Superstitions.
"In all cases of preternatural pretensions a nice question must always present itself—as to how many of the believers are fools, how many of them knaves, and how many both one and the other."
In some parts of this county the following things are considered unlucky:
To meet a squinting woman, unless you speak to her, which breaks the charm.
To go a journey on a Friday.
To be one of a party of thirteen at Christmas.
To have a cut onion lying about in the house breeds distemper.
To cross knives accidentally at meal times.
To walk under a ladder.
For the first young lamb you see in a season, or a colt, to have its tail towards you.
To kill a lady-cow (in Dorsetshire called "God Almighty's cow").
For a sportsman to meet an old woman when going out shooting is a sure sign of bad sport.
To put the bellows on a table will evoke a quarrel.
To keep Christmas holly about the house after Candlemas Day, in which case it is believed the Father of Evil will come and pull it down himself.
To put salt on another person's plate at table. The superstition that overturning salt at table is unlucky is said to have originated with Leonardo da Vinci's picture of the Last Supper, where Judas is represented as overturning the salt; but this little incident in the picture was more likely the result than the cause of the superstition.
To see the first of the new moon through a window, or glass of any sort, is also unlucky. But if you see it in the open air, turn the money in your pocket, and express a wish for luck during the ensuing month; you are supposed to ensure it.
"Always kill your pig in the new moon, or the fat will run," is an old saying.
It is unlucky to point to the moon, there being a notion that the "man" who was transported to that satellite for stealing sticks won't stand being pointed at.
To have a female come into your house the first thing on New Year's morning. So extensively does this absurdity prevail, that in many towns young lads make "a good thing of it" by selling their services to go round and enter the houses first that morning.
As to cutting your nails on a Sunday, the following couplet is very expressive:
"Better a child was never born
Than cut his hoofs of a Sunday."
This is varied in some districts, thus—
"Better a child were never born
Than on the Sunday[7] shear the horn."
[7] Some say Friday.
The itching of the nose is a sign of bad news, or, as some have it, that "you will be kissed, cursed, or vexed, or shake hands with a fool." If the ear itches, you may expect news from the living; if the face burns, some one is talking about you; when you shudder, a person is walking over the spot where your grave will be; and if your foot itches it is a sign you will tread on strange ground.
To make presents of knives or scissors will be sure to cut off love or friendship; but if something is given in exchange, it prevents this bad effect.
Babies must never have their nails cut, but bitten, to prevent their becoming thieves.
To snuff out a candle accidentally entails the fate of not getting married in the same year.
It is in the highest degree unlucky to give your neighbour a light at Christmas time, or New Year's Day; and those who have neglected to lay in a stock of matches at that season often have to repent the oversight by being unable to light their fires in the morning, and in most cases amongst the poor neither prayers nor entreaties will induce them to part with their fire.
At Mathon, some people believe that if land is left unsown in a field, there will be a death in the family within the year; and when the accident is discovered they do not sow it again (see Mr. Watson's sketch of that parish).
Omens, or tokens of death, adhere to the popular belief to a more general extent than any other relic of superstition, perhaps one third of the population attaching more or less credit to them. It would be impossible to enumerate all these idle fancies, but among them are prominently the howling of a dog, a winding sheet in the candle, and the issuing of light from a candle after it is blown out.
A piece of curled tallow (winding sheet) on a candle has been scarcely ever known to fail as prophetic of death in the family or among friends.
When a single crow flies over you it is the sign of a funeral; two are a certain prognostication of a wedding.
A bit of coal popped from the fire must resemble either a purse or a coffin, and consequently good luck or death.
To have a long succession of black cards (spades or clubs) dealt to a person while at play is prophetic of death to himself or some member of the family.
When a corpse is limp, it is a sign that another death will happen in the house.
To have apples and blossoms on a tree at the same time is a sign of a forthcoming death in the family.
If a white bean grow in the garden it is a sure sign of death.
Any appearance among plants in the garden not understood is considered "a token." Thus a rose whose flower has any leaves intermixed with the red petals, as sometimes happens, is called a "death rose," and foretells death to some of the family.
The first snowdrop brought into the house betokens the death of the gatherer.
It is bad luck for any one to go through a house with a spade on his shoulder.
If a woman go into a neighbour's house before she is "churched," some great misfortune will befall her.
It is unlucky to have rain on a wedding day.
"Happy the bride the sun shines on;
Happy the corpse the rain falls on."
Old shoes thrown after a person leaving the house are supposed to be a source of great prosperity. This is practised by the highest classes in the county, especially at weddings.
So many mince pies you eat at Christmas, so many happy months you will spend during the year.
