Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/115

 CORRESPONDENCE.

Alphabet used in Consecrating a Church.

I have lately been informed that in consecrating a Roman Catholic church the letters of the Greek and the Latin alphabet should, according to ancient tradition, be written by the bishop with his crozier on two lines of ashes sprinkled on the floor. These lines ought to intersect each other in the form of a cross. The rite is said to show the union of all peoples and all languages in the Christian Church. Has it nothing to do with the hoary belief in the efficacy of spells and runes ? Can parallels to it be adduced from the customs of Chaldea, Egypt, and other bygone civilisations ?

A. E. O. E.

Giants in Pageants.

Notes on the osier-work giants used in public festivities in the Low Countries and Flanders are given in the Intermediaire,^ the question being asked whether the giants of Spain suggested those of the Netherlands or vice versa. In what countries of Europe has it been the custom to make use of giants and dragons to enliven public processions ? Were they generally used in those high festivals of the middle ages which represented the feasts anciently held in honour of the powers of nature ?

L. W.

Customs Relating to Iron.

(Vol. X. p. 457).

In the last issue of this Journal Miss Florence Peacock states of a district in England that the nurse sometimes heats the water in which a newly-born child is washed by plunging into it a red-

' 10 juillet, 1898, col. 6 ; 30 septembre, 1898, col. 462.