488 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Dec. 22. 1855. 



of imaginary martyrs, who usually exhibit the 

 coldest sympathy lor real suffering), convinced 

 me that a rigorous impressment of her reptile 

 pensioners would be speedily commenced. 1 left 

 her contemplating the experiment as an act of 

 " faith," and no doubt its success, too, as a com- 

 plete triumph of that principle. I confess my ig- 

 norance of the origin of, or meaning attached to, 

 so superstitious a notion, — 



" Ranariim viscera nunquam inspexi," 

 aut crura ; but if I may be allowed to append a 

 Query (o the above, can any of your corre- 

 spondents, versed in the spelling, inform me what 

 peculiar significance, or inherent virtue, there is 

 in these excerpta of frogs, that a symbol of im- 

 purity should be so valued for any sanative or 

 phylacteric quality ? Can this be a relic of an 

 ancient superstition, or is it a mere provincial 

 nostrum of modern times? F. Phillott. 



Greenock Folk Lore. — The following bits of 

 local folk lore are waiting for record in " N. & 

 Q.": 



1. Fly lucky. — Amongst our deep sea fishermen 

 there is a most comical idea, that if a fly falls into 

 the glass from which any one has been drinking, or 

 is about to drink, it is considered a sure and true 

 omen of good luck to the drinker, and is always 

 noticed as such by the company. Where can this 

 odd idea have come from, and what can be the 

 meaning of it ? 



2. Deaf and Dumb Fortune-tellers. — It is ge- 

 nerally held, by country folk hereabout, that if a 

 fortune be spae'd by a person who is deaf and 

 dumb, and written with a stick on the ground, it 

 must come true. Consequently such fortune- 

 tellers (forgive the bull) are in high request 

 amongst the lads and lassies. Anon. 



Greenock. 



Useful Superstitions. — An agricultural friend, in 

 reference to a former communication of mine to 

 "N. & Q." ("Drills presaging Death," Vol. vii. p. 

 353.), remarked that he wished his labourers be- 

 lieved it; as then, probably, they would be more at- 

 tentive in using the drill. This has suggested to me 

 the thought, that many omens, so absurdly credited 

 by the superstitious, may have a useful tendency. 

 I will adduce a few examples — not doubting that 

 many others may be contributed to "N. & Q." 

 Have any of my readers remarked how very rarely, 

 considering their fragile nature, looking-glasses 

 are broken. Much of this immunity, beyond 

 doubt, may be attributed to the remarkable fatal- 

 ity attached to such a calamity. If a cat break a 

 looking-glass — and it is well known that cats, 

 somehow, contrive to break four-fifths, at least, of 

 every thing fractured in a family — one of the 

 cats belonging to the house must pay the penalty, 

 with all its nine lives. If a child break one, some 



No. 321.] 



one of the children — or if a servant, one of the 

 servants — must die within the year. So impli- 

 citly is this believed, that I have heard of a case 

 where a servant gave her mistress a " month's 

 warning," because a fellow-servant had thus da- 

 maged a valuable mirror. Looking-glass manu- 

 facturers, indeed, but none else, I imagine, may 

 question the utility of this belief. Indeed, what 

 would become of the craft of JNIessrs. Spode & 

 Copeland, could such a protection be extended to 

 crockery ? 



A similar capital penalty is attached to leaving 

 a lighted candle or lamp in a room by itself, and 

 allowing it to burn out in utter forgetfulness that 

 it has been so neglected. If, instead of in a room, 

 it be shut up in a closet, the penalty then is almost 

 sure to attach itself to the perpetrator of this care- 

 less deed. If he do not die, at least he will have 

 a serious Illness, or a severe accident, within a 

 year and a day. Many a devastating fire has, I 

 doubt not, been prevented by this wide-spread 

 belief 



My third instance only enforces good manners. 

 Nothing more surely presages a death in the 

 family, than for a labourer to enter his cottage 

 with a mattock, shovel, or spade (the sexton's 

 Implements) on his shoulder. A remarkable case, 

 in illustration of this, has occurred within my 

 knowledge. A man entered his cottage with his 

 spade on his shoulder ; and a credulous neigh- 

 bour forthwith informed him of the ominous con- 

 sequences of the act, at which he was greatly 

 alarmed. A few days afterwards, he confessed to 

 a fellow-labourer, that on the previous anniver- 

 sary of that day he had set fire to a neiglibour's 

 hovel ; detailed the artifices by which he had evaded 

 detection, which were very ingenious, although 

 he was a person of limited Intellect ; and after 

 inquiring of him whether he thought he would 

 ever be detected and transported, left the barn in 

 which they were both at work, and hanged him- 

 self. Perhaps in this case, the omen acting on 

 the morbid state of his mind, may have contri- 

 buted to its own fulfilment. E. G. R. 



Bees at the Mote at Ightham. — At that fine 

 specimen of old domestic architecture, " The 

 Mote," at Ightham, in Kent, a hive of bees have 

 for many years established themselves beneath the 

 flooring of the ancient chapel. On the day of the 

 death of the last proprietress of the Mote, they all 

 disappeared, and, on the same afternoon on which 

 the next occupant (the fair daughter of the de- 

 visee) arrived to take possession, the swarm re- 

 turned to welcome her to her home, and fixed 

 themselves at once in their old quarters. Last 

 winter was, unhappily, too severe for them, and 

 they all perished ; but, on the first sunny day in 

 the spring, some of the family roaming among 

 the beautiful deep-wooded dells which surrounded 



