The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought by Alexander F. Chamberlain (read full novel txt) 📖

of the star that indicated the birth of the Saviour of mankind” (448. 553). The Galium verum, “Our Lady’s Bedstraw,” receives its name from the belief that the manger in which the infant Jesus lay was filled with this plant (448. 249).

The flight of the Holy Family into Egypt has attracted to it as a centre a large group of legends belonging to this category, many of which are to be found in Folkard and Busk.

Of a certain tree, with leaves like the sensitive plant, in Arabia, we read that this peculiarity arose from the fact that when near the city of Heliopolis “Joseph led the dromedary that bore the blessed Mother and her Divine Son, under a neighbouring tree, and as he did so, the green branches bent over the group, as if paying homage to their Master.”

Near Mataria there was said to be a sycamore-tree, called “the Tree of Jesus and Mary,” which gave shelter at nightfall to the Holy Family, and to this fact the Mohammedans are reported to attribute the great longevity and verdure of the sycamore (448. 558).

A widespread tradition makes the “Rose of Jericho,” called also “St. Mary’s Rose,” spring up on every spot where the Holy Family rested on their way to Egypt. The juniper owes the extraordinary powers with which it is credited in the popular mind to the fact that it once saved the life of the Virgin and the infant Christ. The same kind offices have been attributed to the hazel-tree, the fig, the rosemary, the date-palm, etc. Among the many legends accounting for the peculiarity of the aspen there is one, preserved in Germany, which attributes it to the action of this tree when the Holy Family entered the dense forest in which it stood (448. 230):—

“As they entered this wilderness, all the trees bowed themselves down in reverence to the infant God; only the Aspen, in her exceeding pride and arrogance, refused to acknowledge Him, and stood upright.” In consequence of this “the Holy Child pronounced a curse against her; … and, at the sound of His words, the Aspen began to tremble through all her leaves, and has not ceased to tremble to this day.” According to a Sicilian legend, “the form of a hand is to be seen in the interior of the fruit of the pine,” representing “the hand of Jesus blessing the tree which had saved Him during the flight into Egypt by screening Him and His mother from Herod’s soldiers” (448. 496).

We have from Rome the following tradition (415. 173):—

“One day the Madonna was carrying the Bambino through a lupine-field, and the stalks of the lupines rustled so, that she thought it was a robber coming to kill the Santo Bambino. She turned, and sent a malediction over the lupine-field, and immediately the lupines all withered away, and fell flat and dry on the ground, so that she could see there was no one hidden there. When she saw there was no one hidden there, she sent a blessing over the lupine-field, and the lupines all stood straight up again, fair and flourishing, and with ten-fold greater produce than they had at first.” In a Bolognese legend the lupines are cursed by the Virgin, because, “by the clatter and noise they made, certain plants of this species drew the attentions of Herod’s minions to the spot where the tired and exhausted travellers had made a brief halt” (448. 473). Another tradition, found over almost all Italy, says that when the Holy Family were fleeing from the soldiers of King Herod:—

“The brooms and the chick-peas began to rustle and crackle, and by this noise betrayed the fugitives. The flax bristled up. Happily for her, Mary was near a juniper; the hospitable tree opened its branches as arms and enclosed the Virgin and Child within their folds, affording them a secure hiding-place. Then the Virgin uttered a malediction against the brooms and the chick-peas, and ever since that day they have always rustled and crackled.” The story goes on to tell us that the Virgin “pardoned the flax its weakness, and gave the juniper her blessing,” which accounts for the use of the latter for Christmas decorations, —like the holly in England and France (448. 395).

 

Birds of the Christ-Child.

Several birds are associated with the infant Christ in the folk-lore of Europe and the East. In Normandy, the wren is called Poulette de Dieu, Oiseau de Dieu, “God’s Chicken,” “God’s Bird,”—corresponding to the old Scotch “Our Lady’s Hen,”—because, according to legend, “she was present at the birth of the Infant Saviour, made her nest in his cradle, and brought moss and feathers to form a coverlet for the Holy Child” (539. 35).

A Tyrolian folktale informs us that in days of yore the ravens were “beautiful birds with plumage white as snow, which they kept clean by constant washing in a certain stream.” It happened, once upon a time, that “the Holy Child, desiring to drink, came to this stream, but the ravens prevented him by splashing about and befouling the water. Whereupon he said: ‘Ungrateful birds! Proud you may be of your beauty, but your feathers, now so snowy white, shall become black and remain so till the judgment day!’” In consequence of their uncharitable action have the ravens continued black ever since (539. 92).

