TWO SOMERSET SUPERSTITIONS.
170 7"HE EDITOR Or THU " SFECTATOR.1 SIR,—Two superstitions related to me in a letter received from my native county of Somerset are quite new to me. I should be interested to know whether others of your readers. have come across them. My brother was walking through a, field in which two labourers were at work when the cuckoo- uttered his call from a neighbouring elm. Instantly the two' men threw down their tools and ran as though for their lives.- Inquiring as to the reason, he was told that they ran " for luck," as one should always do on first hearing the cuckoo.. Two old men happened to be working together in the garden,. and were duly " drawn" on the subject. " Well, John. did you run when you first heard the cuckoo this year P " " No, Zur•, I casn't zay as Oi did; you zee, tidn' no good 'less you do r•un so fast as ever you'm able, and there I couldn't do that cos of my rheumatiz. But my missus, she be purty flippant on 'er veet, an' she did run." The other• old fellow seemed unaware of the custom. A heated argument then ensued between them as to where the cuckoo came from, John asserting that it was from India, and the other that it was from " Chinee." The former clinched the argument by saying that. his son, " wot be a sojer in India," had seen him there, and this being unanswerable, his companion, deter- mined not to be outshone, remarked : " If 'ee do want good luck, I'll tell 'ee how to get it, same as I do. On the first day of the month, first thing when I do wake up I do say Rabbuts.' If you do do that you'm sure to have good luck. ony you mus' mind and zay,it avore you do think o' anythin' else ?" What can be the connexion between " rabbits " and
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