Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/122

 104 Correspondence.

The other variant I could not assign to any particular place. It was told me in the North, but I am bound to say it came from a man who knew " the road " well in coaching days from London to Manchester and Liverpool, and who moreover had spent his youth in Windsor. A company were one night drinking at a wayside inn, when, the conversation turning on a man who was gibbeted near, a bet was made that one of the company dared not go at midnight and offer him a glass of something to keep the cold out. The drink being prepared the man set out with it, bearing in his other hand a chair on which to stand while making his offering, and followed by the rest of the company, while his opponent slipped along behind the wall or hedge, as in the other stories. Climbing on the chair he held up the glass, remarking that he had brought the unfortunate something to warm him. " It's too h-o-t," was growled out in sepulchral tones. " Then, d — n yer, blow it ! " he rejoined, and won his wager.

Is not this a good sample of how wandering tales get localised ? As the poor boy and cat myth has been attached, among us, to Sir Richard Whittington, as Boccacio localised old Indian tales in the city of Florence, and as Chaucer following assigned Boccacio's stories to English localities {e.g "The Reeve's Tale"), so the Queen of Navarre tells, as occurring in her own knowledge, a story in the Gesta Romanorum and Petrus Alfonsus.

W. Henry Jewitt.

[The first version of this story is localised also in Shropshire, where it has given birth to a proverbial phrase, " Cold and chilly, like old Bolas " (^Shropshire Folklore, p. 592). — Ed.]

Braemar Saying.

The folks of Braemar, when annoyed by the noisy play of children, threaten them by shouting, '* If you don't keep quiet I'll put ma fit (foot) i' the fire." This is the very vigour of scolding, and usually has the desired effect. Will someone kindly give an explanation ?

A. Macdonald.

Durris School, by Aberdeen.