Treasury of St. Denis they are said to Day. See St. Luke's Dole. The giving of a dole, and the inviting of the poor on this occasion, are synonymous terms. There are some strong figurative expressions on this subject in St. Ambrose's Funeral Oration on Satyrus, cited by Durandus. Speaking of those who mourned on the occasion, he says: "The poor also shed their tears; precious and fruitful tears, that washed away the sins of the deceased. They let fall foods of redeeming tears." From such passages as the above in the first Christian writers, literally understood, the Romanists may have derived their superstitious doctrine "Preterea conof praying for the dead. vocabantur et invitabantur necdum Sacerdotes et Religiosi, sed et egeni pauperes.' Durandus. Had Pope an eye to this in ordering by will poor men to support his pall? Doles were used at funerals, as we learn from St. Chrysostom, to procure rest to the soul of the deceased, that he might find his judge propitious. Homilia in Matthei cap. 9. In "Dives and Pauper," 1493, we read: "Dives. What seyst thou of them that wole no solemnyté have in their buryinge, but be putt in erthe anon, and that that shulde be spent aboute the buriyng they bydde that it shulde be yoven to the pore folke blynde and lame?-Pauper. Comonly in such prive buriynges bene ful smalle doles and lytel almes yoven, and in solemne buriynges been grete doles and moche almesse yoven, for moche pore people come thanne to seke almesse. But whanne it is done prively, fewe wytte therof, and fewe come to axe almesse! for they wote nat whanne ne where, ne whom they shulde axe it. And therefore I leve sikerly that summe fals executoures that wolde kepe all to themself biganne firste this errour and this foyle, that wolden make themself riche with ded mennys godes, and nat dele to the pore after dedes wylle, as nowe all By false executoures use by custome.' the will of William de Montacute, Earl of Salisbury (1397), he directs" that twentyfive shillings should be daily distributed among three hundred poor people from the time of his death to the arrival of his body at the Conventual Church of Bustleham [Bustleton] in which it was to be deposited." Warner's Hampshire, 73. Strutt tells us that 11, Sir Robert Knolles, in the eighth year of Henry IV. died at his Manor in Norfolk, and his dead body was brought in a litter to London with great pomp, and much torch-light, and it was buried in the White The practice was some- The Compare Sin-Eater and Ditchfield, chap.18. In the 18th century, it appears that at Glasgow large donations at "which funerals were made to the poor, are never less than £5, and never exceeded ten guineas, in which case the bells of the Stat. Acc. of Scotland, city are tolled." v. 523. It was formerly customary for a sum of money to be given to certain persons or institutions, with whom or which the deceased had been connected. This usage is illustrated by a document inserted among the "Egerton Papers," being the memoranda relating to the will of one of the Rokeby family, who died in 1600. Among the items are gifts of sums of money to the principals of Lincoln's Inn, Furnival's Inn, and Thavis' Inn, for drink to be supplied to the members of those societies in honour of the occasion. This custom of funeral libations is still not uncommon in the country. By his will made in 1639, Francis Pynner, of Bury St. Edmunds, directed that out of certain rents and revenues accruing from his property, from and after the Michaelmas following his decease, forty poor parishioners of St. Mary's, Bury, should, on coming to the church, be entitled to a twopenny wheaten loaf on the last Friday in every month throughout the year, for ever. See a curious account of doles in Ducarel's Tour through Normandy. a Dolemoors. Collinson says: "In the parishes of Congresbury and Puxton, are two large pieces of common land called East and West Dolemoors, (from the Saxon dal, which signifies a share or portion), which are divided into single acres, each bearing a peculiar and different mark cut in the turf, such as a horn, four oxen and a mare, two oxen and a mare, pole - axe, cross, dung - fork, oven, duck's nest, hand-reel, and hare's tail. On the Saturday before Old-Midsummer, several proprietors of estates in the parishes of Congresbury, Puxton, and Week St. Lawrence, or their tenants, assemble on the commons. A number of apples are previously prepared, marked