Lady-bird.
This pretty spotted little beetle was used formerly in the neighbourhood of Llanidloes as a prognosticator of the weather. First of all the lady-bird was placed in the palm of the left hand, or right; I do not think it made any difference which hand was used, and the person who held it addressed it as follows:—
Iâr fach goch, gwtta,
Pa un ai gwlaw, neu hindda?
and then having said these words, the insect was thrown skywards, the person repeating the while—
Os mai gwlaw, cwympa lawr,
Os mai têg, hedfana;
which in English would be—
Lady-bird, lady-bird, tell to me
What the weather is going to be;
If fair, then fly in the air,
If foul, then fall to the ground.
The first two lines were said with the beetle in the hand, and the last two whilst it was thrown upwards; if it came to the ground without attempting to fly, it indicated rain; if, however, when thrown into the air it flew away, then fair weather was to be expected. The writer has often resorted to this test, but whether he found it true or false he cannot now say.
Mice.
A mouse nibbling clothes was a sign of disaster, if not death, to the owner. It was thought that the evil one occasionally took the form of a mouse. Years ago, when Craig Wen Farm, Llawr-y-glyn, near Llanidloes, Montgomeryshire was haunted—the rumour of which event I well remember—the servant girl told her mistress, the tenant of the farm, that one day she was going through the corn field, and that a mouse ran before her, and she ran after it to catch it, but that when she was opposite the barn, the mouse stopped and laughed at her, and ran into a hole. The mouse, therefore, was the evil spirit, and the cause of all the mischief that followed.