"The Prince Elector of Saxon, John Frederick, having received advertisement of this strange accident, sent thereupon presently unto me," said Luther, " to have my opinion what I held of that woman and of the children which were begotten and born of these two persons: whereupon I wrote to his highness, that in my opinion neither that woman, nor those children were not right human creatures, but divels."-DR. MARTIN LUTHER'S Divine Discourses at his Table, &c. translated by Captain Henrie Bell. 1652. The Nix. "THE Divel casteth before the eies a blaze or a mist, and so deceiveth people, insomuch that one thinketh hee lieth by a right woman, and yet is no such matter. But inasmuch as children or divels are conceived in such sort, the same are very horrible and fearful examples in that Satan can plague and so torment people as to beget children. Like unto this is it also with that which they call the Nix in the water, who draweth people unto him, as maids and virgins, of whom hee begetteth divels children." -Ibid. Killcrops. "THE Divel can also steal children away, as sometimes children within the space of six weeks after their birth are lost, and other children or changelings laid in their places. Of the Saxons they were called Killcrops. Eight years since," said Luther, "at Dessaw, I did see and touch such a changed child, which was twelve years of age, hee had his eies and all members like another childe. Hee did nothing but feed, and would eat as much as two clowns or threshers were able to eat. When one touched it, then it cried out; when anie evil happened in the hous then it laughed and was joiful; but when all went well, then it cried and was very sad. I told the Prince of Anhalt, if I were Prince of that countrie, so would I venture homicidium thereon, and would throw it into the river Moldaw. I admonished the people dwelling in that place devoutly to pray to God to take away the divel; the same was don accordingly, and the second year after the changeling died."—Ibid. "IN Saxonia, near unto Halberstad, was a man that also had a Killerop, who sucked the mother and five other women drie, and besides devoured very much. This man was advised that hee should in his pilgrimage at Halberstad make a promise of the Killcrop to the Virgin Marie, and should cause him there to be rockd. This advice the man followed, and carried the changeling thither in a basket; but going over a river, being upon the bridge, another divel that was below in the river called, and said 'Killerop! Killcrop!' Then the childe in the basket, which never before spake one word, answered 'Ho! ho!' The divel in the water asked further, 'Whither art thou going!' the child in the basket said, 'I am going towards Halberstad to our loving mother, to be rocked.' The man being much affrighted thereat, threw the childe with the basket over the bridge into the water; whereupon the two divels flew away together, and cried 'Ho! ho! ha!' tumbling themselves one over another, and so vanished. "Such changelings and Killcrops," said Luther, "supponit Satan in locum vero. rum filiorum ;' for the divel hath this power, that hee changeth children, and in stead thereof laieth divels in the cradles, which prosper not, only they feed and suck: but such changelings live not above eighteen or nineteen years. One of these more fowleth itself in the excrements than ten other children do, so that the parents are much therewith disquieted, and the mothers in such sort are sucked out, that afterwards they are able to give suck no more. Such changelings," said Luther," are also baptized, in regard that they cannot bee known the first year, but are known onely by sucking the mothers drie." Queen Christina. "LA reine Christine, en quittant la couronne pour se livrer plus entièrement aux gens de lettres, ressemble à cette femme qui se fit arracher deux belles dents pour plaire à son amant, qui se disoit toujours épris de son âme seule, et inaccessible à tous ses charmes extérieurs; mais sa maitresse étant moins belle, il ne l'aima plus."-MADAME NECKER. Drums of Captives' Skins. "In some provinces they flead the captives taken in war, and with their skins covered their drums, thinking with the sound of them to affright their enemies;1 for their opinion was, that when their kindred heard the rumbling noise of those drums, they would be immediately seized with fear and put to flight."-GARCILASSO. Parents cat. "What was most abominable above all, was a custom amongst some Indians to eat the flesh of their parents, so soon as they were dead, accounting it a part of their respect and duty to bury and intomb them within their own entrails, which they boiled or roasted according to the quantity; if the body was lean and extenuated, they boiled the flesh to make it the more tender; and if it were gross and fleshy, then it was roasted: and for the bones, they buried them with some ceremony, either in the holes of rocks, or the hollow trees."-Ibid. www The Inca Royal Bounty. "In process of time the Inca, willing to enlarge the privileges of his people, gave them permission to bore their ears, though not so wide as the Incas."-Ibid. See anecdote of Zisca, third series, p. 381. This extract is quoted to the lines, "He stript the skin, and formed of it a drum, Whose sound affrighted armies." Madoc in Aztlan, xiii. p. 389.