THE REDBREAST. 53 



innocency, to the serpent to learn wisdom, and why not to 

 the Eedbreast, who chaunts it as delightfully in winter 

 as in summer, to learn equanimity and patience ? ' " ^ He 

 also remarks that a popular saying, sometimes heard in the 

 county before an impending change, is that " the Eobins are 

 too muckle aboot the doors for good weather ; " and that it 

 is believed that if they sit high and sing in harvest, it is 

 a sign of good harvest weather. He likewise mentions 

 that boys used to believe that they follow them into the 

 woods for the purpose of intimating any danger that may 

 waylay them, and sometimes this belief was so impressed 

 upon them, that they would take to their heels if the birds 

 approached too near them." In some districts of the county 

 the Eobin is looked upon by the country people as a 

 hallowed bird, and very few boys will kill one ; it being 

 said that if they do so its spirit may some day return, and 

 seek the blood of the slayer. It is also said that it was 

 the only bird which ventured near the Cross, and that the 

 blood of our Saviour fell on its breast, which has remained 

 red ever since.^ 



The old nursery ballad of the " Babes in the Wood," ^ 

 with which we have all been familiar in our childhood, 

 contains an allusion to a kindly popular superstition 

 regarding this bird piously covering the bodies of the dead 

 with leaves : — 



Thus wandered these poor innocents, till deathe did end their grief ; 



In one another's arms they dyed as wanting due relief : 



No burial this pretty pair of any man receives, 



Till Robin-Redbreast piously did cover them with leaves. 



1 Mr. Hardy's MS. Notes. ^ fbid. 



3 Mr. W. Lockie, Spottiswoode, in a letter dated 29th January 1887. [For 

 superstitions regarding the Robin, see Swainson's Folk Lore of British Birds, 

 and Rolland's Faune Popidavre de la France.] 



■* It is mentioned in Ritson's Ancient Songs and Ballads that The Children in the 

 Wood ; or The Norfolk Gentleman's Last Will and Testament, appears to have 

 been written in 1595, being entered in that year in the Stationers' Books, but the 

 oldest edition now known in print is that entitled The Cruel Uncle, 12nio, 1670. 



