Archibald Foyer, with the date 1700.
Y.
* * * * *
FOLK LORE OF LANCASHIRE. NO. 1.
Lancashire, like all other counties, has its own peculiar superstitions,
manners, and customs, which find no parallels in those of other localities.
It has also, no doubt, many local observances, current opinions, old
proverbs, and vulgar ditties, which are held and known in common with the
inhabitants of a greater extent of county, and differ merely in minor
particulars;--the necessary result of imperfect oral transmission. In
former numbers of this work a few isolated specimens of the folk-lore of
this district have been noticed, and the present attempt is to give
permanency to a few others.
1. If a person's hair, when thrown into the fire, burns brightly, it is a
sure sign that the individual will live long. The brighter the flame the
longer life, and _vice versa_.
2. A young person frequently stirs the fire with the poker to test the
humour of a lover. If the fire blaze brightly, the lover is
_good-humoured_; and _vice versa_.
3. A crooked sixpence, or a copper coin with a hole through, are accounted
_lucky_ coins.
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