202 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



something like a reputation for witchcraft still. The 

 " wise woman " conducted the child entrusted to her 

 care at the dawn to the hedge, where she knew there 

 was a brier growing in such a position that a person 

 could creep under it facing the east, and there, as the 

 sun rose, passed the child through. 



In the hollow just beneath the ha-ha wall, where it 

 is moist, grow tall rushes ; and here the great dragon- 

 fly darts to and fro so swiftly as to leave the impres- 

 sion of a line of green drawn suddenly through the air. 

 Though travelling at such speed, he has the power of 

 stopping abruptly, and instantly afterwards returns 

 upon his path. These handsome insects are often 

 placed on mirrors as an ornament in farmhouses. 

 The labourers will have it that they sting like the 

 hornet ; but this they say also of many other harm- 

 less creatures, seeming to have a general distrust of 

 the insect kind. They will tell you alarming stories 

 of terrible sufferings arms swollen to double the 

 natural size, necks inflamed, and so forth caused by 

 the bites of unknown flies. Not being able to dis- 

 cover what fly it is that inflicts these poisonous wounds, 

 and having spent so many hours in the fields without 

 experiencing such effects, I rather doubt these state- 

 ments, though put forth in perfect good faith ; indeed, 

 I have often seen the arms and chests of the men in 

 harvest time with huge bumps rising on them which 

 they declared were thus caused. The common harvest 

 bug, which gets under the skin, certainly does not 

 cause such great swellings as I have seen ; nor the 



