2»<* S. IX. June 9. 'CO.] 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



443 



original invention of the Anemometer has been 

 attributed, the discovery of some instrument which, 

 by the ingenious disposition of certain mechanical 

 appliances, might enable us to measure the force 

 of the wind. F. Phillott. 



Baxk, and Pightel or Pikle : Ventilate. — 



The words balk and pightel are occasionally to be 

 found in use in the older parts of the State of 

 New York : they were undoubtedly brought from 

 England by the early settlers of the province. 

 The word balk, when used alone, denotes an un- 

 cultivated strip of ground — generally woodland — 

 between adjoining fields, left in the clearing of the 

 country as a shelter for cattle. According to 

 Richardson, balk, in some of the counties of Eng- 

 land, means the raised line of earth thrown jip by 

 two adjoining furrows in ploughed ground. Plough 

 balk, and swarth balk, are also used here : the 

 latter being applied to the line of grass left by the 

 mower's scythe in each successive swarth. 



Pightel, or pikle, is a word very nearly obso- 

 lete, and so rarely in use that I am at a loss as 

 to its etymology. Pightel signifies an enclosure 

 surrounding a dwellinghouse, and is sometimes 

 synonymous with lawn. I am inclined to think it 

 is derived from the sea word pight, and that its 

 original meaning was a piece of ground staked all 

 round. Perhaps some of the correspondents of 

 " N. & Q." will be able to indicate in what parts 

 of England these words are used, and in what 

 sense. 



While on the subject of words, permit me to 

 ask whether the new and very expressive use of 

 the word ventilate originated in England or 

 America ? H. N. 



New York. 



Latin Puzzle. — The boys at the school I was 

 at were fond of the following, which I do not re- 

 collect having seen in any book : — 

 " Sa?pe cepi cepe sub sepe," 



which, spoken quick, appears as one word re- 

 peated four times. Also, 



" Mus currit in agro sine pedibus suis." 



* J. L. P. 



The "Gold Ants" of Herodotus. — In the 

 Atheuamm of May ]9th, p. 687., is this statement 

 from Eroebel's Travels in Central America : — 



" That certain species of ants in New Mexico construct 

 their nests exclusively of small stones, of the same mate- 

 rial, chosen by the insects from the various components 

 of the sand of the steppes and deserts. In one part of the 

 Colorado Desert their heaps were formed of small frag- 

 ments of crystallised feldspar ; and in another, imperfect 

 crystals of red transparent garnets were the materials of 

 which the ant-hills were built, and any quantity of them 

 might there he obtained." 



This corroborates an observation in vol. ii. of 

 Humboldt's Cosmos (I made no note of the page) : 



" It struck mo to sec thai in the basaltic districts of 



the Mexican highlands, the ants bring together heaps of 

 shining grains of hyalite, which I was able to collect out 

 of their hillocks." 



Does not this elucidate the gold-collecting ants 

 of Herodotus, and rescue a fact from the domain 

 of fiction ? F. C. B. 



Norwich. 



Bee Superstition. — A strange mode of al- 

 luring bees, when the usual way of dressing cot- 

 tagers' hives fails, was related to me lately by an 

 old farmer, who says he saw it practised fifty 

 years ago at Churcham, near Gloucester : — 

 When a swarm was to be hived, the Churcham 

 bee-masters, it appears, did not moisten the inside 

 of the hive with honey or sugar and water, &c, 

 but threw into the inverted hive about a pint of 

 beans, which they then caused a sow to devour 

 from the hive ; and deponent stated that after such 

 a process the swarm at once took to the hive. 

 Now, when we consider how delicately fastidious 

 are bees as to strong or unseemly odours, the 

 puzzling point is, does this custom, if fact, rest 

 upon any natural or recognisable principle, or is 

 it, like many other bee customs, the relic of an 

 effete superstitious usage ? 



The gentlemen of the Muswell Hill Apiary 

 may perhaps elucidate. F. S. 



The Roman "Derby-Day." — The practice of 

 starting our modern race-horses by letting fall a 

 flag as a signal may boast of classical antiquity, if 

 not of imperial sanction. In the great race-course 

 of ancient Rome the " starter," as soon as the 

 rope was lowered, gave his signal by dropping 

 the mappa or napkin, when the chariots dashed 

 off into the course amid the roar of some hundred 

 thousand spectators. This signal is said to have 

 originated with the Emperor Nero, who, finding 

 the people impatient for the race to " come off," 

 threw down his dinner-napkin as a signal for the 

 horses to start.* Only four chariots "entered;" 

 the drivers were known by their distinctive 

 colours, which were originally green, red, blue, 

 and white, emblematic of the seasons. Domitian 

 added yellow and purple ; green, however, seems 

 to have been the favourite. Juvenal, describing 

 the Derbyite enthusiasm which emptied senate- 

 house and forum, and sent all Rome mad for the 

 first day, seeui3 to allude to this as a winning 

 colour. 



" Totam hodie 'Romam circus capit ; et fragor aurem 

 Percutit, eventum viridis quo colligo panni." 



Libelli, "correct cards," were distributed among 

 the galleries of the circus with the horses' and 

 drivers' names, colours, &c, while the same poet's 

 mention of " uudax sponsio " would imply that 

 heavy "odds" were offered and taken on the race. 

 The mete, round which the chariots turned, was a 



I* See "N. & Q." 2 nd S. vii. 486.— Ed.] 



