| CHAPTER I. |
| THE EARLY INHABITANTS OF LANCASHIRE AND THE NEIGHBOURING COUNTIES,AND REMAINS OF THEIR MYTHOLOGY AND LOCAL NOMENCLATURE. |
| Etymology. Philology. The Aryan theory of the common origin of most ofthe European races of men. Sanscrit. The Rig Vedas. Probable element oftruth at the base of Geoffrey of Monmouth's mythical History of the Britons.The Brigantes. The Phœnicians. The Hyperboreans. Stonehenge. Bel orBaal, the sun-god. The Persian Ormusd. Temple of Mithras in Northumberland.The "Bronze age." The Cushites or Hamites of Ancient Arabia.Palæoliths, or ancient stone weapons. The Belisama (Ribble). Altars dedicatedto Belatucadrus in the North of England. The Brigantes of the East,Spain, Ireland, and the North of England. The Aryan fire-god Agni, and hisretainers, the Bhrigus, etc. Altars in the North of England dedicated toVitires, Vetiris, or Veteres. Vithris (Odin). Vritra of the Hindoo Vedas.Altars dedicated to Cocidius, The Styx, Acheron, and Cocytus of the Greeks.The Coccium of Antoninus, at Walton, near Preston. Ancient local nomenclature.The Belisama. The Irish god Samhan. The Aryan god Soma.The "heavenly soma." The amrita or nectar, the "drink of the gods."Madhu. Mead. Brewing and lightening. Bel, the luminous deity of theBritons. Deification of rivers. The Wharf, the Lune, etc. The Solway andEden (Ituna of Ptolemy). Idunn, the goddess of youth and beauty. Swanmaidens. Eagle shirts. Frost giants, etc. The "Luck of Eden Hall."Phallic symbols. The Dee (the Seteia of Ptolemy). Dêvas, deities, evilspirits, devils. The Severn, Sabrina, Varuna. War between the dêvas andthe asuras. The Vedic serpent, Sesha. The chark. Churning the sea, orbrewing soma. The lake of Amara, or of the gods, and the Sitanta mountains,at the head of the Nile. The second Avatâra of Vishnu. The Setantii,ancient inhabitants of Lancashire. The Humber (the Abus of Ptolemy). TheVedic Arbhus. The Elbe. Elemental strife. The Wash (the Metaris ofPtolemy). The Vedic Mithra, the friend of Varuna, the god of daylight.Figurative interpretation. The origin of language. | Page [1] |
| CHAPTER II. |
| FIRE OR SUN WORSHIP AND ITS ATTENDANT SUPERSTITIONS. |
| Fire worship denounced by the earlier ecclesiastics. Remnant in modern times.Allhalloween. Beltain fires. Derbyshire tindles and Lancashire teanlas.African notions of the Sun and Moon. Bonfires. The gunpowder plot. Midsummerfires. The elder Aryan fire-gods Agni and Rudra, and theirattendants. Prometheus, the fire-bringer, the inventor of the chark, orearliest fire-kindling instrument. Original or "need-fire." Cattle disease.Fire superstitions. Burning wheels, etc. Sacrifices to the god Bel, and to thesun-god Fro or Fricco, in the North of England, etc. The feast of St. John theBaptist. Bone-fires. Dragons and serpents. Agni and the Midsummerdemons. Ahi and Kuyava the destroyers of vegetation. The great Vedicserpent Sesha. St. George and other dragon slayers. Dragons, fiery serpents,and huge worms of the North of England, "blasters of the harvest." TheAnglo-Saxon poem, Beowulf. The monster Grendel, of Hartlepool. Dragonsand imprisoned maidens, and treasure hid in caves. Merlin's prophecy. Redand white dragons. Dragon poison converted into medical balm. Figurativeinterpretation. The thunderstorm reduces the heat, waters the parched earth,and promotes vegetable growth. A modern hypothesis as to the origin ofdragon superstitions. | Page [28] |
| CHAPTER III. |
| CHRISTMAS AND YULE-TIDE SUPERSTITIONS AND OBSERVANCES. |
