_Churching._--A woman in this village, when going to church for the first
time after the birth of her child, keeps to the same side of the road, and
no persuasions or threats would induce her to cross it. She wears also upon
that occasion a pair of new boots or shoes, so that the mothers of large
families patronise greatly the disciples of St. Crispin. I should much like
to know if this twofold superstition is prevalent, and how it first
originated.
_Bees._--There is not one peasant I believe in this village, man or woman,
who would sell you a swarm of bees. To be guilty of selling bees is a
grievous omen indeed, than which nothing can be more dreadful. To barter
bees is quite a different matter. If you want a hive, you may easily obtain
it in lieu of a small pig, or some other equivalent. There may seem little
difference in the eyes of enlightened persons between selling, and
bartering, but the superstitious beekeeper sees a grand distinction, and it
is not his fault if you don't see it too.
When a hive swarms, it is customary to take the shovel from the grate, and
the key from the door, and to produce therewith a species of music which is
supposed to captivate and soothe the winged tribe. If the bees do not
settle on any neighbouring tree where they may have the full benefit of the
inharmonious music, they are generally assailed with stones. This is a
strange sort of proceeding, but it is orthodox, and there is nothing the
villagers despise more than modern innovations of whatever kind.
_Charming._--As regards charming, the wife of the village innkeeper who
preceded the present one (she now rests in the churchyard), used to whisper
away burns. Her form of words, if she had any, is unknown. The mind has
great influence upon the body, and the doctor knows it, or he would not
give his nervous lady patients so many boxes of bread pills, and sleeping
draughts in the shape of vials filled with savoury rum-punch. Doubtless
this good woman cured her patients by acting on their imaginations. If the
agency of imagination is an incorrect supposition, I see but one way of
accounting for the curative powers of whispering, namely, by means of
animal magnetism. I trust your medical readers do not question the curative
powers of animal magnetism in certain cases; if they do, I would recommend
them to read a work entitled _Human Magnetism, its Claim to Dispassionate
Inquiry_, by W. Newnham, Esq., M.R.S.L. It is published by John Churchill,
Princes Street, Soho.