The Romance Of Washing

It is wonderfnl how every Httle dnty and neceasity of every day life is surrounded with a halo of chana and legendary lore. Some things seem so simple and practical that we imagine that nothing of a weird description can possihly be associated ■with them. yet in nianyinstances the simpler the operation the greater the affinity it appears to have for things snpernatural. Offhand, we should say that washing cannot be invested wrth any romance, but old wives will teil us otherwiae. Woe betide the person that dares to was nis or her hands in the same basin o: water that has been or will be used b another individual ! They will be sur to qnarreL Or, again, if you wipe you hands upon the same towel and at th same time with another person, you anc that person will at some period of youi lifetime go begging together. The late Cuthoert Bede, however, teil us that he was informed in Ruthlandshire that these dreadf ui things wouldnot happen provided yon first made the sign of the cross over the water. Another cnrious thing, too, in connection with this is that the quarrel only supervened when a basin of water was used. You mighi wash together in a running stream as often as you üleased and no ill effect would come of