Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/213

 io s. XL FKB. *7, im] NOTES AND QUERIES.

phonetics in 1860. It is, of course, wholly impossible to connect seld (if a true form) with shield or shealing ; and the words shield and shealing are from different roots. WALTER W. SKEAT.

SNEEZING SUPERSTITION : EARBTTRN (10 S. xi. 7, 117). An Abyssinian says to you when you sneeze, " Egzia-beher yamasgan," which is equivalent to " God bless you ! " W. F. PRIPEAUX.

When I was at Thorvaldsen's Museum at Copenhagen in the summer of 1904, an official who did not speak English went the round of the Salons with me. Happening to be troubled by a cold in my head, I sneezed several times. Upon each occasion, looking me the while gravely in the face, he raised his hat, and made a stately obeisance. HARRY HEMS.

At the second reference " the earburn superstition " is mentioned, as to which I have noted an early reference. In ' The Laud Troy Book,' of c. 1400, 11. 6451# run : A Ector, thin ere aujt to glowe, For thow hast now fou^ten y-nowe ; Wold god, Ector, hit were the sayd How thci haue thi deth purvayd !

H. P. L.

GARLIC : ONIONS FOR PURIFYING WATER (10 S. xi. 28). In Lyte's 'Herbal' the enumeration of the virtues of garlic runs to sixteen paragraphs. He says, among other things :

" It is good against all venome and poyson, taken in meates or boyled in wine and dronken, for of his owne nature it withstandeth al poyson : in so much that it driveth away all venemous beastes, from the place where it is. Therefore Galen prince of Physitians, called it poore mens Treacle .... It is also good to keepe such from danger of sicknesse, as are forced to drinke of divers sortes of corrupt waters."

Neither Lyte nor Gerard says anything to the latter effect of onions, but their quali- ties in general are much the same as those of garlic. The date of Lyte's ' Herbal ' is 1578. C. C. B.

In ' A Treatise of all Sorts of Foods,' by M. L. Lemery, Physician to the King, trans- lated by D. Hay', M.D., 3rd ed., London, 1745, at p. 145 I^find :

" The ancient Egyptians esteem'd them [i.e. \ garlick] very much, and by the Help of them pretended to keep off Diseases : They also look'd upon the Garlick as a strong Antidote, which they us'd as we do Treacles, or other Remedies of the like Nature. Garlick is a great Help to Sea-faring Men ; for it removes the Corruptions bred by the salt and stinking Water us'd by them

as also by the bad Victuals they are oblig'd to eat at that time, for want of better : They also prevent Reachings, and Vomiting, which are very often occasion'd by the saltish Air of the Sea, which they breathe in ; and therefore Seamen usually eat Garlick every Morning with their Bread."

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

One of the common names for the common plant the hedge garlic (" Jack-by-the-hedge," " sauce alone," &c.) is treacle mustard. It will be found under this heading in Cul- peper's ' Herbal.' JOHN T. PAGE.

The garlic is widely known as " poor- man's-treacle " and " churl's-treacle," and is regarded as being a treacle or antidote for the bite of any venomous reptile.

The onion possesses a very sensitive organism and readily absorbs all morbid matter that comes in its way. It may thus be of service in purifying foul water.

W. B. GERISH.

Bishop's Stortford.

WlLBRAHAM AND T ABRAHAM AS PROPER

NAMES (10 S. x. 430, 477). An example can be quoted of the latter as a personal name in Cambridgeshire. Between thirty and forty years ago, in a village close to Cam- bridgeeither Barton, I think, or Hasling- field there was a public-house whose host bore the " uncommon name,"* as Sir W. S. Gilbert would have called it, of Abraham Tabraham. Perhaps the name may still be found in that district.

EDWARD BENSLY.

The name Tabrum occurs at Navestock in Essex as that of a family resident at Boys Hall in that parish, and is, I suppose, contracted from Tabraham.

Babraham, near Linton in Cambridge- shire, is similarly contracted into Babram, and Jonas Webb, a noted sheepbreeder in that parish, who died in 1862, is the only local celebrity who has a public statue in either Oxford or Cambridge.

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

Tabram is probably an abbreviation of Tabraham, and has nothing to do with the name of the patriarch. Rather more likely, I would suggest, is it to be " the home of David " or of some one with a name similar thereto in sound.

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

Was her uncommon name. ' Bab Ballads,' ' The Cunning Woman.
 * MacCatacomb de Salmon-Eye