Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 7 1889.djvu/406

318 Selling a Wife for One Shilling.—A curious instance of barbarism comes from Hucknall Torkard, a village near Sheffield. It is stated that a day or so ago a leading member of the Salvation Army there disposed of his wife for the small sum of one shilling. A friend of his had evinced an affection for the woman, and the husband expressed his willingness to part with her for a slight consideration. The sum of one shilling was offered and accepted, and the husband subsequently put a halter round his wife's neck, and led her to the house of the purchaser.—Yorkshire Gazette, 11th May, 1889.

A Custom of Eastertide.—On Monday, at the Gateshead Police Court, James Mordue, a young man, was charged with assaulting Sarah Brown, a married woman, near Wrekenton, on Easter Monday. Mr. Percy Hoyle prosecuted. Complainant stated that on the day named the defendant, after getting sixpence from another woman, came to her and asked for sixpence, and said, if she did not give him it, he would take her boots off. She refused, and defendant pushed her. Ultimately she gave him threepence to get clear of him. Defendant said he asked the woman for an egg. She told him she had no egg, but she would give threepence, and did so. Evidence was given, in the course of which it transpired that, in that part of the district, when a female would not give an egg as an Easter gift her boots were taken off until she paid a penalty. When a male refused to give an egg to a female, the latter, if she could, snatched away his cap, and would not restore it unless he paid a money forfeit. One witness said many a time he had paid a shilling for his cap back. The Mayor said they would inflict a fine of 2s. 6d. and costs. Under ordinary circumstances, the Bench might have been inclined to have gone a long way further, but they knew there was an old custom. When he was a lad, on the Good Friday, the men did a little extorting, and when they could not get money from the women they took their shoes off them.—Newcastle Chronicle, May 4, 1889.

Chinese Zoological Myths.—A Chinese native paper published recently a collection of some zoological myths of that country, a few of which are worth noting. In Shan-si there is a bird which can