MEMORIAL UNIVERSITY OF NEWFOUNDL AND DEPAR TMENT OF fOLKLORE 2/6d

The journal of The Survey of Language and Folklore

The University of Sheffield

Departments of ~~i~~S~u~~~~~~~~es & The Language Centre I •

EDITORIAL

During the past two yea rs there has been an enthusiastic revival of interest in Folklore throughout the British Isles. This has shown itself, for example. in the many recent books on various aspects of Folklore which have been published in England. The more important of these include: I. and P. Opie, Children's Games in Street and Playground, Oxford University Press, 1969; A. L. Lloyd, Folksongs in England, Panther, 1969; R. M. Dorson, The British Folklorists, Routledge, 1968, and Peasant Customs and Savage Myths, Routledge, 1969; A. Helm, The Chapbook Mummers' Plays, Guizer Press. 1969, and the English edition of Christmas Mumming in Newfoundland, edited by H. Halpert and G. M. Story. Oxford University Press, 1969. in addition to the 'Dalesman' series of paperbacks, the 'Discovering' pocket books and numerous other publications. The Anglo-American Folklore Conference organised by the Folklore Society at Ditchley Park in Oxfordshire from 9th to 12th September 1969 provided a welcome opportunity for leading folklorists from both sides of the Atlantic to meet and exchange views. Delegates discussed a wide range of topics, including potential fields of research and new developments in British and American folklore; belief and custom; folk narrative; folksong; bibliography; ethnic influences on Anglo-American Folklore, in addition to many other matters of mutual interest. The Folklore surveys at the universities of Leeds and Sheffield have continued to expand their activi· ties, thus complementing the valuable work of older-established collections in various regional centres. Some headway has also been made in the re-establishment of Folklore as an academic subject. In univer· sities, this reappraisal of the role which the folklorist plays in the comprehensive description of a culture is bound up with the new sense of relevance with which more recen t approaches to the subject have been particularly concerned. This wind of change may be somewhat disconcerting in that it involves a movement away from a purely historical or a literary ori entation, important though these are when seen in their proper perspective. On the other hand it promotes an essential reappraisal of aims and methods through which any academic discipline must pass if it is to compete, or indeed survive, in an age of scientific awareness and technological progress.

THE DRAMATIC ACTION IN THE VICINITY OF SHEFFIELD

The distribution of the Mummers' Play in Great Britain shows that there is a principal area which roughly corresponds with the distribution of the Anglo-Saxon three·field system, an area where there was resistance to enclosures of the common land because of the conservatism of its people. A distribution map also shows blank areas, some of which can be explained more easily than others. The Highlands of Wales and Scotland for example, have nothing to offer for the Play, presumably because there were insufficient people to maintain the ceremony. East Anglia on the other hand, probably shows nothing because of rural depopulation at the beginning of the nineteenth century. This was occasioned by the extreme poverty of the farm workers, many of whom either existed in conditions of hopeless squalor or were moved, as a Government policy, to the industrial north·west to work in the factories there. The highlands of the Peak District are also blank, though not entirely so. Where there were large settlements, e.g. Buxton, Castleton, Winster, etc., ceremony of some kind seems to have been maintained. The generally blank area of these highlands separates the dramatic ceremonies of Cheshire from those of the Southern West Riding with Sheffield as their immediate centre. To the north of this area the ceremonies cluster again in south Lancashire, and to the south the principal dense distribution of Staffordshire completes the circle. The dramatic ceremonies north, west and east, have one common factor: for the most part they are based on the chapbook versions which were popular in the industrial areas, and which jobbing printers seem to have found sufficiently worthwhile to continue printing. It is the purpose here to examine the dramatic ceremonies immediately around Sheffield. The earliest mention of mummers in Sheffield occurs in the Hunter MSS, 1822,1 where the performers, described as being fantastically dressed and nine or ten in number, included St. George, the King of Egypt, the King of Egypt's son, an apothecary, Slasher and a Fool. There were several combats in all of which St. George was the victor. This must have antedated a printed version published by Pearce and Son, Gibralter Street, Sheffield,2 since the firm was only in existence between 1837 and 1845. Although very unusual, the Pearce version could have been based on that quoted by Hunter, since the basic action appears to be the same - George kills Slasher, the Prince of Paradise and Hector, the doctor cures the first but not the last two, and also the versions have the characters of the King of Egypt and the Fool in common. The King of Egypt laments the death of the Prince of Paradise and describes him as 'his son and only heir', which may account for a character being described as the 'King of Egypt's son' in the Hunter fragment. On to this basic action, however, Pearce overlaid very literary additions. The whale was preceded by a Prologue spoken by the Fool and ended with two soliloquies by two of the performers. None of these has

1. S. J. Hunter: Popular Traditions, Proverbs, Forms of Expression, Words and other Antiquities of the Common People, ~ MS) , 1822, 8M Add 24542, f.13R, f.25R . 2. Xerox copy in Sheffield City Museum. any counterpart in any other dramatic action anywhere. They are obviously inserted on the grounds that the mummers ' action was a poor relation of the legitimate stage and include such lines as: ..... Even Kings would be Sans Culottes if I turned traitor, and would not make them breeches;.. ' which are obviously far removed from the simpler, topsy-turvy humour of the traditional texts. The version ends with 'A New Song' sung by the mummers. I t has ten verses of four lines each which roughly summarise the action and this song may be Pearce's contribution to the ceremony for it is only found in the Sheffield neighbourhood and exists in ceremonies which have no obvious connection with Pearce's text. Although this literary version is known to have been actually performed in 1840, it was largely superseded by another chapbook version, Walker's The Peace Egg, published in Otley circa 1840. This particular publication seems to have enjoyed great popularity, not only in the West Riding, but also in Derbyshire, South Lancashire and Cheshire. I t is also the version from which many Staffordshire texts derive, though to date, no record of its sale has been found in the county. Even this version, according to Addy,3 had the final song added at the end in the Sheffield area, but only of four verses, and it is certainly not included in Walker's text, Cox says he bought copies of the Peace Egg in Sheffield market place in 1869 and 18784 and it was certainly on sale elsewhere until 1914, though there is no evidence of any performance of a dramatic action in Sheffield after 1888. I t would be about this time that Mrs. Ewing took the local Pace Egg text from her vi llage, Ecclesfield, and incorporated it into her book, The Peace Egg and a Christmas Mumming Play, published, somewhat curiously in view of the ceremony's primitive origins, by the S.P.C.K. Her version was considered appropriate for performance in the Victorian nursery, and was made respectable by the removal of coarse lines and by collation with other versions, Worse still, a local inhabitant of Ecclesfield, judging that Mrs. Ewing's version must be the best, had copies of it printed and circulated amongst the children who were still performing in the village. It was thought that this killed the local tradition,5 but recently, the enquiries of Paul Smith in Ecclesfield have produced an oddity. This is an amalgam of an Old Tup ceremony and the dramatic action. The Tup was killed by the Butcher in the normal way and then cured by a doctor who had the customary lines. Also in this combined version were Devil Doubt, 8eelzebub and Fool, each with lines that have come straight from the Play. I t is a possibility - nothing more - that when the performers of the Play found that their version was not considered 'correct', they joined forces with the Old Tup performers and combined their texts. It has certainly no counterpart elsewhere either as an Old Tup Play or a Mummers' Play . Other places in the vicinity of Sheffield where the dramatic action was known were Anston, Kimberworth, Mexborough, Swinton, Thorpe Salvin and Whiston. Of these, a text is only preserved from Whiston, and again it is clearly that of Walker's Peace Egg. I t occurs in a fictional work, Sarre/sykes by Harold Armitage and relates to the period circa 1883. The novel is set in and around Whiston and informants from the village confirmed the location to Dr. Peacock in 1963. Details are few from the other places mentioned. The Kimberworth information refers to circa 1820 and speaks of mummers who wore very fine ribbons, hats covered with bows and streamers and who fought with wooden swords. Addy says that the Sheffield performers were dressed in all sorts of bright colours and ribbons, but these are the only costume details given. Ribbons are, of course, the familiar disguise of performers in the dramatic action, but it often occurs that, particularly where chapbook versions were used, their use dwindled and the costumes were according to character. There are several possible reasons for this. Firstly, in the industrial areas where the chapbooks were used, the performers were usually children who carried on the ceremonies that their parents neglected. Secondly, the publishers of the chapbooks occasionally gave costume instructions which clearly had more affinity with amateur theatricals than anything else. Thirdly, as the understanding of the ceremony died, so did the purpose of the disguise. Ribbons probably replaced strips of cloth as they became more readily available, and these in turn replaced fur or foliage, worn so that the performers could identify themselves w ith the crops and animals whose fertility they sought to promote, but in an industrial area the need for this identification had long disappeared. The result was that children sought to dress up, often in home­ made cardboard armour, occasionally decorated with bows and sashes. The ceremonies of the Sheffield area seem to have been unique in preserving the ribbons in an industrial area, but presumably this is because most of the accounts are comparatively early ones. Never­ theless it is clear that early in the nineteenth century the ceremony had passed to the children. Pearce's chapbook was sub·titled 'For the Amusement of Youth on Christmas Holidays', so that by 1840 at least, it was the children who were maintaining the tradition here. It is clear that more research in the area would produce more information. A search of local newspapers could well be productive and since Pearce's chapbook is labelled 'A New Edition', it seems clear that there was an earlier one. If so, it has not so far come to light. Much more information concerning the costume is also needed; this would either confirm or deny the ribbons, how they were worn, in what quantity, and so

