f the bride or bridegroom are favorites, appear before most of the houses
numerous flowers in sand. It is said that this custom arose from the only
church they had being without bells, and therefore, to give notice of a
wedding, they adopted it; and though now there are other churches and a
peal of bells, they still adhere to the above method of communicating
intelligence of such happy events. Why sand should be used I have not been
able to learn, and I should be much obliged for any information on the
point, there being no sandpits in the locality of Knutsford, or such like
reason for its use.

One circumstance I may mention connected with weddings there. On the return
of the party from church, it is usual to throw money to the boys, who, of
course, follow, and if this is omitted, the latter keep up a cry of "a
buttermilk wedding."

RUSSELL GOLE.

_Folk Lore in Hampshire._--In Hampshire the country people believe that a
healing power exists in the alms collected at the administration of the
sacrament, and many of them use the money as a charm to cure the diseases
of the body. A short time ago a woman came to a clergyman, and brought with
her half-a-crown, asking at the same time for five "sacrament sixpences" in
exchange. She said that one of her relations was ill, and that she wished
to use the money as a charm to drive away the disease. This superstition
may have arisen from the once prevalent custom of distributing the alms in
the church to those of the poor who were present at the sacrament.

I have heard that the negroes in Jamaica attach the same "gifts of healing"
to the consecrated bread, and often, if they can escape notice, will carry
it away with them. As no account of this superstition seems to be recorded
in "N. & Q.," perhaps you would like to "make a note of it."

F. M. MIDDLETON.

_Propitiating the Fairies._--Having some years since, on a Sunday
afternoon, had occasion to ride on horseback between two towns in the
eastern part of Cornwall, I met a christening party, also on horseback,
headed by the nurse with a baby in her arms. Making a halt as I approached
her, she stopped me, and producing a _cake_, presented it to me, and
insisted on my taking it. Several years after, when in the Isle of Man, I
had the opportunity of hearing an elderly person relate several pieces of
folk lore respecting the witches and fairies in that island. It had been
customary, within his recollection, for a woman, when ca