It used to be considered lucky for bridesmaids to throw away pins on a wedding-day. In Brittany the young girls who visit the bridal chamber secure the pins used in fastening the bride's dress for a lucky marriage. Randolph, in his "Letters," writing of the marriage of Mary Queen of Scots to Lord Darnley, says that when the queen, after her marriage, went to her chamber to change her clothes, she suffered "them that stood by her, every man that could approach, to take a pin." The Bretons throw pins into certain wells for good luck. The following saying is connected with pins— "See a pin and pick it up, All the day you'll have good luck. See a pin and let it lie, All the day you'll need to cry." _Superstitions about Children._ A superstition used to exist that a child which did not cry when sprinkled in baptism would not live long. The same would be the case if the children were prematurely wise. Shakespeare puts this superstition into the mouth of Richard III. Bulwer mentions the tradition concerning children born open-handed, that they will prove of a bountiful disposition and frank-handed. A character in one of Dekker's plays says: "I am the most wretched fellow; surely some _left-handed_ priest christened me, I am so unlucky." The following charms for infancy are taken from Herrick— Bring the holy crust of bread, Lay it underneath the head; 'Tis a certain charm to keep Hags away while children sleep. Let the superstitious wife Near the child's heart lay a knife; Point be up, and haft be down, (While she gossips in the towne); This, 'mongst other mystic charms, Keeps the sleeping child from harmes. _Digging for Water._ The divining rod is not the only superstition connected with the digging for water. In the country of the Damazas, in South Africa, before they dig, the natives offer an arrow, or a piece of skin or flesh, to a large red man with a white beard, who is supposed to inhabit the place; at the same time they repeat a prayer for success in finding water. To dig for it without this ceremony, they say, occasions sickness and death. _Wolf Superstition._ In Normandy a phantom in the form of a wolf is believed to wander about at night amongst the graves. The chief of the band of phantoms is a large black wolf, who, when approached, rises on his hind legs and begins to howl, when the whole party disappear, shrieking out, "Robert is dead! Robert is dead!"—_Nimmo._ _Stanching Blood._ The ancients firmly believed that blood could be stanched by charms. The bleeding of Ulysses is reputed to have been stopped by this means; and Cato the Censor has given us an incantation for setting dislocated bones. To this day charms are supposed to arrest the flow of blood. "Tom Potts was but a serving man, But yet he was a doctor good; He bound his kerchief on the wound, And with some kind word he stanched the blood."