This charm is thus continued until it comes to the last, which is,—

In prose and verse slightly varied, common in all parts of the county,—

This is to be worn in a bag around the neck. Mr. T. Q. Couch gives this charm in prose. It begins thus: “Peter sat at the gate of the Temple, and Christ said unto him, What aileth thee?” etc. Another remedy against toothache is, always in the morning to begin dressing by putting the stocking on the left foot.—Through Rev. S. Rundle.

A knuckle-bone is often carried in the pocket as a cure and preventive of cramp. I once saw an old woman turn out her pocket; amongst its contents, as well as the knuckle-bone, was the tip of an ox-tongue kept for good luck.

Slippers on going to bed are, when taken off, for the same complaint often placed under the bed with the soles upwards, or on their heels against the post of the bed with their toes up. The following is from Mr. T. Q. Couch: “The cramp is keenless, Mary was sinless when she bore Jesus: let the cramp go away in the name of Jesus.” All the charms published by the above-named author in his History of Polperro were taken from a manuscript book, which belonged to a white witch.

When a foot has “gone to sleep” I have often seen people wet their forefingers in their mouths, stoop and draw the form of a cross on it. This is said to be an infallible remedy. Mr. Robert Hunt has a rather similar cure for hiccough: “Wet the forefinger of the right hand with spittle, and cross the front of the left shoe (or boot) three times, repeating the Lord’s Prayer backwards.” The most popular cure with children is a heaping spoonful of moist sugar. A sovereign remedy for hiccough and almost every complaint is a small piece of a stale Good Friday bun grated into a glass of cold water. This bun is hung up in the kitchen from one year to the other. Bread baked on this day never gets mouldy.

When our Saviour saw the cross, whereon he was to be crucified, his body did shake. The Jews said, “Hast thou an ague?” Our Saviour said, “He that keepeth this in mind, thought, or writing, shall neither be troubled with ague or fever.”

Mr. Robert Hunt gives in his book on Old Cornwall a Latin charm for the staunching of blood. I find, however, on making inquiries that it is not the one generally used, which is as follows:

There are other versions all much alike. A prose one runs thus: “Baptised in the river Jordan when the water was wild, the water was good, the water stood, so shall thy blood. In the name,” etc.—T. Q. C.

The Rev. S. Rundle says a charmer once told him the charm for staunching blood consisted in saying a verse from the Psalms; but she could not read, and he was inclined to believe the form was, “Jesus came to the river Jordan, and said, ‘Stand,’ and it stood; and so I bid thee, blood, stand. In the name,” etc. For bleeding at the nose, a door-key is often placed against the back. Cuts are plugged with cobwebs, flue from a man’s hat, tobacco leaves, and occasionally filled with salt.

Club-moss is considered good for eye diseases. On the third day of the moon, when the thin crescent is seen for the first time, show it the knife with which the moss for the charm is to be cut, and repeat,

Mr. Robert Hunt says,

“At sun-down, having carefully washed the hands, the club-moss is to be cut kneeling. It is to be carefully wrapped in a white cloth, and subsequently boiled in water taken from the spring nearest its place of growth. This may be used as a fomentation. Or the club-moss made into an ointment with butter made from the milk of a new cow.”

A “stye” on the eye is often stroked nine times with a cat’s tail; with a wedding ring taken from a dead woman’s, or a silver one from a drowned man’s, hand. The belief in the efficacy of a dead hand in curing diseases in Cornwall is marvellous. I, in a short paper read at an Antiquarian meeting, gave this instance, related to me by a medical man about ten years ago (now dead). A day or two after, a number of other cases in proof of my statement appeared, to my surprise, in our local papers, which, as well as my own, I will transcribe. “Once I attended a poor woman’s child for an obstinate case of sore eyes. One day when leaving the house the mother said to me, ‘Is there nothing more, doctor, I can do for my little girl?’ I jokingly answered, ‘Nothing, unless you care to stroke them with a dead man’s hand.’ About a week after I met the woman in the streets, who stopped me, and said, ‘My child’s eyes are getting better at last, doctor.’ I expressed myself pleased that the ointment I had given her was doing good. To my astonishment, she replied, ‘Oh, it is not that, we never used it; we took your advice about the dead man’s hand.’ Until she recalled it to my memory, I had quite forgotten my foolish speech.” “I am one of those who can bear testimony to the fact of a cure having been effected by the means above-named. I was born with a disfigurement on my upper lip. My mother felt a great anxiety about this, so my nurse proposed that a dead man’s hand should be passed seven times over my lip. I was taken to the house of one Robin Gendall, Causewayhead, Penzance, who at that time was lying dead, and his hand was passed over my lip in the manner named. By slow degrees my friends had the satisfaction of seeing that the charm had taken effect.”—Octogenarian.

