first the year I heard the cuckoo sing,
And call with welcome note the budding spring,
I straightway set a running with such haste
Deborah that won the smock scarce ran so fast;
Till spent for lack of breath, quite weary grown,
Upon a rising bank I sat adown,
There doffed my shoe; and by my troth I swear,
Therein I spied this yellow frizzled hair,
As like to Lubberkin's in curl and hue
As if upon his comely pate it grew."

Nos. 187-193.--These practices, and others like No. 453 and the
asseverations, Nos. 60-67, shade off insensibly into children's games,
customs, and sayings. Games pure and simple have been omitted from the
present monograph, since they are evidently out of place among
superstitions. They have been admirably treated in Mr. Newell's _Games
and Songs of American Children_. The customs and sayings for the most
part belong in collections like Halliwell's _Nursery Rhymes_ rather than
in the present collection.

No. 211.--Projects in which flowers and leaves are employed certainly
much antedate the Christian era. Theocritus (Idyll III.) describes one in
which a poppy petal is used, and he also refers to another form of
love-divination by aid of the leaf of the plant Telephilon.

No. 245.--It is probable that the direction in which one is to walk
during the performance of this and similar acts of divination is not a
matter of indifference, even when no direction is prescribed. One would
expect to find it done sunwise. See note on Chapter xvi.

Nos. 254-256.--The _Sedum_ has long enjoyed a reputation for aphrodisiac
qualities, as is set forth in Gerarde's _Herbal_ and other authorities.
Perhaps the choice of the plant for use in this form of project is due to
some lingering tradition of its potency, or it may be simply because of
its great vitality and power of growing under adverse conditions.

No. 334.--I happen to know that in 1895 one bride, in a Boston suburb,
wore seven yellow garters, at the request of seven girl friends. Probably
the fashion of wearing yellow garters owes its present currency to the
repute in which they are held as love-amulets.

CHAPTER VIII.--Some notion of the prevalence of a popular belief in the
omens to be derived from dreams may be obtained from the fact that dream
books are still enough in demand to warrant their publication. I have
seen but one such volume. That was more than thirty years ago. A dream
book is now pu