Contents
CHAPTER I.
THE EARLY INHABITANTS OF LANCASHIRE AND THE NEIGHBOURING COUNTIES, AND REMAINS OF THEIR MYTHOLOGY AND LOCAL NOMENCLATURE.
Etymology. Philology. The Aryan theory of the common origin of most of the European races of men. Sanscrit. The Rig Vedas. Probable element of truth at the base of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s mythical History of the Britons. The Brigantes. The Phœnicians. The Hyperboreans. Stonehenge. Bel or Baal, the sun-god. The Persian Ormusd. Temple of Mithras in Northumberland. The “Bronze age.” The Cushites or Hamites of Ancient Arabia. Palæoliths, or ancient stone weapons. The Belisama (Ribble). Altars dedicated to Belatucadrus in the North of England. The Brigantes of the East, Spain, Ireland, and the North of England. The Aryan fire-god Agni, and his retainers, the Bhrigus, etc. Altars in the North of England dedicated to Vitires, Vetiris, or Veteres. Vithris (Odin). Vritra of the Hindoo Vedas. Altars dedicated to Cocidius, The Styx, Acheron, and Cocytus of the Greeks. The Coccium of Antoninus, at Walton, near Preston. Ancient local nomenclature. The Belisama. The Irish god Samhan. The Aryan god Soma. The “heavenly soma.” The amrita or nectar, the “drink of the gods.” Madhu. Mead. Brewing and lightening. Bel, the luminous deity of the Britons. Deification of rivers. The Wharf, the Lune, etc. The Solway and Eden (Ituna of Ptolemy). Idunn, the goddess of youth and beauty. Swan maidens. Eagle shirts. Frost giants, etc. The “Luck of Eden Hall.” Phallic symbols. The Dee (the Seteia of Ptolemy). Dêvas, deities, evil spirits, devils. The Severn, Sabrina, Varuna. War between the dêvas and the asuras. The Vedic serpent, Sesha. The chark. Churning the sea, or brewing soma. The lake of Amara, or of the gods, and the Sitanta mountains, at the head of the Nile. The second Avatâra of Vishnu. The Setantii, ancient inhabitants of Lancashire. The Humber (the Abus of Ptolemy). The Vedic Arbhus. The Elbe. Elemental strife. The Wash (the Metaris of Ptolemy). The Vedic Mithra, the friend of Varuna, the god of daylight. Figurative interpretation. The origin of language. Page 1
CHAPTER II.
FIRE OR SUN WORSHIP AND ITS ATTENDANT SUPERSTITIONS.
Fire worship denounced by the earlier ecclesiastics. Remnant in modern times. Allhalloween. Beltain fires. Derbyshire tindles and Lancashire teanlas. African notions of the Sun and Moon. Bonfires. The gunpowder plot. Midsummer fires. The elder Aryan fire-gods Agni and Rudra, and their attendants. Prometheus, the fire-bringer, the inventor of the chark, or earliest fire-kindling instrument. Original or “need-fire.” Cattle disease. Fire superstitions. Burning wheels, etc. Sacrifices to the god Bel, and to the sun-god Fro or Fricco, in the North of England, etc. The feast of St. John the Baptist. Bone-fires. Dragons and serpents. Agni and the Midsummer demons. Ahi and Kuyava the destroyers of vegetation. The great Vedic serpent Sesha. St. George and other dragon slayers. Dragons, fiery serpents, and huge worms of the North of England, “blasters of the harvest.” The Anglo-Saxon poem, Beowulf. The monster Grendel, of Hartlepool. Dragons and imprisoned maidens, and treasure hid in caves. Merlin’s prophecy. Red and white dragons. Dragon poison converted into medical balm. Figurative interpretation. The thunderstorm reduces the heat, waters the parched earth, and promotes vegetable growth. A modern hypothesis as to the origin of dragon superstitions. Page 28
CHAPTER III.
CHRISTMAS AND YULE-TIDE SUPERSTITIONS AND OBSERVANCES.
