FOLK LORE.
Body and Soul.
—The other day, in a village in Huntingdonshire, an unbaptized child was buried. A neighbour expressed great sorrow for the mother because "no bell had been rung over the corpse." On asking why this circumstance should be so peculiarly a cause of grief, she told me that it was "because when any one died, the soul never left the body until the church bell was rung." Is this superstition believed in elsewhere? And does it arise from mistaken notions regarding "the passing bell,"—the "one short peal" which the 67th canon orders to be rung "after the party's death?"
CUTHBERT BEDE.
Giving Cheese at a Birth.
—In the county of Northumberland, not far from the Cheviots, I met with the following custom. When a woman's confinement is near, a cheese is made, which, when the child is born, is cut into pieces and distributed among all the houses (without exception) in the vicinity. If the child is a boy, the pieces of cheese are sent to the males; if a girl, to the females, each member of a family receiving a portion. Visitors also come in for their share. Whence did this custom arise?
CUTHBERT BEDE.
Sneezing.
—"The custom of blessing persons when they sneeze," says Brand, "has, without doubt, been derived to the Christian world, where it generally prevails, from the time of heathenism." In addition to the interesting notice of the prevalence of this custom in Europe, and many remote parts of Asia and Africa, given by Brand, I find traces of it amongst the American tribes at the period of the Spanish conquest. In 1542, when Hernando de Soto, the famous conquest-actor of Florida, had an interview with the Cacique Guachoya, the following curious incident occurred:—
"In the midst of their conversation, the Cacique happened to sneeze. Upon this, all his attendants bowed their heads, opened and closed their arms; and making their signs of veneration, saluted their prince with various phrases of the same purport: 'May the sun guard you,' 'may the sun be with you,' 'may the sun shine upon you,' 'defend you,' 'prosper you,' and the like; each uttered the phrase that came first to his mind, and for a short time there was a universal murmuring of these compliments."— The Conquest of Florida under Hernando de Soto, by Theodore Irving, vol. ii. p. 161.
Whence could the natives of the New World have derived a custom so strikingly similar to that which the ancients record?
R. S. F.
Perth.
Marlborough 5th November Custom.
—At Marlborough, Wiltshire, on the 5th of November, two or three years ago, I noticed a peculiar custom the rustics have at their bonfires, to which I could attach no meaning; and I did not, at the time, inquire of any person there regarding it.
They form themselves into a ring of some dozen or more round the bonfire, and follow each other round it, holding thick club-sticks over their shoulders; while a few others, standing at distances outside this moving ring, with the same sort of sticks, beat those the men hold over their shoulders, as they pass round in succession, all shouting and screaming loudly. This might last half an hour at a time, and be continued at intervals till the fire died out. Can any correspondent inform me whether this has any meaning attached to it?
J. S. A.
Old Broad Street.
Spectral Coach and Horses (Vol. iv., p. 195.).
—A similar legend was within a few years current near Bury St. Edmunds, in the same county, where on Christmas Eve, at midnight, a coach drawn by four headless horses, and driven by a headless coachman, might be seen to come in a direction from the parish of Great Barton, across the fields, regardless of fences, and proceed to a deep hole called "Phillis's Hole" near "the two-mile spinney," in the parish of Rongham, and there find a resting-place. A few years since, wishing to learn whether this sight was among the things still looked for or believed in, I proceeded to the locality at the time stated, but met with no one but a gamekeeper, whom I found to be quite familiar with the legend. He said he had heard a good deal in his younger days about the "coach," but had never seen it. There was, however, an old woman then living who had seen it often, and who declared that the coach was occupied by a gentleman and a lady, also without heads, but he did not know what to say to it. All he knew was, that when a man was out on dark nights, "he could draw anything into his eye that he liked!"
BURIENSIS.