Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales Part 35

Cuckoo, cherry-tree, Lay an egg, give it me; Lay another, Give it my brother!]

And this is probably correct, for we appear to have formed this method of divination in some indirect manner from a custom still prevalent in Germany of addressing the cuckoo, when he is first heard, with a view of ascertaining the duration of life, by counting the number of times it repeats its note. The lines used on this occasion are given by Grimm:

Kukuk, Beckerknecht!

Sag mir recht, Wie viel jahr Ich leben soll?

An old story is told of a man who was on his road towards a monastery, which he was desirous of entering as a monk for the salvation of his soul, and hearing the cuckoo, stopped to count the number of notes. They were twenty-two. "Oh!" said he, "since I shall be sure to live twenty-two years, what is the use of mortifying myself in a monastery all that time? I'll e'en go and live merrily for twenty years, and it will be all in good time to betake me to a monastery for the other two."

See Wright's Essays, i. 257; and Latin Stories, p. 42, de cuculo; p. 74, de muliere in extremis quae dixit _kuckuc_. Both these tales curiously ill.u.s.trate the extent to which faith in the divination extended.

If a maid desires to attach the affections of her lover unalterably to her, she must wait till she finds him asleep with his clothes on. She must then take away one of his garters without his perceiving it, and tie it to her own in a true-love knot, saying-

Three times this knot I tie secure; Firm is the knot, Firm his love endure.

In many parts of the country, it is considered extremely unlucky to give a person anything that is sharp, as a knife, razor, &c., but the bad fortune may be averted if the receiver gives something, however trifling, in return, and exclaims-

If you love me as I love you, No knife shall cut our love in two!

In counting the b.u.t.tons of the waistcoat upwards, the last found corresponding to one of the following names indicates the destiny of the wearer:

My belief,- A captain, a colonel, a cow-boy, a thief.

THE EVEN-ASH.

A girl must pluck a leaf from the even-ash, and, holding it in her hand, say-

This even-ash I hold in my hand, The first I meet is my true man.

She carries it in her hand a short distance, and if she meets a young man, he will be her future husband. If not, she must put the leaf in her glove, and say-

This even-ash I hold in my glove, The first I meet is my true love.

She carries it in her glove a short time, with the same intention as before, but if she meets no one, she places the leaf in her bosom, saying-

This even-ash I hold in my bosom, The first I meet is my husband.

And the first young man she meets after this will infallibly be her future partner. There are a great variety of rhymes relating to the even-ash. Another is-

If you find even-ash or four-leaved clover, You will see your love afore the day's over.

DOCK.

Nettle in, dock out, Dock rub nettle out!

If a person is stung with a nettle, a certain cure will be effected by rubbing dock leaves over the part, repeating the above charm very slowly. Mr. Akerman gives us another version of it as current in Wiltshire:

Out 'ettle, in dock, Dock zhall ha' a new smock; 'Ettle zhant ha' narrun!

THE YARROW.

This plant, in the eastern counties, is termed _yarroway_, and there is a curious mode of divination with its serrated leaf, with which you must tickle the inside of your nose, repeating the following lines. If the operation causes the nose to bleed, it is a certain omen of success:

Yarroway, yarroway, bear a white blow, If my love love me, my nose will bleed now.

Another mode of divination with this plant caused a dream of a future husband. An ounce of yarrow, sewed up in flannel, must be placed under your pillow when you go to bed, and having repeated the following words, the required dream will be realized:

Thou pretty herb of Venus' tree, Thy true name it is yarrow; Now who my bosom friend must be, Pray tell thou me to-morrow.

Boys have a variety of divinations with the kernels of pips of fruit.

They will shoot one with their thumb and forefinger, exclaiming-

Kernel come kernel, hop over my thumb, And tell me which way my true love will come; East, West, North, or South, Kernel, jump into my true love's mouth.

This is taken from Mr. Barnes's Dorset Gl., p. 320, but the author does not inform us in what way the divination was effected. I remember throwing apple-pips into the fire, saying-

If you love me, pop and fly, If you hate me, lay and die!

addressing an imaginary love, or naming some individual whose affection was desired to be tested.

Girls used to have a method of divination with a "St. Thomas's onion,"[48] for the purpose of ascertaining their future partners. They peeled the onion, wrapped it up in a clean handkerchief, and then placing it under their heads, said the following lines:

[Footnote 48: One of the old cries of London was, "Buy my rope of onions-white St. Thomas's onions." They are also mentioned in the "Hog hath lost his Pearl," i. 1.]

Good St. Thomas, do me right, And let my true love come to-night, That I may see him in the face, And him in my kind arms embrace;

which were considered infallible for procuring a dream of the beloved one.

To know if your present sweetheart will marry you, let an unmarried woman take the bladebone of a shoulder of lamb, and borrowing a penknife, without on any account mentioning the purpose for which it is required, stick it through the bone when she goes to bed for nine nights in different places, repeating the following lines each time:

'Tis not this bone I mean to stick, But my love's heart I mean to p.r.i.c.k, Wishing him neither rest nor sleep, Until he comes to me to speak.

Accordingly at the end of the nine days, or shortly afterwards, he will ask for something to put to a wound he will have met with during the time he was thus charmed. Another method is also employed for the same object. On a Friday morning, fasting, write on four pieces of paper the names of three persons you like best, and also the name of Death, fold them up, wear them in your bosom all day, and at night shake them up in your left shoe, going to bed backwards; take out one with your left hand, and the other with your right, throw three of them out of the shoe, and in the morning whichever name remains in the shoe is that of your future husband. If Death is left, you will not marry any of them.

VERVAIN.

The herb vervain was formerly held of great efficacy against witchcraft, and in various diseases. Sir W. Scott mentions a popular rhyme, supposed to be addressed to a young woman by the devil, who attempted to seduce her in the shape of a handsome young man:

Gin you wish to be leman mine, Leave off the St. John's wort and the vervine.

By his repugnance to these sacred plants, his mistress discovered the cloven foot. Many ceremonies were used in gathering it. "You must observe," says Gerard, "Mother b.u.mbies rules to take just so many knots or sprigs, and no more, least it fall out so that it do you no good, if you catch no harme by it; many odde olde wives' fables are written of vervaine, tending to witchcraft and sorcerie, which you may reade elsewhere, for I am not willing to trouble your eares with reporting such trifles as honest eares abhorre to heare." An old English poem on the virtue of herbs, of the fourteenth century, says:

As we redyn, gaderyd most hym be With iij. pater-noster and iij. ave, Fastand, thow the wedir be grylle, Be-twen mydde March and mydde Aprille, And [gh]et awysyd moste the be, That the sonne be in ariete.

A magical MS. in the Chetham Library at Manchester, of the time of Queen Elizabeth, furnishes us with a poetical prayer used in gathering this herb: