Pits have Passages under Ground was first experimented, they say, by Bishop Tunstall, who to satisfie his Curiosity herein, marked a Goose, and let her down into them, which very Goose he found afterwards in the River Tees, which runs along not far from this place."
Mabel Peacock.
Butterfly Charm.
(Ante, vol. xiii., p. 432.)
In Oldenburg the first butterfly seen in spring should be caught and allowed to escape through the coat sleeve, and you will find a swarm of bees (Strackerjan, Aberglaube und Sagen aus Oldenburg, i., 105). In view of the fact that in this and many other cases the first animal should be caught, it seems difficult to connect the custom with soul-catching; but of course the rhyme may have nothing to do with the other part of the custom.
As to the etymologies, surely there is no reason to doubt that the "lady" is the Virgin Mary. Butterfly is stated by Murray to be of uncertain origin; it is strange he does not notice the probable suggestion that refers the name to the belief that witches take the form of these insects to steal butter and milk, cf. Milch-dieb, Molken-dieb. In some parts of Germany, mothers, when they wean their children, are said to tell them the butterfly has taken the milk away.
N. W. Thomas.
Crescent Charms (Plate II.).
On Plate II. in the last number of Folk-Lore my friend Mr. E. Lovett has placed together a number of objects which have no connection with each other except that of casual form. I consider that the association of objects on this slender basis is misleading to the unwary. A is a well-known chest-pendant from the Solomon Islands, it is not from New Guinea. Dr. Codrington has enlightened us concerning the cult of the frigate-bird. We do not know the significance of the pearl-shell crescent from New
