Various

“ This artifice, if not purely historical, is at least very excusable, because so natural, seeing that the duplex principle has such an extensive range; that even the feet themselves come into the world in pairs, and so shoes must be produced after the same fashion—paired, as the shoemakers have done by their adored Crispin and Crispianus. ”

“ A five o'clock morning bell is also rung at Kidderminster. This and the curfew bell have been rung for many years past by "Blind William," who, notwithstanding his total blindness, finds his way along the streets that lead from his house to the church, and gains the belfry with the greatest ease. So well is he acquainted with the path to church, that he may be seen to turn the corners of the streets in as decided a manner as if his wide-open eyes were endowed with sight; and, with similar facility, he unlocks the gates and church doors. ”

“ Marriage Custom at Knutsford, Cheshire.—A singular but pleasing custom exists among the inhabitants of Knutsford in Cheshire. On the occasion of a wedding, when the bride has set out for the church, a relative invariably spreads on the pavement, which is composed of pebbles, before her house, a quantity of silver sand, there called "greet," in the form of wreaths of flowers, and writes, with the same material, wishes for her happiness. ”

“ During the month preceding Christmas, he promenades the streets at untimely hours, and draws from his old fiddle all the music which it is capable of giving forth. Indeed, Blind Willie may be considered (in Kidderminster at least) as the harbinger of Christmas, for he warns the inhabitants of its approach, long before the ordinary "waits" have taken their ordinary measures for the same purpose. And when Christmas Day is past and gone, he makes house-to-house visitation for the Christmas-box which is to be the reward of his "early minstrelsy."
The curfew is rung at Bewdley in Worcestershire. ”

“ When bed-time arrives on Christmas Eve, the children hang up their stockings at the foot of their beds, to receive presents brought them by a fabulous personage called Krishkinkle, who is believed to descend the chimney with them for all the children who have been good during the previous year. The word Krishkinkle is a corruption of Christ-kindlein, literally Christ-infant, and is understood to be derived from the fact that a representation of the Infant Saviour in the manger formed part of the decorations prepared for the children at Christmas. ”

“ If a man sneezed at the table while they were taking away, or if another happened to sneeze upon his left hand, it was unlucky; if on the right hand, fortunate.
If, in the undertaking any business, two or four sneezes happened, it was a lucky omen, and gave encouragement to proceed; if more than four, the omen was neither good nor bad; if one or three, it was unlucky, and dehorted them from proceeding in what they had designed. If two men were deliberating about any business, and both of them chanced to sneeze together, it was a prosperous omen.—Archæol. ”

“ Florin and the Royal Arms.—What is the authority for placing the national arms (which are by royal proclamations ordered to be borne quarterly in ratification of the respective unions, and to be borne under one imperial crown) in separate shields? They surely cannot with any heraldic propriety be so arranged. The absurdity was remarked in the reign of the Georges, for by the separation of the coats the arms of the German Dominions of George I. obtained the second place, viz. the dexter side, with France on the sinister, and Ireland at the bottom or fourth place. ”

“ A short time ago a woman came to a clergyman, and brought with her half-a-crown, asking at the same time for five "sacrament sixpences" in exchange. She said that one of her relations was ill, and that she wished to use the money as a charm to drive away the disease. This superstition may have arisen from the once prevalent custom of distributing the alms in the church to those of the poor who were present at the sacrament.
I have heard that the negroes in Jamaica attach the same "gifts of healing" to the consecrated bread, and often, if they can escape notice, will carry it away with them. ”

“ Propitiating the Fairies.—Having some years since, on a Sunday afternoon, had occasion to ride on horseback between two towns in the eastern part of Cornwall, I met a christening party, also on horseback, headed by the nurse with a baby in her arms. Making a halt as I approached her, she stopped me, and producing a cake, presented it to me, and insisted on my taking it. Several years after, when in the Isle of Man, I had the opportunity of hearing an elderly person relate several pieces of folk lore respecting the witches and fairies in that island. ”

