_Breaking Judas' Bones._--On Good Friday eve the children at Boppart, on the Rhine, in Germany, have the custom of making a most horrid noise with _rattles_. They call it _breaking the bones of Judas_. Cf. "NOTES AND QUERIES," Vol. i., p. 357.
"River of Dart, oh river of Dart, Every year thou claim'st a heart."
It is said that a year never passes without the drowning of one person, at least, in the Dart. The river has but few fords, and, like all mountain streams, it is liable to sudden risings, when the water comes down with great strength and violence. Compare Chambers' _Popular Rhymes_, p. 8., "Tweed said to Till," &c. See also Olaus Wormius, _Monumenta Danica_, p. 17.
The moormen never say "_the_ Dart," but always "Dart." "Dart came down last night--he is very full this morning." The _cry_ of the river is the name given to that louder sound which rises toward nightfall. Cranmere Pool, the source of the Dart, is a place of punishment for unhappy spirits. They may frequently be heard wailing in the morasses there. Compare Leyden _Scenes of Infancy_, pp. 315, 316., &c.
Wescote (_View of Devonshire_: Exeter, 1845 (reprint), p. 348.) has a curious story of the Tamar and Torridge. It is worth comparing with a local rhyme given by Chambers, p. 26.: "Annan, Tweed, and Clyde," &c.
"When Haldon hath a hat Kenton may beware a skat."
This often quoted saying is curiously illustrated by a passage from the romance of Sir Gawaya and the Grene Knicht (Madden's _Sir Gawaya_, p. 77.):
"Mist muged on the mor, malt on the mountes, _Uch hille hadde a hatte_, a myst-hakel huge."
In the note on this passage Sir Frederick quotes two proverbs like the Devonshire one above. They are, however, well known, and there is no lack of similar sayings.
"When Plymouth was a furzy down, Plympton was a borough town."
When Brutus of Troy landed at Totnes, he gave the town its name; thus,--
"Here I sit, and here I rest, And this town shall be called Totnes."
"Crocker, Cruwys, and Coplestone, When the Conqueror came, were found at home."
"Who on the Sabbath pares his horn, 'Twere better for him he had never been born."
"At toto Thori die hominibus ungues secare minime licuit." --Finn Magnusen, _Lex. Edd._, s.v. _Thor_.