Part 15
"'Kimbly' in East Cornwall is the name of a thing, commonly a piece of bread, which is given under peculiar circumstances at weddings and christenings. When the parties set out from the house to go to church, or on their business, one person is sent before them with this selected piece of bread in his or her hand (a woman is commonly preferred for this office), and the piece is given to the first individual that is met. I interpret it to have some reference to the idea of the evil eye and its influence, which might fall on the married persons or on the child, which is sought to be averted by this unexpected gift. It is also observed in births, in order that by this gift envy may be turned away from the infant or happy parents. This 'kimbly' is commonly given to the person bringing the first news to those interested in the birth."--T. Q. Couch, Western Morning News.
"I witnessed this custom very frequently at Looe, in South-east Cornwall, from fifty to sixty-five years ago. I believe it is correct to say that this gift was there a small cake, made for the occasion, and termed the 'christening-crib,' a crib of bread or cake being a provincialism for a bit of bread," etc.--William Pengelly, Western Morning News.
Children, when they leave small bits of meat, etc., on their plates, are in Cornwall often told "to eat up their cribs."
"On the afternoons of Good Friday, little girls of Carharrack, in the parish of Gwennap (West Cornwall), take their dolls to a stream at the foot of Carnmarth, and there christen them. Occasionally a young man will take upon himself the office of minister, and will sprinkle and name the dolls."--Charles James, Gwennap.
The Rev. S. Rundle, Vicar of Godolphin, says, "That once he was sent for to baptise a child, around whose neck hung a little bag, which the mother said contained a bit of a donkey's ear, and that this charm had cured the child of a most distressing cough."
"In some parts of Cornwall it is considered a sure sign of being sweethearts if a young man and woman 'stand witness together,' i.e. become godfather and godmother of the same child."--T. C. But not in all, for I remember once hearing in Penzance a couple refuse to do so, saying that it was unlucky. "First at the font, never at the altar." When I was young, old nurses often breathed in babies' mouths to cure the thrush, thrice repeating the second verse of the Eighth Psalm, "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings," etc. "May children and 'chets' (kittens) never thrive," and it is unlucky to "tuck" (short coat) children in that month.
"Tuck babies in May, You'll tuck them away."
It is of course considered an unfortunate month for marriages. Neither should babies "be tucked" on a week day, but on a Sunday, which day should also be chosen for leaving off any article of clothing; as then you will have the prayers of every congregation for you, and are sure not to catch cold. A friend lately sent me the following charm of one year's duration which prevents your feeling or taking a cold. "Eat a large apple at Hallow-een under an apple-tree just before midnight; no other garment than a bed-sheet should be worn. A kill or cure remedy."
An empty cradle should never be rocked unless you wish to have a large family, for--
"Rock the cradle empty You'll rock the babies plenty."
Rev. S. Rundle says, "It is unlucky to rock an empty cradle, as the child will die."--Cornubiana.
The jingles which follow are often repeated by Cornish nurse-maids with appropriate actions to amuse their little charges. First, touching each part of the face as mentioned with the forefinger,
"Brow brender, [31] Eye winker, Nose dropper, Mouth eater, Chin chopper, Tickle-tickle."
Second--
"Tap a tap shoe, [32] that would I do, If I had but a little more leather. We'll sit in the sun till the leather doth come, Then we'll tap them both together."
Here the two little feet are struck lightly one against the other.
Several letters have lately appeared in the Western Morning News, giving different versions of the old rhymes--
"Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Pray bless the bed that I 'lay' on, Four corners to my bed, Four angels there are spread, Two 'to' foot and two 'to' head, And six will carry me when I'm dead."
Although attributed by the correspondents to Cornwall, I have always understood that they were known all over England.
