Crawley, Winchester.
FOLK LORE.
Herefordshire Folk Lore.—Pray make an imperishable Note of the following concentration of Herefordshire folk lore, extracted from the "Report of the Secretary of the Diocesan Board of Education," as published in The Times of Jan. 28, 1854:
"The observation of unlucky days and seasons is by no means unusual. The phases of the moon are regarded with great respect: in one medicine may be taken; in another it is advisable to kill a pig; over the doors of many houses may be found twigs placed crosswise, and never suffered to lose their cruciform position; and the horse-shoe preserves its old station on many a stable-door. Charms are devoutly believed in. A ring made from a shilling offered at the Communion is an undoubted cure for fits; hair plucked from the crop of an ass's shoulder, and woven into a chain, to be put round a child's neck, is powerful for the same purpose; and the hand of a corpse applied to a neck is believed to disperse a wen. Not long since, a boy was met running hastily to a neighbour's for some holy water, as the only hope of preserving a sick pig. The 'evil eye,' so long dreaded in uneducated countries, has its terrors amongst us; and if a person of ill life be suddenly called away, there are generally some who hear his 'tokens,' or see his ghost. There exists, besides, the custom of communicating deaths to hives of bees, in the belief that they invariably abandon their owners if the intelligence be withheld."
May not any one exclaim:
"O miseras hominum mentes! O pectora cæca!
Qualibus in tenebris vitæ, quantisque periclis
Degitur hoc ævi, quodcunque est!"
S. G. C.