aned,
and the precaution taken to throw salt and a small quantity of coals
in at the door before any furniture or household goods are carried
across the threshold, good luck is expected. As a warning, however, to
persons who might wish to injure their neighbours, we think it right
to say that, down to the time we write, it is considered that any one
removing from a dwelling with clean-swept floors, has reason to expect
grief and trouble in his new abode. Every one knows that slippers,
besoms, salt, and rice should be thrown after a newly-wedded pair; and
that a cake must be broken over a bride's head when she first enters
the house of her husband; but it is not so well known that a
bridegroom should have silver--say sixpences--and salt in his shoes,
when he first approaches the marriage bed, and that the bride should
avoid putting her bare feet on the floor when preparing to retire for
the night with her future companion in life. If these precautions be
neglected, there is danger of the wedded pair being deprived of little
prattlers around their fire in the early days of their wedded life,
and of having sons or daughters to comfort them in declining years. A
mother should not enter a neighbour's house after having an infant
before she is "kirked"; nor should she carry her child even to her
nearest and dearest friend's abode before the little one has been
baptized.

It is unlucky for a bridegroom to have for his "best-man" one who is
not his blood relation. It is unlucky for a "best-man" to have on a
black coat at a marriage; it is an omen of evil to the bride and
bridegroom. If a bride slip her foot or her horse stumble when
proceeding to church to be married, it is regarded as an evil sign;
and if the bridegroom come down when on his way to meet his betrothed,
before the hymeneal knot is tied, misfortunes are expected. If he has
to cross a stream, and his bonnet or hat fall into the water, his
death is not far distant. A bride's glove should not be taken off
before the bridegroom's is removed, preparatory to their joining hands
in wedlock before the clergyman. If any part of a dinner-set or
tea-set be broken at a marriage or baptismal feast, it is a sign that
misfortunes are coming.

If two children--a boy and a girl--are baptized in church on the same
day, and the latter be sprinkled before the former, the girl's
relations have reason to fear that in ripe years she will have a
beard. If a mother or nurse do not giv