Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/363

 io- B. v. APRIL H, 1906.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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and Vishnu visited earth in company, Vishnu had the shape of a woman. Ariel may be considered sexless, or capable of being of either sex. E. YARDLEY.

ROBERT BARKER : "!F I IT LOSE," &c. (10 th S. v. 229). He was perhaps the Robert Barker, of Cheshire, who matriculated from St. Mary Hall, Oxford, in 1589, aged seven- teen, and took the degree of B.A.in February, 1593/4- See Foster's ' Alumni Oxonienses.'

H. C.

WARDLE (10 th S. v. 229). I think the gen- tleman ME. SANDFORD refers to must have been Mr. George Wardle, who was in London about the year he mentions. He was, I believe, an artist, and, if I am right in sup- posing that this is the person about whom inquiry is made, I may add that he certainly was from the North Country. His father was a druggist, and bore the Christian name of Hugh. I have an idea tfiat Mr. George Wardle was married rather late in life.

I am afraid I cannot help MR. SANDFORD with more information than this; but perhaps what I have said may help to stimulate the memory of others of your readers, who may have access to more exact data regarding this gentleman's career. T. W.

MOUNT MURRAY, ISLE OF MAN (10 th S. v 166). T he suggestion as to the origin of this name is ingenious, but I am afraid that facts are against it. It is an echo of the time when the Athols were Kings of Man. The old name of the hill was Crook Glass. Be- sides, if Slieu has been retained in one case, why should it have been translated Mount in the other 1 ERNEST B. SAVAGE, F.S.A.

St. Thomas', Douglas.

ffiisttllmtom. NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

Things Indian. By William Crooke. (John

Murray.)

MR. CROOKE'S volume, as we learn from its preface, belongs to a series which includes Things Chinese' and 'Things Japanese,' and is a product of the exact knowledge of one whose active career as a member of the Bengal Civi Service has given him a close insight into the innermost life of the peoples and the countrie depicted. In a sense, the work constitutes a specie of supplementary encyclopedia, giving precisely those things which an ordinary encyclopsedi omits, and concerning itself specially with th superstitions, folk-lore, inner life, and modes o thought of the various peoples of what is callec India. The method of treatment, and, it may b supposed, the alphabetical disposition of th various subjects discussed, were suggested to Mr

Jrooke during his preparation of a new edition of he 'Anglo-Indian Glossary' of Sir H. Yule and* dr. Burnell, to which work the present may vowedly be regarded as a supplement. Under rell-nigh two hundred heads is given an immense- mount of information upon things Indian, partly lie result of the author's own observations, partly hosen from writers of authority and repute, ubjects such as Architecture, Arms, Art, Buddhism, Jaste, Marriage, and the like are dealt with at ength proportionate to their importance. Under eads such as Amulet, Astrology, Birth-Marks,. )acoity, Folk-tales, Infanticide, Omens, Opium, bisoning, Polyandry, and Tree-worship is found natter of more special interest to our readers, t is very striking to contemplate the effect i European interference with native cus- om. The English repression of thuggee is thus, met by a curious development of Road-poisoning. Attempts to put down infanticide have been met y the neglect of female offspring ; while the- practice of suttee asserts itself in spite of edict and 1 jxample. Many of the illustrations supplied are- c amiliar to the students of Tylor and Frazer.. Jnder Witchcraft we are told there is scarcely a. tillage of rural Bengal which does not possess its- witch. Diabolic ingenuity is shown in the punish- ment awarded these wretched creatures. Much curious information is supplied concerning the worship of snakes. It is interesting to find that the snake-worshipper does not always object to eating the object of his veneration. In Bhotan,. when the hole of a python is found, the natives- light a fire at the mouth, smoke out the ophidian, and then eat it. It is less generally known in this* country that the tiger is also an object of venera- tion. The whole may be read with interest and advantage. One singular feature in the volume is that a large number of words have an asterisk against them, no explanation of which is afforded.. These are chiefly native names, such as the Dow or Dao of Assam. Under Baboo are given some curious specimens of native employment of English forms of speech or salutation. An English gentle- man was thus addressed as " Honoured Enormity."

The Dramatic Writiiiffs of Richard Wever and Thomas Ingdend. Anonymous Plays. Edited by- John S. Farmer. (Printed for Subscribers.) WE have here two further volumes of that issue of " The Early English Dramatists " which constitutes the latest literary enterprise of Mr. Farmer, and one in praise of the conception and execution of which we have already spoken. Unlike the previous issue, which gave in one of its interesting volumes the numerous interludes of John Heywood, the present instalment consists almost entirely of works of anonymous authorship. It is true that the name of Richard Wever is assigned to ' Lusty Juventus,' and that of Thomas Ingelend to 'The Disobedient Child' and 'The Nice Wanton.' Concerning the former writer we know, however, absolutely nothing ; while as to the second we profit but to the extent that we find him to have been a student of Cambridge, and trace a tradition that he belonged to Christ's College. The ascription of the plays to the authors beneath whose names they stand is not, moreover, too trustworthy. What seems pretty certain is that the authors were generally clerks of one or other of the universities, and possessed some familiarity with the Latin'dramatists. Many of the plays themselves are polemical. In the "Note-