3. Sidney OIdall Addy: A Glo$S8ry of Words used in the Neighbourhood of Sheffield, EDS 57, Trubner, london. 1888, 153. 4. J. C. CO)( (ed.): Strutt: Sports Bnd Psstim,s, 1903,274, fn 5.

5. Ivor GlItry: 'The Eden Collection of Mumming Plays' in Folk·Lore, lIX, Gtaisher. London. 1948. 16. on. Informat ion about headdress is also required. Normally the most important feature of the mummers' disguise, the only positive information about headdress comes from Kimberworth as already noted, and this is very vague. I t is also possible that the ceremony would be found elsewhere in the Sheffield vicinity but this awaits proof. The enquiries of Paul Smith and his associates have added considerably to our knowledge of the Old Tup ceremonies of the area in recent months. It is probable that similar results could be obtained for the dramatic ceremonies if all possible sources were explored now.

ALEX HELM

PROVERBS AND PROVERB-COL LECTING

'Into the bath with you, David - you're as black as Newgate knocker!' Three things are remarkable about this terse instruction of a mother to her small son; it was said in Croydon in 1966: it was given by a woman in her late twenties; and she knew nothing whatever of its probable origin - except that, as she said, 'Everyone round here says it.' In fact, this simile embodies very precisely certain qualities and aspects of proverbs as they appear in a contemporary setting. The most important of these, perhaps, is their striking longevity and persistence. The young woman who made the remark quoted above had no idea what it seemed likely to refer to - she had never heard of Newgate - but the folk-memory, working through her in this instance, has preserved to this day, in this echoing simile, the menace and terror of that prison. It is important to recognise that this example is one of oral transmission: that the woman did not draw upon literary experience to make a striking comparison. She had not, that is, seen the simile in print and thought it vivid enough to use in some situation such as that noted above. She was aware that blackness of superlative quality - literal so far as she was immediately concerned, but symbolical and metaphorical also - was invoked by the comparison, but she did not know the provenance of the simile. In using it she was unconsciously drawing upon the oral tradition of South London. I t is worth noting that she was not a native of London, and had lived in Croydon five years when the remark was recorded. Of course, very many proverbial sayings have at one time and another passed from the spoken form into the written form (by which here I mean any printed form from, say, the novel to the most ephemeral journalism) and some - though fewer - have been minted in literature and have passed into everyday oral usage. We need only glance at the work of English writers from the earliest days onwards through the massive use made of proverbs by Shakespeare and other Elizabethans to Dickens and the present day to see how they have utilised and incorporated the proverbial sayings of their time when they have felt the need to do so. But in nearly all these cases these writers have drawn upon the same common stock of proverbial sayings; that is, upon the great body of oral and traditional wisdom that the proverbs of a people embody. They are on the whole transmitters of proverbs rather than inventors of proverbs. Thus, when Chaucer's Summoner says, in The Freres Tale: Now certes, so fare I; I spare nat to taken, god it woot, But-if it be to hevy or to hoot Chaucer is in all probability putting into his character's mouth a saying current in the oral tradition of his England, not inventing a saying appropriate to the Summoner's moral character - though it is appropriate . So too, when in my hearing in 1962 an elderly Yorkshire housewife said, speaking of a dishonest neighbour: 'He'll lift owt that's not too heavy nor too hot' she was drawing, not directly upon the words of Chaucer, but upon the English oral tradition common to both herself and Chaucer: she had never read a word of Middle English in her life. But though writers usually transmit rather than invent proverbs, they have often invented characters whose names have passed into proverbial form orally. A famous Elizabethan example is that of Hieronimo in Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, whose maniacal frenzies on the stage were so popular that such catch­ phrases as 'Go to, Hieronimo' passed into the common speech of street and inn of the time, by a very similar process to that by which catch·phrases from television and radio programmes in our own time do so. A generation ago, for example, ITMA provided many such. But one need not go either to radio or the Elizabethans for examples. The housewife who made the remark quoted above about her thievish neighbour was also apt to say of an over-dressed woman: 'She's dressed like a Dolly Varden' Now t he origi nal Dolly Varden appears in Dickens's Barnaby Rudge, and is given to dressing in the Watteau style, that is, in elegant gowns and hats. During the 'seventies of the nineteenth century gowns and hats in this style were for a time known as ' Dolly V ardens'. But though my informant had never read Barnaby Rudge, and though she was born later than the period during which the term came into use again, it provenance is quite clear. I nterestingly, though, it had in her use of it a derogatory meaning that could not be referred back to its origin.!. who is appropriately and charmingly dressed, rather than over-dressed . These examples illustrate what is perhaps the most signal characteristic of proverbs - their persistence. In one of them we have an elderly woman using, in 1962, a proverbial form used in about 1380 by Chaucer - and probably old even then: in the one with which I began, a young woman in contemporary Croydon evokes the name of a prison demolished long before she was born, and of which she did not even know the name. This latter example, however, demonstrates something else of great importance to the' collector of folklife materials. Our predecessors, the folklorists of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, largely saw their field of study as being concerned with the rural, rather than tile urban areas of this country. It seemed reasonable to them to suppose that long-rooted beliefs and superstitions, folktales, proverbs and so on would most easily be found in isolated, inward-turned villages and regions of these islands where settle­ ment was long-established and the patterns of life and culture were continuous over long periods. To a large extent this was true, and to their enthusiasm we owe, for example, the major collections of Irish and Scottish folktales and of English folksong. It is also true that major elements of the rural cultures described by them have now vanished, largely because the patterns of life of which they were part have gone. The folklife and traditional forms based upon the rural and agricultural economy that was already far gone in change and decay when Thomas Hardy wrote Tess of the O'Urbevilies - a way of life celebrated and regretted in such works as George Sturt's The Wheelwright's Shop - have to a very large extent disappeared. But, not very many years before the establishment of the Folk·Lore Society as a reflection of growing interest in the study, the way forward for the modern folklorist, working, generally speaking, in towns and cities rather than in the countryside and its villages, had been adumbrated by the solid Victorian figure of Henry Mayhew. The four volumes of his London Labour and the London Poor, (first two volumes, 1851), are not only an immensely-detailed sociological study of mid -Victorian London, but also a quarry of information concerning the language, customs and beliefs of Londoners at that time. The book is, almost accidentally, the first modern study of the folklife of a city.

