Page:Notes on the folk-lore of the northern counties of England and the borders.djvu/335

 Rh bidding, and that he sees within its mouth the impress of the tribute-money, and on its sides the marks of the Apostle’s thumb and finger. I learn from Professor Marecco that on the inside of the foreleg of the pig six small rings are to be found apparently burned in, and that these are said to be the marks of the Devil’s fingers, made when he entered the herd of swine. The Professor confesses himself unable to assign the exact locality of this belief, but the following verse respecting the flounder and other fish comes from the county of Durham:

Let me conclude this chapter with an incident related to me by the late Canon Humble, and which is remarkable as evincing in North Britain a tone of mind rather medieval than modern. When the Rev. G. J. first went to officiate in the remote seaside village of M———, where almost all his congregation were fisherfolk, he was far from popular among them. However, it happened that he was invited to go out to sea for a night during the fishing season. He went, and on the return home in the morning the number of fishes in that boat was found to be one hundred and fifty-three, the same as at the miraculous draught of fishes recorded in St. John xxi. 2. From that hour the people’s feeling towards their pastor changed. They one and all bowed to the will of Heaven thus made known in his favour, and acknowledged him to be a true fisherman in the bark of St. Peter.