Bluenose Magic

Copyright © 1968, 2004 Helen Creighton

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Library and Archives of Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Bluenose magic : popular beliefs and superstitions in Nova Scotia

/ edited by Helen Creighton ; with a new foreword by Clary Croft.

Reprint of: 2004.

Electronic monograph in HTML format.

ISBN 978-1-77108-260-0 (html)

1. Folklore--Nova Scotia. 2. Nova Scotia--Social life and customs.

I. Creighton, Helen, 1899-1989, editor II. Croft, Clary, writer of supplementary textual content

GR113.5.N69B58 2004 398.2'09716 C2004-902438-8

Nimbus Publishing acknowledges the financial support for its publishing activities from the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund (CBF) and the Canada Council for the Arts, and from the Province of Nova Scotia through Film & Creative Industries Nova Scotia. We are pleased to work in partnership with Film & Creative Industries Nova Scotia to develop and promote our creative industries for the benefit of all Nova Scotians.

Foreword

In Nova Scotia, with its myriad traditional and recently introduced cultures, we find a variety of beliefs and superstitions perhaps unparalleled in Canada. The material in this book, collected between 1928 and 1967, represents, almost exclusively, six main traditional cultural groups in Nova Scotia: Mi’kmaw, French, African Nova Scotian, English, Celtic, and German (Foreign Protestant).

The study of folklore is one way of allowing us to see ourselves as part of a larger picture. Our traditions and beliefs come from our heritage, social interaction, and appropriated customs and concepts. In Bluenose Magic: Popular Beliefs and Superstitions in Nova Scotia, Helen Creighton allows us to see ourselves as a part of a bigger world—a world sometimes very different from our own.

Depending on your personal background and interest in folklore, the beliefs and superstitions Helen writes about in this book may seem familiar, archaic, or even quaint. We may laugh or scoff at some of these so-called quaint superstitions and folk remedies—that is, until we see one of our own among them, and all of a sudden we recognize something of ourselves.

Readers shouldn’t see this collection as a body of beliefs once held by the general population of Nova Scotia. Even during the years Helen was collecting this material, those sharing their stories with her (the informants or tradition-bearers) frequently felt that the information was of another time. I say frequently, but not always. There were times when a tradition-bearer told Helen a personal supernatural experience because they saw her as an empathetic listener. As Helen’s exploration of the supernatural grew, she felt more comfortable identifying and speaking about what she felt were supernatural experiences in her own life.

This book is a disparate collection of folk beliefs and superstitions. It differs from Helen’s other important collection of beliefs and folklore, Folklore of Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, in that the monograph on Lunenburg County folklore is a concentrated study of a particular area, while the material in this book represents the sweep and cull technique of collecting folklore. This latter, broad style is often criticized by today’s folklorists, and received similar criticism when Bluenose Magic debuted in 1968. Norwegian folk scholar Otto Blehr, in a review of Bluenose Magic for the Journal of American Folklore, writes, …folklorists are led to ignore the fact that such dictionary-collections are useless in explaining the form of folk belief communications take and the cultural and social functions of these communications. In Helen’s defense—she never claimed to be a folklore analyst. She always maintained she was a collector and left the analysis up to the scholars. In the scholars’ defense—they could do more with the material if Helen had provided additional background. Even during the writing of Bluenose Magic, Helen was at odds with her museum colleagues whose own opinions differed with those of Helen’s contemporaries in the field of folklore.

When Wayland Debs Hand (1907–86) put out the call for folklorists to compile individual regional collections as part of a huge international corpus of popular beliefs and superstitions, the notice carried in the The Northeast Folklore Society Newsletter #3 in 1963 told the collectors to …canvass their region and publish tributary volumes…start with yourself; you are your best informant…. However, Helen’s boss at the National Museum of Canada, Carmen Roy, was adamant that Helen not include her personal beliefs. Helen’s reply was that of a fighter: Here now we come to what I consider one of the most important features of this book. I am not writing of them, the People from Nova Scotia, but US, We People of Nova Scotia, and I think Wayland must have had this in mind when he extended his invitation. After all, I am 6th generation on both sides of my family, and the beliefs I give as my own are not made up by me, but are part of my inheritance as a native of this province. This, I feel, takes this out of the realm of being just another compilation of beliefs and superstitions, but part of life shared by the collector. Why can I not serve the dual role of collector and informant when I have so much to offer? And why should my traditional beliefs not have their place as well as those of any other inhabitant? They cannot possible distract from the book’s scholarship and they certainly add to its authenticity and worth. That, at least, is my impression. Otherwise anybody could write the book providing they had a file of index cards. Take that away and you remove the soul….

