Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/254

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [10* s. i. MARCH 12, im

granted certain premises to be held of the manor of East Greenwich, " by fealty in free forage" (p. 156a). Doubtless that is due to the Faint printing of the original black-letter ; the right word is socage. On p. 157b we read how the wives of the parish treated a murderer by casting "upon him so much filth and odour of the street" where ordure is clearly intended. W. C. B.

SPANISH PROVERB ON THE ORANGE. A former owner of a volume now in my pos- session wrote on a blank leaf so far back as 27 March, 1850, the following lines, which deserve to be borne in mind by all who are fond of this delicious fruit :

Naranja en la manana es oro,

En el inedio dia es plata,

En la tarde es plomo,

Y en la noche te mata.

1 subjoin a translation, which gives at least the sense :

Gold is orange sucked at morn ; Silver 'tis at noon of day ; Lead, when evening hours return ; And at night it doth thee slay.

J. T. CURRY.

NEGROES AND THE LAW. In his racy autobiographical sketch 'From Journalist to Judge ' (p. 158), Judge Conde Williams remarks this peculiarity of negroes :

"It is certain that the negro, here [Jamaica] as elsewhere, is greatly addicted to law ; and the hold which Baptist ministers have obtained upon the country population is said to be largely owing to the fact that they explain regularly from the pulpit, and comment upon, every fresh insular legal enactment. One old negro, asked to explain his disapproval of a certain local minister, answered, ' Marsa, him preach only garspel, him no gib us de far,' Cynical persons assured me that the district courts were really instituted after the Gordon riots of 1865 to amuse the black population, and give them something to occupy their minds."

These are not the characters of 'Uncle 'Tom's Cabin.' W nat would a Spurgeon say to such ministerial tactics or make of such hearers ? I do not remember hearing of this peculiarity of negroes before.

FRANCIS P. MARCHANT. Brixton Hill.

GHOSTS' MARKETs.-The so-called Ghosts Market (Kwai-Shi) recorded in the following extract would seem to point to the ancient practice of the silent trade (see 9 th S xii 280) m various parts of China :

'"KM. ' R cord f Annual Seasons' (written i the fifth century .') mentions a ghosts' market takim place at the western gate of Mu-Pan Avenue where m winter nights there used to be heJSu ghost s cries proffering dried faggots for sale Thi is an instance of a ghost making a sale. The 'Mis

ellany from Pan-Yu ' (about the thirteenth cen- ury ?) speaks of the frequent occurrence of ghosts' narkets on the coast of that district, where the >arties meet at midnight and disperse at cock- rowing, and where many objects of curiosity were )rocurable by men. Also the god of Shi-Tuh Temple formerly did business with mankind. Should one throw a deed in a pond close to it, the amount desired to be borrowed would be floated up instantly. Not only money, but horses, cattle, ind everything else were apt to be lent or borrowed n this way. Further, at the sepulchre of the eputed general Lien Pa (fl. third century B.C.) in Tiau-Chau the same thing occurred. These are nstances of reciprocal trading carried on between man and ghost. And the Emperor Chi-Hwang of the Tsin dynasty (reigned 221-210 B.C.) instituted an underground market, in which living men were forbidden to impose on the dead ; this is an instance of man selling to ghost." Sie Chung-Chi, ' Wu- tsah-tsu,' 1610, Japanese edition, 1061, torn. ;ii. fol. 46-7-

Owing to the scarcity of books now about me, I am hindered from giving any details of this underground market for the present. If I remember aright, I read in the Fuzoku Givaho, about 1893, that there still survives somewhere in the province of Hizen, Japan, a usage of wayfarers putting coins in, and taking fruits out of, a basket exposed on the roadside, seemingly ownerless. About ten minutes' walk from my present residence there exists the grave of a false saint where such a practice is daily followed in buying

jOSS-sticks. KUMAGTJSU MlNAKATA.

Mount Nachi, Kii, Japan.

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.

IRISH HISTORICAL AND ARTISTIC RELICS. I should be obliged if any of your readers could give me information as to the whereabouts of relics of distinguished Irishmen, as a collec- tion of such relics is being formed for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.

T. W. ROLLESTON. Department of Agriculture for Ireland, 18, Nassau Street, Dublin.

MANITOBA. How is this pronounced in Canada 1 Some of our gazetteers give it as Manit6ba, others as Manitoba. Englishmen generally call it Manitoba, but the correct local pronunciation may be Manitoba, as that would agree very well with its deriva- tion from the two Odjibwa words manito, spirit, and la, shortened from waba, a strait. Lake Manitoba is so called, according to