words, though by the childe's reading, as if the Lord by her had spoken them to myselfe, a paralytick and a sinner, as that Sicke man was," &c. This may be called a Bible omen. Mount Tabor, 1639, pp. 199-200. It appears that Arise Evans, in the time of the Commonwealth, used this species of divination by the Bible, and also that one of the Earls of Berkeley had recourse to the then prevailing superstition. His lordship's words are: "I being sick, and under some dejection of spirit, opening my Bible to see what place I could first light upon, which might administer comfort to me, casually I fixed upon the sixth of Hosea: the first three verses are these. [Here follows the quotation.] I am willing to decline superstition upon all occasions, yet think my self obliged to make this use of such a providential place of Scripture: First, by hearty repenting me of my sins past: Secondly, by sincere reformation for the time to come."-Eccho to the Voice from Heaven, 1652, p. 227. Martin, speaking of the Isle of Collonsay, says, that in confidence of curing the patient by it, the inhabitants had an antient custom of fanning the face of the sick with the leaves of the Bible. Descr. of the West of Scotland, 248. A correspondent of "Notes and Queries," in the number for October 19, 1861, states that he met with the custom of dipping into the Bible on New Year's Day before noon in the county of Oxford, and that it was believed that the tenor of the first passage which caught the eye of the dipper, was a prognostication of the person's good or bad luck for the year.

Bicker-rade, The. This is a practice among reapers in some parts. A correspondent of Notes and Queries described it, so far as its indelicate character would allow, in the columns of that periodical in 1857. The writer seems to consider the custom as belonging chiefly to Berwickshire. At the harvest-dinner "each band-wun, consisting of six shearers and a bandster, had the use of a bicker (a small round wooden vessel, composed of staves or staps, and neatly bound with willow girths or girds); sometimes more than one bicker was used by the bandwun. After the dinner repast was finished, any of the men of the boun, who felt disposed to inflict on any female the bicker-rade, extende her upon her back on the ground and reclining upon her commenced a series of operations, which are too indelicate to be minutely described." It seems fur. ther, that resistance was useless, and that serious injuries were sometimes suffered by the victims of this barbarous process. It has probably become entirely obsolete by this time: it was nearly so forty years ago.

Bid-Ale. There was an ancient custom called Bid-ale or Bidder-ale, from the Saxon word biddan, to pray or supplicate, when any honest man, decayed in his estate, was set up again by the liberal benevolence and contributions of friends at a feast, to which those friends were bid or invited. It was most used in the West of England, and in some counties_called a help-ale. A writer in "The Gentleman's Magazine" for May, 1784, mentions this custom in some parts of South Wales, peculiar, he thinks, to that country, and still practised at the marriages of servants, tradesfolks, and little farmers, "Before the wedding an entertainment is provided, to which all the friends of each party are bid or invited, and to which none fail to bring or send some contribution, from a cow or calf down to half-a-crown or a shilling. An account of each is kept, and if the young couple do well, it is expected that they should give as much at any future bidding of their generous guests. I have frequently known of £50 being thus collected, and have heard of a bidding, which produced even a hundred." The Cambrian Register, 1796, p. 450, adds: "Some time previous to these weddings, where they mean to receive contributions, a herald with a crook or wand, adorned with ribbons, makes the circuit of the neighbourhood, and makes his bidding' or invitation in a prescribed form. The knight-errant cavalcade on horseback, the carrying off the bride, the rescue, the wordy war in rhythm between the parties, &c. which formerly formed a singular spectacle of mock_contest at the celebration of nuptials, I believe to be now almost, if not altogether, laid aside every where through the Principality." The following is from the "Gentleman's Magazine for 1789:

,

"Bidding. As we intend entering the nuptial state, we propose having a bidding on the occasion on Thursday the 20th day of September, instant, at our own house on the Parade: where the favour of your good company will be highly esteemed; and whatever benevolence you pleased to confer on us, shall be gratefully acknowledged and retaliated on a similar occasion by your most obedient humble servants, William Jones, Ann Davies; Caermarthen, Sept. 4, 1787. N.B.The young man's father (Stephen Jones) and the young woman's aunt (Ann Williams) will be thankful for all favours conferred on them that day." Another writer in the "Gentleman's Magazine for 1784 mentions a similar custom in Scotland called Penny Weddings. In the Penny Magazine for January, 1835, an improved and more ambitious form of communication

