Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/372

 2,T,6 Collecta^tea.

were a monster thistle, a spade bedecked with heather, a crown composed of roses, and a barley bannock with a herring nailed across it. Those who rode the marches were told that they might tak' their fill of good strong whisky, which would mak' them sing ; while those who disturbed were warned that their lugs would be nailed to the Tron with a big nail, and they would be forced on their bare knees to pray seven times for the King, and thrice for the Laird of Ralton, an illegitimate son of Charles II. Various sods were cut, and at the Castle Crags the Fair was cried, and the company was regaled with barley bannock, salt herring, and whisky. Langholm Town Band and the local Drum and Fife Band took part in the proceedings." The Glasgotv Herald, 29th July, 1907.

Ancient Barbarous Sports.

(Scottish Lowlands.)

The following extract from an old local periodical, The Cheap Magazine, "printed and published monthly by G. Miller and Son, Haddington," vol. ii. No. vii., July 18 14, is communicated by Mr. Alexander Wood, Thornly, Saltcoats, Ayrshire, a Member of this Society. Cf. Folk- Lore, vol. xi. p. 253, and xvii. p. 258 sqq., "The Scapegoat in European Folk-Lore." Ed.

"The Carter's Race. "To the Editors of the Cheap Magazine. "Gentlemen,

Having had business at last summer, I was

not a little alarmed, when approaching the town, at seeing some- thing like what you have placed as a terror to evil doers, at the beginning of the story of the Beacon in your first number, and which, I believe, is commonly denominated a gallows. Fearful that some unhappy fellow-creature had forfeited his life to the laws of his country, and was about to expiate his crimes under the