The Pilgrim's Manual: D
Read the first and second posts too!
D
Daisies - one will surely be familiar with daisy chains and love-me-not rhymes. They are nothing but simple children's charms.
Dandelions - picking a dandelion flower is a cause of bed-wetting - stay clear. The seed-heads, on the other hand, are time-telling plants: simply count the number of puffs needed to shrive the head clear (under certain circumstances, this can provide insight into the hours or days until other events). The juice of the plant is a wart cure, and brewed in tea is good for indigestion.
Days of the week - Thursday for spells around power or wealth, Friday for love spells, Sunday for holy activities (as one would hope you know).
Dead man's hand - the touch of a dead man's hand soothes cysts, wens, scrofula, goitre, and ulcers (a healer would do well to find the hand of one who had died unnaturally; particularly hanged men). In the Fens, such a hand is contraception: a maid who holds it will be barren for two years.
Deaf and dumb men - such unfortunates are gifted fortune tellers.
Deafness - cured by applying a heated onion to the ear, or dripping its juice into the ear (garlic, figs, leeks, or pin-pricked snails can also be used), or covering the ear with black wool. Adder fat is another cure. The field poppy is an apparent cause of earache.
Death - church bells ('Passing Bells') can be rung to soothe the dying (and remind neighbours to pray for the doomed). Ebbing tides and waning moons similarly hasten death, while the use of pillows stuffed with pigeon or wild bird feathers make it agonisingly slow. A death-bed should also be aligned parallel with the floor-boards if one wishes to ease the infirm's pain. Fen-village nurses keep special ritual pillows of black-cloth: they are placed under the dying's head as they are treated, before the nurse - if she judges it necessary - yanks it away, along with their soul. One final note: immediately after death all portals of the grieving house must be opened (to allow the soul to escape). The enthusiastic follow this until the funeral. Custom also dictates one to put out fireplaces, stop clocks, and turn or cover mirrors and pictures (lest one spy the corpse reflected).
Death-watching - the dead should be covered with a shroud stitched with rosemary, yew, box and rue. A pewter dish of salt or turf can be placed upon the dead's breast. A body should also never be left alone, even for a moment (this duty is separate to the wake, but should also be followed during the event). During this whole process, it is essentially obligatory for all known to the dead to view (or touch or kiss, if they so please) the lost individual at one point or another. This is key: one is marked as particularly cold-hearted to neglect their obligations in this manner.
The Devil - a tempter and destroyer, though often stupid. A tosser of rocks, builder of bridges, digger of hills and dykes. Speak not his name. Oft appears in the guise of a black dog or cock, or in black cloth if he pretends to humanity. Leaves cloven hoofprints.
Dogs - can sense danger or the unholy, refusing to pass particular spots. Their howls portend death and evil. A spayed bitch in particular has been known to drive off uncanny forces.
Donkeys - such creatures are despised for their stupidity, obstinance, and lecherousness. Yet, the cross-mark on their backs is holy (left by Emmanuel's ride) and possesses healing powers. If one possesses children with whooping cough, measles, fevers, or rickets, they should be passed three times underneath the ass, or made to bear or ingest hair from the Christ-mark.
Dragons - a beast to be felled not by fighters or knights but the cunning of a steady and ordinary sort. Methods include trickery involving poisoned or indigestible food, baiting with spiked barrels or decoys, choking using a large stone (to be tossed into the beast's jaws), or merely striking the wyrm with foot in the nether-regions. The monster's estate is often said to be a practical affair - no golden hoards or maidens. Dragon's blood is said to be a spell ingredient (especially regarding love-scrying), usually cast into fire in such divinations.
Dreams - dream interpretation is a mainstay for purposes of omen-seeking or fortune-telling. Despite this, details of the world beyond are rarely shared. I suspect this is due to the boorishness of sharing one's sleeping visions (and perhaps a desire to keep such visions to one's self).
Dressmaking - a superstitious trade with many customs, of which I will list a few: jump over a dress when finished to prevent its return for alteration; never fit a garment with black pins or tack it with green thread; never stain a bridal dress with a pricked finger; "unpick on Monday and you unpick all the week"; and it signals a poor outcome for a marriage to accidentally sew a strand of one's hair into another bride's dress. A man named Wright told me all this after he repaired my habit.
Drowning - it is inauspicious to save a man or woman from drowning. The sap who does is prone to be marked as an enemy, and will no doubt trade place with them. Further yet, a successful rescuer is responsible for the maintenance of the rescued (and if unsuccessful one is often obliged to pay for the funeral). If one foolishly insists on helping a man relegated to the waves, heed the following: a drowning man will resurface three times before finally succumbing. To find the body of one lost and drowned, float a load of bread loaded with mercury and it will stop near the resting-place. Alternatively, fire a powder-weapon across the water (the peal of which bursts the gall-bladder and makes it float). If one lacks an arquebus or such, fill bottles with gunpowder and explode them underwater. Another option is to wait: drowned bodies rise after nine days. Yet! Those who have been murdered and disposed of in a manner as to suggest drowning have been known to float from the moment they enter the water. Along with this: males float face up, females face down.
Dumb cake - one can divine love by baking a complicated cake in complete silence. Details of the recipe vary from place to place: the cake must be a joint effort; require an unusual amount of salt or urine or soot (in the latter cases, any at all); should be scratched with initials; cooked only with ingredients measured using egg-shells or thimbles; or upon being taken from the oven immediately placed underneath one's pillow.