Another Cornish farmers’ superstition is that “ducks won’t lay until they have drunk ‘Lide’ (March) water;” and the wife of one in 1880 declared “that if a goose saw a Lent lily (daffodil) before hatching its goslings it would, when they came forth, destroy them.” Some witty thieves, many years ago, having stolen twelve geese from a clergyman in the eastern part of the county, tied twelve pennies and this doggerel around the gander’s neck—
“Parson Peard, be not afeard,
Nor take it much in anger,
We’ve bought your geese at a penny a-piece,
And left the money with the gander.”
Hens must never be put to sit on an even number of eggs, eleven or thirteen are lucky numbers; Basilisks are hatched from cock’s eggs.
When cocks crow children are told that they say,
“Cock-a-doodle-doo!
Grammer’s lost her shoe,
Down by the barley moo (mow),