Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/397

Rh You should turn the money in your pocket when you see the new moon, and it is good luck if you also have a knife in your pocket.

At the first new moon in the New Year, you should hold up a new silk handkerchief by the two corners, and, as many moons as you see through the handkerchief, so many years will pass before you are married.

For divination of your future lover, say,—"New moon, new moon, in the bright firmament, if is my true love to be, let, the next time I see him, his face be turned towards me."

If you find a leaf of the common ash with the terminating leaflets even, it will bring "luck or a lover."

It is most unlucky to transplant parsley.

Never kick fungi with your foot, or you will have bad luck for seven years.

It is unlucky to bring the following into the house:—snow-drops before the first chickens are hatched; broom in blossom in the month of May ; hawthorn before May; and mistletoe before Christmas.

All children who either gather or eat blackberries on or after the 11th of October will fall into great trouble. It is said that "the Devil puts his paw on them" on that day.

It is unlucky to keep Christmas holly about the house after Candlemas Day, as the Evil One will then come himself and pull it down.

If a sprig of Christmas holly is thrown on the fire and burns with a crackling noise, it is a sign of good luck; but, if it burns with a dull flame and does not crackle, it is a sign of a death in the family within the year.

It is unlucky to burn elder wood. An old inhabitant of Hartlebury will not allow a piece to be put on the fire.

At Hartlebury it is believed that, if a gooseberry or currant bush dies or shrivels up when covered with fruit, there will be a death in the family of the owner before the year is out (1891).