Curiosities of popular customs and of rites, ceremonies, observances, and miscellaneous antiquities

Preface

The series of books of which this is the second is designed rather to be a supplement to the encyclopaedias than to be of an encyclopedic character in itself. That is to say, it is the strange and out-of-the-way things usually left out of current works of reference which form the staple of this book, as of its predecessor.

The book is largely a compilation. I have been greatly indebted to the antiquarian writers who have gone before. Bourne, Brand, Hone, and Chambers have been placed under contribution. Thiselton Dyer's "British Popular Customs" (1891) and P. H. Ditchfield's " Old English Customs Extant at the Present Time" (1897) have proved especially valuable among the more modern authorities. To all these I cordially give my thanks. I must also call attention to that very remarkable French work by B. Picart, " Ceremonies et Coutumes religieuses de tons les Peuples" (1723), because it has furnished many of the most striking and unique of the illustrations to this book.

A word about Barnaby Googe's translation of ^Naogeorgus, from which many excerpts have been made, will not prove out of place. Naogeorgus was the assumed name of Thomas Kirchmayer, a German of the time of the Eeformation, whose " Popish Kingdom, or Eeign of Antichrist," was originally published in Latin. Googe's translation into English appeared in 1570. A new edition, by C. E. Hope, was published in 1880. The book, it must be remembered, though many antiquarians have failed so to remember, deals with the Germany and not the England of Catholic times.

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CURIOSITIES

OF

POPULAR CUSTOMS.

Ab, Fast of, or Black Fast. The most mournful day in the Jewish calendar. It occurs on the ninth day of the fifth month, Ab, — a month which corresponds roughly with the end of July and the beginning of August. This is the anniversary of the two destructions of Jerusalem, the first by Nebuchadnezzar, which resulted in the Babylonish Captivity, the second by Titus, when the Jewish nation was dispersed over the face of the earth. The fast is observed scrupulously from sunset of the eighth day of Ab until nightfall of the ninth. The synagogues are darkened so that the light of the sun cannot penetrate within, only a few dim candles are lit, the ornaments are ail removed, and the ark is stripped of its curtain. The service consists of readings from the book of Lamentations, and dirges describing the destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion of its people, all conducted in a low and melancholy key.

Adam's Peak, or Samanala, a holy mountain in Ceylon. According to Mohammedan legend, Adam after the fall was taken by an angel to the top of this mountain, whence a panorama of all the ills that should afflict mankind was unrolled before him. His foot left an impress on the solid rock which is still shown to visitors, while his tears formed the lake from which pilgrims still drink. The Buddhists have their own legend of the Sripada, or Sacred Footstep, according to which Buddha, ascending to heaven, left the impression where last he touched the earth on the highest point of Samanala. The Brahmins, the Mohammedans, and the Chinese have differing legends, and for more than two thousand years all have worshipped in their own way round the gigantic footprint. The latter is a flat rocky basin, five an^l m, quarter feet by two and a half feet, on the top of a huge b(jiildor, in which only a very active imagination, aided by a lively faith, can see the likeness to a human foot. The boulder is covered with a wooden shrine of slender columns, which is open on all sides to the wild winds that rage there, and is sheltered only by a roof with shady, overhanging eaves, from which hang down two ancient bells. Although the shrine oifers but slight resistance to the elements, the winds which blow and beat about that sacred summit are so strong and wild that it has to be secured in its place by great chains, which pass over it and are fastened to the living rock below. To perform a pilgrimage to this shrine and to lay an offering upon it is to a Buddhist what a visit to Mecca is to a Mohammedan. The favorite months are April and May, but all the year round a steady stream of devotees flows hither. The devotions of the pilgrims, who are usually clad in spotless white, consist of low bowings and prayers before Sripada, gifts of flowers and incense, burning of candles, ringing of small bells, and presents to the priests of rice and of gold and silver coins. Eags of old clothes are also considered a worthy sacrifice, and the words " Sadu, Sadu," corresponding to our " Amen, Amen," are often repeated. Tradition asserts that the iron chains fastened to the walls of rock to give the pilgrims safety along the precipices were placed there by Alexander.

