150 SMALL DEER OUR RODENTS 
thinned down in the same way. Sometimes I go for 
several months, regularly, through the very heart of 
the country without seeing a shrew, alive or dead. 
The cruel, superstitious folk lore attached to this little 
animal which still obtains I cannot deal with in the 
limits of this paper. Prejudice is a stubborn foe 
to fight, but superstition is the devil's favourite child, 
and he plays strange pranks. Even now, in this nine- 
teenth century, I know of strange rites being practised, 
and ones that are by no means harmless. The 
black cat is still in its place in some localities as the 
old ' familiar.' If things are lost in such places folks 
do not go to the constable, but to a wise woman, and 
dire at times are the results of her insight into utter 
darkness. I have known whole families become 
bitter foes through life in consequence of it. Some 
time or other I feel I must write about the folk-lore 
and superstitions of the woodlands, for, in spite 
of churches and the little Bethels of the elect, not to 
mention the advanced schools of the present day, 
superstition still holds its own. 
Oberon's long-tailed cattle, the white and fawn- 
coloured woodmice, with their large dark eyes, are 
charming creatures. It is a pity they do not keep to 
the woods ; they visit the gardens, and being vege- 
table feeders with very discriminating palates, like 
