Notes on the folk-lore of the northern counties of England and the borders/Index
INDEX.
Aaskarreya, the name of the Wild Hunt in Norway, 133
Abel (Duke), supposed to be the Wild Huntsman in Schleswig, 133
Abgarus, Christ’s apocryphal letter to him, used as a charm against witchcraft and evil eye, 194
Abrahall (Rev. J. H.), versification of Breton legend, 124
Adder: its bite cured in the dog by washing with milk of an Irish cow; cannot escape from ring drawn by a native of Ireland, 166
Adder’s stone: a charm for snake bites made by adders, 165
Advocates wore cauls to insure eloquence, 22
Aerial appearances have preceded wars, 308
Ague, charms for: a dead man’s nails and hair buried under a neighbour’s threshold; spiders, worn or swallowed; caterpillar in pocket; tansy-leaves in shoe; eating sage-leaves; its transfer to willow and aspen, 150–1; word-charm, 169
All Hallowe’en: unlucky to let the house-fire out on, 72; Burns’s poem mentioned, 96; sports and divinations, 97; augury of fortune from lighted brand of direction of wind from position of bull in stall, 97; divination by the washed sark, 101 and by the “blue clue,” 253
All Saints’ Eve: churchyard procession of those doomed to die within a year, at Sedbergh, 52
All Souls’ Day: two persons walking round a room at midnight in the dark will never meet, 62
Alnwick, cow’s heart burnt near, 222
Amulets, flint arrow-heads worn as, by Irish, 185
Andermas: St. Andrew’s Day in Scotland, 98
Andæslis: Icelandic term for going against the sun, 62
Apple-pips, divination by, 106
April fool or “gowk days” on Borders; custom of bootless errands extends to Germany; “hunting the gowk” a local name for cuckoo, 92; rhymes on the month, 95
Apron: turning it for luck at sight of new moon, 115
Arkingarthdale, house in, haunted by a bogle; how driven away, 247
Arrow-heads: flint, termed elf-stones in Ireland, 185
Arthur (King), supposed to be the Wild Huntsman, 133
Ascension Day: strewing rushes or “seggs” on door-steps in Yorkshire, 86
Ash: child’s first nail-parings buried under; always a sacred tree; the Yggdrasil of Norsemen; attracts lightning; old rhyme, 17; Christ first washed and dressed at Bethlehem by fire of its wood, 64; faggots used in Devonshire at Christmas, ib.; weather prediction from its leafing, 76; leaf, if even, lucky—rhymes on, 110–11
Ash (mountain), see Mountain-ash
Ash Wednesday, eating grey peas on, insures money all the year, 114
Ashes of dead person’s bed, divination by, 51
Aspen tree: charm for ague; used for Cross and therefore trembles; another (German) reason for its trembling, 151–2; anciently sacred; used for marriage-torches by Romans, and for wishing-rods in Germany, 152
Atkinson (Rev. J. C.), on Yorkshire witch, 210; on mountain-ash, 225; on Padfoot, 274
Augury: from cry of cuckoo, 93; from birds among ancients; traces still existing here among upper classes, 128; Alcuin (A.D. 735) on such prognostics, ib.; see Portents
Aurora borealis, termed the Derwentwater Lights, 307
Bacon’s (Francis) Natural History on lardskin charm for warts, 140
Bahrgeist (spirit of the bier), see Barguest
Baker’s (Sir R.) Meditations upon Lord’s Prayer on praying aloud to fright the Devil, 280
Bamburgh, bridal parties there jump over a stool at church door, 38–9
Banshee of Loch Nigdal: a sprite in green silk, 270
Baptism, see Child: baptism
Barguest, Bahrgeist, Boguest, or Boggart: a spirit presaging death, 275; proverb: “to roar like a Barguest;” appears in various forms; three mentioned, ib.
Baring-Gould (S.), see Gould (S. B.)
Barrow, Mount, or Hill Folk: descendants of fallen angels (Denmark), 248
Bat: its flight indicates the witches’ hour, 125–6
Battles: their sites haunted by echoes of the fight, 309
Bawkie-bird, the bat, q. v.
Bean-geese: the Gabriel hounds, 130
Bedeguar of dogrose; see Robin Redbreast’s Cushion
Beds containing feathers of pigeons, game birds, and cocks, make death difficult, 60
Bee’s Diary on a spectral coach drawn by swine, 327
Bees: sympathy between them and their owners, 309; will not thrive in a quarrelsome family, ib.; swarm settling in dead tree forebodes a death, ib.; strange swarm settling brings good fortune, ib.; when stolen never thrive; love children; making nest in roof unlucky for girls of family; should not be bought, ib.; must be told of a death and taste the funeral feast, 310; also warned of a marriage, ib.; reverenced as producers of wax for altar-lights, ib.; created white, they turned brown at the Fall, ib.; story of their building a chapel, ib.; Mr. Hawker has versified a similar legend, 311; a Jesuit Father on their honouring the Host, ib.; hum a hymn on Christmas Eve, ib.
Beetham, a vicar of, laid the sprite Capelthwaite, 276
Belford: bridal parties there jump over the louping or petting stone at church porch, 38
Bell: should clock strike whilst it is tolling another death will occur within a week, 61; helps the soul to its place of rest; a complaint of the delay in tolling (Buckingham), 62–3; tolled on Good Friday morning at Fishlake, 81
Bells of Bottreaux heard in the sea by Cornish fishermen, 122
Beltane, see Midsummer Eve
Berry Well, near Melsonby, haunted by a spectral white goose, 328
Bertha (Frau), of German Folk-lore—attended by troops of unbaptized children when she joins the Wild Huntsman, 131
Berwick-upon-Tweed, wise woman of, consulted on stolen web of linen, 237
Bessel or Wassail cup of Cleveland: figures of Virgin and child, with ornaments, carried at Christmas, 66
Beverley haunted by headless ghost driving headless horses, 327
Bewitched, see Witches
Bible and Key, divinations by: modern instances, 233, 235–7
Bigge (Rev. J. F.), on haunted house at Dalton Hill Head, 329
Bingham’s Antiquities quoted on early Christian superstitions, 4
Birds: hovering near and settling on a house, an omen of death, 49; season for taking their nests closes on 29th May at Fishlake, 96
Birth, see Child: birth
Bishop’s (Rev. Samuel) verses on presenting a knife to his wife, 118
Bishop’s hand, see Confirmation
Bites, see Dog, Viper, Snakes
Blackbeetle, see Cockroach
Blackberries: the Devil makes them unwholesome at Michaelmas: “puts his foot on them” (Ireland); “throws his club over them;” “spits on them” (Sussex), 96
Black cocks, see Cocks
Black Heddon, the Silky of, see Silkies
Black Jock, a Newcastle wizard: his incantation to discover a horse poisoner 221–2
Black Penny, see Hume-byers Penny
Blacksmiths drive no nails on Good Friday, 81
Black Willie, a Hartlepool wizard, 223; his incantation to discover a witch, 224
Blade bone and knife charm to bring a lover, 175
Bleeding of a corpse, on touch of murderer, 57; urged as evidence of guilt in 1668 at the High Court, Edinburgh, ib.; of the nose, stopped by wiseman crossing running water, 153—word-charms to stop, 169–170
Blencogo, rural sports at, on second Sunday in May, 79–80
Blessing the house: clergyman’s visiting after a death, 63
Blind days: last three days of March (Devonshire), 95
Blood of sacrificed animal sprinkled when treasure buried, 248
Blue, auspicious colour for maidens, 35
Blue-clue, divination by the, practised on All Hallowe’en, 253
Boar or dog buried alive under cornerstone of church to keep off witches, 274
Bodsbeck, the Brownie of: the last in Ettrick Forest—vanished when offered payment; in Hogg’s tale an exiled Cameronian assumes the character, 251
Boggart, see Barguest
Bogles, the Ettrick Shepherd on, 246; considered ministers of retribution, 247; one driven away in Yorkshire—another protects widow at Hurst, ib.—in form of white goose at Berry Well, 328
Boguest, see Barguest
Book and Key used by mesmerists to determine stronger will, 236
Border Castles: their foundation stones bathed with human blood, 256
Borrowing Days: last three of March, 94; augury of coming seasons from, ib.; old rhymes, 95; termed “blind days” in Devonshire—then unlucky to sow, ib.; first three days of February in Highlands, ib.—good prognostic if stormy, ib.
Boscastle, see Bottreaux
Bottreaux, or Boscastle: its bells foundered in ship at sea, still heard by Cornish fishermen, 122
Bottree, bore-tree, see Elder
Bovey Tracey, churchyard long disused, lest Devil should seize the first body buried, 121; witch overlooking pigs at, 182
Bowes Moor, story of the robber and the Hand of Glory at inn on, 241
Boy, see Kadiant Boy
Bracken abhorred by witches; the marks in the stalk, and divining by them, 226
Brag, see Picktree Brag
Brand’s Popular Antiquities, quoted on ancient Gothic sword dances, 70; on Roman new years’ customs, 74 ; on borrowing days, 95
Braize, or brooze, running the: the race home after a Northumberland wedding, 37
Bramley, keeping St. Mark’s watch at, 51
Brancepeth, the Boar or Brawn of, destroyed by Hodge of Ferry, 285
Bread marked with cross by housewives, 258
Bride, see Marriage
Brimstone in beds, a charm for cramp, 155
Brittany, recent idol worship and offerings in, 2
Bromfield: Barring-out master of free schools on Fastings Even—sports and local verses, 78–79; a dragon had its den there in 1344, 298—overcome by incantations of Arab physician—a great treasure hid in its den, 299
Bromfield (Rev. R. O.) on divination by Bible and Key at Sprouston, 232–3
Broom: unlucky to take it into a house in May, 50—especially baleful if used for sweeping in May, ib.—loved by witches, 226; twig, a charm for wounds (Germany), 159
Brownies: The Ettrick Shepherd on their character, 246; constituted guardians of hidden treasures, 248; doomed for their sins to work—not to receive wages—allowed cakes and cream, ib.—Border phrase, “There’s a piece wad please a Brownie,” ib.; disappear when offered new clothing, 249; of Cranshaws offended by remarks on his work, 250—and of Bodsbeck by payment, 251
Brown man of the Muirs: met by two youths on Elsdon Moors, 251
Buckland (Mr. F.) on the herring-spear, 131
Bull: sacrificing one in the Highlands for recovery of a person’s health, 148
Burbeck’s Bone, an ivory tablet—a charm for lunacy, 165; lent on deposit of £100, ib.
Butter, charms to bring; twig of mountain-ash, 184—and service-tree handle to churn, 200; of churchyard-fed cows cures consumption produced by witch-riding, 192; see Witches
Burn, word-charm for, 171
Butterflies: child’s charm to catch, 24; three flying together a portent of death, 48
Cabbages thought lucky when double or without heart, 110
Cake Day: New Year’s Day on Scottish borders, 77
Caldbeck in Cumberland mentioned, 277
Calends used in Buckingham weather rhyme, 75
Calf’s leg hung in chimney: a charm for cattle disease, 167
Calverley (Sir Walter): his ghost once haunted the village of that name—laid as long as holly grows on the manor—the hero of “The Yorkshire Tragedy,” 328
Candlemas Day, weather rhyme on, 76
Candles: sparks betoken coming letters—three, elevation in life or a betrothal, 111; snuffing them out an early marriage or bad luck, 113; stuck with pins: a charm to bring lovers, 172
Capelthwaite: a spirit appearing in form of quadruped, 275; spiteful and mischievous—laid by a vicar of Beetham, 276; another haunts Capelthwaite Farm near Sedbergh, ib.
Cap, see Child’s cap
Capet (Hugh), supposed to be the Wild Huntsman, 133
Cardinals: their deaths in threes noticed, 62
Cards played on the coffin at a lykewake, 55
Care, see Mountain ash
Care, Carle, or Carling Sunday, Passion Sunday, 80
Carlings: grey peas steeped and fried in butter, eaten on Passion Sunday, 80
Carols, Christmas, sung in Durham, 64–5; in Yorkshire, 65–6
Caseburg in Germany, witch milking broomstick at, 198
Cats jumping over a coffin are destroyed, 59; their blood a charm for erysipelas, 149; mix largely in Northern Mythology—draw the chariot of Goddess Freya—supply weather portents—turned out of doors when they sneeze (Sussex)—witches take their form, 206; black ones kept by sailors’ wives to ensure husbands’ safety—old rhymes: black cats bring lovers—their blood used as a remedy for croup in Pennsylvania, 207; throwing them overboard provokes a storm at sea; German miller’s wife mutilated in this shape, 208; blood drawn from Halifax witch—Flemish story of their molesting a man, 209–210
Caterpillar carried in pocket a charm for the ague, 150
Cattle: buyers deem it unlucky not to receive back a coin, 119; sacrificed when herds diseased, 148–9; their diseases cured by hanging turf in apple-tree 162—by Lee Penny and Charm-stone water, 163–5—by hanging calf’s leg in chimney, 167—by needfire; their madness cured by water charmed by Lockerby and Black Penny of Hume-byers, 163–4; word-charms for, 170, 179
Cauff-riddling: A mode of determining whether a person will survive the year or not, practised in a barn at midnight—case at Malton on St. Mark’s Eve, 52
Caul, see Child’s Caul
Cauld Lad, of Hilton, 266–7; of Gilsland, 267
Causleen, the evening star, mentioned, 259
Cedar-wood formed part of the Cross, 151
Chaff or straw strewn before wife-beater’s door, 32
“Chappie,” the family apparition at Houndwood, 269
Changelings: Martin Luther on, 7; idiots deemed such in Western Islands, 189; case in Denmark where false child detected by stallion colt, ib.; two methods of getting rid of them, 190
Charms and Spells, 138–179.
Charms, child’s: to catch a butterfly—to drive off rain—to disperse a rainbow, 24—and to cross one out, 25; for crows and snails, ib.; for ladybird, 26; for nettle-stings; for thunder, ib.
