FOLK LORE.
Music at Funerals.
—Pennant, in his MS. relating to North Wales, says, "there is a custom of singing psalms on the way as the corpse is carried to church" (Brand's Pop. Ant., ed. Ellis, vol. ii. p. 268.). In North Devon the custom of singing is similar; but it is not a psalm it is a dirge. I send you a copy of one in use at Lynton, sent to me by my sister.
Farewell all, my parents[1] dear,
And all my friends, farewell!
I hope I'm going to that place
Where Christ and saints do dwell.
Oppress'd with grief long time I've been,
My bones cleave to my skin,
My flesh is wasted quite away
With pain that I was in,
Till Christ his messenger did send,
And took my life away,
To mingle with my mother earth,
And sleep with fellow clay.
Into thy hands I give my soul,
Oh! cast it not aside,
But favor me and hear my prayer,
And be my rest and guide.
Affliction hath me sore oppress'd,
Brought me to death in time;
O Lord! as thou hast promised,
Let me to life return.
For when that Christ to judgment comes,
He unto us will say,
If we His laws observe and keep,
"Ye blessed, come away."
How blest is he who is prepar'd,
He fears not at his death;
Love fills his heart, and hope his breast,
With joy he yields his breath.
Vain world, farewell! I must be gone,
I cannot longer stay;
My time is spent, my glass is run,
God's will I must obey.
[1] Sister or brother, as the case may be.
Another dirge, ending with the sixth stanza of the foregoing, is used at an infant's funeral, but the rhyme is not so well kept.
WM. DURRANT COOPER.
Cheshire Folk Lore and Superstition.
—There is in this town a little girl, about thirteen years old, in great request among the poor as a charmer in cases of burns or scalds. Immediately on the accident the girl is fetched from her work in the mill; on her arrival she kneels down by the side of the sufferer, mutters a few words, and touches the individual, and the people believe and affirm that the sufferings immediately cease, as she has charmed the fire out of the parts injured. The surgeon's aid is then called in to heal the sores. The girl affirms that she found it out herself by reading her Bible, of which the wonder-working charm is a verse. She will take no reward, nor may any of her relatives; if she or they were, her power would be at an end. She is an ordinary, merry, playful girl; as a surgeon I often come across her in such accidents.
I know some other such charmers in Cheshire, but none so young. One, an old man, stops bleedings of all kinds by a similar charm, viz. a verse from the Bible. But he does not require to be at the patient's side, his power being equally efficacious at the distance of one hundred miles, as close by.
E. W. L.
Congleton.