OLD SAIINIA. 301 



Then came an overflowing torrent of tales of wonders, 

 prodigies and spells, the follies of maidens, the stratagems of 

 lovers, tJean Vivien's ghost, the phantom colt, the annals of 

 witchcraft, and, to conclude, Tmitin, the kissing nosegay 

 dance, " Men bean lanrier," the final act of this old-fashioned 

 agricultural function. 



One curious custom at the snpper or " defrique " was that 

 the men had their meal first, and not till they had finished did 

 the women sit down to theirs. 



[The fp-an kerue in Guernsey is an event of the past. 

 To-day light English or American ploughs are generally used, 

 to pull which two to four horses are employed. In only a fcAV 

 instances are eight horses harnessed to the plough, and this 

 usually every seven years, when the soil is turned up to a 

 depth of about eighteen inches, so as to bring the under part 

 of the produce-bearing ground to the surface. Now the 

 ground as a rule is turned over to a depth of about eight inches. 

 This rendei's labour easier and cheaper, but the result is not 

 so good as in former days. At that period there was a regular 

 rotation of crops : parsnips, turnips, wheat, clover, barley, rye- 

 grass, oats, &c. To-day, we understand, little variation is 

 made in the crops. — Ed.] 



A Supernatural Event and a Mystery. 



Tlie following was related in 1907 to the writer by a 

 country gentleman. 



A certain family came to Guernsey a good many years 

 ago and took a farm in one of the western parishes of the 

 island. They had not long been settled when they were 

 informed with a mysterious air by some of the ancient inha- 

 bitants of the neighbourhood that the stones of an arch at the 

 end of a building in which they kept their farming implements 

 had not l)een justly acquired ; in fact the stones had been 

 destined as part of those with Avhich the church near by was 

 to be built. The end of the building was, it should be men- 

 tioned, a party wall which divided it from a very old dwelling 

 house that was said to be as old as the church itself. The 

 house was reported to be haunted, and the family Avere in- 

 formed that " something " resented the improper use of the 

 stones which had been removed one dark winter night by the 

 unscrupulous builder of the house, and that the latter had 

 been untenanted for a great number of years as no one would 

 live in it. Weird lights during the long winter nights had 

 been frequently seen and strange noises, like falling stones, 

 heard in the house. Little attention was paid to the story, 



