Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 9, 1898.djvu/108

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Mr. C. B. Lufifmann says, at p. 64 in A Vagabond in Spain, that scores of colossal effigies with highly-painted faces and wicker- work bodies are ranged along one side of the town-hall at Zara- goza. "These are the property of the city, and are used to delight and terrify the children at feast-time. They are dressed in the costume of all ages, and men get inside the wicker bodies and run up and down the streets after the children, carrying gifts in one hand and weapons of castigation in the other, so that the pursued child never knows whether he is going to get a handful of sweetmeats or a whipping."

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I. — "Greim Cubhaig" (i.e. Cuckoo's Morsel). One of the most popular superstitions of the past was, that if one heard the cuckoo for the first time, in its season, fasting, this was considered as a presage of ill-luck for the rest of that year. The most credulous took great pains to prevent such an event taking place, by taking a morsel of bread with them when they retired for the night, that they might partake of it in the early morning before the cuckoo began to sing. This morsel was called "Greim Cubhaig," i.e. cuckoo's morsel. I heard of a poor old woman in Kintyre (who is reported to have been dull of hear- ing) who had spent a large portion of the cuckoo's season at this exercise before she had the pleasure of hearing it. Such was her belief in this superstition, in common with many of her con- temporaries. Hence the origin of the common Gaelic proverb : "Chuala mi cubhag gun bhiadh am bhiuin 'Sdh' aithnich mi nach rachadh a' bhliadhna so leam." "I heard the cuckoo while fasting, And I knew the year would be unlucky for me."