The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought: Studies of the Activities and Influences of the Child Among Primitive Peoples, Their Analogues and Survivals in the Civilization of To-DayChamberlain, Alexander Francis
Science
The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought: Studies of the Activities and Influences of the Child Among Primitive Peoples, Their Analogues and Survivals in the Civilization of To-Day
Chamberlain, Alexander Francis
Child rearing; Children -- Folklore; Folklore and children
Brewer, who gives little credit to the stories, cites the account of
numerous crucifixions of children alleged to have been carried out by
Jews in various parts of Europe, for the purpose of using their flesh
and blood in their rituals, or merely out of hatred to the Christian
religion. The principal cases are: Andrew of Innspruck; Albert of
Swirnazen in Podolia, aged four (1598); St. Hugh of Lincoln, aged eleven
(1255); St. Janot of Cologne (1475); St. Michael of Sappendelf in
Bavaria, aged four and one-half (1340); St. Richard of Pontoise, aged
twelve (1182); St. Simon of Trent, aged twenty-nine months and three
days (1475); St. William of Norwich, aged twelve (1137); St. Wernier
(Garnier), aged thirteen (1227). The _Acta Sanctorum_ of the
Bollandists give a long list of nameless children, who are claimed to
have suffered a like fate in Spain, France, Hungary, Austria, Germany,
Italy, etc. The later charges, such as those made in the celebrated case
of the girl Esther Solymasi, whose death was alleged to have been
brought about by the Jews of Tisza-Eszlar in Hungary, in 1882, are
investigated by Strack, and shown to be utterly without foundation of
fact, merely the product of frenzied Anti-Semitism (191. 171-175).
The use of blood and the sacrifice of little children, as well as other
fetichistic practices, have been charged against some of the secret
religious sects of modern Russia.
_Dead Children._
In Annam the natives "surround the beds of their children suffering from
small-pox with nets, and never leave them alone, fearing lest a demon,
in the form of a strange child, should sneak in and take possession of
them" (397. 169, 242). This belief is akin with the widespread
superstitions with respect to changelings and other metamorphoses of
childhood, to the discussion of which Ploss and Hartland have devoted
much space and attention, the latter, indeed, setting apart some forty
pages of his book on fairy-tales to the subject.
In Devonshire, England, it was formerly believed lucky to put a
stillborn child into an open grave, "as it was considered a sure
passport to heaven for the next person buried there." In the Border
country, on the other hand, it is unlucky to tread on the graves of
unbaptized children, and "he who steps on the grave of a stillborn or
unbaptized child, or of one who has been overlaid by its nurse, subjects
himself to the fatal disease of the grave-merels, or grave-scab." In
connection with this belief, Henderson cites the following popular
verses, of considerable antiquity:--
"Woe to the babie that ne'er saw the sun,
All alane and alane, oh!
His bodie shall lie in the kirk 'neath the rain,
All alane and alane, oh!
"His grave must be dug at the foot o' the wall,
All alane and alane, oh!
And the foot that treadeth his body upon
Shall have scab that will eat to the bane, oh!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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