birds or insects, or destroying their nests, will infallibly, within the course of the year, break a bone, or meet with some other dreadful misfortune. (2) On the contrary, it is deemed lucky to have Martins or Swallows build their nests in the eaves of a house, or in the chimneys.

Its being accounted unlucky to destroy Swallows is probably a pagan relic. We read in Ælian that these birds were sacred to the penates, or household gods of the ancients, and therefore were preserved. They were honoured anciently as the nuntios of the spring. The Rhodians are said to have had a solemn anniversary song to welcome in the Swallow. Anacreon's Ode to that bird is well known.

Willsford, in his "Nature's Secrets," p. 134, says: "Swallows flying low, and touching the water often with their wings, presage rain."(3)

Gaule, in his "Mag-astromancers posed and puzzel'd," p. 181, takes notice, among other vain observations and superstitious ominations thereupon," the Swallows falling down the chymney."

In Lloyd's "Stratagems of Jerusalem," 4to. Lond. 1602, p. 285, it is repeated that the Swallow is a classical bird of omen. "By Swallows lighting upon Pirrhus' tents, and lighting upon the mast of Mar. Antonius' ship, sayling after Cleopatra to Egipt, the soothsayers did prognosticate that Pirrhus should be slaine at Argos in Greece, and Mar. Antonius in Egipt."

"Swallowes," he adds, "followed King Cyrus going with his army from Persia to Scythia, as Ravens followed Alexander the Great at returning from India and going to Babilon; but as the Magi tolde the Persians that Cyrus should die in Scythia, so the Chaldean astrologers told the Macedonians that Alexander the Great, their king, should die in Babilon, without any further warrant but by the above Swallowes and Ravens."

Colonel Vallancey, in the thirteenth Number of his "Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis," p. 97, speaking of the Wren, the augur's favourite bird, says that "The Druids represented this as the king of all birds. The superstitious respect shown to this little bird

gave offence to our first Christian Missionaries, and, by their commands, he is still hunted and killed by the peasants on Christmas Day, and on the following (St. Stephen's Day) he is carried about hung by the leg in the centre of two hoops crossing each other at right angles, and a procession made in every village, of men, women, and children, singing an Irish catch, importing him to be the king of all birds. Hence the name of this bird in all the European languages,-Greek, Teóxidos, Bariλsus, Trochilus, Basileus; Rex Avium, Senator; Latin, Regulus; French, Roytelet, Berichot, (*) but why this nation call him Boeuf de Dieu I cannot conjecture; Welsh, Bren, King; Teutonic, Koning Vogel, King Bird; Dutch, Konije, little King." (5)

In Sonnini's "Travels in Upper and Lower Egypt," translated from the French, 4to. Lond. 1800, pp. 11, 12, we have the following account of "Hunting the Wren:"

"While I was at Le Ciotat (near Marseilles in France) the particulars of a singular ceremony were related to me, which takes place every year at the beginning of Nivose (the latter end of December): a numerous body of men, armed with swords and pistols, set off in search of a very small bird which the ancients call Troglodytes (Motacella Troglodytes, L. Syst. Nat. edit. 13, Anglicè the common Wren), a denomination retained by Guenau de Montbellard, in his 'Natural History of Birds. When they have found it (a thing not difficult, because they always take care to have one ready), it is suspended on the middle of a pole, which two men carry on their shoulders, as if it were a heavy burthen. This whimsical procession parades round the town; the bird is weighed in a great pair of scales, and the company then sits down to table and makes merry. The name they give to the Troglodytes is not less curious than the kind of festival to which it gives occasion. They call it at La Ciotat, the Pole-cat, or Père de la bécusse (father of the woodcock), on account of the resemblance of its plumage to that of the woodcock, supposed by them to be engendered by the polecat, which is a great destroyer of birds, but which certainly produces none."

(1) A Note in Mr. Park's copy of Bourne and Brand, p. 92, says: "When a boy, I

remember it was said, in consonance with the above superstition, that

Tom Tit and Jenny Wren

Were God Almighty's cock and hen: and therefore to be held sacred."

(2) In "Six Pastorals, &c., by George Smith, Landscape Painter, at Chichester, in Sussex," 4to. Lond. 1770, p. 30, the following occurs:

"I found a Robin's nest within our shed, And in the barn a Wren has young ones bred.

I never take away their nest, nor try

To catch the old ones, lest a friend should die.

Dick took a Wren's nest from his cottage side,

And ere a twelvemonth past his mother dy'd!" (3) "Sparrows," he adds, " in the morning early, chirping, and making more noise than ordinary they use to do, foretells rain or wind; the Tit-mouse, cold, if crying pincher." "Birds in general that do frequent trees and bushes, if they do fly often out, and make quick returns, expect some bad weather to follow soon after."

