Various

“ Attention to metre and euphony will generally enable us to assign, amongst the forms in which we pick up and note any particular proverb, the original and legitimate one; especially when combined with brevity and "pith." As a case in point, our friend Ludlum will serve our purpose for comparison. Who does not see at a glance, taking account of the principles which govern the construction of a proverb, that the Sheffield version, as I gave it, must be more genuine than Southey's version, quoted by J. M. B.? ”

“ I feel obliged by the extract from the Doctor given by J. M. B. (Vol. i., p. 475.) , though it only answers by a kind of implication the Query I proposed. That implication is, that, instead of Ludlum and his dog being personages of distinction in their own way and in their own day, the proverb itself is merely one framed on the principle of alliteration, and without precise or definite "meaning." This is very full of meaning, as anyone may convince himself by observing the active energy of every muscle of all dogs in the act of barking. ”

“ A brosier would therefore mean a broken-down man, and therefore a bankrupt. The verb to brosier, as used at Eton, would easily be formed from the substantive. In the mediæval Latin, ruptura and ruptus were used to signify bankruptcy and a bankrupt. ”

“ The things of Spain are peculiar to a proverb, but they are not so exclusively national but we may find some connection with them in things of our own country. Any information from readers of Notes and Queries, on a few Spanish things which I have long sought for in vain, would prove most acceptable and useful to me. ”

“ We find these conditions fulfilled in the proverbs and saws of every people in the eastern and western world, alike in the remotest antiquity and in our own time. But are they therefore "without meaning?" Do not these qualities help to give them meaning, as well as to preserve them through their long and varied existence?
But there is another principle equally essential [Pg 43] to the constitution of a legitimate and lasting proverb; or rather two conjointly, metre and euphony. These may be traced in the proverb as completely as in the ballad ”

“ None of the Greek writers appear to have seen a live hippopotamus; nor is there any account of a live animal of this species having been brought to Greece, like the live tiger which Seleucus sent to Athens. ”

“ Toothache.—Few ailments have more charms for its cure than this. In point of efficacy none are reckoned better than a tooth taken from the mouth of a corpse, which is often enveloped in a little bag, and hung round the neck. A double nut is also sometimes worn in the pocket for the same purpose.
Hooping-cough.—A small quantity of hair is taken frown the nape of the child's neck, rolled up in a piece of meat, and given to a dog, in the firm belief that the disease thereby becomes transferred to the animal. ”

“ Query, Has there been a live hippopotamus in Europe since the reign of Commodus, with the exception of the young animal now in the Zoological Gardens in the Regent's Park?
L.
FOLK LORE. Folk Lore of South Northamptonshire.
Charming.—There are few villages in this district which are not able to boast a professor of the healing art, in the person of an old woman who pretends to the power of curing diseases by "charming;" and at the present day, in spite of coroners' inquests and parish officers, a belief in the efficacy of these remedies appears to be undiminished. ”

“ Cramp.—We still retain such a high sense of the efficacy of the form of the cross, that in case of spasms, or that painful state of the feet in which they are said to "sleep," it is commonly used, under the impression that it mitigates, if not entirely allays, the pain. Warts are also charmed away by crossing them with elder sticks: and a very common charm for the cramp consists in the sufferer's always taking care, when he pulls off his shoes and stockings, to place them in such a position as to form a resemblance to the "holy sign." ”

“ Strabo (xv. 1.) and Arrian (Ind., c. 6.) say that the products of the Indian rivers are similar to those of Ethiopia and Egypt, with the exception of the hippopotamus. They add, however, that according to Onesicritus, even this exception did not exist: for that the hippopotamus was found in the rivers of India. The report of Onesicritus was doubtless erroneous.
Herodotus, Aristotle, and the other Greek writers constantly call this animal ἵπποϛ ποτάμιοϛ. ”

“ It may be worth the while of gentlemen conversant with the ballad literature and political squibs of both the periods here indicated, to notice any traces in other squibs and ballads of the same imagery that is employed in this. It would also be desirable, if possible, to get a complete copy of these verses. My own memory can only supply a part, or rather disjointed parts: but I think it probable that it may be easily obtained by persons resident in the counties bordering on North Wales, especially in Shropshire or Herefordshire, and perhaps in Cheshire or Staffordshire. ”