Children with rickets were taken by their parents on the three first Sundays in May to be dipped at sunrise in one of the numerous Cornish holy wells, and then put to sleep in the sun, with sixpence under their heads. Small pieces torn from their clothes were left on the bushes to propitiate the pixies. For the same disease they were passed nine times through a Mên-an-tol (holed stone). A man stood on one side, and a woman on the other, of the stone. The child was passed with the sun from east to west, and from right to left; a boy from the woman to the man, a girl from the man to the woman. This order is always, in these charms, strictly observed. As lately as 1883, in the village of Sancred, West Cornwall, a little girl, suffering from whooping-cough, was passed from a man to a woman nine times under a donkey's belly; a little boy standing the while at the donkey's head feeding it with "cribs" of wheaten bread. My informant did not know if on this occasion any incantation was repeated. Another family, he tells me, some years back were in the same neighbourhood cured of the whooping-cough by donkey's hair, which was dried on the baking iron of the open hearth, reduced to powder, and administered to them. There are very various ways of doing this, one is between thin slices of bread and butter. Some authorities say the latter ingredients must belong to a couple called John and Joan. Mr. Robert Hunt gives a charm which in a measure combines the two above-mentioned. "The child must be passed naked nine times over the back and under the belly of a female donkey. Three spoonfuls of milk drawn from the teats of the animal, three hairs cut from its back, and three from its belly, are to stand in the milk three hours, and to be given in three doses repeated on three mornings." Mr. Hunt also says, "There were some doggerel lines connected with the ceremony which have escaped my memory, and I have endeavoured in vain to find anyone remembering them. They were to the effect that as Christ placed the cross on the ass's back when he rode into Jerusalem and so rendered the animal holy, if the child touched where Jesus sat it should cough no more." I will quote another of Mr. Hunt's charms. "Gather nine spar-stones (quartz) from a running stream, taking care not to interrupt the free passage of the water in doing so. Then dip a quart of water from the stream, which must be taken in the direction in which the stream runs--by no means must the vessel be dipped against the stream. Then make the nine stones red-hot, and throw them into the quart of water. Bottle the prepared water, and give the afflicted child a wine-glass of this water for nine mornings." Other remedies are to cross the child over running water nine times, or under a bramble bough bent into the ground (this latter and through a cleft ash are also tried for hernia). Some nurses take children, with whooping-cough, out for a walk, in hopes of meeting a man on a white or piebald horse. Should they be fortunate enough to do so, they ask the rider how they can cure the patient: his advice is always implicitly followed.
Children with dirty habits are often told that a "mousey pasty" shall be cooked for their dinners.
Cornish children are warned by their nurses not to grimace, lest, whilst so doing, the wind should change and their faces always remain contorted. There is another form in which this warning is often given: "Don't make mock of a 'magum' (May-game), for you may be struck comical yourself one day." "Magum" in most cases means a facetious person, one who is full of merry pranks; and the expressions, "He's a reg'lar magum," or "He's full of his magums," are often heard. But the idea intended to be conveyed in the first saying is that it is wrong to make fun of a person suffering from an infirmity, which may at any time afflict the jeerer. The puritanical notion of Sunday lingers in the belief in Cornwall that it is unlucky to use a scissors on that day, even to cut your nails; you must
"Cut them on Monday, before your fast you break, And you'll have a present in less than a week."
Children here are pleased to see "gifts" (white spots) on their thumb-nails, as
"Gifts on the thumb are sure to come, But gifts on the finger are sure to linger."
Occasionally white spots on the five fingers are named as follows: "A gift, a friend, a foe, a true lover, a journey to go." Should the little ones, when picking flowers, sting themselves with nettles, they are of course in this locality, as elsewhere in England, taught to rub the spot with dock-leaves, repeating the words, "In dock, out nettle;" but they are often told in addition to wet the place affected with their spittle, and make a cross over it with their thumb-nails, pressed down as heavily as possible. School-boys and school-girls often years ago practised a cruel jest on their more innocent companions. They induced them to pick a nettle by saying "Nettles won't sting this month." When the children were stung and complained, the retort was, "I never said they would not sting you." The blue scabious in Cornwall is never plucked. It is called the devil's bit, and the superstition is handed down from one generation of children to another that, should they transgress and do so, the devil will appear to them in their dreams at night. But anyone who wishes to dream of the devil should pin four ivy-leaves to the corners of his pillow. Flowers plucked from churchyards bring ill-luck, and even visitations from spirits on the plucker. Wrens and robins are sacred in the eyes of Cornish boys, for
"Hurt a robin or a wran, Never prosper, boy nor man."
