"Up in the lift go we, Tehee, tehee, tehee, tehee! There's not a shoemaker on the earth Can make a shoe to me, to me! Why so, why so, why so? Because my heel is as long as my toe."
[263] Chambers's "Popular Rhymes of Scotland," 1870, p. 192.
_Magpie._ It was formerly known as magot-pie, probably from the French _magot_, a monkey, because the bird chatters and plays droll tricks like a monkey. It has generally been regarded with superstitious awe as a mysterious bird,[264] and is thus alluded to in "Macbeth" (iii. 4):
"Augurs and understood relations, have By magot-pies, and choughs, and rooks, brought forth The secret'st man of blood."
And again, in "3 Henry VI." (v. 6), it is said:
"chattering pies in dismal discords sung."
There are numerous rhymes[265] relating to the magpie, of which we subjoin, as a specimen, one prevalent in the north of England:
"One is sorrow, two mirth, Three a wedding, four a birth, Five heaven, six hell, Seven the de'il's ain sell."
[265] Henderson's "Folk-Lore of Northern Counties," p. 127.
In Devonshire, in order to avert the ill-luck from seeing a magpie, the peasant spits over his right shoulder three times, and in Yorkshire various charms are in use. One is to raise the hat as a salutation, and then to sign the cross on the breast; and another consists in making the same sign by crossing the thumbs. It is a common notion in Scotland that magpies flying near the windows of a house portend a speedy death to one of its inmates. The superstitions associated with the magpie are not confined to this country, for in Sweden[266] it is considered the witch's bird, belonging to the evil one and the other powers of night. In Denmark, when a magpie perches on a house it is regarded as a sign that strangers are coming.
[266] Thorpe's "Northern Mythology," vol. ii. p. 34; Brand's "Pop. Antiq.," 1849, pp. 215, 216; see also Harland and Wilkinson's "Lancashire Folk-Lore," 1867, pp. 143, 145.
_Martin._ The martin, or martlet, which is called in "Macbeth" (i. 6) the "guest of summer," as being a migratory bird, has been from the earliest times treated with superstitious respect--it being considered unlucky to molest or in any way injure its nest. Thus, in the "Merchant of Venice" (ii. 9), the Prince of Arragon says: