THROWING OLD SHOES FOR LUCK.
(Vol. ii., p. 196.; Vol. v., p. 143.; Vol. vii., p. 182.)
Some light may perhaps be thrown on this mysterious custom by the following quotation from the Réfutation des Opinions de Jean Wier, by Bodin, the celebrated French jurisconsult, and author of the Demonomanie des Sorciers (Paris, 1586), to the quarto edition of which the Réfutation is generally found attached. It may be necessary to observe, for the benefit of those unacquainted with demoniacal lore, that Wier, though a pupil of Cornelius Agrippa, and what would be now-a-days termed exceedingly superstitious, was far in advance of his age, and the first to assert that some, at least, of the many persons who were then burned for sorcery were merely hypochondriacs and lunatics,—fitter subjects for the care of the physician than the brand of the executioner. This heterodox opinion brought upon him a crowd of antagonistic replies, and amongst them the Réfutation of Bodin. During a cursory examination of Wier's voluminous demonological works (De Lamiis Liber; Item de Commentatiis Jejuniis; De Præstigiis Demonum, et Incantationibus ac Veneficiis: Basil, 1583), I have not met with the passage underneath referred to by Bodin; but, no doubt, if time permitted, a closer search would discover it:
"Il se mocque aussi d'une Sorciere, à qui Sathan commanda de garder bien ses vieux souliers, pour un preservatif, et contre-charme contre les autre Sorciers. Je dy que ce conseil de Sathan a double sens, les souliers signifient les pechez, comme estas tousiours trainnez par les ordures. Et quand Dieu dist à Moyse et à Josué, oste tes souliers, ce lieu est pur, et sainct: il entendoit, comme dict Philon Hebrieu, qu'il faut bien nettoyer son ame de peches, pour contempler et louer Dieu. Mais pour converser avec Sathan, il faut estre souillé, et plongé en perpetuelle impietez et mechancetez: alors Sathan assistera à ses bons serviteurs. Et quand aux sens literal, nous avons dict que Sathan fait ce qu'il peut, pour destourner les hommes de la fiance de Dieu aux creatures, qui est la vraye definition de l'idolatrie, que les Theologiens ont baillie: tellement que qui croira, que ses vieux souliers, ou les bilets, et autres babioles qu'il porte, le peut garder de mal, il est perpetuelle idolatrie."
W. Pinkerton.
Ham.
It will, I fear, be difficult to discover a satisfactory answer to Lord Braybrooke's questions on these two points. They cannot certainly be traceable to a Pagan origin, for Cupid is always pourtrayed barefooted; and there is not, I believe, a single statue to be found of a sandaled Venus. I can certainly direct his Lordship to one author, a Christian author, St. Gregory of Tours, who refers to a curious practice, and seemingly one well recognised, of lovers presenting shoes, as they now do bouquets, to the objects of their affection:
"Cumqu, ut ætate huic convenit, amori se puellari præstaret affabiblem, et cum poculis frequentibus etiam calceamenta deferret."—Gregor. Turon. Ex Vitis Patrum, vol. ii. p. 449.: see also same page, note 3.
W. B. MacCabe.
Allow me to inform Lord Braybrooke that the custom of throwing a shoe, taken from the left foot, after persons for good luck, has been practised in Norfolk from time immemorial, not only at weddings, but on all occasions where good luck is required. Some forty years ago a cattle dealer desired his wife to "trull her left shoe arter him," when he started for Norwich to buy a lottery-ticket. As he drove off on his errand, he looked round to see if she performed the charm, and consequently he received the shoe in his face, with such force as to black his eyes. He went and bought his ticket, which turned up a prize of 600l.; and his son has assured me that his father always attributed his luck to the extra dose of shoe which he got.
E. G. R.
The custom of throwing an old shoe after a person departing from home, as a mode of wishing him good luck and prosperity in his undertaking, is not confined to Scotland and the northern counties, nor to weddings. It prevails more or less, I believe, throughout the kingdom. I have seen it in Cheshire, and frequently in towns upon the sea-coast. I once received one upon my shoulder, at Swansea, which was intended for a young sailor leaving his home to embark upon a trading voyage.
Edw. Hawkins.