Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 5 1887.djvu/364

356 Professor Tylor writes to us as follows:—You will have had my telegram that there was no paper. All I did was on the spur of the moment to exhibit the rope and feathers, and give the details about it which are already in the Folk-Lore Journal. You will have seen by the Guardian and other papers that two present claimed the object as a "sewel" or scare carried to turn back deer in the forests or parks. I said I knew that strings and feathers were used for scaring game, but did not take them to be the same as the rope and feathers, but I had not heard of the hand-ropes used for deer-scaring, and must get a specimen to see. After this came the correspondence in the Guardian. I don't see the use of my saying more, until I can see the sewels from Hampton Court or elsewhere. My Guardian letter puts the case fairly, but now I remember I brought out a piece of evidence at Manchester which is not in the Folk-Lore Journal. It is that an acquaintance of mine, quite a discreet man, made inquiry of an old woman in Devonshire who is considered to know aboht such things. She said " Was it a new rope with stag's feathers?" He replied that it was, and she said "Then it must be a wishing rope." This is all I can tell you up to date.

N.B.— A stag is a cock-bird, as a gander or cock of poultry.

NOTICES AND NEWS.

Spanish and Italian Folk-Songs. Translated by Alma Strettell. London, Macmillan and Co. 1887.

This is, on the whole, a charming book and does Miss Strettell infinite credit. Her metrical renderings of the short fantastic scraps of Spanish gipsy verse, which occupy nearly one-half of the volume,—veritable white-hot sparks of lyrical passion, beaten out from the