Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 4, 1893.djvu/327

Rh whom I am indebted for the information had just been married, and, when proceeding along with her husband to her new home, met a man with a horse and cart in a narrow part of the road. The man apologised for not turning his horse and cart at once, and accompanying the party a short distance, as was the custom, because the narrowness of the road prevented his so doing, but the moment he came to a suitable spot he turned and followed them part of the way home. That the minister should be a lucky first-foot is perhaps to be expected in Scotland, but certainly the priest is by no means universally regarded in this light. Among the Greek Women of Turkey, p. 151, Miss Garnett mentions that it is considered most unlucky to meet a priest. She couples him with a funeral and a hare! And Mr. Rodd fully confirms this on p. 157 of his Custom and Lore of Modern Greece. The instances communicated to me illustrative of the contrary view held in Aberdeenshire regarding the minister, both occurred in the parish of Old Machar to the present incumbent. On one occasion, he tells me, he happened to be the first-foot when a farmer was flitting to a new farm, and he had to turn and go part of the way with the ménage. On another occasion he was compelled by the salmon-fishers at the Bridge of Don to accompany them in their boat when they made their next shot, for precisely the same reason. Against that we must set the superstition current among fishermen, on the Kincardine coast at any rate, that it is unlucky to name the minister at sea. He is then spoken of as "The lad wi' the black coat." The catalogue of lucky persons or objects is small compared with the list of unlucky ones. The business with which I am connected employs a large number of women as power-loom weavers. The majority of them are young, but there are one or two old women who have been in the service of the firm, for a long time. I am told that one of these is considered most unlucky and some of the other weavers, if they meet her going