man that checked his seruant for talke of ryngyng." "A Gentilman, brought vp at London in an In of court, was maryed, and kepte an house in the countrey and as he sate at supper with his neyghbours aboute hym, vpon an alhalow daie at night, amonge other communication, he talked of the solemne ringyng of the belles (as was the vsage than)." The feast of Allhallows is said to drive the Finns almest out of their wits.

Hallowmass in Scotland. Martin, speaking of the Isle of Lewis, says that it was long before the minister there could persuade the people to relinquish a ridiculous custom they had of going by night on Hallow-tide to the Church of St. Mulvay, whence one of their number went into the sea up to his waist, with a cup of ale brewed for the occasion with malt contributed by the inhabitants (each family giving a peck), and pouring the liquid into the water, addressed a propitiatory allocution to a sea-god called Shony, who was supposed to have an influence over the crops. They then returned to church, observed a moment's dead silence, then extinguished at a given signal the candle on the altar, and proceeded to the fields, where the rest of the night was spent in revelry.

Hand, The. It is probable that if an exhaustive research into the subject were undertaken, the folk-lore of the Hand would occupy a considerable space, and develop many curious particulars.

The practice of holding up the right hand as a mark of submission or assent is extremely ancient and very widely spread. A small silver coin of Udalric, Duke of Bohemia (1012-37), bears on one side an open hand, which might have stood as a symbol of the Deity, or as a signification of allegiance to his suzerain; and the same type occurs in pennies of Edward the Elder, (901-57) and Ethelred II. of England, who began to reign in 979. In a coin of the former the third and fourth fingers are closed in token of the bestowal of the Latin benediction. Barrington says that it was anciently the custom for a person swearing fealty "to hold his hands joined together between those of his lord; the reason for which seems to have been that some Lord had been assassinated under pretence of paying homage; but, while the tenant's hands continued in this attitude, it was impossible for him to make such an attempt." Observations on the Statutes, 1775, p. 206. In the Squire of Low Degree, where the King of Hungary takes the hero out of prison, and makes him swear to keep his counsel, it is said:

"The squyer there helde vp his hande, His byddyng neuer he should withstande."

before 1536, and reproducing far earlier In the old story of Adam Bel, printed notions, we find the hand introduced where the outlaws come into the presence of the king:

"And when they came before our kyng, As it was the lawe of the lande, They kneled down without lettynge, And eche held vp his hande." Cetewayo held up his hand to our Queen, but he stood erect.

It may be suggested that the custom of elevating the right hand-the hand which usually held the weapon-may have been designed, on the same principle as that indicated by Barrington, at the outset as a guarantee of good faith and an assurance of security. In some Popish countries, and in our Canadian possessions, which include the old Colony of New France, the usage of holding up the right hand in making oath is supplemented by the obligation of doing so before a crucifix, which is suspended in the Court for that purpose. Where there is a search for weapons, the person concerned usually raises both his arms. Bingham has a quotation from St. Austin on superstitious observations, among which, he says, "You are told in a hold your left thumb with your right fit of convulsion or shortness of breath, to hand." Cited by Bourne, Antiq. Vulg., c. 18. There is a superstition that the forefinger of the right hand is venomous, and is therefore not fit to touch any wound or sore. "That a yellow death-mould may never appear upon your hand, or any part of your body," occurs among the omens introduced in Holiday's "Marriage of the Arts," 1618. It is still usual in parts of the country to tap the back of the hand or the forearm thrice to avert a bad omen (absit omen! )when a person has been speaking of his or her good health or good fortune. This I saw done at Bowdon, near Manchester, in 1870, by the late Mrs. Alexander Ireland. Gaule ridicules the a great thick hand popular belief that “ little slender one a person weak but timdenotes one not only strong but stout: a orous: a long hand and long fingers betoken a man not only apt for mechanical artifice, but liberally ingenious; but those short, on the contrary, note a foole and fit for nothing: an hard brawny hand signes dull and rude; a soft hand, witty but effeminate; an hairy hand, luxurious; longe joynts signe generous, yet if they be thick withal, not so ingenious; the often clapping and folding of the hands note covetous; and their much moving in speech,

loquacious; an ambidexter is noted for, ireful, crafty, injurious; short and fat fingers mark a man out for intemperate and silly; but long and leane, for witty; if his fingers crook upward, that shewes long nailes and crooked, signe one brutish, ravenous, unchaste; very short nails, pale, and sharp, shew him false, subtile, beguiling; and so round nails, libidinous; but nails broad, plain, white, thin and reddish, are the token of a very good wit." Mag-Astromancer posed, 187. It is not unusual in a family to see some of the children follow the father in possessing long slender hands and fingers, and others the mother in having short and thick, or rice versa. A moist hand is vulgarly accounted a sign of an amorous constitution. The Chief Justice, in " Henry IV., Part IV." enumerates a dry hand among the characteristics of age and debility.

