Chief among the ‘unlucky’ things regarded by the superstitious as omens of approaching calamity are those to which is attached the idea of a death-portent. This warning of death appears in various ways, it may be seen in some purely accidental occurrence, or some chance act; it may be announced by a bird or some other animal; it may even lurk in the most innocent flower. The following are sure signs of death: If a small oblong cinder flies out of the fire it is called a coffin (n.Cy.) and betokens death, especially if it lies silently where it fell; but if, on the other hand, it makes a crackling noise, it can be a purse, and mean money in store, cp.:
Among the omens wrought by insects, perhaps the most common is the death-watch, also known as the dead-chack (Sc.), and death-tick (Oxf. Dev.). Sir Thomas Browne made a careful study of this particular source of ‘terrifying apprehensions’, cp. ‘Few ears have escaped the noise of the death-watch, that is, the little clickling sound heard often in many rooms, somewhat resembling that of a watch; and this is conceived to be of an evil omen or prediction of some person’s death: wherein notwithstanding there is nothing of rational presage or just cause of terror unto melancholy and meticulous heads. For this noise is made by a little sheath-winged grey insect, found often in wainscot benches and wood-work in the summer. We have taken many thereof, and kept them in thin boxes, wherein I have heard and seen them work and knock with a little proboscis or trunk against the side of the box, like a picus martius, or woodpecker against a tree. It worketh best in warm weather, and for the most part giveth not over under nine or eleven strokes at a time,’ Vulgar Errors, Bk. II, Chap. VII. There is great diversity of opinion as to the signification of crickets. In some parts of England the sound of the cricket in the house is esteemed lucky (Yks. Nhp. Cor.), in other parts unlucky (w.Cy.); and again, there are districts (Shr.) where it is looked upon as a death-portent. If a swarm of bees settles on the wall of a house, or on a dead tree, or wooden stake, it is a sign of an approaching death in the family; if they knit on the ground, it is a sure sign of a berrin’ [funeral]. A death in the family may also be presaged by the sudden death of a pig. I remember just twenty years ago, when an old cook, whom I knew very well, inquired after my brother who was then recovering from a severe attack of scarlet-fever, she concluded the conversation by saying: ‘I knew quite well that there would be a serious illness in your family, because you had told me that one of the pigs had died suddenly.’ The sudden departure of rats from a house is sometimes held to betoken the death of one of the inmates. A white bird flying past, or a dove flying against a window at night, or flying into a room, is a sign of death. In some places, any bird pecking at a window announces death, but the robin is the chief harbinger of death, whether he announces his message by tapping at the window, chirping on the sill, or by hopping into the room. In the winter of 1910, a tame robin used to cause considerable uneasiness in this household by coming into the house through the open windows. If a crow settles on a house, one of the inmates will die within the year. If a hare or a white rabbit crosses your path; if you hear a hen crow; if the cock crows at midnight; or if a cow lows three times in your face, it is a sign of death, as are, too, the midnight hooting of owls, and the howling of dogs. In the Miracle Play in Longfellow’s Golden Legend, when the Rabbi asks Judas Iscariot ‘Why howl the dogs at night?’ the answer is:
If children pick the Herb Robert it means death to one or other of the parents, hence the name Death-come-quickly (Cum.); for the same reason the Red and White Campion is called Mother-dee (Cum.). If the child pluck the red species, its father will perish, or if the white, then the mother will die. It is very unlucky to bring pieces of the spindle-tree into the house, hence it is the Death-alder (Bck.); but still more commonly this superstition is attached to the flowers of the hawthorn, and further, in some districts to the snowdrop (Shr. Stf. Der. Wor. Sus.). When a school-fellow of mine died of typhoid fever, the lady Principal of the boarding-school wrote to my parents, charging them with being the authors of the calamity, in that they had a short time before sent me a box of snowdrops. If parsley is once sown in a garden, there it must stay, to transplant it would be fatal to some member of the household. If fruit trees blossom out of season it is a token of death:
A bloom upon the apple-tree when the apples are ripe
Is a sure termination to somebody’s life.
The failure of a crop of ash-keys is said to portend a death in the royal family within the year. Tradition tells that there were no ash-keys in the year in which King Charles was beheaded.
