Ship--Unfavourable Sign to see a Hatch turned upside\n      down--A Four-footed Beast not to be named at\n      Sea--Legend of Vanderdecken or the Flying Dutchman--A\n      Grandfather's Axe--Other Signs and Warnings.\n\n\nIf a housewife wish everything to prosper with her and her family, she\nwill not permit the floors of her house to be swept at night. The\nsweeping not only prevents good fortune, but it disturbs the spirits\nof the dead, supposed to be constantly walking about in thousands. If\nthe kitchen fire burn down on New Year's morning or Christmas eve, it\nis thought, some person belonging to the house will die before these\nseasons come round again. Old women, who wish to have a peep into\nfuturity, are accustomed to cover over with ashes the smouldering\nembers of their fires on the last night of the year. If a death is to\nhappen in the house before twelve months expire, the foot marks of the\ndoomed individual will be imprinted in the ashes; but if no such event\nis to happen, the ashes will remain with a smooth surface, and the\nembers kindled below. It is thought lucky to receive a present on New\nYear's day or Christmas; but it is unlucky to borrow or lend on these\ndays. The destiny of the members of a family is greatly affected for a\nwhole year, if not for life, by the \"first-foot\" on New Year's and\nChristmas mornings. An unlucky \"first-foot\" brings misfortune with him\nor her, but a lucky \"first-foot\" introduces prosperity.\n\nIf one look through a ladder, he should spit three times to prevent\nevil consequences; and it is unlucky to hand anything through a\nladder. Sneezing to the left hand is unlucky, but prosperous when to\nthe right. Plutarch relates that, by the sneezing of a soldier towards\nhis right hand, the soothsayer predicted the victory of the Greeks and\nthe complete overthrow of the Persians in battle. Candles and lights\nburn dim when spirits are present. The stalk of the tea plant floating\non the surface of a cup of tea, foretells the coming of a stranger. If\nthe stalk be short, look for a female visitor; but if long, then a man\nmay be expected. Air bubbles on tea denote kisses and money. It is\nthought lucky to step out with the left foot first; and no one who has\nattended to the recommendation of his grandmother, thinks of putting\nhis right shoe on first in the morning. These precautions--stepping\nout with the left foot first, and putting the left shoe on before the\nright--keep one from stumbling.\n\nWith reference to prognosticating the state of the weather, our\nfathers, we may premise, carefully observed the winds, the clouds, the\nsky, and the seasons. If the wind blew from the west on New Year's\nnight, it was considered lucky, and supposed to foretell a season of\nabundance.\n\nIn the north of Scotland, the people wished to see the first three\ndays of winter dark and cloudy. A northern bard says:\n\n    \"The south wind, heat and plenty,\n    The west wind, fish and milk,\n    The north wind, cold and stormy,\n    The east wind, fruit on trees.\"\n\nPeople in Scotland also prognosticated the weather of the coming\nseason, according to whether Candlemas was clear or foul. Every one\ncan repeat the old rhyme, and some put faith in it:\n\n    \"If Candlemas is fair and clear,\n    Ther'll be twa winters in the year.\"\n\nWhen this day passed without a shower of rain or a fall of snow,\npeople imagined there would be severe weather before spring was past;\nand they expected heavy snow storms before the following Christmas. A\nshowery and tempestuous Candlemas, on the other hand, raised the\npeople's spirits, for by such omens they were to expect a favourable\nsummer and an abundant harvest.\n\nThough they may be well known to most readers, we subjoin a few\npoetical proverbs on the weather:\n\n    \"The evening red, and the morning grey,\n    Are certain signs of a fair day.\"\n\n    \"If red the sun begins his race,\n    Expect that rain will fall apace.\"\n\n    \"In the waning of the moon,\n    A cloudy morn--fair afternoon.\"\n\n    \"If woolly fleeces spread the heavenly way,\n    No rain, be sure, disturbs the summer's day.\"\n\n    \"When clouds appear like rocks and towers,\n    The earth's refreshed by frequent showers.\"\n\nFrom rainbows, shepherds and sailors predicted the state of the\nweather.\n\n    \"A rainbow in the morning is the shepherd's warning;\n    A rainbow at night is the sailor's delight.\"\n\nWhen peacocks cry, be sure rain will early fall; and when the night\nowl screeches from the ruined tower, look for a storm; so also, if the\ncat is seen washing its face with its fore paws, expect a gale. When\nocean birds flock on shore, a tempest is brewing on the sea.\n\nSeamen and fishermen's wives can secure a favourable gale for their\nhusbands by going to a chapel after mass, and blowing the dust on the\ndoor in the direction the vessels have gone.\n\nWhen a person is dying, no one in the house, of whatever age, should\nbe permitted to sleep. When one expires, the clock should be\nimmediately stopped, and the dial plate covered with a towel, and\nmirrors and pictures should be concealed, or their faces turned to the\nwall. All the cats belonging to the house ought to be caught and\nconfined till after the funeral. That a necessity prevails for putting\nthe feline animals out of the way, will be understood by the existing\ngeneration, when they understand that if a cat cross a corpse, and\nafterwards pass over a living person in a recumbent posture, that\nindividual will be deprived of sight. When a dead body is dressed and\nlaid out, the relatives would do well to put a Bible below the head,\nand one plate with salt, and another plate with a piece of green turf,\non the breast. The corpse of every one guilty of _felo-de-se_ should\nbe buried either in a remote spot not customarily used as a place of\nburial, or near to a cross road; but if the relatives of any such\nunhappy person insist on having the remains interred in the ordinary\nplace of sepulchre, they are expected to carry the corpse over the\nburying-ground wall, and inter it after sunset. It is believed that if\na person die unseen, they who first discover the body will meet his\ndeath in a similar manner. This superstitious belief often prevents\nseamen and fishermen picking up and taking ashore dead bodies\ndiscovered at sea. Seamen have not yet risen above these superstitious\ndelusions. A few years ago a Russian ship was lying in Leith Docks,\nwhen one of the crew fell overboard and was drowned. As long as there\nwas a chance of rescuing the man, his companions did everything they\ncould to save him; but as soon as they discovered that their comrade\nwas dead, they rushed into the forecastle of their vessel, and refused\nto search for the body, believing that they who first beheld the\ncorpse after being brought to the surface, would, sooner or later,\nmeet a watery grave.\n\nNo person who understands the ancient customs of Scotland will think\nof commencing to make a new garment at the end of the year, if it\ncannot be finished before the new year comes in; nor will any one\ncommence to make an article of clothing on Saturday, unless it can be\nready for wearing on the Sunday. Friday is also an unlucky day for\ncommencing any important undertaking. Some people refuse to be bled or\nphysicked on a Friday. In certain parts of the country, Friday is the\nusual day for young men and women being united in wedlock, but at\nother places it is supposed bad luck would cleave to them during the\nwhole of their lives if they were married on that day. It is believed\nby old crones that children born on Friday are doomed to misfortune.\nFriday night's dreams are sure to come true. It is well known, seamen\ndislike going to sea on Friday. Mr. Fenimore Cooper relates a very\nextraordinary anecdote in reference to Friday. He says:\n\n\"A wealthy merchant of Connecticut devised a notable scheme to give a\nfatal blow to the superstition of Friday being an unlucky day. He\ncaused the keel of a very large ship to be laid on a Friday; he named\nher the 'Friday'; he launched her on a Friday; he gave the command of\nher to a captain whose name was Friday; and she commenced her first\nvoyage on a Friday, bound for China with a costly cargo; and in all\nrespects she was one of the noblest and best-appointed ships that ever\nleft the port. The result was, neither ship nor crew was ever heard of\nafterwards. Thus his well-meant plan,\" adds Mr. Cooper, \"so far from\nshowing the folly of superstition, only confirmed seamen in their\nabsurd belief.\"\n\nAnother instance may be given of a splendid ship sailing on a Friday\nbeing lost, as was supposed by the superstitious, through the\nimprudence of sending her to sea on the sixth day of the week. We\nrefer to the West India steamer \"Amazon,\" whose sad fate is a matter\nof history. Other examples might be given of ships beginning their\nvoyages on Friday being lost; and, to the present time, sailors will\ntell you that more misfortunes happen to vessels leaving port on\nFriday than to ships departing on any other day of the week. Sailors\nconsider Sunday a favourable day for commencing a voyage. They are\naverse to proceed to sea if a lawyer or clergyman is on board. They\nthink the presence of one of these gentlemen raises a tempest that\nputs their craft in peril. This superstition is probably founded on\nthe biblical story of Jonah in his flight to Tarshish, when such a\nmighty tempest was raised as to endanger the lives of those who manned\nthe vessel that conveyed him from Joppa. Sailors are of opinion that\nit is lucky to have women or children on board a ship. Time was when\nthey objected to sail with a native of Finland as one of the crew,\nthinking that the Finns were leagued with Satan, and that if they were\noffended, they took their revenge by raising adverse winds and causing\naccidents to happen. Old sailors objected to have dogs on board, but\ncats were held sacred; and if all tales be true, Puss often secured\nfavourable winds, and prevented shipwreck. When rats are seen\ndeserting a ship ready for sea, it is regarded as an evil omen. In\ncalm weather, sailors whistle to raise the wind; but in a gale they\nneither whistle themselves, nor permit others to do so. It is unlucky\nto wear the clothes of a fellow-sailor who dies at sea before the\ntermination of the voyage. It is thought unlucky to break up an old\nboat--a fact which accounts for so many useless boats being seen at\nfishing villages. If a man be drowned in or from a boat, sailors and\nfishermen are reluctant to put to sea again with her. It is an evil\nsign to see sharks following a ship. Inadvertently turning a hatch\nupside down, is considered an unfavourable sign. A four-footed beast\nshould not be named at sea. A child's caul hung in the cabin, prevents\nthe ship from sinking. A legend of Vanderdecken, the Flying Dutchman,\nis believed by seamen. It runs thus:--\n\nThree hundred years ago a large Dutch Indiaman, commanded by Mynheer\nVanderdecken, attempted to round the Cape of Good Hope against a head\nwind. His vessel was frequently driven back, but he doggedly\npersevered, in spite of many signs and warnings of failure, and\ndeclared that he would double the Cape, though he sailed till the day\nof judgment. For this impious saying, and disregard of signs and\nwarnings, the ship and wicked captain, with his crew, were doomed to\nsail continually in the latitude of the Cape, without doubling it.\nSailors have asserted that, in the midnight gale, the ship may be\nseen, with her antique build and rig, and the figure of Vanderdecken,\non the poop, giving orders to his ghostly crew, contending with the\nwind and waves, which they can never overcome.\n\nOne day in the Middle Ages, as a troop of Condottieri crossed the\nRoman country, a young peasant, named Attendole, stood under an oak to\nadmire them. Some of the soldiers invited him to join their company.\nThe peasant was inclined to follow them, but being undecided he said,\n\"I will throw the axe I hold in my hand against this oak, and if it\nenter far enough into the bark to remain fixed, I will be a soldier.\"\nSo saying, he threw the axe with so much violence that it entered the\ntree deep and stuck fast. From that moment all hesitation was over:\ntearing himself from his friends, he joined the troop. Because it was\nwith all his force he decided what his vocation was to be, his\ncomrades called him Sforza. He fought in more than one hundred\nbattles, and, after having served in Rome and at Milan, he at an\nadvanced age perished while endeavouring to save one of his own pages\nfrom drowning. He left a son, who, like his father, gained renown. He\nrose so high in Italy as to be considered a suitable match for Bianca\nVisconti, the heiress of Milan. Their son Galeazza, Duke of Milan,\nused to look on the fair city and say, \"See what I owe to my\ngrandfather's axe!\"\n\nWarnings of approaching death are given in various ways. There are\nancient families to whom the ghosts of their ancestors appear before\nthe death of the chiefs or heads of the families. In one instance we\nhave heard that the ghost of an old murdered lady keeps wandering\nthrough the castle halls shortly before any of the family dies; and in\nanother instance it is said that a mysterious light blazes from the\nlofty battlements before the noble proprietor is laid low in death.\n\nThe falling of his portrait or statue is a sure presage of a great\nman's death. Archbishop Laud, going into his study (which no one could\nenter without him being present, as he invariably locked the door and\nkept the key), found his portrait one day lying on its face on the\nfloor. He was extremely perplexed, for to him it was as his death\nknell, and he commenced setting his house in order. The sad summons\nwas not long of coming, and death took him for its own.\n\n\n\n\nAMULETS AND CHARMS.\n\n\nCHAPTER XLV.\n\n      Amulets and Charms among the Chald\u00e6ans, Jews, and\n      Persians--Amulets among the Greeks and\n      Romans--Ecclesiastics forbidden to wear Amulets and\n      Phylacteries--Amulets and Charms very\n      numerous--Pericles' Amulet--Lord Bacon's Opinion of\n      Charms--Cramp Rings and Eel Skins--Moss off a Dead\n      Man's Skull--How to remove Warts--Cure for St. Vitus'\n      Dance--Effect of Music--Kittens and Pigeons used as\n      Cures--Yawning and Laughing, Fear and Shame--Diseases\n      cured by Charms--Surprise a Cure for Hooping-cough--A\n      Mad Dog's Bite--Touch of a Torpedo--Philosophers'\n      Opinions of Amulets--Bane and Antidote--Mr. E.\n      Chambers on Amulets--Poets on Enchantments--A\n      Dairymaid's Charm--A Charm sent by a Pope to an\n      Emperor.\n\n\nAmulets and charms were in great variety among the Chald\u00e6ans, Jews,\nand Persians. They were also held in estimation among the Greeks and\nRomans, chiefly on account of their supposed virtue in exciting or\nconquering the passion of love. The Council of Laodicea forbade\necclesiastics to wear amulets and phylacteries, on pain of\ndegradation. St. Jerome was likewise opposed to their use.\nNevertheless, although amulets and charms are not held in the same\nrepute they once were, their efficacy is not supposed to be entirely\ngone. Among early Christians amulets and charms were acknowledged to\npossess peculiar virtues beneficial to man. Amulets and charms were,\nand are, so numerous that it would be a herculean task to give an\naccount of one half of them. Where the inhabitants were destitute of\nmedical resources, amulets and charms were employed for the\nalleviation of bodily suffering. Pericles wore an amulet about his\nneck, as such charms were supposed to be capable of preserving the\nwearers from misfortune and disease. Lord Bacon was of opinion that if\na man wore a planet seal, it might aid him in obtaining the affection\nof his sweetheart, give him protection at sea and in battle, and make\nhim more courageous. Cramp rings and eel skins were worn round the\nlimbs, to prevent sickness; and people were sometimes cured by laying\nsticks across each other in front of their beds at night. Moreover,\nthe sticks thus placed prevented demons approaching the couch of rest.\nThe moss off a dead man's skull, says the great Mr. Boyle, is an\neffectual remedy against bleeding at the nose. We are told by Lord\nVerulam, that when he was at Paris he had above one hundred warts on\nhis hands, and that they were removed by the English ambassador's lady\nrubbing them with a piece of bacon, afterwards nailed to a post. In\nfive weeks the bacon, being exposed to the sun, melted away, and the\nwarts disappeared.\n\nSt. Vitus' dance was cured by the sufferer visiting the tomb of the\nsaint, near Ulm, every May. The bites of certain reptiles are rendered\nharmless by music. Dr. Sydenham orders, in cases of iliac passion, a\nlive kitten to be laid on the abdomen. Pigeons, split alive and\napplied to the soles of the feet, are efficacious in fevers and\nconvulsions. Quincey says that yawning and laughing are infectious,\nand so are fear and shame; and from these, by a system of reasoning\npeculiarly his own, he endeavours to prove that amulets may be\nsufficient to counteract, if not to entirely hinder, infection.\nThroughout the Mohammedan dominions the people were convinced that\ncharms were indispensable to their well-being. By charms they cured\nevery kind of disease, provided predestination had not determined that\nthe sick man's days were at an end. Surprise, it is urged, removes the\nhooping-cough; looking from a precipice, or seeing a wheel turn\nswiftly, causes giddiness. \"Why then,\" asks a wise man, \"may not\namulets or charms, by their secret influence, produce the effects\nascribed to them? Who can comprehend by what impenetrable means the\nbite of a mad dog produces hydrophobia? Why does the touch of a\ntorpedo induce numbness? When these causes and effects are explained,\"\nhe concludes, \"so may the virtue of amulets be accounted for.\" Ancient\nphilosophers laid it down, as a proof of ignorance, the condemnation\nof a science not easily understood. In this way the advocates of\namulets and charms have been enabled to silence people who have had\nthe hardihood to throw odium on their superstitions. Believers in\namulets and charms remind us that it is a well-ascertained fact in\nnature, that for every bane there is an antidote. Wherever the\nstinging nettle grows, the slimy stem of the dock is near; whenever\nthe wasp stings, honey gathered by the industrious bee may be had,\nwithout going far, to put on the injured part; when the cold is most\nintense without, the fire burns brightest within; and if there be evil\nspirits seeking man's hurt, there are good angels hovering round him\nfor his protection.\n\nMr. E. Chambers, who published his _Cyclop\u00e6dia, or A Universal\nDictionary of Arts and Sciences_, in 1728, says that an amulet\n(_amuletum_) is a kind of medicament hung about the neck or other part\nof the body to prevent or remove diseases. Amulets, he proceeds, are\nfrequently nothing else than spells or charms, consisting of quaint\nwords and characters, supposed to have the virtue of warding off ill.\nAnd Mr. Chambers informs his readers, under the word \"charm,\" that a\ncharm is a magic power or spell, by which, with the assistance of the\ndevil, sorcerers and witches are supposed to do wondrous things, far\nsurpassing the power of nature.\n\nAncient poets, who were of a superstitious turn of mind, attached no\nsmall importance to amulets and charms. One of them says:\n\n    \"Enchantments pluck out of the sky,\n    The moon though she be plac'd on high;\n    Dame Circe with her charms so fine,\n    Ulysses' mates did turn to swine:\n    The snake with charms is burst in twain,\n    In meadows where she doth remain.\n\n               *   *   *   *   *\n\n    These herbs did Meris give to me,\n    And poysons pluckt at Pontos,\n    For there they grow and multiply,\n    And do not so amongst us.\n    With these she made herself become\n    A wolf, and hid her in the wood;\n    She fetched up souls out of the tombe,\n    Removing corn from where it stood.\"\n\nThe following is an old translation from Virgil:\n\n    \"From thence a virgin priest is come\n    From out Massyla land,\n    Sometimes the temple there she kept,\n    And from her heavenly hand\n    The dragon meat did take: she kept\n    Also the fruit divine,\n    With herbs and liquors sweet that still\n    To sleep did men incline.\n    The minds of men (she saith) from love\n    With charms she can unbind,\n    In whom she list: but others can\n    She cast to cases unkind.\n    The running streams do stand, and from\n    Their course the stars do wreath,\n    And souls she conjure can: then shalt\n    See sister underneath\n    The ground with roring gape and trees,\n    And mountains turn upright.\"\n\nOvid is made to say:\n\n    \"The river I can make retire\n    Into the fountains whence they flow,\n    (Where at the banks themselves admire)\n    I can make standing waters go;\n    With charms I drive both sea and cloud,\n    I can make it calm and blow aloud,\n    The viper's jaws, the rocky stone,\n    With words and charms I break in twain;\n    The force of earth congeal'd in one,\n    I move, and shake both woods and plain;\n    I make the souls of men arise,\n    And pull the moon out of the skies.\n\n               *   *   *   *   *\n\n    And thrice she spake the words that caus'd\n    Sweet sleep and quiet rest;\n    She staid the raging of the sea,\n    And mighty floods supprest.\"\n\nOther poets, writing of charms, say:\n\n    \"With charms the corn is spoiled so\n    As that it vades the barren grass;\n    With charms the springs are dried low,\n    That none can see where water was.\n    The grapes from vines, the mast from oaks,\n    And beats down fruit with charming strokes.\n\n               *   *   *   *   *\n\n    She plucks each star out of his throne,\n    And turneth back the raging waves;\n    With charms she makes the earth to cone,\n    And raises souls out of their graves:\n    She burns men's bones as with fire,\n    And pulleth down the lights from heaven,\n    And makes it snow at her desire,\n    Even in the midst of summer season.\n\n               *   *   *   *   *\n\n    The course of nature ceas\u00e8d quite,\n    The air obey\u00e8d not his law,\n    The day delayed by length of night,\n    Which made both day and night to yaw;\n    And all was through that charming gear,\n    Which caus'd the world to quake for fear.\n\n               *   *   *   *   *\n\n    They talked with tongues of birds,\n    Consulting with the salt sea coasts,\n    They burst the snake with witching words,\n    Soliciting the spiritual ghosts;\n    They turn the night into the day,\n    And also drive the light away:\n    And what is 't that cannot be made\n    By them that do apply this trade.\"\n\nSir Thomas Brown mentions that a chalked tile at each corner of a\nfield and one in the centre thereof were rural charms that prevented\nweeds growing; and the three following charms are given in Herrick's\n_Hesperides_:\n\n    \"This I'le tell ye by the way,\n    Maidens when ye leavens lay,\n    Cross your dough, and your dispatch\n    Will be better for your batch.\n\n    In the morning when ye rise,\n    Wash your hands and cleanse your eyes,\n    Next be sure to have a care\n    To disperse the water farre,\n    For as farre as that doth light,\n    So farre keeps the evil spright.\n\n    If ye fear to be affrighted,\n    When ye are (by chance) benighted;\n    In your pocket for a trust\n    Carry nothing but a crust;\n    For that holy piece of bread\n    Charms the danger and the dread.\"\n\nHere are older charms in metre:\n\n    \"With blessynges of Saynt Germayne\n    I will me so determyne,\n    That neyther for nor vermyne\n    Shall do my chyckens harme.\n    For your gese seke Saynt Legearde,\n    And for your duckes Saynt Leonarde,\n    There is no better charme.\n\n    Take me a napkin folte\n    With the byas of a bolte,\n    For the healing of a colte\n    No better thynge can be;\n    For lampes and for bottes\n    Take me Saynt Thomas Lattes,\n    On my life I warrande ye.\"\n\nIn the _Hesperides_ we also find the following spell:\n\n    \"Holy water come and bring:\n    Cast in salt for seasoning:\n    Set the brush for sprinkling.\n\n    Sacred spittle bring ye hither:\n    Meale and it now mix together,\n    And a little oyle to either.\n\n    Give the tapers here their light;\n    Ring the saints' bell to affright\n    Far from hence the evil sprits.\n\n    And good Saynt Francis' gyrdle,\n    With the hamlet of a hyrdle,\n    Are wholesome for the pyppe.\n\n    Besides these charms afore\n    I have feates many more\n    That kepe still in store,\n    Whom I now over hyppe.\"\n\nThe same writer quaintly says:\n\n    \"A charm or an allay for love,\n    If so be a toad be laid\n    In a sheep-skin newly flaid,\n    And that ty'd to man, 'twill sever\n    Him and his affections ever.\"\n\nButler, in his _Hudibras_, describes the supposed power of a cunning\nman thus:\n\n    \"Not far from hence doth dwell\n    A cunning man hight Sidrophel,\n    That deals in destiny's dark counsels,\n    And sage opinion of the moon sells;\n    To whom all people, far and near,\n    On deep importances repair;\n    When brass and pewter hap to stray,\n    And linen slinks out of the way;\n    When geese and pullen are seduced,\n    And sows of sucking pigs are chows'd;\n    When cattle feel indisposition,\n    And need the opinion of physician;\n    When murrain reigns in hogs or sheep\n    And chickens languish of the pip;\n    When yeast and outward means do fail,\n    And have no power to work on ale;\n    When butter does refuse to come,\n    And love proves cross and humoursome;\n    To him with questions and with urine\n    They for discovery flock, or curing.\"\n\nIn the seventeenth century, dairymaids, when churning, used a charm,\nsaid over the churn in the following lines:\n\n    \"Come, butter, come,\n    Come, butter, come;\n    Peter stands at the gate,\n    Waiting for a buttered cake,\n    Come, butter, come.\"\n\nThis having been said three times, the butter came straightway; and\nvery good butter it was, on the good saint being invoked.\n\nA holy Pope of the good old times sent the following lines to an\nexalted Emperor:\n\n    \"Balme, Virgine-wax, and holy water,\n        An Agnus Dei make,\n    A gift than which none can be greater,\n        I send thee for to take.\n\n    From fountain clear the same hath issue\n        In secret sanctified;\n    'Gainst lightning it hath soverain virtue,\n        And thunder-cracks beside.\n\n    Each hainous sin it wears and wasteth,\n        Even as holy precious blood;\n    And women while their travel lasteth\n        It saves, it is so good.\n\n    It doth bestow great gifts and graces\n        On such as well deserve;\n    And borne about in noisome places,\n        From peril doth preserve.\n\n    The force of fire, whose heat destroyeth,\n        It breaks and bringeth down;\n    And he or she that this enjoyeth\n        No water shall them drown.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XLVI.\n\n      Ear-rings buried by Jacob--Solomon's Belief in\n      Spells--Reginald Scot's Recipe for preserving\n      Cattle--What Mr. Pennant says on Charms--Parts of the\n      Chameleon as Charms--A Condemned Sorcerer's\n      Charm--Virtue of Trees and Plants--Deities'\n      Crowns--Virtue of May Dew--Images Powerful Charms--How\n      the Romans regarded their Images--The Egyptians'\n      Confidence in Amulets and Charms--Evil Eye--Effects of\n      an Evil Eye, how counteracted--Charms for Horses and\n      Children--Sixpence-piece an Excellent Charm--Mothers\n      and Children protected from Fairies--Cold Iron--Holy\n      Things used as Charms--Filings of St. Peter's\n      Keys--Lustral Water--Curing Sick Children by weighing\n      them--Uses of Snow--Transferring Diseases from one\n      Body to another--Keys of a Consecrated\n      Building--Effect of standing on one Foot--Virtue of\n      Consecrated Bread--Virtue rewarded--Pricking the Image\n      of a King--Various Methods of securing Love--Indian\n      Charms--Cure for Corns--Simple Plan for getting rid of\n      a Troublesome Person--Curing the Hooping-cough.\n\n\nThere are people in existence, of opinion that the ear-rings which\nJacob buried under the oak of Sechem were charms, and that Solomon had\nrecourse to spells after his strange wives led him away from the true\nfaith.\n\nReginald Scot gives a recipe for a charm to preserve cattle from\nwitchcraft. Here it is: \"At Easter you must take certain drops that\nlie uppermost of the holy paschal candle; and upon some Sunday\nmorning, light and hold it so as it may drop upon and between the\nhorns and ears of the beast, and burn the beast a little between the\nhorns on the ears with the same wax, and that which is left thereof\nstick it cross-wise about the stable or stall, or upon the threshold,\nor over the door, where the cattle go in and out; and for all that\nyear your cattle shall never be touched.\"\n\nMr. Pennant says: \"The farmers of Scotland preserve their cattle\nagainst witchcraft by placing boughs of mountain-ash and honey-suckle\nin their cow-houses on the 2nd May. They hope to preserve the milk of\ntheir cows and of their wives by tying red threads about them.\" The\nancients had several superstitious customs touching the chameleon,--as\nthat its tongue, torn out when the animal was alive, would assist the\npossessor to gain his law-suits; burning its head and neck with\noak-wood, or roasting its liver on a red tile, would bring thunder and\nrain; that its right eye, torn out before the animal was slain, and\nsteeped in goat's milk, removed disease of the eye; that its tongue,\nworn as a charm by a married woman, eased her pains; that its right\njaw dispelled fear; and that its tail prevented streams overflowing\ntheir banks. A famous sorcerer, when under sentence of death, gave\ndirections how to prepare a potent charm. It consisted of a new\nearthen pot--not bought nor bargained for--with sheep's blood, wool,\nhair of several beasts, and certain herbs therein. The pot and its\ncontents were to be placed in a secret part in the neighbourhood where\nits effects were intended to be felt, which might be either the\npoisoning or tormenting of enemies. The charm could not be taken away\nbut by the person who secreted it or by a superior power.\n\nParticular trees and plants possess peculiar virtues in consequence of\ncrowns for deities having been made from them. Thus we find Jupiter's\ncrown was composed of flowers, generally of laurel; Juno's of the\nvine; Bacchus' of the vine, with grapes, and branches of ivy, flowers,\nand berries; those of Castor, Pollux, and the river gods, of\nbulrushes; that of Apollo, sometimes of laurel, and sometimes rushes;\nthat of Saturn, new figs; that of Hercules, poplar; that of Pan, pine\nor alder; that of Lucina, dictamnus; that of the Hor\u00e6, the fruits\nproper to each season; that of the Graces, olive branches; that of\nVenus, roses; that of Ceres, ears of corn; and that of the Lares,\nmyrtle or rosemary. Rue was detested by witches and evil spirits.\nThere was a heathen ceremony, called Dendrophoria, which consisted of\nthe carrying of one or more pine trees through a city, at times of\nsacrifice in honour of certain deities. The pine or pines were\nafterwards planted, and the branches thereof were supposed to possess\nvirtues not to be found in non-sacred things.\n\nThere was a spirit drawn from May dew, which had striking virtues\nattributed to it. Images were considered the most powerful of all\ncharms. They were held in great reverence by the Romans and other\nnations. The noble Romans preserved the images of their ancestors with\ngreat care, and had them carried in procession at their funerals and\ntriumphs. They placed them in the vestibules of their houses, there to\nremain, even though the houses happened to be sold, it being\nconsidered impious to displace them. It was not, however, allowed for\nevery one who had the images of their ancestors, to have them carried\nat funerals. The privilege was conferred on those only who had\nhonourably discharged themselves in their various offices in life.\nPersons who failed in this respect, forfeited all right to bring their\nimages before the public; and the images of persons who had committed\nserious crimes were broken in pieces.\n\nThe Egyptians had great confidence in the power of amulets and charms\nto prevent and deliver from mischief. There was a class of persons who\ngained their livelihood by writing billets, to secure the wearers from\nthe power of enchantment and all kinds of accidents. Their most\nintrinsically valuable relic was the veil sent to the Sultan to cover\nthe Kaaba of Mecca. It was cut in pieces, and distributed over the\nwhole empire. Parts of it were worn by the faithful, as one of the\nmeans of grace, and an assurance of divine protection; and these\ncharms were sometimes buried in the grave along with the individuals\nwho had prized them when in life.\n\nThe belief of the baneful effect of the evil eye, and of envious\ncommendations, was prevalent in the East. Virgil's shepherd attributed\nto the malicious glance of an enemy the diseased appearance of his\nflock. Pliny relates that the Thessalian sorcerers destroyed whole\nharvests by speaking well of the crops. In Egypt, everything which\ncould possibly attract attention or excite jealousy was protected by\nsome counteracting influence. The eye of the malicious observer was\nrendered harmless by a sacred sentence, written in conspicuous\ncharacters, and placed in a particular way that the wicked eye might\nsee it. The horse, it was believed, carried his rider in safety if a\ncharm of blue beads dangled from the animal's neck. But the anxious\nmother did not consider her darling child safe, though it had a charm\nabout its person, unless she frequently spat in its face.\n\nWhen a mother had reason to suppose an evil eye had been cast on her\nlittle helpless babe, her duty was to borrow a sixpence from a\nneighbour, put it into a basin of water, and then wash the child with\nthe water so charmed. By these means the spell was removed. To pass a\nchild over a table was unlucky. Great apprehensions were formerly\nentertained of the malignant influence and interference of fairies\nwith mothers in child-bed and children unbaptized. A Bible under the\npillow protected the mother, or a bottle of holy water at the bed-foot\ndid equally well; and the sacrament of baptism rendered the infant\nsecure from fairies and witches. If one meet or see anything unlucky,\nall he has to do to avert evil is to touch cold iron. To prevent evil\nin time of a thunder-storm, let a candle be kept burning until the\nwarring elements have ceased raging. And surely it has not been left\nfor us to tell the good Catholics, that, to extinguish a fire or stop\nan inundation, their forefathers threw a consecrated wafer into the\nmidst of the flames or overflowing river. Every little Catholic maid,\nwho can count her beads, knows that if she cannot secure the\naffections of the young man on whom she has set her affections, she\nshould unsparingly besmear him with the holy oil of her Church. We are\nassured that, before Protestantism weakened the hands of priests and\nrent the Church asunder, consecrated oil was regarded as an infallible\ncharm and love-philter.\n\nIt was the custom at one time for the Popes to send a golden key to\nfaithful priests, wherein was enclosed a small quantity of the filings\nof St. Peter's keys, kept sacred at Rome. These charms were worn in\nthe bosom, to protect the happy possessor from disease, misfortune,\nand evil spirits.\n\nThe ancients had their lustral water for sprinkling and purifying the\npeople. From them the Romanists borrowed the holy water used in their\nchurches. The ancients called _Dies Lustricus_, or Lustral Day, that\nwhereon the lustrations were performed for a child, and its name\ngiven, which was the ninth day from the birth of a boy, and the eighth\nfrom that of a girl. Lustral water possessed something like magical\nvirtue. On the great day of ceremony the nurses and domestics handed\nthe child backwards and forwards around a fire on the altars of the\ngods; after this the infant was sprinkled with the precious water,\nmixed with saliva and dust. There were public lustrations for\npurifying cities, fields, and people defiled by crime or impurity. A\ncustom prevailed in the East, of curing sick children by weighing them\nat the tomb of a saint. The counterpoising or balancing medium\nconsisted of money to be given to the Church.\n\nIt was generally supposed that the first snow which fell in the year\nhad particular virtues. Bartholin wrote a treatise on the uses of\nsnow, wherein he endeavoured to show that early gathered snow\npreserved from the plague, cured fevers, toothache, and sore eyes. In\nDenmark the people kept snow water, obtained in March, as a medicine.\n\nTransplantation in natural magic was a method resorted to for curing\ndiseases by transferring them from one body to another. The\ntransplantation was effected either by the use of a medium or by\nsimple contact. If a gouty person desire to get rid of his troubles,\nhe is recommended to bore a hole in an oak, and deposit the parings of\nhis nails therein; and if one has whitlow in his finger, the pain\nmight be transferred to the domestic cat by rubbing the sore finger\nwith the ears of the animal.\n\nThe keys of a consecrated building, shaken over the heads of dogs,\nhorses, and cattle, when they are ill, effect a cure; and a faithful\nworshipper finds relief from acute suffering by standing on one foot\nand holding a wax taper in his hand, during particular portions of the\nmass. It is common in some places to lay upon the altar, during mass,\nthe nails of a shoe taken from a horse which has become lame, to\nrestore the animal to soundness. Pieces of consecrated bread carried\nhome and preserved is a preventative against the bite of a mad dog.\nThe shepherd who first gives his offering will be rewarded by his ewes\nbringing forth the finest lambs in the neighbourhood; and the horses\nand cattle that are watered immediately after the owners or keepers\nreturn from mass, will be saved from illness.\n\nIn 1589 the people placed on the altars of many of their churches in\nParis, wax effigies of King Henry III., and pricked them with pins and\nneedles during mass, in the hope of obtaining a speedy termination to\nhis existence.\n\nThe wearing of a ribbon which has been worn by a lady, or a lock of\nher hair, near the heart, is supposed to be capable of securing her\naffections. But if everything else fail, the proper application of\ndead men's bones, holy relics, and magic spells will soften the hard\nheart.\n\nIt is related by the Indians of Vixnu, that a ribbon tied round the\nneck or arm, with the name \"Laximi\" (who for many years was worshipped\nunder the form of a cow, and sometimes of a horse) written thereon or\nattached thereto, is a certain cure for all diseases; and is likewise\na preventative against accidents. Corns are cured by one stealing a\nsmall piece of beef and burying it in the ground. As the flesh rots,\nthe corns disappear. Whenever either an enemy or friend becomes\ntroublesome, and it is considered necessary to get rid of him, the\ndesire can be accomplished by securing a garment belonging to him and\nburying it in the earth. Just as sure as the burying of the beef\ndestroys corns, as certain will the concealment of the garment in the\nearth send the obnoxious person to his long home. Fond mothers\nendeavoured to cure hooping-cough by passing their afflicted children\nthree times before breakfast under a blackberry bush the branches of\nwhich grew into the ground; other parents went out into the highways\nin search of a man riding on a piebald horse, to ask him what would\nrestore to health their children affected with this painful cough.\nWhatever he recommended, was adopted as a remedy.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XLVII.\n\n      Horse Shoes used as Charms--Spitting on Money to\n      secure Luck--Fortunate Persons to deal with--Methods\n      of securing Cattle against Accidents--Effect of\n      Herbs--Professor Playfair on Superstition--The Lee\n      Penny--How to prevent Toothache--Divers Charms--A\n      Seer's Prescription--Lating the Witches--Grose on\n      Sorcerers, Magicians, and Witches--Man carried away by\n      an Evil Spirit--Irish Shamrock--Praying to\n      Swords--Irish Superstition--Smugglers and Brigands\n      addicted to Superstition--Charm found on a\n      Smuggler--Superstition in the East--Arab\n      Charms--Ladies' Arts.\n\n\nHorse shoes have long been regarded as most valuable charms. Such\nshoes, nailed on the back of doors, keep out witches and evil spirits.\nHorse shoes are also safe-guards on board of ships and boats. To\nsecure good luck in a market, the vendor is in the habit of rubbing or\nspitting on the first money obtained for goods sold. The good or bad\nluck of cattle-salesmen and petty merchants, superstitious people\nthink, depends very much on the first purchaser. In the early part of\nthe day a reduced price is sometimes accepted from a person reputed to\nbe lucky, while business will not be entered into under any conditions\nwith uncanny people.\n\nIn Suffolk an abortive calf is buried under the path along which the\ncows go to the fields, to prevent them being accidentally injured. One\ndescription of herb given to a horse prevents the horse-shoer pricking\nthe animal's feet; and another, put into a man's shoes, enables him to\ntravel more than forty miles a day without becoming wearied. Moon-wort\nis a powerful charm that loosens locks, fetters, and shoes from\nhorses' feet. In olden times it was a stratagem in warfare to lead the\nenemy's horsemen upon a heath where moon-wort grew plentiful, for, in\npassing over it, the horses were sure to lose their shoes. In\nAristotle's time, rue hung about the neck as an amulet prevented\nwitchcraft. Rue was called an herb of grace, because the Romanists\nused it on Sundays in their exorcisms.\n\nProfessor Playfair, in a letter to Mr. Brand, dated from St. Andrews,\nin 1804, says: \"In private breweries a live coal was thrown into the\nvat, to prevent the interference of the fairies. A cow's milk no fairy\ncould take away, if a burning coal was conducted across her back and\nunder the belly immediately after she calved. Witches and evil spirits\nwere prevented from entering a dwelling-house if the lower end of the\ncrook or iron chain by which the pots were suspended over the kitchen\nfire was raised up a few links before the inmates retired to bed. It\nwas a common opinion in Scotland and England, that a woman may, by\nmeans of charms, convey her neighbour's cow's milk to her own dairy.\nWhen a cow's milk was charmed away, a small quantity of rennet was\ntaken from all suspected persons and put into an egg-shell full of\nmilk, and when that obtained from the charmer mingled with it, it\npresently curdled. Some women used the root of groundsel as a\nprotection against the produce of their dairy being charmed, by\nputting it among their milk and cream.\"\n\nThe Lee Penny, the property of a Scotch gentleman, was a charm known\nfar and wide. Many were the cures effected by it, _i.e._ if tradition\nspeaks true. This charm, when applied externally to man or beast,\nproved better than all known healing medicine, and, when water in\nwhich it had been dipped was given to man or beast to drink, it\nproduced an effectual cure. Nails driven into an oak tree prevented\ntoothache. A halter that had been used in suspending a criminal, when\ntied round the head, prevented headache. A dead man's hand dissipated\ntumours of the glands, by stroking the affected part nine times with\nit; but the hand of a man who had been hanged was the most\nefficacious. Chips cut from a gallows, when carried in a bag suspended\nfrom the neck, cured the ague. A stone with a hole in it, tied to the\nkey of a stable door, deterred witches stealing the horses and riding\nthem over the country at night. If a man or woman were afflicted with\nfits, he or she might be cured by partaking of broth in which a human\nskull had been boiled. This last-mentioned cure was not uncommon in\nthe beginning of the present century.\n\nA young girl, about sixteen years of age, being seized with fits, a\nseer was consulted, and he prescribed brose made from oatmeal and the\n\"broo of a dead man's skull.\" That a cranium might be obtained, a\ngrave was violated, and a body mutilated. The brose was prepared\naccording to directions, and given to the afflicted girl. As might be\nexpected, the matter created no small excitement in Perthshire, in\nwhich county the superstitious acts were perpetrated; but though the\nwhole affair was looked on with disapproval by the better educated\nclasses, and proceedings were taken by the authorities against the\nguilty parties, the death knell of superstition was not rung; for in\nthat county a belief in witches, spirits, and charms still exists.\n\nAt one time a custom prevailed in Lancashire, called \"lating the\nwitches.\" It was observed on the eve preceding the 1st November, when\nwitches were supposed to be busier than usual. The ceremony of lating\nwas gone through in this way:--The poorer neighbours called at the\nhouses of the more opulent, and at the door demanded lighted candles\nto carry in procession. We say demanded them at the door, because it\nwould have been unlucky for those receiving the candles to cross a\nthreshold then, and it would have been equally unlucky for any one of\nthem to enter a house that night from which his or her candle was\nreceived, if the light was extinguished before the lating was\nconcluded. Candles were given out according to the number of inmates\nof a house--one for every person--but it was optional for one to carry\nhis own candle, or to find a substitute who would sally out for him to\nfrighten the witches. The custom originated in the belief that if a\nlighted candle were carried about from eleven to twelve o'clock at\nnight without being extinguished, the person it represented would be\nproof against witches during the year, but if the candle went out it\nforeboded evil.\n\nGrose, in describing the difference between a sorcerer, magician, and\nwitch, speaks highly of the power of charms and invocations. \"A\nwitch,\" he tells us, \"derives all her power from a compact with the\ndevil, while a sorcerer commands him and the infernal spirits by his\nskill in charms and invocations, and also soothes and entices them by\nfumigations; for the devils,\" he continues, \"are observed to have\ndelicate nostrils, abominating and flying from some kinds of stinks.\nWitness the flight of the evil spirits into the remote parts of Egypt,\ndriven by the smell of fishes' liver burned by Tobit. The devil and\nspirits,\" he tells us, \"are, on the other hand, peculiarly fond of\ncertain perfumes.\"\n\nLilly writes that one Evans, having raised a spirit, at the request of\nLord Bothwell and Sir K. Digby, and forgotten a suffumigation, the\nspirit, enraged, snatched him out from his circle, and carried him\nfrom his house in the Minories into a field near Battersea.\n\nThe shamrock is held sacred by the Irish. It became a custom among\nIrish soldiers, when going to battle, to conceal about their persons\nbunches of shamrock, to say certain prayers to their swords, to make\ncrosses upon the earth, and thrust the points of their weapons into\nthe ground, under the impression that by so doing they would secure\nsuccess in the field. The shamrock was highly esteemed by lovers. An\nexchange of this plant frequently took place between betrothed persons\nin the same way as engagement rings are exchanged in our time. In\nIreland many people continue to put faith in incantations and spells.\nWomen's hair is thought to be a precious amulet; hence the custom of\nwearing hair bracelets, guards, and other such like ornaments.\n\nSmugglers and brigands are much addicted to superstition. On the\napprehension of one Jackson, a smuggler, who died in Chichester, there\nwas found in his possession a linen purse containing the following\ncharm:\n\n      \"Ye three holy kings,\n      Gaspar, Melchior, Balthasar,\n      Pray for us now and at the hour of death.\"\n\nThe charm had actually touched the heads of three kings at Cologne,\nand was thought by the smuggler to be an effectual protection against\naccidents, headaches, falling sickness, witchcraft, and various kinds\nof mischief. Jackson died suddenly, but this did not prove the charm\nto be worthless, as he lost it before his end came.\n\nVarious nations in the East entertained superstitious opinions\nconcerning serpents and reptiles. They attributed numberless powers of\ngood and evil to these reptiles. A belief prevailed, that if one\nkilled a snake, the whole race to which it belonged would persecute\nthe cruel individual. When any one was bitten by a serpent, a\nsovereign remedy was found in a particular stone. Such valuable stones\nwere rare, and consequently they were greatly prized, even, more so\nthan gold.\n\nArabs believed that the smoke of burnt hair taken from a Christian's\nhead would cure a patient, whatever the disease was under which he\nlaboured. They also wore enchanted rings, and carried herbs to\nstrengthen their arms in the day of battle.\n\nA young lady thought she could discover the social position and\ncharacter of her future husband, by pulling a large flower and taking\noff the leaves and petals one by one, while she repeated,\n\n    \"Rich man, poor man, farmer, ploughman, thief.\"\n\nThe one who happened to be named at plucking the last leaf or petal\nwas, she supposed, to be her husband. Another way: pluck an even ash\nleaf, and keep it in the hand, saying,\n\n    \"The even ash leaf in my hand,\n    The first I meet shall be my man;\"\n\nthen put the leaf into the glove, and say,\n\n    \"The even ash leaf in my glove,\n    The first I meet shall be my love;\"\n\nand then put it into the bosom, and repeat,\n\n    \"The even ash leaf in my bosom,\n    The first I meet shall be my husband.\"\n\nImmediately after this the future husband will make his appearance.\n\nAnother method: After nightfall the sighing maiden may walk through\nthe garden with a rake in her left hand, and throw hemp seed over her\nright shoulder while she keeps repeating,\n\n    \"Hemp seed I set, hemp seed I sow,\n    The man that is my true love come after me and mow.\"\n\nSure enough, we are assured, the future husband will appear beside the\nfair sower with a scythe, ready to cut down the crop when it grows.\n\nWe are further assured that a lady would succeed quite as well, were\nshe, on going to bed, to place her shoes so as to form the letter T,\nand say,\n\n    \"Hoping this night my true love to see,\n    I place my shoes in the form of a T;\"\n\nor were she, on retiring for the night, to write the alphabet on small\npieces of paper, and put them into a basin of water, with the letters\ndownwards,--in the former case she would in her dreams perceive her\nfuture husband, and in the latter she might expect to find, in the\nmorning, the first letter of his name turned upwards, and all the\nother letters downwards, as she had left them.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XLVIII.\n\n      Earl of Derby's Death--A Queen Enchanted--Image of a\n      young King made for Wicked Purposes--Belgrave on\n      Charms--Childebert's Device for detecting Witches--A\n      Pot of Ointment--Witch Burned--Witch\n      Ointment--Men-Wolves--Component Parts of Witch\n      Ointment--Church Authorities' Instructions to\n      Inquisitors--Killing by a Look or Wish--The King of\n      Sweden and his Witches--Witches' Help in War--Witches\n      causing a Plague--Cattle Poisoned--Various Charms--How\n      to make Hair grow Long and Yellow--Holy Vestments--An\n      Angel's Charm to Pope Leo--Physicians' Faith in\n      Charms--Illusions--Inescation--Insemination--Method of\n      discovering if one is Bewitched--Egyptian Laws--Curing\n      the King's Evil.\n\n\nAndrews, in his continuation of Henry's _History of Great Britain_,\nspeaking of Ferdinand, Earl of Derby, says his death was attributed to\nwitchcraft. No doubt the disease appeared to be peculiar. After his\ndeath a wax image with hair, in colour like that of the earl, was\nfound in his chamber, which confirmed the suspicions entertained as to\nthe cause of his demise. Another alleged atrocious crime was that of\nthe wife of Marshal D'Ancre. She was beheaded for witchcraft, in so\nfar as she had enchanted the queen, and made an image of the young\nking in virgin wax, and melted away one of its legs that he might\nbecome a cripple. Old Belgrave, in his _Astrological Practice of\nPhysic_, observes: \"Under adverse planets, and by Satan's subtlety,\nwitches injured man and beast by making images or models of them, and\npricking the likenesses with thorns, pins, or needles.\"\n\nChildebert's device for detecting witches who dealt in charms, was to\ntorture them by putting sharp instruments betwixt every nail of their\nfingers and toes. Judges, before whom witches were tried, were\ncautioned not to allow them to come near their persons nor the seat of\njudgment. That they might be all the more secure from witchcraft,\njudges kept suspended from their necks conjured salt, palm, holy\nherbs, and wax hallowed by the Church. To compel witches to confess\ntheir guilt, officers of justice were wont to write the seven words\nspoken on the cross, and cause these, with relics of saints, to be\nhung round the culprits' necks. When these charms were thus applied,\nit was impossible for witches to refrain from confessing their guilt,\nif at the same time they were sufficiently racked and tortured.\n\nAn incredible story is told of a gentlewoman in Lyons, who possessed a\npot of ointment of such rare virtue, that the application of it to\none's body proved sufficient to transport the individual, in an\ninstant, through the air to distant towns and countries. The lady\nbeing one evening in a room with her lover, anointing herself with\npart of the ointment, and repeating words in an under tone, was in the\ntwinkling of an eye carried away through the air. Her companion,\nthough astonished and somewhat alarmed, did as he had observed his\nfair friend do, and _presto_ he was conveyed away many miles to an\nassembly of witches. Afraid at what he beheld, he uttered a holy\nejaculation. In an instant the assembly vanished, leaving him alone.\nHe returned on foot to Lyons, and brought an accusation of witchcraft\nagainst his lover. The charge being proven, the woman, with her\nointment, was consigned to the flames.\n\nWitches and warlocks, learned in the art of transubstantiation, could\nby means of witch ointment turn themselves into wolves. Peter Burget\nand Michael Worden, having by means of such ointment turned themselves\ninto wolves, killed and ate a large number of people. One night, when\nthe men-wolves were out on one of their murderous expeditions, an\narcher shot one of them with a charmed arrow. Tracing the wounded\ncreature to Peter's residence, the pursuers found the luckless man in\nbed in his natural shape, with the arrow deep in his thigh. Another\nman-wolf was punished by having his feet amputated, and in a moment he\nbecame a man without hands or feet.\n\nMountain parsley, wolves-bane, leaves of the poplar, and soot were\nfrequently used in the preparation of witch ointment; and so were\nyellow water-cresses, the blood of a mouse, night-shade, oil, etc. A\nwitch, rubbed all over with a preparation of these, could skim through\nthe air in a moonlight night, singing, dancing, and otherwise making\nmerry with her companions.\n\nSo generally did the belief in witchcraft, incantations, and charms\nprevail in the time of Pope Innocent VIII. and of Pope Julius II.,\nthat the Church authorities sent to the inquisitors the following\nofficial notice and instructions:--\"It has come to our ears that many\nlewd persons of both kinds, as well male as female, using the company\nof the devils _Incubus_ and _Succubus_, with incantations, charms,\nconjurations, etc., to destroy the births of women with child, the\nyoung of all cattle, the corn of the field, the grapes of the vines,\nthe fruit of the trees; also men, women, and cattle of all kinds, and\nbeasts of the field; and with their said enchantments, etc., do\nutterly extinguish and spoil all vineyards, orchards, meadows,\npastures, grass, green corn, and ripe corn: yea, men and women\nthemselves are by their imprecations so afflicted with external and\ninternal pains and diseases that the births of children are but few:\nOur pleasure therefore is, that all impediments that may hinder the\ninquisitors' office be utterly removed from among the people, lest\nthis blot of heresy proceed to poison and defile them that may yet be\ninnocent: And therefore we ordain, by virtue of the apostolical\nauthority, that our inquisitors may execute the office of inquisition\nby all tortures and afflictions, in all places, and upon all persons,\nwhat and wheresoever, as well in every place and diocese as upon any\nperson; and that as freely as though they were named, expressed, or\ncited in this our commission.\"\n\nWitches have confessed their power to kill a neighbour by a word, a\nwish, or a look.\n\nIn the wars between the kings of Denmark and Sweden, in 1563, the\nDanes wrote that the King of Sweden carried about with him in camp\nfour old witches, who with their charms so affected the Danes that\nthey were thereby unable to annoy their enemies. One of the witches,\non being taken prisoner, confessed her guilt.\n\nThe West Indians, Muscovites, and Huns sought the help of witches in\ntime of war.\n\nA band of witches in Italy, in 1536, renewed a plague, then almost\nceased, by besmearing with an ointment and a powder the posts and\ndoors of men's houses. One of the wicked old hags having been\napprehended and examined, confessed the fact. The like villany was\nperpetrated elsewhere about the same time. Weeping and lamentation\nwere heard in every dwelling for fathers stricken down by death; but,\nstrange to say, the women escaped injury. Cattle were killed through\nwolves' dung being hidden in stalls and among the pasture where they\nfed. The stench caused the animals to refrain from eating, and made\nthem run about as if they were mad.\n\nWitches highly prized, and frequently used in their nefarious art, the\nhair growing on the end of a wolf's tail, the brain of a cat, the head\nof a lizard, the bone of a green frog from which the flesh had been\neaten by ants. One bone of a frog engendered love, while another bone\ncaused hatred.\n\nGarments of the dead, candles that had burned before a stiffened\ncorpse, and needles wherewith dead bodies had been sewn in sheets,\nwere precious in the eyes of cunning persons.\n\nWitches and magicians had power, by means of charms, to put into the\nminds and consciences of men such thoughts as they pleased; and,\nmoreover, they could induce people to disclose their heart secrets.\n\nMaids hung up a quantity of their hair before the image of St. Urbane,\ntrusting that by so doing their hair would grow long and yellow.\n\nA holy vest was at times given by the Pope to a faithful son of Mother\nChurch, to protect him from violence of every description. The manner\nof making a charmed waistcoat is thus explained:--On Christmas night,\nflax thread was spun by a virgin girl, and afterwards woven by her.\nAfter the garment was sewn by the same little hands which had spun the\nthread and woven the cloth, two figures in needlework were wrought on\nit to resemble Beelzebub and the Cross. One of these vestments gave\nthe wearer courage in the hour of danger: witches were unable to harm\nhim, bullets could not hit him, the sword's edge was turned aside, and\nthe pointed spear levelled against him proved harmless.\n\nLeo, Pope of Rome, reported that an angel delivered to him the\nfollowing holy writing--a charm of inestimable value, as we shall\npresently learn:--\"+ Jesus, + Christus, + Messias, + Soter, +\nEmmanuel, + Sabbath, + Adonii, + Unigenitus, + Majestas, + Paracletus,\n+ Salvator Noster, + Agiros Iskiros, + Agios, + Adonatos, + Gasper, +\nMelchior, + Mattheus, + Marcus, + Lucas, + Johannes.\" The angel, so\nsaid Leo, directed him to take it to King Charles when he went to the\nbattle of Roncesvalles. Moreover, the holy messenger said that\nwhatever man or woman carried a copy of this writing, and every day\nsaid three paternosters, three aves, and one creed, would not be\novercome by enemies, either bodily or ghostly; nor would the person\nthus protected be robbed, or slain by thieves, pestilence, thunder, or\nlightning; neither would he be hurt by fire or water.\n\nBy the writings of various authors, we gather that both the physician\nand priest placed a high value on amulets, charms, and incantations.\nArgerius Ferrarius, a celebrated physician, expressed the opinion that\nphysic might benefit a patient to a certain degree, but that, to\ncomplete a cure, the application of amulets, charms, and characters\nwas desirable. He cited many cases that came under his own observation\nand that of other physicians. Galen expressed the opinion that charms\nprevented bones sticking in people's throats.\n\nPhysicians skilled in magic applied three seeds of three-leaved grass\nto tertian ague, and four to a quartian. Of Homerical medicines,\nArgerius Ferrarius writes there are four sorts, whereof amulets,\ncharacters, and charms are three; but he commends and prefers the\nfourth, which, he says, consists in illusions or stratagems. He tells\nhow Philodotus put a cap of lead upon one's head who imagined he was\nheadless, whereby the person was freed from his delusion. Another\ncured a woman, under the impression that a serpent continually gnawed\nher entrails, by giving her a vomit, and making her believe that she\nvomited a little serpent.\n\nA man who imagined that he was always burning in a fire, had his\nillusion dispelled by seeing fire taken out from beneath his bed.