Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/469

 10 s. x. NOV. 14, 1908.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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years in the public market-place. The men's fire and the boys' fire were distinct. We lighted ours as soon as school loosed, set off all our own-made fireworks with those we had to buy because we could not make them, and then joined the men's fire, which as a rule was not lighted till past six o'clock. The goings-on were fine : rockets went up or whizzed about amongst the onlookers, crackers jumped to the squeals of the women folk, squibs fizzed, and Roman candles shot out their stars, while the small cannon roared, and the key- guns popped. In all this the villages were in no wise behind, and the general merriment lasted for several hours, while there was fuel for the fire or till the powder gave out.

One particular form of fireworks was used by almost everybody. It was called " the burning mountain." Gunpowder was laid on a stone or in the palm of the hand, wetted, and mixed with a knife into a thick paste, then into a cone like a mountain in the pic- ture-books of that time. When it was ready for use, loose dry powder was put on the top, a light held to it, and " the burning mountain " went off, not all at once, but lasting a long time, much to the satisfaction of all.

The bonfire begging rime used in parts of Notts has this variation :

Shall never be forgot

While Nottingham Castle stands upon a rock.

Nor does it appear ever likely to be forgotten, though the ways of keeping it up have in many respects changed.

THOS. RATCLIFFE. Work sop.

" MOLOKER," YIDDISH TERM. In looking through vol. vi. of the ' N.E.D.' I notice that moloker, the slang term for a renovated silk hat, is given, with quotations from Sala and The Westminster Gazette, but with no etymology, and with stress marked upon the wrong syllable. This term is Yiddish, and its origin is very curious. It is the Biblical Hebrew word for " work," which ought to be pronounced meldka, but in Yiddish becomes meldka, and has acquired the senses of the English word " job." It is a rime to " poker," the stress being upon the middle syllable, and not upon the first as marked in the ' N.E.D.' The first syllable has so little weight that the word is often written merloker or myloker. The latter spelling will be found, for instance, in Tit- Bits, 21 April, 1906, where the intricate processes are explained by which the " ole clo' " man turns your old silk hat, which

your wife has exchanged for a cheap plant, into an article that sells in London for any- thing from half-a-crown upwards, and in Australia and New Zealand for seven-and- six. JAMES PLATT, Jun.

PHILLIS WHEATLEY AND HER POEMS. This woman was a pure negress, captured on the West African Coast, and taken to Boston, Massachusetts, when only seven or eight years old. She was purchased by Mr. John Wheatley, who already owned several slaves, and assigned to the duty of

Eersonal attendance on Mrs. Wheatley. he soon began to study Latin and to write poetry. In 1770 she became a member of the " Old South Church." Some three years later she was taken to England, and introduced to Lady Huntingdon, Lord Dart- mouth, and others. On her return she married a black man named Peters, who was said to have " read law," but in fact kept a small grocery, and became bankrupt. She died in poverty, near the close of 1784, being then about thirty-one years old. There is a notice of her in The Knickerbocker Maga- zine for August, 1834.

Her poems were printed in 1787 by Joseph James of Chesnut Street, Philadelphia, pp. 1-58 duodecimo, and have been reprinted. The editio princeps is very rare. The verses, which are scrupulously correct in form, contain accurate allusions to Achilles, yEolus, Apollo (also Phoebus), Boreas, Elysium, Flora, Mars, Mneme, the Nereids, Olympus, Patroclus, Pelides, Tithonus, and Aurora ; also the following phrases " this dark terrestrial ball," " night's leaden sceptre," " circumfused in air," " the deep impervious shade," " the martial flame," " cut the liquid air," " nocturnal hours," " polite and debonair," " vollied curses," &c.

Here are a few lines from her ' Address to Mecsenas ' :

As long as Thames in streams majestic flows, Or Naiads in their oozy beds repose ; While Phoebus reigns above the starry train, While bright Aurora purples o'er the main ; So long, great Sir, the Muse thy praise shall sing ; So long thy praise shall make Parnassus ring, Then grant, Meccenas, thy paternal rays ; Hear me propitious, and defend my lays. In the verses on Goliath of Gath :

For me no altars blaze with living fires,

No bullock bleeds, no frankincense transpires.

In those on Whitefield's decease :

Whitefield wings with rapid course his way, And sails to Zion through vast seas of day.

Had Phillis been a mulatto, like Fred Douglass or Booker Washington, one might account, though with difficulty,

for this