hole in the centre, through which hole was strung a piece of cord to hang it up with. A "witch-stone" hung up on, or over, the entrance door of a house is supposed to protect the inhabitants from all harm; in the same way do not some enlightened people nail a horse-shoe over their door "for good luck"? To ensure this "good-luck" I understand you must find a horse-shoe "accidentally on the road" without looking for it; to procure a "witch-stone" you must in like manner come upon a stone (of any kind) with a hole through the centre when you are not thinking about any such thing.
Then our host related to us a curious story that had been told to him as true history. According to this, a certain Lincolnshire miser died (I withhold, name, date, and place), and was duly placed in his coffin overnight; but then a strange thing happened, next morning the body had disappeared and its place was taken up with stones; it being presumed that the Devil had made off with his body and had placed the stones in the coffin in exchange. But one would have imagined that it was the man's spirit not his body that his Satanic Majesty desired—but there I am always over-critical and too exacting about details. By the way this reminds me we were told, that the Lincolnshire folk never call the Devil openly by that familiar designation, but speak of him in an undertone, as either "Samuel," "Old Lad," or "Bargus."
Then we gleaned some particulars of old Lincolnshire folk-lore. Here, for example, is an infallible charm to get power over the Devil, I mean "Samuel."
