144 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2t>d s. No 86., Aug. 22. '57. 



of connubial infidelity, called " a riding," seems to 

 partake of the natiue of ordeal, as well as of pe- 

 nance. All that survives of the practice is the 

 very common phrase which I have placed at the 

 head of this Note. Can you illustrate this bit of 

 folk lore ? T. Q. C. 



Cornwall. 



Charm fot the Stomach Ache, — When I was 

 a schoolboy, the following charm Was considered 

 by my companions and myself as a sovereign spe- 

 cific against a complaint very prevalent among 

 boys during the fruit season. Faith in the charm 

 may have had something to do with its efficacy, 

 but I know that we implicitly believed in it : 



" Petrus sedebat super sedem marmoreum juxta sBclem 

 Jerusalem, et dolebat. Jesu3 veniebat, et rogabat, ' Petre, 

 quid doles?' 'Doleovento ventre,' alt: 'Surge Peter, 

 et sanus esto.' Et quicunque hasc verba, non scripta, 

 Bed memorift tradita, recitat, nunquam dolebit vento 

 Ventre." 



John PaviH Phillips. 



Haverfordwest. 



The Bicker-rade. — This is a very strange and 

 indecent custom, practised by reapers in the 

 harvest time, chiefly, I believe, in Berwickshire. 

 I can say nothing as to its origin, or for how long 

 it has maintained its place among the customs of 

 our rural population, but I can remember of its 

 observance among my father's reapers, in the 

 parish of Bunkle, more than fifty years ago. The 

 dinner of a Merse reaper consists of a choppin of 

 beer, and a loaf of whoaten or baker's bread. 

 Each hand-wun — consisting of six shearers and a 

 handster, had the use of a bicker (a small round 

 wooden vessel, composed of staves or staps, and 

 neatly bound with willow girths or girds) ; some- 

 times more than one bicker was used by the band- 

 ivun. In an ordinary boun or band of shearers, 

 consisting of three or four band-wuns, there might 

 be half-a-dozen of bickers used. After the dinner 

 repast was finished, any of the men of the boun who 

 felt disposed to inflict on any female the bicker- 

 fade, extended her upon her back on the ground, 

 and reclining upon her commenced a series of 

 operations which are too indelicate to be minutely 

 described ; and those bickers which we have just 

 mentioned, being put into the long basket which 

 had contained the bread, were rattled backward 

 and forward upon the man's back by one of the 

 bystanders. After continuing this process for a 

 minute or two, another female was used in the 

 same way, either by the same man or by one of his 

 companions, and so on till all the women, young 

 and old, in the boun were so served. The custom 

 was attended with no little noise and fun ; and if 

 any of the females, either from a sense of its in- 

 decency, or from a reluctance to be so roughly 

 handled, showed any signs of resistance, they were 

 forced into compliance, and used without cere- 

 mony. In the custom of giving •' up in the air," 



recently described in " N. & Q." by Mit. H. Ste- 

 phens, some serious injuries have been inflicted, 

 and from the bicker-rade bruises of a no less dati- 

 gerous character received ; and I know of one 

 ifemale at least, who was confined more than 

 twenty years to bed, in consequence of a severe 

 injury received by the latter custom. So that 

 the late Rev. Mr, Sked, of Abbey St. Bothans, 

 had a substantial reason for his annual admoni- 

 tions — though referring to the gross immorality 

 which Was likely to result from the affair — when 

 he warned his flock against indulging in " that 

 wicked practice called the Bicke?^-rade, for, take 

 care," said he, " that it does not turn out the 

 sicker-rade." We believe that this immodest 

 practice is now nearly obsolete. It was time. 



Mbnyanthes. 

 Chirnside. 



Deerness. — In a foot note to the " Harpers' 

 Song " (page 237), in the Fairy Family, published 

 by Longmans, it is stated that there is a tradition 

 that " the district of Deerness in the island of 

 Pomona was once covered by a splendid forest 

 abounding with deer, and that in one night it 

 was submerged and laid waste by an inundation 

 of the sea." 



I would be glad if the author of this work or 

 any readers of " N. & Q." would inform me where 

 I could meet with any account of this (supposed) 

 event. Rusticus. 



Eric the Saxon. — Sir E. L. B. Lytton says in his 

 dedication of Harold, to the Rt. Hon. Mr. D'Eyn- 

 court, " There is a legend attached to my friend's 

 house, that, on certain nights in the year, Eric the 

 Saxon winds his horn at the door, and in forma 

 spectri serves his notice of ejectment" (on the 

 ghostly father, the Bishop of Bayeux). 



Mackenzie Walcott, M. A. 



The Devil and Church Building. — In the 

 course of a day's ramble in Jersey, I stumbled on 

 St. Brelade's Church, which is reputed to be about 

 1100 years old — the oldest in the island, and oc- 

 cupies a very remarkable situation, close to the 

 tide mark in the beautiful little bay. The clergy- 

 man of the parish turned up whilst I was con- 

 templating this plain yet strange ecclesiastical 

 relic, and volunteered a legend concerning it, re- 

 markably like that of " The Devil and Runwell 

 Man," in " N. & Q." (2"'' S. iv. 25.) He said that 

 it had been intended to build the church on the 

 spot now occupied by a Methodist chapel, over- 

 looking St. Peter's Valley from the summit ground 

 of the island ; but that, after the materials for 

 the purpose had been laid down at night, they ■ 

 were found removed to the spot on which it was 

 eventually thought better to build the church, 

 next morning ; and this, I think, occurred more 

 than once. Sholto MAcnurr. 



