of forming a comparative folk-lore from the abundant materials which are in course of being collected. Every one of the following instances is current in some portion of the county; not a few have been familiar to the writer from childhood; and the rest have been written down as they occurred, almost from the mouths of the narraSo far as is known, the majority of these examples have never before found their way into any printed collection of the folk-wisdom of this or any other county. Under this limitation, the folk-lore of

BIRDS

FURNISHES several curious superstitions. Popular opinion states that if we turn over any money which we may happen to have in our pockets, when we first hear the cuckoo in the spring, we shall thereby secure a prosperous year. Lovers are told that if they will take when the cuckoo is first heard, they

off their left shoe

will find a hair in it of the same colour as that of their

respective future husbands or wives.

them, on their first appearance, with

"Cuckoo ! Cuckoo ! cherry tree,

Lay an egg and give it me.

Children greet

They are popularly said to indicate length of life according to the number of times they shout out their only notes. Hence, they are addressed in the following terms, and their answers are considered ominous by those who put the questions :

"Cuckoo ! cuckoo! cherry tree,

Pretty bird, come tell to me,

How many years! Before you fly,

How many years before I die?"

The story of the "Babes in the Wood" appears to have

done good service for the robin.

Farmers and their

servants are frequently told that if they kill a robin their cows will give blood instead of milk; and they are also said to cover dead bodies with leaves whenever they are suffered to lie out of doors unburied. Crows are said to bespatter persons with dung who have neglected to provide some new article of dress for Easter Sunday; and boys who are sent to scare them away from the crops imagine that they do it most effectually by screaming

out

"Crow! crow! fly away;

Come again o' Setterday.

Crow! crow! get out o' my seet,

Or I'll eat thy liver to morn at neet."

The magpie augury assumes different forms in different counties. The following is prevalent in East Lanca

shire :

THE hairs from cats are considered to be very detrimental to health; and these animals are not unfrequently sent away from a house, or destroyed, when any child, or young person, begins to show symptoms of bad health. When cats' hairs get into the stomach they are supposed to be almost indigestible; but that they admit of being dissolved by eating a portion of an egg-shell every morning fasting. This medicine is frequently prescribed. If a cat sleeps in a child's cradle, or on its bed, it is

supposed to inhale the child's life, and disease soon follows. When we desire a cat to stay at home, we must grease its feet with new butter and it will not wander away. Again:—a witch and a cat are always good company. Their natures are much alike; and hence, they help to form a portion of every "load of mischief."

Superstitious observances respecting the health and preservation of

CHILDREN

ARE very numerous, 'and are constantly practised in our nurseries and cottages. Young children are often reminded that they ought not to walk backwards in a room, or on a road;—if they do, death will soon deprive them of their mothers. Many persons consider it sinful to give a child the same Christian name as another who is dead: one female remarked to the writer that "id wor gooin ageean God Omeety as hed ta'en t'other away." A child with two crowns, or two circular tufts of hair, will live in two kings' reigns. Very few nurses will convey a child down-stairs the first time it is removed from the room; they always carry it up a few steps, if possible, towards the attic, in order that it may hereafter rise in the world. For want of other means the nurse sometimes mounts a chair with the child in her arms. The belief in changelings is not yet extinct; especially amongst the lower Irish population.

A person now living in Burnley firmly believed that her withered, consumptive child was a changeling. She told the writer that it would not live long; and when it died, she said "the fairies had got their own." Our peasantry also hold that unbaptized children neither

go to heaven nor to hell; but wander in an intermediate state, and become either fairies or pixies. Baptism is said to drive the devil out of children; and negligent mothers are frequently reminded that they become better tempered and have better health after they have been christened.

When an infant smiles in its sleep our nurses say that the angels are whispering to it; but when it starts up in terror, then some demon is tormenting it. Precocious children are seldom long-lived;-they are often reminded that they "are too fause [wise] to live." If children are weighed before they are a year old; or if their finger nails are cut, instead of being bitten off, during the same period, bad health and misfortune will follow. When children cut their teeth early, their mothers are supposed to be prolific; the old adage being

"Soon ith goom [gum]; quick ith woom [womb].”

The good or ill fortune of children is the subject of several predictions. Female infants with small white hands are considered to be "born ladies." Their future success in life is frequently tested by means of tickling their knees, while the following words are being repeated :

"If you're to be a lady,

As I expect to see;

You will neither laugh nor smile,
While I tickle on your knee."

Occasionally nurses may be detected tying three pieces. of straw to the top of a stick. This is done in order to test the the disposition of a strange child; for it is said that

"Three straws stuck on a staff

Will make a baby cry or laugh."

COURTSHIP

Is always an engrossing subject, and has appropriated its full share of omens and superstitious ceremonies. The dictum that "Long courtships make bad marriages," is never questioned by any; for it is well known that

In cases of extreme haste we are told that, "Cold pudding cures hot love ;" and are at the same time reminded that, "It is best to be slow to make haste." Rubbing against a newly-married couple is said to be infectious; and if an unmarried person stumbles on going up-stairs it is taken as a sign of early marriage. When a bramble, or briar, or a thorn branch, adheres to a lady's dress when she is walking with her lover, it is a sure omen that he will be faithful. The same encouraging information is obtained by placing sprigs of the tea plant on the back of one hand and striking them with the other. If they stick firmly to the hand which strikes them, so will the lover whose intentions are being tested. Should a young female attend church when her own banns are published, her children will be born deaf and dumb as a punishment for her want of decency. No one ought to try on her wedding-dress before the day of the marriage; for popular opinion affirms that if she does she will never live happily with her husband. Fortune in marriage is still tried in Lancashire as it was in the days of Gay; his "Spell" has lost nothing of its force by lapse of time :

"Two hazel nuts I threw into the flame,

And to each nut I gave a sweetheart's name ;