Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/234

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

S. NO 12., MAE. 22. '56.

king of the Goths, and afterwards Constantius, by whom she had Valentinian III. ; she died A.D. 449. (Antiq. Exp., vol. iii. p. 4G.)]. L'Imperatrice Theodora, femme de 1'EmpeYeur Justinian I. (527 565) a aussi sur sa couronne cette fleur. Julienne Auguste est peinte ayant sur sa tete cette fleur-du-trefle semblable a celles qu'on voit aux couronnes de plusieurs de nos plus anciens rois. Ces fleurs etoicnt si communes dans les peintures de Con- stantinople, qu'on les mettoit souvent en usage pour 1'ornement comme on peut voir ci-dessus. On voit ces fleurs fort stiuvent aux couronnes et aux sceptres d'autres Princes d'Allemagne qui ne descendoient point de Charle- magne. Zyllesius (Nicolaus, 1638, Onomasticon Litera- rium, vol. iv. p. 439.), apporte des sceaux des Ottons avec des fleurs-de-lis.

" L'Empereur Conrade (1141) a sa couronne du fleurs- de-lis fort bien faites, semblables a celle de nos rois. Le Eoi Henri avoit la couronne ornee de fleurs-de-lis.

" Jacques II., Koi de Majorque, a aussi des fleurs-de- lis a sa couronne : on doit inferer de tout ce que nous venons de dire que nos premiers rois ont pris cet usage de cc que nous appellons fleur-de-lis, non comme un symbole qui leur fut propre, non comme une marque qui leur fut particulierement affecte'e; mais, h Pimitation, peut-etre, des Empereurs de Constantinople, ou des rois d'autres nations, ils ont mis quelquefois ces fleurs h leurs couronnes, et a leurs sceptres, comme un simple ornement, et tout-a- fait arbitraire : ce qui paroit evidemment en ce qu'un grand nombre de couronnes et de sceptres des premiers terns de la monarchic, n'ont ni trefles, ni fleurs-de-lis, ni rien qui en approche" (Mbnumens Franc., Discours Pre- liminaire, vol. i. pp. xxx. xxxiii.)

Montfaucon has thus carried us back as far as Constantinople for the origin of this ornament, but it might be referred to a much higher African antiquity. I am not aware that it has ever been remarked that this figure, very perfectly sculp- tured, was a common ornament employed in the head-dresses of the Egyptian sphynxes. Who- ever will take the trouble to examine those speci- mens in black marble which are exhibited in the Gallery of Egyptian Antiquities in the Louvre at Paris, will be satisfied as to the close resemblance of the ornament on their heads to the modern or earlier modern fleur-de-lis. The marbles marked A 3132. have this flower. A 2687. have a similar flower. A 20, one something similar. In the copies of these sphynxes, at the entrance of the Egyptian Court of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, these ornaments may be equally well noticed. In this court will be found many other instances in which the resemblance is too strong to allow a doubt as to the sameness of this form with that of the modern flower.

The Pompeian Court, also, offers examples of the same flower in a very perfect form.

In Wilkinson's admirable volumes on the Man- ners and Customs of the Egyptians (2nd Ser., vol. ii. p. 387.) is a representation of an altar from Thebes, now in the British Museum (No. 496.) ; in -which, among the oblations of flowers, is one bearing a resemblance to a fleur-de-lis, though, perhaps, it may be thought to dispute this charac- ter with that of a husk. C. H. P. (To be continued.")

FOLK LORE.

The Red Hand of Ulster. I am afraid the superstition connected with this honourable badge of baronetcy is too deeply rooted, in the minds of the vulgar, to be eradicated without great diffi- culty, as the following instances will show.

Being at Hagley, some time since, and conver- sing with a villager about the Lyttelton family, I was gravely informed that on account of the mis- deeds of Thomas Lord Lyttelton (concerning whom the story is told that he foretold his own death, being informed thereof in a dream,) the Lord Lytteltons were compelled to have a "bloody hand" in their arms ; and that their arms being painted on a board, with the bloody hand very conspicuous thereon, were placed over the door of the hall ; and I was moreover informed, that his lordship dared not remove it for twelve months. This board, I found, was placed there just after the death of the late lord, and was nothing more or less than a hatchment. I w^s also told that the hand was to be smaller every generation, until it entirely disappeared.

The following is another instance of this absurd belief: In one of the windows of Aston Church, near Birmingham, are the arms of the Holts, baronets of Aston ; and there, unfortunately, the hand has been painted minus one finger ; and to ex- plain this, I was told that one of the Holts, having committed some evil deed, was compelled to place the bloody hand in his arms, and transmit the same to his descendants, who were allowed to take one finger off for each generation, until all the fingers and thumbs being deducted, it might at length be dispensed with' altogether !

C. J. DOUGLAS.

Herefordshire Weather Proverb. In Here- fordshire, the following saying is current :

" Till St. James's Day is past and gone, There may ba hops, or there may be none."

J. R. R.

Baptismal Superstition. On a recent Sunday, at a certain country church in Worcestershire, there were three christenings, two boys and a girl. The parents of one boy were in a very respectable class of life ; the parents of the two other children were in humble circumstances. The parties at the font had been duly placed by the officiating clergy- man, and, as it happened, the girl and her sponsors were placed last in order. When the first child who was the boy of the poor parents was about to be baptized, the woman who carried the little girl elbowed her way up to the clergyman, in order that the child she carried might be the first to be baptized. To do this, she had (very con- trary to the usual custom of the poor, who, in essential points, are generally as refined as their superiors) to rudely push past "her betters,"