Dec. 24. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



m 



FOLK LORE MISCELLANIES. 



Yorkshire Tradition. — The following tradition 

 of Osmotherly, in Yorkshire, was related to me as 

 being current in that county. Can you inform 

 me if it is authentic ? 



Some years ago there lived in a secluded part 

 of Yorkshire a lady who had an only son named 

 Os or Oscar. Strolling out one day with her 

 child they met a party of gipsies, who were 

 anxious to tell her the child's fortune. After 

 being much importuned she assented to their 

 request. To the mother's astonishment and grief 

 they prognosticated that the child would be 

 drowned. In order to avert so dreadful a ca- 

 lamity, the infatuated mother purchased some 

 land and built a house on the summit of a high 

 hill, where she lived with her son a long time in 

 peace and seclusion. Happening one fine sum- 

 mer's day in the course of a perambulation to have 

 fatigued themselves, they sat down on the grass to 

 rest and soon fell asleep. While enjoying this 

 repose, a spring rose up from the ground, which 

 caused such an inundation as to overwhelm them, 

 and side by side they found a watery grave. 

 After this had occurred, the people residing in the 

 neiglibourhood named it Os-by-his-mother-lay, 

 which has since been corrupted into Osmotherly. 



K. W. Carter. 



Custom on St. Thomas's Day (Dec. 21). — At 

 Harvington, in Worcestershire, it is the custom on 

 St. Thomas's Day for persons (chiefly children) 

 to go round the village begging for apples, and 

 singing the following rhymes : 



" Wissal, wassail through the town. 

 If you've got any apples, throw them down. 

 Up with the stocking, and down with the shoe, 

 ■ If you've got no apples, money will do. 

 Tlie jug is white, and the ale is brown, 

 This is the best house in the town." 



CUTHBERT BeDE, B.A. 



Custom on Innocents^ Day (JDec. 28). — At 

 Norton (near Evesham) it is the custom on Dec. 

 28 to ring, first a muffled peal for the slaughter 

 of the Holy Innocents, and then an unmuffled 

 peal of joy for the deliverance of the Infant Christ. 

 Cdthbert Bede, B.A. 



Marriage Custom at Knutsford, Cheshire. — 

 A singular but pleasing custom exists among the 

 inhabitants of Knutsford in Cheshire. On the 

 occasion of a wedding, when the bride has set out 

 for the church, a relative invariably spreads on 

 the pavement, which is composed of pebbles, be- 

 fore her house, a quantity of silver sand, there 

 called " greet," in the form of wreaths of flowers, 

 and writes, with the same material, wishes for her 

 happiness. This, of course, is soon discovered by 

 others, and immediately, especially if the bride or 



bridegroom are favorites, appear before most of 

 the houses numerous flowers in sand. It is said 

 that this custom arose from the only church they - 

 had being without bells, and therefore, to give 

 notice of a wedding, they adopted it ; and though 

 now there are other churches and a peal of bells, 

 they still adhere to the above method of commu- 

 nicating intelligence of such happy events. Why 

 sand should be used I have not been able to learn, 

 and I should be much obliged for any information 

 on the point, there being no sandpits in the locality 

 of Knutsford, or such like reason for its use. 



One circumstance I may mention connected 

 with weddings there. On the return of the party 

 from church, it is usual to throw money to the 

 boys, who, of course, follow, and if this is omitted, 

 the latter keep up a cry of " a buttermilk wed- 

 ding." BUSSELL GOLE. 



Folk Lore in Hampshire. — In Hampshire the 

 country people believe that a healing power exists 

 in the alms collected at the administration of the 

 sacrament, and many of them use the money as a 

 charm to cure the diseases of the body. A short 

 time ago a woman came to a clergyman, and 

 brought with her half-a-crown, asking at the same 

 time for five " sacrament sixpences " in exchange. 

 She said that one of her relations was ill, and that 

 she wished to use the money as a charm to drive 

 away the disease. This superstition may have 

 arisen from the once prevalent custom of distri- 

 buting the alms in the church to those of the poor 

 who were present at the sacrament. 



I have heard that the negroes in Jamaica attach 

 the same " gifts of healing " to the consecrated 

 bread, and often, if they can escape notice, will 

 carry it away with them. As no account of this 

 superstition seems to be recorded in " N. & Q.," 

 perhaps you would like to " make a note of it." 



F. M. MlDDLETON. 



Propitiating the Fairies. — Having some years 

 since, on a Sunday afternoon, had occasion to ride 

 on horseback between two towns in the eastern 

 part of Cornwall, I met a christening party, also 

 on horseback, headed by the nurse with a baby in 

 her arms. Making a halt as I approached her, 

 she stopped me, and producing a cake, presented 

 it to me, and insisted on my taking it. Several 

 years after, when in the Isle of Man, I had the 

 opportunity of hearing an elderly person relate 

 several pieces of folk lore respecting the witches 

 and fairies in that island. It had been customary, 

 within his recollection, for a woman, when carrying 

 a child to be christened, to take with her a piece 

 of bread and cheese, to give to the first person she 

 met, for the purpose of saving the child from 

 witchcraft or the fairies. Another custom was 

 that of the " Queeltah," or salt put under the 

 churn to keep off bad people. Stale water was 

 thrown on the plough " to keep it from the little 



