and ridiculous are the Superstitions concerning Moles on different Parts of the Body.

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Dr. Browne tells us, that to sit cross-legg'd, or with our Fingers pectinated or shut together, is accounted bad, and friends will persuade us from it. The same Conceit religiously possessed the Antients, as is observable from Pliny, Poplites al"ternis genibus imponere nefas olim," and also from Athenæus, that it was an old veneficious Practice; and Juno is made in this Posture, to hinder the Delivery of Alcmæna. Vide Vulg. Errors.

The Observation on the falling of Salt, proceeds from the antient Opinion that Salt was incorruptible; it had therefore been made the Symbol of Friendship; and if it fell casually, they thought their Friendship would not be of long Duration. Bailey's Dictionary, &c.

The witty Dean of St. Patrick's, in his Invective against Wood, gives a fine philosophical Account of the Death-Watch.*

A Wood Worm

That lies in old wood, like a Hare in her form:

With Teeth or with Claws it will bite or will scratch,
And Chambermaids christen this Worm a Death-Watch:

Because, like a Watch, it always cries click;

Then Woe be to those in the House who are sick;
For, as sure as a Gun, they will give up the Ghost,

If the Maggot cries click, when it scratches the Post.

* Pliny, in his Natural History, 29th Book, mentions the Cricket as much esteemed by the antient Magicians: No doubt our Superstitions concerning these little Domestics have been transmitted to us from his Times.

But

But a Kettle of scalding hot Water injected,
Infallibly cures the Timber affected:

The Omen is broken, the Danger is over,

The Maggot will die and the Sick will recover*.

Various were the Species of Divination† practised by antient Superstition.-The Druids interpreted Omens, and doubtless both invented and handed down many of them.

No Bondage seems so dreadful as that of Superstition: It hath ever imposed the most abject Kind of Slavery. I have known (says the Spectator) the shooting of a Star spoil a Night's Rest, and have seen a Man in Love grow pale and lose his Appetite upon the plucking of a Merrythought.-A screech Owl at Midnight has alarmed a Family more than a Band of Robbers, and the Voice of a Cricket

* Mr. Gay, in his Pastoral Dirge, has preserved some of the rural Prognostications of Death.

The Weather's Bell

Before the drooping Flock toll'd forth her Knell;
The solemn Death-Watch click'd the hour she dy'd,
And shrilling Crickets in the Chimney cry'd.
The boding Raven on her Cottage sat,

And with hoarse croaking warn'd us of her Fate:
The Lambkin, which her wonted Tendance bred,
Dropp'd on the Plains that fatal Instant dead;
Swarm'd on a rotten Stick the Bees I spy'd,
Which erst I saw when Goody Dobson dy'd.

+ Such as Hydromancy, making Conjectures by Water:-Libenomancy, Divination by Frankincense:- Onychomancy or Onymancy, Divination performed by the Nails of an unpolluted Boy.In short, by Water, Fire, Earth, Air, by the Flight of Birds, by Lots. by Dreams, by the Wind, &c. &c.

Divination by the Rod or Wand is mentioned in Ezekiel.

Our vulgar Notion of the Hazel's Tendency to a Vein of Lead Ore, Seam of Coul, &c. seems to be a Vestige of this Rod Divination.

has

has struck more Terror than the Roaring of a Lion. Nothing, he observes, is so inconsiderable, which may not appear dreadful to an Imagination that is filled with Omens and Prognostics :-A rusty Nail, or a crooked Pin shoots up into Prodigies.

For when we think Fate hovers o'er our Heads,
Our Apprehensions shoot beyond all Bounds:
Owls, Ravens, Crickets seem the Watch of Death;
Nature's worst Vermin scare her godlike Sons;
Echoes, the very Leavings of a Voice,

Grow babbling Ghosts, and call us to our Graves.
Each Mole-hill Thought swells to a huge Olympus,
While we, fantastic Dreamers, heave and puff,
And sweat with an Imagination's Weight.

Dryden's and Lee's Oedipus.

The Author of the Vulgar Errors tells us, that hollow Stones are hung up in Stables to prevent the Night Mare, or Ephialtes. They are usually called in the North, Holy Stones.-The Chips of Gallows and Places of Execution are used for Amulets against Agues. I saw lately some Saw-Dust, in which Blood was absorbed, taken for some such Purpose from off the Scaffold on the beheading of one of the rebel Lords, 1746.-For Warts, we rub our Hands before the Moon, and commit any maculated Part to the Touch of the Dead.--Various are the superstitious Charms for driving away Rats, &c.

Dr. Browne has left several curious Observations on these popular Notions. That Candles and Lights (says he) burn blue and dim at the appa

rition of Spirits, may be true, if the ambient Air be full of sulphureous Spirits, as it happens oftentimes in Mines.-He admits that Conjectures of prevalent Humours may be collected from the Spots in our Nails, but rejects the sundry Divinations vulgarly raised upon them; such as, that Spots in the Top of the Nails signify Things past; in the Middle, Things present; and at the Bottom, Events to come; that white Specks presage our Felicity; blue ones our Misfortunes; those in the Nail of the Thumb have Significations of Honour; of the Forefinger, Riches. Palmistry, or Divination by the Lines of the Hand, has been deservedly exploded, though the Gipsies still make Pretensions to the Knowledge of it.

Sailors, usually the boldest Men alive, are yet frequently the very abject Slaves of superstitious Fear. They have various puerile Apprehensions concerning whistling on Shipboard, carrying a Corpse, &c. all which are Vestiges of the old Woman in human Nature, and can only be erazed by the united Efforts of Philosophy and Religion..

Nourishing Hair upon the Moles in the Face (the Doctor tells us) is the Perpetuation of a very antient Custom. Thus Pliny: "Nævos in facie "tondere religiosum habent nunc multi.”—From the like might proceed the Fears of poling Elf-locks, or complicated Hairs of the Head, and also of Locks longer than the other Hair, they being votary at first, and dedicated upon Occasion, preserved

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served with great Care, and accordingly esteemed by others. Thus Apuleius: “ Adjuro per dulcem Capilli tui Nodulum!" The set and statary Times (he farther observes) of paring of Nails and cutting of Hair, is thought by many a Point of Consideration, which is perhaps but the Continuation of an antient Superstition.-To the Romans, it was piaculous to pare their Nails upon the Nundina, observed every ninth Day, and was also feared by others in certain Days of the Week, according to that of Ausonius: Ungues Mercurio, Barbam Jove, Cypride crines.

Mr. Pennant, in describing the Customs of Highlanders, tells us, that in certain Places the Death of People is supposed to be foretold by the Cries and Shrieks of Benshi, or the Fairy's Wife, uttered along the very Path where the Funeral is to pass, and what in Wales are called Corps' Cane dles, are often imagined to appear and foretell Mortality. In the County of Carmarthen, there is hardly any one that dies, but some one or other sees his Light or Candle-There is a similar Superstition among the Vulgar in Northumberland: They call it seeing the Waff* of the Person whose Death

* I suspect this northern vulgar Word to be a Corruption of Whiff, a sudden and vehement Blast, which Davies thinks is de rived from the Welch, Chwyth, Halitus, Anhelitus, Flatus.

See Lye's Junii Etymolog. in verbo.

The Spirit is supposed to glide swiftly by.—Thus in the Glossary of Lancashire Words and Phrases, "wap't by" is explained "went "swiftly by." See a View of the Lancashire Dialect, &c. published at Manchester, 1763,