KIRKBEAN FOLKLORE. 47 
Not unfamiliar to many is the not uncommon custom of 
putting a piece of money into the pocket of a child’s new garment 
to “hansel” it. It was only lately, however, I learned that it 
was a common thing a good many years ago for a boy who had 
become the happy wearer of a suit of new clothes to go the round 
of the village to show them to the neighbours, who generally 
‘‘ hanselled” them by giving him a half-penny or a penny. 
It seems that there was a custom years ago, and may still be, 
to put a coin under the mast of a vessel. This I heard of about 
two years ago when the masts were taken out of an old vessel 
which was in course of undergoing repair. It was generally 
silver coins, but in this case they were of the baser metal. JI am 
in possession of a half-penny which was under the foremast of this 
vessel, the coin under the mainmast being a penny. 
The late Mr Dudgeon, in the paper to which I have already 
referred, speaks of the belief that it was unlucky to buy or sell bees, 
or rather to let money pass between the old and the new owner. 
I have heard this said, and that the bees were taken away, and a 
sum of money, generally £1, left on the stand on which the hive 
had been placed. In the same paper it is said, ‘“‘ An old man I 
have heard of in Kirkbean, who died about thirty years ago, 
always maintained that the bees sang a hymn on Christmas day. 
This pretty superstition has, I fear, quite died out.” I have made 
enquiry regarding this, but cannot hear anything about it, and I 
have been equally unsuccessful in discovering any other remains 
of bee superstitions. 
In my paper on ‘“ Plant Superstitions,” which appears in this 
Society’s Transactions for the session of 1892-93, I included 
several superstitions which were believed in in Kirkbean. I fear 
to repeat these would unduly extend this paper, and I have heard 
of little to add to this part of the subject. Here is, however, an 
instance of the way in which the supposed properties of the rowan 
tree were applied. An old woman residing in one of the villages 
in the parish gave a boy a twig of a rowan tree and said, “ Pit 
that aboon the byre door; an’ the coo’l be nane the waur o’t.” 
Few will question the truth of her statement. 
I have endeayoured to find out if anything lay behind the 
custom of young or unmarried women generally carrying a small 
piece of Southernwood, or ‘“ Lad’s Love,” when going to church. 
