ide a corpse at mid-day, while at the same time a
small plate or saucer with salt rested on the corpse's breast, and
every one who looked on the body had to put his hand on the inanimate
brow. He further told us he had seen a priest of the Roman Catholic
Church put a half-crown into the mouth of a corpse at Portobello, to
represent, we presume, the obolus exacted by Charon for ferrying the
shades of the buried dead across the under-world rivers.

In Ireland, at a period not remote, an opinion prevailed that the
spirit of a dead person went about deceased's former home for a month.
During that length of time a fire was always kept burning in the
house, and a jug of water stood in deceased's chamber, so that his
spirit might refresh itself. At the month's end a clergyman, by means
of prayer, put the spirit to rest.

Within the last decade (we think in 1872) a highly respectable family
in the county of Edinburgh was greatly alarmed by a pheasant flying
through their dining-room window, killing itself on the spot, and
breaking a large pane of plate glass. To the family the event came as
a warning of early calamity. Next day a messenger announced that a
worthy doctor of divinity, a dear family friend, had died the previous
night.

We hear occasionally of the impossibility of wiping out the traces of
flagrant crimes. The blood of Rizzio, shed on the floor of Holyrood
Palace, in presence of Queen Mary, has defied the rubbing of years to
wipe it away. There the blood stains remain a wonder to the thousands
who visit Scotland's royal palace. At a time almost forgotten, a good
man was hurled from a window of Torwood Castle, not far from the field
of Bannockburn. His blood stained the grass on which the body fell,
and since that time the herbage there is mixed with red blades of
grass and red clover.

A Saturday's flitting is followed by a short sitting. No one should
take possession of a new house before throwing coals and salt into
it. No important undertaking should be commenced on Friday or
Saturday, nor yet at the end of a year. "Berchta spoils flax found
unspun the last day of the year." A shooting star falling near a
house, foretells an early death in that dwelling.

Old flint arrow-heads are worn as charms, under the belief that they
were the points of elfin arrows. If a lady be wise, she will not have
two tea-spoons in her saucer at the same time. If a young lady desire
to know how many sweethearts she has, let her