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NOTES AND QUERIES. 
» [24 8, No 12., Mar, 22, °56. 
king of the Goths, and afterwards Constantius, by whom 
she had Valentinian IJI.; she died a.p. 449. (Antig. 
Exp., vol. iii. p. 46.)]. L’Impératrice Théodora, femme 
de l’Empéreur Justinian I. (527—565) a aussi sur sa 
couronne cette fleur.—Julienne Auguste est peinte ayant 
sur sa téte cette fleur-du-trefle semblable a celles qu’on 
voit aux couronnes de plusieurs de nos plus anciens rois. 
Ces fleurs etoient si communes dans les peintures de Con- 
stantinople, qu’on les mettoit souvent en usage pour 
Vornement comme on peut voir ci-dessus. On voit ces 
fleurs fort souvent aux couronnes et aux sceptres d’autres 
Princes d’Allemagne qui ne descendoient point de Charle- 
magne. Zyllesius (Nicolaus, 1638, Onomasticon Litera- 
rium, vol. iv. p.439.), apporte des sceaux des Ottons avec 
des fleurs-de-lis. 
“ L’Empéreur Conrade (1141) a sa couronne du fleurs- 
de-lis fort bien faites, semblables a celle de nos rois. Le 
Roi Henri avoit la couronne ornée de fleurs-de-lis. 
“ Jacques II., Roi de Majorque, a aussi des fleurs-de- 
lis a sa couronne: on doit inférer de tout ce que nous 
venons de dire que nos premiers rois ont pris cet usage de 
ce que nous appellons fleur-de-lis, non comme un symbole 
qui leur fut propre, non comme une marque qui leur fut 
particuli¢rement affectée; mais, 4 limitation, peut-étre, 
des Empereurs de Constantinople, ou des rois d’autres 
nations, ils ont mis quelquefois ces fleurs & leurs couronnes, 
et a leurs sceptres, comme un simple ornement, et tout-a- 
fait arbitraire: ce qui paroit evidemment en ce qu’un 
grand nombre de couronnes et de sceptres des premiers 
tems de la monarchie, n’ont ni trefles, ni fleurs-de-lis, ni 
rien qui en approche” (Monumens Franc., Discours Pre- 
liminaire, vol. i. pp. XXX. XXXiii.) 
Montfaucon has thus carried us back as far as 
Constantinople for the origin of this ornament, 
but it might be referred to a much higher African 
antiquity. Jam not aware that it has ever been 
remarked that this figure, very perfectly sculp- 
tured, was a common ornament employed in the 
head-dresses of the Egyptian sphynxes. Who- 
ever will take the trouble to examine those speci- 
mens in black marble which are exhibited in the 
Gallery of Egyptian Antiquities in the Louvre at 
Paris, will be satisfied as to the close resemblance 
of the ornament on their heads to the modern or 
earlier modern fleur-de-lis. The marbles marked 
A 31—32. have this flower. A 26—87. have 
a similar flower. A 20, one something similar. 
In the copies of these sphynxes, at the entrance 
of the Egyptian Court of the Crystal Palace at 
Sydenham, these ornaments may be equally well 
noticed. In this court will be found many other 
instances in which the resemblance is too strong 
to allow a doubt as to the sameness of this form 
with that of the modern flower. 
The Pompeian Court, also, offers examples of 
the same flower in a very perfect form. 
In Wilkinson’s admirable volumes on the Man- 
ners and Customs of the Egyptians (2nd Ser., vol. 
ii. p. 387.) is a representation of an altar from 
Thebes, now in the British Museum (No. 496.) ; 
in which, among the oblations of flowers, is one 
bearing a resemblance to a fleur-de-lis, though, 
perhaps, it may be thought to dispute this charac- 
ter with that of a husk. OF 5 an ba 
(To be continued.) 
FOLK LORE. 
The Red Hand of Ulster.—I am afraid the 
superstition connected with this honourable badge 
of baronetcy is too deeply rooted, in the minds of 
the vulgar, to be eradicated without great diffi- 
culty, as the following instances will show. 
Being at Hagley, some time since, and conver- 
sing with a villager about the Lyttelton family, I 
was gravely informed that on account of the mis- 
deeds of Thomas Lord Lyttelton (concerning 
whom the story is told that he foretold his own 
death, being informed thereof in a dream,) the 
Lord Lytteltons were compelled to have a “bloody 
hand” in their arms ; and that their arms being 
painted on a board, with the bloody hand very 
conspicuous thereon, were placed over the door 
of the hall; and I was moreover informed, that 
his lordship dared not remove it for twelve 
months. This board, I found, was placed there 
just after the death of the late lord, and was 
nothing more or less than a hatchment. I was 
also told that the hand was to be smaller every 
generation, until it entirely disappeared. 
The following is another instance of this absurd 
belief : —In one of the windows of Aston Church, 
near Birmingham, are the arms of the Holts, 
baronets of Aston; and there, unfortunately, the 
hand has been painted minus one finger ; and to ex- 
plain this, I was told that one of the Holts, having 
committed some evil deed, was compelled to place 
the bloody hand in his’ arms, and transmit the 
same to his descendants, who were allowed fo take 
one finger off for each generation, until all the 
fingers and thumbs being deducted, it might at 
length be dispensed with altogether ! 
C. J. Dovuatas. 
Herefordshire Weather Proverb. —In Here- 
fordshire, the following saying is current: 
“ Till St. James’s Day is past and gone, 
There may be hops, or there may be none.” 
J.R. R. 
Baptismal Superstition.—On a recent Sunday, at 
a certain country church in Worcestershire, there 
were three christenings, — two boys and a girl. 
The parents of one boy were in a very respectable 
class of life ; the parents of the two other children 
were in humble circumstances. The parties at the 
font had been duly placed by the officiating clergy- 
man, and, as it happened, the girl and her sponsors 
were placed last in order. When the first child— 
who was the boy of the poor parents — was about 
to be baptized, the woman who carried the little 
girl elbowed her way up to the clergyman, in 
order that the child she carried might be the first 
to be baptized. To do this, she had (very con- 
trary to the usual custom of the poor, who, in 
essential points, are generally as refined as their 
superiors) to rudely push past “her betters,” — 