(among the humbler classes) to the friends of the parties, is given. A couple belonging to Caermarthenshire are represented as addressing a circular to guests as follows:

"Carmarthenshire, February 1, 1834. "Dear Friend,-We take this convenience to inform you that we confederate such a design as to enter under the sanction of matrimony on the 19th of February inst. And as we feel our hearts inclining to regard the ancient custom of our ancestors, sef Hiliogaeth Gomer, we intend to make a wedding-feast the same day at the respective habitation of our parent; we hereby most humbly invite your pleasing and most comfortable fellowship at either of which places; and whatever kindness your charitable hearts should then grant will be accepted with congratulation and most lovely acknowledgment, carefully recorded and returned with preparedness and joy, whenever a similar occasion overtake you, by your affectionate servants, DAVID JOSHUA. MARY WILLIAMS.

In this case the parents of both parties entertained; but in another example of 1830, belonging to Glamorganshire, the hospitality was limited to the bride's family. "Some of the Cumbrians," observes the compiler of the "Westmoreland and Cumberland Dialect," 1839, "particularly those who are in poor circumstances, have, on their entrance into the married state, what is called a bidding, or biddenwedding, over which a sort of master of the revels, called a birler, presides, and at which a pecuniary collection is made among the company for the purpose of setting the wedded pair forward in the world. It is always attended with music and dancing, and the fiddler, when the contributions begin, takes care to remind the assembly of their duties by notes imitative of the following couplet:

'Come, my friends, and freely offer; Here's the bride who has no tocher (dowry)."

Bidding to Funerals. From an early date it was customary among the gilds of the City of London to summon all the brethren to attend the obsequies of a departed member, and in more modern times a form of invitation on a small broadsheet, enclosed in a mourning border with the usual emblems of mortality was prepared and distributed. A facsimile of one of these notices is given in Hazlitt's Livery Companies, 1892. At South Shields, co. Durham, the bidders, i.e., the inviters to a funeral never use the rapper of the door when they go about, but always knock with a key, which they

| carry with them for that purpose. I know not whether this custom be retained any where else. The following form of inviting to burials by the public bellman of the town was, in Brand's time, in use at Hexham, Northumberland: "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. Joseph Dixon is departed, son of Christopher Dixon was. Their company is desired tomorrow at five o'clock, and at six he is to be bu-ri-ed. For him and all faithful people give God most hearty thanks.' A writer in the Penny Magazine for 1837, in reference to Northumbrian manners and customs, says: "In many places it is usual to invite not only the friends, but also the neighbours of a deceased person to his funeral. This is done by bidders, dressed in black silk scarfs, going round formally. The bidders never used the rapper of the door, but always knocked with a key, which they carried with them for that purpose. In the town of Hexham, until within the last few years, the public bellman went round publicly to invite attendance at a deceased's funeral; on such occasions a notice somewhat similar to the following was used: 'Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. John Robson is departed, son of Richard Robson that was. Company is desired to morrow at five o'clock, and at six he is to be buried. For him and all faithful people give God most hearty thanks." See Funeral Customs.

Bidding Prayer. See Nares, Glossary, 1859, in v.

Billiards.-At what date this game was introduced into England is uncertain. It occurs in Spenser's Mother Hubbard's Tale, among his Complaints, 1591, and is named by Shakespear in Antony and Cleopatra, iii., v., where the Queen, referring to music, says: "Let it alone, let us to This drama was licensed in billiards." 1608. Even in the poet's day, barring was understood, as Mr. Symon points out. Shakespear Quotation, 1901, p. 49. The game is thus mentioned in the Book of Expenses of James Masters, Esq., of Yotes Court, Mereworth, co. Kent :"December 21, 1661. For 4 yards & of Greene Cloath to cover my Billyard table at 10s. ye yard, 02. 05. 00." Feb 12, 1661/2. For 2 Billyard Sticks, 2 balls, Ring & porch, 00. 18. 00." The cannon at billiards is taken to be a corruption of carom, itself an abbreviation of carambole, the French term for the red ball, which was neutral, and which was a form of the game formerly played with three balls it was the object of each of the two players to strike, as well as his adversary's. The name of this amusement is apparently derived from Fr. bille, for a ball, and hence billard. Cotton, in the Compleat

