The Magic of the Horse-shoe, with other folk-lore notes

Joseph Hall, in his “Satires” (1597), speaking of the conditions imposed by a gentle squire upon his son’s tutor, says that the latter was required to sleep in a trundle-bed at...

From the prose “Edda” we learn that this goddess was the wife of one Odur, and had a daughter named Hnossa, who was wonderfully beautiful. Sad to relate, Freyja was abandoned by...

Inasmuch as salt is a necessary and wholesome article of diet, a generous use of it is reckoned beneficial. Evan Marlett Boddy, F. R. C. S., in his “History of Salt,” p. 78, com...

It was a very early custom in England to appoint Friday as the day for the execution of criminals, and until recently the same was true in this country, but through the persiste...

Bishop Hall wrote, in 1627, that when salt fell towards a superstitious guest at dinner, he was wont to exhibit signs of mental agitation, and refused to be comforted until one...

Jamieson, in his “Scottish Dictionary,” remarks that this practice of twining the rowan about the horns of cows bears a certain resemblance to an ancient custom of the Romans in...

The goddess is said to have once appeared in a vision to the Emperor Galba, who reigned A. D. 68-69, and to have informed him that she was standing weary before his door, and th...

In Bavaria a popular alleged cure for hernia in children is as follows: From a horse-shoe wherein all the nails remain, and which has been cast by a horse, a nail is taken; and...

Whether we regard the horse-shoe as a symbol of Wodan, the chief deity of the northern nations, as deriving magical power from its half-moon shape, as a product of supernatural...

In northwestern Scotland whoever enters a house where butter is being made is expected to lay his hand upon the churn, thereby signifying that he has no evil designs against the...

When an American Indian falls sick, he believes his illness to be the work of some spiteful demon. Therefore, when he gets well, he changes his name, so that the demon may not b...

Once upon a time, so runs the story, a great drinking-match was held on a Sunday morning at Elrich. The prize was a golden chain, and many knights assembled from near and far. T...

The study of the origin and history of popular customs and beliefs affords an insight, otherwise unattainable, into the operations of the human mind in early times. Superstition...

In many places, certain houses continue even at the present time to have an evil reputation as harborers of witches and goblins. In these cases it seems probable that the owners...

In an ancient calendar of the year 334, in the reign of Constantine the Great, twenty-six Egyptian days were designated.[409] At an early period, however, the church authorities...

In Ireland it was customary for people to run through the streets on Saint John’s Eve carrying long poles, upon which were tied flaming bundles of straw, in order to purify the...

M. D. Conway, in his “Demonology and Devil-Lore,” asserts that the Scandinavian superstition known as the “demon-mare” is the source of the use of the horse-shoe against witches...

Three things which a villain is not at liberty to sell without permission of his lord; a horse, swine, and honey. Three things not to be paid for though lost in a lodging-house;...

At the thirteenth annual dinner of that unique organization, the Thirteen Club, held in New York city, January 13, 1895, at 7.13 o’clock, P. M., the custodian delivered an addre...

Days, of good and evil omen, 239-278. Egyptian, 239-243. Roman superstition concerning, 243-245. mediæval belief in day-fatality, 245-253. modern belief in day-fatality, 253-257...