a width of about 17 feet. Abutting on the outer wall of this hall is a small chamber that is conjectured to be the bath, from the proximity of the hot-air passages, which are here extremely solid, and from a curious arrangement of flanged tiles round the sides. A good deal of the middle has still to be cleared, but enough has been done to prove that walls exist there. A kind of causeway, formed of tiles laid flat in courses, runs due south, beginning at about 35 feet from the back of the row of rooms on the north. At one side of the causeway is the base of a wall, and on the other a channel, possibly for a warming-flue. Following this to the southward, it was found to communicate with a semicircular chamber about 6 feet wide, built with great solidity. The open side faces due south, and it would, therefore, receive more light and heat than probably any other room in the house."

The credit of the discovery is due to Mr. E. A. Clowes and Mr. T. B. Marchant, who first observed the tiles in the field; while Mr. Burtenshaw, the tenant of the ground, very readily fell in with the proposal for a thorough exploration, and with his consent Mr. Clowes has since taken a lease of the field from the Ecclesiastical Commmissioners, to whom it belongs. Funds are now being raised in order to enable the exploration to be satisfactorily accomplished under Mr. Payne's direction.

Another most important discovery has been made in Kent, at Burham, near Rochester. It appears that while removing sandstone in Messrs. Peters and Co.'s Cement Works, the workmen found buried, or built into it, a chamber formed of chalk blocks, and which once had a barrel vault. It is about 40 by 15 feet in dimension, and stands east and west, with three semicircular niches in the east wall. It was lighted through the roof by a long narrow window on the north side. This is a Roman Mithraum, or Mithraic Temple, and is the only one which has as yet been found south of the Tyne. Near it are the unexplored foundations of a priest's house.

A number of tiles, bones, and other Roman remains were found in it, but no images or portions of any. For the time

sides carved with the emblems of the four Evangelists, and the other four with angels. holding shields. The bowl is supported underneath by angels with expanded wings, and the stem has four seated figures, and four others, smaller, standing on pedestals. The seated figures wear cowls or tippets, but their heads are broken off; the others, where not mutilated, appear to have high pointed caps or turbans, and wear stoles. These two sets may possibly represent the four doctors of the church and the four greater prophets. Of the four shields on the

bowl, those on the north and west faces bear two keys and two swords in saltire, emblems of SS. Peter and Paul, in whose honour the church is dedicated. The arms on the shield facing south are azure, a fess between three leopards' faces, or, for DE LA POLE: quartering Gules, a lion rampant double queued, or, for BURGHERSH: and impaling the Royal Arms, France and England quarterly, with a label for difference. These were the arms of John De la Pole, second Duke of Suffolk, and his wife, Elizabeth Plantagenet, daughter of Richard, Duke of York, and sister of Edward IV. and Richard III. He was married before October, 1460, and died in 1491. The tomb and effigies of himself and his wife are on the north side of the altar in Wingfield Church. The arms on the other shield facing east are those of Walter Lyhart, Bishop of Norwich, 1446 to 1472 argent, a bull passant sable, within a border of the second bezanty. The date of the font is therefore between 1460 and 1472. It is probable that John De la Pole built the tower of Hoxne Church, and otherwise restored the fabric, about the same time. The ancient moated Vicarage House adjoining is of similar date, and was probably the work of Bishop Lyhart, who erected the roof of the nave of Norwich Cathedral, and to whom, as Bishop, the revenues of the Rectory and Manor of Hoxne belonged, and who had a residence in the parish."

2

*

nut, with silver mounts, bearing London marks for 1586. Mr. Markham also exhibited a medieval paten from Welford Church, with a sexfoil depression, the spandrels being plain, and the central device that of the MANUS DEI. The date of the paten is circa 1350. The MANUS DEI was a favourite device on earlier patens, but not a very common one afterwards. It seems not impossible that the circular device, which is found in the centre of nearly every medieval

Not a few persons have suggested that in some of the brutal scenes, which of late years have disgraced civilization, the turn of the tide towards original savagery might be detected. Few, however, would have conceived it possible that an apparently serious attempt to return to savage customs, "on a scientific basis," would be proposed. Yet, if we are to believe what French newspapers tell us, this is to be the case, and we are to have a set of genuine savages turned out into the forests of Auvergne, and there left to breed and propagate their species. After the American "professor's' cage-life in Africa, and his conversations with the monkeys, this beats the record for sensational nonsense.

