Page:Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, Etc., with an Appendix Containing a Rare Tract.djvu/262

 done good service for the robin. Farmers and their servants are frequently told that if they kill a robin their cows will give blood instead of milk; and they are also said to cover dead bodies with leaves whenever they are suffered to lie out of doors unburied. Crows are said to bespatter persons with dung who have neglected to provide some new article of dress for Easter Sunday; and boys who are sent to scare them away from the crops imagine that they do it most effectually by screaming out—

The magpie augury assumes different forms in different counties. The following is prevalent in East Lancashire:—

CATS. hairs from cats are considered to be very detrimental to health; and these animals are not unfrequently sent away from a house, or destroyed, when any child, or young person, begins to show symptoms of bad health. When cats' hairs get into the stomach they are supposed to be almost indigestible; but that they admit of being dissolved by eating a portion of an egg-shell every morning fasting. This medicine is frequently prescribed. If a cat sleeps in a child's cradle, or on its bed, it is