A donkey braying is an infallible sign of rain.
To cut your hair during the increase of the moon is said to ensure its favourable growth.
A bright speck in the candle is a sure indication that a letter is coming to the individual to whom it points.
If the sun shines warmly on Christmas Day there will be many fires in the ensuing year.
"A great year for nuts a great year for (the birth of) children," is a common saying, and double nuts presage twins.
Tea-drinking is made to foreshadow a large number of the casualties of life, including the receipt of presents, the visits of strangers, obtaining sweethearts, and the like, merely from the appearance of the tea and the "grounds" or settlement in the cup.
To leave a teapot lid open undesignedly is an indication that a stranger is coming; and when a cock crows in your doorway, or a bit of black stuff hangs on the bar of the grate, it is a sign of a similar event.
It is believed in many districts that some persons have white livers, and that if a woman marry a man having such a phenomenon inside him, she must die within twelve months.
The first time a baby is taken out of the lying-in room the nurse must carry it to the highest part of the house for good luck, and that it may "rise in the world."
The colliers at Dudley, in the event of a fatal accident to one of their number, all in the same pit immediately cease from working until the body is buried. A certain sum is also spent in drink, and is called "dead money." The same custom, more or less modified, prevails in many districts.
The "seventh son of a seventh son" is believed to be endowed with extraordinary curative powers in certain diseases, and the same with regard to a daughter under similar circumstances.
In the vicinity of the Malvern hills there is a superstition among the poorer people that when any one is bitten by a viper—which reptile is occasionally to be met with in bushy ground about the southern part of the range—if it can be killed forthwith, an ointment made from its liver will be a specific for the wound.
A "handsel," or first money received for an article sold, if taken from a particular person or under particular circumstances, Mr. Lees says, is supposed to be productive of good luck; and some complain that they cannot do business for want of a handsel from the person of whom they wish to receive it.
In the year 1643, when some thieves plundered the house of Mr. Rowland Bartlett, at Castle Morton, among other things they took a "cock eagle stone, for which thirty pieces had been offered by a physician, but refused." These eagle stones were ætites, a variety of argillaceous oxide of iron; they were hollow, with a kernel or nucleus, sometimes moveable, and always differing from the exterior in colour and density. The ancients superstitiously believed that this pebble was found in the eagle's nest, and that the eggs could not be hatched without its assistance. Many other absurd stories were raised about this fossil.
The custom of burying exclusively on the south side of churchyards prevails very generally in the rural districts of this county, except where the smallness of the ground or the extent of the population has rendered it compulsory to use the north side, which, however, was formerly reserved for suicides and strangers. Many fanciful theories have been invented to account for this preference of the south side, but the most probable is, that, as the principal entrance to the church was usually on that side, it was natural for burials to be there also, that the deceased might have the benefit (so accounted in those days) of the prayers of the congregation as they walked to and fro and beheld the inscriptions.
The very ancient custom of divination by the flight of birds is not yet forgotten. The robin and wren are birds of good augury: if a raven flies over a house, there will soon be a corpse there. The number of magpies met with as you set out on a journey indicates what is to happen:
"One for sorrow,
Two for mirth,
Three for a wedding,
Four for a birth."
Mr. Allies tells of a remarkable superstition that prevailed not many years ago at Suckley, where the country people used to talk a great deal about "The Seven Whistlers," and that they oftentimes at night heard six out of these seven whistlers pass over their heads; but that no more than six of them were ever heard at once, for when the seven should whistle together there would be an end of the world. This is supposed to have some reference to fairy lore, and is still believed by the Leicestershire colliers, who, when they hear "the whistlers," will not venture below ground, thinking that death to some one is foreboded. The superstition has probably a German origin.
Fern seed is supposed to make the gatherer walk invisible; but as the fern is said to bloom and seed only at twelve o'clock at Midsummer night, the seed can only be caught by using twelve pewter plates; the seed will then pass through eleven of the plates and rest on the twelfth.
There was formerly a "holy thorn" at Redmarley Farm, Acton Beauchamp, but it was cut down a few years ago because of the number of persons who went to see it. It is stated that the person who cut it down broke his leg and his arm soon afterwards, and the premises were burnt down. A similar thorn may be seen (as Mr. Lees informs us) in the hedge of a garden at Cherry Green, Alfrick.
