The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-09-22
The Power of the Pins.
English Superstition Connected with the
Glittering Little Shafts


Why north-country people are 80 persistent
in their refusal to give one another pin it is
not easy to discover, as even they themselves
cannot give the origin and reason of this su-
perstition. When asked for a pin they invari-
ably say, You may take one, but mind, / do
not give it to you" Another fact associated
with pins will doubtless interest those OF the
fair sex about to enter upon the happy state of
matrimony. Thus, it is still prevalent belief
in certain places that ithe bride, in removing
her bridal robe and chaplet. must take special
care to throw away every pin worn ON that
eventful day. Evil fortune will sooner or later
it is affirmed inevitably overtake the bride
who keeps even one pin used in the bridal toi-
let. Woe also to the bridesmaids if they retain
any of them, as their chances of marriage will
thereby be materially lessened, and anyhow
they must give up all hope of being married
before the following Whitsuntide. On the
other hand, in Sussex q bride is often on her
return home from church robbed at once of
all the pins about her dress, by her single
friends present, from the belief that whoever
possesses one of them will be married in the
course Of a year. Much excitement and amuse-
ment are occasionally caused by the youthful
competitors for this supposed charm; and the
bride herself is not infrequently the victim of
rather rough treatment.
Among the magical properties of pins we
may mention their supposed efficacy in the
cure of certain diseases. Thus, in Leicester
shire, in the case of warts, the patient is taken
to an ash-tree, where pin is first stuck into
the bark, and withdrawn; wart is transfixed
with it until it feels pain, and then the pin is
again pushed into the tree. Every wart thus
treated is said to die away gradually until it
entirely disappears. A few years ago, we are
told, some trees might be seen thickIy studded
over with pins, each the index of cured wart.
In place OF pin nail driven into an oak is
reported to cure toothache. A Gloucestershire
remedy consists in rubbing the warts with
snail, after it has been pierced with a pin as
many times as there are warts. As the snail
by degrees withers away, so it is believed that
the wart impregnated with its matter does the
same.
One of the most popular species of enchant-
ment to which pins have been applied, is their
supposed influence in counteracting the i'll eff
fects OF witcEcraft. An interesting case of this
kind occurred within the last few years in Sus-
sex, which Mrs. Latham has recorded in the
"Folk Lore Record" A lady observed upon
a cottage hearth quart bottle filed with pins
and upon inquiring why they were put there
was requested not to touch the bottle because
it was red hot, and because, if she did 50, she
asked, in some surprise. "Why, ma 'am,'' re-
piled the woman, sit has pleased God to affiict
my daughter here with falling fits, and the
doctors did her no good; SO was recommended
to 60 to wise woman residing near Guilford
and she said, if she was well paid for it, she
could tell me what allied the girl and what
would cure her. So said l was agreeable,
and she told me that people afflicted with fall
ing fits were bewitched, and that 1 must get as
many pins as would fill quart bottle and put
them into it, and let it stand close to the fire
upon the hearth until the pins were red hot
As soon as this took place they would prick the
heart of the witch who had brought this af1ic-
tion on my poor girl, and then she would be
glad enough to remove it." A medical practi-
tloneI in the same neighborhoOd, in illustra-
tion of this superstition, related that when a
house in Pulborough was undergoing repair a
bottle containing upward of 200 pins was found
beneath the hearthstone of one of the rooms
every one being bent and some of them nearly
in curve.s This mode of enchantment appears
to have been of common occurrence, land the
workmen who were engaged in doing up the
house in question affirmed that they often
made similar discoveries in repairing houses.
Another curious case of counteracting WITCH
craft by ''pin-sticking" occurred at recent
period in the parish of Honiton Clyst. A land
lord having lost one Of his tenants, certain re-
pairs and improvements were found necessary
to prepare for the next In carrying out the
work chimney had to be explored, when, in
the course OF the operation there was found,
carefully secreted, pigs heart stuck all over
been done by the direction of some wise or
cunning person, as means of taking revenge
ON the witch to whose incantations the party
considered some mischief due, in the belief
that the heart of the illwisher would be
pierced in like manner, until it finally became
acu uuSalaeS that of the niO
In divination, pins are generally dropped
into wells and omens gathered from the direc-
tion in which they fall In the north of En-
gland there are the wishing wells," into
which, if the passers-by only drop crooked
pin and breathe their wish they may rest as
sured of its fulillment. Near Wooler in
Northumberland, on the hanks of the Chey.
lots, there is spring Of water locally known
as "Pin Well;' and the "Worm WE'LL" at
Lambton, has for many years been a popular
near Seton, is no less famous. Young people
from time immemorial have been in the habit
of casting pins or pebbles into it. and making
representations from the circles formed on the
surface of the agitated water. In many a well
may be found the pins which have been
dropped by maidens desirous of knowing when
'.they were to be married." One writer tells
us how hs once witnessed on May morning
group of beautiful girls perform the ceremony
of pin dropping at Madron well, near Pen
zance. Two pieces of straw, about an inch
long each, were crossed and the pin run
through them. The cross was then dropped
into the water and the rising bubbles carefully
counted as they marked the number of years
which would pass ere the arrival Of the happy
day. People also formerly were accustomed to
visit this we'll and wash in its waters when suf-
fering from sundry maladies. All over the
highlands of Scotland there are holy healing
wells at which the peasantry leave offerings of
pins and nails.