\nGreat stress is put on the alleged fact that hiccough is cured by\nsudden fear or startling news, and that agues and many other diseases\nmay be removed by excitement.\n\nInescation is a curious method practised for the cure of certain\ndiseases. The cure may be effected by impregnating a proper medium or\nvehicle with some of the mumia or vital spirit of the patient, and\ngiving it to an inferior animal to swallow. It is pretended that the\nanimal unites and assimilates the mumia with itself, and imbibes its\nvicious qualities, and by that means restores health to the person to\nwhom the mumia belonged.\n\nInsemination is a cure, in certain respects, not unlike to that of\ninescation. It is performed by mixing the medium, impregnated with the\nmumia taken from the patient, with earth wherein has been sown the\nseed of a plant appropriate to the disease; but care must be taken to\nsprinkle it from time to time with water wherein the part affected had\nbeen washed. The disease, we are told, becomes less virulent as the\nplant grows.\n\nBy pouring molten lead into water held above a sick man, it could be\ndiscovered whether he was bewitched. If his illness arose from wicked\nand cruel tormentors, his image appeared in the lead; but if the\ndisease resulted from natural causes, no distinct impression remained\non the lead.\n\nMontaigne says that it was an Egyptian law that the physician should\nfor the first three days take charge of his patient at the patient's\nown peril, but afterwards at his own. He mentions that, in his time,\nphysicians gave their pills in odd numbers, appointed remarkable days\nin the year for taking medicine, and gathered their simples at certain\nhours.\n\nThe mode of curing the King's Evil, or scrofula, by royal touch, has\nbeen so often referred to by various writers that we might well pass\nit without notice, were it not that our object is to bring together in\nthese pages the many varied particulars of ancient superstition.\nConsequently we shall briefly describe the ceremonies gone through\nwhen sick persons were brought before the king. Let us premise, in the\nfirst place, that all parties are neither agreed as to the time nor\nthe sovereign who first applied his royal hand to this method of\nhealing disease. The kings of England and France long pretended to\npossess the power of curing scrofula by touching the sore. The right\nor faculty, the French people say, existed originally in their\nmonarch; but the English nation would not admit this, and claimed the\npower for their king. In support of England's claim, monkish writers\nassert that the virtue was inherent in our kings as early as the days\nof Edward the Confessor. Others will have it that King Robert first\nexhibited the miraculous gift. Charles VIII. of France touched several\npersons at Rome, and cured them. At whatever time the power first\nmanifested itself is of little importance; and through whatever royal\nline it descended need not trouble those alive, seeing, we are\nassured, the virtue perished with the last British sovereign of the\nHouse of Stuart. But, to return to the manner of curing the king's\nevil, we shall give, as an instance, the method pursued by Charles II.\nof England, Scotland, and Ireland, when healing any of his subjects:--\n\nOn 14th May 1664 a notice was given that his sacred Majesty would\ncontinue the healing of his people for the evil during the remainder\nof that month, and then cease doing so until Michaelmas. His Majesty\nsat in state in the banqueting house, and the chirurgeons led the sick\nto the throne; there, the invalids kneeling, the monarch stroked their\nbodies with his hands. The ceremony being concluded, a chaplain in\nattendance said, \"He put his hands upon them, and healed them.\" These\nwords were repeated as every one was touched. After all the diseased\npersons were operated on, another chaplain, kneeling, delivered gold\nangels, attached to white ribbons, to his Majesty, who suspended one\nabout the neck of every one to whom his healing virtue had gone forth.\nPrayers being said for the sick, the ceremony concluded by his Majesty\nwashing his hands in a basin brought to him by the lord chamberlain\nand comptroller of the household.\n\nIf a monarch could not be found to cure the king's evil, it might have\nbeen effected by the touch of a seventh son, between whom and his\neldest brother no daughter had come to swell the family circle. And\nthe virtue of healing by laying on of hands existed in particular\nnoble families of untainted blood.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER XLIX.\n\n      Precious Stones regarded as Objects of uncommon\n      Virtue--Extravagance in Jewellery accounted\n      for--Significance in relation to Gems--Abraham's\n      Precious Stones--Altars called Living Stones--The Urim\n      and Thummim--Rod of Moses--Charmed Rings--Sacred Rings\n      and Belts--Sacred Cairns, etc.--Destiny and Fate--The\n      Month of one's Nativity has connection with one or\n      other of the Precious Stones--Examples adduced--Kings\n      of England hallowing Rings--Ring preserved in\n      Westminster Abbey--Cramp Rings--Various Stones of\n      great Virtue--Iona Relics--The Green Stone of Arran--A\n      Crystal kept by ancient Priests as a Charm--A\n      Conjuring Beryl--Prophetic Stones--The Coronation\n      Stone or Stone of Destiny.\n\n\nFrom an early period of history man has regarded precious stones as\nobjects of uncommon virtue. A belief in their excellence has prevailed\namong Pagans, Jews, and Christians down to the present period.\nExtravagance in jewellery originated not so much from a love of finery\nas from a belief that jewels possessed efficacy or power peculiar to\nthemselves. When we consider that every gem is supposed to be an\namulet, we cannot be surprised at hearing of people in distant lands\nwearing jewels on their fingers and toes, on their ankles and arms, in\ntheir noses and ears, and even in their lips; nor can we be astonished\nat seeing in modern times the weaker sex loaded with rings, bracelets,\npendants and other such articles, studded with precious stones.\n\nAs a language of flowers is known among botanists, so there is a\nsignificance in relation to gems, understood by the credulous. Every\nstone has its virtue, at least so we are told, as surely as every\nlight and shadow produces its own effects. Important events connected\nwith the lives of great men and memorable circumstances desired to be\nkept in remembrance, help to lend importance to sparkling gems and\nless ornamental stones. This will be better understood as we proceed.\n\nDescendants of Abraham believed, as will be found under \"Rise and\nProgress of Superstition,\" that their great ancestor wore, suspended\nfrom his neck, a precious stone the sight of which cured every\ndisease. An interesting legend is also given there concerning Abraham\nand the stones marching, ready hewn, to find a place in the Kaaba he\nwas about to build; of the black stone left out, which afterwards\nbecame so famous; and of the stone to which Abraham tied the beast he\nrode on when going to sacrifice his son. In that part of our work it\nwill also be ascertained that altars were called living stones, from a\nbelief that a portion of divine spirit resided in them.\n\nJosephus and others maintain that the precious stones of Aaron's\nbreast-plate were the Urim and Thummim, and that they discovered or\npredicted the issue of events to those who consulted them; and the\nRabbins held that the rod of Moses consisted partly of sapphire. At\npage 27 it will be seen that the Greeks wore charmed rings, and at\npages 7 and 58 we have stated that priests sold charms to credulous\npersons. At page 280 we have noticed the custom of negro children\nbeing provided with sacred rings and belts, to protect them from evil\nspirits. Again, when treating of magic and astrology, we pointed out\nthat magicians supplied people with precious stones, supposed to be of\nimmense value as amulets.\n\nFrom time immemorial an opinion has obtained that there are sacred\nedifices, piles, cairns, and separate stones, which possess peculiar\nvirtue. Not a few instances of these have been adduced in preceding\npages; but a few more examples, we venture to say, will not be\nconsidered void of interest, more particularly if they can be\nconnected with the destiny of man.\n\nEvery individual is supposed to be born under a particular destiny or\nfate (as has been over and over again stated in these pages), which it\nis impossible to avoid. The month of his nativity has a mysterious\nconnection with one or other of the precious stones. This was so well\nunderstood by the ancients, that when one wished to make the object of\nhis affections an acceptable present, a ring was given, set with the\njewel by which the fate of the receiver was determined and described.\nFor instance, we are informed by an old author, that the ring of a\nwoman born in January should have a jacinth or garnet in it, for these\nstones belong to that month, and express constancy and fidelity. A\nlist of the months and stones therewith connected, and their\nrespective significance, is as follows:--\n\n      JANUARY--Jacinth, or Garnet--Constancy and fidelity in\n      every engagement.\n\n      FEBRUARY--Amethyst--This month and stone preserve\n      mortals from strong passions, and ensure them peace of\n      mind.\n\n      MARCH--Bloodstone--Courage, and success in dangers and\n      hazardous enterprises.\n\n      APRIL--Sapphire or Diamond--Repentance and innocence.\n\n      MAY--Emerald--Success in love.\n\n      JUNE--Agate--Long life and health.\n\n      JULY--Cornelian or Ruby--The forgetfulness or the cure\n      of evils springing from friendship or love.\n\n      AUGUST--Sardonyx--Conjugal fidelity.\n\n      SEPTEMBER--Chrysolite--Preserves from or cures folly.\n\n      OCTOBER--Aquamarine or Opal--Misfortune and hope.\n\n      NOVEMBER--Topaz--Fidelity in friendship.\n\n      DECEMBER--Torquoise or Malachite--The most brilliant\n      success and happiness in every circumstance of life.\n      The torquoise has also the property of securing\n      friendly regards, as is verified by the old saying,\n      \"He who possesses a torquoise will always be sure of\n      friends.\"\n\nAnciently, the kings of England, on Good Friday, hallowed, with great\nceremony, certain rings the wearing of which was believed to prevent\nthe falling sickness. The custom originated from a ring, long\npreserved in Westminster Abbey, which is reported to have been brought\nto King Edward by persons from Jerusalem. The rings consecrated by the\nsovereigns were called \"cramp rings.\" Andrew Boorde, speaking of the\ncramp, says, \"The King's Majesty hath great help in this matter in\nhallowing 'cramp rings' without money or petition.\"\n\nWriting of Fladda Chuan, Martin writes: \"There is a chapel in the\nisle, dedicated to St. Columbus. It has an altar in the east end, and\ntherein a blue stone of a round form on it, which is always moist. It\nis an ordinary custom, when any of the fishermen are detained in this\nisle by contrary winds, to wash the blue stone with water, all round,\nexpecting thereby to procure a favourable wind. And so great is their\nregard for this stone that people swear decisive oaths upon it.\"\nMartin also says it was an ancient custom among the islanders to hang\na he-goat's skin to the boat's mast, in the hope of securing a\nfavourable wind.\n\nThere was a stone in Iona, over which, if a man stretched his arm\nthree times, he would never err in steering a vessel. In the island of\nBernera there was a stone in the form of a cross, near St. Mary's\nChurch, about five feet high, which the natives called the water\ncross. The old inhabitants were in the practice of erecting it when\nthey wished rain, and of laying it flat on the ground when they\ndesired dry weather. Martin further mentions a green stone, about the\nsize of goose's egg, in the island of Arran, which possessed rare\nvirtue, and was consequently handed down to posterity for many ages.\nBy laying it on the side of a person troubled with pains in that part\nof his body, the patient immediately recovered, unless doomed to die.\nIf the latter event were to happen, the stone removed of its own\naccord from the side; but if the patient was to recover, it rested\nwhere placed until the cure became complete. Disputed cases between\nthe islanders were settled by oath at this stone. It possessed another\nvirtue--causing powerful enemies to run away when it was thrown at\ntheir front. The custody of this valuable relic long remained a\nprivilege of the Chattans.\n\nIn the Highlands of Scotland a large oval crystal--probably a\nCairngorm stone--was kept by the ancient priests by which to work\ncharms. Water poured upon it was given to the cattle, to preserve them\nfrom disease. Such charms were common in Scotland, England, and\nIreland. Lilly describes a conjuring beryl or crystal. It was, he\ntells us, as large as an orange, and set in silver with a cross at the\ntop, and round about it were engraved the names of the angels Raphael,\nGabriel, and Uriel. A delineation of another charm is engraved in the\nfrontispiece to Aubrey's _Miscellanies_. A mode of making inquiry by\ncharms is imputed to Dr. Dee, the celebrated mathematician. The stone\nused by him came into the possession of Horace Walpole, and was long,\nif not now, in the Strawberry Hill collection. Sorcerers or magicians,\nsays Grose, did not always employ their art to do mischief, but, on\nthe contrary, frequently exerted it to cure diseases inflicted by\nwitches, to discover thieves, recover stolen goods, to foretell future\nevents, and the state of absent friends. A favourite method of\nconsultation was this: The conjuror having repeated the necessary\nadjuration, and applied the proper charms, with the litany or\ninvocation peculiar to the spirits or angels whose assistance was to\nbe asked, the seer looked into a crystal or beryl, wherein he saw, or\npretended he saw, the answers to his interrogatories, represented\neither by types or figures. Sometimes the spirits or angels answered\naudibly.\n\nThis part of our subject would be incomplete without reference to the\nCoronation Stone, the history of which is as interesting as it is\ncurious. We have made mention of a stone or stones, under various\nnames--Jacob's Pillow, Lia-Fail, Stone of Destiny, Marble Chair,\nCoronation Stone, etc. Writers on arch\u00e6ological subjects are not\nagreed as to whether all these are or are not different names for one\nand the same relic. On the whole, we are inclined to think that there\nwas but one coronation stone, but we leave that point to be definitely\nsettled by others. From the information before us, we assume there was\nbut one stone, and therefore proceed on this assumption, which is\nsupported by tradition.\n\nThe Stone of Destiny, we are told, formed Jacob's pillow on the plain\nof Luz, and consequently was regarded as a sacred relic by the Jews.\nIt was carried to Egypt, thence to Spain, and from the latter country\nit was conveyed by Simon Breck to Ireland, where it became known as\nthe \"Lia-Fail\" or \"Stone of Destiny\" of the Irish kings. Ireland is\noften, from this stone, called by the priests Innis-phail. The ancient\nIrish supposed that, in whatsoever country this stone remained, there\none of their blood would reign. They pretended to have authentic\nmemoirs of the stone for a period extending backwards more than two\nthousand years. In the practical tales of Ossian we find:\n\n      \"Though the sun glitters upon the heath, I will not\n      behold her golden rays; though the stag should start\n      by me, Ossian will chase him no more. Although Manus\n      should cross the ocean again to invade Albin, my sword\n      is not victorious in the slaughter, and my fame is not\n      celebrated by the bards. I am not invited to a feast.\n      My kiss is scorned by the virgin. My esteem is not\n      equal to a king's son; one day is like a year to me.\n\n      \"It was the reverse in Innis-phail, also in Selma, the\n      mansions of my mighty father: Ossian was honoured\n      above the rest: behold the uncertainty of everything\n      under the sun.\"\n\nAfter the enchanted stone--for it was regarded as such--had long been\nkept at Tarah, it was sent to Fergus, the first actual king of Scots;\nand it remained in Argyle (the original seat of the Scots in Britain)\nuntil about the year 842. Three hundred and thirty years before the\nChristian era, Fergus was crowned and seated on the famous chair.\nKenneth, the second son of Alpin, having enlarged his dominions by the\nconquest of the Picts, transferred the stone to Scone. As the supreme\nkings of Ireland and the kings of the Scots used to be inaugurated by\nbeing seated on the ancient chair before it was carried to Scone, so\nwere the kings at Perth installed into regal office down to the time\nthat Edward I. carried to England the sacred relic, highly prized by\nevery Scotchman. As soon as the news of the loss spread, great concern\nwas manifested. The death of a beloved monarch, or the loss of many\nbattles, where brave sons and fathers had fallen, would have been as\nnothing compared with the national loss sustained. In fact, many in\nthe highest circles conceived that the glory of the kingdom had\ndeparted.\n\nIt appears from a document found among the records of England, that\nKing Edward treated the relic with great veneration. With the\nintention of using it for the same purposes in England as it had been\nused for in Scotland and Ireland, he proposed to make it a part of a\nthrone or royal seat, and ordered his goldsmith to prepare a copper\ncase for it. He changed his mind, and gave instructions for a wooden\nchair being made, and the stone inserted in the seat. Such was the\nestimation in which he held the stone, that he placed it in the most\nsacred place in England--close to the altar and shrine of St. Edward.\nThere are reasons for concluding that Edward had intended to return\nthe stone to Scotland, and had made arrangements to that effect in a\ntreaty; but the citizens of London, who were anxious to retain the\nstone in England, remonstrated against its being restored to the legal\nowners, and the king complied with their wishes. This famous \"Stone of\nDestiny,\" long sacred in Ireland, and on which the kings of Scotland\nwere crowned for more than a thousand years, now forms part of the\ncoronation chair of the kings and queens of England.\n\nWhen the supreme kings of Ireland were inaugurated, in the times of\nheathenism, on the hill of Tarah, the stone, which was enclosed in a\nwooden chair, was supposed to emit a sound under the rightful heir to\nthe throne, but to be mute under a man seeking power under false\npretences. On Aidanus being elected by universal acclamation, and\nsolemnly seated in the same chair, he was crowned by St. Columba, who\nwith his right hand placed the diadem on the king's head, while in his\nleft he held a trumpet or wooden tube, to announce to the assembled\nthrong the completion of the joyful event. This tube was long\npreserved with great care at Dunkeld. Some suppose that the fatality\nlong assigned to the stone was fully believed in by Kenneth, by whose\norders the following couplet was carved on the chair:--\n\n    \"Where'er this marble's placed, there, sure as fate,\n    Shall be the Scottish monarch's regal seat.\"\n\nWintoun tells us that Fergus, the son of Ere,\n\n    \"Braucht this stane wytht-in Scotland\n    Fyrst quhen he came and wane that land,\n    And fyrst it set in Ikkolmkil,\n    And Skune thare-eftir it was braucht tyle;\n    And there it wes syne mony day,\n    Qhyll Edward gert have it away.\"\n\nWithout endorsing the opinion that Scotland and Ireland have lost\ntheir wonted power, or suffered decline through the \"Prophetic or\nFatal Stone\" being carried away, it is an indisputable fact that in\nneither of these countries is there, strictly speaking, a \"monarch's\nregal seat.\" The \"Enchanted Stone\"--the \"palladium of Scottish\nliberty\"--is certainly, as the English well know, one of the most\nancient and valuable relics in Westminster Abbey.\n\n\n\n\nTRIALS BY ORDEAL.\n\n\nCHAPTER L.\n\n      Trials by Ordeal resorted to in Modern and Ancient\n      Times--Ordeal by means of Hot Iron--Plunging the Arm\n      into Boiling Water or Oil--Walking Blindfold in\n      Dangerous Places--Weighing a Witch--Extending the Arms\n      before a Cross--Swallowing Consecrated Bread--Ordeal\n      among the Hindoos--Touching a Dead Body--A Murdered\n      Traveller--An Inquest, how conducted long ago--Dead\n      Henry's Wounds--Sir George M'Kenzie's Opinion of Trial\n      by Ordeal--Killing a Brother by Sorcery--Touching a\n      Dead Body--Sir K. Digby on Trial by Ordeal.\n\n\nTrial by ordeal were resorted to by many people and nations both in\nancient and modern times, with the view of establishing the\ncriminality or innocence of suspected persons. Among the ordeals may\nbe enumerated: holding in the hand a red-hot bar of iron, plunging the\narm into boiling water or oil, walking blindfold amidst burning\nploughshares, passing through fires, swallowing a morsel of\nconsecrated bread, swimming or sinking in water (or, as it was\noccasionally termed, weighing a witch), stretching out the arms before\nthe cross until the sorest wearied competitor dropped his arms, and so\nlost his cause, and therewith perhaps his life or his estate, or it\nmight be both.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nA dispute occurred between the Bishop of Paris and the Abbot of St.\nDenis about the patronage of a monastery; and Pepin, surnamed the\nShort, not being able to decide such an intricate question, decreed\nthat the matter should be settled by ordeal. Each of the disputants\nchose a man, and both the men appeared in a chapel, where they\nextended their arms in the form of a cross. Numerous spectators were\npresent to witness the trial, and betted on the feat. The bishop's\nrepresentative dropped his arms first, and thereby ruined his\nemployer.\n\nWarren Hastings has found, from Asiatic researches, that trial by\nordeal was common among the Hindoos. He says these trials are\nconducted in nine ways: first, by the balance; secondly, by fire;\nthirdly, by water; fourthly, by poison; fifthly, by the C\u00f3sha, or\nwater in which an idol has been washed; sixthly, by rice; seventhly,\nby boiling oil; eighthly, by red-hot iron; ninthly, by images.\n\n      \"I. Ordeal by the balance is thus performed:--The beam\n      having been previously adjusted, the cord fixed, and\n      both scales made perfectly even, the person accused\n      and a Pandit fast a whole day; then, after the accused\n      has been bathed in sacred water, the h\u00f3ma, or\n      oblation, presented to fire, and the deities\n      worshipped, he is carefully weighed; and, when he is\n      taken out of the scale, the Pandits prostrate\n      themselves, and pronounce a certain mentra or\n      incantation, agreeably to the S\u00e1stras, and having\n      written the substance of the accusation on a piece of\n      paper, bind it on his head. Six minutes after, they\n      place him again in the scale, and, if he weigh more\n      than before, he is held guilty; if less, innocent; if\n      exactly the same, he must be weighed a third time;\n      when, as it is written in the Mit\u00e1csher\u00e1, there will\n      certainly be a difference in his weight. Should the\n      balance break down, it would be considered a proof of\n      guilt.\n\n      \"II. For the fire ordeal, an excavation, nine hands\n      long, two spans broad, and one span deep, is made in\n      the ground, and filled with a fire of pippal wood:\n      into this the person accused must walk bare-footed,\n      and, if his foot be unhurt, they hold him blameless;\n      if burned, guilty.\n\n      \"III. Water ordeal is performed by causing the person\n      accused to stand in a sufficient depth of water,\n      either flowing or stagnant, to reach his navel; but\n      care must be taken that no ravenous animal be in it,\n      and that it be not moved by much air: a Br\u00e1hman is\n      then directed to go into the water, holding a staff in\n      his hand, and a soldier shoots three arrows on dry\n      ground from a bow of cane; a man is next despatched to\n      bring the arrow which has been shot farthest, and,\n      after he has taken it up, another is ordered to run\n      from the edge of the water; at which instant the\n      person accused is told to grasp the foot or the staff\n      of the Br\u00e1hman, who stands near him in the water, and\n      immediately to dive into it. He must remain under\n      water till the two men who went to fetch the arrows\n      are returned; for, if he raise his head or body above\n      the surface before the arrows are brought back, his\n      guilt is considered as fully proved. In the villages\n      near Ban\u00e1res, it is the practice for the person who is\n      to be tried by this kind of ordeal to stand in water\n      up to his navel, and then, holding the foot of a\n      Br\u00e1hman, to dive under it as long as a man can walk\n      fifty paces very gently; if before the man has walked\n      thus far the accused rise above the water, he is\n      condemned; if not, acquitted.\n\n      \"IV. There are two sorts of trial by poison. First,\n      the Pandits having performed their h\u00f3ma, and the\n      person accused his ablution, two retti's and a half,\n      or seven barley-corns, of vishanag\u00e1, a poisonous root,\n      or of sanc'hy\u00e1, that is, white arsenic, are mixed in\n      eight m\u00e1shas, or sixty-four retti's of clarified\n      butter, which the accused must eat from the hand of a\n      Br\u00e1hman: if the poison produce no visible effect, he\n      is absolved; otherwise, condemned. Secondly, the\n      hooded snake, called n\u00e1ga, is thrown into a deep\n      earthen pot, into which is dropped a ring, a seal, or\n      a coin; this the person accused is ordered to take out\n      with his hand; and, if the serpent bite him, he is\n      pronounced guilty; if not, innocent.\n\n      \"V. Trial by the c\u00f3sha is as follows: the accused is\n      made to drink three draughts of the water in which the\n      images of the sun, of D\u00e9vi, and other deities have\n      been washed for that purpose; and if within fourteen\n      days he has any sickness or indisposition, his crime\n      is considered as proved.\n\n      \"VI. When several persons are suspected of theft, some\n      dry rice is weighed with the sacred stone called\n      s\u00e1lcr\u00e1m; or certain sl\u00f3cas are read over it; after\n      which the suspected persons are severally ordered to\n      chew a quantity of it: as soon as they have chewed it,\n      they are to throw it on some leaves of the pippal, or,\n      if none be at hand, on some b'h\u00farja patra, or bark of\n      a tree from N\u00e9p\u00e1l or Cashm\u00edr. The man from whose mouth\n      the rice comes dry or stained with blood, is holden\n      guilty; the rest are acquitted.\n\n      \"VII. The ordeal by hot oil is very simple: when it is\n      heated sufficiently, the accused thrusts his hand into\n      it; and, if he be not burned, is held innocent.\n\n      \"VIII. In the same manner they make an iron ball, or\n      the head of a lance, red-hot, and place it in the\n      hands of the person accused; who, if it burn him not,\n      is judged guiltless.\n\n      \"IX. To perform the ordeal by dharm\u00e1rch, which is the\n      name of the sl\u00f3ca appropriated to this mode of trial,\n      either an image named Dharma, or the Genius of\n      Justice, is made of silver, and another, called\n      Adharma, of clay or iron, both of which are thrown\n      into a large earthen jar; and the accused, having\n      thrust his hand into it, is acquitted if he bring out\n      the silver image, but condemned if he draw forth the\n      iron; or the figure of a deity is painted on white\n      cloth, and another on black, the first of which they\n      name dharma, and the second adharma: these are\n      severally rolled up in cow-dung, and thrown into a\n      large jar without having ever been shown to the\n      accused; who must put his hand into the jar, and is\n      acquitted or convicted as he draws out the figure on\n      white or black cloth.\"\n\nTouching the body of a murdered person was one way, in Scotland,\nEngland, and elsewhere, of discovering who the murderer was. The\npractice, we are informed, originated in Denmark. Certain gentlemen in\nthat kingdom, being together in a house, one evening fell out among\nthemselves, and from words came to blows. Unfortunately the candles\nwent out during the fray, and before lights could be procured one of\nthe gentlemen was stabbed. The murderer was unknown. Christernus II.,\nthen king, to find out the murderer, caused all who were present at\nthe brawl to stand around the dead body, and commanded that one after\nthe other should lay his right hand on the dead man's breast, and\nswear that he had not committed the foul deed. The gentlemen complied;\nand no sign appeared to indicate the guilt of any of them, until the\nking's pursuivant kissed the feet of the corpse, and laid his hand on\nthe breast. As soon as he did so, the blood gushed out in great\nabundance from the wound and nostrils. Thus condemned, the pursuivant\nconfessed his guilt. By the king's sentence, the criminal was\nbeheaded. Hence arose the practice, which was long common in many\nplaces, of finding out unknown murders. In most cases the murderer was\ndiscovered by the corpse bleeding the instant the bloodstained hand\nwas placed on the cold inanimate clay, but at times the sign was given\nby the dead man opening his eyes on the slayer approaching the corpse.\n\nA traveller was found murdered on a highway in Denmark; and because\nthe slayer was unknown, the magistrates of the place caused one of the\nhands of him that was slain to be cut off, and hung up by a string at\nthe top of a room in the town prison. About ten years after the crime\nwas committed, the murderer happened to enter the apartment; and as\nsoon as he did so, the dry withered hand began to drop blood on a\ntable below it. The gaoler, beholding this, detained the man and\ncalled in the magistrates, who extracted from him a confession of his\nguilt.\n\nIn Herefordshire, in the time of Charles I., Johan Norkett, wife of\nArthur Norkett, was found dead. At first it was thought she had\ncommitted suicide, but afterwards circumstances transpired which led\nto the belief that the unfortunate woman did not lay violent hands\nupon herself. A jury was summoned, and, after deliberation, the\ncoroner directed that the body, which had been buried for a month,\nshould be exhumed, and four suspected persons brought to touch the\ncorpse. The persons being afterwards brought to trial at the assizes,\nan old minister swore that, the body being taken out of the grave and\nlaid on the grass, the accused were required to touch it. On laying\ntheir hands on the brow, which before was of a livid and carrion\ncolour, it began to have a dew or gentle sweat upon it, which\nincreased by degrees until the sweat ran down the face. The brow then\nturned to a lifelike and flesh colour, and the dead woman opened one\nof her eyes and shut it again, and this opening the eye was done three\ntimes. She likewise thrust out the ring or marriage finger three\ntimes, and the finger dropped blood on the grass. Another clergyman\ncorroborated the statement of the first witness. Sir Nicholas Hyde\nthrew doubt on the correctness of the evidence, but the jury found\nthree of the prisoners guilty of murder, and two of them were\nexecuted; the third being a woman, escaped with her life.\n\nThe popular superstition that the wounds of a murdered person would\nbleed afresh when touched by the murderer, is thus referred to by\nShakspeare:\n\n                      \"Dead Henry's wounds\n    Open their congealed mouths, and bleed afresh;\"\n\nAnd Dryden says:\n\n    \"If the vile actors of the heinous deed\n    Near the dead body happily be brought,\n    Oft hath been proved the breathless corpse will bleed.\"\n\nThat murder might be discovered in the way referred to, was generally\nbelieved in Scotland in the seventeenth century. Sir George Mackenzie,\nwhen conducting the prosecution in the trial of Philip Stansfield,\nsaid: \"That divine power which makes the blood circulate during life,\nhas oft-times, in all nations, opened a passage to it after death upon\nsuch occasions, but most in this case; for after the wounds had been\nsewed up, and the body designedly shaken up and down, and, which is\nmost wonderful, after the body had been buried for several days, which\nnaturally occasions the blood to congeal, upon Philip touching it, the\nblood darted and sprang out, to the great astonishment of the\nchirurgeons themselves, who were desired to watch this event;\nwhereupon Philip, astonished more than they, threw down the body, and\nbecame so faint that they were forced to give him a cordial.\"\n\nIn the middle of the seventeenth century, Christina Wilson was\naccused, in one of the supreme courts of Scotland, of having killed\nher brother by sorcery. On being suspected of the crime by the\nminister and others, she was brought in to touch the corpse. At the\nfirst sight of the dead body, she prayed that He who made the sun to\nshine on their house would bring the murder to light, and immediately\nthereafter she touched the corpse. It bled, though it did not do so\nbefore when touched by others. Of course this was held sufficient\nproof against the unfortunate woman, and she suffered according to her\nsupposed guilt.\n\nIn another case a man was condemned on similar evidence for the murder\nof his father; but the prisoner insisted that the bleeding was owing\nto an incision made on the body, and not to his presence. The defence\nwas disregarded; but this need not be a matter of surprise, when such\nmen as Sir K. Digby and Sir George Mackenzie took it for granted that\nthe corpse of a murdered person would bleed on being touched by the\nmurderer. He (Sir K. Digby) says in his _Religio Medica_: \"And to this\ncause, peradventure, may be ascribed the strange effect which is\nfrequently seen in England, when, at the approach of the murderer, the\nslain body suddenly bleedeth afresh: for certainly the souls of them\nthat are treacherously murdered by surprise leave their bodies with\nextreme unwillingness, and with vehement indignation against them that\nforced them to so unprovided and abhorred a passage. The soul then, to\nwreak its evil talent against the hated murderer, and to draw a just\nand desired revenge upon his head, would do all it can to manifest the\nauthor of the fact. To speak it cannot, for in itself it wanteth\norgans of voice, and those it is parted from are now grown too heavy,\nand are too benumbed for it to give motion unto; yet some change it\ndesireth to make in the body, which it hath so vehement inclination\nto, and therefore it is the aptest for it to work upon. It must then\nendeavour to cause a motion in the sublimest and most fluid parts (and\nconsequently the most moveable ones) of it. This can be nothing but\nthe blood, which, being violently moved, must needs gush out at those\nplaces where it findeth issues.\"\n\nThe swallowing of a piece of barley bread, over which mass had been\nperformed, was not unfrequent in trials of ordeal. If the suspected\nperson swallowed the bread without injury, he was declared innocent;\nbut if the bread choked him in the attempt to swallow it, then was he\nconsidered to be guilty. At times cheese was given with the bread; but\nwhen that was done, it was essential to supply ewe-milk cheese made in\nthe month of May.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LI.\n\n      A Popular Story--Ordeal of Red-hot Iron--Ordeal by\n      Boiling Water--Theatberge, wife of Lothaire, accused\n      of Incest--Purgation by Cold Water--Forbes's\n      Memoirs--Ordeals by Boiling Oil--Trial by Wager of\n      Battle--When Trial by Wager of Battle ceased--Trial by\n      Jury--Combats in Germany--Bier placed near the\n      Combatants--Court of King's Bench deciding the\n      Legality of Trial by Battle--Sir Walter Scott's\n      Illustrations of Superstition and Trial by Battle in\n      Olden Times.\n\n\nA popular story is told of Emma, mother of Edward the Confessor, being\naccused of too great familiarity with the Bishop of Leicester. To\njustify herself, she demanded the ordeal of red-hot iron. Her demand\nwas complied with, and she passed barefooted and blindfolded over nine\nred-hot ploughshares without touching them. Her innocence was thereby\nheld to be proved.\n\nNobles and great persons who submitted to ordeal by water were purged\nby boiling water, but the populace had to undergo the cold-water test.\n\nTheatberge, wife of Lothaire of France, having been accused of incest,\ncertain bishops were consulted as to the manner of establishing her\nguilt or innocence; and they concluded that recourse should be had to\nproof by boiling water. She was ordered to plunge her hand into a\nbasin of boiling water, and take out a ring put therein. In place of\ncomplying, she availed herself of a privilege the law allowed--to find\na substitute. He whom she chose produced the ring without injuring his\nhand, in spite of the fire under the caldron being so intense that the\nwater boiled over.\n\nIn the trial or purgation by cold water, the accused, after prayers\nand other ceremonies, was cast into deep water, swaddled or tied in\nsuch a manner as to make it impossible for him or her to swim. If the\naccused sank, he or she was held criminal, and allowed to drown. If\nthe person floated, it was regarded as a proof of innocence, and the\nlucky one was drawn out of the water to be set free.\n\nMr. Forbes, in his _Oriental Memoirs_, says that, among the curious\ncircumstances connected with his administration of justice at\nDheeborg, he was sometimes obliged to determine causes by ordeal\ntrial. In one instance a man was accused of stealing a child wearing\nmany jewels. Circumstances were against him, on which he demanded\ntrial by ordeal. Mr. Forbes was at first averse to adopt such a\nmeasure, but, at the request of the Hindoo arbitrators, who sat on the\ncarpet of justice, and especially at the request of the child's\nparents, he consented. A vessel full of boiling oil was brought into\nthe durbar, and, after a short ceremony by the Brahmins, the accused\nperson, without showing any anxiety, plunged his hand to the bottom\nand took out a small silver coin. He did not appear to have sustained\nany hurt, or to suffer the least pain. The suspected person's\ninnocence being thus established in the eyes of the arbitrators and\nparents, he was set free.\n\nAnother instance of trial by ordeal is mentioned by Mr. Forbes. The\ncoolies of a village in the northern part of Guzerat were accused of\nhaving seized and imprisoned a Bohra, and, of extorting a bond from\nhim for 450 rupees. The chief, a Khemaria coolie, named Wagajee,\ndenied the charge, and, for proof of his innocence and that of his\npeople, offered to submit to trial by any kind of ordeal. The Bohra\nagreed to this mode of proof, and it was determined that the coolie\nshould immerse his hand in a vessel of boiling oil. A large copper-pot\nfull of oil was put on a fire in the market place, and a pair of\nblacksmith's bellows applied to blow the fire until the oil became\nvery hot. A rupee was then thrown into the pot. The accused, when\nrequested, came forward, stripped himself, said his prayers, and\nprotested his innocence. He resisted every attempt to dissuade him\nfrom the trial. A crowd of people, impressed with the awfulness of\nsuch an immediate appeal to the deity, prayed devoutly that, if he\nwere not guilty, he might pass through the test unhurt. Wagajee walked\nup to the boiling oil, dipped his hand into it, and laid hold of the\nrupee. He then held up his hand, that the spectators might satisfy\nthemselves of his veracity. His hand appeared as if it had been merely\nput into cold oil. All parties were satisfied, and Wagajee was\ndismissed with the present of a new turban.\n\nTrial by ordeal was introduced into England by the Saxons. Under the\nEnglish laws, a prisoner might choose whether he would be tried by\nordeal or by jury. Trial by ordeal was abolished in this country in\nthe year 1218.\n\nTrial by or wager of battle may be mentioned as a form of superstition\nwhich remained as a legal way of deciding criminal cases down to the\ntime of George III.\n\nIn 1817 a young man, charged with murdering his sweetheart in England,\nclaimed the right to have his case decided by wager of battle: the\ncourt admitted the claim, but he whose right it was to accept the\nchallenge refused to fight, and so the accused escaped punishment.\nThis led to the law, which allowed trial by battle, being repealed in\n1819.\n\nBefore commencing the fight, the combatants were compelled to swear\nthat neither of them would resort to sorcery or witchcraft. If the\naccused were slain, the judges regarded the fatal deed as proof of his\nguilt. If overpowered, but not killed, he was adjudged guilty, and\nsentenced to be immediately executed. Women, priests, infants, men\nsixty years of age, or lame or blind, had it in their option to refuse\nwager of battle, and were entitled to demand trial by jury.\n\nAn old author says: \"If two neighbours dispute respecting the\nboundaries of their possessions, let a piece of turf of the contested\nland be dug up by the judge, and brought by him into the court, and\nthe two parties shall touch it with the points of their swords,\ncalling on the Most High to witness their claims. After this let them\ncombat, and let victory prove who is right and who is wrong.\"\n\nSir Walter Scott gives a good illustration of the superstition of\nolden times, and of trial by battle, in _Ivanhoe_. We are told that\nafter Ivanhoe was wounded at the tournament, Rebecca, the Jewess, lost\nno time in causing the patient to be removed to her father's dwelling,\nand with her own hands bound up his wounds. The Jews, both male and\nfemale, possessed and practised the medical science; and the monarchs\nand powerful barons of the time, says the novelist, frequently, when\nwounded or in sickness, committed themselves as patients to the charge\nof an experienced person among the despised people. A general belief\nprevailed among Christians that the Jewish rabbins were acquainted\nwith the occult sciences, and particularly with the cabalistical art.\nThe rabbins did not disavow such acquaintance with supernatural arts.\nRebecca's knowledge of the healing art had been acquired under an aged\nJewess, the daughter of a celebrated doctor. Miriam fell a sacrifice\nto the fanaticism of the times, but her secrets had survived in her\napt pupil. The wounded knight, as might be expected, recovered under\nthe medical treatment of Rebecca. For this she was accused of working\ncures by words, sigils, and other cabalistical mysteries.\n\n\"Nay, reverend and brave knight,\" answered Isaac, Rebecca's father, in\nreply to Beaumanoir, who brought the charge against the Jewess, \"but in\nchief measure by a balsam of marvellous virtue;\" and in reply to\nanother question, Isaac reluctantly told that Rebecca had obtained her\nsecret from Miriam, whom the Grand Master designated a witch and\nenchantress, whose body had been burned at a stake, and her ashes\nscattered to the four winds. \"The laws of England,\" exclaimed\nBeaumanoir, \"permit and enjoin each judge to execute justice within\nhis own jurisdiction. The most petty baron may arrest, try, and\ncondemn a witch found within his own domain.... The witch shall be\ntaken out of the land, and the wickedness thereof shall be forgiven.\nPrepare the castle-hall for the trial of the sorceress.\"\n\nPoor Rebecca was brought before the Grand Master, charged with various\ncrimes. \"We have,\" said the Master, \"summoned to our presence a Jewish\nwoman, by name Rebecca, daughter of York--a woman infamous for\nsortileges and for witcheries; whereby she hath maddened the blood,\nand besotted the brain, not of a churl, but of a knight--not of a\nsecular knight, but of one devoted to the service of the holy\ntemple--not of a knight champion, but of a preceptor.... By means of\ncharms and of spells, Satan had obtained dominion over the knight,\nperchance because he cast his eyes too lightly upon a damsel's\nbeauty.\"\n\nWitnesses being invited by the Grand Master, forward came a once\nbedridden man, whom the prisoner had restored to the perfect use of\nhis limbs by a miraculous balsam. Unwillingly he testified to Rebecca\ncuring him, giving him a pot of spicy smelling ointment, and supplying\nhim with money to pay his expenses to his father's house, whither he\nwished to repair. Other witnesses deponed that Rebecca muttered to\nherself in an unknown tongue, that the songs she sang were peculiarly\nsweet, that her garments were of a strange mystic form, and that she\nhad rings with cabalistic devices. A soldier testified that he had\nseen her cure a wounded man in a mysterious way. He said she made\ncertain signs upon the wound, and repeated words he understood not.\nThe result, he declared, was that the iron head of a cross-bow bolt\ndisengaged itself from the wound, the bleeding was staunched, the\nwound closed, and the seemingly dying man was within a quarter of an\nhour walking upon the ramparts. Another soldier deponed that he had\nseen Rebecca perch herself upon a high turret, and there take the form\nof a white swan, under which appearance she flitted three times round\nthe castle of Torquailstone. Again she settled on the turret, and once\nmore assumed her womanly form. The evidence was considered more than\nenough to condemn the unhappy Jewess; and in a solemn tone the Grand\nMaster demanded what she had to say against sentence of condemnation\nbeing pronounced against her. Rebecca knew the law; she maintained her\ninnocence, claimed the privilege of trial by combat, and offered to\nappear by a champion.\n\nBrian de Bois-Gilbert was appointed to do battle on behalf of himself\nand the order of knights to which he belonged; and the day came when\nthe die would be cast that was to decide the fate of Rebecca. At the\ncastle of Templestowe everything was prepared by the prosecutor for\nthe combat, but for poor Rebecca no champion appeared. Near the lists\nwas a pile of faggots so arranged around a stake as to leave a space\nfor the accused to enter within the fatal circle, chained by fetters,\nin order to be ready for the fiery punishment. At the hour appointed\nfor the champions to meet, the large bell of St. Michael tolled\nmournfully, the drawbridge fell, the gates opened, and a knight,\nbearing a great standard, sallied forth from the castle, preceded by\nsix trumpeters, and followed by the knights preceptors, the Grand\nMaster coming behind. Then came Brian de Bois-Gilbert, armed\n_cap-\u00e0-pie_, accompanied by two godfathers and many squires and pages.\nAfter these followed a guard of warders, with the trembling Jewess,\nstripped of all her ornaments, lest there should be among them\namulets, which Satan was supposed to bestow upon his victims, to\ndeprive them of the power of confession, even when under torture.\nWhile the Grand Master took his exalted seat, the unfortunate culprit\nwas conducted to the black chair, near the ready prepared pile.\nEverything being arranged, a loud and long flourish of trumpets\nannounced that the proceedings of the court were to begin. Brian de\nBois-Gilbert stood ready for the combat, but a champion was still\nwanting for the appellant. Lest Jew or Pagan should charge the court\nwith injustice, the Grand Master declared his readiness to wait till\nthe shadows were in the west, to see if a champion would appear for\nthe culprit. But the general belief prevailed that no one would stand\nup for her; and the craven knights whispered to each other, when the\nday was far gone, that the time had come for declaring the pledge of\nRebecca forfeited. At this instant, a knight, urging his horse\nforward, appeared on the plain advancing towards the lists. A hundred\nvoices exclaimed, \"A champion! a champion!\" Yes, it was a champion,\nthe renowned Wilfred of Ivanhoe. \"Rebecca,\" said he, riding up to the\nblack chair, \"dost thou accept me for thy champion?\" The answer was in\nthe affirmative. Little time was now lost; the champions confronted\neach other. Trumpets sounded, and the knights charged in full career.\nThe wearied horse of Ivanhoe, and its no less exhausted rider, went\ndown, as all had expected, before the well-aimed lance and vigorous\nsteed of the Templar. This result all had foreseen; but although the\nspear of Ivanhoe did but lightly touch the shield of Bois-Gilbert,\nthat combatant reeled in his saddle, lost his stirrups, and fell in\nthe lists. Ivanhoe, extricating himself from his fallen horse, was\nsoon on foot, hastening to mend his fortune by the sword; but his\nantagonist rose not. Wilfred, placing his foot on his opponent's\nbreast, and the sword's point to his throat, commanded him to yield,\nor die on the spot. Bois-Gilbert returned no answer. The fallen knight\nwas unhelmed. His eyes were closed--he was dead, supposed to have died\na victim to the violence of his own passions. When the first moments\nof surprise were over, the Grand Master pronounced the maiden free and\nguiltless.\n\nThe conclusion of this story is touching in the extreme. Soon after\nthis Ivanhoe and the Lady Ravena were married. On the second morning\nafter the nuptials, Rebecca waited on the Lady of Ivanhoe, and\npresented her with a small silver casket containing jewels of great\nvalue; and leaving a message to her champion, who never ceased to\nremember her, she hastened away to other lands, to tend the sick, feed\nthe hungry, and relieve the distressed.\n\n\n\n\nCURSES AND EVIL WISHES.\n\n\nCHAPTER LII.\n\n      Curses, Excommunication, and Anathemas--Dir\u00e6, the\n      Executioners of Vengeance--Curses and Anathemas not\n      confined to the Vulgar--Excommunication generally\n      accompanied by Anathema--Excommunicated Persons lost\n      their Civil Rights--Heretics forfeited their\n      Lives--Interment of Excommunicated\n      Persons--Excommunication among the Hebrews--Different\n      Degrees of Excommunication--Solemn Curses pronounced\n      against Impenitent Persons--Stone laid on an Accursed\n      Person's Coffin--Last Degree of Excommunication\n      sometimes followed by Banishment or Death--Form of\n      Excommunication used by Ezra and Nehemiah when they\n      cursed the Samaritans--Death upon the Cross, Sawing\n      asunder, and other Punishments--Mode of Punishment\n      among the Romans, Greeks, and Persians--The Greek\n      Church annually excommunicated Roman Catholics--The\n      Druids resorted to Excommunication--Whole Families\n      excommunicated with Horrible Ceremonies and Dreadful\n      Imprecations--Bishops excommunicating Rats, Mice,\n      Caterpillars, and other Insects and Vermin--The Pope's\n      Claim--Napoleon I. excommunicated--Victor Emmanuel\n      excommunicated--Effects of Excommunication--The\n      Inquisition and its Terrible Doings--The Pope's\n      Fearful Curse--Mr. Donald Cargill excommunicating the\n      King and Nobles--Indulgences, Pardons, and Penance.\n\n\nCurses, excommunication, and anathemas have often been followed by sad\nconsequences; but whether arising directly or indirectly from the\ndenunciations, we do not say. Ancient nations had their goddesses\nDir\u00e6, who were supposed to be the executioners of vengeance. They were\ncalled Furies on earth, and Eumenides in hell. These goddesses were\ninvoked with prayers and charms. Curses and anathemas were not in\nformer ages confined to the vulgar classes of persons, such as in the\npresent time. Imprecations were hurled out by the priest and prophet,\nby the educated and uneducated, by professed Christian laymen, by the\nheathen, by the wandering gipsies, and the croaking crones.\n\nExcommunication is generally accompanied by anathema, or\necclesiastical curse, and punishment, whereby a heretic is not only\ncut off from the society of the faithful, but is consigned to Satan,\nthat condign punishment may follow. Sixty penalties have been reckoned\nas accruing upon excommunication. Major excommunication separates or\ncuts off the delinquent from all communion and fellowship with\nsociety--disables him from defending his civil rights. In more than\none kingdom, a person who is not absolved from his excommunication in\na year's time is deemed a heretic; and we know the punishment dealt\nout to such persons. Even in our own country, before the time of\nCharles II., a heretic forfeited his life, and generally expiated his\nguilt at the stake.\n\nBy law, an excommunicated person was not allowed to be interred\naccording to the ordinary form and rites of burial, but the body was\nflung into a pit, or covered with a heap of stones called _imblocare\ncorpus_. There was a time when the people believed that the bodies of\nexcommunicated persons not absolved did not rot, but remained entire\nfor ages, a horrible spectacle to posterity. This is attested by\nMatthew Paris and other writers. The Greeks, till recently,\nentertained the same opinion.\n\nIn the Hebrew republic the punishment of excommunication was devised\nby courts of justice, and inflicted by public sentence upon the\noffenders. There were three degrees of excommunication among the Jews:\nthe first was a casting out of the synagogue, and implied a separation\nfrom all commerce and society, either with man or woman, for the\ndistance of four cubits; also from eating or drinking with any one;\nfrom shaving, washing, or the like, according to the pleasure of the\njudge and the seriousness of the offence. It was in force for thirty\ndays, unless there was repentance expressed and forgiven.\n\nIf the sinner remained impenitent longer than thirty days, he was\nsentenced to more severe punishment, with the addition of a solemn\ncurse. This is supposed to be the same as delivering over to Satan.\nThe offence was published in the synagogue, and, at the time of the\npublication of the curse, candles were lighted, and when it was\nextended they were extinguished, as a sign that the excommunicate was\ndeprived of the light of heaven. His goods were confiscated; his male\nchildren were not permitted to be circumcised. If he died without\nrepentance, a stone, according to judicial sentence, was cast upon his\ncoffin or bier, to show that he deserved to be stoned. He was not\nmourned for with solemn lamentation, nor followed to the grave, nor\nburied with common burial.\n\nThe last degree of excommunication was anathematising, which was\ninflicted when the offender had often refused to comply with the\nsentence of court, and was followed by corporal punishment, and often\nwith banishment or death. Drusius gives a form of excommunication\nwhich, the Jews say, was used by Ezra and Nehemiah against the\nSamaritans, in this manner:--The whole congregation was assembled in\nthe Temple, and there were brought three hundred priests, three\nhundred boys, three hundred trumpets, and three hundred books of the\nlaw, and the Levites, singing, cursed the Samaritans by all forms of\nexcommunication, particularly with the curse of the superior house of\njudgment, and with the curse of the inferior house of judgment. At the\nsame time it was commanded that no Israelite should partake of a\nSamaritan's food. Hence arose the saying in reference to the breaker\nof this commandment: \"He who eats a Samaritan's bread is as he who\neats swine's flesh.\" Moreover, it was decreed that the excommunicate\nshould have no part in the resurrection of the dead.\n\nThere were other punishments introduced among the Hebrews in later\ntimes of their government, which were borrowed from other nations.\nThese were principally, death upon the cross, sawing asunder,\ncondemnation to fight with wild beasts, the wheel, drowning in the\nsea, beating to death with cudgels, and boating. The first and third\npunishments were properly Roman inflictions; the second was likewise\nused by the Romans, but whether it was originally taken from them is\ndoubtful; the fourth and sixth were Grecian penalties; the fifth was,\nin substance, in use among the Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans, but in the\nmanner of drowning they differed, for the Hebrews tied a mill-stone\nabout the culprit's neck; the last punishment was derived from the\nPersians, and is thus described:--The condemned person was laid upon\nhis back in a boat, with his hands tied to the sides thereof; another\nboat was put over him, covering all his body except the head. In this\nposture the unhappy person was fed with milk and honey till the worms\nate his very bowels, and thereby ended his days in extreme pain.\n\nEvery year the Greek Church, at Constantinople, pronounces\nexcommunication against the Roman Catholic Church. Heathens as well as\nChristians resorted to excommunication. The Druids made use of\nexcommunication against rebels, and interdicted the communication of\ntheir mysteries to such as refused to submit to their judgments.\n\nIn the Christian Church, excommunication has been practised in all\nages, and ecclesiastics have had continual recourse to it as one of\ntheir spiritual weapons. Not only have they excommunicated\nindividuals, but whole families and provinces have come under their\nlaw, with horrible ceremonies and dreadful imprecations. Even kings\nhave not escaped the Church's maledictions. Fevret, writing of\nexcommunications in the Romish Church, says that lighted torches were\nat times thrown on the ground, with curses and anathemas, and then\ntrampled out while bells were rung. This is somewhat similar to part\nof the ceremony of excommunication by bell, book, and candle, to be\nafterwards more particularly described.\n\nThere are instances of bishops excommunicating caterpillars and other\ninsects; and Fevret gives instances of excommunications going out\nagainst rats and mice. It sometimes happened that popes and churches\nexcommunicated one another, each cutting off the other from the\ncommunication of the faithful, and delivering over the anathematised\nperson or church to the devil. In 850 the synod of Pavia resolved that\nall who refused to submit to the discipline of the Church should be\nanathematised, and cut off from every Christian hope and consolation.\n\nFor fifteen centuries the Pope has claimed the power of disposing of\nmen's souls as seems best to him. Whom he blesses, he says, are\nblessed; and whom he curses, he would make us believe, are cursed. He\narrogates to himself the authority of holding the keys of heaven and\nhell.\n\nIn 1809 the Pope excommunicated Napoleon I., and in 1860 his Holiness\nexcommunicated Victor Emmanuel, king of Italy--sentences which implied\nspiritual condemnation, and deprivation of earthly power. The subjects\nof an excommunicated king were freed from allegiance to their\nsovereign. It is supposed the Pope's power extends so far that he may\npronounce excommunication against the dead, even to the debarring of\ndeceased persons from being cleansed from their sins in purgatory, and\nthe consigning of them to the place of eternal punishment.\n\nTerror and amazement followed the footsteps of the inquisitionists.\nThey proceeded with the greatest secrecy and silence. When a heretic\nwas seized, the world abandoned him; his nearest friends durst not say\na word in his defence. The heretical criminals were generally arrested\nin the stillness of night, examined, tortured, and, unless they\nrecanted, condemned and executed without seeing or knowing who were\ntheir accusers. Usually the accused persons were tortured until they\ncondemned themselves; and although witnesses were sometimes examined,\nthe form of procedure was a mockery of justice.\n\nAs a convincing proof of how dreadful the Romish Church's anathemas\nare, we give the Pope's fearful curse, taken from a form of\nexcommunication copied from the \"Leger Book\" of the church of\nRochester, long in the custody of the dean and chapter there:--\n\n      \"By the authority of God Almighty, the Father, Son,\n      and Holy Ghost, and of the holy canons, and of the\n      undefiled Virgin Mary, the mother and patroness of our\n      Saviour, and of all the celestial virtues, angels,\n      archangels, thrones, dominions, powers, cherubims and\n      seraphims, and of the holy patriarchs, prophets, and\n      of all the apostles and evangelists, and of the holy\n      innocents who in the sight of the Holy Lamb are found\n      worthy to sing the new song, of the holy martyrs and\n      holy confessors, and of the holy virgins, and of all\n      the saints, and together with all the holy and elect\n      of God: we excommunicate and anathematise him or them,\n      malefactor or malefactors, and from the threshold of\n      the holy church of God Almighty we sequester them,\n      that he or they may be tormented, disposed and\n      delivered over with Dathan and Abiram, with those who\n      say to the Lord God, Depart from us, we desire not Thy\n      ways. And as fire is quenched with water, so let the\n      light of him or them be put out for evermore, unless\n      it shall repent him or them, and they make\n      satisfaction. Amen. May the Father who created man,\n      curse him or them. May the Son, who suffered for us,\n      curse him or them. May the Holy Ghost, who was given\n      to us in baptism, curse him or them. May the holy\n      cross of Christ, for our salvation triumphing over his\n      enemies, ascend and curse him or them. May the eternal\n      and holy Virgin Mary, mother of God, curse him or\n      them. May St. Michael, the advocate of holy souls,\n      curse him or them. May all the angels and archangels,\n      principalities and powers, and all the heavenly host,\n      curse him or them. May the laudable number of\n      patriarchs and prophets curse him or them. May St.\n      John, the chief forerunner and baptist of Christ,\n      curse him or them. May St. Peter and St. Paul, and St.