Charms for ague, 150–1, 169; bleeding, 169, 170; bleeding at the nose, 153; bite of dog, 160, 179; bite of snakes, 160, 165–6, 171; bringing back truant husband, 177–8; bringing lovers, 172–6; burns and scalds, 171; butter making, 184, 200; cattle, 170, 179; cattle disease, 162, 165, 167; cattle madness, 163–4; children (weakly), 227; colic, 83; cramp, 28, 155, 201; disease, 146, 164–5; easy deliverance, 169; epilepsy, 146–7, 231; eruptions, 167; erysipelas, 149; fevers, 20, 143; goitre, 153; king’s evil, 205; lumbago, 20; lunacy, 165; money, 74; ringworm, 140; rheumatism, 33, 160–1 (Prussia), 172, 201–206; St. Vitus’s Dance, 152; sores, 156; sore eyes, 145; storms, 170; thorns, 159, 171; tic, 20; toothache, 145, 172; vermin (Florida), 83; warts, 138–140, 154; wens, 153–4, 161; whooping cough, 140–4, 264; wife (quarrelsome), 176–7; witchcraft, 166, 214; worms, 154–5; wounds, 156–9, 166, 169, 171
Charm-stones: gave curative powers to water of Loch Monar, 164; used in Lewis to cure diseases of cattle, 165
Cheese: the “shooten” or groaning—cut by father after a birth—pieces used by girls to secure dreams, 11
Cheese Well on Minchmuir: a wishing-well where pieces of cheese are offered, 230
Child, birth: augury from day (of week) when it occurs—old rhymes, 9—used also in Devonshire—the auguries differ; on Sunday secures immunity from evil spirits, and from hanging and drowning—confers power of seeing spirits (Denmark), 10; an hour after midnight gives same power; feasting on the occasion the “shooten” or groaning cheese—cake and cheese cut by doctor—offered to all visitors in Yorkshire, 11; placed in bridal bed in Sweden, 12
Stillborn: treading on its grave unlucky—produces the grave-merels or scab, 12; old verses on the subject—a remedy for this disease; thought to make grave lucky (Devon); buried in adult’s grave, 13, 14
Newborn: first placed in maiden’s arms (Yorkshire), 12; carried upstairs before going down, 18; acquires longevity by passing through a maple, 17; gets three gifts on first visiting another house, 20; must not look in glass before a year old, 21
Unbaptized: treading on its grave produces the grave-merels, 12; at the mercy of the fairies—how protected in Denmark, in Yorkshire, and in Germany—not left alone by modern Greeks—protected by father’s clothing in Scotland; fairies defeated near Selkirk, 14; never thrives, 15; brings misfortune when taken into another house (Sweden), 20; its soul without rest after death—thought to become Gabriel Hounds—to wander in woods and solitudes, in Scotland and Devonshire—connected with the Furious Host, in Germany, 131—and with the Yeth Hounds, in North Devon; where buried apart in a spot called Chrycimers, 132
Baptism: passed through cake in Oxfordshire on the day of; cake and cheese given to first person met in street; similar custom in Devon, Somerset, and Cornwall, 12; the rite has a physical effect—case of weakly one cured in Yorkshire; must sleep first night in cap worn at, 15; lucky to cry—new minister bestows his own name on first child brought for—boy must precede girl, 16; confers the right to receive gifts on first entering another house—called “puddening” at Leeds, 20; in a new font fatal to a child, 121
Cap: must sleep first night in that worn at baptism, 15; no cold taken if left off on Sunday, 19
Caul: the halihoo or holy hood—thought lucky—must be preserved—an ancient superstition—être né coiffé—worn by seamen and advocates—prices of them—a link of affection between mother and child—return of one demanded of doctor in Scotland, 22; consulted by girl as an oracle, 23
Cradle: not to be rocked when empty—rhymes from Wilkie MS. 18; prognoses its death (Holland)—makes it noisy (Sweden)—brings an early successor—Sussex couplet; not distrained for rent—ancient one of Neville family found in Durham, 19
Hair: not to be cut on Friday, 17
Hand: right unwashed that it may gather riches, 16; using left to first take up spoon unlucky, 20
Nails: must not be cut before a year old, 16—may be bitten; first parings buried under ash tree; not to be cut on Sunday or Friday, 17; rhymes on cutting, 18
Teeth: early—indicate a successor—“soon teeth soon toes,” 19; first in upper jaw forebode death, 20; peony necklaces assist cutting (Sussex), 21; cast, burnt in fire—must not be thrown away, ib.
Childermas Day: Holy Innocents’ Day (Preston), 72
Childhood, Folk-Lore of, 24
Children’s games: one connected with the rhyme of “four-and-twenty tailors;” Sally Walker—verses used at Morpeth, and in Devonshire, 26; rhymes used in a similar dance, 27
Chipchase rookery, deserted before Reed family left there, 122
Chipping Norton, a winged two-headed serpent there, in 1349, 298
“Chipping the block,” an Easter-day observance at University College, Oxford, 83
Chirton, near Shields, haunted by a silky in green, 270
Christening, see Child’s baptism
Christians, early: their belief in supernatural agency, 3; their superstitions denounced by St. Chrysostom and in Apostolical Constitutions, 4
Christmas: marked by many observances on Borders—carrying figures of Virgin and Child and singing carol, 64; “going a wassailing” in West Riding—figures carried in Milly (my lady) boxes—verses used, 65; singers in fanciful attire parade streets, called mummers—“bessel” or wassil cup: box with figures and ornaments in Cleveland—unlucky to send them away unrequited; no meat eaten on the eve—the Yule cake and cheese then cut—the “Devil’s Knell” rung at Horbury and Dewsbury—the Yule clog and candles, the gifts of tradesmen—unlucky to light them before the proper time, 66; hanging up stockings for presents; a peculiar breakfast dish at Whitbeck; sword dancers: the characters, verses, and dances, 67–69—dance similar to sword dance of ancient Goths and Swedes—still obtains in Gothland; mummers with image of white horse—the white horse still common in North Germany—horse head and skin carried in Midland Counties—the Christmas tup, 70; the horse, the white steed, Gleipmir, of Odin, 71; a carol, ib.; unlucky to let the house-fire out on the eve, 72; bees hum a hymn—oxen kneel in their stalls as the day begins, 311
Christ’s Hospital, charm for cramp used at, 155
Chrycimers, i. e. Christianless hill: part of churchyard where unbaptized children are buried (Devon), 132
Church toleration of heathen customs, 2
Church: Violent end comes to him who removes the first stone from a (Aberdeen), 120; first person entering a new one seized by the Devil (Germany), 121; dog driven in at Aix-la-Chapelle, ib.; dog or boar formerly buried alive under corner stone of, 274
Churching, unlucky for mother to enter another house before her; the same feeling in Ireland—how evaded, 16
Churchyard: first person buried seized by the devil; dog or pig buried as his tribute (Germany and Norway), 121; witches kept away by ghost of animal buried alive in foundation of church, 274; haunted by the kyrkogrim in Sweden, 274
Clare’s Shepherd’s Calendar quoted on divination by Knotweed, 100
Clergyman: blessing a house after death, 63; his touch curing rheumatism, a wen, and a cow, 161–2
Cleveland, Christmas customs in, 66; greeting on New Year’s Day, 75; nurses take children upstairs before going down, 18; St. Stephen’s Day in, 67
Clitheroe, a tailor of, who outwitted the devil, 279
Clock, the cockroach or blackbeetle, 83
Clothes, new, worn on New Year’s day, 72, and on Easter Sunday, 83; placing money in right pocket of; sayings to wearers, 119
Cloutie’s Croft, or the gudeman’s field: a plot of ground set apart as a propitiatory gift to the devil, 278
Clover, four-leaved, lucky, 110; keeps witches from byre, 201
Coach, the Headless, with headless driver and horses, haunts several localities, 326; with black swine presaged a death at Durham, 327
Cockroaches, called clocks; an Irish reason for the name, 83
Cobbing match, the verses and rites used at a, 28
Cocks: schoolmasters provided them for boys to throw at, on Shrove Tuesday, 78; fortunate for a brood to be all, 110; crowing on a threshold indicates coming visitors, 123; black, used for raising the devil in France—favourite of a Jewish banker—sings in the Scandinavian Niflheim, 147; for cure of epilepsy sacrificed to the devil in the Highlands—and drowned in sacred well in Algeria, 147–8
Cock-penny: the sum paid to schoolmasters for providing cocks, 78
Coffins: kept in readiness and used as cupboards, 58; by an old brother of Sherburn Hospital, 59; by an old Yorkshire woman, ib.; cramp rings made from their fittings, 156
Colds are caught when cat sneezes thrice in the house, 200
Coleridge’s Table Talk quoted on charm for cramp at Christ’s Hospital, 155
Colic, piece of egg laid on Good Friday, a cure for (Suffolk), 83
Colludie stones mentioned, 259
Communications with unseen world quoted on ghosts in Whitehaven mine, 322
Confirmation: bishop’s right hand preferred—a second attempt to secure it (Exeter)—left hand dooms recipient to celibacy—good for rheumatism (Yorkshire), 33
Coniscliffe, a Hob at, mentioned, 264
Consumption produced by witch-riding cured by butter of churchyard-fed cows, 192
Conyers: the worm of Sockburn destroyed by him, 284
Corfu, custom of breaking crockery on Good Friday in, 81
Corpse, see Death.
Corpus Christi, a procession of trades companies at Durham on festival of, 86
Corn: a grain found on floor on New Year’s morning indicates an abundant harvest (Sweden), 75
Corner cupboard not distrained for rent; Northumbrian saying: “they have sold him up, corner-cupboard and all,” 19
Corp cré, or criadt: image of clay stuck with pins, claws, &c. placed in running water by ill-wishers (Inverness), 229
Coskiomancy of the ancient Greeks, 233
Counting warts: a charm for their cure, 140; increases their number, say the modern Greeks, ib.
Cow cured by minister’s touch, 162–3
Cow-lug-e’en: a night when cow-eared sprites are abroad, 262
Cradle, see Child’s cradle
Cramp, charms for: eelskin round leg, 28; crossing shoes—tortoise-shell rings—brimstone in bed—one used in Christ’s Hospital—cramp-bone: kneecap of sheep—rings of coffin fittings, 155–6—hare’s forefoot (Warwick), 201
Cranshaws in Berwickshire once the abode of a brownie, 250
Crawhall (Mr. Joseph), on game of Sally Walker, 26; on rhymes used in a similar game, 27; on bridal party jumping over stool at Bamburgh, 38; on a Christmas song, 71; story of the girl who stole the old woman’s money, 249–50
Cricket, misfortune follows the killing of a house, 122
Crieff, the last witch burned at, 245
Crockery or clomb: breaking it on Good Friday in Devonshire, 81; similar custom in Corfu, ib.
Crooked pins offered at wishing wells; sixpences lucky in pocket, 112—drive witches from churn 183; “things, lucky things,” 231
Crook Hall, haunted by a “white ladie,” 314
Cross, mark of, made on chimney crook—on tools and utensils in Scotland as a protection against evil spirits—on sheep by Durham butchers—by house-wives on dough and loaves, 257–8
Cross, The, made of palm, cypress, olive, and cedar, 151
Crow: an ominous bird, 126; child’s charm against, 25; Satan can take its form, 277
Crowing hen, see Hen
Crown of Thorns made of white thorn, 152
Cuckoo: a Sussex greeting to—believed to become a hawk—rhymes on—augury from its cry, in Sweden and Scotland—turning money on hearing, 93; a scolding old woman supposed to have charge of (Sussex), ib.; a Yorkshire adage, 94
Curlews: their cry known as the “Seven Whistlers,” 131
Cypress formed part of the Cross, 151
Dairy and witches, see Witches
Daisies, when foot can be set on twelve, spring has come, 113
Dalton Hill Head: a haunted house, 329
Dalton in Yorkshire: the giant’s grave and knife there, and story respecting them, 195–6
Danby, waff at, 46; witch of, hunted, 210–3
Dartmoor Vicarage, see Ghosts
Dawson (William), a wizard; relieves farmer’s stock from witchcraft, 218–9; his incantation to restore a young man to health, 220–1
Days and Seasons, 64–98
Days of week distinguished by certain epithets; two versions, 98; see Child’s Birth, Marriage
Dead horses and calves hung to branches of trees in Sussex, 167; thought lucky for the cattle, ib.; originally a sacrifice to Odin, ib.
Dead man’s hand, see Goitre, Wen, Hand of Glory.
Dead man’s nails, see Ague
Dean and Chapter: a mixture of the remnants of medicine bottles—a Durham specific for all complaints, 162
Death, opening the door at the time of, 56–7; with falling tide believed to be most usual—David Copperfield quoted—state of tide at time of death inserted in parish register of Heslidon—Sir John Falstaff parted “at turning o’ the tide”—a change of temperature then occurs, 58; difficult on beds containing game or pigeon’s feathers or cock’s feathers; easy on floor—a Hindoo custom, 60; occurs by threes, 61—this noticed among the cardinals, 62; a token of Divine wrath which rests on the house until clergyman’s visit, 63; spirits restless until the third day after, 333
Death, divinations of: from footprints among ashes of deceased person’s straw bed; by watching in church porch on St. Mark’s eve, 51; by cauff-riddling, 52
Death, portents of: breaking a wedding ring, 42; meeting a funeral; sun shining on face at a funeral; hearing the mould falling on coffin from a distance; a crowing hen, 43–4; Border presages:—sound of bells at night; chirping of crickets; lights in the air; voice of absent person; grip of invisible hand; howling of dogs; brood of hen birds; double yolks; deformed lambs; chirping of fish; sounds in the house; magpies flying round a house or ravens croaking near it; swords falling out of scabbards; and one’s own wraith by daylight, 45; “shell fire:” light from the bodies of sick persons (Sussex), ib.; building or rebuilding a house (Lancashire), ib.; wraiths, waffs, swarths, or fetches, 46; howling of dogs; jackdaws or swallows descending chimney; three butterflies; “winding sheet” or “dead spale” in candle; three mysterious raps, 48; an Albino mole; thirteen persons at a repast; crowing of cock at dead of night; hovering of birds near a house and resting, 49; a robin “weeping” (Suffolk); rattling of the church door (Sussex); heavy sound of funeral bell; the cry of screech owl; three caws of a can-ion crow; breaking a looking glass; a dead body not stiffening; taking the first snowdrop or primrose into a house—or broom in May—or blackthorn bloom; Sussex couplet on sweeping with broom in May, 50
Death, usages after: saining or blessing a corpse; rite termed Dishaloof practised with lights, salt, dishes, and sieve; verses used, 53; the attendants tell fortunes, then dance, sing, &c.; candle used obtained of witch or physically unlucky person; of old made of human fat; kept burning throughout the night; the cat turned out of doors during the ceremony; corpse watched by a kinsman and a stranger until burial; gatherings of neighbours—by day “a sitting;” by night, a “lykewake;” Scripture reading in Wales; songs and games in Scotland, 54; old song quoted; Bishop Voysey’s injunction against such solemn nightwatches or drinkings in Cornwall; on Borders, cards played on the coffin; the watcher must touch the corpse with his hand; rising of a corpse on removal of the plate of salt—laid again with the aid of a pious old woman, 55; death of a watcher and disappearance of the corpse, 56; the looking-glass shrouded and clock stopped, ib.; the plate of salt on breast of corpse used in England, ib.; chorus of the lykewake dirge, ib.; custom of opening the door at death widespread, ib.—rhyme used by Meg Merriles, 57; poor of Durham expect visitors to touch the corpse, ib.—grew probably from the notion that bleeding would follow murderer’s touch, ib.; looking-glass covered lest a spirit should appear in it or lest corpse should look over gazer’s shoulder (Devon), ib.; trinkets not buried with a woman, ib.; living persons’ clothes not buried with a corpse (Denmark), ib.; nor tears allowed to fall on the dying (Denmark), ib.; head of married woman bound with black ribbon, of spinster with white, 58; extinguishing fire where corpse is kept, 59; killing cats and dogs after passing over a corpse, ib.; carrying the dead with the sun, 61—case at Stanton, ib.; in Wales carried on right hand of way and by north gate, ib.