It is appropriate, therefore, that this article should be prefaced by a proverbial item collected in London one hundred years after Mayhew and his collaborators walked its streets, and encouraging that one should find that such a simile is not only extant, but to be found in the mouths of younger members of an urban population - for one may be sure that this is not an isolated instance. I ncreasingly, collectors of folklife materials are finding that, far from pursuing vestigial remnants of forms of folklife, they are concerned not only with decay but with regeneration also; with change but also with continuity; and that the city and town are important centres of investigation. Particularly. perhaps, both because of its intrinsic interest as an element of the oral tradition and because of the comparative ease with which items can be collected, the proverb and its associated forms are will worth the attention of the modern student of folk­ life, who is, in the nature of things, more often nowadays a town rather than a country dweller. It is useful for our purpose to consider proverbs as falling into two main groups: national and local. National proverbs are those which are to be found and heard widely disseminated among the population at large; which are frequently met in print - notably in newspapers - and which are listed in the major printed collections of proverbs (as The Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, for example). They are the common currency of proverbial speech, the smoothly·worn coinage of everyday aphorism and comparison. Two examples only should suffice: A bird in the hand...... ; and Don't count your chickens...... My main concern here, however, is not with national proverbs, interesting though they are, but with local proverbs. Since 'local' in this context may be read as 'West Riding', my examples are chosen from among proverbs collected in the West Riding itself. Local proverbs appear to be of three main kinds. There are those that are reworkings of variations of national proverbs: there are those that are specifically localised because they contain place· names, or personal names, or references to particular occurrences; and there are those that, though not possessing the specific local ising elements peculiar to the second group, yet appear to have a limited currency within certain regions - a county, perhaps, or an even smaller area - and most often have no direct equivalent among the national proverbs, though one may find parallels on occasion. These three groups are by no means sharply divided off from each other, but they provide a workable description of local proverbs for my purpose. Of the first group (the variations of national proverbs), for example, the proverb You can'r have your cake and eat it (national) has its equivalent in the local variations If you get it in t'cake, you can't have it in t'dough (Bradford) and You can't have it in t'spice and t'hawpenny (Idle, near Bradford). Similarly, the national proverb Two heads are better than one becomes in local versions (Bradford, Halifax, and elsewhere in the north) Two heads are better than one, if they're nobbut sheep heads, thus acquiring a pungent and self-derisory rider. These examples, it will be noted, have a distinctly 'West Riding' flavour about them, as have many though not all of this group. Examples of the second group (those that have a specific local element) are much less common. Quite often they are 'weather' proverbs, as in Rain on Holmfirth Feast fine for Whitsun tide (Huddersfield), or with reference to local peculiarities as in the Bradford They'll nip a currant in two that live in Great Horton H.e., are exceptionally mean). They may refer to local landmarks, as in Hartshead-cum-Clifton. two cracked and a snicked 'un (Huddersfield, but the informant's grandparents came from Hartshead) or to local institutions as in (to be) like Meltham Singers (i.e. to begin again, after starting in the wrong key) (Hudder5field). Linked with this group, too, are the mild expletives expressing surprise such as I'll go to Halifax ( or Pudsey and so on) . These are nearly always prefaced by the cue-word 'Well' , by the way_ One is likely to find local equ iva lents in many other areas of the Bri tish Isles also, with appropriate changes of place-name (or whatever loca lising element they contain) also. This seems particularl y true of the 'weather' proverbs associated with local natu ral features (as in the North Riding When Roseberry Topping wears a cap (cloudl.ler Cleveland beware; that is, when there is cloud over the local hill , expect rain); and of sayings making comparisons between one vi llage and another. Finally there are those of the third group. To give examples of them is in some ways an otiose exercise since there are ve ry many of them, they cover the whole range of proverbial wisdom and comment and, as I said above, they sometimes have their parallels among the nati onal proverbs. Nevertheless, the proverbs of this group tend to possess certain marked characteristic quali ties of expression - notably of terseness and compression and in the expression of a rather sardonic humour - that registers them as being very much in what we in the West Riding are apt to regard as the 'Yorkshire' idiom - though in fac t such qualities may be found in proverbs and sayings current far beyond the bounds of this county, and seem characteristic of the proverb itse lf rathe r than of the proverbs of any particula r region. Here are some examples of the proverbs of the third group, all of them exhibiting the qualities referred to above. The first refers to the ingratitude of one's chilqren: It isn't often t'kitten takes a mouse to t'owd cat (or brings) (Thornton, near Bradford), the second: Pigs pair the'sens (i .e. themselves) (Idle, near Bradford), is one of those for which a close parallel is to be found among the national proverbs, since it is near in meaning to Birds of a feather ...... This local proverb, however, is used particularly as a comment upon the marriage of a slatternly woman and a slovenly and idle man rather than as a general comment upon the disreputable, ana its terseness and contemptuous sting are lackirig in its national parallel. Without this last example's derogatory bite, but with the same admirable compression and summing·up feel about it, is one from Huddersfield: Prick one and they all bleed. This is an 'outsider's' comment on closely·knit groups such as one finds in villages where a good deal of inter·marrying has taken place or on any particularly closely·bound group - some families, some communities, some groups of friends. Finally, here is a stringent and rock·hard comment upon expressions of grief felt too excessive and, therefore, perhaps insincere: A blorting cow soon forgets its calf (Thornton, near Bradford). This example is of ancient lineage, appearing in written form as early as the mid·fourteenth century. One ought also to mention, briefly, the large body of proverbial similes in which the area is rich , since these often tend to fall into the third group. Among those current are: (to be) as wick as a weasel; to stink like a poke of devils; (to be) as right as a bobbin; (to be) as rough as a besom - and many readers of this will be able to extend such a list at length. To add more examples is unnecessary; enough have been given to illustrate my contention that a mass of proverbial material of absorbing interest to the collector is to be found in the West Riding. All the items were collected in the West Riding after 1961 from oral sources in urban areas: they represent, that is, current oral tradition of one kind, and briefly exemplify my three·fold division of local proverbs. Providing one remembers that such a division is a working and partial description only, it is useful for someone who wishes to begin coll ecting material of this kind or who has already gathered some such items incidentally. The collection of proverbs - and this is true also of the collection of other folklife materials - is essentiall y a field exercise in which people as individuals are met with and talked to. It is convenient and conventional to refer to them as 'informants', but the collector should always remember that they are not just sou rces from which to secure the information he seeks, but the prime reason why he seeks such infor· mation. To describe their traditions is to describe them; to describe their social and domestic life, their attitudes and prejudices and their language - indeed, all that concerns them as people - is to consider and ill uminate them as people. Two things follow from this: first, that the coll ection of proverbs should be seen as one element only in the task of describing the complex structure that makes up the folk·tradition of a given community; and second, that the most successful collector wi ll be the one who is close in sympathy to his informants as well as be ing well·informed in the techniques of the craft of collecting. Proverbs cannot be coll ected in a hurry. One needs to take one's time; to stand and listen in places where people gather - in shops and markets, in pubs and offices and streets and homes - for in these places one may hear sayings used and be su re that, because they are used in these living contexts. they are genuinely current in the oral trad ition. The reward of such patient coll ecting lies in the slow gathering of items reflecting that trad ition and one's growing awareness of its strength and continuity in a community. And every now and then, even though it be rarely, one may have the special pleasu re of hav ing that awa reness confirmed, when someone, somewhere, utters a remark such as that with which I began.