Magpie Rhymes
The magpie is always an ominous bird. Seen singly, it is everywhere taken as a sign of evil, but the significance of two or more varies in different parts of the country. The commonest version of the magpie rhyme is: One for sorrow; Two for mirth; Three for a wedding; Four for a birth. Other versions are: Yan is sorrow; Tweea is mirth; Three is weddin’; Fower is birth; Five is silver; Six is gold; Sebben is a secret, nivver to be told (n.Cy.). Yen’s sorry; Twee’s morry; Three’s a wedding; Fower’s deeth; Five’s hivin’; Six is hell; And Sivin’s the deel’s aan sel (Nhb.). One, sign of anger; Two, sign o’ muth; Dree, sign o’ wedding-day; Vower, sign o’ death; Vive, sign o’ zorrow; Zix, sign o’ joy; Zebm, sign o’ maid; An’ eight, sign o’ boy (w.Som.). To avert these indications you may use one of the following charms: raise the hat in salutation; make a cross with your foot on the ground, or as many crosses as there are magpies; wet the forefinger with spittle, and therewith make the sign of the cross on your shoe; make the same sign by crossing the thumbs; spit on the ground three times, and say: Devil, devil, I defy thee! Magpie, magpie, I go by thee! If a shrew-mouse runs over your foot, it portends ill-luck, sometimes the coming ill-luck is defined as paralysis of the foot. In Sussex the country people have an idea that the shrew-mouse is unable to cross a path which has been trodden by man. Whenever it attempts to do so it is said to be immediately struck dead, and hence the number of shrew-mice which may be found lying dead in lanes or on field footpaths. If a hare crosses the path of a woman with child, she must instantly stoop down and tear her shift, or the child will have a hare-lip, or ’ar-shotten lip, as it is called (Shr.). This superstition is no doubt connected with the old belief that a witch often took the form of a hare. They never dow [prosper] that strange dogs follow, is a Yorkshire saying. It is very unlucky to drive away a black cat, if a stray one should come into the house. An Oxford landlady told us quite recently that she had driven away a black cat from her door shortly after she was married, some twelve years previously, and since then she had ‘buried twenty-three relations’! It is unlucky when moving house to transport the cat; it is also unlucky to allow a cat to die in the house, hence when it begins to be ill, it is better to drown it. It is unlucky to keep a kitten born in May, for: May chets Bad luck begets. In the North a May cat is supposed to suck the breath of the baby in the cradle, if opportunity offers; while in some south-western districts it is said to bring adders and varmints into the house. Goslings hatched in May will not bring gain to the owner; and it is an evil month for marriage. Scotch people especially, even among the well-educated, have a strong prejudice against marrying in May. Marry in May, You’ll rue it for aye, is a Devonshire saying. There is an old rhyme against short-coating babies in May: Tuck babies in May, You’ll tuck them away, but this is perhaps merely a health warning, parallel to: Don’t cast a clout Till May is out, based on the uncertain temperature of the month of May. It is very unlucky to kill a swallow, a robin, or a wren, and even to take their eggs is a sacrilegious act certain to bring ill-luck, for: The Robin and the Wren Are God Almighty’s cock and hen. The Martin and the Swallow Are God Almighty’s scholars. Other versions of this rhyme are: Martins and swallows Are God’s teachers and scholars. Robins and wrens Are God’s chickens and hens. Those who kill a robin or a wren Will never prosper, boy or man. Swallows and martins bring luck and prosperity under the roof around which they build, and hence it is a bad sign if they forsake a house where they have been accustomed to build, cp. ‘Though useless to us, and rather of molestation, we commonly refrain from killing swallows, and esteem it unlucky to destroy them: whether herein there be not a Pagan relick, we have some reason to doubt. For we read in Ælian, that these birds were sacred unto the Penates or household gods of the ancients, and therefore were preserved,’ Vulgar Errors, Bk. V, Chap. XXIV. It is also unlucky to kill a ladybird, God Almighty’s colly-cow (Hmp.); or to kill a spider. If you wish to live and thrive Let the spider run alive, is a current Berkshire rhyme. The little red spider, when found, should be put in the pocket, for it means money. Spiders’ webs sometimes escape destruction through a belief that such a web concealed our Lord as He lay in the manger from the messengers of Herod. The Sun-beetle is God’s horse (Cum.), and like the Rainy clock, or Thunder clock (Cum. Wm.), is supposed to cause terrible storms if it be killed. It is very unlucky to bid a price for an animal, such as a cow, pig, or horse, when it is not for sale, for if this is done the animal is sure to die. To covet