recoil apart the opposite is the case. If
they flare up and burn, it is a sign of excessive passion.{46}

In Lithuania on New Year's Eve nine sorts of things--money, cradle,
bread, ring, death's head, old man, old woman, ladder, and key--are baked
of dough, and laid under nine plates, and every one has three grabs at
them. What he gets will fall to his lot during the year.{47}

Lastly, in Brittany it is supposed that the wind which prevails on the
first twelve days of the year will blow during each of the twelve months,
the first day corresponding to January, the second to February, and so
on.{48} Similar ideas of the prophetic character of Christmastide
weather are common in our own and other countries.

* * * * *

Practically all the customs discussed in this chapter have been of the
nature of charms; one or two more, practised on New Year's Day or Eve,
may be mentioned in conclusion.

There are curious superstitions about New Year water. At Bromyard in
Herefordshire it was the custom, at midnight on New Year's Eve, to rush
to the nearest spring to snatch the "cream of the well"--the first
pitcherful of water--and with it the prospect of the best luck.{49} A
Highland practice was to send |333| some one on the last night of the
year to draw a pitcherful of water in silence, and without the vessel
touching the ground. The water was drunk on New Year's morning as a charm
against witchcraft and the evil eye.{50} A similar belief about the
luckiness of "new water" exists at Canzano Peligno in the Abruzzi. "On
New Year's Eve, the fountain is decked with leaves and bits of coloured
stuff, and fires are kindled round it. As soon as it is light, the girls
come as usual with their copper pots on their head; but the youths are on
this morning guardians of the well, and sell the 'new water' for nuts and
fruits--and other sweet things."{51}

In some of the Aegean islands when the family return from church on New
Year's Day, the father picks up a stone and leaves it in the yard, with
the wish that the New Year may bring with it "as much gold as is the
weight of the stone."{52} Finally, in Little Russia "corn sheaves are
piled upon a table, and in the midst of them is set a large pie. The
father of the family takes his seat behind them, and asks his children if
they can see him. 'We cannot see you,' they reply. On which he proceeds
to express what seems to be a hope that the corn will grow so hig