THE ENGLISHMAN'S PIG.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR:'] SIR,—A writer in your issue of January 8th asks what is " the origin of the superstition that pig's flesh will go bad if the pig is killed in the new moon." The superstition is just the other way : a pig must be killed in the waxing moon and not in the waning moon. People here used to say that " bacon killed when the moon is weak will not plim- in the pot " (i.e., would not swell when boiled). There were several local supersti- tions which seemed to point to the idea that a waxing moon marked a period of vitality : you should not cut a boy's hair when the moon was on the increase, because it. would grow again quickly ; neither should you cut corns or finger-nails at that time for the same reason. On the other hand, you should trim a girl's hair when the moon was on the increase; because the trimming would be followed immediately by a vigorous growth. There are other superstitions which point to the belief in the moon's influence, all in the same direction: vitality when waxing, weakening when on the wane—but I cannot recall them just now. Has our Darwinian descent from a tidal amoeba got anything to do with it 7—I am, Sir, &c.,
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