Collectanea. 349
Birth.
If a child cries lustily after it is born, the bystanders say, " It's gat a gueed brain, ony-wye." "Ye may say fat ye like, but I ken this o't," said an old woman, "oot o' a' my ten, my aul'est laddie wis the only een that grat niaist awfu' fan he wis born, an' he's been cliverer than ony o' them."
A premature child will live if born at the seventh month, but not at the eighth.
If twins should get husbands and wives, one of them will be childless.
A doublewhorl in the hair of a child means that it will live to see two kings crowned, or that it will be "a great wanderer."
In olden days two mutches (caps), an inner plain one and an outer one of a more ornamental variety, were put on the child's head. The first inner one, taken off when soiled, was never washed and put on again, but flung in the fire. Similarly, the first soiled napkin was never washed and used again, but was flung out on the green. {Durrts, Kincardineshire.)
Children baptized after dark will see "bokies" (ghosts). {Parish of Kaig.)
Sundry Beliefs a fid Sayings.
Crows building near a house bring luck.
Swallows building also bring luck. It is very unlucky to harry a swallow's nest. A swallow flying beneath the arm causes paralysis of the arm.
If a woman loses her marriage-ring "she will lose her man."
It is unlucky to put boots on the table, but the ill-luck may be counteracted by spitting on the soles. Some years ago, after examining and condemning a pair of narrow-toed boots in a ploughman's house, I placed them on the table, and the plough- man's wife immediately removed them, saying, " Would ye hae strife in the hoose afore nicht?" She was consoled when I told her, what she did not know, how the evil might be averted.
It is unlucky to open an umbrella in a house : it presages a death.
It is unlucky to pick up your umbrella yourself if you drop it.
