Tophet Or Not Tophet

[bri_himself]

'Many houses are still to be found in England with the horse-shoe (the grand preservative against witchcraft) nailed against the threshold. If any over-wise philosopher should attempt to remove them, the chances are that he would have more broken bones than thanks for his interference. Let any man walk into Cross-street, Hatton-Garden, and from

Comments

[velvetunicorn]

I would never remove a horseshoe. I'm way too superstitious but I suppose that's hardly surprising.

[bri_himself]

I willed myself out of my superstitions. (Except for spilled salt. That one just nags at me and nags at me until I throw a pinch over my shoulder. Rationalism be damned.)

It took me years before I could not salute magpies and not feel bad about it afterward; I used to have to come up with all sorts of little rouses to do this anyway and not look odd - mainly pretending to scratch an eyebrow and flailing randomly at the last minute; I can't have been very convincing - so I was really sort of relieved.

[velvetunicorn]

what!? we're supposed to salute magpies?

damn.

no wonder...

[bri_himself]

Salute, and say 'good morning Mr. Magpie!' (I was never quite that twee).

How the Mrs. and Ms. Magpies feel about all this is unrecorded, but I can't imagine they're happy.

[bri_himself]

I only found it by websearching, in connection with the Mora witch-trials in Sweden. (It's a good resource for dipping in and out of - I'm going back for the Crusades in a bit.)

Well. Okay. And my Dad loaned me a copy for a while. But it's like, loaf-sized, and written in Victorian, so I didn't really give it a chance.