A common part of this practice was the gifting of a gold medal with a religious engraving on it. The monarch would put it around the subject’s neck, and tell them to wear it constantly, so that the healing treatment worked properly. But, as you might expect, many people seeking the royal touch didn’t necessarily believe in it, but wanted the gold in order to pawn it. Perhaps this was the reason for its long-standing popularity? My guess is the sick person traded it to purchase actual medicine (though hopefully not the kind in the medical attention chapter of this book!). Who do you think is more scoundrel-y? The monarch for their airs, or the cunning subject?
King Henri II of France, who many remember as an ambitious monarchist, is pictured “healing” a young man here.
Rulers from “bloody” Mary I of England to Charles II of France were all known to have performed this “laying on of hands” ritual. Often, it was used as a tool to establish a ruler’s legitimacy if their throne wasn’t completely secure.
If you are a literature lover like me, you’ll be tickled to see that Shakespeare described this same tradition in Act IV of Macbeth:
A most miraculous work in this good king;
Which often, since my here-remain in England,
I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven,
Himself best knows: but strangely-visited people,
All swoln and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye
The mere despair of surgery, he cures,
Hanging a golden stamp about their necks,
Put on with holy prayers: and ’tis spoken
To the succeeding royalty he leaves
The healing benediction
Finally (cough, I mean eventually), this practice began dying out in the early 1700s, becoming essentially nonexistent by the end of the century. The popular poet and physician Sir Richard Blackmore even praised King’s William III and George I for abandoning such as “superstitious and insignificant ceremony,” which he firmly believed was a “Papish” plot.
While we’re still on the subject, yes, this is indeed still a common practice in the spiritual and religious world. The “laying on of hands” is performed all over the world by spiritual leaders. Though, I haven’t heard anything yet about gold coins coming with the deal.
King Charles I of England giving the king’s touch to a young subject
with scrofulous (i.e. tuberculosis).
Fast Facts
»Saint Edward the Confessor (1042–1066), one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings in England, was said to be the first monarch who possessed the healing power of the royal touch.
»The royal touch was usually performed on holy days for a greater chance of success.
»Charles II of England has the highest touch record with over 9,200 people (does Guinness know?).
»The ruler’s hands were usually anointed with blessed oil, believed to give them the power.
»The ceremony was officially removed from the Book of Common Prayer in 1732.
The Banana Curse
While we are still talking about contagious superstitions, this seems like a good time to address one that is widely shared among sailors, captains, fishermen, and other sea-bound individuals: the banana curse. As much as this sounds like the name of an episode on the kids show Dora the Explorer, the fear surrounding this superstition began long ago, and still exists today.
The gist of it: having bananas on board your ship is bad luck. Fatal luck, even. Whether a large cargo ship, dinghy, or fishing boat—no seafaring vessel is immune—this tropical fruit is a no-no and can easily get you thrown off board if you’re caught with one.
The origin of this superstition begins in the early 1700s, at the peak of trade between the Spanish empire and the Caribbean. And, if you have been near a dock or fishing boat yourself lately, you’ll know this superstition hasn’t died out in the least. There are many possible causes behind this that ultimately cemented it in seafaring minds, despite the passing of centuries. Let’s peel back the layers one at a time.
The Case for Vanishing Ships
At the height of the trading boom, many ships went missing. Understandable. With so many safety hazards to account for at sea—bad weather, piracy, running aground, floating adrift—it wasn’t uncommon that some ships were never seen again after leaving the harbor.
As luck (or lack thereof) would have it, many of the ships that disappeared during this time were carrying a load of cargo that happened to include…bananas. Thus two and two were put together, linking this tropical fruit to misfortune. Though it’s interesting to note, sources don’t specifically name any of the lost ships responsible for this belief, leading us to conclude this “disappearing ship” factor is more rumor than a reason.
The Ship-Sinking Bandit
Just for fun, let’s explore some of the most well-known ship disappearances and sinkings over the ages. The list is long, so these are only a few. Again, though history doesn’t specifically state that every one of these was carrying the forbidden yellow fruit on board, I think all signs most definitely point to banana. Obviously.
☞One disappearance which was deemed “the greatest maritime mystery of all time” surrounds the English ship, Mary Celeste. But this “disappearance” in 1872 is unique among its kind because the ship itself didn’t disappear—just the people on board. The Mary Celeste was discovered as a ghost ship off the coast of the Azores, an autonomous region of Portugal, with over six months’ worth of food and cargo virtually untouched. Further, there were no signs of it having been attacked or of foul play—all valuables and personal possessions were in the same places their owners had left them. It was almost as if their bodies were spirited away. The only thing remotely out of place was that the ship’s lifeboat was missing. This left us with the only reasonable conclusion for the disappearance, that, for some unforeseen reason, the crew and passengers abandoned ship. A perfectly good, all-in-order ship. Maybe they simply went…bananas. (Sorry I had to just once!)
