Observations
Last night was interesting. Well, if you take a company of semi-drunk blokes goofing around the Old Town, things are bound to get interesting either way. I don't really remember if we'd found anything supernatural, but I'm sure some late-night passers-by thought us to be some kind of bogies. XPP
I woke up a couple of hours ago and decided to prepare Chai according to helike 's recipe. I should say it turned out unusual, but great. Then I watched one of the older episodes of House M.D. and some bits of the Fry & Laurie show. Now I'm feeling warm and fuzzy and there's a whole night ahead of me and I need to come up with some ideas of how to spend it.
By the way, here's what I dug up on iron nails and iron in general:
~The ancients believed that iron, as a metal, had unknown powers; and therefore drove nails into their houses, to keep off pestilence.
~ At one time, iron was considered an evil metal, and unfit for sacred purposes. The priests of Rome could not be shaved or scraped with a knife of bronze.
~ In China, a piece of an iron plough-point serves as a charm, and long iron nails are also driven into trees to exorcise certain dangerous female demons.
~ Ghosts will not appear to anyone who has iron about them. In Morocco, iron is considered a very great protection against demons, so a knife or a sword is placed under a sick man's pillow.
~ Bits of old iron are considered, in the island of St. Thomas, to be of great magic value to the possessors.
~ Among Scotch fishermen, even at the present time, iron is said to be invested with magical attributes. Thus, if when plying their vocation, one of their number chance to indulge on profanity, the others at once call out, "Cauld Airn," and each grasps a convenient piece of the metal as a counter-influence to the misfortune, which otherwise would pursue them through the day.
~ In some countries of the old East, neither king nor priest could touch iron, as it would defile them.
~ Iron was regarded as a bone of Typhon, the enemy of Osiris, and thus consiered impure.
~ In Greek tombs, iron nails were found among other amulets used for the dead as well as the living. Many of these nails have magic inscriptions on them. A nail or a cross on which someone has been crucified is a great charm; so is the nail from a shipwrecked vessel. The first for the intermittent fever and the second for epilepsy.
~ The king of Korea may not go near iron with his flesh, even in dire extremity. His person is sacred and iron is unholy.
~ Arabs may raise Jinns by crying "Iron! Iron!"
~ The Scandinavians used iron to exorcise the Neckan, the river spirit. They place an open knife in the bottom of a boat, or a nail set in a reed, and chant an incantation.
~ Celtic, Finnish and Welsh superstitions agree that iron is a powerful charm against witchcraft. To find olf iron has always been considered lucky.
~ The natives of the Gold Coast have an aversion to iron and remove all metal from their persons when consulting their ferish, which is said to have parallels to Freemasons.
~ Raja Vijyanagram, one of the most enlightened of the Hindu princes, would not allow iron to be used in the construction of buildings within his territory, believing that its use would ineviatbly be followed by smallpox and other epidemics.
~ In Wales, it is believed that touching iron would cause fairy wives to vanish.
~ In North Scotland, immediately after death, a piece of iron, such as a nail or a knitting needle, used to be stuck in all the meal, butter, whiskey, cheese and flesh in the house to prevent death from entering them.
I woke up a couple of hours ago and decided to prepare Chai according to helike 's recipe. I should say it turned out unusual, but great. Then I watched one of the older episodes of House M.D. and some bits of the Fry & Laurie show. Now I'm feeling warm and fuzzy and there's a whole night ahead of me and I need to come up with some ideas of how to spend it.
By the way, here's what I dug up on iron nails and iron in general:
~The ancients believed that iron, as a metal, had unknown powers; and therefore drove nails into their houses, to keep off pestilence.
~ At one time, iron was considered an evil metal, and unfit for sacred purposes. The priests of Rome could not be shaved or scraped with a knife of bronze.
~ In China, a piece of an iron plough-point serves as a charm, and long iron nails are also driven into trees to exorcise certain dangerous female demons.
~ Ghosts will not appear to anyone who has iron about them. In Morocco, iron is considered a very great protection against demons, so a knife or a sword is placed under a sick man's pillow.
~ Bits of old iron are considered, in the island of St. Thomas, to be of great magic value to the possessors.
~ Among Scotch fishermen, even at the present time, iron is said to be invested with magical attributes. Thus, if when plying their vocation, one of their number chance to indulge on profanity, the others at once call out, "Cauld Airn," and each grasps a convenient piece of the metal as a counter-influence to the misfortune, which otherwise would pursue them through the day.
~ In some countries of the old East, neither king nor priest could touch iron, as it would defile them.
~ Iron was regarded as a bone of Typhon, the enemy of Osiris, and thus consiered impure.
~ In Greek tombs, iron nails were found among other amulets used for the dead as well as the living. Many of these nails have magic inscriptions on them. A nail or a cross on which someone has been crucified is a great charm; so is the nail from a shipwrecked vessel. The first for the intermittent fever and the second for epilepsy.
~ The king of Korea may not go near iron with his flesh, even in dire extremity. His person is sacred and iron is unholy.
~ Arabs may raise Jinns by crying "Iron! Iron!"
~ The Scandinavians used iron to exorcise the Neckan, the river spirit. They place an open knife in the bottom of a boat, or a nail set in a reed, and chant an incantation.
~ Celtic, Finnish and Welsh superstitions agree that iron is a powerful charm against witchcraft. To find olf iron has always been considered lucky.
~ The natives of the Gold Coast have an aversion to iron and remove all metal from their persons when consulting their ferish, which is said to have parallels to Freemasons.
~ Raja Vijyanagram, one of the most enlightened of the Hindu princes, would not allow iron to be used in the construction of buildings within his territory, believing that its use would ineviatbly be followed by smallpox and other epidemics.
~ In Wales, it is believed that touching iron would cause fairy wives to vanish.
~ In North Scotland, immediately after death, a piece of iron, such as a nail or a knitting needle, used to be stuck in all the meal, butter, whiskey, cheese and flesh in the house to prevent death from entering them.