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ENGLISH FOLK-LORE. By the Rev. T. F. Thiselton Dyer.
Contents :—Trees — Plants — Flowers — The Moon — Birds — Animals —
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OTHER VOLUMES ARE IN PREPARATION.
ENGLISH FOLK-LORE.
. BY THE REV.
T. F. THISELTON-DYER, M.A. Oxon.,
A A -
AUTHOR OF 'BRITISH POPULAR CUSTOMS, PAST AND PRESENT.
SECOND EDITION, REVISED.
HonDon:
DAVID BOGUE,
3, ST. MARTIN'S PLACE, TRAFALGAR SQUARE.
1880.
.T45
1980
-3TI1 1
PREFACE.
Of late years there has been a growing interest in
the study of Folk-lore; and the formation at the
commencement of the present year of a Folk-lore
Society, is a proof of the importance that is now
attached to this portion of our social and domestic
history.
The present volumq is not by any means intended
to be exhaustive, but has been written with a view
of giving the reader information in a popular form
about some of those superstitions that still linger on
here and there throughout the country.
T. F. THISELTON DYER.
July, 1878.
I.-
LIST OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
Plants i
CHAPTER II.
The Moon 36
CHAPTER III.
Birds 55
CHAPTER IV.
Animals 101
CHAPTER V.
Insects—Reptiles 123
CHAPTER VI.
Charms 141
2
PLANTS.
loveliest productions of the vegetable kingdom, linking
certain of them, in poetic fancy, with whatever best
answer^, their description in human life. The purity
of childhood was symbolised by the early snowdrop,
from its exquisite and virgin whiteness; and the hare-
bell, that fragile little inhabitant of our country heaths
and commons, was, on account of its delicate blue
colour, considered typical of truth. Browne, in his
'Pastorals' (book ii. song 3), says.;—
"The harebell, for her stainless azured hue,
Claims to be worn of none but who are true."
It is not difficult, then, to understand that the same
idea in the human mind which originated a language
for flowers was equally instrumental also in attaching
to them certain superstitious and whimsical notions,
which, however, in course of time developed and
assumed a very different character. It is curious how
many of these superstitions arose from isolated and
trivial occurrences, the result of coincidence or chance,
but which were considered as infallible and unmis-
takable omens of good or bad luck. If, for instance,
a child fell sick after gathering a certain wild flower
on, we will say, a Thursday, it was regarded as almost
morally wrong for parents to allow their children
henceforth even so much as to touch this flower of ill
omen. It may surprise us that our ancestors could
have ever been credulous enough to believe that the
events of their daily life were influenced by such
PLANTS. 3
childish fancies as are embodied in their folk-lore,
worthy only of nurserymaids and other uneducated
persons. Yet the fact remains, and is attested by
the abundant information bearing on the subject that
has been transmitted to us in old books and mis-
cellaneous literature. Thus, Sir Thomas Browne, in
his short treatise on the ' Properties of Plants,' wisely
says: "We omit to recite the many virtues and end-
less faculties ascribed unto plants, which sometimes
occur in grave and serious authors; and we shall make
a bad transaction for truth to concede a verity in
half." Apart, however, from such allusions as are to
be found in our own authors, antiquity is by no means
destitute of references to the same subject. Plutarch
records hov^ a few mules laden with parsley threw into
a complete panic a Greek force on its march against
the enemy. As this herb was very largely used in
Greece to bestrew the tombs of the dead, it acquired
an ominous significance, and hetaOai aekivov (to be in
need of parsley) was a common phrase used to denote
those on the point of death. Curious to say, it is a
belief widely spread in some parts of Devonshire, that
to transplant parsley is to commit a serious offence
against the guardian genius who presides over parsley-
beds, certain to be punished either on the offender
himself or some member of his family within the
course of the year. Many other superstitions are con-
nected with this herb, one of which is prevalent in
South Hampshire, where the peasants oftentimes
B 2
4
PLANTS.
absolutely refuse to give any away, for fear of some
misfortune befalling them; and in the neighb&urhood
of Cobham, Suffolk, it is believed that if parsley seed
be sown on any other day than Good Friday it will
not come double.*
Again, the practice which formerly prevailed in this
country of sprinkling rivers with flowers on Holy
Thursday, alluded to by Milton in his 'Comus/
"The shepherds at their festivals
Carol her good deeds loud in rustic lays,
And throw sweet garland wreaths into her stream,
Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils
—a remnant of which still remains in the well-dressing
of Tissington—was, no doubt, a relic of the Fontinalia
of the Romans, ceremonies held in honour of the
nymphs of fountains. Seneca says, "Where a spring
rises or a river flows, there should we build altars and
offer sacrifices."
It might be easy to enumerate further instances to
show how the ancients had their plant folk-lore, by
alluding to the many flowers held to be acceptable
to the dead. For example, amaranthus was first used
by the Thessalians to adorn the grave of Achilles;
and, in Euripides, we find Electra complaining that
Agamemnon's tomb has never been adorned with
myrtle:—
"With no libations, nor with myrtle boughs,
Were my dear father's manes gratified."
* See p. 27.
PLANTS.
5
Virgil, describing the grief of Anchises for Marcellus,
makes him say:—
"Full canisters of fragrant lilies bring,
Mix'd with the purple roses of the spring.
Let me with fun'ral flowers his body strew."
Among the Greeks the rose was very largely used
for funereal purposes, and the tombs of the dead
were frequently decorated with it, under a supersti-
tious belief that it protected the remains of the
deceased. Anacreon, in his pretty little ode upon
this flower, says :—
"When pain afflicts and sickness grieves,
Its juice the drooping heart relieves;
And after death its odours shed
A pleasing fragrance o'er the dead.
And when its withering charms decay,
And sinking, fading, die away,
Triumphant o'er the rage of time,
It keeps the fragrance of its prime."
The Romans, too, were so fond of the rose that
they left legacies in their wills so that their tombs
might be decorated with this sweetest of flowers—a
practice said to have been introduced by them into
England. Camden and Aubrey both speak of the
churchyards in their time as thickly planted with
rose trees. Evelyn, who lived at Wotton Place, near
Ockley, alludes to the custom for maidens yearly to
plant and deck the graves of their defunct sweethearts
with rose bushes. "The Romans," says Welby, "were
much at Ockley: the Roman road (Stane Street)
6
PLANTS.
passes through the village to this day; so that we are
inclined to agree with Mr. Manning, the historian of
Surrey, that the rose-planting at Ockley is a relic
of a Roman custom." In Wales, it is customary to
plant the white rose on the grave of an unmarried
female; and a red rose is appropriated to anyone
distinguished for benevolence of character.
At the present day flowers are still largely used by
us at funerals on account of their symbolical meaning.
The bay is an emblem of the resurrection, for, accord-
ing to Sir Thomas Browne, when seemingly dead, it
will revive from the root, and its dry leaves resume
their wonted vitality. The yew tree and cypress, often
planted in churchyards, are symbolical of life from
their perpetual verdure. The rosemary is still occa-
sionally used at funerals, probably, says Nares, "from
its odour, and as a token of remembrance of the
deceased"—a practice thus touchingly alluded to by
Gay:—
"To shew their love, the neighbours far and near
Followed, with wistful look, the damsel's bier:
Sprigg'd rosemary the lads and lasses bore,
While dismally the parson walked before."
In South Lancashire, we are informed, rosemary-
may, even now-a-days, be seen at many a funeral, the
pleasing relic of an old and nearly obsolete custom.
Mr. Brierley, in his 'Chronicles of Warwerlow/ in de-
scribing the funeral of the Old Huntsman, has the
following remarks which bear on the subject:—"The
PLANTS.
7
old huntsmen gathered round the grave in a solid
ring, each holding his dog by the slip, and when the
final ashes to ashes, dust to dust was pronounced, the
whole strew their sprigs of rosemary over the coffin,
then raising their heads, gave a simultaneous 'yo-ho!
tally-ho!' the sound of which became heightened by
the dogs joining their voices, as they rung the last cry
over their 'earthed' companion."
Pepys, in his 'Diary' (vol. i. p. 260), says: "Between
Gosport and Southampton we observed a little church-
yard where the graves are accustomed to be all sowed
with sage." Our forefathers, it appears, had a great
idea of the virtues of sage. The old monkish line*
runs thus:—
"Cur morietur homo cui crescit salvia in horto V9
In some parts of Wales it is customary for funerals
to be preceded by a female carrying sprigs of bay, the
leaves of which she sprinkles at intervals along the
road which the corpse is to travel.
A pretty custom was practised by our ancestors of
carrying garlands of sweet flowers at the funerals of
beloved relatives and friends; and not only strewing
them on the coffin, but planting them permanently
on the grave, as already alluded to, which gave the
churchyards a pleasing and picturesque appearance.
This custom is said to owe its origin to an ancient
belief that Paradise is planted with fragrant flowers.
* See Southey's 'Commonplace Book,' 1850, 3rd series, p. 785,
note.
8
PLANTS.
The description given in the legend of Sir Owain, of
the celestial Paradise at which the blessed arrive
after passing through purgatory, refers to this super-
stition :—
"Fair were her erbers with floures;
Rose and lili divers colours,
Primros and parvink,
Mint, feverfoy, and eglenterre,
Colombin and mother-wer,
Than ani man may bithenke.
It berth erbes of other maner,
Than ani in erth groweth here,
Though that is best of priis;
Evermore thai grene springeth,
For winter no sooner it no clingeth,
And sweeter than licorice/'
In some cases flowers have an ominous significance.
Thus, in Suffolk, to sleep in a room with the white
thorn in bloom in it, during the month of May, will,
to use the local phrase, <£ Surely be followed by some
great misfortune/' and according to an old proverb :—
"If you sweep the house with blossomed broom in May,
You're sure to sweep the head of the house away."
By the Northamptonshire peasantry the blooming
of the apple tree, after the fruit is ripe, is regarded as
a sure omen of death :—
"A bloom upon the apple tree when the apples are ripe,
Is a sure termination to somebody's life."
Even, too, the rose is not without its superstitions,
for to scatter its leaves on the ground has been held
to be most unlucky. As an illustration of this we
PLANTS.
9
may quote the following from the 'Life and Corre-
spondence of M. G. Lewis.' The lady to whom
the portent happened, was Miss Ray, or Reay,
who was murdered at the piazza entrance of Covent
Garden Theatre, by a man named Hackman (April 7,
1779) :—"When the carriage was announced and she
was adjusting her dress, Mrs. Lewis happened to
make some remark on a beautiful rose which Miss
Ray wore in her bosom. Just as the words were
uttered, the flower fell to the ground. She imme-
diately stooped to regain it, but as she picked it up,
the red leaves scattered themselves on the carpet, and
the stalk alone remained in her hand. The poor girl,
who had been depressed in spirits before, was evi-
dently affected by this incident, and said in a slightly
faltering voice, 'I trust I am not to consider this as
an evil omen!' But soon rallying, she expressed to
Mrs. Lewis, in a cheerful tone, her hope that they
would meet again after the theatre—a hope, alas!
which it was decreed should not be realised." A
note informs the reader that in certain districts of
Italy the red rose is considered as an emblem of an
early death; and it is an evil omen to scatter its
leaves on the ground.*
In Devonshire there is a curious superstition that it
is unlucky to plant a bed of lilies of the valley, as the
person doing so will probably die in the course of the
next twelve months; and in some parts it is believed
* See * Gentleman's Magazine,' vol. xlix. p. 210.
IO
PLANTS.
that if in a row of beans, one should chance to come
up white (instead of green), there will be a death in
the family within the year.
In Scotland, says a correspondent of 'Notes and
Queries/ boys prefer a herding stick of ash to any
other wood, as in throwing it at their cattle, it is sure
not to strike on a vital part, and so kill or injure the
animal, which it is commonly supposed a stick of any
other wood might, perhaps, do:—
"Rowan, ash, and red thread,
Keep the devils frae their speed."
Lupton, in his third book of 'Notable Things'
(1660), says :—" If a firr tree be touched, withered, or
burned with lightning, it signifies that the master or
mistresse thereof shall shortly dye ;" and according to
Shakspeare (' Richard II.') the withering of the bay
tree was a certain omen of death :—
"'Tis thought the king is dead; we will not stay.
The bay trees in our country are all withered."
Formerly, too, it was a common idea that when
roses and violets flourished in autumn, there would be
some epidemic in the ensuing year; whilst the falling
of the leaves of a peach tree or elm tree was con-
sidered to predict a murrain. In some parts we are
told, on the authority of Brand, there is a vulgar
prejudice that if boys be beaten with an elder stick,
their growth is sure to be checked.
PLANTS. 11
The following allusion to divination by means of a
daffodil we find mentioned in Herrick's i Hesperides':
"When a daffadill I see
Hanging down her head tVards me,
Guess I may what I must be:
First, I shall decline my head;
Secondly, I shall be dead;
Lastly, safely buried."
In Worcestershire we are informed that farmers
were in the habit of taking their bough of mistletoe
and giving it to the cow that first calved after New
Year's Day, as this act was supposed to avert ill-luck
from the whole dairy. In the same county it is re-
garded as most unlucky in spring-time to take less
than a handful of violets or primroses into a farmer's
house, as neglect of this rule is supposed to bring
inevitable destruction on his brood of young ducks
and chickens.
A notion prevails among the Norfolk farmers, that
to bring into the house a bunch of the grass called
"maiden-hair/' or, as it is termed, " dudder grass," is
most sure to bring with it ill-luck. In Dorsetshire *
it is a common idea that if the plant "bergamot" be
kept in a house, it will never be free from sickness.
A flowering myrtle is believed in Somersetshire to
be a great acquisition to a house, and the saying
connected with it is this:—" The myrtle is the luckiest
plant to have in your window. Water it every morn-
ing, and be proud of it." In Surrey, and elsewhere,
* 4 Notes and Queries,' 4th series, vol. viii p. 58.
12
PLANTS.
we are informed of the following superstition:*—" Cut
a fern-root slantwise, and you'll see a picture of an oak
tree; the more perfect, the luckier chance for you."
In Wales it is considered highly lucky for the
peasantry to have the roofs of their houses covered
with the house-leek, as it is supposed to preserve and
protect them from disease, and to insure prosperity.
In some parts of Cornwall one may frequently hear the
following charm made use of for invoking good luck:—
"Even ash, I thee do pluck,
Hoping thus to meet good luck.
If no luck I get from thee,
I shall wish thee on the tree."
Grose tells us, the elder is supposed to possess the
virtue of protecting persons bearing a branch of it
from the charms of witches. From this superstition
no doubt originates the reason why so many of these
trees are planted by the sides of our rural cottages.
According to a MS. on magic, preserved in the
Chetham Library at Manchester, "the herb pimpernell
is good to prevent witchcraft, as Mother Bumby doth
affirme." The following lines may be used when it is
gathered:—
"Herbe pimpernell, I have thee found,
Growing upon Christ Jesus' ground:
The same guift the Lord Jesus gave unto thee,
* When He shed His blood on the tree.
Arise up, pimpernell, and goe with me,
And God blesse me,
And all that shall were thee. Amen.
* * Notes and Queries,' 1st series, vol. vii. p. 152.
PLANTS.
13
Saying this fifteen dayes together, twice a day,
morning earlye fasting, and in the evening full."
The snapdragon, which is much cultivated in
gardens on account of its showy flowers, is, in many
places, said to have a supernatural influence, and to
possess the power of destroying charms. Sometimes,
in the North of England, one may see hung up in
stables a branch of "wiggin," i. e. mountain ash, as it
is considered a famous charm against witchcraft.
Anciently, too, collars of mountain ash were put upon
the necks of the cattle to keep off witches.* In
Scotland a particular virtue is supposed to rest with
the possessor of a piece of four-bladed clover, of know-
ing when anybody is practising witchcraft on him;
and Aubrey in his 'Miscellanies' has the following:
"Vervain and dill
Hinders witches from their will."
Good fortune is, in some places, supposed to accrue
to the finder not only of four-bladed clover, but
double - leaved ash, and green-topped seave,t as
amusingly expressed in the following couplet:—
"With a four-leav'd clover, double-topp'd ash, and green-topp'd seave,
You may go before the queen's daughter without asking leave."
Rosemary worn about the body is said to strengthen
the memory, and to add to the success of the wearer
in anything he may undertake.
* See Scatherd's 'History of Morley,' 1830, p. 195.
t Seaves are the rushes of which rush-lights or rush-candles are
made. 'Notes and Queries/ 3rd series, vol. i. p. 298.
14
PLANTS.
Some plants are said to indicate the character of
those in whose locality they grow. Thus Miss Plues,
in her * Rambles in Search of Wild Flowers/ tells us
that there is a popular superstition that wherever
the moonwort (the purple honesty, Lunaria annua)
flourishes, the cultivators of the garden are exceed-
ingly honest. In Leicestershire there is a saying to
the following effect: "Sleep in a bean-field all night
if you want to have awful dreams, or go crazy."
"Speaking to a lady," says a correspondent of the
'Athenaeum' (Feb. 5th, 1848), "of the difficulty which
I always had found in getting a slip of myrtle to
grow, she directly accounted for my failure by
observing that perhaps I had not spread the tail (or
skirt) of my dress and looked proud during the
time I was planting it. It is a popular belief in
Somersetshire that unless a slip of myrtle is so
planted, it will never take root."
Many, too, are the love divinations, still practised
here and there throughout the country by means of
plants. In Devonshire the following saying is very
prevalent:—
"An even-leaved ash,
And a four-leaved clover,
You'll see your true love
'Fore the day is over."
In Derbyshire, when a young woman wishes to
know who her future husband is to be, she must go
intp the churchyard at midnight on St. Valentine's
Eve, and as the clock strikes twelve run round the
PLANTS.
church repeating, without stopping, the following
lines:—
"I sow hempseed, hempseed I sow;
He that loves me best
Come and after me mow."
Presently the figure of her lover is supposed to appear
and follow her. A practice very similar to this was kept
up in some parts of the country on Midsummer Eve.
A curious divination is practised in Berwickshire by
means of "kemps," i.e. spikes of the ribwort plantain.
Two spikes—one representing the lad, the other the
lass—must be taken, Mr. Henderson* tells us, in full
bloom, and after being bereft of every appearance of
bloom, should be wrapped in a dock-leaf, and laid
beneath a stone. If, on the following morning, the
spikes appear in bloom, then, according to the popular
belief, there will be "Aye love between them twae."
This rite has been practised also in Northampton-
shire. Thus Clare, in his 'Shepherd's Calendar/
says:—
"Or, trying simple charms and spells,
Which rural superstition tells,
They pull the little blossom threads
From out the knotweed's button heads,
And put the husk, with many a smile,
In their white bosoms for a while.
Then, if they guess aright the swain
Their love's sweet fancies try to gain,
'Tis said that ere it lies an hour,
'Twill blossom with a second flower,
And from the bosom's handkerchief
Bloom as it ne'er had lost a leaf." #
1 Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties,' p. 77.
i6
PLANTS.
The same author informs us that a similar supersti-
tion is practised with the primrose. "Let a youth or
maiden pull from its stalks the flower, and after
cutting off the tops of the stamens with a pair of
scissors, lay it in a secret place, where no human eye
can see it. Let him think through the day, and dream
through the night, of his sweetheart, and then, on
looking at it the next day, if he find the stamens shot
out to their former height, success will attend him in
love; if not, he can only expect disappointment."
Formerly, says Halliwell,* girls used to have a
method of divination with a "St. Thomas's onion."
They peeled the onion, wrapped it up in a clean
handkerchief, and then placing it under their heads,
said the following lines :—
"Good St. Thomas, do me right,
And see my true love come to-night,
That I may see him in the face,
And him in my kind arms embrace."
It was also, in days gone by, a not uncommon
practice for girls, on retiring to rest at night, to place
daisy-roots under their pillow, and to hang their shoes
outside of the window, in order to dream of their
lovers. In Devonshire, the young people pluck a rose
on Midsummer Day and put it away, believing that if it
is not looked at, it will be found as fresh on Christmas
Day as when gathered. It is then worn at church,
when their intended partner is supposed to come and
* * Popular Rhymes,' 1849, p. 224.
PLANTS.
17
take it.* In many of the villages, too, of this county,
girls are in the habit of plucking yarrow from a man's
grave, believing that if they place it under their
pillow, and repeat the following lines, their lovers will
appear to them in their dreams:—
"Yarrow, sweet yarrow, the first that I have found,
And in the name of Jesus I pluck it from the-ground.
As Joseph loved sweet Mary, and took her for his dear,
So in a dream this night, I hope, my true love will appear."
In Cambridgeshiret the following charm is used by
young men and women who are anxious of ascertain-
ing the names of their future husbands or wives :—
"A clover, a clover of two,
Put it on your right shoe;
The first young man (woman) you meet,
In field, street, or lane,
You'll have him (her) or one of his (her) name."
The "clover of two " means a piece of clover with
only two leaves upon it.
It is a common notion that in Leap Year broad
beans grow the wrong way—that is, the seed is set in
the pods in quite the contrary way to what it is
in other years. The reason of this is, "because it
is the ladies' year; they (the beans) always lay the
wrong way in leap year"—the reference, of course,
being to the privilege possessed by the fair sex of
making love at this time. In a curious work, entitled
'Courtship, Love, and Matrimonie/ printed in the
* Whitcombe's 'Bygone Days in Devonshire and Cornwall.'
f Also in Norfolk and Suffolk
C
iS
PLANTS.
year 1606, this practice is thus alluded to:—"Albeit
it is nowe become a part of the common lawe in
regard to social relations of life, that as often as every
bissextile year doth return, the ladyes have the sole
privilege, during the time it continueth, of making
love unto the men, which they doe either by words or
lookes, as to them it seemeth proper."
Herrick, in his 'Hesperides/ speaking of a bride,
says:—
"She must no more a-maying;
Or, by rosebuds divine,
Who'l be her valentine?"
It was, too, an old custom among countrymen to
try whether they should succeed with their sweet-
hearts by carrying bachelors' buttons (the flower of
Lychnis kind so called) in their pockets. They
judged of their good or bad success by their growing
or not. Thus Shakspeare, in his 'Merry Wives of
Windsor' (act iii. sc. 2), says :—
"'Tis in his buttons he will carry it."
Mr. Warter, in one of his notes in Southey's
'Commonplace Book* (1851, 4th S., p. 244), tells us
that in his time the custom was common in Shrop-
shire and Staffordshire.
A practice called "peascod wooing" was formerly
very often to be met with. The cook, when shelling
green peas, would, if she chanced to find a pod
having nine, lay it on the lintel of the kitchen door,
PLANTS.
19
and the first man who entered was believed to be
her future husband. A Cumbrian girl, says Brand,
"when her lover proves unfaithful to her, is, by way
of consolation, rubbed with peas-straw by the neigh-
bouring lads." This explains a line in a beautiful
Scottish pastoral which runs thus :—
"If you meet a bonnie lassie,
Gie her a kiss, and let her gae;
If you meet a dirty hussey,
Fie, gae rub her o'er wi* strae!"
The divination by peascod is alluded to by
Gay :—
"As peascod once I pluck'd, I chanced to see
One that was closely filTd with three times three;
Which, when I cropp'd, I safely home convey'd,
And o'er the door the spell in secret laid.
The latch mov'd up, when who should first come in,
But in his proper person—Lubberkin!"
It was an olden superstition, says Mr. Coles, in his
interesting work,'Finger Ring Lore* (p. 169), that
the bending of the leaves to the right or to the left of
the orpine plants, or Midsummer Men, as they were
called (Telephium), would never fail to tell whether a
lover was true or false. In an old poem, the 'Cottage
Girl/ we find :—
"Oft on a shrub she cast her eye,
That spoke her true love's secret sigh;
Or else, alas! too plainly told
Her true love's faithless heart was cold."
In 1861 a small gold ring was exhibited at the
Society of Antiquaries (found in a ploughed field nea£
C 2
20
PLANTS.
Cawood, in Yorkshire), which had for a device two
orpine plants joined together by a true-love knot,
with a motto above: "Ma fiance velt," my sweetheart
wills, or is desirous. The stalks of the plants were
bent to each other, in token, that the parties repre-
sented by them were to come together in marriage.
The custom of throwing the peel of an apple over
the head, says Mr. Conway,* "marriage or single
blessedness being foretold by its remaining entire or
breaking, and that of finding in a peel so cast the
initial of the coming sweetheart, is well known in
England and America."
In Lancashire, in order to ascertain the abode of a
lover, the anxious inquirer moves round in a circle, at
the same time squeezing an apple pippin between the
finger and thumb. This, on pressure being employed,
flies from the rind, in the supposed direction of the
lover's residence. In the meanwhile the following
rhyme is repeated :—
"Pippin, pippin, paradise.
Tell me where my true love lies!
East, west, north, or south,
Pilling brig or Cocker mouth."
We must not omit to mention some of the magic
influences ascribed to plants for curing various
diseases. Gerard tells us that the willow herb stops
bleeding, heals wounds, and drives away snakes,
gnats, and flies. In some parts of Lincolnshire! it is
* 'Fraser's Magazine,' 1870, vol. ii. p. 591.
+ 'Notes and Queries,' 4th series, vol. v. p. 380.
PLANTS.
21
believed that cork has the power of keeping off cramp.
It is placed between the bed and the mattresses, 01
even between the sheets; or cork garters are made by-
sewing together a series of thin discs of cork between
two silk ribbons. A potato carried in the trousers
pocket is regarded by many as an infallible cure for
rheumatism. In various parts of England it is believed
that fuller's teazle (Dipsacus fullonutri) is a certain
remedy for ague. In autumn, if the heads be opened
longitudinally, a little worm may often be discovered
buried in the very centre. Three, five, or seven of
these—always an odd number—must be taken,
sealed up in a quill, and worn every day as an amulet.
In some places, the following charm is used to prevent
a thorn from festering :—
"Our Saviour was of a Virgin born;
His head was crowned with a crown of thorns;
It never canker'd nor fester'd at all,
And I hope in Christ Jesus this never shaull (shall)."
In Cornwall the club-moss (Lycopodium inun-
datuni) if properly gathered, is considered "good
against all diseases of the eyes." The gathering is
regarded, says Hunt, in his amusing book, 'Popular
Romances of the West of England' (1871, p. 415), as
a mystery, and if any man ventures to write the secret,
the virtues of the moss avail him no more. In spite
of this, however, Mr. Hunt has boldly revealed to his
readers this wonderful secret, the mystery of which, to
quote his own words, consists as follows: "On the
22
PLANTS.
third day of the moon, when the thin crescent is seen
for the first time, show it the knife with which the
moss is to be cut, and repeat:—
"As Christ heal'd the issue of blood,
Do thou cut what thou cuttest for good."
"At sun-down, having carefully washed the hands,
the club-moss is to be cut kneeling. It is to be care-
fully wrapped in a white cloth, and subsequently
boiled in some water taken from the spring nearest
to its place of growth. This may be used as a fomen-
tation. Or the club-moss may be made into an oint-
ment, with butter made from the milk of a new cow."
A decoction of the nettle, often known as St.
Fabian's nettle, is a favourable prescription among
countrywomen for consumption; and in Scotland
there is a story related of a mermaid of the Firth of
Clyde who, on seeing the funeral of a young girl who
had died of consumption, exclaimed:—
"If they wad drink nettles in March,
And eat muggins* in May,
Sae mony braw maidens
Wad not go to clay."
Speaking of the ivy-plant, Gerard tells us that its
"leaves laid in steepe in water for a day and a night's
space, helpe sore and smarting waterish eyes, if they
be bathed and washed with the water wherein they
have been infused." In the county of Salop children
affected with whooping cough are allowed to drink
* Mugwort.
fLANTS.
23
all they require out of drinking cups made from the
wood of the common ivy, this being considered an
infallible remedy. "I once knew an old gentleman/'
says a correspondent of ' Notes and Queries,' "who
being fond of turning as an amusement, was accus-
tomed to supply his neighbours with these drinking
cups, and whose brother always supplied him with
the wood, cut from his own plantation. It is neces-
sary, in order to be effective, that the ivy from which
the cups are made should be cut at some particular
change of the moon, or hour of the night." In many
parts of England we find the following piece of advice
still carefully adopted :—
"He that would live for aye,
Must eat sage in May."
The passing of children through holes in the earth,
rocks, or trees, once an established rite, is still
practised in various parts of Cornwall and Devon-
shire. A correspondent in the 'Report and Trans-
actions' of the Devonshire Association (1876, vol.
viii. p. 54), says:—" Passing lately through a wood at
Spitchwich, near Ashburton, a remark on some pecu-
liarity in an ash sapling led to the explanation from
the gamekeeper that the tree had been instrumental
in the cure of a ruptured infant, and he afterwards
pointed out four or five others that had served the
same good purpose. With evidently perfect faith in
the story, he related that when a young infant is
24 PLANTS.
afflicted with rupture a small maiden ash is split for
a length of five or six feet down the middle, as it
stands growing in the wood. The split halves being
forced asunder, the naked infant, squalling as becomes
him, is passed three times in the same direction
through the opening, and henceforth the defect is
cured. The tree is then restored to its natural shape,
and as it thrives so the child thrives. My informant
instanced several well-known young men of the
neighbourhood who had been subjected to the pro-
cess in their babyhood, and had grown up strong
and healthy. In one case, in which the tree had
evidently suffered from the experiment, he referred
to the deformity and sickly growth of the youth who
had been passed through it." White, in his 'Natural
History of Selborne' (1853, p. 144), describes very fully
this odd practice. He says :—" In a farmyard near the
middle of this village stands, at this day, a row of
pollard ashes, which, by the seams and long cicatrices
down their sides, manifestly show that, in former
times, they have been cleft asunder. These trees,
when young and flexible, were severed and held open
by wedges, while ruptured children, stripped naked,
were pushed through the apertures, under a persua-
sion that, by such a process, the poor babes would be
cured of their infirmity. As soon as the operation
was over, the tree, in the suffering part, was plastered
with loam, and carefully swathed up. If the parts
coalesced and soldered together, as usually fell out,
PLANTS.
25
where the feat was performed with any adroitness at
all, the party was cured; but where the cleft continued
to gape, the operation, it was supposed, would prove
ineffectual. Having occasion to enlarge my garden
not long since, I cut down two or three such trees,
one of which did not grow together." Reverting,
however, to Cornwall, once more, there is in the
parish of Madron a curious Druidical remain known
as the "Mean-an-Tol," that is, "The Stone of the
Hole." It is an upright circular block of granite,
about eight inches in thickness, and in its centre has
a circular hole, about eighteen inches in diameter.
Formerly a curious custom prevailed of putting
children through the hole a certain number of times,
under the notion that this act would cure them of the
complaint from which they might be suffering. The
stone went by the name of the Creeping Stone.
Plants are, moreover, said to be good barometers;
and many a country peasant places far more reliance
in their appearance than in the various scientific con-
trivances of modern times for prognosticating what
the coming weather is to be. Trefoil, or clover-grass,
is said to seem rough to the touch when stormy and
tempestuous weather is at hand; and its leaves, says
Willsford (' Nature's Secrets'), " start and rise up, as
if it were afraid of an assault." Heliotropes and
marigolds, repeats the same writer, "do not only
presage stormy weather by closing or contracting
together their leaves, but turn towards the sun's rays
26
PLANTS.
all the day, and in the evening shut up shop." Coles,
in his introduction to the ' Knowledge of Plants/ tells
us that if the down flies off coltsfoot, dandelion, and
thistles, when there is no wind, it is a certain sign of
rain. The pimpernel, too, is a very favourite flower
in weather-lore, and according to the proverb,—
"No heart can think, no tongue can tell,
The virtues of the pimpernel."
Gerard, in his 'Herbal' (ist ed. p. 494), informs us
that country people prognosticated fine or wet
weather by noticing in the morning whether the
flowers of the pimpernel were open or closed. This
practice is still, however, common nearly everywhere.
An opinion prevails in many quarters that an elder
tree is safe from the effects of lightning, in allusion to
which the 'Stamford Mercury* of July 19th, 1861,
says :—" This notion, whether true or not, received
confirmation a few days ago, when the electric fluid
struck a thornbush in which an elder had grown up,
and become intermixed; but which escaped perfectly
unscathed, though the thorn was completely destroyed."
Sir Thomas Browne mentions, also, the bay as possess-
ing the property of "protecting from the mischief of
lightning and thunder, a quality common with the
fig tree, eagle, and skin of a seal.,, He adds, however:
—"against so famous a quality, Vicomercatus pro-
duceth experiment of a bay tree blasted in Italy.,,
In addition, also, to the curious weather predictions
PLANTS.
27
connected with plants and flowers, we find credulous
farmers oftentimes divining the success of their crops
by means of them. In Gloucestershire, for instance,
it is a common saying that after the mulberry tree
has shown green leaf there will be no more frost; and
"it ain't spring until you can plant your foot upon
twelve daisies," is a proverb still very prevalent.
Formerly, the leafing of the elm was made to regulate
operations both in the field and garden, and in the
* Field* of April 28th, 1866, occurs the following
rhyme :—
"When the elmen leaf is as big as a mouse's ear,
Then to sow barley never fear.
When the elmen leaf is as big as an ox's eye,
Then say I, «Hie, boys, hie !'"
The Kentish people, when speaking, in spring time,
of the oak and ash coming into leaf, say :—
"Oak, smoke;
Ash, squash:"
and believe that if the oak is the first to come out,
the summer will be hot; if the ash, that it will be wet.
A belief was very prevalent, at one time, that
certain trees put forth their flowers on Christmas Day.
In the ' Gentleman's Magazine,' 1753, we are told that
at Quainton, in Buckinghamshire, above two thousand
people went with lanterns and candles to view a black-
thorn in that neighbourhood—said to be a slip from
the famous Glastonbury thorn—as it was always sup-
posed to bud on the 24th December, to be full-blown
28
PLANTS.
the next day, and to die off that night. The people,
however, finding no appearance of a bud, agreed that
December 25th (new style) could not be the right
Christmas Day, and accordingly refused either to go
to church or to entertain their friends on that day as
usual. At length the affair became so serious that
the ministers of the neighbouring villages, in order to
appease them, thought it prudent to give notice that
Old Christmas Day should be observed as before.
Collinson, in his 'History of Somersetshire' (1791), al-
ludes to the miraculous walnut tree which grew in the
abbey churchyard of Glastonbury, and never budded
before the Feast of St. Barnabas, viz. nth of June,
but on that very day shot forth leaves and flourished.
A similar sort of superstition is current at Oldenburg,
where it is believed that the ash appears without its
red buds on St. John's Day, because the witches eat
them the night before, on their way to the orgies of
Walpurgisnacht* The roses of summer were said
to fade away about St. Mary Magdalene's Day. The
passion flower, too, was believed to blossom about
Holy Rood Day, and allusions to this superstition
are frequently to be met with in olden writers. The
Shropshire peasantry say that the common brake
only flowers once a year, viz. on Michaelmas Eve
at midnight, when it puts forth a small blue flower,
which disappears with the dawn of day.t
* See 'Fraser's Magazine,7 1870, vol. ii. p. 597.
t * Notes and Queries,' 2nd series, vol. xii. p. 501.
PLANTS.
29
In South-east Devon and the neighbourhood,* a
curious legend is, we learn, current among the farmers
respecting St. Dunstan and the apple trees. It is
said that he bought up a quantity of barley and
therewith made beer. The Devil, knowing that the
Saint would naturally desire to get a good sale for his
beer which he had just brewed, went to him, and said
that if he would sell himself to him, then he (the
Devil) would go and blight all the apple trees; so
that there should be no cider, and consequently there
would be a far greater demand for beer. St. Dunstan,
naturally wishing to drive a brisk trade in his beer,
accepted at once the offer; but stipulated that the
trees should be blighted in three days, which days fell
on the 17th, 18th, and 19th of May. In the almanacs
the 19th is marked as St. Dunstan's Day, and as
about this time the apple trees are in blossom,
many anxious allusions are generally made to St.
Dunstan; and should, as is sometimes the case, a
sharp frost nip the apple blossoms, they believe they
know who has been at the bottom of the mischief.
There seem to be several versions of this legendary
superstition. According to some, on a certain night
in June, three powerful witches pass through the air,
and if they drop certain charms on the blossoming
orchards, the crops will be blighted.t In other parts
of the county this is known as "Frankum's night," and
* * Notes and Queries,' 2nd series, vol. xii. p. 303.
f * Fraser's Magazine,' 1873, p. 778.
30
PLANTS.
the story* is that "long ago, on this night, one
Frankum made 'a sacrifice * in his orchard with the
object of getting a specially fine crop. His spells
were answered by a blight; and the night is thus
regarded as most critical.,,
The following extract from the * Tablet* of July 26th,
1856, is curious as being a specimen of the almost
incredulous superstition of modern times : "Will it be
credited that thousands of people have during the past
week crowded a certain road in the neighbourhood of
Melling, near Ormskirk, to inspect a sycamore tree
which has burst its bark, and the sap protrudes in a
shape resembling a man's head? Rumours spread
abroad that it was the re-appearance of Palmer, who
had come again, because he was buried without a
coffin. Some inns in the neighbourhood of this sin-
gular tree reaped a rich harvest.,,
It is a common persuasion, says Halliwell (' Popular
Rhymesamongst country people that whipping a
walnut tree tends to increase the produce and im-
prove the flavour of the fruit. This belief is embodied
in the following not very complimentary distich:—
"A woman, a whelp, and a walnut tree,
The more you whip them the better they be."
The mandrake, so called from the German man-
dragen, resembling man, was formerly the source
of much superstition throughout the south of England
* 'Fraser's Magazine,' 1873, p. 778.
PLANTS.
31
—the belief being that it had a human heart at its
root.* It was once believed t that the person who
pulled the mandrake would instantaneously fall dead;
that the root shrieked or groaned when separated
from the earth; and that whoever heard the shriek
died shortly after, or became afflicted with madness;
or to quote from Shakspeare (' Romeo and Juliet') :—
"Torn out of the earth,
That living mortals, hearing them, run mad."
Shakspeare also speaks of its power as an opiate.
It is said, says Mr. Conway, "by popular super-
stitions in some places, to be perpetually watched
over by Satan, and if it be pulled up at certain holy
times, and with certain invocations, the Evil Spirit
will appear to do the bidding of the practitioner."
The Virgula Divinatoria, or divining rod, is a
forked branch in the form of a Y, cut off an hazel
stick, by means of which people have pretended to
discover mines, springs, &c, underground. It is
much employed in our mining districts for the dis-
covery of hidden treasure. In Cornwall, for instance,
the miners place much confidence in its indications,
and even educated intelligent men oftentimes rely on
its supposed virtues. Pryce, in his 'Mineralogia
Cornubiensis/ tells us that many mines have been
discovered by the rod, and quotes several; but after
* See 'Mystic Trees and Flowers,' by Mr. M. D. Conway. 'Fraser's
Magazine,' 1870, vol. ii. p. 705.
f Timbs's 'Things not Generally Known,' 1856, p. 103.
32
PLANTS.
a long account of the method of cutting, tying, and
using it, rejects it, because "Cornwall is so plentifully
stored with tin and copper lodes, that some accident
every week discovers to us a fresh vein," and because
"a grain of metal attracts the rod as strongly as a
pound, for which reason it has been found to dip
equally to a poor as to a rich lode." In Lancashire
and Cumberland the power of the divining rod is
much believed in, and also in other parts of England.
The method of using it is this :—the small ends being
crooked, are, says a writer in the 'Eclectic Review'
(September, 1855), to be held in the hands, in a position
flat or parallel to the horizon, and the upper part at
an elevation having an angle to it of about seventy
degrees. The rod must be grasped strongly and
steadily, and then the operator walks over the ground;
when he crosses a lode, its bending is supposed to
indicate the presence thereof. The position of the
hands in holding the rod is a constrained one—it is
not easy to describe it; but the result is, that the
hands, from weariness speedily induced in the muscles,
grasp the end of the twig yet more rigidly, and thus
is produced the mysterious bending. The phenomena
of the divining rod and table-turning are of precisely
the same character, and both are referable to an in-
voluntary muscular action resulting from a fixedness
ot idea. These experiments with the divining rod are
always made in a district known to be metalliferous,
and the chances therefore are greatly in favour of its
PLANTS.
33
bending over or near a mineral lode. From a paper
in Tilloch's 'Philosophical Magazine/ by William
Philips (voL xiii. 309), on the divining rod, it appears
that it was advocated by De Thouvenel, in France, in
the eighteenth century, and soon after, in our own
country, by a philosopher of unimpeachable veracity,
Mr. Cookworthy, of Plymouth * In Sheppard's 'Epi-
grams ' (1651) we find the following:—
"Some sorcerers do boast they have rod,
Gather'd with vows and sacrifice,
And (borne about) will strangely nod
To hidden treasure where it lies.
Mankind is (sure) that rod divine,
For to the wealthiest (ever) they incline."
In the 'Gentleman's Magazine* (1752, vol. xxii.
p. 77) there is told an amusing anecdote about
Linnaeus. "When he was upon his voyage to
Scania, hearing his secretary highly extol the virtues
of his divining wand, was willing to convince him of
its insufficiency, and for that purpose concealed a
purse of one hundred ducats under a ranunculus,
which grew up by itself in a meadow, and bid the
secretary find it if he could. The wand discovered
nothing, and Linnaeus's mark was soon trampled down
by the company who were present, so that when
Linnaeus went to finish the experiment by fetching
the gold himself, he was utterly at a loss where to
find it. The man with the wand assisted him, and
* See Sir Thomas Browne's Works, vol. il p. 97, note.
D
34
PLANTS.
told him that it could not He in the way they were
going, but quite the contrary, so pursued the direction
of the wand, and actually dug out the gold. Linnaeus
adds that such another experiment would be. sufficient
to make a proselyte of him."
There are many traditions connected with the wood
of the cross on which our Lord was crucified.* The
most common belief in England is, that it was made
of aspen {Populus tremuld)y and that the leaves have
trembled ever since at the recollection of their guilt.
In the West of England there is a tradition that the
cross was made of mistletoe, which until this time had
been a fine forest tree, but was condemned henceforth
to lead a parasitical existence. The gipsies believe
that the cross was made of ash. Some again are of
opinion that it was made of four kinds of wood, sig-
nifying the four quarters of the globe, or all mankind,
and consisted of the palm, the cedar, the olive, and
the cypress; hence the line,—
"Ligna crucis palma, cedrus, cupressus, oliva."
In the place of the palm and the olive, some place
the pine and the box; whilst others again are of
opinion that it was made entirely of oak. A corre-
spondent of 'Notes and Queries' says that according
to another superstition, the cross was made of elder;
and that woodmen look carefully into the faggots
* See an interesting paper on this subject in * Whitaker's Journal,'
April 22nd, 1866.
PLANTS.
35
before they burn them, in case there should be any of
this wood in them. "Speaking to some little children,"
says a writer in the 'Book of Days/ "one day about
the danger of taking shelter under trees during a
thunderstorm, one of them said it was not so with all
the trees, 'For/ said he, 'you will be quite safe under
an elder tree, because the cross was made of that, and
so the lightning never strikes it/" The elder, too, has
been supposed to be the tree on which Judas hanged
himself:—
"Judas, he japed
With Jeweii silver,
And si then on an eller
Hanged hymselve." *
According to others it was a fig tree.
In Cheshire the Arum maculatum is called Geth-
semane, because it is said to have been growing at the
foot of the cross, and to have received on its leaves
some drops of blood:—
"Those deep unwrought marks,
The villager will tell thee,
Are the flower's portion from the atoning blood
On Calvary shed. Beneath the Cross it grew."
In Scotland it was formerly believed that the
dwarf birch is stunted in growth because the rods
were formed of it with which our Lord was scourged.
* 4 Piers Plowman's Vision,' 593-6.
D 2
36
THE MOON.
CHAPTER II.
THE MOON.
FROM the very earliest times the moon has been an
object of popular superstition; and, even still, to
quote the words of Dr. Johnson, "has great influence
in vulgar philosophymany persons actually bowing
to it on its first appearance, in order by this act of
homage to insure good luck in the affairs of their
daily life; thus, unconsciously on their part, keeping
up a remnant of the ancient idolatrous worship paid
to it. By some, on the other hand, it is considered
highly unlucky to see the new moon through glass,
and in Cornwall it is regarded as an omen that one
will break glass before that moon is out. "I have
known persons," says Hunt,* "whose attention has
been called to a clear new moon hesitate: 'Hey I
seed her out a! doors afore?' If not, they will go into
the open air, and if possible show the moon i a piece
of gold,' or, at all events, turn their money." An-
other superstitious practice, prevalent in many places,
* 'Popular Romances,' p. 429.
THE MOON.
37
consists in looking at the first new moon of the year
through a silk handkerchief which has never been
washed As many moons as the person sees through
the handkerchief (the threads multiplying the vision),
betoken the number of years he will remain un-
married.
