Notes and Queries, Number 40, August 3, 1850

E.S.T.

Charming for Warts.—In Vol. i., p. 19., a correspondent asks if the custom of "charming for warts" prevails in England.

A year or two ago I was staying in Somersetshire, and having a wart myself, was persuaded to have it "charmed." The village-charmer was summoned; he first cut off a slip of elder-tree, and made a notch in it for every wart. He then rubbed the elder against each, strictly enjoining me to think no more about it, as if I looked often at the warts the charm would fail.

In about a week the warts had altogether disappeared, to the delight of the operator.

N.A.B.

NOTES ON COLLEGE SALTING; TURKISH SPY; DR. DEE; FROM "LETTERS FROM THE BODLEIAN, &c." 2 VOLS. 1813

Having been lately reading through this interesting collection, I have "noted" some references to subjects which have been discussed in your columns.

1. College Salting. Salt at Eton Montem (Vol. i., pp. 261. 306. 321. 384. 390. 492.).—I am not quite clear as to the connection between these two subjects: but an identity of origin is not improbable. A letter from Mr. Byrom to Aubrey, "On the Custom of Salting at Eton," Nov. 15. 1693, is in vol. ii. p. 167.:

"I could send you a long answer to your queries, but have not the confidence to do it; for all that I can say was only heard from others when I was at school at Eton, and if I should depend upon that, perhaps I should make too bold with truth. 'Twas then commonly said that the college held some lands by the custom of salting; but having never since examined it, I know not how to account for it. One would think, at first view, considering the foundation was designed for a nursery of the Christian religion, and has not been in being much above 250 years, that it is not likely any remains of the Gentiles, relating to their sacrifices, should in so public a manner be suffered in it; however, I cannot but own with those that understand anything of antiquity, that the Christians very early assumed some rites of the heathens; and probably it might be done with this design,—that the nations, seeing a religion which in its outward shape was something like their own, might be the sooner pursuaded to embrace it. To be free, sir, with you, I am apt to believe, for the honour of that society of which I was once an unworthy member, that the annual custom of salting alludes to that saying of our Saviour to His disciples, 'Ye are the salt of the earth;' for as salt draws up all that matter that tends to putrefaction, so it is a symbol of our doing the like in a spiritual state, by taking away all natural corruption.... If this will not please, why may it not denote that wit and knowledge by which boys dedicated to learning ought to distinguish themselves. You know what sal sometimes signifies among the best Roman authors: Publius Scipio omnes sale facetiisque superabat, Cic.; and Terent, Qui habet salem qui in te est."

The Editor has a note on this letter:—

"There have been various conjectures relative to the origin of this custom. Some have supposed that it arose from an ancient practice among the friars of selling consecrated salt and others, with more probability, from the ceremony of the bairn or boy-bishop, as it is said to have been formerly a part of the Montem-celebration for prayers to be read by a boy dressed in the clerical habit."

A letter from Dr. Tanner to Mr. Hearne on Barne or Boy-bishops, is in vol. i., p. 302.

2. The Turkish Spy (Vol. i., p. 324.; vol. ii., p. 12.).—The letter or the authorship of this work quoted by DR. RIMBAULT from the Bodleian MSS., is printed in vol. i. p. 233.; and I observe that DR. R. has incorporated in his communication the Editor's note on the passage.

3. Dr. Dee (Vol. i., pp. 216. 284.).—A letter about Dr. Dee from Mr. Ballard to T. Hearne occurs in vol. ii. p. 89. It does not throw light on the question of why Dr. Dee left Manchester College? There are also notes for a life of Dee among Aubrey's Lives, appended to these Letters (vol. ii. p. 310.) Both letters and notes refer to original sources of information for Dee's Life.

CH.

MINOR NOTES

Alarm.—A man is indicted for striking at the Queen, with intent (among other things) to alarm her Majesty. It turns out that the very judge has forgotten the legal (which is also the military) meaning of the word. An alarm is originally the signal to arm: Query, Is it not formed from the cry à l'arme, which in modern times is aux armes? The judge said that from the courage of her family, most likely the Queen was not alarmed, meaning, not frightened. But the illegal intent to alarm merely means the intent to make another think that it is necessary to take measures of defence or protection. When an alarm is sounded, the soldier who is not alarmed is the one who would be held to be frightened.

M.