Adam's Tomb. This is pointed out in a chamber of the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Mark Twain's apostrophe at the tomb is one of the most famous bits in his "Innocents Abroad:" "The tomb of Adam! how touching it was, here in a land of strangers, far away from home and friends ! True, he was a blood-relation ; though a distant one, still a relation ! The unerring instinct of nature thrilled its recognition. The fountain of my filial afi'ection was stirred to its profoundest depths, and I gave way to tumultuous emotion. I leaned upon a pillar and burst into tears. I deem it no shame to have wept over the grave of my poor dead relative. Let him who would sneer at my emotion close this volume. Noble old man— he did not five to see his child ; and I — I — I, alas ! did not live to see him. Weighed down by sorrow and disappointment, he died before I was born — six thousand brief summers before I was born. But let us try to bear it with fortitude. Let us trust he is better off where he is. Let us take comfort in the thought that his loss is our eternal gain."

Adrian, St. His festival, together with that of his wife, St. Natalia, occurs September 8, the anniversary of the translation of his relics to Eome. He was anciently commemorated on March 4, his death-day. The greatest military saint next to St. George, he is especially reverenced in Flanders, Germany, and

POPULAR CUSTOMS.

the north of France as the patron of soldiers and a protector against the plague. In Flanders he is also the patron of brewers. Adrian was one of the Praetorian Guards of the Emperor Galerius Maximian. While superintending the torture of thirty-four Christians, he was converted at sight of their fortitude and devotion, and, publicly confessing his faith, was thrown into prison. His wife Natalia was in secret a Christian, and greatly did she rejoice at the news. Disguised as a man, she obtained admittance to his cell and exhorted him to endure to the end. The next day Adrian's limbs were struck off on an anvil, and he was beheaded, March 4, 306. Natalia held him and sustained him in his sufferings, and before the final blow could be given by the headsman he expired in her arms. St. Adrian is usually represented armed, with an anvil in his hands or at his feet. His relics were conveyed to Constantinople, thence to Eome, afterwards into Flanders, and found a final resting-place in the abbey of St. Adrian, founded in 1088 at Geersburg in Belgium by Baldwin YI., Earl of Flanders. But Eaulcourt in the same country claims to possess a complete body, all save an arm. Ghent has another, entirely complete. The jaw and half an arm are shown at Cologne, another part of an arm at Prague, a head at Bologna, and various fragments at Douai and at the cathedral of Bruges.

Adriatic, Marriage of the. (It. Sposalizio del Adriatico.) A solemn ceremony anciently performed in the Yenice of the

Marriage of the Adriatic. (From an old print.)

Doges on Ascension Day. It was instituted in 1177 by Pope Alexander III. in commemoration of a great naval victory won by the Venetians over the hostile fleet of Frederick Barbarossa at Istria. Giving the Doge, Yitale Michieli II., a ring from his own finger, the Pontiff instructed him and his successors on every coming Ascension Day to cast a similar ring into the Adriatic, promising that the bride so espoused should be as dutiful as a wife to her husband. The initial ceremony was performed on Ascension Day in that year. The state gondola known as the Bucentaur, manned by forty rowers, and gorgeously appointed, left the Piazza di San Marco and proceeded slowly towards the isle of Lido. In its wake followed gondolas, barges, sailing-vessels, and galleys, occupied by persons of rank, with minstrels and other attendants. Arriving off the island, the Doge first poured holy water into the sea. Then he took the ring from his finger and dropped it into the bosom of the Adriatic, saying, " We espouse thee, O Sea, in token of our just and perpetual dominion." Solemn mass was attended by all the celebrants and spectators at the church of St. Nicholas on the isle of Lido, and the festivities were rounded out to an epicurean end by a sumptuous banquet at the ducal palace. After the invention of gunpowder a salute of guns was fired as the signal for the gondolas and their train to start from St. Mark's Square. (See Dart, Throwing of the.)

