FOLK LORE.
Valentine's Day—Superstition in Devonshire.
—The peasants and others believe that if they go to the porch of a church, waiting there till half-past twelve o'clock on the eve of St. Valentine's day, with some hempseed in his or her hand, and at the time above-named then proceed homewards, scattering the seed on either side, repeating these lines—
"Hempseed I sow, hempseed I mow,
She (or he) that will my true love be,
Come rake this hempseed after me;"—
his or her true love will be seen behind, raking up the seed just sown, in a winding-sheet. Do any of your readers know the origin of this superstitious custom?
J. S. A.
Old Broad Street.
Fairies.
—An Irish servant of mine, a native of Galway, gave me the following relations:—Her father was a blacksmith and for his many acts of benevolence to benighted travellers became a great favourite with the fairies, who paid him many visits. It was customary for the fairies to visit his forge at night, after the family had retired to rest, and here go to work in such right good earnest, as to complete, on all occasions, the work which had been left overnight unfinished. The family were on these occasions awoke from their slumber by the vigorous puffing of bellows, and hammering on anvil, consequent upon these illustrious habits of the fairies, and it was an invariable rule for the fairies to replace all the tools they had used during the night; and, moreover, if the smithy had been left in confusion the previous evening, the "good people" always arranged it, swept the floor, and restored everything to order before the morning. I never could glean from her any detailed instances of the labour accomplished in this way, or indeed anything which might aid in the formation of an estimate of the relative skill of the fairies in manual labour; and I must confess that on these subjects I never question too closely,—the reader will know why.
On one occasion, one of the family happening to be unwell, the father went back to the smithy at midnight for some medicine which had been left there on the shelf, and put the "good people" to flight, just as they had begun their industrial orgies. To disturb the fairies is at any time a perilous thing; and so it proved to him: for a fat pig died the following day, little Tike had the measles, too, after, and no end of misfortunes followed. In addition to this occult revenge, the inmates of the house were kept awake for several nights by a noise similar to that which would be produced by peas being pelted at the windows. The statement was made with an earnestness of manner which betrayed a faith without scruples.
SHIRLEY HIBBERD.