In Devonshire it is considered lucky to see the
new moon over the right shoulder; over the left
shoulder is unlucky; and straight before, prognos-
ticates good fortune to the end of the moon. In
the same county many persons believe that if, on «
seeing the first new moon of the year, they take
a stocking off one foot, and run across a field, on
arriving there, they will find between the great toe
and the next a hair which will be the colour of their
lover's.
According to Vallancey, the Irish, on seeing the new
moon, knelt down, repeated the Lord's Prayer, at the
conclusion of which they cried, "May thou leave us as
safe as thou hast found us!" And even still, they
make the sign of the Cross on themselves,* and repeat
the words of the blessing, "In the name of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, Amen." On
these occasions, they fancy that they will obtain any-
thing they may wish for.
Aubrey, speaking of English manners in olden times,
says that the women sit astride on a gate or stile the
first evening the new moon appears, saying, "A fine
* 'Notes and Queries,' 5th series, vol v. p. 364.
38
THE MOON.
moon, God bless her!" * In Norfolk there is a com-
mon proverb with respect to the new moon :—
"Saturday new and Sunday full
Never was good, and never wull:"
a superstition which may be found here and there in
England as well as Scotland, varying, of course,
according to the locality. Thus, another version is:—
"A Saturday moon,
If it comes once in seven years,
Comes once too soon."
A new moon, however, on a Monday is everywhere
welcomed as being a certain sign not only of fair
weather but good luck. On the Continent we find,
too, the same attention paid to the changes of the
moon. In the north of Italy t a change on a Wed-
nesday is dreaded; and in the south of France a
change on a Friday.
At Whitby, when the moon is surrounded by a
halo with watery clouds, the seamen say there will be
a change of weather, for the "moon dogs" are about.
The notion that the weather changes with the
moon's quarters "is still held," says Tylor, in his
most interesting book, 'Primitive Culture' (1871, vol.
i. p. 118), "with great vigour in England. The me-
teorologists, with all their eagerness to catch at any
rule which at all answers to facts, quite repudiate this
* In Staffordshire, to see the new moon for the first time through
trees is very unlucky.
f In some places it is said, "If the moon change on a Sunday, there
will be a flood before the month is out."
THE MOON.
39
one, which indeed appears to be simply a maxim
belonging to popular astrology. Just as the growth
and dwindling of plants became associated with the
moon's wax and wane, so change of weather became
associated with changes of the moon; while, by astro-
loger's logic, it did not matter whether the moon's
change were real, at new and full, or imaginary, at the
intermediate quarters. That educated people, to whom
exact weather-records are accessible, should still find
satisfaction in the fanciful lunar rule, is an interesting
case of intellectual survival."
The moon is said to be like a boat when its horns
appear to point upwards, and in many parts there is a
common notion that when it is thus situated there
will be no rain; a superstition alluded to in 'Adam
Bede':—
"It 'ud ha' been better luck if they'd ha' buried
him i* the forenoon, when the rain was fallin': there's
no likelihood of a drop now. An' the moon lies like a
boat there. That's a sure sign of fair weather."
Southey* also notices this odd piece of weather-
lore, and assigns the following reason for it:—" Poor
Littledale has this day explained the cause of our late
rains, which have prevailed for the last five weeks, by
a theory which will probably be as new to you as it is
to me. 'I have observed,' he says, 'that when the
moon is turned upwards, we have fine weather after
it, but when it is turned down, then we have a wet
season; and the reason, I think, is, that when it is
* 'Life and Correspondence of R. Southey.'
40
THE MOON.
turned down, it holds no water, like a bason, you
know, and then down it comes/" According to
sailors, when the moon is like a boat, it betokens fair
weather, or, to use their phrase, "You might hang
your hat upon it." In Liverpool, however, and other
parts, it is considered a sign of foul weather, as the
moon when in this position is considered to resemble
a basin full of water about to fall. It is by no means
an uncommon occurrence to hear the villagers ex-
claim, on their seeing the moons horns turned up-
wards, "The new moon looks sharp," an expression
made use of in Dekker's 'Match Me in London'
(act i.), where the King is made to say—" My Lord,
doe you see this change i' the moone? Sharpe homes
doe threaten windy weather." *
"The horny moon is on her back;
Mend your shoon and sort your thack,"
is a very common proverb in Scotland.
In Lincolnshire it is commonly believed by the
sailors and seafaring men that whenever a planet or
large star is seen hear the moon,t or, to use their own
phrase, "a big star is dogging the moon," wild and
boisterous weather will soon set in. The same idea is
current in Devonshire; and, "some years ago," says a
correspondent of 'Notes and Queries,' "a fisherman of
Torquay told me, after a violent gale, that he had
foreseen the storm, as he had observed one star ahead
* Brand's 'Popular Antiquities,' 1849, vol. iii. p. 145.
t See * Notes and Queries,' 5th series, vol. i. p. 384.
THE MOON. 41
of the moon towing her, and another astern chasing
her." In Cornwall it is a very general idea that:—
"A fog and a small moon
Bring an easterly wind soon."
In many places the following rhyme is found:—
"An old moon in a mist
Is worth gold in a kist (chest);
But a new moon's mist
Will never lack thirst," ,
"One of the most instructive astrological doctrines,"
says Tylor, "which has kept its place in modern
popular philosophy, is that of the sympathy of grow-
ing and declining nature with the waxing and waning
moon. Among classical precepts are these: to set
eggs under the hen at new moon, but to root up trees
when the moon is on the wane, and after midday.
The Lithuanian precept to wean boys on a waxing, but
girls on a waning moon, no doubt to make the boys
sturdy and the girls thin and delicate, is a fair match
for the Orkney Islander's objection to marrying
except with a growing moon, while some even wish
for a flowing tide." In Cornwall, when a child is born in
the interval between an old moon and the first appear-
ance of a new one, it is said that it will never live to
reach the age of puberty. Hence the saying, "No moon,
no man." In the same county, too, when a boy is
born in the wane of the moon, it is believed that the
next birth -will be a girl, and vice versd; and it is
also commonly said that when a birth takes place on
42
THE MOON.
the "growing of the moon" the next child will be of
the same sex. In Suffolk it is considered unlucky to
kill a pig on the waning moon, lest the pork should
waste in the boiling. A correspondent of Chambers's
'Book of Days/ tells us that he has known the
shrinking of bacon in the pot attributed to the fact of
the pig having been killed in the moon's decrease,
and that within his own knowledge the death of a pig
has been delayed, or hastened, so as to happen during
its increase. In Tusser's, 'Five hundred Points of
Husbandry/ under February, we read:—
"Sow peas and beans in the wane of the moon;
Who soweth them sooner, he soweth too soon;
That they with the planet may rest and rise,
And flourish with bearing, most plentiful-wise."
In Devonshire it is commonly said that apples
"shrump up," if picked when the moon is waning.
In some parts it is a prevalent belief that the growth
of mushrooms is influenced by the changes of the
moon, and in Essex the subjoined rule is often
scrupulously adhered to:—
"When the moon is at the full,
Mushrooms you may freely pull;
But when the moon is on the wane,
Wait ere you think to pluck again."
In Scotland it is an agricultural maxim that :—
"If the moon shows like a silver shield,
You need not be afraid to reap your field;
But if she rises haloed round,
Soon we'll tread on deluged ground."
THE MOON.
43
Butler, in his Hudibras, asks the following question,
which must certainly have occurred to many a student
of the fine arts :—
"Tell me but what's the nat'ral cause,
"Why on a sign no painter draws
The full moon ever, but the half?"
Numerous love charms are still practised by means
of the moon. In Devonshire it is customary for
young people as soon as they see the first new moon
after Midsummer, to go to a stile, turn their back to
it, and say :—
"All hail, new moon, all hiil to thee!
I prithee, good moon, re zeal to me
This night who shall my true love be;
"Who is he, and what he wears,
And what he does all months and years."
A correspondent of ' Notes and Queries' (ist series,
vol. i. p. 177) tells us that being on a visit in York-
shire, he was amused one evening to find the servants
of the house excusing themselves for being out of the
way when the bell rang, on the plea that they had
been "hailing the first new moon of the new year."
This mysterious salutation was effected by means of
a looking-glass, in which the first sight of the moon
was to be had, and the object to be gained was the
important secret as to how many years would elapse
before the marriage of the observers. If one moon
was seen in the glass, one year, if two, two years ; and
so on. In the case in question, the maid and the boy
44 THE MOON.
[
only saw one moon a-piece. In Ireland, at the new
moon, it is not an uncommon practice for people to
point with a knife, and after invoking the Holy
Trinity, to say:—
"New moon, true morrow, be true now to me,
That I ere the morrow my true love may see."
The knife is then placed under the pillow, and
silence strictly observed, lest the charm should be
broken.
In Berkshire, at the first appearance of a new
moon, young women go into the fields, and while
they look at it, say:—
"New moon, new moon, I hail thee I
By all the virtue in thy body,
Grant this night that I may see
He who my true love is to be."
They then return home, firmly believing that
before morning their future husbands will appear to
them in their dreams.
Formerly, it was customary to swear by the moon,
as appears from Shakspeare, who makes Juliet reprove
her lover for testifying his affection by this means :—
"O swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,
That monthly changes in her circled orb,
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable."
In olden times, witches were supposed to have the
power of controlling the moon, a notion which dates
back to very great antiquity. The earliest reference
THE MOON. 45
we find is that in the " Clouds" of Aristophanes, where
Strepsiades proposes the hiring of a Thessalian witch
to bring down the moon and shut her up in a box
that he might thus evade paying his debts by a
month. Shakspeare alludes to this curious notion.
In the ' Tempest' (scene i), he makes Prospero say:—
"His mother was a witch, and one so strong,
That could control the moon."
There is a very prevalent opinion among the lower
and uneducated classes that the harvest moon always
occurs at the time of harvest, let that happen when it
may. It is needless, however, to remark that such an
erroneous idea can only proceed from persons of an
entirely ignorant turn of mind—it being childish to
suppose that the change of moon could in any way
be influenced by such an occurrence. Olmsted, in his
'Mechanism of the Heavens' (p. 169), explains the
reason thus :—" About the time of the autumnal
equinox, the moon, when near her full, rises about
sunset a number of nights in succession. This occa-
sions a remarkable number of brilliant moonlight
evenings, and as this in England is the period of
harvest, the phenomenon is called the harvest moon.
The sun being then in Libra, and the moon, when full,
being, of course opposite to the sun, or in Aries, and
moving eastwards in or near the ecliptic at the rate of
about 130 per day, would descend but a small dis-
tance below the horizon for four or six days in
46
THE MOON.
succession—that is, for two or three days before, and
the same number of days after, the full; and would,
consequently, rise during all these evenings nearly at
the same time, namely, a little before or a little after
sunset, so as to afford a remarkable succession of fine
moonlight evenings."
A very singular divination practised at the period
of the harvest moon is thus described in an old chap-
book, quoted by Halliwell * in his amusing little book,
'Popular Rhymes.' When you go to bed, place
under your pillow a Prayer-book open at the part of
the matrimonial service, u with this ring I thee wed ;"
place on it a key, a ring, a flower, and a sprig of
willow, a small heart-cake, a crust of bread, and the
following cards:—a ten of clubs, nine of hearts, ace
of spades, and the ace of diamonds. Wrap all these
in a thin handkerchief of gauze or muslin, and on
getting into bed, cross your hands, and say—
"Luna, every woman's friend,
To me thy goodness condescend;
Let me this night in visions see
Emblems of my destiny."
If you dream of storms, trouble will betide you;
if the storms end in a fine calm, so will your fate;
if of a ring or the ace of diamonds, marriage; bread,
an industrious life; cake, a prosperous life; flowers,
joy; willow, treachery in love; spades, death;
diamonds, money; clubs, a foreign land; keys, that
* It is given also by Brand, 'Popular Antiquities,' 1849, vol. ii. p. 33.
THE MOON. 47
you will rise to great trust and power, and never
know want; birds, that you will have many children;
and geese, that you will marry more than once.
The hunter's moon occurs just after the harvest
moon, and is perhaps so called because about the time
of this moon hunting begins. As the harvest moon is
probably so called from occurring about harvest time,
and being valuable to harvesters, so too it may be said
with regard to the moon that succeeds it. Many of
our readers are no doubt acquainted with the three
children in the nursery rhyme, who went a hunting by
night, for:—
"One said it was the moon,
Another said, Nay,
A third said it was a cheese,
And half o't cut away."
In the south-eastern part of England one may
sometimes hear the expression, seedman's moon.
In many parts it is believed that the moon has a
magic influence in healing certain maladies. Thus, in
Staffordshire, it is commonly said if you want to cure
chin-cough, take out the child, and let it look at the
new moon; lift up its clothes, and rub your right
hand up and down its stomach, and repeat the follow-
ing lines (looking steadfastly at the moon, and rubbing
at the same time) :—
"What I see, may it increase,
What I feel, may it decrease;
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost Amen."
48
THE MOON.
"For warts," says Sir Thomas Browne, "we rub our
hands before the moon and commit any maculated
part to the touch of the dead." In Devonshire it is
said that the hair and nails should always be cut
during the waning of the moon, as many beneficial
consequences are supposed to result in consequence.
Some say that if persons troubled with corns cut them
after the moon has been at its full, they will gradually
disappear. In the 'British Apollo' we have the
following advice given to us on this subject:— ,
"Pray tell your querist if he may
Rely on what the vulgar say,
That when the moon's in her increase,
If corns be cut they'll grow apace;
But if you always do take care
After the full your corns to pare,
They do insensibly decay,
And will in time wear quite away.
If this be true, pray let me know,
And give the reason why 'tis so."
Most persons are acquainted with the popular
expression, "the man in the moon"—"a dusky re-
semblance to a human figure," says a correspondent
of the 'Book of Days/ "which appears on the eastern
side of the luminary when eight days old, being some-
what like a man carrying a thorn-bush on his head,
and at the same time engaged in climbing, while
a detached object in front looks like his dog going on
before him." It has given rise to various superstitions,
besides legends, one of which connects this remarkable
personage with the man spoken of in the book of
THE MOON.
49
Numbers (xv. 32 et seq.), who having been detected
by the children of Israel in the wilderness while
gathering sticks on the Sabbath day, was punished
with death. .Another legend refers the figure to Cain,
to which Dante, in his 'Inferno' (xx.), makes
reference:—
"See next the wretches who the needle left,
The shuttle and the spindle, and became
Diviners: baneful witcheries they wrought,
With images and herbs. But onward now:
For now doth Cain with fork of thorns confine,
On either hemisphere, touching the wave
Beneath the towers of Seville. Yesternight
The moon was round. Thou may'st remember well,
For she good service did thee in the gloom
Of the deep wood."
A third identifies it with the figure of Isaac in the
act of carrying a bundle of sticks for his sacrifice.
The German tale, says Baring-Gould, in his amusing
book, 'Curious Myths of the Middle Ages' (1869,
p. 191), is as follows:—"Ages ago there went one
Sunday morning an old man into the wood to hew
sticks. He cut a faggot and slung it on a stout staff,
cast it over his shoulder, and began to trudge home
with his burden. On his way he met a handsome
man in Sunday suit, walking towards the church; this
man stopped and asked the faggot-bearer, 'Do you
know that this is Sunday on earth, when all must rest
from their labours?' 1 Sunday on earth, or Monday in
heaven, it is all one to me!' laughed the wood-
E
50
THE MOON.
cutter. 'Then bear your burden for ever,' answered
the stranger; 'and as you value not Sunday on earth,
yours shall be a perpetual moonday in heaven; and
you shall stand for eternity in the moon, a warning
to all Sabbath-breakers.' Thereupon the stranger
vanished, and the man was caught up with his stock
and his faggot into the moon, where he stands yet."
The Jews have some Talmudical story that Jacob is in
the moon, and they believe that his face is visible.
The natives of Ceylon, instead of a man, have placed
a hare in the moon, and it is reported, says Douce
('Illustrations of Shakspeare/ 1839, p. 10), to have
got there in the following manner: Their great deity
Buddha, when a hermit on earth, lost himself one day
in a forest. After wandering about in great distress
he met a hare, who thus addressed him :—" It is in
my power to extricate you from your difficulty; take
the path on your left hand, and it will lead you out of
the forest." "I am greatly obliged to you, Mr.
Hare," said Buddha, "but I am unfortunately very
poor and very hungry, and have nothing to offer you
in reward for your kindness." "If you are hungry,"
returned the hare, "I am again at your service;
make a fire, kill me, roast me, and eat me." Buddha
made the fire, and the hare instantly jumped into it.
Buddha now exerted his miraculous powers, snatched
the animal from the flames, and threw him into the
moon, where he has been ever since. The New
Zealand version of this superstition, which deserves
THE MOON.
praise for its originality,is in substance as follows:—c
Before the moon gave light, a New Zealander named
Rona went out in the night to fetch some water from
a well. Unfortunately he stumbled and sprained his
ankle, and was unable to return home. All at once,
as he cried out for very anguish, he discovered, to his
great alarm, that the moon, which had suddenly
become visible, was descending towards him. He
seized hold of a tree, and clung to it for safety, but it
gave way, and fell with Rona upon the moon, and
there he remains unto this very day. According to
another version, Rona had just escaped falling into
the well by laying hold of a tree, when he was
together with the tree caught up to the moon, where
to this day he is visible. The Chinese represent the
moon by a rabbit pounding rice in a mortar. Their
mythological moon Jut-ho is figured by a beautiful
young woman with a double sphere behind her head,
and a rabbit at her feet. The period of this animal's
gestation is thirty days, and Douce t suggests whether
it may not typify the moon's revolution round the
earth.
Clemens Alexandrinus quotes Serapion for his
opinion that the face in the moon was the soul of a
sibyl. In Plutarch's Morals also Sibylla is placed in
the moon :—" And the daemon said it was the voice of
* See 'Notes and Queries,' ist series, voL xi. p. 493, from whence
this is taken,
f 'Illustrations of Shakspeare,' 1839, p. 11.
E 2
52
THE MOON.
Sibylle, for she, being carried about in the globe and
the face of the moon, did foretell and see what was to
come." According to fable, it is related by children,
says Halliwell, that the man in the moon once
favoured this earth with his presence, and "took a
fancy to some pease-porridge,,, which he was in such
a hurry to devour that he scalded his mouth:—
"The man in the moon
Came tumbling down,
And asked his way to Norwich;
He went by the south,
And burnt his mouth
With sipping hot pease-porridge."
His chief beverage was claret:—
"The man in the moon drinks claret;
But he is a dull jack-a-dandy;
Would he know a sheep's head from a carrot,
He should learn to drink cyder and brandy."
In Scotland, in one of their popular ballads, we
find the following allusion to the man in the moon :—
"I sat upon my houtie-croutie,*
I lookit owre my rumple routie,f
And saw John Heezlum-Peezlum,
Playing on Jerusalem pipes."
The allusion, says Chambers (' Popular Rhymes of
Scotland/ p. 185), to Jerusalem pipes is often applied
in Scottish popular fiction to things of a nature above
this world. In Ritson's 'Ancient Songs ' there is one
extratted from a manuscript of the time of Edward I.
* Hams. t The haunch.
THE MOON.
53
on the man in the moon; the first verse of which
runs as follows:—
"Man in the moon, stand and stit!
On his bot-fbrk his burden he beareth;
It is much wonder that he do na doun stit;
For doubt lest he fall he shudd'reth and shivereth.
When the frost freezes must chill he bide;
The thorns he keen his attire so teareth;
Nis no wight in the world there wot when he syt,
Ne bote it by the hedge what weeds he weareth."
There is a curious seal appended to a deed preserved
in the Record Office, Mr. Baring-Gould* tells us, dated
the 9th year of Edward III. (1335), bearing the man
in the moon as its device. '* The deed is one of con-
veyance of a messuage, barn, and four acres of
ground, in the parish of Kingston-on-Thames, from
Walter de Grendesse, clerk, to Margaret his mother.
On the seal we see the man carrying his sticks, and
the moon surrounds him. There are also a couple of
stars added, perhaps to show that he is in the sky.
The legend on the seal reads :—
«Te Waltere docebo
Cur spinas phebo
gero.'"
Chaucer, in his 'Testament of Cresside,' alludes to
this legend. Speaking of the moon, he says :—
"Her gite was gray and full of spottis blake,
And on her brest a chorle painted ful even,
Bering a bush of thornis on his backe,
Whiche for his theft might clime so ner the heaven."
* 'Myths of the Middle Ages,' p. 198.
54
THE MOON.
In the 1 Husbandman's Practice' we are told," when
Christmas Day cometh while the moon waneth, it
shall be a very good year, and the nearer it cometh
to the new moon, the better shall that year be. If it
cometh when the moon decreaseth, it shall be a hard
year, and the nearer the latter end thereof it cometh,
the worse and harder shall the year be."
In Huntingdonshire it is a common saying that
"a dark Christmas sends a fine harvest"—the dark
Christmas meaning "no moon." Another old pro-
verb tells us that "so many days old the moon is on
Michaelmas Day, so many floods after."
It is a common fallacy that the full moon increases
the symptoms of madness. This simply originates,
however, from the fact that the insane are naturally
more restless on light than on dark nights, and that
in consequence loss of sleep aggravates all their
symptoms.* Shakspeare was not exempt from this
vulgar error, for he tells us that the moon makes men
insane when "she comes nearer to the earth than she
was wont." It is not improbable that in some degree
we owe this superstition to the poet's fancy.
* 'Notes and Queries,' 2nd series, vol. xii. p. 492.
BIRDS.
55
CHAPTER III.
BIRDS.
The Cuckoo — Robin — Wren — Swallow — Yellowhammer—Martin
—Nightingale — Lark — Kingfisher — Rook — Raven — Crow —
Magpie — Chaffinch — Owl — Woodpecker — Peacock — Cock —
Hen — Chicken — Duck — Plover — Dotterel — Swan — Ring-
dove — Peewit —Seagull —Pigeon.
Birds have, at all times, been in most countries the
subject of a very varied folk-lore, and the supersti-
tious and credulous have generally discovered in their
movements omens and prognostications of coming
events. These, however, in many cases, must be
looked upon as the result of mere caprice, since we
find numerous birds with an extensive folk-lore,
whereas to all outward appearance they seem to
have no claim to such prominence. It is often
extremely difficult to trace superstitions of any kind
to their source, but those connected with birds, like
all others, no doubt have frequently originated in
isolated occurrences. Thus, in ancient times, if a
certain bird was seen to fly over a city just before a
calamity of any kind, it was ever after regarded as a
bird of ill-omen, and shunned as such.
The North American Indians have a beautiful
56
BIRDS.
myth, says Hugh Macmillan, in his charming book,
'The Sabbath of the Fields/ concerning a mystical
bird, that, coming in the summer evenings when the
moon is full, sings in the pine groves, beside their
wigwams, ethereal songs of the spirit land, bringing
tidings of departed friends. "May we not," he adds,
"look upon the cuckoo as our mystical bird, which
comes to us when the year is at its full, greatest in
beauty and brightest in bloom, to speak to us of that
land which is very far off, and of the lost and loved
ones who dwell in it? But a brief season it stays
with us. It vanishes with the bloom of the year;
and its last note in departure gives expression, as it
were, to what the fading of the spring flowers and the
soberer green of the woodlands silently proclaim/'
According to the Gloucestershire peasant:—
"The cuckoo comes in April,
Sings a song in May;
Then in June another tune,
And then she flies away."
It is, indeed, no doubt, because this strange mysteri-
ous little harbinger of spring comes amongst us to
announce its joyous heaven-sent message—telling
how the dreary winter is past and the bright sunny
days of summer nigh at hand—that he has been so
gladly welcomed at all times, and even acquired a
superstitious reverence.
The cry of cuckoo is the note of the male only, that of
the female being a "harsh, screaming chatter/' "The
BIRDS.
57
custom/' says a writer on the subject, "of calling a
bird 'she/ is, however, everywhere persisted in, at any
rate amongst the uneducated." And in many of the
popular rhymes this peculiarity may be noticed.
In some parts of the country it is the popular
notion that the 2ist of April is the day on which the
cuckoo makes its first appearance; and at Tenbury,
in Worcestershire, it is a belief that it is never heard
till Tenbury fair-day (April 20th), or after Pershore
fair-day (June 26th). In Wales it is considered
unlucky to hear the cuckoo before the 6th of April,
but "you will have prosperity," is the common saying,
"for the whole of the year if you first hear it on the
28th." According to some, the 14th of April is the
time when the cuckoo's note is first heard, and many
are the anxious ears that eagerly listen for it, as much
significance is attached to this event Thus, in the
north of England, it is regarded as an unfortunate
omen for anyone to have no money in his pocket
when he hears the cuckoo for the first time in a
season, and much care is taken to avoid such an
occurrence. In Norfolk it is a widespread supersti-
tion that whatever you are doing when you first hear
the cuckoo, that you will do most frequently all the
year.* It was, formerly, a very common belief that
if a young woman ran into the fields early in the
morning to hear the cuckoo, and, as soon as she heard
it, took off her left shoe and looked into it, she would
* See Howitt's 'Pictorial Calendar of the Seasons.'
58
BIRDS.
there find a man's hair of exactly the same colour as
that of her future husband. In the 'Connoisseur/
an allusion is made to this custom. "I got up last
May morning and went into the fields to hear the
cuckoo, and when I pulled off my left shoe I found a
hair in it exactly the same colour with his." Gay, too,
in his 'Shepherd's Week' (4th Pastoral), speaks of
it :—
"When first the year I heard the cuckoo sing,
And call with welcome note the budding spring,
I straightway set a-running with such haste,
Deb'rah that ran the smock scarce ran so fast;
Till, spent for lack of breath, quite weary grown,
Upon a rising bank I sat adown,
And dofFd my shoe, and by my troth I swear,
Therein I spied this yellow frizzled hair,
As like to Lubberkin's in curl and hue
As if upon his comely pate it grew."
Cornishmen regard it as a good omen to hear the
first cuckoo from the right and from before them; when
heard, however, from the left it is a sign of ill-luck.
In England, as well as in Germany, it is a belief
among the peasantry that the cuckoo, if asked, will
tell you by the repetition of his cry how many years
you have to live. Hence the rhyme:—
"Cuckoo, cherry-tree,
Good bird, tell me
How many years have I to live."
Kelly, in his 'Indo-European Tradition and Folk-
lore/ ascribes the allusion to the cherry-tree, in this
and similar rhymes, to the superstition that before
BIRDS.
59
the cuckoo ceases his song he must eat three good
meals of cherries. In Shropshire it was customary
for the labouring classes, as soon as they heard the
first cuckoo, to leave off work, and to devote the rest
of the day to merry-making, which went by the name
of the "cuckoo ale."
The cuckoo rhymes vary in different counties, and
nearly all agree as to the time of its arrival, although
they differ somewhat as to the date of its departure.
The following well-known rhyme is sung in many
places:—
"In April
The cuckoo shows his bill;
In May
He is singing all day;
In June
He changes his tune;
In July
He prepares to fly;
In August
Fly he must."
In Sussex, says a correspondent of the * Athenaeum/
there is a further addition:—
"If he stay until September,
'Tis as much as the oldest man
Can remember."
In the allusion above to the change which takes
place in the cuckoo's cry, it should be noted, remarks
a writer in Mary Howitt's 'Pictorial Calendar of the
Seasons/ that its syllabled note is prolonged to cuc-
cuckoo, and not unfrequently ends in a mere repetition
6o
BIRDS.
of the first syllable, cue, cue, cue. It is then about to
comply with the request so pathetically urged by
Chaucer:—
"Now, good cuckowe, goe somewhere away."
In Derbyshire one rhyme very prevalent is as
follows:—
"The cuckoo is a merry bird,
She sings as she flies;
She brings us good tidings,
And tells us no lies.
She sucks little birds* eggs,
To make her voice clear,
That she may sing cuckoo
Three months in the year."
Among the Danes a curious custom is found in
connection with the cuckoo. As soon as its voice is
heard in the woods, every village girl kisses her hand,
and asks the question, "Cuckoo, Cuckoo! When
shall I be married?" The Swedes have a similar
superstition, and many a peasant girl exclaims :—
"Cuckoo grey, tell to me,
Up in the tree, true and free,
How many years I must live and go unmarried."
In some districts the following proverb is much
used:—
"Cuckoo oats and woodcock hay
Make a farmer run away."
This phrase, says a correspondent of 'Notes and
Queries' (3rd series, vol. v. p. 450), means that if the
BIRDS.
61
spring is so backward that the oats cannot be sown
till the cuckoo is heard, or the autumn so wet that the
latter-math crop of hay cannot be gathered in till the
woodcocks come over, the farmer is sure to suffer
great loss. In Norfolk, too, one may frequently hear
the poorer classes quoting the subjoined rhyme with
reference to their agricultural pursuits :—
"When the weirling shrieks at night,
Sow the seed with the morning light;
But 'ware when the cuckoo swells its throat,
Harvest flies from the mooncall's * note."
"When the cuckoo purls its feathers, the housewife
should become chary of her eggs," is a popular saying
in many parts of the country. In Wales the cuckoo
often goes by the name of "the Welsh Ambassador."
In Middleton's 'A Trick to Catch the Old One*
(act iv. sc. 5), Dampet says :—
"Why, thou rogue of universality, do I not know
thee? This sound is like the cuckoo, the Welsh
Ambassador."
It has been suggested that the cuckoo is called by
this name in allusion to the annual arrival of Welsh-
men in search of summer and other employment. As
those wanderers might have entered England about
the time of the cuckoo's appearance, the idea that
the bird was the precursor of the Welsh might thus
become prevalent
• Probably the nightingale. See 'Notes and Queries,' 1st series,
vol. ii p. 419.
62
BIRDS.
Cuckoos are believed to become sparrow-hawks in
winter. The Rev. H. B. Tristram, at a meeting of
the British Association held at Newcastle-on-Tyne,
stated that when he once remonstrated with a man
for killing a cuckoo, "the defence was that it was well-
known that sparrow-hawks turned into cuckoos in
summer." In Germany, after St. John's Day, it is
said to turn into a hawk. In Scotland it is considered
lucky to be walking when one first hears the cuckoo,
and the peasants are accustomed to say:—
"Gang and hear the gowk yell,
Sit and see the swallow flee,
See the foal before its mother's 'ee—
'Twill be a thriving year wi' thee."
We must not omit to mention the following
admirable piece of advice contained in the old Welsh
proverb:—" When thou hearest the cuckoo cry, take
timely heed to thy ways; for it may be that he
warns thee to a straighter line of duty."
According to a pretty notion, the robin and the
wren are said to cover with leaves or moss any dead
bodies they may chance to find unburied, a belief
which no doubt to a great degree found its origin in
the old ballad of the Children in the Wood, wherein
occurs the following stanza:—
"And when they were dead,
The robins so red
Brought strawberry-leaves,
And over them spread."
BIRDS.
63
The idea is alluded to in Webster's ' White Devil of
Italy. tf £ajj ^e ro-Djn re(jbreast an(j tne wren>
Since o'er shady groves they hover,
And with leaves and flow'rs do cover
The friendless bodies of unburied men."
And again thus pathetically by Drayton :—
"Cov'ring with moss the dead's unclosed eye,
The little redbreast teacheth charitic^
It is nearly everywhere considered unlucky to kill a
robin, and in Cornwall boys are wont to exclaim :—
"Who hunts the robin or the wren,
Will never prosper, sea or land."
In Yorkshire, if a robin is killed, it is supposed that
one of the cows belonging to the person, or family of
the person, who killed it will give "bloody milk." A
correspondent of 'Notes and Queries9 relates the
following curious circumstances, which certainly furnish
a most remarkable and striking coincidence, especially
as he vouches for their accuracy and truth:—" A
young woman, who had been living in service at a
farmhouse, one day told her relatives how the cow,
belonging to her late master, had given bloody milk
after one of the family had killed a robin. A male
cousin of hers, disbelieving the tale, went out and shot
a robin purposely. Next morning her uncle's best
cow, a healthy one of thirteen years, that had borne
nine calves without mishap, gave half a canful of this
'bloody' milk, and did so for three days in succes-
64
BIRDS.
sion, morning and evening. The liquid was of a pink
colour, which, after standing in the can, became
clearer, and when poured out, the 'blood' or the
deep red something like it, was seen to have settled
to the bottom. The young man who shot the robin
milked the cow himself on the second morning, still
incredulous. The farrier was sent for, and the matter
furnished talk to the village." Formerly, at Walton-
le-Dale, if a farmer killed a swallow, it was believed
that his cows would yield blood instead of milk.
This superstition* is also prevalent in the greater part
of Switzerland. And on this account the robin alone
of all birds enjoys immunity from the gun of the
Alpine herdsman.t In France, likewise, the robin
generally meets with mercy at the hands of the
sportsman, and in some parts it is almost looked upon
with veneration.
Pott, in his * Ode to the Robin' (1780, p. 27), alludes
to the ill-luck that attends any who hurt it:—
"For ever from his threshold fly,
Who, void of honour, once shall try,
With base, inhospitable breast,
To bar the freedom of his guest.
Oh, rather seek the peasant's shed,
For he will give thee wasted bread,
And fear some new calamity,
Should any there spread snares for thee."
A correspondent of Chambers's 'Book of Days'
(vol. i. p. 678) has the following curious note:—" ' How
* • Notes and Queries,' 4th series, vol. i. p. 329.
t See Tschudi, * Animal Life in the Alps,' vol. ii. chap. iv.
BIRDS, 65
badly you write/ I once said to a boy in our parish
school; 'your hand shakes so much that you can't
hold the pen steady. Have you been running hard or
anything of that sort?' 'No,' replied the lad, 'it
always shakes. I once had a robin die in my hand;
and they say that if a robin dies in your hand, it will
always shake.'" In Scotland, and also in some parts
of England, the song of the robin is thought to bode ill
to the sick person who hears it, and much uneasiness
is consequently caused when its notes or "weeping"
are heard near a house where anyone happens to be
sick. In the north of Devon, when a robin perches on
the top of a cottage, and utters its plaintive "weet," it
is believed that the baby in the cottage will die.
The robin is not altogether without a weather-lore;
for in the south-east of Ireland should it enter a house,
it is said to prognosticate hard weather, snow, frost, &c.
In Devonshire it often goes by the name of" Farewell
Summer."
There is a pretty Welsh legend connected with
the robin, which, says a correspondent of ' Notes and
Queries,' makes not only the Babes in the Wood, but
mankind at large, indebted to these deserving fa-
vourites. How could any child help regarding with
grateful veneration the little bird with bosom red,
when assured "that far, far, far away, is a land of
woe, darkness, spirits of evil, and fire. Day by day
does this little bird bear in his bill a drop of water to
quench the flame. So near the burning stream does
F
66
BIRDS.
he fly, that his dear little feathers are scorched; and
hence he is named Bron-rhuddyn (Breast-burnt). To
serve little children, the robin dares approach the
infernal pit. No good child will hurt the devoted
benefactor of man. The robin returns from the land
of fire, and therefore he feels the cold of winter far more
than his brother birds. He shivers in the brumal
blast; hungry, he chirps before your door."
Whilst speaking of the robin, we must not omit to
mention also that touching little legend, which attri-
butes his red breast to his having tried to pluck a
spike from the crown of thorns with which our blessed
Lord's head was encircled, thus poetically described
by Mr. John Hoskyns-Abrahall:—
"Bearing his cross, while Christ passed forth forlorn,
His godlike forehead by the mock crown torn,
A little bird took from that crown one thorn.
To soothe the dear Redeemer's throbbing head,
That bird did what she could; His blood, 'tis said,
Down dropping, dyed her tender bosom red.
Since then no wanton boy disturbs her nest;
Weasel nor wild cat will her young molest;
All sacred deem the bird of ruddy breast."
It is a common belief that the wren is the wife of
the robin, and in many places it is considered highly
unlucky to kill or injure it:—•
"The robin and the wren
a r<~A a i—:~-ui—j 1 j i....
-~ ~fc>"V" »*"~
Him that harries their nest,
Never shall his soul have rest.
The martin and the swallow
Are God Almighty's bow and arrow."
BIRDS.
67
The following lines were obtained from Essex
"The robin and the redbreast,
The robin and the wren;
If ye take out o' their nest,
Ye'll never thrive agen I
"The robin and the redbreast,
The martin and the swallow;
If ye touch one o* their eggs,
Bad luck will sure to follow."
"To hunt the wren," says Yarrell (' British Birds/
vol. ii. p. 178), "is a favourite pastime of the peasantry
of Kerry on Christmas Day. This they do, each using
two sticks, one to beat the bushes, the other to fling
at the bird. It was the boast of an old man, who
lately died at the age of one hundred, that he had
hunted the wren for the last eighty years on Christmas
Day." Hunting the wren was formerly a pastime very
prevalent in the Isle of Man on Christmas Eve, and
on St. Stephen's Day. This singular practice, Waldron
informs us, was founded on a tradition that, in days
gone by, a fairy of uncommon beauty exerted such
undue influence over the male population, that she
now and then induced many of them, by her sweet
voice, to follow her footsteps, until by degrees she led
them into the sea, where they perished. This cruel
exercise of power had continued for so long a time,
that at last fears were entertained lest the island
should be exhausted of its defenders, when luckily a
knight-errant sprang up, who discovered a means of
• See HalliwelTs 'Popular Rhymes.'
F 2
68
BIRDS.
countervailing the charms used by this siren, and even
laid a plot for her destruction, which she only escaped
by taking the form of a wren. Though, however, she
evaded instant annihilation, a spell was cast upon her
by which she was condemned, on each succeeding New
Year's Day, to reanimate the same form, with the
definite sentence that she must ultimately perish by
human hand. In consequence of this legend, the
barbarous practice of hunting the wren was year by
year vigorously kept up. In Dr. William Drummond's
'Rights of Animals ' the cruelty practised towards the
wren in the south of Ireland is dwelt upon, and a
tradition narrated, attributing its origin to political
motives. This custom, however, has for the last thirty
years been put down by authority.* The following
is a specimen of the song that was sung on the
occasion
"The wren, the wren, the king of all birds,
St. Stephen's Day was caught in the furze i
Although he is little, his family's great;
I pray you, good landlady, give us a treat.
"My box would speak if it had but a tongue,
And two or three shillings would do it no wrong.
Sing holly, sing ivy— sing ivy, sing holly;
A drop, just to drink it, would drown melancholy."
After killing the wren, the children exhibited the
slaughtered birds on an ivy bush decked with ribbons,
and carried them about;—an allusion to which is
piade in the above lines.
* See ' Saturday Review,' 1876, vol. xli. p. 314.
BIRDS.
69
Like the robin and the wren, it is considered highly
unlucky to kill a swallow, "perhaps," says Brand, *
"from the idea of its being a breach of hospitality,
each of these birds being in the habit of taking refuge
in houses." The more probable reason, however, is
that this superstition has come down to us from the
ancients, by whom the swallow, says ^Elian, was held
sacred to their penates or household gods, and there-
fore preserved. The same they also honoured as the
harbinger of the spring, and Athenaeus relates that
the Rhodians had a solemn song to welcome it in.
The swallow is still partly regarded by us as an
unlucky bird, and in many cases its presence is
regarded as the forerunner of death. A correspondent
of * Notes and Queries/ when one day visiting the sick
child of a poor woman—a girl about twelve—had the
following remark made to her by the mother :—" A
swallow lit upon her shoulder, ma'am, a short time
since, as she was walking home from church, and that
is a sure sign of death." On the other hand, it is
deemed lucky for martins or swallows to build their
nests on the roof of a house, but just the reverse for
them to forsake a place which they have once
tenanted. By the Germans, the swallow is much
venerated, and its presence on a house is said not
only to preserve it from storms and fire, but also from
evil. With the Irish, the swallow is certainly not a
favourite, for by the vulgar it is called the "devil's
♦ * Popular Antiquities,' voL iii. p. 193.
7o
BIRDS.
bird," from a strange belief that on everyone's head
there is a particular hair, which, if the swallow can
pluck off, dooms the wretched individual to eternal
perdition. In Scotland, however, Mr. Henderson tells
us, the pretty little yellow-hammer goes by the name
of the " devil's bird," and hence a superstitious dislike
to it extends as far south as Northumberland.
Swallows, too, are not without their share of weather-
lore. If they fly low, and dften touch the water with
their wings, they are said to foretell rain. Thus Gay,
in his first' Pastoral/ says :—
"When swallows fleet soar high and sport in air,
He told us that the welkin would be clear."
Parker, in his poem of * The Nightingale/ published
inrthe year 1632, speaking of swallows, says :—
"And if in any's hand she chance to dye,
'Tis counted ominous, I know not why."
There are scattered, here and there, many rhymes
respecting the swallow, in which it is coupled with
the robin, the martin, &c. Thus, according to one,—
"The martin and the swallow
Are God Almighty's birds to hollow."
Here the word hollow most probably, says Halliwell,
is a corruption of the verb hallow, to keep holy.
Again, in Essex, it is said :—
"A martin and a swallow
Are God Almighty's shirt and collar."
BIRDS.
71
The beautiful little bird, the yellow-hammer, to
which allusion has already been made, is, says Cham-
bers (' Popular Rhymes/ 1870, p. 191), the subject of
an unaccountable superstitious notion on the part of
the peasantry, in England as well as in Scotland, who
believe that it drinks a drop, some say three drops, of
the devil's blood each May morning, or as others
affirm, Monday morning. Its nest therefore receives
less mercy than that of almost any other bird. The
boys address it in the following rhyme of reproach:—
"Half a paddock, half a toad,
Half a yellow yorling;
Drink a drap o* the de'il's bluid,
Every May morning."
"The classical fable of the unhappy Philomela,"
says a correspondent of Chambers's 'Book of Days'
(vol. i. 515), "may have given an ideal tinge of me-
lancholy to the Daulian minstrels midnight strain;
as well as an origin to the once, and even now not
altogether forgotten, popular error, that the bird sings
with its breast impaled upon a thorn." In an exquisite
sonnet by Sir Philip Sidney, set to music by Bateson,
in 1604, we read
"The nightingale, as soon as April bringeth
Unto her rested sense a perfect waking,
While late bare earth, proud of her clothing, springeth,
Sings out her woes, a thorn her song-book making,
And mournfully bewailing,
Her throat in tunes expresseth,
While grief her heart oppresseth,
For Tereus o'er her chaste will prevailing."
72
BIRDS.
Shakspeare notices this myth
"Everything did banish moan,
Save the nightingale alone;
She, poor bird, as all forlorn,
Leaned her breast up till a thorn,
And there sung the doleful ditty,
That to hear it was great pity."
There are no nightingales at Havering-at-Bower,
runs the legend, because Edward the Confessor, being
interrupted by them in his meditations, prayed that
their song might never be heard again. The Rev.
R. R. Faulkner, however, who was incumbent of
Havering for over a quarter of a century, in his little
work, entitled,'The Grave of Emma Vale at Havering
Bower/ says, "their sweet notes are still heard,
chanting their Maker's praise amidst the shady groves
of this pretty village.,, There is, too, a prevalent idea,
we are informed, that the nightingale has never been
heard in Yorkshire. Hargrove, in his 'History of
Knaresborough' (1832), contradicts this notion, for
he tells us :—" In the opposite wood, called Birkans
Wood (opposite to the Abbey House), during the
summer evenings, the nightingale
"' Sings darkling; and in shadiest covert hid,
Tunes her nocturnal note.'"
Andrew Boord, in his 'Book of Knowledge,' says
that in St. Leonards Forest the nightingales are
dumb :—" In the Forest of Saint Leonards in South-
sex there doth never singe nightingale, althoughe the
BIRDS.
73
Foreste rounde about in tyme of the yeare is re-
plenyshed with nightingales; they wyl singe round
about the Foreste and never within the precincte of
the Foreste; as divers keepers of the Foreste, and
other credible persons dwellyng there did show
me.
In some places there is a popular prognostication
from the fact of the cuckoo or nightingale being first
heard. Thus the poet Milton, in his * Sonnet to the
Nightingale/ says:—
"Thy liquid notes that close the eve of day,
First heard before the swallow cuckoo's bill,
Portend success in love."
- This piece of folk-lore is also alluded to by Chaucer
in his poem entitled "The Cuckoo and the Nightin-
gale." In the modernized version by Wordsworth, it
is said :—
"But tossing lately on a sleepless bed,
I of a token thought which lovers need:
How among them it was a common tale,
That it was good to hear the nightingale,
Ere the vile cuckoo's note be uttered."
More than two hundred years ago, a learned Jesuit,
says a correspondent of Chambers's * Book of Days'
(vol. i. p. 516), named Marco Bettini, attempted to
reduce the nightingale^ song to letters and words;
and towards the close of the last century, one
Bechstein, a German, improved on his attempt. In a
'Proper New Boke of the Armony of Byrdes*
74
BIRDS.
