Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/554

 5 1 6 Collectanea.

to pass the Boiling Well. She always came with a tall stick in her hand. She used to wear an old close-fitting calico cap, and the border did come to pin under her chin, and a sort of a straw hat on her head. She always came to Hay in a greatcoat with a cape on it, and used to wear a shawl over her shoulders as well in the winter. The hair of the horse used to come off on the great- coat ; no skirt was seen. Old Tyucha had to pass the Boiling Well, where the spirit was always to be seen, dressed in white. She always left Hay in good time, so as not to pass the ^^'ell when it was dark, for fear she should see the spirit. The white lady used to jump on her horse with her at the Boiling Well till she did ride to her own house with her. Then she did lose her at once.

Story of Stoke Edith. — Two ladies wished to buy Stoke Edith, and could not decide, so got two wood-lice and put them to race together on a table. One lady tried to push on hers with a pin to win the race, but the wood-louse turned over on its back, so the other won the Stoke Edith estate. They kept a clown, — Will-fool- a-ham. — to amuse them, and he used to swing up and down on a tree-bough over a pool of water. And one day the carpenter sawed nearly through the bough, so that, when the clown got on to amuse the people, he fell into the pool, and was so angry he determined to revenge himself. He went on when the carpenter was asleep, and caught hold of an axe and cut his head off, and said " he did not know where the carpenter would find his head when he awoke, as he had hidden it in the shavings." Then he hid himself in a bolting of straw. And the pursuers came after him, and one called out, — " I can see you. Will," and he said, — "You are a liar, you can't !" Then they collared him, and took him before the judge. But they could make nothing of him, and thought him out of his mind. And the judge ordered one of the warders to reach him a knife, and said, — " Hand me that knife, my man," and he pushed the blade at the judge, and they judged him insane. And he saved his head ! "

Story of a Serpent at Mordiford (Herefordshire). — At Mordi- ford a serpent came out of the wood, and used to go to the river to drink, and people was afraid of him, and put a reward for any- one who should kill him. And one man volunteered to do it, and