In former times
it was always possible that the Manxman numbered among his cattle one or
more cows which were not what they appeared to be to a casual eye.
These were 'sea-cows' or grey seals, which had assumed the shape
of ordinary cows and come ashore for a lengthy period. They were
luck-bringing visitors to the herd, for they promoted fertility and
insured health and vigour in the calves, much as the supernumerary goat
did.
'Seal' is a word still used occasionally I am told, as
an adjective with the meaning of 'lucky', especially in farmyard
matters.
(source: A Second Manx Scrapbook by W W Gill, 1932; artwork http://bit.ly/19seYFu)
The practice of
letting a goat accompany flocks and herds at pasture was favoured in
the Isle of Man. It is said to be followed still on a few farms.
The goat's presence was believed to have a beneficial effect on the general health of cows and sheep and especially to promote their fertility and successful calving and lambing.
As it is wiser than the beasts, it knew before they did when bad weather was coming and led them to shelter.
(source: A Second Manx Scrapbook by W W Gill, 1932; artwork 'Goat on cow's back' by 3greendogs http://bit.ly/1aS6CF3)
"When trees in calm air move, then speak the dead."
We know that Odin was the god of both wind and storm and war. To him
the temple in Upsala was erected and the great treasures were kept
there. Every nine years the people celebrated
here a great festival in his honour, when human and animal sacrifices
were made to him. It lasted nine days and the victims consisted of 99
men, 99 horses, 99 cocks and 99 hawks. With their blood Odin was
propitiated. The grove and the trees on which the slaughteied bodies
were suspended were held sacred and it was death to him who disturbed
its precincts.
The above proverb takes us back to these old
Norse pagan rites and before the introduction of Christianity had rooted
out these dire customs. The sacrifices were principally made to
propitiate him in times of war, or to appease him.
It was believed that when the wind and storm played in the trees, that the god clamoured for fresh victims.
We see then, how very old our Manx proverb is. The Manx executioner was
the 'fer chroghee' or 'crogheyder', and the old fashioned way to deal
with the condemned was to hang him up on the tree, just as the pagan
Norse priesthood did with their human and other victims in the sacred
grove of Upsala and elsewhere.
(source: artwork, The Hanging Tree by 'somecoolusername'; text from Manx Notes & Queries, 1904, http://bit.ly/10bsmW)
The Manx people in former times held a belief, of which a memory still
lingers, that once in several years the rising sun flashed on the world a
momentary ray or tincture of his light which was charged with a special potency.
If a glimpse could be caught of this portent it conferred on the lucky
beholder some benefit in the nature of Second Sight or divinatory power,
or occult knowledge of some kind. As it was necessary that the sun
should be seen in the very act of rising, it may be supposed that it was
coming up out of the sea, and I take the belief to have resulted from
the acquaintance of a race of fishermen and herdsmen with the natural
phenomenon generally called ‘THE GREEN RAY’ or ‘THE GREEN FLASH.’
I addressed an inquiry to the newspaper about this aspect of the
matter. My letter elicited one response only but it furnished the
desired details:
SIR, - I should like to corroborate the
statement of your correspondent Mr Gill in your issue of 30th August,
that something like ‘the Green Flash’ appears occasionally in Manx
folk-lore. The old Manx name for it is SOILSHEY-BIO or LIVING LIGHT,
and I have gathered the impression without having been actually told so,
that it was thought to be an emanation of the sun’s life in much the
same way as the ‘living image’ or apparition of a living person, is
believed to be an emanation of the personality or will.
The
SOILSHEY-BIO is, however, sometimes taken as a warning sign. In several
fragments taken down by me from Manx fisherfolk, the ‘flash’ was seen
at sunrise on the morning preceding a wreck of one or more boats,
sometimes by a relative of men actually lost and in other cases by the
men themselves who took the warning and withdrew from the fated
enterprise.
Perhaps the real significance of this danger-signal
aspect of the SOILSHEY-BIO may be a belief that it conferred upon the
watcher a kind of second-sight, enabling him or her to apprehend coming
events. At any rate, the ‘flash’ certainly also had its beneficial side
in popular belief, and in this aspect it was made use of by the old
charmers or witch-doctors who flourished in the Island until recently.
It was believed by them that if this strange ray fell upon certain
medicinal herbs and they were gathered immediately afterwards, they
acquired an almost miraculous power.
I had this belief directly
from a very old man who was, I should think, about the last survivor of
the charmers, and who claimed to be able to cure ‘all diseases of body
or mind in man, woman or child,’ provided that the sufferer came to him
in good time and that he did not ‘see the sign of death’ on him or her.
This man also told me that if any person could find what he called ‘the
herb of life’ at the moment when it was touched by the SOILSHEY-BIO
death would never touch him or anyone to whom he gave a portion of the
herb to eat.
Yours faithfully,
MONA DOUGLAS
Isle of Man
(source: A Second Manx Scrapbook by W. Walter Gill, 1932; artwork http://bit.ly/13WXGI8)