D. McKELVIE

I I :U

~ j, U ... !I.~!-, ,d~ TH E BIlAC K' OOG 1,N.",,, ~ O K CCUNTR Y

I have been collecting traditional stories and personal sightings of this ghost for many years now, and have about four hundred examples, mainly in England, though it occurs throughout Western Europe: it accompanies white settlers in the New World and is also associated with the coloured population that originated in West Africa. If t now write a brief account of the North Country dog-ghosts, it is not with any idea of imparting information so much as stating what I have in my catalogue and asking your help in correcting my (no doubt!) numerous errors (not always my fault - some informants are very vague) - and of encouraging further additions and contributions. We are not, at the moment, discuSSing packs of dogs (Gabriel, Ratchet, etc.) but the creature which appears in two modes: (i) The BarguestiPadfootiGuytrash. This appears in various shapes ~ bear, dog, sheep, etc. I t is quite impersonal, nearly always horrific and ominous, and infests areas rather than a definite spot. It never looks like a normal animal. (ii) The Black Dog. Not always black, but usually so. Haunts a definite house, crossroads. beat of a road. etc., looks a normal dog, or larger. sometime frightening, but usually neutral; sometimes positively friendly or even protective. Often known as 'The Black Dog of...... · and has human connections ~ it is the ghost of some known person's dog, even if merely a folk-memory, or it is supposed to be the ghost of a person, etc. Of this friendly type, there is a high concentration in Lincolnshire, in North-West Somerset and on Tyneside. The Barguest type occurs in the Fen district of Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Cambridge. where it is called Shuck. In discussing the North Country, 1 am taking the area down to North Derbyshire because that appears to be the southernmost point associated with the Barguest in the English Dialect Dictionary. The Barguest appears to be known northwards and westwards as far as Cumberland. where it is vaguely said to haunt burial places. Mainly it seems concentrated across that part of the Pennines that stretch eastwards to Leeds, southwards to Halifax, westwards to Burnley. and northwards to Skipton. It is seen especially in the Craven and Wharfe dales. From Craven comes the unlocated story cited by Hone (Table Book p. 747) and the Troller's Gill (or Trowler's Gill) Hound about which I have no specific details. Dixon (Chronicles and Stories of the Craven Dales 1853) says there "are so many and strange stories and legends" about it ~ but does not cite any! A writer in The Dalesman says it is "big as a little·ish bear, and yellow with great eyes like saucers" and it is fatal to catch its eye. At Wharfedale, a well·known professor of epidemiology who spent his boyhood there told me that fifty years ago people knew the Barguest as "The Brown Dog" and it haunted an area above Otley, the moor between Ilkley and Harrogate. On moonlight nights people saw it, and on stormy nights they heard it. It was vaguely thought to be ominous, but my professor friend said he couldn't remember hearing of any deaths that ensued! Other spots equally haunted are (or were) Kirkby Overblow and Oxwells near Leeds, though the latter, according to Henderson (Folk·Lore of the Northern Counties, p. 275) only troubled to appear when someone really important had died. At Horbury. a man saw a Padfoot, like a white dog, sometimes on two legs, sometimes on three. 1t was near him on a road and his stick passed through it (Henderson, op. cit., pp. 274·5). The Rev. S. Baring·Gould served his title in this parish, 1864·68 and met his w i fe there. The people were superstitious and believed in the Padfoot: "a spectral dog said to haunt a lane near Ossett, to the terror of the mill'girls, and even of others going that way by night." (Onward Christian Soldier: Wi lliam Purcell, 1957, p. 8 1). The name varies with localities. An acquaintance of mine was staying in Baywood House, Cowling, near Keighley, in 1921. One night he distinctly heard "long drawn·out, shuddering cries". and this fearful noise, he was assured, came from the Baygoed or Bargoed, the great black hound that haunted the road outside the village. There is also the Guy trash of Skipton. I ts appearance and significance are unknown, but it caused a lot of fear before the coming of gaslight (W. Harbutt Dawson: The History of Skipton). But it will be remembered that Charlotte Bronte referred to this creature when first Jane Eyre beheld the strange dog of Mr. Rochester, which was black and white and she expected it to attack travellers. It was evidently familiar to Haworth people, for Branwell Bronte also re fers to it in his unpublished Percy: "The Gytrash is a spectre ... mostly appears in the form of some animal ~ a black dog dragging a chain, a dusky calf, nay, even a rOiling stone" and he said that Darkwell Gytrash (attached to the family of Heaton of Ponden Housel took the form of "an old dwarfish and hideous man, as often seen without a head as with one and moving at dark along the naked fields which spread around the old hOUse." Then there is the Trash or Skrikerof Burnley. This was a black dog with long, shaggy hair, which appeared to people whose relative was about to die: it 'trashed' along beside them on the muddy road ~ alternatively its voice made a 'trashing' sound. If the percipient advanced on it, it retreated backwards, its eyes facing its pursuer, and then vanished, or sank into the ground. (Notes and Queries 1st 5., ii 1850-51). Another account says 'trash' was the sound it made as it fell at the traveller's feet! The Barguest of Derbyshire has great saucer eyes, looks like a great dog or bear, and "whoever meets it must give it the wallar it will fall upon him" (EDD, citing an 1894 authority). S. O. Addy (Household Tales ...... 1895) says "One of these beings is said to have appeared at 'three land ends' at Bury H ill, near Holmesfield. A woman who saw a barquest near these 'three land ends' sa id that it was invisible to her 7 sister, w ho d ied a month afterwards." Addy notes " If you see a barquest it will be visible to your companions if you touch them" and remark s on the three lane ends w hich of course constitute a trivium (See also my 'Triple Gateway', Folklore 77 (1966) 123-131). From the BarquestiGuytrash area of the Yorkshire·Lancashire dales these creatures seem to thin out and are replaced by 'dog spooks, usually headless and always ominous in North Lancashire and Westmorland (Folk-Lore LXIII (1952) pp. 98-99) Henderson mentioned a thing ca lled the Capelthwaite, said to be on the Yorkshire·Westmorland boundary, in the parish of Beetham, near Milthorpe. I t lived in a barn and helped the farmer to drive the sheep, but to others it d id not show such brownie-like helpfulness and the vicar of Beetham ' laid' it in the River Bela, but it still breaks out on occasion and has been known to throw a drunk over a hedge. Henderson also mentioned another farm (nea r Sedbergh in Yorkshire) called Capelthwaite, which was haunted by a similar being. Mr. J. Geoffrey Dent who knows this part thinks the ghosts take their name from the farms, rather than vice versa. The Kell Bank Dobby, between Kirkby Lonsdale and Lancaster, is a huge black dog, and so is the creature near Shap (Rev. J. Whiteside: Shappe in Bygone Oays, Kendal, 1904). Other Westmorland parallels are in the Lyth Valley, Stainmore in Kirkby Stephen, and Bela-side Hill. From Westmorland the poet Robert Southey wrote to Mrs. Bray of Tavistock, 12th June, 1932: "Boggles and Barquests (sic) are the only supernatural beings we hear of in these parts; to what class they belong I cannot tell you; but the Barquest , which I believe, generally appears in the shape of some quadruped, may possibly in its origin have simply been a mountain spirit. Large towns and large man u factories in the country destroy all superstitions of this kind." There have been many conjectures about the etymology of all these peculiar names, of course. Berg (= mountain), burgh (: town), besides bear, bier and even boar, can be guessed at; doesguesr mean a guest or a ghost? I t has been suggested that Pad foot is Gaelic - "badda fuath", dog·ghost. Certainly Southey was wrong when he thought that Barguests only inhabit lonely uninhabited spots. The Preston Black Dog was a town·dweller. Minus a head, it still contrived to howl terrifyingly. and though 'laid' under an old bridge about 1825 it attacked an honest citizen near the then Collegiate Church, by placing its paws on his shoulders and pushing him home at top speed! (Hardwick: Traditions, Superstitions and Folk Lore, 1872, p. 172), And some other towns have dog' ghosts, For Cumberland I have not found one specific example, though I understand there is some dog ghost that is seen where there have been crimes or accidents. On Tyneside, there is a group of black dogs which are nearly always friendly and protective. The Pilot's Walk, on the Durham side, had an evil reputation, but a lady walking there, many years ago, was accompanied by a large and friendly dog, which she heard and felt but could not see in the dark. On a country road between Broomley and Stocksfield, on the south bank of the Tyne, a young woman was protected by such a companion from tramps. On the Northumberland coas t , a dru nk was saved from falling­ off a cliff by a spook dog. I am indebted for these examples to Mr. George Kellett who tells me that in this area the Black Dog is generally regarded as the protector of weak folk. This and the large group in Lincolnshire and in Somerset are the only friendly groups I know. What is the reason for this? Is it racial? Did some invading dog-totem coincide with another dog· totem and harmonise? Did some Norse pirates behave decently to the inhabitants, instead of the usual grisly tale of pillage and bu rning? I have just received an extract that gives us another protective dog for the North, near Manchester. At some period over 1819·20, a certain non'conform ist clergyman, in some danger from the Radicals on account of his opinions had to return from chapel at Cheetham Hill to Manchester in the dark and was accompanied by a mysterious large dog which scared off two suspicious·looking men, but vanished as he entered Manchester. No doubt it was a real dog, but the Preacher "COUld not ascribe this occurrence to blind chance, but to the providence of God. He therefore recognised in it a motive to gratitude for the past, and of trust for the future." (The Life of the Re v. Robert Newton, D.O.; Thomas Jackson, 1855) Now to return to town-dogs, or rather City-Protectors, which are almost confined to the North. Newcastle: "The streets of this northern metropolis were formerly (so vu lgar tradit ion has it) haunted by a nightly guest, which appeared in the form of a mastiff dog ...... I have heard, when a boy, many stories concerning it. " (Brand: Popular Antiquities, 1810 Ed ., p. 75 fn .) In the 1813 Edition a further footnote identifies this metropolis with Newcastle. Mackenzie Walcot (The East Coast of England) says the mastiff had the usual sa ucer eyes and prowled through the Newcastle Wynds, and "bayed or laughed according as a new-born child shou ld live or die." The Padfoot of Berwick: EOO quotes Leeds Mercury Supplement, 7 Nov. 1896: "T'padfoot, w i' saucer eyes, used on dark nights to come clomping and dragging a chain through Barwick town·gate." Does this refer to Leeds or to Berwick·on-Tweed? It seems the latter is indica ted , but I would be grateful for some positive information. The Barguest of York: Listed in The Gentleman 's Magazine, 7 Oct. 1732, p. 1002, as a city'protector, but 1 can find nothing further. Major Fairfax-Blakeborough tells me that on S1. Luke's Day it was the custom to beat all strange dogs, the reason being given that in pre-Reformation days a dog in the minster licked up and consumed a consecrated Host which fell from the paten. This has the sound of an etiological myt h, attempting to suppress a dog·cult. The Padfoot of Wakefield: This paraded in and round Wakefield, under various forms, followed by a pack of Gabriel Hounds. At the Wes tgate, it was the size of a calf, with twisted spiral horns projecting in front of its head, saucer eyes, coat shaggy like a bear and a chain attached to one leg. Last seen in 1766. Also called "Langar Hede", f rom its beat in Longerhead Lane. l t rose out of a well at Alverthorpe and clanked its chains when it reached a three·lane end, and paraded under the wall of Alverthorpe Hall. Its most horrific form was the size of a calf with a-white woolly coat and "glittering blazing eyes" which always meant misfortune if it looked at you. (J . R. Walker: Wakefield, its History and People, vol. 2, p. 515) . The Padfoot of POlltfrete: Francis Drake: The History and Antiquities of the City of York, 1736, I, ii, 58. He cites the list given in The Gentleman's Magazine (as above) but inserts the Pad foot of Pontfrete, evidently from independent information. I can find absolutely no further details about this - the people of Pontefract themselves have apparently never heard of it. (While on the subject of town·ghosts, I would like to take this opportunity to ask if any reader knows of a town which has - or had - a "Wynt-Gate" which is associated with a ghostly bullock.) Some ghostly hounds are associated with families and great houses. Starting with Northumberland: at Blenkinsop Hall the dog appears to anyone about to die, in the very room, at the moment of dissolution. In the novel Dorothy Forster, by Walter Besant, period 1710, the family house of Blanchland, on the valley of the Derwent, about ten or eleven miles south of Hexham: formerly a monastery sacked by the Scots, retaining a quadrangle, huge gatehouse and ruins. Ghosts include "a black dog which portends death" Is this a hotch' potch description, or is it based on a real house? At Levens Halt, near Kendal, one of the family ghosts includes a small black, woolly-coated dog like a pood le, which the living dogs see and do not mind (Daily Mail, 21 / 11 / 59). There is Channel Hall, Endmoor, where the Black Dog has been seen running along the wall in living memory (Folklore 63 (1952) p. 98). These are in Westmorland. In Lancashire, at Stannicliffe near Middleton, an unpleasant Parliamentarian named Blondley returns as a human, a calf or a huge dog (Francis Bamford: Passages in the Life of a Radical, 1905. Written in the 1840's). Wycollar Hall, near Colne: here Cunliffe murdered his w ife, and while dying she predicted the end of his line. "The Ghostly (or Ghastly)Dog used to accompany the equally ghostly apparition of the old Squire of Wycollar" who is said to ride across the moors on stormy winter nights. Mrs. Garth-Heyworth who lives in Cornwall. wrote to me about a huge black dog she saw in her house about twenty years ago. There was no tradition of such a ghost there, and it turned out that she came of a Lancashire famity, the Garths of Shirebank Hall, near Preston which "was haunted by a big black dog (like a mastiff) with curly hair ...... Always before a death it used to howl and then vanish on the flight of steps by the front door, but also some of the family saw a grey man." (March, 1960)

