2nd s. Ko 80., July 11. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



25 



ing and impartial public. Would that it might 

 be otherwise ! for everyone who is an admirer of 

 the talents of Chatterton would rejoice to, believe 

 that he lies interred in Redcliffe churchyard with 

 his mother and other relations. 



John Matthew Gdtch. 



FOLK LORE. 



Scottish Superstitions. — On an infant entering 

 the first strange house, the person who carries it 

 demands a piece of silver, an egg, and some bread 

 for good luck to the child. This is a folk lore in 

 Edinburgli ; does it exist elsewhere ? 



2. When a pea-pod containing nine peas is found 

 by a young woman while shelling pease, she places 

 it above the outer door, and the first young man 

 who enters the door thereafter is to be her future 

 husband. 



3. There are fishermen in Forfarshire who, on 

 a hare crossing their path while on their way to 

 their boats, will not put to sea that day. 



4. In some parts of Scotland a horseshoe that 

 has been found, when nailed to the mast of a fish- 

 ing-boat, is a great means of ensuring the boat's 

 safety in a storm. Stuehuhn. 



Charms. — I have before me the manuscript 

 account book of a deceased neighbour, a notable 

 woman in her way. Besides her receipts and dis- 

 bursements, it contains the pharmacopoeia by which 

 she worked the wondrous cures which have spread 

 her name through her own and the bordering 

 parishes. Leaving the material nostrums (as " a 

 cure for rumaticks," and a "drunch for a horse"), 

 I select a few charms and superstitious remedies, 

 and hope that this betrayal of her mysteries may 

 not disturb the ghost of a once kind-hearted and 

 very useful neighbour : — 



" A Charm for the Bite of an Ader. 



" ' Bradgty, bradgty, bradgty, under the ashing leef,' 

 to be repeted three times, and strike j'our hand with the 

 growing of the hare. ' Badgtj', bradgty, bradgty,' to be 

 repated three times nine before eight, eight before seven, 

 seven before six, six before five, five before four, four be- 

 fore three, three before two, two before one, and one be- 

 fore every one, three times for the bite of an ader." 



In the list of provincialisms, collected by Video 

 (1" S. X. 179.), Braggaty is said to mean " mottled, 

 like an adder," &c. 



"For Seal. 



" There was three angels came from the West, 

 The wan brought fier, and the other brought frost, 

 And the otlier brought the book of Jesus Christ, 

 In the name of the Father," &c. 



" For Stanching Blood. 



" Our Saveour was born in Bethleam of Judeah : as he 

 passed by the rivour of Jorden, the waters waid ware all 

 in one, the Lord rise up his holy hand, and bid the waters 

 still to stand, and so shall thy blood. Three times." 



« For a Tfiom. 



" Our Saveour was fastened to the Cross with nails and 

 thorns, which neither rots nor rankels. No more shant 

 thy finger. Three times." 



« To cure Worts. 



" Take a nat (knot) of a reed, and strike the worts 

 downward three times. Bury the reed." 



T. Q. C. 

 Bodmin, 



Letting-in the New Year. — In the *• Memora- 

 bilia " of the Illustrated London News, for May 2, 

 1857, a specimen of Lancashire and north of Eng- 

 land folk-lore is given, — " that it is extremely 

 unlucky to admit a fair-coihplexioned person first 

 across your threshold on the morning of New 

 Year's Day." The correspondent states that 

 " many wealthy and educated families firmly ad- 

 here to this practice." 



I have met (in Shropshire) with a piece of folk- 

 lore which was also adhered to by educated 

 people, but which made the ill-luck to proceed 

 from the sex, and not the complexion. The man 

 brought the good luck, the woman the bad ; so 

 that This is by no means a polite piece of folk-lore. 



Cuthbert Bede. 



Ash Wednesday Folk- Lore. — If you eat pan- 

 cakes on " Goody Tuesday " (Shrove Tuesday), 

 and grey peas on Ash Wednesday, you will have 

 money in your purse all the year. 



Cdthbert Bede. 



Doves unlucky. — Perhaps some reader of " N. & 

 Q." could explain the superstition apparently in- 

 volved in the following story, for the actual occur- 

 rence of which I can vouch : — A month or two 

 back a family, on leaving one of the Channel 

 Islands, presented to a gardener (it is uncertain 

 whether an inhabitant of the island or no) some 

 pet doves, the conveyance of them to England 

 being likely to prove troublesome. A few days 

 afterwards the man brought them back, stating 

 that he was engaged to be married, and the pos- 

 session of the birds on his part might be (as he 

 had been informed) an obstacle to the course^ of 

 true love running smooth. The point on which 

 I should desire information is as to the existence 

 of any superstition with regard to the possession 

 of doves by persons about to be married. M. 



The Devil and Bunwell Man. — I do not kno^ • 

 if the enclosed legend of " Devil and Runwell 

 Man " has ever appeared in print. I have taken 

 it out of the Common-Place Book of an old cler- 

 gyman, written some years ago. It seems curious, 

 and may amuse your readers. 



"Devil and Runwell JJfan.— The Devil wished the. 

 builder to build the church in a particular place ; but the 

 builder would not consent; and continued to erect it in 

 another. The Devil and he fought a pitched battle on 

 the occasion ; and the man beat him. The Devil asked 

 by what assistance he had vanquished him? He an- . 



