Read Ebook: Fiends Ghosts and Sprites Including an Account of the Origin and Nature of Belief in the Supernatural by Radcliffe John Netten

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If we contemplate a race in the earlier phases of its existence, or one degraded in the scale of being, we find that its ideas of the supernatural are confined to the deification and worship of the simplest and most striking of the objects and phenomena of nature: as it has increased in civilization and learning, those deities have been represented in symbolical forms; and as civilization and the cultivation of the mind advances, and the knowledge of surrounding nature has become increased, so have the number of deities been multiplied by the deification of the less evident powers of nature, of kings, and of distinguished men, and then also allegory has come into play. Every variation in the character of a nation, and every era, has impressed more or less distinct marks on its mythology; and mythology, as we receive it now, is the sum of all those changes which have been impressed upon it from its earliest formation.

When Christianity dawned upon the world, its effect was not the immediate eradication or dispersion of the superstitious beliefs and observances then entertained: it induced a change in the form and nature of those beliefs.

At the commencement of the Christian era, certain men, inspired by the Holy Ghost, were enabled to cast aside all those thoughts and feelings derived from habit, education, and authority, and to receive at once, in all its purity and fulness, the light of the gospel--perhaps the most wonderful of all the miracles of Holy Writ. Such was not the case, however, with the majority of the earlier Christians. They did not thus throw off the superstitious beliefs of pagan origin, but modified them so as to concur, as they thought, with Scripture.

Thus, the Scriptures enunciated the doctrine of one sole, omnipotent, and omniscient God; and it fully defined a power of evil, and denounced idolatry. Hence the early Christian fathers were led to conceive, and teach, that the gods of the heathen were devils; and further, that their history, attributes, and worship, had been taught to mankind by the devils themselves.

"The light militia of the lower sky;"

It is, therefore, to the retention of certain pagan superstitions in a modified form, that we are to attribute the origin of the belief in those unnumbered spirits, which, under the names of fiends, daemons, genii, fairies, fays, elves, sylphs, sprites, &c., have been supposed to surround us, and have hampered the imaginations of all Christian nations, and of which, to use the words of Pope--

"Some in the fields of purest aether play, And bask and whiten in the blaze of day; Some guide the course of wandering orbs on high, Or roll the planets through the boundless sky; Some, less refined, beneath the moon's pale light, Pursue the stars that shoot athwart the night, Or suck the mists in grosser air below, Or dip their pinions in the painted bow, Or brew fierce tempests on the wintry main, Or o'er the glebe distil the kindly rain; Others on earth o'er human race preside, Watch all their ways, and all their actions guide."

The belief that the heathen deities were devils, naturally led to the further conclusion, that the priests who sacrificed to those gods, and who were regarded as the medium of communication between the gods and man, held immediate converse with devils,--a belief subsequently extended to idolators in general, and to all those practising magic and sorcery. Instances of the natural alliance of a mythological idea to a Christian belief might be multiplied.

Frequently, also, Satan appeared under the form of a goat. The goat is an emblem of the sin-offering, and of the wicked at the day of judgment; hence it became symbolical of the Prince of Darkness, and in this form the devil most commonly appeared to the Jews, according to the Rabbins. In Leviticus , where it is written "they shall no more offer sacrifices to devils," it is literally, to "hairy-ones"--goats. The symbol of the goat prompted to the nature of the form given to Pan in the Grecian and Roman mythology. Indeed, the Greeks derived their worship of that god from Egypt, where he was adored under the form of a goat; and it is fabled that he captivated Diana under the aspect of a white goat.

A singular superstition of the connection of the goat with Satan is entertained in some districts of this island. It is asserted that a goat is never visible for twenty-four hours consecutively, as once in that time it must visit Satan to have its beard combed!

Another example of the wedding of a pagan myth to the Christian religion is this:--Most heathen nations believed in the existence of deities whose especial duty was to guard the threshold of the house, and prevent the entrance of evil spirits.

The Grecians and Romans had their Penates and Lars, and the Genoese retain the superstition at the present day.

The Lars were the souls of men, who lingered about the dwellings and places they had formerly inhabited and frequented. They were represented by small images resembling monkeys, and covered with dog's skin; and these images were placed in a niche behind the door, or around the hearth. At the feet of the Lar was placed the figure of a dog, to intimate vigilance; and special festivals were devoted to them in the month of May, when offerings of fruit were presented, and the images were crowned with flowers.