another man’s beast is to heart-eat (Lan. Yks.) it, and an animal so coveted will not prosper. It is unlucky to sell bees, or to hive a swarm after nightfall. To kill a pig when the moon is waning means ill-luck with the bacon, it is sure to shrink in the pot. Some say it will not take the salt, and cannot therefore be cured. Nor must cider be made at such times, else the apples when gathered will shrump up, and the cider will turn sour. It is unlucky to look into an owl’s nest. Once upon a time a foolhardy person ventured to do so, and in consequence he became melancholy, and destroyed hissell. It is important to give a hen an odd number of eggs to sit on, if this is not done, most of the eggs, if not all of them, will be addled. The regulation number is thirteen. It is very unlucky to spill salt, or to help another to salt, or to break a salt-cellar, though the misfortune may be averted by throwing a pinch of salt over the left shoulder. She that pricks bread with fork or knife Will never be happy maid or wife (Shr.), the thing must be done with a skewer. It is unlucky to hang a picture over a door. When you have set out on any business, or started on a journey, it is very unlucky to turn back and re-enter the house, but if it is absolutely necessary to return, the evil may be counteracted by sitting down on a chair before starting again. Some say even to look back is unlucky, and in this case they connect the superstition with the fate of Lot’s wife. Pick up pins, pick up sorrow, is a saying which is contradicted by other versions such as: See a pin and pick it up, All the day you’ll have good luck; and: See a pin and let it lie, You’ll want a pin before you die. Mend your clothes upon your back, Sure you are to come to wrack. It is unlucky to use elder-wood for lighting a fire; to burn bones, or evergreens; to decorate a house with peacock’s feathers; to bring the eggs of any wild bird into the house. When a child’s tooth comes out, it must be dropped into the fire, and the following rhyme repeated, or the child will have to seek its tooth after death: Fire, fire, tak’ a beean, An’ send oor Johnny a good teeath ageean (e.Yks.); or a little salt must be placed on the tooth, which is then carefully put into the fire with the words: Fire, fire, burn beean, God sen’ my tiuth ageean (Lakel.). Another idea is that unless the tooth is burned, the one which grows in its place will prove a dog’s tooth. If a baby’s first tooth appears in the upper jaw, it is a bad sign, it may mean that the child will die in infancy. The bairn at cuts its teeth abeen, ’Ill nivver see its mairidge sheen, is an old Scotch saying. Similarly, if the teeth grow with irregular spaces between them, the child will not be a long liver: If a bairn teeathes odd, It’ll seean gan to God (e.Yks.). But a gap between the two front teeth wide enough to pass a sovereign through, is a sign of luck and wealth. It is unlucky to weigh a child, or to let it see its face in the glass before it is a year old; or to call it before baptism by the name you mean to give it. If an engaged couple have undertaken to be godparents to a child, it is unlucky for them both to stand at the font together, it would presage a parting within three months. A local instance of this came to my knowledge less than six months ago. The difficulty was solved by the godmother taking her place in a pew at a little distance from the rest of the party assembled round the font. In Cornwall they say: first at the font, never at the altar. It is unlucky to sing early in the morning: If you sing afore bite You’ll cry before night; to see the new moon for the first time through a window; to have the Bishop’s left hand on your head at confirmation. If you enter another person’s house with your left foot foremost, you draw down evil on the inhabitants. A new broom should sweep something into the house before it is used in the contrary direction, otherwise you sweep good luck away from your threshold. Some people hold that you must never sweep the dust out of doors, but always into the fire, for fear lest you sweep the blessing out (Shr.). Friday is proverbially an unlucky day everywhere. Friday’s a day as’ll have his trick The fairest or foulest day o’ the wik (Shr.), cp. ‘Selde is the Fryday al the wyke i-like,’ Chaucer, Knightes Tale, l. 681. It is very unlucky to start out on a journey; to remove from one house to another; to enter upon a new service; or to set a hen on a Friday, but specially unlucky is it to begin new undertakings on Good Friday. If clothes are washed that day some member of the family will die before the year is out. A Yorkshire superstition holds that if clothes are hung out to dry that day they will be taken in spotted with blood. On the other hand, it is esteemed lucky to plant potatoes, and to sow all kinds of garden seeds on Good Friday. Beans and peas, for instance, sown on this day yield better