Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/445

 Collectanea. 425

the blacksmith : "I want a shoe put on my horse's fore-foot." Then he rode her out and left her. The next day the thatcher went to his work, and his master came out looking " very soli- tary." The thatcher asked him what was the matter. He said his wife was ill and could not get up. " Make her get up," said the thatcher. The master said he could not. " Then make her put her right hand out of bed," said the thatcher. The master said he could not. " Force her to do it," said the thatcher ; and at last the husband did so, and there was a great iron horseshoe upon her hand. The husband said " he thought he was married to an honest woman, but he found he was married, to the Devil," so he had her put out of the way — " stifled or something."

Old Mrs. Hayward's mother, when she was a girl of fourteen, was living in service in Berkshire. An old woman who was a reputed witch used to come to the house to fetch milk. One day the cook said to the girl : " I should like to know for certain if she is a witch. When she comes in the morning you get two old scrubs (or brooms), and lay them crosswise upon the doorstep. If she is a witch she will jump over them, if she is not she will just step over them." The girl did as she was told, and in the morning the old \\oxm.x\ Juuiped over the brooms. Apparently she realised that a trap had been laid for her, and was very angry, for from that moment the girl was bewitched. Next day her copper pan ran out when she put the milk into it upon the fire. She sent it to Newbury to be mended, but the same thing happened three times ; in fact she became so unlucky in every way that at last she had to leave her situation.

Mrs. Hayward's husband was one day going through a ford with a load of straw. In the middle of the water the straw all fell out of the wagon. He picked it up, and the same thing happened again. He saw a cat in front of him, and slashed at it with his whip. Then he saw the witch, who said to him " You've had trouble with your straw, carter." " Yes," he said, " and its you that's done it." But as he had drawn blood from her she was never able to do anyone harm again.

A woman of sixty told me that when she was a girl in service her mistress used to tell her that if she saw a large hare in the lane she was not to be afraid, it was only old Mrs. Parsons. This Mrs. Parsons, who was a witch, had a daughter who lived three miles away from her, and the daughter would go outside her house