Hat and Cap Doffing (Vol. vii, p. 21). -In connection with the above, this extract from Harper's Bazar may prove interesting: "One of the simplest instincts of good manners would seem to be that a man should uncover his head while eating his dinner with his family; yet it is pretty certain that the first gentlemen of England two centuries ago habitually wore their hats during that ceremony, nor is it just known when or why the practice was changed. In Pepys' famous Diary, which is the best manual of manners for its period, we read, under date of September 22, 1664: Home to bed, having got a strange cold in my head by flinging off my hat at dinner, and sitting with the wind in my neck.' In Lord Clarendon's essay on the decay of respect paid to age, he says that in his younger days he never kept his hat on before those older than himself except at dinner. Lord Clarendon died in 1674. That the English members of Parliament sit with their hats on during the sessions is well known, and the same practice prevailed at the early town meetings in New England. The presence or absence of the hat is therefore simply a conventionality, and so it is with a thousand practices which are held, so long as they exist, to be the most unchangeable and matter-of-course ways." L. S. P.

[The truth of the concluding remark concerning "conventionality" is strongly illustrated by the fact that the British M. P. sits with his hat on in the House (as stated above), but must remove it the moment he is on his feet; the respect which he owes to the unspeakable majesty of the House, as embodied in the Speaker, does not prevent his lolling back, sleeping or otherwise, on his velvet bench with his headgear on, under the very eye of the Speaker, but, should he address the said Speaker, he must do so bareheaded.-ED. A. N. & Q.]

Shakespeare's Table (continued from Vol. viii, p. 10)." For fruits, dates, ginger and raisins were at hand, figs, olives and all Italian imports. Wines were plentiful. Woodbury, Stow, Harrison and other authorities agree that there were more than

or

thirty Spanish wines and more than fifty French wines in use. Sherry, called 'sack,' 'sherris-sack,' was the favorite, and was on tap at every tavern. Burnt sugar was always set out in a saucer (a pennyworth at a time) with a bowl of it so that the drinker could sweeten his sack as Falstaff did (if sack and sugar be a fault, God help the wicked'). It is hard to understand Shakespeare's allusions to water drinking, for all the water was bad and used principally to make beer of. Everybody drank beer (or ale-the attempts to distinguish between these I do not think very successful). ale or beer that was put on board foreign vessels for consumption was in bottles, and, as what was left when the vessels reached England was pretty stale; 'bottle ale' was a synonym for anything musty or disagreeable. (Shakespeare so used the term. 'Henry IV,' 'Twelfth Night,' etc.).

The

See

"Shakespeare, singularly enough, nowhere mentions tobacco, and yet Spenser mentions it before his day, and in 1614 there were 7000 venders of it in London, and people smoked pipes in the street, theatres, shops and even in the churches,* all the time.

"The cooks were French or Italian, and their art was principally to devise curious forms into which to mold their viands, especially the pasties. There does not seem to have been much variety in their cooking. Huge bowls of custard were on the rich men's tables, but not always to eat. A curious custom was, after supper, to bring in the fool or clown to entertain the guests, and for him to jump over the people's heads into this bowl and spatter the custard right and left over the guests. Rather than give up this entertainment, the guests would wear coarse wrappers over their garments to catch the spatterings. Oysters, escallops, lobsters and almost every other shell fish are Shakespearean. Brook trout was a luxury then as now. Cod, sturgeon, turbot and all deepsea fish also came to market. There was brandy also, called as now aqua-vila (see 'Merry Wives'), for strong drinkers. Fish was to be eaten on Fridays. Wednesday was halffish' day" (Shakespeariana, for October).

See A. N. & Q., Vol. viii, p. 9.

Glass-eating as a Relish.—I have just read that the driver of a car on one of the street railways of Charleston is a confirmed glass eater. "The driver," says the Charleston World, "although a small, spare man, appears to enjoy perfect health, and his glass diet, while it may not be very nourishing, does not appear to have been very hurtful up to the present."

This recalls to me a certain Antonio Croato whom other tourists besides myself may have seen at Buyukdereh on the Bosphorus in 1886. He was then, and may still be, on board the Austrian stationary vessel at that place. Many a time and oft the man might be seen, at the Etoile du Bosphore café, biting a piece off a thick wine glass, as easily as a boy dives into an apple, and crunching and munching it with as much relish. Nor did he do this for want of any more nutritious food, but by way of bonne bouche pure and simple, after a good dinner for instance. In the absence of

glass, crystal or crockery ware (his especial favorites), he frequently treated himself to chunks of marble and cement.

TOURIST.

