Female Flyting in the Raj? August 17, 2011
Posted by Beachcombing in : Medieval, Modern
It has been a long day and Beach has not had time to look for this in all the normal works of reference. However, this story (or fiction?) rang no bells and as Beach has – disgrace upon disgrace – never had a Pakistani story before he thought he’d take a risk.
A curious custom, a Lahore paper remarks [in 1897], is observed in these Shraddh days by the woman folk of many families belonging to the higher castes in the city. At about three in the morning they – the ladies – congregate near a well in Vachowali Bazaar, and dividing themselves into two hostile parties, bombard each other with the ‘choicest’ and most telling abuse that their ingenuity can invent. Sometimes this party wins and sometimes that. A vast crowd of awe-struck males assemble even at that unearthly hour to witness this unique warefare [sic]. Five out of the total fifteen Kanagat days are set apart for this purposes. Now peace will be proclaimed till next year. The worthy conflict continues till about daybreak, when the exhausted dames, ranged on opposite sides, mingle again with the utmost cordiality and proceed together to the Ravi, singing suitable songs, for the usual matutinal ablutions.
Beachcombing has so many questions that he doesn’t know where to begin. (i) Did this really happen? (ii) Were the insults ingenious or just plain dirty? (iii) Is there still, pace the Taliban and their ilk, flyting today in the city? (iv) Was this a Muslim custom? drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com
Beachcombing’s source also has a legend that should be quoted as it may help searchers after the truth. Or it may, if this is all cobblers, be the explanation behind it.
There is a legend that once upon a time an Afghan invader was stealthily approaching Lahore to pounce upon it unawares. It so happened that he approached Aziraband a good two hours before sunrise…. They heard sounds as of elephants screaming, horses neighing, camels gurgling, bulls bellowing, bow strings twanging, wheels rumbling, drums booming, warriors roaring, and trumpets tooting. They thought that the capital had got scent of the invasion, and a vast army was coming out to meet them… So they mounted again and retraced their steps to Cabul with all possible speed. But think of the feeling of the Afghan leader when he came to hear afterwards that it was no opposing lashkar, only Lashore ladies engaged in their annual five days’ exercise fifty miles off that had frightened him.
Fairies Investigated in Irish Court August 16, 2011
Posted by Beachcombing in : ModernBeach has been enjoying himself with fairies these last few months, looking at late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century news-reports from Britain and Ireland. What is curious is that fairies very often appear in the law pages of the newspapers. They do so typically in one of two guises: (i) child abuse because parents believe the child is a changeling or (ii) swindles based on a seer claiming to know the will of the fairies and then disappearing to America with ten sovereigns. However, just today he stumbled on this extraordinary account from the Limerick Star from the early nineteenth century that does not fit into either of these categories.
Here, instead, worlds are colliding. On the one hand, we have the bench and the local squires defending the status quo and rattled by rumours of a nocturnal gathering in a time when Ireland was perpetually on the edge of rebellion. And then on the other there is the Irish peasantry gently explaining the reality of fairies to their betters.
When Beach first read this he thought that it was a joke, but it is not outré enough for that and our writer himself assures us: that ‘[p]art of the business which was before the court this day has so much the appearance of levity, as that it may be considered a fiction; but every word of it, I pledge myself, is literally true, and occupied much of the time of the bench‘.
Immediately after the sitting of the court this day, Mr O’Grady got on his legs and addressed the great number present at considerable length, respecting illegal meetings, etc. He expressed his determination to put down illegal meetings with considerable warmth. The learned gentleman said ‘I am informed that there was an immense number of horse and foot seen parading the hill of Knockagreana on an evening in the last week; when I heard of it, I caused persons to make particular inquiry, to go and examine the place of rendezvous closely, to see if there were any tracks of men or horses, or other traces of such meeting. I sent word around the neighbourhood to have any person or persons who may have any knowledge of the circumstance to come forward and give information of such illegal meetings; they must be put down, and I now call upon any person who may have any knowledge of it to come forward and give information – I entreat them to do so, and I promise I will put down those meetings; if it is not the case, and if no one will come forward to see the thing at rest, let me have no more talk about it. I just have one of the persons who said he saw this meeting in my eye: come forward then, Matthew Bourke and take this book.
Mr Bourke: I will not take my oath about it; I don’t know what you want to swear about.
Mr O’Grady: I insist that you must; you are one of the persons who reported that you saw this great meeting; you must tell us what you know about it.
Mr Bourke being sworn
Mr O’Grady: Now tell us what you saw.
Mr Bourke. I saw something like a great number of people and horses going from the Leinfield side of the hill, towards Pallas.
Mr O’Grady Had they arms?
Mr Bourke: I don’t know whether they had or not.
Mr O’Grady Were they living people?
Mr Bourke: I don’t know.
Rev. Mr Coote. What do you think they were?
Mr Bourke. I don’t know; I cannot say what they were.
Next up is my Morty Hayes who is less reticent.
Mr O’Grady: Come forward here, Morty.
Mortimer Hayes: I did not see the meeting at all.
Mr O’Grady: You know something about it for all that: come, Sir, take this book, we must have what you know about it.
Being sworn.
Mortimer Hayes: I did not seen anything; I known nothing only what I heard other people say; I heard it from twenty; I believe it is true that there was a great meeting there.
Mr O’Grady: Do you believe that it was living people that were there?
Mortimer Hayes: I believe it was not.
Rev Mr Coote: What do you think they were?
Mortimer Hayes: I believe they were fairies (great laughter) [Beach bets he actually said ‘good people’]
Mr Coote: Upon your oath do you believe there are such things as fairies?
Mr Hayes: I do (renewed laughter)
At this point there is some speculation in the court about whether the meeting really took place or not.
Mortimer Hayes: It is no lie for me; hundreds of persons besides me say there was a great sight there; Parson Scott’s daughters saw them; and here is another man, John Harty, who saw them; they might be going the road abroad, before your eyes, and you may not see them.
Mr O’Grady: When I heard of it I sent to have the place examined, to see if there was a sign or trace of such meeting. Sergeant Philips, did you examine the place?
Sergeant Philips: I did, and after viewing the place closely, as you desired, I could not find any trace or mark of such meeting.
Mr O’Grady: I am sure that it was some designing persons that set the report afloat, to make out that this district is in a disturbed state, which is well known is not the case.
Finally John Harty takes the stand:
‘Saw a great number on the hill of Knockagreana as they were like men and horses; they were moving along towards Pallas; did not know whether they had arms; there were more than a thousand; does not know whether they were living or dead; believed they were not living beings; I can’t say what they were; did not know any of them.’
The reporter now becomes facetious – he had been provoked: ‘[n]one of the person who were brought forward being able, or at least did not undertake to identify any of the party, from as was supposed the similarity of their red caps… Everyone was in amazement at Mr O’Grady’s efficiency and determination in attempting to make those beings, who are supposed to be a privileged class, amenable to the laws of this sublunary world.’
Any other examples of Forteana becoming the subject of legal investigation? Drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com
D’Annunzio Over Vienna August 15, 2011
Posted by Beachcombing in : Contemporary
***This post is dedicated to Ricardo***
Gabrielle D’Annunzio – poet, fighter and proto-fascist – is one of the few individuals in Beachcombing’s reference cabinet to have a file all to himself: he started his life in ‘Italian Eccentrics’ but there was just so much material that he was shunted out into a manila folder of his own. In the many foolscap sheets about him there – one, if memory serves, begins ‘D’Annunzio fell from the second floor window while high on cocaine and fondling his mistress’s sister…’ – a particularly noteworthy episode is the immortally stupid/heroic flight over Vienna (‘il volo su Vienna’) of 9 August 1918.
D’Annunzio and ten other loons, good Italian patriots with a gift for self aggrandizement, made an eight hundred mile round trip by air, much of it through Austro-Hungarian territory, to drop almost half a million leaflets on the enemy capital. In the fabulous photograph that heads this post you can actually see the leaflets fluttering down: for all Beachcombing knows they are being sold on Austria’s Ebay.
D’Annunzio, who was more interested in the quality of his prose then actually convincing the poor Viennese, went to town in impossibly bombastic Italian that was not translated and, as Beachcombing has just found to his cost, is virtually untranslatable into a Germanic language.
Strap your goggles on if you want to survive this tirade from the heavens.
In this morning of August while the fourth year of your desperate agony is fulfilled and the year of our full power begins, the tricoloured wings appears as the proof of the change in our destiny. A change in our destiny… Destiny turns towards us with iron certainty. The hour of Germany – a nation which drags you, which humiliates you, which infects you – has passed. Your time is over. As our faith was stronger then it is only natural that our will triumphs and will triumph right up until the end. The victorious soldiers of the Piave, the victorious soldiers of the Marne know it, with a dizziness that only multiplies their force. But if their force is not enough then our numbers are. And this is said to those who fight ten to one. The Atlantic is already a closed road; and a road, what is more, which is heroic as have shown the new warriors who have coloured the Ourcq red with German blood [i.e. the Americans]. On the wind of victory that lifts from the waters of freedom, we have come simply for the joy of the challenge. We have come indeed only to demonstrate what we dare and what we can do when we want and when we choose. The roar of the young Italian wing is not that of a funeral bronze in the morning sky. However, oh people of Vienna, our happy audacity holds up an irrevocable sentence between Saint Stefan’s and the Graben: Viva l’Italia!
