Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/593

 10 s. XL JUNE 19, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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she would be far off, always sailing against the wind. Her appearance was always just after, or before, or in the midst of unruly weather.

Formerly, the seafaring folks of Japan held in great dread the so-called ship ghosts (Funa-ydrei) the unredeemed souls of those who had lost their lives in maritime disasters. Very envious of the living, and exasperated with never - ending despair, these evil- minded spirits are supposed to be ever ready to make full display of their crafty artifices, wherewith to augment their malcontent troop by fatally misleading and drowning any unfortunate seaman who might fall in with them. Thus, for example, in the dark, tempestuous night they are said to make a show of several tens of vessels all under sail ; and, should a real vessel follow their course, her calamitous ruin would be the immediate effect. This ship-like apparition, it is popularly said, is so deceptively mimetic, even in details, that, notwithstanding the distance and darkness, one could distinctly perceive the lines and patterns on the clothes of its ghostly inmates ; the only point of distinction being that, whereas the ordinary vessels progress leeward, the diabolic ones invariably sail against the wind. Such is the account of the Japanese ship ghosts I could gather from the mouth of many old sailors as well as Yamazaki's ' Seiji Hyakudan,' written early in the last century, ed. 1891, p. 98.

Does the American tradition of the storm ship still linger on the banks of Hudson River ? And, with the exception of the Japanese one, are there any stories of such description recorded from the Old World ?

KtTMAQUSU MlNAKATA. Tanabe, Kii, Japan.

NIMBUS. I shall be grateful for references pointing to the use of the nimbus in ancient art for artistic purposes only, without regard to symbolical ideas, e.g., its use as a frame to isolate the head of a figure from its surroundings. I have before me one such apparent example in an initial letter copied from a MS. of, probably, the end of the twelfth century, in which three figures are repesented : Our Lord, who has the usual cross nimbus ; a bishop, most likely alive when the MS. was written ; and a monk, in a subordinate position, probably the artist. Both bishop and monk have the plain nimbus, from which I gather that the artist used the nimbus, at least in his own case, without intention to ascribe saintship or moral qualities of any kind to the subject repre- sented. F. S. EDEN.

THE FOUNDERS OF THE CITY OF NORFOLK, VIRGINIA. Can any reader of ' N. & Q.' give me a list of the original emigrants from East Anglia who founded this city ? Bishop Meade, in his ' Old Churches and Families of Virginia ' gives lists of vestrymen of the Episcopal churches there, but does not state what part of England they came from. There is a tradition that the City of Norfolk was founded by people from that county, but it appears to be only a tradition. I have tried in vain to discover some reliable history of the settlement of this part of Virginia. FREDERICK T. HIBGAME.

POSTSCRIPT OF A WOMAN'S LETTER. How old is the saying that this is the most important part ? I start the inquiry with a quotation dated 1825 :

" He found enough to convince him that he had really torn up the postscript of a woman's letter the material part, of course without reading it." John Neal, ' Brother Jonathan," iii. 69.

RICHARD H. THORNTON.

36, Upper Bedford Place, W.C.

ROBERT BUCHANAN'S DESCENT. In Buchanan's stately poem 'Bexhill,' 1866 it must have been a mere fishing village at that time he sings :

By mother's side I draw descent From Saxon squires most excellent.

By father's side I heirship trace

To many a seer of Celtic raoe. Buchanan was deeply attached to his father, " who," he says, loved me like a woman," and had " gentle eyes." I should like to know something of his lineage.

M. L. R. BRESLAH.

THOMAS SOMERFORD, WESTMINSTER. Wanted particulars of the father of Thos. Somerford of St. James's, Westminster, whose son Francis was apprenticed to John Luff, goldsmith of London, on April 16th, 1741. It is thought he was connected with the Somerford family of Somerford Hall, near Brewood, Staffordshire, dating from 1120. And has any account of the Somer- fords of Somerford been printed ? Kindly reply direct. H. SOMERFORD.

19,.Offerton Road, Clapham, S.W.

COMETS. I have been told that Lord Byron somewhere made use of the phrase " the comet of a season," but I cannot find the passage, and am anxious to know what comet he alluded to. I am also desirous of finding some account of a French game called comette, which is said to have been