Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/60

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NOTES AND QUERIES. tus.iv. JULY is, 1911.

Lush, according to ' The Norman People,' comes from Simon de Lusco of Normandy, mentioned (1180-95) in ' Magn. Slotul. Scaccarii Normannise,' in the Memoires de la Societe des Antiquaires de la Normandie. The name of Gaufridus Loske also occurs therein.

In the * Rotuli Hundredorum ' (Record publication) his descendants Michael and Nicholas Losse are stated to have been resident in England c. 1272.

HARRY HEMS.

'Fair Park, Exeter.

[SiiTOCS also thanked for reply ]

5 ' NIB " = SEPARATE PEN-POINT (US. iii. 346). i do not understand DR. KRUEGER'S difficulty about this word in its restricted sense. In English, at any rate, the modern meaning of "pen" is the complete implement, stem, holder, and nib : this being the general acceptation of the name since the virtual disappearance of the quill pen. The use of 44 nib " to denote a pen-point apart from the holder is neither novel nor vulgar ; in fact, it is the only available word we have ; though in America a nib with a blunt or broad point always goes by the name of 4t stub " : a less pleasing term by far, to my fancy, than "nib." The 'N.E.D.' gives examples of the latter from 1837 and 1840. I can remember " boxes of nibs " being much in evidence in English schools in the sixties. N. W. HILL.

New York.

ST. DUNSTAN AND TlJNBRIDGE WELLS

{11 S. iii. 489). The lines quoted by MR. OOWER are a variant of lines 5 and 6 of ' A Lay of St. Dunstari,' one of ' The Ingoldsby Legends.' St. Dunstan's political career has been mixed up with his ecclesiastical in an inextricable manner, while both have been the subject of legend, of which that of seizing the devil by the nose with the tongs is one. It is told in the life of St. Dunstan by Osbern, and can be seen in the Rolls series, pp. 84-5, also the Introduction, p. Ixv. A. RHODES.

Walter Gale, the Sussex schoolmaster, records that in 1749

" there was at Mayfield a pair of tongs, which the inhabitants affirmed, and many believed, to be that with which St. Dunstan, who had his residence in .a fine ancient dome in this town, pinched the devil by the nose when, in the form of a handsome maid, he tempted him/' See 'The Book of Days' (R. Chambers), i. 331.

A. R. BAYLEY. [ScOTUS also thanked for reply,]

CORPSE BLEEDING IN PRESENCE OF THE

MURDERER (US. ii. 328, 390, 498 ; iii. 35, 92, 398). The Japanese belief that blood will flow from a corpse when it is approached by one dearly loved was also held in this country. It is noted in Hone's c Year-Book ' at p. 592 that Reginald Scot in his ' Discovery of Witchcraft ' says :

" I have heard by credible report, that the wound of a man murtherecl renews bleeding at the presence of a dear if riend or of a mortal enemy. Divers also write that if one pass by a murthered body (though unknown) he shall be stricken with fear, and feel in himself some alteration of nature."

ST. SWITHIN.

TWINS AND SECOND SIGHT (11 S. iii. 469). There is an idea amongst some people that twins are " more than ordinary," and that when they are living in different places the one feels or knows when the other is ill, that something more than usual is taking place. Twins are often " odd " and do strange things. One I know, a woman, is singular in her ways. In making excuses for her, her mother often says : " Oh ! take no notice of her : she's a twin." She certainly " comes out " with singular expressions, and seems to have an intuition of things about to happen ; but it hardly fits in with the term " second sight."

THOS. RATCLIFFE.

Worksop.

The old superstition about " second sight prevailed generally all over the Highlands and islands of Scotland about a hundred years ago. It has now virtually disappeared except on the rare occasions when its ashes are revived for the benefit of tourists able to pay handsomely for samples of its mani- festation. Apparently it differed consider- ably from the curious variety of " second sight " described in the query. The High- land " second sight " consisted in beholding things at a distance or events in the future, generally of a calamitous nature to the persons listening to the seer. Twins were not understood to have any greater aptitude for the weird gift than" persons otherwise properly qualified. The seventh son of a seventh son, however, was popularly credited with a capacity to discern the occult and mysterious. It was invariably considered that " second sight," or any other mystical endowment, was his to exercise at pleasure. The curious and interesting incidents de- scribed in the query would seem to have been cases of "spiritual intuition " rather than " second sight " in the old Highland sense.

SCOTUS.