88 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 222. 



named " The Red Cow ;" — will any of your readers 

 oblige with some account of the origin of " The 

 Red Cow" as a sign ; and what family has now a 

 claim to such as the family arms ? Glywysydd. 



Emblematic Meanings of Precious Stones (Vol. 

 viii., p. 539. ; Vol. ix., p. 37.).— To the list of 

 works on the mystical and occult properties of 

 precious stones given by Ma. W. Pinkerton, 

 allow me to add the following, in which the means 

 of judging of their commercial value, and their 

 medicinal properties, are chiefly treated of: 



" Le Parfaict Ioaillier, ov Histoire des Pierreries: 

 ov sont amplement descrites, leur naissance, juste prix, 

 moyen de les cognoistre, et se garder des contrefaites, 

 Facultez medicinales, et proprietez curieuses. Com- 

 pose par Anselme Boece de Boot, &c. : Lyon, 1644, 

 12mo., pp. 788." 



William Bates. 



Birmingham. 



Calves' -head Club (Vol. viii., p. 480. ; Vol. ix., 

 p. 15.). — A correspondent of the Cambridge 

 Chronicle of Dec. 31 says, that in the churchyard 

 of Soham, Cambridgeshire, there is "a monster- 

 tomb surrounded by a lofty iron railing," with the 

 following inscription in letters of a large size : 



- Robert D'Ave, Esquire, died April, 1770. Also 

 Mary, Wife of Robert D'Aye, Esquire, Daughter of 

 William Russell, Esquire, of Fordham Abbey, and 

 Elizabeth his Wife, who was the only surviving 

 Daughter of 



Henry Cromwell, 



Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Son of 



Oliver Cromwell, 



Protector; died November 5, 1765, aged 73 years." 



After stating that in the same tomb lie the 

 bodies of the daughter of D'Aye, and his wife 

 (ob. 1779), their grandson (1803), and great- 

 grandson (1792), the writer adds that there is a 

 tradition in Soham that, during the lifetime of 

 Mrs. D'Aye, out of respect to the doings of Oliver 

 Cromwell, on the anniversary of King Charles's 

 martyrdom, a calf's head besmeared with blood 

 was hoisted on a pole in front of the cot of the 

 husband. P. J. F. Gantillon. 



"Burial in an erect Posture (Vol. viii., pp. 5. 59. 

 233. 630.) ; Eulenspiegel (Vol. vii., p. 357., &c.).— 

 The German rogue Eulenspiegel (or Howleglass, 

 as Coplande renders it), of whose adventures "N. 

 & Q." has had several notices, is another example 

 of upright burial, as the following passage, trans- 

 lated by Roscoe, shows : 



" Howleglass was buried in the year 1350, and his 

 latter end was almost as odd and as eccentric as his 

 life. For, as they were lowering him again into the 

 grave, one of the ropes supporting the feet gave way, 

 and left the coffin in an upright position, so that 

 Howleglass was still upon his legs. Those who were 



present then said: ' Come, let us leave him as he is, 

 for as he was like nobody else when he was alive, he is 

 resolved to be as queer now he is dead.'" 



Accordingly, they left Howleglass bolt upright, 

 as he had fallen ; and placing a stone over his 

 head, on which was cut the figure of an owl with 

 a looking-glass under his claws, the device of his 

 name, they inscribed round it the following lines : 



howleglass's epitaph. 



" Here lies Howleglass, buried low, 

 His body is in the ground ; 

 We warn the passenger that so 

 He move not this stone's bound. 

 In the year of Our Lord mcccl." 



His tomb, which was remaining thirty years ago, 

 and may be now, is under a large lime-tree at 

 Mollen, near Lubeck. 



In Roscoe's German Novelists, vol. i. p. 141. et 

 seq., there are references to several editions in 

 various languages of the adventures of Thyll 

 Eulenspiegel. J. R. M., A.M. 



Biting the Thumb (Vol. vi., pp. 149. 281. 616.). 

 — The lower orders in Normandy and Britanny, 

 and probably in other parts of France, when wish- 

 ing to express the utmost contempt for a person, 

 place the front teeth of the upper jaw between 

 the nail and flesh of the thumb, the nail being 

 turned inwards : and then, disengaging the thumb 

 with a sudden jerk, exclaim, "I don't care that 

 for you," or words of similar import. Is not this 

 the action alluded to by Shakspeare and other 

 writers, as "biting the thumb ?" 



HoSORE DE MaREVILLE. 

 Guernsey. 



Table-turning and Table-talking in Ancient 

 Times (Vol. ix., p. 39.). — I have received from 

 a correspondent in Berlin the subjoined transla- 

 tion of an article which was published in the Neue 

 Preussische Zeitung of January 10 : 



" We have been informed that Professor Ranke has 

 found out a passage in Ammianus Marcellinus by which 

 it is unquestionably proved that table-turning was 

 known in the east of the Roman Empire. 



" The table-turners of those days were summoned as 

 sorcerers before the Council, and the passage referred 

 to appears to have been transcribed from the Protocol. 

 The whole ceremony (modus movendi hie ftcit) is very 

 precisely described, and is similar to what we have so 

 often witnessed within the last month ; only that the 

 table-turners, instead of sitting round the table, danced 

 round it. The table-oracle likewise answered in verse, 

 and showed a decided preference for hexameters. 

 Being asked • Who should be the next emperor?' the 

 table answered ' Theod." In consequence of this reply, 

 the government caused a certain Theodorus to be put 

 to death. Theodosius, however, became emperor. 



" The table oracle, in common with other oracles, 

 had a dangerous equivocal tendency." 



