She had also to sew a berry in her stays. Witness paid her 1s. 2d. for two powders, which she had to burn when she got home.—Serjeant S. White, who arrested the prisoner, said he found a large number of fortune-telling cards and also a fortune-telling book, which the prisoner said had been 250 years in her family, in the house. A Bible was also found, interleaved with extracts from a dream-book. There were also 200 parcels in the house, and, on being questioned, the prisoner said, "Young girls who come to have their fortunes told and can't afford to pay, leave these parcels."—Standard, 17 Dec. 1886.
Football Games.—I should be glad if Members could assist me in collecting notices of the various games at football played mostly on Shrove Tuesday in some of the old towns, between married and unmarried, or some other divisions of the people. One or two examples are recorded in Brand, and some in Hone; but these cannot exhaust the instances in England and Scotland. Also, are there any such examples in Ireland?
Yorkshire Custom.—Mr. V. Giddy, Wistow, Selby, writes to the Leeds Mercury: In many villages in the West Riding, Christmas Day is heralded by the appearance, at an early hour, of juveniles, who go from house to house shouting, with great earnestness, the following ditty:—
"I wish yer a merry Christmas,
A happy New Year;
A pocket full of money,
A cellar full of beer.
And two or three fat pigs to kill every year.
— Please will yer gie me a Christmas box?"
Sometimes the visits are made singly; at other times—and this oftener the case—the youngsters go together in companies of about half-a-dozen. As may be imagined, the chorus from a body of performers like this is not altogether tuneful. Yet the villagers—disturbed as they are by these early callers—would not have the custom discontinued by any means. There is a question of luck connected with it. The visitor who first succeeds in rousing the inmates of the house, and inducing an attendance at the door, is called "the lucky bird,"
