Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/295

 s. xii. OCT. 9, 1915.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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-gloves, which he almost scratched to pieces, but he never attempted such a rough-and- tumble when I had no gloves on, nor did he ever hurt our little daughter of !. On the contrary, we rather fear that his death was indirectly due to her. She sometimes tried to sit on him, and this may have started 'congestion of the liver, of which he died in spite of professional assistance and careful nursing. This cat would retrieve a paper bail, and though I have heard of cats doing this, I have never seen it done before or since. The trick started quite accidentally. T bad crunched up a piece of paper and thrown it on the floor a short distance from me. The kitten played with it and seemed to bring it to me, so I threw it a foot or so away, and then undoubtedly he brought it faack in his mouth. This was done several times, and I took care to practise him every day, and to increase the distance daily. In the end he retrieved such a paper ball for as long a straight run as could be given him in the flat, i.e. about 36 feet, bolting after it full pace like a dog, but always walking back with it in a slow and most stately manner, and never refusing to drop it as a dog does. Sometimes he would play with it f or a bit before bringing it back this, as a rule when he was tiring of the game, for he would retrieve it some twenty times in quick succession at one sitting (so to speak I did the sitting !).

ALFRED S. E. ACKERMANN. 9, Rotherwick Road, Hampstead, N.W.

THE CUCKOO IN FOLK-LORE (11 S. xii. 182, 230, 250). The passage in ' A Bit o' Love ' which speaks of the cuckoo is as follows :

Freman. But 'e 'adn't no bird on 'is head.

Clyvt. Ya-as, 'e 'ad.

Jarland (in ad-all, threatening voice}. 'E 'ad my maid's bird, this arterniine. 'Ead or no, and parson or no, I'll gie 'im one for that.

Freman. Ah ! And 'e meddled wi' my horses.

Trustaford. I'm thinkin' 'twas an old cuckoo bird 'e 'ad on 'is 'ead. Haw, haw !

The subject of this conversation is the curate, who has an unfaithful wife. Clyst, described a,s " a youth with tousled hair, and a bright, quick Celtic eye," has been giving a highly coloured account of him " settin' . . . . wi' a bird upon 'is 'ead, play in' his whistle to the ponies." M. P.

In a number of the Magasin Pittoresque of the year 1870 a tale occurs (' Le Chant du Coucou ' ) which shows that Bretons think it lucky to hear a cuckoo sing. Two brothers at work in a field heard a cuckoo. tM I have heard it first," said one ; w I shall

go directly and buy my neighbour's horse. ' " No," retorted the other, " I heard it first ; the luck is meant for me." After quarrelling a long while, they repaired to the Justice of the Peace, who requested them to lay down a crown each, which he pocketed, remarking quietly that he was evidently the person for whose sake the cuckoo had sung.

My cook, a native of Cotes du Nord, being referred to, gives corroborative evidence. " It is lucky," she says, " to hear a cuckoo in early spring, if you happen to have money in your pocket. But," she adds, " you should not keep money about you on purpose ; that would be foul play ! "

The evidence of this unsophisticated witness seems valuable. Mr. Ch. Le Braz, who is best acquainted with Breton folk- lore, might no doubt give further information.

As to the association of the cuckoo with conjugal misfortunes, let me say that the French coucou, which applies both to the bird and to the field-cowslip, is in some provinces (particularly in French-speaking Switzer- land) pronounced cocu, that is cuckold ; this flower, we should bear in mind, is yellow, which colour is generally associated in French with matrimonial ill-luck.

A very funny illustration of the ill-boding cuckoo song occurs in Flinquette's ' Les Cloches de Corneville,' when the amorous Bailli relates how he was scoffed at by the mob as a " mari de Corne, de Come, de Corneville," to a tune which repeatedly sounds the cuckoo's note.

In Webster and Rowley's ' Cure for a Cuckold,' V. i., at Compass's renewed wedding, an allusion is made to " the fatal mono legist's " note, and Lessingham cries " Cuckoo " to the whitewashed bride- groom. B ON A. F. BOURGEOIS.

In Devonshire, in relation to bad weather early in the year, it is said, " We shan't have it better until the cuckoos come to clear the mud away." Others say the crows. As the latter, when grubbing for their young, get on the land at least a month before the cuckoo comes, the crow seems to be the more likely bird. A. J. DAVY.

Torquay.

There are several (I have read as many as six) male cuckoos to one hen. Each male calls from some tall tree. The hen spends her time in flying from one to another she naturally has no time to spare from satisfying so many mates for maternal duties. The name " cuckold " is applied to a husband who shares his wife with others.

J. F. S.-J.