Odors and Memory.-"The central seat of the olfactory sense must be very near to the central seat of memory, for it is noticeable that nothing recalls a past event like an odor. A little child was accidentally thrown out of a pony carriage in a country lane. Near the spot where the fall took place there was a manure heap, which gave forth the peculiar dry ammoniacal odor so often recognizable from such heaps-an odor distinctive yet not altogether unpleasant. The child was stunned by the fall, and on recovering and returning to consciousness smelt this odor powerfully. Over fifty years have elapsed since that little mishap, and yet whenever the person referred to passes, in country lanes, a heap giving out the same odor, the whole scene of the accident recurs with every detail perfect, and sometimes with a recurrence of the giddiness and nausea which were experienced at the moment.

"In some of the lower animals memory by odors is often singularly exhibited. In the dog the memory by odor seems a special

part of the nature of the animal. The scent' of the fox-hound and of the staghound is of this character. In the trained collie the remembrance of an object hidden, a stick, for instance, may be retained for three-quarters of an hour, so perfectly that the animal will fetch the object at command. But if the object be coated with something giving an odor which the animal is familiar with, the time is infinitely more prolonged " (Dr. B. W. Richardson, in the Asclepiad).

Numerical Recurrences (Vol. vii, pp. 288, etc.).—Queen Victoria was born in 1819. Now I + 8+1+9= 19, and it is in her nineteenth year that she ascended the throne. Halve 1819: 18+ 19 = 37; it was in '37 that her accession took place. Moreover, history tells us that it was at five o'clock A.M. on the twenty-eighth day of the sixth month of the year 1837 that they awoke the young princess to tell her that she was queen; now if we add these figures together (5 + 28 + 6 + 1837 = 1876) we have the year in which she ceased to be queen and assumed the title (which she has borne since January 1, 1877) of Queen Empress. Truly the hidden import of numbers is marvelous!

Queen Victoria, by the way, must have an objection to number 13: during the fifty-four years she has now been on the throne, she spent twelve days in Ireland.

I. V.

Our National Archives.-The Washington Star is authority for the statement that an effort will shortly be made to secure the publication of at least a part of the archives now stored away in the Department of State.

"Here, in fact," it says, "is the great repository of American history from which Bancroft, Henry Adams, Hildreth, and others drew most of their information.

"A few years ago the Department of State purchased for $20,000 the papers of Monroe. These in themselves are a vast storehouse of historical knowledge. It must be remembered that Monroe was not only President for eight years, but before that was Secretary of State and Minister to France, having served all through the Revo

lutionary War. The collection referred to included his public and private correspondence during the entire period covered by those events. Previously the department had acquired the correspondence of James Madison, together with other papers of his, including the secret journal of the Constitutional Convention.

"This journal is in Madison's cramped penmanship. Before the acquisition of the Madison papers, the Department of State had secured the writings of Gen. Washington-many volumes, containing copies of all his letters, etc. These volumes Jared Sparks had access to and printed in his works of Washington. One of the curiosities which the stranger here is shown are these same volumes of Washington's, either in his own hand or in the beautiful writing of his Secretary. Washington never had a Secretary who did not write an exquisite hand, while he himself wrote better than any statesman of the present day. Besides these regularly classified collections there are literally tons of letters containing historical information of almost incalculable value."

Oddities of Noted People (Vol. vii, p. 105).-Baron Munchausen, once minister of Hanover, who died about this time five years ago, was grand-cross of Prussian Order of the Red Eagle.

When, in 1870, he saw himself conveyed, a prisoner between two policemen, to the fortress of Königsberg, he insisted on displaying the insignia of his order on his breast, the whole length of his journey. When remonstrated with, he merely inquired whether he had the right to wear his decorations; his right, of course, no one could contest. "Well then," said he, "wear them I will!" And wear them he did, constantly, during the full six months. of his incarceration, whereby every soldier, every official about the fortress, nay the governor himself, had to pay military honors to their prisoner, at all times and in all possible circumstances.

Jos. E.

Egyptian Discoveries.-According to the Alexandria correspondent of the London Times, three colossal statues, ten feet high,

of rose granite, have just been found at Aboukir, a few feet below the surface. The first two represent in one group Rameses II and Queen Hentmara seated on the same throne. This is unique among Egyptian statues. The third statue represents Rameses standing upright in military attire, a sceptre in his hand and a crown upon his head. Their site is on the ancient Cape Zephyrium, near the remains of the temple of Venus at Arsinoe. Relics of the early Christians have been found in the same locality.

Those Bacilli (Vol. vii, p. 251).-According to a "special" to the Public Ledger of this city, Dr. John Ege, of Reading, who is paying special attention to bacteriology, has just stated, in an interview, there is great danger in the present method of administering communion, and added:

"Communicants should be provided with their own cups, and when called to the altar receive the wine from the clergyman. I examined one drop of saliva on a glass used by a consumptive in the last stages, and found nearly a million of living tubercle bacilli in the single drop."