Plautus represents a Lar as using the following words:--

"I am the family Lar Of this house whence you see me coming out. 'Tis many years now that I keep and guard This family; both father and grandsire Of him that has it now, I aye protected."

Beneath the threshold of the Assyrian palaces at Nineveh were found images of a foul and ugly appearance , some having a lynx's head and human body, others a lion's body and human head. Sentences were also inscribed on the threshold, and the winged bulls and figures were placed on each side of the portal. The intention was, doubtless, the prevention of the entrance of evil deities, and the protection of the household.

The Chinese, Hindoos, and natives of Ashanti, believe in the existence of similar deities. The Bh?tas of Hindostan are a species of malevolent spirit, which are worshipped as tutelary deities. Every house and each family has its particular Bh?ta, which is often represented by a shapeless stone. Daily sacrifices are offered to it, in order to propitiate its evil disposition, and incline it to defend the house from the machinations of neighbouring Bh?tas. The native of Ashanti offers also daily sacrifices to his tutelary deity, which, under the form of a stone painted red, is placed upon a platform within his hut.

In some parts of England, naturally perforated stones are suspended behind the doors, with the same intention; in others, jugs, of singular and often frightful form, are built into the walls of the cottages--an interesting approximation to the Assyrian teraphim; and in Glamorganshire the walls of the houses are whitewashed, in order to terrify wandering spirits,--a mode of prevention which we should like to see more generally adopted, as it would doubtless prove of some effect in impeding the access of those roaming spirits of evil with which we have to contend most at the present day--cholera and fever.

According to Durandus, the dedication-crosses of the Roman Catholic churches were adopted under the influence of a feeling in every respect analogous to this ancient superstition. He writes that the crosses were used, "first, as a terror to evil spirits, that they, having been driven forth thence, may be terrified when they see the sign of the cross, and may not presume to enter therein again. Secondly, as a mark of triumph, for crosses be the banners of Christ, and the signs of his triumph.... Thirdly, that such as look on them may call to mind the passion of Christ, by which He hath consecrated his church; and their belief in his passion."

But the influence of mythology on Christianity did not terminate with the mere natural results of previous education, habits, &c. The church, under and subsequent to the reign of Constantine, reposing in the protection of the civil power, and not content with the natural veneration due to those early Christians who had struggled for the cross, and fallen martyrs or distinguished themselves by their long and protracted sufferings, insensibly, perhaps, at the first, and influenced by the same amiable feelings which led the pagan to deify his benefactors, indulged a degree of reverence to the memory of those holy men, which soon ripened into superstitious observances, and ultimately to their canonization and invocation. The Fathers of that period--Athanasius, Nazianzen, Chrysostom, &c.--encouraged the belief; and a rage was developed for the search of the remains and resting-places of the holy dead, to whom prayers were offered; and, in its encouragement of invocation of the dead, visions, miracles, prophetic dreams, relics, &c., the Roman church at this time rivalled the omens, divinations, oracles, and hero-worship of one of the later phases of mythology.

The church even sought to promote the spread of Christianity by the adoption of certain pagan rites and ceremonies. No more remarkable and interesting example of this is to be found than in the annals of our own country. In the year of our Lord 601, in a letter "sent to the Abbot Mellitus, then going into Britain," Pope Gregory wrote as follows:--

"I have, upon mature deliberation on the affairs of the English, determined ... that the temples of the idols of that nation ought not to be destroyed; but let the idols that are in them be destroyed, let holy water be made and sprinkled in the said temples, let altars be erected, and relics placed. For if those temples be well built, it is requisite that they be converted from the worship of devils to the service of the true God; that the nation, seeing that the temples are not destroyed, may remove error from their hearts, and knowing and adoring the true God, may the more familiarly resort to the places to which they have been accustomed. And because they have been used to slaughter many oxen in the sacrifices to devils, some solemnity must be exchanged for these on this account, as that on the day of dedication, or the nativities of the holy martyrs whose relics are there deposited, they may build themselves huts of the boughs of trees about those churches which have been turned to that use from temples, and no more offer beasts to the devil, but kill cattle to the praise of God in their eating, and return thanks to the Giver of all things for their sustenance; to the end that, whilst some gratifications are outwardly permitted them, they may the more easily consent to the inward consolations of the grace of God."

In A.D. 726, Pope Gregory II expressed his approval of image-worship, and because the Greek emperor refused to accede to this form of idolatry, he caused the tribute paid to him by Rome to be suspended, and even went to the extent of excommunicating him; and in 789, the second Nicene council re-established and confirmed the adoration of images.

