Feb. 19. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



177 



to Church settlement, may be returned upon, and begun 

 reformation carried on. 



" 3. That in regard a thorough settlement of Church 

 affaires may be long under debate, in the mean time 

 some speedy and effectuall course may be taken, where- 

 by ignorant and scandalous persons may be kept from 

 the Lord's Supper. 



" And your petitioners shall ever pray, 

 ** Charles Jackson. Will. Farnworth, 



Lancelot Coates. Chrystopher Clark. 



Will. Coup. Will. Sa under. 



Prancis Brunt. George Flint. 



Will. . . llow [obliterated]. DAuin Taylor. 



John Hoyland. Charles Shepheard. 



Tho. Shaw. Es. Brettun." 



Hen. Clark. 



T. S. 

 Leeds. 



FOLK liORE. 



Lancashire Fairy Tale. — The nursery rhymes 

 In one of your late Numbers remind me of a story 

 I used to be told in the nursery. It was, that 

 two men went poaching, and having placed nets, 

 or rather sacks, over what they supposed to be 

 rabbit-holes, but which were in reality fairies' 

 houses, the fairies rushed into the sacks, and the 

 poachers, content with their prey, marched home 

 again. A fiiiry missing another in the sack, called 

 out (the story was told in broad Lancashire 

 dialect) " Dick (dignified name for a fairy), where 

 £LVi thou ? " To which fairy Dick replied, 



" In a sack, 

 On a back. 

 Riding up Barley Brow." 



The story has a good moral ending, for the 

 poachers were so frightened that they never 

 poached again. T. G. C. 



Teeth, Superstition respecting (Vol.vi., p. 60 L). 

 — A similar (perhaps the same) piece of childish 

 superstition respecting the teeth is, that when the 

 upper incisors are large, it is a sign that you will 

 iive to be rich. Fuevus. 



New Moon Divination. — Being lately on a visit 

 in Yorkshire, I was amused one evening to find 

 the servants of the house excusing themselves for 

 being out of the way when the bell rang, on the 

 plea that they had been "hailing the first new 

 moon of the new year." This mysterious salutation 

 was effected, I believe, by means of a looking-glass, 

 in which the first sight of the moon was to be had, 

 and the object to be gained was the important 

 secret as to how many years would elapse before 

 the marriage of the observers. If one moon was 

 seen in the glass, one year ; if two, two years ; and 

 so on. In the case in question, the maid and the 

 boy saw only one moon a-piece. Whether the 

 superstition would, in this instance, be suggestive 



to their minds of anything to be deduced from the 

 coincidence, I do not know ; but as they were both 

 very old-fashioned folks, I suppose the custom may 

 not be unknown to those learned in Folk Lore. 



What is the orthodox mode of conducting this 

 kind of divination ? Oxoniensis. 



The Hyena an Ingredient in Love Potions. — In 

 Busbequius's Letters (Elzevir, 1633) I note that the 

 Turks consider the hyena useful in love potions. 

 I extract the passage : 



" In amatoriis ei vim magnara Turcse, ut etiam 

 veteres, tribuunt, cumque essent duas eo tempore Con- 

 stantinopoli, mihi tamen vendere gravabantur, quod se 

 Sultanse, hoc est, principis uxori, eas reservare dicerent, 

 quippe quas philtris et magicis artibus animum mariti 

 retinere, recepta in vulgus (ut dixi) opinio est." — P. 84. 



Allow me to add a Query : What ancient authors 

 allude to this old specimen of Folk Lore ? S. A. S. 

 Bridgewater. 



The Elder Tree. — I was visiting a poor pa- 

 rishioner the other day, when the following 

 question was put to me. 



" Pray, Sir, can you tell me whether there is 

 any doubt of what kind of wood our Lord's cross 

 was made ? I have always heard that it was made 

 of elde?; and we look carefully into the faggots 

 before we burn them, for fear that there should 

 be any of this wood in them." 



My Query is, Whether this is a common super- 

 stition ? EUBI. 



Minor ^attS. 



The Word "Party." — Our facetious friend 

 Punch has recently made merry with the modern 

 use of the word " party," as applied to any absent 

 person concerned in any pending negotiation. It 

 was used thus, however, by William Salmon, pro- 

 fessor of physic, in his Family Dictionary, 1705 : 



*' Let the party, if it can be agreeable, rub frequently 

 his teeth with the ashes that remain in a pipe after it 

 is smoaked." — P. 315. 



" Having cooled it, rub the party's mouth with a- 

 littleofit,"&c.— P. 321. 



E.D. 



Epitaphs. — Churchyard literature presents to 

 us some curious specimens of metaphor ; and it is 

 interesting to observe how an old idea is sometimes 

 unintentionally reproduced. The following lines 

 may be seen on a gravestone in the churchyard at 

 Kinver, Staffordshire : 



" Tired with wand'ring thro' a world of sin, 

 Hither we came to Nature's common Inn, 

 To rest our wearied bodys for a night. 

 In hopes to rise that Christ may give us light." 