E

Gamester, 1676, refers to it in company with bowls, chess, cards, and dice. It is among the amusements described in a small volume entitled: "Games most in use in England. France and Spain." printed about 1710, and purporting to be regulated by the most experienced masters. The principal or largest monograph on the subject is that of Edwin Kentfield, of Brighton, folio, 1839, with a curious folding frontispiece and a series of diagrams, shewing the various stages of the game, and the modes of playing it in different places. Kentfield was himself a very expert hand, and was patronised by the then Duke of Devonshire, who, when he came to Brighton, used to play with him. It is said that Carter, at one time landlord of the Blue Posts, Brydges Street, Drury Lane, was a very successful player at this game from the length of his arms.

Bird of Paradise. In A Short Relation of the River Nile, 1669, is is said: "The Bird of Paradise is found dead with her bill fixed in the ground, in an island joyning to the Maluccos not far from Macaca; whence it comes thither, is unknown, though great diligence hath been imployed in the search, but without success. One of them dead came to my hands. I have seen many. The tayle is worn by children for a penashe, the feathers fine and subtile as a very thin cloud. The body not fleshy, resembling that of a thrush. The many and long feathers (of a pale invivid colour, nearer white than ash colour), which cover it, make it of great beauty. Report says of these birds, that they alwales flie from their birth to their death, and are not discovered to have any feet. They live by flyes they catch in the ayr, where, their diet being slender, they take some little repose. They fly very high, and come falling down with their wings displayed. As to their generation, Nature is said to have made a hole in the back of the male, where the female laies her eggs, hatcheth her young, and feeds them till they are able to fly: great trouble and affection of the parent! I set down what I have heard. This is certainly the bird so lively drawn in our maps." This beautiful creature is almost confined in its habitat to New Zealand and Scuthern Australia, once parts of the same continent. The account given above is of no value, except to shew the ignorance of the earlier travellers and naturalists. There are in fact several varieties. The Paradisea apoda, however, was not one of these, but merely a supposed fcotless genus, the specimens sent to Europe having lost their feet. This error produced a second, namely, that the bird was perpetually on the wing.

Bird and Fowl Augury.—These Fowl omens are probably derived to us from the Romans, at whose superstitions on this account Butler laughs:

"A flamm more senseless than the
Rog'ry

Of old Aruspicy and Aug'ry,
That out of Garbages of Cattle
Presage'd th' events of truce or battel;
From flight of birds or chickens pecking
Success of great'st attempts would
reckon."

The ancient augurs foretold things to come by the chirping or singing of certain birds, the crow, the pye, the chough, &c.: hence perhaps the observation, frequent in the mouths of old women, that when the pie chatters we shall have strangers. Horace, in his "Ode to Galatea," has this thought:

"Teque nec lævus vetet ire picus,

Nec vaga cornix."

Pennant, speaking of the hoopoe, tells that the country people in Sweden look on the appearance of this bird as a presage of war: Facies armata videtur. And formerly the vulgar in our country esteemed it a forerunner of some calamity, which has probably occasioned its growing scarcity, The same writer tells us that the great auk, a species of penguin, is a bird observed by seamen never to wander beyond soundings, and according to its appearance they direct their measures, being then assured that land is not remote. Moresin and Gaule rank the unseasonable crowing of the cock among omens. As also the sudden fall of hens from the housetop. Papatus, 1594, p. 21 Mag-Astromancer posed, p. 181. Bartholomæus says of the crow: Divynours tell, that she taketh hede of spienges and awaytynges, and teacheth and sheweth wayes, and warneth what shal fal. But it is ful unleful to beleve, that God sheweth his prevy Counsayle to Crowes as Isidore sayth. Amonge many divynacions divynours meane that crowes token reyne with gredynge and cryenge, as this verse metneth: 'Tum Cornix plena pluviam vocat improba voce.'"

that is to understonde,

'Nowe then the crowe calleth reyne with an eleynge voyce.' In the Earl of Northampton's "Defensative," 1583, signat. T 2 verso, we read: "The Flight of many crowes uppon the left side of the campe, made the Romans very much afrayde of somme badde lucke: as if the great God Jupiter had nothing else to doo (sayd Carneades) but to dryve Jacke Dawes in a flocke together." Gaule particularizes among omens, 'A crow lighting on the right hand or on the left."

