

CONNECTION WITH ASTROLOGY, ETC. 149 



they as readily joined together again. When young 

 Lambton returned from the wars, he was greatly troubled 

 at hearing of this little eel he had caught ; and foreboding 

 something ill from it, he applied to an old witch in the 

 neighbourhood. She told him he must obtain an armour 

 of razor-blades ; and on his going out with it, to attack 

 the monster eel, he was to kill the first living animal he 

 met. He made a compact with his father, that a grey- 

 hound should be let loose, for the purpose of expiation ; 

 but from some cause or other the scheme miscarried, and 

 his father himself was the first thing he met with his 

 armour of razor-blades. But he revolted from the thought 

 of killing his own parent. He went to the water to kill 

 the eel ; which had now got into the main river again 

 He cut it to pieces ; and as they separated one by one, 

 they were floated down the stream, and the monster was 

 no more. But as a punishment for fishing on the Sabbath 

 Day, and for not implicitly obeying the orders of the 

 sorcerer, to kill the first living thing he should meet, none 

 of the Lambton family were to die in their beds for seven 

 generations ; a prediction, the tale says, which was literally 

 fulfilled. 



There is a tale called " The Witch of the Isle of Lochs," 

 and a multitude of Irish stories, of a similar kind, to which 

 the reader will find more or less amusement. 



The following is another story, which is taken almost 

 verbatim from the Italian of the sixteenth century : 



13 



