154 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 278. 



Thomas Middleton about 1620, Firestone says 

 to his mother, the witch : 



" May you not have one o'clock in to the dozen. Mother ? 

 TFitch. No. 



Firestone. Your spirits are then more unconscionable 

 than bakers." 



PisHEY Thompson. 



Stoke Newington. 



" The Woodweele sang, and wold not cease,"" Sfc. 

 (Vol. xi., p. 87.). — E. A. B. will find the stanza 

 commencing with the above line in the old ballad 

 of " Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne," printed 

 in Percy's Reliques, Ritson's Robin Hood, &c. 



The woodweele is said by Percy to be " the 

 golden ouzel, a bird of the thrush kind." 



J. K. R. W. 



Nu7is acting as Priests in the Mass (Vol. xi., 

 p. 47.). — The probability is, that, at the time of 

 the Reformation, the nuns being left without a 

 priest, "n'ayant pas de pretre," consoled them- 

 selves m some measure for the loss of the real 

 mass, by saying what used to be called a " Missa 

 Sicca," or, in fact, no mass at all, as the Consecra- 

 tion and Communion were omitted, and merely 

 the preparatory prayers said as far as the Secret, 

 and of those after the Consecration only the Pater 

 Noster and some of the concluding prayers. This 

 substitute for a real mass used often to be said at 

 sea, as it was daily before St. Louis ; but it has 

 long been condemned and gone into disuse. Your 

 correspondent seems to think that the nuns of the 

 Convent of St. Catherine still continue this prac- 

 tice. The extract he gives, however, does not 

 •warrant that inference, but appears to allude 

 merely to a temporary expedient in the absence 

 of a chaplain. F. C. H. 



Osbern's Life of Odo (Vol. xi., p. 45.). — It 

 seems very difficult to ascertain of what See 

 St. Odo was bishop previously to his translation 

 to Canterbury. Sherborne and Wilton are men- 

 tioned ; but the curious old English Martyrologe 

 says that he was first made Bishop of Wells. 



F. C. H. 



Htishandman (Vol. xi., p. 86.). — The original 

 signification of this term is " the head of any 

 house" (A.-S. hup, " a house," and banba, " bond"), 

 " the man who binds or keeps together the family." 

 In its technical meaning it corresponds to the 

 small tenant farmer of the present day. Thus, in 

 a chapter on " heriots " in the Scotch law, it is 

 stipulated that a heriot should be taken from a 

 husbandman, only provided he be tenant of the 

 eighth part of a davate of land or more, a davate 

 being as much as would employ four ploughs of 

 eight oxen each. Again, in one of the statutes of 

 David II., rectors, vicars, religious, and husband- 

 men are classed together. These instances, toge- 

 ther with the usage of the word by our translators 



of the Bible, would seem to warrant J. C.'s sup- 

 position that it was formerly applied to persons in 

 a somewhat higher position of life than it now is. 



J. Eastwood. 



Eckington. 



" Planters of the Vineyard " (Vol. xi., p. 86.). — 

 The author of this play was a Mr. Lothian, clerk 

 to the Custom House in Leith, and was written 

 in consequence of the presentation of the Rev. 

 Mr. Logan to one of the churches there. Mr. L. 

 appears in the list of dramatis persona, in the 

 character of " Easy." It is entitled — 



" The Planters of the Vineyard ; or a Kirk-Session 

 confounded, a comedy of three Acts, as it was performed 

 at Forthtown (Leith), by the persons of the drama ; with 

 a few epitaphs, 1771." 

 It was reprinted several years ago in 12mo. 



T. G. S. 



Edinburgh. 



Party (Vol. vii., pp. 177. 247. 367.; Vol. vlii., 

 p. 137.). — Add to the instances of the early use 

 of this word that have appeared in your columns, 

 one from the Apocrypha : 



" Then the young man said to the angel, Brother Aza- 

 rias, to what use is the heart and the liver and the gall of 

 the fish ? 



" And he said unto him, Touching the heart and the 

 liver, if a devil or any evil spirit trouble any, we must 

 make a smoke thereof before the man or the woman, and 

 the party shall be no more vexed." — Tobit. vi. 6, 7. 



C. Forbes. 



Temple. 



Venom of Toads (Vol. vi., pp. 338.517.; Vol. xi., 

 p, 16.). — The story told in the extract from 

 Lupton's A Thousand Notable Things, 1630, 

 quoted by Ma. Peacock, had been told nearly 

 three centuries before that date by Boccaccio. See 

 the Decameron, Day iv. Novel 7. C. Forbes. 



Temple. 



Ancient Beers (Vol. vi., pp. 72. 233.). — 



" The law concerning the due observance of the Pass- 

 over will be transgressed bv using the following articles, 

 namelv, Babylonian nni3 S Median beer made of wheat 

 or barlev, Edomite vinegar ", Egyptian zeitham', the 

 dough of bran used by dyers, the dough used by cooks, 

 and the paste used by writers. 



" 1 This is explained to be a mixture of mouldy bread 

 ■with milk and salt, used to dip food in. 



« 8 That is, vinegar made in the Idumean manner, by 

 the fermentation of barley and wine. 



« s The name of a medicine of Egyptian origm, men- 

 tioned by Plinv, book xxii. c. Ixxxii., under the name of 

 zytham. According to the Talmud, it was composed of 

 equal parts of barley, salt, and wild saffron."— Transla- 

 tion of The JfisAna, '"Pesachim," ch. iii. 

 None of the above appear to present any great 

 temptations to a teetotaller. An Oxford B. C. L. 



Oranges among the Romans (Vol. xi., p. 41.). 

 — Having, in an early Number of " N. & Q. 