In questo mattino d’agosto, mentre si compie il quarto anno della vostra convulsione disperata e luminosamente incomincia l’anno della nostra piena potenza, l’ala tricolore vi apparisce all’improvviso come indizio del destino che si volge. Il destino si volge. Si volge verso di noi con una certezza di ferro. È passata per sempre l’ora di quella Germania che vi trascina, vi umilia e vi infetta. La vostra ora è passata. Come la nostra fede fu la più forte, ecco che la nostra volontà predomina e predominerà sino alla fine. I combattenti vittoriosi del Piave, i combattenti vittoriosi della Marna lo sentono, lo sanno, con una ebbrezza che moltiplica l’impeto. Ma, se l’impeto non bastasse, basterebbe il numero; e questo è detto per coloro che usano combattere dieci contro uno. L’Atlantico è una via che già si chiude; ed è una via eroica, come dimostrano i nuovissimi inseguitori che hanno colorato l’Ourcq di sangue tedesco. Sul vento di vittoria che si leva dai fiumi della libertà, non siamo venuti se non per la gioia dell’arditezza, non siamo venuti se non per la prova di quel che potremo osare e fare quando vorremo, nell’ora che sceglieremo. Il rombo della giovane ala italiana non somiglia a quello del bronzo funebre, nel cielo mattutino. Tuttavia la lieta audacia sospende fra Santo Stefano e il Graben una sentenza non revocabile, o Viennesi. Viva l’Italia!
Luckily a second leaflet (pictured here) was included with a German translation and this also flapped down over the city. It was not written by D’Annunzio and made the obvious point that the Italians were nice people who dropped propaganda instead of bombs.
Ricardo R. sent – thanks Ricardo! – a contemporary report from the New York Times of the flight which had the following comment by D’Annunzio: ‘We reached Vienna about 9 o’clock in the morning and descended to within 1,500 feet. The people in the streets were at first terrified and fled in panic until they saw that we were throwing out only manifestoes [sic]. Then crowds assembled and watched us with intense curiosity.’
The next line is vintage D’Annunzio.
‘I particularly wished to approach close to the museum that contains the authentic image of St Catherine of Alexandria, and made a detour which permitted observation of this point.’
Honestly, what an insufferable bore!
Anything else on the flight over Vienna? Drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com Was this the first leaflet drop over hostile territory in history? And if anyone wants to try and write a ‘truer’ translation of D’Annunzio’s tiresome prose they will get several decades off in purgatory…
Flight in Eleventh-Century England August 14, 2011
Posted by Beachcombing in : Medieval
*** This post is dedicated to Roy who suggested Eilmer***
As regular readers will know Beachcombing is one of those irritating sceptics, who looks askance at most historical records of the ‘impossible’. But every so often even he has to shake his head and admit that the evidence for the ‘impossible’ is frighteningly good. Take this record from William of Malmesbury’s Deeds of the Kings of the English ‘published’ c. 1125. In William’s work there appears the following description of a certain monk named Eilmer.
Not many years after [1060] a comet, a star foretelling, they say, change in kingdoms, appeared trailing its long and fiery tail across the sky. Wherefore a certain wonderful (pulchre?) monk of our monastery, Eilmer by name, bowed down with terror at the sight of the brilliant star, sagely cried ‘Thou art come! A cause of grief to many a mother art thou come; I have seen thee before; but now I behold thee much more terrible, threatening to hurl destruction on this land.’
Non multo post, cometes stella, ut ferunt, mutationes regnorum praetendens, longos et flammeos crines per inane ducens, apparuit; unde pulchre quidam nostri monasterii monachus, Eilmerus nomine, uiso coruscantes astri terrore conquiniscens, ‘Uenisti’, inquit, ‘uenist, multis matribus lugende; dudum est quod te uidi, sed nunc multo terribiliorem te intueor patriae hujus excidium uibrantem.’
This passage begins quietly and uncontroversially enough. We learn that there was a monk called Eilmer who had dwelt in William’s own monastery of Malmesbury. The reference to the comet is to Halley’s Comet and the mutationes regnorum or, if you like, the ‘regime change’, it heralded was the Norman Invasion of England: both comet and the invasion dating to 1066. Note too that Eilmer seems to have seen Halley’s Comet on its previous trip, i.e. in 989 that would mean that he was in his eighties in 1066. Alternatively, he could be referring to any other comet that had brightened the night sky in the early eleventh century. For present purposes it doesn’t much matter, though perhaps we should add that Eilmer may have written astronomical tracts some of which may have survived into the sixteenth century.
What is interesting though is that it situates Eilmer as a historical figure well within William’s living memory. Eilmer was still alive in 1066 and was apparently an old man at that time. William was born in c. 1090 (the date is difficult) and spent his boyhood at Malmesbury. It is unlikely that he himself ever met Eilmer but he would certainly have come into contact with monks who had known the venerable old Saxon. This is worth bearing in mind as we now move to the second fact concerning Eilmer.
Eilmer was a man learned for those times, of ripe old age, and in his early youth had hazarded a deed of remarkable boldness. He had by some means, I scarcely know what, fastened wings to his hands and feet so that, mistaking fable for truth, he might fly like Daedalus, and, collecting the breeze on the summit of a tower, he flew for more than the distance of a furlong. But, agitated by the violence of the wind and the swirling of air, as well as by awareness of his rashness, he fell, broke his legs, and was lame ever after. He himself used to say that the cause of his failure was his forgetting to put a tail on the back part.
Is erat litteris, quantum ad id temporis, bene imbutus, aeuo maturus, immanem audaciam prima iuuentute conatus: nam pennas manibus et pedibus haud scio qua innexuerat arte, ut Daedali more uolaret, fabulam pro uero amplexus, collectaque e summo turris aura, spatio stadii et plus uolauit; sed uenti et turbinis uiolentia, simul et temerarii facti conscientia, tremulus cecidit, perpetuo post haec debilis, et crura effractus. Ipse ferebat causam ruinae quod caudam in posteriori parte oblitus fuerit.
There have been attempt to date this attempt at flying or gliding to the early eleventh century – none really succeed though because of the dreadful ambiguities of the word iuuentus in Latin and the difficulty over whether or not Eilmer saw Halley’s comet twice or Halley’s comet and another now forgotten object in the heavens. But what is difficult to gainsay is that at the end of the eleventh century there was a tradition that old Eilmer had, as a young man, tried to fly. Beach can accept that it was not really from a tower, that it was less than a furlong – what, after all, is a spatio stadii? – and that the wings were not as described. But there does seem to be some memory that, c. 1000, an Anglo-Saxon monk was trying to soar with the birds and that he badly hurt himself.
Not the least incredible part of this is that Eilmer even tried. The Christian tradition ascribes flying to two human beings: Christ with his ascension (a notable late Saxon theme in art btw) and Simon Magus, the sorcerer. It is difficult to imagine any monk wanting to emulate Simon and while imitatio Christi was all good and fine it was supposed to involve charity and turning the other cheek not walking on water or defying gravity. What was Eilmer thinking?
Beach should also note another fact. Abul-Qasim Abbas bin Firnas from Cordoba tried to fly c. 875. The parallel with Eilmer’s attempt has been noted by many scholars but no one else who has written on this subject seems particularly worried by it, perhaps because this account is so very late (seventeenth century).
‘Among other very curious experiments which [Abul-Qasim Abbas bin Firnas] made, one is his trying to fly. He covered himself with feathers for the purpose, attached a couple of wings to his body, and, getting on an eminence, flung himself down into the air, when, according to the testimony of several trustworthy writers who witnessed the performance, he flew a considerable distance, as if he had been a bird, but, in alighting again on the place whence he had started, his back was very much hurt, for not knowing that birds when they alight come down upon their tails, he forgot to provide himself with one.’
That detail about the tail rankles. Did William read or hear about this tail from one of his (several) Spanish sources (now lost) and include it a little naughtily in Eilmer’s tale? Did the Malmesbury oral tradition pick it up earlier in the eleventh century from Christian northern Spain and integrate it into Eilmer’s saga? Did a tradition from Malmesbury get dragged into the Arabic world and get included in the late source? Or is the parallel sheer chance?
Other examples of early flight please write to: drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com
PS Beach was so excited by Eilmer that he went to tell Mrs B about him. Mrs B – who holds history in proper contempt – quoted Woody ‘this is not flying, it is falling with style’. Then she roared with laughter and went to water the roses.
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15 August 2011: Roy himself writes in ‘I really enjoyed learning more about Eilmer. It would be interesting to discern his motives. There is one other record of flight in the Bible: the ascension of Elijah. Fire, whirlwind, a chariot and a horse. Something tells me Eilmer wasn’t trying to imitate this event. It seems like mankind has been interested in flying for quite some time, but this definitely seems a bit out of character for a monk! One possibility is that Eilmer may have been inspired by the account of Archytus, who had built a dove-like machine that was self-propelled and could fly on its own. Even then, Gellius seemed at least a bit skeptical.’ Thanks Roy!