Arrangements," we are told, are now being completed for the formation of a curious colony next spring, the progress of which will be watched with interest. The leader of the movement is the Paris paper Gravelle, and the idea is that, by returning to the early and natural state of man, human beings can live a life of ease and pleasure, without work, and entirely independent of the trammels of civilization. Some land has been procured in Auvergne, consisting mostly of chestnut forests, well supplied with water, and furnished with commodious caves. Here five men and a like number of women are to take up their habitation in a few months' time, living together in a natural state, clad only in skins of beasts. Bread they will not make, and its place will be taken by chestnuts. Water is to be their beverage, though they have no objection to cider and wine. They have been unable to renounce tobacco. A doctor they do not expect to require, and they will live either in huts or caves, according to the season of the year. The land to be allotted them measures eight hectares, and they compute that one hectare of land inhabited by game will yield a thousand kilos of meat yearly. Before taking possession, they are going to well

foolish, or even wicked? The refusal to renounce tobacco gives just that touch of absurdity to the whole affair which it only needs to make it the laughing-stock of all reasonable people. We should have supposed that the story could only be a hoax, were it not that we are assured that it is perfectly genuine, and that one of its objects is to enable antiquaries and others "to study prehistoric man from practical observation." What next, we may well wonder, will be provided for the unfortunate antiquary of the present day to repudiate? To forgeries of implements we are now to have added forgeries of the people who used them! The whole affair, indeed, may be dismissed. with scorn as too contemptible for serious notice.

Further Notes on Manr Folklore.

By A. W. MOORE, M. A.

Author of Surnames and Place-Names of the Isle of Man: Diocesan History of Sodor and Man; Folklore of the Isle of Man, etc.

INTRODUCTION.

INCE the publication of my Folklore of the Isle of Man, I have, with the help of several friends, collected a considerable amount of fresh material. Most of this is from oral sources, but there are also some extracts from scarce books and pamphlets which had previously been overlooked.* As it is not likely that a second edition of the Folklore will be published for some years to come, and as, in the meantime, it seems a pity that the additional information I have obtained should not be secured from all risk of being lost, I have placed it at the disposal of the

* Chapters I., II. and IX. are mainly from printed sources, the other chapters being almost entirely of oral origin.

editor of the Antiquary. It has been thought desirable to divide it into nine chapters, corresponding with those of the Folklore of the Isle of Man, and as there are inevitably numerous references to the latter, those who take an interest in the subject are advised to procure that publication.* I wish to take this opportunity of thanking all those who have co-operated with me in collecting these "Notes," especially Mr. William Cashen, the Assistant Harbour Master at Peel, who has a thorough knowledge of his countrymen; Miss Graves, also of Peel, whose contributions are particularly valuable from being in the Anglo-Manx dialect now spoken in the Isle of Man; and Mr. Roeder, of Manchester, a most competent and scientific inquirer.

A. W. MOORE.

CHAPTER I.-MYTHS CONNECTED WITH THE LEGENDARY HISTORY OF THE ISLE OF MAN.

But,

In the chapter so headed we have given the pseudo-historical account of Manannan Mac Leirr, the famous eponymous ancestor and founder of the Manx people. supplementing this account, there are numerous romantic references to him at all stages of Irish literature, where he usually appears as King of the Fairies, in a mysterious country called "The Land of Promise." In this country he had a cathair, or stone fort, in which was a banqueting hall, where "comely dark-eyebrowed gillas went round with smooth-polished horns : sweet-stringed timpans, were played by them, and most melodious, dulcet-chorded harps, until the whole house was flooded with music." Here, also, "a set of long-snouted, spur-heeled, lean-hammed carles . . . used to practise games and tricks, one of which was this to take nine straight osier-rods and [the while they stood on one leg and had but one arm free] to dart them upward to rafter and to roof-tree of the building, he that did this catching them again in the same form."+

He possessed great magical powers and numerous magical properties.

* The Folklore of the Isle of Man can be obtained from David Nutt. Price Is. 6d.

From the "Colloquy of the Ancients": Silva Gadelica, O'Grady, pp. 199, 200.

Thus, he had a horse called "Enbarr of the flowing mane," who was as swift as the clear cold wing of spring," and travelled with equal ease over land and sea. He had a coat of mail, through, or above and below which no one could be wounded; a breastplate which no weapon could pierce; a sword, called "The Answerer," from the wound of which no one ever recovered, and those who were opposed to it in the battle-field were so terrified by looking at it that their strength left them; a ga-bolg, or string, extracted from a serpent, in the use of which he is said to have instructed Cuchulainn*; a marvellous canoe, called the "Wavesweeper," and a wonderful branch. The magical powers of this branch, etc., and of the sword, will be illustrated by the following stories :

The Magic Branch.