The Cagots, a persecuted race in the Pyrenees, have been said to possess the power of making an apple decay by holding it within the hand, their hands being remarkable for moist heat. Hence I heard a lady from Penrith say gravely that her mother was thought to have Cagot blood in her, because her hand was unusually hot and moist. According to Grose, the Hand of Glory at one time formed a staple article of belief among housebreakers in many parts of France, Germany, and Spain. From Les Secrets du petit Albert, 1751, he translates the following passage: "I acknowledge that I never tried the Secret of the Hand of Glory, but I have thrice assisted at the definitive judgement of certain criminals, who under the torture confessed having used it. Being asked what it was, how they procured it, and what were its uses and properties? they answered, first, that the use of the Hand of Glory was to stupefy those to whom it was presented, and to render them motionless insomuch that they could not stir any more than if they were dead; secondly that it was the hand of a hanged man; and thirdly, that it must be prepared in the manner following:-Take the hand, right or left, of a person hanged and exposed on the highway; wrap it up in a piece of a shroud or winding-sheet, in which let it be well squeezed, to get out any small quantity of blood that may have remain'd in it then put it into an earthen vessel, with zimat, salt-petre, salt, and long pepper, the whole well powdered; leave it fifteen days in that vessel; afterwards take it out, and expose it to the noon-tide sun in the dog-days, till it is thoroughly dry; and if the sun is not sufficient, put it into an oven heated with fern and vervain: then compose a kind of candle with the fat of a hanged man, vir

It

gin wax, and sisame of Lapland. The Hand of Glory is used as a candlestick to hold this candle, when lighted. Its properties are that wheresoever any one goes with this dreadful instrument, the persons to whom it is presented will be deprived of all power of motion. On being asked if there was no remedy or antidote to counteract this charm, they said the Hand of Glory would cease to take effect, and thieves could not make use of it, if the threshold of the door of the house, and other places by which they might enter, were anointed with an unguent composed of the gall of a black cat, the fat of a white hen, and the blood of a screech-owl; which mixture must necessarily be prepared during the dog-days." Grose adds that the mode of preparation appears to have been given by a judge. In the latter there is a striking resemblance to the charm in Macbeth. Grose says that "a dead man's hand is supposed to have the quality of dispelling tumours, such as wens, or swelled glands, by striking with it nine times the place affected. seems as if the hand of a person dying a violent death was deemed particularly efficacious, as it very frequently happens that nurses bring children to be stroked with the hands of executed criminals, even whilst they are hanging on the gallows.' He adds: "Moss growing on a human skull, if dried, powdered, and taken as snuff, will cure the head-ach." chips or cuttings of a gibbet or gallows, on which one or more persons have been executed or exposed, if worn next the skin, or round the neck in a bag, will cure the ague, or prevent it." Brand relates that he saw about 1790 some saw-dust, in which blood was absorbed, taken for the purpose of charming away some disease or other from off the scaffold on the beheading of one of the rebel lords in 1746. In a newspaper, 1777, it is said: "After he (Doctor Dodd) had hung about ten minutes, a very decently dressed young woman went up to the gallows in order to have a wen in her face stroked by the Doctor's hand, it being a received opinion among the vulgar that it is a certain cure for such a disorder. The executioner, having untied the doctor's hand, stroked the part affected several times therewith.' But at the execution of Crowley the murderer at Warwick in 1845 a similar scene is described in the newspapers: "At least five thousand persons were mustered on this occasion to witness the dying moments of the unhappy culprit. As is usual in such cases, a number of females were present, and scarcely had the soul of the deceased taken its farewell flight from its earthly tabernacle, than the scaffold was crowded by members of the 'gentler sex'

