SLUGS AND SNAILS. 275 



of a needle or a pin, in the same way that periwinkles 

 are treated for a similar purpose. The shells may be 

 preserved, with a little cotton-wool to keep them from 

 shaking, in small pill-boxes, or glued down upon 

 cardboard. 



There has never been much that is romantic asso- 

 ciated with snails, neither have they been great favour- 

 ites with poets. Nevertheless, in the Eastern Counties, 

 where they are called " Dodmans," we have seen 

 children holding them in their fingers, chanting to 

 them meanwhile as prognosticators of the weather 



Dpdman, dodman, pull out your horn 

 And show 'twill be a good day i' the morn. 



In addition to this, we read of snails being used as 

 a kind of love divination, when they were set to crawl 

 on the hearth, and were thought to mark in the ashes 

 the initials of the lover's name. As these divinations 

 were usually associated with some particular day, so 

 the snail divination was only effectual when performed 

 on May-day. Gay refers to the practice in the follow- 

 ing lines : 



Last May-day fair I search'd to find a snail, 



That might my secret lover's name reveal : 



Upon a gooseberry-bush a snail I found, 



For always snails near sweetest fruit abound. 



I seized the vermin ; home I quickly sped, 



And on the hearth the milk-white embers spread : 



Slow crawled the snail, and, if I right can spell, 



In the soft ashes marked a curious L. 



Oh, may this wondrous omen lucky prove ! 



For L is found in Lubberkin and Love. 



T 2 



