villages besides Tissington in which this innocent and pleasing custom is still observed. I am aware that there are many places, especially in the north of England, in which a rustic celebration takes place annually at wells sacred from olden time; but is not the "well-flowering" a distinct custom?
Wm. Sidney Gibson.
Newcastle.
Devil's Marks in Swine.—"We don't kill a pig every day," but we did a short time since; and after its hairs were scraped off, our attention was directed to six small rings, about the size of a pea, and in colour as if burnt or branded, on the inside of each fore leg, and disposed curvilinearly. Our labourer informed us with great gravity, and evidently believed it, that these marks were caused by the pressure of the devil's fingers, when he entered the herd of swine which immediately ran violently into the sea.—See Mark v. 11-15.; Luke viii. 22, 33.
Tee Bee.
Festival of Baal.—The late Lady Baird, of Ferntower, in Perthshire, told me that, every year at "Beltane" (or the 1st of May), a number of men and women assembled at an ancient druidical circle of stones on her property, near Crieff. They light a fire in the centre; each person puts a bit of oatcake into a shepherd's bonnet; they all sit down and draw blindfold a piece of cake from the bonnet. One piece has been previously blackened, and whoever gets that piece has to jump through the fire in the centre of the circle and to pay a forfeit. This is, in fact, a part of the ancient worship of Baal, and the person on whom the lot fell was formerly burnt as a sacrifice; now, the passing through the fire represents that, and the payment of the forfeit redeems the victim. It is curious that staunch Presbyterians, as the people of that part of Perthshire now are, should unknowingly keep up the observance of a great heathen festival.
L. M. M. R.
LORD MONBODDO.
In my copy of The Origin and Progress of Language, I have recorded a little ἀνέκδοτον of the author, which is now probably known to nobody but myself, and which you may perhaps think worth preservation. It was related to me some fifteen years ago, by a learned physician of this city, now deceased, who had it from Dr. James Gregory himself.