Taking a Wife on Trial.—The following note was made upon reading The Historical and Genealogical Account of the Clan of Maclean, by a Seneachie, published by Smith, Elder, and Co., London, 1838. It may be thought worthy of a corner amongst the Notes on Folk Lore, which form so curious and entertaining a portion of the "NOTES AND QUERIES."

In the beginning of the year 1608 a commission, consisting of the Archbishop of Glasgow, the Bishop of the Isles (Andrew Knox), Andrew Stewart, Lord Ochiltree, and Sir James Hay of Kingask, proceeded to the Isles with power to summon the chiefs to a conference, for the purpose of intimating to them the measures in contemplation by the government. A meeting for this purpose was held at Aross Castle, one of the seats of Maclean, in Mull, at which the principal barons and heads of houses attended.

The regulations contemplated had for their object the introduction of an additional number of pious divines, who were to be provided for out of the lands of the great island proprietors; the abolishing a certain remarkable custom which till then prevailed, namely, that of taking a wife on approbation, or, in plain intelligible terms, on trial!

The following are two examples recorded of this singular custom.

John Mac-Vic Ewen, fourth laird of Ardgour, had handfasted (as it was called) with a daughter of Mac Ian of Ardnamurchan, whom he had taken on a promise of marriage, if she pleased him. At the expiration of two years he sent her home to her father; but his son by her, the gallant John of Invorscaddel, a son of Maclean of Ardgour, celebrated in the history of the Isles, was held to be an illegitimate offspring by virtue of the "handfast ceremony."

Another instance is recorded of a Macneil of Borra having for several years enjoyed the society of a lady of the name of Maclean on the same principle; but his offspring by her were deprived of their inheritance by the issue of his subsequent marriage with a lady of the Clanrannald family.

These decisions no doubt tended to the abolition of a custom or principle so subversive of marriage and of the legitimacy of offspring.

J.M.G.

Worcester, July 19.

Russian Language.—A friend of mine, about to go to Russia, wrote to me some time since, to ask if he could get a Russian grammar in English, or any English books bearing on the language. I told him I did not think there were any; but would make inquiry. Dr. Bowring, in his Russian Anthology, states as a remarkable fact, that the first Russian grammar ever published was published in England. It was entitled H.W. Ludolfi Grammatica Russica quæ continet et Manuductionem quandum ad Grammaticam Slavonicam. Oxon. 1696. The Russian grammar next to this, but published in its own language, was written by the great Lomonosov, the father of Russian poetry, and the renovator of his mother tongue: I know not the year, but it was about the middle of the last century. I have a German translation of this grammar "Von Johann Lorenz Stuvenhagen: St. Petersburgh, 1764." Grotsch, Jappe, Adelung, &c., have written on the Russian language. Jappe's grammar, Dr. Bowring says, is the best he ever met with. I must make a query here with regard to Dr. Bowring's delightful and highly interesting Anthologies. I have his Russian, Dutch, and Spanish Anthologies: Did he ever publish any others? I have not met with them. I know he contemplated writing translations from Polish, Servian, Hungarian, Finnish, Lithonian, and other poets.

Jarltzberg.

Pistol and Bardolph.—I am glad to be able to transfer to your pages a Shakspearian note, which I met with in a periodical now defunct. It appears from an old MS. in the British Museum, that amongst canoniers serving in Normandy in 1436, were "Wm. Pistail—R. Bardolf." Query, Were these common English names, or did these identical canoniers transmit a traditional fame, good or bad, to the time of Shakspeare, in song or story?

If this is a well-known Query, I should be glad to be referred to a solution of it, if not, I leave it for inquiry.

G.H.B.

EPIGRAM FROM BUCHANAN.

Doletus writes verses and wonders—ahem—When there's nothing in him, that there's nothing in them.

J.O.W.H.

