398 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 81. 



time, if you furnish me with what I want, and will 

 give me a talent as a reward.' And being asked of 

 what he stood in need : — 'I shall want/ said he, 

 ' 2000 leathern bags ; and I see here many sheep, 

 and goats, and oxen, and asses ; which, being flayed, 

 and (tlieir skins) inflated, would readily furnish a 

 means of transport. And I shall require also the 

 girths, which you use for the beasts of burden. And 

 on these,' said lie, ' having bound the leathern bags, 

 and fastened them one to another, and affixing stones, 

 and letting them down like ancliors, and binding them 

 on either side, I will lay on wood, and put earth over 

 them. And that you will not then sink, you shall 

 presently very clearly perceive; for each leathern bag 

 will support two men from sinking, and the wood and 

 earth will keep them from slipping." 



Skins, or tent coverings, stuffed with hay, ap- 

 pear also to have been very generally used for this 

 purpose (Vid. Id., lib. i. cap. v.). Arrian relates 

 (lib. V. Exped. cap. 12.) that Alexander used this 

 contrivance for crossing the Ilydaspes : 



" Avrhs Si ('AA/Jai/Spoi) — &y(iiy iirl rijv vrjirov ical 

 riiv aKpav, €v9fv Siafialveiv Tjr' fyvoiajxivov. Ka\ (uravBa 

 eTT\ripovi/TO T^r vvKrhs al Si<pdepat Tjjs Kdpiiris (K iroWov 

 ij5r] irapwrivi'yjiiva.i, kol\ KCLTe^idirToyro is a/cpi)3ciac." 



E, S. Taylor. 

 Martham, Norfolk. 



Curious Facts in Natural Historrj (Vol. iii., 

 p. 166.). — There is a parallel to the curious foot 

 contributed by 3'our JBrazilian correspondent in 

 the " vegetable caterpillar" of New Zealand. This 

 natural rarity is described in Angas's Savage Life 

 and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand, vol. i. 

 p. 291.: — 



" Amongst the damp moss at the root of the rata 

 trees, in the shady forests not far from Auckland, and 

 also in various parts of the northern island, are 

 found those extraordinary productions called vegetable 

 caterpillars, the hotele of tlie natives. In appearance, 

 the caterpillar diflTers but little from that of the common 

 privet sphinx-moth, after it has descended to the 

 ground, previously to its undergoing the change into 

 the chrysalis state. But the most remarkable charac- 

 teristic of the vegetable caterpillar is, that every one 

 lias a very curious plant, belonging to the fungi tribe, 

 growing from the atius ; this fungus varies from three 

 to six inches in length, and bears at its extremity a 

 blossom-like appendage, somewhat resembling a mi- 

 niature bulrush, and evidently derives its nourishment 

 from the body of the insect. This caterpillar, when 

 recently found, is of the substance of cork ; and it is 

 discovered by the natives seeing the tips of the fui.gi, 

 which grow upwards. They account for tliis pheno- 

 menon, by asserting that the caterpillar, when feeding 

 upon the rata tree overhead, swallows the seeds of the 

 fungus, which take root in the body of the insect, and 

 germinate as soon as it retreats to the damp mould 

 beneath, to undergo its transformation into the pupa 

 state. Specimens of these vegetable caterpillars have been 

 transmitted to naturalists in England, by whom they 

 have been named Sphceria Roberta." — Savage. Life and 



Scenes in Australia and New Zealand, by G. F. Angas : 

 London, 1847, vol. i. p. 291. 



I recently had several specimens of the insect, 

 with its remarkable appendage, which had been 

 brought from the colony by a relative. R. W. C. 



Prideaitx (Vol. iii., p. 268.). — The Prideaux, 

 who took part in the Monmouth rebellion, was a 

 son of Sir Edmund Prideaux, the purchaser of 

 Ford Abbey. (See Birch's Life of Tillotson.) 

 Tillotson appears to h.ave been a chaplain to Sir 

 E. Prideaux at Ford Abbey, and a tutor to the 

 young Prideaux. K. Th. 



iHt'^rcHaiicoutf. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC. 



Our readers will probably remember that the result 

 of several communications which appeared in our 

 columns on the subject of the celebrated Treatise of 

 Equivocation, found in the chambers of Tresham, and 

 produced at the trial of the persons engaged in the 

 Gunpowder Plot, was a letter from a correspondent 

 (J. B., Vol. ii., p. 168.) announcing that the identical 

 MS. copy of the work referred to by Sir Edward 

 Coke on the occasion in question, was safely preserved 

 in the Bodleian Library. It was not to ))e supposed 

 that a document of such great historical interest, which 

 bad been long sought alter, should, wlien discovered, 

 be suffered to remain unprinted; and Mr. Jardine, the 

 accomplislied editor of the Criminal Trials (the second 

 volume of which, it will be remembered, is entirely 

 devoted to a very masterly narrative of the Gunpowder 

 Plot), has accordingly produced a very carefully pre- 

 pared edition of tlie Tract in question ; introduced by 

 a preface, in which its historical importance is alone 

 discussed, the object of the publication being not con- 

 troversial but historical. " To obviate," says Mr. 

 Jardine, " any misapprehension of the design in pub- 

 lishing it at a time when events of a peculiar character 

 have drawn much animadversion upon the principles 

 of the Roman Catholics, it should be stated that the 

 Treatise would have been published fen years ago, had 

 the inquiries then made led to its discovery ; and that 

 it is now published within a few weeks after the manu- 

 script has been brought to light in the Bodleian Li- 

 brary." The work is one of the most important 

 contributions to English history which has recently 

 been put forth, and Mr. Jardine deserves the highest 

 credit for the manner in which he has discharged bis 

 editorial duties. 



HorcB EgijpiiitccB, or the Chronology of Ancient Egypt 

 discovered from Astronomical and Hierngli/phicnl Records, 

 inchtding many dates found in coeval inscriptions from 

 the period of the building of the great Pyramid to the 

 times of the Persians, and illustrative of the History of 

 the first Nineteen Dynasties, Sj-c, by Reginald Stuart 

 Poole, is the ample title of a work dedicated to the 

 Duke of Northumberland, under whose auspices it has 

 been produced. The work, which is intended to ex- 

 plain the Chronology and History of Ancient Egypt 

 from its monuments, originally appeared in a series of 



