Mar. 29. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



239 



morG but one short peni, and one other before the 

 burial, and one other after the burial." 



The peal liere alluded to does not of course mean 

 what Mb. Ellacombe has so clearly described 

 to be a modern peal, in Vol. i., p. 154., of "i^otes 

 AND QuRRiEs;" but it would at least amount, I 

 suppose, to consonantia campanarum, a ringing 

 together of bells, as dislinjTuished from the toll or 

 single stroke on a bell. Home Tooke says : 



" The toll of a bell is its being lifted vp (tollere, to 

 raise), which causes that sound we call its toll." 



Tlie poet does not clear the ambiguity and con- 

 fusion of terms, when he sings — 



" Faintly as tolls the evening cliiyne ! " 



Peals are not heard in London on Sunday 

 mornings, I believe ; but in the country, at least 

 hereabouts, they are commonly rung as the sum- 

 mons to church, ending with a few strokes on one 

 bell ; and then a smaller bell than any in the peal 

 (the sanrtus bell of old, perhnj-.s, and now some- 

 times vulgarly calle<l " Toiu Tinkler") announces 

 that divine service is about to begin. 



The object of these remarks is to elicit clearly 

 ■what is the right way of ringing the bells of a 

 church on the several occasions of their being 

 ■used. Aefred Gatty. 



Ecclesfield. 



MAZER ■WOOD : GUTTA PERCHA. 



In the Musaeum Trade.icantimium, or a Collectian 

 of liarities preserved at South Lambeth, near Lon- 

 don, by John Tradescant, 1656, I find, amongst 

 "other variety of rarities," "the plyable IMazer 

 wood, which, being warmed in water, will work to 

 any form;" and a little farther on, in the list of 

 "utensils and household stufFe," I also find "Mazer 

 dishes." In my opinion, it is more than a coin- 

 cidence that Doctor Montgomery, who, in 1843, 

 received the gold medal of the Society of Arts 

 for bringing giitta percha and its useful properties 

 under tiie notice of that bodv, describes it in 

 almost the same words that Tradescant uses when 

 speaking of the jiliable jNlazer wood: the Doctor 

 say.s, "it coidd be moulded into any form by 

 merely dipping it into boiling water." It is 

 worthy of remark that Tradescant, who was the 

 first botanist of his day, seems to have been un- 

 certain of the true nature of the " Mazer wood," 

 &)T he does not class it with his " gums, rootes, 

 woods ;" but, as before observed, in a hetero- 

 geneous collection which he styles " other variety 

 ef rarities." Tresuming, as I do, that this Mazer 

 wood was what we now term gutta ]K'rcha, the 

 (lueslion may be j)ropounded, how could Trades- 

 cant have procured it from its remote locale? 

 'J'he answer is easy. In another part of the 

 Musaum Tradescaiitianum may be found a list of 

 the "benefactors" to the collection; and amongst 



their names occurs that of William Curteen, Esq. 

 Now this "\\'iniam Curteen and his father Sir 

 William, of Flemish descent, were the most ex- 

 tensive British merchants of the time, and had 

 not only ships trading to, but also possessed forts 

 and factories on, some of the islands of the 

 Eastern Archipelago, the native habitat of tlie 

 sapotaceous tree that yields the gutta percha. 

 Curteen was a collector of curiosities himself, and 

 no doubt his captains and agents were instructed 

 to procure such : in short, a specimen of gutta 

 percha was just as likely to attract the attention 

 of an intelligent Englishman at Amboyna in the 

 fifteenth century, as it did at Singapore in the 

 nireteenth. 



If there are still any remains of Tradescant's 

 collection in the Ashraolcan Museum at Oxford, 

 the question, whether the Mazer wood was gutta 

 percha or not, might be soon set at rest ; but it is 

 highly probable that the men who ordered the 

 relics of the Dodo to be thrown out, showed but 

 little ceremony to the Mazer wood or dishes. 



A curious instance of a word, not very dissimilar 

 to Mazer, may be found in Eric Red's Saga, part 

 of the Flat'o Annals, supposed to be written in the 

 tenth century, and one of the authorities for the 

 pre-Columbian discovery of America by the Ice- 

 landers. Karlsefne, one of the heroes of the Saga, 

 while his ship was detained by a contrary wind in 

 a JTorwegian port, was accosted by a German, who 

 wished to purchase his, Karlsefne's, broom. 



" ' I will not sell it,' said Karlsefne. ' I will give 

 you half a mark in gold for it,' said the German man. 

 Karlsefne thought this a good offer, and thereupon 

 concluded the bargain. Tile German man went away 

 with the broom. Karlsefne did not know what wood 

 it was ; but it was Masur, which had come from Wine- 

 land!" 



Perhaps some reader may give an instance of 

 Mazer wood being mentioned by other writers ; or 

 inform me if the word Mazer, in itself, had any 

 peculiar signification. W. Pinkerton. 



Paul Pitcher Night. — Can any of the contri- 

 butors to " Notes and Queries " throw light 

 upon a curious custom, prevalent in some parts of 

 C<^rnwall, of throwing broken pitchers, and other 

 earthen vessels, against the doors of dwelling- 

 houses, oa the eve of the Conversion of St. Paul, 

 thence locally called " Paul pitcher night?" On 

 that evening parties of young people perambulate 

 the parishes in which the custom is retained, ex- 

 claiming as they throw the sherds, — 

 " Paul's eve. 

 And here's a heave I " 

 According to the received notions, the first 

 "heave" cannot be objected to; but, upon its 

 being repeated, the inhabitants of the house whose 



