If ye feare to be affrighted, When ye are (by chance) benighted : In your pocket, for a trust Carrie nothing but a crust: For that holie piece of bread Charmes the danger and the dread." Some other metrical charms noticed by Pepys in his Diary, under Dec. 31, 1664-5, may here be introduced : "Unto the Virgin Mary our Saviour was born, And on his head he wore the crown of thorn; If you believe this true and mind it well, This hurt will never fester, nor yet swell." The following one is for a scald or burn: One brought fire and two brought frost : In the name of Father, Son, and Holy "Christ was of a virgin born, In "Trinum Magicum," p. 169, it is said: "Herbam Urticani tenens in manu cum millefolio, securus est ab omni metu, et ab omni phantasmate." Shaw gives the following account, from personal observation, of some physical charms used in his time in Moray. In hectic and consumptive diseases they pared the nails of the fingers and toes of the patient, put these parings into a rag cut from his clothes, then waved their hand with the rag thrice round his head, crying Deas soil, after which they buried the rag in some unknown place. Pliny, in his Natural History," mentions it as practised by the magicians or Druids of his time. When a contagious disease entered among the cattle, the fire was extinguished in some villages round; then they forced fire with a wheel or by rubbing a piece of dry wood upon another, and therewith burned juniper in the stalls of the cattle, that the smoke might purify the air about them: they likewise boiled juniper in water, which they sprinkled upon the cattle; this done, the fires in the houses were rekindled from the forced fire. It was, no doubt, a Druid custom. Hist. of Moray, p. 248. Coles says: "It is said that if a handfull of arsmart be put under the saddle, upon a tired horse's back, it will make him travaile fresh and lustily: If a footman take mugwort and put into his shoes in the morning, he may goe forty miles before noon and not be weary. The seed of fleabane (says he) strewed between the sheets causeth chastity. If one that hath eaten comin doe but breathe on a painted face, the colour will vanish away straight. The seeds of docks tyed to the left arme of a woman do helpe barrenesse. All kinde of docks have this property, that what flesh, or meat, is sod therewith, though it be never so old, hard, or tough, it will become tenCalamint will der and meet to be eaten. recover stinking meat, if it be laid amongst it whilst it is raw. The often smelling to basil breedeth a scorpion in the brain. That the root of male-piony dryed, tied to the neck, doth help the incubus, which we call the mare. That if maids will take wild tansey, and lay it to soake in buttermilke nine days, and wash their faces therewith, it will make them look very faire" (a belief, which is also held in respect to May dew, as elsewhere stated). Intro. to the Knowledge of Plants, 1656, p. 68. any "Dew cakes with honey were given to those who entered Trophonius' Cave, to free them from mischiefs from the phantoms which should appear. Loier's Treatise of Spectres, 1605, p. 136. Bulbianus says, that where Purslain is laid in the bed, those in it will not be disturbed by any vision that night. diamond fastened to the left arm, so as to touch the skin. prevents all nocturnal fears To expel phantoms and rid people of folly, take the precious stone chrysolite, set it in gold, and let them weare it about em." Ostanes the magician prescribed the dipping of our feet in the morning in human urine as a preservative against charms. Warner, speaking of the old register of Christ Church, Hants, tells us that it contains some curious receipts of the seventeenth century in certain cases of indisposition, which his delicacy, however, forbad him to make public. Hampshire, 1795, 111, 131. Mungo Park observes in his Travels in the interior of Africa that white chicken tied by the leg to a branch of a particular tree was thought by the people there to secure a prosper'Homer ous : issue to one's journey. relates how Autolycus's sons staunched Ulysses's blood, flowing from a wound he received in hunting a wild boar, by a charm; the same is observed by Pliny, who adds farther that 'sic Theophrastus ischidiacos sanari, Cato prodidit luxatis membris carmen auxiliari, Marcus Varro pod agris' it was reported by Theophrastus, that the hip-gout was cured in the same manner; by Cato, that a charm would relieve any member out of joint; and by Marcus Varro, that it would cure the Chiron in Pindar is gout in the feet. said to use the same remedy in some distempers, but not in all."