Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/125

 Correspondence. 107

dance. There were the time-honoured figures of the Fool and the Bessy accompanying the dancers ; the drum and penny whistle represented the ancient tabor and pipe ; while the bell which the Fool formerly wore hung at his back, was now carried in the van to inform the householders of the passing of the show (very pos- sibly the original purpose for which the bell was introduced). As a remarkable specimen of what is daily becoming rarer, genuine London folklore, I think this Guy Fawkes procession is worthy of record.

Charlotte S. Burne. 5th November, 1903.

Myth Making.

I have found a good example of Myth Making in the Narrative of the Etnbassy of Ruy Gonzalez de Clarijo to the Court of Tifnour at Samarcand, a.d. 1403-6 (Hakluyt Society, 1859), p. 35. Speaking of the columns of twisted snakes which supported a votive tripod, dedicated at Delphi after Plataea by the Greeks, and removed by Constantine to Constantinople, the writer says :

" There are three copper figures of serpents, they are twisted like a rope, and they have three heads with open mouths. It is said that these figures of serpents were put here on account of an enchantment which was effected. The city used to be infested by many serpents and other evil animals which killed and poisoned man ; but an emperor performed an enchantment over these figures, and serpents have never done any harm to the people of the city since that time."

W. H. D. Rouse.