| Christmas amusements. Date of the nativity. Remnants of pagan superstitiondenounced by the Church. Etymology of the word Yule. Commencementof the year at the vernal equinox. Old and new styles. Old style yet inuse in Lancashire. Clerical denunciation of New Year's gifts. Curiousgifts on New Year's Day in Elizabeth's reign. The wassail bowl. TheSaxon "wacht heil" and "drinc heil." Singular New Year's day superstitions.Meat, drink, money, and candles interred with the dead. No fire-lightor business credit given on New Year's day. Recent instances in Lancashire.Divination at Christmas. Red and dark-haired visitors on NewYear's morn. Antagonism of the Celtic and Teutonic races. Forecastingthe weather. Twelve days' sleep of the Vedic Ribhus in the house of the sun-godSavitar. The mistletoe and other plants sprung from the lightning. Theoak and the ash. The heavenly asvattha, the ficus religiosa, of the Aryanmythology, the prototype of the yggdrasil or cloud-tree of the Scandinavians.Merlin's tree that covers Great Britain and Ireland. Jack and the bean-stalk.Thorns blossoming on old Christmas eve. German Christmas trees. Theboar's head. The boar an Aryan type of the wind. His tusks the lightning.Popular belief that pigs can see the wind. | Page [53] |
| CHAPTER IV. |
| EASTER SUPERSTITIONS AND CEREMONIES. |
| Sun dancing on Easter morn. Etymology of the word Easter. Original or need-fire.Easter eggs. The red or golden egg an Aryan sun-type. Easter eggsprotection against fire. Hand-ball playing by the clergy. Easter mysteries,moralities, or miracle plays. Paschal or "pace" eggs. Lancashire "pace-egging."Lifting of women on Easter Monday, and of men on the followingday, a custom still practised in Lancashire. Cross-buns at Easter. Thor'shammer. Ancient marriage oaks. Mid-lent or "mothering" Sunday. Simnelcakes. Curious customs in Lancashire and Shropshire. Etymology of theword "simnel." Braggat Sunday and Braggat ales. Lenten fare. Beansand peas. Curious ancient and modern superstitions connected therewith.Touching for the king's evil. Divine right of kings. | Page [70] |
| CHAPTER V. |
| MAY-DAY CEREMONIES AND SUPERSTITIONS. |
| Mock battle between summer and winter. The vernal equinox. Joy on the returnof Spring. Bell-ringing and horn-blowing. Midnight gathering of wild flowersand green branches of trees. May-day garlands and decorations. Rush-bearingin Lancashire. Well dressing in Derbyshire. The Roman Floralia. May-polesdenounced by the Puritans. King James I. at Hoghton Tower, Lancashire.Speech about "libertie to piping and honest recreation." Whitsun-alesand Morris dances. Washington Irving's first sight of a May-pole atChester. Modern May-day ceremonies in Cheshire. Gathering hawthornblossom. The Mimosa catechu, or sacred thorn of India, sprung from thelightning. The Glastonbury thorn. Singular superstition respecting it.Children's love of wild flowers. May-day dew good for ladies' complexions.May-day dew, the milk of the Aryan heavenly cows (clouds), believed to increasethe milk of their earthly prototypes. | Page [83] |
| CHAPTER VI. |
| WITCHCRAFT. |
| The Lancashire witches—Dame Demdike, etc. Witch superstitions of Aryanorigin. Dethroned retainers of the elder gods. The Fates or Destinies.Waxen and clay images. The doom of Meleager. Reginald Scot on witchcraftin 1584. Opinions of Wierus, a German physician, in 1563. Singularconfessions of presumed witches. Numbers put to death. The belief inwitchcraft countenanced by the church, the legislature, and the learned. SirKenelm Digby's opinion. Singular medical superstitions. King James I. andAgnes Simpson, the Scotch witch. The Lancashire witches and Charles I.Witchcraft in Hertfordshire in 1761. Ralph Gardiner's Malicious Invective.A Scotch witchfinder. Matthew Hopkins. Laws relating to witchcraft in thesixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Draci, cloud-gods, or water-spirits,with hands perforated like colanders. Singular tradition of the dun cow atGrimsargh, near Preston. Witches' influence on the butter and milk of cows.Durham, Yorkshire, and Warwick dun cow traditions. Red cow milk. Ushas,the Vedic dawn-goddess. Red heifers set apart for sacrifice. Guy of Warwickand his porridge pot. Black, white, and