crops than they would if sown any other day. Moreover, it is the best day in all the year to begin weaning babies. In parts of Devonshire it is thought lucky to break pottery on Good Friday, because then the points of every sherd are supposed to pierce the body of Judas Iscariot. If a bunch of quaking grass, called maidenhair (Nrf.), is brought into the house it is sure to bring ill-luck; trouble will also ensue if you cut down the house-leek, the sungreen (Sus.), which grows on walls and roofs. If you should happen to dig up a mandrake, you must quickly burn it, for anybody that looks at it will at once go blind. To pick flowers before they are full-blown causes a pouk (Wor.) or sty in the eye. Marsh-marigolds are called drunkards (Dev. Wil.) because if you pick them, or even look long at them, you will take to drink. Poppies are called ear-aches (Der. Not.) because if gathered and put to the ear, a violent attack of ear-ache will be the result. In parts of Yorkshire the poppy is known by the name of blindy-buff, because if you hold a poppy to your eyes it will blind you. North-country children deem it unlucky to gather the flowers of the cuckoo-spit, the Lady’s smock, Cardamine pratensis. To bring two or three primroses into the house of an owner of poultry in early spring, before any chickens are hatched, means bad luck to the sittings of eggs; but if the number of primroses is thirteen or upwards, there is nothing to fear. Old Manx people held a like superstition about daffodils, believing it to be unlucky to bring them into the house before the goslings were hatched. This connexion with geese probably accounts for the Manx name for the daffodil, Lus-ny-guiy, the goose-leek. It is a sign of a parting if two bells ring together in a house; if a loaf parts in two when it is being cut; if a cake has a hollow cavity in the centre. To give a knife, a pair of scissors, or a pin of any sort to a friend will cut love, unless some coin is received in exchange. To stir the tea in the tea-pot is to stir up strife. Other signs of a coming quarrel between friends are: to cross knives; to put the poker and tongs on the same side of the fireplace; to put a pair of boots on the table, but here the quarrel may be averted if some one immediately puts the boots under the table; to pass your friend on the stairs. If two persons kindle a fire together; or dip their hands into the same basin of water; or together wipe their hands on the same towel, they will inevitably quarrel. In the case of the washing of hands, the sign of the cross made over or in the water will prevent the quarrel.
Lucky and Unlucky Signs
When a woman’s hair grows in a low point on the forehead, it is supposed to presage widowhood, and is called a widow’s peak (n.Cy.), or widow’s lock (War.). If your eyebrows meet across the nose, You’ll never live to wear your wedding-clothes, is a rhyme belonging to the Midlands, but elsewhere this peculiarity is deemed a favourable omen. In some Yorkshire districts the idea is that a person so marked will never know trouble. A white speck on the finger-nails is called a gift (in gen. dial. use), and predicts certain events. A gift on the thumb indicates a present; on the forefinger a friend or lover; on the middle finger a foe; on the fourth finger a visit to pay; on the little finger a journey to go. A gift on the thumb is seer ti cum, Bud yan on the finger is seer ti linger (e.Yks.). An irritation or tickling in the nose is a sign that a visitor is coming. Sneeze on a Monday, you sneeze for danger; Sneeze on a Tuesday, you kiss a stranger; Sneeze on a Wednesday, you sneeze for a letter; Sneeze on a Thursday, for something better; Sneeze on a Friday, you sneeze for sorrow; Sneeze on a Saturday, your sweetheart to-morrow; Sneeze on a Sunday, your safety seek, The Devil will have you the whole of the week (Lan.). A spark in the wick of a candle is supposed to signify the speedy arrival of a letter to the person to whom it points. If you kill a miller [a moth] while it is flying round a lighted lamp, you’ll get a letter next day (Hmp.). A knot on the wick of a candle, which, when burned, becomes large and red, is termed a stranger (Lin. Sus.), cp. ‘But of lower consideration is the common foretelling of strangers, from the fungous parcels about the wicks of candles; which only signifieth a moist and pluvious air about them, hindering the avolation of the light and favillous particles; whereupon they are forced to settle upon the snast,’ Vulgar Errors, Bk. V, Chap. XXIV. The same name is given to a flake or film of soot hanging on the bar of a grate (n.Cy. War. Wil.); and to a small piece of tea-leaf floating in tea (Sc. Lin. War. Wil. Som. Cor.), both supposed to foretell the advent of a stranger. If a bumble-bee comes into the house, it too is a sign of an approaching stranger. To meet a load of hay is a sure token of a surprise, trivial or otherwise.
