Girdles : their origin and development, particularly with regard to their use as charms in medicine, and midwifery / by Walter J. Dilling, M.B., Ch. B., lecturer in pharmacology, Aberdeen University.

  • Dilling, Walter James, 1886-1950
Date:
1914
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Girdles : their origin and development, particularly with regard to their use as charms in medicine, and midwifery / by Walter J. Dilling, M.B., Ch. B., lecturer in pharmacology, Aberdeen University. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    God of Jacob, the God who stayed the river Mortham on the 6th day, stay also the flowing of the blood of thy servant So-and-so, and the seal of our Lord Jesus Christ. Stand we fairly, stand we with fear of God, Amen. And may the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John cure the patient.” Write this on an olive leaf. From “ Memorable Things noted in the Description of the World” Brand extracts the interesting tale that “about children’s necks the wild Irish hung the beginning of St. John’s Gospel, a crooked nail of a horse-shoe, or a piece of wolve’s skin, and that both the sucking child and the nurse were girt with girdles finely plaited with women’s hair ” in order to improve the strength of their healths.1 2 Similarly,in Scottish folklore the elfin-woman orbanshis gave their mortal lovers a magic belt to protect them in danger,3 and MacCuaric, or Kennedy, of Lianachan in Lochaber bound the captured “ Glaistig ” to his horse with the “ wizard belt of Fillan.”4 A reminiscence of the Celtic pagan period may exist also in the following charm or hymn written by an Irish monk in Austrian Klosterneuburg5 6:— “The girdle (cris) of Finnen is round about me, that I walk not the way which encircleth the people; . . against disease, against anxiety, against the charms of foolish women. . . . The girdle of John is my girdle, ... it putteth to shame the wrath of men, it averteth the charms of women. The girdle of the serpent is my girdle, the serpent is about me that men may not wound me, that women may not destroy me; to the stars that it hath exalted me; at my hour it is about me.” Closely related to these is the magical blue belt derived from the elfins, which had the power of increasing the wearer’s strength—a legend current in the Norse folk-lore;0 and, again, there is the Germanic belief that one can change himself into a werwolf by donning a belt of wolf’s skin.7 The natives of the Island of Harris, or some of the neighbouring islands, wore a girdle of sealskin about the 1 G. F. Abbott, “ Macedonian Folklore,” Cambridge, 1903, p. 234. 2 J. Brand, “Popular Antiquities,” London, 1900, p. 339. 3 J. G. Campbell, “ Superstitions of the Highlands and Islands of Scot¬ land,” Glasgow, 1900, p. 42. 4 Ibid, p. 169. 5 Zeuss-Ebel, “Gramm. Celt,” Berlin, 1871, p. 954 et seq. 6 Sir C. W. Dasent, “Popular Tales from the Norse,” London (N.D.), second edition, p. 198. 7 E. H. Meyer, “Germ. Myth,” Berlin, 1891, p. 69; Chantepie de la Saussaye, “ Relig. of the Teutons,” London, 1902, p. 298.