as, in fact, arisen out of the ashes they witnessed falling from
the branches of the tall tree. The Ph[oe]nix in truth!

The German child's rhyme, given by Grimm brothers, of

"Ladybird! ladybird! fly away home,"

is not out of place here. It evidences a state of mythologic thought.

"Ladybird! ladybird! pretty one, stay!
Come, sit on my finger, so happy and gay.
Ladybird! ladybird! fly away home,
Thy house is a-fire, thy children will roam.
Then ladybird! ladybird! fly away home.
Hark! hark! to thy children bewailing."

Yearly, as these harvest bugs, with their crimson or golden-coloured
shields, appear in our country lanes, the village youngsters delight in
capturing them, and play a game similar to the German child's. They
sing--

"Ladybird! ladybird! fly away home,
Your house is on fire, your children will roam,
Excepting the youngest, and her name is Ann,
And she has crept under the dripping-pan."

FOOTNOTES:

[H] "{heis ho pater, paides de dyodeka; ton de g' hekasto
paides easi triekont' andicha eidos echousai;
Hei men leukai easin idein; he d' aute melainai
Athanatoi de t' eousai apophthinousin hapasai.}"

CHAPTER IX.

NURSERY CHARMS.

To charm away the hiccup one must repeat these four lines thrice in one
breath, and a cure will be certain--

"When a twister twisting twists him a twist,
For twisting a twist three twists he must twist;
But if one of the twists untwists from the twist,
The twist untwisting untwists all the twist."

AN ESSEX CHARM FOR A CHURN, 1650 A.D.

"Come, butter, come; come, butter, come,
Peter stands at the gate
Waiting for his buttered cake;
Come, butter, come."

* * * * *

The late Sir Humphry Davy is said to have learnt this cure for cramp
when a boy--

"Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, ease us, I beg!
The devil has tied a knot in my leg;
Crosses three + + + we make to ease us,
Two for the robbers and one for Jesus."

A CHARM AGAINST GHOSTS.

"There are four corners at my bed,
There are four angels there.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
God bless the bed that I lay on."

The Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John rhymes were well known in Essex in
Elizabeth's time. Ady, in his "Candle after dark," 1655, mentions an old
woman he knew, who had lived from Queen Mary's time, and who had been
ta