(quoted by Dibdin, 'Top. Antiq./ vol. iv. 381), of
unknown date, though probably before the year 1580,
the nightingale is represented as singing its Te
Deum:—
"Tibi cherubin
Et seraphin,
Full goodly she dyd chaunt,
With notes merely;
Incessabile
Voce prseclamant."
In the 'Worcester Herald* (May 17th, 1862), we
are told that "there is a tradition of hops having
been planted many years ago near Doncaster, and of
the nightingale making its first appearance about the
same time. The popular idea was, that between the
bird and the plant some mysterious connecting link
existed, but both the hop and the nightingale dis-
appeared long ago." This bit of folk-lore, says
Cuthbert Bede ('Notes and Queries,' 3rd series,
vol. i. p. 447), is not a fact; for in Huntingdonshire,
there is a large field by the side of the Great
Northern Road, which still retains the name of the
"Hop Grounds," and "helps to remind us of a time
when this county was described by Bede and William
of Malmesbury as 'the garden of England/ and was
rich in vines and hops, yet there is not a hop-yard
within a very extensive radius of this locality, nor has
been for centuries; nevertheless the nightingales
abound in every direction, singing night and day
"'By the dusty roadside drear.'"
BIRDS. 75
In Scotland, and the north of England, the country
people have a curious notion, that if you are desirous
of knowing what the lark says, you must lie down on
your back in the field and listen, and you will then
hear him say *:—
"Up in the lift go we,
Tehee, tehee, tehee, tehee!
There's not a shoemaker on the earth
Can make a shoe to me, to me 1
"Why so, why so, why so?
Because my heel is as long as my toe."
It was anciently believed, that during the Halcyon
days, or that time when the halcyon, or kingfisher,
is engaged in hatching her eggs, the sea remained so
smooth that the sailor might venture upon it without
incurring any risk of storm or tempest; a notion thus
referred to by Dryden:—
"Amidst our arms as quiet you shall be
As halcyons brooding on a winter's sea."
and in Wild's ' Iter Boreale' we read :—
"The peaceful kingfishers are met together
About the decks, and prophesy calm weather."
Shakspeare in 'KingLear' (actii.scene i),alluding
to another curious superstition connected with this
bird, makes the Earl of Kent say :—
"turn their halcyon beaks
With every gale and vary of their masters."
* Chambers's 'Popular Rhymes of Scotland,' 1870, p. 192.
76
BIRDS.
—the common belief being that a dead kingfisher,
suspended from a cord, would always turn its beak in
that direction from whence the wind blew, which is
also alluded to by Marlow, in his 'Jew of Malta/
1633 :—
"But how now. stands the wind?
Into what corner peers my halcyon's bill V9
Sir Thomas Browne in his quaint fashion (' Vulgar
Errors/ Bohn's Edit, vol. i. p. 270) has gone into the
subject somewhat minutely, and says, it is "a conceit
supported chiefly by present practice, yet not made out
by reason or experience." Occasionally one may still
see this bird stuffed and hung up in cottages; a remnant,
no doubt, of this old superstition. "I have once or
twice," says Mrs. Charlotte Smith, " seen a stuffed bird
of this species hung up to the beam of a cottage ceiling,
and imagined that the beauty of the feathers had recom-
mended it to this sad pre-eminence, till, on inquiring,
I was assured that it served the purpose of a weather-
vane; and though sheltered from the immediate
influence of the wind, never failed to show every
change by turning its beak to the quarter whence the
wind blew." *
In the north of England it is a notion very pre-
valent that when rooks desert a rookery which they
have tenanted for a number of years, it foretells the
coming downfall of the family on whose property it is.
* From a paper "On Shakspeare's Knowledge of Natural History,"
by J. H. Fennell, « Gent. Mag.'
BIRDS.
77
Unfortunately, however, for those who put credence
in such a superstition, it only too often happens that
these birds change from one place to another, without
any of the dreadful consequences happening predicted
by the foolishly credulous. It is commonly said too,
that when a rookery is near a house, in the case of
death, this bird will not leave the neighbourhood
until the funeral has taken place.
The following rhyme is common in the North:—
"On the first of March,
The crows begin to search;
By the first o' April,
They are sitting still;
By the first o' May,
They're a' flown away;
Croupin* greedy back again,
Wi' October's wind and rain."
It is curious to find, says a writer in the 'Standard*
(Jan. 26th, 1877), Cosmo di Medici, afterwards Grand-
Duke of Tuscany, who visited England in the reign of
Charles II., and subsequently wrote, or caused to be
written, an account of his travels, giving especial
notice to the rooks, which he tells us the nobles of
England prided themselves on attaching to the
neighbourhood of their castles, because they were
regarded as "fowls of good omen/' (t No one, there-
fore," he adds, "is permitted to kill them, under
severe penalties." Possibly, the great desire, says the
same writer, of the late eccentric Vicar of Morwenstow
to create a rookery in some tall trees near his parson-
78
BIRDS.
age, a matter which he made the subject of special
prayer, was connected with this superstition.
In Looe, East Cornwall, it is a popular belief that
rooks forsake an estate, if, on the death of the pro-
prietor, no heir can be found to succeed him. The
raven is another of the chosen birds of superstition,
from its supposed longevity, and its frequent mention
and agency in Holy Writ. Its supposed faculty of
"smelling death," formerly rendered its presence, or
even its voice, ominous to all, as
"The hateful messenger of heavy things,
Of death and dolour telling/'
Its unusually harsh croak is still, when illness of any
kind is in the house, regarded as an inauspicious sound.
Thus, Shakspeare in his "Othello," says:—
"O, it comes o'er my memory
As doth the raven o'er the infected house,
Boding to all."
Spencer, too, speaks somewhat in the same strain :—
"The ill-fac'd owle, death's dreadful messenger;
The hoarse night raven, trompe of doleful dreere.''
In Cornwall, the croaking of a raven over the house
bodes evil to some member of the family. The
following incident, quoted by Hunt in his 'Popular
Romances,' illustrates this superstition.
"One day our family were much annoyed by the
continued croaking of a raven over our house. Some
of us believed it to be a token, others derided the
BIRDS.
79
idea; but one good lady, our next-door neighbour,
said, 'Just mark the day, and see if something does
not come of it* The day and hour were carefully
noted. Months passed away, and unbelievers were
loud in their boastings and inquiries after the token.
"The fifth month arrived, and with it a black-edged
letter from Australia, announcing the death of one of
the members of the family in that country. On com-
paring the dates of the death and the raven's croak,
they were found to have occurred on the same day."
According to ancient authors ravens were formerly
white, but were changed to black for babbling. Mr.
John Barrow, in his 'Visit to Ireland/ says, "This
bird was dedicated to Odin, who, as the traditional
history of Ireland informs us, had two ravens, which
were let loose every morning to collect intelligence
of what was going on in the world, and which,
on returning in the evening, perched upon Odin's
shoulders, to whisper in his ear whatever information
they might have collected; and even now, as we learn
from Alafsen and Povelsen, the Icelanders entertain
superstitious notions regarding the raven. They
believe this bird to be not only acquainted with
what is going on at a distance, but also what is to
happen in the future." Cicero, it is said, was fore-
warned by the noise and fluttering of ravens about
him, that his end was near.
An old Cornish legend* avers that King Arthur is
* 'Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-Lore,' 1872, p. 168.
80 BIRDS.
still alive in the form of a raven, and certain super-
stitious persons, says Mr. Hardwick, refuse to shoot
these birds, from a fear that they might inadvertently
destroy the mythic warrior. Mr. Hawker in his
entertaining little book, 'Echoes from Cornwall/
mentions this belief as existing in connection with the
chough—a bird which hovers around the western
coast,* and quotes these lines :—
"And mark yon bird of sable wing,
Talons and beak all red with blood;
The spirit of the long-lost king
Passed in that shape from Camlan's flood.
"And still when loudliest howls the storm,
And darkliest lowers his native sky,
The king's fierce soul is in that form—
The warrior spirit threatens nj^y
The crow, too, has generally been regarded as a bird
of ill-omen; a superstition which dates as far back as
the time of Virgil, who tells us how
"Ssepe sinistra cava prsedixit ab ilice cornix."
In Essex the peasants have a rhyme respecting the
crow almost similar to that connected with the
magpie. If crows fly towards you, then—
"One's unlucky,
Two's lucky;
Three is health,
Four is wealth;
Five is sickness,
And six is death."
* * Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-Lore,' 1872, p. 168.
8o
BIRDS.
still alive in the form of a raven, and certain super-
stitious persons, says Mr. Hard wick, refuse to shoot
these birds, from a fear that they might inadvertently
destroy the mythic warrior. Mr. Hawker in his
entertaining little book, 'Echoes from Cornwall,'
mentions this belief as existing in connection with the
chough—a bird which hovers around the western
coast,* and quotes these lines :—
"And mark yon bird of sable wing,
Talons and beak all red with blood;
The spirit of the long-lost king
Passed in that shape from Camlan's flood.
"And still when loudliest howls the storm,
And darkliest lowers his native sky,
The king's fierce soul is in that form—
The warrior spirit threatens nigh."
The crow, too, has generally been regarded as a bird
of ill-omen; a superstition which dates as far back as
the time of Virgil, who tells us how
"Saepe sinistra cava praedixit ab ilice comix."
In Essex the peasants have a rhyme respecting the
crow almost similar to that connected with the
magpie. If crows fly towards you, then—
"One's unlucky,
Two's lucky;
Tluec is health,
Four is wealth;
Five is sickness,
And six is death."
'Traditions, Superstitions, and Folk-Lore,' 1872, p. 168.
BIRDS.
8l
Throughout Lancashire and Yorkshire, the children
regard with no friendly feelings this unfortunate bird,
as appears from the subjoined rhyme:—
"Crow, crow, get out of my sight,
Or else I'll eat thy liver and lights."
If a crow cry, says Bourne, it portends some evil,
and when it makes a hoarse, hollow, noise, it presages
foul weather. Crows seem to have been looked upon
as ominous in most countries. Thus Butler, in his
'Hudibras/ says:—
"Is it not om'nous in all countries
When crows and ravens croak upon trees?"
The magpie is generally looked upon as a mys-
terious bird, and according to the popular rhyme—
"One is sorrow, two mirth,
Three a wedding, four a birth,
Five heaven, six hell,
Seven the de'il's ain sell."
This varies somewhat in different localities, but in
substance is the same. Thus, to quote from Grose :—
"It is unlucky to see first one magpie, and then more:
but to see two, denotes marriage or merriment; three,
a successful journey; four, an unexpected piece of
good news; five, you will shortly be in a great
company." In Lancashire we find this variation
"One for anger,
Two for mirth,
Three for a wedding,
Four for a birth,
G
BIRDS.
81
Throughout Lancashire and Yorkshire, the children
regard with no friendly feelings this unfortunate bird,
as appears from the subjoined rhyme:—
"Crow, crow, get out of my sight,
Or else I'll eat thy liver and lights."
If a crow cry, says Bourne, it portends some evil,
and when it makes a hoarse, hollow, noise, it presages
foul weather. Crows seem to have been looked upon
as ominous in most countries. Thus Butler, in his
'Hudibras/ says:—
"Is it not om'nous in all countries
When crows and ravens croak upon trees?"
The magpie is generally looked upon as a mys-
terious bird, an^Lxording to the popular rhyme—
"One is sorrow, two mirth,
Three a wedding, four a birth,
Five heaven, six hell,
Seven the de'il's ain sell."
This varies somewhat in different localities, but in
substance is the same. Thus, to quote from Grose :—
"It is unlucky to see first one magpie, and then more:
but to see two, denotes marriage or merriment; three,
a successful journey; four, an unexpected piece of
good news; five, you will shortly be in a great
company," In Lancashire we find this variation
"One for anger,
Two for mirth,
Three for a wedding,
Four for a birth,
G
82
BIRDS*
Five for rich,
Six for poor,
Seven for a witch;
I can tell you no more."
Another version has the last four lines thus:—
"Five for a fiddle,
Six for a dance,
Seven for England,
Eight for France."
In Devonshire, in order to avert the ill-luck, from
seeing a single magpie, the peasant spits over his
right shoulder three times, repeating the following
words:—
"Clean birds by sevens,
Unclean by twos;
The dove, in the heavens,
Is the one I choose."
And, in Yorkshire, to break the same charm, various
practices are in use: One is to raise the hat as a
salutation, and then to sign the cross on the breast, and
another to make the same sign by crossing the
thumbs. In Lancashire, says Brand,* "among the
vulgar, it is accounted very unlucky to see two
magpies (called there pynots, in Northumberland
pyanots) together." In Scotland, the same supersti-
tion holds respecting this bird, and an old writer
quaintly remarks, that "many an old woman would
more willingly see the devil, who bodes no more ill-
luck than he brings, than a magpie perching on a
* * Popular Antiquities.'
BIRDS. 83
neighbouring tree." In Morayshire, and no doubt in
other parts of Scotland, it is believed that magpies
flying near the windows of a house portend a speedy
death to some inmate.* We must also not omit to
quote what Shakspeare has said about the magpie.
Thus in Henry VI. (act v. scene 6) we are told how—
"The raven rook'd her on the chimney's top,
And chattering pies in dismal discord sung."
And in Macbeth :—
"Augurs, and understood relations, have
By magot-pies, and choughs, and rooks, brought forth
The secret'st man of blood."
Magpies, says a writer in the * Standard' (Jan. 26th,
1877), are mysterious everywheue, but our English
magpie stories pale before those of the true Northland.
A lady, we are told, living near Carlstad, in Sweden,
grievously offended a Finn woman who came into the
court of her house, asking for food. The woman was
told "to take that magpie hanging up on the wall, and
eat it." She took the bird and disappeared, with an
evil glance at the lady who had been so ill-advised as
to insult a Finn, whose magical powers, it is well known,
far exceed those of the gipsies. Nothing happened
for a time; but by-and-by the lady began to observe
that wherever she went one of the magpies always
made its appearance in her path. Presently the
number increased; and the lady, who had first been
amused, became troubled, and tried to drive them
* See chapter on "Death Superstitions."
G 2
84
BIRDS.
away by various devices. All was to no purpose.
She could not move without a large company of mag-
pies; and they became at length so daring as to hop
on her shoulder, pull hor dress, and peck at her feet
as she walked. When she could bear it no longer,
she shut herself up in her house; but the magpies
were always waiting at the door, and hopped in when-
ever it was opened. Then she took to her bed in a
room with closed shutters; yet even this was not an
effectual protection, for the magpies kept tapping at
the shutters day and night. The death of the lady
is not recorded. Possibly she is still "dreeing her
weird ;" but it is fully expected that, die when she
may, all the magpies in Wermland will be present at
her funeral.
Alexander Ross, in his Appendix to the 'Arcana
Microcosmi,' informs us that in the time of King
Charles VIII. of France, "the battle that was fought
between the French and Britains, in which the latter
were overthrown, was foreshewed by a skirmish
between the magpies and jackdaws."
The half nest of the magpie, says Halliwell, in his
'Popular Rhymes/ is accounted for by a rural ornitho-
logical legend: "Once upon a time when the world
was very young, the magpie, by some accident or
another, although she was quite as cunning as she is
at present, was the only bird that was unable to build
a nest. In this perplexity, she applied to the other
jnembers of the feathered race, who kindly undertook
BIRDS.
to instruct her. So, on a day appointed, they assem-
bled for that purpose, and the materials having been
collected, the blackbird said, 'Place that stick there/
suiting the action to the word, as she commenced the
work. 'Ah!' said the magpie, 'I knew that afore/
The other birds followed with their suggestions, but to
every piece of advice the magpie kept saying, * Ah ! I
knew that afore.' At length, when the bridal habita-
tion was half-finished, the patience of the company
was fairly exhausted by the pertinacious conceit of
the pye, so they all left her with the united exclama-
tion, 'Well, mistress mag, as you seem to know all
about it, you may e'en finish the nest yourself/ Their
resolution was obdurate and final, and to this day the
magpie exhibits the effects of partial instruction by
her miserably incomplete abode."
Smith,* in his 'History of Cork/ says the magpie
was not known in Ireland seventy years before the
time at which he wrote, about 1746. Tradition says,
also, that they were driven over to Ireland from
England during a storm. Sir William Hooker, in his
'Tour in Iceland/ in 1809, remarks that a legend in
that island says, the magpie was imported there
by the English out of spite. In Norway, that the
magpie may share the festivities of the season, the
inhabitants place a sheaf of corn at the end of their
houses. Mr. Henderson, in his 'Folk-Lore of the
Northern Counties of England/ gives the following
* See Yarrell's 'British Birds/ 1856, vol. ii. p. 120.
86
BIRDS.
curious anecdote upon the magpie. He says, "Well
do I remember, when a boy ten or twelve years old,
driving an old lady in a pony-carriage to visit a friend
in a secluded part of the county of Durham. Half
our journey was made, when, without a word of warn-
ing, the reins were suddenly snatched out of my hand,
and the pony brought to a stand. Full of astonish-
ment, I looked to my companion for some explanation
of this assault on my independence; I saw her gazing
with intense interest on a magpie then crossing
the road. After a pause of some seconds, she ex-
claimed, after a sigh, 'Oh! the nasty bird! Turn
back! turn back!' and back we turned.,, This
certainly is a startling illustration of the power of
superstition.
An old tradition explains the origin of the ill-luck
that is supposed to arise from meeting a magpie, in
the following way :—It was the only bird that refused
to enter the ark with Noah and his folk, preferring to
perch itself on the roof of the ark, and to jabber over
the drowning and perishing world. Ever since, it has
been regarded as unlucky to meet this defiant and
rebellious bird.
Reginald Scott, in his 'Discovery of Witchcraft/
says, "that to prognosticate that guests approach to
your house, upon the chattering of pies or haggisters
(haggister in Kent signifies a magpie) is altogether
vanity and superstition."
In Scotland and the north of England, the plaintive
BIRDS.
87
note of the chaffinch, says Chambers,* is interpreted
as a sign of rain. When, therefore, the boys hear it,
they first imitate it, and then rhymingly refer to the
expected consequences:—
"Weet, weet!—Dreep, dreep!"
From earliest times, the owl has been regarded as a
most unlucky bird, and its dismal voice has been looked
upon not only as the omen of misfortune, but even of
death. A correspondent of 'Book of Days' (vol. ii.
p. 732) informs us that two of these birds, "of enor-
mous size, premonish the noble family of Arundel of
Wardour of approaching mortality. Whenever these
two solemn spectres are seen perched on a battlement
of the family mansion, it is only too well known that
one of its members will soon be summoned out of
this world." In Reed's * Old Plays' (vi. p. 357), it is
said that—
"When screech-owls croak upon the chimney tops,
It's certain that you of a corse shall hear."
The ancients held this bird in the utmost abhorrence,
and even Rome itself underwent a lustration, because
one of them strayed into the capital. Thus Butler, in
his ' Hudibras,' tells us,—
"The Roman senate, when within
The city walls an owl was seen,
Did cause their clergy with lustrations
(Our synod calls humiliations)
The round-fac'd prodigy t'avert
From doing town and country hurt.,,
* 'Popular Rhymes,' 1870, p. 190.
88
BIRDS.
The owl, according to various old legends, was
originally of noble parentage, Waterton, in his
'Essays on Natural History' (1838, p. 8), quotes the
following ballad, which thus describes this unfortunate
bird's altered condition :—
"Once I was a monarch's daughter,
And sat on a lady's knee,
But am now a nightly rover,
Banished to the ivy tree.
Crying, Hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo,
Hoo, hoo, hoo, my feet are cold;
Pity me, for here you see me
Persecuted, poor, and old."
Shakspeare alludes to another legend. In 'Ham-
let' (act iv. scene 5) he makes Ophelia exclaim:
"They say the owl was a baker's daughter. Lord, we
know what we are, but know not what we may be."
Douce gives the legend as follows :—" Our Saviour
went into a baker's shop where they were baking, and
asked for some bread to eat: the mistress of the shop
immediately put a piece of dough into the oven to
bake for him; but was reprimanded by her daughter,
who, insisting that the piece of dough was too large,
reduced it to a very small size; the dough, however,
immediately began to swell, and presently became a
most enormous size, whereupon the baker's daughter
cried out, 'Heugh, heugh, heugh!' which owl-like
noise probably induced our Saviour to transform her
into that bird for her wickedness."
Dasent, in his ' Popular Tales from the Norse,' gives
BIRDS.
89
another account of this tradition, in which, however, in
place of the owl the woodpecker is substituted:—
"In those days when our Lord and St. Peter wandered
upon earth, they came to an old wife's house, who sat
baking. Her name was Gertrude, and she had a red
mutch on her head. They had walked a long way,
and were both hungry, and our Lord begged hard for
a bannock to stay their hunger. Yes, they should
have it. So she took a little tiny piece of dough and
rolled it out, but as she rolled it, it grew until it
covered the whole griddle.
"Nay, that was too big; they couldn't have that.
So she took a tinier bit still; but when that was rolled
out it covered the whole griddle just the same, and
that bannock was too big, she said; they couldn't
have that either.
"The third time she took a still tinier bit, so tiny
that you could scarce see it; but it was the same story
over again—the bannock was too big.
"' Well/ said Gertrude, 'I can't give you anything;
you must just go without, for all these bannocks are
too big.'
"Then our Lord waxed wroth, and said, 'Since
you loved me so little as to grudge me a morsel of
food, you shall have this punishment—you shall
become a bird and seek your food between bark and
bole, and never get a drop to drink save when it rains.'
"He had scarce said the last word before she was
turned into a great black woodpecker, or Gertrude's
90
BIRDS.
bird, and flew from her kneading-trough right up the
chimney. And till this very day you may see her
flying about, with her red mutch on her head, and
her body all black, because of the soot in the chimney;
and so she hacks and taps away at the trees for her
food, and whistles when rain is coming, for she is ever
athirst, and then she looks for a drop to cool her
tongue." The woodpecker's cry is said to denote wet.
The woodpecker, from its vociferous cry when rain is
impending, has been popularly called "the rain-bird";
and in many country districts it is held in no small
estimation from its prognosticating wet; and Wallis,
in his * History of Northumberland/ tells us that it
is called in that county by the common people,
"Rain-fowl." Both these terms are analogous to the
Pluvise aves of the Romans, who for the same reason
gave them this designation. The woodpecker is
also called the yaffle, or yaffil, in Surrey and Sussex.
"This name," says Yarrell (' British Birds/ vol. ii. p.
148), "has reference to the repeated notes of the bird,
which have been compared to the sound of a laugh."
White, of Selborne, says, "The woodpecker laughs ;"
and in the popular poem of " The Peacock at Home,"
the following couplet occurs :—
"The skylark in ecstasy sang from a cloud,
And chanticleer crow'd, and the yaffil laughed loud."
The possession of peacock's feathers is said to bring
ill-luck and misfortune to the owner. This may be
BIRDS.
91
accounted for * from what Palgrave says in his 'Central
and Eastern Arabia* (vol. i. p. 286), where, accord-
ing to Mahometan tradition, the peacock opened the
wicket of Paradise to admit the devil. Mr. Llewellyn
Jewitt t tells us that in Derbyshire and the surround-
ing counties this superstition is prevalent, and that he
has seen people "perfectly horrified when a child or
other person has unwittingly brought a peacock's
feather into the house/' as it is believed to bring
loss and various disasters, including even illness and
death to the inmates. Peacocks, when they make a
loud and shrill noise, are said to predict rain; and in
Lupton's 'Notable Things/ we read that "the oftener
they cry, the more rain is signified."
It was long ago believed among the common
people that at the time of cock-crowing the midnight
spirits forsook this world, and went to their proper
places. This opinion is very ancient, and is mentioned
by the Christian poet Prudentius, who flourished at
the beginning of the fourth century. In one of his
hymns he says :—
"They say the wandering powers that love
The silent darkness of the night,
At cock-crowing give o'er to rove,
And all in fear do take their flight"
This idea is illustrated by Shakspeare in ' Hamlet/
* * Notes and Queries,' 3rd series, vol. viii. p. 332.
f 'Notes and Queries/ 3rd series, voL ix. p. 187.
92
BIRDS.
where the ghost was u about to speak, when the cock
crew," and "faded at the crowing of the cock."
The disappearance of spirits at cock-crow is a
frequent fancy of the poets. Spenser says of one of
his spirits:—
"The morning cock crew loud,
And at the sound it shrunk in haste away,
And vanished from our sight.,,
Butler, in his ' Hudibras/ tells how—•
"The cock crows, and the morning grows on,
When 'tis decreed I must be gone."
Blair, too, in his ' Grave' says—■
"The tale
Of horrid apparition, tall and ghastly,
That walks at dead of night, or takes his stand
O'er some new-open'd grave; and, strange to tell,
Evanishes at crowing of the cock."
In Devonshire and Cornwall, when the cock crows
more than usually, it is said to be "a sign that a
stranger is coming." The same idea exists, also, in
other parts, as, for instance, on the borders of Shrop-
shire and Montgomeryshire. In some places, the
cock-crowing denotes a change of weather, while in
others, fine weather. An old proverb tells us :—
If the cock crows on going to bed,
He's sure to rise with a watery head."
In the midland counties it is said that—
BIRDS.
93
"If the cock moults before the hen,
We shall have the weather thick and thin;
If the hen moults before the cock,
We shall have weather as hard as a block."
In Derbyshire,* the peasants believe that "if the
hens gather on a rising ground, and trim their
feathers, it is a sure sign of rain." And "if the cock
stays on the roost longer in the morning than usual,
and crows there, it is a sign of wet."
Formerly, it was customary in Derbyshire for girls
to peep through the key-holes of house-doors, before
opening them on St. Valentine's Day; when, if
fortune was good to them, and they saw a cock and
hen in company, it was regarded as a certain omen
that the person interested would be married before
the year was out. Croker, in his 'Researches in the
South of Ireland/ affirms that in the year 1305, a
woman was charged with having sacrificed nine red
cocks to her familiar spirit. The Buddhists of Ceylon,
and the low-castes in the south of England, still
sacrifice red cocks to their evil spirits. Mr. Hunt
relates the following anecdote, showing with what
supernatural attributes the cock is credited in Corn-
wall :—
"A farmer in Towednack, having been robbed of
some property of no great value, was resolved, never-
* From a paper by Mr. T. RatclifFe "On the Folk-Lore of Domestic
Fowls," in 'Long Ago,' 1873, voL i. p. 81.
t 'Popular Romances of West of England.'
94
BIRDS.
theless, to employ a test which he had heard the 'old
people' resorted to for the purpose of catching a
thief. He invited all his neighbours into his cottage,
and when they were assembled, he placed a cock
under the 'brandice' (an iron vessel formerly much
employed by the peasantry in baking, when this
process was carried out on the hearth, the fuel being
furze and ferns). Everyone was directed to touch
the brandice with his or her third finger, and say, * In
the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, speak.'
Everyone did as they were directed, and no sound
came from beneath the brandice. The last person
was a woman, who occasionally laboured for the
farmer in his fields. She hung back, hoping to pass
unobserved amidst the crowd. But her very anxiety
made her a suspected person. She was forced forward,
and most unwillingly she touched the brandice, when,
before she could utter the words prescribed, the cock
crew. The woman fell faint on the floor, and when
she recovered, she confessed herself to be the thief,
restored the stolen property, and became, it is said,
'a changed character from that day.'" In Cornwall,
it is often said that a whistling maid and a crowing
hen in one house, is an infallible sign of the down-
fall of some in it; hens are even killed for crow-
ing by night. In the 'British Apollo' we find the
query,—
"When my hens do crow,
Tell me if it be ominous or no."
95
In Kent, and other counties, there is a common
and pretty superstition connected with chickens,
which is thus described by Mary Allen, in her' Poems
for Youth' (1810):—
"The little chickens, as they dip
Their beaks into the river,
Hold up their heads at every dip,
And thank the Giver."
Cuthbert Bede, relates in 'Notes and Queries'
(5th series, vol. vi. p. 24) the following piece of folk-
lore connected with the hatching of ducks' eggs:—
"A farmer's wife, in Rutland, was promised a
'setting* of ducks' eggs by the wife of another
farmer, who sent the eggs at nine o'clock in the even-
ing. 'I cannot imagine how she could have been so
foolish,' said the first named, when she mentioned the
matter to me on the following day. I inquired as to
the foolishness, and was told that ducks' eggs brought
into a house after sunset, would do no good, and
never be hatched."
There is a Lancashire superstition which identifies
the plover with the transmuted soul of a Jew. When
seven of them are seen together, they are called the
"seven whistlers," and their sound, it is said, foretells
misfortune to those who hear it. A correspondent of
'Notes and Queries' thus alludes to this odd piece
of superstition:—" One evening a few years ago,
when crossing one of our Lancashire moors, in com-
pany with an intelligent old man, we were suddenly
96
BIRDS.
startled by the whistling overhead of a covey of
plovers. My companion remarked that when a boy
the old people considered such a circumstance a bad
omen, 'as the person who heard the wandering Jews,'
as he called the plovers, was sure to be 'overtaken
with some ill-luck.' On questioning my friend on the
name given to the birds, he said, 'There is a tradition
that they contain the souls of those Jews who
assisted at the crucifixion, and in consequence were
doomed to float in the air for ever.' When we arrived
at the foot of the moor, a coach, by which I had
hoped to complete my journey, had already left its
station, thereby causing me to finish the distance on
foot. The old man reminded me of the omen."
The appearance of the dotterel, that "highly
esteemed migratory visitant" * is regarded by shep-
herds as a sign of coming winter, and hence the
adage:—
"When dotterel do first appear, it shows that frost is very near;
But when the dotterel do go, then you may look for heavy snow."
In Hampshire, according to a common, but of
course most erroneous idea, swans are said generally
to be hatched during a thunderstorm. This, how-
ever, is a very old piece 01 superstition, for Lord
Northampton, in his 'Defensative against the Poyson
of Supposed Prophecies' (1583) says :—" It chaunceth
sometimes to thunder about that time and season
of the yeare when swannes hatch their young;
* See Brand's * Popular Antiquities,' vol. iii. p. 218.
BIRDS.
97
and yet no doubt it is a paradox of simple men to
thinke that a swanne cannot hatch without a cracke
of thunder/' Pliny* alludes to a superstition by
which swans are said to sing sweetly before their
death, but falsely, he tells us, as proved through his
own observation. Sir Thomas Browne, in his * Vulgar
Errors' (Bohn's Edit., 1852, vol. i. p. 357), has some
quaint remarks on this subject, giving us the following
explanation of its origin :—" From great antiquity, and
before the melody of Syrens, the musical note of swans
hath been commended, and they sing most sweetly
before their death ; for thus we read in Plato, that from
the opinion of metempsychosisor transmigration of the
souls of men into the bodies of beasts most suitable
unto their human condition, after his death Orpheus
the musician became a swan; thus was it the bird of
Apollo, the god of music, by the Greeks; and an
hieroglyphick of music among the Egyptians, from
whom the Greeks derived the conception ;—hath been
the affirmation of many Latins, and hath not wanted
assertors almost from every nation."
In Scotland swans are looked upon as good prog-
nosticators of the weather. Coleridge, Speaking of
this superstition, wittily remarks:—
"Swans sing before they die; 'twere no bad thing,
Should certain persons die before they sing."
The common people in the North Riding of York-
* 'Hist'x. 23.
H
98
BIRDS.
shire believe that once upon a time the cushat, or
ring-dove, laid its eggs upon the ground, and that the
peewit, or lapwing, made its nest on high; but that
one day they made an agreement to exchange their
localities for building. Hence the peewit, in con-
sequence, now expresses its disappointment at the
new arrangement in the subjoined words :—
"Peewit, peewit!
I coup'd my nest and I rue it."
The cushat,* however, rejoices that she is safe out
of the reach of mischievous boys :—
"Coo, coo, come now,
Little lad,
With thy gad,
Come not thou."
In the South of Scotland the lapwing is still looked
upon as an unlucky bird. Mr. Chatto, in his ' Rambles
in Northumberland and the Scottish Border/ refers
to "the persecution to which the Covenanters were
exposed in the reign of Charles II. and his bigoted
successor;" and, quoting Dr. Leyden,t alludes to the
tradition that "they were frequently discovered to
their pursuers by the flight and screaming of the
lapwing." Hence the fact of this bird being regarded
as unlucky in Scotland.
The very ancient Lincolnshire family, the Tyrwhitts,
bear three peewits for their arms; and an old tradition
* See Brockett's 'Glossary of North Country Words.'
t Yarrell's 1 British Birds,' 1856, vol. ii. p. 518.
BIRDS. 99
informs us, "that it was in consequence of the founder
of their family having fallen in a skirmish, wounded,
and being saved by his followers, who were directed
to the spot where he lay by the cries of these birds,
and their hovering near him." *
Montagu gives a curious legend respecting the
wood-pigeon prevalent in Suffolk. "The magpie, it is
said, once undertook to teach the pigeon how to build
a more substantial and commodious dwelling; but,
instead of being a docile pupil, the pigeon kept on her
old cry of 'Take two, Taffy! take two!' The mag-
pie insisted that this was a very unworkmanlike man-
ner of proceeding, one stick at a time being as much
as could be managed to advantage; but the pigeon
reiterated her * Two, take two/ till Mag, in a violent
passion, gave up the task, exclaiming, 'I say that one
at a time's enough; and, if you think otherwise, you
may set about the work yourself, for I will have no
more to do with it!' Since that time the wood-
pigeon has built her slight platform of sticks, which
certainly suffers much in comparison with the strong,
substantial structure of the magpie." The cooing of
the wood-pigeon, it is said, means—
"Take two-o coo, Taffy!
Take two-o coo, Taffy!"
It is not an uncommon superstition, that no one can
die happy on a bed of pigeon's feathers. As an illus-
* Yarreirs * British Birds,' 1856, vol. il p. 519.
H 2
100
BIRDS.
tration of this, a correspondent of' Notes and Queries'
informs us that one day he met a servant with a basket
full of pigeon's feathers, that she was about to consign
to the dusthole. On being questioned as to the reason
of this act, she replied that the feathers of the pigeon,
and of all birds of game, were generally thrown away,
as no person could die happy when lying on a bed
that contained any. From the same source, we read
of an instance where a man on the verge of death was
actually removed by his relations from his bed to the
floor, as they suspected that game feathers were in
the bed, and that therefore it was impossible for him
"to die easily." If a pigeon accidentally settles on a
table, it is considered a sign of sickness, and if on
a bed or chimney, of death.
It is reckoned a sure sign of death in a house if a
white pigeon is observed to settle on a chimney.
Sea-gulls are considered ominous. In Sir John
Sinclair's 'Statistical Account of Scotland/ the mi-
nister of Arbirlot, in the county of Forfar, informs us
that "when they appear in the fields, a storm from
the south-east generally follows; and when the storm
begins to abate, they fly back to the shore." They
are sometimes called "sea-m^ws," and it is said that
early in the morning, when they make a gaggling more
than ordinary, they prognosticate stormy weather.
In Scotland the following rhyme is prevalent:—
Sea-gull, sea-gull, sit on the sand;
It's never good weather when you're on the land."
ANIMALS.
101
CHAPTER IV.
ANIMALS.
The Dog — Cat — Horse—Mouse — Bat — Lamb — Pig — Hare —
Goat — Rabbit — Ass — Hedgehog — Snail.
The dog was held by the Egyptians as an object of
adoration, from its being the representative of one
of the celestial signs; and by the Indians as one of
the sacred forms of their deities.
"The Egyptians worshipped dogs, and for
Their faith made internecine war."
It is still, even in our own country, oftentimes the
cause of superstition. It is, for example, nearly every-
where a common notion that the howling of this faith-
ful and intellectual companion of man is unlucky, and
generally to be regarded as prognosticating misfortune
of some kind or other. Scattered here and there, we
find various charms for averting the consequences
believed to follow this sign of ill-omen; among which,
by way of illustration, we may mention one practised
in Staffordshire: When you hear a dog howl, take off
your shoe from the left foot, and spit upon the sole,
place it on the ground bottom upwards, and your foot
upon the place you spat upon, which will not only
102
ANIMALS.
preserve you from harm, but stop the howling of the
dog. In the 'British Apollo' (1708) we have the
question asked, "Whether dogs howling may be a
fatal prognostic or no? to which the following answer
is given:—We cannot determine, but 'tis probable
that out of a sense of sorrow for the sickness or
absence of his master or the like, that creature may
be so disturbed." This superstition is a very ancient
one, and is noticed by Pausanias, who relates how
before the destruction of the Messenians, the dogs
set up a fiercer howling than they were wont to do;
and Virgil, alluding to the Roman misfortunes in the
Pharsalic war, says :—
"Obscoenique canes, importunseque volucres,
Signa dabant."
In Lancashire * the life of a dog is sometimes said
to be bound up with that of his master or mistress.
When either dies the other cannot live. It has been
suggested whether this may not be a remnant of the
old belief in the transmigration of souls.
Dogs are said to have extraordinary quickness in
understanding character. It is believed that they
instinctively avoid ill-tempered persons; and if they
follow any stranger, it is generally a person of kind
and cheerful disposition. Among the Highlanders
great care is taken that dogs do not pass between
a couple that are going to be married, as much £11—
* Harland and Wilkinson, 'Lancashire Folk-Lore,' p. 142.
ANIMALS.
103
luck is supposed to result from such an occurrence. In
Ireland it is considered unfortunate to meet a barking
dog early in the morning, and, on the other hand, jus
as fortunate for one to enter a house the first thing in
the day. Dogs are not without their weather-lore.
Thus, when they eat grass, it is a sign of rain; if they
roll on the ground and scratch, or become drowsy and
stupid, a change in the weather may be expected.
As in the case of the cat, most of their turnings and
twistings are supposed to be prognostications of some-
thing.
Formerly, a custom existed in Hull of whipping all
the dogs that were found running about the streets on
the 1 oth of October, and so common was this practice
at one time, that every little urchin considered it his
duty to prepare a whip for any unlucky dog that
might be seen wandering in the streets on that day.
Tradition, says a correspondent of' Notes and Queries'
(1st series, vol. viii. p. 409), assigns the following
origin to the custom:—Previous to the suppression of
monasteries in Hull, it was the. custom for the monks
to provide liberally for the poor and the wayfarer who
came to the fair held annually on the nth October,
and while bringing in this necessary preparation the
day before the fair, a dog strolled into the larder,
snatched up a piece of meat, and decamped with it.
The cooks gave the alarm, and when the dog got into
the street, he was pursued by the expectants of the
charity of the monks, who were waiting outside the
104
ANIMALS.
gates, and made to give up the stolen joint. When-,
ever, after this, a dog showed his face while this
annual preparation was going on, he was instantly
beaten off. Eventually this was taken up by the boys,
and, until the introduction of the new police, was
rigidly put in practice by them every ioth of
October.
A similar custom was, in bygone days, kept up at
York on St. Luke's Day: hence the day was called
"Whip-dog-Day." Its origin is uncertain, but tra-
dition assigns it to the following circumstance :—that,
in some time of Popery, a priest celebrating mass at
this festival, in some church in York, unfortunately
dropped the host after consecration, which was sud-
denly snatched up and swallowed by a dog that lay
under the communion table. The profanation of this
sacred act occasioned the death of the dog, and a
persecution began which was kept up on the anni-
versary of the day.
Cats, from their great powers of resistance, are
commonly said to have nine lives; hence, Ben Jonson,
in * Every Man in his Humour,' says:—" 'Tis a pity
you had not ten lives—a cat's and your own." In
ancient times this domestic animal was honoured as
an emblem of the moon, from the great changeableness,
says Timbs, of the pupil of the eye, which in the day-
time is a mere narrow line, dilatable in the dark to a
luminous globe. On this account, it was so highly
esteemed among the Egyptians, as to receive sacrifices,
ANIMALS.
105
and even to have stately temples erected to its honour.
Whenever a cat died, Brand* tells us, all the family
shaved their eyebrows; and Diodorus Siculus relates
that a Roman happening accidentally to kill a cat,
the mob immediately gathered around the house
where he was, and neither the entreaties of some
principal men sent by the king, nor the fear of the
Romans, with whom the Egyptians were then nego-
tiating a peace, could save the man's life.
Bingley, in his 'Tour Round Wales' (1800, vol. ii.
p. 210), narrates that in Wdes, if any person killed the
cat that was about the king's palace, "she was to be
taken by the tail, and her head touching the floor, so
much wheat was to be forfeited for the offence, as
being thrown around hdi*, would cover the top of her
tail."
In the Middle Ages the cat was a very important
personage in religious festivals. At Aix, in Provence, f
on the festival of Corpus Christi, the finest torn cat of
the country, wrapped like a child in swaddling clothes,
was exhibited in a magnificent shrine to public admi-
ration. Every knee was bent, every hand strewed
flowers, or poured incense; and pussy was treated in
all respects as the god of the day. On the festival,
however, of St John (June 24th), poor Tom's fate was
reversed. A number of cats were put in a wicket
basket, and thrown alive into the midst of a large
* 'Popular Antiquities,' 1849, voL ii. p. 38.
t Mill's 'History of the Crusades.'
io6
ANIMALS.
fire, kindled in the public square by the bishop and
his clergy. Hymns and anthems were sung, and pro-
cessions were made by the priests and people, in
honour of the sacrifice.
In England the superstitious still hold the cat in
high esteem, and oftentimes when observing the
weather, attribute much importance to its various
movements. Thus, according to some, when they
sneeze it is a sign of rain; and Herrick, in his
* Hesperides,' tells us how
"True calendars, as pusses eare,
Wasn't o're to tell what change is neare."
It is a common notion that when a cat scratches
the legs of a table, it is a prognostic of change of
weather. John Swan, in his 'Speculum Mundi'
(Cambridge, 1643), writing of the cat, says:—"She
useth therefore to wash her face with her feet, which
she licketh and moisteneth with her tongue; and it is
observed by some that, if she put her feet beyond the
crown of her head in this kind of washing, it is a
signe of rain." Indeed, in the eyes of the superstitious,
there is scarcely a movement of the cat which is not
supposed to have some significance.
It is commonly said that cats are exceedingly fond
of valerian (V. officinalis), and in Topsell's 'Four-
footed Beasts' (1658, p. 81), we find the following
curious remarks :—" The root of the herb valerian
(called Phu), is very like to the eye of a cat, and where-
ANIMALS.
107
soever it groweth, if cats come thereunto, they in-
stantly dig it up for the love thereof, as I myself
have seen in mine own garden, for it smelleth moreover
like a cat." There is also an English rhyme on the
plant marum to the following effect:—
"If you set it,
The cats will eat it;
If you sow it,
The cats will know it."
Cats are by many supposed to suck the breath ot
young children, and so cause their death. In the
'Annual Register' (January 25th, 1791) occurs the
following paragraph :—" A child of eighteen months
old was found dead near Plymouth; and it appeared
on the coroner's inquest that the child died in con-
sequence of a cat sucking its breath, thereby occa-
sioning a strangulation." There is, of course, no truth
whatever in this foolish superstition, and "this ex-
tremely unphilosophical notion of cats preferring
exhausted to pure air is," says a correspondent of
Chambers's 'Book of Days' (vol. ii. p. 39), "frequently
a great cause of annoyance to poor pussy, when, after
having established herself close to baby, in a snug,
warm cradle, she finds herself ignominiously hustled
out under suspicion of compassing the death of her
quiet new acquaintance, who is not yet big enough to
pull her tail." In Suffolk, cats' eyes are supposed to
dilate and contract with the flow and ebb of the tide.
In Lancashire the common people have an idea that
io8
ANIMALS.
those who play much with cats never have good
health.
In some parts black cats are said to bring good
luck, and in Scarborough,* a few years ago, sailors'
wives were in the habit of keeping one, thinking
thereby to ensure the safety of their husbands at sea.
This, consequently, gave black cats such a value that
no one else could keep them, as they were nearly
always stolen. There are various proverbs which
attach equal importance to this lucky animal, as, for
example:—
"Whenever the cat o' the house is black,
The lasses o' lovers will have no lack."
And again:—
"Kiss the black cat,
An* 'twill make ye fat;
Kiss the white ane,
'Twill make ye lean."
In Cornwall, says Hunt, those little gatherings
which come on children's eyelids, locally called
"whilks," are cured by passing the tail of a black cat
nine times over the place. If a ram cat, the cure is
more certain. In Ireland it is considered highly
unlucky for persons to take a cat with them when
removing. Consequently, cats, says a correspondent
of 'Notes and Queries' (4th series, vol. iv. p. 505),
often suffer terribly in Dublin, being mercilessly left
to the sympathy of any who may chance to take
compassion upon them.
* Henderson's 'Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties,' p. 171.
ANIMALS.