“ Photographic Engraving.—I inclose a copy of a little book for your inspection, which is remarkable only in this, that the illustrations are produced by photography. The general theory of the method is this: a piece of glass is covered with a uniform thin coating of some substance, so as to be opaque or semi-opaque (the substance should be light coloured) , and a design is etched on it with a needle. ”

“ William the Conqueror is another of the pious patterns he recommends, 'who would suffer nothing,' he says, 'to be determined in any ecclesiastical causes without leave and authority first had from him.'... His present majesty is not William the Conqueror; and can no more by our constitution rule absolutely either in Church or State than he would if he could: his will and pleasure is indeed a law to all his subjects ”

“ Oonagh, his wife, saw his distress, and soon contrived to find out the cause of it; and having done so, she assured him that if he would leave things to her management, and strictly obey her directions, she would make the giant return home faster than he came. Fuenvicouil promised obedience; and, as no time was to be lost, Oonagh commenced her preparations. She first baked two or three large cakes of bread, taking care to put the griddle (the iron plate used in Ireland and Scotland for baking bread on) into the largest. ”

“ It may not be irrelevant to observe that worm in some places still means a serpent; but I believe it has usually a prefix, as "hag-worm" in Westmoreland and the West Riding of Yorkshire; so also in the latter "slow-worm" means a species of small snake or viper found on some of the moors. (For "slow-worm," see "N. & Q.," Vol. viii., pp. 33. and 479.) I have been told that "blind-worm" in Surrey means a viper. I conclude with a Query, Does Wurm in modern German ever mean a serpent?
F. W. J.
"To put a spoke in one's wheel," is not singular in its double entendre (Vol. viii., pp. 262. 351. 464.) . ”

“ He was a farmer, and respected by all his neighbours. So general is the conviction of the efficacy of the divining rod in discovering both water and the ores of calamine or zinc all over the Mendip, that the people are quite astonished when any doubt is expressed about it. The late Dr. Hutton wrote against the pretension, as one of many instances of deception founded upon gross ignorance and credulity; when a lady of quality, who herself possessed the faculty, called upon him, and gave him experimental proof, in the neighbourhood of Woolwich, that water was discoverable by that means. ”

“ She then proceeded to dress up Fuenvicouil as a baby; and having put a cap on his head, tucked him up in the cradle, charging him on no account to speak, but to carefully obey any signs she might make to him. The preparations were only just completed, when the giant arrived, and, striding into the house, demanded to see Fuenvicouil. Oonagh received him politely; said she could not tell any more than the child in the cradle, where her husband then was; but requested the giant to sit down and rest, till Fuenvicouil came in. ”

“ Greek Epigram.—In the Bath Chronicle of the 10th of November last, I find the following advertisement:
"The Clergyman of a Town Parish, in which are several crippled persons, at present unable to attend divine worship, will feel very grateful to any gentleman or lady who will give him an old Bath chair for the use of these poor people; two blind men having offered, in this case, charitably to convey their crippled neighbours regularly to the house of God." ”

“ In the Delony version—itself, in every probability, a borrowing from the popular mind of the Elizabethan period,—these things are put forth; while in trade paintings and songs the Prince Crispin is assumed to have a wife or sister, one can hardly tell which, in the person of a princess, the Princess Crispianus, and who figures as the patron of the women's branch of the shoemakers' art; Crispin himself presiding over the coarser labour for the rougher sex. ”

“ In Pennsylvania many of the usages connected with it are of German origin, and derived from the early settlers of the Teutonic race, whose descendants are now a very numerous portion of the population. The Christmas Tree is thus devised: It is planted in a flower-pot filled with earth, and its branches are covered with presents, chiefly of confectionary, for the younger members of the family. ”

“ It will be the constant study of the Editors to maintain in the New Work all those general features which for Twenty-two Years have given their Journal its extensive popularity—a cheerful Light Literature, comprehensive Information, sound Ethics, and enlightened views of a Progressive Social Economy, without the admixture of controversial matter of any kind. ”

