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diff --git a/old/52024-0.txt b/old/52024-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index ca3cb95..0000000 --- a/old/52024-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,9009 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Strange Survivals, by Sabine Baring-Gould - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Strange Survivals - Some Chapters in the History of Man - -Author: Sabine Baring-Gould - -Release Date: May 9, 2016 [EBook #52024] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STRANGE SURVIVALS *** - - - - -Produced by Chris Curnow, Elisa and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive). - - - - - - - - - -STRANGE SURVIVALS. - - - - -_BY THE SAME AUTHOR._ - - - ~Old Country Life.~ Large Crown 8vo, 10s. 6d. - - ~Historic Oddities and Strange Events.~ Crown 8vo, 6s. - - ~Freaks of Fanaticism.~ Crown 8vo, 6s. - - ~Songs of the West~: Traditional Ballads and Songs of the West of - England, with their Traditional Melodies. Parts I., II., and III., 3s. - each; Part IV., 5s. Complete in one Vol., French Morocco, gilt edges, - 15s. - - ~Yorkshire Oddities and Strange Events.~ Crown 8vo, 6s. - - ~In the Roar Of the Sea~: A Tale of the Cornish Coast. Crown 8vo, 6s. - - ~Jacquetta~, and other Stories. Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. Boards, 2s. - - ~Arminell~: A Social Romance. Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. Boards, 2s. - - ~Urith~: A Story of Dartmoor. Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. - - ~Margery Of Quether~, and other Stories. Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d. - - ~The Tragedy of the Cæsars~: The Emperors of the Julian and Claudian - Lines. 2 Vols., Royal 8vo. - - [_In the Press._ - - - - -[Illustration: RIDGE TILE, TOTNES. - - _Frontispiece._] - - - - - STRANGE SURVIVALS - - Some Chapters in the History of Man - - - BY - - S. BARING-GOULD, M.A. - - AUTHOR OF “MEHALAH,” “OLD COUNTRY LIFE,” “URITH,” - “IN THE ROAR OF THE SEA.” - - - Methuen & Co. - 18 BURY STREET, LONDON, W.C. - 1892. - - - - -_Printed by Cowan & Co., Limited, Perth._ - - - - -CONTENTS. - - - PAGE - - I. ON FOUNDATIONS 1 - - II. ON GABLES 36 - - III. OVENS 62 - - IV. BEDS 84 - - V. STRIKING A LIGHT 110 - - VI. UMBRELLAS 129 - - VII. DOLLS 139 - - VIII. REVIVALS 149 - - IX. BROADSIDE BALLADS 180 - - X. RIDDLES 220 - - XI. THE GALLOWS 238 - - XII. HOLES 252 - - XIII. RAISING THE HAT 282 - - - - -STRANGE SURVIVALS: - -_SOME CHAPTERS IN THE HISTORY OF MAN._ - - - - -I. - -On Foundations. - - -When the writer was a parson in Yorkshire, he had in his parish a -blacksmith blessed, or afflicted--which shall we say?--with seven -daughters and not a son. Now the parish was a newly constituted one, -and it had a temporary licensed service room; but during the week -before the newly erected church was to be consecrated, the blacksmith’s -wife presented her husband with a boy--his first boy. Then the -blacksmith came to the parson, and the following conversation ensued:-- - -Blacksmith: “Please, sir, I’ve gotten a little lad at last, and I want -to have him baptised on Sunday.” - -Parson: “Why, Joseph, put it off till Thursday, when the new church -will be consecrated; then your little man will be the first child -christened in the new font in the new church.” - -Blacksmith (shuffling with his feet, hitching his shoulders, looking -down): “Please, sir, folks say that t’ fust child as is baptised i’ a -new church is bound to dee (die). T’ old un (the devil) claims it. Now, -sir, I’ve seven little lasses, and but one lad. If this were a lass -again ’twouldn’t ’a’ mattered; but as it’s a lad--well, sir, I won’t -risk it.” - -A curious instance this of a very widespread and very ancient -superstition, the origin of which we shall arrive at presently. - -In the first place, let us see the several forms it takes. - -All over the north of Europe the greatest aversion is felt to be the -first to enter a new building, or to go over a newly erected bridge. -If to do this is not everywhere and in all cases thought to entail -death, it is considered supremely unlucky. Several German legends -are connected with this superstition. The reader, if he has been to -Aix-la-Chapelle, has doubtless had the rift in the great door pointed -out to him, and has been told how it came there. The devil and the -architect made a compact that the first should draw the plans, and -the second gain the _Kudos_; and the devil’s wage was to be that he -should receive the first who crossed the threshold of the church when -completed. When the building was finished, the architect’s conscience -smote him, and he confessed the compact to the bishop. “We’ll do him,” -said the prelate; that is to say, he said something to this effect in -terms more appropriate to the century in which he lived, and to his -high ecclesiastical office. - -When the procession formed to enter the minster for the consecration, -the devil lurked in ambush behind a pillar, and fixed his wicked -eye on a fine fat and succulent little chorister as his destined -prey. But alas for his hopes! this fat little boy had been given his -instructions, and, as he neared the great door, loosed the chain of a -wolf and sent it through. The evil one uttered a howl of rage, snatched -up the wolf and rushed away, giving the door a kick, as he passed it, -that split the solid oak. - -The castle of Gleichberg, near Rönskild, was erected by the devil in -one night. The Baron of Gleichberg was threatened by his foes, and he -promised to give the devil his daughter if he erected the castle before -cockcrow. The nurse overheard the compact, and, just as the castle was -finished, set fire to a stack of corn. The cock, seeing the light, -thought morning had come, and crowed before the last stone was added to -the walls. The devil in a rage carried off the old baron--and served -him right--instead of the maiden. We shall see presently how this story -works into our subject. - -At Frankfort may be seen, on the Sachsenhäuser Bridge, an iron rod with -a gilt cock on the top. This is the reason: An architect undertook -to build the bridge within a fixed time, but three days before that -on which he had contracted to complete it, the bridge was only half -finished. In his distress he invoked the devil, who undertook the job -if he might receive the first who crossed the bridge. The work was -done by the appointed day, and then the architect drove a cock over -the bridge. The devil, who had reckoned on getting a human being, was -furious; he tore the poor cock in two, and flung it with such violence -at the bridge that he knocked two holes in it, which to the present day -cannot be closed, for if stones are put in by day they are torn out by -night. In memorial of the event, the image of the cock was set up on -the bridge. - -Sometimes the owner of a house or barn calls in the devil, and forfeits -his life or his soul by so doing, which falls to the devil when the -building is complete. - -And now, without further quotation of examples, what do they mean? They -mean this--that in remote times a sacrifice of some sort was offered -at the completion of a building; but not only at the completion--the -foundation of a house, a castle, a bridge, a town, even of a church, -was laid in blood. In heathen times a sacrifice was offered to the god -under whose protection the building was placed; in Christian times, -wherever much of old Paganism lingered on, the sacrifice continued, -but was given another signification. It was said that no edifice would -stand firmly unless the foundations were laid in blood. Some animal was -placed under the corner-stone--a dog, a sow, a wolf, a black cock, a -goat, sometimes the body of a malefactor who had been executed for his -crimes. - -Here is a ghastly story, given by Thiele in his “Danish Folk-tales.” -Many years ago, when the ramparts were being raised round Copenhagen, -the wall always sank, so that it was not possible to get it to stand -firm. They, therefore, took a little innocent girl, placed her in a -chair by a table, and gave her playthings and sweetmeats. While she -thus sat enjoying herself, twelve masons built an arch over her, -which, when completed, they covered with earth to the sound of drums -and trumpets. By this process the walls were made solid. - -When, a few years ago, the Bridge Gate of the Bremen city walls was -demolished, the skeleton of a child was actually found embedded in the -foundations. - -Heinrich Heine says on this subject: “In the Middle Ages the opinion -prevailed that when any building was to be erected something living -must be killed, in the blood of which the foundation had to be laid, -by which process the building would be secured from falling; and in -ballads and traditions the remembrance is still preserved how children -and animals were slaughtered for the purpose of strengthening large -buildings with their blood.” - -The story of the walls of Copenhagen comes to us only as a tradition, -but the horrible truth must be told that in all probability it is no -invention of the fancy, but a fact. - -Throughout Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and North Germany, tradition -associates some animal with every church, and it goes by the name of -Kirk-Grim. These Kirk-Grims are the goblin apparitions of the beasts -that were buried under the foundation-stones of the churches. It is the -same in Devonshire--the writer will not say at the present day, but -certainly forty or fifty years ago. Indeed, when he was a boy he drew -up a list of the Kirk-Grims that haunted all the neighbouring parishes. -To the church of the parish in which he lived, belonged two white sows -yoked together with a silver chain; to another, a black dog; to a -third, a ghostly calf; to a fourth, a white lamb. - -Afzelius, in his collection of Swedish folk-tales, says: “Heathen -superstition did not fail to show itself in the construction of -Christian churches. In laying the foundations, the people retained -something of their former religion, and sacrificed to their old -deities, whom they could not forget, some animal, which they buried -alive, either under the foundation or without the wall. The spectre of -this animal is said to wander about the churchyard at night, and is -called the Kirk-Grim. A tradition has also been preserved that under -the altar of the first Christian churches, a lamb was usually buried, -which imparted security and duration to the edifice. This is an emblem -of the true Church Lamb--the Saviour, who is the Corner-Stone of His -Church. When anyone enters a church at a time when there is no service, -he may chance to see a little lamb spring across the quire and vanish. -This is the church-lamb. When it appears to a person in the churchyard, -particularly to the grave-digger, it is said to forbode the death of a -child.” - -Thiele, in his “Danish Folk-tales,” says much the same of the churches -in Denmark. He assures us that every church there has its Kirk-Grim, -which dwells either in the tower, or in some other place of concealment. - -What lies at the base of all stories of haunted houses is the same -idea. All old mansions had their foundations laid in blood. This fact -is, indeed, forgotten, but it is not forgotten that a ghostly guard -watches the house, who is accounted for in various ways, and very often -a crime is attributed to one of the former inhabitants to account for -the walking of the ghost. By no means infrequently the crime, which, -in the popular mind, accounts for the ghost, can be demonstrated -historically not to have taken place. Again, in a great number of -cases, the spectre attached to a building is not that of a human being -at all, but of some animal, and then tradition is completely at a loss -to explain this phenomenon. - -The proverb says that there is a skeleton in every man’s house, and the -proverb is a statement of what at one time was a fact. Every house had -its skeleton, and every house was intended to have its skeleton; and -what was more, every house was designed to have not only its skeleton, -but its ghost. - -We are going back to heathen times, when we say that at the -foundation-stone laying of every house, castle, or bridge, provision -was made to give to each its presiding, haunting, protecting spirit. -The idea, indeed, of providing every building with its spectre, as -its spiritual guard, was not the primary idea, it grew later, out of -the original one, the characteristically Pagan idea, of a sacrifice -associated with the beginning of every work of importance. - -When the primeval savage lived in a hut of poles over which he -stretched skins, he thought little of his house, which could be carried -from place to place with ease, but directly he began to build of stone, -or raise earthworks as fortifications, he considered himself engaged on -a serious undertaking. He was disturbing the face of Mother Earth, he -was securing to himself in permanency a portion of that surface which -had been given by her to all her children in common. Partly with the -notion of offering a propitiatory sacrifice to the earth, and partly -also with the idea of securing to himself for ever a portion of soil by -some sacramental act, the old Pagan laid the foundations of his house -and fortress in blood. - -Every great work was initiated with sacrifice. If a man started on -a journey, he first made an offering. A warlike expedition was not -undertaken till an oblation had been made, and the recollection of -this lingered on in an altered form of superstition, _viz._, that that -side would win the day which was the first to shed blood, a belief -alluded to in the “Lady of the Lake.” A ship could not be launched -without a sacrifice, and the baptism of a vessel nowadays with a bottle -of wine is a relic of the breaking of the neck of a human victim and -the suffusion of the prow with blood, just as the burial of a bottle -with coins at the present day under a foundation stone is the faded -reminiscence of the immuring of a human victim. - -Building, in early ages, was not so lightly taken in hand as at -present, and the principles of architectural construction were ill -understood. If the walls showed tokens of settlement, the reason -supposed was that the earth had not been sufficiently propitiated, and -that she refused to bear the superimposed burden. - -Plutarch says that when Romulus was about to found the Eternal City, -by the advice of Etruscan Augurs, he opened a deep pit, and cast into -it the “first fruits of everything that is reckoned good by use, or -necessary by nature,” and before it was closed by a great stone, -Faustulus and Quinctilius were killed and laid under it. This place -was the Comitium, and from it as a centre, Romulus described the -circuit of the walls.[1] The legend of Romulus slaying Remus because -he leaned over the low walls is probably a confused recollection of -the sacrifice of the brothers who were laid under the bounding wall. -According to Pomponius Mela, the brothers Philæni were buried alive -at the Carthaginian frontier. A dispute having arisen between the -Carthaginians and Cyrenæans about their boundaries, it was agreed that -deputies should start at a fixed time from each of the cities, and -that the place of their meeting should thenceforth form the limit of -demarcation. The Philæni departed from Carthage, and advanced much -farther than the Cyrenæans. The latter accused them of having set out -before the time agreed upon, but at length consented to accept the -spot which they had reached as a boundary line, if the Philæni would -submit to be buried alive there. To this the brothers consented. Here -the story is astray of the truth. Really, the Philæni were buried at -the confines of the Punic territory, to be the ghostly guardians of -the frontier. There can be little doubt that elsewhere burials took -place at boundaries, and it is possible that the whipping of boys -on gang-days or Rogations may have been a mediæval and Christian -mitigation of an old sacrifice. Certainly there are many legends of -spectres that haunt and watch frontiers, and these legends point to -some such practice. But let us return to foundations. - -In the ballad of the “Cout of Keeldar,” in the minstrelsy of the -Border, it is said, - - “And here beside the mountain flood - A massy castle frowned, - Since first the Pictish race in blood - The haunted pile did found.” - -In a note, Sir Walter Scott alludes to the tradition that the -foundation stones of Pictish raths were bathed in human gore. - -A curious incident occurs in the legend of St. Columba, founder of -Iona, which shows how deep a hold the old custom had taken. The -original idea of a sacrifice to propitiate the earth was gone, but the -idea that appropriation of a site was not possible without one took -its place. The Saint is said to have buried one of his monks, Oran by -name, alive, under the foundations of his new abbey, because, as fast -as he built, the spirits of the soil demolished by night what he raised -by day. In the life of the Saint by O’Donnell (Trias Thaumat.) the -horrible truth is disguised. The story is told thus:--On arriving at Hy -(Iona), St. Columba said, that whoever willed to die first would ratify -the right of the community to the island by taking corporal possession -of it. Then, for the good of the community, Oran consented to die. That -is all told, the dismal sequel, the immuring of the living monk, is -passed over. More recent legend, unable to understand the burial alive -of a monk, explains it in another way. Columba interred him because he -denied the resurrection. - -It is certain that the usage remained in practice long after Europe had -become nominally Christian; how late it continued we shall be able to -show presently. - -Grimm, in his “German Mythology,” says: “It was often considered -necessary to build living animals, even human beings, into the -foundations on which any edifice was reared, as an oblation to the -earth to induce her to bear the superincumbent weight it was proposed -to lay on her. By this horrible practice it was supposed that the -stability of the structure was assured, as well as other advantages -gained.” Good weather is still thought, in parts of Germany, to be -secured by building a live cock into a wall, and cattle are prevented -from straying by burying a living blind dog under the threshold of a -stable. The animal is, of course, a substitute for a human victim, just -as the bottle and coins are the modern substitute for the live beast. - -In France, among the peasantry, a new farmhouse is not entered on -till a cock has been killed, and its blood sprinkled in the rooms. In -Poitou, the explanation given is that if the living are to dwell in -the house, the dead must have first passed through it. And in Germany, -after the interment of a living being under a foundation was abandoned, -it was customary till comparatively recently to place an empty coffin -under the foundations of a house. - -This custom was by no means confined to Pagan Europe. We find traces of -it elsewhere. It is alluded to by Joshua in his curse on Jericho which -he had destroyed, “Cursed be the man before the Lord, that riseth up, -and buildeth this city Jericho: _he shall lay the foundation thereof in -his firstborn_, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of -it.” (Josh. vi. 26.) - -The idea of a sacrifice faded out with the spread of Christianity, and -when tenure of soil and of buildings became fixed and usual, the notion -of securing it by blood disappeared; but in its place rose the notion -of securing a spiritual protector to a building, sacred or profane, and -until quite late, the belief remained that weak foundations could be -strengthened and be made to stand by burying a living being, generally -human, under them. The thought of a sacrifice to the Earth goddess was -quite lost, but not the conviction that by a sacrifice the cracking -walls could be secured. - -The vast bulk of the clergy in the early Middle Ages were imbued with -the superstitions of the race and age to which they belonged. They were -of the people. They were not reared in seminaries, and so cut off from -the influences of ignorant and superstitious surroundings. They were -a little ahead of their fellows in culture, but only a little. The -mediæval priest allowed the old Pagan customs to continue unrebuked, -he half believed in them himself. One curious and profane incident of -the close of the fifteenth century may be quoted to show to how late -a date heathenism lingered mixed up with Christian ideas. An Italian -contemporary historian says, that when Sessa was besieged by the King -of Naples, and ran short of water, the inhabitants put a consecrated -host in the mouth of an ass, and buried the ass alive in the porch of -the church. Scarcely was this horrible ceremony completed, before the -windows of heaven were opened, and the rain poured down.[2] - -In 1885, Holsworthy parish church was restored, and in the course of -restoration the south-west angle wall of the church was taken down. In -it, embedded in the mortar and stone, was found a skeleton. The wall of -this portion of the church was faulty, and had settled. According to -the account given by the masons who found the ghastly remains, there -was no trace of a tomb, but every appearance of the person having been -buried alive, and hurriedly. A mass of mortar was over the mouth, and -the stones were huddled about the corpse as though hastily heaped about -it, then the wall was leisurely proceeded with. - -The parish church of Kirkcudbright was partially taken down in 1838, -when, in removing the lintel of the west doorhead, a skull of a man was -found built into the wall above the doorway. This parish church was -only erected in 1730, so that this seems to show a dim reminiscence, at -a comparatively recent date, of the obligation to place some relic of a -man in the wall to insure its stability. - -In the walls of the ancient castle of Henneberg, the seat of a line -of powerful counts, is a relieving arch, and the story goes that a -mason engaged on the castle was induced by the offer of a sum of money -to yield his child to be built into it. The child was given a cake, -and the father stood on a ladder superintending the building. When -the last stone was put in, the child screamed in the wall, and the -man, overwhelmed with self-reproach, lost his hold, fell from the -ladder, and broke his neck. A similar story is told of the castle of -Liebenstein. A mother sold her child for the purpose. As the wall rose -about the little creature, it cried out, “Mother, I still see you!” -then, later, “Mother, I can hardly see you!” and lastly, “Mother, I see -you no more!” In the castle of Reichenfels, also, a child was immured, -and the superstitious conviction of the neighbourhood is, that were the -stones that enclose it removed, the castle would fall. - -In the Eifel district, rising out of a gorge is a ridge on which stand -the ruins of two extensive castles, Ober and Nieder Manderscheid. -According to popular tradition, a young damsel was built into the wall -of Nieder Manderscheid, yet with an opening left, through which she was -fed as long as she was able to eat. In 1844 the wall at this point was -broken through, and a cavity was discovered in the depth of the wall, -in which a human skeleton actually was discovered. - -The Baron of Winneburg, in the Eifel, ordered a master mason to erect -a strong tower whilst he was absent. On his return he found that the -tower had not been built, and he threatened to dismiss the mason. -That night someone came to the man and said to him: “I will help you -to complete the tower in a few days, if you will build your little -daughter into the foundations.” The master consented, and at midnight -the child was laid in the wall, and the stones built over her. That is -why the tower of Winneburg is so strong that it cannot be overthrown. - -When the church of Blex, in Oldenburg, was building, the foundations -gave way, being laid in sand. Accordingly, the authorities of the -village crossed the Weser, and bought a child from a poor mother at -Bremerleke, and built it alive into the foundations. Two children were -thus immured in the basement of the wall of Sandel, one in that of -Ganderkesee. At Butjadeirgen, a portion of the dyke gave way, therefore -a boy named Hugo was sunk alive in the foundations of the dam. In 1615 -Count Anthony Günther of Oldenburg, on visiting a dyke in process of -construction, found the workmen about to bury an infant under it. The -count interfered, saved the child, reprimanded the dam-builders, and -imprisoned the mother who had sold her babe for the purpose. Singularly -enough, this same count is declared by tradition to have buried a -living child in the foundations of his castle at Oldenburg. - -When Detinetz was built on the Danube, the Slavonic settlers sent out -into the neighbourhood to capture the first child encountered. A boy -was taken, and walled into the foundations of their town. Thence the -city takes its name, _dijete_ is the Slavonic for boy. - -In the life of Merlin, as given by Nennius and by Geoffrey of Monmouth, -we are told that Vortigern tried to build a castle, but that the -walls gave way as fast as he erected them. He consulted the wise men, -and they told him that his foundations could only be made to stand -if smeared with the blood of a fatherless boy. Thus we get the same -superstition among Celts, Slaves, Teutons, and Northmen. - -Count Floris III. of Holland, who married Ada, daughter of Henry, the -son of David, King of Scotland, visited the island of Walcheren in -1157, to receive the homage of the islanders. On his return to Holland -he despatched a number of experienced workmen to repair the sea-walls -which were in a dilapidated condition. In one place where the dam -crossed a quicksand, they were unable to make it stand till they had -sunk a live dog in the quicksand. The dyke is called Hontsdamm to this -day. Usually a live horse was buried in such places, and this horse -haunts the sea-walls; if an incautious person mounts it, the spectre -beast plunges into the sea and dissolves into foam. - -The dog or horse is the substitute for a child. A few centuries earlier -the dyke builders would have reared it over an infant buried alive. -The trace of the substitution remains in some folk-tales. An architect -promises the devil the soul of the first person who crosses the -threshold of the house, or church, or goes over the bridge he has built -with the devil’s aid. The evil one expects a human victim, and is put -off with a wolf, or a dog, or a cock. At Aix-la-Chapelle, as we have -seen, a wolf took the place of a human victim: at Frankfort a cock. - -In Yorkshire, the Kirk-Grim is usually a huge black dog with eyes like -saucers, and is called a padfoot. It generally frequents the church -lanes; and he who sees it knows that he must die within the year. -And now--to somewhat relieve this ghastly subject--I may tell an odd -incident connected with it, to which the writer contributed something. - -On a stormy night in November, he was out holding over his head a big -umbrella, that had a handle of white bone. A sudden gust--and the -umbrella was whisked out of his hand, and carried away into infinite -darkness and mist of rain. - -That same night a friend of his was walking down a very lonely -church lane, between hedges and fields, without a house near. In the -loneliest, most haunted portion of this lane, his feet, his pulsation -and his breath were suddenly arrested by the sight of a great black -creature, occupying the middle of the way, shaking itself impatiently, -moving forward, then bounding on one side, then running to the other. -No saucer eyes, it is true, were visible, but it had a white nose that, -to the horrified traveller, seemed lit with a supernatural phosphoric -radiance. Being a man of intelligence, he would not admit to himself -that he was confronted by the padfoot; he argued with himself that -what he saw was a huge Newfoundland dog. So he addressed it in broad -Yorkshire: “Sith’ere, lass, don’t be troublesome. There’s a bonny dog, -let me pass. I’ve no stick. I wi’nt hurt thee. Come, lass, come, let me -by.” - -At that moment a blast rushed along the lane. The black dog, monster, -padfoot, made a leap upon the terrified man, who screamed with fear. He -felt claws in him, and he grasped--an umbrella. Mine! - -That this idea of human victims being required to ensure the stability -of a structure is by no means extinct, and that it constitutes a -difficulty that has to be met and overcome in the East, will be seen -from the following interesting extract from a recent number of the -_London and China Telegraph_. The writer says:--“Ever and anon the -idea gets abroad that a certain number of human bodies are wanted, -in connection with laying the foundation of some building that is in -progress; and a senseless panic ensues, and everyone fears to venture -out after nightfall. The fact that not only is no proof forthcoming of -anyone having been kidnapped, but that, on the contrary, the circle of -friends and acquaintances is complete, quite fails to allay it. But -is there ever any reasoning with superstition? The idea has somehow -got started; it is a familiar one, and it finds ready credence. Nor -is the belief confined either to race, creed, or locality. We find -it cropping up in India and Korea, in China and Malaysia, and we -have a strong impression of having read somewhere of its appearance -in Persia. Like the notions of celibacy and retreat in religion, it -is common property--the outcome, apparently, of a certain course of -thought rather than of any peculiar surroundings. The description of -the island of Solovetsk in Mr. Hepworth Dixon’s ‘Free Russia’ might -serve, _mutatis mutandis_, for a description of Pootoo; and so a report -of one of these building scares in China would serve equally well for -the Straits. When the last mail left, an idea had got abroad among the -Coolie population that a number of heads were required in laying the -foundations of some Government works at Singapore; and so there was a -general fear of venturing out after nightfall, lest the adventurer -should be pounced on and decapitated. One might have thought the ways -of the Singapore Government were better understood! That such ideas -should get abroad about the requirements of Government even in China -or Annam is curious enough; but the British Government of the Straits -above all others! Yet there it is; the natives had got it into their -heads that the Government stood in need of 960 human heads to ensure -the safe completion of certain public works, and that 480 of the -number were still wanting. Old residents in Shanghai will remember -the outbreak of a very similar panic at Shanghai, in connection with -the building of the cathedral. The idea got abroad that the Municipal -Council wanted a certain number of human bodies to bury beneath the -foundation of that edifice, and a general dread of venturing out after -nightfall--especially of going past the cathedral compound--prevailed -for weeks, with all kinds of variations and details. A similar notion -was said to be at the bottom of the riots which broke out last autumn -at Söul. Foreigners--the missionaries for choice--were accused of -wanting children for some mysterious purpose, and the mob seized and -decapitated in the public streets nine Korean officials who were -said to have been parties to kidnapping victims to supply the want. -This, however, seems more akin to the curious desire for infantile -victims which was charged against missionaries in the famous Honan -proclamation which preceded the Tientsin massacre, and which was one -of the items in the indictment against the Roman Catholics on the -occasion of that outbreak. Sometimes children’s brains are wanted for -medicine, sometimes their eyes are wanted to compound material for -photography. But these, although cognate, are not precisely similar -superstitions to the one which now has bestirred the population of -Singapore. A case came to us, however, last autumn, from Calcutta, -which is so exactly on all fours with this latest manifestation, that -it would almost seem as if the idea had travelled like an epidemic -and broken out afresh in a congenial atmosphere. Four villagers of -the Dinagepore district were convicted, last September, of causing -the death of two Cabulis and injuring a third, for the precise reason -that they had been kidnapping children to be sacrificed in connection -with the building of a railway bridge over the Mahanuddi. A rumour -had got abroad that such proceedings were in contemplation, and when -these Cabulis came to trade with the villagers they were denounced as -kidnappers and mobbed. Two were killed outright, their bodies being -flung into the river; while the third, after being severely handled, -escaped by hiding himself. We are not aware whether the origin of -this curious fancy has ever been investigated and explained, for it -may be taken for granted that, like other superstitions, it has its -origin in some forgotten custom or faded belief of which a burlesque -tradition only remains. This is not the place to go into a disquisition -on the origin of human sacrifice; but it is not difficult to believe -that, to people who believe in its efficacy, the idea of offering up -human beings to propitiate the deity, when laying the foundations of -a public edifice, would be natural enough. Whether the notion which -crops up now and again, all over Asia, really represents the tradition -of a practice--whether certain monarchs ever did bury human bodies, -as we bury newspapers and coins, beneath the foundations of their -palaces and temples, is a question we must leave others to answer. It -is conceivable that they may have done so, as an extravagant form of -sacrifice; and it is also conceivable that the abounding capacity of -man for distorting superstitious imagery, may have come to transmute -the idea of sacrificing human beings as a measure of propitiation, into -that of employing human bodies as actual elements in the foundation -itself. It is possible that the inhabitants of Dinagepore conserve -the more ideal and spiritual view, which the practical Chinese mind -has materialised, as in the recent instance at Singapore. Anyhow, the -idea is sufficiently wide-spread and curious to deserve a word of -examination as well as of passing record.” - -[Illustration: _Fig. 1._--FIGURE FOUND UNDER THE FOUNDATIONS AT -STINVEZAND.] - -When the north wall of the parish church of Chulmleigh in North Devon -was taken down a few years ago--a wall of Perpendicular date--in it was -found laid a very early carved figure of Christ crucified to a vine, -or interlacing tree, such as is seen in so-called Runic monuments. -The north wall having been falling in the fifteenth century, had been -re-erected, and this figure was laid in it, and the wall erected over -it, just as, in the same county, about the same time, the wall of -Holsworthy Church was built over a human being. At Chulmleigh there was -an advance in civilisation. The image was laid over the wall in place -of the living victim. - -When, in 1842, the remains of a Romano-Batavian temple were explored -at Stinvezand, near Rysbergen, a singular mummy-like object was found -under the foundation. This was doubtless a substitute for the human -victim. - -The stubborn prejudice which still exists in all parts against a first -burial in a new cemetery or churchyard is due to the fact that in Pagan -times the first to be buried was the victim, and in mediæval times was -held to be the perquisite of the devil, who stepped into the place of -the Pagan deity. - -Every so-called Devil’s Bridge has some story associated with it -pointing to sacrifice, and sometimes to the substitution of an animal -for the human victim. The almost invariable story is that the devil -had been invoked and promised his aid, if given the first life that -passed over the bridge. On the completion of the structure a goat, or -a dog, or a rabbit is driven over, and is torn to pieces by the devil. -At Pont-la-Ville, near Courbières, is a four-arched Devil’s Bridge, -where six mice, then six rats, and lastly six cats, were driven across, -according to the popular story, in place of the eighteen human souls -demanded by the Evil One. - -At Cahors, in Ouercy, is a singularly fine bridge over the Lot, with -three towers on it. The lower side of the middle tower could never -be finished, it always gave way at one angle. The story goes that -the devil was defrauded of his due--the soul of the architect--when -he helped to build the bridge, and so declared that the bridge never -should be finished. Of late years the tower has been completed, and -in token that modern skill has triumphed, the Evil One has been -represented on the angle, carved in stone. The legend shows that the -vulgar thought that the bridge should have been laid in blood, and as -it was not so, concluded that the faulty tower was due to the neglect -of the Pagan usage. - -The black dog that haunts Peel Castle, and the bloodhound of Launceston -Castle, are the spectres of the animals buried under their walls, and -so the White Ladies and luminous children, who are rumoured to appear -in certain old mansions, are the faded recollections of the unfortunate -sacrifices offered when these houses were first reared, not, perhaps, -the present buildings, but the original manor-halls before the Conquest. - -At Coatham, in Yorkshire, is a house where a little child is seen -occasionally--it vanishes when pursued. In some German castles the -apparition of a child is called the “Still child;” it is deadly pale, -white-clothed, with a wreath on the head. At Falkenstein, near Erfurth, -the appearance is that of a little maiden of ten, white as a sheet, -with long double plaits of hair. A white baby haunts Lünisberg, near -Aerzen. I have heard of a house in the West of England, where on a -pane of glass, every cold morning, is found the scribbling of little -fingers. However often the glass be cleaned, the marks of the ghostly -fingers return. The Cauld Lad of Hilton Castle in the valley of Wear -is well known. He is said to wail at night: - - “Wae’s me, wae’s me, - The acorn’s not yet - Fallen from the tree - That’s to grow the wood, - That’s to make the cradle, - That’s to rock the bairn, - That’s to grow to a man, - That’s to lay me.” - -At Guilsland, in Cumberland, is another Cauld Lad; he is deadly white, -and appears ever shivering with cold, and his teeth chattering. - -An allied apparition is that of the Radiant Boy. Lord Castlereagh is -said to have seen one, a spectre, which the owner of the castle where -he saw it admitted had been visible to many others. Dr. Kerner mentions -a very similar story, wherein an advocate and his wife were awakened by -a noise and a light, and saw a beautiful child enveloped in a sort of -glory. I have heard of a similar appearance in a Lincolnshire house. -A story was told me, second-hand, the other day, of a house where -such a child was seen, which always disappeared at the hearth, and -sometimes, instead of the child, little white hands were observed held -up appealingly above the hearthstone. The stone was taken up, quite -recently, and some bones found under it, which were submitted to an -eminent comparative anatomist, who pronounced them to be those of a -child. - -Mrs. Crowe, in her “Night Side of Nature,” gives an account of such -an apparition from an eye-witness, dated 1824. “Soon after we went to -bed, we fell asleep: it might be between one and two in the morning -when I awoke. I observed that the fire was totally extinguished; but, -although that was the case, and we had no light, I saw a glimmer in -the centre of the room, which suddenly increased to a bright flame. -I looked out, apprehending that something had caught fire, when, to -my amazement, I beheld a beautiful boy standing by my bedside, in -which position he remained some minutes, fixing his eyes upon me with -a mild and benevolent expression. He then glided gently away towards -the side of the chimney, where it is obvious there is no possible -egress, and entirely disappeared. I found myself in total darkness, -and all remained quiet until the usual hour of rising. I declare this -to be a true account of what I saw at C---- Castle, upon my word as a -clergyman.” - -When we consider that the hearth is the centre and sacred spot of a -house, and that the chimney above it is the highest portion built, -and the most difficult to rear, it is by no means improbable that the -victim was buried under the hearthstone or jamb of the chimney. The -case already mentioned of a child’s bones having been found in this -position is by no means an isolated one. - -It would be impossible to give a tithe of the stories of White Ladies -and Black Ladies and Brown Ladies who haunt old houses and castles. - -The latest instance of a human being having been immured alive, of -which a record remains and which is well authenticated, is that of -Geronimo of Oran, in the wall of the fort near the gate Bab-el-oved, -of Algiers, in 1569. The fort is composed of blocks of _pise_, a -concrete made of stones, lime, and sand, mixed in certain proportions, -trodden down and rammed hard into a mould, and exposed to dry in the -sun. When thoroughly baked and solid it is turned out of the mould, and -is then ready for use. Geronimo was a Christian, who had served in a -Spanish regiment; he was taken by pirates and made over to the Dey of -Algiers. When the fort was in construction, Geronimo was put into one -of the moulds, and the concrete rammed round him (18th Sept., 1569), -and then the block was put into the walls. Don Diego de Haedo, the -contemporary author of the “Topography of Algiers,” says, “On examining -with attention the blocks of pise which form the walls of the fort, a -block will be observed in the north wall of which the surface has sunk -in, and looks as if it had been disturbed; for the body in decaying -left a hollow in the block, which has caused the sinkage.” - -On December 27, 1853, the block was extracted. The old fort was -demolished to make room for the modern “Fort des vingt-quatre-heures,” -under the direction of Captain Susoni, when a petard which had been -placed beneath two or three courses of pise near the ground, exploded, -and exposed a cavity containing a human skeleton, the whole of which -was visible, from the neck to the knees, in a perfect state of -preservation. The remains, the cast of the head, and the broken block -of pise, are now in the Cathedral of Algiers. - -The walls of Scutari are said also to contain the body of a victim; in -this case of a woman, who was built in, but an opening was left through -which her infant might be passed in to be suckled by her as long as -life remained in the poor creature, after which the hole was closed. - -At Arta also, in the vilajet of Janina, a woman was walled into -the foundation of the bridge. The gravelly soil gave way, and it -was decided that the only means by which the substructure could be -solidified was by a human life. One of the mason’s wives brought her -husband a bowl with his dinner, when he dropped his ring into the hole -dug for the pier, and asked her to search for it. When she descended -into the pit, the masons threw in lime and stones upon her, and buried -her. - -The following story is told of several churches in Europe. The masons -could not get the walls to stand, and they resolved among themselves -to bury under them the first woman or child that came to their works. -They took oath to this effect. The first to arrive was the wife of -the master-mason, who came with the dinner. The men at once fell on -her and walled her into the foundations. One version of the story is -less gruesome. The masons had provided meat for their work, and the -wife of the master had dealt so carelessly with the provision, that -it ran out before the building was much advanced. She accordingly put -the remaining bones into a cauldron, and made a soup of vegetables. -When she brought it to the mason, he flew into a rage, and built -the cauldron and bones into the wall, as a perpetual caution to -improvident wives. This is the story told of the church of Notre Dame -at Bruges, where the cauldron and bones are supposed to be still seen -in the wall. At Tuckebrande are two basins built into the wall, and -various legends not agreeing with one another are told to account for -their presence. Perhaps these cauldrons contained the blood of victims -of some sort immured to secure the stability of the edifice.[3] - -A very curious usage prevails in Roumania and Transylvania to the -present day, which is a reminiscence of the old interment in the -foundations of a house. When masons are engaged on the erection of a -new dwelling, they endeavour to catch the shadow of a stranger passing -by and wall it in, and throw in stones and mortar whilst his shadow -rests on the walls. If no one goes by to cast his shade on the stones, -the masons go in quest of a woman or child, who does not belong to the -place, and, unperceived by the person, apply a reed to the shadow, -and this reed is then immured; and it is believed that when this is -done, the woman or child thus measured will languish and die, but -luck attaches to the house. In this we see the survival of the old -confusion between soul and shade. The Manes are the shadows of the -dead. In some places it is said that a man who has sold his soul to the -devil is shadowless, because soul and shadow are one. But there are -other instances of substitution hardly less curious. In Holland have -been found immured in foundations curious objects like ninepins, but -which are really rude imitations of babes in their swaddling-bands. -When it became unlawful to bury a child, an image representing it was -laid in the wall in its place. Another usage was to immure an egg. The -egg had in it life, but undeveloped life, so that by walling it in -the principle of sacrificing a life was maintained without any shock -to human feelings. Another form of substitution was that of a candle. -From an early period the candle was burnt in place of the sacrifice -of a human victim. At Heliopolis, till the reign of Amasis, three men -were daily sacrificed; but when Amasis expelled the Hyksos kings, he -abolished these human offerings, and ordered that in their place three -candles should be burned daily on the altar. In Italy, wax figures, -sometimes figures of straw, were burnt in the place of the former -bloody sacrifices. - -In the classic tale, at the birth of Meleager, the three fates were -present; Atropos foretold that he would live as long as the brand -then burning on the hearth remained unconsumed; thereupon his mother, -Althæa, snatched it from the fire, and concealed it in a chest. When, -in after years, Meleager slew one of his mother’s brothers, she, in a -paroxysm of rage and vengeance, drew forth the brand, and burnt it, -whereupon Meleager died. - -In Norse mythology a similar tale is found. The Norns wandered over the -earth, and were one night given shelter by the father of Nornagest; -the child lay in a cradle, with two candles burning at the head. The -first two of the Norns bestowed luck and wealth on the child; but the -third and youngest, having been thrust from her stool in the crush, -uttered the curse, “The child shall live no longer than these candles -burn.” Instantly the eldest of the fateful sisters snatched the candles -up, extinguished them, and gave them to the mother, with a warning to -take good heed of them. - -A story found in Ireland, and Cornwall, and elsewhere, is to this -effect. A man has sold himself to the devil. When the time comes for -him to die, he is in great alarm; then his wife, or a priest, persuades -the devil to let him live as long as a candle is unconsumed. At once -the candle is extinguished, and hidden where it can never be found. -It is said that a candle is immured in the chancel wall of Bridgerule -Church, no one knows exactly where. A few years ago, in a tower of St. -Osyth’s Priory, Essex, a tallow candle was discovered built in. - -As the ancients associated shadow and soul, so does the superstitious -mind nowadays connect soul with flame. The corpse-candle which comes -from a churchyard and goes to the house where one is to die, and hovers -on the doorstep, is one form of this idea. In a family in the West of -England the elder of two children had died. On the night of the funeral -the parents saw a little flame come in through the key-hole and run up -to the side of the cradle where the baby lay. It hovered about it, and -presently two little flames went back through the key-hole. The baby -was then found to be dead. - -In the Arabic metaphysical romance of “Yokkdan,” the hero, who is -brought up by a she-goat on a solitary island, seeks to discover the -principle of life. He finds that the soul is a whitish luminous vapour -in one of the cavities of the heart, and it burns his finger when he -touches it. - -In the German household tale of “Godfather Death,” a daring man enters -a cave, where he finds a number of candles burning; each represents -a man, and when the light expires, that man whom it represents dies. -“Jack o’ lanterns” are the spirits of men who have removed landmarks. -One of Hebel’s charming Allemanic poems has reference to this -superstition. - -The extinguished torch represents the departed life, and in Yorkshire -it was at one time customary to bury a candle in a coffin, the modern -explanation being that the deceased needed it to light him on his road -to Paradise; but in reality it represented an extinguished life, and -probably was a substitute for the human sacrifice which in Pagan times -accompanied a burial. In almost all the old vaults opened in Woodbury -Church, Devon, candles have been found affixed to the walls. The lamps -set in graves in Italy and Greece were due to the same idea. The candle -took the place of a life, as a dog or sow in other places was killed -instead of a child. - -It is curious and significant that great works of art and architecture -should be associated with tragedies. The Roslyn pillar, the Amiens rose -window, the Strassburg clock, many spires, and churches. The architect -of Cologne sold himself to the devil to obtain the plan. A master and -an apprentice carve pillars or construct windows, and because the -apprentice’s work is best, his master murders him. The mechanician of a -clock is blinded, some say killed, to prevent him from making another -like it. Perdix, for inventing the compass, was cast down a tower by -Daedalus. - -It will be remembered that the architect of Cologne Cathedral, -according to the legend, sold himself to the devil for the plan, and -forfeited his life when the building was in progress. This really means -that the man voluntarily gave himself up to death, probably to be -laid under the tower or at the foundation of the choir, to ensure the -stability of the enormous superstructure, which he supposed could not -be held up in any other way. - -An inspector of dams on the Elbe, in 1813, in his “Praxis,” relates -that, as he was engaged on a peculiarly difficult dyke, an old peasant -advised him to get a child, and sink it under the foundations. - -As an instance of even later date to which the belief in the necessity -of a sacrifice lingered, I may mention that, in 1843, a new bridge was -about to be built at Halle, in Germany. The people insisted to the -architect and masons that their attempt to make the piers secure was -useless, unless they first immured a living child in the basement. We -may be very confident that if only fifty years ago people could be -found so ignorant and so superstitious as to desire to commit such an -atrocious crime, they would not have been restrained in the Middle -Ages from carrying their purpose into execution. - -I have already said that originally the sacrifice was offered to -the Earth goddess, to propitiate her, and obtain her consent to the -appropriation of the soil and to bearing the burden imposed on it. But -the sacrifice had a further meaning. The world itself, the universe, -was a vast fabric, and in almost all cosmogonies the foundations of the -world are laid in blood. Creation rises out of death. The Norsemen held -that the giant Ymir was slain, that out of his body the world might be -built up. His bones formed the rocks, his flesh the soil, his blood -the rivers, and his hair the trees and herbage. So among the Greeks -Dionysos Zagreus was the Earth deity, slain by the Titans, and from -his torn flesh sprang corn and the vine, the grapes were inflated with -his blood, and the earth, his flesh, transubstantiated into bread. In -India, Brahma gave himself to form the universe. “Purusha is this All; -his head is heaven, the sun is fashioned out of his eyes, the moon out -of his heart, fire comes from his mouth, the winds are his breath, from -his navel is the atmosphere, from his ears the quarters of the world, -and the earth is trodden out of his feet” (“Rig. Veda” viii. c. 4, hymn -17-19). - -So, in Persia, the Divine Ox, Ahidad, was slain that the world might -be fashioned out of him; and the Mithraic figures represent this myth. -If we put ourselves back in thought to the period when the Gospel -was proclaimed, we shall understand better some of its allusions; -with this notion of sacrifice underlying all great undertakings, all -_constructive_ work, we shall see how some of the illustrations used by -the first preachers would come home to those who heard them. We can see -exactly how suitable was the description given of Christ as the Lamb -that was slain from the foundation of the world. As the World-Lamb, -He was the sustainer of the great building, He secured its stability; -and just as the sacrifice haunts the building reared on it, so was the -idea of Christ to enter into and haunt all history, all mythology, all -religion. - -We see, moreover, the appropriateness of the symbol of Christ as the -chief Corner-stone, and of the Apostles as foundation stones of the -Church; they are, as it were, the pise blocks, living stones, on whom -the whole superstructure of the spiritual city is reared. - -With extraordinary vividness, moreover, does the full significance of -the old ecclesiastical hymn for the Dedication of a Church come out -when we remember this wide-spread, deeply-rooted, almost ineradicable -belief. - - “Blessèd city, heavenly Salem, - Vision dear of peace and love, - Who _of living stones_ upbuilded, - Art the joy of heaven above. - - * * * * * - - Many a blow and biting sculpture - Polished well those stones elect, - In their places now compacted - By the heavenly Architect. - - * * * * * - - Christ is made the sure foundation - And the precious corner-stone, - Who, the twofold walls uniting, - Binds them closely into one.” - - - - -II. - -On Gables. - - -The tourist on the Rhine, as a matter of duty, visits in Cologne three -points of interest, in addition to providing himself with a little box -of the world-famous _Eau_, at the real original Maria Farina’s factory. -After he has “done” the Cathedral, and the bones of the Eleven Thousand -Virgins, he feels it incumbent on him to pay a visit to the horses’ -heads in the market-place, looking out of an attic window. