Page:Notes on the folk-lore of the northern counties of England and the borders.djvu/132

110

CHAPTER IV.

PORTENTS AND AUGURIES.

On the Borders—In Durham—At Leeds—From the New Moon—Gift of a Knife—The Spilling of Salt—First Stone taken from a Church—First Corpse laid in a Churchyard—A Buried Charm—Auguries from Birds—Rooks—Swallows—Redbreast—Yellow Hammer—Wren—Bat—Raven—Magpie—Gabriel Hounds—Gabble Retchet—Wild Huntsman—Sneezing.

F portents and auguries we find large mention made in the Wilkie MS. The number of trifling circumstances held to presage good or evil is really astonishing. Thus, it is fortunate for the housewife if a brood of chickens turn out all cock birds; very fortunate if her cabbages grow double, i.e. with two shoots from one root; or “lucker,” that is, with the leaves open instead of closing into a “stock” or heart; fortunate, too, if she meet with potatoes, gooseberries, &c. of an unusual shape, or with peas and beans more than the usual number in the pod; nine is the lucky number in Sussex. A pod containing only one pea is equally auspicious, and so is a four-leaved clover or an even ash-leaf. Witness the following lines from a privately-printed collection of North Country Folk-Lore:

The even ash-leaf in my left hand,
The first man I meet shall be my husband.
The even ash-leaf in my glove,
The first I meet shall be my love.
The even ash-leaf in my breast,
The first man I meet’s whom I love best.
The even ash-leaf in my hand,
The first I meet shall be my man.