Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/441

 Collectanea, 421

In a little village about six miles from the Matthewses, old Mrs. Collins lives in the almshouse. She has a great many stories to tell. Her parents died when she was a child, and she was brought up by an aunt. She used to work in the fields for fourpence a day, and often knew what it was to go dinnerless. Nearly all the stories she has to tell she heard from her aunt, who would now, she says, were she still alive, be 130 years old.

The three following riddles come from this source. The first, as will easily be perceived, refers to the Gospel story.

H. and P.P. so well did agree

To blot out the name of C.

But they could not do it without the help of G.

M. was amazed and grieved to see

Envy and malice in H. and P. P.

Two died as never was born (Adam and Eve).

Two born as never died (Enoch and Elijah).

Two spoke as never lied (Christ and Balaam's Ass).

I saw six birds all in a cage, Each of them had one single wing That they could fly and sweetly sing. Their age did not abate their strength, Their tails were thirty foot in length. (Bells in the Tower).

Mrs. Collins also told me the following story, which accounts for Ophelia's saying "They say the owl was a baker's daughter." It was this. Our Lord went to a baker's shop to ask for some- thing to eat, and the woman there began making Him a cake. But each time she put a handful of flour into the pan, she took some out saying, " Oo-ooh, that's too much," "Oo-ooh, that's too much." And He said to her

" Owl thou art and owl thou shalt be, And all the birds of earth shall peck at thee."

"And if you come to look at the ow^l," said Mrs. Collins, "it has more the face of a Christian than a bird." A variant of this story, also told in Berkshire, is that the woman was turned into an owl, and condemned always to be poor, and get her food at night.