The Folk-Lore Journal/Volume 2/Notes and Queries (p. 23–26)
NOTES AND QUERIES.
All Hallow Een.— In Dugdale's Diary, p. 104, 1658 (at end of book), is the following:—"On All Hallow Even the master of the family antiently used to carry a bunch of straw, fired, about his corne, saying,—
'Fire and red low
Light on my teen low.'"
Why the Cliffs of England are White.—"Once upon a time a great ship from Norway came down into these seas, and she was so big that she could not get through the Straits, but stuck quite fast. The captain then said to the crew, 'Soap her sides, my men!' and they soaped, and soaped, until she could slip through quite easily; but she left the soap upon the cliffs, and ever since they have been white as snow."—I quote this from Her Majesty's Bem, by Elizabeth Harcourt Mitchell, 1884 (1883). Is it a genuine piece of folk-lore?
New England Superstitions.—Superstitions die slowly, and even after they have lost all real vitality they linger like haunting shades around the scenes of their former activities. Go into the distant hamlets and bye-places among the hills, and you will still find people who quote, even if they do not really credit, such omens as these: White specks on the nails are lucky. Whosoever reads epitaphs loses his memory. To rock the cradle when empty is injurious to the child. To eat while a bell is tolling for a funeral causes tooth-ache. The crowing of a hen indicates some approaching disaster. When a mouse gnaws a gown some misfortune may be apprehended. He who has teeth wide asunder must seek his fortune in some distant land. If a child less than twelve months old be brought into a cellar he becomes fearful for life. When children play soldier on the hillside it forbodes the approach of war. A child grows proud if suffered to look into a mirror while less than twelve months old. He who proposes moving into a new house must send in beforehand bread and a new broom. Whoever sneezes at an early hour either hears some news or receives some presents the same day. The first tooth cast by the child should be swallowed by the mother to ensure a new growth of teeth. Buttoning the coat awry, or drawing on stockings inside out, causes matters to go wrong during the day. By bending the head to the hollow of the arm the initial letter of the name of one's future spouse is represented. When women are stuffing beds the men should not remain in the house, otherwise the feathers will come through the ticks. When a stranger enters a room he should be obliged to seat himself, if only for a moment, as he otherwise takes away the children's sleep with him. A dog scratching on the floor or howling in a particular manner and owls hooting in the neighbourhood of the house indicate an approaching death.—The Weekly Free Press, Sept. 9, 1882.
Signs and Prognostics.—
"Wise Gosling, did but heare the scrich-owle crye,
And told his wife, and straight a pigge did dye.
Another time, (after that scuruy Owle)
When Ball his Dogge, at twelue a clocke did howle,
He iogd his wife, and ill lucke Madge did say,
And Fox by morning stole a Goose away.
Besides he knowes fowle weather, raine or haile,
Euen by the wagging of his dun Cowes tayle.
When any Theeues, his Hens and Duckes pursewe,
He knowes it by the Candles burning blew.
Or if a Rauen cry, iust or'e his head,
Some in the Towne have lost their mayden head.
For losse of Cattell, and for fugitiues,
Heele find out with a Sine, and rusty Kniues.
His good dayes are, when's Chaffer is well sold,
And bad dayes, when his wife doth brail and scold."
—Rowlands' More Knaues Yet? (c. 1613), p. 20, of Hunterian Club's Reprint.
Isle of Wight Custom.—There is a custom still retained here [Yarmouth, Isle of Wight] (peculiar to this place only and not common in other parts of the kingdom) of the children's singing on New Year's Day, wassal, or wassail, from the Saxon, "Health to you":
"Wassal, wassal, to our town!
The cup is white, and the ale is brown,
The cup is made of the ashen tree.
And so is the ale of good barley:
Little maid, little maid, turn the pin,
Open the door and let me come in;
God be here, and God be there!
I wish you all a happy New Year."
—The foregoing is quoted from Lake Allen's History of the Isle of Wight, p.251.
The Yorkshire Name for Wakes.—In the West Hiding, particularly about Halifax and Huddersfield, the annual carnival which we call "Wakes" in Lancashire goes by the name of "Thump," and it appears to be so called because all who on entering an ale-house refuse to pay for liquor for the jollification of the company are soundly thumped. Last Halifax Thump, a teetotaller, having business in the Ovenden Cross Inn, refused and resisted the levy of black mail upon him for drinking purposes, and he was punished, according to custom, by the company laying him face downwards and beating him on the back of the body with a heated fire-shovel. The ringleader of the frolic being summoned by the indignant teetotaller was sentenced by the magistrates to a month's imprisonment, but on appeal the sentence was commuted to a fine of five pounds, with the costs of the appeal. —Oldham Chronicle.
A Dead Hare's Scut, co. Donegal.—I observed that every hare I shot, the boy that might be with me immediately pulled the "scut" out of it. At first I could not understand what it was done for, or what they did with the scut, because in general I find it hard to understand the natives or they to understand me; but at last I found out from one of them that if a woman that is enciente sees a dead hare that has its scut her offspring will have a hare-lip. This is a superstition I have not heard elsewhere in Ireland.G. H. K.
Superstition in the Black Country.— At Brierly Hill (King's Winford), during the last Petty Sessions, Jane Wooton, a brick-maker, was charged with assaulting Ann Lowe, a married woman. The complainant said the defendant met her, and, after pinching her ear, scratched her face with a needle. The defendant replied that the complainant had bewitched her, and a "wise woman" had recommended the drawing of blood. The Bench discharged the defendant with a caution.G.
Blackberries.—Here, as elsewhere in Ireland, the phoca is said to blight the blackberries on Michaelmas Day by putting a worm in it; consequently after that day in general they are not gathered or eaten. The last two years they have not been ripe till after Michaelmas; and as there is a considerable trade in them, I hear, for the manufacture of claret and port wines, they were gathered after that date, but the gatherers would not eat one of them.G. H. K.
White-footed Horses.—"If we believe the following old adage, still retained in some parts of Lanarkshire, it would appear that whitefooted horses are more tender or delicate than horses of another colour in the feet:—
'If he has one white foot buy him,
If he has two you may try him.
If he has three look shy at him,
But if he has four go by him.'"
This is from Ure's Agriculture of Kinross, 1797, p. 34.G.
Proverbs.—The Urdu Instructor, a small periodical published monthly at Bombay (Education Society's Press), contains in every number a number of Hindostani proverbs well translated. The originals are given in the Roman character. A similar periodical, called The Persian Teacher, contains in each number a similar quantity of Persian proverbs.R. C. Temple.