Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/83

 ii s. ix. JAN. 24, 19U.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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incantation was scarcely over when a terrible its foundations, and 1 blew the barred door violently open, through which the devil came in, riding on a pig. " Which way have the hounds gone ? " demanded he, but the terrified devil-raiser had swooned on the floor. When he came round, the open door, the shutters torn from the window, and the ashes of his fire scattered over the floor were all the evidence of what had happened, and of course his design came to nothing. It is the demand for the direc- tion in which the hounds had gone, and the pig on which the devil rode, that are sup- posed to connect this story with the Wild Huntsman, who is said by some to derive from Odin. C. C. B.
 * gust of wind arising shook the cottage to

Your correspondent suggests that the
 * story of Herne the Hunter in Harrison Ains-

worth's novel ' Windsor Castle ' is of German origin. The legend, according to bk. iii. chap, vi., states that Herne was a keeper in Windsor Forest in the reign of Richard II., and that he hanged himself upon an oak afterwards called " Herne 's Oak," which was supposed to be haunted at the period of the novel, viz., the reign of Henry VIII.

' London's Arboretum,' vol. iii. (published 1838, i.e., about five years before the novel), referring to Herne's Oak, says : " Herne was a keeper who hanged himself upon it, temp. Elizabeth.'' What is the local version of the legend ? and when is it first mentioned ? What is actually known about Herne the keeper ?

It would seem that the oak was already known as " Herne's Oak " in the time of Elizabeth, for Shakespeare mentions it in so. vi.) :
 * The Merry Wives of Windsor ' (Act IV.

To-night at Herne's oak, just 'twixt twelve and one.

Herne's Oak was destroyed by the wind, .21 Aug., 1863. G. H. W.

ANCIENT VIEWS AND TREATMENT OF IN- SANITY (11 S. ix. 11). I do not know of an English book on this subject, but only of a standard work in German, namely, Dr. Theodor KirchhofTs ' Grundriss einer Ge- schichte der deutschen Irrenpflege ' (Berlin, 1890). A few years ago a Frenchman (whose name I do not remember) published a book on the Pinels and Tukes, the pioneers in the modern system of treating lunatics. According to the German historians of " psychiatry," insane people were con- sidered to be possessed by the devil, and

were consequently treated with great leni- ency and sympathy in the Middle Ages. Putting them into chains and flogging them was reserved to more modern times, until Pinel at Bicetre, and William Tuke at the York Retreat, introduced more humane and scientific methods. L. L. K.

RENIRA will find plenty of recipes for treating lunatics and idiots in ' Saxon Leechdoms ' (Master of the Rolls Series, 3 vols., 1864-6). Here is a specimen of the sort of nonsense prescribed :

" A drink for a fiend-sick man [or demoniac], to be drunk out of a church bell; githrife [Agro- stemma githago], houndstongue, yarrow, lupin, betony, attorlothe [ Panicum crux, galli], flower-de- luce, cassock [Aira ccespitosa], fennel, church lichen, lichen of Christ's mark, lovage ; work up the drink off clear ale, sing seven masses over the worts, add garlic and holy water, and pour the liquid into every drink which he shall afterwards drink, and let him sing the psalm Beati immaculafi, and Exurgat, and Salvum mefac deus, and then let him drink the drink out of a church bell.

" For the phrenzied : bishopwort [Ammi maju.^, lupin, bonewort [ Viola lutea], everfern {Polypidiinn vulgare], githrife, elecampane, when day and night divide ; then sing thou in the church litanies, that is the names of the Hallows [saints], and the Pater- noster ; with the song go thou that thou mayest be near the worts, and go thrice about them, and when thou takest them go again to church with the same song, and sing twelve masses over them, and over all the drinks which belong to the disease, in honour of the twelve Apostles."

HERBERT MAXWELL. Monreith.

Andrew Boorde's ' Dyetry of Health, ' published iii 1542, contains a chapter de- voted to the treattment of those " whiche be madde, and out of their wytte." Extracts from it appeared in Country Life, 23 July

1910. P. D. M.

PERSONAL NAMES IN INDIA AND IN IRAN (11 S. ix. 7). M. H. GAIDOZ will find full details of the rules by which personal names are seleoted in India and Iran in the follow- ing authorities. For India generally see W. Crooke, ' Things Indian,' 1906, pp. 344 ff. For the Panjab, ' A Dissertation on the Proper Names of Paiiiabis,' by R. C. Temple, Bombay, 1883 ; ' Census Report, Panjab.'

1911, vol. i. p. 304. For Assam, 'Census Report, Assam,' 1911, vol. i. pp. 77 ff. For Kashmir, 'Census Report, Kashmir,' 1911, vol. i. p. 143. For Bombay, ' Bom- bay Gazetteer,' vol. ix. pt. i. p. 34 (1901). For Burma, Sir J. G. Scott, ' Burma,' 1906, pp. 78 ff. Little seems to be known of the custom in ancient Iran. See W. Geiger, ' Civilization of the Eastern