Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/45

Rh On seeing the new moon it is right to cross yourself and say:

Here, as elsewhere, it is a good thing, and a sign you will not want, to have something in the hand when you see the new moon.

If two or more marriages take place at the same time, each couple will try to be first for luck. A bride must wear something borrowed for luck. The young wife used to go round the township collecting wool, which was freely given by her neighbours.

It is not right to return the leavings of the meal to the chest after baking.

It is not right for a woman to fan a fire with the skirt of her dress, for when the nails were being prepared for Our Lord's Crucifixion, the smith's daughter roused the fire of the smithy in that way.

When the ashes rise and whirl in little eddies, it is a sign of a storm.

When you have singing in the ears, you should pray for the dead; it is a sign that someone is dying at the time.

Others say:

To prevent ill consequences from the prick of a needle it should be thrust three times into the earth.

The sort of story which, in Æsop's Fables, is attributed to the fox, is in the Outer Hebrides, where foxes are unknown, related of the cat.

Two old cats went down to the shore one day, and found a large lump of butter. After much quarrelling as to ownership, it was agreed that the oldest should have it.