Deazil, the: circling a person thrice with the sun, brings good fortune; the reverse direction or “withershins” evil fortune (Highlands), 61
Deerhurst, near Tewkesbury: a prodigious serpent molested the inhabitants; one John Smith enticed it with milk, cut off its head, and received an estate as a recompense, 298
Deliverance, charm for easy, 169
Deloraine, farmer’s wife witch of, 197
Denbigh: a dragon haunted the precincts of the castle; killed by Sir John of the Thumbs, 299
Denham Tracts quoted on Bogie and Redcap, 254
Denny (Mr. H.) on spell with hemp-seed, 104; on Headless Coach at Norwich, 327
Denton Hall, haunted by a silky, 269, 270
Derry, elf shooting in county, 186–7
Derwentwater lights, the aurora borealis, 307
De Salle’s (Ensebe) Peregrinations en Orient on divining by Bible and Key at English consulate, 237
Devil: sacrificing black cock to, 147; French receipt for raising him, ib.; assumes the form of various quadrupeds, 277; can simulate the crow and duck, but not the lamb, cock, pigeon, or dove, ib.; piece of land (“Cloutie’s Croft”) set apart as a propitiatory gift to (Scotland), 278; molesting a minister, ib.; selling one’s soul to (Sussex), ib.; story of the tailor of Clitheroe who outwitted him, 279; his attempt to learn several trades a failure (Scotland), 279–80; praying aloud keeps him away, 280
Devil’s bird: the swallow in Ireland; the yellow-hammer in Scotland, 123
Devils knell: a hundred strokes and then thrice three, rung on Christmas Eve in Cleveland, 66
Dew, washing the face with May; climbing hills to “meet the dew,” 85; see Witches and May-dew
Dill hinders witches, 227
Diddersley Hill, fairies once danced on, 328
Dishaloof: the rite used in saining a corpse, 53
Disease cured by waters of Loch Monar, 164–5; by the elements in the Eucharist, 146
Dishclout boiled in crock, causes loss of lovers, 116
Dittisham, an incantation at, 224; by “shaping” of a wedding dress, 35
Divination by horse-knot or Centaurea nigra; by “kenips” or spikes of ribwort plantain; by water and holly, 99; by nine leaves of she-holly; by knot-weed, 100; by yarrow from a young man’s grave; by hanging sark to dry, 101; by sprigs of sage, rose water, and shift; by knotting garter about stocking, 102; by the willow wand; by “hair-snatching” in Germany; by crossed garters and looking-glass in Belgium, 103; by sowing hemp-seed on All Hallowe’en—and on St. Martin’s night in Norfolk, 104; by new-laid egg; by melted lead on New Year’s Eve in Denmark, 105; by looking in a glass ball; by apple pip in fire, 106; by ring and “south-running” water; by palmistry, 107–9; by bracken-stalk, 226; by riddle or sieve and shears, 234–6; by Bible and key, 232–7; by book and key, 236; by “blue clue,” 253; see Death, divinations of
Divinations, spells and, 99–109.
Dobie: a sprite of small sense and activity, 247; Border phrase: “Ye stupid Dobie,” ib.; Sir Walter Scott on families of the name bearing spectre in arms, 248; and on the Dobie of Mortham in Rokeby, canto ii. ib.
Dobson’s Rambles on the Ribble, quoted on the devil and the tailor of Clitheroe, 279
Dogs: their howling a wide-spread death omen; attendants on the dead—can see ghosts, 48; jumping over a coffin destroyed, 59; their bites rendered innocuous by slaughter of the animal—by eating its liver (Sussex)—by applying its hair to the wound, 159–60—and by word charm, 179; buried alive in foundations of churches formerly, 274
Door: opened at the time of death, 56–7
Dove, Satan cannot take the form of, 278
Dragons, see Worms
Dream: lady’s, of accident to brother-in-law, 339; child’s, of coffin bearing his own name, 340; clergyman’s, of death of his son in America, 341; recovery of a body in Tees through a, ib.; lady’s, of her own death by drowning at Truro, 342; of reading wife’s death in Times, 344; of a Lincolnshire man, 343; remarkable one of a Highland lady respecting a funeral, 345–8
Dreaming: on bride cake, 36; on St. Agnes’ Day, 91; of loss of teeth, fire, weddings, and water, 111
Dreams, 339–48
Dressing: to button or hook apparel awry indicates misfortune, 113
Drowned bodies believed to float on ninth day, 59; firing guns to raise them to surface, ib.; seeking them with loaf and quicksilver, ib.—and with loaf and candle, 60
Drury’s (Mr. Edward) experience of Willington ghost, 317
Duche’s (Rev. Jacob) dream of the death of his son in America, 341
Ducks, Danish witches take the form of, 210
Duffus family, ancestor of, spirited away to France, 196
Dumb-cake: made in silence on St. Agnes’ Fast, 90–1
Dunnie: a Northumbrian sprite of Brownie type—his mischievous tricks—verse used by thought to be the ghost of a reiver, 263
Dunters, see Powries
Dust should not be swept out by front door, 117
Dutch Redcaps, see Redcaps
Dyterbjernat, i. e., Diedrick of Bern, supposed to be the Wild Huntsman, 133
Ear: itching, a sign of sudden news; tingling, of being talked about, 113
Easter Eggs in general use in the North as in Germany and Russia—given as offerings of goodwill, 83; hidden in Yorkshire, and sought by children, 84
Sunday: new clothes to be worn—penalty bird droppings; the sun dances: watching it rise in Devonshire—a lamb looked for therein, 83; pulling off girls’ shoes and boys’ caps, 84; tansy pudding eaten near York, ib.; observances at University College, Oxford, 85
Monday: girls “heaving” and kissing lads in Lancashire—an unfortunate School Inspector—same custom in Pyrenees—the chaplain and the convict women; “luking:” playing at knor and spell begins, 84
Tuesday: lads lift and kiss lasses (Lancashire), 84
Earthworm water used to cure worms, 154–5
Edessa, King of, see Agbarus
Eels: produced from horse-hairs, 28; their skin prevents cramp, 28—and cures cramp, 155; their blood a charm for warts, 139
Eggs, divination by new-laid, 105; an uneven setting only lucky, 112
Eiderstedt miller’s wife in cat shape, 208
Elder: knots used in incantation by Dawson the Wizard, 218–9; a charm against rheumatism (Sussex)—obnoxious to witches—juice gives the eyes power of seeing them, 219; standing under on Midsummer Eve one may see the elves and their king (Denmark), ib.; Danish remedy for toothache, 220; not made into furniture, ib.; Hyldemoer or Eldermother’s permission sought before cutting it, ib.
Elf-stones: believed to injure cows, 185; were once fairy breast-pins, ib.; probably arrow-heads which Irish peasants wear as amulets against elf-shooting, ib.—the disease an over-extension of cow’s first stomach, ib.; their use confessed by Irish witch in 1662; fall of one in Ettrick forest, ib.; an ancient Scandinavian superstition, 186; case in Iceland in 11th century, ib.; charm for cure of wounded animals, ib.; elf-shooting in County Derry, 186–7
Elfs: descendants of fallen angels, or of the unwashed children of Eve (Denmark), 248; see Elder
Elleree: one possessing second sight, 345; sees sparks on persons near death or a shroud covering the figure, ib.
Embleton, bridal party pass over a bench across church porch at, 38
Epilepsy, charms for: silver rings made of Offertory money; sacrificing black cock to devil in Highlands; drowning cocks in Algeria, 147–8; a bottle of pins made hot, 231–2
Epworth vicarage haunted in Wesley’s time, 316
Erendegen, Castle of, infested by witches in cat shape, 208
Eruptions, rubbing with gold a charm for, 167
Erysipelas, charms for: blood from cat’s ear; mystic words, 149–50
Eskdale witches hunted in hare form, 203
Etherley Dene, the abode of the Pollard Brawn, 285
Ettrick Forest, fall of elf-stone in, 185
Ettrick Shepherd on the popular belief respecting fairies, &c., 246
Eucharist, sacred elements in the, efficacious for cure of disease, 146
Eve, Danish legend of her concealing her unwashed children, from whom come elfs, trolls, &c., 248
Evergreens: sinful to burn those used for decorations, 119
Evil eye termed “blinking:” suffering child placed on anvil, 187; cured by “gold and silver” water (Scotland), 188; by a charmer in Sunderland, ib.; self-bored stones a protection, and copy of letter to King of Edessa, 194
Evil Spirit, see Devil
Eyebrows, meeting: the possessors fortunate, 112; indicate a werewolf in Iceland, Denmark, and Germany; a vampire in Greece, ib.
Eyes, charms for weak and sore: water from the cups of teasle, lammer-bead, and “kenning-stone,” 145
Face to be washed before killing anything, 113
Fadging, or eating fadge: the customary feasting at the new year, 75
Fairies: have power over children before baptism—kept away by knife in Yorkshire—their attempt to steal a new-born child near Selkirk, 14; elf-stones their breast-pins, 185; share with witches the odium of molesting our nurseries, 189; idiots thought their changelings in Western Islands, ib.; their name little used now in the North, 277; connected with places at Caldbeck, in Cumberland, ib.; dance near Coalbrookdale, ib.; once danced on Diddersley Hill, 328
Fairies’ horse, see Ragwort
Fairy, gregarious, see Shefro
Fairy or farye, belts to preserve from the; washing in south-running water to cure the, 141
Fastens or Fastings Eve, see Shrove Tuesday
Feathers of pigeons, game-birds, and cocks in bed make dying difficult, 60
February, first three days of, held to presage weather of the year (Highlands), 95
Fetches: Irish term for apparitions of living persons, 46
Fevers (ephemeral): blue woollen threads worn by nursing mothers as a charm against, 20; (scarlet) patient’s hair given to ass in fodder, 143
Fifeshire country house haunted, 325
Finchale Priory, wishing-chair at, 106; subterranean passage from, to Durham Cathedral, 320
Finger of thief used to stupefy in Belgium, 243
Fire not allowed to go out at Hallowed seasons, 72; Holy, of Germanic race, ib.; extinguished in Germany and lighted with fire kindled by the priest, ib.; dreaming of, forebodes sorrow and pain, 111; augury from, on All Hallow-e’en, 97
First-foot, see New Year’s Day
Fish: the marks on the John Dory; verse on the flounder; the parson’s miraculous draught, 312–13
Fishlake, bird-nesting season closes on 29th May at, 96
Flat-footed person: unlucky to meet one on Monday; how mischief averted, 117
Flora Day at Helston, 301–2
Folk-Lore of English people, its origin; much still unrecorded; its collection most desirable, 8; of the nursery, 9—in Sweden, 21
Font, baptism in a new one, fatal to child, 121
Fontinalia (Roman) and English well-dressing, 2
Foot: itching portends travelling, 112; of hanged man used to stupefy by thieves in Flanders, 243
Ford, wraith of the Rector seen on St. Mark’s Eve at, 52
Fortune Teller (The Universal) quoted on divinations, 102; on palmistry, 107–9
Fortune-telling in Yorkshire with a glass egg, 105–6
Foul in cattle, a charm for: hanging turf in apple-tree, 162
Foundations, ancient custom of burying animals alive in church, 274; of border castles bathed with human blood, 256
Fox, person bitten by, will die within seven years (Lincolnshire), 120; its tongue a charm for extracting obstinate thorns, 159
Foxglove: loved by witches, and called witches’ thimbles, 227; connected with the good people in popular fancy, ib.; called lusmore and fairy cap in Ireland, 228; the Shefro’s head-dress, ib.; probably the folks’-glove, ib.
