Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 2 1884.djvu/358

350 said she would do this because "she should not bewitch her daughter." Defendant then repeatedly stabbed her with a stocking-needle about her arms and hands and made them bleed.—Bristol Mercury, 4 Oct. 1884.

The Divining Rod.—The Paris correspondent of The Times mentions the death of a Mdme. Cailhava. She may be remembered in connection with a search for hidden treasure in the cathedral of St. Denis, commenced by her with a divining rod, at first authorised, then owing to public remonstrance and ridicule, forbidden. Mdme. Cailhava has just died, in very straitened circumstances, but a believer to the last in the virtues of the divining rod.

Dream Superstition in Staffordshire.—A singular case of superstition came under the notice of the Walsall borough coroner on Thursday, whilst holding an inquest on the body of a little girl named Brown, who was found drowned in the canal near Piatt's Bridge, on Wednesday. The child's mother said she had kept her little girl at home because she had "a dread" upon her in consequence of having three nights in succession dreamed of baking bread. She had lost other children, and on each occasion had similar dreams before the child died. Owing to her dream she had kept the girl away from school, and had refused to allow her to leave the house.—Shrewsbury Chronicle, 6 Sept. 1884.

Burial Superstition.—Great excitement has been caused by the mysterious disappearance from Kilmally burial-ground, near Ennis, of the coffins containing the remains of Mr. Marcus Deane, J.P., and Miss Barnes, an English governess in Mr. Deane's family. The general opinion is that the remains have been carried away and buried in some other spot to prevent their removal out of the parish to the new cemetery, which, according to a superstition, would entail famine and pestilence on the parishioners.—Shrewsbury Chronicle, 8 Oct. 1884.

Sailors' Superstitions in Shetland.—The following passages from a letter dated from Vaila, Shetland, October 12, 1884, and communicated by Mr. J. Sands to the Glasgow Herald of 20th October last, are worth quoting:—"In a sequestered island like Foula, situated in the midst of the open ocean, at a distance of fifteen miles from the nearest land, and that land of a wild and desolate appearance,