Page:Notes on the folk-lore of the northern counties of England and the borders.djvu/31

 CHAPTER I.

LIFE AND DEATH OF MAN.

HROUGHOUT the Borders, and in the six northern counties of England, peculiar rites and customs are bound up with every stage of human life. To begin at the beginning—the nursery has there a Folk-Lore of its own. And, first, the future character and fortunes of the infant may be divined from the day of the week on which it was born. For, as the old rhyme runs—

It is remarkable that these verses, which are still current in