Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/44

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vm. JULY is, 1007.

by the idea," and she claims that " Admiral Christ " suggested the " Pilot " ; see, e.g., ' The Torquay Directory,' 27 Feb., 1907.

The following previous references in ' X. & Q.' do not seem to have been hitherto collected : 4 S. vi. 45, 105, 224, 261 ; 6 S. ii. 285; 7 S. vi. 25, 117, 238, 333; xi. 500; xii. 43, 78, 510; 8 S. i. 76, 278, 382; v. 38; xii. 112; 9 S. vi. 47. W. C. B.

As the following references to this epitaph, which I have copied from time to time, have not yet appeared in ' N. & Q.,' they may perhaps be added to the already long list :

1. Altar- tomb in Hatfield Churchyard, Herts, to Mr. James Willson, died 4 Jan., 1703, aged 50.

2. Memorial in North Meols Church, Lanes, to Capt. John Gray son, died 1749, aged 49.

3. Tomb in All Saints' Churchyard, Hartford, to Frances Wells, died 20 Dec., 1766, aged 44.

4. Headstone in Fobbing Churchyard to Wm. Bogue, lighterman, died 10 Sept., 1849, aged 59. CHAS. HALL CROUCH.

5, Grove Villas, Wanstead.

On p. 95 of "Three Treatises By

Edwards Reynolds London, 1632," one

reads :

" Secondly, labour ever to get Christ into thy ship, hee will checke every tempest, and calme every vexation that growes upon thee. When thou shalt consider that his truth, and person, and honor is imbarked in the same vessell with thee, thou maist safely resolve on one of these, either he will be my Pilot in the ship, or my plauke in the Sea to carry me safe to Land."

EDWARD S. DODGSON.

JAPANESE AND CHINESE LYRICS (10 S. v. 429, 474; vi. 517). Mr. L. C. Braun's March Catalogue (17, Denmark Street, Charing Cross Road, W.C.) contained an offer (No. 263) of the following book :

"Chinese Poetry : being the Collection of Ballads, Sagas, Hymns, and other Pieces known as the Shih Ching, or Classic of Poetry. Metrically translated by C. F. R. Allen." 8vo, 1891.

L. R. M. STRACHAN. Heidelberg, Germany.

" LIFE-STAR " FOLK-LORE (10 S. vii. 129, 196, 257). For three days preceding the death of Thomas Aquinas a brilliant star was visible above his abbey, but it dis- appeared at his passing away (Collin de Plancy, ' Dictionnaire critique des Reliques et des Images miraculeuses,' 1822, torn. iii. p. 160).

How deeply ingrained in the Chinese

mind is the habit of associating the fall of a meteor with the loss of a great personage, is attested by the frequent use of the expression " The general's star has fallen to the ground," with reference to a general's death. On this subject the erudite Sie Chung-Chi discourses :

" High functionaries of eminence, ancient and modern, have their fates coinciding with those of the stars in the heavens [for which belief see my letter on ' The Constellations of the Far East ' in Nature, 5 Oct., 1893, pp. 541 -3J. Thus such dis- tinguished worthies as Chu-Ko Liang (died A.D. 234), Tsu Ti (d. 321), Ma Sui (8th cent,), and Wu Yuen-Hang (assassinated c. 815), had each of them his death foretold by a falling star. But, in spite Of numberless stars that have fallen since the world began, they seem to decrease not a jot. Do you suppose, then, they come again to life and thrive as mankind does? The stars in the heavens, methinks, correspond in nature to the stones in the earth ; the stones in mountains and seas can never be exhausted, however industrious people take them away; as the stones persist in reappearing after their seeming extirpation, so the stars will con- tinue to be." ' Wu-tsah-tsu,' 1610, Japanese edition, 1661, torn. i. fol. 22a.

As regards the Tan- we (see the second reference), we are told in Hazlitt, ' Faiths and Folk-lore,' 1905, vol. ii. p. 580, as follows:

"This appeareth, says Mr. Davis, to our seeming, in the lower region of the air, straight and long, not much unlike a glaive, moves or shoots directly and level (as who shall say I '11 hit), but far more slowly than falling stars. It lighteneth all the air and ground where it passeth, lasteth three or four miles or more, for aught is known, because no man seeth the rising or beginning of it ; and when it falls to the ground, it sparkleth and lighteth all about. These commonly announce the death or decease of freeholders by falling on their lands The 'Cam- brian Register,' 1796, p. 431, observes : ' It is a very commonly-received opinion that within the diocese of St. David's, a short space before a death, a light is seen proceeding from the house, and sometimes

from the very bed where the sick person lies,

and pursues its way to the church where he or she is to be interred, precisely in the same track in which the funeral is afterwards to follow. This light is called Canwyll Corpt, or the Corpse Candle.'"

From H. F. Feilberg s letter in Folk-lore, vol. vi. 1895, p. 293, the same superstition appears to prevail in Denmark, where it is held, " If a corpse candle be small, but red and bright, it is that of a child ; the candle of a grown-up man or woman is larger, but paler ; that of an aged person is blue." This account varies somewhat from that which MR. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL gives.

The following quotation will suffice to show that the Japanese have had a super- stition about this form of the ignis fatuus :

" Hitotama (literally, man-soul) is a light with an orbicular, flat head and a long tail, giving it a resemblance to a ladle. It is bluish-white with a