Strange Natural History Superstitions 



to bring them. I remember on one occasion entering a 

 friend's house with the wing quill of one of these birds 

 in my hand, and being seriously entreated to dispose of 

 it at once lest it should bring one of us misfortune. 



In olden times when feather-beds were popular and 

 spring mattresses unknown, there was a great prejudice 

 against the plumage of any species of pigeon being used, 

 because it was considered that pigeon's feathers beneath 

 a dying person made it harder for the sufferer to pass 

 away. 



The magpie is another bird to which superstition 

 clings with surprising tenacity. I remember as a lad 

 hearing my mother on many occasions repeat the 

 popular rhyme, in the truth of which I think she firmly 

 believed : 



"One for sorrow, two for mirth, 

 Three for a wedding, four for a birth." 



Another reading of the last words is " for death " I 

 suppose according to the temperament of the quoter or 

 the circumstances governing the likelihood of a begin- 

 ning or an ending in the family. 



In the West of England a drink of cow's milk, in 

 which a live trout had been made to swim, used to be 

 regarded as an infallible cure for whooping cough. I 

 know two men to-day who, when schoolfellows of mine 

 some fifty years ago, were made to eat a roast mouse 

 as a cure for the same troublesome malady. In India 

 cat's flesh used to be regarded as a specific cure for such 

 pulmonary ailments as asthma and consumption. 



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