in the same manner with the before-mentioned acres, which are distributed by a young lad to each of the commoners from a bag or hat. At the close of the distribution each person repairs to his allotment, as his apple directs him, and takes posession for the ensuing year. An adjournment then takes place to the house of the overseer of Dolemoors (an officer annually elected from the tenants) where four acres, reserved for the purposes of paying expenses, are let by inch of candle, and the remainder of the day is spent in that sociability and hearty mirth so congenial to the soul of a Somersetshire yeoman." Somersetshire, iii., 586. Door-Drink. See Bridling Cast and Stirrup Cup. Dore, Mary.-Warner, mentioning Mary Dore, the "parochial witch of Beaulieu," who died about 1750, says, "her spells were chiefly used for purposes of self-extrication in situations of danger; and I have conversed with a rustic whose father had seen the old lady convert herself more than once into the form of a hare or cat, when likely to be apprehended in wood-stealing, to which she was somewhat addicted. Hampshire, 1793, ii., 241. Doree. Pennant informs us that "Superstition hath made the Doree rival to the Hadock for the honour of having been the fish out of whose mouth St. Peter took the tribute-money, leaving on its sides those incontestible proofs of the identity of the fish, the marks of his finger and thumb." Zoology, 1776, iii., 221. It is rather difficult at this time to determine on which part to decide the dispute; for the doree likewise asserts an origin of its spots of a similar nature, but of a much earlier date than the former. St. Christopher, in wading through an arm of the sea, having caught a fish of this kind en passant, as an eternal memorial of the fact, left the impression on its sides to be transmitted to all posterity. Dorrish. The story of the Squire of Dorrish, an ancient Devonshire family, is related as follows: " Returning home late on a winter night after a considerable consumption of brandy punch at the house of a neighbouring squire, he fell from his horse where a brook, running at the foot of a hill on which stands the house of Dorrish, is crossed by a narrow bridge, and was killed. This was early in the 18th century. From that time to this his spirit has been gradually advancing up the hill toward the house, at the rate of a "cockstride" in every moon. A bridge as narrow and as sharp as the edge of a sword is provided for the unfortunate squire. Whenever he falls off (and it is supposed that this must occasionally happen), he is obliged to return to the stream where his life was ended, and to begin again. His present position is therefore quite uncertain, but there is no doubt that he will one day reach his own front door, and what may then happen no one can possibly fore see. The sharp sword here unquestionably represents the "brig of dread" of the northern Lykewake: This ae night, this ae night, To brig of dread thou comes at lastAnd Christ receive thy sawle.'" Double Hand.-Taylor the Waterpoet, in his "Great Eater of Kent," 1630, says: "I have known a great man very expert on the Jewe-harpe, a rich merpecially when she came to bearing of men) chants wife a quicke gamester at Irish (esthat she wolde seldome misse entring. Monsieur le Ferr, a Frenchman, was the first inventor of the admirable game of double-hand, hot-cockles; and Gregorie Dawson, an Englishman, devised the unmatchable mystery of blindman buffe." Doublets or Dublets.-See Tick Tack. Dough. Dough or Dow is vulgarly used in the North for a little cake, though wich. it properly signifies a mass of flour tem- | Dovercourt was the mother-church of Harpered with water, salt and yeast, and kneaded fit for baking. It is derived, as Junius tells us, from the Dutch Deeg, which comes from the Theostican thihen, to grow bigger, or rise, as the bakers term it. The sailors call pudding dough, but pronounce it duff. Du Cange says: "Panis Natalitius, cujusmodi fieri solet in die Natalis Domini, et præberi Dominis a prædiorum conductoribus, in quibusdam Provinciis, qui ex farina delicatiori, ovis et lacti confici solent: Cuignets appellant Picardi, quod in cuneorum varias species efformentur." Gloss. v. Panis Natalitius. See also Ihre Gloss. Suio-Goth, i., 1009. Dough-Nut Day. A name formerly given to Shrove-Tuesday by the children at Baldock, Herts, from small cakes fried in brass skillets over the fire with hog's lard. Douro. See Clavie. Dove. A correspondent of "Notes and Queries" sent the following account in 1857 to that miscellany. "A month or two back, a family, on leaving one of the Channel Islands, presented to a gardener (it is uncertain whether an inhabitant of the island or no) some pet doves, the conveyance of them to England being likely to prove troublesome. A few days afterwards the man brought them back, stating that he was engaged to be married, and the possession of the birds might be (as he had been informed) an obstacle to the course of true love running smooth." This was put in the shape of a query, but no answer appeared. 