382 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. V. 123., May 8. '68. 



Alphonso died shortly afterwards without issue, 

 and Edward Prince of Wales became heir ap- 

 parent to the crown. Althoujjh in its origin this 

 title had no reference to the king's eldest son, it 

 was never afterwards conferred upon any prince 

 except the heir apparent to the crown. Hodi. 



Dublin. 



Sir John Hayward, in his Life and Baigne of 

 K. Edward the Sixth, says : — 



" When he was a few moneths aboue nine yeeres of 

 his age, great preparation was made either for creating or 

 for declaring him to be Prince of Wales, Duke of Corn- 

 wall, and Count Palatine of Chester. In the middest 

 whereof K. Henry his father ended his life of a dropsie 

 accompanj-ed with a spreading scarre of his thigh. Here- 

 vpon Edward Earle of Hartford and S^ Anthony Browne 

 Knight of the order and Master of the horse, were forth- 

 with dispatched, by the residue of the counsaile, to the 

 young King, then lying at Hartford. 



" The next day following being the last of Januarie, 

 the 3'oung King advanced towards London. The same 

 day he was proclaimed King, and his lodging was pre- 

 pared within the Tower." 



Buchanan Washboukn, M. D. 



Gloucester. 



ULLIPDTIAN AZTECS. 



(2"* S. V. 234. 346.) 



F. C. B. will find a very able article on this 

 subject in The Leader of August 27, 1853. Mr. 

 Leeke Burke has there not only exposed the ab- 

 surd tale told of the marvellous city of Iximaya, 

 but endeavoured to account for the origin of these 

 interesting little pigmies. He imagines that " the 

 father of these children was a Jew, and the mo- 

 ther a Mulatto — the offspring of a Negress and 

 a Spaniard, or of a Negress and a Jew," and cer- 

 tainly their physical appearance seems to warrant 

 this conclusion. The Jewish characteristics are 

 very distinct, and cannot fail to strike every ob- 

 server. That they have really descended from 

 the Aztecs, or, indeed, from any of the American 

 races, is a theory which, I presume, no ethnologist 

 would for a moment allow, and that they can be 

 considered the types of any distinct variety of 

 the gemts homo is no less absurd. They are, in 

 the words of Mr. Burke, " simply what the best 

 physiologists have pronounced them, and what in- 

 deed is obvious at a glance, instances of arrested 

 growth and malformation — well-proportioned 

 dwarfs rendered additionally curious by a peculiar 

 form of idiotcy ; their nervous system, though 

 deficient in quantity^ being apparently good in 

 quality, so that they are not heavily stupid like 

 most idiots, but extremely active mentally and 

 physically." A few other facts not named by Mr. 

 Burke may prove interesting. In the shilling 

 pamphlet professedly translated from the Spanish 

 of Velasquez, and distributed by the exhibitors of 

 the cliildren, the following passage occurs : — 



" Amply equipped with every desirable appointment, 

 including daguerrotype apparatus, mathematical instru- 

 ments, and tifty repeating rifles, these gentlemen (i. e. 

 Messrs. Huertis and Hammond) sailed from New Orleans, 

 arriving at Balize in the autumn of 1848. Here they 

 procured horses, mules, and engaged a party of ten ex- 

 perienced Indians and Mestitzos." 



Now when the little pseudo- Aztecs were first 

 introduced into this country they were shown pri- 

 vately to the Fellows of the Ethnological Society, 

 and at this meeting Mr. Kennedy, formerly a 

 judge at Havannah, stated that he was at Balize 

 at the very time these men were reputed to have 

 been there, and more, that he was on a similar 

 errand, and did not believe it possible for any per- 

 sons to have gone there without his hearing of it. 

 Add to this the fact that all the persons said to 

 have gone are dead, and the conclusion is obvious. 

 Again, it was remarked at this meeting that some 

 man in America had stated, on oath, before a ma- 

 gistrate that he was the father of the children. 

 This was modified a little by one of the gentlemen 

 who had brought them to this country, who said, 

 " No ; the man did not affirm that he icas the 

 father, but that he knew the father." Supposing 

 this to be correct, it does not mend the matter 

 much, but I believe the first statement to be the 

 true one. There is one other fact worth noticing. 

 These children have no language. Now how is 

 this ? It cannot be said that they are incapable 

 of learning a language, for they learned English 

 mostf rapidly (for idiots) ; they had acquired a 

 knowledge of several words even before they were 

 exhibited in public. Strange that they should re- 

 member none that they had heard in their own 

 land, leaving at the age they did, and the more 

 especially as being two they would be naturally 

 expected to converse together. The only solution 

 of this problem which has suggested itself to my 

 mind is, that they had been kept secluded and 

 separate from each other from birth, with a view 

 to make them the more mysterious when they 

 should be exhibited to the public. This opinion 

 is borne out by the fact that they appear to take 

 no pleasure in each other's society, exchanging no 

 words, expressing no love, and playing apart, the 

 latter being most unusual with children of their 

 years. There can be little doubt that they were 

 born in some part of the United States, and re- 

 served for public exhibition. To render them a 

 greater source of attraction, the conjecture of the 

 old padre mentioned by Stephens was worked up 

 into a most romantic narrative, and coupled witii 

 their history. The tale of Iximaya and the cap- 

 ture of its deities certainly outdoes anything to be 

 met with in our old friend Baron Munchausen. 



George Sexton, M.D. 



In an article on the Lilliputian Aztecs I notice 

 the following Query : — 

 " Has an^' person qualified to do so decidedly refuted the 