Advent. A preparation for Christmas, as Lent is a preparation for Easter. In one form or another it is recognized by the Eoman, Greek, Lutheran, and Anglican Churches. It is impossible to fix the exact time when the season began to be observed. A canon of a Council at Saragossa, in 380, forbade the faithful to absent themselves from the church services during the three weeks from December 17 to the Epiphany; this is perhaps the earliest trace on record of the observance of Advent. In the fifth century it was closely assimilated to Lent, being kept as a fast of forty days, — f.e., from Martinmas (November 11) to Christmas Eve. Later the length of the season was limited, and in the ninth century it was made to begin, as it now does, with the Sunday nearest to the feast of St. Andrew (November 30), whether before or after that day, so that in all cases the season of Advent shall contain the uniform number of four Sundays. In the Greek Church, however, it contains six Sundays.

Besides being a preparation for Christmas, Advent has another significance in the Eoman Church, as the beginning of the ecclesiastical year. Before the sixth century that beginning was Easter, both in the West and in the East. The reason for the change was that the Jewish ecclesiastical year also began about Easter, and the Christians sought to differentiate themselves as much as possible from the Jews.

Since the curtailing of the season the ancient austerities also have been greatly relaxed, until at present only the Fridays in Advent are fast-days. But no marriages are celebrated during the season. Special devotions are enjoined upon the faithful. The purple hue of penance is the only color used in the services of Advent, except on the feasts of saints. The organ is silenced until the third Sunday in Advent, when it again finds its voice, to indicate that the assured expectation of a Redeemer has tempered mourning. In the Episcopal Church the services appointed for the Advent season bear particularly upon the coming of the Lord.

Popular custom has marked this season with quaint and peculiar observances. In the department of Eure-et-Loire in Normandy every farmer fixes upon some day in Advent for the purpose of exorcising such animals as prove injurious to his crops. He furnishes his younger children with prepared flambeaux, well dried in the oven. If he have no children his neighbors lend him theirs, for only young and innocent children can command certain injurious animals to withdraw from his lands. After twelve years of age children are unfit to perform the office of exorcists. These little people run over the country like so many spirits, set fire to bundles of hay, flourish their torches among the branches of the trees, burn the straw placed underneath, and continually cry out, —

Get out, get out of my field ;

I will burn your beard and bones : Trees and shrubs

Give me bushels of apples.

Accidents might be supposed to arise from this lawless assembly of juvenile torch-bearers ; but their fire is believed to burn only vermin. Such at least is the opinion of the simple inhabitants of Eure-et-Loire.

In Italy the Advent season is duly celebrated, especially in Rome. One custom is worth referring to. In the last days of Advent the Calabrian pifferari, or bagpipe-players, enter Rome, and are to be seen in every street salutinjr the shrines of the Yirgin Mother with their wild music, under the traditional notion of soothing her until the birth-time of her infant at the approaching Christmas. They also stop in front of carpenter-shops, out of respect to St. Joseph, who was a carpenter by trade.

The pifferari play a pipe very similar in form and sound to the bagpipes of the Highlanders. " Just before Christmas," says Lady Morgan, "they descend from the mountains to Naples and Rome, in order to play before the pictures of the Virgin and Child," which are common in every Italian town, and abound in the cities. Eaphael's picture of the Nativity has a shepherd standing at the door playing upon his pipes. This is in accordance with Italian tradition, which holds that the bagpipe was the favorite instrument of the Virgin Mary, and that the shepherds played on it when they visited the Saviour.

Aubanus tells us that in Franconia, on each of the three Thursdays preceding Christmas, it was customary for young boys and girls to ^o from house to house, knocking at the doors, singing their Christmas carols and wishing a happy New Year. In return they received gifts of pears, apples, nuts, or money. Barnaby Googe also refers to this custom, in his paraphrase of Naogeorgus's " Popish Kingdom :"

Three weekes before the day whereon was borne the Lorde of Grace, And on the Thursdays boyes and gyrles do runne in every place, And bounce and beat at every doore, with blowes and lustie snaps, And crie the Advent of the Lord, not borne as yet perbaps, And wishing to the neighbours all, that in the houses dwell, A happy year, and everything to spring and prosper well : Here have they peares, and plumbs, and pence, each man gives willinglie. For these three nightes are always thought unfortunate to bee : Wherein they are afrayde of sprites, and cankred witches spight, And dreadfull devils blacke and grim, that then have chiefest might.

