Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 1 1883.djvu/362

 MAGYAR FOLK-LORE AND SOME PARALLELS.

ITCHES often assume the form of horses; and, if they are caught and shoed, they will be found the next day in great agony with the shoes on their hands and feet.

(A servant we had from the neighbourhood of Kirton Lindsey, North Line, told me when her mother was confined a man in the village "witched her," so that she could not move in bed, nor could the bed be moved until the man came and "unwitched her," and that one night as her father and brother were out they saw a cat in front of them which the father knew to be the witch. Whereupon he siezed it and "hammered it with a stone." Next day the wizard was found with his face all tied up, and shortly afterwards died; this the girl assured me had happened quite recently!—W. H. J.)

Friday is a most unlucky day, so is the 13th of the month.

If a dead body be carried across a field, that field will become sterile.

If a man come into a house where a baby is asleep and will not sit down, he will spoil the baby's sleep.

If you kill a swallow, the cow's milk will turn to blood.

It is unlucky to look into a looking-glass after the candles are lighted.

(When a boy, one of my aunts who lived in Newcastle-on-Tyne used to tell me of a certain girl that she knew who was very vain and fond of standing before the looking-glass admiring herself. One night as she stood gazing, lo I all her ringlets were covered with dripping sulphur, and the devil appeared peeping over her shoulder; strange stenches and noises filled the room as the horror-stricken girl ran screaming into the street. I well remember the indescribable thrill that ran through me whenever I passed the window of that-"chamber of horrors" after dark.—W. H. J.)

The stork is held in great reverence, and must not be hurt; large