COUNTRY FOLK-LORE.*
THIS book will appeal to those to whom the study of old customs and superstitions are interesting because they throw light on the working of the minds of inarticulate people. Mrs. Leather has collected a great mass of tradition, some from printed sources, but more especially from her own personal contact with the people of Herefordshire. Of °curse, a great many of these relics of the old age are not peculiar to this particular county, though no doubt many which have connexion with individual places may be truly local. Here is a story told by Jane Propert, of Kington, in the hop-yard at Weobly in September 1908. Jane believed the story, because she had it from "a woman who knew it was true." It is as good as Grimm.
"A woman had a baby that never grew; it was always hungry, and never satisfied, but lay in its cradle year after year, never walking, and nothing seemed to do it good. Its face was hairy and strange-looking. One day the woman's elder son, a soldier, came home from the war, and was surprised to see his brother still in the cradle. But when he looked in he said, ' That's not my brother, mother.' It is, indeed,' said his mother. We'll see about that,' he said. So he obtained first a fresh egg and blew out the contents, filling the shell with malt and hops. Then he began to brew over the fire. At this a laugh came from the cradle. 'I am old, old, ever so old,' said the changeling, but I never saw a soldier brewing beer in an eggshell before !' Then he gave a terrible shriek, for the soldier went for him with a whip, chasing him round and round the room what bad never left his cradle. At last he vanished through the door, and when the soldier went out after him he met on the threshold his long-lost brother. He was a man of twenty-four years of age, fine and healthy. The fairies had kept him in a beautiful place under the rocks, and fed him on the best of everything. He should never be as well off again, ho said, but when his mother called he had to come home."
There is a very interesting collection of stories relating to a farmer who was wise in removing the spells of witches. For so doing he took no money, but he also gave medicines made from simples, and for these he charged. Mrs. Leather has had expert help in writing down folk tunes and dances, Mr. Cecil Sharp and Mr. Vaughan-Williams both having assisted in their notation. Altogether the book contains a varied and interesting medley of folk-lore.
Previous page