In his childhood Christ is often represented as playing with the other little Jewish children. One Sabbath day He and His playmates amused themselves by making birds out of clay, and after the children had been playing a while, a Sadducee chanced to pass that way. The story goes on to tell that “He was very old and very zealous, and he rebuked the children for spending their Sabbath in so profane an employment. And he let it not rest at chiding alone, but went to the clay birds and broke them all, to the great grief of the children. Now, when Christ saw this, He waved His hands over all the birds He had fashioned, and they became forthwith alive, and soared up into the heavens” (539. 181). From Swainson we learn that in the Icelandic version of the legend the birds are thought to have been the golden plover “whose note ‘deerin’ sounds like to the Iceland word ‘dyrdhin,’ namely ‘glory,’ for these birds sing praise to their Lord, for in that He mercifully saved them from the merciless hand of the Sadducee.”

A Danish legend, cited by Swainson, accounts for the peculiar cry of the lapwing, which sounds like “Klyf ved! klyf ved!” i.e. “Cleave wood! cleave wood!” as follows (539. 185):—“When our Lord was a wee bairn, He took a walk out One day, and came to an old crone who was busy baking. She desired Him to go and split her a little wood for the oven, and she would give Him a new cake for His trouble. He did as He was bid, and the old woman went on with her occupation, sundering a very small portion of the dough for the promised recompense. But when the batch was drawn, this cake was equally large with the rest. So she took a new morsel of the dough still less than before, and made and baked another cake, but with the like result. Hereupon she broke out with ‘That’s a vast overmuckle cake for the likes o’ you; thee’s get thy cake anither time.’ When our Lord saw her evil disposition, His wrath was stirred, and He said to the woman: ‘I split your wood as you asked me, and you would not so much as give me the little cake you promised me. Now you shall go and cleave wood, and that, too, as long as the world endures!’ With that he changed her into a weep (_vipa_) [lapwing].”

Among the many legends of Isa, as Jesus is called by the Moslems, current among the Mohammedan peoples is a variant of the story of the clay-birds, as follows: “When Isa was seven years old, he and his companions made images in clay of birds and beasts, and Isa, to show his superiority, caused his images to fly and walk at his command.” Clouston informs us that this story is also found in the Gospel of the Pseudo-Matthew, and in that of the Infancy (422. II. 408).

In Champagne, France, legend makes the cuckoo to have issued from a Christmas log (462. I. 113), and in a Latin poem of the Middle Ages we are told that “the crossbill hatches its eggs at Christmas and the young birds fly in full plumage at Easter” (539. 67).

 

Animals.

At Christmas certain animals become more human, or express their joy at the birth of Christ in unmistakable fashion.

There was an old Scottish belief that “at the exact hour of the Saviour’s birth bees in their hive emitted a buzzing sound” (246. 147). According to a Breton folktale the ox and the ass can converse for a single hour, “between eleven and twelve on Christmas night.” At the same hour, in German folk-lore, all cattle stand up; another version, however, makes them devoutly kneel (462. IV. 1481).

Among the animals which folk-thought has brought into connection with the Christ-Child is the horse. A Russian legend tells us that the flesh of the horse is deemed unclean because “when the infant Saviour was hidden in the manger, the horse kept eating the hay under which the babe was concealed, whereas the ox not only would not touch it, but brought back hay on its horns to replace what the horse had eaten” (520. 334). From a Spanish-American miracle-play, we learn that the oxen and asses around the manger kept the little babe warm with their breath. In Ireland the following folk-beliefs obtain regarding the ass and the cow:—

“Joseph and Mary fled into Egypt with the infant Jesus, on an ass. Since that date the ass has had a cross on its back. This same ass returned to Nazareth seven years later with them on its back, travelling in the night, since which time it has been the wisest of all animals; it was made sure-footed for Christ to ride on his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and it remains the most sure-footed of all beasts. The ass and cow are looked upon as sacred, because these animals breathed upon the infant Jesus in the manger and kept the child warm. Old women sprinkle holy water on these animals to drive away disease” (480 (1893) 264). In I Henry IV. (Act II. Sc. 4) Falstaff says: “The lion will not touch the true Prince,” and the divinity which hedged about the princes of human blood was ever present with the son of Joseph and Mary, whose divinity sprang from a purer, nobler fount than that of weak humanity.

 

The Holy Family.

We have several word-pictures of the Holy Family from the mouth of the folk. Among the hymns sung by the Confraternities of the Virgin in Seville, is one in which occurs the following figure (_Catholic World,_ XXIV. 19):—

 

“Es Maria la nave de gracia, San Jose la vela, el Nino el timon; Y los remos son las buenas almas Que van al Rosario con gran devocion.” i.e.

[“Mary is the ship of grace, St. Joseph is the sail, The Child (Jesus) is the helm, And the oars are the pious souls who devoutly pray.”]

 

One of the little Italian songs called razzi neddu, recorded by Mrs. Busk, is even briefer:—

 

“Maruzza lavava, Giuseppe stinnia, Gesu si stricava Ca minna vulia.”

[“Sweet Mary was washing, Joseph was hanging out the clothes to dry, Jesus was stretching Himself on the ground, For so His mother willed.”]

 

A popular Spanish lullaby recorded by De Gubernatis in his great study of birth customs and usages,