Wednesday, February 28, 2018

Moon Lore, by J. M. Wheeler 1895


MOON-LORE by J. M. Wheeler 1895

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The wide prevalence of lunar superstitions tends to show their antiquity. Mr. W. F. Mayers {Notes and Queries on China and Japan, p. 123) says: "No one can compare the Chinese legend with the popular European belief of the 'man in the moon' without feeling convinced of the certainty that the Chinese superstition and the English nursery tale are both derived from kindred parentage, and are linked in this relationship by numerous subsidiary ties. In all the range of Chinese mythology there is, perhaps, no stronger instance of identity with the traditions that have taken root in Europe than in the case of the legends relating to the moon." The Rev. J. Doolittle, in his Social Life of the Chinese (vol. ii., p. 65), mentions their making moon-cakes. In Jeremiah vii. 18 we read: "The women knead dough to make cakes to the Queen of Heaven." According to Rashi, an image was stamped on these cakes. Our hot-cross buns probably commemorate the worship of the moon—Diana of the crossways. The Greeks made, for Selene, cakes called moon-shaped; and moon-cakes used to be made not so long ago in Lancashire.

The Virgin Mary has been, by some, connected with the moon. She is depicted standing on a crescent, and surrounded with stars. She is called in the Missal "Sancta Maria, coeli Regina, et mundi Domine." Her first worshippers were the female Collyridians, who sought her favor by libations and offerings of cakes. In the Apocryphal Gospel of Matthew, and in the Gospel of Mary's Nativity, we read that when the Blessed Virgin was an infant she ran up the fifteen steps of the temple at full speed, which may, perhaps, describe the progress of the new moon to the full.

What Tacitus says of the Germans, that they believe that certain things are best undertaken in the new moon, or before its full, is applicable to the peasant to-day; and not to the Teutonic race only, but to Slavs, Kelts, Chinese, and Central Africans. Tusser, in his Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, writes:—

Sowe peason and beanes in the wane of the moone—
Who soweth them sooner, he soweth too soone—
That they with the planet may rest and arise
And flourish, with bearing most plentiful-wise.

In Cornwall people still gather their medicinal plants when the moon is of a certain age, and pigs must always be killed when the moon is coming to the full. By performing all sorts of operations at stated times and seasons, unlettered people kept themselves in time with the lord of growth, the light of darkness, and great time regulator, the moon. While the calendar remained lunar thirteen was a lucky number, but when solar reckoning came in it became a feminine symbol and unlucky.

Aubrey, in his Remaines of Gentilisme (p. 33), says: "In Yorkshire, etc., northwards, some country woemen doe worship the New Moon on their bare knees, kneeling upon an earth-fast stone. And the people of Athol, in the High lands in Scotland, doe worship the New Moon." Camden, in his Britannia (vol. ii., p. 380), writes of the Irish: "Whether or no they worship the moon I know not; but when they first see her after the change they commonly bow the knee and say the Lord's Prayer; and, near the wane, address themselves to her with a loud voice, after this manner: Leave us as well as thou foundest us." Halliwell Phillips mentions, among his Popular Rhymes:—

I see the moon, and the moon sees me;
God bless the moon, and God bless me.

This looks like a Christian adaptation of older moon-worship. In Devonshire it is lucky to see the moon over the right, but unlucky to see it over the left shoulder. To see it straight before you is good fortune to the end of the month.

T. Thiselton Dyer says: "Various forms of moon-worship survive in the divinations and superstitious rites still associated, here and there, with its changes, many of which are supposed to influence the affairs of daily life. Thus the peasant considers it unlucky to have no piece of silver money in his pocket to turn for prosperity when he first sees the new moon. In Yorkshire the only way of averting this ill-omen is at once to turn head over heels." "I have known persons," says Mr. Hunt (Popular Romances of West of England, p.429), speaking of Cornish superstitions, "whose attention has been called to a clear new moon, hesitate: 'Hey, I seed her out a'doors afore.' If not, they will go into the open air, and, if possible, show the moon a piece of gold, or at all events turn their money."

In Berkshire and other counties, says Mr. Dyer, at the appearance of a new moon, young women go into the fields, and, whilst looking up at it, repeat the following rhyme:—

New moon, new moon, I hail thee!
By all virtue in thy body,
Grant this night that I may see
He who my true love is to be.

Georgina F. Jackson. Shropshire Folk-Lore, p. 256, says: "I was myself accustomed in my childhood, on the first sight of the new moon, to curtsey three times, turning round between each curtsey in the expectation of receiving a present before the next moon. Some require nine bows or curtseys without the mystic turns, and some Shrewsbury friends simply perform the ceremony 'for luck,' without the definite expectation of a gift. The rite prescribed by a lady at Ruyton is to curtsey three times, saying, 'Pretty moon, pretty moon, pretty moon!' It is also lucky to get someone to kiss you when you see the new moon."

Mr. F. E. Sawyer, in his Sussex Folk-Lore and Superstitions, mentions a Sussex girl admitted to one of Dr. Barnardo'a Village Homes who (Night and Day, 1881) says she had no knowledge of God; "the only thing she had any reverence for was the moon." She said: "You mustn't point at the moon like that, and you mustn't talk about it." A clergyman of Shrewsbury says he was instructed in childhood that it is wicked to point the finger at the moon! In Germany it is held wicked to point at the stars, "because they are angels' eyes." Mrs. Latham says that in West Sussex they bow or curtesy to the new or lady moon, as she is styled, to deprecate bad luck. The Rev. Mr. Parish says little girls curtsey three times to the new moon, and adds that it would be useless to remonstrate with his churchwarden for trying to catch sight of the new moon over his left shoulder, "especially as he might detect me in turning over my money three times at the same moment." Here I must pause and explain. In old symbology the left side is feminine, the right masculine. To look over the left shoulder has a totally different significance from looking over the right, being the proper- way to regard a lady. Turning money in the pocket comes simply from the idea that the increase of the moon causes other things to increase, for which spitting on them is also efficacious.

At the first appearance of the first new moon of the year Sussex girls go out, and, looking on the moon, repeat these lines:-

All hail to thee, Moon, all hail to thee!
I pray thee, good Moon, reveal to me
This night who my lover or husband will be.

In many parts there is a practice of divination by counting the reflections of the moon in the water. This is to tell when the lover, husband, or baby will come. Somerset folk, I believe, are called moon-rakers through this practice. In days gone by it was a common practice among peasants to say, when the moon was full: "It is a fine moon, God help her."

An astronomer showed some Sussex laborers the moon through his telescope. One, being asked his opinion, replied: "Well, sir, it be a gashly sight. Tester, he said so, when he see it; and he wur quite right; for you know, sir, that he haint never been to say well since."

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Tuesday, February 27, 2018

David Hume: How Easily the Masses are Manipulated by the Few


OF THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF GOVERNMENT by David Hume 1854

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Nothing appears more surprising to those who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye, than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few; and the implicit submission, with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers. When we enquire by what means this wonder is effected, we shall find, that, as Force is always on the side of the governed, the governors have nothing to support them but opinion. It is, therefore, on opinion only that government is founded; and this maxim extends to the most despotic and most military governments, as well as to the most free and most popular. The soldan of Egypt, or the emperor of Rome, might drive his harmless subjects, like brute beasts, against their sentiments and inclination. But he must, at least, have led his mamalukes or prætorian bands, like men, by their opinion.

Opinion is of two kinds, to wit, opinion of interest, and opinion of right. By opinion of INTEREST, I chiefly understand the sense of the general advantage which is reaped from government; together with the persuasion, that the particular government which is established is equally advantageous with any other that could easily be settled. When this opinion prevails among the generality of a state, or among those who have the force in their hands, it gives great security to any government.

Right is of two kinds; right to Power, and right to Property. What prevalence opinion of the first kind has over mankind, may easily be understood, by observing the attachment which all nations have to their ancient government, and even to those names which have had the sanction of antiquity. Antiquity always begets the opinion of right; and whatever disadvantageous sentiments we may entertain of mankind, they are always found to be prodigal both of blood and treasure in the maintenance of public justice.[1] There is, indeed, no particular in which, at first sight, there may appear a greater contradiction in the frame of the human mind than the present. When men act in a faction, they are apt, without shame or remorse, to neglect all the ties of honour and morality, in order to serve their party; and yet, when a faction is formed upon a point of right or principle, there is no occasion where men discover a greater obstinacy, and a more determined sense of justice and equity. The same social disposition of mankind is the cause of these contradictory appearances.