16 August 2011: Sword And Beast writes in ‘I’ve only seen your post on Eilmer today, and I remembered two similar cases, an old one and a rather stupid new one: Bartolomeu de Gusmão was a portuguese jesuit and is said to have patented, in 1709, ‘an instrument to walk on air’, which is today the hot air balloon. There is a link in , with a rather interesting transcript from a 1786 Times article. But the first documented balloon flight only took place eighty years later, in France. ‘The Flying Priest’ was later mentioned in José Saramago´s Baltasar and Blimunda novel. A contemporary version of air monks took place in 2008: a priest decided to take off in a chair attached to 1000 helium balloons, in order to raise money for a social cause. Even though he had a GPS device, he called from the air through his cellphone, asking how to use it. Some hours later, his battery went dead. Needless to say, he went missing for two months, and his body was later found in the sea. It seems that Eilmer has quite a following… ‘ Thanks Sword!
Flight in Seventeenth-Century Warsaw? August 13, 2011
Posted by Beachcombing in : Modern
This is an interesting and largely overlooked reference (Frank) to flight from an English newspaper, c. 1650. The newspaper in question, The Moderate, was typically made up of a good many letters from amateur foreign correspondents and one of these came from Warsaw. It would be fascinating to see if there were any other accounts of this Eastern flier in Poland or elsewhere in Europe: or do we simply have an English fraud? drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com
There is at this present in this [Polish] Court a certain man lately come from Arabia, who is come hither to the King of Poland, to whom he proffereth his head for security of that which he propoundeth, which is that he hath brought from that Countrey the invention of a Machine, being Airie and of a construction so light, nevertheless so sound and firm, that the same is able to bear two men, and hold them up in the Air, and one of them shall be able to sleep, the whiles the other maketh the Machine to move, which thing is much after the same manner as you see represented in the old Tapistry hangings [of] the Dragons flying.. There are few in this Court but have got a pattern of this Machiner [sic], and [I] do hope to send you one likewise, in case that the project takes some good effect and proves to be as true as [it is] rare in its invention; the forms of it which he hath made, and afterwards presented here, with the many strong reasons he gives for to maintain his Proposition, seeme to be so strong and so likely to be true that there is great hopes conceived thereof; and although he undertakes that the Celerity or swiftnesse of this Airie post shall go far beyond that of our ordinary Posts, seeing he promises to go with the same in 24 hours 40 Leagues of this his Country, which will make of English miles neer 240, which thing seemeth so strange to many that therefore they fal off from him and so give little credit to it, although he hath brought with him good Certificates, how it hath been approved by many in other places where he hath made experiment thereof to his great Honour and credit and [to] the Admiration and great amazement of the beholders; besides, it may well be thought that a man of Honour, as he seems to be, would not set so little by his life as to lay it at stake about a businesse of that nature, except he had some good grounds for it, and had some experimentall knowledge of the same, seeing he must hazzard his life two severall wayes: the one in case he did not make a triall of what he had promised, and so proved to have come hither as an Imposter, to have cheated this Court, who upon discoveries of like businesses will not make it a jest or a thing of small moment; and the other time of danger is when he begins to take his flight, which he is to do above the highest Towers or Steeples that are, and without his dexterity and certain knowledge therein [he] would run into an utter ruin and destruction. Whither it be true or no, there are Commissioners appointed who are to examine the businesse and so, accordingly as they finde it, to make their report; and [he] is appointed to make an essay and shew a piece of his skill in their presence before he is suffered to act it publickly, that if in case his businesse doth not prove according to expectation, they that have given credit to it and him may not be exposed to open shame and derision…
The letter continues with some reflections on the possibility of flight – a theme that was becoming fashionable (even if only as an idea) in the seventeenth century. It goes without saying that no subsequent number brings any news from Warsaw on the subject. The presumption has to be that this was a joke: certainly if the oriental gentleman attempted flight he did not succeed…
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15 August 2011: Invisible writes ‘I KNEW that recently I had read something similar to your Warsaw and gliding monk stories – the suit of feathered tissue stuck in my mind. This is where I read it, but there may be other accounts.’ Thanks Invisible!
Dried Cats August 12, 2011
Posted by Beachcombing in : Medieval, Modern
***Dedicated to Rayg at Segal Books who put Beach on to this story and this link of a recently discovered mummified cat***
In prehistory there were, by definition, no written records. In antiquity there were few. In the Middle Ages few or several. And, then, from the invention of the printing press onwards, in Western Europe at least, the flood of the written word is almost painful. Yet notwithstanding this deluge, incredibly, there are whole facets of life that entirely escape notice. Take, for example, the medieval and modern dry-cat custom: a dead cat is taken and bricked up in the wall or a cavity in a house. Tens of cases of this phenomenon have been found over the years in Europe: yet there is not a whisper that Beach has been able to find in medieval or modern records, save when, latterly, one of these creatures is found.
When Beach first came across this ‘custom’ he smiled and thought otherwise. Cats get everywhere and builders all too often don’t care. How easy it would be to accidentally brick an over-adventurous moggie up and then leave the poor creature to its fate. So much for the custom… But this doesn’t even begin to work as an explanation – though conceivably it may be right in a couple of cases – because the animals are often posed.
‘Cat with two rats, found beneath sixteenth-century wood-work in a house in Borough High Street, Southwark, London. It holds in its jaws a rat which appears to be struggling to escape, with its legs extended, its mouth wide open and its tail erect. Another rat, beneath the cat’s forefeet, writhes upwards as if to bite its captor. Artificially arranged, since no accident could have killed all three simultaneously in such dramatic attitudes.’
A sick, isolated builder’s joke?
‘In a house in Lothbury in the city of London, demolished on the construction of the Bank of England in 1803. The cat was between the wall and the wainscotting of a room, and had a rat in its mouth’.
So a sick custom limited to the metropolis?
‘Cat and rat found in the thatch of a cottage at Pilton [Somerset], which was pulled down in 189o. The cat was pegged down with fair-sized wooden pegs, and as now mounted is about four inches away from the rat’s tail, which it appears to be pursuing‘.
A sick British custom then?
‘Cat found in 1946 at Dalbäcken Farm, Bjurtjärn parish, Vairmland, Middle Sweden. Discovered when the steps to a front door, which had been put in place 25 years before, were removed. In a very contorted position, with head and tail raised, mouth wide open and claws extended, not at all a natural position of death‘.
As to what mummifying cats means the leading study (which dates back to 1951!) offers two possible explanations. One is that the cat is a form of blood sacrifice such as is sometimes found in the foundations of ancient and medieval buildings: enough to get any folklorist salivating. The second, instead, is that the cat is – get ready for this – a kind of cat scarecrow left behind the walls to scare – magically or truly? – any passing rodents: hence the poses.
