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GUERNSEY FOLK-LORE.
GUERNSEY FOLK-LORE.
SIR EDGAR MacCULLOCH In his Robes as Bailiff of Guernsey. GUERNSEY FOLK-LORE A COLLECTION OF POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS, LEGENDARY TALES, PECULIAR CUSTOMS, PROVERBS, WEATHER SAYINGS, ETC., OF THE PEOPLE OF THAT ISLAND . FROM MSS. BY THE LATE SIR EDGAR MacCULLOCH, Knt. , F.S.A., &c. Bailiff of Guernsey . Edited by Edith F. Carey. ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS PHOTOGRAPHS OF OLD PRINTS, ETC. LONDON: ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C. Guernsey: F. Clarke, States Arcade. 1903. “LA LEGENDE, LE MYTH
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AUTHOR’S PREFACE.
AUTHOR’S PREFACE.
Of late years the ancient superstitions of the people, their legendary tales, their proverbial sayings, and, in fine, all that is designated by the comprehensive term of “Folk-Lore,” have attracted much and deserved attention. Puerile as are many of these subjects, they become interesting when a comparison is instituted amongst them as they exist in various countries. It is then seen how wide is their spread—how, for example, the same incident in a fairy tale, modified according to the manners a
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EDITOR’S PREFACE.
EDITOR’S PREFACE.
Sir Edgar MacCulloch at his death, which occurred July 31st, 1896, bequeathed his manuscript collection of Guernsey Folk-Lore to the Royal Court of Guernsey, of which he had been for so many years Member and President. This collection was subsequently handed over to me by Sir T. Godfrey Carey, then Bailiff, and the other Members of the Court, to transcribe for publication: it was contained in three manuscript books, closely written on both sides of the pages, and interspersed with innumerable sc
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CHAPTER I. Festival Customs.
CHAPTER I. Festival Customs.
The observance of particular days and seasons, and of certain customs connected with them, has been in all countries more or less mixed up with religion. Many of these customs have, it is well known, descended to us from pagan times. The Church, unable altogether to eradicate them, has, in some cases, tacitly sanctioned, in others incorporated them into her own system. At the Reformation some of these observances were thought to savour too strongly of their pagan origin, or to be too nearly alli
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CHAPTER II. Local Customs—Civic, Aquatic, Ceremonial.
CHAPTER II. Local Customs—Civic, Aquatic, Ceremonial.
Before giving an account of this curious old custom, now abolished, but which seems to have been instituted originally with a view to keeping the highways throughout the island in a due state of repair, it may be as well to say something of the feudal system, as it existed, and indeed, greatly modified of course, still exists in Guernsey. Though, from the loss in the course of many centuries of the original charters, we are left in the dark on many points, and can only guess at the origin of som
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CHAPTER III. Prehistoric Monuments; and their Superstitions.
CHAPTER III. Prehistoric Monuments; and their Superstitions.
The island of Guernsey still contains many of those rude and ponderous erections commonly known by the name of Cromlechs, or Druids altars. The upright pillar of stone or rude obelisk, known to antiquaries by the Celtic name of Menhir also exists among us. Many of these ancient monuments have no doubt disappeared with the clearing of the land and the enormous amount of quarrying, and many have doubtless been broken up into building materials, or converted into fences and gateposts. But the names
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CHAPTER IV. Natural Objects and their Superstitions.
CHAPTER IV. Natural Objects and their Superstitions.
There are many spots in Guernsey connected with stories and legends besides the Druidical remains. The caverns of the Creux des Fées and Creux Mahié; the various curiously shaped rocks, formed by the hand of Nature, or by the wearing action of the waves; the marks of footprints, whether human or diabolical, on various stones; and above all the sacred fountains, which are still regarded as medicinal, have given rise to many a tradition, which, though they lose much of their charm from being trans
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CHAPTER V. Holy Chapels and Holy Wells.
CHAPTER V. Holy Chapels and Holy Wells.
Though not strictly speaking “Folk-Lore,” the ancient priories and chapels of Guernsey are so closely connected with the holy wells that it may be as well here to give some details concerning them. It appears that these chapels must have been of more than one kind. Some were endowed, and had a priest permanently attached to them with probably a certain cure of souls. Others were most likely wayside oratories, where divine service was only performed occasionally by the rector of the parish, or so
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CHAPTER VI. Fairies.