“I may add my testimony to Miss Courtney’s remarks as to the belief in Cornwall in the virtue of the touch of a diseased part by a dead man’s hand. A case came under my knowledge at Penzance of a child who had from birth a peculiar tuberous formation at the junction of the nose with the forehead, which the medical men would not cut for fear of severing veins. The child was taken by her mother to a friend’s house, in which were lying the remains of a young man who had just died from consumption. The deceased’s hand was passed over the malformation seven times, and it soon began to grow smaller and smaller.” “I have myself seen the child since Miss Courtney read her paper (November, 1881), and, though the mark is still apparent, I am assured it is surely, if slowly, disappearing. A relation of mine also tells me that, like Miss Courtney, she was taken to the Penzance witch for the purpose of having a ‘stye’ removed from one of her eyes by charming.”—Tramp.

I was told of many other cases—one by another surgeon; but it would be useless to repeat them. I will end with one I have taken from Notes and Queries, December, 1859:—

“A lady, who was staying lately at Penzance, attended a funeral, and noticed that whilst the clergyman was reading the burial service a woman forced her way through the pall-bearers to the edge of the grave. When he came to the passage, ‘Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust,’ she dropped a white cloth upon the coffin, closed her eyes, and apparently said a prayer. On making inquiries as to the cause of this proceeding, this lady found that a superstition exists amongst the peasantry in that part, that if a person with a sore be taken secretly to a corpse, the dead hand passed over the sore place, and the bandage afterwards be dropped upon the coffin during the reading of the burial service, a perfect cure will be the result. This woman had a child with a bad leg, and she had followed this superstition with a firm belief in its efficacy. The peasants, also, to the present day wear charms, believing they will protect them from sickness and other evils. The wife of the clergyman of the parish was very charitable in attending the sick and dispensing medicines, and one day a woman brought her a child having sore eyes to have them charmed, having more faith in that remedy than in medicines. She was greatly surprised to find that medicines only were given to her.”—E. R.

There is no virtue in the dead hand of a near relation. A curious old troth plight was formerly practised in Cornwall: The couple broke a wedding ring taken from the finger of a corpse, and each kept one half. The editor of a local paper (Cornishman) once obtained a piece of rope, with which a man was hanged, for a poor woman who had walked fourteen miles to Bodmin in the hopes of getting it, that she might effect the cure of her sore eyes.

The Rev. S. Rundle writes that “a Cornish surgeon recommended a charmer as being more efficacious than himself in curing shingles. According to the same authority, a liquid composed of bramble and butter-dock leaves is poured on the place, whilst a light stick is waved over the decoction by the charmer, who repeats an incantation.” It is popularly supposed in Cornwall that should shingles meet around your waist, you would die. The cures and charms against epilepsy are also very numerous, and very generally used here. Thirty pence are collected at the church door by the person afflicted, from one of the opposite sex, changed for sacrament money (silver), and made into a ring to be worn day and night. Very lately, at St. Just-in-Penwith, a young woman begged from young men pennies to buy a silver ring, a remedy which she believed would cure her fits. Another charm, which it requires a person of strong nerves to perform, is to walk thrice round a church at midnight, then enter and stand before the altar. In connection with this rite the Rev. S. Rundle relates the following:—“At Crowan (a village in West Cornwall), an epileptic subject entered the church at midnight. As he was groping his way through the pitchy dark, his heart suddenly leaped, and almost stood still. He uttered shriek upon shriek, for his hand had grasped a man’s head. He thought it was the head of the famous Sir John St. Aubyn. He was removed in a fainting state, and it was then discovered that he had seized the head of the sexton, who had come in to see that nothing was done to frighten the man. The unfortunate fellow never recovered from the shock, but died in a lunatic asylum.” “A middle-aged Camborne man was subject to violent fits until two years ago, when some one told him to kill a toad, put one of its legs in a bag, and wear it suspended by a string around his neck. He did so, and has never had a fit since.”—Cornishman, December, 1881.

