302 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



t2'"» S. VII. April 9. 'oS. 



mail ! " a very probable epithet for a coleopterous 

 insect. " Busk " occurs in this sense in Percy's 

 Reb'qttes, and other examples may be found in 

 Jamieson (^Etym. Did. of Scot.'). 



It is moreover in use yet in Norfolk, especially 

 among fishermen on the coast and sailors : " Busk 

 ye, busk ye, all hands on deck ! " " Co' busk ye 

 mates, 't grow late, and 'tis time to start." Halliwell 

 says it is Anglo-Saxon. "Byrniebee" certainly is 

 Bypne, a corslet or cuirass ; Beo, a bee, and per- 

 haps any similarly-shaped insect. 



The Coccinella septem punctata, which is the 

 scientific name of this insect, is certainly " marvel- 

 lous" in respect of some of its qualities. En- 

 veloped in dough, and given as a pill, it is said to 

 act as a strong emetic on dogs. Some years ago 

 a large swarm of them arrived on the coast ; the 

 partridges fed freely on them, but died in large 

 numbers. 



I believe the above to be the true explanation 

 of the rhyme ; and if so, I shall have proved a 

 fresh instance of a Saxon word lingering in our 

 local dialect. The terms used will exactly suit 

 the movements of the insect when lifting up its 

 wingcases, and unfolding its delicate pinions from 

 beneath them in readiness for flight. 



If no "busking" of the kind takes place, the 

 desired wedding is of course supposed to be post- 

 poned sine die. 



Forby alludes to another rhyme, the purport of 

 which he gives, but was not able to recall the 

 words. It is probably the following, which, how- 

 ever, has a modern appearance : — 



" Ladybird, ladj'bird, fly away home, 

 Your house is on fire, and your children will burn." 



Moor gives a Suffolk version of this in an ortho- 

 gi'aphy intended to convey the inexpressible ver- 

 nacular of " high Suffolk : " — 



" Gowden-bug, gowden-bug, fly awah home, 

 Yar house is bahnt deown, an' yar child'en all gone." 



Gohlen-bug and ladybird are both East Anglian 

 names of tlie byrnie-bee, but the former is un- 

 known in Norfolk. 



This notion of burning, invented no doubt in 

 ignorance of the signification of byrnie, the Major 

 hints may be connected with the " bishop that 

 burneth " in Tusser (Lesson for Dairymaid, Cis- 

 ley, ed. Mavor, pp. 142, 144.) ; but though the 

 commentator's note is anything but satisfactory, 

 yet Tusser's own words are sufficient to show that 

 he only alludes to one effect of the dairymaid's 

 carelessness among others ; viz. spoiling the milk 

 by letting it burn in the pan, without any refer- 

 ence to the coccinella. 



Jamieson and Halliwell after him explain 

 " bishopped " milk to mean milk burnt in the 

 boilipg. "The bishop has set his foot in it" is a 

 common expression in the north when a similar 

 accident has taken place with broth, and the allu- 



sion is to the dislike of the people to the excessive 

 interference in secular affairs of the clergy in 

 ancient times, by which matters were oftener 

 marred than mended. 



Biskopping, i. e. burning the mark in a horse's 

 tooth to give a false criterion of its age, has its 

 origin in the same expression.* E. S. Tat lob, 



Orraesby St. Margaret. 



THE AFRICAN COJ<F£SSORS, A.D. 484. 



(2°'» S. vii. 210.) 



Rather an analogous case to that of the African 

 Confessors in their loss of what we have been 

 pleased to call " the organ of speech" is very mi- 

 nutely detailed in the Scots Magazine for Feb. 

 1743, pp. 99, 100. I have taken the liberty of so 

 far trespassing on the space of "N. & Q." by 

 quoting it in extenso, as more satisfactory to 

 readers in a matter of controversy and dubiety 

 than through any mutilated abridgement; and 

 after the perusal of the narrative, I think it will 

 be no longer necessary to ascribe to the interposi- 

 tion of miracle what seems to be effected in a great 

 degree towards compensating the deficiency by 

 the operation of natural causes, as in the case be- 

 fore us ; — 



*' Mr. Boddington, Turky merchant at Ipswich, commu- 

 nicated this extraordinary- fact, of one Margaret Cutting 

 at Wickham Market in Sufi'olk, to the Koyal Society, 

 July 1, 1742 ; who thought it worthy of an exact in- 

 quiry, which was made by Mr. Boddington, the Rev. Mr. 

 Norcutt, and Mr. Hammond, a skilful anatomist, who 

 attested the following circumstances : — 



" ' April 9, 1742, we saw Margaret Cutting, who in- 

 formed us she was about 24 j-ears old : That when she 

 was but four j-ears of age, a cancer appeared on the up- 

 per part of her tongue which soon ate its way to the root. 

 Mr. Scotchmore, Surgeon at Saxmundham, used the best 

 means he could for her relief, but pronounced the case 

 incurable. One day, when he was injecting some medi- 

 cine into her mouth, her tongue dropp'd out; the girl 

 immediately saying to their great surprise. Don't be 

 frighted mamma, it will grow again. In a quarter of a year 

 after, she was quite cured. In examining her mouth we 

 found not the least appearance of any tongue remaining, 

 nor any uvula ; but we observed a fleshj' excrescence 

 under the left jaw, extending itself almost to the place 

 where the uvula should be, about a finger broad. This 

 did not appear till some years after the cure. It is not 

 moveable. The passage to the throat, where the uvula 

 should be, is circular, and will admit a small nutmeg. 

 She performs the swallowing of solids and liquids as 

 well as we could. She discoursed as well as other per- 

 sons do, but with a little tone through the nose. Let- 

 ters and syllables she pronounced very articulately, and 



• Since writing the above I have consulted a small 

 collection of words by the late Rev. T. Spurdens, de- 

 signed as a supplement to Forby's Vocabulary of East 

 Anglia, where I find " Bishop Burne^'bee." This seems 

 to be a corruption of "Busk ye. Busk j-e, Burniebee " 

 without farther explanation. This corroborates my hy- 

 pothesis as to Busk, which, however, I had formed quite 

 independentlj'. 



