Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 25, 1914.djvu/417

 Correspojidcnce. 385

influence. Ciregor {Folklore of North-East Scotland, p. 5) mentions how a pair of trousers was hung at the foot of the bed to protect mother, and child when it arrived, from the fairies. Henderson {Folklore 0/ the Northern Counties, p. 14) relates how at Selkirk, Scotland, a mother saved her child from the fairies by seizing her husband's waistcoat and placing it over herself and the child. Similarly we have the custom in Scotland and elsewhere of the newly-born female child being received in the father's shirt. This is not so much, however, with the idea of protection, as of securing future fertility for the child, as the male child is placed in the mother's petticoat.

In Spain, ^ if there is difficulty in getting the milk to flow, it may be induced by the mother putting on her husband's shirt immedi- ately after he has taken it off". In Holland,- for inflamed nipples, the newly-worn woollen night-cap of the husband is applied to the aff'ected part. In France ^ the husband's hat is frequently, amongst the peasantry, put on to hasten labour, the hat being in some cases first turned inside out (Lorraine and Tours). In the same districts, and in parts of the country round Toulouse, the husband's entire clothing is donned as an assistance to rapid labour.

Davie^ Rorik, M.D.

The Wild Hunt.sm.\n and Yule-Tide.

In Mr. Percy Maylam's Hooden Horse, the author quotes a passage from Tille's Yule and Christmas, p. 115, stating "that the Christmas rides of the Wild Huntsman and his host cannot be proved to be older than the si.xteenth century."

An English peasant woman, who probably never heard of the German legend, told me a few years ago in Lincolnshire, that there

"^British Medical [ouriial, Oct. 15, 19 10, quoting articles by Dr. Martin Carrera y Dellunder in Gaceta Medtca Catalena of Feb. 15 and March 15, 1910.

•Ibid. Nov. 19, 1910, quoting article by Dr. A. Van Audel of Govinchen in July, Sept. and Oct. numbers oi Janus.

^ Ibid. Aug. 12, 1905, quoting Dr. Isambert of Tours in Journal dObstil. de Gytuc, etc., July 20, 1905. (See p. 341 supra.)