Christmas amusements. Date of the nativity. Remnants of pagan superstition denounced by the Church. Etymology of the word Yule. Commencement of the year at the vernal equinox. Old and new styles. Old style yet in use in Lancashire. Clerical denunciation of New Year’s gifts. Curious gifts on New Year’s Day in Elizabeth’s reign. The wassail bowl. The Saxon “wacht heil” and “drinc heil.” Singular New Year’s day superstitions. Meat, drink, money, and candles interred with the dead. No fire-light or business credit given on New Year’s day. Recent instances in Lancashire. Divination at Christmas. Red and dark-haired visitors on New Year’s morn. Antagonism of the Celtic and Teutonic races. Forecasting the weather. Twelve days’ sleep of the Vedic Ribhus in the house of the sun-god Savitar. The mistletoe and other plants sprung from the lightning. The oak and the ash. The heavenly asvattha, the ficus religiosa, of the Aryan mythology, the prototype of the yggdrasil or cloud-tree of the Scandinavians. Merlin’s tree that covers Great Britain and Ireland. Jack and the bean-stalk. Thorns blossoming on old Christmas eve. German Christmas trees. The boar’s head. The boar an Aryan type of the wind. His tusks the lightning. Popular belief that pigs can see the wind. Page 53
CHAPTER IV.
EASTER SUPERSTITIONS AND CEREMONIES.
Sun dancing on Easter morn. Etymology of the word Easter. Original or need-fire. Easter eggs. The red or golden egg an Aryan sun-type. Easter eggs protection against fire. Hand-ball playing by the clergy. Easter mysteries, moralities, or miracle plays. Paschal or “pace” eggs. Lancashire “pace-egging.” Lifting of women on Easter Monday, and of men on the following day, a custom still practised in Lancashire. Cross-buns at Easter. Thor’s hammer. Ancient marriage oaks. Mid-lent or “mothering” Sunday. Simnel cakes. Curious customs in Lancashire and Shropshire. Etymology of the word “simnel.” Braggat Sunday and Braggat ales. Lenten fare. Beans and peas. Curious ancient and modern superstitions connected therewith. Touching for the king’s evil. Divine right of kings. Page 70
CHAPTER V.
MAY-DAY CEREMONIES AND SUPERSTITIONS.
Mock battle between summer and winter. The vernal equinox. Joy on the return of Spring. Bell-ringing and horn-blowing. Midnight gathering of wild flowers and green branches of trees. May-day garlands and decorations. Rush-bearing in Lancashire. Well dressing in Derbyshire. The Roman Floralia. May-poles denounced by the Puritans. King James I. at Hoghton Tower, Lancashire. Speech about “libertie to piping and honest recreation.” Whitsun-ales and Morris dances. Washington Irving’s first sight of a May-pole at Chester. Modern May-day ceremonies in Cheshire. Gathering hawthorn blossom. The Mimosa catechu, or sacred thorn of India, sprung from the lightning. The Glastonbury thorn. Singular superstition respecting it. Children’s love of wild flowers. May-day dew good for ladies’ complexions. May-day dew, the milk of the Aryan heavenly cows (clouds), believed to increase the milk of their earthly prototypes. Page 83
CHAPTER VI.
WITCHCRAFT.
