Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/443

Rh told off to "cawse" (course) the sheep belonging to a neighbour, so as to drive them into one of the disused shafts of a lead mine, that was half full of water. While engaged in this nefarious work with a lot of dogs, he and those with him were suddenly aware of the presence of a hare amongst the dogs—more active and busy at the business than any—and this hare, to use his own words, which made an indelible impression on my youthful memory, was "all spotted and spangled like Jacob's cattle." Of course the men, conscience-struck, at once ran for their lives; and he used to aver he knew it was the devil in the form of a hare.

In this neighbourhood, in coursing with greyhounds, I have often heard the beaters say, when a hare had stolen away, "Diangodd yr hen langces!" (The old lass has escaped.) Note, too, the curious fact that, universally in England, as far as my experience goes, the hare is spoken of as a female—"she" and "her." It would be very interesting to get to the root of this curious superstition, which fixes the hare as a witch. The "spots and spangles" described by Savage were, he said, so bright that, though the night was very dark, they lighted up dogs and sheep, &c.

Nant-yr-Eglwys, Whitland, R.S.O., South Wales.

514. Names of gods written on clothes and body, to sanctify.

515. Perpetual lights in Hindu temples.

516. Cattle-disease charms (Saharanpur). Seven as sacred number (cf. 584, 585).

519. What becomes of the souls of Muhammedans.

523. Black magic charms. Bone of a dead man; ashes from cemetery; teeth of black snake: all these figure in the charms.

524. Moon-worship. How the moon killed a man who had offended her, and how she was appeased.

525. Hindu: touch of cat or mouse defiles.

530. Divination: figure of a peacock drawn, and the inquirer is told to lay a blade of grass on some part of it. The explanation of the meaning of each part.