_Herefordshire Folk Lore._--Pray make an imperishable Note of the following
concentration of Herefordshire folk lore, extracted from the "Report of the
Secretary of the Diocesan Board of Education," as published in _The Times_
of Jan. 28, 1854:
"The observation of unlucky days and seasons is by no means unusual.
The phases of the moon are regarded with great respect: in one medicine
may be taken; in another it is advisable to kill a pig; over the doors
of many houses may be found twigs placed crosswise, and never suffered
to lose their cruciform position; and the horse-shoe preserves its old
station on many a stable-door. Charms are devoutly believed in. A ring
made from a shilling offered at the Communion is an undoubted cure for
fits; hair plucked from the crop of an ass's shoulder, and woven into a
chain, to be put round a child's neck, is powerful for the same
purpose; and the hand of a corpse applied to a neck is believed to
disperse a wen. Not long since, a boy was met running hastily to a
neighbour's for some holy water, as the only hope of preserving a sick
pig. The 'evil eye,' so long dreaded in uneducated countries, has its
terrors amongst us; and if a person of ill life be suddenly called
away, there are generally some who hear his 'tokens,' or see his ghost.
There exists, besides, the custom of communicating deaths to hives of
bees, in the belief that they invariably abandon their owners if the
intelligence be withheld."
May not any one exclaim:
"O miseras hominum mentes! O pectora caeca!
Qualibus in tenebris vitae, quantisque periclis
Degitur hoc aevi, quodcunque est!"