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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MAY, 1895.
through a gold ring, and dropped into a new-born infant's mouth, saved it from falling sickness.95 The Romans also believed in the value of circles. The hair of a young child tied round the leg cured gout;98 to take a knife or dagger, and with its point to cut two or three imaginary circles round a child and then walk two or three times round the child, was a preventive against sorcery. 97 Roman slaves wore iron rings.98 Procession round the altar was part of the Greek ceremonies. People walked thrice round the altar singing a sacred hymn.99
In Skandinavia, girdles were believed to renew the wearer's strength. So Thor's girdle was strength-renewing.100 The Skandinavian judges used to sit in a circle, called the Domhringre, made with hazel twigs or stones fastened together with ropes. The Skandinavians made a circle of luge stones, and in the middle set a seat for the king when the king was crowned. The Doge of Venice was invested with a ring emblematic of the ring with which he was yearly married to the Adriatic. In the Russian baptism, the child is carried three times round the font. Pope Boniface VIII. was said to have drawn a circle round him and called up a spirit, and among the Scotch Highlanders, till 1700, it was usual to make a circle with an oak sapling to keep off spirits.
In Scotland, till the end of the eighteenth century, people used to walk three times round the dead. They walked round the church at marriages, churchings, and borials; and walked round fields with torches : all apparently to keep off spirits.7 They walked round the standing, or Druid, stones three times, and were careful to walk with the sun, that is, to keep the right side to the stone. An epileptic person walked three times round a holy well. In all labour, in their lodges, such as passing round the ballot box, freemasons move with the sun. Similarly, at St. Malonah, in Lewis, in the Western Islands of Scotland, mad people are made to make seven circuits.10 Moving round the church appears to have been held lucky, or rather peace-giving, in the Hebrides. Thus, St. Coivin is said to have invited all unhappy couples to meet at his cell on a given night, when, having blind-folded each person, he started them on a race thrice sun-wise round the church. At the end of the third round the saint would cry "Cabhag," that is, seize quickly, and each swain must catch what lass he could, and be true to her for one whole year, at the end of which, if still dissatisfied, he might return to the saintly cell and try a new assortment in the next matrimonial game practised as before 11 Belts, being circles, scare spirits. So Thorne Reid,
fairy, gave his friend Bessie Dunlop a lace to tie round women in child-birth, to give them easy delivery.13 In East Scotland, in 1803, in the waxing March moon, wosting and hectic women and children were passed through wreaths of oak and ivy 14 In Scotland (1860), people tied threads round women and cows to prevent miscarriage.15 In Scotland it is still believed that any piece of a wedding cake, that has to be dreamed on, should first be passed through a gold ring.
Rings were used in the coronations of English kings.16 King Edward blessed cramp rings.17 Rings were hallowed in England on Good Friday by the Kings of England.18 These rings cured cramp and falling sickness.10 Conquerors and sorcerers defended themselves against charms by drawing circles.20 In England, in the sixteenth century, rings were believed to cure cramp.21 In the eighteenth century, in Orkney, people drew magic circles, and placed knives in their
» Op.cit. Bcok xxviii. Chap. 19.
96 Op. cit. Book xxviii, Chap. 4. 17 Op. cit. Book xxxiv. Chap. 15.
5 Browne, Bohn'. Ed. Vol. I. p. 387. 91 Mackenzie's Freemasosiry, p. 57.
140 Mallet's Northern Antiquities, p. 94. 1 Op.cit. p. 291.
2 Jones' Crowny, p. 372.
* Op. cit. p. 411. • Mrs. Romancff's Rites and Customs of the Greco-Russian Church, p. 74. 6 Leslie's Early Races of Scotland, Vol. II. p. 499.
Op. cit. Vol. I. p. 172. 1 Op. cit. Vol. I. p. 133. * Op. cit. Vol. I. p. 107.Mackey's Freemasonry, p. 32. 19 Mitchell's Highland Superstitions, p. 20. 11 19. The Hebrides, p. 25.
12 Ayrshire, Scotland, c. 1576 A.D. 1. Scott's Demonology and Witchcraft, p. 150.
14 Soott's Border Minstrelay, p. 466. 15 Brand's Popular Antiquities, Vol. III. p. 54.
16 Jones' Crowns, p. 51 17 Dyer's Folk-Lore, p. 163. 18 Brand's Popular Antiquities, Vol. I. p. 150. 10 Op.cit. Vol. I. 1. 150. 29 Op. cit. Yol. III. p. 57.
21 Chambers's Book of Days, Vol. I. p. 418.
