624 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 217. 



trusted, and who was incapable of attempting 

 to deceive any one — as indeed appeared by bis 

 open and ingenuous manner and conversation on 

 this occasion. He was a farmer, and respected 

 by all his neighbours. So general is the con- 

 viction of the efficacy of the divining rod in dis- 

 covering both wattr and the ores of calamine or 

 zinc all over the Mendip, that the people are 

 quite astonished when any doubt is expressed 

 about it. The late Dr. Ilutton wrote against the 

 pretension, as one of many instances of deception 

 founded upon gross ignorance and credulity; 

 when a lady of quality, who herself possessed the 

 faculty, called upon him, and gave him experi- 

 mental proof, in the neighbourhood of Woolwich, 

 that water was discoverable by that means. This 

 Dr. Hutton afterwards publicly acknowledged. 



"The above I suppose will suffice for your 

 present purpose ; I could, however, say a great 

 ^eal more, for I wrote a very long account many 



years ago to our friend , of what I have 



now only briefly stated. That letter was treated 

 by certain scientific friends of his with contempt ; 

 but when I afterwards saw poor Dr. Turner, he 

 said he would go down to Somerset to see it him- 

 self; but alas ! he did not live to carry his in- 

 tention into effect." 



CHANGE OF MEANING IN PROVEEBIAI. EXPRES- 

 SIONS, ETC. 



(Vol. viii., pp. 464, 465.) 



Very hesitatingly I venture to express dissent 

 from Mr. Keightlet's ingenious suggestion of a 

 change of meaning in the proverb " Tread on a 

 worm and it will turn." . I support my dissent, 

 however, by the following lines from Shakspeare : 

 " Who 'scapes the lurking serpent's'mortal sting ? 



Not he that sets his foot upon her back. 



The smallest worm will turn, being trodden on ; 



And doves will peck in safe-guard of their brood." 

 Third Part of King Henry VI., Act II. Sc. 2. 



King Henry says, Withhold revenge, dear God ! 



Clifford replies. The lion, the bear, the serpent, 

 the smallest worm, and doves, if injured, will 

 make an effort at revenge or defence. It is clear 

 that Shakspeare uses the word worm as meaning, 

 not a venomous serpent, but the most defenceless 

 of reptiles. 



Again, I do not think that Mr. Kbightley's 

 quotation from Schiller's Wallenstein' s Tod sup- 

 ports his view. I am not a German scholar, but 

 I find that the translator of Wallensiein's Tod (I 

 believe Lord Ellesmere) has translated or para- 

 phrased the lines quoted by Mr. Keightlet as 

 follows : 



" But nature gave the very worm a sting, 

 When trampled on by man, to turn again." 



The sense of the passage (spoken by Butler) 

 requires that "wurm" should be understood to 

 mean a harmless despised reptile, not a venomous 

 serpent. 



It seems that Schiller had Shakspeare in his 

 mind when he wrote the lines in question ; indeed, 

 they_ are almost a copy of Shakspeare's line. I 

 consider them as parallel passages. 



It may not be irrelevant to observe that wor7n 

 in some places still means a serpent ; but I believe 

 it has usually a prefix, as " hag-worm " in West- 

 moreland and the West Riding of Yorkshire ; so 

 also in the latter " slow-worm " means a species of 

 small snake or viper found on some of the moors. 

 (For "slow-worm," see "N. & Q.," Vol. viii., 

 pp. 33. and 479.) I have been told that " blind- 

 worm " in Surrey means a viper. I conclude with 

 a Query, Does Wurm in modern German ever 

 mean a serpent ? F. W. J. 



" To put a spoke in one's wheel " is not singular 

 in its double entendre (Vol. viii., pp. 262. 351.464.). 

 "^ There is no love lost between them " is in a 

 similar predicament. We now speak of no love 

 being lost between A. and B., when we would 

 intimate that the warmth of their mutual affection 

 may be accurately represented by 32° Fahrenheit. 

 That this has not always been the meaning of the 

 phrase, the following verse from the old ballad of 

 The Children in the Wood will testify : 



" Sore sick he was, and like to die. 

 No help that he could have; 

 His wife by him as sick did He, 

 And both possess'd one grave. 

 2^0 love bettveen these two was lost, 



Each was to other kind ; 

 In love they lived, in love they died, 

 And left two babes behind." 



R. Price. 

 St. Ives, 



sneezing. 



(Vol. viii., p. 366.) 



A collection of "facts, theories, and popular 

 Ideas" upon this subject would fill a volume. I 

 send, however, a few extracts, &c., which may 

 interest your correspondent Medicus : 



*' Et n'esternuay point regardant le soleil." 



" And did not sneeze as he looked upon the sun." 

 Ronsard, torn. v. p. 158., quoted in Southey's 

 Common Place Book, 3rd series, p. 303. 



Here, not to sneeze appears to]^be looked on as an 

 ill omen. 



Ammianus has an epigram upon one whose nose 

 was so long that he never heard it sneeze, and 

 therefore never said ZeD croScrov, God bless. — Notes 

 on the Variorum Plautus (ed. Gronov., Lugd. Bat.), 

 p. 720. 



