Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/479

 io*s. i. MAY u, loot] NOTES AND QUERIES.

395

Pardons ' (pp. 242, 243). People are crowding to see the great bonfire at St. Jean-du- Doigt :

"Ce n'est pas 1'esplanade settlement qui est envahie : les talus d'alentour, les cultures meme qu'ils enclosent sombrent, sillon apres sillon, sous le flux sans cesse grossissaut oil, parmi le noir compact des feutres d'hommes, la legerete des coiffes feminines frisotte avec des blancheurs d'ecume. Vainement les metayers des fertnes voisines s'efforcent de sauve- garder leurs champs. Epargnez au moins le ble ! supplient-ils d'un ton lamentable. Bah ! saint Jean vous dedommagera ! leur est-il riposte. Notez qu'en temps ordinaire ces feroces pietineurs de moissons tiendraient pour sacrilege celui d'entre eux qui se risquerait a fouler un epi. ' Sois pieux envers 1'herbe au pain, respecte-la comme ta mere,' dit un proverbe breton. Mais il s'agit bien de proverbes, le jour du Tantad ! Puis, m'explique Parkik, soyez stir qu'au fond les paysaus leses ne sont pas aussi faches qu'ils en ont Fair. Us ne sont pas nes de ce matin. Lorsqu'ils ont sem6, a rautonme, ils savaient de science certaine que la recolte n'iraitpqinta maturite. S'ils ont seme quand

meme, c'est qu'il leur plaisait ainsi II y a des

pertes qui sont des gains Orges, froments, seigles,

saccages, tout cela, monsieur, c'est L6d an Tdn (la part du Feu) ! Et 1'offrande qu'on fait au feu, le feula rembourse au centuple. Alors.ces malheureux qui se plaignent seraient plus malheureux encore si les fideles du Tantad ne leur donnaient pas sujet <Je se plaindre. Comme vous dites. La preuve, c'est qu'il n'y a pas dans la paroisse de fermiers plus prosperes."

ST. SWITHIX.

BOER WAR OF 1881 (10 th S. i. 226, 277). MAJOR MITCHELL will find much detail in that very interesting paper the Neios of the Camp, edited by Charles Du-Valand Charles Deecker. Pretoria from within was well attended to during the whole "100 days" of trial. Du-Val and his co-editor would, or should, have "Varieties" and "Martini- Henrys " also. A copy is hard to find. Deecker himself has not got one, though he owns and edits a paper in Cape Colony.

This "100 days'" diary is pleasant read- ing, and was much enjoyed by a friend of Du-Val's, before the latter finally adopted the "variety" stage. JAMES HAY.

Ennis.

I trust that the following incomplete list of authorities may be of some help to MAJOR MITCHELL : Bellairs (Lady), 'The Transvaal War, 1880-81,' 1885 ; Carter (T. F.), 'Narra- tive of the Boer War, 1881,' 1899 ; Haggard (H. Eider), ' Cetewayo and his White Neigh- bours,' 1882 ; Moodie (D. C. F.), ' History of the Battles and Adventures of the British, the Boers, and the Zulus in South Africa,' &c., 2 vols., Cape Town, 1888 ; Theal (G. McC.), sult also Parliamentary Papers ; the London Gazette; records of those regiments which
 * History of the Boers in S. Africa,' 1887. Con-

took a part in the war, such as Porter (W.), 'Hist. Corps Royal Engineers,' 2 vols., 1889; biographies, journals, memoirs, par exemple, ' Life of Sir G. Pomeroy-Colley,' and ' Military Memoirs of Twenty-five Years,' 1893, by Sergeant-Major Mole. M. J. D. COCKLE. Solan, Punjab.

MOON FOLK-LORE (10 th S. i. 125, 175, 252). Those who are interested in this subject may like to know how the new moon is greeted by Pathan Muhammadans and other dwellers in the Upper Pan jab. On seeing a new moon people first of all make a lowly triple salaam. Then, with hands joined and uplifted, they say, " O Moon, may you be lucky ! " or they look at the right hand and wish ; or they look at a piece of gold, or silver, or even glass, and breathe a prayer for good fortune whether in love or in business ; or, gazing at the moon herself, with hands reverently joined, they pray for luck, or for peace and rest, to the angels who bear the moon in their hands. CHARLES SWYNXERTON.

In Ireland, sixty years ago, children, at their first glimpse of the new moon, were taught, in order to escape bad luck or some dire calamity, to use the following invoca- tion :

I see the moon, And the moon sees me. God bless the moon, And God bless me.

HENRY SMYTH. Harborne.

[These lines were familiar in the West Riding a couple of generations ago. ]

DISGUISED MURDERER IN FOLK - LORE (10 th S. i. 266). I often heard a tale told on somewhat similar lines when I was a boy. In this case it was a farmer on his way to Derby market. The details were somewhat different, for the " woman " who wanted a lift by the way was shown to be a man by the whiskers, which were revealed through the slipping aside of the poke bonnet and mufflers as the man was getting into the market cart. Seeing this, the farmer swung his heavy whip- stock, knocking the man off the step. The basket which had been handed up contained a big carving-knife. THOS. RATCLIFFE.

Worksop.

STEP-BROTHER (10 th S. i. 329). I should have no doubt that the sons of a widower married to a widow are not step-brothers to her children born of her first marriage. If brought up in one family they would natur- ally be called brothers or brother and sister ; the marriage between such a brother and sister is, of course, perfectly legal. I have