the Feast is held; the peculiar observances by which it is accompanied, and–which will serve, in some measure, to illustrate the history of the climate in this country, and (strange combination!) the progress of social improvement—the peculiar dishes which are usually introduced on such festivals.
I ought to apologize for thus occupying so much of your space: but, as you have kindly consented, at my request, to open your pages to contributions on the subject of our ‘Folk-Lore,’ I thought it might be of advantage to point out to correspondents some matters respecting which communications would be both valuable and acceptable.
The Epithet ‘Old Scratch.’
Of that huge mass of imperfectly digested materials which may be said to constitute the text book of the students of our English ‘Folk-Lore,’ Brand’s ‘Popular Antiquities,’ there is no chapter more imperfect, and consequently more unsatisfactory, than that entitled ‘Popular Notions concerning the Apparition of the Devil.’ In this chapter,—after some allusion to the names “Old Nick,” “Old Harry,” “Old Scratch,” and “The Old One,”—Brand observes:—“The epithet ‘old’ to so many of his titles seems to favour the common opinion, that the Devil can only appear in the shape of an old man.”—It may, however, be doubted whether the epithet “old” has not, in this case, been derived from the Early Latin Fathers; who frequently use the expression, “Antiquus hostis,” when speaking of the Enemy of mankind. In this way, the Anglo-Saxon, Cædmon, speaks of “se ealda deofol,”—“se ealda,” “the Old Devil,” “the Old One” and in North Friesland, the same epithet, “de ual duivel,” still obtains. Gammel Erik (Old Erik) is a title bestowed upon the Devil by the Danes; and in this Old Erik we have, probably, the origin of our “Old Harry.” In the old Norse, “Kölski”—which signifies both “senex” and “diabolus”—is the epithet by which the “foul fiend” is usually designated.
Again,—though the epithet “Scratch” is, by modern usage, exclusively applied to his Satanic Majesty, such was not its original application. In the old High German monuments, mention is made of a small elfish sprite, Scrat, or Scrato,—by Latin writers translated Pilosus; as Waltschrate, or Wood Scrat, is Satyrus. In the ‘Vocabularius’ of 1482 we find Schretlin (penates), Nacht-schrettele (Ephialtes). The Anglo-Saxon Schritta (Hermaphroditus), and the Old Norse Skratti (malus genius, gigas), are also clearly allied to this elfish Being.
Grimm describes the Schrat as resembling in its nature the Latin Faun, and the Greek Satyr,—the ‘Sylvanus’ of Livy; and the Schratlein as being a domestic spirit more resembling the German Wichtel and Alp. The Schrat is never represented as a female; and differs from the Elf as appearing only singly–not in hosts.
The reader of the third volume of the ‘Fairy Legends of the South of Ireland’—which contains a translation of the Brothers Grimm’s ‘Essay on the Irish Legends’—will, doubtless, remember the very curious old German poem there translated, in which the nature of the Schretel or Schrat is fully described. The manner in which the sprite encounters a huge white bear, by whom it is worsted in the contest, in consequence of which the house is freed from its intrusion,—is told with considerable humour; and will give the reader a satisfactory notion of the malicious spirit who has been despoiled of his name, for the purpose of enriching the abundant nomenclature in which Old Scratch–as the Devil is now improperly designated–already rejoices.
