Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/245

 Co rresp ondence. 221

Monmouthshire Notes.

{Supra, p. 86.)

" Walking the wheat " was, I think, done on Easter Sunday. The owner of the land with his family and men (possibly women also) went up and down through the fields of young wheat, each carrying a small cake and cider ; they ate a little, buried a little, and flung a little piece abroad, saying :

''A bit for God, a bit for man, And a bit for the fowls of the air."

In my grandfather's house the fire was blessed on some day of the year and all other fires were lighted from that one.

I once saw a flat cake with a hole in the middle put on the horn of the leading cow of the herd, and the family servants standing around, singing :

" Here's a health to thee, Brownie, and to thy white horn, God send thy master a good crop of corn. Thee eat thy cake and I'll drink my beer, God send thy master a happy New Year."

But the cow did not eat the cake ; she tossed it by throwing up her head, as she objected to the weight of it on her horn, and it depended on where the cake fell — in front or behind her — whether the year would be good or bad for her master.

The bees were put in mourning when any of the family died ; a piece of crape was tied on the hives. When the head of the family died the bees were told (my mother heard it), " My little friends, WiUiam your master is dead, and John is master now." If this had not been done it was supposed they would all have gone away at the first swarm.

H. C. Ellis.

7, Roland Gardens, South Kensington.

[With the customs above narrated may be compared the Here- fordshire customs described in Folk-Lore, vol. xii., p. 350. — Ed,]