The Lancashire witches—Dame Demdike, etc. Witch superstitions of Aryan origin. Dethroned retainers of the elder gods. The Fates or Destinies. Waxen and clay images. The doom of Meleager. Reginald Scot on witchcraft in 1584. Opinions of Wierus, a German physician, in 1563. Singular confessions of presumed witches. Numbers put to death. The belief in witchcraft countenanced by the church, the legislature, and the learned. Sir Kenelm Digby’s opinion. Singular medical superstitions. King James I. and Agnes Simpson, the Scotch witch. The Lancashire witches and Charles I. Witchcraft in Hertfordshire in 1761. Ralph Gardiner’s Malicious Invective. A Scotch witchfinder. Matthew Hopkins. Laws relating to witchcraft in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Draci, cloud-gods, or water-spirits, with hands perforated like colanders. Singular tradition of the dun cow at Grimsargh, near Preston. Witches’ influence on the butter and milk of cows. Durham, Yorkshire, and Warwick dun cow traditions. Red cow milk. Ushas, the Vedic dawn-goddess. Red heifers set apart for sacrifice. Guy of Warwick and his porridge pot. Black, white, and grey witches. The Teutonic deæ matres, or mother goddesses. The three Fates. The weird sisters of Shakspere. The “theatrical properties” of witches of Aryan origin. The sieve, the cauldron, and the broom or besom. Witches spirits of the air. Hecate the Pandemonium Diana. Personifications of elemental strife. The brewing of storms. Aryan root of these superstitions. Hares disguised witches. Boadicea’s hare. The goddess Freyja and her attendant hares. Singular hare superstition in Cornwall. “Mad as a March hare.” Cats weatherwise animals. Sailors say a frisky cat has got “a gale of wind in her tail.” Sailors’ prejudice against commencing a voyage on a Friday. Singular charge against the Knights Templars. The broom or besom represents the implement with which the Aryan demi-gods swept the sky. A type of the winds. Curious Lancashire custom: hanging out a besom when the lady of the house is absent, to announce to bachelor friends that bachelor habits may be indulged in. The broom the oldest wine-bush. Dutch broom-girls. Eight classes of witches. Gipsies: their Eastern origin. Modern fortune tellers. The witch’s familiar. Singular Somerset, Middlesex, and Lancashire superstitions at the present day. Witchcraft amongst the Maories, and in Equatorial Africa. Deathbed of a Burnley witch, and transference of her familiar spirit with her last breath. Page 96
CHAPTER VII.
FAIRIES AND BOGGARTS.
Puck or Robin Goodfellow. Peris, Pixies, and Ginns. Queen Mab. Lancashire boggarts and fairies. The bargaist. The fairy of Mellor Moor, Lancashire. Lumb Farm boggart, near Blackburn. “Boggart Ho’ Clough,” near Manchester. George Cheetham’s boggart. The devil made a monk. The headless dog or woman at Preston. Raising the devil. “Raw head and bloody bones.” Edwin Waugh’s account of the Grislehurst boggart. The laying of boggarts. Driving a stake through the body of a cock buried with the boggart. Sacred or lightning birds. Superstitions about cocks and hens. Killing a Lancashire wizard. Cruel sacrifice of chanticleer. Divining by means of a cock. Boggarts scared by a cock crowing. The cock an emblem of Æsculapius. The black cock crows in the Niflheim, or “land of gloom.” The lion afraid of a white cock. Father Morolla’s account of the revivification of a dead cock. The cockatrice. A cruelly slaughtered cock and red cow’s milk a sovereign remedy for consumption. The Scandinavian golden coloured cock’s crowing the signal for the dawn of the Ragnarock, “the great day of arousing.” The Hindoos “cast out devils” by the aid of a cock slaughtered as a sacrifice. Modern Jewish custom. Game cock feathers in the bed cause a dying person to linger in pain. Hothersall Hall boggart, Lancashire, laid beneath a laurel tree, watered with milk. Rowan, ash, and red thread potential against boggarts, witches, and devils. Scandinavian and German boggarts. The Hindoo pitris or fathers. Zwergs, dwarfs, “ancients” or ancestors. Good fairies, elves, etc. Lord Duffin transported by fairies from Scotland to Paris. Classical ghost story. Singular superstition, of Eastern character, at Darwen, Lancashire. A somewhat similar one in Australia. Fairy rings, their imaginary and real origin. Page 124
CHAPTER VIII.
FERN-SEED AND ST. JOHN’S-WORT SUPERSTITIONS.
Human invisibility. The helmet of Hades or Pluto, and the Teutonic “invisible cap.” Modern references to this singular superstition. Ferns, luck-bringing plants. Said to have sprung from the lightning. St. John’s-wort. German story of accidental invisibility. St John’s eve. Fern seed, a love charm. Samuel Bamford’s Lancashire story in “Boggart Ho’ Clough,” near Manchester. St. John superseded the Scandinavian Baldr. The Osmunda regalis. Osmunda, one of the appellations of Thor. The vervain, a plant of spells and enchantments. The Sanscrit parna and the modern fern. Origin of the name “Boggart Ho’ Clough.” Page 143
CHAPTER IX.
