132 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2''a s. N-* 85., Auo. 15. '67. 



Quaker coming to his house to visit his wife, he met her 

 at the door, and told her she should not come in, inti- 

 mating that lier visit would malce division betwixt them. 

 After some parley the Quaker's wife spoke to him in these 

 words, 'Thou wilt not believe unless thou see a sign, and 

 thou mayt'st see some such.' Within a few nights after, 

 Robert Churchman had a violent storm upon the room 

 where he lay, when it was very calm in all other parts of 

 the town, and a voice within him, as he was in bed. spoke 

 lo him and bid him ' Sing praises, sing praises,' telling him 

 he should see the glory of the Jsew Jerusalem, about 

 which time a glimmering light appeared : il about the 

 room. Toward the morning the voice commanded him 

 to go out of his bed naked with his wife and children. 

 They all standing upon the floor, and the spirit making 

 use of his tongue, bid them to put their mouths in the 

 dust, which the}' did accordingly. It likewise com- 

 manded him to go and call his brother and sister, that 

 they might see the New Jerusalem, to whom he went 

 naked about half a mile." 



Churchman did many strange things under the 

 impulsion of this spirit, but they did not agree, 

 and parted on bad terms. He then had a good 

 spirit within him, which spoke very orthodoxly. 

 After that the evil one returned and tried to pass 

 himself off for the good one : 



" One night that week, among many arguments which 

 it used to that purpose, it told him if he would not be- 

 lieve without a sign he might have what sign he would. 

 Upon that Robert Churchman desired, if it was a good 

 spirit, that a wire-candlestick which stood upon the cup- 

 board might be turned into brass. Which the spirit said 

 he would do. Presently there was a very unsavoury smell 

 in the room, like that of a candle newly put out; but nothing 

 else was done towards the fulfilling of the promise." — 

 Glanvil's Saducismus Triumphatus, Lond. 1726. 



I presume the latter is the "sign sweet and 

 convincing." As Mr, Templar says, "Nothing 

 else was done towards fulfilling the promise," are 

 we to believe that he thought making an unsavoury 

 smell a step, though a small one, in the right 

 direction ? Hopkins, Jun. 



Garrick Club. 



" SAVING ONE S BACON. 



(P* S. ii. 424. 499. ; 2°" S. iv. 67.) 



Without cavilling at the explanations of this 

 idiom already offered by your correspondents, it 

 may be permitted to state a different view, formed 

 in ignorance of their's. 



With regard to the import of the phrase there 

 can be no (iifBculty. It applies to a narrow escape, 

 whether from loss or damage. We say that a man 

 has "just saved his bacon," meaning that he has 

 barely escaped ; he has got off, and that is all. 



We may remark then, in the first place, that 

 the term bacon appears here to mean the fortunate 

 individual himself, the party who has thus nar- 

 rowly escaped. So in the kindred phrase, " Oh ! 

 spare my bacon," the supplicant asks to be spared 

 in his own person. The term bacon is thus applied 

 to humans by Falstaff, where he says to the luck- 



less "travellers" at Gadshill (I Hen. IV., Act II. 

 Sc. 2.), "on, bacons, on," (a phrase, by the bye, 

 which merits more attention than the commenta- 

 tors have bestowed upon it). 



The next remark to be made is, that the phrase, 

 " saving one's bacon," may be viewed as carrying 

 us back to those times when imputed heresy was 

 expiated at the stake ; and that the man was said 

 to have "just saved his bacon," (j. e. from frying; 

 as we shall see presently,) who had himself nar- 

 rowly escaped the penalty of being burnt alive. 



One of your correspondents very naturally asks 

 why, in the case of a narrow escape, baco7i should 

 be specified as the article "saved" (1*' S. ii. 424.). 

 Let us endeavour at once to answer this question, 

 and to connect the phrase with its original 

 meaning. 



When a pig is killed, it is the custom, in some 

 of the southern countries of Europe, as well as in 

 many parts of England, to remove the bristles 

 from the dead pig's hide, not by scalding, but by 

 singeing. This is an operation of some nicety ; 

 for too much singeing would spoil the bacon. But 

 practice makes perfect ; and by the aid of ignited 

 stubble, straw, or paper, the object is effected. 

 The bristles are all singed off, and the bacon re- 

 mains intact. 



This operation of singeing is in Portugal called 

 " chamuscar," from cliama or chamnia, a flame or 

 blaze. " Chamuscar, to singe, as pigs, to take off 

 the hair" (Moraes). 



Hence the noun " chamusco," which is the smell 

 of any thing that has been singed. Hence also 

 the phrase, "cheira a chamusco" (he smells of 

 singeing). 



This last phrase, however, " cheira a chamusco," 

 was specially applied to any suspected heretic : — 

 " o que merece ser queimado, e faz per onde o seja, 

 o que diziao por afronta aos Judeos encobertos." 

 That is, " he who deserved to be burnt, and acted 

 in a way that was very likely to lead to it," was 

 said to smell of singeing (" cheirar a chamusco "), 

 i.e. to smell of the fire. Consequently, "the 

 phrase was contumeliously addressed to any one 

 who was secretly a Jew" (Moraes). ■ 



Thus the persecuted Israelite, who steadfastly 

 adhered to his forefathers' creed, and lived in 

 daily peril of the stake, was allusively but threat- 

 eningly and insultingly compared to the abhorred 

 carcass which, though not yet roasted, boiled, or 

 fried, had already the smell of fire. If, after all, 

 he was actually burnt alive, the same allusion was 

 carried out to the end; for he was then said 

 " morrer /n7«," to be fried to death, (literally, 

 " to die fried."") But even if not burnt, he still 

 had the " chamusco," or smell of fire ; that is, he 

 had only "just saved his bacon." 



Thomas Boys. 



