Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/518

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XL MAY 29, im

ing stories one Chinese, and exemplarily fabulous, another Japanese, and somewhat believable :

" The country of Ki-kwan lies north of that of Yih-pi (lit., One Arm) [which is said to exist north of the Western Sea, and whose people are said to be born with one eye, one nostril, one hand, one foot, and one half body, so as to be totally incapable of walking unless joined in pairs]. Its people can fabricate a flying carriage, and travel therein a wonderful distance. Thus, by its use under a west wind, some of the people arrived in Yii-chau in the reign of the Emperor Tang [which commenced in 1766 B.C.]. Tang damaged it, [and consequently they could not go off]. But ten years after, at the rising of an oast wind, they departed homewards in the {repaired] carriage." Wan Ki's ' San-tsai-tui- hui,' 1607, ap. Terashima, ' Wakan Sansai Dzue,' 1713, torn. xiv.

According to the ' Shan-hai-king,' tradi- tionally ascribed to the Emperor Yii (c. 2200 B.C.), the people of Ki-kwan were all hermaphrodites, with three eyes and but one arm, and used to ride on mottled horses. As Ki-kwan literally means Strange Arm, such a marvellous tale would seem an invention to account for the appellation.

The ' Fude-no-Susabi,' by Kan Sazan (1748-1827), has a story of a Japanese inventor of flying machines, which runs thus :

" A pastor, residing in the city of Okayama, Bizen, named Kdkichi, caught a pigeon, weighed its body, measured its wings, and ascertained their proportions. After carefully comparing the result thus obtained with the weight of his own body, he succeeded in producing a pair of wings, and, putting them in continuous motion by a machine worked on his breast, he was enabled to fly. He could not start the flight direct from the ground, so he used to fly from the roof. It happened one evening, while he was thus pro- pelling himself over the suburbs, that his eye was caught by a party carousing in a field. Curious to know if these were any of his acquaint- ances, he made an effort to approach the spot ; but as he was letting himself down, the wind decreased so much that unexpectedly he fell down, putting the amazed folks to hurried flight. Viands and liquors were left in abundance, and K6kichi filled himself with them. But then, .as it was impossible for him to ascend into the air, he struck the wings and carried them home. Some time after the fact was publicly known. K6kichi was summoned before the municipal court : he was found guilty of having performed a feat which no ordinary man was entitled to assay, though it was clearly proved that he did it merely for fun ; his dipterous aviator was forfeited, and he was banished from the place. This event was treated by his contemporaries as a matter for laughter ; yet I record it here because of its strangeness. It took place some time before 1789." Pp. 98-9 in the Tokyo edition of 1890.

KUMAGUSU MlNAKATA. Tanabe, Kii, Japan.

TWEEDLEDUM AND TWEEDLEDEE. As the various reference books are disagreed con- cerning the authorship of the famous epigram upon Handel and Bononcini, it may be worth while to endeavour to trace it, as far as possible, to its source.

In the " Globe " edition of Pope, edited by Mr. A. W. Ward, no doubt is expressed on the matter, for it is specially headed,

Sometimes, but incorrectly, attributed to Swift," though only the lines are giveni

Strange ! all this Difference should be 'Twixt Tweedle-dwm and Tweedle-dee,

Col. Dalbiac, in his ' Dictionary of Quota- tions,' follows this lead, and it is the same with Mr. J. C. Grocott's ' Index to Familiar Quotations.' In ' Stokes's Cyclopaedia of Familiar Quotations,' however, while the same two lines alone are presented, they are attributed to John Byrom, with the note : " These lines have also been attributed to Swift and Pope ; they are assigned to Byrom in the Chalmers edition of ' The English Poets ' (1810)." ' Cassell's Book of Quotations ' gives the lines under botn Byrom and Pope, but adds that the epigram also has been attributed to Swift. Yet the key to the mystery seems to be supplied in its original appearance in print, and that, as far as I have been able to trace, was in The London Journal of Saturday, 5 June, 1725, where was printed, after the ordinary news of the week, the following :

The CONTEST.

By the Author of the celebrated Pastoral, My Time, O ye Muses, was happily spent. Some say, that Seignior Bononchini, Compar'd to Handel 's a meer Ninny ; Others aver, to him, that Handel Is scarcely fit to hold a candle. Strange ! that such high Disputes shou'd be 'Twixt Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

ALFRED F. BOBBINS.

[The late SIB J. A. PICTON printed at 5 S. iii. 31 some extracts from Byrom' s journal showing that the epigram first appeared on 5 June, 1725 ; but the text of the lines supplied by SIB J. A. PICTON differs in various places from that now printed by MB. BOBBINS. SIB HABBY POLAND gave at 10 S. ii. 7 the epigram as it appears in Byrom's 4 Miscellaneous Poems,' vol. i. p. 343 ; but as the penultimate line differs considerably from that in The London Journal of 1725, it would seem that Byrom himself revised his epigram. SIB HABBY POLAND had a later note on the subject at 10 S. viii. 427.]

" SEEDY." The following passage sup- plies an explanation of this common slang word, and is earlier than the first quotation (1743) given in ' Slang and its Analogues ':

" The time has been when, after an evening's hard boosing, my brother bards (wh o have been