Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/78

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s. VIL JAN. 25,

I have not seen the 1835 edition of Lord Byron's ' Works ' mentioned by SIB HABBY B. POLAND at the second reference, but I have that dated 1841. It is a large octavo in double columns of small, close, but beautifully clear print, pp. xxxiii 935, with facsimile letter from Byron. When writing my 'Swimming' (1904) I referred to all the best editions of Byron, and found this the most complete. The Index is fuller than in any of the other editions of Byron. For example, ' Swimming ' is in- dexed for pp. xivn., 147, 466, 626, 854n. (it might also be for pp. 44, 146, and 621). In the Index to the last edition, in twelve volumes, 1904, which I expected to find exhaustive. ' Swimming ' is indexed only once. RALPH THOMAS.

" To CABBY ONE'S LIFE IN ONE'S HANDS " (11 S. vi. 508). This phrase hardly means " exposing one's life to great danger." It really signifies " being dependent on one's skill and adroitness for preserving one's life from danger." The word "hand" is used metaphorically in English for those qualities. A " handy -man " is one who can use his hands i.e., his manual skill for anything. " A good man of his hands " is generally used of a man who is skilled in the use of weapons i.e., a good fighting -man as op- posed to a sedentary individual who only uses his brains. The railway -man or the steeplejack always " carries his life in his hands." A wrong pull at a lever or a false step on a ladder, arising from a momentary failure of skill, may imperil his life. The term has nothing to do with a " hand " at cards, or with any object carried in the hand. W. F. PBIDEAUX.

OCTAGONAL MEETING-HOUSES (11 S. vii. 27). I should think that John Wesley's counselling his followers to build all their " preaching houses," as he called them, in the octagonal form was partly that the congregation might the better see and hear the preacher, and partly because he would not wish to make a,ny pretence of their being " churches," although the City Road Meeting-House was, and is, very like many churches and chapels of its date.

J. T. F. Winterton, Lines.

It may be noted that the old Octagon Chapel, Milsom Street, Bath, no longer exists as a chapel, but has been converted into a shop, and is now occupied by an eminent firm of jewellers. BLADUD.

WOBDS ON A SAMPLEB (11 S. vii. 9). The following is, I think, what the worker of the sampler meant :

Seduced by lover And to misfortune born,

By man forsaken And left to my companions' scorn,

When foes oppress me Friends I seek in vain.

What then is left me ? 1 myself and God remain.

The lines seem to commemorate a dis- aster in the life of a village maid. The general spelling is of the natural order, and I have noted on some samplers that I and e are very much alike in the stitch. I have seen a number of samplers in course of being worked, and the girls copied the letters from alphabets printed in colours on sheets of perforated cardboard.

THOS. RATCLIFFE.

Worksop.

BOTANY (11 S. vi. 368,416,476). The old Chinese herbals abound with information as to " sympathies " and " antipathies ** believed by the people to be possessed by plants. Thus, Twan Ching - Shih's ' Yu- yang-tsah-tsu,' written in the ninth century A.D., has this passage :

"The natural growth of the onion upon a moun- tain indicates the existence of silver thereunder ; that of the Allium JBakeri makes known the occurrence of gold beneath it ; the ginger grows on mountains containing copper and tin ; and the mountains productive of jewels and precious stones have all the trees growing thereon with their branches turned downwards."

The author states that should cattle happen to tread on the sprouts of the gourd, the latter, when grown up, will give fruits all invariably bitter. To illustrate that the melon has a very strong " antipathy " to the odour of musk, he recites the following story :

"About A.I). 827 a governor named Ching Chu went to his prefecture with one hundred and odd palfreys carrying his concubines. Their attirement emitted such an exuberant musky scent as to over- come the olfactories at the distance of several U. It proved very fatal to the melons that had been growing alongside of their route, and not a single fruit was produced that year."

For the same author's account of the " sympathy " between the egg-plant and human footsteps see 10 S. ii. 65.

In Li Shi - Chin's ' Pan-tsau-kang-muh/ 1578, mention is made of a popular belief that the sesame flourishes if planted by husband and wife conjointly. The leguminous tree Gleditschia sinensis is very thorny and difficult to climb. Encircle its trunk with bamboo hoops during