Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/282

275 kindly furnished me with the following particulars:—“On Good Friday the sacred picture of the dead Christ was laid on a sort of bier, or structure resembling a four-posted bed. The picture itself, the four posts, and the overhanging canopy were covered with flowers and green leaves. Every person came up to the bier, kissed the sacred picture, and carried away a flower or a leaf from it, with the intention of keeping it until the Easter of the following year. Beside the bier stood baskets of flowers and leaves, with which the bier was decked as fast as it was stripped by the worshippers. Then the bier, adorned with lighted candles, was carried in procession through the town. Similar processions started from the various churches and met at central points. While the processions were passing fireworks were let off and guns fired.”

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Highland Superstitions in Inverness-shire.—The following notes on this subject were communicated in writing by Isabella Ross, formerly a servant in our family.

“At old Christmas, commonly called ‘Auld Ell’ a pot of sowans is made in every house, a wedding-ring put into it, whoever finds the ring is blindfolded and goes to the hen-house door and knocks; if the cock crows, for every time he crows there is a year or years before they are married; if he just flaps his wings, they are to be an old maid.

“A child’s hands are never washed until he opens them himself, or the luck is washed away; the longer he keeps them closed the more money he will have. If his nails are pared before he is a year old, he will live to be a thief; and if they speak before they walk, they will be noted for telling untruths.

“It’s very unlucky to hear a cock crow in the afternoon, a sure omen of bad news.

“A child born at the hour of or between 12 and 1, is supposed to see all ghosts and goblins.

“The fairies in the Highlands are all supposed to be drowned in a place called the Ferry. They wanted to cross, and they asked an old woman if the water was deep; she replied in Gaelic, ‘Although it’s black, it is not deep.

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Players’ Superstitions. In the Folk-Lore Record, 1879, vol. ii. p.203. I quoted some passages illustrative of the superstitions of actors from The Theatre of September 1879, p. 106. To these let me add the following:—(1) From the Rialto January 4, 1890: “A black cat is the theatrical emblem of good-luck, and when a new piece is produced the proper thing to do to secure success is to entice a black cat to come on behind. At the Haymarket they apparently take fortune by the