114 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2'><i S. N« 81, Aug. 8. '57. 



Red Winds.— In reply to T. H. K. (2"'> S. iil. 

 229.) regarding " red winds," I beg to say, that 

 there is no sojourner in the Mediterranean for 

 any length of time, who has not seen the red wind, 

 as well as felt its oppressive influence. It blows 

 from the deserts of Africa, and derives its name 

 from the particles of led sand with which it is 

 charged. The worst I have known in this island 

 came from the S.S.W., called "libaccio" by the 

 Italians, from "Libya." Should rain descend 

 while this wind prevails, the sand becomes mud ; 

 and thence arise the " mud showers," of which 

 your correspondent may have heard. In its dry 

 state, it is more oppressive by far than any other 

 wind known to the Mediterranean, not excepting 

 the black " sirrocco ;" and is truly well-calculated 

 to blast the "goodliest trees" in a garden, and 

 vegetation of every kind. Its effects in other 

 ways are remarkable. The sand, of excessive 

 fineness, enters between your eyelids and your 

 eyes, and produces ophthalmia ; it gets up your 

 nostrils, and down your throat, and makes you 

 sneeze and cough ; it penetrates into the cells of 

 your ears ; it adheres to your skin, and causes you 

 to scratch ; it works itself into your watch, and 

 damages its movement ; it increases the annoyance 

 of musquitoes, and adds to the venom of their 

 attacks ; it is so dry that, as you write or read, 

 the paper curls up as if exposed to fire-heat. 

 Tables and chairs of seasoned wood, and of old 

 manufacture, crack with a report almost like a 

 pistol-shot ; and no quantity of drink has much 

 effect on your raging thirst. All this time your 

 skin is hard and dry, and without the relieving 

 influence of perspiration. Paul PiPECiiAr. 



The Milk on the Taed^s Back (2"'i S. iy. 57.) — 

 In the Galloway ballad of " Robin a Rie " occur 

 these lines : — 



" The milk on the Taed's back I wad prefer 

 To the poisons in his words that be." 



Can any correspondent give additional informa- 

 tion of this milk ? I have seen a remarkable in- 

 stance of it, which I described in a long article on 

 the " Running Toad" in the Literary Gazette for 

 Dec. 16, 1854. I kept one of these curious toads 

 in my parlour. One day, as it was out on the 

 carpet, the door was suddenly opened and passed 

 over the poor reptile, so as to crush it almost flat. 

 There was a wound in its back, and a milky secre- 

 tion immediately appeared " on the taed's back " 

 from the wound. This milk had an odour quite 

 sui generis. It was not exactly fetid, but of a sickly, 

 disgusting, and overpowering character ; such as 

 I never experienced, and cannot describe. It 

 seemed to aff'ect the head, and cause giddiness, as 

 I bent over it, so that I could not bear to come 

 near it. Whether this milk is really poisonous, I 

 cannot say ; perhaps some one has made experi- 

 ments with it. My toad, though severely crushed, 



its back-bone broken, and one foreleg also, re- 

 covered in a wonderfully short time. He was able 

 to crawl about a little in about two hours ; and as 

 he recovered, and the wound in his back closed, 

 the milk disappeared. The accident occurred in 

 the evening, and by the next morning it was all 

 gone. From many experiments on different toads, 

 and long familiarity with their habits from keep- 

 ing them as pets, I am perfectly satisfied that they 

 are not venomous ; but whether this milky secre- 

 tion is of a poisonous character seems doubtful, 

 and I shall be glad of any information on the 

 subject. F. C. H. 



Watling Street (2"* S. iii. 390. ; iv. 58.) — This' 

 was one of the four principal Roman Vice stratce, 

 or paved ways, hence called Streets, and extended 

 from the southern shore of Kent to Caernarvon, 

 Cardigan, or Chester, for the authorities severally 

 fix its point of termination at each of these three 

 localities. Its course is thus described by Le- 

 land (Itin., vi. 120., edit. Oxon. 1744) : 



" Secunda via principalis dicitur Watelingstreate tendens 

 ab euro-austro in Zephyrum septentrionalem. Incipit 

 enim a Dovaria, tendens per medium Cantiae, juxta 

 London, per S. Albanum, Dunstaplum, Stratfordiam, Tow- 

 cestriam, Littlebourne, per montem Gilberti juxta Sa- 

 lopian!, deinde per Stratton, et per medium Wallise, usque 

 Cardigan." 



Roger de Hoveden (Annales, Pars prior, 432., 

 edit. Savile) notices this road in the following 

 terms : 



" WcBthlinga- Street (Sax.). — Strata quam filii Wethle 

 regis, ab orientali mari usque ad occidentale, per Angliam 

 straverunt." 



Thus the name assigned to this ancient public 

 way had apparently the signification of " The 

 Street of the Sons of Wasthla." It is more pro- 

 bable, however, that the term Wcetlinga- Street vf as 

 simply the Anglo-Saxon form of the British Givyd- 

 delinsarn, which meant " The Road of the Gael," 

 although it has been suggested that it was by cor- 

 ruption only called Vitellin or Watling Street 

 from the name of Vitellianus. Antiquaries, how- 

 ever, generally concur in opinion that this was 

 originally a British way, as were also the Ryknield, 

 the Iknield, the Ermyn, and the Akeman Streets, 

 a concurrence which does not exist in reference to 

 the three additional ways, to which attention is 

 drawn by your correspondent. Wm. Matthews. 



Cowgill. 



It seems to me that the best derivation yet given, 

 is that in 2""^ S. ii. 272. of your Journal. 



R. S. Chabnock. 

 Gray's Inn. 



Inedited Verses by Cowper (2°^ S. iv. 4.) — It 

 will require something more than the bare as- 

 sumption of T., to convince me that the lines he 

 quotes were really written by Cowper. Sowing 



