SALIVA OR SPITTING.

Spittle among the ancients was esteemed a charm against all kinds of fascination. Thus we read in Theocritus

Τοιάδε μυθιζοίσα, τρὶς εἰς ἐὸν ἔπτυσε κόλπον.

"Thrice on my Breast I spit to guard me safe
From fascinating Charms;"

and Persius adverts to the custom of nurses spitting upon children—

"Ecce avia, aut metuens Divâm matertera, cunis
Exemit puerum, frontemque, atque uda labella
Infami digito, & lustralibus ante salivis
Expiat, urentes oculos inhibere perita."

"See how old Beldams expiations make;

To atone the Gods the Bantling up they take;
His Lips are wet with lustral spittle: thus
They think to make the Gods propitious."

Potter, in his Grecian Antiquities, instructs us that among the Greeks "it was customary to spit three times into their bosoms at the sight of a Madman, or one troubled with an Epilepsy;" and he refers to this passage of Theocritus for illustration. This they did, he adds, in defiance (as it were) of the omen; for spitting was a sign of the greatest contempt and aversion; whence Tue (to spit) is put for καταφρονεῖν, ἐν οὐδενὶ λογίζειν, i.e. to contemn.

The practice of nurses lustrating the children with spittle, according to Seward in his Conformity between Popery and Paganism, "was one of the Ceremonies used on the Dies Nominalis, the Day the Child was named; so that there can be no doubt of the Papists deriving this Custom from the Heathen Nurses and Grandmothers, They have indeed christened it, as it were, by flinging in some scriptural expressions; but then they have carried it to a more filthy extravagance by daubing it on the Nostrils of Adults as well as of Children."

Plutarch and Macrobius, as Sheridan's Persius reminds us, give the eighth day for girls, and the ninth for boys, as the days of lustration of infants; and Gregory Nazianzen calls this festival Ovoμaorηpia, because upon one of those days the child was named. The old grandmother or aunt moved around in a circle, and rubbed the child's forehead with spittle, and that with her middle finger, to preserve it from witchcraft; to which foolish custom Athanasius alludes when he calls the Heresy of Montanus and Priscilla γραῶν πτύσματα.

It is related by the Arabians that, when Hassan the grandson of Mahomet was born, he spat in his mouth.

Among the Mandingoes, according to Park, a child is named when it is seven or eight days old. The ceremony begins with shaving its head; after which the priest offers up a prayer invoking the blessing of God upon the infant and on the company present. Next he whis

pers a few sentences in the child's ear, and spits thrice in its face; after which he returns the young one to its mother.

According to Pliny, spitting was superstitiously observed in averting witchcraft and in giving a shrewder blow to an enemy. Hence seems to be derived the custom pugilists have of spitting in their hands before they begin their barbarous diversion, unless it was originally done for luck's sake. Several other vestiges of this superstition relative to fasting spittle, mentioned also by Pliny, still survive among our vulgar customs.

Lemnius writes: "Divers experiments shew what power and quality there is in Man's fasting Spittle, when he hath neither eat nor drunk before the use of it for it cures all tetters, itch, scabs, pushes, and creeping sores: and if venemous little beasts have fastened on any part of the body, as hornets, beetles, toads, spiders, and such like, that by their venome cause tumours and great pains and inflammations, do but rub the places with fasting Spittle, and all those effects will be gone and discussed. Since the qualities and effects of Spittle come from the humours (for out of them is it drawn by the faculty of Nature, as Fire draws distilled Water from hearbs), the reason may be easily understood why Spittle should do such strange things, and destroy some Creatures."-Secret Miracles of Nature, English Transl. Lond. 1658.

Sir Thomas Browne leaves it undecided whether the fasting spittle of man be poison unto snakes and vipers, “as experience hath made us doubt;" and in Browne's Map of the Microcosme (1642), speaking of lust the author says: "Fewell also must bee withdrawne from this Fire; fasting spittle must kill this Serpent."

The boys in the north of England have a custom amongst themselves of spitting their faith (or as they call it in the Northern Dialect "their Saul," ie., Soul), when required to make asseverations in matters which they think of consequence.

Colliers and others about Newcastle-upon-Tyne (in their combinations for the purpose of raising wages) are said to spit upon a stone together, by way of cementing their confederacy. Hence the popular saying, when persons are of the same party, or agree in sentiments, that "they spit upon the same stone."

