Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/319

 Correspondence. 301

craft, especially, is not readily revealed to new acquaintance, nor to anyone not thoroughly trusted. The people have not yet for- gotten the days when witchcraft was a crime of which the law took cognizance, and they are very careful how they avow any knowledge of the subject. I once upset a most promising apple- cart by asking with too eager interest, " And did you really know — ? " (a certain reputed witch who was the subject of con- versation). My interlocutor " dried up " on the spot. She recollected that there was such a person. She had heard that she did tilings ; but she never had no dealings with her, in fact she didn't know that she had ever spoken to her in her life ! And I found it would be waste of time to continue the conversation.

In like manner, when some years ago " a trained scientific observer " 1 travelled into Somersetshire to inquire into the history of the " Witch's Ladder " found in the loft of an old house there, he found that the very men whose unguarded exclamation at the time of its discovery had given the clue to the nature of the imple- ment, would only say that they had never seen the ladder in use, that they did not know to whom it had belonged, that they had never seen another specimen, nor could they explain how they knew what it was. Probably they would have said that there were no witches in the county of Somerset, and that they had never heard of the subject outside the Bible, had the strange gentleman's inquiries been pushed so far !

As to the credibility of witnesses : if they are annoyed by what seems to them impertinent curiosity (" prying into other folks' business "), or puzzled by their visitor's manner and conscious that they do not comprehend his object, or afraid of exposing them- selves to ridicule, of offending an influential neighbour, or in any way getting themselves into trouble with the powers that be, English poor people will feign ignorance, and deny knowledge that they really possess. Otherwise, you may trust their word, negative or affirmative, though not always their accuracy. They will exaggerate their own adventures, the favour expressed to them by their superiors, the number of persons in an assemblage, and so on, but they are not imaginative or ingenious enough to hoax an importunate questioner by inventions, as it seems the Scots of the western islands are capable of doing.

' F. L. J., I quote the story, of necessity, from memory only.