"The

time to confirm the marriages. This place is only a small distance from the Roman encampment of Castle-o'er. May not the fair have been first instituted when the Romans resided there? And may not the 'hand-fasting' have taken its rise from their manner of celebrating marriage, ex usu, by which, if a woman, with the consent of her parents or guardians, lived with a man for a year, without being absent three nights, she became his wife? Perhaps, when Christianity was introduced the form of marriage may have been looked upon as imperfect, without confirmation by a priest, and therefore, one may have been sent from time to time for this purpose." Compare Betrothal, Troth plight, &c., and Hazlitt's Monograph on Shakespear, 2nd edit. 1903, p. 9, where the case of the poet and his wife is treated.

Handicap.-Under September 18, 1660, Pepys notes, that some of his party, at the Mitre in Wood Street, "fell to handicap, a sport that I never knew before, which was very good"; but unfortunately he has furnished no particulars. Was it an early anticipation of a table game of race-horses?

Hand in and Hand Out.-Halliwell thus describes this amusement: "A company of young people are drawn up in a circle, when one of them, pitched upon by lot, walks round the band, and, if a boy, hits a girl, or if a girl, she strikes a boy whom she chooses, on which the party striking and the party struck run in pursuit of each other, till the latter is caught, whose lot it then becomes to perform the same part." It seems equally impossible to determine whether this was identical with the hand-out mentioned by Sir John Harington or with the Hand-in-Hand-out prohibited by 17 Edw. IV. c. 2. If the latter were the case, some licentious outgrowth from the original game has to be supposed, and it seems more logical to infer that the Edward statute had a different pastime in view, though Harington's Hand-out may very well have been the one objected to by the law, and still more or less pursued.

Handkerchief. We gather from Howes's Additions to Stow's Chronicle that, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, "it was the custome for maydes and gentilwomen to give their favorites, as tokens of their love, little handkerchiefs of about three or four inches square, wrought round about, and with a button or a tassel at each corner, and a little one in the middle, with silk and threed: the best edged with a small gold lace or twist, which being foulded up in foure crosse foldes, so as the middle might be seene,

gentlemen and others did usually weare them in their hatts, as favours of their loves and mistresses. Some cost six pence apiece, some twelve pence, and the richest sixteene pence.' It appears, from a passage in Heywood's "Fayre Mayde of the Exchange," 1607, that it was not unusual to furnish these handkerchiefs with amorous devices worked in the corners. It is where Phillis brings the handkerchief to the Cripple of Fanchurch to be so embroidered. She says:

"Only this handkercher, a young gentle

woman

Wish'd me to acquaint you with her mind herein :

In one corner of the same, place wanton Love,

Drawing his bow, shooting an amorous. dart

Opposite against him an arrow in an heart:

In a third corner picture forth Disdain,
A cruel fate unto a loving vein;
In the fourth draw a springing laurel-
tree,

Circled about with a ring of poesy."

Breaker," 1636, act i. sc. 1. Miles, a milIn Sampson's play of "The Vowler, is introduced telling his sweetheart, on going away to the wars: "Mistress Ursula, 'tis not unknowne that I have lov'd you; if I die, it shall be for your sake, and it shall be valiantly: I leave an hand-kercher with you: 'tis wrought with blew Coventry: let me not, at my returne, fall to my old song, she had a clowte of mine sowde with blew Coventry, and so hang myself at your infidelity.' account of Dunton Church, in Barnstable Hundred, Essex, is the following remark: "Here has been a custom, time out of mind at the churching of a woman, for her to give a white Cambrick Handkerchief to the minister as an offering. rant's Esser, i., 219. This is observed by Mr. Lewis in his History of the Isle of Thanet,' where the same custom is kept up."

In an

Mo

Handsel. The first money taken at a market or fair. It is still usual, both here and abroad, to spit on it, and in Italy and Portugal, in the case of an ordinary gift to the poor, the recipient will spit on it, press it to his forehead, and cross himself with the benefaction. Lemon's Dictionary, 1783, explains "Handsell," "the first money received at market, which many superstitious people will spit on, either to render it tenacious that it may remain with them, and not vanish away like a fairy gift, or else to render it propitious and lucky, that it may draw more money to it." It is quoted in the "Ped