kind.* 66 But in truth this kind of forewarnings appear to have been very common; Burton tells us that, diverse ancient families in England are forwarned of their deaths by oaks bearing strange leaves.”† Surrey. (Oral).‡—On the high road between Buckland and Reigate the devil is popularly believed to amuse himself with dancing, sometimes in the shape of a dog, and at others in that of a donkey. Contrary to the received notion that all spirits, and particularly evil spirits, dread the water, the site of these terpsichorean exhibitions is a bridge, which crosses a little rill, and every effort made to dislodge him has hitherto proved ineffectual. He has been shot at repeatedly, but his Satanic Majesty turned out as might have been expected altogether bullet-proof. One old fellow, who was bolder than his neighbours, then ventured near enough to run a pitch-fork through him, but still he danced on as merrily as ever, steel evidently producing no more effect than ball and powder had done. Some unbelievers, however, who have a wonderful propensity for explaining everything by natural causes, have hinted at the presence of marshy grounds in the neighbourhood as being likely enough to have originated certain meteoric illusions, which by the usual process of exaggeration might grow into a dancing devil. It can not be denied that as great miracles have been built upon no better foundations; but for all that the people choose to believe their own eye-sight, and will not give up their BUCKLAND HAG, as they call this apparition, let philosophy say what it pleases. Surrey and Kent (Oral).—In both these counties every * See Burton's Admirable Curiosities, p. 24, 12mo. London. 1737. + Id. p. 31. These superstitions, which are marked Oral, have been picked up by myself amongst the peasantry; the reader therefore must judge for himself how far it may be right to put his faith in them. falling star is supposed to prognosticate a new birth, though it does not appear that the child so announced has any particular gifts or privileges beyond less ceremonious visitors. Amongst the alchemists of the olden times, these fallen stars were called Nostock,* and were supposed to be a kind of jelly or slime, such as is often found during summer in the fields and meadows. The French, however, according to Pluquet, imagine that shooting stars announce death.† A still more singular superstition in these parts is the connection which the people imagine to exist between bees and their departed owners. When the master or mistress, of a house dies, the survivor must go to the hive, and, knocking thrice, cry out, "Brownie, brownie, wake up; Your master (or mistress) is dead." If this information is not duly given, the bees themselves will die shortly after, but whether from grief, or the anger of the departed spirit, is not very evident. It was in the parish of Cudham that I picked up the custom, but I was given to understand that it was general throughout the two counties. In Norfolk also and Suffolk a custom somewhat similar prevails. When the master or the mistress dies, due notice of the fact is communicated to the bees by tying a piece of black crape about the hives, and if this be not done they are sure to die, according to the popular belief in those parts. Yorkshire. (Oral.)—People, who have the good fortune to live in a street of Richmond, called New-biggin, have the privilege, whatever it may be worth, of learning without the doctor's certificate when Death is about to come * Vide Glossary to "Paracelsus on the Nature of Things." Eng. Trans. + Contes Populaires, Préjuges, Proverbes, &c., p. 41. 8vo. Rouen. for them. In that street,—and in that only—a white rabbit never fails to make his appearance in the dusk of the evening when any one of the inhabitants is about to die. It is not twenty years ago since the doomed, or rather dooming, rabbit appeared to the wife of a brazier by the name of Hayward, who had always been a heretic in such matters. His death convinced his neighbours how much he had been in error. Lancashire.-On Pendle Hill, Clithero, stands Malkin Tower, that in 1633 was much celebrated as being the resort of witches; and at one time seventeen poor wretches were condemned for having held meetings there with the devil, though upon subsequent scrutiny the verdict was set aside and they had the good fortune to escape the hangman's clutches. A witness swore he saw them go into a barn and pull at six ropes, down which fell smoking flesh, butter in lumps, and milk as it were flying from the said ropes, all falling into six basons placed beneath.* On the top of this hill, which is extensive and somewhat fenny, stand two large cairns about a mile distant from each other. Pennant conjectures that they were the ruins of some ancient speculæ, or beacon-towers, erected by Agricola after the conquest of the country. Cornwall.-Mines are discovered by certain flint-stones, round and smooth, lying on the ground; but if we may believe the popular report, there is a more easy way, and that is by dreams, through which it is said works of great value have been found. Thus, in King Edward's time a gentlewoman, heiress to one Tresonliard, dreamed a handsome man told her that in such a tenement of her land she should find tin enough to enrich herself and her posterity. Her husband upon trial found a tin-work there, which in four years was worth to him almost four thousand pounds. And also one Taprel of Saint Neots by a * See Webster on Witchcraft, p. 277. dream of his daughter was wished to such a place, which he farmed, and found a tin-work that made him a rich man*-which stories, if true," adds Burton with great naivetè," much credit women's dreams." Midsummer Men.-This is an old name for the orpyne plant, or lesser house-leek. It grows abundantly on rocks and old walls, covering them with its little flowers in much profusion. Some of the sorts are small and yellow; others, white; and others again purple. An old writert thus speaks of the superstition connected with them"She would never go to bed on Midsummer Eve without sticking up in her room the well-known plant, called Midsummer Men, as the bending of the leaves to the right or the left would never fail to tell her whether her lover was true or false. I likewise stuck up two Midsummer Men, one for myself and one for him. Now if his had died away, we should never have come together, but I assure you his blowed and turned to mine." Waff-Whiff-Swarth (Oral).-These are all names for the same thing, namely the Scotch wraith, and the Irish fetch. In Durham and Northumberland the two first of these terms are used to express the death-token; swarth, is, I believe, peculiar to Cumberland. It means the eidolon, or spectre, of any one about to die, and may be seen either by himself or others. In this last-named county it is a custom amongst the peasants to have a branch of the rowan-tree-pronounced rawn-hung up in their cottages as a spell against witches. Thunder.-Aubrey tells us that it was the custom to invoke St. Barbara against thunder. According to the same unquestionable authority in all such matters, "they * Burton's Admirable Curiosities, p. 29. I have in vain searched for his name, having in my memoranda made an erroneous reference to Peele's Merry Jests. The passage is probably to be found somewhere in Dekker. did ring the great bell at Malmsbury Abbey, called St. Adelm's Bell, to drive away thunder and lightning. The like is yet used at the abbey of St. Germain's in Paris where they ring the great bell then." Chaucer in speaking of the "great hostesse" has an allusion, not over delicate, to this custom; and a more modern writer* says, "the tongue of the baptized bell made the ears of the affrighted demons ring with, Raphael, sancta Maria, ora pro nobis. These prayers," he adds, are on the bells at St. Michael's Mount in Cornwall." 66 Fairy Darts.-"What that is, which the Irish call uidad orchd I do not perfectly understand, only that in English we term it a fairy dart, and the one passing by this name, which was shown me not long agoe, was so shaped as in the margent; the matterial of it I could not ghess, nor could others tell me what it was; but it was extreame hard and something brittle, the colour pale while having some resemblance to flint. It was so curiously wrought that I could not imagin by what art it might be done, having about the edges of it very small and round studs or prickles much like those that are about a lobster's claws. 'Twas found sticking in turf, and produced by one as a proof of the power fairies have to strike man or beast with some occult wound or distemper. And I have with my own eyes observed in a cow, which was said to be elfshott, that towards her hind-quarter on one side of her 'the hide flagged inwards, and was sunck into a hole, which the cow-herd, who undertook the cure of her, said was the hole, which the dart made through the flesh and bowells notwithstanding the skin or hide remained sound * Hogg in his "Fabulous History of Cornwall," a most amusing work, but unluckily it is by no means to be trusted, for it not only treats of fables, but is too often fabulous. |