Caul
From Traditional Witchcraft Wiki Project
A caul, also called a veil, is the thin, filmy membrane that is sometimes found covering the face or head of a newborn child; it is in fact a remnant of the amniotic sac. This is normally cleaned off of newborns, but others instead keep it, either letting it dry out naturally, or by smoking it with certain fumes to aid the process. The word caul derives from the Old English cawl, meaning "basket", and in Latin is called the Caput galeatum, meaning "head helmet".
Cauls And Folklore
In medieval times the appearance of a caul on a newborn baby was seen as a sign of good luck. It was considered an omen that the child was destined for greatness. Gathering the caul onto paper was considered an important tradition of childbirth: the midwife would rub a sheet of paper across the baby's head and face, pressing the material of the caul onto the paper. The caul would then be presented to the mother, to be kept as an heirloom.
Over the course of European history, a popular legend developed suggesting that possession of a baby's caul would give its bearer good luck and protect that person from death by drowning; cauls were therefore highly prized by sailors. Medieval women often sold these cauls to sailors for large sums of money; a caul was regarded as a valuable talisman. A corollary of this is that is was said that a baby born with a caul will never drown, and so such persons were often press-ganged into service. Cauls are still believed to have such powers, and still pass hands for considerable sums of money.
Others hold that those born with a caul would be able to see the future or have dreams that come to pass. It is elsewhere said that those born with cauls were would-be witches. It was also believed that one's fetch resided in their caul:
The fylgjar come into the world in the caul of a newborn child. If this caul be burnt or thrown away, the man has lost his guardian spirit for his life. In Norway a departing guest is always attended to the door, to make sure that the valve is kept open long enough to allow the spirit to pass out after the man.
A Book Of Folk-Lore by Sabine Baring-Gould (1913)
On a less positive note, in Eastern Europe it was believed that a child born with a caul would grow up to be a vampire or werewolf, but this could be prevented by prominently displaying the caul in the household. Related to this, a caul hung upon the front door would protect against werewolf attack; the notion being that upon seeing the caul, the werewolf will realise that the household is already cursed and so leave them alone.