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 2._--THE HORSES’ HEADS, COLOGNE.] - -Myths attach equally to the Minster, the Ursuline relics, and to the -horses’ heads. The devil is said to have prophesied that the cathedral -would never be completed, yet lo! it is finished to the last stone of -the spires! The bones of the eleven thousand virgins have been proved -to have come from an old neglected cemetery, broken into when the -mediæval walls of Cologne were erected. It will be shown that the heads -of the two grey mares near the Church of the Apostles have a very -curious and instructive history attaching to them, and that, though the -story that accounts for their presence on top of a house is fabulous, -their presence is of extreme interest to the antiquary. - -The legend told of these particular heads is shortly this:[4] Richmod -of Adocht was a wealthy citizen’s wife at Cologne. She died in 1357, -and was buried with her jewelry about her. At night the sexton opened -her grave, and, because he could not remove the rings, cut her finger. -The blood began to flow, and she awoke from her cataleptic fit. The -sexton fled panic-stricken. She then walked home, and knocked at her -door, and called up the apprentice, who, without admitting her, ran -upstairs to his master, to tell him that his wife stood without. -“Pshaw!” said the widower, “as well make me believe that my pair of -greys are looking out of the attic window.” Hardly were the words -spoken, than, tramp--tramp--and his horses ascended the staircase, -passed his door, and entered the garret. Next day every passer-by -saw their heads peering from the window. The greatest difficulty was -experienced in getting the brutes downstairs again. As a remembrance of -this marvel, the horses were stuffed, and placed where they are now to -be seen. - -Such is the story as we take it from an account published in 1816. I -had an opportunity a little while ago of examining the heads. They are -of painted wood. - -The story of the resuscitation of the lady is a very common one, and -we are not concerned with this part of the myth. That which occupies -us is the presence of the horses’ heads in the window. Now, singularly -enough, precisely the same story is told of other horses’ heads -occupying precisely similar positions in other parts of Germany. We -know of at least a dozen.[5] It seems therefore probable that the -story is of later origin, and grew up to account for the presence of -the heads, which the popular mind could not otherwise explain. This -conjecture becomes a certainty when we find that pairs of horses’ heads -were at one time a very general adornment of gable ends, and that they -are so still in many places. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 3._--GABLE OF A FARM-HOUSE IN MECKLENBURG.] - -In Mecklenburg, Pomerania, Luneburg, Holstein, it is still customary -to affix carved wooden horse-heads to the apex of the principal gable -of the house. There are usually two of these, back to back, the heads -pointed in opposite directions. In Tyrol, the heads of chamois occupy -similar positions. The writer of this article was recently in Silesia, -and sketched similar heads on the gables of wooden houses of modern -construction in the “Giant Mountains.” They are also found in Russia. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 4._--ANCIENT GERMAN HOUSE.] - -Originally, in Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and indeed England, -all houses were built of timber, and those which were not of circular -form, with bee-hive roofs, had gables. Unfortunately, we have but one -very early representation of a Teutonic village, and that is on the -Antonine column at Rome. One of the bas-reliefs there shows us the -attack by Romans on a German village. The houses are figured as built -of wattled sides, and thatched over. Most are of bee-hive shape, but -one, that of the chief, is oblong and gabled. The soldiers are applying -torches to the roofs, and, provokingly enough, we cannot see the gable -of the quadrangular house, because it is obscured by the figure of a -German warrior who is being killed by a Roman soldier. Though this -representation does not help us much, still there is abundance of -evidence to show that the old German houses--at least, those of the -chiefs--were like the dwellings of the Scandinavian Bonders, with -oblong walls with gables, and with but a single main front and gable -a-piece. The Icelandic farmhouses perpetuate the type to the present -day, with some modifications. These dwellings have lateral walls of -stone and turf scarcely six feet high, and from six to ten feet thick, -to bank out the cold. On these low parallel walls rest the principals -of the roof, which is turf-covered. The face of the house is to the -south, it is the only face that shows; the back is banked up like -the sides, so that from every quarter but one a house looks like a -grassy mound. The front consists of two or more wooden gables, and is -all of wood, often painted red. Originally, we know, there was but a -single gable. At present the subsidiary gable is low, comparatively -insignificant, and contains the door. Now the old Anglo-Saxon, Norse, -and German houses of the chiefs were all originally constructed on the -same principle, and the timber and plaster gable fronts of our old -houses, the splendid stone and brick-gabled faces of the halls of the -trade guilds in the market-place at Brussels, and the wonderful stepped -and convoluted house-fronts throughout Holland and Germany, are direct -descendants of the old rude oblong house of our common forefathers. - -We come now to another point, the gable apex. A gable, of course, is -and must be an inverted _v_, [Illustration: inverted V]; but there are -just three ways in which the apex can be treated. When the principals -are first erected they form an _x_, [Illustration: X], the upper limbs -shorter than the lower. Sometimes they are so left. But sometimes -they are sawn off, and are held together by mortices into an upright -piece of timber. Then the gable represents an inverted [Illustration: -inverted Y]. If the ends are sawn off, and there be no such upright, -then there remains an inverted _v_, but, to prevent the rotting of the -ends at the apex, a _crease_ like a small _v_ is put over the juncture, -[Illustration]. These are the only three variations conceivable. The -last is the latest, and dates from the introduction of lead, or of -tile ridges. By far the earliest type is the simplest, the leaving -of the protruding ends of the principals forming [Illustration: X]. -Then, to protect these ends from the weather, to prevent the water -from entering the grain, and rotting them, they were covered with -horse-skulls, and thus two horse-skulls looking in opposite directions -became an usual ornament of the gable of a house. Precisely the same -thing was done with the tie-beams that protruded under the eaves. These -also were exposed with the grain to the weather, though not to the same -extent as the principals. They also were protected by skulls being -fastened over their ends, and these skulls at the end of the tie-beams -are the prototypes of the corbel-heads round old Norman churches. - -Among the Anglo-Saxons the [Illustration: X] gable was soon displaced -by that shaped like [Illustration: inverted Y], if we may judge by -early illustrations, but the more archaic and simple construction -prevailed in North Germany and in Scandinavia. To the present day the -carved heads are affixed to the ends of the principals, and these heads -take the place of the original skulls. The gable of the Horn Church in -Essex has got an ox’s head with horns on it. - -[Illustration: HORNED HEAD ON CHURCH - -GABLE OF CHURCH, HORN-CHURCH.--_Fig. 5._] - -In one Anglo-Saxon miniature representing a nobleman’s house, a stag’s -head is at the apex. The old Norwegian wooden church of Wang of the -twelfth century, which was bought and transported to the flanks of the -Schnee-Koppe in Silesia by Frederick William IV. in 1842, is adorned -with two heads of sea-snakes or dragons, one at each end of the gable. -In the Rhætian Alps the gables of old timber houses have on them the -fore-parts of horses, carved out of the ends of the intersecting -principals. - -But the horse’s head, sometimes even a human skull, was also affixed to -the upright leg of the inverted _y_--the hipknob,[6] as architects term -it--partly, no doubt, as a protection of the cross-cut end from rain -and rotting. But though there was a practical reason for putting skulls -on these exposed timber-ends, their use was not only practical, they -were there affixed for religious reasons also, and indeed principally -for these. - -As a sacrifice was offered when the foundations of a house were laid, -so was a sacrifice offered when the roof was completed. The roof was -especially subject to the assaults of the wind, and the wind was among -the Northmen and Germans, Odin, Woden, or Wuotan. Moreover, in high -buildings, there was a liability to their being struck by lightning, -and the thunder-god Thorr had to be propitiated to stave off a fire. -The farmhouses in the Black Forest to the present day are protected -from lightning by poles with bunches of flowers and leaves on the top, -that have been carried to church on Palm Sunday, and are then taken -home and affixed to the gable, where they stand throughout the year. -The bunch represents the old oblation offered annually to the God of -the Storm.[7] Horses were especially regarded as sacred animals by -the Germans, the Norsemen, and by the Slaves. Tacitus tells us that -white horses were kept by the ancient Germans in groves sacred to -the gods; and gave auguries by neighing. The Icelandic sagas contain -many allusions to the old dedication of horses to the gods. Among the -Slaves, horses were likewise esteemed sacred animals; swords were -planted in the ground, and a horse was led over them. Auguries were -taken by the way in which he went, whether avoiding or touching the -blades. In like manner the fate of prisoners was determined by the -actions of an oracular horse. When a horse was killed at a sacrifice, -its flesh was eaten. St. Jerome speaks of the Vandals and other -Germanic races as horse-eaters, and St. Boniface forbade his Thuringian -converts to eat horse-flesh. - -The eating of this sort of meat was a sacramental token of allegiance -to Odin. When Hakon, Athelstan’s foster-son, who had been baptised in -England, refused to partake of the sacrificial banquet of horse-flesh -at the annual Council in Norway, the Bonders threatened to kill him. A -compromise was arrived at, so odd that it deserves giving in the words -of the saga: “The Bonders pressed the King strongly to eat horse-flesh; -and as he would not do so, they wanted him to drink the soup; as he -declined, they insisted that he should taste the gravy; and on his -refusal, were about to lay hands on him. Earl Sigurd made peace by -inducing the King to hold his mouth over the handle of the kettle -upon which the fat steam of the boiled horse-flesh had settled; and -the King laid a linen cloth over the handle, and then gaped above it, -and so returned to his throne; but neither party was satisfied with -this.” This was at the harvest gathering. At Yule, discontent became -so threatening, that King Hakon was forced to appease the ferment by -eating some bits of horse’s liver. - -Giraldus Cambrensis says of the Irish that in Ulster a king is thus -created: “A white mare is led into the midst of the people, is killed, -cut to pieces and boiled; then a bath is prepared of the broth. Into -this the King gets, and sitting in it, he eats of the flesh, the people -also standing round partake of it. He is also required to drink of the -broth in which he has bathed, lapping it with his mouth.” (“Topography -of Ireland,” c. xxv.) This is, perhaps, the origin of the Irish -expression, “a broth of a boy.” - -Tacitus tells us that after a defeat of the Chatti, their conquerors -sacrificed horses, ate their flesh, and hung up their heads in trees, -or affixed them to poles, as offerings to Wuotan. So, after the -defeat of Varus and his legions, when Cæcina visited the scene of the -disaster, he found the heads of the horses affixed to the branches and -trunks of the trees. Gregory the Great, in a letter to Queen Brunehild, -exhorted her not to suffer the Franks thus to expose the heads of -animals offered in sacrifice. At the beginning of the fifth century, -St. Germanus, who was addicted to the chase before he was made Bishop -of Auxerre, was wont to hang up the heads and antlers of the game -killed in hunting in a huge pear-tree in the midst of Auxerre, as an -oblation to Odin, regardless of the reproof of his bishop, Amator, who, -to put an end to this continuance of a heathenish ceremony, cut down -the tree. - -Adam of Bremen tells of the custom of hanging men, horses, and dogs -at Upsala; and a Christian who visited the place counted seventy-two -bodies. In Zeeland, in the eleventh century, every ninth year, men, -horses, dogs, and cocks were thus sacrificed, as Dietmar (Bishop of -Merseburg) tells us. Saxo, the grammarian, at the end of the twelfth -century, describes how horses’ heads were set up on poles, with -pieces of wood stuck in their jaws to keep them open. The object was -to produce terror in the minds of enemies, and to drive away evil -spirits and the pestilence. For this reason it was, in addition to -the practical one already adduced, that the heads of horses, men, and -other creatures which had been sacrificed to Odin were fastened to the -gables of houses. The creature offered to the god became, so to speak, -incorporate in the god, partook of the Divine power, and its skull -acted as a protection to the house, because that skull in some sort -represented the god. - -In the Egil’s saga, an old Icelandic chief is said to have taken -a post, fixed a horse’s head on the top, and to have recited an -incantation over it which carried a curse on Norway and the King and -Queen; when he turned the head inland, it made all the guardian spirits -of the land to fly. This post he fixed into the side of a mountain, -with the open jaws turned towards Norway.[8] Another Icelander took a -pole, carved a human head at the top, then killed a mare, slit up the -body, inserted the post and set it up with the head looking towards the -residence of an enemy.[9] - -These figures were called Nith-stangs, and their original force and -significance became obscured. The nith-stang primarily was the head -of the victim offered in sacrifice, lifted up with an invocation to -the god to look on the sacrifice, and in return carry evil to the -houses of all those who wished ill to the sacrificer. The figure-head -of a war-ship was designed in like manner, to strike terror into the -opponents, and scare away their guardian spirits. The last trace of -the nith-stang as a vehicle of doing ill was at Basle, where the -inhabitants of Great and Little Basle set up figures at their several -ends of the bridge over the Rhine to outrage each other. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 6._--A GABLE, GUILDFORD.] - -In Ireland we meet with similar ideas. On the death of Laeghaire (King -Lear), his body was carried to Tara and interred with his arms and -cuirass, and with his face turned towards his enemies, as if still -threatening them. Eoghan, King of Connaught, was so buried in Sligo, -and as long as his dead head looked towards Ulster, the Connaught -men were victorious; so the Ulster men disinterred him and buried -him face downwards, and then gained the victory. According to Welsh -tradition, the head of Bran was buried with the face to France, so that -no invasion could come from thence. A Welsh story says that the son of -Lear bade his companions cut off his head, take it to the White Hill -in London, and bury it there, with the face directed towards France. -The head of man and beast, when cut off, was thought to be gifted with -oracular powers, and the piping of the wind in the skulls over the -house gables was interpreted--as he who consulted it desired. - -In an account we have of the Wends in the fifteenth century, we are -told that they set up the heads of horses and cows on stakes above -their stables to drive away disease from their cattle, and they put -the skull of a horse under the fodder in the manger to scare away the -hobgoblins who ride horses at night. In Holland, horses’ heads are hung -up over pigstyes, and in Mecklenburg they are placed under the pillows -of the sick to drive away fever. It must be remembered that pest or -fever was formerly, and is still among the superstitious Slaves, held -to be a female deity or spirit of evil. - -Now we can understand whence came the headless horses, so common in -superstition, as premonitions of death. Sometimes a horse is heard -galloping along a road or through a street. It is seen to be headless. -It stops before a door, or it strikes the door with its hoof. That is a -sure death token. The reader may recall Albert Dürer’s engraving of the -white horse at a door, waiting for the dead soul to mount it, that it -may bear him away to the doleful realms of Hæla. In Denmark and North -Germany the “Hell-horse” is well known. It has three legs, and is not -necessarily headless. It looks in at a window and neighs for a soul -to mount it. The image of Death on the Pale Horse in the Apocalypse -was not unfamiliar to the Norse and German races. They knew all about -Odin’s white horse that conveyed souls to the drear abode. - -Properly, every village, every house had its own hell-horse. Indeed, -it was not unusual to bury a live horse in a churchyard, to serve the -purpose of conveying souls. A vault was recently opened in a church -at Görlitz, which was found to contain a skeleton of a horse only, -and this church and yard had long been believed to be haunted by a -hell-horse. The horse whose head was set up over the gable of a house -was the domestic spirit of the family, retained to carry the souls away. - -The child’s hobby-horse is the degraded hell-horse. The grey or white -hobby was one of the essential performers in old May Day mummings, and -this represents the pale horse of Odin, as Robin Hood represents Odin -himself.[10] We see in the hobby-horse the long beam of the principal -with the head at the end. It was copied therefrom, and the copy remains -long after the original has disappeared from among us. - -A man was on his way at night from Oldenburg to Heiligenhafen. When -he came near the gallows-hill he saw a white horse standing under it. -He was tired, and jumped on its back. The horse went on with him, but -became larger and larger at every step, and whither that ghostly beast -would have carried him no one can say; but, fortunately, the man flung -himself off the back. In Sweden the village of Hästveda is said to take -its name from häst-hvith, a white horse which haunts the churchyard and -village. - -In Bürger’s ballad of Leonore, the dead lover comes riding at night to -the door of the maiden, and persuades her to mount behind him. Then the -horse dashes off. - - “How fast, how fast, fly darting past - Hill, mountain, tree, and bower; - Right, left, and right, they fly like light, - Hamlet, and town, and tower. - ‘Fear’st thou, my love? The moon shines bright. - Hurrah! the dead ride fast by night, - And dost thou dread the silent dead?’” - -They dash past a graveyard in which is a mourning train with a coffin. -But the funeral is interrupted; the dead man must follow horse and -rider. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 7._--OLD TEMPLE BAR, WITH TRAITORS’ HEADS.] - -They pass a gallows, round which a ghostly crew are hovering. The -hanging men and the spectral dance must follow. - -The rider carries his bride to a churchyard, and plunges down with her -into a vault. - -Bürger has utilised for his ballad a tradition of Woden as the God of -the Dead, carrying off the souls on his hell-horse. The story is found -in many places; amongst others in Iceland, and variously modified. - -The nightmare is the same horse coming in and trampling on the -sleeper’s chest. The reader will remember Fuseli’s picture of the head -of the spectre horse peering in at the sleeper between the curtains of -her bed, whilst an imp sits on and oppresses her bosom. - -But the horse is not always ridden. Modern ideas, modern luxury, have -invaded the phantom world, and now--we hear of death-coaches drawn by -headless horses. These are black, like mourning carriages, and the -horses are sable; a driver sits on the box; he is in black, but he -has no weeper to his hat, because he has not a hat. He has not a hat, -because he is without a head. The death-coach is sometimes not seen, -but heard. At others it is seen, not heard. It rolls silently as a -shadow along the road. - -But, indeed, Woden had a black horse as well as one that was white. -Rime-locks (Hrimfaxi) was his sable steed, and Shining-locks (Skinfaxi) -his white one. The first is the night horse, from whose mane falls the -dew; the second is the day horse, whose mane is the morning light. -One of the legends of St. Nicholas refers to these two horses, which -have been transferred to him when Woden was displaced. The saint was -travelling with a black and a white steed, when some evil-minded man -cut off their heads at an inn where they were spending the night. When -St. Nicholas heard what had been done, he sent his servant to put on -the heads again. This the man did; but so hurriedly and carelessly, -that he put the black head on the white trunk, and _vice versâ_. In -the morning St. Nicholas saw, when too late, what had been done. The -horses were alive and running. This legend refers to the morning and -the evening twilights, part night and part day. The morning twilight -has the body dark and the head light; and the evening twilight has the -white trunk and the black head. - -St. Nicholas has taken Odin’s place in other ways. As Saint Klaus he -appears to children at Yule. The very name is a predicate of the god -of the dead. He is represented as the patron of ships; indeed, St. -Nicholas is a puzzle to ecclesiastical historians--his history and his -symbols and cult have so little in common. The reason is, that he has -taken to him the symbols, and myths, and functions of the Northern god. -His ship is Odin’s death-ship, constructed out of dead men’s finger and -toe-nails. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 8._--A GABLE, CHARTRES.] - -In Denmark, a shovelful of oats is thrown out at Yule for Saint Klaus’s -horse; if this be neglected, death enters the house and claims a soul. -When a person is convalescent after a dangerous illness, he is said to -have “given a feed to Death’s Horse.” The identification is complete. -Formerly, the last bundle of oats in a field was cast into the air by -the reapers “for Odin at Yule to feed his horse.” And in the writer’s -recollection it was customary in Devon for the last sheaf to be raised -in the air with the cry, “A neck Weeday!” That is to “Nickar Woden.” - -The sheaf of corn, which is fastened in Norway and Denmark to the gable -of a house, is now supposed to be an offering to the birds; originally, -it was a feed for the pale horse of the death-god Woden. And now we see -the origin of the bush which is set up when a roof is completed, and -also of the floral hip-knobs of Gothic buildings. Both are relics of -the oblation affixed to the gable made to the horse of Woden,--corn, -or hay, or grass; and this is also the origin of the “palms,” poles -with bouquets at the top, erected in the Black Forest to keep off -lightning. - -A little while ago the writer was at Pilsen in Bohemia, and was struck -with the gables in the great square. Each terminated in a vase of -flowers or fruit, or some floral ornament, except only the Town Hall, -which had three gables, each surmounted by spikes of iron, and spikes -stood between each gable, and each spike transfixed a ball. The floral -representations are far-away remembrances of the bunch of corn and -hay offered to Woden’s horse, but the balls on the spikes recall the -human skulls set up to his honour. That the skulls were offerings to -a god was forgotten, and those set up were the heads of criminals. -The Rath-Haus had them, not the private houses, because only the town -council had a right to execute. - -Throughout the Middle Ages, among ourselves down to the end of last -century, heads of traitors and criminals were thus stuck up on spikes -over city gates, and town halls, and castles. Those executed by justice -were treated according to immemorial and heathen custom. A new meaning -was given to the loathsome exhibition. It deterred from treason and -crime. Nevertheless, our Christian mediæval rulers simply carried -out the old custom of offering the heads to Odin, by setting them up -above the gables. Skulls and decaying heads came to be so thoroughly -regarded as a part--an integral ornament of a gate or a gable--that -when architects built renaissance houses and gateways, they set up -stone balls on them as substitutes for the heads which were no more -available. A lord with power of life and death put heads over his -gate; it was the sign that he enjoyed capital rights. The stone balls -on lodge gates are their lineal descendants. Some manors were without -capital jurisdiction, and the lords of these had no right to set up -heads, or sham heads, or stone balls. If they did so they were like -the modern _parvenu_ who assumes armorial bearings to which he has no -heraldic right. - -When the writer was a boy, he lived for some years in a town of the -south of France, where was a house that had been built by one of the -executioners in the Reign of Terror. This man had adorned the pediment -of his house with stone balls, and the popular belief was that each -ball represented a human head that he had guillotined. Whether it -was so or not, we cannot say. It was, perhaps, an unfounded belief, -but the people were right in holding that the stone balls used as -architectural adornments were the representatives of human heads. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 9._--RIDGE-TILE, TOTNES.] - -In the Pilsen market-place, it was remarkable that only the Town Hall -had balls on it, and balls in the place where there had previously been -spiked heads. No private citizen ventured to assume the cognisance of -right of life and death. - -At Chartres all the pinnacles of the cathedral are surmounted by carved -human heads. - -In the farmhouse of Tresmarrow in Cornwall, in a niche, is preserved a -human skull. _Why_ it is there, no one knows. It has been several times -buried, but, whenever buried, noises ensue which disturb the household, -and the skull is disinterred and replaced in its niche. Formerly it -occupied the gable head. - -As already said, these heads were regarded as oracular. In one of -Grimm’s “Folk-Tales” a King marries a chamber-maid by mistake for her -mistress, a princess, who is obliged to keep geese. The princess’s -horse is killed, and its head set up over the city gate. When the -princess drives her geese out of the town she addresses the head, and -the head answers and counsels her. So in Norse mythology Odin had a -human head embalmed, and had recourse to it for advice when in any -doubt. In the tale of the Greek King and Douban, the Physician, in the -Arabian Nights’ Tales, the physician’s head, when he is decapitated, is -set on a vase, where it rebukes the King. Friar Bacon’s brazen head -whereby he conjured is a reminiscence of these oracular heads. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 10._--RIDGE-TILE, TOTNES.] - -In one of the Icelandic Sagas, the gable ends whistle in the wind, and -give oracles according to the tone or manner in which they pipe. - -The busts that occupy niches in Italian buildings are far-off -remembrances of the real human heads which adorned the fronts of the -wigwams of our savage ancestors. So, also, as already said, are the -head corbels of Norman buildings. - -On old Devonshire houses, the first ridge-tile on the main gable was -very commonly moulded to represent a horse and his rider. The popular -explanation is that these tiles were put up over the houses where -Charles I. slept; but this is a mistake; they are found where Charles -I. never was. - -At one time they were pretty common. Now some remain, but only a few, -at Plymouth, Exeter, Totnes, Tavistock, and at East Looe, and Padstow, -in Cornwall. One at Truro represents a horse bearing skins on the -back, and is so contrived as to whistle in the wind. None are earlier -than the seventeenth century, yet they certainly take the place of more -ancient figures, and they carry us back in thought to the period when -the horse or horse-head was the ornament proper to every gable. These -little tile-horses and men are of divine ancestry. They trace back to -Wuotan and his hell-horse.[11] - -The historical existence of the leaders Hengest and Horsa, who led the -Anglo-Saxons to the conquest of Britain, has long been disputed. There -probably never were such personages. What is more likely is that they -were the horse-headed beams of the chief’s house of the invading tribe. -Both names indicate horses. When the Norsemen moved their quarters, -they took the main beams of their dwellings with them, and they took -omens from these beams, when they warped or whistled in wet and wind. -The first settlers in Iceland threw their house-beams into the sea off -Norway, and colonised at the spot where they were washed ashore on the -black volcanic sands of Iceland. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 11._--RIDGE-TILE, WEST LOOE.] - -The white horse in the arms of Kent, the white horse on the Hanovarian -coat, the white horses on the chalk downs throughout Wessex, have all -reference to Woden and his grey hell-horse. The greatest respect -was paid to the main principals of the roof with their horse-heads. -We can understand how that when the old house in the market-place at -Cologne was rebuilt, the old heads were retained; and when the original -skulls decayed, they were replaced with painted wooden imitations; -just as in the Norman churches the skull-like corbels of stone, and in -Gothic churches the monstrous gaping gurgoyles, and on our Elizabethan -mansions the stone balls, also the figure-heads on ships, all trace -back to real heads of sacrificed beasts and men. - -In 1877 it was found necessary to pull down the spire terminating the -bell-turret surmounting the western gable of St. Cuthbert’s Church, -Elsdon, Northumberland. In the spire, immediately over the bell, was -discovered a small chamber, without any opening to it, and within this, -nearly filling the cavity, were three horse-heads, or rather skulls, -piled in a triangular form, the jaws uppermost. The receptacle had -been made for them with some care, and then they had been walled up in -it.[12] - -[Illustration: _Fig. 12._--RIDGE-TILE, EXETER.] - -On the tower of the Church of Sorau in Lusatia are two heads, one is -that of a woman, the other that of a horse. The story told to account -for them is this. A girl was drawing water at the fountain in the -market-place, when a horse, filled with madness, rushed at her. She -fled round the market-place pursued by the horse, which was gaining on -her, when, seeing the door into the tower open, she ran in, and up the -winding stair. Arrived at the top, she stopped to breathe, when, to -her dismay, she heard the clatter of the horse’s hoofs on the steps; -the creature was pursuing her up the tower. In her terror she leaped -from the bell window, and the horse leaped after her. Both were dashed -to pieces on the pavement. The heads were set up on stone as a memorial -of the event. - -In 1429 the town of Budissin was besieged by the Hussites. The town -notary, Peter Prichwitz, promised to open the gates to the investing -forces, but his treachery was discovered in time, and the traitor was -executed on December 6th, in the market-place, and when he had been -drawn and quartered, his quarters were set up over the bastions, and -his head carved in stone above the city gate, and this remains to the -present day. - -Here we have two instances, and many more could be adduced, of these -carved heads being made to represent the heads of certain persons who -have died violent deaths. - -The first instance is peculiarly interesting. The story, however, -as little explains the figures as does that of Richmod of Adocht at -Cologne. There is a great deal of evidence to show that till a late -period, when a lofty tower or spire was erected, human or animal -victims were cast from the top, to ensure the erection from being -struck by lightning. The woman and the horse at Sorau had been thus -offered. We know that this was a mode of sacrifice to Odin. Victims to -him were flung down precipices. - -In North Germany, at the close of the last century, on St. James’s day, -it was customary to throw a goat with gilt horns and adorned with -ribbons from the top of a church or town hall tower. At Ypres, on the -second Wednesday in Lent, cats were flung down from the tower. Abraham -à Santa Clara says that three illustrious Italian families, those of -Torelli, Pieschi, and Gonzaga, have white ladies who appear before -death; these are the spirits of three damsels who were falsely accused -of incontinence, and were precipitated from the topmost battlements -of the towers belonging to these three families. Now it is clear that -Abraham à Santa Clara has got his story wrong. The coincidence would be -extraordinary in all three families. The real explanation is, that when -the several castles of these families were erected, from the highest -tower of each a virgin was cast down as a superstitious insurance -against lightning, actually--though this was forgotten--because from -immemorial times such a sacrifice had been offered. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 13._--TOP OF SPIRE, ASSIER.] - -In 1514 the spire of the Cathedral Church of Copenhagen was erected. A -carpenter’s assistant had an altercation with his master, as to which -had the steadiest brain. Then the master ran a beam out from the top of -the tower, took an axe in his hand, walked out on the beam, and struck -the axe into the end of it. “There,” said he to his man, on his return, -“go out and recover the axe.” - -The assistant instantly obeyed. He walked out; but when he was stooping -to take hold of the axe it seemed to him that it was double. Then he -asked, “Master, _which_ of them?” - -The master saw that he had lost his head, and that it was all up with -the man, so he said, “God be with your soul!” At the same moment the -man fell, and was dashed to pieces in the market-place at the foot of -the tower. - -It is possible that this may be the true version of the story; but it -is much more likely that the man was flung down by his master, with -deliberate purpose, to secure by his death the stability of the spire -he had erected. - -A very similar story is told of the tower of Assier Church in the -Department of Lot. This singular renaissance church was erected by -Galiot de Ginouillac, Grand Master of Artillery under Francis I. On -the roof of the central tower are three wooden pinnacles. The story -goes that De Ginouillac ascended with his son to the top of the tower, -and bade the boy affix the cross. The lad walked along the ledge and -exclaimed, “Father, which of the pinnacles is in the middle?” When -the father heard that, he knew his son had lost his head. Next moment -the boy fell and was dashed to pieces. Popular superstition held that -so high a tower, with so steep a roof, must be consecrated by the -sacrifice of a life. - -Countless stories remain concerning spires and towers indicating -similar tragedies; but we are not further concerned with them than -to point out that the heads carved on towers may, and in some cases -certainly do, refer to a life sacrificed to secure the tower’s -stability. - -An ancestor of the writer in the seventeenth century visited China, -and brought home a puzzle which became an heirloom in the family. -The puzzle, fast locked, remains; but the secret how to open it is -forgotten. Many a puzzling custom and usage comes down to us from the -remote past; the clue to interpret it has been lost, and wrong keys -have been applied to unlock the mystery, but the patience and research -of the comparative mythologist and the ethnologist are bringing about -their results, and one by one the secrets are discovered and the locks -fly open. - - - - -III. - -Ovens. - - -When Tristram and Ysonde were driven from the Court of Mark, King -of Cornwall, they fled to a forest of “holts and hills,” and there -found and inhabited an “erthe house” which “etenes, bi old dayse had -wrought;” that is to say, a house constructed by the giants of old. -King Mark came that way one day when hunting, and looking in saw Ysonde -asleep, with a patch of sunlight about to fall on her closed eyes -through the tiny orifice which alone served as chimney and window to -the “erthe house;” and, very considerately, he stuffed his glove into -the hole, so as to prevent her sleep being broken.[13] - -That earth house built by the vanished race of the giants was, there -can be little question, a bee-hive hut such as are to be found over -the Cornish moors. When Thomas of Erceldoune wrote in the thirteenth -century, the origin of these bee-hive huts was already lost in fable. - -Of these bee-hive huts there remain thousands--nay, tens of -thousands--in more or less ruinous condition, on the Cornish moors and -on Dartmoor. They are found also in Wales, Ireland, and Scotland. The -structure of the bee-hive hut is this:-- - -A circle was described in the grass, in diameter from 6 feet to 9 -feet. Then a second circle, concentric, 3 feet beyond the first, -that is to say, with a diameter 12 feet to 15 feet. Stones were set -up on end in the ground where these circles had been described, and -walls of horizontal slabs were laid between and on these uprights, -their interstices filled in with moss and turf. After the walls had -been carried to the height of four feet, the horizontal courses were -drawn together inwards, so as to form a dome of overlapping slabs, -and in the centre an opening was left to admit light and to serve as -a smoke-hole, but sufficiently small to be easily closed with a stone -or a wad of turf. On the south side of this bee-hive habitation a door -was contrived by planting two jambs in the soil at right angles to the -walls, standing about 2 feet 6 inches high, and placing over these a -broad flat slab as lintel, on which the structure of the dome could be -continued, and could rest. - -There are several of these huts still in existence as perfect as when -first made. One is on the Erme on Dartmoor; it is almost buried in -heather, and might be passed without observation as a mere mound. The -door remains, and it will serve the pedestrian, as it has served many -a shepherd, as a place of refuge from a shower. There are three or -four under and on Brown Willy, the highest peak of the Cornish moors. -Connected with one of these is a smaller hut of similar structure that -served apparently as a store chamber. - -Comparatively few are perfect. The vast majority have fallen in. All -were not originally domed over with stones, some--the majority--were -roofed over by planting sticks in the walls and gathering them together -in the centre, and then thatching them with reed, or packing turf round -the beams. This we judge from the ruins. Some give evidence of having -been domed, by the amount of stone that has fallen within the circle of -the foundations; others, on the other hand, are deep in turf and peat, -and show no fallen stones within the ring. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 14._--GRIMSPOUND, DARTMOOR.] - -Very often clusters of these circular hovels are enclosed within a -circular wall of defence. The villages were, in a word, defended -against assault. At Grimspound on Dartmoor is such a walled village. -The pound contains four acres; a stream is ingeniously diverted from -its course and brought within the enclosure. There remain the ruins of -about twenty-five huts, but there are scattered heaps that indicate the -former existence of other habitations which have been destroyed. Near -Post Bridge, in the heart of Dartmoor, are the remains of something -like fourteen village enclosures, whereof one contains about forty of -these huts.[14] An account of a very numerous and remarkable group -within fortifications, near Holyhead, was published by the Hon. W. O. -Stanley in 1871. He explored the settlement with the spade. - -Who inhabited these bee-hive huts? Certainly the tin-workers. Mr. -Stanley satisfied himself that the dwellers in the bee-hive huts of -Holyhead were metal-workers. He found their tools, fused metal, and -scoria. The villages in Cornwall and on Dartmoor have unaccountably -been left unexplored, but there is some evidence to show that they were -occupied by those who “streamed” for tin. - -It is remarkable how folk-tradition has preserved some reminiscence -of a large and of a small race as existing in Northern Europe before -the Keltic wave, and also before the Scandinavian wave rolled west. -The smallest race is generally associated in tradition with the rude -stone monuments. The dolmens are _cabannes des fees_, or caves of -dwarfs; whereas the giants are spoken of as inhabiting natural caverns. -The early mythical sagas of the Norse are full of such mention, and -the pedigrees give us evidence of the intermarriage between the -newly-arrived Scandinavians and the people they found in the land -before them. It is certainly a remarkable coincidence that the cave -men, as revealed to us by the skeletons of the Vézère, of Solutrè, -and Mentone, should have been men of about seven feet high. When the -Cymri and Gaels invaded our isles, a population of blended blood was -subjugated, and became vassal to the Kelt, worked for it in the mines, -and tended the flocks on the wolds, and the swine in the oak woods for -the new masters. The Kelt knew the use of iron. He had not come from -the East in quite the same way as the people of rude stone monuments. -He came along the shores of the Black Sea, passed up the Danube, and, -crossing the Rhine, poured over the Jura and the Vosges into the plains -of Gaul. He met the stone monument builder at the head waters of the -Seine, and drove him back; he stopped his passage of the Rhine; and it -is possible that it was this arrest which forced the polished-stone man -to cross the Pyrenees and people the Iberian peninsula. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 15._--BEE-HIVE HUT, FENNACRE, CORNWALL.] - -We have strayed from our subject--the bee-hive hut. On no part of -Dartmoor have the miners worked so vigorously and so continuously as -on the East Webber, at Vitifer. Here, on a slope, is to be found a -collection of bee-hive hut foundations. The ground below, above, and -along one side has been turned up to the depth of fourteen to twenty -feet; but the tin searchers have avoided the little settlement, -leaving the huts on a sort of peninsula of unworked gravel, a clear -evidence that the workers were those who occupied these huts. When we -come to the date of these habitations we are unable to arrive at any -very satisfactory conclusion. Some of these settlements certainly date -back from the age of the rude stone monument builders, and to that of -the polished stone weapons. - -It is noticeable in Cornwall and on Dartmoor that the clusters of hut -circles are generally associated on the one hand with tin stream works, -and on the other with avenues and circles of upright stones, and that -the heights of the hills near them are topped with cairns that contain -kistvaens, or graves of rude stones, set on end and capped with large -granite coverers. It may be taken as almost certain that where there is -a large cluster of these dwellings, there will be found some megalithic -monument hard by, or if not, that the enclosures, or the moor, will -bear some name, such as Ninestones, or The Twelve Men (Maen = a stone), -that testifies to there having been a circle there, which has been -destroyed. With tin works the circles of hut foundations are invariably -associated. In Holyhead, where is the cluster of bee-hive huts examined -by Mr. Stanley, there also are to be found the Meinihirion, long -stones, two stones standing ten feet apart, rising eleven feet above -the soil, and originally surrounded by a circle of upright stones, now -removed to serve as gate posts, or to form fences. There is sufficient -evidence to show that the first builders of the bee-hive huts were -the men of that race which erected the rude stone monuments in our -island, and who also worked the tin. But what race was that? It was not -Keltic. It was in our island before the Britons arrived. We can trace -its course of migration from the steppes of Asia by the monuments it -erected. This mysterious people came to the Baltic and followed its -shores, some crossed into what was afterwards Scandinavia, but the -main tide rolled along the sea-shore. They have left their huge stone -monuments in Pomerania, in Hanover. They crossed the Rhine, and from -Calais saw the white cliffs of Albion and one large branch of the -stream invaded and colonised the British Isles. Another, still hugging -the sea, passed along the coast of Gaul to Brittany, thence descended -the shores of the Bay of Biscay, sent settlers up the Seine, the -Loire, and the Dordogne, swept on into the Iberian peninsula, crossed -into Africa, and after setting up circles and dolmens in Algeria, -disappeared. They never penetrated to the centre of Germany; the Oder, -and the Elbe, and the Rhine offered them no attractions. They were a -people of rocks and stones, and they were not attracted by the vast -plains of Lower Germany; they never saw, never set up a stone in the -highlands, in the Black Forest, or the Alps. But it was otherwise with -the great rivers of Gaul; with the sole exception of the Rhone they -followed them up. Their monuments are numerous on the Loire; they are -as dense in the upper waters of the Lot and Tarn as they are among -the islets and on the headlands of Brittany. It is doubtful if they -ever set foot in Italy. Such was the course taken by the great people -which migrated to Europe. But another branch had separated at the -Caspian, and had turned South. It passed over the Tigris and Euphrates, -and occupied both Palestine and Arabia. The Palestine exploration has -led to the discovery of numerous remains in that land, identical in -character with those found everywhere else where this people sojourned. -And Mr. Palgrave was startled to find that Arabia had its Stonehenges -precisely like that which figures on the Wiltshire Downs. - -The researches of French antiquaries have led to the conclusion that -the men who set up these great stone monuments were those who used -weapons of polished flint and chert. Precisely the same conclusion -has been reached by the archæologists of Scotland. Bronze was indeed -employed, but at a later period; and then bronze and polished stone -were used together. - -In the tumuli of Great Britain and of Gaul, two distinct types of heads -are found. These are the long and the round bullet skull. In France, -before the dawn of history, there seems to have been as great a mixture -of races as there is at present. It is not possible for us in England -to determine the succession of peoples and civilisations as nicely as -can be done in France, for we have not such deposits of the remains of -successive populations superposed as they have in Perigord. Under the -overhanging limestone cliffs on the Vézère, men lived in succession one -age on another to the present day, from the first who set foot on the -soil, and by digging through these beds to the depth of forty feet, we -obtain the remains of these men in their order-- - - Modern men. - Mediæval. - Gallo-Roman (coins). - Gauls (iron weapons). - Neolithic men { bronze. - { polished stone. - [Gap. This gap questioned.] - { of ivory and bone weapons. - Palæolithic men { of delicately-worked flint blades. - { of rudely-worked flint weapons. { Moustier. - { Chelles.[15] - -The Palæolithic men were the great reindeer and horse hunters, and the -development of their civilisation may be followed in their remains. -What became of them we know not. Perhaps they migrated north after the -reindeer. - -The Neolithic men erected the rude stone monuments, the circles of -upright stones. They were the men of Stonehenge and of Carnac. But this -race was not pure. Its skulls exhibit a great mixture of character -and kind, and it is probable that it took up into it other peoples -subjugated on its way west and south. Perhaps it also was conquered. We -cannot tell; but it seems from certain indications that it was so, and -that by the metal-working race. - -When the Gaels and Cymri invaded our isles, they found them peopled, -and peopled by various races, and these they in turn subjugated. - -We know but very little of the primitive populations of our isles -and of Europe; and a good deal of what we think we know is due to -guesswork based on a few observations. - -As far as we can judge, the dwellers in bee-hive huts were the same as -those who erected the rude stone monuments, but it does not follow that -the Megalithic monument builders did not impose their customs on the -race they conquered; and indeed it is possible, even probable, that a -people conquering them may have adopted their religious ideas and their -methods of interment. - -It is curious to note how that in legend the subjugated people are -supposed to live in earth mounds. No story is more common than that -of a man passing a mound at night and seeing it open, and finding -that merriment and drinking are going on within. Sometimes children -are snatched away, and are brought up in these mounds. He who desires -to have a sword of perfect temper goes to one of the mounds, taps, -and bargains with the mound-dweller to make him a sword. The name now -given to the race--not a pure, but a mixed one--that occupied the land -before the dawn of history, is Ivernian. It was a dark-haired and -sallow-complexioned race. The Kelt was fair; and if in Ireland, and in -Cornwall, and in France so much dark hair and dusky skin is found, this -is due to the self-assertion of the primitive race that was subjugated -by the blue-eyed, fair-haired conquerors from the Black Sea and the -Danube. - -What was the conquered race? “What,” asks the author of “Chaldæa,” in -the “Story of the Nations,” “What is this great race which we find -everywhere at the very roots of history, so that not only ancient -tradition calls them ‘the oldest of men,’ but modern science more and -more inclines to the same opinion? Whence came it?” And the answer Mme. -Ragozin gives to the question is--that this was the yellow Turanian -people which overflowed from the steppes of Northern Asia, which -carried with it thence acquaintance with the metals, and through this -acquaintance established itself as masters wherever it went. That may -be, but before this Ivernian race arrived in the west, whatever it was, -it found that man had been on the soil before it--aye, and for ages on -ages--occupying caves, hunting the reindeer and the horse, ignorant -of the art of the potter, and yet in some particulars his superior in -intellectual power.[16] - -Although the bee-hive hut may have originated with the dark-haired -Ivernian metal-worker, it by no means follows that it was not in use -long after, to a comparatively recent period. As we have seen, Tristan -and Ysonde took refuge in one. The bee-hive hut is still in employ in -the Hebrides. I will quote a most interesting account of one by Dr. A. -Mitchell. “I turn now to a more remarkable form of dwelling which is -still tenanted, but is just passing into complete disuse. Nearly all -the specimens of it remaining in Scotland are to be found in the Lewis -and Harris, or other islands of the outer Hebrides. There are probably -only from twenty to thirty now in occupation, and although some old -ones may yet be repaired, it is not likely that a new one will ever -again be built. The newest we know of is not yet a century old. It was -still occupied in 1866, and was built by the grandfather of a gentleman -who died a few years ago in Liverpool. