Page:Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, Etc., with an Appendix Containing a Rare Tract.djvu/261

 of forming a comparative folk-lore from the abundant materials which are in course of being collected. Every one of the following instances is current in some portion of the county; not a few have been familiar to the writer from childhood; and the rest have been written down as they occurred, almost from the mouths of the narrators. So far as is known, the majority of these examples have never before found their way into any printed collection of the folk-wisdom of this or any other county. Under this limitation, the folk-lore of

BIRDS several curious superstitions. Popular opinion states that if we turn over any money which we may happen to have in our pockets, when we first hear the cuckoo in the spring, we shall thereby secure a prosperous year. Lovers are told that if they will take off their left shoe when the cuckoo is first heard, they will find a hair in it of the same colour as that of their respective future husbands or wives. Children greet them, on their first appearance, with

They are popularly said to indicate length of life according to the number of times they shout out their only notes. Hence, they are addressed in the following terms, and their answers are considered ominous by those who put the questions:—

The Story of the "Babes in the Wood" appears to have