official account of Bendothey, co. Perth, written in 1797, it is said: "The substance called shot stars is nothing else than frosted potatoes. A night of hard frost, in the end of autumn, in which those meteors called fallen stars are seen, reduces the potatoe to the consistence of a jelly or soft pulp having no resemblance to a potato, except when parts of the skin of the potato adhere below undissolved. This pulp remains soft and fluid, when all things else in Nature are consolidated by frost for which reason it is greedily taken up by crows and other fowls when no other sustenance is to be had, so that it is often found by man in the actual circumstance of having fallen from above, having its parts scattered and dispersed by the fall, according to the law of falling bodies. This has given rise to the name and vulgar opinion concerning it." Stat. Acc. of Scotl., xix., 351.

Atites. The Etites, or Eagle Stone, was regarded as a charm of singular use to parturient women. Lemnius says: "It makes women that are slippery able to conceive, being bound to the wrist of the left arm, by which from the heart towards the Ring Finger, next to the little Finger, an artery runs: and if all the time the woman is great with child, this jewel be worn on those parts, it strengthens the child, and there is no fear of abortior or miscarrying."-Occult Miracles of Nature, 1658. p. 270. Lemnius tells us elsewhere, that "the jewel called Etites, found in an eagle's nest, that has rings with little stones within it, being applied to the thigh of one that is in labour, makes a speedy and easy delivery; which thing I have found true by experiment." Lupton speaks of Etites, called the Eagle's stone, tyed to the left arm or side; it brings this benefit to women with child, that they shall not be delivered before their time besides that, it brings love between the man and the wife: and if a woman have a painfull travail in the birth of her child, this stone tyed to her thigh, brings an easy and light birth." Elsewhere he says: "Let the woman that travels with her child, (is in labour) be girded with the skin that a serpent or snake casts off, and then she will quickly be delivered."

Agatha's Letters, St.-Bishop Pilkington observes: "They be superstitíous that put holiness in S. Agathes Letters for burning houses, thorne bushes for lightnings.' Burnynge of Paules Church in 1561, 88, 1563, I. 8 and G. i.

Afternoon Music. In Brooke's "Epithalamium," inserted in England's Helicon, 1614, we read: "Now whiles slow Howres doe feed the Times delay,

Confus'd Discourse, with Musicke mixt among,

Fills up the Semy-circle of the Day."
In the margin opposite is put "Afternoone
Musicke."

Agnes Day or Eve, St.-(Jan. 21.) St. Agnes was a Roman virgin and martyr, who suffered in the tenth persecution under the Emperor Diocletian, A.D. 306. In the office for St. Agnes' Day in the "Missale ad usum Sarum," 1554, this passage occurs: "Hec est Virgo sapiens quam Dominus vigilantem invenit,' The Gospel is the parable of the Virgins. The "Portiforium ad usum Sarum" declares that Agnes was the daughter of immaculate parents, Cujus mater Virgo est, cujus pater fæminam nescit, and that she was so deeply versed in magic, that it was said that Christ was her spouse. The festival of St. Agnes was not observed with much rigour in Germany in the time of Naogeorgus; but he describes the celebration at Rome on this anniversary as very solemn. It was customary to offer two lambs in remembrance of the legend at the high altar; these were taken by the priest and kept till shearing time, when their fleeces were used for palls. The same practice was noticed by Jephson the traveller in Italy in 1794. The life of this Saint was written by L. Sherling (i.e.. Daniel Pratt), in prose and verse, and printed in 1677. On the eve of her day many kinds of divination are practised by virgins to discover their future husbands. It is called fasting St. Agnes' Fast. The following lines of Ben Jonson allude to this:

"And on sweet St. Agnes' night Please you with the promis'd sight, Some of husbands, some of lovers, Which an empty dream discovers." She was condemned to be debauched in the public stews before her execution; but her virginity was miraculously preserved by lightning and thunder from Heaven. About eight days after her execution, her parents going to lament and pray at her tomb, they saw a vision of angels, among whom was their daughter, and a lamb standing by her as white as snow, on which account it is that in every graphic representation of her there is a lamb pictured by her side.

Burton, in his "Anatomy," also speaks of this sort of divination, and Aubrey, in his "Miscellanies," directs that " St. Agnes' Night you take a row of pins, Upon and pull out every one, one after another, saying a Pater Noster, sticking a pin in your sleeve, and you will dream of him or her you shall marry." This anniversary is known in connection with the celebrated poem by Keats. In the bishopric of Durham, the country people have the following address in use:

"Fair St. Agnes, play thy part,
And send to me my own sweetheart,
Not in his best nor worst array,
But in the clothes he wears every day:
That to-morrow I may him ken,
From among all other men."