It is sufficiently understood, that the opinion of right to property is of moment in all matters of government. A noted author has made property the foundation of all government; and most of our political writers seem inclined to follow him in that particular. This is carrying the matter too far; but still it must be owned, that the opinion of right to property has a great influence in this subject.

Upon these three opinions, therefore, of public interest, of right to power, and of right to property, are all governments founded, and all authority of the few over the many. There are indeed other principles which add force to these, and determine, limit, or alter their operation; such as self-interest, fear, and affection. But still we may assert, that these other principles can have no influence alone, but suppose the antecedent influence of those opinions above mentioned. They are, therefore, to be esteemed the secondary, not the original, principles of government.

For, first, as to self-interest, by which I mean the expectation of particular rewards, distinct from the general protection which we receive from government, it is evident that the magistrate's authority must be antecedently established, at least be hoped for, in order to produce this expectation. The prospect of reward may augment his authority with regard to some particular persons, but can never give birth to it, with regard to the public. Men naturally look for the greatest favours from their friends and acquaintance; and therefore, the hopes of any considerable number of the state would never centre in any particular set of men, if these men had no other title to magistracy, and had no separate influence over the opinions of mankind. The same observation may be extended to the other two principles of fear and affection. No man would have any reason to fear the fury of a tyrant, if he had no authority over any but from fear; since, as a single man, his bodily force can reach but a small way, and all the further power he possesses must be founded either on our own opinion, or on the presumed opinion of others. And though affection to wisdom and virtue in a sovereign extends very far, and has great influence, yet he must antecedently be supposed invested with a public character, otherwise the public esteem will serve him in no stead, nor will his virtue have any influence beyond a narrow sphere.

A government may endure for several ages, though the balance of power and the balance of property do not coincide. This chiefly happens where any rank or order of the state has acquired a large share in the property; but, from the original constitution of the government, has no share in the power. Under what pretence would any individual of that order assume authority in public affairs? As men are commonly much attached to their ancient government, it is not to be expected, that the public would ever favour such usurpations. But where the original constitution allows any share of power, though small, to an order of men who possess a large share of property, it is easy for them gradually to stretch their authority, and bring the balance of power to coincide with that of property. This has been the case with the House of Commons in England.

Most writers that have treated of the British government, have supposed, that, as the Lower House represents all the Commons of Great Britain, its weight in the scale is proportioned to the property and power of all whom it represents. But this principle must not be received as absolutely true. For though the people are apt to attach themselves more to the House of Commons than to any other member of the constitution, that House being chosen by them as their representatives, and as the public guardians of their liberty; yet are there instances where the House, even when in opposition to the crown, has not been followed by the people, as we may particularly observe of the Tory House of Commons in the reign of King William. Were the members obliged to receive instructions from their constituents, like the Dutch deputies, this would entirely alter the case; and if such immense power and riches, as those of all the Commons of Great Britain, were brought into the scale, it is not easy to conceive, that the crown could either influence that multitude of people, or withstand the balance of property. It is true, the crown has great influence over the collective body in the elections of members; but were this influence, which at present is only exerted once in seven years, to be employed in bringing over the people to every vote, it would soon be wasted, and no skill, popularity, or revenue, could support it. I must, therefore, be of opinion, that an alteration in this particular would introduce a total alteration in our government, and would soon reduce it to a pure republic; and, perhaps, to a republic of no inconvenient form. For though the people, collected in a body like the Roman tribes, be quite unfit for government, yet, when dispersed in small bodies, they are most susceptible both of reason and order; the force of popular currents and tides is in a great measure broken; and the public interests may be pursued with some method and constancy. But it is needless to reason any further concerning a form of government, which is never likely to have place in Great Britain, and which seems not to be the aim of any party amongst us. Let us cherish and improve our ancient government as much as possible, without encouraging a passion for such dangerous novelties.[2]

[1] This passion we may denominate enthusiasm, or we may give it what appellation we please; but a politician who should overlook its influence on human affairs, would prove himself to have but a very limited understanding.

[2] I shall conclude this subject with observing, that the present political controversy with regard to instructions, is a very frivolous one, and can never be brought to any decision, as it is managed by both parties. The country party do not pretend that a member is absolutely bound to follow instructions as an ambassador or general is confined by his orders, and that his vote is not to be received in the House, but so far as it is conformable to them. The court party, again, do not pretend that the sentiments of the people ought to have no weight with every member; much less that he ought to despise the sentiments of those whom he represents, and with whom he is more particularly connected. And if their sentiments be of weight, why ought they not to express these sentiments? The question then is only concerning the degrees of weight which ought to be placed on instructions. But such is the nature of language, that it is impossible for it to express distinctly these different degrees; and if men will carry on a controversy on this head, it may well happen that they differ in the language, and yet agree in their sentiments; or differ in their sentiments, and yet agree in their language. Besides, how is it possible to fix these degrees, considering the variety of affairs that come before the House, and the variety of places which members represent? Ought the instructions of Totness to have the same weight as those of London? or instructions with regard to the Convention which respected foreign politics to have the same weight as those with regard to the Excise, which respected only our domestic affairs?

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Wolf-Madness (Lycanthropy) By A. M. Judd 1897


Wolf-Madness (Lycanthropy) By A. M. Judd 1897

PART I.

By Wolf-madness is meant, not hydrophobia (rabies), which occasionally attacks wolves as well as other animals, but that far more terrible malady, which, in almost all nations, and in all ages, afflicted men and made them fancy themselves wolves, and act as such.

Half the world believed that certain persons had the power of changing themselves into beasts, and indeed the superstition is not wholly extinct in the present day. In parts of France the peasants still firmly believe in the loups-garoux, and will not pass their haunts after nightfall.

Wehr-wolves were called by different names in different places. The French called them loups-garoux; the Bretons, Bisclaveret; in Normandy they were designated garwolves, and they were known in the Perigord as louleerous. With regard to these latter, bastards were supposed to be obliged at each full moon to transform themselves into these beasts, and in the form of louleerous to pass the night ranging over the country, biting and devouring any animals, but more especially dogs, they might meet. Sometimes they were made ill in consequence of having eaten tough old hounds, and vomited up their undigested paws.

The belief in wehr-wolves has come down from the earliest times, from ancient mythology and classic fable. Ovid tells the story of Lycaon, king of Arcadia, who, to test the omniscience of Jupiter, served up for him a dish of human flesh, and was promptly punished by the god for his insolence, by being transformed into a wolf.

That there was a wide-spread superstition of lycanthropy, or wolf-madness, is undoubted, and the belief in a creature combining human intelligence with wolfish ferocity and demoniac strength, was especially strong and prevalent in the middle ages. To this day the idea is still cherished by peasants in remote and secluded parts of Europe.

There was a basis of truth on which the wehr-wolf superstition rested. The old Norse freebooters were celebrated for the murderous frenzy, "Berseker rage," which possessed them at times. The craving for blood and rapine, stimulated by their ravages in summer climes, was developed at home into a strange homicidal madness. When the fit was on them, they would go forth at night, dressed in the skins of wolves and bears, and crush the skulls, or cleave the backbones of any unfortunate belated traveller they might meet, whose blood they sometimes drank. In their frenzied excitement, they acquired superhuman strength and insensibility to pain, and, as they rushed about with glaring eyeballs, gnashing their teeth, foaming at the mouth, and howling like wild beasts, it is not strange that the terrified peasantry should have regarded them as veritable wehr-wolves. Great exhaustion and nervous depression followed these attacks. According to the Norse historians this "Berseker rage" was extinguished by baptism.

