The following is one of the many stories related by the Manks peasantry as indicative of the prodigious strength of the phynnodderee. A gentleman having resolved to build a large house and offices on his property, a little above the base of Snafield mountain, at a place called Sholt-e-will, caused the requisite quantity of stones to be quarried on the beach; but one immense block of white stone, which he was very desirous to have for a particular part of the intended building, could not be moved from the spot, resisting the united strength of all the men in the parish. To the utter astonishment, however, of all, not only this rock, but likewise the whole of the quarried stones, consisting of more than a hundred cart-loads, were in one night conveyed from the shore to the site of the intended onstead by the indefatigable phynnodderee, and in confirmation of this wonderful feat, the white stone is yet pointed out to the curious visitor. The gentleman for whom this very acceptable piece of work was performed, wishing to remunerate the naked phynnodderee, caused a few articles of clothing to be laid down for him in his usual haunt. The hairy one, on perceiving the habiliments, lifted them up one by one, thus expressing his feelings in Manks: 66 Cap for the head, alas, poor head; Breeches for the breech, alas, poor breech; If these be all thine, thine cannot be the merry glen of Rushen." Having repeated these words, he departed with a melancholy wail, and now "You may hear his voice on the desert hill, 'Tis a wild lament for his buried love, Many of the old people lament the disappearance of the phynnodderee; for they say, "There has not been a merry world since he lost his ground."] FEEDING CHILDREN WITH THE SWORD, A CUSTOM AMONG THE ANCIENT BRITONS. ["IT was the custom among all warlike nations to give names to their swords; but the ancient Britons took a particular pride in adorning their swords, and making them polished handles of the teeth of sea-animals, &c.; and their warlike disposition and love of the sword was such, that it was the custom for the mother of every male child to put the first victuals into the child's mouth on the point of his father's sword, and, with the food, to give her first blessing or wish to him, that he might die no other death than that of the sword. Nay, this nation, by long struggling in defence of their country, had got to such an enthusiastic pitch of warlike madness, that I have read in an ancient British MS., then at Hengurt, that it was customary, when a man grew very old and infirm among them, to desire his children or next relatives to pull him out of bed and kill him, lest the enemy might have the pleasure of that office, or that he should die cowardly and sordidly, and not by the sword."-From Roberts' Cambrian Popular Antiquities.] III. 27 INDEX TC BRAND'S POPULAR ANTIQUITIES. Abbas Stultorum, i, 504. Abbé de la Malgouverné, i, 504. Abbot of Unreason in Scotland, i, 504. Aberedwy, S. Wales, large yew trees Abingdon, co. Berks, custom after Aches and corns, prognostications Addison, Joseph, plans a barring out "Adieu panniers, vendanges sont Adrian, Emperor, made use of the Sortes Virgilianæ, iii, 337. Ælian, St., i, 360. superstitiously used at child- used as a charm, iii, 50. Africa, wedding customs in, ii, 152. account of, from Naogeorgus, charm for the ague, on, i, 38. Agues, superstitious cures for, iii, charm for, on St. Agnes' Eve, Aguilaneuf, Aguilanleu, i, 458. Alcala, Midsummer Eve festivities at, | ALL-HID, ii, 391. i, 317. All Saints Eve, fires on, i, 388-9. Ale, festival so called, etymology of, Almshouses, few in number before Alehouses, tobacco in, ii, 362-6. Alfred, King, law of, concerning holi- Alholde, or Gobelyn, i, 9. ALL FOOLS DAY, i, 131-41. Altarnum, co. Cornwall, St. Nun's Altars in Papal Rome placed towards Amaranthus strewed on tombs by the Ambassador, game of, ii, 391. Bairnsla foaks annual, i, 133. notice of, in the 'Spectator,' observed like St. Valentine's Day in some parts of North Amoreux, le Prince d', annually Amsterdam, bawds of, believed a Molluka beans used as, iii, 46. Poor Robin's Almanack, 1738, ANDREW, ST., i, 360-4-5. i, 133. Poor Robin's description of All Fours, ii, 450. poor people in Staffordshire sowing of hempseed on, i, celebration of, in Ireland, i, customs in Scotland on, i, 380. ANDREW'S DAY, ST., i, 414-15. sheep's heads borne in pro- Angus and Lothian, sport of cat and April, borrowed days of, ii, 41-4. dog used in, ii, 406. Ant, an omen of weather, iii, 244. Anthony, St., i, 356-8-60-4-5. Apparition, Gay's Tale of the, iii, 75. APPARITIONS, iii, 67, 90. fools, custom of making, re- popular sayings on the month Aquisgrana, St. Mary of, i, 365. "Aratrum circumducere," the draw- account of, at the parsonage-Arbiter bibendi, i, 26. Arbor Judæ, iii, 283. Arga, i. e. cuckold, ii, 196. Apples, new, blessed upon St. James's spells by, i, 356-76-7-82. Apprentices, Shrove Tuesday, the par- thoughts on, in 'The World,' prevalent among the Swedes, held in esteem among the al- celebrated in India, i, 140. verses on, i, 132-3-7. four last days of, observed in Arrows, divination by, iii, 331. account of, in Googe's Trans- the Doge of Venice weds the smock-race on, in the north Ascension Even, payments for bread Ash, the, a cure for ague, iii, 291. |