Current superstitions : $b collected from the oral tradition of English speaking folk
General
Current superstitions : $b collected from the oral tradition of English speaking folk
Folklore -- England; Folklore -- United States
No. 170.--It is an interesting psychological fact that projects are in
the great majority of cases tried by girls and young women rather than by
boys and young men.
No. 174.--Here, as in many other cases, it is assumed that young men and
women are accustomed to indulge in promiscuous kissing. The use of the
word gentleman sufficiently indicates the level of society from which
this project was obtained. Gentleman in this sense signifies any male
human being over sixteen. It is often used more specifically to mean
sweetheart, as "Mary and her gentleman were at the policemen's ball."
No. 184.--On Biblical divination see Brand's _Popular Antiquities_
(Bonn's ed.), iii. 337, 338.
No. 186.--This custom of divining the color of the hair of one's future
wife or husband, which is probably very old, yet survives in many places,
but with interesting modifications as to the bird which gives the signal
to try the divination. In Westphalia it is at sight of the first swallow
that the peasant looks to see if there be a hair under his foot.
According to Gay, in England it is the cuckoo.
"When first the year I heard the cuckoo sing,
And call with welcome note the budding spring,
I straightway set a running with such haste
Deborah that won the smock scarce ran so fast;
Till spent for lack of breath, quite weary grown,
Upon a rising bank I sat adown,
There doffed my shoe; and by my troth I swear,
Therein I spied this yellow frizzled hair,
As like to Lubberkin's in curl and hue
As if upon his comely pate it grew."
Nos. 187-193.--These practices, and others like No. 453 and the
asseverations, Nos. 60-67, shade off insensibly into children's games,
customs, and sayings. Games pure and simple have been omitted from the
present monograph, since they are evidently out of place among
superstitions. They have been admirably treated in Mr. Newell's _Games
and Songs of American Children_. The customs and sayings for the most
part belong in collections like Halliwell's _Nursery Rhymes_ rather than
in the present collection.
No. 211.--Projects in which flowers and leaves are employed certainly
much antedate the Christian era. Theocritus (Idyll III.) describes one in
which a poppy petal is used, and he also refers to another form of
love-divination by aid of the leaf of the plant Telephilon.
No. 245.--It is probable that the direction in which one is to walk
during the performance of this and similar acts of divination is not a
matter of indifference, even when no direction is prescribed. One would
expect to find it done sunwise. See note on Chapter xvi.
Nos. 254-256.--The _Sedum_ has long enjoyed a reputation for aphrodisiac
qualities, as is set forth in Gerarde's _Herbal_ and other authorities.
Perhaps the choice of the plant for use in this form of project is due to
some lingering tradition of its potency, or it may be simply because of
its great vitality and power of growing under adverse conditions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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