centre of which he found the impression of a bocskor,[1] ankle deep, which, according to tradition, is the footstep left behind by an adventurer prince, who, in jumping a match with the Giant of Dregely, tried to jump across the valley of the Ipoly (Eipel). On a small ledge of rock is shown the seat of the Giant of Drégeley, with two footprints of human size in front of it: these are said to be those of the giant. Another footprint is said to belong to the Giant Palást, and is twenty-six English inches long, and proportionately wide. Human footprints in the rock are also shown in the neighbourhood of Tesmag, Selmecz-bánya, Ajbánya; also in Transylvania, near the Fairies' Cave, and at Csucsa and Kápolna."
Near Szotyor, in Háromszék, there is a rock which is called the "Giant's Stone," on the top of it there is a cavity resembling the heel of a man: the diameter of this hole is five feet, and tradition says it is the imprint of a giant's heel.
Cf. At Nurnberg there is the impress of a horseshoe on the top of the parapet, said to have been left by the horse of a popular hero as they leaped from the ramparts across the moat.
If a person has any difficulty in turning the handle of a door, he is said to have forgotten to say his prayers.
(A relation, a member of a Holderness family, told me that her great-grandfather was well known in the whole neighbourhood as being a watcher in the church porch on S. Mark's Eve, at midnight. He said he had often seen the whole village pass by him into the church, and then return; but not all: and those who returned not were those who would die during the coming year. The villagers always came to him, in case of sickness in their family, to ask if the afflicted would recover. If the watcher fell asleep, he himself was doomed!—W. H. J.)
On All Souls' Day in Vienna, and all over Austria, a piece is played in all the theatres, called "The Miller and his Child," the plot of which is the above-mentioned superstition.
Thornton Lodge, Goxhill, Hull.
- ↑ A kind of shoe and legging, made by wrapping cotton, &c., round the foot and leg; also worn by Neapolitan peasants.