French Revolution, fighting-men appeared in the sky at Durham before the; and people heard cries and groans, 308
Freya: her attendants, hares; her horses, cats, 206
Fugees, runaway birds, perquisites of the schoolmaster at the cock-fights on Shrove Tuesday, 80
Funeral, meeting one a death omen unless averted, 42; seen by farmer’s wife at St. Boswell’s, 44; Israelites enjoined in Talmud to follow every, 43; three in succession expected, 61; see Death
Furious Host (The), see Gabriel Hounds
Gabble retchet, see Gabriel Hounds
Gabriel Hounds: Wordsworth quoted—“whist hounds” in Devonshire—thought to be monstrous human-headed dogs—forebode death and calamity, 129; sonnet embodying Sheffield feelings on the subject—really bean-geese, 130; termed “gabble retchet” near Leeds, and thought the souls of unbaptized children, 131; “Yeth hounds” in North Devon—Yule Host in Iceland—connected with the Wild Huntsman, 132
Gallitrap: a patch of land set apart in several Devonshire parishes, 278
Games, see Children’s games
Game-birds’ feathers, persons cannot die on, 60
Garters, divinations by knotted, and stocking, 102; and in Belgium by crossed, and looking-glass, 103
Gay’s Shepherd’s Walk quoted on giving a knife, 118
Ghost, of “Old Nannie” haunting the farmer of Sexhow, 321–2; haunting Whitehaven mine, 322; tormenting a guilty miner, 323; of old lady of Littledean, in Tweedside, ib.; of two ladies at Bow-brig-syke, near Maxton, 324; at a country house in Fifeshire, 325; of a murdered woman near Neville’s Cross at Durham, 326; of a headless woman at Dalton, near Thirsk, and at the Lady Well at Melsonby, 327–8; of a white goose at the Berry Well there, ib.; of a lady tainting meat in Devonshire, 335; of a Dartmoor vicar laid in a beer-cask and bricked up in parsonage, 336–7; of a Sussex lady laid by two clergymen, 337; at Homersfield outwitted by priest, 338
Ghosts: Romish priests thought the proper persons to lay them, 326; most numerous on St. Thomas’s Eve and Day; vanish at Christmas, ib.
Giant story of Polyphemus type at Dalton, 195
Gibbet, splinter from, used as a charm for toothache, 145
Gilsland, Cauld lad of: comes to bedside of the sick; lays an icy hand on those not fated to recover, 267
Glass, Looking: child not to use, before a year old, 21; shrouded at death, 57
Glassensikes haunted by a Barguest, 275
Gleipmir, the steed of Odin, mentioned, 71
Glory, Hand of, see Hand of Glory
Glow-worms shining betoken rain, 113
Gluck’s apparition of himself, 47
Goblin page mentioned, 212
God Mourie, see St. Malruba
Goitre, charm for: rubbing with hand of corpse, 153–4
Gold, rubbing with: a charm for an eruption, 167
Good Friday: tolling bell at Fishlake—blacksmiths drive no nails—held impious in North to dig or plant—in Devonshire thought good to sow and graft—breaking crockery on, 81; washing wrong—clothes hung to dry will spot with blood—Christ cursed women washing, 82; bread then made will not turn mouldy—has great virtue in healing and preserving life—Sunderland wives give it to their husbands to avert shipwreck, 82—given as a medicine in Sussex—three loaves then made will preserve corn from rats, &c. (Florida); eggs laid on, never go bad and used to relieve colic (Suffolk), 83
Goose, Berrywell haunted by a bogle in the form of a white, 328
Gothland, the ancient sword-dance still obtains in, 70
Gould (Rev. S. Baring) on shrouding looking-glass at death, 57; on burying a woman with her trinkets, ib.; on circling against the sun, 61–2; on walking round a room at midnight on All Souls’ Day, 62; on Christmas mummers, 70; on female “first foot,” 74; on Wandering Jew, 82; on “lifting” on Easter Monday, 84; on harvest customs, 90; on parkin, 97; on meeting eyebrows, 112; on first person entering a new church, 121; on first child baptized in new font, ib.; on a robin singing before a death, 124; on ravens, 126; on the Wild Huntsman, 132; on sneezing of Shunamite’s son, 136; on charm for whooping-cough, 142; on Devonshire talisman for sore eyes, 145; on sacrificing cocks to Devil, 147; on wood of cross, 151; on charms for bites and parson’s touch, 160–1; on word-charms, 169–170; on hanging dead horses in trees, 167; on disenchanting werewolf, 182; on Hurstpierpoint witch, 183; on Exeter white witch, 184; on elf-shooting, 186; on Polyphemus story in Yorkshire, 195; on witches, 198; on witch in form of wolf, 212; on images stuck with pins made by witches, 228; on Hand of Glory, 238, 242; on tales about spinners assisted by fairy, 262; on the Nick and horse-shaped spirits, 272; on Padfoot and the Swedish Kyrkogrim, 274; on picture of pixy merry-making, 276; on the gallitraps of Devonshire, 278; on haunted miner, 323; on headless woman, 327; on ghost of Lew Trenchard House, 330–335
Gould’s (J. B.) Book of Werewolves quoted on witches and cats, 207; Iceland quoted on the Wild Huntsman, 132; Yorkshire Oddities quoted on Radiant Boy, 267–8
Gould (Madame), see Lew Trenchard House
Gowk: local name for cuckoo; “gowk days:” April fool’s days; “hunting the gowk:” bootless errands, 92
Grafting: lucky on Good Friday (Devon), 81
Grant’s (Mrs.) Superstitions of the Highlanders quoted on borrowing days, 95
Grass, thief punished by scratching blades of, 238–9
Grave-merels or scab: produced by treading on grave of stillborn or unbaptized child, 12; verses on the subject; how cured, 13
Green: an unlucky colour; old rhymes; green vegetables excluded from Scotch wedding dinner, 34–5
Greenteeth, see Jenny Greenteeth
Grote’s History of Greece, quoted on the race made of ashwood by Zeus, 17
Gudeman’s Field (The), see Cloutie’s Croft
Guisborough, wedding customs at, 38
Guisers at harvest festivals, 88–9
Haberfield Treiben of Bavaria, proceedings of the, 30
Habetrot, the fairy of the spinning wheel and the Selkirk maid, 258–262
Hagmena, see Hogmenay
Hailstones must not be gathered; will run through a glass, 119
Hair, child’s not to be cut on Friday, 17; “snatching,” a divination practised in Germany on St. Andrew’s Eve, 103; sudden loss of, portends misfortune, 111; bright burning, indicates longevity; smouldering, death, 112; should not be burnt (Ireland)—headache ensues if bird carry it away (Sussex); growing in a peak on forehead a sign of longevity (Devon), ib.—called “the widow’s peak,” 42; see Swallows
Hakelnberg, supposed to be the Wild Huntsman in Thuringia, 133
Halifax witch, in cat-shape, 209; story about her, 213–5
Hallihoo (holy hood), see Child’s caul
Hamme, haunted by sprite Oschaert, 273
Hamrammr, see Werewolf
Hand, itching of right, portends receiving; of left, paying money, 112; and arm of woman used by Mexican thieves to stupefy, 243–4; see Child’s hand
Hand of Glory: dried hand of hanged man; Dousterswivel’s account of its preparation—Colin de Plancy’s, 239; Southey’s Thalaba quoted, 240; used to stupefy by French housebreakers and in Ireland, ib.; Stainmoor story of its use, 241; similar tale from Delrio and one told in Northumberland, 242–3; fingers burn like candles, 243; variation of the belief in Belgium, ib.
Hanged man’s foot used like Hand of Glory, 243
Hansel Monday, the first Monday in the year, 77
Hardy (Mr. James) on three Silkies, 269; his Legends respecting Huge Stones quoted on Dunnie, 263
Hardwick (Nan), a noted Yorkshire witch; hunted by dogs, 210–11
Hares: their forefeet a charm for rheumatism (Sussex) and for cramp (Warwick), 201; unlucky for them to cross our path—Thugs and Arabs hold this opinion; regarded with terror in Lapland and Africa, 204
Harlequin or Henequin: the name of the Wild Huntsman in many parts of France, 134
Hartz mountains, charm used in, to see future husband, 174
Harvest: rejoicings—the kern (? corn) baby—made with oats, in every cottage, 87; driver of last cart surrenders his whip to mistress, ib.; the mell-supper, guisers, and mell-doll, 88; their prototypes, 89; Yorkshire proclamations when ended, ib.; the Devonshire neck and customs of Schautnberg Lippe, 90
Haselrigg, a quarry at, where Dunnie sat at night, 263
Haunted houses: at Willington Dene—at North Shields—at Chester-le-Street—Crook Hall—South Biddick Hall—Netherby Hall, 314; at Perth, 328; Dalton Hill Head, 329; Lew Trenchard House, 330; Homersfield, 338
Haunted spots, 314–338
Hawker’s (Rev. E. S.) Echoes of Old Cornwall, quoted on bees and the Host, 311
Hawkwell, the witch of, 203
Headless coach (The): driver and steed alike headless; in Durham (Langley Hall); in Northumberland, Norfolk, and Yorkshire (Beverley), 326–7
Headless women: haunt barn near Thirsk, 327; and well at Melsonby, 328
Hearts stuck with pins and roasted in incantations: of beast, 219, of pigeon, 220, of horse, 221–2, of cow, 222, of hen, 222–3; of sheep, buried to afflict a woman—of hare to torment a faithless lover, 223; of pigeon and sheep to discover witches; of pig to counteract a witch, 224
Heaving, see Easter
Hedley Kow: a mischievous bogie of Protean form, 270; farmer’s adventure with, 271; beguiles two young men, ib.; Mr. Baring-Gould on its congeners, 272
Helston, fiery dragon of: deliverance of town commemorated by a festival on May 8th; called Flora Day, 301–2
Hemlock, witches love, 227
Hempseed, sowing: a species of divination practised in Scotland on All Hallow-e’en; and on St. Martin’s Eve in Norfolk, 104–5
Hen, a crowing: looked upon with fear, 43; Quarles quoted; Northampton, Norman, and Cornish proverbs, 43
Henequin, see Harlequin
Henderson’s Proverbs quoted on Maydew, 199
Henderson’s (George) Popular Rhymes of Berwickshire quoted on Brownie of Cranshaws, 250; on Cloutie’s Croft, 278
Herla (King), formerly supposed in England to be the Wild Huntsman, 134
Herlething: the name of the Wild Hunt in England in the twelfth century, 134
Herod, supposed to be the Wild Huntsman, 133
Herring-spear or piece of English Channel, 130: the rustling flight of redwings; regarded with awe, but held to augur good success to the fishermen, 131
Heslidon, parish registers noted state of tide at time of a death, 58
Hill-folk, see Barrow-Folk
Hilton, the Cauld Lad of: a tricksy sprite—the gift of a green cloak and hood made him disappear—the ghost of a serving-lad killed by a Baron of Hilton—verses sung by the startled traveller, 266–7
Hipping Day: St. Michael’s Day in Yorkshire, 96
Hobs: Hob of Hobhole in Eunswick Bay cures the whooping cough—Hob Headless, a sprite once infesting road near Hurworth, now laid under a stone—Hob of Coniscliffe mentioned—one near Danby—Hobthrush attached to family at Sturfit Hall—fled on receiving the gift of a hat and hood, 264
Hogg’s (James) tale of the Woolgatherer, quoted on bogles and brownies, 246
Hogmenay songs: verses used by children in Scotland, 76; at Richmond in Yorkshire; first sung on St. Sylvester’s night (Scotland), 77
Holdean Mill, the miller of, and the witches, 194
Holes, stones with natural, charms against witchcraft, 166
Holland’s (Mr.) sonnet on Gabriel hounds, 130
Holly: divination by water and holly; by leaves of she-holly, 99–100; detested by witches, 226
Holy-fires of Germanic race, 72
Holy Innocents Day called Childermas Day (Preston), 72
Horse, white: unlucky to meet one on leaving home, 116; image of, carried by Christmas mummers, 70; appears in Germany at Christmas, ib.; is Gleipmir the steed of Odin, 71; Head and skin dragged about on Christmas Eve in Midland Counties, 70; Shoe protects stable from witches, 193; Spirits, in shape of; their existence a wide-spread belief, 272
Horse Knot (Centaurea nigra), divination by stamens of, 99
Horsham, a monstrous serpent found near, in 1614, 300
Host, bees building wax chapel over the, 310; and lifting it from ground, 311
Houndwood, “Chappie,” the family apparition at, 269
House, blessing the: clergyman’s visit after a death, 63; building believed to be fatal to one member of the family (Lancashire), 45; should be entered right foot foremost, 116
Hudibras quoted on sieve and shears, 234
Hug-ma-close, the sidesman or sidebone of a fowl, 35; given to bride at wedding dinner in Scotland, 35
Hume-byers or blackpenny: a charm for madness in cattle, 163
Humble (Canon) on a charm for extracting thorns, 159; on Kate Neirns, 245; on the fishermen and their pastor, 313; on aërial appearances before French Revolution, 308; on haunted house at Perth, 328; on apparition of young lady to curate, 330
Hunt’s Romances and Drolls, quoted on living sacrifices in West of England, 149
Hurst, a bogle procures the return of stolen candles to a woman at, 247
Hurstpierpoint: robin singing on altar before a death, 124; charm against ague, 169; witch, 183
Hurworth, the road near, once infested by Hob Headless, 264
Husbands, charms to bring back truant, 176–178
Hutchinson’s Cumberland, quoted on barring-out master at Bromfield Free School, 78; on sports at Blencogo, 79–80; on Whitbeck Christmas breakfast dish, 67; on weather augury from position of bull on All-Hallow-e’en, 97; on superstition at Caldbeck, 277; on bees singing on Christmas Day, 311
Hydrophobia, a remedy for: eating liver of a dog (Sussex), 160; thrice swallowing word-charm written on apple or bread, 179; see Dog
Hyldemoer, the elder-mother, a spirit guarding the elder (Denmark), 220
Idiots considered fairy changelings, 189
Images of wax or clay impaled with pins; still made in Devon; allusions to the practice in various authors, 228–229; used in India, 229–230; see Corp cré.
Incantations: of Dawson to relieve cattle from witchcraft, 218; and to restore a youth to health, 220; hearts stuck with pins used in, 219–23; of Black Jock, to discover a horse poisoner, 221–2; of a Durham farmer, 222; to discover the person injuring a cow, ib.; to restore a sick child, 223; to discover a witch, and to baffle one, 223–4
Indian tale of a prince under a spell, 230
Infant, see Child
Ingledew’s Ballads of Yorkshire quoted on Hagmena songs, 77
Irish stones used as charms for sores and wounds; most powerful in Irish hands, 166
Irving’s Conquest of Florida quoted on sneezing, 137
Itching: of nose, portends vexation; of foot, travelling; of hand, paying or receiving money; of ear, news, 112
Jackdaws descending chimneys portend death, 48
James the First’s Demonology quoted on bleeding of a corpse, 57
Jarrow, St. Bede’s well at, used for dipping sickly children, 231
Jenny Greenteeth, the sprite of Lancashire streams, mentioned, 265
John Dory: the fish caught by St. Peter; bears the marks of the tribute money and of the Apostle’s thumb and finger (Italy), 312
Johnson (Dr. Samuel), his objection to entering a house left foot foremost, 116
Jonson’s (Ben) Sad Shepherd quoted on witch hunting, 211
Jormaugaund of Norse mythology mentioned, 283
Journey, unlucky to be recalled when starting on a, 117; meat and drink breaks the spell, ib.; unlucky to turn round or look back (Sweden), ib.