At this season, also, rustic young girls attempted to divine the names of their husbands that should be. Barnaby says, —

In these same dayes yong, wanton gyrles that meete for marriage bee. Doe search to know the names of them that shall their husbands bee. Foure onyons, five, or eight, they take, and make in every one Such names as they do fansie most and best do thinke upon. Thus neere the chim-ney them they set, and that same onyon than, That first doth sproute, doth surely beare the name of their good man.

They also endeavor to divine the character of the "good man" by going at night to the wood-stack and drawing out the first stick that the hand meets :

Which if it streight and even be, and have no knots at all, A gentle husband then they thinke shall surely to them fall ; But if it fowle and crooked be, and knottie here and there, A crabbed, churlish husband then they earnestly.do feare.

For all these wicked doings Barnaby goes on to blame the " Papistes,"

Who rather had the people should obey their foolish lust, Than truly God to know, and in him here alone to trust.

An English custom which is extinct save in remote interior parishes is more directly traceable to the " Papistes." This is the custom of carrying about Advent Images — two dolls dressed up to represent the Saviour and the Virgin Mary — by poor women in the week before Christmas. A halfpenny is expected from every person to whom these are exhibited. Bad luck will follow to him who refuses. (See Yessel-Cup.)

Afra, St., patroness of Augsburg, Germany. Her feast on August 5 is especially honored in this her native city. Legend asserts that she was originally a courtesan, who with her three handmaidens, Digna, Eunomia, and Eutropia, led a dissolute life during the reign of Diocletian. A priest named Narcissus, fleeing from persecution, took shelter in her house in ignorance of its character. He converted and baptized her and her companions, and she aided him to escape. For this offence she was imprisoned, and when she confessed the faith she was burnt alive, August 7, 304. All the members of her household also suffered martyrdom on the same day. But for some reason St. Afra and her companions are commemorated on August 5. Her relics are supposed to have been discovered in 955 by St. Ulfric. They now repose in the church of SS. Ulfric and Afra in Augsburg.

Agape, pi. Agapse. (Gr. dydmf), "love.") The love-feast of the ancient Christians, when all the members of a congregation, even the master and his slaves, met together at a common meal, celebrating the Eucharist, as brethren and sisters of the same family. The Agape therefore was a social symbol of the equality and solidarity of all Christendom, hallowed and sealed by the eucharistic sacrifice. Here all gave and received the kiss of peace {q. v.), and here connmunications from other congregations were received and read. The Agape dates from apostolic times, for it is mentioned in Jude 12 and described at some length in I. Corinthians xi. 23. But even in St. Paul's day its liability to abuse was recognized. As each congregation grew larger and more diverse in its membership, social differences began to assert themselves. The Agapse lost their original significance. They either became distinctively the entertainments of the rich, where luxury was encouraged, or. sank down into a kind of poor-house institution. Finally the third Council of Carthage (a.d. 391) decreed that the Eucharist should be taken fasting, and thereby separated the Agape from the celebration of the Eucharist. Towards the end of the fourth century the Council of Laodicea forbade " eating in the house of the Lord;" but from the fact that the Synod in Trullo (a.d. 692) had to repeat this prohibition it is evident that the practice died hard. From the complaints of St. Augustine it would seem that in his time the custom still survived of permitting communion once a year — viz., Holy Thursday — to those who had just partaken of Agape.

