Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/187

Rh of the rarest occurrence, and generally belong to a "foreigner," that is, any person from another county. Such folklore as I have collected comes from my own village, or from places within six miles' distance. With the miners I am not in touch, and so could get nothing from them.

Tradition has it that St. Briavel, after whom the place was named, was once a Cornish king of such exceeding wickedness that his subjects rose and drove him out. After many wanderings he came to the Wye Valley, and, settling down, became a hermit, acquiring by his holiness great power over the wolves and other wild beasts of the forest. The site of his supposed hermitage is still known. A few stones in a wood go by the name of St. Margaret's Chapel, and to her the church is dedicated, but I have been unable to find out anything more about her. St. Briavel's Wells are three excellent springs on the hilltop, but have no connection with the Saint, who lived in the warm damp valley.

Offa's Dyke runs through the country side and is still plainly traceable, rising in some places to a height of fifteen feet, though almost ploughed away in others. The people call it the Devil's Dyke, but have no stories about it; nor have I been able to find any meanings for the queer names given to the different parts of the village—such as the Mork, the Meen, or Tumpkin's Ailes.

There are old Roman iron workings near by, with a Devil's Chapel and a Devil's Kitchen; also a stone put up to commemorate the murder of one of the Constables of the Forest (this bleeds if you stick a pin into it); and many other interesting places. These do not, however, belong properly to St. Briavel's.

Of the local omens, charms, folk-medicine, customs and sayings, witchcraft and fairy legends, most will probably be known already to the Society, but one or two things are, I think, new.

First comes the usual list of crows or magpies: one, for ill; two, for good; three, a disappointment; four, a letter; five, something better; six, a wedding; seven, a burying. But there is a small local variant which says that although one crow in the morning brings ill-luck and two good, yet one after dinner brings good fortune.

If a bee comes into the house, a stranger will soon arrive. In the spring, if you see the first young lamb back first, it is unlucky, you will go backwards all the year.

The small egg first laid by a pullet should never be brought