Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 8, 1897.djvu/312

288 vii., 353, of the sacrifice of a ram at Holne. This account has been quoted and used with much effect by Mr. Gomme in Ethnology in Folklore. Several of the most striking particulars of the ceremony are here denied on the authority of "the oldest parishioners." The original account was published in 1853. Denials of this kind, after a considerable lapse of time, are becoming quite a common phenomenon. It is a pity that they should not have been made when the original record was recent and the original reporter had an opportunity of vindicating his statements. In this case forty-three years have passed away, and probably the "Old Holne Curate" is no longer living.]