Judas hanged himself on elder tree, 219
Kaboutermannekin haunt mills in Holland; disappear when presented with new clothes, 250; the miller’s attempt to recover his Redcap, ib.; set the mill-stone, 253
Kelly’s Indo-European Tradition quoted on Thor and Thursday, 33; on howling of dogs, 48; on Holy fires of Germanic race, 72; on the wren, 125; on the white thorn, 152; on need-fire, 168; on witchcraft in the dairy, 198; on milking a hair-rope, 199; on mountain-ash, 225
Kelly’s Syria and the Holy Land quoted on stone for the cure of snake bites, 165
Kempion mentioned, 293
Kemps or spikes of ribwort plantain, divination by, 99
Kenning-stone: a charm for sore eyes, belonging to Miss Soaper of Thrustleton, 145
Kern-baby or mell-doll, 89
Key, see Bible and key
Kielkropfs, Martin Luther on, 7
Killmoulis: a kind of brownie haunting mills—has no mouth but enormous nose—thrashes corn and rides for the howdie, 252; aids in divination by the “blue clue,” 253
King’s evil, dried leg of toad on neck, a charm for (Devonshire), 205; formerly known as St. Marcoul’s evil, 305; see St. Marcoul
Kirkegrim, see Kyrkogrim
Kirkstall Abbey: tale of buried treasure at, guarded by cock and black horse, 320–1
Kludde of Brabant and Flanders: an evil spirit of protean character, 272–3
Knives: coming back “laughing” after being lent, 28; placed in cradle of unbaptized child, 14, 230; it severs love to give them, 118; Gay and Rev. S. Bishop quoted, 118–19
Kraken mentioned, 284
Kyrkogrim or church-lamb of Sweden and Denmark; betokens death of a child, 274
Lacemakers’ festival on St. Andrew’s Day, 97
Ladybird, child’s charm for, 26
Lamb: the first seen in spring, its position portentous, 120; Satan cannot take its form, 277
Lambton worm, The: particulars collected by Sir Cuthbert Sharpe in Bishoprick Garland, 287: in the fourteenth century the young heir of Lambton, fishing on Sunday, cursed his ill-luck; caught a worm of unsightly appearance; flung it into a well; soon out-grew well; rested on rock in Wear during the day and twined round a hill, still known as the Worm Hill, by night; became terror of neighbourhood; sucked the cows’ milk, devoured cattle, and laid waste the district, 288; approached Lambton Castle; pacified with stone trough of milk; knights fought it in vain; heir of Lambton returns from Holy Land; takes advice of a wise woman, 289; covers his armour with spear-heads; vows to kill first living thing met after victory, 290; worm killed by self-inflicted wounds; the victor met by his father, kills a hound, but the vow broken, and for nine generations no lord of Lambton dies in his bed, 291; stone trough still shown and piece of worm’s skin, 292
Lammer-bead (amber bead), used for curing sore eyes and sprained limbs, 145
Land, patch of: formerly dedicated to the devil in Scottish villages; set apart in Devonshire and called gallitraps, 278
Langley hall, the Headless Coach at, 326
Lariston, the laird of, slew the Linton worm, 295–6
Lawson (Rev. W. de L.) on Capelthwaites, 276
Lead, divination in Denmark by melted, 105
Leaven, dangerous to give it away; the belief obtains also in Spain, 217
Lee Penny: a charm for disease in cattle; £5,000 offered for it, 164
Leetholm, wise man of, consulted, 232–3
Left foot on threshold when entering a house unlucky, 116
Left-handed persons, fortunate to meet, except on Tuesday, 116
Leicester, wise woman of, indicates a thief in a trance, 244–5
Lending pins unlucky, 117
Lent marriages unlucky, 34
Lew Trenchard House: description of a painting preserved there, 277; haunted by a white lady known as Madame Gould, 330; her steps heard in the house; sometimes seen in Old Oak Avenue, 331; stands by a stream and combs her long hair; man broke his leg in escaping from her, 332; seen sitting in ploughed field three days after her burial, 333; appeared to old woman stealing apples; a carpenter lifted her coffin lid and was chased home, 334; seven persons tried to lay her but failed, ib.; the German story of Dame Holle similar; Madame Gould probably a Saxon goddess after undergoing anthropomorphosis and localization, 335
Linton Church built on knoll of hard sand; raised by two sisters in expiation of their brother’s crime in killing a priest, 297–8
Linton, Worm of; its den still called the Worm-hole; devoured the flocks and herds; coiled itself round an eminence now called Warmistoune or Wormington, 295; Laird of Lariston came to the rescue; thrust a peat dipped in scalding pitch down its throat; the Somerville family claim this champion and bear dragon as crest; description of worm by family chronicler; church has a sculptured representation of the combat, 296—perplexes the antiquaries, 297
Lions breed every seven years, and then pigs are still-born (Sussex), 24
Littledean, Laird of: chases a hare, and mutilates a witch of Maxton, 201
Littledean Tower haunted by old lady until her treasure was found and distributed, 323–4
Loaf: unlucky to turn one upside down—a ship will be wrecked; breaking bodes dissension, 120
Local Sprites, 246–280
Loch Monar, see Monar
Lockerby Penny: a piece of silver used as a charm for madness in cattle, 163
Locker’s Lyra Elegantiarum quoted, 118
Locksaint well in Skye: water drunk as a specific for certain complaints, 231
London, a case of divination by Bible and Key in, 234–5
Longstaffe’s Darlington quoted on the stang, 29
Looking-glass: a child under a year old must not look in it; Swedish maidens dare not use after dark or by candle light, 21
Louping-stone, see Stone
Lover, charms to bring, 172–6
Lucky glass: the last glass in bottle on New Year’s Eve or Day, 73
Ludlow, case of divination by Bible and key at, 235
“Luking” or playing at knor and spell, begins at Easter in West Hiding, 84
Lumbago, yarn charmed by wise woman used in Dundee to cure, 20
Lunacy, Burbeck’s bone a charm for, 165
Lupercalia: the customs passed into those of St. Valentine’s Day, 2
Lusmore, see Foxglove
Luther (Martin), a prey to superstition, 7; his Table Talk quoted on changelings, ib.
Lykewake: a gathering of neighbours to watch a corpse after dark, 54; see Death
Macabée (Chasse), the name of the Wild Hunt at Blois, 133
Mackenzie family, a bull sacrificed, A.D. 1678, for recovery of a member of the, 148
Magpie, an ominous bird; did not go into the ark; protected by superstition in Sweden; its form taken by witches; helps the devil in haymaking, 126; rhyme on meeting; ill-luck diverted by sign of cross or moving the hat—or by sight of a crow, 127; strange relic of ancient pagan ideas in a Christian country, 128
Maiden’s Castle: treasure there guarded by a hen; an attempt to seize it failed, 320
Malton, cauff-riddling there on St. Mark’s Eve, 52
Maple: confers longevity on child passed through its branches; one much used in Sussex, 17
March: last three days, called “borrowing days,” and indicate weather of the year; “blind days” in Devon, and held unlucky for sowing, 94–5
Marcoux: seventh sons in France; have power of curing the king’s evil, 305
Marecco (Professor) on sacrifice of an ox, 148; on charm for bite of mad dog, 179; on selling a cat to the devil, 208; on marks on pig’s leg, 313
Maree (Loch), sacrifices on an island in, 148; see St. Malruba
Marriage: days of week bring varying luck; Durham rhymes; Thursday auspicious in Scandinavia—in England and Germany the reverse; Friday most unfortunate, 33; also any day in Lent and the month of May in Scotland; Sir Walter Scott respected the prejudice in his daughter’s case; statistics of Glasgow marriages in 1874; proverb, “Marry in May, rue for aye;” unlucky for swine to cross the path of wedding party—proverb, “The swine’s run through it;” presence of bride’s mother inauspicious; a wet day also; green not worn lest fairies should resent the insult, 34; exclusion of all green things from Scotch wedding dinner; fowls indispensable—brides have side-bone; rubbing shoulders with bride or bridegroom an augury of speedy marriage; the next bride indicated by bride’s gift of cheese; struggle for the bride’s knife; “shapings” of wedding dress used in divinations; bride should wear something borrowed, 35; short-bread thrown over bride’s head on entering her new home—pieces secure dreams; plate of cake thrown in Yorkshire—augury from fate of plate; ladle and door-key placed in husband’s hands, tongs and keys in wife’s (Scotland); dreaming on wedding-cake; throwing a shoe: its symbolism, 36; Swedish bridal Folk-lore; wild mirth in the North on the occasion—“running the braize or brooze,” 37—firing guns; offering handful of money to clergyman; leaping over stone at Belford—the “louping” or “petting” stone; over bench at Embledon; bride jumping over stick (Coquetdale) and bridal party over stool—the parting-stool at Bamburgh, 38; kissing the bride the parson’s privilege and duty; old song on the subject, 39; “hot-pots” offered at Whitburn; pouring boiling water over doorstep (Yorkshire); strewing sand on pavement at Newcastle, 40; rubbing the jilted with pease-straw in Cumberland; unlucky not to change initial of surname; bride’s elder sisters must dance without shoes; racing for a ribbon (Yorkshire), 41; “firing the stithy” at a stingy bride; woman must not hear her banns published: deaf and dumb children the penalty; crossing the bride’s stockings; hair low on forehead, called the “widow’s peak:” presages widowhood; first to sleep on wedding night, first to die; loss of ring causes loss of husband’s affection; the breaking forebodes his death; first to kneel at the altar, first to die; Basque husband kneels on fold of wife’s dress, 42
Martin, rhyme on, 123
Maxton, witch of, hunted in hare form, 201; field near, haunted by two ladies in white, 324
May, month of: its effect on illness, 113; kittens unlucky; babies sickly, 116
Day: the ancient observances almost passed away; in Devonshire children carry doll in basket of flowers, 85; gathering sticks permitted at Warboys, 86
Dew: gathered by witches—called Daustrikers in Germany, 199–200; climbing Arthur’s Seat and Kintoul Hill to “meet the dew,” 85
Moon: its potency on charms, 115
Second Sunday in: rural sports at Blencogo, 79; battledore and shuttle-feathers played in North Riding villages, 80
Twenty-ninth: bird-nesting season ends at Fishlake, 96
Meat shrinking or swelling in pot, augury from, 117; stolen, a charm for warts, 139; tainted by ghost; see Ghosts
Mell-supper, The: its name from Norse, mele, corn; the mell-doll—a sheaf stuck with flowers and wrapped in reaper’s garment; equality of masters and servants; invasion of guisers, 88; its prototypes, 89
Melsonby: ghosts abound there, 327
Menhir, offerings in Brittany to the great, 2
Mesmerisers use book and key to determine strength of will, 236
Metals counteract witchcraft and evil spirits, 230
Michaelmas Day; see St. Michael’s Day
Midsummer Eve: unlucky to let house fire go out on, 72
Milk, see Witches
Mills haunted by Killmoulis, 252; in Holland by Kabourtermannekins, 250
Milly-boxes, see Christmas
Minchmuir, a wishing-well on, called the Cheese-well, 230
Miners: think whistling underground irreverent (Devon and Cornwall), 44; one haunted by two spectres, 323
Mines: supposed to be haunted; case at Whitehaven, 322
Mistletoe given to first cow calving in year ensures good luck in dairy, 114
Mitchell’s (Dr.) Superstitions of Highlands, &c. quoted on sacrifices of cocks and bulls, 147–8
Mole on neck foretokens hanging, 113
Mole, paw of live: a charm for tooth-ache, 145
Moon, new: turning money at sight of; looking at, through new silk handkerchief; through glass unlucky; on Saturday unlucky; curtseying towards, brings a present, 114; invocation to secure dreams of future husband; rhymes on mist; turning apron at sight of; in May, makes charms potent for cure of scrofula (Dorset), 115
Monar (Loch): its powers of healing derived from charmed pebbles thrown therein, 164
Mordiford, in Herefordshire: tradition of a combat there between dragon and malefactor; both perished; a representation in church, 298
Motherwell’s preface to Henderson’s Proverbs quoted on witches gathering May-dew, 199
Mountain-ash: rowan or wiggan tree or witchwood; twigs will make butter come, 184; used to burn hearts in incantations, 219; the dread of witches, 224; resembles the Indian palasa and mimosa, both of repute against magic; called care in Cornwall, and used to protect “overlooked” cattle, 225; keeps off witches when carried or grown near house, 225–6; relieves horses from power of a Silky, 268
Mount-folk, see Barrow-folk
Nails: specks on, indicate gifts on thumb; friends on first finger; foes on second; lovers or letters on third; journeys on fourth, 113; of dead men, a charm for ague, 150; see Child’s nails
Name: unlucky not to change initial of surname on marriage, 41
Napier’s Folk-Lore quoted on May marriages in Glasgow, 34; on minister kissing bride, 39
Naseby: the battle-field still haunted by echoes of the fight, 309
Neale and Littledale on the Psalms quoted, 312
Necklace of peony beads worn by children, 21
Need-fire: a charm against cattle disease, 167; produced by friction of two pieces of wood; proverb, “To work as if working for need-fire;” cattle driven through it, 168
Neirns (Kate): a Scottish witch burned at Crieff; gave bead to the laird of Inchbrakie, 245
Netherby Hall haunted by a rustling lady, 314
Nettle: child’s charm for sting, 26
Nevell, a knock-down blow (Durham), 308
Neville family house at Durham, ancient cradle found there, 19
Neville’s Cross: ghost of murdered woman haunts a path near, 326; noise of the battle heard after walking nine times round the cross and laying ear to turf, 308
New moon, see Moon
New Year’s Eve: unlucky to let house fire out; empty pockets or cupboards portend a year of poverty; Burns quoted, 72; direction of wind significant of year’s weather; old rhymes, 75; Hogmenay songs, 76–7; divination by the washed sark on, 101
