current saying in the British Navy. R.N.'s letter published in the Literary Supplement of Oct. 2nd, carries it back to before 1871.
The theory advanced in Folk-lore, xxv. pp. 122-125, that the story of the sailor and his oar is confined to ancient and modern Greece is thereby invalidated. Clearly it becomes of some interest both to trace the prevalence of the saying as far back as possible in the British Navy and also to discover whether the saying or the story may not occur in the folk-lore of other sea-faring folk.
I should be extremely grateful for any information which any member of the Society may be able to give whether privately or in print.
Either corroborative evidence of the prevalence of the saying in the British Navy or evidence of the existence of story or saying among any people beside the Modern Greeks would be most welcome.
Kentish Folk-Lore.
A friend writes to me from near Charing in Kent: "On my wife mentioning that we were going to plant some lavender in the garden, a message was sent from an old woman to warn us that it must be planted by the man of the house. Why?" I cannot answer the question. Perhaps some reader of Folk-lore may be able to do so.
In the same letter my friend mentions that he had received "a letter from a friend to say that they had been over to see the tombs of some ancestors in Little Chart Church (near here), adding, 'It contains some good monuments, also two curious helmets, or rather simulacra of helmets, as they are larger than life size, which were carried in front of the corpse on funeral occasions.' This sounds to me like our Roman friends' imagines?" Perhaps readers of Folk-lore may be able to supply English parallels.
[The only parallel, if it be one, to the belief about planting lavender, which I have been able to find is the following: "That