109
In some counties, for example Devonshire and
Wiltshire, it is believed that a May cat—or, in other
words, a cat born in the month of May—will never
catch any rats or mice, but, contrary to the wont of
cats, will bring into the house snakes and slow-worms,
and other disagreeable reptiles. In Huntingdonshire
it is a common saying that "a May kitten makes a
dirty cat." If a cat should leap over a corpse, it is
said to portend misfortune. Gough, in his 1 Sepulchral
Monuments/ says that in Orkney, during the time
the corpse remains in the house, all the cats are locked
up, and the looking-glasses covered over. In Devon-
shire a superstition prevails that a cat will not remain
in a house with an unburied corpse, and stories are
often told how on the death of one of the inmates of
a house, the cat has suddenly made its disappearance,
and not returned again until after the funeral. The
sneezing of the cat, says Brand (' Popular Antiquities,'
1849, vol. iii. p. 187), appears to have been considered
as a lucky omen to a bride who was to be married on
the succeeding day.
In Scotland there is a children's rhyme upon the
purring of the cat:—
"Dirdum drum,
Three threads and a thrum;
Thrum gray, thrum gray!"
There is a somewhat slang phrase, "to grin like a
Cheshire cat," that is, to display the teeth and gums
when laughing. A curious explanation has been given
no
ANIMALS.
of this phrase,* that Cheshire is a county palatine,
and the cats, when they think of it, are so tickled with
the notion that they can't help laughing.
In South Lancashire the following tradition is
current t: — A gentleman was one evening sitting
cosily in his parlour, reading or meditating, when he
was interrupted by the appearance of a cat, which
came down the chimney, and called out, "Tell
Dildrum Doldrum's dead!" He was naturally
startled by the occurrence, and when shortly after-
wards his wife entered, he related to her what had
happened, and her own cat, which accompanied her,
exclaimed, "Is Doldrum dead?" and immediately
rushed up the chimney, and was heard of no more.
Of course there were numberless conjectures upon
such a remarkable occurrence, but the general opinion
appears to be that Doldrum had been king of Catland,
and that Dildrum was the next heir. A similar legend
is current in Northumberland.
One of the frauds of witchcraft was, says Timbs,
the witch pretending to transform herself into a certain
nimal, the favourite and most usual transformation
eing a cat; hence cats were tormented by the
ignorant vulgar.
Steevens, the commentator on Shakspeare, states
that in some counties in England a cat was formerly
* Hotten's 'Slang Dictionary/ 1864, p. 99.
t 'Notes and Queries,' 2nd series, vol. x. p. 463.
ANIMALS.
Ill
closed up with a quantity of soot in a cask suspended
on a line. He who beat out the bottom of the cask
as he ran under it, and was nimble enough to escape
the contents, was regarded as the hero of this inhuman
diversion, which was terminated by hunting to death
the unfortunate cat.
In Lancashire it is regarded as unlucky to allow a
cat to die in a house. Hence,* when they are ill, they
are usually drowned. At Christchurch, Spitalfields,
there is a benefaction for the widows of weavers under
certain restrictions, called "cat and dog money." And
there is a tradition in the parish that money was given
in the first instance to cats and dogs, f
The horse, in this country, has always been an
object of the highest interest, and our ancestors were,
says Bell ('History of British Quadrupeds'), from the
earliest periods, celebrated for the excellence of their
breeds of this useful animal. When Caesar landed on
the shores of Kent, he was received by the cavalry and
war-chariots belonging to the defending army. It is
not surprising, therefore, that the horse has its quota of
folk-lore. Many regard it as lucky to find a horseshoe,
a notion very common in country places, where one
may often see nailed over the doorway an old cast-off
horseshoe. In some places they are supposed to keep
off witches, and misfortune; thus, in Gays fable of
* Harland and Wilkinson, 'Lancashire Folk-Lore,' p. 141.
t See Edwards's * Old English Customs,' p. 54.
112
ANIMALS.
"The Old Woman and her Cats," the supposed witch
complains:—
"Straws laid across my path retard;
The horseshoe's nail'd, each threshold's guard."
When Dr. James,* then a poor apothecary, had
invented the fever-powder, he was introduced to
Newbery, of St. Paul's Churchyard, to vend the
medicine for him. One Sunday morning, as James
was on his way to Newbery's country-house at Vaux-
hall, in passing over Westminster Bridge, seeing a
horseshoe lying in the road, and considering it to be
a sign of good luck, he put the shoe into his pocket.
As Newbery was a shrewd man, he became James's
agent for the sale of the fever-powder; whilst the
doctor ascribed all his success to the horseshoe, which
he subsequently adopted as the crest upon his carriage.
Douce considers that the practice of nailing horse-
shoes to thresholds resembles that of driving nails into
the walls of cottages among the Romans, which they
believed to be an antidote against the plague.
Aubrey, in his 'Miscellanies/ informs us that "it
is a thing very common to nail horseshoes on the
thresholds of doors; which is to hinder the power of
witches that enter the house. Most of the houses of
the West-end of London have the horseshoe on the
threshold. It should be a horseshoe that one finds."
Further on he adds, "under the porch of Staninfield
• See Tirabs's * Things not Generally Known,' 1856, p. 146.
ANIMALS.
113
Church, in Suffolk, I saw a tile with a horseshoe upon
it, placed there for this purpose, though one would
imagine that holy water alone would have been suffi-
cient. I am told there are many other instances.,,
Nelson, who was of a somewhat superstitious turn of
mind, had very great faith in the luck of a horseshoe,
and one was nailed to the mast of the ship 'Victory.'
There is a certain amount of good or bad luck, says
a correspondent of 'Notes and Queries' (5th series,
vol. vii. p. 64), attached to horses having one or more
white feet or legs. It is very lucky to own a horse
whose fore-legs are both equally " white stockinged ;"
but if one fore and one hind leg on the same side are
white, it is unlucky. It is unlucky when one leg only
of the four is "white stockinged," but if opposite legs,
as off fore, and near hind, are wh,ite, very lucky. A
versified set of instructions on buying white-footed
horses runs thus :—
"One white foot—buy a horse;
Two white feet—try a horse;
Three white feet—look well about him;
Four white feet—do without him."
In the neighbourhood of Stoke-in-Teignhead,
Devonshire, the following rhymes are current:—
"If you have a horse with four white legs,
Keep him not a day;
If you have a horse with three white legs,
Send him far away;
If you have a horse with two white legs,
Sell him to a friend;
And if you have a horse with one white leg,
Keep him to his end."
I
U4
ANIMALS.
In Yorkshire, it is looked upon as unlucky to meet a
white horse on leaving home, and in order to avert the
ill-omen one must spit on the ground.
The plant moonwort was in former days supposed
to possess the quality of drawing the shoes from the
feet of horses. Thus we read *:—
"And horse that, feeding on the grassy hills,
Tread upon moon-woort with their hollow heels,
Though lately shod, at night goe barefoot home,
Their maister musing where their shooes become.
O moon-woort! tell us where thou hidst the smith,
Hammer, and pincers, thou unshod'st them with?
Alas! what lock or iron engine is't
That can thy subtile secret strength resist,
Sith the best farrier cannot set a shoe
So sure, but thou (so shortly) canst undo ?11
In Lancashire t a hogstone with a hole through, tied
to the key of the stable doors, is said to protect the
horses; and if hung up at the bed's head, the farmer
and his family. From the same source we learn that
"in some of the rural districts of Lancashire, belief in
witchcraft is still strong. Many believe that others
have the power to bewitch cows, sheep, horses, and
oxen, and even persons to whom the witch has an
antipathy. On one occasion a respectable farmer
asserted that his horse was bewitched into a stable
through a loophole twelve inches by three! The fact,
he said, was beyond doubt, for he had locked the
* Du Bartas.
f Harland and Wilkinson, 'Lancashire Folk-Lore,' p. 154.
ANIMALS.
stable door himself when the horse was in the field,
and had kept the key in his pocket."
To meet with a shrew-mouse * in going a journey-
is said, by the Northamptonshire peasantry, to be
unlucky. The harvest-mouse, it is also believed,
cannot cross a path which has been trod by man.
It is difficult to account for the prejudices which
have always existed against that harmless and inter-
esting little animal, the bat,t which has not only
furnished an object of superstitious dread to the
ignorant, but has proved to the poet and painter a
fertile source of images of gloom and terror. The
strange combination of character of beast and bird,
which the bat was believed to possess, gave to Virgil
the idea of the Harpies, and Aristotle speaks of them
as having feet like birds, but wanting them as quadru-
peds. In some parts of England the common term
for the bat is flittermouse, corrupted into flintymouse.
In Scotland, when the boys see this animal flitting
about in the evening, they shout,—
"Bloody, bloody bat,
Come into my hat
strongly believing in the potency of their charm.
In Shropshire, one of the methods of discovering
who one's partner for life is to be, consists in procuring
the blade-bone of a lamb, and after pricking it at
* See p. 223. t Thomas Bell, F.R.S.
I 2
n6
ANIMALS.
midnight with a penknife, in repeating the following
charm:—
"'Tis not this bone I mean to pick,
But my love's heart I wish to prick;
If he comes not, and speaks, to-night,
I'll prick, and prick 'till it be light."
In Lancashire, it is thought, in spring, lucky to see
the first lamb's head, but equally unlucky to see its
tail. Another piece of superstition consists in notic-
ing when you see for the first time this little animal,
whether its head or tail is turned towards you. If the
former, you will have plenty of meat to eat during
the year; if the latter, you may look for nothing but
milk and vegetables.*
Pigs are not without their little portion of folk-lore,
for we are informed that the Filey fishermen will not
go to sea on any day when they have either seen or
met a pig the first thing in the morning; and in
Ireland, to see pigs running about the farmyard with
straws in their mouth, foretells an approaching storm.
Grose tells us that "if going on a journey on
business a sow cross the road, you will probably meet
with a disappointment, if not a bodily accident, before
you return home. To avert this, you must endeavour
to prevent her crossing you ; and if that cannot be
done, you must ride round on fresh ground: if the
sow is with her litter of pigs, it is lucky and denotes a
successful journey." The same superstition prevails
* Henderson's 'Traditions of the Northern Counties.'
ANIMALS.
117
in Germany, where the peasant considers it unlucky
to meet a herd of swine.
The hare was used in divination by the ancient
Britons, and was never killed for the table.* Borlase,
in his 'Antiquities of Cornwall/ relates a remarkable
way of divining recorded of Boadicea, Queen of the
Britons:—" When she had harangued her soldiers to
spirit them against the Romans, she opened her bosom
and let go a hare, which she had there concealed, that
the augurs might thence proceed to divine. The
frighted animal made such twistings and windings in
her course, as, according to the then rules of judging,
prognosticated happy success. The joyful multitude
made loud huzzas; Boadicea seized the opportunity,
approved their ardour, led them straight to their
enemies, and gained the victory."
In Northamptonshire, if a hare runs along the street
or mainway of a village, it portends fire to some house
in the immediate vicinity. Sir Thomas Browne says,
"If a hare cross the highway, there are few above
three-score years that are not perplexed thereat, which,
notwithstanding, is but an augurial terror, according
to that received expression, 'Inauspicatum dat iter
oblatus lepus/" The hare was formerly esteemed a
melancholy animal, and its flesh was supposed to
produce melancholy in those who ate it. An old
medical writer informs us how " hare-flesh engendreth
melancholy bloude." This idea, says Timbs, was not
* See Brand's 'Popular Antiquities,' 1849, V°L P- 2°3»
ANIMALS.
quite forgotten in Swift's time; in his 'Polite Con-
versation/ Lady Answerall, being asked to eat hare,
replies: "No, Madam; they say, 'tis melancholy
meat." Another old notion respecting hares—and
one, too, supported by respectable ancient authorities
—was that they yearly changed their sex. Fletcher*
in his'Faithful Shepherdess,'says:—"Hares that yearly
sexes change." The hare, too, was supposed to be so
timid that it never—not even in sleep—closed its eyes.
Chapman has drawn from this superstition a fine
epithet on the death of Prince Henry:—
"Relentless Rigor, and Confusion faint,
Frantic Distemper, and hare-eyed Unrest."
There is a popular notion relative to goats: they
are supposed, says Brand,* never to be seen for
twenty-four hours together; and that once in that
space, they pay a visit to the devil, in order to have
their beards combed. This is common both in
England and Scotland. Martin, in his 'Description
of the Western Islands/ says it was an ancient custom
among them to hang a he-goat to the boat's mast, in
order to ensure by this means a favourable wind.
The rabbit, like the hare, is looked upon as ominous,
for to use the words of Mr. Tylor (' Primitive Culture/
vol. i. p. 109), "the Cornish miner turns away in horror
when he meets an old woman or a rabbit on his way
to the pit's mouth."
A common superstition attaching to the ass is that
* 'Popular Antiquities,' vol ii. p. 517.
ANIMALS.
119
the marks on its shoulders were given as memorials of
our Saviour riding upon it. In the North Riding of
Yorkshire, however, there is a tradition* that these
marks "were in consequence of Balaam's striking it,
and as a reproof to him and memento of his
conduct"
One cause of the superstitions attached to the hedge-
hog is owing to the peculiar noise it makes, which is
alluded to by Shakspeare in 'Macbeth/ where the
witches round the caldron are represented as say-
ing :—
"Twice the brindled cat hath mewed,
Twice and once the hedge-pig whin'd," &c.
The sound of its voice is similar to that of a person
snoring, or breathing very hard; and as heard, says a
correspondent of 'Notes and Queries/ in the still
silence of the night, might be mistaken by the fearful
and superstitious for the moaning of a disturbed spirit.
Our ancestors regarded the hedgehog as a prognosti-
cator of the weather. An old writer tells us—
"As hedge-hogs doe fore-see ensuing stormes,
So wise men are for fortune still prepared."
In' Poor Robin's Almanack/ too, for the year 1733,
we find these curious lines :—
"Observe which way the hedge-hog builds her nest,
To front the north, or south, or east, or west;
For if 'tis true that common people say,
The 'wind will blow the quite contrary way:
* Brand's * Popular Antiquities,' vol, iii. p. 363.
120
ANIMALS.
If by some secret art the hedge-hogs know,
So long before, which way the winds will blow,
She has an art which many a person lacks,
That thinks himself fit to make almanacks."
A common amusement among children consists in
charming snails, in order to induce them to put out
their horns—the following couplet in the southern
counties being repeated on the occasion :—
"Snail, snail, come out of your hole,
Or else I'll beat you as black as a coal."
In the northern counties, we find another version
which runs thus:—
"Snail, snail, put out your horns,
I'll give you bread and barley-corns."
In certain districts of Scotland, it is regarded as a
token of fine weather, if the snail obeys the command
to put out its horn:—
"Snailie, snailie, shoot out your horn,
And tell us if it will be a bonnie day the morn."
Snail charms, it may be noted, are not peculiar to
English children, but are found on the Continent.
Thus, for instance, in Silesia, the children are in the
habit of singing:—
"Snail, snail, slug slow,
To me thy four horns show;
If thou dost not show me thy four,
I will throw thee out of the door,
For the crow in the gutter,
To eat for bread and butter." *
* See Halliwell's ' Popular Rhymes,' p. 177.
ANIMALS.
121
Snails were much used in days gone by in love
divinations; a practice alluded to by Gay in his
'Shepherd's Week * :—
Last May-day fair I searched to find a snail,
That might my secret lover's name reveal.
Upon a gooseberry bush a snail I found,
For always snails near sweetest fruit abound.
I seiz'd the vermin, home I quickly sped,
And on the hearth the milk-white embers spread.
Slow crawl'd the snail, and if I right can spell,
In the soft ashes marked a curious L;
Oh! may this wondrous omen lucky prove,
For L is found in Lubberkin and Love.''
Snails, too, it would seem, were deemed good for a
cough in times past. Mrs. Delany* writes in January,
1758:—"Does Mary cough in the night? Two or
three snails boiled in her barley-water or tea-water, or
whatever she drinks, might be of great service to her;
taken in time, they have done wonderful cures. She
must know nothing of it. They give no manner of taste.
It would be best nobody should know it but yourself,
and I should imagine six or eight boiled in a quart of
water, and strained off and put into a bottle, would be
a good way, adding a spoonful or two of that to every
liquid she takes. They must be fresh done every two
or three days, otherwise they grow too thick."
There is a notion prevalent all over Scotland, says
Chambers (<Popular Rhymes/ 1870, p. 202), "that
an unusually large species of snail—probably the
Helixpomatia—was kept by the monks in former days
* Extracted from 'Book of Days,' voL L p. 198.
122
ANIMALS.
about their convents and monasteries, and that it is
still rife about the ruins of religious houses. The
following story, from its universality, seems to have
some truth at bottom. In a time of long enduring
famine in a past age, when all people looked attenu-
ated and pale from low diet, it was observed with
surprise of two poor old women that they continued to
be fat and fair. They were suspected of witchcraft, as
the only conceivable means of their keeping up the
system at such a time, were seized, and subjected to
examination. With much reluctance, and only to
escape a threatened death of torment, they confessed
that, in the previous autumn, when the state of the
harvest gave token of coming dearth, they had busied
themselves in collecting snails, which they salted as
provisions; and by dieting on these creatures, which
furnished a wholesome, if not an agreeable food, they
had lived in comparative comfort all the winter.
The discovery in their house of the barrel, still
containing a large amount of this molluscous pro-
vision, confirmed the tale; and they were set at
liberty, not without some approbation of their fore-
sight, and the pious wisdom they had shown in not
rejecting any healthful fare which Providence had
placed at their command."
INSECTS.
123
CHAPTER V.
INSECTS—REPTILES.
The Bee — Ant — Spider — Butterfly — Moth — Dragon-fly — Fly —
Daddy-longlegs— Gnat — Cricket — Wasp — Flea — Ladybird—
Snake — Glow-worm — Toad.
OUR forefathers, says Couch,* appear to have been
amongst those who considered bees as possessing a
portion u divinse mentis"; for there is a degree of
deference yet paid to them which would scarcely be
offered to beings endowed with only ordinary animal
instinct. Indeed, the varied kinds of superstitions
connected with these remarkable little insects pre-
suppose the idea that they possess a certain amount
of understanding or instinct whereby they are able to
take cognizance of things which otherwise they could
not do. Thus, to remove bees on any day but Good
Friday would, it is said in Cornwall, most certainly
ensure their death. In Bedfordshire, it is by no means
uncommon for the peasantry to sing a psalm in front
of hives in which bees are not doing well, as after-
wards they are sure to thrive. In Yorkshire there is
a custom, which has been revived, more or less, by the
country people, ever since the alteration of the style,
* 'History of Polperro,' p. 168.
124
INSECTS.
of watching, on the midnight of the new and old
Christmas Eve, by the beehives, in order to determine
on the right Christmas from the loud humming noise
which they suppose the bees will make when the birth
of our Saviour took place.
The sale of bees is considered by some a very unlucky
proceeding; and they are not unfrequently trans-
ferred from one owner to another, with the tacit under-
standing that a bushel of corn—the constant value of
a swarm—is to be given in return. In Sussex, we
are informed, no one would think of buying a stock
ot bees, or of paying for them in anything else but
gold or hay—half-a-sovereign is the usual price.
Virgil's precept is followed everywhere :—
"Tinnitusque cie, et matris quate cymbala circum
the instruments used for ringing them down being
generally the frying-pan and one of the house door-
keys. In allusion to this practice, we find the follow-
ing remarks in 'Tusser Redivivus,' 1744, p. 62 :—" The
tinkling after them with a warming-pan, frying-pan,
kettle, is of good use to let the neighbours know you
have a swarm in the air, which you claim wherever it
lights ; but I believe of very little purpose to the re-
claiming of the bees, who are thought to delight in no
noise but their own."
Borlase, in his 'Antiquities of Cornwall,' tells us
that "the Cornish to this day invoke the Spirit
Browny, when their bees swarm; and think that their
crying Browny, Browny, will prevent their returning
INSECTS.
125
into their former hive, and make them pitch and form
a new colony.
As to the time of their swarming, there are many
rhymes, of which we give a specimen:—
"A swarm of bees in May
Is worth a load of hay;
A swarm of bees in June
Is worth a silver spoon;
A swarm of bees in July
Is not worth a butterfly."
Tusser, in his ' Five Hundred Points of Husbandry,'
under the month of May, says:—
"Take heed to thy bees, that are ready to swarme,
The losse thereof now is a crown's worth of harme."
It is a common saying in Hampshire that bees
are idle or unfortunate whenever there are wars. In
Northamptonshire, a notion prevails that they will not
thrive in a quarrelsome family. Stolen bees, too,
will not flourish, but will by degrees pine away and
die. In Suffolk it is looked upon as unlucky for a
stray swarm of bees to settle on a person's premises,
unclaimed by their owner. "Going to my father's
house," says a correspondent of Chambers's 'Book of
Days' (vol. ii. p. 752), one afternoon, I found the
household in a state of excitement, as a stray swarm
of bees had settled on the pump. A hive had been
procured, and the coachman and I hived them
securely. After this had been done, I was saying that
they might think themselves fortunate in getting a
126
INSECTS.
hive of bees so cheap; but I found that this was not
agreed to by all, for one man employed about the
premises looked very grave, and shook his head. On
my asking him what was the matter, he told me in a
solemn undertone that he did not mean to say that
there was anything in it, but people did say that if a
swarm of bees came to a house, and were not claimed
by their owner, there would be death in the family
within the year; and it was evident that he believed
in the omen. As it turned out, there was a death in
my house, though not in my father's, about seven
months afterwards, and I have no doubt but that this
was taken as a fulfilment of the portent." In Cum-
berland, there is a popular notion that when bees die,
their owner will soon die also. A vulgar prejudice
prevails too in many places in England, that, when
bees remove or go away from their hives, the owner
of them will die soon after.* In Rutlandshire^ if a
bee fly in at the window, it is a sure sign of a visitor.
A superstition very prevalent, not only in this
country but also abroad, consists in announcing to
bees the death of their master, as unless this is done,
it is believed they will either all die or desert the hive,
and in some parts the hives are even put in mourning.
Many curious anecdotes are told of the misfortune
befalling bees where this practice has not been
strictly adhered to. "A neighbour of mine," says a
correspondent of the 'Book of Days' (vol. i. p. 753),
* See Brand's 4 Popular Antiquities,' 1849, vol. ii. p. 300.
t Als oin Buckinghamshire.
INSECTS.
127
"bought a hive of bees at an auction of the goods of a
farmer, who had recently died. The bees seemed
very sickly, and not likely to thrive, when my neigh-
bour's servant bethought him that they had never
been put in mourning for their late master; on this
he got a piece of crape and tied it to a stick, which
he fastened to the hive. After this the bees recovered,
and when I saw them they were in a very flourishing
state; a result which was unhesitatingly attributed
to their having been put into mourning." In the
neighbourhood of North Bovey, Devonshire,* a similar
belief still exists.
"All of 'em dead, sir, all the thirteen! What a
pity it is!"
"What's a pity, Mrs. ?Who's dead ?99
"The bees, to be sure, sir. Mrs. Blank, when she
buried her husband, forgot to give the bees a bit of
mourning, and now, sir, all the bees be dead, though
the hives be pretty nigh full of honey. What a pity
'tis folks will be so forgetful!"
Mrs. continued to explain, that whenever the
owner or part owner of a hive died, it was requisite
to place little bits of black stuff on the hive, otherwise
the bees would follow the example of their owner.
Mrs. 's husband, who listened while this scrap
of folk-lore was being communicated by his wife, now
added, "My wife, sir, be always talking a lot of
nonsense, sir; but this about the bees is true, for I've
seed it myself."
* 'Report of the Devonshire Association,' 1876, vol. viii p. 51.
128
INSECTS.
In Tymm's 'Topography' we find an allusion to
this custom: "The inhabitants of Cherry Burton
believe in the necessity of clothing the bees in mourn-
ing at the death of the head of a family, to secure the
prosperity of the hive. An instance occurred in July,
1827, in a cottager's family, when a black scarf was
suspended to each hive, and an offering of a pounded
funeral biscuit, soaked in wine, was placed at the
entrance with great solemnity. In Hampshire, when
the head of a family who keeps bees dies, it is usual
for a person, after his death, at once to repair to the
hives, and gently tapping them, to say:—
"Bees, bees, awake!
Your master is dead,
And another you must take."
Unless this is done, it is said they will very soon all
die or fly away. In other places, this intelligence is
communicated to the little community by one of the
inmates first knocking with the key of the house-
door three times against the hive, and repeating the
doleful news. In Germany, this curious custom is
still further carried out, says Mr. Tylor ('Primitive
Culturefor not only is the sad message "given to
every beehive in the garden and every beast in the
stall, but every sack of corn must be touched, and
everything in the house shaken, that they may know
the master is gone." In Westphalia, it is customary
to announce formally to the nearest oak any death
INSECTS.
129
that has occurred in a family. In some places bees
are invited to funerals, and a formal invitation is sent
to them. At Bradfield, a primitive little village on the
edge of the Moors, in the parish of Ecclesfield, this
custom is kept up, and has been from time im-
memorial.
We may also mention another instance of this
popular belief of bees being affected by the death of
a member of a family, narrated by a correspondent
of' Notes and Queries:'—" In Cheshire I overtook an
old farmer's wife who had from fifteen to twenty
hives of bees when I was last at her house, a couple
of years ago. 'Well, Mrs. I said, 'how have
the bees done this year?' 'Ah!' she replied, 'they
are all gone. When our Harriet lost her second child,
a many of them died. You see, they were under the
window where it lay; and then when Will died last
spring, the rest all died too; at least some of them
went away and left their honey, but the rest died. I
bought a hive of bees again, but they have not
swarmed, and they have not done much good. Some
folks pretend to say that death has nothing to do
with bees; but you may depend upon it, it has.
I always say that bees are very curious things/
'Yes/ I said, 'they are very curious things/"
In the 'Argus' newspaper of September 13th, 1790,
we read:—" A superstitious custom prevails at every
funeral in Devon of turning round the beehives that
belonged to the deceased, if he had any, and that at
K
130
INSECTS.
the moment the corpse is carried out of the house.
At a funeral some time since at Collumpton of a rich
old farmer, a laughable circumstance of this sort
occurred; for, just as the corpse was placed in the
hearse, and the horsemen to a large number were
drawn up in order for the procession of the funeral,
a person called out, 'Turn the bees!' when a servant,
who had no knowledge of such a custom, instead of
turning the hives round, lifted them up, and then laid
them down on their sides. The bees thus hastily
invaded, instantly attacked and fastened on the horses
and their riders. It was in vain they galloped off,
the bees as precipitately followed, and left their stings
as marks of their indignation. A general confusion
took place, attended with loss of hats, wigs, &c, and
the corpse during the conflict was left unattended;
nor was it till after a considerable time that the
funeral attendants could be rallied in order to proceed
to the interment of their deceased friend." This odd
superstition is prevalent in many counties. Thus, in
Cheshire, an old blacksmith, says a correspondent of
'Notes and Queries' (2nd series, vol. viii. p. 243),
lamented to me the ill-success which had attended
his bee-keeping ever since the death of his wife,
attributing it to his having neglected to turn the
hives round when that event occurred.
In Lincolnshire, not only at funerals but at
weddings, they give a piece of the funeral biscuit and
wedding cake to the bees, informing them at the
INSECTS.
same time of the name of the party dead or married.
It is said that if the bees do not know of the formek
they sicken and die; and if ignorant of the latter,
they become very irate and sting everyone within
their reach. Bees are also believed to foretell the
weather. Thus, when many enter a hive, and none
leave it, rain is at hand. Hence the rhyme:—
"If bees stay at home,
Rain will soon come;
If they fly away,
Fine will be the day."
Virgil, in the Fourth 'Georgic' (191-194) mentions
this idea:—
"Nec vero a stabulis pluvia impendente recedunt
Longius, aut credunt coelo adventantibus Euris;
Sed circum tutae sub moenibus urbis aquantur."
Willsford, in his 'Natures Secrets' (p. 134),says:—
"Bees, in fair weather, not wandering far from their
hives, presage the approach of some stormy weather."
In Lancashire,* dreaming of bees is counted for-
tunate, because they are industrious :—
"Happy the man who dreaming sees
The little humble busy bees
Fly humming round their hive."
If the bees sting you, it is a sign of bad luck,
crosses and difficulties.
In Cornwall it is wrong to destroy a colony of
ants, which are called by the peasantry "Muryans,"
* Harland and Wilkinson, 'Lancashire Folk-Lore,' p. 148.
K 2
132
INSECTS.
as it is believed that they are small people—-one of
the fairy tribe—in a state of decay from off the earth.
It is considered as unlucky to hurt or kill a spider,
as it is lucky to let one live. Thus, in Kent, the
following couplet is found:—
"If you wish to live and thrive,
Let a spider run alive."
In Northamptonshire the small spiders called
"Money-spinners" prognosticate good luck; and, in
order to propitiate them, they must be thrown over
the left shoulder. In some places, it is said that if a
spider be found on a person's clothes, it is an omen that
he will shortly have money, upon which superstition
old Fuller thus moralises:—" When a spider is found
upon our clothes, we use to say, some money is
coming towards us. The moral is this:—such who
imitate the industry of that contemptible creature, by
God's blessing, weave themselves into wealth, and
procure a plentiful estate." Willsford, in his 'Nature s
Secrets/ speaking of the peculiarities attaching to
certain plants, tells us that "in autumn (some say) in
the gall or oak apple, one of these three things will
be found, if cut in pieces—a fly, denoting want; a
worm, plenty; but if a spider, mortality." In the
supplement to the 'Athenian Oracle/ the fly in the
oak apple is explained as denoting war; the spider,
pestilence; the small worm, plenty.
Even the little butterfly, that flits brightly about in
INSECTS.
133
the summer sky, and alighting on some fragrant
flower adds a further beauty to its graceful form,
is not without a folk-lore. In Devonshire, anyone
neglecting to kill the first he may see in the season,
will have, it is generally supposed, ill-luck for the
remainder of the year. As an illustration of this
superstition, Hunt, in his 'Popular Romances of the
West of England/ quotes the following, given by a
young lady:—"The other Sunday, as we were walking
to church, we met a man running at full speed, with
his hat in one hand and his stick in the other. As
he passed us, he exclaimed, * I shan't hat 'en now, I
brieve.' He did not give us time to inquire what he
was so eagerly pursuing; but we presently overtook
an old man, whom we knew to be his father, and who,
being very infirm, and upwards of seventy, generally
hobbled about by the aid of two sticks. Addressing
me, he observed, 'My zin, a took away wan a my
sticks, miss; wan't be abble to kil'n now though,
I b'lieve.' 'Kill what?' said I; 'Why, 'tis a butter-
fly, miss, the furst heeth a zeed for the year; and
they zay that a body will have cruel bad luck if a
ditn 'en kill a furst a zeeth.'"
In Gloucestershire there is a superstition that if
the first butterfly you see in the opening year is white,
you will eat white bread during the remainder of the
year, which is another way of saying that you will
have good luck; if, however, the first is brown, it is
said that you will eat brown bread—that is, be un-
134
INSECTS.
lucky. In Nottinghamshire it is regarded as great an
omen to see three butterflies together as three magpies.
In Somersetshire there exists a cruel custom among
the children, who, when they have caught a certain
kind of large white moth, which is locally termed a
Miller, chant over it this rhyme:—
"Millery! Millery! Dousty-poll!
How many sacks hast thou stole V9
The poor creature is then put to death for the
imagined misdeeds of his human namesake.
In Yorkshire the country people used to call, and
even now occasionally do so, night-flying white
moths, "souls/'
In some parts of the Isle of Wight, says Halliwell,
in his interesting and amusing little volume, € Popular
Rhymes/ "dragon-flies are found of a peculiarly
large size, and their colours are extremely beautiful.
There is an old legend respecting them which is still
current. It is supposed by the country people that their
sting or bite is venomous, as bad as that of a snake .or
adder, and perhaps from this belief their provincial
name of snake-stanger, or snake-stang, is derived. It
is said that these insects can distinguish the good
children from the bad when they go fishing; if the
latter go too near the water, they are almost sure to
be bitten; but when the good boys go, the dragon-flies
point out the places where the fish are by settling on
the banks, or flags, in the proper direction/'
INSECTS.
135
It is a common idea that if a fly falls into the glass
from which anyone has been drinking, it is a certain
omen of prosperity to the drinker.
During harvest time, reapers often take very great
care not to injure a large kind of daddy-longlegs—
popularly known by them as the harvestman—under
the superstitious notion that it is unlucky to kill one.
In the Eastern Counties of England, says Halliwell
('English Popular Rhymes'), and perhaps in other
parts of the country, children chant the following lines
when they are pursuing the gnat:—
"Gnat, gnat, fly into my hat,
And I'll give you a slice of bacon."
In Lancashire,* crickets about a house are said to
be lucky, and to do no harm to those who treat them
well. It is believed, however, that they eat holes in
the worsted stockings of such members of the family
as kill them.
In Northamptonshire it is said that the first wasp
seen in the season should always be killed. By so
doing, one secures to himself good luck and freedom
from enemies throughout the year.t
Fleas, it has been observed, and other parasitic
insects, never infest a person who is near death; and
so frequently has this, says Mr. Timbs, been re-
marked, that it has become one of the popular signs
of approaching dissolution. This is, he adds, "in
* Harland and Wilkinson's 'Lancashire Folk-Lore,' p. 156.
t Sternberg's 'Northamptonshire Glossary,' 1851, p. 160.
136
INSECTS.
all probability, caused by the alteration in the state of
the fluids immediately under the skin, either in quality
or quantity. It must be upon the same principle that
women and children are always more infested with
the bed-bug, and other parasitic insects, than old men,
whose sub-cutaneous fluids are scanty, and their skin,
in consequence, more rigid and dry." Willsford, in his
'Nature's Secrets' (1658, p. 130), tells us that the
"little sable beast (called a flea), if much thirsting
after blood, it argues rain."
In some parts of Sussex the ladybird is called the
lady-bug; and in others, fly-golding, or God Al-
mighty's Cow. This little insect is not without its
folk-lore, for the children set it on their finger,
saying:—
"Bishop, Bishop Barnabee,
Tell me when my wedding shall be;
If it be to-morrow day,
Ope your wings and fly away."
In Lancashire, too, the children say:—
"Lady-bird, lady-bird, fly away home;
Your house is on fire and your children will burn."
And in Yorkshire there is another version:—
"Cusha-coo-lady, fly away home;
Thy house is a-fire and all thy bairns gone."
In Scotland there is a popular rhyme to this effect:—
"Lady, Lady Landers,
Lady, Lady Landers,
Take up your coats about your head,
And fly away to Flanders."
REPTILES.
137
Scattered here and there throughout the country,
we find a good deal of folk-lore connected with that
most disagreeable of all reptiles—the snake. In Corn-
wall it is believed that the dead body of a serpent,*
bruised on the wound it has occasioned, is an infallible
remedy for its bite. Thus has originated the follow-
ing rhyme:—
"The beauteous adder hath a sting,
Yet bears a balsam too."
In Devonshire we find the following remedy resorted
to:—A chicken is killed, and the wound thrust into
the stomach, and there allowed to remain till the
bird becomes cold. If the flesh of the bird, when
cold, assumes a dark colour, it is believed that the cure
is effected, and that the virus has been extracted from
the sufferer; if, however, on the other hand, the flesh
retains its natural colour, then the poison has been
absorbed into the system of the bitten person. A
correspondent of 'Notes and Queries' (4th series, vol.
iv. p. 507), tells us that he has observed nearly the
same mode of cure for the bite of a snake practised
amongst the Hottentots in the Kat River settlement,
on the eastern frontier of Cape Colony. A few
feathers are plucked from the breast of a fowl, and
a small incision made in the skin, to which the wound
is applied; after some time the process is repeated;
* See 'Popular Romances of the West of England,' 1871, p.415;
also Brand's * Popular Antiquities,' 1849, voL iil p. 270.
138
REPTILES.
the fowl, it is said, meantime gradually dying as the
poison extracted from the wound operates upon it.
Mr. Hawke (' Footprints of Former Men in Far
Cornwall') gives the following remedy* as related to
him by an inhabitant of the parish of Morwenstow,
and is certainly highly comical:—"Cut a piece of
hazlewood, and fasten a long bit and short one
together in form of a cross; then lay it softly upon
the wound, and say thrice, blowing out the words
aloud, like one of the Commandments :—
"Underneath this hazelin mote,
There's a braggoty worm with a speckled throat;
Nine double is he:
Now from nine double to eight double,
And from eight double to seven double, •
And from seven double to six double,
And from six double to five double,
And from five double to four double,
And from four double to three double,
And from three double to two double,
And from two double to one double,
And from one double to no double,
No double hath he I"
This charm, of course, like all others, has never been
known to fail, except from people's obstinacy and
want of faith.
In Sussex there is a superstition that the slow-
worm has certain words engraven on his belly:—
"If I could hear as well as see,
No man of life should master me."
REPTILES. 139
Another version of the same rhyme is:—
"If I could hear as well as I can see,
No man nor beast should pass by me."
There has always been an aversion to toads. The
older poets clothed him, says Sir William Jardine, in
his notes on White's 'Natural History of Selborne*
(1853, p. 42), "in a garb ugly and venomous;" and
one of our master bards has likened the Evil Spirit to
him, as a semblance of all that is devilish and dis-
gusting :—
"Him they found,
Squat like a toad, close at the ear of Eve,
Assaying with all his devilish art to reach
The organs of her fancy."
Thus we are taught, and the feeling is handed
down from family to family, to loathe a harmless
animal. The bite is innocent of any after conse-
quences, and we never saw a toad attempt to bite.;
The exudation of the skin is only used in self-defence.
This, however, is a disputed point, and naturalists are
divided in their opinion.*
Herrick, in his 'Hesperides/ mentions the following
u charm, or allay, for love ":—
"If so be a toad be laid
In a sheep-skin newly flaid,
And that ty*d to man, 'twill sever
Him and his affections ever."
* See Cuvier's 'Animal Kingdom.'
140
REPTILES.
According to a very old belief, there is a violent
antipathy between a toad and a spider, and that they
"poisonously destroy each other," says Sir Thomas
Browne (' Vulgar Errors/ book iiL), "is very famous,
and solemn stories have been written of their combats,
wherein the victory is generally ascribed to the spider."
Erasmus tells a ridiculous story of a monk found
asleep on his back, with a toad squatted upon his
mouth. The brethren, carefully conveying the monk,
placed him immediately under the web of a spider, who
instantly descended upon and at length slew the
toad, and delivered the monk from an ugly death.
CHARMS.
141
CHAPTER VI.
CHARMS.
Madness—Hydrophobia—Epilepsy—Shingles—Sciatica—Hiccough—
Stopping Blood—Sprain—Thrush—Consumption—Goitre—Wen
— Cancer—Sore-eyes—Whooping-cough — Toothache — Earache
—Headache —Ague —Cramp — Warts— Small-pox — Measles —
Burn — Ringworm — Scarlet-fever — Boils — Sting of Nettle —
Prick of Thorn.
Every country has its own peculiar belief in what
perhaps may best be called charm-magic—the sup-
posed cure of certain diseases by the instrumentality
of charms. This is a species of superstition, which,
curious to say, is not by any means confined to the
ignorant and uneducated, but often shared in by those
who lay claim to possessing not only knowledge, but its
invaluable accompaniment, common sense. Charm-
formulas are frequently actual prayers, and not always
of a very reverential tone. Sometimes they are mere
verbal forms, without the slightest meaning, yet they
are repeated with equal care and solemnity, as some
inherent magic is believed to be embodied in them.
As will be seen in the following pages, there are
charms supposed to be curative of "all the ills that
flesh is heir to."
Borlase notices, in his ' Natural History of Cornwall/
142
CHARMS.
(p. 302), a very singular method of curing madness,
mentioned, too, by Carew, as practised in the parish
of Altarnum, which consisted in placing "the dis-
ordered in mind on the brink of a square pool filled
with water from St. Nun's Well. The patient,
having no intimation of what was intended, was,
by a sudden blow on the breast, tumbled into the
pool, where he was tossed up and down by some
persons of superior strength till, being quite debili-
tated, his fury forsook him; he was then carried
to church, and certain masses were sung over him.
The Cornish call this immersion boossenning, from
beuzi or bidhyzi, in the Cornu-British and Armoric,
signifying to dip or drown." Casting mad people
into the sea, says Mr. Pettigrew, in his * Superstitions
connected with Medicine and Surgery* (1844, p. 63),
or immersing them in the water until nigh drowned,
have been recommended by high medical authorities
as a means of cure. Boerhaave has an aphorism
(1123) to this effect:—"Praecipitatio in mare, sub-
mersio in eo continuata quamdiu ferre potest princeps
remedium est."
Sir Walter Scott alludes to this practice in his
4 Marmion':—
"Thence to St Fillan's blessed well,
Whose spring can frenzied dreams dispel,
And the crazed brain restore:"
and in a note he adds, "There are in Perthshire
several wells and springs dedicated to St. Fillan,
which are still places of pilgrimage and offerings,
CHARMS.
143
even among the Protestants. They are held powerful
in cases of madness, and in cases of very late occur-
rence, lunatics have been left all night bound to the
holy stone, in confidence that the saint would cure and
unloose them before morning.,'
The following extract from the 'Pall Mall Gazette'
for Oct. 12th, 1866, illustrates a singular remedy for
hydrophobia, still practised in Buckinghamshire :—
"At an inquest held on the 5th of October at Brad-
well, on the body of a child of five years of age,
which had died of hydrophobia, evidence was given
of a practice almost incredible in civilized England.
Sarah Mackness stated that at the request of the
mother of the deceased, she had fished the body of
the dog, by which the child had been bitten, out of the
river, and had extracted its liver, a slice of which she
had frizzled before the fire, and had then given it to the
child to be eaten with some bread. The dog had been
drowned nine days before. The child ate the liver
greedily, drank some tea afterwards, and died in spite
of this strange specific." Such superstition as this can
hardly be understood in the nineteenth century.
The 'Maidstone Gazette' of September 12th, 1848,
gives a curious piece of superstition on this point:—
"So strong a hold has the genius of superstition
among the peasantry of South Wales, that a woman
recently bitten by a mad donkey was sent to the
churchyard of St Edrins to eat the grass, which, it is
believed, has the peculiar property of being an anti-
dote to hydrophobia."
144
CHARMS.
From an old manuscript receipt-book of cookery,
medicine, and lucky days and signs, quoted by a
correspondent of i Notes and Queries/ we extract the
following:—" Against the bite of a mad dog—write
upon an apple, or on fine white bread, *0 king of
glory, come in peace.' Pax. Max., D. inax.
"Swallow this three mornings fasting;
Also, Hax, Max, Adinax, Opera, Chudor."
The hair of a dog, says Timbs, in his useful little
book, 'Things not Generally Known' (1856, p. 76),
"when burnt, was formerly prescribed as an antidote
against the effects of intoxication; hence a man too
much excited by drink at night is recommended to
take a hair of the same dog the next morning, as a
means of gradually counteracting his state of debility;
but the dram is now substituted for the hair." This
reminds us of the following passage from i La Gita-
nilla/ one of Cervantes' novelas:—"A young man
on approaching a gipsy camp by night, was attacked
and bitten by dogs. An old gipsy woman undertook
to cure his wounds, and her procedure was: She took
some hairs of the dogs, and fried them in oil, and
having first washed with wine the bites he had in
his left leg, put the hairs and oil upon them, with a
little chewed green rosemary over them; she then
bound the wounds up with clean cloths, and made the
sign of the cross over them." This was one of the
many instances of the ancient homoeopathic doctrine,
CHARMS.
says Mr. Tylor ('Primitive Culture/ vol. i. p. 761),
that what hurts will also cure: it is mentioned in
the Scandinavian Edda, "Dog's hair heals dog's
bite."
The elder tree has been especially employed in
epilepsy. In Blochwick's 'Anatomie of the Elder *
(1655, p. 52), we read of an amulet made of the elder
growing on a sallow :—" If in the month of October,
a little before the full moon, you pluck a twig of the
elder, and cut the cane that is betwixt two of its
knees, or knots, in nine pieces, and these pieces, being
bound in a piece of linen, be in a thread so hung
about the neck that they touch the spoon of the heart,
or the sword-formed cartilage; and, that they may
stay more firmly in that place, they are to be bound
thereon with a linen or silken roller wrapt about the
body, till the thread break of itself. The thread
being broken and the roller removed, the amulet is
not at all to be touched with bare hands, but it ought
to be taken hold on by some instrument, and buried
in a place that nobody may touch it."
The following paragraph is from the 'Times' of
March 7th, 1854, and is interesting as showing the
almost incredible height to which superstition is
capable of reaching:—" A young woman, living in the
neighbourhood of Halsworthy, North Devon, having
for some time past been subject to periodical fits of
illness, endeavoured to effect a cure by attendance at
the afternoon service at the parish church, acconv
L
146
CHARMS.
panied by thirty young men, her near neighbours.
