Jan. 22. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



81 



Essay III. p. 8. "A master of scoffing." Rabe- 

 lais, Pantagruel, book ii, cap. viii. (p 339. vol. i. 

 ed. Bohn, 1849.) 



Ditto, p. 9. "As it is noted by one of the 

 fathers." ^y whom, and where ? 



Ditto, p.|10. "Lucretius." i. 102. 



Ditto, p. 11. "It was a notable observation of 

 a wise father." Of whom, and where ? 



Essay IV. p. 13. " For the death of Pertinax." 

 See Hist. Aug. Script, vol. i. p. 578. (Lugd. Bat. 

 1671.) 



Ditto, ditto, (note/). " The poet." Ovid, Ar. 

 Am., i. 655. 



Essay V. ditto. " Bona rerum secundarum," 

 &c. Does Bacon allude to Seneca (Ep. Ixvi. 

 p. 238., ut sup.), where, after stating that "In 

 ffiquo est moderate gaudere, et moderate dolere;" 

 he adds, " Ilia bona optabilia sunt, haec mirabilia" ? 



Ditto, ditto. " Vere magnum habere," &c. 

 Whence is this ? 



Ditto, ditto. " The strange fiction of the ancient 

 poets." In note (a) we find " Stesichorus, Apol- 

 lodorus, and others " named. Whereabouts ? 



Ditto, p. 11. (note c). " This fine passage has 

 been quoted by Macaulay." Ut sup., p. 407. 



Essay VI. p. 15. " Tacitus saith." Ann., v. 1. 



Ditto, ditto. " And again, when Mucianus," &c. 

 Ditto, Hist., ii. 76. 



Ditto, ditto. " Which indeed are arts, &c., as 

 Tacitus well calleth them." Where ? 



Ditto, p. 17. " It is a good shrewd proverb of 

 the Spaniard." What is the proverb ? 



Essay VII. p. 19. "The precept, 'Optimum 

 elige,' &c." Whence ? though I am ashamed to ask. 



Essay VIII. p. 20. " The generals." See iEsch. 

 PerscB, 404. (Dindf.), and Blomfield in he. (v. 411. 

 ed. sueb). 



Ditto, ditto. " It was said of Ulysses," &c. By 

 whom? Compare Od., v. 218. 



Ditto, p. 21. "He was reputed," &c. Who ? 

 (Zb be continued.) 



P. J. F. Gajjtiu-on, B.A. 



FOLK LOBE. 



Irish Superstitious Ciuttoms. — The following 

 strange practices of the Irish are described in a 

 MS. of the sixteenth century, and seem to have a 

 Pagan origin : 



" Upon Maie Eve they will drive their cattell upon 

 their neighbour's come, to eate the same up ; they 

 were wont to begin from the rast, and this principally 

 upon the English churl. Onlesse they do so upon 

 Maie daie, the witch hath power upon their cattell all 

 the yere following." 



The next paragraph observes that " they spitt 

 in the face ; Sir R. Shee spat in Ladie face." 



Spenser alludes to spitting on a person for luck, 

 and I have experienced the ceremony myself. H. 



Charm for Warts. — I remember in Leicester- 

 shire seeing the following charm employed for re- 

 moval of a number of warts on my brother, then a 

 child about five years old. In the month of April 

 or May he was taken to an ash-tree by a lady, 

 who carried also a paper of fresh pins ; one of 

 these was first struck through the bark, and then 

 pressed through the wart until it produced pain : 

 it was then taken out and stuck into the tree. Each 

 wart was thus treated, a separate pin being used 

 for each. The warts certainly disappeared in 

 about six weeks. I saw the same tree a year or 

 two ago, when it was very thickly studded, over 

 with old pins, each the index of a cured wart. 



T. J. 



Liverpool. 



The Devil. — 



" According to the superstition of the west countries 

 if you meet the devil, you may either cut him in half 

 with a straw, or force him to disappear by spitting over 

 his horns." — Essays on his own Times, by S. T. Cole- 

 ridge, vol. iii. p. 967. 



J. M. B. 



If you sing before breakfast you will cry before 

 supper. 



If you wish to have luck, never shave on a 

 Monday. J. M. B. 



" Winter Thunder," Sfc. — I was conversing the 

 other day with a very old farmer on the disastrous 

 rains and storms of the present season, when he 

 told me that he thought we had not yet seen the 

 worst ; and gave as a reason the following proverb : 



" Winter thunder and summer flood 

 Bode England no good." 



H.T. 

 Ingatestone Hall, Essex. 



MALTA THE BURIAL-PLACE OP HANNIBAL. . 



Malta affords a fine field for antiquarian re- 

 search ; and in no part more so than in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Citta Vecchia, where for some distance 

 the ground is dotted with tombs which have al- 

 ready been opened. 



Here, in ancient times, was the site of a burial- 

 place, but for what people, or at what age, is 

 now unknown ; and here it is that archaeologists 

 should commence their labours, that in the result 

 they may not be disappointed. In some of the 

 tombs which have been recently entered in this 

 vicinity, fragments of linen cloth have been seen, 

 in which bodies were enveloped at the time of 

 their burial ; in others glass, and earthen candle- 

 sticks, and jars, hollow throughout and of a curious 

 shape ; while in a few were earrings and finger- 

 rings made of the purest gold, but they are rarely 

 found. 