Beachcombing would like to update the list. Any mummified cats since 1951? Any from North America? Poses are particularly interesting. drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com
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12 August 2011: Chris Manning writes in with an update of modern research on the question ‘Saw your post on dried cats and felt I should update you on the developments in dried cat research since Howard’s 1951 article. There are several scholars working on this topic worldwide including myself. Ian Evans just completed his doctoral dissertation on ritual concealments in Australia and documented 17 cases of dried cats from that country. His dissertation is available online. Brian Hoggard in the U.K. estimates 100 cases of dried cats have been found there (also online), and Ruben de Somer has tracked down additional cases in Europe. As for the U.S., I’m still working on it, but I’ve only identified three or four possible cases of deliberate concealments (versus accidental enclosures) so far and only two of those were dried, the others being disarticulated bones and/or taxidermied examples. There is other literature from the 70s-90s, but these are the researchers I know who are currently working on the topic.’ Invisible meanwhile has been working up a list on her own. ‘Here is a mummified cat from Ohio. This is the website with the ‘Ghost Cat’ info. There is a video on the page that shows images of the cat as well as gives the history of the lighthouse. Here is a photo of the cat. I researched this mummy cat in 2003 and here is what I was told by Carol, a woman who was startled by the cat in the basement. ‘I was there by myself. It was getting dark and going down into the basement was always kind of creepy. I got to the bottom of the steps and I saw this THING. There was a mummified cat kind of standing on all fours, its face turned towards me. I screamed and ran back upstairs. Of course, I’d always heard the stories about the ghost. ‘Then I got to the top of the steps and said to myself, ‘This can’t be. I have to go back down.’ So I actually got up enough courage to go back down the stairs and I saw that it was a mummy. It had its whiskers, its eyelashes, its feet so perfectly formed, its claws… Of course, I had no idea how it had gotten there.’ It was discovered when workmen installing air conditioning were working in the basement. One of the men climbed into a tight crawl space with his flashlight. ‘He was looking at something and laid his head down on something which just happened to be a mummified cat.’ The workmen who discovered the cat didn’t know what to do with their desiccated discovery. They left it at the foot of the basement stairs to snarl out of the twilight at Carol. The original light and keeper’s house (where the cat was found) were a nightmare of shoddy construction, cracked foundations, and cost overruns. I do not think it outlandish to suggest that some English or Irish workman privately decided a quiet foundation sacrifice might help save the rebuilt Fairport Light from disaster. Incidentally, the date of the rebuild of the Fairport Harbor Light was 1871 – this is probably when the cat was placed in the foundation. June Swann has a section on ‘dried cats’ on this astonishing site. (I’m very keen on concealed shoes.)’ Then Invisible gives a list of other sources: Trenton Evening Times (NJ) 8-2-1916 p. 13 DISCOVER MUMMY CAT AT PRINCETON PRINCETON Aug. 22 The naturally embalmed body of a mummy cat discovered by workmen excavating under the real estate office of O.H. Hubbard [illegible address] Nassau Street Princeton yesterday is the chief attraction here today. The mummy is of a color between a grey and brown and is splendidly preserved. Its…skin and ?ings and all four legs being almost intact.The cat is all there, except the fur. No ancient sarcophagus bears the form in winding sheet and there is no evidence of the art of cat preservation practiced by the Egyptians. The whiskers of the late pussy are remarkable, extending two inches or more on each side of the mouth like thick frozen hay whisps [sic]. The claws too are perfect.’ The newspaper scan was very difficult to read – thus the ellipses and question marks. The San Antonio [TX] Light 9-26-1926 p. 63 MUMMIFIED CAT IS CLAIMED BY THREE Bodies of Mother and Kitten Walled Up 100 Years Starts Dispute Harrrodsburg, Ky., Sept. 25 The question of ownership of a mummified cat and kitten found in the wall of a century-old house being torn down here is causing wide interest and some agitation. There are three people who claim the relics. Berry Lawson, tearing away the residence of Dr. J.T. Price, found the mummified felines walled into the building. It was evident the mother cat and kitten had been caught in the space inside the wall, unknown to workmen, who had built around them. This was early in the last century. PAY TO SEE MUMMIES Lawson took the curious remains and so many persons clamored to see them that it was reported a small admission fee was charged. The question of ownership arose when Lawson claimed the mummies by right of discovery and proprietorship of the house. Dr. Price said the cats belonged to him as he sold the house to Lawson, but not the contents of the building. The third claim has attracted the most attention of all. Beriah Magoffin of McAlester , Okla. , who has been spending the summer here, says the cats’ remains belong to him by right of inheritance. The old house was built by his grandfather, Beriah Magoffin, the second, who was governor of Kentucky during the Civil War and held Kentucky as neutral ground in that struggle. LEGEND IN FAMILY Mr. Magoffin says that the first Beriah had a pet cat, whose mysterious disappearance became a family legend, handed down through the generations. The mummy cat, he believes, is the lost feline of his grandfather, and he wants to link the past and present to that extent anyway. Mr. Magoffin is about 80 years old. He has heard from his family many times the story of the cat which crept out of the living room one day and never was seen again, unless it be the one who, with its kitten, rested in the venerable building for about 100 years. These first two are unverified items: According to Wayne Hodges of the Cooper Union Museum (in the 1960s), it was common practice to provide a mummified mouse for the mummified sacred cat. Different from walled up cats with rats and mice, but interesting. The Portuguese place pottery replicas of cats on their rooftops to ward off intruders. Well, where to start? There is an embarrassment of riches. I have over 2 dozens clips of (nearly all) North American mummified cats. I think I will just include ones of unusual interest or with accessory animals. European Stars and Stripes 1-5-1984 p. 33 Hesse, Darmstadt , Germany Mummified cat. A few hundred steps from the Sudbury church is the Mill Hotel, which has a most unusual attraction aside from a working water wheel dividing the bar and the dining room—a glass coffin containing a mummified cat sunk in the floor of the lobby. When the mill was being converted to a hotel, the centuries-old cat was found in one of the walls being removed. Such a find is not particularly unusual, since cats often were placed in a new building’s walls in the 17th century to ward off evil spirits. There may be something to the superstitious practice of entombing a cat. During the conversion, workmen discarded the cat as rubbish. Soon afterwards the hotel mysteriously caught fire. After the fire was extinguished, the cat was retrieved from the trash bin. The hotel has not had a fire since. Evening Times, Cumberland , MD 08-31-1911. MUMMIFIED CAT FOUND. Perfectly Good Animal Except For the Lack of Breath. New York, Aug. 31 Stone masons altering the front of the Episcopal Diocesan House, 416 Lafayette Place , tore out the stonework at the top of the second story yesterday. Patrick Shine, the boss mason, discovered a dusty object which he dug out with a trowel. It was a mummified cat, ‘a perfectly good cat except for lack of breath’, said Shine. The Diocesan House was built in 1828, so Shine easily figured that the cat was born 83 years ago at least. He said he would give the mummy to a relative, a taxidermist, to mount. Daily Iowa Capital 6-17-1896 p. 6 Des Moines , IA A Mummified Cat. A mummified cat was found last week at Dover , N.H. , between two store buildings where repairs are in progress. The body was in a cramped position, as if the cat was trying to come back, but was caught in the act and held fast by the walls. The eyes were as bright and wide open as in life, and the body as hard as stone. The air circulating freely had no doubt caused the body to mummify. Racine Journal Times, Racine , WI , 8-22-1950 p. 1 Find Mummified Cat With Mouse in Mouth Moorhead, Minn. (U.P.) Workers tearing down a buggy shed said today they found what appeared to be a mummified cat with a mouse in its mouth. The cat and mouse were found in a wall along with a newspaper dated March 31, 1876. The house to which the buggy shed was attached once was owned by W.H. Davy, early Moorhead civil leader and philanthropist. It now is owned by Mr. and Mrs. John Nelson. Morning Avalanche, Lubbock , TX 07-24-1948 p. 10 Mummified Cat and Rat Are Found in Wall of Old House Charlotte, N.C., July 23 (INS) Workmen tearing down an old Charlotte rooming house got quite a start today. They saw a mummified cat in between the walls standing on all fours ready to jump on a mummified rat. The animals are believed to have been there some 70 years. The Post-Standard, Syracuse , NY 4-3-1904 p. 30 Mummified Cat. In the accompany picture is shown a mummified cat, which was discovered in the British man-of-war Menelaus when she was broken up. It is supposed that when the vessel was being built the cat, probably in pursuit of a rat, jumped between the lining and the outside planking and there remained wedged until the ship was taken to pieces. This interesting specimen of a mummified animal, which has been brought to light from the grave in which it has lain for nearly a century, is now carefully preserved at the Customs Watch House on Ryde Pier. [illustration too dim to reproduce. Seems to show a standing cat.] Burlington Hawk Eye, Burlington , IA 1-10-1896 p. 6 Whenever I passed, some few years ago, a certain shop window in the west end of London , I usually had an additional peep at a large card to which was attached a mummified cat grasping a mummified rat firmly in its jaws. If I remember rightly these animals were discovered in a preserved, albeit shrunken and dusty condition, imprisoned between some rafters in the house during repairs. Evidently the unfortunate cat got jammed in its peculiar position accidentally, and being averse to releasing its own prisoner, and thereby being better able to release itself, held it securely until suffocation to both ensued. It was a striking illustration of the powerfulness of determination, exercised by even the smaller class of animals. The Strand . The Progress, Clearfield , PA 03-20-1986 p. 2 MILWAUKEE (AP) New York Times columnist Tom Wicker will be this year’s recipient of the Milwaukee Press Club’s Sacred Cat Award. Wicker, whose “In the Nation” column started in 1966, will receive the award at the press club’s Gridiron Dinner on May 3. The award, given annually to ho [sic] or a distinguished journalist, is named after the club’s ‘mascot’, a mummified cat found between the walls of one of the club’s first buildings. [displayed at the club bar] The Kingston Daily Freeman, Kingston , NY 6-27-1946 p. 19 Cat Catacombed A mummified cat was found above the ceiling of a room by workmen on bomb repairs at the All-England Tennis Club, Wimbledon . The animal is thought to have climbed in during construction of the building 26 years ago and to have been accidentally bricked in while asleep. Amarillo News-Globe , TX 09-01-1946 p. 28 The Dick Whittington Church , founded in 1422, which bears the plaque ‘Richard Whittington, 4 Times Mayor of London’. The vicar now declares that in the ruins of the Whittington Church , after the bombing, he found a mummified cat. [a tad too good to be true...] Lethbridge Herald, Alberta, Canada 4-17-1946 p. 4 London Letter by Jack Sullivan mentions ‘Dirty Dick’s pub on Bishopsgate. ‘Where else could one gulp a pint staring into the empty eye-sockets of a mummified cat, its legs tangled in years-old cobwebs, the layers of dirt and dust matted so thick on its fleshless body that its appearance is deceptively sturdy? Dead cats by the score hang from the low ceilings at crazily-grotesque angles, some by their necks, others by their tails and legs. If ‘mck brings luck’, as one visitor scribbled in the guest books years ago, Dirty Dick’s has been thriving on one, or all, of its many cats’ nine lives for more than a century.’ [This sounds like the opening of a Stephen King story! No idea if the place still exists. [[It does Beach]]] Many of the articles are mere squibs – no real detail. Very few of the articles mention the animals being sealed up for luck or protection. Most suggest that they somehow were trapped accidentally. You find the same lack of documentation with concealed shoes: either people never knew or no longer remember the rationale for the practice. And, finally, not far from my home is a local college called Sinclair Community College. It is built over the old red-light district and hanging ground of early Dayton. Reputedly, when the present college buildings were being built in the early 1970s, a workman lured stray cats with scraps of food, and then poured cement on them, entombing them in the structure. It is said that you can still hear the ghostly cats wailing in the walls.’ Thanks Chris and Invisible!