The belief in these transformations in the middle ages derived a new and terrible significance from its connection with witchcraft. The ancients regarded the subjects of metamorphoses with superstitious reverence. Divine natures were believed to assume earthly forms, and human beings were supposed to assume, after death, the shapes of those animals their natures most resembled, but these mythological conceptions were degraded by the mediaeval Christians, into diabolical influences. The Church, jealous of miraculous powers exercised beyond its pale, denounced the wehr-wolf as a devil. Thus a person suspected of beast metamorphosis ran the double risk of losing both his soul and his life, of being anathematized by the clergy, and then burnt at the stake. Ignorance of the phenomena of mental disease led to a belief that its victims were ministers of the Evil One, and even mere eccentricity was often fatal to its unfortunate possessor. These ideas were strengthened by some terrible instances of homicidal insanity, occasionally accompanied by cannibalism and lycanthropic hallucinations which were often ascribed to demoniac agency.

The saints were believed to have a power similar to that of the demons. Vereticus, king of Wales, was said to have been transformed into a wolf by St. Patrick, and another saint doomed the members of an illustrious family in Ireland to become wolves for seven years, prowling among the bogs and forests, uttering mournful howls, and devouring the peasants' sheep to allay their hunger.

Though imprisoned in a lupine form, the unfortunate victims were believed to retain their human consciousness, and in some cases their voices, and to yearn for an alleviation of their condition.

The superstitious belief in lycanthropy is of very remote antiquity and its origin is involved in much obscurity. It pervaded Greece, Rome, Germany and other nations; even in England it was prevalent in the middle ages, and was supposed to have come down from the Chaldeans and other nomadic people, who had unceasingly to defend their flocks from the attacks of wolves. The terror that those ferocious beasts spread by prowling at night round the folds proved favourable to malefactors, who, assuming the guise of furious wolves, were the better enabled to perpetrate acts of theft or vengeance.

This lycanthropy was a disease, and a very terrible one. The victims of the hallucination that they were wehr-wolves were undoubted madmen who fully believed they were able to transform themselves into wolves. At the present day some of the inmates of lunatic asylums fancy they can turn themselves at will into beasts, and howl and gnash their teeth in decided wolfish fashion.

Sometimes the wehr-wolves were satisfied with rending and tearing sheep and drinking their blood, but in others this insane appetite took the still more horrible form of cannibalism. Animal flesh would not satisfy their dreadful cravings; human beings, generally children, falling victims to this frightfully depraved taste.

There is another revolting phase that this madness took. Occasionally persons were transformed into human hyenas. Their craving was not, as was that of lycanthropists, for fresh, warm human flesh, they preferred their tit-bits to have been kept some time, as game is hung in order to make it tender; in other words these hyena victims of the terrible malady preferred to dig the corpses out of the graveyards. They were seized with an irresistible desire to enter cemeteries and rifle the newly-made graves so that they might enjoy their gruesome repast.

Strangely enough, these human ghouls were sometimes found in the ranks of the upper classes, unlike the majority of those who killed their victims; these latter being, for the greater part, composed of the most poverty-stricken, ignorant and degraded, of a very low type of intellectual and moral development.

So lately as 1849, one of these ghouls was discovered in Paris. He was a French officer named Bertrand. Delicate and refined in appearance, he was beloved by his comrades for his generous and cheerful qualities. He was, however, of retiring habits, and occasionally subject to fits of depression; but no one had any idea of his ghoulish propensities till they were brought to light.

In the autumn of 1848 several of the cemeteries in the neighbourhood of Paris were found to have been entered during the night, and some of the graves rifled.

It was at first supposed that wild beasts were the perpetrators of these outrages; but footprints in the soft earth showed that it was a man.

Close watch was kept in Pere la Chaise, and the outrages there ceased. But in the following winter other cemeteries were ravaged.

It was not until the March of 1849 that the depredator was discovered by means of a spring gun, which had been set in the cemetery of St. Parnasse. One night it went oft, and the watchers rushed to the spot, just in time to see a dark figure in a military cloak leap over the wall and disappear in the darkness, but not without leaving traces behind; there were marks of blood and a fragment of blue cloth, and these were the means of bringing the guilt home to Bertrand.

He was an officer in the 1st Infantry regiment; and when he was cured of his wound, he was tried by court-martial, and sentenced to a year's imprisonment. He said that the madness suddenly came upon him one day when, walking in a cemetery, he saw a grave not yet filled in, and a spade near at hand. He soon dragged the corpse out and hacked it about with the spade. After this he visited the cemeteries at night, and dug up various corpses, principally women and little girls, and mutilated them in a horrible manner, some he chopped up with the spade, others he ripped and tore with his teeth and nails, rending the flesh from the bones. Sometimes he tore the mouth open, and rent the face back to the ears; he opened the stomachs, pulled off the limbs, and scattering the pieces around, rolled among the fragments. He used to dig up the bodies of men also, but never felt any inclination to mutilate them; it was female corpses he used to delight in rending.

It was excess in drinking that first brought on this horrible madness, and after these accesses of diabolical ghoulishness he would fall into fits of utter exhaustion and helplessness, when, after crawling to some place of concealment he would lie prone on the ground for hours, no matter what the weather might be, unable to stir or rise. It is not stated whether he went on with his ghoul's work after he was liberated from the year's imprisonment to which he was sentenced.

Bertrand's case shows how the brute still underlies the polish of civilization. He was not accounted mad, yet these fits of cannibalism must have been due to some form of insanity, and he seemed totally unable to control his dreadful appetite.

Somehow, much more horrible interest appears to centre on these nineteenth-century miscreants, such as Bertrand and Swiatek, than on those of former and remoter ages. There might have been exaggeration and mis-statements about the ancient men-beasts, but there could be none about their modern prototypes.

Ghouls and vampires have some connection with lycanthropists, for they were supposed in the daytime to be able to turn themselves into wolves or hyenas, while on moonlight nights they would steal among the tombs, and burrowing into them with their long nails, they disinterred the bodies of the dead ere the first streak of dawn compelled them to retire from their unhallowed feast.

To such an extent did the fear of ghouls extend in Brittany, that it was customary to keep lamps burning during the night in churchyards, so that the witches might be deterred from venturing, under cover of darkness, to violate the graves. It was supposed that troops of female ghouls used to appear upon battlefields unearthing the hastily buried bodies of the soldiers and devouring the flesh off their bones.

That the belief in vampires is not extinct in the present day, the following, which appeared in the Standard of May 11th, 1893, will show. "Eleven peasants in the Polish village of Muszina, in Galicia, actuated by a superstition that the recent frosts were the work of a vampire which had entered into an old man who had lately been buried, opened the grave, beheaded the body, and pierced the heart with a stake. They were all arrested."

There was a very ghastly idea in Normandy, that the loup-garou was sometimes a metamorphosis forced upon the body of a damned person, who, after being tormented in his grave, worked his way out of it. It was supposed that he first devoured the cerecloth which enveloped his face, then his moans and muffled howls rang from the tomb through the gloom of night, the earth of the grave began to heave, and at last, having torn his way up, with a scream, surrounded by a phosphorescent glare, and exhaling a foetid odour, he burst away as a wolf.

Sometimes the transformed was supposed to be a white dog that haunted churchyards. With regard to this latter superstition, at this day in some country places in England, the farmers hold white animals to be unlucky, and will not choose white horses, cats or dogs, and consider it an omen of misfortune if they come across a white hare or rabbit. Some two or three years ago the writer was in Devonshire, and near the place where he took up his temporary abode was a very picturesque-looking churchyard. One moonlight evening, all unconscious of there being anything unusual in it, he announced his intention of sitting there for an hour or so before turning in, there being a magnificent view over a long stretch of sea, the church being built on the edge of the cliff. The landlady, a prosaic enough looking old woman, one would think, threw up her hands in protestation.

"You surely wouldn't do anything so rash, sir," she said. "Why not?"

"Because," and she lowered her voice to an awed whisper, "it's haunted." "Indeed?"

"Yes, sir; it's haunted by the ghost of_________"

Oh! shades of wehr-wolves, loups-garoux, bear-men or other ferocious creatures, shiver in your graves and hide your diminished heads before the terrible monster the landlady's imagination conjured up. This evil thing that had the power to work untold harm was nothing more nor less than the ghost of a "white rabbit."