grey witches. The Teutonic deæmatres, or mother goddesses. The three Fates. The weird sisters of Shakspere.The "theatrical properties" of witches of Aryan origin. The sieve,the cauldron, and the broom or besom. Witches spirits of the air. Hecate thePandemonium Diana. Personifications of elemental strife. The brewing ofstorms. Aryan root of these superstitions. Hares disguised witches. Boadicea'share. The goddess Freyja and her attendant hares. Singular haresuperstition in Cornwall. "Mad as a March hare." Cats weatherwiseanimals. Sailors say a frisky cat has got "a gale of wind in her tail."Sailors' prejudice against commencing a voyage on a Friday. Singular chargeagainst the Knights Templars. The broom or besom represents the implementwith which the Aryan demi-gods swept the sky. A type of the winds.Curious Lancashire custom: hanging out a besom when the lady of thehouse is absent, to announce to bachelor friends that bachelor habits may beindulged in. The broom the oldest wine-bush. Dutch broom-girls. Eightclasses of witches. Gipsies: their Eastern origin. Modern fortune tellers.The witch's familiar. Singular Somerset, Middlesex, and Lancashire superstitionsat the present day. Witchcraft amongst the Maories, and in EquatorialAfrica. Deathbed of a Burnley witch, and transference of her familiarspirit with her last breath. | Page [96] |
| CHAPTER VII. |
| FAIRIES AND BOGGARTS. |
| Puck or Robin Goodfellow. Peris, Pixies, and Ginns. Queen Mab. Lancashireboggarts and fairies. The bargaist. The fairy of Mellor Moor, Lancashire.Lumb Farm boggart, near Blackburn. "Boggart Ho' Clough," near Manchester.George Cheetham's boggart. The devil made a monk. The headlessdog or woman at Preston. Raising the devil. "Raw head and bloody bones."Edwin Waugh's account of the Grislehurst boggart. The laying of boggarts.Driving a stake through the body of a cock buried with the boggart. Sacredor lightning birds. Superstitions about cocks and hens. Killing a Lancashirewizard. Cruel sacrifice of chanticleer. Divining by means of a cock.Boggarts scared by a cock crowing. The cock an emblem of Æsculapius.The black cock crows in the Niflheim, or "land of gloom." Thelion afraid of a white cock. Father Morolla's account of the revivification ofa dead cock. The cockatrice. A cruelly slaughtered cock and red cow'smilk a sovereign remedy for consumption. The Scandinavian golden colouredcock's crowing the signal for the dawn of the Ragnarock, "the great day ofarousing." The Hindoos "cast out devils" by the aid of a cock slaughteredas a sacrifice. Modern Jewish custom. Game cock feathers in the bed causea dying person to linger in pain. Hothersall Hall boggart, Lancashire, laidbeneath a laurel tree, watered with milk. Rowan, ash, and red thread potentialagainst boggarts, witches, and devils. Scandinavian and German boggarts.The Hindoo pitris or fathers. Zwergs, dwarfs, "ancients" or ancestors. Goodfairies, elves, etc. Lord Duffin transported by fairies from Scotland to Paris.Classical ghost story. Singular superstition, of Eastern character, at Darwen,Lancashire. A somewhat similar one in Australia. Fairy rings, their imaginaryand real origin. | Page [124] |
| CHAPTER VIII. |
| FERN-SEED AND ST. JOHN'S-WORT SUPERSTITIONS. |
| Human invisibility. The helmet of Hades or Pluto, and the Teutonic "invisiblecap." Modern references to this singular superstition. Ferns, luck-bringingplants. Said to have sprung from the lightning. St. John's-wort.German story of accidental invisibility. St John's eve. Fern seed,a love charm. Samuel Bamford's Lancashire story in "BoggartHo' Clough," near Manchester. St. John superseded the Scandinavian Baldr.The Osmunda regalis. Osmunda, one of the appellations of Thor. Thevervain, a plant of spells and enchantments. The Sanscrit parna and themodern fern. Origin of the name "Boggart Ho' Clough." | Page [143] |
