Vol. VI. No. 1.

THE

Queries on all matters of general literary and historical interest-folk-lore, the origin of proverbs, familiar sayings, popular customs, quotations, etc., the authorship of books, pamphlets, poems, essays, or stories, the meaning of recondite allusions, etc., etc.—are invited from all quarters, and will be answered by editors or contributors. Room is allowed for the discussion of moot questions, and the periodical is thus a valuable medium for intercommunication between literary men and specialists.

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CONTENTS.

Hungaria

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COMMUNICATIONS:- Head and Foot of Table-Crane and Stone-Origin in Literature of Vulgarisms, 6-I Shall be Satisfied-Illusions of Great Men, 8-Mount Saint EliasThe Goose-Name Wanted for City-Relics of Serpent Worship, 9-New Jersey Dialect-Cat Island-Skate RunnersRagman's Roll-Sunset on the United States, 10- Mud Baths-Rise-Breeching Scholar- Birds' Eggs-Scholastic Doctors-Singular Place Names-Shortest Grace, 11-Spontaneous Combustion-Calf of Man, 12. BOOKS AND PERIODICALS:-12.

Romes. NUTRIA.

Under "Otter," the "Century Dictionary" tells us that one South American species of otter furnishes the fur called Nutria. But under Nutria it informs us, correctly, that that fur is the product of a species of coypu. Now, the coypu is a rodent mammal, while the otter is a carnivore. It is true, however, that the word "nutria" is etymologically identical with "otter." But, if any part of the nutria fur of commerce is produced by a true otter, the fact is one not generally on record in books which treat of the fur trade. I am inclined to think the Dictionary is at fault in regard to this statement. If not, it is certainly at fault in not clearing itself of an apparent discrepancy.

PHILADELPHIA, PA.

*

WOMEN WITH BEARDS.

Two things have long been considered distinguishing ornaments of manhood and of womanhood-a beard and long hair. In Oriental countries, from time immemorial, a man with smooth face inspired about as much confidence as a boy, while a woman with short hair was regarded as sadly disfigured. To deprive the one of his beard and the other of her hair was a mode of punishment in Persia, India and some other Asiatic countries. A Roman with a full-grown beard had a particular name—he was called barbatus.

Once in awhile the ancient order of things is reversed thus: We see a man with long hair and no beard (as the late Henry Ward Beecher), and a woman with a mustache, incipient fringe and short hair (as the Woman's Right's champion).

Now, a woman with a beard has ever been looked upon with fearful curiosity mingled with a grain of suspicion. Such a female, like Owen Glendower, must have been born under a strange star. She is "not in the roll" of common There is something strange, uncanny and wrong about her, else why should she have a beard?

women.

In this fashion people reasoned in days. gone by. It did not take them long to come to the ominous conclusion that a woman with a beard was to be feared; she must be in league with Old Nick. And so, in mediæval days, witches were figured in the popular imagination as having pointed chin whiskers. In all pictures of the old woman with the broomstick, that feature is conspicuously plain.

In Shakespeare's time witches were supposed to wear whiskers. Thus Banquo says to the weird sisters: "You should be women, and yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so." You remember, of course, the scene where Jack Falstaff, disguised as the fat woman of Brentford, is trying to get out of Ford's house. But he is pummeled by Ford, who cries out: "Hang her, witch!" Thereupon Sir Hugh says: "I think the 'oman is a witch, indeed. I like not when a 'oman has a great peard. I spy a great peard under her muffler !"

In several notable instances Nature has

It is not easy

taken a hand in the matter. to say why women should have hardly a sign of any hair on their faces. If the Darwinian doctrine of sexual selection be true, or if the new theory of physiological selection be allowed, then there is some explanation of a curious phenomena. It is simply a case of reversion, a return to a "primitive type" if a woman nowadays has a beard.

Several interesting instances of bearded women have been recorded. A famous Viennese female dancer in the eighteenth century had a large, bushy beard. Charles XII of Sweden had a curiosity in his army in way of a woman who wore a beard three feet in length. He considered her as a sort of "Mascot." Mlle. de Chêne exhibited herself in London during the year of the Exhibition of 1852, and it is said that she had "a profuse head of hair, a strong black beard, and large, bushy whiskThat is nothing. The thing is becoming quite common of seeing advertised, "A Bearded Woman." She is the stock in trade of our "Dime Museums" and our "Bowery Shows."

ers.

Whether IO-Cent

Some of the newspapers have latterly been discussing the origin of this college cry. I have found an example of it (but not as a college cry) that is very ancient. It occurs in "A Hymn of Praise to Durga," found in the introduction, or dedication, to that ancient Sanskrit epic poem, the "Mahabharata :"

"Thou rejoicest to hear the dread battle's loud slaughter,

The sound of the Ra! Ra! so dire;
The chief of the holy, thy names, lady, are many,
At the cry of Ra! Ra! swiftly flying!"

(From a translation by the Rev. C. Lacy.)

In this case, what has become of the Hur part of the hurrah? That is an easy question to answer. As the Ra belongs to Durga, so the Hur belongs to her husband Siva. In fact, the famous battle-cry of the Mahrattas is Hur, hur, Maha Deo! EASTON, PA. M. P. E.

ALEXANDER THE GREAT AND ROCK-OIL.

Since petroleum has come to be with the American people a great commercial force not only, but, in the opinion of a recent writer, a moral force, also, it is interesting to learn from Plutarch what was thought of it in Central Asia more than 2200 years ago, in the time of Alexander Magnus.

