Apeil 21. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



313 



Kussia, which, as Paddy would say, was the same 

 thing. Anon. 



Names of illegitimate Children (Tol.xi., p.242.). 



— An illegitimate child is held, in law, to be 

 nullius JUim ; and as he has no father, so he can 

 inherit no property, having no rights (in respect 

 of property) but such as he may acquire. Still 

 he may gain a surname by reputation, though he 

 has none by inheritaMce. (Conf Blackstone, s. v. 

 " Bastard.") The surname usually taken is that 

 of the mother, but I imagine there can be nothing 

 to prevent the child's assuming the name of the 

 putative father. One instance, at least, has fallen 

 under my own knowledge, of a father having 

 desired that his illegitimate daughter should bear 

 his own surname in the registry of her baptism. 

 Should your correspondent wish it, I could refer 

 him to a parish in the West of England, wliere he 

 (no doubt) would find the entry, which I myself 

 have seen. J, Sansom. 



Descent of Family Likeness (Vol. vi., p. 473.). 



— Dr. Gregory used to relate to his pupils that 

 having once been called to a distant part of Scot- 

 land to visit a rich nobleman, he discovei-ed in the 

 configuration of his nose an exact resemblance to 

 that of the Grand Chancellor of Scotland in the 

 reign of Charles I., recognisable in his portraits. 

 On taking a walk through the village after dinner, 

 the doctor recognised the same nose in several in- 

 dividuals among the common people, and the 

 steward who accompanied him informed him that 

 all the persons he had seen were descended from 

 the natural children of the grand chancellor. 



It was probably this feature more than any 

 other which made the affiliation of the elder Pre- 

 tender so unmistakable. See the engraved me- 

 dallions in Lord Mahon's History of England. 

 The following extract from a private letter, given 

 in Hatcher's History of Sarum, is worth a place in 

 more general histories. William Benson Earle, 

 Esq., of that city, writing from Rome at the time 

 of the Pretender's funeral in 1766, and describing 

 the lying in state, says, " I must say he is so like 

 the pictures of his father and the Stuart family, 

 that I am now thoroughly convinced of the non- 

 sense of the story of the warming-pan," related 

 by Burnet. j_ yif^ 



Nursery Hymn (Vol. xi., p. 206.).— The nursery 

 hymn concerning which J. F. F. inquires is pro- 

 bably in part derived from the " Patenotre 

 blanche, pour aller infailliblement en paradis " 

 to be found in the Enchiridion Leoriis Papce, 

 Romae, mdclx., which, absurd and almost profane 

 as it is, I quote for his information, as the work 

 which contains It is by no means common : 



" Petite Patenotre blanche que Dieu fit, que Dieu dit, 

 que Dieu mit en Paradis. Au soir m'allant coucher, je 

 trouvis trois Anges h. moa lit couches, un aux pieds, deux 



au chevet, la bonne Vierge Marie an milieu, qui me dit 

 que je me couchis, que rien ne doutis. 



" Le bon Dieu est mon Pere, la bonne Viei^e ma Mere, 

 les trois apotres sont mes Freres, les trois Vienges sont 

 mes soeurs. La chemise oil Dieu fut ne, mon corps en 

 est enveloppe;, la croix Sainte Marguerite^ ma poitrine 

 est ecrite; Madame s'en va sur les champs a Dieu pleu- 

 rant, rencontrit Monsieur Saint Jean. Monsieur Saint 

 Jean, d'ou venez-vous? Je viens d'Ave Salus. Vous 

 n'avez point vu le bon Dieu ; si est, il eat dans I'aarbre de 

 la croix, les pieds pendans, les mains clouans, un petit 

 chapeau d'epine blanche sur la tete. 



" Qui la dira trois fois au soir, trois fois au matin, ga- 

 gnera le Paradis k la fin." 



W. J. Beknhabd Smith. 



Temple. 



" White lird, featTierless " (Vd. xl., pp. 225. 

 274.). — This " delicate flower " was not " born 

 to blush unseen, and waste its sweetness" in the 

 " wilds of Kerry," "the hielands " of Scotland, or 

 the " desert air " of Germany.. Klrcher, in the 

 passage cited by N. B.," mentions It as one of 

 " varia antiquorum de variis rebus et eventlbus 

 iEnigmata," ascribing It to Plato or to the Magi 

 (it is not clear to which), and adduces It In Greek 

 verses, with a comment, as follows : 



" 'ATrrepoi' et? SevSpov ttot a<j)vWov io'eTrnj, 

 Kav$oS' edii^cwov ko/t' ap' MTTOp-ov ai/TO irewMKe, 

 'AcrTO/i*os i|v7rpd(r(07ros, cpvOpoyivew; ai/avSos." 



" Significatur hisce versibus sole consumpta nix qua; in 

 arborem decidisset : turn autem cum nix cadit, arbores 

 foliis carent, quaj elegantissime sane Germanice quoque 

 proponuntur. 



' Es flog ein vogel ein federlosz,' &c. 



Id est, Nix cadens in arborem sine foliis, Radius soils 

 liquefaciens nivem." 



Klrcher was, if I may be allowed the expres- 

 sion, confessedly a plagiarist ; and probably there 

 would be little diflSculty in tracing this fiction to 

 another aouree. BtBiiioTHECAB. Chetbam. 



On referring to KIrcher's CEdipus Mgyptiacus, 

 vol. ii. p. 34., I found not only the German version 

 of this curious riddle, cited by N. B., but what 

 would appear a much more ancient one in Greek, 

 I give the lines as they stand in Kircher, only 

 altering them from the contracted form into that 

 usually adopted at present, and shall feel obliged 

 if any of your learned readers will attempt a lite- 

 ral translation of them, or refer me to the source 

 from which Kircher obtained them, as I suspect 

 they are not free from corruption : 



" "ATTTepoj 619 SdvSpov ttot a.<t)vk\ov e(re7rnj, 

 JiavBoS' €<j)C^avov Kar ap' a(TTOixov avro TreVtoKe, 

 'AiOTO/ios i^vnp6<T0i7TOi, epvOpoyeveioi auavSoiJ 



'AXievs^ 



Dublin. 



Impressions of Wax Seals (Vol. xl., p. 243.). — 

 Dr. Bachhoffner, In a lecture on " Nature Print- 

 ing," delivered about August last at the Poly- 

 technic Institution, proved by illustration, that 

 Impressions could be taken from wax seals on lead 



