"Bit-bat! bit-bat! come under my hat."
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."
"A Friday's dream on Saturdays told
Is sure to come true, be it ever so old."
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--
"Good night, fair yarrow,
Thrice good night to thee;
I hope before to-morrow's dawn
My true love I shall see."
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
"Change the name, and not the letter,
You'll change for the worse, and not for the better."
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,
"Go thro' a gate when there's a stile hard by,
You'll be a widow before you die."
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, [33] 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.
"To shaw our sperrits lev-us petch [34]
The laast new berrin tune."--Tregellas.
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:--
Right cheek! left cheek! why do you burn?
Cursed be she that doth me any harm;
If she be a maid, let her be staid;
If she be a widow, long let her mourn;
But if it be my own true love--burn, cheek, burn!"--T. Q. Couch.
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,
"If you rub it on wood,
It will be sure to come good."
Sneeze on Sunday morning fasting,
Enjoy your true love for everlasting.
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."
"If you sing afore bite,
You'll cry before night."
"It is unlucky to sing carols before Christmas;" or before the first
"arish mow [35]" is made. Also, "To scat [36] 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
"If you see a pin, and pass it by,
You'll want a pin before you die."
"It is unlucky to mend your clothes on you, for then you will never
grow rich."