bottled ale."

Giles turned angrily away from him towards the stable, tightening a
tough cudgel in his grasp, with which he intended to belabour the
unfortunate hind on his return. Nor was he long absent--Robin had
scarcely swallowed a mouthful of hot porridge when his master thus
accosted him--

"Why, thou hob thrust, no good can come where thy fingers are
a-meddling; there is another jade besides mine own tied to the rack, not
worth a groat. Dost let thy neighbours lift my oats and provender?
Better turn my mill into a spital for horses, and nourish all the
worn-out kibboes i' the parish!"

"Nay, measter, the beast is yours; and ye ha' foun' her bed and
provender these twenty years."

"I'll cudgel that lying spirit out o' thee," said Giles, wetting his
hands for a firm grasp at the stick.

"Hold, master!" said Robin, stepping aside; "she has cost you more
currying than all the combs in the stable are worth. Step in and take
off the bridle, and then say whose beast she is, and who hath most right
to her, you or your neighbours. But mind, when the bridle is off her
neck, she slip it not on to yours; for if she do you are a gone man."

Giles stayed not, but ran with great haste into the stable. The tired
beast could scarcely stand; but he pulled off the bridle, and--as Robin
told the tale--his own spouse immediately stood confessed before him!

Here we pause. In the next part we shall rapidly sketch another of the
traditions current on this strange subject. It will but be a brief and
shadowy outline: space forbids us to dilate: the whole volume would not
contain the stories that tradition attributes to the prevalence of this
unnatural and revolting, though, it may be, imaginary crime.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES:

[37] [Illustration: Clyfrigrcype], or _the rocky district_.

[38] Col-dwr, or _narrow water_. See Whitaker's etymology of the word
(_Hist. of Manchester_).

[39] See an able article on this subject in the _Retrospective Review_,
vol. v. part i.

[40] "On Christmas daie at night, a threed must be sponne of flax, by a
little virgine girl, in the name of the divell; and it must be by her
woven, and also wrought with the needle. On the breste or fore part
thereof must be made, with needlework, two heads; on the head of the
right side must be a hat, and a long beard,--the left head must have on
a crown, and it must be so horrible that it maie resemble Belzebub; and
on each s