Alexander Ross, in his Appendix to the "Arcana Microcosmi," p. 219, informs us that "In this land, of late years, our present miseries and unnatural wars have been forewarned by armies of Swallows, Martins, and other birds, fighting against one another."

(4) Berchot is rendered in Cotgrave's Dictionary of Old French, "the little Wrenne, our Ladies henne." In the "Livre vii. de la Nature des Oyseaux, par P. Belon," fol. Par. 1555, p. 342, we read:

"Due Roytelet. Les Grecs l'ont anciennement nommé Trochylos, Presuis, ou Basileus, et les Latins Trochylus, Senator, Regulus. Il est diversement nommé en Francoys: ar les uns dient le Roy Bertauld, les autres Perichot, les autres un Bœuf de Dieu." ete dit, que pource qu'il est nommé

Senateur & Roy, il a combat contre l'Aigle. Le Roytelet de si petite stature fait nuisance à l'Aigle, qui maistrise touts autres Oyseaux."

I should suppose the name of "Troglodytes, c'est à dire, entrants es Cavernes," from the nature of this bird's nest, which Belon thus describes: "La structure du nid de ce Roytelet, tel qu'il le fait communement à la couverture de chaume, qui dedens quelque pertuis de Muraille est composé en forme ovale, couvert dessus, et dessous, n'y laissant qu'un seul moult petit pertuis, par lequel il y peult

entrer."

Pliny says: "Dissident Aquila & Trochilus, si credimus, quoniam Rex appellatur Avium." edit. Harduin. i. 582, 27.

He further tells us what a singular office the Wren performs in Egypt to the Crocodile :

"Hunc (i. e. Crocodilum) saturum Cibo piscium, et semper esculento Ore, in litore somno datum, parva Avis, quæ Trochilos ibi vocantur, Rex avium in Italia, invitat ad hiandum pabuli sui gratia, os primum ejus assultim repurgans, mox dentes, et intus fauces quoque ad hanc scabendi dulcedinem quam maxime hiantes.*

(5) Mr. Gregory informed me, May 23, 1805, that in Ireland they still go out on St. Stephen's Day to hunt the Wren. J. B.

Aubrey, in his "Miscellanies," 2nd edit. 8vo. p. 45, having mentioned the last battle fought in the North of Ireland between the Protestants and the Papists, in Glinsuly, in the county of Donegal, says:

"Near the same place a party of the Protestants had been surprised sleeping by the Popish Irish, were it not for several Wrens that just wakened them by dancing and pecking on the drums as the enemy were approaching. For this reason the wild Irish mortally hate these birds to this day, calling them the Devil's Servants, and killing them wherever they can catch them; they teach their children to thrust them full of thorns; you'll see sometimes on holidays a whole parish running like madmen from hedge to hedge a Wren-hunting.”

BISHOP HALL, in his "Characters of Vertues and Vices," so often cited, speaks of this superstition when treating of the superstitious man, observing that "if but a Hare crosse him in the way, he returnes."

Melton, too, in his "Astrologaster," p. 45, informs us that "it is very ill lucke to have a Hare cross one in the high way." Burton, also, in his "Anatomy of Melancholy," edit. 4to. 1621, p. 214, observes, "There is a feare which is commonly caused by prodigies and dismall accidents, which much troubles many of us, as if a Hare crosse the way at our going forth, &c." The omen of the Hare crossing the way occurs with others in the old play of the "Dumb Knight," by Lewis Machin, act iv. sc. 1, in a passage already quoted. It is found also in Ellison's "Trip to Benwell," lx.:

"Nor did we meet, with nimble feet,
One little fearful Lepus,
That certain sign, as some divine,

Of fortune bad to keep us." (1)

The ancient Britons made use of Hares for the purposes of divination. (2) They were never killed for the table. Tis perhaps from hence that they have been accounted ominous by the vulgar. See Cæsar's "Commentaries," p. 89.

I find the following in "A Help to Discourse," 12mo. Lond. 1633, p. 340: "Q. Wherefore hath it anciently beene accounted good lucke, if a WOLFE crosse our way, (3) but ill luck if a Hare crosse it?-A. Our ancestors, in times past, as they were merry conceited, so were they witty: and thence it grew that they held it good lucke if a Wolf crost the way and was gone without any more danger or trouble; but ill luck, if a Hare crost and escaped them, that they had not taken her."