Examples of the influence of these doctrines in the Roman and other churches may be multiplied.

The sacred fountains of antiquity were perpetuated in a Christian form by dedication to a saint. Examples of this are afforded by the wells of St. Elian, in Denbighshire; St. Winifred, in Flintshire, &c.

In no respect, however, has the Romish church so closely followed the example of pagan nations, and borrowed from mythology, as in the deification of men, and the adoption of tutelary divinities.

As the mythology of ancient Rome and Greece had its gods who presided over countries, cities, towns, and the numerous actions and duties of man in his civil and religious life, to each of whom worship was offered and altars erected, so also the Romish church encouraged the belief in guardian saints, and in this respect its calendar rivals the Pantheon.

As fully did this church adopt the principle of the deification of men--one of the most prominent of the characteristics of idolatry.

There are also guardian saints of cities. St. Egidius presides over Edinburgh, St. Nicholas, Aberdeen; St. Peter succeeded Mars at Rome; St. Frideswide, Oxford; St. Genevieve, Paris; St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Januarius, Naples, &c.

Of the general body of tutelary saints the following list will afford an illustration:--

St. Agatha presides over nurses; St. Catherine and St. Gregory over studious persons; St. Christopher, St. Hermus, and St. Nicholas, over mariners; St. Cecilia, over musicians; St. Cosmos and Damian, over physicians, surgeons, and philosophers; St. Dismas and St. Nicholas, over thieves; St. Eustace and St. Hubert, over hunters; St. Felicitas, over young children; St. Julian, over pilgrims; St. Leonard and St. Barbara, over captives; St. Luke, painters; St. Martin and St. Urban over ale-knights, to prevent them falling in the kennel; St. AEthelbert and AElian are invoked against thieves, &c.

St. Agatha presides over valleys; St. Anne, riches; St. Barbara, hills; St. Florian, fire; St. Sylvester, woods, &c.

St. Thomas presides over divines; St. Thomas ?-Becket, blind men; St. Valentine, lovers; St. Winifred, virgins; St. Joseph, carpenters; St. Anthony, swineherds and grocers; St. Arnhold, millers; St. Blaise, wool-combers; St. Catherine, spinners; St. Clement, tanners; St. Cloud, nailsmiths; St. Dunstan, goldsmiths; St. Elry, blacksmiths, farriers, &c.; St. Florian, mercers; St. Francis, butchers; St. George, clothiers; St. Goodman and St. Ann, tailors; St. Gore, potters; St. Hilary, coopers; St. Leodager, drapers; St. Crispin, shoemakers, &c.

St. Anthony protects hogs; St. Ferriol, geese; St. Gertrude, mice and eggs; St. Hubert, dogs; St. Joy, horses, &c.

"There be many miracles assigned to saints," writes Barnaby Rich, in 1619, "that they say are good for all diseases: they can give sight to the blind, make the deafe to hear; they can restore limbs that be crippled, and make the lame go upright; they be good for horse, swine, and many other beasts. And women, also, have shee-saints.... They have saints to pray to when they be grieved with a third-day ague, when they be pained with toothache, or when they would be revenged on their angry husbands.

"They have saints that be good amongst poultry when they have the pip, for geese when they do sit, to have a happy success in goslings; and, to be short, there is no disease, no sickness, no griefe, either amongst men or beasts, that hath not his physician among the saints."

The Romish church also adopted the pagan belief in apparitions, and as the latter had supported the argument in favour of the existence of the gods by the fiction of their occasional manifestations in a visible form, so the former endeavoured to sustain its dogmas by fables of the apparition, from time to time, of its saints.

It is needless to dwell upon the manner in which this church pandered to the credulity of the people in this respect, for an example is before the world even at the present time in the apparition of the Blessed Virgin near La Salette, a village about four miles from Corps, a small town situated on the road between Grenoble and Gap.

The story is as follows:--On the 19th September, 1846, the Blessed Virgin appeared to two children, the one a boy aged 11, and the other a girl aged 14 years, who were watching cows near a fountain, in the hollow of a ravine in the mountains, about four miles from the church of La Salette. When first seen, she was in a sitting position, the head resting upon the hands, and she "had on white shoes, with roses about her shoes. The roses were of all colours. Her socks were yellow, her apron yellow, and her gown white, with pearls all over it. She had a white neckerchief, with roses round it; a high cap, a little bent in front; a crown round her cap with roses. She had a very small chain, to which was attached a crucifix; on the right were some pincers, on the left a hammer; at the extremities of the cross was another huge chain, which fell, like the roses, round her handkerchief. Her face was white and long."

