LL-L "Levity" 2003.05.07 (06) [E]

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From: Ed Alexander <edsells at cogeco.ca>
Subject: LL-L "Folklore" 2003.05.07 (01) [E]

At 07:22 AM 05/07/03 -0700, Elsie Zinsser wrote:

  A few quotations relating to European beliefs (from Frazer):
  "Similarly in Germany it is a common notion that if birds find a
  person's cut hair, and build their nests with it, the person will
suffer
  from headache; sometimes it is thought that he will have an eruption
on
  the head. The same superstition prevails, or used to prevail, in West
  Sussex."

A bit of humour to tie the horse, bird and hair folklore themes
together:

There was a man who once owned a magnificent horse, that won prize after
prize at county fairs and other contests.  It
was well known that the secret of this horse's stunning beauty was its
long black flowing mane.

One day some birds came and built a nest in this mane, and thus
destroyed the appearance of the beast entirely.

Our friend tried at length to rid the horse of these annoying pests, but
to no avail.  Finally, one old veterinarian
 suggested that he try putting yeast in the mane.  Desperate for any
solution, he went home and tried it.

Immediately, the birds packed their bags and moved out.

The moral of the story is:  Yeast is yeast, and nest is nest, and ne'er
the mane shall tweet.

Ed Alexander, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

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