Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/555

 Collectanea. 491

holes with her walking-stick in the path and say something ; and

then, no matter what, Mrs. S use to have no sleep at night

because of her. She use to see the old woman, and see things, like, and she couldn't not sleep, not at all. But then, — (I think someone told her what to do), — she use to take pins and stick them in the holes, and that use to take off the effect, like. And it was quite true, because she done it to a lot more people.

Mrs. S use to try and keep her from coming to her house,

but no matter what, she would come. It was enough to frighten you to look at her. She had a daughter, and when she was ill she had to come home to look after her, and she had to do whatever the old woman told her, or else she did lead her a life ! And she use to tell people about it, too.

" My father use to tell us children, when he was working at a place in Berkshire there use to be something in a hedge, and, when he use to drive his horses out in a morning, about nine o'clock it was, it use to jump out and stop the horses dead. It was like a figure of a man ; and whoever was driving out, no matter what, a waggon or what, it didn't matter if the man drove fast past that place, the horses use to stop dead, and the driver would call to them to go on, and they wouldn't not for a while."

Woking. Barbara Freire-Marreco.

Worcestershire. One of my maids, who comes from Redmarley, tells me that Ascension Day rain is not black, but that it is saved and bottled to use for bad eyes.'^ D. Townshend.

-So also in Shropshire (C. S. Burne). Cf. Gloucestejskire above.