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shire and other parts of England, as well as in Germany, a certain
relation is believed to exist between the produce of the Hazel-
bushes and the increase of the population ; a good Nut year always
bringing an abundance of babies. In Westphalia, the proverb runs,
“ Plenty of Nuts, plenty of babies.” ^^Brand says it is a custom
in Iceland, when a maiden would know if her lover is faithful, to
put three Nuts upon the bar of a grate, naming them after her
lover and herself. I f a Nut crack or jump, the lover will prove
faithless ; if it begin to blaze or burn, it is a sign of the fervour of
his affeaion. If the Nuts named after the girl and her swain burn
together, they will be married. This divination is still praaised in
Scotland on Hallowe’en, whose mysterious rites Burns has immortalised
in his poem, containing these lines :—
“ Some merry friendly countree folks
Together did convene
To burn their Nits and pu’ their stocks.
And haud their Hallowe’en,
Fu’ blithe that night.”
A similar custom has for years existed in Ireland; and Gray, long
before Burns, had evidenced that the superstitions of Hallowe’en
or Nutcrack Night (Oaober 31st) were known and praaised in
England, as thus—
“ Two Hazel-nuts I threw into the flame,
And to each Nut I gave a sweetheart’s name.
This with the loudest bounce me sore amazed.
That with a flame of brightest colour blazed.
As blazed the Nut, so may thy passion grow ;
For ’twas thy Nut that did so brightly glow.”
In Bohemia, on Christmas Eve, girls fix coloured wax lights in
the shells of the first parcel of Nuts they have opened that day,
iight them all at the same time, and set them floating in the water,
after mentally giving to each the name of a wooer. He whose
lighted bark first approaches the girl will be her future husband.
I f an unwelcome suitor seems likely to be first in, the girl endeavours
to retard the shell by blowing against it, and by this means
the favourite’s bark usually wins. Should, however, one of the lights
be perchance blown out, it is accounted a portent of death.------
The instrument used by the nutter in robbing the Hazel of its
fruit seems to have been formerly regarded as opprobrious, and as
suggestive of a thief: thus, in the ‘ Merry Wives of Windsor,’ Nym
says : “ I f you run the Nut-hook’s humour on me,” or, in other words,
“ I f you call me a thief.” Again, in ‘ Henry IV .,’ Part 11., Doll
Tearsheet cries out to the beadle: “ Nut-hook, Nut-hook, you
lie ! ” In Sussex, there is a proverb current: “ As black as the
De’il’s nutting bag and it is held to be dangerous to go out
nutting on Sunday, for fear of meeting the E v il One, who haunts
the Nut-bushes, and sometimes appears to nutters in friendly guise,
and holds down the branches for them to strip, In bygone times,
it was believed that a spirit of a weird and sinister charadter inI
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habited a Nut-grove. There is a superstition that the ashes of
the shells of Hazel-nuts have merely to be applied to the back
of a child’s head to ensure the colour of the iris in the infant’s
eyes turning from grey to black. In Germany, Nuts are
placed in tombs, as being emblematic of regeneration and immortality.
Searchers in the old tombs of Wurtemburg sometimes
found Pumpkins and Walnuts, but always a number of Nuts.
In some countries. Hazel-nuts are supposed to be endowed
with the power of discovering or attradting wealth. Thus, in *
Russia, there is a belief that anyone carrying a Nut in his house will
make money ; and on this account many of the Russian peasantry
invariably carry a double Nut in their purses. In fairy tales, we often
find good fairies using Nuts as their carriages: as, in ‘ Romeo and
Juliet,’ Mercutio speaks of Queen Mab arriving in a Nut-shell.
There is a legend that St. Agatha every year crosses the sea
from Catania to Gallipoli on a Nut-shell, which she employs as a
boat. Authorities on the subjea say that to dream that you see
Nut-trees, and that you crack and eat their fruit, signifies riches and
content gained with toil and pain. Clusters of Nuts imply happiness
and success : to dream of gathering Nuts is a bad omen ; and to
dream of finding Nuts that have been hid signifies the discovery of
treasure.
N YM P H S E A .—The Nymphea ccevulea is the L ily of the Nile,
the Lotus of ancient Egypt ; but not the Sacred Bean, which was
the Nelumhium speciosum. (See L o t u s and N e l um b o ) . According
to German tradition, the Undines often conceal themselves from
mortal gaze under the form of Nymphseas. This beautiful Waterlily
was deemed by the Frisians to have a magical power. Dr,
Halbertsma has stated that, when a boy, he remembers people
were extremely careful in plucking and handling them; for if anyone
fell with such a fiower in his possession, he became immediately
subject to fits. The Wallachians have a superstition that every
fiower has a soul, and that the Water-lily is the sinless and scentless
fiower of the lake, which blossoms at the gates of Paradise to
judge the rest, and that she will enquire stria iy what they have done
with their odours.
O A K . Rapin tells us that among the ancients there were
many conjectural reports as to the origin of the Oak, and the
country which first knew the sacred tree; but the popular tradition
which met with most credence, he considers, was as follows;—
“ When Jupiter the world’s foundation laid,
Great earth-born giants heaven did invade 5
And Jove himself—when these he did subdue—
His lightning on the factious brethren threw.
Tellus her sons’ misfortunes does deplore,
And while she cherishes the yet-warm gore
Of Rhoecus, from his monstrous body grows
A vaster trunk, and from his breast arose
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