DORSETSHIRE FOLK-SPEECH AND SUPERSTITIONS. 27 



Cows-and- Calves : Lords and ladies ; the barren and fertile 

 flowers of the cuckoo-pint (arum maculatum). 



Cow-white : A customary payment in lieu of tithe-milk of a 

 cow, is called in some parts of West Dorset " cow- white money," 

 or simply "cow-white." (Hutchins, 2nd Ed., 1796). 



Crannick : A root of furze or stool of a furze bush. 



Crewel : The cowslip (primula, verts). 



Christen : A small kind of plum. 



Crow-garlic : Allium vineale. 



Crow-shell : The fresh-water mussel shell (unio), so called 

 because the crows take them from the water, and, having eaten 

 their contents, leave them in the meadows. 



Crumplen : A small apple, crumpled from defective or con- 

 strained growth. 



Cuckoo : The wild burr and burdock (arctium lappa). (See 

 Cockle.) 



Cuckoo-flower : The lady's-smock or bitter-cress (cardamine 

 pratensis), on which cuckoo-spittle is often found. 



Cuckoo-spittle : The frothy nidus of the cicada spumaria, 

 attributed to the spitting of the cuckoo. 



Cuckoo' s-bread : "Wood-sorrel (oxalis acetosella). 



Culver : The wood-pigeon or ring-dove. 



In connection with pigeons may be mentioned the common 

 superstition, by no means confined to Dorset, that pigeons' feathers 

 should always be thrown away, and never on any account used 

 for stuffing beds or pillows, for it is believed that persons cannot 

 die peacefully if lying upon them. This accounts for the not 

 uncommon occurrence in olden time of a poor lingering mortal 

 being lifted on to the floor in order that he may not die so hard !* 



Apropos of a person dying hard, it was sometimes the practice in 

 the neighbourhood of Whatcombe for those in attendance on the 

 dying person to observe which way the planks of the floor lay, and 



* It is, moreover, a Hindoo and Mahomedan custom to lay a dying man 

 on the floor. ConJ. Henderson's Folk-lore of the Northern Counties, p. 60, 

 and Gregor's Folk-lore of North-east of Scotland, p. 206. 



