as well as round gingerbread 'fair-cakes' decorated each with an almond, gingerbread cakes in the shape of a human being, but these are now no longer made.
"Don't turn the loaf upside down, or you'll drown the sailors," was told me by a Gravesender born at Devonport.
A robin flying in at one window and out of another is a sign of death.[1]
Gravesend.
The following notes are derived from my maid, L. Symons, who comes from Sevenoaks:—
On Fridays Kentish people will not turn feather beds. They say it brings them bad luck all through the next week. They just shake them up well, and the same on Sundays.
If any of the family are ill they watch the candle burning, and if it runs down the side and goes round three times they call that a winding-sheet, and say it is a sign of death in the family.
If a rook flies over the front of the house and makes a noise they think that it is a sure sign of death.
They will not pass anyone on the staircase; they would rather go back again. They fancy it is very unlucky.
New boots put on the table they say will cause a row.
If two bells ring at the same time in the house, they say someone is going to leave before the year is out.
At Easter time they won't go out unless they have something new in the way of clothes. If it is only a pair of new gloves they are quite contented.
Northumberland.
My nephew met a woman carrying a baby in the lane by the church at Humshaugh. Without saying a word to him she put a parcel into his hand and walked off as quickly as she could. The parcel contained a piece of cake and three pennies. My nephew was the only person in the lane at the time. The baby had just been christened, and our cook (an old Northumberland woman)
- ↑ Cf. vol. xxi., p. 90 (Argyllshire), p. 223 (Bucks); Henderson, Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties etc., p. 50.
