If a double ear of corn were put over the looking glass, it prevented
the house from being struck by lightning. I have seen corn stalks hung
over a looking glass, and was told that it brought luck.
It was customary for farmers to leave a portion of their fields
uncropped, which was a dedication to the evil spirit, and called good
man's croft. The Church exerted itself for a long time to abolish this
practice, but farmers, who are generally very superstitious, were afraid
to discontinue the practice for fear of ill luck. I remember a farmer as
late as 1825 always leaving a small piece of a field uncropped, but then
did not know why. At length he gave the right of working these bits to a
poor labourer, who did well with it, and in a few years the farmer
cultivated the whole himself.
Water that had been used in baptism was believed to have virtue to cure
many distempers. It was a preventive against witchcraft, and eyes bathed
with it would never see a ghost.
To see a dot of soot hanging on the bars of the grate indicated a visit
from a stranger.
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