Jan. 4. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



" married in triumph " in Bohemia, nnd the old 

 shepherd is made " a lord of the court." 

 • If any of your readers can inform me of another 

 copy of the above ballad, especially unmodernised 

 (tlieversilication must havesuflereil in the freipieut 

 reprints) and in black-letter of an early date, they 

 will do me a favour. At present I am unable to de- 

 cide whether it was founded upon Greene's novel, 

 Shakspeare's play, or upon some independent, 

 possibly foreign, narrative. I am by no means 

 satisfied that Greene's novel was not a transhition, 

 and we kno^Y that he was skilful in Italian, Spanish, 

 and French. J. Payne Collier. 



I cannot find the particular Number of Notes 

 AND Queries, but unless I am greatly mistaken, 

 in one of them, a correspondent gave praise (I am 

 the last to say it was not deserved) to Dr. Maginn 

 for suggesting that michhig mallecho, in Hamlet, 

 Act. Ill . Sc. 2., was from the Spanish imicho mal- 

 liecho. I never heard of Dr. Maginn's opinion until 

 I saw it in your pages ; but if you happen to be 

 able to refer to tlie Shakspeare I superintended 

 through the ]iress in 1843, vol. vii. p 271., note 9., 

 yoO will see that I propose the Spanish word mal- 

 hecho as the origin of " mallecho." I did not 

 think this point worth notice at the time, and I 

 doubt whether it is worth notice now. If you 

 leave out this postscript, as you are at perfect 

 liberty to do, I shall conclude that you are of my 

 opinion. J. P. C. 



[The passage to wlilch our valued correspondent 

 refers is in our Second Volume, p. .358., where J. M. B. 

 points out that the .sugge.stion of a writer in the Quar- 

 terlti Review for March 1850, tliat Shakspeare's mkh- 

 hiy vutUeclio was a mere misprint of the Spanish 

 words mitcho malhecho, liad been anticipated by Dii. 

 Maginn. It now appears that he had also been an- 

 ticipated by Ma. Collier.] 



CROSSING RIVERS ON SKINS. 



The mode of crossing a river on skins, men- 

 tioned by Layard (Nineveh and itn Bemains, 5th 

 edition, vol. i. p. 129., vol. ii. p. 381.) is also re- 

 ferred to in tlie works of the following ancient 

 wiiters. I quote Facciolnti Lexicon Totiiis Latini- 

 tatis, in vocibus Uter et Utricidarius. [Edit. Ftir- 

 lanetto, 4to.] 



" Frecjuens fuit apud veteres utrium usus ad flu- 

 mina trananda, lAv. 21. 27. Hispani, sine idla mole, 

 in utres vestinientis conjectis, ipsi cetris suppositis in- 

 cubantes, fluinen tranavere, Cces. B. G. i. 48. Lusitani, 

 periticjue earum regionum cetrati citerioris Hispania?, 

 consectahantur, quibus erat procllve transiiare flumen, 

 quod consuetudo eoiiini omnium est, ut sine ulribus 

 ad exercitum non eant, (Cf. Herzog., qui longam huic 

 loco adnotationcm adscripsit), Curt. 7. 5. Utres quam 

 plurinios stramentis referlos dividit ; his incubantes 

 transnavere ainneni, Plin. 6. 29. .35. Arabes Ascitae 

 appellati, quoniani bubulos utres binos sternentes ponte 

 piraticatn exerccnt, h. e. utiibus junclis tabulas instar 



pontis sternentes. Adde Front. Stral. ."3. \3.,etAmmian, 

 30. 1. med." 



" Utricularii vocabantur qui utriculos, seu utres 

 inflatos ratibus ila subjiciebant, ut iisdem flumina 

 transnare possent. Eoruni collegium in quibusdam 

 urbibus ad fluracn aliquod sitis habebatur, ideoque 

 utricularii sspe cum nautis conjunguntur, Inscr. ap. 

 Mur. 531, n. 4. Ex voto a solo templum ex suo fecerunt 

 collegio utriculariorum." 



Janus Dousa. 

 Manpadt House, near Haarlem. 



FOLK LORE OF SOUTH NORTHAMPTONSHIRB, NO. 3. 



Hedgehog. — Among other animals looked upon 

 in a superstitious light, we have the hedgehog, 

 who, in addition to his still credited attribute of 

 sucking cows, is looked upon by our rustics as the 

 emblem of craft and cunning ; jilaying the same 

 part in our popular stories as Reynard in the more 

 southern /aWeaiw. They tell concerning him, the 

 legend given by M. M. Grimm, of the race between 

 the Hare and Hedgehog. The Northampton- 

 shire version makes the trial of speed between a 

 fox and hedgehog. In all other respects the 

 English tale runs woi'd for word with the German. 



Hwes. — Besides the ancient superstition at- 

 tached to the crossing of the path by one of these 

 animals, there is also a belief that the running of 

 one along the street or mainway of a village, por- 

 tends fire to some house in the immediate vicinity. 



Toads. — Belief in their venomous nature is yet 

 far from being extinct. This, added to the ill-de- 

 fined species of fiiscination which they are sup- 

 posed to exercise, has caused them here, as else- 

 where, to be held in great abhorrence. I have 

 heard persons who ought to have known better, 

 exclaim on the danger of gazing upon one of the 

 harmless reptiles. The idea respecting the fiisci- 

 nating powers of the toad, is by no means confined 

 to our district. Witness the learned Cardan : 



" Fasclnari pueros fixo intuitu magnorum bufonum 

 et maxime qui e subterraneo specu aut sepulchris pro- 

 dierint, utque ob id occulto morbo perire, baud ab- 

 surdum est." — De Rerum Varietate, hb. xvi. c. 90. 



Ci-icltets, contrary to the idea prevailing in 

 the western counties, are supposed to presage 

 good luck, and are therefore most carefully pre- 

 served. Their presence is believed to be a sure 

 omen of prosperity ; while, on the other hand, their 

 sudden departvu-e from a hearth which has long 

 echoed with their cry, betokens approaching mis- 

 fortune, and is regarded as the direst calamity that 

 can happen to the family. 



Magpies. — To see one magpie alone bodes bad 

 luck ; two, good luck ; three, a " berrin ; " four, a 

 wedding. This is our version of the saying : Grose 

 gives it differently. 



Spiders. — When a spider is found upon your 