CHAPTER VI. Fairies.
It is not very easy to ascertain precisely what the popular idea of a fairy is. The belief in them seems to have died out, or, perhaps, to speak more correctly, they are no longer looked upon as beings that have any existence in the present day. That such a race did once exist, that they possessed supernatural powers, that they sometimes entered into communication with mankind, is still believed, but all that is related of them is told as events that happened long before the memory of man, and i
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CHAPTER VII. Demons and Goblins.
CHAPTER VII. Demons and Goblins.
That singular meteor, known by the English as Jack o’Lantern or “Will o’ the Wisp,” by the French as “Feu Follet,” and by the Bretons as “Jan gant y tan” (John with the fingers or gloves of fire), bears in Guernsey the appellation of Le Faeu Bélengier —the fire of Bélenger. According to Mr. Métivier “Bélenger” is merely a slight variation of the name “Volunde” or “Velint”—Wayland, or Weyland Smith, the blacksmith of the Scandinavian gods. Bélenger was married to a Valkyrie, daughter of the Fates
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CHAPTER VIII. The Devil.
CHAPTER VIII. The Devil.
Various allusions to his Satanic Majesty have already appeared in these pages. He has left his footprints on various rocks; he carried away bodily Jean Vivian, Vavasseur de St. Michel; he fought with St. Patrick at the Hougue Patris; and he enticed Duke Richard in the form of a beautiful woman. He is of course head of the fraternity of wizards and witches, and many references to him occur in all the legends dealing with witchcraft, but there are a few stories dealing with him “in propriâ personâ
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CHAPTER IX. Prophetic Warnings and Ghosts.
CHAPTER IX. Prophetic Warnings and Ghosts.
It is a very common belief that events, particularly those of a melancholy nature, are foreshadowed. Unusual noises in or about a house, such as cannot easily be accounted for, the howling of a dog, the crowing of cocks at unaccustomed hours, the hooting of owls, and many other things are looked upon as warnings of evil to come, or, as they are locally termed, “ avertissements .” This term is also applied to a sort of second-sight, in which a person fancies he sees an image of himself, or, to ma
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CHAPTER X. Witchcraft.
CHAPTER X. Witchcraft.
“Wise judges have prescribed that men may not rashly believe the confessions of witches, nor the evidence against them. For the witches themselves are imaginative, and people are credulous, and ready to impute accidents to witchcraft.”— Bacon. The belief in witchcraft dates from so very remote a period, it is so universally spread throughout all the various races that compose the human family, that it is not to be wondered at if it still retains its hold among the ignorant and semi-educated, esp
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CHAPTER XI. Charms, Spells, and Incantations.
CHAPTER XI. Charms, Spells, and Incantations.
As long as the popular belief in witchcraft exists—and with all the boasted light and civilisation of the nineteenth century it still holds its ground—there will be found those who imagine that the evil influence of the sorcerer may be averted by a counteracting spell, or by certain practices, such as carrying an amulet about one’s person, nailing a horse-shoe to the door of a house or the mast of a ship, etc. With the ignorant and unlearned it is often useless to reason: they cannot understand
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CHAPTER XII. Folk Medicine and Leech Craft.
CHAPTER XII. Folk Medicine and Leech Craft.
In days gone by, before the invention of Morrison’s pills, Holloway’s ointment, and other infallible remedies, no farm was without its plot of medicinal herbs, skilful combinations of which—secrets handed down from one old wife or village doctor to another—were supposed to be capable of curing all the ills to which poor suffering humanity is heir, to say nothing of the various diseases affecting horses, oxen, swine, and other domestic animals. Nine varieties of herbs was the number usually culti
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CHAPTER XIII. Story Telling.
CHAPTER XIII. Story Telling.
When, in former days, neighbours were in the habit of meeting together on such occasions as “ la grande querrue ,” “ la longue veille ,” or the more ordinary “ veillées ,”—at which the women of the neighbourhood, young and old, used to assemble in turn at each other’s houses, and ply their knitting needles by the light of a single lamp and the warmth of a single hearth, thereby economising oil and fuel,—it was customary to break the monotony of the conversation by calling on each of the company
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CHAPTER XIV. Historical Reminiscences.
CHAPTER XIV. Historical Reminiscences.