☞The USS Wasp was a 117-foot-long privateering ship whose main mission was to sink British vessels during the War of 1812. With only a year left in the war, in 1814, a Swedish vessel made contact with the ship as it was sailing toward the Caribbean. Little did they know, their eyes would be the last to ever see the USS Wasp. Neither the ship, nor the crew of 173 were ever seen again. Bananas being a tropical fruit (and the Caribbean a tropical locale) well, unless the Bermuda Triangle was to blame for the disappearance, it’s not such a big leap for already-superstitious sailors to attribute its demise to bananas, right?
The USS Wasp doing what it did best.
☞It’s been over two hundred years, but the schooner Patriot still generates interest and debate today. In 1812, the northbound ship had just completed a privateering voyage in the tropics, and was rumored to have bounty aboard. In pirate speak: lots of booty in the hold! Might they have also been carrying a particular smile-shaped fruit native to the tropics? Well, on their way north, off the coast of North Carolina, the ship and crew vanished without a trace. Years of debate and speculation over the cause has not led us closer to a definite answer. Some say it fell victim to the pirate Dominique You (a.k.a. “The Bloody Babe”), or that it was attacked by raiders called the Carolina “bankers.” Rather bad luck in any case. Could it possibly have been caused by the banana curse, if they indeed had them on board? As the wisdom of Tootsie Pop states: the world may never know.
☞Last but certainly not least, the sinking of the Titanic is another misfortune that can be attributed to the banana. Yes, you read that right. While, of course, there is the small factor of the iceberg to consider, this famous ship was carrying a load of at least a thousand bananas on board at the time that it sank. Over a thousand bananas. Reckless, one might say.
Quick Spidery Deaths
Have you ever thrown fruit away—like the skin of an orange, an apple core, or a banana peel—and found your tras
hcan swarmed by flies? If you live anywhere with a warm climate, you’ve likely experienced this many times before. Fruit attracts insects, poisonous snakes, vermin, and other critters. That’s the simple consequence of being so sweet and delicious.
With this in mind, imagine packing boxes upon boxes of fruit into a crowded space with little ventilation, and being confined with it for days, if not a month or more. The critters that found their way into the fruit would most likely find their way to you, too. Especially spiders.
Yes, the insect most attracted to bananas happens to be spiders, and often, their bites were (and are) lethal. After hitching a ride in the banana holds, they would eventually find their way out into the ship. There isn’t much room to roam freely on a ship. Many sailors sharing space with these evil castaways would eventually get bitten by deadly spiders or snakes, and die quick, painful deaths. Of all the possible causes for the root of this superstition, as a registered scaredy cat, I favor this one the most.
Too Much Junk In the Hold
There are four routes we can follow when blaming heavy, overburdened cargo holds as the cause for sinking ships, and for general banana misfortune. First, to increase profit, trading vessels would often get stuffed with as much cargo as they could contain. So, if there were any incidents at sea, a heavy ship would double the odds and speed of sinking, not leaving any time to get help. Then, if another ship came upon the remains…you can imagine the crew’s thoughts when all that was left in the wreck’s wake was a trail of floating bananas.
Similar to weight of cargo, speed was an issue. In order to get their products to buyers without spoilage, ships had to travel quite fast. Faster than was probably safe, considering how much they loaded on board. Hasty travel may have led to hasty mistakes, damaging the ship. We all know what happened to the Titanic when it reached an unsafe speed in order to get to its destination.
Next, if you’ve ever put a banana in a paper bag to ripen it, well, stuffing them into small wooden spaces does about the same thing. But, what’s important to note is that, when bananas decompose, they release methane and other toxins into the air, which can create a contaminated environment if there isn’t adequate ventilation, and, in extreme cases, can cause asphyxiation. Bad bananas. Bad bananas.
Fourth, and finally, if a ship is traveling fast, it is harder for fishermen to catch many fish, isn’t it? And when this happens, whether in the eighteenth century or yesterday, it’s always attributed to bad luck. Not too hard to make the fruity connection, right?
Hawaiian Mythology
Next, we leave the realm of evidence-based guesswork, and enter another realm entirely. One with less reason and more mysticism. Hawaiian mythology has something to say about bananas. But, there are two different takes on it: one of bad luck, the other simply a reminder.
For the first, as Captain Joe Wenegenofsky writes in his article, “The Forbidden Fruit,” the whole of which covers this very subject:
“According to the ancient islanders, bananas were deemed fruits of the gods and looked at as a delicacy. Therefore, a fisherman attempting to catch fish with bananas in the boat would be considered covetous. Such an act of marked greed would warrant no blessing from the gods and most likely render the fisherman fishless.”
However, on the other hand, it’s been said that when Hawaiian fishermen would take their boats out for long fishing trips, they would tie bananas to the sides, in order to eat, and sustain themselves for the journey. When the bananas started to over-ripen and grew too brown, this was a reminder that the fishermen had been away from home too long, and should head back. This might be interpreted as ill luck, because it signals the ending of a voyage, but also good luck, because one is returning home.
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We’ve covered the major possible reasons for this undying superstition. (There are many more, I’m sure, each different depending on who you ask.) So, let’s look at how it has evolved, and what people have said about it.
As Captain Joe Wenegenofsky states, this curse is “the best known and widely disputed” of all the sea-based superstitions (and that’s really saying something, because there are quite a lot!).