Lucky Omens
It is considered lucky to be born on a Sunday; to have lucken-toes (Sc.), that is toes joined by a web or film; to have a mole on the neck, though some say if it is on the back of the neck it is a sign that you will be hanged. If you’ve a mole above your chin, You’ll never be beholden to any of your kin (Shr.); but a mole on the side of the nose is a sign that the Devil has marked you for his own (Lan.). A dimple in your cheek, Your living to seek; A dimple in your chin, You’ll have your living brought in (Yks.). It is a lucky omen to put on any article of clothing the wrong side out, but it must be done accidentally, and not changed during that day. Any one making a first appearance in new clothes should be pinched by a friend to ensure good luck: Pinch you for your new dress (Shr.). My grandmother always wished the possessor: Health to wear it, Strength to tear it, And money to buy another, a formula still repeated in Northumberland, if not elsewhere. It is lucky to put the left stocking on first; to stumble on ascending stairs, steps, or ladders; to find a flint arrow-head, known as a thunder-bolt (Dev.); to find nine peas in a pod; to find a four-leaved clover; to find an even-ash, that is an ash-leaf with an even number of leaflets. When found, it should be put in the bosom, or worn in the hat, for luck. It is lucky to meet a flock of sheep on the highway when you are making a journey. Good luck for a grey horse (w.Yks.) is a common expression of children, accompanied by the act of spitting over their little finger, at the sight of a grey horse, an action which is supposed to bring good luck. In parts of Lincolnshire they spit for a white horse, in anticipation of a present to come. It is a sign of good luck if a cuddy [wren] or cutty builds in your hayrick (Dor.); if rooks build near the house; if a bird drops upon you, especially if this should happen on Easter Day; if a spider crawls over you, or falls upon your face from the ceiling. If a Cornish miner should meet a snail as he is on the way to the mine, he would drop before it a crumb from his dinner, or a bit of grease from his candle, to ensure good luck. To find a toad in the tin-mine is an augury of good luck to the miner. If when you hear the cuckoo for the first time you turn a penny over in your pocket, you will never be without one all the year. Some say that if when you first hear the cuckoo the sounds proceed from the right hand, it signifies that you will be prosperous, but if from the left, ill-luck is before you. If the first lamb that you see in spring has its head towards you, it is an omen of good luck for the whole year, but if the tail is towards you, misfortune will be your lot. According to an old Scotch proverb ‘dirt’s luck’, so that in moving from one house to another it is unlucky to get possession of a clean house, swept and garnished by the outgoing tenant. An old usage for bringing luck to a new house was for the incoming tenant to go into every room bearing in his hands a loaf and a plate of salt. This was termed the house-handsel (n.Yks.). In the North-country dialects handsel is the name for a gift conferred at a particular season, or on commencement of a new undertaking, to confer luck. The gift of a coin, for instance, to the wearer of a new suit of clothes makes the suit lucky. Sometimes money is returned for luck by the seller to the purchaser, and is called the turn-again (n.Lin.), luck-penny (Sc. n.Cy. Nhp. War.), or luck-brass (Yks.). Thus what is given back to the buyer of a pig may be termed penny-pig-luck. The customary payments in Lincolnshire were one shilling per head for a beast, sixpence for a calf and a pig, two shillings per score for sheep above a year old, one shilling per score for lambs; for horses varying sums according to their value. As late as 1898, Lincolnshire auctioneers were allowing luck-money to purchasers, at the rate of one shilling per head on cattle, and a penny per head on sheep and pigs.
Protection against Ill-luck
The dried tip of a calf’s tongue is called a lucky-bit (Nhp.) and is worn in the pocket, partly as a protection against danger, but chiefly because it is supposed that the pocket containing it will never be without money. The coracoid bone of a fowl carried in purse or pocket is believed to bring money-fortune, whence the name lucky-bone (Chs. Shr.). This name is also given to a small bone taken from the head of a sheep (Nhb. Yks. Lan. Nhp.), worn about the person to produce good luck. Its form is that of a T cross, whence may perhaps have originated the peculiar sanctity in which it is held. A lucky-hole (Oxf. Brks.) is a hole bored in a wayside stone or pillar, to blow through which is considered to ensure good luck. A stone or pebble with a natural hole through it is commonly called a lucky-stone. In Dorsetshire the finder of such a stone picked it up, spat upon it, and then threw it backward over his head, accompanying the action with the words: Lucky-stone! Lucky-stone! go over my head, And bring me some good luck before I go to bed. A hairy caterpillar, called a Tommy Tailor (Yks.), may also be thrown over the head for luck. A black snail seized by the horns and tossed over the left shoulder brings good luck to the performer of the action. If it is done by a person who has within the last three days become engaged to be married, the course of true love will run considerably more smoothly than would otherwise have been the case. If a person is setting out on a journey, one of the family sometimes turns the fire-tongs for luck (Nhb.). To spit on a stone, and then throw it away, is another means of ensuring a prosperous journey. To carry a badger’s tooth in the pocket is a good thing to do, for it brings luck at cards (Dev.). To kill a toad is said to make bees swarm; and to burn an old shoe is a charm to help goslings to leave the shell at hatching time.
