_Devonshire Superstitions._--Days of the week:
"Born on a Sunday, a gentleman;
Monday, fair in face;
Tuesday, full of grace;
Wednesday, sour and grum;
Thursday, welcome home;
Friday, free in giving;
Saturday, work hard for your living."
Tuesday and Wednesday are lucky days.
Thursday has one lucky hour, viz. the hour before the sun rises.
Friday is unlucky.
It is very unlucky to turn a featherbed on a Sunday; my housemaid says
she would not turn my bed on a Sunday on any account.
"To sneeze on Monday hastens anger,
Tuesday, kiss a stranger,
Wednesday.
Thursday.
"To sneeze on Friday, give a gift.
Saturday, receive a gift.
Sunday, before you break your fast,
You'll see your true love before a week's past."
My informant cannot recollect the consequences of sneezing on Wednesday
and Thursday.
"Sneeze on Sunday morning fasting,
You'll enjoy your own true love to everlasting."
If you sneeze on a Saturday night after the candle is lighted, you will
next week see a stranger you never saw before.
A new moon seen over the right shoulder is lucky, over the left shoulder
unlucky, and straight before prognosticates good luck to the end of the
moon.
Hair and nails should always be cut during the waning of the moon.
Whatever you think of when you see a star shooting, you are sure to
have.
When you first see the new moon in the new year, take your stocking off
from one foot, and run to the next style; when you get there, between
the great toe and the next, you will find a hair, which will be the
colour of your lover's.
When you first see the new moon after mid-summer, go to a stile, turn
your back to it, and say,--
"All hail, new moon, all hail to thee!
I prithee good moon, reveal to me
This night who shall my true love be:
Who he is, and what he wears,
And what he does all months and years."
_To see a Lover in a Dream._--Pluck yarrow from a young man's grave,
saying as you do so--
"Yarrow, sweet yarrow, the first that I have found,
And in the name of Jesus I pluck it from the ground.
As Joseph loved sweet Mary, and took her for his dear,
So in a dream this night, I hope my true love will appear."
Sleep with the yarrow under the pillow.