I have observed that in Cornwall, where we should speak of St. Agnes, they say St. Anne, as if the two names, if not persons, were the same. Yet females are sometimes christened Agnes Anne.

Agues.-Aubrey furnishes an infallible receipt for the cure of an ague: Write this following spell in parchment, and wear it about your neck. It must be writ triangularly:

ABRACADABRA ABRACADABR

ABRACADAB

ABRACADA

ABRACAD

ABRACA

ABRAC

ABRA

ABR

Ав A

With this the writer affirms that one at Wells in Somersetshire had cured above a hundred of the disease. He gives another specific for the same purpose a little further on : 66 Gather cinquefoil in a good aspect of to the and let the moone be in the mid-heaven, if you can, and take of the powder of it in white wine. If it be not thus gathered according to the rules of astrology, it hath little or no virtue in it." Other superstitious cures follow for the thrush, the toothache, the jaundice, bleeding, &c.-Miscellanies, ed. 1857, 133, 134, 137, where farther information may be found. Blagrave prescribes a cure of agues by a certain writing which the patient weareth, as follows: When Jesus went up to the Cross to be crucified, the Jews asked Him, saying, Art thou afraid? or hast thou the ague? Jesus answered and said, I am not afraid, neither have I the ague. All those which bear the name of Jesus about them shall not be afraid, nor yet have the ague. Amen, sweet Jesus, Amen, sweet Jehovah, Amen." He adds: "I have known many who have been cured of the ague by this writing only worn about them; and I had the receipt from one whose daughter was cured thereby, who had the ague upon her two years.' To this charact, then, may be given, on the joint authority of the old woman and our doctor, Probatum est." Astrological Practice d'Physic, p. 135. In Ashmole's Diary, 11 April, 1681, is preserved the following curious incident: "I took early in the morning a good dose of elixir, and hung three spiders about my neck, and they drove my ague away. Deo Gratias !"

Ashmole was a judicial astrologer, and the patron of the renowned Mr. Lilly. Par nobile fratrum. In Pope's Memoirs of P. P. Clerk of the Parish, is the following:-"The next chapter relates how he discovered a thief with a Bible and key, and experimented verses of the Psalms that had cured agues.' Douce notes that, in his day, it was usual with many persons about Exeter, who had the ague, "to visit at dead of night the nearest cross road five different times, and there bury a new-laid egg. The visit is paid about an hour before the cold fit is expected; and they are persuaded that with the egg they shall bury the ague. If the experiment fail, (and the agitation it occasions may often render it successful) they attribute it to some unlucky accident that may have befallen them on the way. In the execution of this matter they observe the strictest silence, taking care not to speak to any one, whom they may happen to meet.Gentleman's Magazine, 1787, p. 719. I shall here note another remedy against the ague mentioned as above, viz., by breaking a salted cake of bran and giving it to a dog, when the fit comes on, by which means they suppose the malady to be transferred from them to the animal." Compare St. Germanus.

Aldate, St.-Hearne, in his Diary, informs us that this personage was a bishop of Gloucester, living in the time of Hengist, whom he slew; and a part of Oxford is still named after him. But his existence is questionable. Diary, 1869, ii., 285.

66

Ale.--Ale, or eale, A.-S. (a form not yet obsolete) seems to be considered as significant in the present connection of nothing, more or less, than a merry-making. "That ALE is festival appears from its sense in composition," says Warton; as amongst others, in the words Leet-ale, Lamb-ale, Whitsun-ale, Clerk-ale, and Church-ale. Leet-ale, in some parts of England, signifies the dinner at a court-leet of a manor for the jury and customary tenants. Lambale is still used at the village of Kirtlington in Oxfordshire, for an annual feast or celebrity at lamb-shearing. Clerk-ale occurs in Aubrey's History of Wiltshire,' printed in 1847. Church-ale was a feast celebrated for the repair of the church, or in honour of the church saint. In Dodsworth's Manuscripts, there is an old indenture, made before the Reformation, which not only shews the design of the Churchale, but explains this particular use and application of the word ale. But Mr. Astle had a curious record about 1575, which proves the Bride-ale synonymous with the Weddyn-ale. Among Bishop Tanner's MSS. additions to Cowel's Law Glossary,' in the Bodleian Library, is the following note from his own collec

corrosion by time and weather, to the almost loss of features, the smile is yet visible. In the centre is a niche formerly cccupied by the figure of the Blessed Virgin. The whole subject is doubt less intended to realise a feast in the precincts of the church on the dedication carried on whilst a private Mass was being performed at the altar." (Archæologia, 1794). At many other churches grotesque figures are mixed up with sacred subjects. At St. Mary's Church, Chalk, her statue was demolished by the iconoclasts of the 17th century; although possibly there might not be at that time a parishioner aggrieved, or in whose mind the image would have excited an idolatrous propensity. But the grotesque figures escaped the hammers of those pious reformers, whose tender feelings were not hurt with the view of a toper and hideous contortionist carved on the front of a house of prayer, notwithstanding, in their own conceits, they held purer doctrines, were sanctimonious in their devotions and stricter in their morals than other men. Compare Whitsuntide.

