Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/647

 Notes and Queries. 299

32. Spots on the back of the fireplace in winter mean mild weather.

New Harbor and Carbonear, X. F.

33. Ground swell, heaving in, is a sign of mild weather (in winter).

Newfoundland.

34. If the land is low, it is a sign that wind will be on it.

New Harbor and Carbonear, N. F.

35. The sea " burning" is a sign of a northwest wind.

Heart's Content, N. F.

36. A tide unusually low means south wind, a high tide north wind.

New Harbor and Labrador, N. F.

37. Mountain Indians point toward a high hill called Great Knife to cause wind.

Labrador. A. F. Waghorne.

The Game of the Child-Stealing Witch. — In " Folk-Lore," vol. x. 1900, M. Gaster has discussed the history of a Roumanian charm against the child-stealing witch. With great learning and acuteness, he traces the career of this particular piece of superstition for two thousand years. The charm, directed against the cataract, is cast into the form of an incident. The sufferer is said to meet certain evil spirits, known as the " Windmaids and the Beautiful," who blacken his countenance and blind him. The Holy Virgin meets certain sisters whom she bids clear away the mist from the eyes of the afflicted person. In another variant the pernicious spirit goes to Bethlehem in order to steal the child of the Virgin Mar}', but is repulsed by the archangel Michael. She confesses her various names, which constitute a protective charm. Mr. Gaster shows that the basis is identical with that of a love-charm contained in a MS. of the sixteenth century, connected with the name of Sisoe. This saint has a sister, Mele- tia, whose four children the Devil has swallowed. The sister hides herself with her fifth child ; but when Sisoe begs that the door shall be opened to him, the Devil enters the house in the shape of a millet-grain, and carries off the last child. The saint pursues, and by the advice of friendly trees discovers the route taken by the Devil, who is drawn out of the sea with a hook, and forced to vomit up the children. In Greek texts published by Leo Allatius is found the story as that of Sysynnius and Gylo, who cha into a fish ; and this Gylo is the Gello of classic antiquity, a child-stealing demon. In Hebrew folk-lore the counterpart of Gello is Lilith, who is re- presented as living in the waters, and as a stealer of little children ; against her exist early charms which are in origin identical with the one still ex- tant. That the names of the demon, in the modern charm, are used as prophylactic against her, is only a corruption of the more ancient form, in which the names of guardian angels served this purpose. Mr. Gaster justly observes that he has followed this charm from the heights of the Carpa- thian mountains through Roumania, the plains of the Balkans to old Byzan- tium, through Palestine, and as far as the valley of the Nile. Probably

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