Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/404

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372
Collectanea.

The Devil's Rocks, near Downton Castle, Ludlow, Shropshire.

On these rocks you can see the marks of the Devil's feet, where he used to dance; the four pillars are his partners. Close by is the little stone seat on which he used to rest.

E. M. Leather.




The Saliva Superstition.

A few weeks ago I noticed one of my schoolboys taking up a white stone from the road, spitting upon it, and then throwing it over his head. In doing so he repeated the following distich:

"Lucky stone, lucky stone,
Bring me luck when I go home."

Upon enquiry I found that it would afterwards be unlucky for him to look back when turning round a corner.

"Aeron" (Glyn Traiarn, North Wales), writing in Bygones, 1893-4, p. 60.




The Nightingale an Ill-Omened Bird.

Recently at Newport, Shropshire, a pair of nightingales built for the first time near the canal, and people used to collect at night to listen to them singing. People now say that it would be a good thing if they never returned, because bad luck, including seven deaths, occurred in the neighbourhood as a result of their sojourn.

E. F. Bennion.




An Omen from Dress.

In the neighbourhood of Watford, King's Langley, and Abbots Langley in West Herts, it is a common belief that if the lower