Truly Mr. Bolton spoke well when he said that such reflection clothes these doggerels with a new and fascinating interest. Now and then some little thing awakens us to the days of old, the rosy, early morning of mankind, when the stars of magic were still twinkling in the sky, and the dreamer, hardly awake, still thought himself communing with God. So I was struck the other day when a gypsy, a deep and firm believer in the power of the amulet, and who had long sought, yet never found, his ideal, was deeply moved when I showed him the shell on which Nav, or the Name, was mystically inscribed by Nature. Through the occult and broken traditions of his tribe there had come to him also, perhaps from Indian or Chaldæan sources, some knowledge of the ancient faith in its power. I think that I can add to the instance of a child's counting-out game based on a magic spell, yet another. Everybody knows the song of John Brown who had "Ten little, nine little, eight little, seven little, Six little Indian boys; Five little, four little, three little, two little, One little Indian boy, [22] And of the fate which overtook them all, one by one, inevitable as the decrees of Nemesis. This song is in action a game. I have heard it in Romany from a gypsy, and have received from a gypsy scholar another version of it, though I am sure that both were versions from the English. But in Romany, as in all languages, there have existed what may be called additional and subtractive magic songs, based on some primæval Pythagorean principle of the virtues of numbers, and, as regards form, quite like that of the ten little Indians. In the charms of Marcellus Burdigalensis (third century), it appears as a cure for pains or disorders in the jaws (remedium valde certum et utile faucium doloribus), in the Song of the Seven Acorn Sisters, which the Latin-Gaul doctor describes as carmen mirum, in which opinion the lover of Folk-lore will heartily concur. "Carmen mirum ad Glandulas. "Glandulas mane carminabis, si dies minuetur, si nox ad vesperam, et digito medicinali ac pollice continens eas dices:-- "Novem glandulæ sorores, Octo glandulæ sorores, Septem glandulæ sorores, Sex glandulæ sorores, Quinque glandulæ sorores, Quatuor glandulæ sorores, Tres glandulæ sorores, Duæ glandulæ sorores, Una glandula soror! Novem fiunt glandulæ, Octo fiunt glandulæ, Septem fiunt glandulæ, Sex fiunt glandulæ, Quinque fiunt glandulæ, Quattuor fiunt glandulæ, Tres fiunt glandulæ, Duæ fiunt glandulæ, Una fit glandula, Nulla fit glandula!" (I.e., "Nine little acorn sisters (or girls), Eight little acorn sisters," &c.) This is simply the same count, forwards and backwards. It rises before us as we read--a chorus of rosy little Auluses and Marcellas, Clodias, and Manliuses, screaming in chorus:--