Thus in Plaine Percevall the Peace Maker of England (1590) we read: "Nay no further Martin thou maist spit in that hole, for I'll come no more there." Park, in his Travels in the Interior of Africa, relates that they had not travelled far before the attendants insisted upon stopping to prepare a saphie or charm, to insure a good journey. "This was done by muttering a few sentences, and spitting upon a stone which was laid upon the ground. The same ceremony was repeated three times, after which the negroes proceeded with the greatest confidence."

In The Life of a satirical Puppy called Nim (1657), occurs the following passage: "One of his Guardians (being fortified with an old Charm) marches cross-legged, spitting three times, East, South, West: and afterwards prefers his Vallor to a catechising office. In the name of God, quoth he, what art thou? whence dost thou come?" &c. This address was to something that he supposed to be a ghost.

Fish-women generally spit upon their handsel, ¿.e., the first money they take, for good luck. Grose mentions this as a common practice

among the lower class of hucksters, pedlars, and dealers in fruit or fish, on receiving the price of the first goods they sell.

"It is still customary in the West of England," we read in Johnson and Steeven's Shakespeare (1780), "when the conditions of a bargain are agreed upon, for the parties to ratify it by joining their hands, and at the same time for the Purchaser to give an earnest."

The Handsel is referred to by Misson thus: "A Woman that goes much to market told me t'other Day that the Butcher Women of London, those that sell Fowls, Butter, Eggs, &c., and in general most rades-people, have a particular esteem for what they call a Handsel; that is to say, the first money they receive in a morning; they kiss it, spit upon it, and put it in a Pocket by itself."

Lemon's Dictionary (1783) explains "Handsell" to be "the first Money received at Market, which many superstitious people will spit on, either to render it tenacious that it may remain with them, and not vanish away like a Fairy Gift, or else to render it propitious and lucky, that it may draw more money to it."

Pennant testifies that in North Wales it was usual in his time to spit at the name of the Devil, and to smite their breasts at the name of Judas. "In their ordinary conversation the first name gives them no salivation, but is too familiar in their mouths."

In Browne's Britannia's Pastorals there is an account of the difficulty a blacksmith experiences in shoeing "a stubborne Nagge of Galloway'

"

"Or unback'd Jennet, or a Flaunders Mare,

That at the Forge stand snuffing of the Ayre;
The swarty Smith spits in his buckhorne fist,
And bids his Man bring out the five-fold Twist.”

Scot's treatise on Witchcraft directs: "To heal the King or Queen's Evil, or any other Soreness in the Throat, first touch the place with the hand of one that died an untimely death: otherwise let a Virgin fasting lay her hand on the sore and say: Apollo denyeth that the Heat of the Plague can increase where a naked Virgin quencheth it and spet three times upon it." The same authority prescribes a charm against witchcraft: "To unbewitch the be witched, you must spit in the pot where you have made water. Otherwise spit into the Shoe of your right foot, before you put it on; and that, Vairus saith, is good and wholesome to do, before you go into any dangerous place."

Delrio mentions those who spit thrice upon the hairs which come out of the head in combing, before they throw them away.

Grose tells us of a singular superstition in the army, where let us hope it is not without its use. To cagg, he says, is a military term used by the private soldiers, signifying a solemn vow or resolution not to get drunk for a certain time, or, as the term is, till their cagg is which vow is commonly observed with the strictest exactness, He adds that this term is also used in the same sense among the common people in Scotland, where the engagement is effects with divers ceremonies. According to Vallancey, "Cag is an old English word for fasting, or abstaining from meat or drink.”

out;

CHARM IN ODD NUMBERS.

In setting a hen, says Grose, the good women hold it an indispensable rule to put an odd number of eggs. Remedies of all kinds are directed to be taken, three, seven, or nine times; salutes with cannon consist of an odd number; and a royal salute is thrice seven, or twenty-one guns.

In Ravenscroft's Comedy of Mamamouchi (1675), Trickmore, habited as a physician, says: "Let the number of his Bleedings and Purgations be odd; Numero Deus impare gaudet."

This predilection for odd numbers is very ancient, and is mentioned by Virgil in his eighth Eclogue, where many spells and charms, still practised, are recorded: but notwithstanding these opinions in favour of odd numbers, the number thirteen is considered as extremely ominous, it being held that, when thirteen persons meet in a room, one of them will die within a year.

A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1796 suggests that the ancient popular superstition that it is unlucky to make one in a company of thirteen persons may probably have arisen from the paschal supper; of which thirteen partook.

