It might also be added that in former times no one was buried on the north side of a churchyard, as it was known as the “Domain of Demons.”
HOW TO GET RID OF GHOSTS, SPIRITS, GOBLINS, AND DEVILS, ETC.
In some parts, especially on the borders of Cardiganshire and Carmarthenshire, it is believed that any one carrying a knife in his hands, will never see or be troubled by a spirit, even when passing a haunted spot in the depth of night.
When staying for a short time in the parish of Llandyssul about five years ago, I was told that there lived a few years ago a certain man in the village of Pontshan in that parish, who, when coming home late one night, saw a ghost on the roadside whilst passing a well-known haunted spot in the neighbourhood. The man took out his knife from his pocket, and the ghost vanished. After this, whenever he passed a haunted place the man held a knife in his hand, and never saw a ghost again. In South Pembrokeshire, a V-shaped twig of the mountain ash was considered a protective against spirits.
It was also believed once in all parts of Wales that to wear body-linen inside out, and to nail a horseshoe against the door kept away both evil spirits and witches. Even in the present day people all over the world think that there is some “good luck” in finding a horseshoe, and to a young girl it means a new lover.
When a spirit troubled a house in Wales, it was sometimes customary to call together the most godly persons in the parish to hold a prayer-meeting; at other times a conjurer, or a priest was sent for, for it was formerly thought that a clergyman had the power to “lay” or exorcise spirits. There were particular forms of exorcising. When the Devil was in the belfry of Llanarth Church, Cardiganshire, the Vicar went to drive away the Evil One, with “Bell, Book, and Candle.”
Until the time of Henry VIII., it seems that it was customary to curse mortals, as well as to exorcise fiends “with bell, book and candle”; for in an old book called “Dugdale’s Baronage,” published in 1675, it is said that in the 37th. year of Henry III., “a Curse was denounced in Westminster Hall against the violation of Magna Charta, with bell, book and candle.”
And in Fox’s account of the ceremony of excommunication, we are told that three candles were carried before the clergy, and that as each candle was extinguished prayer was made that the souls of malefactors and schismatics might be “given over utterly to the power of the fiend as this candle is now quenched and put out.”