PART I.
SUPERSTITIOUS BELIEFS AND PRACTICES.
PAGE Introduction 1
Lancashire Alchemists 23
Lancashire Astrologers 33
Bells 41
Beal-tine or Beltane Fires; Relics of Baal Worship 45
Boggarts, Ghosts, and Haunted Places 49
Boggart Hole Clough 50
Boggarts or Ghosts in Old Halls 51
House Boggarts, or Labouring Goblins 56
Hornby Park Mistress and Margaret Brackin 59
Boggarts in the Nineteenth Century 61
CHARMS AND SPELLS.
Charms and Spells against Evil Beings 62
A Charm, written in Cypher, against Witchcraft and Evil Spirits 63
The Crow Charm and the Lady-bird Charm 70
Pimpernel 71
The Mountain Ash, or Wicken or Wiggen Tree 72
Charms to Cure Sickness, Wounds, Cattle Distemper, etc. 74
Charms for the Toothache 75
Vervain, for Wounds, etc. 76
Charms to Stop Bleeding 77
Touching for the King's Evil 77
Cures for Warts 78
Cure for Hydrocephalus in Cattle 79
Cattle Disorders.--The Shrew Tree in Carnforth 79
Charms for Ague 80
Stinging of Nettles 80
Jaundice 80
To Procure Sleep by Changing the Direction of the Bed 80
THE DEVIL, DEMONS, &c.
The Devil 81
Raising the Devil 83
The Devil and the Schoolmaster at Cockerham 83
Old Nick 84
Demonology 86
Demon and Goblin Superstitions 88
Dispossessing a Demoniac 92
Demoniacal Possession in 1594 92
Demoniacal Possession in 1689 98
DIVINATION.
Divination 102
Divination at Marriages 103
Divination by Bible and Key 103
Another Lancashire form of Divination 104
Divination by the Dying 104
Second-sight 105
Spirits of the Dying and the Dead 105
Casting Lots, &c. 106
MISCELLANEOUS FOLK-LORE.
Druidical Rock Basins 106
Elves and Fairies 110
Folk-Lore of Eccles and the Neighbourhood 113
Tree Barnacles; or, Geese hatched from Sea-shells 116
Warts from Washing in Egg-water 121
Fortune-telling.--Wise Men and Cunning Women, &c. 121
Magic and Magicians 126
Edward Kelly, the Seer 126
Raising the Dead at Walton-le-Dale 128
An Earl of Derby charged with keeping a Conjuror 129
MIRACLES.
Miracles, or Miraculous Stories 131
Miracles by a Dead Duke of Lancaster and King 132
A Miraculous Footprint in Brindle Church 134
The Footprint at Smithells of George Marsh, the Martyr 135
A Legend of Cartmel Church 137
The Prophet Elias, a Lancashire Fanatic 138
OMENS AND PREDICATIONS.
Omens and Predications 138
Cats 141
Dogs 142
Lambs 142
Birds 142
Swallows 143
Magpies 143
Dreams 145
The Moon 149
Hæver or Hiver 149
Deasil or Widersinnis 151
Omens of Weather for New Year's-day 151
Death Tick or Death Watch 152
SUPERSTITIONS, GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS.
Popular Superstitions 153
Bones of St. Lawrence, at Chorley 157
The Dead Man's Hand 158
Nineteenth Century Superstition 164
Pendle Forest Superstition 164
East Lancashire Superstition 165
Superstitious Fears and Cruelties 167
Superstitious Beliefs in Manchester in the Sixteenth Century 168
Wells and Springs 169
WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT.
Witchcraft in the Fifteenth Century 174
The Famous History of the Lancashire Witches 176
Dr. Dee charged with Witchcraft 178
The Lancashire Witches 179
Superstitious Fear of Witchcraft 182
A Household Bewitched 184
The Lancashire Witches of 1612 185
The Samlesbury Witches 194
Witchcraft at Middleton 195
Witchcraft in 1633-34 195
The Lancashire Witches of 1633-4 200
Lancashire Witch-finders 200
The Forest of Pendle--The Haunt of the Lancashire Witches 202
Pendle Hill and its Witches 204
Witchcraft about 1654 206
A Liverpool Witch in 1667 206
The Witch of Singleton 207
Witchcraft at Chowbent in the Eighteenth Century 207
Killing a Witch 208
A Recent Witch, near Burnley 209
"Lating" or "Leeting" Witches 210