Notes and Queries, Number 173, February 19, 1853: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.Various
History
Notes and Queries, Number 173, February 19, 1853: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
Various
Questions and answers -- Periodicals
"CHARLES JACKSON.
LANCELOT COATES.
WILL. COUP.
FRANCIS BRUNT.
WILL...LLOW [obliterated].
JOHN HOYLAND.
THO. SHAW.
HEN. CLARK.
WILL. FARNWORTH.
CHRYSTOPHER CLARK.
WILL. SAUNDER.
GEORGE FLINT.
DAUID TAYLOR.
CHARLES SHEPHEARD.
ES. BRETTUN."
T. S.
Leeds.
* * * * *
FOLK LORE.
_Lancashire Fairy Tale._--The nursery rhymes in one of your late Numbers
remind me of a story I used to be told in the nursery. It was, that two men
went poaching, and having placed nets, or rather sacks, over what they
supposed to be rabbit-holes, but which were in reality fairies' houses, the
fairies rushed into the sacks, and the poachers, content with their prey,
marched home again. A fairy missing another in the sack, called out (the
story was told in broad Lancashire dialect) "Dick (dignified name for a
fairy), where art thou?" To which fairy Dick replied,
"In a sack,
On a back,
Riding up Barley Brow."
The story has a good moral ending, for the poachers were so frightened that
they never poached again.
T. G. C.
_Teeth, Superstition respecting_ (Vol. vi., p. 601.).--A similar (perhaps
the same) piece of childish superstition respecting the teeth is, that when
the upper incisors are large, it is a sign that you will live to be rich.
FURVUS.
_New Moon Divination._--Being lately on a visit in Yorkshire, I was amused
one evening to find the servants of the house excusing themselves for being
out of the way when the bell rang, on the plea that they had been "hailing
the first new moon of the new year." This mysterious salutation was
effected, I believe, by means of a looking-glass, in which the first sight
of the moon was to be had, and the object to be gained was the important
secret as to how many years would elapse before the marriage of the
observers. If one moon was seen in the glass, one year; if two, two years;
and so on. In the case in question, the maid and the boy saw only one moon
a-piece. Whether the superstition would, in this instance, be suggestive to
their minds of anything to be deduced from the coincidence, I do not know;
but as they were both very old-fashioned folks, I suppose the custom may
not be unknown to those learned in Folk Lore.
What is the orthodox mode of conducting this kind of divination?
OXONIENSIS.
_The Hyena an Ingredient in Love Potions._--In Busbequius's _Letters_
(Elzevir, 1633) I note that the Turks consider the hyena useful in love
potions. I extract the passage:
"In amatoriis ei vim magnam Turcæ, ut etiam veteres, tribuunt, cumque
essent duæ eo tempore Constantinopoli, mihi tamen vendere gravabantur,
quod se Sultanæ, hoc est, principis uxori, eas reservare dicerent,
quippe quas philtris et magicis artibus animum mariti retinere, recepta
in vulgus (ut dixi) opinio est."--P. 84.
Allow me to add a Query: What ancient authors allude to this old specimen
of Folk Lore?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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