386 Reviews.
who had taken part in it. It consisted of hghting twelve small
fires and a large one (" to burn the old witch," says one authority)
in a field of springing wheat, and assembling there to drink healths
in cider. Later in the evening the party visited the cowhouse
and toasted the oxen in ale. A plum-cake with a hole in it was
then put on one horn of the first ox, who was made to toss it off,
and omens were drawn from the way it fell (p. 93). Distinct
from this, it would seem, is the custom general in the county up
to forty years ago, and still surviving in parts, of lighting a bonfire
in the first-sown wheatfield in the small hours of New Year's
morning, in which the " bush " of hawthorn which has hung in
the farmhouse kitchen during the year is consumed. A new one
is cut, and is scorched in the flames. Cider is poured over it,
and it is carried to the farmhouse to replace its predecessor.
Blazing straw is carried over the ridges — " to drive away the old
'un," "to destroy evil spirits," "to preserve the wheat from
smut," are the reasons alleged. Finally, the men stand round the
fire and "holloa old cider ■,'" i.e., shout the words slowly in unison
three times, bowing at every syllable, (making nine bows in all),
after which they drink (p. 92). This custom, so far as we know,
is altogether peculiar to the county. It is remarkable that two
such similar rites should have been practised at dates so near
together.
Other items remind us of Miss ^^'herry's and Miss Eyre's
Monmouthshire legends, ^^'hen will some one do for Monmouth
and Brecon what Mrs. Leather has done so charmingly for
Hereford?
Charlotte S. Burne.
Journal of the Folk-Song Society. No. 16 (Vol. IV., Part iii., December 191 1). A Collection of one hundred and five Songs of Occupation from the Western Isles of Scotland. Compiled by Miss Frances Tolmie. i9Berners Street, W., 191 1. 4to, xiv, 143-278 4- ix.
This group of our native wild flowers is by no means a botanist's collection of dried and pressed specimens. The blossoms are as
