they hated, hath done his fete rotton of. Dr. What should the
Pater noster, and the holy candell do therto? Pau. Ryght nought.
But for the wytche worshyppeth the fende so highly with the holy
prayers, and with the holy candell, and used suche holy thinges
in despyte of God therefore is the fende redy to do the wytche's
wylle and to fulfyll thinges that they done it for. 'The Fyrst
Command,' cap. XXXV. Fol. 52. Imprynted by T. Berthelet, 1536.
12mo."

That the Pater noster used sometimes to be said with the wicked design
of working ill to individuals, and by those who were deemed witches, is
clear form the above extract: may not, then, this "wytche's" Pater
noster be the "white" Pater noster, against which the night-spell in
Chaucer was employed? "Wyche" may easily be imagined to have glided into
"white."

"Seynte Petres soster," I suspect has a reference to St. Petronilla's
legend. St. Petronilla, among our forefathers, was called St. Pernell,
and _The Golden Lengend_ imprinted 1527, by Wynkyn de Word, tells us,
fol. cxxxi. b., that she "was doughter of saynt peter thappostle, whiche
was ryght fayre and bewteous, and by the wyll of her fader she was vexed
with fevers and akes." For a long while she lay bed-ridden. From the
name of this saint, who went through so many years of her life in
sickness, perhaps was borrowed the word "pernell," to mean a person in a
sickly weak state of health, in which sense, Sir Thomas More (_Works_,
London, 1557, p. 893) employs it, while bantering Tindal. St. Peter's
daughter (St. Pernell) came to be looked upon, in this country, as the
symbol of bad health under all its forms. Now, if we suppose that the
poet mistook, and wrote "soster" instead of "doughter," we immediately
understand the drift of the latter part of the spell, which was, not
only to drive away witchcraft, but guard all the folks in that house
from sickness of every kind.

Daniel Rock.

Buckland, Faringdon.

* * * * *

REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.

_By Hook or by Crook--Pokership--Gib Cat--Emerod._--I regret that very
pressing business has hitherto prevented me from supplying an omission
in my communication relating to the probable derivation of "By Hook or
by Crook;" namely, my authority for saying there was evidence of the
usage I referred to in forest customs. I now beg to supply that
omission, by referring to the numerous claims for fuel wood made by