6. Cure for Fits.—­If a young woman has fits, she applies to ten or a dozen unmarried men (if the sufferer be a man, he applies to as many maidens) and obtains from each of them a small piece of silver of any kind, as a piece of a broken spoon, or ring, or brooch, buckle, and even sometimes a small coin, and a penny; the twelve pieces of silver are taken to a silversmith or other worker in metal, who forms therefrom a ring, which is to be worn by the person afflicted.  If any of the silver remains after the ring is made, the workman has it as his perquisite; and the twelve pennies also are intended as the wages for his work, and he must charge no more.

In 1830 I went into a gunsmith’s shop in the village where I then resided, and seeing some fragments of silver in a saucer, I had the curiosity to inquire about them, when I was informed that they were the remains of the contributions for a ring for the above purpose which he had lately been employed to make.

D.

Bible and Key.—­Mr. Stevens’s note on divination (Vol. i. p. 413.) reminds me of another use to which the bible and key are made subservient by the rustics in this locality.  When some choice specimen of the “Lancashire Witches” thinks it necessary to decide upon selecting a suitor from among the number of her admirers, she not unfrequently calls in the aid of these auxiliaries to assist in determining her choice.  Having opened the Bible at the passage in Ruth which states, “whither thou goest I will go,” &c., and having carefully placed the wards of the key upon the verses, she ties the book firmly with a piece of cord; and, having mentioned the name of an admirer, she very solemnly repeats the passage in question, at the same time holding the Bible suspended by joining the ends of her little fingers inserted under the handle of the key.  If the key retain its position during the repetition, the person whose name has been mentioned is considered to be rejected and so another name is tried until the book turns round and falls through the fingers, which is said to be a sure token that the name just mentioned is that of an individual who will certainly marry her.

T.W.

Burnley, April 27.

P.S.  In confirmation of the above, I may state that I have a Bible in my possession which bears evidence of having seen much service of this description.

NOTES ON JEREMY TAYLOR’S LIFE OF CHRIST.

(Eden’s Edit.)

Part I. Ad sect. 8.  Sec. 2. p. 166.—­“It was Tertullian’s great argument in behalf of Christians, ‘see how they love one another.’”—­Apol. c. 39.

Part I. Discourse iv.  Sec. 4. p. 173.—­“A cook told Dionysius the tyrant, the black broth of Lacedaemon would not do well at Syracuse, unless it be tasted by a Spartan’s palate.”—­Cicero, Tusc.  D. v.  Sec. 98.  Stob. Flor.  Tit. 29. n. 100.  Plut. Inst.  Lac. 2. [these have been already referred to in “NOTES AND QUERIES"]:  and compare Plutarch (Vit.  Lycurgi, c. 12.).