40 DORSETSHIRE POLK-SPEECH AND SUPERSTITIONS. 



thrown away ; otherwise the plant will never thrive. I am told 

 that this custom should be particularly enforced in the case of 

 Christmastide decorations, which should never be burnt after they 

 are taken down, on pain of the most terrible disasters following 

 upon the infringement of the rule. 



Polly-wash-disli : The water- wag-tail. [See Dish-washer.] 



Pommice (Pummice : Pummy) : The dry substance of apples 

 after the juice is pressed out of them in the cider-press. Pheasants 

 are particularly fond of " apple-pommice," and a few heaps spread 

 in a copse have been very effectual in preventing wild birds from 

 straying out of bounds. 



Rams'-claws : The stalks and stalk-roots of the creeping crow- 

 foot. 



Ramsons : The broad-leaved garlic (allium ursinum). 



Reddick (Ruddock) : The robin red-breast. 



The robin, no less than the wren, has always been looked upon 

 by country-folk with affection and regard. The sweet and pretty 

 legend that the red plumage of his breast was owing to the fact 

 that it was a robin that wounded itself by pressing against the 

 thorns that composed our Saviour's crown made it an object of 

 veneration to many, so that we cannot wonder that it forms a 

 conspicuous subject for augury. 



If a robin comes into a house it is looked upon as an omen of 

 death ; and I have heard it said that if the " sighing " of a robin is 

 noticed near a house it foretells illness or death to some one of its 

 inmates. It is extremely unlucky for any one to kill a robin ; and 

 it used to be said to children that if they ever took robins' 

 eggs from a nest their little fingers would be sure to grow 

 crooked. 



[For the connection of the robin with the wren see note to 

 cutty.] 



Red-roughs : Scarlet runners ; French beans. 



Red-sojer (or soldier) : The scarlet burnet-moth. 



Red-weed : The poppy (papaver rlioeas). 



Rere-mouse : A bat (see Air-mouse). 