"Of a time that Cormac, the son of Art, the son of Con of the hundred battles, that is, the arch-king of Erin, was in Liathdruim, he saw a youth upon the green before his dun, having in his hand a glittering fairy branch, with nine apples of red gold upon it. And this was the manner of that branch, that, when anyone shook it, wounded men, and women with child, would be lulled to sleep by the sound of the very sweet fairy music which those apples uttered; and another property that branch had, that is to say, that no one upon earth would bear in mind any want, woe, or weariness of soul, when that branch was shaken for him, and whatever evil might have befallen anyone, he would not remember it at the shaking of the branch. Cormac said to the youth, 'Is that branch thine own?' 'It is indeed mine,' said the youth. 'Wouldst thou sell it?' asked Cormac. 'I would sell it,' quoth the youth; for I never had anything that I for it ?' said Cormac. would not sell.' 'What dost thou require 'The award of mine own mouth,' said the youth. 'That thou shalt receive from me,' said Cormac, 'and say on thy award.' Thy wife, thy son, and thy daughter,' answered the youth; 'that is to say, Eithne, Cairbre, and Ailbhe.' 'Thou shalt get them all,' said Cormac.

MS.- -"The Adventures of Seven Irish Champions in the East."

After that the youth gives up the branch, and Cormac takes it to his own house to Ailbhe, to Eithne, and to Cairbre. That is a fair treasure thou hast,' said Ailbhe. 'No wonder,' answered Cormac; for I gave a good price for it.' 'What didst thou give for it, or in exchange for it?' asked Ailbhe. 'Cairbre, Eithne, and thyself, O Ailbhe.' 'That is a pity,' quoth Eithne; (yet it is not true:) for we think that there is not upon the face of the earth that treasure for which thou wouldst give us.' 'I pledge my word,' said Cormac, 'that I have given you for this treasure.' Sorrow and heaviness of heart filled them when they knew that to be true, and Eithne said, 'It is too hard a bargain [to give] us three, for any branch in the world.' When Cormac saw that grief and heaviness of heart came upon them, he shakes the branch amongst them, and when they heard the soft sweet music of the branch, they thought no longer upon any evil or care that had ever befallen them, and they went forth to meet the youth. 'Here,' said Cormac, 'thou hast the price thou didst ask for this branch.' 'Well hast thou fulfilled thy promise,' said the youth, and receive [wishes for] victory, and a blessing for the sake of thy truth.' And he left Cormac wishes for life and health, and he and his company went their ways. Cormac came to his house, and when that news was heard throughout Erin, loud cries of weeping and of mourning were made in every quarter of it, and in Liathdruim above all. When Cormac heard the loud cries in Leamhair, he shook the branch among them, so that there was no longer any grief or heaviness of heart upon anyone.

"He continued thus for the space of that year, until Cormac said, 'It is a year to-day since my wife, my son, and my daughter were taken from me, and I will follow them by the same path as they took.'

"Then Cormac went forth to look for the way by which he had seen the youth depart, and a dark magical mist rose before him, and he chanced to come upon a wonderful marvellous plain. That plain was thus: There was there a wondrous very great host of horsemen, and the work at which they were was the covering in of a house with the feathers of foreign birds; and when they had

put covering upon one half of the house, they used to go off to seek birds' feathers for the others; and as for that half of the house upon which they had put covering, they used not to find a single feather on it when they returned.

"After that Cormac had been a long time gazing at them in this plight, he thus spoke: 'I will no longer gaze at you, for I perceive that you will be toiling at that from the beginning to the end of the world.'

"Cormac goes his way, and he was wandering over the plain until he saw a strange, foreign-looking youth walking the plain, and his employment was this: he used to drag a large tree out of the ground, and to break it between the bottom and the top, and he used to make a large fire of it, and to go himself to seek another tree, and when he came back again he would not find before him a scrap of the first tree that was not burned and used up. Cormac was for a great space gazing upon him in that plight, and at last he said, 'I indeed will go away from thee henceforth, for were I for ever gazing upon thee, thou wouldst be so at the end of it all.'

"Cormac after that begins to walk the plain, until he saw three immense wells on the border of the plain, and those wells were thus they had three heads in them (ie., one in each). Cormac drew near to the well next to him, and the head that was in that well was thus: a stream flowing into its mouth, and two streams were flowing from or out of it. Cormac proceeded to the second well, and the head that was in that well was thus: a stream was flowing into it, and another stream flowing out of it. He proceeds to the third well, and the head that was in that one was thus: three streams were flowing into its mouth, and one stream only flowing out of it. Great marvel seized Cormac thereupon, and he said, 'I will be no longer gazing upon you, for I should never find any man to tell me your histories, and I think that I should find good sense in your meanings if I understood them.' And the time of the day was then noon. The King of Erin goes his ways, and he had not been long walking, when he saw a very great field before him, and a house in the middle of the field. And Cormac drew near to the