not being forthcoming, another sister is despatched, and she also stops. Meantime Dob grew chafed at the delay, and went down himself to look after his love and his beer. When he hears the cause of the stoppage, he falls into a violent rage, and declares he won't have Moll unless he can find three bigger fools than herself and sisters. It is noonday when Dob sets out on his travels; and the first person he saw was an old woman, who was running about and brandishing her bonnet in the sunshine: "What bist at, Dame?" says Dob. "Why," said the old woman; "I'm a ketchin' sunshine in this here bonnet to dry me carn as a' leased in wet." "Mass!" quoth Dob, "that's one fool." And so on he went till he came to another Gothanite, who was dragging about the corn-fields a huge branch of oak. "What may ye be a-doin' wi' that, Measter?" says Dob. "Kaint ye see?" says the man; "I'm a gettin' the crows to settle on this branch, they've had a'most all me crop a'ready." "The devil you are!" said Dob, as he went on his way. He meets no one else for a long time, and almost despairs of completing his number, when at last he sees an old woman trying all she could to get a cow to go up a ladder. "What are ye arter there, Missus?" says he. "Dwunt ye see, young mon?" says she; "I'm a drivin' this keow up the lather t'eat the grass aff the thack." "Deary me!" says Dob, "one fool makes many." And so he turned back, and married Moll; with whom he lived long and happily, if not wisely.[1]

[1] Glossary.—Tot, a mug; yeal, ale; leased, gleaned; lather, ladder; thack, thatch.

Besides Grimm's version, we meet with a somewhat similar fable in Ireland. Vide Gerald Griffin's Collegians, p. 139.

Another pretty numerous class of our popular stories consists of those in which animals are made the actors. One of the most common of these relates to the strife between the fox and the hedgehog, who, according to the good people of Northamptonshire, are the two most astute animals in creation. How a couple of these worthies once fell out as to which was the swifter animal; and how, when they had put their speed to the trial, the cunning urchin contrived to defeat Reynard by placing his consort in the furrow which was to form the goal: so that when her mate had made a pretence of starting, she might jump out and feign to be himself just arrived. And how, after three desperate runs, the broken-winded fox fell a victim to the deceit, and was compelled to yield to his adversary; who, ever since that day, has been his most inveterate enemy. This myth is curious on many accounts, for the hedgehog has always been regarded as an emblem of subtlety. Grimm gives a tale precisely similar, with the exception that it is a hare and not a fox who is deceived by the ruse. Aldrovandus likewise tells us much on the score of his craft; and it was probably some mythic connexion between the animals which led Archilochus to class them together in the adage:

Your readers will also call to mind the fable of Ælian, lib. IV. cap. xviii.

T. STERNBERG.

FOLK LORE.

Body and Soul.

—The other day, in a village in Huntingdonshire, an unbaptized child was buried. A neighbour expressed great sorrow for the mother because "no bell had been rung over the corpse." On asking why this circumstance should be so peculiarly a cause of grief, she told me that it was "because when any one died, the soul never left the body until the church bell was rung." Is this superstition believed in elsewhere? And does it arise from mistaken notions regarding "the passing bell,"—the "one short peal" which the 67th canon orders to be rung "after the party's death?"

CUTHBERT BEDE.

Giving Cheese at a Birth.

—In the county of Northumberland, not far from the Cheviots, I met with the following custom. When a woman's confinement is near, a cheese is made, which, when the child is born, is cut into pieces and distributed among all the houses (without exception) in the vicinity. If the child is a boy, the pieces of cheese are sent to the males; if a girl, to the females, each member of a family receiving a portion. Visitors also come in for their share. Whence did this custom arise?

CUTHBERT BEDE.

Sneezing.

—"The custom of blessing persons when they sneeze," says Brand, "has, without doubt, been derived to the Christian world, where it generally prevails, from the time of heathenism." In addition to the interesting notice of the prevalence of this custom in Europe, and many remote parts of Asia and Africa, given by Brand, I find traces of it amongst the American tribes at the period of the Spanish conquest. In 1542, when Hernando de Soto, the famous conquest-actor of Florida, had an interview with the Cacique Guachoya, the following curious incident occurred:—

"In the midst of their conversation, the Cacique happened to sneeze. Upon this, all his attendants bowed their heads, opened and closed their arms; and making their signs of veneration, saluted their prince with various phrases of the same purport: 'May the sun guard you,' 'may the sun be with you,' 'may the sun shine upon you,' 'defend you,' 'prosper you,' and the like; each uttered the phrase that came first to his mind, and for a short time there was a universal murmuring of these compliments."— The Conquest of Florida under Hernando de Soto, by Theodore Irving, vol. ii. p. 161.

Whence could the natives of the New World have derived a custom so strikingly similar to that which the ancients record?

R. S. F.

Perth.

Marlborough 5th November Custom.

—At Marlborough, Wiltshire, on the 5th of November, two or three years ago, I noticed a peculiar custom the rustics have at their bonfires, to which I could attach no meaning; and I did not, at the time, inquire of any person there regarding it.

They form themselves into a ring of some dozen or more round the bonfire, and follow each other round it, holding thick club-sticks over their shoulders; while a few others, standing at distances outside this moving ring, with the same sort of sticks, beat those the men hold over their shoulders, as they pass round in succession, all shouting and screaming loudly. This might last half an hour at a time, and be continued at intervals till the fire died out. Can any correspondent inform me whether this has any meaning attached to it?

J. S. A.

Old Broad Street.

Spectral Coach and Horses (Vol. iv., p. 195.).

—A similar legend was within a few years current near Bury St. Edmunds, in the same county, where on Christmas Eve, at midnight, a coach drawn by four headless horses, and driven by a headless coachman, might be seen to come in a direction from the parish of Great Barton, across the fields,