“In Cornwall a black cock is buried on the spot where the person is first attacked by epilepsy” (to avert a similar attack).—Comparative Folk-Lore, Cornhill, 1876.

For other charms see Addenda, A Bundle of Charms, by the Rev. A. H. Malan, M.A.

Toads are also worn as charms for other diseases in this county:—“On the 27th July, 1875, I was lodging with a very intelligent grazier and horse-dealer, at Tintagel, Cornwall, when he was knocked down by a very serious attack of quinsey, to which he had been subject for many years. He pulled through the crisis; and on being sufficiently recovered he betook himself to a ‘wise woman’ at Camelford. She prescribed for him as follows:—‘Get a live toad, fasten a string around its throat, and hang it up till the body drops from the head; then tie the string around your own neck, and never take it off, night or day, till your fiftieth birthday. You’ll never have quinsey again.’ When I left Tintagel, I understood that my landlord, greatly relieved in mind, had already commenced the operation.”—Augustus Jessop, D.D.

When a kettle won’t boil, instead of the old adage, “A watched pot never boils,” Cornish people say, “There is a toad or a frog in it.” It is here considered lucky for a toad to come into the house.

This charm for yellow jaundice I culled from the Western Antiquary. “I was walking in a village churchyard near the town of St. Austell (I think in the autumn of 1839), when I saw a woman approach an open grave. She stood by the side of it and appeared to be muttering some words. She then drew out from under her cloak a good-size baked meal-cake, threw it into the grave and then left the place. Upon inquiry I found the cake was composed of oatmeal mixed with dog’s urine, baked, and thrown into the grave as a charm for the yellow jaundice. This cure was at that time commonly believed in by the peasantry of the neighbourhood.”—Joseph Cartwright, March, 1883.

Snakes avoid and dread ash-trees; a branch will keep them away. Our peasantry believe however much you may try to kill quickly an adder or snake, it will never die before sunset. Mr. Robert Hunt says, “When an adder is seen, a circle is to be rapidly drawn around it and the sign of the cross made within it, whilst the first two verses of the 68th Psalm are repeated.” This is to destroy it; there are also charms to be said for curing their bites, when they are apostrophised “under the ashen leaf.” The following old charm is to make them destroy themselves, by twisting themselves up to nothing:—

The words of charms must be muttered (they lose their efficacy if recited aloud), and the charmer must never communicate them to one of the same sex, for that transfers the power of charming to the other person. Of superstitious rites practised for the cure of whooping-cough, etc., I will speak a little further on. Cornishmen in the last century from their cradles to their graves might have been guided in their actions by old women’s “widdles” (superstitions), some as already shown are still foolishly followed; but I hope that few people are silly enough at the present day to leave their babies’ heads a twelvemonth unwashed, under the mistaken notion that it would be unlucky to do it.

I have often and very recently seen the creases in the palms of children’s hands filled with dirt; to clean them before they were a year old would take away riches—they would live and die poor. Their nails, too, for the same period should be bitten, not cut, for that would make them thieves. Hair at no age must be cut at the waning of the moon, that would prevent its growing luxuriantly; locks shorn off must be always burnt, it is unlucky to throw them away; then birds might use them in their nests and weave them in so firmly that there would be a difficulty in your rising at the last day. Children’s first teeth are burnt to prevent dog’s or “snaggles” irregular teeth coming in their stead. Coral necklaces are worn to ensure easy teething; the beads are said to change their colour when the wearer is ill. “All locks are unlocked to favour easy birth (or death).”—A. H. Bickford, M.D., Camborne, 1883. Cornishmen in the West are said to be born with tails; they drop off when the Tamar is crossed.

“A popular notion amongst old folks is, that when a boy is born on the waning moon the next birth will be a girl, and vice versÂ. They also say that when a birth takes place on the growing of the moon, the next child will be of the same sex.” A child born in the interval between the old and new moons is fated to die young, and babies with blue veins across their noses do not live to see twenty-one. A cake called a groaning cake is made in some houses in Cornwall after the birth of a child, of which every caller is expected to partake. The mother often carries “a groaning cake” when she is going to be “upraised” (churched); this she gives to the first person she meets on her way.