-J. W. W. Peruvian Ideas of the Moon. "WHEN they observed the moon begin to grow dark in her eclipse, they said she was sick; and when she was totally obscured, that she was dead; and then they feared lest she should fall from heaven, and overwhelm and kill them, and that the world should be entirely dissolved. With these apprehensions, so soon as the moon entered into eclipse, they sounded their trumpets and cornets, beat their kettles, symbals, and all the instruments which could make noise and sound; they tied their dogs in strings, and beat them till they cried and howled; saying that with their voices they called upon the moon, who having received certain services from them, was very inclinable to hearken to their call, and that all these varieties of sounds together served to rouse and awaken her, being fallen into a drowsiness and slumber which her sickness had caused; and then they made their children cry and call 'Mama Quilla,' or, 'Mother Moon, do not dye, lest we all perish."-Ibid. "CONCERNING the spots in the moon, they conceived another fable more ridiculous than the former, and may be compared with that which the more refined ancients framed of Diana, and that the moon was a huntress, though this seems more bestial and absurd, for they feignd that a certain fox, seeing the moon so beautiful, fell enamoured of her, and that his love gave him wings, with which he ascended heaven, and being ready to embrace the moon, she closed and clung so close to the fox, that ever since that time the spots have appeared in the brightness of her body."-Ibid. Of the Sun. "WHEN they saw the sun set within the sea, as they may every night observe to the westward from the coast of Peru, they fansied that the waters were parted by the force of his fire and heat; and that being a good swimmer, he plunged himself into the waves, and dived quite thro the sea, to appear next morning in the east.”—Ibid. Of Thunder. "ONE of their fables is, that the Maker of all things hath placed in heaven a virgin, the daughter of a king, holding a bucket of water in her hand, for refreshment of the earth when occasion requires; and that sometimes her brother knocking upon this bucket, causes thunder and lightning to proceed from it; these noises they say are effects of the violent nature of man, but hail and rain and snow, falling with less noise and impetuosity, are more agreeable to the gentle nature of a woman. On this tale the following poem is preserved : "Pulchra Nympha, Frater tuus Urnam tuam Nunc infringit, Cujus ictus Tonat, fulget, Viracocha Ad hoc munus Te sufficit Et præfecit." The original metre is preserved in these verses.-Ibid. Five Suns. "THE Indians of Culhua did beleeve that the gods had made the world they knew not On referring to the Commentarios Reales, I find the words "Pacha Camac" are omitted here. The Spanish interpretation is, "El Dios que le anima." See libro ii. tom. i. p. 54. Ed. Lisboa, 1609.-J. W. W. how: and that since the creation four sunnes were past, and that the fift and last is the sunne which now giveth light unto the world. "The first sunne (forsooth) perished by water, and all living creatures therewith. The second fell from heaven, and with the fall slew all living creatures, and then were many giants in the country. The third sunne was consumed by fire: and the fourth by tempest of aire and winde; and then mankinde perished not, but was turned into apes. Yet when that fourth sun perishd, all was turnd into darkness, and so continued five and twenty years: and at the fifteenth yecre God did form one man and woman, who brought forth children, and at the end of other ten years appeared this fift sunne newly borne, which after their reckoning is now in this year 1612, 918 years since. Three days after this sun appeared, they held that all the gods did die, and that these which since they worship, were born in process of time."-PURCHAS. Omens of Charles I.'s Fate. "THE bust of King Charles I. carved by Barnini, as it was brought in a boat upon the Thames, a strange bird, the like whereof the bargemen had never seen, drop'd a drop of blood, or blood like upon it, which left a stain not to be wiped off."-Aubrey. "COLONEL Sharington Talbot was at Nottingham when King Charles I. did set up his standard upon the top of the tower there. He told me, that the first night the wind blew it so, that it hung down almost horizontal, which some did take to be an ill omen."-Ibid. "THE day that the Long Parliament began, 1641, the sceptre fell out of the figure of King Charles in wood, in Sir 2- Trenchard's hall at Wullich in Dorset, as they were at dinner in the parlour."-Ibid. 2 In the edition of AUBREY'S Miscellanies now before me, 8vo. 1784, "Thomas" is the sirname. J. W. W. Omen of Protector Somerset's Fate. "THERE is a tradition which I have heard from persons of honour, that as the Protector Seymour and his dutchess were walking in the gallery at Sheen, in Surrey, both of them did see a hand with a bloody sword come out of the wall. He was afterwards beheaded."-Ibid. Ominous Fly of Fire. "THE Lady Viscountess Maidstone told me she saw as it were a fly of fire fly round about her in the dark, half an hour before her lord died, He was killed at sea; and the like before her mother-in-law, the Countess of Winchelsea, died. She was then with child."-Ibid. Corps' Candles.' "WHEN any Christian is drowned in the river Dee, there will appear over the water where the corps is, a light, by which means they do find the body. And it is therefore called the holy Dee."