Superstitions About Children
A superstition used to exist that a child which did not cry when sprinkled in baptism would not live long. The same would be the case if the children were prematurely wise. Shakespeare puts this superstition into the mouth of Richard III.
Bulwer mentions the tradition concerning children born open-handed, that they will prove of a bountiful disposition and frank-handed. A character in one of Dekker’s plays says: “I am the most wretched fellow; surely some left-handed priest christened me, I am so unlucky.” The following charms for infancy are taken from Herrick—
Bring the holy crust of bread,
Lay it underneath the head;
’Tis a certain charm to keep
Hags away while children sleep.
Let the superstitious wife
Near the child’s heart lay a knife;
Point be up, and haft be down,
(While she gossips in the towne);
This, ’mongst other mystic charms,
Keeps the sleeping child from harmes.