Weather and Folk Lore of Peterborough and District | Page 9

on a Tuesday, cut them for thrift.?Cut your nails on a Wednesday, cut them for news.?Cut your nails on a Thursday, cut for a new pair of shoes. Cut your nails on a Friday, cut them for sorrow,?Cut your nails on a Saturday, see your sweetheart to-morrow. Cut them on Sunday, cut them for evil.?Cut them all the week round, and you'll go to the devil.
Better that child had ne'er been born,?Who cuts its nails on a Sunday morn.
Of a Friday's pare,?No good will come near.
If you cut your nails on Monday morning before breakfast, and without thinking of a fox's tail, you will have a gift before the week is out. When told this, I asked, Why not a fox's brush? "Oh, no!" was the reply, "you may think of the brush but not the tail."
White specks on the nails are called gifts, and the rhyme says:--
A gift on the finger is sure to linger,?A gift on the thumb, is sure to come.
In this district many mothers will not allow their babie's nails to be cut before they are a year old, but they bite the edges off. If the nails are cut the children grow up thieves.
A new born babe, before being taken out of the house, should be carried up some stairs, but if it is born in a room at the top of the house, the nurse lifts it up and gets on a chair, and puts the child on the top of something high, so that it may rise in the world.
If a pair of shoes are placed on the table a quarrel is sure to ensue.
This part of the county appears to possess more than the normal number of senses. I have often heard people speak of their seven senses. Only a short time ago a woman speaking of a neighbour who was a great sleeper, and also of her child, said they would sleep away their seven senses. And another woman who was startled said, "You're enough to frighten me out of my seven senses." I should like to know what the two extra senses are. Instinct may, perhaps, be one!
MARRIAGE.
Three times a bridesmaid, will die an old maid.
BRIDE'S DRESS.
Married in Grey, you will go far away.?Married in Black, you will wish yourself back.?Married in Brown, you will live out of town.?Married in Red, you will wish yourself dead.?Married in Pearl, you will live in a whirl.?Married in Green, ashamed to be seen.?Married in Yellow, ashamed of your fellow.?Married in Blue, he will always be true.?Married in Pink, your spirits will sink.
Monday for health, Tuesday for wealth, Wednesday the best day of all. Thursday for losses, Friday for crosses, Saturday no luck at all.
Marry on Sunday so that you cannot repent before the week is out.
ANIMALS.
If a dog howls in front of a house it is a sign of a death very soon. If a woman in the house takes off her left shoe and turns it upside down and puts her foot on it the dog ceases howling. I know of one instance where a dog howled in front of a house, and the mistress seeing and hearing the dog took off her left shoe and put her foot on it. The dog was in the midst of a howl, and he finished it with a yell and turned away and ran from the house as fast as possible, but he returned very soon and howled again. It was very strange, but an invalid visitor was staying in the house, and he died exactly a week after the howling.
To be followed by a strange dog is lucky.
If a cat licks her foot and passes it over her left ear it is a sign that a stranger will soon come.
When a cat lies with her tail turned to the fire it is a sign of hard weather.
If a cat licks her tail it betokens rain.
A strange black cat brings good luck into a house.
When a cat is taken to a new home its feet should be buttered, and it will stop.
If a cat has a cold and sneezes, all the people in the house will catch it.
When Noah's Ark is seen in the sky it is a sign of much rain.
It is described by Clare as "a long dark cloud stretching across the heavens, broad in the centre and tapering at each end, resembling the figure of the ark, and supposed to foretell great floods. But it depends on the direction of the ark. If it is from south to north it is a sign of good weather, but if from east to west bad weather."
Rain before seven, clear up before eleven.
Rain water collected as it falls on Holy Thursday is very good for diseases of the eye.
If it rains on St. Swithin's