FOLK LORE.
DEVONSHIRE FOLK LORE.
1. Storms from Conjuring.—A common Devonshire remark on the rising of a storm is, "Ah! there is a conjuring going on somewhere." The following illustration was told me by an old inhabitant of this parish. In the parish of St. Mary Tavy is a spot called "Steven's grave," from a suicide said to have been buried there. His spirit proving troublesome to the neighbourhood, was laid by a former curate on Sunday after afternoon service. A man who accompanied the clergyman on the way was told by him to make haste home, as a storm was coming. The man hurried away home; but though the afternoon had previously been very fine, he had scarcely reached his door before a violent thunderstorm came to verify the clergyman's words.
2. The Heath-hounds.—The brutende heer are sometimes heard near Dartmoor, and are known by the appellation of "Heath-hounds." They were heard in the parish of St. Mary Tavy several years ago by an old man called Roger Burn: he was working in the fields, when he suddenly heard the baying of the hounds, the shouts and horn of the huntsman, and the smacking of his whip. This last point the old man quoted as at once settling the question. "How could I be mistaken? why I heard the very smacking of his whip."
3. Cock scares the Fiend.—Mr. N. was a Devonshire squire who had been so unfortunate as to sell his soul to the devil, with the condition that after his funeral the fiend should take possession of his skin. He had also persuaded a neighbour to undertake to be present on the occasion of the flaying. On the death of Mr. N., this man went in a state of great alarm to the parson of the parish, and asked his advice. By him he was told to fulfil his engagement, but he must be sure and carry a cock into the church with him. On the night after the funeral, the man proceeded to the church armed with the cock; and, as an additional security, took up his position in the parson's pew. At twelve o'clock the devil arrived, opened the grave, took the corpse from the coffin and flayed it. When the operation was concluded, he held the skin up before him, and remarked: "Well! 'twas not worth coming for after all, for it is all full of holes!" As he said this, the cock crew; whereupon the fiend, turning round to the man, exclaimed: "If it had not been for the bird you have got there under your arm, I would have your skin too." But, thanks to the cock, the man got home safe again.
4. Cranmere Pool.—Cranmere Pool, in the centre of Dartmoor, is a great penal settlement for refractory spirits. Many of the former inhabitants of this parish are still there expiating their ghostly pranks. An old farmer was so troublesome to his survivors as to require seven clergymen to secure him. By their means, however, he was transformed into a colt; and a servant boy was directed to take him to Cranmere Pool. On arriving at the brink of the pool, he was to take off the halter, and return instantly without looking round. Curiosity proving too powerful, he turned his head to see what was going on, when he beheld the colt plunge into the lake in the form of a ball of fire. Before doing so, however, he gave the lad a parting salute in the form of a kick, which knocked out one of his eyes.
J. M. (4.)
St. Mary Tavy, May 5. 1851.
St. Uncumber and the offering of Oats (Vol. ii., pp. 286. 342. 381.).—A further illustration of this custom is found in the legend of St. Rhadegund, or at least in the metrical version of it, which is commonly ascribed to Henry Bradshaw. A copy of this very scarce poem, from the press of Pynson, is preserved in the library of Jesus College, Cambridge. We there read as follows:
"Among all myracles after our intelligence
Which Radegunde shewed by her humilite,
One is moost vsuall had in experience
Among the common people noted with hert fre
By offeryng of otes after theyr degre
At her holy aulters where myracles in sight
Dayly haue be done by grace day and nyght.
"By oblacion of othes, halt lame and blynde
Hath ben restored vnto prosperite;
Dombe men to speke aboue cours of kynde
Sickemen delyuered from payne and miserie,
Maydens hath kept theyr pure virginite,
Wyddowes defended from greuous oppression,
And clarkes exalted by her to promocion."
It is also remarkable that a reason exists in the story of this saint for the choice of so strange an offering. As she was escaping from her husband, a crop of oats sprang up miraculously, to testify in her behalf, and to silence the messengers who had been sent to turn her from her purpose.
On this account is there not room for the conjecture that St. Rhadegund is the original St. Uncumber, and that the custom of offering oats at Poules, when a wife was weary of her husband, is traceable to the story of the French queen, who died in 587.
C. H.
St. Catharine's Hall, Cambridge.
"Similia similibus curantur."—The list proposed by Mr. James Buckman (Vol. iii., p. 320.) of "old wives' remedies," based on the above principle, would, I imagine, be of endless length; but the following extract from the Herbal of Sir John Hill, M.D., "Fellow of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Bordeaux," published in 1789, will show at how late a period such notions have been entertained by men of education and even scientific attainment:—
"It is to be observed that nature seems to have set her stamp upon several herbs, which have the virtue to stop bleedings; this [cranesbill] and the tutsan, the two best remedies the fields afford for outward and inward bleedings, become all over as red as blood at a certain season."
Seleucus.
Cure of large Neck.—I send you two remedies in use here for the cure of a common complaint, called "large neck." Perhaps they may be worthy of a place in your "Folk Lore."
A common snake, held by its head and tail, is slowly drawn, by some one standing by, nine times across the front part of the neck of the person affected, the reptile being allowed, after every third time, to crawl about for a while. Afterwards the snake is put alive into a bottle, which is corked tightly and then buried in the ground. The tradition is, that as the snake decays the swelling vanishes.
The second mode of treatment is just the same as the above, with the exception of the snake's doom. In this case it is killed, and its skin, sewn in a piece of silk, is worn round the diseased neck. By degrees the swelling in this case also disappears.
Rovert.
Withyam, Sussex.