This was too much for the writer's risible nerves, and he disgusted the landlady, not only by a peal of laughter, but also by making a point of going every night during the remainder of his stay to the haunted churchyard. It is needless to add that the formidable ghost never gratified him by making its appearance.

The earliest mention of wehr-wolves is to be found among the traditions and in the mythology of the Scandinavians. The wolf is frequently mentioned in the Edda. There is Fenris, the offspring of Loki, the Evil Principle, an enormous and appalling wolf. The ancient Scandinavians believed that he will continue to cause great mischief to humanity until the Last Day, when, after a fearful combat, he will devour Odin; not content with this, he will devour the sun, but will in his turn, be killed by Vidar.

There are also two wolves, one of which pursues the sun, and the other the moon, and one day both these orbs will be caught and devoured by them; probably one of these is confounded with Fenris, for two wolves would scarcely devour one sun, unless they divided it in halves.

Of the origin of these wolves the Edda tells that "a hag dwells in a wood to the east of Midgard, this is called J'arnvid, or the Iron Wood, and is the abode of a race of witches called J'arnvidjur.

This old hag is the mother of many gigantic sons, who are all of them wolf-shaped. The most formidable of these is named Managarm; he will be filled with the life-blood of men who draw near their end, and will swallow up the moon, and stain the heavens and the earth with blood. Then shall the sun grow dim (preparatory to being devoured) and the winds howl tumultuously to and fro. The snow will fall from the four corners of the world. The stars will vanish from the heavens. The tottering mountains will crumble to pieces; the sea will rush upon the land; and the great serpent, advancing to the shore will inundate the air and water with floods of venom. Then will follow "the twilight of the Gods"—the end of the world.

It may not be out of place here to mention that that apocryphal monster, the dragon, was by many affirmed to be the offspring of an eagle and a she-wolf. An old writer declared that "the dragon had the beake and wings of an eagle, a serpente's taile, the feete of a wolfe, and a skin speckled and partie-coloured like a serpente." He adds the following extraordinary statement, "Neither can it open the eyelids, and it liveth in caves."

Olaus Magnus, Archbishop of Upsal, and Metropolitan of Sweden in the sixteenth century, wrote a great deal on the subject of wehrwolves. He relates, that in the northern parts, at Christmas, there is a great gathering of these men-wolves, who, during the night, rage with such fierceness against mankind, for they are much more savage than natural wolves, that the inhabitants suffer infinite miseries. They attack houses, break open doors, destroy the inmates, and going to the cellars, drink amazing quantities of ale and mead, leaving the empty barrels heaped one on another. Somewhere in those wild northern regions, there was once a wall, belonging to a castle which had been destroyed; and here the wehr-wolves were wont to assemble at a given time and exercise themselves in trying to leap over the wall. The fat ones that could not succeed were flogged by their captains. Olaus asserts that great men and members of the chief nobility of the land belonged to this singular confraternity. The change was effected by mumbling certain words and drinking a cup of ale to a man-wolf. It was necessary that the transformation should take place in some secret cellar or private wood, and the wehr-wolves could change to and fro as often as they pleased. It was not always, however, that the man-wolf could change his shape in time to save his life.

There is a story told of a Russian Archduke, who seized a sorcerer, named Lycaon (perhaps a descendant of the Arcadian king), and commanded him to change himself into a wolf. The enchanter obeyed; not thinking of treachery, he crouched down, muttering incantations, and straightway became a wolf, with glaring eyes, grinning jaws, and raging so fearfully that the keepers could scarcely hold him. By way of having a little sport, the Archduke set two ferocious hounds upon him, and the unfortunate Lycaon was torn to pieces before he could resume his human form.

Some of the lycanthropists felt no uneasiness during the change, but others were afflicted with great pain and horror, while the hair was breaking out of their skin even before they were thoroughly changed.

Some could change themselves whenever they wished, others were transformed twice a year, at Christmas and Midsummer, at which times they grew savage, and were seized with a desire to converse with wolves in the woods. Many of these wehr-wolves bore marks of wounds and scars on their faces and bodies which had been inflicted on them by dogs or men when in their lupine form.

Wehr-wolves were distinguished from natural wolves by having no tails, and by their eyes; for these latter never changed, they were always human. The salve, which in some places was supposed to work the change, was composed of gruesome ingredients, in which the fat of newly-born strangled infants, the marrow of malefactors collected at the foot of the gibbet, the blood of bats, toads and owls, the grease of sows, wolves and weasels, mixed with belladonna, aconite, parsley, poppy, hemlock, combined with various other noxious ingredients, and must have formed a delectable compound.

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That lycanthropy was known as a disease is evident, from some of the old writers speaking of it: "The infected," says one of them, "imitate wolves, and think themselves such, leaping out of their beds and running wild about the fields at night, worrying the flocks, and snarling like a dog. They lurk about the sepulchres by day with pale looks, hollow eyes, thirsty tongues, and exulcerated bodies. They have a black, ugly and fearful look."

It is supposed that Nebuchadnezzar was attacked with this kind of madness when he grovelled about on all fours and ate grass like the beasts.

So late as the reign of James the First, an Englishman, Bishop Hall, travelling in Germany, related that he went through a certain wood that was haunted, not only by freebooters, but by wolves and witches (although these last are oft-times but one). He saw there a boy, half of whose face had been devoured by a witch-wolf, yet so as that the ear was rather cut than bitten off.

At Limburgh the Bishop saw one of these creatures executed; the wretched woman was put on the wheel, and confessed in her tortures that she had devoured two-and-forty children in her wolf-form.

Other authorities state that wehr-wolves were always at enmity with witches. There is a tale told of a countryman who put up at the house of a jovial bailiff, drank too much, and was left to have his sleep out on the floor. The next morning, a horse was found dead in the paddock, cut in two with a scythe. In answer to questions, the guest admitted that he was a wehr-wolf, and that he had hunted a witch about the field. She had taken refuge under the horse, and in aiming at her he had unintentionally divided the animal in halves.

PART II.

Many are the stories related of wehr-wolves; but they differ somewhat according to the locality from which they come. Thus, there are many versions of the following.

A nobleman was travelling with his retainers; and one night they found themselves in a thick wood, far from all human habitations. They were hungry, for they had no provisions with them and did not know what to do. One of the servants, however, told them not to be surprised at anything that might happen. He then went into a dark part of the forest, and presently a wolf was seen to run past, and soon came back with a sheep it had slain, which the company were very grateful for. Then the wolf went to the dark spot, and the servant emerged from there in his proper shape. He was a wehr-wolf.

Another account says that it was a slave who turned himself into a wolf, but unfortunately the dogs set upon him and tore out one of his eyes, so that afterwards he was blind of one eye.

Again, a tale says it was a gentleman who transformed himself because a lady wished to see the change, and lost his eye in consequence.

There are numerous instances of wolves having been wounded, and the next day human beings being found wounded in exactly the same place, thus clearly demonstrating the fact that they were wehrwolves.

In one case a nobleman had a beautiful wife; whether he had tired of her is not stated, but the sequel looks like it, and that he took this means of getting rid of her. A friend came to stay at the castle, who went out hunting. On his return he informed the nobleman that a huge wolf had attacked him, but that he had succeeded in cutting off one of its forepaws which he brought home with him. On taking it out of the cloth in which he had wrapped it, he was horrified to see, not a wolf's paw, but a delicate white hand, having jewels on the fingers. The nobleman instantly recognised the rings as his wife's. Going to her room he found her looking very ill and carefully keeping her right hand covered up. Insisting on seeing it, he soon discovered the bleeding wrist, and knew for certain that his wife was a wehrwolf. This unfortunate lady was tried and executed, falling a victim to her husband's dislike.

In one version, a man going home in the dark was attacked by a wolf, but managed to cut off a paw, which, on reaching his house, he found was a human hand. In a day or two he discovered that a young man of his acquaintance had lost his right hand that very night, which was proof-positive that he was the wehr-wolf who had attacked him.

