together, and hang it about the horse's neck like a garland. It will certainly cure him. Probat."* The probatum at the end of this recipe is admirable. Aubrey seems resolved that a good story shall not be disbelieved for want of testimony, but, as if not quite satisfied, he gives us a second remedy against the same misfortune in these words" In the West of England, (and I believe almost every where in this nation) the carters, and groomes, and hostlers, doe hang a flint that has a hole in it over horses that are hagge-ridden, for a preservative against it." Whinny-Moor.-Grief and joy would seem to have been strangely blended together in the funeral rites of our ancestors, with a plentiful mixture also of superstition. In Yorkshire the vulgar believed, even in Aubrey's time,t that upon the death of any one, his soul went over to Whinny-Moor, a place which had its name from the abundance of whins, i. e. furze, growing on it, and which was therefore particularly calculated to test the good or evil qualities of the soul in its pilgrimage. At such times, what Aubrey calls a præfica,—that is, a woman hired to lament at funerals and sing the funeral song,-would attend and chaunt the following dirge for the benefit of the departed, or, as it may be rather suspected, of the living, for nothing could be better calculated to wake the dormant charity of the superstitious. "This ean night, this ean night, every night and awle; and Christ receive thy sawle; Aubrey's Remains of Gentilisme and Judaisme, MS. folio 113. + Idem, folio 114. In a marginal note Aubrey explains feet by water, but he gives no authority for his assertion, and I can not help suspecting that he has mistaken the word for sleet. When thou from hence doest pass away, To Whinny-Moor thou comest at last, If ever thou gave hosen or shun, every night and awle, Sitt thee down and putt them on, and Christ receive thy sawle. But if hosen nor shoon thou never gave nean, every night and awle, The whinnes shall prick thee to the bare beane, and Christ receive thy sawle. From Whinny-Moor that thou mayst pass, every night and awle, To Brig o'Dread thou comest at last, and Christ receive thy sawle. From Brig of Dread, no broader than a thread,* every night and awle, To Purgatory fire thou com'st at last, and Christ receive thy sawle. If ever thou gave either milke or drinke, every night and awle, The fire shall never make thee shrink, and Christ receive thy sawle. But if milk nor drink thou never gave nean, every night and awle, The fire shall burn thee to the bare beane, * Aubrey here favours us with a various reading, "From Brig of Dread that thou may'st pass." As these words have been given in the preceding part of the stanza, and do not amend the meaning, I have preferred what the reader now finds in the text. The whole reminds me of some of the monkish Latin hymns, which have a tone of quaint solemnity about them, that charms in spite of their want of classic purity-and I might add of their want of poetry. New Moon. At one time it was a custom among the women to welcome the new moon with a curtsy, and sometimes with a blessing, the regular formula being, "'tis a fine moon, God bless her," a relick no doubt of Druidism, or of Roman superstition. But the moon appears to have always exerted more influence over the minds of the superstitious than the stars or even the sun itself. Amongst other popular rites, Aubrey records that the women would sit astride across a gate or style on the first evening of the new moon's appearance, and interrogate her as to their future husbands.* "All hail to thee, Moon; all hail to thee; I prithee, good moon declare to me This night who my husband must be." Invisible Beans. "The Jewes have strange fancies concerning the invisible beane. Sc. Take the head of a man that dies of a natural death, and set it in the ground, and in his eie set a beane, cover it with earth, and enclose it about, that nobody may look into it; and without the enclosure set another beane or two. When those without the enclosure are ripe, that within will be ripe also. Then take the bean-stalke within the enclosure, and take a child, which hold fast by the hand, and the child must shell the beanes. There will be but one invisible beane of them all, which when the child have, the other party can not see her."† Aubrey, however, who relates this story refuses to believe it, which considering his usual capacity of belief, seems somewhat capricious. He adds, however, "thus much I am morally certain of, that about 1680 two (or three) Jews merchants did desire of Mr. Wyld Clarke, merchant of London, leave to make this following experiment in his garden at Mile End, which *See Aubrey, ut supra, fol. 116. he saw them doe, and who told me of it. As I remember, 'twas much after this manner. They took a black catt and cutt off its head, at a certain aspect of the planets, and buried it in his garden by night with some ceremonies, that I have forgot, and put a beane in the braine of the catt; but about a day or two after a cock came and scratch'd it all up. Mr. Clark told me that they did believe it, and yet they were crafty subtle merchants. This brings to my mind a story that was generally believed when I was a schoolboy (before the Civil Warres), that thieves, when they broke open a house, would putt a candle into a dead man's hand, and then the people in the chamber would not awake. There is such a kind of story somewhere among the magical writers." * To be sure there is. It is what the Germans call the hand of glory, though with them it is used not for sending people to sleep, but for discovering hidden treasures. Thunder. "In Herefordshire, and those parts the woemen doe putt iron, e. g.—an iron barr or the like—on the barrell to keep the beer from sowring."† Horse-shoes. The belief that nailing a horse-shoe to the threshold is a preservative against witches yet prevails in some parts, and therefore it is highly important to know that the said horse-shoe must be picked up accidentally on the high-way, and there are good and solid reasons for its supposed virtue,-namely that Mars, who is the representative of iron, is an enemy to Saturn the liege-lord of witches. Invisibility. "Take on Midsummer night at XII, when all the planets are above the earth, a serpent, and kill him and skinne him; and dry it in the shade; and bring it to a powder. Hold it in your hand and it will be invisible. The receipt is in Johannes de Florentiâ, a Rosycrucian in 8vo. in High Dutch. Dr. Ridgley, the physitian hath it, who told me of this."* Silly-How.-"Great conceits are raised of the involution or membranous covering commonly called the Silly-How, that sometimes is found about the heads of children upon their birth, and is therefore preserved with great care, not only as medical in diseases, but effectual in success concerning the infant and others, which is surely no more than a continued superstition. For hereof we read in the life of Antoninus delivered by Spartianus, † that children are born sometimes with this natural cap, which midwives were wont to sell unto lawyers, who had an opinion it advantaged their promotion."‡ Salt-is said by all writers upon magic to be particularly disagreeable to the evil spirits, and it is owing to this noxious substance being dissolved in holy water that it has such power in scaring them away. It seems not improbable that salt acquired this high character and its use in all sacrifices from its powers of resisting corruption. Unlucky Hours.-Marriage was celebrated in the forenoon, because according to the general belief it was not so lucky to undertake any serious affaire declinante sole.'' § Spell against Hydrophobia.-" Rebus rubus Epilepscum. * Aubrey, ut supra, fol. 131. + Aubrey, who was a careless, though a tolerably excursive reader has omitted according to his usual custom to give a proper reference to his author. I do not myself remember anything of the kind that he states in Spartianus, who however has written the life of more than one of the Antonines. It is possible too that something of the sort may occur in one of the other five historians whose works are always published in the same volume with Spartianus. Aubrey, ut supra, fol. 174. § Id. fol. 177. |