Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/185

 128. VI. APRIL 24,1920.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

149

DANTE AND THE HISTOKY OF MOHAMMED Can any of your readers inform me what history of Mohammed Dante would be likely to have had access to ? Presumably, it wag one giving prominence to the exploits of Ali whom ho seems to have regarded as the successor of Mohammed, although three other caliphs, Abu Bekr, Omar, and Othman preceded him. GERTRUDE LEIGH.

Attegate, Winchelsea, Sussex.

[Does not Dante place AH beside Mohammed in Hell rather as a rival than as a successor ? The difference in their punishment is supposed to cor respond with the difference in their offence, the one being cleft where the other remains whole.]

DAVID HUMPHREYS, AMERICAN HUMORIST AND LYRICIST. One authority quotes year of birth 1762, while another statement aver: it to be 1753 ; whichever is correct his demise seems to have occurred in 1818. Where was he born and was he originally of Welsh descent ? ANEURIN WILLIAMS.

"DIDDYKITES" AND GIPSIES. Talking of gipsies the other day, the Dorset man whom I employ as gardener, who is a native of and lives at Lilliput in the parish ol Parkstone, referred to them as " those Gibbies or Diddy kites." He says that the latter word, which he spelt in the way here given, is the name by which they are generally known in his neighbourhood, "like one of those names in the Bible." As I have never heard it before, I thought it worth while asking whether any of the readers of ' N. & Q.' have come across it.

PENRY LEWIS.

" THE FARNET " : THE QUEEN'S STREET. In a Manor Rental dated 1518, in describ- ing the boundaries of different fields, a reference is constantly made to " the Farnet," and the main roads through the parish are called "the Queen's Street." Can any reader explain either of these expressions ?

I may add, perhaps, that the manor was given by Edward I. to Queen Eleanor. It is that of West Farleigh, near Maidstone, Kent. HENRY HANNEN.

The Hall, West Farleigh.

A FRENCH BARONET. According to Mme. de la Tour du Pin (a Miss Dillon) referring to the family of Lally, also of Irish descent Gerard Lalley was created a baronet by James II. for his services to the Jacobite cause in Ireland. The transmission of the baronetcy never occurred from the fact that illegitimacy and courage were hereditary in the Lalley family. He, however, left a son,

who commanded the Lalley regiment of the Irish Brigade at Fontenoy, and was subse- quently sent to India, where his campaign against Sir Eyre Coote ended disastrously. He was enobled by Louis XV. as Comte Lalley -Tollendal, who after a scandalous trial was condemned and executed.

Is there any other instance of a French subject having had a baronetcy conferred 11 him, even by a dethroned king ?

L. G. R. Bournemouth.

MONTRETOUT.- This is the name of a district near St. Cloud, whence the French made a sortie against the Germans in January, 1871. What is the origin of the name ? It can hardly be montre-tout, but might well be Mont Retout. Is this sup- position of mine correct ?

DE V. PAYEN-PAYNE.

SOAPS FOR SALT WATER. James Forbes (1749-1819), in his 'Oriental Memoirs,' vol. i., p. 269, speaks of an Indian " vegetable soap, called omlah " :

" The nuts [he says] grow in clusters on a wild tree, and the kernels, when made into a paste, are preferred to common soap for washing shawls, silk, and embroidery ; it lathers in salt water, and on that account is valuable at sea, where common soap is of little use ; retah, another vegetable soap in the vicinity of Surat, has the same property."

Are omlah and retah articles of commerce at the present day ? and, if so, what are the modern soaps manufactured therefrom ?

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

HELPS FAMILY. I shall be glad if any one can give me information regarding a family named Helps said to have been wealthy living some eighty years ago in London. A correspondent in Ohio, U.S.A., writes to me :

" Have heard one of my aunts say that they the Helps family lived in London, and could look from their house into Queen Victoria's drawing-room."

There was one child, a daughter, named Maria ; she married, against the wish of her parents, about the years 1837-42, William Southam of the Stratford-upon-xA.von branch; who afterwards went to America, where his descendants now live.

HERBERT SOUTHAM.

THE TURUL. I should be much obliged! 'or any information respecting the turul, the mythical bird of the Magyars.

E. BEAUMONT.

Brinsop Grange, Oxford.