And May is an unlucky month for weddings, as for births. But the time being happily settled, the bride must not hear the banns given out, or her children will be deaf and dumb, and neither she nor any of the guests must wear anything green. She should wear "Something old, something new, Something borrowed, and something blue." The day of the marriage should be fine, "for happy is the bride whom the sun shines on." The bridal party is escorted to church by men armed with guns, which they continually fire. After the ceremony it is the clergyman’s privilege to kiss the bride; and outside the church people are probably waiting with "hot-pots," of which the whole party must taste. At St. Helen’s Auckland, and other villages, the "race for the bride-door" for a ribbon or kerchief is still customary. And it was formerly the custom to address complimentary verses to the bridal couple before they left the church. This was called "saying the Nominy." The verses differed, were of no great poetical merit, and always ended with, "Pray remember the Nominy sayer." The word is evidently derived from _nomen_, the bride having received a new name. The loss of the wedding-ring means the loss of the husband’s love, and its breaking forbodes death. Of portents of death there are many. The howling of dogs; the flight of jackdaws or swallows down the chimney; "a winding-sheet" in the candle; the crowing of a cock at the dead of night; the hovering of birds round the house, or their resting on the window-sill, or flapping against the pane; and three raps given by an invisible hand, are all auguries of death. If thirteen persons sit down to a meal together, one of them will die before the year is out. The custom of keeping the Vigil of St. Mark is not unknown. They who wish to know who of their fellow-parishioners will die during the coming year must keep watch in the church porch from eleven to one, on St. Mark’s Eve, for three successive years; then the doomed company will pass into the church. But if the watcher fall asleep during his vigil, he will himself die during the year. At the time of death the door should be left open to afford free passage to the departing spirit. It is held that no one can die on a bed or pillow containing the feathers of pigeons or of game of any kind; and all along the East Coast it is said that people usually die during the falling of the tide. When the corpse is "laid out," the death-chamber is shrouded in white, the clock is stopped, and the looking-glass covered, to show that for the dead time is no more and earthly vanity departed. There is also the dread that if the mirror were left uncovered the ghost of the dead man might be reflected in it. A plate of salt is also placed upon the breast as an emblem of eternity.