The notion of the escape of the soul through an opening is probably only in part the origin of this superstition. It will not account for opening all the locks in the house. There is, I conceive, a notion of analogy and association.
"Nexosque et solveret artus," says Virgil, at the death of Dido. They thought the soul, or the life, was tied up, and that the unloosing of any knot might help to get rid of the principle, as one may call it. For the same superstition prevailed in Scotland as to marriage (Dalyell, p. 302.). Witches cast knots on a cord; and in a parish in Perthshire both parties, just before marriage, had every knot or tie about them loosened, though they immediately proceeded, in private, severally to tie them up again. And as to the period of childbirth, see the grand and interesting ballad in Walter Scott's Border Poems, vol. ii. p. 27., "Willye's Lady."
C.B.
NOTE ON HERODOTUS BY DEAN SWIFT.
The inclosed unpublished note of Dean Swift will, I hope, be deemed worthy of a place in your columns. It was written by him in his Herodotus, which is now in the library of Winchester College, having been presented to it in 1766, by John Smyth de Burgh, Earl of Clanricarde. The genuineness of the handwriting is attested by a certificate of George Faulkner, who, it appears, was well qualified to decide upon it. The edition is Jungerman's, folio, printed by Paul Stephens, in 1718.
W.H. GUNNER.
"Judicium de Herodoto post longum tempus relicto:—
"Ctesias mendacissimus Herodotum mendaciorum arguit, exceptis paucissimis (ut mea fert sententia) omnimodo excusandum. Cæterum diverticulis abundans, hic pater Historicorum, filum narrationis ad tædium abrumpit; unde oritur (ut par est) legentibus confusio, et exinde oblivio. Quin et forsan ipsæ narrationes circumstantiis nimium pro re scatent. Quod ad cætera, hunc scriptorem inter apprimè laudandos censeo, neque Græcis, neque barbaris plus æquo faventem, aut iniquum: in orationibus fere brevem, simplicem, nec nimis frequentem: Neque absunt dogmata, e quibus eruditus lector prudentiam, tam moralem, quam civilem, haurire poterit.
"Julii 6: 1720. J. SWIFT"
"I do hereby certify that the above is the handwriting of the late Dr. Jonathan Swift, D.S.P.D., from whom I have had many letters and printed several pieces from his original MS.
"Dublin, Aug. 21. 1762. GEORGE FAULKNER."