Service over, she sat in the porch of the church, and
each of the young men as they passed out in succes-
sion, dropped a penny into her lap; but the last,
instead of a penny, gave her half-a-crown, taking from
her the twenty-nine pennies. With this half-crown in
her hand she walked three times round the com-
munion-table, and afterwards had it made into a
ring, by the wearing of which she believed she would
recover her health.
This piece of folk-lore, slightly varied, exists else-
where. Thus, in Herefordshire, a ring, called "a sacra-
ment shilling," made out of a shilling taken from the
offertory, is occasionally used as a remedy for fits;
and the 'Staffordshire Advertiser' tells us that on
Christmas Day, 1874, a labourer's wife in Wiltshire
came to a clergyman of the parish and asked for a
sacrament shilling in exchange for one which she
tendered. On inquiry, it appeared that her son was
subject to fits, and that the only certain remedy was
to hang a sacrament shilling round the patient's neck.
This must be obtained by first collecting a penny a
piece from twelve maidens, then exchanging the pence
for an ordinary shilling, and then again exchanging
the shilling for a sacrament one. When this rule has
been carefully followed out, it has never been known
to fail. The following extract from the 'Stamford
Mercury' (Oct. 8th, 1858), chronicles another piece of
superstition of by no means a pleasing kind w A
CHARMS.
147
collier's wife recently applied to the sexton of Ruabon
Church for ever so small a portion of a human skull
for the purpose of grating it similar to ginger, to be
afterwards added to some mixture which she intended
giving to her daughter as a remedy against fits, to
which she was subject." This practice exists more or
less all over the country.
There is an irritating herpetic disease which, like a
girdle, gradually encircles the body, whence its English
name of the shingles (Latin, cingulum). "By an
imagination not difficult to understand," says Mr.
Tylor,* "the disease is attributed to a sort of coiling
snake; and I remember a case in Cornwall where a
girl's family waited in great fear to see if the creature
would stretch all round her, the belief being that if
the snake's head and tail met, the patient would die."
Turner, in his 'Diseases of the Skin' (p. 82), notices
a common charm among old women for the shingles:
the blood of a black cat, taken from the cat's tail, and
smeared on the part affected. In the only case, how-
ever, in which he saw this superstition practised, it
caused considerable mischief.
Near Exmoor, Devonshire, and also in parts of
Cornwall, a curious and uncommon charm called the
"bone-shave," exists for the cure of sciatica. The
patient lies on his back on the bank of a brook or
stream, placing by his side, betwixt him and the
water, a straight stick or staff, and, while in this
* 'Primitive Culture,' vol. i. p. 278.
L 2
148
CHARMS.
position/the following lines are repeated by way of
incantation:—
"Bone-shave right,
Bone-shave straight,
As the water runs by the stave,
Good for the bone-shave."
There are many charms for sciatica* common to
Devon and Cornwall—the knuckle bone of a leg of
mutton, a raw potato, a piece of loadstone; either of
these carried in the trouser's pocket or round the
neck is supposed to be a cure. A Cornish cure
consists in wetting the forefinger of the right hand
with spittle, and crossing the front of the left shoe or
boot three times, repeating the Lord's Prayer back-
wards.
To cure that troublesome little complaint hiccough
when it comes perhaps, as it often does, at the most
inconvenient time, the following rhyme must be re-
peated secretly:—
"Hickup, hickup, go away,
Come again another day:
Hickup, hickup, when I bake,
I'll give to you a butter-cake."
It is needless to say that it seldom refuses to obey
this polite command.
In Devonshire, the following charm is used for
* Cumming's • Churches and Antiquities of Cury and Gunwalloe,
1875, P. 238.
CHARMS.
149
stopping blood:—" Our Blessed Saviour was born in
Bethlehem and baptized in the river Jordan:—
The waters were wild and rude;
The Child Jesus was meek, mild, and good.
He put his foot into the waters, and the waters
stopped, and so shall thy blood."
The charm for a sprain, often made use of, is as
thus:—" As Our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ was riding into Jerusalem, His horse tripped
and sprained His leg. Our Blessed Lord and Saviour
blessed it, and said :—
'Bone to bone, and vein to vein,
O vein, tuiji to thy rest again!'
M. N., so shall thine, in the name," &c
In Scotland, when a person has received a sprain,
it is customary to consult an individual practised in
casting what is called the "wrested thread." This
consists of a thread spun from black wool, on which
are cast nine knots, and is tied round the sprained
limb. During the time the operator is putting this
on, he repeats in a muttering voice, inaudible even
to the by-standers, these words :—
««The Lord rade (rode),
And the foal slade (slipped);
He lighted,
And she righted.
Bone to bone,
And sinew to sinew,
Heal in the Holy Ghost's name!"
CHARMS.
To cure the thrush, take the child to a running
stream, draw a straw through its mouth, and repeat
the verse, "Out of the mouth of babes and suck-
lings," &c.
Formerly, many physical charms were in use for
consumption. In the province of Moray, Scotland,
Mr. Shaw tells us that in consumptive and hectic
diseases, the inhabitants pair the nails of the fingers
and toes of the patient, put them in a rag cut from
his clothes, then wave their hand with the rag thrice
round his head, crying Deas Soil; after which the
rag .is buried in some unknown place. This is a
practice similar to that recorded by Pliny, as prac-
tised by the Magicians and Druids of his time.* In
Somersetshire, to cure this terrible disease, the person
so afflicted is either carried or led through a flock ot
sheep as they are let out of the fold in the morning.
Very soon after this has been done, it is believed that
the complaint will gradually begin to disappear until
the patient entirely regains his former health and
vigour.
In Surrey, a sovereign cure for the goitre was-
to form the sign of the cross on the neck with the
hand of a corpse. In Launceston and its neighbour-
hood, the poor people believe that this complaint
is cured by the patient going before sunrise on the
first of May to the grave of the last young man who
has been buried in the churchyard, and applying the
* See Pettigrew's 'Medical Superstitions,* 1844, p. 72.
CHARMS.
dew collected—by passing the hand three times
from the head to the foot of the grave—to the part
affected. This piece of superstition exists in the
neighbourhood of Plymouth as appears from the
'Times' of May 9th, 1855 :—"At an early hour on
the morning of the 1st of May, a woman, respectably
attired, and accompanied by an elderly gentleman,
applied for admittance to the cemetery at Plymouth,
On being allowed to enter, they proceeded to the
grave of the last man interred; and the woman, who
had a large wen in her throat, rubbed her neck three
times each way on each side of the grave, departing
before sunrise. By this process it was expected the
malady would be cured." In Sussex, the peasants
use the following remedy for the cure of a "large
neck." A common snake,* held by its head and tail,
is slowly drawn nine times across the front of the
neck of the person affected, the reptile being allowed,
after every third time to crawl about for a time.
Afterwards it is put alive into a bottle, corked up,
and buried in the ground. The idea is that as the
snake decays the swelling disappears.
It was a notion some years ago that toads had the
power of sucking the poison of cancer from the
system ; but it was doubtless perfectly erroneous, and
like most other folklore of a similar nature mere
superstition. In White's 'Selborne' (Letters 18 and
21) it will be seen that he did not, for a moment, credit
* 'Notes and Queries,' 1st series, voL iii. p. 404.
152
CHARMS,
the report then (1768) common as to persons suffering
from this cruel complaint being cured by toads.
In the West of England, "if an invalid goes out
for the first time and makes a circuit, this circuit,"
says Hunt (' Popular Romances of the West of
England"must be with the sun; if against the sun
there will be a relapse."
The following extract from the 'Exeter and
Plymouth Gazette' (March 15th, 1877) illustrates a
strange superstition practised at Braunton, Devon-
shire, as an eye-cure :—" A woman residing in the
above-named locality recently made a house-to-
house visit, begging penny pieces; her idea being,
when the amount collected reached four shillings and
sixpence, she would purchase a pair of ear-rings, the
wearing of which was supposed to cure her bad eye-
sight. She was only to seek the pence from males,
and was not to say * please' nor 'thank you/ or the
spell would be broken. On asking one inhabitant, she
was very sensibly told that it would be better for her
to lay out the money she was collecting in food for
her family, but she replied that she had faith in the
charm." In the neighbourhood of Banbury, in Oxford-
shire, the rain which may happen to fall on Holy
Thursday is carefully preserved, and bottled, as a
specific remedy for sore eyes. Charms, says Mr.
Pettigrew,* were often employed for the cure of
worms, accompanied with a form of prayer. Brand t
quotes a manuscript which contains an exorcism
* * Medical Superstitions,* 1844. t 'Popular Antiquities.'
CHARMS.
against all kinds of worms which infest the body; it
is to be repeated three mornings as a certain remedy.
In Cornwall, a curious remedy* is made use of for
whooping-cough, namely, a slice of bread and butter
to be eaten by the patient, or a piece of a cake given
by a married couple whose Christian names are John
and Joan, According to the 'Birmingham Gazette'
(1867) a child from Clent in Worcestershire, suffering
from the whooping-cough, was some years ago taken
to the finger-post at Broom; the parents placed it on
the cross of a donkey's back, rode it round the post
nine times, and, not to impede the donkey's progress,
cut away part of the hedge near the post. The child
was reported from this time to have been perfectly
cured. It is, indeed, difficult, as in the majority of
similar charms, to discover the supposed connection
between the disease and the remedy. In one of the
principal towns of Yorkshire, it was once customary
for parents to take their children afflicted with
whooping-cough to a neighbouring convent, where
the priest allowed them to drink a small quantity of
holy water out of a silver chalice, which the little
sufferers were strictly forbidden to touch. By Pro-
testant, as well as by Roman Catholic parents, this
was considered an excellent remedy. In Gloucester-
shire, a good cure for whooping-cough is a roasted
mouse eaten by the patient. In some parts of Devon-
shire, it is believed that if a child be carried fasting on
* * Bygone Days in Devon and Cornwall.' Mrs. Whitcombe, 1874,
p. 147.
154
CHARMS.
a Sunday morning Into three parishes, he will soon get
much better. In Lancashire,* it is commonly said to
a parent whose child is suffering from this complaint,
"Yo' mun tak him onto th' whoite-moss every day
if yo* want'nt cure him o' that chin-cough ;" and
here and there in Yorkshire, "Owl broth" is con-
sidered as a certain specific. In Staffordshire, there
are several remedies for this disease. Hanging an
empty bottle up the chimney is considered an in-
fallible cure.t
In Norfolk, and its neighbourhood, when a child is
seized with whooping-cough, a common house spider
is caught, tied up in a piece of muslin, and pinned
Over the mantel-piece. So long as the spider lives,
the cough will continue; but when it dies, the cough
in a very short time will disappear. On the border
ground of Suffolk and Norfolk a hole is dug in a
meadow, and into this the little sufferer is placed in a
bent position, head downwards. The flag cut in
making the hole is then placed over him, and the
child remains in the hole until he coughs. It is
thought that if the charm be done in the evening, with
only the father or mother to witness it, the child will
soon recover.$ It is a common superstition prevalent
in many parts of England, to inquire of anyone riding
on a pyebald horse § of a remedy for the whooping-
* English Dialect Society, 'Lancashire Glossary,' 1875, p..74.
+ See page 47.
% Glyde's 'Norfolk Garland,* 1872, p. 31.
, § See 'Folk-Lore on the Horse,' p. 113.
CHARMS.
155
cough, and whatever may be named is regarded as an
infallible specific* A correspondent of 'Notes and
Queries' tells us that when staying in a village in
Oxfordshire, he was informed by an old woman that
she and her brothers were cured of whooping-cough
in the following way. They were required to go the
first thing in the morning to a hovel at a little
distance from their house, where a fox was kept,
carrying with them a large can of milk. This they
set down before the fox, and when he had taken as
much as he cared to drink, the children were to share
what was left among them.
It was formerly a very prevalent idea—and one,
too, not confined to our own country—that toothache
was caused by a little worm, having the form of an
eel, which gradually gnawed a hole in the tooth.
This notion is still to be met with in Germany, and
is mentioned by Thorpe in his ' Northern Mythology'
(vol. iii. p. 167), who quotes a North German incanta-
tion, beginning:—
"Pear tree, I complain to thee;
Three worms sting me."
It exists, too, even in China and New Zealand, f
and in the latter the following charm is used:—
"An eel, a spinyback;
True indeed, indeed: true in sooth, in sooth.
You must eat the head
Of said spinyback."
* Pettigrew, 'Medical Superstitions,' 1844, p. 73.
f See Shortland's '.Traditions and Superstitions of the New Zea-
landers.'
iS6
CHARMS.
Shakspeare in 'Much Ado about Nothing ' (Act. ii.
scene 2), speaks of this curious belief:—
"D. Pedro. What! sigh for the toothache?
Leon. Where is but a humour or a worm."
This superstition was common some years ago
in Derbyshire, where there was an odd way of
extracting, as it was thought, the worm. A small
quantity of a mixture, consisting of dried and pow-
dered herbs, was placed in a tea-cup or other small
vessel, and a live cake from the fire was dropped
in. The patient then held his or her open mouth
over the cup, and inhaled the smoke as long as it
could be borne. The cup was then taken away, and
a fresh cup or glass, containing water, was put before
the patient. Into this cup the person breathed hard
for a few moments, and then, it was supposed, the
grub or worm could be seen in the water. In Orkney,
too, toothache goes by the name of "the worm;"
and, as a remedy, the following charm, called
"wormy lines," is written on a piece of paper, and
carried by the person affected in some part of his
dress:—
"Peter sat on a marble stone weeping;
Christ came past, and said, 'What aileth thee, Peter?'
'O my Lord, my God, my tooth doth ache.'
* Arise, O Peter! go thy way; thy tooth shall ache no more.'"
In Staffordshire, a dead person's tooth carried in
the pocket is held to be a cure for the toothache;
and in Wiltshire, it is believed by the labouring
CHARMS.
157
classes that if you take the fore-legs of a "want"
(i.e. a mole) and one of its hind-legs, and put them into
a bag, and wear the whole about your neck, you will
never be troubled with the toothache. In Cornwall,
this complaint, according to the superstitious, not only
can be easily and speedily cured by biting from the
ground the first fern that appears in spring, but it is
also believed that this act will prevent the person from
suffering from this complaint during the remainder of
the year. A nail driven into an oak tree is reported
to be a cure for this pain.
In Sussex, they say if you always clothe your right
leg first, i.e. if you generally put the right stocking on
before the left; right leg into the trousers before the
left, &c, you will never suffer from toothache. In
Norfolk, the toothache is called the "love pain," and
consequently the sufferer does not receive much
sympathy.
In Gloucestershire, to cure the earache the following
means are resorted to: a snail is procured, and, being
pricked, the exuded froth is allowed to drop into the
ear.
Some years ago there resided at Cambridge an old
man, called the "Duke of York," who earned his
living by sitting on the steps of King's College Chapel,
and showing to the numerous strangers who visited
that beautiful structure, live specimens of the common
English snake {Coluber natrix). This man added to
his earnings by selling the sloughs, or cast-off skins of
158
CHARMS.
these reptiles, as being excellent remedies for every
kind of pain in the head, when bound round the fore-
head and temples. Grose tells us that a halter
wherewith anyone has been hanged, if tied about the
head, will cure the headache. Moss, growing upon a
human skull, if dried and powdered, and taken as snuff,
is no less efficacious.
Charms for the cure of ague are very prevalent in
most parts of the country, differing, of course, ac-
cording to the locality; some are very simple, whereas
others are just the reverse, not only requiring much
faith on the part of those who invoke them, but much
trouble. This charm is extracted from an old diary
of 1751, but was in use as recently as 1871:—" When
Jesus came near Pilate, He trembled like a leaf, and
the judge asked Him if He had the ague. He
answered, He neither had the ague nor was He
afraid; and whosoever bears these words in mind
shall never fear ague or anything else." This style
of phraseology, which is very common in charm invo-
cations, is certainly of a most irreverent character, and
does not commend itself to the favour of those who
value the sanctity of the sacred name of Christ.
A very respectable ecclesiastic once told me, says a
correspondent of 'Notes and Queries/ the following
fact which had occurred within his own experience.
Having learnt from a young person that she had been
subject to the ague, but had never had any return of
it since she had worn a spell for its cure, he explained
CHARMS.
to her the sinful nature of such superstitions, and
advised her to put away the spell. For a long time
she declined, alleging that if she removed it from her
neck, or opened it, she would have a return of the
ague. At length, however, she yielded to the priest's
exhortation, took off the spell, and handed it to him.
It was a small paper, sealed up. He opened it, and
read its contents to her as follows :—
"Ague, farewell!
Till we meet in hell."
"There," said he, "hqw do you like the bargain?"
The poor young woman was horrified, and declared
her decided preference for the return of her malady.
In Gloucestershire, a common antidote for ague is a
live garden snail, sewed up in a bag, and worn round
the neck for nine days. The bag is then opened, and
the snail thrown into the fire, when it is said to shake
like the ague, and after this the patient is never
troubled with the tedious complaint. In Somer-
setshire, to cure ague, the poor catch a large spider
and shut it up in a box. As it pines away, so
in proportion is the disease supposed to wear itself
out. It is curious to find how much reliance is not
unfrequently placed upon this foolish notion. It
shows, however, as in all other similar cases, how
strong a hold superstition has kept on the minds of
our country people; and this, too, in spite of the
great advancement everywhere of education.
i6o
CHARMS.
A few years ago, we are informed that there lived
near Deeping St. James, Lincolnshire, an old woman
who stood in great repute with her neighbours for
her cure of ague, which consisted of a small glass of
gin with a pinch of candle snuff in it, for which she
levied contributions on the snuffers of her neighbour-
hood. Another charm for this troublesome com-
plaint was to be said up the chimney, by the
eldest female of a family, on St. Agnes' Eve. It ran
thus:—
"Tremble and go!
First day shiver and burn:
Tremble and quake!
Second day shiver and learn:
Tremble and die!
Third day never return."
Mr. Pettigrew, in his 'Medical Superstitions* (1844,
p. 71), relates the following amusing narrative, of con-
siderable interest, relating to Sir John Holt, Lord
Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench, 1709, who,
it is said," was extremely wild in his youth, and being
once engaged with some of his rakish friends in a trip
into the country, in which they had spent all their
money, it was agreed they should try their fortune
separately. Holt arrived at an inn at the end of a
straggling village, ordered his horse to be taken care
of, bespoke a supper and a bed. He then strolled
into the kitchen, where he saw a little girl of thirteen,
shivering with the ague. Upon making inquiry
respecting her, the landlady told him that she was
CHARMS.
161
her only child, and had been ill nearly a year, not-
withstanding all the assistance she could procure for
her from physic. He gravely shook his head at the
doctors, bade her be under no further concern, for that
her daughter should never have another fit. He then
wrote a few unintelligible words in a court hand on a
scrap of parchment, which had been the direction
affixed to a hamper, and, rolling it up, directed that it
should be bound upon the girl's wrist, and there
allowed to remain till she was well. The ague returned
no more; and Holt, having remained in the house a
week, called for his bill. 'God bless you, sir/ said the
old woman, * you're nothing in my debt, I'm sure. I
wish, on the contrary, that I was able to pay you for the
cure which you have made of my daughter. Oh! if I
had had the happiness to see you ten months ago, it
would have saved me forty pounds.' With pretended
reluctance he accepted his accommodation as a re-
compense, and rode away. Many years elapsed; Holt
advanced in his profession of the law, and went a
circuit, as one of the judges of the Court of King's
Bench, into the same county, where, among other
criminals brought before him, was an old woman
under a charge of witchcraft To support this accu-
sation, several witnesses swore that the prisoner had a
spell with which she could either cure such cattle as
were sick, or destroy those that were well, and that in
the use of this spell she had been lately detected, and
that it was now ready to be produced in court Upon
M
CHARMS.
this statement the judge desired that it might be
handed up to him. It was a dirty ball, wrapped
round with several rags, and bound with packthread.
These coverings he carefully removed, and beneath
them found a piece of parchment, which he imme-
diately recognized as his own youthful fabrication.
For a few moments he remained silent: at length,
recollecting himself, he addressed the jury to the fol-
lowing effect:—' Gentlemen, I must now relate a
particular of my life, which very ill suits my present
character, and the station in which I sit; but to
conceal it would be to aggravate the folly for which
I ought to atone, to endanger innocence, and to
countenance superstition. This bundle, which you
suppose to have the power of life and death, is a
senseless scrawl which I wrote with my own hand and
gave to this woman, whom for no other reason you
accuse as a witch/ He then related the particulars
of the transaction, with such an effect upon the minds
of the people, that his old landlady was the last per-
son tried for witchcraft in that county." Again, the
possibility of transplanting or transferring the disease,
was, says Mr. Pettigrew, once commonly entertained.
By breaking a salted cake of bran and giving it to a
dog, the malady has been supposed to be transferred
from the patient to the animal.
In Hampshire, the patient makes three crosses
with white chalk on the back of the kitchen chimney
—a large one in the middle, and a smaller one on
CHARMS.
I63
each side; as the smoke from the fire obliterates
them, so will the ague disappear. This ought to be
done just as the fit is coming on.*
In Harland and Wilkinson's 'Lancashire Folk-
Lore' (p. 88), we are informed that "casting out the
ague" was but another name for "casting out the
devil/* "for it was his possession of the sufferer that
caused the body to shiver and shake. One man, of
somewhat better education than his neighbours, ac-
quired a reputation for thus removing the ague by-
exorcism, and was much resorted to for many years
for relief." These charms, if they teach anything,
certainly show the power of faith, and it has been
truly remarked that oftentimes faith does more for a
patient than the remedy itself.
In days gone by it was customary with the kings of
England to hallow certain rings on Good Friday, the
wearing of which was believed to prevent illness. The
custom took its rise from a ring, long preserved with
great veneration in Westminster Abbey, which was
reported to have been given to King Edward (probably
the Confessor) by some persons coming from Jeru-
salem. The rings consecrated by the sovereign were
called "cramp rings," and there was a special service
for their consecration. Andrew Boorde, in his 'Bre-
viary of Health/ speaking of the cramp, says:—"The
kynge's majestie hath a great helpe in this matter in
halowyng crampe ringes, and so geven without money
* 'Athenaeum,' August nth, 1849.
M 2
164
CHARMS.
or petition." Scattered here and there throughout
the country, we find still lingering on many remnants
of old charms for averting this complaint, all, of
course, equally supposed to be efficacious. Thus a
cork under the pillow is said in Devonshire to be a
certain cure for cramp,* and Pepys in his 'Diary'
(vol. ii. p. 415) gives this charm :—
"Cramp, be thou faintless,
As our Lady was sinless
When she bare Jesus."
In the neighbourhood of Penzance, the following is
considered an infallible cure :—u On going to rest, put
your slippers under the bed, and turn the soles up-
wards." In the north of England, it was formerly the
custom for boys who were in the habit of swimming
to wear an eel's skin about their naked leg, as this
was supposed to be a sure preventive against cramp.
The bone of a hare's foot was considered a good
remedy. In Withal's Dictionary (1608) we find:—
"The bone of a haire's foot closed in a ring,
Will drive away the cramp whenas it doth wing."
Charms for the cure of warts are very numerous, and
are still much in use. Thus Lord Bacon, in his' Natural
History/ alluding to their cure by rubbing them with
something that is afterwards allowed to waste away
and decay, says :—" I had from my childhood a wart
upon one of my fingers; afterwards, when I was about
sixteen years old, being then at Paris, there grew upon
* ' Notes and Queries,' 1st series, voL vi. p. 601.
CHARMS.
I65
both my hands a number of warts, at the least an
hundred in a month's space. The English ambassador's
lady, who was a woman far from superstitious, told me
one day, she would help me away with my warts:
whereupon she got a piece of lard with the skin on,
and rubbed the wart all over with the fat side; and
amongst the rest, the wart which I had from my
childhood; then she nailed the piece of lard, with the
fat towards the sun, upon a post of her chamber
window, which was to the south. The success was,
that within five weeks' space all the warts went quite
away; and that wart which I had so long endured,
for company. But at the rest I did little marvel,
because they came in a short time, and might go
away in a short time again, but the going away of
that which had stayed so long doth yet stick with
me. They say the like is done by the rubbing of warts
with a green elder stick, and then burying the stick
to rot in muck." A common charm, practised by the
peasantry throughout the country, consists in pro-
curing a bean-shell, and rubbing the wart with it,
and then secretly taking it under an ash-tree, and
repeating these words :—
"As this bean shell rots away,
So my wart shall soon decay."
Some people obtain an elder stick, cut a nick or
notch for each wart, touch the wart with the notch,
and then secretly bury the stick.
CHARMS.
In Cornwall, there are various ways of curing warts.
A piece of flesh is taken secretly, and rubbed over
them; and it is believed that as the flesh decays, so
in like manner the warts will vanish. In some places,
an apple is deemed potent against warts, an idea
prevalent also in Germany. Another method is as
thus:—Some mysterious vagrant desires them to be
carefully counted, and marking the number on the
inside of his hat, leaves the neighbourhood, when the
warts also disappear. A Devonshire cure * consists
in taking a piece of twine, tying it in as many knots
as one has warts, touching each wart with a knot,
and then throwing the twine behind one's back
into some place where it may soon decay—a pond
or hole in the earth—but one must keep the matter
secret When the twine is decayed, the warts will
disappear without any pain or trouble.
In Gloucestershire, one of the cures for a wart is to
pierce a snail as many times as you have warts in
number, then to stick the snail on a blackthorn in the
hedgerow; as the creature dies, so will the warts
wane and disappear. In Staffordshire, it is said, that
if a person suffering with warts rub them over with
a dead man's hand, they will soon disappear. There
are many other remedies prescribed, such as stealing
a piece of beef, rubbing them with it, and then burn-
ing the beef, or rubbing them, night and morning,
with fasting spittle, or with the tail of a tortoise-
* Brand's * Popular Antiquities,' 1849, vol. iii. p. 277.
CHARMS. 167
shell torn cat in May. In Kent, it is believed that if a
person watches for the opportunity when a funeral is
passing, and then> wetting the forefinger with saliva,
rubs the wart three times in the same direction, saying
each time, "My wart goes with you," taking care that
this is done without its being observed, a cure will
soon be effected.
The following charm is practised in all parts of
Ireland, and is believed by even the more intelligent
classes, to be an effectual cure *:—Take a small stone,
less than a boy's marble, for each wart, and tie them
in a clean linen bag, and throw it out on the highway.
Then find out a stone in some field or ditch with a
hollow in which rain or dew may have lodged, and
wash the warts seven times therein, and ^fter the
operation whoever picks up the bag Ci stones will
have a transfer of the warts. Another remedy con-
sists in procuring a wedding-ring, and in pricking or
touching the wart with a gooseberry thorn passed
through it. We might mention many more of these
supposed remedies; but those we have quoted are
sufficient to show that even nowadays no little re-
liance is placed upon what, after all, is childish super-
stition.
Cuthbert Bede records in 'Notes and Queries' a
preservative against infection, which he met with in
a Huntingdonshire village, where there were several
cases of small-pox. "An old cottager," he says,
* Notes and Queries,' 3rd series, voL viii, p. 146.'
* «1
168 CHARMS.
"told me that the best way to prevent the disease
from spreading was, to open the window of the sick-
room at sunset, in order to admit the gnats; who
would load themselves with the infection, and then
fly forth and die. 'Smoking and whitewash, and
tar-water, are fools to them gnats/ said my informant,
who placed the most implicit reliance on his scrap of
tolk-lore." Some carry on their person a small bag
containing camphor, under the notion that it wards
off any kind of infection.
"My nurse," says a correspondent of the same useful
little periodical, "declared that I and my brother were
cured of the measles by having hair cut from the
nape of each of our necks, and then separately placed
between two slices of bread and butter. She says
she anxiously watched for a strange dog to pass (no
other being efficacious). She gave him the bread.
and butter, and as he ate it without loathing she
was sure we should be cured. He then went away,
and of course never came again, for he died of the
measles—miserably, no doubt, poor fellow, having
travelled off with the disease of three affected
children." Brand * tells us that in the neighbourhood
of Gloucester whooping-cough is cured in the same
way. In some places it is said that a roasted mouse
is an excellent cure for measles, and many wonderful
remedies are of course on record.
In Sussex, and also in Devonshire, within the last
* * Popular Antiquities,' 1849, voL iii. p. 289.
CHARMS.
169
forty years, the following charm was used for the
cure 3f a burn or scald :—
"Two angels from the north,
One brought fire, the other brought frost;
Out, fire!
In, frost!
In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."
This, with but slight variation, is found in Nor-
folk:—
"An angel came from the north,
And he brought cold and frost;
An angel came from the south,
And he brought heat and fire;
The angel came from the north,
Put out the fire.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."
In illustration of the above, we quote the para-
graph below from the 'Pall Mall Gazette' of the 23rd
of November, 1868:—"The child of a Devonshire
labourer died from scalds caused by its turning over
a saucepan. At the inquest the following strange
account was given by Ann Manley, a witness :—' I
am the wife of James Manley, labourer. I met Sarah
Sheppard about nine o'clock on Thursday coming on
the road with the child in her arms, wrapt in the tail
of her frock. She said her child was scalded: then
I charmed it, as I charmed before, when a stone
hopped out of the fire last Honiton Fair and scalded
its eye. I charmed it in the road. I charmed it by
saying to myself, "There was {sic) two angels come
from the north, one of them brought lire and the other
CHARMS.
frost; out, fire, in, frost/' &c. I repeat this three
times; this is good for a scald. I can't say it is
good for anything else. Old John Sparway told me
this charm many years ago. A man may tell a
woman the charm, or a woman may tell a man;
but if a woman tells a woman, or a man a man,
I consider it won't do any good at all."
In Shetland, to cure a burn, these words are
used:—
"Here come I to cure a burnt sore;
If the dead knew what the living endure,
The burnt sore would burn no more."
The person then blows three times upon the burnt
place. Whenever anyone, too, h nCC h that
unpleasant complaint, ringworm, ne is directed to
take a little ashes between his forefinger and thumb,
three successive mornings, before breakfast, and,
holding the ashes to the diseased part, to say:—
"Ringworm! ringworm red!
Never mayst thou spread or speed,
But aye grow less and less,
And die away among the ases (ashes)."
The Irish, formerly (and even now occasionally),
when anyone was attacked with scarlet fever, cut off
some of the sick person's hair, and put it down the
throat of an ass. By this means the disease was
supposed to be charmed away from the patient, and
to attack the poor ass instead.
CHARMS.
171
In Devonshire, "Every old woman has her remedy
for boils," says Mr. Chanter (' Report and Transac-
tions of the Devonshire Association/ 1867, v°l- h\
p. 39), "some of them of a very ludicrous nature. I
was favoured with a new and rather ghastly recipe,
which I copy in full:—
"* To cure a friend of boils:—Go into a churchyard
on a dark night, and to the grave of a person who has
been interred the day previous; walk six times round
the grave, and crawl across it three times. If the
sufferer from boils is a man, this ceremony must be
performed by a woman, and the contrary. The charm
will not work unless the night is quite dark/ There
is an appended note. 'This remedy was tried by a
young woman in Georgeham Churchyard/ but with
what result is not told; the inference was that it
succeeded."
Another charm consists in poulticing the boil for
three days and nights, and then placing the poultices
with their cloths in the coffin of anyone lying dead,
and about to be buried.
In Devonshire, a curious charm, consisting in
creeping under an arched bramble, is used to cure
blackhead, or pinsoles, as they are sometimes called.
A contributor to the 'Transactions of the Devonshire
Association' (1877, vol. ix. p. 96) tells us that the
person affected by this troublesome malady is to creep
hands and knees under or through a bramble three
times with the sun; that is from east to west The
172
CHARMS.
bramble must be 6f peculiar growth; that is, it must
form an arch, rooting at both ends, and if it reaches
into two proprietors' lands, so much the better. Thus,
if a bramble grows on the hedge of one owner, and
a branch, of which the end takes root, extends into
the field of another, the best form for working the
charm is provided. In some parts, dock-tea is
taken as being an infallible remedy for boils.
This beverage is produced from the root, well
boiled, so as to yield an essence of a not very agree-
able flavour.
To cure the sting of a nettle, the person stung must
rub the leaves of a dock over the part affected, repeat-
ing at the same time:—
"Nettle in, dock out,
Dock rub nettle out."
This charm is as old as Chaucer's time, for in 'Troilus
and Cresside/ is the following passage:—
"Thou biddest me that I should love another
All freshly newe, and let Cresside go.
It li'th not in my power, leve brother;
And thoughe I might, yet would I not do so.
But can'st thou playen racket to and fro,
Nettle in, dock out, now this, now that, Pandare?
Now foule fall her for thy woe that care."
This appears to be, too, a proverbial expression im-
plying inconstancy.
CHARMS.
In some parts of Cornwall, the following recipe is
given for the prick of a thorn:—
"Happy man, that Christ was bom J
He was crowned with a thorn;
He was pierced through the skin,
For to let the poison in:
But His five wounds, so they say,
Closed before He passed away.
In with healing, out with thorn:
Happy man that Christ was born."
It is not unlike one known in Yorkshire:—
"Unto the Virgin Mary our Saviour was born,
And on His head He wore a crown of thorn:
If you believe this true, and mind it well,
This hurt will never fester nor swell."
Sufficient instances have been quoted to show how
varied are the charms in use throughout the country;
and it is surprising, in these days of medical science,
that they should still be so prevalent. It proves the
force of long-standing superstition, and how difficult
it is to remove certain ideas, however whimsical and
fallacious, when once they have taken deep root in
the mind.
174
BIRTH—BAPTISM.
CHAPTER VII.
BIRTH—BAPTISM.
There still linger on, throughout England, many
curious superstitions connected with human birth, all
of which invest this momentous event with an atmo-
sphere of the supernatural. Thus, in Lancashire there
is a strong dread* of "the witches or fairies coming
secretly and exchanging their own ill-favoured imps
for the newly born infant; and various charms are
used to prevent the child from being thus stolen
away." Shakspeare alludes to this notion when he
makes King Henry IV., speaking of Hotspur in com-
parison with his own profligate son, say:—
"O that it could be prov'd,
That some night-tripping fairy had exchang'd,
In cradle-clothes, our children where they lay,
And call'd mine Percy, his Plantagenet!
Then would I have his Harry, and he mine."
This idea prevails, too, in Scotland, and Pennant
informs us that in his day infants were carefully
watched till the christening was over, lest they should
* Harland and Wilkinson, * Lancashire Folk-Lore.'
BIR TH—BA P TISM.
be stolen or changed by the fairies. Spenser, also,
mentions this superstition:—
"From thence a fairy thee unweeting reft,
There as thou slep'st in tender swadling band,
And her base elfin brood there for thee left;
Such men do changelings call, so chang'd by fairy theft."
Gay, in his fable of the Mother, Nurse, and Fairy,
laughs at the superstitious idea of changelings. He
represents a fairy speaking thus :—
"Whence sprung the vain, conceited lye,
That we the world with fools supplye?
What! give our sprightly race away
For the dull, helpless sons of clay!
Besides, by partial fondness shown,
Like you, we doat upon our own.
Wherever yet was found a mother,
Who'd give her booby for another?
And should we change with human breed,
Well might we pass for fools indeed."
In some places it is believed that children born at
midnight have the power of seeing ghosts, whereas in
Devonshire it is said that those born by daylight
never see such things. Great importance, too, is paid
by many to the day of the week on which a child is
born*; as each day is supposed to bestow upon it
certain characteristics; and hence the superstitious
believe that they can prognosticate the character of a
child from the day of its birth. Certain seasons are
thought to be more propitious for births than others.
In Cornwall, children born in May are called " May
* See chapter on Days of the Week.
176
BIRTH—BAPTISM.
chets," and kittens cast in May are invariably
destroyed, for
"May chets
Bad luck begets."
Good Friday and Easter Day are both considered,
says Brand ('Popular Antiquities/ 1849, vol. ii.
p. 87), lucky days for changing the caps of young
children. If a child tooths first in the upper jaw,
it is considered ominous of its dying in infancy.
Children, too, prematurely wise, are said not to be
long-lived, a notion which we find mentioned by
Shakspeare, in his Richard III.
In Leicestershire, the first time a new-born child
pays a visit, it is presented with an egg, a pound of
salt, and a bundle of matches. In some parts of
Lancashire,* as well as in Yorkshire, Northumberland,
and other counties, when an infant for the first time
goes out of the house, in the arms of the mother or the
nurse, the family or families visited present it with an
egg, some salt, a little loaf of bread, and now and then
with a small piece of money. These gifts are supposed
to ensure that the child shall never stand in need of
the common necessaries of life. It was formerly cus-
tomary, and the practice has not yet wholly died out,
of providing a large cheese and a cake, and cutting
them at the birth of a child. Pieces of these were
distributed among all the houses in the vicinity. If
the child was a boy, the pieces of cheese were sent to
* Harland and Wilkinson's 'Lancashire Folk-Lore/
BIRTH—BAPTISM.
177
the males; if a girl, to the females, each member of a
family receiving a portion; visitors also came in for
their share. These were called the "Groaning Cake
and Cheese." Misson, in his 'Travels in England/
says, "The custom here is not to make great feasts
at the birth of their children; they drink a glass of
wine, and eat a bit of a certain cake; which is seldom
made, but upon these occasions."
In Oxford it was the practice to cut the "Groaning
Cheese" in the middle, and by degrees to form it
into a large kind of ring, through which the child was
passed on the day of its christening. In the North
Riding of Yorkshire, at the birth of the first child, the
first slice of the "Sickening Cake," is cut into small
pieces by the medical man, and distributed amongst
the unmarried of the female sex, under the name of
"dreaming bread." Each takes a piece, places it in
the foot of the left stocking, and throws it over the
right shoulder. The anxious expectant must then
retire to bed backwards, without uttering a word, and
if she fall asleep before twelve o'clock, her future
partner will appear to her in her dream.
In some parts of North Lancashire,* it is customary
to have a tea-drinking on the birth of a child. All the
neighbours and friends are invited, and both tea and
rum are plentifully distributed. After tea, each visitor
pays a shilling towards the expense of the "birth
feast," and the remainder of the evening is spent in
* Harland and Wilkinson, 'Lancashire Folk-Lore,' p. 26*
N
178
BIRTH—BAPTISM.
social gossip and amusements. In many country
parishes a child is invariably called by the name of
the saint on whose day it may happen to have been
born; and any omission of this custom is believed
to bring it ill - luck It not unfrequently is the
case, therefore, that children are found with very
strange names, which can only be explained by a
reference to this practice. Herrick, in his 'Hesperides/
has the following charms for the preservation of young
children:—
"Bring the holy crust of bread,
Lay it underneath the head;
'Tis a certain charm to keep
Hags away while children sleep.
Let the superstitious wife
Near the childs heart lay a knife;
Point be up, and haft be down
(While the gossips in the towne).
This, 'mongst other mystick charms,
Keeps the sleeping child from harmes."
"The well-known toy," says Brand, "and a piece of
coral at the end, which is generally suspended from the
necks of infants to assist them in cutting their teeth, is
supposed to have originated in an ancient superstition,
which regarded coral as an amulet against fascination.
It was thought, too, to preserve and fasten the teeth
in men." Plat, in his 'Jewel Home of Nature and
Art/ says, "Coral is good to be hanged about children's
necks, as well to rub their gums as to preserve them
from the falling sickness: it hath also some special
sympathy with nature, for the best coral being worn
BIRTH—BAPTISM.
179
about the neck will turn pale and wan if the party
that wears it be sick, and comes to its former colour
again as they recover health." Thus Stevens, in the
'Three Ladies of London* (1584), says :—
"You may say jet will take up a straw,
Amber will make one fat,
Coral will look pale when you be sick, and
Chrystal will staunch blood."
Curious to say, the same belief exists among the
West Indian negroes, who affirm that the colour of
coral is always affected by the state of the wearer's
health—it becoming paler in ill-health. In Sicily it is
very much worn as an amulet by persons of all ranks.
In an old Latin work, dated 1536, it is said, "Wytches
tell that this stone (coral) withstandeth lightenynge.
It putteth of lightenynge, whirlewynde, tempeste, and
stormes fro shyppes and houses that it is in."
It is a Norfolk superstition that when there are
boys and girls to be baptized, the boy must come
first, or else the girl will have a beard. In other
places, too, this odd notion prevails. There is a
notion prevalent in many parts of England that
a child who does not scream when sprinkled with
water at baptism, will not live long. Martin, in his
'History of St. Kilda,' tells us that it was customary
for the inhabitants always to baptize their children on
a Saturday, from a superstitious notion that if this
ceremony were observed on another day they would
die.
N 2
i8o
BIRTH—BAPTISM.
It was formerly the custom for the sponsors at bap-
tisms to present the children with spoons—commonly
termed apostle spoons, because the figures of the
twelve apostles were carved on the tops of the handles.
Rich sponsors gave twelve, those in poorer circum-
stances gave as many as they could afford. It is in
allusion to this custom that when Cranmer professes
to be unworthy of being sponsor to the young princess,
Shakspeare makes the king reply:—
"Come, come, my lord, you'd spare your spoons."
Many of these spoons are preserved in various
museums. Bishop Corbet, in a poem on the Birth of
Prince Charles, says:—
"When private men get sons, they get a spoon,
Without eclipse, or any star at noon;
When kings get sons, they get withal supplies
And subsidies."
"In Scotland," says Brand (' Popular Antiquities/
vol. ii. 1849, p. 73), "children dying unbaptized were
supposed to wander in woods and solitudes, lamenting
their hard fate, and were said to be often seen." In
the north of England it is thought very unlucky to
go over their graves, or, as it is vulgarly called,
"unchristened ground." In the 'Gentle Shepherd/
Bauldry, describing Manse as a witch, says of her :—
*' At midnight hours o'er the kirk-yard she raves,
And howks unchristen'd weans out of their graves."
BIRTH—BAPTISM.
181
There is a curious superstition that an unbaptized
child cannot die. The 'Morning Herald' of the 18th
June, i860, alludes to a case of attempted infanticide
near Liverpool. It appeared that the unhappy mother,
having entered a gentleman's grounds, placed her
child on the ground and covered it with sods. For-
tunately the child was discovered, and its life saved.
The mother was apprehended, and charged with having
attempted to destroy her child. She confessed her
guilt, and added that she had previously succeeded
in getting the child baptized, as she believed it could
not otherwise have died.
182
MARRIAGE.
CHAPTER VIII.
MARRIAGE.
Many superstitions are connected with that momen-
tous crisis in human life—marriage. Those who are
anxious to enter upon the nuptial state would do well
to acquaint themselves with some of these, as in the
eyes of the credulous they are looked upon with no
small amount of anxiety. It is impossible, indeed,
to say how many an unmarried lady regards her fate
or lot in life as the result of a special providence
which revealed itself to her in the form of some super-
natural occurrence. Thus, to see a future spouse in
a dream, says Grose (' Provincial Glossary/ 1811, p.
117), "the parties inquiring must lie in a different
county from that in which they commonly reside; and,
on going to bed, must knit the left garter about the
right-legged stocking, letting the other garter and
stocking alone; and, as they rehearse the following
verses, at every comma knit a knot:—
•This knot I knit,
To know the thing I know not yet;
That I may see
The man (woman) that shall my husband (wife) be;
How he goes, and what he wears,
And what he does all days and years.'
MARRIAGE.
183
Accordingly, in a dream, the desired one will appear,
with the insignia of his trade or profession." If a lady-
completes a patchwork quilt without assistance, she
will never be married, and the reason assigned for this
piece of folk-lore is, says a correspondent of 'Notes
and Queries' (2nd Series, vol. xii. p. 490), that patch-
work is generally made a social occupation, and a
person must move very little in society, or be of un-
social temper, to do such a thing alone. The lady, too,
who reads the Marriage Service entirely through will
never be married. It often happens that those who
are too anxious to get married die old maids.
St. Agnes's Eve was, in days gone by, much observed
by young maidens who wished to know when and
whom they should marry. It was required that on
this day they should not eat, which was called "St.
Agnes's Fast." * Keats, in one of his poems, alludes
most pathetically to this superstition :—
"St Agnes's Eve! Ah! bitter chill it was!
The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold;
The hare limp'd trembling through the frozen grass,
And silent was the flock in woolly fold.
* * * *
They told me how, upon St Agnes's Eve,
Young virgins might have visions of delight;
And soft adorings from their loves receive,
Upon the honey'd middle of the night,
If ceremonies due they did aright;
As supperless to bed they must retire,
And couch supine their beauties, lily white;
* Thiselton Dyer's 'British Popular Customs,' p. 46.
MARRIAGE.
Nor look behind, nor sideways, but require
Of Heaven, with upward eyes, for all that they desire.
