BELL-LORE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5656, 29 August 1896, Page 1

BELL-LORE.

SOME WEIFD TRADITIONS. Bell-lore is an exceptionally interesting study. The traditions, stories, and superstitions connected with ancient bells are quaint, weird, innumerable. Some bells are credited with supernatural attributes, with the power of flight, the chance of interfering in human affairs, the capacity of exorcising demons. The Turks cling to the idea that good spirits are alarmed by bells ; the Hindoos hang them on their temples to alarm the evil ones. In China there was a still wilder tradition. The Celestials rang a great bell to frighten the dreaded dragon whose purpose was to devour the moon. The student of Greek lore is conversant with a kindred tradition — that of the Athenians believing they dispersed the furies by bell-ringing. FIRST CHUECH BELLS. Some writers assert that in Christian I Europe bells were hung on churches at first to frighten birds away. Some say also that St Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, in Campania, was the first to utilise bell-ringing for the assembling of congregations. There are eighth-century records of the consecration of bells, in which it is made to appear that the bell was washed with salt and water, then addressed with "God be with you," and other prayers to the effect that it might receive power to scare away ghosts and quell storm's. Finally, the bell was blessed, and christened with the name of a saint, a Pope, the donor, or some worldly authority. In parts of France to this day bells are rung to ward off lightning 1 . WEIRD AND WARNING BELLS. i Mediaeval records have many weird stories of bells. In Madrid, the story runs, all the bells of the city rang spontaneously when St Isidore's body was removed from graveyard to church after canonization. Similar weird and poetical traditions were rife in Italy. In Spain the great bell of Vellilla was said to proclaim impending disasters at long intervals. Germany and Austria have a stock of traditions concerning magical and warning bells that made the generations mystic, and kept the mind in touch with the occultand the unseen. Even airy France was no sceptic in this regard. Amongst other records is one of Avignon, in the thirteenth century, where a bell rang in abandoned jubilation for a whole day when a certain interdict was removed. BRITAIN'S BELLS. ' Coming nearer home, we find that Britain's own bells were not common-place, not alien to acts that were oocult and ominous. It is told that- when Henry VIII. demolished the monasteries some of their bells sank the vessels that endeavoured to transport them. -, In Scotland the luchcape Bock bell was believed to have spontaneously rung the knell of the pirate who in earlier years had cut it from its time-honoured ledge.' John T^iwx

believed that a certain bell would rend itself in twain if anyone rested his hand upon it and took an oath that was false. IRISH BELL-LORE. The bell-lore of Ireland is mystical and poetical. Her legends have much to tell of the famous bell-branches in the Gaelic Elysium on the verge of the Western Ocean. In one of the Immortal. Isle 3 was a multitude of enchanted owls under the haunted trees. In the golden claws of the chief owl was a magic branch "with bells more many than sighs in the midst of an old man's bosom." When the great bird stirred the branches the bells tinkled immortal music, which to the fortunate human comer brought the entrancing fairy sleep that lasted for ages. By the way, students of the Koran will remember a somewhat kindred tradition about bells hanging from the trees in Paradise. The miraculous properties attributed to Irish abbey bells as the faithful ages rose and died is a long and reverential story. __________