118 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[Aug. 18. 1855. 



research may settle the question whether or not 

 the results of Indian algebra were in Europe in the 

 sixteenth century. 



This work of Bachet is the one which must have 

 suggested the Recreations of Leurichon or Van 

 Etten, and was itself probably suggested by the 

 sort of questions with which Diophantus is tilled. 

 IBoth the French treatises are divided into ques- 

 tions of a numerical character, and others. Of 

 .some of these others I shall speak in a future com- 

 munication. The numerical question^ are mostly 

 methods of finding a number thought of; and 

 some are of the simplest character. In one of 

 those of Van Etten, the person who thinks of the 

 number is told to add and subtract any number 

 he pleases, to add the results together, and to give 

 the sum to the conjurer, who thereupon detects 

 the number thought of. Such a puzzle, gravely 

 printed by a learned Jesuit, is an excuse for the 

 schoolboys who used to be much mystified by the 

 following: The conjurer said, think of a number, 

 double it, add twenty, halve the result, take away 

 the number you first thought of — and then he 

 astonished his auditor by adding, And there re- 

 mains ten. A. De Morgan. 



" THE MENAGIANA." 



The anecdote of Pontanus and Scriverius (ante, 

 p. 7.) is in The Menagiana, 3rd edit., vol. i. p. 16. 

 Whether a transfer like this is authorised by the 

 laws of " N. & Q.," let the Editor decide. I may, 

 however, be allowed to say, in defence of N. L. T., 

 that other writers have borrowed from The Me~ 

 nagiana without acknowledgment, and among 

 them Jonathan Swift, 



Those pleasant verses, which exhibit paper- 

 sparing Pope and the deaf Dean in company 

 without conversation, end thus : 



" Of Sherlock thus, for preaching fam'd, 

 The sexton reason'd well, 

 And justly half the merit claim'd, 

 Because he rang the bell." 



Is not this like Swift ? But still more like 

 Menage. 



" Un predicateur avoit fait un excellent sermon, et 

 <juelques-uns de ses auditeurs ne pouvoient se lasser d'en 

 admirer la beaute, tant du cot^ des pens^es que de I'ex- 

 pression. Apres s'etre epuisez a le loiier, le bedeau, qui les 

 ecoutoit, leur dit : Messieurs, c'est moi qui I'ai sonne." — 

 Menagiana, ii. 65. 



Swift bears the character of being one of our most 

 original authors. Even Dr. Johnson, who. Bos- 

 well says, " seemed to have an unaccountable 

 prejudice against Swift," allows him this merit. 

 In his Life of the Dean, after quoting the opinion 

 of a former editor, that Swift had never been 

 known to take a single thought from any writer, 

 ancient or modern, he says : 



" This is not literally true ; but perhaps no writer can 



No. 303.] 



easily be found that has borrowed so little, or that, in all 

 his excellences and all his defects, has so well main- 

 tained his claim to be considered as original." 



I forget what Scott and Jeffrey have said on 

 the subject, but one of the latest writers on th& 

 character of Swift no doubt expresses the general 

 opinion, when he says : 



" The originality of his writings is of a piece with the 

 singularity of his character. He copied no man who 

 preceded him." — Essays from " The Times,^' vol. i. p. 215. 



I submit that, when an author is detected in one 

 act of plagiarism, the presumption arises that he 

 has been guilty of more. F.. 



BELGIAN SPORTS AND PASTIMES. 



Perhaps a short attempt to sketch the domestic 

 sports and pastimes of the people of Belgium may 

 not prove unacceptable to your readers. Those 

 I have selected are, I am aware, trivial ; but the 

 sports of the Carnival, but too often tinctured with 

 viciousness and vice, are of course well known to 

 all, and varied to the whims and caprices of fertile 

 inventions. 



" St. Nicholas," Dec. 6. The children place 

 empty baskets or basins in various parts of the 

 house, particularly in the bedrooms of papas and 

 mammas, who are expected to deposit therein a 

 variety of sweetmeats, delicacies, or fruits ; de- 

 pendants and servants participate in the sporty 

 and no habitable apartment is left without a re- 

 ceptacle. This is followed by an excess of merri- 

 ment as the various utensils are produced with the 

 welcome freight, and the remainder of the day ia 

 devoted to alloting and consuming the treasure 

 found. 



"St. Martin," November 11. This day is de- 

 voted by little urchins assembling in groups^ 

 blacking each others' faces, and tieing many co- 

 loured papers and ribbons about their persons;, 

 one of the gang, the hero of the fun, is very gene- 

 rally borne upon a rickety stool. In this manner 

 they go from house to house, begging the very 

 humble gratuity of a few apples, a donation very 

 often made in kind, but more generally in cents 

 or centimes. 



" Half Vasten," March 26. The fun of thi» 

 day very much resembles the scenes of St. Ni- 

 cholas, but the ever-varying depository is placed 

 upon the mantelpiece, wherein the donations are 

 expected to be of the same description, but the 

 fun and frolic is confined to the family. 



" Onnoozele Kinderen," Innocents' Day, De- 

 cember 28. This is a day of positive misrule. 

 Masters and mistresses are alike subjected to the 

 dominion of the prevailing influence. The where- 

 abouts of every schoolmaster and governess is 

 keenly watched by the self-emancipated pupils 