2nd S., iv., 25. Doves were formerly threshed in some places at Shrove-tide. Dovercourt, Rood of." In the same year of our Lord, 1532, there was an Idoll named the Roode of Dovercourt, whereunto was much and great resort of people. For at that time there was a great rumour blown abroad amongst the ignorant sort, that the power of the Idoll of Dovercourt was so great that no man had power to shut the church doore where he stood, and therefore they let the church dore, both night and day, continually stand open, for the more credit unto the blinde rumour." Fox's Book of Martyrs, ii. 302. He adds that four men, determining to destroy it, travelled ten miles from Dedham, where they resided, took away the rood, and burnt it, for which act three of them afterwards suffered death. In Grim the Collier of Croydon (Hazlitt's Dodsley, viii., 398) Miles Forest says: "Have you not heard, my lords, the wondrous feats Of Holy Dunstan, Abbot of Canterbury? Confirming his opinion to be true?" Dover's Games.-Sports held from time immemorial on the hill in the Cotswolds, still known as Dover's Hill. Robert Dover, called Captain Dover, promoted their revival, when they had grown more or less obsolete, about 1596. In 1636, a collection of poems by various writers appeared with a frontispiece representing Dover in a suit, which had been given to him by James I. Among the writers is Randolph, who contributes An Eclogue on the noble Assemblies revived on Cotswold Hills by Master Robert Dover. The Down Plat.-See St. Luke's Day. Draco Volans.--See Aerolites. Dragon. In the old romances the dragons are frequently denominated worms, a phrase employed by our forefathers with considerable latitude, as I think will be allowed when I mention that, in the "Towneley Mysteries," the plague of locusts in Egypt is described as a visitation of "wyld wormes." The modern Greeks seem to have classed what we now are sufficiently familiar with under the denomination of the water-spout among dragons. Mr. Wright, in his " Essays, 1846, quotes a curious extract from the chronicle of John of Bromton in confirmation of this theory. The spout is described by the chronicler as a great black dragon descending from the clouds, and hiding its head in the water, while its tail reached to the sky; and he tells us that any ships which were passing at the time, he swallowed up with all their contents. theatre of this reputed monster's depredations was the Gulf of Satalia. It was supposed that a serpent, to become a dragon, must eat a serpent. This partly realizes the ophiophagous genus of serpents, which does not thereby suffer such a metamorphosis. I found the following note in "The Muses' Threnodie," by Henry Adamson, 1638, repr. 1774: "We read of a cave called The Dragon Hole,' in a steep rock on the face of Kinnoul Hill, of very difficult and dangerous access. On the first day of May, during the era of Popery, a great concourse of people assembled at that place to celebrate superstitious games, now," adds the writer, "unknown to us, which the Reformers prohibited under heavy censures and severe penalties, of which we are informed from the ancient records of the Kirk Session of Perth." It may, perhaps, be mentioned that the Chinese to this day believe in the existence of dragons, and attribute natural phenomena, such as eclipses, their malignant agency. They shout at the dragon when there is an eclipse, and as as the solar or lunar orb has recovered its usual splendour, it is the soon to dragon which has been discomfited and put to flight. Dragon's Blood.-A resinous compound, which is still employed by young girls, chiefly in the rural districts, as a charm for restoring to the person, who burns it, and repeats over the flame certain cabalistic words, the object of affection. But it is also employed by married women who have become estranged from their husbands, and desire reconciliation. Antiquary, June and July, 1891. Draw Gloves.