Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/263

Rh ignorant and superstitious writers, which have no foundation in nature, philosophy, or reason.—Hearne in Leland's Itinerary, ii. 93.

Witchcraft in France.—A woman of Thueyts, in the Ardèche, had taken in a child to wet nurse, when her milk suddenly failed her. She imagined that she had been bewitched by an old woman of eighty in the neighbourhood, and had her brought to the house by her husband. The man suspended the unfortunate creature by the pot-hook in the chimney, and roasted her feet, and as this treatment did not produce a fresh flow of milk for the child, the peasant and his wife put the old woman's feet into an iron pot filled with water which was made to boil—Sheffield Telegraph, July 10th, 1884.

There can be no question but that this collection of Folk-tales is a welcome and valuable volume, and the publishers are to be praised for the agreeable form in which this translation is presented. Mr. Johnson's preface, though travelling over ground well known to members of this Society, has something of value to say as to the origin of märchen, or folk-tales, and his brief summary of objections to the "sun and dawn" theory is admirable. The notes, too, at the end of the volume, though of course they could be easily amplified, are good and thoroughly to the point. The stories are variants of old favourites, but variants which we are glad to get because they contain their own local colouring which must lend its aid towards the elucidation of the history of folk-tales. The story list is as follows: Hondiddledo and his fiddle—Winterkolble—Kruzimügeli—The blackbird—The seven ravens—The dog and the yellowhammer—The three wondrous fishes—The marvellous white horse—The dog and the wolf—The nine birds—The wishing rag, the golden goat, and the hat soldiers—Martin's Eve—The little tailor—The tailor and the hunter—The