58 FOLK-LORE REMINISCENCES. 



This wholesome advice was duly followed, and needless to 

 say the pigs did not die until their throats were cut, and the 

 curd was firm and good, but what this homely advice cost 

 H I have not been able to ascertain. 



A lady of a well-known Dorset family has supplied me 

 with the following which happened quite recently, but I am 

 not, for good reasons, permitted to mention any names or 

 places. A certain village not a hundred miles from 

 Dorchester was visited with a severe epidemic of whooping 

 cough. Three of the children of a man in Mr. X.'s employ 

 fell ill with the complaint. Mrs. X. remarked to him " I 

 hope that your wife will not get it." " Oh, no, Ma'am," 

 was the reply " she cant ha' it. She rode the donkey 

 when she wer young." Mrs. X. asked for an explana- 

 tion of this, and was informed " that if yer puts a chile 

 crosswise over a donkey's back and leads 'en round a field 

 while yer repeats the Lord's Prayer her can niver ha' 

 the whoopen' cough. Yer must zay the prayer with 

 meanen, Ma'am. T'aint no good if yer only zays it." 

 Mrs. X. then said, " Have you forgotten to do this with 

 the three children that are ill? " " Yes, Ma'am, but the 

 little 'un have ridden the donkey." The " little 'un " up to 

 then had escaped. 



Mrs. X. is confident that the man insisted that the child 

 had to be put " crosswise " on the donkey. My impression 

 is that the virtue in the ass is that the child should be 

 placed on the cross which that animal traditionally bears on 

 its shoulder, through our Lord having ridden on one just 

 before His Passion. 



The same lady kindly gave me the following pretty legend. 

 Recently two men w r ere working in the garden and she 

 remarked to one " Have you heard the nightingale ? " " Yes, 

 ma'am, he do zing an' zing an' zing all day an' night in my 

 garden." The man working with him said, " Ha' yer ever 

 zee'd 'en ? " " Zee'd 'en ? no ; no man ever zee'd a nightin- 

 gale, 'tis a spirit bird." " Aye, aye," replied his mate, and 

 they went on with their digging as before. 