Helen also had Wayland Hand on her side. In 1966, he wrote to her with his opinions on the inclusion of her own family folk beliefs: The personal touch seems also to make the material more intimate and believable, in the sense that the author herself knows of these matters and has believed, or half-way believed them. Helen, as was often her wont, got her way. Her own family’s traditional beliefs do appear in this book, listed most often as Dartmouth, English.

But Bluenose Magic is much more than a collection of superstitions and beliefs. If you read between the lines you’ll find common joys and fears, collective memories, invaluable oral history, and a sense of the magical world of truth tempered with imagination—all told, where possible, in the words of the tradition-bearers themselves. Helen was an amazing record keeper. During my tenure as archivist for Helen’s collection, I checked many of the items in this book against the original tape recordings housed in the Helen Creighton Fonds at the Nova Scotia Archives and Record Management. Helen has taken the voices of the tradition bearers and put them on the page.

As you read through Bluenose Magic you may wish for more analytical theory from the author; you may lament gaps (as Helen herself did in her original introduction); or you may have no interest in the substantial footnotes Helen put at the end of each chapter for the benefit of scholars. But you can’t read this book and not be drawn into the time and lifestyle that she captures. To be sure, a new contemporary form of folk belief is alive. Where Helen collected lore concerning phantom ships and folk remedies for oxen, today’s folklore collectors are exploring UFO lore and urban myths. In Bluenose Magic you will find voices from the past—a past strangely familiar, yet tinged with…what else? Magic!

Clary Croft

2003

Contents

Introduction

1. The Supernatural

   •  Visions

   •  Forerunners

   •  Ghosts

   •  Poltergeists

2. Witchcraft & Enchantment

   •  Characteristics of witches

   •  Disposal of witches

   •  Other means of disposal

   •  Tales of witchcraft

3. Treasure

   •  Kidd’s treasure

   •  Treasure buried in water

   •  Guardian ghost

4. Mi’kmaq

   •  The flood

   •  Arrival of the Mi’kmaq

   •  Glooscap

   •  Glooscap’s advice

   •  Mi’kmaw burial

   •  Supernatural tales

   •  Legends

   •  Wishing

5. Fairies

   •  Encounter with fairies

   •  Fairies in the past

   •  Mischievous fairies

6. Dreams

   •  Informative

   •  Prophetic

   •  Other dreams

7. Superstitions: good luck & bad

   •  Ships and the sea

   •  Mining

   •  The seasons

   •  Cattle at christmas

   •  Other animals, insects, and birds

   •  Horseshoes

   •  Moon

   •  Days of the week

   •  The life cycle

   •  Cooking, food and meals

   •  Human body

   •  Human behaviour

   •  Miscellaneous

8. Divination

   •  Love

   •  Marriage

   •  Sex of child

   •  The future

   •  Water divining

   •  Fortune telling

   •  Magic

9. Home Remedies

   •  Abscess

   •  Abortions

   •  Acne

   •  Arthritis

   •  Asthma

   •  Lame back

   •  Bedsores

   •  Bealings

   •  Birthmark

   •  Blood

   •  Boils

   •  Bruise

   •  Burns

   •  Callous

   •  Cancer

   •  Cankers

   •  Car-sickness

   •  Charms (counter-charms)

