The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1889-01-26
THE SEVENTH SON
An Idea That He Has Always Possessed
Clairvoyant Powers-The Belief
General-Its Origin.

In advertisements of fortune tellers and other
dealers in the future it must have been observed
how earnestly they dwell on the circumstance
of being seventh daughter or son. The idea
that the seventh child of the same sex born
without an interruption in the line possesses
the spirit of prophecy Is an old one and 1t
might be difficult to trace its origin. The
seventh son of a seventh son is still more
gifted seer from whose marvellous provision abb
sOlutely nothing is hidden. He is also fine
physician and by his faculty of clairvoyance is
enabledt to discern diseases without asking ques-
tions or making any sort of examination. An old
writer saws: 1t is manifest by experience that
the seventh male child by just order (never
girl or wench being born between) doth heal
only with touching (through natural gift the
Kings Evil which is a special gift OF God,
given to Kings and Queens, as daily experience
doth witness. A French writer says of this
particular cure that it must be done after hav-
ing three or nine days before touching the
sick. In Yorkshire, England, it is the custom
from time immemorial to bring up the seventh
boy in one line of succession to the practice of
medicine. The same practice prevails in Scot
land, and the spaewives or fortune tellers al
ways claim to be seventh daughters.
In the diary of Walter Yonge the following
occurs: In January, 1S06-07, it is reported
from London by credtable letters that child
being the seventh son of his mother, and no
woman child born between, healeth deaf, blind
and lame, but the parents of the child are pop
ish, as so many say as are healed by it. The
Bishop of London, DIR. Vaugn, caused divers
to be brought to the child as aforesaid, who
said short prayer as he imposed his hands
upon, as It's said he did unto others, but no
miracle followeth any, so that it appeareth to
be plain lie invested to win grace to the pop
ish faction.
In1682 one Hugh McGie complained to the
privy council in Edinburgh that by the prac-
tice of other nations any tradesman having
seven sons together without the intervention
of daughter is declared free of all public bur-
dens and taxes and has other encouragements
bestowed on him to enable him to bring up the
said children for the use and benefit OF the
commonwealth and McGie claims similar con-
sideration. The magistrates ordered that his
petition should be considered.
Even in Spain and Portugal this old belief is
not unknown. The peasantry believe that II
woman delivered of seven male infants success
sively, the seventh, by strange fatality, be
comes subject to the powers of darkness and is
compelled on every Saturday evening to as
sumo the likeness of an ass. So changed, and
followed by horrid train of dogs, he is forced
to run an impious race over the moors and
through the villages nor is he allowed rest
until the dawn of Sunday morning, when he
resumes his own shape.
A writer in the Dublin University Magazine,
when it was edited by Sheridan LeFanu, the
novelist, who took great interest in the occult,
has the following: ut is not generally known
that particular ceremony must be observed
at the moment of the infants birth in order to
give him healing power. The woman who re-
ceives him in her arms places IN his tiny hand
whatever substance she decides he shall rub
with in after life, and she is very careful not to
let him touch Anything until this shall have
been accomplished. Ifsilver is to be the charm
she has provided a sixpenny or three penny
bit, but, as the coinage of the realm may posi-
bly change in his lifetime and thus render his
cure valueless, she has more likely placed meal
or salt upon the table, within reach. Some
times it is determined that he is to rub with
his own hair and in this case the father IS
summoned and requested to kneel down before
his newborn son, whose little fingers are guld-
ed to his head and helped to close upon a lock
of hair. Whatever substance seventh son
rubs with must be worn by his parents as long
as they live"
The whole of this superstition, or whatever
we NAV choose to call it, is one of those ideas
so strangely attached to the number Z, which
from the most ancient times was CONSIDERED 10
have efficacy and signifcances in religious
actions. The fact was considered impressive
that the moon changes in seven days. There
are seven stars i'll the Pleiades and Great Bear.
seven tones in music and, according to the old
idea, seven planets seven senses, seven metals,
etc. In the service OF the Cathonc Cnurcn
there are seven periods mathis, prime, tlerce,
sext. nones, vespers and compline, and there
are the seven penitential psalms, seven deadly
sins. seven sacraments and seven works of
mercy. Indeed, whole column might be fill
ed with list of subjects with which this num-
ber is connected. And, apropos OF the seven
penitentia psalms, it is said that the repetition
of them at night if you are wakeful, will in
fallibly compose you to sleep, sometimes a1ter
the first three or four verses. If your horse
does not sleep, or is troubled with nightmare,
to which those animals are peculiarly subject,
hang in a string flint with hole in 1t around
the neck of the beast
Seven consists of three-the number OF the
sides of a triangle-and four, the sides of
SQUARE, these being the simplest rectilinear tig-
ures. The world was created in seven days.
Seven was called by the ancient philosophers
the Virgin, unbegotten and unbegettlng-that
is, not to be obtained by multiplication.
Here is something curious in connection with
Hawkins, who was hanged on Tuesday 1t is
from the World:
''It is a strange fact that young Hawkins
should have been marked out from his birth
for the fate which has overtaken him. The
nurse who attended the mother of Hawkins at
her confinement was superstitious woman
and great believer in signs and omens:
"When the condemned man lay IN her lap
twenty-three years ago, wrapped in soft flannel,
she found on the right cheek of the babe a
birth-mark in the shape of brown, mole-like
patch. The nurse arose in dismay and said to
those about her: That is a murderer's mark.
This baby, if he lives will make trouble for his
family and friends" Her words were repeated
to Mrs. Hawkins and were often remembered
in the Hawkins family circle. ."-R~thiet, in
,Saenday NeaCS.