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feeding them with sugar. But the dark brown and spotted butterflies were always detested, and were named witch butterflies. Ill luck, it was believed, would attend any one who kept one alive, but to kill one was an unlucky transaction, which would be attended by evil to the killer before evening.

Beetles were held in aversion by most people, and if one was found upon the person, if they were at all nervous, it was sufficient to cause a fit, at least would set them screaming with a shudder of detestation. But there was a variety of small beetles with a beautiful bronze coloured back, called gooldies by children, which were held in great favour. They were sometimes kept by children as little pets, and allowed to run upon their hands and clothes, and this was not because of their beauty, but because to possess a gooldie was considered very lucky. To kill a beetle brought rain the following day.

The lady bird, with its scarlet coat spotted with black, was another great favourite with most people. Very few would kill a lady bird, as such an act would surely be followed by calamity of some sort. Children were eager to catch one and watch it gracefully spreading out its wings from under its coat of mail, and then taking flight, while the group of youthful onlookers would repeat the rhyme,

or

"Lady bird, lady bird, fly away home,

Your house is on fire, and your children at home."

"Lady lady landers, fly away to Flanders."

But these practices were not altogether confined to children. Grown up girls, when they caught a lady bird, held it in their hands, and repeated the following couplet

"Fly away east or fly away west,

And show me where lives the one I like best."

Its flight was watched with great anxiety, and when it took the direction which the young girl wished, it was not only a sort of pleasure, but a proof of the augury.

If a person on going to his work, or while going an errand, were to see a hare cross the road in front of him, it was a token that ill luck would shortly befall him. Many under such circumstances would return home and not pursue their quest until the next meal had been eaten, for beyond that the evil influence did not extend. This superstition is very old, but it is not in every country or age connected with the hare. We have already seen in a quotation from Ovid that this superstition existed in his day, (page 2.) Probably the hare has been adopted in this country from the belief that witches assumed the form of that animal when on their nightly rambles, for how was the wayfarer to know that the hare which he saw was not a transformed witch, intent on working him mischief?

The cat was always a favourite in a family, and nothing was more unlucky than for one to die inside the house. I have known cases where, when such a misfortune occurred, the family were thrown into great consternation, surmising what possible form of evil this omen portended to them. Generally when a cat was known to be ailing, the animal was removed from the house and placed in

the coal cellar, or other outhouse, with plenty of food, and kept there until it either recovered or died. With the ancient Egyptians the cat was one of their favourite animals. The death of a cat belonging to a family was considered a great misfortune. Upon the oocurrence of such an event the household went into mourning, shaving off their eyebrows, and otherwise indicating their sorrow. In Scotland it was believed that witches often assumed the cat form while exercising their evil influence over a family.

It was pretty generally believed a few years ago that in large fires kept continually burning there was generated an animal called a salamander. It required seven years to grow and attain maturity, and if the fires were kept burning longer than that there was great danger that the animal might make its escape from its fiery matrix, and, if this should happen, it would range round the world, destroying all it came in contact with, itself almost indestructible. Hence large fires, such as those of blast furnaces in ironworks, were extinguished before the expiry of the seven years, and the embryo monster taken out. Such an idea may have had its origin in a misinterpretation of some of St. John's apocalyptic visions, or may have been a survival of the legend of the fiery dragon whose very breath was fire, a legend common during the middle ages and also in ancient Rome. Bacon, in his Natural History, says "There is an ancient tradition of the salamander that it liveth in the fire, and hath force also to extinguish the fire"; and, according to Pliny, Book X. chap. 67,-"The salamander, made in fashion of a lizard, with spots like to stars, never comes abroad, and sheweth itself only

during great showers. In fair weather, he is not seen; he is of so cold a complexion that if he do but touch the fire he would quench it."-Holland. This is quite opposite to the modern notion of it that it was generated in the fire, but such legends take transformations suitable to the age and locality.

The goat has been associated both in ancient and modern times with the devil, or evil spirit, who is depicted with horns, hoofs, and a tail. In modern times, he was supposed to haunt streams and woods in this disguise, and to be present at many social gatherings. He was popularly credited with assisting, in this disguise, in the instruction of a novice into the mysteries of Freemasonry, and was supposed to allow the novice to ride on his back, and go withershins three times round the room. I have known men who were anxious to be admitted into the order deterred by the thought of thus meeting with the devil at their initiation.

While staying at Luss lately, I was informed that a mill near to Loch Lomond had formerly been haunted by the goat demon, and that the miller had suffered much from its mischievous disposition. It frequently let on the water when there was no grain to grind. But one night the miller watched his mill, and had a meeting with the goblin, who demanded the miller's name, and was informed that it was myself. After a trial of strength, the miller got the best of it, and the spirit departed. After hearing this, I remembered that the same story, under a slightly-different form, had been told me when a boy in my native village. This was the story as then told :—A certain miller in the west missed a quantity of his meal every day, although his mill was carefully and

securely locked. One night he sat up and watched, hiding himself behind the hopper. After a time, he was surprised to see the hopper beginning to go, and, looking up, he saw a little manakin holding a little cappie in his hand and filling it at the hopper. The miller was so frightened that this time he let him go; but, in a few minutes, the manakin returned again with his cappie. Then the miller stepped out from his hiding-place, and said, “Aye, my manakin, and wha may you be, and what's your name?" To which the manakin, without being apparently disturbed, replied, "My name is Self, and what's your name?” "My name is Self, too," replied the miller. The manakin's cappie being by this time again full, he began to walk off, but the miller gave him a whack with his stick, and then ran again to his hiding-place. The manakin gave a terrible yell, which brought from a hidden corner an old woman, crying, "Wha did it? Wha did it?" The manakin answered, "It was Self did it." Whereat, slapping the manakin on the cheek, the old woman said, "If Self did it, Self must mend it again." After this, they both left the mill, which immediately stopped working. The miller was never afterwards troubled in this way, and, at the same time, a goat which for generations had been observed at gloaming and on moonlight nights in the dell, and on the banks of the stream which drove the mill, disappeared, and was never seen again.

To meet a sow the first thing in the morning boded bad luck for the day.

If a male cat came into the house and shewed itself friendly to any one, it was a lucky omen for that person.

To meet a piebald horse was lucky. If two such

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