400 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 208. 



to write to the above-named gentlemen, or to the 

 English Consul at Charleston, S. C, and his wish 

 will doubtless be gratified. I cannot but hope 

 that your correspondent's "fifty cents worth of 

 reasons" for doubting my statement is now, or 

 shortly will be, removed. 



If A Doubter intends to be in New York 

 ■while the present Exhibition is open, he will have 

 an opportunity of seeing a negro of the age of one 

 hundred and twenty-four, who once belonged to 

 General Washington, and from whom he could 

 very possibly obtain some information respecting 

 the aged "nurse" of the first President of the 

 United States mentioned in his note. W. W. 



Malta. 



Passage in Virgil (Vol. viii., p. 370.). — The 

 passage for which your correspondent K. Fitzsi- 

 MONS makes inquiry is to be found in the Eighth 

 Eclogue, at the 44th and following lines : 



" Nunc scio quid sit Amor," &c. 

 The application by Johnson seems to be so plain 

 as to need no explanation. F. B — w. 



Love Charm from a FoaVs Forehead (Vol. viii., 



f). 292.). — Your correspondent H. P. will find the 

 ove charm, consisting of a fig-shaped excrescence 

 on a foal's forehead, and called Hippomanes, 

 alluded to by Juvenal, Sat. vi. 133. : 



" HippomaneSjCarmenque loquar, coctumque venenum, 

 Privignoque datum ? " 



And again, 615. : 



"ut avunculus ille Neronis, 

 Cui totam tremuli frontem Csesonia puUi 

 Infudit." 



It was supposed that the dam swallowed this 

 excrescence immediately on the birth of her foal, 

 and that, if prevented doing so, she lost all affec- 

 tion for it. 



However, the name Hippomanes was applied to 

 two other things. Theocritus (ii. 48.) uses it to 

 signify some herb which incites horses to madness 

 if they eat of it. 



And again, Virgil (Geor. iir. 280.), Propertius, 

 Tibullus, Ovid, &c., represent it as a certain 

 virus : 



" Hippomanes cupldse stillat ab inguine equae." 



The subject is an unpleasant one, and H. P. is 

 referred for farther information to Pliny, viii. 42. 

 s. 66., and xxviii. 11. s. 80. H. C. K. 



This lump was called Hippomanes ; which also 

 more truly designated, according to Virgil, an- 

 other thing. The following paragraphs from Mr. 

 Keigbtley's excellent Notes on Virgil's Bucolics 

 and Georgics will fully explain both meanings : 



" Hippomanes, horse-rage : the pale yellow fluid 

 which passes from a mare at that season [i. e, when she 



is horsing] (cf. Tibul, ii. 4. 58.), of which the smell 

 {aura, v. 251.) incites the horse. 



" Vero nomine. Because the bit of flesh which was 

 said to be on the forehead of the new-born foal, and 

 whlcli the mare was supposed to swallow, was called 

 by the same name (see JEii. iv. 515.); and also a 

 plant in Arcadia (^Theocr. ii. 48.). With respect to the 

 former Hippomanes, Pliny, who detailed truth and false- 

 hood with equal faith, says (viii. 42.) that it grows on 

 the foal's forehead ; is of the size of a dried fig (^carica), 

 and of a black colour ; and that if the mare does not 

 swallow it immediately, she will not let the foal suck 

 her. Aristotle (^H. A., viii. 24.) says this is merely an 

 old wives' tale. He mentions, however, the ircbMov, or 

 bit of livid flesh, which we call the foal's bit, and which 

 he says the mare ejects before the foal." — Notes, Sfc, 

 p. 273. on Georgic. in. 280. ff. 



With regard to the plant called Hippomanes, 

 commentators, as may be seen from Kiessling's 

 note on Theocritus, ii. 48., are by no means 

 agreed. Certainly Andrews, in his edition of 

 Freund, is wrong in referring Virgil Georgic. iir. 

 283. to that meaning. The use of legere probably 

 misled. E. S. Jackson. 



Wardhouse, where icas? (Vol. viii., p. 78.). — 

 It probably is the same as Wardoehuus or 

 Vardoehus, a district and town in Norwegian 

 Finmark, on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, in- 

 habited principally by fishermen. 



W. C. Treyelyan. 



Wallington. 



Divining Rod (Vol. viii., p. 293.). — The in- 

 quirer should read the statement made by Dr. 

 Herbert Mayo, in his letters On the Truths con- 

 tained in Popular Superstitions, 1851, pp. 3 — 21. 

 To the facts there recorded I may add, that I 

 have heard Mr. Dawson Turner relate that he 

 himself saw the experiment of the divining rod 

 satisfactorily carried out in the hands of Lady 

 Noel Byron ; and some account of it is to be 

 found, I believe, in an article by Sir F. Palgrave, 

 in the Quarterly Review. p- 



Waugh, Bishop of Carlisle (Vol. viii., p. 271.).— 

 His arms are engraved on a plate dedicated to 

 him by Willis, in his Survey of the Cathedrals of 

 England, 1742, vol. i. p. 284., and appear thus. 

 Argent, on a chevron gules, three hesants ; but in a 

 MS. collection by the late Canon Rowling of 

 Lichfield, relating to bishops' arms, I find his 

 coat thus given, — Argent, on a chevron engrailed 

 gules, three besants. The variation may have 

 arisen from an error of the engraver. It appears 

 from Willis that Dr. Waugh was a fellow of 

 Queen's College, Oxford; and the entry of his 

 matriculation would no doubt show in what part 

 of England his family resided. He was succes- 

 sively Rector of St. Peter's, Cornhill ; Prebendary 

 of Lincoln ; Dean of Gloucester ; and Bishop of 



