Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/622

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io'"s. I.JUNE 25,1904.

this deduction perfectly satisfactory. The affinity between the wolf and the dog, indeed, would in this case suggest that a better rendering of the proverb would be " to grin like a Cheshire dog." Then, again, it is thought to be from the lion rampant, the crest of an influential family in Cheshire, or rather in a particular district of the county, where it adorned the alehouse sign- board, but where it was so unskilfully executed as to be mistaken for a grinning cat. This is nearer the mark ; but I venture to offer the following as the true explanation. Both the lion and the leopard when they occurred in signboard art were vul-

Eirly spoken of as the "Cat." The "Blue ion," for instance, was the " Blue Cat." Cat's Head Court, in Westminster, derived its name, probably, from the leopard's head of the Company of Goldsmiths ; and a correspondent of 'N. & Q.' (1 st S. v. 402) says that in the village of Charlton, Wilt- shire, a roadside alehouse was commonly known as the "Cat at Charlton," the sign having been originally "a lion or tiger, or some such animal, the crest of Sir Edward Poore." Now the city of Chester impales for its arms the lions of England with the arms of the earldom of Chester, the latter being Azure, three garbs or. These lions are blazoned passant guardant, in which posi- tion, the old armorists say, the lion should be described as a leopard. The leopard, of oourse, belongs to the cat tribe, and is, in reality, of the same family with the cat ; and it is this affronte or full-faced attitude of the leopard, as distinct from both the statant and the passant position, that, I think, pro- bably suggested the "grinning" part of the proverb, and this because the mouth of the lion or leopard is generally represented by heraldic carvers and artists with a curve upwards at each extremity. The leopard's head is sometimes, I believe, represented in the arms of the county also ; but I think Mr. Fox-Davies, in his 'Book of Public Arms,' says that, properly speaking, the County Palatine of Chester has no armorial bearings. J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.

"SAL ET SALIVA" (10 th S. i. 368, 431). MR. S. O. ADDY remarks with reference to his quotation from 'Corpus Poeticurn Boreale,'

Hence it is probable that salt also was used as a charm." Both salt and spittle have an old-world and widespread reputation as potent protectors against the evil eye. Salt in baptism has always been popularly held tn Italy and other Roman Catholic countries to be put into the child's mouth to make

him spit out the Devil. This is in agreement with the more refined explanations of some of your correspondents. That salt is used as a distinctly avowed prophylactic charm is certain. At the Espositione Agricola at Palermo in 1903 there was a room set apart for the display of a collection made by Dr. Giuseppe Pitre of objects in illustration of Sicilian folk - lore. Amongst these several were separately numbered, and specially attached to a board marked "contro la jettatura, ;I each of which was to be worn on the person. No. 6 was labelled "Sacchetto di Sale."

In vols. ii., iii., and iv. of his book ' Usi e Costumi, Credenze e Pregiudici del Popolo Siciliano,' my friend Dr. Pitre refers to no fewer than twenty-one different uses of sale as a charm and prophylactic : e.g., thrown after the bridal pair (p. 73), as we do ; and in this connexion it is symbolo di sapienza, &c. Before a birth the woman places a little salt in the doorway, and then watches who first enters. If a man, the child will be a male ; if a woman, a female (p. 122). To note all the allusions to salt in relation to unbaptized infants (iv. 30) ; to the dread of it by witches at their banquets ; and, still more, to their dread of garlic (aglio), both of which are said to have " forza contro le maliarde e le malie" (p. 110), would occupy too much of your space ; but the book is full of interest and a perfect mine of folk-lore.

On the virtue of saliva and the act of spitting very much has been written, while fresh facts keep on coming to light from all over the world ; but as a protection against witchcraft of all kinds, and also as a curative charm for certain ailments, fasting spittle has always been held in the highest repute. Saliva and the chrism must, according to the rubrics, be applied by the thumb in baptism, yet even to-day it is held here by old nurses and mid wives that spittle or oint- ment must always be applied by the middle finger (digitus inedicus\ or it will poison the wound. F. T. ELWORTHY.

Wellington, Somerset.

STORMING OP FORT MORO (10 th S. i. 448). Richard Cannon's ' Historical Records ' of the several regiments which were engaged on that service should be consulted for parti- culars. I have only a few volumes of his work, and they do not include the ' Records ' of the 56th Regiment ; but I quote the following from the 'Records' of the 15th Foot :

"The regiment was attached to the armament under General the Earl of Albemarle, destined to attack the valuable settlement of the Havannah,