Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/432

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. VIL MAY 4, 1907.

1674, and that the author's name is probably Nathaniel Crouch.

THE TOWN GALLANT'S SONG. We are born, then cry, We know not for why ; And all our lives long Still but the same song. Our lives are but short, We 're made Fortune's sport ; We spend them with care In hunting the hare, In tossing the pot, In vent'ring our lot At dice, when we play To pass time away. We dress ourselves fine, At noon we do dine ; We walk then abroad, Or ride on the road. With women we dally, Retreat, and rally, And then in the bed We lay down our head. And all this and more We do o're and o're [sic], Till at last we all die, And in the cold grave lie.

Then let us be merry, Send down to the ferry A bottle for him, Old Charon the grim, A bribe for our stay Till we must away.

EDWARD LATHAM.

Neither Keats, nor the Belgian poet, nor any one else, can vie with Shakspeare in poetical descriptions of life :

Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale, Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man.

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out. out, brief candle !

Life s but a walking shadow ; a poor player,

That struts, and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more : it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

Shakspeare may have remembered Job : " How oft is the candle of the wicked put out ! " This supposes that the passage in the older translation of the Bible is the same as in the Authorized Version, which is later than 'Macbeth.' Shakspeare also may have remembered the Bible in the lines from
 * King John.' bw|4 E. YARDLEY.

I submit to theTreaders of ' N. & Q.' my rendering from the French : _ *"

LIFE.

How vain is life ! A lovers sigh, A moment's strife, And then, Good-bye !

A span, a gleam, A hope's brief flight, A wavering dream, And then, Good-night !

T. KIRKMAN DEALY. Hongkong.

ECHIDNA (10 S. vi. 490). The Mono- tremata, the lowest order of mammals, to which Ornithorhynchus and Echidna belong, though not outwardly resembling reptiles, have notwithstanding marked affinities with them in the eyes of the osteologist, the cranium being small and the facial bones well developed. Hence the name Echidna was doubtless given to that curious complex animal the porcupine anteater, not from the Greek word e'xtSi/a, but from the mythological monster Echidna, half woman,, half snake, mentioned by Ovid, which gave birth to Cerberus, and the Nemean lion slain by Hercules. Zoologists have adopted a similar mode of nomenclature in the case of other animals, such as the Hydra, Medusa, Alcyone, Arachne, Cydippe, Hippocampus, and Midas. I cannot find the facts stated in works on natural history, but the above names all seemingly explain their true origin.

N. W. HILL.

Philadelphia.

On reading MR. LYNN'S note it occurred to me that Cuvier, in naming the Australian animal Echidna, might have been thinking of the passage in Herodotus (iv. 9) where Hercules encounters a female monster, half woman and half serpent, whose name, at least according to some editions, was Echidna. The only resemblance, so far as I can see,. between the two creatures is their habit of living in a cave or hole. The name is thus at least as appropriate as another of Cuvier's choosing : Nemertes, a marine flatworm, so called from Nr?/>ie/or7S, a certain sea- nymph. I now find my conjecture as to the origin of the term Echidna confirmed by J. Leunis, ' Synopsis der Naturgeschichte des Tierreichs,' 3rd ed., by H. Ludwig, 1883-6. L. R. M. STRACHAN.

Heidelberg, Germany.

" ULIDIA," HOUSE MOTTO (10 S. vii. 289). This is the Latin name for the province of Ulster. It is derived from the Old Irish word for Ulster Ulad or Ulaid. From the same root comes the Belfast surname MacNulty, which should properly be written Mac an Ulty, i.e., " son of the Ulsterman." JAS. PLATT, Jun.

In the annotations to the ' Annals of the Four Masters ' it is stated that the name Uladh. pronounced Ullagh, was in the first