Bottesford Moors.
_Portuguese Folk Lore._--
"The borderer whispered in my ear that he was one of the dreadful
Lobishomens, a devoted race, held in mingled horror and commiseration,
and never mentioned {383} without by the Portuguese peasantry. They
believe that if a woman be delivered of seven male infants
successively, the seventh, by an inexplicable fatality, becomes subject
to the powers of darkness; and is compelled, on every Saturday evening,
to assume the likeness of an ass. So changed, and followed by a horrid
train of dogs, he is forced to run an impious race over the moors and
through the villages; nor is allowed an interval of rest until the
dawning Sabbath terminates his sufferings, and restores him to his
human shape."--From Lord Carnarvon's _Portugal and Gallicia_, vol. ii.
p. 268.