Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-03-10
BURIAL OF THE BOOTS.
SOME suPERSTiTIoNs ABOUT DEAD
MEMS SHOES.

Where a Funeral Is Called Dead Shoe.
| Pretty Little Stories In which Shoes Are
Prominent Character How the Queen
Moved the Farmer.
The superstition of the burial of the bouts
probably survives in England. 1t is about
seventeen years since the writer heard from
an old gypsy that when another gypsy was
''puvado," or ''earthed, - very good pair of
boots was placed by him in the grave. The
reason was not given; perhaps it was not
| known. These customs often survive after
the cause is forgotten, simply from some feel
| ing that good or bad luck attends their OBJ
servance or the neglect of it.
| Many years since a writer in an article on
shoes in The English Magazine stated that
according to an Aryan tradition, the great
| err part of the way from the land of the living
| to that of death lay through morasses and
vast moors overgrown with ferns and thorns.
| That the dead might not pass over them bare
/ foot a pair of shoes was laid with them in
the grave"
The shoe was of old in many countries a
| symbol of life, liberty, or entire personal con-
/ troll. In Ruth we are told that lit was the
custom in Israel concerning changing, that a
man plucked off his shoe and delivered it to
| his neighbor" So the bride, who was original
| ly a slave, transferred herself by the symbol
| of the shoe.
| When the Emperor Vladimir made propo-
/ sails of marriage to the daughter of Ragnald,
she replied scornfully that she would not take
1 off her shoes to the son of slave. Gregory
| of Tours, in speaking of weddings, says: The
bridegroom, having given ring to the bride,
/ presents her with a shoe"
CURIOUS CUSTOM
| As regards the Scandinavian hel-shoe, or
sell-shoe, Kelley, in his "Indo-European
/ Folk Lore" tells us that funeral is still
| called dead shoe in the Henneberg district
and the writer already cited adds that in a
Ms. of the Cotton library, containing an ac-
=, count of Cleveland in Yorkshire in the reign
of Queen Elizabeth, there Is a passage which
| illustrates this curious custom. 1t was quoted
| by Sir Walter Scott in the notes to Min
| strelsy of the Scottish Border" and runs
| thus: when any dieth certaine women sing
a song to the dead bodie, reciting the journey
/ that the partye deceased must goe; and they
| are of belefe that once in their lives it is
| goode to give pair of new shoes TO poor
| man; forasmuch as before this life they are
| to pass barefoote through great lande, full
| of thorns and furzen-excepte by the meryte
of the almes aforesaid they have redeemed
the forfeyte-for at the edge of the lande an
| Guide man shall meet them with the same
shoes that were given by the partie when he
was LIVING, and after he hath shodde them
dismisseth them TO go through thick and thin
without scratch or scallen
| This must be a very agreeable reflection to
all gentlemen who have bestowed their old
boots on walters, or ladies who have in like
fashion gifted their maids. To be sure, the
! legend specifies new shoes; but surely pair
of thirty shilling boots only half worn count
for as much as a new pair Of half a sovereign
chaussures. However, if one is to 60
Through thick and thin without scratch or
scalle," it may be just as well to be on the
safe side, and give a good new extra stout
| pair 10 the gardener for Christmas For
truly the superstitious are strange things,
and no one knows what may he in them!
There are one or two quaint shoe stories of
the olden time which may be Of value to the
| collector.
| CUPID IN SHOES.
1t befel once in the beginnings of Bohemia
that, according to Schafarik (''Slawische AL
terthumer," H, p. 429, Libussa, queen OF
that land, found herself compelled by heI
council to wed. And the wise men, being
consulted, declared that he who was TO marry
the queen would be found by her favorite
horse, who would lead the way till he found
| a man eating from an iron table and kneel 10
| him. So the horse went on, and unto field
where man sat eating a peasants dinner
from a plowshare. This was the farmer
Prschemischl. So they covered him with the
royal robes and led him to the queen expect
| ant. But ere going he took his shoes of will
| low wood and placed them in his bosom, and
kept them To remind him ever after of his
| low origin
| 1t will, of course, at once strike the reader,
as il has the learned, tina I this is story that
| would naturally originate IN any country
where there are iron plowshares, horses,
queens and wooden shoes: ami, as Schafarik
shrewdly suggests that it was all "a put up
/ job since, of course, PrschemiSchi was
already lover Of the queen, the horse
was trained TO find him and to kneel before
him, and, finally, that the pIowshare and
wooden shoes were the prepared properties
Of the little drama The Seven League boots
and the shoes of Peter Schlemihl, which take
one over the world at will, have a variation
| in n pair recorded in another tale.
There was a beautiful and extremely proud
damsel, who refused young man with every
conceivable aggravation of the offence, in
forming him that when she ran after him,
| and not before, that he might hope TO marry
| her; and at the same time meeting poor old
woman WAC begged her for "A pair of old
shoes. To which the proud princess replied:
| Shoes here, shoes there;
| Give me a couple III give thee pair.
To which the old woman, who was a witch,
grimly uttered, I'm give thee a pair
which The rest of the expression was
really too unamiable TO repeat. Well, the
youth aud the witch met, and going TO the
| ladys shoemaker, made him make a su-
| perbly elegant pair of shoes, which were sent
| to the damsel as a gift. Such giftl No
sooner were they put ON than off they start
ed, carrying the princess, maigre ellie, over
| 1ill and dale By and by she saw that a
mantle man, of course, whom she had re-
fused-was in advance of her. As in the
| song of the Cork Leg 1.-The shoes never
stopped, but kept on the pace" And the
| young man led her TO a lonely castle and
| reasoned with her. And as she had promised
| to marry him should she ever run after him,
and as she had pursued him whole day, she
kept her word The shoes she sent to the
| witch filled with gold, and they were we'd
ded, and all went as merry las "A thousand
grigs in q duck pond.-St. James Gazette.
| A Sure Test.
Noted Detective lat friends houSe)-This
guest of yours, who, you say, came to you