THE LUCKY CAUL

Taranaki Daily News, 25 September 1937, Page 14 (Supplement)

THE LUCKY CAUL

SUPERSTITION AT SEA ROMAN LAWYERS' BELIEF The following advertisement appeared in the Morning Post for August 21, 1779: "To the gentlemen of the Navy, and other going long voyages to sea. To* be disposed of, a child's caul. Enquire at the Bartlet Buildings Coffee House in Holborn. N.B. To avoid unnecessary trouble, the price is twenty guineas." To those who, like Sir Joseph Porter, K.C.B., "stick close to their desks and never go to sea," this advertisement may seem a little surprisdng; but it is based on a well known euperstition of the sea, which was explained by Dr. C. J. S. Thompson in the News Chronicle. A caul is the thin membrane oCCaSionally fotmd covering the head of a baby at birth, and, probably because of its rarity, it is tradionally supposed to bring good luck. There was an old saying, 'Born with a caul, no misfortune befall." Cauls were highly valued, and even ven-' erated, at' the time of the Roman Empire, and Roman midwives are said to have made no scruple of robbing a baby of iis caul and selling it to a lawyer for a high price. The lawyer would wear the caul over his chest, in the firm beiief that by so doing he would become more eloquent and more successful: in his CaCtoe of the most interesting superstitions associated with the caul is its reputed power of preserving the person who carried it from death by drowning, and it was once believed that the presence of a caul on board a vessel was sufflcient to avert disaster. This accOunts for the advertisement in the Morning Post quoted above. Dr. Thompson also said that at the time of the submarine menace to merchant shipping during the war cauls were again in demand and were eagerly songht by sailors in the regions of the London docks. "Some were advertised in the^ papers, and prices ranged from £15 to £20, but whether they really did bring safety and good luck to their new owners we shall never know."