* * * *
Her vespers done,
Of all its wreathed pearls her hair she frees;
Unclasp'd her warmed jewels one by one;
Loosens her fragrant bodice; by degrees
Her rich attire creeps rustling to her knees:
Half-hidden, like a mermaid in sea-weed,
Pensive awhile she dreams awake, and sees,
In fancy, fair St. Agnes in her bed,
But dares not look behind, or all the charm is fled."
Formerly, too, in Scotland, a number of young
men and women met together on St. Agnes's Eve at
midnight, went, one by one, to a certain field, and
threw in some grain, after which they repeated the
following rhyme:—
"Agnes sweet, and Agnes fair,
Hither, hither, now repair;
Bonny Agnes, let me see
The lad who is to marry me."
The shadow of the destined bride or bridegroom
was supposed to be seen in a looking-glass on this
very night. Similar superstitions seem to have been
practised on St. Marias Eve. In 'Poor Robin's
Almanack' for 1770, we read how—
"On St. Mark's Eve, at twelve o'clock,
The fair maid will watch her smock,
To find her husband in the dark,
By praying unto good St. Mark."
It was a popular superstition that if any unmarried
woman fasted on Midsummer Eve, and at midnight
MARRIAGE.
laid a clean cloth, with bread, cheese, and ale, and then
sat down as if about to eat—the street door being left
open—the person whom she was afterwards to marry
would come into the room and drink to her by-
bowing; and, after filling the glass, would leave it on
the table, and, making another bow, retire.* It is
difficult to understand how even the most credulous
could have been foolish enough to believe in such
childish fancies: the fact, however, remains, and is
a striking proof of the power of superstition over the
mind. In Scotland, many love-charms are still invoked
on Hallow Eve; an enumeration of which may be
found in Burns's 'Notes upon Halloween.'
In Dorsetshire, girls use their shoes as a means
of divining who their future husbands are to be. At
night, on going to bed, a girl places her shoes at
right angles to one another, in the form of a T,
saying:—
"Hoping this night my true love to see,
I place my shoes in the form of a T."
"Two young unmarried girls," says Halliwell,t
"must sit together in a room by themselves, from
twelve o'clock at night till one o'clock the next morn-
ing, without speaking a word. During this time each
of them must take as many hairs from her head as
she is years old, and, having put them into a linen
cloth with some of the herb, true-love, as soon as the
* See Grose's ' Provincial Glossary,' 1811, p. 47.
t * Popular Rhymes.'
MARRIAGE.
clock strikes one, she must burn every hair separately,
saying:—
'I offer this my sacrifice,
To him most precious in my eyes;
I charge thee now come forth to me,
That I this minute may thee see
upon which her husband will appear, and walk round
the room, and then vanish. The same event happens
to both the girls, but neither sees the other's lover."
Fire burning on one side of a grate is the sign of a
wedding. What connection, however, this can have
with marriage it is impossible to say, as it generally
happens where there is a greater current of air on one
side of the room than on the other. In Shropshire,
those curious to ascertain who their future partners
are to be, fetch at twelve o'clock at night from the
nearest churchyard a half brick, which they place
under their pillows, as, by this means, they are sure
to dream about courtship and marriage.
In Yorkshire it is a common saying:—"Be sure
when you go to get married that you don't go in at
one door and out at another, or you will always be
unlucky."
In the West of England, to choose a wife, "ascer-
tain," says Hunt (' Popular Romances of the West
of England'), "the day of the young woman's birth,
and refer to the last chapter of Proverbs. Each verse
from the 1st to the 31st is supposed to indicate,
either directly or indirectly, the character, and to
guide the searcher—the verse corresponding with her
age indicating the woman's character."
MARRIAGE.
I87
We might enumerate many more of these love-
charms; but those quoted are sufficient to show their
nature; and it is not a little surprising to find how,
even now-a-days, many young people are credulous
and superstitious enough to put confidence in them;
and, in doing so, only too often mistake their own
imagination and fancy for what they believe to be a
supernatural revelation.
Many superstitious notions are still retained as to
the times of the year when it is regarded as lucky or
otherwise to marry. The month of May has at all
times been considered as unlucky for marriages; a
notion which dates back eighteen centuries ago, up to
the time of Ovid,* who alludes to the Roman objec-
tion to marriage in this month:—
"Nec viduae tsedis eadem, nec virginis apta
Tempora. Quae nupsit, non diuturna fuit.
Hac quoque de causa, si te proverbia tangunt,
Mense malas Maio nubere volgus ait"
Pennant, in his 4 Tour in Scotland' (1790, vol. i.
p. 111), tells us that a Highlander never begins anything
of consequence on the day of the week on which the
third of May falls, which is styled La Sheachanna na
bleanaghy or the dismal day. And from other sources,
it appears, that marriage is carefully avoided through-
out this month.
Jeaffreson, in his 'Brides and Bridals' (1873, vol. i.
p. 292), says that he is disposed to refer the evil
reputation of marriages solemnized in May to the
* 'Fasti,'book v. 487.
188
MARRIAGE*
Church's absolute rule, forbidding weddings between
Rogation and Whitsunday. When the Church pro-
hibited marriageN during the greater part of May,
timid and pious folk were wont to say—
"Marry in May, and you'll rue the day."
In Sir John Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scot-
land, the minister of Logierait, in Perthshire, men-
tioning the superstitious practices in the parish,
says :■—" None choose to marry in January or May;
or to have their banns proclaimed in the end of one
quarter of the year, and to marry in the beginning of
the next." The following proverb from Ray, marks
another superstition:—
"Who marries between the sickle and the scythe,
Will never thrive."
Which is not unlike one common in East Anglia :—
"Marry in Lent,
And you'll live to repent.'*
It is very generally believed that it is unlucky to
marry on the feast of St. Joseph, and this day is
therefore specially avoided. "It is supposed," says a
writer in Chambers's 'Book of Days' (vol i. p. 719),
"that as this day fell in Mid Lent, it was the reason
why all the Councils and Synods of the Church
forbade marriage during that season of fasting; in-
deed, all penitential days and vigils throughout the
MARRIAGE.
year were considered unsuitable for this joyous
ceremony."
In a curious old almanac for the year 1559,
"by Lewes Vaughan,* made for the Merydian of
Gloucestre," we find "the tymes of weddinges when it
begynneth and endeth. Jan. 14, weding begin.
Jan. 21, weddinge goth out. April 3, wedding be.
April 29, wedding goth out. May 22, wedding
begyn."
"Childermas, or Holy Innocents' Day, has been at
all times a black day in the calendar," says Brand,
"of impatient lovers." On account of this supersti-
tion, few marriages ever take place; being generally
postponed until the ensuing day.f
A piece of modern doggerel, says Jeaffreson
('Brides and Bridals/ vol. i. p. 295), "declares that
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are all good, in
different ways, for marriage; that Saturday, having no
power over destiny for blessing or cursing, is open to
no grave objection; and that Thursday is scarcely
less unpropitious than Friday for wedlock." The
lines are as follow:—
"Monday for wealth,
Tuesday for health,
Wednesday the best day of all;
Thursday for crosses,
Friday for losses,
Saturday no luck at all."
* See Brand's 'Popular Antiquities,' vol. ii. p. 168.
f See Thiselton Dyer's 'British Popular Customs,' 1876, p. 49S.
190
MARRIAGE.
A piece of counsel, highly esteemed by prudent
lovers of old time in Cheshire, was, "Better wed
over the mixen than over the moor," i. e. choose a
wife of a known stock near your own farmyard rather
than wed a strange girl from the other side of the
Staffordshire moorlands.
Short engagements are generally recommended,
for—
"Happy is the wooing
That is not long in doing."
Although too hasty marriages are to be avoided, for,
says the proverb, "Marry in haste and repent at
leisure."
The principal customs formerly observed at wed-
dings, are curiously collected in the following pas-
sage,* where the scornful lady declares her determi-
nation not to marry a boaster:—
"Believe me, if my wedding smock were on,
Were the gloves bought and giv'n, the licence come,
Were the rosemary branches dipp'd, and all
The Hippocras and cakes eat and drunk off,
Were these two arms incompass'd with the bands
Of bachelors, to lead me to the church,
Were my feet at the door—were * I John' said,
[Namely, 'I John take thee Mary,' in the Marriage Service]
If John should boast a favour done by me,
I would not wed that year."
In some of the midland and northern counties, it is
customary on the evening of the Sunday when the
banns of marriage are published for the first time, to
* Beaumont and Fletcher, 'Scornful Lady,' i. I.
MARRIAGE.
191
announce the fact with a merry peal from the church
bells. This peal is called the "Spur Peal/' and the
Sunday, "Spur Sunday." * To put in the spurrings is
to give notice to the clergyman to publish the banns;
and to be "spurred up" is to have had the banns
published for three Sundays. Mr. Hunter, in his
'Glossary of Hallamshire Words/ tells us that to spurr
is an* old English word, equivalent to ask. In one of
the Martin Marprelate tracts, an interlocutor in a dia-
logue says, " I pray you, Mr. Vicker, let me spurre a
question to you, if I may be so bold." Another
custom connected with the publishing of banns exists
in Nottinghamshire, and is described in the following
extract from the 'Notts Guardian' of April 28th,
1853:—"Wellow. It has been a custom from time
immemorial in this parish, when the banns of marriage
are published, for a person, selected by the clerk, to
rise and say, 'God speed them well/ the clerk and
congregation responding, Amen! Owing to the recent
death of the person who officiated in this ceremony,
last Sunday, after the banns of marriage were read,
a perfect silence prevailed, the person chosen, either
from want of courage or loss of memory, not perform-
ing his part until receiving an intimation from the
clerk, and then, in so faint a tone as scarcely to be
audible. His whispered good wishes, were, however,
followed by a hearty Amen, mingled with some
laughter in different parts of the church.,, In Perth-
* 'Notes and Queries,' 1st series, vol. vi. pp. 243, 329.
MARRIAGE.
shire,* ill-luck is thought to pursue the married couple
who have their banns published at the end of one,
and are married at the beginning of another quarter of
a year.
The wedding-ring—that all important little article
in the marriage ceremony—has given rise to very
many superstitious ideas, to recount only a quarter of
which would require far more space than we can give
here. As illustrations of these, however, subjoined are
a few which may be regarded as fair specimens.
In the first place, then, the wedding-ring is said to be
worn on the fourth finger, in accordance with an old
but erroneous belief, that a small artery ran from this
finger to the heartt "This," says Wheatley (' Book of
Common Prayer'), "is now contradicted by experience,
but several eminent authors, as well Gentiles as
Christians, as well physicians as divines, were for-
merly of this opinion, and therefore they thought this
finger the properest to bear this pledge of love, that
from thence it might be conveyed, as it were, to the
heart"
According to an old proverb—
"As your wedding-ring wears,
Your cares will wear away."
Another version says:—
"You'll live out your cares."
* Jeaffreson, 'Brides and Bridals,' vol. i. p. 294.
f See Sir Thomas Browne's Works, vol. i. p. 386.
MARRIAGE.
193
It is regarded as unlucky by very many when the
wedding-ring comes off the finger, whether from
accident or forgetfulness on the part of the newly-
married wife. It is certain, however, that no import-
ance is to be attached to such a piece of superstition;
as, in such a case, there would be but very few happy
marriages, considering how about three-fourths, per-
haps, of the wedding-rings sooner or later come off the
fingers of those who wear them.
Another idea, too, by no means uncommon, is that
when a lady's wedding-ring has worn so thin as to
come in pieces, she or her husband will die—in other
words, that with the wearing away of the wedding-
ring, so, too, married life gradually wears away.
Perhaps, we have here an answer to the often asked
question of modern days, Why do ladies encumber
themselves with such heavy wedding-rings? Another
common notion is, that if a wife should be unfortunate
enough to break her wedding-ring, she will shortly
lose her husband. In illustration of this superstition,
a correspondent of 'Notes and Queries ' tells us that
part of the year 1857 he spent in North Essex, where
a dreadful murder deprived a most respectable family
of the farming class of its industrious head. "Ah!"
said the poor widow, when I visited her shortly after-
wards, " I thought I should soon lose him, for I broke
my ring the other day; and my sister too lost her
husband after breaking her ring. It is a sure sign."
Atkinson, in his 'Memoirs of the Queen of
O
194
MARRIAGE.
Prussia,' says: "The betrothal of the young couple
(Frederic and Sophia Charlotte, first King and Queen
of Prussia) speedily followed. I believe it was during
the festivities attendant upon this occasion that the
ring worn by Frederic, in memory of his deceased
wife, with the device of clasped hands, and the motto
'a jamais] suddenly broke, which was looked upon as
an omen that this union, likewise, was to be of short
duration."
A slice of the bride-cake,* thrice drawn through the
wedding-ring, and laid under the head of an unmarried
man or woman, is believed to make them dream of
their future wife or husband. The same practice is
observed in the North with a piece of the groaning
cheese, t
In Somersetshire it is said that the ring-finger
stroked along any sore or wound will soon heal it.
All the other fingers are poisonous, especially the fore-
finger.
Rings were formerly given away at weddings.
Anthony Wood relates of Edward Kelly, a "famous
philosopher" in Queen Elizabeth's time, that " Kelly,
who was openly profuse beyond the modest limits of
a sober philosopher, did give away in gold wire rings
(or rings twisted with three gold wires) at the marriage
of one of his maid-servants, to the value of ^4000."
A correspondent of 'Notes and Queries' tells us
* 'Notes and Queries,' 3rd series, vol. x. p. 469.
t Grose's * Provincial Glossary,' 1811, p. 47. •
MARRIAGE.
195
that, in the district about Burnley, it is customary to
put the wedding-ring into the posset, as after serving
it out, the unmarried person whose cup contains
the ring will be the first of the company to get
married. In Ireland it is a common belief that finding
the ring in a piece of Michaelmas pie will ensure the
possessor an early marriage.
It is a common superstition, especially in Ireland,
that a marriage lacks validity unless solemnized with
a gold ring. Mr. Wood, in his " Wedding Day in all
Ages and Countries," says that at a town in the
south-east of Ireland, a person kept a few gold
wedding-rings for hire, and when parties who were
too poor to purchase a ring of the necessary precious
metal were about to be married, they obtained the
loan of one, and paid a small fee for the same, the
ring being returned to the owner immediately after
the ceremony. In some places it is customary for
the same ring to be used for many marriages, for which
purpose it remains in the custody of the priest.
The bride's veil originated in the Anglo-Saxon
custom of performing the marriage ceremony under a
square piece of cloth, called the care-cloth, held at
each corner by a tall man over the bridegroom and
bride to conceal her maiden blushes. Something like
this care-cloth, says Brand (' Popular Antiquities/
1849, vol. ii. p. 142)," is used by the modern Jews, from
whom it has probably been derived into the Christian
Church: * There is a square vestment called Taleth,
O 2
196
MARRIAGE.
with pendents about it, put over the head of the bride-
groom and bride together/"
The reason why the orange blossom is worn by
brides is not satisfactorily known. The general
opinion seems to be that it was originally adopted as
an emblem of fruitfulness. It has also been suggested
that this custom was introduced by French milliners,
and that the flower in question was selected for its
beauty, rather than for any symbolical reason. A
correspondent of 'Notes and Queries* tells us that
the practice has been derived from the Saracens,
amongst whom the orange blossom was regarded as
a symbol of a prosperous marriage ; and this is partly
to be accounted for by the fact that, in the East, the
orange tree bears ripe fruit and blossom at the same
time.
Rosemary, too, was formerly worn very extensively
at weddings. In an old ballad, entitled 'The Bride's
Good-morrow/ we read:—
"Young men and maids do ready stand,
"With sweet rosemary in their hand,
A perfect token of your virgin's life;
To wait upon you they intend,
Unto the church to make an end,
And God make thee a joy full wedded wife."
The rosemary was first dipped in scented water;
and thus in Beaumont and Fletcher's 'Scornful Lady'
occur the words, "Were the rosemary branches dipped."
From Ben Jonson's old play, the 'Tale of a Tub/ we
learn that it was usual for the bridesmaids, on the
MARRIAGE.
197
bridegroom's first appearance on the wedding-day,
to present him with a bunch of rosemary, ornamented
with ribbons. Turf, speaking of the intended bride-
groom's first arrival, says :—" Look, an' the wenches
ha1 not found un out, and do present un with a van of
rosemary, and bays enough to vill a bow-pott, or trim
the head of my best vore-horse; we shall all ha'
bride-laces, or point, I zee." Bay, too, was also in use,
as is apparent from allusions in old writers.* Herrick,
in his ' Hesperides/ says:—
"This done, we'll draw lots, who shall buy,
And guild the baies and rosemary."
In an old wedding sermon (for in former times, it
must be remembered, these were very common) by
Dr. Hacket, dated 1607, the use of rosemary at
weddings is thus set forth:—
"Ros marinus, the rosemary, is for married men;
the which, by name, nature, and continued use, man
challengeth as properly belonging to himself. It
overtoppeth all the flowers in the garden, boasting
man's rule. It helpeth the braine, strengthened the
memorie, and is very medicinable for the head.
Another property of the rosemary is, it affects the
heart. Let the ros marinus, this flower of men, ensigne
of your wisdom, love, and loyaltie, be carried not
only in your hands, but in your heads and hearts."
Formerly flowers were strewn from the house of the
betrothed along the road to the church—a practice
* See Brand's 'Popular Antiquities,' vol. ii. pp. 121-123.
198
MARRIAGE.
frequently alluded to by old writers and poets. Rowe,
in his 'Happy Village' (1796), says :—
"The wheaten ear was scatter'd near the porch,
The green bloom blossom'd strew'd the way to church
and Shakspeare alludes to the custom :—
"Our bridal flowers serve for a buried corpse."
A pleasing custom exists at Knutsford, in Cheshire.
On the occasion of a wedding, as soon as the bride
has set out for the church, a relative spreads on the
pavement before her house a quantity of silver-sand,
called "greet," in the form of wreaths of flowers, and
writes, with the same material, wishes for her happi-
ness. This is soon copied by others, and if the bride
and bridegroom be favourites, there may be seen
before most of the houses numerous flowers in sand.
It was formerly believed that a union could never
be happy if the bridal party, on their way to church,
were unfortunate enough to meet one of the follow-
ing animals, viz.:—a hare, a dog, a cat, a lizard, or
serpent; while on the other hand, if a spider, toad, or
wolf came across their path, they were sure to have
prosperity and happiness. Many precautions were
consequently taken to avert any of these supposed
ill-omens, especially as oftentimes implicit confidence
was placed in them; and there are numerous records
which tell of fainting and terror-stricken brides from
their having been the victims of such foolish fears.
Pliny, in his'Natural History* (iothbook, chapter viii.),
MARRIAGE.
199
mentions that in his day the circos, a kind of tame
hawk, was looked upon as an auspicious omen at
weddings—a proof of the antiquity of this kind of
superstition. Perhaps, however, now-a-days, no greater
dread is occasioned among the credulous than by the
appearance of the raven :—
"Which, seldom boding good,
Croak their black auguries from some dark wood."
This, when seen over the head either of the bride-
groom or bride, is regarded as the harbinger of
coming misfortune or sorrow — its presence alone,
even for a minute or so, being sufficient in the eyes of
the fanciful to dampen the joy of such a bright
occasion. It is curious, too, to observe how, in the
event of certain marriages having turned out un-
happily, the occurrence of this superstition has been
.much commented upon, and the deduction drawn that
the issues of such marriages are exactly what might
have been expected.
It is a good omen for the sun to shine upon the
bride, an allusion to which we find in Herrick's
'Hesperides':—
"While that others do divine,
Blest is the bride on whom the sun doth shine."
If it rains while the wedding party are on thei.
journey either to or from church, then a life of
unhappiness is to be expected. In a letter from
Chamberlain to Dudley Carleton, dated July 10th,
200
MARRIAGE.
1603, he says:—"Mr. Winwood was married on
Tuesday, with much thunder and lightning and rain.
The ominous weather and dismal day put together
might have made a superstitious man startled, but he
turned all to the best, and so may it prove." * It is
considered unlucky in some places for a woman to
marry a man whose surname commences with the
same letter as her own. Hence the saying:—
"To change the name, and not the letter,
Is a change for the worse, and not for the better."
This superstition exists also in Philadelphia, no
doubt carried there by some of our own countrymen.
In the South of England it is regarded as unlucky for
a bride about to go to the church to look in the glass
after she is completely dressed. Hence, very great
care is taken to put on a glove or some article after
the last lingering and reluctant look has been taken
in the mirror. The idea is that any young lady
who is too fond of the looking-glass will be unlucky
when married. It is a Yorkshire belief, and by no
means a pleasant one, that whoever goes to sleep
first on the marriage night, will be sure to die first;
this, they say, is as true as Scripture. Hence, as may
be imagined, few dare to close their eyes at such a
prophetical time, and so by keeping awake leave in
uncertainty that dismal piece of information which
otherwise would be foretold to them.
* Brand's 'Popular Antiquities,' vol. ii. p. 170,
MARRIAGE.
201
The modern honeymoon trip had its birth in the
last days of George II., and became, says Jeaffreson,*
"a recognized bridal institution in the aristocratic
world in the earlier years of George III.'s reign. Many
years passed before modest gentlefolk in the middle
rank of life presumed to imitate their betters in
respect to this convenient custom. The change of
usage was, however, so agreeable to lovers of both
sexes that the new fashion became yearly more
general, so that by the end of the last century it was
unusual for a bride, having the slightest claims to
gentility, to pass the evening of her wedding-day
under her father's roof."
In Yorkshire, hot water is often poured over the
door-steps of the hall door as the bride and bride-
groom drive away; and the belief is that before it
dries up, another marriage is sure to be agreed upon.
A writer in the 'Athenaeum' (November 16th, 1867)
says:—" At a wedding in Holderness, the other day,
at which my granddaughter assisted, a ceremony
was performed there I had not observed before. As
soon as the bride and bridegroom had left the house,
and had the usual number of old shoes thrown after
them, the young folks rushed forward, each bearing a
tea-kettle of boiling water, which they poured down
the front door-steps, that other marriages might soon
flow, or as one said, 'flow on/" This piece of folk-
lore goes by the appellation of "keeping the threshold
* «Brides and Bridals.'
202
MARRIAGE.
warm for another bride." A correspondent of' Notes
and Queries' (ist series, vol. vii. p. 545) tells us that
being present on the occasion of a wedding at a town
in the East Riding of Yorkshire, he witnessed the
following piece of divination: On the bride alighting
from her carriage at her father's door, a plate covered
with morsels of bride-cake was flung from a window
of the second storey upon the heads of the crowd
congregated in the street below; the divination con-
sisting in observing the fate which attends its down-
fall. If it reach the ground in safety, without being
broken, the omen is a most unfavourable one. If, on
the other hand, the plate be shattered in pieces (and
the more the better), the auspices are looked upon as
most happy. It is difficult to understand upon what
principle this conclusion is arrived at, as indeed the
shattering of the plate would rather seem to imply
ill-luck. The same custom exists, too, in Allendale,
Northumberland, where on the bride's entry of her
father's house after the marriage, she is met at the
door, a veil thrown over her head, and a quantity of
cake pitched over her. In Scotland* we find a
similar practice observed. The mother or nearest
female relative of the bridegroom attends at his house
to receive the newly-married pair. She is expected
to meet them at the door with a currant bun in her
hands, which she breaks over the head of the bride
before entering the house. It is considered very
* 'Notes and Queries,' 1st series, vol. xi. p. 420.
MARRIAGE.
203
unlucky should the currant bun be broken by mistake
over the head of any person but that of the bride,
Herrick alludes to this practice:—
"While some repeat
Your praise, and bless you, sprinkling you with wheat"
The custom of throwing an old shoe after the bride
is still believed to propitiate success, and is kept up
in most places with as much enthusiasm as ever. It
has been suggested, however, that it is not thrown for
luck only, but that it was originally "a symbol of re-
nunciation of dominion and authority over her by her
father or guardian; and the receipt of the shoe by the
bridegroom, even if accidental, was an omen that the
authority was transferred to him." In the Bible "the re-
ceiving of a shoe was an evidence and symbol of assert-
ing or accepting dominion or ownership ; the giving
back the shoe the symbol of rejecting or resigning it"
Thus in Deuteronomy (chap, xxv.) the ceremony of
a widow rejecting her husband's brother in marriage
is by loosing his shoe from off his foot; and in Ruth
we find that "it was the custom in Israel concerning
changing that a man plucked off his shoe and
delivered it to his neighbour." It is customary, too,
in most places now-a-days, for showers of rice to be
thrown after the bride and bridegroom as they take
their departure from the bride's home, as this is
thought to promote their success and happiness in
their new life. A correspondent of 'Notes and
204
MARRIAGE.
Queries* tells us that on coming out of a country
church on one occasion, after a wedding, he found a
sort of barrier erected at the churchyard gate, consist-
ing of a large paving stone placed on its edge, and
supported by two smaller stones, and on either side a
rustic, who made the happy couple and everyone else
jump over it. On inquiry he was informed that it
was the "petting stone," over which the bride had to
jump, in case she should repent and refuse to follow
her husband. Hutchison, in his ' History of Durham,'
speaks of the "petting stone." Whenever a marriage,
he says, "is solemnized at the church, after the
ceremony the bride is to step upon it, and if she
cannot stride to the end thereof, it is said that the
marriage will prove unfortunate/'
One of the most interesting antiquities of Jarrow
Church, Northumberland, is the chair of the Venerable
Bede. It is preserved in the vestry of the church,
whither all brides repair immediately the marriage
service is over, to seat themselves upon it. This act,
according to the general belief, will make them the
joyful mothers of children; and the expectant mothers
would not consider the marriage ceremony complete
until they had been enthroned in the Venerable
Bede's chair. The chair, which is very rude and sub-
stantial, is made of oak; is 4 feet 10 inches high;
having an upright back, and sides that shape off for
the arms.* Formerly, too, on the lower declivity of
* See ' Antiquarian Repertory,' 1807, voL i. p. 107.
MARRIAGE.
205
Warton Crag, in the parish of Warton,* Lancashire, a
seat called "the Bride's Chair" was resorted to on
the day of the marriage by the brides of the village;
and in this seat they were enthroned by their friends
with due solemnity.
There is a couplet upon an unpopular bride :—
"Joy go with her and a bottle of moss;
If she never comes back she'll be no great loss."
Bottle is equivalent to bundle, from the French
boteler. "A bottle of straw" is a very popular
phrase in Scotland, and was once common in England.
A bottle of moss is a thing of no value. In Howell's
4 English Proverbs' we have:—
"A thousand pounds and a bottle of hay,
Is all one thing at doom's day."
* Harland and Wilkinson's * Lancashire Folk-Lore,' 1867, p. 265.
206
DEATH.
CHAPTER IX.
DEATH.
Few subjects possess a wider or more extensive folk-
lore than death, or are surrounded with a greater
variety of mystic legends. We cannot be surprised
that this is so, considering how all the nations of the
world—learned or unlearned, ancient or modern—
have believed in the animistic theory that the souls
of men continue to survive after this life is over.
Hence, the departure of the dead man's soul from the
world of living beings here on earth, and its journey
to the distant home of spirits, have become inter-
woven with a network of superstitions varying more
or less in every country and tribe; the chief of which
consist in the idea that, at death, the soul is free to
do as it likes, either to wander on earth, to flit in the
air, to linger near the tomb, or to travel at once to
the world beyond the grave.* It is not our intention,
however, to discuss these in the present pages, but to
confine ourselves more especially to the superstitious
notions respecting death as found in our own country,
although occasionally we may deem it necessary to
* Tylor's 'Primitive Culture,' vol. i. p. 413.
DEATH.
207
fefer to others of foreign nations when found to
resemble those of our own.
In the first place, then, one of the most widespread
beliefs, not, too, confined to this country, is that death
generally announces its coming by some mysterious
noise, such as a knocking at the wall or door, a
rumbling in the floor; or that dying persons them-
selves make known their decease in similar strange
sounds. Thus, to quote Mr. Tylor's words, "Three
loud and distinct knocks at the bed's head of a sick
person, or at the bed's head or door of any of his
relations, is an omen of his death." It is no exaggera-
tion to say that there are very few families that are
not in possession of anecdotes illustrative of this
belief, and local histories supply countless details on
the same subject. This superstition may be traced
up to the time of the Romans, who believed that the
genius of death announced his coming by some
mysterious and supernatural noise. Grose informs
us that besides general notices of death, many families
have particular warnings; some by the appearance of
a bird, and others by the figure of a tall woman,
dressed in blue or grey, who goes shrieking about the
house. This apparition is found in Ireland, and
goes by the name of Banshee, and the Shrieking
Woman. Pennant tells us how many of the great
families in Scotland had their daemon or genius, who
gave them monitions of future events. In a note to
the 'Lady of the Lake* there are some interesting
208
DEATH.
particulars on this subject. A family is mentioned,
the members of which received the solemn sign of
approaching death by music, the sound of which
floated from the family residence, and seemed to die
in a neighbouring wood.
The most remarkable instance, however, we are
informed, occurs in the MS. Memoirs of Lady Fan-
shaw. "Her husband, Sir Richard, and she, chanced,
during their abode in Ireland, to visit a friend, who
resided in his ancient baronial castle, surrounded with
a moat. At midnight she was awakened by a ghastly
and supernatural scream, and looking out of bed,
beheld, by the moonlight, a female face and part of
the form, hovering at the window. The face was that
of a young and rather handsome woman, but pale;
and the hair, which was reddish, was loose and
dishevelled. This apparition continued to exhibit
itself for some time, and then vanished with two
shrieks, similar to that which had first excited Lady
Fanshaw's attention. In the morning, with infinite
terror, she communicated to her host what had
happened, and found him prepared not only to
credit but to account for what had happened. *A
near relation of my family/ said he, * expired last
night in this castle. Before such an event happens
in this family and castle, the female spectre whom
you have seen is always visible. She is believed
to be the spirit of a woman of inferior rank, whom
one of my ancestors degraded himself by marrying,-
DEATH. 209
and whom afterwards, to expiate the dishonour
done his family, he caused to be drowned in the
castle moat.'"
Concerning the appearance of a bird which has been
thought to augur approaching death, many curious
anecdotes are on record. Mr. Fitz-Patrick, in his
1 Life, Times, and Correspondence of Bishop Doyle'
(vol. ii. p. 496), in his account of the death of Dr.
Doyle, says :—" Considering that the season was mid-
summer, and not winter, the visit of two robin red-
breasts to the sick-room may be noticed as interesting.
They remained fluttering round, and sometimes
perching on the uncurtained bed. The priests, struck
by the novelty of the circumstance, made no effort
to expel the little visitors; and the robins hung
lovingly over the bishop's head until death released
him."
Lord Lyttelton, as is generally known, is said to
have been forewarned of his death in a dream, in
which the announcement was made by means of a
bird There are several versions of this remarkable
occurrence, but the following, written by Lord West-
cote, uncle of Lord Lyttelton, is the most trustworthy,
and was published in * Notes and Queries ' (1862):—
"On Thursday, the 25th of November, 1779, Thomas
Lord Lyttelton, when he came to breakfast, declared
to Mrs. Flood, wife of Frederick Flood, Esq., of the
kingdom of Ireland, and to the three Miss Amphletts
who were lodged in his house in Hill Street, London
p
210
DEATH.
(where he then also was), that he had had an extra-
ordinary dream the night before. He said he thought
he was in a room which a bird flew into, which
appearance was suddenly changed into that of a
woman dressed in white, who bade him prepare to
die; to which he answered, I hope not soon—not in
two months. She replied, yes, in three days. He
said he did not much regard it, because he could in
some measure account for it; for that a few days
before he had been with Mrs. Dawson, when a robin
red-breast flew into his room. When he had dressed
himself that day to go to the House of Lords,* he
said he thought he did not look as if he was likely
to die. In the evening of the following day, being
Friday, he told the eldest Miss Amphlett that she
looked melancholy; but, said he, you are foolish and
fearful; I have lived two days, and, God willing, I
will live out the third. On the morning of Saturday
he told the same ladies that he was very well, and
believed he should bilk the ghost
"Some hours afterwards he went with them, Mr.
Fortescue, and Captain Wolseley, to Pitt Place at
Epsom, withdrew to his bed-chamber soon after eleven
o'clock at night, talked cheerfully to his servant, and
particularly inquired of him what care had been taken
to provide good rolls for his breakfast the next
morning; stepped into bed with his waistcoat on, and
* Parliament was opened on that day by George III. in person.
Lord Lyttelton's name appears in the list of peers who were present.
DEATH.
211
as his servant was pulling it off, put his hand to his
side, sunk back, and immediately expired without a
groan. He ate a good dinner after his arrival at Pitt
Place that day, took an egg for his supper, and did
not seem to be at all out of order, except that while
he was eating his soup at dinner he had a rising in
his throat, a thing which had often happened to him
before, and which obliged him to spit some of it out.
His physician, Dr. Fothergill, told me Lord Lyttelton
had in the summer preceding a bad pain in his side;
and he judged that some great vessel in the part
where he had felt the pain, gave way, and to that he
conjectured his death was owing."
In Devonshire the appearance of a white-breasted
bird has from time immemorial been regarded as a
certain omen of death. This superstition is said to
have originated in a circumstance that happened to
one of the Oxenham family in that county, and
is related by Howell in his 'Familiar Epistles': —
"I can tell you of a strange thing that I saw lately
here, and I believe 'tis true. As I pass'd by St. Dun-
Stan's, in Fleet Street, the last Saturday, I stepped into
a lapidary or stone-cutter's shop, to treat with the
master for a stone to be put upon my fathers tomb;
and casting my eyes up and down, I might spie a
huge marble with a large inscription, which was thus,
to my best remembrance:—
"9 Here lies John Oxenham, a goodly young man, in
whose chamber, as he was struggling with the pangs
P 2
212
DEATH.
of death, a bird with a white breast was seen flutter-
ing about his bed, and so vanish'd.
"' Here lies also Mary Oxenham, the sister of the
said John, who died the next day, and the same
apparition was seen in the room.
"' Here lies, hard by, James Oxenham, the son of the
said John, who dyed a child in his cradle a little after.
And such a bird was seen fluttering about his head
a little before he expir'd, which vanish'd afterwards/
"At the bottom of the stone there is:—
"' Here lies Elizabeth Oxenham, the mother of the
said John, who died sixteen years since, when such a
bird with a white breast was seen about her bed
before death/
"To all these there be divers witnesses, both squires
and ladies, whose names are engraven upon the
stone/'
There is a local ballad, says a correspondent of
'Book of Days' (vol. ii. p. 731), on this subject, which
begins thus:—
"Where lofty hills in grandeur meet,
And Taw meandering flows,
There is a sylvan, calm retreat,
Where erst a mansion rose.
"There dwelt Sir James of Oxenham,
A brave and generous lord;
Benighted travellers never came
Unwelcome to his board.
"In early life his wife had died,
A son he ne'er had known,
And Margaret, his age's pride,
Was heir to him alone."
DEATH.
213
Margaret became affianced to a young knight, and
their marriage day was fixed. On the evening preced-
ing it, her father gave a banquet to his friends, who, of
course, congratulated him on the approaching happy
union. He stood up to thank them, and in alluding
to the young knight, so soon to be his daughter's
husband, he jestingly called him his son:—
"But while the dear, unpractised word
Still lingered on his tongue,
He saw a silvery-breasted bird
Fly o'er the festive throng.
"Swift as the lightning's flashes fleet
And lose their brilliant light,
Sir James sank back upon his seat,
Pale and entranced with fright."
He, however, managed to conceal the cause of his
embarrassment, and the next day the wedding party
assembled in the church, and the priest had begun
the marriage service,—
"When Margaret with terrific screams
Made all with horror start—
Good heavens! her blood in torrents streams,
A dagger's in her heart."
The deed had been done by a discarded lover, who,
by the aid of disguise, had stationed himself just
behind her:—
"' Now marry me, proud maid,' he cried;
'Thy blood with mine shall wed; *
He dashed the dagger in his side,
And at her feet fell dead.
DEATH.
"Poor Margaret, too, grows cold with death,
And round her hovering flies
The phantom bird for her last breath,
To bear it to the skies."
It was a belief formerly very prevalent, that in
death the soul flew out of the mouth of the dying in
the likeness of a bird. It is a common notion, too,
that when death visits a home it frequently takes two
members of a family away—a superstition current in
Germany. In Longfellow's 'Golden Legend/ Ursula,
lamenting the supposed loss of her daughter, says:—
"Death never takes one alone, but two!
Whenever he enters in at a door,
Under roof of gold or roof of thatch,
He always leaves it upon the latch,
And comes again ere the year is o'er;
Never one of a household only!"
In West Sussex, there is a curious belief,* that
when an infant dies, it announces the fact itself, by a
visit, as if in the body, to some near relative.
The wraith, or spectral appearance, of a person
shortly to die, is a given article of belief in Scotland,
and even in our own country, and exists also abroad.
Thus, in New Zealand, says Mr. Tylor,t "it is omi-
nous to see the figure of an absent person, for if it
be shadowy, and the face not visible, his death may
ere long be expected; but if the face be seen, he is
already dead. A party of Maoris (one of whom
told the story) were seated round a fire in the open
* 'Popular Antiquities/ vol. ii. p. 231.
t * Primitive Culture,' vol. i. p. 405.
DEATH.
air, when there appeared, seen only by two of them,
the figure of a relative, left ill at home; they ex-
claimed, the figure vanished, and on the return of the
party it appeared that the sick man had died about
the time of the vision."
Folk-lore examples, says the same writer, abound
in Silesia and the Tyrol, where the gift of wraith-
seeing still flourishes, with the customary details of
funerals, churches, four cross roads, and headless
phantoms, and an especial association with New
Year's Eve. Heron, in his 'Journey through Part of
Scotland* {1799, vol. ii. p. 227) tells us that "tales of
ghosts, brownies, fairies, witches, are the frequent
entertainments of a winter's evening among the
native peasantry of Kirkcudbrightshire. It is common
among them to fancy that they see the wraiths of
persons dying, which will be visible to one and not
others present with him." Dr. Jamieson, in his 'Ety-
mological Dictionary of Scotland/ says, that "the
wraith of a living person does not, as some have
supposed, indicate that he shall die soon; although
in all cases viewed as a premonition of the disem-
bodied state. The season in the natural day at
which the spectre makes its appearance, is understood
as a certain presage of the time of the person's
departure. If seen early in the morning, it forebodes
that he shall live long, and even arrive at old age; if
in the evening it indicates that his death is at hand."
It is a very popular fancy in Cornwall, says Hunt
2l6
DEATH.
('Popular Romances of the West of England/ 1871,
P- 377), that "when a maiden, who has loved not
wisely, but too well, dies forsaken and broken-hearted,
she comes back to haunt her deceiver in the shape
of a white hare. This phantom follows the false
one everywhere, mostly invisible to all but him. It
saves him sometimes from danger, but invariably the
white hare causes the death of the betrayer in the end.
Watching in the church porch for death omens on
the Eves of St. Mark and St. John, is a practice that
in days gone by was much in use, especially amongst
young people. The time observed was from eleven
o'clock at night until one in the morning. In the
same year, for this had to be done three times, it was
supposed that the ghosts of all those who were to
die the next year would pass into the church. Thus,
when anyone was seriously ill who was supposed to
have been seen in this manner, it was soon whispered
abroad that he would not recover. Formerly this
superstition was so prevalent and so readily believed,
that if patients chanced to hear what was said about
them, they at once began to despair of recovery, and
many, indeed, are actually said to have died from
tfie influence of their imaginations on this occasion.
Montgomery has a pretty allusion to this superstitious
custom:—
"' 'Tis now,' replied the village belle,
• St Mark's mysterious Eve;
And all that old traditions tell,
I tremblingly believe.
DEATH.
217
"c How, when the midnight signal tolls,
Along the churchyard green,
A mournful train of sentenced souls
In winding-sheets are seen!
"' The ghosts of all whom death shall doom
Within the coming year,
In pale procession walk the gloom,
Amid the silence drear.'"
In Ireland, Camden describes the looking through
the blade-bone of a sheep, to try and discover a dark
spot which foretells a death. Drayton, in his i Poly-
olbion/ thus speaks of this act:—
"A divination strange the Dutch-made English have,
Appropriate to that place (as though some power it gave),
By th* shoulder of a ram from off the right side par'd,
Which usually they boile, the spade bone being bar'd,
Which when the wizard takes, and gazing thereupon,
Things long to come foreshowes, as things done long agone."
The practice thus described is called "reading the
speal-bone." Mr. Tylor, in his 'Primitive Culture'
(vol. i. p. 113), quotes several interesting instances
to show how it existed among the lower races. Thus
the North American Indians, he tells us, would put
in the fire a certain flat bone of a porcupine, and
judge from its colour if the porcupine hunt would be
successful*
Fires and candles, says a writer in the 'Book
of Days,' "afford presages of death; coffins flying
out of the former, and winding-sheets guttering down
* See Pennant's ' Tour to the Hebrides' Brand's 'Popular Anti-
quities/ vol. iii. p. 339.
218
DEATH.
from the latter. A winding-sheet is produced from
a candle, if, after it has guttered, the strip, which has
run down, instead of being absorbed into the general
tallow, remains unmelted; if, under these circum-
stances, it curls over away from the flame, it is a
presage of death to the person in whose direction it
points.
"Coffins out of the fire are hollow oblong cinders
spirted from it, and are a sign of coming death in the
family. I have seen cinders which have flown out
from the fire, picked up and examined to see what
they presaged; for coffins are not the only things
that are thus produced. If the cinder instead of being
oblong is oval, it is a cradle, and predicts the advent
of a baby; while, if it is round, it is a purse, and means
prosperity."
Gay, in his amusing fable of the 'Farmer's Wife
and the Ravens/ridiculing some of the common super-
stitions current in his day, alludes to the fire-coffins:—
"' Why are those tears? why droops your head?
Is then your other husband dead?
Or does a worse disgrace betide?
Hath no one since his death applied?'
* Alas! you know the cause too well;
The salt is spilt, to me it fell;
Then, to contribute to my loss,
My knife and fork were laid across,
On Friday, too! the day I dread;
Would I were safe at home in bed!
Last night (I vow to HeaVn 'tis true)
Bounce from the fire a coffin flew.
Next post some fatal news shall tell.
God send my Cornish friends be well!n
DEATH.
219
In Cambridgeshire,* the peasants have a great ob-
jection to a child speaking of itself in the third person
or giving itself a soubriquet, as it is considered a sign
of its death in early youth.
"Few ears," says Sir Thomas Browne ('Vulgar
Errors/ 1852, vol. il p. 210), "have escaped the noise
of the death-watch, that is, the little clicking sound
heard often in many rooms, somewhat resembling
that of a watch; and this is conceived to be an
evil omen or prediction of some person's death:
wherein notwithstanding there is nothing of rational
presage or just cause of terror. For this noise is made
by a little sheath-winged, grey insect,t found often in
wainscot benches and woodwork in the summer. We
have often taken many thereof, and kept them in
thin boxes, wherein I have seen and heard them work
and knock with a little proboscis or trunk against the
side of the box, like a Picus tnartius, or woodpecker
against a tree. It worketh best in warm weather,
and for the most part giveth not over under nine or
eleven strokes at a time. He that could extinguish
the terrifying apprehensions hereof, might prevent the
passions of the heart, and many cold sweats in grand-
mothers and nurses, who, in the sickness of children,
are so startled with these noises." It is curious that
so many should, even now-a-days, regard the noise
made by this little insect as an omen of death, con-
sidering how clearly the cause has been explained.
* 'Athenaeum,' August nth, 1849.
t Anobium tisscllatum.
220
DEATH.
The witty Dean Swift has left us the following
amusing charm to avert the fatal omen:—
"A wood worm
That lies in old wood, like a hare in her form;
With teeth or with claws it will bite, or will scratch,
And chambermaids christen this worm a death-watch:
Because, like a watch, it always cries click:
Then woe be to those in the house who are sick;
For as sure as a gun they will give up the ghost,
If the maggot cries click when it scratches the post.
But a kettle of scalding hot water injected,
Infallibly cures the timber affected;
The omen is broken, the danger is over,
The maggot will die, and the sick will recover."
The superstition that the noise made by this insect
is a death-omen is mentioned by Baxter, in his
'World of Spirits/ which, says Timbs,* obtained cur-
rency for its belief for upwards of a century.
It is a curious circumstance, says Harland (' Lan-
cashire Folk-lore that in the district round Burnley,
the real death-tick must only tick three times on
each occasion.
It is a prevalent idea that the howling of a dog is
an omen of death, which is ascribed by some to its
keen sense of the odour of approaching mortal disso-
lution. Be this, however, as it may, there can be no
doubt that numerous remarkable coincidences have
happened in which dogs by their piteous and restless
whining have foretold coming death. Shakspeare says:
"The owl shriek'd at thy birth; an evil sign!
