Page:Notes on the folk-lore of the northern counties of England and the borders.djvu/397

duty; old song on the subject, 39; “hot-pots” offered at Whitburn; pouring boiling water over doorstep (Yorkshire); strewing sand on pavement at Newcastle, 40; rubbing the jilted with pease-straw in Cumberland; unlucky not to change initial of surname; bride’s elder sisters must dance without shoes; racing for a ribbon (Yorkshire), 41; “firing the stithy” at a stingy bride; woman must not hear her banns published: deaf and dumb children the penalty; crossing the bride’s stockings; hair low on forehead, called the “widow’s peak:” presages widowhood; first to sleep on wedding night, first to die; loss of ring causes loss of husband’s affection; the breaking forebodes his death; first to kneel at the altar, first to die; Basque husband kneels on fold of wife’s dress, 42

Martin, rhyme on, 123

Maxton, witch of, hunted in hare form, 201; field near, haunted by two ladies in white, 324

May, month of: its effect on illness, 113; kittens unlucky; babies sickly, 116

Day: the ancient observances almost passed away; in Devonshire children carry doll in basket of flowers, 85; gathering sticks permitted at Warboys, 86

Dew: gathered by witches—called Daustrikers in Germany, 199–200; climbing Arthur’s Seat and Kintoul Hill to “meet the dew,” 85

Moon: its potency on charms, 115

Second Sunday in: rural sports at Blencogo, 79; battledore and shuttle-feathers played in North Riding villages, 80

Twenty-ninth: bird-nesting season ends at Fishlake, 96

Meat shrinking or swelling in pot, augury from, 117; stolen, a charm for warts, 139; tainted by ghost; see Ghosts

Mell-supper, The: its name from Norse, mele, corn; the mell-doll—a sheaf stuck with flowers and wrapped in reaper’s garment; equality of masters and servants; invasion of guisers, 88; its prototypes, 89

Melsonby: ghosts abound there, 327

Menhir, offerings in Brittany to the great, 2

Mesmerisers use book and key to determine strength of will, 236

Metals counteract witchcraft and evil spirits, 230

Michaelmas Day; see St. Michael’s Day

Midsummer Eve: unlucky to let house fire go out on, 72

Milk, see Witches

Mills haunted by Killmoulis, 252; in Holland by Kabourtermannekins, 250

Milly-boxes, see Christmas

Minchmuir, a wishing-well on, called the Cheese-well, 230

Miners: think whistling underground irreverent (Devon and Cornwall), 44; one haunted by two spectres, 323

Mines: supposed to be haunted; case at Whitehaven, 322

Mistletoe given to first cow calving in year ensures good luck in dairy, 114

Mitchell’s (Dr.) Superstitions of Highlands, &c. quoted on sacrifices of cocks and bulls, 147–8

Mole on neck foretokens hanging, 113

Mole, paw of live: a charm for tooth-ache, 145