44 KiRKBEAN FOLKLOKE. 



The celebration of Christinas was not olwerved. 

 On Hogmanay, the last night of the year, the children went 

 to the houses in bauds, singing the following : 



Hog, nog, nay, tol, lol, lay, 



Gie's a piece o' bread and cheese 



And I'll rin away. 

 Or 



Get up aul' wife and shake your feathers, 

 An' dinna think that we are beggars ; 

 We're but wee weans cam oot to play, 

 Get up an' gie's oor Hogmanay. 



It can hardly be said that this appeal was couched in the most 

 polite terms, but the ''aul' wife" was, as a rule, (luits willing to 

 overlook the want of courtesy, and cheerfully gave bread and 

 cheese to the caroUers. 



In connection with deaths there are two or three customs and 

 beliefs which were at one time observed. The first and second do 

 not appear to be now observed, but the third is occasionally prac- 

 tised. At one time, immediately after a person died, the clocks 

 in the house were all stopped. Another practice was to cover up 

 the looking-glasses. I cannot discover why either of these things 

 were done. Since writing the foregoing a friend called my atten- 

 tion to the following note which appeared in the North British 

 Advertiser of 4th January, 1896, above the signature, J. M. Mac- 

 kinlay, F.S.A., Scot. : — " Covering Mirrors after a Death. — This 

 custom is well known in Scotland, but its origin is seldom undei-- 

 stood by those who practise it. To find its explanation we have to 

 look to the beliefs of uncivilised races. The following account of 

 the custom is given by Dr J. G. Frazer in his ' Golden Bough ' 

 (vol. i. p. 146) : — ' We can now explain the widespread custom of 

 covering up mirrors, or turning them to the wall, after a death has 

 taken place in the house. It is feared that the soul projected out 

 of the person in the shape of his reflection in the mirror, may be 

 carried off by the ghost of the departed, which is commonly sup- 

 posed to linger about the house till the burial. The custom is thus 

 parallel to the Aru custom of not sleeping in a house after a death 

 for fear that the soul, projected out of the body in a dream, may meet 

 the ghost, and be carried off by it. In Oldenburg it is thought that 

 if a person sees his image in a mirror after a death he will die himself. 

 So all the mirrors in the house are covered up with white cloth. In 



