THE HORSE-SHOE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 304, 7 October 1935, Page 8

THE HORSE-SHOE

SECURITY FROM EVIL SPIRITS. The horse-shoe was of old held to be the especial service as security against the attacks of evil spirits, says an English paper. This virtue may have been assigned, perhaps, by the rule ol contraries, from its being a thing incompatible with the cloven foot of the Evil One; or from the rude resemblance which the horse-shoe, bears to the rays of glory which in ancient pictures are made to surround the heads of saints and angels; or, finally, from some notion of its purity acquired in 'passing through the lire. This latter supposition receives some countenance from the method resorted to lor the cure of liorscs that liadi become vicious, or afflicted by any distemper which village farriery did not understand; such disease was invariably attributed to witchcraft, and the mode of .cure seems to imply the belief that the imperfect purification by fire of the shoes which the animal wore had alfordedi an inlet to malevolent influences. Accordingly, tho horse was led into the smithy; the door was closed and barred; the shoes were taken off, and placed in a fire, and. the witch or warlock was speedily under the necessity of removing the spell under which the animal suffered. We have a further proof that the efficacy of fire constituted a part of the virtues inherent in the liorse-shoe in the manner of reclaiming bewitched milk. All who have the management of a dairy know that a certain seasons of the year butter will not “come’ from cream, nor milk be converted into curd, with the same ease as at others. To-day this is thought to he occasioned by the sort of food the cattle take; but tho farmers’ wives of 100 or more years ago thought that it was the effect of nothing else by some envious person’s evil eye, and they took their measures accordingly. On the return of the milkmaids with their milking pails upon their heads, when the foremost took down her vessel in order to pass under the doorway, the mistress was ready to drop a horse-shoe heated red-hot into the milk. It was necessary that the ceremony should lie performed at the instant when the young woman was lowering the pail; and it was further required that no one should he aware of the good dame’s intention. The milkmaids were often very startled by the .sudden bubbling and hissing, and the screams ol' their companions. The loss of the whole of the milk was the usual consequence, to say nothing of the work created, but these were matters of inferior importance, tho future productiveness of the milk being an ample set-off against lesser mischances. A horse-slioe was commonly nailed upon the doors of tho cowhouse ; but this was not at all times a sufficient protection, as in summer the cows were not driven homo at night, hut milked*in the fields and shut up in an open enclosure. When people began to he half ashamed of superstition, instead' of nailing the horse-shoe on the outside, they, fixed it to the inside of the doors both of dwelling-houses and farm offices. Thus the devil, though not openly defied, might come to burn his fingers if lie were to attempt an entrance.