swered no; she should fear nothing, but go with the constable. So she went with the constable to the justice, and he sent her to Bodmin jail, and ordered the prison-keeper that she should be kept without victuals; and she was so kept, and yet she lived, and that without complaining. But poor Anne lay in jail for a considerable time after; and also Justice Tregeagle, who was her great prosecutor, kept her in his house some time as a prisoner, and that without victuals."

We have a curious example of the fairies quoting Scripture. I am not aware of another instance of this. Anne, when seated with the family, was called three times. "Of all these three calls of the fairies, none heard them but Anne. After she had been in her chamber some time, she came to us again, with a Bible in her hand, and tells us that, when she came to the fairies, they said to her, 'What! has there been some magistrates and ministers with you, and dissuaded you from coming any more to us, saying, we are evil spirits, and that it was all a delusion of the devil? Pray, desire them to read that place of Scripture, in the First Epistle of St John, chap. iv. ver. 1, 'Dearly beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God; and this place of Scripture was turned down so in the said Bible. I told your lordship before, Anne could not read."

Anne was at length liberated from confinement. She lived in service near Padstow, and in process of time married William Warren.

How honestly and simply does Moses conclude his story!

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And now, my lord, if your lordship expects that I should give you an account when, and upon what occasion, these fairies forsook our Anne, I must tell your lordship I am ignorant of that. She herself can best tell, if she would be prevailed upon to do so; and the history of it, and the rest of the passages of her life, would be very acceptable and useful to the most curious and inquisitive part of mankind."*

* An Historical Survey of the County of Cornwall. C. S. Gilbert. 1817.

(H.)

THE BARGEST, OR SPECTRE-HOUND.

N the glossary to the Rev. Mr Carr's "Horæ Momenta Carveno," I find the following: Bargest, a sprite that haunts towns and populous places. Belg. berg, and geest, a ghost." I really am not a little amused at Mr Carr's derivation, which is most erroneous. Bargest is not a town-ghost, nor is it a haunter "of towns and populous places;" for, on the contrary, it is said in general to frequent small villages and hills. Hence the derivation may be berg, Germ. a hill, and geest, a ghost-i.e., a hill-ghost; but the real derivation appears to me to be bär, Germ. a bear, and geest, a ghost-i.e., a bear-ghost, from its appearing in the form of a bear or large dog, as Billy B's narrative shews.

The appearance of the spectre-hound is said to precede a death. Like other spirits, Bargest is supposed to be unable to cross water; and in case any of my craven readers should ever chance to meet with his ghostship, it may be as well to say, that unless they give him the wall, he will tear them in pieces, or otherwise ill-treat them, as he did John Lambert, who, refusing to let him have the wall, was so punished for his want of manners, that he died in a few days.

BILLY B -'s ADVENTURE.

"You see, sir, as how I'd been a clock-dressing at Gurston, (Grassington,) and I'd staid rather lat, and maybe gitten a li'le sup o' spirit; but I war far from being drunk, and knowed everything that passed. It war about eleven o'clock when I left, and it war at back end o't' year, and a most admirable (beautiful) neet it war. The moon war

varra breet, and I nivver seed Kylstone-fell plainer in a' my life. Now, you see, sir, I war passin' down t' mill loine, and

I heerd summut come past me,-brush, brush, brush, wi' chains rattling a' the while, but I seed nothing; and thowt I to mysel, now this is a most mortal queer thing. And I then stuid still, and luik'd about me; but I seed nothing at aw, nobbut the two stane wa's on each o' t' mill loine. Then I heerd again this brush, brush, brush, wi' the chains; for you see, sir, when I stuid still it stopped, and then, thowt I, this mun be a Bargest, that sae much is said about; and I hurried on towards t' wood brig; for they say as how this Bargest cannot cross a water; but Lord, sir, when I gat o'er t' brig, I heerd this same thing again; so it mud either hev crossed t' watter, or have gane round by t' spring heed! (about thirty miles!) And then I becam a valliant man, for I war a bit freekn'd afore; and, thinks I, I'll turn and hev a peep at this thing; so I went up Greet Bank towards Linton, and heerd this brush, brush, brush, wi' the chains a' the way, but I seed nothing; then it ceased all of a sudden. So I turned back to go hame; but I'd hardly reached the door when I heerd again this brush, brush, brush, and the chains, going down towards t' Holin House; and I followed it, and the moon there shone varra breet, and I seed its tail! Then, thowt I, thou owd thing, I can say Ise seen thee now; so I'll away hame. When I gat to t' door, there war a grit thing like a sheep, but it war larger, ligging across t' threshold of t' door, and it war woolly like; and says I, 'Git up,' and it wouldn't git up. Then says I, 'Stir thysel,' and it wouldn't stir itsel! And I grew valliant, and I raised t' stick to baste it wi'; and then it luik'd at me, and sich oies (eyes) they did glower, and war as big as saucers, and like a cruelled ball. First there war a red ring, then a blue one, then a white one; and these rings grew less and less till they came to a dot! Now, I war nane feer'd on it, tho' it grin'd at me fearfully, and I kept on saying 'Get up,' and 'Stir thyself,' and t' wife heerd as how I war at t' door, and she cam to oppen it; and then this thing gat up and walked off, for it war mare freet'd o' t' wife than it war o' me; and I told the wife, and she said it war Bargest; but I nivver seed it since-and that's a true story."*

