2 5 4 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



AMONG THE TRANSYLYANIAN SAXONS. 



BIRTH AND DEATH. 

 [Co?iclu ded.~\ 



BY-AND-BY, when a few months have passed over the head of 

 the new-married couple, and the young matron becomes aware 

 that the prophecies pointed at by the doll's cradle and the broken dis- 

 taff are likely to come true, she is carefully instructed as to the con- 

 duct she must observe in order to insure the well-being of herself and 

 her child. 



In the first place, she must on no account conceal her state, or deny 

 it when interrogated on the subject for if she do so, her child will 

 never learn to speak ; nor may she wear beads on her neck, for that 

 would cause the infant to be strangled at its birth. Carrying peas or 

 beans in her apron will produce malignant eruptions ; and sweeping a 

 chimney will make the child narrow-breasted. 



On no account should she be allowed to pull off her husband's 

 boots, nor to hand him a glowing coal to light his pipe ; for both 

 these actions bring misfortune. In driving to market she may not sit 

 with her back to the horses, nor may she ever drink at the well out of 

 a wooden bucket. 



Also, her intercourse with the pig-sty must be very carefully 

 regulated ; for if she listen too attentively to the grunting of pigs, 

 her child will have a deep, grunting voice ; and if she kick the swine 

 or push them away with her foot, the infant will have bristly hair on 

 its back. Hair on the face will be the result of beating a dog or cat, 

 and twins will be the consequence of eating double cherries or sitting 

 at the corner of the table. 



During this time she may not stand godmother to any other child, 

 or else she will lose her own baby, which will equally be sure to die 

 if she walk round a newly made grave. 



If any one throw a flower suddenly at the woman who expects to 

 become a mother, and hits her with it on the face, her child will have 

 a mole at the same place touched by the flower. 



Should the young matron imprudently have neglected one of these 

 rules, and have cause to fear that an evil spell has been cast on her 

 child, she has, however, several very efficacious recipes for undoing the 

 harm. Thus, if she sit on the door-step with the feet resting on a 

 broom for five minutes at a time on seven consecutive Fridays, think- 

 ing the while of her unborn babe, it will be released from the impend- 

 ing doom ; or else let her sit there on Sundays, when the bells are ring- 

 ing, with her hair hanging unplaitcd down her back ; or else climb up 

 the belfry-tower and look down at sunset on to the landscape below. 



When the moment of the birth is approaching, the windows must 



