2°* S. X Oct. 27. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



323 



" In stature and colour they are much the same as the 

 Bassaps, but their forehead is more indented, their face 

 more prominent, and their mouth excessively wide. 

 They speak a language that has no affinity at all with 

 the tongues used by the other tribes, and only consists of 

 monosj'llabic sounds. But the most remarkable feature 

 of all is, that they have tails, like the animals, and which 

 are longer in one individual than in the other, whilst 

 those of the females are very short and of a softer kind 

 than with the males. The common size of this appen- 

 dage is between three and five inches. On the whole, 

 however, it is hard, stiff, and nearly immovable, which 

 makes sitting an impossibilit3'. 



" To remedy this defect, or rather this exuberance, the 

 Poonangs alwa3s take with them a wooden block, with a 

 hole, and use it as a chair, after first having carefully put 

 their tail in the perforation. It is said this nation is 

 spread all over the inland regions of the isle, though I 

 heard the tribe mentioned under another name in the 

 Kootee-state. The aborigines of the several dominions 

 all relate the same tale about the Poonangs, and, last 

 year, the subjects of the Sultan of Goonong-Taboor had 

 the good luck to catch three individuals of the race. Mr. 

 van Houtrop, who just then was in the Brouw-province, 

 has seen and manipulated them : and after accurate inves- 

 tigation he came to the result that their tail was neither a 

 sham nor a diseased excrescence. To persuade me, that 

 gentleman brought me in contact with several eye-wit- 

 nesses, who all testified to the same. And at Macassar, 

 where the existence of these tailed natives had been long 

 held for a fable, Mr. van Houtrop did all he could to 

 prove the truth of his relation. He even promised the 

 Sultan his services to exert himself as much as possible 

 to catch some Poonangs, and to have them transported, 

 dead or alive, to Macassar, from whence they then could 

 be taken to Holland, and examined by the Royal Aca- 

 demy of Sciences." 



Gorillas the Poonangs are not, for this species 

 of monkeys inhabits Africa and is tailless. 



J. H. VAN Lennep. 

 Zeyst, near Utrecht, Sept. 24, 1860. 



A REMARKABLE VISIOK 



The following curious story may be worth re- 

 cording in the pages of " N. & Q. ;" it is copied 

 from an old MS. lately lent me by a friend. The 

 Rev. Thomas Kussell, who appears to have testi- 

 fied to the truth of the narrative, was collated to 

 the Archdeaconry of Cork in 1725 ; tradition says 

 he was a member of the Bedford family, but how 

 connected has not been ascertained (?). He ap- 

 pears to have been eldest son of John Russell, 

 Gent., of Rutlands in the co. Carlow, born at 

 Lisburn, and entered Trin. Coll., Dublin, as a 

 pensioner 9 July, 1707, then aged fourteen years. 

 Peter Browne, Bishop of Cork and Ross, in his 

 will dated 22 July, 1735, mentions his cousin 

 Jerom Russell, brother to the Archdeacon of 

 Cork. At the bishop's death Archdeacon Russell 

 became possessed of his unpublished sermons and 

 other manuscripts : — 



" An account of a woman who lay apparently dead 48 

 hours, had lost the use of her side, and was bedrid 6 

 months before this happened. She was a papist, igno- 



rant, illiterate, very rude and obscene in her manner. 

 She was laid out under a table on the floor, when signs 

 of life appeared ; means were used to restore her, and 

 she called for Thomas Russell, then Archdeacon of Cork 

 of the Church of England, a pious man, of universal 

 charity. He not being to be immediately found, several 

 other clergymen of that Church were brought, but with- 

 out seeing them she had a sense they would not do. In 

 some time Thomas Russell came, to whom she related 

 what she had seen: that when dead her soul was by 

 angels borne thro' an empty space and set down at the 

 gate of a fair city, which she described as if she had 

 read St. John's description of the heavenly New Jeru- 

 salem ; she attempted to go in, but was told no unclean 

 thing could enter there, but she might return to the 

 world, and if she lived a life of holiness, she should be 

 permitted to return there, and was required what she had 

 and should see? She answered, she was an ignorant wo- 

 man and none would believe her. She was bid go to 

 Thomas Russell ; she said he would not believe her, oa 

 which there came to her one she had formerly known, 

 and had been a fellow-student at College of T. Russell's, 

 and bid her tell him a transaction that no one knew but 

 Russell the survivor, and that should be a token to him ; 

 and as a token for her, the side which she had lost 

 the use of should be restored thro' faith in God and his 

 praj'ers, which accordingly was in a few minutes the case. 

 She openly declared against the mass and purgatory; 

 said there was but two places, that the priests made the 

 people err, that all nations, kindred, and people that 

 feared God and worked righteousness were accepted of by 

 him. She was asked if she saw God? She answered 

 yes. What likeness he had ? She said it was not lawful 

 to form any likeness of him. She was asked also if she 

 saw Jesus? she said yes; and what he was doing, she 

 answered, standing at the right hand of God interceding 

 for the sins of the people. She saw in heaven several 

 she knew, and children by themselves in a place like a 

 beautiful flower garden, watered by chrystal rivulets, the 

 pebbles of which were brighter than the richest Jewells, 

 they crowning themselves with the flowers, then coming 

 before the throne of God, paying homage, casting down 

 their chaplets, then returning to the same emploj*. She 

 was asked, as she was only at the gate, how she could 

 see so many things ? Her answer was, that it was with 

 the eyes of her soul she saw, and not of her bod}', and 

 that they were so strong as to see many miles, or rather 

 without measure. Then she was borne by an angel and 

 shown hell, where she saw the devil tormenting souls 

 and upbraiding them for hearkening to his temptations. 

 She saw many there whom she knew, and her own son 

 that was killed by accident at 17 years old. She de- 

 clared against purgatory and other priestcrafts so boldly 

 that her husband and grown children rose up against her, 

 and it was thought would have killed her, but T. Russell 

 had her taken out of bed, put her in a sedan, and removed 

 her to a lodging where he kept her several weeks at his 

 own expense. Many came to see her, she declaring to 

 them what she had seen. Many ofiered her money, but 

 she would take none, saying what she had seen was 

 without price, and that if she lived in God's fear she 

 should never want. When she was able to go out she 

 published what she had seen in all the churches in Corke, 

 went to Bandon, Kinsale, Youghal, and doing the like 

 became quite changed every way, speaks it may be said 

 Avith a new tongue ; her hair that was quite red changed 

 to brown. The Papists met her in some of her travels 

 and cruelly beat her, at which she did not show the least 

 resentment, but said she looked at it in the love of God ; 

 for while they were in the spirit they were they could 

 not but do such things. When asked if it did not grieve 

 her that her husband and children behaved so to her, she 