Changelings and the Law August 11, 2011
Posted by Beachcombing in : Modern
‘Changeling’, as noted in a recent post, was the name given by country folk on the Celtic fringe prior to children who were bewitched (i.e. ill): they were called ‘changelings’ because it was believed that fairies had come and had exchanged the child with a fairy. Parents’ reactions on having their children spirited away and replaced with a cuckoo were sometimes extreme. ‘Some wanted her to put [the changeling] out on a hot shovel; others to make egg-broth before it, that is, to boil egg-shells and offer it the water they were boiled in for its dinner, which would make it speak at once; others to keep its head under water for twenty and five minutes, when, if it was a right child, it would be drowned; if it was not, why it would be alive in the face of the country’. And sometimes the stress or rumour of a changeling child was enough to lead to violence: consequently an interesting and largely untapped source of changeling material is to be found in court cases.
A random example. The following comes from a murder case in which an Irish father and the sinister Mrs Rainey did away with his six year old child. Though the court does not really grapple with the changeling issue some of the questions suggest that the idea the child was a changeling was either behind the act or served as an excuse for the wretched man. As is typical of court records from the nineteenth-century it is necessary to guess at the questions that were asked. The following are the answers of the accused’s sister.
Before the child took the small pox it was a healthy, fine child. I know Mrs Rainey – she is a rather passionate woman. The report was that she alleged she had no luck in selling anything in her shop, from the time it came about the house, because it was ‘bewitched like’. The opinion of the country people is that a bewitched child is a sickly one which has been left in place of a fine child taken away by the fairies. It was reported that Mrs Rainey advised the prisoner to take the head off the child and throw it behind the fire.
The following are the answers of Mrs Rainey: after the child ‘had been a week in my house, I began to wish its father would provide another lodging for it… We don’t tell old stories, about fairies and so on – how should I know any thing about fairies? (laughter) I never said any thing to prisoner about fairies, I merely said to him, that his child was ‘not right looking’, and that it should be with me no longer; if it had had good clothes it would have been like other children. I never called it a witch. I heard my children say, that, when it was up stairs, it used to sing foolish little songs, and that it played little tricks among the ashes, and was bringing ‘wee things (fairies) about the fire’. I don’t know what wee things or ‘wee people’ are. I never saw the deceased child do more than play a little trick, as if to frighten the others.’
The child was dead days later. Chilling stuff.
Sometimes Changeling medicine took on elements of pantomime: this remarkable account is from Ireland, 1862.
Bridget Peters, a decent-looking woman, was indicted for having caused the death of Mary Anne Kelly, by administering large quantities of fox-glove… It appeared that the deceased was a child almost six years of age, and had been delicate almost from its birth, being affected with a softening of the brain and partial paralysis… The prisoner is what is called a ‘Fairy Doctor’ and the mother of Mary Anne Kelly having consulted her, she promised to recover her, or not charge anything unless her skill was successful. The consequence was that this unlicensed general practitioner made up some mysterious, preparations in a cauldron, which acts very peculiarly on the nervous system, and vervani, which is regarded as a very wonderful medicine by those who are superstitious. But the prisoner, after examining the child, very significantly nodded her head, and told Mrs Kelly that it was not her child but a ‘changeling’ and that something must be done to recover the missing girl, who was with the fairies; accordingly after every dose of the doctress, she had the deceased stripped Mary Maher, the servant in the family, and carried out naked on a shovel and laid on a dunghill, the poor patient calling out mamma, and in a state of great alarm. The shock of such an exposure and this while under the depressing influence of foxglove, caused a great shock to the system and on the morning of the 4th of September, another dose having been administered, the poor victim of this superstition died, although the prisoner concealed the fact until evening, pretending that she was in a sound sleep and getting well.
How many treatments like this were carried out where the child survived or, the parents’ facing ridicule, no action was taken?
Other changeling stories? drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com
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11 August 2011: This from Invisible. ‘According to one story told in Table Talk, Martin Luther advised the murder of a changeling because it was just a lump of flesh without a soul. Here’s his account. Eight years ago [in the year 1532] at Dessau , I, Dr. Martin Luther, saw and touched a changeling. It was twelve years old, and from its eyes and the fact that it had all of its senses, one could have thought that it was a real child. It did nothing but eat; in fact, it ate enough for any four peasants or threshers. It ate, shit, and pissed, and whenever someone touched it, it cried. When bad things happened in the house, it laughed and was happy; but when things went well, it cried. It had these two virtues. I said to the Princes of Anhalt: “If I were the prince or the ruler here, I would throw this child into the water–into the Molda that flows by Dessau . I would dare commit homicidium on him!” But the Elector of Saxony, who was with me at Dessau , and the Princes of Anhalt did not want to follow my advice. Therefore, I said: “Then you should have all Christians repeat the Lord’s Prayer in church that God may exorcise the devil.” They did this daily at Dessau , and the changeling child died in the following year…. Such a changeling child is only a piece of flesh, a massa carnis, because it has no soul. Source: Martin Luther, Werke, kritische Gesamtausgabe: Tischreden (Weimar: Böhlau, 1912-1921), v. 5, p. 9. An analysis of Luther’s views on changelings and the disabled. I will add that one of my pastors, a Methodist, after listening to a talk about Luther’s views on the Jews, protested that some of the more virulently anti-Semitic views expressed in the table talks were gross exaggerations for effect, giving as an example that anyone transcribing him [the pastor] saying ‘I’m going to nail my kid to the wall!’ when his son misbehaved, would be technically accurate in capturing an unguarded moment of speech, but wrong about his relationship with his son. This pastor MIGHT suggest the same about this changeling passage–that Luther was testing the Elector, playing Devil’s advocate, as it were. I have my doubts.’ Thanks Invisible, a passage that will make Mrs B dance on the ceiling!
13 August 2011: Fairyman writes in with a useful reference to changelings and disability: Susan Schoon Eberly ‘Fairies and the Folklore of Disability: Changelings, Hybrids and the Solitary Fairy’ Folklore 99 (1988), 58-77. Then LH on specifics: ‘I guess the modern changeling phenomenon would be autism spectrum disorders. I know several families with autistic and aspie kids and they tell similar stories about normal kids being ‘substituted’ with changelings. Doctors, vaccines, virus, genes and bad nutrition have replaced fairies. Luther may have been describing a child with Prader-Willi Syndrome. Early renaissance thinkers are chimeras, they have beautiful, brilliant minds in their area of study but simultaneously display monstrous medieval traits.’ Thanks LH and Fairyman!
Battle of Maldon and Overheart August 10, 2011
Posted by Beachcombing in : Medieval
Beachcombing has a long tradition of screwing up anniversaries – wrong days, wrong months, wrong years… But just for once he thought that he would get things right and offer his readers a story on the right day – 10 August– and hopefully in the right tone. What we have here is a Weird War, a massacre and a lot, depending on your perspective, of stupidity or heroism.
In 991 the fledgling Kingdom of England was fighting for its survival against a blitz of Viking attacks on the east coast. In Essex in that year the ‘dark sails’ were spotted on the horizon and the local militia under an elderly warrior, Byrhtnoth, went out to meet the invaders. The battle was to take place on a beach, at Maldon, which can be visited with profit by modern day trippers. The Vikings had landed – as was their sneaky, conniving way – on a tidal island there and the militia, determined to defend their Kingdom, blocked the approach from the sea effectively bottling up the raiders.
So far, so normal. Every one has played their part in the illuminated manuscript of the past. The Vikings have raged, the locals have shivered but have held the shield wall intact. However, now the actors are about to leave their script… Bizarrists beware.
The Vikings having failed to force their way onto the mainland now decided to push their luck. One of their leaders shouted across to the men of Essex (in Anglo-Saxon or trusting in their tolerably similar German tongue) asking for the militia to move back a few hundred yards so that the Vikings could cross, form up on the beach and so have a ‘fair’ fight – not something that characterized Viking warfare but anyway. Incredibly Byrhtnoth agreed and, giving up his excellent defensive position, he let the nasty Scandinavians onto English soil so that the rumble could go down.
The results of this spectacularly brave/stupid decision are recorded in a near contemporary heroic poem. The militia was overrun, Byrhtnoth was killed and decapitated and his household, as convention demanded, gathered around their lord’s body determined to die where he had fallen. They succeeded and the Vikings were then free to raid and destroy to their heart’s content through the heartlands of Essex. For the first time in English history the crown gave Dane-geld, buying the Vikings off with all the sad consequences that flowed from that.
The poem does not criticize Byrhtnoth directly, though it describes his decision as stemming from ofermod (‘too much heart’) that might be, as J.R.R. Tolkien argued many years ago, an epic poet shaking his head somewhat, perhaps even accusing the dead hero of hubris. But can turning a battle into a duel ever really be excused? Beach hasn’t the slightest idea: these are questions for the ages. If pushed he has some sympathy for the words of one modern Anglo-Saxon scholar.