THE SPECTRE HUNTSMAN AND THE FURIOUS HOST.
Hunting the white doe in the Vale of Todmorden, Lancashire. The “Gabriel Ratchets.” The wish-hounds. The “Gabriel hounds” in Yorkshire. The classic Orion, “the mighty hunter.” The classic white doe and its mediæval descendants. The fair maid of Kent. A fawn attendant on the Greek deities of the morning. Odin, the wild huntsman, and the furious host. The Yule host of Iceland. Personification of storm and tempest. Herod, the “Chasse Maccabei,” and the Wandering Jew. The “seven whistlers” in Lancashire and Yorkshire. Restless birds believed to be the souls of the damned condemned to perpetual motion, on the Bosphorus. The wandering Odin and his two ravens, representing Thought and Memory. The Wandering Jew’s last appearance in the flesh. Temporary death of the weather-gods typical of the seasons. Odin slain by the wild boar. Thammuz and the Greek Adonis. Odin lord of the gallows. Odin’s spear. Roland’s “Durandal,” the sword of Chrysâôr, of Theseus, and of Sigurd. Arthur’s “Excalibur” and others. Their Aryan prototype, Indra’s thunderbolt. Magic cudgels. The lad and the “rascally innkeeper.” Indra and Vritra, and the Panis. Long Aryan winters. Hackelberg’s coit throwing. King Arthur’s similar exploit in Northumberland. The devil’s doings at Kirkby Lonsdale, at Leyland church, and at Winwick. Etymology of the word “Winwick.” Odin buried in the cloud mountain. Heroes slumbering in caves. Frederic Barbarossa, Henry the Fowler, Charlemagne, and the renowned Arthur. Arthur’s death and translation to Avalun. The Eildon Hills and the Sewingshields castle traditions. The “Helmwind,” near Kirkoswald, Cumberland. Sir Tarquin’s castle at Manchester. Arthur’s battles on the Douglas. Arthur still alive as a raven. The Gjallar horn. A Cheshire legend says Arthur reposes in the “Wizard’s Cave,” at Alderley Edge. Ancient reputation of Britain for tempests and pestilential storms. The departure of the genii. A similar superstition in equatorial Africa. Irish superstitions. The furious host. Wandering souls of the unquiet dead. The Aryan Maruts and Ribhus. The approach of the furious host. The black coach legend. The yelping hound. The stray hound of Odin. The Lancashire and Dorsetshire black dog fiends. The “Trash” or “Skriker” of East Lancashire. Cerberus and the Vedic Sarvari. Hermes and the Vedic Sârameyas. The howling dog, an embodiment of the wind and herald of death. Recent example of the power of this superstition in Lancashire. Acute sense of smell probably at the root of this personification. Dogs supposed to be able to see spirits. Dr. Marigold’s dog and the approach of domestic storms. Will-o’-whisps, or souls of unbaptised children. The Maruts after a storm assume the form of new-born babes, as Hermes returned to his cradle after tearing up the forests. Odin sometimes chases the wild boar, sometimes Holda, or Bertha, his wife. The hell-hunt. Hell or Hela, the goddess of death. The English hunt. England the realm of Hela. Niflheim, the world of mists, and the Greek Hades. Nastrond and the modern Hell. After death punishment for crimes done in the body. Valhalla and the Gothic Hell and Devil. Contrast between the Eastern and Northern notions of Hell, and Shakspere’s powerful description thereof. Wandering spirits of the Greek and Aryan mythologies. Yorkshire ballad concerning the passage of the soul over Whinney Moor. Cleveland belief in the efficacy of a gift of a pair of shoes to a poor man. Salt placed on the stomach of a corpse. Salt an emblem of eternity and immortality. Flights of birds. The seven whistlers. The bellowing of cows. Odin and his host carry off cows. The Milky-way or the kaupat to heaven. The Ashton heriot. Figurative character of Odin’s accessories. Examples from Greek archæic art of the gradual evolution of mythological personification from physical phenomena. Orpheus the Aryan Arbhus. The nightmare. The Maruts. The Valkyrs or wild riders of Germany. The “Black Lad” of Ashton-under-Lyne. The wild rider. The demon Tregeagle, or tyrant lord of Cornwall, and his endless labours. Tam O’Shanter and the witches. Bottomless pools. Sir Francis Drake and the hearse drawn by headless horses. The wish hounds. Poetic sympathy. The Ashton “Black Lad” or tyrant lord. Bamford’s poem “The Wild Rider.” Earthly heroes substituted for Odin. Page 153
CHAPTER X.
