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Sloes are also sometimes associated with this portent, as
another version of the rhyme runs—
“ Many Slones [Sloes], many groans,
Many Nits, many pits.”
It is thought very unlucky in Sussex to use green brooms in
May, and an old saying is current in the same county that—
“ I f you sweep the house with Broom in May,
You’ll sweep the head of that house away.”
In West Sussex, there exists the strange idea that if anyone
eats a Blackberry after Old Michaelmas Day (Oaober xoth), death
or disaster will alight either on the eater or his kinsfolk before the
year is out.
In some parts of England a superstition exists that if in a row
of Beans one should chance to come up white, instead of green, a
death will occur in the family within the year.
In certain English counties there is a superstitious dread that
if a drill go from one end of the field to the other without depositing
any seed, some person on the farm will die either before
the year is out or before the crop then sown is reaped.
There is a very ancient belief that if every vestige of the
Christmas decorations is not removed from the church before
Candlemas Day (February 2nd), there will be a death during the
year in the family occupying the pew where perchance a leaf or
a berry^ has been left. Herrick has alluded to this superstitious
notion in his ‘ Hesperides’:—^
‘ ' Down with the Rosemary, and so
Down with the Baies and Mistletoe;
Down with the Holly, Ivy, all
Wherewith ye dress the Christmas hall ;
That so the superstitious fiiKi
Not one least branch left thar behind
For look, how many leaves there be
Neglected there (maids, trust to me)
So many goblins you shall see.”
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