Apeil 10. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



341 



It is therefore asked, 1. Why, in the sacred 

 volume, a century ago it should have been 

 spelled grin in the three first-mentioned passages,^ 

 and gin in tlie three others ? and 2. Why it 

 should have been altered in the three first-quoted 

 verses from grin to gin ? In short, if they are 

 cognate words (which the separate use of them in 

 various editions formerly seems to render doubt- 

 ful), what advantage resulted from changing the 

 word wliich more familiarly explains itself by the 

 action of the teeth for a much less forcible term ? 



B. B. 



FOLK LORE. 



Game Feathers. — I do not see that any of your 

 numerous correspondents have mentioned the com- 

 mon belief among the poor in this county (Sussex), 

 that a person cannot die if his bed is stuffed witli 

 game feathers. A friend of mine a little time back 

 was talking to a labourer on the absurdity of such 

 a belief; but he failed to convince the good man, 

 who, as a jyroof of the correctness of his belief, 

 brought forward the case of a poor man who had 

 lately died after a lingering illness. "Look at 



poor Muster S , how hard he were a dying ; 



poor soul, he could not die ony way, till neighbour 



Puttick found out how it wer, — ' Muster S ,' 



says he, ' ye be lying on geame feathers, mon, 

 surely;' and so he wer. So we took'n out o'bed, 

 and laid'n on the floore, and he pretty soon died 

 then!" Nedlam. 



Isle of Man Folk Lore. — A young person from 

 Castletown tells me as follows : — 



A woman walking over Barrule met two fairy 

 armies going to battle, which was to begin on the 

 ringing of a bell ; she pulled the bell, and in con- 

 sequence both armies attacked her, and kept her 

 prisoner for three years, when she escaped. 



A little girl, walking over a bridge, was offered 

 by three little men (one after the other) a farthing, 

 which she persevered in refusing ; knowing that, 

 if accepted, she would have been carried oft'. 



A labouring man, passing by a house which 

 is said to be haunted by soldiers, saw a soldier 

 from Castletown sitting on a stile ; and, on going 

 up to tell him that the bugle had sounded, the 

 soldier vanished into air, and the man saw a ball 

 of fire before him all the way home. 



A white lady walked through a room one even- 

 ing when the doors were bolted and barred, and 

 could not be found anywhere ; a murder was once 

 committed in a room of this house, and, although 

 the boards have been moved, blood will come again. 



At Peel, a witch with a basin of water said 

 that the herring fleet would never return ; every 

 ship was lost, and she was put in a barrel with 

 spikes, and rolled down the hill, the grass never 

 having grown since; "and I saw the mark all 

 down." 



Women are turned into hares, and can only be 

 shot with a silver sixpence. 



A white lady was seen every night after dark ; 

 and one night, when all were in bed, a servant 

 heard a knock at the door, put her head out of 

 window, and saw a little doll hop round the house 

 and knock three times ; she was so frightened 

 that she could not get her head in, till others 

 pulled her. The house was then suddenly illu- 

 minated, and, when quite dark again, the bed- 

 clothes pulled off". 



The fairies are seen to hop from trees : a man 

 took one home for a doll, and became very ill ; but 

 on the advice of a woman, he returned it where 

 found, and then quite recovered. 



Fairies change children ; a woman had one for 

 eighteen years, and could not make it walk or 

 speak. A woman, shearing corn, laid her child 

 down ; a man saw a fairy come and change it : 

 the fairy-child screamed, and the woman, going to 

 take it up, was prevented by the man. The fairy 

 seeing that no one touched it, returned the 

 woman's child. 



People are pulled off" horses by black dogs. 

 Three stone coffins were lately dug up, and the 

 place not since haunted. 



Our woman servant told me that her father 

 (who used to drink), and others, chased a black 

 dog, which kept howling and screaming round the 

 town, up as far as the gallows post ; but did not 

 dare to go beyond, and came back as fast as they 

 could. 



A tradesman told me that lying on a sofa at an 

 inn, a white lady whispered and told him where 

 some money was to be found ; he fell off" the sofa, 

 was ill for six months, and has been lame ever 

 since. The owner of the house would give him 

 half if he tells ; but he will not tell, or the white 

 lady would haunt him. 



They say that fairies are the fallen angels. 



A. C. 



Epitaph at King Stanley. — Epitaph engraved on 

 brass let into a large flagstone in King Stanley 

 churchyard, Gloucestershire. Copied 15 th July, 

 1846. 



" Ann Collins, died 11 Sept. 1804, aetatis 49. 



*Twas as she tript from cask to cask, 



In at a bunghole quickly fell, 

 SufFocatioii was her task. 



She had no time to say farewell." 



E. D. 



Monuments of De la Beche Family. — Among 

 the interesting communications relating to monu- 

 ments and trees, I see no mention made of some fine 

 effigies of the De la Beche family, in an old church 

 near which are the largest yew-trees I ever saw, 



