Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/47

 10 s. VIIL JULY is, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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" BELL-COMB " FOB RINGWORM (10 S. vii. 206, 336). In Herts, where I was a curate from 1880 to 1887, " bell-comb " was con- sidered sure to prevent shingles round the waist from meeting, the popular belief being that if they met, the patient was sure to die.

M.A.OxoN.

"KIDNAPPER" (10 S. vii. 345). There must have been something in kidnapping more than the mere name, for nearly sixty years ago children in my native village near Derby were warned to beware of kidnappers before going out to the woods or on the moors blackberrying or bilberrying. They were told, " Stick together, or th' kidnapper will catch yer." This was intended to have the same effect as " Boney is coming for you." THOS. RATCLIFFE.

Worksop.

TOOKE AND HALLEY FAMILIES (10 S. vii. 445). On p. 64 of Mr. W. B. Gerish's bio- graphy of Chauncy it is stated that James Tooke, of Hertford, one of the auditors of the Courts of Wards and Liveries, died in 1655, and was buried at Essendon. Further information respecting the Tooke family will be found at this reference.

MATILDA POLLARD.

Belle Vue, Bengeo.

ECHIDNA (10 S. vi. 490 ; vii. 356). The mythological monster was the same with eXtoVa. The monster probably got her name from the viper. It is not likely that the viper was called e^ioVu from the monster. Hesiod was the first to mention Echidna and her amours with Typhaon and others, whereby she produced the dogs Orthos and Cerberus, the Hydra, the Nemean lion, and other marvellous animals. See the ' Theogony,' 11. 295-330. Spenser evidently remembers these lines of Hesiod in his ' Faerie Queene,' book vi. canto vi. stanzas 9, 10, 11. And he adds another monster to the progeny of Typhaon and .Echidna, for he says :

Of that commixtion they did then beget This hellish dog, that hight the Blatant Beast. E. YARDLEY.

"MULATTO" (10 S. vii. 68, 116). I suspect this word to be of learned origin, and that MR. MAYHEW will find it was really formed out of mediaeval Lat. mulatus, like Fr. episcopat, avocat, annate, disparate, and baccalaureat. Under ' Mulati ' Ducange has : " Dicuntur ii qui ex parentibus Afri- canis et Indis mixtim nati sunt ; a mulus, lit no tuna est, quod sit ex asino et equa " ; ,nd he cites its use in a document of 1582.

This looks as if the word had been applied by Italian or Spanish priests, to the issue of European and African alliances. In the same paper " mestizus, a mestizo," occurs, which is stated to be a cross between a Spaniard and an American aboriginal.

N. W. HILL. Philadelphia.

" PASSIVE RE SISTER " (10 S. iv. 508 ; v. 32, 77). In ' The Rock Ahead,' a novel by the late Edmund Yates, published in 1868, book ii. chap, vi., is : " Nor did he content himself with passive resistance, but went straight to Lord Ticehurst," &d.

W. B. H.

" FIRE " : " FIRE OUT " (10 S. vii. 308). The ' O.E.D.' says the use of these ex- pressions in the sense noted is a piece of U.S. slang, and questions its derivation from the military term illustrated in the quota- tion, " The enemy, being first fired out of their stronghold, were taken." C. C. B.

Shakespeare uses this expression in his Sonnet CXLIV. (last line) :

Yet this shall I ne'er know, but live in doubt, Till my bad angel fire my good one out.

J. H. MACMlCHAEL.

' SOBRIQUETS AND NICKNAMES ' (10 S. vii. 366, 430). Mr. Frey's useful book will doubtless come to a new edition. Here are two emendations.

Nine sobriquets are given for W. Pitt, but the best of all is omitted : " the pilot that weathered the storm."

Cobbett was not nicknamed " Boney Cobbett " because of an admiration for Bonaparte. The name arose from his freak over the bones of Thomas Paine, and the epithet lasted as long as he lived. So did the bones themselves, for they were among his goods offered for sale after his death. Cobbett was also nicknamed " Peter Porcu- pine," after the pen-name which he adopted in Philadelphia. EDWARD SMITH.

Blue or Blue-skin Dick = Richard Culmer, an extremist of the Civil War period, some- time minister in Thanet. " One of his peculiarities was a distaste for black, and his habit of wearing a blue gown " (' D.N.B.,' vol. xiii. p. 286). EDWARD PEACOCK.

SCHOOL FOR THE INDIGENT BLIND (10 S. vii. 427). Your correspondent may be interested to know that an account of this school, accompanied by an engraving, appeared in The Mirror of 21 Feb., 1835.

JOHN T. PAGE. ^ Long Itchington, Warwickshire.