On the title-page, in the same hand-writing as the “Answer,” is the name of the Rev. Archibald Foyer, with the date 1700.

Y.

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FOLK LORE OF LANCASHIRE.  NO. 1.

Lancashire, like all other counties, has its own peculiar superstitions, manners, and customs, which find no parallels in those of other localities.  It has also, no doubt, many local observances, current opinions, old proverbs, and vulgar ditties, which are held and known in common with the inhabitants of a greater extent of county, and differ merely in minor particulars;—­the necessary result of imperfect oral transmission.  In former numbers of this work a few isolated specimens of the folk-lore of this district have been noticed, and the present attempt is to give permanency to a few others.

1.  If a person’s hair, when thrown into the fire, burns brightly, it is a sure sign that the individual will live long.  The brighter the flame the longer life, and vice versa.

2.  A young person frequently stirs the fire with the poker to test the humour of a lover.  If the fire blaze brightly, the lover is good-humoured; and vice versa.

3.  A crooked sixpence, or a copper coin with a hole through, are accounted lucky coins.

4.  Cutting or paring the nails of the hands or feet on a Friday or Sunday, is very unlucky.

5.  If a person’s left ear burn, or feel hot, somebody is praising the party; if the right ear burn, then it is a sure sign that some one is speaking evil of the person.

6.  Children are frequently cautioned by their parents not to walk backwards when going an errand; it is a sure sign that they will be unfortunate in their objects.

7.  Witchcraft, and the belief in its reality, is not yet exploded in many of the rural districts.  The writer is acquainted with parties who place full credence in persons possessing the power to bewitch cows, sheep, horses, and even those persons to whom the witch has an antipathy.  One respectable farmer assured me that his horse was {56} bewitched into the stable through a loophole twelve inches by three; the fact he said was beyond doubt, for he had locked the stable-door himself when the horse was in the field, and had kept the key in his pocket.  Soon after this, however, a party of farmers went through a process known by the name of “burning the witch out,” or “killing the witch,” as some express it; the person suspected soon died, and the neighbourhood became free from his evil doings.

8.  A horse-shoe is still nailed behind many doors to counteract the effects of witchcraft:  a hagstone with a hole through, tied to the key of the stable-door, protects the horses, and, if hung up at the bed’s head, the farmer also.

9.  A hot iron put into the cream during the process of churning, expels the witch from the churn; and dough in preparation for the baker is protected by being marked with the figure of a cross.