Old Wives’ Tales & Superstitions – Part 1
BLACK cats. Broken mirrors. Charms. And Buddha tummy rubs for Lotto luck. Why are people superstitious? Why ‘touch wood’, avoid number 13 or flick salt over your shoulder?
Part one of ‘Old Wives’ Tales & Superstition’ invites StreetWise readers to share their superstitious beliefs following news of a study by Notre Dame archaeologist Lauren Tomlinson to better understand the beliefs and practices of early European settlers.
Part two explores the largely unknown superstitions of Indigenous Australians, which will be published in the Spring/Summer issue of Freo StreetWise, along with your supernatural beliefs and family customs.
Part of her PhD project, Ms Tomlinson says European arrivals hid children’s shoes under floorboards and stored fingernails in jars in the ceiling to ward off dark spirits trying to enter their homes.
Ms Tomlinson says shoes often were placed under the floorboards when a home was built or during its occupation because people believed evil spirits entering a room would become trapped inside them.
“Similarly, bottles full of pins or nail clippings were designed to catch witches,” she says. “People even went as far as placing the dried remains of cats and other animals, inside their walls or chimneys, and beneath their floorboards to protect themselves from supernatural forces.
“Some of these rituals date back to medieval times and were still being practiced in the UK and other European countries at the time of WA’s settlement, which resulted in their continuation until the early 1900s.”
Many artefacts have ended up in landfill instead of museums because few people realised these artefacts were buried in the floors and walls of redeveloped properties.
If you find a curious object, old shoes or jar of fingernails during a renovation or property development, contact Ms Tomlinson at lauren.tomlinson@nd.edu.au.
Tall tales & fables
HOW many times have you made a wish pulling on a chook’s wishbone or thrown a coin into a fountain. Do you carry a lucky charm or coin, rabbit’s foot or special item of historic or nostalgic value?
Ancient superstitious beliefs resonate in the practises and experiences of many different cultures including Indigenous Australians.
Old wives’ tales and sayings cover many aspects of our lives, past and present, include:
Food & Drink
EGG shells thrown on a fire will stop hens laying or raise a storm at sea. And to take eggs in or out of a house after sunset is unlucky. Before baking a loaf, bakers cut a cross on the dough to let out bad spirits. ‘Drop a spoon, removal soon’ was a common saying. Crossed knives on the dining table signalled a quarrel and stirring with a knife, ‘stirred up strife’.
The House
PICTURES and paintings of birds or wallpapers with bird patterns were considered unlucky, unless the birds were blue. Crossing someone on a stairway resulted in a quarrel and tripping on stairs brought news of a wedding. Umbrellas opened inside the house or shoes left on the table were unlucky. Nailing a horseshoe above a door brought good luck, provided the open end was positioned up to prevent luck running out.
Clothes
SUPERSTITIOUS dressmakers believed to cut out a dress or any garment on Friday was, ‘to court disaster’.
Shoes that squeak have not been paid for. A shoelace undone spells that someone is thinking of you, the right lace with unkind thoughts and left with affection. If you lose your bearings in the bush, turn your coat or jacket inside out and you will find your way home.
Birds & Beasts
MAGPIES are bad luck, but it is good luck if you see two. Crows also are associated with misfortune. In Roman times, owls brought bad news. To hear the owl’s hoot near a house foretells a death. White horses represented good fortune. Farm animals such as sheep and cows were believed to be imbued with magical powers because they had witnessed the birth of Jesus Christ.
The Weather
COWS on a hill foretold a fine day, but if they laid down in a field in the morning, it would rain later in the day. If cows bellow at night, snow will fall the following day. If a frog enters a house, a flood or storm will follow.
Plants & Flowers
OLD-fashioned remedies include boiling nettles to cure insomnia, the soft pulp an effective poultice for sciatica. Elderflower water was used to remove freckles. Bleeding from a cut can be stemmed by wrapping it with a cobweb or applying soot to the wound. A piece of wool tied around the little finger prevented a nose bleed. Early Europeans in Australia treated rheumatism using a piece of potato tucked inside a suede glove pinned to a red flannel binder worn by the sufferer. If the potato went hard, the treatment was working. Old wives’ also advise you talk to your plants and when the time comes to pick them, ‘they will not resent it”.
Part 2 of ‘Old Wives’ Tales & Superstitions’ explorers Indigenous Australian ghost stories and superstitious beliefs in the Spring/Summer edition of Fremantle’s independent print and online magazine.
