Nov. 12. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



479 



copy is in the British Museum ; one is also in my 

 possession. 



I presume that there were other editions between 

 the years 1663 and 1689. H. P. 



Divining-rod (Vol. viii., p. 293.). — For 'a full 

 account of the divining rod see La Physique 

 occulie, ou Traite de la Baguette Divinatoire, Sfc, 

 par Pere L. de Vallemont, a work by no means 

 uncommon, having passed through several editions. 

 Mine is "a, Paris, chez Jean Boudot, avec priv. 

 1709, in 12°. avec figures," with the addition of a 

 " Traite de la Connoissance des Causes Mag- 

 netiques, &c., par un Curieux." 



A Cornish lady informs me that the Cornish 

 miners to this day use the divining-rod in the way 

 represented in fig. 1. of the above-mentioned work. 



R. J. R. 



In the 351st number of the MontMy Magazine, 

 dated March 1st, 1821, there is a letter to the 

 editor from W. Partridge, dated Boxbridge, 

 Gloucester, giving several instances of his having 

 successfully used the divining-rod for the purpose 

 of discovering water. He says the gift is not 

 possessed by more than one in two thousand, and 

 attributes the power to electricity. Those persons 

 in whose hands it will work must possess a re- 

 dundancy of that fluid. He also states that 

 metals are discovered by the same means. K. B. 



Slow-iuorm Superstition (Vol. viii., p. 33.). — 

 The belief that the slow-worm cannot die until 

 sunset prevails in Dorsetshire. In the New 

 Forest the same superstition exists with regard to 

 the bi'own adder. Walking in the heathy country 

 between Beaulieu and Christ Church I saw a 

 very Inrge snake of this kind, recently beaten to 

 death by the peasant boys, and on remarking 

 that the lower jaw continued to move convulsively, 

 I was told it would do so " till the moon was up." 



An aged woman, now deceased, who had when 

 young been severely bitten by a snake, told me 

 she always felt a severe pain and swelling near 

 where the wound had been, on the anniversary of 

 the occurrence. Is this common ? and can it be 

 accounted for ? W. E. 



Pimperne, Dorset. 



Bavailliac (Vol. viii., p. 219.). — -The destruction 

 of the pyramid erected at Paris upon the murder 

 of Henry IV., ig mentioned by Thuanus, Hist,, 

 lib. 134. cap. 9. In your correspondent's Query, 

 Thesaur. is, I presume, misprinted for Thuan. 



B.J. 



Lines on the Institution of the Garter (Vol. viii., 

 p. 182.). — A. B. R. says, "as also from the pro- 

 verbial expression used in Scotland, and to be 

 found in Scott's Works, of 'casting a leggin 

 girth,' as synonymous with a female ' faux pas?' " 

 I may mention to your correspondent (if he is not 



already aware) that the expression is taken from 

 Allan Ramsay's continuation of Christ's Kirk on 

 the Green (edit. Leith, 1814, 1 vol. p. 101.) : 



" Or bairns can read, they first maun spell, 

 I learn'd this frae my mammy ; 

 And coost a legen girth mysell, 

 Lang or I married Tammie." 



and is explained by the author in a note, " Like a 

 tub that loses one of its bottom hoops." In the 

 west of Scotland the phrase is now restricted to a 

 young woman who has had an illegitimate child, 

 or what is more commonly termed " a misfortune," 

 and it is probable never had another meaning. 

 Legen or leggen is not understood to have any 

 affinity in its etymology to the word leg, but is 

 laggen, that part of the staves which projects from 

 the bottom of the barrel, or of the Child's luggie, 

 out of which he sups his oatmeal parritch ; and 

 the girth, gird, or hoop, that by which the vessel 

 at this particular place is firmest bound together. 

 Burns makes a fine and emphatic use of the word 

 laggen in the " Birthday Address," in speaking of 

 the "Royal lasses dainty" (^Cunninghame, edit. 

 1826, vol. ii. p. 329.) : 



" God bless you a', consider now, 



Ye're unco muckle dantet : 

 But ere the course o' life be thro' 



It may be bitter santet. 

 An I hae seen their coggie fou, 



That yet hae tarrow't at it; 

 But or the day was done, I trow, 



The laggen they hae clautet." 



which means, that at last, whether through pride, 

 hunger, or long fasting, the appetite had become 

 so keen, that all, even to the last particle of the 

 parritch, was clautet, scartit, or scraped from the 

 bottom of the coggie, and to its inmost recesses 

 surrounded by the laggen girth. Of the motto of 

 the garter, " Honi soit qui mal y pense," I havQ 

 heard a burlesque translation known but to few, 

 in " Honeys sweet quo' Mally Spence," synonymous 

 with Proverbs, chap. ix. verse 17 : " Stolen waters 

 are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant." 



G.N. 



Passage in Bacon (Vol. viii., p. 303.). — I had, 

 partly from inadvertence, and partly from a belief 

 that a tautology would be created by a recurrence 

 to the idea of death, after the words " mortis ter- 

 rore carentem," in the preceding line, understood 

 the verse in question to mean, " which regards 

 length of life as the last of Nature's gifts." On 

 reconsideration, however, I do not doubt that the 

 received interpretation, which makes spatium ex- 

 tremum equivalent to Jinem, is the correct one. L. 



WJiat Day is it at our Antipodes ? (Vol. viii., 

 p. 102.). — A person sailing to our Antipodes 

 westward will lose twelve hours ; by sailing 

 thither eastward he will gain twelve hours. If 



