DORSETSHIRE FOLK-SPEECH AND SUPERSTITIONS. 21 



aught that appertains to superstition, legend, or custom. The 

 harvest has long been ready to hand, and it only remains for us to 

 gather it in ; there will be no seed for any future harvest, of that 

 we may be sure. In the hope, then, as I have said, that my 

 example may be followed by folk-lorists of other counties, I now 

 append a list of Natural History Folk-speech from a Dorsetshire 

 source, for the compilation of which I am principally indebted to 

 the late Eev. W. Barnes's Glossary of the Dorset Dialect, published 

 for the Philological Society in 1863, and his recent additions to 

 it published from time to time in the Dorset County Chronicle, 

 and which have doubtless found their way into the last edition of 

 the Glossary that was published just before the death of the 

 Dorset poet in 1886; the late Mr. Pulman's Book of the Axe; 

 and other more private sources, including my own collection 

 of words. To this I have added an account of any superstitions 

 (from a Dorsetshire source) that may be known to bear reference to 

 any object of natural history contained in the subjoined list of pro- 

 vincialisms, together with those which concern other objects of 

 natural history whose local names I have not yet been able to gather. 

 This arrangement, though, perhaps, not one to be approved of by 

 the scientists of the Folk-lore Society, will, nevertheless, I trust, 

 commend itself to the possibly less exacting members of the Dorset 

 Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club, if only for the 

 advantage it will afford with regard to simplicity of reference. 



I may, perhaps, call the attention of those of our readers who may 

 be meditating a contribution from a Somersetshire source, to a list 

 of Avords in the dialect of that county published in Notes and 

 Queries (5th series, viii., 358), in which several of the names there 

 given belong also to Dorset. This may only be expected, perhaps, 

 from two counties that not only are contiguous but whose dialect 

 would appear to bear more resemblance to each other than either 

 of the neighbouring counties of Devon and Cornwall.* 



* I would take this opportunity, if I may be allowed, to appeal to 

 all those who are interested in the subject of Dorsetshire folk-lore for 

 contributions, either by way of addition to the particular subject of this 

 paper, or generally with reference to any superstitious, legends, or customs, 