There is a story related that a nobleman travelling with his servants in some part of France came upon an old beggar-man who was toiling along under a heavy wallet. One of the servants good naturedly offered to carry it, an offer which was accepted. The man felt curious to know what was in the bag, and opening it saw a wolf skin. A desire to put it on came over him, and doing so, he was instantly transformed into a wolf, and rushed about snarling and howling, and trying to attack everyone near him. The dogs had to be set on him, and he only succeeded in getting out of the wolf skin with his life, having received several wounds from the dogs. This man averred that the nature of a wolf seemed to come upon him with its skin, and he had a desire to rend anyone he could seize. Of course they looked at once for the original owner of the skin, the beggar, but the old loup-garou had disappeared and never came to claim his property.

In different countries these metamorphoses were effected by different means. A Swedish tradition relates that a cottager named Lasse, having gone into the forest to fell a tree, neglected to cross himself and say his Paternoster. By this neglect a troll was enabled to change him into a wolf. His wife, who mourned his loss for many years, was told by a beggar-woman, to whom she had been kind, that she would see her husband again as he was not dead, but roaming the forest as a wolf. That very evening, as she was in her pantry putting away a joint of meat, a wolf put its paws on the window-sill, and looked sorrowfully at her. "Ah!" said she, "if I knew that thou wert my husband, I would give thee this meat." At that instant the wolf skin fell off, and her husband stood before her in the same old clothes which he had on on the day of his disappearance.

In parts of Germany, those who wished to become wehr-wolves, obtained the power by drinking a nauseous draught from the hands of one already initiated.

In France, usually, the change was made by rubbing with some unguent, generally of demoniacal origin. Others asserted that wolf skins given them by devils, had the quality of transforming those who put them on into ferocious animals themselves.

Mostly the loup-garou was able to re-transform himself back into his human shape at his own will by such expedients as plunging into water, rolling over and over in the dew, or resuming his clothes, which were usually hidden in some thicket while the wehr-wolves were on their runs; but there were cases where the victims were unable to escape from their lupine form for periods ranging from a month to seven years. These were generally victims of the hatred of relatives who took this method of punishing those who were obnoxious to them.

It was said that jilted mistresses and deserted wives used to bribe witches t'o turn their faithless swains or husbands into wolves for the term of seven years. These wolves, however, were not credited with a taste for human flesh.
Some of those who were executed as lycanthropists, declared in their confessions, that no sooner had they put on the wolf-skin received from a demon, than their whole nature seemed to change. Their teeth felt on edge to bite and rend, the bloodthirst awoke in them, and they would dart forth from hut or brake or thicket, whereever, in fact, the metamorphoses had taken place, and traverse meadows, forests, plains and marshes, howling in a frightful manner until they met a victim, when they would rend him with teeth and claws, preparatory to making a meal of him. In great fear were these wehr-wolves held, and terrible tales were told of them and the bloody scenes and unhallowed deeds that were supposed to be enacted in their nocturnal haunts.

Real wolves in severe winters have been known to come into villages and kill children, and cases have been heard of, when terribly pressed by hunger, their invading burial grounds, and disinterring the dead, and occasionally, perhaps, their depredations have been put down wrongfully to some unfortunate being suspected of being a loup-garou; but unfortunatly there was only too much truth in the stories told of some of these human wolves and their propensities for cannibalism.

These insane creatures actually believed that they turned into wolves, though no trustworthy person had ever seen the transformation. Some of them ran about on all-fours, and devoured with eagerness any offal that came in their way.

As with witchcraft, so with lycanthropy.

When the persecution against wehr-wolves was disconnected and fitful, isolated cases only were heard of; but when, towards the end of the sixteenth century, something like a crusade was preached, and priestly anathemas were hurled against it, lycanthropy alarmingly increased. Nothing else being talked about, hundreds of weak heads were turned, silly persons accused themselves of the crime and attempted to play wolf, though somehow or other they could never manage the transformation to the satisfaction of their neighbours. Not to be done however, some of them got over this difficulty by asserting that they wore their bristles inside their skin.

The folly and ignorance of our ancestors in those days must have been prodigious. Look at the scientific treatises they wrote to prove witchcraft true, and now this palpable lie took in these same learned persons, and a very animated discussion ensued upon the why and the wherefore of this extraordinary fact. The savants, with their usual discernment propounded a great many ingenious theories to account for so remarkable a circumstance, theories which satisfied everybody, except those who had counter-theories of their own. It must have been an edifying sight, these grave and reverend seignors, explaining to their own and everybody else's satisfaction how it was that the bristles of the invisible wolf-pelts could be worn under the human skin.

In 1598, a tailor of Chalons was sentenced to be burned alive for lycanthropy. He used to decoy children into his shop, or waylay them in the woods at dusk. After tearing them with his teeth and killing them, he dressed their flesh like ordinary meat, and devoured it with great relish. A cask full of bones was found in his house, but the number of his victims is unknown.

Peter Bourgot, a shepherd of Besancon, having lost his sheep in a storm, recovered them by the aid of the devil, whom he agreed to serve, and was transformed into a wolf by being smeared with a salve. He confessed that he had often killed and eaten children and even grown persons. On one of his raids, a boy whom he attacked screamed so loudly that he was obliged to return to his clothes, and smear himself again in order to escape detection.

One Roulet was a wretched beggar, whose idiotic mind was completely mastered by his cannibal appetite. The first knowledge of his depraved taste was obtained by some countrymen, who, while passing a wild and lonely spot near Caude, found the mutilated corpse of a boy of fifteen. On their approach, two wolves which had been rending the body ran off. Following their tracks, the men came upon a half-naked man crouching in the bushes. His hair and beard were long and straggling, and his nails, which were the length of claws, were clotted with blood and shreds of human flesh. Roulet acknowledged that he had killed the boy, and would have devoured the body completely had it not been for the arrival of the men. He said, at his trial, that he transformed himself into a wolf by using an ointment his parents had given him; and added, that the wolves that had been seen leaving the corpse were his brother and cousin. There is do doubt this man killed and eat several children, under the belief that he was a wolf. He was sentenced to death, but afterwards placed in a madhouse.

Another lycanthropist, Jacques Raollet, was a native of Maumusson, near Nantes. His hair floated over his shoulders like a mane, his eyes were buried in his head, his brows knit, his nails excessively long, and he smelt so strong that nobody cared to go near him. This wehr-wolf had a propensity for which a good many persons, instead of finding fault with him, would applaud him in the present day; he confessed that it was a frequent custom of his to devour lawyers, bailiffs and others of the same sort, though he avowed that their flesh was so tough that he could never digest it.

Raollet was captured by the aid of dogs. During his examination he asked a gentleman who was present if he did not remember once to have discharged his arquebuss at three wolves.

The gentleman, a noted sportsman, admitted that he had done so, upon which Raollet declared that he was one of those wolves, and if they had not been put to flight by the peppering they had received on that occasion they would have devoured a woman who was working in a field close by. He was condemned to death by the Parliament of Angers and was burned at the stake.

Though wolves were the principal animals into which men were supposed to be transformed, there were stories of other metamorphoses into bears, cats and hares. According to one tale a man was cleaving wood in his courtyard, when he was suddenly attacked by three very large and ferocious cats. He defended himself by his prayers and his axe, and finally drove off the animals, who were considerably the worse for the combat. What was the man's astonishment shortly afterwards to be hauled before a magistrate on the charge of grievously wounding three honourable matrons. The ferocious cats were ladies of high rank, the affair was hushed up, and the man was dismissed under a strict injunction to secrecy on forfeit of his life.

In 1661, in Poland, in the forest of Lithuania, some huntsmen perceived a great many bears together, and in the midst of them two of small size, which exhibited some affinity to the human shape. Their curiosity excited, the men with considerable difficulty, for the creature defended itself with its teeth and claws, managed to capture one of these small bears. It ran about on all fours, the skin and hair were white, the limbs well proportioned and strong, the visage fair and the eyes blue, but the creature could not speak, and its inclinations were altogether brutish. It appeared to be about nine years old. This bear-child was shown to the king and queen. It was christened by an archbishop in the name of Joseph Ursin, the Queen of Poland standing godmother, and the French Ambassador, godfather. Attempts were made to tame Joseph, but with not much success. He could not be taught to speak, though there was no apparent defect in his tongue; nor could he be induced to throw aside his fierceness, or to wear clothes or shoes, or anything on his head; however, he learned to walk upright on his feet and go where he was bidden. He liked raw flesh. Sometimes he would steal to the woods and there suck the sap from the trees after he had torn off the bark with his nails.

