The penny press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1859-1860, 1859-10-12
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terlnS u room, gives warming OF death
SO does the growing Of hen, so does the
squeaking Of mouse behind the bed o.
s q sick person. If the door of a hearse
be closed before the mourners are all in
the coaches, there will be another death
in the family. If a COW breaks into your
garden there will be death in your house
within six months. The gentleman who
sends note of this superstition adds the
singular fact that it was made known to
him by the breaking Of three COWS into
his own garden, when an old house ser
want grieved that there would be three
deaths in the family within six months
and there were. The third was that of a
+ son-in-law, into whose garden COW broke
some weeks before he died. Nobody can
die on bed in which there are any pigeon
or game feathers This is widespread
belief, easily confirmed to the ignorant by
proofs like the following, which were ad
duced by Sussex laborer against a
skeptic: "Look at poor Muster s.,
how hard he were dying; poor soul, he
could not die any way, till neighbor Put
tick found out how it wer. Muster
s., says he, 'ye be lying on geame
feathers, mon, surely and so he wer
So we TOXIN out O bed and laid'n on the
floore, and he pretty soon died then!'
The last thing a man longs to eat seems
to be pigeon. A very respectable far
mer's wife being applied to for some
pigeons which sick man fancied he
could eat said, "Ah poor sick fellow, is
he so far gone? A pigeon is generally
the last thing they want. have supplied
many one for the like purpose" If q
pigeon is seen sitting on tree, or enters
a house, or from being wild grows tame,
that is a sign of death. If any bird flies
into a room and Eout again by an open
window, that is a sign of death among
the inmates of the house. The soul may
DC seen going out as steam or a blue
'v"aper about five minutes after death.
Then every lock in the house, of boxes
;'s well as of doors, should be unfastened.
1t used to be thought that the first pains
ol puirsatory were inflicted by the
'Hzlng Of the soul between the hinges,
qu.. ''aving doors AMI lids unlocked
md that IT,. , TO the departing free,
nnsss na Spsn essaps ssapse The shd [GS1 Pa ps
mothers love upon dying, md the
vents the Aeeting of its soul, ;, :, COM
,hild struggles in vain to die, till the ed
passionate eyes of the mother are avere>
mis- is an eye of holiness, but there ls
also the evil eye, which causes death. An !
III ,vomon had n rosary of lucky stones ,
that is to say, Of stones with holes IN
up in her cottage, She
owned unwillingly to friendly lady tha1
it was meant for protection against inc
evil eve. "Why, Nanny" said the lady,
"You surely don't believe in witches now. S'''.
certainly i former times there was WIZ,
xards and buzzards, and them sort o
things" "Well," answered the lady,
laughing, "but you surely don't think
there are any now2 "No! don't say
'at ther are but do believe in yeyil
eve" As to the old lady's buzHards'
there is story in Yorkshire of an ,sno,,
rant person being asked if he ever salu
his prayers, who repeated them as foliows'
From witches and Wizards and longtaiied DunI"io'
Aud creeping things that run in hedge'pot'olns'
Good Lord deliver us"
Then again there are to be remembered
as part Of the popular faith of the igno-
rant, the legends still attached to rocks
and streams, and churches. Breedon
Church, in Lincolnshire, stands alone on
the top of high hill with the village at
its foot They began building it within
the village till they changed the site,
because every night the stones laid dur
ing the day were carried up the hill top
by doves. The site and name Of Winwick
church was decided by a pig who every
night came crying wee-wick wee-wick
and carried the stones in his mouth from
the wrong place selected, to the ground
hallowed by st. Oswalds death. The
devil built the bridge at Kirby Lonsdale,
and the picturesque stones in the stream
below are those which he was carrying in
his apron when its string broke. At
Peel in the Isle of Man, witch with a
basin of water said once that the herring
feet would not return. Every ship was
lost, and she was rolled down hill in q
barrel set with spikes. The grass has
never grown since on the barrels track
and to this day you may ''see the mark
Ill down" The Welsh peasant hears
spirithounds, the Cron Annwn, when the
storm sounds over the mountains. Some
times swelling like the bay Of blood
hound, the nearer they are to man the
less their voice, and the further the louder.
The shrek Of the Cyocraeth is often
heard. She is the hag of the mist, who
sits in the mountain fog, with torn dis
hevelled hair, lank arms and claws, long
black teeth in her corpse-like face, and
leathery bats wings. Her name means
cold grief, and her wall freezes the bloot
Of those who hear it. Sometimes sht
flaps her wings against the window-pane
and means the name of one within VIII
has been marked for death. 1t is thi
hag who cuts the torrent beds by drop
ping, when she is about to settle on
mountain, the huge stones she carries i
her cloak as ballast when she flies
some parts of South Wales, this hag ha
no sway, but it is Brenhin Llwyd, tn
grey king, who sits ever silent in th
mist. There is Welsh fairy, the Pwccl
that is seen constantly upon the moor
the form of handful of loose dried graz
rolling before the wind. Even upon
wisp Of dried grass will the fancy be s.
rolling Miss Costello tells a Pyrenea
Il ;ob Iotoatc lbo o,1i,;t nf I'll