Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/469

 ro»& iv. NOV. n, 1905.1 NOTES AND QUERIES. 387 a leaden coffin was taken up, which, on being opened, exhibited a complete skeleton of a body that had been interred about sixty years, whose leg and thigh bones, to the utter astonishment of all present, were covered with myriads of flies (of a species, perhaps, totally unknown to the naturalist), as active and strong on the wing as gnats flying in the air on the finest evening in summer. The wings of this nondescript are white, and for distinction's sake the spectators gave it the name of the coffin fly. The lead was perfectly sound, and presented not the least chink or crevice for the admission of air. The moisture of the flesh had not left the bones, and the fallen beard lay on the under jaw. "Such a swarm of white flies very probably pro- ceeded from the saint's coffin; that he produced them by virtue of his saintship, and that they pro- duced the infection among the French, would be believed in that age by all parties." The reference to the Catalan author quoted is Pere Tomich, ff. 39. EDWARD PEACOCK. Kirton-in-Lindsey. "PARVA BED APTA."— Mr. Courthope in The National Review for November ('Ariosto') seems to think that this poet invented the well-known lines which stand over the doors of so many little houses. There is probably no evidence either way. The lines have sometimes been given to Petrarch. P. S. A. durits, WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct. DOVER PIER.—The pier at Dover is said to have been constructed when the Emperor Charles V. landed there in the reign of Henry VIII., who on that occasion con- tributed a large sum for its erection. Where is the contemporary authority for this? The date is earlier than our first quotation (1530) for the word " pier " (then commonly spelt pere or peere) in this sense, and we have no reference to the " pere " at Dover until 1556, when the Privy Council had its repair under consideration. Will any reader of 'N. & Q.' at Dover or elsewhere send us an earlier reference to the pier 1 It may be added that we have a reference to the "pere" of Leith in 1546. and should be glad to know of any earlier one for that also. The etymology and history of the word " pier " are very obscure, and any early instances or facts throwing light upon them will be welcome. (We have those for per or pere of a bridge, from 'Ser Ferumbras' and the ' Promptorium '; then «K)thing till the appearance of a harbour pier in 1530.) The current conjecture that the word is the French pierre, a stone, cannot, I think, be upheld. J. A. H. MURRAY. " THOLSELS."—I shall feel obliged if you can inform me where I can obtain a definition of the word " Tholsel." It is a public building in the nature of a Town Hall. "Tholsels" are to be found in several Irish towns— Drogheda, Kilkenny, Waterford. <fcc.—but I cannot find the word in any dictionary or book of reference, either in our own library or in the National Library of Ireland. THOS. J. HAYES. Royal Dublin Society, Leinster House. BURNS AND THE "PALACE OF TRAQUAIE." Mr. G. C. Napier, in ' Homes and Haunts of Sir Walter Scott, Bart.' (Glasgow, MacLehose & Sons, 1897), p. 100, states that Burns designated Traquair House " as the Palace of Traquair." I shall be obliged for a reference to this quotation. O. B. "DON'T NAIL HIS EARS TO THE PUMP."— Who first gave this suggestive prohibition ? I do not find it in Bartlett's ' Familiar Quota- tions,' nor in the Indexes of ' N. & Q.' C. B. MOUNT. SCOTCH COMMUNION TOKENS. — Will any reader kindly inform me at what date the use of these was first adopted ? When on a recent visit to Campbeltown, Kintyre, I was presented with a set, the earliest of which, I was informed, dated from the year 1616. It is of thin sheet iron, and bears an impressed cross. UHAELES E. HEWITT. ITHAMAR.—Can any one tell me the origin and locus classicus of Ithamar as a girl's name ? I am familiar with Itha, the Irish saint celebrated by every hagiologist, from the Bollandists to Baring-Gould ; but Ithamar has a Norse ring about it. EDWARD HERON-ALLEN. [Ithamar was one of Aaron's sons (Exod. vi. 23).] ATLAS AND PLEIONE : THE PLEIADES : THE DAISY.—Where can I find confirmation of the following legend } Atlas and Pleione sent their seven daughters to school in the Elysian fields to learn the mysteries of divine magic. Each was pro- vided with a golden ball, and each ball was set with a different stone, so that its owner should recognize it. (Why1!) They were per- mitted each evening to play together with their balls, and one day one of the pleiads (daughters) lost her ball and searched for it a long time in vain. (Which pleiad, and where?) At last she saw it on the earth in the moonlight, so she descended on a shoot- ing star to where it lay in a meadow of soft