506 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 269. 



dog that had been lately littered against it : each 

 in succession fell howling to the ground, except the 

 last, which clung to the hide with tooth and nail. 

 By Ussheen's desire he was taken and carefully 

 -reared, the milk of nine cows being appropriated 

 to his use. When full-grown, Ussheen desired his 

 attendant to conduct him to the plains of Kildare, 

 -and to lead the dog in a leash with them ; as they 

 went along, Ussheen at a certain place asked his 

 -guide if he beheld anything worthy of notice ? and 

 the boy replied, he saw an immense plant resem- 

 bling ivy, that projected from a huge rock and 

 nearly obscured the light of the sun ; and also a 

 large tree near a stream, bearing a red fruit of 

 enormous size. Ussheen plucked a leaf from the 

 plant and some fruit from the tree : soon after 

 they reached the plain, and Ussheen asked again 

 if his attendant saw anything ? " Yes," replied 

 the boy, " I see a rock of immense size : " he then 

 desired to be led to the stone, and after removing 

 it from its place by one effort of his gigantic 

 strength, he took from under it a sling, a ball, and 

 an ancient trumpet ; sitting down upon the rock, 

 he desired his attendant to break down nine gaps 

 in the wall that surrounded the plain, and then to 

 retire behind him. At the same time he blew a blast 

 on the trumpet that appeared to pervade earth and 

 sky, and yet was of surpassing melody. After some 

 time Ussheen ceased, and asked his attendant what 

 he saw ? "I perceive the heavens darkened with 

 the flight of birds that approach from all quarters," 

 said he. Ussheen again renewed the magic strain, 

 when his companion exclaimed that a monstrous 

 bird, whose bulk overshadowed the whole plain, 

 was approaching. " That is the object of our ex- 

 pectation," replied Ussheen ; " let slip the dog as 

 the bird alights." The wolf-dog bounded forward 

 with open "mouth to the combat, and the bird 

 received his attack with great courage, while the 

 thrilling blasts of the magic trumpet seemed to 

 inspire the combatants with increasing fury ; they 

 fought all day, and at the going down of the sun, 

 the victorious wolf-dog drank the blood of his 

 fallen foe. " The bird is dead," said the affrighted 

 servant, " and the dog bathed in blood is rushing 

 towards us with open jaws to devour us !" " Direct 

 my aim towards the dog," said the hero: then 

 launching the ball from the sling, it entered the 

 open jaws of the hound, and stretched him lifeless 

 on the earth. The leaf, the fruit, and the leg of the 

 bird were produced to the housekeeper as proofs of 

 the veracity of the aged hero. This was his last 

 exploit, for the legend goes on to relate that the 

 repeated insults of this woman soon after broke the 

 heart of the warrior bard, the last survivor of the 

 race of the Feinian heroes. I have often thought 

 it possible that some battle of the Irish against the 

 Danish invaders was obscurely typified by this 

 legend, which is a very favourite one in the county 

 of°Clare. Fbahcis Robert Davies. 



John Woolman. — Mr. De Quincey, in his 

 Essay on Coleridge and Opium-eatings says : 



"But again, we beg pardon and entreat the earth of 

 Virginia to lie light upon the remains of John Woolman ; 

 for he was an Israelite, indeed, in whom there was no 

 guile." 



Mr. De Quincey is in error as to the place of 

 Woolman's interment ; he was buried in England. 

 According to "The Testimony of Friends in 

 Yorkshire, at their Quarterly Meeting held at 

 York the 24th and 25th of third month, 1773," 

 prefixed to the edition of his Works, published in 

 Philadelphia in 1774 : 



" John Woolman, of Mount Holly, in the province of 

 New Jersey, departed this life at the house of Thomas 

 Priestman, in the suburbs of this city [York], the 7th of 

 the tenth month, 1772, and was interred in the burying- 

 grouud of Friends the ninth of the same, aged about 

 iifty-two years." 



Uneda. 



Philadelphia. 



The Poverty of Literary Men. — I thought this 

 had been a fact so well ascertained, that it might 

 have saved them, when requested by public ad- 

 vertisement (see a late Number of The Athenaeurn) 

 to send MSS. for approval, from having to pay 

 lack carriage for their unlucky babes, in the event 

 of their being returned to them as not admissible 

 into a New Foundling Hospital for Wits. Me- 

 thinks the calamity of not being able to bring 

 one's goods to a ready money market is heavy 

 enough, without the additional mortification (and, 

 in my view, shabby injustice) of having to pay 

 toll from market, as well as to it. As " N. & Q." 

 are intended in a particular manner for the com- 

 munications of literary men, by whose generous 

 ardour in their vocation I hope 1 may say, without 

 exaggeration, your work is chiefly supported, I 

 trusTyou will not refuse a place for this public 

 hint and expostulation, or by whatever gentleman- 

 like epithet you may choose to term it, in these 

 days of war prices for the necessaries of life. 

 If my brethren of the pen choose to pay all ex- 

 penses of carriage, let them do it ; but I think in 

 common fairness they should be told so in the ad- 

 vertisement, and thus know beforehand what they 

 may expect. A Mind- Market Gardener. 



Swallows as Letter-carriers. — 



" An experiment has just been successfully made of 

 employing swallows to carry letters, as pigeons were 

 used some years back. Six swallows, taken in their nests 

 at Paris, were conveyed by railway to Vienna, and there 

 let go, with a small' roll of paper containing 1500 words 

 under the wing of each. They were liberated at a quar- 

 ter after eleven in the morning. Two arrived at Paris 

 a few minutes before one, one at a quarter past two, one 

 at four o'clock, and the remaining two did not make 

 their appearance at all." — Foreign Journal. 



W. vv. 