\n      Andrew, and all other Christ's apostles, together with\n      the rest of his disciples and evangelists, who by\n      their preaching converted the universal world, curse\n      him or them. May the holy and wonderful company of\n      martyrs and confessors, who by their holy works are\n      found pleasing to God Almighty, curse him or them. May\n      the holy choir of the holy virgins, who for the honour\n      of Christ have despised the things of this world,\n      curse him or them. May all the saints, who from the\n      beginning of the world to everlasting ages are found\n      to be the beloved of God, curse him or them. May the\n      heavens and the earth, and all the holy things\n      remaining thereon, curse him or them. May he or they\n      be cursed wherever he or they be, whether in their\n      house, or in their field, or in the highway, or in the\n      path, or in the wood, or in the water, or in the\n      church. May he or they be cursed in living, in dying,\n      in eating, in drinking, in being hungry, in being\n      thirsty, in fasting, in sleeping, in slumbering, in\n      waking, in walking, in standing, in sitting, in lying,\n      in working, in resting, in * * * * in * * * * and in\n      blood-letting. May he or they be cursed in all the\n      faculties of their body. May he or they be cursed\n      inwardly and outwardly. May he or they be cursed in\n      the hair of his or their head. May he or they be\n      cursed in his or their brain. May he or they be cursed\n      in the top of his or their head, in their temples, in\n      their foreheads, in their ears, in their eyebrows, in\n      their cheeks, in their jaw-bones, in their nostrils,\n      in their teeth or grinders, in their lips, in their\n      throat, in their shoulders, in their wrists, in their\n      arms, in their hands, in their fingers, in their\n      breast, in their heart, and in the interior parts to\n      the very stomach, in their veins, in their groin, in\n      their thighs, in their genitals, in the hips, in the\n      knees, in the legs, in the feet, in the joints, and in\n      the nails. May he or they be cursed in all their\n      joints, from the top of the head to the sole of the\n      foot. May there not be any soundness in him or them.\n      May the Son of the Living God, with all the glory of\n      His Majesty, curse him or them; and may heaven, with\n      all the powers which move therein, rise against him or\n      them, to damn him or them, unless he or they shall\n      repent, or that he or they shall make satisfaction.\n      Amen, Amen. So be it.\"\n\nThe superstition connected with excommunication was not confined to\nthe churches and nations already mentioned. It extended to the\nReformed Churches, and indeed this form of superstition lingers among\nthem still. A most enthusiastic Reformer (the Rev. Donald Cargill),\neminent in his day for piety and learning, who suffered martyrdom in\n1681, scrupled not, a year before his death, to excommunicate at\nTorwood, Stirlingshire, several of the most notable and violent\npersecutors of the time--the King, the Dukes of York, Monmouth,\nLauderdale, and Rothes, Sir George Mackenzie, and Sir Thomas Dalzell.\nIf Mr. Cargill did not curse others whom he thought had done him and\nthe cause of truth wrong, he predicted that evil would befall them;\nand what he foretold came to pass. He told James Irvine of Bonshaw,\nwho apprehended him shortly before his execution, that his persecutor\nwould not long escape a just judgment, not far from the place the\narrest was made. This prediction was verified; for soon after Irvine\nhad received 5000 merks as a reward for apprehending Mr. Cargill, he\nwas killed in a duel near Lanark. One John Nesbet mockingly said one\nday to Mr. Cargill, \"Will you not give us a word?\" The reverend divine\nlooked on the man with concern, while he said, \"Wicked, poor man, mock\nnot; ere you die you shall desire one word, but shall not have it.\"\nSoon after, this man was struck dumb, and died in great terror. When\nRothes, one of those whom Mr. Cargill excommunicated, threatened him\nwith torture and a violent death, he said, \"Forbear to threaten me;\nfor, die what death I may, your eyes shall not see it.\" This prophecy\nalso came to pass. Rothes died, as is well known, a few hours before\nthe condemned divine and his fellow-martyrs suffered the last penalty\nof man's law--death temporal.\n\nOne can easily imagine the terror into which a weak-minded person\nwould be cast by having the Pope's dire curses pronounced against him,\nwere it not known that he who is authorised to fulminate the\necclesiastical censure and bans, may, for a moderate pecuniary\nconsideration, or by a mortification of the flesh, or good works, have\nthe woes pronounced against him mitigated, if not entirely removed.\nIndulgences have been purchasable since the early centuries for this\nworld, and for the remission of suffering in purgatory as well. Those\nmost acquainted with the holy places in Rome are best able to make\nknown the facilities with which indulgences are obtained. There is\nscarcely a church or a station, a convent or a holy place, neither is\nthere hardly a service or a ceremony, which has not its own peculiar\nindulgences. Indulgences for hundreds of years may be secured by the\nexercises of a single day. The holy stairs, wherever they are\nsituated, said to have belonged to the palace of Pontius Pilate,\nconsisting of twenty-eight steps, possess peculiar virtue. Leo IV.\nconceded nine years' indulgence for each step ascended by a devotee on\nhis bare knees. Thus, he who reaches the highest step secures an\nindulgence of two hundred and fifty-two years, whether he remains\nhere, or finds himself in purgatory. Whoever kisses a cross at one end\nof the Colosseum of Rome, acquires an indulgence of one year and forty\ndays; and there is a wooden cross in the centre of the arena, which\nsecures an indulgence of two hundred days to every one who kisses it.\n\nLeo XII. conceded for ever an indulgence of forty years and one\nthousand six hundred days, applicable also to the dead, for every time\na faithful believer visits, during Lent, the churches where there are\nprescribed stations. He also conceded a plenary indulgence to all who\nhave made such visits three times in three distinct days. For the\ninformation of all good Catholics, a carefully prepared index has been\ndrawn up, showing the churches and stations which should be visited,\ntogether with the most effectual times of repairing thither. In\nconclusion, we give the following examples, to illustrate the system\nof procuring indulgences by pilgrimage to sacred places:--\n\n      Thus a visit \"on January 1 to a station at S. Marie,\n      in Transtevere, secures an indulgence of 30 years and\n      1200 days.\"\n\n      \"On Ash Wednesday, to S. Tabina, an indulgence of 15\n      years and 600 days.\n\n      \"On the following Thursday, to S. Georgio, in Velabro,\n      an indulgence of 10 years and 400 days.\n\n      \"On the fourth Sunday in Lent, to S. Croce, an\n      indulgence of 15 years and 600 days.\n\n      \"On Palm Sunday, to S. Giovanni, in the Laterno, an\n      indulgence of 25 years and 1000 days.\n\n      \"On holy Thursday, to S. Giovanni, a plenary\n      indulgence.\n\n      \"On holy Friday, to S. Croce, an indulgence of 30\n      years and 1200 days.\n\n      \"On Easter Sunday, to S. Marie Maggiore, a plenary\n      indulgence.\n\n      \"On Easter Monday, to S. Pietro, in Vaticano, an\n      indulgence of 30 years and 1200 days.\n\n      \"On Thursday, Ascension-day, to S. Pietro, a plenary\n      indulgence.\n\n      \"On Wednesday, to Pietro Vaticano, an indulgence of 30\n      years and 1200 days.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LIII.\n\n      St. Adelbert's Curse a Charm against\n      Thieves--Complexion of Blackamoors attributed to a\n      Curse of Noah--False Accusation, and its\n      Results--Preservation of Children--A Joyful\n      Mother--Ancestors of the Whelphs and Guelphs of\n      Germany--An Interesting Legend--A Curse turned into a\n      Blessing--A Gipsy's Curse--A Cruel Father and\n      Husband--Morrar-na-Shean's Despair--Bitter\n      Grief--Restoration of Three Daughters--A Grateful\n      Father--Ancestors of the Sinclairs of Caithness, and\n      of the noble family of Keith--The Curse of Moy--A\n      Cruel Chieftain of Clan Chattan--A Lady's Dilemma--A\n      Father yielding up his Life--Swearing by the Hand of a\n      Bride--Grant of Glenmorriston waiting his Doom--Death\n      of a Father and Lover--An Imprisoned\n      Maiden--Maledictions and Prediction--Lady leaping from\n      a Lofty Tower into a Lake beneath--The Monroes of\n      Foulis--Foraying Expedition--An Unreasonable\n      Request--End of a Relentless Tyrant--Prediction\n      fulfilled.\n\n\nSt. Adelbert's curse was a charm against thieves. It was full of\ncursing against dishonest persons, and prayers that they might have\ntheir share with Dathan and Abiram, whom the earth swallowed up, and\nhave their part with Judas. Thieves were to be cursed in their houses,\nfields, and everywhere; they were to be denied Christian burial; yea,\nthe very ground in which they rested was to be cursed. Their bodies,\nin all their separate parts, and their children, were damned; and as\nLucifer was expelled out of heaven, and Adam and Eve driven from\nParadise, so they were sought to be expelled from the light of day.\nThe terrible curse was pronounced with bell, book, and candle; and\nconcluded with this fearful denunciation: \"And as the candle, which is\nthrown out of my hand here, is put out, so let their works and their\nsouls be quenched in the stench of hell-fire, except they restore that\nwhich they have stolen; and let every one say, Amen.\"\n\nPerhaps few are aware that the dark complexion of the blackamoors is\nattributed to a curse of Noah; but as that statement has been\ndisputed, we shall pass it without further notice.\n\nIrmentrude, a German countess, accused a noble lady of adultery\nbecause she had three children at one birth, saying that she deserved\nto be tied up in a sack and thrown into the sea. Next year the\ncountess herself was delivered of more sons at a birth than the lady\nhad brought forth. Touched with remorse for the hard saying she had\nuttered against her neighbour, she concluded it was a just punishment\ninflicted; but being anxious to conceal the most extraordinary result,\nshe sent a maid to drown all the children except one--a son--to heir\nhis father's estate. Fate so determined that her husband, the earl,\nmet the young woman as she was going to consign the young inoffensive\ninfants to a watery grave. On asking what was in her lap, she answered\nthat she was going to drown some whelps. The earl being a great\nhunter, and consequently fond of dogs, demanded to see the whelps,\nthat he might judge whether they should be destroyed. To his\nastonishment, he found children in place of young dogs, all living,\nwell-proportioned, and beautiful, but small. From the maid he learned\nthe whole truth; whereupon he enjoined her to silence, and caused the\ninfants to be carried to one of his tenants to be brought up. When\nthey became of age, they were sent for to his house, after being\ndressed like their brother, who had been cared for by the mother. As\nsoon as the countess cast her eyes on her offspring she knew them,\nand wept in a state between shame and joy. From those children\ndescended the family of the Whelphs or Guelphs, long renowned in\nGermany.\n\nAn interesting legend is current in the north of Scotland, of a curse\nbeing turned into a blessing. It is said that Lochmore Castle, in the\nparish of Halkirk and county of Caithness, was built and inhabited by\na person called Morrar-na-Shean, which signifies, Lord of the Game or\nVenison, because he was a great sportsman. He was very anxious to have\na son to inherit his estates, but his hopes in this respect were\nblasted by the curse of a wandering gipsy. It appears that the gipsy\nwas one day near Lochmore Castle, with a pretty little dark-haired\nswarthy-complexioned boy, her son, when she encountered\nMorrar-na-Shean in a towering passion--a state of mind in which he was\noften to be found. He ordered her and her \"beggar bastard brat\" to be\noff, or he would shoot them. The woman, instead of running away with\nher child or imploring mercy, knelt down and cursed him, and praying\nat the same time that he might never have an heir to carry down his\nname to posterity. However far the fortunes of Morrar-na-Shean's\nfamily were affected by the gipsy's curses and prayers, it is\nimpossible to say; but this much is true, he never had a son. His lady\nhad a daughter, at which he was greatly disappointed; she had a second\ndaughter, at which he exhibited marked signs of displeasure; and in\ncourse of time a third daughter was born to the churlish parent.\nDisappointed and enraged at not having a son, he abused the mother and\ndaughters to such an extent that the unhappy lady, for the sake of\npeace, and to save the lives of her children, sent them away\nprivately, to be brought up by friends. They grew up beautiful and\naccomplished young ladies, while at the time their cruel father\nthought they were dead. Morrar-na-Shean, after the lapse of years,\ndespaired of having any children to survive him, and therefore gave\nhimself up to grief. In bitterness of soul, he wished that he had now\neven one of the little girls he spurned as if she were not his own\nflesh and blood. His lady, finding his mind so much changed, embraced\na favourable opportunity of presenting him with his three daughters.\nImmediately, on seeing them, he was overcome by tender affection,\nevoked by the charms of three blooming girls he was privileged to call\ndaughters. He lived to be grateful that fortune had so willed it that\nhis estates would not be in the possession of one child, but would be\nclaimed by three children whom he dearly loved. The daughters were\nsoon disposed of in marriage--the eldest to a gentleman named\nSinclair, an ancestor of the well and favourably known Caithness-shire\nfamily of that name; the second to a gentleman named Keith, whose\ndescendants have long borne an honourable name in Scotland; and the\nthird, to a nobleman, the scions of whose house have carved out for\nthemselves niches in the temple of fame.\n\n\"The curse of Moy\" was a fearfully realised one. On the larger of two\nsmall islands at Loch Moy (a beautiful lake, twelve miles from\nInverness), may be seen the ruins of an ancient castle. Centuries ago\na noble edifice stood where those decayed buildings are, occupied by a\ncruel chieftain of Clan Chattan. He and his followers had an encounter\nwith another Highland chieftain and his retainers from Glenmorriston,\nwhen the latter chief, his fair daughter Margaret, and her lover\nAllan, the young heir of Alvie, were taken prisoners, and carried to\nCastle Moy. While the captured chieftain and Allan were immured in the\ndungeon, Margaret was conveyed to a feast in the hall, thence she was\ntransferred to an apartment in the tower, where the chief of Clan\nChattan (who, it should be remarked, was a rejected suitor of\nMargaret) tried to induce her to become his bride. To all his\nentreaties she turned a deaf ear, preferring to remain true to her\nyouthful Allan. She pleaded earnestly for her father and lover's\nlives, and, after many entreaties and tears, succeeded so far as to\nobtain a promise that only one of them would die. She was permitted to\nmake choice of the one she wished liberated, but was warned that by so\ndoing she sealed the doom of the other captive.\n\nAs might be expected, the lady sank fainting on the floor, where she\nlay, more like one dead than alive, until rude attendants, desirous to\nplease their lord, raised her up and hurried her into the presence of\nher father and lover, for whose sakes she would have willingly laid\ndown her life if it could have saved theirs. With sobbing and tears,\nshe made known the resolution of the hard-hearted revengeful monster,\ninto whose power destiny had placed them. While the broken-hearted\nMargaret's eyes were now fixed on her lover's manly figure, and then\non the bowed form of her aged father, and before she could really\nunderstand the full extent of responsibility that rested on her, she\nwas embraced by her father, who took her hand and that of Allan, and\njoined them together, beseeching them to live and remember him when he\nwas no more. He then made Allan swear by the hand of his bride that he\nwould avenge his death, and so leave no stain on their honour or\nnames. Girding himself up like a man of courage, he sent this message\nto the tyrant chief: \"The Grant of Glenmorriston waits his doom.\"\n\nEnraged at the turn of events, the chieftain, in violation of his\npromise to the maiden, determined that Allan should not survive to\nstand between him and the union of Margaret. Sad forebodings filled\nher mind during the succeeding night. Silent and alone she sat until\nbreak of day, when she was aroused by the shrill pibroch, heavy\nfootsteps, and the clank of arms. A silent prayer went up for the soul\nof her parent, who, she rightly judged, was suffering the last pangs\nof death. How it was she could not tell, but something whispered to\nher that Allan too was passing into the land of spirits.\n\nShe had not long to wait, though the time seemed to her like an age,\nbefore the chieftain of Moy appeared before her, and commanded her to\ncome forth to see the youth of her choice. More dead than alive, she\nstaggered into the open air, to behold the lifeless forms of both her\nfather and Allan. In derision, the monster asked what she thought now\nof her beardless boy, and said, \"That is the way I tame haughty\nmaids.\" Again she was conveyed to her lonely room in the castle tower\nto spend the night in solitude, and again the daylight broke in\nthrough the small window of her strongly-guarded prison. She heeded\nnot the sun, nor the singing of birds as they warbled their matin\nsongs--no, sorrow lay too heavy near her heart. None can ever tell the\ngrief she endured in the dark watches of the lonely night, or when\nrelief came; but come it did. Nature took its own way of causing the\nunhappy lady to forget her sadness of heart--reason left its seat, and\nthe orphaned Margaret, instead of grieving over the past, was found\nsinging as sweetly as if she were a bride in a peaceful bower. Now and\nagain the shrill clear voice in song ceased, and then she talked (so\nthe attendants said) to the unseen spirits of those dear to her, whose\nbodies were still suspended over the castle gate.\n\nThe fierce chieftain approached her again with overtures of love,\noffering her his hand, titles, and estates. To avoid his unholy\nembrace, she, without waiting to deign a reply, sprang past him with\nan agility which appeared superhuman, and rushed to the ramparts, that\nwere skirted by the blue waters beneath; then, turning round to the\nchief of Clan Chattan, she uttered dreadful maledictions against him,\nending with the prediction that he would die a bloody death, leaving\nneither wife nor child behind. Having said this, she leaped from the\ngiddy height into the lake below, in whose waves she preferred to\ntake refuge rather than yield to the tyrant's solicitations. As far\nas can be ascertained, the wicked Macintosh repented not of his deeds,\nbut continued to conduct himself in a tyrannical manner to all weaker\nthan himself. At last a day of reckoning came--the day when Lady\nMargaret's curse was to alight upon the head of the murderer of her\nfather and lover. In the summer of 1378, a short time after these\ndeeds of darkness happened, the Monroes of Foulis were returning from\na foraying expedition, and asked permission from the chief of Clan\nChattan to pass through his country for half the booty they had with\nthem. Macintosh demanded the whole spoil; but, his unreasonable\nrequest being refused, a sanguinary conflict ensued, in which the Clan\nChattan chief was slain. The victorious Monroes then hastened to the\ncastle of Moy, and put the whole of the inmates to the sword. Thus\nperished a relentless tyrant, leaving no fond wife to mourn his fate,\nnor any offspring to carry his name down to posterity. Thereby was\nfulfilled the prediction of Lady Margaret, whose bones still rest at\nthe bottom of Loch Moy.\n\n\n\n\nDREAMS AND VISIONS OF THE NIGHT.\n\n\nCHAPTER LIV.\n\n      The Gift or Art of interpreting Dreams--Official\n      Interpreters of Dreams--Sleep, how portrayed--Goddess\n      of Dreams--Greeks soliciting the Inspiration of\n      Dreams--Xenophon on Sleep--Prophetic Power of the\n      Dying--\u00c6sculapius's Discoveries in Dreams--Code of\n      Menu--The Soma-drink--Josephus as a Seer--Dreadful\n      Proposal by Josephus--His Fortunate Escape--An Eastern\n      Conjurer--Reading a Sealed Letter--A Sultan warned of\n      his Death in a Dream--Alexander's Death foretold in a\n      Dream--Records of Dreams in Westminster Abbey--Lord\n      Falkland's Dream--Rev. John Brown's Opinions--Early\n      Christian Faith in Visions and Dreams--Death of a\n      Friend foretold--The Devil's Sonata--Marriage of Queen\n      Mary--Fatality of the Stuart Family--Death of Henry\n      IV. of France.\n\n\nThe gift or art of interpreting dreams originated, at least so it is\nsaid, among the Chaldeans and Egyptians. From them it spread to other\nnations; and in course of time official or public interpreters of\ndreams were appointed. The sacred pages supply instances of good and\nbad men having glimpses of futurity through dreams; and profane\nhistory makes us acquainted with innumerable cases of curious\nrevelations being made to men while they slept.\n\nAmong the ancients sleep was portrayed as a female with black unfolded\nwings, having in her left hand a white child, the image of sleep, and\nin her right hand a black child, the image of death. An author has\ndescribed sleep as the \"rest of the spirits, dreaming their tremulous\nmotion;\" another writer speaks of sleep as \"the reality of another\nexistence;\" while a third says, \"all men, whilst awake, are in one\ncommon world, but that each, when asleep, is in a world of his own.\"\nIt is of dreams, however, we are writing, and therefore cannot enter\ninto the deep philosophy of sleep.\n\nThe Romans worshipped Brizo, the goddess of dreams, and the Greeks\nwere accustomed, in cases of great emergency, to solicit the\ninspiration of dreams, by performing religious rites, and lying on the\nreeking skins of oxen or goats offered in sacrifice. Pliny and others\nattached great importance to dreams. Xenophon remarks that in sleep\nthe souls of men appear to be more unfettered and divine than when the\neyes are not closed in slumber, and are enabled to look into futurity.\nAnother writer observes that in sleep the soul holds converse with the\nDeity, and perceives future events. Socrates, Cicero, and Arian\nexpress belief in the prophetic powers occasionally manifested by the\ndying. Posidonius relates the story of a dying Rhodian predicting\nwhich out of six persons would die first, second, etc.; and the\nprophecy was verified. Hippocrates and Galen put faith in the\nprophetic character of dreams. Origen tells us that \u00c6sculapius\ndiscovered means of cure through dreams, probably brought about by\nartificial means.\n\nIn the code of Menu there are passages showing various modes of\nproducing the ecstatic states, such as through the influence of the\nsun and moon, by sacrifice, music, liquids, and solid ingredients. The\nSoma-drink was taken as a sacrament. In connection with human\nsacrifices, this beverage was sometimes prepared with magical\nceremonies and incantations. It was supposed to be capable of\nproducing visions in sleep, when revelations were made of what was\npassing in the inferior and superior worlds.\n\nJosephus, like many other eminent men, possessed the faculty of\npredicting future events. Josephus, having fought with great courage\nagainst the Romans, refused to surrender to them until after the\ncapture of Jatapat, when he began to reflect on the dreams he had had.\nIn these, both the misfortunes of the Jews and the triumph of the\nRomans were revealed. When the determination of Josephus to yield\nbecame known, his companions in misfortune declared they would rather\ndie than surrender. So exasperated were they, that they proposed to\nimmolate him, and then destroy themselves. Their swords were drawn to\nkill their leader, when he suggested that they should terminate their\nlives by a reciprocal death--that the lot should determine\nsuccessively who should give and who should receive death, until all\nwere slain, and thus avoid the reproach of having laid violent hands\non themselves. This suggestion was agreed to. The lots were drawn, and\nall perished except Josephus and one of his companions. Josephus\npredicted the good fortune of Vespasian and Titus, and the short life\nof their predecessors.\n\nIn an Eastern tale we are informed of a conjurer who had the\nreputation of possessing the faculty of reading the contents of sealed\nletters. Being called into the presence of his prince, he was asked\nwhether he would undertake to inform him of the contents of a despatch\nhe had received by a courier. \"Yes,\" replied the conjuror, \"to-morrow\nmorning.\" The despatch remained sealed in the prince's possession\nuntil the following morning, when the conjuror gave the correct\ncontents of the despatch. In explanation, the cunning man said, on\ngoing to bed, he excited in himself a strong desire to read the\nletter, that he then fell asleep, and in a dream he became acquainted\nwith the whole document.\n\nWe are told of an old Sultan who was warned of his death in a dream.\nHe thought he saw the great prophet Mohammed snatching the Alcoran out\nof his hand and taking his coat-of-arms from him by force, and\nstriking him down with so great violence that he could not rise. The\nastrologers also foretold him that he would never see the feast of\nRamazan, because the star that presided at his birth was much obscured\nin its conjunction with the planet that was then predominant. They\naffirmed that he would die soon. His dream, and the astrologers'\npredictions, were not long of being verified. The Sultan's death was\naccompanied with great ignominy.\n\nFrom Aristotle we learn that the death of Alexander was foretold in a\ndream; and so was that of C\u00e6sar. In Westminster Abbey are singular\nrecords of the dreams of Edward the Confessor, and of instances of\nfaith in visions.\n\nLord Falkland's dream, the night before the battle of Newbury, in\nwhich he was slain, in the year 1643, has often been referred to by\npersons who believe in dreams. James Montgomery, the poet, has in\ntouching lines assisted to keep the dream from being forgotten.\n\nIn more modern times, good men, whom we might suppose to be free from\nthe trammels of superstition, have to some extent directed their\ncourse in life according to the interpretation of their dreams. The\nRev. John Brown, author of the _Dictionary of the Holy Bible_, writing\nof dreams, says: \"It is like they often begin from some outward\nsensation of the body, in which spirits, good and bad, have no\ninconsiderable influence.\"\n\nIn visions and dreams the persecution of the early Christians was made\nknown to many believers. Other important events were also predicted,\nand preceded by strange phenomena. But for dreams, not a few\ncelebrated men who played important parts in national affairs would\nhave been entrapped, and turned aside from their purposes.\n\nA gentleman holding a good position in society was awakened by his\nwife one night, who told him she had had a most unpleasant dream. She\nthought that a friend, who was in the East India Company's service,\nhad been killed in a duel. She described the place where the duel was\nfought, and where the dead body lay. Her husband endeavoured to quiet\nher fears, and characterised the dream as an absurdity, produced by a\ndisturbed imagination. A few months after, the melancholy news reached\nthis country that the Indian friend had fought a duel, been killed on\nthe spot, and his body carried to a shed such as the lady had seen in\nher dream.\n\nFastini, a celebrated musician, dreamed one night that he had made a\ncompact with the devil, who promised to be at his service on all\noccasions. He imagined that he presented the devil with his violin, in\norder to discover what kind of a musician he was. To Fastini's great\nastonishment, Satan, as he thought, played a solo of singular beauty,\nwhich he executed with such superior taste and precision, that it\nsurpassed all the music he had ever heard or conceived. Fastini awoke\ngreatly excited, and, taking his violin, composed a piece that\nexcelled all his other works. He called it the \"Devil's Sonata.\"\n\nBefore the marriage of the young Queen of Scotland with the Dauphin of\nFrance, many had strange dreams and visions. Prodigious signs were\nalso observed in her native country. A comet shone for three months;\nrivers dried up in winter, and in summer swelled so high that cattle\nwere carried away, and villages suddenly destroyed. Whales of enormous\nsize were cast ashore in the Firth of Forth; hailstones as large as\npigeons' eggs fell in various parts, destroying the crops; and, still\nmore strange and alarming, a fiery dragon was seen flying low over the\nearth, vomiting forth fire, which endangered houses and farmyards.\n\nThe dire fatality that attended the Royal Stuarts did not surprise\nthose who attended to warnings through dreams, signs, and omens. Few\nroyal families were more unhappy than the Stuarts. James I., after\nhaving been eighteen years a prisoner in England, was, together with\nhis queen, assassinated by his subjects; James II. was, in the\ntwenty-ninth year of his age, killed while fighting against England;\nJames III. was imprisoned by his subjects, and afterwards killed in\nbattle by rebels; James IV. perished in a battle which was lost; Mary\nStuart was driven from her throne, became a fugitive in Scotland,\nand, after languishing for years in prison, was condemned by English\njudges and beheaded; James VI. of Scotland and I. of England, her son,\ndied at his palace at Theobalds, not without strong suspicion of being\npoisoned; Charles I. was betrayed by his own subjects, and, in terms\nof a sentence by English judges, lost his life on the scaffold; James\nVII. of Scotland and II. of England was driven from his kingdoms, and,\nto fill the cup of bitterness to the brim, the birth of his son, as\nlegitimate heir, was disputed. The misfortunes of Prince Charles are\ntoo well known to require us to do anything more than refer to them.\nIn his attempt to regain the throne of his ancestors, he was driven to\nsuch a strait that he was compelled, after many of his supporters had\nbeen put to death, to escape for his life under the guidance of a\nwoman--Flora Macdonald, renowned in history.\n\nA few days before the death of Henry IV. of France, his queen had two\nstrange dreams. She thought all the jewels in her crown were changed\ninto pearls--a dream that much disturbed her, as pearls were\nunderstood to signify tears. On the following night she had another\ndream which caused her greater uneasiness--that the king was stabbed\nin one of his sides. The king, as well as the queen, had presentiments\nthat a sad calamity was about to happen them. On the day before his\nMajesty was killed he was very uneasy, and said something sat heavy on\nhis heart. Before entering the coach in which he was assassinated, he\ntook a tender farewell of the queen, kissing her thrice, and pressing\nher close to his breast. For a time he hesitated whether he would go\nout or not; but all at once he resumed his wonted courage, forbade the\nguards to follow him out of the Louvre, and drove away in an open\ncarriage. The fates were against his Majesty: the fiat had gone forth,\nand that day the hand of a regicide plunged a knife into the\nsovereign's body, exactly as the queen had seen in her midnight\nvision.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LV.\n\n      Dreaming Dictionaries--Dreaming of an Anchor--Sick\n      Persons' Dreams--Coloured and Rich Raiment--Dreaming\n      of Fruit--Funerals, Hearses, Graves--Dreams sometimes\n      to be read contrariwise--Seeing Candles in the Visions\n      of Night, what they foretell--Darkness and\n      Gloom--Jewellery, Gold, and Silver--Losing and finding\n      Property--Dreaming of Fowls and\n      Eggs--Flying--Bagpipes, Dancing, and Banquets--Dogs,\n      Cocks, Cattle, Horses, and Sheep--Cakes, Corn, Milk,\n      and Cream--Dreams of Carrying and of being\n      Carried--Being hurt by Cats or by any description of\n      Vermin--Angels, Spirits, and Children--Clergymen and\n      Churches--A Broken Watch or Clock--Clouds--Falling\n      from a High Place--Flowers and Fruit--Sailors'\n      Dreams--Running Streams and Still\n      Water--Swimming--Ploughed Ground and Green\n      Fields--Presents--Glass--Dreaming of Hair--Fire, Cold,\n      a Tooth, Kisses, and Knives--Leaping, Climbing a Hill,\n      and Writing--Clean and Dirty Linen--The Sun, Moon, and\n      Stars, Rainbow, Snow, Thunder, and Lightning.\n\n\nIf dreaming dictionaries can be relied on, people may discover by\ntheir thoughts in sleep when they are to be prosperous or unlucky;\nwhen they are to have joy or sorrow; when they are to be successful in\nlove and war; and when they may expect friends to guard them against\nenemies. To dream of an anchor is good; it gives hope of good fortune.\nIf a sick person dream of white clothing, he may look for protracted\nindisposition, if not death; but black apparel denotes speedy\nrecovery. It is not good to dream of raiment of many colours. To dream\nof being richly arrayed is good, but to see tattered clothing in the\nvisions of the night forebodes evil. It is good to dream of good ripe\nfruit, but sour fruit signifies encounters with bitter enemies. Sweet\napples indicate faithfulness in a sweetheart, whereas unripe cherries\nforetell vexation and disappointment to lovers. Good figs are signs of\nprosperity. Gooseberries indicate to husband or wife many children.\nGrapes foretell to the spinster a cheerful husband, and much\nhappiness in all her life. Dreaming of melons, mulberries, or nuts,\ngives promise of riches, success in love, and harmony. It is also good\nto dream of peaches, pears, raspberries, and strawberries; but if\noranges, plums, tamarinds, or walnuts are seen in the visions of\nnight, losses and crosses may be looked for.\n\nTo dream of a funeral denotes marriage, good fortune, and happiness.\nIf a maiden see a hearse in her sleep, she may expect a rich husband.\nIf a grave appear to one in his dreams, sickness and disappointment\nmay be expected, unless the dreamer imagines he is rising out of it.\nIn that case, success may be looked for. On the other hand, to dream\nof being married is anything but favourable. Such a dream is\nindicative of approaching disappointments, loss of property, and\ndeath. The force of this seeming contradiction is to be explained by\nthe acknowledged fact that dreams are in many instances to be read\ncontrariwise. To dream of being burned is a sure sign of coming\ndanger. To see a candle extinguished foretells sickness; but the\nappearance of a bright burning one betokens rejoicing. To the\nunmarried, burning candles show speedy marriage. Dreams of darkness\nforeshadow loss of property and friends; but if the dreamer in his\nsleep emerge from the gloom into light, he may expect that he will\nrise above his difficulties, and become richer and happier. To dream\nthat a friend is dead betokens hasty news, but not of an unpleasant\nnature. It is fortunate to dream of jewellery. If a young lady see\nherself decked with chains of gold and precious stones, she may be\ncertain a suitable husband will soon be hers. Precious stones give\npromise of many children to the married. If pure gold be dreamed of,\nsuccess in business may be expected; but it is unlucky to dream of\nsilver. To dream of the latter metal denotes attacks by bitter enemies\nand false friends. Small silver coins indicate poverty, and large ones\ngive warning of early misery. It is more lucky to dream of receiving\nthan of giving away money. If one dream of losing money, he will\nundoubtedly meet with disappointment before he goes much further in\nhis journey of life. To dream of losing a purse has the same meaning\nattached to it as the loss of money has; and the finding of a purse\nmay be read as the picking up of cash. To dream of having a ring on\none's finger is good; but to dream of losing a ring is unfavourable.\nIf a married woman lose her marriage ring, or dream that she has lost\nit, she may expect her husband will die soon. If a betrothed maiden\nlose or dream of losing her engagement ring, she may look for her\nlover deserting her and marrying another.\n\nDreams of hens and chickens are warnings of coming dangers. If one see\nin his or her dream an eagle soaring high, prosperity and honour are\nnear. To lovers this bird is one of good omen, foretelling rich and\ngood mates. To dream of geese is also favourable; but the person who\nsees in a vision an owl, had better prepare for sickness and poverty,\nand look for attacks from enemies. A young man who dreams of a peacock\nmay be sure of getting a beautiful wife; and a maid who fancies in her\nsleep that this beautiful bird is coming towards her, may be certain\nthat the fates are to provide her with a rich good-looking husband. To\ndream of swans denotes success to the business man, lovers to the\nunmarried, and peace and plenty to the married. If swallows are dreamt\nof, good news may be expected from afar, and prosperity looked for. To\ndream of selling eggs for gold is good, but to dream of selling them\nfor silver betokens indifferent success in business, love, and war. To\ndream of buying eggs indicates the gathering of great riches. If a\ndreamer supposes that he is flying, he should prepare himself for a\nlong journey. This dream indicates to lovers a happy termination to\nall their wishes, and to the married it denotes abundance and many\nchildren.\n\nTo dream of bagpipes signifies contention and trouble. To dream of\ndancing or of being at a ball or banquet, foretells preferment, joyful\nnews; and, in particular, such a dream foretells prosperity in love.\n\nBarking dogs, crowing cocks, bellowing bulls, are unlucky to dream of;\nbut it indicates coming prosperity and happiness to dream of faithful\ndogs, horses, cows, and fleecy sheep. But look out for loss of goods\nif you see shorn sheep, and make up your mind to encounter danger if\nyou suppose in your sleep that you are falling off a horse.\n\nCakes signify joy and plenty, corn in great store, riches and\ncontentment, but grain in small quantities denotes scarcity. Milk or\ncream thrown or spilt on one's garments is favourable. To dream of\nselling milk denotes crosses in love; to dream of drinking milk\nbetokens joyful news; and to dream of milking kine shows success in\nlove to the faithful milk-maids. If a maid dream that she is engaged\nin a dairy, she may be certain that her lover will turn out to be an\nindustrious, prudent husband. But if the farmer dream that he is\nassisting in the dairy, he may look out for bad crops, and disease\namong his cattle. If one dream he is being carried, he may expect to\nrequire early help of some kind or other. If he dream of carrying\nanother, he may depend upon it, that before many days pass he will be\ncalled upon to give the loan of money, sign a bill, or give away\nproperty that will not be returned. If one dream of being hurt by a\ncat, or by any description of vermin, he has good reason to fear he\nwill be overcome by enemies; but if he suppose in sleep that he drove\naway or killed the creature, he will triumph over his foes. If a\nsquirrel be seen in a dream, the dreamer may rest satisfied some one\nis endeavouring to injure his reputation; and to a lover it is a\nwarning of a busy and dangerous rival. To dream of angels speaking to\nyou is of good signification; and to think that you see them flying\nabove your head intimates joy. To dream of the devil or of evil\nspirits, denotes danger from secret and open enemies. If a lover\ndream of one of these evil beings, it indicates the existence of a\npowerful rival.\n\nIf a poor person dream of children, he or she may expect to become\nrich. If a childless spouse see in a dream children running round the\nfireside, there is reason to fear the little prattlers will never be\nthere in reality. It is unlucky to dream that a girl has a beard, or\nthat a boy is grey-headed. It is unlucky to dream of a minister, but\nit is not an evil sign for one to suppose he is worshipping in church.\nIf you dream that a watch or clock falls or is broken, be sure danger\nis near.\n\nBlack clouds, seen in dreams, presage evil; white clouds denote\nprosperity; clouds drifting high in air indicate that the dreamer is\ngoing to travel, or that long absent friends are to return. To dream\nof red clouds foretells contention and strife. To dream of fighting or\nquarrelling should put one on his guard against the deceitfulness of\nhis own heart and the hatred of enemies. If the dreamer suppose\nhimself injured in a quarrel, he will be unable to escape humiliation\nand shame. To dream of falling from a high place betokens loss of\nsubstance and reputation. To dream of withered lilies, damaged\nviolets, and crosses, betokens evil. It is not good for sick people to\ndream of withered roses; parsley foreshadows death to the sick. It is\nlucky to dream you see yourself gathering flowers fresh in colour and\nsweet in perfume. To dream of walking in a flower garden portends\nelevation in fortune and success in love; and to dream of being in an\norchard where there is abundance of sweet and ripe fruit, gives true\npromise of riches.\n\nIf a sailor dream of seeing a dolphin, he will be sure to lose his\nlady-love; but if he dream that he is drowning, he may expect good\nluck to attend him. It indicates success in love and business for one\nto dream of catching fish. To dream of a rapid stream, is a certain\nwarning of coming opposition in every business and undertaking. If\none in sleep see a clear sheet of water, good fortune will certainly\nfollow. This dream promises good alike to lovers and men of business.\nIt indicates a smooth passage for one to dream of a calm bright sea;\nbut disappointments and trouble are foreshadowed when a stormy ocean\nappears to the sleeper. Floating with the head under water foretells\ngreat affliction, but swimming buoyantly in clean water shows that the\ndreamer will rise above difficulties. If a person in business dream of\ndrinking water, loss of goods may be expected; and if a lover dream of\ntasting water, whether from the sluggish river or from the clear\ngushing stream, he or she may look for grief and loss of friends.\n\nTo dream of ploughed ground forebodes death of a near relative, and to\ndream of green fields betokens happiness and prosperity. If a person\ndream of receiving a present, you may be sure fortune is about to show\nher favours in a peculiarly marked manner. To dream of glass is a sign\nof danger and the inconstancy of friends. The lady who dreams of\ncombing her hair, has reason to believe her lover will prove true. If\none's hair appear long in the dreams of the night, friends full of\naffection will cling round the dreamer; but if the hair be short and\nseem to be falling off, it is unlucky. If one dream of seeing a house\non fire, he may be sure of receiving hasty news.\n\nWhen one dreams of being cold or naked, he is threatened with sickness\nand poverty. It is good to dream of seeing the portraits of friends.\nOne who dreams of losing a tooth, may look for death among his\nfriends. It is good to dream of giving or receiving kisses--it denotes\nfriendship, good health, and earthly prosperity. If one dream of\nknives or any other description of sharp weapons, he may look for\nstrife. Difficulties await every one who dreams of leaping over a\nfence or of climbing a hill. It is lucky to dream of writing or\nreceiving letters. Clean linen seen in sleep foretells gladness of\nheart and faithfulness of friends; but dirty linen denotes\ndisappointment and distress. None could wish a better dream than that\nin which is seen the clear sun, the rising moon, or the bright stars,\nfor each and all of these denote riches, joy, good news, and constant\nfriends; but it is ominous to dream of a clouded sun, a waning moon,\nor a pale star.\n\nThe rainbow denotes early news of a pleasant nature: probably\nrequiring the dreamer to travel. If an unmarried man dream of snow, he\nmay depend upon it that he will before long lead a bride to the\nhymeneal altar; and to a young woman it promises an honourable husband\nand great riches. To the business man, snow seen in a dream foretells\nsuccess in his undertakings. It is good to dream of thunder and\nlightning, in whatever state one is placed. He who dreams of these may\nexpect good news from afar, and increase of goods.\n\n\n\n\nLAWS AGAINST AND TRIALS OF WITCHES.\n\n\nCHAPTER LVI.\n\n      Witchcraft treated with great Severity--Cutting out\n      the Tongue--Laws of \u00c6thelstane--Witchcraft in\n      England--Royal Writers--Sir Edward Cole's\n      Opinion--Statute of Elizabeth against Sorcerers--Law\n      of Mary Queen of Scotland against Witches--Law against\n      Witches abolished--Sir George Mackenzie on\n      Witchcraft--William Forbes on the same--Extracts from\n      Forbes's _Institute of the Law of Scotland_--Sir\n      Matthew Hale a Believer in Witchcraft--Trial of Rose\n      Cullender and Ann Duny--General Belief in the\n      Existence of Witches--Punishment of Witches, by whom\n      first countenanced--Pope John's Bull--Bishop\n      Jewell--Lord Bacon and the Law against\n      Witches--Fearful Slaughter of supposed\n      Witches--_Malleus Maleficarum_, or Hammer for\n      Witches--The last Persons executed in Scotland and\n      England for Witchcraft--First German Printers\n      condemned to be burned as Sorcerers--Reginald Scot on\n      the Fables of Witchcraft--Mr. E. Chambers's Views on\n      Witchcraft.\n\n\nWitchcraft--the nature and theory of which will appear as we\nproceed--was treated with great severity in early times. In 840 a law\nwas enacted in Scotland, making the punishment of witchcraft no less\nthan the cutting out of the tongue; and, by the laws of \u00c6thelstane in\n928, witchcraft in England was made a capital crime. Witches were\npunished in the reign of Edward III.; and it suited the sanguinary\ntemperament of Henry VIII., as well as the pedantry of other royal\nwriters, to give written descriptions of this crime. Edicts were\npromulgated against prophets, sorcerers, feeders of evil spirits,\ncharmers, and provokers of unlawful love. Sir Edward Cole thought it\nwould have been \"a great defect in government to have suffered such\ndevilish abominations to pass with impunity.\"\n\nBy a statute of Elizabeth, passed in 1562, against sorcerers, it was\nordained that for a first offence the punishment was to be restricted\nto standing in the pillory; for second and subsequent offences,\nseverer inflictions were to follow. Barrington estimates that in the\ntwo hundred years during which the greatest severity against supposed\nwitches prevailed in England, thirty thousand judicial murders were\ncommitted, under the guise of legal punishments for such imaginary\ncrimes.\n\nA year later (1563) it was considered advisable by Queen Mary of\nScotland and her Parliament to pass an Act, having for its object the\npunishment of persons guilty of any of the crimes under consideration.\nThe Act sets forth:--\n\n      \"For-sa-meikle as the Queenis Majestie and the three\n      Estaites of this present parliament being informed of\n      the heavie and abominable superstition used be divers\n      of the lieges of this realm, be using of witchcraft,\n      sorcerie, and necromancie, and credence given thereto\n      in times by-gane, against the laws of God: And for\n      avoyding and away putting of all sik vaine\n      superstition in times to cum: It is statute and\n      ordained by the Queen's Majestie, and the three\n      Estaites foresaid, that na maner of person nor persons\n      of quhat-sum-ever estaite, degree, or condition they\n      be of, take upon hand in onie times hereafter to use\n      onie maner of witch-craftes, sorcerie, or necromancie,\n      nor give themselves furth to have onie sik craft or\n      knawledge thereof, their-throw abusand the people: Nor\n      that na persoun seik onie helpe, response, or\n      consultation at onie sik users or abusers foresaidis\n      of witch-craftes, sorceries, or necromancie, under the\n      paine of death, alsweill to be execute against the\n      user, abuser, as the seiker of the response or\n      consultation. And this to be put to execution be the\n      justice, schireffis, stewards, baillies, lords of\n      regalities, and royalties, their deputes, and uthers\n      or ordinar judges competent within this realme, with\n      all rigour, having power to execute the samin.\"\n\nJames VI. of Scotland and I. of England decreed that any one who\nshould use, practise, or exercise any invocation, or consult or\ncovenant with, entertain or employ, feed, or reward any evil or wicked\nspirit, to or for any purpose, or take up any dead body, should, on\nbeing convicted thereof, suffer death.\n\nThe laws against witchcraft remained in force, and were executed with\nseverity, for a long time. During the continuance of the Long\nParliament alone, three thousand unhappy persons were sacrificed\nbecause of their supposed connection with witchcraft. But by the Act 9\nGeorge II. cap. 5 it is ordained that no prosecution, suit, or\nproceeding shall be commenced or carried on against any person for\nwitchcraft, sorcery, enchantment, or conjuration, nor shall any one\ncharge another with any such offence, in any court whatever. But if\nany person shall pretend to exercise or use any kind of witchcraft,\nsorcery, enchantment, or conjuration, or undertake to tell fortunes;\nor pretend, from his skill or knowledge in any occult or crafty\nscience, to discover where or in what manner any goods supposed to\nhave been stolen or lost may be found: every person so offending,\nbeing convicted on indictment or information, shall suffer\nimprisonment for a year, and once in every quarter of the said year,\nin some market town of the county, upon the market day there, stand\nopenly in the pillory for one hour, and also (if the court by which\nsuch judgment shall be given shall think fit) be obliged to give\nsureties for his good behaviour, in such sum, and for such time, as\nthe said court shall judge proper, according to the circumstances of\nthe offence, and in such case shall be further imprisoned until such\nsureties shall be given.\n\nSir George M'Kenzie, the distinguished Scotch lawyer, thought there\nwas such a craft as witchcraft; and so did William Forbes, a member of\nthe Faculty of Advocates, a professor of law in the University of\nGlasgow, and author of several works of considerable merit. The\nfollowing extracts from Forbes's _Institute of the Law of Scotland_\nprove to some extent what was the legal creed in Scotland last century\nin regard to witches:--\n\n      \"Witchcraft is that black art whereby strange and\n      wonderful things are wrought by a power derived from\n      the devil. It goes under several names, taken from\n      particular effects and ways of its operation: As\n      those of magic, because it is a knowledge of more\n      than is lawful to be known; divination, from a\n      revealing of things past, present, or to come;\n      enchantment, from a working by charms or ceremonious\n      rites; sorcery, from the casting of lots to bring\n      hidden things to light; necromancy, from the calling\n      up and consulting the devil, in form of some dead\n      person; fascination, from the hurting creatures by\n      envious looks, and eye-biting, or by words, etc. Those\n      who practise this art are, in like manner, termed\n      witches, magicians, diviners, enchanters, sorcerers,\n      necromancers, fascinaters. Which names, given for\n      different causes to the devil's disciples, are, for\n      the most part, promiscuously used to signify any\n      person who, by covenant with Satan, and his\n      assistance, doth work strange things, because of the\n      affinity of all their operations, which have the same\n      general foundation and tendency.\n\n      \"An express covenant is entered into betwixt a witch\n      and the devil appearing in some visible shape, whereby\n      the former renounces his God and baptism, engaging to\n      serve the devil, and do all the mischief he can, as\n      occasion offers, and leaves soul and body to his\n      disposal after death. The devil, on his part, articles\n      with such proselytes concerning the shape he is to\n      appear to them in, and the services they are to expect\n      from him, upon the performance of certain charms or\n      ceremonious rites. To some he gives certain spirits or\n      imps to correspond with, and serve them as their\n      familiars, known by them by some odd names, to which\n      they answer when called. These imps are said to be\n      kept in pots or other vessels that stink detestably.\n      This league is made verbally if the party cannot\n      write; and such as can write sign a written covenant\n      with their blood. On the meaner proselytes the devil\n      fixes, in some secret part of their bodies, a mark, as\n      his seal to know his own by, which is like a flea-bite\n      or blue spot, and sometimes resembles a little teat;\n      and the part so stamped doth ever after remain\n      insensible, and doth not bleed, though never so much\n      nipped, or pricked, by thrusting a pin, awl, or bodkin\n      into it. But if the covenanter be one of the better\n      rank, the devil only draws blood of the party, or\n      touches him or her in some part of the body, without\n      any visible mark remaining.\n\n      \"A tacit covenant with Satan is understood to be\n      entered into by those who knowingly use the\n      superstitious rites or ceremonies observed by witches,\n      or unlawful means to bring anything about which they\n      know to be ineffectual in themselves without the\n      devil's concurrence.\n\n      \"Witches used to be distinguished into good and bad\n      witches. The bad witch, commonly called the black\n      witch, or binding witch, is one who, by a league with\n      the devil, is assisted by him to work mischief. The\n      good witch is he or she who useth diabolical means to\n      do good--as to heal persons, loose or undo\n      enchantments, and to discover who are bewitched, and\n      by whom. But this term of a good witch is very\n      improper, for all who have commerce with Satan are\n      certainly bad.\n\n      \"Some works of witches are really what they seem to\n      be; others are mere diabolical juggling, or a delusion\n      of the eyes of spectators with some strange sleight of\n      Satan. (To which last I may refer their imaginary\n      passing through shut doors, and transforming\n      themselves and others into the shape of cats, dogs,\n      hares, and other creatures.) Some of their actions\n      respect themselves, and their behaviour towards their\n      infernal master; such as their coming to appointed\n      meetings called their Sabbaths, where they pay homage\n      to him, and are taught to act all manner of\n      wickedness, and give an account of their horrid past\n      proceedings. Witches are chiefly employed in plain\n      mischief, by hurting persons or their goods, or by\n      bringing some actual evil or calamity upon them. But\n      they sometimes work mischief under a pretence or\n      colour of doing good--as when they cure diseases,\n      loose enchantments, and discover other witches. All\n      their designs are brought about by charms, or\n      ceremonious rites instituted by the devil, which are\n      in themselves of no efficacy, and serve only as\n      signals and watchwords to admonish Satan, as it were,\n      when, where, and upon whom to do mischief, or perform\n      cures, according to his compact with the witches.\"\n\n      \"Under necromancy,\" says Mr. Forbes, \"are comprehended\n      chiromancy, predictions, and responses by the sieve\n      and the shear, and all other hellish arts of\n      divination. It hath been sustained to bring in a\n      woman guilty of witchcraft, that she threatened to\n      do some mischief to a person who immediately or not\n      long after suffered a grievous harm in his body or\n      goods, by sorcery or witchcraft, without any apparent\n      or natural cause, though the manner or enchantment\n      used to work such mischief was not particularly\n      expressed, and the threat was only general, and did\n      not specify the ill turn to be done, in respect the\n      means used by witches are best known to themselves.\n      Some relevant articles of witchcraft are founded upon\n      events having no necessary dependence on the means\n      used by the person accused: as that a man on whom\n      a woman had laid a grievous sickness by her sorcery\n      was relieved thereof by her taking him by the hand,\n      and the moving of her lips; or that a woman came\n      several times into a house when the doors and\n      windows were all fast locked and shut at night,\n      combed her hair the last night, and laid her hand\n      upon a nurse's breast, upon which a child then\n      sucking her died within half-an-hour--because\n      injuries done by witches are not occasioned by\n      any inherent virtue or efficacy in the means used\n      by them, but only by the devil's influence; and that\n      there is no natural cause for the mischief done, is\n      the reason of ascribing it to witchcraft. Where one\n      is indicted for being in league with the devil, and\n      exercising acts of witchcraft, it sufficeth to prove\n      that the indictee was in confederacy with that evil\n      spirit, and did such things; but in the trial of one\n      indicted for bewitching any person, two things are to\n      be proved, viz. that such a person is bewitched, and\n      that the indictee is the witch.\"\n\n      Mr. Forbes says that symptoms of witchcraft are: \"When\n      learned and skilful physicians find the patient's\n      trouble doth not proceed from any bodily distemper or\n      natural causes; when he is exceedingly tormented at\n      the saying of prayers and graces, or reading of the\n      Bible; when in his fits he tells truly many things\n      past and future, which in an ordinary way he could not\n      know; and when things are done with respect to him by\n      some invisible hand working in a manner that cannot be\n      understood. Other proofs are such as when one cannot\n      shed tears, and cannot say the Lord's Prayer. And\n      other presumptions,\" he proceeds, \"are inferred from\n      the drawing of blood of the suspected person, or the\n      putting of something under a threshold where he or she\n      goes in, or under a stool where the suspected person\n      sits, or causes him or her to come into a room where\n      those afflicted with witchcraft are, and touch them;\n      or trying if the suspected person will sink or swim\n      when put tied into the water; the burning of cakes\n      wherein are the afflicted persons' urine, or the\n      burning of clothes in which such persons lie.\"\n\nThe learned professor thought that witchcraft might be proved by\nwitnesses who have heard the accused person invoking the devil for\nhelp, or seen the suspected party entertaining a familiar spirit and\nfeeding it in any form or likeness, conjuring to raise storms, showing\nin a glass or show-stone the faces of absent persons. His opinion was\nthat it was competent to receive as evidence the dying testimonies of\npenitent witches concerning others informed against by them, as proof\nof witchcraft was difficult to obtain; and the more secret\nacts--meeting of witches in the night-time to adore their infernal\nmaster, and hatch their mischievous projects when other people are\nasleep, or when they themselves are invisible--cannot be otherwise\nproved than by such as are privy thereto.\n\nSir Matthew Hale, the astute lawyer and judge, was a believer in\nwitchcraft, and entertained views on this subject similar to those of\nMr. Forbes, as will appear from the following particulars of the trial\nof Rose Cullender and Ann Duny in 1664. These women were accused\nbefore Sir Matthew Hale of various acts of witchcraft--such as\ntormenting children by means of devilish devices, upsetting carts,\nkilling horses, breeding vermin, etc., through diabolical means. At\nthe trial, evidence was given by Anne Durent, that William Durent, her\nson (one of the children bewitched) had strange and sad fits, caused\nby Duny giving the child suck. A wise man (Dr. Jacob) advised her to\nhang up the child's blanket in the chimney corner all day, and at\nnight, when she went to put the child to bed, if she found anything in\nthe blanket, to throw the thing, whether apparently animate or\ninanimate, into the fire. The blanket was hung up and shaken according\nto instructions, when, behold, a large toad fell on the hearth-stone.\nThe creature was thrown into the fire, and exploded like a gun. Next\nday a friend of Duny's told deponent that a certain old woman was\nseverely burned. On hearing this, deponent went to the old woman's\nhouse, and found her grievously scorched. Duny (for it was she who was\nin this sad condition) told the witness, that because of the evil she\ndid to her, she (Duny) would see much evil befall the Durent family.