Page:Folklore1919.djvu/443

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Miscellaneous Notes on Folk-Lore.
77

noises of their own production, would get this man to bring his gun and fire it under their verandahs.

Faithfully yours,
A. K. Chignell.

Sir J. G. Fraser.

Oxfordshire: Precaution taken in regard to Hair Clippings.

The following is from a letter by Rev. W. Fothergill Robinson:

The Vicarage,
Bloxham, Banbury.

I think that you may be interested to hear that there still survives in these parts the idea that cut hair ends should be carefully collected. To-night I was having my hair cut, and, being very warm, I had it done in the garden; I told the servants that there was no need of a cloth under the chair as I always have indoors. I laughed over this with the barber, as a cloth had been solemnly laid, in spite of what I had told the servants, and he replied, "of course they know that if the birds pick up stray pieces of your hair, you will get a headache. I asked him whether this was an old wives' tale, and he said that it was, but "they know."




The Collection of County Folk-Lore.

The editor of the Somerset County Herald, published at Yeovil, has recently started a column of Notes and Queries which contains much interesting information on local folk lore. He invites contributions from members of the Folk-Lore Society. This enterprise deserves encouragement, and it may be hoped that some members of the Society will interest themselves in it.




The Tale of "The Prince that Didn't Exist."

In Major and Mrs. Lorimer's delightful Persian Tales (Macmillan, 1919) there is an amusing nonsense-story about "The Prince