A groom who had, when a lad, shot a robin and held it in one of his hands told me that it shook ever after. But they always chase and try to kill the first butterfly of the season; and, should they succeed, they will overcome their enemies--I suppose, in football, etc.
"To hear the first cuckoo of spring on the right ear is lucky, on the left unlucky; as many times as it repeats its notes will the number of years be before the hearer is married. The cuckoo song--
'In April, come he will, In May, he sings all day, In June, he alters his tune, In July, he prepares to fly, Come August, go he must'--
is known all over the county, with additions and slight variations, such as--
'In March, he sits upon his perch, In Aperel, he tunes his bell.'"
--South-east Cornwall, W. Pengelly.
"A bat in Cornwall is called an 'airy-mouse;' village boys address it as it flits over their heads in the following rhymes--
'Airy-mouse, airy-mouse! fly over my head, And you shall have a crust of bread, And when I brew, or when I bake, You shall have a piece of my wedding cake.'"
--Polperro, T. Q. Couch.
Sometimes in West Cornwall they say--
"Bit-bat! bit-bat! come under my hat."
Earwigs they hold in detestation, as they believe that, should they get into their ears, they will cause madness. There is a legend popular amongst them which relates that a poor man was once driven frantic by a very queer sensation in his head. At last, not being able to bear it any longer, he went into a meat-market, laid it down upon a block, and asked a butcher to chop it off. Whilst in this recumbent position an earwig crept out of his ear, and the pain instantly ceased. Our school-boys have other fallacies, such as, the pain caused by a "custice," i.e. a stroke across the palm of the hand with a cane, may be neutralised by placing two hairs on it crossways. Also that the wound made by a nail can be kept from festering by wrapping the nail in a piece of fat bacon to prevent its rusting.
School-girls' superstitions are more sentimental, and often connected with wishing. If, when talking together, one accidentally makes a rhyme, she wishes; and, should she be asked a question before she speaks again, to which she can answer Yes, she thinks that she is sure to get it. When an eyelash falls out its owner puts it on the tip of her nose, wishes and blows at it; should she blow it off, she will have her wish. Should she by chance hear a dog dreaming, she stands up, puts a foot on each side of it, and then wishes. Years ago one gravely told me that if I wanted to know a dog's dreams I must throw a pocket-handkerchief over it when sleeping and keep it there until it awoke; then, before getting into bed, put it under my pillow, and I should have the same dream. Dreams in Cornwall are always said to go by contraries. "If you dream of the dead you will hear tell of the living," etc. To dream anyone is kissing you is a sign of deceit. "Of fruit out of season, trouble without reason."
"A Friday's dream on Saturdays told Is sure to come true, be it ever so old."
To see if a friend loves her, a Cornish girl pulls out a hair from her friend's head, and then tries to suspend it by the root from the palm of her own hand. If this can be done the test is successful. When a little older there are many ways in which our maidens "try for their sweethearts." A few of the rules prescribed for these rites, which have been handed down from generation to generation, may be worth transcribing. "Draw a bracken fern, cut it at the bottom of the stalk; there you will find your lover's initials." Take an apple-pip between the forefinger and the thumb, flip it into the air, saying, "North, south, east, west, tell me where my love doth rest," and watch the direction in which it falls. Go into the fields at the time of the new moon and pluck a piece of herb yarrow; put it when going to bed under your pillow, saying--
"Good night, fair yarrow, Thrice good night to thee; I hope before to-morrow's dawn My true love I shall see."
