Curses, Castles And Family Folklore

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 270, 13 November 1937, Page 13 (Supplement)

Curses, Castles And Family Folklore

TTAD Sir Reginald McLeod, | *1 who died recently, chosen to use a magic sign his life might have been spared. That, at least, is the belief of the more superstitious members of the Clan McLeod, of which he was the chief. For the McLeods have a fairy bride, a more than mortal being, who was forced to return to her strange people after twenty years, and as she flew away dropped a silken scarf, which has been preserved and which is known as "the fairv flaw of uunjrevan." The fl ig may he used onlv in crises to summon fairy aid, the McLeods will relate, and already two calls have been made—one for aid in battle against the MaeDcnalds and one to cure an eldest son stricken with a deadly disease. The third call will be the last; after it is made the flag will lose its power. Sir Reginald McLeoc 1 died without making it. It is inevitable that traditions should accumulate al>out the names of that gentility which Lord Burghley told his son consisted of "ancient riches." There was a reminder of another strange story just a year ago, when the seventh Mari|iiis of Water ford was found shot in his •runroom after an accidental fall with a riMe. The family has been under a curse which was incurred during the eighteenth century agrarian troubles in Ireland, and many members of it have died violent deaths. The sixth marquis was drowned in a river on his estate at the age of thirty-six, the fifth marquis was thrown while hunting, injured his spine so badly that he was crippled for life and finally shot himself with a revolver on the family estate in 18SJS, the third marquis died in 1559 from a broken

necllr. In addition there were other fatalities among the closely-related members of the family. One brother of a. marquis was killed in a railway accident, another lost his life while attempting to stop a runaway horse. It bad been predicted that with the number seven the curse would be lifted, and when the last marquis had three narrow escapes from death, one when Sinn Feiners fired on hi* motor car, it was believed that the curse was lifting. His death last year dispelled hopes.

Although few people now believed in portents, the fear of such stories as these of family curses often remains.

No one to-day pays attention to the plagnes of monstrous births to which the Elizabethans gave such consideration, but in a country with very definite reminders of the fact that the Middle Apes were a time of terror and supersti- ' tion it is not surprising if the less palpable things of that time are given erednice. About Glamis Castle, the ancestral home of the Earls of Strathmore. where Princess Margaret was born, there is wide credence given to the story of the secret chamber in which a former earl diced with the devil. What the room actually contains is a secret known only to the earl, his heir and the factor of xhe estate. The heir is initiated into the mystery on the night of his twentyfirst birthday. When the last earl was questioned on the subject of the contents of the chamber he declared that it was "something which would make you go down on your knees and thank God it is not yours." More than one earl has put on record his fear of his approaching majority and the consequent revelation of the nature of the family curse. One of the most celebrated of all such curses was that involving the Lambton Worm. One day when the heir to the title was fishing in the Wear he felt a tug at, his line and discovered that it wan caused by a great worm, which, in disgust, he threw into a well near by. Shortly after this he left for the Crusades and on his return found that the worm had grown to such a size that it could wind itself round a hill a mile and a half from Lambton Castle. Even in the last centtiry people could point out the marks of the dragon on this hill. Naturally the young Lambton visited a fortune teller to learn how to act and | was told to obtain a coat of armour covered with razors by which means he

would-be sure of success in his fights with the dragon, provided also that he would take an oath to kill the first living thing he saw after his victory. If he failed, he was told, the lords of Lambton "for nine generations should not die in their beds." Accordingly the knight obtained his armour and arranged with his aged father that on a signal of three blasts on a horn, after the destruction of the worm, hie favourite hound should be loosed to run to him and be slain according to the terms of hit* oath. The struggle with the worm proved a mighty battle. As often as the reptile, cut by the knight's

armour, fell to pieces, so often did the pieces reunite. Finally the knight made his way to the River Wear, where, his resourcefulness rewarded, the severed pieces of the worm were carried away by the current as they fell. But, unfortunately, the knight's father forgot the compact in his excitement at the horn blast and ran to meet his son, on which the knight blew his horn again, the hound was loosed and slain. But the oath had not been fulfilled and for nine generations the Lambtoua did not die in their beds, the last one expiring in his chariot in 1761.

To-day the most celebrated curse ie that which is said to pass with the remarkable Hope diamond. Jean Baptiete Tavernier, who brought it from India for Louis XIV'., died penniless and in exile, Madame de Montespan lost the Royal favour soon after Louis gave it to her and the next two kings both were ill-fated. Marie Antoinette wore it. Fals, a Dutch merchant, obtained it after the revolution, and his son stole it from him. The father died of grief, the son an a suieide. Then the gem passed to Francois Bcaulieu who could not find a purchaser until he was almost penniless, Hold it for a fraction of its value, and dieil next day. Thomas Henry Hope, English banker, had it next. His family suffered nothing but unhappiness while it was in their possession, and after losing his wife Sir Francis Hope sold it to a New York jewel merchant, Simond Frankel. He lost his fortune before disposing of the jewel to Abdul Hamid, Sultan of Turkey, who was deposed. The diamond, which had cost several lives | while in Turkey, was then stolen and sold to Simon Montharides, a Greek dealer. Both Montharides and his wife were soon killed in an accident, and the stone passed to Jacques Colet, a French jeweller, -who went insane. Prince Kanitovski of Russia botight the gem and gave it to Mile. Lorens Laduc, a dancer; the next day he killed her. So the jewel passed on, causing disaster and death until it reached the case of Mrs. Evalyn McLean, of Washington, daughter of a Colorado mine king, who determined to dispose the gem at a bargain price last year, after her son had been killed, her fortune wrecked, and her husband declared insane.

Much publicity ha« been given to the curse on Tut-ankh-amen's tomb, and the ill fortune of those who opened it, but Professor George S. Duncan, the noted American Kjryptologist, gave some fijrures this year which dispel popular belief. Of the five who opened the vault, he Mys, only one hao died in the past thirteen years. Of the twenty present all but two are alive. Of the ten who actually examined the sarcophagus none is dead. Howard Carter, the chief offender against the Gods of Ancient Egypt, is co con- ! temptuous of the curse that he hat beprim ! to search for the burial place of Tut- ' ankh-amen's Queen.