bringing the new churchyard into use. No one would be the first to bury his dead there, for it was believed that the first corpse laid there was a teind to the Evil One. At last a poor tramp who was found dead in the road was interred, after which there was no further difficulty. Precisely the same superstition exists in Devonshire. The churchyard round St. John’s church, Bovey Tracey, South Devon, was long unused, the country people declaring that the devil would seize the first body laid in it. At last a stranger was buried there, the servant of a visitor in the parish, after which interments began at once to take place.[1]
In accordance with this belief, Mr. Baring Gould points out the following Yorkshire superstition: “It is said in that county that the first child baptized in a new font is sure to die—a reminiscence of the sacrifice which was used for the consecration of every dwelling and temple in heathen times, and of the pig or sheep killed and laid at the foundation of churches. When I was incumbent of Dalton a new church was built. A blacksmith in the village had seven daughters, after which a son was born, and he came to me a few days before the consecration of the new church to ask me to baptize his boy in the old temporary church and font. “Why, Joseph,” said I, “if you will only wait till Thursday the boy can be baptized in the new font on the opening of the new church.” “Thank you, Sir,” said the blacksmith, with a wriggle, “but you see it’s a lad, and we shu’d be sorry if he were to dee; na if t’had been a lass instead, why then you were welcome, for ’twouldn’t ha’ mattered a ha’penny. Lasses are ower mony and lads ower few wi’ us.”
On the site of an ancient monastery or hospital in Preston, tradition maintains that a church has sunk into the earth, and
- ↑ Thus, in Germany it is said that the first person who enters a new church becomes the property of the devil. At Aix-la-Chapelle is shown a rent in the door, which is thus accounted for. The church was ready for consecration, and before anyone entered it a dog was driven in. The devil in a rage seized the dog, and flew away with it, shivering the door. In various parts of Germany and in Norway a dog or a pig was buried in the churchyard as an offering to the devil. He is thus outwitted, and receives a beast instead of a man as his tribute.—S. B. G.