| CHAPTER IX. |
| THE SPECTRE HUNTSMAN AND THE FURIOUS HOST. |
| Hunting the white doe in the Vale of Todmorden, Lancashire. The "GabrielRatchets." The wish-hounds. The "Gabriel hounds" in Yorkshire. Theclassic Orion, "the mighty hunter." The classic white doe and its mediævaldescendants. The fair maid of Kent. A fawn attendant on the Greek deitiesof the morning. Odin, the wild huntsman, and the furious host. The Yulehost of Iceland. Personification of storm and tempest. Herod, the "ChasseMaccabei," and the Wandering Jew. The "seven whistlers" in Lancashireand Yorkshire. Restless birds believed to be the souls of the damned condemnedto perpetual motion, on the Bosphorus. The wandering Odin and his two ravens,representing Thought and Memory. The Wandering Jew's last appearance inthe flesh. Temporary death of the weather-gods typical of the seasons. Odinslain by the wild boar. Thammuz and the Greek Adonis. Odin lord of thegallows. Odin's spear. Roland's "Durandal," the sword of Chrysâôr, ofTheseus, and of Sigurd. Arthur's "Excalibur" and others. Their Aryanprototype, Indra's thunderbolt. Magic cudgels. The lad and the "rascallyinnkeeper." Indra and Vritra, and the Panis. Long Aryan winters. Hackelberg'scoit throwing. King Arthur's similar exploit in Northumberland. Thedevil's doings at Kirkby Lonsdale, at Leyland church, and at Winwick.Etymology of the word "Winwick." Odin buried in the cloud mountain.Heroes slumbering in caves. Frederic Barbarossa, Henry the Fowler,Charlemagne, and the renowned Arthur. Arthur's death and translationto Avalun. The Eildon Hills and the Sewingshields castletraditions. The "Helmwind," near Kirkoswald, Cumberland. Sir Tarquin'scastle at Manchester. Arthur's battles on the Douglas. Arthurstill alive as a raven. The Gjallar horn. A Cheshire legend says Arthurreposes in the "Wizard's Cave," at Alderley Edge. Ancient reputation ofBritain for tempests and pestilential storms. The departure of the genii.A similar superstition in equatorial Africa. Irish superstitions. Thefurious host. Wandering souls of the unquiet dead. The Aryan Marutsand Ribhus. The approach of the furious host. The black coach legend.The yelping hound. The stray hound of Odin. The Lancashire andDorsetshire black dog fiends. The "Trash" or "Skriker" of East Lancashire.Cerberus and the Vedic Sarvari. Hermes and the Vedic Sârameyas.The howling dog, an embodiment of the wind and herald of death. Recentexample of the power of this superstition in Lancashire. Acute senseof smell probably at the root of this personification. Dogs supposed tobe able to see spirits. Dr. Marigold's dog and the approach of domesticstorms. Will-o'-whisps, or souls of unbaptised children. The Maruts aftera storm assume the form of new-born babes, as Hermes returned to hiscradle after tearing up the forests. Odin sometimes chases the wild boar,sometimes Holda, or Bertha, his wife. The hell-hunt. Hell or Hela,the goddess of death. The English hunt. England the realm of Hela.Niflheim, the world of mists, and the Greek Hades. Nastrond and the modernHell. After death punishment for crimes done in the body. Valhalla and theGothic Hell and Devil. Contrast between the Eastern and Northern notionsof Hell, and Shakspere's powerful description thereof. Wandering spirits ofthe Greek and Aryan mythologies. Yorkshire ballad concerning the passageof the soul over Whinney Moor. Cleveland belief in the efficacy of a gift of apair of shoes to a poor man. Salt placed on the stomach of a corpse. Salt anemblem of eternity and immortality. Flights of birds. The seven whistlers.The bellowing of cows. Odin and his host carry off cows. The Milky-wayor the kaupat to heaven. The Ashton heriot. Figurative character of Odin'saccessories. Examples from Greek archæic art of the gradual evolution ofmythological personification from physical phenomena. Orpheus the AryanArbhus. The nightmare. The Maruts. The Valkyrs or wild riders ofGermany. The "Black Lad" of Ashton-under-Lyne. The wild rider. Thedemon Tregeagle, or tyrant lord of Cornwall, and his endless labours. TamO'Shanter and the witches. Bottomless pools. Sir Francis Drake and thehearse drawn by headless horses. The wish hounds. Poetic sympathy. TheAshton "Black Lad" or tyrant lord. Bamford's poem "The Wild Rider."Earthly heroes substituted for Odin. | Page [153] |
