Cornishmen in the last century from their cradles to their graves might have been guided in their actions by old women's "widdles" (superstitions), some as already shown are still foolishly followed; but I hope that few people are silly enough at the present day to leave their babies' heads a twelvemonth unwashed, under the mistaken notion that it would be unlucky to do it. I have often and very recently seen the creases in the palms of children's hands filled with dirt; to clean them before they were a year old would take away riches–they would live and die poor. Their nails, too, for the same period should be bitten, not cut, for that would make them thieves. Hair at no age must be cut at the waning of the moon, that would prevent its growing luxuriantly; locks shorn off must be always burnt, it is unlucky to throw them away; then birds might use them in their nests and weave them in so firmly that there would be a difficulty in your rising at the last day. Children's first teeth are burnt to prevent dog's or "snaggles" irregular teeth coming in their stead. Coral necklaces are worn to ensure easy teething; the beads are said to change their colour when the wearer is ill. "All locks are unlocked to favour easy birth (or death)."—A. H. Bickford, M.D., Camborne, 1883. Cornishmen in the West are said to be born with tails; they drop off when the Tamar is crossed.

"A popular notion amongst old folks is, that when a boy is born on the waning moon the next birth will be a girl, and vice versa. They also say that when a birth takes place on the growing of the moon, the next child will be of the same sex." A child born in the interval between the old and new moons is fated to die young, and babies with blue veins across their noses do not live to see twenty–one.

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 donke/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 bedsheet 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 nursemaids with appropriate actions to amuse their little charges. First, touching each part of the face as mentioned with the forefinger,

"Brow brender,
Eye winker,
Nose dropper.
Mouth eater.
Chin chopper.
Tickle–tickle."

Second—

"Tap a tap shoe, 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 M6n–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 whoopingcough by donke/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 I 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."