About the time the Conqueror's mind was intent on his expedition to India, a trifling incident had excited in his superstitious nature apprehensions of approaching death, and a dread of the consequent downfall of his empire; but suddenly all this condition of doubt and fear was changed to one of calm assurance, by a "wonderful thing," of which there is the following account: "For Proxenus, a Macedonian, who was the chief of those who looked to the king's furniture, as he was breaking up the ground near the river Oxus, to set up the royal pavilion, discovered a spring of a fat oily liquor, which, after the top was taken off, ran pure, clear oil, without any difference of taste or smell, having exactly the same smoothness and brightness, and that, too, in a country where no olives grew. The water, indeed, of the river Oxus, is said to be the smoothest to the feeling of all waters, and to leave a gloss on the skins of those who bathe themselves in it. Whatever might be the cause, certain it is that Alexander was wonderfully pleased with it, as appears by his letter to Antipater, where he speaks of it as one of the most remarkable presages that God had ever favored him with.

"The divines told him it signified his expedition would be glorious in the event, but very painful, and attended with many difficulties, for oil, they said, was bestowed on mankind by God as a refreshment of their labors" (Vol. iv, p. 233).

Not long before this occurrence, Alexander had been honored with a grand street illumination, somewhere near Arbela, perhaps, although the historian is not quite precise as to the locality; a stream of naphtha flowed out of the ground so abundantly as to form a sort of lake. "The Barbarians, in order to show the king the highly inflammable nature of the liquid, sprinkled the street that led to his lodgings with little drops of it, and when it was almost night, stood at the

Hodge.-In Lamb's essay on "Christ's Hospital Five and Thirty Years Ago," he says: "There was one H-, who, I learned in after days, was seen expiating some maturer offence in the hulks. (Do I flatter myself in fancying that this might be the planter of that name who suffered at Nevis, I think, or St. Kitts, some few years since? My friend Tobin was the benevolent instrument of bringing him to the gallows.)" Is there anything known of this man who was hanged in the West Indies?

QUI TAM.

Lamb probably refers to one Hodge who was hanged in Tortola for murdering his slave. We have not been able thus far to trace his history. There was formerly a very influential West Indian family of the name of Hodge; one of the name, we think, was governor of Anguilla, and one, who seems to have lived in the Grenadines, attained the honor of knighthood.

REPLIES.

Cattle-Calls (Vol. v, p. 256).—In the note in White's " Selborne, upon the lingering use of old terms ("Antiquities," Chap. ii), the author gives a "cattle-call"

among them. Very likely some of those used in our day could be traced very far back. White says:

"When the good women call their hogs they cry sic, sic, not knowing that sic is Saxon, or rather Celtic, for hog."

He adds this quotation as authority:

"Ecka, porcus, apud Lacones; un pourceau chez les Lacédémoniens; ce mot a sans doute esté pris des Celtes, qui disoient sic, pour marquer un pourceau. Encore aujourd'huy quand les Bretons chassent ces animaux, ils ne disent point autrement, que sic, sic" (Pezron, "Antiquité de la Nation et de la Langue des Celtes ").

NEW YORK CITY. ·

M. C. L.

Bagpipe (Vol. v, p. 305).—The bagpipe is almost universal throughout Asia, though at present not so much in use as it seems to have been in former ages. It is used among the Chinese musicians, and is met with in Persia, where it appears to have been more general in former ages than at present. There is also a Hindu bagpipe, and in Egypt it was used to some extent, but is now rarely met with. In Italy it is common. It is said that the Italian peasant believes that it is the best beloved music of the Virgin Mary, also that it is the instrument upon which the shepherds expressed their joy when they visited the Saviour. When the Italian peasant visits Rome on the anniversary of the birth of our Saviour, he always carries his bagpipes with him. The Romans are said to have been acquainted with this instrument, and most likely the Greeks also. In Scotland it is the national instrument, but even there its use is dying out.

to the fruit of the mandrake plant in this section of New York State. The fruit is a one-celled berry, about the size of a sparrow's egg, and resembles a lemon in odor and taste. Children in the country gather the fruit when green, and hide them in the hay until thoroughly ripe. H. R.

SCHENECTADY, N. Y.

The wild lemon of which your correspondent Anchor" inquires, is apparently the fruit of Podophyllum peltatum (see "United States Dispensatory," for 1888, p. 1188, where the name wild lemon occurs). I suppose his wild tomato to be some species of Physalis; I have found them growing wild with edible smooth fruits. The marketmen call them strawberry-tomatoes. They are often cultivated. G.

The Isle of Serpents (Vol. v, p. 139).— Ilan Adassi, or the "Isle of Serpents," once the site of the tomb and temple of Achilles, is, at present, a station for French and English vessels, and also the site of a lighthouse.

Dr. Clarke regretted that he could not visit this island on his voyage from Odessa to Ainada, Turkey, in the early part of our century. The distinguished traveler was not prevented, however, by any fear of a hostile reception from reptiles, although he had heard many absurd stories based on the superstition that the island was covered with serpents. In those days it seldom happened that a vessel could lie to and thus afford the tourist an opportunity of exploring the fabled island; but had it been otherwise, no one of a ship's crew would have ventured ashore, for every Russian and Turkish mariner on the Black sea had heard how "four of a ship's crew, being wrecked there, had no sooner landed, than they encountered a foe worse than the sea, and were all devoured by serpents." So it may be that the superstition had saved the celebrated island from the ravages to which other classic ground had been subject. Dr. Clarke was of the opinion that no traveler had ever set foot there. slow rate of speed kept it in view five hours and enabled him to sketch a strip of land three and three-fourths miles long, and onehalf a mile wide, entirely bare, being

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