Verses on the snail, similar to those given above, are current over many parts of Europe. In Denmark, the children say (Thiele, iii. 138) Snegl! snegl! kom herud! Her er en Mand, som vil kjöbe dit Huus, Snail! snail! come out here! Here is a man thy house will buy, For a measure of white money. A similar idea is preserved in Germany, the children saying (Das Knaben Wunderhorn, iii. 81)— Klosterfrau im Schneckenhäussle, Sie meint, sie sey verborgen. Cloister-dame, in house of shell, The following lines are given by M. Kuhn, Gebräuche und Aberglauben, 398, as current in Stendal: Schneckhûs, peckhûs, Stäk du dîn vêr hörner rût, Süst schmît ick dî in'n gråven, Då frêten dî de raven. APPLES. Children in the North of England, when they eat apples, or similar fruit, delight in throwing away the pippin, exclaiming Pippin, pippin, fly away, THE WALNUT-TREE. There is a common persuasion amongst country people that whipping a walnut-tree tends to increase the produce, and improve the flavour of the fruit. belief is embodied in the following distich: A woman, a spaniel, and a walnut-tree, The more you whip them the better they be. And also in this quatrain: Three things by beating better prove, A nut, an ass, a woman; The cudgel from their back remove, THE ASH. Burn ash-wood green, 'Tis a fire for a queen : "Twill make a man swear. This Ash, when green, makes good fire-wood, and, contrary perhaps to all other sorts of wood, is bad for that purpose when sear, or dry, withered. The old AngloSaxon term sear is well illustrated by this homely proverb. The reader will remember Macbeth: I have lived long enough: My way of life is fallen into the sear and yellow leaf. PEAS. Children get the pods of a pea, and flinging them at each other, cry Pea-pod hucks, Twenty for a pin; If you don't like them, I'll take them agin. The hucks are the shells or pods, and agin the pro vincial pronunciation of again. PIMPERNELL. No heart can think, no tongue can tell, Gerard enumerates several complaints for which this plant was considered useful, and he adds, that country people prognosticated fine or bad weather by observing in the morning whether its flowers were spread out or shut up.-Herbal, first ed. p. 494. According to a MS. on magic, preserved in the Chetham Library at Manchester, "the herb pimpernell is good to prevent witchcraft, as Mother Bumby doth affirme;" and the following lines must be used when it is gathered: Herbe pimpernell, I have thee found Growing upon Christ Jesus' ground: The same guift the Lord Jesus gave unto thee, Arise up, pimpernell, and goe with me, And all that shall were thee. Amen. Say this fifteen dayes together, twice a day, morning earlye fasting, and in the evening full." MS. ibid. This is the universal bird-shooer's song in the midland counties. THE GNAT. In the eastern counties of England, and perhaps in other parts of the country, children chant the following lines when they are pursuing this insect: Gnat, gnat, fly into my hat, And I'll give you a slice of bacon! THE TROUT. In Herefordshire the alder is called the aul, and the country people use the following proverbial lines: When the bud of the aul is as big as the trout's eye, Then that fish is in season in the river Wye. TOBACCO. Tobacco hic, Tobacco was formerly held in great esteem as a medicine. Sickness was the old term for illness of any kind, and is no doubt the more correct expression. It may just be worth a passing notice to observe, that Shakespeare never mentions tobacco, nor alludes to it even indirectly. What a brilliant subject for a critic! A treatise might be written to prove from this circumstance that the great poet was not in the habit of smoking; or, on the contrary, that he was so great an admirer of the pernicious weed, that, being unable to allude to it without a panegyric, he very wisely eschewed the subject for fear of giving offence to his royal master, the author of the Counterblast.' The discussion, at all events, would be productive of as much utility as the disputes which have occasioned so many learned letters respecting the orthography of the poet's name. JACK-A-DANDY. Boys have a very curious saying respecting the reflection of the sun's beams from the surface of water upon a ceiling, which they call "Jack-a-dandy beating his wife with a stick of silver." If a mischievous boy with a bit of looking-glass, or similar material, threw the reflection into the eye of a neighbour, the latter would complain, "He's throwing Jack-a-dandy in my eyes." VII. PROVERB-RHYMES. Metrical proverbs are so numerous, that a large volume might be filled with them without much difficulty; and it is, therefore, unnecessary to say that nothing beyond a very small selection is here attempted. We may refer the curious reader to the collections of Howell, Ray, and Denham, the last of which chiefly relates to natural objects and the weather, for other examples; but the subject is so diffuse, that these writers have gone a very short way towards the compilation of a complete series. Give a thing and take again, And you shall ride in hell's wain! Said by children when one wishes a gift to be returned, a system naturally much disliked. So says Plato, rwv ορθως δοθέντων αφαίρεσις ουκ εσι. Ray, p. 113, ed. 1768. Ben Jonson appears to allude to this proverb in the Sad Shepherd, where Maudlin says- -"Do you give a thing and take a thing, madam?” Cotgrave, Dic |