“Kimbly” is the name of an offering, generally a piece of bread or cake, still given in some rural districts of this county to the first person met when going to a wedding or a christening. It is sometimes presented to anyone who brings the news of a a birth to an interested party. Two young men, I knew about thirty years ago, were taking a walk in West Cornwall; crossing over a bridge they met a procession carrying a baby to the parish church, where the child was to be baptised. Unaware of this curious custom, they were very much surprised at having a piece of cake put into their hands. A magistrate wrote to the Western Morning News, in January, 1884, saying, that on his way to his petty sessions he had had one of these christening cakes thrust into his hand, but unluckily he did not state in what parish this happened. This called forth several letters on the subject, parts of which I will quote.

“About thirty years ago at the christening of a brother (in the Meneage district, Helston), and when the family party were ready for the walk to the afternoon service in Cury church, I well recollect seeing the old nurse wrap in a pure white sheet of paper what she called the ‘cheeld’s fuggan.’4 This was a cake with plenty of currants and saffron, about the size of a modern tea-plate. It was to be given to the first person met on returning, after the child was christened. It happened that, as most of the parishioners were at the service, no one was met until near home, almost a mile from the church, when a tipsy village carpenter rambled around a corner, right against our party, and received the cake. Regrets were expressed that the ‘cheeld’s fuggan’ should have fallen to the lot of this notoriously evil liver, and my idea was that it was a bad omen. However as my brother has always been a veritable Rechabite, enjoys good health, a contented mind, and enough of this world’s goods to satisfy every moderate want, no evil can thus far be traced to the mischance.”—J. C., Western Morning News.

“ ‘Kimbly’ in East Cornwall is the name of a thing, commonly a piece of bread, which is given under peculiar circumstances at weddings and christenings. When the parties set out from the house to go to church, or on their business, one person is sent before them with this selected piece of bread in his or her hand (a woman is commonly preferred for this office), and the piece is given to the first individual that is met. I interpret it to have some reference to the idea of the evil eye and its influence, which might fall on the married persons or on the child, which is sought to be averted by this unexpected gift. It is also observed in births, in order that by this gift envy may be turned away from the infant or happy parents. This ‘kimbly’ is commonly given to the person bringing the first news to those interested in the birth.”—T. Q. Couch, Western Morning News.

“I witnessed this custom very frequently at Looe, in South-east Cornwall, from fifty to sixty-five years ago. I believe it is correct to say that this gift was there a small cake, made for the occasion, and termed the ‘christening-crib,’ a crib of bread or cake being a provincialism for a bit of bread,” etc.—William Pengelly, Western Morning News.

Children, when they leave small bits of meat, etc., on their plates, are in Cornwall often told “to eat up their cribs.”

“On the afternoons of Good Friday, little girls of Carharrack, in the parish of Gwennap (West Cornwall), take their dolls to a stream at the foot of Carnmarth, and there christen them. Occasionally a young man will take upon himself the office of minister, and will sprinkle and name the dolls.”—Charles James, Gwennap.

The Rev. S. Rundle, Vicar of Godolphin, says, “That once he was sent for to baptise a child, around whose neck hung a little bag, which the mother said contained a bit of a donkey’s ear, and that this charm had cured the child of a most distressing cough.”

“In some parts of Cornwall it is considered a sure sign of being sweethearts if a young man and woman ‘stand witness together,’ i.e. become godfather and godmother of the same child.”—T. C. But not in all, for I remember once hearing in Penzance a couple refuse to do so, saying that it was unlucky. “First at the font, never at the altar.” When I was young, old nurses often breathed in babies’ mouths to cure the thrush, thrice repeating the second verse of the Eighth Psalm, “Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings,” etc. “May children and ‘chets’ (kittens) never thrive,” and it is unlucky to “tuck” (short coat) children in that month.

It is of course considered an unfortunate month for marriages. Neither should babies “be tucked” on a week day, but on a Sunday, which day should also be chosen for leaving off any article of clothing; as then you will have the prayers of every congregation for you, and are sure not to catch cold. A friend lately sent me the following charm of one year’s duration which prevents your feeling or taking a cold. “Eat a large apple at Hallow-een under an apple-tree just before midnight; no other garment than a bed-sheet should be worn. A kill or cure remedy.”

An empty cradle should never be rocked unless you wish to have a large family, for—

Rev. S. Rundle says, “It is unlucky to rock an empty cradle, as the child will die.”—Cornubiana.

The jingles which follow are often repeated by Cornish nurse-maids with appropriate actions to amuse their little charges. First, touching each part of the face as mentioned with the forefinger,

Second—

Here the two little feet are struck lightly one against the other.

