September 1, 1888.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



255 



I may remark, however, with regard to the names which 

 I have used for indicating continents and seas, that while in 

 the main I have followed the nomenclature adopted in my 

 former chart as corrected in that respect by Mr. Green, I 

 have not adopted all his changes, and I have introduced 

 some changes of my own. I never intended my first 

 nomenclature to be definite ; indeed, I adopted it merely 

 for convenience of reference in a work of my own on the 

 planet — planned like my " Saturn and its System," but not 

 accepted by publishers as likely to be commercially success- 

 ful, so that " my poverty but not my will " forceil me to 

 withdi-aw it from an unappreciative community. Mr. Green 

 was quite right in pointing out that some names were used 

 too often — Mr. Dawes's name, for instance, was given to a 

 Continent, an Ocean, a Sea, an Island, a Bay, and so forth. 

 That was all very well for my plan, but not in a chart for 

 general reference. Mr. Green altered and added freely ; 

 somewhat too freely, indeed, doing what has always seemed 

 to me undesirable, in crowding in a number of names of 

 living pei-sons (my own included), after a fashion recalling 

 Mr. Birt's preposterous additions to the names of lunar 

 craters. In omitting many of these I have taken the oppor- 



tunity to substitute unobjectionable names (which may be 

 regarded as only temporary) for some of those which had 

 been unsatisfactorily named in my former chart. Mist 

 Island, Windy Land, Cloud Land, Cape Steadfast, Gloomy 

 Sea, and the like, are names which, while altogether free 

 from objection in themselves, correspond with the actual 

 appearance of the features named. 



Of Signor Schiaparelli's classical nomenclature I can only 

 say that, judging from what one hears when papers are read 

 or discussed at the rooms of the Astronomicixl Society, there 

 are not nine of Schiaparelli's names out of ten which would 

 be properly pronounced, even if observers and astronomers 

 generally could be expected to fix in their memories a series 

 of sesquipedalian and, for the most part, entirely unmeaning 

 names. The nomenclature belongs to the affectations by 

 which men of science, who ought to have known better, 

 have brought ridicule on science and on themselves. 

 ilachina Pnmmatica for a constellation, Margaritifer 

 Sinus for a Martian feature. Chromosphere and Leuco- 

 sphere for solar appendages, and all such absurdities, 

 should have no existence among sensible students of 

 science. 



MANX AND WELSH FAIRIES. 



By Stella Occidens. (Mary Proctor.) 



la oldfe dayes of the King Artour 



Of which the Breton spoke great honour, 



All was this lond fulfilled of faerie ; 



Tlie elf-queene with her jolie companie 



Danced full oft in meny a grene mede.— Chaucer. 



E fairy folk-lore of the Isle of Man, which 

 was early peopled by the Celts, is very like 

 that of England. Their fairies are called 

 Good People, though they scarcely deserve 

 thi.s name, since fiom all accounts they are 

 the most mischievous imps in existence. 

 They steal little children out of their 

 cradles, leaving ugly changelings in their place, and are 

 also very fond of talking midnight rides on stolen steeds, 

 which the owners find in the stable next morning covered 

 with foam and sweat, and nearly tired to death. 



The Phynnodderee, or Hairy One, of Man, is like the 

 Brownie or Ivobold, and his story is a sad one. When he 



should have been in attendance at the Fairy Court on the 

 occasion of the Ri'-holli/s vooar yn ouyr, or harvest moon, 

 he was dancing in the merry glen of Eushen with a pretty 

 Manx maiden. For this grave offence he was banished 

 from Fairyland and doomed to wander about the Isle of 

 Man till Doomsday, in a wild form, covered with long 

 shaggy hair. He is a good-natured spirit, often helping 

 farmers to cut hay or drive cattle home before a storm. On 

 one occasion he carried some huge blocks of stone from the 

 beach to a place near the foot of Snafield Mountain, and the 

 owner rewarded him by leaving a whole suit of clothes in 

 one of his favourite haunts. The Phynnodderee, on finding 

 them, lifted them one by one, singing dolefully mean- 

 while : — 



" If these be .ill thine, thine cannot be the merry glen of 

 Rushen," and, giving a melancholy wail, he disappeared and 

 has never been seen since. The old Manx folks say " there 

 has not been a merry world since he lost his ground." 



An account given of a fairy banquet in Man recalls the 

 well-known legend of the " Luck of Edenhall." It is 

 related that a farmer was returning home across the fields 



of music in the dis- 



one evening, when he heard sound; 