“Antiquities, or remnants of history, are, as was said, tanquam tabula naufragii , when industrious persons, by an exact and scrupulous diligence and observation, out of monuments, names, words, proverbs, traditions, private records and evidences, fragments of stories, passages of books that concern not story, and the like, do save and recover somewhat from the deluge of time.”—Bacon’s Advancement of Learning . Although the following story is entirely forgotten in Guernsey, and indeed may possib
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CHAPTER XV. Nursery Rhymes and Children’s Games.
CHAPTER XV. Nursery Rhymes and Children’s Games.
“Gather up all the traditions, and even the nursery songs; no one can tell of what value they may prove to an antiquary.”—Southey, in a letter to Mrs. Bray, quoted in her Borders of the Tamar and the Tavy . [Some of these I have found lying loose among Sir Edgar MacCulloch’s MSS. I have put them together, and added to them a few I have collected among the old country people.— Ed. ] A number of children seat themselves in a circle on the ground, as near to each other as possible, and one of the p
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CHAPTER XVI. Superstitions Generally.
CHAPTER XVI. Superstitions Generally.
Editor’s Note. —In this chapter are collected all the loose and unclassified bits of Folk-Lore scattered among Sir Edgar MacCulloch’s manuscripts. The widely-diffused idea that the spirits of the dead sometimes return in the form of birds, is not altogether obsolete in these islands. A widow, whose husband had been drowned at sea, asked the Seigneur of Sark whether a robin that was constantly flying round her cottage and alighting on her window-sill, might not possibly be the soul of the departe
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CHAPTER XVII. Proverbs, Weather Sayings, etc.
CHAPTER XVII. Proverbs, Weather Sayings, etc.
“They serve to be interlaced in continued speech. They serve to be recited upon occasion of themselves. They serve, if you take out the kernel of them, and make them your own.”— Lord Verulam. No nation is without its proverbs; but while in many cases these pithy sayings are the same in all languages, and merely literal translations from one dialect to another, in other instances the idea only is present, and the words in which the proverb is expressed have little or nothing in common, as, for ex
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CHAPTER XVIII. Guernsey Songs and Ballads.
CHAPTER XVIII. Guernsey Songs and Ballads.
I have added this chapter to Sir Edgar MacCulloch’s book, as I thought it a good opportunity of preserving a few of the old ballads and songs which, for generations, amused and interested our forefathers, and which now, alas, are all too surely going or gone from among us,—swept away by the irrepressible tide of vulgarity and so-called “Progress,” by which everything of ours that was beautiful, picturesque, or individual, has been destroyed. As descendants of the Celtic trouvères, menestriers, a
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APPENDIX A. Ghosts.
APPENDIX A. Ghosts.
Referred to on page 288 . At “Les Mourains” we have seen that the ghost was “laid” by the means of the clergy of the parish, (see page 288) and it is evident by the following stories that the laying of spirits frequently formed part of the duties of the clergy in Guernsey in the last century. The house Colonel Le Pelley now inhabits at St. Peter-in-the-Wood, was formerly owned by an old Mr. Blondel, who, on his death bed, gave instructions to Mr. Thomas Brock (then Rector of the parish and grand
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APPENDIX B. Witchcraft.
APPENDIX B. Witchcraft.
Referred to on page 386 . There are many stories still told and firmly believed by the country people, of Marie Pipet, who was a noted “sorcière“ of the early part of the nineteenth century. She came of a race of witches and wizards, thus described in Redstone’s Guernsey and Jersey Guide , by Louisa Lane Clarke, (Second Edition, 1844), p. 86. “On the road past St. Andrew’s Church, one of the lanes to the right leads to the village called “Le Hurel,” [354] a collection of mere huts; rude, dirty l
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APPENDIX C. Charms and Spells.
APPENDIX C. Charms and Spells.
Referred to on page 421 . A very old lady remembers, when a child, seeing some small bits of stick, shaped like slate-pencils, which old women wore sewn up in their stays as charms against witchcraft, on the homœopathic principle, for they called them “ Des Bouais de Helier Mouton ,” Helier Mouton being himself a noted sorcerer. When I mentioned this to Sir Edgar he told me that a hundred years ago a man named Colin Haussin was put in the stocks for witchcraft and using “ des petits bouais .” Th
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