Mag- Astromancer posed, p. 181. Another early author says: "If a crow fly but over the house and croak thrice, how do they fear, they, or some one else in the family shall die?" Ramsey's Elminthologia, 1668, p, 271. We are informed that "people prognosticate a great famine or mortality, when great flocks of jays and crows forsake the woods; because these melancholy birds, bearing the characters of Saturn the author of famine and mortality, have a very early perception of the bad disposition of that planet. Athenian Oracle. P 271. And Defoe writes: "Some will defer going abroad, tho' called by business of the greatest consequence, if, happening to look out of the window, they see a single crow." Mem. of Duncan Campbel, 60. Willsford has much to say on this branch of his subject: Ravens and crows, when they do make a hoarse, hollow, and sorrowful noise, as if they sobbed, it presages foul weather approaching. Crows flocking together in great companies, or calling early in the morning with a full and clear voice, or at any time of the day gaping against the sun, foreshews hot and dry weather but if at the brink of ponds they do wet their heads, or stalk into the water, or cry much towards the evening, are signs of rain." He adds: "The woodpecker's cry denotes wet. Buzards, or kites, when they do soar very high and much to lessening themselves, making many plains to and agin, foreshows hot weather, and that the lower region of the air is inflamed, which for coolnesse makes them ascend. Cranes soaring aloft, and quietly in the air, foreshows fair weather; but if they do make much noise, as consulting which way to go, it foreshows a storm that's neer at hand. Herons in the evening, flying up and down as if doubtful where to rest, presages some evill approaching weather." Nature's Secrets, 1658, p. 133. Pennant, speaking of the carrion crow, tells us Virgil says that its croakings foreboded rain. It was also thought a bird of bad omen, especially if it happened to be seen on the left hand.

:

"Ante sinistra cava monuisset ab ilice Cornix."

- Zoology, i. 220. In Dives et Pauper, ch. 46, we read: "Some bileve that yf the kyte or the puttock fle ovir the way afore them that they shuld fare wel that daye, for sumtyme they have farewele after that they see the puttock so fleynge; and soo they falle in wane by leve and thanke the puttocke of their welfare and nat God, but suche foles take none hede howe often men mete with the puttok so fleynge and yet they fare nevir the better: for there is to folk that mete so oft with the put

toke so fleynge as they that begge their mete from dore to dore." Hall in his "Characters," 1608, declares that in his time it was enough to induce the superstitious man to make his will, if a bittern flew over his head; but in these statements one may fairly suspect a tincture of hyperbole or exaggeration. Dr. Leyden observes of the magpie, that "it is, according to popular superstition, a bird of unlucky omen. Many an old woman would more willingly see the devil, who bodes no more ill luck than he brings, than a magpie perching on a neighbouring tree." Leyden also informs us that in the South and West of Scotland, this bird is much detested, though not reckoned ominous. As it frequents solitary places, its haunts were frequently intruded upon by the fugitive Presbyterians, during the persecution which they suffered in the disgraceful and tyrannical reign of Charles II. and James II., when they were often discovered by the clamours of the lapwing." Glossary to the Complaynt of Scotland, 1801, vv. Piett and Thriasneck. The notes of the night-crow, or night-jar, have always been regarded as portentous, and significant of death in a household, where they are heard. Mary, Countess of Pembroke, in her poem on the passion, written perhaps about 1590, says:

"The night crowes songe, that soundeth

nought but death."

And Shakespear himself alludes to the superstition. In the "Parlyament of Byrdes" (circâ 1550), the popular superstition relating to this creature is referred to by the Hawk:

The crowe hath no brayne, For to gyue counsell but of the rayne." So, again, in "Tottel's Miscellany," 1557, one of the Uncertain Authors says:

"Thou dunghyll crowe that crokest agaynst the rayne, Home to thy hole.'

The modern sailors pay respect to auguries in the same manner as Aristophanes in his Aves, line 597, tells us those of Greece did above two thousand years ago. Pennant farther observes, that the stormy petrol presages bad weather, and cautions the seamen of the approach of a tempest by collecting under the sterns of the ships. Zoology, i., 258; ii., 508, 554. Werenfels says: If the superstitious man has a desire to know how many years he has to live, he will inquire of the cuckow." In 1609, Thomas Dekker printed his "Raven's Almanack," which expressly purported to be a prognostication of calamities in store for this kingdom; and in 1620 Rowlands

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