SOMERSETSHIRE FOLK LORE.
1. All texts heard in a church to be remembered by the congregation, for they must be repeated at the day of judgment.
2. If the clock strikes while the text is being given, a death may be expected in the parish.
3. A death in the parish during the Christmas tyde, is a token of many deaths in the year. I remember such a circumstance being spoken of in a village of Somerset. Thirteen died in that year, a very unusual number. Very many attributed this great loss of life to the fact above stated.
4. When a corpse is laid out, a plate of salt is laid on the chest. Why, I know not.
5. None can die comfortably under the cross-beam of a house. I knew a man of whom it was said at his death, that after many hours hard dying, being removed from the position under the cross-beam, he departed peaceably. I cannot account for the origin of this saying.
6. Ticks in the oak-beams of old houses, or death-watches so called, warn the inhabitants of that dwelling of some misfortune.
7. Coffin-rings, when dug out of a grave, are worn to keep off the cramp.
8. Water from the font is good for ague and rheumatism.
9. No moon, in its change, ought to be seen through a window.
10. Turn your money on hearing the first cuckoo.
11. The cattle low and kneel on Christmas eve.
12. Should a corpse be ever carried through any path, &c., that path cannot be done away with. For cases, see Wales, Somerset, Bampton, Devon.
13. On the highest mound of the hill above Weston-super-Mare, is a heap of stones, to which every fisherman in his daily walk to Sand Bay, Kewstoke, contributes one towards his day's good fishing.
14. Smothering hydrophobic patients is still spoken of in Somerset as so practised.
15. Origin of the saying "I'll send you to Jamaica." Did it not take its source from the unjudge-like sentence of Judge Jeffries to those who suffered without sufficient evidence, for their friendly disposition towards the Duke of Monmouth: "To be sent —— —— to the plantations of Jamaica?" Many innocent persons were so cruelly treated in Somerset.
16. The nurse who brings the infant to be baptized bestows upon the first person she meets on her way to the church whatever bread and cheese she can offer, i. e., according to the condition of the parents.
17. In Devonshire it is thought unlucky not to catch the first butterfly.
18. Mackerel not in season till the lesson of the 23rd and 24th of Numbers is read in church. I cannot account for this saying. A better authority could have been laid down for the remembering of such like incidents. You may almost form a notion yourself without any help. The common saying is, Mackerel is in season when Balaam's ass speaks in church.
M. A. Balliol.