DORSETSHIRE FOLK-SPEECH AND SUPERSTITIONS. 25 



Cat : A cat that is born in May is generally said to bring 

 snakes into the house. 



If you want your cat to be a good "jiiouser" you should get 

 some one to give you one ; a cat that is bought is never good for 

 much. 



Cattle : If cattle during wet and miserable weather are seen 

 feeding at the top of a hill, it is considered to be a sign that the 

 weather will soon clear up. 



Cavings : The husks of barley. 



Cox-head : The dry head of the wild carrot or other umbel 

 (see Kecks). 



Clieat : "Wild oats, or oats which, from lack of soil or food, or 

 other cause, have degenerated into the wild form. The bearded 

 darnell (lolium temulentum). 



J. E. Taylor in Half-hours in the Green Lanes (4th ed : 1877, 

 p. 275), says that the bearded darnel (lolium temulentum), so called 

 from its long awns, is supposed by some writers to be the " tares " 

 to which the Saviour alluded in His parable of the tares and wheat. 

 The seeds of this species have a very peculiar intoxicating effect. 



When malted with barley the ale produced from the mixture 

 produces speedy drunkenness, and if they are ground up with 

 bread com, the bread, if eaten hot, produces a similar effect. 

 Smith in his Bible Plants states that even death has been caused 

 by eating bread containing darnel. Its poisonous properties were 

 well known to Theophrastus and other Greek writers, and Gerard, 

 in his Herbal, says "The bread wherein darnel is, eaten hot, 

 causeth drunkenness ;" hence in some books it is called " drunken 

 darnell." It is also said to cause blindness. The attribution of 

 poisonous properties to the bearded darnel is not mere folk-lore. 

 Linnseus says that the seeds baked in bread are hurtful, and, if 

 malted with barley, produce giddiness. Bentley suggests that this 

 may be due to the seeds becoming ergotized, as the effects described 

 closely resemble those of the common ergot. (Upon this subject 

 see Notes and Queries, 7th s., vii., 46, 198). 



Cheese-eater : The tomtit J so called from its cry. 