New Year’s Day: visitors must not enter a house empty-handed; a new dress worn, 72; the “lucky glass,” or last in bottle; augury from name of first person met; importance of the “first-foot:” fair men preferred—women unlucky; called “lucky-bird” in Yorkshire; should bring something into the house: Lincolnshire rhyme, 73; flat-footed person unlucky; Romans permitted neither fire nor iron to leave their houses; similar objection in Durham farm-houses extending to ashes, &c., 74; Cleveland greeting; the customary feasting called “fadging” in Northumberland; grain of corn found on floor indicates an abundant crop (Sweden), 75; called “Cake Day” in Scotland; the following Monday “Hansel Monday,” 77
Nick or Nippen, the horse-form spirit, mentioned, 272
Nidstaens, or pole of infamy among Goths, 29
Nigdal (Loch), the Banshee of, 270
Night shade, witches love, 227
Nippen, see Nick
Nissir: domestic sprites of Denmark, 248
Norman peasant wears sprig of thorn, 17
Northumbrian burr: not lost by a ghost, 322
Norwegian offerings and libations on consecrated mounds, 2
Norwich, the Headless Coach at, 327
Nose: itching portends coming vexation, 112
Nutting: on Sunday rendered dangerous by devil (Sussex); “as black as the de’il’s nutting bag,” 96
Nykk or Nykkur-horse of Iceland, mentioned, 272
Oak: attracts lightning: old rhyme, 14; weather augury from leafing, 76
Occult powers and sympathies, 305–13
Odin, the wild huntsman supposed to be, 132–3; represented in modern sword dance in Gothland, 70; his white steed, Gleipmir, 71
O’Donovan’s (Dr.) Four Masters quoted on St. Patrick’s paganism, 6
Odd number of eggs in setting lucky, 112
Olive formed pail of the Cross, 151
Orissa, witches take tiger form in, 204
Ordeal of blood, see Witches
Ormsby (Rev. G.), on cutting down mountain-ash, 226
Ornithomancy, 128
Oschaert: a sprite of varied form; haunted Hamme; now banished to sea-shore, 273
Oxen kneel in their stalls as Christmas day begins, 311
Oxwells, a barguest haunts a spot near the; appears as a huge black dog when local celebrities die, 275
Padfoot: a spirit in animal form haunting villages near Leeds, 273; a precursor of death; Mr. Gould’s remarks, 274
Palm formed part of the Cross, 151
Palm Sunday: the use of palms almost passed away; crosses of willow tied with knots of ribbon made by children and hung on cottage walls; “Pawne bottles” made by Yorkshire children on, 80
Palmistry, 107–9
Pancakes eaten on Shrove Tuesday ensure money all the year, 114
Parkin, a kind of gingerbread eaten in West Riding on 5th November, 97
Parkin Sunday, the Sunday within the octave of All Saints, 97
Parting-stool: a three-legged stool over which bridal party jump at Bamburgh, 39
Parson’s touch cures rheumatism, a wen, 161; and an old woman’s cow, 162–3
Passages, see Subterranean passages
Passing-bell, see Bell
Passion Sunday (the fifth in Lent), called Care, Carle, or Carling Sunday; grey pease steeped and fried in butter eaten, 80
Passon Harris, his spell to bring his maid’s lover, 176
Pea-pod, lucky with one, nine, or many peas, 110
Peg-o’-Nell: a sprite of the Ribble; demands a life every seven years, 265–6
Peg Powler, a sprite of the river Tees; lures people to drown and devour them; river froth termed her “suds” and “creams,” 265
Pennant’s Tour quoted on extinguishing fire where corpse is kept; on killing cats and dogs which have passed over a corpse, 59; on Welsh mode of carrying a corpse, 61
Peony beads worn by children to avert convulsions and assist teething (Sussex); the plant of high repute of old, 21
Percy (Sir Joceline) drives the headless coach at Beverley, 327
Perth, strange noises in a house at, 328
Petting stone, see Stone
Pettit (Rev. George), on Indian images stuck with nails, 229
Phooka: a horse-shaped and malignant Irish spirit, 272
Picktree Brag: a mischievous spirit in form of a horse, ass, or calf, 270; probably the Nick, 272
Pigeon: feathers in beds make death difficult, 60; Russian objection to their use in beds, ib.; white one an omen of death, 49
Pigs: still-born when lions breed (Sussex), 23–4; their forelegs bear marks of devil’s fingers when he entered the herd of swine, 312
Pins: the favourites of superstition; unlucky to lend or give them, 117; used to pierce hearts in incantations; and to impale waxen images, 228; crooked, offered at wishing-wells, 230–1; Indian tale of a prince thrown under a spell by a shower of pins, 230; bottle of, a charm for epilepsy; deposited under hearthstone to keep off witches (Sussex), 231–2
Piskies, see Pixies
Pixies of Devonshire: gay and graceful sprites; description of a painting of a pixy merrymaking, 276–7; driven away by gifts of new clothing; discovered at work by Sussex farmer, 249
Phynnoderee: a Manx sprite—offended by remarks on his work and by gifts of clothing, 251
Plantain, divination by spikes of ribwort, 99
Pocket, new clothes should have money in right, 119
Pockthorp, part of the city of Norwich, 327
Pollard Worm: killed by knight of that name; the head stolen; had for the service as much land as he could ride round while the Bishop dined—called the Pollard lands; held by presentation of a falchion; the head presented by another knight to the King, 285–7
Polyphemus story in Yorkshire, 195–6
Portents and Auguries, 110–137
Portents: surrounding marriage on Borders, 34–5; of death on Borders, 45; brood of cock chickens, 110; vegetables of unusual shape, ib.; single or nine, pea pod, ib.; four-leaved clover; even ash-leaf, ib., 113; spider on clothes; loss of hair; mysterious noises; dreaming of loss of teeth, of fire, weddings, and water; stockings inside out; sparks in candle; three candles alight, 111; crooked sixpence; tip of dried tongue; meeting eye-brows; eggs in a setting; washing hands with another person; burning hair; itching nose, foot, hand, or ear, 112; shivering and stumbling; snuffing out candle; singing before breakfast; fastening dress awry; mole on neck, white specks on nails; snakes and glowworms; month of May; daisies, violets, and primroses, 113; eating pancakes and grey peas; giving mistletoe to cow; turning money at sight of new moon; the new moon, 114; catching a falling leaf; May moons, kittens, and babies, 115; boiling a dishclout; putting milk in tea before sugar; black snails; white horses; meeting left-handed persons; entering house left foot foremost, 116; meeting a man with flat feet; meat shrinking or swelling in pot; sweeping dust from house; turning back after leaving home; watching a person “out of sight;” lending a pin, 117; giving a knife, 118; burning evergreen decorations; pointing to or counting the stars; collecting hailstones; money in pockets of new clothes; gifts from sellers of cattle, 119; seeing first lamb of year; a fox bite; spilling or helping to salt; turning or breaking loaf; pulling first stone from church, 120; first corpse in churchyard; first baptism in a new font; entering a new church (Germany), 121; rooks and swallows, 122, 123; killing house crickets, 122; destroying nests of swallow, robin, and wren, 123, 124, 125; the yellow hammer, 123; cock crowing on threshold; humble bee entering house; song of robin, 124; hunting the wren, 125; bat, raven, crow, and magpie, 126, 127; Gabriel, yeth or wisht hounds, 129–136; herring-spear or piece (redwings), 131; seven whistlers (curlews), 131; sneezing, 136–7
Potter’s Grecian Antiquities quoted on Coskiomancy of Ancients, 233
Powries or Dunters haunt old castles; make loud beatings which portend misfortune, 255
Presages of death, see Death
Presbyterian divines and witchcraft, 7
Preston, belief that a church has sunk into the earth at, 121
Primroses: unlucky to take the first into a house, 50—taking a few kills young poultry, 183
Procession of trades companies at Durham on Corpus Christi, 86
Proverbs: “as black as the de’il’s nutting-bag,” 96; “crooked things, lucky things,” 231; “he caps Bogie, Bogie capt Redcap, and Redcap capt Old Nick,” 254; “he caps Wryneck and Wryneck caps the Dule,” 254; “marry in May, rue for aye,” 34; “some witch has shaken hands with him and gotten the last word,” 180; “soon teeth, soon toes,” 19; “the swine’s run through it,” 34; “to work as if working for need-fire,” 168
Pullein (Billy), a wise man of Shipley, 238
Puddening, the ceremony of giving gifts to a child on its first visit to a house (Leeds), 20
Quarrelsome wife, charm to calm, 176–7
Quicken, see Service-tree
Quill thrown over a house and caught in a basin of water will become a silver spoon, 117
Radiant boy, a spirit with shining face; farmer saw one on a white horse near Thirsk, 267
Ragwort, loved by witches, 226; called “fairies’ horse” in Ireland, ib.
Rain, child’s charm to drive away, 24
Rainbow: child’s charm to dispel, 24; driving it away with crossed sticks, 25
Rattley-bags: child’s name for thunder, 26
Ravens: ominous birds; their screams by night thought to come from the ghosts of murdered men in Sweden—deemed exorcised spirits in Denmark, 126
Redcap, Redcomb, or Bloody Cap: a malignant sprite; dwells in old castles; stones and murders travellers; scripture words and sign of cross drive him away, 253; the evil Lord Soulis; proverb; song from Wilkie MS. 254; Dutch Redcaps perform manual labour like Brownies; an ungrateful peasant, 255
Redcomb, see Redcap
Redwings, their flight produces the Herring-spear or piece, 131
Reed, see Chipchase
Rheumatism, charms for: confirmation, 33; lying in stream; priest’s touch; bellows in chair, 160–1; besprochen in Prussia, 172; hare’s forefoot (Sussex), 201; toad burnt to powder (Devon), 206
Ribbon, the race for the, at Yorkshire weddings, 41–2
Ribble, see Peg-o’-Nell
Richardson’s Local Historian’s Table Book, quoted on the lykewake, 56
Riddle and shears, see Sieve and shears
Riding the stang among boys at Durham; among men done by deputy, 29; verses recited at the culprit’s door; recent instances, 30
Ring: breaking of wedding ring forebodes husband’s death, 42; divination by suspended ring and south running waters, 186–7; rings of tortoiseshell and coffin fittings cure cramp, 155
Ringworm, charm for: rubbing with garden mould, 140
Ripon Minster: apples with sprigs of box distributed there on St. Clement’s Day, 97
Ripon, see Apparitions
River Sprites, see Peg Powler, Peg-o’-Nell, and Jenny Greenteeth
Robin: its sacred character all over Christendom; reasons assigned in Brittany and Wales, 123; the Breton legend versified; Cornish rhyme; Devonshire notion that breaking crockery would follow the taking of its nest; its song bodes ill to sick people; raps at the windows of the dying; sings on altar at Hurstpierpoint before a death, 124; “weeping” near a house a death warning (Suffolk), 60
Robin Goodfellow: Ben Jonson quoted on, 271–2
Robin Redbreast’s cushion, the bedeguar of the dog-rose: a charm for whooping cough, 144
Rooks: leaving or frequenting places ominous, 122
Rowan-tree, see Mountain-ash
Rubbing down a crying boy, 41
Runswick Bay, Hobhole, a cavern in, 264
Rushes or seggs strewed on doorsteps on Ascension Day (Yorkshire), 86
Sacred elements in the Eucharist cure diseases of the body, 146
Sacrificing cocks for cure of epilepsy, 147; cattle for cure of diseases in man and animals, 148–9
Sage: eating leaves fasting for nine mornings, a charm for ague, 150
Saining a corpse, see Death
St. Agnes’ Eve or Fast, 89; Keats quoted; the rites require abstinence from eating, drinking, and speaking, and making a “dumb cake,” 90; eating egg and salt, &c. to secure dreams; invocation to the Saint, 91; fast broken by a kiss, 92
St. Andrew: the patron of lacemakers; festival in Buckinghamshire, 97; “T’andry cakes;” his day called Andermas in Scotland; kept by repasts of sheeps’ heads, 98; “hair-snatching” practised in Germany on the eve, 103
St. Boswell’s, funeral seen by farmer’s wife near, 44
St. Bede’s Well, near Jarrow, weakly children dipped in, and offerings made of bent pins, 231
St. Chrysostom on early Christian superstitions, 4
St. Clement’s Day: begging for drink in North; for apples in Staffordshire; apples distributed in Ripon Minster, 97
St. Eligius on popular superstitions, 5
St. George and the Dragon, 304
St. Helen’s Well: a wishing-well, where scraps of cloth are offered, 230
St. John’s wort, witches’ love; it hinders them; a fairy horse will carry off persons treading on it after sunset (Isle of Man), 227
St. Leonard: drove nightingales from St. Leonard’s forest in Sussex; slew a dragon after many furious combats; lilies spring where the earth was sprinkled with the Saint’s blood, 300; see Worms
St. Macarius on appearance of spirits up to third day after death, 333
St. Malruba hodie Mourie or Maree; sacrifices and libations formerly made on his feast; often called God Mourie, 148
St. Marcoul: a French saint noted for his cures of King’s evil; painted chamber at Westminster formerly bore his name, 305
St. Mark’s Eve: watchers in church porch see forms of those doomed to die; an old woman at Scarborough saw herself; a sexton who thereby counted the gains of the coming year; other Yorkshire cases, 51; apparition of a doomed rector on; cauff-riddling at Malton, 52
St. Michael’s Day, prediction of floods from age of moon on; the devil then renders the blackberries unwholesome (Devon, Ireland, and Sussex); “hipping day” in Yorkshire, 96
St. Osythes, in Essex, a dragon there in 1170, 298
St. Patrick engrafted Christianity on Paganism, 6
St. Peter’s stone: pieces of the figures from Exeter Cathedral powdered a charm for sores, 156
St. Stephen’s Day devoted to hunting and shooting, 67
St. Sylvester’s night, the children in Scotland begin singing Hogmenay songs on, 77
St. Thomas’s Day: the time for making Christmas presents in Eastern counties and West Riding; “going a Thomasing,” 66: ghosts most numerous then, 326
St. Valentine’s Day: derived its customs from the Roman Lupercalia, 2
St. Vitus’s dance: cured by wiseman of Ripon, 152
Salt, placed on the breast of a corpse, 53; spell to bring a lover, 176; spilling, ominous—ill-luck averted by throwing a pinch over left shoulder; “help to salt help to sorrow”—a second help repairs the mischief, 120; dangerous to give it away—the giver in the power of an ill-wisher, 217
Sark, divination by the washed, 101–2
Satan, see Devil
Scald, word charm for (Sussex), 171
Scantlie Mab, a companion of Habetrot, 259