GIANTS, MYTHICAL AND OTHERWISE.
The Giant’s Dance, Stonehenge. The Ramayana and giants of Ceylon. The wild men of Hanno, the Carthaginian. Gorillas. The giants of Lancashire, Shropshire, Cornwall, Ireland, and India compared. Gogmagog and Corineus. The Cyclops. Patagonian and other modern giants. Giants and monsters according to Pliny. Shakspere’s monsters. The Amorites. The giants Og and Sihon. Remains of the ancient cities of Bashan. Sir Jno. Mandeville’s Indian giants. Red Indian traditions of giants and gigantic pachyderms. Discoveries of huge fossil bones. Aryan Râkshasas or Atrins (devourers). Giants and devils. Milton’s fallen angels. The trolls and giants of Scandinavia. Dethroned deities. The Æsir gods. Their overthrow by the light of the Christian dispensation. Nikarr, an appellation of Odin, the Old Nick of the present day. Giants degraded forms of original Aryan personifications of the forces of nature. Ancient and modern examples. Allegory. Lord Bacon’s opinion. Passage into the heroes of romance. The King Arthur legends. The Anglo-Saxon poem, Beowulf. The monster Grendel of Hartlepool. The Arthur legend of Tarquin and Sir Lancelot, at Manchester. The Round table. Anachronisms in romance literature. The “Sangreal.” Urien, the Arthur of the North of England. The Welsh bards, Taliesin and Llywarch Hen or the Old. Geoffrey of Monmouth and William of Newbury. Walter Map. Giants’ coits and erratic boulders. Lancashire and Cheshire giants, near Stockport. Chivalry and the plundering Barons of the middle ages. Mythical Dwarfs. Tom Thumb. Connection of Druidical with Brahminical superstition. Page 197
CHAPTER XI.
WERE-WOLVES AND THE TRANSMIGRATION OF SOULS.
Bodies of birds and animals supposed to be tenanted by the souls of men. Instances from Shakspere. The Druids. The Egyptian, Pythagorean, and the Hindoo Doctrines. The Taliesin romance. The bell-tolling ox at Woolwich. Were-wolves. Irish were-wolves. King John a were-wolf. Greek and Roman were-wolves. German were-wolves. Swan shirts and eagle shirts. Irish Mermaids. Bears. Detection of were-wolves. Vampires. Witches transformed into cats. Were-wolves, like witches, burnt at the stake. The witches’ magic bridle, which transformed human beings into horses. Lancashire witches transformed into greyhounds. Margery Grant, a recently deceased Scotch witch, sometimes transformed into a pony, and sometimes into a hare. Men transformed into crocodiles. Owl transformations. The owl, the baker, and the baker’s daughter. Bakers transformed into a cuckoo and a woodpecker. The White Doe of Rylstone. The Manx wren, the robin, the stork, etc., each supposed to enshrine the soul of a human being. Men transformed into leopards, etc., in Africa. Greek Lykanthropy. Aryan conception of the howling wind as a wolf. The souls of the damned were-wolves in Hell. The wolf a personification of the darkness of the Night. Greek forms of this myth in Apollo and Latona his mother. Personifications of natural phenomena. Children suckled by wolves. Page 224
CHAPTER XII.
SACRED AND OMINOUS BIRDS, ETC.
