Feb. 22. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



133 



snails abound, children amuse themselves by 

 charming them with a chant to j)ut forth their 

 horns, of which I have only heard the following I 

 couplet, which is repeated until it has the desired 

 effect, to the great amusement of the charmer. 

 '• Snail, snail, come out of your hole, 



Or else I'li beat you as black as a coal." 

 It is pleasant to fiml that this charm is not pe- 

 culiar to English children, but prevails in places 

 as remote from each other as Naples and Silesia. 

 The Silesiaii rhyme is : 



" Schnecke, schnecke, schniirre 1 

 Zeig mir dein viere, 

 Wenn mir dein viere nicht zeigst, 

 Sehmeisz ich dich in den Graben, 

 Fresseii dich die Raben ; " , 



which may be thus paraphrased : 

 " Snaii, snail, slug-slow, 

 Ti> me tby four horus show ; 

 If tliou dost not show me thy four, 

 I will throw thee out of the door, 

 For the crow in the gutter. 

 To eat fjr bread and butter." 

 In that amusing Folk's-book of Neapolitan 

 childish tales, the Pentamerone of the noble Count- 

 Palaline Cavalier Giovan-Battista Basile, in the 

 seventeenth tale, entitled " La Palomma," we have 

 a similar rhyme : 



" Jesce, jesce, corna ; 

 Ca manimata te scorna, 

 Te scorna 'ncoppa lastrico, 

 Che fa lo figlio mascolo." 



of which the sense may probably be : 



" Peer out ! Peer out ! Put forth your horns 1 

 At you your mother mocks and scorns ; 

 Another son is on the stocks. 

 And you she scorns, at you she mocks." 



S. W. SiNGEK. 



'I he Evil Eye. — This superstition is still preva- 

 lent in this neighbourhood (Launceston). I have 

 very recently been iuibrmed of the case of a young, 

 woman, in the village of Lifton, who is lying hope- 

 lessly ill of consumption, which her neighbours 

 atlribute to her having been " overlooked" (this is 

 the local phrase by wiiich they designate the baleful 

 si)ell of the evil eye). An old woman in this town 

 is supposed to have the power of " ill-wishing" or 

 bewitching her neighbours and their cattle, and is 

 looked on with much awe in consequence. 



II. G. T. 



"■Millery! Millery ! Domty-poll!" &c. — lam 

 told by a neighbour of a cruel custom among the 

 childi-en in Somersetshire, who, when they have 

 caught a certwn kind of large white moth, which 

 they call a miller, chant over it this uncouth 

 ditty : — 



" Millery ! Millery ! Dousiy-'poW ! 

 How many sticks hast thou stole?" 



And then, with boyish recklessness, put the 



poor creature to death for the imagined misdeeds 

 of his human namesake. H. G. T. 



'■'■Nettle in, Dock out." — Sometime since, turning 

 over the leaves of Clarke's Chaucer, I stumbled on 

 the following passage in " Troilus and Cres- 

 sida," vol. ii. p. 104. : — 



" Thou biddest me that I should love another 

 All freshly newe, and let Creseide go. 

 It ii'th not in my power leve brother. 

 And though I might, yet would 1 not do so: 

 But can'st thou playen racket to and fro, 

 Nettle' in Dock out, now this now that, Pandare ? 

 Now foule fall her for thy woe that care." 

 I was delighted to find the charm for a nettle 

 sting, so familiar to my childish ear, was as old 

 as Ciiaucer's time, and exceedingly surprised to 

 stumble on the following note : — 



" This appears to be a proverbial expression implying 

 inconstancy ; but the origin of the phrase is unknown 

 to all the commentators on our poet." 



If this be the case, Chaucer's commentators may 

 as well be told that children in Northumberland 

 use friction by a dock-leaf as the approved re- 

 medy for the sting of a nettle, or rather the ap- 

 proved charm ; for the patient, while rubbing in 

 the dock -juice, should keep repeating, — 



" Nettle in, dock out. 

 Dock in, nettle out, 

 Nettle in, dock out, 

 Dock rub nettle out." 



The meaning is therefore obvious. Troilus is 

 indignant at being recommended to forget his 

 Cressida for a new love, just as a child cures a 

 nettle-sting by a dock-leaf. I know not whether 

 you will deem this trifle worth a corner in your 

 valuable and amusing " Notes." 



THE SCALIGERS. 



" Lo prime tuo rifugio e 'I primo ostello 

 Sara la cortesia del gran Lombardo, 

 Che 'n su la Scala porta il santo uccello." 



Dante, Paradiso, xvii. 70. 



The Scaligers are well known, not only as 

 having held the lordship of Verona for some gene- 

 rations, but also as having been among the friends 

 of Dante in his e.xile, no mean reputation in itself; 

 and, at a later period, as taking very high rank 

 among the first scholars of their day. To which 

 of them the passage above properly belongs — 

 whet her to Can Grande, or his brother Bartolommeo, 

 or even his father AlV)erto, commentators are by 

 no means agreed. The question is argued more 

 largely than conclusively, both in the notes to 

 Lombardi's edition, and also in Ugo Foscolo's 

 Di.troi-.so nel testo di Dante. 



th 



Perhaps the following may be a contribution to 

 e evidence in favour of Can Grande. After say- 



