Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/249

 Collectanea. 227

1 2. Miscellaneous.

Hair from the head should be burned, not thrown away. Other- wise the rest of the hair will come out (C).

If, when you rise from a chair or go up or down stairs, your joints crack, you have not yet seen your best days. " Dream of fruit out of season, You'll be mad without a reason."

("Mad" generally means "angry," not "insane," in popular speech.)

" Wash and wipe together, Live at peace forever." ^-

If your nose itches, you will either kiss a fool or shake hands with a stranger. ^2

Froth in the tea or coffee cup is a sign of wealth, if it be collected in a spoon and drunk before it dissolves.

If a. person has "crowns" in his hair, their number indicates the number of reigns in which he will live.

Rat-charmers used formerly to go from house to house. Their method was simply to walk up and down saying, " Rats, rats, rats, go away" three times. The vermin were then supposed to go within three days.

Lizards were formerly, I gather, thought poisonous, perhaps are still occasionally. My informant describes amusingly the wild panic of a tea-party which found one in their kettle.

To cut a baby's nails will make it steal (C). ^^

When two people are walking together, if they meet a third and allow him to pass between them, they will quarrel. But this may be averted if one of the two says " Bread and butter " (C). (Apparently the estrangement may be avoided by the mention of two things constantly found together.)

On coming to the end of a sidewalk, make a wish afterwards, naming some poet (C). (Our country towns generally have extend- ing from them into the open country a half-mile or so of paved or board walk. This is referred to here.)

If a spider crawls over a woman's dress it signifies that she will soon have a new one (C). H. J. Rose.

^-Contrast vol. xxiii., p. 347 ; vol. xx., p. 346 {Worcestershire).

'•*Cf. vol. xxiii., p. 462.


 * ■* County Folk-Lore, vol. iv. {Northumberland), p. 58.