-Ibid. King Arthur's Cave. "ONE of the legends of Arthur's posthumous fame is, that there is in Merlin's hill a cave, the mouth of which many have seen at a distance; but when they approached the place where they supposed it to be situated, they have not been able to find it, Once indeed a venerable stranger enquired for the hill, and having by his skill in magic walked directly to the cavern, he came to a narrow passage, which was obstructed by a wheel in perpetual motion, placed there by the art of Merlin. The stranger attentively surveyed the machine for a short time; took a book from his bosom, read out of it a few words, unintelligible to those who 1 The reader should refer to the whole Letter on the Canhwyllan Cyrph, or Corps-Candles in Wales. It is addressed to Mr. Baxter. See p. 231 of the Miscellanies.-J. W. W. watched his motions, and then touched the wheel with his wand. Immediately it stood still, and the stranger passed beyond it. When he returned, he read another sentence from his book, and the wheel resumed its motion. He then told the wondering people that he had been to view King Arthur and his knights of the round table, who were laid asleep in that cave by the enchantments of Merlin. At a set time the magician would rouse them from their sleep, when they would rush forth, drive out the Saxons, and institute a Shiboleth to distinguish the genuine descendants of the ancient Britons, over whom King Arthur would reign with transcendant dignity and splendour. The stranger departed, and no one from that day has been able to find the entrance of the cave." -MRS. MORGAN's Tour to Milford Haven. Merlin's Hill is by Caermarthen. Herb of Orpheus. "UPON the mountain Pangæus grows an herb which is called the harp, upon this occasion. The women that tore Orpheus in pieces, cast his limbs into the river Hebrus, and his head being changed, the whole body was turned into the shape of a dragon. But as for his harp, such was the will of Apollo, it remained in the same form, and from the streaming blood grew up the herb which was called the harp, which during the solemnity of the sacrifices to Bacchus, sends forth a sound like that of a harp when played upon. At which time the natives being covered with the skins of young hinds, and waving their thyrsuses in their hands, sing a hymn, of which these are part of the words, "And then shalt thou be wise, When Folly does thy brain surprise." As Clitonymus reports in his third book of tragical relations."-PLUTARCH, Herb that Starves Tigers. "In the Ganges grows an herb resembling bugloss, which the natives bruise and keep the juice very charily. With this juice in the dead of the night they go and besprinkle the tiger's dens, the vertue of which is such that the tigers not being able to stir forth by reason of the strong scent of the juice, are starved to death."-Ibid, Flower and Herb that hate Step-Mothers. "UPON the mountain Myenus, near the river Lycormas, grows a flower called the white violet, which if you do but name the word stepdame, presently dies away. On the mountain Brixaba near the Tanais grows an herb by the barbarians called Phryxa, not unlike our common rue, which if the son of a former mother have it in his possession, he can never be injured by his step-dame. It chiefly grows near the place which is called Boreas's den, and being gathered, is colder than snow. But if any step-dame be forming a design against her son-in-law, it sets itself on fire, and sends forth a bright flame. By which means they who are thus warned, avoid the danger they are in."-Ibid. wwwwww Reed that discovers Guilt. "In the river Phasis grows a reed which is called Leucophyllus, or the reed with the white leaf. This reed is found at the dawning of the morning light, at what time the sacrifices are offered to Hecate, and this too, by the divine inspiration of Pan at the beginning of the spring, when they who are troubled with jealous heads gather this reed and strew it in their wives' chambers to keep them chaste. And the nature of the reed is such, that if any wild extravagant person happens to come rashly in drink into the room where it lies, he presently becomes deprived of his rational thoughts, and immediately confesses whatever he has wickedly done and intended to do. At what time, they that are present to hear him lay hold of him, sow him up in a sack, and throw him into a hole, called "THE vast height of the precipices, and the amazing grandeur of the caverns which open on the north side, giving wide and solemn admission, through most exalted arches, into the body of the mountain; together with the gradual decline of light, the deep silence of the place unless interrupted by the striking of the oar, the collision of a swelling wave against the sides, or the loud flutter of the pigeons affrighted from their nests in the distant roof, afford pleasures of scenery which such formations as this alone can yield. These also are wonderfully diversified; in some parts the caverns penetrate far, and end in darkness, in others are pervious, and give a romantic passage by another opening, equally superb. Many of the rocks are insulated, of a pyramidal form, and soar to a great height. The bases of most are solid, but in some pierced through and arched. All are covered with the dung of the innumerable flocks of migratory M |
