Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/453

 io a. m. MAT is. iocs.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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till it acquires a slight degree of hardness. It is then rubbed with a crystal or stone rubber till a beautiful polish is produced, not forgetting to sprinkle the wall with fine ballapum powder during the process of polishing, c. All moisture should be carefully wiped off, and the wall kept quite dry till all

appearance of moisture ceases The plastering of

the Madras Cathedral is deservedly celebrated, and though executed nearly forty years ago, it is still in excellent preservation. On that occasion, not only were all the precautions just mentioned taken, but the rubbing of the surface was carried on for a long time, and persons were employed for two months removing every appearance of moisture from the walls. Comparing this with the practice of the present day, it will not be difficult to account for tho quick deterioration of the plaster that now takes place."

F. W. G.

The Scalloway Castle, Shetland, was built to weather time. With this object the founder forced the inhabitants of the island to furnish a set quantity of the white of sea- fowls' eggs for mixing with the mortar. See G. J. Wells, ' Voyage to Spitzbergen,' p. 69.

L. K. M. S.

MR. SCHLOESSER (ante, p. 34) states that many South African tribes use bullocks' blood to polish the mud floors of their huts, which gradually assume an appearance something like black marble ; and at the same reference another of your correspon- dents speaks of the efficacy of bullocks' blood for filling joints between brick and building stones, or to make the work more solid and durable.

MR. NICHOLSON, however (p. 76), doubts whether blood would be used in building for any but superstitious reasons. But, if my memory serves me rightly, the stone flooring of the old tennis court at Lord's Cricket Ground, St. John's Wood, which was pulled down some time in the early nineties, was prepared with bullocks' blood, and I always understood that it was for those very quali- ties indicated by your correspondents, and to preserve a beautifully dark glossy surface, that it was so used. And yet the committee of the Marylebone Cricket Club could hardly, I think, be accused of superstition.

But where, in another form, the use of blood as giving strength and solidity to building materials may savour of supersti- tion is when, e.g., we find the older genera- tions of Fijians burying a man enemy or otherwise upright beneath each post of a dwelling-house, in order to ensure stability or freedom from ills.

I once had an amusing conversation with the owner of such a house (vicariously though, through the services of the local

European magistrate, who acted as my in- terpreter, my knowledge of the Fijian lan- guage being but limited), which, as showing: the simple-mindedness and unabashedness- of the race and evidencing a curious bit of cannibal folk-lore, may be interesting to- readers of ' N. & Q.' I was on a visit in the mountains of Colo, in the interior of Viti Levu, with a small party of Government officials, and was passing the night at this very house. Our Lost who was known as- the "man-post-man," and had been a great warrior in his day had been entertaining: us with the customary Fijian offerings of food, such as chickens, pigs, yams, <fec., and in return we offered of our store, consisting: mostly of tinned meats. But our host, being to all appearance toothless, was particularly partial to the tinned salmon, and being of a* very polite nature he presently began to- apologize to me for his inability to keep up with us in our hungry onslaught on the good things provided for us, and most frankly gave the following explanation of the cause. He called my attention to the fact that he* had no teeth, and told me that that was- because, when a younger man, he had killed and eaten his brother ! " And you know," he confidentially added, " that with us- Fijians, if you eat your near relations, your teeth always fall out."

And this was said without any hesitation- to me, who then represented to him the very embodiment of the prosecuting majesty of the law, the Vu-ni-laiva (the root of the law), as the Attorney-General of the colony was- called by the natives. Verily, the conversion of this man by the Wesleyans was complete ; or was it the other way ?

J. S. UDAL, F.S.A.

Antigua, W.L

I remember reading that Charles Incledon (1763-1826), the singer, on one occasion thus- taunted a Bristol audience which had hissed him : "Every brick in your city is cemented with the blood of a nigger." The point of the gibe, I suppose, lay in the close connexion of Bristol merchants with the slave trade. Can any reader give chapter and verse for the anecdote 1

In the 'Diet. Nat. Biog.,' sub ' Incledon r (vol. xxviii. p. 428), is a reference to ' N. <fe Q.,*" 5 th S. x. 92. There is some mistake or mis- print, for there is nothing about Incledon in that place. H. K. ST. J. S.

[The reference in the 'D.N.B.' is right, for 5 lh S. x. 92 contains an article by the late WILLIAM CHAPPELL, who in discussing the authorship of ' The Lass of Richmond Hill ' gave the dates of Incledon's engagement at Vauxhall Gardens.]