Dec. 28. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



511 



music, and was led into the whirling dance by the 

 "good folk," who kept on spinning hiui without 

 mei'cy, till he fell down " in a swoon." 



On " coming to himself" lie got up and found 

 his way home, where he " took to his bed, and 

 never left it again, but died a little while after," 

 the victim (I suppose) of delirium tremens, or some 

 sucli disorder, tlie incipient symptoms of which his 

 haunted fancy turned into tlie sweet music in the 

 night wind and the fairy revel on the heath. In 

 the tale I have above given he persisted (said the 

 old man), when tlie medical attendant who was 

 called in inquired of him the symptoms of his 

 illness. This occurrence happened, I understood, 

 very recently, and was told to me in perfect good 

 faith. 



I have just been told of a man who several years 

 ago lost his way on Whitchurch Down, near 

 Tavistock. The farther he went the farther he 

 had to go ; but happily calling to mind the anti- 

 dote " in such case made and provided," he turned 

 his coat inside out, after which he had no difKculty 

 in finding his way. " He was supposed," adds my 

 informant, "to be pisky-led." 



About ten miles from Launceston, on the Bodmin 

 road (or at least in that direction) is a large piece 

 of water called Dosmere (pronounced Dosmery) 

 Pool. A tradition of the neighbourhood savs that 

 on the shores of this lonely mere the ghosts of bad 

 men are ever employed in binding tlie sand " in 

 bundles with beams of the same" (a local word 

 meaning bands, in Devonshire called benns; as hay- 

 beans, and in this neighbourhood hay-beams, for 

 hay-bands). These ghosts, or some of them, were 

 driven out (they say " horseivhipped out," at any 

 rate exorcised in some sort) " by the parson " 

 I'rom Launceston. H. G. T. 



Launceston. 



Straw Necklaces (Vol. i., p. 104.). — Perhaps 

 these straw necklaces were anciently worn to pre- 

 serve their possessors against ivilchcraj't ; for, till 

 the thirteenth century, straw was spread on the 

 floors to defend a house IVoiu the same evil 

 agencies. Cf. Le Grand d'Aussi Vie des Anciens 

 Francs, tom. iii. pp. 132. 134.; "Notes and 

 QuEKiEs," Vol. i., j)p. 245. 294. Janus Dousa. 



Drealiing Judas Bones. — On Good Friday eve 

 the children at lio|>part, on the llhine, in Ger- 

 many, Iiave the custom of making a most horrid 

 noise with rallies. They call it breaking Ike bunes 

 of Judas. Cf. "IS'oTES and Queries," Vol. i., 

 p. 357. Janus Dousa. 



I-OCAL EHYMES AND PEOVEBBS OF DEVONSIUEE. 



" Hivcr of Dart, oli river of Dart, 

 Lvery year thou cliiiin'st a heart." 



It is said that a year never passes without the 

 drowning of one person, at least, in the Dart. 

 The river has but few fords, and, like all mountain 



streams, it is liable to sudden risings, when the 

 water comes down with great strength and vio- 

 lence. Compare Chambers' Popular Rhymes, p. 8., 

 " Tweed said to Till," &c. See also Olaus Wormius, 

 Monumenta Danica, p. 17. 



The moormen never say " tke Dart," but always 

 " Dart." " Dart came down last night — he is very 

 full this morning." The cry of the river is the 

 name given to that louder sound which rises to- 

 ward nightfall. Cranmere Pool, the source of 

 the Dart, is a place of punishment tor unhappy 

 spirits. They may frequently be heard wailing in 

 the morasses there. Compare Leyden, Scenes of 

 Infancy, pp. 315, 316., &c. 



Wescote (^Vieiu of Devonshire : Exeter, 1845 

 (reprint), p. 348.) has a curious story of the Tamar 

 and Torridge. It is worth comparing with a local 

 rhyme given by Chambers, p. 26. : "Annan, Tweed, 

 and Clyde," &c. 



" When Haldon hath a hat, 

 Kenton may beware a skat." 



This often-quoted saying is curiously illustrated 

 by a passage from the romance of Sir Gawaya and 

 the Grene Knicht (Madden's Sir Gawaya, p. 77.) : 



" Mist muged on the mor, malt on the mountes, 

 Uch hille had a hatte, a myst-hakel huge." 



In the note on this passage Sir Frederick quotes 

 two proverbs like the Devonshire one above. They 

 are, however, well known,, and there is no lack of 

 similar sayings. 



" When Plymouth was a furzy down, 

 Plympton was a borough town." 



When Brutus of Troy landed at Totnes, he gave 

 the town its name ; thus, — 



" Here I sit, and here I rest. 

 And this town shall be called Totnes." 



" Crocker, Cruwys, and Coplestone, 



When the Conqueror came, were found at home." 



" Who on the .Sabbath pares his horn, 



'Twere beiter for biui he had never been born." 

 " At toto Th<iri die homlnibus ungues secaie minime 

 licuit." — Finn Jlagnusen, Lex. Edd., s. v. Thor. 



In the district of Bolinsland, in Sweden, in the 

 middle of the eighteenth century, it was not thought 

 projjcr to fell wood on the afternoon of Thursday. 



(WO 



" Many slones [sloes], many groans, 

 Many nits [nuts], many pits." 



" When the aspen leaves are no bigger than your nail, 

 Is the time to look out for truB' and peel." 



