Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/183

 io-s.LFKB.2o.i9M.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Oxford University had only jusfc taken up the splendid part it now performs. "New" has long since become an anachronism.

In making this suggestion I am not desiring to deprive Dr. Murray of one iota of the credit he is entitled to for the great work he has piloted with such signal success. It cannot be doubted that the ' Oxford English Dictionary' has contributed more to the general education of the world in the Eng- lish language than anything that has ever been done before. For the slaughter of hun- dreds of errors I think Dr. Murray is much more entitled to distinguishing honours than a general who (in the course of his duty) slaughters thousands of human beings, It is not only his own contribution, but he has so composed the machinery that we have every confidence that it will never be put put of gear until the great and vast work is ended. RALPH THOMAS.

O&mms,

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct.

BABAR'S MEMOIRS. Can your readers help in the search for a missing MS. ? It is that copy of the Turki text of the Emperor Babar's memoirs which the Hon. Mount- stuart Elphinstone lent to Dr. Leyden and to Mr. W. Erskine for their translations. There can be no doubt that it was in the Advocates' Library of Edinburgh in 1848. No trace of it can now be found there.

If any of your readers have knowledge of the existence of a copy of the ' Babar-nama ' (which is variously entitled also the 'Tuzuk- i-babari ' and the ' Waqiat-i babari '), they would confer a real service by giving news of it to me. ANNETTE S. BEVERIDGE.

Pitfold, Shottermill, Haslemere, R.S.O.

WATER OF JEALOUSY. Will any of your correspondents kindly tell me if there is any story recorded in the West resembling the following ]

11 During the period of Ta-Chi [Tai-Chi ? 265-74 A.D.], Liu Peh-Yuh had his wife from Twan family

characteristically jealous. One day he happened

to recite before her the celebrated poem on the Goddess of Lo river, and to remark thereon, ' 1 should be satisfied could I possess such a beauty as my wife.' To this she retorted, ' Why do you praise the river-goddess so high in contradistinction to myself? It will be very easy for me to turn to such by my death.' The same night she drownec herself in the water now called Tu-fu-tsin (Jealous Woman's Ford). A week after she appeared in her

msband's dream and spoke to him, 'I am now urned to a water-goddess, with whom you were so jarnest in your wish to associate yourself,' which made him ever after avoid fording that water. And after her drowning, every woman of any personal jxcellence has to neglect her dress and appearance n order to pass the ford in safety ; otherwise storms and waves would disturb it. But in case a woman s really ugly, she could ford it without causing the
 * ury's jealousy ; so even every ugly one now endea-

vours to make a special display of her personal negligence to avoid being laughed at by the by- standers. Thence the local maxim, ' If you seek a jeautiful woman in marriage, you should stand by the ford ; at the same instant any woman comes and stands near it, her beauty or ugliness pronounces its own sentence truly.' " Twan Ching-Shih, ' Yu- yang-tsah-tsu,' ninth century, Japanese edition, 1697, torn. xiv. fol. 8.

Terashima's 'Wakan Sansai Ibzue,' 1713, torn. Ivii., quoting two Chinese works, says :

'In Ping-Chau exists the so-called Spring of the Jealous Woman, from which cloud and rain issue whenever any gaily dressed woman approaches it. Similarly to this, a Spring of Scolding is in the northern side of a church in Ngan-Fang-Kiun. Should a man utter clamours beside it, its water would rise up to heights varying proportionally to

the degrees of his loudness [Turning to Japan]

there stands close to the hot spring at Arima what people call ' The Second Wife's Spring,' which, when upbraided with abusive words, suddenly be- comes effervescent as if in a violent passion ; whence the name [because' its fury resembles that of the first wife occasioned by her jealousy of the second wife]. Further, the province Suruga has the so- called Old Woman's Pond. Legend speaks of a woman particularly peevish and jealous ending her life in it, 8 August, 1593. Should one loudly exclaim to it, ' You are an ugly hag,' the water would sud- denly rise with bubbles the louder the cry, the stronger the agitation ; which is popularly ascribed to the self-drowned woman's jealousy/'

KUMAGUSU MlNAKATA.

Mount Nachi, Kii, Japan.

SPANISH DOGGEREL. Can I appeal to MR. J. PLATT, JUN., or any other reader of ' N. & Q-,' as to the meaning of the following lines ] In the Semanario Pinioresco Espanol for 1857, p. 130, it is stated that there is a menhir, or stone pillar, about 12 ft. high, con- cerning which these lines are current in the neighbourhood :

Galica gilando,

puso aqui este tango,

y Menga Mengal

le volvio a quitar.

Roughly or literally translated, it may read : " Galica gilando placed here this 'tango.' and Menga Mengal returned to take it away." "Tango " is a gipsy or rustic dance. With regard to Menga, the same periodical (pp. 156, 172) describes a tumulus accidentally discovered in 1832 during a quest for stones for road-mending on the plain of Alava. Near this is a kistvaen called the Cueva