It has evolved in our modern era to apply mainly to fishing. If you do a quick search online, you will see dozens, if not hundreds, of people bemoaning their ill luck fishing—before finding someone had ignorantly brought a banana aboard, then, disposing of the fruit (and sometimes the culprit, too), and then catching loads of fish. Or, you’ll find photos of people with a sense of humor, bringing bunches upon bunches of bananas on board for good luck. The superstition is certainly alive in one way or another.
According to what Wenegenofsky’s seen in his time as a captain, some believers have gone so far as to prohibit anything remotely related to the b-word on their vessels. This includes Banana Boat sunscreen, clothing from Banana Republic, banana-flavored muffins—you name it! Often, he has seen “instances where bananas have been forcibly ripped out of an angler’s hand or cooler, and flung overboard.”
The New York Times quoted another captain, named Rick Etzel of Montauk on this issue, saying “…people take the banana thing very seriously. A few years back, a guy on one of my charters showed up wearing a Banana Republic T-shirt. Another guy in the group went up to him with a knife and slashed the logo.”
It’s is also common to see anti-banana signs along docks, on T-shirts, and even in contracts for crewmembers, fishermen, captains, etc. Some contracts require employees to affirm they would never bring one aboard.
But, if you think farms and fruit companies have heeded this fear and have forgone shipping their bananas, you would be wrong, my friend. But, we should keep in mind the advances in refrigeration technology.
This is the origin and evolution of the banana curse. I have just one question for you now. Will you ever look at a banana the same way again?
Flower Power
Flowers are beautiful. They’re delicate, exotic, and some would even say, erotic. It’s no mystery why they are closely linked to human reproduction. One of the most popular flowers in this superstition is the orchid. Its very name comes from the Greek word for testicles: orkhis. This is because of its appearance, although the sexual organs of both genders have been represented symbolically by this flower. (While we’re on the subject, many natural objects get their names simply because of their physical similarities, which is why “avocado” is the Aztec word for testicle, too.) I swear, this is the last time I’ll write testicle. Testicle.
Anyway, ancient Greeks believed that an orchid flower could influence the gender of their unborn children, if one of the expectant parents ate part it. If you are unfamiliar with the plant, some orchids grow tubers at the root. The ancient Greeks believed that if the male partner ate the largest tuber, their child would be male. If the parents wanted a female child, the woman would eat the smallest tuber.
Let’s put sexism aside, and take a deeper look at why this superstition existed. For one, the orchid has captivated our imaginations for centuries. It is one of the most popular flowers in the world. Throughout history, it has been used for food, medicine, décor, and as an aphrodisiac.
Even the flower itself has developed strategies to ensure pollination. It has a large and diverse family, with over one hundred thousand hybrids! It’s practically a reproduction machine. For this very reason, I would call it the floral mascot for fertility.
The first century CE Greek physician, Dioscorides, theorized in his Materia Medica that orchids influenced sexuality. Unsurprisingly, it has been a popular gift for new and expecting couples for generations. But let’s get real—if you look around the home of anyone over the age of thirty (single or with a partner), odds are, you’ll see an orchid somewhere. Maybe three. Who knows why? The people of ancient China and Japan believed this flower was the symbol of human beauty and perfection. Confucius compared its perfume to the delights of friendship. Also, for decades, it was
a very expensive and sought-after flower, since it only grew in tropical locales.
Perhaps for these reasons it has become a status symbol, almost a talisman for prosperity. In any case, the orchid has a lot going for it. Its symbolism has pervaded cultures around the world, and it still maintains a high status—it does look quite elegant, you must admit. If you want to get pulled into a serious black hole, researching superstitions about reproduction and pregnancy will take you there. The beautiful orchid is only one petal among them!
Three’s a Curse
Lucky numbers. Which one popped into your head when you read that? Was it five? Twenty-three? Seventeen? Everyone has some association with a lucky number. I’ll admit it—mine is fifteen. But what about…unlucky numbers? Culture and folklore are overflowing with superstitions about them.
The one I find the most interesting is “the rule of three.” For ages, it has been considered terrible luck to have three lit candles on a theater stage or in a dressing room. If there were, whoever was closest to the shortest candle would either be the first to die, or the first to marry (talk about options).
There are a few possible origins for the candle superstition. First, too many lit candles increased the risk of fire and, since most theaters were made of wood, this meant a loss of livelihood for the cast if it burned down. Also, there was an early Christian custom of allowing only clergymen to light three candles. This is tied to the representation of the trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. An unordained person doing so could be seen as sacrilege. But, with the invention of electricity, candle usage melted away, causing this superstition to flicker and snuff out. (Yes, I challenged myself to see how many puns I could fit into one sentence.)
Just the same, it has also been seen as bad luck to light three cigarettes from one match. This comes from when the British fought in the Boer war. When soldiers in the trenches burned a match long enough to ignite three cigarettes, it could be seen by enemy forces. Whoever was last to light their cigarette, “the third man,” would then usually be killed by a sniper. Methinks this particular superstition was born as a cautionary tale.
We Did That? Page 7