Appendix 
Note B (p. 119) 
The Glossary at the end of Best’s Rural Econ- 
omy in Yorkshire gives the following: - 
“ Caving Rake. A barn-floor rake, used to 
separate (cave) the husks from the grain.” 
Parish’s Didionary of the Sussex Diale@ gives: 
“ Cavings [ceaf, Ang.-Sax., chaff]. The short 
Straws or ears which are raked off the corn when 
it is thrashed.”’ 
Nore € (p. 155) 
This tale of the man who crawled back into the 
ditch rather than owe any benefit to an enemy 
seemed to me authentic enough until: I read the 
same tale, not from Farnborough, but from Ulster. 
Then I recognised its nature. It is one of a num- 
ber of provincial or folk-tales, such as Englishmen 
have long loved to attach to some neighbour or 
other, either in derision of him, or in picturesque 
illustration of a well-known foible. The tale 
of the doctor whose pestle talked to his mortar 
is almost certainly another of the series. To be 
sure, I never heard it elsewhere; yet plainly it 
could be fitted to any country practitioner, and 
no less plainly a certain sort of Englishman would 
enjoy fitting it. In short, these stories have a 
quality hard to describe, perhaps, but very 
203 
