injurious to the infant, and a prognostic of his death;[1] and in Sweden, where they say it makes the child noisy and given to crying.[2] Rocking the toom cradle is often deprecated in the counties of Durham and Yorkshire on another ground; it is said there to be ominous of another claimant for that place of rest.
In Sussex they express this notion in the couplet—
If you rock the cradle empty,
Then you shall have babies plenty.
And I am told of a village schoolmistress of that county who used to rate her scholars soundly if they ever touched her cradle. “There, leave the cradle alone,” she would exclaim, “I’ve children enough already.”
The proverb, “Soon teeth, soon toes,” shows another portent of such an event. If baby’s teeth come early there will soon be fresh toes, i. e. another baby. This belief extends to Sweden. “Leave off its caps on Sunday and it will not take cold,” is a saying which will soon die out now babies have left off wearing caps at all.
Perhaps I may mention here a kindly northern custom, that in all sales, either under distraint for rent or common debt, the cradle should be left unsold, and remain the property of its original owner.[3] The late Canon Humble informed me that formerly a similar immunity attached to the corner cupboard, the place where the bread for the family was kept; at least it was the last thing sold under distraint. If a Northumbrian wishes to give you the idea of a man utterly and hopelessly ruined, he will say, “They have sold him up, corner cupboard and all.” Are you curious to know the sex of the coming stranger? You must notice whether the old baby says papa or
- ↑ Choice Notes, p. 6.
- ↑ Thorpe’s Mythology, vol. ii. p. 110.
- ↑ In the year 1848 the family house of the Nevilles, in the city of Durham, called the Bull’s Head, from their cognizance probably, was pulled down to make way for the present Town Hall. In a garret of the mansion was discovered a highly ornamented cradle, in which, doubtless, the great barons of the North had been rocked in infancy. Unfortunately, it was destroyed by the workmen on the spot. There is something touching in the thought that the last relic in this city of a family so famed for deeds and for sufferings should be of such a domestic character. Probably the strong feeling alluded to in the text caused the cradle to be hidden when all the other furniture of this ancient house was dispersed.