Ale-House. Ale-houses are at present licensed to deal in tobacco; but it was not so from the beginning; for so great an incentive was it thought to drunkenness, that it was strictly forbidden to be taken in any ale-house in the time of James I. There is an ale-house licence extant, which was perhaps circa 1630 granted by six Kentish justices of the peace: at the bottom the following item occurs: 66 Item, you shall not utter, nor willingly suffer to be uttered, drunke, or taken, any tobacco within your house, celler, or other place thereunto belonging." See Hazlitt's Bibl. Coll.. General Index, 1893. v. Alehouse, and Lemon's Cat. of the Soc. of Antiquaries' Broadsides, 1866.

Ale-Stake, or Bush.-The former term is found in very early use, as in 1375 the Mayor and Aldermen of London imposed restrictions on the extent to which alestakes might project over the highway. Riley's Memorials, 1868, p. 386. Bansley, in his "Treatise on the Pride and Abuse of Women," circa 1550, says:

"For lyke as the jolye ale house

Is alwayes knowen by the good ale stake,

So are proud Jelots sone perceeved to By theyr proude foly, and wanton gate."

Comp. Bush.

Allhallow Even, vulgarly Hall E'en or Nutcrack Night. Hallow Even is the vigil of All Saints' Day, which is on the first of November. In the Roman Calendar I find under November 1: "The feast of Old Fools is removed to this day." This was also known as Soulemass Day, or cor

ruptly, Salmes Day, which latter form occurs in the " Plumpton Correspondence," under 1502. Comp. Hallowe'en. All Fours.-A game at cards, said in the Compleat Gamester, 1680, to be very much played in Kent. But in the time of Queen Anne it appears from Chatto (Facts and Speculations, 1848, p. 166), to have shared with Put, Cribbage, and Lanterloo the favour of the lower orders. Comp. Davis, Suppl. Glossary, 1881, p. 11. (ii.) ‘A sport for the amusement of children, where a grown-up person goes a quatre pattes, and allows a child to ride on his back. Masson, in his Napoléon et les Femmes, describes that great man doing this to please his nephew, the future Emperor. All-Hallows..-See Hallowe'en and

Hallowmass.

The

All-Hid. See Levins' Manipulus, 1570, p. 293. In Love's Labour Lost, written, before 1598, iv., 3, this is called "An infant play.' In Hamlet, Act iv., sc. ii., the Prince of Denmark says: King is a thing," upon which Guilderstein rejoins, A thing, my lord ?" whereupon Hamlet adds: "Of nothing. Bring me to him. Hide, fox, and all after." This is supposed to be an allusion to the sport called All Hid. Steevens tells us that it is alluded to in Decker's 66 Satiromastix:" "Our unhandsome-faced poet does play at bo-peep with your Grace, and cries All-hid as boys do." In A Curtaine Lecture,' 1637, p. 206, is the following passage: "A sport called All-hid, which is a mere childien's pastime."

All in the Well, a juvenile game described by Halliwell (Dict. 1860, in v.) as played in Newcastle and the neighbourhood.

All Saints. Hallowmass.

See Hallowe'en and

Alsatia, a popular name for Whitefriars, while it enjoyed the privilege of a sanctuary. Shadwell's Squire of Alsatia, Scott's Fortunes of Nigel, and Ainsworth's Whitefriars, illustrate this point.

Altar. Selden remarks: "The way of coming into our great churches was anciently at the west door, that Men might see the Altar, and all the Church before them; the other Doors were but posterns." Table Talk, ed. 1860, p. 131. Moresin tells us that altars in Papal Rome were placed toward the east, in imitation of ancient and heathen Rome. Papatus, 117. Thus we read in Virgil's Eleventh Eneid:

"Illia ad surgentem conversi lumina Solem

Dant fruges manibus salsas." Comp. Bowing.