As though this were not enough to comfort (?) your correspondent, H. van D. (at the above reference), the Hospital Gazette warns us that "in our endeavor to be comfortable in this vale of tears, there is a tendency to overlook the elementary laws of hygiene, and in no respect, perhaps, more so than in the superabundance of curtains and carpets-those non-patented contrivances for hindering the free circulation of fresh air and stultifying nature's automatic arrangements for the deodorization and disinfection of our homes. *** In most houses the carpet only comes up once a year by which time it is as full of microbes and accumulated filth as its interstices will allow." HEIGHO.

The Pallium.-"The pallium is a white woolen band, about two inches wide and long enough to be worn around the shoulders and be crossed in front. It is made at Rome from the wool of two lambs which the sisterhood of Santa Agnese offer every year on the occasion of the feast of their patronal saint, while the Agnus Dei is sung at mass.

The pallium has crosses worked upon the white wool in black, and ornaments are attached to the ends. It is sent by the pope to every newly appointed archbishop, and the origin of its use for this purpose dates back to a very early time in the history of the church. It is mentioned in an ecclesiastical document of the time of Pope St. Mark, who died in the year 336, and an eighth century mosaic represents Pope St. Leo in the act of receiving a pallium almost like the modern one" (Evening Wisconsin).

been visited, tobacco is cultivated, and in some of these districts the humble pipe contributes nothing to the enjoyment of the weed, and is not even known. Dr. Maclay saw natives with crude-looking cigars in their mouths who had never seen a white man before, and thought he had dropped from the sky. Dr. Finsch, who some years later explored the coast for hundreds of miles, says the natives of the whole northeast coast of New Guinea, though inveterate smokers, had never heard of a pipe, and returned those which he gave them as articles for which they had no use. He says they roll the partly dried leaves into a rude cigar, and, not being blessed with Havana wrappers, they tie around their cigar a large green leaf from a tree. Doubtless the vilest weeds sold on the Bowery are superior to those products of Papuan ingenuity, which hold fire so poorly that a live coal is always kept on hand to revivify them. But they suit the native taste, and the people seem to regard those who draw tobacco smoke through a pipe stem as belonging to an inferior race of human beings" (Goldthwaite's Geographical Magazine).

The Right Word in the Right Place. -"In Egypt every woman expects to be addressed as O lady,' O female pilgrim,' 'O bride,' or 'Ya bint !' (O daughter).

"In Arabia you may say, 'Y'oal mara !' (O woman); but if you attempt it near the Nile, the answer of the offended fair one will be, May Allah cut out your heart!' or, "The woman, please Allah, in thine eye!' And if you want a violent quarrel, 'Y'al aguz' (O old man), pronounced drawlingly

Y'al ago-o-ooz '-is sure to satisfy you. "In India, Ho-ma' (O mother) is a usual and acceptable exclamation; and 'Amma,' or 'Ma-Sahiba,' or lady mother, are terms which are used by the highest in the land.

"On the plains of Torrento, it was always customary, when speaking to a peasant girl, to call her Bella fé (beautiful woman), whilst the word of insult was Vecchiarella.' So the Spanish calesero, under the most trying circumstances, calls his mule Vieja, ravieja' (old woman, very old woman) (Burton's Mecca).

Vol. VIII. No. 3.

THE

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CONTENTS.

REPLIES:-Unlucky Names-What Familiar Proverb is This?-There Are No Witches, 28-Hope in English River Names Pocosin or Pocoxin-Magazine-Glass-making in Maine-Packenham and the Wine Cask, 29-Petchary-Walled Lakes-Indigenous Tea Substitutes-Setting a Horse's Leg-Flooding the Sahara - RouncefallEverglades; also Pocosin or Pocoxin, 30-Born and Dead on Same Day-Ouija-Devil and Tom Walker-U. D. M.-The Mantle Statius Scorned to Wear-Flowers as Food, 31Indian Place Names, 32.

COMMUNICATIONS :-Communion Tokens -Nineteenth Century Jottings-Foreign Synonyms of our "Indian Summer," 32-How Thoughts Grow-Squirrels in a HouseProse Versification, 33-Isle of Dogs-Glass in Old EgyptThe Blarney Stone, 34-Cocoa or Toko, for Yams-The Dividing Line of Loquacity in the United States-Epitaphs -Curious Book Titles, 35-Blowing Cave, 36.

TO CORRESPONDENTS :-36.

ПОЛЕЅ.

FRANKLIN JUDGED BY A FOREIGNER. "To see oursels as ithers see us" is not always instructive; it is at times utterly ludicrous, and we might well afford to let irresponsible criticism pass by unnoticed, were it not that the gullibility of certain readers concerning foreign nations and things seems to have no equal but the ignorance of their informants; and a lie, once set on foot, is the fastest racer on record.

That is no reason why efforts should not be made to overtake the scoundrel; on the contrary, I for one consider that the war waged, for instance, against so-called "Americanisms " by some of your correspondents (and why might I not make