In Fuller's Mixt Contemplations (1660) we read: "A covetous Courtier complained to King Edward the sixt of Christ Colledge in Cambridge, that it was a superstitious foundation, consisting of a Master and twelve Fellowes, in imitation of Christ and his twelve Apostles. He advised the King also to take away one or two Fellowships, so to discompose that superstitious number. Oh no! said the King, I have a better way than that, to mar their conceit; I will add a thirteenth Fellowship unto them; which he did accordingly, and so it remaineth unto this day."

In the Gentleman's Magazine for July 1796 is an account of a dinner party consisting of thirteen, and of a maiden lady's observation that, as none of her married friends were likely to make an addition to the number, she was sure that one of the company would die within the twelvemonth; while another writer in the same miscellany for 1798 refers the superstition to the calculations adhered to by the insurance offices, which presume that out of thirteen people taken indiscriminately one will die within a year. Insurance offices, however, are not of such remote antiquity.

Waldron writes of a crypt, or souterrain chapel near Peel Castle"Within it are thirteen pillars, on which the whole Chapel is supported ; they have a superstition that whatsoever stranger goes to see this Cavern out of curiosity, and omits to count the Pillars, shall do something to occasion being confined there."

The seventh son of a seventh son is accounted an infallible doctor: "It is manifest by experience, says Lupton, "that the seventh male Child, by just order (never a Girle or Wench being born between), doth heal only with touching (through a natural gift) the King's Evil; which is a speciall Gift of God, given to Kings and Queens, as daily experience doth witnesse." So, in a MS. in the Cotton Library marked Julius, F. 6., relating to superstitions in the Lordship of Gisborough in

Cleveland, in Yorkshire: "The seventh son of a seventh son is born a Physician; having an intuitive knowledge of the art of curing all Disorders, and sometimes the faculty of performing wonderful Cures by touching only."

In Bell's MS. on Witchcraft (1705) a passage runs thus: "Are there not some who cure by observing number, after the example of Balaam who used Magiam Geometricam (Numb. xxiii. 4): 'Build me here seven Altars, and prepare me seven Oxen and seven Rams, &c'? There are some Witches who enjoin the Sick to dipp their Shirt seven times in South running water. Elisha sends Naaman to wash in Jordan seven times. Elijah, on the top of Carmel, sends his Servant seven times to look out for Rain. When Jericho was taken, they compassed the City seven times."

Smith, in his MS. Life of William Marquess Berkeley, who was born in 1426, observes

"This Lord William closeth the second Septenary Number from Harding the Dane, as much differing from his last Ancestors as the Lord Thomas, the first septenary Lord, did from his six former Forefathers. I will not be superstitiously opinionated of the misteries of numbers, though it bee of longe standing amongst many learned men; neither will I possitively affirm that the number of Six is fatall to Weomen, and the numbers of Seaven and Nine to Men; or that those numbers have (as many have written) magnam in tota rerum naturâ potestatem, great power in kingdoms and comon wealths, in families, ages, of bodies, sickness, health, wealth, losse, &c.; Or, with Seneca and others: Septimus quisque Annus, &c. Each seaventh year is remarkable with Men, as the sixth is with Weomen. Or, as Divines teach: that in the numbers of Seaven there is a misticall perfection which our understandinge cannot attaine unto: and that Nature herself is observant of this number." His marginal references are as follow: "Philo the Jewe de Legis Alleg. lib. i.; Hipocrates; Bodin de Republicâ, lib. iv. cap. 2; the Practize of Piety, fol 418. 410; Censorinus de Die Natali, cap. 12; Seneca; Varro in Gellius, lib. iii.; Bucholcer; Jerom in Amos, 5."

Lemnius writes: "Augustus Cæsar, as Gellius saith, was glad and hoped that he was to live long, because he had passed his sixty-third year. For olde Men seldome passe that year, but they are in danger of their lives; and I have observed in the Low Countries almost infinite examples thereof. Now there are two years, the seventh and ninth, that commonly bring great changes in a Man's life and grea: dangers; wherefore sixty-three, that containes both these numbers multiplied together, comes not without heaps of dangers, for nine times seven, or seven times nine, are sixty-three. And thereupon the is called the climactericall year, because, beginning from seven, it dozi as it were by steps finish a Man's Life." To the same effect Werenfels: "Upon passing the climacterick year, he is as much rejoiced as if he had escaped out of the paws of Death. When he is sick, he will never swallow the Pills he is ordered to take, in equal number."

In Flecknoe's Enigmatical Characters (1665), the portraiture d One who troubles herself with everything" is in these terms: "She is perpetually haunted with a panick fear of 'Oh what will become us!' &c., and the Stories of Apparitions in the Air, and Prognostic of extraordinary to happen in the year sixty-six (when perhaps tis