Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/163

 ii s. x. AUG. 22, mi] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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as did many other observant persons, saw the progressive development of animal and vegetable forms from embryo to adult. That a general plan exists in living organisms wa- 1 noted as soon as man began to appre- ciate his environment. Distinct allusions to such views can be found in Aristotle and Au.mistine ; but the oldest allusions are in Genesis, in which the cosmos is represented as passing from 'the " independent, in- coherent homogeneity " by a succession of developments, " the diapason closing full on man." The essential community of animal forms is shown by the fact that they all have the " nefesh hayah " ("living soul"), and that when a help meet for Adam (not a help -meet, as often erroneously expressed) w,s to be selected, the whole animal world was passed in review. Surely the basic idea of ths companionship was the propagation of the species, and this could not have been presumed unless there was essential simi- larity in the nature of the whole animal creation. The penalty imposed on the serpent finds interesting application in the fact that some living serpents show rudi- ments of a pelvic arch and may be degenerate quadrupeds. HENRY LEFFMANN.

Philadelphia.

" (11 S. viii. 466; ix. 62). The English forms in " step " (literally bereaved, deprived) are a clumsy and ' when applied to parents and brothers and sisters an etymologically absurd attempt at differentiating relations. The present ^rigid distinction between the groups " step- " and " in-law " is quite modern. Bailey's ' Dic- tionary,' 1736 edition, gives the definition of " step-father " as " father-in-law," and so on. As late as 1837 the second Mrs. Weller is always referred to as Samuel's " mother- in-law." Proverbial French, at least, has an attempt at discriminating "step-mother" (in a bad sense), e.g., " Maratre est le diable en at re," which goes back at any rate to the eighteenth century.

Even in English other relations by marriage are not discriminated ; e.g., " a sister-in- law " may be a brother's wife, a wife's Bister, or a husband's sister ; " a niece-in- law " may be a nephew's wife or a husband's <or wife's) niece. E. M. F.

THROWING A HAT INTO A HOUSE (11 S. viii. 288, 336, 377 ; ix. 136). Agreeing with the writer at p. 288 that a solution has not yet 1 < < n found, I submit the following as possible siiils to that end : (1) Since men first fought behind defensive works, doubtless the ruse

has been used of exposing the head-covering upon a spear or gun to draw the " fire " of the enemy, if any such be within eyeshot, so it would naturally occur to any one to throw in his hat as a ballon d'essai to see if the housewife is inimical. (2) The hat especially represents the father in that fossil- bed of old British customs, the North Carolina Mountains ; in an article on the folk-lore of this region in the Journal of American Folk-Lore, vol. xx.,at p. 249 is the direction, " To relieve the pangs of child- birth, put the hat of the child's father under the bed." (3) Further in that line is ' Der Hut als "Symbol,"' &c., in Zentralblatt fii>- Psychoanalyse,- 1912, iii. 95, which is well worth personal examination by those in- terested. ROCKINGHAM. Boston, Mass.

THE CANDLE (11 S. viii. 502; ix. 173). Perhaps I may be allowed to allude to the custom of " selling by candle " incidentally mentioned by MR. TOM JONES. I have notes of such sales having occurred at Raunds, Northamptonshire (1889); Warton, War- wickshire (1904) ; Broadway, Dorset (1909); Chard, Somerset (1910) ; and Aldermaston, Berkshire (1913).

The following is copied from The Graphic of 29 March, 1873 :

" Garraway s Coffee House, famous for its inoh of candle sales, and for being the first establish- ment where tea was retailed as a drink, was finally closed on Tuesday [25 March] after an existence of 216 years."

See also 4 S. xi. 276, 371 ; 5 S. vi. 288, 435, 523 ; ix. 306 ; xii. 446 ; 8 S. ii. 363 ; v. 106 ; ix. 414 ; 9 S. xi. 188, 353 ; 10 S. ix. 388; 11 S. i. 404.

With reference to the snuffing of candles I may say that I remember the candle- snuffer going round during the service to perform this office at a little Nonconformist chapel in Northamptonshire in the early sixties. JOHN T. PAGE.

"FLEWENGGE": " SPARROWBIT.LS " (11 S. viii. 449, 494). " There were also sparrow bills or sparables," says J. T. F. May I point out that this word, pronounced sparbliss, exists still in Lleyn, S. Carnarvon- shire ? 1 last saw it (in English) in one of the skits on the attempted divorce of Queen Caroline skits of the time, collected. Barm- cloth and roundhouse are two more old survivals, commonly used in Welsh talk to-day. A collection of these remanets might be useful. So might the Welsh, as illustrating the Cornish, totem-terms (applied