Radcliffe Tower, associated w ith Fair E lien who was served up to her father in a pie, is supposed to be haunted by the wicked cook, as a black dog. The T alking Dog of Dobb Park Lodge, in the va lley of the Washburn, Lancash ire, is cited fully in Ingram's Haunted Homes ...... (1888 Ed. 4 pp. 427·33) but it is typica l of many German Black Dog treasu re-guarding tales, especia lly those from the Hartz Mountains. As it is the only one of its kind in Britain one suspects its authenticity. Our treasure-guarding tykes are few and very individual; note the curious story of Silky at Black Heddon, near Stamf ord ham, where the t reasure fe ll from the ceiling w rapped in a black dog's skin. T he foregoing covers most of the Northcountry dog·ghosts that I have heard of; t have omitted a few - such as the case of the nightwatchman at the old Darlington Station about 1850, the devi l who came to tempt the girl of the Fairfaxes of Fewston, and the occasional t ransformations of witches in the 17t h century . I do not think, incidentally, that there is a significant correlation of devil- and transformat ion­ images with the 81ack Dogs. It will be seen that there are some large gaps, geographically. I have found no examples from the East Riding, or the grea ter part of Durham, from Furness, or from Cumberland, the inland part of Northumberl and or the Border Country. As there are very few 81ack Dogs in Scotland, it might be concluded that the f urthe r it goes north, the scantier the distribution.