-Potter's Greek Antiq. i., 355. Grose observes that "Certain herbs, stones, and other substances, as also particular words written on parchment, as a charm, have the property of preserving men from wounds in the midst of a battle or engagement. This was so universally credited, that an oath was administered to persons going to fight a legal duel, that they had no charm, ne herb of virtue.' The power or rendering themselves invulnerable is still believed by the Germans: it is performed by divers charms and ceremonies: and so firm is their belief of its efficacy, that they will rather attribute any hurt they may receive, after its performance, to some omission in the performance, than defect in its virtue." news In the "Daily Telegraph paper for December 11th, 1867, Occurs this extraordinary piece of intelligence: "On the 9th inst., before the magistrates at Plymouth, a respectably dressed woman named Mary Catharine Murray, and who is about fifty years of age, was charged, under a warrant, with having unlawfully used certain subtle means and devices, to wit by a piece of parchment called a charm, and other subtle means to deceive and impose on one of her Majesty's subjects named Thomas Rendle.' The story told by Rendle, who is a poor farm labourer, living at Modbury is to the following effect: His wife, who is sixty-two years old, was taken ill about five months ago. He thought she was ill-wished,' and a nephew of his recommended him to go to the prisoner, as he was sure she, being wise, could cure the old woman. Rendle went to the prisoner's house in Plymouth on the 7th of August. She asked him what he was come for and he said, People tell me that my wife is illwished.' Prisoner asked him his age, and he told her 69. She opened a large bookher in two or three weeks, provided he him if he came for himself or any other person. He said he had come for his wife. She asked him his wife's age, and he said 62 next January. She said she could cure her in two or three weeks, provided he paid her one guinea to begin with. Prisoner said his wife had to go and see the planets, and would have to go into the churchyard and gather some herbs for twenty-one nights. She promised to send some medicine, and took down his address, and he then left. The following letter was sent to him about a week after: Sir and Madam-I find that it will be needful for you to have some powders to use, and a packet to wear. I have sent for the articles to make the powders. They will cost me ls. each powder, and you will need to use two a day for three weeks. That will make 42 in the whole, and the packet, or the skin which makes the packet, will cost me 21s. That will last you as long as you live, if it should be 80 years longer. The things I bought for you cost mo 6s., and that will make £3 9s. You must have the things, and I should not send to you, but I am out of money, and the articles will be waiting at the station for me on Friday, so if you will remit me the money by the return of post, I will send it to you on Saturday, as you must put it on on Sunday, and also begin to use the powders on that day. Be sure you do not fail to send me an answer by return of post, and believe me to remain yours truly, M. C. MURRAY.' His wife had to take the medicine in a glass in the morning and evening. The packets of powder were to be burnt in the fire, one in the morning and the other in the evening. His wife took all the medicine, and she was at present worse. About two months afterwards the prisoner came to his house. She had a glass of water, and he saw some shadows in the water, and at her bidding his wife took up a poker and smashed the glass. The prisoner said she had seen a man and woman in the water, and the woman was the worst. parchment, on which were figures of the She gave them a piece of planets and extracts from foreign languages; this his wife was to wear. The prisoner then felt his wife's pulse. Altogether he paid the prisoner £4 10s. The prisoner acknowledged that what Rendle said was all true. He had thirty-one bottles of herbal mixture, at 3s. per bottle. She assured the magistrates that she believed in what they were pleased to had frequently seen the prisoner for the call superstition. Rendle's niece said she purpose of returning empty bottles, and also to get medicine. The prisoner had given her mother-in-law some powders to burn in her own room, which the prisoner said would do her good. The prisoner told her that her mother-in-law was ill-wished, and afterwards said she was bewitched. Her mother-in-law had had the parish doctor at Modbury attending her. Mayor Is the money paid to the prisoner the scrapings this old man has got together? Witness: Yes, sir; he has 10s. a week. The The prisoner ordered the 91st Psalm to be read when the last powder packet was sent. The person that burnt prisoner generally sent two packets at a the powder was to read the Psalm. The time with the bottles. The prisoner denied saying anything about the Psalms, or about the woman being bewitched. The powders sent were for her to smell. She had cured Mr. Rendle's niece of paralysis. A Magistrate: Was there any charm in that case?-Prisoner: No, sir. After a short deliberation, the Mayor said, that as the prisoner had only just been apprehended, the Bench thought it right not to deal with the case then, and therefore would remand her until Thursday next. Chase. A point at the game of tennis beyond that struck by the adversary. Halliwell in v. Bail was refused." Such examples of ig- | and Nursery Tales," 1849, and from Haznorance in the latter half of the nine- litt's Proverbs, 1882. teenth century seem to shew that the time has come for initiating a general system of lay-education among the people. The subject of charms is one on which several volumes might be written. The nine series of "Notes and Queries" already completed contain a vast assemblage of material and illustration; and every week adds to the store. Fortunately, the excellent indexes supplied to that useful periodical render it worse than superfluous to transplant hither more than occasional passages. In the "Saxon Leech Chasing the Cheese.