May 12. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



363 



aliqua variarum observationuin in varies autores sacros 

 et profanos, poetas," &c. 



How came Lord John Russell to suffer all this 

 nonsense to pass without remark ? H. 



Minax ^atsg. 



Etymology of'-'- Maroon." — The most probable 

 derivation of the word maroon is that suggested 

 by Bryan Edwards, in his History of the West 

 Indies, vol. i. p. 523., namely, from the Spanish 

 marrdno, a hog, the pursuit of which was one of 

 the chief occupations of the early settlers in South 

 America. Hence the French expression, cochon 

 mnrron, for wild hog, and by analogy, negre 

 marron for wild or fugitive negro. Hence our 

 adoption of it, in the same sense, in maroon negro, 

 and also in maroon party, a terra of nearly the 

 same import as pic-nic, and employed in the West 

 Indies to describe the meeting of a few friends in 

 the country or by the sea-shore, when etiquette is 

 laid aside for the nonce in the unrestrained indul- 

 gence of pleasure and amusement. 



Bryan Edwards gives the etymon marrdno on 

 the authority of Long, the historian of Jamaica ; 

 and adds the following somewhat far-fetched de- 

 rivation from the JEncyclopedie, sub voce Maron 

 (sic) : 



" On appelle maron dans les isles Fran^aises les nfegres 

 fugitifs. Ce terme vient du mot Espagnol simaran, qui 

 signifie un singe. Les Espagnols crurent ne devoir pas 

 faire plus d'honneur a leurs mallieureux esclaves fugitifs 

 que de les appeler singes, parcequ'ils se retiraient comme 

 ces animaux au fonds des bois, et n'en sortaient que pour 

 cueillir les fruits qui se trouvaient dans les lieux les plus 

 voisins de leur retraite." 



An amusing volume might be written on the 

 " Curiosities of Etymology." Here we have the 

 French going out of their way to trace the de- 

 rivation of maron to the Spanish simaran, and 

 taunting that people with treating their negroes 

 as no better than monkeys; while at the same 

 time their own colonists, in extending the ex- 

 pression to their fugitive negroes, assimilate them 

 to hogs. Henbt H. Bbeen. 



St. Lucia. 



A Cure for Witchcraft in London, 1573. — 

 Among the City Records (Reports) it appears that 

 on April 14, 1573, Alice, the wife of Thomas 

 Lanibard, chandler, confessed that, with the con- 

 nivance and at the instigation of Thomasyn, the 

 wife of John Clerk, Katherine, the wife of John 

 Gold, and Johan Stockley, widow, she, by sorcery, 

 witchcraft, enchantment, and other such like de- 

 testable and abominable practices, purposed to 

 kill her husband, and gave money to the other 

 three women for that purpose, which they also 

 confessed ; whereupon it was ordered that all four 



women should be taken from the Compter to the 

 Standard in Chepe at ten o'clock in the forenoon 

 of the next day (Wednesday), and there be set in 

 the pillory, and remain one hour and a half, during 

 which time each of them should stand naked from 

 the middle upwards, and be beaten with rods ; and 

 moreover, that the said Alice Lambard should 

 stand apart from the others, having written in 

 great letters on her head " for devising and prac- 

 tising, by cosening and witchcraft, to destroy and 

 murder her husband ; " and that the other three 

 standing apart by themselves, should have written 

 in great letters on their heads " for devising and 

 practising with Alice Lambert, by witchcraft and 

 cosening, to (festroy the said Alice's husband ; " 

 and Thomasyn Clerk for " keeping counsel with 

 Alice Lambert in a lewd and ungodly practice." 

 After which they were to be led back to the 

 Compter till farther order should be taken. 



Wm. Durbant Coopeh. 



Monumental Skull-cap. — The mention (Vol. xi., 

 p. 241.) of a bewigged bust of King Charles XL, 

 leads me to make a Note of the following. On the 

 south side of the chancel of Leigh Church, Wor- 

 cestershire, is an altar-tomb to the memory of 

 Mr. Edmund CoUes, " a grave and learned justice 

 of this shire, who purchased the inheritance of 

 this manor" (Nash's Worcestershire, vol. ii. p. 73.), 

 and who<died Dec. 19, 1606. A recumbent figure 

 represents him in his civil habit ; the stone has 

 been coloured " to the life," and the justice's head 

 is surmounted with a skull-cap, made of thick 

 leather, firmly cemented to the stone. The grand- 

 son of this justice is the " Old Coles" of the Leigh 

 legend ; of which I have given an account in my 

 papers on " Old Superstitions," in l^he Illustrated 

 London Magazine, articles " Carriage-and-four 

 Ghosts" (Nov. 1854), " Eternal Waggoners" (Jan. 

 1855). CuTHBERT Bede, B.A. 



Slatfold — A Note for Warwickshire Readers. 

 — I recently bought at a bookstall a copy of Dr. 

 Adam Littleton's Latine Dictionary, dated 1703. 

 On one of the covers is written the following 

 memorial of a former owner of the book : 



" County of TVarwich. 



Quinquededit primam Hie Comitatus Fratribus Auram. 

 So. E". F". N". H". -Wolferstan. 



Spirat adhuc Primus, quatuor cecidere minores. S. W. 

 1763. ^tat 74." 



On the other cover are a couplet and its transla- 

 tion, which may identify the brothers : 



. " Ut circumpositas successor si colat ulmos, 

 Mox stabit in media veluti Statfoldia Sylva." 



" Whoe'er succeeds me, if he will with care 

 Preserve the elms as they now planted are, 

 Statfold will soon appear as if it stood 

 Just in the centre of a little wood." 



On the chance of these inscriptions having an 



