SCIENCE 



NEW YORK, DECEMBER 4, 1891. 



DROWNING SUPERSTITIONS. 



A STRANGE antipathy once prevailed to rescuing a drown- 

 ing man, the idea being that the person saved would, sooner 

 or later, do some sort of injury to the man who preserved 

 his life, says a writer in a recent number of the London 

 Standard. Sir Walter Scott, in the "Pirate," tells how 

 Bryce, the peddler, refused to help Mordaunt to save the 

 shipwrecijed sailor from drowning, and even remonstrated 

 with him on the rashness of such a deed. "Are you mad?" 

 says the peddler, "you that have lived sae lang in Zetland, 

 to risk the saving of a drowning man? Wot ye not if 

 ye bring him to life again, he will be sure to do you 

 some capital injury?" This prejudice, which was deeply 

 rooted among our sea-going community in many parts of 

 the country, existed not very long ago in Cornwall. It is 

 found, too, among French sailors and the boatmen of the 

 Danube, and is widely credited in Russia. Mr. Barry, in 

 his "Ivan at Home," gives a striking instance of the Rus- 

 sian repugnance to save life from drowning. One day, a 

 drunken man got into the water and disappeared. A num- 

 ber of spectators stood by, and gazed on the scene with the 

 utmost indifference, but no one tried to rescue him. A court 

 of inquiry was held, but as, on examination, no cross was 

 found on his neck, a verdict was quickly agreed upon by the 

 villagers, who declared that the man was " drowned because 

 he bad no cross on his neck." The Bohemian 6sherman 

 shrinks from snatching a drowning man from the waters, 

 fearing that the water-demon would take away his luck in 

 fishing, and drown him at the first opportunity. This, as 

 Dr. Tylor points out in his "Primitive Culture," is a linger- 

 ing survival of the ancient signiflcance of this superstition, 

 the explanation being that the water spirit is naturally angry 

 at being despoiled of his victim, and henceforth bears a spe- 

 cial grudge against the unlucky person who has dared to 

 frustrate him. Thus, when some one is drowned in Ger- 

 many, the remark is made, "The river-spirit claims his 

 yearly sacrifice," or "The nix has taken him." Out of Eu- 

 rope, also, the accidental drowning of a person is attributed 

 to a similar seizure, and the Siamese dreads the Pnlik, or 

 water-spirit, that seizes bathers and drags them under to 

 his dwelling. The Sioux Indians have a similar fancy, and 

 tell how men have been drowned by Unk-tabe, the water- 

 monster. For the same reason, it appears, the Kamtchadals, 

 far from helping a man out of the water, would drown him 

 by force. If rescued by any chance, no one would receive 

 such a man into his house, or give him food, but he was 

 reckoned for dead. The Chinese reluctance to save a drown- 

 ing man arises from quite a different belief — it being sup- 

 posed that the spirit of a person who has met his death in 

 this way continues to flit along the surface of the water, until 

 it has caused, by drowning, the death of a fellow creature. 

 " A person, therefore," writes Mr. Jones, in his " Credulities 

 Past and Present," "who attempts to rescue another from 

 drowning is considered to incur the hatred of the uneasy 



spirit, which is desirous, even at the expense of a man's life^ 

 to escape from its wandering." 



There are many curious modes of discovering the dead 

 body of a drowned person, a popular notion being that its 

 whereabouts may be ascertained by floating a loaf weighted 

 with quicksilver, which is said at once to swim towards, and 

 stand over, the spot where the body lies. This is a very 

 widespread belief, and instances of its occurrence are, from 

 time to time, recorded. Some years ago, a boy fell into the 

 stream at Sherborne, Dorsetshire, and was drowned. The 

 body not having been recovered for some days, the mode of 

 procedure adopted was thus: A four pound loaf of best 

 flour was procured, and a small piece cut out of the side of 

 it, forming a cavit}', into which a little quicksilver was 

 poured. The piece was then replaced, and tied firmly in its 

 original position. The loaf thus prepared was thrown into 

 the river at the spot where the body fell, and was expected 

 to float down the stream till it came to the place where the 

 body had lodged. But no satisfactory result occurred. In 

 Brittany, when the body of a drowned man cannot be found, 

 a lighted taper is fixed in a loaf of bread, which is then 

 abandoned to the retreating current. When the loaf stops, 

 there it is supposed the body will be recovered. Under a 

 variety of forms, the same practice is observed elsewhere, 

 and is found existing among the North American Indians. 

 Sir James Alexander, in his account of Canada, says: "The 

 Indians imagine that in the case, of a drowned body, its 

 place may be discovered by floating a chip of cedar wood, 

 which will stop and turn round over the" exact spot. Ar». 

 instance occurred within my own knowledge, in the case of 

 Mr. Lavery of Kingston Mill, whose boat overset, and him- 

 self drowned near Cedar Island; nor could the body be dis- 

 covered until this experiment was resorted to." In Java, a 

 live sheep is thrown into the water, and is supposed to indi- 

 cate the position of the body by sinking near it. But the 

 objects used for this purpose vary largely in difiFerent coun- 

 tries. A correspondent of Notes and Queries tells how a. 

 corpse was discovered by means of a wisp of straw, around 

 which was tied a strip of parchment, inscribed with certain 

 cabalistic characters, written on it by the parish priest. Not 

 many months ago a man was drowned at St. Louis. After 

 search had been made for the body, but without success, the 

 man's shirt, which he had laid aside when he went in to 

 bathe, was spread out on the water, and allowed to float, 

 away. For a while it floated, and then sank, near which 

 spot, it is reported, the man's body was found. A curious 

 custom is practised in Norway, where those in search of a 

 drowned body row to and fro with a cock in the boat, fully 

 expecting that the bird will crow when the boat reaches the 

 spot where the corpse lies. 



It was a popular theory, in days gone by, that the body 

 of a drowned man would float on the ninth day, a notion 

 which Mr. Henderson informs us prevails in the County of 

 Durham. Sir Thomas Browne alludes to it as believed in his 

 time, and, in his"Pseudodoxia Epidemica" there isadiscussion 

 on this fanciful notion. It was also believed that the spirits 

 of those drowned at sea were doomed to wander for a hundred 

 years, owing to the rites of burial iiaving never been properly 



