Folk-lore of the Looking-glass--Luck of Edenhall-- Clock-falling--Chairs--Beds--The Bellows 111
Prevalence and Continuity of Superstitions--Sneezing-- Stumbling--A Whistling Woman--Sweeping--Breaking Crockery--Fires and Candles--Money--Other Superstitions 120
Bible and Key--Dipping--Sieve and Shears--Crowing of the Cock--Spatulamancia--Palmistry and Onymancy--Look-divination-- Astrology--Cards--Casting Lot--Tea-stalks 134
Charm-remedies--For Ague--Bleeding of the Nose--Burns--Cramp-- Epilepsy--Fits--Gout--Headache, &c. 148
Horse-shoes--Precautions against Witchcraft--The Charmer--Second Sight--Ghosts--Dreams--Nightmare 169
Value of Superstitions--Lucky Days and Hours of Birth--The Caul--The Changeling--The Evil Eye--"Up and not Down"--Rocking the Empty Cradle--Teeth, Nails, and Hands--The Maple and the Ash--Unchristened Children.
Around every stage of human life a variety of customs and superstitions have woven themselves, most of which, apart from their antiquarian value, as having been bequeathed to us from the far-off past, are interesting in so far as they illustrate those old-world notions and quaint beliefs which marked the social and domestic life of our forefathers. Although, therefore, many of these may appear to us meaningless, yet it must be remembered that they were the natural outcome of that scanty knowledge and those crude conceptions which prevailed in less enlightened times than our own. Probably, if our ancestors were in our midst now, they would be able in a great measure to explain and account for what is often looked upon now-a-days as childish fancy and so much nursery rubbish. In the present chapter it is proposed to give a brief and general survey of the folk-lore associated with birth and infancy, without, however, entering critically into its origin or growth, or tracing its transmigration from one country to another. Commencing, then, with birth, we find that many influences are supposed to affect the future fortune and character of the infant. Thus, in some places great attention is paid to the day of the week on which the child is born, as may be gathered from the following rhyme still current in Cornwall:--
"Sunday's child is full of grace, Monday's child is full in the face, Tuesday's child is solemn and sad, Wednesday's child is merry and glad, Thursday's child is inclined to thieving, Friday's child is free in giving, Saturday's child works hard for his living"--