Page:Notes on the folk-lore of the northern counties of England and the borders.djvu/65

Rh some distance. If the coffin is carried by bearers he must take a lift. This done, if he bows to the company, he may turn and go on his way without fear. Perhaps this belief was once more widely spread. I have been told of an old Sussex gentleman who would, at any inconvenience, avoid meeting a funeral. He has often been known, whether on foot or on horseback, to turn round and go straight home rather than pass one. As to following the funeral, I may be allowed to mention how rigidly it is enjoined in the Talmud. An Israelite is there commanded to follow every dead body that is carried out for burial among his people, the least allowable distance prescribed being four yards.

Again, if at a funeral the sun shines brightly on the face of one among the attendants, it marks him for the next to be laid in that churchyard; or if the sound of the “mools” falling on the coffin be heard by any person at a considerable distance from the spot it presages a death in that person’s family.

A crowing hen is looked upon with fear and suspicion far and wide, I suppose as an intruder into the province of her mate. Old Francis Quarles makes her the type of wives who bear rule over their husbands:—

According to the Northamptonshire proverb,

In Normandy they say, “Une poule qui chante le coq et une fille qui siffle, portent malheur dans la maison;” and in Cornwall, “A whistling woman and a crowing hen are the two unluckiest things under the sun.”

The former delinquent is much dreaded on the coast of Yorkshire by the seafaring part of the population. A few years ago,