Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/92

 76 Collectanea.

took the opportunity of asking her if she knew anything about Jenkyns, the wise man, in whom I was very much interested, having heard a great deal about him.

" Lor' bless you, me dear," said she, " Why, Jenkyns 'as been a comfort to me all me life. If I ever 'ad a pain of any sort, rheuma- ticks, toothache, or what ye like, if I'd go to Jenkyns 'e'd always take it away. Anything that were lost, in all the country-side, 'e'd always find it. 'Deed I did miss old Jenkyns when 'e died, and and many's the time I've wished 'im back agen."

I asked her what old Jenkyns' appearance was, and gathered that he was an oldish man, with a long dark beard ; stooping, and walking with a stick. " He alius wore one o' those box 'ats," said Mrs. Pryce, "an' an old round coat about the house, but when 'e went to town 'e put on a long coat with tails,"

" But have you ever seen any of his charming, Mrs. Pryce ? "

" Lor' bless you, yes, me dear," said she ; " many an' many a time, but onst in particular I were dreadful skeered, an' I'll tell you all about it. One day one of me brothers had a toothache, so him an' me an' me other brother went up to old Jenkyns to have it charmed away. Jenkyns could charm away anything ; many a time, when I've had rheumaticks or pain of any sort I'd go to Jenkyns an' say, ' Oh ! Jenkyns, I do feel so bad, take away my pain, do now;' 'an' 'e'd say,' ' Well now, d'ye believe? ' 'Oh, yes, I believe,' say I, an' there ! the pain 'ud be gone.

" Well, as I was sayin', when the toothache was gone, Jenkyns went out o' the kitchen to fetch a drop o' cider, an' me brother see'd a big, big book on the corner of the table, an' began to look at it. Jenkyns hollers out from the other side of the house, •Don't you touch that book, or it'll be the worse for you!' When 'e came back me brother says, ' You must have got the Old Man 'imself about 'ere to have such like goings on,' says 'e. Just then there came a great noise in the room above, bowling about the floor, like as if a great big ball were rollin' about. ' All right,' says Jenkyns, ' if you don't look out, you'll have him a bit closer.'

"With that 'e takes a candle an' blows into it, puts it on the table, an' draws a circle round it. Then the light all burnt dim an' blue, and the whole room got cloudy an' misty. Presently, we see'd a little old man sittin' in a chair next to Jenkyns, 'e was rockin' 'imself to and fro, and squeakin', ' Jcnky, Jcnky, Jenky ! '