Dec. 14. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



475 



bead to the foot of the grave, to the part affected 

 by the aihnent.* This was told me yesterday ia 

 reply to a question, whether the custom of gather- 

 ing " May-dew" is still prevailing here. I may as 

 well add, that the common notion of improving 

 the complexion by washing the face with the early 

 dew in the fields on the 1st of May extensively 

 prevails in these parts ; and they say that a child 

 who is weak in the back may be cured by drawing 

 him over tlie grass wet with the morning: dew. 

 The experiment must be thrice performed, that is, 

 on the mornings of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of May. 

 I find no allusion to these specific applications of 

 " May-dew" in Ellis's Brand. II. G. T. 



Pishes. — An old woman, the wife of a re- 

 spectable farmer at a place called " Colmans," in 

 the parish of Werrington, near Launceston, has 

 frequently told my informant before-mentioned 

 of a " piskey " (for so, and not pixy, the creature is 

 called here, as well as in parts of Devon) which 

 frequently made its appearance in the form of a 

 small child in the kitchen of the fiirm-house, where 

 the inmates were accustomed to set a little stool 

 for it. It would do a good deal of household work, 

 but if the hearth and chimney corner were not 

 kept neatly swept, it would pinch the maid. The 

 piskey would often come into the kitchen and sit 

 on its little stool before the fire, so that the old 

 lady had many opportunities of seeing it. Indeed 

 it Avas a familiar guest in the house for many 

 months. At last it left the family under these 

 circumstances. One evening it was sitting on the 

 stool as usual, when it suddenly started, looked 

 up, and said, — 



" Piskey fine, and Piskey gay, 

 Now, Piskey ! run away ! " 



and vanished ; after which it never appeared again. 

 This distich is the first utterance of a jjiskey I have 

 heard. 



The word " fine" put me in mind of the expres- 

 sion ^'■fne spirit," "_/?«e Ariel," &c., noticed by 

 Dr. Kesnedy lately in Notes and Queries 

 (Vol. ii., p. 251.). It is worth notice (hat the 

 ])eople here seem to entertain no doubt as to tlie 

 identity of piskies and fairies. Indeed I am told, 

 that the old woman before mentioned called her 

 guest indifferently "piskey" or "fairy." 



The country people in this neighbourhood some- 

 times put a prayer-book under a child's pillow 

 as a charm to keep away the piskies. I am told 

 tliat a poor woman near Launceston was fully 

 persuaded that one of her childi'cn was taken away 

 and a piskey substituted, the disaster being caused 

 by the absence of the ])rayer-b()ok on one par- 

 ticular night. This story reminds me of the 

 "killcrop." II. G. T. 



* If Ihc patient be a woman, tlie f{rave cliosen must 

 be that (jC the last youii}; man hurieil, and that of tlie 

 last young woman in the case of a man patient. 



1. The dun cow of Dunsmore filled with milk 

 every vessel that was brought to her till an 

 envious witch tried to milk her in a sieve. 



2. Ladi/ Godiva. — A close-fitting dress might 

 suggest the idea of nudity ; but was not the horse 

 borrowed from the warrior Lady of Mercia 

 Ethellleda ? 



3. CAN DU PLERA MELEOR CERA. Quand 



Dieu plaira meilleur sera. Charm on a ring, olim 

 penes W. Hamper, F. A. S. F. Q. 



iHiunr §.aUS. 



Circulation of the Blood. — About twenty-five 

 years since, being in a public library in France, a 

 learned physician pointed out to me in the works 

 of the Venerable Bede a passage in which the fact 

 of the circulation of the blood appeared to him and 

 myself to be clearly stated. I regret that I did 

 not, at the time, " make a note of it," and that I 

 cannot now refer to it, not having access to a copy 

 of Bede : and I now mention it in hopes that some 

 of your correspondents may think it worth while 

 to make it a subject of research. J. Mn. 



Culprit, Origin of the Word. — Lonf:^ ago I 

 made this note, that this much used English word 

 was of French extraction, and that it was '■'■qiiil 

 pai-ait," from the short way the clerk of the court 

 has of pronouncing his words ; for our pleadings 

 were formerly in French, and when the pleadings 

 were begun, he said to the defendant '■'■ qtCil paraif^ 

 — culprit ; and as he was generally culpable, the 

 " qu'il parait " became a synonyme with oflender. 



Cambridge. 



[Does not our ingenious correspondent point at the 

 more correct origin of culprit, when lie sjieaks of tlie 

 defendant being " generally culpable ? "] 



Collar of SS. —In the volume of Bury Wills 

 just issued by the Camden Society, is an engraving 

 from the decorations of the chantry chapel in 

 St. Mary's Church, Bury St. Edmund's, of John 

 Baref, who died in 14G-; in which the collar is 

 represented as SS in the upright form set on a 

 collar of leather or other material. It is described 

 in the will as "my collar of the king's livery." 

 John Baret, says the editor of the Wills, was 

 a lay officer of the monastery of St. Edmund, 

 jirobablv treasurer, and was deputed to attend 

 Henry Vl. on the occasion of the king's long visit 

 to that famed monastic establishment in 14 — . 



BUHIENSIS. 



The Singing of Swans. — " It would," says 

 Bishop Percy (Mallet's Nortli. Antiq., ii. p. 72.), 

 " be a curious subject of discpiisition, to inquire 

 what could have given rise to so arbitrary and 

 groundless a notion as the singing of swans," 



