Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/192

 184

NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9 th S. I. MAR. 5, '98.

nationality, I should have said it was the portrait of an Irishman; and I might have gone the length of guessing that it was the portrait of John Philpol Curran, the celebrated Irish orator and patriot beautified and idealized. And I may mention, as some extenuation of this impression, that I have read somewhere that Robespierre had some Irish blood in his veins."

On comparison, the portrait on which Mr, O'Connor comments so interestingly in my copy of the ' Memoirs of Barras ' does not, I am induced to remark, impress me as having a resemblance to the very brilliant one (after Sir T. Lawrence) of J. P. Curran that graces Charles Phillips's much-esteemed work on 'Curran and his Contemporaries' (London, Blackwood & Sons) ; nor does it remind me of the coarse, peasant-looking person whose likeness is given as that of the unrivalled advocate in ' The Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation,' by Sir Jonah Barrington (Paris, G. G. Bennis, 1833).

However, I beg to be permitted to inquire in 'N. & Q.' for the name of the book or publication from which I may reap full and definite information respecting the Irish family from which Francois Maximilien Robes- pierre must have been descended if he had in reality " Irish blood in his veins," as recorded by Mr. O'Connor at p. 259 of ' Napoleon.' With reference to Curran as a patriot the following quotation may not be out of place :

To fight,

In a just cause, and for our country's glory, Is the best office of the best of men ; And to decline it when these motives urge Is infamy beneath a coward's baseness. Our country's welfare is our first concern, And who promotes that best best proves his duty.

HENEY GERALD HOPE. Clapham, S.W.

THE DERIVATION OP "ANACONDA." (See 8 th S. xii, 123.) While the application of the name " anaconda " to the Python molurus, or rock- snake of Ceylon, arose, as I have shown, from an incomprehensible blunder, its transference to the Eiwectes murinus of South America seems, as far as I can discover, to have origi- nated from a misunderstanding on the part of the French naturalist Daudin, who, in the fifth volume of his * Histoire Naturelle, Gene- rale et Particuliere des Reptiles ' (Paris, Ans X.-XL), on pp. 161-7 describes the "Boa Ana- condo." I quote his opening remarks regarding this snake :

" Le naturaliste Latreille a fait eonnoitre, sous le nom de boa yeant (boa giyas), un grand serpent de l'Amrique meridionale qui est tres-voisin, par sa forme, ses couleurs et ses habitudes, du devin et de 1'aboma. II paroit, comme eux, susceptible d'acquerir une taille considerable ; mais il est prouve qu'il de vient

plus grand qu'eux. J'ai done pense qu'il seroit plus convenable de substituer au surnom de yeant, qui ne lui appartient pas exclusivement, celui d' ana-

a eu la complaisance de mettre & ma disposition toute sa collection de reptiles, qui est considerable et bien conserved dans de 1'esprit de vin, et parmi elle j'ai remarque" un jeune boa de Surinam, que je regarde comme un veritable anacondo."

Now, either Daudin must have misunder- stood Levaillant, whom he quotes as his authority for the statement that the name anacondo (sic) was used "in some parts of South America, chiefly in Surinam"; or else the word (with its wrong application) had been already imported into South America by the Dutch. Unless there is any evidence forthcoming in support of the latter hypo- thesis, we must fall back on the former con- jecture. It will thus be seen that the name " anaconda" (correctly henakandaya) was by one blunder transferred from the graceful whip-snake to the monstrous python, and by a second transferred from an Asiatic to a South American serpent.

DONALD FERGUSON.

Croydon.

CUEIOUS EARLY ENGLISH SCHOOL SAMPLER, On a sampler in my possession, size about 17^ by 12| inches, curiously and neatly wrought on fine linen canvas, in coloured silks, with figures of hearts, birds, stags, flowers in vases, pots, and baskets, trees, &c,, and the name of the executant, "Sarah Jackson \ Finished this Peace [sic] \ March 30 th 1799 Aged 10 Years," within a wreath at the foot, the whole being surrounded by a floral border, are the following verses. At the top:

Jesus ! permit thy gracious Name to stand, As the first efforts of an Infant Hand, And while her Fingers on the Canves [sic] move, Engage her tender thoughts to seek thy love, With thy dear Children let her have a part, And write thy Name thy self upon her Heart, [sic]

In the middle :

You, whose fond wishes do to Heaven aspire, Who make those blest Abodes your sole Desire, tf you are wise, and hope that Bliss to gain, Use well your Time, live not an Hour in vain, Let not the Morrow your vain thoughts employ, But think this Day the last you shall enjoy, [sic]

I am informed of another very similar sampler, still extant at Northampton, wrought 3y a child at a boarding - school in that leighbourhood a few years later, but with the additional figures of Adam and Eve (she 3lucking the apple), and only the first six ines of verse, as above, thereon. Has any correspondent met with another example of