Folk Lore

A raw potato in the pocket to ward off rheumatism; brimstone tucked into a vest to prevent stomach cramps. James Napier begins his inquiry with remedies that sound absurd—until he asks who gets to decide what counts as superstition.

Writing in the late nineteenth century, Napier looks back at beliefs still remembered in the West of Scotland: customs woven into ordinary life, and older ideas about the supernatural lingering beneath them. Before tracing their origins, he takes aim at the word itself, noting how readily people dismiss another’s beliefs while excusing their own. His examples range from protective charms to the ways people read nature and divine purpose, and his tone is as probing as it is amused. If superstition is more than someone else’s foolishness, where does it begin—and how much of it remains among us?

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