“ I am not a German scholar, but I find that the translator of Wallenstein's Tod (I believe Lord Ellesmere) has translated or paraphrased the lines quoted by Mr. Keightley as follows:
"But nature gave the very worm a sting,
When trampled on by man, to turn again."
The sense of the passage (spoken by Butler) requires that "wurm" should be understood to mean a harmless despised reptile, not a venomous serpent.
It seems that Schiller had Shakspeare in his mind when he wrote the lines in question; indeed, they are almost a copy of Shakspeare's line. I consider them as parallel passages. ”

“ Neither the Oxford translation, Edwards's, nor Buckley's, renders ὀλιγοστον "very brief," agreeably to the admonition of the old scholiast to the contrary. The word "practise" objected to is, I submit, derived from πράσσω, to act, through πράγμα, business, and πρᾶξις, practice, and is therefore the most appropriate English word, although the word "does" will furnish Sophocles' meaning nearly as well. I shall, however, be most happy to submit to correction by any classical scholar. ”

“ THE CURFEW.
(Vol. ii., pp. 103. 175. 189. 311.; Vol. iv., p. 240.; Vol. vi., pp. 53. 112.; Vol. vii., pp. 167. 530.; Vol. viii., p. 603.)
The curfew is still rung at Kidderminster at eight o'clock. It is the annual custom there, on a certain night, to continue the ringing for one hour, a sum of money having been left for that purpose as a thank-offering to God, for the curfew having been the means of saving a person from destruction. ”

“ There is also mention of this custom (the observation of sneezing) in Homer, who has introduced Penelope rejoicing at a sneeze of her son Telemachus:
"Οὐχ ὁράας ὅ μοι υἱὸς ἐπέπταρεν"
Sneezing was not always a lucky omen, but varied according to the alteration of circumstances—"Τῶν πταρμῶν οἱ μὲν εἰσὶν ὠφέλιμοι, οἱ δὲ βλαβεροί," "Some sneezes are profitable, others prejudicial"—according to the scholiast upon the following passage of Theocritus, wherein he makes the sneezing of the Cupids to have been an unfortunate omen to a certain lover:
"Σιμιχίδα μὲν ἔρωτες ἐπέπταρον." ”

“ FOLK LORE IN THE REIGN OF KING JAMES I.
In turning over the pages of an old book of controversial divinity, I stumbled upon the following illustrations of folk lore; which, as well from their antiquity as from their intrinsic curiosity, seem worthy of a place in your columns. They make us acquainted with some of the usages of our ancestors, who lived in the remoter districts of England early in the reign of James I. The title of the volume in which they occur is the following:
"The Way to the True Church ”

“ I. The Chinese Jews have not the ancient Hebrew character, but the comparatively modern square Chaldee one, as in our printed Bibles. II. Gozani states that the Jews of Kaafung Foo, in Honan, had some traditions from the Talmud. The Mishnah, constituting the text of the Talmud, is manifestly a compilation subsequent to the closing of the Jewish canon; the quotations from the books following those of Moses being constantly in use therein. III. On Gozani mentioning Jesus the Messiah, the Chinese Jew said they had a knowledge of Jesus the son of Sirach. ”

“ Testimonials from the best Photographers and principal scientific men of the day, warrant the assertion, that hitherto no preparation has been discovered which produces uniformly such perfect pictures, combined with the greatest rapidity of action. ”

“ If the children have not been good during the year previous, instead of finding sugar-plums and other presents in their stockings on Christmas morning, they discover therein a birch-rod. This is said to have been placed there by Pelsnichol, or Nicholas with the fur, alluding to the dress of skins in which he is said to be clad. ”

“ The Church of Rome has quickly felt there was nothing combustible but the paper. The truth flew upward like the angel from Manoah's sacrifice, untouched by the fire, and unsullied by the smoke, and found a safe refuge at the footstool of the God of Truth."
G. N.
JEWS IN CHINA. (Vol. viii., p. 515.)
The only people known as descendants of any of the ten tribes are the Spomerim, or Samaritans ”