Domestic folk-lore — Text and Context

BIRTH AND INFANCY. PAGE

Value of Superstitions--Lucky Days and Hours of Birth--The Caul--The Changeling--The Evil Eye--"Up and not Down"--Rocking the Empty Cradle--Teeth, Nails, and Hands--The Maple and the Ash--Unchristened Children 1

Nursery Literature--The Power of Baptism--Confirmation--Popular Prayers--Weather Rhymes--School Superstitions--Barring out 16

Love-tests--Plants used in Love-charms--The Lady-bird--The Snail--St. Valentine's Day--Midsummer Eve--Hallowe'en--Omens on Friday 23

Seasons and Days propitious to Marriage--Superstitions connected with the Bride--Meeting a Funeral--Robbing the Bride of Pins--Dancing in a Hog's Trough--The Wedding-cake--The Ring 36

Warnings of Death--The Howling of Dogs--A Cow in the Garden--Death-presaging Birds--Plants--The Will-o'-the-Wisp--The Sympathy between Two Personalities--Prophecy--Dying Hardly--The Last Act--Place and Position of the Grave 48

Superstitions about Deformity, Moles, &c.--Tingling of the Ear--The Nose--The Eye--The Teeth--The Hair--The Hand--Dead Man's Hand--The Feet 65

New Clothes at Easter and Whitsuntide--Wearing of Clothes--The Clothes of the Dead--The Apron, Stockings, Garters, &c.--The Shoe--The Glove--The Ring--Pins 81

Thirteen at Table--Salt-spilling--The Knife--Bread, and other Articles of Food--Wishing Bones--Tea-leaves--Singing before Breakfast--Shaking Hands across the Table 100

Folk-lore of the Looking-glass--Luck of Edenhall-- Clock-falling--Chairs--Beds--The Bellows 111

HOUSEHOLD SUPERSTITIONS.

Prevalence and Continuity of Superstitions--Sneezing-- Stumbling--A Whistling Woman--Sweeping--Breaking Crockery--Fires and Candles--Money--Other Superstitions 120

Bible and Key--Dipping--Sieve and Shears--Crowing of the Cock--Spatulamancia--Palmistry and Onymancy--Look-divination-- Astrology--Cards--Casting Lot--Tea-stalks 134

Charm-remedies--For Ague--Bleeding of the Nose--Burns--Cramp-- Epilepsy--Fits--Gout--Headache, &c. 148

MISCELLANEOUS HOUSEHOLD LORE.

Horse-shoes--Precautions against Witchcraft--The Charmer--Second Sight--Ghosts--Dreams--Nightmare 169

Value of Superstitions--Lucky Days and Hours of Birth--The Caul--The Changeling--The Evil Eye--"Up and not Down"--Rocking the Empty Cradle--Teeth, Nails, and Hands--The Maple and the Ash--Unchristened Children.

Around every stage of human life a variety of customs and superstitions have woven themselves, most of which, apart from their antiquarian value, as having been bequeathed to us from the far-off past, are interesting in so far as they illustrate those old-world notions and quaint beliefs which marked the social and domestic life of our forefathers. Although, therefore, many of these may appear to us meaningless, yet it must be remembered that they were the natural outcome of that scanty knowledge and those crude conceptions which prevailed in less enlightened times than our own. Probably, if our ancestors were in our midst now, they would be able in a great measure to explain and account for what is often looked upon now-a-days as childish fancy and so much nursery rubbish. In the present chapter it is proposed to give a brief and general survey of the folk-lore associated with birth and infancy, without, however, entering critically into its origin or growth, or tracing its transmigration from one country to another. Commencing, then, with birth, we find that many influences are supposed to affect the future fortune and character of the infant. Thus, in some places great attention is paid to the day of the week on which the child is born, as may be gathered from the following rhyme still current in Cornwall:--

"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"--

a piece of folk-lore varying, of course, in different localities. By general consent, however, Sunday is regarded as a most lucky day for birth, both in this country and on the Continent; and according to the "Universal Fortune-teller"--a book very popular among the lower classes in former years--"great riches, long life, and happiness" are in store for those fortunate beings born on Sunday, while in Sussex they are considered safe against drowning and hanging. Importance is also attached to the hour of birth; and the faculty of seeing much that is hidden from others is said to be granted to children born at the "chime hours," _i.e._, the hours of three, six, nine, or twelve--a superstition found in many parts of the Continent. There is, too, an idea prevalent in Germany that when a child is born in leap-year either it or its mother will die within the course of the year--a notion not unknown in our own country. Again, from time immemorial various kinds of divination have been in use for the purpose of discovering the sex of an infant previous to its birth. One of these is by means of a shoulder-of-mutton bone, which, after the whole of the flesh has been stripped clean off, must be hung up the last thing at night over the front door of the house. On the following morning the sex of the first person who enters, exclusive of the members of the household, indicates the sex of the child.