Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/160

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. i. FEB. 19, me

FOLK-LOBE AT SEA (12 S. i. 66). It would not be courteous to disregard Y. T.'s appeal, though, much to my regret, I am unable to give any certain clue to the mysteries which he desires to penetrate. I am a 'prentice, .and can only guess out of my crudeness. A master of folk-lore conjectures with circum- stance, and supports his surmises by ap- parent testimony from far-off centuries, from divers peoples, from east, west, north, and south. All that gives confidence to his readers ; and yet there is no manner of certainty.

I think it would be a thing to wonder at if the seas and all that in them is " the tinnimies " which the inland old woman wished to see had not evoked superstitions, .and if those who braved the waves for liveli- hood had not had rules of etiquette which might give none occasion to the powers, chiefly malign, who were masters of their fate. Ashore they would be careful to observe all signs vouchsafed to betoken coming ill-luck. An inverted loaf of bread, an overturned bowl how could anything or anybody foreshow more plainly an upset boat ? If a hare, wherein a witch was so often incorporate a pig, reminiscent of the bevy which had perished in the Galilean Sea crossed their path as they went to embark, what wonder the fishermen drew back at the warning ? The parson was, perhaps, a man like unto Jonah, who was better overboard ; and the woman might have an evil eye, if she were not actuallv a witch. It is always well to be on the safe side.

Rabbits, which are of the same family as hares, must suffer the penalty of the rela- tionship. Indeed, their burrowing habits justify those who regard them with sus- picion. It is curious to find that Mr. Thorold Rogers thought rabbits were but recently introduced in the thirteenth century, in the latter half of which one of them would sell for one-third of the price of a wether (' Six Centuries of Work and Wages,' p. 84). This makes it possible that Brother Rabbit is not at home in the earliest folk-lore of these isles. At present, however, he is a subject tabooed aboard ship, as Y. T.'s example shows.

Fife fishermen, it is noted in ' County Folk-Lore,' vol. vii. pp. 124, 125 (F. L. S.), * " won't speak about pigs, and if any one was to mention pork on board it would be sure to bring on a storm. Rabbits are the same. I have heard them tell of a boat's crew Who landed on the Hay, killed some rabbits, and started for home, but were lost on the voyage. It was the Babbits.,'

It is plain that it does not do to injure the bodies in which strange spiritual powers take up their abode, and that it is dangerous to speak of them lest words should offend. There may be telepathic communication of which we are little aware ; but, at any rate, we know that if we talk of the devil we may expect to see him.

It is not unlikely that fishermen object to speak of the giving out of anything whatso- ever. In Shetland formerly " they never mentioned the end of anything. To be lost was expressed as having ' gone to itself,' broken, ' made up ' ; and the end was called the damp." Spence's ' Shetland Folk- Lore,' p. 120.

The men had a vocabulary of Norse words which they used to indicate things and conditions relating to their occupation, and applied to sundry needs of life ashore. Mr. Spence gives interesting lists of these terms.

Possibly some spirit of tree-worship dimly survives in the dislike to stick a knife into wood or to look through a ladder, but I seem to have met with a better explanation of the last scruple than any I am now able to offer. ST. SWITHIN.

PETER JOYE (12 S. i. 110). Information was desired about Peter Jove's son James.

Thomas Hearne spent Sunday evening, Aug. 18, 1723, with Mr. Thomas Serjeant arid Mr. Charles and Mr. James Joye. He notes that " the two Joyes are Brothers, and very lich." Another mention of James Joye, under Aug. 21 of the same year, and two short letters from him to Hearne, and a reply of Hearne's, show that James was a book- collector and a subscriber to Hearne's publications. See the Oxford Hist. Soc. edition of Hearne's ' Remarks and Collections,' vol. viii. pp. 79, 108, 317, 318.

This is merely given at a venture, as G. F. R. B. does not date his Peter Joye. EDWARD BENSLY.

THE SHADES, LONDON BRIDGE (12 S. i. 110). Although he does not refer to it, MR. REGINALD JACOBS is, I am confident, familiar with the description of these in- teresting vaults in Herbert's ' History of St. Michael's, Crooked Lane,' part ii. p. 106. Richard Thomson no doubt again mentioned the Shades in ' Tales of an Antiquary,' first series, 1827, second series, 1839 ; and some useful references would occur in the records of the Fishmongers' Company.

In 1827, when Thomson's "' Chronicles of London Bridge ' were published, the premises were occupied by Wooding & Son.

ALECK ABRAHAMS.