Trunmctlims. 47 



Commending this branch of the sulyect to your careful considera- 

 tion, I woidd call your attention to the desirability of preserving 

 a record of local customs. However trivial these may appear, 

 they should not be lost sight of. When a vessel is for sale the 

 owner hoists a broom at her masthead. When a country lad 

 comes into Dumfries market, offering his services on hire, he 

 wears a straw in his bonnet. When my wife crossed the threshold 

 of her own dwelling for the first time a fiiend broke a farl of oat 

 cake over her head for good luck. There was an old woman in 

 Mochriim, who was reputed to be a witch, and boys, now men, in 

 glassing her kept the thumb of one hand close clenched in the loof 

 with the fingera hiding it, to protect them from the influence of 

 her evil e'e. To marry in May is deemed fooli.sh. Enquiry into 

 such peculiar customs as I have alluded to, and into belief in the 

 efficacy of " Rowan-tree and red-thread " to " put the witches to 

 their speed ;" of four-leaved clover to qualify the eyes to see fairies 

 and wraiths ; and of a horse-shoe on the stable-door, &c., belong to 

 the study of Folk-lore. These matters, however, are intimately 

 associated with the history of man. Many of our popular customs 

 and beliefs ; children's games handed from one generation of 

 youngsters to another ; nui-sery tales listened to eagerly in youth, 

 and repeated in the decline of life to grand-children, with which 

 we are famUiar, are also to be met with in various forms among 

 people widely separated by time and space. The existence of these 

 things, however, point to a common oi-igin. Where local customs 

 are found to exist notice of them should be taken, and preserved 

 by our Society. In the upper part of Eskdale, at the confluence 

 of the White and Black Esk, was held an amiual fail-, where mul- 

 titudes of each sex repaired. The unmarried looked out for 

 mates, made their engagement by joining hands, or by handjisting, 

 and went ofi" in pairs, cohabited till the next annual return of the 

 fair, appeared there again, and then were at liberty to declare 

 theii' apjirobation or dislike of each other. If each party con- 

 tinued constant, the handfisting was renewed for life ; but if either 

 party dissented, the engagement was void, and both were at full 

 liberty to make a new choice; but with this proviso, that the 

 inconstant was to take charge of the offspring of the year of 

 probation. The record of this curious local custom has been 

 preserved for us by a passing traveller, and it acquires a peculiar 

 interest when we learn that matrimonial alliances were made in a 

 similar fashion at several places in the northern part of Europe. 



