2'>d S. N» 74., May 80. '67.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



437 



In Portuguese, " a alma do botao " (the soul of 

 the button) is the button-mould. 



Sometimes the soul is the cavity, not that which 

 it contains. The soul of a cannon^ in German, 

 Portuguese, and French, is the bore, not the 

 charge. So also in Spanish : " Es lo interior y 

 hueco." In Portuguese, the hollow sometimes 

 found in a loaf is the " alma da padeira," the soul 

 of the baker s wife. Thomas Boys. 



Spider-eating (2"'* S. iii. 206.) — I remenjber 

 when a boy reading of spider-eating ; but I was 

 too young then to take any further notice of such 

 a practice, other than that of being disgusted, par- 

 ticularly as I have an unconquerable antipathy to 

 the whole genus Arachnida. If I remember 

 rightly, the book in which I read of it was called 

 The Romance of History. There are two, three, 

 or more, series of this work, and amongst them 

 that of France, in which I believe I read it. The 

 person mentioned as eating the spider was a girl ; 

 and if my memory does not play me false, there 

 was either a foot note, or one at the end of the 

 chapter, mentioning spider- eating as practised in 

 the south of France ; and I think it went so far as 

 to describe the mode of preparing the creature by 

 tearing off its legs, and likewise comparing the 

 taste to that of a nut. It is so long since I read 

 it that my recollection as to the book may not be 

 quite correct; but the impression made on my 

 mind was too deep to be forgotten, and the idea 

 has frequently occurred to me since. Probably 

 Ma. Riley, or some other correspondent of " N. 

 & Q." may have the means of referring to the 

 Romance of History ; and should they, perhaps 

 they will kindly, through this same medium, give 

 the quotation in full. 



This leads me to mention another curious fact 

 relating to spiders and their uses, or supposed uses. 

 An uncle of mine, when a child, suffered from an 

 attack of ague, and one of the medicines or anti- 

 dotes prescribed for him, probably by an old nurse, 

 was that he should wear in a bag round his neck a 

 large live spider. He did so ; but with the natural 

 curiosity of a child, the bag was opened, and upon 

 the spider being discovered it was immediately 

 killed. I believe the effect expected from this 

 singular treatment was, that from the creeping 

 of the spider in the bag, which was next the skin, 

 a horror or disgust would be created, which would 

 give a turn to the blood and system of the patient. 

 Never having heard of a similar case, I have 

 thought perhaps it might interest some of the 

 readers of " N. & Q." Henbi. 



The Sword and Pen (2"^ S. ii, 463.) — ^. asks 

 if any of your readers can furnish him with the 

 names of any literary men who have become gens 

 de Tepee. During the reign of Geoi-ge III., when 

 the French invasion was threatened, and revolu- 

 tion expected, Mr. Pitt's master-stroke of policy 



caused the Volunteer force to be embodied ; at 

 that time the citizens of Exeter (semper fideles), 

 raised a volunteer corps from among the ancient 

 gentry, to defend the city walls only, in case of 

 siege, and they were jocosely called the " Terrors 

 of Europe." Among these were Dr. Bartholomew 

 Parr, of literary fame, and author of the improved 

 London Medical Dictionary, 3 vols., 4to. ; Dr. 

 Hugh Downman, author of JPoems to Thespia, &c. 



W. COLLYNS. 



"^ Pappe with an Hatchet" alias "-4 Figgefor 

 my God Sonne," (2"** S. iii. 331.) — In reference 

 to this book and its author, the following passage 

 in Izaak Walton's Life of Mr. Richard Hooker, 

 appears to me to give precisely the information 

 sought for by Dunelmensis : — 



" There was not only one Martin Marprelate, but other 

 venemous books daily printed and dispersed ; books that 

 were so absurd and scurrilous, that the graver divines 

 disdained them an answer. And yet these were grown 

 into high esteem with the common people, till Tom Nash 

 appeared against them all ; who was a man of a sharp 

 wit, and the master of a scoflSng satirical merry pen, 

 which he employed to discover the absurdities of those 

 blind, malicious, senseless pamphlets, and sermons as 

 senseless as they. Nasfi his answers being like his books, 

 which bore these titles, An Almond for a Parrot; A Fig for 

 my God-son; Com£ crack me this Nut, and the like : so that 

 his merry wit made some sport, and such a discovery of 

 their absurdities, as (which is strange) he put a greater 

 stop to these malicious pamphlets, than a much wiser 

 man had been able," 



W. PURTON. 



Bridgnorth. 



Cordon Bleu (2""* S. iii. 348.) — A strange 

 Query! A "cordon bleu" is a Knight of the 

 Garter in England, or of the St. Esprit in France, 

 — grand seigneurs, who are supposed to have the 

 best cooks. So that a " cuisinier cordon bleu" is 

 only a cook of first-rate skill, a grand seigneur 

 amongst the cooks. C. 



Arsenal (2"'* S. iii. 348.) — Both of the sug. 

 gested derivations are somewhat ingenious. The 

 word, however, is neither from arx navalis, nor 

 arx senatus, nor, as some assert, from Barb. Greek ; 

 nor from the Low Latin ; nor from the Old French 

 arsenac ; nor, as Ma. FoaD states, from the Span. 

 alazaranas; but from quite a different source. 

 Trench says arsenal is an Arabic word, but does 

 not give the radicals ; and the word is certainly 

 not found either in Golius, Meninski, Richardson, 

 or in the very learned work of Canes (Dice. Esp.- 

 Lat.-Arab., Madrid, 1787.). At Genoa the dock- 

 yard is called Darsena, and we read " that at 

 Malaga the old Moorish Darsena, or dockyard, is 

 used as a store-house." As neither the Spanish 

 nor the Italian word would appear to be a native 

 compound, they are both doubtless from the 

 Turcic Tarsanah, a maritime arsenal. Tarsanah 

 not being compounded of two native words, I 

 should have been inclined to derive it from the 



