a sale of
land took place it was required that there should be twelve witnesses,
and with these as many boys, in whose presence the price of the land
should be paid, and its formal surrender take place; and then the boys
were beaten, and their ears pulled, so that the pain thus inflicted upon
them should make an impression upon their memory, and that they might,
if necessary, be afterwards witnesses as to the sale and delivery of the
land. (_Lex Ripuarium LX., de Traditionibus et Testibus._) In a note of
Balucius upon this passage he states:

"A practice somewhat similar to this prevails in our our times, for
in some of the provinces, whenever a notorious criminal is condemned
to death, parents bring their sons with them to the place of
execution, and, at the moment that he is put to death, they whip
their children with rods, so that being thus excited by their own
sufferings, and by seeing the punishment inflicted on another for
his sins, they may ever bear in mind how necessary it is for them,
in their progress through life, to be prudent and virtuous."--_Rev.
Gall. et Franc. Script._, vol. iv. p. 277. n.e.

W.B. MACCABE.

SIMILARITY OF TRADITIONS.

Having recently met with some curious instances of the extent to which
the same or similar traditions extend themselves, not only in our own
country, but in Wales and France, I have "made a note" of them for your
service.

_Burying in the church wall_ is supposed to be burying in neutral
ground.

In the north wall of the church of Tremeirchion, near the banks of the
Elwy, North Wales (described by Pennant, vol. ii. p. 139.), is the tomb
of a former vicar, Daffydd Ddu, or the black of Hiradduc, who was vicar
of the parish, and celebrated as a necromancer, flourishing about 1340.
Of him the tradition is, that he proved himself more clever than the
Wicked One himself. A bargain was made between them that the vicar
should practise the black art with impunity during his life, but that
the Wicked One should possess his body after death, whether he were
buried within or without the church; and that the worthy vicar cheated
his ally of his bargain by being buried neither within nor without the
church, but in the wall itself.

A very similar tradition exists at Brent Pelham, Hertfordshire, with
reference to the tomb of Pierce Shonke, which was also in the wall. He
is said to have died A.D. 1086. Under the feet of the figure {514} was