Ambassador. — A trick to duck some ignorant fellow or landsman, frequently played on board ships in the warm latitudes. It is thus managed: a large

tub is filled with water, and two stools placed on each side of it. Over the whole is thrown a tarpaulin, or old sail: this is kept tight by two persons, who are to represent the King and Queen of a foreign country and are seated on the stools. The person intended to be ducked plays the Ambassador, and after repeating a ridiculous speech dictated by him, is led in great form up to the throne, and seated between the King and Queen, who rising suddenly as soon as he is seated, he falls backward into the water.

:

Ampoule, St.-See Graal. Amulets. There appears to be some ground for supposing that the most ancient amulets, sentences from Scripture, criginated in the usage of burying portions of the sacred writings with holy men. A paper on the subject is printed in the Antiquary for 1896. Burton has the following passage: "Amulets, and things to be borne about, I find prescribed, taxed by some, approved by others looke for them in Mizaldus, Porta, Albertus, &c. A ring made of the hoofe of an asse's right fore-foot carried about, &c. I say with Renodeus they are not altogether to be rejected. Piony doth help epilepsies. Pretious stones, most diseases. A wolf's dung carried about helps the cholick. A spider, an ague, &c. Such medicines are to be exploded that consist of words, characters, spells and charms, which can do no good at all, but out of a strong conceit, as Pomponatius proves, or the Divel's policy that is the first founder and teacher of them." Anatomy, 1621, 476. Among Mr. Cockayne's "Saxon Leechdoms," there are some, as it may be supposed, for bewitched persons, in the form of amulets held to be efficacious. One is as follows: "Against every evil rune lay, and one full of elvish tricks, write for the bewitched man tuis writing in Greek, alfa, omega, Ivesum, Beronike [Veronica]." Another is: "Take bramble apple, and lupins, and pulegium, pound them, then sift them, put them in a pouch, lay them under the altar, sing nine masses over them, put the dust into milk, drip thrice some holy water upon them, administer this in drink at three hours, at nine in the morning. etc." From the middle ages gems and rings have been regarded and employed as amulets and charms. The belief in their virtues, which were numerous and varied, was fostered by the churches, and a rich store has descended to our times. The gems bearing the effigy or figure of Pegasus or Bellerophon was held to confer courage, and was prized by soldiers. Those engraved with Andromeda reconciled differences between men and women. The image of Mercury rendered the possessor wise and persuasive, and so on. Roach Smith's

a

Richborough, 1850, p. 90-92. The ruby was supposed to be an amulet against poison, plague, sadness, evil thoughts, and wicked spirits; and, most wonderful of all, it warned its wearer of evil by becoming black or obscure. Brahman traditions describe the abode of the gods as lighted by enormous rubies and emeralds. The magical properties of the sapphire are rated as high as those of the ruby. It was sacred to Apollo, and was worn by the inquirer of the oracle at his shrine. During the Middle Ages it continued in high estimation, because it was supposed to prevent evil and impure thoughts and it was worn by priests on account of its power to preserve the chastity of the wearer. St. Jerome affirmed that it procures favour with princes, pacifies enemies, and obtains freedom from captivity; but one of the most remarkable properties ascribed to it was the power to kill any venomous reptile that was put into the same glass with it. H. B. Wheatley. The turquoise was believed to be a protection from falls, and the amethyst against intoxication. Jasper cured madness, and agate was an antidote to the poison of scorpions and spiders, besides being beneficial to the eyes. Lemnius remarks, "So coral, piony, misseltoe, drive away the falling sicknesse, either hung about the neck or drank with wine. Rosmary purgeth houses, and a branch of this, hung at the entrance of houses, drives away devils and tagions of the plague, as also ricinus, commonly called Palma Christi, because the leaves are like a hand opened wide. Corall bound to the neck takes off turbulent dreams and allays the nightly fears of children. Other jewells drive away hobgoblins, witches, nightmares, and other evill spirits, if we will believe the monuments of the Antients." Occult Secrets of Nature, 1658, p. 270. But coins with the effigies of saints, such as the gold angels, and the George noble, or the touch-pieces in gold and silver, in the English series, were also credited with the power of guardianship against sickness and casualties. The George noble, with its legend taken from a hymn by Prudentius Tali Dicata Signo Mens Fluctuare Nequit, was supposed to protect the wearer who suspended it round his neck, against accidents in riding; and perhaps peculiar rarity of the half noble of this type may indicate its more general uses for the purpose aforesaid. A curious gold florin, with the Madonna and Child on reverse, struck by one of the Dukes of Gueldres, is still preserved in the original gold box, and is supposed to have been carried on the person as a charm. Hazlitt's Coins of Europe, 1893, p. 200. In cases of trepanning for epilepsy, the portions excised were formerly employed as

con

the