OLD SUPERSTITIONS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 968, 10 May 1930, Page 30

OLD SUPERSTITIONS

■ MANY LONDONERS STILL BELIEVE IN MAGIC

CHARMS AGAINST ILLNESS There are many Londoners who still ; believe in magic. They carry charms against illnesses, instead of being inoculated. They carry pieces of stone, quaintly carved, to “protect” themselves against colds, ! instead of sleeping with their windows I open at night, taking a deep breath or | two in the mornings, and getting a j little exercise now and again. They wear zodiacs, lucky cats. They j carry lucky half-pennies*—at least so ! long as you carry a lucky- half-penny I you will never be without money! and screw charms, called mascots, on j to the bonnets of their motor-cars. ; They never walk beneath ladders, I look in broken mirrors, sit down 13 j at table, spill the salt without throw- , ing a pinch over the left shoulder, | cut their nails on Fridays. Folklore Display But to realise the extent to which witchcraft and magic are still practised in the United Kingdom, a visit to the Folklore Society’s exhibition at the Southwark Museum is essential. There are all kinds of things which are still used by Londoners —quaint little brooms, made up into pincushions and placed 011 the mantelpieces to bring good luck: lucky boots which were carried by soldiers during the war and are still favourite gifts for Cockney sweethearts to give their [ Guardsmen sent abroad; pieces of ash and elm, tied together, sealed and placed on the mantelpiece to keep away ghosts, is a Cheshire habit; a piece of bone Horn a sheep carried as a cure from rheumatism, on the principle that as the dead bone could not get rheumatism, it must be a cure; and a stone with a hole in it that is . tied to the horns of cows in Ireland, ! to keep the “pixies” from them. The Folklore Society has discovered all sorts of interesting things which are still popularly used as charms. A blacksmith, attacked by rheumatism, made a finger-ring from a nail taken from the shoe of a grey mare, and wears it constantly as a “cure.” A sailor carries a sheep's bone tied up in flanuel and slung round his neck, and a. charm to prevent him being drowned. .In Cornwall it is still customary to cure a sty in the eye bv stroking the eye with the tail of a live black cat. Essence of Spiders A cure for whooping cough, in the same county. Is to catch some spiders, fry them, and inhale the fumes. There are still witch doctors prac- ! tising in Ireland, in the remote western areas where superstition governs most things in life. In the collection I saw two curiously shaped pieces of.sjone, something like arrow-heads, which are part of the equipment of veterinary surgeons in that part of Ireland. They are used for curiug cows of the “grup”—whatever that is. The pieces of stone are boiled in a bucket of water, which is then allowed to cool, and given to the unsuspecting cow to drink. "While the cow drinks, the witch doctor walks round it, saying in a chanting voice: I take my bite an’ I take my sup, An’ so I cure this cow of the grup.” The cow generally recovers, and so the custom thrives. But it was some relics of London’s famous Thirteen Club which are particularly interesting. The Thirteen Club was founded to do away with all this sort of thing—to scoff at superstitions, and charms, and all who believed in them. There were 13 members. They sat always 13 to the table, made a habit of shaving before broken mirrors, spilling the salt, walking beneath ladders, and anything else in that line that they could think of. They had a salt cellar made as a coffin, with a whitened skeleton inside, and a grave-digger’s spade as a saltspoon. One of their habits was to pick up a shovelful of the salt with this weird implement and fling it over each other. But within a year five of them were dead. Another lost his wife. Another had his house burgled. Another lost a leg in a train accident. Another lost all his money on the Stock Exchange.. Only one escaped misfortune of some kind or another. The Thirteen Club went out with them, and it has never been revived.