Several letters have lately appeared in the Western Morning News, giving different versions of the old rhymes—

Although attributed by the correspondents to Cornwall, I have always understood that they were known all over England.

Children with rickets were taken by their parents on the three first Sundays in May to be dipped at sunrise in one of the numerous Cornish holy wells, and then put to sleep in the sun, with sixpence under their heads. Small pieces torn from their clothes were left on the bushes to propitiate the pixies. For the same disease they were passed nine times through a MÊn-an-tol (holed stone). A man stood on one side, and a woman on the other, of the stone. The child was passed with the sun from east to west, and from right to left; a boy from the woman to the man, a girl from the man to the woman. This order is always, in these charms, strictly observed. As lately as 1883, in the village of Sancred, West Cornwall, a little girl, suffering from whooping-cough, was passed from a man to a woman nine times under a donkey’s belly; a little boy standing the while at the donkey’s head feeding it with “cribs” of wheaten bread. My informant did not know if on this occasion any incantation was repeated. Another family, he tells me, some years back were in the same neighbourhood cured of the whooping-cough by donkey’s hair, which was dried on the baking iron of the open hearth, reduced to powder, and administered to them. There are very various ways of doing this, one is between thin slices of bread and butter. Some authorities say the latter ingredients must belong to a couple called John and Joan. Mr. Robert Hunt gives a charm which in a measure combines the two above-mentioned. “The child must be passed naked nine times over the back and under the belly of a female donkey. Three spoonfuls of milk drawn from the teats of the animal, three hairs cut from its back, and three from its belly, are to stand in the milk three hours, and to be given in three doses repeated on three mornings.” Mr. Hunt also says, “There were some doggerel lines connected with the ceremony which have escaped my memory, and I have endeavoured in vain to find anyone remembering them. They were to the effect that as Christ placed the cross on the ass’s back when he rode into Jerusalem and so rendered the animal holy, if the child touched where Jesus sat it should cough no more.” I will quote another of Mr. Hunt’s charms. “Gather nine spar-stones (quartz) from a running stream, taking care not to interrupt the free passage of the water in doing so. Then dip a quart of water from the stream, which must be taken in the direction in which the stream runs—by no means must the vessel be dipped against the stream. Then make the nine stones red-hot, and throw them into the quart of water. Bottle the prepared water, and give the afflicted child a wine-glass of this water for nine mornings.” Other remedies are to cross the child over running water nine times, or under a bramble bough bent into the ground (this latter and through a cleft ash are also tried for hernia). Some nurses take children, with whooping-cough, out for a walk, in hopes of meeting a man on a white or piebald horse. Should they be fortunate enough to do so, they ask the rider how they can cure the patient: his advice is always implicitly followed.

Children with dirty habits are often told that a “mousey pasty” shall be cooked for their dinners.

Cornish children are warned by their nurses not to grimace, lest, whilst so doing, the wind should change and their faces always remain contorted. There is another form in which this warning is often given: “Don’t make mock of a ‘magum’ (May-game), for you may be struck comical yourself one day.” “Magum” in most cases means a facetious person, one who is full of merry pranks; and the expressions, “He’s a reg’lar magum,” or “He’s full of his magums,” are often heard. But the idea intended to be conveyed in the first saying is that it is wrong to make fun of a person suffering from an infirmity, which may at any time afflict the jeerer. The puritanical notion of Sunday lingers in the belief in Cornwall that it is unlucky to use a scissors on that day, even to cut your nails; you must

Children here are pleased to see “gifts” (white spots) on their thumb-nails, as

Occasionally white spots on the five fingers are named as follows: “A gift, a friend, a foe, a true lover, a journey to go.” Should the little ones, when picking flowers, sting themselves with nettles, they are of course in this locality, as elsewhere in England, taught to rub the spot with dock-leaves, repeating the words, “In dock, out nettle;” but they are often told in addition to wet the place affected with their spittle, and make a cross over it with their thumb-nails, pressed down as heavily as possible. School-boys and school-girls often years ago practised a cruel jest on their more innocent companions. They induced them to pick a nettle by saying “Nettles won’t sting this month.” When the children were stung and complained, the retort was, “I never said they would not sting you.” The blue scabious in Cornwall is never plucked. It is called the devil’s bit, and the superstition is handed down from one generation of children to another that, should they transgress and do so, the devil will appear to them in their dreams at night. But anyone who wishes to dream of the devil should pin four ivy-leaves to the corners of his pillow. Flowers plucked from churchyards bring ill-luck, and even visitations from spirits on the plucker. Wrens and robins are sacred in the eyes of Cornish boys, for

A groom who had, when a lad, shot a robin and held it in one of his hands told me that it shook ever after. But they always chase and try to kill the first butterfly of the season; and, should they succeed, they will overcome their enemies—I suppose, in football, etc.

