ting forth the general principle of the importance and even sacredness of human life. It is capable, in spirit, of very wide application :

"If one be found slain in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee to possess it, lying in the field, and it be not known who hath slain him, then thy elders and thy judges shall come forth, and they shall measure unto the cities which are round about him that is slain; and it shall be, that the city which is next unto the slain man, even the eldest of that city shall take an heifer, which hath not been wrought with, and which hath not drawn in the yoke; and the elders of that city shall bring down the heifer unto a rough valley, which is neither eared nor sown, and shall strike off the heifer's neck there in the valley; and the priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them the Lord thy God hath chosen to minister unto Him, and to bless in the name of the Lord; and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be tried; and all the elders of that city, that are next unto the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer that is beheaded in the valley; and they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. Be merciful, O Lord, unto Thy people Israel, whom Thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto Thy people Israel's charge. And the blood shall be forgiven them. So shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the Lord” (Deut. xxi. 1-9).

(9.) Sanitary legislation. The minute (and as it may seem to us burdensome) regulations with respect to ceremonial uncleanness would greatly tend to form habits of attention to decency and cleanliness, and so prevent as well as remove dangers to health. In Deut. xxiii. 14 we find sanitary regulations of the homeliest but most needful character, enforced from the highest motives.

(10.) The administration of justice, and the appointment of judges and magistrates was carefully provided for. Strict and equal justice was required. Even the natural tendency to lean to the side of the

poor man when the right was not on his side was guarded against :

"Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment: thou shalt not respect the person of the poor, nor honour the person of the mighty: but in righteousness shalt thou judge thy neighbour" (Lev. xix. 15).

The many injunctions to administer impartial justice to rich and poor, bond and free, homeborn and strangers, are summed up and crowned in a precept sublime in its reach and comprehensiveness :

"Judges and officers shalt thou make thee in all thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee, throughout thy tribes: and they shall judge the people with just judgment. Thou shalt not wrest judgment; thou shalt not respect persons, neither take a gift: for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise, and pervert the words of the righteous. That which is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live, and inherit the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee" (Deut. xvi. 18-20).

Perhaps enough has been adduced to show that the law of Moses is pervaded by a spirit of justice, kindness, and tenderness, and that in many points it is in advance of the legislation of our own and other Christian nations. Much more than this, the law is deeply spiritual. It is fraught with a constant sense of the will of God, and the presence of God. The land is His. He dwells in it. Nothing should be done that would defile the land in His sight. Such portions as the 4th and 5th chapters of Leviticus, on the need of expiatory offerings for sins of ignorance, are well fitted to give the thoughtful reader a deep impression at once of the holiness of God, and the responsibility of man. The holy men who lived under the old dispensation were, like the Apostle Paul, aware that "the law is spiritual. the law is spiritual." It was its spirit rather than its detailed and literal precepts that prompted, under divine inspiration, the utterances of

While the

the 1st, the 19th, and the 119th Psalms. writer of the last sees the beauty of the divine law, rejoices in it and embraces it as his most valued heritage, he seeks the favour and help of the Most High to " open his eyes,' "to incline his heart," to "order his steps." Many of his devout petitions might well be adopted by us who live under that better and more glorious dispensation, for which "the law," with all its "wondrous things," was but the preparation. The relation of "the law to the Gospel is a topic of very deep interest, and one on which the writer would desire, if able, on a future occasion, to offer some thoughts. THOMAS HARVEY.

66

FOLK LORE OF DEVON.

Cease, rude Boreas.-I remember making, many years ago, one of a party on pleasure bent" up the river Tamar. After a pleasant picnic on its banks, we returned in our boat towards the port of embarkation. The wind, which had hitherto favoured us, now began to freshen, and I in my ignorance began to hum, "Cease, rude Boreas, blustering railer," when the old boatman, in a tone of authority, cried out, "Stop that, stop that, you mustn't sing that tune, if you do we shall soon have a storm." I was of course unwilling to raise a storm, either from the breath of old Boreas or the old boatman, and so we reached in safety our desired haven.

"Never point at a rainbow, if you do you will see the devil," has often been remarked in my hearing in the neighbourhood of Plymouth.

May Cats. When I was a child our cat had kittens, and I pleaded with the cook to save one that I thought was very pretty. It was in the month of May, and my request was met with an inexorable, "No; they must all be drowned. May cats always bring in toads and snakes, and all sorts of filthy vermin." This opinion prevails in the neighbourhood of Plymouth.

The Wisht Hounds.-Who does not remember the advent of the year 1880? The storm was terrific, and punctual to the time indicated by the cablegram flashed to us from our cousins in New York. I was kept awake for hours by the furious blasts that the Spirit of the Storm had raised in the Rocky Mountains, and had stirred up and mingled with those of foaming lakes and roaring cataracts and crashing forests in their way to the wild Atlantic. Amidst this din of furies, I thought I perceived a low moan, like a monotone from the Lyre of Æolus, which brought to my remembrance one of the "Folk Lores of Devon," known as the "Wisht hounds of Dartmoor," who are said on these stormy nights to be chasing in full cry some unrest spirit of the Druidical sacrifices, amid the Tors, and over mountain and valley, down through Wishtman's Wood, Buckland Woods, and Holne Chase,

to the river of Dart, across which the hounds will not follow.

"River of Dart, river of Dart,

Roaring and foaming river of Dart,

Midst thy rocks and thy boulders and rapids and spray,
The salmon and speckled trout gambol and play;

But the Wisht hound is quailed at the rush of thy flood,
Nor follows the victim of sacrificed blood

Which the Druid has offered upon thy grim Tors,
And whose spirit unrest has escaped from his jaws
By a leap o'er thy rapids, thou river of Dart;
Thy fame be immortal, thou river of Dart."

The Black Dog that hunts the Moor.-A few years ago two ladies from the North of England made a tour of pleasure into the county of Devon. In their journeyings they rode on the outside the coach from Okehampton to Tavistock, in order that they might see some portion of the far-famed Dartmoor. Twilight came on whilst they were crossing the moor. Suddenly their attention was aroused by the agitation and excitement of the coachman, who in terror exclaimed, "There, there, do you see that?" On being questioned as to what he meant, he pointed with his whip to some creature that was running along by the side of his horses, saying, "There's the black dog that hunts the moor." Terrified at the sight, he lashed his horses into a gallop, in order to escape from the weird "black dog that hunts the moor," which suddenly vanished.

I congratulated my lady friends on their good fortune, in having been thus made acquainted with one of the Folk Lores of Devon. J. F. WILKEY.

Exeter, January, 1880.

The foregoing are a contribution sent to the "Folk Lore of Devon Association," and I have thought that some inquiry as to the origin of these grotesque superstitions, may supply some instruction as well as amusement to the readers of the Quarterly Examiner.

I am indebted to the talent and industry of the late Richard John King, of Crediton, who in 1874 published (through Murray) his "Sketches and Studies, descriptive and historical," for the means of supplying much