   •  Chest soreness

   •  Childbirth

   •  Colds

   •  Confinement

   •  Convulsions

   •  Cough

   •  Cradle cap

   •  Croup

   •  Diarrhoea

   •  Diphtheria

   •  Dog bite

   •  Earache

   •  Erysipelas

   •  Eyes

   •  Eczema

   •  Frozen feet

   •  Fever

   •  Gastric trouble

   •  Germs

   •  Fallen glands

   •  Goitre

   •  Gout

   •  Headache

   •  Hemorrhage

   •  Hernia

   •  Indigestion

   •  Infection

   •  Inflammation

   •  Influenza

   •  Insomnia

   •  Intoxication

   •  Itch

   •  Jaundice

   •  Kidneys

   •  King’s-evil

   •  Laxative

   •  Livergrown

   •  Lockjaw

   •  Lump

   •  Measles

   •  Old men’s troubles

   •  Menstruation

   •  Sore mouth

   •  Mouth wash

   •  Nerves

   •  Nosebleed

   •  Pains and aches

   •  Phthisic

   •  Pleurisy

   •  Pneumonia

   •  Poultice

   •  Proudflesh

   •  Pulmonary trouble

   •  Rheumatism

   •  Broken ribs

   •  Rickets

   •  Salve

   •  Shingles

   •  Sprains

   •  Swelling

   •  Sore throat

   •  Sore toe

   •  Tonic

   •  Tonsillitis

   •  Toothache

   •  Tuberculosis

   •  Tumour

   •  Ulcers

   •  Urinary trouble

   •  Vomiting

   •  Warts

   •  Whooping cough

   •  Womb trouble

   •  Worms

   •  Miscellaneous

10. Weather

   •  Wind

   •  Rain

   •  Moon

   •  Sun

   •  Crops

   •  Spring

   •  Summer

   •  Winter

   •  Northern lights

   •  Fine and stormy weather

   •  Friday’s weather

11. Crops

   •  The moon

   •  Planting by the moon

   •  Good friday planting

   •  Other planting

   •  Weather

   •  Miscellaneous

12. Animals

   •  Cattle

   •  Cats

   •  Dogs

   •  Hens

   •  Horses

   •  Pigs

   •  Turtles

References

Bibliography

Introduction

Waste not, want not; perhaps it is because I was brought up on this maxim that a trip to collect folk songs was never wasted if the songs I was seeking were not forthcoming. In my early collecting days which began in 1928 in my native Nova Scotia, folklore was thrust upon me when singers of mixed English and German descent talked between songs of the things that interested them. It seemed to please them when I jotted everything down and at first I did it for that reason. As time went on my field of research and knowledge of the subject broadened and I found the same beliefs and others of equal importance occurring in various ethnic groups. I realized then that these items were valuable and devised a system of guiding conversation to whatever field of folklore seemed most likely to be productive under the circumstances. These were later transferred to index cards and the collection grew steadily.

Knowing this, Dr. Wayland Hand, an old academic friend and head of the Folklore Department of the University of California, Los Angeles, suggested that I compile the Nova Scotia edition of the great continent-wide dictionary of Popular Beliefs and Superstitions. Being employed by the National Museum of Canada, I took this suggestion to the Director, Dr. R.G. Glover, and to Dr. Carmen Roy, head of the Folklore Section, and it met with their approval. I had enough material in my files and by this time was anxious to release it in published form. Not that my study has been exhaustive and some chapters are lean, for collectors tend to pursue the subjects that interest them most. Crops and animal husbandry go under this lesser heading. I wish now that I had asked more about fairies for my French colleagues have been more successful here than I have been. Other subjects however were sought with diligence, but always when singing was over, for folk songs were my main objective, with the exception of a four-year period just before I joined the Museum. This digression was the result of a folklore course at Indiana University, attended in 1942 through the kindness of the Rockefeller Foundation. The following summer, while visiting in Chester on the southwestern shore, Tancook Island and its ­stories were mentioned. A few days on the island convinced me that this whole county should be studied and my new training put to work. Hence the Folklore of Lunenburg County, published by the National Museum in 1950. I have heard of this book being used in studies as far afield as Germany and France. This is not surprising as the county was settled by emigrants from these two countries. The present volume is an extension of that study.