-At Birdlip, near Cheltenham, there is an ancient anniversary observance so termed. Its origin is not known, but it may be suggested that it has some consanguinity with an episode or traditional incident narrated in the Gothamite Tales, attributed to Andrew Borde, where the fourth story deals with a man of Gotham, who went to Nottingham to sell cheese, and, descending doms, and Wart Cunning, and Starcraft," edited by Mr. Cockayne, is a mass of matter on this subject. There are some curious charms in the "Mountebank's Masue," edited for the Shakespear Society, 1848, and in "Lancashire Folk-Lore," 1867. See several curious charms against thieves in Scot's Discovery of Witchcraft, b. ii. c. 17, and particularly St. Aldelbert's curse against them. That celebrated curse in Tristram Shandy, which is an original one, still remaining in Rochester Cathedral, is nothing to this, which is perhaps the most complete of its kind. Some additions to this section might easily have been introduced from Halliwell's "Popular Rhymes the hill to Nottingham-bridge, one of his cheeses fell out of the cart, and rolled down the hill. Whereupon, seeing that they could run alone, he let loose all the others, charging them to meet him in the market place. But when he found they were not there, all having strayed or been taken, he took horse, and rode toward York, whither he conceived that they might have gone. Hazlitt's Old English Jest Books, 1864, iii., 6-7. Chatelaine.-An article of use and ornament originating with the medieval chatelaine or lady of the chateau. "An old marchant had hanging at his girdle, a pouch, a spectacle-case, a punniard, a pen and inckhorne, and a hand-kertcher, with many other trinkets besides: which a merry companion seeing, said, it was like a haberdashers shop of small wares. Copley's Wits, Fits, and Fancies, 1595. In Erondel's " French Garden," 1605, in a dialogue describing a lady's dress, the mistress thus addresses her waiting woman: "Give me my girdle, and see that all the furniture be at it: looke if my cizers, the pincers, the pen-knife, the knife to close letters, with the bodkin, the ear-picker, and the seale be in the case: where is my purse to weare upon my gowne," &c. In Field's "A Woman's a Weather-cocke" act v. sc. 1, Bellafront is introduced with a knife hanging at her girdle, with which she threatens to stab herself if her father forces her to marry any other than Scudmore. This seems to have been a forerunner of the modern chatelaines, which some years ago were so favourite an article of ornament among our country-women, and were made receptacles for trinkets, keys, scissors, &c. Mr. Brand had an old print of a female foreigner entitled Forma Pallii Mulieris Clevensis euntis ad forum,' in which are delineated, as hanging from her girdle, her purse, her keys, and two sheathed knives. Cheek.-Melton observes that "when the left cheek burnes, it is a signe somebody talks well of you; but if the right cheek burnes, it is a sign of ill." Astrologaster, 1620, p. 45. In a later writer we read: "That you shou'd think to deceive me! Why all the while I was last in your company, my heart beat all on that side you stood, and my cheek next you burnt and glow'd." Ravenscroft's Canterbury Guests, p. 20. Cheesecake. By the following passage in Ferne's " Glory of Generositie," p. 71, it should seem that cheesecakes composed a principal dainty at the feast of sheep-shearing. 'Well vor your paines (if you come to our sheep-shearing veast) bum vaith yous taste of our cheese cake." This is put into the mouth of Columell the Ploughman. Cherry Fair. Cherry-fairs were often formerly, and may be still indeed, held in the cherry orchards; they were scenes of considerable licence. There are not many allusions to them in old writers or records; but in the story of "How the Wise Man Taught His Son," the transitory nature of man's life is not inelegantly likened to one of these scenes of temporary bustle and gaiety : "And so, sone, thys worldys wele Hyt fayrth but as a chery fayre." And the same simile occurs in one of Hocclove's pieces. See Dyce's Skelton, ii., 85, and Fairs, infrâ. Cherry Pit. Cherry Pit is a play wherein they pitch cherry-stones into a little hole. It is noticed in Herrick's "Hesperides,' 1648. But the earliest allusion to the sport is probably that found in the interlude of "The Worlde and the Chylde," 1522: "I can play at the chery pytte, It is also mentioned by Skelton in "Speke Parot," written about the same time. Chess. This was a British or Welsh game, and is mentioned in the Triads. The board, on which it was played, was called the tawlbwrd, and one of these was held to be an essential feature in every gentleman's establishment. Chess-boards were made of wood, bone, or even ivory, the last being valued at three cows or sixty pence. Chess was also a favourite game in medieval Italy and elsewhere abroad. habitants of Chester, says, "touching their Chester. King, speaking of the inhousekeeping, it is bountiful and comparable with any other shire in the realm: and that is to be seen at their weddings and burials, but chiefly at their wakes, which they yearly hold (although it be of late years well laid down)." Vale Royal of England, 20. In the same work there is an account that, at the City of Chester in the year 1533, "the offerings of ball and foot-balls were put down, and the silver bell offered to the Maior on Shrove Tuesday." Vale Royal, p. 94. King notes: "Anno 1575. This year Sir John Savage, maior, caused the Popish plays of Chester day, and Wednesday after Mid-somerto be played the Sunday, Munday, TuesDay, in contempt of an inhibition, and the Earl of Huntingdon. Primat's Letters from York and from the Vale-Royal, 1656, p. 88. after Midsummer Day the History of "Anno 1563, upon the Sunday Eneas and Queen Dido was play'd in the Roods Eye; and were set out by one William Croston, gent. and one Mr. Man, forts and shipping on the water, besides on which triumph there was made two many horsemen well armed and appointed." 