Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/305

 io' s. ii. SEPT. _>*, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

249

opportunity." The writer comments: "I thought of the Countess of Carberry, and felt that history repeats itself." Will some one explain this allusion to me ? M. C. L.

New York.

[The allusion is perhaps to Frances, Countess of Carbery, whose funeral sermon was preached by Jeremy Taylor.]

THE MISSING LINK. The following para- graph from the Dnili/ Chronicle of 10 August is perhaps worth a corner iu 'N. & Q.':

" A German traveller claims to have discovered in the forests of Borneo a people who still wear the tail of our primitive ancestors. He does not write from hearsay ; he has seen the tail. It belonged to a child about six years old sprung from the tribe of Poenans. As nobody could speak the Poenan tongue, the youngster could not be questioned; but there was his tail sure enough, not very long, but flexible, hairless, and about the thickness of one's little linger."

This is not signed Dalziel or Laffan, but comes from *The Office Window' of a highly respectable paper. What say the learned but tailless scientists to this? Is it possible that the German, either spectacled or some- what blind, saw a perfectly natural naked boy and made a preposterous mistake ?

NE QUID NIMIS.

DALDY. What earlier forms are there of this surname? Can b change to d, and is Dalby another form ? Dun AH Coo.

SWIFT'S GOLD SNUFF-BOX. Inside a gold snuff-box, formerly belonging to Dean Swift, are pp. 137-9 of some magazine containing an article entitled ' A Pinch of Snuff from Dean Swift's Box/ with two illustrations of the box. I shall be glad to learn the name and date of the magazine in which this article appeared. H. W. B.

"GEORGE, P'CE OF SALM SALM." May I repeat (see 7 th S. ix. 369, 415) the request for information as to the person who, as a witness, thus signed the marriage register at Dummer, in Hants, on 7 August, 1794? According to 'Recollections of the Vine

Hunt' (1865), "about the year 1795 there

was lodging at Dummer in obscurity, and I fear in poverty, a German prince"; and the author goes on to relate an episode of his father's time, in which this foreigner figured, and it is reasonable to identify him with the witness of the register. Was George a true man or an impostor? The Salm succession is briefly as follows :

William Florentine, d. 1707.

Nicolas Leopold, d. 1770 (succeeded to both Salms, 1738).

Maximilian, d. 1773. His brothers were Otto Karl, d. 1778, and William Florentine,

d. 1810 (Bishop of Tournay and Bishop of Prague).

Constantino Alexander, d. 1828.

The Prince of Salm Salm from c. 1773 to 1828 being this Constantino Alexander, the title of George in 1794 requires verification. Constantino Alexander in 1826 wanted to become a Protestant. This led to a con- troversy, a long account of which was pub- lished (including an English translation from the French) in 1827. In his own letters, as printed therein, Constantino Alexander states that he was an exile for twenty-five years, but where he lived is not mentioned. He was restored, as a mediatized prince, by the Treaty of Vienna, 1815. His third wife, Catherine Bender, was a Protestant. She may have been an Englishwoman ; she tried to prevent her husband's change in religion. That he was an JmigrJ may be explained by his office of hereditary colonel of the Salm Salm regiment, which was in the service of the kings of France for some time.

C. S. WARD.

PIKE OR McPiKE. (See ante, pp. 61, 109.) DR. MURRAY'S very interesting notes give me an opportunity to make, with the Editor's permission, an inquiry as to the origin of the Scottish surname Pike or McPike. Authori- ties differ ; some say it is derived from the fish, others assert it comes from the spear so called. Recently I came across the spelling McPeak, which is, perhaps, a variation of my surname. James McPeak figures in the i lists of persons renouncing allegiance to Great Britain and swearing allegiance to the Commonwealth of Virginia." He is shown as of Henry County, Virginia. See the Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, vol. ix. p. 12 (Richmond, 1902).

EUGENE FAIRFIELD McPiKE. Chicago, U.S.

GAM AGE. I am anxious to ascertain the parentage and family of William Dick Gamage, who commanded the East India Company's ship Belmont. He married at Calcutta, 22 April, 1781, Miss Jane Steward, and died on board the Belraont, 2 April, 1793. I am also desirous of ascertaining his wife's parentage. J. CUMMING DEWAR.

New Club, Edinburgh.

IKTIN.- In Book V. of Diodorus a place- name occurs in the accusative as Iktin (" onoraazomenen do Iktin"). Will some scholar tell me what is the nominative form of this place-name ? GREGORY GRUSELIER.

DEAN MILNER. Was Dr. Milner, Dean of Carlisle and President of Queens' College,