The night crow cry'd, aboding luckless time;
Dogs howled, and hideous tempests shook down trees."
* * Popular Errors,' p. 365.
DEATH.
221
Douce tells us that it was formerly believed that
dogs saw the ghosts of deceased persons. In the
'Odyssey' (book xvi.), the dogs of Eumaeus are de-
scribed as terrified at the sight of Minerva, although
she was then invisible to Telemachus. Capitolinus
says that the dogs by their howling presaged the
death of Maximinus. We are, it is evident, indebted
to antiquity for this superstition, and it is one which
has rooted itself most firmly in the feelings of many
nations. Thus, "with quaint simplicity," says Tylor,*
"the German cottager declares that if a dog howls
looking downwards, it portends a death; but, if up-
wards, then a recovery from sickness/'
The same writer, too, quoting from Cranz's 'Gron-
land,' p. 267, tells us that the Greenlander believes
that the seals and wild fowls are scared by spectres
which no human eye but the sorcerer's can behold.
The Jewt also, and Moslem, when they hear dogs howl,
"believe that they have seen the Angel of Death
come on his awful errand."
In Devonshire, a plentiful season for hazel nuts is
believed to be unlucky; hence the saying :—
"Many nits (nuts),
Many pits (graves)."
According to another version :—
"Many slones (sloes), many groans;
Ilany nits, many pits."
* 'Primitive Culture,' voL i. p, ic\
f Ibid., voL ii. p. 179.
222
DEATH.
The presence of crickets in a house is generally
believed to presage good luck, and hence they are
most carefully preserved; as their departure from a
hearth which has long echoed with their cheerful
chirp is thought to betoken approaching misfortune,
and even death. It is said, too, to be very unlucky
to kill a cricket, perhaps, says Grose, from its being a
breach of hospitality; this little insect generally
taking refuge in houses. In White's 'Selborne'
(1853, p. 174), the writer speaking of it, says, "it is
the housewife's barometer, foretelling her when it will
rain; and is prognostic sometimes she thinks of ill
or good luck, of the death of a near relation, or the
approach of an absent lover. By being the constant
companion of her solitary home, it naturally becomes
the object of her superstition." Gay, in his 'Pastoral
Dirge/ among the rural prognostications of death,
gives the following :—
"And shrilling crickets in the chimney cry'd."
And in Dry den's 'CEdipus' occurs the subjoined:—
"Owls, ravens, crickets, seem the watch of death."
The Death's Head Moth (Acherontia atropos) has
generally been the subject of no little alarm among
the superstitious. In Germany it is very common,
and is there called the "Death's Head Phantom,"
the "Wandering Death Bird," &c. "The markings
on the back represent," says Timbs,* "to a fertile
* * Popular Errors,' 1856, p. 364.
DEATH.
223
imagination, the head of a perfect skeleton, with
the limb-bones crossed beneath; its cry becomes the
voice of anguish, the mourning of a child, the signal
of grief." It is regarded as highly ominous when it
flies into a room in the evening, oftentimes being
supposed to foretell calamity or death.
Mice are said to portend death—a superstition not
uncommon in Devonshire and Cornwall. In the
former county, a poor woman one day speaking about
the mice in her room, exclaimed, "I pray God at a
night, when I hears them running about, to keep 'em
down."
High spirits have been supposed to forebode evil,
and to presage impending death. Thus Shakspeare
(' Romeo and Juliet/ act v. sc. 8) says:—
"How oft when men are at the point of death
Have they been merry; which their keepers call
A. lightning before death."
And, in the second part of 'King Henry IV.' (act iv.
sc. 2) we find the following allusion :—
"Westmoreland. Health to my lord and gentle cousin, Mowbray.
Mowbray* You wish me health in very happy season;
For I am, on the sudden, something ill.
Archbishop of York. Against ill chances, men are ever merry;
But heaviness foreruns the good event.
West. Therefore, be merry, cos; since sudden sorrow
Serves to say thus—* Some good thing comes to-morrow.'
Archb. Believe me, I am passing light in spirit.
Mow. So much the worse, if your own rule be true."
And, to quote one more instance, from 'King Richard
III.' (act iii. sc. 2), Hastings is represented as rising
224
DEATH.
in the morning in unusually high spirits. Stanley
says:—
"The Lords at Pomfret, when they rode from London,
Were jocund, and suppos'd their states were sure,
And they, indeed, had no cause to mistrust;
And yet, you see, how soon the day o'ercast."
[Before dinner-time Hastings is beheaded.]
In * Guy Mannering' (chap, ix.) we find the fol-
lowing allusion to this superstition:—"' I think/ said
the old gardener to one of the maids, 'the gauger's
fie' by which expression the common people are
accustomed to express those violent spirits which
they look upon as a presage of death." In Miss
Benger's * Memoirs of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia/
we read:—"It is by several writers observed that
towards the close of the ceremony, certain corus-
cations of joy appeared in Elizabeth's face, which
were afterwards supposed to be sinister presages of
her misfortunes."
In some parts it is believed that if a corpse remains
warm longer than usual, it is a sign that there will
soon be another death in the house or family. As an
illustration of this we may quote the following story
recorded by a correspondent of 'Notes and Queries
"T of P was on his death-bed. His wife
sat by his bed-side one night praying, when a light,
about the size of a penny candle, shone upon his
breast. The priest of Carham, Northumberland, said5
it was a good sign, and that he would go to heaven \ \
DEATH. 22$
but my informant Jack didn't seem quite so sanguine
as the clergyman, for he uttered that truly Northum-
brian ejaculation, 'Dear kens!' in a highly interro-
gative manner."
Further, when they came to put T in his coffin,
he was not at all stiff, but was " as soople as a wullie"
(as flexible as a willow), and nearly doubled in two
when they placed him inside his wooden cell. The
old women of the neighbourhood said that some one
who should attend the funeral would die soon, owing
to the body not getting stiff, as it naturally ought to
have done. In less than three weeks, or at any rate
within a very short time, the prophetic old wives were
triumphant, as a man named R S , one of the
t€ under-bearers" at the funeral, a "muckle strong,
sober fellow, who went wi' the cairts to the mill," took
unwell three days after the burial, and, after lingering
a few weeks, died. Another correspondent of the
same periodical says :—" I was told by an old woman
that if a corpse remained warm and 'limmack' (i. e.
flexible) longer than usual, it was a sign that there
would soon be another death in the house or family."
Sir Thomas Browne, too, in his' Vulgar Errors' (1852,
vol. ii. p. 101), alludes to this superstition:—" If a child
dieth, and the neck becometh not stiff, but for many
hours remaineth lithe and flaccid, some other in the
same house will die not long after."
In Dorsetshire, if one of twins die, and the limbs
do not soon "stiffen rigidly," the funeral is delayed,
Q
226
DEA TH.
from a notion that the dead one is "waiting for the
other;" and we are informed that the carelessness of
the relatives will sometimes verify the assertion, for
the dead one has not long to wait.* In some places,
too, it is said that if the eyes are difficult to close,
they are "looking after followers." Hence, as might
be naturally expected, at the very moment of death,
great care is taken that some one standing near shall
securely close the eyes of the deceased one.
If every remnant of Christmas decoration is not
removed out of church before Candlemas Day (Feb-
ruary 2ndj, it is believed by many that there will be
a death that same year in the family occupying the
pew where a leaf or berry is left. Hence, our fore-
fathers have given minute directions for their removal.
An old lady, says a correspondent of 'Book of
Days' (vol. ii. p. 53), whom I knew, was so per-
suaded of the truth of this superstition, "that she would
not be contented to leave the clearing of her pew to
the constituted authorities, but used to send her ser-
vant on Candlemas Eve to see that her own seat, at
any rate, was thoroughly freed from danger/' Herrick,
in his 'Hesperides,' alludes to this superstition :—
"Down with the rosemary, and so
Down with the baies and mistleto:
Down with the holly, ivie, all
Wherewith ye dress the Christmas hall;
* «Notes and Queries,' 5th series, vol. vi. p. 364.
DEATH.
227
That so the superstitious find
Not one least branch there left behind:
For look, how many leaves there be
Neglected there (maids, trust to me),
So many goblins you shall see."
In Sussex it is, here and there, believed that if the
church clock strikes twelve while a hymn is being
sung in the morning service, a death will most surely
follow in the course of the week. This ridiculous
superstition is most firmly believed in by many, and
great importance is therefore attached to its occur-
rence. In the counties of Leicester and Northampton
there is a very prevalent idea that the removal or
exhumation of a body after interment bodes either
death or some misfortune to the surviving members
of the deceased's family. Turner, in his 'History of
Remarkable Providences' (1677, p. 77), speaks of this
curious belief:—"Thomas Fludd, of Kent, told me
that it is an old observation which was pressed
earnestly to King James I., that he should not remove
the Queen of Scots' body from Northamptonshire,
where she was beheaded and interred; for that it
always bodes ill to the family when bodies are re-
moved from their graves; for some of the family will
die shortly after, as did Prince Henry, and, I think,
Queen Anne." In some counties, as, for example,
Norfolk,* Berkshire, &c, agricultural labourers gene-
rally believe that if a drill go from one end of a field
to the other without depositing any seed—an accident
* See * Notes and Queries/ 1st series, vol. vii. p. 353.*
228
DEATH.
which may result from the tubes and coulters clogging
with earth—some person connected with the farm will
die before the year is out, or before the crop then
sown is reaped. In illustration of this superstition, a
correspondent of 'Notes and Queries* tells us that
some twenty years ago an old gentleman died in
Berkshire, a near relative of his own ; and on going
down to his house, he was informed by a farm overseer
that he was certain some of his lordship's family
would die that season, as, in the last sowing, he
had missed putting the seed in one row which he
sowed!" Who could disbelieve it now?" quoth the
old man.
In some parts death is said to be delayed until
the ebb of the tide; and in cases of sickness many
thus pretend to foretell the hour of the soul's de-
parture.*
George Macdonald, in his 'England's Antiphon/
says: "It was at one time a common belief, and the
notion has not yet, I think, altogether vanished, that
the dying are held back from repose by the love that is
unwilling to yield them up." This notion is still pre-
valent in the North of Fife, and perhaps elsewhere;
but with it is coupled a remarkable superstition, that
if the beloved one is withheld from dying by being
"cried back," as the prayers for their recovery are
called, the person so called back will be deprived
of one or more faculties, as a punishment to the
• See Couch's «History of Polperro,' 1871, p. 168.
DEATH.
229
parent or other relation who would not acquiesce in
the Divine will. A correspondent of 'Notes and
Queries/ speaking of this superstition, tells us the
following occurrence which happened to him:—"I
said to Mrs. B., 'Poor little H. lingered a long time;
I thought when I saw him, that he must have died
the same day, but he lingered on!' 'Yes/ said
Mrs. B., 'it was a great shame of his mother. He
wanted to die, and she would not let him die; she
couldn't part with him. There she stood, fretting
over him, and couldn't give him up; and so we
said to her, "Hell never die till you give him up!"
And then she gave him up; and he died quite peace-
ably/"
In many places it is supposed that the departure of
life is delayed so long as any locks or bolts in the
house are fastened, as they are believed to hinder
the soul in taking its leave of the body. It is a very
common practice, therefore, when a person is appa-
rently at the point of death, to open every door in the
house, so that the struggle between life and death
may not be painfully prolonged, but the soul allowed
at once to accomplish its exit from this world without
the slightest impediment. A correspondent of' Notes
and Queries' mentions the following incident, which is
illustrative of this curious superstition. He tells us
that he had for a long time visited a poor man who
was dying of a very painful disease, and was daily
expecting his death. Upon calling one morning to
230
DEATH.
see his poor friend, the wife informed him that she
thought he would have died during the night, and,
consequently, she and her friends unfastened every
lock in the house. On inquiring the reason, he was
informed that any bolt or lock fastened was supposed
to cause uneasiness to, and hinder the departure of,
the soul. This superstition is said to be founded on
the idea that the minister of purgatorial pains takes
the soul as it escapes from the body, and, flattening
it against some closed door (which alone can serve
the purpose), crams it into the hinges and hinge
openings. Thus the soul in torment is likely to be
miserably pinched and squeezed by the movement, on
any casual occasion, of such door or lid. An opening
or swinging door frustrates this; and the fiends have
to try some other locality. The friends, too, of the
departed have the consolation that they are not made
the unconscious instruments of torturing them in their
daily occupations. A reference to this notion may be
found in 'Guy Mannering' (chap, xxvii.):—"The
popular belief that the protracted struggle between life
and death is painfully prolonged by keeping the door of
the apartment shut, was received as certain by the su-
perstitious eld of Scotland." This superstition is very
common, too, in France;* and is found even among
the Chinese, who make a hole in the roof to let out
the departing soul. To this day, says Tylor,t "it
* Monnier, 'Traditions Populaires,' p. 142.
t 'Primitive Culture,' vol. i. p. 410.
DEATH.
231
remains a German peasant saying that it is wrong to
slam a door, lest one should pinch a soul in it." The
same writer also informs us how the Congo negroes
abstained for a whole year after a death from sweeping
the house, lest the dust should injure the delicate
substance of the ghost
Church dust brought to the bed of a dying person
is supposed to shorten and ease a lingering and
painful death.
In days gone by, and up to the close of the last
century, it appears to have been a common practice
to shut up rooms in which members of the family had
died. In one of Addison's papers on Sir Roger de
Coverley, in the 'Spectator' (No. no, July, 1711), we
have this amusing passage bearing on the subject:—
"My friend, Sir Roger, has often told me, with a
good deal of truth, that, at his first coming to his
estate, he found three parts of his house altogether
useless; that the best room in it had the reputation
of being haunted, and by that means was locked up;
that noises had been heard in his long gallery, so
that he could not get a servant to enter it after eight
o'clock at night; that the door of one of his chambers
was nailed up, because there went a story in the
family that a butler had formerly hanged himself in
it; and that his mother, who lived to a great age, had
shut up half the rooms in the house, in which either
her husband, a son, or a daughter, had lived. The
knight, seeing his habitation reduced to so small a
232
DEATH.
compass, and himself in a manner shut out of his own
house, upon the death of his mother, ordered all the
apartments to be flung open, and exorcised by his
chaplain, who lay in every room, one after another,
and by that means dissipated the fears which had so
long reigned in the family." It is most curious to find
this custom existing among savage tribes, although,
however, from different causes—the general one being
either -the utter abnegation of all things belonging to
the dead* or their simple surrender to the ghost.
Thus the Hottentots left the dead person's abode for
fear of coming in contact with the spirit, who, it was
thought, might still linger within. And in Old
Calabar, the child let his father's house go to decay
for two years, and then rebuilt it—the spirit by this
time being supposed to have taken his departure.
Another piece of folk-lore connected with death is,
that demons or evil spirits hover about the chamber of
the dying, seeking to take possession of their souls as
soon as they leave the body. In one of Latimer's
Sermons on the Epistle for the Twenty-first Sunday
after Trinity, we find the following curious practice
mentioned:—" I was once called to one of my kins-
folk: it was at that time when I had taken degree at
Cambridge, and was made Master of Arts. I was
called, I say, to one of my kinsfolk which was very
sick, and died immediately after my coming. Now
there was an old cousin of mine, which, after the man
* * Primitive Culture,7 vol. ii. p. 23.
DEATH.
233
was dead, gave me a wax candle in my hand, and
commanded me to make certain crosses over him that
was dead, for she thought the devil should run away
by-and-by. Now, I took the candle, but I could not
cross him as she would have me to do, for I had never
seen it before. Now she, perceiving that I could not
do it, with a great anger took the candle out of my
hand, saying, 'It is a pity that my father spendeth so
much money upon thee!' And she took the candle
and crossed and blessed him, so that he was sure
enough—no doubt she thought—that the devil could
have no power against him."
234
DA YS OF THE WEEK.
CHAPTER X.
DAYS OF THE WEEK.
The influence of superstition has never, perhaps, been
more clearly seen than in the widespread regard paid
in all ages and countries to certain days, as being
either good or evil, lucky or unlucky. Indeed, it may
be truly said, there is not a tribe to be found which
has not its particular days for beginning, or abstaining
from, anything of importance. Going back for a
moment to past times, we would note that this phase
of superstition was very general among the Greeks,
who received it from the Egyptians, and they again
from the Chaldseans. Hesiod, in his 'Days/ asserts
how—
"Some days, like surly stepdames, adverse prove,
Thwart our intentions, cross whate'er we love;
Others more fortunate and lucky shine,
And, as a tender mother, bless what we design."
This notion was common among other nations, and
particularly among the Romans, who had their Dies
Atriy or unlucky days ; and was held, too, by the early
Christians. Thus, St. Paul reproves the Galatians
(chap. iv. io) for observing days, and months, and
DA YS OF THE WEEK.
235
years; a passage upon which St. Augustine in his
comment has the following remarks:—" The persons
whom the Apostle blames are those who say, ' I will
not set forward on my journey, because it is the next
day after such a time, or because the moon is so ;' or,
'1 will set forward that I may have luck, because such
is just now the position of the stars.' 'I will not
traffic this month, because such a star presides/ or, ' I
will, because it does not.' * I shall plant no vine this
year, because it is leap year.'" Those who may be
inclined to follow up this subject more fully, will find
a good essay on "Day Fatality" in John Aubrey's
'Miscellanies/ and some interesting information in
the 'Book of Knowledge' (book i. p. 19), as also in
that excellent book, Brand's 'Popular Antiquities'
(1849, vol. i. pp. 44-51). In the present chapter we
would confine ourselves more especially to the folk-
lore of the days of the week, briefly enumerating a
few of the many superstitions and sayings connected
with them. Commencing, then, with Sunday, we find
it considered highly unlucky in many places to cut
the nails on this day, and according to the Devonshire
rhyme,—
"Who on the Sabbath pairs his horn,
'Twere better for him he had ne'er been born."
Some, too, connect this superstition with a Friday,
as will be seen from another rhyme, which, by-the-bye,
\
\
236 DAYS OF THE WEEK.
includes each day of the week in this piece of folk-
lore :—
"A man had better ne'er been born,
Than have his nails on a Sunday shorn.
Cut them on Monday, cut them for health;
Cut them on Tuesday, cut them for wealth;
Cut them on Wednesday, cut them for news;
Cut them on Thursday for a pair of new shoes;
Cut them on Friday, cut them for sorrow;
Cut them on Saturday, see your sweetheart to-morrow."
There are various versions of this rhyme, differing
somewhat in detail, as, for example, in Hertford-
shire :—
"Cut your nails on a Monday, cut them for news;
Cut them on Tuesday, a pair of new shoes;
'Cut them on Wednesday, cut them for health;
Cut them on Thursday, cut them for wealth;
Cut them on Friday, cut them for woe;
Cut them the next day a journey to go;
Cut them on Sunday, you cut them for evil;
For all the next week you'll be ruled by the devil."
Sir Thomas Browne, in his * Vulgar Errors/ com-
menting on this foolish custom, says :—" The set and
statutory times of paring nails and cutting hair is
thought by many a point of consideration, which is,
perhaps, but the continuance of an ancient superstition.
To the Romans it was peculiar to pare their nails upon
the Nundinae, observed every ninth day; and was
also feared by others in certain days of the week."
The Jews, however, superstitiously, says Mr. Addison,
in his 'Present State' of that people, pare their nails
DAYS OF THE WEEK. 237
on a Friday. In some parts, again, it is considered
unlucky to cut the hair on Friday, or shave the beard
on Sunday; hence the following couplet:—
"Friday cut and Sunday shorn,
Better never have been born."
Sunday is not without its share of weather-lore,
and scattered through the country are. sundry pro-
verbial sayings, of which we quote one or two as
specimens. Thus, in Norfolk, it is commonly said:—
"Rain afore chutch (church),
Rain all the week,
Little or much."
And in Fifeshire:—
"If it rains on the Sunday before mess (mass),
It will rain all the week more or less."
In the North it is said that,—
"To-morrow come never,
When two Sundays come together."
"This is sometimes addressed," says Halliwell, "to
one who promises something 'to-morrow/ but who is
often in the habit of making similar engagements, and
not remembering them."
In the West of England we find some curious
sayings which profess to predict the characters of
children born on certain days of the week. Thus,
238 DAYS OP THE WEEK.
beginning with Sunday, in Cornwall we are told
that,—
"Sunday's child is full of grace,
Monday's child is full in the face,
Tuesday's child is solemn and sad,
Wednesday's child is merry and glad,
Thursday's child is inclined to thieving,
Friday's child is free in giving,
Saturday's child works hard for his living."
The Devonshire rhyme is very much the same:—
"Sunday, gentleman,
Monday, fair in face,
Tuesday, full of grace,
Wednesday, sour and grum,
Thursday, welcome home,
Friday, free in giving,
Saturday, work hard for your living."
In Gloucestershire it is a prevalent idea that after
an open grave on a Sunday, a death is sure to take
place within a month. This, says a correspondent of
Chambers's 'Book of Days' (vol. ii. p. 52), is a very
narrowly limited superstition, as Sunday is generally
a favourite day for funerals among the poor. "I
have, however/' he says, "met with it in one parish,
where Sunday funerals are the exception, as I recol-
lect one instance in particular. A woman coming
down from church, and observing an open grave,
remarked, 'Ah, there will be somebody else wanting
a. grave before the week is out!' Strangely enough
(the population of the place was then under a
thousand), her words came true, and the grave was
dug for her."
In Devonshire it is considered highly unlucky to
DA YS OF THE WEEK.
239
turn a feather bed on a Sunday, as, in the opinion of
many, death is sure to follow.
In Sinclair's 'Statistical Account of Scotland* (1793,
vol. v. p. 82), the minister of Logierait, Perthshire,
speaking of the superstitious practices in the parish,
says:—" In fevers the illness is expected to be more
severe on Sunday than on the other days of the week;
if easier on Sunday, a relapse is feared/'
In some places great notice is taken as to the time
and the day one sneezes. Thus, in Devonshire, it is
said that if you—
"Sneeze on Sunday morning fasting,
You'll enjoy your own true love to everlasting."
This superstition differs in different localities. A
common rhyme, much quoted by poor people, espe-
cially too in Devonshire, is as follows :—
"To sneeze on Monday hastens anger;
To sneeze on Tuesday, kiss a stranger;
To sneeze on Wednesday,
To sneeze on Thursday,
To sneeze on Friday, give a gift;
To sneeze on Saturday, receive a gift;
To sneeze on Sunday before you break your fast,
You'll see your true love before a week's past."
Another version of this rhyme, once common in
Hertfordshire, is as follows :—
"If you sneeze on Monday, you sneeze for danger;
Sneeze on a Tuesday, kiss a stranger;
Sneeze on a Wednesday, sneeze for a letter;
Sneeze on a Thursday, something better;
Sneeze on a Friday, sneeze for sorrow;
Sneeze on a Saturday, see your sweetheart to-morrow;
Sneeze on a Sunday, and the devil will have dominion over you all the
week."
240
DAYS OF THE WEEK.
If you sneeze any morning before breakfast, it is a
sign that you will have a present before the week is
out.
Another saying is, that "if you sneeze on a Saturday
night after the candle is put out, you will next day
see a stranger you never saw before; " and a piece of
East Anglian folk-lore on this subject is :—
"Sneeze on Monday, and you will
Have a present ere the week is out."
Of course, the above rhymes are not intended to
apply to sneezing produced either by cold or snuff-
taking. The mere mention of Monday, says Hamp-
son, in the North of Scotland, in company for the first
time, is lucky or unlucky, according to the sex of the
person by whom it is named; and in Ireland, Monday
is a very auspicious day for the commencement of
any undertaking.
In 'Divers Crab-tree Lectures' (1639, P- I26), we
find the following amusing and homely rhymes upon
the several days of the week, commencing with
Monday:—
"You know that Monday is Sunday's brother;
Tuesday is such another;
Wednesday you must go to church and pray;
Thursday is half-holiday;
On Friday it is too late to begin to spin;
The Saturday is half-holiday agen."
In Devonshire, Tuesdays and Wednesdays are
regarded as lucky days, and generally chosen for the
DA YS OF THE WEEK.
241
performance of any important duty. The following
curious extract is quoted by Brand from a rare tract
called the 'Animal Parliament/ 1707; and, apart
from its incidental allusion to certain days of the
week, is extremely quaint:—"That none must be
thought good lawyers and docters, but those which
will take great fees. That all duty and submission
belongs to power, not to vertue. That all must have
ill-luck after much mirth. That all those that marry
on Tuesdays and Thursdays shall be happy. That
a man's fortune can be told in the palme of his hande.
That the falling of salt portends misfortune. Those
that begin journeys on a Wednesday shall run through
much danger. That the houling of a dog, or croaking
of ravens foretell a friend's death."
Thursday is said to have one lucky hour, namely,
the hour before sunrise. Stow informs us that it was
noted as a fatal day to Henry VIII. and his posterity.
Working people are wont to say:—
"Thursday come,
The week's gone."
Friday, perhaps, has more superstition and folk-
lore attached to it than any other day in the week,
and this, no doubt, originates from the fact of its being
the day on which our Saviour Christ was crucified.
In many places it is considered unlucky for a child to
be born, on account of its being a day of ill-omen.
For the same cause, too, marriages seldom take place,
R
242
DA YS OF THE WEEK.
and persons are often found to dislike commencing any
new work. Sailors, especially, object to go to sea,
and absolutely refuse to do so until the Saturday
morning. "A respectable merchant of the City of
London informed me," says Brand, "that no person
there will begin any business, i.e., open his shop for
the first time, on a Friday.1' Lord Byron partook of
the superstition about Friday, and if anything of the
slightest importance, in which he was concerned, were
commenced on a Friday he was seriously disconcerted.
Curious to say, among the Brahmins of India this
same feeling prevails, for "on this day no business
must be commenced." The Spaniards look on Friday
as a very unlucky day; and among the firms those
who begin any business must expect but little success.
There are numerous rhymes and proverbs connected
with Friday, and of which the following are speci-
mens :—
"Friday's always the best or the worst day in the week."
Another common one is:—
"As the Friday so the Sunday,
As the Sunday so the week."
This relates more especially to the' weather, for
according to a piece of weather-lore—
"A rainy Friday, a rainy Sunday;
A fair Friday, a fair Sunday."
In Devonshire it is said that—
"Fridays in the week
Are never aleek."
DAYS OF THE WEEK.
243
In Lancashire,* a man must never "go a courting"
on Friday. If an unlucky fellow is caught with his
lady love on that day he is followed home by a band
of musicians, playing on pokers, tongs, pan-lids, &c.;
unless he can escape from his tormentors by giving
them money for drink.
A rhyming proverb informs us how " Friday's moon,
come when it will, comes too soon." Sir Thomas
Overbury, in his charming 1 Character of a Milk-
maid/ mentions a superstition alluding to dreams on
Friday:—" Lastly her dreams are so chaste that she
dare tell them, only a Friday's dream is all her super-
stition; that she conceals for fear of anger."
In Lancashire there is a rhyme to the following
effect:—
"Friday nights dream,
On the Saturday told,
Is sure to come true,
Be it never so old."
Lastly, Saturday has been regarded as partly an
inauspicious, and partly a lucky day. Henry VII.,
we are told, looked upon it as ominous. "He
entered the citie," says Lord Bacon, "upon a Satur-
day, as he had also obtained a victorie upon a
Saturday, which day of the weeke, first upon observa-
tion, and after upon memorie and fancie, he accounted
and chose as a day prosperous unto him."
In Ireland, it is said that a Saturday's rainbow
* Harland and Wilkinson, * Lancashire Folk-Lore,' p. 155.
R 2
244
DAYS OF THE WEEK.
is sure to be followed by a week of rainy, or as they
term it, "rotten weather/' With respect to the new
moon, there is in Norfolk the following rhyme :—
"Saturday new, and Sunday full,
Was never fine, nor never wull."
—a superstition which may be found here and there
in England, as well as in Scotland, varying, of
course, according to the locality. Thus another
version is:—
"A Saturday moon,
If it comes once in seven years,
Comes once too soon."
A piece of Northamptonshire folk-lore informs us
that the sun shines, if only for a minute, on every
Saturday throughout the year. The Spaniards have
a similar notion.*
Saturday and Sunday are considered unlucky
days for servants to go to their places; hence the
saying t:—
"Saturday servants never stay,
Sunday servants run away."
Bourne observes that, in his time, it was usual in
country villages to pay a greater deference to Satur-
day afternoon than to any other of the working days
of the week. The first idea, says Brand, of this
cessation from labour at that time was, that everyone
* See Southey's * Doctor,' vol. iii. p. 165.
f Sternberg's 'Northamptonshire Glossary,' 1851, p. 169.
DA YS OF THE WEEK.
245
might attend evening prayers as a kind of prepara-
tion for the ensuing Sabbath. In Jacob's ' History of
Faversham' (p. 172), in 'Articles for the Sexton of
Faversham' (22 Henry VIII.), we find: "Item,
the said Sexton, or his deputy, every Saturday,
Saint's Even, and principal feasts, shall ring noon
with as many bells as shall be convenient to the
Saturday, Saint's Even, and principal feasts," &c.
In old books we sometimes fall across the expres-
sion "Saturday's Stop" (or " Setterday's Stopp "), an
expression signifying a space of time from Saturday
evening until sunrise on Monday, when it was un-
lawful to take salmon in Scotland and the northern
parts of England. In some extracts published from
Saxon manuscripts by Dr. Hicks, we find the follow-
ing :—" If on the entering year the first thunder
happen on a Sunday, then it denotes mortality in
royal families; if it thunder on a Saturday, then it
will be mortality of judges and governors."
"The English nurse," says Mr. Tylor,* "who tells a
fretful child, 'you got out of bed wrong foot foremost
this morning,' seldom or never knows the meaning of
her saying, but this is still plain in the German folk-
lore rule, that to get out of bed left foot first will
bring a bad day—one of the many examples of that
simple association of ideas which connect right and
left with good and bad respectively."
* 'Primitive Culture.'
246
DA YS OF THE WEEK.
In the north it will be seen from the following that
attention is paid to the day washing is done:—-
"They that wash on Monday-
Have a whole week to dry;
They that wash on Tuesday
Are not so much arye;
They that wash on Wednesday
May get their clothes clean;
They that wash on Thursday
Are not so much to mean;
They that wash on Friday
Wash for their need;
But they that wash on Saturday
Are clarty-paps indeed."
Clarty-paps is equivalent to dirty sluts. In Lan-
cashire it is commonly said that—
"As the days grow longer,
The storms grow stronger;
As the days lengthen,
So the storms strengthen."
We might easily mention many other curious in-
stances of superstition connected with the days of
the week, but those we have already referred to
show how very prevalent these are. It is worthy, too,
of note that this portion of folk-lore still, as in former
times, retains its firm hold on the minds of our un-
educated and credulous countrymen.
THE MONTHS AND THEIR WE A THER-LORE. 247
CHAPTER XL
THE MONTHS AND THEIR WEATHER-LORE.
Connected with each of the months, we find a great
deal of curious weather-lore prevalent, not only in
this country, but equally abroad. To attempt to
give even a tenth part of this would occupy a volume,
so in the present chapter we must content ourselves
with simply noting some of the chief and most im-
portant superstitions attached to the months.
According, then, to old lore, if the weather in
January be warm or windy, March and May will be
chilly:—
"March in Janiveer,
Janiveer in March, I fear."
And
"A warm January, a cold May."
Another rhyme informs us that a fine day on the
first of January is not to be wished for, as—
"If January kalends be summerly gay,
'Twill be winterly weather to the kalends of May."
Many consider that a dry and cold January is far
better than a mild and wet one, the latter doing more
harm than good. Hence the proverb—
"If the grass grow in Janiveer,
It grows the worse for it all the year.*'
248 THE MQNTHS AND THEIR WE A THER-LORE.
An exception, however, to this rule is recorded by
Ray, who says that "in the year 1667 the winter was
so mild that the pastures were very green in January;
yet was there scarcely ever known a more plentiful
crop of hay than the summer following."
There are numerous rhymes descriptive of this
month, as, for example:—
"Jack Frost in Janiveer,
Nips the nose of the nascent year/'
And again:—
"The blackest month in all the year,
Is the month of Janiveer."
It must not be forgotten that nearly all the old
weather sayings and superstitions have reference to
the days of the month according to the old style
of reckoning; hence, if we would test the accuracy
of the weather wisdom of our ancestors, we must take
into account the change of style. Thus, for instance*
sayings connected with Christmas and New Year's
Day, should be placed under January 6th and 13th
respectively, and the same rule, of course, applies to
all other days.
January 6th, then, which answers to Christmas of
the old style, was formerly looked upon as a great
day among weather prophets ; and, scattered here and
there throughout the country, we find many curious
proverbs associated with this day, of which the follow-
ing are specimens :—
THE MONTHS AND THEIR WE A THER-LORE. 249
"If the sun shine through the apple-tree on
Christmas Day there will be an abundant crop in the
following year."
In Rutlandshire, it is said that "a green Christmas
brings a heavy harvest." A full moon about Christmas
Day was not considered a good sign, hence it was
said—
"Light Christmas, light wheatsheaf;
Dark Christmas, heavy wheatsheaf."
A windy Christmas and a calm Candlemas were
held as signs of a good year. And rain during the
twelve days after Christmas was said to prognosticate
a wet year.
St. Paul's Day (January 25th), or according to the
old style, February the 6th, was looked upon as
ominous:—
"If Saint Paul's day be faire and cleare,
It doth betide a happy yeare;
But if by chance it then should rain,
It will make deare all kinds of graine;
And if ye clouds make dark ye skie,
Then neats and fowles this year shall die;
If blustering winds do blow aloft,
Then wars shall trouble ye realm full oft."
Bourne observes, upon St. Paul's Day, "How it
came to have this particular knack of foretelling the
good or ill-fortune of the following year, is no easy
matter to find out. The monks, who undoubtedly
were the first who made this wonderful observation,
have taken care it should be handed down to posterity,
but why or for what reason this observation was to
250 THE MONTHS AND THEIR WE A THER-LORE.
stand good they have taken care to conceal. St.
Paul did indeed labour more abundantly than all the
Apostles; but never, that I heard, in the science of
astrology. And why his day therefore should be a
standing almanack to the world, rather than the
day of any other saint, will be pretty hard to find
out"
Wind on St. Paul's Day, too, foretold wars, mist,
famine, and pestilence. The weather of the whole
year thus depending, says a writer in 'Whitaker's
Journal' (1876, p. 77), on the humour in which St.
Paul might chance to be on his feast day, the people
made no scruple of showing their resentment if, by
his wearing cloudy looks at such a time, he dis-
appointed their hopes for the season. In many parts
of Germany they dragged his statue down to the
river on these occasions, and soused it well. In
Alsace there is a common belief that on the evening
of this day a fierce contest prevails among the winds,
and the wind which proves victorious at midnight—
the devil's dancing hour, by the way—will be the
prevailing wind throughout the year. Gay, in his
'Trivia/ thus humorously speaks of St. Paul's Day:—
"All Superstition from thy breast repel;
Let cred'lous boys and prattling nurses tell
How, if the Festival of Paul be clear,
Plenty from liberal horn shall strow the year;
When the dark skies dissolve in snow or rain,
The lab'ring hind shall yoke the steer in vain;
But if the threat'ning winds in tempests roar,
Then War shall bathe her wasteful sword in gore."
THE MONTHS AND THEIR WE A THER-LORE. 2 51
Our ancestors generally regarded a wet February
as the forerunner of a fine summer, and rain therefore
during this month was looked upon as desirable:—
"If February give much snow,
A fine summer it doth foreshow."
According to another saying:—
"AH the months in the year,
Curse a fair Februeer."
And again, "When gnats dance in February the
husbandman becomes a beggar."
"Upon the whole," says Chambers (' Popular
Rhymes of Scotland/ p. 365), "there is a prejudice
against February in the Scottish mind." The pastoral
people of Peeblesshire and Selkirkshire, say :—
"Leap year
Was never a good sheep year."
Ray tells us how—
"The Welshman would rather see his dam on her bier,
Than see a fair Februeer."
Candlemas day is rich in weather-lore, there being
more proverbs relating to this day than to any other
in the year. It is agreed on all sides that it must on
no account be fine, for—
"If Candlemas Day be fair and clear,
There'll be twa winters in the year."
And the old Latin rhyme asserts :—
"Si sol splendescat Maria purificante,
Major erit glacies post festam, quam fuit ante."
252 THE MONTHS AND THEIR WE A THER-LORE.
In Scotland there are numerous rhymes much to
the same purport:—
"After Candlemas Day the frost will be more keen,
If the sun then shines bright, than before it has been."
And once more:—
"If Candlemas Day be dry and fair,
The half o' winter's to come and mair;
If Candlemas Day be wet and foul,
The half o' winter gane at Yule."
Shrove Tuesday, which falls sometimes in February,
sometimes in March, according to the date of Easter,
is not without its weather lore. Thus, when it
thunders on this day, "it foretelleth wind, store of
fruit, and plenty." Brand, quoting from a MS.
miscellany, dated 1691, tells us that if the wind blows
on this night it betokens "a death amongst them
that are learned, and much fish shall die in following
summer." An old proverb, too, informs us that "so
much as the sun shines on Shrove Tuesday, the like
will shine on every day in Lent."
It was commonly said that "Wherever the wind
lies on Ash Wednesday, it will continue in that
quarter during all Lent.0
A wet March has been regarded as a bad omen,
for, says the proverb—
"A wet March makes a sad harvest."
Whereas—
"A dry and cold March never begs its bread."
THE MONTHS AND THEIR WEA THER-LORE. 253
According to an old superstition, the weather at the
end of March is always the exact opposite of that
at the beginning, hence the familiar saying, "March
comes in like a lion, and goes out like a lamb," which
is sometimes transposed to suit the season. The
Scotch form is, "March comes in with an adder's
head, but goes out with a peacock's tail." Old St.
Matthew's Day, the 8th of this month, is supposed to
influence the weather. "St Matthew breaks the ice;
if he finds none, he will make it."
The last three days of March are called the u Borrow-
ing Days," said to have been a loan from April to
March. The most common rhyme on the subject is
the following:—
"March borrows of April
Three days, and they are ill;
April borrows of March again
Three days of wind and rain.
"March borrowed from April
Three days, and they were ill;
The first was frost, the second was snaw,
The third was cauld as ever't could biaw.
"The first day was wind and weet;
The second day was hail and sleet;
The third day was birly banes,
And knocked the wee birds' nibs agin the stanes."
There are various versions of this story. In north
Ireland, says a writer in the 'Leisure Hour* (1876,
p. 158), it is said that March had a spite against an
old woman, and wished to kill her cow; failing to do
so in his own month, he borrowed three days of
254 THE MONTHS AND THEIR WE A THER-LORE.
April to enable him to complete the task, but whether
he succeeded does not appear. In Scotland, the story
varies by supposing he had a grudge against three
pigs instead of a cow. In this case the result of all his
attacks on them was that "the little pigs came hirpling
hame." Sir Walter Scott, in a note to his i Heart of
Midlothian/ says, the three last days of March (old
style) are called the borrowing days, for, as they are
remarked to be unusually stormy, it is feigned that
March had borrowed them from April to extend the
sphere of his rougher sway. In an ancient Romish
calendar quoted by Brand (' Popular Antiquities/
1849, vol. ii. p. 41) there is an obscure allusion to the
borrowing days. It is to the following effect:—"A
rustic fable concerning the nature of the month; the
rustic names of six days which shall follow in April,
or may be the last of March.,,
Aubrey tells us that the vulgar in the West of
England "do call the month of March, Lide" and
quotes an old rhyme:—
"Eat leekes in Lide, and Ramsins * in May,
And all the year after Physitians may play."
A cold April was regarded by our forefathers as
lucky for farming operations. Hence, the following
rhymes:—
"A cold April
The barn will fill"
* Bears' Garlic.
THE MONTHS AND THEIR WE A THER-LORE. 255
And saying:—
"Cold April gives bread and wine*"
Thunder on All Fools' Day was held welcome:—
"If it thunders on All Fools' Day,
It brings good crops of corn and hay."
If the first three days of April be foggy, it prog-
nosticates that there will be a flood in June. Easter
Day is not without its superstitions. Thus :—
"A rainy Easter betokens a good harvest."
Again:—
"If the sun shine on Easter Day, it shines on Whitsunday likewise."
No reliance, however, can be placed on these prog-
nostications, owing to the fact that the time of Easter
varies so much.
We must not omit the following distich so well
known, and one of the most familiar of our house-
hold words:—
"March winds and April showers
Bring forth May flowers."
In the north of England the agriculturists, making
use of a different version, are wont to say:—
"March dust, and May sun,
Make corn white, and maidens dun."
The explanation is, says Chambers ('Popular
Rhymes') that water in the month of March is sup-
25 6 THE MONTHS AND THEIR WE A THER-LORE.
posed to be of a more cleansing quality than in any-
other month, as expressed in the proverb:—" March
water is worth May soap."
May, from the uncertainty of the weather, has
given rise to various proverbs:—
"May, come she early or come she late,
She'll make the cow to quake."
A common saying tells us:—
"Till May be out
Change not a clout."
That is, change not your winter clothing till the
close of May. A good maxim, if we are to follow
the advice of the great father of modern medicine,
Boerhaave, who, on being consulted as to the proper
time for putting off flannel, is said to have replied,
"On Midsummer night, and put it on again next
morning." There are various predictions respecting
rain in this month. "Water in May is bread all the
year." In Scotland it is said that:—
"A leaky May and a dry June,
Keeps the puir man's head at^ne."
This is also prevalent in England, under a slightly
different form:—
"A leaky May, and a warm June,
Bring on the harvest very soon."
A warm May is considered unhealthy:—
"A hot May makes a fat churchyard."
THE MONTHS AND THEIR WEA THER-LORE. 257
It has already been mentioned in a former chapter*
that it is supposed to be unlucky to marry in May,
and according to an old proverb:—
"To wed in May is to wed poverty."
In the year 1857 there were fewer marriages in
Scotland in May than in any other month of the
year.
According to an old saying, "If it rains on Mid-
summer Eve, the filberts will be spoilt." Rain in
this month is considered lucky:—
"A good leak in June
Sets all in tune."
July is noted chiefly for the superstition attaching
to St. Swithin's Day — one which is most firmly
believed in, not only by common people, but by those
who lay claim to a fair amount of education:—
"St. Swithin's Day, if thou dost rain,
For forty days it will remain:
St. Swithin's Day, if thou be fair,
For forty days 'twill rain nae mair."
With respect to this superstition, Mr. Howard, the
meteorologist, observes : — " The notion commonly
entertained on this subject, if put strictly to the test
of experience of any one station in this part of the
island (London), will be found fallacious. To do
justice to popular observation, I may now state, that in
the majority of our summers a showery period, which,
* Marriage-lore.
S
258 THE MONTHS AND THEIR WEATHER-LORE.
with some latitude as to time and circumstances, may
be admitted to constitute daily rain for forty days,
does come on about the time indicated by this
tradition; not that any long space before is often so
dry as to mark distinctly its commencement."
There is a quaint saying, to the effect that when
it rains on St. Swithin's Day, it is the Saint christen-
ing the apples.
August has but little weather-lore. A common
saying, which is self-obvious, remarks that:—
"Dry August and warm,
Doth harvest no harm."
August the 24th is St. Bartholomew's Day, and
according to the following couplet:—
"St. Bartholomew,
Bringst the cold dew."
There are several rhymes connected with this day,
which point it out as having a certain reputation
among weather prophets:—
"All the tears that St. Swithin can cry,
St. Bartlemy's mantle wipes them dry."
Again:—
"If the twenty-fourth of August be fair and clear,
Then hope for a prosperous autumn that year."
The shepherd of Banbury alludes to the sudden
storms that often prevail .during August, and gives
certain signs by which they may be prognosticated.
THE MONTHS AND THEIR WE A THER-LORE. 259
In harvest, when the wind has been south for two or
three days, and it grows very hot, and you see clouds
arise with great white tops, like towers, as if one were
upon the top of another, and joined together with
black on the nether side, there will be thunder and
rain suddenly. If two such clouds arise, one on either
hand, it is time to make haste to shelter.
Holy Rood Day, September 14th, is an important
day in Scotland, where it is said to have the same
influence on succeeding weather as St. Swithin's Day
is supposed to have with us. Hence there is a
popular rhyme:—
"If dry be the buck's horn
On Holyrood morn,
"Tis worth a kist of gold;
But if wet it be seen,
Ere Holyrood e'en,
Bad harvest is foretold."
The poor are also accustomed to say that "if the
hart and the hind meet dry and part dry on Rood
Day fair, for six weeks there'll be nae mair."
St. Matthew's Day is said to bring "the cold rain
and dew/' and—
"The Michaelmas moon
Rises nine nights alike soon."
