Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/434

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. x. OCT. 31,

This conclusively proves that Sir Richard Weston, Agriculturalist, commemorated in the ' Diet. Nat. Biog.,' is identical with the person of the same name who obtained patents for soap-making in 1631 and 1637.

R. B. P.

TIGER FOLK-LORE AND POPE (10 S. x 88, 135). A superstition allied to that 01 the Sumatrans anent the tiger-king seems to obtain in Annam. There the people believe in the existence of a gigantic tiger, the lord of mountain forests, gentle oi character, white in colour, and never tasting human flesh. He inhabits an enchanted mountain, whither all his tigrine subject bring tributes in various animals' flesh (M. Landes, ' Notes sur les Mceurs et les Superstitions des Annamites,' " Cochinchine Francaise : Excursions et Reconnaissances," No. 8, p. 355, Saigon, 1881).

Akin to this is an old opinion in China that a white tiger is to be found only in the reign of a very benignant sovereign who abhors killing : hence the sycophantic reports from various provinces of the appear- ance of such an animal (altogether twenty- seven) just in time to popularize the Emperor Wanti's usurpation, A.D. 220 (' Yuen-kien- lui-han,' 1703, lib. cdxxix., fol. 13).

Much as in Sumatra, it is held in some parts of India and in Annam that the soul of a man killed by a tiger accompanies the latter, guides it on its nightly prowls for prey, and decoys the unfortunate victim towards the animal by false representations, the cunning and wariness of old man-eaters being ascribed to this spiritual guidance (M. J. Walhouse, ' Ghostly Lights,' in Folk- lore, December, 1894, p. 296 ; Landes, I.e., p. 356). According to the Chinese ' Imperial Dictionary of Kang-hi,' 1716, whenever a tiger kills a man, his spirit does not go away, but stays with and serves the carnivore. It is called chang-kui (stag- gering ghost), about which an author states :

" Scarcely a man meets a tiger but his garments come off as if spontaneously, and put themselves separately upon the ground. Thus the tiger can make sure ot the complete nudity of the man, and only then will it set about devouring him. But in fact all these manoeuvres are the work of a stagger- ing ghost. So abjectly servile to a quadruped is it, it ought to be pronounced the silliest of all the spirits."

The ' Yuen-kien-lui-han,' I.e., fol. 26, contains another Chinese story running thus :

" Chin Tsiu, a resident of Tsing-yuen, was lead- ing a retired life in his villa. One night, while he was sitting by, and looking through, a window that faced an extensive wild tract, he happened to hear some unusual noise. Turning round, he discovered

a woman riding a tiger up to the west side of the

building, wherein a maid was lying asleep. Now the woman was seen to thrust a slender bamboo- cane through a fissure of the wall into the servant's body. At the same moment the latter cried out that her stomach ached ; and on her attempting to go out, she was seized by the tiger, from whose grip she was only rescued by the prompt succour ren- dered by her master, who had been witnessing this inexplicable event from the beginning. It was reported by the villagers that the locality from time immemorial had been haunted by this evil- doer, who went under the name of Ghostly Tiger (Kui-hu)."

The same Chinese encyclopaedia abounds in instances of tigers turning themselves into men, and vice versa, much in conformity with the European account of werewolves.

KUMAGUSTJ MlNAKATA.

Tanabe, Kii, Japan.

THE ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT (10 S. viii. 268, 418, 478). The book to which MR. R. L. MORETON refers is no doubt ' L'Undecimo Comandamento,' a novel by Anton Giulio Barrili, an English translation of which I read a few years ago (New York, Gottsberger, 1885). The chief incident of the story con- cerns an adventurous young lady who pays a visit to a semi-religious community of monks, habited as a friar, with such disas- trous consequences to the peace of the fraternity that they unanimously resolve bo break up their order and return to the world to fight the battle of life. The moral inculcated is thus set forth in chap. xix. :

" 'The Eleventh Commandment' 'What do you mean by that ? ' ' Do not you know ? Thou shalt remain amid thy fellow-men : thou shalt live their life and love and suffer as they do ; for thou mayest not escape the law and lot of humanity. This is the Eleventh Commandment it has been revealed to me,' said Father Anacleto."

N. W. HILL. New York.

"BARRAR" (10 S. i. 349, 434, 478, 515). To the information already given should be added the fact that the word " barrie " or ' baurie " is common in Scotland, mean- ng a flannel band put round an infant to strengthen the back and to keep the stomach varm. A similar garment worn by adults s called a " sweeler." ALEX. RUSSELL. Stromness.

"PORTIONS": "PENSIONS" (10 S. x. 310). A portion exists where a benefice is divided and held by more than one person, g., Waddesdon in Bucks, which had three joint rectors or portionaries.

A pension is a charge on a benefice in ? avour of a person or corporation not the 'ncumbent. C. J.