Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/318

 312

NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. i. APRIL 15, me.

Perhaps this is merely a variant of the legend of Genghis, it being highly probable that Haiton's Bubo is nothing other than the magpie. An older miracle of this sort is related by Washington Irving thus :

"[Mahomet's flight to Medina.] They [the prophet and Abu Beker] left Mecca while it was yet dark, making their way on foot by the light of the stars, and the day dawned as they found them- selves at the foot of Mount Thor. Scarce were they within the cave, when they heard the sound

of pursuit And here the Moslem writers relate

a miracle, dear to the minds of all true believers. By the time, say they, that the Koreishites reached the mouth of the cavern an acacia tree had sprung up before it, in the spreading branches of which a pigeon had made its nest and laid its eggs, and over the whole a spider had woven its web. VVhen the Koreishites beheld these signs of undisturbed quiet, they concluded that no one could recently have entered the cavern ; so they turned away, and pursued their search in another direction." 'Life of Mahomet,' chap. xiii.

According to Chang Hwai's ' Kiin-kwoh- chi,' written during the Tang dynasty (618- 906), quoted in the ' Yuen-kien-lui-han,' 1703, torn, ccccxlix., the ancient Chinese had the " Godly Spider's Shrine " erected beside the " Well of Jeopardy " at Yung- Yang, where, a tradition says, Han-Tsu (247- 195 B.C.), the first one of the Han emperors, had been preserved by a spider's web covering the mouth of the well he had been hiding in. Still more in agreement with Mahomet's legend, a Japanese story is told of Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147-99), the founder of the military government, who is said to have been rescued by a spider setting its web over the hollow in a tree, his temporary conceal- ment after his loss of a battle, as well as by two pigeons issuing thence when a bow was thrust in it by a scrutinous searcher ( ' Gempei Seisui Ki,' apparently written in the thirteenth century, torn. xxi. chap. i.).

On the other hand, instances are not wanting of the near presence of a bird having ruined an army. Thus the Japanese fortress of Konodai is said to have fallen in the first moon, 1564, because of a stork wading a rivulet behind it, having thereby disclosed its fordableness to the foes (Bakin, ' Satomi Hakken Den,' 1814-41, torn. li.). Formerly, when the Orang Sabimba were much prospering in the island of Bat tarn, they were so repeatedly ravaged by pirates that they gave themselves to despair, abandoned their ancient habits, and became a totally uncultivated people, ever wandering in the forest.

" To prevent any longing to return to the com- forts of civilization from again exposing them to plunder, slavery, or death, the whole tribe made a vow that they should never again form ladangs

[clearings or plantations in the forest], live a

b], foi

settled life, or even eat the domestic fowl, the crowing of the cock having sometimes betrayed their dwellings to the pirates." J. R.Logan, 'The Orang Binua of Johore,' in The Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia, vol. i. p. 296, Singapore, 1847-

Not much remote from my residence there- stands Mount Shogun, which, legends say, was fortified by the warrior Hinata Gentoku in the fourteenth century, several places and objects being pointed out in his remembrance to this day. Until about ten years ago, the- inhabitants thereabout customarily ab- stained from keeping the barndoor fowl, saying that they were much hated by the warrior's spirit ; but it would seem far more reasonable to attribute this usage to their ancestors' aversion to their dwellings being betrayed by the crowing cock. Indeed, even in recent years, I have myself detected many a very out-of-the-way resi- dence in these mountains by seeking after whence the cock's crows proceeded. Yet another tradition has it that even nowadays the ravens cannot breed near the former estate of Gentoku, because, while he was- defending the fortress against Masashige's army, one day he mistook an approaching multitude of ravens with the feathers glittering in the sun for the overpressing assailants brandishing swords. Instantly he concluded himself entirely hopeless, and ended his life with his own hands.

KUMAGUSTJ MlNAKATA.

Tanabe, Kii, Japan.

PENGE AS A PLACE-NAME (vide sub Anerley,' 12 S. i. 228). MB. S. HODGSON'^ reproduction of the Rev. Edmund McClure's explanation of " Penge " has caused me to wonder whether the scholarly author of ' British Place-Names in their Historical Setting ' is still of the same opinion as that

hich he expressed in 1910 (p. 182). Mr. McClure's explanation is as follows :

" In a copy of a Westminster charter of 1067 ('B. M. Charters') we have 'Penceat Wood in Battersea Manor,' which seems to be the same as k se wude the hatte Psenge,' i.e., the wood called Penge belonging to Battersea, according to an almost contemporary charter of 957 ('Cart. Sax., iii. 189). In a charter of 1308 we have ' Penge in parochia de Badricheseye. ' It is possible, there- fore, that Penge is the worn equivalent of Pfnpeat = chief wood, the ceat, as in the Letcetoi Lichneld, being softened to che-ge ....... This derivation,

which explains an early obscure form, is both startling and suggestive."

Penceat is a ghost-word. Mr. McClure was- misled by his eagerness to identify a " Celtic " survival. As the charter is an English one I