Addressing the children, tears coursing down her cheeks, she spoke to them on the wickedness of the peasantry, particularly their neglect of the Sabbath and of the duties of Lent, when they "go like dogs to the butchers' stalls." Then she foretold that if the men would not be converted, there should be no potatoes at Christmas, all the corn should be eaten up by animals, or if any did grow up, it should fall to dust when thrashed. There should be a great famine, preceding which "children below seven years of age should have convulsions, and die in the arms of those who held them; and the rest should do penance by hunger. Nuts and grapes also should perish. But if men were converted, then the rocks and stones shall be changed into heaps of corn, and potatoes shall be sown all over the land." "The lady," in addition, confided to each of the children a secret which was not to be told to the other, but which they confided to the Pope in 1851. Then, after a little gossiping conversation, "the lady" vanished.

Soon after this apparition had been noised abroad, it was discovered that the waters of the fountain were possessed of marvellous healing properties, and many miraculous cures were effected by its use. Pilgrims flocked to the scene of the vision, and it is affirmed that in one day 60,000 of the faithful ascended the mountain.

Among others, the present Bishop of Orleans made a pilgrimage to the "holy mountain," and he was so impressed by the solemn feelings excited by treading on such holy ground, that he often ejaculated, "It cannot be but that the finger of God is here." Other ecclesiastics of rank also visited the spot, and the whole affair was officially sanctioned.

Nor did the matter rest here, for churches are being built, and dedicated to "Our Lady of Salette," in different countries; and a society has been established in England bearing her name.

We have already alluded to the sacred fountains of heathen nations, and in the holy fountain of Salette we witness the modern development of a similar superstition. So also in the apparition of the Virgin the same credulity is traced which prompted the ancients to believe in the occasional appearance of their deities.

It is related that Castor and Pollux, the sons of Jupiter, by Leda the wife of Tyndarus, were seen fighting at the battle of Regillus; and that, subsequently, mounted on white horses, they appeared to P. Vatienus, as he journeyed by night to Rome, from his government of Reate, and told him that King Perses had that day been taken prisoner.

On these legends Cicero remarks; "Do you believe that the Tyndaridae, as you called them, that is, men sprung from men, and buried in Lacedemon, as we learn from Homer, who lived in the next age,--do you believe, I say, that they appeared to Vatienus on the road, mounted on white horses, without any servant to attend them, to tell the victory of the Romans to a country fellow rather than to M. Cato, who was that time the chief person of the senate? Do you take that print of a horse's hoof, which is now to be seen on a stone at Regillus, to be made by Castor's horse? Should you not believe, what is probable, that the souls of eminent men, such as the Tyndaridae, are divine and immortal, rather than that those bodies, which had been reduced to ashes, should mount on horses and fight in an army? If you say that was possible, you ought to show how it is so, and not amuse us with fabulous stories."

"Do you take these for fabulous stories?" says Balbus. "Is not the temple built by Posthumius in honour of Castor and Pollux, to be seen in the Forum? Is not the decree of the senate concerning Vatienus still subsisting?... Ought not such authorities to move you?"

"You oppose me," replies Cotta, "with stories, but I ask reasons of you."

It would seem then that the parallelism is perfect, even to the building of temples, and the official recognition of the truth of the event.

The hobgoblin is worthy of notice not only for its intrinsic interest, but also for the illustration which it affords of the intimate relationship which is often found to exist between the superstitions of different and even far distant nations.

This spirit, in his palmy days, was that fairy which attached itself to houses, and the neighbourhood of dwellings and churches . In disposition it was mischievous and sportive, although it often deigned, during the night, to perform many menial offices, and whatsoever building it attached itself to prospered. It was apt to take offence, particularly if, as a reward, money or clothes were placed for it in that part of the house it most frequented; but it was partial to cream, or some delicately prepared eatable, and any housewife who was careful to conciliate the spirit by administering to this taste, was certain to be well rewarded. As might be anticipated, it was a favourite character with poets, and descriptions of its propensities and actions abound. Thus, in the "Midsummer Night's Dream" , one of the Fairies is represented as addressing this spirit, and saying:--

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