s be interesting in reference to the
_nation_ alluded to. The Carthaginians being of the same race, manners, and
religion as the Phoenicians, there are no particular data by which we can
ascertain the time of their first trading to the British coast for the
commodity in such request among the traders of the East. The genius of
Carthage being more martial than that of Tyre, whose object was more
commerce than conquest, it is not improbable that the former might by force
of arms have established a settlement in the Cassiterides, and by this
means have secured that monopoly of tin which the Phoenicians and their
colonies indubitably enjoyed for several centuries. Norden, in his
_Antiquities of Cornwall_, mentions it as a tradition universally received
by the inhabitants, that their tin mines were formerly wrought by the Jews.
He adds that these old works are there at this day called Attal Sarasin,
the ancient {216} cast-off works of the Saracens, in which their tools are
frequently found. Miners are not accustomed to be very accurate in
distinguishing traders of foreign nations, and these Jews and Saracens have
probably a reference to the old merchants from Spain and Africa; and those
employed by them might possibly have been Jews escaped the horrors of
captivity and the desolation which about that period befel their country.

"The Jews," says Whitaker (_Origin of Arianism_, p. 334.), "denominated
themselves, and were denominated by the Britons of Cornwall,
_Saracens_, as the genuine progeny of Sarah. The same name, no doubt,
carried the same reference with it as borne by the genuine, and as
usurped by the spurious, offspring of Abraham."

BIBLIOTHECAR. CHETHAM.

_Northamptonshire Folk Lore_ (Vol. vii., p. 146.).--In Norfolk, a ring made
from nine sixpences freely given by persons of the opposite sex is
considered a charm against epilepsy. I have seen nine sixpences brought to
a silversmith, with a request that he would make them into a ring; but
131/2d. was not tendered to him for making, nor do I think that any
threehalfpences are collected for payment. After the patient had left the
shop, the silversmith informed me that such requests were of frequent
occurrence, and that he supplied the patients with thick silver rings, but
never took the trouble to manufacture them from the sixpences.

A similar superstition supposes that the sole of the left shoe of a person
of the same age, but opposite sex, to