Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-06-02
CUCKOO SUPERSTITIONs.
A Bird That Figures Greatly In the Folk
lore of England.

Jects OF superstition in the middle ages,
and none more so than the cuckon Our
forefathers looked upon it as the harbinger
OF spring and as the merrlest songster of
summer:
In April the cuckoo shows his bill;
In May he is singing ali day;
In June he changes mis- ture;
In July he prepares 10 fly:
In August fly he must;
If he stay until September
'Tis as much as the oldest
Can remember.
The cuckoo is the subject of the oldest OF
English songs which has been preserved
from the earliest part of the thirteenth
century, aud is remarkable for being &C
Companied by musical notes, thus forming
the oldest example of English secular
music. The words Of the original accom-
pany our illustration, and may thus be
translated from modern English:
Summer is come in,
Loud sing cuckoo;
Grows the seed and blooms the mead.
AND sprouts the wood now,
Sing cuckoo.
The eve bleats after the lamb,
The COW lows after the calf,
The bullock leans, the buck verts;
Merr1ly sing cuckoo,
cuckoo, cuckoo
Well singest thou, cuckoo;
Cease thou never TO sing. cuckoo.
1t va, the spring, indeed, and not the
summer, that the cuckoo was considered to
represent in the middle ages. The fair
day OF Tenbury in Worcestershire, is
April 20, and it is belief in the county
that you never hear the cuckoo till Ten
bury fair day or after Pershore fair day,
which is June 26.
IN Darbyshire d very prevalent rhyme
runs as follows:
The cuckoo in merry bird,
She sings as she flies:
she brings us good tidings,
And tells us no lies,
She sucks little birds eggs,
To make her voice clear,
That she may sing cuckoo
Three months of the year
There are, or have been, not long ago.
IN different parts of England, remnants of
old customs marking the position which
the cuckoo held in the middle ages, con-
tlnues the London Queen. In Shropshire,
was heard, the laborers were in the habit
OF leaving their work. making holiday of
the rest of the day and carousing in what
they call cuckoo ale. Among the peasan-
try In some parts of the kingdom it was
money i'd your pocket when you hear the
cuckoo's note for the first time in the sea-
son. 1t was also a common article of be-
lief that when a maiden ran into the
fields early In the morning to hear the
fist note of the cuckoo and, when she
heard it, took off her left shoe and looked
into it, she would there find a man s hair
OF the same color as that Of her future
br1Sl II ole
In Norfolk that whatever you are doing
the first time you hear the cuckoo, that
you will do the most frequently all the
year. Another is that an unmarried per.
son will remain single as mary years as
the cuckoo, when first heard, utters its
yell.
A curious legend regarding the cuckoo
is found among the Danes, which, with
some notifications, is likewise current in
many parts of Germany, in England. and
the north of Europe. When in early
springtime the voice of the cuckoo is first
heard in the woods every village girl
kisses her hand and asks tie question,
'cuckoo! cuckoo! when shall I be mar
ried?" and the old folks inquire, cuckoo!
cuckoo! when shall ! be released from this
worlds cares?' The bird, in answer,
SOAoiHuCc W SAhS CuChOO as uiduJ tImSS
as years will elapse before the object of
their desires will come to pass But, as
some old people live to an advanced age,
and many girls marry late in life, the
poor bird has SO much to do in ANSWERING
questions put to her that the building sea.
son goes by; she has no time to make her
nest, but lays her eggs in that of the
hedgesparrow. The Swedds have SINH
lar superstition, an many a peasant girl
exclajms,
Cuckoo, grey, tell to me
Up IN the tree, true and free,
How many years l must live and 60 unm arried
PROF, LoRs, the Greek rife shot, is at
tracing much attention by his feat Of
shooting glass ball from his own head.
The trick is performed by shooting at the
trigger Of a rife held in frame, with the
muzzle sight at a glass ball dangling by
a string directly over the marksman's
head.