There are five main ethnic strains in Nova Scotia and through intermarriage there has been a good deal of acculturation. The total population today runs to about 750,000. Of these, seventy per cent are of British descent and can be found from Yarmouth to Cape North, with the largest number in the centre of the peninsula. People of Irish descent can be found anywhere although they seem to have settled mainly around the coast. The 182,823 who claim Scotland as their ancestral home are found mostly in Colchester, Pictou, and Antigonish counties on the peninsula, and on the island of Cape Breton where the Gaelic tongue is still spoken by some of the older folk and studied by their descendants. The French, known throughout the Maritime Provinces as Acadians, number 87,883; their settlements are mainly at the two extremes of the province. Germans who came to Lunenburg County in 1753 now have a population of 45,441. Aboriginals are Mi’kmaq and are slightly over 4,000 in number. They live largely on reservations at Shubenacadie at about the centre of the peninsula and at Eskasoni in Cape Breton. There are also 11,900 Negroes, most of whom are in the Dartmouth-Halifax area, with smaller groups in Weymouth, Shelburne, Truro, New Glasgow, and Guysborough. Many are slave descendants who came during and immediately after the War of 1812. Some of their beliefs are here and more may be found in Arthur Huff Fauset’s Folklore From Nova Scotia.

You may wonder why I refer throughout the manuscript to people from Scotland as Scotch, which nowadays I am told is applied only to whisky.

I debated this word and decided that we have always used it here. Moreover, Dr. W. Roy Mackenzie, a native and great English scholar whose early folk song collecting was the source of my inspiration, wrote of his singers as Scotch. It is a good word and to say it differently would not be true to my background.

Items appear in the informants’ own words and in this way I hope that something of their warm and interesting personalities will reach the reader of this collection. They are kind, good people, serious one moment and at the next revealing a sense of fun and a quick humour. To work with them means the making of abiding friendships. The place where each item was found is also given and the ethnic background which, by its variety, will give some idea of the intermingling which has occurred through marriage.

I wish to thank the National Museum of Canada under whose auspices most of this collecting has been done, Mount Allison University for the use of valuable library books, The Public Archives of Nova Scotia for space to store unpublished manuscripts, the Halifax Memorial Library, Provincial Library, and Dartmouth Library for assistance when other books were needed for consultation. Each chapter has its own heading and small introduction, so nothing more need be said about them here. Other books on the same subject are being published in many parts of the United States and in several Canadian provinces, all part of a great comparative study of our Folklore and Mythology.

— Evergreen, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia

Helen Creighton

1. The Supernatural

If all the material at hand on the supernatural were included in this volume there would be room for little else. Some is included in The Folklore of Lunenburg County. Bluenose Ghosts is devoted entirely to this subject. Stories are presented in the narrators’ own words and a running commentary attempts to explain why Nova Scotians interpret their beliefs as they do. Another such book is being planned. Consequently, our visions, forerunners, ghosts and treasure lore are touched upon lightly here and the reader is referred to the above-mentioned books.

Perhaps Nova Scotians are particularly sensitive to supernatural experiences because we are a sea-faring people or, if not, at least we have the sea all around us. Material has always come easily but now, since Bluenose Ghosts appeared in 1957, it has been astonishing how many people tell of experiences they wish to share, but they must be sure they will have a sympathetic ear. Heretofore they feared the scoffer who would laugh and say they only imagined the event, for nothing is more frustrating to the person who has experienced the unexplainable. To this day the telephone will bring calls from complete strangers whose voices may be charged with emotion, so deeply has a brief touch with the supernatural affected them. It may have happened recently, or it may go all the way back to adolescence; perhaps they have kept it locked in their hearts for many years. A chance encounter at the supermarket, on a street corner, or even at a party may be something they have been waiting for; and the other day it happened when coming out of church. These things are pondered and discussed in the academic parlour and by fishermen as they mend their nets, for the supernatural is no respecter of persons.

— Helen Creighton

Visions

The Countess of Dufferin and the Arlington

A few years ago I was staying at Ragged Islands Inn on the southwestern shore, when Mrs. Oswald MacMillan was brought in to tell her stories. These had come down in her family, and she told them with a studied, dramatic effect. She spoke quietly and relished every word. We sat in a small, cosy sitting room with logs burning in the old-fashioned fireplace. There were pictures of sailing vessels on the walls and a ship’s model with sails set stood on the mantelpiece. The sea was near and occasionally we could hear the surf beating against the rocky shore. She said:

1. Some time in the 1880s when the Earl of Dufferin was Governor-General of Canada, a ship was built in Quebec and christened in honour of his wife, the Countess of Dufferin. The vessel’s first few trips were uneventful. Then she went to Saint John and loaded with lumber and deals for Londonderry, Ireland, setting forth, strangely enough, on Christmas Day. Perhaps this was to take advantage of the weather, for the sea was smooth, the wind fair, and the sun shone from a cloudless sky, an unusually fine day for that time of year. This fair weather however was not to last, and a few days later they ran into a tremendous hurricane. This continued for two days. The wind changed then and made crossed seas so that she was soon dismasted. They jettisoned their deckload of deals, but they could not prevent the raging seas from sweeping over the rails and getting into their food and water. Even the apple barrels, their last hope, were taken from them when an unexpected wave swept them overboard. In their extremity the captain told the crew that they would not drown, but they might starve since they had been swept far off their usual course and were not likely to be rescued. At that time they had no means of communicating their plight; no human means, that is. The captain said there was nothing left for them to do but pray.

We may suppose that accounts for what happened next, but we must now turn to another ship.

About the time the Countess of Dufferin left Saint John, the Arlington, a vessel built in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, and skippered by Captain Davis of that port, set sail from Liverpool, England, for New York. She too was favoured with fine weather, which held, and there was every probability of a record trip. After they had been at sea for a week the second mate was startled one evening when Captain Davis suddenly appeared on deck like a crazy wild man and shouted to the man at the wheel,

Luff luff, quick; hail of distress.

The mate looked at him in astonishment.

Captain Davis, he said, What’s the matter? The captain looked at him in amazement.

Didn’t you hear the hail of distress? he asked. The mate assured him he ­hadn’t, so they turned then to the wheelsman, but he hadn’t heard it either, nor had either of them seen anything unusual to account for it.

Supposing the captain had been resting, the mate made the obvious remark, You were dreaming.

The captain was indignant and said with no hesitation, I was not dreaming; I was wide awake. He fell silent for a moment and then added, The strange part of it is that whoever called for help also gave the course we should take. It was 52 north by 21 west. The men watched him anxiously and began to feel uncomfortable. The mate knew that his captain was a stern man who took advice from no one, yet he could not keep from saying, That’s three days sail from here. The captain paid no attention and gave the wheelsman a change of course. Now they were really afraid and recalled that another Yarmouth

captain had recently gone insane at sea. They dared not disobey, and the wheelsman followed his new directions.

Before long they too reached turbulent waters, and these worsened as they sailed along. There was little sleep for the uneasy crew, for they had no idea what to expect. On the third night the captain doubled the lookouts and again the order was obeyed but not relished. The captain paced the deck, well aware that he was being observed closely. There was no sound but the wind in the rigging and the black ocean roaring past.

Then at two a.m. the lookout cried that there was something on their lee.

Can we clear it? the captain called. The lookout said they could, and a moment later identified the object as a vessel without lights, the worst thing to be encountered upon the sea at night. As soon as they were close enough to be heard, Captain Davis clasped his megaphone and shouted,

Who are you, and why haven’t you got your lights up? The answer came back swiftly in a tone of great relief.

"We’re the Countess of Dufferin out of Saint John. We’re waterlogged, and we have nothing to put lights up with. Will you stand by and take us off?"

Officers and crew were speechless. Not so Captain Davis, who said matter-of-factly, and perhaps with a touch of I-told-you-so in his voice, Certainly we’ll stand by and take you off; that’s what we came for. Having made himself clear, and leaving orders with his crew for the night, he went below to sleep.

When daybreak came the seas were still high but the rescue was effected. The last one to step over the Arlington’s rail from the stricken ship was, of course, the captain and at that precise moment the sun came out and they were able to take their position. Officers and crew looked at Captain Davis with a new respect, for they were exactly 52 north by 21 west, the very spot where the voice had directed him. [Lockeport, English and Scotch]

The next story comes from a man with a deeply religious background, which was characteristic of other members of his family and friends. None of them would neglect an obligation to their church except in dire necessity, and of all the year, the Christmas midnight mass was an outstanding event. Apart from its religious significance there was the joyful meeting of friends and the exchange of greetings at this festive service. On the outskirts of Antigonish, this mass would be anticipated months in advance and the weather would be watched anxiously. Here it provided an experience that was talked about for many years with awe and gratitude, and it is interesting to note the depth of the people’s faith in their acceptance of divine assistance.

