Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/142

116 bind the Psalter. On the last page of the Psalter itself there is some German writing, in a hand of the fourteenth century and in the Swabian dialect, which has been translated by Dr. Priebsch Lecturer on the English Language in University College, Liverpool. The first seven lines run as follow: "He who is born on a Sunday will become strong and beautiful; he who is born on a Monday will become strong; he who is born on a Tuesday will become strong and eager for combat; he who is born on a Wednesday will become judge of the empire; he who is born on a Thursday will become an honest man; he who is born on a Friday will have a long life; he who is born on a Saturday will not live long." Then follow a number of auguries from dreams, concerning which Dr. Priebsch makes the suggestion that they are extracted from some old book of dreams. Most of them are identical with superstitions on the subject still current. Such an augury as "To dream of having long hair betokens strength" may perhaps be derived from the Biblical story of Samson. Another, "Prosperity will come to him who dreams of talking with the dead," seems to be derived from some sort of ghost-worship. The last one is "Great joy and a great name are signified by dreaming that one picks up a cabbage." May we all pick up cabbages in dreams! Dr. Priebsch has published facsimiles of the fragments of the Parcifal with some introductory remarks, including a transcription and translation of all these auguries, in the Bulletin of the Liverpool Museums, vol. i., Nos. 3 and 4.

I have often heard the following story in Ireland, when a child, from my nurses and others. I have heard it since, and set it down exactly as it was told. This is the only version I know of.

Once upon a time, and a very good time it was, a cat, a rat, and a little red hen lived together in a little house. The cat had a nice warm well-lined basket, the rat a nice snug hole, and the little red hen a comfortable perch.