* Hone's Every-day Book.

"INEV

(I.)

THE MERMAID'S VENGEANCE.

NEVITABLE death awaits the wretch who is seduced by their charms. They seize and drown the swimmer, and entice the child; and when they anticipate that their malevolence will be gratified, they are seen gaily darting over the surface of the waters."

Since this tale has been in type, my attention has been called to an article on the " Popular Mythology of the Middle Ages," by Sir F. Palgrave, in the Quarterly Review, No. 44, 1820. The Nixies, to whom the above quotation especially refers, are in most respects like the Cornish mermaids.

'

(K.)

ROCK MASSES, CELTIC.

THE Celts, or Κελτοί, οι Κελταί, were a people of the

"THE origin of which nothing positive is known. They oc

cupied a great part of Western Europe perhaps in times antecedent to the invasion of Indo-Germanic nations.

"The very name Celt is of uncertain etymology. Ammian derives it from the king, Kelta, or Celta; Leibnitz, from the German gelt, or geld, money; Mezerai, from the British gall, or gault, a forest; Pellontier, from the Tudesk wallen, to wander; Latour d'Auvergne, from gael, or gæll, yellow, alluding to the light hair of the Galli, whom Bochart identifies with Dodanim (for Rhodanim) of Gen. x.*

"But the name of Celt may probably come, as Camden says, from gwalth, a head of hair; coma, and gwalthay, comatus, from whence Κελταί, Γαλάται, οι Γάλλοι. Galli or Gauls, the Gædil, Cadil, or Keile, and in pl. Keilt, or Keiltiet, or Gaels, Gædels, or Guidhelod, as the Irish call themselves and their tongue.

“The language called Celtic is divided into two principal * "And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim and Dodanim," (Gen. x. 4.)

branches-viz., 1. The Irish or Hibernian, from which the present Irish or Erse, and the Gaelic of Scotland are derived. 2. The British, to which the primitive Gaellic or Gallic are allied, and from which are derived the Welsh, the Cornish, and the Armoric, or language of Brittany."

"The Welsh, which is the relic of the language of the inland Britons, or Cæsar's aborigines, is most probably akin to the dialect of Gallia Celtica, and the Cornish to the idiom of the Belga, who overran the southern district of England, and probably sought refuge in the west when the Saxons were extending themselves from the eastern part of the island." †

But surely there are indications of a people inhabiting Cornwall long before the Saxons gained a foot of ground in England?

(L.)

AMBROSIÆ PETRÆ.

N connexion with the Bambury Stone in Worcestershire, Mr Jabez Allies remarks, and Dr Nash is of the same opinion, that it was in all probability originally Ambury. He then gives us several examples of the occurrence of this name—as Ambreforde in Yorkshire, Ambrelie in Sussex, Ambresberie in Wilts, Ambresdone in Oxfordshire, and many others.*

66

The ancients distinguished stones, erected with a religious view, by the name of amber, by which was signified anything solar and divine.†

Respecting the Phoenicians being the founders of the Druidical discipline in Britain, one fact weighs more with me than a thousand arguments. I allude to the Tyrian coin, on which appear the tree, the sacred fire, the two stone pillars of Hercules, (Thoth,) and the singular legend, Tyr. Col., (Colony of Tyrians,) and the still more remarkable

* A History of the Sacred Scriptures in every Language and Dialect into which Translations have been made. Bagster and Sons, 1860.

+ Researches into the Physical History of Mankind. By James Cowles Prichard, M.D., F.A.S., vol. iii.

Allies' Worcestershire.

§ Bryant's Ancient Mythology.