The Superstition of the Horseshoe.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 4944, 9 April 1891, Page 1

The Superstition of the Horseshoe.

The horseshoe was of old held to be of especial service as a security against the attacks of evil spirits. This virtue may have been assigned, perhaps, by the rule of contraries, from it being a thing incompatible with the cloven foot of the Evil One ; or from the rude resemblance which the horseshoe bears to the rays of glory which in ancient 1 pictures are made to surround the heads of saints and angels ; or, filially, from some notion of its purity acquired through passing through the fire. The latter supposition receives some countenance from the method resorted to for the cure of horses that had become vicious, or afflicted by any distemper which village farriers did not understand; such disease was invariably attributed to witchcraft, and the mode of cure seems to imply the belief that imperfect purification by fire of the shoes which the animal wore had afforded an inlet to malevolent influences. Accordingly, the horse was led into the smithy ; the door was closed and barred ; the shoes were taken oil' and placed in the fire, and the witch or warlock was speedily under the necessity of removing the spell under which the animal Buffered. We have a further proof that the efficacy of fire constituted a part of the virtues inherent in the horseshoe, in the matter of reclaiming bewitched milk. All who have the management of a dairy know that at certain seasons of the year butter will not "come " from cream, nor miik be converted into curd, with the same ease as at others. The modern reasoners on the causes of things look upon this as being occasioned by the sort of food that cattle take ; but all the farmers' wives of last century knew perfectly well that it was the effect of nothing else but some envious person's evil eye, and they took their measures accordingly. On the return of the milkmaids from the loaning with their milking-pails upon their heads, when the foremost took down her vessel in order to pass ulider the doorway, the mistress was ready to drop a horseshoe heated red-hot into the milk. It was necessary that the ceremony should be performed at the instant when the young woman was lowering the pail ; and as it was further requested that no one should be aware of the good dame's intention, the troop of milkmaids was often thrown into the utmost dismay by the sudden bubbling and hissing, and the screams of their companions more immediately concerned. The loss of the whole meal of milk was the usual consequence, to say nothing of the work created for the cooper by the crash of the tumbling cogues ; but these were matters of inferior importance, the future productiveness of the milk being an ample set-oft' against lesser mischances — and that it need scarcely be added, was invariably secured. A horseshoe was commonly nailed upon the doors of the cow-houses ; but this was not at all times a sufficient protection, as in the summer the cows are not driven home at night, but are milked afield, and shut up in an open inclosure. When people began to be half ashamed of superstition, instead of nailing the horseshoe on the outside, they fixed it to the inside of tlio doors both of dwellinghouses and farm otfices, and in that situation it may at this day be detected in many parts af the country. Thus the devil, though not openly defiled, might come to burn his fingers if he were to attempt an entrance. Sailors are, for the most part, careful to have a horseshoe nailed to the mizzenmast, or somewhere 011 deck near midship, for the protection of the vessel. The Chinese have their tombs built in the shape of the horseshoe, as we are informed by Captain Hall, in his voyage to Loo Choo ; which custom is very curious, as it may fairly be regarded as a branch of the superstition long prevailing among ourselves.