Collectanea. 89
When I was quite a little girl I remember several times seeing the funeral of a baby. Four young women dressed in white carried the coffin on a white cloth held by the four corners. They wore large white bonnets tied under the chin in the fashion of those days, and, if they had no white bonnets, they covered those they had with a piece of white muslin. They walked from Long Handborough to Church Handborough, a distance of about a mile, and I never saw any mourners following. This custom was dis- continued before I grew up.
There was a tradition that a ship could not sail if a murderer was on board. I remember part of an old song about a man named William who had murdered his sweetheart and her baby. The captain of the ship summoned all the men before him, and told them that there was a murderer on board.
" " For the ship is in mourning; and will not sail on." Then up came one, — " I'm sure its not me." And up came another, and the same he did say, Then up came 3-()ung William to curse and to swear,
" I'm sure it's not me, sir, I vow and declare." As he was a-turning away for to go, The ghost of his dear Mary came up from below. She stript and she tore him, she tore him in three, All for murdering her sweet baby and she."
There were several "cures" and superstitions which were firmly believed in. A cure for cramp in the night was to place a bowl of water under the bed. An old labourer at Holton told me he used to suffer dreadfully from cramp, but was cured in this way. He said, — "Nobody need ever have cramp." If anyone had warts certain persons in the place could charm them away, and many people assured me that theirs had disappeared after being 'charmed.' Another way, but a cruel one, was to take a snail, rub it over the warts, stick it on a thorn, and, as the snail died, the warts disappeared. There was an old superstition that, at twelve o'clock at night on Christmas Eve, all the cattle in the lields fell upon their knees, and another that it was a sin to kill a martin, swallow, robin, or wren, for
" Martins and swallows are God A'mighty's scholars, And robins and wrens are God A'mighty's cocks and hens."
At Bloxham it was 'friends ' instead of "cocks and hens.'