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 16._--BO’H IN THE HEBRIDES. - -(_From Mitchell: The Past and the Present._)] - -“My first visit to one of these houses was paid in 1866, in the company -of Captain Thomas. They are commonly spoken of as bee-hive houses, but -their Gaelic name is _bo’h_ or _bothay_. They are now only used as -temporary residences or shealings by those who herd the cattle at their -summer pasturage; but at a time not very remote they are believed to -have been the permanent dwellings of the people. - -“We had good guides, and were not long in reaching Larach Tigh -Dhubhstail. As we had been led to expect, we found one of these -bee-hive houses actually tenanted, and the family happened to be at -home. It consisted of three young women. It was Sunday, and they had -made their toilette with care at the burn, and had put on their printed -calico gowns. None of them could speak English; but they were not -illiterate, for one of them was reading a Gaelic Bible. They showed no -alarm at our coming, but invited us into the _bo’h_, and hospitably -treated us to milk. They were courteously dignified, neither feeling -nor affecting to feel embarrassment. There was no evidence of any -understanding on their part that we should experience surprise at their -surroundings. I confess, however, to having shown, as well as felt, the -effects of the wine of astonishment. I do not think I ever came upon a -scene which more surprised me, and scarcely know where and how to begin -my description of it. - -“By the side of a burn which flowed through a little grassy glen, we -saw two small round hive-like hillocks, not much higher than a man, -joined together, and covered with grass and weeds. Out of the top of -one of them a column of smoke slowly rose, and at its base there was a -hole about three feet high and two feet wide, which seemed to lead into -the interior of the hillock--its hollowness, and the possibility of -its having a human creature within it being thus suggested. There was -no one, however, actually in the _bo’h_, the three girls, when we came -in sight, being seated on a knoll by the burnside, but it was really -in the inside of these two green hillocks that they slept, and cooked -their food, and carried on their work, and--dwelt, in short. - -“The dwelling consisted of two apartments opening into each other. -Though externally the two blocks looked round in their outline, -and were in fact nearly so, internally the one apartment might be -described as irregularly round, and the other as irregularly square. -The rounder of the two was the larger and was the dwelling-room. The -squarish and smaller one was the store-room for the milk and food. -The floor space of this last was about six feet in its shorter and -nine feet in its longer diameter. The greatest height of the living -room--in its centre, that is--was scarcely six feet. In no part of -the dairy was it possible to stand erect. The door of communication -between the two rooms was so small that we could get through it only -by creeping. The great thickness of the walls, six to eight feet, gave -this door, or passage of communication, the look of a tunnel, and made -the creeping through it very real. The creeping was only a little less -real in getting through the equally tunnel-like, though somewhat wider -and loftier passage which led from the open air into the first, or -dwelling-room. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 17._--PLAN OF BO’H. - -_a a a._ Entrances; _b._ Sleeping platform; _c._ Range of cobble -stones; _d._ Hearth; _e e e._ Lockers; _f._ Dairy.] - -“At the right hand side on entering there was the fireplace. The smoke -escaped at a small opening at the apex of the dome. The floor was -divided into two spaces by a row of curb-stones eight or nine inches -high. These served as seats, the only seats in the house; but they -at the same time cut off the part of the floor on which the inmates -slept, the bed, in short--the whole space behind the row of stones -being covered with hay and rushes. In the part of the wall bounding the -bed there were three niches or presses, in which, among other things, -we observed a hair-comb and some newly-made cheeses. The walls of these -bee-hive huts are built of rough, undressed stones gathered from the -moor, which are of fair size, but not larger than one or two men could -easily lift and put into position. The dome shape, or bee-hive form, -is given by making the successive courses of stone overlap each other, -till at length they approach so closely all round as to leave nothing -but a small hole, which can be either closed by a large sod, or left -open for the escape of smoke or the admission of light. I need scarcely -say that no cement is used. The principle of the arch is ignored, and -the mode of construction is that of the oldest known masonry. Though -the stone walls are very thick, they are soon covered on the outside -with turf, which soon becomes grassy like the land round about, and -thus secures perfect wind and water tightness.”[17] - -Now, this extremely interesting account shows us two things. First, -that we can not safely conclude from the structure of a bee-hive hut -that it belongs to a pre-historic date. We are only justified in so -asserting when we find it in connection with megalithic monuments, or -when the spade in exploring it reveals implements of bronze or stone. -Secondly, we see how man clings to tradition, how that actually at the -present day men will occupy habitations on precisely the model of -those erected by the population of Great Britain ages before the Roman -set foot on our land. - -It may be said, and with some justice, that there is no certainty -that the bee-hive hut was not a mode of construction adopted by many -different races. This is true. The huts in the vineyards on the -river Lot in France are of precisely the same construction. In the -south of Africa the Kaffir, at the sources of the Nile the Niams, -build themselves circular huts of clay and wattles. Nevertheless, -when we find this sort of hut identical in structure to the smallest -particular, as far apart as the Desert of Beersheba, and the dunes of -Brittany, the Hebrides, the Cornish peninsula, and the Pyrenees,[18] -and very generally associated with megalithic monuments, we may safely -conclude that they are the remains of one primitive people, and if in -later ages similar habitations have been raised, it is because that -with the blood, the traditions of that race have been continued. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 18._--HUTS IN THE VINEYARDS, CAHORS.] - -How striking is this passage from Dr. Geikie’s “Holy Land and the -Bible.” He says, “In the Wilderness of Beersheba are bee-hive huts -of stone, conjectured to be ancient native houses of the Amalekites. -They are from seven to eight ft. in diameter, with a small door of two -uprights and a lintel, about two ft. square. In one dwelling a flint -arrowhead and some shells were found. _Close by are some circles of -upright stones._ The whole country was at one time inhabited. Nearly -every hill has ancient dwellings on the top and stone circles, also -great cairns. The extraordinary resemblance, the identity in every -point so struck Professor Palmer, who discovered this settlement, that -in his ‘Desert of Exodus’ he engraved a Cornish bee-hive hut to show -how it was a counterpart to the huts of Beersheba.” - -[Illustration: _Fig. 19._--OVEN AT NOUGARET, DEP. OF LOT. - -(_Dog Kennel under Shelf._)] - -But these bee-hive huts are themselves a reproduction in stone of the -tents with which the primeval race wandered on the steppes of the -Altai before ever they reached Palestine on the one hand and Europe -on the other. The Nomad made his tent of skins stretched on poles. It -was circular, and the smoke escaped through a hole in the top. When he -ceased to ramble, he constructed his habitation on the same principle -exactly as his tent, circular and domed. On the Siberian tundras and in -Lapland there are still in use two sorts of huts; one, the smoke-hut, -is precisely like a bee-hive habitation. It is, however, too small to -allow of a fire being kept burning in the centre, and it is heated in -this way--a fire is kindled and then allowed to go out. When extinct, -the chimney hole at the top is closed, and the owner retires into his -hut, which retains the heat for a great many hours. Sometimes, however, -like the _bo’h_ in the Hebrides, the fire is at the side, but owing to -the smallness of the hovel, must be kept low. Castrén, in his travels -among the Samojeds and Ostjaks, was sometimes obliged to spend months -in one of these huts. At first he was obliged to go outside in all -weathers, climb up the side of the hut and plug his chimney to keep -in the warmth; but after a while he rigged up a bundle of old cloth -attached to a pulley, and he was able by this means to block the -opening from within, by pulling a string. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 20._--PLAN OF OVEN AT NOUGARET.] - -A very similar hut is still in use among the Finns, but no longer as a -habitation. It is employed for bathing purposes. A fire is lighted in -it, and stones are heated in the fire red hot, then plunged in a vessel -of water. This generates steam, and the bather enters the bee-hive hut, -shuts the door, and is parboiled in the steam. Now, the inconvenience -of these bee-hive huts was obvious. Intense heat could be generated in -them, but owing to their smallness, a whole family could not live in -one. In the Fostbraethra Saga, an Icelandic account of transactions -in the eleventh century, that comes to us in a twelfth century form, -is an account of how one Thormod went to Greenland. Having committed -a murder there, he took refuge with an old woman in her hut. When his -foes came to seek him, she lit a fire on the hearth, and filled the -hut with smoke, so that they could not see who was in it. But one man -climbed on the roof and pulled the plug out of the chimney hole, -whereupon the atmosphere within cleared. In time the long house with -four corners to it was discovered or adopted. This was an immense -advance in comfort. But, at the same time, the peculiar advantage -of the bee-hive hut was not lost sight of. If human beings had been -baked and boiled therein--why not their bread and their meat? They saw -that a bee-hive hut was a hot-air chamber retaining the heat for an -extraordinary length of time. So the next step in civilisation was to -build the bee-hive hut on a smaller scale for the sake of boiling and -stewing. In the year 1891 I exhumed on the edge of Trewortha Marsh, on -the Cornish moors, an ancient settlement. The houses were all oblong. -The principal house consisted of two great halls. The upper hall was -divided by stone screens into stalls, and in front of each stall had -been formerly a hearth. In each stall a family had lived, each family -had enjoyed its own fire, burning on the ground. But such an open fire -would not bake. The inmates had knowledge of corn, for we found a hand -quern for grinding it. In order to bake, they had erected independent -huts, with bee-hive ovens in the walls, identical in structure with the -old bee-hive huts, and the reddened stones showed that fires had been -lighted in these for baking purposes. But that was not all, we found -heaps of burnt pebbles about the size of a goose-egg. These had been -employed for throwing into vessels of water either to boil them, or to -generate steam for baking purposes. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 21._--SECTION OF GRANITE OVEN, ALTARNON, CORNWALL. -_Date, 16th century._] - -A common English word has completely lost its primitive signification. -That word is _stove_. The stove is the Norse word _stofa_, and the -German _stube_. It does not mean a heating apparatus, but a warm -chamber. - -There is a curious old book, “The Gardener’s Dictionary,” by Philip -Miller, the fourth edition of which was published in 1754. He gives an -account of greenhouses and conservatories as places usually unheated. -“I suppose,” says he, “many people will be surprised to see me direct -the making of flues under a greenhouse; but though perhaps it may -happen that there will be no necessity to make any fires in them for -two or three years together, yet in very hard winters they will prove -extremely useful.” But when the author comes to hothouses, he describes -them under the name of “_stoves_.” - -[Illustration: _Fig. 22._--EARTHENWARE OVEN AS IN USE AT PRESENT.] - -The stove is a hot chamber, heated maybe by an oven, but we have turned -the name about, and we apply it mistakenly to the heating apparatus. - -In Germany the room that is heated is the _stube_, but the heater is -the _ofen_. The _ofen_ is, however, itself a reproduction in small of -the hot chamber. The oven is employed to radiate outwards in heating a -room; it radiates inwards when employed for baking. - -The German _ofen_, or, as we would term it, stove, is an earthenware -vessel in a room. A fire is lighted in it, till it is thoroughly -heated. Then the fire is allowed to expire, and the damper is turned, -effectually closing the flue. Thenceforth all the heat within and in -the earthenware walls radiates into the apartment, and keeps it warm -for eight or nine hours. In the ancient oven, as in the bee-hive huts -at Trewortha, every precaution was adopted to retain the heat. The -outside was banked up with peat, and the heat gathered within baked -bread or meat. - -The bee-hive oven of courses of stone was not all that could be -desired. The fire acted on the granite or limestone or slate, and split -or crumbled it, and when one or two stones gave way, the whole dome -collapsed. - -After a while a further advance was made. The bee-hive hut was -constructed of earthenware, of clay baked hard, so as to resist fire -for an indefinite number of years. Now in the West of England in every -cottage may be seen one of these “cloam” ovens. It is in structure a -bee-hive hut precisely. The old tradition hangs on, is followed from -century to century and year to year, and he who looks at these ovens -may think of the story they tell--of the ages unnumbered that have -passed since the type was fixed by the tent of the wanderer on the -Siberian steppes, of the changes that type has gone through, of the -stone bee-hive hut supplanting the tent of skins, of the bee-hive hut -abandoned for the house with four corners, and the old hut converted -into a baking oven, and then finally of the adoption of the oven of -“cloam.” In another ten or fifteen years that also will have passed -away, to be replaced by the iron square oven, and then one of the links -that attach us to that remote past, to that mysterious race that Mme. -Ragotzin says “lies at the roots of all history,” a race which has -marked its course by gigantic structures, but has left behind it no -history--then, I say, one of the last links will be broken. - - - - -IV. - -Beds. - - -I had let my house. Two days after, I received the following letter:-- - - “Friday. - - “MY DEAR SIR, - - “In the best bedroom is a four-post bed. Mrs. C. assures me that it - will be quite impossible for her to invite any friend to stay with her - unless the four-poster be removed, and its place occupied by a brass - or iron double-tester. Four-posters are entirely exploded articles. I - will trouble you to see to this at your earliest convenience this week. - - “Yours faithfully, - “C. C.” - -Of course I complied. Two years ago I went to a sale. As I was not -very well I did not remain, but left word with my agent to buy certain -articles for me. Next day a waggon arrived with my purchases, and among -them--a mahogany four-post bed. “Why, good gracious! I do not want -_that_.” “It was going so cheap, and is of solid mahogany,” answered my -agent, “so I thought you ought to have it.” That four-poster has never -been put together. It lies now in an outhouse with a chaff-cutter, -empty cement barrels, and much rubbish. It probably never will be used, -except by boring woodworms. - -I saw some little while ago in one of the illustrated papers a -recommendation how to make use of old carved four-post beds--that is to -say, of the carved four posts. Let them be sawn through, and converted -into massive picture frames or ornamental chimney-pieces. - -I am sorry that the four-poster is doomed to extinction, for it has a -history, and it attaches us to our Scandinavian ancestry. - -The Greeks and Romans had nothing of the sort. Their beds were not -closed in on all sides; it is a little doubtful whether these beds -were very comfortable. In great houses they were richly ornamented, -the legs enriched with ivory, and were sometimes even of precious -metal. They were covered with silk and tissues of interwoven gold; but -somehow in classic literature we do not come upon much that speaks -of the luxurious comfort of a bed. In the charming passage on Sleep -in the first Ode of the Second Book, Horace makes no allusion to the -bed as having any relation to sleep, does not hang upon it tenderly -as something to be fond of. The bedroom of a Roman house was a mere -closet. The Roman flung himself on a bed because he was obliged to -take some rest, not because he loved to sink among feathers, and enjoy -repose. - -The modern Italian bed is descended by direct filiation from the -classic _lectus_, and what an uncomfortable article it is! There are -plenty of representations of ancient beds on tombstones and on vases; -they are not attractive; they look very hard, unpleasantly deficient in -soft mattresses. - -The Roman noble had his _lectica_--a litter enclosed within -curtains--in which he was carried about. One of bronze, inlaid with -silver, is preserved in the Palace of the Conservators at Rome. Now and -then mosquito curtains were used round a bed, and Horace represents -the rout of the forces of Antony at Actium as due to the disgust -entertained by the Roman legionaries at seeing their general employ -mosquito curtains to his bed at night. The couches on which guests and -host reclined at dinner were, in fact, beds, and they had curtains -or a sort of a canopy over them. Great fun is made by Fundanius in -his account to Horace of a banquet in the house of a _nouveau-riche_, -of the fall of the canopy on the table during dinner, covering all -the meats and dishes, and filling the goblets with a cloud of black -dust.[19] - -But the true four-poster derives from the north. The Briton had it not -when invaded by the Romans, and the Roman did not teach the Briton to -construct it. - -The Saxon did not bring his four-poster with him, nor did the Jute or -the Angle, for the four-poster was unknown to these Teutonic peoples. -It came to us with the “hardy Norseman.” - -[Illustration: _Fig. 23._--INTERIOR OF A SCANDINAVIAN HALL. - - A The fire in the midst. On great occasions goes the whole length of - the hall. - B The principal bench and its footstool F. D The second bench and its - footstool F. - C The high seat of honour. E The seat of secondary consideration. - G The beds. On high occasions curtains hung before them. H Steps into - the beds. - I The lokrekkjur or lokhvilur, closed beds, bolted from within. - M Windows.] - -Let us see what was the construction of a Scandinavian house. The house -consisted of one great hall that served most purposes (_skali_). In it -men and women ate and drank, the dinner was cooked, work was done when -the weather was bad, and there also were the beds. In addition to the -hall, there was in the greatest houses a ladies’ bower (_badstòfa_), -but with that we need not concern ourselves. The hall consisted of -a nave and side aisles. The walls of the aisles were of stone, banked -up with turf, but the roof was of timber throughout. Down the centre -of the hall ran a trough, paved with stone, in which fires burnt, and -parallel with this long hearth were benches. It was not always that -fires were maintained through the whole length of the hall; one alone -was in general use in the centre, and here was the principal seat--that -occupied by the master of the house, and opposite him, beyond the fire, -was the second seat of honour. The roof was sustained by a row of -beams, or pillars, and the space of the aisles was occupied by beds. At -an entertainment, curtains were hung along the sides from post to post, -concealing the beds, but some of the bed compartments were boxed in, -both at back, foot, and front, between the pillars, and had in front -doors by which admission was obtained to them, and a man who retired to -rest in one of these _lokrekkjur_, or _lokhvilur_, as they were called, -fastened himself in. The object of these press beds was protection. -When, as among the Norsemen, every man revenged himself with his own -hand for a wrong done, it was necessary for each man who was sensible -that he had enemies, to provide that he was not fallen upon in his -sleep. In the Icelandic Saga of Gisli Sursson, relating to incidents in -the tenth century, is a story that illustrates this. As this saga is -exceedingly curious, I venture here to give the substance:-- - -In Hawkdale in Iceland lived two brothers, Thorkel and Gisli. “Sons -of Whey,” they were called, because, when their father’s house had -been set on fire, they and he had extinguished the flames with vats of -curds and whey. Thorkel had to wife a woman named Asgerda, and Gisli -was married to Auda, sister of his intimate friend Vestein. Their -sister Thordisa was married to a certain Thorgrim. The brothers and -brothers-in-law were great merchants, and went trafficking to Norway -and Denmark. Gisli and Vestein were partners in one vessel, and went -one way; Thorkel and Thorgrim were in partnership, and went their -way. But the brothers were very good friends; they and their wives -lived together in one house, and managed the farm in common. Thorkel, -however, was a proud man, and would not put his hand to farm work, -whereas Gisli was always ready to do what was needed by night or by -day. Things prospered, and it occurred to Gisli that if they took an -oath of close brotherhood, they would each stand by the other, and -would be too strong to meet with opposition in their quarter of the -island. Accordingly the four men proceeded to a headland, cut a piece -of turf so that it remained attached to the soil at both ends, raised -it on a spear, and passing under it, opened their veins and dropped -their mingled blood into the mould from which the strip of turf had -been cut. Then they were to join hands, and swear eternal fellowship. -But at this moment Thorgrim drew back his hand--he was ready to be -brother to Thorkel and Gisli, but not to Gisli’s brother-in-law, -Vestein. Thereat Gisli withdrew his hand, and declared that he would -not pledge eternal brotherhood with a man who would not be friends with -Vestein. - -One day Gisli went to his forge and broke a coin there with the hammer -in two parts, and gave one half to Vestein, and bade him preserve it. -At any time, when one desired to communicate with the other in a matter -of supreme importance, he was to send to the other the broken token. - -On one of his voyages, Gisli was a winter at Viborg, in Denmark, and he -there picked up just so much Christianity that he resolved never again -to sacrifice to Thor and Freya. - -He returned to Iceland in the same week as did his brother Thorkel; -and as it was hay weather, at once turned up his sleeves, and went -forth with all his house churls, haymaking. Thorkel, on the other hand, -flung himself on a bench in the hall, and went to sleep. When he awoke, -he heard voices, and dreamily listened to the gossip of his wife and -sister-in-law, who were cutting out garments in the ladies’ bower. “I -wish,” said Asgerda, “that you would cut me out a shirt for my husband -Thorkel.” “I am no better hand at cutting out than you are,” answered -Auda. “I am sure of one thing, if it were anything that was wanted -doing for my brother, Vestein, you would not ask for my help or for -anyone else to assist you.” “Maybe,” said Asgerda, “I always did admire -Vestein, and I have heard it said that Thorgrim was sweet on you before -Gisli snapped you away.” “This is idle talk,” said Auda. - -Then up stood Thorkel, and striding in at the door, said, “This is -dangerous talk, and it is talk that will draw blood.” - -The women stood aghast. - -Soon after this Thorkel told his brother that he wished to divide -the inheritance with him. Gisli regretted this, and endeavoured to -dissuade him, but in vain. They cast lots, and the movable goods fell -to Thorkel, the farm to Gisli. Thereupon Thorkel departed to Thorgrim, -his brother-in-law. - -Sometime after this came the season of the autumn sacrifice. Gisli -would not sacrifice, but he was ready to entertain all his friends, and -invited to a great feast. Just before this, he heard that Vestein had -arrived in Iceland in his merchant vessel, and had put into a fiord -some way off. He immediately sent him the half-token by a servant, who -was to ride as hard as he could, and stop him from coming to Hawkdale. -The servant rode, but part of his way lay along a lava chasm, and as -ill fate would have it, he took the way above the rift at the very time -that Vestein was riding in the opposite direction through the bottom. -So he missed him, and on reaching the ship, learned that he had done -so. He turned at once, and rode in pursuit till his horse fell under -him just as he had caught sight of the merchant. He ran after him -shouting. Vestein turned and received the message and the token that -was to assure him the message that accompanied it was serious. - -“I have come more than half way,” said he. “All the streams are running -one way--towards my brother-in-law’s vale--and I will follow them.” - -“I warn you,” said the servant, “be on your guard.” Vestein had to -cross a river. As he was being put across, the boatman said, “Be on -your guard. You are running into danger.” As he rode near Thorgrim’s -farm, he was seen by a serf who belonged to Thorkel. The serf -recognised him, and bade him be on his guard. Just then, out came -the serf’s wife, Rannveig, and called to her husband to tell her who -that was in a blue cloak, and carrying a spear. The serf went in, and -Thorgrim, who was in the hall, inquired who had passed the garth. The -woman said it was Vestein, spear in hand, wearing a blue cloak, and -seated in a rich saddle. “Pshaw,” said her husband, “the woman can not -see aright. It was a fellow named Ogjorl, and he was wearing a borrowed -cloak, a borrowed saddle, and carrying a harpoon tipped with horn.” - -“One or other of you is telling lies,” said Thorgrim. “Run, Rannveig, -to Hol, Gisli’s house, and ascertain the truth.” - -When Vestein arrived at his brother-in-law’s, Gisli received him, -and again cautioned him. Vestein opened his saddlebags, and produced -some beautiful Oriental stuffs interwoven with gold, and some basins, -also inlaid with gold--presents for Gisli, for his sister Auda, and -for Thorkel. Next day Gisli went to Thorgrim’s house, carrying one of -these beautiful bowls, and offered it to his brother as a present from -Vestein; but Thorkel refused to receive it. Gisli sighed. “I see how -matters tend,” said he. - -One night shortly after, a gale driving over the house, tore the thatch -off the hall, and the rain poured in through the roof. Everyone woke, -and Gisli summoned all to help. The wind had abated, but not the rain; -they must go to the stackyard and re-cover the roof as best they might. -Vestein volunteered his help, but Gisli refused it. He bade him remain -within. Vestein pulled his bed away from the locked compartment where -the water leaked in, drew it near the fire in the open hall, and fell -asleep on it. Then softly someone entered the hall, stole up to his -bedside, and transfixed him to the bed with a spear. Vestein cried out, -and was dead. Auda, his sister, woke, and seeing what had taken place, -call to a thrall, Witless Thord, to pull out the weapon. Thord was too -frightened to do so. He stood quaking with open mouth. Then in came -Gisli, and, seeing what had been done, drew out the weapon, and cast -it, all bloody, into a chest. Now according to Scandinavian ideas, not -only was Gisli solemnly bound to avenge Vestein’s death, as knit to him -by oath of brotherhood, but also by the fact of his having withdrawn -the weapon from the wound. He at once called his sister to him, and -said, “Run to Thorgrim’s house, and bring me word what you see there.” -She went, and found the whole house up, and armed. - -“What news? what news?” shouted Thorgrim. The woman told him that -Vestein had been murdered. - -“An honourable man,” said Thorgrim. “Tell Gisli we will attend the -funeral, and let the wake be kept as Vestein deserves.” - -Gisli prepared for the burying of his brother-in-law according to the -custom of the times. The body was placed where a great cairn was to be -heaped over it. Then first Thorgrim stepped forward. “The death-shoes -must be made fast,” said he, and he shod the feet of the dead man with -a pair of shoes, in which he might walk safely the ways of Hela. “There -now,” said he, “I have bound the hell-shoes so fast they will never -come off.” - -The summer passed, and winter drew on, then Thorgrim resolved on a -great sacrifice to Frey at the Solstice, and on a mighty feast, to -which a hundred guests were invited. Gisli would not hold a sacrifice, -but he sent out invitations to a banquet. - -Whilst Thorgrim and Thorkel were preparing to receive their guests, it -occurred to one of them that Vestein had given splendid curtains to -Gisli and his sister for hanging along the sides of the hall. “I wonder -whether he would lend them?” asked Thorgrim. “For a banquet, everyone -is ready to lend anything,” answered Thorkel. Then Thorgrim called to -him the same thrall who had endeavoured to deceive him relative to -the passing by of Vestein, and bade him go to Gisli, and ask for the -curtains. “I don’t relish the job,” answered the man. Thorgrim knocked -him down, and bade him go as he was bid. The man’s name was Geirmund. -Geirmund went to Hol, and found Gisli and his wife engaged in hanging -up the very curtains in preparation for their feast. The serf proffered -his request. Gisli looked at his wife, and said, “What answer shall we -make to this?” - -Then an idea struck him, and taking Geirmund by the arm, he led him -outside the hall, and said, “One good turn deserves another. If I -let you carry off the curtains, will you leave the hall door ajar -to-night?” Geirmund hesitated, looked steadily at Gisli, and said, “No -harm is intended against my master, your brother, Thorkel?” “None in -the least.” “Then,” said Geirmund, “I will do it.” - -The snow fell thick that night, and the frost was keen. A hundred men -roystered in the hall of Thorgrim. Gisli entertained but sixty men. -In the night, when all had retired to their beds round the hall, and -were snoring, Gisli said to his wife, “Keep up one of the fires. I must -go out.” Then he drew from the chest the weapon wherewith Vestein had -been murdered, and stepped forth into the night. There was a little -brook ran down the vale, and he walked up the bed of the stream till -he came to the well-trodden way leading to the mansion of Thorgrim. -He went to that, and found, as he anticipated, that the door was not -locked. He entered the hall. Three fires were burning in the midst. No -one was stirring. He stood still and listened. Then he took the rushes -up from the floor, wove them together, and threw them as a mat on one -of the fires, and covered it. He waited a minute. No one stirred, so -he went on to the second fire, and treated it in the same manner. The -third was but smouldering, but there was a lamp burning. He saw a young -man’s hand thrust forth from a bed to the lamp, draw it to him, and -extinguish it. Then he knew that all slept save Geirmund, who had left -the door ajar. - -On tiptoe Gisli stepped to the closed bed-recess of Thorgrim, and -found that it was not fastened from within. Thorgrim had not dreamed -of danger, with a hundred guests and all his servants about him. Gisli -put his hand into the bed, and touched a bosom. It was that of his -sister, the wife of Thorgrim, who slept on the outside. The icy touch -roused her, and she said, “Husband! how cold your hand is.” “Is it so?” -answered Thorgrim, half roused, and turned in bed. Then with one hand -Gisli sharply drew down the coverlet, and with the other drove the -spear--still stained with Vestein’s blood--through the heart of his -murderer. Thordisa woke with a cry, started up and screamed, “Wake, and -up all! my husband has been killed!” In the dark, Gisli escaped, and -returned home by the same way he had come. - -Next morning very early, Thorkel and the nephews of Thorgrim came -to Hol. Thorkel led the way into the hall, and walked direct to the -closed bed of his brother. As he came to it, his quick eye detected -Gisli’s shoes frozen and covered with snow, and he hastily kicked them -under the stool lest the nephews should see them, and conclude who had -murdered their uncle. - -“What news?” said Gisli, rousing and sitting up in bed. - -“News serious and bad,” answered Thorkel. “Thorgrim, my brother-in-law, -is murdered.” - -“Let him be buried as he deserves,” said Gisli. “I will attend and -greet him on his way.” - -Now, at the funeral, Thorgrim was laid in a ship that was placed on -a hill-top, and all prepared to heap a cairn over the dead man. Then -Gisli heaved a mighty stone, and flung it into the ship of the dead, -so that the beams brake, and he said, “Let none say I cannot anchor a -death-ship, for I have anchored this that it will sail no more.” And -all who heard him remembered the words of Thorgrim when he bound the -hell-shoes on the feet of Vestein. - -There are a good many passages in the sagas that refer to the -press-beds. In the saga of the Droplauga-sons we read--“It was -anciently the custom not to use the _badstòfa_ (the heated room); men -had instead great fires, at which they sat to heat themselves, for at -that time there was plenty of fuel in the country. The houses were -so constructed that one hall served all purposes for banqueting and -sleeping, and the men could lie under the tables and sleep, or each in -his own room, some of the bed places being enclosed, and in these lay -the most honourable men.” - -In the saga of Gunnlaug with the Serpent’s Tongue, we are told how that -“One morning Gunnlaug woke, and everyone was on foot except himself. He -lay dozing in his press-bed behind the high seat. Then in came a dozen -armed men into the hall,” etc. - -The Droplauga-sons saga tells us how one Helgi, Asbjorn’s son, slept -with his wife in one of these closed-in beds for fear of his mortal -enemies. One day a friend came to his house. In the evening Helgi said -to his wife, “Where have you put Ketilorm to sleep?” “I have made him -up a bed--a good one--out on the long bench in the hall.” Then Helgi -said, “When I go to Ketilorm’s house, he always turns out of his -press-bed and gives it up to me, so you and I must to-night lie in the -hall, and give up our close-bed to him.” They did so, and that night -the murderer came, and Helgi died through his hospitality. - -In the saga of Egill Skallagrim’s son is a story that shows us how that -some of the closed bedchambers contained more than one sleeping place. -Egill, who lived in Iceland, had lost his son Bödvar, who was drowned. -The grief of the old man was excessive. He retired to his locked-up -bedchamber, fastened himself in, and, lying down, refused food. After -three days had elapsed, his wife, in serious concern, sent for his -married daughter, Thorgerthr, who, on entering the house, said loud -enough to be heard, “I intend not to touch food till I reach the halls -of Freya. I can do naught better than follow my father’s example.” Then -she knocked at the opening into the _lokhvila_, and called, “Father, -open, I desire to travel the same road with you.” - -The old man let her in, and she laid herself down on another bed in the -same enclosed place. - -After some hours had passed in silence, Egill said, “Daughter, you are -munching something.” - -“Yes, father. It is sol (_alga saccharina_). It shortens life. Will you -have some?” - -“If it does that, I will.” - -Then she gave him some of the seaweed. He chewed it, and naturally both -became very thirsty. - -Presently Thorgerthr said she must taste a drop of water. She rose, -went to the door, and called for water. Her mother brought a drinking -horn. Thorgerthr took a slender draught, and offered the horn to her -father. - -“Certainly,” said he, “that weed has parched my throat with thirst.” So -he lifted the horn with both hands, and drained it. - -“Father,” said Thorgerthr, “we have both been deceived; we have been -drinking milk.” As she spoke, the old man clenched his teeth in the -horn, and tore a great shred from it, then flung the vessel wrathfully -on the ground. - -“Our scheme has failed,” said Thorgerthr, “and we cannot now continue -it. I have a better plan to propose. Compose a death-lay on your son, -Bödvar, and I will carve it in runes on oaken staves.” - -Then the spirit of song came on the old man, and he composed the long -Wake-song of Bödvar that goes by the name of the Sonartorrek, and in -singing it his grief was assuaged. - -The invasion of the Northmen, of Dane and Viking of Norway, that -made the Saxons tremble, was an invasion of something more than -marauders--it was one of four-post beds. They did not, indeed, bring -their press beds with them in their “Long Serpents,” but no sooner -did they establish themselves in the land--Ragnar Lodbrog’s sons -in Northumbria, and King Knut in England--than they set up their -four-posters, and made themselves both secure and comfortable. They -shut themselves in for the night, pulled the bolt, and were safe till -next morning. We do not half understand the horrors of St. Brice’s -Day, 1002, when the Danes were massacred throughout the dominions of -Æthelred, unless we introduce these closed beds into the picture. We -must imagine the Saxons storming the closed and bolted boxes, and -the Danes within, unable to escape, as the axes and crowbars crashed -against the oak doors and hinges of their _lokhvilur_. They could but -muffle themselves in their feather beds, and endeavour to burst forth -when the entrance was forced. - -The cairn, or tumulus, that covered a dead Norseman was heaped over a -sort of wooden or stone bed made after the fashion of a _lokhvila_. In -the Grettis saga we have the story of the hero breaking into the cairn -of an old king, and he found him enclosed in a box of boards--stout -oak planks--very much as he had been shut in every night when he -retired to sleep. The _kistvaens_ of stone, oblong boxes of stones set -on end, and covered over with great slabs, to contain the dead, are -nothing other than stone four-posters. And the modern coffin is nought -else but the wooden enclosed _lokhvila_--the Scandinavian close bed -reduced to the smallest possible dimensions. There is no particular -sense in the coffin, but it is a reminiscence of what the beds of our -Scandinavian forefathers were, and will continue to be used long after -the four-poster is banished from our bedrooms. - -In the Völsunga saga is a ghastly story of two men buried alive in -a kistvaen. Sigmund was the sole surviving son of King Völsung, who -had been killed by King Siggeir of Gothland. Siggeir was married to -Signy, the sister of Sigmund. The duty to revenge the death of Völsung -lay on Sigmund, and Signy was by no means indisposed to further this -vengeance-taking. Sigmund and his son Sinfjotli came secretly to the -hall of King Siggeir, and concealed themselves in full harness in an -outhouse behind a cask of ale. The two boys of the king, running out, -saw them hiding there, and raised the alarm, whereupon Sigmund and -Sinfjotli cut them down. King Siggeir called together his men, and they -closed round Sigmund and his son and took them alive. Then the King of -Gothland declared he would bury them alive. Accordingly he ordered his -men to erect large stones set on end, and to cover them over with flat -stones, and then he placed the two men, Sigmund and Sinfjotli, in the -chamber thus formed, and heaped over them a cairn of earth and small -stones. Now, just before the last stone coverer was placed on this -living grave, Signy, the queen, flung in a big bundle. When the cairn -was raised the two men who were entombed alive felt the bundle, and -discovered that it consisted of a stout rope wrapped round the sword of -Sigmund. That gave to them hope. With the blade they dug at the bases -of the upright stones, and, raking out the small stuff between them, -managed to pass the rope round them, and drew them down. By the fall of -these stones a gap was made, the top of the cairn ran in, and the two -entombed men crawled out. They at once went to the hall of the king, -heaped wood about it, and set it on fire. As it flared, Signy came out, -kissed her brother, and his son, refused life, and went back into the -flames to die with her husband and his men. - -The Völsunga saga is valuable, as it carries us back to the -pre-Christian condition of life in the semi-mythical period. The -Völsungs are kings of the land of the Huns: they are not Huns -themselves, but belong to the Odin-born conquering race. The historic -Huns have the rude stone monuments attributed to them in Hanover, -Pomerania, and Mecklenburg, but they had nothing to do with their -erection. These monuments belong to a far earlier race. - -When King Harold Fairhair converted Norway into a single monarchy, many -of the old chiefs fled the land rather than submit; but one, Herlaugi, -in Naumudal, went alive with twelve of his men into a cairn that -contained a kist, and had it closed upon him. - -In the saga of Egil and Asmund is a queer story of two men who swore -brotherhood with each other, that he who survived the other should -spend three nights in the cairn with his dead brother, “and then depart -_if he liked_.” The saga goes on to tell how that one of these, Aran, -was slain, then his fellow, Asmund, “threw up a cairn, and placed by -the dead man his horse, with saddle and bridle, and all his harness -and his banner, his hawk, also, and his hound; Aran sat in the high -stool in full armour. Then Asmund had his chair brought into the cairn -and sat there, and the cairn was closed on them. In the first night -Aran rose from his stool and killed hawk and hound, and ate them both. -In the second night Aran stood up and slew his horse, and tore it in -pieces, rending it with his teeth, and he ate the horse, the blood -running over his jaws. And he invited Asmund to eat with him. The third -night Asmund felt heavy with sleep, and he snoozed off, and was not -aware before the dead man had gripped him by both ears and had torn -them off his head. Asmund then drew his sword, hewed off the head of -Aran, took fire, and burned him to ashes. Then he went to the rope and -was drawn up, and the cairn was closed. But Asmund carried away with -him all the treasure it contained.”[20] - -The Norsemen were buried seated in their chairs or in their boats, but -the builders of the megalithic monuments were interred lying on their -sides, with their hands folded, as though in sleep. Their great dolmens -and covered avenues were family cemeteries. The slab at the east end -was movable, so as to allow of admission into the tomb on each fresh -death in the family. A hole in the stone at the foot is very usual. Of -that elsewhere. The latest interments in a dolmen are always nearest -the opening; sometimes the more ancient dead have been removed farther -back in the monument to make room for the new-comers. There is an -allusion in Snorn’s Heimskringla to these holes in the kists containing -the dead: “Freyr fell sick and his men raised a great mound, in which -they placed a door with three holes in it. Now when Freyr was dead they -conveyed him secretly into the mound, but told the Swedes he was alive; -and they kept watch over him for three years. They brought all the -taxes into the mound--through one hole they thrust in the gold, through -another they put in the silver, and through the third the copper money -that was paid.”[21] - -It is probable that the Scandinavians followed to some extent the usage -of the race that preceded them, and used their megalithic monuments, -much as we know that tumuli were employed for later interments, and by -races different from that which raised the tumuli. That the idea of -sleep was connected with death in many cases of burials, is certain, -from the position given to the corpse, the hands are folded and the -knees drawn up. - -We cannot say for certain that the dolmens, as the French call the -monuments which we term cromlechs, were reproductions in stone of -the closed beds of the men of the polished-stone age, but it is -probable. The great family dolmens were cemeterial big Beds of Ware -to accommodate a number, and the small kistvaens were single beds for -old bachelors. Some of the largest dolmens contain as many as forty -sleepers. Under Brown Willy, the highest point of the Cornish moors, is -one long kistvaen, and beside it a tiny one for a baby--the mother’s -bed and the cradle, side by side, for the long night of death. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 24._--DOLMEN, GABAUDET, NEAR GRAMAT. DEP. DE LOT.] - -It has been supposed that the cromlechs, or dolmens, and the kistvaens, -represent the ancient dwellings of the neolithic men. I do not think -so. The position of the bodies shows that they were intended, not as -dwellings, but as beds. If they resembled anything used in life, it -was the bed-compartments in the huts, not the huts themselves. These -bed-compartments were backed, walled, and roofed with stone. - -I was once offered in Antwerp a very beautifully carved oak bed; it was -but an oblong box, with an opening on one side only, which could be -closed with a curtain, and very much like a berth in an old-fashioned -steam-packet. - -The reader will remember the graphic description, in “Wuthering -Heights,” of a very similar close-bed of boards as used in Yorkshire. -That Yorkshire bed was a lineal descendant from the _lokhvila_ of the -Scandinavian colonists of Northumbria. - -When danger of assassination in bed ceased, men began to sleep easier, -breathe freer, and dispensed with the door and its bolts. They shut -themselves in with curtains instead; and as there were practical -inconveniences in making beds, where the bed maker could not go round -to the wall side, cautiously and with hesitation suffered the bed to -be pulled out, so that it might stand free on all sides save the head. -Then head and top alone remained of board, two sides and foot were -left open, or partially open; they could be closed with curtains, and -the sleeper could and did convert his bed into a sort of box when he -retired to rest. - -So beds remained throughout the Middle Ages and to last century. Some -ancient beds had gabled roofs over them, and many remained fixed in -on all sides save one. But at the same time there was the truckle-bed -for the servant; even the iron bedstead without tester, precisely -like those turned out by every ironmonger. Viollet le Duc gives an -engraving of one such in his “Dictionnaire du Mobilier Français,” -from a miniature of the tenth century. He gives also a representation -of an iron bed thrust under a roof-like covering, with curtains, and -ventilating windows, on which Solomon is shown asleep, from a MS. of -the twelfth century. It would almost seem that in the Middle Ages a -contest raged between the four-poster and the bed without tester, and -in the MS. from which the illustration just mentioned is taken the -wisdom of Solomon is represented as combining both fashions. - -Anyone who has taken lodgings in Germany is aware of the alcove-bed; -the curtains are let fall that conceal a recess, and, lo! the chamber -has ceased to be a bedroom and has become a reception-room. This is -another adaptation of the Northern conception of a bed. In the London -houses of Gower Street, and of streets built at the same period, the -same idea is carried out in a somewhat pretentious form. In front, -looking out on the street, is the sitting-room, opposite the window are -folding doors, and behind them the bedroom. The little back room behind -these doors is the _lokhvila_ somewhat enlarged. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 25._--HUT, TREWORTHA MARSH, WITH STONE BED. - -(_By kind permission of “The Daily Graphic.”_)] - -Indeed, the two ideas of bed, the open and the closed, go back a long -way. I have mentioned in the preceding article the exploration of an -ancient settlement--date early but unfixed--on the Cornish moors. One -hut had in it both types of bed. We saw in the article on “Ovens” how -that in the Hebrides, in the bee-hive huts to this day, a portion of -the floor is marked off by curb stones, and this portion is converted -into a bed at night and a seat by day. So was it in one of the stone -huts on Trewortha Marsh. A set of granite blocks in a curve parted one -portion of the earth floor from the rest. That was the bed according -to the Keltic ideal. But, and this was curious, in the depth of the -wall at the farther end of the hut, was a hole seven feet deep in the -thickness of the wall, with a great slab of granite at the bottom -smoothed to serve as mattress. It was about 2 feet 3 inches wide at -the foot, as much at the head, but widened to 3 feet 4 inches in the -middle. The height above the floor was 4 inches. It adjoined the -oven--it was a bed according to Scandinavian ideas, with this sole -difference, that access to it was obtained at the foot, which alone was -open, and not at the side. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 26._--A RUINED HUT, TREWORTHA. - -_a._ Chamber, 11½ ft. × 10 ft.; _b._ Bed; _c._ Locker; _d._ Entrance, 2 -ft. 3 in. high; _e._ Sunkenway leading to the door and beyond to water.] - -Do those two types of bed in one hovel 10 feet square signify that men -of two nationalities occupied it, each with his bed-ideal, which he -would not abandon? We cannot say; probably it means no more than this, -the confluence of two streams of tradition. - -The wooden coffin is neither more nor less than the wooden four-poster -or rather closed bed reduced to the smallest possible dimensions. -Among the megalithic people the stone grave was gradually reduced in -dimensions from the mighty dolmen to the small kistvaen. The great -tumulus or cairn is now represented by the little green mound in the -churchyard, and the menhir or long stone, rude and uninscribed, has its -modern counterpart much altered in the headstone. The enclosed box-like -stone tombs that were erected during last century were survivals of -the kistvaen, as were also the sarcophagi of the ancients. The wooden -coffin is but in small the wooden chamber of the dead of our Norse -ancestors, which was itself but a reproduction of the closed bedchamber. - -For myself, when I think how much that is great and vigorous and -noble comes to us through our Norse ancestry, I regret that by the -abandonment of the four-poster we are casting aside one of its most -cherished traditions, and yet there remains matter of consolation in -the thought that, for the last sleep of all, we revert to the fashion -of bed _a la Scandinave_. - - - - -V. - -Striking a Light. - - -“Please, sir, the rats be a rampagin’ in the lumber-room as makes the -blood curl!” - -For fifty years I had never been into that lumber-room. It is situated -up a steep flight of steps in the back kitchen, and had once been -inhabited by a button-boy. Here is an extract from my grandmother’s -account-book for the year 1803:-- - - Footman £14 - Page 4 - Cook 12 - Housemaid 7 - -Verily prices have risen since 1803. - -However, to return to the four-pounder. He inhabited this room some -ninety years ago: then it was abandoned, finally locked up, and the key -lost. About fifty years ago, as a boy, I did explore the place, through -the window, after nests. My grandfather died. Then my father succeeded, -and the room remained unopened during his reign. My father died, and I -succeeded to the old house. I had been in it some years, when the other -day the kitchen-maid complained that the rats in this lumber-room over -the back kitchen made her blood “curl,” by which she meant, presumably, -“curdle;” till then I had never thought of an exploration. - -To abate the nuisance, however, I broke open the door and entered the -long-abandoned room. Since the four-pounder had occupied it, for some -years that room must have been employed as a place for lumber, because -it proved to contain a quantity of old, disused articles in iron and -tin, and amongst these were two stands for rushlights, a tinder-box, -and a glass phosphorus bottle. - -Such a find carried one back, as few other things could, to early days, -and showed one the enormous advance we have made in this century in the -comforts of life. - -Some of us can remember the rushlight, a few the phosphorus bottle, -fewer the tinder-box. - -Of the rushlights I found, one was familiar to me; the other, probably -an earlier type, I had never seen. The former consisted of a cylinder -of sheet-iron, perforated with round holes, the cylinder about two feet -high. This contained the rushlight. At the bottom was a basin for a -little water, that the sparks, as they fell, might be extinguished. - -Well do I recall such rushlight lamps! One always burned at night in -my father’s bedroom, and when I was ill I was accommodated with one as -well. The feeble, flickering light issued through the perforations and -capered in fantastic forms over the walls and furniture. - -The other rushlight lamp was of a different construction. It consisted -of a long spiral of iron wire, and was probably discarded for the newer -and safer invention of the lamp with perforated holes. The spiral coil -would prevent the lanky rushlight from falling over and out of the -lamp, but not the red-hot dock from spluttering on to the carpet or -boards of the floor. