Mae. 24. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



225 



2. Constantius is said to have been of so dry a 

 constitution of body, that when he was feverish 

 he burned people's hands if laid upon him (Nov. 

 Org. II. xiii. 8.). Which Constantius was this ? 

 Chlorus, I suppose ; and what is the authority ? 



3. Who were the Folietdni? They seem to 

 have been ah ancient sect of vegetarians from 

 Bacon's description of them (Nov. Org. ii. 50.). 



4. Bacon calls his "Solitary Instances" ^'■Ferince, 

 sumpto vocabulo ab astronomis" {Nov. Org. ii. 

 xxii.). I have looked in several old works on 

 Astronomy, but have not met with the term. 

 What is its meaning and usage ? The ordinary 

 meaning of venison, wild animal's flesh, is scarcely 

 applicable in any way to solitary instances. 



G. W. KiTCHIN. 



Christ Church, Oxford. 



"white BIED, FEATHERLESS" A rOLK SONG. 



Down in the "wilds of Kerry" last winter, as 

 the soft flakes of newly-arrived snow were waver- 

 ing down to the earth outside a cottage window, 

 attracting the gaze of a baby-boy — who sat within, 

 enthroned on his nurse's knee — the old nurse, for 

 baby's entertainment and mine, repeated the fol- 

 lowing rhyme (I was going to say) ; but there is 

 no rhyme here, and a most disappointing failure 

 in both this and by those at the end, where one 

 expects a flourishing finale : 



" White bird, featherless, 



Flew from Paradise, 

 Pitch'd on the Castle wall ; 



Poor Lord Landless, 



Came in a iine dress, 

 And rode away horseless ! " 



The little thing attracted me for something in 

 it of real poetic fancy, and set me wondering 

 where old nurse O'SuUivan could have got it (not 

 that we cannot find often great poetry and exqui- 

 site fancy in the old Irish songs, which seem only 

 at home on lips like hers, but that this was not 

 quite Irish). Her cabin home was quite near by 

 the wayside ; and she had lived in the neighbour- 

 hood I believe all her life, having seen five gene- 

 rations of the family of the boy on her knee ; one 

 of whose ancestors, she told me, had seven sons : 

 " And when they walked the roads together, no 

 matther how dark the night was, you could see 

 every pebble on the road with the glitther of their 

 goold lace ! " 



Do any of your correspondents know anything 

 that would throw light on the origin of this pretty 

 enigma, which reminds one of some of Schiller's 

 beautiful " Parabeln und Riithsel?" and if so, 

 perhaps we may see the "quaint fancy" in a more 

 perfect form of words. Its abrupt ending was 

 so scornful of any attempt to tune it into song. 



that I changed it thus when I sang it to the 

 child : 



" Poor Lord Landless, 

 Came in a grand dress, 

 And went away without a dress at all." 



— a very poor remedy, and I would fain have a 

 better. 



A friend, this winter, was reading a lately-pub- 

 lished novel. Illustrative of humble Scottish life, 

 and met quoted therein three lines, which almost 

 quite agreed with the first three lines of nurse 

 O'SuUivan. So the delicate flower may be bloom- 

 ing in the "hielands" as well as in our "wilds." 



Cinderella. 



Dublin. 



^tn0r cauerteS. 



" For wheresoe'er I turn" Sfc. — Can any of your 

 correspondents inform me where the following 

 quotation is to be found, and if it be correct ? 



" For wheresoe'er I turn my wandering eyes. 

 Gay gilded scenes and shining prospects rise. 

 Poetic fields encompass me around. 

 And still I seem to tread on classic ground." 



B.(3) 

 Edinburgh. 



Scottish Family Feud. — In a little piece of 

 morality, entitled The Map of Man's Misery, Sfc.^ 

 24mo., London, 1690, the author, one R. Ker, 

 says, in speaking of the certainty of God's retribu- 

 tion upon the murderer, — 



" Two gentlemen in Scotland falling out betwixt them- 

 selves in the fields, the one slew the other ; and the Feud 

 continuing betwixt the families, it was observed that the 

 same day three score years the murdered's grandchild 

 slew the grandchild of the murderer." 



Mr. Ker is profuse in scriptural references, but 

 offers none for his temporal application of his 

 texts ; and as I am desirous of knowing more of 

 the feud, I shall feel obliged to any of your corre- 

 spondents who will point out where the particulars 

 may be found ? J. O. 



Motto. — Can any of your readers interpret for 

 me the following motto, which I have copied from 

 a seal ? 



" CINNCACHADH DOX LO MRAOH GHAELACH." 



J. W. D. H. 



Latitude. — Do the latitudes assigned by Pto- 

 lemy agree with the present position of places 

 named by him ? If not, what reason can be given 

 for the discrepancy, and by whom and at what 

 period were these matters rectified ? F. C. B. 



Diss. 



Altar of Laughter. — In one of Poe's sketches, 

 he mentions the fact, that the altar of laughter 

 remains still at Athens in its original completeness. 

 Is this anywhere substantiated ? Dunheved. 



