Corp creidh made to represent Major Grant against whom it was desired to work harm.

Collection type: Object
Description: Corp creidh made to represent Major Grant against whom it was desired to work harm.
Long description: Corp creidh ("clay body") made to represent Major Grant against whom it was desired to work harm. The figure is broken in several places. The figure is attached to a wooden board and places in a glass fronted wooden box painted black.
Geographical reference: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Europe > Northern Europe > United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Person: Field collector Major Grant; PRM source Major Grant; PRM source Edward Burnett Tylor
Date / Period: Date made: Before 1889, uncertain
Date collected: 1889
Acquisition information: Loaned: Unknown date Donated: 1889
Materials and processes: Material Clay, Material Metal, Material Wood Plant, Process Modelled
Dimensions: Width: max 200 mm approx, Width 130 mm wooden box, Length: max 820 mm wooden box, Length: max 690 mm approx
Object numbers: Accession number: 1889.40.1
Associated publications: Discussed on page 390 of 'Exhibition of Charms and Amulets', by E. B. Tylor, in The International Folk-Lore Congress 1891: Papers and Transactions [of the Second International Folk-Lore Congress held at the Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London, from Thursday 1 to Wednesday October 7 1891], edited by Joseph Jacobs and Alfred Nutt (London: David Nutt, for the Organizing Committee, 1892), pp. 387-93. Tylor writes: 'To the members of the Congress who came over to Oxford last Saturday I was able to show, in the Pitt-Rivers Museum, a large corp cre, "clay body", made only two years ago in a parish in the far north of Scotland, to harm a landowner there. The known practice of putting such a clay figure in running water, that the victim might waste away likewise, had fortunately not been observed in this case, but pins and nails stuck in the clay testified to a similar spiteful intent. Two servants found it, and broke it up, apparently to neutralise its action, but the master hearing of it, had the pieces collected; and now they are put together, the figure will remain as one of the most remarkable relics of magic in the world. Ancient and barbaric witchcraft of the kind are only known by records, but it is curious evidence of the conservatism of magic - this most conservative of human arts - that our own civilized country still furnishes specimens which Australia or Egypt cannot rival.' [JC 4 5 2007, 22 6 2007] Discussed on page 385 of 'Folk-Lore Miscellanea', by John Rhys, in Folklore, Vol. 3, no. 3 (September 1892), pp. 375–86: 'Whilst at the Pitt Rivers Museum, I noticed a somewhat recent acquisition, consisting of a very rude clay model, about a yard long, of the human figure. It is labelled as follows: "Corp creidh, or clay figure, rudely shaped to a representation of a person whose death is desired. It is stuck with pins and nails, etc., in order that the person may suffer corresponding torments, and perish miserably. Such figures are usually placed in a stream, with the idea that, as the clay is wasted away, so the enemy will waste and perish." The specimen is from G....., in the county of Invernesss, and it is the gift of Major G— of that place. The history of the present specimen is, however, not that it was found in a stream, but discovered early one morning placed at Major G—'s door. The workmen who found it there were horrified by its presence, and threw it away. The Major, having come to hear of this design on his life—for he was the victim intended—took the very enlightened revenge on his ill-wishers of carefully collecting the disjecta membra of this rude model of himself, and of presenting it to our Museum.' [JC 4 5 2007] Discussed on page 203 of Primitive Beliefs in the North-East of Scotland, by Joseph McKenzie McPherson (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1929): 'A different fate awaited another image which also came into the hands of the person represented. But in this case the recipient had no faith in its potency. This clay figure is not in the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford It was discovered one morning in Glen Urguhart in the county of Inverness, not in a stream, but near the front door of the house of any army officer who was the intended victim. The workmen who found it were horrified by its presence and threw it away. The major, on learning of this design upon his life, took the revenge of collecting the disjecta membra of this rude representation of himself and presented it to the Museum.' [JC 4 5 2007, 22 6 2007] Discussed on page 245 of 'Documents of British Superstition in Oxford (A Lecture Delivered before the Oxford University Anthropological Society, on the 2nd of November, 1949)', by Ellen Ettlinger, in Folklore, Vol. 54, no. 1 (March 1943), pp. 227-49: 'The next four specimens illustrating sympathetic magic belong together. The most interesting is a rudely shaped clay-figure, about 1 yard in length, stuck all over with pins and nails. Professor H. Balfour has told me how Major Grant, in Glen Urquhart (Inverness-shire), early one morning in the year 1889 happened to come to his door just when his workmen found this model of himself placed on the threshhold. The workmen recognized immediately that this figure was a Corp Creidh laid there with the intention that the major, represented by it, should suffer corresponding torments and perish miserably. Horrified by its presence the workmen broke it up in order the destroy the power of the death-charm, but Major Grant carefully collected the pieces and presented the Corp Creidh to the Pitt Rivers Museum.' [unsigned, no date; JC 4 5 2007]

Search terms: Figure, Religion, Pottery, Amulet