2^* S. VIII. Dice. 31. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



537 



loadstone is first inentione<I iii a Chinese dic- 

 tionary finished a.d. 121. 



The needle of the largest compass (in China) is 

 not above three inches lonjr, one end of which is a 

 kind of Jloirer-de-hice, and the other a tridept ; 

 ihey are all made at Navgazaqni. (Du Halde, ii. 

 284.) 



Du Halde has stated that the directive power, 

 or polarity, of the magnet, was known to the 

 Chinese in the earliest ages, and that the needle 

 had been employed fo guide travellers by land 

 a thousand years before Christ ; and it is stated 

 by Humboldt, that, according to the Peutlisaoyani, 

 a treatise on medical natural history, written 

 under the Soong dynasty, 400 years before Co- 

 lumbus, the Cliinese suspended the needle by a 

 thread, and found it to decline to the S.E., and 

 never to rest at the true south point. {^Encyc. 

 Brit., art. " Magnetism," p. 685.) 



Paper-Money. 



In the reign of Hong vou, when money was be- 

 come very scarce, they [the Chinese] paid the 

 mandarins and soldiers partly in silver and partly 

 in paper, giving them a sheet of paper sealed 

 with the imperial seal, which was reckoned at a 

 ihousand deniers, and was of the same value as 

 the taels of silver. These sheets are yet much 

 sought after by those that build, who hang them 

 up as a rarity on the chief beam of the house, 

 which, according to the vulgar notion, preserves 

 the house from all misfortunes. (Du Halde, ii. 

 292.) 



These imperial bank notes had the following 

 inscription : — 



" The Court of the Treasurj^ having presented their 

 petition, it is decreed that the paper-money thus marked 

 with the Imperial Seal of Ming shall pass current, and 

 be put to the same use as copper coin. Those who coun- 

 terfeit it shall be beheaded. He who shall inform .... 

 shall have a reward of 250 taiJls, besides the goods of the 

 criminal, whether moveable or immoveable." (Z)m Halde, 

 ii. 303.) 



P}-intirig. 



The engraver pastes every sheet (transcribed 

 by a good writer) upon a plate of apple or pear- 

 tree wood, and with a graver follows the traces 

 and carves out the characters by cutting down 

 the rest of the wood : so he makes as many dif- 

 lerent plates as there are pages to print. {Du 

 Halde, ii. 435.) 



Nevertheless the Chinese are not ignorant of 

 the manner of printing in Europe ; they have 

 moveable characters like ours, the only difference 

 is that ours are of metal, and theirs of wood. 

 (Du Halde, ii. 436.) 



Any person who visits the British Museum 

 and compares the earliest specimens of German 

 ])rinting with the last and best of the French will 

 have ocular proof that Fust and Gutenberg could 

 not have arrived at so great a height of perfec- 



tion except after ages of previous labours — of dif- 

 ficulties met and overcome. T. J. Bdckton. 

 Lichfield. 



»f utte^ to :^tn0r ^LMtxiti, 



Precedency (2"^ S. viii. 398.)— J. R. will find a 

 notice of Lord Egmont's pamphlet in the Monthly 

 Bevieiv, vol. xxv. p. 232. S. H. 



Ancient. Keys (2"*' S. viii. 353.) — Some in- 

 teresting information on the early history of locks 

 and keys, with illustrated examples, is contained 

 in Treatise on Fire and Thief-Proof Depositories, 

 and Locks and Keys, by George Price. London, 

 Simpkin & Marshall. 1856. G. W. W. M. 



Highland Regiment at the Battle of Leipsic (2"'* 

 S. viii. 469.) — Sir William Congreve, in the in- 

 troduction to his Rochet System, states that the 

 only British force present at this battle was the 

 Rocket Troop under Captain Bogue, who was 

 killed. Sigma Theta. 



Herle d'Or (2"'' S. viii. 424.)— May not the 

 Camphorosma Monspesulensis be the herbe d'or 

 inquired after by F. C. B. ? It has a spike of 

 yellow flowers, may be said to resemble the He- 

 lianthemura in general character, and was for- 

 merly very highly esteemed in medicine, though 

 now no longer in repute. C. B. 



Old Ballad of Hockley i tK Hole (2"'^ S. viii. 

 414.) — Mr. W. S. Pinks will find a copy of this 

 ballad in Merry Drollery Complete, 1661, and the 

 tune in The Dancing Master, 1651. It com- 

 mences : — 



" Kiding to London on Dunstable way, 

 I met with a maid, on a midsummer day ; 

 Her eyes they did sparkle like stars in the sk3-. 

 Her face it was fair, and her forehead was high," &c. 



Wm. Chappeli.. 



" Soul is form and doth the hody make" (2"^ S. 

 viii. 417.) — W. P. may like to compare Hooker, 

 Eccl. Pol I 3. (foot note) : — 



"Form in other creatures is a thing proportionable unto 

 the soul in living creatures: sensible it is not, nor other- 

 wise discernible than only by effects. Acctwrditig to the 

 diversity of inward forms, things of the world are dis- 

 tinguished into their kinds." 



Ache. 



Pepys's Diary, SfC. (2"^ S. viii. 433.) — There 

 can be little difiiculty in finding a clue to the ex- 

 pressions used by the reader (as Pepys calls him) 

 in his rather startling prayer. He was doubtless 

 referring to the consecration of the priests, and 

 the cleansing of the leper, in the Mosaic law : — 



"Then shalt thou kill the ram, and take of his blood, 

 and put it upon the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and 

 upon the tip of the right ear of liis sons, and upon the 

 thumb of their right hand, and upon the great toe of their 



