Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/205

 Rh and covered up with turf-mould, or any other available dust. The beast killed may be of any species, fowl, duck, goose, or even a kid; very rarely more valuable animals have been slain. A story is current of a man who, having nothing else, killed his only cow in honour of the saint, who rewarded him by increasing his riches in the following year, so that when St. Martin's Day came round again, he was the possessor of many beasts. Then in his plenty, he grudged even a fowl, and by the following nth November was as poor as ever he was.

In killing the victim they take it in their hands and slay it, saying: "I kill this [hen] in honour of St. Martin." The animal or bird so killed is always eaten by the family.

In this same connection it may be noted that when a family take possession of a house for the first time, a feast is given, and a hen (or something) is killed, and the blood sprinkled about for luck.

It would be interesting to know whether this honouring of St. Martin is an ancient practice, or whether it is a late explanation of a Samhain custom—kept on old All Souls' Day.

Birth.

The first water in which a child is washed should be burnt, or any water used by the nurse.

A man is not allowed to take fire from a house where a woman is sick.

It is considered lucky for the woman to have something on belonging to the husband, as a necktie, &c.

Some women wear a cord, called St. Francis' Cord, round the waist, since no one would die in childbed who wore one.

A little bottle of holywater is hung up on the bed; the water is to be thrown over the room either by the husband or some woman whose last birth was a boy.