_Power of Prophecy._--MR. AUG. GUEST (Vol. ii., p. 116.) will perhaps
accept--as a small tribute to his interesting communication on the
subject of that "power of prophecy" which I apprehend to be still
believed by many to exist during certain lucid intervals before death--a
reference to Sir Henry Halford's _Essay on the [Greek: Kausos] of
Aretæus_. (See Sir H. Halford's _Essays and Orations read and delivered
at the Royal College of Physicians_, Lond. 1831, pp. 93. et seq.)

J. Sansom.


_Bay Leaves at Funerals._--In some parts of Wales it is customary for
funerals to be preceded by a female carrying bays, the leaves of which
she sprinkles at intervals in the road which the corpse will traverse.

Query, Is this custom practised elsewhere; and what is the meaning and
origin of the use of the bay?

N.P.


_Shoes (old) thrown for luck._--Brand, in his _Popular Antiquities_,
observes, that it is accounted {197} lucky by the vulgar to throw an old
shoe after a person when they wish him to succeed in what he is going
about. This custom is very prevalent in Norfolk whenever servants are
going in search of new places; and especially when they are going to be
married, a shoe is thrown after them as they proceed to church.

C.P.R.M.