30 JUNE 1950, Page 7

On Thursday of last week at Torquay I heard someone

tell a story of the man who was seen walking through Winchester with an oar on his shoulder. Asked why he was doing that, he answered that he was a seaman who was sick of the sea ; he had just been paid off at Southampton and he was walking inland till he found someone who asked him what the thing on his shoulder was ; on the spot where that happened he would settle down for life. That was on Thursday. On Sunday in Surrey, reading Farnell's Evolution of Religion, I came on this: " I myself have heard the immemorial story of Odysseus walking inland with his oar, which the rustic mistakes for a winnowing-fan, told about St. Peter, St. Paul and SO John on the coast of the Peloponnese." Any comments ? * * *