288 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. m. 



three words for the last three, which certainly 

 rhymed better with alas ! E. D. 



Allow me to send you one of much merit, founded 

 upon the same metaphor as those inserted at the 

 page above quoted : 



*' Life's like an inn where travellers stay ; 

 Some only breakfast, and away : 

 Others to dinner stay, and are full fed ; 

 The oldest man but sups, and goes to bed. 

 Hard is his lot who lingers out the day ; 

 Who goes the soonest has the least to pay." 



Edw. Hawkins. 



THROWING OLD SHOES FOB 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 Refutation 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 Refuta- 

 tion is generally found attached. It may be neces- 

 sary to observe, for the benefit of those unac- 

 quainted 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 hypochon- 

 driacs 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 

 Refutation of Bodin. During a cursory examin- 

 ation ofWier's voluminous demonological works 

 (De Lamiis Libe?' ; Item de Commentatiis Jejuniis ; 

 J)e Preestigiis 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 : 



" II se mocque aussi d'une Sorciere, a qui Sathan 

 commanda de garder bien ses vieux souliers, pour un 

 preservatif, et contre-charme centre les autre Sorciers. 

 Je dy que ce conseil de Sathan a double sens, les sou- 

 liers signifient les pechez, comme estas tousiours trainnez 

 par les ordures. Et quand Dieu dist a Moyse et a 

 Josue, oste tes souliers, ce lieu est pur, et sainct : il 

 entendoit, comme diet Philon Hebrieu, qu'il faut bien 

 nettoyer son ame de peehes, pour contempler et louer 

 Dieu. Mais pour converser avec Sathan, il faut estre 

 souille, et plonge en perpetuelle impietez et mechance- 

 tez : alors Sathan assistera a ses bons serviteurs. Et 

 quand aux sens literal, nous avons diet que Sathan fait 

 ce qu'il peut, pour destourner les hommes de la fiance 

 de Dieu aux creatures, qui est la vraye definition de 

 I'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. PlNKERTON^ 

 Ham. 



It will, I fear, be difficult to discover a satis- 

 factory 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, whc 

 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 estate huic convenit, amori se puellari- 

 prEBStaret aflTabiblem, et cum poculis frequentibus etiam- 

 calceamenta deferret." — Gregor. Turon. Ex Vitis Pa- 

 trum, vol. ii. p. 449. : see also same page, note 3. 



W. B. MacCabe. 



Allow me to inform Lord Bratbrooke that the 

 custom of throwing a shoe, taken from the left 

 foot, after persons for good luck, has been prac- 

 tised 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 con- 

 sequently 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 

 600/. ; 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 per- 

 son departing from home, as a mode of wishing 

 him good luck and prosperity in his undertakings 

 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; 



OWEN GLTNDWR [oWEN AP GRIITITH VTCHAN^ 

 LORD OF GLYNDWRDWr]. 



(Vol. vii., p. 205.) 



The arms referred to by Mr. Woodward are. 

 those on the great seal and privy seal of " the 

 irregular and wild Glendower," as Prince of AVales, 



