Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/371

 Collectanea. 343

name of the Conqueror.^ It is needless to say that they cannot possibly date back either to his time or to Athelstan's. Professor Skeat refers the wording to the sixteenth century.

Attestation of a deed by the impression of the author's teeth occurs in the legends of Asoka, the first Emperor of India, B.C. 272-232 (see footnote).^

The last couplet is evidently a real local popular rhyme, tacked on to the charter and not understood by the scribe ; for the nonsensical " knotit grows hare " must undoubtedly stand for noivf (singular number of nea^ cattle, horned beasts) grows /lat'r, which is intelligible and appropriate.

Charlotte S. Burne.

A Buck Superstition.

By the kindness of Mr. Rorie, a member of the Society, we have received a cutting from the Devierara Daily Chrojiide of January 27th, 1904, containing an account of the trial of Christie, a Buck Shaman, for the murder of an Indian woman named Kaliwa, in May, 1902. Kaliwa had been the wife of a Buck Indian named Taruma, and after the birth of twins two years ago had been in ill health. Taruma had got marabuntas and ants to sting her at Christie's orders, but she had not improved. Christie, his uncle, a Marinoiv, told him he must burn her, because she was the wife of a bad spirit, otherwise other people in the village would die of the same sickness. He burnt her between one and two moons after in the bush, putting wood under her and more on the top before she was dead. When people died in a house it was burnt sometimes, but they buried dead bodies. Twins were regarded as the children of an evil spirit, Pernowhari.

The prisoner said that a spirit in the shape of a large Camoodie had possessed Kaliwa when she gave birth to the children and he had seen it himself. Only the Mari?iows can see spirits. Sentence of death was passed.

Editor.

' Cf. G. L. Gomme on " Rhythmical Laws " in The Antiquary, ist series, vol. viii. p. 12. Dukes, Antiquities of Salop, Appendix, p. xxiv. Shropshire Folklore, p. 584. Debretfs Peerage, 1790, vol. 3, s. v. Rawdon, Earl of Moira (quoted by Vincent A. Smith, Asoka, Clarendon Press, 1901, p. 1S8).