\nDeponent further stated that her daughter, Elizabeth Durent, about ten\nyears of age, was afflicted like her other child, and in her fits\ncomplained of Ann Duny tormenting her. Duny had (so said the witness)\npredicted that the child named would not live long, and within three\ndays the child died. Deponent also testified that Duny had, while in a\nrage, said that she (the witness) would yet be going with crutches--a\nprophecy followed by deponent becoming so lame in both her legs, that\nshe could not walk without being supported by sticks. \"And, indeed,\"\nsaid she, exhibiting a pair of crutches in the witness-box, \"I could\nnot come into court without them.\"\n\nAfter lengthened and curious evidence touching the charges against the\nprisoners for bewitching the children, named in the indictment, Dr.\nBrown, a gentleman of great learning, expressed his opinion that the\nchildren were bewitched. He said that in Denmark there had been a\ngreat discovery of witches, who used the very same way of afflicting\npeople, viz. by conveying pins and nails into them in a mysterious\nway. His opinion was that the devil, in witchcraft, did work upon the\nbodies of men and women, and afflict them with such distempers as\ntheir bodies were most subject to.\n\nJohn Sloan testified that, while bringing home three carts of hay, one\nof the carts accidentally damaged the window of Rose Cullender's\nhouse, and that she, in consequence of this mishap, uttered violent\nthreats against him. The other two carts passed her house safely\nseveral times that day, but the cart which damaged the window was two\nor three times overturned. Once, when taking the unlucky vehicle\nthrough a gate, it stuck fast, though nothing could be seen that\nprevented it from being drawn along easily. After great trouble, the\ncart was brought home, but, there again, fresh difficulties had to be\nencountered: the vehicle could not be taken to the place where it was\nintended to be unloaded; and, what most frightened the witness and\nthose aiding him was, that every one who approached the cart to render\nany assistance on that eventful day, came away with his nose bleeding.\n\nRobert Sherringhame swore that Rose Cullender, taking offence at him,\nthreatened him and his horses with injury, and in a short time many of\nhis horses and cattle died. Following these misfortunes, he became\nlame, and was so tormented with lice that he could not get them\nremoved until he burned two suits of clothes.\n\nRichard Spencer testified that he had heard Ann Duny say that the\ndevil would not let her rest until she took her revenge upon Cornelius\nSandswell.\n\nThe judge told the jury that they were to inquire, first, whether the\nseveral acts of witchcraft mentioned in the indictment had been\ncommitted; and, secondly, if they had, it was for them to say whether\nthe prisoners were the guilty persons. The jurors, he said, could not\ndoubt that there were such creatures as witches; for history affirmed\nit, and the wisdom of all nations had provided laws against such\npersons. He prayed that the hearts of the jury might be directed in\nthe mighty thing they had in hand; for to condemn the innocent and let\nthe guilty go free were alike an abomination. The jury brought in a\nverdict of guilty. The judge then passed sentence of death against the\nculprits, and they were executed.\n\nA general belief in the existence of witches prevailed in every\ncountry, and stringent measures were adopted for their extirpation. If\nthe punishment of witchcraft was not at first countenanced by the\nChurch, the clergy subsequently, and for centuries, played a prominent\npart in the detection and condemnation of the so-called witches. Pope\nJohn stated in a bull of 1317 that several of his courtiers and his\nphysician had given themselves up to superstition, and that their\nrings and mirrors contained evil spirits. Pope Innocent VIII. issued a\nbull against witchcraft in 1484. Thousands of innocent persons were\nburned, and others killed by the tests applied to them. Twenty-seven\narticles were issued in France in the fourteenth century against\nsorcery, the use of images, and the invocation of evil spirits. Many\nTemplars were burned in Paris for witchcraft in 1309.\n\nReferring to witches and sorcerers, Bishop Jewell, when preaching\nbefore his sovereign in 1598, said: \"Witches and sorcerers, within the\nlast four years, are marvellously increased within your Grace's realm.\nYour Grace's subjects pine away, even unto the death; their colour\nfadeth--their flesh rotteth--their speech is benumbed--their senses\nare bereft. I pray they may never practise further than upon your\nMajesty's subjects.\" Mr. Glanvil, chaplain to Charles II., was of\nopinion that \"the disbeliever in witchcraft must believe the devil\ngratis;\" and Wesley said that \"giving up witchcraft was, in fact,\ngiving up the Bible.\" The learned Lord Bacon, Lord Coke, and twelve\nbishops had a voice in the legislation of the country when the act of\nJames I. of England against witchcraft became law.\n\nFive hundred witches were burned at Geneva during three months of\n1515. In the diocese of Como, one thousand were burned within one\nyear. Nine hundred were burned in Lorraine in a period of fifteen\nyears. Hundreds perished at Wurzburg in a few years; and upwards of\none hundred thousand were executed in Germany, for which country the\n_malleus maleficarum_, or hammer for witches (drawn out by a clergyman\nand two inquisitors appointed by Innocent VIII.), was principally\nintended. In Poland and America, witches, or supposed witches, were\nalso put to death by fire and water. Persecutions against witches\nraged with great fury in America in 1648-49. In New England, in 1692,\nnine persons were hanged by the Puritans for witchcraft. Under\npressure, fifty persons there confessed themselves to be witches.\nItaly, Spain, and Portugal had their victims too. At one period the\nexecution of witches exceeded those in England, though the number put\nto death in the latter country was truly appalling. In 1646 two\nhundred persons were tried and executed for witchcraft at the Sussex\nand Essex assizes. The last persons put to death for witchcraft in\nEngland were, some say, in 1664, while others assert the last victims\nsuffered in 1682. The latest instance of a witch being executed in\nScotland was in 1722, when the supposed offender was burned at Loth,\nor Dornoch, Sutherlandshire, by order of the sheriff of that county.\nIn more recent times than several of the dates to which we have\nreferred, discoveries, which might have been easily understood, gave\nrise to the supposition that the actors were in compact with the\ndevil. On the first occasion of the German printers carrying their\nbooks to France, the ingenious inventors of printing were condemned to\nbe burned alive as sorcerers--a sentence that would have been executed\nhad those discoverers of a useful art not saved themselves by flight.\n\nReginald Scot, taking an enlightened view of superstition, says, \"The\nfables of witchcraft have taken so fast hold of and deep root in the\nheart of man, that few endure the hand of correction without\nattributing the chastisement to the influence of witches. Such\nsuperstitious people,\" he says, \"are persuaded that neither hail nor\nsnow, thunder nor lightning, rain nor tempestuous winds, come from the\nhigher powers, but are raised by the power of witches and conjurors.\nIf a clap of thunder or a gale of wind be heard, the timid people ring\nbells, cry out to burn the witches, or else they burn consecrated\nthings, hoping thereby to drive the devil out of the air.\"\n\nMr. E. Chambers did not think the art of witchcraft was carried on by\nor through intercourse with the devil or spirits (though he did not\ndispute there were such beings), but by or through philosophical\nmeans, altogether different from the operations supposed necessary to\nenable witches and wizards to perform actions not easily comprehended\nby the uninitiated.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LVII.\n\n      Witch-finders--Disasters ascribed to\n      Witches--Witch-marks--Witches Familiars--Preparing a\n      Witch for Judicial Examination--John Kinnaird--Patrick\n      Watson and his Wife pricked--Confession of Guilt--The\n      Devil's Sabbaths--Sumptuous Entertainments and\n      Grandeur at Satan's Feasts--Repulsive Acts there\n      also--Feasts ended at Cock-crowing--Transformation--A\n      Woman weighing only Four Ounces--A Witch-finder sent\n      from Scotland to Newcastle at the request of the\n      Authorities--Complaints against Witches\n      demanded--Deception discovered--Trying Witches in\n      Northumberland County--Escape of the Witch-finder from\n      Justice--Hopkins's Methods of detecting Witches--Zeal\n      of the Clergy in Scotland in condemning Witches--Witch\n      burned within the Sea-mark--Extracts from Kirk-session\n      Records of Perth relative to Witchcraft--Witches at\n      Kirkcaldy--A Clerical Witch-finder.\n\n\nEvery town and county had its witch-finder, whose duty it was to\ndetect and bring to trial all those tainted with witchcraft or\nsorcery. Considering that almost every accident which happened was\nattributed to sorcery, the duties of the witch-finder were most\nimportant. According to his diligence so was the safety of persons and\nproperty. Hail-storms, destructive floods, dangerous fires, disease\namong cattle, and domestic afflictions were all ascribed to\nwitchcraft. A mole or wart discovered on any part of an old woman's\nbody was thought to be a witch-mark. If a suspected witch did not shed\ntears, it was presumptive evidence of guilt; if she kept a black cat,\nit was taken for a familiar; and all these circumstances together were\nregarded as infallible signs of her evil nature. An expert\nwitch-finder knew all the wiles and arts of his profession. To prepare\nthe suspected witch for judicial examination, a particular diet was\nsometimes given her, to counteract the unguents she had anointed\nherself with, to make non-effective the preparations of belladonna,\naconite, parsley, and other ingredients she had swallowed, and to\nrender of no effect the charmed cocks' combs and rams' kidneys\npartaken of by her.\n\nJohn Kinnaird, a witch-finder, some hundreds of years past, brought\nmany witches to justice in his time. In 1649 he pricked Patrick\nWatson, of West Fenton, and Minie Haliburton his wife, and found the\ndevil's mark on the husband's back, and the same evil one's impress on\nthe wife's neck. Though the operator thrust his sharp instrument deep\ninto the spots, no pain was felt, nor did blood flow. These results\nproved that the accused husband and wife were in league with Satan;\nand Minie, seeing it was useless to deny her guilt, admitted the\ncrime.\n\nUnder judicial examination, witches have confessed to having met the\ndevil at his Sabbaths, the meetings always taking place near a cross\nroad, upon a dreary moor, or beside a lake or stagnant pool, on\nWednesday and Friday nights. At the meetings children were presented,\nso they said, to Satan. At these gatherings sorcerers were supplied\nwith exquisite meat and drink, served in vessels of gold and silver;\nand at other times with cooked toads, unbaptised children, and the\nflesh of malefactors cut down from gibbets. Toads, having the rank of\nwitches' familiars, appeared at the meetings, dressed in gay attire,\nand wearing small silver bells round their necks, or attached to their\nfeet. At cock-crow Satan disappeared under the earth, and the witches\nflew through the air to their respective homes. That witches could\ntransform themselves into hares, wolves, and other animals, nearly all\nthe accused women readily admitted.\n\nIn the year 1728 a witch-finder discovered that a stout tall woman,\nsuspected of sorcery, did not weigh more than four ounces. This was\nenough to make out a case against her; and not only against her, but\nagainst several confederates, and they were all burned in terms of\nlaw.\n\nOn account of a petition presented by the inhabitants of Newcastle to\nthe authorities, in the year 1649, concerning the evil consequences\nof witchcraft, the magistrates sent two of their officers to Scotland\nto secure the services of a celebrated witch-finder, famous for\ndetecting witches by means of pricking them with sharp instruments.\nThe cunning man agreed to go with them to Newcastle to try such\nsuspected persons as might be brought to him, at the rate of twenty\nshillings for every woman found guilty. When the officers brought the\nwitch-finder to town, the magistrates sent their bellman through the\nstreets to invite the inhabitants who had complaints to make against\nwitches to make them without delay, that they (the witches) might be\ntried by the person appointed. Thirty women were brought to the town\nhall, and had pins thrust into their flesh, and most of them were\nfound guilty. The witch-finder informed Lieutenant-Colonel Hobson that\nhe knew whether women were witches or no by their looks. On a\ngood-looking woman being brought to the finder, the gallant colonel\nthought it was unnecessary to try her, but the canny Scotchman knew\nbetter, and therefore submitted her to his infallible test. Having put\na pin into her side, he marked her down a witch of the devil. The\ncolonel, not satisfied that the woman was guilty, remonstrated, and\nthen the witch-finder confessed he was in error. The highly-favoured\ndamsel was therefore liberated; but as no champion appeared for the\npoor old withered hags, they suffered the pains of law.\n\nHaving rid Newcastle of witches, the witch-finder was summoned to\nNorthumberland county to try women there for sixty shillings each. For\nsome fault or crime connected with the discharge of his official\nduties, he was apprehended, and put under bond to appear at the\nsessions to answer such charges as might be brought against him. He\nescaped to Scotland, where he was made prisoner, indicted, and\ncondemned for villany, exercised on the north side of the Tweed, in\nconnection with witch-finding. He confessed that he had been\ninstrumental in bringing to an untimely end above two hundred and\ntwenty women in England and Scotland.\n\nMatthew Hopkins, who regularly went on circuit in England to detect\nwitches for a long period subsequent to the year 1644, applied the\nusual tests, such as finding witch-marks, thrusting sharp instruments\ninto the bodies of suspected persons, dragging them through deep water\nwhile they were wrapped in sheets, with their great toes and thumbs\ntied together, keeping his victims awake sometimes as long as\nforty-eight hours to make them confess, ascertaining whether they\ncould repeat the Lord's Prayer, or shed tears.\n\nThe clergy of Scotland lent themselves to witch-finding with a zeal\ntruly marvellous. They, in General Assembly, passed five condemnatory\nacts against witchcraft between the years 1640 and 1649. Kirk-sessions\nthroughout the land outvied each other in their efforts to bring\nsuspected witches to trial, and to counteract the dark deeds of Satan.\n\nThe Rev. John Scott, one of the Established Church ministers of Perth\nfrom 1762 to 1806, author of the _History of the Earls of Gowrie_ and\nother works, left several folio manuscript volumes of extracts from\nthe kirk-session records of Perth; and from these we make the\nfollowing abbreviated selections in support of what is here stated:--\n\n      \"On 16th April 1582 the kirk-session (which for some\n      time was designated the 'Assembly') ordained their\n      box-master to give the witch in the Tolbooth eight\n      doits (eight twelfths of a penny sterling) in the\n      day.\"\n\n      \"In November 1589 a day was assigned to certain honest\n      neighbours of Tirseppie to be present and to declare\n      whether it was true that Guddal, spouse to Richard\n      Watson, was a witch, as John Watson alleged, or what\n      evil likelihood they saw in her. Walter Watson, John\n      Watson, George Scott, and James Scott, on being\n      severally examined by the kirk-session, declared that\n      they never saw such things of her whereby they might\n      suspect her of witchcraft, but that she was an honest\n      poor woman, who wrought honestly for her living,\n      without whose help her husband, Richard Watson, would\n      have been dead, as he was an aged man. Therefore the\n      minister and elders ordained the act of slander to be\n      put in execution against John Watson, and Helen Watson\n      his daughter.\"\n\n      \"In November 1597 the kirk-session ordained the\n      magistrates of Perth to travel with his Majesty to\n      obtain a commission to execute Janet Robertson,\n      sorceress, who had long been detained in ward.\"\n\n      \"The kirk-session, on 30th May 1615, requested the\n      bailies to ward Marion Murdoch, complained upon for\n      witchcraft, ay and until she was tried thereanent.\"\n\n      \"On the 4th day of May 1618, conform to citation,\n      Isabella Garry, servitrix, and Margaret Lamb,\n      daughter-in-law to George Thompson, appeared before\n      the session, and were asked if they had been at the\n      well in the bank of Huntingtower the previous Sabbath,\n      and if they drank thereof, and if they had left\n      anything at it. They answered that they had been at it\n      and drank thereof, and that each of them had left a\n      pin thereat. This was found to be a point of idolatry.\n      Their case was continued until some other young women,\n      who were with them, should be summoned to appear\n      before the church court.\" [Though it does not clearly\n      appear what object the young women had in view in\n      drinking the Huntingtower well water, and putting pins\n      therein, we presume they simply did what maidens of\n      the present time do, namely, go to a spring supposed\n      to possess peculiar charms (as the Ruthven or\n      Huntingtower well was believed to have), drink of its\n      water, and each throw a pin into the well, under the\n      conviction that every one would get the wish uppermost\n      in her heart fulfilled--generally the securing of a\n      husband before the year was ended.]\n\n      \"On the 3rd August 1619, Alexander Peebles, a burgess\n      of Perth, appeared before the session, and took\n      exception to the doctrine delivered by Mr. John\n      Guthrie, minister, on the previous Sabbath afternoon;\n      and alleged that the minister had slandered him and\n      his house by accusing him of sorcery, and turning the\n      riddle. The minister and session certified in one\n      voice that the doctrine was general, and necessarily\n      followed on the text from which Mr. Guthrie was\n      preaching. Peebles would have been censured had not\n      Mr. Guthrie interceded for him. Mr. Guthrie, however,\n      brought upon himself further annoyance, in consequence\n      of accusing other members of his congregation of\n      witchcraft and sorcery. On the 13th of the next month\n      Mr. Guthrie complained to his session, of Thomas Young\n      uttering speeches against him and his ministry, and of\n      refusing to discharge the civil duty of saluting him\n      when they met on the causeway. The members of session\n      were highly offended that any member of the church\n      should have so far misregarded his pastor and provoked\n      him to ire, and therefore ordered him to be cited to\n      appear before them the following day. Conform to\n      citation, Thomas Young appeared, who being accused of\n      uttering speeches against and misbehaving himself\n      towards Mr. Guthrie, the delinquent boldly answered\n      that it was not the duty of the pastor to charge his\n      people with witchcraft, sorcery, and turning of the\n      riddle. Witnesses were examined against Thomas, who,\n      before the court rose, confessed his error, and said\n      he was extremely sorry for offending his minister in\n      word or deed. Mr. Guthrie then admonished Thomas, and\n      craved the magistrates (who were present) and the\n      session to inflict no punishment on the said Thomas,\n      but to pass over his offences--a request that was\n      granted.\"\n\n      \"On 10th May 1626 Bessie Wright was accused before the\n      presbytery of Perth of witchcraft, curing sick folks,\n      and frequenting the town of Perth after having been\n      banished from the burgh, and forbidden to exercise her\n      healing art. The moderator and brethren ordained that\n      she should be prohibited from performing any cure,\n      under pain of incarceration. It was likewise ordained\n      that the minister of Perth should make intimation on\n      the following Sabbath, that because the said Bessie\n      was under suspicion of witchcraft in curing diseased\n      persons by unlawful means, none would resort to her\n      for advice, under pain of the kirk's censures.\"\n\n      \"Conform to citation, Robert Thomson, maltman,\n      compeared before the kirk-session on 30th December\n      1634, for causing a bairn of his to be taken to the\n      mill of Balhousie and put into the flappers thereof,\n      when the mill was going, to be charmed, which, it was\n      alleged, was a lesson of Satan. He answered that he\n      knew not of the circumstance until the child was\n      brought home.\" [The offence being considered an odious\n      one, the session resolved to take the advice of the\n      presbytery how to proceed, but we are not informed how\n      the matter terminated.]\n\nLilias Adie, a Fife witch, obtained power from Satan to assist her and\nher friends, and to ruin her enemies. Like many other witches, she\nregularly attended the witch Sabbaths. How long she might have\nremained alive to strike terror into the hearts of the Torryburn\npeople, none can tell, had not their worthy pastor, the Rev. Allan\nLogan, come to the rescue. Mr. Logan, report says, knew as well as any\nliving man how to detect a witch. When \"fencing\" the sacramental\ntable, he would look around him with his keen piercing eye, and call\naloud, \"You witch, begone from the holy communion table.\" The\nsearching look and commanding voice made more than one woman retire\nfrom among the worthy communicants. Mr. Logan was well supported by a\nzealous kirk-session. This being so, Lilias Adie had little chance of\nescape. She and other suspected witches were submitted to a series of\nexaminations and tests, which ended in her being burned within the\nsea-mark on the Fife coast.\n\nFrom the ancient records of the kirk-session of Kirkcaldy, it seems\nthat numerous reputed witches were burned in that town in the\nseventeenth century. In the year 1633 two witches were burned; the\ncost of their execution, including the price of tar barrels, and tow\nfor tying the unfortunate beings at the stake, amounted to \u00a32, 17s.\n6d. Scots. One half of the sum was borne by the kirk-session, and the\nother half by the town. In the year 1649 a woman was burned on the\nestate of Burncastle, and the cost of watching her thirty days and of\nsupplying fuel amounted to \u00a392, 14s. Scots, a goodly sum in those\ndays; but as \u00a327, found in the possession of the reputed witch, was\ntaken to assist in defraying the expenses of her judicial murder, the\nburden did not fall very heavy, after all, on the public.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LVIII.\n\n      Hiring a Witch to detect a Witch--Clerical\n      Witch-finders--Agnew, the sturdy Beggar--His\n      Diabolical Doings--Missiles thrown by Unseen\n      Hands--Working Instruments destroyed--A Distressed\n      Family--Minister's Remonstrance and Advice--Fresh\n      Afflictions--House set on Fire--Prayer and Fasting\n      resorted to--Meeting of Presbytery for Prayer on\n      account of the Evil Doings of Satan and his Wicked\n      Emissaries--Spirits Speaking--Minister's Reply--Fiend\n      not put to Silence by Prayer--Application to the Synod\n      for Advice--Solemn Humiliation ordained by the\n      Synod--Annoyance continued--Beggar suspected, and\n      hanged for Blasphemy--Bargarran Witches--An Esquire's\n      Daughter bewitched--Physicians puzzled--Great\n      Consternation in the Country--Parish Minister praying\n      for the Afflicted Child--Other Ministers' Visits to\n      Bargarran--Presbytery ordering Days of\n      Humiliation--Effect of Fasting and Prayer--Recourse to\n      the Law--Catherine Campbell imprisoned--Girl's\n      continued Affliction--Representation to His Majesty's\n      Privy Council--Commission appointed to inquire into\n      the case--Proceedings of the Commission--Trial of\n      Witches--Specious Pleading--Condemnation and\n      Execution.\n\n\nIn the middle of the seventeenth century the mania against witches and\nwarlocks became so prevalent, that almost every individual was\naffected therewith. If a child was sick, if a family became\nunfortunate, if cattle died, if boats were upset or ships lost, or if\naccidents of any description, even to the breaking of a plough,\nhappened, the evils were attributed to witches or warlocks. If in any\nsuch misfortune the assistance of a professional witch-finder could\nnot be secured, one witch was hired to detect the other witch, or more\nprobably the gang of witches, who had occasioned the mischief. Again,\nin the event of the hired witch (it was seldom the professional\nwitch-finder, provided with his instruments of torture, failed) not\nsucceeding, the clergyman's assistance was sought; and if the witches\nand devil proved too many or strong for him, the presbytery, synod,\nand even the assembly, had to be appealed to. The following is a case\nin point:--\n\nIn October 1654 Alexander Agnew, a sturdy beggar, threatened hurt to\nGilbert Campbell's household because he did not receive so good an\nalms as he demanded. The vagabond, by diabolical means, brought about\na variety of annoyances and losses that came nigh to ruin the family.\nGilbert Campbell was often hindered in business, through his working\ninstruments being destroyed in a way he could not account for. In\nNovember, matters became extremely dangerous. At that time the devil,\nwe are informed, came with new and extraordinary assaults, by throwing\nstones in through the doors and windows and chimney-head of this\ndevil-besetted dwelling. Providentially no one was injured in person.\nNext, chests and trunks were opened, and the contents thrown about in\nall directions. Working implements were secretly carried away, and\nconcealed in holes or other places where they were not likely to be\nfound. Wearing apparel, blankets, sheets, curtains, and other soft\ngoods were cut in pieces. To so great a strait was the family reduced,\nthat the members thereof were compelled to leave their house. Nor was\nthis all: Campbell himself was forced to abandon his employment.\n\nThe minister, hearing that the house was shut up, remonstrated against\nsuch a proceeding. He recommended that the devil should be withstood\nto the face. Acting on the good clergyman's advice, all the members of\nthat afflicted household returned. Fresh disturbances broke out. The\nhouse was set on fire, and would have been reduced to ashes had not\nwilling neighbours extinguished the flames. As the evil went on,\nprayer and fasting were resorted to, apparently unmixed with faith,\nfor again the house was set on fire. The presbytery met at the house\nfor solemn devotion, but their prayers were as ineffectual as those of\nthe people who had conducted the religious services on previous\noccasions. Indeed things became worse. Not only were petty acts of\nmischief perpetrated, but strange voices were heard, without it being\nknown whence they proceeded. The minister, accompanied by gentlemen of\ngood position, went again to the house to pray with and for Mr.\nCampbell and his family. After prayer, they all heard a voice speaking\nout of the ground, asking if they desired to know anything of certain\nwitches who were named. Gilbert Campbell informed the company that one\nof the witches mentioned was dead. The devil then answered, \"It is\ntrue she is dead, yet her spirit is living in this world.\" The\nminister replied, \"We are not to receive any information from thee,\nSatan; thou art but seeking to seduce this family.\"\n\nAll the people went again to pray, still the devil was not put to\nsilence; the foul fiend demanded a spade to dig a grave, in which he\nmight rest in peace. Advised by the clergyman, Mr. Campbell answered,\n\"Not so much as a straw shall be given thee, though that would put\nthee to rest.\" A loud noise was heard, and a naked hand and an arm\nfrom the elbow were seen beating on the floor so terribly that the\nhouse shook, during which the voice called several times, \"I will send\nmy father among you.\" Night being now far spent, all the strangers\nwent home except the minister, who stayed with the family to protect\nthem. Notwithstanding his presence, and many prayers, the devil roared\nfrightfully, his voice sounding like that of a lion. The very food the\nfamily partook of was bewitched: it did not supply them with\nnourishment, nor satisfy their hunger, even for a moment.\n\nMr. Campbell resolved to apply to the synod for advice as to whether\nhe should remain in his house. When the subject came before that\nreverend body, the fathers and brethren thought fit to ordain a solemn\nhumiliation to be observed through all the synodic bounds, with the\nview of turning away the affliction that distressed the poor family.\nNotwithstanding everything that could be done, the annoyance continued\nfor a whole year. It was never discovered who was the instigator of\nthe mischief, although strong suspicion rested on the sturdy beggar,\nwho, we may observe in conclusion, was hanged, some time afterwards,\nfor blasphemy.\n\nTales of the Bargarran witches are widely known in Scotland. In their\ntime they created no small stir and alarm among laymen, in the church,\nand at the law courts. In the year 1696, Christina Shaw, eleven years\nof age, daughter of John Shaw, Esquire, of Bargarran, Renfrewshire,\ngave offence to a servant maid named Catherine Campbell, who wished\nthe girl's soul might soon be in the place of torment. It was feared\nthe offended damsel would seek revenge, and what followed convinced\nthose cognisant of the facts that their fears were well founded.\n\nSoon after this the girl had severe fits and strange visions; and, in\na most unaccountable manner, she vomited or put out of her mouth\nunclean hay, wild fowls' feathers, gravel stones, nut-galls,\ncandle-grease, egg-shells, and other substances, which she nor any\nother person could tell whence they had come. For a long time she was\nafflicted in a most mysterious manner. Her parents were distressed,\nand her physicians perplexed. Change of air did her good, but as\nsoon as she returned to Bargarran her trouble recommenced. By-and-bye\nit became evident her affliction did not proceed from ordinary\ninfirmity, but from the diabolical machinations of Satan and his\nemissaries--certain well-known witches in the neighbourhood, one being\nthe offended Catherine Campbell. So convinced was the unfortunate\nsufferer of her ills being caused by human beings acting in a\nmysterious manner, that she frequently exclaimed that Catherine\nCampbell and others, whom she named, were cutting her sides and other\nparts of her body.\n\nGreat consternation prevailed in the country. The parish minister,\nlike a good pious pastor, prayed with and for the child. Clergymen\nfrom adjoining parishes visited Bargarran, and witnessed Catherine\nShaw's sufferings. The presbytery appointed days of humiliation on\naccount of what left no doubt in the minds of divines that the girl\nwas bewitched. Fasting and prayer seemed to have an alleviating\ntendency, yet they did not prevent the evil continuing in a mitigated\nform. Recourse was therefore had to the law. Mr. Shaw, the girl's\nfather, applied to the sheriff-depute; and that officer, in what he\nconsidered a proper discharge of his duty, imprisoned Catherine\nCampbell.\n\nThis judicial proceeding had the effect of securing relief for the\nafflicted girl for a time, but her enemies were not all confined nor\nrendered harmless, for she declared she heard now and again\ntormentors, whom she repeatedly named, whispering among themselves\nthat they were, by desire of the devil, to carry her away. And it was\nsupposed she would have been conveyed away from her friends, had not\nthe minister prayed for her at the time the witches were about to\ncarry their diabolical intentions into operation.\n\nThe lamentable case of the afflicted family being represented to his\nMajesty's Privy Council, a commission was, worthily and piously it is\nsaid, appointed to inquire into the case. By warrant of this\ncommission, certain suspected persons were apprehended. Alexander\nAnderson, represented as an ignorant irreligious fellow; Elizabeth\nAnderson, his daughter; and Jean Fulton, grandmother of the said\nElizabeth Anderson, were secured. Elizabeth Anderson, on being\nseverely interrogated, declared she had frequently seen the devil, in\nthe likeness of a little black man, in the company of her grandmother.\nShe also confessed that she herself had been at several meetings with\nthe devil and witches; and she declared her father and a Highlandman\nin the neighbourhood, along with others, were active agents in\ntormenting Christina Shaw.\n\nA quorum of the commissioners met at Bargarran; and the persons\naccused by Elizabeth Anderson to have been at the meetings with the\ndevil, and to have been active instruments of Christina Shaw's\ntrouble--viz. Alexander Anderson, Agnes Naismith, Margaret Fulton,\nJames Lindsay, John Lindsay, and Catherine Campbell--were (except John\nLindsay, not then in custody) confronted with the afflicted damsel\nbefore Lord Blantyre and other commissioners, together with ministers\nof the gospel and non-clerical gentlemen of note, and charged by her\nas her tormentors; and they (the persons in custody) having severally\ntouched her, she was at each of their touches seized with grievous\nfits.\n\nAbout this time Thomas Lindsay, a boy twelve years of age, was\napprehended on presumption of complicity in witchcraft, he having\nsaid, before credible witnesses, that the devil was his father, and\nthat if he pleased he could fly like a crow. Sometimes, he said, he\ncould cause a plough to stand, and the horses break the yoke, on his\npronouncing a few strange words and turning himself withershinns.\nThough at first he denied his guilt, yet he afterwards confessed he\nhad a compact with the devil, and that he had been at several meetings\nwith Satan and witches. His brother James, he said, was also present.\nJames Lindsay was therefore apprehended, and identified by Christina\nShaw as one of her tormentors. He too confessed to be guilty of\nSatanic acts.\n\nNext day Margaret Lang, and her daughter Martha Semple, being accused\nby Christina Shaw of having been also active in tormenting her, came\nof their own accord to Bargarran House, and before they approached the\ngirl she said she was now bound up, and could not accuse Margaret Lang\nto her face. Subsequently she named Lang and her daughter as two of\nher tormentors.\n\nThe commissioners had several conferences, and in their presence many\nsuspected witches were shown to the girl at Bargarran. At these\nconferences strange things transpired, all tending to prove a most\ndiabolical plot to punish the girl for her insult to Catherine\nCampbell. This was not all: the inquiry brought to light various other\nacts of witchcraft, mischief, and even murder, perpetrated by the\ndevil and those in league with him. In due course the suspected\npersons were arraigned before the judges and jury; and able arguments,\naccording to the light of those times, were entered into. An outline\nof the specious pleading of the advocate who conducted the prosecution\nis given, as an example of the manner in which convictions against\nsuspected witches were obtained two hundred years ago.\n\n      \"Good men of inquest,\" he said, \"you having sitten\n      above twenty hours in overhearing the probation, we\n      shall not detain you with summing up in particular,\n      but shall only suggest some things, whereof it is fit\n      you take special notice. 1st, The nature of your own\n      power, and the management thereof. 2dly, The object of\n      this power which lies before you, wherein you are to\n      consider, in the first place, whether or not there has\n      been witchcraft in the malefices libelled? and, in the\n      next case, whether or not these panels are the\n      witches?\n\n      \"As to your power, it is certain that you are both\n      judges and witnesses, by the opinion of our lawyers\n      and custom; therefore you are called out of the\n      neighbourhood, as presumed best to know the quality of\n      the panels, and the notoriety of their guilt or\n      innocence....\n\n      \"We are not to press you with the ordinary severity of\n      threatening an assize of error, in case you should\n      absolve; but wholly leave you to the conduct of God\n      and your own conscience....\n\n      \"As to the probation itself, you see that it is\n      divided in three parts, viz. the extraordinariness of\n      the malefices; the probability of the concurring\n      adminicles; and the clearness of the positive\n      probation.\n\n      \"As to the first part, the malefices, or _corpora\n      delicti_, are proven by unexceptionable witnesses to\n      have fallen out in such an odd and extraordinary\n      manner, that it points out some other causes than the\n      ordinary course of nature to have produced these\n      effects.\n\n      \"For clearing of this, particularly in relation to the\n      torments of Bargarran's daughter, you may consider not\n      only the extraordinary things that could not proceed\n      from a natural disease, which lie proven before you,\n      but also several other matters of fact, which is\n      notour, have been seen by some of yourselves, and lie\n      here in a journal of her sufferings; every article\n      whereof is attested by the subscriptions of persons of\n      entire credit, before the honourable commissioners\n      appointed by his Majesty's Privy Council, for making\n      inquiry thereanent.\n\n      \"This girl's throwing out of hairs, pins, and coals of\n      greater heat than that of her body or blood; as also\n      so dry that they appeared not to have come out of her\n      stomach; nor had she any press of vomiting at the\n      time; that she declared the same to have been put into\n      her mouth by her tormentors--is deponed by Dr.\n      Brisbane, in his opinion, not to proceed from a\n      natural cause....\n\n      \"She told that her tormentors were giving her a glass\n      of sack, an orange peel, etc., and accordingly she was\n      seen to move her lips, and to have an orange peel\n      betwixt her teeth, though there was no visible hand\n      that could have done it.\n\n      \"She advertised beforehand that one of her tormentors\n      was to be at the door at a particular hour, and that\n      another of them was in the kitchen before any did tell\n      her thereof; which accordingly fell out....\n\n      \"When her glove fell down from her, at a time when\n      several persons were about her, it was lifted again by\n      a hand invisible to them.\n\n      \"She was not only transported through the hall and\n      down stairs without perceiving her feet to touch the\n      ground, but also was hurried in a flight up stairs;\n      and when a minister endeavoured to retain her, he\n      found a sensible weight, besides her own strength,\n      drawing her from him.\n\n      \"She was most vehemently distorted upon attempting to\n      tell, or even write, the names of her tormentors....\n\n      \"She foretold that her tormentors had concerted to\n      throw her into a fit (whereof they did premonish, of\n      design to fright her to renounce her baptism by the\n      terror) at a certain hour, and had left one of their\n      number to execute it; according whereunto there was a\n      woman with a red coat seen under a tree in the\n      orchard, and the torment was brought on at the time\n      appointed....\n\n      \"She cried out at a time that her thigh was hurt; and\n      one of the company having searched her pocket, found a\n      knife, but unfolded; however, having folded up the\n      same, and put it in a second time, she cries of new;\n      and, upon the second search, it (though secured by the\n      spring) is found open, to the great wonder of\n      beholders; since they did watch that no visible thing\n      could have possibly opened it.\n\n      \"She told of a charm under the bed; and accordingly it\n      was found in the shape of an egg, which melted away on\n      being put in the fire....\n\n      \"The story anent her telling that the commissioners,\n      though at three miles distance, had granted a warrant\n      to the sheriff to apprehend one of her tormentors; her\n      telling so perfect an account of the sheriff and of\n      Mr. Guthrie, who was with him, while her eyes were\n      tied and fast; her being in excessive torments (as she\n      foretold) till that person was apprehended, and\n      immediately thereupon, though at many miles distance,\n      her telling that her tormentors were now taken,\n      betwixt twelve and one o'clock in the morning; and the\n      sheriff, when he returned, did declare the seizure to\n      have been made about that time--is so notour, and so\n      well attested, that we need only to put you in mind\n      thereof.\n\n      \"Her falling into fits upon the sight or touch of her\n      tormentors, was no effect of imagination; for she was\n      fully hoodwinked with a cloak, so as she saw nobody\n      whatsoever; yet, upon the approach of her tormentor,\n      she immediately fell down as dead, whereas she\n      remained no ways startled upon the touch of any other:\n      which experiments were tried for ascertaining this\n      means of discovery.\n\n      \"Finally, she is naturally sagacious and observant,\n      and discovered her integrity in face of court.... She\n      showed her firmness against the temptations of\n      becoming a witch; particularly against the last\n      assault of Satan; wherein he persuaded her at least to\n      go to their meetings, and she answered that she would\n      not follow such a base fallen creature; and he\n      rejoining that she would go to hell, however, for her\n      other sins; and she answering that he was a liar from\n      the beginning, and the blood of Jesus would cleanse\n      her from all iniquity: whereupon he disappeared, and\n      she perfectly recovered upon the Sabbath thereafter;\n      was a happy end put to this fearful tragedy of\n      witchcraft, and confirms to conviction the reality of\n      it.\n\n      \"As to the murdering of the children, and the minister\n      libelled: you may observe several extraordinary things\n      appearing in them; particularly, the witnesses depone,\n      the minister to have been in excessive torments, and\n      of an unusual colour, to have been of sound judgment;\n      and yet he did tell of several women being about him,\n      and that he heard the noise of the door opening, when\n      none else did hear it. The children were well at\n      night, and found dead in the morning, with a little\n      blood on their noses, and blaes at the roots of their\n      ears; which were obvious symptoms of strangling....\n\n      \"The second part of the probation consists of several\n      adminicles, proven by unsuspected witnesses, which\n      lead us to suspect those panels to be witches, as so\n      many lines drawn from a circumference to a centre, and\n      as an avenue to the positive probation thereafter\n      adduced; and these either strike at the whole panels\n      in general, or some of them in particular....\n\n      \"You see that none of them doth shed tears; nor were\n      they ever discovered to do it since their\n      imprisonment, notwithstanding their frequent\n      howlings....\n\n      \"In particular, you see how Katharine Campbell was\n      provoked by this girl's discovering her theft;\n      whereupon she has brought in the rest of her\n      confederates to act the mischiefs; how Campbell did\n      curse and imprecate in a terrible manner; how she\n      staid out of her bed at night, and was frequently\n      drowsy in the morning....\n\n      \"Margaret Lang, that great impostor, has been a great\n      masterpiece of the devil: she has confessed unnatural\n      lust, which is known to some of your number; she sat\n      near the door where the charm of hair was found, which\n      the girl declared did keep up her tongue; and upon\n      burning thereof, it was loosed. The girl fell in fits\n      upon her approach; she has notable marks; particularly\n      one, which the confessants declared she lately\n      received; and, by inspection, it appears to be recent.\n      When she came from her private conversation (no doubt\n      with the devil) she raged as if she had been\n      possessed, and could not but declare that she expected\n      a violent death. She looked in the face of James\n      Millar's child, and asked her age, whereupon that\n      child sickened the same night, and named Margaret Lang\n      on her death-bed. It appears she was ready to show to\n      Janet Laird a sight of her mother, who had been three\n      years dead....\n\n      \"Margaret Fulton was reputed a witch, has the mark of\n      it, and acknowledged, in presence of her husband, that\n      she made use of a charm, which appeared full of small\n      stones and blood; that her husband had brought her\n      back from the fairies....\n\n      \"As to the Lindsays, they all have the mark, and were\n      all of a long time reputed to be witches. John\n      Lindsay, in Barlock, was accidentally discovered by\n      the girl's taking a fit upon his coming to the house.\n      John and James Lindsay were dilated by a confessing\n      witch in anno 1687, which confession is publicly read\n      before you, and there was money given to the\n      sheriff-depute for delaying of the pursuit. James\n      Lindsay appeared to William Semple suddenly, and flew\n      about like a fowl for an opportunity to strike him....\n\n      \"It is true, some of these indications may be in one,\n      and others of them in another, either from nature or\n      accident, and yet that person not be a witch; but it\n      was never heard nor read that all these indications,\n      which are so many discoveries by providence, of a\n      crime that might otherwise remain in the dark, did\n      ever concur in one and the same individual person that\n      was innocent....\n\n      \"As to the third part of the probation, we remit the\n      positive depositions of the confessants, and against\n      whom they do concur, wholly to your own perusal or\n      examination; only you would be pleased to notice, 1st,\n      Something which do very much sustain the credibility\n      of their testimonies, arising from their examination\n      in court. 2dly, We shall explain to you the import of\n      the word _Nota_, which is added to the interlocutor of\n      the judges admitting these last witnesses.\n\n      \"First, Elizabeth Anderson is of sufficient age, being\n      seventeen; but so young and pointed, that her\n      deposition appears not affected by melancholy: she\n      accused her father to his face, when he was a-dying in\n      the prison, as now there are two of her aunts in the\n      panel, which certainly must proceed from the strength\n      of truth, since even Dives retained a natural\n      affection to his relations; she went on foot to the\n      meetings with her father, except only that the devil\n      transported them over the water Clyde; which was easy\n      to the prince of the air, who does far greater things\n      by his hurricanes....\n\n      \"James Lindsay, it is true, is of less import; yet, by\n      his weeping when he came in, and was admonished of the\n      greatness of his guilt, it appears that he had a sense\n      of it.... He does not file the panels all at random,\n      but tells what occurred to his senses.\n\n      \"Janet and Margaret Rodgers are instances of a\n      singular providence; for they did confess, the same\n      morning that the court did last sit, of their own\n      proper motive, their being neither ministers nor\n      judges beside them at the time....\n\n      \"It is true, there are some few of the adminicles that\n      are proven only by one witness; but as to this you may\n      consider, 1st, That a witness deponing _de facto\n      proprio_, is in law more credited than any other\n      single witness. And this is the present case as to\n      some of the adminicles. 2dly, The antecedent\n      concomitant, and subsequent circumstances of fact, do\n      sustain the testimony and make the _semi-plenary_\n      probation to become full. But 3dly, The other\n      adminicles, undoubtedly proven by concurring\n      witnesses, are _per se_ sufficient; and therefore you\n      saw us, at the desire of the judges, forbear to call\n      the far greatest part of our witnesses....\n\n      \"We shall therefore leave you with this conclusion,\n      that as you ought to beware of condemning the\n      innocent, and ought to incline to the safest side; so,\n      if these panels be proven legally guilty, then _quoad_\n      bygones, your eye ought not to spare them, nor ought\n      you to suffer a witch to live; and as to the future,\n      you in doing otherwise would be accessory to all the\n      blasphemies, apostasies, murders, tortures, and\n      seductions whereof these enemies of heaven and earth\n      shall thereafter be guilty, when they have got out. So\n      that the question seems simply to come to this,\n      Whether, upon your oath _de fideli_, you can swear\n      that the panels, notwithstanding of all that is proven\n      against them, are not guilty of witchcraft; in the\n      determination whereof, we pray God may direct you in\n      the right course.\"\n\nThe jury, after being enclosed nearly six hours, found the libel\nproven.\n\nIt only remains to be stated that the accused suffered the extreme\npenalty of the law, not for crimes committed, but on account of the\nsuperstition and ferocity of the period.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LIX.\n\n      Victims of Superstition--History of Lady Glammis--Her\n      Trial for causing the Death of her Husband and\n      attempting to poison the King--Found Guilty, and\n      Burned--Lady Fowlis an intended Victim--Hector Munro\n      tried for Sorcery--Making an Image of the young Lady\n      of Balnagowan--Elf Arrows--Consulting Egyptians--Trial\n      and Acquittal of Lady Fowlis--Her Accomplices not so\n      Fortunate--Hector Munro's connection with\n      Witches--Charge against Sir John Colquhoun and Thomas\n      Carlips for consulting with Necromancers--Love\n      Philters and Enchanted Tokens--Eloping with a\n      Sister-in-law--Bewitching Sir George Maxwell--A Dumb\n      Girl detecting Witches--Witch-marks discovered before\n      the Sheriff of Renfrewshire--Strange\n      Confessions--Commission appointed by the Privy Council\n      to try Witches--Witches ordered to be Burned--Alison\n      Pearson's Intercourse with Fairies--Another Witch\n      Story.\n\n\nAfter witchcraft became unpopular, persons of youth, beauty, and rank,\nas well as people of old age, poverty, and deformity, often fell\nvictims to superstition. The history of Lady Glammis is a painful one,\nexhibiting the gross darkness and ferocity of her time. Being\nbeautiful, and in good position, her hand was sought by noblemen whose\nname and fame did, in some respects, honour to their country. As Lady\nGlammis could have only one husband at a time, she was compelled to\nreject proposals made to her by members of first-class families--a\nnecessity that was not looked at in its proper light; for her\nrefusals, both when she was a maid and widow, to enter into\nmatrimonial alliance with the heads of noble houses, raised formidable\nenemies against her. Her influence at court was great; but this did\nnot save her from being accused of witchcraft. The fair popular lady\nwas tried in a criminal court for procuring the death of her husband\nby intoxication, or unholy drugging; for a design to poison the king;\nand for notorious witchcraft. She was found guilty, and burned.\n\nLady Fowlis was another intended noble victim. She and her step-son,\nHector Munro, were tried, in 1590, for witchcraft, incantation,\nsorcery, and poisoning. The charges against the lady were the\ndiabolical acts of making two images of clay, the one representing the\nyoung lady of Balnagowan, and the other personating Robert Munro (both\nof whom, it was alleged, stood in her way of advancement in life),\nwhich figures two notorious witches put up in a room, and shot at with\nelf arrows. As these operations did not terminate the existence of the\nintended victims, an attempt was made to poison them; but for a time\nthis also proved unsuccessful. At length the young lady of Balnagowan\ntasted her sister-in-law's infernal potion, whereby she contracted an\nincurable disease. Disappointed at the draught not immediately proving\nfatal, Lady Fowlis sent far and wide for gipsies and witches, to\nconsult with them as to what was best to be done. More clay images\nwere made, and shot at with elf arrows. She was tried by a jury,\ncomposed chiefly of the Fowlis dependants, who acquitted her.\n\nSeveral of her witch accomplices were not so fortunate; they suffered\nthe extreme penalty of the law. It was proved on trial, that Hector\nMunro had communed with three witches, in 1588, for the recovery of\nhis eldest brother, Robert, who was dangerously ill. The witches\n\"pollit the hair of Robert Munro, and plet the naillis of his fingers\nand taes;\" but the charms were ineffectual, and Robert died. Hector,\nthe panel, was unwell, and pronounced by women of skill to be\nincurable unless the chief man of his blood, George Munro of Abisdale,\nLady Catherine's eldest son, should die for him. All things being\nready, George was sent for to see his sick friend. When he came, a\nspell was applied, according to the directions of his foster-mother\nand certain witches. A grave was made between two manors, and at night\nthe sick man was laid in the grave, where he rested until one of the\nwitches consulted the devil as to what should be done next. The\ninvalid was covered over with turf, while another witch, with a young\nboy in her hand, ran the breadth of nine rigs, coming back to the\ngrave and asking who was her choice? The response came that Hector was\nto live and George to die for him. The ceremony being gone through\nthree times, all the parties present, except the devil in bodily\nshape, returned home. Hector, like his step-mother, escaped\npunishment, though the evidence against him was lengthy and weighty.\n\nIn 1633 Sir John Colquhoun of Luss, and Thomas Carlips, a German\nservant in his employment, were charged with consulting necromancers\nand sorcerers, and with incest, contrary to the Act of Parliament 9\nQueen Mary, and of an Act of James VI. Colquhoun was married to Lady\nLilias Grahame, the Earl of Montrose's eldest daughter. The Earl being\ndead, Lady Colquhoun brought home Lady Catherine, her second sister (a\nbeautiful young woman), to reside with her and Sir John. Colquhoun,\nfascinated with his sister-in-law's charms, made love to her, but,\nmeeting with no encouragement from the young lady, he consulted with\nCarlips (a necromancer) and with several witches and sorcerers as to\nthe best way of making her return his affection. They gave her\nphilters and enchanted love tokens, including a jewel of gold set with\nrubies and diamonds. The enchanted jewel proved effectual: Lady\nCatherine's scruples were overcome, and she and Sir John eloped,\nmaking their way to London, whither they were accompanied by Carlips.\nSir John and Carlips, though indicted, failed to answer the charge,\nand they were therefore declared rebels, and \"put to the horn.\"\n\nA singular account is given of the bewitching of Sir George Maxwell,\nwho died in 1677. The story is founded on information supplied by his\nson. It appears that Sir George Maxwell, being in Glasgow on the 14th\nOctober 1676, was suddenly seized at night with a hot and fiery\ndisease. He hastened home, fearing the worst; and it was well he did\nso, for he was long confined to bed of a painful disorder, that would\nnot yield to his skilful physician's treatment. It happened about this\ntime that a young dumb girl, a stranger, appeared in Polloktown. She\ncame occasionally to Sir George's house, soliciting assistance.\nObserving the gentleman's state, she seemed much troubled, and, by\nsigns, signified to his daughters that a woman had pricked Sir\nGeorge's sides. The girl subsequently pointed out Janet Mathie as the\nperson who had done the mischief. As suggested by the girl, Mathie's\nhouse was searched for a wax image, supposed to have been used as an\ninstrument to torture the unfortunate gentleman. True enough, a wax\nimage was found, with two pins stuck in it. Mathie was therefore\napprehended, and committed to prison. In presence of the Sheriff of\nRenfrewshire, she was searched for insensible marks by competent\ninspectors, who found many devil's marks.\n\nSir George recovered slightly, but on the 4th January he became so\npoorly that his friends despaired of his life. Meantime, again acting\non the dumb girl's suggestion, the house in which John Stewart (Janet\nMathie's eldest son) resided was searched, and a clay image, having\nthree pins stuck in it, lay in the bed where he slept. Stewart, and\none of his little sisters, aged fourteen years, were instantly\narrested. Being pressed to tell the truth, the girl apprehended told\nthat the image had been made by her brother, Bessie Weir, Margery\nCraig, and Margaret Jackson, in presence of a black man, whom she\nunderstood to be the devil. Sir George, curiously enough, recovered\nafter the second discovery of an image, the same as he had done at the\nfinding of the former figure. John Stewart remained obstinate until\nhis body was searched for insensible marks. These being discovered in\ngreat numbers, so confounded the man that he admitted his compact\nwith Satan. In a judicial declaration he confessed his accomplices\nwere his sister and the other women named. On further examination the\ngirl admitted that she, as well as her mother and brother, had a\npaction with Satan.\n\nLord Ross and the Earl of Dundonald granted a warrant for the\napprehension of Bessie Weir, Margaret Jackson, and Margery Craig.\nMargaret Jackson, who had reached the age of eighty years, like her\naccomplices, had many devil's marks on her person. She confessed being\naccessory to the making of images, with the intention of depriving Sir\nGeorge Maxwell of life.\n\nOn the 17th January a third image was found under Janet Mathie's\nprison bed in Paisley, concerning which the dumb girl had given\ninformation; but it appeared to be the picture of a woman. The\nsupposition seemed to be that it represented a lady belonging to the\nPollok family; for against the whole household Mathie had taken an\ninveterate grudge.\n\nThe Lords of His Majesty's Privy Council, being informed of what had\nbeen done, granted a commission to Sir Patrick Gauston of Gauston,\nJames Brisbane of Bishopton, Sir John Shaw, younger, of Greenock, John\nAnderson, younger, of Dovehill, and John Preston, advocate, with Lord\nGeorge Ross as assessor, to try the persons in custody. The Commission\nheld its first court in Paisley on 27th January 1677. Annabil Stewart,\nthe girl of fourteen years, when brought before the court for the\ncrime of witchcraft, stated that, in the previous harvest, the devil,\nlike a black man, came to her mother's house and requested the\ndeclarant to give herself up to him, under pretence that if she did so\nshe would never want. Enticed by her mother and Bessie Weir, she put\nher hand to the crown of her head, and the other to the sole of her\nfoot, and swore that she yielded herself up to his Satanic majesty.\nShe declared that she had a spirit that attended her, known to herself\nand the other witches by the name of Enippa. Declared further, that\nall the other witches had wicked spirits that assisted them in their\nevil deeds. She told who were present when the several images were\nmade. One of the figures was put on a spit, and turned before the\nfire. As it went round, each and all of them kept repeating Sir George\nMaxwell, Sir George Maxwell. One night, she said, she saw her brother\nJohn Stewart with a black man with cloven feet.\n\nIn a second declaration John Stewart confessed that he, Bessie Weir,\nMargaret Jackson, and Margery Craig had a meeting with the devil on\nthe night of 3rd January, when he, at the request of Satan, renounced\nhis baptism. He was induced, he said, to do this, by the devil\npromising that he should not want any pleasure, or fail to see revenge\non those who did him wrong. That evening, effigies of clay were made\nfor taking away the life of Sir George Maxwell. John observed, when\nthe devil was moulding the image, that his hands were bluish, and that\nthere were handcuffs on his wrists.\n\nMargaret Jackson, in her confession, admitted she was present at the\nmaking of an effigy and of a picture formed in Janet Mathie's house,\nand that they were made as instruments for taking away Sir George\nMaxwell's life. Admitted further, that, forty years before her\napprehension, she had given herself from the crown of the head to the\nsole of the feet to the devil. These declarations were subscribed by\nRobert Park, notary-public.\n\nAll the accused persons, except Annabil, were found guilty, and\nordered, together with effigies they had prepared for Sir George's\ndestruction, to be burned. Annabil seriously admonished her mother to\nconfess before she suffered; but nothing, we are informed, would move\nthe obdurate and hardened old witch--so she perished, denying her\nguilt.