St. Simon and St. Jude's Feast (October 28th) was
considered rainy by our ancestors, as well as that of
St. Swithin. In an old play occurs the following
passage:—"I know it as well as I know 'twill rain
S 2
260 THE MONTHS AND THEIR WE A THER-LORE.
on Simon and Jude's Day." In another old play,
too, we read, "Now a continued Simeon and Jude's
rain beat all your feathers as flat down as pancakes."
Holinshed curiously tells us that in the year 1536,
when a battle was appointed to have been fought
upon this day between the king's troops and the
rebels in Yorkshire, so great a quantity of rain fell
upon the eve thereof as to prevent the battle from
taking place. October the 30th, old St. Luke's Day,
often brings with it fine sunny weather, and con-
sequently has received the name of "St. Luke's little
summer." About this season the wild fruits come to
their perfection, and beautify the landscape, now
variegated with the rich hues of autumn. Weather
prophets have, therefore, turned these to good account
in their prognostications:—
"Many haws,
Many snaws;
Many sloes,
Many cold toes."
"If the oak bear much mast (acorns) it foreshows
a long and hard winter."
Ice and cold in November predict warm weather
about Christmas. Hence the proverb, "If the ice
bear a man before Christmas, it will not bear a mouse
after." And again:—
u If there's ice in November that will bear a duck,
There'll be nothing after but sludge and muck.**
THE MONTHS AND THEIR WE A THER-LORE. 261
There is a similar saying attached to Hallowe'en or
All Saints' Eve (October 31st) :—
"If ducks do slide at Hollantide,
At Christmas they will swim;
If ducks do swim at Hollantide,
At Christmas they will slide."
In the North of England, there is a curious rhyme
descriptive of the value of rain in the latter part of
the year:—
"'Tween Martinmas and Yule,
Water's wine in every pool."
Thunder in December prognosticates fine weather.
In some parts there is an old adage:—
"Winter thunder,
Rich man's food and poor man's hunger."
It is a popular notion that a mild winter is less
healthy than a cold one. Hence the saying:—
"A green Christmas makes a fat churchyard."
The returns of the registrar-general, however, prove
that it is quite the contrary; the mortality of the
winter months being always in proportion to the
intensity of the cold.*
From the foregoing pages, k will be seen how rich
in folk-lore our months are; but, as Mr. Chambers
* Kelly's * Proverbs of All Nations,' 1870, p. 215.
262 THE MONTHS AND THEIR WE A THER-LORE.
remarks in his 'Popular Rhymes of Scotland/ "the
most sensible, after all, perhaps, of the meteorological
rhymes is the following, which may be given as a
wind up:—
"To talk of the weather, it's nothing but folly,
For when it's rain on the hill, it may be sun in the valley."
BELLS.
263
CHAPTER XII.
BELLS.
Among our ancestors bells were a great object of
superstition, and were supposed to possess many
important virtues. Warner, in his 'Topographical
Remarks on the S.W. Parts of Hampshire' (vol. ii.
p. 162), enumerates some of these, citing from an old
monkish rhyme:—
"Men's death I tell
By doleful knell.
Lightning and thunder
I break asunder.
On Sabbath all
To church I call.
The sleepy head
I raise from bed.
The winds so fierce
I doe disperse.
Men's cruel rage
I doe assuage."
Aubrey, in his 'Miscellanies/ tells us that it was once
customary, whenever it thundered and lightened to
ring St Adhelm's Bell at Malmesbury Abbey. Lord
Bacon, in his 'Natural History' (1635), refers to this
olden superstition :—" It has anciently been reported,
and is still received, that extreme applauses and
264
BELLS.
shouting of people, assembled in multitudes, have so
rarefied and broken the air, that birds flying over have
fallen down, the air not being able to support them;
and it is believed by some, that great ringing of bells
in populous cities hath charmed away thunder, and
also dissipated pestilent airs. All which may be also
from the concussion of the air, and not from the
sound." Wynkin de Worde tells us that bells are
rung during thunderstorms, to the end that fiends and
wicked spirits should be abashed, and flee and cease
the moving of the tempest.
Bells are not without their legends. On the eve of
the feast of Corpus Christi, to this day, says a cor-
respondent of Chambers's 'Book of Days' (vol. ii.
p. 49), the choristers of Durham Cathedral ascend
the tower, and in their fluttering white robes sing the
Te Deum. This ceremony is in commemoration of
the miraculous extinguishing of a conflagration on
that night, A.D. 1429. The monks were at midnight
prayer when the belfry was struck by lightning and
set on fire; but although the fire raged all that night
and until the middle of the next day, the tower
escaped serious damage, and the bells remained
uninjured; an escape that was attributed to the
special influence of the incorruptible St. Cuthbert,
enshrined in the cathedral.
In some country villages it is customary to ring the
church bell while the congregation are leaving church.
The reason assigned for doing so, is to inform the
BELLS. 265
parishioners who have been unable to attend in the
morning, that divine service will be celebrated in the
afternoon. In scattered villages, or where a single
clergyman had to perform the duties of more than one
church, this was in days gone by quite requisite. It
is sometimes called the "Pudding-bell/' and accord-
ing to some is rung in order to warn the cooks that
dinner time is near at hand.*
In the old church at Ravenstonedale, Westmore-
land, a small bell, called the "Saints'-bell," was
formerly rung after the Nicene Creed, to call in the
dissenters to the sermon.t
In the injunctions of Edward VI., quoted from
Sparrow's Collection in Cranmer's Letters by Parker
Society (p. 498), we find mention made of the
"Sermon-bell":—"All. ringing of bells shall be
utterly foreborne at that time (Litany, Mass, &c),
except one bell in convenient time to be rung or
knolled before the sermon."
The ringing of bells at marriages, as a sign of
rejoicing, is common everywhere. At Kendal church,
Westmoreland, there is the following inscription on
the fifth bell:—
"In wedlock bands
All ye who join with hands,
Your hearts unite;
So shall our tuneful tongues combine
To laud the nuptial rite."
* See 'Notes and Queries/ 1st series, vol. ix. pp. 311, 567.
t Nicholson and Burn, 'History of Westmoreland,' 1777, vol. u
p. 524.
266
BELLS.
Bells were formerly baptized. Pennant, speaking of
St. Winefride's Well, in Flintshire, tells us:—"A
bell belonging to the church was also christened in
honour of her. They laid hold of the rope; bestowed
a name on the bell; and the priest sprinkling it with
holy water baptized it in the name of the Holy
Trinity; he then clothed it with a fine garment.
Thus blessed, it was endowed with great powers,
decayed all storms, diverted the thunderbolt, and
drove away evil spirits."
In many places the pancake-bell was formerly—
and still is—rung on Shrove Tuesday, to call the
people together to confess their sins, or to be
"shriven," or, as some have supposed, merely as a
signal for people to commence frying their pancakes.
At Daventry, Northamptonshire, it goes by the name
of the "Pan-burn bell"; and at All Saints, Maid-
stone, it is known as the " Fritter-bell."
In Poor Robin's Almanack for 1684, we read:—
"But hark, I hear the Pancake-bell,
And Fritters make a gallant spell."
The origin and purpose of the Curfew-bell is too well
known to need repetition. If we may believe the
reporters, it was as important to ghosts as to living
men;* it was their signal for walking, and their
furlough lasted till the first cock. Fairies and others
* Nares* * Glossary/ edited by Halliwell and Wright, 1872, vol. i.
p. 216.
BELLS.
267
Arere under the same regulations; hence Prospero says
if his elves, that they—
"Rejoice
To hear the solemn curfew."
The passing-bell, called also "the melancholy warn-
ing of the death crier," was formerly tolled for a person
who was dying. The custom is of very great anti-
quity, being alluded to by Bede:—
"When the bell begins to toll,
Lord, have mercy on the soul."
Douce thinks it was originally intended to drive away
the evil spirit that might be hovering about in
readiness to seize the soul of the deceased,* hence
it was called the "Soul-bell." Shakspeare, in his
> Henry IV./ Part II. (Act 1., sc. i.), alludes to the
practice :—
"And his tongue
Sounds ever as a sullen bell,
Remember'd tolling a departing friend."
And Ray has the following couplet:—
"When thou dost hear a toll or knell,
Then think upon thy passing-bell."
Pennant tells us that in his time the peal after a
funeral was " a merry peal, rung at the request of the
relations; as if, Scythian like, they rejoiced at the
escape of the departed out of this troublesome world."
Grose says that the passing-bell was anciently rung
* See chapter on Death.
268
BELLS.
for two purposes: one, to bespeak the prayers of all
good Christians for a soul just passing away from
life; the other to chase and drive away the evil
spirits that stood round the bed to frighten and
scare the soul in its passage. Bishop Hall, alluding
to the reason for calling it the soul-bell, remarks:—
"We call it the soul-bell because it signifies the
departure of the soul, not because it helps the passage
of the soul."
In some parts, on Holy Innocents' Day the church
bells ring a half-muffled peal. This custom prevails
in Somersetshire and Staffordshire. On the last night
of the year the muffled peal is rung in various places,
which is exchanged for a merry one as soon as the
striking of the clock heralds in the new year.
Of what may be called * "the local ghosts of bells/'
many stories might be told. "Where the churches
are said to have been swallowed up either by earth-
quake or ravages of the sea," says Mr. Glyde,f "the
old church bells are said to ring, deep, deep in the
earth, every Christmas morning, and people go forth
and put their ears to the ground, hoping to catch the
music of the mysterious chimes in the subterranean
temple." Near Raleigh, in Nottinghamshire, there is
a valley said to have been caused by an earthquake
several hundred years ago, which swallowed up a
* Harland and Wilkinson, 'Lancashire Folk-Lore,' p. 44. See
• British Popular Customs,' p. 476.
t «The Norfolk Garland,' 1872, p. 67.
BELLS.
269
whole village, together with the church. It was for-
merly customary for the inhabitants to assemble in
this valley every Christmas Day to listen to the ring-
ing of the church bells beneath them; which, it was
said, might be distinctly heard.
On the sands near Blackpool, out at sea, once stood
the church and cemetery of Kilgrimal, long ago sub-
merged. Wanderers near this spot are said, from time
to time, to have been terrified by the "dismal chimes
of the bells pealing over the murmuring sea."
270 MISCELLANEOUS FOLK-LORE.
CHAPTER XIII.
MISCELLANEOUS FOLK-LORE.
The magical uses of pins are very curious, and not
confined to our own country. Indeed Mr. Peacock
informs us,* alluding to this subject, " that there is no
class of superstition more widely spread—none that is
to this hour more firmly rooted in the minds of our
more ignorant poor." In some parts we find a curious
rhyme:—
"See a pin and pick it up,
All the day you'll have good luck;
See a pin and let it be,
All the day you'll have to cry."
Borlase, in his 'Natural History of Cornwall/
speaking of Madron Well, tells us:—"Here people
who labour under pains, aches, and stiffness of limbs,
come and wash, and many cures are said to have been
performed. Hither also, upon much less justifiable
errands, come the uneasy, impatient and superstitious,
and by dropping pins or pebbles into the water, and
by shaking the ground round the spring, so as to raise
bubbles from the bottom, at a certain time of the year,
moon, and day, endeavour to settle such doubts and
inquiries as will not let the idle and anxious rest."
* 'Notes and Queries.'
MISCELLANEOUS FOLK-LORE. 271
At Derby, on July 15th, 1873, Benjamin Hudson
was found guilty of having murdered his wife, and
was sentenced to be hanged. In the murdered,
woman's pocket a purse was found which contained
some pins and a piece of paper, on which the deceased
had written:—
"It is not these pins I mean to burn,
But Ben Hudson's heart I mean to turn;
Let him neither eat, speak, drink, nor comfort find,
Till he comes to me and speaks his mind."
Despite their quarrels and jealousies, says Cuthbert
Bede (' Notes and Queries/ 4th series^ vol. xii. p. 184),'
it would seem they had a certain strong affection for
each other, and the "charm" was no doubt to regain
her husband's love. In some counties a similar charm
is often made use of by some unmarried person to
compel the love of another, "to turn the heart" of
the indifferent one.
The following extract from the 'Western Times'
(April 28th, 1877) describes a curious case of counter-
acting witchcraft by pin-sticking:—" Mr. Chown,
cooper, of the parish of Honiton Clyst, owns some
houses; and a tenant of one of them having left,
certain repairs were found necessary to prepare for the
next. In carrying out the work the chimney had to
be explored, and in the course of the operation there
was found secreted a pig's heart stuck all over with
thorn-prickles. This is said to be the third curiosity
of the kind found here. It is supposed to have been
272 MISCELLANEOUS FOLK-LORE.
done by direction of some i white witch/ as a method
of taking revenge on the witch to whose incantations
the party considered some mischief due, in the belief
that the heart of the ill-wisher would be pierced in
like manner until it became as pulseless as that of the
It is said to be extremely unlucky when soap slips
out of a person's hand; and this superstition is widely
spread. A correspondent of 'Notes and Queries'
relates the following anecdote illustrative of this
notion:—A woman in the Highlands, named Kate
Elshender, Anglid Alexander, went to a quarry-hole
to wash her clothes. As she passed the village shop
she went in and bought half a pound of soap, and
proceeded to wash; the soap slipped out of her hands,
and she went back and bought another half pound.
The shopkeeper warned her to be careful, remem-
bering the old superstition, but she laughed, and went
off again. It slipped again from her hands, and she
returned for a third half pound of soap. This time
the old woman in the shop was thoroughly frightened,
and begged and prayed her not to go back again;
but she would go, in spite of everything that could be
said to her. Shortly after, the old woman, being quite
unable to rest in the shop, went away to the quarry.
She found no one there, and the clothes lying on the
side of the hole. She gave the alarm, and, on search
being made, the said Kate Elshender was discovered,
drowned, at the bottom of the quarry-hole.
MISCELLANEOUS FOLK-LORE. 273
"Cuthbert Bede," to whom the thanks of all those
interested in folk-lore are due for the many valuable
scraps of information he has recorded in that excellent
periodical 'Notes and Queries/ tells us that he was
told by a person in Rutlandshire that if you wash
your hands in the same water in which another person
has washed his hands, you should first make the sign
of the cross over the water. If you neglect to do so,
you will quarrel with that other person. This notion
exists also in Devonshire, where an extra remedy is in
use, i. e. spitting in the water. It is believed, too, in
this county that if the palms of a baby's hands are
washed before a certain age, the child will never have
money * In Cornwall, if the left palm of the hand
itches, the person will have to pay money; if the
right, to receive it.
There are a good many odd bits of folk-lore con-
nected with salt. In the North it is considered un-
lucky to put it on another person's plate. Hence the
saying:—
"Help me to salt,
Help me to sorrow."
The ill-luck is averted by a second help. Salt
falling towards a person is said to be a bad omen.
Mr. Pennant, in his 'Journey from Chester to London/
says :—"The dread of spilling salt is a known super-
stition among us and the Germans, being reckoned a
presage of some future calamity, and particularly that
* See * Report of Devonshire Association,' 1877, vol. ix. p. 90.
T
274 MISCELLANEOUS FOLK-LORE.
it forebodes domestic feuds; to avert which it is cus-
tomary to. fling some salt over the shoulder into the
fire, in a manner truly classical :—
"Mollivit aversos Penates,
Farre pio, saliente mica." *
Grose, alluding to this subject, says :—" To scatter
salt, by overturning the vessel in which it is contained,
is very unlucky, and portends quarrelling with a friend,
or fracture of a bone, sprain, or other bodily misfor-
tune. This may in some measure be averted by
throwing a small quantity of it over one's head/' In
the 'British Apollo* (1708), there are some amusing
lines:—
"We'll tell you the reason,
Why spilling of salt
Is esteemed such a fault:
Because it doth ev'rything season.
The antiques did opine
'Twas of friendship a sign,
So serv'd it to guests in decorum;
And thought love decay'd
When the negligent maid
Let the salt-cellar tumble before them."
Leonardo da Vinci, in his picture of the Last
Supper, has represented Judas Iscariot overturning
the salt—a dark foreshadowing of the betrayal of our
Blessed Lord.
If you wish to see your lover, throw salt on the fire
* Horat. lib. iii. Od. 23.
MISCELLANEOUS FOLK-LORE. 275
every morning for nine days, and repeat the subjoined
rhyme:—
*' It is not salt I mean to burn,
But my true lover's heart I mean to turn,
Wishing him neither joy nor sleep,
Till he come back to me and speak."
This charm, if carefully attended to, is believed
seldom to fail.
Eating salt was formerly said to excite anger, or to
cause melancholy. Waldron, in his 'Description of
the Isle of Man/ mentions a curious superstition.
He says:—u No one will go out on any important
business without taking salt in the pocket, much less
remove from one house to another. Many will not
put out a child, or take one to nurse, without salt
being mutually interchanged; nay, although a poor
creature be almost famished in the streets, he will not
accept any food you may give him unless you join
salt to the rest of your benevolence." "The reason,"
says Brand,* "ascribed by the inhabitants for this,
is the account given by a pilgrim of the dissolution
of an enchanted palace on the island occasioned by
salt spilled on the ground."
A piece of superstition, that is perhaps almost more^
common than any, is that it is unlucky for thirteen to
sit down together to dinner. This notion is prevalent
on the Continent—in Russia and Italy. Moore, in his
'Diary' (vol. ii. p. 206), tells us that on one occasion
* 'Popular Antiquities,' vol. iii. p. 164.
T 2
276 MISCELLANEOUS FOLK-LORE,
when there were thirteen at a dinner party given by
Madame Catalani, a French countess, who lived with
her upstairs, was sent for to remedy the grievance.
Quetelet, on the 'Calculation of Probabilities/ has
shown the folly of this superstition: "For," says he,
"if the probability be required, that out of thirteen
persons of different ages, one of them at least shall die
within a year, it will be found that the chances are
about one to one that death at least will occur. This
calculation, by means of a false interpretation, has
given rise to the prejudice, no less ridiculous, that the
danger will be avoided by inviting a greater number
of guests, which can only have the effect of augmenting
the probability of the event so much apprehended." In
the 'Gentleman's Magazine' (1796, vol. lxvi. p. 573)
is an account of a dinner party consisting of thirteen,
and of a maiden lady's observation that, as none of
her married friends were likely to make an addition
to the number, she was sure that one of the company
would die within the twelvemonth.
Poor people in many parts of the country consider
it highly unlucky to leave, either lying about, or to
throw away, the smallest piece of human hair, for fear
birds should build their nests with it—a fatal thing
for him or her from whose head it may have chanced
to fall. If a magpie should use it for such a purpose,
the person's death "within year and day" is sure.
Some consider it ominous when the hair comes out
in any large quantities as prognosticating misfortune
of some kind or other. It is by no means ar
MISCELLANEOUS FOLK-LORE. 277
uncommon notion—one, too, not confined to the un-
educated classes—that a person's hair will turn gray
upon a "sudden and violent fright"; an allusion to
which is made by Shakspeare, in a speech of Falstaff
to Prince Henry :—
"Thy father's beard is turned white with the news."
It is considered by some most unlucky to break a
looking-glass—the notion being that it prognosticates
a death in the family, especially that of the master.
In Cornwall, breaking a looking-glass is said to ensure
seven years of misfortune. Most of our readers are,
no doubt, acquainted with Bonaparte's superstition on
this point. During one of his campaigns in Italy, he
broke the glass over Josephine's portrait. So dis-
turbed was he at this, as he thought, ominous occur-
rence, that he never rested until the return of the
courier, whom he forthwith despatched to convince
himself of her safety, so strong was the impression of
her death upon his mind.
Candles are not without their omens. "A collection
of tallow/' says Grose, "rising up against the wick of
a candle, is called a winding-sheet, and regarded as
an omen of death in the family. A bright spark on
the candle wick indicates that a letter is coming to
the house, and that the person towards whom it
comes will be the one to receive it." "The time
of its arrival," says Hunt,* "is ascertained by striking
the bottom of the candlestick upon the table. If the
* 'Popular Romances of the West of England.'
278 MISCELLANEOUS FOLK-LORE.
spark comes off on the first blow, the letter will be
received to-morrow, if two blows are required, the
next day, and so on."
Dr. Goldsmith, in his * Vicar of Wakefield/ speaking
of the waking dreams of his hero's daughters, says:—
"The girls had their omens too, they saw rings in the
candles."
The hands and finger nails have from the earliest
times been the subject of superstition. Thus, Shak-
speare, in i Macbeth/ says :—
"By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes."
moist hand is vulgarly accounted * a sign of an
amorous constitution; whereas a dry hand is said to
be one of the characteristics of old age. In West
Cornwall, white specks on the nails are considered to
foretell the arrival of presents, which may be looked
for after the nail has grown sufficiently to admit of
the speck being cut off. There is a popular rhyme
in allusion to this piece of folk-lore:—
"A gift on the finger
Is sure to linger;
A gift on the thumb
Is sure to come."
It is considered unlucky to cut a baby's nails until
it is a year old; consequently they are frequently
* Brand's * Popular Antiquities,' vol. Hi. p. 179.
MISCELLANEOUS FOLK-LORE. 279
bitten off. The reason assigned by some for this
practice is, that if cut before a year old, the child
will grow up a thief. The same notion exists in
Germany, but a different cause is assigned, viz. lest
the children should grow up to stammer.
The tingling of the ears is supposed by many to
signify that some one is speaking of them, a belief
which is very old indeed, dating as far back as the
time of Pliny—the tingling of the right ear denoting •
that a friend is speaking, the tingling of the left
an enemy. In Shakspeare's 'Much Ado about
Nothing/ Beatrice says, "What fire is in mine ears,"
which Warburton explains as alluding to this super-
stition. Herrick, too, in his * Hesperides/ has the
following:—
"On Himselfe:
"One eare tingles; some there be
That are snarling now at me;
Be they those that Homer bit,
I will give them thanks for it."
In France, this superstition differs somewhat from
ours, for the tingling of the left ear denotes the friend,
and the tingling of the right ear the enemy.
In Cornwall, if the cheek burns, then some one is
talking scandal of you. These lines are frequently
made use of on such an occasion:—
"Right cheek !—left cheek !—why do you burn?
Cursed be she that doth me any harm:
If she be a maid, let her be a slaid;
If she be a widow, long let her mourn;
But if it be my own true love—burn, cheek, burn."
MISCELLANEOUS FOLK-LORE.
One more instance of a wide-spread superstition,
and our chapter shall close. A belief was formerly-
current throughout the country in the significance of
moles on the human body. When one of these appeared
on the upper side of the right temple above the eye,
to a woman it signified good and happy fortune by
marriage. This superstition was especially believed
in in Nottinghamshire, as we learn from the following
• lines, which, says Mr. Briscoe,* were often repeated by
a poor girl at Bunny:—
"I have a mole above my right eye,
And shall be a lady before I die.
As things may happen, as things may fall,
Who knows but that I may be lady of Bunny Hall?"
The poor girl's hopes, it is stated, were ultimately
realized, and she became "Lady of Bunny Hall."
* * Nottinghamshire Facts and Fictions/
( 23i )
INDEX.
Adder's sting, 137
Agnes' (St.) Eve, 160, 183
Agricultural superstitions, 227, 228
Ague, casting out the, 163
remedies for, 21, 158
All Fools' Day, 255
All Saints' Eve, 251
Angel of Death, 221
Animals, their folk-lore, 101-122
Ants, unlucky to destroy, 131
Apostle spoons, 180
Apple, cure for warts, 166
peel, divination by, 20
pippin, divination by, 20
tree, blooming of, 8
trees, christening of, 258
Apples, shrumping of, 42
April weather-lore, 253
Arched bramble, its virtues, 171
Arum maculatum, the, 35
Arundel of Wardour, family of, 87
Ash, the, its magical powers, 10,
I3> 27
the cross made of, 34
Ash Wednesday, 252
Ass, marks on the, 119
August weather-lore, 258, 259
Bachelors' buttons, 18
Banns of marriage, 191
Baptismal superstitions, 179-181
Barnabas' (St.) Day, 28
Bartholomew's (St.) Day, 258
Bat, prejudice against the, 115
Bay, emblem of the resurrection, 6
its virtues, 26
Bean-field superstition, 14
Bean-shell, a charm for warts, 165
Bed-bug, the, 136
Bede's chair, 204
Bedfordshire superstitions, 123
Beehives, turning round, at a rane-
ral, 129
Bee-sting, 131
Bee superstitions, 123
Bees, death announced to, 126
dreaming of, lucky, 131
sale of, unlucky, 124
swarming of, 124
weather prognosticates, 131
Bell legends, 264
superstitions, 263
Bergamot, its virtues, II
Berkshire superstitions, 44, 227
Berwickshire, 15
Bird, white-breasted, an omen oi
death, 211
Birds, omens of death, 209
their folk-lore, 55-100
Birth-feast, 177
Birth, folk-lore connected with, 41,
174
282
INDEX.
Birth, propitious seasons for, 175
Bishop Burnabee, 136
Black cat, blood of, 147
cat, lucky, 108
Blackhead, 171
Blood, charm for stopping, 148
Bloody milk, 63
Boils, cure for, 171
Bone-shave, curious charm, 147
Boossenning, 142
Borrowing days, 253
"Bottle of straw," 205
Box-tree, 34
Brake, the common, 28
Bramble, arched, its virtues, 171
Breath of infants sucked by cats,
107
Bride, lucky omen to a, 109
cake, 130, 194, 202
Bride's chair, 205 veil, 195
Buckinghamshire superstitions, 27,
143
Bun, wedding custom connected
with a, 202
Burn, charm for a, 169, 170
Butterfly folk-lore, 132
Cake, cut at a birth, 176
Cambridgeshire folk-lore, 17, 157,
219
Camphor, its virtues, 168
Cancer, cure for, 151
Candlemas Day, 226, 251, 252
Candle crossing, 233
— omens, 217, 277
Care-cloth, the, 195
"Casting out the ague," 163
Cat and dog money, ill
Cats, said to have nine lives, 101
superstitions connected with,
104, 198
Cedar, the cross made of, 34
Ceylon superstition, 50, 93
Chaffinch, the, 86
Chair of Bede, 204
the bride's, 205
Changeling, superstitious idea of,
175
Charms, 141-173
Cheese, cut at a birth, 176
Cheshire superstitions, 129, 130,
190, 198
cat, to grin like a, 109
Chickens, 11, 137
Childermas, 198
"Children in the Wood," 62
Children passed through holes in
.the earth, 23
Chin-cough, 47
Chinese superstitions, 51, 155,
230
Chough, the, legend connected with,
80
Christmas Day, 16, 28, 54, 67, 146,
268
Christmas Eve, 124
Christmas weather - lore, 248,
249
Church dust, its magical properties,
231
Clover, divination by, 13, 17
grass, 25
Club-moss, 21
Cock-crow, disappearance of spirits
at, 91
Cock-crowing, sign of change of
weather, 92
Common brake, the, 28
Congo negroes, their superstitions,
231
Consumption, cure for, 22, 150
Coral, its virtues, 178
Cork, cure for cramp, 21, 164
INDEX.
283
Cornwall superstitions, 12, 21, 23,
25, 3i» 32, 36, 41, 58, 63, 78,
80, 92, 93, 108, 118, 123, 124,
131, 137, 142, 147, 148, 150, 153,
157, 164, 166, 194, 223, 238,
270, 272, 273, 276, 279
Corpses, stiffening of, 225
Corpus Christi Day, 105
Corpus Christi Eve, 264
Cosmo de Medici, 77
Cough, cure for, 121
Cramp, remedies for, 21
rings, 163
Crickets, lucky about a house, 135,
222
Cross, wood of the, 34
Crows, 77, 80
Crying back the dying, 228
Cuckoo ale, 59
cry, 59
divination by the, 58
superstitions, 55, 62
Cumberland superstitions, 32, 126
Curfew bell, 266
Currant-bun, wedding custom con-
nected with, 202
Cusha-coo-lady, 136
Cushat, 97
Cypress, symbolical of life, 6
Daddy-Longlegs, unlucky to kill
a, 135
Daisy proverb, 27
Danish custom, 60
Day fatality, 235
Days, lucky for birth, 175
Days of the week and their folk-lore,
234-246
Dead man's hand, a cure for warts,
166
person's tooth, its virtues, 156
Death, angel of, 221
superstitions, 206-233
warnings, 207
watch, the, 219
Death's-head moth, 222
Death's-head phantom, 222
December weather-lore, 261
Derbyshire superstitions, 14, 60, 91,
93, 156, 271
Devil's bird, the, 70
Devonshire superstitions, 3, 9, 14,
16, 23, 37, 40, 42, 43, 48, 65, 82,
92, 109, 113, 127, 129, 133, 137,
145, 147, 148, 149, I52» "54t
164, 166, 168, 169, 171, 211,
221, 223, 238, 239, 242, 273
Dill, its magical properties, 13
Dismal day, the, 187
Divining rod, the, 31
Dock-leaf superstition, 15
Dock-leaves, cure for a nettle sting,
172
Dock-tea, cure for boils, 172
Dogs, howling of, 101, 241
instinct of, 102
superstitions connected with,
101, 102, 168, 198, 221
whipping of, 103
Doldrum, king of Catland, 110
Dorsetshire superstitions, 11, 185,
225
Dotterel, 96
Doyle, Dr., his death, 209
Dragon-flies, 134
Dreaming bread, 177
Duck superstitions, 11
Ducks' eggs, hatching of, 95
Dudder grass, II
Dunstan's (St.) Day, 29
Durham Cathedral custom, 264
Dwarf birch, 35
Dying, crying back the, 228
284
INDEX.
Earache, cure for, 157
Ear-rings, 152
Ears, tingling of, 279
Easter Day, 176, 255
Ebb of tide, death delayed until, 228
Eel's skin, preventive against
cramp, 164
Egg, given to an infant, 176
Elder, its virtues, 10, 26, 35, 145,
165
Elm, prediction by the, 10
leafing of, 27
Epilepsy, 145
Essex, 42, 67, 70, 80
Exhumation of a body, unlucky, 227
Eyes, closing of, at death, 226 cure for sore, 21, 152
Fabian's (St.) nettle, 22
Fairies, 174
Fanshaw, Lady, 208
Feather bed, turning of, on Sunday,
239
February weather-lore, 251, 252
Fern superstition, 12
Fillan's(St.) well, 142
Finger-nail superstitions, 278
Fir-tree, its virtues, 10
Fire coffins, 218
omens by, 186, 217
Fits, charms for, 145
Fleas, foretell rain, 136
Flintymouse, 115
Flittermouse, 115
Flowers, language of, 2
Fly folk-lore, 135, 223
Fly-golding, 136
Fontinalia of the Romans, 4
Fox, superstitions connected with,
155
Frankum's night, 29
French superstitions, 64, 230, 279
Friday, its superstitions, 189, 235,
237, 241, 242, 243
change of moon on, 38
Friday's dreams, 243
Fritter-bell, 266
Fuller's teazle, remedy for ague, 21
Funerals, garlands at, 6
Germany, its folk-lore, 58, 62, 69,
116, 128, 155, 166, 214., 221, 222,
231, 245, 250, 279
Gertrude's bird, 89
Ghosts of bells, 268
Glastonbury thorn, 27
Gloucestershire superstitions, 27,
56, 133, 154, 157, 159, 166, 168,
238
Gnats, charming of, 135
their weather-lore, 251
Goats, superstitions connected with,
118
God Almighty's cow, 136
Goitre, cure for, 150
Good Friday, 4, 123, 163, 176
Gooseberry thorn, charm for warts,
167
Graves, decorated with flowers, 5
Greenlander's superstition, 221
Greet, 198
Groaning cake, 177 cheese, 194
Hair superstition, 276
times for cutting, 48, 237
Halcyon days, 75
Hallow Eve, 185, 261
Halter, cure for headache, 158
Hampshire superstitions, 4, 96, 125,
128, 162
Hand, dead man's, cure for warts,
166
Hand folk-lore, 273, 278
INDEX.
28S
Hare, divination by, 117
superstitions, 117, 198
Harebell, 2
Hare's foot, cure for cramp, 164
Harvestman, the, 135
Harvest moon, 45
mouse, 115
Hazel-nuts, 221
Headache, cure for, 158
Hedgehog, regarded as ominous,
119
Heliotropes, weather foretold by, 25
Hempseed, divination by, 15
Herefordshire superstition, 146
Hertfordshire folk-lore, 239
Hiccough, cure for, 148
High spirits, presage death, 223
Hogstone, 114
Holt, Sir John, amusing anecdote
told of, 160
Holy Innocents' Day, 189, 268
Holy Rood Day, 28, 259
Holy Thursday, 4, 152
Honeymoon, 201
Hops, 74
Horse folk-lore, ill
Horseshoes, 111, 114
Hottentot superstitions, 137, 232
Hot water, at weddings, 201
House-leek, 12
Howling of dogs, sign of death, 220
Human skull, its magical powers,
147, 158
Hunter's moon, 47
Huntingdonshire superstitions, 54,
74, 167
Hydrophobia, 143
Insect folk-lore, 123-136
Ireland, its superstitions, 44, 67, 69,
108, 116, 167, 170, 195,207,217,
253
Isle of Man, 67, 68
Isle of Wight, 134
Italy, folk-lore of, 38
Ivy, its virtues, 22
Jackdaw, 84
James, Dr., his fever powder, 112
January weather-lore, 247, 248, 249,
250
Jewish superstition, 50
John's (St.) Day, 28, 62, 105
Eve, 216
Joseph's (St) Day, 188
Eve, 216
July weather-lore, 257, 258
June weather-lore, 256, 257
Kent, its superstitions, 94, ill,
132, 167, 266
Kingfisher, its folk-lore, 75
Knocks, heard at death, 207
Lady-bird, 136
Lady-bug, 136
Lady Fanshaw, 208
Landers, 136
of Bunny Hall, 280
Lamb, divination by a, 115
Lamb's head, superstition connected
with, 116
Lancashire superstitions, 6, 20, 32,
81, 82, 95, 102, 107, no, III,
114, 116, 131, 135, 154, 162,177,
205, 243
Language of flowers, 2
Lapwing, an unlucky bird, 98
Large neck, cure for a, 151
Lark, its song, 74 i
Leap year, 17, 251
Leicestershire folk-lore, 14, 227
Lent marriages, 188 weather-lore, 252
286
INDEX.
Lilies of the valley, unlucky to
plant, 9
Lincolnshire superstitions, 20, 40,
98, 130, 160
Linnaeus and the divining rod, 33
Lizard superstition, 198
Loadstone, cure for sciatica, 148
Locks, unfastened at death, 229
Looking-glass superstitions, 109,
184, 200, 277
Love divinations, 14-20, 37, 42-44,
60, 72, 139, 182, 185
pain, name for toothache, 157
Luke's (St.) Day, 104, 260
Lyttelton, Lord, his death, 209
Mad dog, cure for bite of, 144
Madness, cure for, 142
and the full moon, 54
Magpie superstitions, 81
Magpie's nest, 84
Mahometan tradition, 91
Maiden-hair, 11
Man in the moon, 48
Mandrake, 30
March weather-lore, 247, 252, .253,
254
Marco Bettini, and song of nightin-
gale, 73
Marigold, weather foretold by, 25
Mark's (St.) Eve, 184, 216
Marriage, banns of, 191
bells, 265
folk-lore, 182
service, unlucky to read
through, 183
Martin, superstitions connected
with, 70
Marum, its virtues, 107
Mary (St.) Magdalene's Day, 28
Matches, bundle given to an infant,
176
Matthew's (St.) Day, 253, 259
May superstitions, 8, 23, 29, 151,
187, 188
cat, 109
chets, 176
flowers, 255
kitten, 109
soap, 256
weather-lore, 247, 255, 256,
257
M easels, charm for, 168
Mice, portend death, 223
Michaelmas Day, 54
Eve, 28
pie, 195
Midsummer Day, 16, 43
Eve, 15, 184, 257
Men, 19
Miller, name for the moth, 134
Mistletoe, 11, 34
Monday, new moon on, 38
— superstitions, 189, 240
Money-spinners, 132
"Moon like a boat," 39
Moon, divination by, 46
dogs, 38
man in the, 48
superstitions, 22, 36, 144, 243,
244, 249
swearing by the, 44
waning of the, 41
Moon's horns, 40
Moonwort, its magic properties, 14,
114
Moths, charming of, 134
Mouse, roasted, cure for whooping-
cough, 154
Muggins, their virtue, 22
Mugwort, its curative power, 22
Mulberry tree, 27
Murrain, how predicted, 10
Muryans, ants so called, 131
INDEX.
287
Mushrooms, growth of, 42
Myrtle superstitions, 4, 11, 14
Nails, time for cutting, 45, 236
Neck, cure for a large, 151
Nelson's, Lord, superstition, 113
Nettle, sting of a, 172
New Year's Day, 11, 68
New Year's Eve, 215
New Zealand, charm for toothache,
155, 214
Nightingale folk-lore, 71
"No man, no moon," 41
Norfolk superstitions, 38, 57, 61,
154, 157, 169, 179, 227, 237,
244
Norse tradition, 88
North American Indian supersti-
tions, 56, 217
Northamptonshire folk-lore, 8, 15,
117, 125, 132, 135, 227, 266
Northumberland superstitions, 70,
82, no, 202-204
Nottinghamshire folk-lore, 134,
268, 280
November weather-lore, 260
Nun's (St.) well, 142
Oak proverb, 27
tree, its virtues, 157
October weather-lore, 259
Old Christmas Day, 28
Olive, the cross made of, 34
Onion, St. Thomas's, 16
Orange-blossoms, at weddings, 196
Orpine plants, 19
Owl, bird of ill-omen, 78, 87
broth, 154
legends, 87
Oxfordshire superstitions, 152, 155,
177
Palm, the cross made of, 34
Pan-bum bell, 266
Parsley superstition, 3
Passing bell, 267
Paul's (St.) Day, 249
Peach-tree, falling of its leaves, 10
Peacock's feathers, unlucky, 90
Peascod wooing, 18
Peewit, the, 98
Petting stone, 204
Philadelphian superstition, 200
Pigeon's feathers, 99
Pigs, 116
Pimpernel, its virtues, 12
Pins, magical uses of, 270
Pinsoles, 171
Pin-sticking, 271
Pine, the, 34
Plantain, divination by, 15
Plant folk-lore, 1-35
Potato, its virtues, 21, 49
Prayer-book superstition, 46
Primroses, 11, 16
"Proverbs," Book of, divination by,
186
Pudding-bell, 265
Pyebald horse, 154
Rabbit folk-lore, 51, 118
Rain, unlucky at a wedding, 199
Rainbow, on a Saturday, 243
Rain-fowl, 90
Raven, croaking of, 78, 199
Ray, Miss, her death, 9
"Reading the speal-bone," 217
Red-rose, emblem of early death, 9
Reptiles, their folk-lore, 137-140
Rheumatism, cure for, 21
Rice, at weddings, 203
Ring, the wedding, 167, 192
Ring-dove, 98
Ring-finger, its virtues, 194
288
INDEX.
Ringworm, charm for, 170
Robin, folk-lore connected with, 64
Redbreast, legend of, 66
Rogation Day, 188
Rook superstitions, 76
Room closed after a death, 231
Rose-planting on graves, 5
Rose superstitions, 5, 8, 10, 16
Rosemary, 6, 13
Rutlandshire folk-lore, 95, 126, 249,
273
Sacrament shilling, 146
Sage, its virtues, 7, 23
Saints' bell, the, 265
Salt, given to an infant, 176
its virtues, 273, 275
Salt-spilling, 273
Saturday moon, 38
superstitions, 179, 189, 242,
243
Saturday's stop, 244
Scald, cure for a, 169
Scarlet fever, charm for, 170
Sciatica, 147
Scotch superstitions, 3, 10, 22, 38,
40, 41, 42, 52, 62, 64, 70, 71, 82,
97, 98, 109, 115, 118, 120, 149,
150, 156, 180, 184, 185, 188, 192,
202, 205, 207, 230, 237, 244, 252,
253, 254, 256, 257, 266
Sea-gulls, ominous, 100
Sea-mews, 100
Seaves, 13
Seedman's moon, 47
September weather-lore, 259
Sermon-bell, 265
Setterday slopp, 244
Shakspeare, allusion to superstitions
by, 31, 44, 45, 54, 72, 75, 78, 83,
88, 91, 119, 156, 180, 198, 220,
223, 266, 276, 278, 279
Shingles, 147
Shoe, thrown for luck, 203
divination by, 185
Shrew-mouse, 115
Shrieking woman, the, 207
Shropshire folk-lore, 18, 22, 28, 59,
92, 115, 186
Shrove Tuesday, 252, 266
Sicilian custom, 179
Sickening cake, 177
Silesian superstition, 120, 215
Simon's (St.) Day, 259
Skull, human, its magical powers,
147, 158
Slow-worm, 138
Small-pox, cure for, 167
Snails, their folk-lore, 120, 159, 166
Snake-stanger, 134
Snake superstitions, 137, 151, 198
Snapdragon, 13
Sneezing superstitions, 239
Snowdrop, 2
Soap folk-lore, 272
Somersetshire superstitions, 11, 14,
134, 150, 159, 194, 268
Sore eyes, cure for, 152
Soul-bell, 267
Soul, its departure from the body, 214
"Souls," moths so called, 134
Spanish superstition, 242
Sparrow-hawks, 62
Spider superstitions, 132, 198
Sprain, charm for, 149
Spur peal, 191 Sunday, 191
Staffordshire superstitions, 18, 47,
101, 156, 166, 190, 268
Stephen's (St.) Day, 67
Stolen bees, 125
Stone of the hole, 25
Stopping blood, charm for, 148
Straw, bottle of, 205
INDEX.
289
Suffolk superstitions, 4, 8, 42, 99,
107, 113
Sun folk-lore, 152, 199
Sunday funerals, 238
superstitions, 154, 235
Surrey folk-lore, 11, 150
Sussex superstitions, 59, 124, 138,
151, 157, 168, 214, 226
Swallow superstitions, 69
unlucky to kill a, 64
Swans, 96
Swarming of bees, 124
Swedish superstitions, 60, 83
Swiss folk-lore, 64
Swithin's (St.) Day, 257
Sycamore, anecdote connected with,
30
Tenbury fair-day, 57
Thirteen to dinner, 273
Thorn, charm to keep from festering,
21
cure for prick of a, 173
Thrush, cure for, 150
Thunder omens, 245
Thursday superstitions, 189, 241
Tide, death delayed till the ebb of,
228
Tissington, well-dressing, 4
Toads, 139, 151, 198
Trefoil, 25
Tuesday superstitions, 189, 200,
240, 241
Tyrwhitt family, 98
Valentine's (St.) Day, 93
Valerian, 106
Vervain, its virtues, 13
Violets, 10, 11
Wales, superstitions in, 7, 9, 12,
57, 61, 65, 105, 142
Walnut trees, whipping of, 30
Walpurgisnacht, orgies of, 28
Wandering death bird, 222
Waning of the moon, 41
Warnings, death, 257
Warts, charms for curing, 48, 164
Washing, days for, 245
Wasp, lucky to kill a, 135
Water, hot, at weddings, 201
Weather-lore, 25, 26, 27, 38, 70,
86, 93, 96, 97, 100, 106, 131,
247
Wedding-cake, 130, 194, 202
Wedding-ring, its magical powers,
167, 192, 195
Wednesday, change of moon on,
38
superstitions, 189, 240
Well-dressing of Tissington, 4
Welsh ambassador, 61
Wen, charm for a, 151
West Indian negroes, 179
Westmoreland superstition, 265
Westphalian folk-lore, 128
Whilks, 108
Whip-dog-day, 104
Whipping of walnut trees, 30
White-breasted bird, omen of death,
211
White hare, ominous, 216
White horse, unlucky, 114
White pigeon, sign of death, 100
White thorn, 8
Whitsunday, 188, 255
Whooping-cough, 22, 47, 153
Wiggin, hung up in stables, 13
Willow herb, cures by, 20
Wiltshire superstitions, 109, 156
Winefride's (St.) bell, 266
Witchcraft, no, 114
Witches, 12, 13, in, I74» 179,272
Wolf superstition, 198
U
290
INDEX.
Wood of the cross, 34
Woodpecker, the, 89
Woodpecker's laugh, 90
Wood-pigeon, legend of the, 99
Worcestershire folk-lore, 11, 56,
153
Worm, the name given to tooth-
ache, 156
Worms, cure for, 153
Wraith-seeing, 215
Wren, hunting the, 67
Wren, wife of the robin, 66
Wrested thread, 149
Yaffle, or yaffil, the, 90
Yarrow, divination by, 17
Yellow-hammer, 71
Yew, symbolical of life, 6
Yorkshire superstitions, 20, 43, 63,
72, 81, 82, 104, 114, 117, "9,
123, 134, 153, 154, 186, 200,
201, 202
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