If the reader objects to the version of old Erra Pater here is a second given by Willsford.†

"If Saint Paul's Day be fair and clear,

It does betide a happy year;

But if it chance to snow or rain

Then will be dear all kind of grain;

If clouds or mist do dark the skie

Great store of beasts and birds shall die;
And if the winds do fly aloft

Then wars shall vex that kingdom oft."

The weather of the whole year thus depending on the humour in which St. Paul might chance to be upon his feast-day, the people made no scruple of showing their resentment if by his wearing cloudy looks at such a time he disappointed their hopes for the season. In many

*

"The Pronostycacion for ever of Erra Pater: A Jewe borne in Jewery, a Boctour in Astronomye and Physycke. Profitable to kepe the bodye in helth. And also Ptholomeus sayth the same.” No date is affixed to this work, but it is stated to be "Emprinted by me, Robert Wyer, dwellynge at the Sygne of Seynt John Evangelist in Seynt Martyn's Paryshe besyde Charynge Crosse. There is however another edition by the same printer, in which the above lines are not given, and in which the three or four last pages differ considerably. A third reprint by Thomas Este varies yet more, omitting much, adding a few things, and giving the substance of many parts in other words.

† NATURE'S SECRETS, p. 145. 8vo. London. 1658.

parts of Germany they dragged his image to the river on these occasions, and there soused him well in effigy.*

This notion, however fallacious, must at one time have been very general, for we not only find it repeatedly mentioned by our own writers, but we have the evidence of Olaus Wormius for its having existed among the Northern nations. The Latin lines he has quoted on the subject are to the same effect as the prediction in English by Erra Pater.t

*

"SCHENCK'S TREATISE ON IMAGES, chap. xii.-as quoted by Brand. vol. i. page 83.

"Clara dies Pauli bona tempora denotat anni;

Si fuerint venti, designant prælia genti;

Si fuerint nebulæ, pereunt animalia quæque ;
Si nix aut pluviæ, redduntur tempora cara."

FASTI DANICI-ab Olao Wormio, p. 111. Lib. ii. cap. 9, sect. 9. A version, somewhat differing from this, but the same in substance, is given by Hearne in his edition of ROB. DE AVESBURY; HIST. EDUARDI TERTII. Minutiæ, p. 266. And again we find them in Hospinian (De Festis Christianorum; p. 38.) with a grave caution that no faith is to be placed in the prognostication

"Ne credas certè, nam fallet regula sæpe."

POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS.

DIVINATIONS IN ADVENT.-Two sorts of divination are practiced at this period by girls desirous of learning the temper of their future husbands. The first mode was by taking from four to eight onions and scratching on each of them the names they most fancied; these they set in the chimney-corner, and whichever was the first to sprout, that one bore the name of the future help-mate. The next method was by going out at night and drawing a single stick from a wood-stack, but without attempting to pick or choose; if it turned out straight and even, and without knots, then the husband would be gentle; if on the contrary it proved knotty and crooked, then the husband would be a churl.*

*

"Illis divinant etiam inquiruntque diebus
Aptæ connubio jam lascivæque puellæ
Nomine de sponsi, quicunque est ille futurus.
Quatuor accipiunt cæpas, vel quinque, vel octo,
Atque indunt certum nomen præ aliisque cupitum
Cuique; dein propter fornacem ex ordine ponunt;
Et quæ prima suum protrudit cæpula germen,
Illius haud dubiè nomen quoque sponsus habebit.
Inquirunt etiam sponsi moresque animumque,
Sol postquam occiduus cælum terrasque reliquit ;
Namque struem lignorum adeunt tum, perque tenebras
Fortuito inde sudem casu quæque extrahit unam,

Lunar Superstition.-In Wiltshire it is said to be unlucky to look at the new moon first through a window. As to the man in the moon himself, some have supposed that the idea has arisen from that passage in the book of Numbers, where a man is stoned to death for gathering sticks upon a Sunday.* But indeed by some strange caprice of superstition the moon has had more traditions and observances connected with her than the sun itself, and not improbably because the night, the time of her predominance, is better calculated to create and nourish such fancies than the cheerful day. To name only a few of them. Whoever prays for any thing when the moon is in conjunction with Jupiter and the Dragon's head, will be sure to obtain it.† But though this aphorism would seem to apply equally to either sex, yet of lovers it was more especially the women, who paid their vows to the moon, while men sought similar favours of the sun, a distinction for which no cause has been assigned, so far as I know, by the learned in such high mysteries. In other respects the moon was of doubtful augury, being evil or propitious according to the state in which she was at the time; thus, wood cut at the full of the moon is affected with blight and rottenness; §

Quæ fierit si recta et nullis horrida nodes
Commodus ac comis speratur ritè maritus;
Sin vero prava et nodis incommoda duris

Improbulum ac pravum sperant obtingere sponsum."

THOME NAOGEORGI REGNUM PAPISTICUM.-Lib. iv. p. 130. 12mo. 1559.

* NUMBERS. Chap. xv. ver. 32-36.

+ “Qui, Luna, inquit Albumazar, Jovi, conjuncta cum Capite Draconico, supplicaverit, quicquid petierit procul dubio impetrabit." CELIUS RHODIGINUS. Lectiones Antiquæ, p. 645. F.

"Scribit tamen Pindarus, ex amantibus soli quidem viros vota concipere, lunæ autem fæminas." Idem, p. 205. H.

"Succisa ligna in plenilunio carie conficiuntur, tunc rubigo infestat." DE ADMIRANDIS FACULTATIBUS. Autore D. H. Montuo,

neither is it good to voyage in the interval between the old and new moon or in an eclipse of that luminary.* Then too different objects are affected by it in different manners; many things for instance, that encrease with the encreasing moon, cease to grow and become sapless when she wanes; while on the other hand some roots, such as the onion, germinate with the waning moon, and dry up as she waxes.†

Next as to the names and qualities of the moon. It is white because it rules the waters, whose nature it is to become white in concretion. It was called Melissa as the presiding deity of generation,§ and Diana herself was named threeformed from the triple aspects of the moon-the horned; the half-moon; and the full moon.||

Spayed Bitches.-I believe all over England a spaied bitch is accounted wholesome; that is to say, they have

No. 71; Cent. Secunda, p. 40. 12mo. Lugduni. 1556. This is printed with the MEMORABILIA of Mizaldus, forming the latter part of the volume.

* "Silente aut deficiente luna non esse navigandum expertus est Synesius." Idem. No. 73. Cent. ii, p. 40.

+ "Omnia quæ crescente luna gliscunt deficiente contra desinunt exuccaque sunt. Quamquam in quibusdam est antipathia, nam cepe, teste Plutarcho, luna decedente revirescit ac congerminat. Inarescitque eadem adolescente." Idem. No. 68; Cent. vi. p. 39. He afterwards adds that the onion is the only one root that acts by lunar antipathies, his text not being very consistent with itself.

"Album porro colorem lunæ contribuunt quoniam aquis dominetur is planeta, quarum natura est uti concretione inalbescant. L. CELIUS RHODIGINUS. Lectiones Antiq. Lib. xxvi. cap. 9, p. 1207. D.

"Lunam quoque generationis præsidem, Melissam dixere." CELIUS RHODIGINUS, Lib. xxii. cap. 3, p. 1028. F. But the priests of Ceres were also called Melissas.

|| "Quia vero triplicem faciat visitationem Luna-quum surgit in cornua et falcata dicitur-quumque dimidia est-et quum orbe circumacto-hinc propagatum autumant poeticum commentum de triformi Diana." Id. Lib. xx; cap. vi; p. 927. D.