Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/143

 ii s. ix. FEB. 14, 19U.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

137

NIGHTINGALE FAMILY (11 S. viii. 450). No privilege of the kind mentioned has ever been granted to the Nightingale family, neither has it ever been claimed before. I very strongly disapproved of Miss Nightin- gale's action, which, unfortunately, was brought to my notice too late for me to prevent it. EDWARD NIGHTINGALE, Bt.

" MEMMIAN NAPHTHA-PITS " IN TENNY- SON (11 S. ix. 67). The following passage in Curtius will, I think, explain the epithet :

" Alexander quartis castris ad Mennin urbem pervenit. Caverna ibi est, ex qua fons ingentem vim bituminis effundit, adeo ut satis constet, Babylonios muros ingentis operis huius fontis bitumine interlitos esse." ' Hist. Alex. Magni,' V. i. 16.

Various emendations have been suggested, such as Memnium, Memniam, Memnoniam, &c. EDWARD BENSLY.

CARDINAL IPPOLITO DEI MEDICI (11 S. ix. 87). Titian's portrait of the above, in his uniform as a Hungarian captain, is, I think, at the Pitti Palace, Florence.

A. R. BAYLEY.

WORDS AND PHRASES IN ' LORNA DOONE ' (11 S. viii. 427, 514; ix. 15, 75, 116). (4) "John the Baptist" (St. John's -wort, genus Hypericum, see. below), " and his cousins " (about two hundred species in all), " with the wool and hyssop " (both too well known in religion and folk-medi- cine to need explanation, except to suggest Pley's ' De Lanse in Antiquorum Ritibus Usu,' rather too recent to appear in the books), "are for mares" (Hypericum being especially used as an aid to delivery; see Daehnhardt 's ' Natursagen : Sagen zum Neuen Testament,' ii. 19), " and ailing dogs " (because Hypericum perforatum, in addition to its healing and specially mira- culous powers, had also the faculty of fuga dcemonum, and was thus efficacious the dogs being ailing because " possessed " ; for this faculty the devil tried to destroy it with needles ; see Daehnhardt, i. ' Sagen zum Alten Testament,' 202-3), " and fowls that have the jaundice " (every kind of Hypericum having yellow flowers, and thus coming under the doctrine of Signatures, as to which see 10 S. xi. 209, 496).

Hypericum perforatum has the pellucid dots of the genus especially conspicuous, these dots being oily, as mentioned in the A.D. 1625 quotation in ' N.E.D.,' v. 593 : " As- swaging the heat with Oyle extracted from St. Johns-woort " ; these appear to be .borings either made by the devil, as above

noted, imitating those in St. John's tongue made by Herodias (Daehnhardt, ii. 257), or from the drops of blood from St. John's head, or from Jesus on the Cross (ibid., 228).

Another St. John's-wort is the stonecrop or genus Sedum, which seems used for divina- tion only in Brittany (La France Medicare, 25 May, 1913, 200) and in Sleswig-Holstein (Zeitschrift des Vereins fur Volkskunde, 1913, xxiii. 280). An unidentified St. John's-wort appears used as a charm in the Isle of Man on Old May Day Eve :

" To ward off the influence of evil spirits and

witches cows were further protected from the

same influences by having the Bollan-feaill-Eoin (John's-feast-wort) placed in their stall." Wentz's ' The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries,' 124, note.

ROCKINGHAM. Boston, Mass.

ANCIENT VIEWS AND TREATMENT OF INSANITY (11 S. ix. 11, 77). Dr. Jeremiah Wainewright in his ' A Mechanical Account of the Non-Naturals ' (1707), p. 126, recom- mends bathing, especially in sea-water, as a cure for "Madness, and the bite of a Mad Dog," and gives his reasons.

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

"LOVELESS AS AN IRISHMAN" (11 S. ix. 68). In connexion with this query, it may be noted as significant that none of the Celtic languages has any native word for " kiss." The Welsh cusan is from English, the Irish pog from the Latin pacem (i.e., the " kiss of peace"). H. I. B.

THE HAVAMAL (11 S. ix. 87). The text and the latest translation will be found in ' The Elder or Poetic Edda,' translated by Olive Bray, Viking Club, Translation Series, vol. ii., 1908; also in 'Corpus Poeticum Boreale,' by Vigfusson and Powell.

A. W. JOHNSTON.

"MAGGS" (11 S. ix. 70). I am disposed to think the item referred to means " dish or platter serving for meat roasted or drie dressed." This I find in 1587 was named in full " Lanx Magis." The plural at the period, in my opinion, might be written " maggs." ALFRED CHAS. JONAS.

" Maggs," I believe, were the ordinary mash-tubs used in brewing at farmhouses and roadside inns, and also shallow washing- tubs. For household purposes they were superseded by earthenware vessels which I heard called " maggins " or " muggins " = " mug-pots." THOS. RATCLIFFE.

Southh'eld, Worksop.