Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/326

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NOTES AND QUERIES. no* s. i. APML 2, 1904.

ing a hippogriff, or flying horse. In modern Dutch orthography it would be Kwelpaard. Kivel is the same as our verb " quell," and .paard means "horse." Chemulpo, the port of Seoul, is given in only two of our pronouncing gazetteers, and in each with a different accent. Smith's 'Cyclopaedia of Names '(1895) marks it Chemulpo, butWorcester's Dictionary Supplement (1887) has Chemulpo, which is unquestionably the more correct. The ch is sounded as in " church," and the vowels as in Italian Cliay-mool-po. The sense is said to be " muddy harbour."

We have all seen many allusions lately to the Chunchuses. Unlike the ch in Chemulpo, which is soft, the ch in Chunchuses is hard. In fact, the best authorities spell it Khun- khuzes, e.g., the Contemporary Revieio for March, p. 318. This corresponds with the .Russian plural, Khunkhuzi. Wirt Gerrare, in (plural). The variations of spelling in this and other Manchu names are due to the readiness with which in that language certain consonants interchange. For instance, the h is very guttural, like German cA, and is often written kh, whence it passes into k or g. Harbin and liailar become Kharbin and Khailar ; and Tsitsihar becomes Tsitsikar, less correctly Chichikar, and even Tsichagar. There is, however, little difficulty in pro- nouncing Manchu names correctly, since the stress lies uniformly upon the last syllable. The Yalu River is Yahloo, Harbin and Kirin (Girin) are llarbeen and Keerfon (Geereen), &c. JAS. PLATT, Jun.
 * Greater llussia,' cuts it down to Khungus

"MosKY.'' I do not remember this word in N. &Q.':

" There are about a dozen dolphins off the quarter to-day, swimming alongside the ship. They are what seamen call mosky that is, having yellow tails. It is an old sailor's hoax that a dolphin gets his yellow tail from eating the weed off the ship's bottom, which is supposed to poison him." 'Round the Horn before the Mast,' by A. Basil Lubbock. 1902, p. 135.

WILLIAM GEORGH BLACK.

Glasgow.

PARISH REGISTER TO STOP A RAT'S HOLE. The following, from the Western Morning Neivs of 9 March, speaks for itself, and with no uncertain voice, of the immediate necessity for all parish registers being removed to some central place of authority, as has been done in Scotland since 1854 :

" One would think that to stop up a rat's hole would be the last use a parish register would be put to. Yet it seems to have been done at Warleggan, near Bodmin. This parish's oldest register was for i long time lost, and a few months ago it was found on

he top of a bookcase, where it had lain for twenty rears. The rector has now had it carefully copied, bnd notwithstanding its dilapidated condition, jhere are fewer entries which are illegible than might have been expected. The first legible page dates from 1547- ' Old parish registers,' says the ector in the March number of the Parish Magazine, are too valuable to be left lying unprotected on /he top of a bookcase for twenty years, or to be employed for stopping up rats'. holes in the store- room, which was how I found them years ago when [ first came to the parish. The iron chest in which empty bottles. Fortunately, on this occasion, the rats showed more respect for the register than did their proper guardian.' "
 * hey should have been resting was filled with

R. BARCLAY-ALLARDICE.

DISGUISED MURDERER IN FOLK-LORE. The following paragraph appears in the Morning Post of 12 March (p. 8). It may be true, but. until further evidence is forthcoming, it is safer to regard it rather as folk-lore than history. Of course such a plan for robbery or murder may have been elaborated more than once ; but it is more probable that the story belongs to that class of tales of which the sheep-stealer who was hanged when getting over a wall by the sheep on his back is a striking specimen, which has already been discussed in 'N. & Q.' :

"A prominent merchant of Londonderry has reported to the police that while driving in his gig on a lonely road a person who appeared to be an aged countrywoman asked him for a lift. A basket was first handed up, and the merchant, catching hold of the hand which passed it, was surprised at its size and roughness. ' This is no woman's hand,' he cried, and whipped up his horses. When he got home the basket was found to contain a loaded revolver and a large knife."

The Lincolnshire version, which I have often heard from my father and other old people, is that a rich farmer, who was known to carry a good stock of monej r about with him, was one day driving home from market when he was accosted by a woman who carried a basket. She asked him for a lift as she was very tired, and handed up her basket into the cart ; but when she raised her dress to get in herself, the farmer saw her massive ankles, and, knowing she was a man in disguise, at once drove off. In the basket there was found a brace of loaded pistols. I believe a similar tale occurs in Yorkshire. EDWARD PEACOCK.

Wickentree House, Kirton-in-Lindsey.

LINCOLNSHIRE JINGLE.

My master, old Pant, he fed me with pies, My mother, she learnt me plenty " off" lies ; My master, old Pant, he learnt me to thieve, So I cheat all I can, an' laugh in my sleeve.

J. T. F.

Durham.