Nothing could diminish our admiration for his brave response [of Byrhtnoth] or for the loyalty which he displayed towards his king… But nor should we, from our own vantage point removed one thousand years in time from Athelered’s reign, condemn the actions of those after Byrhtnoth who knew only too well how things had turned out. There may have been a little touch of Byrhtnoth in every one of them; but what for him was a matter of principle had been turned by his death into a far more difficult choice.
Other strange examples of fair fighting in dirty wars? Beachcombing needs to know. Drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com
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10 August 2011: Ricardo writes in with memories of the noble Duke Xian of Song who allowed – in a striking parallel to Maldon – his enemy to safely cross the river before attacking them. Even better Mao didn’t like Xian: ‘We are not the Duke of Song!’ – there are few higher recommendations. Daniel from Civilian Military Intelligence Group writes in with cases from the American Civil War and WW2. First ‘during the battle for Monte Cassino, there was a moment when the SS and the US and British decided to call a ceasefire to clear out dead and wounded and the SS paratroopers borrowed US and British gurneys and then returned them!’ Oh those punctilious Germans… Then ‘Richard Rowland Kirkland, Company G, 2nd South Carolina Volunteer Infantry, Army of the Confederacy. Kirkland was a Sergeant who had seen Battle, including Second Manassas and Shiloh. At the Battle of Fredericksburg, masses of Union soldiers under General Burnside made frontal assaults on the Confederates entrenchments along the Rappahannock River on December 13th, 1862. It was a foolish and wasteful assault that cost 6,000 dead on the first day alone and thousands more wounded; it also cost Burnside his job. During the Civil War, battles ended when the sun went down. So as combatants headed to their own lines, all one could hear were the frightful cries from wounded soldiers for help. All through the night, Kirkland, stationed at a stonewall near a sunken road, was jolted by the lugubrious mournful cries of Union soldiers. The next morning, Kirkland asked his commander’s permission to gather canteens and blankets to help the wounded. General Kershaw allowed the gesture and in broad daylight the General watched as he gathered water and wool cover and carried it to the soldiers. During the hour and a half while he helped wounded soldiers on the battlefield, in this small area no one from either side fired. They waited until Kirkland was done ministering. (On September 20th 1863, Kirkland was killed at the battle of Chickamauga. He has since been feted with song and story and statues.)’ Then there was also the question of music: ‘Often bands would play during the evenings even when the sides were so close they could hear each other. After the second day of Fredericksburg, the Union forces had brought their band along with them and they played that evening. One night, a Confederate yelled, ‘Now play one of ours!’ the Union band immediately struck up ‘Dixie’. Memories of Lincoln calling for Dixie to be played as the war wound down. Then finally ‘during the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, a fire swept through the dry grassy hills between the Union and Confederate lines. Many wounded soldiers actually burned alive in this fire. At one juncture, a Confederate officer hollered ‘We won’t fire a gun until you get them away’’. SY pays tribute to Hans Langsdorff captain of the German pocket battleship Graf Spee. ‘HL prided himself on never taking a life when attacking British merchant shipping, even congratulating enemy captains who had not immediately surrendered so as to send off distress signals. He was finally defeated by British guile at the Battle of the River Plate, scuttled his ship – saving his 1000 crewmen from certain death – and then committed suicide before being repatriated to Hitler’s Germany. His funeral in Buenos Aires was almost unique in the war as it was also attended by British officers.’ Thanks SY, Ricardo and Daniel!!
11 August 2011: Jonathan from A Corner of Tenth Century Europe writes specifically on Maldon: ‘In the first place, though the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, with rare unaninimity between its manuscripts, agrees that 991 was the first year in which Danegeld was paid, and subjoins this to the notice of the death of Byrhtnoth, it does not say explicitly that the one caused the other, but blames it on the ‘marvels’ that the Vikings had wrought that year on the east coast. One should not necessarily assume that Maldon was the first of these, I think, not least because it makes more sense of Byrhtnoth’s decision if the army he cornered were already notorious. I’ll come back to that, but the first point I wanted to make was simply that, of course, money had been paid to the Vikings before by Alfred, and occasionally by his son Edward on bad days. Whether that is the ‘English’ crown is a long debate – there was no other left but was there an England yet? But the 991 solution was, at least, not unheard of. As to Byrhtnoth’s weird decision, I think it is clear from the poem (and I’ve seen it argued by people with more Old English than me, more to the point) that while the English were safe on the mainland, the Vikings were also safe on the island; neither side could come at the other over the narrow causeway. Byrhtnoth’s choice, therefore, was not between a successful defence and a slaughter of his own men, it was between a fight that might go either way and the Vikings certainly getting away scot-free to ravage until cornered again, if at all. He couldn’t engage without them coming to the mainland. Given the chance to actually stop this instalment of the Viking threat, he took it. A stupid gamble? (More stupid than the Viking offer?!) Maybe, but the poet doesn’t say that; instead he blames a particular section of the English army for not liking the look of this and turning tail, leaving Byrhtnoth and his loyal followers to fight on outnumbered. It doesn’t, as far as I can see, say that the English were outnumbered till then. I’m not sure whether keeping a defence in being would have been wiser, in retrospect, than trying to deliver a temporary knock-out blow, but it is at least clear that when the writer of the section of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that covers this period (all done in a lump in 1016, so the author knew how things would turn out – very important!) was writing it up, he thought that the biggest problem in his mind was armies that never caught the enemy or, if they did, didn’t engage. Men like Byrhtnoth, he would presumably have seen as the solution, not the problem; the problem was that there were so few like him to take his place.’ Surely a very important point here is that if Byrhtnoth had not fought the Vikings they could easily have sailed away and ravaged another part of the Essex or English coast. Thanks as always Jonathan!
15 August 2011: Tim writes in with another ‘fair fight’. ‘With regard to your recent post on fair fights, I’ve always found the story from the War of 1812 of the Battle of Boston Harbor interesting for its civility. You may already know the story, but if not, Wikipedia does a fair job describing it. The HMS Shannon was sitting outside the harbor attempting to block the exit of any American warships. The USS Chesapeake was being refitted in the harbor, and was ready to attempt an escape. The captain of the HMS Shannon sent to the captain of the USS Chesapeake inviting his ship out to sea to engage in battle: ‘As the Chesapeake appears now ready for sea, I request you will do me the favour to meet the Shannon with her, ship to ship, to try the fortune of our respective flags. The Shannon mounts twenty-four guns upon her broadside and one light boat-gun; 18 pounders upon her main deck, and 32-pounder carronades upon her quarter-deck and forecastle; and is manned with a complement of 300 men and boys, beside thirty seamen, boys, and passengers, who were taken out of recaptured vessels lately. I entreat you, sir, not to imagine that I am urged by mere personal vanity to the wish of meeting the Chesapeake, or that I depend only upon your personal ambition for your acceding to this invitation. We have both noble motives. You will feel it as a compliment if I say that the result of our meeting may be the most grateful service I can render to my country; and I doubt not that you, equally confident of success, will feel convinced that it is only by repeated triumphs in even combats that your little navy can now hope to console your country for the loss of that trade it can no longer protect. Favour me with a speedy reply. We are short of provisions and water, and cannot stay long here.’ According to wikipedia, the Chesapeake set out before her captain received the note, but the story remains interesting as the Chesapeake’s captain had the same intent as the Shannon’s captain: meet in neutral grounds and have at it. Patrick O’Brian even cribbed the facts of the battle for one of his Aubrey and Maturin books. Spoiler: you guys won. Overall, it wasn’t our smartest war.’ Thanks Tim!
Head-hunting German Phrenologists August 9, 2011
Posted by Beachcombing in : Modern
***This post was suggest by Invisible who shares though Beachcombing’s scepticism***
Before plunging into this modern story of head-hunting the reader should be warned. First, the quotations come from a contemporary nineteenth-century English ‘sketch’ (rather than translation) from the French: Jacques Peuchet, Mémoires tirés des Archives de la police de Paris, vol I, 161 ff. Beach didn’t have the energy to translate but he can confirm that the sketch is essentially faithful.
Second, though the author of this text, Jacques Peuchet, claimed to be working from the police archives in Paris Beach has his suspicions. That JP became a source for Karl Marx and Alexander Dumas (P), two of the greatest fantasists of the nineteenth century, does nothing to quell his worries. If any reader can give some extra information on the reliability of the Mémoires the world would be a better place for it: drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com
It was during the reign of Louis XIV [obit 1715], that disappearances of individuals became alarmingly frequent in Paris. Awfully mysterious rumours on the subject were rife; and the lieutenant general of the police, anxious to unravel the awful secret, employed an intelligent agent of the name of Lecoq for that purpose. It transpired that a female who sometimes pretended to be a Polish princess, a Mademoiselle Jaborouski, and at other assumed the title of Lady Guilfort, was at the bottom of all.
One of Beachcombing’s concerns with this text is that Lady Guilfort (Lady Guilford??) seems to have sunk without trace despite her, historically-speaking, irresistible tendencies. In any case, enter the fils.
