Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/403

 Collectanea. 371

obtains a promise of meeting it, say in a month's time, in a neighbouring churchyard. During this interval the victim droops and fades, finally dying just at the time to allow of his or her burial at the very hour appointed for the meeting. The Zombi is sometimes even more rapid in its movements, the end coming after a few hours of bliss. Sometimes the evil spirit appears as a three-legged horse, and with one of its legs it is able to inflict a severe kick on an unwary traveller. Sometimes, as a gigantic dog, it springs at the throat of its victim. Fortunately it some- times appears as a small creature which can be trapped ; and for this purpose Negroes hang up outside their huts bottles half filled ■with water, into which, when the Zombi ventures to quench its thirst, it may be imprisoned, not killed, but henceforth in the service of its captor. Dominica swarms with these creatures, and they are so widely feared that no bribe will induce a Negro to venture out in the dark. The coloured population of the West Indian Islands is now at any rate nominally Christian; but neither priest nor pastor has been able to stamp out the fear of evil spirits. This is especially the case with Martinique, where if you ask any Negro about the Zombi, he will answer in his quaint patois, " Mais q'oui Missie (Monsieur), c'est ben c'nu."

Mary F. A. Tknch, F. R.A.I.

Folklore of London Dressmakers.

London dressmakers consider it to be most unlucky to use a black pin in fitting a gown. At a recent visit to my dressmaker I was told that a black pin had inadvertently been used not long since in fitting a wedding dress. "That wedding gown was never worn, because the gentleman the young lady was to marry was killed ! " Green is an unlucky colour. " It is not always unlucky, but I made a beautiful green dress not long ago, and it was never worn by its owner, because she went into deep mourning just as it was finished." After a dress is finished and is being worn there seems to be no objection to the use of black pins.

E. M. L.