352
INDEX.
Ash: child’s first nail-parings buried under; always a sacred tree; the Yggdrasil of Norsemen; attracts lightning; old rhyme, 17; Christ first washed and dressed at Bethlehem by fire of its wood, 64; faggots used in Devonshire at Christmas, ib.; weather prediction from its leafing, 76; leaf, if even, lucky—rhymes on, 110–11
Ash (mountain), see Mountain-ash
Ash Wednesday, eating grey peas on, insures money all the year, 114
Ashes of dead person’s bed, divination by, 51
Aspen tree: charm for ague; used for Cross and therefore trembles; another (German) reason for its trembling, 151–2; anciently sacred; used for marriage-torches by Romans, and for wishing-rods in Germany, 152
Atkinson (Rev. J. C.), on Yorkshire witch, 210; on mountain-ash, 225; on Padfoot, 274
Augury: from cry of cuckoo, 93; from birds among ancients; traces still existing here among upper classes, 128; Alcuin (A.D. 735) on such prognostics, ib.; see Portents
Aurora borealis, termed the Derwentwater Lights, 307
Bacon’s (Francis) Natural History on lardskin charm for warts, 140
Bahrgeist (spirit of the bier), see Barguest
Baker’s (Sir R.) Meditations upon Lord’s Prayer on praying aloud to fright the Devil, 280
Bamburgh, bridal parties there jump over a stool at church door, 38–9
Banshee of Loch Nigdal: a sprite in green silk, 270
Baptism, see Child: baptism
Barguest, Bahrgeist, Boguest, or Boggart: a spirit presaging death, 275; proverb: “to roar like a Barguest;” appears in various forms; three mentioned, ib.
Baring-Gould (S.), see Gould (S. B.)
Barrow, Mount, or Hill Folk: descendants of fallen angels (Denmark), 248
Bat: its flight indicates the witches’ hour, 125–6
Battles: their sites haunted by echoes of the fight, 309
Bawkie-bird, the bat, q. v.
Bean-geese: the Gabriel hounds, 130
Bedeguar of dogrose; see Robin Redbreast’s Cushion
Beds containing feathers of pigeons, game birds, and cocks, make death difficult, 60
Bee’s Diary on a spectral coach drawn by swine, 327
Bees: sympathy between them and their owners, 309; will not thrive in a quarrelsome family, ib.; swarm settling in dead tree forebodes a death, ib.; strange swarm settling brings good fortune, ib.; when stolen never thrive; love children; making nest in roof unlucky for girls of family; should not be bought, ib.; must be told of a death and taste the funeral feast, 310; also warned of a marriage, ib.; reverenced as producers of wax for altar-lights, ib.; created white, they turned brown at the Fall, ib.; story of their building a chapel, ib.; Mr. Hawker has versified a similar legend, 311; a Jesuit Father on their honouring the Host, ib.; hum a hymn on Christmas Eve, ib.
Beetham, a vicar of, laid the sprite Capelthwaite, 276