Scarborough, a story of St. Mark’s watch at, 51; a threat to consult the wiseman of, announced by bellman, 238
Scarlet fever transferred to an ass by mixing patient’s hair with the fodder, 143
Schoolboy consolation: rubbing down a companion in trouble with coat sleeves, 41; notions: that a hair will split the master’s cane, 27; that an eelskin preserves from cramp; that horse-hairs turn into eels, 28; that a black cat will raise the devil, 32; pledge: spitting over little finger, 32
Scott (Nannie) a Sunderland witch, 213
Scott’s (Reginald) Discovery of Witchcraft on divination by Psalter and key, 234
Scott’s (Sir Walter) Demonology quoted on divines and witchcraft, 7; on elf-stones, 185; disenchanting rhyme, 204; on Dobies, 248–9; on Redcap, 254; Minstrelsy on Brownie of Bodsbeck, 251; on Worm of Spindlestone Heugh, 293; Lay on weapon salve, 157
Seamen wear cauls to preserve them from drowning, 22
Sedbergh: procession there on All Saints’ Eve of those about to die, 52; payments by scholars for fighting cocks, 78; a Capelthwaite haunts a farm there, 276
Sefton, a well at, used to try fortunes by throwing in pins, 231
Seggs, see Rushes
Self-bored Stones, see Stones
Selkirk: Fairies there defeated in an attempt to steal a child, 14
Service-tree handle to churn aways brings butter (Germany), 200
Seventh sons: have the reputation of healing by touch, 305; in France called Marcoux from St. Marcoul; the Marcou of Ormes most celebrated; in great request if doctors; thought to possess second sight in Highlands—to be changed into asses on Saturday night in Portugal, 306
Seven Whistlers, The: cry of curlews; considered a death-warning (Folkstone), 131
Sexhow, ghost haunting farmer at, 321–2
Sharpe’s (Sir C.) Bishoprick Garland quoted on sword dancers, 70; on Picktree Brag, 270; on Lambton Worm, 287
Sheep, sacrificing: in Devonshire, 149; marked with cross by butchers, 257
Shefro, The, or gregarious fairy of Ireland wears foxglove bells on head, 228
Shell-fire: a lambent flame on bodies of the sick portending death (Sussex), 45
Sherburn Hospital, see Coffin
Shivering indicates some one passing over your future grave, 113
Shoemakers cursed by Christ because one spat at him on his way to Calvary, 82
Shoes thrown after bride: its meaning, 36; crossed, a charm for cramp, 155
Shrove Tuesday called Fasten’s Eve; football and cockfighting in Scotland, 77; schoolmasters formerly provided cocks for boys to throw sticks at; barring-out the master at Bromfield, in Cumberland, 78—capitulation on stipulation of football match and cock-fight, 79; eating pancakes on, ensures the possession of money, 114
Sidesman, see Hug-ma-close
Sieve used in the rite of Dishaloof, 53; a sacred instrument with ancients, 233
Sieve and shears, divinations by, among ancients, 233; a Newcastle case in sixteenth century; how practised in Mecklenburg, 234; case at Fenbog, 235; method given in Universal Fortune Teller, 236
Silkies: female sprites clad in rustling silk, 268; Silky of Black Heddon; sat in old tree; had power over horses, &c.; thought the owner of a hidden treasure, 269; Silky of Houndwood named “Chappie;” another haunts Denton Hall, near Shields; the Banshee of Loch Nigdal also arrayed in silk, 270
Singing before breakfast portent of grief, 113
“Sitting,” a gathering of neighbours to watch a corpse by day, 54
Sixpence, crooked or with hole, lucky, 112
Skerne, sprite haunting the river, mentioned, 265
Skir, see Left-handed
Sleep induced by Hand of Glory, 241; by foot of hanged man, 243; by a thief’s finger, ib.; by hand and arm of woman in Mexico, 244
Snail: child’s charm for, 25; finding a black one unlucky on leaving home, 116
Snake, crossing path indicates rain, 113; charms for bites: adder’s-stone—porous stone in Syria, 165; see Viper and Adder
Sneezing: a blessing still invoked in Durham and Germany; an ancient pagan practice; reproved by the Fathers; common in Africa, Siam, Scandinavia, and Mexico; Buckingham verse on its portents, 137; cat turned out of doors when (Sussex), 206
Snowdrop, unlucky to take the first of year into a house, 50
Sockburn, The Worm of: slain by Champion Conyers; had manor of Sockburn as a reward; held it on condition of presenting a falchion to Bishop of Durham on his first entering the diocese; last presented in 1826, 284–5
Somerville family, see Linton, Worm of
Sore, charm for a: St. Peter’s stone, 156
Soulis (Lord) and Redcap, 253–4
Southampton, a case of divination by Bible and key at, 235
South Biddick Hall, haunted by Madame Lambton, 314
Southey’s Thalaba quoted on Hand of Glory, 240
South-running water: porridge made over it a cure for whooping-cough; child washed in it for cure of fairy, 141; divination by ring and, 106–7
Sows: ghosts of two yoked together with silver chain (Devonshire), 274; apparition of one buried alive forebodes death (Denmark), ib.
Spark in candle portends a letter, 111
Sparrow, rhyme on the, 123
Spells and Divinations, 99–109
Spells broken by running water, 212
Spiders: on clothes portend money or new clothes, 111; worn or swallowed for ague, 150; spun a web over manger at Bethlehem; Kentish proverb on; their webs saved Mahomet and David from enemies, 312
Spindleston Heugh, The Laidley Worm of, 292; legend versified by a vicar of Norham; a knight’s daughter transformed by jealous stepmother; hid in a cave; exacted a tribute of milk; its poison laid waste the country, 293; her brother, the Childe of Winde, returns home; lands on sands near Barnborough; rushes with sword at the worm; gave it “kisses three,” and restores his sister to her own shape, 294; step-mother in form of a toad still haunts the precincts of castle, 295
Spink, or chaffinch, rhyme on the, 123
Spirit-rapper consulted by gentleman of position on case of theft, 237–8
Spitting on the handsel money, 32; over little finger, a schoolboy’s sacred pledge, 32; over forefinger and sign of cross, a protection against a witch, 189
Sprains, a charm for: a lammer bead, 145; cured by stamp-strainer, 155
Sprites: their origin according to Danish tradition, 248
Sprites (local): Barguest, Boggart, or Boguest, 274–5; Bogle, 247; Bloody cap or Bluidie cowl, see Redcap; Brag, see Picktree Brag; Brownie, 248–251; Brown man of the Muirs, 251–2; Capelthwaites, 275–6; Cauld Lads (of Hilton, of Gilsland), 266–7; Cow-lugsprites, 262; Dobie, 247–8; Dunnie, 263; Dunters, see Powries; Habetrot, 258–262; Hedley-Kow, 270–1; Hobs (Hob Headless, Hob of Coniscliffe, Hobthrush), 264; Jenny Greenteeth, 265; Kaboutermannekin (Holland), 250, 253, 255; Killmoulis, 252–3; Kludde (Flanders) 272–3; Kirkegrim or Kyrkogrim (Sweden and Denmark), 274; Nick, Nippon, or Nykk (Iceland, &c.), 272; Oschaert (Hamme), 273; Padfoot, 273–4; Pegs (Peg Powler, Peg o’Nell), 265–266; Phooka (Ireland), 272; Phynnoderee (Manx), 251; Picktree Brag, 270; Piskies (Sussex), 249; Pixies (Devon), 249, 276; Powries, 255–6; Radiant Boy, 267–8; Redcap or Redcomb, 253–5; Robin Goodfellow, 271–2; Scantlie Mab, 259, 261; Silkies (of Black Heddon, of Houndwood, of Denton Hall), 268–270; Thrumpin, 262; Tomte (Sweden), 250; Wag-at-the-wa’, 256–7; Water Kelpie (Scotland), 272; Wryneck (Lancashire), 254
Stable guarded from witches by horseshoe and broom in rack, 193
Stainmore, story of Hand of Glory at, 241
Stamp-strainer, one who cures sprained limbs by stamping on them with his foot, 155
Stang, riding the, 28–30
Stars: unlucky to point at or count them, 119
Steel placed in cradle of unbaptized child, 230; thrown by bathers into water in Sweden, 231
Stithy, firing the, at a stingy bride, 42
Still-born, see Child, still-born
Stockings: bride’s crossed on wedding-night, 42; lucky if left put on inside out, 111; hung up for presents at Christmas, 67
Stokesley, the Wise man of; consulted on bewitched pigs, 206; in great request as a godfather; a natural clairvoyant; describes a diseased cow, 215–16; foretells the return of stolen goods, 216–17; his warning against giving away salt; cures a diseased bull, 217–18; fixes two men in their seats before a fire, 218
Stott (Mr. J.), on Auld Betty, the Halifax witch, 209, 213–15; on heart stuck with pins and buried to torment, 223
Stones: at Belford church porch, over which bridal party leap—the “louping” or “petting” stone, 38; charm stones gave virtue to Loch Monar, 164; used in Lewis for cattle disease, 165; Irish stones cure sores; holy or self -bored stones protect from witchcraft, 166, 194; St. Peter’s stone a charm for a sore, 156
Storms, word-charm against, 170
Stumbling upstairs, unlucky; forebodes marriage, 113
Sturfit hall, a Hob attached to the family at, 264
Subterranean passages: a belief in their existence very general; one between Finchale and Durham; contain iron chests guarded by cocks or ravens; attempts to gain the treasure at Maiden’s castle and Kirkstall abbey, 320
Sun, carrying the dead with the, 61; circling a person with or against the—an ancient Icelandic belief; circling a room at midnight against, 62; dancing on Easter morning—maidens get up to see it rise—in Devonshire they expect to see a lamb therein, 83; see Deazil, Withershins
Superstitions, list of, condemned in Apostolical constitutions; by St. Chrysostom, 4; by St. Eligius, and by Abbot Cameanus in Scotland, 5
Surname, marriage unlucky between persons with same initial letter of, 41
Surtees’ History of Durham quoted on Brown Man of the Muirs, 251; on Redcap, 254
Swallows, descending chimney, a death omen, 48; good omen their nesting in a place; protect a house from fire and storms; penalties for destroying them; the Hull banker’s sons, 122; called the “devil’s birds”—they doom men to perdition by picking a certain hair from their heads (Ireland), 123; rhymes on their sacred character, ib.
Swarths: Cumberland term for the apparition of living persons, 46
Swedish bridal folk-lore, 37
Swine, vision of a coach drawn by, presaging a death, 327
Sword-dance: a relic of the war-dance of our ancestors; the characters and verses used by the dancers; of the ancient Goths and Swedes; still kept up in Gothland, 67–70
Sympathies, 305–313
Talismans: the “kenning-stone” and a lammer-bead, 145
Tamlane, ballad of, quoted, 225
T’andry cakes made in honour of St. Andrew, 98
Tansy pudding eaten at Easter in allusion to the bitter herbs of the Passover (York), 84; leaves in shoe a charm for the ague, 150
Tavistock, the witch of, hunted as a hare, 202
Taylor (Rev. Hugh), on bees humming Christmas hymn, 311
Tea, milk before sugar in, causes loss of lovers, 116
Teasle: water from the cups, a cure for weak eyes, 145
Tees, Peg Powler the sprite of the river, 265; a body discovered therein by a dream, 341
Teeth, dreaming of their loss portends a death, 111; see Child’s teeth
Tether (hair), used by witches to gather dew; yielding milk, 199
“Thomasing,” “going a,” see Christmas
Thorn, black: unlucky to take it into a house—regarded as a death-token in Sussex—belief extends to Germany, 50; white: protects from lightning; old rhyme; sprig worn by Norman peasant, 17; formed Christ’s crown and therefore reverenced in middle ages, 152; loved by witches, 226
Thorns, charms for extracting: a fox’s tongue, 159; word-charm, 171
Thorpe’s Mythology, quoted on Sunday-child, 10; on Martin Luther’s credulity; on birth cake in bridal-bed, 12; on walking over graves, 13; on rocking empty cradle, 19; on using looking-glass after dark, 21; on Swedish bridal customs, 37; on a coffin, portending death, 45; on magpies, 126; on witches, 184; on changelings, 190; on witch-riding, 192–3; on witches and May-dew, 200–1; on witches in hare-shape, 204; on German miller’s witch wife, 208; on cats and witches, 209; on duck witch, 210; on Hyldemoer, 220; on waxen images, 228; on steel propitiatory offerings, 230–1; on fingers and foot used by thieves, 243; on Hill-folk, &c., 248; on Tomte and Kaboutermannekin, 250–3; on Dutch Redcaps, 255
Threads worn round neck by nursing mothers to avert ephemeral fevers; and when charmed, to cure tic and lumbago, 20
Throstlenest, a Barguest haunts a glen near, 275
Thrumpin, an attendant sprite; obscure verses on, 262
Thunder termed rattley-bags by children, 26
Tic-douloureux, charmed threads worn round the head to cure, 20
Tide, see Death
Toad: witch in Flanders killed in this form, 204–5; figure largely in records of superstition; hind leg dried, a charm for King’s evil, 205; burnt to powder, a cure for rheumatism (Devon), 206
Tolv, the King of the Elves, mentioned, 219
Tomte, a Swedish sprite; renounces labour when presented with new clothing, 250
Tongue, lucky to carry tip of dried, in pocket, 74, 112
Toom or empty cradle not to be rocked, 18
Toothache, charms for: splinter of a gibbet; carrying a tooth bitten from skull; paw of live mole, 145; word charm, 172
Treasure, an animal sacrificed and blood sprinkled on burying, 248
Trees told of master’s death in Germany, 310
Trefoil hinders witches, 227
Trinkets not to be buried with a corpse, 57
Tristram (Rev. Canon), on incantation to discover a witch, 223
Trolls: the descendants of the unwashed children of Eve (Denmark), 248
Trout, live: a charm for whooping cough, 141; and worms, 154
Tutösel, the screech owl flying before the Wild Huntsman, 133
Tup, the Christmas, mentioned, 71
Twins: thought to have power of healing by touch, 306; strong sympathy between; survivor inherits the life and vital energy of his fellow; Faerie Queene quoted; a “left twin” (in Sussex) thought to cure thrush by blowing into sufferer’s mouth, 307
Unbaptized child, see Child unbaptized
Underground folk, two Danish legends on their origin, 248
Unchristened ground: the graves of unbaptized children, 12
University College, Oxford, Easter observances at, 85
Universal Fortune Teller quoted on charm to see future husband, 174–5; on divination by sieve and shears, 236
Vampire indicated by meeting eyebrows (Greece), 112
Vehme, The Sacred, mentioned, 30
Verbal charms, see Word-charms
Vermin kept from corn by loaves baked on Good Friday (Florida), 83
Vervain: witches love and dread it, 207; esteemed by Druids; leaves worn by sickly children (Sussex), ib.
