And yet another—
Sunday shaven, Sunday shorn,
Better hadst thou ne’er been born!
Or, at greater length—
Cut them on Monday, cut them for health,
Cut them on Tuesday, cut them for wealth;
Cut them on Wednesday, cut them for news,
Cut them on Thursday, a pair of new shoes;
Cut them on Friday, cut them for sorrow,
Cut them on Saturday, a present to-morrow;
But he that on Sunday cuts his horn,
Better that he had never been born!
In Sussex they simply say “Cut your nails on Sunday morning, and you’ll come to grief before Saturday night.”
Again, the Cleveland nurses aver that it is very important for an infant to go up in the world before it goes down. Thus, if a child should be born in the top story of a house, for want of a flight of stairs, one of the gossips will take it in her arms, and mount a table, chair, or chest of drawers before she carries it down stairs. I have heard of a similar belief in the Channel Islands at the present day, and imagine it to have been formerly prevalent in every part of England.
The Wilkie MS. contains a caution against rocking a cradle when it is “toom,” or empty, and cites on the subject the following fragment:
The Toom Cradle.
Oh! rock not the cradle when the babie’s not in,
For this by old women is counted a sin;
It’s a crime so inhuman it may na’ be forgi’en,
And they that wi’ do it ha’e lost sight of heaven.
Such rocking maun bring on the babie disease,
Well may it grow fretty that none can it please,
Its crimson lip pale grows, its clear eye wax dim,
Its beauty grow pale, and its visage wax dim,
Its heart flutters fast, it breathes hard, then is gone,
To the fair land of heaven * * * *
The belief thus expressed holds its ground in the southern counties of Scotland, particularly in Selkirkshire. It crops out too in Holland, where rocking an empty cradle is affirmed to be
