Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/611

 ii s. v. JU.N-E 29, 1912.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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women whose names have come down to us through the ages, she possessed the qualities of the fighter. As one repeats the words of the beautiful litany of Sainte Genevieve " Terreur des Huns Secours de la ville assiegee Secours dans la famine Secours dans la peste. Priez pour nous '' the dim. remote figure of a barbaric age is suddenly seen to possess the same qualities as the " Lady of the Lamp " and other women of modern days whose example is a living inspiration to us. One may stand, too, before the fresco entitled ' Saint Genevieve, soutenue par sa pieuse sollicitude, veille sur la ville endormie,' in which Puvis de Chavannes has depicted the woman, wearied but undaunted, gazing from a tower over the city of Lutetia bathed in the silver moon- light, and praying that the dreaded Huns may be turned aside, and that the affrighted people may be spared.

On Thursday, 11 January, the ceremonies drew to a close. Through a circular orifice at one end of the gilded covering of the tomb one could see the stone coffin where the body of the saint had lain till the Revolution. The priest took the objects which the people brought to be blessed, and let them touch this spot. Here, too, he prayed over the sick and the helpless ; sometimes a cripple gave his crutches to be blessed by the saint, through whose intercession he trusted to regain his strength.

and by eight o'clock an expectant multitude awaited the arrival of the Archbishop. The service was preceded by a procession through the church. First came the Children of Mary, in black dresses and white veils, their vivacious faces toned into seriousness by the solemnity of the occasion and by the responsibility of bearing the banners of the saint. Then followed a long train of men, some four of whom bore a casket containing the jewels that have been offered at the shrine. Priests held aloft the precious reliquary containing locks of the saint's hair and the other relics that were saved when her body was burnt during the Revo- lution. Last of all came Mgr. Amette, smiling with benevolence on the faithful, who pushed to the front in pious emulation to kiss his ring. With a spontaneous, natural gesture he stopped for a moment to pat the head of a little child whom its mother held out towards him.
 * As night came on the crowds grew larger,

As the procession made its way along the aisles, candles were being lit along the " Jube," which is the distinctive feature of this church. When we looked up once more,

they cast on the white stone of the rood- loft a bright yellow light, a light which penetrated to the dark recesses of the lofty vault. Then came Benediction, to which the pomp and stately ceremonial of the church gave a dramatic splendour. The rich tones of the organ and the warm smell of incense and of melting wax heightened the emotional effect. Among the congre- gation devotional awe was strangely mingled with childlike curiosity. Finally, amid a solemn hush, the Archbishop delivered his blessing to all the faithful. Much or little as we might accept of the legend, as we streamed out of the church we all felt uplifted because for an hour or two we had paid our tribute of respect to Sainte Genevieve, We shall always hold in honour, the memory of the woman who, in an age of savage cruelty, lived solely for righteousness- and for her fellow-men, and who on 3 January, 512 A.D., at the age of 89, fell asleep in the- Lord. GERTRUDE LUCIE BURKE.

Paris.

A " MYSTICALL MAN " AT -STUR- BRIDGE FAIR.

IN the ' Animadversions upon the Remon- strant's Defence against Smectymnuus,' Milton quotes from the book of the Re- monstrant, sect. 3, p. 32, the sentence : " Thus their cavills concerning Liturgy are vanish't." Milton answers :

" You wanted but Hey-passe to have made your transition like a mystical! man of Sturbridge. But for all your sleight of hand our just exceptions- against Liturgie are not vanisht, they stare you still in the face."

The meaning is : If you had said " Hey- passe" (presto, begone !), you would have made these cavils concerning liturgy vanish as a juggler at Sturbridge Fair makes the object with which he is playing tricks dis- appear. But your tricky argument does not dispose of our solid objections.

The quotation from Milton is interesting because in the expression " mysticall man," evidently meaning a sleight-of-hand per- former, or juggler, he uses the word mystical in a sense not noticed by the ' New English Dictionary,' which gives examples only of higher and more dignified uses of the word. The passage is quoted under ' Hey -pas?/ which is defined as follows :

" An exclamation of jugglers commanding an article to move. .. .hence a name for the com- mand, and an appellation of a juggler."

I should be glad to know of other examples of a use of the word mystical similar to that of Milton.