charms against deaths DISEASE & TOOTHACHE.

Grey River Argus, 8 December 1928, Page 1 (Supplement)

charms against deaths DISEASE & TOOTHACHE.

FOLK LORE SOCIETY. Wise looking men and women, members of the English Folk Lore Society, sat in a dimly-lit room in London, and talked calmly of hobgoblins and worse. They were surrounded by all manner of charms and amulets used by the superstitious in all parts of the world., says the London ‘‘Daily Mail.” There were charms against witches, such as coloured glass balls filled with threads that a witch must count if she would cross the threshold of a

home. The efficacy of these charms lay .:i t .io fact that then were far too many threads for any witch to count within the brief space of the witchi.>g hours, and so at the crowing of t e cock she would slink away, baffled ; <1 beaten, and gnashing her few rema'. ing yellow teeth in her rage. There wore charms against the Evil Eye—against nightmare, disease a 4 death, and even against such horn- ly things a: toothache and cramp. There Wire innumerable charms which had been worn by -oldiers and sailors <>Z almost all the countries engaged in t o Great War. One British soldier had pinned ?.is faith to a little dried potato, and it was this—so he believed—that brought him safely through. Many othtr soldiers.. it seemed, wore, or treasured in their pockets, charms such as tiny golliwogs, black cats, coins and small ornaments made of metal from enemy shells and bullets. Pieces of goat’s hair, African

beans, little china hands—these things and a hundred others w< re among the strange relice of the war. |One of the discussions concerned the marriage and divorce rites known to have Peen practised among British gypsies. An aufaority on this subject, Mr T. \V. Thompson mentioned various queer wedding ceremonies. including the “blood covenant.” In one form of this a sort of wedding cake was made of flour mixed with blood taken from the wrists of the bride ami bridegroom, both oi whom ate a piece. As late as 1850 a Boswell ami a Lovell had taken each other for better or worse in this way. Until fairly recently the Welsh gyp broom.” A branch of it wa; placed sits married over the “flowering on the ground, ami bride ami bridegroom jumped over it. In a divorce rite once commonly practised among the gypsies in Scotland a horse was sacrificed, and over its carcase man and wife vowed never more to meet. The horse was first let loose, Mr Thompson explained, in a tent occupied by the wife in the case. After a time it was allowed to escape, and if it was caught again without any trouble it was considered that the woman’s guilt was not considerable. If. however, it became vicious and resisted capture this was taken as a sign of very great guilt in the woman. Sometimes—a century or more ago—both horse and woman were sacrificed. Mr Thompson told of a gypsy who not very long ago divorced his wife by causing blood to flow between him and her. This he did by chopping off the fourth finger of his left hand. Then he salted the finger and carried it about with him in a handkerchief. Later, when he married again, he gave the finger to his new wife!