Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 10, 1899.djvu/287

 Correspondence. 249

with my own kindred are known to me. The pigeon has fre- quently appeared in the family of Mr. S., but the last time it was seen no death among his relations or intimate friends took place, although the bird died in the house. A friend of mine, whose mother's people are natives of a southern county, once told me that several of them believe that a pigeon appears before the death of a member of the family, and she herself had known it come once when it was expected. She had, however, no belief in the superstition. Of course pigeons frequently enter houses situated near their cote, and sick birds seem specially prone to do so. When we lived at Bottesford, they often came in or fell down the chimneys, and we have had them walking about the hall, or perching for hours on the outer window-sills here also. But no one remembers the failures, only the successful coincidences in folklore are kept in mind.

Mabel Peacock.

Wind and Weather-holes.

In Lincolnshire the word " hole " is frequendy used to indicate the quarter from which the rain-bringing wind usually blows, Thus, at Bottesford, in North Lincolnshire, I have heard it said, " th' wind hes gotten i' to Marnum-hole, we sh'U 'ev sum doon- fall," meaning " the wind is blowing from the direction of Mam- ham, in Nottinghamshire, so we shall soon have rain."

Similarly, in certain villages on the Wolds people observe, " th' wind 's gotten roond to Ketton-hole, it 'II be wet afoore very long ; " " Ketton " being Kirton-in-Lindsey. Generally, though not quite invariably, the quarter indicated is the south-west.

The use of " hole " in this sense is also common in other English counties,^ and " Wetter-loch " = weather-hole, or storm- hole is a term well-known in the Swiss Alps.^ What I wish to learn is, how " hole " comes to have this meaning. If, as is affirmed, it merely signifies a hollow, or gap, through which the winds sweeps, it is at times rather loosely applied. That part of Kirton in-Lindsey, for instance, which is visible from the Wolds,

' Burne, Shropshire Folklore, p. 580 ; Notes and Queries, 4th S., vol. v., p, 432 ; 5th S., v., 435 ; vi., 199.

- Cf. Schiller's Wilhelin Tell, act i., sc. i.