_Cook-eels._--Forby derives this from _coquille_, in allusion to their
being fashioned like an escallop, in which sense he is borne out by
Cotgrave, who has "_Pain coquillé_, a fashion of an hard-crusted loafe,
somewhat like our stillyard bunne." I have always taken the word to be
"coquerells," from {413} the vending of such buns at the barbarous sport
of "throwing at the cock" on Shrove Tuesday. The cock is still commonly
called a cockerell in E. Anglia. Perhaps Mr. Wodderspoon will say
whether the buns of the present day are fashioned in any particular
manner, or whether any "the oldest inhabitant" has any recollection of
their being differently fashioned or at all impressed. What, too, are
the "_stillyard buns_" of Cotgrave? Are they tea-cakes? The apartment in
which tea was formerly made was called the _still_-room.
Buriensis.
_Divination by the Bible and Key._--This superstition is very prevalent
amongst the peasantry of this and adjoining parishes. When any article
is suspected to have been stolen, a Bible is procured, and opened at the
1st chap. of Ruth: the stock of a street-door key is then laid on the
16th verse of the above chapter, and the key is secured in this position
by a string, bound tightly round the book. The person who works the
charm then places his two middle fingers under the handle of the key,
and this keeps the Bible suspended. He then repeats in succession the
names of the parties suspected of the theft; repeating at each name a
portion of the verse on which the key is placed, commencing, "Whither
thou goest, I will go," &c. When the name of the guilty is pronounced,
the key turns off the fingers, the Bible falls to the ground, and the
guilt of the party is determined. The belief of some the more ignorant
of the lower orders in this charm is unbounded. I have seen it practiced
in other counties, the key being laid over the 5th verse of the 19th
chap. of Proverbs, instead of the 1st chap. of Ruth.
David Stevens.
Godalming, April 11. 1850.
[In Brand's _Popular Antiquities_ (ed. Ellis). vol. iii. 188-9,
it is stated that the key is placed upon the 50th Psalm.]
_Weather Proverb._--Weather proverbs are among the most curious portions
of popular literature. That foul or fair weather is betokened according
as the rainbow is seen in the morning or evening, is recorded in the
following German "saw," which is nearly identical with our well-known
English Proverb:
Regenbogen am Morgen
Macht dem Schäfer sorgen;
Regenbogen am Abend
Ist dem Schäfer labend.
In Mr. Akerman's recently published volume called _Spring Tide_, a
pleasant intermixture of fly-fishing and philology, we have a Wiltshire
version of this proverb, curious for its old Saxon language and its
comparatively modern allusion to a "great coat" in the third and sixth
lines, which must be interpolations.
"The Rainbow in th' marnin'
Gies the Shepherd warning'
To car' his girt cwoat on his back
The Rainbow at night
Is the Shepherd's delight,
For then no girt cwoat he lack."
No one, we believe, has yet remarked the philosophy of this saying;
namely that in the morning the rainbow is seen in the clouds in the
west, the quarter from which we get most rain, and of course, in the
evening, in the opposite quarter of the heavens.
William J. Thoms.
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