Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/406

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vi. JUNK 26, 1920.

PATHANS OF BALUCHISTAN. The follow- ing is an extract from a local guide-book to Baluchistan, published in Quetta :

" Baluchistan is occupied by three races differing from each other in language, customs and manners. The Pakhtun or Pathan inhabits the j north-east portion comprising the districts of Zhob, Loralai and Quetta-Pishin. He traces his descent from Malik Zalut, who is known to us as Saul, son of Kish, King of Israel."

k Could any correspondent tell me of any book or articles in which the descent of the present Pathans of Baluchistan can be traced back to Saul, the son of Kish ? When may it be supposed that the de- scendants of Saul crossed Syria and Persia to Afghanistan, from where, of course, the Pathan inhabitants of Baluchistan, origin- ally came ? NOLA. Baluchistan.

PEACOCKS' FEATHERS. Can any readers tell me why it is considered unlucky to have peacock's feathers in one's house ? And also the nature of the ill-luck predicted ? FRANCES E. BAKEB.

91 Brown Street, Salisbury.

[This question has been raised once or twice in ' N. & Q.' The origin of the superstition cannot be said to have been established by the correspondence. The first suggestion (made at 3 S. viii. 528) was that it is derived from the Mohammedan tradition that thetdevil (Iblis, the demon of " the pride of life "), was admitted by a peacock into Paradise. Not much was elicited in the 3rd Series. In the 6th (at viii. 466) the story of Juno and Argus, the hundred-eyed, was put forward as the explanation. In the course of the 8th Series the correspondence was renewed. On the one hand it was said that the special kind of bad luck incurred by the reckless in this matter is spinsterhood for the daughters of the house into which the peacock's feathers are brought (8 S. iv. 426, 531). On the other hand it was stated that the superstition is confined to Eng- land even, it would seem, to parts of England for the Lincolnshire agricultural labourers like to deck their hats with peacocks' feathers for the statute fair (8 S. v. 75). Correspondents from Russia (8 S. x. 479) and Switzerland (8 S. xi. 36 even attested a contrary notion as prevailing in Russia and Germany that peacocks' feathers bring luck. A long and interesting note in this sense with instances drawn from many parts of th world, will be found at 8 S. x. 358. At 8 S. x. 31 it was suggested that the English belief in bad luck might have arisen at the time of the Crusadei when peacocks' feathers may have been brough back from the East by the Crusaders, and then the subsequent occurrence of any calamity im puted to something malign in them. Allusiot was made to the jtabellae of peacocks' feather* carried behind the Pope on State occasions, a. showing that these have not necessarily any uncomfortable associations (8 S. xi. 254). In any case it would seem only the bringing of th tail-feathers into a house which is " misdoubted."

ROBES OF SEKGEANTS-AT-LAW. Mr. Ser- geant Robinson, one of the last survivors >f the race of sergeants-at-law, mentions n his ' Memoirs ' that, when he was ad- mitted a sergeant, it was customary to wear he robes of the Order in Court during full erm. These consisted of a black cloth obe on ordinary days, and one of purple jloth on Saints' Days. The full-dress it the Trinity Service and at the Lord Mayor's banquet to the judges. Outside ull term a sergean^ wore a black silk gown, similar to that of a Q.C. ; and in the latter >art of Sergeant Robinson's career this )lack silk gown superseded the others even n term-time. I should be interested to enow when and why these robes were dis- ontinued, and of what shape they were.
 * carlet robe was worn only at St. Paul's

ISATIS.

' STALKY & Co.,' BY RUDYARD KIPLING. The book called ' Stalky & Co.,' 1899, con- sists of the following parts or chapters (the numbers prefixed are mine) :

1. 'In Ambush ' ; 2. Slaves of the Lamp, Part I. ; 3. An Unsavoury Interlude ; 4. The Impressionists ; 5. The Moral Re- formers ; 6. A Little Prep. ; 7. The Flag of their Country ; 8. The Last Term ; 9. Slaves of the Lamp, Part II.

No. 1 appeared in Pearson's Magazine, December, 1898 ; Nos. 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8 in The Windsor Magazine, January-May, 1899 ; No. 7 in Pearson's Magazine, July, 1899.

I want to know in what, if any, English magazine Nos. 2 and 9, viz., ' Slaves of the Lamp,' Parts I. and II. appeared.

In 'A Kipling Primer,' by Frederic Lawrence Knowles, 1900, p. 170, I find : " Slaves of the Lamp. A tale in two parts, McClure's Magazine, August, 1897."

Most if not all of the parts of ' Stalky & Co.' appeared in America at or about the same time as they did in England, e.g., I have three numbers of McClure's Magazine, viz., August, 1898, containing 'In Ambush'; December, 1898, containing 'Stalky' (not & Co.), to which is appended the following :

" Editor's Xote. This is the first of a series of stories that Mr. Kipling has written about ' Stalky,' Beetle, McTurk, and their associates. The second, entitled ' An Unsavory Interlude,' will appear in the January number."

This ' Stalky ' is the part which is omitted from the book.

Also I have McClure of June, 1899, which contains 'The Last Term,' under the heading 'Stalky and Co.,' vii., whereas JQ.