364 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 129. 



In a certain village there once lived a young 

 ■woman so extremely noted for prudence and fore- 

 thought, that she was known among her neigh- 

 bours as "Thoughtful Moll." Now this young 

 lady had a thirsty soul of a sweetheart, who 

 dearly loved a drop of October, and one day when 

 he came a- wooing to her : " O Moll," says he, " fill 

 us a tot o'yeal, 1 be most mortal dry." So Moll 

 took a tot from the shelf and went down the cellar, 

 where she tarried so long that her father sent 

 down her sister to see what had come of her. 

 When she got there she found her sister weeping 

 bitterly. "What ails thee, wench?" said she. 

 " O ! " sobbed Moll, " don't ye see that stwon in 

 the arch, that stands out from the mortar like ? 

 Now, mayhaps, when I be married an have a bwoy, 

 an he comes down here to draw beer, that big 

 stwon '11 fiill down on'm and crush'm." "Thought- 

 ful Moll ! " said her admiring sister, and the two 

 sat down and mingled their tears together. The 

 drink not being forthcoming, another sister is de- 

 spatched, 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 bon- 

 net 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 

 earn 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'l-eady." "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 mar- 

 ried Moll ; with whom he lived long and happily, 

 if not wisely.* 



Besides Grimm's version, we meet with a some- 

 what similar fable in Ireland. Vide Gerald Grif- 

 fin's Collegians, p. 139. 



Another pretty numerous class of our popular 

 stories consists of those in which animals are made 



* Glossary. — Tot, a mug ; yeal, ale ; leased, gleaned ; 

 lather, ladder ; thack, thatch. 



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 ta 

 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 ex- 

 ception that it is a hare and not a fox who ia 

 deceived by the ruse. Aldrovandus likewise tells 

 us much on the score of his craft ; and it was pro- 

 bably some mythic connexion between the animals 

 which led Archilochus to class them together ia 

 the adage : 



" noA\' oTs aXdnrr]^, aX>C k-xivos (v fiiya." 



Your readers will also call to mind the fable of 

 ^lian, lib. iv. cap. xviii. T. Sternberg. 



FOLK LORE. 



Body and Soul. — The other day. In a village ir> 

 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, whei'e 



