“When first the year I heard the cuckoo sing,
And call with welcome note the budding spring,
I straightway set a running with such haste
Deborah that won the smock scarce ran so fast;
Till spent for lack of breath, quite weary grown,
Upon a rising bank I sat adown,
There doffed my shoe; and by my troth I swear,
Therein I spied this yellow frizzled hair,
As like to Lubberkin’s in curl and hue
As if upon his comely pate it grew.”
Nos. [187-193].—These practices, and others like No. 453 and the asseverations, Nos. 60-67, shade off insensibly into children’s games, customs, and sayings. Games pure and simple have been omitted from the present monograph, since they are evidently out of place among superstitions. They have been admirably treated in Mr. Newell’s Games and Songs of American Children. The customs and sayings for the most part belong in collections like Halliwell’s Nursery Rhymes rather than in the present collection.
No. [211].—Projects in which flowers and leaves are employed certainly much antedate the Christian era. Theocritus (Idyll III.) describes one in which a poppy petal is used, and he also refers to another form of love-divination by aid of the leaf of the plant Telephilon.
No. [245].—It is probable that the direction in which one is to walk during the performance of this and similar acts of divination is not a matter of indifference, even when no direction is prescribed. One would expect to find it done sunwise. See note on Chapter xvi.
Nos. [254-256].—The Sedum has long enjoyed a reputation for aphrodisiac qualities, as is set forth in Gerarde’s Herbal and other authorities. Perhaps the choice of the plant for use in this form of project is due to some lingering tradition of its potency, or it may be simply because of its great vitality and power of growing under adverse conditions.
No. [334].—I happen to know that in 1895 one bride, in a Boston suburb, wore seven yellow garters, at the request of seven girl friends. Probably the fashion of wearing yellow garters owes its present currency to the repute in which they are held as love-amulets.
Chapter [VIII].—Some notion of the prevalence of a popular belief in the omens to be derived from dreams may be obtained from the fact that dream books are still enough in demand to warrant their publication. I have seen but one such volume. That was more than thirty years ago. A dream book is now published by a New York firm, and I find, from inquiries in Boston, that it sells at a moderate rate.
No. [626].—See Shoe Omens in Brand’s Popular Antiquities (Bohn’s ed.), iii. 166.
Nos. [785-789].—The curious reader will find an excellent summary of the beliefs in regard to sneezing in Brand’s Popular Antiquities, vol. iii.
Nos. [796-800].—In New Hampshire it was formerly usual for young people to purchase gold beads, one at a time, with their earnings. When a sufficient number of beads was obtained the necklace was made, and after it had once been put on was never taken off by night or day. It is difficult to induce the elderly people who still retain these necklaces to part with them, there being a superstitious feeling in regard to the consequences.