Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/357

Rh northern hemisphere, on the festival of the summer solstice; old as the Israelitish Prophet who saw the children passed through the fire to Moloch. I observed the same thing forty-three years ago in the market-place at Killarney. Thousands of years it has survived down to these late times of ours, in which, like much besides, it will now end, dissolved in the revolutionary acids of scientific civilisation."—J. A. Froude, "Norway Once More," Longman's Magazine, No. xxiv. Oct. 1884, p. 592.

Welsh Folk-lore Items.—At the Archæological Association Congress at Tenby some interesting notes were given. The party having halted at Gumfreyston church it was noted that on the hillside, below the church, there is one of the holy wells which are not infrequent in Wales. Some curious old customs connected with the parish were given in a paper prepared by Miss Bevan, from which it appears that within the last fifty years on Easter Day the villagers used to repair to a well called "the Pinwell," and throw a crooked pin into the water. This was called "throwing Lent away." The field in which this well is situate is called "Verwel," perhaps from verwelen, Flem., to vault; and it therefore seems probable that it was once covered by one of the barrel-vaulted roofs so common in Pembrokeshire. On Lammas Sunday little houses, called "Lammas Houses," were set up on "corse." They were made of sods, reeds, and sticks, and a fire was lighted inside them, and apples roasted, people paying a penny to go in and have a roasted apple. At the bottom of the street, near the brook, is a large upstanding stone with a small round hole in the top, and there is a saying that until you have put your finger in this hole you cannot say you have been in St. Florence church.

Witchcraft in Dorsetshire.—On Thursday the Sherborne magistrates heard the charge against Tamar Humphries, a married woman, for assaulting an old woman named Sarah Smith, on the 19th September. Complainant said she lived in Cold Harbour, was 83 years of age, and lived next door to the defendant. On the 19th she was digging potatoes in her garden when the defendant came to her, put her hands on her shoulders, and said, "Oh, you Sal Smith, what's thee done to my daughter? I'll draw the blood of thee," and further