Grose tells us, "If going on a journey on business a Sow cross the road, you will probably meet with a disappointment, if not a

bodily accident, before you return home. To avert this, you must endeavour to prevent her crossing you: and if that cannot be done you must ride round on fresh ground; if the Sow is with her litter of pigs, it is lucky, and denotes a successful journey."

According to the following passage in Ellison's "Trip to Benwell," lix., it should seem that Swine appearing in sight, in travelling, was an omen of good luck :

"Neither did here
In sight appear

Of Swine, foul, dreadful nomen;
Which common Fame

Will oft proclaim

Of luck, dire, wretched omen."(^)

The meeting of a WEASEL is a bad omen. See Congreve's comedy of" Love for Love."(5)

Melton, in his " Astrologaster," p. 46, says: "16. That it is a very unfortunate thing for a man to meete early in a morning an ill-favoured MAN or WOMAN, a rough-footed HEN, a shag-haird Dog, or a black CAT."

Shaw, in his "History of Moray," tells us that the ancient Scots much regarded omens in their expeditions: an armed man meeting them was a good omen: () if a woman bare-foot crossed the road before them, they seized her and fetched blood from her forehead if a Deer, Fox, Hare, or any heast of game appeared, and they did not kill it, it was an unlucky omen.

In "Secret Memoirs of the late Mr. Duncan Campbell," 8vo. Lond. 1732, p. 61, we read: "Some will defer going abroad, though called by business of the greatest consequence, if on going out they are met by a person who has the misfortune to squint. This turns them immediately back, and, perhaps, by delaying till another time what requires an immediate despatch, the affair goes wrong, and the omen is indeed fulfilled, which, but for the superstition of the observer, would have been of no effect."

We gather from a remarkable book entitled "The Schoolemaster, or Teacher of Table Philosophy,” 4to. Lond. 1583, b. iv. cap. 8, |

that in the ages of chivalry it was thought unlucky to meet with a priest, if a man were going forth to war or a tournament. (7)

(1) Alex. ab Alexandro," lib. v. c. 13, p. 685, has the following passage: "Lepus quoque occurrens in Via, infortunatum iter præsagit et ominosum.”

In Bebelii "Facetiæ," edit. 4to. 1516, sig. E iij., we read: "Vetus est superstitio et falsa Credulitas rusticorum, ut si cui mané lepus transverso itinere obvius venerit, malum aliquid illi hoc die portendi."

Gaule, in his "Mag-astromancers posed and puzzel'd," p. 181, ranks among vain observations and superstitious ominations thereupon, "A Hare crossing the way"-as also "the Swine grunting."

Ramesey, in his "Elminthologia," 8vo. Lond. 1668, p. 271, speaking of superstitious persons, says: "If an Hare do but cross their way, they suspect they shall be rob'd, or come to some mischance forthwith."

Mason, in "The Anatomie of Sorcerie," 4to. Lond. 1612, p. 85, enumerates among the superstitious persons of his age those who prognosticate" 'some misfortune if a Hare do

crosse a man."

Sir Thomas Browne tells us, "if a Hare cross the highway there are few above three score years that are not perplexed thereat, which, notwithstanding, is but an augurial terror, according to that received expression, 'Inauspicatum dat iter oblatus lepus.' And the ground of the conceit was probably no greater than this, that a fearful animal passing by us portended unto us something to be feared as, upon the like consideration, the meeting of a Fox presaged some future imposture. These good or bad signs, sometimes succeeding according to fears or desires, have left impressions and timorous expectations in credulous minds for ever."

The superstitious notion of a Hare crossing the road being an ill omen is prevalent in

Hungary: see Dr.Townson's "Travels in Hungary. He says: "This superstition is very ancient, and is mentioned in a very old Latin treatise called 'Lagrographie,' 4to. Edinb. 1797."

Dr. Nathaniel Home, in his "Dæmonologie," 8vo. Lond. 1650, p. 60, says: "If an Hare, or the like creature, cross the way where one is going, it is (they say) a signe of very ill luck. In so much as some in company with a woman great with childe, have, upon the crossing of such creatures, cut or torne some of the clothes off that woman with childe, to prevent (as they imagine) the ill luck that might befall her. I know I tell you most true; and I hope in such a subject as this, touching these superstitions, I shall not offend in acquainting you with these particulars."

(2) Borlase, in his "Antiq. of Cornwall," p. 135, tells us of "a remarkable way of divining related of Boadicea, Queen of the Britons-when she had harangued her soldiers to spirit them up against the Romans, she opened her bosom and let go a Hare, which she had there concealed, that the augurs might thence proceed to divine. The frighted animal made such turnings and windings in her course, as, according to the then rules of judging, prognosticated happy success. The joyful multitude made loud huzzas, Boadicea seized the opportunity, approved their ardour, led them straight to their enemies, and gained the victory."