Lecoq placed his son, superbly dressed, in her way. The female appeared, and he was allured to her house where many had been drawn who were seen no more.
When Lady Guilfort left the room, the son ‘profiting by her absence, made an inspection of the room, in one corner of which stood what appeared to be an Indian screen. Wishing to see what was behind this, he endeavoured to close up its folds, but finding them immoveable, he shook them with some violence, when he heard a click, like that of a spring giving way, and one of the folds descended into the floor, and left unmasked a deep and ample recess upon the shelves of which were ranged twenty-six silver dishes, and in each a human head, the flesh of which had been preserved by some embalming process. A stifled cry of horror burst from the youth’s lips, which but a moment before had been breathing the accents of admiration and passion. But his agony of terror was still further increased when, looking towards one of the windows of the room, he thought he saw several other cadaverous faces fixing upon him through the panes their glazed but fiery glances.’
Luckily, Lecoq senior arrives with his men and prevents Lady Guilfort and four ruffians from killing his boy. Now the explanation for this ghoulish scene that reads suspiciously like Le Fanu.
A number of the most desperate malefactors whose crimes had often merited the gibbet and the galleys, had formed an association under the command of an experienced and daring chief. This arch villain had in the course of his wanderings, fallen with a rich but most profligate English woman… Besides being his mistress, she lent herself as a decoy, by means of which young men who had the appearance of wealth were lured to the den were young Lecoq had so miraculous an escape. There, after sharing in her entertainments, they were murdered, and their heads separated from their bodies. The latter were disposed of to the surgical students for anatomical purposes; and the heads, after being dried and embalmed , kept until a safe opportunity of sending them to Germany, where a price was given for them by the secret amateurs of a science then in its infancy, but which has since made some noise in the world under the name of phrenology…
So Beach just wants to get this straight. They chose young rich men but then used their bodies? Why not choose young poor men who would have disappeared far more easily? Note too how the implication is that they died with a smile on their face: the black widow having offered ‘entertainments’ to her victim before stinging them. And what is this about phrenology a century before the ‘science’ was invented?
In any case, Lady Guilfort was placed in the Bastille until one day the Chevalier de Lorraine decided, in a fit of madness, to have her to dinner: ‘This Englishwoman must be a rare piece of womanhood, suppose we have her to sup with us’. Whether fact or fantasy the sequel is very entertaining.
Lady Guilfort, after the first surprise was over, had no difficulty in recognizing the persons before her, the King’s brother, the Duke of Orleans, the Chevalier de Lorraine, and the Marquis d’Effiat. She quickly perceived the motives which led to her being brought into their presence; and though under other circumstances, she would have willingly joined in the wildest orgies with the persons in whose company she then found herself, yet the recollection of her dungeon in the Bastille, and the terrible death impending over her, left her no thought but that of making her escape.
She was seen to bed by the Marquis de Lafare and the Chevalier de Lorraine. She told both, separately and in secret, that they should come to her room to converse physically with her. Then when, after several minutes, they both arrived simultaneously she used their confusion to slip through the door and lock them within before escaping from an upstairs window. An escape worthy of the author of the Count of Monte Cristo and one that is almost as impractical as some of his.
Conveniently the pages of the police archive are missing here, Peuchet tells us – though a letter from the dread Guilfort is to be found threatening revenge on poor old Lecoq. Beach notes that there appears to have been a fictionalisation of Lady Guilfort’s crimes, La Syrène by one Xavier de Montépin.
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10 August 2011: KMH has some thoughts on the date of this story: ‘This tale sounds unlikely if dated to Louis XIV. But what if the author made a simple transpositional error and really meant Louis XVI? Then we have a horror story that could be classed as one of those rank deceptions and/or atrocities so characteristic of pre-revolutionary (and post-revolutionary) periods. (think of Marquis de Sade, Cagliostro, the Count Saint-Germain, and Casanova). Louis XVI died in January, 1791. Phrenology is said to formally originate with Franz Joseph Gall in 1796, although his interest in the subject began much earlier according to the quote below. Gall died in 1828. ‘Although twice married, he had no descendants. After his death, his head was removed and was added to his collection of over three hundred human skulls, skull casts, and brain casts.’ How long did it take to collect his assortment of skulls?’ Thanks as always KMH!
11 August 2011: Luis has come back from his holidays (well spent we hope) to tear into the Mémoires: About The Phrenology story it’s uneasy to track. I found the book at plenty of sites but when looking inside for ‘Phrénologie’ I found that it was mentioned but in a quite mystic sentence ‘isn’t the phrenology about to rehabilitate chiromancy?’. So I enlarged the search path and found some blogs that credited the Mémoires tirés des archives de la police indeed as an inspiration for Dumas when he wrote Monte-cristo and being regarded as the only reliable source for French police archives after a large part of them where lost in fire during the commune civil war. The original edition is evaluated at around 700-800 Euros by the way and it’ll be re-released in France next October. So case closed it seemed. Not at all, it’s a fake, well not totally faked but the stories told in this book were not verified before printing nor endorsed as for many of the other books of the prolific writer Mr Lamothe-Langon. He’s the real author, he used many pseudonyms, amongst them was Jacques Peuchet. He is listed in the volume 5 of “Les supercheries littéraires dévoilées” you can have a look here at the list of his forged Mémoires. So Invisible and you were right being sceptic about this, still the phrenology is mentioned in the book but Lamothe-Langon lived during the Napoleon Bonaparte era so it matches with the creation of this concept by (so says wikipedia) Franz Joseph Gall in 1796.’ Thanks as always, Luis!
Late (Pregnant) Witch in Devon August 8, 2011
Posted by Beachcombing in : Modern
Beachcombing has often tried in this column to date the death of traditional beliefs: be that the death of fairy belief in Ilkley or the death of the werewolf faith in Strasbourg. These things are almost impossible to measure of course. Sources are fragmentary and these kinds of beliefs are in the private world of the illiterate. However, even he was shocked to read the following account relating to nineteenth-century Devonshire in 1839. Our author was at a political get together a world away from the green fields and clay lanes of the outer south-west.
At the meeting I remarked a great number of parsons, and amongst the rest was the Rev. John Clarke, an outline of whose speech I annex with the rest [Beach is going to spare his readers]. This worthy divine is record of Clayhidone, and in order that you may know what is the degree of intelligence existing in his parish and how little education is required among his flock, I may mention the following anecdote. In the parish of Clayhidone, as in many other parts of Devonshire, there is entertained a firm belief in the existence of pixies, fairies, as well as in the exercise of the diabolical and now almost forgotten pranks of witchcraft. It was in this parish of Clayhidone that a poor woman was suspected of being a witch; and she was not long since seized with the pangs of childbirth, when, horrible to relate, there was not one of her own sex who would aid her, and the woman would actually have died by means of the cruel and barbarous superstition of her neighbours, if it had not happened that her husband returned at the time to his home, and was able to procure the assistance of a medical gentleman. This is a fact which I am assured can be attested to the very letter.
Again that there is a vague belief in witches in the south-west in the 1830s is fair enough, perhaps even to be expected: but that facts and acts should flow from that belief is remarkable. The anecdote rounds off with a wonderful sentence that Beach will quote just as a reminder of how differently twenty-first-century social democrats are from nineteenth-century Tories.
‘[This story] shows how well justified the Reverend John Clarke and his brother clergymen of this county are in opposing the attempt to give education to the people confided to their care’! As the Oxbridge examiner would put it: ‘discuss’.
Other late ‘organic’ (as opposed to Wicca) witchcraft from the UK? Drbeachcombing AT yahoo DOT com
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9 August 2011: Several emails alleging a typo or even a send up, for Clayhidone doesn’t seem to exist. Actually modern spelling is almost uniformly Clayhidon a tiny village in the middle of the Black Down Hills on the Devon-Somerset border.
