Collectanea. 329
A schoolboy at Portishead, East Somerset, calls Cat's Cradle,
- ' The Hammock." He plays the ordinary sequence as far as
the Fish figure, which he declares is the Hammock, the previous figures being steps thereto. He could give no further account of the game nor say how he learnt it, except that an epidemic of it (so to speak) had broken out at the school some time previously. His mother, who came from a distant village also in East Somerset, knew the game, but not by the same name : she thought it was called the Chair, or something like that, but could not speak decidedly.
It seems to me possible that the Fish figure may really be the original objective. When compared by the standard of the Oceanic and American string-games, the figures which precede it seem scarcely to merit more than the name of positions, while the final is a figure in the most exacting sense of the word.
W. Innes Pocock.
Folk-Medicine, Nursery-Lore, etc., from the ^gean Islands.
Rabies in a dog is caused by its eating a green bird brought by the wind.
Storks' eggs are good for ophthalmia.
For a sore, squeeze a live frog and put it on the sore.
For headache, cut open a live hen and put it on the head.
For the consequences of sudden fright, eat the heart of a live pigeon (still beating), with sugar.
" Agriopetalida " is pounded up and burnt. The ashes are an emmenagogue, and are also used for varicose veins.
" The Virgin's tears " (gum found in certain trees) protects from the bite of scorpions and of the sa?mo??ittis, a small lizard which is supposed to bite, but does not as a fact.
Agnus-castus leaves and tamarisk leaves are good for headache.
Y