\n\nIn the case of Alison Pearson, who suffered for witchcraft in\nScotland in 1586, several strange revelations were made. She had had a\nstroke of paralysis, which so affected her that at times she suffered\nseverely. She was a reputed witch, averred to have done serious\nmischief to her neighbours. For this reason, she was indicted for\nholding communication with demons. She admitted having intercourse\nwith the Queen of Elfland and the good neighbours. When she fell into\na trance, which happened often, she saw her cousin, William Sympsoune,\nof Stirling (who had been conveyed away to the hills by the fairies),\nfrom whom she received a salve that could cure every disease; and from\nthis ointment the Archbishop of St. Andrews confessed he derived\nbenefit. In an indictment framed against her, it was set forth that\nshe, being in Grangemuir, lay down sick, and that there came a man to\nher, clad in green, who said, if she would be faithful to him, he\nwould do her much good; but she, being afraid, cried out, and he went\naway; that he appeared to her another time, accompanied by many men\nand women, making merry with good cheer and music; that she was\ncarried away by them; and that, when she revealed anything, one of the\nfolk chastised her so unmercifully as to leave ugly marks and take\naway the power from one of her sides. In her declaration she stated\nshe saw the good neighbours (fairies) making their salves, with pans\nand fires, from herbs gathered under certain planets, and on\nparticular days before the sun rose. Among other revelations, she\nstated that her cousin, William Sympsoune, appeared to her in the\nshape of a fairy, and bade her sign herself with the cross, to prevent\nher being carried to Elfland; for it was dangerous to go there, as\none-tenth of the witches were annually conveyed thence to the place of\neverlasting torment.\n\nAnother witch story. One night a gentleman in the west, riding home,\nwas suddenly stopped by an unseen hand seizing his horse's bridle\nrein. Having a sword, he first struck at one side of his horse's\nhead, and then at the other. The animal, now unrestrained, galloped\nhome, when, on putting the horse into the stable, the gentleman found\na hand cut off at the wrist, hanging to the bridle reins. Suspecting\nhe had been waylaid by Janet Wood (a reputed witch in the\nneighbourhood), he called on her next day, and found her in bed. She\ncomplained of being ill. After conversing with her for a short time,\nhe rose to take his leave, and held out his hand to shake hands with\nher. She offered him her left hand; but he refused to take it, saying\nit was unfriendly to use the left hand for such a friendly purpose.\nAfter a good deal of hesitation, she admitted that she had lost her\nright hand in an encounter she had the previous night when out on\nwitch business. The gentleman produced the hand, and, on it being\ncompared with her stump, it fitted exactly. The question then came to\nbe, how the stroke took effect, for no ordinary sword could have\ninjured the witch; and it turned out that it had been charmed by the\nowner's grandmother, a sensible old woman.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LX.\n\n      Edinburgh and Leith Witches--Black Catalogue--Witches\n      Burned and Drowned--James VI. and the\n      Witches--Complaint to the Scottish Privy Council of\n      Barbarous Conduct--Relics of Superstition--Images\n      found at Arthur Seat--Witch-finders in Edinburgh and\n      Leith--Royal Commission to Magistrates and Ministers\n      to search for and put Witches to Death--Wife of a\n      Judge in Edinburgh meeting a Witch's Fate--Repeal of\n      the Laws against Witchcraft--Opposition to Acts being\n      Repealed--Judge of the Supreme Courts of Scotland\n      against a Change of the Law--Witches in Edinburgh and\n      Leith in the Sixteenth Century--James Reid--Agnes\n      Finnie, the Potter-row Witch--Alexander Hamilton, the\n      Warlock--The Devil and Hamilton burning a Provost's\n      Mill--Janet Barker curing a Bewitched Man--Margaret\n      Hutchison, a habit-and-repute Witch--Young Laird of\n      Duddingston--Major Weir and his Magical Staff--A\n      Magical Distaff--Agnes Williamson, a Haddingtonshire\n      Witch--Elizabeth Bathgate of Eyemouth--Isabella Young\n      of Eastbarns burned at the Castlehill.\n\n\nAgainst Edinburgh and Leith stands a black catalogue of judicial\nmurders of supposed witches and warlocks. At the Cross, Gallow Lee,\nbetween Edinburgh and Leith, and on the sands of the latter town,\nunknown numbers of unhappy creatures, male and female, were executed\nin a most barbarous manner, for the imaginary crime of witchcraft.\nNearly all the victims were first tortured to make them confess, and\nafterwards some of them were worried, and then burned; others were\nhanged at the Cross, Gallow Lee; and not a few supposed witches were\nfastened to a stake on South Leith sands, and allowed to remain there\nuntil the tide terminated their miseries.\n\nOf James VI., and the witches who persecuted him, we have treated in\nchapter XXIV.; but it may be further mentioned that in his time an\nunprecedented number of reputed witches were put to death in\nEdinburgh. His brutish judges displayed unwonted activity in bringing\nmen and women to an untimely end, because they knew their zeal brought\nthem into royal favour. A time, however, came when the nation could no\nlonger suffer the barbarities of bygone periods to be continued.\nAccordingly, in 1608 a complaint was made to the Scottish Privy\nCouncil against persons in power for so torturing the hapless women\nthat they died amid smoke and flame, blaspheming the Most High, and\nuttering imprecations against their fellow-creatures.\n\nIn the Antiquarian Museum of Edinburgh are a few relics of\nsuperstitious times. They consist of small figures, representing human\nbeings, which were found in the crevice of a rock at Arthur Seat, and\nare, no doubt, figures formed for magical purposes. In the Museum are\nalso to be seen implements of torture, to be more particularly noticed\nin chapter LXIII. Edinburgh and Leith, like every large town, had\nprofessional witch-finders. Royal commissions were issued to\nmagistrates and ministers of the Church, giving them power to search\nfor, torture, and put to death, either by fire or water, every one\nguilty of witchcraft. Rich and poor were suspected. Even nobles were\naccused of witchcraft; and the wife of a senator of the College of\nJustice, in Edinburgh, did not escape a witch's fate. As indicative of\nthe belief in witchcraft in high quarters about the middle of last\ncentury, we find that, when the Bill for the repeal of the Act against\nwitches was introduced into Parliament, in 1735, it was opposed by\npersons from whom better sense might have been expected. Notably among\nthem is named a judge of our Supreme Law Court in Scotland. Let us\nlook back, however, to years antecedent to 1735, and see how it fared\nwith witches in Edinburgh and elsewhere.\n\nNear the latter end of the sixteenth century, Janet Stewart, belonging\nto Edinburgh, Christian Levingstone, Bessie Aitken, residing in Leith,\nand Christina Sadler of Blackhouse, were noted witches, who did much\nmischief to persons and property.\n\nJames Reid was instructed by the devil how to heal infirm people by\nthe application of silk-laces, south-running water, and grease. He\ncured Sarah Borthwick by giving her south-running water from the\nSchriff-breyis well, and casting salt and wheat about her.\n\nAgnes Finnie, an indweller in the Potter-row, Edinburgh, was indicted\nbefore a judge and a jury, on twenty articles of indictment, charging\nher with witchcraft and sorcery. The libel set forth that she had been\nguilty of laying on and taking off grievous sickness and diseases from\npeople. Under one count it was set forth that Finnie having had a\ndifference in June preceding with Christina Dickson, the accused, in\ngreat wrath, uttered these words, \"The devil ride about the town with\nyou and yours,\" and that shortly thereafter the said Christina's\ndaughter, in her return from Dalkeith to Edinburgh, fell and broke her\nleg, which was caused, if the libel was truly drawn up, by the\ndevilish threats and sorceries of the said Agnes Finnie. By way of\naggravation of her crimes, it was stated she had confessed, at her\nfirst examination before the South-west Kirk-session of Edinburgh,\nthat she had been commonly called a rank witch. She was convicted of\nnearly all the charges brought against her, and suffered accordingly.\n\nAlexander Hamilton, a warlock, was indicted for sorcery. He was\nenticed away by the devil (so the complainant made it appear), in the\nlikeness of a black man, to Kingstoun Hills, East Lothian. In\nconsideration of the poor man renouncing his baptism, and promising to\nobey his Satanic master, that grim contractor, on his part, engaged\nthat the accused should never want. The panel thereafter often called\nSatan up by means of beating the ground three times with a fir-stick;\nand he answered to the summons, sometimes like a corbie, and sometimes\nlike a cat or dog. By the devil's assistance, Hamilton injured those\nwho hurt him. In particular, he burned Provost Cockburn's mill, full\nof corn, by pulling out three stalks of corn from the Provost's\nstacks, and burning them at Gairnetoune Hill. From the indictment it\nwould appear the devil instructed him how to prepare an ointment from\nthe oil of spikenard and heart's grease, to cure diseases. A lady of\nrank having offended him, he and two witches, in Salton Wood, raised\nthe devil, who appearing, gave him the \"bottom of blue due,\" and bade\nhim lay it at the lady's door, and that the panel, having disposed of\nthe \"bottom of blue due,\" as directed, the lady and her eldest\ndaughter died soon thereafter. All the charges being solemnly admitted\nby the criminal, he was worried at a stake and burned.\n\nJanet Barker, a servant, confessed to the magistrates and ministers of\nEdinburgh that she had cured a young man who had been bewitched, by\ngiving him a waistcoat she had received from the devil; and by placing\nunder a door a black card which she had also obtained from Satan.\n\nMargaret Hutchison was found guilty, in 1661, of being\nhabit-and-repute a witch--a supposed fact spoken to by the young laird\nof Duddingston; and of putting a disease on her servant maid, and\nthereafter removing it to a cat, soon after found dead near the\nservant's bed.\n\nMajor Weir, who ended this life, or rather whose existence was ended,\nin Edinburgh in the year 1670, was an enchanter who performed many\nunaccountable actions in his day. According to the statement of his\nsister, his whole magical power proceeded from a staff he possessed.\nThe major's sister had at the same time a distaff which often spun\nyarn for her without any one handling it. At night she left the\ndistaff empty, and in the morning it was full.\n\nIn the year 1662 Agnes Williamson, residing at Samuelston,\nHaddingtonshire, was indicted for witchcraft. She was charged, _inter\nalia_, with taking the strength out of her neighbour's meal by her\nenchantments; with raising a whirlwind, and thereby throwing her\nneighbour Carfrae into the water, where he saw her and other witches\nswimming about; with telling a neighbour that Carfrae would lose five\nhundred merks, and, by her sorcery, setting fire to his malt kiln;\nwith renouncing her baptism, and taking the new name of \"Nannie\nLuckfoot.\" The jury brought in a verdict of guilty as to her being\nhabit-and-repute a witch, but they acquitted her of all the other\ncharges.\n\nIn the beginning of the seventeenth century Elizabeth Bathgate, spouse\nof Alexander Pae, maltman in Eyemouth, was prosecuted at the instance\nof the Lord Advocate for sorcery. The charges exhibited against her\nwere eighteen in number, from which the following are selected:--\n\n      \"Causing the death of George Sprot's child by giving\n      it an enchanted egg. Throwing the said George Sprot\n      into extreme poverty by her sorcery. Making a horse\n      sweat to death through the same means, and killing an\n      ox by dancing on the rigging of the byre in which the\n      animal stood. Using conjurations and running\n      withershinns in the mill of Eyemouth. Standing\n      bare-legged in her 'sark-vallie-coat,' at twelve\n      o'clock at night, conferring with the devil, who was\n      dressed in green clothes. Receiving a horse shoe from\n      the devil, and laying it in a secret part of the door,\n      that all her business in-doors might prosper. Casting\n      away and sinking George Huldie's ship with several\n      persons therein.\"\n\nAfter a long trial, she was acquitted.\n\nIn the year 1629 Isabella Young, spouse of George Smith, portioner,\nEastbarns, was indicted for witchcraft and sorcery. There were many\nacts of witchcraft and sorcery libelled against her, extending over a\nperiod of many years. The Lords of Justiciary, before whom the trial\ntook place, found her guilty, and sentenced her to be worried at a\nstake, and thereafter burned to ashes on the Castle Hill.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXI.\n\n      The Demon of Jedburgh--Recruiting Sergeant--Captain\n      Douglas--An Apparition--Witch Shot in the form of a\n      Cat--Isobel Gowdie, an Auldearne Witch--Sabbath\n      Meetings with Satan--Poor Farmer\n      Breadley--Disinterring Unbaptised Children--Strange\n      Mixture--Singularly-constructed Plough--An equally\n      singular Team--Attempt to shoot a Minister--Bessie\n      Hay's Attempt to slay Harie Forbes--The\n      Borrowstounness Witches--Their Trial and Sentence--A\n      Pittenweem Witch--An Unearthly Horse--Merciful View of\n      a Witch's Case--A Perthshire Witch--Water of Ruthven\n      Well--A Changeling.\n\n\n\"The demon of Jedburgh\" caused considerable annoyance in 1752. In that\nyear Captain Archibald Douglas was on recruiting service in the town\nof Jedburgh. He had a sergeant under him, who asked permission to\nchange his quarters, on account of the house in which he resided being\nhaunted by a spirit of frightful form. The captain laughed at the\ninferior officer, and ordered him to stay in the lodgings appointed\nhim.\n\nAt their next meeting the sergeant declared he had again seen an\napparition, which threatened his life. Moved by a dream and the\nsergeant's statements, Captain Douglas resolved to inquire into the\nmatters that so disturbed the non-commissioned officer. The latter\ntold his superior that during the night a frightful spectre stood by\nhis bed-side, that it changed into the shape of a black cat, jumped\nout at the window, and flew over the church steeple. Moreover, the\nsergeant informed the captain that he had learned the landlady was a\nwitch, and the landlord possessed the faculty of second sight.\n\nAt night Captain Douglas accompanied the sergeant, and lay down beside\nhim, leaving his sword and firearms near them. At midnight the captain\nwas wakened by a noise, and, on looking up, observed a large black cat\nflying through the window. Presently the captain fired his pistol at\nthe creature, and shot away one of its ears. Next morning the\ncommissioned officer stepped into the kitchen to see what was going on\nthere, when in came the landlady, and swooned away in a pool of blood.\nOn removing her head-dress, he discovered a pistol-shot wound on one\nside of her face, and observed that one of her ears was gone. The\nofficer swore he would bring her before the magistrates to have her\ntried as a witch. She and her husband entreated him to refrain from\ngiving information to the authorities, and he, like a generous man,\npromised to keep silence, on the condition that they would abandon\ntheir wicked ways.\n\nIsobel Gowdie, one of the Auldearne witches, was baptised by the\ndevil, with whom she had many \"Sabbath meetings.\" She and other\nwitches appropriated Farmer Breadley's corn to themselves, and left\nhim nothing but weeds. To secure the grain, they at one time\ndisinterred an unbaptised infant, which, together with parings of\ntheir nails, ears of corn, and colewort leaves, they chopped and mixed\ntogether. At another time, to accomplish a similar object, a plough,\nhaving a colter and sock of rams' horns, was prepared, and a yoke of\ntoads, instead of oxen, with dog-grass traces, made to draw it twice\nround the farmer's fields. The agricultural implement was held by the\ndevil, and John Young, a warlock, goaded the team, while a band of\nwitches followed, beseeching the ploughman to do his work effectually.\n\nAn attempt was made by the gang of witches to which Isobel Gowdie\nbelonged, to shoot Harie Forbes, the minister of Auldearne, with elf\narrows, shaped by the devil, and sharpened by his imps.\nNotwithstanding all this, the arrows missed the mark. Charms and\nincantations were next resorted to with the view of depriving the\nparish of a good useful parson, who had been instrumental, both in and\nout of the pulpit, in making Satan tremble. The flesh and gall of a\ntoad, a hare's liver, barley grains, nail parings, mashed in water,\nwere put into a bag. Bessie Hay, a celebrated witch, being intimate\nwith Mr. Forbes, went into his room to slay him with the compound, but\nthe good man was proof against infernal acts, and so escaped injury.\n\nCertain witches--Annaple Thomson, Margaret Pringle, Margaret\nHamiltown, relict of James Pollwart, William Craw, Bessie Wicker, and\nMargaret Hamilton, relict of Thomas Mitchell, sadly tormented\nBorrowstounness and other parts of Linlithgowshire, in the seventeenth\ncentury. Having entered into a paction with Satan, they did divers\nacts of wickedness, for which they were tried before Commissioners of\nJusticiary, specially appointed for the purpose by the Lords of His\nMajesty's Council. The indictment charged that:\n\n      \"Ye, and ilk ane of you, are indytted and accused,\n      that where, notwithstanding, be the law of God,\n      particularly sett down in the 20 chapter of Leviticus,\n      and eighteen chap. of Dewtronomie, and be the lawes\n      and actes of parliament of this kingdome, and constant\n      practiq thereof; particularlie be 73 act, 9\n      parliament, Q. Marie, the cryme of witchcraft is\n      declared to be ane horreid, abominable, and capitall\n      cryme, punishable with the paines of death and\n      confiscatiown of moveables; never the less it is of\n      veritie, that you have committed, and ar gwyltie of\n      the said cryme of witchcraft, in swa far ye have\n      entered in pactiown with the devill, the enemie of\n      your salvatiown, and have renownced your baptizme, and\n      have given your selffes, both soulles and bodies, to\n      the devill, and have bein severall meetings with the\n      devill, and wyth swndrie witches in diverse places:\n      and particularlie, ye the said Annaple Thomsone had a\n      metting with the devill the tyme of your weidowhood,\n      before yow was married to your last husband, in your\n      cwming betwixt Linlithgow and Borrowstownes, where the\n      devill, in the lykness of ane black man, told yow that\n      yow wis ane poore puddled bodie, and had ane evill\n      lyiff, and difficultie to win throw the world; and\n      promesed, iff ye wald followe him, and go alongst with\n      him, yow should never want, but have ane better lyiff:\n      and, abowt fyve wekes therefter, the devill appeired\n      to yow when yow wis goeing to the coal-hill abowt\n      sevin o'clock in the morning. Having renewed his\n      former tentatiown, yow did condeschend thereto, and\n      declared yowrselff content to follow him, and becwm\n      his servant: and ye, and each persone of yow, wis at\n      several mettings with the devill in the linkes of\n      Borrowstownes, and in the howss of yow Bessie Vickar,\n      and ye did eatt and drink with the devill, and with\n      ane another, and with witches in hir howss in the\n      night tyme; and the devill and the said Wm. Craw\n      browght the ale which ye drank, extending to abowt\n      sevin gallons, from the howss of Elizabeth Hamilton;\n      and yow the said Annaple had ane other metting abowt\n      fyve wekes ago, when yow wis goeing to the coal-hill\n      of Grange, and he invitted yow to go alongest, and\n      drink with him in the Grange pannes. And yow the said\n      Margaret Pringil have bein ane witch thir many yeeres\n      bygane; hath renownced yowr baptizme, and becwm the\n      devill's servant, and promised to follow him; and he\n      tuik you by the right hand, whereby it was, for eight\n      days, grevowslie pained; but having it twitched of new\n      againe, it imediatelie becam haill. And yow the said\n      Margaret Hamiltown has bein the devill's servant these\n      eight or nyne yeeres bygane; and he appered and\n      conversed with yow at the toun-well at Borrowstownes,\n      and several tymes in yowr awin howss, and drank\n      several choppens of ale with yow; and the devill gave\n      yow ane fyve merk piece of gold, whilk a lyttill efter\n      becam ane sklaitt stane. And yow the said Margaret\n      Hamiltown, relict of James Pullwart, has bein ane\n      witch, and the devill's servant thertie yeeres since,\n      hath renwncid yowr baptizme, as said is. And ye, and\n      ilk ane of yow, wis at ane metting with the devill and\n      wther witches at the croce of Murestaine, above\n      Kinneil, upon the threttin of October last, where yow\n      all danced, and the devill acted the pyiper, and where\n      yow endeavored to have destroyed Andrew Mitchell, sone\n      to John Mitchell, elder in Dean of Kinneil.\"\n\nThen followed the order and warrant for burning the witches named in\nthe indictment, couched and signed as follows:--\n\n      \"Forsameikle as Annabil Thomson widdow in\n      Borrowstownes, Margaret Prinkle relict of John\n      Campbell ther, Margaret Hamiltown relict of James\n      Pollwart ther, William Craw indweller ther, Bessie\n      Wicker relict of James Pennie ther, and Margaret\n      Hamiltown relict of Thomas Mitchell ther, prisoners in\n      the tolbuith of Borrowstownes, are found guiltie be\n      ane assyse, of the abominable cryme of witchcraft\n      committed be them in manner mentioned in their\n      dittayes, and are decerned and adjudged be us under\n      subscryvers (commissioners of justiciary speciallie\n      appoynted to this effect) to be taken to the west end\n      of Borrowstownes, the ordinar place of execution ther,\n      upon Tuesday the twentie-third day of December\n      current, betwixt two and four o'cloack in the\n      efternoon, and there be wirried at a steack till they\n      be dead, and thereafter to have their bodies burnt to\n      ashes. These therefoir require and command the baylie\n      principal off the regalitie of Borrowstownes, and his\n      deputts, to see the said sentence and doom put to dew\n      execution in all poynts, as yes will be answerable.\n      Given under our hands at Borrowstownes the nynteenth\n      day of December 1679 years,\n\n      \"W. DUNDAS.\n      \"RICH. ELPHENSTONE.\n      \"WA. SANDILANDS.\n      \"J. CORNWALL.\n      \"J. HAMILTON.\"\n\nBeatrix Laing, a Pittenweem witch, became a most resentful woman.\nBecause a young lad refused to give her a few nails, she, by means of\nputting burning coals and water into a wooden vessel, cast a grievous\nsickness on the young man, which made him swell prodigiously. For this\nshe was cast into prison, pricked, and kept without sleep for five\nnights and days, to make her confess her dealings in charms and\nwitchcraft generally. After considerable delay, a confession of guilt\nwas extracted from the woman. Among other things, she told of a big\nblack horse that had come to her with five packs of wool. Beatrix gave\nthe animal to her husband, but the good man soon desired to get rid of\nthe beast. It did not look like any other horse he had ever seen;\nneither whip nor stick would drive it away. Under the peculiar\ncircumstances, the poor man consulted his wife as to what was best to\nbe done. Long deliberation was uncalled for. \"Go,\" said Beatrix, \"cast\nhis bridle on his neck, and you will get rid of him.\" The docile and\nalarmed husband did as instructed; and lo, the black horse flew off\nwith a great noise. Repeated attempts were made by the magistrates of\nPittenweem to induce the Privy Council to bring Beatrix to trial. The\nEarl of Balcarres and Lord Anstruther, members of the Council, looked\non her as a dreamer, and obtained her discharge after five months\nincarceration. This act of clemency filled the Pittenweem people with\nrage: they drove her from home and habitation. Hungry and cold, she\nwandered about for many days, till death ended her sufferings.\n\nA Perthshire witch cured little children by various charms. A cake\nmade of meal obtained from nine several women was an infallible\nmedicine, when eaten by a little sufferer; and a decoction of certain\nherbs, infused in water from the well of Ruthven, carried by one going\nto and returning from the spring, silently and alone, was an\ninvaluable preparation. A neighbour, named John Gow, had a changeling\nleft in his house in place of a beautiful infant, belonging to him,\nstolen by the fairies. The sickly-looking creature proved a source of\ngreat annoyance to him and his spouse, but, thanks to a witch, it was\ngot rid of: a dose of her medicine administered to the disguised fairy\nproved sufficient to despatch it to fairyland, or to some other\nunknown place.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXII.\n\n      Witchcraft in Aberdeen--Dean of Guild rewarded for his\n      Diligence in burning Witches--Trial of Thomas Leyis\n      for Witchcraft--Found Guilty--Expense of burning\n      Thomas Leyis--Expense of burning Janet Wischert and\n      Isobel Cocker--The Marquis of Huntly's Desire to\n      punish Witches--Action of the Presbytery anent\n      Witches--Helen Fraser--Man under the Protection of the\n      Fairy Queen--Janet Wischert causing a Man to melt away\n      like a Candle--Ruining a Man and his Wife--Margaret\n      Clark's Power--Strathdown Witches--Merry\n      Wives--Transforming Besoms into the Likeness of\n      Women--Riding on Brooms--Crossing the Spey in\n      Riddles--Disappearance of Witches--Madge M'Donald of\n      Tomintoul--Witches' Pool--A Mountain Tale--Girl\n      controlling the Elements--Witch Burned--Caithness\n      Witches--Margaret Olson, one of the Evil\n      Sisterhood--Investigation by the Sheriff--Margaret\n      Nin-Gilbert--Helen Andrew--Shetland Witches--An Orkney\n      Lady--Mary Lamont of Innerkip.\n\n\nJudging from the number of persons burned for alleged supernatural\nacts in Aberdeen--sometimes as many as twenty-three in a year--that\ncity must have been a hotbed of witches. To hunt down witches there,\nand to bring them to the stake, met with general approval. Men in\npublic office, noble lords, ecclesiastics, and the common people\njoined in the hunt, with results truly appalling. Under date 21st\nSeptember 1597, the provost, bailies, and council showed their\nappreciation of the diligence of William Dunn in the discharge of his\nduties as dean of guild; and \"besides, of his extraordinary pains in\nthe burning of a great number of witches, and four pirates, and\nbigging of the port on the brig of Dee.\"\n\n      They \"theirfor, in recompens of his extraordinarie\n      panis, and in satisfaction theirof (not to induce any\n      preparative to deanes of guild to crave a recompence\n      heirafter), but to incurage ithers to travel also\n      diligentlie in the discharge of thair office, grantit\n      and assignit to him the sum of \u00a347, 3s. 4d. owin be\n      him of the rest of his account of the unlawis of the\n      persons convict for slaying of black fische, and\n      dischargit him theirof be their presentis for ever.\"\n\nThomas Leyis, a stabler in Aberdeen, fell a victim to the over-zeal of\nhis fellow-citizens at this time, the chief of whom was, no doubt, the\nindefatigable dean of guild. Leyis appeared before the Court of\nJusticiary held in the tolbooth of Aberdeen, to answer to the\nundermentioned charges:--\n\n      \"Imprimis, upon Hallowein last bypast, at twelff\n      houris at even or thairby, thow, the said Thomas\n      Leyis, accompaneit with umquhil Janett Wischert,\n      Isobel Coker, Isobel Monteithe, Kathren Mitchell,\n      relict of umquhil Charles Dun, litster, sorceraris and\n      witches, with ane gryt number of ither witches, cam to\n      the mercat and fish cross of Aberdene, under the\n      conduct and gyding of the dewill, present with you all\n      in company, playing before you on his kynd of\n      instruments. Ye all dansit about baythe the said\n      crosse and the meill mercate ane lang space of tym; in\n      the quhilk dewill's dans thow, the said Thomas, was\n      foremost and led the ring, and dang the said Kathren\n      Mitchell, because she spoilt your dans, and ran nocht\n      sa fast about as the rest. Testifeit be the said\n      Kathren Mitchell, quha was present with thee at the\n      tym foresaid, dansin with the dewill.\n\n      \"Secundus, the said Thomas Leyis is accusit as a\n      common notorious witche, in using of witchcraft and\n      sorcerie these dyvers years bygane.\n\n      \"The haill assis, in ane voce for the maist pairt\n      (except thrie), convicts and fyllis Thomas Leyis in\n      the first poynt, that he was the ringleader of the\n      dans on Hallowein last night about the croce, and in\n      either speciall poynts, and as a notorious witche be\n      oppen voce and common fame.\" [Thomas was burned.]\n\nThe following figures show the expenses incurred in burning the said\nunfortunate man:\n\n      \"Item, for peattis, tar barrellis, fir, and coallis, to\n      burn the said Thomas, and to Jon Justice for\n      his fie in executing him                               \u00a32 13 4\"\n\n\nEXPENSES OF BURNING JANET WISCHERT AND ISOBEL COCKER IN ABERDEEN:\n\n      \"Item, for twenty loads of peattis to burn them        \u00a32  0  0\n      Item, for ane boll of coillis                           1  4  0\n      Item, for four tar barrellis                            1  6  8\n      Item, for fir and win barrellis                         0 16  8\n      Item, for a staik, and dressing of it                   0 16  0\n      Item, for four fadomes of towis                         4  0  0\n      Item, for careing the peattis, coallis, and barrellis\n        to the hill                                           0 13  4\n      Item, to Jon Justice for their execution                0 13  4\"\n\nAnother instance of the Aberdonian zeal for the punishment of witches\nappears on 6th January 1603. A minute of the presbytery says:\n\n      \"The quhilk day, anent the desyre of the Marques of\n      Huntlie desyring the presbyterie to tak tryell of the\n      witches, and consultares with them, and to send to his\n      Lordship the delatioun, with the names of sic as were\n      maist meitt to pass upon the assyse and tryell of\n      them. The presbyterie, for obedience heirto, ordanit\n      every minister within their precinct to tak ane\n      subtill and privie inquisition therein--viz. ilk\n      minister, with tua of his elderis that fearis God and\n      are maist zealous of his glorie, at ilk particular\n      kirk respective, tak the aithes of the inhabitants\n      within their charge, quhat they know of witches and\n      consultaris with them, and wreitt their depositions,\n      and return the same to the presbyterie, with the names\n      of sic as are metest to be assyssours to them, that\n      the same may be sent to the Marques with all hastie\n      expedition, conform to the desyre of his Lordship's\n      lettre, and his Lordship may charge them.\"\n\nHelen Fraser, an Aberdeen witch, caused Robert Merchant, a married\nman, to fall in love with Isobel Bruce, a widow--an unholy affection\nthat continued to the day Fraser was burned.\n\nAndrew Man, an old Aberdonian, considered himself under the\nprotection of the fairy queen, who imparted to him a knowledge of all\nthings, and gave him the gift of healing every disease except one--the\n\"stand deid\"--the nature of which is unknown to us. By putting a\npatient nine times through a hank of unwashed yarn, and a cat as often\nthrough it in the opposite direction, he cast the disease on the cat,\nand thereby cured the invalid.\n\nJanet Wischert, the expense of whose execution has been given, was a\nprominent witch in the north. She caused a man to melt away like a\nburning candle; she ruined a husband and his wife, by causing them to\nput nine grains of wheat in the corners of their house; she raised a\nwind, by putting a piece of live coal at two doors, whereby she was\nenabled to winnow some corn for herself, when none of her neighbours\ncould winnow for want of wind.\n\nMargaret Clark had the power of transferring pains from one person to\nanother. She gave a valuable charm to a widow in search of a second\nhusband. It was to be worn round her neck until she saw the man she\nloved best. When she met him she was to rub her face with the\nenchanted ornament, which would prove sufficient to induce the loved\none to return the affection. Of the success of this scheme there is\nnot sufficient proof; but there can be no doubt that, by means of\ncharms, she (Clark) made a cruel husband leave off beating his wife.\nClark was accustomed to attend a convention of twenty thousand\nwitches, presided over by Satan, at Athole.\n\nStrathdown, a wild romantic place in the north Highlands of Scotland,\nhas long been celebrated for its witches, warlocks, ghosts, and\nfairies. An excellent story is told of two witches in that strath, who\nperformed extraordinary feats through Satanic power.\n\nAn honest hard-working farmer there was constantly in great poverty.\nHis cattle died, his sheep were worried, his ploughs broken, and his\ncarts often overturned. Everything he did proved unprofitable. His\ncows' milk was bewitched; the cream would not turn into butter, the\nhens laid few eggs, and the chickens never throve. These misfortunes\nhappened because he and his wife disregarded the traditions of their\nnative country. How could they and theirs thrive? There was not an old\nhorse-shoe nailed to one of their doors; no rowan tree lay above\neither door or window lintel; and the cattle were permitted to feed on\nthe hill-side, without red thread tied round their tails. In short,\nthe married couple lived as if no witches nor evil beings were among\nthe glens and mountains, and as if they did not require to evoke the\naid of the wise men and women in their parish.\n\nThe farmer had two neighbours, by no means noted for industry; still\nthey throve. Their wives were comely happy creatures, beloved by close\ncompanions and friends. On one occasion, when the unfortunate farmer's\nwife was complaining to the other two farmers' wives, they told her\nthat if she would take their advice she would become prosperous like\nthem. She consented to follow their counsel. The first thing the\nwitches did (for, as the sequel will show, they were witches deeply\nlearned in Satan's wicked ways) was to impose on the novice a vow of\nsecrecy; then to direct her, when going to bed, to take with her the\nbesom, and, when her husband was asleep, to rise and come to them,\nleaving the besom beside him, and it would assume her appearance, so\nthat he could not miss her.\n\nThe poor man's wife, having done as directed, hurried out to join her\ncompanions, whom she found ready to start on a journey. They had\ntorches to light them on their way, brooms to ride on through the air,\nand riddles to ferry them over the rapid running Spey; for they had a\nmeeting that night, on the north side of this river, with kindred\nspirits and the ruler of darkness. Every one of the three women\nbestrode a broom, and away they went over mountain and glen. A few\nminutes brought them to the Spey, where they alighted in safety. The\nexperienced witches at once launched their riddles to cross the water;\nbut the third woman hesitated to trust herself in the open\nagricultural implement. Impatient at delay, her companions urged her\nto follow them. Never did lover seem more anxious to meet lover than\nthose two witches were to join the beings on the other side, engaged\nin mirth and revelry. At the foot of a mountain near by (on the top of\nwhich the ancient inhabitants of the north used to worship the sun and\nfire) orgies were being carried on, while the top seemed to be in\nflames. Sweet music saluted the ear, and a savoury smell arose from a\nhuge table, on which were spread a thousand dishes. A tall man with\nswarthy complexion, as if he had come from a warm clime, stood to\nwelcome all comers; and truly there were many hastening to the revel.\nWomen flew as swiftly as if they were crows, and crossed the river as\nreadily in their riddles as if they were mermaids. The novice became\ngreatly alarmed, and crossed herself repeatedly. Just as the wicked\nwitches reached the middle of the stream, she exclaimed, \"Holy Mother,\nconfound them!\" The words had scarcely escaped from her lips, before\nthe lights were extinguished and horrid yells of despair sounded far\nand near.\n\nLeft alone in such a fearful place, the poor woman began to think what\nshe could do. Remembering her distance from home, she felt at first\ninclined to bestride a broom and fly back; but second thoughts brought\nto mind the fate of her two unfortunate companions, whom she believed\nwere drowned. Resolved to walk, or rather run, back to her abode\nbefore morning dawn, she went forward over moorland wilds, staying\nnot, nor even looking behind, until she entered her own house and\nbarred the door. Husband and besom occupied the bed as on the previous\nnight. Removing the latter, she quietly took its place, but not to\nsleep; for her nervous system had received a severe shock--indeed so\nmuch so, that for more than a week she did not rise.\n\nMeantime the two lost women were missed; and the inhabitants far and\nnear turned out to search for them. Every effort to discover them,\ndead or alive, proved unsuccessful.\n\nWhen ordinary efforts to find the women failed, the disconsolate\nhusbands sought the advice of Madge Macdonald, the wise woman of\nTomintoul. This important person told the husbands there was a person\nnot far away who could tell about the women's disappearance, and that\nif she did not speak out, she (Madge Macdonald) would see what could\nbe done. Madge commenced muttering to herself, \"East, west, south,\nnorth; east, west, south, north.\" This she said several times, and\nthen followed a long pause. A new idea seemed to strike her; and she\nabruptly asked the farmers if either or both missed any of their\nbesoms or riddles. They had not; but, search being made, sure enough,\neach husband missed a besom and a riddle. \"So I thought,\" said Madge\nat their next interview; and then added, \"Look for your wives in the\nSpey.\" No time was lost in following the woman's advice. A search was\nmade from the source of the Spey to the ocean, without any trace of\nthe bodies being obtained; but, most extraordinary, the riddles were\nfound near the \"Witches' Pool,\" a deep part of the river, known by\nthis name to the present day.\n\nA startling mountain tale is given of a girl who could control the\nelements by means of magical power. The story runs thus:--A little\ngirl, walking with her father on his land, heard him complain of\ndrought and want of rain. \"Why, father,\" said the child, \"I can make\nit rain or hail when and where I list.\" He asked from whom she had\nobtained such power. She replied, from her mother, who had forbidden\nher to divulge the secret. In violation, however, of a solemn promise,\nshe said her mother had committed her to a master that did everything\nshe desired. \"Why, then,\" said her father, \"make it rain, but only on\none field.\" So she went to a stream, threw up water in her master's\nname, and presently it rained. Proceeding further, she made it hail on\nanother field, when no hail fell elsewhere. Hereupon the father\naccused his wife of witchcraft, caused her to be burned, and of new\nhad his child christened.\n\nWitchcraft continued in all its phases in the first quarter of the\neighteenth century. In the year 1718 the Caithness witches were\nparticularly active. Margaret Olson, one of the evil sisterhood,\ntormented William Montgomerie, a mason at Scrabster, and his family.\nShe became displeased at him in consequence of his coming into\npossession of a property from which she had been expelled. To work out\nher evil design, she and certain associates transformed themselves\ninto the form of cats. One night there appeared in Montgomerie's house\nno fewer than eight cats, not mewing nor caterwauling, but speaking\nwith human voices. As this kind of annoyance could not be endured, the\nmason boldly attacked them with a sword, and so seriously cut one of\nthe feline crew that it appeared to be dead. Mangled, and seemingly\nlifeless, the carcass was cast into the open air. Next morning it\ncould not be seen. A few nights afterwards the cats or fiends appeared\nagain in full force, less one, and attacked a servant-man as he lay in\nbed. Montgomerie rushed to the rescue, thrust a dirk through the body\nof one of the intruders, beat it on the head with an axe, and threw\nthe dead-like cat out before the door, as he had done with its former\ncompanion. Next day it could not be found. Rumour, with its thousand\ntongues, spread the report that Margaret Nin-Gilbert, a confederate of\nOlson, was one of the cats which had been seemingly killed. Proof was\nadduced that one of Margaret's neighbours saw her at her own door drop\none of her legs, black and putrefied. The Sheriff-depute of\nCaithness-shire ordered her to be apprehended, and, when judicially\ninterrogated, she confessed being the devil's servant. She also\nadmitted it was she who, in the similitude of a cat, had been thrust\nthrough with a dirk and smashed by William Montgomerie. She did not\nattempt to deny that the neighbour who saw her leg falling off spoke\nthe truth. She delated four women of evil repute, two of whom were\nMargaret Olson and Helen Andrew, the latter being the witch cut with a\nsword when appearing like a cat to Montgomerie. Poor Helen's injuries\nproved fatal; for she died, when thrown out, like a lifeless\nquadruped; and Nin-Gilbert soon followed her companion in sin to the\ngrave, her broken gangrened leg having brought about her demise.\nSeveral years afterwards (1722), as seen in page 491, or, as Sheriff\nBarclay says, in 1727, the law was for the last time put into\nexecution against a reputed witch in Great Britain, viz. in the county\nof Sutherland, a northern shire of Scotland.\n\nDunrossness had a witch in the middle of the seventeenth century that\nplagued the Shetlanders. A boat's crew having given her offence, she\ndetermined to procure their untimely end. To accomplish her diabolical\npurpose, she put a wooden cap into a tub of water, and then began to\nsing (presumably to the devil), in order that a storm might be raised,\nand the fishermen at sea drowned. As she sang, the water in the tub\nbecame greatly troubled, and ultimately it was so exceedingly agitated\nthat the cap turned upside down. As the cap toppled over she\nexclaimed, \"The turn's done.\" A few hours afterwards, word reached\nDunrossness that the fishermen against whom she entertained the grudge\nwere drowned.\n\nIn the beginning of the seventeenth century a cunning woman in\nShetland succeeded, through diabolical art, in transferring a sore\ndisease, which afflicted her husband, to the body of a neighbour.\n\nAn old Orkney lady removed diseases by pulling mill-foil in a\nparticular way, repeating a few Latin words--sometimes benedictions,\nbut more frequently maledictions--and performing certain mysterious\noperations at the marches of two estates.\n\nMary Lamont, eighteen years of age, residing at Innerkip in the year\n1662, had power, like the girl mentioned in page 535, to control the\nelements. She could raise storms, and, if a tempest was desired in the\nClyde or at sea, she only required to throw small charmed stones into\nthe flowing tide. Then there were plenty of ships lost and men\ndrowned. She and her diabolical companions not unfrequently made their\npower felt at Campbeltown, now famous for its whisky, and at the Mull\nof Kintyre, where many a sailor has perished on its dangerous shore,\namidst the raging of the sea and roaring of the storm.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXIII.\n\n      Neither Police nor Medical Men much required in Olden\n      Times--Instruments of Torture--Torture declared\n      Illegal--Case of John Felton--Berkly Witch--Attempt on\n      the Life of Edward II.--Master John of\n      Nottingham--Escape of Coventry Necromancers from\n      Justice--Ursley Kempe _alias_ Gray--Annis Herd's\n      Imps--Paying Blackmail to Witches--The Rutland Family\n      bewitched--Witchcraft of a Mother and her two\n      Daughters--A Pendle Witch--Strange Narrative--Essex\n      Witches--Witches of Northamptonshire--Bullet-proof\n      Witch--Drawing Blood above the Temples--Anne Bodenham\n      foretelling how a Law-plea would be decided--Strange\n      Proceedings--Discovering Concealed Poison--Performing\n      Spirits--Ride to London through the Air--Anne Bodenham\n      dying Impenitent.\n\n\nOur forefathers did not so much require a detective police force nor\nmedical men as we do. If thefts were committed, or persons became\nsick, cunning men or uncanny women were sent for. As rule, the\noffences or diseases were traced to witches or other missionaries of\nSatan. A suspected person received neither justice nor mercy at the\nhands of judges and juries. Instruments of torture were applied to\nwring out false self-accusations against the unhappy individual under\ntrial. Thumbkins, or thumb-screws, were tightened on the hands; boots\nwith wedges were put on the feet; and the flesh was torn with red-hot\npincers. These and other instruments were used to make persons speak;\nand again, when one spoke too much, or said what became unpleasant, a\ngag secured silence. In addition to the torture inflicted by such\narticles as we have enumerated, suspected criminals were not\nunfrequently put in the stocks and jugs, whipped at a \"cart tail,\"\nmade to stand bare-headed and bare-footed before the public, or\nexposed in sackcloth at a church door or the market cross, to be gazed\nat, laughed at, and sometimes to be pelted by onlookers, rendered\ncruel and superstitious by their rulers and spiritual advisers.\n\nAll things have an end. Examinations by torture were declared illegal\nin this country in 1628, yet, notwithstanding such a declaration,\nexaminations under torment were resorted to in 1640. As an instance of\nthe danger of torturing a criminal, not to speak of its inhumanity, we\nnotice the case of John Felton, accused of assaulting the Duke of\nBuckingham in the year last above mentioned. On the Bishop of London\nproposing to put Felton on the rack with the view of obtaining from\nhim the names of his associates, the criminal replied, \"If it must be\nso, I know not whom I may accuse in the extremity of pain--Bishop\nLaud, or perhaps any lord at this board.\" But we return to our proper\nsubject.\n\nAn appalling story of an English witch comes down to us from the ninth\ncentury. The Berkly witch was rich and gay, living, to all appearance,\na life of pleasure; but, having sold herself to the devil, a sad day\nof reckoning came at last. Before her death she called on the monks\nand nuns of a monastery, to whom she confessed that she had entered\ninto a compact with Satan, who would, after her death, snatch away\nbody and soul, unless prevented by means she explained. According to\ndirections, her body was sewed into a stag's skin, and placed in a\nstone coffin, strongly secured with an iron chain. If the holy men and\nwomen, she said, could prevent the devil for three days from getting\nher, he could not after that time injure either her body or spirit.\nFaithfully did the monks and nuns watch over the witch's dead body,\nprotected as far as iron, stone, and lead could do. On the first two\nnights minor demons kept up a loud howling. On the third night the\nmonastery swarmed with more powerful demons, one of whom proved so\nstrong and terrible that he shook the sacred edifice to its\nfoundation. In spite of all the precautions taken, the big fiend burst\ninto the church, went straight to the witch's coffin, and commanded\nher to follow him. With faltering tongue the dead woman said she could\nnot stir, as she was chained down. A slight twist of his hand broke\nthe chain into two pieces. Slowly the corpse rose; and the devil\ndragged his prey to the door, where stood a horse breathing fire. Away\nwent horse, devil, and witch down to the infernal abode.\n\nKing Edward II. of England and two of his favourites had an attempt\nmade on their lives by persons who sought the assistance of Master\nJohn of Nottingham, a famous necromancer. John agreed, for a money\nconsideration, to assist them. He made wax images, representing his\nMajesty and the other gentlemen intended for death. The necromancer,\nhis assistant, and twenty-seven Coventry men were tried for the foul\noffence, but escaped punishment, the evidence against them proving\ninsufficient to warrant a conviction.\n\nUrsley Kempe _alias_ Gray, an English witch, killed many of her near\nneighbours. If her own statement could be relied on, she possessed\nfour imps. Two of them had power to kill, but the other two could do\nno more than punish men and beasts with lameness. Other witches in the\nneighbourhood where Ursley lived controlled imps that wrought mischief\non all sides, until they became a terror to the country.\n\nAnnis Herd had six little spirits like blackbirds, and six resembling\ncows, though not larger than rats.\n\nAbout the beginning of the seventeenth century a grievous affliction\nbefell the Earl and Countess of Rutland's family. Their eldest son\ndied; their second son was seized with severe sickness; and their\ndaughter, Lady Catherine, suffered from a severe malady. Witchcraft\nlay at the root of the whole matter. Johan Flower, a widow, and her\ntwo daughters, Philip and Margaret, were the suspected witches. They\nwere brought before a magistrate. Philip stated that the evils\nreferred to had been brought on the Earl's family by her mother and\nsister, because the latter, a servant at the castle, had been\ndismissed. Margaret, by desire of her mother, stole the eldest son's\nright-hand glove and carried it home. The mother, who had an imp or\nevil spirit like a cat, rubbed the glove on the cat's back, ordering\nit to go and kill Lord Henry (the eldest son); and it set off to\nperform the devilish work assigned it. That the deed might be the more\nquickly performed, Johan put the glove into boiling water, pricked it\nwith pins, and buried it. Lord Henry died.\n\nA glove of Lord Francis (the second son) was operated on in a similar\nmanner; but, his life not being desired, he sickened only. Lady\nCatherine's malady was caused by a process similar to that which\nkilled one of her brothers and brought her other brother nigh death's\ndoor. Philip admitted she had an imp like a white rat, which made\nThomas Simpson love her. Margaret had two spirits, to whom she had\nsold herself, soul and body. Johan's spirits told her she would\nneither be burned nor hanged--a prediction verified; for she died\nfrom some unknown cause on the way to prison. The two daughters\nsuffered the extreme penalty of the law.\n\nEdmund Robinson, a boy about eleven years of age, living at Pendle in\n1632, told his friends remarkable stories about witches. One day two\ngreyhounds with golden collars came to him, and, because they would\nnot chase a hare that happened to pass, he tied the dogs to a bush,\nand began to beat them. While the work of castigation proceeded, one\nof the hounds became like the wife of a man named Dickenson, living in\nthe neighbourhood, and the other hound turned into the shape of a\nlittle boy. The woman beseeched Robinson not to tell she was a witch.\nLittle Edmund imprudently said he would not keep the secret, whereupon\nshe transformed the boy that had appeared as a greyhound into a white\nhorse. Dickenson's wife took Edmund, and mounted the horse with him.\nBefore they had ridden more than a quarter of a mile they came to a\nnew house, where threescore persons were assembled at a splendid\nentertainment. Ample supplies came down by six visitors pulling as\nmany ropes. By this operation smoking-hot joints, lumps of butter, and\nmilk in abundance fell into basins placed under the ropes. Little\nEdmund ran away, but before he reached his father's house a boy with\ncloven feet attacked him most unmercifully, cutting his face and ears.\nWhat the result would have been none can tell, had not two horsemen\ncome forward and rescued Edmund from the evil spirit. The case being\nreported to Charles I., he instructed one of his bishops to make\nspecial inquiry into the matter. The bishop did not credit the boy's\nstatement, so the king ordered the liberation of several women\nidentified by the boy as having been concerned in the witch\nproceedings at the new house.\n\nAt one time a band of Essex witches, numbering not less than thirteen,\nkilled people, cattle, and horses, caused sickness, destroyed milk,\nbeer, and batches of bread by their wicked arts, and sent their imps\nto burn dwelling houses, barns, and corn.\n\nThe witches of Northamptonshire were famous in their day and\ngeneration. Agnes Brown and Johan Vaughan were grievously implicated.\nThey, out of revenge against Mrs. Belcher for insulting Johan, Agnes\nBrown's daughter, griped and gnawed the lady's body, and put her mouth\nawry. Mrs. Belcher's brother, Alexander, went to the witches' house to\ndraw their blood, and thereby counteract their enchantments. He\nrepeatedly struck at them, but some unseen power warded off the blows.\nHe returned home without performing the task he undertook, and without\ndoing his sister any good. Naturally enough, Agnes Brown and Johan\nwere offended at the attempted outrage; and they, by their witchcraft,\nlaid the young man on a bed of sickness. The witches were apprehended\nand lodged in Northampton gaol. Hither did Mrs. Belcher and her\nbrother proceed, to draw blood of the witches. They succeeded in\nperforming the operation, which we presume was done by cutting them\nabove the mouth; for if the blood is not spilled \"above the breath\" in\na case of this kind, the sanguinary deed is of no avail. The afflicted\nman and woman found relief for a short space of time. Scarcely,\nhowever, had they left the prison than their pains returned with\ndouble torment. That was not all. As they drove along in a coach, a\nman and woman, riding on a black horse, suddenly appeared. The sight\nwas taken as an omen of mischief; and so it happened; for the horses\nof Mrs. Belcher and her brother fell down dead on the road.\n\nOnce upon a time, when the Earl of Essex and his army were marching\nthrough Newbury, they saw a woman crossing a river on a narrow plank,\nand otherwise conducting herself, so as to make them conclude she was\na witch. The soldiers caught her, and, by desire of their captain,\ntwo of them shot at her. With loud laughter and derision, she caught\nthe bullets in her hands and threw them back. One daring fellow went\nclose to the woman and discharged his carbine at her breast, but the\nbullet rebounded without taking effect. Another soldier tried to cut\nher down with his sword, but his arm lost its power. All efforts to\nkill her proved abortive, until blood was drawn from above the witch's\ntemples, and then she fell by a pistol shot under her ear.\n\nAnne Bodenham, an English witch, told fortunes, kept imps, and held\nintercourse with the devil. She could raise storms, and kill and cure\nat pleasure. There was a law-plea between Richard Goddard and Mr.\nMason, his son-in-law. Anne Styles went to inquire at Anne Bodenham\nhow the law-suit would be decided. Bodenham made a circle on the floor\nwith her staff, and then placed a book, a green glass, and a pan of\ncoals, within the circle. Suddenly a high wind rose, which made the\nhouse shake; and five puny devils resembling ragged boys entered the\ncircle, followed by Bodenham's dog and cat. Boys, dog, and cat danced\nround the pan of coals. After deep thought, the woman took up her book\nand read part of it, then she threw white seeds to the spirits, which\nthey picked up. Dancing commenced again, and again the woman Bodenham\nread her book. At last she went out at the back door, followed by her\nsprites; and the wind, which kept blowing a furious blast all the\ntime, ceased. Alone the witch returned, and told the messenger how the\nlaw-suit would terminate.\n\nAt another time Anne Styles went, by order of Mrs. Goddard, to learn\nfrom Bodenham where a quantity of poison, concealed by the lady's two\nstep-daughters, could be found. The witch went through all the\nceremonies formerly performed, and the sprites acted their parts. One\nof the boys, however, on this occasion turned into a snake, and\nafterwards into a dog. Herbs that caused a noisome smell were burned,\nthe book was again consulted, and a glass produced, in which Styles\nsaw Mrs. Goddard's bed-chamber, and the poison concealed below a\npillow. To punish the young ladies for their diabolical intention,\nAnne Bodenham sent Mrs. Goddard powdered leaves and the parings of her\nfinger nails, to operate injuriously on their stomachs and brains. The\nwitch offered to carry Anne Styles through the air to London--an offer\nthat was not accepted. Bodenham often changed herself into the form of\na black cat of enormous size. The witch had a tame toad that she\nconstantly kept in a small bag, suspended from her neck. She could say\nthe Creed backwards as well as forwards. She was condemned to death,\nand died impenitent, refusing to listen to psalm-singing or prayers.\n\nGlasgow, like other towns, did not lack witches and warlocks, nor did\nit permit its burning faggots to be extinguished. The fury against\nsuch members of society may be judged of when it is known that\nrepentance stools, pillars, and jugs were made, and whips prepared for\nordinary church offenders--when it is known that scolding women were\nstuck up in jugs and branks in the most public places of Glasgow--when\nit is known that holy men and women were burned alive there for\nadhering to the principles of the Reformation--when it is known that\nmen and women were imprisoned and whipped every day during the\nkirk-session's pleasure, for offences now considered venial--when it\nis known that, for a breach of the seventh commandment, some were\ncarted through the streets, whipped, and thereafter banished from the\ntown; that others, for a violation of the said commandment, were fined\nand ordained to stand at the cross with \"fast bands of iron about\ntheir craigs, and papers on their foreheads, bareheaded, and without\ncloaks or plaids;\" and that others again, for similar offences, were\ncarted through the town, and lowered by means of a pulley from the\nGlasgow Bridge and ducked in the Clyde.\n\nIn 1649 the session requested all who knew any acts of witchcraft or\nsorcery against witches and warlocks in Glasgow to intimate the same\nto the ministers and magistrates, that the offenders might be\nproceeded against with rigour. As a proof that \"the work goes bonnily\non\" (as Mr. David Dickson, professor of divinity, said on seeing Sir\nWalter Rollock, Sir Philip Nisbet, and Ogilvie of Inverquharty led to\nexecution in 1645), we mention that, so frequent were the prosecutions\nagainst witches and warlocks in Glasgow, that the magistrates, in\n1698, considered it expedient to bargain with the jailor for the keep\nof witches and warlocks imprisoned in the tolbooth by order of the\nLords Commissioners of Justiciary.\n\nPaisley would appear to have been a western centre for witches. In\nfact, if tradition and written history can be relied on, Renfrew, with\nPaisley for its capital, suffered more from witchcraft than almost any\nother county in Scotland. Mr. D. Semple informs us that, so recently\nas 1697, six poor creatures were convicted of this crime before the\nregality of Paisley, and were \"worrit\" and burned to death on the\nGallows Green. So audacious were those in league with Satan, that they\nassailed men in high position as well as those in low degree. John\nP---- and others were indicted in 1692 for slandering, calumniating,\nreproaching, and taking away the good name of John Adams, late bailie\nof Paisley, and others; and for drinking the devil's health. Being\nfound guilty, they were ordered \"to go to the stair-foot of Bailie\nAdams, and confess they scandalised; and if not, to be taken to the\nmercatt cross of Paisley, with a paper on their breast, bearing these\nwords in great letters: 'We stand here for scandalising,' etc. They\nall obeyed but Janet Fife, on whom the sentence was executed.\" Mr.\nHector, sheriff-clerk of Renfrewshire, from whose work on the peculiar\ntrials of his county we are quoting, remarks, \"If this wholesome\ntreatment was more carried out, we would have fewer long tongues.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXIV.\n\n      Paying Blackmail to Witches--Breach of Contract with a\n      Witch--Demon of Tedworth--Mysterious Drum--A\n      Persecuted Family prayed for--Unaccountable Sounds and\n      Sights--Satan's Audible Responses--Drummer found\n      guilty of Sorcery--Raising Storms--A Wizard in\n      Cromwell's Army--Florence Newton--Aldermen's Children\n      bewitched to Death--Man kissed to Death in Youghal\n      Prison--Witch unable to say the Lord's Prayer--Julian\n      Cox, an old Taunton Witch--Woman in shape of a\n      Hare--Bewitched Cattle--Mode of discovering a\n      Witch--Selling a Soul to the Devil--Witch Executed--A\n      Song of the Seventeenth Century.\n\n\nIn the seventeenth century it was not uncommon for people in England\nto secure themselves against witchcraft after the manner Lowland\nScotchmen protected themselves from Highland robbers--by paying\n\"blackmail.