“ Achilles Tatius, who wrote as late as the latter half of the fifth century of our era, says that it breathes fire and smoke (iv. 2.) ; while Damascius, who was nearly his contemporary says that the hippopotamus is an unjust animal, and represents Injustice in the hieroglyphic writing; because it first kills its father and then violates its mother (ap. Phot. Bibl. cod. 242., p. 322., b. 36. ed. Bekker.) ”

“ After a selection of some of the rules in the last edition of the Expurgatory Index, the editor in his address informs the reader, that, understanding the expurgation of books to be not the least important part of his office, and wishing to make books more accessible to students than they were without expurgation, he had availed himself of the labours of his predecessors, and, adding his own, issued the present volume, intending that a second, which was in great readiness, should quickly follow ”

“ The letters to Michael Aynsworth are very interesting, from their benevolent, earnest, and truly pious spirit, and might even now be read with advantage by a young student of theology: but, being very severe in many places upon the greater part of the body of the clergy called the Church of England, could have been by no means palatable to the High Church party,—
"Who no more esteem themselves a Protestant Church, or in union with those of Protestant communion, though they pretend to the name of Christian, and would have us judge of the spirit of Christianity from theirs ”

“ Cosin's MSS.—Basire, in his Brief of the Life, &c. of Bishop Cosin, appended to his Funeral Sermon (Lond. 1673, p. 69.) , after noticing several MS. works of Cosin's, some of which have not yet seen the light, adds, "These remains are earnestly recommended to his pious executor's care for publication."
Can any of your correspondents kindly inform me, who are the lineal representatives of Cosin's pious executor? Basire mentions three "imperfect" works of Bishop Cosin's in manuscript: viz. Annales Eccles., Historia Conciliorum, Chronologia Sacra. Is it known what has become of them? ”

“ I have a note, and should be glad to put a query, on the subject of a small octavo volume, of which the title is, "Indicis Librorum Expurgandorum, in studiosorum gratiam confecti, tomus primus; in quo quinquaginta auctorum libri præ cæteris desiderati emendantur. Per Fr. Io. Mariam Brasichellensem, sacri Palatii Apostolici Magistrum, in unum corpus redactus, et publicæ commoditati editus. Superiorum permissu, Romæ, 1607." Speaking of this index, Mendham says:—
"We now advance to perhaps the most extraordinary and scarcest of all this class of publications. ”

“ This must be done nine nights successively, at the end of which times the wart will completely disappear. For as the snail, exposed to such cruel treatment, will gradually wither away, so it is believed the wart, being impregnated with its matter, will slowly do the same.
Wens.—After a criminal is dead, but still hanging, his hand must be rubbed thrice over the wen. (Vide Brand, vol iii. p. 153.) Many persons are still living who in their younger days have undergone the ceremony, always, they say, attended with complete success. ”

“ What follows will, I think, be acceptable to your correspondents C H. and C. R. S.
"I have heard that the way in which Lord Shaftesbury got possession of the manuscript sermons was this:—Going one day to visit his grandmother, the Countess Dowager, widow of the first Earl, he found [Pg 34] her reading a manuscript; on inquiring what she was reading, she replied, that it was a sermon. His lordship expressed his surprise that she should take so much trouble as to read a manuscript sermon when there were such numbers in print. She said, she could find none so good as those she had in manuscript. ”

“ The one, however, may be fairly considered as a fac-simile of the other. (See the Rev. Joseph Mendham's Literary Policy of the Church of Rome exhibited, &c., chap. iii. pp. 116-128.) Mendham adds, that "there is a copy of the original edition" of this index "in the Bodleian Library, Oxford," presented to Sir Thomas Bodley by the Earl of Essex, together with the Belgic, Portuguese, Spanish and Neapolitan Indices, all which originally belonged to the library of Jerom Osorius, but had become part of the spoil of the expedition against Cadiz in 1596. ”

