Brand's Popular Antiquities of Great Britain: Faiths and Folklore; a Dictionary of National Beliefs, Superstitions and Popular Customs, Past and Current, with Their Classical and Foreign Analogues, Described and Illustrated, Volume 1

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John Brand, Henry Ellis, William Carew Hazlitt
Reeves and Turner, 1905 - Fasts and feasts - 672 pages
 

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Page 131 - gainst that season comes Wherein our saviour's birth is celebrated, This bird of dawning singeth all night long : And then, they say, no spirit dares stir abroad ; The nights are wholesome ; then no planets strike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm, So hallow'd and so gracious is the time.
Page 75 - When in one night, ere glimpse of morn, His shadowy flail hath threshed the corn That ten day-labourers could not end; Then lies him down, the lubber fiend, And, stretched out all the chimney's length, Basks at the fire his hairy strength; And crop-full out of doors he flings, Ere the first cock his matin rings.
Page 232 - So when a child, as playful children use, Has burnt to tinder a stale last year's news, The flame extinct, he views the roving fire — There goes my lady, and there goes the squire, There goes the parson, oh ! illustrious spark, And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk ! REPORT • OF AN ADJUDGED CASE NOT TO BE FOUND IN ANY OF THE BOOKS.
Page 308 - ... in all probability those common juggling words of "Hocuspocus," are nothing else but a corruption of " Hoc est corpus," by way of ridiculous imitation of the Priests of the church of Rome in their trick of transubstantiation.
Page 204 - Of healths five fathom deep ; and then anon Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes, And being thus frighted swears a prayer or two, And sleeps again. This is that very Mab That plats the manes of horses in the night, And bakes the elf-locks in foul sluttish hairs, Which once untangled much misfortune bodes...
Page 294 - If I beheld the sun when it shined, Or the moon walking in brightness ; And my heart hath been secretly enticed, Or my mouth hath kissed my hand : This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge : For I should have denied the God that is above.
Page 155 - I'll speed me to the pond, where the high stool On the long plank hangs o'er the muddy pool, That stool, the dread of every scolding quean.
Page 148 - Nor can their aspects, though you pore Your eyes out on 'em., tell you more Than th' oracle of sieve and shears ; That turns as certain as the spheres...
Page 14 - ... stripped naked, were pushed through the apertures, under a persuasion that, by such a process, the poor babes would be cured of their infirmity. As soon as the operation was over, the tree, in the suffering part, was plastered with loam, and carefully swathed up. If the parts coalesced and soldered together, as usually fell out, where the feat was performed with any adroitness at all, the party was cured ; but, where the cleft continued to gape, the operation, it was supposed, would prove ineffectual....
Page 34 - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, Bless the bed that I lie on. Four corners to my bed, Four angels round my head; One to watch and one to pray And two to bear my soul away.

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