to see
what was going on, when he beheld the colt plunge into the lake in the form
of a ball of fire. Before doing so, however, he gave the lad a parting
salute in the form of a kick, which knocked out one of his eyes.

J. M. (4.)

St. Mary Tavy, May 5. 1851.

_St. Uncumber and the offering of Oats_ (Vol. ii., pp. 286. 342. 381.).--A
further illustration of this custom is found in the legend of St.
Rhadegund, or at least in the metrical version of it, which is commonly
ascribed to Henry Bradshaw. A copy of this very scarce poem, from the press
of Pynson, is preserved in the library of Jesus College, Cambridge. We
there read as follows:

"Among all myracles after our intelligence
Which Radegunde shewed by her humilite,
One is moost vsuall had in experience
Among the common people noted with hert fre
_By offeryng of otes_ after theyr degre
At her holy aulters where myracles in sight
Dayly haue be done by grace day and nyght.

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"_By oblacion of othes_, halt lame and blynde
Hath ben restored vnto prosperite;
Dombe men to speke aboue cours of kynde
Sickemen delyuered from payne and miserie,
Maydens hath kept theyr pure virginite,
Wyddowes defended from greuous oppression,
And clarkes exalted by her to promocion."

It is also remarkable that a _reason_ exists in the story of this saint for
the choice of so strange an offering. As she was escaping from her husband,
a crop of _oats_ sprang up miraculously, to testify in her behalf, and to
silence the messengers who had been sent to turn her from her purpose.

On this account is there not room for the conjecture that _St. Rhadegund_
is the original St. Uncumber, and that the custom of offering oats at
Poules, when a wife was weary of her husband, is traceable to the story of
the French queen, who died in 587.

C. H.

St. Catharine's Hall, Cambridge.

"_Similia similibus curantur_."--The list proposed by MR. JAMES BUCKMAN
(Vol. iii., p. 320.) of "old wives' remedies," based on the above
principle, would, I imagine, be of endless length; but the following
extract from the _Herbal_ of Sir John Hill, M.D., "Fellow of the Royal
Academy of Sciences at Bordeaux," published in 1789, will show at how late
a period such notions have been entertained by men of education and even
scientific attainment:--

"It is to be observed that nature seems to have set her stamp upon
several herbs, which have the virtue to s