One day it was observed that he being in a wood when a bear had killed two men, that ferocious beast came to him, and instead of harming him, fondled him and licked his face and body.

Whether this creature was really a human child stolen by bears in its infancy, is not stated, nor what eventually became of him.

There have been accounts too, but whether trustworthy or not, it is impossible to say, of baboons carrying off children and bringing them up with their own young, and these children grew up with all the characteristics of their baboon foster parents save that their skins were not hairy. When found and taken back to their rightful place among men, they pined, were miserable, and seized the first opportunity of returning to the haunts of the wild men of the woods whose natures seemed to be in affinity with their own.

It is also said that Romulus and Remus have had modern counterparts. A case occurred in Oude not many years ago.

This story is vouched for as being absolutely true. It was somewhere about 1840 that a child of eighteen months old was missed by its parents. It was supposed that wolves had devoured it. About seven years after a man shooting in the jungle saw a she-wolf with several cubs, one of these had the appearance of a boy running about on all fours. With considerable difficulty he captured it, for the she-wolf showed fight. The animal snarled and growled like a wolf, and tried to bite its captor. It was exhibited at Lucknow and caused considerable sensation. It was eventually handed over to one of the authorities (an English officer) who had a cage made for it, as it was dangerous to let it loose. None doubted that it was a human being, though it never stood erect, or uttered any sound save a growl or hoarse bark. It would only eat raw flesh, and when clothes were made for it, it tore them to pieces. A rank wolfish smell issued from the pores of its skin, which was covered with thin short hair. Among the crowds who came to see the monster was the woman who had lost the child seven years before. To her horror she discovered by certain marks upon it that it was her own missing offspring. Every effort was made to tame him but without effect. He pined away and died in about a year after his capture.

In 1849 at the little hamlet of Polomyja, in Austrian Galicia, a white-bearded venerable man might have been seen sitting at the porch of a church asking alms of the poor wood-cutters who made up the population. This beggar, whose name was Swiatek, eked out his subsistence by the charity of the villagers and the sale of small pinchbeck ornaments and beads. Several children disappeared about this time, but nobody connected their disappearance with the venerable looking Swiatek, and as the wolves happened to be particularly ravenous that winter, it was supposed they had eaten them, and the exasperated villagers killed several. But a horrible discovery was made in the following May. An innkeeper lost two ducks and suspected Swiatek of being the thief. To satisfy himself he went to the beggar's cottage. The smell of roasted meat which greeted his nostrils when he entered confirmed his suspicions. As he threw open the door he saw the beggar hide something under his long robe. The innkeeper at once seized Swiatek by the throat and charged him with the theft, when, to his horror, he saw the head of a girl of fourteen drop from beneath the pauper's clothes.

He called the neighbours, and the old beggar, his wife, his daughter aged sixteen, and his son, aged five, were locked up. The hut was then thoroughly examined, and the mutilated remains of the poor girl were discovered, part being cooked. At his trial Swiatek stated that he and his family had eaten six persons. His children, however, declared that the number was much larger, and this testimony was confirmed by the discovery in the hut of fourteen different suits of clothes. For three years Swiatek had been indulging in this horrible propensity, which had suddenly sprung into existence by the following circumstance :—In 1846 he found amid the charred ruins of a Jewish tavern, the half-roasted corpse of its proprietor, who had perished in the flames. The half-starved beggar could not resist the desire to taste it, and having done so, the unnatural craving impelled him to gratify his depraved appetite by murder. The indignation against him was so great that he would have been torn in pieces by the populace only he anticipated their vengeance by hanging himself the first night of his confinement from the bars of the prison-window.

There is a romantic Breton story of a nobleman who used to transform himself.

His wife discovered his secret, and possessed herself of his clothes while he was in the lupine state, thus preventing him from returning to his proper form. She then married a lover, and Bisclavaret lurked miserably in woods, longing in vain to shake off the brutish semblance that imprisoned him.

The king hunting one day pursued the man-wolf, and at last ran him down. He was about to kill the animal, when it seized his stirrup and appeared to implore his protection.

The king, greatly astonished, had him taken to court, where he became a great favourite, his manners were so gentle and dog-like.

But one day his faithless wife's husband came to court, when Bisclavaret jumped savagely upon him and nearly killed him before he could be rescued by the attendants. Again the same thing happened, but on the faithless dame herself appearing Bisclavaret seized upon her and tore her nose from her face.

This incensed the king greatly, and he would have put the wolf to death, when an aged counsellor perceiving some mystery, advised that the lady and the knight should be imprisoned until the truth should be extorted from them.

This was done and Bisclavaret's clothes being restored to him, he became a comely gentleman, who was taken into high favour. The wicked wife and her companion were banished from the land.

Instances might be multiplied by the score, but enough has been said to show that while wehr-wolves were a myth built up by superstition, Lycanthropy, or wolf-madness was no myth, but a dread and appalling reality.


Monday, February 26, 2018

The Welsh Discovery of America by H. Wright 1874


WELSH DISCOVERY OF AMERICA by H. Wright 1874

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The following is taken from The Antiquary, Aug. 9, 1873:—

That America was visited by the Northmen of Northern Europe, and probably by inhabitants of the British Islands, long anterior to the discovery of the Western Continent by Columbus is a fact that can scarcely be disputed. The rude inhabitants of former times may have, and did most probably visit Greenland and portions of North America; but as they died and left no sign, as they had no means, and did not proclaim to the world the existence of another and a fairer continent, to Columbus must belong the honour and glory of this great discovery. As the story of the visit of a Welsh chieftain, in the twelfth century, to the shores of America, is an interesting one, I shall try and tell what I know about it very briefly.

In the "History of Wales, first wrote by Caradoc, Abbot of Llancarvan, and Englished by David Powell," we are informed that, in the year 1170, Madoc ap-Owen Gwynnedd, perplexed by the distractions of a civil war at home and all its attendant calamities and troubles, resolved to seek peace in some remote country. He, with a number of courageous followers, trusting to the tempests and dangers of the ocean, rather than the turmoils and dangers which surrounded them, took to the sea, and, sailing due west, in course of time landed on some part of the vast continent we now call America. Madoc was charmed with his new-found world, its soil, and the evidences of fertility he saw on every band. Building, we are told, some slight fortifications to protect his people (the first thing our first English colony was obliged to do 400 years later), he returned home to Wales, leaving 120 men behind him. I presume the civil broils were now over, for he collected his countrymen, and, relating to them his successful voyage, and describing to them the beautiful, fruitful, and glorious country he had found out, prevailed on many of his people—both men and women—to embark their fortunes with his, and to return with him and enjoy, across the mighty waters, peace, happiness, and plenty. Madoc and a goodly company accordingly set out in ten barges, prepared for the mighty voyage, and by God's good keeping, we are told, they landed safely in the same harbour they had arrived at before. Although this was before the days of tbe mariner's compass and Atlantic steam ships we let it pass; is it not written in the chronicles of Caradoc, Abbot of Llancarvan?

Authorities are divided as to where it was this band of brave adventurers settled or located on the new continent. Some think probably about Mexico, for there prince Madoc was buried, as his epitaph since found makes evident beyond contradiction. It is as follows:—

"Madoc ap-Owen was I called,
  Strong, tall, and comely, not enthralled
 With home-bred pleasure, but for fame
 Through land and sea 1 sought the same."

Another opinion is that Madoc landed on the coast of Carolina, if anywhere in America.