TH Ea BROWN CHRISTMAS IN BOHEMI A - TRADITIONAL AND PRE SENT DAY 1 Ch ristmas is the only major t raditional festival which managed to survive in Bohemia after half a century of social and institutional upheavals in Czechoslovakia. This speaks, no doubt, of the strength of its tradition. I n common with those in most parts of the world, the actual celebrations have of course under· gone considerable changes. I n Bohemia it appears that the present·giving occasion originally occurred much earlier in the month, on the eve of St. Nicholas' Day, December the 5th. Though it is not a public holiday, customs connected with this day are still widely observed, especially in families with smaller ch ildren. Towards the evening a group of three or more grownups or youngsters representing a devil (cert). an angel (andiH) and St. Nicholas (Mikulas) - his attire strongly resembling that of Santa Claus - visit homes in the neighbourhood. The devil, rattling chains, gives the naughtiest of the children a lash, which can be either playful or serious, with a bundle of gilt branches - or more recently sometimes gilt misletoe - while the angel and St. Nicholas praise the good children. Often the parents arrange for St. Nicholas to share out presents of sweets and fruit, but the custom is frequently kept that the children hang a stocking outside the window to find it on the following morning filled with chocolates and little presents - possibly a few pieces of coal and carrots for the naughty ones - decorated with a few gi lt twigs. Generally speaking, St. Nicholas' Day marks the beginning of the pre·Christmas season, while Advent is remembered only rarely amongst some protestant families. Following the few weeks of commercial exploitation of what the big department stores refer to as the "festival of generosity and plenty" December 24th arrives and is traditionally called the "Generous Day". I f a weekday, a halfday holiday is observed enabling the final preparations to be made for the "Generous Night", the main family festival. In homes where the tradition is strong "Generous Night" will have been preceded by many days, if not weeks, of thorou\1h housecleaning, buying of food supplies for the week between Christmas and New Year, and preparation of traditional pastries and sweets, as well as elaborate meat·dishes, and until quite recently, home· madE' Christmas tree decorations. On the "Generous Day" itself the family usually spends the day packing presen ts, decorating the tree, always a real fir tree, with glass and t in-foil decorations, sweets, gilt chains, candles, and recently imitat ion snow. The children are encouraged to fast during the day by the promise of seeing the evening a "golden piglet" (zlate prasatko) - a beautiful creature which is supposed to be seen only by children who have fully observed the fast­ while the housewife prepares the main courses of the even ing meal: fish soup, carp in sweet sauce with steamed dumplings, pork cutlets with potato salad. By dusk most families begin the meal around a table decorated with greenery, candles, ornamental chains and the like and at an opportune moment the sound of a bell announces that "Little Jesus" ( J ezr~ek) has r,lade his brief visit to the house. The family then assembles at the brightly lit tree, and under it are the wrapped presents and often a Nativity scene carved in wood or made of hardboard. Many of these, especially in co:mtry districts, have very beautiful traditional designs and may be very old. Some of the oldest of these are owned by provincial communities, and are displayed in the local church. Be fore unwrapping the gifts "brought by Little Jesus" many families will spend a short t ime lighting "sparklers" (priskavky) which are al ready hanging on the tree. They also sing carols and admire the tree. The evening ends late af ter continued feasting and rejoicing over presents. Attend ing Midnight Mass is a living tradition even among non·believers; churches are filled to capacity, especially where there is a good organ and celebrated singers tak ing part in the mass, and every year the main rad io station broadcasts a mass by the 18th century Czech composer Jan Ryba, based on folk carols. December 25th and 26th, called God's Feast (Bo'lf Hod) and St. Stephen's (Svaty Stepiln). are public holidays f or rest , good food, soc ial gatherings (at which card·games are a favourite pastime) and visiting relatives and f riends. On these visits presen ts " left under the donor's tree by Little Jesus" are exchanged. Candles on the Christmas-trees are then lit almost every night and the Christmas atmosphere persists until the buoyant celebrat ions of the New Year's Eve. Most people in the vicinity of Prague seem to be aware of at least some of the old rural customs attached to Christmas, some of which m ight date back to pre-Ch ristian times, though most of them ceased to be practised except possibly in parts of the remote countryside. In country districts especially, fasting was strictly observed and t he feast itself was probably less ostentat ious than the present-day urban celebr a­ tion, and varied according to the reg ion. A sweet porridge-like dish (cerna omackaJ. apples, nuts and dried. f ruit seem to have been the most popular delicacies. Before the meal, the fa rmer's wife not only gave speC ial fodder to all the animals belonging to the household, but also threw breadcrumbs into the f ire and f lour in to the w ind, so that they would cause no harm during the coming year. In the cou rse of the evening each member of the house set a lighted candle in a wa lnut she ll f loating on a bowl of water and watched for it to keep lit as a promise of long life. Girls of marriageable age threw one of their shoes backwards over their shoulder, and should the toe of t he shoe face the door, the gi rl would leave the house before next Christmas. Lead was melted and dropped into a bowl of water, the hardened shape indicating the future profession of youngsters, etc. Beginning with the senior female member of the family everyone except the head of the household cu t an apple horizontally in hal f : a cross· like pattern predicted early death, a star-like one, good health and prosperity. One should not cu t an apple in this way at any other time of the year. Carol singing still takes place on St. Stephen's particularly and used to be more widespread, the singers receiving fruit, cakes and small coins from the farmers. T he Christmas tree w hich at presen t symbolises the entire festival, was apparently introduced only around the beginning of the 19th century from Germany, and was at first /0 popular among the townspeople. MIRIAM JELlNKOVA SOME NOTES ON CUSTOM AND BELIEF

Traditional customs and beliefs seem to hold a special fascination. We may continue to practise them without questioning their origin or significance. The following notes are intended to stimu late the recalling and recording of the customs and beliefs known to each one of us.

All of us have customs of various kinds which are typical of the area we live in and of the larger cul­ ture around us_ They may be divided into two main groups: 1. Calendar Customs 2. The Rites of Passage 1. Calendar Customs

These take place at particular times of the year and are related to various seasonal festivals. We may " let in the New Year" 1 when a visi tor, preferably a tall dark man, knocks at th e door after midnight and brings coal and sticks into the house as a good luck offering. Local collieries and other works often sou nd their sirens at midnight. Indoors we may wish each other good luck, and perhaps have a drink, often pre­ ceded by an appropriate toast. We take down the Christmas decorations on or aro und Twelfth Night and may dispose of the greenery in different ways. Some may burn the greenery, while others may keep one sprig throughout the year, "for luck" On Plough Monday there are many local customs, including Plough Plays of various kinds.

The special customs associated with the Church year - for example in Lent, and of course, at Easter and Christmas - are normally the most important calendar customs, although they may be mingled with others which have a less purely religious flavour. We may make New Year's resolutions, or give up some comfort or pleasure for Lent. We may eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, and of course there are many cus­ toms associated with Easter such as the giving of Easter eggs and the performance of Pace Egg plays. Some families stil l decorate re al hard-boiled eggs which are "roll ed" by the children, even in these days of the attractive commercially-produced chocolate eggs. Traditional observances of Mothering Sunday and Lady Day still conti nue in various ways. April Fool's Day gives a whole morning of tricks to children and to many adults, though anyone who plays a trick after twelve noon is himself the fool. I n some parts of the country the same trickery occurs on the fi rst of May when the fool is called a May gosling or gesling, and May Day is marked by many different customs, including processions, the crowning of the May Queen, and dancing round the Maypole. Oak and Nettle Day and Oak Apple Day continue to be celebrated, and Whit­ suntide includes a host of customs, from holidays and Wh it walks to the wearing of new clothes whether there is a procession or not I The Queen's Birthday and Commonwealth Day also have traditional activities. Children may say a ve rsion of the rhyme: 'Twenty·fourth 0' May, the Queen's Birthday, If you don't give us a holiday we' ll al l fun away!,

Midsu mmer, like the Spring and Autumn festival s, has always been a time when traditional activities take place and loca l fairs and holidays are often held. The October hiring fairs are still remembered, and various customs are also observed at All Saints and All Souls. Our harve~t festival s, though similar in f!Very parish, often have some local characteristics, e.g. some tradition about who supplies various items each year.

On Bonfire Night, the old Autumn festivals linger in sp ite of modification and modernisation. In place of one huge communal bonfire on the village green we may now see many smaller fires each built by one family or group of families. In some places there is also a Mischief Night or Mischievous Night on November 4th or sometimes at Halloween, when all kinds of tricks are played, such as removing gates and ringing door­ bells.

