Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review Volumes 32 and 33.djvu/141

Rh Friday is the "governing day" for Sunday in regard to weather.

"Love-apples," i.e. tomatoes, are not fit to eat, as they give cancer.

The last four items I had from my father; the one about tomatoes his mother believed in. However, their ill repute is now, I think, completely gone, and they are a very popular article of diet.

Hastings County.—It is bad luck to meet a funeral; to avoid this, stop and let the funeral meet you.

A woman after any illness (not merely after childbirth) should step up before she steps down. A ladder will serve the purpose.

Westport.—Plant crops in accordance with the phases of the moon. (I could get no details of this; cf. vol. xxiv. I. c.)

''Locality uncertain, probably near the Quebec border, possibly in the Province of Quebec. Marriage divination.''—A girl may find out whether she will marry or not as follows. She should take a piece of wedding cake and put it in an envelope together with seven slips of paper, having written on them five names and the words "stranger" and "old maid." This she should put under her pillow every night for seven nights, and every morning draw out one slip. The one drawn on the last morning will be her "fate." ("Fate" is the regular term in this connection.) To find out whether any particular man loves her or not, she may put a lump of sugar into a spoon and dip the spoon into a teacup till the sugar begins to melt. The answer is favourable or otherwise according as the lump falls towards or away from her. If she sits on a table, she will not marry for seven years (contrast vol. xxiv. p. 222).

Teeth.—When a child's tooth comes out, if he swallows the blood, a large tooth will grow in. If he never puts his tongue in the gap left by the tooth, a gold tooth will replace it; if he does so but once, a silver tooth will come.

Canadian, no particular province.—Besides the usual belief that a toad will give warts to anyone who handles it, it is generally held that the juice of milkweed will do so.

Belief in a potato carried in the pocket as a cure for rheumatism is reported from several places.