“To hear the first cuckoo of spring on the right ear is lucky, on the left unlucky; as many times as it repeats its notes will the number of years be before the hearer is married. The cuckoo song—

is known all over the county, with additions and slight variations, such as—

—South-east Cornwall, W. Pengelly.

“A bat in Cornwall is called an ‘airy-mouse;’ village boys address it as it flits over their heads in the following rhymes—

—Polperro, T. Q. Couch.

Sometimes in West Cornwall they say—

Earwigs they hold in detestation, as they believe that, should they get into their ears, they will cause madness. There is a legend popular amongst them which relates that a poor man was once driven frantic by a very queer sensation in his head. At last, not being able to bear it any longer, he went into a meat-market, laid it down upon a block, and asked a butcher to chop it off. Whilst in this recumbent position an earwig crept out of his ear, and the pain instantly ceased. Our school-boys have other fallacies, such as, the pain caused by a “custice,” i.e. a stroke across the palm of the hand with a cane, may be neutralised by placing two hairs on it crossways. Also that the wound made by a nail can be kept from festering by wrapping the nail in a piece of fat bacon to prevent its rusting.

School-girls’ superstitions are more sentimental, and often connected with wishing. If, when talking together, one accidentally makes a rhyme, she wishes; and, should she be asked a question before she speaks again, to which she can answer Yes, she thinks that she is sure to get it. When an eyelash falls out its owner puts it on the tip of her nose, wishes and blows at it; should she blow it off, she will have her wish. Should she by chance hear a dog dreaming, she stands up, puts a foot on each side of it, and then wishes. Years ago one gravely told me that if I wanted to know a dog’s dreams I must throw a pocket-handkerchief over it when sleeping and keep it there until it awoke; then, before getting into bed, put it under my pillow, and I should have the same dream. Dreams in Cornwall are always said to go by contraries. “If you dream of the dead you will hear tell of the living,” etc. To dream anyone is kissing you is a sign of deceit. “Of fruit out of season, trouble without reason.”

To see if a friend loves her, a Cornish girl pulls out a hair from her friend’s head, and then tries to suspend it by the root from the palm of her own hand. If this can be done the test is successful. When a little older there are many ways in which our maidens “try for their sweethearts.” A few of the rules prescribed for these rites, which have been handed down from generation to generation, may be worth transcribing. “Draw a bracken fern, cut it at the bottom of the stalk; there you will find your lover’s initials.” Take an apple-pip between the forefinger and the thumb, flip it into the air, saying, “North, south, east, west, tell me where my love doth rest,” and watch the direction in which it falls. Go into the fields at the time of the new moon and pluck a piece of herb yarrow; put it when going to bed under your pillow, saying—

If you are to be married your sweetheart will appear to you in your dreams.

“Look out of your bed-room window on St. Valentine’s morn, note the first man you see, and you will marry the same, or one of the name.”

To lose your apron or your garter shows that your lover is thinking of you. Three candles burning at the same time is the sign of a wedding; and the girl who is nearest to the door, the cupboard, and the shortest candle, will be married first. When two people accidentally say the same thing at the same time the one who finishes first will be married first. There are a great number of omens similar to these last, equally stupid, and not worthy of notice.

“Friday is a cross day for marriage,” and “If you marry in Lent you’ll live to repent.” Should you in marrying

but it is lucky if your initials form a word.

“The young men of a place, when they know that a person is paying attention to a girl or woman, seize hold of him, place him in a wheelbarrow, in which they wheel him up and down until they are tired, when they upset him on the nearest pile or in a pond. This is called riding in the ‘one-wheel coach;’ and to say that a man has ridden in the ‘one-wheel coach’ is tantamount to the expression that he has ‘gone-a-courting.’ ”—Rev. S. Rundle, Transactions Penzance Natural History Society, etc., 1885–1886.

