Collectanea. 225
9. Harvest customs.
Corn. This was, and sometimes still is, husked at a "husking bee," i.e. all the farmers of the district took it in turns to go to each other's houses and help in the husking. Food and drink were provided and a good deal of merry-making went on. Any- one finding a red ear would be married within a twelvemonth.
Wheat etc. The last sheaf was called " the maiden " or " the Lord's sheaf." It was cut, bound up, and stood in a })lace where the rain would not beat it down. It was not lucky to garner it, and it was left for the poor. Often a whole corner of the last field was left standing for the poor to glean or for " the Lord's birds," a reminiscence of Matth. c. 10, v. 29. The charitable desire to leave enough for the poor to glean seems to have swallowed up all other practices connected with the last sheaf. These customs do not seem to have been general, but the habit of a few families originally from Vermont. Related to them is the custom reported by another old inhabitant of his grandfather, who left the United States shortly after the War of Independence. He would never allow a sheaf which had been dropped on the way from the field to be picked up, but gave no reason for letting it lie.
I o. Visitors.
If you enter anyone else's house and leave by a door different from that by which you entered, you will bring them visitors.
To drop the dishcloth while washing up means that visitors are coming. The same is indicated by a tea-leaf floating in one's cup. If the leaf, when bitten, feels hard, the visitor will be a man; if soft, a woman. To ensure fulfilment of the omen, throw the leaf under the table, silently wishing that some particular person may come. (In this hospitable district there is no demand for means of averting such an omen.)
1 1 . Good and bad luck.
It is unlucky : —
To cut across a corner. If you must do so, wish (C). To break a mirror \ this means seven years' ill luck.'^
^Cf. vol. xxiii., p. 347 ; N'. and Q., 1st S., vol. xii. (18S5), p. 38 (Cormaat/).
