sight of this creature did not portend evil in any way. Some people argue that these things may be partly submerged wrecks or derelicts grown over with barnacles and seaweed. SEA-PHANTOMS. PHANTOM ISLAND. I have heard stories of a phantom island which is sometimes seen, but disappears when people row or sail close to it.1 PHANTOM BOATS AND SHIPS. Phantom boats and ships have often been seen, to judge from popular narratives. These are considered as visions of real vessels or the doubles of boats and ships which in many cases are known to the person seeing them. They may occur to persons on the sea or on land, in the day-time or at night, and they generally forebode evil to the vessel seen. The nature of the danger or disaster may be detected in the vision itself. Sometimes the apparition simply portends that the event may be expected within some indefinite, although short, time; but it is usually supposed actually to be happening. A vision, phantom, or apparition of this kind is called a feiness.2 Phantoms of boats and their crews may be repeatedly seen at the same place on the sea, particularly in stormy weather. These phantoms are supposed to be wraiths or ghosts of boats and their crews, lost at these places, and which occasionally may be recognized. SEA-SPIRITS AND SEA-WITCHES. In the belief of some people, the sea was possessed of a powerful being or witch-like spirit capable of doing harm. As it could hear what was said, it was pleased with sincere praise, but resented insincere praise and mockery. One could not, without incurring danger, speak disparagingly of, or mock at, the sea. It could bewitch people and cause their destruction. It claimed certain people as victims, who were therefore doomed to be drowned. For this reason, it seems, there was formerly an aversion among some to save people who were drowning in the sea, as the sea would before long avenge itself on the rescuer for being cheated of its prey. Stories are told of men who rescued others, and invariably were themselves drowned within the next twelve months. Probably for the same reason some people were averse to helping shipwrecked men, and it is said that in some cases obstacles were actually put in the way of their being saved.3 I have also heard of a certain witch living in the sea who made winds and storms, and wrecked ships and boats, and of another witch or There is an Orkney tradition of a vanishing island (see Old-Lore Series, 2 : 105). This term is generally applied to apparitions of persons, whose death is thus foretold. For additional information, see Black, quoting A. Laurenson, 169. being, also living in the sea, who ground salt to keep the ocean salt.1 One of these witches, I have forgotten which one, was probably called Grua (or Groa?). SEA-LANGUAGE AND THE SEA-GOD. It may be well here to make some mention of the sea-language of the Shetland fishermen, as this language seems to indicate some connection with the old beliefs in the sea-god and sea-spirits. I cannot do better in this respect than introduce here some remarks of Dr. Jakobsen, who has made a special study of the subject: "As is well known to all Shetlanders, the Shetland fishermen before this day, like the fishermen in Faroe and Norway, had a great number of lucky words, words that they would use only at the haaf or deep-sea fishing [haf is the old Norn word for "ocean"]. The origin of this custom is not easily explained; but the custom itself is certainly very, very old, and deeply rooted in the Pagan time. The most likely explanation seems this, that before the introduction and spread of Christianity, and also long after that period, the people, and especially the fishermen, believed themselves surrounded by sea-spirits, whom they could not see, and who watched what they were doing. In the Pagan time, people believed in the sea-god Egir (Ægir), whose kingdom was the mysterious ocean, and he had as his attendants minor spirits who watched intruders upon his element. The feeling which came to prevail among the fishermen towards the sea-spirits was one of mysterious dread. They considered the sea a foreign element, on which they were intruders, and the sea-spirits in consequence hostile to them. They had therefore, when at the fishing, to take great care what they said; and it became very important to them to have a number of mystic names, to a great extent agreed upon among themselves, although derived from words which were common in the Norn language. But there is a certain number of haaf-words, doubtlessly forming the oldest portion, which seem to have been originally worship words. An original worship of the sea-spirits is rendered probable by the fact that the fishermen's haaf-terms were not at all confined to things in immediate connection with the fishing, but extended much further. All the domestic animals, for instance, got separate names at the haaf. Some of these words are now obsolete in Scandinavia; but we find them used in the old Icelandic literature, chiefly as poetical terms. A sufficient proof that the custom of using lucky words at the haaf was rooted in the Pagan time, is to be found in the fact that the minister and the church were on no account to be mentioned by their right 1 See Viking Club, Old-Lore Series, 8, 9, 66, 139, 237; information by A. W. Johnston regarding witches who grind salt; also the Grottasongr