90
NOTES AND QUERIES. [10 th s. in. FEB. 4, 1905.
the following statement, which I should much
like verified : " There is no reason why Mr.
Kipling should not perpetrate a play, for we
are all playwrights now, even Mr. Gladstone
having been guilty of writing a blank-verse
tragedy."
How far is this true 1 Verses, original and translated, Mr. Gladstone did write; but it is news to me that he ever ventured into the devious paths of a playwright.
J. B. McGovERN.
St. Stephen's Rectory, C.-on-M., Manchester.
PATENTS OF PRECEDENCE. Would a patent of precedence have been granted as early as circa 1660 to the sisters of a Scottish noble- man whose father had died vitapatris ? and, if so, where would it be recorded?
K. BARCLAY-ALLARDICE.
Lostwithiel, Cornwall.
HORSESHOES FOR LUCK.
(10 th S. iii. 9.)
ASSUMING that "luck" in the uneducated mind consists ultimately in the absence or prevention of maleficent influences, then the horseshoe, whether worn or fixed, takes its place as a potent protector against those evils, and so as a promoter of the good fortune called "luck." I have contended elsewhere that the horseshoe is the crescent, the symbol of the moon in all countries, ancient and modern. She represents in all ages the Universal Mother, whether known as Ashtoreth, Aphrodite, Esetat-Jedhri, Isis, Parvati, Diana, or Madonna. She is there- fore the great protector of all her children, and her symbol is used, as perhaps the most potent amulet, to counteract malevolence by all people.
Our English horseshoe is, of course, a highly conventionalized crescent, but the Turkish is identical in pattern with that on the standard. Whether the shoe should be sus- pended with the toe or heel upwards is rather a matter of local and personal opinion, though it is much more usual to see the toe upwards, probably because it is so much easier affixed or hung up. The position ol the amulet would not seem to be material, considering that the crescent appears some- times "horns up," sometimes "horns down,' but more commonly with one horn up anc the other down. We hear it often remarked " Horns up for fine weather " ; and the follow- ing seems to point to the belief that a shoe fastened in that position has the most power
"July 24, 1895.' I know'd a farmer not very var
icrevrom, and he had terblebad luck wi' his stock.
- Ie know'd they must be overlooked. Well, a
neighbour told'n he couldn' expect no other, so ong as he did keep th' oss shoe wrong zide up. Nif he did mind to save his beast, he must put n upright, wi' the heels o' un up-on-end. Well, zo he took and turned th' osa shoe tother way, and he ever hadn' a-got no bad luck arterwards.' "
F. T. ELWORTHY.
MR. PAGE has opened an intensely interest- ing subject, but one which ramifies so widely as to need a book rather than a short reply For its full treatment. The brief answer to his question is that both ways are " the right way " to hang a horseshoe on a door. Each man must decide for himself, according to his idea of the derivation of the use and the particular symbolism he attaches to it. Gipsies hang the shoe with its points (the heel) upward, in cup -form, "to catch the good luck," but grooms generally hang it toe upward, in roof-form, to ward off bad luck. Christians who take the symbol to mean imply omega, and a reminder of Him who aia, "I am Alpha and Omega," will, of course, hang it toe upward ; and so will those students of the ancient wisdom who tell us that the lucky horseshoe and the omega in the above quotation are both re- minders of the crux ansata which was placed in the right hand of an initiate. Those who hold that the luck attaching to the shoe is a reminder of the time when it used to repre- sent the crescent moon of Isis will place it gipsy fashion, with the heel upward. Some who are curious in these matters say that the arrangement with the heel upward is right for the votaries of a feminine deity ; while the roof fashion, or toe upward, or omega- wise, belongs to votaries of a mascu- line deity. The former is an invocation of the moon-god, while the latter invokes the sun-god. One is correct for worshippers of Isis, and for Roman Catholic Christians, who assign the blue robe and the crescent moon of Isis to the Virgin Mary ; while the omega form must be used by Protestant Christians, who object to invocations of the Virgin.
The statement that the luck of the horse- shoe dates from the time when iron was a sacred metal (was there ever such a time ?) has often been made ; and to those who hold this view the position must be quite indif- ferent. So it should be to those who tell us that the original lucky objects were not horseshoes at all, but metallic rings, broken from the heads of mediaeval figures of saints, where they had been worn in nimbus form.
The suggestion that the shoe represents old-time horns of honour, or horns of iron,