10 August 2011: Invisible has a very impressive catalogue here that should probably replace the original post. ‘I can’t say much about ‘organic’ witchcraft in the UK (free-range animal sacrifices?) , but I can give you examples about the belief in witches in the Ohio territories in the 19th and early 20th century. As luck would have it, I’ve just been going over my files on this subject and have a number of clippings about trials and scares. I will just summarize most of them. In 1805 Nancy Evans of Clermont County was accused by the Hildebrand family of being a witch. She was weighed against a Bible and found innocent. Source: Henry Howe’s Historical Collections of Ohio, p. 414. About 1814, a horse-breeder on Mill Creek [Hamilton County] believed his horses were dying as a result of witchcraft. He boiled certain mystical ingredients with pins and needles, which was supposed to “draw” the witch. Looking out his door, he saw his daughter-in-law. He immediately ordered his son to move his family off the farm. He also believed that a certain Mrs. Garrison, a sickly, aged woman, was the primary cause of his horses’ sickness. He was told to shoot a silver bullet at a sick horse he believed to be bewitched. Naturally the horse died, and Mrs. Garrison, depressed by the slanders the man had spread about her, also died a few days later. The man believed his charms had been a success. Henry Howe’s Historical Collections of Ohio, p. 414. In 1823 Abigail Church was tried for being a witch. Truthfully, the charge seemed more about fortune-telling for money / fraud, but she was aquitted. Souce: Court of Common Pleas for Gallia County May Term 1812, State of Ohio vs. Abigail Church. Reported in Ohio History, Vol. 33 p. 206. I will quote the next item from 1828 at length. It has some horrid details. The annexed report of a case, that came before the court of common pleas in this county, is from the pen of a legal gentleman of high standing. It shows that in our day, the belief in witchcraft has not entirely vanished. Lawrence County Common Pleas. Term 1828. Action on the case, for a false warranty in the sale of a horse. Plea, general issue. The plaintiff having proved the sale and warranty, called a witness to prove the defendant’s knowledge of the unsoundness of the horse at the time of sale. This witness testified, that both he and defendant lived at Union Furnace, in Lawrence county, and that the latter was by trade a tanner; that he, witness, knew the horse previous to the sale to the plaintiff, and before he was owned by defendant, and was then, and at the time defendant purchased him, in bad health. He saw him daily employed in defendant’s bark mill, and was fast declining, and when unemployed, drooping in his appearance, and so continued until sold to the plaintiff. Having been present at the sale, and hearing the warranty, the witness afterwards inquired of the defendant why he had done so, knowing the horse to be unsound. He answered by insisting that the horse was in no way diseased, or in unsound health, but that the drooping appearance arose from his being bewitched, which he did not call unsoundness, and so soon as they could be got out of the home, he would then be as well as ever. The defendant further stated, that the same witches which were in that horse, had been in one or two persons, and some cows, in the same settlement, and could only be driven out by a witch doctor, living on the head waters of the Little Scioto, in Pike county, or by burning the animal in which they were found; that this doctor had some time before been sent for to see a young woman who was in a bad way, and on examination found her bewitched. He soon expelled them, and also succeeded in ascertaining that an old woman not far off was the witch going about in that way, and she could be got rid of only by killing her. At some subsequent time, when defendant was from home, his wife sent for witness and others, to see and find out what was the matter with her cow, in a lot near the house. They found it frantic, running, and pitching at every thing which came near. It was their opinion, after observing it considerably, that it had the canine madness. The defendant, however, returned before the witness and others left the lot; he inspected the cow with much attention, and gave it as his opinion that they were mistaken as to the true cause of her conduct,—she was not mad, but bewitched; the same which had been in the horse, had transferred itself to the cow. By this time the animal, from exhaustion or other cause, had lain down. The defendant then went into the lot, and requested the persons present to assist in putting a rope about her horns, and then make the other end fast to a tree, where he could burn her. They laughed at the man’s notion, but finally assisted him, seeing she remained quiet—still having no belief that he really intended burning her. This being done, the- defendant piled up logs, brush and other things around, and finally over the poor cow, and then set fire to them. The defendant continued to add fuel, until she was entirely consumed, and afterwards told the witness he had never seen any creature so hard to die; that she continued to moan after most of the flesh had fallen from her bones, and he felt a pity for her, but die she must; that nothing but the witches in her kept her alive so long, and it was his belief they would be so burnt before getting out, that they never would come back. Night having set in before the burning was finished, the defendant and his family set up to ascertain if the witches could be seen about the pile of embers. Late at night, some one of the family called the defendant to the window—the horse being near the place—and pointed to two witches, hopping around, over and across the pile of embers, and now and then seizing a brand and throwing it into the air, and in a short while disappeared. The next morning, on examination, the defendant saw their tracks through the embers in all directions. At a subsequent time, he told the same witness and others, that from that time the witches had wholly disappeared from the neighborhood, and would never return—and to burn the animal alive, in which they were found, was the only way to get clear of them: he had been very fearful they would torment his family. The writer found, after the above trial, from a conversation with the defendant, that he had a settled belief in such things, and in the truth of the above statement. SOURCE: Henry Howe’s Historical Collections of Ohio, p. 291 In 1893, Sadie Loop, a young woman in Salem , Ohio , was found guilty of spreading stories that Jacob Culp, a church trustee and the wealthiest farmer in the neighborhood, was a wizard. About a year later, more stories were spread by several other families in the church, accusing Culp of having the evil eye, drying up a well, killing cattle, and making a relative break his leg. The Rev. J.E. Hollister, pastor of the Hart’s Methodist Episcopal Church called upon the afflicted to disavow witchcraft and treat Culp as a brother or leave the church. They refused, so Hollister organized a church trial and two families were expelled for their belief in witchcraft. The case was reported all over the United States . I also have information on a “witch epidemic” in Reading, PA in 1883 as well as a 1897 “witchcraft scare” when 17 families in northwest Ohio claimed they could not sleep or eat and that they were constantly pursued by “black cats, which make faces and snarl at them.” They also claimed certain rooms in their houses were infested with evil spirits. “The people have burned their feather beds and resorted to other ancient methods in the hope of getting rid of the spell, but they claim they can not shake it off. Physicians can not diagnose the malady, but assure the patients that it is due to natural causes, possibly resulting from an unsanitary condition of the village.” Some 30 persons were reported on the verge of death. In 1919, a young woman named Celia Wrobleski or Wroblesky of Detroit was known as the “witch girl” and was believed to be able to turn herself into different animals and exercise a baleful influence over others. Supposedly thousands gathered outside her house to see her do something witch-like. The young woman was amused by the charges; her priest said they were all falsehoods. 1928 a pow-wow man (Pennsylvania Dutch equivalent of a witch doctor) was killed by a rival pow-wow practitioner and his young accomplices. (citing Wikipedia only because the only other site with good info is in painful green-on-a-black-background type.) Back in the UK , there is, of course, the Ann Tennant murder (even though the murderer seems to have been a lunatic) and the Charles Walton case of 1945, which has been framed by some writers as a ritual killing of a witch or cunning-man. And we cannot forget Hellish Nell, who still hasn’t been pardoned. At a glance, there seem to be a number of 20th century stories in the British press about “fortune-tellers” being prosecuted under the Witchcraft Act of 1735. For example: An article entitled, “West End Fortune Tellers” in the London Daily Mail 9-9-1904 p. 3 tells of “Yoga”, “Keiro” and “Mme. Keiro”, who were committed for trial at the North London Sessions. But, of course, this does not endorse a belief in actual witchcraft.’ Thanks very much Invisibile, especially for the unpleasant details!
11 August 2011: Simon writes in with a possible late witch killing – Beach will come back to this in August or September when he looks at a case from the 1860s but for now… ‘I saw your article a couple of days ago about the witchcraft dying out in Britain. I thought you might be interested in the story of Charles Walton which may have been have had ‘occult’ links. It only occurred in 1945 so it is within living memory. I have to say I like the response of the modern day villagers to the questions of the BBC reporter, seems like a ‘you be a outlander’ sort of place!‘ Thanks Simon!
12 August 2011: Cory has this to say: ‘I just caught up with your late-survivals-of-witchcraft post and was reminded me of an anecdote I heard told by an elderly geologist some 25 years ago, when I attended a lecture on the geology of northern Bucks and southern Northampton Counties. He said that when he was a young geologist – which would presumably have been in the late 20s or early 30s – the country people warned him against going up onto the hill known as Hexenkopf (which means witch’s head) on Walpurgisnacht, because the witches gathered there and anybody with any sense stayed away. I’ve always wondered whether they actually believed it or were just pulling his leg – but the survival of folk beliefs among Pennsylvania Germans was well known in the early 20th century, and is often referred to in weird fiction of the period. It largely appears to have faded out after the 1930s, however, conceivably as a result of the promotion of rural electrification during the New Deal. I’m surprised, by the way, to find that googling on ‘hexenkopf’ turns up any number of references to the spooky reputation of the place and the superstitions that hang around it. Contemporary neo-pagans even make pilgrimages there. I never realized it was so well known.’ Then Invisible too has come across a curious early twentieth-century British account 23 August 1908. ‘The remarkable Essex witch case was disposed of at Witham Petty Sessions on Tuesday. The complainant an old thatcher, named George Moss, said he was violently assaulted by a farmer named George Cottee, of Tiptree. Cottee was alleged to have called Moss’s wife an old witch, and to have told some boys to throw stones at her. Cottee stated that many villagers at Tiptree believed Mrs Moss was a witch although he denied that he called her one. Cottee also said that he had been a member of the Metropolitan Police Force, and added that whatever opinion, he might have as to the witch theory, he knew better than to express it in public. A witness, called for the prosecution, said he heard Cottee cal out to Mrs Moss, ‘Get indoors, you old witch, or I will cut your legs off’ The bench bound Cottee over to be of good behaviour for six months and ordered him to pay costs.’ So there you are. It reminds Beachcombing of the distinction often found between traditional and late witch cases: namely traditional witch cases are the community against the witch, these late cases are, instead, often a single complainant against the witch and, in some cases, the witch and the community. Thanks Cory and Invisible!
15 August 2011: Reporter writes in with a reminder that witchcraft is a contemporary issue in much of sub-Saharan Africa. ‘I was training a class of young newspaper reporters in Botswana about ten years ago and one of them told me he was the witchcraft correspondent. He stopped me dead in my tracks when he asked me: “In your country, are people killed for their sexual organs?” In Botswana witchcraft was, and probably still is, a potent and frightening phenomenon.’ Thanks Reporter!