_African Folk Lore._--The following curious piece of folk lore is quoted
from an extract in _The Critic_ (of April 1, 1853, p. 172.), in the course
of a review of Richardson's _Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa,
&c._:
"To avert the evil eye from the gardens, the people (of Mourzak) put up
the head of an ass, or some portion of the bones of that animal. The
same superstition prevails in all the oases that stud the north of
Africa, from Egypt to the Atlantic, but the people are unwilling to
explain what especial virtue there exists in an ass's skull."