And of course Christmas, wh ich, though we celebrate it in a si milar way, has customs unique to each family. Each family has its own choice of the religious observances wh ich are central to Christmas. We may perpetuate the legend of Father Christmas and children are encouraged to call up the chimney to him or write him a letter. He may be left some cake and a drink. He is all-seeing and all-hearing throughout the Christmas season and if children aren't good they may be told he will not bring them any presents. The blend of Christian and pagan elements in Christmas customs is a fascinating one. Along with a man's happi­ ness at celebrating the birth of Christ are many customs which have little or no connection with Ch ristian­ ity, e.g. our individual decoration of house and Christmas tree. When do we put up our tree and decorations? What sort of decorations do we use, and do they change from year to year? How do we give our presents to the children and to each other? Very often each household has some unique customs of its own.

1. All exampll!5 are taken from the Archives of the Survey of Language and Folklore and the specific examples se lected refer mainlv to the immediate neighbourhood of Sheffield. 1/ Carol singers or "waits", though perhaps in more organised groups than formerly, still visit homes and along with the joyful Christmas carols come versions of the old rhyme:-

Christmas is coming And the goose is getting fat Please put a penny in the old man's hat, If you haven't got a penny, A ha'penny will do, If you haven't got a ha'penny (Well) God bless you.

Or the variant:-

A hole in my stockin' A hole in my shoe Please can you spare me A copper or two ...

Some areas are rich in their tradition of Mummers' plays performed at Christmas time, although these have died out completely in many parts of the country. Sometimes the plays are about St. George, some­ times they are connected with the Derby Ram or "t'owd tup", where the model of a horse's or a sheep's head is carried around and the animal is "killed". Even a fragment of any plays such as these is rarely found nowadays. If you know of one you may be the last person to remember that particular version.

All these calendar customs, with variations, represent only a selection of those to be found in differ­ ent parts of the country.

2. The Aites of Passage

The so-called A ites of Passage are simply customs and ceremonies which society uses to mark impor­ tant stages in the life of an individual. The newborn child may be carried upstairs "so he will never come down in the world", or taken to visit other people where he may be given a "blessing" - a silver coin, a match, salt, pepper, sugar, bread, an egg, a lace-edged handkerchief - to "give him a good start in life". Through baptism the child is given a name and a sponsored position in the Christian community.

Confirmation in a church, reaching the age of majority and being "given the key of the door" mark two more significant stages in a person's passage through life. Apart from the religious ceremony, the com· plicated customs which surround a marriage mark a departure from one social status to another. A bride should wear:-

Something old, something new, Something borrowed, and something blue.

No member of the bridal party is encouraged to wear green and a considerable flurry is caused if a bride wishes to flout tradition and marry in black. It is unlucky for a bride and groom to see each other on their wedding day before the ceremony is actually performed. Confetti is thrown, the cake cut ceremoniously, shoes and tin cans may be tied to the couple's car - all to bring them good luck. When the traditional honeymoon is over the bride may be carried over the threshold of her new home.

Each stage in an individual's progress through life is marked by some custom; by anniversaries and civic recognition, by retirements and their gold watches, golden handshakes or pensions. And when a life is over, men throughout the world mark its passing with rituals of many kinds, both sober and festive.

Customs and beliefs are very often interrelated and we may observe a particular custom because we hold a certain belief. In spite of the enlightenment which is so commonplace nowadays we may still cling to beliefs for which we can find no logical explanation. Some people believe in ghosts, and indeed if one accepts the existence of a spirit world then this is not illogical. One still hears occasionally of a minister of religion exorcising a ghost, Belief in the supernatural appears to be common to all cultures, although the supernatural beings may take different forms and have different names. Many Irish people have a serious belief in the fairy world. Fairies are often identified with fallen angels, and it is sometimes said that fairies will take over the world after Judgement Day. It is only in comparatively recent times that fairies have taken on a pleasant aspect, usually becoming feminine and sprouting wings in the processl The Good People, or Little People of Irish tradition however are thought of as very malevolent little men who cause not only mischief but serious harm such as inflicting deformity and disease. Although serious belief in witchcraft in the Western World has declined over the years, Europe freed I L itself only slowly from belief in the supposed supernatural powers of witches, and even now when question­ able events occur there are still rumours of witchcraft. Children often have their imaginations filled with witches, giants, monsters, bogey-men and suchlike and they hear and tell tales of Jack the Ripper, Spring­ heeled Jack and all the current villains of fiction. To the child, such figures may seem as "real" as normal human beings and he may know adults who believe in poltergeists or unidentified flying objects.

Many people, of course, do not hold such beliefs but may react to them in some negative way without investigating them. In fact we may refuse to meddle with such things- perhaps to be on the safe side! After all, so many inexplicable things do happen, that it may well be thought best not to tempt fate. This attitude is also reflected in our feelings about good and bad luck. Luck is so unpredictable that we are often pre· pared to go to considerable lengths to avoid bad luck and invite good luck without necessarily believing that our actions will bring about the desired effect. It is a kind of insurance we take out against misfortune.

For good luck we may touch wood; find a four-leaf clover; refuse to take off something we put on inside-out;

See a pin and pick it up, All the day YOU ' ll have good luck; say "rabbits" on the first day of the month; see a black cat, or allow a "money spider" to crawl over us. What else do you regard as lucky?

It is often bad luck to: See a single magpie. especially if it is flying to the left - as the old rhyme says:

"One for sorrow Two for joy Three fora girl, Four for a boy ... etc

Look at the new moon through glass, bring May-blossom into the house; let a baby see its reflection in a mirror; have peacock feathers, or have even an ornamental peacock in the house; put a pair of (new) shoes on the table; open an umbrella indoors; kill a spider; pass someone on the stairs; leave the house by another door than the one you entered through. And, of course, one should not give fNoJay cutlery or any sharp instrument without either a token payment being received or accompanying the gift with a small coin.

Although I know there is no logical reason for it I would still be very upset if a mirror was broken as it "means seven years bad luck". If a dog howls or a picture falls from a wall this presages a death, as does also the ironing of a diamond-shaped crease in a handkerchief. If coincidence reinforces a belief, the belief is felt to be justified, so that when a person walks under a ladder and a can of paint falls on his head, there are always plenty of people ready to say, "I told you so!"

From the earliest times people have put their faith in traditional cures and remedies and many of these are still known if not used. Few people would now recommend mouse stew for whooping cough, or goose-grease covered with brown paper ironed on with a flat iron as a cure for "a bad chest", but copper bracelets or a strand of red wool may be worn to counteract rheumatism and one might be advised, per­ fectly seriously, to carry a nutmeg in one's back pocket to ward off sciatica.

Many of the patent remedies we buy may not earn the wholehearted approval of the doctor, and yet it is believed that rubbing the chest with camphorated oil relieves bronchial conditions and that impregnated cotton-wool may be efficacious in earache. Those who have memories of brimstone and treacle will agree that some of the old remedies have their disadvantages. Not everyone enjoys being dosed with cinnamon for colds, or being given ipecacuana wine - and they may not wish to pass on such experiences to their children!

The old customs and beliefs die hard. They are a fascinating and important part of our heritage, and we are reluctant to let them go. In many cases we simply modify them according to current needs, and they take on a new lease of life.

