The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1875-12-24
Nursery Folklore.


in the northern counties of England pc
culiar rites and customs are bound up
with every stage of human life. The
nursery especially has folklore of its
own. To begin with, the future char
acter and fortunes of the infant may be
OWNED from the day of the week on
which it is born. Thus:
Mondays child is fair of face.
Tuesdays child is full of grace,
Wednesdays child is full of woe,
And Thursdays child has far to go;
Fridays child is loving and giving,
And Saturdays child works for its living;
But the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is blithe and bonnie and good and gay"
Sundays children are in Yorkshire
deemed secure from the malice of evil
spirits. In Germany they are also held
to be privileged beings, but their i'm
munities are not so clearly defined. In
Denmark, however, they have preroga-
tives by no means to be coveted. They
are able, for instance, to see much more
than other people. One unfortunate
woman born upon a Sunday was not
able to pass by church at night with
out seeing a ghost or spectre. Being of
timid disposition, she was at last
frightened to death by the sight of one
unusually horrible apparition.
In Scotland the birth of an infant is
the signal for plenty of eating and
drinking. Tea, duly qualified with
brandy or whisky, and a profusion of
short-bread and buns, are provided for
all visitors, and iC is very unlucky to
allow any one to leave the house with
out his share of these good things. But
most important of all is the "shooten,n
or groaDing cheese, from which the
happy father must cut "whang o.
I.,.. Ill 60. h. lnn nf hn
taking care not to cut his own finger
while so doing, since in that case the
child would die before reaching man.
hood. The "whang" must be taken.
from the edge of the cheese and divided
into portions, one for each maiden.
Should there be any to spare, they may
be divided among the spinster friends of
the family; but if the number fall short,
the mistake cannot be rectified-there
is no virtue in second slice. The girls
put these bits of cheese under their pill
lows, and ascribe to them the virtues of
bride-cake similarly treated. Iu the
north of England, as soon as the child
is born, the doctor cuts both cake and
cheese, and all present partake of both,
OH pain of the poor baby growing up
without personal charms.
In the southern counties of Scotland
children are considered, before baptism,
at the mercy of the fairies, who may
carry them off at pleasure, or inflict in
juries upon them. Danish women
guard their children during this period
against evil spirits by placing in the
cradle or over the door garlic, salt
bread, and steel in the form of some
sharp instrument. The modern Greeks
dread witchcraft at this period of their
.E,s a ,Tp, Il fol ~ -
leave them alone during the first eight
days, within which period the Greek
Church refuses to baptize them. In
Scotland the little ones are protected by
! lying near some article of dress belong
ing to the father. So long as they have
this safeguard, it is impossible for the
! fairies to harm them. This is touch
| ing evidence of the strength of family
affection among the simple Scottish
peasantry. Any trifie connected with
the father protects the child until it's
baptism shields it from the power of
evil or malicious sprites.
1t is also considered very important
for an infant to go up in the world be-
fore it goes down. Thus, if a child
should be born in the top story of a
house, for want of flight of stairs one
of the old gossips will surely take it in
her arms and mount table, chair, or
chest of drawers before she carries it
down stairs. Much Importance is at
tached to the baby's first visit to an
other house, on which occasion it is eX-
pected that the child shall receive three
things-an egg, salt, and white bread
or cake. The egg is a sacred emblem
from the remotest antiquity, and the
cake and salt are things used alike In
Jewish and pagan sacrifices. They add,
somewhat grotesquely, in the East Rid
ing of Yorkshire a fourth thing-a few
matches to light the child on the way
to heaven. These votive offerings must
be pinned in the baby's clothes and so
brought home.
There is kindly custom in Scotland
that in all sales, either under distraint
for rent or common debt, the cradle
shall be left unsold, and remain the
property of its original owner. In
Sweden the cradle must not be rocked
when it is empty, as it twill make the
child noisy and given to crying" In
Holland it Is also considered injurious
to the child, and prognostic of death.
In Scotland it is expressly forbidden in
the following poetical manner:
"Oh, rock not the cradle when the baby's not
in,
For this by old women is counted sin;
It's crime so inhuman it mayna be for
| given,
And they who will do it hae lost sight o
heaven"