Sacred Birds. Beautiful Welsh legend of the robin. Stork legends in Germany. Their nests built upon wheels (sun emblems) placed on the roofs of houses. Remains in Danish “Kitchen middens.” Birds of evil omen. The owl. Shakspere’s profound insight. Cuckoo superstitions. Transformation of cuckoos into sparrowhawks. The cuckoo the messenger of Thor. The wren hunted to death in the Isle of Man, Ireland, and some parts of France. A sacred bird in England. Swallows and crickets. Ravens, crows, jackdaws, etc., ominous birds. Lancashire superstitions of this class. The “Seven Whistlers.” The Woodpecker. Picus and Pilumnus. Fire and soul bringers. Weather prophets. The stormy petrel, the heron, and the crane. The lady-bird. Rats leaving ships about to founder at sea. Page 242
CHAPTER XIII.
THE DIVINING OR “WISH”-ROD, AND SUPERSTITIONS RESPECTING TREES AND PLANTS.
Searching for hidden treasure at Cuerdale, near Preston. Midnight excavations on the site of the Roman station at Walton, near Preston. How to prepare a divining rod. The rowan tree. Divination by upright rods. Recent attempt to discover metallic ores by the divining rod. Anecdote of M. Linnæus. Form of the wish-rod. The mystic number three. The mistletoe. Neptune’s Trident. The horseshoe, a divining instrument. Other divining instruments. The mandrake. Resemblance in form to the human body. The caduceus or the rod of Hermes. Modern conjurer’s magic wands. The palasa tree or the “imperial mimosa” of the East. Aryan legend of its lightning origin. The mountain ash, the thorn, etc. Bishop Heber’s anecdote respecting the Hindoo form of the superstition. African sacred trees. Recent instances of this superstition in England, Scotland, and Australia. The pastoral crook, and the lituus, or staff, of the ancient augurs, etc. Phallic symbols. Novel use of the Bible. The divining rod but of recent importation into Cornwall. Recent instances of divination or “dowzing” for water. Finding drowned bodies. “Corpse candles.” Page 252
CHAPTER XIV.
WELL WORSHIP AND SUPERSTITIONS CONNECTED WITH WATER.
Well worship. Medical virtues of water. Symbol of purity. Sacred wells. St. Helen’s well, at Brindle, near Preston. Curious examples of local corruption of names. Pin dropping. Pin wells in France, Wales, Scotland, Northumberland, and the West of England. A form of divination. Protection against hanging. Other curious forms of this superstition. Curing rickets in children and insanity. Reported miraculous cures. Well dressing. Recent death of Margery Grant, a “Scotch witch,” who worked cures with holy water. The deification of rivers and streams. Ancient lake dwellings, Healing lake in Scotland. Bottomless pools. Stagnant water. Jenny Greenteeth. “Nickar, the soulless.” Scotch kelpies. Burns’s “Address to the Deil.” Superstition on the Solway. African superstition of this class. Page 267
CHAPTER XV.
CONCLUSION.
Antiquity of the superstitions commented upon. The common origin of most of them. Tenacity of superstition and traditionary lore. Some perhaps have resulted from similar conditions, without any necessary connection with each other. Supposed communication of America with Asia in ancient times. Phallic worship in Central America. Singular custom in the Polynesian Islands. Migration of the Miocene flora. The Atlantis of the Ancients. Superstitions in Abyssinia and the Malay Archipelago. Traditions and superstitions frequently glide into each other. Instances. Scotch warriors at Preston. Sunken churches. Secret passages beneath rivers. All ruined castles, abbeys, etc., said to have been battered by Cromwell’s cannon. Recent discoveries in Sanscrit. Max Müller’s interpretation of Greek myths. Anthropomorphism, or the personification of natural forces. Growth of a myth. Vedic and other examples. Wordsworth’s interpretation of Greek myths. Figurative expression, the groundwork of all poetry, at the root of all language. Shakspere’s appreciation of the poetic value of popular mythology. Importance of the study of these despised superstitions to philological, ethnological, and psychological science, as well as to the sound philosophical interpretation of general history. Page 283