Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 5, 1894.djvu/89



Český Lid (Bohemian Folk-Lore Journal), November 1893.

P. 97. Marriage Banners in the Neighbourhood of Počátek (three woodcuts).—They are carried in the bridal procession. If a village owns none, it can hire one from a neighbouring village. They are kept by the village headman. They have patterns and pictures upon them (beasts, birds, flowers, figures, infant in cradle, wedding procession, common scenes, etc.), and inscriptions, such as: "Wedding Banner of such and such a place"; "Good luck to Bridegroom, Bride, and all the Company!" "Long live the community of such and such a place!"

101. Letter from a peasant, 1620.

102. Old Czech titles of horses in the sixteenth century.

103. Wedding in the neighbourhood of Chrasti.

112. Paintings of Houses in South Moravia; many illustrations. These are outside and inside, and are very pretty floral decorations. They resemble ancient local embroidery, of which, too, a picture is given.

122. Specimens of Folk-Songs, with Music.

148. "Souls of persons who die by drowning, shooting, hanging, or suicide are condemned to wander for ever over the earth, and live in the grey clouds. When there is a great deal of water in the clouds the soul cannot hold it up, and rain falls quickly. Once, when the clouds came near our village, a peasant fainted. For a long time they tried to arouse him; when he recovered himself, he related that there was a great noise in the sky, that there the souls of the unhappy ones in the cloud were calling one to the other, 'Hold up!' 'Can't.' There was a man in our village had no end of books, full of charms and curses against disease, and what not. Once, when the clouds were near, he was cursing them out of a book, when he looked up and saw his poor daughter, drowned awhile since. Three drops of blood fell on the book. He went home and threw all his books in the fire. What else he saw in the sky he never would tell."

151. Story of the Origin of the Horse.—A peasant was digging with a hoe in the field. St. Paul came there, and asked of the peasant how he was getting on. The peasant grumbled it was heavy work, but he was digging up the whole field with a hoe. St. Paul had com-