Agatha, St. The festival of this saint occurs on February 5, and is specially honored in Malta and in Catania, Sicily, of which places she is the patroness. She is generally held to be a native of Catania, though Palermo disputes the honor. Quintianus, whom Decius had made King of Sicily, laid siege to her virtue, and because she repulsed him ordered her to be bound and beaten and her bosom to be torn with shears. But at midnight St. Peter descended into her dungeon and healed her. Then Quintianus ordered her to the stake. No sooner was the torch applied than an earthquake broke out, and the citizens forced Quintianus to rescue her from the flames. She was cast back into prison, and God took her to himself (February 5, 251). A year after her death the volcano of Mt. Etna burst into flame. The fire had nearly reached the city, when its progress was arrested by the veil of St. Agatha, which some of the inhabitants had placed upon the top of a pole and borne out in procession ; and all the heathen were converted by this miracle and received baptism. St. Agatha is a patroness against fire and all diseases of the breast. She is represented with the palm in one hand and in the other a salver on which is the female breast.

Most of the saint's relics are preserved at Catania in a church dedicated to her which Gregory the Great purged from the Arian impiety, and which was rebuilt in 460. The same Pope sent some of her bones to the monastery of St. Stephen, in the island of Capri.

The distinguishing feature of the festival at Catania is a ponyrace, closely analogous to the Barberi (^. v.) of the Eoman Carnival. It is thus described by an eye-witness : " The ponies destined ibr the contest have no riders ; but, by means of wax, ribbons are firmly attached to their backs ; and to these again are appended bladders, and weighted pieces of wood, armed with sharp spikes ; the noise of the one, and the pain inflicted by the other, being amply sufiicient to urge to exertion animals much better qualified to resist the efl'ect of either than the horse. At the firing of a signal gun they are turned loose from one extremity of the street ; and amidst the shouts of the populace which lines it on both sides, they make what haste they can to the other. Here I discovered to my great surprise, sitting in the open air, under a canopj^ of crimson, arrayed in robes of office a good deal resembling those of our barristers, the members of the senate, with their intendente or president. The business of these first magistrates of the city, decked out in all their paraphernalia, and attended by drummers, fifers, and musketeers, was to declare the winner among half a dozen jades, the best of which was not worth ten pounds. It was difficult to suppress a smile on seeing one of the parties rise, discuss the matter with the rest of the bench, and, not without much action and emphasis and deliberation, deliver the senatus consultum to the expectant crowd. The mottoes on the canopy might have been selected for the purposes of burlesque : ' Invictas supero,' ' Gatana Hegum,' ' Tutrix Castigo Rebellis' " (Rev. John James Blunt : Vestiges of Ancient Manners and Customs discoverable in Modern Italy and Sicily^ London, 1823.)

A curious ceremony on St. Agatha's Day still survives at Biddenham, England, and possibly other remote rural parishes. Shortly before noon a procession of villagers, carrying a white rabbit decorated with scarlet ribbons, passes through the village, singing a hymn in honor of St. Agatha. Maids old and young who meet the procession point at the rabbit with the first two fingers of the right hand, saying, —

Maidens, maidens, bury him here.

The custom is said to date from the year of the first Crusade.

Agnes, St. One of the four great virgin martyrs of the Latin Church. Her festival occurs on January 21, the reputed anniversary of her martyrdom. St. Agnes was born a Christian, and at a very early age had vowed herself to virginity. When only thirteen she was sought in marriage by the son of the prefect Sempronius. She refused him, saying she was already affianced to one whom she dearly loved, meaning Jesus. The young man fell sick of disappointed love, and Sempronius, learning his secret, besought the maiden to take pity on the unhappy youth. But Agnes answered as before that she was already affianced. When Sempronius inquired her meaning and learned that she was a Christian, he rejoiced, for he knew she was in his power. He commanded her to become a vestal virgin, and on her refusal he had her taken to a house of infamy to be exposed to outrage. The soldiers stripped her of her raiment, but her hair became as a veil, covering her whole body, and those who looked upon her were filled with fear. When they had left her to herself, she praj'ed that she might not be dishonored, and a shining white garment descended into the room. She put it on, rejoicing. Soon afterwards the son of Sempronius entered, thinking that now she must be subdued, but the light from the garment struck him blind, and he fell down in convulsions. Agnes was moved to compassion by the tears of his relations, and through her prayers he was healed. Then Sempronius would fain have released her, but the multitude cried out that she was a sorceress, and clamored for her death. She was bound to a stake. The fire consumed her executioners, but would not hurt her. At last a soldier climbed the pile and killed her with his sword. The day of her martyrdom is given as January 21, 304. She was buried by the Christians in the Yia Nomentana, and her tomb became their place of assembly for devotion. At first the pagans sought to drive them away by hurling stones at them, but, having struck a maiden named Emerantiane, lightning darted out of the skies and killed many of the assailants. Thereafter they suffered the Christians to assemble in peace around the tomb, and there on the eighth day after her death the virgin appeared to them, surrounded by other holy martyrs and with a spotless lamb by her side, and assured them of her happiness. It is on this account that St. Agnes is represented with a lamb by her side. She is usually clothed in white, with the palm of martyrdom in her hand.