— Helen Creighton

2. My name is Colin Francis McFarlane, and this man was Colin Francis McKinnon, first cousin to Bishop McKinnon. He was a very religious man and my godfather, and lived to be ninety-seven years old. He told many times how at midnight mass the old people in the old days had to walk four miles to the church. This Christmas night was blustery. He and his wife, Angus Rory McDonald, and another McDonald couple started to walk, leaving at 10:30. The trestle bridge below the station was in such darkness that they were afraid to go across. They stood there for ten minutes wondering what to do, when to their astonishment a bright light shone on the bridge and the six of them were able to go across. It looked like a great big star and was so bright that it lit up the bridge, and that bridge was one thousand feet long.

This was a dangerous bridge to cross if you couldn’t see your way, and dangerous any time if a train came and you couldn’t get off on time. They were following the railway because it was clear of snow and made good walking. There was not a train in the place less than three hours before or after the event.

I heard the story from all six who had crossed the bridge that night, and Mrs. McKinnon always told it on Christmas night. They couldn’t tell exactly where the light was from, but they thought it showed for a hundred feet. It was spitting snow and blowing and the light was so strong they only knew it was right over the bridge and lit it up long enough for them to get to the other side. [Antigonish, Scotch]

Several people had told me that the sun danced on Easter morning, but until a few years ago I had not met anyone who had seen it. Then, as so often happens, I met two people who testified to this experience. Mrs. Annie Gillis MacDonald is now in a home for the aged but in full possession of her faculties, and the experience is as vivid today as it was many years ago.

— Helen Creighton

3. We lived on a hill when I was a child, and one Easter morning we were driving to church. We lived about four miles out of Antigonish, and this experience happened after I was married. There was a young girl of thirteen with me, and almost all the way we saw the rising sun, big and red and jumping. There were pools of water all along the road, and we made out that the mare saw it too. The sun was big, round and red, and we could see its reflection in the water as it was peeking up over the hills. I had often looked for it on Easter morning, but had never seen it before. Nobody but the young girl who was with me mentioned seeing it that year. [Antigonish, Scotch]

Forerunners

Forerunners are the most common form of supernatural event found in this province. Many people have had them, people who insist that they do not believe in ghosts, but that they do believe in warnings of approaching death. These come in various forms but the two most widely known are the three knocks on door or wall when no human being is there to knock, and the falling of a picture or calendar. The important point is that they come in a form the person will recognize easily and that explains why Captain Hardy acted as he did. This is another of the stories handed down in the family of Mrs. Oswald MacMillan of Lockeport. She said:

4. Captain James Hardy lived in sight of the Ragged Islands Inn where we are sitting now. In those days there was no railroad on the western shore and packet boats brought all our merchandise by water. Sometimes these packets took fish to the West Indies and brought rum and molasses back and they made a good living. Captain Hardy’s vessel was used in this way, but the time came when it must be repaired and he decided to take her to the shipyard at Jordan. His wife went with him and they stayed at the home of his married sister, which made it a combined holiday and business trip.

At that time the country store was the meeting place for men of the village and Captain Hardy always liked to spend a couple of hours there when he had an evening in Jordan. But on this November evening he cut his visit short because he knew he would have a hard day’s work ahead of him. He hated to leave the warmth of the iron stove and to miss any of the conversation with those that sat around it. He left alone because nobody else thought of going home so early. He put on his overcoat and stepped out into the night and was no sooner on his way than he heard footsteps close behind him. He turned but there was no one in sight. Dark though it was, there was still enough light to see anyone who walked that close to him, yet he was so sure he heard someone that he asked, Do you want anything of me?

There was no answer so he resumed his walk only to hear the footsteps again. Once more he spoke and got no reply, but he noticed that when he walked, the follower walked, and when he stopped, the footsteps stopped. Several times he spoke, and several times he changed his pace. The footsteps were always there and they always matched his speed, almost like an echo. Finally he came to the light from his sister’s porch, the first he had seen since leaving the store. The moment he stepped within its rays the footsteps stopped and he knew without a doubt