Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/99

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1. The cuckoo she's a pretty bird, She sings as she flies; She brings us good tidings, And tells us no lies.

She sucks little birds' eggs, To make her voice clear; And when she cries cuckoo, The summer is near.

(Told him by an old man-servant, born in 1752).

2. Old Brigg is dead, that good old man, We shall see him no more; Then let us chime six, four, and nine. As we have done before.

(Told him by an old aunt, as words to the chime of a house clock. Tune, "York.")

3. The same aunt thought it unlucky to find a dead bird on the path leading to the house.

4. At Trinity College, Cambridge, it is considered unlucky to put the loving cup on the table; it must be passed from hand to hand. On Ascension Day, 1847, it was put on the table by a man who did not know, and that evening the college kitchen caught fire, and the college was in great danger.

5. Mince pies are eaten at Trinity, from Nov. 1 to Feb. 2, the end of Christmas.

6. Tansy pudding is eaten on Easter Monday and Tuesday.

There is a legend that Silbury is the burial place of a "King Sel" (just as Merlin is traditionally connected with