A Story of Noah
The following are a few miscellaneous legends, superstitions, and popular beliefs: According to an old belief in Yorkshire, when a pot is taken off the hooks or kelps hanging in the chimney over the fire, care must be taken to stop the vibration of the chain as soon as possible, for whilst it is in motion the Virgin weeps. From Scotland comes the explanation of the black spots on each shoulder of the haddock: they are the marks left by the finger and thumb of St. Peter when he opened the fish’s mouth to take out the piece of money, v. St. Matt. xvii. 27. The dark marks across the shoulders of a donkey are said to be the sign of the cross imprinted in remembrance of Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Shr. Oxf.). A Berkshire folklorist relates the following curious legend which explains why a dog’s nose and a woman’s elbow are always cold, where there is good health: ‘In the days of the flood the Ark sprung a small leak, and Noah, who had forgotten to bring carpenter’s tools on board with him, was at his wits’ end how to act. His faithful dog had followed him to the place where the leak was, and stood watching the influx of water. In his trouble Noah seized the dog and crammed his nose into the leak. This stopped it, but in a few moments Noah perceived that the dog must die if kept in this position any longer. By this time Noah’s wife had come up and was standing by his side watching what was taking place. Noah thereupon released the dog, and taking his wife’s arm stuffed her elbow into the crack. The danger was thus averted, but a dog’s nose and a woman’s elbow will remain cold as long as the world lasts.’ Glossary of Brks. Words, &c., Lowsley, 1888.
Legendary Natural History
Among the remnants of legendary natural history is the idea that an adder can never die till sunset. Even if it be cut to pieces, the bits will retain their vitality till the sun goes down. It is believed of the hedgehog that he sucks the milk from cows; and that he rolls himself on the apples in the orchard, or the crab-apples fallen in the copses, and carries them off sticking on his spines. You’ve yer back up to-daay like a peggy-otchin goin’ a-crabbin’ is a contemptuous remark made to an ill-natured person (Lin.). Puck, or Puckeridge (Sus. Hmp.), is a name of the night-jar, also applied to a fatal distemper in calves, supposed to be caused by the attacks of night-jars. A certain red beetle, Telephorus lividus, is called Sucky-blood (Cum.), from a local belief that it lives by sucking the blood of cattle. The Glastonbury thorn, or Holy thorn (War.), possesses a curious legendary history. Tradition says that Joseph of Arimathaea came to England, and visited Glastonbury. Being weary after climbing the hill, he halted, leaning on his staff to rest. The stick sank into the soft ground by the wayside, and took root, and grew, and became the famous thorn-tree which is said to blossom on Christmas Day. Christ’s cross is supposed to have been made of the wood of the aspen, and hence the leaves have continued to tremble ever since. The berries of the mountain-ash are called cock-drink, or cock-drunks (Lakel.), because they are reputed to possess the property of intoxicating fowls. The fungus, Nostoc commune, a kind of white jelly often found in poor pastures, is termed: Star-falling (Nhp.), Star-shot (Lin. Nhp.), Star-slubber (Yks. Lan.), Star-slutch (Chs.), from a belief that it has fallen from the stars. The fossil bones of the saurians, found in northern Yorkshire, are called Fallen angels’ bones, being supposed to belong to the angels who were cast out of heaven for their rebellion. The fossilized remains of elephants’ teeth were said to be Giants’ teeth (n.Yks.). Up and down the brooks and streamlets in the dingles round about my old home in Herefordshire could be found stones bearing a grooved mark resembling the print of a horseshoe, beside others marked as with the oval ring of a woman’s patten. Geologists may have other explanatory theories, but this is the local legend, and the evidences for its veracity anybody may see. Once upon a time there lived a holy lady of some renown, called St. Catherine of Ledbury. One day a mare and a foal belonging to her were discovered to be missing. There was no doubt they had been stolen. So the saint betook herself to prayer, beseeching that the thief might be traced, and that she might recover her property. But the thief had anticipated the probability of a search, and had chosen the brook courses as being rocky and unlikely to retain footprints. Howbeit, in answer to the saint’s prayers the rocks did retain the marks, and there they are to this day, the larger footprints of the mare, the smaller ones of the foal, and the patten-marks of the old woman who stole them away.
