30 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 220. 



his illness increased, and he exhibited a swelling in his 

 stomach and limbs. The surgeon considering that it 

 arose from dropsy, he was removed into Haslar Hos- 

 pital, and after much painful suffering, although he had 

 «very attention paid to him by the medical officers of 

 the establishment, he died. Two hours before his 

 death a living snake, nine inches in length, came out of 

 his mouth, causing considerable surprise. How the 

 reptile got into his stomach is a mystery. It is sup- 

 posed that the deceased must have swallowed the 

 reptile when it was young, drinking water when the 

 Hastings was out in India, as the ship laid for some 

 time at Trincomalee, and close to a small island called 

 Snake Island. The crew used very often to find snakes 

 on board. The way they used to get into the ship was 

 by the cable, and through the hawsers into the fore- 

 castle. The deceased was forty years of age. He was 

 interred in Kingston churchyard. His remains were 

 followed to the grave by the ship's company of the 

 Excellent." 



The proverbial wisdom tff the serpent is here 

 clearly exemplified. It has long been well known 

 among sailors that rats have the sense to change 

 their quarters when a vessel becomes cranky ; 

 whence I believe arises the epithet " rat," which 

 is sometimes scurrilously applied to a politic man 

 who removes to the opposition benches when he 

 perceives symptoms of dissolution in the ministry. 

 The snake, in the simple narrative above quoted, 

 was evidently guided by some such ^prudential 

 motive when he quitted the stomach of the dying 

 sailor, which could not continue for any great 

 length of time to afford protection and support to 

 the cunning reptile. 



I have an amiable friend who habitually swallows 

 with avidity the tales of sea-serpents which are 

 periodically imported into this country on American 

 bottoms, and I have sufficient credulity myself to 

 receive, without strict examination into evidence, 

 the account of the swarming of the snakes up the 

 cables into a ship ; but I cannot so readily believe 

 that " considerable surprise " was caused in the 

 mind of any rational biped by the fact that a 

 living snake, which had attained to the length of 

 nine inches, took the very natural precaution to 

 come out of a dying man's mouth. 



How the reptile got into his stomach is a 

 mystery which the newspaper writer has attempted 

 to clear up, but he has not attempted to explain 

 how the reptile managed to live during many 

 months in so unusual a habitation as a man's 

 stomach. 



Some obliging correspondent of " N. & Q." will 

 perhaps have the kindness to explain this remark- 

 able fact in natural history. A Londoner. 



king james's irish army list or 1689-90. 



In last September I undertook a literary pro- 

 ject, which I think could be greatly aided through 

 the medium of " N. & Q.," as there are few families 

 in the empire that are not connected with its de- 

 tails, and who might therefore be expected to feel 

 interested in them. The project I allude to is a 

 publication of King James's Irish Army List of 

 1689-90. King I must call him in reference to 

 that list. Those that appear upon it were many 

 his creedmen, and all his devoted adherents. The 

 list, of which I have a copy in MS., extends over 

 thirty-four pages octavo. The first two are filled 

 with the names of all the colonels ; the four en- 

 suing are rolls of the regiments of horse ; the four 

 next, of the dragoons; and the remaining twenty- 

 four record the foot : each regiment being ar- 

 ranged, with the colonel, lieutenant-colonel, and 

 major at head, and the captains, lieutenants, cor- 

 nets or ensigns, and quarter-masters, in columns, 

 on each respectively. To every regiment I pro- 

 posed to append notices, historic and genealogical, 

 to the extent of, perhaps, eight hundred pages or 

 more, for'the compilation of which I have ample 

 materials in my own MS. collections. These no- 

 tices I propose to furnish under him of the name 

 who ranks highest on the list; and all the scat- 

 tered officers of that name will be collected in that 

 one article. 



After an especial and full notice of such officer, 

 to whom the family article is attached, his parent- 

 age, individual achievements, descendants, &c, 

 each illustration will briefly glance at the gene- 

 alogy of that family, with, if an Irish sept, its 

 ancient localities ; if an English or Scotch, the 

 county from whence it branched, and the period 

 when it settled here. 



I would next identify each family, so illustrated, 

 with its attainders and forfeitures in 1641 ; 



With the great Assembly of Confederate Ca- 

 tholics at Kilkenny in 1646 ; 



With the persons denounced by name in Crom- 

 well's ordinance of 1652, "for settling Ireland ;" 



With the declaration of royal gratitude to the 

 Irish exiles who served King Charles II. "in parts 

 beyond the seas," as contained in the Act of Ex- 

 planation of 1 665 ; 



With (if space allowable) those advanced by 

 James II. to civil offices, as sheriffs, &c, or mem- 

 bers of his new corporations ; 



With those who represented Irish counties or 

 boroughs in the Parliament of Dublin in 1689 ; 



With the several outlawries and confiscations of 

 1691, &c; 



With the claims that were subsequently (in 

 1703) preferred as charges on these forfeitures, 

 and how far allowed or dismissed ; 



And, lastly, as far as attainable, their achieve- 

 ments in the glorious engagements of the Spanish 

 and French Brigades : 