| CHAPTER X. |
| GIANTS, MYTHICAL AND OTHERWISE. |
| The Giant's Dance, Stonehenge. The Ramayana and giants of Ceylon. Thewild men of Hanno, the Carthaginian. Gorillas. The giants of Lancashire,Shropshire, Cornwall, Ireland, and India compared. Gogmagog and Corineus.The Cyclops. Patagonian and other modern giants. Giants and monstersaccording to Pliny. Shakspere's monsters. The Amorites. The giants Ogand Sihon. Remains of the ancient cities of Bashan. Sir Jno. Mandeville'sIndian giants. Red Indian traditions of giants and gigantic pachyderms.Discoveries of huge fossil bones. Aryan Râkshasas or Atrins (devourers).Giants and devils. Milton's fallen angels. The trolls and giants of Scandinavia.Dethroned deities. The Æsir gods. Their overthrow by the light of theChristian dispensation. Nikarr, an appellation of Odin, the Old Nick ofthe present day. Giants degraded forms of original Aryan personificationsof the forces of nature. Ancient and modern examples. Allegory. LordBacon's opinion. Passage into the heroes of romance. The King Arthurlegends. The Anglo-Saxon poem, Beowulf. The monster Grendel of Hartlepool.The Arthur legend of Tarquin and Sir Lancelot, at Manchester. TheRound table. Anachronisms in romance literature. The "Sangreal." Urien,the Arthur of the North of England. The Welsh bards, Taliesin and LlywarchHen or the Old. Geoffrey of Monmouth and William of Newbury. WalterMap. Giants' coits and erratic boulders. Lancashire and Cheshire giants, nearStockport. Chivalry and the plundering Barons of the middle ages. MythicalDwarfs. Tom Thumb. Connection of Druidical with Brahminical superstition. | Page [197] |
| CHAPTER XI. |
| WERE-WOLVES AND THE TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS. |
| Bodies of birds and animals supposed to be tenanted by the souls of men. Instancesfrom Shakspere. The Druids. The Egyptian, Pythagorean, and the HindooDoctrines. The Taliesin romance. The bell-tolling ox at Woolwich. Were-wolves.Irish were-wolves. King John a were-wolf. Greek and Roman were-wolves.German were-wolves. Swan shirts and eagle shirts. Irish Mermaids.Bears. Detection of were-wolves. Vampires. Witches transformed into cats.Were-wolves, like witches, burnt at the stake. The witches' magic bridle, whichtransformed human beings into horses. Lancashire witches transformed intogreyhounds. Margery Grant, a recently deceased Scotch witch, sometimes transformedinto a pony, and sometimes into a hare. Men transformed into crocodiles.Owl transformations. The owl, the baker, and the baker's daughter. Bakerstransformed into a cuckoo and a woodpecker. The White Doe of Rylstone. TheManx wren, the robin, the stork, etc., each supposed to enshrine the soul of ahuman being. Men transformed into leopards, etc., in Africa. Greek Lykanthropy.Aryan conception of the howling wind as a wolf. The souls of thedamned were-wolves in Hell. The wolf a personification of the darkness of theNight. Greek forms of this myth in Apollo and Latona his mother. Personificationsof natural phenomena. Children suckled by wolves. | Page [224] |
| CHAPTER XII. |
| SACRED AND OMINOUS BIRDS, ETC. |
