ouses of London_
and _Ghostly Phenomena_--they all, I think, tend to prove a future
existence for dumb animals.

The 28th of December, Childermass Day, or the Feast of the Holy
Innocents, the day on which King Herod slaughtered so many infants (if
they were no better mannered than the bulk of the County Council
children of to-day, one can hardly blame him), is held to be
unpropitious for the commencement of any new undertaking by those of
tender years.

The fishermen who dwell on the Baltic seldom use their nets between All
Saints and St Martin's Day, or on St Blaise's Day; if they did, they
believe they would not take any fish for a whole year. On Ash Wednesday
the women in those parts neither sew nor knit for fear of bringing
misfortune upon their cattle, whilst they do not use fire on St
Lawrence's Day, in order to secure themselves against fire for the rest
of the year.

In Moravia the peasants used not to hunt on St Mark's or St Catherine's
Day, for fear they should be unlucky all the rest of the year. In
Yorkshire it was once customary to watch for the dead on St Mark's
(April 24) and Midsummer Eve. On both those nights (so says Mr Timbs in
his _Mysteries of Life and Futurity_) persons would sit and watch in the
church porch from eleven o'clock at night till one in the morning. In
the third year (for it must be done thrice), the watchers were said to
see the spectres of all those who were to die the next year pass into
the church.

I am quite sure there is much truth in this, for I have heard of
sceptics putting it to the test, and of "singing to quite a different
tune" when the phantasms of those they knew quite well suddenly shot up
from the ground, and, gliding past them, vanished at the threshold of
the church. Occasionally, too, I have been informed of cases where the
watchers have seen themselves in the ghastly procession and have died
shortly afterwards.

_Fortune-telling_

Before ridiculing the possibility of telling fortunes by cards, it would
be just as well for sceptics to inquire into the history of cards, and
the reason of their being designated the Devil's pasteboards. Their
origin may be traced to the days when man was undoubtedly in close touch
with the occult, and each card, _i.e._ of the original design, has a
psychic meaning. Hence the telling of fortunes by certain people--those
who have had actual experience with occult phenomena--deserves to be
taken seriously; and I am convinced m