FOLK LORE.
Devonshire Superstitions.
—Days of the week:
"Born on a Sunday, a gentleman;
Monday, fair in face;
Tuesday, full of grace;
Wednesday, sour and grum;
Thursday, welcome home;
Friday, free in giving;
Saturday, work hard for your living."
Tuesday and Wednesday are lucky days.
Thursday has one lucky hour, viz. the hour before the sun rises.
Friday is unlucky.
It is very unlucky to turn a featherbed on a Sunday; my housemaid says she would not turn my bed on a Sunday on any account.
"To sneeze on Monday hastens anger,
Tuesday, kiss a stranger,
Wednesday.
To sneeze on Friday, give a gift.
Saturday, receive a gift.
Sunday, before you break your fast,
You'll see your true love before a week's past."
My informant cannot recollect the consequences of sneezing on Wednesday and Thursday.
"Sneeze on Sunday morning fasting,
You'll enjoy your own true love to everlasting."
If you sneeze on a Saturday night after the candle is lighted, you will next week see a stranger you never saw before.
A new moon seen over the right shoulder is lucky, over the left shoulder unlucky, and straight before prognosticates good luck to the end of the moon.
Hair and nails should always be cut during the waning of the moon.
Whatever you think of when you see a star shooting, you are sure to have.
When you first see the new moon in the new year, take your stocking off from one foot, and run to the next style; when you get there, between the great toe and the next, you will find a hair, which will be the colour of your lover's.
When you first see the new moon after mid-summer, go to a stile, turn your back to it, and say,—
"All hail, new moon, all hail to thee!
I prithee good moon, reveal to me
This night who shall my true love be:
Who he is, and what he wears,
And what he does all months and years."
To see a Lover in a Dream.
—Pluck yarrow from a young man's grave, saying as you do so—
"Yarrow, sweet yarrow, the first that I have found,
And in the name of Jesus I pluck it from the ground.
As Joseph loved sweet Mary, and took her for his dear,
So in a dream this night, I hope my true love will appear."
Sleep with the yarrow under the pillow.
J. M. (4)
Some time ago I was in the neighbourhood of Camelford (a small town in Cornwall), and inquiring the name of a church I saw in the distance, was told that its name was Advent, though it was generally called Saint Teen. Now Teen in Cornish = to light. Can this name have been applied from any peculiar ceremonies observed here during Advent?
J. M. (4)