Page:Cornish feasts and folk-lore.djvu/174

 1 62 Charms, etc. cough, out for a walk, in hopes of meeting a man on a white or piebald horse. Should they be fortunate enough to do so, they ask the rider how they can cure the patient: his advice is always implicitly followed. Children with dirty habits are often told that a "mousey pasty" shall be cooked for their dinners. Cornish children are warned by their nurses not to grimace, lest, whilst so doing, the wind should change and their faces always remain contorted. There is another form in which this warning is often given : " Don't make mock of a ' magum ' (May-game), for you may be struck comical yourself one day." " Magum " in most cases means a facetious person, one who is full of merry pranks ; and the expressions, "He's a reg'lar magum," or "He's full of his magums," are often heard. But the idea intended to be conveyed in the first saying is that it is wrong to make fun of a person suffering from an infirmity, which may at any time afflict the jeerer. The puritanical notion of Sunday lingers in the belief in Cornwall that it is unlucky to use a scissors on that day, even to cut your nails ; you must " Cut them on Monday, before your fast you break, And you'll have a present in less than a week." Children here are pleased to see " gifts " (white spots) on their thumb-nails, as " Gifts on the thumb are sure to come, But gifts on the finger are sure to linger." Occasionally white spots on the five fingers are named as follows: "A gift, a friend, a foe, a true' lover, a journey to go." Should the little ones, when picking flowers, sting themselves with nettles, they are of course in this locality, as elsewhere in England, taught to rub the spot with dock-leaves, repeating the words, "In dock, out nettle ; " but they are often told in addition to wet the place affected with their spittle, and make a cross over it with their thumb-nails, pressed down as heavily as possible. School-boys and school-girls often years ago practised a cruel jest on their more innocent companions. They induced them to pick a nettle by