IN THE BLACK COUNTRY.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 1955, 18 August 1893, Page 4

IN THE BLACK COUNTRY.

STRANGE SUPERSTITIONS. For some months past Mr Thomas Piunock has been contributing to the Leisure Hour an admirable series of articles ou the Black Country—that much-talked-of but little known and still less understood wedge of South Staffordshire which ex'ends roughly from Wolvor himptjn to Birmingham. This month Mr Pinnock's theme is the superstitions of the Black Country, and there is no corner of England in which the people are more eupe-stitious or more retentive of olden habits and usages. It is still the land of charm', fortune-telling and all manner of weird beliefs. Tne people have a firm belief in the Pythagorean d)ctrin)ofa previous *xistenc a . If a child (says Mr Pin nock) is quaint, or, as they generally describe it, ' oldin features, movements, or sayings, the gossips will say admiringly, ' I wished I knowel all as is in thatyed, young as it looks ; ' or, ' That uti's yed has bnen knockin' about the courtyard this many a ye*r, I'll bo bound.' ' THE DUDLEY DEVIL.' As to fortunc-t 'lling, the Black Country (Mr Pinnock goes on to tell u.h) has for at least ha'f a century been a hippy hunting-ground for the blacktie sed and dark-eyed sibyls who disguise their real calling from all but like'y ciHtoine s by the pretence of hawking aud-cut clothes peg 4), skewers, &c. And more audacious still, in several towns are resident tuigicians, who rule planets an 1 reveal secrets for a consideration. And when a woman misses an ornament or other valuable, she hies to a *izi d. or else to a ' wise woman, to learn who is the thief. One of these star st.ll :iits wis so buccessful in tin-

a veiling hidden secrets that his skill wis attributed to his dealings with the evil one, and, as he had a more than local reputation, he was known far and wide as ' the Dudley Devil.'

SPIT FIRES.

Toads and newts are credited with power to ' spit fire' of a peculiar baleful kin 1 to even considerable distances. And though this superstition, instead of ensuring tor the reptiles an immunity from cruelty, obtiins for them, on the contrary, a very short shrift, it is nevertheless a, very common thing to see a littl-j m.'jb of boys running away from the toad th' y were stoning to death, and merely because the exhausted creature had t',ced round on them, and they, seeing his jiws moving in tin way peeu'iar to the rep'ile, concluded he was preparing i) spit (ire.