.248 pPant "bore, Tsege^/, anil Isi^ncf, 



and Pulse, we are told, were sodden. The Romans offered Beans 

 to their goddess Carna on the occasion of her festival in the month 



of June. The Lemures, or evil spirits of those who had lived bad 



lives, according to a Roman superstition, were in the habit, during 

 the night-time, of approaching houses, and then throwing Beans 

 against them. The Romans celebrated festivals in their honour in 

 the month of May, when the people were accustomed to throw 

 black Beans on the graves of the deceased, or to burn them, as 

 the smell was supposed to be disagreeable to the manes. This 

 association of Beans with the dead is still preserved in some parts 

 of Italy, where, on the anniversary of a death, it is customary to 

 eat Beans and to distribute them to the poor. Black Beans were 

 considered to be male, and white female, the latter being the 



inferior. De Gubernatis relates several curious customs con- 



necfted with Beans. In Tuscany, the fire of St. John is lighted in 

 a Bean-field, so that it shall burn quickly. In Sicily, on Mid- 

 summer Eve, Beans are eaten with some little ceremony, and the 

 good St. John is thanked for having obtained the blessings of a 

 bountiful harvest from God. At Modica, in Sicily, on Ocflober ist, 

 a maiden in love will sow two Beans in the same pot. The one 

 represents herself, the other the youth she loves. If both Beans 

 shoot forth before the feast of St. Raphael, then marriage will 

 come to pass ; but if only one of the Beans sprouts, there will be 

 betrayal on the part of the other. In Sicily and Tuscany, girls who 

 desire a husband learn their fate by means of Beans, in this 

 fashion: — They put into a bag three Beans — one whole, another 

 without the eye, a third without the rind. Then, after shaking 

 them up, they draw one from the bag. The whole Bean signifies a 

 rich husband ; the Bean without an eye signifies a sickly husband ; 



and the Bean without rind a husband without a penny. The 



French have a legend, of one Pipette, who, like our Jack, reaches 

 the sky by means of a Bean-stalk. In France, some parts of Italy, 

 and Russia, on Twelfth Night, children eat a cake in which has 

 been baked a white Bean and a black Bean. The children to 

 whose lot fall the portions of cake containing the Beans become 



the King and Queen of the evening. An old English charm to 



cure warts is to take the shell of a broad Bean, and rub the affecfted 

 part with the inside thereof; the shell is then to be buried, and no 

 oae is to be told about the matter; then, as the shell withers away, 

 so will the wart gradually disappear. It is a popular tradition that 

 during the flowering of the Bean more cases of lunacy occur that 

 at any other season. In Leap Year, it is a common notion that 

 broad Beans grow the wrong way, i.e., the seed is set in the pods 

 in quite the contrary way to what.it is in other years. The reason 

 given is that, because it is the ladies' year, the Beans always lie the 

 wrong way — in reference to the privilege possessed by the fair sex 

 of courting in Leap Year. There is a saying in Leicestershire, that 

 if you wish for awful dreams or desire to go crazy, you have only 