1831, i., 168, et seqq. We farther learn Collier's Annals of the Stage, that Henry Hardware, Esq., mayor of Chester in 1599, "for his time, altered the sheriff's breakfast; the going of the many antient customs, as the shooting for giants at Midsommer, &c., and would not suffer any playes, bear-baits, or bull-bait." Vale Royal, 1656, p. 208. Pennant tells us of the place without the walls called the Rood Eye, where the lusty youth in former days exercised themselves in manly sports of the age; in archery, running, leaping, and wrestling; in mock fights and gallant and romantic triumphs. A standard was the prize of emulation, which was won in 1578 by Sheriff Montford on Shrove-Tuesday. Childbirth. In "A short Description of Antichrist," &c., 1554, is this passage: "I note all their Popishe traditions of confirmacion of yonge children wth oynting of oyle and creame, and with a ragge knitte aboute the necke of the yonge babe," &c. This was the hallowed sheet. Bulwer remarks that "There is a tradition our midwives have concerning children borne open-handed, that such will prove of a bountiful disposition and frankhanded." The following occurs in the second part of Dekker's "Honest Whore," 1630: I am the most wretched fellow : sure some left-handed priest christened me I am so unlucky." Coles says: "It hath been observed, that if a woman with childe eate quinces much, and coriander seed (the nature of both which is to represse and stay vapours that ascend to the braine) it will make the child ingenious: and, if the mother eate much onyons, or beanes, or such vapourous food, it endangereth the childe to become lunaticke, or of imperfect memory. Boemus relates, that in herb when they are great with childe, which makes them bring forth withoute paine." Introduction to the Knowledge of Plants, 69. Misson says: "The custom here is not to make great feasts at the birth of their children. They drink a glass of wine and eat a bit of a certain cake, which is seldom made but upon these occasions." Travels, translated by Ozell, p. 35, It belief in Angus that, if a child was put from the breast in the moon's wane, it would decay so long as the orb continued to decrease. These superstitions were generally diffused, and seem to have been entertained by the Scots in common with the Swedes, where the same ideas prevailed; nor can it be said that such notions are yet, or will for many a long day, be thoroughly rooted out. The following Scotish modern superstitions respecting new-born children are enumerated by Rosse in the Fortunate Shepherdess, 1778: Darien in America the women eate an was a Gryte was the care, and tut'ry that was ha'en, Baith night and day about the bony Weeane, The Jizzen-bed wi' rantry leaves was sain'd, And sik like things as the auld Grannies kend, Jeans paps wi' sa't and water washen clean, Reed that her milk get wrang, fan it was green. Under "Natal or Natalitious Gifts," Blount observes that "among the Grecians, the fifth day after the child's birth, the neighbours sent in gifts, or small tokens; from which custom, that among Christians of the godfathers sending gifts to the baptized infant, is thought to have flowed: and that also of the neighbours mother of it, sending gifts to the as is still used in North Wales." It is very observable here, that there was a feast at Athens, kept by private families, called Amphidromia, on the fifth day the custom for the gossips to run round after the birth of the child, when it was the fire with the infant in their arms, and then, having delivered it to the nurse, they were entertained with feasting and customs of child-birth are noticed in the dancing. Several French (or foreign) vol. i. p. 320-34. "Traitè des Superstitions" of M. Thiers, ever marries on a This Childermass, or Holy Innocents' Day.-(December 26th.) day is of most unlucky omen. None Childermas Day. It appears from the "Paston Letters, that the Coronation of Edward IV. was put off till the Monday, because the preceding Sunday was Childermas Day. Forby, in his "Vocabulary," 1830, says that the day on which this festival falls was reckoned unlucky for the commencement of any work or task. In the "Spectator," No. 7, we learn that the same notion of the weekly recurrence of this unlucky day was entertained at that time. The word itself is genuine Saxon, childe masse dag. Childirmas - dai, in Wicklif's time. Childery-masse in Rob. Glouc. "Gent. Mag.' Jan. 1799. In the statutes of the Collegiate Church of St. Mary Ottery, founded in 1337, is a direction, that none of the singing boys shall be suffered to proceed beyond the boundaries of the parish on Innocents' Day. It is certainly curious that in 1278 Archbishop Peckham issued an injunction to restrain the performance of service by little girls (parvula) on this festival at Godstow nunnery. Processions of children on this day |