J. D. A. WIDDOWSON SURVEY NEWS

The Survey of Language and Folklore centred at Sheffield University is establishing an Archive of traditional material for future reference and research. Collection is organised through regional teams. local representatives and individual correspondents who contribute material on specially·designed slips or by means of questionnaires. longer descriptions. photographs. diagrams and tape-recordings. The collecting programme aims at comprehensive coverage of all aspects of Folklore: Folksay (speech. sayings. names etc.); Childlore; Custom and Belief; Folk Narrative; Folk Music, Dance and Drama; Folk Arts and Crafts. The Survey Team in Sheffield meets on the third Tuesday of each month (except December} in Room 1.15 of the University Arts Tower at 7.30 p.m. and new members are always welcome. The Team has carried out valuable work during the past year especially as regards Folksay and Childlore. Teams are also being established in other regional centres. The Department of Extramural Studies at Sheffield University organises an annual twenty·week Course on Folklore and Language and this year has also arranged for a ten·week Course in Scunthorpe entitled Language and Custom in Lincolnshire. We are especially grateful to members of this Course who have contributed a great deal of information on North Lincolnshire usage. Representatives of the Survey have also given lectures at the Whitby Festival and numerous other places. Many of these lectures have been augmented by displays of Folklife material organised by Mr. and Mrs. P. S. Smith as part of the Survey's Museum Service. In order to make this Service as effective as possible we shall be very pleased to receive material for display, either as gifts or on loan. If the important work of collecting is to be carried out on the large scale envisaged, many more volunteers are needed to assist in the task of collecting and classifying the information. The Survey aims to collect material from all parts of the British Isles and more loca~ representatives and correspondents are urgently required. Details of local activities may be obtained from the Survey's headquarters or the following representatives:- BRADFORD and KEIGHLEY areas, - Mr. I Dewhirst, 14 Raglan Avenue, Fell Lane. Keighley, Yorks. CHESTERFIELD, WORKSOP and RETFORD - Mrs. Carolyn Widdowson. Eaton House, High Street. South Anston. Sheffield. DEVON and the SOUTH-WEST - Miss Theo Brown, F .A.I .• Heathfield House, Chudleigh, Devon. NORTH LANCASHIRE and FURNESS - Miss K. Stevenson, White Gable, Broughton Beck, Ulverston, Lancs. LANCASHIRE and CHESHIRE - Dr. P. Wright. Department of Modern Languages, The University of Salford. NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE {ISLE OFAXHOLMEJ, Mr. K. W. Turner, 11 Parkview, West Butterwick, Scunthorpe, Lincs. SOUTH LINCQLNSHI RE - Mrs. E. M. Wattam, Green Lane. Thorpe St. Peter, Skegness, lincs. OLLERTON and NEMRK - Mrs. A. Clifford, Station Road, Dllerton, Newark, Notts. ROTHERHAM and DONCASTER - Mr. and Mrs. P. S. Smith, 2A Westfield Road, Bramley, Rotherham. SHROPSHIRE - Mr. J. J. Waddington·Feather, B.A., c/o Department of Engl ish Language, The University, Sheffield S1 0 2TN. STAL YBRI DGE - Mr. N. Haynes, 7 Buckley Street, Stalybridge, Cheshire. STANN INGTOO and NORTH EAST DERBYSHIRE - Mr. J. Atkins, 146 Greaves Lane, Stannington, Derbyshire. LORE AND LANGUAGE is published jointly by the Departments of English Language and Extramural Studies and the Language Centre at the University of Sheffield . It is issued twice yearly in January and July, price 2s. 6d. (annual subscription 55. Od.) including postage. Orders, enquiries and material for publication should be sent to:- J . D. A. Widdowson, The Editor, Lore and Language, Department of English Language, The University, SHEFFIELD S10 2TN.

REVIEWS

HALPERT H. and STORY G. M. (Eds.). Christmas Mumming in Newfoundland: Essays in Anthropology, Folklore and History, University of Toronto Press, 1969, xii-246 pp. It is as pleasant as it is unusual to find a thoroughly scholarly work which is at the same time eminently readable. The book begins with an excellent account of the political and social history of the island by G. M. Story, in which he manages to include a mass of information in a comparatively small space, and still keep it interesting. H. Halpert then suggests a typology of mumming which places the subject in a wider context, and he organises the complex material into a tentative system within which the Newfound­ land examples can be placed and discussed. Then come detailed descriptions of the custom from various localities, one from the Northern Peninsula, another from the West Coast, and a third from the South, though perhaps wisely the places are not identified more closely than this. Particularly striking here are the /{;- variations between the different communities combined with an underlying similarity. The existence of a I similar custom amongst the Eskimos in Labrador seems to owe much to the Moravian missionaries, and at the same time shows a significant fusion of pagan and Christian elements. J. ,C. Faris places the mummers in their social context, while J. D. A. Widdowson and H. Halpert describe the disguises assumed, usually in the informants' own words with an interlinking commentary. A survey of the existing records shows that the earliest references to the disguisings come from the early nineteenth century. and three of the extant plays are printed, with a discussion of any unusual features in them and an indication of parallels from elsewhere. Appendices include a further description of the custom from the Avalon peninsula by C. E. Williams, an interesting comment on the terms in use with a detailed discussion of the etymology of janney by J. O. A. Widdowson, and lists of the fourteen plays or fragments known to have existed, and of the three hundred or so places from which the disguisings have been reported. Editors and contributors alike are to be congrat- ulated on a notable contribution to the subject, the various chapters of which contain in addition a good deal of essential information about general social and economic conditions on the island. A topographical map of Newfoundland would have been a welcome addition to the smaller ones in the book, but would no doubt have considerably increased the cost. R. M. WILSON

DORSON R. M. Peasant Customs and Savage Myths, Vol. I, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul. x-402 pp. Picking up Peasant Customs and Savage Myths with pleasurable anticipation one should do well to ignore the title and to concentrate only on the subtitle: Selections.irom the British Folklorists. For the book is just precisely that, selected reprints from the works of the folklorists Mr. Dorsan dealt with so ably and exhaustively in his previous volume. On its own, this leaping on to the bandwaggon to share the current craze of reprinting every work in sight, irrespective of merit, can hardly stand, most of the controversies and theories being deservedly dead. As a handbook of reference to illustrate verbatim his able summaries in The British Folklorist it would have been handier to have them inserted, very much cut down and even more selected, in the volume itself, even though this would have meant considerable further expansion. MADELEINE BLAESS

OPIE I. and P. Children's Games in Street and Playground, London, Clarendon Press: Oxford University Press. ix-371 pp. 6 plates. The eagerly-awaited outcome of the Opies' research into children's games is indeed a worthy successor to their original basic collection, The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren. The standards set in the earlier work have been equalled if not surpassed in this eminently readable sequel which is based on material from more that ten thousand children from representative areas over the whole of the British Isles. The preface draws attention to the comparative lack of systematic work on aspects of childlore in which children thesmelves interact and the book itself goes a long way towards making up for this apparent defi· ciency. Organised into twelve chapters, beginning with the preliminaries to various games and continuing through chasing, catching, seeking, hunting, racing, duelling, exerting. daring. guessing and acting games to the pretending games in which children let their imaginations take over in a world of make-believe. this compendium encourages us to call to mind the games of our own childhood and to share both the secrets and the fun which others enjoy in theirs. Not only have the authors succeeded in classifying a mass of het­ rogeneous data, but they have also triumphed by sustaining the interest of the reader in every aspect of their subject. The index is especially welcome in a discursive volume and the photographs help to keep us aware of the living context from which the games are drawn.

HELM A. The Chapbook Mummers' Plays. A study of the Printed Versions of the North-West of England. Leicester, The Guizer Press, 1969.54 pp. 14 illustrations. In this well -documented study still more of the complicated puzzle of the Mummers' Play is pieced together by listing, classifying and discussing versions of hero-combat texts found in various chapbooks. The texts are divided into seven groups: The Alexander Texts, Pearce's Sheffield Version, The Peace Egg Versions, Christmas Versions, 'Abnormal' Versions, The Belfast Chapbook, and Lost Chapbooks. The dating and provenance of the texts are also discussed and Mr. Helm gives us the benefit of his experience in some concise comments on sources and development together with a most useful checklist of play chapbooks and examples of the texts themselves. J.D.A.W. MEMORIAL UNIV::nSITY OF NEWFOlWDlAND DEPARTMENT OF F O LKL O RE