-There was a sport entitled "Draw Gloves," of which, however, I find no description. The following jeu d'esprit is found in Herrick : Draw Gloves. "At Draw-gloves we'l play, A wager, and let it be this; Of twenty shall come, Shall have for his winning a kisse." And in another poem by him, "To the Maides to Walk Abroad" there is the following: "Come sit we under yonder tree, "If after mirth our wine Who for some more shall pay." Dreams.-Dreams, as the sacred writings inform us, have on certain occasions, been used as the divine mediums of revelation. As connected with our present design, they may either come under the head of omens or that of divination. Homer has told us that dreams come from Jupiter, and in all ages and every kingdom the idea that some knowledge of the future is to be derived from them, has always composed a very striking article in the creed of popular superstitions. Bartholinus, De Causis contempto a Danis Mortis, p. 678. Henry tells us: "We find Peter of Blois, who was one of the most learned men of the age in which he flourished, writing an account of his dreams to his friend the Bishop of Bath, and telling him how anxious he had been about the interpretation of them; and that he had employed for that purpose divination by the Psalter. The English, it seems probable, had still more superstitious curiosity, and paid greater attention to dreams and omens than the Normans; for when William Rufus was dissuaded from going abroad on the morning of that day on which he was killed, because the Abbot of Gloucester had dreamed something which portended danger, he is said to have made this reply: Do you imagine that I am an Englishman, to be frighted by a dream, or the sneezing of an old woman?" Hist. of Gr. Britain, 111, 572. Cornelius Agrippa, speaking of "Interpretation of Dreams," says: To this delu sion not a few great philosophers have given not a little credit, especially Democritus, Aristotle, and his follower Themistius, Sinesius also the Platonick, so far building upon examples of dreams, which some accident hath made to be true; and thence they endeavour to persuade men that there are no dreams but what are real. But as to the causes of dreams, both external and internal, they do not all agree in one judgment. For the Platonicks reckon them among the specifick and concrete notions of the soul. Avicen makes the cause of dreams to be an ultimate intelligence moving the moon in the middle of that light with which the fancies of men are illuminate while they sleep. Aristotle refers the cause thereof to common sense, but placed in the fancy. Averroes places the cause in the imagination. Democritus ascribes it to little images or themselves. Albertus, to the superior inrepresentatives separated from the things fluences which continually flow from the skie through many specifick mediums. The physicians impute the cause thereof to vapours and humours: others to the affections and cares predominant in persons when awake. Others joyn the powers of the soul, celestial influences and imagestogether, all making but one cause. temidorus and Daldianus have written of the interpretation of dreams and certain books go about under Abraham's Gyants and of Civil Life, asserts to have name, whom Philo, in his Book of the been the first practiser thereof. treatises there are falsified under the Other to be read nothing but meer dreams connames of David and Solomon, wherein are cerning dreams. But Marcus Cicero, in his Book of Divination, hath given sufficient reasons against the vanity and folly of those that give credit to dreams, which Ar purposely here omit." Vanity of Sciences, p. 105. Every dream, according to Wolfius, takes its rise from some sensation, and is continued by the succession of phantasms in the mind. His reasons are that when we dream we imagine something, or the mind produces phantasms; but no phantasms can arise in the mind | In "Mery Tales and Quicke Answeres" without a previous sensation. Hence neither can a dream arise without some previous sensation. Here it may be stated, says Douce, that if our author meant a previous sensation of the thing dreamt of, it is certainly not so. "Dreams are but the rais'd Impressions of premeditated things, Our serious apprehension left upon Our