1. See for example ROE.18,62 and 80. A talk given by John Billingsly to the Hebden Bridge Local History Society suggests that the word ‘causey’ may derive from ‘causeway’ or ‘corpse–way’ – one of the ancient tracks along which “the bodies and souls of the dead were taken to their final resting place”. http://www.hebdenbridgehistory.org.uk/news-reports/between-worlds.html.

2. Armstrong. E.A. The Folklore of Birds, Collins, 1958, p.2.

3. BBC Radio 3, 3 May 1980.

4. In reply to a query from me, Hughes described this quotation as “Chinese, Taoist – but of the precise source I’m ignorant. I found it long ago in a giant Encyclopaedia of Proverbs from all languages – a U.S. book I think, and quite old. I imagine it comes from some Taoist text – not from the common stock of proverbs” (Letter, 3 Nov. 1984).

5. Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching. D.C. Lau (Trans. and Ed.), Penguin, 1963. I:1.

6. Tao Te Ching,1.VI.

7. Hughes: ‘Asgard for the Addicts’, WP.41.

8. Billy Holt was a well known character who began work at the mill at the age of twelve, taught himself languages, travelled widely, and became a politician, broadcaster and writer. Scorning conventions, he was content to live on the moors, sharing a stable with his horse, Trigger. (Glyn Hughes, Millstone Grit, Gollancz, 1975, pp.44–54).

9. BBC Radio 3, 3 May 1980.

10. This image suggests the shaman’s crystal, which Mircea Eliade described as magically connecting the human and spirit worlds. (Eliade, Australian Religions, Cornell UP, 1973).

11. Faas.198.