_Source_.--Henderson, _Folk-Lore of Northern Counties_, first edition,
p. 343, communicated by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould. The rhymes on the open
book have been supplied by Mr. Batten, in whose family, if I understand
him rightly, they have been long used for raising the----; something
similar occurs in Halliwell, p. 243, as a riddle rhyme. The mystic signs
in Greek are a familiar “counting-out rhyme”: these have been studied
in a monograph by Mr. H. C. Bolton; he thinks they are “survivals” of
incantations. Under the circumstances, it would be perhaps as well if
the reader did not read the lines out when alone. One never knows what
may happen.
_Parallels_.--Sorcerers' pupils seem to be generally selected for their
stupidity--in folk-tales. Friar Bacon was defrauded of his labour in
producing the Brazen Head in a similar way. In one of the legends about
Virgil he summoned a number of demons, who would have torn him to
pieces if he had not set them at work (J. S. Tunison, _Master Virgil_,
Cincinnati, 1888, p. 30).