The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1880-12-24
Queer Ideas About Shoes.

ing about. Some years ago, when YES
sells engaged in the Greenland whale
fishery left Whitby, in Yorkshire, the
wives and friends of the sailors threw
old shoes at the ships as they passed the
pierhead., This practice is frequently
observed in towns on the sea coast, and
correspondent of Notes and Queries
informs us that on one occasion when at
Swansea he received a shoe on his
shoulder, which was intended for a
young sailor leaving his home to en-
bark upon trading voyage.
As an EN- blem of good luck and pros
perity, an old shoe is in most places
thrown with much enthusiasm at a
bridal couple. Various explanations,
however, have been assigned for this
popular custom. Some think it was
originally intended as sham assault on
the bridegroom for, carrying off the
bride, and hence is survival of the old
ceremony of opposition to the capture
of bride. Others, again, consider
that the shoe was, in former times, a
symbol of remuneration of dominion and
authority over her by her father or
guardian; and the receipt of the shoe
by the bridegroom, even if accidental,
was an omen that the authority was
transferred to him. Thus, in the Bible,
the receiving of a shoe was an evidence
and symbol of asserting or accepting
dominion or ownership; the giving
back the shoe was an evidence and
symbol of rejecting or resigning it. In
Deuteronomy, for example, the cere-
mony Of a widow rejecting her hus-
bands brother in marriage is by loos-
ing his shoe from off his foot; and in
Ruth we find that sit was the custom in
Israel concerning changing that a man
plucked off his shoe and delivered it to
his neighbOr."
In some parts of Kent the manner of
shoe-throwing is somewhat curious. 1t
appears that after the departure of the
bride and bridegroom the single ladies
are drawn up in one row, and the
bachelors in another. When thus ar
ranged, an old shoe is thrown as far as
possible, which the ladies run for, the
winner being supposed to have the first
chance of marriage. She then throws
the shoe at the gentlemen, when the
first who gets it is believed to have the
same chance Of matrimony. Vain, in
his History of the Isle of Man, abiding
to this custom, tells us that "On the
bridegroom leaving his house it was GUS
tomary to throw an old shoe after him,
and in like manner an old shoe after the
bride on leaving her home to proceed to
church, to insure good luck to each re-
spectively. If, too, by srratagem, either
of the brides shoes could be taken off
by any spectator on her way from
church, it had to be ransomed by the
bride room" In Yorkshire the cere-
mony of shoe-throwing was known as
'.thrashing," and the older the shoe the
greater the luck. Referring to the Con-
tinent. the Germans have custom of
throwing the brides shoe among the
guests at the wedding. The person who
succeeds in getting it is supposed to
have every prospect of q speedy mar
rage. s..Eri
The bride and bridegroom also strew
dill and salt in their shoes as protec-
ton against witchcraft. Among the
Peruvians it was formerly customary,
when a man wished to marry, to 60 to
the lady's house, when, with her father s
consent, he put on her foot a particular
kind Of shoe, in which he led her to hi
home. If she had never been married
before, the shoe was of wool; if widow,
it was of rush.
Many auguries are still gathered from
shoes. Thus, in Dorsetshire and other
parts, girls use their shoes as a means
of diviuing who their future husbands
are to be. At night on going to bed, a
girl places her shoes at right angles to
one another in the form of T, repeat
ing the following rhyme:
Hoping this night my true love to see,
place my shoes in the form OF a L.
Among the various charms in which
the shoe has been found highly effica-
cious. may be mentioned one practised
in the north of England, where the peas
antry, to cure cramp, are in the habit of
laying their shoes across to avert it.
Mrs. Latham in her ssWest Sussex Su-
perstitions," published in the Folk Lore
Record (p. S9, tells us of an old woman
who was at a complete loss to under.
stand why her rheumatism ''was SC un-
common bad, for she had put her shoes
in the form of q cross every night by the
side of her bed, ever since she felt the
first twinge." A cure for ague, in the
same county, consists in wearing Leaf
of tansy in their shoe.
Scott, too, in his Discovery of Witch
craft, tells US how che that receiveth a
mischance will consider whether he put
not on his shirt the wrong side outward,
or his left shoe on his right foot" An
old writer, speaking of the customs OF
Jews, says: "Some of them observe, in
dressing themselves in the morning, IN
put on the right stocking and right shoe
first, without tying it; then afterwards
to put on the left, and so return to the
right; that so they may begin and end
with the right side, which they account
to be the most fortunate" In Sussex,
to put on the left shoe before the right is
considered an infallible sign of evil to
come. and Suffolk doggerel respect
ing the swear Of shoes" teaches US the
following:
Trip at the toe: live to see woe;
Wear at the side: live to be bride;
Wear at the ball: live to spend all;
Wear at the heel: live to save deal.
Curious to say, the shoe has even en-
tered into the superstitions associated
with death. According to an Aryan
Al.