496 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 186. 



old maps of the harbour of Waterford, Crook Castle 

 is laid down inside Creden Head, on the Waterford 

 side of the harbour ; and Crook is still the name 

 of a place at the point indicated, somewhat more 

 however than eight miles from Waterford. 



Again, at p. 351. occurs Hoveden's well-known 

 and valuable enumeration of the Irish episcopal 

 sees at the same period, of which Mr. Riley ob- 

 serves : " Nearly all these are mis-spelt . . . they 

 are in a state of almost hopeless confusion." And 

 then, to make confusion worse confounded, his 

 note on the Bishop of Ossory (p. 352.) says : " In 

 the text, 'Erupolensis' is perhaps a mistake for 

 * Ossoriensis.' " Now, Urupolensis happens to be 

 a correct alias of Ossoriensis : the former charac- 

 terising the diocese from Kilkenny, the cathedral 

 city, which being seated on the Nore, or Neor — 

 Hibernice Eoir, Latine Erus, was sometimes called 

 Erupolis — the latter from the territory with which 

 the see was and is co-extensive, the ancient king- 

 dom of Ossory. 



How many more errors there may be in the 

 first volume of the work, I cannot say : but, at all 

 events, what the reader has to complain of is, not 

 that the translator was unable to tell all about 

 *'Croch" and "Erupolis," but that, not knowing, 

 he has made matters worse by his hardy elucid- 

 ations. Truly, at this rate, it were better that no 

 cheap edition of Hoveden were vouchsafed to the 

 public. James Graves. 



Kilkenny. 



FOLK LORE. 



Raven Superstition. — On a recent occasion, at an 

 ordinary meeting of the guardians of the poor, an 

 application was made by the relieving officer on 

 behalf of a single woman residing in the church 

 village at Altarnun. The cause of seeking relief 

 was stated to be " grief," and on asking for an 

 explanation, the officer stated that the applicant's 

 inability to work was owing to depressed spirits, 

 produced by the flight of a croaking raven over 

 her dwelling on the morning of his visit to the 

 village. The pauper was by this circumstance, in 

 connexion with its well-known ominous character, 

 actually frightened into a state of wretched 

 nervous depression, which induced physical want. 



S. R. P. 



African Folk Lore. — The following curious 

 piece of folk lore is quoted from an extract in 

 The Critic (of April 1, 1853, p. 172.), in the 

 course of a review of Richardson's Narrative of a 

 Mission to Central Africa, Sfc. : 



" To avert the evil eye from the gardens, the people 

 (of Mourzak) put up the head of an ass, or some 

 portion of the bones of that animal. The same super- 

 stition prevails in all the oases that stud the north of 

 Africa, from Egypt to the Atlantic, but the people are 



unwilling to explain what especial virtue there exists^ 

 in an ass's skull." 



W. Sparrow Simpson, B.A.. 



Funeral Custom. — In some parts (I believe) of 

 Yorkshire, and perhaps elsewhere, it is customary 

 to send, immediately after a death, a paper bag of 

 biscuits, and a card with the name, &c. of the de- 

 ceased, to his friends, be they many or few. Can 

 any of your readers explain the matter ? I have- 

 more than once seen the card, but not the bis- 

 cuits. Abhba- 



8HAKSPEARE READINGS, NO. VIX. 

 " Wliat are ' Aristotle's checks ? ' " 



This is the question that Mr. Collier proposes 

 in support of the alteration of checks into ethicsy 

 at p. 144. of his Notes and Emendations. He terms 

 checks " an absurd blunder," and in the preface ha 

 again Introduces it, passing upon It the same un- 

 qualified sentence of excommunication, as upon 

 " bosom multiplied," viz. " it can never be re- 

 peated." In this opinion he is backed by most of 

 the public scribes of the day, especially by the critic 

 of the Gentleman's Magazine for April, who de-^ 

 clares " we should be very sorry to have to dis- 

 cover what the editors have understood by the 

 checks of Aristotle." Furthermore, this critic- 

 thinks that " it is extremely singular that the mis- 

 take should have remained so long uncorrected ; '" 

 and he intimates that they who have found any 

 meaning in checks, have done so only because, 

 through ignorance, they could find no meaning in 

 ethics. 



Hence it becomes necessary for those who do< 

 find a meaning in checks, to defend that meaning ; 

 and hence I undertake to answer Mr. Collier's: 

 question. 



Aristotle's checks are those moral adjustments 

 that form the distinguishing feature of his philo- 

 sophy. 



They are the eyes of reason, whereby he would 

 teach man to avoid divergence from the straight 

 path of happiness. 



They are his moderators, his mediocrities, hi» 

 metriopathlcs. 



They are his philosophical steering-marks, his; 

 moral guiding-lines, whereby the passions are to 

 be kept in the via media; as much removed from 

 total abnegation on the one hand, as from immo- 

 derate indulgence on the other. 



Virtue, according to Aristotle, consists in checked 

 or adjusted propensities. Our passions are not in 

 themselves evil, except when unchecked by reason. 

 And Inasmuch as we may overeat, or underfeed 

 ourselves (the check being temperance), so may 

 we suffiir our other propensities to deviate from 

 the ju^te milieu, either in the direction of indul- 

 gence or of privation. 



