RUSTIC SUPERSTITION. 833 



wonderful at that sort of thing, so I thought I might as well give him 

 a trial." This announcement being received with the burst of laughter 

 he evidently expected, he hastily added, " Believe it or not as you like, 

 sir, as soon as he said something the pain went clean away, and I've 

 been easy ever since." It was worse than useless to explain the well- 

 known effect on the nerves, of a visit to any sort of dental operator, 

 and the agriculturist wended his way to spread abroad the fame of his 

 healer, and no doubt to suffer renewed agonies as soon as he got home. 

 It may be added that under no circumstances will a countryman, if he 

 can help it, have a tooth taken out by a regular practitioner — a baker, 

 grocer, or blacksmith, with a local reputation of being " uncommon 

 handy," is almost always resorted to for this extreme measure. It is 

 but another form of provincial superstition. 



The familiar occurrence of a mysterious ringing of bells by some 

 occult agency is a never-failing source of awful joy to the country 

 town or neighborhood to which this supposed supernatural manifesta- 

 tion is vouchsafed. The house thus favored is the constant center of 

 thought, conversation, and pilgrimage ; groups of true believers stand 

 outside with upturned gaze, as though expecting to see the ghost ap- 

 pear out of one of the chimney-pots and address the audience from 

 the roof, while those who are sufficiently in the intimacy of the terrified 

 though flattered household to be admitted to the haunted dwelling, 

 would not change places with Mr. Rider Haggard's heroes. And when 

 the inevitable d'enoHment comes, when the half-silly servant-girl or 

 wholly mischievous boy has been accidentally discovered throwing a 

 rolled-up stocking or cap at the bell, in the general disappointment 

 and sense of injury which ensues, faith though shaken is not destroyed. 

 A few steadfast ones gather together, and comfort each other with such 

 sayings as " 'Twas better to make believe as 'twas all nat'ral," " Folks 

 don't like their housen to get a bad name," or " Don't tell I as any gell 

 could have kept they bells ringing the night through " ; and the lump 

 of incredulity thus gradually releavened, the next announcement that 

 the spirits are at work again finds acceptance ready as ever. It must 

 be frankly admitted that churchyards have of late years fallen from 

 their high estate in rural estimation as the recognized ghost's play- 

 ground ; not that a countryman would willingly linger within these 

 precincts after nightfall, nor would he appoint such a tryst for his 

 lady-love, but he no longer regards the burying-place with his former 

 feeling of reverential fear. The reason of this change is not easy to 

 discover, as it can hardly be attributed to intellectual enlightenment. 

 Perhaps he has good grounds for his confidence. It may be that since 

 the passing of Mr. Osborne Morgan's bill, the manes of the older and 

 orthodoxically interred residents sulk in their sepulchres, holding them- 

 selves aloof from possible contact with new-comers " licensed to walk " 

 under a Nonconformist ritual, and that these latter, out of respect to 

 class prejudice, or from a feeling of diffidence unknown in a previous 



TOL. XXX. — 53 



