Mr. Higgens read a note from his brother, a resident in the neighbourhood of Painswick, in Gloucestershire, on the custom of baking a china dog in pies on the local feast-day referred to by Mrs. Gomme at the April meeting. The writer's opinion was that the custom was not more than fifty years old.
Mr. Gomme read a MS. sent to him by Mr. Thomas in the handwriting of the Rev. R. S. Hawker of Morwenstowe, and initialled "R. S. H.," giving particulars of a charm for the cure of snake bites, "from the recital of a very old man, formerly my parish clerk, now dead."
After some remarks from Dr. Gaster and Miss C. Dempster, Mr. W. Crooke read a paper, entitled "The Binding of a God: a Study of the Basis of Idolatry." In the discussion which followed, Miss Dempster, Miss Harrison, Mr. Gomme, Mr. Higgens, Mr. Wheeler, Dr. Gaster, and the President took part; and on the motion of the President a hearty vote of thanks was accorded to Mr. Crooke for his paper.
Some Folklore Notes from the Isle of Lewis, by the Rev. M. McPhail, and a paper, entitled "Ghost Lights of the West Highlands," by Dr. R. C. Maclagan, were also read.
believed to throng the way "for the express purpose of robbing, by importunate begging or by brute force, every deceased person of the money wherewith the living have so unselfishly enriched him during the funeral rites." It is called "paper to buy off a passage."—[Ed.]
