The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1916-11-12
TWENTY SEVEN MEMS NAMES
TATTOOED ON ONE GIRLS ARM
Whtechape Belle Creates Record Compiling Indebe Roster
Of Soldier Swains-New Craze Among London's Khaki
Mad Damsels is One of Many Striking Elk
amples of How the War Has Revived
Queer Rites and Supersttions
By HAYDEN CHURCH


I nonchalantly slipped up her sleeve and
there, in multcolored script I read the
romantic declaration;
Il Love"
Bill Bloggs Cor whatever the name was)
The damsels having departed, the art
lst' was asked if his fair clients were
| invariably constant, or if they ever want
| ed the original names expunged and new
| ones substituted?
BLESS you" was the reply they nearly
| always do When one fellow goes to
the front they take up with another and
want the second lads name put on in
stead"
And can you manage that?"
"Sure we can, if the name isn't too
| long! What we generally do is to turn
tho first name into a nice little curch
of flowers, and then print the new name
underneath. There is one girl down here
"a terrible flirt she must be-who has
had the names of q different boys put
on her arm. That is, she now has the
| words L Love at the top, then 26 punches
OF flowers, and, at the bottom, just above
her wrist, Tom Snooks." or whatever the
name of her present fellow is.
I wondered, mutely. if that girls invi-
tation is, Come to my arm!'
Before returning to our main theme
the extraordinary increase in popular SUI
perstition that has resulted directly from
the war, one may pause to defend the
assertion, made at the beginning of this
article, that London, even before the
world conflict, was in this respect the
most credulous capital in Europe. That
assertion Is not my own, but that OF
Edward Lovett, one of the greatest ex-
perts on folklore in Great Britain. Mr..
Lovett, who has devoted years of his life
to the study of this subject, and the col
lection of objects of all sorts used as
charms and luck bringers," declared to
me that in none of the 40-odd towns and
cities of Europe in which he has carried
on his Investigations was there anything
like such a variety Of superstitons as
exists here.
Extraordinary indeed are the charms
that this savant has discovered to be in
use in London against i'll luck, witch
craft and disease in ordinary times. Those
against the EVIL eye include curious
walking sticks, the handle of which is
clenched hand, form that has for
centuries been believed to be a powerful
antidote against this baleful influence"
Other charms against the ''evil eye in
clude horns, tusks, teeth and claws, while
still others are supposed to protect their
possessors against being struck by "thun-
derbolts," against disaster by sea, and
against misfortune generally
Most numerous and perhaps queerest of
ali, however, are the cures which Mr..
Lovett has discovered to be used by sim
ple-minded folk in London for many of
the ills the flesh is heir to. They in
clude amulets made or amber or shaped
like a heart to promote good health; f1ints
for the govt and bones and skins of
cats for rheumatism. A necklace of blue
beads is also regarded as a certain cure
for bronchitis by many London people.
Mr.. Lovett says he has found 1877 in
stances of the most implicit belief in this
remedy" But perhaps the most pic
turesque of all his discoveries of this
kind is the following:
Lovett was asked by woman who
dealt in secondhand clothing if he would
like to know Of good cure for whoop-
ing cough?
She told him she had cured several
cases by cutting off some hair from
the back of the neck of a child who
was suffering from the disease, plac- |
ing the hair between two pieces of
bread and butter and giving it to the |
first passing dog to eat. The disease |
would then pass from the child to the |
dog and the former would be cured. |
1t is amazing to find this belief, which |
is common to savage races in many |
parts of the world, existing in Lon
don today.
One of the most striking instances
of the revival in superstition due to |
the war is the renewed demand for |
"cauls" as charm against loss of
life at sea. The chief cause of this de- |
mand is the activities of German sub |
marines as the result of which the |
sum now readily paid by seamen for |
this strange variety of charm is to- |
day comparable with what it used to |
be a couple of centuries ago.
A "caul' is a thin membrane which |
sometimes encloses the head Of a new /,
ly born infant and from quite remote !,
times it has been regarded as a luck |
bringer. 1t was the popular belief that |
child "born with a caul' would turn
out very fortunate and that the caul
brought fortune even to those who |
purchased it. Even advocates used to
buy them at high prices as means
of making them eloquent. but their |
chief virture always has lain in the
fact that they were supposed to be an
tnfallible amulet against death by
drowning. Hence. in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries there was
great demand for them in the Brit
ish navy. In 1879 as much as 20 gum
cas- or 500. was asked for one. In
1913 the price had dropped to IL gum
cas- and in 1S4S it had fallen to s. 1t
seems to have remained at this for
some years, and then gradually the
value fell away so much that during
the last few years preceding the war
"cauls" could be had for few shill- |
iRgs
This decline had been caused" said
Lovett, mot as many think, be-
cause superstition itself is dead, but
because the great Improvement in
ships had given a greater feeling of
security to those who went to sea.
This is an exceedingly interesting
point, because it goes to show that SUI
perstition dies out only when the
causes become modified or cease to
exist. For instance. we find no charms
against "thunderbolts" in countries
where thunderstorms are of rare &C.
currence.
1.-THE present war has created a ter
rible danger to life on the sea by
means of the submarine and conse-
quently we have the revival of an
other latent superstition. Signs an
nouncing "A Child's Caul for Sale can
be seen today in the windows of many
shops in the vicinity of the London
docks and fancy figures are demanded