244 LOCAL SUPERSTITIONS. 



old Irishwoman who went into a grocer's shop, and there 

 found a lady and gentleman making some purchases. Ad- 

 dressing herself to them, she told them that she had dreamed 

 the night before that the lady had given her a pound of tay, 

 and the gentleman a pound of sugar. " Ah ! but my good 

 woman," replied the gentleman, u dreams are always explained 

 by contraries." " Oh ! very well," said the old woman, " your 

 honour can give me the tay, and your lady can give me the 

 sugar." It will readily be seen that according to this most 

 convenient way of interpreting dreams, they can be made to 

 coincide with almost anything that comes to pass, or rather, 

 anything that happens may be made to coincide with them. 



However, as the continuation of this subject would lead 

 one to an interminable length, I will conclude by simply 

 observing that there must have been persons, at all times, 

 somewhat sceptical on the subject of dreams denoting future 

 events, otherwise we should scarcely have the old Guernsey 

 proverb, which says : " Senge nest qu ombre, et ombre nest 

 rien." That is : " Dreams are but shadows, and shadows are 

 nothing." 



Furthermore, I cannot help thinking that what has 

 helped in a great measure to perpetuate the belief in dreams 

 among the ignorant, at least, has been dream-books. I have 

 seen several in country houses — though I never had the 

 patience to read any of them through — which- professed to 

 interpret all kinds of those visions of the night as gravely as if 

 their authors had been so many Josephs of dream-interpreting 

 memory. 



Young people also pretend to find out the time of their 

 marriage by means of the number of kernels, or stones, found 

 in the portion of plum-pudding which they eat at their 

 Christmas dinner. Thus reckoning the stones, they say : 

 " This year, next year, never, now," or something of the kind, 

 over and over again, till the}?' come to the last stone, which is 

 supposed to give the desired information. 



It is also a popular notion, as regards death-omens, that 

 opening a book all at once at the required page, or hitting 

 upon the exact number of anything in like manner, is a sure 

 sign that the person so doing will die during the year. 



Other prolific sources of omens and signs are the various 

 aspects of the weather. I am not going into this now, but 

 will simply observe that the rainbow has given rise to this 

 proverb : — 



" Ardaillance an matin fait la mare au ch'min, 

 Ardaillance au ser fait bel aver." 



