Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/367

 Miscellanea. 347

not to bury a deceased relation near one who was his enemy in life. " They would fight in their graves," they think.i

Fairies and Giants. — These people have no traditions of fairies or giants.

Ghosts. — They vouch for the occasional appearance of a ghost, but most of the revenants, they say, were laid by a clergyman some years ago.

Ghost in a Golden Corslet. — At Silbury Hill there is a tradition that a man in golden armour on horseback is buried.^

Headless Ghost. — On Roundway Down a headless ghost is said to walk. Some years ago a shepherd declared that he met it, that it walked some distance by his side, and then vanished. The gentleman to whom he told the story asked why he did not speak to the ghost. " I was afraid," he replied, " for if I hadn't spoken proper to him he'd a tore 'un to pieces." A barrow is near the place, which was excavated some time ago, when a skeleton (not headless) was found. Since the barrow was opened the ghost has ceased to walk.^

Attack of Water Demon on a Sabbath-breaker. — One of our workmen one Sunday went out fishing. He soon came back with a look of fear on his face and told my brother that he had felt something dragging at his line, and on dragging it up saw "a horful crittur, with terrible big heyes fearsome to look at." He supposed it was the devil, and promptly threw it back into the water. He believed this to be a judgment for Sabbath-breaking.*

Medicine as a Charm. — The doctor's medicine was commonly regarded as a charm. A patient attacked with pleurisy was given a blister, and his wife was told to apply it to his chest. At his next visit the doctor was told that the blister had done wonders. But on examination he was surprised to find no marks showing that the bhster had taken effect. " We hadn't got no chest," his wife explained, "but he's got a good-sized box in that corner, and we clapp'd en on that." L. A. Law.

' On the communing of ghosts buried close together, see Hartland, Legend of Perseus, ii., 326.

" The tale is told at Mold, in Flintshire, where in a barrow was subsequently found a golden breastplate, now in the British Museum {2nd Ser. Notes and Queries, x., 342.)

^ The headless horseman is found all the world over. In 5th Ser. Notes and Queries, vi. 364, the ghost of a headless turkey walks.

'' This is the usual water demon which appears in so many mythologies. I have given some instances in Popidar Religion and Folklore, i., 42 seqq.