Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/620

 514 NOTES AND QUERIES, do* s. iv. DK. 23,IMS. is no edition of the ' Alif Laila' with vowel points throughout. The Calcutta edition, •edited by Sir W. II. Macnaghten, which is usually considered the best, has all the verse portions vocalized, but the prose is un- pointed. I have not seen the Bombay •edition referred to by MR. PLATT, but I am informed by the Librarian of the India Office that in this respect it exactly follows the •Calcutta edition. Metrical considerations •render it desirable that the verse should be vocalized, but the prose portions are written in such easy Arabic that vowel-pointing, which would add enormously to the expense «nd trouble of printing, is not at all neces- sary. In 1875 I held an appointment in the Indian Foreign Office, and the rules for civil And military examinations being then under revision, the Government of India adopted my suggestion that the ' Alif Laila' should be included among the text-books for candi- dates. This gave rise to a certain demand for the book, and I imagine was the raison •d'etre of the Bombay issue. W. F. PRIDEAUX. SUICIDES BURIED IN THE OPEN FIELDS (10th S. iv. 346, 397, 475).—Surely the passage •from Erckmann - Chatrian's 'Histoire d'un Paysan,' quoted by MR. H. T. SMITH, has no relation with the burial of suicides. The •speaker, the bigoted old blacksmith Valentin, was alluding to the ecclesiastical disabilities imposed on the Calvinists, and the sentence applies only to the question of burial in consecrated or unconsecrated .ground — a question, alas! which is still vexatious enough to those who have to ad- minister and provide cemeteries. E. E. STREET. I think MR. H. T. SMITH takes an unkind view of the intention underlying the burial •of suicides at cross-roads. In the old days a crucifix was usually erected at cross-roads, and it seems the better opinion to believe that suicides were buried there that, though exiled from the churchyard, they might yet lie under the shelter and protection of the Cross. WM. CK. BD. "THE SCREAMING SKULL" (10th S. iv. 107, 194, 252,331).—At the second and third refer- •ences are allusions to a supposed " Screaming Skull" at Bettiscombe House, near Bridport, in Dorset, in one of which (p. 194) MR. MORETON states that " the skull is said to have been that of a negro murdered by his master, a Roman Catholic priest," and in which it is said that " several attempts had been made to bury or otherwise dispose of this skull, with the invariable results of dreadful screams proceeding from the grave, unaccountable disturbances about the house, and other equally unpleasant occurrences." At the other (p. 252) MR. J. H. INGRAM speaks of it as the " well-known 'screaming skull' of Bettiscombe House, near Bridport, Dorset," and reminds us that his work on the 'Haunted Homes and Family Traditions of Great Britain' (second series) contains an account of it. I have not my copy of that work by me. but MR. INGRAM tells us that his account is based on the full description given to him by Miss Garnett, who had paid a visit to^the old manor house at Bettiscombe in 1883. Now may I be allowed, as probably the first person who made the story of "the Bettiscombe skull'" known in print — and that in the pages of ' N. & Q.' over thirty years ago (4th S. x. 183)—to protest against the skull at Bettiscombe being included in the list of " Screaminy Skulls " ? If I remember rightly it was from seeing in MR. INGRAM'S interesting work Miss Garnett's account, in which she very vividly described her visit to Bettiscombe (which niust, I think, have been exceptionally trying to " the good woman of the house " !), and the reputation of the skull for screaming, that I was moved (in 1891) to send to the pages of the Somerset and Dorset Notes and Queriet— a healthy and thriving descendant of its great progenitor—a long discussion of this subject—too long, I thought, for the pages of 'N. & Q.'—but which from its entirely local character would be more acceptable to Western readers. But as that excellent little periodical may not be accessible to your general readers, perhaps I may be allowed to recapitulate a little of what I said. I stated that my information had been mainly derived from a Dorset lady who in her younger days had often visited and stayed at the old manor house at Bettiscombe, and who had learnt and treasured up the legend as she had first heard it before time and publicity had lent a somewhat heightened and conjectural aspect to the tradition. I there stated that I had some twenty yean before sent to ' N. <fe Q." a somewhat general account of the superstition, treating «' simply as a matter of folk-lore, and not even stating where the skull was kept. Thw short account appeared at 4th S. x. 183. Upon the late DR. GOODFORD, formerly Provost of Eton, inquiring for further particulars (p. 436), I gave certain additional information (p. 509). It is true tlist I mentioned that the skull had been pro- nounced to be that of a negro, but not one