though with many alterations. Werensal in enumerating the fears and precautions of one under this belief says, that if sick he will never take the prescribed pills in an even number—“ ægrotus præscriptas pilulas pari numero nunquam deglutiet;"* and we read in Delrio that the seventh son of a seventh son has a singular gift of curing fevers, provided no female birth has intervened,† and they are born in legitimate wedlock. This, long as it may seem to many, is only a slight taste of the various superstitions connected with the subject. But enough has probably been detailed to satisfy the mass of readers, who would not, I fear, derive much pleasure from any attempt to explain the Pythagorean philosophy of numbers, if indeed it be capable of explanation. Les Hans. (France).—A sort of spirits that inhabit certain houses, and every night torment the inmates by making a terrible uproar. Noise and disorder seem to be the natural element of these goblins, and in consequence the houses, which they have unluckily selected for their vagaries, generally end by being deserted.‡ Revenans (Ghosts; France.) Ghosts are spirits, which *Werenfelsii Opuscula, vol. ii. p. 634. 4to. Basilea, 1718. "Tale curationis donum, sed a febribus tantum sanandi, habere putantur in Flandriâ quotquot nati sunt Die Parasceues, et quotquot nullo fæmineo fœtu intercedente septimi masculi legitimo thoro sunt nati." Disquisitiones Magica, a M. Delrio, lib. i. cap. 3. Quæstio iv. p. 24. 4to. Venetiis. 1616. So far is plain enough, but Delrio is not always, or often, so intelligible. In imitation of the ancients he tells us that heaven delights in odd numbers, and odd numbers are given to men, who by the same token change every seven years, while women change in six. One might be inclined to find in these more rapid bodily changes an excuse for the proverbial inconstancy of the sex. For this, and the following popular French superstitions, I am in part indebted to Pluquet, Contes Populaires, Préjuges, &c., 8vo. Rouen. 1834. usually appear in the form they wore during their life-time. These souls of the dead return to see their friends or relations, and in general demand prayers, or the fulfilment of a promise. Even the sound of their voices is the same as it was when they belonged to the living, and they seldom cease from their visits 'till what they ask has been scrupulously complied with. Fifollets, i.e. feux-follets. (Will-o-the-Wisp, France). Exhalations from marshes, composed of inflammable gas, which burn with a blueish flame on the surface of stag.. nant waters, and present a strange and fantastic sight on summer evenings. The country people deem them malicious spirits, that take a delight in leading travellers astray, and afterwards burst out into shouts of villainous laughter. This must not, however, be confounded with the follets, which seems to be much the same as the goubelin, i.e. household-spirit, the Kobold of the Germans. Letiches. (France).—Animals of a dazzling white, who appear only in the night-time, and disappear as soon as any one attempts to touch them. They do no harm to any one, and according to a beautiful popular belief are the souls of children who have died without baptism. Pluchet in a very prosaic mood suggests that they may be the Ermine of France, a little animal whose natural agility may account for its sudden vanishing. Lubins. (France).—These are phantoms in the shape of wolves, who prowl about at night, and endeavour to get into churchyards, but for the rest are very timid. The chief of them is all black, and much larger than the others. When any one approaches he stands upon his hind legs, and begins to howl, when the whole troop disappear with cries of "Robert is dead!-Robert is dead!" Goubelin, or Gobelin. (Goblin. France).-A sort of spirit, or familiar demon, who leads horses to drink, gives them their corn and hay, is a particular friend in some instances, wakes the lazy servants, upsets the furniture, and testifies his satisfaction in such wild pranks by shouts of laughter. He is almost always invisible, though sometimes he shows himself in the shape of a handsome black horse, all ready saddled and bridled.. But, woe to the unlucky cavalier who ventures to mount him; he rears, plunges, runs off with his rider, and finally vanishes from under him, leaving him in a quagmire. This trick is familiar to our own Puck, especially amongst the Manx; and the Lutin also, a water-spirit, is fond of assuming the same shape, and drowning those who are simple enough to ride him. Indeed this transformation into a black horse for evil purposes