FOLK LORE.
Popular Superstitions in Lancashire.
—That a man must never "go a courting" on a Friday. If an unlucky fellow is caught with his lady-love on that day, he is followed home by a band of musicians playing on pokers, tongs, pan-lids, &c., unless he can rid himself of his tormentors by giving them money to drink with.
That hooping-cough will never be taken by any child which has ridden upon a bear. While bear baiting was in fashion, great part of the owner's profits arose from the money given by parents whose children had had a ride. The writer knows of cases in which the charm is said certainly to have been effectual.
That hooping-cough may be cured by tying a hairy caterpillar in a small bag round the child's neck, and as the caterpillar dies the cough goes.
That Good Friday is the best day of all the year to begin weaning children, which ought if possible to be put off till that day; and a strong hope is sometimes entertained that a very cross child will "be better" after it has been christened.
That May cats are unlucky, and will suck the breath of children.
That crickets are lucky about a house, and will do no harm to those who use them well; but that they eat holes in the worsted stockings of such members of the family as kill them. I was assured of this on the experience of a respectable farmer's family.
The belief in ghosts, or bogards, as they are termed, is universal.
In my neighbourhood I hardly know a dell where a running stream crosses a road by a small bridge or stone plat, where there is not frectnin (frightening) to be expected. Wells, ponds, gates, &c., have often this bad repute. I have heard of a calf with eyes like a saucer, a woman without a head, a white greyhound, a column of white foam like a large sugar-loaf in the midst of a pond, a group of little cats, &c., &c., as the shape of the bogard, and sometimes a lady who jumped behind hapless passengers on horseback. It is supposed that a Romish priest can lay them, and that it is best to cheat them to consent to being laid while hollies are green. Hollies being evergreens, the ghosts can reappear no more.
P. P.
Folk lore in Lancashire (Vol. iii., p. 55.).
—Most of, if not all the instances mentioned under this head by MR. WILKINSON are, as might be expected, current also in the adjacent district of the West Riding of Yorkshire; and, by his leave, I will add a few more, which are familiar to me:
1. If a cock near the door crows with his face towards it, it is a sure prediction of the arrival of a stranger.
2. If the cat frisks about the house in an unusually lively manner, windy or stormy weather is approaching.
3. If a dog howls under a window at night, a death will shortly happen in that house.
4. If a female be the first to enter a house on Christmas or New Year's day, she brings ill luck to that house for the coming year.
5. For hooping-cough, pass the child nine times over the back and under the belly of an ass. (This ceremony I once witnessed, but cannot vouch for its having had the desired effect.)
6. For warts, rub them with a cinder, and this tied up in paper and dropped where four roads meet, will transfer the warts to whoever opens the packet.
J. EASTWOOD.
Ecclesfield.
Lancashire Customs.
—The curfew is continued in many of the villages, and until the last ten or fifteen years it was usual at a Roman Catholic funeral to ring a merry peal on the bells as soon as the interment was over. The Roman Catholics seem now to have discontinued this practice.
Carol singing and hand-bell ringing prevail at Christmas, and troops of men and children calling themselves pace eggers, go about in Passion Week, and especially Good Friday, as mummers in the south of England do at Christmas. Large tallow candles may often be seen decorated with evergreens, hanging up in the houses of the poor at Christmas time.
P. P.
Od.
—One of the experiments by which the existence of this agency is tested, consists in attaching a horsehair to the first joint of the forefinger, and suspending to it a smooth gold ring. When the elbow is rested on the table, and the finger held in a horizontal position, the ring begins to oscillate in the plane of the direction of the finger; but if a female takes hold of the left hand of the person thus experimenting, the ring begins forthwith to oscillate in a plane at right angles to that of its former direction. I have never tried the experiment, for the simple reason that I have not been able to prevail upon any married lady of my acquaintance to lend me her wedding-ring for the purpose; and even if I had found it come true, I should still doubt whether the motion were not owing to the pulsations of the finger veins; but whatever be the cause, the fact is not new. My father recently told me, that in his boyhood he had often seen it tried as a charm. For this purpose it is essential, as may be supposed, that the ring be a wedding-ring, and of course the lady towards whom it oscillates is set down as the future spouse of the gentleman experimenting.
R. D. H.
Pigeons.
—The popular belief, that a person cannot die with his head resting on a pillow containing pigeons' feathers, is well known; but the following will probably be as new to many of your readers as it was to myself. On applying the other day to a highly respectable farmer's wife to know if she had any pigeons ready to eat, as a sick person had expressed a longing for one, she said, "Ah! poor fellow! is he so far gone? A pigeon is generally almost the last thing they want; I have supplied many a one for the like purpose."
J. EASTWOOD.