1915.] REPORTS. 203 



carcase was cut up in tlie usual way. Then came the duty of 

 distributing the pork, to a share of which the family in the 

 second cottage was of course entitled. One morning one of 

 the sisters set off with some joints of pork to carry to her 

 neighbour, and she duly left them at the second cottage and 

 then returned home. Great however was her astonishment 

 when she reached her own residence to find that the identical 

 pieces of pork which she had taken to her friends had 

 got back before her, and were again lying in the place whence 

 she had taken them. She consequently at once carried them 

 over to the cottage again, and again they returned. This was 

 repeated three or four times. She could never account for 

 the occurrence, but she always averred most positively that it 

 took place, and she often spoke about it to a nephew, who was 

 my informant. Now, what can one make of such a happening, 

 which certainly, in itself, seems most improbable ? The old 

 lady could hardly have been mistaken about having herself 

 carried the pork to her neighbour, and she was not a woman 

 who would deliberately make up such a story simply for the 

 sake of exciting wonder. She evidently fully believed it. 

 Was it true or was she unconsciously in error ? But she 

 frequently and strenuously asserted that her statements were 

 facts. 



Another feature to which she also alluded was that while 

 these mysterious events were occurring, a horse — quite a 

 stranger to the neighbourhood — kept ambling up and down in 

 front of her cottage, apparently in an entirely aimless way. 

 Ultimately the animal trotted off, and then the occult inter- 

 vention ceased. So the case stands. The whole narration is 

 most improbable. Yet one of the chief actors in it implicitly 

 asserted its truth. She was there, we were not. Under these 

 circumstances one could scarcely tell the old lady : " You 

 did not carry the pork to your friends. The story is all 

 imagination." Like many other legends that are told in good 

 faith and at first hand one can only record it, and leave it as 

 an unexplained mystery. 



The circumstance of the horse, however, is worth noting. 

 Last year in my Report I recalled the launch of the Concordia 

 at St. Sampson's in 1836. There witchcraft was supposed to 

 have intervened and a bird was seen flying backwards and 

 forwards across the vessel as the latter unaccountably stuck 

 on the " ways." This introduction of the animal creation 

 when witchcraft is afoot seems peculiar to the Island. 



In many of these witchcraft legends a demon is brought 

 in who is always spoken of as The Devil, yet he is obviously 



