A suspected thief was overheard boasting, "They never catches
_me_: and they never ooll neither. I allus wears a toad's heart round my
neck, _I_ does." See Mrs. Ella M. Leather, in _Folk-lore_, xxiv. (1913)
p. 238.
[751] Above, p. 301.
[752] Robert Hunt, _Popular Romances of the West of England_, Third
Edition (London, 1881), p. 320. The writer does not say where this took
place; probably it was in Cornwall or Devonshire.
[753] Rev. Walter Gregor, _Notes on the Folk-lore of the North-East of
Scotland_ (London, 1881), p. 184.
[754] _County Folk-lore, Printed Extracts, No. 2, Suffolk_, collected
and edited by the Lady Eveline Camilla Gurdon (London, 1893), pp. 190
_sq._, quoting _Some Materials for the History of Wherstead_ by F.
Barham Zincke (Ipswich, 1887), p. 168.
[755] _County Folk-lore, Printed Extracts, No. 2, Suffolk_, p. 191,
referring to Murray's _Handbook for Essex, Suffolk_, etc., p. 109.
[756] (Sir) John Rhys, "Manx Folklore and Superstitions," _Folk-lore_,
ii. (1891) pp. 300-302; repeated in his _Celtic Folk-lore, Welsh and
Manx_ (Oxford, 1901), i. 306 _sq._ Sir John Rhys does not doubt that the
old woman saw, as she said, a live sheep being burnt on old May-day; but
he doubts whether it was done as a sacrifice. He adds: "I have failed to
find anybody else in Andreas or Bride, or indeed in the whole island,
who will now confess to having ever heard of the sheep sacrifice on old
May-day.
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