Page:Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Pageants, Sports, Etc., with an Appendix Containing a Rare Tract.djvu/271

 Many persons will not part with money that has moulded. The pieces are not only considered to be lucky, but have the property of attracting others to them. Young persons may occasionally be detected in the act of stirring a cup of tea, or other liquid, so as to cause it to rotate rapidly, and produce a circle of foam in the centre. The quantity of foam indicates the amount of money which will ultimately be bequeathed to the persons who thus try their fortunes.

OMENS drawn from a variety of circumstances. Some of them are trivial enough; whilst others are both curious and interesting. Occasionally they contain words which have passed from our lexicons; but on examination they will be found to have been derived from the speech of our ancestors a thousand years ago. Thus, when a corpse is soft and pliant, it is said to be lennock; and is a sure sign that there will soon be another death in that family. The same misfortune is predicted when horses are restive at a funeral. If a dove fly into a house where any one is dead, or on the point of dying, the person at whose feet the bird falls will die next. Deaths, or accidents, always happen in threes; the coroner will have to hold three inquests in the town, or village, where one is rendered necessary. When the relatives of a person in ill health are troubled with "broken dreams," out of which they start in terror, it is considered that they are a sure indication that the patient will die. The same event is frequently predicted when bees forsake a hive, or crickets the hearth. Most of our peasantry retain a firm belief in the appearance of ghosts and apparitions. They