“ Collier, in his Annals of the Stage, vol. i., p. 374, says, that on the death of Edmund Tylney, in October, 1610, he succeeded him as Master of the Revels, and wrote his Treatise on the Office of the Revels prior to 1615. He also says,—
"In the spring of 1622, Sir George Buc appears to have been so ill and infirm, as to be unable to discharge the duties of his situation, and on the 2nd of May in that year, a patent was made out, appointing Sir John Astley Master of the Revels."—Biogr. Britann., p. 419. ”

“ Lond. 1661. 5. There is not the smallest reason for thinking it "probable" that Dean Holdsworth "preached other men's sermons." Respecting our great Caroline divines it would seldom have been right to say—
"Quos (Harpyiarum more)
Convectare juvat prædas, et vivere rapto."
Now, as to what Dr. Holdsworth really wrote, and with regard to that for which he is not responsible, it is to be observed, that he was so averse to the publication of any of his works, that he printed but a single sermon (on Psalm cxliv. 15.) ”

“ In the preface to this, which recently had been reprinted, he proposed to print the other works which he had prepared, if the Spanish Carrascon brought him "good news." Do his Latin works exist either in print or in manuscript?
3. Juan de Nicholas y Sacharles was another Spanish Protestant, who came to this country in 1618. He translated the Bouclier de la Foi, by P. Moulin, into Spanish; he presented it, I conjecture in MS., to Prince Charles about the year 1620. Is such a MS. known to exist in any of our libraries? ”

“ Tobacco in the East.—Can any of your readers inform me whether tobacco is indigenous to any part of Asia? Also, whether the habit of smoking (opium or tobacco) , now universal over the East, dates there from before the discovery of America? And if not, from what period?
Z. A. Z.
Stephanus Brulifer.—Can any of your correspondents kindly refer me to a library containing a copy of Stephanus Brulifer, in lib. iv. Sentent. Seraphici Doctoris Bonaventuræ, 8vo. Basil. 1507?
J. Sansom.
Replies. ASINORUM SEPULTURA.
To discover the origin of this phrase, your correspondent (Vol. ii., p. 8-9.) ”

“ In shape and appearance it resembles a gigantic hog. Buffon says that its name was derived from its neighing like a horse (Quad., tom. v., p. 165.) . But query whether this is the fact?
Bochart (Hierozoicon, P. ii., lib. v., c. 15, 16.) identifies the "behemoth" of Job (c. 40.) with the hippopotamus, and the "leviathan" with the crocodile. This view seems to be generally adopted by modern commentators. (See Winer, Bibl. Real-Wörterbuch, art. "Nilpferd.")
A Historia Hippopotami veterum Critica, by J. G. Schneider, is appended to his edition of Artedi Synonymia Piscium, p. 247. ”

“ DR. WHICHCOTE, MICHAEL AYNSWORTH, AND LORD SHAFTESBURY.
Not less remarkable and interesting than the publication of Dr. Whichcote's Sermons by the noble author of the Characteristics, is a posthumous volume (though never designed for the press) under the following title:—
"Several Letters written by a Noble Lord to a Young Man at the University. ”

“ Two preliminaries are given, as necessary to be strictly observed, in order to ensure a perfect cure. First, that the person to be operated upon comes with a full and earnest belief that a cure will be effected ”

“ It is certain, too, the friends of Christianity are obliged to him for the publication of one of the best volumes of sermons that ever appeared in the English language. They are twelve in number, by Dr. Benjamin Whichcote. These sermons (as well as the preface, which is admirable) breathe such a noble spirit of Christianity, as I think will efface every notion that his lordship was an enemy to the Christian religion. In this preface he calls Dr. ”

“ Holdsworth and Fuller.—In A. B. R.'s communication (Vol. i., p. 484.) some symptoms of inaccuracy must be noted before a satisfactory reply can be given to his Query.
[Pg 44]
1. He has erred in adopting the spelling of Holdsworth's name (viz. Holsworth) which appears in the title-page of The Valley of Vision. 2. This work is very incorrectly styled "the sermon," inasmuch as it consists of twenty-one sermons. 3. My copy bears date 1661, not 1651. 4. If Holdsworth's hand was "legible only to himself," we may sincerely commiserate the misfortune of his nephew, Dr. ”