Hanging sheet over chair, LOCALITY. finding tool or weapon leaning against it in morning South Yorksh. Tapping on henhouse door, auguring marriage or single To see persons doomed to die, (b) Precautionary Practices. Crosses chalked at street- Some new garment worn, lest Devon. North Yorksh.1 Staffs. (Bilston). birds should spoil clothes - Worc. (Alvechurch).2 (c) Things Forbidden, or Unlucky, during Christmastide. To plough, or work horses Salop. Salop. Holly. Only" free" (smooth) holly used in house If smooth holly used or brought in first, wife LOCALITY. Salop (Burford). rules; if rough, husband Locality? To be lucky, use rough, smooth, and variegated. White patches on var. holly caused by Virgin's milk spilt on holly brought by shepherds Smooth holly, ivy, and mistletoe hung behind shippon door before noon on Christmas Day prevents cows miscarrying Holly masculine, ivy feminine (see Shrove Tuesday) Ivy. Man must supply maid with ivy or she would steal his breeches (Aubrey) Ivy alone, or predominat ing, a bad omen Yew. Used if not cut from churchyard Derbysh. Derbysh. (Hazelwood). Kent, Salop. Oxon. (Launton). Northants. Unlucky, portends death during year Box. Used when procurable Used in "kissing-bush" Rosemary. (Obs.). Houses Derbysh., Northants. East Anglia. Derbysh., Northants. (See below.) (Aubrey, 1686.) London (St. Peter Cheap, 1572, 1599), Worcester (St. Michael's, St. Nicholas, 16th and 17th cent.). chapels; not in North - Bourne, 1725. Holly, box, fir, and laurel, in houses, 1878 Lincs. (nr. Grantham). Mistletoe. Not used in churches Isolated cases of use in church LOCALITY. General. Staffs. Bilston, 1672, hung from chancel arch - London, 1792 (Gent. Mag. blessed on altar Houses unlucky without it Must be gathered by newest man-servant Wolverhampton (date ?). Worc. Worc. Worc. Unlucky if dropt or falls - Year, not Christmas Suspended from “kissingbush " Not taken down till next Herefordsh., Salop.1 (See below.) or "Kissing Bunch" Frame of crossed hoops, Or beehive-shaped hoops covered with evergreen - General. Ornamented with nutshells Lincs., Derbysh. (1850). |