Grampian Club > Scotland, social and domestic

General Folklore. 219
coon drop off, on the wind produced by the clapping of
the hands, the stranger was only to call and pass on.
There is a superstition among domestic servants, that it
is unlucky to leave making a bed before completing it.
The least evil to be apprehended is, that the person for
whom the bed is made will lose his night's rest.
In a note appended to his Mountain Bard, the
Ettrick Shepherd supplies these curious details respecting
the superstitions of Selkirkshire : — " When they sneeze
in first stepping out of bed in the morning, they are
thence certified that strangers will be there in the course
of the day, in numbers corresponding to the times they
sneeze ; and if a feather, or straw, or any such thing be
observed hanging at a dog's nose or beard, they call this
a guest, and are sure of the approach of a stranger. If
it hang long at the dog's nose, the visitor is to stay
long, but if it fall instantly away, the person is to stay
a short time. They judge also from the length of this
guest what will be the size of the real one, and from its
shape whether it will be a man or a woman ; and they
watch carefully on what part of the floor it drops, as it
is on that very spot the stranger will sit. And there is
scarcely a shepherd in the whole country who, if he
chances to find one of his flock dead on a Sabbath, is
not thence assured that he will have two or three more
in the course of the week. During the season that ewes
are milked, the bught door is always carefully shut at
even ; and the reason they assign for this is, that, when
it is negligently left open, the witches and fairies never
miss the opportunity of dancing in it all night."
Respecting marriages, curious superstitions linger in
sequestered districts. In the more remote Highlands
marriages are not solemnized in the month of January.