Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 5 1887.djvu/360

352 reprint, but it will be well to put their existence on record. If they be reproduced, the French original, which I have not at hand, should be used. .

An Agricultural Folk-tale.—The following is from the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. xl. p. 19: it is a popular tradition of the Bábar tribe. "Once on a time they entered into an agricultural partnership with the devil, and gave him his choice of the roots or stalks of the harvest. The devil chose the stalks, upon which the Bábars sowed nothing but onions, carrots, and turnips. The devil, very naturally annoyed, insisted next harvest on getting the roots, so the Bábars grew wheat and sugar." This story is also commonly related in Saxony and Silesia. The peasants made the same contract with Rübezahl the spirit of the Sudetic Range. In fact he got his name from the contract, for Rübezahl means "turnip counter." He came to count his turnips and found that the peasants had sown rye.

Iron Smelting Superstition.—"The union of a man and a woman is always considered absolutely necessary for the operation, the general belief being that the iron ore would not melt unless the fire beneath be blown with a pair of bellows, worked by a man with his younger brother's wife passing her arms round his waist from behind." Banka in Bhágalpúr, India. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. xl., p. 29.

The Folk-Lore of Ceylon Birds.—A correspondent of the Ceylon Observer of Colombo, referring to the interest excited by Mr. Swainson's work on The Folk-Lore and Provincial Names of British Birds, notes some points in the folk-lore of the birds of Ceylon, mostly obtained from natives. The devil-bird (Syrnium indrani) stands facile princeps for his evil reputation; his cry heard in the neighbourhood of villages is a sure harbinger of death, and the superstitious natives are thrown into great consternation by its demoniac screech. The legend about the bird is as follows:—A jealous and morose husband doubting the fidelity of his wife killed her infant son during her absence, and had it cooked, and on her return set it before her. She