WHIMS ABOUT BABIES.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2659, 27 July 1889, Page 6 (Supplement)

WHIMS ABOUT BABIES.

Among Vosges peasants children born at new moon have their tongues better hung than others, while those born at tile last quarter have less tongue but reason, better. A daughter born during the waning moon is always precocious. A pair of tongs or a knife put in the cradle will satisfy the Welsh mother as to her child's safefy. The knife is also used in parts of England. A small bit of red ribbon is all the Roumanian infant requires to secure it from harm, while the Estonian mother attaches a bit of asafcetida to the child's neck. Garlick, salt, bread and steak are first put in the cradle of a new-born child in Holland. A sufficient preventive for an Irish babe is a belt made of woman's hair, In lower Brittany ou tho birth of a child neighboring women at once take it in charge, wash it, crack its joints and rub its head with oil to "solder its cranium bone." It is then wrapped up in a tight bundle, and its lips moistened with brandy to "make it a full Breton." In modem Greece the mother, before putting the child in its cradle, turns three times round the fire while singing her favourite song to ward away evil spirits. In Scotland it is also said that to rock the empty cradle will ensure the coming of other occupants for it. If ](JU rock the cradle empty •[•hen you sh ill have babies plentv. The Swedish mother puts a book under the head of the new-born infant that it may be quick at reading, and puts money into the first bath to guarantee its possession in the future. The Turks load the child with annulets as soon as it is born, and a small bit of mud, well stepped in a jar of hot water prepared by previous charms, is stuck on its forehead. In Spain the child's face is swept with a pine bough to bring good luck.—EnglishPaper.