Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 27, 1916.djvu/446

418 of the harvest given. From then until the faggots are but embers the merriment continues. One of the most popular sports of the evening is reminiscent of All Hallows E'en. A revolving "spit" with a stick, to the ends of which are attached an apple and a lighted candle, is hung in the kitchen, and every man must "claim the apple." If he avoids burning his hair he is lucky, but the fun, if rough, is real.

The custom is not so widely observed as formerly, but it is still one of the chief agricultural festivals of the year. It is also observed in many public-houses. In these the faggots are bound with wood, and as the binding bursts in the flames all drinks are free.—The Gloucestershire Echo, 24th December, 1912.

A creature described as a female "monkey-child," and strongly recalling Kipling's Jungle Book story of Mowgli, the man-cub reared in the forest by a she-wolf, has been discovered in the jungles of Nainital. When brought in, the little creature, who appears to be about nine years old, was in a frightened condition, unable to eat anything except grass and chapatties. She had a tremendous mat of hair on her head and a thick growth of hair down each side of her face and down the spine, but her vaccination marks and the child's perfectly-upright carriage, despite the fact that she sits like a monkey and has many of the habits of the ape, prove beyond doubt that she is a little girl who years ago had been abandoned or had strayed into the forest.

The creature, who has thin and bony hands and nails of extreme length and thickness, has been tied up by the authorities to the pillar of a porch. Her capture is attributed to the fact that the girl was suffering from an ulcerated foot. She had also deep scars on her head and knees. The capture is much discussed here from many aspects, and it is hoped that the head and brain