Notes and Queries, Number 17, February 23, 1850

Of wylte , Dr. Ingram writes:— This word has never been correctly explained; its original signification is the same, whether written felds, fields, velts, welds, wilds, wylte, wealds, walds, walz, wolds, &c. &c. And on heath , he says:— Mr. Forster seems to have read Hæfeldan (or Hæthfeldan), which indeed, I find in the Junian MS. inserted as a various reading by Dr. Marshall ( MSS. Jun. 15 .). It also occurs, further on in the MS., without any various reading. I have therefore inserted it in the text.

Dr. Marshall seems to have understood the passage. What King Alfred says and means is this:— On the north are the Apdrede (Obotritæ), and on the north east of them are the Wylte, who are called Hæfeldi.
The anonymous Saxon Poet, who wrote the life of Charlemagne, gives the same situation as Alfred to the Wilti:—
Gens est Slavorum Wilti cognomine dicta,
Proxima litoribus quæ possidet arva supremis
To the north of Horiti, says Alfred, is Mægtha Land .—A Finnic tribe, called Magyar, were settled in the 9th century in Mazovia, whence a part of them descended into Hungary. According to Mr. Forster, Mazovia has been called Magan Land ; but I can find no trace of that name. I can easily conceive, however, that Magyar and Land might become, in Saxon copying, Mægtha Land, for the country of the Magyar. Elsewhere, Alfred uses Mægtha Land, the land of the Medes, for Persia.
Is there any other printed copy of the Saxon Orosius than Barrington's? for that forbids confidence by a number of needless and unauthorised alterations in most of the pages.
R.T. HAMPSON
Omens from Cattle .—I forward to you a Note , which, many years ago, I inserted in my interleaved Brand's Observations on Popular Antiquities , vol. ii. p. 519. 4to., in the hope that, as the subject interested me then , it may not prove uninteresting to some now :—
A bad omen seems to be drawn from an ox or cow breaking into a garden . Though I laugh at the superstition, the omen was painfully fulfilled in my case. About the middle of March, 1843, some cattle were driven close to my house; and, the back door being open, three got into our little bit of garden, and trampled it. When our school-drudge came in the afternoon, and asked the cause of the confusion, she expressed great sorrow and apprehension on being told—said it was a bad sign—and that we should hear of three deaths within the next six months. Alas! in April, we heard of dear J——'s murder; a fortnight after, A—— died; and to-morrow, August 10th, I am to attend the funeral of my excellent son-in-law. I have just heard of the same omen from another quarter.