\" In 1612 John Davice, a Lancashire man, agreed to give a\ndangerous witch, residing near him, a quantity of meal annually, on\ncondition that she would not bewitch him or his. She adhered to her\npart of the contract, but Davice, like a foolish fellow, ceased to\nimplement his part of it. The covenant being broken, he was no longer\nsafe, and she bewitched him to death.\n\nMany have heard of the Demon of Tedworth, in the county of Wilts, in\nthe year 1661. Mr. John Mompesson, of Tedworth, hearing a drum beaten\none day, inquired what it meant. The bailiff told him that the people\nhad for some days been troubled with an idle drummer, who demanded\nmoney from them. On learning this, Mr. Mompesson sent for the man,\nand, on his coming, commanded him to lay aside his drum. At the same\ntime the gentleman directed the constable to carry the disturber of\nthe peace before a magistrate, in order to have him punished. The\nfellow begged earnestly to have his drum, but it was not thought\nadvisable to let him have it; therefore it was kept in Mr. Mompesson's\nhouse.\n\nAbout a month after the drummer's apprehension, Mr. Mompesson's family\nwere sadly annoyed by violent knocking and drumming--at times\napparently in the house, and at other times seemingly on the\nhouse-top. This disturbance continued for weeks without much change,\nbut then the annoyance became unbearable. An offensive smell pervaded\nthe house; boards danced through rooms and passages by day; and at\nnight, drumming was heard for hours together in the apartment where\nthe drum lay.\n\nTo administer comfort, if not to afford protection, to the family, the\nminister and divers pious neighbours came to the house to pray. The\nclergyman knelt down at a bed-side, but soon rose again, to avoid\nbeing injured by shoes and other missiles thrown at him. Singing was\nsometimes heard, blue lights were seen, doors closed and opened with a\nbang ten times in as many minutes, although no one could be seen near\nthem. During the time of a more than ordinary alarm, when many people\nwere present, a gentleman said, \"Satan, if the drummer set thee to\nwork, give three knocks, and no more.\" Three knocks immediately\nfollowed. For further trial, the gentleman said, \"If the drummer has\ninstructed thee, Satan, to molest this innocent family, give five\nknocks, and no more, to-night.\" Five knocks were given in response,\nwhich were the last knockings heard before next day.\n\nOne morning Mr. Mompesson, seeing a quantity of wood in a corner of\nthe house, discharged a pistol at the sticks, as he thought a person\nlay concealed under them. On their being removed, no one could be\nseen, but a pool of blood met the eye. For a whole year the family\nsuffered by the wicked arts of the vagabond drummer. For his malicious\ndoings he was tried at the Salisbury assizes. On the evidence of the\nparish minister, and of other intelligent witnesses, he was found\nguilty of sorcery, and condemned to transportation. It is reported\nthat, on the voyage to the penal settlements, he alarmed the sailors\nand endangered the ship, by raising storms which almost engulphed the\nvessel. The drummer told a few confidential companions that he had\nserved in Cromwell's army with another soldier, a well-known wizard,\nwho instructed him in the magical art.\n\nFlorence Newton was committed to Youghal prison the same year (1661)\nfor witchcraft. The mayor of Youghal, in giving evidence against her,\nsaid there were three aldermen, whose children had been bewitched to\ndeath by the accused kissing the little ones. The indictment also\ncontain a charge against her for bewitching David Jones to death, by\nkissing his hand through the prison grating. It appears that Jones and\nFrancis Besely were watching Newton one night in the prison, to see if\nshe had any familiars resorting to her. David Jones told the prisoner\nthat he had heard she could not say the Lord's Prayer, to which she\nreplied that she could. They found, however, that she could not repeat\nit. David tried to instruct her; but, all he could do, she would not\nutter the words, \"Forgive us our trespasses.\" Seemingly grateful for\nhis assistance, she asked him to come near her, that she might kiss\nhis hand. He stretched out his hand, and she kissed it through a\nwindow protected with iron bars. Subsequently Jones told deponent that\never since the old hag kissed his hand he felt ill. At times he\nimagined she was pulling his arm. The court found Newton guilty of\nwitchcraft, and she fell a victim to the popular superstition of her\ntime.\n\nJulian Cox, aged seventy years, was indicted at Taunton summer assizes\nin the year 1663, before Judge Archer, for witchcraft practised upon a\nyoung maid. The evidence against her was divided into two heads:\nfirst, to prove her habit and repute a witch; secondly, to prove her\nguilty of the witchcraft mentioned in the indictment.\n\nThe first witness, a huntsman, swore that, while out with a pack of\nhounds to hunt a hare, not far from Julian Cox's house, he started\none. The dogs chased the creature very close, so that it was fain to\ntake shelter in a bush. He ran to protect the hare from being torn;\nand great was his surprise to find that, in place of a quadruped,\nthere lay Julian Cox, panting for want of breath.\n\nA farmer said she had caused his cattle to run mad. Some of the\nanimals killed themselves by striking their heads against trees; and\nthat nearly every one of his herd died, either through their own\nviolence, or by a disease evidently brought on by witchcraft. To\ndiscover the witch, he cut off the bewitched animals' ears and burned\nthem, an infallible process for bringing the offender to light. While\nthose animal organs were consuming in the fire, Julian Cox came raging\ninto the house, asserting she was being abused without cause. He once\nsaw her flying through a window of her house in her own proper\nlikeness.\n\nIn her declaration before a justice of the peace, Cox admitted that\nthe devil often tempted her to be a witch. One evening there came\nriding on broom-sticks three persons--a witch, a wizard who had been\nhanged years before, and a black man. The last-mentioned tempted her\nto give him her soul; but, though he offered great rewards, she did\nnot yield--no, not for a moment.\n\nJudge Archer told the jury he had heard a witch could not repeat that\npetition in the Lord's Prayer, \"Lead us not into temptation;\" and\nhaving this opportunity, he would try whether any reliance could be\nplaced in the report. He then asked the prisoner whether she could say\nthe Lord's Prayer. She declared she could, and went over it readily\nenough, except the part thereof just quoted. Several chances were\ngiven her to complete the prayer, but she could not finish it without\nmistakes. The jury found her guilty of witchcraft, and she was\nexecuted a few days afterwards without confessing her sins.\n\nAs an example of how the people's minds were filled with superstition,\neven in their merry moments, we give the following popular English\nsong of the seventeenth century, as sung by Robin Goodfellow to the\nfairies:\n\n    \"Round about, little ones, quicke and nimble;\n    In and out, wheele about, run, hope, and amble;\n    Joyne your hands louingly; well done, muisition:\n    Mirth keepeth one in health like a physicion.\n    Elues, vrchins, goblins all, and little fairyes\n    That doe filch, blacke, and pinch maydes of the dairyes,\n    Make a ring in this grasse with your quick measures:\n    Tom shall play and I'le sing for all your pleasures.\n\n             Pinch and Patch, Gill and Grim,\n             Gae you together;\n             For you change your shapes\n             Like to the weather:\n             Sib and Tib, Licks and Lull,\n             You all have trickes too:\n             Little Tom Thumb that pipes,\n             Shall goe betwixt you;\n             Tom, tickle up thy pipes\n             Till they be weary;\n             I will laugh ho, ho, hoh,\n             And make me merry.\n               Make a ring on this grasse\n               With your quicke measures:\n               Tom shall play and I will sing\n               For all your pleasures.\n\n             The moone shines faire and bright,\n             And the owle hollows:\n             Mortals now take their rests\n             Upon their pillows:\n             The bats around likewise,\n             And the night rauen,\n             Which doth use for to call\n             Men to death's hauen.\n             Now the mice peep abroad,\n             And the cats take them;\n             Now doe young wenches sleepe,\n             Till their dreams wake them.\n               Make a ring on the grasse\n               With your quicke measures:\n               Tom shall play, I will sing,\n               For all your pleasures.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXV.\n\n      Elizabeth Style's Confession--Signing a Covenant with\n      Blood--Alice Duke, Anne Bishop, and Mary\n      Penny--Somerset Witches--Witch Oil--Power to injure\n      Men and Cattle--Elizabeth Style sentenced to\n      Death--Running backwards round a Church--Compact with\n      Satan--More Mischief--Richard Hathaway's Accusation\n      against Sarah Morduck--Women hunted in the Streets by\n      a Mob--A Judge's Opinion of Witchcraft--Supposed\n      Sufferer from Witchcraft prayed for in the Church, and\n      a Subscription raised for him--Richard Hathaway\n      convicted of falsely accusing a Woman of\n      Witchcraft--Witch and Stolen Plate--Man\n      Bewitched--Charm for Sore Eyes--Young Woman\n      Bewitched--Flames issuing from a Bewitched Person's\n      Mouth--Tormenting a Witch--Jane Wenham's Witchcrafts\n      and Trial--The last Persons who suffered in England\n      for Witchcraft--Long List of Persons who suffered as\n      Witches.\n\n\nElizabeth Style, of Stoke Trister, Somersetshire, was accused, in the\nyear 1664, by divers persons of witchcraft. She confessed before\nRobert Hunt, Esquire, a justice of the peace for the county, that the\ndevil, ten years before that time, had appeared to her as a handsome\nyoung man, offered her money, said she would live gay, and have all\nthe pleasures of the world for twelve years, if she would with her\nblood sign a document, binding herself to obey his laws, and give her\nsoul over to him. She agreed to do as requested; whereupon he pricked\nthe fourth finger of her right hand, and with a few drops of blood\nthat issued from the wound she signed the engagement.\n\nWhen she desired to do harm, Satan gave her power according to their\nagreement. About a month before her examination she desired him to\ntorment Elizabeth Hall by thrusting thorns into her flesh--a request\nhe promised to comply with. She declared that, not long before her\napprehension, she, Alice Duke, Anne Bishop, and Mary Penny met the\ndevil at night, in a common near Trister Gate. Their meeting\nterminated with dancing and feasting.\n\nSimilar meetings subsequently took place. Before Style and her\ncompanion witches started to midnight meetings, they anointed their\nforeheads with an oil given them by a spirit. They were then carried\nswiftly through the air. Sometimes they were present at the meetings\nin body, but more frequently in spirit only. The devil gave them power\nto injure men and cattle, either by a touch or curse. Style gave the\nnames of many men and women in the neighbourhood who attended the\nmeetings. The meetings being ended, the devil suddenly vanished or\nburnt himself in flames, and the people went home, singing \"Merry we\nmeet, merry we meet, and merry we part.\"\n\nThe poor miserable woman was tried before a jury of her countrymen,\nand found guilty of witchcraft. Sentence of death was passed on her,\nbut she escaped punishment by the hands of an ordinary executioner,\nfor before the day fixed for her execution she died in prison.\n\nAlice Duke, a confederate of Elizabeth Style, being brought before Mr.\nHunt for examination on a charge of witchcraft, stated that she and\nAnne Bishop went to the churchyard at night, and stepped backward\nround the church three times. In their first round they met a man in\nblack clothes, who returned with them. In the second round they met a\nbig black toad, which leapt into deponent's apron. As they went round\nthe third time they met a rat, that vanished into air. Like many more\nwitches entering into a compact with Satan, she could have her wishes\nand revenge. If she cursed any person or thing with \"a pox,\" evil\nhappened the object of her hatred.\n\nWitches were found in every part of Somerset in the seventeenth\ncentury. Hundreds of them were brought to trial; but as their reported\ndoings, confessions, and punishments were in all essential particulars\nthe same as those of Elizabeth Style and Alice Duke, they are\nunimportant here.\n\nRichard Hathaway appeared before Lord Chief Justice Holt at the\nGuildford assizes in 1701, to support a charge of witchcraft against\nSarah Morduck. Hathaway frequently vomited pins in great numbers,\npieces of tin, nails, and small stones. He foamed at the mouth, and\nbarked like a dog; sometimes he felt a burning sensation, and not\nunfrequently lay as if dead. Being convinced that Sarah Morduck caused\nhis troubles, he scratched her \"above the breath,\" to draw blood from\nher. Subsequent to this operation he recovered, and remained well for\nsix weeks. All his afflictions returned, and the suspected witch was\nscratched a second time. To escape her tormentors at Southwark, she\nwent to London; but, her fame preceding or following her, she was\nhunted in the streets by an infuriated mob. Hathaway pursued the\nunhappy woman to the great metropolis, and took her before Sir Thomas\nLane, a judge who regarded witchcraft in a different light to that\nwhich the Lord Chief Justice did. Sir Thomas ordered her to be\nstripped, to ascertain whether she had any witch-marks; and Hathaway,\nstill suffering, scratched her for the third time. Sarah Morduck was\ncommitted to prison as a dangerous witch. Her supposed victim,\nHathaway, became an object of prayer in the churches, and\nsubscriptions were raised to defray his charges at the assizes. In\nJuly Sarah Morduck was brought, as already stated, before Lord Chief\nJustice Holt, but escaped with her life, for no other reason than that\nthe judge did not believe in witchcraft. Hathaway's conduct being\ninquired into, he was brought to trial, when it was ascertained that\nhis sayings about being bewitched were false. He was therefore\nsentenced, by the same judge that had liberated Sarah Morduck, to\nimprisonment for a year, and to stand in the pillory three times as a\ncheat and liar.\n\nSending a witch to catch a witch or thief occasionally had its\nbeneficial results. On the communion service having been stolen from a\nchurch, a wise man instructed the church-wardens how to discover the\nthief. They did as directed, and, true enough, the thief hastened to\ngive himself up to justice; and, what proved better, he restored the\nstolen plate. One man having a child sorely afflicted with boils,\nconsulted a wizard. By direction of the cunning man, a portion of the\nchild's hair was cut off and thrown into the fire. This had the effect\nof compelling a witch to hasten to the house and confess that she had\nin reality brought trouble on the child. The father scratched the\nwitch \"above the breath,\" and the sufferer recovered.\n\nJane Stretton, a young woman twenty years of age, was bewitched in\n1669, and consequently suffered much by flax, hair, thread, and pins\ngathering in her throat. Still more strange, red-hot flames issued\nfrom her mouth. A wise man's wife was suspected of bringing about the\ncalamity. Various means were resorted to with the view of establishing\nher guilt. Sympathising neighbours were consulted, and one of them\nsuggested a method that proved effectual. Foam was collected from\nJane's mouth and chin, and thrown into the fire, as a charm to injure\nher tormentor. We are assured the expedient succeeded admirably. While\nthe foam hissed in the flames, the witch, compelled by the operation,\ncame into the house to confess that she alone had caused the young\nwoman's distemper.\n\nOne of the last persons generally supposed to have been condemned to\ndeath in England for witchcraft was Jane Wenham, residing in Walkerne,\na village in Hertford. For years her neighbours suspected her to be a\nwitch. In 1712 she was tried before one of the legal tribunals, and\ncondemned on evidence of a singular nature. It appears that she went\nto Matthew Gibson, a servant to John Chapman, and asked for a\npennyworth of straw. He refused to give her any, and she went away\nmuttering threats against him. Soon thereafter Gibson became like an\ninsane man, and ran three miles along the highway, asking every one he\nmet for a pennyworth of straw. Then he gathered all the straws he\ncould find by the roadside and put them into his shirt, which he used\nas a sack. Gibson's master met Jane, and called her a witch. Offended\nat such an imputation, she brought Mr. Chapman before Sir Herbert\nChauncey, a magistrate, on the charge of defaming her character. The\nmagistrate recommended the pursuer and defender to submit the case to\nthe Rev. Mr. Gardiner, that the dispute might be settled quietly. To\nthe parson they accordingly went; and he awarded Jane one shilling of\ndamages. The decision did not please Jane; and out of revenge, it was\nsubsequently alleged, she bewitched the minister's servant-maid, Anne\nThorne. As soon as the suspected witch had left the parsonage, the\nmaid felt a giddiness in her head, which impelled her to run away\nthrough fields and over fences, notwithstanding her having a very sore\nknee. On her way she met a little old woman, who asked her where she\nwas going. To this inquiry Anne replied, \"I am going to Cromer for\nsticks.\" The little woman said it seemed unnecessary to go so far, and\npointed out an oak-tree close at hand where she could get them. The\nlittle woman vanished like a spirit, and Anne returned home, in a\npartial state of nudity, with a quantity of sticks wrapped in her gown\nand apron. Mrs. Gardiner, who, like the minister, her husband,\nbelieved in witchcraft, on hearing the girl's tale, said she would\nburn the witch; and, suiting the action to the words, threw the sticks\ninto the fire. The charm had the desired effect; for immediately Jane\nWenham came in, and made a false statement touching the cause of her\ncall. That did not, however, deceive the people at the parsonage, who\nwere convinced the burning of the sticks had made her come, whether\nshe would or not. She was apprehended on suspicion, and put to the\ntest. The minister asked her to repeat the Lord's Prayer, but she\ncould not say it. This being regarded as presumptive evidence of\nguilt, Wenham's persecutors brought her to trial. Three clergymen and\nthirteen other witnesses gave evidence in the case. Proof was adduced\nthat she had by witchcraft killed cattle, taken the power from men's\nbodies, destroyed people's substance, turned divers persons into a\nstate of insanity, and by her curses and evil eye had killed a child.\nWitnesses also swore that she had on various occasions assumed the\nform of a cat. The jury found Wenham guilty, and the judge condemned\nher to death, but, like a humane Christian, he applied and obtained a\npardon for the culprit.\n\nWe now come to the last victims who suffered in England for the\nalleged crime of witchcraft. One Mrs. Hicks, and her little daughter\nnine years of age, were executed on the scaffold at Huntingdon in\n1716, for the suppositious offences of raising storms and selling\ntheir souls to the devil.\n\nWith the judicial murder of this unfortunate mother and her innocent\ndaughter we close a long list of tragedies which disgraced England for\nhundreds of years--which exhibits the ignorance and violence of past\nages. Dr. Sprenger estimates that nine million persons have been\nburned or otherwise put to death as witches during the Christian\nepoch. For such a dreadful waste of life Catholics and Protestants\nwere equally guilty. Any one who raised his voice on behalf of the\nproscribed class, ran the risk of himself being accused of sorcery, or\nat least of heresy. At last, in 1563, J. Weier, a physician in\nGermany, spoke boldly against the belief in witchcraft. Twenty years\nlater, Reginald Scot, as already stated, wrote and spoke, not against\nwitches, but against the absurdity of believing that such persons\nexisted.\n\nHappily, no longer can hysterical girls and malicious individuals give\nfalse evidence in a court of law touching the feigned crime of\nwitchcraft; no longer can the witch-finder exert his skill; no longer\ncan judges and jury condemn to the flames or scaffold suspected\nwitches and wizards; and no longer can an ignorant people listen to\nthe despairing cries--cries which neither evoked pity nor secured\nmercy--of victims of superstition expiring amidst blazing faggots. But\nyet superstition lingers amongst us, as we shall show under the head\n\"Superstition in the Nineteenth Century.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXVI.\n\n      Scotchmen and Englishmen in America--Superstition in\n      the Back Settlements--Witchcraft in New England--Rev.\n      Cotton Mather's View of Witchcraft--Judges and\n      Witnesses overawed by Witches--Men and Beasts\n      bewitched--Bewitched Persons prayed for--Preternatural\n      Diseases beyond Physicians' Skill--Trial of Susan\n      Martin--Absurd Evidence--Belief in the Existence of\n      Witchcraft--Witchcraft in Sweden--Commission of\n      Inquiry appointed--The Devil's Tyranny--Deluded\n      Children--Day of Humiliation appointed on account of\n      Witchcraft--Threescore and Ten Witches in a\n      Village--Children engaged in Witchery put to\n      Death--How Witches were conveyed from place to\n      place--Girl healed by the Devil--The Devil bound with\n      an Iron Chain--An Angel's Warning Voice--Angel keeping\n      Children from Wickedness--Witches on a Minister's\n      Head--Witch assaulting another Minister--Witches'\n      Imps--Butter of Witches--The Devil described--How\n      Witches are punished--Horse burned on account of being\n      supposed to be an Agent of Satan.\n\n\nWhen Scotchmen and Englishmen went out first to inhabit America, they\ndid not forget the superstitions of their native land. A belief in\ncharms, incantations, and all kinds of witchcraft prevailed among the\nearlier settlers of the United States and Canada. From sire to son,\nand from mother to daughter, a belief in mysterious agencies has come\ndown to the existing inhabitants of the transatlantic States. It may\nbe that the inhabitants of large cities in the West have forgotten the\ntraditions of their ancestors respecting things supernatural, but\nevery observant American traveller knows that the burning embers of\nsuperstition have not expired in the back settlements of that vast\ncountry. Trials of persons accused of witchcraft were not unfrequent\nin New England in the seventeenth century. The Rev. Cotton Mather has\nwritten an account of proceedings connected with such cases, but want\nof space prevents us following him at great length. He says:\n\n      \"We have now, with horror, seen the discovery of a\n      great witchcraft. An army of devils has broken in upon\n      this place, which is the centre, and, after a sort,\n      the first-born of our English settlements; and the\n      houses of the good people there are filled with the\n      doleful shrieks of their children and servants\n      tormented by invisible hands, with tortures altogether\n      preternatural. After the mischiefs there endeavoured,\n      and since in part conquered, the terrible plague of\n      evil angels hath made its progress into some other\n      places, where other persons have in like manner been\n      diabolically handled.\n\n      \"These, our poor afflicted neighbours, quickly, after\n      they become infected and infested with these demons,\n      arrive to a capacity of discerning those which they\n      conceive the shapes of their troubles; and\n      notwithstanding the great and just suspicion that the\n      demons might impose the shape of innocent persons in\n      their spectral exhibitions of the sufferers, (which\n      may perhaps prove no small part of the witch-plot in\n      the issue), yet many of the persons thus represented\n      being examined, several of them have been convicted of\n      a very damnable witchcraft: yea, more than one, twenty\n      have confessed that they have signed unto a book which\n      the devil showed them, and engaged in his hellish\n      design, of bewitching and ruining our lands.\n\n      \"We know not, at least I know not, how far the\n      delusions of Satan may be interwoven into some\n      circumstances of the confessions; but one would think\n      all the rules of understanding human affairs are at an\n      end, if after so many most voluntary, harmonious\n      confessions, made by intelligent persons of all ages,\n      in sundry towns, at several times, we must not believe\n      the main strokes wherein those confessions agree;\n      especially when we have a thousand preternatural\n      things every day before our eyes, wherein the\n      confessors do acknowledge their concernment, and give\n      demonstration of their being so concerned. If the\n      devils now can strike the minds of men with any\n      poisons of so fine a composition and operation that\n      scores of innocent people shall unite in the\n      confessions of a crime which we see actually\n      committed, it is a thing prodigious, beyond the\n      wonders of the former ages, and it threatens not less\n      than a sort of dissolution upon the world.\n\n      \"Now, by these confessions 'tis agreed that the devil\n      has made a dreadful knot of witches in the country,\n      and by the help of witches has dreadfully increased\n      the knot; that these witches have driven a trade of\n      commissioning their confederate spirits to do all\n      sorts of mischiefs to their neighbours. Whereupon\n      there have ensued such mischievous consequences upon\n      the bodies and estates of the neighbourhood as could\n      not otherwise be accounted for.\"\n\nHuman beings were not always the only victims of superstition in olden\ntimes, for we have information of dumb animals suffering on account of\nit being thought they were active agents of Satan. The Inquisition in\nPortugal in 1601, in its sanguinary infatuation, condemned to the\nflames, for being possessed of the devil, a horse belonging to an\nEnglishman, who had taught it to perform uncommonly clever tricks. And\nthe poor animal was publicly burned at Lisbon. Instances are also on\nrecord of swine being burned, under the suspicion that they, too, were\nhelpers of the devil.\n\nThrough sorcery, Mr. Mather thought witnesses were occasionally\nprevented from giving evidence in courts of justice against witches,\nand even judges were sometimes so overawed by the culprits' looks that\nthey could not discharge their duties with firmness. A witch could, by\na cast of her evil eye, strike people to the ground, and by the same\nvisual organ kill cattle. Men and beasts were also bewitched into\nmadness. To such an extent, we are told, were people tormented by\nwitches in New England, that the Church appointed days of prayer on\nbehalf of afflicted persons. And so peculiar were diseases, that the\nphysicians declared their patients' troubles were preternatural. That\nbeing so, a little ingenuity, strengthened with spite, enabled the\nafflicted or the afflicted's friends to trace the disorder to the\nmalevolence of a certain witch or witches.\n\nIn the trial of Susan Martin, in 1692, among other absurdities of\ncircumstantial evidence relied on, was that her skirts were not\ndraggled when out on a wet day, while the clothes of other women\ntravelling with her were bespattered and clotted with mud.\n\nWriters of no mean order, including clergymen, believed in the\nexistence of witches, ghosts, and goblins, and boldly defended the\nproceedings in New England against the victims put to death for their\nalleged diabolical deeds through the agency of Satan.\n\nWitchcraft spread alarm over Sweden in the seventeenth century. The\nnews of particular acts of witchcraft coming to the king's ear, his\nMajesty appointed commissioners to inquire into the matter. From a\npublic register of 1669 and 1670, we ascertain that the commission,\nconsisting of clergymen and laymen, were instructed to visit Mobra and\ninquire into frightful proceedings there. The commissioners met at the\nparson's house to hear complaints. Both the minister and people of\nfashion complained, with tears in their eyes, of the miserable\ncondition they were in, from the calamity of witchcraft. They gave the\ncommissioners strange instances of the devil's tyranny among\nthem--how, by the help of witches, he had drawn hundreds of children\nto him; how he had been seen going in visible shape through the\ncountry; how he had wrought upon the poorer people, by presenting them\nwith meat and drink. The inhabitants begged earnestly, yet in the most\nrespectful manner,\n\n      \"The Lords Commissioners to root out this hellish\n      crew, that rest and quietness might be regained; and\n      the rather, because the children who used to be\n      carried away in the district of Elfdale, since some\n      witches had been burnt there, remained unmolested.\"\n\nAn elaborate report of the peculiar proceedings says:--\n\n      \"That day,\" _i.e._ the 13th of August, \"the last\n      humiliation-day instituted by authority for removing\n      of this judgment, the commissioners went to church,\n      where there appeared a considerable assembly.... Two\n      sermons were preached, in which the miserable case of\n      those people, that suffered themselves to be deluded\n      by the devil, was laid open....\n\n      \"Public worship being over, all the people of the town\n      were called together to the parson's house; nearly\n      three thousand of them attended.\n\n      \"Next day the commissioners met again, consulting how\n      they might withstand this dangerous flood. After long\n      deliberation, they resolved to execute such as the\n      matter of fact could be proved upon. Examination being\n      made, there were discovered no less than threescore\n      and ten witches in the village. Three and twenty of\n      whom, freely confessing their crimes, were condemned\n      to die. The rest pleading not guilty, were sent to\n      Fabluna, where most of them were afterwards executed.\n\n      \"Fifteen children, who likewise confessed they were\n      engaged in the witchery, died as the rest; six and\n      thirty youths, between nine and sixteen years of age,\n      who had been less guilty, were forced to run the\n      gauntlet; twenty more, who had no great inclination,\n      yet had been seduced to those hellish enterprises,\n      because they were very young, were condemned to be\n      lashed with rods upon their hands for three Sundays\n      together at the church door; and the aforesaid six and\n      thirty were also doomed to be lashed this way once a\n      week for a whole year together. The number of the\n      seduced children was about three hundred.\n\n      \"Several of the witches were asked how they were able\n      to carry so many children with them; and they\n      answered, that they came into the chamber where the\n      children lay, laid hold of them, and asked them\n      whether they would go to a feast with them? to which\n      some answered yes, others no; yet they were all forced\n      to go. They only gave the children a shirt, a coat,\n      and a doublet, which was either red or blue, and so\n      they did set them upon a beast of the devil's\n      providing, and then they rid away.\n\n      \"The children confessed the same thing; and some\n      added, that because they had very fine clothes put\n      upon them, they were very willing to go.\n\n      \"A little girl of Elfdale confessed that, on naming\n      the name of Jesus as she was carried away, she fell\n      suddenly upon the ground, and got a great hole in her\n      side, which the devil presently healed up again, and\n      away he carried her; and to this day the girl\n      confessed she had exceeding great pain in her side.\n\n      \"The children said they had seen sometimes a very\n      great devil like a dragon, with fire round about him,\n      and bound with an iron chain....\n\n      \"Some of the children talked much of a white angel,\n      which used to forbid them to do what the devil bade\n      them do, and told them that those doings would not\n      last long: what had been done was permitted because\n      of the wickedness of the people, and the carrying away\n      of the children should be made manifest. And they\n      added, that this white angel would place himself\n      sometimes at the door betwixt the witches and the\n      children; and when they came to Blockula, their\n      meeting-place, he pulled the children back, but the\n      witches went in.\n\n      \"The minister of Elfdale declared that one night the\n      witches were, to his thinking, upon the crown of his\n      head, and that from thence he had a long continued\n      pain of the head.\n\n      \"One of the witches confessed that the devil had sent\n      her to torment the minister, and that she was ordered\n      to use a nail and strike it into his head, but it\n      would not enter very deep and hence came the headache.\n\n      \"The minister said also that one night he felt a pain\n      as if he were torn with an instrument, and when he\n      wakened he heard somebody scratching and scraping at\n      the window, but could see nobody. And one of the\n      witches confessed that she was the person that did it,\n      being sent by the devil.\n\n      \"The minister of Mobra declared also that one night\n      one of the witches came into his house, and did so\n      violently take him by the throat that he thought he\n      should have been choked; and waking, he saw the person\n      that did it, but could not know her; and that for some\n      weeks he was not able to speak, or perform divine\n      service.\n\n      \"They confessed also that the devil gave them a beast\n      about the bigness and shape of a young cat, which they\n      called a carrier; and that he gave them a bird too, as\n      big as a raven, but white. And these two creatures\n      they could send anywhere; and wherever they came, they\n      took away all sorts of victuals they could\n      get--butter, cheese, milk, bacon, and all sorts of\n      seeds, whatever they found, and carried it to the\n      witch. What the bird brought, they kept for\n      themselves; but what the carrier brought, they\n      reserved for the devil....\n\n      \"They added, likewise, that these carriers filled\n      themselves so full sometimes that they were forced to\n      spue by the way, which spueing was found in gardens\n      where colworts grew, and not far from the houses of\n      witches. It was of a yellow colour like gold, and was\n      called butter of witches.\n\n      \"The Lords Commissioners were very earnest, and took\n      great pains to persuade the witches to show some of\n      their tricks, but to no purpose; for they unanimously\n      said that, since they had confessed, they found that\n      all their witchcraft was gone, and that the devil\n      appeared to them very terrible, with claws on his\n      hands and feet, and with horns on his head, and a long\n      tail behind, and showed them a pit burning with a hand\n      put out; but the devil did thrust the person down\n      again with an iron fork, and suggested to the witches,\n      that if they continued in their confession, he would\n      deal with them in the same manner.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXVII.\n\n      Superstition in France--Pope John XXII. celebrated in\n      the History of Sorcery and Magic--A Bishop skinned\n      alive and torn by Horses for Witchcraft--King Philippe\n      and Superstition--Springs poisoned by Lepers and\n      Jews--Extracting Teeth without Pain--A Dentist\n      strangled by a Demon--Berne Witch--Charmed\n      Ointment--Sorcerers in Navarre--Demoniacal\n      Operations--Voice in the Air--Witch Flying--Witches\n      meeting their Deserts--Maria Renata's\n      Witchcrafts--Nuns possessed of Devils--Promise of Life\n      by Satan--End of Renata--Jeanne D'Arc--Credulity of\n      France and England--Fairies of Domremi--Charmed\n      Tree--Sparkling Spring--Mandrakes--Jacques D'Arc and\n      his Wife--Jeanne D'Arc in Childhood--Converse with\n      Spirits and Angels--France under Tyranny--Jeanne's\n      Heavenly Mission communicated to the Dauphin--Maid at\n      the head of Troops--Her Achievements--Siege of\n      Orleans--Great Victories--Dauphin Crowned--Jeanne's\n      Desire to retire into Private Life--Opposition to her\n      Retirement--The Maid's Feats of Valour--Heroine\n      Betrayed--Charmed Sword--Jeanne's Surrender--King's\n      Ingratitude--Great Rejoicing at the Maid's\n      Downfall--Attempt to Escape--Trial and\n      Condemnation--Maid Burned--A white Dove rising from\n      her Ashes--Imitators--Unreliable Reports.\n\n\nFrance, like her neighbouring nations, entertained strong opinions in\nregard to superstition; and so did the high dignitaries of Rome. Pope\nJohn XXII. is celebrated in the history of sorcery and magic. He\nbelieved that sorcery had been resorted to to procure his untimely\ndeath, soon after his accession to the Papacy, by the Bishop of\nChahors, the Pope's native place. The bishop being brought before the\nCollege of Cardinals, was, after deposition from his holy office,\ndelivered to the secular powers in Avignon to receive punishment. A\ncruel fate awaited him; the unfortunate bishop being first skinned\nalive, next torn by horses, and then burned. Pope John continued to\npersecute persons suspected of sorcery, and many an unhappy creature\nsuffered at his suggestion.\n\nIn the spring of 1321 King Philippe summoned the States-General to\nmeet at Poictiers, and proceeded in person to Poitou to hold his court\nthere. Soon after the assembly of the Estates, information was given\nto the king that the lepers, of whom there were many in the place, had\nentered into a conspiracy to poison and bewitch the springs throughout\nAquitaine, in order to kill the Christians, or reduce them to the same\nstate of loathsome disease as they themselves suffered. Some who were\narrested admitted, under torture, the accusation. The king became so\ngreatly alarmed that he fled from Poitou, after giving orders to\narrest and imprison all the lepers in France. Multitudes of them were\ncondemned and burned; still the king thirsted for more blood. Jews\nwere also accused of aiding to poison and bewitch the wells. At Chinon\nupwards of one hundred Jews suffered the extreme penalty of the law\nfor such groundless crimes. After a show of trial, and trumped-up\ncharges equally false, many more Jews and lepers were put to death in\nParis.\n\nDentists will be surprised to learn that in bygone days none but those\nacquainted with occult science were supposed capable of extracting\nteeth without pain. In the seventeenth century an astrologer in\nFrance, who sold talismans and extracted teeth without pain, was\nstrangled in bed by a demon.\n\nA woman, executed at Berne, stated she belonged to a sect who had\nsworn eternal subjection to the devil, and that she knew how to\nprepare a decoction which, when swallowed by any one, would convert\nthe novice into a witch equal in knowledge and power to the older\nmembers of her fraternity.\n\nHere is a case exhibiting the power of charmed ointment. In the year\n1527 a band of one hundred and fifty sorcerers, says Llorente, greatly\ndisturbed Navarre. The sect held \"Sabbath\" orgies, where demons were\nadored, and transformations of witches and wizards took place, after\nanointing themselves with a compound made from the grease of\nreptiles. One witch, on condition of receiving a pardon, agreed to\nshow the demoniacal operations gone through at the \"Sabbath\" meetings.\nProvided with a box of witch ointment, she ascended a high tower,\naccompanied by a commissioner of the royal council. In the sight of a\nvast concourse of people, she applied the ointment to various parts of\nher person. Having done this, she exclaimed in a loud voice, \"Are you\nthere?\" From the air a voice answered, \"Yes, I am here.\" The woman\nthen descended the tower to its centre, crawling down the outside of\nthe wall on her hands and feet. Suddenly she flew away, and vanished\nout of sight beyond the horizon. Her one hundred and forty-nine\ncompanions were brought to trial, and met their deserts.\n\nMaria Renata, sub-prioress of a convent at Unterzell, proved to be a\nwitch. She tormented the nuns at night, and, to assist her in the\nblack art, she kept a considerable number of cats. General alarm\nprevailed; five of the nuns became possessed of devils. Renata avowed\nto her confessor that she was a witch, that she had often been carried\nbodily to witch Sabbaths, and presented to the prince of darkness. Her\nname appeared in a black book, and she consented to be the devil's\nproperty. In return, she received the promise of life for seventy\nyears. After trial by the civil judges, they condemned Renata to the\nflames; but at the appointed time of execution, by way of showing a\nlittle mercy, her head was struck off before the flames kindled around\nher body. This tragedy took place in the year 1749--strange to say, in\nthe seventy-first year of Renata's age.\n\nWe next give a more extraordinary story illustrative of superstitious\nsentiments in France, viz. the world-wide one of Jeanne D'Arc\n(sometimes called Johan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans), who fell a\nvictim to the credulity prevalent in that country and in England. The\nsmall village of Domremi is a retired spot, where popular\nsuperstitions have been almost religiously preserved. Fairies were\nbelieved to frequent the neighbourhood of Domremi. Near to it stood a\nlarge ancient beech-tree, known as the charmed tree of Bourlemont,\nsupposed to be a favourite haunt of elves. Beneath the spreading\nboughs gushed a sparkling fountain, of which people drank to preserve\nthem from fevers. Witches went thither at night to dance with the\nfairies. Young men and maidens also resorted to the spot, to dance\nround the tree and fountain. Garlands were made there, and presented\nas offerings to our lady of Domremi. The priests of the village said\nmass once a year over the fountain, to strengthen its healing\nqualities. Under a hazel-tree, not far from the charmed tree, grew\nmandrakes, one of which never failed to add wealth and domestic\nhappiness to any person who possessed it.\n\nIn the village lived a labouring man, named Jacques D'Arc, who, with\nhis wife, the villagers looked upon with respect. They had several\nchildren, boys and girls. The youngest daughter, named Jeanne, was\nborn in the year 1410. At childhood she assumed a reserved and pensive\ndisposition, and often sought solitude within the village church.\nHaving but a limited education, the superstitions of her time were\nimplicitly believed in by her. In addition to dancing round the\ncharmed tree and fountain with other young maidens, she often went\nthere alone. She grew up to be an attractive young woman, of peculiar\nmind. Subject to fits or trances, she became prostrated by them; and\nshe had, according to her own account, converse with angels and the\nspirits of dead saints.\n\nAt an early period of life Jeanne D'Arc received the impression that\nprovidence intended her to achieve great feats in behalf of her\ncountry. More than once she exclaimed, \"Nobody but me can recover the\nkingdom of France!\" At this time, it should be observed, France\ngroaned under the tyranny of contending factions; and so low had the\nDauphin sunk, that not a single place remained in his power except\nOrleans; and even it the English closely besieged. After various\nunsuccessful attempts, the Maid obtained permission to communicate her\nheavenly mission to the Dauphin. Assuming male attire and warlike\nequipments, including a white banner, she placed herself at the head\nof the French troops, who, through her example, became inspired with\nnew enthusiasm. On the 29th April 1429 she threw herself, with\nsupplies of provisions, into Orleans. Soon after arriving there she\nattacked Fort St. Loup, which she carried, while wielding a sword that\nhad lain more than a century in a knight's tomb behind the altar of\nSt. Catherine at Fierbois. In an assault on the English, Jeanne\nreceived a severe wound on the neck, from which a large quantity of\nblood flowed; but she said it was not blood, but glory, that streamed\nout. The siege of Orleans being raised on 8th May, Jeanne D'Arc\ncarried the news to the Dauphin, and entreated him to come and be\ncrowned at Rheims, then in possession of the English. The siege of\nGergeau was next undertaken. Jeanne boldly went into the ditch,\nstandard in hand, at a part most vigorously defended. The soldiers\nfollowed, and soon the town fell by the courageous woman's hands. She\nnext took possession of Auxerre, Troyes, and Chalons, thus opening for\nthe Dauphin the road to Rheims. Thither he proceeded, and on 17th July\nwas crowned. Jeanne D'Arc (or the Maid of Orleans, as she is now\ncalled) assisted at the ceremony. The Maid having accomplished, so\nfar, the object of her mission, wished to return home; but, seeing her\npresence inspired great confidence in the army, the king, and others\nof influence, opposed her departure. She therefore stuck to her post\nof military leader. She accompanied the king to Crepi, Senlis, and\nParis. In the siege of Compeigne, in the year 1430, Jeanne made a\nsally, at the head of a hundred men, over the bridge, and twice\nrepulsed the besiegers. The king's troops were surrounded, yet, after\nperforming feats of valour, the Maid disengaged her company, who\nre-entered the town. The heroine remained in the rear to facilitate\nthe retreat, and, when she wished to enter the town, the gates were\nshut. She again charged her pursuers, but finding herself unsupported\nshe exclaimed, \"I am betrayed!\" It turned out as supposed: the\nshutting of the gates while Jeanne remained exposed to danger did not\ntake place through accident. Jealousy and treachery were at work: her\npretended friends had conspired to bring her bright career to a speedy\nend. Many brave soldiers fell under the Maid's charmed sword; but as\none sword and a single hand could not mow down a whole army, she\nsurrendered to Lionel Vasture of Vend\u00f4me, who gave her up to John of\nLuxembourg. The latter nobleman basely sold Jeanne to her enemies--the\nEnglish--for ten thousand livres; and, what appeared most cruel, the\nking did not attempt to redeem the heroine, to whom he and his kingdom\nowed much.\n\nThe ingratitude of Charles VII. has remained a blot on his memory.\nEven those who refuse to admit that Jeanne D'Arc possessed\nsupernatural powers, regard his conduct with abhorrence. On Jeanne\nbeing made prisoner, the English rejoiced exceedingly. The Duke of\nBedford thought it proper to disgrace her, in order to reanimate the\ncourage of his countrymen. In Paris, the authorities, to evince their\njoy at her downfall, ordered salvoes of artillery to be fired. A _te\ndeum_ was sung in the church of N\u00f4tre Dame; and preachers returned\nthanks to the Most High, for his mercy in bringing to an end the\ninfluence of such a wicked sorceress.\n\nJeanne, in an effort to escape from a high tower (her place of\nconfinement), cast herself from its summit to the ground, yet, strange\nto say, sustained little injury. To guard against another attempt to\ngain liberty, iron chains were put round her legs and body. A court of\nFrench bishops met to try the Maid. The charge embraced seventy\narticles of impeachment. Questions were asked concerning politics; her\nbelief in and intercourse with fairies; her favourite spiritual\nvisitants, St. Catherine and St. Margaret; the devices of her banner;\nand the sacred sword.\n\nA formula of sentence, after fifteen separate examinations, was read,\ndeclaring her guilty of apostacy, sorcery, etc., and setting forth\nthat, lest the culprit should corrupt others, she should be cast out\nof the church, and delivered to the temporal authorities, praying them\nto deal mildly and humanely with her, and to rest satisfied with the\ndeath of her body. Burning the body only, the ecclesiastics considered\nmild treatment. Had they delivered their victim to Satan, loaded with\nthe fearful curses contained in the greater excommunication, who can\ntell when her guilt would be expiated? As the secular powers were\nmerely instruments of the ecclesiastical authorities, sentence of\ndeath by burning against the Maid of Orleans soon became an\naccomplished fact. Fastened to a stake, without much delay, the flames\nconsumed her fair form, at the age of nineteen years. To the very last\nshe believed in the reality of her visions, and intercourse with the\nspirits of departed saints. Her dying agonies were witnessed by a\npitying crowd, who separated to proclaim abroad, that at the moment\nher breath went out a pure white dove rose from the pile and soared up\nto heaven.\n\nSubsequent to this heroine's death several women emerged from\nobscurity, and feigned to be inspired in the same way as Jeanne D'Arc\nhad been. Two young maids residing near Paris pretended that her\nmantle had fallen on them. The clergy interfered. The young women were\napprehended, tried, and declared guilty of holding communication with\nevil spirits. One of them recanted, and thereby saved her life; the\nother remained firm, and perished at the stake.\n\nAfter the real or unreal execution of Jeanne D'Arc, the report became\ncurrent that she was alive, and playing a conspicuous part in society\nat a considerable distance from the scene of her triumphs and\ndegradation. Some would have it that she escaped punishment through\nthe interference of her admirers; but the general belief remained,\nthat she really suffered in terms of her sentence. Another report\nrepresents the Maid's persecutors as being overtaken by more than\nordinary misfortunes in their estate, in addition to suffering the\ntorments of accusing consciences.\n\n\n\n\nSUPERSTITION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.\n\n\nCHAPTER LXVIII.\n\n      Generality of Superstition--The Church and\n      Superstition--St. Mourie--People forbidden to resort\n      to the island Innis Maree--Various Modes of\n      Superstition--Charms--Lucky and Unlucky Times--A\n      Tinker's Curse and a Gipsy's Warning--Sailors' and\n      Fishermen's Delusions--Spitting on one's\n      Loof--Weddings, Funerals, and Baptisms--Spae Wives--May\n      Dew--Holy-days--Kirk-session Records--Fort-William\n      Fisherman--Dipping in Fountains--Lochmanur--Holy Well\n      of Kilvullen--Well of Craiguck--Superstition in the\n      Highlands--Warlock Willox--Superstition in Dundee.\n\n\nNotwithstanding the progress of religion, science, and education\ngenerally so called, superstition prevails in this and other countries\nto an extent scarcely credible, and certainly not creditable to the\nleaders of public opinion. In every town and country, in every village\nand hamlet, yea, in every domestic circle, a belief in the\nsupernatural has a place. Although the time has gone by for the\nburning of witches, and though the human mind is less disturbed by the\nthoughts of ghosts and Satan in corporeal shape than in past\ncenturies, nevertheless man has not been able to rise altogether above\nthe notion that there are such mortal creatures as witches and\nwarlocks, and such immortal visible visitants to our sublunary world\nas spirits and the devil. Not only is there a general belief in the\nexistence of ghosts, but we have people asserting that they possess\nthe faculty of making spirits of the dead answer them at pleasure.\nLearned men (men in high position) have written lengthy arguments in\nfavour of the spiritual theory.\n\nSigns and omens are observed, faith in miracles have not died out,\ncharms are not considered valueless, curses and evil wishes make a\nlarge proportion of our population tremble, dreams are believed in.\nIndeed nearly all, if not all, the various aspects and phases of\nsuperstition of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries\nare, to a certain extent, believed in in the nineteenth century. We\nmake no mere random statement, but are stating facts falling under our\nown notice and that of reliable witnesses.\n\nFear of the supernatural is confirmed by the dread one has of passing\na graveyard at night. Among the English, Scotch, and Irish people the\ntales of their forefathers are remembered. Who has forgotten his\nnursery tales? Who does not remember the stories of aged friends as\nthey sat round the winter fire? We have somewhere read of our nursery\ntales under eight heads. First, of a hero waging successful war with\nmonsters; (2nd), of a neglected individual mysteriously raised into\nposition, like \"Cinderella;\" (3rd), of one thrown into a magic trance,\nlike the \"Sleeping Beauty;\" or (4th) of a person overpowered by a\nmonster, as in the case of \"Little Red Riding Hood.\" \"Blue Beard,\"\nsays the writer from whom we have just quoted, is a specimen of a\ngroup of tales, in which (5th) the hero or heroine is forbidden to do\nsomething, but disobeys. \"Beauty and the Beast\" and \"The White Cat\"\nare examples of a large group in which (6th) a brilliant being is\ntransformed, by means of a spell, into the form of a lower animal. A\nnumber of stories, such as \"Fortunatus and his Companions,\" turn upon\n(7th) the possession of magic implements or spells. The concluding\ngroup consists (8th) of moral tales. But these eight groups are far\ntoo few to supply examples of either ancient or modern superstition.\nHahn endeavoured to group the folk-tales of Europe under forty heads,\nand Baring Gould has followed his example. In every corner of\nChristendom some form of kelpie, sprite, troll, gnome, imp, or demon\nhas a place in the mind of the people, much the same as in Pagan\ntimes.\n\nThose who have turned their attention to arch\u00e6ology are in a position\nto corroborate what is here advanced. No doubt, modern superstition,\nin its various forms, is the result of ancient delusion in regard to\nreligion and moral rectitude. To overlook or neglect the prescribed\nformula in regard to blessing and cursing, was certain to bring its\nown punishment. Superstition is believed in by persons accounted\nneither irreligious nor desperately profane. Church dignitaries, once\nforemost in the persecution of reputed witches, found it necessary to\nchange their front. Everything bordering on witchcraft, devil worship,\nor such like, met with ecclesiastical censure. Let the inhabitants of\nApplecross say why they and their forefathers sacrificed to St.\nMourie, their patron saint, at certain seasons; and let the Synod of\nGlenelg and the Presbytery of Lochcarron say why they considered it\nnecessary to forbid the people resorting to the island Innis Maree on\n25th August. And let those reverend bodies say whether certain stones\nare not consulted as to future events--whether oblations are not left\non hills--and whether a species of adoration is not paid to wells.\n\nWhy is the mountain ash, or rowan tree, seen growing in almost every\ngarden, when not another tree adorns the landscape or shelters the\nfamily dwelling? Why are the caudal appendages of the cottar's cow and\ncalf adorned with red thread? and wherefore are horse-shoes nailed to\nstable-doors, ships' masts, and buried under thresholds? What parish\nor district has not its haunted house and \"white lady?\" In what\nquarter do not the young fear to pass ruined castles after sundown?\nAnd have we not everywhere a confessed belief in lucky and unlucky\ntimes and circumstances, and admitted presentiments of evil?\n\nThe tinker's curse and the gipsy's warning are prophetically regarded.\nIn the north of Scotland there is a class of lay preachers, or\ncatechists, known as the \"Men,\" who lay claim to prophetic talent;\nyea, there are among them enthusiasts, who pretend they possess keys\nequal in efficacy to those of St. Peter. At the seaside, among the\nsailors and fishermen, strong indications of superstition are\nobservable. Buyers and sellers, especially cattle dealers and\nhucksters, daily evince their adherence to the credulity of their\nprogenitors, by spitting on the first money received by them in the\nmorning, and preferring to deal first with persons reputed to have\ngood luck. Athletes (particularly boxers and wrestlers) spit into\ntheir loofs before commencing a combat, thinking that by so doing they\nare more likely to prevail.\n\nAt wedding-parties, baptisms, and funerals we have seen numerous forms\nof superstition displayed. First, the bride's dress must consist of\ncertain fabrics, while the flowers with which her person is adorned\nmust not include hated sprigs, repellers of love, or such as attract\nevil spirits. All know the custom, if not the value, of throwing\nslippers, rice, etc. after a newly-wedded pair; and the ceremony of\nbreaking a cake over a bride's head as she first enters her husband's\nhouse is not forgotten. Who has not eaten the \"child's cheese,\" and\nbeen forbidden to depart from the infantile home before drinking the\nyoung one's health, on every occasion the nursery was entered before\nthe christening. Maidens dream, as often as they have the chance, on\n\"children's cheese\" and brides' cakes, in order to obtain glimpses in\ntheir slumbers of future love and matrimony.\n\nTea in abundance has been infused to supply the necessary material for\nthe spae-wife to read her cups. Coins and jewellery, deposited with the\nfortune-teller to enable him or her to discover the fortune of the\nowners, have too often failed to be restored to the lawful owners.\nServant-girls can tell how often they and their employers have been\nplundered by fortune-tellers in the guise of beggars and pedlars.\n\nMay-dew has not lost its virtue; the carrying of fire round houses,\nfields, and boats are still supposed to drive away witches and evil\nspirits; and diseases are supposed to be capable of cure by means of\ncharms.\n\nSuperstitious families are less terrified at thunder and lightning\nthan at the ticking of the death-watch (_anobium tesselatum_), whose\nnoise is supposed to prognosticate an early death in the household.\nWith little less fear are the crowing of cocks, the lowing of cattle,\nand the howling of dogs at night listened to. The passing of a\nsharp-edged or pointed instrument from one lover to another is\ncontinued to be looked upon with anything but favour, as such\narticles, even pins, divide affection. If an angler step over his\nfishing-rod, he will have indifferent piscatory sport. It is a good\nsign for swallows to build their nests at one's windows; but if a\nperson destroy a swallow's nest, or kill any of those birds of\npassage, he should prepare for misfortunes. Unusually dark-coloured\nmagpies flying about a house, betokens grief to the inmates. When the\npalm of one's hand itches, money may be looked for; when the sole of\nthe foot itches, prepare for a long journey.\n\nOf particular festive and holy-days we have more than once taken\nnotice, and pointed out how they were observed. Well, we have\nChristmas, Hallow-e'en, Good Friday, observed with something\nresembling the fashion of olden times. The evergreens, kail-stocks,\npan-cakes, and buns have the same significations as they had in\ngenerations past. To break a Good Friday bun between two persons, is\naccepted as a pledge of friendship. Many superstitious persons keep a\nGood Friday bun throughout the year, to secure good fortune, prevent\nfires, and keep disease away.\n\nAt a recent meeting of the British Arch\u00e6ological Association, Mr. H.\nSyer Cuming, F.S.A., said it was only a few years since he saw a woman\ndrink a little grated cross-bun in water, to cure a sore throat, and\nthat, at the time he was speaking, twenty stale cross-buns, strung on\na cord, were suspended as a festoon above the door of an apartment at\nBrixton Hill, to scare away evil spirits. Fortunately, those who adopt\nsuch precautions do so now without fear of punishment. No doubt the\nChurch of Rome interdicts her adherents from eating flesh on Fridays\nand other prescribed times, but the laws are changed since the\nseventeenth century. An extract from the kirk-session records of\nDunfermline for 1640-89 will show the ecclesiastical law of that\nperiod:--\n\n      \"21 December 1641.--That day John Smart, flesher,\n      being convict for selling a carkeis of beefe, and\n      hav^g pott on a rost at hes fire y^e last fasting day,\n      is ordainit to pay 8 mks., qhlk. he payit. And William\n      Anderson in knockes for bring^g a hamelading of y^e\n      s^d carkeis of beefe y^e fast day, is ordainit to pay\n      30s., q^r of he payit 24s.\"\n\nOf the magical properties of May dew little is now known, compared\nwith the knowledge of former times. Our grandmothers firmly believed\nthat three applications of it at the beginning of May preserved the\ncomplexion in brilliant bloom for a year; consequently they were up\nand out long before sunrise, to wash their faces in the charmed\nmoisture. There is still much value in the recipe, which is, however,\napplicable to all the dewy-morning months. It was not only on the\nbrightness of the cheek that May dew was believed to have a marvellous\neffect, but many physical ailments were amenable to its virtues. It is\nrelated that the people about Launceston say that a child weak in the\nback may be cured by being drawn through the wet grass thrice on the\nmornings of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of May. Swellings in the neck are\nsimilarly cured; but the dew in such cases should, if the patient is\na man, be sought on the grave of the last young woman buried, and if a\nwoman, on that of the last young man interred.