Page:Cornish feasts and folk-lore.djvu/180

 1 58 Charms, etc. back door) foretell the death of some one in it, or connected with the family. I was once where a little child lay dying, a small brown bird sang on the window-sill, the nurse told me that it was waiting to carry away the child's soul. " But when a flea bites a sick person he is sure not to be dangerously ill, as it is well known that they never bite those who have had their death- stroke." The superstitions that you cannot die easily on pillows stuffed with wild birds' feathers, and that life goes out with the tide, are as current here as in other places. Death in Cornwall is often spoken of as " going round land," and " gone dead " is a common idiom. A threat to kill is occasionally conveyed in the words " I will give you your quietus." In some cases it is supposed that life may be restored after death if when the breath stops the body be violently shaken. When a member of a family dies, his death it is said will bring two others with it,* from the idea that one misfortune never comes alone. A Cornish country vicarage was lately startled by the tolling at an unwonted hour of the church bell. On sending to ascertain the cause of the disturbance an " old inhabitant was found in the belfry, who had been engaged in the absence or illness of the usual sexton to dig the grave. He said in explanation that in his time it was always usual for the gravedigger to toll the bell three times before breaking the consecrated ground." J. H. C, Notes and Queries, sth series, vol. ii., August, 1874. A corpse should never be carried to church by a new road, and should a hearse stop on its way to the churchyard there will soon be another death in the house. Singing funerals, or as they are called in Cornwall buryings (pronounced "berrins"), were once almost universal (and one may still occasionally be met). The mourners and friends following the cofiin sang as they walked through the streets or lanes their favourite hymns, often to most elaborate tunes. " To shaw our sperrits lev-us petcht The laast new berrin tune. " — Tregellas. • A similar superstition prevails about brealtages, and a servant who lias had the misfortune to breali a valuable piece of china will sometimes smash a common basin or tea-cup to arrest the ill-luck. + " Pitch a tune," to give the keynote.