Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 10.djvu/143

ias.x.FHB.11,1922.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 113 (12 S. x. 68).—I remember when living in the Peshawar Valley (1877-1883) becoming well acquainted with Sher Khan, the old blind Khan of Hazro, some miles from Attock in the Chach Plain. When I was first introduced to him by my friend Thos. Lambert Barlow, of the Salt Revenue Department, a man intensely beloved and respected by all the natives of those parts, I was amazed to see that he had a dark blue beard. Mussulmans of the Upper Punjab do not like grey beards. They dye them first red, a practice, if I remember rightly, noted by Arrian, and over the red they wash in an indigo blue. Sher Khan, a fine old gentleman and handsome, was by no means the only Blue Beard whom I now remember.

(12 S. x. 72).—I should greatly like to see the explanation of the working of the above, as from 's description of it, it appears to be similar to the one which I saw on the stage in South Africa some 35 years ago. Speaking from memory, the player was in the form of a dummy boy dressed as a Turk, and sitting cross-legged as a tailor on a base perhaps 2 ft. 6 in. square and a couple of inches thick. The base was supported on a hollow cylinder of plain transparent glass about 1 ft in diameter and 18 in. high; this in turn was supported on another wooden base on four legs. The size of the dummy boy was about that of a boy of eight years of age. I have no recollection of the hands of the dummy moving the pieces, but seem to recollect that there was a semicircular frame in front of one of the hands, and this frame may have contained a series of cards by combinations of which the movements could be indicated, in the well-known way in which chess problems are recorded. I have a recollection of the hand describing a semi-circle in a horizontal plane. It was a complete puzzle to me at the time, and I have no idea how the mechanism was directed or worked.

Has consulted the British Museum catalogue under "Kempelen," which is the correct spelling of the name? I do not remember whether the few entries given there include a reference to Edgar Allan Poe, who has also attempted to solve the mystery of the automaton. His paper on this subject is included in his Collected Works. The automaton eventually found its way to the United States and perished there in a conflagration. Full details of the incident, &c., were published in an American chess annual in comparatively recent times, but unfortunately I am unable to give the reference.

(12 S. x. 70).—The period named, 1661-67, suggests at once the time of the hearth tax, and, though I have not hitherto heard that unpopular tax so described, it is perhaps worth investigation. I have an original official manuscript relating to a neighbouring district, entitled 'Accompt of all ye Fyer-hearths in ye countie of Bedford,' 1663, showing the parishes, constables, hearth-holders and taxes levied. The original tax was one shilling per hearth, which coincides with Edward Swannell's payment, but 1661 does not agree with 1663, the first year of this hated impost. Afterwards the rate was increased to two shillings per fireplace, and finally abolished in 1689.

In the adjoining parish of Kingstone Seamore there are some fields called "Colefree Land" about which there was much litigation in 1702 (vide Collinson's 'History of Somerset'). The meaning of the name has never been explained in spite of frequent inquiry. The fields in question. are in the flat land not far from the Bristol Channel.

(12. S. ix. 330, 376).—Dr. Lauchlan M. Watt of Edinburgh tells me, with regard to "St. Bride and her brat," that in West Highland legend Bride is the foster-mother of Christ, her "brat" or garment a symbol of purity. He gives several quotations from the Gaelic in which the words "brat" and "brot" refer to the garments of holy persons as a protection against evil.

As to "St. Colme and his cat" he writes:—

St. John's wort was holy to St. Columba—he is said to have carried it on his person—it is called Caod chalnim chelle = the hail of Columba. This might be the orginorigin [sic] of the word cat in the charm.

(12 S. x. 72).—In reply to, I think the three most dangerous animals, under normal conditions, are buffalo, bear, lion in the order named.