joint,[1]

Bone to bone,

And sinew to sinew,

Heal in the Holy Ghost's name!!!"

[1] This charm is remarkable for its resemblance to an early German one found by Grimm in a MS. of the tenth century, originally published by him in 1842, and to be found, with references to Norwegian, Swedish, Flemish, and this Scottish version, in the second edition of his Deutsche Mythologie, s. 1181-2.—ED.

Ringworm.

—The person affected with ringworm takes a little ashes between the forefinger and thumb, three successive mornings, and before taking any food, and holding the ashes to the part affected, says—

Burn.

—To cure a burn, the following words are used:—

The operator, after having repeated the above, blows his breath three times upon the burnt place.

Elfshot.

—A notion is prevalent, that when a cow is suddenly taken ill, she is elfshot; that is, that a kind of spirits called "trows," different in their nature from fairies, have discharged a stone arrow at her, and wounded her with it. Though no wound can be seen externally, there are different persons, both male and female, who pretend to feel it in the flesh, and to cure it by repeating certain words over the cow. They also fold a sewing needle in a leaf taken from a particular part of a psalm book, and sew it in the hair of the cow; which is considered not only as an infallible cure, but which also serves as a charm against future attacks. This is nearly allied to a practice which was at one time very prevalent, and of which some traces may perhaps still exist, in what would be considered a more civilised part of the country, of wearing a small piece of the branch of the rowan tree, wrapped round with red thread, and sewn into some part of the garments, to guard against the effects of an "evil eye," or witchcraft:

In the neighbourhood of Peterhead, there lived, a few years ago, a famous exorcist, whose ancestors had for several generations practised the same profession. He was greatly resorted to by parties in the Buchan district, for curing elfshot cattle, cows whose milk had been surreptitiously taken away, to recover stolen property and find out thieves, and put a stop to "cloddings." This latter description of diablerie, is just a repetition of the Cock Lane ghost's tricks, and occasionally yet occurs. On one occasion the exorcist was bearded in his own den: for about twenty-five years ago a terrible "clodding" took place at a farm-house in the parish of Longside, a mile or two from his own; it defied the united efforts of priest and layman to lay it, and the operator was called in, and while in the middle of one of his most powerful exorcisms, was struck on the side of his head with a piece of peat. The annoyance continued a few weeks, and then ceased altogether. In the parish of Banchory Ternan, about seven years ago, a "clodding" took place, which created considerable sensation in the district.

DUNROSSNESS.

Minor Notes.

Names of Places in Normandy and Orkney.

—In reading Depping's History of the Norman Maritime Expeditions, my attention was directed to Appendix IX. vol. ii. p. 339., "Des Noms Topographiques de Normandie dont l'origine est étrangère." Many of the names given there resemble those in Orkney. I note a few of them.

Depedal. Deepdale, a secluded valley near Kirkwall; Dalv, Icelandic, a valley.

Auppegard, Eppegard in Normandy; Kongsgarth, Herdmansgarth in Orkney; Icelandic Gardr, a field, an enclosure.

Cape La Hogue, derived by M. Depping from hougr, a promontory; Hoxay in Orkney, hougs and ay, an island. Haugs-eid, isthmus of the hillock, is another derivation.

Cherbourg, Dep. p. 331.; Suhm, in a note appended, finds the root in his tongue, skiair, skeer; Icelandic Sker, a sea-rock, the Orkney Skerry, an islet covered at high water.

Houlmes, near Rouen; the Orkney Holm, a small island generally uninhabited.

Yvetot; Toft common in Orkney.

Bye, a dwelling, is the Orkney Bu or Boo, a pure Icelandic word.

Other instances could be given; and there is nothing remarkable in this when it is considered that the invaders of Orkney and Normandy were the same people at the same period, and the better preservation of the Norse tongue in Orkney is readily to be accounted for. In Normandy the language of the invaders was lost in the French in a very short space of time, while the Norse continued the language of Orkney and Zetland during their subjection to the Norwegian earls for a period of 600 years; and only last year, 1850, it was that an old man in Unst in Zetland, who could speak Norse, died at the age of eighty-seven years; and except there be in Foula (Fougla, the fowls' island, called Thule in the Latin charters of its proprietors) a person living who can speak it, that old tongue is extinct in Britain.

W.H.F.

Queries.

Minor Queries.

357. Meaning of Ploydes.

—Perhaps the gentleman who has directed his attention to the folk lore of Lancashire (Vol. iii., p. 55.) can tell the meaning of the word ploydes in the following rhythmical proverb. The three parishes of Prescot, Huyton, and Childwall adjoin each other, and lie to the east of Liverpool:—

ST. JOHNS.

358. Green-eyed Monster.

—Whence the origin of the "Green-eyed Monster"? The Italians considered a green iris beautiful, thus Dante makes Beatrice have "emerald eyes;" again, the Spaniards are loud in their praise. Whence, then, the epithet in its present sense?

?

359. Perpetual Lamp.

—The ancient Romans are said to have preserved lights in their sepulchres many ages by the oiliness of gold, resolved by art into a liquid substance. And it is reported that, at the dissolution of monasteries, in the time of Henry VIII., there was a lamp found that had then burnt in a tomb from about 300 years after Christ, nearly 1200 years.

Two of these subterranean lamps are to be seen in the Museum of Rarities at Leyden in Holland. One of these lamps, in the papacy of Paul III., was found in the tomb of Tullia, Cicero's daughter, which had been shut up 1550 years.

From 2nd edit. of N. Bailey,