When a younger sister marries first the elder is said to dance in the “bruss” (short twigs of heath or furze), from an old custom of dancing without shoes on the furze prickles which get detached from the stalk. Only old maids can rear a myrtle, and they will not blossom when trained against houses where there are none. It is considered extremely unlucky here to break or lose your wedding-ring, also for a wedding-cake to crack after baking. A lady told me of one made for a couple she knew, which fell to pieces when taken out of the oven. Before the wedding-day came the bride had sickened of some disorder, was dead, and buried. A hole in a loaf, too, foretells a separation in a family; and to turn one upside down on a table wrecks a vessel. “If a hare cross the path of a wedding party, the bride or bridegroom will die within seven years.”—Rev. S. Rundle, Cornubiana.

“A young woman who has been three times a bridesmaid will never be a bride.” “It was an old custom, religiously observed until lately in Zennor and adjacent parishes on the north coast of Cornwall, to waylay a married couple on their wedding night and flog them to bed with cords, sheep-spans, or anything handy for the purpose, believing that this rough treatment would ensure them happiness and the ‘heritage and gift that cometh of the Lord,’ of a numerous family. At more modish weddings the guests merely entered the bridal chamber, and threw stockings in which stones or something to make weight were placed, at the bride and bridegroom in bed. The first one hit of the happy pair betokened the sex of their first-born.”—Bottrell.

Should there be a great discrepancy between the ages of the bride and bridegroom, or the marriage of a couple in any way be a matter of notoriety, they are in West Cornwall on their wedding night often treated to a “shallal,” a serenade on tin-kettles, pans, marrow-bones, &c. Any great noise in this part of the county is described as being “a reg’lar shallal.” In olden times (in fact the custom is not quite discontinued at the present day, for I heard a whisper of one having taken place in a small fishing-village two years ago) married people accused of immorality were in Cornwall punished by a “riding.” I will give the description of one by Mr. T. Q. Couch.

“A cart was got, donkeys were harnessed in, and a pair personating the guilty or suspected were driven through the streets, attended by a train of men and boys. At Polperro (East Cornwall) the attendants acted as trumpeters; the bullocks’ horns used by the fishermen at sea for fog or night signals were always available for the purpose. The mummers were very cautious, by careful disguise in dress or voice, and avoiding of anything directly libellous in their rather ribald dialogue, to keep themselves out of the clutches of the law. I remember one riding when an old rusty cannon of the smuggling period was waked up from its long quiet for service for the occasion, and bursting, led to the mutilation of several and the death of one.” On the borders of Devon and in that county this ceremony was known as a “mock-hunt.”

A lock of hair hanging down over the forehead is in Cornwall called “a widow’s lock;” (and children are still here told when it falls down “to shed their hair back out of their eyes.”) A foolish warning says,

The sudden appearance of rats or mice in Cornish houses is said to be a certain forerunner of sickness and death. Many curious tales are told in confirmation of this superstition; one I particularly remember was in connection with a young man who was killed on the West Cornwall Railway. After the accident, they vanished as quickly as they came. It is also considered to be very unlucky for a bird to perch on the window-sill of a sick person’s room, farewell then to all chances of recovery; and strange birds coming into a house (especially a robin through the back door) foretell the death of some one in it, or connected with the family. I was once where a little child lay dying, a small brown bird sang on the window-sill, the nurse told me that it was waiting to carry away the child’s soul. “But when a flea bites a sick person he is sure not to be dangerously ill, as it is well known that they never bite those who have had their death-stroke.” The superstitions that you cannot die easily on pillows stuffed with wild birds’ feathers, and that life goes out with the tide, are as current here as in other places. Death in Cornwall is often spoken of as “going round land,” and “gone dead” is a common idiom. A threat to kill is occasionally conveyed in the words “I will give you your quietus.” In some cases it is supposed that life may be restored after death if when the breath stops the body be violently shaken. When a member of a family dies, his death it is said will bring two others with it,7 from the idea that one misfortune never comes alone. A Cornish country vicarage was lately startled by the tolling at an unwonted hour of the church bell. On sending to ascertain the cause of the disturbance an “old inhabitant was found in the belfry, who had been engaged in the absence or illness of the usual sexton to dig the grave. He said in explanation that in his time it was always usual for the gravedigger to toll the bell three times before breaking the consecrated ground.”—J. H. C., Notes and Queries, 5th series, vol. ii., August, 1874.