is widely spread amongst the seaspirits. Loup-garou, varou, or warou. (The Were-wolf. France). -The loup-garou, the wehrwolf of the Germans is a man metamorphosed by some wizzard into a wolf. The transformation is supposed to run like a lease for a certain odd term of years, three or seven, during which the werewolf prowls about at night, and is only to be disenchanted by drawing blood from him with a key. The old Norman laws in speaking of certain crimes 'and their punishment, add, "let the culprit be a wolf," wargus esto-that is to say let him be hunted down like a wolf, which is likely enough to have been the origin of the superstition of the were-wolf. This conjecture gains additional force from the term, wargus, i. e. gerulphus,* warou, werewolf, being employed instead of loup. As to our own term of were-wolf, were is only a very slight corruption of the Latin vir, a man, and we * "Vidimus enim frequenter in Anglia per lunationes homines in lupos mutari, quod hominum genus gerulphos Galli nominant." Gervasius Tilleburiensis in OTIIS IMPERIAL, part i. find it used in the same sense in the compound were-geld, which literally means man-money, that is to say the value of a man, or price at which his murder might be atoned and absolved. I doubt much too whether warou, varou, gerulphus, and finally loup-garou, have not all come from the same simple original. However this may be, there is no doubt whatever that the word, war, was widely employed amongst the old German dialects in the signification of man, which became wer or were amongst the Anglo-Saxons, and in time was lost altogether except in a few compounds, themselves almost fallen into disuse. Rongeur d'Os. (The Bone-Gnawer: France).-This is a phantom in the shape of a large dog, who prowls about the streets of Bayeux in the long winter-nights, gnawing bones, and dragging along a chain. He also is a man, who has been thus transformed by some sorcerer But all these superstitions bear strong marks of a northern origin, and in the oldest sagas in the Edda we find examples of men changed into wolves and dogs by the power of evil genii. or by the devil. La Bete Saint Loup. (France).-At the beginning of the fifteenth century a furious wolf ravaged the environs of Bayeux and penetrated into the suburbs. Saint Loup, who was then the bishop of that city, took compassion on his diocesans, and went out boldly to meet the brute. At the approach of so godly a personage the animal remained immovable, when the Saint wound his stole about his enemy's neck, and without ceremony drowned him in the river Drôme. At certain periods of the year however, the wolf returns and prowls about the church of Saint Loup. If you have the least doubt of the story, only go to Bayeux, and the good people of the place will show you the very spot where Saint Loup threw the brute into the river, and a bas-relief above the church-door, as well as a picture within, both confirmative of the fact. We have the greater reason for putting implicit faith in these testimonials, as after all they do not vouch for any very singular miracle. In the following age Saint Vigor did as much, or more; he, who was also a bishop of Bayeux, delivered the country from a serpent whose breath alone poisoned men and animals. Pluquet with his usual proneness to spoiling a good story by explanation wishes to allegorize this into an emblem of the triumph of Christianity over Paganism. Divination." When I was a boy, in North Wilts, (before the Civil Warres) the mayd-servants were wont at night, after supper, to make smoothe the ashes on the hearth, and then to make streakes on it with a stick; such a streak signified particularly to her that made it, such an unmarried man, such a one such a mayd. The like for the men. Then the men and the mayds were to choose by this kind of way their husbands and wifes; or by this divination to know when they should marry. The maydes, I remember, were very fond of this kind of magic, which is clearly a branch of geomantie. Now the rule of geomantie is that you are not to go about your divination but with a great deal of seriousness, and also and to be performed in a very private place, or on the sea-shore. prayers; ་ 'Another remainder of geomancy, to divine whether such a one will return this night or no, is by the sheath of a knife, which one holds at the great end with his two forefingers, and says, he comes;' then slips down his upper finger under his lower, and then the lower under that, and says, he comes not' and sic deinceps till he is come to the bottome of his sheath, which gives the ་ |