Another ancient retells the story somewhat different to both the Greek and Roman historians. Thus runs the Indian version. Bear in mind, however, before reading it, that, like the Second Stone Age people, it was the habit of many races in India to cremate their dead:-- "A high funeral pyre is erected of dry wood, on which the body of the dead is laid, and in course of time after igniting the faggots the corpse is consumed. While this cineration is going on vultures and carrion fowl not infrequently pounce down upon the body, and tear away pieces of flesh from the ghastly, smoking corpse. These charred parts of the body they carry away to their nests to feast upon at leisure. But oftentimes dire results follow; the home of sun-dried sticks and litter ignites, and the bird is seen by some of the superstitious peasantry to rise up out of fire and smoke and disappear." Then the Phœnix fable comes to mind, "It is the sun-god; he has thrown fire and consumed the nest, and the old bird," and they hastily conclude that the bird they just now beheld flying away is a new one, and has, in fact, arisen out of the ashes they witnessed falling from the branches of the tall tree. The Phœnix in truth! The German child's rhyme, given by Grimm brothers, of "Ladybird! ladybird! fly away home," is not out of place here. It evidences a state of mythologic thought. "Ladybird! ladybird! pretty one, stay! Come, sit on my finger, so happy and gay. Ladybird! ladybird! fly away home, Thy house is a-fire, thy children will roam. Then ladybird! ladybird! fly away home. Hark! hark! to thy children bewailing." Yearly, as these harvest bugs, with their crimson or golden-coloured shields, appear in our country lanes, the village youngsters delight in capturing them, and play a game similar to the German child's. They sing-- "Ladybird! ladybird! fly away home, Your house is on fire, your children will roam, Excepting the youngest, and her name is Ann, And she has crept under the dripping-pan." FOOTNOTES: [H] "εἱς ὁ πατήρ, παῖδες δὲ δυώδεκα· τῶν δέ γ' ἑκάστῳ παῖδες ἔασι τριήκοντ' ἄνδιχα εἶδος ἔχουσαι· Ἡι μὲν λευκαὶ ἔασιν ἰδειν· ἧ δ' αὖτε μέλαιναι Ἀθάνατοι δέ τ' ἐοῦσαι αποφθίνουσιν ἅπασαι." CHAPTER IX. NURSERY CHARMS. To charm away the hiccup one must repeat these four lines thrice in one breath, and a cure will be certain-- "When a twister twisting twists him a twist, For twisting a twist three twists he must twist; But if one of the twists untwists from the twist, The twist untwisting untwists all the twist." AN ESSEX CHARM FOR A CHURN, 1650 A.D. "Come, butter, come; come, butter, come, Peter stands at the gate Waiting for his buttered cake; Come, butter, come." * * * * * The late Sir Humphry Davy is said to have learnt this cure for cramp when a boy--