_New Brunswick Folk Lore_:--_Common Notions respecting Teeth._--Among the
lower orders and negroes, and also among young children of respectable
parents (who have probably derived the notion from contact with the others
as nurses or servants), it is here very commonly held that when a tooth is
drawn, if you refrain from thrusting the tongue in the cavity, the second
tooth will be golden. Does this idea prevail in England?
_Superstition respecting Bridges._--Many years ago my grandfather had quite
a household of blacks, some of whom were slaves and some free. Being bred
in his family, a large portion of my early days was thus passed among them,
and I have often reverted to the weird superstitions with which they froze
themselves and alarmed me. Most of these had allusion to the devil:
scarcely one of them that I now recollect but referred to him. Among others
they firmly held that when the clock struck twelve at midnight, the devil
and a select company of his inferiors regularly came upon that part of the
bridge called "the draw," and danced a hornpipe there. So firmly did they
hold to this belief, that no threat nor persuasion could induce the
stoutest-hearted of them to cross the fatal draw after ten o'clock at
night. This belief is quite contrary to that which prevails in Scotland,
according to which, Robin Burns being my authority, "neither witches nor
any evil spirits have power to follow a poor wight any farther than the
middle of the next running stream."[1]