minds, or else th' imaginary shapes Of objects proper to the complexion, Or disposition of our bodies." Cotgrave's English Treasury of Wit and Language, 1655. Physicians seem to be the only persons at present who interpret dreams. Frightful dreams are perhaps always indications of some violent oppression of Nature, especially of dyspepsia. Hippocrates has many curious observations on dreams. Ennius made that very sensible remark, that what men studied and pondered in the day-time the same they dreamed on at night. Scot informs us of "The art and order to be used in digging for money, revealed by dreams." "There must be made," says he, upon a hazel wand three crosses, and certain words must be said over it, and hereunto must be added certain characters and barbarous names. And whilst the treasure is a digging, there must be read the Psalms De Profundis, &c., and then a certain prayer and if the time of digging be neglected, the Devil will carry all the treasure away." Discovery, ed. 1665, 102. Some verses on this occasion are preserved by Aubrey. Miscellanies, 1696, ed. 1857, 132. A writer in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for September, 1751, wittily observes that "Dreams have for many ages been esteemed as the noblest resources at a dead lift: the dreams of Homer were held in such esteem that they were styled golden dreams: and among the Grecians we find a whole country using no other way for information, but going to sleep. The Oropians, and all the votaries of Amphiaraus are proofs of this assertion, as may be seen in Pausan. Attic." In the "Gentleman's Magazine " for January, 1799, are some curious rhymes on the subject of dreams, from Harl. MS. 541, fol. 228 verso: "Vpon my ryght syde y maie leye, blesid lady to the y Fy For the teres that ye lete vpon your swete sonnys feete, Sende me grace for to slepe, & good dremys Slepyng wakyng til morowe daye bee. (circa 1540) is a not very delicate story "of him that dreamed he founde gold." See "Old English Jest-Books," i. In "A C. Mery Talvs," 1525, is the story of Sir Richard Whittington's Dream (ibid.) In the "Opticke Glasse of Hvmors," by T. W. 1607, there is a curious section on this subject (ed. 1639, p. 141). In Lyly's "Sapho and Phao," 1584, are some pleas ant observations on dreams, act iv. sc. 3: "And can there be no trueth in dreams? Yea, dreams have their trueth.-Dreames are but dotings, which come either by things we see in the day, or meates that we eate, and so the common sense preferring it to be the imaginative. 'I dreamed,' says Ismena, mine eye tooth was loose, and that I thrust it out with my tongue.' 'It fortelleth,' replies Mileta,the losse of a friend and I ever thought thee so ful of prattle, that thou wouldest thrust out the best friend with the tatling.'" Overbury's "Character of a Milkmaid" "Her dreams are so chaste is the passage: that shee dare tell them: only a Fridaies dream is all her superstition that she conceales for feare of Anger." There is a nursery adage: : "Friday night's dream On the Saturday told, Is sure to come true, Be it never so old." In Various are the popular superstitions, or at least the faint traces of them that still are made use of to procure dreams of divination such as fasting St. Agnes' Fast; laying a piece of the first cut of the groaning cheese under the pillow, to cause young persons to dream of their lovers, and putting a Bible in the like situation, with a sixpence clapped in the Book of Ruth, and so on. Strutt says: "Writing their name on a paper at twelve o'clock, burning the same, then carefully gathering up the ashes, and laying them close wrapp'd in a paper upon a looking-glass, marked with a cross, under their pillows: this should make them dream of their loves." Manners and Customs, 111, 180. Mr. Brand observed that in his day, except amongst the most ignorant and vulgar, the whole imaginary structure had fallen to the ground; but surely this assertion was a little premature, looking at the still extensive belief, even among intelligent people, in this class of revelation, one that will never,, perhaps, wholly be extinguished under any circumstances. measure Dreams, Interpretation of. The following may in some supply what Agrippa thought proper to omit in a passage above - cited: "Cicero, among others, relates this. A certain man dreamed that there was an egg hid under his bed; the soothsayer to whom he applied himself for |