198 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»d S. No 62., Mar. 7. '67. 



cacat" — has taken its rise from the missel-thrush 

 eating the fruit of the mistletoe. 



There are about twenty kinds of trees in Eng- 

 land to which the mistletoe will attach itself, and 

 the best plan to propagate the plant is to crush a 

 ripe berry on the under surface of a branch of the 

 tree on which it is desired to grow it. In twelve 

 months the radicle will have got firm hold, and 

 then the green leaves will begin to show them- 

 selves. W. T. 



Allusions in Ejnstle to Sir John Hill (2"*^ S. iii. 

 127.-) — It is to be lamented that owners, and still 

 more that borrowers, of books should scribble im- 

 pertinences on the margins. The only ground 

 which the annotator in this case could have had 

 for writing "Cheyne" and "Foote" was, that one 

 was a dramatist and the other a physician. In the 

 Symposion, when Pausanias has finished his speech, 

 Aristophanes, whose turn is next, is seized with a 

 fit of hiccups, and asks Eriximachus to prescribe 

 for him, and to change places in speaking. Erixi- 

 machus consents, and tells him to hold his breath, 

 to gargle his throat with water, and should these 

 fail, to take something to tickle his nose, — ava- 

 XaScif Ti TotovTOP o"<j) Kvii<Tu.io h.v t)]V plva, irrdpe, — 

 which will be a certain cure. I need not say that 

 the " Tj " was not a " pinch of snuff." 



The "saint" is Chrysostom : 



" Quanto id finnius, et clarius ad Atticara vim et ele- 

 gantiam loquendi, qua poUet Aristophanes, ostendendam, 

 quod maximum Orientis lumen, Johannes Antiochenus, 

 cui illud nomen aureum Chr3'sostorai posteritas dedit, hoc 

 auctore uti, et magistro faciendse et poliendoe orationis 

 non recusarit. Ferunt enim hunc illius comoedias duode- 

 triginta, cum supersunt nobis undecim duntaxat, lectitisse 

 studiose, atque etiam pulvillo, cum dormitum iret, sub- 

 jecisse; perinde quasi ac deponeret tautum scriptorem 

 e manibus quam tardissime, et prime quoque tempore 

 repeteret intermissam lectionem. Ex quo dupliciter imi- 

 tatione et exemplo profecerit ; primum ut acer plerumque 

 ac vehemens esset in notandis et perstringendis moribus, 

 mulierum prsesertim ; deinde ut perbene Graece loqueretur, 

 faciliusque ac solutius, quam ceteri, verbis explicate sen- 

 tentias." — F. Vavassor, De Ludicrd Dictione, p. 80., Paris, 

 1658. 



H. B. C. 



U. U. Club. 



Showing the White Feather (1" S. v. 309. ; 2"'i 

 S. ii. 79.) — Why should the custom instanced by 

 J. P. give rise to the application of the above ex- 

 pression to cowards ? — unless we suppose that 

 pilgrims were accounted cowards in a chivalric 

 age : Gamecock's answer seems to come nearer 

 the truth. It is well known that fear will turn a 

 man's hair white. 



" My hair is grey, but not with years. 

 Nor turned it white in a single night. 

 As men's have done from sudden fear." 



So also we read of a case where the face of a 

 black cat, after she had been worried by a dog, 

 turned perfectly white. Fowls' feathers have done 



the same. Might not the expression have come 

 naturally from this circumstance ? Threlkeld. 



Cambridge. 



_" Quack;' Derivation of (P' S. v. 347. ; 2°'' S. 

 iii. 17.) — May not the word quacke, in Mr. 

 Kingsley's extract from Hollinshed, mean quake or 

 ague f An ague-doctor must have had much em- 

 ployment, and if successful, great renown, in those 

 days of fens, marshes, and undrained land. 



Stylites. 



Homeric Verse (2"'' S. iii. 107.) — Has not your 

 contributor somewhat murdered the wit of this 

 line by substituting eeo>. for vioi, as opposed to 

 &vZpis ? 



Freshmen would be the very class to adopt the 

 slang appellation of Moiv|/ for old Nicholson, while 

 the older men, SfSpes, would consider it undigni- 

 fied. At least I have always heard the line quoted 

 with V60(, and not 6eo\. 



Excepting on the occasion when degrees are 

 conferred in the Senate House, I know not when 

 the term 6eo\ would be applicable to Cambridge 

 students. They then rival " the gods " of a thea- 

 tre without doubt. J. C. O. 



Epitaph (2""* S. iii. 107.) — The magniloquent 

 epitaph which Dr. Doran sends you from Wolver- 

 hampton is almost rivalled by the following upon 

 Mr. John Bolton, a clock and watchmaker (de- 

 ceased 1821), which I copied several years ago in 

 the churchyard of St. Margaret, Durham : 



" Ingenious artist ! few thy skill surpast 

 In works of art, yet death has beat at last I 

 Though conquer'd, j'et thy deeds will ever shhie, 

 Time can't destroy a genius large as thine." 



W. D. Macrat. 



Mai-riage by Proxy (2"^ S. iii. 150.) — Heylin 

 says that the Arch-Duke Maximilian by proxy 

 married Anne Duchess of Bretagne, " which mar- 

 riage he consummated by a ceremony in those 

 days unusual." When was it iisual ? 



" For his ambassador, attended with a great Train of 

 Lords and Ladies, bared his leg unto the knee, and put 

 the same within the sheets of the Duchess, taking pos- 

 session thereby of her Bed and Body." 



But she was afterwards married to Charles VIII., 

 his " divines " holding — 



"That this pi'etended consummation was rather an 

 invention of Court than any way firm by the laws of the 

 Church." 



R. W. Hackwood. 



How do Oysters make their Shells ? (2"'' S. ii. 

 228,; iii. 158.) — Your correspondents Mr. H. 

 White, and 11. W. appear to entertain the opinion 

 that the shells of oysters are formed by the lime 

 contained in the sea-water. By referring to Ro- 

 get's Bridgewater Treatise they will find a very 

 interesting chapter "On the Structure and Forma- 

 tion of the Shells of MoUusca," correcting their 



