THE FOLK-LORE OF DRAYTON. 153
enarched bramble ; and in some of the western counties that act, thrice repeated, will banish whooping-cough.* Freedom from ill is arrived at only through temporary abasement and exertion. Nymphidia sought deliverance ; she hoped to emerge in safety from the evils con- nected with Puck's pursuit, so she prefigured her passage through the trouble; and, by afterwards jumping over the briar, foreshowed the victory that she meant to gain. This done, she invoked the fairies' goddess Proserpina in a litany of obsecration which I cannot do less than quote at full length : —
" By the croaking of the frog ; By the howling of the dog ; By the crying of the hog,
Against the storm arising; By the evening curfew-bell ; By the doleful dying knell, O, let this my direful spell,
Hob, hinder thy surprising. By the mandrake's dreadful groans ; By the Lubrican's sad moans ; By the noise of dead men's bones,
In charnel-houses rattling ; By the hissing of the snake. The rustling of the fire-drake [dragon], , I charge thee this place forsake.
Nor of Mab be prattling. By the whirlwind's hollow sound, By the thunder's dreadful stound, Yells of spirits under ground,
I charge thee not to fear us : By the scritch-cwl's dismal note, By the black night-raven's throat, I charge thee, Hob, to tear thy coat
With thorns, if thou come near us."
The " mandrake's dreadful groans " are horrors with which we are familiar by hearsay, if not by hearing ; but " the Lubrican's sad moans " are phonic rarities. An attempt has been made to identify the Lubrican with the Leprechaun of L-ish mythology, a fairy who
♦ « Choice Notes," Folk-Lore, pp. 88, 217.