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 27._--RUSHLIGHT-HOLDERS.] - -There was in use, formerly, in England another sort of -rushlight-holder. It consisted of an iron rod planted in a socket of -wood that stood on the floor. To this rod, which was round, was affixed -a sliding contrivance that upheld a socket for the rushlight, which -might be raised or lowered as suited convenience. Connected with the -holder was the snuffer. The candle had to be taken _out_ of its socket -to have its wick pinched between the upright unremovable snuffers. -Conceive the inconvenience! The drip of tallow about fingers and floor! -We have indeed advanced since such candle-holders were in use. They -stood about four feet from the floor. - -It was necessary in former times for a light to be kept burning all -night in one room, for to strike a light was a long and laborious -operation. There were little silver boxes that contained amadou, the -spongy texture of a puff-ball, and some matches dipped in sulphur, -also a flint. One side of the box was armed with a steel. In striking -a light the holder put the amadou in position to receive the sparks -from the steel as he struck the flint, then, when the amadou glowed, -he touched it with the brimstone end of the match and ignited that--a -matter of five to ten minutes. Why, a burglar could clear off with the -plate before the roused master of the house could strike a light and -kindle his candle to look for him. - -The tinder-box employed commonly in kitchens and cottages was a -different application of the same principle. It consisted of a circular -tin or iron box, with the socket for a candle soldered on to the -top. This box contained a removable bottom. When opened it displayed -a steel and a lump of flint. These were taken out and the removable -bottom lifted up, when below was disclosed a mass of black tinder. -The manufacture of this tinder was one of the accomplishments of our -forefathers, or rather foremothers. It was made of linen rag burned -in a close vessel, completely charred, without being set on fire, and -the manufacture of tinder had to take place weekly, and consumed a -considerable amount of linen. - -In the morning early, before dawn, the first sounds heard in a small -house were the click, click, click of the kitchen-maid, striking flint -and steel over the tinder in the box. When the tinder was ignited, the -maid blew upon it till it glowed sufficiently to enable her to kindle -a match made of a bit of stick dipped in brimstone. The cover was then -returned to the box, and the weight of the flint and steel pressing -it down extinguished the sparks in the carbon. The operation was not, -however, always successful; the tinder or the matches might be damp, -the flint blunt, and the steel worn; or, on a cold, dark morning, the -operator would not infrequently strike her knuckles instead of the -steel; a match, too, might be often long in kindling, and it was not -pleasant to keep blowing into the tinder-box, and on pausing a moment -to take breath, to inhale sulphurous acid gas, and a peculiar odour -which the tinder-box always exhaled. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 28._--A TINDERBOX.] - -[Illustration: _Fig. 29._--STEEL FROM A TINDERBOX.] - -Here is a curious passage from an article on “The Production of Fire,” -in the _Penny Magazine_ for 26th July, 1834:--“The flint and steel, -with the tinder and match of some kind or other, have long been the -instruments of getting a light in the civilised world.... Within the -present century the aid of chemistry has been called in, ... and -instantaneous lights have become quite common, under the various names -of Promethians, Lucifers, etc., although, from its superior cheapness, -_the tinder-box will probably always keep its place in domestic use_.” -This article was published in the very year in which I was born, and -now it is extremely difficult to obtain an old tinder-box. I have -sought in the cottages and farmhouses in my own parish and those -adjoining, and have been unsuccessful in discovering more than one. A -generation has grown up that has never even heard of the tinder-box. - -In or about 1673 phosphorus was discovered, and its easy ignition -by mere friction made known, and this opened the prospect of more -easy means of obtaining a light. But phosphorus was costly, and a -century and a half elapsed before the phosphorus match came into use. -Phosphoric tapers were employed; these were small wax tapers, the wicks -of which were coated with phosphorus; they were enclosed in glass tubes -hermetically sealed, and when a light was required, one end of the tube -was removed with a file, when the taper became ignited by exposure to -the air. - -The plan was, however, clumsy, besides being dangerous and costly, and -never took hold of public estimation. The next attempt was to put a -piece of phosphorus into a small phial, and dissolve it at a moderate -heat, then keep the phial corked. The bottle was about the size of one -of smelling salts, and was kept at the head of the bed. When a light -was required, the glass stopper was removed, and a match coated with -sulphur was dipped into it, and worked about till a flame was produced, -when the match was withdrawn, and the phial hastily corked. Another -method was to rub the match, after dipping it in the bottle, against -a piece of cork or soft wood, the friction more certainly or less -dangerously promoting the combination of the sulphur and phosphorus, -and the consequent production of flame. - -Another method of kindling a match was by means of Homberg’s -phosphorus, or fire-bearer. It was a black powder compound of flour, -sugar, and alum, which took fire on exposure to the air. But it never -came into general use. It remained in the hands of the curious. None of -these inventions displaced the old tinder-box, which maintained itself -to within the memory of many of us who are over fifty years. - -Of all the ingenious attempts to get rid of the tinder-box, the -oxymuriate matches were the most successful. From them our present -lucifers are lineally descended. The oxymuriate matches were composed -of chlorate of potash and sugar coating a strip of wood. The match was -dipped into a bottle containing a piece of asbestos soaked in oil of -vitriol. The bottle and a number of these matches, with tipped ends -downwards, were put into a neat little case, and this was called the -“phosphorus box.” On their first introduction, these boxes sold as high -as 15s. each; they gradually fell to 10s., then 5s., but never went -below half-a-crown. But they were not altogether successful. The oil of -vitriol lost its force after a while, owing to the readiness with which -it absorbed moisture from the air, and then the matches smouldered -instead of bursting into flame. - -The next advance was the lucifer-match, with phosphorus and sulphur -combined at the end. But this was dangerous, and frightful accidents -attended the manufacture. I spent some winters at Pau, in the south -of France, and near our house were the cottages of poor people who -worked at match-making. The pans of melted phosphorus into which the -heads of the matches were dipped would explode suddenly, and scatter -their flaming contents over the match-girls. My mother, as an angel of -goodness, was wont to visit and minister to many and many a poor little -burnt girl, who had thus been set fire to. - -But the phosphorus match-making had another objection to it, besides -the accidents produced in the melting of phosphorus. It brought on a -frightful disease in the jaw. The bone was attacked, and rotted away. -In the “Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science” for 1852, the -nature of the disease is thus described:--“An affection ensues which is -so insidious in its nature that it is at first supposed to be common -toothache, and a most serious disease of the jaw is produced before -the patient is aware of his condition. The disease gradually creeps on -until the sufferer becomes a miserable and loathsome object, spending -the best period of his life in the wards of a public hospital. Many -patients have died of the disease; many unable to open their jaws have -lingered with carious and necrosed bones; others have suffered dreadful -mutilations from surgical operations, considering themselves happy to -escape with the loss of the greater portion of the lower jaw. In the -Museum of the Manchester Infirmary is the lower jaw of a young woman -who is now at work. Her face is much disfigured by the loss of her -chin, and, on looking into her mouth, the root of the tongue is seen -connected with her under lip, the space formerly occupied by the jaw -being obliterated by the contraction of the cheek.” - -Thus, in the advance of civilisation, great agonies have been gone -through. Our present conveniences have been purchased at the cost of -throes and tears in the past. We should not forget that civilisation -has had its martyrs. - -Lastly came the match made without phosphorus. When we think of the -toil and trouble that the lighting of a fire occasioned, we can -understand what store was set on never letting a fire on the hearth go -out. An old woman on Dartmoor, recently dead, boasted on her death-bed: -“I be sure I’se goin’ to glory; for sixty-three years have I been -married, and never in all them years once let the hearth-fire go out.” -But there the fire was of peat, which will smoulder on untouched for -many hours. - -There was a stage of civilisation before the tinder-box came in, and -that was a stage when fire had to be kept in, and if it went out, -borrowed from a neighbour. In the earliest age, fire was obtained by -friction; a piece of wood with a hole in it was placed on the ground -between the feet. Then a man held a piece shaped like the letter T in -his hands, and rapidly twirled this about, with the long end inserted -in the hole of the piece he held between his feet, till by friction the -upright was ignited. The pieces of wood must be very dry, and requisite -dryness was not easily procurable in our moist northern climes, -consequently the labour of kindling a flame was proportionately great. -Sometimes a wheel was employed, and the axle turned in that to produce -a flame. It has been thought that the _fylfot_ [Illustration: fylfot], -the crook-legged cross found on so many monuments of antiquity, the -_Svastika_ of India, represents an instrument for the production of -fire by friction. But owing to the great difficulty in producing fire -by this means, the greatest possible care was taken of the household -fire, lest it should become extinguished. This originated the worship -of Vesta. The flame once procured was guarded against extinction -in some central spot by the unmarried women of the house, and when -villages and towns were formed, a central circular hut was erected in -which a common fire was maintained, and watched continuously. From this -central hearth all the hearths of the settlement were supplied. Ovid -tells us that the first temple of Vesta at Rome was constructed of -wattled walls, and roofed with thatch like the primitive huts of the -inhabitants. It was little other than a circular, covered fireplace, -and was tended by the unmarried girls of the infant community. It -served as the public hearth of Rome, and on it glowed, unextinguished -throughout the year, the sacred fire, which was supposed to have been -brought from Troy, and the continuance of which was thought to be -linked with the fortunes of the city. The name Vesta is believed to -be derived from the same root as the Sanscrit _vas_, which means “to -dwell, to inhabit,” and shows that she was the goddess of home, and -home had the hearth as its focus. A town, a state, is but a large -family, and what the domestic hearth was to the house, that the -temple of the perpetual fire became to the city. Every town had its -Vesta, or common hearth, and the colonies derived their fire from -the mother hearth. Should a vestal maiden allow the sacred fire to -become extinguished, she was beaten by the Grand Pontiff till her blood -flowed, and the new fire was solemnly rekindled by rubbing together dry -wood, or by focussing the sun’s rays. It might not be borrowed from a -strange place. The circular form and domed roof of the Temples of Vesta -were survivals of the prehistoric huts of the aborigines. - -Among the legends of the early Celtic saints nothing is more common -than the story of the saint being sent to borrow fire, and carrying it -in his lap without the fire injuring his garment. - -In Ireland, before St. Patrick introduced Christianity, there was a -temple at Tara where fire burned ever, and was on no account suffered -to go out. - -When Christianity became dominant, it was necessary to dissociate -the ideas of the people from the central fire as mixed up with the -old gods; at the same time some central fire was an absolute need. -Accordingly the Church was converted into the sacred depository of the -perpetual fire, and a lamp was kept in it ever burning, not only that -the candles might be ignited from it for the services, without recourse -had to friction or tinder flint and steel, but also that the parish, -the village, the town, might obtain thence their fire. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 30._--CRESSET-STONE, ST. AMBROGIO, MILAN.] - -[Illustration: _Fig. 31._--CRESSET-STONE, LEWANNICK.] - -There exist still a few--a very few--contrivances for this perpetual -fire in our churches; they go by the name of cresset-stones. The -earliest I know is not in England, but is in the atrium outside the -remarkable church of St. Ambrogio at Milan. It is a block of white -marble on a moulded base, it is now broken, but banded together with -iron. It stands 3 feet 10 inches high, and is 2 feet 6 inches in -diameter at top. It consists of a flat surface in which are depressed -nine cuplike hollows. These were originally filled with oil, and wicks -were placed in them and ignited. In England one is still _in situ_, -in the church of Lewannick, in Cornwall. There it is not far from the -door. It consists of a circular block containing on its flat upper -surface, which is twenty-two inches across, seven cuplike hollows, -four and a half inches deep. The stone stands on a rudely moulded -base, octagonal, and is in all about 2 feet 6 inches high. In Furness -Abbey, among the ruins, has been found another, with five cups in it; -at Calder Abbey another, with sixteen such cups for oil and wicks. At -York is another with six such fire-cups, and at Stockholm another with -the same number, in a square stone table. At Wool Church, Dorset, is -again another example built into the south wall of a small chapel on -the north side of the chancel. It is a block of Purbeck marble, and has -in the top five cup-shaped cavities quite blackened with the oil and -smoke. In some of the examples there are traces of a metal pin around -which the wick was twisted. - -In addition to these, in several churches are to be found lamp-niches. -Some have chimneys or flues, which pass upwards, in some cases passing -into the chimneys of fireplaces. Others have conical hollows in the -heads or roofs, in order to catch the soot, and prevent it passing out -into the church. - -Now, although these lamps and cressets had their religious -signification, yet this religious signification was an afterthought. -The origin of them lay in the necessity of there being in every place -a central light, from which light could at any time be borrowed; -and the reason why this central light was put in the church was to -dissociate it from the heathen ideas attached formerly to it. As it -was, the good people of the Middle Ages were not quite satisfied with -the central church fire, and they had recourse in times of emergency to -others--and as the Church deemed them--unholy fires. When a plague and -murrain appeared among cattle, then they lighted need-fires, from two -pieces of dry wood, and drove the cattle between the flames, believing -that this new flame was wholesome to the purging away of the disease. -For kindling the need-fires the employment of flint and steel was -forbidden. The fire was only efficacious when extracted in prehistoric -fashion, out of wood. The lighting of these need-fires was forbidden -by the Church in the eighth century. What shows that this need-fire -was distinctly heathen is that in the Church new fire was obtained at -Easter annually by striking flint and steel together. It was supposed -that the old fire in a twelvemonth had got exhausted, or perhaps that -all light expired with Christ, and that new fire must be obtained. -Accordingly the priest solemnly struck new fire out of flint and steel. -But fire from flint and steel was a novelty; and the people, Pagan at -heart, had no confidence in it, and in time of adversity went back to -the need-fire kindled in the time-honoured way from wood by friction, -before this new-fangled way of drawing it out of stone and iron was -invented. - -The curious festival of the Car of Fire observed on Easter Eve every -year at Florence carries us back to a remote period when fire was a -sacred and mysterious thing. As is well known, in the Eastern Church, -also in the Roman Catholic Church, all fires are extinguished before -Easter; and in the Cathedral, the Bishop, on Easter morning, strikes -new fire, blesses it, and all the hearths in the city receive the new -fire from this blessed spark. It is vulgarly supposed that the old fire -has got worn out, and has lost its full vigour by use throughout the -year, and that the new fire is full of restless and youthful energy. -There can be little doubt that this idea goes back to a remote and -Pagan time, and the Church accepted what was a common custom, and gave -it, or tried to give it, a new and Christian idea, connecting it with -the resurrection of Him who is the Light of the World. The same custom -of striking and blessing new fire exists in many parts of the West as -well as the East, and is sanctioned by the Roman Church. But nowhere -does this ancient usage assume so quaint and picturesque a form as -at Florence. There, however, the primitive significance is completely -forgotten, and the people have endeavoured to explain the ceremony -which I will now describe in various mutually contradictory ways. - -On Easter Eve, four magnificent white oxen, their huge horns wreathed -with flowers, and with garlands about them, as though they were being -conveyed to sacrifice, draw a huge car, painted black, some twenty-five -feet high, pyramidal in shape, and crowned with a mural coronet, -into the piazza before the west doors of the white marble cathedral. -The car is itself wreathed with flowers to its highest pinnacle, and -with the flowers various fireworks are interspersed. As soon as this -great trophy is in place, and the oxen unyoked, the west doors of the -cathedral are thrown open, and a rope is strained from the top of the -car to a pillar that is erected in front of the high altar, a distance -of some two hundred yards. On this cord is seen perched a white dove, -composed of some white substance, probably plaster. For two hours -before the event of the day takes place the great piazza and the nave -of the vast cathedral are crowded. Villagers from all the country round -have arrived; but there are also present plenty of townsfolk, and -strangers from foreign lands. At half-past eleven, the archbishop and -all his clergy come in procession down the body of the church, pass -out of the west doors, and make the circuit of the cathedral. Before -twelve o’clock strikes they are again in their places in the choir. -At the stroke of noon the newly-blessed fire is applied to a train -of gunpowder at the foot of the pillar. In another moment the pigeon -skims down the nave, pouring out a shower of fire, sweeps out of the -west door of the cathedral, reaches the trophy in the square, sets -fire to a fusee there, then turns and flies back along the rope, still -discharging a rain of fire, till it has reached its pillar before the -altar, and there is still. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 32._--THE CARRO, FLORENCE.] - -But in the meantime the fusee at the car has set fire to various squibs -and petards and crackers there, and the whole structure is speedily -enveloped in fire and smoke, from which explosions issue every few -moments. As soon as the last firework has expired, the white oxen are -again yoked to the car, and it is drawn away. - -The flight of the dove is watched by the peasants with breathless -anxiety, for the course it takes indicates, in their idea, the sort -of weather that is likely to ensue during the year. If the bird moves -slowly, halts, then goes on again, halts, and is sluggish in its -flight, they conclude the year will be tempestuous and the harvest -bad. If the dove skims along to the car and back without a hitch, they -calculate on a splendid summer and autumn, on a rich yield of corn, and -overflowing presses of grapes. - -And now for the legends whereby the people explain this curious custom. -According to one, a certain Florentine named Pazzino went to Jerusalem -in the twelfth century, kindled a torch there at the Holy Sepulchre -on Easter Eve, and resolved to bring this same sacred fire with him -back to Florence. But as he rode along, the wind blew in his face and -well-nigh extinguished his torch, so he sat his steed with his face -to the tail, screening the flame with his body, and so rode all the -way home! The people along his route, seeing him thus ride reversed, -shouted out, “Pazzi! Pazzi!” (“O fool! fool!”) and that name of “fool” -he and his family assumed; and the family is still represented in -Florence. - -There is another version of the story; one Pazzino, seeing the Holy -Sepulchre in the hands of the infidels, broke off as much of it as he -could carry to convey home to his dear Florence. As he was pursued -by the Saracens, he reversed the shoes of his horse to avoid being -tracked. On reaching Florence it was resolved that the new Easter fire -should always be kindled on the stone of the Holy Sepulchre he had -brought home. In honour of his achievement, moreover, the municipality -ordered that the ceremony of the Car of Fire and the fiery dove should -be maintained every year. For many centuries the expenses were borne by -the Pazzi family; but of late years they have been relieved of these by -the municipality. - -The third version of the story is, that Pazzino was a knight with -Godfrey de Bouillon in the first Crusade, and that he was the first -of the besiegers to mount the walls and plant on them the banner of -the cross. Moreover, he sent the tidings of the recovery of the Holy -Sepulchre home to Florence by a carrier-pigeon, and thus the news -reached Florence long before it could have arrived in any other way. - -Such are the principal legends connected with this curious ceremony, -and we are constrained to say that we believe that one is as fabulous -as another. The explanation of the custom is really this. - -The rite of striking the new fire was observed at Florence, as -elsewhere, from an early date, but the _communication_ of the new fire -from the newly-ignited candle was both a long affair, and occasioned -noise, struggle and inconvenience. Accordingly--partly to save the -church from being the scene of an unseemly scramble, and partly to -make the communication of the fire an easy matter to a large number -of persons at once--an ingenious contrivance was made, whereby a dove -should carry the flame from the choir of the cathedral, above the reach -of the people, who therefore could not scuffle and scramble for it, to -the market-place outside, where it ignited a bonfire, to which all the -people could apply their candles and torches. After a while the real -intention was forgotten, and the bonfire was converted into a great -exhibition of fireworks in the daytime. - -The whole ceremony has a somewhat childish character, but then it dates -back to a period when all men were children; and it serves, if rightly -understood, to link us with the past, and enables us to measure the -distance we have trodden since those ages when fire was one of the most -difficult things to be re-acquired, if once lost, and the preservation -of fire and the striking of fire were matters of extreme importance, -and were after a while reserved to a sacred class.[22] - - - - -VI. - -Umbrellas. - - -Some years ago I happened to be at that most picturesque old city of -Würzburg on a showery May market-day. The window of my hotel commanded -the square. The moment that the first sprinkle came over the busy scene -of market women and chafferers, the whole square suddenly flowered -like a vast garden. Every woman at her stall expanded an enormous -umbrella, and these umbrellas were of every dye--crimson, blue, green, -chocolate, and--yes, there was even one of marigold yellow, under which -the huckstress crouched as beneath a mighty inverted eschscholtzia. Nor -were these umbrellas all _selfs_, as horticulturists describe monotoned -pansies; for some were surrounded with a perfect rainbow of coloured -lines as a border; and others were wreathed about with a pattern of -many-hued flowers. Presently, out came the May sun, and, _presto_, -every umbrella was closed and folded and laid aside: the flower garden -had resolved itself into a swarm of busy marketers. - -On reaching Innsbruck, I lighted on an umbrella-maker’s shop under -one of the arcades near the Golden Roof of Frederick with the Empty -Pockets. I saw suspended before the vault in which the man dwelt or -did business, umbrellas the exact reproductions of what I had seen at -Würzburg--red, green, brown, blue, even white--lined with pink, like -mushrooms: and for the sum of about fifteen shillings I became the -happy possessor of one of these articles, which I proceed to describe. -The covering was of a brilliant red, and imprinted round it was a -wreath of flowers and foliage, white, yellow, blue, and green; around -the ferule also was a smaller wreath similar in colour and character. -This cover was stretched on canes, such canes as are well known in -schools; and the canes were distended by twisted brass strainers, -rising out of a sliding tube of elaborately hammered brass, through -which passed the stick of the umbrella. The whole, when expanded, -measured nearly five feet, and was not extraordinarily heavy, nothing -like the weight of a gig-umbrella. Walking under it was like walking -about in a tent, taking the tent with one; and walking under it in the -rain filled one with sanguine hopes that the day was about to mend, so -surrounded was one with a warm and cheerful glow. On a hot climb over -a pass, when I spread this shelter above my head against the sun, I -felt that I must appear to the shepherds on the high pastures like a -migratory Alpine rose. - -I met with no inconvenience whatever from my umbrella till I reached -Heidelberg on my way home, and innocently walked with it under my -arm in the Castle gardens on Sunday afternoon. Then I found that -it provoked attention and excited astonishment. Such an umbrella -had its social level, and that level was the market-place, not the -Castle gardens; it was sufferable as spread over an old woman vending -_sauerkraut_, but not as carried furled in the hand of a respectably -dressed gentleman. So much comment did my umbrella occasion that it -annoyed me, spoiled the pleasure of my walk, and I accepted the offer -of a friend to relieve me of it. He took my umbrella and thrust it up -his back under his coat, and with crossed arms to the rear, hugged -it to his spine. But even so it was not to escape observation, for -the black handle, crooked, appeared below his coat, a fact to which I -was aroused as I dropped behind my friend, by the exclamations of a -nursemaid: “_Ach Tausend!_ the Herr has a curly tail!” and then of a -Professor, who, beckoning some students to him, said: “Let us catch -him--the Missing Link, _homo caudatus_.” - -On reaching England, the great scarlet-crimson (it was neither exactly -one nor exactly the other) umbrella was consigned to the stand in the -hall. Those were not the days when ladies spread red parasols above -their bonnets, and had sunshades to match their gowns: in those days -all parasols were brown or black; consequently the innovation of a red -umbrella would be too great, too startling for me to attempt. But one -morning--it was that on which the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh made -their entry into London after their marriage--I started early to drive -to the station and go to town and join the sightseers. It may be in the -recollection of those who were out that day that snow fell. Early in -the morning in the country there was a good deal of snow, so much, that -I thought I might safely take my Tyrolese umbrella to cover me in my -gig. I intended to furl it before I reached the station and such places -where men do congregate. It was remarkable that although the snow -spoiled the picturesque effect of the procession in Regent’s Street by -making the redcoats draw on their overcoats, it induced me to unfurl my -marvellous red travelling tent--which is an instance, may be, of the -compensation there is in nature. - -As I drove along, I chanced on an umbrella-maker, trudging through the -snow, head down, with a bundle of his manufacture under his arm. He -neither saw nor heard the dogcart till it was close on him, when the -driver shouted to him to stand aside. Then he started back, looked -up, and I saw the change of expression in the man’s face, as his -eyes took in the apparition above him of the expanded red umbrella, -flower-wreathed and brass-mounted. The face had been inanimate; then, -a wild enthusiasm or astonishment kindled it, and down into the snow -at his feet fell the umbrellas he was carrying. I drove on, but looked -back at intervals, and as long as he was in sight, I saw him standing -in the road, with eyes and mouth open, hands expanded and every finger -distended, and his umbrellas, uncollected, scattered about him in the -snow. - -These reminiscences of my remarkable umbrella lead me to say something -of umbrellas in general. - -I hardly think that the true origin, development, and, shall I say, -degradation of the umbrella, is generally known. Yet it deserves to -be known, for it supplies a graphic and striking condensation of vast -social changes. - -The umbrella comes to us from the East, from nations living under a -burning sun, to whom shade is therefore agreeable. We can understand -how the giving of shade came easily to be regarded as a symbol of -majesty. In the apocryphal book of Baruch occurs the passage, “We shall -live under the shadow of Nebucodonosor, king of Babylon, and under the -shadow of Balthasar, his son.” Primitively, kings gave audience and -delivered judgment seated under trees, not only because of the comfort -of the shade, but also because of the symbolism. So, when Ethelbert, -King of Kent, received St. Augustine, he was seated under an oak; and -Wagner is quite right when, in the opening scene in _Lohengrin_, he -makes King Pepin hold his court enthroned under a tree. - -But when sovereigns took to receiving suitors and dispensing justice -indoors, they transferred with them to within the symbol of the tree. -Phylarchus, in describing the luxury of Alexander, says that the -Persian kings gave audience under plane trees or vines made of gold -and hung with emeralds, but that the magnificence of the throne of -Alexander surpassed theirs. Curtius relates how the kings of India had -golden vines erected in their judgment halls so as to overspread their -thrones. The throne of Cyrus was over-canopied by a golden vine of -seven branches. Firdusi describes a similar throne-tree at the festival -given by Kai Khosru: - - “A tree was erected, many-branched, - Bending over the throne with its head: - Of silver the trunk, but the branches of gold; - The buds and the blossoms were rubies; - The fruit was of sapphire and cornelian stone; - And the foliage all was of emerald.” - -From the East, the idea or fashion was transplanted to Byzantium, -and the emperors there had similar trees erected above their thrones -overshadowing them. William of Rubruquis describes a great silver tree -in the Palace of the Khan of the Tartars, in 1253, of which leaves and -fruit, as well as branches, were of silver. But kings went about, and -wherever they went their majesty surrounded them; and consequently, -with the double motive of comfort and of symbolism, the umbrella was -invented as a portable canopy or tree over the head of the sovereign. - -The Greeks noticed and disapproved of the use of the umbrella.[23] -Xenophon says that the Persians were so effeminate that they could -not content themselves in summer with the shade afforded by trees and -rocks, but that they employed portable contrivances for producing -artificial shade. But when he says this, he most certainly refers to -the kings, for they alone had the right to use umbrellas. - -On Assyrian and Persepolitan reliefs we have an eunuch behind the -sovereign holding an umbrella over him when walking, or when riding -in his chariot, or when seated; on a bas-relief of Assur-bani-pal, -however, the king is figured reclining under an overshadowing vine, -which is probably artificial. Firdusi says of Minutscher: “A silken -umbrella afforded shade to his head.” - -M. de la Loubière, envoy extraordinary from the French King in 1687 -and 1688 to the King of Siam, says in his narrative that the use of -the umbrella was granted by the sovereign to certain highly honoured -subjects. An umbrella with several rings of very wide expansion was -the prerogative of the king alone, but to certain nobles was granted -by princely condescension the right to have their heads and faces -screened from the sun by smaller shades. In his quaint old French, M. -de la Loubière says that in the audience-chamber of the king:--“Pour -tout meuble il n’y a que trois para-sols, un devant la fenêtre, á neuf -ronds, et deux á sept ronds aux deux côtéz de la fenêtre. Le para-sol -est en ce Pais là, ce que le Dais est en celui-ci”--that is to say, a -mark of the highest power. - -The Mahratta princes had the title of “Lords of the Umbrella.” The -chàta of these princes is large and heavy, and requires a special -attendant to hold it, in whose custody this symbol of sovereignty -reposes. - -In Ava it seems to have been part of the royal title that the sovereign -was “King of the White Elephant and Lord of Twenty-four Umbrellas.” In -1855 the King of Burmah directed a letter to the Marquis of Dalhousie -in which he styles himself “His glorious and most excellent Majesty, -reigning over the umbrella-wearing princes of the East.” - -Among the Arabs the umbrella is a mark of distinction. Niebuhr says -that it is a privilege confined to princes of the blood to use an -umbrella.[24] - -In the East the umbrella has come to be regarded as connected with -royalty as much as the crown and the throne; and among the Buddhists -it has remained so. Four feet from the throne of the Great Mogul, as -described by Tavernier, were two spread umbrellas of red velvet fringed -with pearls, the sticks of which were wreathed with pearls. Du Halde -says that in the Imperial palace at Pekin there were umbrellas always -ready for the Emperor; and when he rode out, a canopy was borne on two -sticks over his head to shade him and his horse. Of Sultan Mohammed -Aladdin we are told that he adopted insignia of majesty hitherto used -in India and Persia and unknown in Islam; among these was a canopy -or umbrella held over his head when he went abroad. Of one Sultan’s -umbrella we are told that it was of yellow embroidered with gold and -surmounted by a silver dove. - -But as the umbrella was the symbol of majesty held over the king’s -head, it behoved the royal palace to imitate the same, and by its -structure show to all that it was the seat of majesty. Thus came -into use the cupola or dome, and what was given to the king’s house -was given also to the temples. In Perret and Chapui’s conjectural -reconstruction of the temple of Belus, near Babylon, above the seven -stages of the mighty pyramid, is the shrine of the god surmounted by a -dome. In all likelihood this really was the apex of the pyramid; the -dome was a structural umbrella held over the supreme god. - -The great hall of audience of the Byzantine emperors was surmounted by -a cupola. Two Councils of the Church, in 680 and 692, were held in -it, and obtained their designation _in Trullo_ from this fact. From -the royal palace the cupola passed to the church, as the crown of the -House of the King of Kings; and a dome was erected over the church of -the Holy Sepulchre by Constantine, and over the church of the Eternal -Wisdom by Justinian. But it had already been employed as the crown of a -temple, not only in the Pantheon at Rome, but in the Tholos, the temple -of Marnas or Dagon at Gaza. - -The great dome or umbrella by no means excluded the lesser one beneath -it, and kings’ thrones under cupolas were also over-canopied by -structures of wood, or marble, or metal. Such a _baldacchino_ is seen -over the sun-god in a bas-relief at Sippar. It became common, and -when of wood or metal, was sculptured, or when of textile work, was -embroidered with leaf and flower-work, retaining a reminiscence of the -original tree beneath which the king sat and held court. It also passed -to the church, and became a subsidiary umbrella over the altar. Paul -the Silentiary in the sixth century describes that in the Church of -St. Sophia at Constantinople as a dome resting on four silver pillars. -Constantine erected much the same sort of domed covering above the tomb -of the Apostles in Rome. - -In the catacombs, the vaulted chapels and the over-arched recessed -tombs are all attributable to the same idea; nor has the original -notion been lost in them, for they are frescoed over with vines, bays, -and other foliage. The most beautiful instance is also the earliest, -the squire crypt in the cemetery of Prætextatus, which dates from the -second century. Here the entire vault is covered with trailing tendrils -and leaves with birds perched on them. A couple of centuries later the -original idea was gone, and we find, instead of a growing tree, only -bunches and sprigs of flowers. - -So!--the umbrellas that pass in the rain under the shadow of the mighty -dome of St. Paul’s are its poor relations, and my flower-wreathed -_regenschirm_ preserves in its leafage a reminiscence of the original -tree; and the old German woman sits and vends carrots under what -was once the prerogative of the sovereign. Is this not a token that -sovereignty has passed from the despot to the democracy?[25] - - - - -VII. - -Dolls. - - -A white marble sarcophagus occupies the centre of one of the rooms on -the basement of the Capitoline Museum in Rome. The cover has been taken -off and a sheet of glass fastened over the coffin, so that one can -look in. The sarcophagus contains the bones and dust of a little girl. -Her ornaments, the flowers that wreathed the poor little head, are all -there, and by the side is the child’s wooden doll, precisely like the -dolls made and sold to-day. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 33._--DOLL OF IVORY, FROM THE CATACOMB OF ST. -AGNESE.] - -In the catacomb of St. Agnes one end of a passage is given up to form a -museum of the objects found in the tombs of the early Christians, and -among these are some very similar dolls, taken out of the graves of -Christian children. It was very natural that the parents, whether Pagan -or Christian, should put the toys of their dear ones into the last -resting-place with them, not with the idea that they would want them -to play with in the world beyond the veil, but because the sight of -these dolls would rouse painful thoughts, and bring tears into the eyes -of the mourners whenever come across in some old cupboard or on some -shelf. - -Of the greatest interest to the student of mankind are the deposits -some 40 ft. deep at La Laugerie on the banks of the Vézère in Dordogne. -Here at the close of the glacial period lived the primeval inhabitants -of France, at the time of the cave lion, reindeer, and mammoth. That -race knew nothing of the potter’s art. The reindeer hunter was, -however, rarely endowed with the artistic faculty, and numerous -sketches by him on ivory and bone remain to testify to his appreciation -of beauty of animal form. One day a workman turned up a doll carved in -ivory beside one of the hearths of this primeval man. He secreted and -sold it, being under a bond to deliver all such finds to the proprietor -of the land. A fellow-workman betrayed him, and he was obliged to pay -back the money he had received and take the doll to M. de Vibraye, -to whom it was due. In a rage he said, “Anyhow, he shall not have it -perfect,” and he knocked off the head. In the accompanying sketch -the head is conjecturally restored. The arms were broken off when -discovered, if there ever had been arms, which is uncertain. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 34._--DOLL OF IVORY FROM LAUGERIE HAUTE. - -(The head restored.)] - -Was this a child’s toy or an idol of adults? Probably the former. On -some of the engraved bones of the reindeer have been found sketches of -singular objects which bear more resemblance to fetishes, or the images -made and venerated by Ostjaks and Samojeds, than any thing else. With -the savage, as with the child, that doll receives most regard which -is most inartistic, for it allows greater scope for the imagination -to play about it. The favourite miraculous images are invariably the -rudest. - -In one of the Bruges churches is a beautiful Virgin and Child in white -marble, one of the few refined and beautiful things that Michael -Angelo’s hand turned out. But this lovely group does not attract -worshippers, who will be found clustered about, offering their candles, -hanging up silver hearts about a little monstrosity with a black face, -and neither shape nor limbs. - -Whosoever has little children of his own can learn a great deal from -them relative to the early stages of civilisation of mankind. Every -race of men that has not been given revelation from above has passed -through a period of intellectual and spiritual infancy, and though -men grew to be adults, they never grew out of the thoughts of a child -relative to what was beyond their immediate sensible appreciation. - -I knew a case of a woman of fifty who insisted that a certain river -changed the colour of its water as it flowed in one place under the -shadow of a wood, there it turned black, in another part of its course -it was white. To the intelligent mind it was obvious enough that the -water remained unaltered, but that it looked dark where the shadows cut -off the light from the sky. No amount of reasoning could convince the -woman that the water itself did not change its colour from black to -white. She thought as a child, and was incapable of thinking otherwise. - -Now observe a little child playing with a doll. It does not regard the -doll as a symbol, a representation of a man or babe, it treats it as a -creature endowed with an individuality and a life of its own. It talks -to it, it feeds it, it puts it to bed, it conjures up a whole world of -history connected with it. It believes the doll to be sensible to pain, -and will cry to see it beaten. The doll is to it as real a person as -one of its playmates. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 35._--MIRACULOUS IMAGE AT HAL, BELGIUM.] - -Now take a savage and his idol. The idol to him is precisely what the -doll is to the child. It thinks, it eats, it suffers, it is happy. It -requires clothes, it is subject to the same passions as the savage. -When a heathen people has advanced to regard an image as the symbol -of a deity, it has mounted to a higher intellectual plane; it has -stepped from the mental condition of a child of five to that of one of -twelve. If we want to see what are the thoughts of a savage, who is -in the earliest stage relative to his idol, we must go to the Ostjak -or Samojed on the Siberian tundra, or to the negro in Central Africa. -The Greek, the Roman, the Egyptian were long past that stage when -they become known to us through history and their monumental remains. -Their images were symbols, and not properly idols, though there always -remained among them individuals, perhaps whole strata of people, whose -intellectual appreciation of the images was that of babes. This is not -marvellous, for human progress is always subject to this check, that -every individual born into the world enters, as to his intellectual -state, in the condition of the earliest savage, and has to run through -in a few years what races have taken centuries to accomplish. Where -this is the case, and it is the case everywhere, there will ever be -individuals, perhaps whole classes, whose mental development will -suffer arrest at points lower than that attained by the general bulk of -the men and women among whom they move. - -Even in our own country, the most low and to us inconceivable ideas -relative to God may be found among the ignorant. If I tell a story it -is not to raise a laugh, but to lift a corner of the veil which covers -these dull minds, to show how little they have reached the level to -which we have ascended. - -A middle-aged man declared to the parson of his parish that he had seen -and spoken with the Almighty. He was asked what He was like. He replied -that He was dressed in a black swallow-tailed coat of the very best -broadcloth and wore a white tie. This was said with perfect gravity, -and with intense earnestness of conviction. His highest conception of -the Deity was that of a gentleman dressed for a dinner party. Anyone -who has had dealings in spiritual matters with the ignorant will be -able to cap such a story. This is not to be taken as laughing matter, -but as a revelation of a condition of mind to us scarcely intelligible. -I feel some hesitation in repeating the incident, but do so because -I do not see in what other way I can make those who have not been in -communication with the very ignorant understand the full depth of their -ignorance. - -Now let us look at the ideas that those of a low mental condition -among the savage races have relative to their idols. I will take the -instance of the Ostjaks and Samojeds. The latter have their _Hakes_. -They are figures--sometimes only bits of root of tree or wood that have -a distant resemblance to the human form, or some unusual shape. Every -family has its _Hake_--sometimes has several. These are wrapped up in -coloured rags, given necklaces and bangles, and a tent or apartment to -themselves. They have their own sledge, the _haken-gan_, and following -after a Samojed family, on its journey from one camping place to -another, may be seen a load of these unsightly dolls in their sledge. -If some figure out of the usual, in wood or stone, attracts general -attention, and is too big to be carried about, it is regarded as the -_hake_ of a whole tribe. These images are provided with food. Family -affairs are communicated to them, and they are supposed to rejoice with -domestic joys, and lament family losses. - -When their help is required, offerings are made to them, but if the -desired help be not given, the _hake_ gets scolded, refused his food, -and sometimes is kicked out into the snow. The face of the _hake_, or -what serves as face, is smeared with reindeer blood. It is the same -with the Ostjaks. Their idols are dressed in scarlet, furnished with -weapons, and their faces smeared with ochre. They are called _Jitjan_. -“Often,” says Castrén, “each of these figures has its special office. -One is supposed to protect the reindeers, another to help in the -fishery, another to care for the health of the family, etc. When need -arrives, the figures are drawn forth and set up in a tent at the -reindeer pastures, the hunting or fishing grounds. They are presented -with sacrifices now and then, which consist in smearing their lips -with train oil or blood, and putting before them a vessel with fish or -meat.”[26] - -It is very much the same thing with the negro, who stands on the same -intellectual level as the Siberian savage. His fetish is anything -out of the way--a strangely-shaped stone or bit of bone, a bunch of -feathers, a doll, anything about which his imagination may work, and -his reason remain torpid. - -I have watched a little boy of six play with a piece of ash twig. I -drew it, and noted what his proceedings were. He had picked up this -twig, and suddenly exclaimed, “I have found a horse. It is lying down. -Get up, horse! Get up!” He took it to some grass to make it eat, then -went with it to a pond, and made it drink. There the twig fell in, and -he cried out that the horse was swimming. I picked out the twig for -him. Presently, by throwing it into the air, he found that his horse -could fly. Finally, he set to work to build a stable, and furnish it -for his horse. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 36._--THE HORSE.] - -I had been reading Castrén’s account of the _hakes_ and _jitjan_ at the -time, and under my eyes was a child doing with a bit of stick exactly -what a Turanian nomad of full age does now, and has done for thousands -of years. In two or three years this boy’s mind will have expanded, -and his reason have got in the saddle, and will hold in the imaginative -faculty with bit and bridle, and then he will cease to see horses in -ash twigs; but the wanderers on the Asiatic tundras have never got -beyond the stage of an English child of six and never will. - -I quote a passage from “The Beggynhof; or, City of the Single,” to show -how that it is possible for a tolerably-educated, religious Belgian of -the present day to stand at the same point as that of a child of six, -and of an Ostjak savage. - -“St. Anthony is a favourite saint with the good, holy, simple-minded -Beguines; but woe betide him if he refuse his powerful intercession. I -once saw a poor little statuette of this domestic saint left outside -on the window-sill when the snow lay deep on the ground. On inquiring -why it did not occupy its place on the mantelshelf, I was told that -the saint had been refractory; that the Beguine who occupied that room -had been very patient and forbearing for some days, but that, finding -gentleness had no effect in obtaining what she wanted, she now thought -herself justified in trying what effect punishment would have, so she -had turned the effigy of the rebellious saint out into the snow, and -sat with her back towards it, that her patron might understand she did -not intend to address him again until he granted her his protection and -influence.”