Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/164



The Rejuvenating Elixir.—Can any of your correspondents give me some information respecting the, probably French, source of the following fairy tale? A lady possessed an elixir, a few drops of which were sufficient to rejuvenate a person. Her maid found the potion and drank the whole of it; the consequence being that she became a little child, she having taken an over-dose. Where has this story first been told.

Magpies as a Cure for Epilepsy.—The following singular advertisement appears in the Deutsch-Kroner Zeitung of December 11th, 1883:—"Magpies shot between December 24th and January 6th are used as a remedy against epilepsy. The undersigned, with whom this medicine is prepared, will be greatly obliged to every one who will send him as many magpies as possible, provided they have been shot, and not killed by persons or caught in traps.—Castle Tutz, December 5th, 1883. (Signed) Theodore Count Stolberg."

Bible and Key.—At the Thames Police Court, a woman named Lyons was charged with violently assaulting a woman named O'Brien, by striking her over the head with some heavy instrument, tearing out some of her hair, and knocking her down. The prisoner admitted the assault. The dispute, she explained, arose out of the loss of her shawl, which had disappeared in a mysterious way. She felt certain that it had been stolen, and she therefore made up her mind to find out the thief by means of the "Bible and key," a test which never failed. She accordingly invited several friends to her room. She got a key and a Bible, and, laying the Bible upon the table, she took the key, and, after tying a piece of string to it, placed it inside the Bible with the wards flat upon the leaves. She then closed the book, and, sitting so that those in the room could see her, she took in her