Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 1 1883.djvu/373

Rh can wonder at the primitive population having personified the storm and the ocean into a semi-malevolent deity—terrible but capricious and capable of propitiation.

Cornish Michaelmas Legend.—There is a Cornish legend still extant that the devil on Michaelmas Eve touches a blackberry which then becomes poisonous. It is unsafe after Michaelmas day to eat blackberries in case of meeting the poisoned one.

Skimmington Riding (ante, p. 330).—In a paper on "North Devon Customs and Superstitions" (Trans. Devon. Ass. vol. ii. pp. 38-42) is an account of a Skimmington riding, in which the procession consists of two stuffed figures of a man and woman on horseback, back to back, preceded by a man carrying a pair of ram's horns on a pole or on his head, followed by noisy music of ladles, pots, frying-pans, &c. and smacking of whips. After the procession the horns are nailed up sometimes to the church porch. The rustics have a tradition that by using this ceremony they can legally establish a cattle fair. Is there any other instance known of this tradition beside the Charlton horn fair in Kent, which is said to be somewhat similar? A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine (1754, pp. 16-17) says that he has "been much offended at the amazing quantity of horns always to be seen at Highgate, some fixt on long poles, some on walking-staves, and some in the Inn rooms neatly gilt and decorated." Is this likely to refer to a procession similar to the Skimmington, or was there any cattle-fair in the neighbourhood at which they might be used in the opening ceremony?

This work, just issued by "Universitets-Jubilæets danske Samfund," is a valuable contribution to the study of folk-medicine. It consists of prescriptions for the cure of various diseases. Along with these are