Tradition of The Horseshoe

1895

How It Came to Be Protection Against Evil Spirits

In Morocco iron is considered a great protection against demons, who are the lineal representatives, after all, of the hostile spirits. Hence it is usual to place a knife or dagger under a sick man's pillow, his illness being, of course, attributed to demoniacal possession. In India the mourner who performs the necessary but somewhat dangerous duty of putting fire into the dead man's mouth carries a key or a knife in his hand to keep off the evil spirits. In short, a bit of iron is a very useful thing to have about you at any time if you desire to escape the unfavorable attention of the ghosts, the trolls, the fairies and the demons generally. This is good reason for buying a pocketknife. It is also a reason for nailing up a horseshoe. "But why a horseshoe in particular," you ask, "more than any other odd piece of iron?" Well, primarily the good luck depends more upon the iron as iron than on the special shape or function of the horseshoe as a horseshoe.

But there are also many reasons why the superstition should happen to fix itself more particularly upon horseshoes. We must remember that in Europe at least it is the cattle, the horses and the domestic beasts in general that are specially liable to the hostile attacks of "the little people." Therefore the elves and trolls are most likely to be dreaded on farms or in the country, where horses and cattle most do congregate. Now, if you went to nail up a bit of iron as a protection against the fiery darts of the evil ones on your stables or cowhouses, which is the place where one oftenest sees them, nothing is more likely to come handy to your purpose than a cast horseshoe. Besides it has obvious congruity for the place and object, and it can readily be picked up in the road almost anywhere. Furthermore, it is provided beforehand with convenient holes, by means of which you can readily hang it up, either over your own house door or over your sheds and stables. These various advantages of cheapness, ease and readiness for fixing would have given the horseshoe a fair start in life, it is believed, as a charm against fairies, trolls and evil spirits generally, even without any other and more special advantages. — Cornhill Magazine.

The Evil Eye

1912

It is probably that the "evil eye," for which many hapless old women were harried to their death on the suspicion of witchcraft in "the good old days," was no more than a common squint, a "cast" in the eye, or "bossing," as it is called in many parts of the country to this day, writes Dr. N. Bishop Harman in the British Journal of Children's Diseases. Not only was the squint though to be of evil significance, but the defect itself was considered to be the work of evil spirits. In "King Lear" we find the following in the scene on the heath at night:

"This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet. He begins at curfew and walks till the first cock; he gives the web and the pin, squints the eye and makes the harelip, mildews the white meat and hurts the poor creature of earth."


Knew His Man

George Bubb, better known as Bubb Doddington, one of the wits of the eighteenth century, always dined well and always liked to doze after the repast. Falling asleep one day after dinner with Sir Richard Temple and Lord Cobham, the latter reproached Doddington with his drowsiness. Doddington denied having been asleep and to prove he had not offered to repeat all Lord Cobham had been saying. Cobham challenged him to do so. Doddington repeated a story, and Lord Cobham owned he had been telling it. "Well," said Doddington, "and yet I did not hear a word of it, but I went to sleep because I knew that about this time of the day you would tell that story."

—The Kingston Daily Freeman, Kingston, New York, June 30, 1916, page 5.

Evil Spirits, "Imps" Scaring People of Nova Scotia

1922

FARMER FLEES FROM "IMPS"

Tale of Tricks of Evil Spirits Excites People of Nova Scotian Community.

Halifax, N. S. — While no broomstick riding hags of the traditional witch features have been seen hurtling across the face of the moon, there are any number of people in Nova Scotia who will take an oath that imps of no good intent are peopling the fair hills of Antigonish county.

Alexander MacDonald, a farmer, has boarded up his valley home and fled with his family and chattels in the dead of winter. His neighbors say they have seen with their own eyes, and without the assistance of potable spirits, the manifestations of the Evil One.

So much credence is being given to the tales of witches and imps that a Halifax newspaper has assigned a member of its staff to break his way through the inland snows until he reaches the MacDonald house and live there for two weeks.

MacDonald and his family awoke one morning three weeks ago to find that their horses had been driven into a lather and returned to their stalls before dawn. The cattle had been turned out of the barns in a driving snowstorm. The tails of the heifers had been braided.

This was repeated the next morning and the next. The third night, MacDonald says, the fire imps appeared. In unexpected places jets of flame would break out for no apparent reason. The following nights he called neighbors to see for themselves. They swore that they saw fires leap from bare floors and subside, or flare up from a fireless stove and disappear.

In each case a bit of absorbent cotton or highly inflammable calico was found near the source of the fire, but that only deepened the mystery. Where had the cotton and calico come from? After a week McDonald and his family fled, taking up their home in Caledonia Mills.

—Oneonta Daily Star, Oneonta, New York, April 1, 1922, page 8.