Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/267

 Animal Superstitions and Totemism. 255

(\\a.) In Linda (Saxony) a crow shot on March ist and hung up in the cowhouse was believed to protect the animals against witchcraft. The glowworm taken on June 24th brings luck in Belgium.^

(|Q) Elsewhere a period is fixed for the killing of the animal instead of a single day. In the Tirol the young raven must be taken in March for use in medicine.^ The toad is killed in the Tirol in the weeks from July 15th to August 15th, and hung in the stable. In Lechrain it is first trans- fixed and then hung in the stable. ^ In Mecklenburg the weasel killed between August 15th and September 8th is specially powerful in magic.^ In Oldenburg the magpie shot in March protects against flies. ^ The March hare is specially powerful in magic.^ In other cases the animal has to be killed before a certain date. At Herda a crow or magpie shot before March is nailed in the stable.'^ In Hungary snakes and marmots should be caught before St. George's Day (April 23rd) for use in magic.^

(7) Elsewhere the custom takes the form of killing the animal at all seasons. It is important to notice that this custom exists in the Isle of Man side by side with the annual hunt.^ In Brandenburg and France the toad is transfixed and stuck on the dunghill.^" In Wicklow and Tipperary the weasel is hunted down.^^ In N.E. Scotland

' Dahnhardt, Volkstiimliches ans den K. Sacksen, i., 79 ; Rolland, iii., 343. So too the ladybird (June 25th). Rolland, iii., 368. The hare (March ist). Juhling, pp. 55, 56, 58.

2 Heyl, p. 152.

^ Wuttke, p. 95 ; Leoprechting, p. 83.

■• Schiller, ii., 10.

« Juhling, p. 57.
 * Strackerjan, p. 67.

7 Witzschel, ii., 196.

lizard, butterfly, bat, frog, hare, deer, hedgehog, toad, mole, magpie, weasel, wolf. Jones and Kropf, loc. cit. ; Juhling, passim.
 * Jones and Kropf, Folktales of the Magyars, xlix., 1. Similarly the

^ Denham Tracts, i., 203.

"• Z. des V.fiir V., i., 182; Rolland, iii., 49.

" F., iv., 361.