SUPERSTITIONS. aye 
SUPERSTITIONS. 
‘¢There’s something strange about egg shells, 
That makes them proof against all spells.” 
TUDOR JENKS. 
GGS, and especially their shells, have 
been thought potent aids in witch- 
craft. 
Irish and English nurses once in- 
structed children to push their spoons through 
the shell of an egg, after eating its contents, 
“to keep the witches from making a boat of it.” 
These lines from Beaumont and Fletcher 
show the common belief : 
“ The devil should think of purchasing that egg- 
shell, 
To victual out a wife for the Bermoothus.” 
(2. e. Bermudas.) 
Sir Thomas Browne tells us another reason 
for breaking the shells, lest the witches should 
draw or prick their names therein and thus 