If you are to be married your sweetheart will appear to you in your dreams.
"Look out of your bed-room window on St. Valentine's morn, note the first man you see, and you will marry the same, or one of the name."
To lose your apron or your garter shows that your lover is thinking of you. Three candles burning at the same time is the sign of a wedding; and the girl who is nearest to the door, the cupboard, and the shortest candle, will be married first. When two people accidentally say the same thing at the same time the one who finishes first will be married first. There are a great number of omens similar to these last, equally stupid, and not worthy of notice.
"Friday is a cross day for marriage," and "If you marry in Lent you'll live to repent." Should you in marrying
"Change the name, and not the letter, You'll change for the worse, and not for the better."
but it is lucky if your initials form a word.
"The young men of a place, when they know that a person is paying attention to a girl or woman, seize hold of him, place him in a wheelbarrow, in which they wheel him up and down until they are tired, when they upset him on the nearest pile or in a pond. This is called riding in the 'one-wheel coach;' and to say that a man has ridden in the 'one-wheel coach' is tantamount to the expression that he has 'gone-a-courting.'"--Rev. S. Rundle, Transactions Penzance Natural History Society, etc., 1885-1886.
When a younger sister marries first the elder is said to dance in the "bruss" (short twigs of heath or furze), from an old custom of dancing without shoes on the furze prickles which get detached from the stalk. Only old maids can rear a myrtle, and they will not blossom when trained against houses where there are none. It is considered extremely unlucky here to break or lose your wedding-ring, also for a wedding-cake to crack after baking. A lady told me of one made for a couple she knew, which fell to pieces when taken out of the oven. Before the wedding-day came the bride had sickened of some disorder, was dead, and buried. A hole in a loaf, too, foretells a separation in a family; and to turn one upside down on a table wrecks a vessel. "If a hare cross the path of a wedding party, the bride or bridegroom will die within seven years."--Rev. S. Rundle, Cornubiana.
"A young woman who has been three times a bridesmaid will never be a bride." "It was an old custom, religiously observed until lately in Zennor and adjacent parishes on the north coast of Cornwall, to waylay a married couple on their wedding night and flog them to bed with cords, sheep-spans, or anything handy for the purpose, believing that this rough treatment would ensure them happiness and the 'heritage and gift that cometh of the Lord,' of a numerous family. At more modish weddings the guests merely entered the bridal chamber, and threw stockings in which stones or something to make weight were placed, at the bride and bridegroom in bed. The first one hit of the happy pair betokened the sex of their first-born."--Bottrell.
Should there be a great discrepancy between the ages of the bride and bridegroom, or the marriage of a couple in any way be a matter of notoriety, they are in West Cornwall on their wedding night often treated to a "shallal," a serenade on tin-kettles, pans, marrow-bones, &c. Any great noise in this part of the county is described as being "a reg'lar shallal." In olden times (in fact the custom is not quite discontinued at the present day, for I heard a whisper of one having taken place in a small fishing-village two years ago) married people accused of immorality were in Cornwall punished by a "riding." I will give the description of one by Mr. T. Q. Couch.
"A cart was got, donkeys were harnessed in, and a pair personating the guilty or suspected were driven through the streets, attended by a train of men and boys. At Polperro (East Cornwall) the attendants acted as trumpeters; the bullocks' horns used by the fishermen at sea for fog or night signals were always available for the purpose. The mummers were very cautious, by careful disguise in dress or voice, and avoiding of anything directly libellous in their rather ribald dialogue, to keep themselves out of the clutches of the law. I remember one riding when an old rusty cannon of the smuggling period was waked up from its long quiet for service for the occasion, and bursting, led to the mutilation of several and the death of one." On the borders of Devon and in that county this ceremony was known as a "mock-hunt."
A lock of hair hanging down over the forehead is in Cornwall called "a widow's lock;" (and children are still here told when it falls down "to shed their hair back out of their eyes.") A foolish warning says,
"Go thro' a gate when there's a stile hard by, You'll be a widow before you die."
