OLD SUPERSTITIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXV, Issue 26, 1 February 1933, Page 11

OLD SUPERSTITIONS

CUSTOMS IN

Superstition has played a part in many lives and often with mndue power in the ordering of the daily round. An English writer states that the Lanca-: shire cottager had his share of superstitions and curious customs, though, many of these were not, of course, entirely; indigenous 'to the cotton county. If a picture or clock fell from the wall there was certain to be a death in the family or amongst the near circle of friends. It was asking for trouble to cut finger nails on.a Sunday, and Friday was not too good either. When a tooth had to be drawn it ought to be brought home from the dentist, carefully wrapped in brown paper with a little salt, and cast into the fire. "Often I have sat before the kitchen fire watching a fluttering ribbon of soot dangling from the bar of the grate," states the writer. "My grandmother would clap her hands near to the flake, and the number of claps-necessary to move the flaky ribbon told the number of days before the impending visit of a 'stranger,^ which the ribbon represented. If it was on the top bar it would be a man, if it was on the second it would be a woman, and if it was the third a child. If the fire-was sulky the poker would be placed criss-cross on the 'boiler' and protruding over ,the fire, which would then 'burn up.' THE CHILDREN'S PABT. "When the children first put on their new clothes they would go for inspection to as many relatives and friends as they could manage' to visit on a Sunday morning, and every adult, who inspected was liable for a penny to put into the pockets of the new suit or frock. Any child who contracted whooping cough was carried willy-nilly to the nearest tar-boiler'and held ruthlessly in the fumes. Op it might be taken to the top of a neighbouring hill in the hope, that the trouble might be 'blown away' by a friendly gale. The derivation of 'lunacy'; was hinted at in the fear of letting the moon shine too freely on a sleeping babe. If a baby happened to be born in the highest room in the . house, a step-ladder would ~be brought into the room and two or three steps mounted with the child, so that it could be said that it had first 'gone up' before it had 'gone down.' ' ■.-■■■■ "DEVIL'S PICTURES." "In my own establishment. playing cards -were leld to rje the 'Devil's pictures,' and not allowed to come into the house, but where the game "was played, a spell of ill-luck could be broken by turning xound one's chair. Anybody who stood behind a player's chair might be in for a sound cursing if the player's luck was out. /Sapling Day' was freely celebrated in memory of King Charles in my youth, but now seems to have entirely lapsed. And 'pace-egging' and 'morris-dancing^ are now but the whimseys of a cult, and no more the robust frolics of a jolly mob."