430 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
(24S, No 22., May 81. 56. 
At the bottom he gives a specimen of his writ- 
ing equalling the finest engraving, to the following 
effect : 
“ Edinburgh, Febry the 5, 1725. This was Written by 
Matthew Buchinger, born Without Hands or Feet, in 
Germany, June the 34, 1674.” 
T believe some accounts of him are extant, and 
one ingenious piece of penmanship he executed 
for the .magistrates or city of Edinburgh may 
yet exist. 
He is a singular instance of how much may be 
done to overcome the defects of nature. In mo- 
dern times we have seen Miss Beffin, and others 
siinilar, but not apparently possessing half the 
dexterity of the German. G. N. 
A Scottish Characteristic. — 'The following lines 
Lhave copied from an old newspaper. Those well 
acquainted with that characteristic of the working 
people of Scotland, which is ever ready with a 
plausible justification of error, will not fail to 
enjoy the sly satire which runs through every 
line. Elspa will insist that it is the twa moons 
she sees, and not the drappie she has had, that 
eause her auld head to rack in pains. Is any one 
acquainted with the literary history of Andrew 
Park ? Heyry Srrrnens. 
Edinburgh. 
“ AULD ELSPA’S SOLILOQUY. 
“ Curious E'ffect of Multiplying Glasses. 
«¢There’s twa moons the night, 
Quoth the auld wife to hersel’, 
As she toddled hame fu’ cautie, 
Wi her stamach like a still! 
«¢There’s twa moons the nicht, 
An’ watery do they glower, 
As their wicks were burnin’ darkly, 
An’ the oil was rinnin’ ower! 
“«¢ Av’ they’re aye spark, sparkin’, 
As my ain auld cruirie did, 
When it blinket by the ingle, 
When the vain drapt on its lid. 
“QO but I’m unco late the nicht ; 
An’ on the cauld hearthstane, 
Puir Tammie will be croonin’, 
Wae an’ wearie a’ his lane. 
“© An’ the wee bit spunk o’ fire I left, 
By this time’s black and cauld; 
Tl ne’er stay oot sae late again, 
For I’m growing frail an’ auld. 
“¢T never like to see twa moons, - 
They speak o’ storm an’ rain; 
An’ aye, as sure’s neist mornin’ comes, 
My auld head’s rack’d wi’ pain!’ 
% ANDREW PARK.” 
The Upas Tree. —M. Kossuth, in a very ela- 
borate and eloquent speech at Birmingham on the 
8th inst., upon the subject of the Austrian Con- 
cordat, uses the following metaphor : 
“Tlowever, that the Vatican should not cease to aspire 
to political despotism, and by it to political supremacy, 
would as little astonish him as that the upas tree should 
poison the air, or the vulture should hover about its car- 
rion. Nature was nature. Who could wash white the 
Ethiopian?” — Birmingham Mercury, May 9. 
Now it may be a common, but it is a certain 
error, that the upas tree poisons the air, as any 
one may satisfy himself about by a visit to Kew 
Gardens; and many have passed close to this 
tree, about ten or twelve feet high, in one of the 
conservatories, where it flourishes, without the 
slightest indisposition. Those who desire to know 
more of the upas tree, and of the origin of the 
popular delusion on the subject, will find a draw- 
ing of it, and all that is worth knowing to the 
naturalist, in the Penny Magazine of 1833, vol. ii. 
pp- 321—323., and a, brief account in the Penny 
Cyclo., art. “ Antiaris.” T. J. Bucxroy. 
Lichfield. 
Epitaph on a Polish Exile. — The following re- 
markable description of a banished Polish patriot’s 
activity was lately copied from a cemetery at 
Auxerre, where it is engraved on a cippus, sur- 
mounted by a whiskered bust: 
SAB ET OR NE 
Mauritius Mocenacki 
Civis Polonus 
Hostem Moscoviensem 
Consiliis clandestinis 
Libris in vulgus editis 
Actionibus publicis 
Vehementissimis armis 
Obsidiabatur, circumrodebat, 
Persequebatur. 
Pro Patria 
Vincula, Vulnera, Exilium 
Passus 
Republica eversa 
Dum res gestas Polonorum 
Conscribendas, novi 
Belli materiem conflandam 
Rationem instituendam 
Curat, 
Corpore tantum 
Animum deficiente 
E medio opere 
abiit 
Anno MDCCCXXXIV. 
Anno [sic] natus xxx. 
Commilitones. 
D: D. DH? 
ToG. R. 
Anglo-Saxon Charters. — The dispersion of the 
publications of the English Historical Society 
during the present week, including the exceedingly 
valuable collection of Saxon Charters, edited by 
Mr. Kemble, suggests the appropriateness of the 
columns of “ N. & Q.” for a collection of such as 
may still remain unpublished. I. M. K. (24 §. 
i. 401.) mentions the possession of an early un- 
published charter. Possibly some of these charters 
may still exist in the collections of our old no- 
bility and landed gentry, as well as in private 
hands; even a few may still lurk in our public 
iE. ¢. 