[27] Precisely in like manner, when Germanicus died, did the -rabble of Rome pelt the temples and statues of the gods with mud and -stones, because they had failed to hear their prayers for the recovery -of their beloved prince. - -We all of us pass through this stage of intellectual and spiritual -growth, except a few who never get beyond it. It is said of the negro -that as a child he is clever and bright, but that he never attains the -mental condition of an European of fifteen. But there are men and women -among us who, in certain matters, never get beyond the condition of -mind of a child of six. We may be shocked at this, but we cannot help -it; they are so constituted--something in their cranial structure, or -some natural deficiency in mental vigour is the occasion of this. In -religious matters they cannot get beyond Fetishism; and if we deny -them that, we deny them all religious comfort and worship. Sometimes, -through some accident, a leg or an arm gets diseased, whereas the -rest of the body grows; so is it with the mind--certain faculties get -diseased, perhaps the reasoning power, and then the imagination runs -riot. - -To an ordinary cultured Pagan of Rome, or Greece, or Egypt, idolatry -was impossible. The gods, figured in marble and bronze, were to them -symbols and nothing else, precisely as to us the letters of the -alphabet are symbols of certain sounds, and the pictographic characters -of cuneiform and hieroglyphic writing were anciently symbols of certain -ideas. So also idolatry is absolutely impossible to anyone who has -gone through the elements of modern education. Religious statues and -pictures are historic representations of personages and events in -the sacred story, but to look upon them with the eyes of an Ostjak -or a child of six is a psychological impossibility, except only -for such as are mentally stunted like the Beguine of Ghent. It is, -therefore, without the smallest scruple that we can employ imagery -in our churches, knowing that the possibility of misusing it is gone -past reversion to it in nine hundred and ninety-nine persons out of -a thousand, and that the thousandth person who would misuse it is -incapable of any other religious exercise, and it were better that he -had some religious conceptions, however low these were, than none at -all. - -To draw this moral has not been my object in penning this article, but -to direct the attention of the intelligent to the nursery, and show -them how that the elements for the study of primitive culture, the -means of following the development of ideas in man are to be found -wherever there are little children. - - - - -VIII. - -Revivals. - - -Of the three factors that go to make up man--body, intellect, and the -spiritual faculty, the last has been allowed somewhat to fall into -neglect in the present age, when special stress has been laid on the -education and development of the intellect. Nevertheless it is a factor -that must not be ignored, and it is one that is likely to revenge -itself for neglect by abnormal action. - -In the Middle Ages it was the reverse; under the preponderating -influence of the Church, the spiritual faculty was cultivated to -extreme of mysticism, and the intellect on one side, and the body on -the other, hardly received sufficient recognition. When an ascetic -would neither think out a problem nor keep himself clean, he exhibited -a monstrosity, not as repulsive, but as certainly a monstrosity, -as one of the gladiators depicted on the pavement of the Baths of -Caracalla--this latter, a man cultivated to the highest point of -animal strength and physical activity. It is probable that a purely -intellectual man without idealism, without religiosity, is as much a -monster as either of the other, though not in the nineteenth century as -repugnant to us as they are. - -A religion that is good for anything must not only be one that is -intelligible and reasonable, but must satisfy the spiritual cravings, -and also exercise moral control over the animal nature. At the same -time, it is liable to undue stress in each direction; it may become a -mere theological speculation, mere mysticism, or resolve itself into -exterior formalism. Whenever it manifests a preponderating tendency in -one or other of these directions--the element in man that is not given -its adequate scope will revolt, and fling itself into an opposite scale. - -The function of the reason in religion is to act as the balance wheel -of the spirit. Reason is not the mainspring, not the motive power of -religion; it is its controlling, moderating faculty. - -Throughout the history of mankind we are coming continually upon -phenomena of a spiritual nature, outbursts of the spiritual faculty in -strange and often in very repulsive manifestations, and it may not be -amiss to look at some of these and to learn what is their real nature. - -Among the primitive races which at this day represent the earliest -phases of psychological development, the savage man has a vague -apprehension of the existence of a spiritual world, haunted by the -souls of the dead which have not been absorbed into the universal -spirit from which they emanated. He has no definite belief, he has -only an apprehension. In the spiritual world, the existence of which -he suspects, there is no system; concerning it he has no doctrine. Its -existence implies no responsibilities. - -Even the idea of an all-pervading spirit is inchoate. All that man -is confident about is that he is surrounded by and subject to the -influences of spirits, now beneficent, then malevolent, always -capricious, that have to be humoured and propitiated, and that allow -themselves to be consulted. - -There is but one, so to speak, natural mode of holding intercourse with -the spirits, and that is by ecstasy, whether natural or superinduced by -narcotics. The man who falls into hysterics, the man who is cataleptic, -is the natural priest. An hysterical, a cataleptic condition, is not -understood, and just as the unusual and contorted bit of wood or stone -receives reverence as a fetish, so does the man subject to unusual fits -become a priest. To him the man of less nervous organism applies when -he desires to hold intercourse with the unseen world. Incantation, -whereby the hysterical work themselves into hysteria, and religious -rite are one. The Shaman or Medicine-man is the only priest. - -Indeed, there is not a people, at a low stage of mental and moral -development, among which this phase of religion is not found, before -the spirit world coagulates into distinct beings, the rudiments of a -theology appear, the priesthood emerges as a caste, and worship is -fixed in ceremonial observance. - -As man advances in the scale of general culture, and thinks more of the -unseen world, his reason or fancy, or reason and fancy acting together, -become creative; in the protoplastic, nebulous spirit-world points of -light appear, the light is divided from the darkness, and the spiritual -entities take rank, and assume characteristics. Religion enters on the -polytheistic phase. - -At the same time the moral sense has advanced; it has seen that there -is some relation between the two worlds determined by good and bad. An -ethic code is evolved, imposed on man by the superior beings in the -world unseen. - -But whilst some of the more gifted in a generation attain to this -religious and moral conception, there remain others, at the same time, -unable to rise, who still occupy the same low level as the earlier men, -who are conscious of spiritual forces, but unable to differentiate -them, who are lost in a vague dream, incapable of accepting a theologic -system, and unwilling to submit to moral restraint. Such men will -always turn away from a definite creed, view a priestly caste with -suspicion, and kick against an ethical code. To them the Schaman is -still the only priest, and delirious ecstasy the only sacrament that -unites the worlds. Their psychic development is so rudimentary, that -they are ready to accept as consecrated whatever utterance is vented, -whatever act is performed in the transport of temporary delirium. - -Before proceeding any further with the account of the growth of -religion, it will be well here to give an account of Schamanism as -it at present exists. For this I will quote a description given by -Lieutenant Matjuschin who accompanied Baron Wrangel on his Polar -Expedition in 1820-3. Lieutenant Matjuschin visited a Tungu Schaman -near the Lena, in 1820. - -“In the midst of the gurte (hut) burnt a fire, round which was laid a -circle of black sheepskins. On this the Schaman paced, uttering his -incantations in an undertone. His black, long, coarse hair nearly -covered his dark-red face; from under his bushy eyebrows gleamed a -pair of glowing bloodshot eyes. His kirtle of skins was hung with -amulets, thongs, chains, bells, and scraps of metal. In his right hand -he held his magic drum, like a tambourine, in his left an unstrung bow. -By degrees the flame died away; he cast himself on the ground; after -five minutes he broke out into a plaintive muffled sound like the moans -of several voices. The fire was fanned into a blaze again. The Schaman -sprang up, planted his bow on the earth, rested his brow on the upper -end, and ran at a rapidly increasing pace round the bow. Suddenly he -halted, made signs with his hands in the air, grasped his drum, played -a sort of melody on it, leaped and twisted his body into strange -contortions, and turned his head about so rapidly that it seemed to us -more like a ball attached to the trunk by a string. All at once he fell -rigid on the ground; two men whetted great knives over him, he uttered -his mournful tones, and moved slowly and convulsively. He was forced -upright, and he was as one unconscious, only with a slight quiver in -his body; his eyes stared wildly and fixedly out of his head, his -face was covered with blood, which poured out with sweat incessantly -from his pores. At last, leaning on the bow, he swung the tambourine -hastily, clattering over his head, then let it fall to earth. Now he -was fully inspired. He stood motionless with lifeless eyes and face; -neither the questions put to him, nor the rapid unconsidered answers -he gave, produced the slightest alteration in his frozen features. -He replied to the queries, of the majority of which he can have had -no comprehension, in an oracular style, but with great firmness of -assurance. Matjuschin asked how long our journey would last? Answer, -‘Over three years.’ ‘Would we effect much?’ ‘More than was expected -at home.’ ‘Should we all keep our health?’ ‘All but you; but you will -not be really ill?’ (Matjuschin suffered for a long time with a wound -in the throat.) ‘How is Lieutenant Anjou?’ ‘He is three days distant -from Bulun, where he has taken refuge, having barely saved his life -from a frightful storm on the Lena.’ (This was afterwards found to be -true.) Many answers were so vague and poetical as to be unintelligible. -When we had done questioning him, the Schaman fell down and remained a -quarter of an hour on the ground suffering from violent convulsions. -‘The devils are departing,’ said the Tungu, and opened the door. Then -the man awoke as out of a deep sleep, looked about in a bewildered -manner, and seemed unconscious of what had taken place. - -“At another place a Schaman went into ecstasies. The daughter of the -house, a Jakutin, became white, then red, then the bloody sweat broke -out, and she fell unconscious on the ground. Matjuschin ordered the -Schaman to desist; as he did not, he flung him out of the house, but he -continued his leaps and contortions outside in the snow. The girl lay -stiff, the lower part of her body swelled, she had cramps, shrieked, -wrung her hands, leaped and sang unintelligible words; at last she -fell asleep, and when she woke after an hour, knew nothing of what had -happened. Her father told us she often had these ecstasies, foretold -the future, and sang in the Lamutisch and Tungu languages, which she -did not know.” - -Matjutschin remarks on what he saw: “The Schamans have been represented -as being mere gross deceivers; no doubt this is true of many of -them, but the history of others is very different. Born with ardent -imaginations and excitable nerves, they grow up amidst a general belief -in the supernatural. The youth receives strong impressions and desires -to obtain communication with the invisible world. No one teaches him -how to do so. A true Schaman is not a cool and ordinary deceiver, but a -psychological phenomenon.” - -These hysterical transports are infectious. Several cases have been -known where a Schaman has begun his operations, that onlookers have -been convulsed, have communicated their agitation to others, and it -has run through an entire settlement, all becoming frantic, shouting, -rolling on the ground, with nervous jerks of the head and spasms of the -body. - -We find precisely analogous practices everywhere among men on the -same psychological platform as Lapps, Ostjaks, and Tungus. Sometimes -medicinal plants and drugs are used to provoke intoxication or excite -dreams. - -Madness, epilepsy, catalepsy, hysteria, in fact all nervous maladies -are at present little understood by science, and among rude nations, -where there is no science, are not understood at all, and are regarded -with superstitious terror. The violence of the patient, the fancies -that possess him, his incoherent cries, the distortion of his body, -the alteration in his features, all seem to point out that he has -fallen under the domination of a foreign power, and such a person is -said to be _possessed_. His actions, his words, are no longer his own, -but those of the spirit that occupies his body. There was not of old, -nor is there still among savages, any sharp distinction between good -spirits and bad. All spirits are those of the dead. It is only by those -who have advanced to a higher stage that these are classified as angels -or devils. In Baron Wrangel’s “North Polar Travels,” already quoted, -is another significant passage which illustrates this point. He says -that in Northern Siberia an epidemic disease called the Mirak appears, -which, according to the universal belief of the people, proceeds from -the ghost of a dead sorceress entering into and tormenting the patient. -But Wrangel says, “The Mirak appears to me to be only an extreme form -of hysteria; the persons attacked are chiefly women.” - -Our word _mania_ traces back to the period when the madman was supposed -to be possessed by the _manes_, the spirit of some dead man; but such -an idea was already abandoned by the classic Roman, who gave the word -to us. - -As already said, it was inevitable that Schamanism should co-exist -along with an organised religion, for only one portion of a people -would have made sufficient progress to be able to receive a dogmatic -faith and accept a formulated worship. There would always remain a -substratum of ignorance and unintelligence which would have recourse -to diviners and dealers with familiar spirits, that is to Schamans -or medicine-men. And now we can understand the true position of -the Witch of Endor. The faith of the Jewish people had taken shape; -it had its monotheistic creed, its altars, and its priesthood, but -the religious development of the people was not on a level with the -scheme of Mosaism. The law was formal, unspiritual--that is to say, -unsensational--to those to whom the only religion that was acceptable -was one of vague spiritualism and ecstatic hallucination. Saul himself -was one of these. As long as all went well with him he adhered to the -authorised religion, but the moment he was in real distress and alarm -he had recourse to the baser, proscribed system, level with his own low -spiritual perceptions. - -All the denunciations in the Old Testament against witchcraft are -properly denunciations not of devil worship, but of a relapse from the -highly organised faith, to the inchoate form of religion suitable only -for savages, from which the Divine Revelation had lifted the sons of -Israel. We find precisely the same condition among the Greeks. They -had their temples, their priests, their mythology. But this was beyond -the spiritual range of some, and these had recourse to the Goetoi, -true Schamans, that took their title from the cries they uttered. -These Goetoi were, in fact, the successors of the medicine-men of -pre-historic Hellas. They were looked upon with mistrust and some fear -by the superior, cultured classes, and laws were passed, but always -evaded, prohibiting these men from exercising their functions, and the -people from having recourse to them. - -Superstition has been called the Shadow of Religion. It may be -so regarded, as it always dogs its steps; but a more exact and -philosophic view of superstition is to regard it as the protoplasm of -belief, co-existing alongside with fully articulated religion, as the -jelly-fish floats in the same wave where the vertebrate-fish swims. -Superstition is the pap of religion to those incapable of digesting -and assimilating a solidified creed. To those low in the psychic scale -there is a consciousness of spirit; but spirit must be vague, and the -means of holding communion with spirit must be something that appeals -to their coarse, uneducated fancy, as hysteric convulsions or maniacal -ravings. - -The Gospel was preached to Jew and Gentile, and a change came over the -face of the religious world. Religion was carried into an infinitely -higher sphere. Christianity stood above classic Paganism, as classic -Paganism stood above Schamanism. - -Let us take a passage from the history of the Church in Apostolic -times, and we shall see the reappearance of the same phenomenon. - -During the course of his second missionary journey, St. Paul came to -Corinth, and abode there eighteen months, during which time he laboured -to spread the Gospel. He addressed himself first to the Jews residing -in Corinth, but roused so great an opposition that he turned to the -Greeks, and succeeded so well in gathering about him a crowd of persons -who made profession of conviction, that the Jews seized and dragged him -before Gallio, the Roman proconsul, accusing him of opposition to the -law of Moses. But the Governor put the whole matter from him, as one -out of his jurisdiction, if not beneath his notice. Shortly after St. -Paul departed to Syria by ship. - -It is worth considering the quality of the converts made at Corinth, -that we may understand what followed. Corinth, the capital of Achaia, -was noted for its wealth and luxury. It was the place for the -performance of the Isthmean games, in which boxing, horse-racing, and -musical contests formed the great attraction. It was the Newmarket of -Greece, and swarmed with those doubtful characters, of low intellect -and depraved morals, who generally congregate about the race-course, -the boxing-ring, and the music-hall. The heathen orator, Dio -Chrysostom, who lived at the same time as St. Paul, says of Corinth -that it was verily the most licentious of all the cities that ever -were, and that ever had been. - -It was to the people of such a city that St. Paul addressed himself, -and amongst whom he met with a certain amount of success. He tells -us himself to what class the bulk of his converts belonged. There -were “not many wise men after the flesh,” that is, very few of the -philosophers, the only representatives of a higher life and clear -intelligence, the only men who struggled after a knowledge of God, and -for pure morality. They stood aloof. There were also “not many mighty,” -few in authority; “not many noble,” few of the respectable citizens. -In fact, he got his converts from the riff-raff of an utterly vicious -town. We must bear this in mind. - -A community of believers gathered from among the inhabitants of Corinth -must have presented phenomena deserving special attention. Surrounded -by the prevailing immorality, open, flagrant, stalking the streets, -they had ceased from earliest infancy to blush at evil sights, and -words, and thoughts. They were tainted to the heart’s core. At the -same time they were an excitable people, with high-strung nervous -temperaments, such as are found in a nursery of the arts, where the -sense of physical not of moral beauty is cultivated. - -Such persons were ready, for the sake of its novelty, to embrace the -new religion preached in their midst. They ran after the new preacher -as they ran to hear a new singer; they took up his doctrine as they -took up a new philosophy, for the sake of its newness. They rushed into -the Church as they elbowed their way into the theatre. As to realising -the purity, the self-denial that Christianity requires--of that they -had not the faintest idea. - -The profession of Christianity subdued these converts for a while--for -a few months; but though regenerate in baptism, the old “phronema -sarkos” remained like a sleeping leopard waiting its time to awake, -stretch itself, and seek its prey. Regeneration is not a magic spell; -it is an initiation, not an act. St. Paul was in Corinth eighteen -months only, and in this short time it was impossible for him to -establish the Church on firm foundations. Besides, he was an initiator -and not by any means an organiser. - -He had not been long gone before the natural result of an -indiscriminate conversion made itself apparent, and St. Paul had to -write to the young Church at Corinth a letter which has been lost or -suppressed. This was followed by a second, and that by a third, and we -have got only the two latter. Probably, the Church of Corinth thought -it best to put the first in the fire and not publish its shame. But -the second and third--the first and second, as we call them--throw a -tolerably clear light on the state of this Church. - -There were dissensions in it, and no wonder; then scandal, and, -again,--no wonder. Of the dissensions I need not speak. - -First among the scandals came the Love Feasts. The feast was instituted -in order that all the faithful might meet, and eat and drink together, -the rich contributing the provisions and sitting down with the poor. It -is not to be confounded with the Holy Eucharist, which was something -quite distinct. The Love Feast took place at night, the Eucharist in -the early morning. - -However excellent in intention the institution might be, in a very -short time it was abused. The well-to-do brought food and wine with -them, and ate and drank by themselves, apart from the slaves and -the members whom poverty prevented from contributing. The poor were -compelled to look hungrily on, while the rich brethren, having more -than sufficed, indulged to excess. One was hungry, and another was -drunken. - -It is not difficult to trace the origin of these Love Feasts; they -were a local adaptation from the heathen ceremonial of the Temple of -Aphrodite. - -The Greeks had mysteries in their principal temples, into which the -devout were initiated. Baptism was one of the initiatory acts. Then -the neophytes were taught certain secret doctrines which they were -forbidden to reveal to the profane without. After that they partook -together of a sacred feast, and then ensued ecstatic raptures, -hysterical ravings, and orgies of a licentious character in those -shrines dedicated to the goddess of love. - -The newly converted Christians of Corinth were desirous of getting -as much excitement out of their new religion as they could. So they -treated Christian baptism as an initiation into Christian mysteries; -they instituted the Love Feast as a close reproduction of the banquet -with which they were familiar in the Temple of Aphrodite, and then -followed a condition of disorder very little more decent than the -heathen orgies. - -St. Paul notes three abuses, into which these Corinthians fell, all -three borrowed from the heathen mysteries. They revelled at the Love -Feasts, they fell into moral disorder, and they gave way to hysterical -ravings. The third abuse St. Paul was a little puzzled at, and he dealt -with it more leniently than with the drunkenness and debauchery of -his converts. He was prepared to humour the wild exhibition, perhaps -in hopes that by degrees the converts, as they mended their morals, -would mend in this particular also. The outburst of incoherent ravings -to which he referred was much the same as what had occurred in the -heathen mysteries, and the same phenomena are met with to the present -day among North American Indians and negroes. We have seen a Schaman -in the same state in Siberia. These Corinthians, some tipsy with the -wine they had drunk in excess, others half starved, but frenzied by -their easily-wrought-on religious feelings, jabbered disconnected, -unintelligible words. They raved, fell into cataleptic fits, and made a -scene of confusion and uproar such as is hardly to be found out of the -wards of Bedlam. - -In the heathen temples women were placed over cracks in the rock, -whence exhaled intoxicating vapours, and becoming giddy, they uttered -oracular sentences, which were generally nonsense, and could, -therefore, be interpreted to mean anything. The apostle now met with -the outbreak of a phenomenon among his converts very similar, which -he could not understand, and did not know in what manner to treat. He -contented himself with giving rules for its direction. He struck at -the root of the spiritual disturbances when he insisted on a moral -reformation. Till that was effected, there would be no abatement -of these perplexing and indecent manifestations. Where there were -incoherent ravings, there “an interpreter” was to be set in the -assemblies to make what sense he could out of the unintelligible noises. - -The discipline to which the Corinthians were subjected by St. Paul -brought them to some sort of order for awhile, but it is not to be -expected that, with the lofty standard of life set before them, there -would not be found a considerable number who would kick at it. - -St. Paul, in his polemics against the Judaisers, had written with heat -against the law, and had exalted the freedom of the Gospel. He had not -supposed it necessary to nicely discriminate between the ceremonial -obligations and the moral commands of the law. Accordingly a good -many of his converts took the matter into their own hands, and he was -surprised and confounded to find a party fully prepared to take his -strongest words _au pied de la lettre_, to roll moral and ceremonial -commands into one bundle, and throw all overboard. - -Accordingly we find that the early Church was infested with a multitude -of Evangelicals, professing themselves to be disciples of St. Paul, -appealing to his words as their justification, and casting all morality -to the winds. - -In the following ages we find exactly the same sort of scenes as -those that startled St. Paul at Corinth settling into an acknowledged -institution, and ending in such orgies, that the heathen were almost -justified in regarding Christianity as a religious nuisance, and a -danger to common morality. The accounts we have of the assemblies of -the followers of Valentine, Mark, Carpocrates, Epiphanes, and Isidore, -of the Ophites and Antitactites, present us with pictures of religious -revivals ending in the orgies of satyrs. - -The empire, under Constantine, became Christian. Then the Church, no -longer persecuted, spread throughout the world with a definite creed, -an organised priesthood, a fixed mode of worship, and a rigid moral -code. - -Then, as heretofore, in the early Church, in heathen Rome and Greece, -there were those unable to receive a religion so perfect or so -defined. They must have something vague and rudimentary, something -that did not require too much of them, that did not lay upon them too -many restrictions. These men sought what suited them in various forms -of heresy, or in the secret performance of Pagan rites, the heresies -all forms of negation, the Paganism altogether gross and elementary. -All these forms of revolt were reversions to the earliest protoplasmic -type. It is not my purpose to trace the history of these relapses -throughout the Middle Ages, for I am not writing a history of heresy; -my object is simply to note the fact that Spiritualism or Schamanism -constantly appears in the history of religion, varying its name but few -of its characteristics; sometimes becoming grossly immoral, sometimes -decent, but always whilst professing almost ascetic virtue with a -tendency to licentiousness. - -As soon as Christianity became established, at once all the gods of -the heathen became devils, and their worship the worship of devils. -“Idolatry,” said Eusebius, in the _Præparatio Evangelica_, “does -not consist in the adoration of good spirits, but in that of those -which are evil and perverse.”[28] The Christian emperors forbade the -sacrifices to the gods, as sacrifices to devils. In 426, Theodosius -II. ordered every temple to be destroyed. Those who clung to the old -religion were driven to worship on mountains and in the depths of -forests. In 423, he had issued an injunction against the sacrifices, on -this very ground, that they were made to devils. - -What took place in Italy or Greece, took place elsewhere in later -days, when the barbarians became Christians, or, at least, were made -nominal Christians, under Christian Frank emperors. The _Indiculus -superstitionum et Paganiarum_ of the Council of Leptines in Hainault, -in the eighth century, shows us Paganism completely converted into -witchcraft. Those who were addicted to it went to retired huts -(_casulæ_) in places formerly held sacred (_fana_); there they offered -sacrifices to Jupiter, Mercury, or some other god; they took auguries, -drew lots, called up spirits, made little images of linen and flour, -and carried them about the country, precisely as Sulpicius Severus -says was done by the Gauls in the time of St. Martin. Pope Gregory -III. condemned those who made sacrifices to fountains and trees, used -divinations, exercised magical rites, in honour of Belus and Janus, -“according to the customs of the Pagans,” and he anathematised all -those who took part in diabolical rites, and gave worship to devils. -Finally the Capitularies of Charles the Great and his successors armed -the secular power against all these remnants of idolatry. - -At about the same period, the seventh century, Camin the Wise, Abbot of -Hy (Iona), tells us that the like superstitions prevailed in Ireland. - -But, before this, the Council of Ancyra, in 341, had issued a decree, -which has, indeed, been called in question, but which was embodied -in the “Canon Episcopi,” by which the bishops were required to -exercise vigilant supervision over magical practices, and especially -to excommunicate certain impious females, who, blinded by the devil, -imagined themselves riding through the air in company with Hecate and -Herodias--Herodias is no other than Hruoda, a Lombard goddess, the -same as the Saxon Ostara.[29] The injunction was repeated by the Synod -of Agde, in 506, which, with other decrees of the sixth and seventh -centuries, represents witchcraft as a Pagan delusion. Magic and heresy -were one. Heresy was a turning away from the truth, and magic was its -ritual. Enmity to orthodoxy implied enmity to God, and enmity to God -alliance with the devil. - -The charges which had been brought by heathens against early Christians -were now, under altered circumstances, launched by Christians against -heretics and witches. The hideous description of Christianity given -by Cœcilius, in Minutius Felix, as a secret and desperate faction -leagued against God and man, and celebrating the foulest nocturnal -rites, became the type of accusations levelled by orthodox Christians -against their dissenting brethren; and, as the charge of Cœcilius was -justified by the conduct of a portion of the Christian converts, so was -the charge of the orthodox against the schismatics in mediæval times -justified by the conduct of some of them. The Cathari, Manichæans, -Paulicians, Patarines, Albigenses, were all heretics so far that they -reverted to heathenism, and to its most simple form of Schamanism, and -some of the congregations sank into the grossest immorality. - -The writers on witchcraft who theoretically worked out its criminal -details--Eumericus, Nider, Bernhard of Como, and Jacquier--spoke of -it as “Secta et hæresis maleficorum,” it was a heresy, one of the -several forms in which lapse from the faith took. Balduinus identified -Waldenses with witches. - -In 1484, James Sprenger and Henry Justitor, appointed inquisitors for -Upper Germany, obtained the celebrated bull of Innocent VIII., which, -though far from being the origin of witch prosecutions, acted with -signal effect in promoting their subsequent activity. Sprenger followed -it up with his well-known treatise called “Malleus Maleficarum,” as a -guide to judicial theory and practice. - -No object is gained by dwelling on the details of an epidemic which, -for three centuries, devastated Europe, destroying so many lives. -Yet two particulars challenge inquiry and remark: one, the strange -uniformity of the offence as elicited by confession; the other, the -curious analogy which is found to exist between the rites practised by -the witches at their gatherings and those of the heretics of earlier -times, Pagan and semi-Christian. The uniformity in the confession of -the witches has excited surprise, and has been variously accounted -for--some supposing that there must have been an external reality -in the way of profane imposture, a remnant of heathen practice; -others referring it to morbid subjectivity in the accused, caused by -melancholy and hypochondria. - -That there was some objective reality, I can hardly doubt; not only are -the confessions of those accused curiously alike in their account of -the ceremonies of the Sabbath, when they assembled, but we know that -human nature is always the same, and it is inconceivable that there -should have been a cessation at any period of those gatherings of men -and women who found the only satisfaction for their religious cravings -in vague spiritualism. - -One may say boldly that Europe was half Pagan in the Middle Ages; all -the old superstitions lived, but under a new disguise. The religions -of Gaul, of Germany, of Great Britain, of the Scandinavian and the -Slavonic lands, the mythologies of Greece and of Rome, lived on in a -crowd of legends, which modern erudition delights in collecting and -tracing back to their sources. These legends, more numerous in the -lands occupied by Teutonic peoples, are almost always of Pagan stuff, -embroidered over with Christian ideas. Not only so, but the very names -of the old gods remain; they no longer remain as the names of gods held -high in heaven, but of devils cast down to earth. With us the Deuce -signifies Satan, and is in common usage in the mouth as an oath, but he -takes his name from the Dusii, the night genii of the Kelts. Old Nick -again is Hnikr, an honourable designation of Wuotan, the supreme god of -the Anglo-Saxons, who gives his name to Wednesday. - -So, also, we use the word Bogie, Bogart, as a designation of an evil -spirit, and Bug is the name of a night-tormenting insect. It is -well-known that in an old English Bible the verse in Ps. xci. runs, -“He shall deliver thee from the Bug that walketh in darkness,” that -is, from the Hobgoblin. The Norsemen and Danes brought this name with -them to England. Bog is in Slavonic God. Biel-bog is the White God, -Czerni-bog is the Black God of the Slavs. - -The Northmen had formerly come across Slavs on the Continent, and they, -the worshippers of Odin, scorned the gods of the Slavs as devils, and -called all unclean spirits--Bogs or Bogies. And now, also, the Supreme -God of the Norsemen, Hnikr, has become our Old Nick. - -This being so, it will be seen at once how the votaries of the -dethroned god came to be regarded as devil-worshippers, and how -that in time, when the old religion with its myths and theogony was -long dead, those who still clung to an hysterical religion, with -love-feasts, dances, and ecstasies, came to believe themselves to be -devil-worshippers. - -The Reformation caused such a disturbance of religious ideas, incited -to such revolt against all that had been held sacred in the past, that -it is only natural that those whose religion had been one of pure -spiritualism, of ecstasy and hysteric raving, should believe that their -day had come. But after the first explosion, the Reformers set to work -to consolidate their several systems into dogmatic shape; they drew up -Institutes, Confessions, Articles, and agreed only in this, to put down -Mysticism as severely as they had dealt with Catholicism. And they had -good cause to come to this resolution, for on all sides the Mystics -were breaking forth into the wildest excesses. In Münster they had set -up a Kingdom of Salem, from which every element of common decency was -expelled, and which knew no law save the revelations accorded to the -prophets. - -The “spiritually minded,” that is to say, the unintelligent, -hysterically disposed, did not at all relish the form given to belief, -and the discipline of Divine service framed by the Reformers. They -founded sects on all sides following the old lines of the Markosites -and Cathari. - -Bishop Barlow, one of those who helped to draw up the English -Prayer-book, was himself an eye-witness of the proceedings of some of -these sects, and he describes them in words we do not care to quote.[30] - -England, Germany, Switzerland, Scandinavia, were overrun with these -sectaries, with their love-feasts, raptures, and license. It was the -old story again of the revolt of the spiritual faculty against the -reason, a story that will be told over and over again as long as man -lives on the earth, and religion is dogmatic and exercises moral -restraint. - -One essential condition was always present in order to produce its -effect in these sectarian meetings. The intellect must remain inactive, -the emotions must be excited, and the sentiment of vague fear must -be specially appealed to and powerfully wrought upon. It was this -condition which determined the success alike of the revivalist meetings -of the Mystics, and the revelries of the witches. This condition it was -that provoked the orgies at Corinth among St. Paul’s converts, and the -scenes in the assemblies of the Carpocratites. It was this condition -which roused the attendants on the assemblies of the Goeti, of the -Dionysian revellers, and of the Schamans and the medicine men. - -These meetings always took place at night. There is reason to believe -that during each day there is a normal alteration in the functions -of the intellectual and emotional parts of the brain; that during -the sunlight the perceptive faculties and the reflective are chiefly -active; and that these, reposing during the night, permit the -feelings to be mostly dominant; and it is well-known that general and -simultaneous activity, both of the intellect and of the emotions, is -unnatural; that thought and feeling are antagonistic to each other. -Prayer meetings and witches’ assemblies alike began after dark and were -often continued till the small hours of the morning. Ignorant men and -women, and the youth of both sexes, were crowded together to partake -in some mysterious spiritual rite. The quiescence of the observant -and reflective faculties was facilitated, the imagination goaded -and stimulated until it conjured up conceptions of hell and visions -of devils with a vividness approaching reality; then came cries, -tremblings, fallings on the ground, and raptures. - -During Wesley’s preaching at Bristol, “one after another,” we are told, -“sank to the earth.” Men and women by “scores were sometimes strewed on -the ground at once, insensible as dead men.” During a Methodist revival -in Cornwall, 4000 people, it was computed, fell into convulsions. -“They remained during this condition so abstracted from every earthly -thought, that they stayed two and sometimes three days and nights -together in the chapels, agitated at the time by spasmodic movements, -and taking neither repose nor refreshment. The symptoms followed -each other usually as follows:--A sense of faintness and oppression, -shrieks as if in the agony of death, convulsions of the muscles of -the eyelids--the eyes being fixed and staring--and of the muscles of -the neck, trunk, and arms, sobbing respiration, tremors, and general -agitation, and all sorts of strange gestures. When the exhaustion came -on, patients usually fainted and remained in a stiff and motionless -state until their recovery.”[31] - -Now let the reader turn back to the account of the Tungu Schaman, at -the beginning of this article. Is it not obvious that we have here -precisely the same phenomenon? - -While at Newcastle, Wesley investigated the physical effects that -resulted from his preaching. “He found, first, that all persons who -had been thus affected were in perfect health, and had not before been -subject to convulsions of any kind.” Secondly, that they were affected -suddenly. Thirdly, that they usually fell on the ground, lost their -strength, and were afflicted with spasms. “Some thought a great weight -lay upon them, some said they were quite choked, and found it difficult -to breathe.” Wesley believed these phenomena were of diabolic origin. -One section of Methodists, in Cornwall and Wales, was seized with a -dancing or jumping mania. Because David danced before the ark, these -fanatics concluded that jumping and dancing must form an acceptable -form of service. The practice became epidemic. Each devotee would -caper for hours, till, completely exhausted, he or she fell insensible. - -During a great Presbyterian revival, which passed over Kentucky and -Tennessee in the beginning of this century, persons swooned away and -lay as dead on the ground for a quarter of an hour; this “falling -exercise” was succeeded by that of the “jerks.” A Backwoods preacher -who has left us his valuable biography, says:-- - -“A new exercise broke out among us, called the _jerks_, which was -overwhelming in its effects upon the bodies and minds of the people. -No matter whether they were saints or sinners, they would be taken -under a warm song or sermon, and seized with a convulsive jerking all -over, which they could not by any possibility avoid, and the more they -resisted, the more they jerked. I have seen more than five hundred -persons jerking at one time in my large congregations. Most usually -persons taken with the jerks would rise up and dance. Some would run, -but could not get away. To see those proud young gentlemen, and young -ladies dressed in their silks, jewelry, and prunella, from top to toe -take the jerks, would often excite my risibilities. The first jerk -or so, you would see their fine bonnets, caps, and combs fly; and so -sudden would be the jerking of the head that their long, loose hair -would crack almost as loud as a waggoner’s whip.”[32] - -Another revivalist in Kentucky says; “While preaching, we have after -a smooth and gentle course of expression suddenly changed our voice -and language, expressing something awful and alarming, and instantly -some dozen or twenty persons, or more, would simultaneously be jerked -forward, where we were sitting, and with a suppressed noise once or -twice, somewhat like the barking of a dog. One young woman went round -like a top, we think, at least fifty times in a minute, and continued -without interruption for at least an hour, and one young woman danced -in her pew for twenty or thirty minutes with her eyes shut and her -countenance calm, and then fell into convulsions; some ran with amazing -swiftness, some imitated the motion of playing on a fiddle, others -barked like dogs.” - -Surely we have here a scene precisely identical in character with -that described by Dr. Hecker as having broke out in Germany in 1374. -He says: “It was called the dance of St. John or of St. Vitus, on -account of the Bacchantic leaps by which it was characterised. The -dancers, appearing to have lost all control over their senses, -continued dancing, regardless of the bystanders, for hours together -in wild delirium, until at length they fell to the ground in a state -of exhaustion.... While dancing they neither saw nor heard, being -insensible to external impressions through the senses, but were haunted -by visions, their fancies conjuring up spirits whose names they -shrieked out.”[33] - -It has happened in some cases, especially in that of women, that they -have tried to tear off their clothes, and this explains the account -given by those who had attended the Witches’ Sabbath, that many -present were stark naked. We know that some of the wilder congregations -of the Hussites developed their fanaticism in this form. So did the -Anabaptists in Amsterdam. - -We will now take a case or two from the Roman Communion. Hysteria, as -we might suppose, would be likely to manifest itself in the monastic -orders. St. Joseph of Cupertino was one Christmas Eve in church, when -the pifferari began to play their carols. Joseph, who was a Franciscan -friar, carried away by religious emotion, began to dance in the midst -of the choir, and then, with a howl, he took a flying leap and lighted -on the high altar. He was then vested in a gorgeous cope, conducting -the service. The carollers were amazed, no less than the friars; and -their amazement was increased when they saw him jump from the altar on -to the pulpit ledge, fifteen feet above the ground. One day he went -into the convent choir of the Sisters of St. Clara, at Cupertino. When -the nuns began to sing, Joseph, unable to restrain his emotion, ran -across the chancel, caught the old confessor of the convent in his -arms, and danced with him before the altar. Then he span himself about -like a teetotum, with the confessor clinging to his hands, and his legs -flying out horizontally. - -St. Christina, The Wonderful, a Belgian virgin, used to go into fits -when her religious emotions were worked upon, put her head between her -feet, bending her spine backwards, and roll round the room or church -like a ball. - -St. Peter of Alcantara in his fervours used to strip himself naked. He -would jump, curled up like a ball, high into the air, and in and out at -the church door. “What was going on in his soul all this while,” says -his biographer, “it is not given to mortals to declare.” - -The numerous cases of possession in the sixteenth and seventeenth -centuries were nothing but hysterical disorders, the symptoms precisely -those of Methodist revivals, Witches’ Sabbaths, Paulinian orgies, and -Schamanism. - -It is worthy of note that the witches were always a prey to extreme -exhaustion after they had attended their Sabbaths, a feature that is -invariable after spiritual raptures. - -In Sweden a religious revival took place in 1842-3, which swept over -the country, affecting great numbers of children. Boys and girls, -only eight years of age, were inspired to preach the Gospel and go -about in bands singing hymns. In the province of Skaraburg, where the -epidemic was least extensive, it numbered, at least, 3000 victims. The -patients had “quaking fits,” dropped down, became unconscious, had -trances, saw visions, and preached when in an ecstatic state. Not two -centuries before, a similar epidemic had passed over Sweden, affecting -the children, but it then took a slightly different complexion: it -was an epidemic of witchcraft. In 1669-70, the children declared that -they were transported nightly to the Blockula, and their condition -afterwards was one of complete prostration. - -A Commission was appointed to examine into the matter, public prayers -and humiliations were ordered, and a great number of women and -children were executed for their guilt in having attended these -meetings on the Blockula. - -Into the details of the Witch-Sabbaths I have not entered; it is -unnecessary. My object has been to show that in all likelihood there -were such gatherings, that they took the place of assemblies of Pagan -origin, which were analogous to the assemblies of the spiritual Pauline -heretics in the early Church; that modern revivals are not derived -from these, but are analogous exhibitions, and that all are alike -manifestations of hysteria, superinduced by a love of the sensational, -a vague credulity, and an absolute stagnation of the intellectual -powers. - -We are in the age of compulsory education; in our Board Schools -religious teaching is reduced to the thinnest gruel, absolutely -tasteless, and wholly unnutritious. We are straining, perhaps -over-straining, the mental faculties, and making no provision for -the co-ordinate development of the spiritual powers in the soul. The -result will be, not that we shall kill the spiritual faculty, but -that we shall drive it in--and it will break forth inevitably in -extraordinary and outrageous manifestations. It must do so--just as -a check to the free action of the pores superinduces fever. We shall -have a sporadic fever of wild mysticism bursting forth, in the place -of healthy religion. The spiritual element in man will rebel against -compression, will insist on not being ignored. We are now suffering -from the nuisance of the Salvation Army. But the Salvation Army is -a comparatively innocuous form of reaction, or is comparatively -innocuous just at present. We do not know but that it may herald -other and worse forms of spiritual excitement, or that it may not -itself develop in an Antinomian direction. We have no guarantee. There -is a law in these manifestations that is constant. They all begin -in ecstatic raptures and with a high moral aim, and all inevitably -fall into laxity if not license in morality. The moral sense becomes -inevitably blunted. It ceases to speak and work when man takes his -ecstatic thrills and visions--which are veritable hallucinations--as -the guide of his conduct, in place of the still small voice of -conscience, instructed by the written, revealed law. - - - - -IX. - -Broadside Ballads. - - -“I love a ballad in print, a’ life,” said Mopsa, in the “Winter’s -Tale,” and the clown confessed to the same liking. “I love a ballad -but even too well; if it be doleful matter merrily set down, or a very -pleasant thing indeed, and sung lamentably.” - -[Illustration: _Fig. 37._--BALLAD SINGER, FROM A BROADSIDE.] - -In 1653, Dorothy Osborne tells Sir William Temple that she has received -from her brother a ballad “much older than my ‘Lord of Lorne,’ and she -sends it on to him.” Would that she had told us more about it. And then -she writes, “The heat of the day is spent in reading or working, and -about six or seven o’clock I walk out into a common that lies hard by -the house, where a great many young wenches keep sheep and cows, and -sit in the shade singing of ballads. I go to them and compare their -voices and beauties to some ancient shepherdesses that I have read of, -and find a vast difference there; but, trust me, I think these are as -innocent as those could be. I talk to them, and find they want nothing -to make them the happiest people in the world but the knowledge that -they are so.” - -Walton in his “Complete Angler,” printed in the very same year in which -Dorothy Osborne wrote to her lover of the singing peasant girls, says: -“I entered into the next field, and a second pleasure entertained me: -’twas a handsome milk-maid, that had cast away all care, and sung like -a nightingale; her voice was good, and the ditty fitted for it; ’twas -that smooth song which was made by Kit Marlow, now at least fifty years -ago; and the milk-maid’s mother sung an answer to it, which was made by -Sir Walter Raleigh in his younger dayes.” - -We know what the song was, “Come, live with me and be my love.” - -The mother says to Walton, “If you will but speak the word, I will -make you a good sillabub, and then you may sit down in a hay-cock and -eat it, and Maudlin shall sit by and sing you the good old song of the -Hunting in Chevy Chase, or some other good ballad, for she hath good -store of them: Maudlin hath a notable memory.” - -But ballad-singing was not confined to milk-maids and clowns, for -Walton proposes to spend a pleasant evening with his brother, Peter, -and his friends, “to tell tales, or sing ballads, or make a catch, or -find some harmless sport to content us.” - -It is a somewhat sad fact--fact it is, that the ballad is at its last -gasp among us. It has gone through several phases, and it has now -reached the last, when it disappears altogether. - -The ballad was anciently a story set to music, and music to which -the feet could move in dance. The _ballet_ is the dance to which the -_ballad_ was sung. It was not always danced to, but it always could be -danced to. It was of great length, but not too long for light hearts -or light feet on a threshing-floor. The ballad was accommodated to the -exigencies of the dance, by being given a burden, or _bourdon_, a drone -that was sung by the young men, when no bagpipe was there. This burden -appears in numerous ballads, and has usually no reference to the story -told by the singers, and when printed is set in italics. In the scene -in the “Winter’s Tale,” already quoted, the servant alludes to these -burdens, “He has the prettiest love-songs for maids--with such delicate -burdens of ‘dildos and fadings.’” - -Thus:-- - - “There was a lady in the North country, - _Lay the bent to the bonny broom_, - And she had lovely daughters three, - _Fa, la la la; fa, la la la ra re_.” - -or:-- - - “There were three sisters fair and bright, - _Jennifer, Gentle, and Rosemaree_, - And they three loved one valiant knight, - _As the doo (dove) flies over the mulberry tree_.” - -In the first edition of Playford’s “Dancing Master,” in 1650-1, -nearly every air can be proved to have been that of a song or ballad -of earlier date than the book. Of these only a few have the words -preserved, and we cannot be sure that the words of those we have got -were the original, as ballads were continually being written afresh. - -It was not till about 1690 that tunes were composed expressly for -dancing, and in the later editions of the “Dancing Master,” 1715 and -1728, about half the airs given are old ballad tunes. The other half, -newly composed dance tunes, had no traditional words set to them, and -none were composed to fit them. - -In the old English romance of “Tom of Reading,” printed before 1600, we -have an instance of the way in which a ballad came to be turned into -a dance. Tom Dove was an Exeter clothier passionately fond of music. -William of Worcester loved wine, Sutton of Salisbury loved merry tales, -Simon of Southampton “got him into the kitchen and to the pottage and -then to a venison pasty.” - -Now a ballad was composed relative to Tom of Exeter:-- - - “Welcome to town, Tom Dove, Tom Dove, - The merriest man alive. - Thy company still we love, we love, - God grant thee well to thrive. - And never will we depart from thee - For better or worse, my joy! - For thou shalt still have our good-will, - God’s blessing on my sweet boy.” - -And the author adds, “This song went up and down through the whole -country, and at length became a dance among the common sort.” - -The old heroic ballad was a _geste_, and the singer was a gestour. -Chaucer speaks of-- - - “Jestours that tellen tales - Both of seeping and of game.” - -The tales of game were stories calculated to provoke laughter, in which -very often little respect was paid to decency; sometimes, however, -they were satirical. These tales of game were much more popular than -those of weeping, and the gestour, whose powers were mainly employed -in scenes of conviviality, finding by experience that the long lays -of ancient paladins were less attractive than short and idle tales -productive of mirth, accommodated himself to the prevailing coarse -taste, and the consequence was that nine of the pieces conceived in a -light vein have been preserved to every one of the other. - -In the “Rime of Sir Thopas,” Chaucer speaks of-- - - “Minestrales - And gestours for to tellen tales, - Of romaunces that ben reales, - Of popes and of cardinales - And eke of love-longing.” - -Here we have the historic geste and the light and ribald tale. When -Chaucer recited the Ballad of Sir Thopas, conceived after the fashion -of the old romances, the host interrupted him and said-- - - “This may well be rime--dogerel, - Mine eres aken of thy drafty speche.” - -We heartily wish that Chaucer had finished the tale. The host merely -repeated the general objection to the heroic ballad, and showed the -common preference for the ribald tales. The author of the “Vision of -Piers the Ploughman,” complains that the passion for songs and ballads -was so strong that men attended to these to the neglect of more serious -and of sacred matters. - - “I cannot parfitly my paternoster, as the priest it singeth, - But I can ryme of Roben Hode, of Randolf erl of Chester, - But of our Lord and our Lady I learn nothing at all; - I am occupied every day, holy daye and other, with idle tales at the - ale.” - -The degradation in the meaning of the names once given to minstrels of -various classes tells its own sad tale. The _ryband_ has lent his name -to ribaldry; the _scurra_ to whatever is scurrilous; the _gestour_, who -sang the _gestes_ of heroes, became the jester, the mere buffoon; the -_joculator_ degenerated into a joker; and the _jongleur_ into a juggler. - -A few men of taste and of reverence for the past stood up for the old -heroic ballads, which, indeed, contained the history of the past, mixed -with much mythical matter. So the great Charles, says his scribe, -Eginhard, “commanded that the barbarous and most ancient song in which -the acts and wars of the old kings were sung should be written down and -committed to memory.” And our own Alfred, says Asser, “did not fail -to recite himself and urge on others, the recitation by heart of the -Saxon songs.” But the English ballad found no favour with the Norman -conquerors, who readily received the Provençal troubadour. The old -heroic ballad lingered on, and was killed, not so much by the ridicule -of Chaucer as by the impatience of the English character, which will -not endure the long-drawn tale, and asks in preference what is pithy -and pointed. - -Of song and ballad there were many kinds, characterised rather by the -instrument to which it was sung, than by the nature of the song itself; -or perhaps we may say most justly that certain topics and certain -kinds of composition suited certain instruments, and were, therefore, -accommodated to them. - -In the “Romans de Brut” we have a list of some of these: - - “Molt ot a la cort jugleors, - Chanteors, estrumanteors; - Molt poissiez oir chançons, - Rotruanges et noviaz sons - Vieleures, lais, et notes, - Lais de vieles, lais de rotes, - Lais de harpe et de fretiax.” - -Here we have the juggler, the chanter, and the strummer. What the -_strumentum_[34] was we do not exactly know, but it was clearly a -stringed instrument that was twanged, and it has left its reminiscence -in our language,--every child strums before it can play a piano. There -exists an old table of civic laws for Marseilles of the date 1381, in -which all playing of minstrel and jongleur,--in a word, all strumming -was disallowed in the streets without a license. - -To return to the passage quoted from the “Romans de Brut,” we have -among the chançons, those on the rote, and those on the vielle, those -on the harp and those on the fret, (_i.e._ flute).