Combien d’ans je vivrai.”[247]
I remember when I was a child, my aunt, Miss de Sausmarez, making me remark how chickens, when they drink, lift up their heads at every sip, and telling me that they did so to thank God.[248]
The bone of the cuttle fish, which is found at times thrown up on the beach, is called in Guernsey “Pépie.” It is supposed to possess the quality of healing the “pip” in chickens, also known as “la pépie.”
A stye in the eye is called in Guernsey “un laurier,” and is to be cured by bathing the eye with an infusion of laurel leaves or “lauriers.”
If a fisherman, on setting out, sees a humble bee flying in the same direction as he is going, he considers it a good omen, and that he is sure of a plentiful catch. If, however, the insect meets him, it is quite the reverse. The ill-luck, however, may be averted by spitting thrice over the left shoulder. Omens of good or bad luck are also derived from sea-birds. All depends on whether a gull or a cormorant is seen first, as, if a cormorant, no fish is to be expected that day. All fishermen also know how unlucky it is to count one’s fish until the catch has been landed, as, however freely they may be biting, counting them would inevitably stop all sport for the day.[249]
If a pair of bellows is put on a table, some great misfortune is sure to happen in the household.[250]
Richard Ferguson, fisherman, of the Salerie, tells me that there is a great objection against taking currant cake with them when they go a-fishing, it is sure to bring bad luck.
[246] Bave—The cuckoo spittle.
[247] See Thorpe’s Northern Mythology, and Chambers’ Popular Rhymes, p. 193.
[248] See English Folk-Lore, p. 95.