A superstition exists in some parts of the county that if pieces of the alder tree are carried in the waistcoat pocket they will be a safeguard against rheumatism. In Wyre Forest, near Bewdley, is a botanical curiosity, namely, the celebrated old Pyrus domestica, said to be the only tree of the kind growing wild in England. It is of the same kind as the "Rowan," or mountain ash, which was and even now is vulgarly worn as a remedy against witchcraft. It is most thought of by the common people, and there are various traditions concerning it. The name given to the tree is "the witty pear-tree"—the mountain ash being also called "the whitty tree," and the leaves of this tree are very similar. One of our Naturalist Field Clubs visited it in August, 1853: vegetation was then entirely confined to its top boughs, which however still held a few pears on them. Some hermit, or reputed "wise man," probably planted this tree, and derived part of his subsistence by distributing its leaves and fruit, as a protection against witchcraft.
In April, 1856, a poor woman, residing in a village about three miles from Pershore, acting upon the advice of her neighbours, brought her child, who was suffering from whooping cough, to that town, for the purpose of finding out a married couple answering to the names of Joseph and Mary, and soliciting their interference on behalf of her afflicted child, as she had been informed that if two married persons having those names could but be induced to lay their hands on her child's head, the whooping cough would be immediately cured. After scouring the town for a considerable time in search of "Joseph and his fair lady," they were at length discovered in the persons of a respectable tradesman and his wife residing in Bridge Street, to whom the poor silly woman made known her foolish request, which at first excited a smile from the good woman of the house, but was quickly followed, not by "the laying on of hands," but by good advice, such as mothers only know how to give in these matters. The poor mother then thankfully departed a wiser woman.
In the rural districts great faith is put in rings made of the shillings and sixpences given at the sacrament, and many clergymen have told me of repeated applications having been made to them for sacrament shillings, for the purpose of keeping away the evil spirit, or as a remedy for fits. Mr. Watson, in his History of Hartlebury, says that he believes nearly every person in that district who was subject to fits wore such a ring. And there is another parish in the county where I am told even Protestant poor go to the Romanist priest to have the relics of saints applied for the cure of diseases.
The Worcester papers in the year 1845 recorded that a person from this city, being on a visit to a friend about four miles distant, had occasion to go into the cottage of a poor woman, who had a child afflicted with the whooping-cough. In reply to inquiries as to her treatment of the child, the mother pointed to its neck, on which was a string fastened, having nine knots tied in it. The poor woman stated that it was the stay-lace of the child's godmother, which, if applied exactly in that manner round about the neck, would be sure to charm away the most troublesome cough!
An infallible recipe for the cure of ague is said to be the following: Go to a grafter of trees, and tell him your complaint. You must not give him any money, or there will be no cure. You go home, and in your absence the grafter cuts the first branch of a maiden ash, and the cure takes place instantly on cutting the branch from the tree.
A Worcestershire woman was asked the other day why she did not attend church on the three Sundays on which her banns of marriage were proclaimed? She replied that she should never dream of doing so unlucky a thing; and on being questioned as to the kind of ill-luck that would have been expected to have followed up her attendance at church, she said that all the offspring of such a marriage would be born deaf and dumb, and that she knew a young woman who would persist in going to church to hear her banns "asked out," and whose six children were in consequence all deaf and dumb!
At a certain country church in Worcestershire, on a Sunday early in 1856, there were three christenings, two boys and a girl. The parents of one boy were in a very respectable class of life; the parents of the two other children were in humble circumstances. The parties at the font had been duly placed by the officiating clergyman, and as it happened, the girl and sponsors were placed last in order. When the first child—who was the boy of the poor parents—was about to be baptized, the woman who carried the little girl elbowed her way up to the clergyman, in order that the child she carried might be the first to be baptized. To do this she had (very contrary to the usual custom of the poor, who, in essential points, are generally as refined as their superiors) to rudely push past "her betters"—i. e. the sponsors of the second boy. As she did so she said to one of the sponsors—by way of apology—"It's a girl; so it must be christened first;" and christened first it was. But the peculiar manner in which this was brought about showed that the woman was influenced by some curious feeling; and on the next day, an opportunity was taken to discover her motive. This was her explanation: "You see, sir, the parson bain't a married man, and consequentially is disfamiliar with children, or he'd a never put the little girl to be christen'd after the boys. And though it sadly flustered me, sir, to put myself afore my betters in the way which I was fosed to do; yet, sir, it was a doing of a kindness to them two little boys, in me a setting of my girl afore 'em." "Why?" "Well, sir! I har astonished as you don't know. Why, sir, if them little boys had been christened afore the little girl, they'd have had her soft chin, and she'd have had their hairy beards—the poor little innocent! But thank goodness! I've kep her from that misfortin!" And the woman really believed that she had done so; and the generality of her neighbours shared her belief. Let this be a warning to clergymen, more especially to bachelors, who would stand well in the opinions of their poorer parishioners!