Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 9, 1898.djvu/117

Rh an "Eora" as he looked on the patient, my informant (a native of Kintyre, Argylshire) could not say, but indicated that it was effective in extracting the mote from the eye. "They say there be women who have an art of taking a mote out of one's eye, though at some miles' distance from the party grieved ; and this the only charm these women will avouch themselves to understand, as some of them told me, and several of these men, out of whose eyes motes were taken, confirmed the truth of it to me." — Vide Martin's Western Isles, p. 122. . _________

In the account of the diversions of Montezuma of Mexico given by Herrera, it is stated that ball-games were much delighted in, played in a walled court. The height of dexterity was sending the ball through certain holes in the wall just as big as the ball. This rarely happened, and he who succeeded in doing so won the game, and, moreover, by ancient custom and law among gamesters, had a right to the cloaks of the lookers-on. "It was very pleasant to see, that as soon as the ball was in the hole the standers-by took to their heels, running away with all their might to save their cloaks ; others scouring after them to secure their cloaks for the winner." (See Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, by, vol. ii.) As a contribution to the vexed question of connected civilisations the following from a daily paper may be used in comparison : — "The Japanese show their appreciation of an actor's playing in a more substantial manner than by freely applauding. They throw various portions of their dress on the stage, and at the end of their performance the favoured person claims the money that the donors repurchase them with, the prices for the various articles being at fixed rates." Concord, Mass.