GLOSSARY
- Avering
- - A medieval con-trick performed by beggars to obtain money. Some beggars would strip themselves, hide their clothes and pretend to have been robbed. Others would fake illnesses by sticking on fake boils made of wax, or tumours made from raw offal, to get alms from townspeople or the church.
- Bastles and Peles
- - Unique features of the border counties, especially Northumberland, where the constant raids and wars between the Scots and the English meant that people on both sides of the shifting border lived in fear of attack. Peles were oblong towers, built to withstand a siege, with stone walls of about three to four feet thick, in which people could take refuge. Livestock and food were kept in the basement and people occupied the two or three storeys above. Bastles were fortified farmhouses where people would live all year round. They can still be seen today.
- Camelot
- - A medieval pedlar or hawker who also sold or carried news. Camelots had a reputation for trading in goods that were not always genuine or might have fallen off the back of a cart. The name is still used today in France for a street peddler or newspaper seller.
- Cattern Cakes
- - On St Catherine's day, cattern cakes - made from sweet dough - were eaten for luck, to keep the family safe over winter. In some parts of the country they ate Cattern pies instead - pastries shaped like a Catherine wheel and filled with minced mutton, honey and breadcrumbs.
Wheels of burning straw, once the symbol of the ancient sun god, were rolled across fields for fertility in celebration of St Catherine. A favourite pastime on this day was to jump over a two-foot high lighted candle. If the candle was not extinguished as you jumped (and you didn't catch fire), good luck would follow for the year. The rhyme Jack be nimble, Jack be quick / Jack jump over the candle stick may have originated with this custom.
- Demon Star
- - Also known as Lilith's star or Algol, is in the constellation Perseus. It was considered the most dangerous star in the heavens, bringing evil and death, for it seems to wink like a great eye. A girl born under its astrological influence was said to bring a curse upon her family and any man she married.
The star appears to wane in brightness over four and a half hours, remaining dim for twenty minutes, then increases to its original intensity for sixty-nine hours. We now know this is caused by a dimmer star eclipsing a brighter one.
- Faith cakes
- - St Faith was a third century virgin and martyr, and the patron saint of pilgrims and prisoners. She was martyred by being roasted alive on a brazen bed. When that failed to kill her, she was beheaded.
On her feast day, 6th October, people ate cakes griddled on hot irons, ensuring safe and successful pilgrimages.
- Rastons
- - Stuffed bread loaves or rolls. In Medieval times, these were made with sweetened dough fortified with eggs, but the recipe works equally well if you use a small crusty loaf or crusty rolls. Slice off the top. Scoop out the crumbs and mix with fried onions and/or finely chopped fruit, such as apples and apricots. Stir in generous amounts of melted butter, return the mixture to the hollowed-out rolls, replace tops and heat in the oven for 5 - 10 minutes or wrapped in foil in the embers of a fire. Great for eating round an autumn bonfire.
- "I swear there is nothing so warming to the stomach on a cold winter's night as sweet bread, hot from the oven, dripping with melted butter, truly a feast for St Barbara's day." (Camelot, in Company of Liars
- Witch-jar
- - These were glass or clay vessels containing thorns, pins, needles and other sharp objects, together with some item belonging to the intended victims, such hair combings or a rag cut from a garment they had worn. The jar containing these objects was filled with the urine of the person casting the spell and sealed. The vessel was then buried under the heath, near an oven or up a chimney.
According to superstition, every time was a fire was lit heating the jar, the victim would experience a burning agony in his entrails and stabbing pains in his limbs as if he was being repeatedly jabbed with red-hot needles. The victim would continue to suffer, until he discovered who had made the witch-jar and had persuaded them to destroy it.
People today renovating old houses or carrying out excavations sometimes unearth witch-jars which have been buried for centuries.
