Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1881-03-02
SHOE sUPERsTETxONs.
Singular Notions Regarding The
shot as an Omen of Good Luck
The Queen,


Tn Norfolk, whenever servants are going
after new situations, shoe is thro,vn
after them, with the wish tn they may
succeed in what they are going about.
Some years ago, when vessels engaged in
the Greenl nd whale fishery left Whitby,
in Yorkshire the wives and friends Of
the sailors threw old shoes at the ships as
they passed the pier head. This practice
is frequently observed in towns on the
STA coast and correspondent of Notes
and Queries informs us that on one &C.
casOn when at Swansea he received
shoe on his shoulder, which was lnten ded
for a Young flor leaving his home TO
embark up III a trading voyage.
As an emblem of good luck and pros
ne,itv. an old shoe is in most places
thrown with much enthusiasm at bridal
couple. Various explanations, however,
have been assigned for this popular Gus
tom. Some think it was originally intend
ed as a sham assault on the bridegroom
for carrying off the bride, and hence is
! a survival of the old ceremony of Opposi
ton to the capture OF a bride. Others,
again, consider that the shoe was in
former times smbol of remuneration Of
dominion aud authority over her by her
father or guardien; and the receipt of the
shoe by the bridegroom, even if accident
al, was an omen that the authority was
transf rred to him. Thus, i'll the Bible, the
receiving o a shoe was evidence and
| symbol of asser ing or accepting dominion
or ownership the giving back the shoe
the symbol of rejecting or tesigning it. IN
Deuteronomy, ror example the ceremony
of widow rejecting her husband S broth
er in marriage is by losing his shoe from
off his foot; and in Ruth we fnd that sit
was the custom in Israel concerning
changing that a man plucked off ais shoe
and delivered it 40 his neighbOr.'
In some parts Of Kent tie 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 arranged, an old
shoe is thrown as far as possible, which the
ladies run for, the winner being supposed
to have the first chance If marriage. She
then throws the shoe II the gentleman,
when he first who gets it is believed to
have the same chance of matrimOnv.
Vain, in his "History OF the Isle OF
Man" abiding to this custom, tells us
that "on the brideg room leaving MS house
it was customary TO throw an old shoe
after him, and III like manner an old shoe
after the bride on having her nome to
proceed to church, to insure good luc to
each respectively IT. too by stratagem,
either Of the brides shoes could be taken
off by any spectator on her way from
church, il had to be ransomed by the bride
groom. La Yorkshire the ceremony of
shoe throwing was known IS 'thra>hing."
and the older the shoe the G eater the
luck. referring to the Continent, the
Germans have custom of throwing the
bride $ shoe among The guests at the
| L.
ting it is considered to have every pros
pect of a speedy marriage
The briIe and bridegroom also streW
dill and salt ia their shoes as i protection
against witchcraft. Among the Peruvians,
i. was formerly customary when a man
wished to marry to go TO the ladys house,
when, with her fathers consent, he put
on her foot a particular kind of shoe in
which he led her to his home. If she had
never been married before the shoes w S
of wool; if widow, it was of rush.
Many auguIles ae still gatherud from
shoes Thus In Dorsetshire and other parts
girls Use their sh eS as a means Of divin,
ing who their future husbands are to be.
A. night on going to bed, a girl places
her shoes at right angles to one another
In the TO m vi L, repeating the follow
ing hyme:
place my shoes in form OF L.
Among tn va ious cha ms in which the
shoe has been founu highly tficacious may
be men toned one practised in the mort h OF
EnEl nd, where the peasantry, to cure
cfamp, are n the habit OF laying their
shoes across to prevent it. Mr. Latham,
in his "West Sussex Superstiti Ms, pub
lished in the Folk Lore Record g., 39),
tells us of arnold woman who was at a
complete loss to unde stand why rheuma
tiSm was SO uncommon bad, for she had
put her shoes in the form of a cross every
night by the side of her bed ever since she
cit the first twinge.' A cure for ague, in
the same county, consists in wearing a
leaf of lansy i'll the shoe.
, Scott, too in his Cd scovery of Witch>
croft tells us how she that re Ell eth a
mi>chance will consider wht ther he put
! not on his shirt the wrong side outward,
/ or left shoe on his right foot , AD cd
writer speaking of the custom of the
Jews, says: Some of them observe, in
dressing themselves in the morning, tc
put on the right stocking and the right
! sh e first, without trying it; then after
! ward to put on the left, aud So return to
the RICH g, that SO they NAV begin land end
~ it'll the ri-ht side, which they account
, to be The m st fortunate" In sussex, to
put on the left shoe before the right is
considered an infallible sign of evil tc
come and a Suffolk doggerel respecting
he wear of shoes teaches us the following
Trip at the toe; live to see woe;
w ear ut the side live to be, bride;
= eur at the ball; Ii, 10 spend all
y Wear at the heel, live to save deal.
r Curious to say, the shoe has even en-
: tered INTO the superstitious associated with
o death. Accord ng to an Aryan tradition
j the greater part OF the way from the land
OF the living to that of death lay thr, ugh
morasses and vast moors overgrown witt
$ furze and thorns. That the deed might
: not lass over them barefoot, pair o
I shoes was laid with them in the grave.
Pre- venting Cracked Chimncys.
t A Leipsic Journal gives = meth {