104 Transactions. 
estimates by four we find the average population for 30 years is 
400.- Our deaths from 1861 to 1891, both included, are 183. 
Divide by the number of years 31, and you have 6 deaths per 
annum to 400 population, which gives us—death rate, 15 per 
1000. By the same mode—marriage rate, 6 per 1000; 
birth rate, 27 per 1000. This birth rate is less than 
that for the whole of Scotland taken for the same _ period 
—namely, 27 against 33. The marriage rate is_ slightly 
less, and the death rate is considerably less. In the 31 years over 
which I have gone the death rate for Scotland is nearly 21 per 
1000, while that of Tynron is 15 per 1000. When we consider 
that many of our young men and women emigrate to the towns, 
leaving the older people remaining, our health record stands out 
well. 
As I have already read a paper on folk-lore, I shall mention 
only one curious custom. A woman about 30 or 40 years ago 
caused her children to wash their feet every Saturday evening. 
As soon as the ablutions were performed, a live peat or coal was 
thrown into the tub, the person doing so walking three times 
around it. This was meant to prevent death. On 
Thursday, after the terrible snowstorm of 6th February, a 
shepherd told’ me he could have predicted a change, because on 
Tuesday evening Hurlbawsie was far too near the moon. This 
strange word was old people’s name for the planet Jupiter. 
Art has decidedly improved. We have two large memorial 
windows in the Parish Church, one of them as fine as any 
window of the kind in the county. In sewed samplers you have 
Pharoah’s daughter rescuing the baby Moses, and others of that 
sort. On the mantelpieces are crockery hens sitting on delf 
baskets, brooding over crockery eggs. But cabinet photos are 
superseding the high-coloured prints of the happy pair courting | 
or going to church to be kirked. Red carts, red petticoats, red 
eravats, red calico napkins still prevail, but the young women 
coming back for holiday from domestic service in towns are 
toning down the enthusiasm for primary colours. The rack 
above the dresser with the dishes, knives, forks, and spoons is 
sometimes a picture of itself. The stone floor of the kitchen and 
the threshold are made gay with curious scroll patterns, white or 
red, by rubbing with caumstone. The taste for garden and potted 
flowers has increased, and at Yule Christmas trees are in bloom 
with us. Concertinas and melodeons have multiplied. Queer 