Violets: taking a few into a house kills young poultry, 113
Viper, bite of, cured by application of its fat, 160
Vision of a coach drawn by black swine at Durham, 327; of widow Freeman of Horbury, and of another Horbury woman, 342
Voysey (Bishop): his injunction in Cornwall against night watches of a corpse, 55
Waff, see Wraith
Wag-at-the-wa’: verses respecting him; a sort of Brownie; swings on kitchen crook; has a tail, 356; is troubled with toothache; kept away by mark of cross on crook; “wagging the crook” thought to invite his return and strictly forbidden, 357
Warboys, poor allowed to gather sticks on May day morning at, 86
Warrington, a School Inspector “heaved” and kissed by girls on Easter Monday at, 84
Warts, various charms for: black-snail; dropped bag of pebbles; cinder in paper; raw stolen meat; knots in hair; eel’s blood; whispering threats; crossing with new pin: sticking pins in ash tree; lard skin (Bacon’s experience quoted); burying apples and wheat stalks; counting them, 138–140; the hand of a corpse (Germany), 154
Washing clothes on Good Friday, see Good Friday, hands in same basin with another forebodes a quarrel—averted by crossing the water, 112; face before killing anything, 113
Washington (Sussex), Piskies found at work threshing by farmer at, 284
Wassailing in Yorkshire, see Christmas
Wastell (Mr. C.), on Stainmore story of Hand of Glory, 242
Watching anyone out of sight unlucky, 117
Water, running, destroys all spells, 212; dreaming of, portends sickness, 111; of Loch Monar cures diseases, 164; see South-running water
Water Kelpie (Scotch), mentioned, 272
Waul-staff and rogen of Schaumberg–Lippe, 90
Weather predictions: from direction of wind on New Year’s eve, 75; from calends of January (Buckingham), 175; from Candlemas day; from oak and ash, 76; from arrival of cuckoo; from last three days of March, 94; from cat washing her face, 206
Wedding, see Marriage
“Weeds and onfas:” ephemeral fevers so called on Scotch Borders, 20
Weld’s (C. K.) Two Months in the Highlands, quoted on Loch Monar, 165
Well-dressing in England, 2
Wells, Sacred: St. Bede’s, near Jarrow, where weakly children are dipped and crooked pins offered; at Whitford in Flintshire used for sore eyes; Locksaint Well in Skye; at Sefton in Lancashire, where fortunes are tried by throwing in pins, 231
Wishing: the Worm Well at Lambton, where crooked pins are offered; at Wooler; St. Helen’s Well in Yorkshire, where pieces of cloth are offered; and the Cheesewell in Peeblesshire, into which cheese is cast, 230
Wen, charms for: touching with dead man’s hand, 153–4; parson’s touch, 164
Werewolf (or Hamrammr) indicated by meeting eyebrows in Iceland, Denmark, and Germany, 112; disenchanted by drawing blood, 182
Westley’s Vicarage of Epworth haunted by “Old Jeffrey,” 316
Whately (Archbishop): Miscellaneous Remains quoted on heathenism of the vulgar, 2; on killing magpies in Sweden, 126; on cramp-bone of sheep, 155
Wheatstalk buried, a charm for warts, 140
Whistling, never practised in Devon and Cornwall mines, 44; women, dreaded on sea coast—one declined as a passenger at Scarborough, ib.
Whitbeck, peculiar Christmas breakfast mess used at, 67; bees said there to sing as Christmas day begins, 311
Whitburn, wedding custom of offering “hotpots” at, 40
Whitby, an incantation at, 224
Whitehaven: mine haunted by ghosts of two men who had perished there, 232
White-thorn, see Thorn, white
Whitford, well at, used to bathe weak eyes, 231
Whit Sunday, cheesecakes formerly eaten on, 86
Whooping cough, charms for: placing live trout’s head in child’s mouth; porridge made over south-running water; placing hairy caterpillar in bag on child’s neck, 141; passing through the smoke of limekilns; breathing the air of gasworks; passing under the belly of an ass or piebald pony; wearing bags of ass’s hair; acting on the advice of the rider of a piebald pony or of a couple named Joseph and Mary; hanging empty bottle in chimney; cutting off the patient’s hair and placing it on a tree; making a dog eat a hair in buttered bread; wearing smooth mullein leaf under left heel; eating unleavened bread made by a fasting virgin, 142–3, or a roast mouse, or milk touched by a ferret; wearing on neck a Robin redbreast’s cushion, 144; invocation of Hob of Hobhole in his cavern in Runswick Bay, 264
Wife, charm to calm a quarrelsome, 176–7
Wife-beater’s door strewn with chaff or straw (Yorkshire), 32
Wiggan-tree, see Mountain ash
Wild Huntsman, The: Rev. S. B. Gould’s Iceland quoted on the myth, 132; held to be Odin or Wodin in Germany and Norway; Theodoric the Great in Danzig; Duke Abel in Schleswig; King Arthur in Normandy, Scotland, and the Pyrenees; Herod in Franche-Comté; Hakelnberg in Thuringia; Hugh Capet near Fontainebleau, 133; King Herla anciently in England; Harlequin or Henequin in parts of France, 134; the Hunt called Aaskarreya in Norway; the Chasse Macabée at Blois, 133; see Gabriel Hounds
Willington Ghost (The), 315–320
Willow, divination by wand of, 103; charm for cure of ague, 150
Wilkie MS., a collection of Border customs, superstitions, &c., made by a medical student at the desire of Sir Walter Scott, quoted passim
Willis’s Mount Tabor quoted on cauls, 23
Wind: its direction on New Year’s Eve predicates weather of coming season, 75; its direction predicated by position of bull in his stall on All Hallow-e’en, 97
Wine-Cup and water-cup charm to see future husband in Hartz Mountains, 174
Wiseman, see Stokesley, Leetholm, Scarborough, Shipley, &c.
Wisewoman, see Berwick, Leicester
Wishing, on finding horse-shoe or piece of iron—or meeting piebald horse, 106; chairs, at Finchale, &c., 106; rods made of aspen in Germany; wells, see Wells
Wisht Hounds, see Gabriel Hounds
Witches: shaking hands with—getting the last word with, 180—placing money received from, in mouth; drawing blood from: at Belsay-bankfoot—at Framwellgate Moor—at Cheriton Bishop, 181—in Sussex, 182; overlooking pigs at Bovey Tracey, 182; molesting dairy, 183—driven away, by placing in churn: hot iron, crooked sixpence, pinch of salt or sprig of mountain-ash, 183; constrained to remove spell by pressing down churnstaff, 184—by red hot coulter in Leinster—by smoking cows, &c., in Germany, ib.—by fire of sticks from four parishes, ib.—by “ordeal of blood,” 186; casting “evil eye” on children, 187–8; changing men into horses and riding them: the blacksmith’s wife of Tarrowfoot, 190–192—cases in Belgium and Denmark, where the tables are turned, 192–3; harry horseflesh, 193; visit the miller of Holdean Mill, 194; carry off a man at Bowden, 196; milking neighbour’s cows through a pin (Scotland), a broomstick and pump-handle (Germany); punished by beating milk, 198; gathering May-dew, with hair-tether, 199; termed dew-strikers in Germany; dew becomes butter, 200; rowan-tree twig and four-leaved clover keep them away, 201; the “gudeman’s breeks” on cow’s horns cause their discovery; milking cows in hare-shape; assume forms of cat and hare in extremity; hunted as hares: by Laird of Littledean, 201—at Tavistock—in Yorkshire dales, 202–3—of Guisborough and Hawkwell, 203–4; hunted in form of red deer in Cumberland; killed in form of toad in Flanders, 204–5; in cat-shape lamed in Yorkshire, 206—the German miller’s wife mutilated—haunted castle of Erendegen, 208; drawing blood from Halifax witch in this form; Flemish story of their attacking a man, 209, 210; shot in form of duck (Denmark); “auld Nan Hardwick,” 210–212: Ben Jonson’s Sad Shepherd quoted on witch-hunting, 211; Nannie Scott, 213; “Auld Betty,” 213–215; incantations to discover or protect from, 218–224; dread witchwood or mountain-ash—those touched with it become next teind of the devil, 225—when carried in pocket or grown near a house it keeps them away, 225–6; hate the yew, holly, and bracken; love the broom and thorn, and ragwort by which they ride, 226—also hemlock and nightshade; St. John’s wort and vervain are counter-charms; wear the foxglove hells on their fingers—“witches’ thimbles,” 227; still make images of clay stuck with pins to injure and torment (Devonshire), 228; kept away by bottle of bent pins buried under hearthstone, 232; Kate Neims burned at Crieff—gave head to Laird of Inchbrakie, 245; kept from house-fire by the “witches’ marks:” a cross on the chimney crook, 257; Irish stones and Christ’s letter to Agbarus, charms against, 194; spitting over little finger and sign of cross a protection against, 189; see Stable
Witches’ thimbles, see Foxglove
Witchwood, see Mountain-ash
Withershins: circling against the course of the sun; an evil incantation (Highlands), 62
Wöde, the name of the Wild Huntsman in parts of Germany, 133
Wodin, see Odin
Word-charms: for hurts; to stop bleeding; for ague; for easy deliverance, 169–70; against storms; for cattle, 170; for burns, scalds, and wounds, 171; for toothache, 172; to keep cattle healthy, 179
Worms, charms for: live trout placed on stomach; water in which earth-worms have been boiled, 154–5
Wooler, a wishing-well at, where crooked pins offered, 230
Woolcombe (Rev. W.), on Devonshire ghost of young lady, 335–6
Worms or Dragons, 281–304
Worm from Norse Ormr—legends respecting them abound in the North—Sir Walter Scott and Lord Lindsay on their origin, 281; the existence of the sea-serpent believed by Messrs. Lee and Proctor—Mr. Waterhonse Hawkins considers the saurians prototypes of medieval dragons, 282; ballad of Dragon of Wantley quoted, 283; the Pterodactyle, ib.; dragons and serpents in Chinese, Grecian, and Norse mythology, ib.; place names in England preserving the belief in their existence, 284; worm of Sockburn (see Sockburn), ib.; the Pollard worm (see Pollard), 285–7; the Lambton worm (see Lambton), 287–92; the Laidley worm of Spindleston Heugh (see Spindleston Heugh), 292–95; worm of Linton (see Linton), 295–97; at St. Osythes in Essex; at Deerhurst near Tewkesbury; at Mordiford in Hereford; at Chipping Norton and at Bromfield, 298; Dragon of Denbigh, 299; St. Leonard and the dragon, 29–300; poisonous serpent in St. Leonard’s Forest in 1614, 300; fiery dragon of Helston, 301–2; such legends the reflex of tales current in the earliest ages, 302; not simply figurative, but based on the existence of monstrous forms of animal life, 303; the dragon the type of the Spirit of Evil, and as such worshipped, 303; St. George and the Dragon a material embodiment of the great contest between good and evil, 304
Wounds, charms for: cleaning and anointing the weapon, 156–8; piece of a fruit-tree, and sprig of broom (Germany), 159; Irish stones, 166; word-charms (Devonshire and Sussex), 169–71
Wraiths, or apparitions of living persons, termed also “fetches,” “waffs,” and “swarths,” portend death; Gluck’s life saved by his own; other instances of their appearance mentioned; Durham farmer preserved from robbers, 46–48
Wren: its sacred character, 123; Cornish rhyme on destroying its nest, 124; hunted at Christmas-tide in Essex and Isle of Man; same usage in Ireland and France; respect paid to it by ancient Celts and Greeks, 125
Wright’s History of Ludlow, quoted on Dragon of Bromfield, 298–9
Wrightson (Auld), the wise man of Stokesley, see Stokesley
Wryneck, a Lancashire sprite mentioned, 254
Wüthendes Heer: the chase after the Wild Huntsman, 133
Wynde, Childe of, see Spindleston Heugh
Yarn charmed by wise woman worn to cure lumbago, 20
Yarrell (Mr.) says Gabriel Hounds are the bean-geese, 130
Yarrow, divination by, from a young man’s grave, 100
Yarrow-foot, witch-riding at, 190–2
Yellow-hammer, called the devil’s bird in Scotland; dislike extends to Northumberland; rhyme used when its nest is destroyed; termed the yellow yowling, 123
Yellow-yowling the northern name of the yellow-hammer, 123
Yeth, or Heathen Hounds of North Devon, see Gabriel Hounds
Yew detested by witches, 226
Yggdrasil, the cloud-tree of Norsemen, an ash, 17
Yule cakes and log or clog, see Christmas
Yule Host, see Gabriel Hounds and Wild Huntsman
ERRATUM.
In page 4, note 1, line 2, for Dæmonium, read Dæmonum.
Westminster: Printed by Nichols and Sons, 25, Parliament Street.