The sudden appearance of rats or mice in Cornish houses is said to be a certain forerunner of sickness and death. Many curious tales are told in confirmation of this superstition; one I particularly remember was in connection with a young man who was killed on the West Cornwall Railway. After the accident, they vanished as quickly as they came. It is also considered to be very unlucky for a bird to perch on the window-sill of a sick person's room, farewell then to all chances of recovery; and strange birds coming into a house (especially a robin through the back door) foretell the death of some one in it, or connected with the family. I was once where a little child lay dying, a small brown bird sang on the window-sill, the nurse told me that it was waiting to carry away the child's soul. "But when a flea bites a sick person he is sure not to be dangerously ill, as it is well known that they never bite those who have had their death-stroke." The superstitions that you cannot die easily on pillows stuffed with wild birds' feathers, and that life goes out with the tide, are as current here as in other places. Death in Cornwall is often spoken of as "going round land," and "gone dead" is a common idiom. A threat to kill is occasionally conveyed in the words "I will give you your quietus." In some cases it is supposed that life may be restored after death if when the breath stops the body be violently shaken. When a member of a family dies, his death it is said will bring two others with it, [33] from the idea that one misfortune never comes alone. A Cornish country vicarage was lately startled by the tolling at an unwonted hour of the church bell. On sending to ascertain the cause of the disturbance an "old inhabitant was found in the belfry, who had been engaged in the absence or illness of the usual sexton to dig the grave. He said in explanation that in his time it was always usual for the gravedigger to toll the bell three times before breaking the consecrated ground."--J. H. C., Notes and Queries, 5th series, vol. ii., August, 1874.
A corpse should never be carried to church by a new road, and should a hearse stop on its way to the churchyard there will soon be another death in the house. Singing funerals, or as they are called in Cornwall buryings (pronounced "berrins"), were once almost universal (and one may still occasionally be met). The mourners and friends following the coffin sang as they walked through the streets or lanes their favourite hymns, often to most elaborate tunes.
"To shaw our sperrits lev-us petch [34] The laast new berrin tune."--Tregellas.
Few people in old days were buried on the north side of a church. Flowers and shrubs planted in Cornish churchyards are never plucked, from the fear that the spirits of the departed will at night visit the desecrator. Should an urn found in a "barrow" be taken into a house, the person whose ashes it contained will haunt it; it must be broken up and the pieces hidden. Cross-roads, the former burying-place of suicides, are after nightfall avoided, such spots being haunted; but if you have courage to go there at midnight and wish, you will get your wish.
With a few general superstitions I shall bring this part to an end. It is unlucky in Cornwall to see the new moon first over the left shoulder, or through a window, especially if the day should happen to be a Friday. To ensure good luck on your first sight of her, you should curtsey, spit on your money and turn it in your pocket. (A man well paid for any chance job early in the day calls it here "a hansel," and spits on the money for good luck.) If you particularly desire anything, look at the new moon and wish before you speak. You may also wish when you see a falling star, and if you can succeed in framing it before it disappears your wish will be granted. Seeing the new moon in the old moon's arms is a sign of a change in the weather, so is a star passing over it. The change will be for the worse if the moon goes over the star. "Herbs for drying must be gathered at full moon; winter fruit picked and stored at full moon, not to lose its plumpness. Timber should be felled on the bating of the moon, because the sap is then down, and the wood will be more durable."--Bottrell.
Card-table Superstitions:--"Good luck in cards, bad luck in a husband (or wife)." "A shuffling cut is good for the dealer." "1 2 3 4 played in succession kiss the dealer." To cut an honour for the trump card is unlucky, for "When quality opens the door there is poverty behind;" but "Good luck lurks under a black deuce" (it should be touched by the cutter).
Superstitions connected with the body:--A twitching in the eyelid is lucky; but you must not say when it comes nor when it goes.
Right eye itching, a sign of laughter; but left over right, you'll cry before night.