A corpse should never be carried to church by a new road, and should a hearse stop on its way to the churchyard there will soon be another death in the house. Singing funerals, or as they are called in Cornwall buryings (pronounced “berrins”), were once almost universal (and one may still occasionally be met). The mourners and friends following the coffin sang as they walked through the streets or lanes their favourite hymns, often to most elaborate tunes.

Few people in old days were buried on the north side of a church. Flowers and shrubs planted in Cornish churchyards are never plucked, from the fear that the spirits of the departed will at night visit the desecrator. Should an urn found in a “barrow” be taken into a house, the person whose ashes it contained will haunt it; it must be broken up and the pieces hidden. Cross-roads, the former burying-place of suicides, are after nightfall avoided, such spots being haunted; but if you have courage to go there at midnight and wish, you will get your wish.

With a few general superstitions I shall bring this part to an end. It is unlucky in Cornwall to see the new moon first over the left shoulder, or through a window, especially if the day should happen to be a Friday. To ensure good luck on your first sight of her, you should curtsey, spit on your money and turn it in your pocket. (A man well paid for any chance job early in the day calls it here “a hansel,” and spits on the money for good luck.) If you particularly desire anything, look at the new moon and wish before you speak. You may also wish when you see a falling star, and if you can succeed in framing it before it disappears your wish will be granted. Seeing the new moon in the old moon’s arms is a sign of a change in the weather, so is a star passing over it. The change will be for the worse if the moon goes over the star. “Herbs for drying must be gathered at full moon; winter fruit picked and stored at full moon, not to lose its plumpness. Timber should be felled on the bating of the moon, because the sap is then down, and the wood will be more durable.”—Bottrell.

Card-table Superstitions:—“Good luck in cards, bad luck in a husband (or wife).” “A shuffling cut is good for the dealer.” “1 2 3 4 played in succession kiss the dealer.” To cut an honour for the trump card is unlucky, for “When quality opens the door there is poverty behind;” but “Good luck lurks under a black deuce” (it should be touched by the cutter).

Superstitions connected with the body:—A twitching in the eyelid is lucky; but you must not say when it comes nor when it goes.

Right eye itching, a sign of laughter; but left over right, you’ll cry before night.

Right cheek burning, some one praising you; left one, abusing (a knot tied in the apron-string will cause the slanderer to bite his or her tongue); but left or right are both good at night. “If the cheek burns, someone is talking scandal of you. I have often heard the lines spoken:—

Nose itching, you will be kissed, cursed, or vexed; or shake hands with a fool.

Right hand itching, someone will pay or give you money; but the left you will be the payer. In regard to the former,

On every other morning it is lucky to sneeze once before breakfast; but not twice.

Fire Superstitions:—A difficulty in kindling the fire in the mornings is a sign of anger; burning only on one side, of a separation in the family (some say of a wedding). A flake of smut on the bar of the grate shows that a stranger is coming to the house. Should the fire be burning brightly, he will bring good news; but if the contrary, bad. If after you poke the fire it burns up brightly, your sweetheart is in a good temper; but should it not improve he is in a bad one. A coal popping out of the fire is either a cradle or coffin, or a purse. It is allowed to cool and then examined to find out the shape; if pronounced to be a purse, it is shaken close to the ear, when should it jingle it is said to contain money. I once saw this done in a school by its mistress. It is unlucky to put a bellows on a table.

“Ladies’ trees,” small branches of dried seaweed, are sometimes hung up in chimneys to protect houses from fire; or a Passover biscuit suspended by a string from a nail in the wall.

A bright spark on a candle foretells a letter, but if pointed out it never arrives.

There are so many unlucky omens in Cornwall that to believe in them all would make life miserable, and to enumerate them would fill a volume. The major part of them too are silly and not worth transcribing; three or four of them as examples will, I am quite sure, amply suffice. “A work begun on Friday is never ended.”

“It is unlucky to sing carols before Christmas;” or before the first “arish mow9” is made. Also, “To scat10 hands before Christmas,” i.e., beat them for warmth.

“It is unlucky to pour out water or any other liquor back-handed.”

“It is unlucky to lend, or say thank you for a pin.” And

“It is unlucky to mend your clothes on you, for then you will never grow rich.”

It is unlucky to wear a hole in the bottom of a shoe, for

Servants who come to their places after noon never stay, etc., etc.