Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/141

 Reviews. 123

parishes of Guernsey have derogatorj', and generally animal, nicknames.!

Many other points strike one in glancing through the volume. A blade-bone must be pricked before it is thrown away, or the witches will make a ship of it, as they will also of an egg-shell if the bottom be not broken through (p. 381). It is advisable to swear, but not too forcibly! when planting small herbs, "to render them thoroughly efificacious " (p. 425). Carved oak chests, if saintly effigies or scriptural subjects be depicted on them, were used to cure erysipelas by opening and shutting the Hd nine times, so as to fan the face of the patient (p. 402). A funeral must never be carried down hill ; it would be most unlucky for the deceased person (p. 104). Whoever finds a dead body on the shore must provide for its burial, or he will be haunted by the spectre of the deceased (p. 238. Cf. Fifeshire Folklore, atite^ p. 97). Witches transform themselves into red-legged choughs and wild-ducks (pp. 598, 600) as well as into hares and cats.

Other more staple incidents of folklore to be met with are the Holy Maul story, the robin fetching fire from heaven, the soul leaving the body of the sleeper, and the dead mother who returns to tend her children. But it would be as impossible as unfair to pick out all the plums from the volume. It is a thoroughly genuine first-hand collection, and ought to be useful to investi- gators in many departments of folklore.

Charlotte S. Burne.

' " Alderney, vaques (cows); Sark, co7'bins (crows); Jersey, crapauds (toads) ; Guernsey, ones (donkeys). Guernsey Parish Nicknames, St. Pierre Port, Les Clichards ; St. Samson, Raines (frogs) ; Le Valle, Ann^-tons (cock- chafers) ; Le Catel, Le Catelain est un dne-pur-sang ; St. Sauveur, Fouar- millons (ant-lions) [?] ; St. Pierre-du-Bois, Anes h pid de cK vd (asses with horses' feet) ; La Foret, Bourdons (drones) ; St. Martin, Dravants (large ray- fish) ; St. Andre, Crainchons (siftings)." ("in sifting corn the crdinchons are the light and defective grains and husks that gather in the middle of the sieve, as it is worked with a circular motion. St. Andrew's is the middle parish of the island.") (pp. 506, 507).