Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/478

 45^ Miscellanea.

drinking it, and then pretended to fall asleep. When she went off, he took a revolver and sword and followed her. She told the negro, " See what has happened to me ; my eye is gone. Now you won't care for me any more." But her lover said, " You are always the same to me ; but why are you so late ? " Then they began to toy with each other. Then her husband shot them both with his revolver through the crevice, and breaking open the door hacked off their heads. VV. R. Paton.

The Bull-Roarer in Ceylon.

When recently in Ceylon, Mr. A. Haly, Director of the Colombo Museum, told me that he had seen Singalese children whirling a thin slat of wood round their heads whilst at play, so producing a whirring noise. I subsequently saw them doing this, and was able to procure specimens from Cotta, a small village about three miles from Colombo.

The slat of wood is roughly quadrilateral, not tapered at either end, about 137 mm. long by 40 mm. broad. There is a hole near one end, through which is passed a piece of string, which is pre- vented from slipping through by a knot at the end, the other ex- tremity being tied to a short stiff stick about 50 centimetres in length. In using the toy the stick is waved to and fro above the head, not whirled round in continuous circles as is done in New Guinea. I was informed that at Colombo a troop of boys whirling these toys, called runa, followed the Perahera procession (a ceremony in the great Buddhist festival held annually about the end of May). This is not done at Kandy, their place being taken by boys' cracking whips. As far as I could ascertain, the bull-roarer is not used by Tamil children. Subsequently I saw neater specimens, made of bamboo, used as toys at Anuradhapura, about 150 miles from Colombo. C. G. Seligmann.

Cropping Animals' Ears.

(C/ p. 380.)

In Asia Minor it is customary to cut the ears of the large and savage breed of dogs used as boar-hounds, and for protecting the flocks from wolves. The flap of the ear is cut off, roasted, and given to the puppy to eat. This is supposed to make it more