QUERIES

CALVIN AND SERVETUS

The fate of Servetus has always excited the deepest commiseration. His death was a judicial crime, the rank offence of religious pride, personal hatred, and religious fanaticism. It borrowed from superstition its worst features, and offered necessity the tyrant's plea for its excuse. Every detail of such events is of great interest. For by that immortality of mind which exists for ever as History, or through the agency of those successive causes which still link us to it by their effects, we are never separated from the Past. There is also an eloquence in immaterial things which appeals to the heart through all ages. Is there a man who would enter unmoved the room in which Shakspeare was born, in which Dante dwelt, or see with indifference the desk at which Luther wrote, the porch beneath which Milton sat, or Sir Isaac Newton's study? So also the possession of a book once their own, still more of the MS. of a work by which great men won enduring fame, written in a great cause, for which they struggled and for which they suffered, seems to efface the lapse of centuries. We feel present before them. They are before us as living witnesses. Thus we see Servetus as, alone and on foot, he arrived at Geneva in 1553; the lake and the little inn, the "Auberge de la Rose," at which he stopped, reappear pictured by the influence of local memory and imagination. From his confinement in the old prison near St. Peter's, to the court where he was accused, during the long and cruel trial, until the fatal eminence of Champel, every event arises before us, and the air is peopled with thick coming visions of the actors and sufferer in the dreadful scene. Who that has read the account of his death has not heard, or seemed to hear, that shriek, so high, so wild, alike for mercy and of dread despair, which when the fire was kindled burst above through smoke and flame,—"that the crowd fell back with a shudder!" Now it strikes me, an original MS. of the work for which he was condemned still exists; and I, thinking that others may feel the interest I have tried to sketch in its existence, will now state the facts of the case, and lay my authorities before your readers.

"We condemn you, said the council, Michael Servetus, to be bound and led to Champel, where you are to be fastened to a stake, and burnt alive together with your book, as well the printed as the MS."

"About midday he was led to the stake. An iron chain encompassed his body; on his head was placed a crown of plaited straw and leaves strewed with sulphur, to assist in suffocating him. At his girdle were suspended his printed books; and the MS. he had sent to Calvin."

This MS. had been completed in 1546, and sent to Geneva for his opinion. Calvin, in a letter to Farel says:

"Servetus wrote to me lately, and accompanied his letter with a long volume of his insanities."

This long volume was the MS. of the "Restitutio Christianismi," now ready for the press. We have seen that it was sent to Calvin. It was never returned, but produced in evidence, and burnt with him at the stake. Nevertheless, he either possessed another copy or took the pains of writing it afresh, and thus the work was secretly printed at Vienna, at the press of Balshazar Arnoullet in 1553. Of this edition, those at Frankfort were burnt at the instance of Calvin; at Geneva, Robert Stephens sacrificed all the copies which had come into his hands; so that of an edition of one thousand, it is said only six copies were preserved. These facts I owe to the excellent Life of Calvin by Mr. T.H. Dyer, recently published by Mr. Murray. Now does the following MS. bear relation to that described as recopied by Servetus, from which Arnoullet printed? or is it the first rough sketch? Can any of your readers say into what collection it passed?

The extract is from the Catalogue of the Library of Cisternay Dufay, by Gabriel Martin, Paris, 8vo. 1725, being lot 764., p. 98., and was sold for 176 livres.

"Librorum Serveti de Trinitate Codex MS. autographus. In fronte libri apparet note quæ sequitur, manu ipsius defuncti D. du Fay exarata.

"Forsan ipsius auctoris autographus Codex hic MS. qui fuit percelebris Bibliopolæ Basiliensis Coelii Horatii Curionis. Videtur prima conceptio (vulgò l'Esquisse, en termes de Peinture) Libri valdè famigerati Mich. Serveti, a Joanne Calvino cum ipso Serveto combusti, cui Titulus, Christianismi Restitutio, hoc est totius Ecclesiæ Apostolicæ ad sua limina Vocatio, &c. &c., typis mandati anno 1554, Viennæ Allobrogum, 8vo. pagg. 734," concluding with an anecdote of the rarity of the volume.

There may be some to whom these "Notes" may be of use, others to whom a reply to the "Queries" may have interest, and so I send them to you. Such MSS. are of great historical importance.

S.H.

Athenæum, July 26.

ETYMOLOGICAL QUERIES

Any remarks on the meaning and derivation of the following words, will be thankfully received.

Rykelot.—A magpie?

Berebarde.—"In the fever or the Berebarde."

Wrusum, or Wursum.—"My wounds that were healed gather new wrusum, and begin to corrupt."

Deale.—Placed always between two sentences without any apparent connection with either of them. Is it an abbreviation of "Dieu le sait?"

Sabraz.—"He drinks bitter sabraz to recover his health."

Heteneste.—"Inclosed hetenest in a stone coffin or tomb."

Schunche.—"Schunche away."

I-menbred.—"A girdle i-menbred."

Blodbendes of silk.

Hesmel.—"Let their hesmel be high istiled, al without broach."

Irspille.—"Wear no iron, nor haircloth, nor irspilles felles."