(3) Lupton, in his third book of "Notable Things" (edit. 8vo. 1660, p. 52), 5, says: "Plinie reports that men in antient times did fasten upon the gates of their towns the heads of Wolves, thereby to put away witchery, sorcery, or enchantment; which many hunters observe or do at this day, but to what use they know not."

Werenfels says, p. 7: "When the superstitious person goes abroad he is not so much afraid of the teeth as the unexpected sight of a Wolf, lest he should deprive him of his speech."

(4) The following is from a rare collection in black letter, which has been already quoted more than once, entitled " Wits, Fits, and Fancies," 4to.: "A plaine country vicar perswaded his parishioners, in all their troubles and adversities, to call upon God, and thus he said: There is (dearlie beloved) a certaine familiar beast amongst you called a Hogge; see you not how toward a storme or tempest it crieth evermore, Ourgh, Ourgh? So must you likewise, in all your eminent troubles and dangers, say to yourselves, Lourghd, Lourghd, helpe me.'

(5) In "Secret Memoirs of the late Mr. Duncan Campbell," 8vo. 1732, p. 60, we read: "I have known people who have been put into such terrible apprehensions of death by the squeaking of a Weasel, as have been very near bringing on them the fate they dreaded."

In "Dives and Pauper," fol. 1493, the firste precepte, chap. 46: "Some man hadde levyr to mete with a FROUDE or a FROGGE in the way than with a knight or a squier, or with any man of religion, or of holy churche, for than they say and leve that they shal have gold.. For sumtyme after the metyng of a Frogge or a Tode they have resceyved golde-wele I wote that they resseyve golde of men or of wymen, but nat of Frogges ne of Todes, but it be of the Devel in lyknesse of a Frogge or a Tode these labourers, delvers, and dykers, that moost mete with Frogges and Todes, been fulle pore comonly and but men paye them their hyre, they have lytel or nought."

Willsford, in his "Nature's Secrets," 8vo. Lond. 1658, p. 130, tells us : "Beasts eating greedily, and more than they use to do, prenotes foul weather; and all small cattel, that seeme to rejoyce with playing and sporting themselves, foreshews rain.

"OXEN and all kind of NEAT, if you do at any time observe them to hold up their heads, and shuffle in the air, or lick their hooves, or their bodies against the hair, expect then rainy weather.

"ASSES or MULES, rubbing often their ears, or braying much more than usually they are accustomed, presages rain.

"HoGs crying and running unquietly up and down, with hay or litter in their mouths, foreshews a storm to be near at hand.

"MOLES plying their works, in undermining the earth, foreshews rain; but if they do forsake their trenches and creep above ground in summer time, it is a sign of hot weather; but when on a suddain they doe forsake the valleys and low grounds, it foreshews a flood neer at hand; but their coming into meddows presages fair weather, and for certain no floods. "The little sable beast (called a FLEA), if much thirsting after blood, it argues rain.

"The lamentable croaking of FROGS more than ordinary does denote rainy weather.

"GLOW-WORMS, SNAYLES, and all such creatures, do appear most against fair weather; but if Worms come out of the earth much in the day-time it is a presage of wet weather; but in the summer evenings it foreshews dewy nights, and hot days to follow."

(6) Gaule, in his "Mag-astromancers posed and puzzel'd," p. 312, mentions this superstition: " Meeting of monks is commonly accounted as an ill omen, and so much the rather if it be early in the morning because these kind of men live for the most part by the suddain death of men; as vultures do by slaughters.'

The following occurs in Pet. Molinæi Vates," p. 154: "Si egredienti domo summo mane primus occurrit Æthiops, aut claudus, ominosum est." "Ex quibuslibet rebus Superstitio captat Auguria, casum vertens in Omen."

(7) Gaule, in his "Mag-astromancers posed and puzzel'd," p. 181, holds it as a vain observation "to bode good or bad luck from the rising up on the right or left side; from lifting the left leg over the threshold, at first going out of doors; from the meeting of a beggar or a priest the first in a morning; the meeting of a virgin or a harlot first; the running in of a child betwixt two friends; the justling one another at unawares; one treading upon another's toes; to meet one fasting that is lame, or defective in any member; to wash in the same water after another."

The following superstitions among the Malabrians are related in Phillips's account of them, 12mo. 1717: "It is interpreted as a very bad sign if a blind man, a Bramin, or a