Page:Notes on the folk-lore of the northern counties of England and the borders.djvu/54

32 Church against all persons favouring or taking part in the Haberfield Treiben. What the effect of this severe measure may be we cannot guess.

Before returning to Durham and its boys I will just mention that near Preston, in Yorkshire, popular displeasure against a wife-beater is shown by scattering chaff or straw in front of his house amid groans and cries of indignation.

I remember well that we schoolboys used to spit our faith when required to make asseveration on any matters we deemed important; and many a time have I given or received a challenge according to the following formula: “I say, Bill, will you fight Jack?”—“Yes,” “Jack, will you fight Bill?”—“Yes.” “Best cock, spit over my little finger.” Jack and Bill both do so, and a pledge thus sealed is considered so sacred that no schoolboy would dare hang back from its fulfilment. Thus, fishwomen and hucksters generally spit upon the handsel, i.e. the first money they receive.

One schoolboy belief I remember attempting to verify, with a daring worthy of a better cause. It was a bold venture, and we laid our plans well and secretly, so that none but the actors knew anything about it. Providing ourselves with a black cat, from whose fur every white hair had been carefully abstracted, we assembled on a dark winter night in the cathedral churchyard, and grouped ourselves within a circle, marked on the grass. We were bent on raising the evil spirit, and meant instantly to present him with poor pussy as an offering. The senior of the party read the Lord’s Prayer backwards, and repeated some cabalistic verses; but the adjuration was not responded to, which perhaps was something of a relief to the actors. It may be that this divination has prevailed among boys; is it hence that they are sometimes called young dare-devils?

May I be allowed to close the Folk-lore of boyhood with a couplet, which certainly crops up from the farmhouse—

In the Folk-lore of Presbyterian Scotland we find, of course, no mention of confirmation. Throughout England a preference