[35] The rote was a -pierced board, over which strings were drawn, and it could be played -with both hands, one above, the other below, through the hole. The -vielle was a hurdy-gurdy. - -A healthier taste existed in Scotland than in England, and the old -heroic ballads were never completely killed out there. In England they -had been expelled the court, and banished from the hall long before -they disappeared from the alehouse and the cottage. The milk-maids -sang them; the nurses sang them; the shepherds sang them; but not the -cultured ladies and gentlemen of the Elizabethan period. The musicians -of that period set their faces against ballad airs, and introduced the -motette and madrigal, in which elaborate part-singing taxed the skill -of the performers. But the common people loved the simple melodious -ballads. Miles Coverdale, in his “Address unto the Christian Reader,” -in 1538, which he prefixed to his “Goastly Psalms,” laments it. “Wolde -God that our mynstrels had none other thynge to play upon, neither -our carters and pluomen other thynge to whistle upon, save psalmes, -hymns, and such godly songes. And if women at the rockes (distaff), -and spinnynge at the wheles, had none other songes to pass their tyme -withal than such as Moses’ sister ... songe before them, they should be -better occupied than with, _Hey nonny nonny_,--_Hey trolly lolly_, and -such like fantasies.” - -Laneham, in 1575, thus describes his evening amusements: “Sometimes I -foot it with dancing; now with my gittern, and else with my cittern, -then at the virginals (ye know nothing comes amiss to me); then carol I -up a song withal; that by and by they come flocking about me like bees -to honey; and ever they cry, ‘Another, good Laneham, another!’” - -In the great agitation of minds caused by the Reformation, the -itinerant minstrels were an element of danger to the Crown, for they -kept alive the popular feeling against the changes in religion, and -the despotic measures of the Sovereign. Moreover, an immense number of -ballads were printed, having a religious or political character, were -set to the old ballad airs, and sung in place of the traditional lays, -and then hawked by the singers. Accordingly, in 1543, an Act was passed -“for the advancement of true religion,” and it recites that, forasmuch -as certain froward persons have taken upon them to print “ballads, -rhymes, etc., subtilly and craftily to instruct His Highness’ people -untruly, for the reformation whereof His Majesty considereth it most -requisite to purge the realm of all such books, ballads, rhymes, and -songs.” The Act contains a list of exceptions; but it is noticeable -that no ballads of any description were excepted. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 38._--BALLAD SINGERS, FROM A BROADSIDE.] - -In the reign of Queen Elizabeth another Act was passed, in 1597, -against “minstrels wandering abroad,” by virtue of which they were to -be whipped, put in the stocks, and imprisoned, if caught going from -place to place with their ballads. - -Then came the period of Puritan domination under the Commonwealth, -when every engine was set to work to suppress popular music and ballad -singing, and to sour the English character. The first Act levelled -against them and stage players was in 1642. In the following year a -tract was issued complaining that this measure had been ineffective, -in which the writer says, “Our musike that was held so delectable and -precious that they scorned to come to a tavern under twenty shillings -salary for two hours, now wander with their instruments under their -cloaks (I mean such as have any), to all houses of good fellowship, -saluting every room where there is company with, _Will you have any -musike, gentlemen?_” But even the license to go round the country was -to be denied the poor wretches. In 1648 Captain Bertham was appointed -Provost Marshall, “with power to seize upon all ballad-singers, and -to suppress stage-plays.” The third Parliament of Cromwell struck the -heaviest blow of all. It enacted that any minstrel or ballad-singer who -was caught singing, or making music in any alehouse or tavern, or was -found to have asked anyone to hear him sing or play, was to be haled -before the nearest magistrate, whipped and imprisoned. - -With the Restoration came a better time for ballad-singing; but the -old romantic ballad was almost dead, and though many of the ancient -melodies remained, to them new ballads were set. Of these vast numbers -poured from the press. The printed ballad which supplanted the -traditional ballad was very poor in quality. It turned on some moral or -religious topic; it satirised some fashion of the day; it recorded in -jingling rhymes some fire, earthquake, flood, or other accident. Above -all, it narrated the story of a murder. Now for the first time did the -vulgar assassin stand forward as the hero of English poetry and romance. - -Many an old song or ballad was parodied. Thus the famous song of “The -Hunt is up,” was converted into a political ballad in 1537; and a man -named John Hogon was arrested for singing it. “An Old Woman Clothed in -Grey” was the tune to which all England rang at the Restoration, with -the words, “Let Oliver now be forgotten.” “Grim King of the Ghosts” was -made use of for “The Protestants’ Joy,” a ballad on the coronation of -King William and Queen Mary; and “Hey, then, up go we!” served, with -parodied words against the Rump Parliament, as the “Tories’ Delight,” -as an anti-Papal ballad, and even as a ballad on the great frost of the -winter of 1683-4. - -The dissociation of the old tunes from the ballads that had given them -their names, and to which they had been composed, did much to occasion -the loss of our early ballads. Not only so, but with James I.’s reign -there came in a fashion for recomposing the old themes in the new -style; and the new editions caused the disappearance of the earlier -ballad. There can be little doubt that the romantic and historic -ballad, which has been happily preserved in Scotland, was common to all -English-speaking people. These ballads are called Scottish, because -they have been preserved in Scotland, but it is more than doubtful that -they are of Scottish origin. Ballads travelled everywhere. We have in -Thomas of Erceldoune’s “Sir Tristram,” an instance of a French metrical -romance turned into a long poem in Scotland, in the thirteenth century. -Many of the Scottish ballads have, as their base, myths or legends -common to all the Norse people, and found in rhymes among them. - -At the beginning of this century, Mr. Davis Gilbert published a -collection of Cornish Christmas Carols, and subjoined a couple of -samples of the ballads sung by the Cornish people. One is “The Three -Knights.” It begins-- - - “There did three knights come from the West, - With the high and the lily oh! - And these three knights courted one lady, - And the rose was so sweetly blown.” - -This is precisely the ballad given by Herd and others as “The Cruel -Brother.” One version in Scotland begins:-- - - “There was three ladies play’d at the ba’ - With a hegh-ho! and lily gay; - There came a knight and play’d o’er them a’, - And the primrose spread so sweetly.” - -But another version sung in Scotland begins-- - - “There was three ladies in a ha’, - Fine flowers i’ the valley; - There came three lords among them a’, - Hi’ the red, green, and the yellow.” - -Now, the remarkable thing is, that there is still sung in Cornwall--or -was, till quite recently--a form of the ballad with a burden like this -latter. It begins-- - - “There was a woman and she was a widow, - O the red, the green, and the yellow! - And daughters had three as the elm tree, - The flowers they blow in the valley.” - -with this chorus:-- - - “The harp, the lute, the fife, the flute, and the cymbal. - Sweet goes the treble violin, - The flowers that blow in the valley.” - -How is it possible that a ballad sung in two forms in Scotland, and -recovered there in a fragmentary condition, should be known in very -similar forms in Cornwall? To suppose that the two versions were -carried from the Highlands to the Land’s End, so as to have become -popular, is inconceivable. It is more likely that the same English -ballad found its way both north and south-west, and when it had been -displaced elsewhere, remained in the extremities of the island. The -burden in each case is clearly that which marked the melody. We very -much wish that the Scottish airs, to which these ballads were sung, had -been preserved, that they might be compared with those to which they -were sung in Cornwall. The burden in each case has nothing to do with -the story, but it seems to indicate that the same ballad in its two -forms, to two independent airs, was carried all over Great Britain at -some period unknown. The same ballad was also sung in Cheshire at the -close of last century, and also in Ireland. - -Another specimen given by Mr. Gilbert is that of the “Three Sisters.” - - “There were three sisters fair and bright, - Jennifer, Gentle and Rosemaree; - And they three loved one valiant knight; - As the doo (dove) flies over the mulberry tree.”[36] - -The same is found in broadside, in the Pepysian and other collections, -and as “The Unco Knicht’s Wooing” in Scotland. - -Take again the ballad of “The Elfin Knight” or “The Wind hath blown -my Plaid away.” This is found in Scotland, but also as a broadside in -the Pepysian collection; it was the subject within the memory of man -of a sort of play in farmhouses in Cornwall; it is found in a more or -less fragmentary condition all over England. The same ballad is found -in German, in Danish, in Wend--and the story in Tyrol, in Siberia, and -Thibet. - -Buchan, in his “Ballads of the North of Scotland,” gives the ballad -of “King Malcolm and Sir Colvin,” but it is based on a story told by -Gervase of Tilbury, in his Otia Imperialia, and the scene is laid by -him on the Gogmagog Hills in Cambridgeshire. He wrote in the 12th -century, and his story is clearly taken from a ballad. So also Buchan’s -“Leesome Brand” is found in Danish and Swedish. And “The Cruel Sister” -is discovered in Sweden and the Faroe Isles. At an early period there -was a common body of ballad, where originated no one can say; the same -themes were sung all over the North of Europe, and the same words, -varied slightly, were sung from the Tweed to the Tamar, in the marches -of Wales and in Ireland. - -The greatest possible debt of gratitude is due to the Scots for having -preserved these ballads when displaced and forgotten elsewhere, and it -speaks volumes for the purity of Scottish taste that it appreciated -what was good and beautiful, when English taste was vitiated and -followed the fashion to prefer the artificial and ornate to the simple -and natural expression of poetic fancy. - -It has been said that about the period of James I., the fashion set in -for re-writing the old ballads in the style then affected. - -There is a curious illustration of this accessible. - -A ballad still sung by the English peasants, and found in an imperfect -condition in Catnach’s broadsides, is “Henry Martyn.” It is couched in -true ballad metre, and runs thus-- - - “In merry Scotland, in merry Scotland - There lived brothers three, - They all did cast lots which of them should go - A robbing upon the salt sea. - - “The lot it fell upon Henry Martyn, - The youngest of the three, - That he should go rob on the salt, salt sea, - To maintain his brothers and he. - - “He had not a-sailed a long winter’s night, - Nor yet a short winter’s day, - Before he espied a gay merchant ship - Come sailing along that way. - - “Oh when that she came to Henry Martyn, - Oh prithee, now let me go! - Oh no! oh no! but that will I not, - I never that will do. - - “Stand off! stand off! said he, God wot, - And you shall not pass by me. - For I am a robber upon the salt seas, - To maintain my brothers and me. - - “How far? how far? cries Henry Martyn, - How far do you make it? says he, - For I am a robber upon the salt seas, - To maintain my brothers and me. - - “They merrily fought for three long hours, - They fought for hours full three. - At last a deep wound got Henry Martyn, - And down by the mast fell he. - - “’Twas a broadside to a broadside then, - And a rain and a hail of blows. - But the salt, salt sea ran in, ran in; - To the bottom then she goes. - - “Bad news! bad news for old England; - Bad news has come to the town, - For a rich merchant vessel is cast away, - And all her brave seamen drown. - - “Bad news! bad news through London street, - Bad news has come to the King, - For all the brave lives of his mariners lost, - That sunk in the watery main.” - -Now there is sad confusion here. The ballad as it now exists is a mere -fragment. Clearly the “bad news” belongs to an earlier portion of the -ballad, and it induces the King to send against the pirate and to sink -his vessel. This “Henry Martyn” is, in fact, Andrew Barton. In 1476, -a Portuguese squadron seized a richly laden vessel, commanded by John -Barton, in consequence of which letters of reprisal were granted to -Andrew, Robert, and John Barton, sons of John, and these were renewed -in 1506. The King of Portugal remonstrated against reprisals for so -old an offence, but he had put himself in the wrong four years before, -by refusing to deal with a herald sent by the Scottish King for the -arrangement of the matter in dispute. Hall, in his Chronicle, says: “In -June, 1511, the King (Henry VIII.) being at Leicester, tidings were -brought him that Andrew Barton, a Scottish man, and a pirate of the -sea, did rob every nation, and so stopped the King’s streams that no -merchants almost could pass, and when he took the Englishmen’s goods, -he said they were Portingale’s goods, and thus he haunted and robbed at -every haven’s mouth. The King, moved greatly with this crafty pirate, -sent Sir Edward Howard, Lord Admiral of England, and Lord Thomas -Howard, son and heir to the Earl of Surrey, in all haste to the sea, -which hastily made ready two ships, and without any more abode, took -the sea, and by chance of weather, were severed. The Lord Howard lying -in the Downs, perceived when Andrew blew his whistle to encourage the -men, yet, for all that, the Lord Howard and his men, by clean strength, -entered the main deck; then the Englishmen entered on all sides, and -the Scots fought sore on the hatches, but, in conclusion, Andrew was -taken, which was so sore wounded that he died there; then all the -remainder of the Scots were taken with their ship, called the _Lion_.” - -Buchanan, about twenty years after Hall--_i.e._, in 1582--also tells -the story. Barton he calls Breton with further details. He says that -Andrew Breton, though several times wounded, and with one leg broken by -a cannon ball, seized a drum and beat a charge to inspirit his men to -fight, until breath and life failed. - -Now a ballad relative to Sir Andrew Barton has been given by Percy; it -is found among the Douce, the Pepysian, the Roxburghe, the Bagford, and -the Wood collection of old English ballads. In the Percy MS. the ballad -consists of eighty-two stanzas, but there is something lost between the -thirty-fifth and the next. It begins:-- - - “As itt beffell in Midsummer-time - When birds sing sweetlye on every tree, - Our noble king, King Henry the Eighth, - Over the river Thames past he.” - -Another version is in the black letter collection. It begins:-- - - “When Flora, with her fragrant flowers, - Bedeckt the earth so firm and gay, - And Neptune, with his dainty showers, - Came to present the month of May, - - “King Henry would a progress ride; - Over the river Thames past he, - Upon a mountain top also - Did walk, some pleasure for to see.” - -The first is a recomposition of the earlier ballad in the reign of -James I. It makes a historical blunder. It supposes that Lord Charles -Howard, who was not born till twenty-five years after the death of -Andrew Barton, was sent against the pirate. The memory of the admiral -who served against the Armada had eclipsed the fame of the earlier high -admiral. The fact of this historic error existing in the ballad marks -it as a late composition. - -The second ballad is a still later recast, probably of the reign of -Charles II. These two later versions would be all that we have, had not -the popular memory held to the earliest and original ballad--because -associated with a remarkably fine melody. Unhappily, it has retained -but a few of the stanzas. - -The Robin Hood ballads most fortunately escaped remodelling, and they -retain the fresh character of the ancient ballad. - -Ravenscroft preserved some ballads in his “Deuteromelia,” 1609. One -begins:-- - - “Yonder comes a courteous knight - Lustily raking over the lay. - He was full ’ware of a bonny lasse, - As she came wandering over the way. - Then she sang, downe a down a down, - Hey down derry.” - -Another is “John Dory”:-- - - “As it fell on a hole day - And upon a hole tide, - John Dory bought him an ambling nag, - Ambling nag to Paris for to ride.” - -Another:-- - - “Who liveth so merry in all the land - As doth the poor widow that selleth sand, - And ever she singeth as I can guess, - Will you buy my sand, my sand, mistress?” - -Also:-- - - “The Flye she sat in the shamble row, - And shambled with her heels, I trow, - And then came Sir Cranion - With legs so long and many a one.” - -A few--but only a few, unspoiled ballads have found their way into -print in broadsides. Such are, “The Baffled Knight,” “The Knight and -the Shepherd’s Daughter,” “Lord Thomas and the fair Eleanor,” “Barbara -Allen,” “The Bailiff’s Daughter of Islington,” “The Brown Girl.” They -are miserably few, but they are all that remain to us of the ballad -poetry of England, except what has been preserved to us by the Scotch, -who knew better than ourselves what was good, and had a finer poetic -sense. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 39._--WOMAN AT HER SPINNING WHEEL, FROM A -BROADSIDE.] - -Moreover, our English ballad collectors never went to the right -sources. There were to be had black and white letter broadsides, more -or less scarce, and they set their booksellers to work to gather for -them the drifting sheets, and fondly thought that they were collecting -the ballad poetry of England. They were collecting make-shifts, the -wretched stuff which had ousted the old ballad poetry. It occurred to -none of them to go to the people. What would have been the result had -Motherwell, Kinloch, Buchan, and Herd set to work in the same fashion? -There is to be found in the British Museum a volume of Scottish -Broadside Ballads printed at Aberdeen, and Glasgow, and Edinburgh. What -do these sheet ballads contain? As great rubbish as do the English -broadsides? Herd, Motherwell, and Buchan had more sense than our -Ritson, Phillips, and Evans; they sat at the feet of the shepherds, -listened beside the wheels of the old spinners, sat at the tavern table -and over the peat fires with the peasants, and collected orally. Percy -went to his MS. folio, Ritson to his booksellers, and passed over the -great living wellspring of traditional poetry. Now it is too late. The -utmost that can be gleaned is fragments. But enough does remain either -in MS. or in black letter broadside, or in allusion and quotation by -our early dramatists, to show that we in England had a mass of ballad -poetry, one in kind and merit with the Scottish. - -The first collection of scattered ballads and songs in a garland was -made in the reign of James I., by Thomas Delony and Richard Johnson, -and from that time forward these little assemblages of fugitive pieces -were issued from the press. They rarely contain much that is good; they -are stuffed with recent compositions. Everyone knew the traditional -ballads, and it was not thought worth while reprinting them. A new -ballad had to be entered at Stationers’ Hall, and composer as well as -publisher reaped a profit from the sale, as a novelty. - -The old tunes remained after that the words to which they had been -wedded were forgotten; and it may be said that in the majority of cases -the music is all that does remain to us of the old ballad song of -England. - -This is the sort of balderdash that was substituted by a degraded taste -for the swinging musical poetry of the minstrel epoch-- - - “In searching ancient chronicles - It was my chance to finde - A story worth the writing out - In my conceit and mind,” etc. - -or:-- - - “Of two constant lovers, as I understand, - Were born near Appleby, in Westmoreland; - The lad’s name Anthony, Constance the lass; - To sea they both went, and great dangers did pass.” - -or:-- - - “I reade in ancient times of yore, - That men of worthy calling - Built almeshouses and spittles store, - Which now are all downfalling,” etc. - -Compare the following with such beginnings as these:-- - - “In summer-time, when leaves grow green, - And blossoms bedecke the tree, - King Edward wold a hunting ryde, - Some pastime for to see.” - -or:-- - - “There came a bird out o’ a bush, - On water for to dine; - An’ sicking sair, says the King’s dochter, - O wae’s this heart o’ mine,” etc. - -or:-- - - “There was a pretty shepherd boy - That lived upon a hill, - He laid aside his bag o’ pipes - And then he slept his fill.” - -or:-- - - “O! blow away, ye mountain breezes, - Blow the winds, heigh-ho! - And clear away the morning kisses, - Blow the winds, heigh-ho!” etc. - -The ring of the latter is fresh and pleasant; the former have no -ring at all. The first articles are manufactured in a garret by a -publisher’s poetaster, the latter have sprung spontaneously from the -hearts of the people in the merry month of May. - -Of black-letter printed ballads, the earliest we have are, “The -Nut-brown Maid,” which was discovered in a book of customs, dues, etc., -published at Antwerp, about 1502, and “The Ballade of the Scottish -King,” written by John Skelton, poet laureate to King Henry VIII., and -of the date 1513. This was found within the binding of an old book that -was knocking about on the floor of a garret in a farmhouse at Whaddon, -in Dorset. Mr. Arber’s Transcripts of the entries in Stationers’ Hall -give us the list of ballads issued from the press, with their dates. - -The list begins in the year 1557. We will take a few extracts only. - -1588, 4th March. John Wolfe obtained leave to print three ballads; one -was, “Goe from my window, goe.” Now this no longer exists as a ballad, -but as a folk-tale, in which occur snatches of rhyme, with a certain -melody attached to them; and this air, with the snatches of rhyme, -has been preserved. Both are printed by Mr. Chappell in his “Popular -Music of the Olden Time.” What the subject of the ballad was the writer -learned from a blacksmith, who told him that he was in a village inn -about 1860, when a very old man came in, and standing by the fire, -recited and sang the following story:-- - -“Two men courted a pretty maid; the one was rich, the other was poor; -and the rich man was old, but the poor man she loved; he was young. Her -father forced her to marry the rich man, but still she loved the poor -man; and sometimes he came under her window and tapped, and when the -husband was away she let him in. - -“So passed a twelvemonth and a day, and she had a little child. - -“Then one night the lover came under the window, thinking her goodman -was from home. With his tapping the husband woke, and asked what the -sound was. She said an ivy leaf was caught in a cobweb, and fluttered -against the pane. Then the lover began to call, and her husband asked -what that sound was. She said the owls were hooting in the night. But -fearing lest her lover should continue to call and tap, she began to -sing, as she rocked the cradle:-- - - “‘Begone, begone, my Willy, my Billy! - Begone, my love and my dear. - O the wind, and O the rain, - They have sent him back again, - So thou can’st not have a lodging here.’ - -“Again the lover tapped, and the husband asked what that meant. She -said it was a flittermouse that had flown against the pane. Then she -sang:-- - - “‘Begone, begone, my Willy, my Billy! - Begone, my love and my dear. - O the weather is so warm, - It will never do thee harm, - And thou can’st not have a lodging here.’ - -“Then the lover began to call a third time, and the husband asked what -it was. She said it was the whistling of the wind among the trees, and -she sang:-- - - “‘Begone, begone, my Willy, my Billy! - Begone, my love and my dear. - O the wind is in the West, - And the cuckoo’s in his nest, - So thou can’st not have a lodging here.’ - -“Again the lover tapped. Then she sprang out of bed, threw open the -casement, and sang:-- - - “‘Begone, begone, my Willy, you silly; - Begone, you fool, yet my dear. - O the devil’s in the man, - And he can not understan’ - That he cannot have a lodging here.’” - -The melody was arranged for Queen Elizabeth, and is in her Virginal -Book. In Beaumont and Fletcher’s “Knight of the Burning Pestle,” old -Merrythought says, - - “Go from my window, love, go; - Go from my window, my dear. - The wind and the rain - Will drive you back again; - You cannot be lodged here. - - “Begone, begone, my juggy, my puggy; - Begone, my love, my dear. - The weather is warm; - ’Twill do thee no harm; - Thou can’st not be lodged here.” - -It is again quoted in Fletcher’s “Monsieur Thomas,” and again in “The -Tamer Tamed.” - -Almost certainly this was originally a ballad. But the ballad tale has -been lost, and only scraps of rhyme were committed to writing. - -1588, 26th Sept. John Wolfe had license to print “Peggy’s Complaint for -the Death of her Willye.”[37] - -9th Nov. Thomas Orwyn had license to print “Martyn said to his man, Who -is the foole now?” - -This has been preserved for us, with its tune, by Ravenscroft, in his -“Deuteromelia.” - - “Martyn said to his man, fie man, fie O! - Who’s the fool now? - Martyn said to his man, fill the cup and I the can, - Thou hast well drunken, man, - Who’s the fool now? - - “I see a sheep sheering come, fie man, fie O! - And a cuckold blow his horn. - - “I see a man in the moon - Clouting St. Peter’s shoon. - - “I see a hare chase a hound - Twenty miles above the ground. - - “I see a goose ring a hog, - And a snayle that did bite a dog. - - “I see a mouse catch a cat, - And the cheese to eat a rat.” - -1591, 27th August. Robert Bourne obtained license to print a ballad on -“A combat between a man and his wife for the breeches.” This has been -often re-written. - -1592, 5th Jan. Richard Jones, “The Valliant Acts of Guy of Warwick,” to -the tune of “Was ever man soe tost (lost) in love?” The ballad of Guy -is lost. The tune we have. - -1592, 18th Jan. H. Kyrkham, “The crowe she sitteth upon a wall:” -“Please one and please all.” The former is, perhaps, the original of -“The crow sat in a pear-tree.” “Please one and please all” has been -preserved. - -1592, 21st July. John Danter, “The soules good morrowe.” - -1592, 28th July. H Kyrkham, “The Nightingale’s Good-night.” - -1593, 1st Oct. Stephen Peel, “Betwixt life and death,” to the tune of -“Have with you into the country.” - -1594, 16th Oct. John Danter, “Jones’ ale is new.” This is sung to the -present day in village taverns. One verse is roared forth with special -emphasis. It is that of the mason:-- - - “He dashed his hammer against the wall; - He hoped both tower and church would fall; - For Joan’s ale is new, my boys, - For Joan’s ale is new.” - -1594, 16th Oct. E. White, “The Devil of Devonshire and William of the -West, his Sonne.” This is lost. - -1595, 14th Jan. Thomas Creede, “The Saylor’s Joye,” to the tune of -“Heigh-ho! hollidaie.” Both ballad and air lost. - -1595, 24th Feb. Thomas Creede, The first part of “The Merchante’s -Daughter of Bristole.” This we have, but it is a recast in the -sixteenth century of a far earlier ballad. - -1595, 15th Oct. Thomas Millington, “The Norfolk Gentleman, his Will and -Testament, and howe he committed the keeping of his children to his -owne brother.” This--“The Babes in the Wood,” we have, as well as the -melody. - -1595, 15th Oct. W. Blackwall, “The Prowde Mayde of Plymouthe.” Lost. - -1603, 11th June. Wm. White, “A Sweet Maie Flower;” “The Ladie’s Fall;” -“The Bryde’s Buriell;” “The Spanish Ladie’s Love;” “The Lover’s -Promises to his Beloved;” “The Fayre Lady Constance of Cleveland and of -her Disloyal Knight.” - -We have “The Lady’s Fall” and the two that follow. “A Sweet Mayflower” -is probably a real loss, as also the ballad of the Lady Constance and -her disloyal knight. This will suffice to show how interesting are -these records, and also how much has perished, as well as how much -is preserved. It must not, however, be lost to mind that these were -all new ballads, and were serving to displace the earlier and better -ballads.[38] - -Every accident, every murder, every battle was turned into doggerel and -printed as a new ballad. Fourpence was the cost of a license. - -In Beaumont and Fletcher’s “Philastes,” Megra threatens the King-- - - “By all those gods you swore by, and as many - More of mine own-- - The princess, your daughter, shall stand by me - On walls, and sung in ballads.” - -She refers to the manner in which every bit of court scandal was -converted into rhythmic jingle, and also to the custom of pasting the -ballads on the walls. The least acquaintance with the old black-letter -ballads will make the reader understand the allusion to the two figures -heading the broadside, in rude woodcut, standing side by side. - -A large proportion of the black-letter ballads were of moral and -religious import. In Beaumont and Fletcher’s “The Coxcomb,” the tinker -refers to these, when he finds poor Viola wandering in the streets at -night, and listens to her doleful words. He says:-- - - “What’s this? a prayer or a homily, or a ballad of good counsel?” - -If we compare the black-letter issues of the sixteenth century with the -snatches of ballads that come to us through the playwrights, we find -that they do not wholly agree. - -The dramatists made their characters sing the folk-ballads, the same -that are described in “A Defence for Milksmaydes” in 1563. - - “They rise in the morning to hear the larke sing, - And welcome with balletts the somer’s coming. - - * * * * * - - In going to milking, or coming away, - They sing merry balletts, or storeys they say. - Their mouth is as pure and as white as their milk; - --You can not say that of your velvett and silke.” - -So the mad jailor’s daughter in Fletcher’s and Shakespeare’s “The Two -Noble Kinsmen.” - - She says: “Is not this a fine song?” - - _Brother_: “Oh, a very fine one!” - - _Daughter_: “I can say twenty more, I can sing _The Broom_ - and _Bonny Robin_.” - -And she begins to troll “Oh fair! oh sweet!” etc. - -Unhappily the authors of this play did not write out the song, as it -was too well known to require transcription, and now it is lost. So -also are those she sings in another scene. - - “The George alow came from the South, - From the Coast of Barbary-a! - And there we met with brave gallants of war, - By one, by two, by three-a! - - “Well hail’d, well hail’d, you jolly gallants! - And whither now are you bound-a? - Or let me have your company - Till I come to the Sound-a!” - -This sounds as though a part of the “Henry Martyn” (Andrew Barton) -already given. Another of the mad girl’s songs is:-- - - “There were three fools fell out about an howlet. - The one said ’twas an owl; - The other said nay. - The third he said it was a hawk, - And her bells were cut away.” - -So also with some of the songs and ballads of Ophelia. They were too -well known to be printed, and now they are irrecoverably gone. - -We have lost nearly the whole of our earliest ballad poetry, and only a -tithe of that which took its place has come down to us. - -“Our earliest ballads,” says the editor of Percy’s folio, “though -highly popular in the Elizabethan age, were yet never collected into -any collections, save in Garlands, till the year 1723. They wandered up -and down the country without even sheepskins or goatskins to protect -them; they flew about like the birds of the air, and sung songs dear -to the hearts of the common people--songs whose power was sometimes -confessed by the higher classes, but not so thoroughly appreciated as -to conduce them to exert themselves for their preservation.” - -In the reign of Queen Anne and through the early Hanoverian period, -sheets of copperplate were issued with engraved songs and ballads, -together with their music. Among them may be found a few--but only -a very few--of the old favourites. Most are compositions of Arne, -Carey, Berg, Dunn, etc., and the words are quite unsuited to hold the -attention of the peasantry. Hardly any of these found their way into -broadsides and garlands, and none can now be heard by the cottage fire -or in the village ale-house. - -In 1808, John Catnach of Newcastle settled in London, and began to -print broadsides. He was quickly followed by others in London and in -country towns. Catnach kept a number of ballad-mongers in his pay, who -either composed verses for him or swept up such traditional ballads as -they chanced to hear. They were paid half-a-crown for a copy, whether -original or adulterate. If one of these poetasters chanced to hear an -ancient ballad, he added to it some of his own verses, so as to be -able to call it his property, and then disposed of it to one of the -broadside publishers. - -If these men had been sent round the country to collect from cottages -and village hostelries, in the way in which Wardour Street Jews send -about into every part of England to pick up old oak, then a great -amount of our traditional ballad poetry might have been recovered. It -was not too late in the first ten or twenty years of this century. -But this was not done. These pot-poets loafed about in the low London -public-houses, where it was only by the rarest chance that a country -man, fresh from the fields, and woods, and downs, with his memory laden -with the fragrance of the rustic music, was to be found. Moreover, -these fellows were overweening in their opinion of their own powers. -They had neither taste, nor ear, nor genius. They poured forth floods -of atrocious rhymes, and of utter balderdash, as was required, as -an occasion offered, and as they stood in need of half-crowns. -Consequently the broadside “white-letter” ballad no more represents the -folk ballad of the English people than does the black-letter ballad. - -Who that has a sprinkling of grey on his head does not remember the -ballad-singer at a fair, with his or her yards of verse for sale? The -ballad-seller, who vended his broadsheets, did much to corrupt the -taste of the peasant. He had begun to read, and he read the ha’penny -broadside, and learned by heart what he had bought; then he set it to -some fine old melody as ancient as the Wars of the Roses, and sang it; -and what is unfortunate, discarded the old words for the sake of the -vile stuff composed by the half-tipsy, wholly-stupid band, in the pay -of Ryle, Catnach, Harkness of Preston, Williams of Portsea, Snidall of -Manchester, etc. - -Mr. Hindley, in his “History of the Catnach Press,” 1886, gives -an amusing account of his acquaintance with John Morgan, the last -surviving of Catnach’s poets:--“Mr. John Morgan, full of bows and -scrapes, was ushered into our presence. ‘Take a seat, sir.’ ‘Yes, sir, -and thank you too,’ he replied, at the same time sitting down, and -then very carefully depositing his somewhat dilapidated hat under--far -under--the chair. We then inquired whether he would have anything to -eat, or have a cup of coffee. No! it was a little too early for eating, -and coffee did not agree with him. Or, a drop of good ‘Old Tom,’ we -somewhat significantly suggested. Mr. John Morgan would very much like -to have a little drop of gin, for it was a nasty, raw, cold morning. -In answer to our inquiry whether he would prefer hot or cold water, -elected to have it neat, if it made no difference to us. - -“Mr. John Morgan, at our suggestion, having ‘wet the other eye,’ -_i.e._, taken the second glass, the real business commenced thus:--‘We -have been informed that you were acquainted with, and used to write -for, the late James Catnach, who formerly lived in Seven Dials, -and that you can give us much information that we require towards -perfecting a work we have in hand, treating on street literature.’ ... -Here Mr. Morgan expressed his willingness to give all the information -he could on the subject, and leave it to our generosity to pay him what -we pleased, and adding that he had no doubt that we should not fall -out on that score. Mr. Morgan talked and took gin. Mr. Morgan got -warm--warmer, and warmer,--and very entertaining. We continued to talk -and take notes, and Mr. Morgan talked and took gin, until he emulated -the little old woman who sold ‘Hot Codlings,’ for of her it is related -that, ‘The glass she filled, and the bottle she shrunk, And this little -old woman in the end got--’ - -“At last it became very manifest that we should not be able to get any -more information out of Mr. John Morgan on that day, so proposed for -him to call again on the morrow morning. Then having presented him with -a portrait of Her Most Gracious Majesty, set in gold, we endeavoured to -see him downstairs, which, we observed, were very crooked; Mr. Morgan -thought they were very old and funny ones.... - -“At length the wishful morrow came, also ten of the clock, the hour -appointed, but not so Mr. John Morgan, nor did he call at any hour -during the day. But soon after eleven o’clock the next day he made his -appearance; but being so stupidly drunk we gave him some money and told -him to call again tomorrow. And he did, but still so muddled that we -could make nothing out of him, and so curtly dismissed him.” - -Here are specimens of the sort of stuff turned out for Catnach by John -Morgan and the like. The first is on the birth of the Princess Royal. - - “Of course you’ve heard the welcome news, - Or you must be a gaby, - That England’s glorious queen has got - At last a little baby. - - “A boy we wanted--’tis a girl! - Thus all our hopes that were - To have an heir unto the Throne - Are all _thrown to the air_.” - -Here is a ballad on a policeman of the old style when the new -regulations came in, in 1829:-- - - “Upon his beat he stood to take a last farewell - Of his lantern and his little box wherein he oft did dwell. - He listen’d to the clock, so familiar to his ear, - And with the tail of his drab coat he wiped away a tear. - - “Beside that watchhouse door a girl was standing close, - Who held a pocket handkerchief, with which she blew her nose. - She rated well the policeman, which made poor Charley queer, - Who once more took his old drab coat to wipe away a tear. - - “He turn’d and left the spot; O do not deem him weak; - A sly old chap this Charley was, though tears were on his cheek. - Go watch the lads in Fetterlane, where oft you’ve made them fear; - The hand, you know, that takes a bribe, can wipe away a tear.” - -Here is one stanza by a composer with whom the writer of this article -made acquaintance:-- - - “Pale was the light of the Pole-axe star, - When breakers would hide them so near. - But Love is the ocean of hunters far, - And convoys him to darkness so drear. - Then sad at the door of my love I lay, - Slumbering the six months all away.” - -Horace sang something about lying exposed to the cold and rain at the -door of his beloved, and vowed he would not do it again. There is -certainly a distance of something beside two thousand years between -Horace and the gentleman who wrote the above lines. - -There is a really astonishing poem entitled “The Lights of Asheaton,” -which, happily, everyone can purchase for a ha’penny. It is the -composition of a recent Irish poet of the same class as Mr. John -Morgan, and is a dissuasive against Protestantism. What the “Lights” of -Asheaton are does not transpire. It opens thus:-- - - “You Muses now aid me in admonishing Paganism, - The new Lights of Asheaton, whose fate I do deplore. - From innocence and reason they are led to condemnation, - Their fate they’ve violated, the occasion of their woe.” - -After some wonderful lines that we hardly like to quote, as savouring -of irreverence--though that was far from the poet’s intention--he -assures us:-- - - “Waters will decrease most amazing to behold, - No fanatic dissenter, no solvidian (_sic_) cripple, - Dare them to dissemble, the truths for to relinquish, - For the enthusiast will tremble at the splendors of the Pope.” - -The sheet of broadside ballad that is passing away deserves a little -attention before it disappears. It reveals to us the quality of song -that commended itself to the uneducated. It shows us how the song -proper has steadily displaced the ballad proper. It is surprising -for what it contains, as well as for what it omits. Apparently in -the latter part of this century the sole claim to admission is that -words--no matter what they be--should be associated to a taking air. -We find on the broadsheets old favourites of our youth--songs by Balfe, -and Shield, and Hudson; but the Poet Laureate is unrepresented; even -Dibdin finds but grudging admission. When we look at the stuff that is -home-made, we find that it consists of two sorts of production--one, -the ancient ballad in the last condition of wreck, cast up in -fragments; and the other, of old themes worked up over and over again -by men without a spark of poetic fire in their hearts. A century or two -hence we shall have this rubbish collected and produced as the folk -song of the English peasantry, just as we have had the black-letter -ballads raked together and given to the world as the ballad poetry of -the ancient English. - -The broadside ballad is at its last gasp. Every publisher in the -country who was wont to issue these ephemerides has discontinued -doing so for thirty or forty years. In London, in place of a score of -publishers of these leaves, there are but three--Mr. Fortey, of Seven -Dials; Mr. Such, of the Boro’; and Mr. Taylor, of Bethnal Green. As -the broadside dies, it becomes purer. There are ballads in some of the -early issues of a gross and disgusting nature. These have all had the -knife applied to them, and nothing issues from the press of Mr. Fortey, -Mr. Such, and Mr. Taylor which is offensive to good morals. Mr. Such, -happily, has all his broadsides numbered, and publishes a catalogue of -them; some of the earlier sheets are, however, exhausted, and have not -been reprinted. - -It is but a matter of a few years and the broadside will be as extinct -as the Mammoth and the Dodo, only to be found in the libraries of -collectors. Already sheets that fetched a ha’penny thirty years ago are -cut down the middle, and each half fetches a shilling. The garlands -are worth more than their weight in gold. Let him that is wise collect -whilst he may. - - - - -X. - -Riddles. - - -There is a curious little work, the contents of which are said -to have been collected by Hans Sachs, the Nuremberg cobbler and -master-singer, in 1517. This curious book was reprinted several times -in the seventeenth and early part of the eighteenth century, but it -is now somewhat scarce. It was issued without place of publication or -publisher’s name, in small form without cover. The book pretends to -have been prepared by Hans Sachs for his private use, that he might -make merriment among his friends, when drinking, and they were tired -of his songs. It does not contain any anecdotes; it is made up of a -collection of riddles more or less good, some coarse, and some profane; -but the age was not squeamish. The title under which the little work -was issued was, _Useful Table-talk, or Something for all; that is -the Happy Thoughts, good and bad, expelling Melancholy and cheering -Spirits, of Hilarius Wish-wash, Master-tiler at Kielenhausen_. The -book consists of just a hundred pages, of which a quarter are consumed -by prefaces, introductions, etc., and about thirteen filled with -postscript and index. The humours of the book are somewhat curious; -for instance, in the preliminary index of subjects it gives--“IX. The -reason why this book of Table-talk was so late in being published.” -When we turn to the place indicated for the reason, we find a blank. -There is no such reason. There is a fulsome and absurd dedication to -the “Honourable and Knightly Tileburner” who lives “By the icy ocean -near Moscow, in Lapland, one mile below Podolia and three miles above -it.” - -Although we are not told in the place indicated why the little -collection was not issued immediately after the death of Hans Sachs, -nor among his works, we learn the reason elsewhere, in the preface, -where we are told that the jokes it contained were so good that a -rivalry ensued among them as to precedence, and till this was settled, -it was impossible to get the book printed. The collection contains in -all one hundred and ninety-six riddles; among them is that which gives -the date of the book, and that in a chronogram: “When was this book -of Table-talk drawn up? _Answer._ In IetzIg taVsenD fIInff hVnDert -sIbenzehenDen Iahr” (1517). - -Here are some of the conundrums.--_Question._ After Adam had eaten the -forbidden fruit, did he stand or sit down?--_Ans._ Neither; he fell. - -_Ques._ Two shepherds were pasturing their flocks. Said one to the -other: “Give me one of your sheep, then I shall have twice as many -sheep as you.”--“Not so,” replied the second herdsman: “give me one -of yours, and then we shall have equal flocks.” How many sheep had -each?--_Ans._ One had seven, the other five. If the first took a sheep -out of the flock of the second, he had eight, the other four; if the -contrary, each had six. - -_Ques._ What is four times six?--_Ans._ 6666. - -_Ques._ What does a goose do when standing on one leg?--_Ans._ Holds up -the other! - -_Ques._ When did carpenters first proclaim themselves to be intolerable -dawdles?--_Ans._ When building the Ark--they took a hundred years over -it. - -_Ques._ What sort of law is military law?--_Ans._ Can(n)on law. - -Some of the riddles have survived in the jocular mouth to the present -day; for instance, who does not know this?--_Ques._ What smells most in -an apothecary’s shop?--_Ans._ The nose. There is one conundrum which -surprises us. The story was wont to be told by Bishop Wilberforce that -he had asked a child in Sunday School why the angels ascended and -descended on Jacob’s ladder, whereupon the child replied that they did -so because they were moulting, and could not fly. But this appears in -Hans Sachs’ book, and is evidently a very ancient joke indeed. - -In this collection also appears the riddle: “Which is heaviest, a pound -of lead or a pound of feathers?” which everyone knows, but with an -addition, which is an improvement. After the answer, “Each weighs a -pound, and they are equal in weight,” the questioner says further: “Not -so--try in water. The pound of feathers will float, and the pound of -lead will sink.” - -_Ques._ How can you carry a jug of water in your hands on a broiling -summer day, in the full blaze of the sun, so that the water shall not -get hotter?--_Ans._ Let the water be boiling when you fill the jug. - -_Ques._ How can a farmer prevent the mice from stealing his -corn?--_Ans._ By giving them his corn. - -_Ques._ A certain man left a penny by his will to be divided equally -among his fifty relatives, each to have as much as the other, and -each to be quite contented with what he got, and not envy any of the -other legatees. How did the executor comply with this testamentary -disposition?--_Ans._ He bought a packet of fifty tin-tacks with the -penny, and hammered one into the back of each of the legatees. - -There is another very curious old German collection of riddles called -_Æsopus Epulans_; but that contains anecdotes as well and a great deal -of very interesting matter. This is a much larger volume, and is the -commonplace book of a party of priests who used to meet at each other’s -houses to smoke, and drink, argue, and joke. One of the members took -down the particulars of conversation at each meeting, and published -it. A most curious and amusing volume it is. Some of the conundrums -the old parsons asked each other were the same as those in Hans Sachs’ -collection; they had become traditional. We may safely say that none -were better, and some were, if possible, more pointless. They have all -much the same character: they resemble faintly the popular conundrum -of the type so widely spread, and so much affected still by nurses -and by the labouring class, and which so often begins with “London -Bridge is broken down,” or, “As I went over London Bridge.” These are -very ancient. We have analogous riddles among those which Oriental -tradition puts into the mouth of the Queen of Sheba when she “proved -Solomon with hard questions.” Mr. Kemble published for the Ælfric -Society a collection of questions and answers that exist in Anglo-Saxon -as a conversation between Solomon and Saturn, and numerous versions -existed in the Middle Ages of the dialogue between Solomon and--as the -answerer was often called--Markulf. But these questions only partially -correspond with our idea of riddles. - -A more remarkable collection is that in the Icelandic _Herverar Saga_, -where the King Heidrek boasts of his power to solve all riddles. -Then Odin visits him in disguise as a blind man, and propounds to -the king some hard questions. Of these there are sixty-four. We will -give a few specimens. _Ques._ What was that drink I drank yesterday, -which was neither spring water, nor wine, nor mead, nor ale?--_Ans._ -The dew of heaven. _Ques._ What dead lungs did I see blowing to -war?--_Ans._ A blacksmith’s bellows whilst a sword was being forged. -_Ques._ What did I see outside a great man’s door, head downwards, feet -heavenwards?