Madoc and his countrymen, having established themselves on the American continent, would naturally, either in the course of time amalgamate and intermarry with the natives of tbe country—as was the case with the Spaniards when they entered into possession of the land, several generations afterwards—er would keep themselves separate and distinct—as was followed by the English colonies in New England, Virginia, &c, in the seventeenth century. There are some proofs and traditions that go to support either view. European travellers allege that they have found various British (i.e., Welsh) words in use among the Mexican Indians, which favours the theory that the Welshmen had seen that the daughters of the land were fair and comely to look upon, and had found favour in their eyes, and so that Welsh words as well as Welsh blood had taken root in the land. The following are mentioned among others —Pengwyn, Groeso, Gwenddwr, Bara, Tad, Mam, Buwch, Cligiar, Llwynoc, Coch-y-dwr, &c.


Other and more modern tradition and testimony—as we shall see subsequently—are to the effect that the knot of Welsh emigrants keeping themselves, as it were, a clan, remained in a great measure like unto white people, maintained above all their own (Welsh) language, and so came down to recent times as "Welsh American Indians."

Confirmatory of the foregoing statements or traditions we have the following testimony from Morgan Jones, son of John Jones, of Basaly, near Newport, in the county of Monmouth, who was chaplain to the plantations of South Carolina, in 1689. Morgan Jones wrote a letter to Dtr. Thomas Lloyd, of Pennsylvania, by whom it was transmitted to Charles Lloyd, of Dol-y-fran, in Montgomeryshire, and afterwards communicated to Dr. Robert Plot, the antiquary and historian, of Oxfordshire and Staffordshire. Morgan ap-Jones states that in 1660 he was an inhabitant of Virginia, and chaplain to Major-General Bennett, of Nauseman County, and that he was sent by General Bennett and Governor Sir William Berkeley, as minister, with two ships to Port Royal, now called South Carolina, accompanied by other ships, they arrived at a place called the Oyster Point (where the city of Charleston now stands). Here he abode about eight months, and he says he and his companions were almost starved. To avoid death by starvation he and five others started through the wilderness till they came to the country of the Tuscarora Indians, when they were taken prisoners. A council being held, an interpreter conveyed to Morgan ap-Jones the unwelcome intelligence to prepare to die—for he and his comrades would be executed on the morrow. Stunned by this intelligence, and knowing that escape or mercy from the savages was not to be expected, the poor Welshman, Morgan ap-Jones, gave vent to his distress in the language dear to his heart, which he had learned among his native mountains in far-off Wales—"Have I," said he, "escaped so many dangers, and most I now be knocked on the head like a dog?" At this an Indian came to him, and replying to him also in the British (Welsh) tongue, said that he should not die, and thereupon he went to the Emperor of the Indians and ransomed Jones and his companions. His new-found friend entertained them hospitably for four months, during which time Jones conversed with them familiarly in the British language, and did preach to them three times a week in the same language, and they would usually confer with him about anything that was difficult therein. At their departure the Indians abundantly supplied their wants, and performed the parts of generous and friendly hosts indeed. This, says Jones, is a brief recital of my travels among the Doeg Indians. "Written from New York 10 March, 1685. P.S.—I am ready to conduct any Welshmen or others to the country."

There is further confirmation of the existence of this tradition of a Welsh discovery of America. Cotton Mather, in his "Magnalia," p. 3, gives credit to a pre-Columbian emigration from Great Britain. The ancient Welsh bards living before the time of Columbus, sang the praises, it is said, of this Madoc-ap-Gwinnedd and his achievements. A Charles Beatty, who travelled in Pennsylvania and wrote a journal, printed in 1768, states that he met with a Benjamin Sutton, who had been taken captive by the Indians, and had lived many years among them. He said that in a town not very far distant from New Orleans a people abode differing much in complexion from the other people of the country, and that they spoke Welsh. He saw a book among them, supposed to be a Welsh Bible, which they carefully preserved in a skin, but could not read. In another town he heard some Indians speak Welsh with one Lewis, a Welshman. A clergyman was also spoken of, who had been taken prisoner by the Indians, but whose life was spared in consequence of his praying in Welsh.

A Mr Evans, an enterprising Welshman, had a vehement desire to find out the scattered seed of Saint David, and had returned to Philadelphia, after having discovered his lost countrymen. He found them about 700 miles west of the mouth of the Missouri. He conversed with them, and they said their ancestors came from a far-off country, in 1018, by thirteen ships to the mouth of the Mississippi, and since that time they had fallen back to the place of their present residence.

A Mr John Chesholm, writing "from the Creek Nation," March, 1797, to the Rev. Dr Rogers, of Philadelphia, says he had generally heard the Southern Indians say that there were such a people as Welsh Indians, who lived far to the westward of the Mississippi, and that they had been at war against them, and had taken prisoners. Among the prisoners were an old woman and three children, and that the woman had books like the white people. She had been visited, and had two printed books, apparently books of devotion.

A member of the Unitas Fratrum, at Bethlehem, Mr John Heckewelder, wrote, March, 1797, that a Mr Sebastian, formerly a clergyman, now an attorney, told him in 1792, that there were now living in Kentucky two persons who had been formerly prisoners with the Indians, and had been carried to a great distance beyond the Mississippi, and lived a number of years with the Welsh Indians.

On the subject of a pre-Columbian discovery of America, numerous notices are scattered through the class of literature now known as "Americana;" but one book may be usefully consulted—"Discovery of America by the Northmen in the Tenth Century, with Notices of the Early Settlements of the Irish in the Western Hemisphere," by N. L. Beamish. 8vo London, 1841.

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The Hidden History of the Rooster by Lewis Spence 1920


The Hidden History of the Rooster by Lewis Spence 1920

The cock has always been connected with magical practice in the various parts of the world throughout the ages, and is to be considered in more than one light in this connection. He is the herald of the dawn, and many examples might be cited of assemblies of demons and sorcerers where his shrill cry, announcing dayspring, has put the infernal Sabbath to rout. It is said that for the purpose of averting such a contingency, sorcerers were wont to smear the head and breast of the cock with olive oil, or else to place around his neck a collar of vine-branches. In many cases the future was divined through the instrumentality of this bird. It was also believed that in the stomach of the cock was found a called Lappilus Alectorius, from the Greek name of bird, the virtue of which was to give strength and courage, and which is said to have inspired the gigantic might of Milo of Crotona. Originally a native of India, the cock arrived in Europe in early times, via Persia, where we find him alluded to in the Zoroastrian books as the beadle of Sraosa, the sun, and affrighter of demons. Among the Arabs, it is said that he crows when he becomes aware of the presence of jinns. The Jews received their conception of the coch as a scarer of evil spirits from the Persians, as did the Armenians, who say that he greets with his clarion callthe guardian angels. who descend to earth with that day, and that he gives the key-note to the angelic choirs of heaven to commence their daily round of song. In India, too, and among the Pagan Slavs, he was supposed to scare away demons from dwelling places, and was often the first living creature introduced into a newly-built house. The Jews, however, believe that it is possible for the cock to become the victim of demons, and they say that if he upsets a dish he should be killed. The cock is often used directly in magical practice. Thus, in Scotland, he is buried under the patients' bed in cases of epilepsy. The Germans believed that if a sorcerer throws a black cock into the air, thunder and lightning will follow, and among the Chams of Cambodia, a woman who wishes to become a sorceress sacrifices a live cock on a termite's nest, cutting the bird in two from the head to the tail, and placing it on an altar, in front of which she dances and sings, until the two halves of the bird come together again, and it comes to life and crows. His name was often pronounced by the Greeks as a cure for the diseases of animals, and it was said by the Romans that locked doors could be opened with his tail feathers. The bird was often pictured on amulets in early times, and figured as the symbol of Abraxas, the principal deity of a Gnostic sect.

