FOLK LORE.
Lancashire Fairy Tale.—The nursery rhymes in one of your late Numbers remind me of a story I used to be told in the nursery. It was, that two men went poaching, and having placed nets, or rather sacks, over what they supposed to be rabbit-holes, but which were in reality fairies' houses, the fairies rushed into the sacks, and the poachers, content with their prey, marched home again. A fairy missing another in the sack, called out (the story was told in broad Lancashire dialect) "Dick (dignified name for a fairy), where art thou?" To which fairy Dick replied,
"In a sack,
On a back,
Riding up Barley Brow."
The story has a good moral ending, for the poachers were so frightened that they never poached again.
T. G. C.
Teeth, Superstition respecting (Vol. vi., p. 601.).—A similar (perhaps the same) piece of childish superstition respecting the teeth is, that when the upper incisors are large, it is a sign that you will live to be rich.
Furvus.
New Moon Divination.—Being lately on a visit in Yorkshire, I was amused one evening to find the servants of the house excusing themselves for being out of the way when the bell rang, on the plea that they had been "hailing the first new moon of the new year." This mysterious salutation was effected, I believe, by means of a looking-glass, in which the first sight of the moon was to be had, and the object to be gained was the important secret as to how many years would elapse before the marriage of the observers. If one moon was seen in the glass, one year; if two, two years; and so on. In the case in question, the maid and the boy saw only one moon a-piece. Whether the superstition would, in this instance, be suggestive to their minds of anything to be deduced from the coincidence, I do not know; but as they were both very old-fashioned folks, I suppose the custom may not be unknown to those learned in Folk Lore.
What is the orthodox mode of conducting this kind of divination?
Oxoniensis.
The Hyena an Ingredient in Love Potions.—In Busbequius's Letters (Elzevir, 1633) I note that the Turks consider the hyena useful in love potions. I extract the passage:
"In amatoriis ei vim magnam Turcæ, ut etiam veteres, tribuunt, cumque essent duæ eo tempore Constantinopoli, mihi tamen vendere gravabantur, quod se Sultanæ, hoc est, principis uxori, eas reservare dicerent, quippe quas philtris et magicis artibus animum mariti retinere, recepta in vulgus (ut dixi) opinio est."—P. 84.
Allow me to add a Query: What ancient authors allude to this old specimen of Folk Lore?
S. A. S.
Bridgewater.
The Elder Tree.—I was visiting a poor parishioner the other day, when the following question was put to me.
"Pray, Sir, can you tell me whether there is any doubt of what kind of wood our Lord's cross was made? I have always heard that it was made of elder, and we look carefully into the faggots before we burn them, for fear that there should be any of this wood in them."
My Query is, Whether this is a common superstition?
Rubi.