38 Transactions. 
the opportunities they afford for social enjoyment and amusement. 
We pass over various other beliefs associated with birth and 
infancy that we may deal more fully with the important subject 
of baptism. In Scotland children are still often baptised as early 
as the second or third week after birth, a haste which is doubtless 
due, in some measure, to a lingering superstition, for baptism 
has long been looked upon as the only sufficient safeguard against. 
the influence of the evil eye, or the powers of the ill-disposed 
fairies; and its performance has in consequence ever been delayed 
as little as possible. Burns mentions among the “unco’s” seen 
by his hero “ Tam o’ Shanter,” on the night of his eventful ride, 
“Twa span-lang wee unchristened bairns,” whose presence in such 
unhallowed company was of course due to the circumstance that 
the potent rite of baptism had been neglected. It was deemed 
of the utmost importance that the person who carried the child 
to church on the occasion of the christening should be known to 
be lucky. Prior to setting out, a small pocket of salt was put 
in the child’s bosom, or attached to some part of the dress, to 
keep witches away; and if a call was made the mistress of 
the house was expected to give the child a lick of sugar for luck. 
Once arrived at church, should there be a boy and a girl to present 
at the same diet, great care had to be taken to have the boy 
christened first, else he would grow up effeminate, while the girl 
would have the boy’s beard, a contingency which may have helped 
to reconcile the gentler sex to a sacrifice of that precedence which 
we, on all other occasions, concede as their due. 
Subsequent to baptism we find a number of curious beliefs. 
Thus, it is considered most unlucky to let a child see itself in the 
mirror until all its teeth have been cut. Itis also unlucky to cut 
a child’s finger nails or to cut a child’s hair, for in the former case 
you teach the child to steal, while in the latter there is a danger 
of hair growing over the child’s whole body. Another curious 
belief is that if the cradle be rocked while empty, it will cause its 
baby owner to have a sore head. Satanic or elfish influences, 
inimical to the child, were repelled by the use of the three oils—a 
mystic preparation with which the forehead was bathed as 
occasion might require. 
Coming to speak of marriage we notice first of all the various 
modes of love-divination. In Scotland “ All Hallow’s Eve” is, 
of course, the popular festival for practising this form of super- 