The cock is often regarded as the guide of souls to the underworld, and in this respect was associated by the Greeks with Persephone and Hermes, and the Slavs of pagan times often sacrificed cocks to the dead, and to the household serpents in which they believed their ancestors to be reincarnated. Conversely, the coch was sometimes pictured as having an infernal connection, especially if his colour be black. Indeed he is often employed in black magic, perhaps the earliest instance of this being in the Atharia Veda. A black cock is offered up to propitiate the Devil in Hungary, and a black hen was used for the same purpose in Germany. The Greek syrens, the Shedim of the Talmud, and the Izpuzteque, whom the dead Aztec encounters on the road to Mictlan, the Place of the Dead, all have coach's feet. There is a widespread folk-belief that once in seven years the cock lays a little egg. In Germany it is necessary to throw this over the roof, or tempests will wreck the homestead, but should the egg be hatched, it will produce a cockatrice or basilisk. In Lithuania they put the cock's egg in a pot, and place it in the oven. From this egg is hatched a Kauks, a bird with a tail like that of a golden pheasant, which, if properly tended, will bring its owner great good luck. Gross mentions in a chronicle of Bale, in Switzerland, that in the month of August, 1474, a cock of that town was accused and convicted of laying an egg, and was condemned to death. He was publicly burned along with his egg, at a place called Kablenberg, in sight of a great multitude of people.

The cock was also regarded as having a connection with light and with the sun, probably because of the redness of his comb, and the fiery sheen of his plumage, or perhaps because he heralds the day. It is the cock who daily wakens the heroes in the Scandinavian Asgard. 

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Sunday, February 25, 2018

Capitalism & Calvinism, article in The Nation 1910


Calvinism and Capitalism, article in The Nation 1910

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CALVINISM IN THE BUSINESS WOULD.
The intimate relations between Protestantism and the spirit of modern business enterprise have been clearly recognized. The lead taken in the development of industry, commerce, and finance during the last three centuries by Holland and Great Britain, and by the Protestant sections of the population of Germany, Switzerland, and France, the peculiar aptitude for business emanating from the Independents, Baptists, Unitarians, Quakers, Methodists, Plymouth Brethren, establish the strongest reason for supposing that Protestantism brought a new driving force into the world. The very title Protestant implies a certain grit and independence of character, favoring other than merely religious enterprise, and bringing into each schismatic church a large proportion of thoughtful, thriving families. For self-protection and the furtherance of their strongly-realized spiritual mission, these heretical minorities will naturally be drawn into unusually close co-operation for social and political purposes. When economic evolution has reached the stage in which "credit" is the soul of business, their personal confidence in one another will acquire a first-rate importance as a commercial asset. These are obvious factors making for the economic success of earnest, energetic minorities, quite independently of the particular spiritual creed which animates them. But there are certain forces of Protestantism which, emerging by peculiarly apt coincidence just when the appropriate economic system was ready for the operation, have been of paramount importance in the modern business world.

In two articles of profound and delicate analysis in the "Contemporary Review." Dr. Forsyth sets forth the distinctive part which the tenets and the regimen of Calvinism have played in energizing business life. At once ascetic in its ethical code, and rationalistic in its stress upon private judgment and personal responsibility in matters both of faith and of external activity, Calvinism moulded a personality closely adapted to the needs and opportunities of a business world which required tough, reliable, industrious, honest, self-assertive, enterprising men for its new methods. Calvinism certainly educated and supplied such men, the thrifty, self-contained entrepreneurs of the modern economic order. The Lutheran faith was too mild and too reposeful in its piety, too respectful to traditions. Calvinism was "the most anti-traditional and revolutionary of all the forces of Protestantism." In matters not only of faith and of church organization, but of political and civic government, it furnished organs and leaders of revolt and reformation everywhere, in Geneva, Scotland. England, America. The doctrine of election engendered a spirit of high personal confidence and of a dignity whose absolute submission to a Higher Power made its votaries restive to the claims of earthly potentates. The eternal value that it stamped on inner personality evoked all the moral individualism needed for the breakdown of feudal traditions in the arts of government and business, and for the most liberal experiments in both fields of enterprise.

But this spirit of democratic individualism, complete self-reliance, could not itself supply the conquering power. Calvinism was a democratic aristocracy. It was the co-operative confidence of a Company of Saints, with a spiritual destiny, aye, and even temporal rights, superior to those of the rest of mankind, that made Calvinism a ruling power. But the main propelling force lay in a stress upon works, the duty of realizing the will of God in personal and social conduct upon this earth. There seems no logical necessity why the doctrines of Predestination and Election should have generated practical energy. The Oriental kismet exhibits itself more in sterile passivity than in active fanaticism. One may suspect that what is called the temperament, the natural proclivity, was responsible for the practical development of Calvinistic fatalism. "If you are sure, in predestination, of your destiny and your eternity, you can exploit the world with immense freedom and confidence. It is the ethical part of your religious duty, of your response to elect grace. And you can do it in the natural way of personal gain, without succumbing to an inordinate affection for your gain. Fixed in your eternal seat, your limbs are loose and free for the occupations and possibilities around you." Such a Christian will rise early, work hard, keep sober, and stint himself so as to save and get a nest-egg; he will be keen to seize, and industrious to improve, a business opportunity; he will bargain ably and hardly, asserting all his "rights"; he will be known to keep his word; he will put most of his rising income into his business; a formidable, a fearless competitor, he will secure the survival of the fittest; where combination displaces competition, his fidelity and efficiency as a colleague will be equally serviceable and profitable. As a religious man. he will regard all his activities as "auxiliary to that lifework in which a man was called to glorify God." He will half-consciously realize the economic importance of maintaining the reality of this conviction of an unselfish and a higher purpose in his business life. So he will never recognize quite clearly the largeness of the alloy of materialism and mere profit-seeking which will often have displaced the spiritual aim.

There can be no doubt whatever that this hard, forceful creed, impelling its votaries to conquer this world for the sake of the other, and all the while deceiving themselves as to the relative strength and genuineness of the two appeals, has given spiritual nutriment to Capitalism. It has not merely formed the good business manager; it has inspired those great religious and political missionary movements which have, quite incidentally, as naive historians suppose, opened up new markets and developed great hidden natural resources in distant quarters of the earth. Calvinism still gives the stiffening to the modern doctrine of efficiency, by virtue of which the Anglo-Saxons claim authority over heathen and backward peoples to work their railways and mines and supply them with good government. Liberal Imperialism, resolved into its ethical and intellectual premises, is little else than pure Calvinism, with Kipling and Roosevelt for its priests and prophets.

The economic services have been great and incontestable. Capitalism could hardly have run its course without this inner light and leading. We may, perhaps, be disposed to dispute the question how far the initiative belongs to Calvinism. There are those who will contend that the causative energy proceeded from Capitalism, and that the demand for the thrifty and energetic entrepreneur determined and moulded the creed and doctrines of Calvinism, rather than the converse. Probably the two processes were interactive, Calvinism and Capitalism evoking one another by a spiritual affinity, and so forming the natural partnership which has occurred.

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Not the least interesting portion of Dr. Forsyth's essay consists in his recognition that the partnership has done its work. It has, indeed, outlasted its proper time, yielding to certain corruptions of worldliness. "Capitalism announces its own end in becoming de-ethicized in a plutocracy." It were strange indeed had this not been so. For the fundamental notion of a business exploitation of the world, not merely for the production, but for the accumulation of wealth in the possession of an exploiting class, which at the same time should preserve ascetic habits, is self-contradictory. An ethic which made against luxury, while it accumulated wealth, proved self-destructive. A life of charity or philanthropy seemed to offer an escape from the dilemma, but this escape is shown ever more clearly to be illusory.

All this Dr. Forsyth appears to recognize. He sees in the new claims of labor to displace capital as the central factor in the economic system, and the searching after a more equitable system of distribution, the opening of a new economic era. If Christianity is to do for this what Calvinism did for the capitalistic era, the creed and policy must be accommodated to the new situation. The old exclusiveness must disappear from "election," which must expand so as to include all men. Moral personality must remain its absorbing practical concern, but the conception of an inner society of "the elect," or even of "a favored people," must give way to the wider conception of "a world of moral personality."

So Dr. Forsyth leads us to the verge of a great issue, perhaps of a rich land of promise. He is clear that some large expansion of religious doctrine is required to enable the Church to furnish a soul to the new social organization. He is convinced that "the Church will stand or fall by its success or failure with the social question." Liberal thinkers in all the churches stand shivering on this brink. Perhaps they half recognize that the very economic structure of the churches themselves with their professional clergy and their finance, largely the peculiar product of the passing age of capitalism, may have to undergo a transformation before a really effective, impassioned creed of labor can arise to offer light and inspiration to a new social order.

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