Constantine built a church in her honor over the reputed spot of her burial. It was repaired by Pope Honorius in the seventh century, and was enriched with her relics (still preserved here in a rich silver shrine) by Pope Paul Y., in whose time they were discovered under the floor of the church. The edifice is of Byzantine architecture, with galleries high up near the roof, and an altar turned towards the apse instead of facing the nave.

In Catholic countries it was once usual to bless a lamb on St. Agnes' Day, no doubt a recrudescence under Christian forms of the ancient Eoman custom of invoking upon sheep the blessing of Pales, the goddess of sheepfolds and pastures. The lamb, gayly decorated, was first led through the streets by a holiday-making crowd. A more special celebration of this kind is still practised at Eome, when every year on St Agnes' Day two chosen lambs, of undoubted virginity, are blessed by the Pope in the church of St. Agnes after pontifical high mass. These are carefully guarded until shearing-time, when their wool is woven by nuns into the pallium (ji. v.) worn by the Pope and the primates of the Church.

This ceremony is mentioned by l^aogeorgus :

For in St. Agnes' church upon this day while masse they sing, Two lambes as white as snowe, the Nonnes do yearely use to bring : And when the Agnus chaunted is, upon the aultar hie (For in this thing there hidden is a solemne mysterie), They offer them. The servaunts of the Pope, when this is done. Do put them into pasture good till shearing time be come. Then other wool! they mingle with these holy fleeses twaine, Whereof, being sponne and drest, are made the Pals of passing gaine.

[The Popish Kingdom, translated by Barnaby Googe.)

In Jephson's "Manners, etc., of France and Italy" is a poetical epistle dated from Eome, 14th February, 1793, certifying the use of this ceremony at that time :

ST. AGNES'S SHRINE.

Where each pretty Ba-lamb most ijaily appears,

With ribands stuck round on its tail and its ears ;

On gold-fringed cushions they're stretch 'd out to eat,

And piously 6a, and to church music bleat ;

Yet to me ihey seem'd crying — alack, and alas !

What's all this white damask to daisies and grass !

Then they're brought to the Pope, and with transport they're kiss'd,

And receive consecration from Sanctity's fist :

To chaste Nuns he consigns them, instead of their dams,

And orders the friars to keep them from rams.

About 1850 the Pope and his retinue, while enjoying a slight refection in a hall adjoining the church, just after the ceremony, were suddenly precipitated through the rotten floor into a cellar beneath. Almost all escaped unhurt, which was certainly a remarkable occurrence, and was commemorated in after-years by a fresco of marvellous ugliness and very small skill, painted on the remaining wall of the former cellar. It is now enclosed within a portico looking into the court in front of the church, and, if a credit to Eoman feeling, is no less a disgrace to modern Eoman art.

The eve of St. Agnes' feast is not- to be despised as a period of prophetic promise for maidens in search of a husband. An ancient method of divination, mentioned by Aubrey in his " Miscellanies," directs that " upon St. Agnes' Night you take a row of pins, and pull out every one, one after another, saying a Pater Noster, sticking a pin in your sleeve, and you will dream of him or her you shall marry." A more elaborate method was for a maiden to leave her home and go to a strange locality. When she retired to sleep that night she was to take her rightleg stocking and knit the left garter around it, saying the while, —