210 Omens and Superstitions 



This reasoning will, in general, be found correct, and may 

 be applied to solve many of the superstitions in the country; 

 but the case of the magpie is entitled to a little more consi- 

 deration. The piannet, as we call her in the north of Eng- 

 land, is the most unlucky of all birds to see singly at any 

 time ; this, however, does not often happen, except a short 

 time during incubation : they either appear in pairs or in 

 families ; but even this last appearance is as alarming to our 

 grandmothers. The following distich shows what each fore- 

 bodes : — " One sorrow, two mirth, three a wedding, four 

 death." This bird, indeed, appears to have taken the same 

 place with us, as an omen of evil, that the owl had amongst 

 the ancients. [See its ominousness exploded, and its positive 

 benefits to man demonstrated, by Mr. Waterton, p. 9.] The 

 nurse is often heard to declare that she has lost all hopes of 

 her charge when she has observed a piannet on the house-top.* 



Another prejudice, indulged in even by our goodwives, is 

 that of destroying the feathers of the pigeon, instead of saving 

 them to stuff beds, &c. They say, that, if they were to do so, 

 it would only prolong the sufferings of the deathbed ; and 

 when these are more than usually severe, it is attributed to 

 this cause : and the reason given, " because the bird has no 

 gall," is to them quite conclusive, but to me perfectly irrele- 

 vant and unsatisfactory. A belief amongst boys, that to harm 

 or disturb the nests of the redbreast or swallow is unlucky, 

 appears very general throughout the kingdom ; and the keen 

 bird-nester, who prides himself on the quantity of eggs blown 

 and strung bead-fashion, here often gets mortified by finding 

 his trophies destroyed by the housewife, who considers their 

 presence as affecting the safety of her crockery ware. This 

 belief may have been encouraged, if not invented, for a humane 

 purpose ; but how are we to account for the efficacy of the 

 Irish stone in curing swellings caused by venomous reptiles, 

 by merely being rubbed upon the part affected ? The fullest 

 faith in the practice appears to have prevailed in the country 

 at no distant period, and is yet far from extinct. The swal- 

 low and the cuckoo are generally hailed as harbingers of 

 spring and summer ; but, perhaps, many of your readers are 

 not aware that it is only lucky to hear the cuckoo, for the 

 first time in the season, upon soft ground (in contradistinction 

 to hard roads), and with money in the pocket, which the 

 youngster is sagely advised to be sure then to turn over. 



* A rare sight in England, even in villages. The magpie here avoids 

 man and his houses all it can. Gerarde, in his Herbal, incidentally re- 

 marks that magpies are " called in some places pie-annes," which helps 

 us to an etymon of the above term piannet. 



