

MINOR SUPERSTITIONS. 



The observation of lucky and unlucky days was 

 once an important matter, and was often the turn- 

 ing-point of great events. It is now almost con- 

 fined to the one subject of marriage. In fixing 

 the wedding-day, May among months, and Friday 

 among days, are avoided by high and low. The 

 explanation offered is, that Friday is unlucky 

 because it is the day of the Crucifixion, and that 

 May is unlucky only by contrast with the follow- 

 ing month, which was, among the Romans, sacred 

 to Juno, the foundress of marriage, and the giver 

 of fertility to women. 



Perhaps half the superstitious beliefs that yet 

 survive among civilised and Christian com- 

 munities, group themselves round the subject of 

 love and marriage of such intense interest to 

 all, yet so mysterious in its origin, and problem- 

 atical in its issue. The liking or passion for one 

 individual rather than any other, is so unaccount- 

 able, that the god of love has been fabled blind ; 

 it is of the nature of fascination, magic, spell. And 

 then, whether happiness or the reverse shall be 

 the result, seems beyond the reach of ordinary 

 calculation. All is apparently given over to 

 mystery, chance, fortune, and any circumstance 

 may, for what we know, influence or indicate 

 what fortune's wheel shall bring round. Hence 

 the innumerable ways of prognosticating which 

 of two or more persons shall be first married, who 

 or what manner of person shall be the future 

 husband or wife, the number of children, &c. It 

 is generally at particular seasons, as at the eve 

 of St Agnes and Hallowe'en, that the veil of the 

 future may thus be lifted. 



Dreams have in all ages and countries been 

 believed in as indications of the future ; and of all 

 forms of superstition this is perhaps the most 

 excusable. Whatever is mysterious as to its 

 cause, and beyond the control of the will, appears 

 as supernatural ; and what more so than dreams ! 

 The thoughts in dreams, too, arise out of the past 

 and present circumstances of the dreamer, and 

 therefore are not altogether without connection 

 with his future destiny, as most other omens are. 



Sneezing partakes of the supernatural, for the 

 same reason as dreams do ; it is sudden, un- 

 accountable, uncontrollable, and therefore omin- 

 ous. The person is considered as possessed, for 

 the time, and a form of exorcism is used. A nurse 

 would not think she had done her duty if, when 

 her charge sneezes, she did not say : ' Bless the 

 child ! ' just as the Greeks more than two thou- 

 sand years ago said : ' Zeus protect thee ! ' 



An important exercise of the art of divination 

 was to determine the innocence or guilt of parties 

 accused. The casting of lots was much used for 

 this purpose. Somewhat different was the trial 

 by ordeal (Ang.-Sax. ordcel ; Ger. urthetl, judg- 

 ment), or Judgment of God, as it was called, in 

 which God was supposed to interfere by a miracle ; 

 as when, to prove his innocence, the accused had 

 to handle red-hot iron without injury ; or when 

 he was made to swallow a piece of consecrated 

 bread in the belief that it would choke him or 

 poison him if guilty. The water-ordeal was much 

 used in the trials of witchcraft in the middle ages. 

 The accused was cast, bound hand and foot, into 

 water ; when, if she sank, she was innocent, but 

 was nevertheless most likely drowned ; if she 

 floated, she was held guilty, and was burned. 

 It is curious to find the same crime tried in much 



the same way in the heart of Africa at the present 

 day. ' When a man,' says Dr Livingstone, ' sus- 

 pects that any of his wives have bewitched him,, 

 he sends for the witch-doctor, and all the wives 

 go forth into the field, and remain fasting till that 

 person has made an infusion of the plant (called 

 "goho"). They all drink it, each one holding 

 up her hand to heaven in attestation of her inno- 

 cency. Those who vomit it are considered in- 

 nocent, while those whom it purges are pro- 

 nounced guilty, and put to death by burning.. 

 The innocent return to their homes, and slaughter 

 a cock as a thank-offering to their guardian 

 spirits. The practice of ordeal is common among 

 all the negro nations north of the Zambesi.' The 

 women themselves eagerly desire the test on the 

 slightest provocation ; each is conscious of her 

 own innocence, and has the fullest faith in the 

 muavi (the ordeal) clearing all but the guilty. 



Such are a few of the more important heads 

 under which methods of divination might be 

 brought. To notice the isolated points of this 

 superstition would be endless. One general 

 remark it is important to make : an omen is not 

 a mere sign of what is destined to be ; it is con- 

 ceived as causing, in some mysterious way, the- 

 event it forebodes ; and the consequence, it is 

 thought, may be prevented by some counteracting 

 charm. Thus the spilling of salt not only fore- 

 bodes strife, but strife is conceived as the con- 

 sequence of the spilling of the salt, and may be- 

 hindered by taking up the spilled salt and throw- 

 ing it over the left shoulder. 



Superstitions of the magic kind have still a 

 deep hold in the minds of the ignorant classes 

 of the community, as is often strikingly brought 

 to light in the courts of justice. Among the- 

 better educated, such observances as are kept up- 

 are in general treated half-playfully, but often, 

 also, with a good deal of earnestness at bottom. 

 Even in the most enlightened circles, it still 

 causes no little dismay to some to find themselves 

 at table in a party of thirteen ! 



WITCHCRAFT 



is merely the form that the belief in the arts of 

 magic assumed under the action of certain notions 

 introduced by Christianity. The powers supposed 

 to be possessed by the witches, and the rites and 

 incantations by which they acquired those powers, 

 were substantially the same as belonged to the 

 Venefica of the ancient Romans, and the Vala or 

 Wise Woman of the Teutonic pagans. But when,, 

 along with the knowledge of the one true God, the 

 idea of a purely wicked spirit, the enemy of God and 

 man, was introduced, it was natural that all super- 

 natural powers not proceeding directly from the 

 true God should be ascribed to him (see page 441). 

 This gave an entirely new aspect to such arts : ( 

 they became associated with heresy ; those who- 

 practised them must be in compact with the devil, 

 and have renounced God and the true faith. 

 Previously, if a witch was punished, it was because 

 she had been guilty of poisoning, or at least was 

 believed to have poisoned or wrought some other 

 actual mischief. But the practice of witchcraft in 

 itself was not looked upon as a crime ; on the 

 contrary, it was on the whole a beneficial arV 

 being in fact the only form of the healing art 

 known, and in part also the religion of domestic 