\n\nThese May-day practices are not confined to England. The medicinal and\ncosmetic properties of spring rain and May dew appear to have been at\none time universally credited. In fact, water, in whatever shape--dew,\nrain, river--when associated with spring, was invested with a sort of\ndivine enchantment in the popular mind. The heavy dew which brightened\nand refreshed the young and tender green of all growing things was\nholy and hallowing. Running water shared in the same veneration.\n\nIn some parts of Russia, at the present day, the girls go into the\nwater up to the girdle on May-day, or, if the streams be still frozen,\nthey dance about a hole broken in the ice, and sing a welcome to the\n\"beautiful spring.\" The sick are carried down to the banks of a river\nand sprinkled with water, which has received a healing power from the\nnew season. Cattle are driven afield at early dawn through the May\ndew, and the young people roll about in it where it lies thickest.\n\nNot many years ago a fisherman near Fort William purchased a set of\nnets, to enable him to prosecute the herring fishing. He toiled all\nnight without catching any fish. Dispirited, he returned home in the\nmorning to his anxious wife, who was expecting to receive a heavy\nhaul. On learning her husband had been so unfortunate while their\nneighbours had been successful, she suspected the nets were bewitched,\nand therefore procured consecrated water wherewith to sprinkle them.\nThe experiment proved successful beyond expectation: every morning the\nfisherman went to sea he returned with so many fish that his\ncircumstances were considerably improved.\n\nHoly water is kept, in certain localities in the north, for sprinkling\non the sea to still the waves in case of a storm. Holy oil, we are\nassured, is equally efficacious. We have seen a lady turning her chair\nthree times round, to secure luck at cards.\n\nDipping in a fountain or lake in Scotland for the purpose of healing\ndiseases, is a matter of frequent occurrence. In the beginning of\nAugust (old style), between midnight and early morning, may be seen\nthe impotent, the halt, and the lunatic immersing themselves, or being\nimmersed by their friends, in Lochmanur, Sutherlandshire, in the full\nexpectation that benefit to mind and body will be secured by the\noperation. One who has witnessed the strange scenes within the last\nten years, _i.e._ since 1870, gives the following graphic account of\nthe superstitious actions he beheld:--\n\n      \"The hour was between midnight and one o'clock in the\n      morning, and the scene was absurd beyond belief,\n      though not without a touch of weird interest, imparted\n      by the darkness of the night and the superstitious\n      faith of the people. The lame, the old, and young were\n      waiting for an immersion in Lochmanur or Lochmonaire.\n      About fifty persons were present near one spot, and\n      other parts of the loch were similarly occupied. About\n      twelve stripped and walked into the loch, performing\n      their ablutions three times. Those who were not able\n      to act for themselves were assisted, some of them\n      being led willingly and others by force, for there\n      were cases of each kind. One young woman, strictly\n      guarded, was an object of great pity. She raved in a\n      distressing manner, repeating religious phrases, some\n      of which were very earnest and pathetic. She prayed\n      her guardians not to immerse her, saying that it was\n      not a communion occasion, and asking if they could\n      call this righteousness or faithfulness. No male, so\n      far as I could see, denuded himself for a plunge.\n      These gatherings take place twice a year, and are\n      known far and near to such as put belief in the spell.\n      But the climax of absurdity is in paying the loch in\n      sterling coin.\"\n\nAnother writer says he has seen even more than fifty dipping in this\nloch in one night. A third eye-witness never saw more than two or\nthree of a night venturing into the loch; but many more, he adds, were\npresent to see and be seen. And there are persons who have declared\nthey derived benefit from bathing in it. The late Rev. D. Mackenzie,\nminister at Farr, who often denounces from the pulpit the\nsuperstitious practice of dipping in the loch, says, in his\ndescription of it in the _New Statistical Account of Scotland_:\n\"Numbers from Sutherland, Caithness, Ross-shire, and even from\nInverness and Orkney, come to this far-famed loch.\"\n\nThe holy well of Kilvullen, on the Irish coast, is as good as\nLochmanur. Every year, in the month of August, there are high\nfestivals held there. The water has a wonderful repute for healing\nqualities. It has worked miraculous cures ever since the great saint\nof Kilvullen flourished in the parish. The inhabitants have vague\nthough reverential notions of the date of St. Kilvullen's existence.\nThat he was of foreign extraction would appear to be proven, some way\nor other, through a boulder lying on the beach, on which, it is\nstated, the blessed Kilvullen travelled here direct from Rome, with a\ncommission from the Pope to convert the Irish. To wriggle under a\ncavity in this stone and come out on the other side, is an infallible\nremedy for lumbago.\n\nThere is a mountain not far distant from Kilvullen with a gap in it,\nsupposed to have been made by a single bite of the devil. There is\nscarcely an eminence in Ireland out of which the demon has not\ndevoured a bit. Travellers are shown the devil's bites, the devil's\ngaps, and the devil's punch-bowls, over nearly every part of the\ncountry.\n\nDr. Arthur Mitchell, while lecturing on Scottish superstition, said:\n\"The adoration of wells continues in certain aspects to the present\nday, from John-o'-Groat's to the Mull of Galloway. I visited a well at\nCraiguck, in the parish of Avoch, Ross-shire, some years ago, and\nfound numerous offerings fastened to a tree beside it; and of at least\na dozen wells in Scotland the same thing is more or less true. An\nanxious loving mother would bring a sick child to such a well at early\nmorning on the 1st May, bathe the child, then cause the little one to\ndrop an offering into the well--usually a pebble, but sometimes a\nsmall coin. Then a bit of the child's dress was attached to a bush or\ntree growing on the side of the well. These visits were paid in a\nspirit of earnestness and faith, and were kept more or less secret.\nSome of the wells have names of Christian saints attached to them; but\nI never knew of a case in which the saint was in any way recognised or\nprayed to. There is reason to believe these wells were the objects of\nadoration before the country was christianised, and that such\nadoration was a survival of the earlier practice to which Seneca and\nPliny referred.\"\n\nHowever much the custom of seeking health by bathing or dipping in\nlakes, or drinking from certain springs, may be deplored, it is\ntolerable compared with the superstitious belief that prevails, of\nepilepsy being cured by the affected person drinking water out of a\nsuicide's skull, or by tasting or touching the blood of a murderer.\n\nA gentleman, writing lately from Fort William, says:--\"It is a mistake\nto suppose that superstition is entirely extinct in the Highlands, or\nthat it is confined to old women alone. It was only the other day a\ncertain spinster in Lochaber, who has reached the shady side of sixty,\nowned a cow. Up to last week the cow was a model one in every sense of\nthe term, but last week it showed sure signs of the effect of the\n'evil eye.' The symptoms were chiefly deficiency in quantity and\nquality of milk. A consistory of old women was soon called, and, among\na host of other queer contrivances, they had recourse to\none--commendable chiefly for its simplicity, and also for its complete\nsuccess. It was no other than smearing the brute all over with soot\nand salt! As this was done for the purpose of spoiling the beauty of\nthe beast, it may be better guessed than described how completely it\nanswered the purpose.\"\n\nAnother gentleman, writing from Grantown, assures us that \"One night\nin 1878, two men, one of whom was blind, entered the village of\nGrantown and inquired as to the nearest route to Tomintoul. They came\nfrom a parish north of Inverness, and the object of their long journey\nwas to visit a representative of the family of the warlock Willox,\nwith a view to overturn some bad luck which had beset the course in\nlife of the younger of the two. The attempt to dissuade them from\nproceeding further on their foolish errand was fruitless. Their faces\nhad been set on the journey, and they were sternly resolved to\naccomplish it at all hazards. They pressed on their way, the blind man\nleaning on the arm of his companion, though night was on the point of\nfalling. The matter pressed heavily on the younger, and it was in vain\nhe tried to conceal his thoughts, being either 'crazed with care or\ncrossed in hopeless love.'\"\n\nWe have not learned how the travellers succeeded, but this we know,\nthat members of the Willox family have been supposed for generations\nto profess knowledge of the occult science. Those of the nineteenth\ncentury, to whom the hidden secrets of their fathers have been\nimparted, eke out a livelihood by cultivating a small patch of land in\na mountainous district, and vending nostrums for the cure of diseases\nin man and beast, and selling charms to counteract witchcraft. Persons\nhave been known to travel more than a hundred miles to consult a\nWillox. That a wide-spread belief exists of this family's mystical\npowers, is manifest from the number of people seeking their advice.\nFurther, the warlocks of untainted Willox blood not only direct\nattention to the healing art and the means of outwitting witches, but\nthey aid in discovering lost and stolen property.\n\nIn 1871 a little boy in Dundee was afflicted with a sore upon his\nright leg. Medical skill proved of no avail, and the parents began to\nfear the boy would be rendered helpless for life. One day, however, an\nold Irish woman saw the boy, and, on ascertaining the nature of his\ndisease, declared that she could by means of the \"gold-touch\" heal\nthe sore. She asked for and obtained the marriage ring of the\ninvalid's mother. With the ring the strange woman rubbed three times\nround the sore. She performed the same operation next day, and on the\nnext again. On the fourth day no mark of a sore could be discovered.\nNo doubt remained on the parents' and neighbours' minds that the\noperator was a white witch, possessed of valuable charms.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXIX.\n\n      Ghost at Sea--Tragical Event--Ghosts in\n      Edinburgh--Fear of Ghosts in\n      Glasgow--Fortune-telling--Choice of Lovers, how\n      decided--A handsome Dowry--Old Irish Story--How a\n      Ghost settled a Land Question--A Highland Prophecy\n      respecting the Argyll Family--Gipsies and\n      Superstition--Yetholm Gipsies--Episode in a Police\n      Court--Curses--Superstition among\n      Fishermen--Superstition among Seamen--Providing for\n      the Dead--A Warning--Blood Stains--Various\n      Superstitions--Hallow-e'en at Balmoral--Faith in\n      Dreams, Signs, Omens, Predictions, and\n      Warnings--Self-accusing Catalogue--Reflections on the\n      Memories of our Ancestors.\n\n\nA strange story is told in connection with the report of the murder at\nsea on board the barque \"Pontiac,\" of Liverpool, by Jean Moyatos, a\nGreek sailor, in custody in Edinburgh a few years ago. We do not know\nwhether the particulars we are about to relate came out in the\ninvestigation, but undoubtedly they had a strong bearing on the case,\nand made it probable, that but for the hallucination of one of the\ncrew--not the Greek sailor--the murder would not have taken place.\n\nFive days after the \"Pontiac\" left Callao, Jean Moyatos murdered one\nof his fellow-seamen, and stabbed another in such a dangerous manner\nthat his life was despaired of. Two nights before the fatal occurrence\nthe mate of the \"Pontiac\" was standing near the man at the helm, no\nother person being on the quarter-deck at the time, when the latter\nin great terror called out, \"What is that near the cabin door?\" The\nmate replied that he saw nothing, and looked about to see if any one\nwas near, but failed to discover any person. The steersman then, much\nterrified, said the figure he saw was that of a strange-looking man,\nof ghostly appearance, and almost immediately afterwards exclaimed,\n\"There he is again, standing at the cabin window!\" The mate, though in\nview of the place referred to, saw no figure near it, nor at any other\npart of the quarter-deck, though he looked round and round. Next day\nthe report went from one to the other that a ghost was on board, which\nfilled some of the sailors with alarm, while others made a jest of it.\nNext night a boy (a stowaway) was so dreadfully alarmed in his bunk by\nsomething he saw or felt (we do not know which), that he cried out so\nloudly as to waken all the seamen in bed. The boy was sure it was the\nghost seen the previous night that had frightened him; and others of\nmore mature years were inclined to think so too. Perhaps more than\none-half of those on board believed that something supernatural was in\nthe ship, and that some calamity would soon happen. But there were two\nat least on board who did not believe the ghost stories, and these\nwere the man subsequently murdered, and his companion who was stabbed.\nThe former joked with the boy about the ghost, and said he would have\nhis knife well sharpened and ready for the ghost if it appeared the\nnext night. He would give it a stab and \"chuck\" it overboard. The\nlatter joined in the joke, saying he also would help \"to do for the\nghost;\" and others said they would have letters ready for the ghost to\ncarry to their friends in the other world. Jean Moyatos overheard what\nwas said as to stabbing and throwing overboard; and in consequence of\nhis imperfect knowledge of the English language, and having previously\nsupposed there was a combination against him, thought the threats were\nmade against him, and therefore resolved to protect himself. A few\nhours after the jesting we have briefly explained took place, he\nstabbed the two men who principally carried on the jest, with the\nfatal result known. The murder, as might be expected, filled every one\non board with horror; and the terror of the sailors who believed there\nwas a ghost on board became overwhelming. At night, whether in bed or\non watch on deck, they had great dread, it being heightened by reports\nthat strange noises were heard below. Not even at the end of the\nvoyage had the fear been overcome; for, after the ship lay moored in\nthe docks of Leith, two of the crew who had agreed to sleep on board\nbecame so frightened, after their companions were paid off, that they\nrefused to remain in the vessel at night.\n\nJean Moyatos, on being brought to trial before the High Court of\nJusticiary, was found to be insane; and therefore the Court ordered\nhim to be confined in a lunatic asylum during Her Majesty's pleasure.\n\nA circumstance, freely spoken of within the past few years, has given\nrise to a rumour that ghosts frequent the neighbourhood of the Dean\nCemetery, Edinburgh. The story is, that about three o'clock one\nmorning a private watchman named Clark (employed to look after a block\nof buildings at Bell's Mills, Water of Leith) and his friend the\nconstable on the beat, were surprised, in the midst of a friendly\ntalk, by a tall figure--which, at least to their startled eyes, seemed\nto be in white--clearing a wall and alighting on the ground close\nbeside them. It darted along the road towards the Dean Cemetery. As it\nran, the two men heard, or thought they heard, a clinking sound like\nthat made by a horse with a loose shoe. Too much frightened to watch\nthe movements of their visitor, Clark and his companion took to their\nheels, nor thought of halting until they were a considerable distance\nfrom the locality. Clark refused to return to his post, and some\ndifficulty was even experienced in getting the constable to look upon\nthe matter from a business point of view.\n\nWhether the same ghost or not we cannot tell, but not long ago many in\nEdinburgh became startled at rumours of a ghost being seen in various\nparts of Edinburgh. On a Saturday night the movements of a ghost\ncaused great excitement in the Fountainbridge district, particularly\nat Murdoch Terrace, Bainfield, where a large crowd collected. On the\nghost being observed, five men, armed with bludgeons, pursued it till\nit reached the Dalry Cemetery, where it jumped over the wall, and was\nnot seen again. Bodies of men formed themselves into a detective\nforce, to lie in wait at different places for the apparition. It was\ngravely alleged that the ghost made its appearance in varied\nattire--sometimes in black, sometimes in white, and occasionally with\nthe addition of horns. One dark night a cabman, driving through the\nGrange, and looking about him with great fear, and trembling for the\nappearance of this irrepressible \"Spring-heel Jack,\" suddenly heard a\nloud noise over his head, and the next instant something descended\nwith such force on his shoulders as to send his pipe flying over the\nsplashboard, and himself nearly after it.\n\nThe alarm excited in the weak-minded and ignorant can scarcely be\ncredited. We know of one case where a cab-driver, who was ordered to\ngo at an early hour in the morning to a house in the suburbs to convey\na lady and gentleman from an evening party, positively refused to go,\nthrough sheer terror of encountering \"Jack,\" as the ghost was named,\npreferring rather to risk losing his situation. It is said that the\ngirls employed in factories in the vicinity of the Canal would not\nventure to their work till it was fairly daylight, and even then they\nwent in a body. Several policemen asserted that they had seen the\nghost. The stories about the ghost created such an impression on the\nminds of many young people residing within a wide radius of the\nhaunted district, that they would not venture out after dark.\n\nGlasgow, as recently as 1878, had its ghost also, or supposed it had.\nThe residents in the Northern District of that city were thrown into a\nstate of excitement, hardly to be credited in enlightened times. One\nnight it was whispered that the school at the corner of Stirling\nStreet and Milton Street had become the abode of a horde of warlocks,\nwhose cantrips were equalled only by the antics cut by their\ndemoniacal ancestors in \"Alloway's Auld Haunted Kirk.\" It was\nseriously averred by dozens of persons that they had actually\nwitnessed the hobgoblins in the enjoyment of their fiendish fun. In a\nbrief space of time the whole neighbourhood turned out to see the\nterrible visitants that had come among them. Frequently as many as\nfrom four to six thousand people--the large majority of whom were\nchildren in groups of threes and fours, clinging to each other's\nhands, and evidently in mortal terror of being suddenly spirited away\nno one knew where--assembled to catch a glimpse of the mysterious\ncause of the commotion. To such a height did the excitement grow, that\none night the authorities stationed no fewer than nine policemen round\nthe school, for the purpose of restoring order. On the following night\n\"the ghost,\" as it was now called, still uncaught, and gliding as\nnoiselessly and swiftly through the deserted rooms as on the first\nnight of its appearance, frightening the souls and raising the hair of\nall who believed in it, and the authorities, being suspicious of\nmischief on the part of some one concealed on the premises, sent two\ndetectives into the attics of the building, for the purpose of\narresting the apparition should it stalk in their direction and prove\nto be made of flesh and blood. After waiting several hours the\nofficers relinquished their watching, and left the school to its\nghostly occupant. All sorts of theories were propounded to account for\nthe unearthly sights that were witnessed through the windows of the\nbuilding, but it turned out that a very innocent combination of\ncircumstances had caused all the excitement. It was believed that the\nreflection from a set of mirrors in the house opposite, falling upon a\nseries of thickly-glazed maps hanging upon the school wall, had\nproduced the appearances which served to create so great a sensation.\n\nWe have seen there was neither ghost nor goblin in the city of St.\nMungo, but we have also seen from the above incident that time has not\nenabled us to cast off altogether the fetters of superstition.\n\nCunning, duplicity, and falsehood are associated with fortune-telling.\nAn instance in exemplification is within our recollection. Not far\nfrom the junction of the Gadie and Urie with the Don, in\nAberdeenshire, dwelt a rich farmer. His only daughter possessed rare\nnatural charms, gifts, and graces. She could spin, sew, manage the\ndairy, sing with a voice equal to that of the mavis or blackbird,\nwhile her heart was as tender as that of any other sighing maiden. Two\nlovers sought her hand--one rich, the other poor. The poor man she\ndeclared to be her choice, but the purse-proud father declared his\nfirlot of silver money, his twelve cows, and as many calves, his sheep\nand oxen, intended as his daughter's dower, would never enrich a\npennyless man without houses and lands. So he said; yet he changed his\nmind through the influence of a fortune-teller, hired to tell what\npleased her employers best. In presence of father and mother the sibyl\nprofessed to see, first, in her cup a splendid mansion, with wealth in\ngreat store, cattle, and fields of waving corn, then gradual decline\nof riches, until the young lady, her husband, and six or eight\nchildren, were seen living in a little hut in great poverty.\n\nOn hearing such an evil prophecy, the interpreter desired to cast the\ncup again, to ascertain whether the Fates were resolved to adhere to\ntheir former announced decree. Father and mother leaned back in their\nchairs, giving utterance to disquieting thoughts. Through various\nincantations the gods were propitiated. A second cup disclosed a small\nbeginning for the daughter and her husband, but a grand ending. To\nprove which prediction was the correct one, the fortune-teller had\nrecourse to the egg and lead tests--pouring the white of an egg and\nboiling lead into water, and watching the fantastic figures produced.\nEvery fresh trial terminated in favour of the poor wooer. Father and\nmother changed their minds; the daughter almost leaped for joy; two\nfond hearts were united, and the promised dower was not kept back. For\nmany years the young couple throve, and at last died, in peace and\npossession of plenty, leaving an honourable name, likely to descend to\nfuture generations.\n\nThe immediately preceding anecdote reminds us of an old Irish story\nbearing on the land question, and showing how agrarian difficulties\nwere settled in ancient times, without recourse to assassination.\n\nOne night in 1662, one Francis Taverner, while riding home near\nDrumbridge, observed two horsemen pass him silently. Not even the\ntreading of the horses' feet could be heard, and presently a third\nhorseman appeared in the likeness of James Haddock, formerly a farmer\nat Malone, where he died five years previously. Mr. Taverner asked the\nspectre rider number three (for in reality the three riders were\napparitions) why he appeared to him. To this the ghost replied, that\nif he would ride his (the ghost's) way he would inform him. Mr.\nTaverner refused to go any other way than that which led to his own\nhome. Man and ghost parted company; but no sooner had they done so\nthan a dreadful storm arose, in the midst of which hideous screeches\nrose above the gale. Mr. Taverner and his horse were sensible of some\nevil influence being near them; and they continued in a state of\nsemi-stupor until cock-crowing. Chanticleer's clarion notes seemed to\nwork a charm; for as they wakened the morn, all became calm--placid as\nan inland lake unrippled by the wind.\n\nNext night an apparition in the likeness of James Haddock appeared\nagain to Mr. Taverner, and bade him go to Eleanor Welsh, wife of one\nDavis, but formerly the spouse of James Haddock, by whom she had an\nonly son, to whom Haddock had by will given a lease of a farm, but of\nwhich the son was deprived by Davis. \"Tell her,\" said the ghost, \"that\nit is the will of your former husband that our son should be righted\nin the lease.\" Through some infatuation, the man disregarded the\ninstructions of the apparition, and for his neglect he was haunted and\nthreatened by the apparition in several forms.\n\nSo uneasy did Mr. Taverner feel, that he left his mountain home and\nwent to Belfast. Thither the ghost followed him, and again threatened\nto tear him in pieces unless he delivered the message. He therefore\nwent to Lord Chichester, owner of the farm, and with tears in his eyes\nrelated the whole story. Dr. Lewis Downs, a minister in Belfast,\nhearing the relation, at first questioned the lawfulness of obeying a\nspirit, but, on mature consideration, and having respect to the\ninjured son's interest, not only thought the message should be\ndelivered, but agreed to accompany Taverner to Davis's house to hear\nit communicated.\n\nDr. Taylor, bishop of Down, Connor, and Dromore, after strictly\nexamining Taverner anent the whole matter, expressed his belief in the\nrealness of the apparition. No doubt the medium of communication\nsuffered much mental torture, and great excitement prevailed in the\nnorth of Ireland; but, however, to use a hackneyed phrase, \"All's well\nthat ends well.\" The apparition's mission to earth was fulfilled; for\nthe young man's wrongs were redressed, and he remained for many years\nin secure possession of his father's lands.\n\nAn old Highland prophecy respecting the Argyll family has been brought\nto mind by the marriage of the Marquis of Lorn, heir apparent to the\ndukedom, with a princess of England. It was foretold that all the\nglories of the Campbell family would be renewed in the first chief who\nin the colour of his locks approached nearest to that of the great Jan\nRoy Cean (Red John the Great), Duke of Argyll. Nature has performed\nher part in the person of the noble Marquis, and fate is not likely to\nallow the prophecy to remain unfulfilled.\n\nGipsies have always been associated with superstition. In their tents,\nand elsewhere, the women belonging to that class are professed\nfortune-tellers. We have heard them in all parts of Scotland and\nEngland telling fortunes, and seen people trembling at their curses,\nand witnessed others highly elated at their blessings and favourable\npredictions. In far-back times the leaders of the gipsies were chosen\nas their chiefs in consequence of this acknowledged power of\ndivination and enchantment; they were therefore regarded not as kings\nor princes, but as prophets or magicians.\n\nAt Yetholm the gipsies have an idea that it is unlucky to have\nunbaptized children in their houses. Women of that village sell\ndreaming powders, by sleeping on which for a certain number of nights\nthe sleepers are privileged to see their future partners in life.\n\nAs an instance in the belief of unholy prayers, we give an episode in\nthe Leith police court in 1878. A woman named Allan was charged with\nassaulting a man because he had ill-used one of her boys. She was a\nperson of wild passions, and upbraided the man with divers acts of\ncruelty to her children. Bursting out into loud cursing, she reminded\nthe man that, eight years previously, she had, in consequence of him\nkicking her orphan child, prayed that neither he nor his wife should\nhave children; \"and you know,\" she exclaimed, \"my prayers have been\nanswered!\" The woman professed to believe her unholy prayers had\nhindered the subjects of her wrath from having offspring. The man\nquailed under the termagant's piercing eye, and trembled at the\nrenewed curses.\n\nAt the same court, a few years ago, it transpired that two women in\nthe fishing village of Newhaven had a quarrel, during which one of\nthem cursed the other and \"salted her,\" _i.e._ threw salt at her. To\ncast salt with an evil intent after one, is as unlucky, in the\nestimation of fishermen and their wives, as it is to tell a\nfisherwoman that a hare's foot is in her creel, or to mention\n\"Brounger\" or the name of a four-footed beast at sea.\n\nA few sceptical friends, not believing all they had heard regarding\nthe superstitious notions of fishermen, were advised to put a young\npig among some fishermen's lines on board of a boat at Newhaven pier.\nThe trick being performed, and discovered before the boat put to sea,\nboth pig and lines were tossed overboard, to the spoiling of a whole\nday's fishing.\n\nA boat's crew recently left Newhaven pier for the oyster dredging in\nthe Firth of Forth. One of the crew, a young lad, who had been at a\ncircus in Edinburgh the previous evening, happened, while giving an\naccount of what he had seen, to say \"horse.\" No sooner had the hated\nword been uttered, than his companions assailed him in a most\nunmerciful manner. His disregard of the tradition of his fathers put\nan end to the fishing, it not being considered prudent by the men to\nprosecute their calling any more that day. In these superstitions,\nfishermen are following the examples of the ancients. It will be\nremembered the names of the Furies, Kings, etc. were not to be named,\nand that there were birds and beasts of ill omen.\n\nFishermen have an aversion to go to sea in a boat from which a man\nhas been drowned, and they are opposed to the breaking up of an old\nboat. This last-mentioned superstition continues to prevail, and it\naccounts for so many useless crafts being seen at fishing towns\nunnecessarily occupying much valuable ground, as in olden times, and\nas mentioned by us under \"Signs, Omens, and Warnings,\" at page 399. At\nthe Tweed, fishermen still (1879) have a belief in the power of\nfairies to affect the fisheries. It is the custom not only to\nimpregnate nets with salt, but also to throw part of that commodity\ninto the water, to blind the mischievous elves, who are said to\nprevent fish being caught. The salting process was carried on at\nColdstream very recently, with a result highly satisfactory to the\noperators, if not to others.\n\nA ship captain has informed us that, when a young man, he incurred the\ndispleasure of an old seaman, with whom he sailed in one of the old\ntrading smacks between Leith and London. On refreshments being served\nout, according to custom, one day, he (our informant) handed a jug of\nbeer to the old sailor through the steps of a ladder. For this act the\naged salt swore at him, and called him an unlucky lubber, while at the\nsame time he dealt him a severe blow on the face.\n\nAnother captain of a vessel trading between Leith and London has told\nus of a singular passage he had thirty years ago. To oblige a friend,\nhe agreed to convey a hare to another friend in the English\nmetropolis. A fair wind carried the vessel past the Bass Rock, but\nthen a storm sprang up, which kept the ship tossing about for days\nwithout reaching the English coast. An old sailor declared their\nretarded progress was due to the hare being on board. By consent of\nall the crew, the hare found a place overboard, and then the wind\nbecame so favourable that the ship made a quick run to the Thames.\n\nA gentleman in Edinburgh told us recently he had frequently seen\nburning candles beside a corpse at mid-day, while at the same time a\nsmall plate or saucer with salt rested on the corpse's breast, and\nevery one who looked on the body had to put his hand on the inanimate\nbrow. He further told us he had seen a priest of the Roman Catholic\nChurch put a half-crown into the mouth of a corpse at Portobello, to\nrepresent, we presume, the obolus exacted by Charon for ferrying the\nshades of the buried dead across the under-world rivers.\n\nIn Ireland, at a period not remote, an opinion prevailed that the\nspirit of a dead person went about deceased's former home for a month.\nDuring that length of time a fire was always kept burning in the\nhouse, and a jug of water stood in deceased's chamber, so that his\nspirit might refresh itself. At the month's end a clergyman, by means\nof prayer, put the spirit to rest.\n\nWithin the last decade (we think in 1872) a highly respectable family\nin the county of Edinburgh was greatly alarmed by a pheasant flying\nthrough their dining-room window, killing itself on the spot, and\nbreaking a large pane of plate glass. To the family the event came as\na warning of early calamity. Next day a messenger announced that a\nworthy doctor of divinity, a dear family friend, had died the previous\nnight.\n\nWe hear occasionally of the impossibility of wiping out the traces of\nflagrant crimes. The blood of Rizzio, shed on the floor of Holyrood\nPalace, in presence of Queen Mary, has defied the rubbing of years to\nwipe it away. There the blood stains remain a wonder to the thousands\nwho visit Scotland's royal palace. At a time almost forgotten, a good\nman was hurled from a window of Torwood Castle, not far from the field\nof Bannockburn. His blood stained the grass on which the body fell,\nand since that time the herbage there is mixed with red blades of\ngrass and red clover.\n\nA Saturday's flitting is followed by a short sitting. No one should\ntake possession of a new house before throwing coals and salt into\nit. No important undertaking should be commenced on Friday or\nSaturday, nor yet at the end of a year. \"Berchta spoils flax found\nunspun the last day of the year.\" A shooting star falling near a\nhouse, foretells an early death in that dwelling.\n\nOld flint arrow-heads are worn as charms, under the belief that they\nwere the points of elfin arrows. If a lady be wise, she will not have\ntwo tea-spoons in her saucer at the same time. If a young lady desire\nto know how many sweethearts she has, let her pull her fingers, and\nthe number will be equal to the cracks heard. In fact we have nearly\nas many signs, omens, charms, and freits as our forefathers had. We\nhave legendary lore concerning the supernatural, we have mythological\nfables, forecasts, fatalities, our spell-bound individuals, our fey\npersons, and those who have had glamour cast into their eyes. None of\nus are likely to forget the New Year, Christmas, St. Valentine's Day,\nBeltane, Hallow-e'en, and many other high days, which come to us,\nmonth after month, with their peculiar rites and ceremonies. Even\nQueen Victoria, with a desire to please, takes pleasure in observing\nHallow-e'en at her Highland residence.\n\nIn 1876 Hallow-e'en was celebrated at Balmoral Castle with unusual\nceremony, in presence of Her Majesty, the Princess Beatrice, the\nladies and gentlemen of the royal household, and a large gathering of\nthe tenantry and servants on the estates of Balmoral and Invergeldie.\nThe leading features of the celebration were a torchlight procession,\nthe lighting of large bonfires, and the burning in effigy of witches\nand warlocks. Upwards of 150 torchbearers assembled at the castle as\ndarkness set in, and separated into two parties, one band proceeding\nto Invergeldie, and the other remaining at Balmoral. The order was\ngiven to light the torches at a quarter before six o'clock, and\nshortly after that hour the Queen and the Princess Beatrice drove to\nInvergeldie, followed by the Balmoral party of torchbearers. The two\nparties then united and returned in procession to the front of\nBalmoral Castle, where all were grouped round a large bonfire, which\nblazed and crackled merrily, the Queen's pipers playing the while.\nRefreshments were then served to all, and dancing was engaged in to\nthe strains of the bagpipes. When the fun was at its height, there\nsuddenly appeared from the rear of the castle a grotesque figure,\nrepresenting a witch, with a train of followers dressed like sprites,\nwho appeared terrified at the monster fire blazing, and danced and\ngesticulated in all fashions; then followed a warlock of demoniacal\nshape, who was succeeded by another warlock drawing a car, on which\nwas seated a witch, surrounded by other figures in the guise of\ndemons. The unearthly visitors having marched several times round the\nburning pile, the principal figure was taken from the car and tossed\ninto the flames amid weird shrieks and howls, the burning of blue\nlights, and a display of crackers and other fireworks. The health of\nher Majesty the Queen was then pledged and drunk with Highland honours\nby the assembled hundreds; the health of the Princess Beatrice was\nalso received with enthusiasm. Dancing was then resumed, and was\ncarried on till a late hour at night. The scene was very picturesque,\nLochnagar and other mountains in the neighbourhood being covered with\nsnow. Although the wind blew piercingly cold from the north, her\nMajesty and the Princess remained a considerable time, viewing the\nsports with evident interest.\n\nAs to giving up faith in dreams, signs, omens, predictions, and\nwarnings, some people would nearly as soon give up their belief in the\nBible. Then add to these a belief in ghosts, and we have a catalogue\nbefore us so self-accusing that we dare not cast serious reflections\non the memories of our ancestors.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXX.\n\n      Lizzie M'Gill, the Fifeshire\n      Spaewife--Fortune-telling--Predicting a Storm at\n      Sea--Servants alarmed thereby--Prediction\n      Fulfilled--Adam Donald, an Aberdeenshire Prophet--Adam\n      supposed to have been a Changeling--A Careless\n      Mother--Adam as a Linguist--His Predictions and\n      Cures--His Marriage--Valuable Charm--The Wise Woman of\n      Kincardineshire--The Recruiting\n      Sergeant--High-spirited Lady wooed and won--Lucky\n      Lightfoot, the Spaewife--Charmed Ring and its\n      Effects--Elopement and Marriage--An Enraged\n      Father--Life in America--Sergeant Campbell's\n      Death--Second Marriage--Literary\n      Talents--Strong-minded Women.\n\n\nIn the spring of 1866, Eliza M'Gill, who resided near a romantic\nchurch in the Presbytery of St. Andrews, died at the advanced age of\nninety-three years. For a long period almost every one, far and near,\nknew her as a spaewife of no ordinary knowledge. Lizzie (the name\nusually given her) could scarcely be called an impostor, for she\nappeared to have sincere faith in her profession. Often she exclaimed\nwith solemn fervency, \"The gift I hae is fae aboon, an' what He gies\ndaurna be hidit.\" It was common for coy damsels and staid matrons to\nwend their way to Lizzie's cot about twilight, to have their fortunes\nspaed. About ten years before her death, when the prospects of the\nherring fishing were discouraging in the extreme, a buxom young woman,\nbelonging to Pittenweem or St. Monance, repaired one evening to\nCarnbee to consult Lizzie. The damsel went with a heavy countenance,\nbut she returned radiant with smiles, for the wise woman had said,\n\"That altho' it was to be an awfu' puir draw, yet her folk was to hae\na grand haul next e'enin'.\" And, true to the old wife's prediction,\nthe crew in which she interested herself returned with a splendid\nprize from the fishing ground, followed, of course, with an increase\nof fame to the prophetess. On another occasion Lizzie was no less\nfortunate in the result foretold. A fisher-wife in the former place\nhad received a sovereign from her husband, which, in the hurry of the\nmoment, she had placed on the bedside. Going shortly afterwards to\nremove it, what was her consternation to find that the gold piece was\ngone! The most diligent search and inquiry were instituted after the\nlost treasure, but all to no purpose. In the extremity of her distress\nthe poor woman thought of the \"witch o' Carnbee,\" and, adjusting her\ncap, was soon on her journey thither. Lizzie's words fell on her\ntroubled spirit like oil on the stormy sea; for she was told that, in\nthe course of a day or two, the sovereign would be again in her\npossession. And so it proved: on drawing her husband's sea boots from\nunder the bed, the coin fell from the toe of one of them.\n\nOn one occasion, a cheap trip by the steamer \"Xantho\" from Anstruther\nto Leith being advertised, many of the labouring classes, with their\nfriends, arranged to visit Leith and Edinburgh. Unfortunately,\nhowever, the trip was to take place when the farmers of the district\nwere very busy with the sowing of the turnips, and when, of course,\ntheir people were needed for that work. For the purpose, it is said,\nof keeping the men at home, a rumour circulated over the East Neuk, to\nthe effect that the steamer and all on board were to perish in a\nfearful gale. The servants were so greatly alarmed by the prediction\nof Lizzie (it was she who spread the report), that they resolved to\nremain at home. The most remarkable feature of the affair is, that on\nthe day in question a violent gale arose, which prevented the steamer\nreturning to Anstruther until next morning. The non-arrival of the\nboat, as may be inferred, was the cause of the liveliest alarm to the\nfriends of those on board, and an old worthy was heard to exclaim with\nrespect to the prediction: \"I dinna believe in sic things mysel', but,\nsome way or ither, they aye come true.\" Lizzie's father and her whole\nfamily are said to have been highly respectable. Her truant and\nimpulsive disposition led her, however, into conduct and habits that\ndeprived her of the respect and help of her friends; and necessity at\nlength appears to have constrained her to act the part of a\nfortune-teller, which she is known to have practised with success more\nthan half a century.\n\nAdam Donald, the prophet of Bethelnie, a contemporary of Lizzie\nM'Gill, stood high in Aberdeenshire as a seer. From his peculiar\nappearance in early life, grave doubts existed as to whether he was\nactually the offspring of his reputed parents, or whether he had not\nbeen substituted by the fairies for a lovely boy, the son of a worthy\npair who believed not in the existence of witches or fairies.\n\nOne day the mother went out, leaving the child well in his cradle, and\non returning, about an hour afterwards, she found a cold, marble-like\ninfant, that never throve, never smiled, but, on the contrary, cried\nfrom morning to night, and from night till morning. On hearing of the\nchanged infant, people flocked to witness the sudden alteration which\nhad taken place in Mr. and Mrs. Donald's child. One knowing dame\nthought she understood the whole matter. The fairies were the wicked\nbeings that had done all the mischief; and that they were permitted to\ndo so, arose entirely through the parents' carelessness or ignorance.\n\"Would it be believed,\" said the dame when speaking of the\nextraordinary circumstance, \"that the simple mother went out, leaving\nher child alone, uncrossed, without a charm about its person, and\nwithout a horse-shoe being nailed on the threshold or behind the door,\nor a piece of rowan-tree at the door or window or in the cradle?\" The\nfriend to whom the reflections were made shook her head, while she\nreplied, \"Ay, ay, unbelieving generation; they will be burning the\nBible some day soon.\"\n\nAdam grew up, and became a wonderful being. From his ability to tell\nsecrets past and future, and his power to effect cures, he became\nknown as the \"prophet of Bethelnie.\" Owing to a distorted state of\nbody, he could not engage in robust employment to obtain a\nsubsistence. He therefore, to amuse himself, read such books as his\nparents' stinted means could afford. Though it was supposed he could\nscarcely read English, he carefully collected many curious books in\nFrench, Latin, Greek, Italian, and Spanish. He often retired to an old\nchurchyard and church in ruins, near his residence, to hold converse\n(so he said) with spirits of the dead, which informed him of things\nunknown to ordinary men.\n\nWhen property went amissing, the owner repaired to the \"prophet;\" when\ncattle died, he named the witch who had killed them; and when any one\nbecame sick, Adam Donald supplied a remedy either by charms or herbs.\nEvery Sunday, for many years, people of all classes crowded to consult\nhim either as a necromancer or physician. His fee seldom exceeded\nsixpence for each consultation, yet he lived in comparative comfort.\n\nWhen far advanced in life, miserable-looking object though the\n\"prophet\" remained, he prevailed on one of the handsomest girls of his\nneighbourhood to marry him. This matrimonial alliance helped to\nstrengthen the supposition that Adam possessed more than human power.\n\nThe prophet of Bethelnie, although he had offspring, went to his long\nhome without instructing a successor in the secret art he for many\nyears followed with pecuniary advantage. He saved his reputation by\npreserving silence. If the following anecdote be true, there can be\nlittle doubt that the prophet assisted to restore decaying nature by\nthe use of amulets or charms.\n\nAn old woman, whose eyes had become dim by reason of years, purchased\na charm from the prophet, which Adam assured her would revive her\nsight to its former clearness. On the charm--hieroglyphics traced on\nparchment--being suspended from the neck, it proved effectual. In a\nshort time the old woman could thread a small needle, and see to pick\nup a pin from the floor. A female neighbour, with impaired sight,\nhearing of the cure, begged the charm from the lucky owner, but she\nwould not part with it. All the favour the applicant could obtain was\npermission to copy the hieroglyphics on paper. The copy thus obtained\nand worn by the second patient brightened up her eyes also. Adam's\nmedicines excited love, and his charms secured affection.\n\nFifty or sixty years ago Kincardineshire had its wise women. At the\ntime referred to, a recruiting sergeant (whom we shall call Donald\nCampbell), equally devoted to his sovereign and the fair sex, made a\nfavourable impression on the inhabitants of a small town fifteen or\ntwenty miles from Aberdeen. The parish minister, the parochial\nteacher, and the doctor had something favourable to say of the\nsergeant. Nurses and other servant-maids could see nothing but the\nsergeant's red-coat; and it was whispered that even the young ladies\nsmiled on him. Indeed that must have been so, for we are told that\nevery one welcomed the Highlander: even the little children ran to\nmeet him; and how heartily he did kiss them, but whether for their own\nsakes or the love he bore to their nurses, sisters, or aunts, none\ncould tell. This, however, is certain: he did not encourage the\nshoemaker's sister, the tailor's daughter, nor the buxom widow who\npresided at the little inn. His affections were concentrated on a lady\nwhom one could scarcely expect to yield her heart to such a humble son\nof Mars. The fair one was no less a personage than the daughter of\nCaptain B---- of U----, a lady well known for miles around for her\ncourage and love of out-door sports. Few could manage a high-spirited\nhorse better than Rose Bloomer (by this name we introduce the young\nlady to our readers), or clear a fence with greater ease. And as for\nthe fishing-rod and fowling-piece, she could handle them as\ndexterously as any disciple of Isaac Walton or of Nimrod could desire.\nTrue, she was not what is generally termed a beauty: her features,\nthough not coarse, were scarcely those a sculptor or a painter would\ndesire to have before him while completing his \"Venus\" for the next\nfine-art exhibition. In her short stout figure and determined look\nwere indications of a strong-minded woman. Miss Bloomer, having lost\nher mother in early life, and her father being devoted to the chase,\npedestrianism, and other athletic sports congenial to most country\ngentlemen, the young lady, his only child, had ample scope for\nindulging her inclinations.\n\nSergeant Campbell greatly admired Miss Bloomer's dexterity. Often did\nhe watch her guidance of a high-mettled steed, now urging it to its\nutmost speed, and then reining in the impatient animal. The sergeant,\nwe have said, greatly admired Miss Bloomer's dexterity; but, what is\nmore, he resolved to secure her hand in marriage. Plan after plan,\nlaid with the view of obtaining an introduction, failed. The lady\nfrequently passed him without deigning to cast her eyes on his\nred-coat. Why should she? Was he not a poor soldier? and was she not a\nmatch for the best young gentleman in the county? These and like\nquestions occurred to Campbell, and more than once made him almost\ndespair of securing the lady's affections. Again and again his\ndrooping spirits revived; his pertinacity had no bounds. What could\nnot be secured, thought he, by ordinary means, might be obtained by\nextraordinary measures.\n\nSergeant Campbell, learned in the superstitions of his native land,\nbelieved them with a child-like faith. He had heard of Lucky\nLightfoot, the spaewife; and to her he went for assistance. The old\nwoman, on hearing the sergeant's tale, requested him to leave with her\na gold ring he was wearing--a request he complied with. A few days\nafterwards the woman returned the soldier his ring, now charmed, with\ninstructions to endeavour to get Miss Bloomer to wear it, though but\nfor a few minutes.\n\nIn her frequent rambles along the banks of a meandering stream, the\nbeauties of which Arthur Johnstone had celebrated in Latin verse, and\nregarding which Thomas the Rhymer had uttered prophecies, Campbell,\nunnoticed, followed Miss Bloomer, in the hope that fortune would\nfavour him some day. She botanized, fished, and shot, unheeding her\nsecret admirer. One day, to his delight, he observed her coming along\na footpath, and resolved to drop the ring, in the hope that she would\npick it up. Having left it in a conspicuous place, he retired into a\nthicket to watch the result. The lady, seeing the ring, took it up,\nexamined it, and having no pocket or purse, put it on one of her\nfingers, and, as fate would have it, on the fourth finger of the left\nhand--the finger the Greeks discovered, from anatomy, had a little\nhighly sensitive nerve going straight from it to the heart. \"Now,\"\nthought he, \"she is mine. I shall follow her, and ask whether she has\nfound my ring;\" but before he could muster courage to carry his\nresolution into effect, Miss Bloomer disappeared.\n\nWith the view of discovering the owner, she continued to wear the\nring. Unexpectedly, Fred and Georgina Hopper, her cousins, while\ndriving past, stopped to take dinner, and to them she showed the ring.\nFred, who was an inveterate joker, made it the subject of several\njests, all of which Miss Bloomer bore with good humour; but when Miss\nHopper suggested that the ring might belong to some mean person, and\nhinted that it was an act of impropriety to wear it, the blood rushed\nto Miss Bloomer's cheeks; and she clenched her little fist, but for\nwhat purpose did not transpire.\n\nIn the evening the cousins drove away, leaving Miss Bloomer in\nanything but a pleasant mood. Evidently the charm had commenced to\ntake effect, or Miss Hopper's remarks had disturbed the young lady's\nequanimity.\n\nStill wearing the ring, Miss Bloomer retired to rest, or rather to\nbed, for during the night she was restless, tossing from side to side\nlike one in delirium. One, two, three struck on the old clock, and\nstill sleep did not come to soothe her disturbed brain. Whether in a\nsleeping or waking state she could not tell, but a regiment of armed\nmen, with the recruiting sergeant at their head, seemed to pass before\nher, while in the distance there appeared ships at anchor in a large\ncommodious bay. At four o'clock the lady stood at her window admiring\nthe beautiful scenery. Retiring again to rest, she fell asleep, and\ndid not waken before her accustomed time of rising.\n\nAfter breakfast Miss Bloomer went out, as usual, to follow the bent of\nher mind. She had not gone far, before Sergeant Campbell approached\nher in a most respectful manner, and inquired if she had found a ring\nthe previous day. It was scarcely necessary for her to return an\nanswer, because there before him, on her ungloved hand, the ring\nappeared. As she handed it to him, an indescribable sensation ran\nthrough her whole frame. They entered into conversation; and how long\nthey walked and chatted together, and what were the subjects of their\nconversation, we shall not pause to mention: sufficient to say that,\nbefore they parted, an early meeting was arranged. In due time, and\nquickly after each other, other meetings took place.\n\nIn course of time, old dames hinted that if the lady continued to keep\ntryst in the romantic secluded spots of her father's domains with such\na fine-looking soldier as Campbell, she would provoke the goddess\nsupposed to preside over love affairs, and most likely entitle herself\nto a rush-ring only on her wedding-day, instead of the customary gold\none. But the evil prophetesses were wrong for once. Seldom did a\nrecruiting party forward more stalwart soldiers to headquarters than\nSergeant Campbell and his subordinates did. Indeed he owed much of his\nsuccess to Miss Bloomer's exertions. She proved a valuable assistant;\nfor, through her persuasion, a large number of young men on her\nfather's estate were induced to enlist, and leave the homes of their\nyouth for ever.\n\nHappy days of single bliss cannot last for ever. Before three short\nmonths had passed, Sergeant Campbell and Miss Bloomer observed more\nthan once the finger of scorn pointed at them. Threats were made by\nthe parents of certain young men who had enlisted, to make known the\nconduct of the young lady and her lover to Captain Bloomer. What was\nto be done? Miss Bloomer's reputation was at stake, and the sergeant's\nlife endangered, as will afterwards appear.\n\nThe betrothed pair (by this time Sergeant Campbell and Miss Bloomer\nwere engaged to be married) perceived the necessity of acting\npromptly, and therefore they resolved to elope. An obstacle, however,\nstood in the way of their doing so immediately. If the sergeant\nabandoned his station, he would be pursued, arrested, and dealt with\nas a deserter. Miss Bloomer, equal to the occasion, resolved to \"buy\nhim off.\"\n\nThe discharge from the army being obtained, and the indispensable\narrangements for a long journey completed, the sergeant and his true\nlove secretly departed for Aberdeen, where they were united for better\nand worse--not by a clergyman, but by a magistrate, before whom they\nwent and declared themselves to be husband and wife--a ceremony as\nbinding by the law of Scotland as if there had been regular\nproclamation of banns, according to custom, in the parish church, and\nthey had been married by an ordained minister. In place of a new\nmarriage ring being placed on the bride's finger by the gallant\nsergeant, he, at her request, put on the charmed ring, the magical\npower of which she confessed could not be resisted.\n\nHaving shown the effect of Lucky Lightfoot's subtle art, we might take\nleave of the subject; but as the career of Mrs. Campbell (Mr. Campbell\ndid not survive long) is peculiarly interesting, particularly in\nconnection with a class that has created no small stir on both sides\nof the Atlantic, we shall pursue our narrative a little further.\n\nThe newly married couple, not considering themselves safe from pursuit\nin the Granite City, posted south, and reached the Clyde in less than\ntwenty-four hours, where they secured a passage on board a vessel\nbound for America.\n\nAs soon as Captain Bloomer heard of his daughter's elopement, his rage\ncould not be restrained. Arming himself with a brace of pistols, and\nmounting his fleetest steed (and a valuable stud he had), he rode in\npursuit, stopping not before he reached Aberdeen. Not finding the\nfugitives there, he hastened to Edinburgh, with the twofold object of\nbringing back his daughter and shooting her companion in flight. After\ndiligent inquiry in the city, he obtained what he considered reliable\ninformation that they had proceeded in the direction of the Borders,\nto be married at Gretna Green, a village celebrated as a place where\nmany distinguished and obscure persons have been married by a\nblacksmith. As the reader already knows, the offended father went in\nthe wrong direction.\n\nMonths passed before the captain's equanimity became restored; but\ntime, the alleviator of sorrow and best soother of a turbulent spirit,\nbrought a favourable change.\n\nMr. and Mrs. Campbell arrived safe in America, the land of their\nadoption, with little more means than sufficient to provide for their\nimmediate wants. After love's first fever ended, calm reflection\nfollowed. Romance disappeared before the stern realities of life.\nFriends they had few, relations none, in the wild wide expanse of\nAmerica. Mrs. Campbell became home-sick: the scenes of her father's\nmansion, and everything pleasant connected with the estate, rose\nbefore her mind's eye. Above all, she constantly thought of her father\nwith more than half regret at the rash act she had been guilty of.\nThen she did what most young ladies would do under similar\ncircumstances--wrote to her father asking forgiveness. Before Captain\nBloomer received the letter, the last spark of anger in his breast had\ngiven place to paternal anxiety. Left alone without wife or child,\ngladly would he have welcomed her home, had not prudential reasons\nrendered it necessary to keep father and daughter separate. Her letter\ngave great satisfaction; and he resolved to assist her and her\nhusband. Through an English friend, a sufficient amount was remitted\nto America, to enable Mr. Campbell to purchase an estate. The young\ncouple settled down comfortably in an improving locality, with every\nprospect of comfort and happiness.\n\nBefore the fifth winter of Mr. and Mrs. Campbell's married life had\npassed, Mr. Campbell died, leaving his wife alone (they had no issue)\nin a far distant country. Mrs. Campbell returned to Scotland, and took\nup her residence in Edinburgh for a few years. Again a brave defender\nof his country led the lady to the hymeneal altar. The union proved an\nunhappy one: Mrs. Smith (this, though a common name, is the cognomen by\nwhich she will now be known) separated from her husband, and sailed\nonce more for America. Preferring town life to solitude in the forest,\nMrs. Smith settled down (if such could be said of one possessed of\nbustling active habits like hers) in the greatest city of the United\nStates. To augment an income rendered small through the misfortune and\ndeath of her father, she became a journalist. Her papers were\nfavourably received, being pointed and piquant. Her talents were\nchiefly directed to the support of women's rights; and she became a\nleader of the class of strong-minded women, still seeking to assert\ntheir rights in politics, science, and art.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXI.\n\n      Superstition at Chelmsford--Woman\n      Bewitched--Fortune-telling Quack--Old\n      Zadkiel--Incantation in Somerset--Turning the Bible\n      and Key--Woman assuming the form of a Hare--Woman\n      ruling the Stars--Young Women Deceived--Superstition\n      in London--Generality of Superstition--A\n      Prediction--How to preserve Children from\n      Disease--Dreams Fulfilled--Virtue of Holly and Ivy in\n      Worcestershire and Herefordshire--Legend concerning\n      the Tichborne Family--Romantic Divorce Case.\n\n\nA case tried at Chelmsford, on the Home Circuit, in 1864, affords a\ncurious proof how much antique superstition still lingers amongst the\nEnglish peasantry. For twenty years before 1863 there had been living\nin one of the Essex villages an old man, deaf and dumb, who enjoyed\nthe reputation of a wizard or fortune-teller. He was eighty years of\nage, and the singularities of his manner and appearance contributed to\nthe impression he made on the rustic mind. The better sort of people\ntreated the old man with a kindness due rather to his calamities than\nto his profession, while the more sceptical of the rabble who did not\nfear him, seem to have amused themselves occasionally at his expense.\n\nDummey had been at the village of Ridgewell, near Hedingham, in the\nsummer of 1863, where there was a beer-house, the landlady of which\nwas one Emma Smith. The old magician wanted to sleep in the beer-house\ninstead of returning to his own hut, but Emma Smith refused to give\nhim leave. He gesticulated menacingly in his own fashion with his\nstick, and went his way angrily. Soon after this Emma became ill. The\nimage of Dummey rose before her mind, and she pronounced herself\n\"bewitched.\"\n\nAfter long misery, she went forth to seek the old man, found him at\nthe \"Swan,\" a public-house near his own den, and tried to persuade him\nto return with her, that his presence might break the spell which hung\nover her. She repeatedly offered him three sovereigns as payment for\nthis service; but neither money nor words could move him. Meanwhile\nthe news spread that a woman who had been bewitched by old Dummey was\nat the \"Swan,\" and a crowd assembled and pulled the unlucky wizard\nabout, so that he fell once or twice on the ground. Smith took an\nactive part in the assault; and after the \"Swan\" was closed, she was\nseen beating him and tearing his clothes. Fear for herself--fear of\nhis supernatural gifts--were both merged in the stronger feeling of\nrage; and at last she, assisted by one Stammers, a carpenter, pushed\nthe old man into a brook. He died at Halsted poorhouse from the\neffects of the ill-usage. Emma Smith and Stammers were sentenced to\nsix months hard labour for their share in this outrage--the judge\nexcusing the leniency of the punishment on the ground of the woman's\nstate of mental excitement, and of the man's having pulled Dummey out\nof the water when the ducking seemed likely to produce death.\n\nOnly a few years ago an example of superstition in England came\nprominently before a public court of justice. It appears that in the\nneighbourhood of South Molton, North Devon, an old man aged\neighty-six, living at Westdown, near Barnstaple, was charged with\n\"using certain subtle craft, means, or device by palmistry and\notherwise, to deceive and impose on certain of her Majesty's\nsubjects.