NOTES AND QUERIES: 



A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION 



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LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTiaUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. 



u.^uriien. found, make a note of," — Captain Cuttle. 



No. 61.] 



Saturday, December 28. 1850. 



r Price Threepence 

 t Stamped Edition 4<'. 



CONTENTS. 



Notes • — Page 



Illustrations of Scottish Ballads, by Richard John King 505 

 The Red Hand — The Holt Family — Vincent Family 506 

 Vondel's Lucifer, by Janus Dousa - - - 507 



A Myth of Midridge - - - - - 509 



Folk Lore Miscellanies : — St. Thomas's Day — Black 

 Doll at Old Store-shops— Snake Charming — Mice 

 as a Medicine — " Many Nits, many Pits" — Swans 

 hatched during Thunder — Snakes — Pixii-s or Piskies 



Straw Necklaces — Breaking Judas' Bones - 509 



Local Rhymes and Proverbs of Devonshire - - 511 



A Christmas Carol .... - 513 



A Note for Little Boys ... - 513 



Similarity of Traditions .. - - - 513 



Ptxey Legends ..... 514 



The Pool of the Black Hound ... 515 



Popular Rhymes . . - - . 515 



Minor Notes: — " Passilodion " and "Berafrynde" — 

 Inscription on an Alms-dish — The Use of the French 

 Word " savez " — Job's Luck — The Assassination of 

 Mountfort in Norfolk Street, Strand — The Olden- 

 burgh Horn — Curious Custom — Kite— Epitaph on 

 John Randal — Playing Cards .... 515 



QoERies : — 



Dragons : their Origin ..... 517 



Jo^n Sanderson, or the Cushion Dance ; and Bah. at the 

 Bowster ---.--. 517 



Did Bunyan know Hobbes ? by J". H. Friswell - - 518 



Minor Queries : — Boiling to Death — Meaning of 

 '* Mocker " — ** Away, let nought to love displeasing " 



— Baron Munchausen — "Sing Tantararara Rogues 

 all," &c. — Meaning of " Cajking " ... 519 



Replies: — 



The Wise Men of Gotham, by J. B Colman . . 520 



Replies to Minor Queries: — Master John Shorne — 



Antiquity of Smoking — Meaning of the Word 



"Thwaites" — Thomas Rogers of Horninger — Earl 



of Roscommon — Parse — The Me<ining of " Version " 



— First Paper-mill in England — " Torn by Horses" 



— Vineyards — Cardinal — Weights for Weighing 

 Coins — Umbrella — Croisiers and Pastoral Staves - 520 



MlSCELlANBOUS : — 



Notes on Books, Sales, Cataloguet, &c. 

 Notices to Correspondents 

 Advertisements ... 



- 623 



- 524 

 . 524 



flatei. 



ILLUSTRATIONS Or SCOTTISH BALLADS. 



In the ballad of " Annan Water " (Border Min-, 

 strehy, vol. iii.) is the follow ing verse : — 



" O he has pou'd aff his dapperpy coat, 

 The silver buttons glanced honny ; 

 The waistcoat bursted aff his breast. 

 He was sae full of melancholy." 



A very une.xpected effect of sorrow, but one- 

 that does not seem to be unprecedented. "A 

 plague of sighing and grief," says Falstaff. "It 

 blows a man up like a bladder." 



A remarkable illustration of FalgtafTs assertion, 

 and of the Scottish ballad, is to be found in this 

 Saga of Egil Skallagriinson. Bodvar, the son of 

 Egil, was wrecked on the coast of Iceland. His 

 body was thrown up by the waves near Einarsness, 

 where Egil found it, and buried it in the tomb of his 

 father Skallagrim. The Saga continues thus : — 



" After that, Egil rode home to Borgar ; and when 

 he came there, he went straightway into the locked 

 chamber where he was wont to sleep ; and there he 

 laid him down, and shot forth the bolt. No man 

 dared speak a word to him. And thus it is said that 

 Egil was clad when he laid Bodvar i.i the tomb. His 

 hose were bound fast about his legs, and he had on a 

 red linen kirtle, narrow above, and tied with strings at 

 the sides. And men say that his body swelled so 

 greatly that his kirtle burst from off him, and so did 

 his hose." — P. 602. 



It is well known that the subjects of many bal- 

 lads are common to Scotland, and to the countries 

 of Northern Europe. Thus, the fine old "Douglas 

 Tragedy," the scene of which is pointed out at 

 Blackhouse Tower^ on the Yarrow, is equally 

 localised in Denmark :■ 



" Seven large stones," says Sir Walter, " erected upon 

 the neighbouring heights of Blackhouse, are shown as 

 marking the spot where the seven brethren were slain ; 

 and the Douglas Burn is avowed to have been the 

 stream at which the lovers stopped to drink ; so mi- 

 nute is tradition in ascertaining the scene of a tragical 

 tale, which, considering the rude state of former times, 

 had probably foundation in some real event." 



The corresponding Danish ballad, however, that 

 of " llibolt and Guldborg," which has been trans- 

 latetl by Mr. Jamieson, is not less minute in point- 

 ing out the scene of action. Tiic origin of ballads, 

 which are thus widely spread, must probably be 

 sought in very high anti<iuity ; and we cannot 

 wonder if we find them undergoing considerable 



Vol. II.— No. 61. 



