Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/206

 186 (Read at Meeting, 17th December, 1903. Ante, p. 2.)

Jews here have various methods closely resembling those of the Outer Islands of the Hebrides for "dodging" the Powers of Evil. For example, when a sick person seems unable to die and unlikely to recover, they pray for him under a different name, using Isaac, for instance, if his name happens to be Benjamin, apparently on the theory that God will know who is prayed for, whereas it will perplex the Evil Spirit who has brought about his condition, so that when he enters the sick chamber to take possession of Isaac, he starts back in astonishment to find his old friend Benjamin, who is thus enabled to escape.

The story is current in Jerusalem that a certain Jew who had lost six wives in childbirth was anxious to propitiate the Angel of Death. When about to marry for the seventh time he bought a cow and tied her up outside his window, and then the marriage ceremony was performed between them, the ring being placed upon her horn, the contract of marriage being drawn up in due form. This accomplished, he proceeded to matrimony with the girl of his choice, the cow was killed, her flesh distributed among the poor, and the pair lived happy ever after and had a large family.

Many curious customs are connected with childbirth. The woman is at this time particularly exposed to the jealousy of Lilith and other "Not-good Ones," and in some households it is usual to attach verses from the Psalms to such spots as the Evil Ones would have to pass in gaining access to her: the window, chimney, door, and the curtains to her bed. It is, however, objected among the ultra-pious that it is wanting in respect to the Psalms to introduce them into a room ceremonially defiled.

The destroying angel on taking the life of a Jew, washes his knife in the water of six houses, so that on the occasion of a death every drop of water has to be thrown away in three houses, right and left; a serious loss where every pint of water has its definite