A Portuguese WerewolfAuthor(s): Violet AlfordSource: Folklore, Vol. 53, No. 3 (Sep., 1942), pp. 163-164Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1257817 .

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Collectanea 163 recent publication.3 " There was an unwritten law that if a man could build a house with chimney and fireplace and have a fire burning on the hearth between sunset and sunrise, it was his own. If he had time to enclose a piece of land for a garden, it was also his. To get this done in a given time, he selected his spot, collected the necessary materials (keeping them hidden from the authorities), asked his friends to join him, and on a moonlight night, with their assistance, built his house roughly and improved it as time went on." This might have been a description of the practice as it existed in Wales. I do not know whether the Hamp- shire example will be a forerunner of many from other parts of England, or whether it may be a survival of a " celtic " custom in an isolated forest district.

The distribution of the one-night house from Burgundy to Lewis, and from Eire to Hampshire, raises the question whether it may not after all be of considerable antiquity. Before we can answer the question, enquiries must be made in other countries, and these must wait until more settled times.

The lighting of the fire at dawn was presumably a sign to give notice that the owner had taken possesson of his house. Miss Macleod wrote that in the Scottish Isles no one could evict a squatter so long as the fire was kept burning, and that she had heard that about sixty years ago a factor in Lewis, when evicting people, used to put out their fire with the milk they had in their houses. Here we meet ancient associations. The hearth was the symbol of family ownership and inheritance.4 It was the focus of the rights of kindred; an exiled grandson or great grandson returning home solemnly uncovered the ancestral hearth. The custom of dadenhudd is mentioned by Seebohm.5 It is possible, however, for old elements to become attached to a later custom.

R. U. SAYCE

3 It happened in Hampshire. 4 Folk-Lore of the British Isles, p. 206. 5 Tribal System in Wales, pp. 82, 94.

A PORTUGUESE WEREWOLF

FOLLOWING Professor Hutton's Presidential Address on Werewolves, this note may be of interest. An English friend, born and brought up in Portugal, remembers, when she was about seven years old, the mysterious whispering of the Portuguese servants. She gathered that the son of the farmer, whose premises touched those of her family, was suspected of being a werewolf. This frightened her at the time, but she went away to school and forgot all about it. Seven or eight years later, when she was fourteen (about 1917) she and her sister sat on their window-ledge, overlooking the garden. Suddenly, on to the wall divid- ing their garden from the farmer's property, there leapt a large animal- a dog, she supposed-which ran along the wall, sprang down at the end and made off into the open country. Both she and her sister ex-

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164 Collectanea claimed that they had never seen the creature before, and did not know the farmer had such a queer dog. She described it to me as dark and shaggy, and not quite like an ordinary dog. It was only after some time that both girls remembered the long-ago stories of the farmer's son who was a werewolf, and both, rather apprehensively, came to the conclusion that they had seen the lobishomem.

VIOLET ALFORD

A CUSTOM IN THE MAKING

A NEW Oxford custom has arisen which already boasts four years of life and which may harden into an established tradition. It concerns Univer- sity and City equally, for both are eager to give an hour once a year to honour the poet of citizens and scholars. A few minutes before mid-day on the birthday of Shakespeare which is St. George's Day, the Patron Saint of England, a sober little procession marches out from the Town Hall, the University Mace and the City Mace carried at its head. The Mayor and the Vice-Chancellor walk first, Aldermen and Councillors, University Dignitaries, and, this year, American Officers from the U.S.A. Hospital near-by, making pleasant splashes of blue amongst the scarlet and black. The procession arrived at the house in the Cornmarket now

occupied by a Lyons' restaurant on the ground floor, and by the English Speaking Union on the first floor. I have been shown a print of the house before the original facade was destroyed about Ioo years ago, and a very good Tudor

facade it was, rising to four storeys, with wooden pilasters

and decoration under the then receding first floor. The Maces adroitly negociated the steep stairs, the company went up to the second floor and turned into the Painted Room-one of the new sights of Oxford. The tenant, Mr. E. W. Attwood, himself discovered the designs beneath

many layers of ancient wallpaper and canvas. The chimney brickwork dates from about 1350, the large letters IHS on the chimney-breast seem to be about a hundred years later. A richly coloured design of interlacing arabesques covers the adjacent wall and the whole of the north wall, finished with a white band painted with flowers and fruit along the

skirting, and a frieze of lettering between the main design and the ceiling. This proves to be pious mottoes, and very pleasant lettering it is. The whole wears that gracious appearance of freehand which knows no stencils. The painting was done about 1550 and remained visible till

1630, when fashions changed and the occupiers felt obliged to cover up their patterned walls. The whole effect is red and yellow, gay and com-

fortable, without any of the depressing atmosphere so often felt in ancient rooms. This was the Crown Tavern, rented by the Davenant family, and here William Shakespeare made a habit of lying a night or two to break his yearly journey between London and Stratford. The house was then in the possession of New College, having been bought by William of Wykeham in 1395. It is now under the care of the Oxford Preservation Trust and belongs to the City. Here then members of City and Univer-

sity meet once a year, and in the gay old room drink to the memory

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