Aug. 4. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



91 



George Sinclair (or Sanclar), who was professor 

 of mathematics in the University of Glasgow two 

 hundred years ago, wrote a very curious book, 

 now scarce, entitled — 



" Satan's Invisible World Discovered, or a choice Collec- 

 tion of modern Relations, proving evidently against the 

 Atheists of this present age, that there are Devils, Spirits, 

 Witches, and Apparitions, from authentic Records, Attest- 

 ations of Witnesses of undoubted veracity, &c., edit. Edin- 

 burgh, 1769, 12rao., pp. 294." 



At p. 101., in treating of "Charms or Incant- 

 ations," which he derives from the " Latin word 

 carmen, signifying a verse, because the Roman 

 soothsayers gave their charms in verse," he thus 

 states : 



"An old woman whom I read of used this charm when 

 she went to bed : 



' Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, 

 The bed be blest that I lie on.' " 



So that J. Y. (1) has for part of the second verse 

 of the hymn the authority of a currency of two to 

 three hundred years back. 



The learned professor collected a number of 

 these charms, which he gives in sundry places of 

 his book, and a few of them may amuse the readers 

 of " N. & Q.," and may so far add to their inform- 

 ation in the carmenative lore. He says : 



"At night, in the time of Popery, when folks went to 

 bed, they believed that the repetition of this following 

 prayer was effectual to preserve them from danger, and 

 the house too : 



' Who sains * the house the night. 

 They that sains it ilk a night. 

 Saint Bryde and her brate f , 

 Saint Colme and his hat, 

 Saint Michael and his spear. 

 Keep this house from the weir ; 

 From running thief. 

 And burning thief, 

 And from a' ill rea(if) J, 

 That be the gate can gae, 

 And from an ill wight. 

 That be the gate can light ; 

 Nine reeds § about the house. 

 Keep it all the night. 

 What is that what I see 

 So red, so bright, beyond the sea ? 

 'Tis He was pierc'd through the hands, 

 Through the feet, through the throat. 

 Through the tongue, 

 Through the liver and the lung ; 

 Well is them that well may, 

 Fast on Good Friday.' 



" Another prayer used by the thieves and robbers on 

 the borders after meat, in order to stealing from their 

 neighbours : 



* He that ordain'd us to be born, 

 Send us more meat for the morn ; 

 Part of 't right, and part of 't wrang, 

 God let us never fast ov'r lang.]] 



• Preserves. 

 X Plunder. 

 II Long. 

 No. 301.] 



f Apron, or covering. 

 § Roods, or holy crosses. 



God be thanked, and our Lady*, 

 All is done that we had ready.' 



" A countryman in East Lothian used this grace always 

 before and after meat : 



' Lord be bless'd for all his gifts. 

 Defy the devil and airhis shifts. 

 God send me mairf siller. Amen.' 



" An old woman taught her neighbour this charm when 

 the butter would not churn : 



' Come, butter, come ; 

 Come, butter, come ; 

 Peter stands at the gate. 

 Waiting for a butter'd cake ; 

 Come, butter, come.' " 



In the professor's opinion, — 



" As the devil is originally the author of charms and 

 spells, so is he the author of several b(au)dy songs which 

 are sung. A reverend minister told me that one who was 

 the devil's piper, a wizzard, confessed to him that at a 

 ball of dancing the foul spirit taught him a b(au)dy song 

 to sing and play, as it were this night, and ere two days 

 passed all the lads and lasses of the town were lilting it 

 through the street. It were abomination to rehearse it." 



This singular work of the professor's, which 

 must have cost him much labour in collecting the 

 materials from so many sources, and as affording 

 some interesting glimpses of the state of society 

 in his period, would now well stand a reprint. 



G.N". 



PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE. 



Method of obtaining several of the natural Colours in 

 Photographic Pictures, hy M. Testud de Beauregard, com- 

 municated to the " Society rran9aise de Photographic " 

 by M. Durieu. — M. Durieu exhibited several coloured 

 photographs by M. Testud de Beauregard, and observed 

 that they form a series of coloured images, one set uni- 

 formly blue, yellow, and rose colour, the other having 

 different colours corresponding with the natural colours. 

 Amongst the latter, one represents a female figure covered 

 with a veil, and holding a basket of leaves : the figure 

 is flesh-colour, the veil violet, and the leaves green. The 

 other is the portrait of a woman, of which the face and 

 hands are flesh-colour, the eyes blue, the hair flaxen, and 

 the dress green, the collar and cuffs white ;' and lastly, 

 the portrait of a child, which, besides the flesh colour of 

 the face, hands, and legs, exhibits a dress striped with 

 green and yellow, black boots, white linen, and a chair, 

 of which the wood is black, and the cushion of chamois 

 leather. 



A small landscape was also shown, with the eflTect of 

 the setting sun varied with several colours. 



In his investigations, M. Testud de Beauregard com- 

 menced with the fact, acknowledged for a long time, that 

 there exist certain salts which are differently coloured 

 by the action of light ; that this difference of coloration 

 is due not only to the nature of the salt itself, but also, in 

 the same salt, to the duration of the action of the light, 

 or, in other words, to its intensity. 



Starting from this point, M. Testud de Beauregard 

 considered whether, by combining several salts, either in 

 the same bath, or on the paper itself, by means of suc- 

 cessive immersions in different baths, it might not be 



* Virgin. 



t More. 