\" For some time a woman named Elizabeth Saunders, then\nresiding in an adjacent hamlet, had been ill. Doctors' remedies\nfailed, and her husband sent for the old man named Harper, generally\ncalled the \"White Witch,\" but who called himself an herbalist. He went\nto the house of the woman, and gave her four or five iron rods in\nsuccession, with which she tapped a piece of iron held by her in the\nother hand while in bed. At the ends of the rods were the names of\nplanets, such as Jupiter and Mercury. He asked the age of the woman\nand the hour she was born, saying he wanted to find out under what\nplanet she came into the world. He gave her some bitters to take, but\nshe died a few days afterwards. The defence was that the rods and\npiece of metal were a rude method of using electricity, by which means\nthe defendant had effected many cures; but no explanation was given as\nto the meaning of the names of the planets. It was stated that the\n\"White Witch\" charged the woman 25s. for his services. Several\nwitnesses, called for the defence, said they had been cured of\ncomplaints in the legs and arms by the defendant's magic rods when\nnobody else could cure them. The Bench sentenced him to a month's\nimprisonment.\n\nA case of witchcraft came recently to our knowledge from Stonehouse.\nAnn Bond, a professed herbalist, stood charged before a bench of\njustice with having obtained \u00a31 by means of a subtle device. Mary Ann\nPike said her sister, Mrs. Summers, having a bad leg, had been advised\nto let the prisoner see it. Bond, after looking at the limb, declared\nthat it was not an affliction by God. She went away, and afterwards\nreturned with some cards. These she arranged, and, after looking at\nthem, said her sister was so ill-wished that her face would be drawn\nto her toes, and that she would die at the age of thirty-seven. Mrs.\nSummers asked the prisoner if she could do her any good. Bond replied,\n\"Yes; if you come at once under my demand; my usual price is 25s., but\nI'll do it for \u00a31.\" Deponent lent her sister a sovereign to give to\nthe woman. Bond turned up a bottle, and said to witness, \"There is\none dark woman, and a tall woman, doing your sister injury; the circle\nwas not laid intentionally for her, but for her husband.\" The prisoner\nwas convicted and punished. She had formerly been imprisoned for a\nsimilar offence.\n\nIn 1878, at a meeting of the guardians of the Coventry Union, an\ninmate named Arnold, _alias_ \"Old Zadkiel,\" a professor of astrology,\nwas the subject of inquiry. A letter had been addressed to him by a\nlady at Dorchester, anxious to learn \"what planet she was born under,\nand the position of her future husband.\" She forwarded a number of\npostage stamps. There was another letter from a lady at Leamington,\nasking Arnold to keep an appointment with her, to \"read her destiny.\"\nThe astrologer formerly lived in Coventry, and carried on an extensive\ntrade until he was sent to Warwick gaol, which he left for the\nworkhouse. He was cautioned by the Board. \"Old Zadkiel,\" taking\noffence, left the workhouse, saying he \"should resume his astrology\"\nand the \"ruling of the planets.\"\n\nNot long ago a well-to-do farmer near Ilchester, in Somerset, had the\nmisfortune to have several of his cattle taken away by disease. A\nveterinary surgeon who was consulted, thought the remainder of the\nherd were in a fair way of recovery; the farmer, however, insisted\nthat he and his cows had been \"overlooked,\" and immediately sought out\na \"wise woman\" residing in an adjacent town. Acting upon the advice of\nthe old hag, the farmer returned home, and encircled with a faggot the\nlast bullock that died, ignited the pile, and burnt the carcase, an\nincantation being pronounced over the burning beast. The remainder of\nthe herd became well, and their recovery was attributed by the farmer\nand his simple-minded neighbours, not to the skill of the veterinary\nsurgeon, but to the success of the weird ceremonial prescribed by the\nfortune-teller.\n\nA remarkable case of credulity came before Ludlow police court, in\nJanuary of this year (1879). Mary A. Collier was summoned under the\nlocal bye-laws for using abusive language to Elizabeth Oliver. Both\nparties, it transpired, lived in Lower Gouldford; and a sheet having\nbeen lost off a garden line, with a view to discover the thief, the\nsuperstitious practice of \"turning the key and the Bible\" was resorted\nto. Complainant said Collier met her in the street, and said the Bible\nhad been turned down for Jones' yard, Martha Cad's yard, and\nBurnsnell's yard, and when Mrs. Oliver's name was mentioned, \"the\nBible fled out of their hands.\" The Bible was then turned to see if\nthe sheet was stolen during the day or night, and Mrs. Collier then\ncalled her \"a daring daylight thief.\" Mrs. Collier informed the Court\nthat \"the key turned for Mrs. Oliver and no one else, and the words in\nthe Bible were for her.\" Mrs. Oliver said the sheet had been found\nunder the snow. The Bench dismissed the case, and said such gross\nsuperstition was more like a relic of the past, and would not have\nbelieved that such a thing existed in this advanced age.\n\nIn the village of East Knighton, Dorsetshire, in the year above\nmentioned, a remarkable case reached the public ears. In a cottage\ndwelt a woman named Kerley and her daughter, a girl of about eighteen\nyears, supposed to be bewitched. It was positively stated that they\nhad been thrown out of the cottage into the street, although neither\nwindow nor door was open, and heavy articles of furniture were sent\nflying about in all directions.\n\nAn old woman called Burt was named as the cause of all the mischief,\nand she was declared to have assumed the form of a hare, to have been\nchased by the neighbours, and then to have sat up and looked defiantly\nat them. It is positively believed that until blood is drawn from the\nwitch the manifestations will not cease.\n\nWe must confess that superstition is stripped of its romance by\nprosaic courts and stern judges. A case tried at Newbury\nquarter-sessions is fresh in the memory of many. Maria Giles, _alias_\n\"The Ranter,\" well known as the \"Newbury Cunning Woman,\" was tried on\nthe charge of having obtained sums of money from two women living at\nvillages in a wild district in North Hants, by falsely pretending she\nhad the power to recover some goods they had lost. The women travelled\ntwelve miles to consult the prisoner. She went through some absurd\nproceedings, and pretended she saw in a glass the parties who had\ntaken the goods. Prisoner had practised witchcraft for many years. She\nprofessed to rule the stars, and said that if the nights were clear\nand fine she would be able to recover the goods sooner. The jury\nreturned a verdict of guilty, and sentenced her to five years penal\nservitude.\n\nThe proceedings of a professional fortune-teller formed the subject of\ninvestigation by the mayor and other magistrates of Newbury in 1871. A\nwidow named Maria Moss had been pretending to tell the fortune of\ndivers persons, particularly young women, whom she had induced to go\nto her house. The principal witnesses called were Alice Prior and\nMaria Low, two young women, who proved that the prisoner had promised\nto tell their fortunes. Her practice had been to produce a pack of\ncards, which she placed upon the table, and told each girl to cut them\ninto three parts. In one case she said she saw \"London,\" and told\nPrior that she would get a good situation there, and be married to a\nwidower. She represented to Low that she would also have an excellent\nsituation in London, and be married to a gentleman with plenty of\nmoney. She induced the girls to obtain goods from tradesmen in the\ntown and bring them to her house, and the girls also removed wearing\napparel from their own homes and deposited the same with the prisoner,\nwho promised to send the goods after the girls had arrived in the\nmetropolis. However, the mother of Low discovered that clothes had\nbeen taken away from her house, and the intended journey of the girls\nwas of course prevented. The Bench dealt with the case under the\nVagrant Act, and sentenced the woman to fourteen days in Reading gaol.\n\nIn the beginning of 1879 a photographer named Henry, of Cooper's Road,\nOld Kent Road, London, was charged at the Southwark police court with\nobtaining money by false pretences. The prisoner issued an\nadvertisement, offering for eighteen stamps to send to unmarried\npersons photographs of their future wives or husbands, and for\ntwenty-four stamps a bottle of magnetic scent, or Spanish love scent,\nwhich were described, the first as \"so fascinating in its effects as\nto make true love run smooth,\" and the other as \"delicious, and\ncaptivating the senses,\" so that \"no young lady or gentleman need pine\nin single blessedness.\" Several witnesses stated that they had\nanswered these advertisements; and numbers of letters--some from\nAustralia, China, and other places abroad, relating to them--were\nfound at the defendant's house. It appeared that he had been carrying\non a very successful fraud for some time. The magistrate sentenced the\nprisoner, under the Vagrant Act, to three months hard labour.\n\nFour men were charged at the Marylebone police court, London, in 1871,\nwith telling fortunes. They had a place in that district, in which the\npolice found a magic mirror, cards, nativities, planetary schemes, and\nall the paraphernalia of fortune-telling imposition. On the police\ngoing to the house, they found no fewer than thirty or forty young\nwomen in a waiting-room, each having paid a fee. A book was found in\nwhich were entries of the dupes in each week, the numbers varying from\n89 to 662. The prisoners were sentenced to three months hard labour.\n\nLiverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, London, and nearly all the other\ncities, towns, and country districts of England continue to have their\nfortune-tellers and reputed witches and ghosts. There are still many\nbelievers in the prophecies of Mother Shipton, but none believe more\nimplicitly in her sayings than the labouring classes of Somerset.\nRecently a report, put in circulation in the neighbourhood of Ham\nHill, made them think a great catastrophe was about to occur in that\nparticular locality. Mother Shipton had predicted that Ham Hill, one\nof the great stone quarries of Somerset and a prominent feature in the\nlandscape for many miles, would be swallowed up on Good Friday. The\ncollapse of this immense hill was to ensue from a terrible earthquake,\nthe effect of which would be felt especially in that part of\nSomersetshire. One result of this belief was that persons left the\nneighbourhood temporarily in order to escape the disaster. Other\npeople removed their household goods from shelves and cupboards, in\norder that they might not be thrown down by the upheaval of the earth;\nand in some cases, we are told, people delayed planting and\ncultivating their gardens. The residents who believed in the predicted\nevent said that Yeovil would also be visited at the same time by a\ngreat and disastrous flood. One case was that of a man who delayed\nplanting his garden with potatoes because he believed there would be a\nterrible frost, and that the River Thames would be covered with ice.\nThis he connected in some way with the Ham Hill affair. Amongst the\nlabouring classes considerable alarm existed, and Good Friday was\nlooked forward to with no little amount of anxiety in that part of\nSomerset.\n\nGood Friday came and passed without any untoward event. Yet that is\nnot enough to dispel the faith in Mother Shipton's prediction. She is\nnot at fault. Some blundering calculator made a mistake as to time,\nand the people of Somerset are yet to have their great catastrophe.\n\nA curious superstitious custom is observed in the Isle of Man. Mothers\nbelieve their children may be preserved from disease by placing them\nin the hopper of a water flour-mill while the wheel makes three\nrevolutions. On a Sunday not long since a number of children were\ntaken to the Grenaby mill, in the parish of Malew, three miles from\nCastletown, in order to be subjected to the \"charm\" we have mentioned.\nTwo hoppers of the mill were crammed full of children, and, as soon as\nthey were settled, the miller caused the wheel to revolve three times,\nthe parents of the children being present at the time. In order to be\nefficacious, the ceremony must be gone through at a time when the\nministers of the district are preaching in their pulpits. For this\nreason, about noon on Sundays is generally the time chosen for the\nperformance of this curious rite.\n\nAt an inquest lately held in London on the body of a woman aged\neighty-two years, the evidence showed that the woman's death resulted\nfrom injury to the head, caused by a fall from her chair. One of the\nwitnesses told the coroner that he believed the time had come for the\nwoman to die. His reason for that opinion was, that she had dreamed, a\nfortnight before her death, that she had a fall, and cut open her\nhead, and was likely to die in consequence.\n\nAn awful fulfilment of a dream took place at a calico-printing\nestablishment at Sunnyside. A clerk in the work remarked to one of the\nmachine printers that he was glad to see him at his employment; the\nprinter asked his reason for his congratulations, when the clerk\nobserved that during the previous night he (the clerk) had dreamed\nthat he (the printer) had, while at his work, dropped down dead. The\nprinter replied, in a jocular way, \"You see you were mistaken, for I\nam alive yet.\" The printer being in his usual health and spirits, no\nfurther notice was taken of the matter; but singularly, at three\no'clock in the afternoon of the same day, while attending to his\nduties at his machine, he dropped down dead without the least warning.\n\nThis year (1879) the Deal magistrates sentenced a man named George\nWylds to two months imprisonment for refusing to proceed to sea in the\nbarque \"Umzinto,\" on a voyage from London to Port Natal. The man told\nthe magistrate that he was satisfied with the ship, officers, and\nfood, but he had had a dream that the ship would be lost, and would\nnot go to sea in her for any amount of money. Once before he had a\ndream that a vessel in which he was sailing would be lost, and it was\nlost.\n\nIt is worth recording that in many parishes of Worcestershire and\nHerefordshire the holly and ivy that have adorned churches at\nChristmas-time are much esteemed and cherished.\n\nIf a small branch of holly, with the berries upon it, is taken home\nand hung up in the house, it is considered sure to bring a lucky year.\nA little of this church ivy given to sheep is considered likely to\nmake them bring forth two lambs a-piece. The evergreens that were hung\nup in the house must, however, all be burned, except the mistletoe\nbough, which should be kept throughout the year; and it generally is\nin farmhouses, as, according to old people, it prevented any bad\neffect from the evil eye, and fiends and hobgoblins were scared away\nby it, as stated in this verse of an old sagacious adviser:\n\n    \"On Candlemas eve kindle the fire, and then\n    Before sunset let every leaf it bren;\n    But the mistletoe must hang agen\n      Till Christmas next return;\n    This must be kept, wherewith to tend\n    The Christmas bough, and house defend,\n    For where it's safely kept, the fiend\n      Can do no mischief there.\"\n\nSome country churches in Worcestershire and Herefordshire are still\nusually decked with sprigs of yew at Easter, and boughs of fragrant\nfresh-leaved birch at Whitsuntide; and a sprig of yew thus\nconsecrated, when taken and kept in the house, is deemed a\npreservative from the influence or entrance of any malignant spirits.\nIn like manner, a branch of the birch is honoured by being placed on\nor over the kneading-trough; for, thus placed, it is considered to be\na sure antidote against heavy bread.\n\nA celebrated case, in which the pursuer, newly returned from\nAustralia, sought to establish, in the Court of Common Pleas (we think\nin 1871 or 1872), his claim to the ancient baronetcy of Tichborne,\nrecalls to mind a legend current in the Tichborne family for many\ngenerations relative to the \"Tichborne Dole.\" The house of Tichborne\ndates the possession of its right to the manor of Tichborne, near\nWinchester, as far back as two centuries before the Norman Conquest.\n\nAbout the middle of the twelfth century the then head of the family\nmarried Mabel, only daughter and heiress of Sir Ralph de Lamerston, of\nLamerston, in the Isle of Wight, by which he acquired considerable\nestates in that part of England, in addition to his own possessions in\nHampshire. After many years of wedded happiness, during which the Lady\nMabel became celebrated for her kindness and care of the poor, and\ndeath approaching, she besought her husband to grant her the means of\nleaving behind her a charitable bequest, in the shape of a _dole_, or\nmeasure of bread, to be distributed annually, on the 25th of March\n(the Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary), to all\nneedy and indigent people who should apply for it at the hall door.\nThe said bread was to be the produce of a certain piece of ground\ncontaining an area of fifteen acres, and of known value; but should\nthe applicants be greater in number than the measures produced,\ntwopence in money was to be given as the _dole_.\n\nLady Mabel's husband was induced to consent to his wife's request,\nonly on condition of her being able to crawl or walk round the piece\nof ground demanded--a condition of apparent impracticability, from the\nfact of her having been bedridden for many years previous; and this\ntask was to be performed while a certain brand, or billet of wood, was\nburning on the fire in the hall at Tichborne. The dame, nothing\ndaunted, ordered her attendants to carry her to the place she had\nselected, where, being set down, she seemed to receive a renovation of\nstrength, and, to the surprise of admiring onlookers, she succeeded in\ncrawling round several rich and goodly acres within the required time.\nThe field which was the scene of Lady Mabel's extraordinary feat\nretains the name of \"Crawls\" to the present day.\n\nOn the task being completed, the lady was re-conveyed to her chamber,\nand, summoning the family to her bed-side, she proceeded in a most\nsolemn manner to deliver a prophecy respecting the future inheritors\nof Tichborne--predicting its prosperity as long as the annual _dole_\nexisted, and leaving her malediction on any of her descendants who\nshould discontinue or divert it, and declaring that, when such event\nshould happen, _the old house would fall, the family would become\nextinct from the failure of heirs-male_, and that--as a final warning\nof the approach of their decay--a generation would appear of _seven\nsons_, followed immediately by one with _seven daughters and no sons_.\n\nThe _dole_ continued to be regularly given from the time of Henry II.\nto 1799, when Sir Henry Tichborne discontinued it. Then began the\nfulfilment of Lady Mabel's prediction. In 1803, four years after the\ncessation of the gift, a portion of the house fell, and the remainder\nwas pulled down. Sir Henry, the seventh baronet of the name of\nTichborne, who had abolished the _dole_, had _seven sons_. Sir Henry,\nthe eighth baronet, and eldest of the seven sons, married Anne,\ndaughter of Sir Thomas Burke, Bart., of Marble Hill, and by her had\n_seven daughters_. Sir Henry died leaving no sons.\n\nIn 1826 Sir Henry's second brother, Edward, who eventually became the\nninth baronet, having inherited the extensive property of Miss\nElizabeth Doughty of Snarford Hall, was obliged, by the terms of her\nwill, to drop the name of Tichborne and assume that of Doughty, thus\nfulfilling, in some measure, that part of Lady Mabel's prediction\nwhich foretold that the name would become extinct. Sir Edward Doughty\nmarried in 1827, and had an only son, who died before he attained the\nage of six years. Sir Edward's brother James, who eventually became\nthe tenth baronet, married, and had two sons--Roger Charles, who was\nsupposed to have been lost at sea off the coast of South America in\nthe spring of 1854 (the claimant of the baronetcy from Australia\ncalled himself the said Roger); and Alfred Joseph, the eleventh\nbaronet, whose son Henry--a posthumous child, born in 1866--is now in\npossession of the title and estates.\n\nWhen the only son of Mr. Edward Doughty (subsequently the ninth\nbaronet) died, the hitherto singular fulfilment of Lady Mabel's\nprediction struck him so forcibly that he besought his elder brother,\nSir Henry Joseph, to restore the ancient _dole_, which he agreed to\ndo; and it was again distributed, with certain restrictions, in flour,\nconfining it to the poor of the parish of Tichborne; and in this\nmanner it continues to be distributed to the present day.\n\nWhether the resumption of Lady Mabel's gift may prove sufficient to\nward off the fatal prediction, _time alone will show_. The male race\nis supposed to depend upon the life of a single heir in his minority.\n\nThis _cause celebre_, one of the most important disposed of this\ncentury, not only ended, in the claimant's defeat, but in his\nconviction for perjury and attempted fraud--a fraud which, if\nsuccessful, would have secured him estates worth between \u00a320,000 and\n\u00a330,000 a year.\n\nA romantic divorce case came before the High Court of Justice in\nEngland in 1876, in which the superstitious element was strongly\nblended. The proprietor of an extensive estate asked for a divorce\nfrom his wife, belonging to the gipsy tribe. The petitioner became\ninterested in a family of gipsies, who were in the habit of pitching\ntheir tents on his ground. He visited their encampment, and became\nfamiliar with them. The member of the company who most excited the\npetitioner's attention was a daughter, by name Esmeralda, whose charms\nultimately captivated the petitioner, and they were married in Norway\nin June 1874. The co-respondent, stated to be an Oxford man, and who\nalso interested himself in the welfare of the gipsy race, seemed to\nhave made the acquaintance of the parties some time after the\nmarriage. The lady became enamoured of the Oxford gentleman. She went\nwith him to Bristol, and after that the petitioner did not see his\nwife for some time. The husband received a letter from his wife\nstating that she was ready to be reconciled to him. They accordingly\ncame together, and his wife suggested to him that they were both\nbewitched, and she stated that in order to have such bewitchment\nremoved she would go to the Gussoree Gorge, a fabled deity in the\nRoman Camp, who had the power to dispel the bewitchment and restore\nthe parties to their _status quo_. They did go to this famed\nastrologer, Gussoree Gorge, who turned out to be none other than the\nco-respondent, with whom Esmeralda was afterwards found living as his\nwife in Edinburgh.\n\nThe petitioner, on being examined, said the respondent complained of\nbeing bewitched, and went to Cardiff to consult the wise men of the\ntribe. On another occasion she went again to consult the Gussoree\nGorge, or wise man, and brought back two letters from the astrologer.\nIt occurred to witness that they were in the co-respondent's\nhandwriting. He, on receipt of another letter after his wife left him\nagain, went to Edinburgh, where he found her. She threw herself on her\nknees and craved forgiveness. He promised to forgive her. She asked to\ngo home at once, but there was a difficulty about the train. That\nnight they slept at Melrose, and in the morning she said she had had a\ndream that her lover whom she had left in Edinburgh had committed\nsuicide. Witness agreed to allow her to go to Edinburgh, it being\nunderstood she should immediately return. She never did so, and\nwitness did not see her again until the 31st of January.\n\nHere the romance and superstition end. The petitioner became a wiser\nand sadder man. Esmeralda lived to repent of her folly, and so did the\nOxford man of learning.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXII.\n\n      Spiritualism--Spiritualism not a new\n      Delusion--Phantoms at a _Seance_--Juggling of a\n      Medium--Unsuccessful Effort at a Vulgar\n      Deception--Spiritualists exposed--A Medium's Deception\n      discovered--Foolish Exhibitions--Russian Peasants and\n      their House Spirits--Spirits' Care over Persons and\n      Property--Death, Pestilence, War, and other Evils\n      foretold by Spirits--A Suggestion.\n\n\nMuch might be written concerning spiritualism (already alluded to in\nthese pages); but really the subject deserves little attention,\nfurther than that it might be worth serious consideration whether the\nclass of persons who lay claim to the power of raising the dead, and\nof being able to command responses from spirits, should not be\nprosecuted as rogues and cheats. Spiritualists cannot even pretend\nthey have discovered anything new. We have repeatedly, particularly\nunder the head \"Laws against and Trials of Witches,\" shown that\ndeceitful girls and old crones could perform all the sleight-of-hand\nand delusions practised by modern spiritualists.\n\nSpiritualists have grossly imposed upon credulous persons; and others,\nwithout much consideration, attend _seance_ after _seance_, for no\nother reason than that the manifestations displayed by the tricksters\nhave become the grand arcana of fashion. The phantoms raised at a\n_seance_ are in proportion to the gloom surrounding the audience. It\ncannot be doubted by men of penetration, that spiritualism, in its\nbirth and maturity, is associated with sordidness and wickedness. At\nbest, the spiritual operations are childish, or at least they fall\nshort of the tricks of a Chinese juggler.\n\nOne gentleman, writing of the spiritualistic movement in 1871, says:--\n\n\"A new movement on behalf of spiritualism has sprung up in the\nmetropolis, and Miss Kate Fox, Rochester, United States, in whose\nfamily the phenomena were first discovered, is now in England on a\npropagandist mission. I was invited last night to meet Miss Fox, but\nowing to a cold the lady was unable to come. A celebrated medium was,\nhowever, present, as were some half-dozen ladies and gentlemen well\nknown in society--one of the latter being a sergeant-at-law, and a\njudge accustomed to sift evidence and determine the difference between\ntruth and falsehood. The _seance_ was not, however, productive of\nanything very strange. The only curious manifestation occurred with a\nlath about two feet long and a quarter of an inch thick, which most\ncertainly rose off the table apparently of its own accord, and at one\ntime seemed disposed to walk about the room, but didn't. Two glass\nornaments, filled with flowers, were also attracted towards each\nother, and subsequently parted company though no hands were near them.\nThe great anticipated incident of the evening was, however, a failure.\nA Morse writing telegraphic machine had been prepared, and it was\nhoped that the lever would be worked with spirit hands, but, after\nwaiting two hours, no indication was given of any movement, and the\nexperiment was abandoned in despair.\"\n\nThe well-known Walter Thornbury relates as follows his experience at a\nspiritual _seance_:--\n\n\"I went up into a stuffy parlour and found about fourteen people,\nhot, nervous, and evidently uncomfortable. They were staring at\nsome weird-looking pictures. On a long table were several\nspeaking-trumpets, formed of stiff brown and gilt paper. Some of the\nvisitors took up these, talked hollowly through them, and laughed with\nuneasy scepticism. There were two ladies, several young men who looked\nlike clerks, a bluff man from Liverpool, and a dwarf. Presently\nMessrs. A. and C. (two coarse-looking young men) entered, seated us\nround the table, and requested us to join hands. The gas was then\nturned down, and the _seance_ began. A. was at the end of the table,\nfacing C. at the other. There was at first a good deal of\nhalf-hysterical laughing and nervous talking, and shy or bold voices\nfrom here and there in the dark. The bluff Liverpool man objected to\njoining hands--he had been to successful _seances_, where hands were\nnot joined. Mr. A. said that joining hands often improved 'the\nconditions.' One did not know what was passing behind one, or what was\ncoming. So even the boldest of us 'held his breath for a time.' All at\nonce Mr. C., at the further end from me, began to gurgle and groan\nlike a person in an epileptic fit. Some one cried, 'Turn up the gas.'\nIt was done, and we beheld the medium with his head twisted like a\nyoung laocoon in the folds of a red tablecloth. He disentangled\nhimself with a disturbed, suffering air. The spirits were upon us,\nthough why they should stifle their interpreter I could not quite see.\nThe sceptics smiled sardonically. I suspected the lady in nankeen\ncolour next me, and the dwarf and people immediately round both\nmediums. A female voice tremulously suggested that singing might\n'improve the conditions;' on which Mr. C. struck up 'Power of Love\nEnchanting' in maudlin spiritualistic words. Things looked dull. All\nat once we were hailed by one of the most tremendous gruff bass voices\nthat ever hailed a man-of-war. John King, the favourite spirit of Mr.\nA., had appeared with a grumbling announcement of his presence. 'Who\nis this John King?' inquired the Liverpool man, who, if he was a\nconfederate, acted peculiarly well. 'He lived about three hundred\nyears ago,' said some one in the dark. 'Then he must have fought with\nthe Armada,' suggested the Liverpool representative. Mr. A. leaped at\nthe suggestion, and replied, 'It is supposed he did.' On John King\nagain growling that there he was and what did they want, a sceptic\nopposite me exclaimed in the true dramatic manner, 'Rest, rest,\nperturbed spirit,' which so enraged John King (whom the lady in buff\nnext me whispered 'had been a notorious pirate') that he bellowed in\nhis ear, 'You seem very fond of Shakspere.' A few minutes after there\nwere sounds of violent blows, and several sceptics were struck on the\nhead by John King's speaking-trumpet; a sofa cushion was flung at me,\nand something else was thrown at the gentleman from Liverpool. A\nsceptic who had said that any ventriloquist could imitate a deep\nvoice, got rapped violently on the head, and John King bellowed at the\nsame time, 'Is that ventriloquism?' A man near me said he thought he\nfelt a cold breeze passing over his hands, and a cold finger touch\nhis. One thing I could not help observing: this was, that the missiles\nhurled at sceptics came in a slanting line from where Mr. A. sat. I\nalso noticed that a singular creaking of the medium's chair usually\npreceded any utterances of John King. The lady in nankeen now began,\nin a wheedling, coaxing voice, to beg 'Kate' to appear. Kate is Mr.\nA.'s second 'familiar,' and he described her to us as a short person\nwith dark ringlets, and wearing a blue robe fastened by a\ngirdle--facts which seemed to deeply interest the lady in nankeen.\nPresently a little whiffling voice announced Kate, who, however, only\nsaid something about 'Jenny Jones, of Hampstead,' and then withdrew.\nTo Kate Mr. A. assumed a gallant, lover-like manner; to John King an\nair of half-amused defiance. By-and-bye two stones were thrown\nviolently upon the table, but no one expressed any audible alarm.\nStill the room was hot and stifling, the darkness affected the coolest\nimagination, and straining one's eyes and ears for spiritual\nmanifestations produced a not unnatural feeling of uneasiness in the\nmind. Sometimes I fancied the table jerked or reared a little,\nsometimes I thought I heard animals' feet pattering up and down the\ntable. It is on such workings of the imagination that spiritualists,\nand especially the professional mediums, trade. No more voices coming,\nMr. A. proposed our changing places to 'improve the conditions'--that\nis to say, to re-pack the confederates, and still more isolate the\nsceptics; but no result came. A grosser and more unsuccessful effort\nat a vulgar deception I never saw; and I only ask whether it is just\nto prosecute poor women for getting a few shillings by telling\nservants' fortunes, and leave professional spiritualists like Messrs.\nA. and C. unprosecuted? If pretending to evoke the dead and predict\ndeath for hire is not obtaining money under false pretences, what is?\"\n\nFor a short time the spiritualists created a considerable sensation,\nbut their prosperity did not long continue. Mr. W. Irving Bishop, an\nAmerican gentleman, who came to Great Britain recommended by Dr.\nCarpenter and other members of the Royal Society, exposed the\nphenomena attributed to the influence of spirits, in the Windsor\nHotel, Edinburgh, in January 1879.\n\nThere was a distinguished company present, including Principal Sir\nAlexander Grant, Lord Curriehill, Archbishop Strain, and a number of\nthe University professors. A committee of four gentlemen having been\nchosen to watch the proceedings, Mr. Bishop gave an exposure of the\ngalvanometer test, accepted by a number of scientific men in London as\nconclusive proof of the _bona fides_ of spirit manifestations. Mr.\nBishop next gave an illustration of the theory of \"unconscious\ncerebration.\" Archbishop Strain, having written on a slip of paper a\nnumber of figures and the name of a deceased person, took in his left\nhand the end of a long wire. Mr. Bishop, taking the other, recited the\nnumerals from 1 to 9, and stopped at the figures in one of the papers.\nAfterwards he recited the alphabet in the same manner, stopping at the\nletters in the name on the same slip. The figures 6952 were found to\nbe those which had been written. The archbishop stated before the\npaper was opened that he did not himself remember the figures he had\nput down, and that he had never mentioned what they were to any one.\nMr. Bishop explained that he detected the figures when naming them,\nfrom the unconscious action of the archbishop's mind on his nervous\nsystem as it affected the wire. In the same way he informed the\narchbishop correctly that the name of a deceased person written in the\nenclosed piece of paper was Sir Walter Scott. Mr. Bishop also\nfurnished illustrations of the manner in which sounds were produced\nfrom instruments of music, and bells rung by persons tied with their\nhands and legs to seats, and how, even in that situation, he could put\na ring upon a handkerchief placed round his neck--a feat which had\nbeen considered impossible by one fastened as he was, without the\nloosing of the knots of the cords with which he was bound. His last\nexposure was the Katie King mystery, the calling of 'material spirits'\nfrom the other world, and exhibiting them in the room. This\nperformance puzzled the audience as much as any of the others while it\nproceeded, and the explanation given of it was as amusing as it\nturned out to be ingenious.\n\nAnother spiritualist exposure recently created a sensation in\n\"spiritualistic circles,\" by the detection of a medium fraud in\nPortland, Maine, United States. Doctors Gerrish and Greene, of\nPortland, were instrumental in bringing about the issue. The medium in\nquestion was a female, who, after hiding herself behind a screen in\nthe corner of her parlour, was enabled to send out \"spirits\" for the\ninspection of her select audiences. Attired in the ordinary way, she\nwould allow her skirts to be pinned to the floor; and while she was\nseated upon a stool, the lower portion of the screen being some\ndistance from the floor, the audience were invited to satisfy\nthemselves that the medium did not move from her position. Dr. Greene,\non one occasion, while the so-called spirit was moving around, asked\nit to shake hands. This request being granted, he firmly grasped the\nhand, and found the spirit to be the medium herself, who struggled in\na very unbecoming way to free herself. While Dr. Greene thus secured\nthe medium, Dr. Gerrish quickly drew the screen aside, and discovered\nthe apparel of the lady in a heap at the foot of her stool, and still\npinned to the floor. The trick was then shown to consist in wearing\nunder-garments, with which she could emerge from her external apparel\nwith ease, and, to all outside appearance, without any disturbance.\n\nTo our mind, the most foolish of all foolish exhibitions is that at\nwhich one has the presumption to stand before an intelligent audience\nand declare his ability to call one from the dead for his or their\namusement. But if we can by any great stretch of imagination suppose\nthat Englishmen and Americans have succeeded in opening up a\ncommunication between them and spirits, they are still far behind the\nRussian peasants, who have their house spirits, who are of\nconsiderable use. These spirits take persons, houses, cattle, and\nchattels of every description under their care. They are heard wailing\nbefore a death. One of them rouses the inmates of a house if fire or\nrobbery be threatened. Pestilence and war are foretold by such spirits\nlamenting in the meadows. Here we have useful spirits, worth\nhaving--not like our ones, capable of communicating only by means of\nknocks and through showmen. If spirits can do no more for living men\nthan they have done, they may remain away, and let the showman medium\nreturn to honest labour, or be sent to seek knowledge and truth within\nthe walls of a prison or in a house of correction.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER LXXIII.\n\n      Superstition in Roman Catholic\n      Countries--Miracle-working Images, Winking Madonnas\n      and Apparitions--Image paying Homage to the Virgin\n      Mary--St. Dominic--Madonnas at Trastevere--Girl\n      carrying the Sacred Stigmata of the\n      Passion--Miraculous Cures--The Virgin Mary appearing\n      to Children--Superstitious Ceremony at\n      Dieppe--Blessing the Neva--Lady offering up her Life\n      to save the Pope--A Legend--Superstitious Belief of\n      Napoleon's Mother--Trust in Amulets--Zulu\n      Superstition--Witchcraft forbidden under Treaty of\n      Peace with Great Britain--Eating Fetish--Superstition\n      among the Ashantees--Endeavour to prevent the Advance\n      of the British Army--Shah of Persia's\n      Talismans--Bathing Fair--Indian Princes consulting\n      Fortune-tellers--The Queen of Hearts--Procuring Rain\n      in India--Superstition in America--Mysterious Lights\n      at St. Lawrence--Superstitious Artists--Hogarth's last\n      Picture, \"The End of all Things.\"\n\n\nIn Roman Catholic countries superstition frequently culminates in\nmiracle-working images, winking madonnas, and apparitions resembling\nthe Virgin Mary. For not a few delusions the priests and nuns are\nresponsible. We are not speaking without authority. The Very Rev.\nFather A. Vincent Jandel, General of the Dominican Order, addressed\nfrom Rome a circular letter in 1870 to all the provincials of his\norder, giving an account of what he considered a wonderful occurrence\nthat took place at Soriano, in Calabria. There is at Soriano a\ncelebrated Sanctuary of St. Dominic, and in the church an ancient\nimage of that saint, life-size, carved in wood, held in high\nveneration. On the 15th of September of that year, which is its festa,\nanother image of wood is carried processionally with much pomp. Thirty\npersons, who had remained after the conclusion of the solemnity to\npray before the ancient image, suddenly perceived it to move, as if\nalive. It came forward, then retreated, and turned towards the image\nof the Virgin of the Holy Rosary. The cry of \"St. Dominic! St.\nDominic! A miracle! a miracle!\" burst from every lip. The wonderful\nnews sped like lightning through the town. Men and women left their\noccupations to crowd to the sanctuary; and soon no fewer than two\nthousand persons had witnessed the strange movements, which continued\nfor about an hour and a half, amidst prayers, tears, and acclamations.\n\nTo the great joy of the monks of the Holy Trinity, in 1871, two\nmadonnas, in an obscure, out-of-the-way church of St. Grisogono, in\nTrastevere, melted multitudes to tears by the miraculous movements and\nexpressions of their eyes. The most remarkable in its exercises was an\noil painting in the interior of the church. To such a height did the\nexcitement reach amongst the crowd privileged to witness it, that the\nfriars judged it prudent to bring its performances to a close by\nremoving it from the church, and shutting it up in a press in the\nconvent. The second madonna is a fresco in the open piazza as one\napproaches the church and convent. It is a recent painting, of\nlife-size, with eyes lowered on the spectators looking at it from\nbelow, in such a manner that the movements of the pupils (if movements\nthere be) should be very sensible. The madonna is but one of three\nfigures on the fresco. On her right is John the Baptist in the dress\nof the monks of the establishment, and on the left Pio Nono as\nPontiff. This madonna began to move its eyes as soon as its companion\nwas locked up, and the wonder lasted for many days.\n\nIn the same year (1871) the Rev. Father Ubald sent a letter to a\ncolleague, the following passages of which were quoted in the\n_Bulletin Religieux_ of Versailles:--\"I arrive from Belgium; this time\nI have seen Louise Lateau. I do not know whether you ever heard of\nher, but at present the name is in everybody's mouth in Belgium and\nNorthern France. Louise Lateau is a girl of 21, who carries the sacred\nstigmata of the Passion, and every week on Friday is in a state of\nprofound ecstacy. Dr. Lefevre, professor of medicine at the University\nof Louvain, has published a medical examination, in which he says:\n'The flow of blood begins in the night (from Thursday to Friday\ngenerally), between midnight and one o'clock.' It took place for the\nfirst time on the 24th April 1868, by her losing blood on the left\nside of her chest. On the Friday following, hemorrhage was observed at\nthe same place, and, moreover, blood oozed out from the top or instep\nof the foot. On the third Friday--viz. the 8th May--blood came out at\nthe left side and from the feet during the night. Towards nine in the\nmorning blood rushed out copiously from both hands, back and palm.\nFinally, on the 27th September, a percolation of blood also set in on\nthe forehead, as if the young girl had been crowned with thorns. Since\nthen the marvellous phenomenon never missed a Friday, except once or\ntwice. Doctors affirm that Louise thus loses from five to ten ounces\nof blood every Friday. In spite of this, and albeit she has not taken\nfood for the last six months, she has, I assure you, quite ruddy\ncheeks (_teint vermeil_), and seems to enjoy capital health (_sante\nflorissant_).\"\n\nThe correspondent of the Paris Ultramontane paper _L'Univers_ wrote\nfrom the Lourdes in 1876: \"I have just been witness of a marvel, of\nwhich I hasten to send you an account. Several other miracles have\ntaken place within the last couple of days, but I have said nothing\nabout them, as they did not come under my own observation. However, I\ncan assure you of the accuracy of the following statement:--Madeleine\nLansereau, aged 33 years, broke one of her legs about 19 years ago,\nand became lame, her left leg being fearfully twisted. She came to\nLourdes with the pilgrimage from Picardy, and was radically cured at\nthe moment the Papal Nuncio sent to crown the Holy Virgin was saying\nthe paternoster in the mass he was celebrating in the grotto. She told\nthe crowd that, having walked into the little pool, a lively internal\nemotion took possession of her, and she cried out, 'I am cured! I am\ncured!' Her companions wept with joy and admiration at the miracle.\nWhen they asked her what she had done for that great grace, her simple\nreply was, 'I have prayed to St. Radogonde and St. Joseph, but\nespecially to the Holy Virgin, and now I am cured.' While she was\nspeaking, the Bishop of Poictiers came and said, 'Madeleine, thank the\nHoly Virgin fervently.'\"\n\nThe Rev. Canon Tandy, D.D., writing from St. Paul's Convent,\nBirmingham, in 1871, to a reverend brother, informs him, in pious\nphraseology, that two nuns had been suddenly cured of serious\ndisorders of long standing by drinking a bottle of water from Lourdes.\nIn acknowledgment of the favours shown by our Lady of Lourdes, the _Te\nDeum_ was recited.\n\nA deaf and dumb girl from Blois was made whole at Lourdes a few years\nago by the Virgin Mary.\n\nNot long since the Bishop of Laval wrote a pastoral letter on the\nsubject of the miraculous appearance of the Virgin to four children in\na village in Mayence, and was so convinced of the reality of the fact\nthat he decided to erect a chapel in honour of Mary on the ground upon\nwhich she had condescended to appear.\n\nRecently there might be seen emerging from a church at Dieppe, on a\nSaturday morning, a religious procession, headed by a person carrying\na silver processional cross, and accompanied by choristers singing\npenitential psalms, proceeding to the eastern pier of the harbour to\nperform a curious Roman Catholic ceremony. Taking up a position beside\nthe rolling water, the priests prayed for the success of the fishing,\nthen said a paternoster, while the people knelt; then a priest,\ndipping a brush in holy water (which was carried in a swinging silver\nvase), sprinkled three times the salt water of the ocean with the holy\nfluid, making the sign of the cross with the brush at the words, _Seo\nsibera nos a malo_. Then came a collect of repose for the souls of the\ndead whose bodies had not been recovered from the depths of the sea;\nand, all being over, the priests, with the choristers, people, and\ncross-bearers, returned, chanting their psalms to the church, where\nthe high mass of the festival of St. Luke was celebrated.\n\nThis ceremony at Dieppe reminds one of the well-known annual ceremony\nin Russia, of blessing the Neva in presence of the Czar and other\nmembers of the Imperial Family; but, as the performance has been\ndescribed by numerous writers, we shall not further refer to it.\n\nThe Marquis of Segur, a zealous Catholic, relates that, in 1866, when\nthe Pope was seriously ill, Mdlle. Leautard, a lady of Marseilles,\nresolved to offer up her life in place of his Holiness, and sought his\npermission to do so. The Pope, after long silence, placed his hand on\nher head, and said, \"Go, my daughter, and do what the Spirit of God\nhas suggested to you.\" Next day, on receiving the consecrated wafer,\nthe lady fervently expressed her desire to die, and was immediately\nseized with a sharp pain, which carried her off three days afterwards.\nThe Pope, on hearing of her death, exclaimed, \"So soon accepted!\" The\nMarquis believes this sacrifice accounted for the Pope's prolonged\nlife.\n\nA Hohenzollern legend was brought to mind in Germany through a serious\nillness of the Emperor, who, however, fortunately recovered, and\ncontinues to adorn his exalted position. The legend runs thus:--\n\nMany years ago there was a Hohenzollern Princess (a widow with two\nchildren), who fell in love with a foreign Prince--rich, handsome, and\nbrave. She sent him a proposition of marriage; but the Prince declined\nher suit, explaining that \"four eyes\" stood between him and\nacceptance. He referred to his parents, whose consent he could not\nobtain. But the Princess understood him to refer to the four eyes of\nher two children--to his unwillingness, in fact, to become a\nstepfather. So she suffocated the infant obstacles, and wrote to her\nlover that the way was clear. He was stricken with horror at the cruel\ndeed, and died cursing her bloodthirsty rashness. The Princess, in her\nturn, became overwhelmed with remorse. After lingering a day or two in\nindescribable anguish, she too died, and was buried under the old\ncastle at Berlin; but not to rest quietly in her unhappy grave. At\nrare intervals she appears at midnight, clad in white, gliding, ghost\nlike, about the castle; and the apparition always forebodes the death\nof some member of the Hohenzollern family. The white lady has been\nseen, we are assured, three times within about a year--once just\nbefore the death of Prince Albrecht; again, to announce the end of\nPrince Adalbert; and the last time while Queen Elizabeth lay on her\ndeathbed.\n\nWe have shown that the great Napoleon Bonaparte was superstitious in\nthe highest degree; and so was his mother before him. Both believed in\nfate or destiny. She was surrounded by luxury and pomp; but her\nsolicitude about her son, and the belief that his glory could not\nlast, rendered her miserable. The divorce of Josephine, the retreat\nfrom Russia, the exile to Elba, the final overthrow at Waterloo, and\nthe banishment to St. Helena, were heavy blows; but she was prepared\nfor them. While the sun of the Emperor's fortunes blazed in the\nzenith, she shivered under the shadow of her fear; and her fear proved\nprophetic. She witnessed the downfall of every one of her children;\nbut she bore her adversity with dignity and resignation, and died in\nher eighty-seventh year.\n\nIndeed not only were Napoleon and his mother superstitious, but the\nwhole Bonaparte family were believers in fate. Napoleon III. says in\nhis will, \"With regard to my son\" (the late Prince Imperial, who\nperished at the hands of Zulus), \"let him keep, as a talisman, the\nseal attached to my watch.\" True to the traditions of his family, the\nyoung Prince put trust in amulets. When the Prince's body was\ndiscovered (here we have a double case of superstition), it lay\nstripped of all its clothing, but there were left with the body a\nlocket and a gold amulet, admittedly the seal bequeathed to him by his\nImperial father, as the Zulus were afraid they were charms--articles\nthey stand in great dread of.\n\nThinking of Prince Napoleon's untimely death, brings the Zulu\ncharacter to remembrance. Among the Zulus a belief prevails that\nkindly and angry spirits hover around them--the former endeavouring to\ndo them good; the latter trying to do them harm. Zulus also believe in\ndivine smoke, witchcraft, and dreams. Whenever a charge of witchcraft\nis made against any one, no mercy is shown him. Such an accusation\naffords a pretext to a king or chief for getting rid of an obnoxious\nperson and acquiring his substance. The Inyanga, like our witch-finder\nof old, has no difficulty in bringing home guilt to the unfortunate\naccused. A Zulu judge, before pronouncing sentence, pretends that he\nconsults the divine oracles of his nation. When a Zulu sneezes he\nsays, \"I am blessed, and the ancestral spirit is with me.\" So he\npraises the family manes, and ends by asking blessings, such as cattle\nand wives.\n\nIn September 1879 official news came from Sir Garnet Wolseley that\nKing Cetewayo had been captured, that the Zulu war had come to an end,\nand that the following were among the terms of peace, signed by the\nchiefs of Zululand: \"I will not tolerate the employment of witch\ndoctors, or the practice known as smelling out, or any practices of\nwitchcraft.\"\n\nNot unfrequently the representatives of Great Britain, in concluding\npeace with heathen nations, have, as in the case of the Zulus, to\nrespect the superstitious notions of the people they have to deal\nwith, so as to make the agreement more binding in the minds of the\nheathen contracting parties.\n\nOn one occasion the Ashantees put up a fetish to stop the advance of\nthe British army. It consisted of a kid transfixed through the throat\nand heart, and staked to the ground; six cooking-pots, inverted, were\nstuck on stakes round the kid, and, a few feet from it, another kid\nwas found buried: this, according to Ashantee custom, had been buried\nalive. A similar fetish had been put up at a river near Moinsey to\nstop the British troops. The advancing army found almost every turn of\nthe road to Coomassie strewn with fetish documents. Near Fommanah\nnearly every tree had a white rag fastened to it as a charm. On the\nKing hearing of the British victory, he went to pour libation to the\nspirits of his ancestors, and to ask their assistance against the\nenemies of his country.\n\nThe Shah of Persia has numerous talismans, exceeding two hundred in\nnumber. We give details of four of them. One is a gold star, supposed\nto have been possessed by the legendary Rustem. It is called Merzoum,\nand has the reputation of making conspirators immediately confess.\nWhen the Shah's brother was accused of treason some time since, the\nstar was shown him, and, terrified and overcome by remorse, he avowed\nhis iniquities. His confession was, of course, attributed to its\nefficacy. He was banished. The next important talisman is a cube of\namber, which, we are told, fell from heaven in Mohammed's time. It is\nsupposed to render the Shah invulnerable, and he wears it about his\nneck. Another is a little box of gold, set in emeralds, and blessed by\nthe Prophet. It renders the Royal Family invisible as long as they are\ncelibates. Another is a diamond set in one of the Shah's scimitars,\nwhich renders its possessor invincible; and there is also a dagger\nwith the same property, but it is ordained that those who use it shall\nperish by it. It is therefore carefully kept shut up in a sandal-wood\nbox, on which is engraved a verse of the Koran.\n\nAs of old, superstition prevails all over India. Semi-religious\nceremonies are gone through in seasons of drought, to procure rain. At\nother times means are taken to propitiate the gods, to subdue enemies,\nand to secure good fortune to individuals, households, and\ncommunities. There are Indian princes who regularly consult their\nfortune-tellers regarding public and private affairs.\n\nA curious bathing fair was held at Ajudhia, in Oude, in February 1878.\nWhen a peculiar conjunction of the planets takes place (which occurs\nonly once in eighty years), the natives rush in crowds to the river,\nas they believe that if they manage to bathe and go through certain\nceremonies in four minutes and a half, they will obtain the remission\nof their own sins and those of millions of their ancestors. On this\noccasion the rush to the river turned out so great that numbers were\ntrodden under foot, and sixty-five persons lost their lives.\n\nThe mysterious lights in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which are believed\nby mariners to be warnings of great tempests and shipwreck, were\nunusually brilliant in 1878. It is said to be a fact, established by\nthe experience of a century, that when these lights blaze brightly in\nthe summer nights, the phenomena are invariably followed by great\nstorms. They give the appearance to spectators on the shore of a ship\non fire. The fire itself seems to consist of blue and yellow flames,\nnow dancing high above the water, and then flickering, paling, and\ndying out, only to spring up again with fresh brilliancy. If a boat\napproaches, it flits away, moving further out, and is pursued in vain.\nThe lights are plainly visible from the shore from midnight until two\nin the morning. They appear to come from the sea shoreward, and at\ndawn retire gradually, and are lost in the morning mist. Paradis, the\nFrench pilot, who took charge of the British Fleet under Admiral Sir\nHovenden Walker when it sailed up the St. Lawrence to seize Quebec in\n1711, declared he saw one of these lights before that armada was\nshattered by a dreadful gale on the 22d of August. The light, he said,\ndanced before his vessel all the way up the gulf. Every great wreck\nthat has taken place there since Sir Hovenden Walker's calamity has\nbeen preceded, if tradition is to be believed, by these mysterious\nlights, and they have thus warned the mariner of fatal storms.\n\nIn July last (1879) a woman, known as the Queen of Hearts, who had\nattained the age of one hundred years, and who had been known for\nthree quarters of a century as a fortune-teller, died in Vienna.\nApparently gifted with the faculty of prescience, intimately\nacquainted with the shuffling of cards, deeply learned in the lore of\nthe prophetic lines traced by the graver of Fate upon human hands and\nfeet, this lady devoted her days to the unravelling of the tangled\nsecrets of the future, charging those whose curiosity prompted them to\npry into the regions of the unknown, five ducats per revelation. As\nmany of the leading ladies of the Austrian aristocracy were among her\nclients, and the accuracy of her forecasts having earned for her a\nmighty reputation throughout the realms of the Hapsburgs, she\ncontrived to amass a handsome fortune. \"Herz-Dame\" was a person of\nextraordinary acumen, and a physiognomist of the highest order. Her\nsources of private information were numerous, and her ramifications\nare believed to have permeated every class of Austrian society.\n\nA comparatively recent instance of superstition in America is that\nof an old Indian woman being suspected of witchcraft, and stoned\nto death in Pine Nut Valley, Nevada; and in another part of the\nworld, far separated from America, a similar act of superstition\nwas committed, in which a human creature fell a victim to the gross\ndelusions of her neighbours. We refer to a case of witch-burning in\nRussia. In October 1879 seventeen peasants were tried for burning\nto death a supposed witch, who resided near Nijni-Novgorod. Of the\naccused persons, fourteen were acquitted, and three sentenced to\nchurch penances--sentences which, if rigorously carried out, will\nnot be easily borne.\n\nA Leipsic writer gives an account of a number of superstitious\nartists, some of which are very curious. Tietjens, for instance,\nbelieved that the person would speedily die who shook hands with her\nover the threshold at parting; Rachel thought she gained her greatest\nsuccesses immediately after she had met a funeral; Bellini would not\npermit a new work to be brought out if on the day announced he was\nfirst greeted by a man, and \"La Somnambula\" was several times thus\npostponed; Meyerbeer regularly washed his hands before beginning an\noverture; and a noted _tragedienne_ never plays unless she has a white\nmouse in her bosom.\n\nBut these eccentricities can hardly compare with the strange belief\nand doings of Hogarth, the celebrated painter and engraver,\nparticularly towards the close of his long life. A few months before\nhe was seized with the malady which cut him off, he commenced his \"End\nof all Things.\" A few of his intimate friends looked upon his picture\nas prophetic; and so he seemed to regard it himself. The artist\nworked with diligence, seemingly with an apprehension that he would\nnot live to complete the piece. Finish it, however, he did in a\nmasterly style, grouping everything that could denote the end of all\nthings. Prominent were a broken bottle, an old broom, a bow unstrung,\nthe butt-end of an old musket, a crown tumbled in pieces, towers in\nruins, the moon in her wane, the map of the globe burning, Ph[oe]bus\nand his horses dead in the clouds, a vessel wrecked, Time with his\nhourglass and scythe broken, a tobacco-pipe in his mouth, the last\npuff of smoke going out; a play-book, with _Exeunt Omnes_ on one of\nthe open pages; an empty purse, and a statute of bankruptcy taken out\nagainst nature.\n\n\"So far so good,\" said Hogarth. \"Nothing remains but this,\"--taking\nhis pencil and dashing off the similitude of a painter's palette\nbroken. \"FINIS!\" exclaimed the artist; \"_the deed is done_--ALL IS\nOVER.\" Hogarth never handled pencil again, and within a month of the\ncompletion of this picture he was no more.\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Notes:\n\nThere are a number of quotations in this work, many of which contain\narchaic spelling and/or dialect. There are also several occurrences of\nvariant spelling and hyphenation used by the author. These have all\nbeen retained as printed, with a few exceptions relating to proper\nnames or references to quotations, which are listed below. Printing\nerrors (transposed or missing letters, etc.) have been corrected\nthroughout.\n\n^ has been used to indicate superscripted matter.\n\nThere are several instances of words containing the oe ligature. This\nhas been indicated by [oe].\n\nThis book sometimes uses asterisks to indicate an ellipsis.\n\nTranscriber's Amendments:\n\nTable of Contents - Chapter XVII - Mirando amended to Miranda -\n           \"Miranda beseeching Prospero to allay the Wild Waters\"\nTable of Contents - Chapter XVIII - De'il amended to Deil - \"\"Address\n           to the Deil\"\"\n Page 66 - Hamadrydes amended to Hamadryades - \"... and Hamadryades,\n           who are born and die with the oaks;\"\n Page 75 - Anguigen[oe] amended to Anguigen\u00e6 - \"... calls them\n           Anguigen\u00e6, serpent or snake-descended.\"\n Page 84 - Phorcus amended to Phorcys - \"Scylla, a daughter of\n           Phorcys ...\"\nPage 173 - De'il amended to Deil - \"\"Address to the Deil\"\"\nPage 177 - Boccacio amended to Boccaccio - \"In the story of\n           _Isabella_, by Boccaccio ...\"\nPage 203 - Lock amended to Loch - \"They dwell in the tempests of dark\n           Loch-na-Garr.\"\nPage 218 - Haiawatha amended to Hiawatha - \"\"Song of Hiawatha.\"\"\nPage 240 - Cladius amended to Claudius - \"He was dragged before\n           Claudius Maximus ...\"\nPage 271 - Hengest amended to Hengist - \"... who had been massacred by\n           Hengist ...\"\nPage 273 - Rabinical amended to Rabbinical - \"Rabbinical Tradition\"\nPage 358 - Nastradamus amended to Nostradamus - \"... then a child, to\n           old Nostradamus ...\"\nPage 554 - Murdoch amended to Morduck - \"In July Sarah Morduck was\n           brought ...\"\nPage 639 - Leipzic amended to Leipsic - \"A Leipsic writer gives an\n           account ...\"","title":"The Mysteries of All Nations: Rise and Progress of Superstition, Laws Against and Trials of Witches, Ancient and Modern Delusions Together with Strange Customs, Fables, and Tales","tradition":"myth-cosmogony","translated_text":null,"word_count":212311}