| Sacred Birds. Beautiful Welsh legend of the robin. Stork legends in Germany.Their nests built upon wheels (sun emblems) placed on the roofs of houses.Remains in Danish "Kitchen middens." Birds of evil omen. The owl.Shakspere's profound insight. Cuckoo superstitions. Transformation ofcuckoos into sparrowhawks. The cuckoo the messenger of Thor. The wrenhunted to death in the Isle of Man, Ireland, and some parts of France. Asacred bird in England. Swallows and crickets. Ravens, crows, jackdaws,etc., ominous birds. Lancashire superstitions of this class. The "SevenWhistlers." The Woodpecker. Picus and Pilumnus. Fire and soul bringers.Weather prophets. The stormy petrel, the heron, and the crane. The lady-bird.Rats leaving ships about to founder at sea. | Page [242] |
| CHAPTER XIII. |
| THE DIVINING OR "WISH"-ROD, AND SUPERSTITIONS RESPECTING TREES AND PLANTS. |
| Searching for hidden treasure at Cuerdale, near Preston. Midnight excavations onthe site of the Roman station at Walton, near Preston. How to prepare adivining rod. The rowan tree. Divination by upright rods. Recent attemptto discover metallic ores by the divining rod. Anecdote of M. Linnæus. Formof the wish-rod. The mystic number three. The mistletoe. Neptune'sTrident. The horseshoe, a divining instrument. Other divining instruments.The mandrake. Resemblance in form to the human body. The caduceus orthe rod of Hermes. Modern conjurer's magic wands. The palasa tree or the"imperial mimosa" of the East. Aryan legend of its lightning origin. Themountain ash, the thorn, etc. Bishop Heber's anecdote respecting the Hindooform of the superstition. African sacred trees. Recent instances of this superstitionin England, Scotland, and Australia. The pastoral crook, and the lituus,or staff, of the ancient augurs, etc. Phallic symbols. Novel use of the Bible.The divining rod but of recent importation into Cornwall. Recent instances ofdivination or "dowzing" for water. Finding drowned bodies. "Corpsecandles." | Page [252] |
| CHAPTER XIV. |
| WELL WORSHIP AND SUPERSTITIONS CONNECTED WITH WATER. |
| Well worship. Medical virtues of water. Symbol of purity. Sacred wells. St.Helen's well, at Brindle, near Preston. Curious examples of local corruptionof names. Pin dropping. Pin wells in France, Wales, Scotland, Northumberland,and the West of England. A form of divination. Protection againsthanging. Other curious forms of this superstition. Curing rickets in childrenand insanity. Reported miraculous cures. Well dressing. Recent death ofMargery Grant, a "Scotch witch," who worked cures with holy water. Thedeification of rivers and streams. Ancient lake dwellings, Healing lake inScotland. Bottomless pools. Stagnant water. Jenny Greenteeth. "Nickar,the soulless." Scotch kelpies. Burns's "Address to the Deil." Superstitionon the Solway. African superstition of this class. | Page [267] |
| CHAPTER XV. |
| CONCLUSION. |
| Antiquity of the superstitions commented upon. The common origin of most ofthem. Tenacity of superstition and traditionary lore. Some perhaps haveresulted from similar conditions, without any necessary connection with eachother. Supposed communication of America with Asia in ancient times.Phallic worship in Central America. Singular custom in the PolynesianIslands. Migration of the Miocene flora. The Atlantis of the Ancients. Superstitionsin Abyssinia and the Malay Archipelago. Traditions and superstitionsfrequently glide into each other. Instances. Scotch warriors at Preston.Sunken churches. Secret passages beneath rivers. All ruined castles,abbeys, etc., said to have been battered by Cromwell's cannon. Recentdiscoveries in Sanscrit. Max Müller's interpretation of Greek myths.Anthropomorphism, or the personification of natural forces. Growth of amyth. Vedic and other examples. Wordsworth's interpretation of Greek myths.Figurative expression, the groundwork of all poetry, at the root of all language.Shakspere's appreciation of the poetic value of popular mythology. Importanceof the study of these despised superstitions to philological, ethnological,and psychological science, as well as to the sound philosophical interpretationof general history. | Page [283] |