Being in all probability a mode of divination for insuring good luck.
Another name for the same plant is "cocks," from children fighting the
flower-stems one against another.
The common hazel-nut (Corylus avellana) is frequently nicknamed
the "cob-nut," and was so called from being used in an old game played
by children. An old name for the devil's-bit (Scabiosa succisa), in the
northern counties, and in Scotland, is "curl-doddy," from the
resemblance of the head of flowers to the curly pate of a boy, this
nickname being often used by children who thus address the plant:--
"Curly-doddy, do my biddin',
Soop my house, and shoal my widden'."
In Ireland, children twist the stalk, and as it slowly untwists in the
hand, thus address it:--
"Curl-doddy on the midden,
Turn round an' take my biddin'."
In Cumberland, the Primula farinosa, commonly known as bird's-eye,
is called by children "bird-een."
"The lockety-gowan and bonny bird-een
Are the fairest flowers that ever were seen."
And in many places the Leontodon taraxacum is designated "blow-
ball," because children blow the ripe fruit from the receptacle to tell the
time of day and for various purposes of divination. Thus in the "Sad
Shepherd," page 8, it is said:--
"Her treading would not bend a blade of grass,
Or shake the downy blow-ball from his stalk."
In Scotland, one of the popular names of the Angelica sylvestris is
"aik-skeiters," or "hear-skeiters," because children shoot oats through the
hollow stems, as peas are shot through a pea-shooter. Then there is the
goose-grass (Galium aparine), variously called goose-bill, beggar's-lice,
scratch-weed, and which has been designated blind-tongue, because
"children with the leaves practise phlebotomy upon the tongue of those
playmates who are simple enough to endure it," a custom once very
general in Scotland. [2]
The catkins of the willow are in some counties known as "goslings,"
or "goslins,"--children, says Halliwell, [3] sometimes playing with them