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NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°'J S. VIII. Sept. 10. '55. 



still to so gi'oundless an Idea, especially as it is 

 now abandoned by all the best scholars of Italy. 

 Will M. N. S.]i"favour me with the name of the 

 publication ? A. A. 



Poets' Corner. 



PATRON SAINTS. 



(2»« S. viii. 141.) 



Allow me to add to your correspondent's list, 

 "that Portugal also owns as a patron saint S. An- 

 tony, to whom will be found addressed, in the 

 Manual de Oracues, Lisbon, 1826, an afFeeting 

 prayer which, in an abridged form, is here trans- 

 lated : — 



" Illustrious Father S. Autony, thou wlio li oldest the 

 infant Jesus in thine arms, and who art the special advo- 

 cate of things lost, — now, upon this day which Portugal 

 dedicates to thine honour, pray to the Lord that, by his 

 light and grace, I in&y find myself, and so return, a lost 

 sheep, to his fold and flock. Amen." 



With regard to S. George of England, xnuch 

 that is curious stands connected with the claim to 

 this illustrious saint, which Is preferred by the 

 Portuguese. On their grand annual festival, 

 Corpo de Deos, S. George, a colossal image, richly 

 attired, bearing a formidable lance, decked out 

 ■with all the jewelry which the nobility of Lisbon 

 can furnish for the occasion, and mounted on 

 the largest and noblest charger that Lisbon can 

 supply, passes through the main streets of the 

 city between rows of kneeling multitudes, escorted 

 by priests, soldiers, and grandees. During a two 

 years' residence In Lisbon Imposed by my official 

 duties, 1839-41, I took some pains to ascertain 

 the grounds on which our Portuguese allies claim 

 an interest In S. George; and — if you will bear 

 with a little bit of foreign folk-lore — the result of 

 my inquiries was this : — 



The claim Is a consequence of our ancient al- 

 liance. A flotilla, bearing English crusaders on 

 their voyage to the Holy Land, put into the 

 Tagus just at the time when the insurgent Portu- 

 guese, having expelled the Moors from the city of 

 Lisbon, had cooped them up in the castle, and, 

 high as it stands, were about to assault it. We, 

 of course, quite as ready to fight Lusitanian 

 Moors as oriental Saracens, landed forthwith, 

 took part in the assault, shouted after our wont 

 " S. George ! S. George ! " and effectually aided 

 in the capture of the castle. The Portuguese 

 heard our shouts, and drew the inference, not only 

 that the English saint was a valuable aid In his 

 proper line as advocate, but that he himself, S. 

 George, was actually In our midst, and, as our 

 Captain, had led us on to the assault. Hence the 

 distinguished honours which he now receives in 

 Portugal. The report at Lisbon is, that S. George, 

 to keep up the remembrance of his prowess, has 

 since killed a man. That is, on one of those an- 



nual occasions when he is borne in procession 

 through the streets, his lance slipped from his 

 hand, came down with a run, and wounded an 

 unfortunate and kneeling spectator, who died from 

 the injury. I ventured to call this "a sad acci- 

 dent.''' But my Portuguese informant who nar- 

 rated the occurrence gravely replied, " Elle o tern 

 feito" (He didit!) 



Another morsel of Peninsular folk lore. A poor 

 wayfaring man knocked late one night at the door 

 of a certain Lisbon convent, and was refused ad- 

 mittance. He then dragged his weary steps to 

 another convent, where he was hospitably re- 

 ceived, fed, and lodged for the night. Next 

 morning the pious Inmates of the convent made it 

 their first concern to give the poor man an early 

 meal ; but he was nowhere to be found ! The 

 gates of the convent, closed at night, were not yet 

 unbarred ; he had mysteriously disappeared ! 

 They then, as usual, assembled In chapel for 

 their morning oi-Isons. But there, lo ! a new ob- 

 ject met their eyes. In the chapel they found 

 awaiting them, brought there no one knew how, 

 that noble image of S. George which is now borne 

 annually through the streets of Lisbon. Doubt- 

 less it was the gift of the pilgrim they had lodged ! 

 And doubtless that pilgrim was no other than 

 S. George himself! The same legend, however, 

 is told of other images. 



To your correspondent's list of patron saints 

 who preside over " general matters," I beg leave 

 to add my particular favourite Sta. Eufemia, who 

 is firstrate for all affections of the sight and eyes. 

 She has a " house" near Cintra, and also a foun- 

 tain to which my own eyes were much indebted. 

 On diverging from the road you have to pass 

 over bare rocks, where your path to the spring 

 can be traced only like an Indian trail, by the 

 fragments of pitchers broken by those who go 

 stumbling along over the uneven ground, to fetch 

 the healing water on Sta. Eufemia's day. 



The Portuguese are exceedingly perplexed by 

 our introducing a certain saint, to them unknown. 

 Our sailors have Anglicised the name of Setiibal, 

 and call it S. Ubes ! No wonder at the change : 

 for in our nautical geography, Coruila is " the 

 Groin ;" the Cachopos, a dangerous ledge of rocks 

 at the mouth of the Tagus, are " the Catchups;" 

 and the Ilheo, a small island off Funchal, is " the 

 Loo Island." When we speak of S. Ubes, the 

 natives earnestly ask : " What saint Is that ? Who 

 is S. Ubes ? We have no such saint in our calen- 

 dario." Thomas Boys. 



It seems that the work entitled Emblems of 

 Saints, published by Burns & Lambert in 1850, 

 has not yet found its way to Hong Kong ; or at 

 least, that W. T. M. has never seen it. That 

 work contains a very copious list of patron saints : 

 first of arts, trades, and professions ; and secondly 



