he saw them doe, and who told me of it. As I remember, 'twas much after this manner. They took a black catt and cutt off its head, at a certain aspect of the planets, and buried it in his garden by night with some ceremonies, that I have forgot, and put a beane in the braine of the catt; but about a day or two after a cock came and scratch'd it all up. Mr. Clark told me that they did believe it, and yet they were crafty subtle merchants. This brings to my mind a story that was generally believed when I was a schoolboy (before the Civil Warres), that thieves, when they broke open a house, would putt a candle into a dead man's hand, and then the people in the chamber would not awake. There is such a kind of story somewhere among the magical writers."* To be sure there is. It is what the Germans call the hand of glory, though with them it is used not for sending people to sleep, but for discovering hidden treasures. Thunder. "In Herefordshire, and those parts the woemen doe putt iron, e. g.-an iron barr or the like-on the barrell to keep the beer from sowring."+ Horse-shoes. The belief that nailing a horse-shoe to the threshold is a preservative against witches yet prevails in some parts, and therefore it is highly important to know that the said horse-shoe must be picked up accidentally on the high-way, and there are good and solidreasons for its supposed virtue,-namely that Mars, who is the representative of iron, is an enemy to Saturn the liege-lord of witches. Invisibility. "Take on Midsummer night at XII, when all the planets are above the earth, a serpent, and kill him and skinne him; and dry it in the shade; and bring it to a powder. Hold it in your hand and it will be invisible. * Aubrey, ut supra, fol. 167. + Idem, fol. 168. The receipt is in Johannes de Florentiâ, a Rosycrucian in Svo. in High Dutch. Dr. Ridgley, the physitian hath it, who told me of this."* Silly-How." Great conceits are raised of the involution or membranous covering commonly called the Silly-How, that sometimes is found about the heads of children upon their birth, and is therefore preserved with great care, not only as medical in diseases, but effectual in success concerning the infant and others, which is surely no more than a continued superstition. For hereof we read in the life of Antoninus delivered by Spartianus, † that children are born sometimes with this natural cap, which midwives were wont to sell unto lawyers, who had an opinion it advantaged their promotion."‡ Salt-is said by all writers upon magic to be particularly disagreeable to the evil spirits, and it is owing to this noxious substance being dissolved in holy water that it has such power in scaring them away. It seems not improbable that salt acquired this high character and its use. in all sacrifices from its powers of resisting corruption. not Unlucky Hours.-Marriage was celebrated in the forenoon, because according to the general belief it was so lucky to undertake any serious affaire declinante sole.'' § * Spell against Hydrophobia.-" Rebus rubus Epilepscum. Aubrey, ut supra, fol. 131. Aubrey, who was a careless, though a tolerably excursive reader has omitted according to his usual custom to give a proper reference to his author. I do not myself remember anything of the kind that he states in Spartianus, who however has written the life of more than one of the Antonines. It is possible too that something of the sort may occur in one of the other five historians whose works are always published in the same volume with Spartianus. Aubrey, ut supra, fol. 174. Id. fol. 177. Write these words in paper, and give it to the party, or beast, bitten, to eat in bread, or &c. Mr. Dennys of Poole in Dorsetshire sayeth this receipt never fails. Perhaps this spell may be the anagramme of some fence or recipe, as Dr. Bathurst has discovered in Abradacabra."* *Aubrey, ut supra, fol. 179. THREE PROVERBS. THERE were three proverbs, or sayings rather, at one time in use amongst the French, which are curious from their connexion with old customs. They are To PAY HIS ENGLISH, To Lose the Hair, and To Lose the Girdle, and to the explanation given of them in Howell's Familiar Letters I will add a few remarks from other writers. To pay his English.—“There is one saying, or proverb, which is observable, whereby France doth confess herself to be still indebted to England, which is when one hath paid all his creditors, he useth to say, j'ai payè tous mes Anglais, so that in this and other phrases Anglais, is taken for creancier, or creditor. And I presume it has its foundation from this, that when the French were bound by treaty in Bretigny to pay England so much for the ransom of King John, then prisoner, the contribution lay so heavy on the people that for many years they could not make up the summe." To lose the hair." There be two other sayings in French, which, though they be obsolete, yet are they worthy the knowledge. The first is, il a perdu ses cheveux, he hath lost his hair, meaning his honour; for in the first race of kings there was a law called la loi de la cheveleure whereby it was lawful for the noblesse only to wear long hair; and if any of them had committed some foul and ignoble act, they used to be condemned to have their long hair to be cut off as a mark of ignominie; and it was as much as if he had been fleurdelized, viz.: burnt on the back, or hand, or branded on the face." Thus far Howell-but his reading on the subject does not appear to have been very extensive, while he is guilty of the unpardonable fault of giving no authority for the little he does advance. There was no want, however, of information in regard to this matter, for in olden times the hair was held amongst most nations in singular honour, and to be deprived of it in any way was amongst the gravest punishments. Thus Gandinus tells us that a servant who contemned the imperial edicts was to be beaten naked at the stake and to have his head shaved,*-that women, who had committed an offence against others, should also be beaten and shaved by the men of the neighbourhood,†that a slave should be polled, who dared to set fire to a forest the like should be the punishment of a thief, but on the second offence he was to be shorn entirely,§-all these being Lombard customs. Other authors give ample testimony to the same effect. Camerarius in particular is quite eloquent on the subject, devoting to it a whole chapter, wherein he relates a multitude of notable things.|| The beard and hair, he tells us, in the language of divines * "Servus, qui literas imperiales despexerit, nudus ad palum vapulet et capilli ejus tondeantur." Gandin. Tractatus de Maleficiis-De pænis reorum, Sect. 55. p. 190, 8vo. Lugduni. 1555. +"Item verberantur et tonderantur mulieres per viros vicinales, quæ super aliquas aggressionem fecerint." Id. + "Item debet tonderi servus qui ignem in sylva mittere ausus fuerit." Id. § "Decalvatur fur pro secundo furto." Id. Sect. 56. Id. Camerarii Opera Subcisiva, Centuria prima, cap. xxxvi. p. 165, 4to. Francf. 1602-6-9. |