J. Mn.

MINOR QUERIES

Countess of Desmond.—I should be much obliged if any of your readers would inform me of the manner of the death of Catherine Fitzgerald, Countess of Desmond, commonly called the "old Countess of Desmond," who died in 1626, aged above 140 years,—some say, 162 years. I think I remember reading, some years since, that she died from a fall from a cherry-tree, at the age of 144 years. If so, where can the account be found?

K.

Cheetham Hill.

Noli me tangere.—Can any of your readers refer me to pictures upon the subject of Noli me tangere. I want to know what artists have treated the subject, and where their pictures exist.

B.R.

Line in Milton's "Penseroso."—In those somewhat hacknied lines,

"And may my due feet never fail," &c.,

I am somewhat puzzled to understand the expression,

"With antique pillars massy proof."

Now what is "proof,"—a substantive or adjective? If the latter, no edition is rightly stopped; for, of course, there should be a comma after "massy;" and then I somewhat doubt the propriety of "proof" for "proved," unless joined with another word, as "star-proof," "rain-proof."

If "proof" is a substantive, "massy proof" is in apposition to "antique pillars," and is very meaningless. Can any of your readers suggest an explanation?

H.A.B.

"Mooney's Goose."—As a pendant to "Ludlam's dog," I beg to insert the proverb of "Full of fun and fooster, like Mooney's goose," with the hope that your acute and ingenious correspondent D.V.S. may be able to throw some light upon "Mooney." Let me add that D.V.S. has perhaps somewhat misconceived my brief comment on Ludlam, which my regard for conciseness has left some deal obscure; and it does not appear worth while to go over the ground again. I repeatedly heard "Dick's hat-band" quoted by Lancashire friends exactly as given by Southey. Does not the variation "cobbler's dog" tend to prove the alliterative principle for which I had been contending?

J.M.B.

Translation of the Philobiblon.—Where can I procure a translation of Robert de Bury's Philobiblon?

L.S.

Achilles and the Tortoise.—Where is the paradox of "Achilles and the Tortoise" to be found? Leibnitz is said to have given it solution in some part of his works.

There is also a geometrical treatment of the subject by Gregoire de S. Vincent. Will some reading man oblige me with information or reference concerning it.

[Greek: Idiotaes.]

Dominicals.—I am desirous of obtaining information on a subject of much interest to Exeter.

An ancient payment is made to the rectors of each parish within the city of Exeter, called "Dominicals," amounting to 1d. per week from every householder within the parish. Payments of a similar nature are made in London, Canterbury, and I believe Worcester. Can any of your numerous readers state the origin of Dominicals, and give any information respecting them.

W.R.C.

Yorkshire Dales.—A Pedestrian would be much obliged by being informed if there is any map, guide, or description published, that would serve as a hand-book to the Dales in the West Riding of Yorkshire, between Lancashire and Westmoreland.

REPLIES

TOBACCO IN THE EAST

In the Edinburgh Cabinet Library, vol. iii. p. 383., art. "China," it is stated that three species of tobacco have been found in India and in China, under circumstances which can leave no doubt of their being native plants.

Dr. Bigelow (American Botany, 4to., vol. ii. p. 171.) tells us that Nicot. fructicosa is said to have been cultivated in the East prior to the discovery of America. Linnæus sets down the same as a native of China and the Cape of Good Hope. Sir G. Staunton says that there is no traditional account of the introduction of tobacco into China; nor is there any account of its introduction into India2; though, according to Barrow, the time when the cotton plant was introduced into the southern provinces of China is noted in their annals. Bell of Antermony, who was in China in 1721, says,

"It is reported the Chinese have had the use of tobacco for many ages," &c.—Travels, vol. ii. p. 73., Lond. ed. 4to. 1763.

Ledyard says, the Tartars have smoked from remote antiquity (Travels, 326.). Du Halde speaks of tobacco as one of the natural productions of Formosa, whence it was largely imported by the Chinese (p. 173. Lond. ed. 8vo. 1741).

The prevalence of the practice of smoking at an early period among the Chinese is appealed to by Pallas as one evidence that in Asia, and especially in China, the use of tobacco for smoking is more ancient than the discovery of the New World. (See Asiat. Journ., vol. xxii. p. 137.)

