Au soir, m'allant coucher, je trouvis trois anges a mon lit couches, un aux pieds, deux au chevet, la bonne Vierge Marie du milieu, qui me dit que je me couchis, que rien ne doutis. Le bon Dieu est mon Pere, la bonne Vierge est ma mere, les trois vierges sont mes s[oe]urs. La chemise ou Dieu fut ne, mon corps en est enveloppe; la croix Sainte Marguerite a ma poitrine est ecrite; madame d'en va sur les champs a Dieu pleurant, rencontrit Monsieur Saint Jean. Monsieur Saint Jean, d'ou venez vous? Je viens d' _Ave Salus_. Vous n'avez pas vu le bon Dieu; si est, il est dans l'arbre de la croix, les pieds pendans, les mains clouans, un petit chapeau d'epine blanche sur la tete. Qui la dira trois fois au soir, trois fois au matin, gagnera le Paradis a la fin. Curious as are the above citations, they only go a little way towards filling up the blanks in the history of this waif from the fabric of early Christian popular lore. A search of some years has yielded evidence that the White Paternoster is still a part of the living traditional matter of at least five European countries. Most persons are familiar with the English version which runs thus: Four corners to my bed, Four angels round my head, One to watch, one to pray, And two to bear my soul away. A second English variant was set on record by Aubrey, and may also be read in Ady's "Candle in the Dark" (1655): Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Bless the bed that I lye on; And blessed guardian angel keep Me safe from danger while I sleep. Halliwell suggests that the two last lines were imitated from the following in Bishop Ken's Evening Hymn: Let my blest guardian, while I sleep, His watchful station near me keep. But if there was any imitation in the case, it was the bishop who copied from the folk-rhymer, not the folk-rhymer from the bishop. The thought of the coming of death in sleep, is expressed in a prayer that may be sometimes seen inscribed at the head and foot of the bed in Norwegian homesteads: HEAD. Here is my bed and sleeping place; God, let me sleep in peace And blithe open my eyes And go to work. FOOT. Go into thy bed, take thee a slumber, Reflect now on the last hour; Reflect now, That thou mayest take thy last slumber. Analogous in spirit is a quatrain that has been known to me since childhood, but which I do not remember to have seen in print: I lay me down to rest me, And pray the Lord to bless me. If I should sleep no more to wake I pray the Lord my soul to take. The _Petite Patenotre Blanche_ lingers in France in a variety of shapes. One version was written down as late as 1872 from the mouth of an old woman named Catherine Bastien, an inhabitant of the department of the Loire. It was afterwards communicated to _Melusine_.