EDITOR’S NOTE.--“MAL DE POULE.”--In St. Martin’s parish lived an old woman who had an infallible cure for sick headaches. The patient was put to bed, and a live chicken, with its beak stuffed with parsley, enveloped in a cloth, was tied on his head. She then muttered a prayer over it, and tied it again, still more firmly, round the patient’s forehead. As the chicken died the headache ceased.--_From Miss Thoume._ KING’S EVIL. That the belief in touching for King’s Evil prevailed in the island is evident from the following extracts. “Extraits des Comptes des Diacres de l’Eglise de la Ville, contenus dans un Livre en la possession du Procureur des Pauvres de cette paroisse, endossé ‘Aux Pauvres de la Ville.’” “Le Vendredy, 24 Aout, 1677, l’on a trouvé dans le tronq la somme de deux cents vingt livres tournois en or, argent, sols marquez, et doubles. Item, vingt et quatre livres tournois, qui ont été données à la veuve de Nicolas Corbel pour son enfant, qui est incomodé des ecrouëlles, et qui s’en va à Londres pour estre touché de sa Ma^{té}.” “Le 26 Aout, 1678, a été tiré hors du tronq la so͠e de trente livres tournois, qui ont été delivrés à Caterine de Garis, fem͠e de Jean Hairon, pour aller en Angleterre y faire toucher par Sa Majesté une fillette qui est affligée des ecrouëlles. La d_{te} so͠e luy ayant été alloüée par consentement des officiers de l’Eglise.” “Le 26^{me} de Mars, 1688, par ordre de Messrs. les Collecteurs des Pauvres de la Ville, j’ay balay a Anne, fem͠e de Pierre De Lahee, 12 livres tournois pour luy aider à aller faire toucher son enfant du Mal du Roy, et est des deniers des Pauvres.” CHAPTER XIII. Story Telling. “In winter tedious nights sit by the fire, With good old folks, and let them tell thee tales.” --_King Richard II._ When, in former days, neighbours were in the habit of meeting together on such occasions as “_la grande querrue_,” “_la longue veille_,” or the more ordinary “_veillées_,”--at which the women of the neighbourhood, young and old, used to assemble in turn at each other’s houses, and ply their knitting needles by the light of a single lamp and the warmth of a single hearth, thereby economising oil and fuel,--it was customary to break the monotony of the conversation by calling on each of the company in turn to relate some tale or anecdote. Most of these are simple enough, but in the mouth of a skillful story-teller are still capable of exciting a laugh among the unsophisticated audiences to whom they are addressed. A favourite class of stories were those in which the inhabitants of the sister islands of Jersey, Alderney, and Sark, were held up to ridicule, and the following tales, trifling and absurd as they are, may suffice to give some idea of this sort of narrative. HOW THE MEN OF ALDERNEY SOWED, AND WHAT CAME OF IT.