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Page 39
The _Oak_, from time immemorial, has held a high place as a sacred tree.
The Druids worshipped the oak, and performed many of their rites under
the shadow of its branches. When Augustine preached Christianity to the
ancient Britons, he stood under an oak tree. The ancient Hebrews
evidently held the oak as a sacred tree. There is a tradition that
Abraham received his heavenly visitors under an oak. Rebekah's nurse was
buried under an oak, called afterwards the oak of weeping. Jacob buried
the idols of Shechem under an oak. It was under the oak of Ophra,
Gideon saw the angel sitting, who gave him instructions as to what he
was to do to free Israel. When Joshua and Israel made a covenant to
serve God, a great stone was set up in evidence under an oak that was by
the sanctuary of the Lord. The prophet sent to prophesy against Jeroboam
was found at Bethel sitting under an oak. Saul and his sons were buried
under an oak, and, according to Isaiah, idols were made of oak wood.
Abimelech was made king by the oak that was in Shechem. From these
proofs we need not be surprised that the oak continued to be held in
veneration, and was believed to possess virtues overcoming evil. During
last century its influence in curing diseases was believed in. The
toothache could be cured by boring with a nail the tooth or gum till
blood came, and then driving the nail into an oak tree. A child with
rupture could be cured by splitting an oak branch, and passing the child
through the opening backwards three times; if the splits grew together
afterwards, the child would be cured. The same was believed in as to the
ash tree. In the Presbytery Records of Lanark, 1664:--"Compeirs Margaret
Reid in the same parish, (Carnwath), suspect of witchcraft, and
confessed she put a woman newlie delivered, thrice through a green
halshe, for helping a grinding of the bellie; and that she carried a
sick child thrice about ane aikine post for curing of it." Such means of
curing diseases were practised within this century, and many things
connected with the oak were held potent as curatives.
CHAPTER X.
_MISCELLANEOUS SUPERSTITIONS._
Glamour was a kind of witch power which certain people were supposed to
be gifted with; by the exercise of such influence they took command over
their subjects' sense of sight, and caused them to see whatever they
desired that they should see. Sir Walter Scott describes the recognised
capability of glamour power in the following lines:--
"It had much of glamour might,
Could make a lady seem a knight.
The cobwebs on a dungeon wall,
Seem tapestry in lordly hall.
A nutshell seem a gilded barge,
A sheeling seem a palace large,
And youth seem age, and age seem youth,
All was delusion, nought was truth."
Gipsies were believed to possess this power, and for their own ends to
exercise it over people. In the ballad of "Johnny Faa," Johnny is
represented as exercising this power over the Countess of Cassillis--
"And she came tripping down the stairs,
With a' her maids before her,
And soon as he saw her weel faured face,
He coost the glamour o'er her."
To possess a four-leaved clover completely protected any one from this
power. I remember a story which I heard when a boy, and the narrator of
it I recollect spoke as if he were quite familiar with the fact. A
certain man came to the village to exhibit the strength of a wonderful
cock, which could draw, when attached to its leg by a rope, a large log
of wood. Many people went and paid to see this wonderful performance,
which was exhibited in the back yard of a public house. One of the
spectators present on one occasion had in his possession a four-leaved
clover, and while others saw, as they supposed, a log of wood drawn
through the yard, this person saw only a straw attached to the cock's
leg by a small thread. I may mention here that the four-leaved clover
was reputed to be a preventative against madness, and against being
drafted for military service.
One very ancient and persistent superstition had regard to the direction
of movement either of persons or things. This direction should always be
with the course of the sun. To move against the sun was improper and
productive of evil consequences, and the name given to this direction of
movement was _withershins_. Witches in their dances and other pranks,
always, it was said, went _withershins_. Mr. Simpson in his work,
_Meeting the Sun_, says, "The Llama monk whirls his praying cylinder in
the way of the sun, and fears lest a stranger should get at it and turn
it contrary, which would take from it all the virtue it had acquired.
They also build piles of stone, and always pass them on one side, and
return on the other, so as to make a circuit with the sun. Mahommedans
make the circuit of the Caaba in the same way. The ancient dagobas of
India and Ceylon were also traversed round in the same way, and the old
Irish and Scotch custom is to make all movements _Deisual_, or sunwise,
round houses and graves, and to turn their bodies in this way at the
beginning and end of a journey for luck, as well as at weddings and
other ceremonies."
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