--_Ans._ An onion. - -These riddles are all in verse, and the replies also in verse. The end -was that Odin asked Heidrek what he, Odin, whispered into the ear of -Baldur before he was burned on his funeral pyre. Thereupon Heidrek drew -his sword and cut at his questioner, shouting: “None can answer that -but yourself!” Odin had just time to transform himself into an eagle; -but the sword shore off his tail, and eagles ever after have had short -tails. - -The Sphinx will recur to the recollection of the reader, who tore to -pieces those who could not answer its riddles. At last Creon, King of -Thebes, offered his sister, Jocasta, to anyone who could solve the -enigmas propounded by the Sphinx. Œdipus ventured, and when asked by -the monster, “What animal is four-footed in the morning, two-footed -at noon, and three-footed in the evening?” answered: “Man, who as a -babe crawls, and as an old man leans on a crutch.” The Sphinx was so -distressed at hearing its riddle solved, that it precipitated itself -from a precipice and was dashed to pieces. - -The Persian hero, Sal, who was brought up by the gigantic bird Simorg, -appears before Mentuscher, Schah of Iran. The latter, forewarned that -Sal will be a danger to him, endeavours to get rid of him. However, he -first tests him with hard questions. If he answers these, he is to be -allowed to live. The first question is: “There stand twelve cypresses -in a ring, and each bears thirty boughs.” Sal replies, “These are -the twelve months, each of which has thirty days.” Another question -is--“There were two horses, one black, the other clear as crystal.” -“They are Day and Night,” replied Sal. - -In English and Scottish Ballads a whole class has reference to the -importance of riddle answering. - -A girl is engaged to a young man who dies. He returns from the grave -and insists on her fulfilling her engagement to him and following him -to the land of the dead. She consents on one condition, that he will -answer her riddles, or else she pleads to be spared, and the dead lover -agrees on condition that she shall answer some riddles he sets. Such -is a ballad which was formerly enacted in the farmhouses in Cornwall. -The girl sits on her bed and sighs for her dead lover. He reappears and -insists on her following him. Then she sets him tasks, and he sets her -tasks. - -Those he sets her are:-- - - “Thou must buy me, my lady, a cambrick shirt - Whilst every grove rings with a merry antine (antienne = anthem), - And stitch it without any needle work, - O, and thou shalt be a true love of mine. - - “And thou must wash it in yonder well - Where never a drop of water fell. - - “And thou must hang it upon a white thorn - That never has blossomed since Adam was born.” - -Those she sets him are:-- - - “Thou must buy for me an acre of land - Between the salt ocean and the yellow sand. - - “Thou must plough it over with a horse’s horn, - And sow it all over with one pepper corn. - - “Thou must reap it too with a piece of leather, - And bind the sheaf with a peacock’s feather.” - -“In all stories of this kind,” says Mr. Child, in his monumental work -on English Ballads, “the person upon whom a task is imposed stands -acquitted if another of no less difficulty is desired, which must be -performed first.” - -An early form of this story is preserved in the _Gesta Romanorum_. A -king resolved not to marry a wife till he could find the cleverest of -women. At length a poor maid was brought to him, and he made trial -of her sagacity. He sent her a bit of linen three inches square, and -promised to marry her, if out of it she could make him a shirt. She -stipulated in reply that he should send her a vessel in which she could -work. We have here only a mutilated fragment of the series of tasks -set. In an old English ballad in the Pepysian library, an Elfin knight -visits a pretty maid, and demands her in marriage. - - “‘Thou must shape a sark to me - Without any cut or heme,’ quoth he. - ‘Thou must shape it knife-and-sheerless - And also sue it needle-threadless.’” - -She replies:-- - - “I have an aiker of good ley-land - Which lyeth low by yon sea-strand. - For thou must car it with thy horn, - So thou must sow it with thy corn, - And bigg a cart of stone and lyme. - Robin Redbreast he must trail it hame, - Thou must barn it in a mouse-holl, - And thrash it into thy shoes sole. - And thou must winnow it in thy looff, - And also sech it in thy glove. - For thou must bring it over the sea, - And thou must bring it dry home to me.” - -As the Elfin knight cannot fulfil these tasks, the girl is not obliged -to follow him to Elfin Land. There is another song, known in a -fragmentary condition all through England:-- - - “Cold blows the wind to-night, sweetheart, - Cold are the drops of rain. - The very first love that ever I had - In greenwood he was slain.” - -The maiden being engaged to the dead man can obtain no release from him -till he restores to her her freedom. She goes and sits on his grave and -weeps. - - “A twelvemonth and a day being up, - The ghost began to speak; - Why sit you here by my grave side - From dusk till dawning break?” - -She replies:-- - - “O think upon the garden, love, - Where you and I did walk; - The fairest flower that blossomed there - Is withered on its stalk.” - -The ghost says:-- - - “What is it that you want of me, - And will not let me sleep? - Your salten tears they trickle down - My winding sheet to steep.” - -She replies that she has come to return his kisses to him, so as to be -off with her engagement. To this the dead man replies:-- - - “Cold are my lips in death, sweetheart, - My breath is earthy strong, - If you do touch my clay-cold lips, - Your time will not be long.” - -Then comes a divergence in the various forms the ballad assumes. Its -most common form is for the ghost to insist on her coming into his -grave, unless she can perform certain tasks:-- - - “Go fetch me a light from dungeon deep, - Wring water from a stone, - And likewise milk from a maiden’s breast - Which never babe hath none.” - -She strikes a spark from a flint, she squeezes an icicle, and she -compresses the stalk of a dandelion or “Johnswort.” So she accomplishes -the tasks set her. - -Then the ghost exclaims:-- - - “Now if you had not done these things, - If you had not done all three, - I’d tear you as the withered leaves - Are torn from off the tree.” - -And the maiden, released from her bond, sings:-- - - “Now I have mourned upon his grave - A twelvemonth and a day, - I’ll set my sail before the wind - To waft me far away.” - -Another ballad of the same class is that of the knight who betrays a -maiden, and refuses to marry her unless she can answer certain riddles. -These are:-- - - “What is louder than a horn? - And what is sharper than a thorn? - What is broader than the way? - And what is deeper than the sea?” - -The answers are:-- - - “Thunder is louder than a horn, - And hunger is sharper than a thorn, - Love is broader than the way, - And hell is deeper than the sea.” - -Now these ballads and a crowd of folk tales that bear on the same point -show plainly enough that there was a time when quite as certainly as -there were contests of arms, so contests of wit were gone through -for great ends, sometimes with life at stake. That was a period when -there was a struggle between man and man, and the fittest survived; -but this fittest was not always the strongest animal, but the man of -keenest wit. I do not know how else to explain the universality of -these legends. The riddle is an amusement at the present day. It was -an amusement at a Greek banquet, as we learn from Plutarch. But in a -pre-historic period--in a mythic epoch--it was something very grave. -He or she who could not solve a riddle, or a succession of riddles, -forfeited life or honour. - -There are two of the earliest extant rhymes of the Norse people which -hinge on the same idea, and in them the gods themselves have their -existence or honour at stake. These are the Vafthrudnis Mâl and the -Alvis Mâl, in the Elder Edda. - -In the first of these Odin the god and mythical ancestor of -the Scandinavian race visits the Jute, the giant Vafthrudnir, -representative of the large-sized pre-historic race which occupied -Scandinavia, Great Britain, and Gaul. They go through a contest of -wit. He who is defeated in this trial of skill has to lose his life. - -Vafthrudnir asks:-- - - “Tell me, Gagnrad, - Since on the floor thou wilt - Prove thy proficiency, - How is the horse called - That draws each day - Forth over mankind?” - -Odin, who has called himself Gagnrad, replies:-- - - “Skinfaxi he is named - That the bright day draws - Forth over mankind. - Of horses is he highest esteemed - Amidst the Reid-Goths, - Light ever streams from that horse’s mane.” - -Next comes the question relative to the black horse of night. Then as -to the stream that divides the Jutes from the Æsir (the Scandinavians). -Then as to the name of the plain on which the great final fight will -take place, in which the light of the gods will be quenched. And so -on. The giant is overcome. This song is interesting because it is a -poetic representation of an historic event, the conquest of the Jute by -the Scandinavian, not so much by force of arms, as by superior mental -sagacity. - -The other song in the Edda is the prototype of all the Elfin Knight and -analogous ballads in which a being of the under world, now an elf, then -a devil, then a dead man, seeks to win to himself a maiden of the upper -world, and of the dominant race. - -The dwarf Alvis, who lives under the earth and under stones, _i.e._, -in a beehive hut, a representative of the pre-historic, small, -short-headed, metal-working race, has somehow extorted a promise from -the god Thorr, that he will give him his daughter, the “fair-bright, -snow-white maiden.” Thorr shrinks from doing this, but is reminded of -his promise. We do not know the particulars, but in all probability -the dwarf Alvis had fashioned for him his hammer, and had received the -promise in return. Thorr at last yields, but only on condition that -Alvis shall solve a series of riddles, or rather answer a number of -questions as to the various names given to sun, moon, wind, sky, etc. - -The last question asked is:-- - - “Tell me, Alvis, - How beer is called - Which the sons of men - Drink in all worlds.” - -Alvis answers:-- - - “_Ale_ is it called by men, - By the Æsir _Beer_, - By the Vans _Veig_, - By the Jotuns _Hreina lögi_; - In Hell it is _meed_, - The sons of Sutung call it _sumbl_.” - -Then the sun rises--and as it has risen before all the questions are -answered, Alvis loses his bride. - -Precisely so in the Cornish version of the Elfin-Knight. Unable to -accomplish the task, the dead man is caught by the sunrise, and says:-- - - “The breath of the morning is raw and cold, - The wind is blowing on forest and down, - And I must return to the churchyard mould, - And the wind it shaketh the acorns down.” - -It is deserving of note that in all these early accounts of -riddle-setting, the _forfeit_ is either life or honour. We have -instances of riddle-setting as a test before marriage, or what is the -same thing, the setting difficult tasks to be accomplished--something -to prove the wit of the young woman. Unless she were “up to mark” in -wit, she was held to be unfit for the marriage proposed. In one folk -tale a girl is given straw to spin into gold, grains to collect and -count. In Cupid and Psyche, the fair seeker after her divine lover is -set tasks by Venus, without the accomplishment of which she cannot win -him. In many a tale a prince is set tasks, without the accomplishment -of which he cannot be accepted as lover for the daughter and heiress of -a king. - -In the saga of Ragnar Lodbrog, the King bids Aslaug come to him -clothed yet naked, accompanied yet alone, fed yet empty. She complies -by casting off her garments but covering herself with her golden hair -that flows to her feet, taking with her a dog only, and chewing a blade -of garlic. Satisfied with her wit, Ragnar marries her. She became by -him the mother of five sons, one of whom was the ancestor of Harald -Fairhair, who made Norway into one realm under his sceptre. Aslaug -was the daughter of Sigurd and Brunhild, made familiar to us through -Wagner’s “Ring of the Nibelungen.” - -The forfeits of a child’s game of the present day, to stand in the -corner on one leg, to call up the chimney, to kiss everyone in the -room--are the faintest ghostly reminiscences of the terrible forfeit, -which, in the mythic age of mankind, had to be paid by the man or woman -who became liable through lack of shrewdness in the great contest of -wit. The man who did not solve the riddle lost his life. The woman who -failed to answer the questions had to leave her race, suffer social -death, and pass over to the realm of the conquered race. - -I repeat it, it is quite impossible to explain the stories of -riddle-setting which appear as a matter of most serious import as they -come to us out of a remote antiquity, and from every part of Europe -and Asia, unless we hold that there were in a pre-historic age these -contests of wit for the highest stakes, just as there were holm-gangs, -duels, like those of David and Goliath, of the Horatii and Curiatii, of -Herakles and Geryon. - -But the existence of the riddle and of the forfeit attaching to -inability to answer the riddle, does not, we may be sure, begin with -such cases as the contest of Odin and Vafthrudnir, Thorr and Alvis, -Œdipus and Sphinx. As it appears thus in myth, it is a survival of a -still earlier condition of affairs. - -At the present day throughout Europe, nurses ask children riddles, and -very often a forfeit attaches to inability to answer them. This points -to the riddle as a means of education of the young mind, but also as a -test of its powers. In legend and myth it does not appear as educative, -but as a test of mental power. How came it to be a test? - -We know that among certain races in a primitive, even in a cultivated -condition, the feeble and halt children are cast forth to perish. It -was so with the Greeks and Romans, it was so with the Norse, it has -been so in every ancient race. I cannot but suspect, from the many -indications given by tradition, that the riddle was employed at one -time as a brain test. That not only were the physically weak cast out, -but also the mentally incapable. - -The most startling reminiscence of the old ordeal of brains is that of -the Wartburg Contest in 1206 or 1207, under the Landgrave Hermann. The -poem of the “Kriec von Wartburg” was not indeed composed till a century -later, but that only makes it the more astonishing. It represents the -minnesingers under the Landgrave contesting in song and riddle, and -those who are defeated forfeit _life_. Christian knights and ladies -could look on at a tourney in the lists with life at stake, and -Christian knights and ladies in the fourteenth century thought it by no -means a monstrous thing that he who could not answer a riddle should -submit his neck to the executioner’s sword. Such a condition of ideas -is only conceivable as a heritage from a past when men had to show that -they had an intellectual as well as a physical qualification to live -among their fellow-men. - -The riddle has gone into an infinity of forms. A German writer[39] sets -to work to analyse its various manifestations. There is the numerical -riddle, the conundrum, the logogryph, the charade, the rebus, the -picture puzzle, the epigram, and so forth. Its last transformation is -the novel of the type of Wilkie Collins’ “Moonstone,” in which the -brain of the reader is kept in tension throughout, and the imagination -at work to discover the solution of the question--Who stole the -moonstone? A German poet, who cannot have thought much on the matter, -says:-- - - “The riddle, charade, and all of that ilk, - Are the bacon and beans of small brains.” - -But the riddle and the forfeit have had to do with the development -of mankind, the killing out of the witless, and the survival of the -intelligent. As the young were tested whether strong enough to live and -by brute force to hold their own, so, apparently, at a remote period in -man’s history the brains of the young were passed through ordeal, and -those who lacked readiness were also cast out as profitless. - -That was the first stage--and that is one which we conjecture that man -passed through; we have no direct evidence that it was so. Then came -the second, in which a trial of strength or of wit determined great -issues. Lastly, the riddle degenerated into a mere pastime. But as a -pastime it remains to us a monument of great interest and of great -antiquity. In every railway station in Germany is a measure. He who -is below that mark is unprofitable for Fatherland and rejected from -military service. The riddle was this mark before history dawned. -Only such as were mentally capable of solving a simple question were -considered worthy to be enrolled in the family or tribe. As in Germany -at the present day, the lad who cannot pass the examination loses -all chance of the short military service to which the man of culture -is entitled, and is subjected to the long service of a common country -lout, and the fact of his failure closes to him all professions, so was -it in the primeval world. He who could not pass through his examination -in riddles was condemned, if not to lose his life, at least to lose -caste, and the consciousness that each lad must pass through this -mental test served to sharpen intelligences, and so conduced to the -advancement of mankind. - - - - -XI. - -The Gallows. - - -Among our national institutions there is one--the gallows--to the -roots of which, in a remote past, antiquarians have, to the best of my -knowledge, not dug, and which they have not laid bare. Possibly this -omission is due to the fact that it is not an institution of which we -are proud; possibly also to the fact that it is an institution which we -keep as clear from touching as we well can. - -Nevertheless, the origin and original signification of the gallows are -too curious to be neglected. The origin is, moreover, so remote that -unless it were pointed out it would be wholly unsuspected. - -In France and in Germany the wheel has occupied the place in the -history of crime which the gibbet has taken with us; and the wheel, as -I shall presently show, has as old and significant an origin. - -We know pretty exactly the date of the introduction of this institution -into our island; we owe it, along with our ale and our constitutional -government, to the Anglo-Saxon invaders. - -There were no gallows in Britain under the Celts. The kingdom of Kent -was founded in 449, and it was then that the gallows first made their -appearance among us; and from the Isle of Thanet spread over the whole -land. - -The great god of the conquering races, who invaded Britain and subdued -the Britons, was Woden, who has given his name to Wednesday; and this -god with one eye had a double aspect. He was god of the air, the wind, -and he was also god of the sun. According to the etymology of his name, -he was the god of the gale, and the source of all breath; but his one -fiery eye was most certainly the sun; and he was represented holding -a wheel of gold, and that golden wheel symbolised the sun. The Gauls -also had a sun god, representations of whom holding a wheel have been -discovered in France in considerable numbers; and, unquestionably, when -Goths, Burgundians, and Franks invaded Gaul, or swept over it, their -sun god and the Gallic wheel-bearing god were identified. - -But those who thought of and adored Woden as god of the wind thought -nothing of the wheel. Woden was a cruel deity, who demanded sacrifices; -and the sacrifices he required were human. - -In the Elder Edda, a collection of very ancient songs relating to the -Norse gods and heroes, who were the same as the gods and heroes of our -Anglo-Saxon forefathers, is one mysterious poem, supposed to be sung by -Odin (Woden) himself as he hangs in the world-tree, a self-immolated -victim, between heaven and earth for nine nights. - - “I knew that I hung - In the wind-rocked tree - Nine whole nights, - Wounded with a spear; - And to Odin offered - Myself to myself, - On that tree, - Of which no one knows - From what root it springs.” - -As he thus hangs, himself the sacrifice offered to himself as god, he -composes a song of twice nine runes, and the result of the twelfth is:-- - - “If on a tree I see - A corpse swinging by a halter, - I can so grave runes - And them write - That that man shall with me - Walk and converse.” - -That is to say, every victim hung on a tree becomes one of Odin’s band, -with whom he rides in the storm blast over the earth. - -Unfortunately, the myth connected with this curious poem is not -preserved; but we can gather so much from it, that Odin was said to -have immolated himself to himself by hanging in the world-tree, and -that thenceforth he claimed all men who had been hung as members of his -band. - -In one of the early Norse sagas we have a story about a king called -Vikarr, who desired to dedicate himself to the god, and so he had a -gallows erected before his palace, and got a friend to fasten a halter -round his neck and hang him on the gallows. Another tells of a woman -who, to gain her husband’s love, hung her son to the god to obtain his -assistance so as to brew a good vat of ale. At Lethra, in Denmark, -every nine years ninety-nine men, and as many horses, were hung in -honour of the god; and at Upsala numerous human victims swung by the -neck about the image of Odin. After their great victory over the Romans -the Cymbri and Teutons hung all their captives as a thank-offering to -their gods; and after the slaughter of the legions of Varus the horses -of the Romans were found hung on the trees on the scene of defeat. - -Indeed, one of the names of Odin was the Hanging God, either because he -hung himself, or because he had victims hung to him. - -The world-tree, the great tree in which he hung, the tree which -supports heaven and earth, was called Yggdrasil, which means Ogre’s -horse, for one of the names of Odin was Yggr or Ogre, to express his -love of human sacrifices; and all the old nursery tales and rhymes -concerning ogres have reference to this great god of the English -people. Jack mounts the beanstalk, and above the clouds enters the land -of the Ogre, with his one eye, who devours men. Jack the Giant Killer, -who lives in Cornwall, represents the British Christian fighting -against the Pagan Saxon, impersonated as the great man-eating ogre. - - “Fee-fo-fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman. - Whether he be alive, or whether he be dead, - I’ll grind his bones to make my bread.” - -In this again we have a reference to Woden or Odin, who was also called -the Miller; for the mutter or roll of the thunder was supposed to be -the working of his quern, grinding up his human victims for his meal. - -Originally, victims were either freewill offerings, or were chosen from -among the best in the land. So we hear of a Norse king every ten years -sacrificing one of his sons, and of the Swedes, in time of famine, -sacrificing their king, but it became general to offer the prisoners -taken in war, and when these lacked, to sacrifice those who lay in -prison condemned for crimes. - -In one of the Norse sagas, we are told of a king’s daughter that, on -hearing of the death of her father in battle, she went to the valley -dedicated to the gods and there hung herself. Her father, having died -in battle, went to Walhalla to Odin, and her only chance of being with -him in the spirit world was to hang herself to the honour of Odin, who -would then receive her among his elect, and so associate her with her -father. If she were to die in her bed, she would go down to the nether -world of Hela. - -It is curious that in the West of England there are fields, generally -situated in lonely spots, that go by the name of gallows’-traps, and -the popular saying concerning them is that whoever sets foot in them -is predestined to die on the gibbet. The probable origin of this -superstition is that these were actual traps for the unwary, in which -to catch victims for sacrifice. - -In certain districts a parcel of land was set apart to the god, and it -was agreed that whosoever set foot on it should be sacrificed. Usually -this was a stranger, unaware of the sacredness of the ground he -trod. He was seized and hung to Woden. We cannot say for certain that -this is the origin of the gallows-traps, but it is the most probable -explanation of their origin, and of the superstitious dread of them -still existing among the people. - -In France and Germany the wheel was used as the instrument of death -as frequently as the gallows; those executed on the wheel were set -upon poles, the wheel horizontal, and their broken limbs intertwined -among the spokes. Originally they were thus put to death as oblations -to the sun-god, whose symbol was the wheel. Little by little the idea -of sacrifice in these executions disappeared. When Germans, Franks, -and Anglo-Saxons became Christian, human sacrifices ceased as a matter -of course, but as it was still necessary to put malefactors to death, -the same kind of death was adjudged to them as before Christianity was -professed. The gradual process whereby human sacrifices were changed -in the classic world is well known to us. At first every victim was a -freewill offering, and even a beast was obliged to appear so. To make -the ox seem to consent to its despatch, drops of oil or water were put -into its ears, that it might nod and shake its head. Prisoners taken in -war, then criminals, were substituted for persons voluntarily devoting -themselves to death to the honour of the gods. When it came to the -execution of criminals, the idea of sacrifice readily evaporated. - -One remarkable fact remains to be noticed. In all religions the -sacrifice becomes identified with the god to whom it is offered, and -partakes of his powers. - -Whether this be a mere confusion of ideas, or whether there is some -logical process at the bottom, we will not stop to consider, but it -remains a fact everywhere. The victim is always thought to become -invested with some of the attributes of the god. - -Now a whole series of superstitions exists connected with men hung; -and an executioner till of late years derived a small revenue from the -sale of the cord, or other articles connected with the criminal who had -been hung, and these relics were preserved, not out of a morbid love -of horrors, but out of a real belief that they were beneficial, that -they brought with them protection against accidents and ailments. I -remember, not ten years ago, being shown by a woman, by no means in the -lowest walks of life, a small object in a frame. This she said was a -bit of the skin of a certain famous murderer, for which she had given a -guinea. - -“And what on earth makes you preserve it?” I inquired. - -“Oh!” replied the woman, “the house will never catch fire so long as -that is in it.” - -The mutilation of bodies hung in chains was of frequent occurrence in -former times, on account of like beliefs. The hands and feet and hair -of the dead were cut off. The former were constantly taken by thieves -and burglars, who believed that the hand of the man hung would enable -him to open any lock, and enter any house with immunity. - -The plunder of the gallows was sought in the first days of Christianity -in England by those who were still Pagans at heart, and desired to put -themselves under the protection of the old gallows god, Woden, but the -original meaning of this robbery of the dead soon faded away, and the -practice remained without explanation. - -Our word gallows is compound. The old word is _galz_, and gallows means -the _low_ or mound of the gibbet, and we speak of the gallow-tree, or -the wood on the gibbet hill. When we remember that the gallows on which -Odin hung is called Ogre’s horse, it is interesting to note a popular -riddle asked children in Yorkshire. “What is the horse that is ridden -that never was foaled, and rid with a bridle that never had bit?” The -answer is--The Gallows. A German name for it is the raven’s stone, not -only, perhaps, because ravens come to it, but because the raven was the -sacred bird of Odin. - -Now let us turn to the wheel. - -On the Continent, in Germany and in France, breaking on the wheel was a -customary mode of execution. The victim was stretched on the wheel, and -with a bar of iron his limbs were broken, and then a blow was dealt him -across the breast. After that the wheel was set up on a tall pole, with -the dead man on it, and left to become the prey to the ravens. - -This was a survival of human sacrifices to the sun-god, as hanging is a -survival of human sacrifices to the wind-god. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 40._--THE SUN-GOD, AFTER GAIDOZ.] - -With regard to the solar-wheel, a great deal of very interesting -information has been collected by M. Gaidoz.[40] He points out that in -the museums of France there are a good many monuments that represent -the sun-wheel along with the thunderbolt as the symbol of Jupiter, that -is to say, the old Gaulish solar-god identified with the Roman deity, -Jupiter. Gaulish warriors wore a wheel on their helmets--a wheel was a -favourite symbol as a personal ornament, or perhaps as an amulet. The -wheel-window in a Gothic minster derives from the solar-wheel. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 41._--ALTAR TO THE SOLAR-GOD, NIMES.] - -When Constantine led his legions against Maxentius, he professed to -have seen a sign in the heavens, and he believed it to be a token of -Christ’s assistance. What he really saw was a mock-sun. He adopted and -adapted the sign for his standards, and the _Labarum_ of Constantine -became a common Christian symbol. That there was policy in his conduct -we can hardly doubt; the symbol he set up gratified the Christians in -his army on one side, and the Gauls on the other. To the former it -was a sign compounded of the initial letters of Christ, to the latter -it was the token of the favour of their solar deity. An addition -Constantine certainly made to the six-rayed wheel, but it was not one -that materially affected its character. - -Among the Sclavonic races in like manner the sun was worshipped, and -worshipped with symbols precisely the same. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 42._--THE LABARUM.] - -The solar god of the Sclaves was Swanto Wit or Swato Wit, _i.e._, Holy -Light. The sun was the chief god of the Sclaves, and as the cock crows -before sunrise and announces the coming day, the cock was regarded -as sacred to the god, and sacrificed to it. The worship of this god -consisted in circular dances, called _kolos_, and the dance was taken -to represent the revolution of the planets, the constellations, the -seasons about the sun. An old writer says of the dances of Swanto -Wit that they were celebrated annually on the feast of St. John the -Baptist, that is, on Midsummer Day. “Benches are placed in a circle, -and these are leaped over by those who take part in the rite. No -one is allowed to be present dressed in red. The entire month that -precedes St. John’s Day, the votaries are in an excited condition, and -in carrying on their dances they fall a prey to nervous terrors.”[41] -Another writer tells us that they swung about a fiery wheel in their -dances, a symbol of the solar disc.[42] - -In the Bavarian highlands, where the mountain names are many of them of -Sclavonic origin, and testify to a Sclavonic race having occupied the -Alps, this is still customary. The midsummer dances, and the whirling -of fiery wheels, are still in vogue. It is the same elsewhere. A writer -on the customs of the Sclaves says: “They give each other a hand, and -form a circle, whence the name of the dance, kolo = a circle, or wheel. -They take three quick steps or leaps to the left, then a slow stride to -the right; but when men alone dance it, after the three quick steps, -they stand, and kick with the right leg into the middle of the circle. -When the dance is accompanied by singing, one portion of the circle -sings one strophe, and the other repeats it. The Sclave dance is most -wild; and the same is found among the Carinthians and the Croats.”[43] -In Dalmatia and Croatia, on St. Vitus’ Day the peasants dance, holding -burning pieces of fragrant wood in their hands. - -In the reign of Pepin, the father of Charlemagne, the Abbot Fulrad -obtained the relics of St. Vitus, a boy-martyr, from Rome, and conveyed -them to St. Denis. When the Abbey of New Corbey was founded in Saxony, -Warin, the abbot, wrote to Hilduin of St. Denis, to entreat the gift of -these relics for his church. Accordingly, in 836, they were conveyed to -their new resting-place in Saxony. In 879, the monks of Corbey started -on a mission to the Sclaves in Rügen and Pomerania, carrying with -them a portion of the relics of St. Vitus. They erected a chapel in -Rügen, which they dedicated to the saint. The attempt failed; and when, -later, the Rugians were converted, the missionaries supposed that -the Swanto Wit, whom they found them worshipping, was this very St. -Vitus, in Sclave Swante Vit, whose relics had been laid in Rügen. When, -in 1124, Otto, Bishop of Bamberg, laboured for the conversion of the -Pomeranians, he took with him a figure of a cock and a silver arm that -contained bones of St. Vitus. The Pomeranians reverenced the cock as a -sacred being, and when Otto appeared before them, holding up the cock -and the silver arm, they prostrated themselves to the cock, and he was -gratified at having thus inveigled them into doing honour to the relics -of St. Vitus. - -Saint Wenceslas, Prince of Bohemia, in 930 destroyed the temple of -Swanto Wit at Prague, and erected on its site a church to Swante Vit, -_i.e._, St. Vitus. - -When Ancona was besieged by the Christian host under Waldemar I., a -prophecy circulated that the city would fall into their hands on St. -Vitus’ Day. So it did, and Waldemar at once destroyed the temple of -Swanto Wit in the city, and on its ruins erected a church to Swante Vit. - -Thus it came to pass that in Sclavonic lands the _cultus_ of St. Vitus -usurped the worship of the sun-god. But to return to the dances. As we -have seen, the solar dances held in honour of Swanto Wit were held an -entire month. St. Vitus’ Day falls on June 15th, very near to Midsummer -Day, and as these dances continued in Christian times, and St. Vitus -had taken the place of the sun-god, they acquired his name; they were -called the dances of St. Vitus. - -In 1370 an epidemic of chorœa broke out in Germany, especially along -the valley of the Rhine. Young people of both sexes were the victims; -they danced, jerked, and fell into hysterical convulsions. Those who -saw them were affected in like manner. The phenomenon so much resembled -the annual St. Vitus’ dances that the disorder thenceforth took as its -special designation, “St. Vitus’ Dance.” - -Dancing in a circle was a piece of sacred ritual in honour of the -revolving wheel of the sun. In the Bavarian highlands at Midsummer a -fiery wheel is waved and rolled down the mountain sides. The same sort -of rite was anciently observed at the same time in England. A monk -of Winchelscombe, in the reign of Henry VI., gives an account of the -popular festivals in his time. He speaks of three sorts of amusements -that take place on the vigil of St. John the Baptist. One of these is -the whirling of a cart wheel. Another writer of the following century, -in his poem, “Regnum papisticum,” gives further details. He says that -the country people take an old wheel, surround it with straw, so as -completely to cover it, and carry it to a height. At nightfall they set -it on fire and roll it down; a monstrous sight, he adds, and one would -believe that the sun was rolling down out of heaven. - -Exactly the same usage is, or was, common in Belgium. In a charter, by -which the Abbess of Epinal ceded a wood to the magistrates of that town -in 1505, she made provision that every year, as an acknowledgment, they -should furnish “The Wheel of Fortune, and the straw wherewith to cover -it.” - -Pages might be crowded with illustrations. I must refer the curious -to the treatise of M. Gaidoz. Sufficient evidence has been collected -that the wheel was the sacred symbol of the sun among the Gauls, the -Teutons, and the Sclaves. We can, therefore, see how that an execution -on the wheel was in its original conception a sacrifice to the sun. - -Long after this was forgotten the wheel remained, as has the gallows -with us, as the instrument for the execution of criminals. In Germany, -even in cases of decapitation, the person executed was placed on a -wheel and his head on a pole, when separated from the body. The last -instances of breaking on the wheel were in the first forty years of -this century. The fact of the use of the wheel as a means of execution -continuing so many hundreds of years after the worship of the sun-god -had ceased, and of the gallows with us, for the same purpose, is a very -curious and instructive illustration of the persistence of customs of -which the original significance is absolutely lost. - - - - -XII. - -Holes. - - -In the village churchyard where as a boy I often played, is a tomb, -built up to the height of about five feet, with a slate slab let into -the south face, on which is an inscription. In this slab is a hole, -and it used to be said among the village boys that any one who looked -in through this hole and knocked at the slate would see the dead -man within open his eyes. Often have I and my brother peeped in and -knocked, but the experiment failed, because, when the eye was applied -to the hole, it excluded external light. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 43._--HOLED TOMBSTONE, BURGHEAD. - -(_From Mitchell’s “The Past and the Present.”_)] - -The monument is still where it was, and is in the same condition. -Whether boys still knock and look in I do not know.[44] - -Curiously enough, a somewhat similar practice exists at Burghead, about -nine miles from Elgin, which is described by Professor Mitchell in -his “Rhind Lectures,” 1880. He says: “There is a memorial slab built -into the wall of the burial-ground, called the Chapel Yard, at the -south-east corner; it is 35 inches high by 20 inches wide; close above -it, and also built into the wall, there is a hewn lintel-like stone, -37 inches long by 1½ inches thick. On the narrow exposed face of this -stone there is no sculpturing. - -“The woodcut shows the position on the cradle stone (as it is called) -of a cup-like hollow, which is quite round 2¼ inches in depth. This -hollow has been produced by the children of Burghead, who are in the -habit of striking the spot with a beachstone (which is also represented -in the woodcut), and then quickly putting their ears to the place, -when the sound of a rocking cradle and the crying of a child are said -to be heard, as if coming from a cavern deep under ground. I am told -that during last century the stone was not visited by children, but by -women, who believed that they were to become mothers if they heard the -rocking of the cradle and the crying of the child after tapping on the -stone.” - -What is certainly a curious coincidence is that the pre-historic rude -stone ossuaries, dolmens or cromlechs, have very frequently in like -manner a hole worked in them. - -Trevethy cromlech, in the parish of St. Cleer, Cornwall, has a hole -perforating the capstone. The Maison des Fées at Grammont, in Hérault, -has a hole bored through the head or western supporter. Another, -now destroyed, was at Cahaignes, in Normandy. The covered avenue of -Conflans now transferred to the fosse of the Musée, St. Germain, has -not only the round hole bored in one upright, but also the stone that -closed this opening.[45] - -Holes in like manner have been bored in the cromlechs of Avening and -Rodmarton. Those in Circassia, in Palestine, and in India, have also -holes. Colonel Meadows Taylor found that 1,100 dolmens out of 2,219 in -the Dekhan had these holes in them. Similar holes have been observed in -the dolmens of Sardinia. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 44._--DOLMEN WITH HOLE AND PLUG, IN THE CAUCASUS -(_after Cartailhac_).] - -[Illustration: _Fig. 45._--DOLMEN IN THE CRIMEA, WITH HOLE IN THE SIDE -(_after Cartailhac._)] - -In a majority of cases these holes will not serve the purpose of giving -admission to the interior of the monument, though in some large enough. -These megalithic structures were ossuaries; often, no doubt, the dead -was laid in one as he had died; but in a great many cases, always where -the dead had fallen in battle at a distance from the family mausoleum, -his bones were cleaned of flesh and sinew before being brought to it. -The bones bear marks of the scraper that cleared them of flesh, and -they are not put together in correct position. In like manner the -Landgrave Ludwig, husband of St. Elizabeth, died at Otranto, in 1227; -his body was boiled to get the flesh off the bones, and then the bones -alone were conveyed to Germany, to be interred at Eisenach. - -It has often been noticed that along with ordinary interments in -barrows, incineration has been practised. This was probably another -means of transporting the remains of those who had died at a distance -from the family or clan burial mound. - -The holes in the dolmens[46] are in many cases too small to allow of -anyone crawling through to carry within the remains of the last member -of the family, who had succumbed and was to be placed in the dolmen. -Some other explanation must be sought. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 46._--THE INNER INCOMPLETE CIRCLE, STONEHENGE, -_restored_.] - -Now, it is remarkable that the circles of upright stones that enclose -cairns and stone graves or kistvaens are rarely complete. They have -been purposely made imperfect circles, with a gap or a stop in the -circle; and we may ask whether the interruption in the circle has some -meaning analogous to that of the hole in the stone chest. - -Mr. Greenwell, in his “British Barrows,” says:--“The incompleteness of -these circles is so frequent a feature in their construction that it -cannot be accidental. They have, moreover, been left incomplete in some -cases in a way which most evidently shows a design in the operation; -as, for instance, where the circle is formed of a number of stones -standing apart from each other. The space between two of them has -frequently been carefully built up with one large or several smaller -stones. The effect of this is to break the continuity, or rather the -uniformity, of the circle, and so to make it imperfect. This very -remarkable feature in connection with the enclosing circles is also -found to occur in the case of other remains which belong to the same -period and people as the barrows. The sculptured markings engraved -upon rocks, and also upon stones forming the covers of urns or cists, -consist in the main of two types, cup-shaped hollows, and circles, more -or less in number, surrounding in most cases a central cup. In almost -every instance the circle is imperfect, its continuity being sometimes -broken by a duct leading out from the central cup; at other times by -the hollowed line of the circle stopping short when about to join at -each end. The connection of these sculptured stones, if so they may -be termed, with places of sepulture, brings them at once into close -relationship with the enclosing circles of barrows, and it is scarcely -possible to imagine but that the same idea, whatever that may have -been, is signified by the incomplete circle in both cases.”[47] - -[Illustration: _Fig. 47._--CINERARY URN WITH HOLES IN THE SIDE, FROM -SALISBURY PLAIN.] - -The great inner ring of trilithons at Stonehenge affects the horse-shoe -shape, and is, and always was, incomplete. The outer ring of trilithons -is too ruinous for us to be able to state what its original condition -was. - -The horse-shoe, the incomplete ring, is still regarded as lucky, and a -protection against witches. The enchanter who raised spirits was wont -to draw a complete circle around him, and the demons raged outside this -circle, but could not pass within and hurt him who had conjured them -up. If he stepped outside the circle, or broke the continuity of the -ring, then the spirits entered and tore him to pieces. - -This probably gives us a clue to the signification of the incomplete -circle. The complete circle confines a spirit within it, or protects -from the entrance of spirits; an interrupted circle allows spirits to -pass to and fro, gives ingress and egress. - -The tomb is the house of the dead. He lives in it after some -mysterious, not clearly defined fashion. And as a bee-hive hut had its -door, so must the hut of the dead have its door. It would be a cruelty -to the dead to imprison him; and if the circle be complete, the dolmen -closed in on all sides, he could not come in and out at pleasure. - -Precisely what the door is to the house, that the mouth is to man; it -is the door by which the spirit comes into and goes out of man. With -his first inspiration he becomes a living soul; with his last breath he -expires--gives up his soul. - -The story is well known of the two shepherds who sat together one -summer’s day. One fell asleep, and whilst he slept the other saw a -bee issue from his lips and creep over a blade of grass that crossed -a tiny trickle of water, then fly away among flowers. After an hour -the bee returned again in the same way, and re-entered the sleeping -man’s mouth. Thereupon he awoke, and told his friend that in dream he -had crossed a magnificent bridge over a great river, and had visited -Paradise. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 48._--CRANIAL DISC, WITH HOLE FOR SUSPENSION.] - -[Illustration: _Fig. 49._--CRANIAL DISC, WITH TWO HOLES FOR SUSPENSION.] - -In the Caucasus, among the Abazas, when a boy dies he is put into a -wooden coffin _with a hole in it_, and hung up in a tree. Bees are -supposed to fly in and out at the hole, and these are taken, no doubt, -to be souls visiting the boy, and the soul of the boy going in and out -along with them. - -I remember some years ago when a person was dying and seemed to find -great difficulty in the parting of soul from body, that the nurse went -to the window and opened it, whereupon the dying person heaved a sigh, -and the spirit took its flight. On asking the reason of this opening of -the window, the nurse answered, “You would not have the soul go up the -chimney, would you?” - -Mr. Rudyard Kipling, in his poem “The Gift of the Sea,” refers to this -belief:-- - - “The widow ... - Opened the door on the bitter shore - To let the soul go free.” - -Again, it has often been noticed that holes have been knocked or bored -in funeral urns containing incinerated bones. These have been made -purposely, and must have had some signification. I have not myself -examined such urns on the spot where discovered; but I have little -hesitation in surmising that only such urns have been perforated as -have had their mouths covered with another vessel inverted, or with a -flat stone, and that the object of this perforation has been to make a -door of ingress or egress for the spirit of the dead; that, in fact, -it had the same purpose as the hole in the dolmen and the rupture of -continuity in the circle. - -Of a number of the smaller sized urns or vessels found in the barrows -of Salisbury Plain, “a very large proportion are pierced on one side -with two holes, from half an inch to two inches apart. There are -exceptions with a large number of holes, but the rule is to have two -holes on one side only,” says Mr. Long, in his “Stonehenge and its -Barrows.” He proceeds to discuss their signification. The holes could -not have existed for suspension, and he adopts Sir C. Colt Hoare’s -supposition that the perforated urns were incense vessels. But calcined -bones have been found in some, and others probably served as caps to -the cinerary urns. Almost certainly the people of the barrows knew -nothing of incense, and the probability is that these two holes were -bored as doors of egress and ingress for the spirit that still tenanted -the bones. - -Count d’Alviella says in his Hibbert Lectures for 1891, “Numbers of -savage peoples suppose that the soul continues to inhabit the body -after death, though from time to time it makes excursions into the -world of the living. It therefore requires a hole if it is to escape -from the enclosure. For this reason it is that, at the death of a -relative, the Hottentots, the Samoyeds, the Siamese, the Fijians, -and the Redskins, make a hole in the hut to allow the passage of -the deceased, but close it again immediately afterwards to prevent -its coming back. The Iroquois make a small hole in every tomb, and -expressly declare that it is to enable the soul to go out and come in -at its pleasure.” - -There was another usage of the men of the megalithic monuments which -had, apparently, the same idea or conception of spirit as that which -induced them to make holes in their dolmens. - -In 1873, when the French Association for the Advancement of Science -met in Congress at Lyons, Dr. Prunières produced an elliptical disc of -skull which had been found by him inside a human skull that had been -trepanned, and which came from a dolmen in Lozère. The disc had been -cut out of a human skull by some sharp instrument at an incline. At -first sight it appeared probable that this piece came from the skull in -which it was discovered, but on close examination it was found that it -would not fit the hole trepanned in the skull. - -In the same dolmen Dr. Prunières found a second skull that had been -trepanned more than once. Attention was now drawn to this remarkable -phenomenon--and instances multiplied to prove that the men of the -polished stone age, the men who erected Stonehenge and Carnac, were -wont to cut holes in their heads. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 50._--SKULL THAT HAD BEEN TWICE TREPANNED FROM A -CAVE IN THE PETIT-MORIN.] - -Dr. Prunières especially took the matter up. He discovered in the -dolmens portions of skulls, circular or elliptical, that had been -pierced with holes for suspension, and had been polished by long -continued wear. In the Cave de l’Homme-Mort, in Lozère, he exhumed -a skull that had a surgical trepanned hole on the sagittal suture. -Finally, in the great ossuary of Beaumes Chaudes he discovered as -many as sixty cranial discs. Skulls began to turn up elsewhere that -had been trepanned, and all of the same epoch. They came from Sweden, -Denmark, Switzerland, Bohemia, Poland, Spain, Portugal, Algeria. It -was found also that trepanning skulls had been in practice among the -aborigines of America. In the Peabody Museum is a skull that has had -a hole cut out of it. A mound on the Devil’s River yielded another. -Other trepanned skulls were taken out of mounds near Lake Huron and -Grape Mound. A skull found in a barrow near the River Detroit had two -perforations in it. A sepulchre near Lima yielded a skull that had also -been surgically treated in the same fashion. Another came from the -basin of the Amazon. There is, however, a marked difference between the -American holed skulls and these of the neolithic men of Europe. The -American skulls have all been operated on after death, and are found -only in male skulls. They were, moreover, made by means of a stone -drill which was turned rapidly round. Only one circular perforation -in every respect similar to these found in Europe has been noticed in -America. We may, therefore, put aside the pre-historic trepannings of -America as not connected directly with the subject under consideration. -In Europe the majority of the cases show by evident tokens that the -operations were performed during life. Of these the greatest numbers of -every age and sex have been found in the dolmens of France. - -In the Casa da Moura, a dolmen in Portugal, was found a skull on which -the operation had been begun, but never completed. It had clearly been -worked with a flint scraper. The Baron de Baye found in one of the -paleolithic caves of Marne a head that had been twice trepanned. - -The great majority of cases of trepanned heads show that those operated -upon had lived for many years after the operation. Indeed, it cannot be -said that the practice of trepanning is as yet extinct. Dr. Boulongue, -in his work on Montenegro, gives a long account of this usage of the -natives of the Black Mountain; they have recourse to trepanning on the -smallest provocation, simply because they have headaches. He quotes -numerous instances of persons who have been trepanned seven and even -eight times, without this materially injuring their health. - -In the same manner the Kabyles of Algeria cut holes in their heads, -usually as a cure for epilepsy. - -The first example of pre-historic trepanning was discovered in -1685. Montfaucon mentions it, but misunderstood it; he supposed -that the man with the hole in his head had been wounded in battle, -but had recovered. A second example was observed in 1816, and -was also misinterpreted. A sepulchral cave had been opened at -Nogent-les-Vierges, which contained two hundred skeletons. One of the -skulls was found to be trepanned, and the edges of the wound showed -evidence of the efforts of Nature to repair the injury. This also was -supposed to be a case of wound in battle. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 51._--TREPANNED SKULL FROM NOGENT-LES-VIERGES -(_after Cartailhac, La France Préhistorique_).] - -It must, however, be observed that the men thus trepanned lived in the -stone age, and that no stone axe or sword could possibly gash away a -slice of skull; that, moreover, the edges of the holes show that they -have been laboriously worked through at an incline, the scraper held so -as to make the hole convex, widest at the outer surface, and narrowing -at the inner surface near the brain. - -The hole in the head of the man from the Cave of l’Homme-Mort is -peculiarly interesting, as it showed that he had been trepanned during -life, and that Nature had done her best to smoothe the rough edges. -Then, after death, a flint saw had been used, to further enlarge the -hole. The marks of the two operations are quite distinct. - -Now what, it may be asked, is the meaning of these holes cut in the -head? Various suggestions have been offered, but the most plausible is -this--that they were made in cases of epilepsy. - -“The art of trepanning,” says Dr. Broca, “was employed exclusively in -cases of spontaneous maladies. In all likelihood the operation took -place in accordance with certain ideas prevalent relative to nervous -complaints, such as epilepsy, idiotcy, convulsions, mental alienations, -etc. These affections, which science regards as natural, always struck -the imagination of the vulgar, and were attributed to divine or -demoniacal possession. Who can say whether trepanning for epilepsy--a -practice now almost abandoned, but which was formerly in usage, was not -adopted as a means of opening a door by which the demons possessing the -patient might be allowed to escape?”