Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/318

 290 Three Lives of Saints:

Of proverbs we have two :

Seli child is soon i-learned : where he thinks to be good.'*

For it is soothly said, when a man : is in most sorrow and tene.

Then is our Lord's grace nearest : as it was there seen.

Punishments mentioned include quartering, hanging and drawing.

The origin of the custom of fasting upon Tuesdays is given as follows:

It was on a Tuesday : that they the bones took up.

All his chances that he had : on Tuesdays came to him

On a Tuesday was he born : from his mother's womb he came

And also as men bring a thief: to receive his judgment

Before the King at Northampton : upon a Tuesday

With great shame was he brought : as all that folk saw

More foully than any thief: folk shamed him there.

On a Tuesday was he banished : and out of the land he went

And on a Tuesday at Pountenay : our Lord to him came

And said to him that sweet word : of his martyrdom.

Thomas, said our dear Lord : yet shall of thy blood

All my church honoured be : these words were well good.

On a Tuesday also good to England he came

After that he was banished : to receive his martyrdom

On a Tuesday at Canterbury : to death he was done

And after, on Tuesday : enshrined was he also

These seven Adventures on Tuesday : came to him at least

Therefore we see many men": make one promise

To leave flesh on Tuesday : or to fast with one meal only

Till they come to Canterbury : or while their life lasts.

It only remains to set on record an item of tradition which seems gathered from an Eastern source. The legend of the Vision in Jerusalem :

For in Jerusalem's land men knew : of his martyrdom Within the first fortnight : that he met his death.

••Cf. Canterbury Talcs, B. 1702, quoted by Skeat : For sely child wol alday sone lere.