The Koreans say they received tobacco from Japan, as also instructions for its cultivation, about the latter end of the sixteenth century. (Authority, I think, Hamel's Travels, Pink. Coll., vii. 532.) Loureiro states that in Cochin China tobacco is indigenous, and has its proper vernacular name.

Java is said to have possessed it before 1496. Dr. Ruschenberg says,

"We are informed the Portuguese met with it on their first visit to Java."—Voy. of U.S.S. Peacock, vol. ii. p. 456, Lond. ed. 8vo. 1838.

Crauford dates its introduction into Java, 1601, but admits that the natives had traditions of having possessed it long before. (Indian Archipelago, vol. i. pp. 104. 409, 410. 8vo.) Rumphius, in the latter part of the seventeenth century, found it universal even where the Portuguese and Spaniards had never been.

Savary, in his Parfait Négociant, states that the Persians have used tobacco 400 years, and probably received it from Egypt. (See Med. Chir. Review, 1840, p. 335.)

Olearius found it fully established in Persia, 1637, only about fifty years after its arrival in England. (Lond. 1662, in fol. p. 322.) Chardin states, the Persians smoked long before the discovery of America, and had cultivated tobacco time immemorial.

"Coffee without tobacco is meat without salt."—Persian Proverb, Sale's Koran, Preliminary Discourse, 169. ed. 8vo.

In 1634 Olearius found the Russians so addicted to tobacco that they would spend their money on it rather than bread. (See edit. above quoted, lib. iii. p. 83.)

According to Prof. Lichtenstein, the Beetjuanen smoked and snuffed long before their intercourse with Europeans. (Med. and Chir. Rev., 1840, p. 335.)

Liebault, in his Maison Rustique, asserts that he found tobacco growing naturally in the forest of Ardennes. Libavius says that it grows in the Hyrcinian forest. (Ibid.)

Dr. Cleland shows the three last to be falsehoods(?).

Ysbrants Ides found tobacco in general use among the Ostiaks and other tribes passed in his route to China, 1692. (Harris's Coll., fol. vol. ii. pp. 925. and 926.)

The story told of Amurath IV. punishing a Turk for smoking seems to be a mistake, since Amurath only began to reign 1622; whereas Sandys relates the same story of a certain Morad Bassa, probably Murat III., who began to reign 1576, and ended 1594. If this be the case, the Turks were smokers before tobacco was known in England.—In Persia smoking was prohibited by Shah Abbas. There were two princes of this name. The first began his reign 1585 A.D., died 1628: the second began 1641, died 1666. The proclamation against smoking was probably issued by the first, since (as before mentioned) in 1634 Olearius found the custom firmly established. If so, the Persians must have been early smokers. Smoking seems to have obtained at a very remote period among several nations of antiquity. Dr. Clarke quotes Plutarch on Rivers to show that the Thracians were in the habit of intoxicating themselves with smoke, which he supposes to have been tobacco. The Quarterly Review is opposed to this.

Lafitau quotes Pomp. Mela and Solin to show the same; also Herodotus and Maximin of Tyre, as evidences to the same custom prevailing amongst the Scythians, and thinks that Strabo alludes to tobacco in India. (See, for the Scythians, the Universal History.) Logan, in his Celtic Gaul, advances that smoking is of great antiquity in Britain. He says that pipes of the Celts are frequently found, especially at Brannocktown, co. Kildare, where in 1784 they were dug up in great numbers; that a skeleton dug out of an ancient barrow, actually had a pipe sticking between its teeth when found. (From Anthol. Hibern., i. 352.) Halloran says Celtic pipes are found in the Bog of Cullen. In form, these pipes were very similar to those in use at this day.

Eulia Effendi mentions having found a tobacco pipe, still in good preservation, and retaining a smell of smoke, embeded in the wall of a Grecian edifice more ancient than the birth of Mahomet. (Med. Chir. Rev. 1840, p. 335.) This Dr. Cleland proves to be a lie(?). He proves the same of Chardin, Bell of Antermony, Mr. Murray, Pallas, Rumphius, Savary, &c.

Masson describes a "chillum," or smoking apparatus, found embedded in an ancient wall in Beloochistan. (Travels, ii. 157.)

Dr. Yates saw amongst the paintings in a tomb at Thebes the representation of a smoking party. (Travels in Egypt, ii. 412.)

There is an old tradition in the Greek Church, said to be recorded in the works of the early Fathers, of the Devil making Noah drunk with tobacco, &c. (Johnson's Abyssinia, vol. ii. p. 92.)