or Quern Song, by Eirikr Magnus son. names at sea. The minister and the church represented the new conquering faith, which aimed at doing away with the old gods, and consequently at disputing the sea-god's dominion of the sea; . . . The nature of the haaf-terms will be seen from this. They were not nonsensical, merely coined words, as some think; nor were they the real Norn words for the persons, animals, and things they were applied to. They are words of a more or less poetic nature, and mostly figurative terms; that is to say, persons, animals, and things are named according to some striking characteristic about them. This accounts for the great variety of names used for one and the same person, animal, and thing. Each animate and inanimate being had always many characteristics that would readily afford a basis for the many names applied." 1 I may add that the sea-language was also much used ashore when telling sea-stories, fishing-tales, and adventures of the sea; and certain places ashore (such as mountains) had taboo or sea names, by which they were called by fishermen when at sea. SPENCES BRIDGE, B.C. 1 Jakobsen, The Old Shetland Dialect, 23-31; and, for fuller information, Jakobsen, Det Norröne Sprog paa Shetland, 82-99; and Jakobsen, Shetlandsöernes Stednavne, 203. PRESENT-DAY SUPERSTITIONS AT LA HARPE, ILL., SURVIVALS IN A COMMUNITY OF ENGLISH ORIGIN. BY ETHEL TODD NORLIN. THE evidence of belief and custom here offered were collected by me during the months from June to September, 1915, at La Harpe, a village in the northeastern corner of Hancock County, western Illinois, some twenty miles southeast of Burlington, Io. I have arranged the material in five groups, according as it deals with (1) death, (2) disease, (3) marriage, (4) weather, or (5) miscellaneous beliefs. My sources are the following persons in and near La Harpe, the initial at the left being the abbreviated form adopted for the various informants. The persons consulted were those who are generally held to remember most about old practices. . Campbell. Age (?). Born in Morgan County, Illinois. Lived in and near La Harpe nearly fifty years. Of English descent. Coulson. Age 40. Born at La Harpe. Of English descent. Conwell Warren. Age 45. Born near La Harpe. Of English . descent. Bushby. Age 35. Born in La Harpe. Of English descent. English descent, and probably some Irish. Warner. Age 65. Born in Illinois. Lived in La Harpe 15 years. Of Dutch and French origin. Robertson. Born in Illinois. Of Scottish descent. Sea. Age 24. origin. Born in La Harpe. Of Scottish and English Mrs. Dawson Todd. Age 53. Born near La Harpe. Of Eng- Daughter of T. My principal sources are Mr. Coulson, Mr. Robinson, Mrs. Todd, Mr. Warner, and Mr. Kilgore. Of these, Mr. Warner is not of English descent. The larger portion of the remaining beliefs and practices were told by Mr. Bushby, Mr. Woodside, Mr. Sea, and Mr. Campbell. DEATH. I. It is considered bad luck to step on a grave. (B, C, Cb, Wn, S, R2.)1 2. Counting the carriages in a funeral-procession will bring extremely bad luck. (Ws, R, B, K, R2.) 1 See list of abbreviations above. 3. It is bad luck to cross the road in front of a funeral-procession. (C, Ws, K.) 4. It is bad luck to cross in between the carriages of a funeralprocession. (C.) 5. It is considered bad luck to meet a funeral-procession. (Cb, R, Ws, B.) Often people meeting a funeral-procession will stop and turn in the opposite direction, so as to ward off the evil sure to follow if they had continued on their way. 6. If a funeral-procession is stopped in front of your house, a death will result within a year. (W, C, R.) 7. If, while a coffin is being carried in or out of a church, it bumps a seat or pew, some one in that row will die soon. (Tb, C.) 8. It is a sure sign of death to some one in a room or a building, if a bird flies in at the window. (C, W, Cb, R, K, Wn, S, R2, T.) One of my friends said that a dove tried to get in at the window for three days before her grandfather died, some years ago. The same thing happened again last summer just before the death of her grandmother. (a) If a bird flies against a window or a door and kills itself, a death will occur soon within that house or building. (C.) Miss Coulson said her grandmother died at the very hour that a bird flew against their door and killed itself. (b) If a bird sits on a window-sill, there will be a death in that house. (K.) 9. It is a sure sign of death to twirl a chair. (Ws.) 10. Never raise an umbrella in the house, for surely some one in the house will die within a year. (R, T.) 11. Dream of a dead person, and you will soon receive a letter or hear of the living. (K, B, Wn, S, T.) Similarly 12. If you dream of a death, you will hear of a wedding. (Wn, R, Ws, K.) 13. If you hear a buzzing ring in your ear, you will soon hear of a death. (Ws, W, R, K, T.) 14. It is also a sign that you will hear of a death if, while baking bread, it cracks across the top. (R, B.) 15. If your apron comes untied and drops, and you step over it, there will be a death soon. (R.) 16. Sign of death to carry a hoe through the house. (K, R, W, Cb, C, S, T.) (a) Others say shovel. (B.) (b) Still others say spade. (Ws, T.) 17. If there is one funeral, there will be two more. (W, Cb, C, T.) (a) If a body is shipped into town, there will be two more deaths. in the town. (C.) |