in the pocket for luck, and is a sure
preventative against toothache."

Much of the above paragraph is common to most parts of Wales, but the
writer used to be told, when he was a lad, that the snow was caused by
"the old woman feathering her geese," and a Michaelmas goose was called a
green goose, as well as a "Michaelmas goose."

_The Crow_.

The crow figures much in Welsh folk-lore. In many ways he is made to
resemble the magpie; thus, when one crow or one magpie was seen, it was
thought to foretell misfortune, as implied by the saying:--

Un fran ddu,
Lwc ddrwg i mi.

But should the spectator shout out in a defiant way:--

Hen fran ddu,
Gras Duw i mi,

no harm would follow. The former lines in English would be:--

One crow I see,
Bad luck to me.

But this foretold evil, brought about by the old black crow, could be
counteracted by repeating the following words, (a translation of the
second couplet), with a pause between each line, and thus the last line
would assume the form of a prayer:--

Old Black Crow!
God, grace bestow;

or the evil could be hurled back upon the Old Black Crow by the
repetition of these words:--

Hen fran ddu,
Gras Duw i mi,
Lwc ddrwg i ti.

Freely translated, these lines would be:--

Old Black Crow!
God's grace to me,
Bad luck to thee.

In the English-speaking parts of Wales, such as along the borders of
Montgomeryshire, adjoining Shropshire, I have heard the following
doggerel lines substituted for the Welsh:--

Crow, crow, get out of my sight,
Before I kill thee to-morrow night.

The bad luck implied by the appearance of one crow could also be
overcome, as in the case of the magpie, by making a cross on the ground,
with finger or stick.

Although one crow implied bad luck, two crows meant good luck; thus we
have these lines:--

Dwy fran ddu,
Lwc dda i mi.

Two black crows,
Good luck to me.

Many prognostications were drawn from the appearance of crows. A crow
seen on the highest branch of a tree implied that the person seeing it
should shortly see his or her sweetheart. The manner in which they flew
foretold a wedding or a burying. When they fly in a long line there is
to be a wedding, if crowded together a funeral.

There is a common expression in Montgomeryshire--"Dwy fran dyddyn"--"The
two crows of the farm"--just as if each farm had its two crows, either as
g