Bees must never be bought.  It is best to give a sack of wheat for a hive.

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Dinnick is the Devonshire name of a small bird, said to follow and feed the cuckoo.

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A cat will not remain in a house with an unburied corpse; and rooks will leave the place until after the funeral, if the rookery be near the house.

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It is proper to make a low bow whenever a single magpie is seen.

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It is not considered safe to plant a bed of lilies of the valley; the person doing so will probably die in the course of the next twelve months.

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Where the rainbow rests, is a crock of gold.

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A cork under the pillow is a certain cure for cramp.

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Seven different herbs must be used for making a herb poultice.

“The editor remembers a female relation of a former vicar of St. Erth, who, instructed by a dream, prepared decoctions of various herbs, and repairing to the Land’s End, poured them into the sea, with certain incantations, with the expectation of seeing the Lionesse rise immediately out of the water having all its inhabitants alive, notwithstanding their long immersion.”—­Davies Gilbert’s Cornwall, vol. iii. p. 310.

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If the fire blazes up brightly when the crock is hung up, it is a sign there is a stranger coming.

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Cure for Thrush.—­Take the child to a running stream, draw a straw through its mouth, and repeat the verse, “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings,” &c.

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A creature of enormous size, called a “bull-frog,” is believed to live under the foundation stones of old houses, hedges, &c.  I remember having heard it spoken of with great awe.

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Hen and Chickens.—­In a parish adjoining Dartmoor is a green fairy ring of considerable size, within which a black hen and chickens are occasionally seen at nightfall.

The vicar of a certain Devonshire parish was a distinguished student of the black art, and possessed a large collection of mysterious books and manuscripts.  During his absence at church, one of his servants visited his study, and finding a large volume open on the desk, imprudently began to read it aloud.  He had scarcely read half a page when the sky became dark, and a great wind shook the house violently; still he read on; and in the midst of the storm the door flew open, and a black hen and chickens came into the room.  They were of the ordinary size when they first appeared, but gradually became larger and larger, until the