282 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 76. 



The St. Graal (Vol. iii., p. 224.). — Your cor- 

 respondent AY. 51. K. will find the subject of " the 

 Sangreal's holy quest" treated in the late Mr. 

 Price's elaborate preface to "Warton's History of 

 English Poetry (ed. 1840), p. 53.; also an account 

 of the MS. at C. C. C, Cambridge, in the same 

 work, vol. i. p. 149. ; and a reference to Walter 

 Map's translation of the Latin romance of St. 

 Graal into French, vol. ii. p. 416. See also Sis- 

 mondi. Lit. of the South of Europe (Bohn, 1846), 

 vol. i. p. 197., and note. H. G. T. 



THE FROZEN HOBN. 



(Yo\. ii., p. 262. ; Vol. iii., p. 25.) 



Your correspondent J. M. G. quotes Hudibras, 

 p, i. c. i. 1. 147. : 



" Where truth in person does appear, 

 Like words congeal'd in iior'.hern air." 

 Zachary Grey does not, in bis note, refer to 

 Mandeville, but he says : 



" See an explication of this passage, and a merry 

 account of words freezing in Nova Zenibla, Taller, 

 No. 254. ; and Rabelais' account of the bloody figbt of 

 the Arimaspliians and Nephelebites upon the confines 

 of the Frozen Sea (vol. i v. c. 56. p. 229., Ozell's edit. 

 1737). To which Mr. John Done probably refers, in 

 his panegyric upon T. Coryat, and his Crudities : 

 ' It's not that French which made his giants see, 

 Those uncouth islands, where words frozen be, 

 Till by the thaw next year they've voice again.'' 



AV. B. H. 



Manchester. 



J. ^I. G. quotes Sir John Mandeville for the 

 story of the congealed words falling like bail from 

 the rigging of bis ship in the Arctic regions. I 

 do not remember the passage, but there is one 

 almost identical in Rabelais' Panlagniel, lib. iv. 

 ch. Iv., headed — 



" Comment en haulte mer Pantagruel ouit diverses 

 parolles desgelees." 



In the notes to Bohn's translation it is said : 

 " Rabelais has borrowed these from the Courtisnn of 

 Balthasar de Castillon, of which a French translation 

 was printed in 1539, and from the Apologues of Cslius 

 Calcagnnius of Ferrara, published in 1544." 



W. J. Bersuard Smith. 



Temple. 



BAB AT THE BOWSTER. 



(Vol. ii., p. 517 .) 



Your correspondent Mac is mistaken when he 

 says that no words are useil in the Scottish dance 

 of "Bab at the Bowster:" I have myself "babbed 

 at the Bowster" within the last few years. Upon 

 that occasion the words sung by the company 

 while dancing round the individual bearing the 

 " bowster " were — 



" Wha learn'd you to dance, 

 You to dance, you to dance, 

 AVha learn'd you to dance 



Bab at the bowster brawly?" 



To which the " bowster-bearer " replies — 

 " My mither learned me to dance. 

 Me to dance, nie to dance, 

 My mither learned me to dance 

 Bab at the bowster brawly." 



After which, throwing down the " bowster" or 

 cushion before one of the opposite sex, they both 

 kneel upon it, and kiss one another affectionately. 



I never heard any words save the above ; but a 

 friend from a neighbouring county (Dumbarton- 

 shire) informs me, that with them it is sometimes 

 changed into 



" Wlia gi'ed you the keys to keep. 

 The keys to keep," &c. 



There are also other variations which I believe 

 I can procure, should they be desired by Mac or 

 others. I should perhaps mention, for the benefit 

 of Southrons, that almost all untravelled Scotch- 

 men in conversation use the verb to learn in place 

 of the verb to teach. Y. 



Glasgow. 



The dance in Scotland called " Bab at the 

 Bowster" is always the winding up at "kirns" and 

 other merrymakings, and is most likely similar 

 to the cushion-dance. The tune to which it is 

 danced has words belonging to it. The beginning 

 lines are — 



" There's braw yill, 

 Down at the mill, 

 Bab at the bowster,'" &c. 



L. M. M, R. 



OLIVER CROMWELL AND HIS DEALINGS WITH THE 

 DEVIL. 



(Vol. iii., p. 207.) 



Among the papers of an old personal friend and 

 correspondent of the " Sylvanus Urban " of his 

 day, — a clergyman of the good old school, who 

 died a quarter of a century ago, aged eighty-six, I 

 find the inclosed. It may possibly lead to the 

 further elu(;idation of one of tiie Xotes of B. B. 

 It is unfortunate that no date is attached to it, nor 

 any intimation of its history. Its owner was the 

 intimate friend of Bennet, Bishop of Cloyne, of 

 Dr. Farmer, of Burgess, Bishop of St. David's 

 (afterwards Salisbury), and other eminent divines 

 of his time. 



With this MS. was inclosed another, in more 

 modern writing ; but, from the orthography, copied 

 from an older paper, headed " Private Amours of 

 Oliver Cromwell." It is very short, and also 

 without date. It is at your service if desired. 



S. H. H. 