[48] - -We know how that even in medieval times, the evil spirit exorcised -out of a man is represented as a little figure issuing from his mouth. -The primitive medicine-men, supposing that the epileptic child was -possessed by a spirit, cut a hole in the head, and through this hole -conjured the spirit forth. Then the portion of the skull cut away -obtained a superstitious value, it had been in contact with a spirit, -and so was employed as an amulet. It is, however, quite possible that -these discs from the heads were worn by the wives or the mothers of -those from whom they were cut, out of sentiment. In some tombs, male -skulls have been found stuffed with small bones of children, and not -all from the same children; these skulls had been polished by friction, -and seem to have been worn hung round the neck, and to have served as -a sort of reticule or rather reliquary, in which the widow carried -portions of the various children she had borne, who had died, packed -away in their father’s skull. - -So much, then, for perforations in tombstones, interrupted continuity -in circles, and trepanned skulls. All have the same interpretation, the -opening of a means of egress for the spirit, and are precisely what the -open window means now in a case of death, they are to the dead man what -the door is in the house to the living man. - -There is another usage of a hole that has come down to us from primeval -man in a very modified form. I refer to the wedding-ring, a piece of -perforated metal through which the finger is thrust. The marriage ring -is a pledge of fidelity, but it must often have struck English people -that it is a very one-sided arrangement when the woman has to wear the -badge of being married, whereas the man wears none. The reason why the -man wears no ring is probably to be sought in custom followed from the -period when a man had as many wives as he liked, but the woman was -debarred from belonging to more than one man. - -The passing of the finger through a ring is probably a survival of -the practice of passing the entire body through a ring as a symbol of -covenant, of entering on new relations, a sort of regeneration into a -new family or fraternity. A great number of holed stones remain among -pre-historic monuments that were probably so used, for there remained -a reminiscence of such usage in tradition. Wherever megalithic remains -are found, there also these holed stones are found large enough for the -passage of a body; sometimes only of sufficient size for the hand to be -passed through. - -At Boleit in Cornwall in tolerably close juxtaposition is a circle -of 19 upright stones, 75 feet in diameter, “The Merry Maidens;” two -menhirs, “The Pipers,” respectively 15 feet and 13½ feet high; another -upright stone 11 feet high, 5 barrows, and 3 holed stones. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 52._--MENANTOL, MADRON.] - -At Tregaseal, in the same county, are four holed stones in a line, the -hole in each 3¼ to 3¾ inches in diameter. At St. Buryan, near a sacred -circle, is an upright slab with a hole in it 5¼ inches in diameter. -Another holed stone is at Trelew in St. Buryan, the hole 5 inches in -diameter. Another at St. Just, 6 inches in diameter. Another upright -stone 3 feet 3 inches high at Sancreed has in it a hole 3¼ inches -in diameter. But there are others far larger. The Tolven near Gweep -Constantine has in it a hole 1 foot 4½ inches in diameter, and the -Men-an-tol at Madron, which is near Lanyon Cromlech and Boskedrian -Circle, and is itself apparently one stone in a ruined circle, has in -it a hole measuring 1 foot 6 inches to 1 foot 9 inches in diameter. -St. Wilfred’s needle in the crypt of Ripon Minster is a hole bored in -the natural rock, and girls were wont to be passed through it to prove -their virtue. If they stuck in the eye of the needle they were held to -be dishonest. - -At Chagford in Devon again we find in connection a sacred circle, -avenues, and a tolmen, or holed stone 3 feet in diameter. So also on -Brimham Moor in Yorkshire; there within the memory of old men, holed -stones have been used for passing children through to remove disorders. -But the original purpose for which the tolmens were set up is almost -certainly to furnish a means for making a covenant, for taking an oath. -The woman was passed through the perforated stone before she married, -as an assurance to the bridegroom that she was a pure virgin. Those -entering on a covenant crawled through the hole one after another, in -pledge of their having no _arrière pensée_, that they took the pledge -to each other in full faith. There are several curious passages in the -Icelandic sagas that illustrate this custom. The Icelanders were a very -different race from the men who erected the megalithic monuments, but -their Scandinavian ancestors came on the traces of the neolithic men, -subdued them, and adopted many of their usages. In Iceland there are no -holed stones, but the principle of passing through a hole was followed, -and it assumed this curious form. A turf was cut so that it held in the -ground at both ends, then it was raised in the midst, and those who -entered on a covenant of brotherhood with each other crawled under the -turf. - -A ballad sung by the peasantry in the West of England relates how a gay -trooper loved a fair damsel, and married her in military fashion:-- - - “My sword it is a Damask blade, - I bend it in a bow. - No golden ring may here be got, - So pass thy white hand through.” - -Here the hoop of steel has taken the place of the holed stone. The -golden circlet has, however, become the usual substitute. - -We will now consider some holes of a different description, that are -not actual perforations. A custom very general in Roman Catholic -countries must have struck travellers: it is that of placing cups, -basins, or other concave vessels on graves. The purpose is that they -may be filled with holy water--or if not with that, then with the dew -of heaven. The friends, kindred, or charitable as they pass dip a -little brush in the basin and sprinkle the grave with the water. This -is a symbolic act, nothing more. It means that the visitor to the grave -wishes well to the dead, and offers a prayer for the refreshment of -the departed soul. That soul may be in purgatory, and he who sprinkles -the grave knows that no drops of water thrown on the mound can slake -the fire that tortures the soul, but he acts as though he thought that -the soul still tenanted the body, and could be refreshed by the water -thrown on his grave. I do not believe this usage to have received any -formal sanction; it is a survival of a much earlier usage that has been -given an altered signification. It is not a rational proceeding, but is -not one particle more irrational than our putting wreaths and crosses -of flowers on the graves of those we have loved. I remember a daughter -planting ferns of many sorts round her mother’s tomb, “because mother -was so very fond of ferns.” But those who thus act, when they consider, -know well enough that what lies underground is the decaying husk, and -that the soul, the true being, is elsewhere. Nevertheless, the mind, by -force of custom and natural tendency, persists in associating soul with -body after death, and the dead lady was given her ferns because they -continued to give her pleasure, whilst lying in her grave, precisely as -the Tartar chief is given his horse and his wives slain and laid about -him in his cairn. - -The original signification of the basin or cup on the tomb was that -of a vessel to contain the drink supplied to the dead. The dead man -continued to eat and drink in his cairn or dolmen, and the relatives -supplied him with what he required. - -In the British tumuli, hollows beside the dead are of common -occurrence. Mr. Greenwell says: “It is of frequent occurrence to find -holes, sunk below the natural surface, within the area of a barrow, -and not usually in close proximity to any interment, though in some -instances such has been found to be the case. Sometimes as many as four -or five have been met with in a single barrow. They are of various -sizes, and differ in shape, but they are generally circular, about 1½ -feet in diameter, and the same in depth. In the greater number of cases -they are filled with the ordinary materials of which the mound itself -is composed, and contain nothing besides; but at other times pieces of -animal, and much more rarely of human bones, charcoal, potsherds, and -burnt earth, and stone are found in them.... It has suggested itself -to me, that they may have been made as receptacles of food or of some -other perishable material, and that they answered the same purpose -as the vessels of pottery are supposed to have done, which are such -frequent accompaniments of a burial. Their not being usually placed in -close contact with the body is a fact not perhaps very consistent with -this explanation of their purpose, but I am unable to offer any one -more suggestion.” - -I differ from Mr. Greenwell in one point only--that these basins being -at a distance from the body may be inconsistent with the explanation he -proposes. On the contrary, I conceive that these cup-like hollows were -at the circumference of the original mound, and were often replenished -with food or drink. As the mound spread through the action of rain, or -as other interments were made in it, and it was enlarged, these basins -became buried. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 53._--DOLMEN AT LARAMIERE (LOT), WITH CUP HOLLOW -ON COVERER.] - -The parkin cakes baked in Yorkshire in November, the simnel or -soul-mass cakes of Lancashire, the _gauffres_ baked at All Souls-tide -in Belgium, are all reminiscences of the food prepared and offered to -the dead at All Souls, the great day of commemoration of the departed. -Not only did the living eat the cakes, but they were given as well -to the dead. In Belgium the idea still holds that the pancakes or -_gauffres_ avail the souls; but through a confusion of ideas, the -ignorant suppose that the living by eating them satisfy the dead, and -as these pancakes are very indigestible, it is customary to hire robust -men to gorge themselves on _gauffres_ so as to content the departed -ones with a good meal. A has a dear deceased relative B. In order that -B may be well supplied with pancake, A ought to eat a plentiful supply; -but A shrinks from an attack of indigestion, which a surfeit would -bring on, so he hires C to glut himself on _gauffres_ in his room. - -The Flemish name for these cakes are “zielen brood” or soul-bread. “At -Dixmude and its neighbourhood it is said that for every cake eaten a -soul is delivered from purgatory. At Furnes the same belief attaches -to the little loaves called ‘radetjes,’ baked in every house. At Ypres -the children beg in the street on the eve of All Souls for some sous -wherewith ‘to make cakes for the little souls in purgatory.’ At Antwerp -these soul-cakes are stained yellow with saffron, to represent the -flames of purgatory.”[49] In the North of England all idea as to the -connection between these cakes and the dead is lost, but the cakes are -still made. This custom is a transformation under Christian influence -of the still earlier usage of putting food on the graves. When food and -drink were furnished to the dead, then necessarily the dead must have -their mugs and platters for the reception of their food, and the basins -scooped in the soil of a barrow in all likelihood served this purpose. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 54._--CUP-MARKINGS, CROMLECH, S. KEVERN.] - -In like manner there are basins cut on some of the dolmens, and other -depressions that were natural were employed for the same purpose. -On the coverer of a dolmen close to the railway at Assier, in the -Department of Lot, is such a rock basin, natural perhaps, but if -natural, then utilised for the purpose of a food or drink vessel for -the dead. Another dolmen in the same department, at Laramière, has one -distinctly cut by art at the eastern extremity of the covering stone. -Inside dolmens and covered avenues stones have been found with cup-like -hollows scooped out in them. These served the same purpose, and were in -such monuments as were accessible in the interior, as, for instance, -those stone basins found in the stone-vaulted tombs on the banks of the -Boyne, near Drogheda, with their singular inscribed circles. Whereas -such dolmens as could not be entered had the food or drink basins -outside them. - -“The Three Brothers of Grugith,” a cromlech or dolmen at S. Kévern, -in Cornwall, has eight cup-like hollows on the coverer and one in one -of the uprights. They vary from 4 to 6 inches in diameter and are 1½ -inches deep. - -The cup-like holes found so frequently in connection with palæolithic -monuments may probably be explained in this way. Originally intended -as actual food receptacles or cups for drink, they came in time to be -employed as a mere form, and no particular care was taken as to the -position they occupied. Thus, very often an upright stone has these -cup-marks on it; sometimes they are on the under surface of a covering -stone. They belong to the period of the rude stone monuments. With the -advent of bronze they gradually disappear. They are not found always -associated with interments, though generally so, and it is probable -that the stones bearing them which do not at present seem to be -intended to mark the place of an interment may have done so originally. - -We know that in a great number of cases a mere symbol was taken to -serve the purpose of something of actual, material use. Thus, the -Chinese draw little coats and hats on paper and burn them, and suppose -that by this means they are transmitting actual coats and hats to -their ancestors in the world of spirits. In Rome, at certain periods, -statuettes were thrown into the Tiber: these were substitutes for the -human sacrifices formerly offered to the river. Probably the custom -of giving food and drink to the dead gradually died out among the -palæolithic men, but that of making the cups for the reception of the -gifts remained, and as their purpose was forgotten, the stones graven -with the hollows were set up anyhow. - -The question has been often raised whether the rock-basins found on -granite heights are of artificial origin. It is perhaps too hastily -concluded that they are produced by water and gravel rotating in the -wind. No doubt a good many have this origin; but I hardly think that -all are natural, and it is probable that some have been begun by art -and then enlarged by nature, and also that natural basins may have been -used by the palæolithic men as drink or food vessels for the gods or -spirits in the wind. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 55._--MENHIR, LEW TRENCHARD.] - -About twelve years ago I dug up a _menhir_ that had lain for certainly -three centuries under ground, and had served on one side as a wall -for the “leat” or conduit of water to the manorial mill. There was no -mistaking the character of the stone. It was of fine grained granite, -and had been brought from a distance of some eight miles. It was -unshaped at the base, and marked exactly how much of it had been sunk -in the ground. It stood when re-erected 10 feet 10 inches above the -surface. The singular feature in it is this. At the summit, which -measures 15 inches by 12 inches, is a small cup 3 inches deep sunk in -the stone, 4½ inches in diameter, and distinctly artificial. Now, that -the monolith had been standing upright for a vast number of years, was -shown by this fact, that the rain water, accumulating in the artificial -cup, driven by the prevailing S.W. wind, had worn for itself a lip, -and in its flow had cut itself a channel down the side of the stone -opposite to the direction of the wind to the distance of 1 foot 6 -inches. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 56._--THE CUP ON THE TOP.] - -[Illustration: _Fig. 57._--SECTION OF THE CUP.] - -What can this cup have been intended for? It is probable that it was -a receptacle for rain water, which was to serve for the drink of the -dead man above whom the monolith was erected. The Rev. W. C. Lukis, one -of the highest authorities on such matters, was with me at the time -of the re-erection of this monolith, and it then occurred to him that -the holes at the top of so many of the Brittany menhirs, in which now -crosses are planted, were not made for the reception of the bases of -these crosses, but already existed in the menhirs, and were utilised in -Christian times for the erection therein of crosses which sanctified -the old heathen monuments. Some upright stones have the cup-hollows -cut in their sides, so that nothing could rest in them; but I venture -to suggest that these may be symbolic cups, carved after their use, as -food and drink receptacles, had been abandoned. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 58._--THE FURROW DOWN THE SIDE.] - -Mr. Romilly Allen, in a paper on some sculptured rocks near Ilkley -in Yorkshire,[50] that have these cup-hollows, says, “The classes of -monuments on which they are found are as follows:-- - - 1. Natural rock surfaces. - - 2. Isolated boulders. - - 3. Near ancient British (?) fortified towns and camps. - - 4. In connection with the lake-dwellings, underground - houses, and Pictish towers. - - 5. On single standing stones. } - 6. On groups of standing stones. } - 7. On stone circles. } - 8. On cromlechs (dolmens). } Sepulchral - 9. In chambered cairns. } remains. - 10. On cist-covers. } - 11. On urn-covers. } - 12. On gravestones in Christian churchyards. } - - 13. On the walls of churches themselves. - -“From the fact of cup-markings being found in so many instances -directly associated with sepulchral remains, I think it may fairly be -inferred that they are connected in some way or other with funeral -rites, either as sacred emblems or for actual use in holding small -offerings or libations.” - -Mr. Romilly Allen is, I believe, quite right in his conjecture, which -is drawn from observation of the frequency with which these cup-hollows -are associated with sepulchral stones. But it must be remembered -that a libation is the last form assumed by the usage of giving a -drink to either the dead or to a god. The conception of a sacrifice -is comparatively modern, the primitive idea in connection with the -offering of a liquid is the giving of some acceptable draught to some -being who is in the spirit world. - -The fact, and it is a fact, that these cup-markings are found on -Christian tombstones, shows how the old habit continued to find -expression after the meaning which had originated it was completely -lost.[51] - -These singular cup-markings are found distributed over Denmark, Norway, -Scotland, Ireland, England, France, Switzerland. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 59._--CUP-MARKINGS IN STONE AT CORRIEMONY. (_From -Mitchell’s “The Past and the Present._”)] - -All cup-hollows cannot indeed be explained as drink vessels for the -dead. Those, for instance, carved in the slate at a steep incline of -the cliffs near New Quay in Cornwall, and others in the perpendicular -face of the rock also in the same place cannot be so interpreted, -but their character is not that altogether of the cup-markings found -elsewhere. The hollows are often numerous, and are irregularly -distributed. Sometimes they have a channel surrounding a group. That -they had some well-understood meaning to the people of the neolithic -age who graved them in the rock cannot be doubted. It is said that in -places grease and oil are still put into them by the ignorant peasantry -as oblation; and this leads to the conclusion that, when first graven, -they were intended as receptacles for offerings. - -One day, in a graveyard in the west of England, I came on an old -stone basin, locally termed a “Lord’s measure,” an ancient holy-water -vessel,[52] standing under the headstone, above a mound that covered -the dust of someone who had been dearly loved. The little basin was -full of water, and in the water were flowers. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 60._--A “LORD’S MEASURE,” CORNWALL.] - -As I stood musing over this grave, it was not wonderful that my mind -should travel back through vast ages, and follow man in his various -moods, influenced in his treatment of the dead by various doctrines -relative to the condition of the soul. - -Here was the cup for holy water, itself a possible descendant of the -food-vessel for the dead. And now it is used, not to furnish the dead -with drink and meat, but with flowers. And it seemed to me that man -was the same in all ages, through all civilisations, and that his acts -are governed much more by custom than by reason. Is it not quite as -irrational to put flowers on a grave as to put on it cake or ale? Does -the soul live in the green mound with the bones? Does it come out to -smell and admire the roses and lilies and picotees? The putting flowers -on the grave is a matter of sentiment. Quite so--and in a certain phase -of man’s growth in culture the food-vessel was cut in stone as a mere -matter of sentiment, even when no food was put in it. - -There are many of the customs of daily life which deserve to be -considered, and which are to us full of interest, or ought to be so, -for they tell us such a wondrous story. If I have in this little volume -given a few instances, it is with the object of directing attention -to the survivals of usage which had its origin in ideas long ago -abandoned, and to show how much there is still to be learned from that -proper study of mankind--Man. - -Archæology is considered a dry pursuit, but it ceases to be dry when -we find that it does not belong solely to what is dead and passed, but -that it furnishes us with the interpretation of much that is still -living and is not understood. - - - - -XIII. - -Raising the Hat. - - -It is really remarkable how many customs are allowed to pass without -the idea occurring as to what is their meaning. There is, for instance, -no more common usage of everyday life than that of salutation by -raising the hat, or touching the cap, and yet, not one person in ten -thousand stops to inquire what it all means--why this little action of -the hand should be accepted as a token of respect. - -Raising the hat is an intermediate form; the putting up the finger to -the cap is the curtailed idea of the primitive act of homage, reduced -to its most meagre expression. - -There is an amusing passage in Sir Francis Head’s “Bubbles from the -Brunnen of Nassau” on hat-lifting: - -“At nearly a league from Langen-Schwalbach, I walked up to a little -boy who was flying a kite on the top of a hill, in the middle of a -field of oat-stubble. I said not a word to the child--scarcely looked -at him; but as soon as I got close to him, the little village clod, -who had never breathed anything thicker than his own mountain air, -actually almost lost string, kite, and all, in an effort, quite -irresistible, which he made to bow to me, and take off his hat. Again, -in the middle of the forest, I saw the other day three labouring boys -laughing together, each of their mouths being, if possible, wider open -than the others; however, as they separated, off went their caps, and -they really took leave of each other in the very same sort of manner -with which I yesterday saw the Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg return a bow -to a common postillion.” Then Sir Francis Head goes on to moralise on -courtesy, but never for a moment glances at the very curious question, -“What is the meaning of this act? What was the original signification -of this which is now a piece of formal expression of mutual respect?” - -The raising the hat is in act similar to the subscription to a letter, -“your humble servant,” the recognition of being in subjection to the -person saluted. - -To wear a hat, a covering to the head, was a symbol of authority and -power. The crown is merely the head-cover originally worn by the -sovereign alone. Afterwards to cover the head signified the possession -of freedom, and the slave was bare-headed. When, among the Romans, a -slave was manumitted, that slave, as badge of his being thenceforth -a free man, assumed the Phrygian cap. On numerous monuments, Roman -masters exhibited their munificence to their slaves by engraving caps -of liberty, each cap signifying a slave who had been set free. - -This is the meaning of the Cap of Liberty. On the murder of Caligula, -the mob hoisted Phrygian caps on poles, and ran about with them -shouting that they were no longer slaves. The death of the tyrant -released them from a servile position. - -In mediæval Germany, the giving of a hat was a symbolic act, conveying -with it feudal tenure. He who received the hat put his hand into it, -as a sign that he grasped all those rights which sprang out of the -authority conveyed to him by the presentation of the hat. The Pope, -when creating a Cardinal, sends him a scarlet hat. The wearing the hat -was allowed only to nobles and freemen--no serf might assume one. Among -the Goths, the priests as well as the nobles wore the head covered. - -When Gessler set a hat on a pole, it was a token that he was exercising -sovereign authority. The elevation of a hat on a pole was also a -summons of vassals to war, like the raising of a royal standard. In a -French Court of Justice, the judges alone wear their heads covered, -in token that they are in exercise of authority there. So in our own -universities, the tutor or lecturer wears his square cap. So in the -cathedral, a bishop was wont to have his head covered with the mitre; -and in a parish church, the pastor wore a biretta. We take off our hats -when entering church to testify our homage and allegiance to God; and -so in old Catholic ritual, the priest and bishop removed their headgear -at times, in token that they received their offices from God. - -It roused the Romans to anger because the fillet of royalty was offered -to Julius Cæsar. This was the merest shred of symbol--yet it meant that -he alone had a right to wear a cover on his head; in other words, that -all save he were vassals and serfs. That presentation by Mark Antony -brought discontent to a head, and provoked the assassination of Cæsar. - -Odin, the chief god of Norse mythology, is called Hekluberand, the -Hood-bearer; he alone has his head covered. As god of the skies -this no doubt refers to the cloud-covering, but it implies also his -sovereignty. So Heckla is not only the covered mountain, but the king -or chief of the mountains of Iceland. - -We can now see exactly what is the meaning of doffing the cap. It -implies that the person uncovering his head acknowledges himself to be -the serf of the person before whom he uncovers, or at all events as his -feudal inferior. How completely this is forgotten may be judged in any -walk abroad we take--when we uncover to an ordinary acquaintance--or we -can see it in the Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg removing his hat to the -postillion. The curtsey, now almost abandoned, is the bowing of the -knee in worship; so is the ordinary bend of the body; even the nod of -the head is a symbolic recognition of inferiority in the social scale -to the person saluted. - -The head is the noblest part of man, and when he lifts his hat that -covers it, he implies, or rather did imply at one time, that his head -was at the disposal of the person to whom he showed this homage. - -There is a curious story in an Icelandic saga of the eleventh century -in illustration of this. A certain Thorstein the Fair had killed -Thorgils, son of an old bonder in Iceland, named also Thorstein, but -surnamed “The White,” who was blind. The rule in Iceland was--a life -for a life, unless the nearest relative of the fallen man chose to -accept blood-money. Five years after the death of Thorgils, Thorstein -the Fair came to Iceland and went at once to the house of his namesake, -White Thorstein, and offered to pay blood-money for the death of -Thorgils, as much as the old man thought just. “No,” answered the blind -bonder, “I will not bear my son in my purse.” Thereupon, Fair Thorstein -went to the old man and laid his head on his knees, in token that he -offered him his life. White Thorstein said, “I will not have your head -cut off at the neck. Moreover, it seems to me that the ears are best -where they grow. But this I adjudge--that you come here, into my house, -with all your possessions, and live with me in the place of my son whom -you slew.” And this Fair Thorstein did. - -At a period when no deeds were executed in parchment, symbolic acts -were gone through, which had the efficacy of a legal deed in the -present day. - -When Harald Haarfager undertook to subdue the petty kings of Norway, -one of these kings, Hrollaug, seeing that he had not the power to -withstand Harald, “went to the top of the mound on which the kings were -wont to sit, and he had his throne set up thereon and seated himself -upon it. Then he had a number of feather beds laid on a bench below, -on which the earls were wont to be seated, and he threw himself down -from the throne, and rolled on to the earls’ bench, thus giving himself -out to have taken on him the title and position of an earl.”[53] And -King Harald accepted this act as a formal renunciation of his royal -title. Every head covering was a badge of nobility, from the Crown to -the Cap of Maintenance, through all degrees of coronet. In 1215, Hugh, -Bishop of Liège, attended the synod in the Lateran, and first he took -his place on the bench wearing a mantle and tunic of scarlet, and a -green cap to show he was a count, then he assumed a cap with lappets -(?) _manicata_, to show he was a duke, and lastly put on his mitre and -other insignia as a bishop. When Pope Julius II. conferred on Henry -VIII. the title of “Defender of the Faith,” he sent him as symbols of -authority a sword and a cap of crimson velvet turned up with ermine. - -It is probable that originally to uncover the head signified that he -who bared his head acknowledged the power and authority of him whom he -saluted to deal with his head as he chose. Then it came to signify, in -the second place, recognition of feudal superiority. Lastly, it became -a simple act of courtesy shown to anyone. - -In the same way every man in France is now Monsieur, _i.e._, my feudal -lord; and every man in Germany Mein Herr; and every man in England -Mr., _i.e._, Master. The titles date from feudal times, and originally -implied feudal subjection. It does so no longer. So also the title of -Esquire implies a right to bear arms. The Squire in the parish was the -only man in it who had his shield and crest. The Laird in a Scottish -country place is the Lord, the man to whom all looked for their bread. -So words and usages change their meaning, and yet are retained by -habit, ages after their signification is lost. - - -THE END. - - - - - A LIST OF NEW BOOKS - AND ANNOUNCEMENTS OF - METHUEN AND COMPANY - PUBLISHERS: LONDON - 18 BURY STREET - W.C. - - -CONTENTS - - PAGE - - FORTHCOMING BOOKS, 2 - POETRY, 6 - HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY, 7 - GENERAL LITERATURE, 8 - WORKS BY S. 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By RUDYARD - KIPLING. _Fourth Edition. Crown_ 8_vo._ 6_s._ - - ‘Mr. Kipling’s verse is strong, vivid, full of character.... - Unmistakable genius rings in every line.’--_Times._ - - ‘The disreputable lingo of Cockayne is henceforth justified before - the world; for a man of genius has taken it in hand, and has - shown, beyond all cavilling, that in its way it also is a medium - for literature. You are grateful, and you say to yourself, half in - envy and half in admiration: “Here is a _book_; here, or one is a - Dutchman, is one of the books of the year.”’--_National Observer._ - - ‘“Barrack-Room Ballads” contains some of the best work that Mr. - Kipling has ever done, which is saying a good deal. “Fuzzy-Wuzzy,” - “Gunga Din,” and “Tommy,” are, in our opinion, altogether superior - to anything of the kind that English literature has hitherto - produced.’--_Athenæum._ - - ‘These ballads are as wonderful in their descriptive power as they - are vigorous in their dramatic force. There are few ballads in the - English language more stirring than “The Ballad of East and West,” - worthy to stand by the Border ballads of Scott.’--_Spectator._ - - ‘The ballads teem with imagination, they palpitate with emotion. We - read them with laughter and tears; the metres throb in our pulses, - the cunningly ordered words tingle with life; and if this be not - poetry, what is?’--_Pall Mall Gazette._ - - ~Ibsen.~ BRAND. A Drama by HENRIK IBSEN. Translated by WILLIAM WILSON. - _Crown_ 8_vo._ 5_s._ - - ‘The greatest world-poem of the nineteenth century next to “Faust.” - “Brand” will have an astonishing interest for Englishmen. It is in - the same set with “Agamemnon,” with “Lear,” with the literature - that we now instinctively regard as high and holy.’--_Daily - Chronicle._ - - ~Henley.~ LYRA HEROICA: An Anthology selected from the best English - Verse of the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries. 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With Portrait. _Crown_ 8_vo._ 5_s._ - - ~Langbridge.~ BALLADS OF THE BRAVE: Poems of Chivalry, Enterprise, - Courage, and Constancy, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. - Edited, with Notes, by Rev. F. LANGBRIDGE. _Crown_ 8_vo._ - - Presentation Edition, 3_s._ 6d. School Edition, 2_s._ 6_d._ - - ‘A very happy conception happily carried out. These “Ballads of the - Brave” are intended to suit the real tastes of boys, and will suit - the taste of the great majority.’--_Spectator._ - - ‘The book is full of splendid things.’--_World._ - - -History and Biography - - ~Gladstone.~ THE SPEECHES AND PUBLIC ADDRESSES OF THE RT. HON. W. E. - GLADSTONE, M.P. With Notes and Introductions. Edited by A. W. HUTTON, - M.A. (Librarian of the Gladstone Library), and H. J. COHEN, M.A. With - Portraits. 8_vo._ _Vol. X._ 12_s._ 6_d._ - - ~Russell.~ THE LIFE OF ADMIRAL LORD COLLINGWOOD. By W. 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V. ‘The - Poetry of Toil’ (Burns). VI. ‘The Divinity of Nature’ (Wordsworth). - - -Works by ~S. Baring Gould~. - -Author of ‘Mehalah,’ etc. - - OLD COUNTRY LIFE. With Sixty-seven Illustrations by W. PARKINSON, F. - D. BEDFORD, and F. MASEY. _Large Crown_ 8_vo_, _cloth super extra, top - edge gilt_, 10_s._ 6_d._ _Fourth and Cheaper Edition_. 6_s._ [_Ready._ - - ‘“Old Country Life,” as healthy wholesome reading, full of breezy - life and movement, full of quaint stories vigorously told, will not - be excelled by any book to be published throughout the year. Sound, - hearty, and English to the core.’--_World._ - - HISTORIC ODDITIES AND STRANGE EVENTS. _Third Edition, Crown_ 8_vo._ - 6_s._ - - ‘A collection of exciting and entertaining chapters. The whole - volume is delightful reading.’--_Times._ - - FREAKS OF FANATICISM. (First published as Historic Oddities, Second - Series.) _Third Edition. 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By ROWLAND GREY, Author of ‘Lindenblumen,’ - etc. _Crown 8vo. 5s._ - - ~Dicker.~ A CAVALIER’S LADYE. By CONSTANCE DICKER. _With - Illustrations. Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d._ - - ~Dickinson.~ A VICAR’S WIFE. By EVELYN DICKINSON. _Crown_ 8_vo._ 6_s._ - - ~Prowse.~ THE POISON OF ASPS. By R. ORTON PROWSE. _Crown_ 8_vo._ 6_s._ - - ~Taylor.~ THE KING’S FAVOURITE. By UNA TAYLOR. _Crown_ 8_vo._ 6_s._ - - -Novel Series - - 3/6 - - MESSRS. METHUEN will issue from time to time a Series of copyright - Novels, by well-known Authors, handsomely bound, at the above popular - price of three shillings and sixpence. The first volumes (ready) are:-- - - 1. THE PLAN OF CAMPAIGN. By F. MABEL ROBINSON. - - 2. JACQUETTA. By S. BARING GOULD, Author of ‘Mehalah,’ etc. - - 3. MY LAND OF BEULAH. By Mrs. LEITH ADAMS (Mrs. De Courcy Laffan). - - 4. ELI’S CHILDREN. By G. MANVILLE FENN. - - 5. ARMINELL: A Social Romance. By S. BARING GOULD, Author of - ‘Mehalah,’ etc. - - 6. DERRICK VAUGHAN, NOVELIST. With Portrait of Author. By EDNA LYALL, - Author of ‘Donovan,’ etc. - - 7. DISENCHANTMENT. By F. MABEL ROBINSON. - - 8. DISARMED. By M. BETHAM EDWARDS. - - 9. JACK’S FATHER. By W. E. NORRIS. - - 10. MARGERY OF QUETHER. By S. BARING GOULD. - - 11. A LOST ILLUSION. By LESLIE KEITH. - - 12. A MARRIAGE AT SEA. By W. CLARK RUSSELL. - - 13. MR. BUTLER’S WARD. By F. MABEL ROBINSON. - - 14. URITH. By S. BARING GOULD. - - 15. HOVENDEN, V.C. By F. MABEL ROBINSON. - -Other Volumes will be announced in due course. - - - - -NEW TWO-SHILLING EDITIONS - -_Crown 8vo, Ornamental Boards._ - - 2/- - - ARMINELL. By the Author of ‘Mehalah.’ - - ELI’S CHILDREN. By G. MANVILLE FENN. - - DISENCHANTMENT. By F. MABEL ROBINSON. - - THE PLAN OF CAMPAIGN. By F. MABEL ROBINSON. - - JACQUETTA. By the Author of ‘Mehalah.’ - - -_Picture Boards._ - - A DOUBLE KNOT. By G. MANVILLE FENN. - - THE QUIET MRS. FLEMING. By RICHARD PRYCE. - - JACK’S FATHER. By W. E. NORRIS. - - A LOST ILLUSION. By LESLIE KEITH. - - -Books for Boys and Girls - - ~Walford.~ A PINCH OF EXPERIENCE. By L. B. WALFORD, Author of ‘Mr. - Smith.’ With Illustrations by GORDON BROWNE. _Crown 8vo. 6s._ - - ‘The clever authoress steers clear of namby-pamby, and - invests her moral with a fresh and striking dress. There is - terseness and vivacity of style, and the illustrations are - admirable.’--_Anti-Jacobin._ - - ~Molesworth.~ THE RED GRANGE. By Mrs. MOLESWORTH, Author of ‘Carrots.’ - With Illustrations by GORDON BROWNE. _Crown 8vo. 6s._ - - ‘A volume in which girls will delight, and beautifully - illustrated.’--_Pall Mall Gazette._ - - ~Clark Russell.~ MASTER ROCKAFELLAR’S VOYAGE. By W. CLARK RUSSELL, - Author of ‘The Wreck of the Grosvenor,’ etc. Illustrated by GORDON - BROWNE. _Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d._ - - ‘Mr. Clark Russell’s story of “Master Rockafellar’s Voyage” will - be among the favourites of the Christmas books. There is a rattle - and “go” all through it, and its illustrations are charming in - themselves, and very much above the average in the way in which - they are produced.’--_Guardian._ - - ~Author of ‘Mdle. Mori.’~ THE SECRET OF MADAME DE MONLUC. By the - Author of ‘The Atelier du Lys,’ ‘Mdle. Mori.’ _Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d._ - - ‘An exquisite literary cameo.’--_World._ - - ~Manville Fenn.~ SYD BELTON: Or, The Boy who would not go to Sea. By - G. MANVILLE FENN, Author of ‘In the King’s Name,’ etc. Illustrated by - GORDON BROWNE. _Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d._ - - ‘Who among the young story-reading public will not rejoice at the - sight of the old combination, so often proved admirable--a story - by Manville Fenn, illustrated by Gordon Browne! The story, too, is - one of the good old sort, full of life and vigour, breeziness and - fun.’--_Journal of Education._ - - ~Parr.~ DUMPS. By Mrs. PARR, Author of ‘Adam and Eve,’ ‘Dorothy Fox,’ - etc. Illustrated by W. PARKINSON. _Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d._ - - ‘One of the prettiest stories which even this clever writer has - given the world for a long time.’--_World._ - - ~Meade.~ A GIRL OF THE PEOPLE. By L. T. MEADE, Author of ‘Scamp and - I,’ etc. Illustrated by R. BARNES. _Crown 8vo. 3s. 6d._ - - ‘An excellent story. Vivid portraiture of character, and broad and - wholesome lessons about life.’--_Spectator._ - - ‘One of Mrs. Meade’s most fascinating books.’--_Daily News._ - - ~Meade.~ HEPSY GIPSY. By L. T. MEADE. Illustrated by EVERARD HOPKINS. - _Crown 8vo, 2s. 6d._ - - ‘Mrs. Meade has not often done better work than this.’--_Spectator._ - - ~Meade.~ THE HONOURABLE MISS: A Tale of a Country Town. By L. T. - MEADE, Author of ‘Scamp and I,’ ‘A Girl of the People,’ etc. With - Illustrations by EVERARD HOPKINS. _Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d._ - - ~Adams.~ MY LAND OF BEULAH. By MRS. LEITH ADAMS. With a Frontispiece - by GORDON BROWNE. _Crown 8vo, 3s. 6d._ - - -English Leaders of Religion - - 2/6 - -Edited by A. M. M. STEDMAN, M.A. _With Portrait, crown 8vo, 2s. 6d._ - -A series of short biographies, free from party bias, of the most -prominent leaders of religious life and thought in this and the last -century. - -The following are already arranged-- - - CARDINAL NEWMAN. By R. H. HUTTON. - - [_Ready._ - - ‘Few who read this book will fail to be struck by the wonderful - insight it displays into the nature of the Cardinal’s genius and - the spirit of his life.’--WILFRID WARD, in the _Tablet_. - - ‘Full of knowledge, excellent in method, and intelligent in - criticism. We regard it as wholly admirable.’--_Academy._ - - JOHN WESLEY. By J. H. OVERTON, M.A. [_Ready._ - - ‘It is well done: the story is clearly told, proportion is duly - observed, and there is no lack either of discrimination or of - sympathy.’--_Manchester Guardian._ - - BISHOP WILBERFORCE. By G. W. DANIEL, M.A. [_Ready._ - - CHARLES SIMEON. By H. C. G. MOULE, M.A. [_Ready._ - - JOHN KEBLE. By W. LOCK, M.A. [_Nov._ - - F. D. MAURICE. By COLONEL F. MAURICE, R.E. - - THOMAS CHALMERS. By Mrs. OLIPHANT. - - CARDINAL MANNING. By A. W. HUTTON, M.A. [_Ready._ - - -Other volumes will be announced in due course. - - -University Extension Series - -A series of books on historical, literary, and scientific subjects, -suitable for extension students and home reading circles. Each volume -will be complete in itself, and the subjects will be treated by -competent writers in a broad and philosophic spirit. - - -Edited by J. E. SYMES, M.A., Principal of University College, -Nottingham. - -Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d. - - 2/6 - -The following volumes are ready:-- - - THE INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND. By H. DE B. GIBBINS, M.A., late - Scholar of Wadham College, Oxon., Cobden Prizeman. _Second Edition._ - With Maps and Plans. - - [_Ready._ - - ‘A compact and clear story of our industrial development. A study - of this concise but luminous book cannot fail to give the reader - a clear insight into the principal phenomena of our industrial - history. The editor and publishers are to be congratulated on this - first volume of their venture, and we shall look with expectant - interest for the succeeding volumes of the series.’--_University - Extension Journal._ - - A HISTORY OF ENGLISH POLITICAL ECONOMY. By L. L. PRICE, M.A., Fellow - of Oriel College, Oxon. - - PROBLEMS OF POVERTY: An Inquiry into the Industrial Conditions of the - Poor. By J. A. HOBSON, M.A. - - VICTORIAN POETS. By A. SHARP. - - THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. By J. E. SYMES, M.A. - - PSYCHOLOGY. By F. S. GRANGER, M.A., Lecturer in Philosophy at - University College, Nottingham. - - THE EVOLUTION OF PLANT LIFE: Lower Forms. By G. MASSEE, Kew Gardens. - With Illustrations. - - AIR AND WATER. Professor V. B. LEWES, M.A. Illustrated. - - THE CHEMISTRY OF LIFE AND HEALTH. By C. W. KIMMINS, M.A. Camb. - Illustrated. - - THE MECHANICS OF DAILY LIFE. By V. P. SELLS, M.A. Illustrated. - - ENGLISH SOCIAL REFORMERS. H. DE B. GIBBINS, M.A. - - ENGLISH TRADE AND FINANCE IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. By W. A. S. - HEWINS, B.A. - - -_The following volumes are in preparation_:-- - - NAPOLEON. By E. L. S. HORSBURGH, M.A. Camb., U. E. Lecturer in History. - - ENGLISH POLITICAL HISTORY. By T. J. LAWRENCE, M.A., late Fellow and - Tutor of Downing College, Cambridge, U. E. Lecturer in History. - - AN INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY. By J. SOLOMON, M.A. Oxon., late - Lecturer in Philosophy at University College, Nottingham. - - THE EARTH: An Introduction to Physiography. By E. W. SMALL, M.A. - - -Social Questions of To-day - -Edited by H. DE B. GIBBINS, M.A. - -_Crown 8vo, 2s. 6d._ - - 2/6 - -A series of volumes upon those topics of social, economic, and -industrial interest that are at the present moment foremost in the -public mind. Each volume of the series will be written by an author who -is an acknowledged authority upon the subject with which he deals. - - -_The following Volumes of the Series are ready_:-- - - TRADE UNIONISM--NEW AND OLD. By G. HOWELL, M.P., Author of ‘The - Conflicts of Capital and Labour.’ - - THE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT TO-DAY. By G. J. HOLYOAKE, Author of ‘The - History of Co-operation.’ - - MUTUAL THRIFT. By Rev. J. FROME WILKINSON, M.A., Author of ‘The - Friendly Society Movement.’ - - PROBLEMS OF POVERTY: An Inquiry into the Industrial Conditions of the - Poor. By J. A. HOBSON, M.A. - - THE COMMERCE OF NATIONS. By C. F. BASTABLE, M.A., Professor of - Economics at Trinity College, Dublin. - - THE ALIEN INVASION. By W. H. WILKINS, B.A., Secretary to the Society - for Preventing the Immigration of Destitute Aliens. - - THE RURAL EXODUS. By P. ANDERSON GRAHAM. - - LAND NATIONALIZATION. By HAROLD COX, B.A. - - A SHORTER WORKING DAY. By H. DE B. GIBBINS (Editor), and R. A. - HADFIELD, of the Hecla Works, Sheffield. - - -_The following Volumes are in preparation_:-- - - ENGLISH SOCIALISM OF TO-DAY. By HUBERT BLAND, one of the Authors of - ‘Fabian Essays.’ - - POVERTY AND PAUPERISM. By Rev. L. R. PHELPS, M.A., Fellow of Oriel - College, Oxford. - - ENGLISH LAND AND ENGLISH MEN. By Rev. C. W. STUBBS, M.A., Author of - ‘The Labourers and the Land.’ - - CHRISTIAN SOCIALISM IN ENGLAND. By Rev. J. CARTER, M.A., of Pusey - House, Oxford. - - THE EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE. By J. R. DIGGLE, M.A., Chairman of the - London School Board. - - WOMEN’S WORK. By LADY DILKE, MISS BEILLEY, and MISS ABRAHAM. - - RAILWAY PROBLEMS PRESENT AND FUTURE. By R. W. BARNETT, M.A., Editor of - the ‘Railway Times.’ - - - Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to Her Majesty, at the - Edinburgh University Press. - - - - -NOTES - - -[1] Sacrifices of the same kind were continued. Livy, xxii. 57: -“Interim ex fatalibus libris sacrificia aliquot extraordinaria facta: -inter quæ Gallus et Galla, Græcus et Græca, in Foro Boario sub terra -vivi demissi sunt in locum saxo conseptum, jam ante hostiis humanis, -minime Romano sacro, imbutum.” - -[2] Jovienus Pontanus, in the fifth Book of his History of his own -Times. He died 1503. - -[3] These cauldrons walled into the sides of the churches are probably -the old sacrificial cauldrons of the Teutons and Norse. When heathenism -was abandoned, the instrument of the old Pagan rites was planted in the -church wall in token of the abolition of heathenism. - -[4] There is a rare copper-plate, representing the story, published in -Cologne in 1604, from a painting that used to be in the church, but -which was destroyed in 1783. After her resurrection, Richmod, who was a -real person, is said to have borne her husband three sons. - -[5] Magdeburg, Danzig, Glückstadt, Dünkirchen, Hamburg, Nürnberg, -Dresden, etc. (see Petersen: “Die Pferdekópfe auf den Bauerhäusern,” -Kiel, 1860). - -[6] Herodotus, iv. 103: “Enemies whom the Scythians have subdued they -treat as follows: each having cut off a head, carries it home with him, -then hoisting it on a long pole, he raises it above the roof of his -house--and they say that these act as guardians to the household.” - -[7] The floreated points of metal or stone at the apex of a gable are a -reminiscence of the bunch of grain offered to Odin’s horse. - -[8] Aigla, c. 60. An Icelandic law forbade a vessel coming within sight -of the island without first removing its figure-head, lest it should -frighten away the guardian spirits of the land. Thattr Thorsteins -Uxafots, i. - -[9] Finnboga saga, c. 34. - -[10] Hood is Wood or Woden. The Wood-dove in Devon is Hood-dove, and -Wood Hill in Yorkshire is Hood Hill. - -[11] See numerous examples in “The Western Antiquary,” November, 1881. - -[12] On a discovery of horse-heads in Elsdon Church, by E. C. -Robertson, Alnwick, 1882. - -[13] “Sir Tristram,” by Thomas of Erceldoune, ed. Sir Walter Scott, -1806, p. 153. - -[14] See an interesting paper and map, by Dr. Prowse, in the -Transactions of the Devon Association, 1891. - -[15] Two types, the earliest, convex on both faces. The later, flat on -one side, convex on the other. The earlier type (Chelles) is the same -as our Drift implements. Till the two types have been found, the one -superposed on the other, we cannot be assured of their sequence. - -[16] In the artistic faculty. The sketches on bone of the reindeer race -were not approached in beauty by any other early race. - -[17] “The Past and the Present,” by A. Mitchell, M.D., 1880. - -[18] The author found and planned some hut circles very similar to -those found in Cornwall and Down, on a height above Laruns. There was a -dolmen at Buzy at the opening of the valley. - -[19] Hor. Sat. ii. 8. - -[20] Fornaldar Sögur. iii. p. 387. - -[21] Heimskringla, i., c. 12. - -[22] I have given an account of the Carro already in my book, “In -Troubadour Land.” - -[23] Roman and Greek ladies employed parasols to shade their faces from -the sun, and to keep off showers. See s. v. _Umbraculum_ in Smith’s -Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities. - -[24] A good deal of information relative to umbrellas may be got out of -Sangster (W.). “Umbrellas and their History.” London: Cassell & Co., -Ltd. - -[25] The first English_man_ who carried an umbrella was Jonas Hanway, -who died in 1786, but it was known in England earlier. Beaumont and -Fletcher allude to it in “Rule a Wife and Have a Wife”: - - “Now are you glad, now is your mind at ease; - Now you have got a shadow, an umbrella, - To keep the scorching world’s opinion - From your fair credit.” - -And Ben Jonson, in “The Devil is an Ass”: - - “And there she lay, flat spread as an umbrella.” - -Kersey in his Dictionary, 1708, describes an umbrella as a “screen -commonly used by women to keep off rain.” - -[26] Castrén, Nordische Reisen, St. Petersburg, 1853, p. 290. - -[27] “The Beggynhof,” London, 1869, p. 68. - -[28] Ed. Viger, IV., p. 161. - -[29] So Grimm and others following him; but I am more inclined to see -in Herodias, Herr-raud the Red Lord, _i.e._, Thor. - -[30] “A Dyalogue describing the orygynall ground of these Lutheran -facyons,” 1531. A later work on the excesses of sectaries is Featley’s -(D.) Dippers Dipt, 1660. - -[31] Quoted in _Westminster Review_, Jan., 1860, p. 194. - -[32] “Autobiography of Peter Cartwright.” London, 1862 (7th ed.) - -[33] “The Epidemics of the Middle Ages.” London, 1859. - -[34] The word is, of course, derived from _Instrumentum_. - -[35] See “Fretella,” in Ducange, “Fistulæ species.” - -[36] M. Gilbert prints, “As the dew flies,” etc.; this is a -mistake--“doo” is _dove_. - -[37] Possibly we may have this in the still popular Cornish lament, -“Have you seen my Billy coming?” - -[38] On December 14, 1624, as many as 128 ballads were licensed, the -names of which are given. “The Blind Beggar (of Bethnal Green);” -“Maudline of Bristowe (The Merchant’s Daughter of Bristol);” “Sweet -Nansie I doe love thee;” “The Lady’s Fall;” “My minde to me a kingdom -is” (Sir Edward Dyer’s famous song); “Margaret, my sweetest;” “In -London dwelt a merchantman;” “I am sorry, I am sorry;” “In May when -flowers springe;” “I am a poore woman and blinde;” “The Devil and the -Paritor (Apparitor);” “It was a Lady’s daughter;” “Roger’s Will;” -“Bateman (Lord);” “Bride’s Good Morrow;” “The King and the Shepherd;” -“As I went forth one summer’s day;” “Amintas on a summer’s day;” “Ah -me, not to thee alone;” “Sir John Barley Corne;” “It was a youthful -knight;” “Jane Shore;” “Before my face;” “George Barnwell;” “From -Sluggish Sleepe;” “Down by a forrest;” “The Miller and the King;” -“Chevie Chase;” “How shall we good husbands live;” “Jerusalem, my -happie home;” “The King and the Tanner;” “Single life the only way;” -“The Lord of Lorne;” “In the daies of old;” “I spide a Nymph trip -over the plaine;” “Shakeing hay;” “Troy Toun;” “Walking of late -abroad;” “Kisse and bide me welcome home;” “The chirping larke;” “John -Carelesse;” “Tell me, Susan, certenly;” “Spanish Lady;” “When Arthur -first in Court;” “Diana and her darlings;” “Dear love, regard my life;” -“Bride’s buryal;” “Shakeing of the sheets;” “A rich merchantman;” -“Gilian of Bramfield;” “Fortune my Foe;” “Cripple of Cornwall;” -“Whipping the catt at Abingdon;” “On yonder hill there springs;” “Upon -a summertime;” “The Miser of Norfolk.” - -[39] Friedrich (J.B.) Geschichte des Räthsels, Dresden, 1860. - -[40] “Le Dieu Gaulois du Soleil,” Paris, 1886. - -[41] “Scriptores rer. German. Frankof.,” 1718, p. 508. - -[42] “Eckhard, Monument. Jutreboc,” p. 59. - -[43] “Anton, Versaml. uber Sitten d. alten Slawen,” II. p. 97. - -[44] The date on this stone is only 1807, so that the practice must be -very modern. - -[45] Other dolmens with holes at Trye-le-Château, Presles, les -Mauduits, in Seine et Oise; at Vic-sur-Aisne; at Bellehaye, and at -Villicor--Saint Sépulcre (Oise); and others are in the Morbihan, -Charente, etc. - -[46] What we in England term cromlechs, the French more correctly call -dolmens. - -[47] The building up of part of the circle round a cairn was probably -to block the way of the spirit in the direction of the village occupied -by the living. - -[48] Bull. de la Soc. d’anthropologie de Paris, t. ix., p. 198. - -[49] Reinsberg Düringsfeld. “Trad. et Legendes de la Belgique,” 1870, -T. II., p. 239. - -[50] Journal of the British Archæological Association, vol. xxxviii., -1882. - -[51] They are found, for instance, on tombstones near Inverness. - -[52] The majority of these vessels, which abound in the West of -England, were unquestionably measures of corn. But all were not so; -those that have rounded hollows like cups, and not square cut, were for -holy water. - -[53] “Heimskringla,” Saga III., c. 8. - - * * * * * - -Transcriber’s Notes: - -Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by ~tildes~. - -Variations in spelling and hyphenation remain as in the original unless -noted below. - - Caption Fig. 17, “BO H” changed to “BO’H”. - Page 130, comma changed to period after “the stick of the umbrella.” - Page 173, period added after “a dancing or jumping mania.” - Page 210, “th” inserted in “they” (“they do not wholly agree”). - Ads section, punctuation and format regularized. - Note 35, single quotation mark changed to double after “Fretella.” - -Original scans of this book can be found here: -https://archive.org/details/strangesurvivals00bari. - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Strange Survivals, by Sabine Baring-Gould - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STRANGE SURVIVALS *** - -***** This file should be named 52024-0.txt or 52024-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/2/0/2/52024/ - -Produced by Chris Curnow, Elisa and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was -produced from images generously made available by The -Internet Archive). - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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