The crocodile seems to take in Borneo the place occupied so generally elsewhere by the serpent; although we know that in Central America the alligator was revered, and along the Nile in many districts the crocodile.—(See Bock’s “Head-Hunters of Borneo,” London, 1881, passim.)
“The hare, which shares with the cat the reputation of being the familiar of witches, has naturally some virtues attributed to it. Thus that the right forefoot worn in the pocket will infallibly ward off rheumatism is a common belief in Northamptonshire, and generally over England.” (“Folk-Medicine,” Black, p. 154.) The Chinese say that a hare sits at the foot of the cassia-tree in the moon pounding out the drugs of which the elixir of immortality is compounded. In a poem of Tu-fu, a bard of the T’ang dynasty, the fame of this hare is sung,—
“The frog is not drowned in the river;
The medicine hare lives forever.”
“The devil’s mark was said to sometimes resemble the impression of a hare’s foot.... Seeing a hare was thought in Ireland to produce a hare-lip in the child to be born; and, as a charm, the woman who unfortunately saw the hare was recommended to make a small rent immediately in some part of her dress.”—(Idem, p. 155.)
“It is held extremely unlucky, says Grose, to kill a cricket, a ladybug, a swallow, martin, robin red-breast, or wren,—perhaps from the idea of its being a breach of hospitality, all these birds and insects alike taking refuge in our houses.... Persons killing any of the above-mentioned birds or insects, or destroying their nests, will infallibly, within the course of the year, break a bone, or meet with some other dreadful misfortune.... On the contrary, it was deemed lucky to have martins or swallows build their nests in the eaves of a house or in the chimneys.... Its being accounted unlucky to destroy swallows is probably a pagan relic. We read in Ælian that these birds were sacred to the penates or household gods of the ancients, and therefore were preserved. They were honored anciently as the nuncios of the spring. The Rhodians are said to have had a solemn anniversary song to welcome in the swallow. Anacreon’s ode to that bird is well known.” Brand also alludes to the still surviving omens attaching to the swallow,—such as “the swallow falling down the chimney,” and others.—(“Popular Antiquities,” vol. iii. p. 193.)
THE SPANISH-AMERICAN SPORT OF “CORRER EL GALLO” AND THE ENGLISH PASTIME OF “THROWING AT ‘SHROVE-COCKS.’”
The Spaniards brought with them to the New World a cruel form of sport, which consisted in burying a cock or hen in the earth up to its neck, and then allowing the young men of the village to mount their horses, and charging down at full speed upon the hapless bird, reach down from their saddles and endeavor to seize it and wring its neck. This sport (as seen by the author in the Indian Pueblo of Santo Domingo, New Mexico, in 1881, and described by him in “The Snake Dance of the Moquis”) is evidently a distorted form of the sacrifice of the chicken deity, which is to be discovered in many parts of Europe, always under the guise of brutal sport.
In England there was a modification. A goose was hung up by the feet, and then the villagers ran and attempted to seize its head, which was finally pulled off. There was still another of the same series in which a cat was put in a barrel, and the barrel was then beaten to pieces.—(See Brand, “Popular Antiquities,” vol. iii. p. 40, article “Sorcery.”)