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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. XIL NOV. 28, 1903.

true piece of wit is translation into another language. If the wit be in the thought it remains, if merely in the words it vanishes : a pun is vox et prceterea nihil" I doubt the soundness of this ; there is much wit in many an English pun that would not bear translation into Chinese. ST. SWITHIN.

CUSHIONS ON THE ALTAR (9 th S. xii. 346, 398). ME. ROLFE mistakes me. I never said that the cushion is not admissible merely that it is uncomfortable. If the book-rest (which I prefer, as more convenient), covered with a fall or veil (usually of the liturgical colour), becomes a cushion, so much the better, as it satisfies the rubrics.

Forty years ago I recollect a cushion for the missal in the church of St. John, Great Ormond Street, Bloomsbury, which church, founded by the late Sir George Bowyer, has now, I believe, been transplanted somewhere in the country.

At Turin, or elsewhere, the servers would place the mass-book on the Epistle side of the altar, ready for the priest to use when he had recited the Psalm and Confiteor, &c., pre- ceding the Mass. The book must always be placed with its opening towards the altar cross, whether it lie on the Epistle or Gospel side. GEORGE ANGUS.

St. Andrews. N.B.

MACARONI : HARP IN SOUTHERN ITALY : THE OLIVE (9 th S. xii. 348). According to Ure in his ' Dictionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines,' macaroni was first prepared in Italy, and introduced into commerce under the name of Italian or Genoese paste. It is mentioned several times by Boccaccio, and was known in England at the time of Ben Jon son. It would seem, however, as if a long time elapsed before it became a popular article of food. Martin Coccaie, who wrote 'Phantaske Macaronics' in 1512, speaks of it in the preface in a way that suggests that it was not a well-known dish he calls it rus- ticanuni, amongst other things ; and Skippon, who travelled the whole length of Italy in the seventeenth century, and who frequently says something about the food, does not ap- pear once to have mentioned macaroni. The scientific Spallanzoni, who visited the Lipari Isles about 1783, found that the food of the people consisted of barley bread, salt fish, and wild fruit, but they were probably too poor to buy an imported comestible. By the middle of the last century, however, macaroni was well known and much appreciated. Bescherelle, who wrote about 1850, says that the Neapolitans were fairly busily engaged in the manufacture of it, and a year or two

earlier Whiteside, who went to Ischia, found nothing there but "beds and macaroni." the lazzaroni at Naples, among whom he in- cludes fishermen, porters, and messengers, he says that he really believes that their felicity would be complete with macaroni and Pul- cinella. T. P. ARMSTRONG.

To the second query see my reply to a similar inquiry in ' N. & Q.,' viz., refer to 3 rd S. xi. 214; xii. 141, 209, 247, 298, for an ex- haustive reply in a series of articles on I he First Introduction of the Harp into Europe.'

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

'RULE BRITANNIA' (9 th S. xii. 365). On examining the first two editions of ' Alfred : a Masque,' I find that MR. RALPH THOMAS, with his usual accuracy, has correctly stated the facts with regard to 'Rule Britannia/ as it runs in the first edition of 1740. But in the second edition of 1751, which was

S-eatly enlarged, and almost rewritten, by allet, the refrain to the ode is printed as under :

Rule, Britannia, rule the waves : Britons never will be slaves.

The refrain is printed in full in each of the six stanzas, and in every case a comma is inserted after the word "Rule." I infer, there- fore, that the omission of the comma in the first stanza of the poem, as printed in the edition of 1740, is due to the inadvertence of the printer.

In the second edition of * Alfred ' the first two stanzas of the ode stand as originally printed ; the third is altered, and the lines transposed, and it is given the fourth place ; while for the last three stanzas, three others are substituted, standing third, fifth, and sixth. According to Mallet's statement in the edition of 1759, these new stanzas were written by Lord Bolingbroke. For reasons given by Mr. Dinsdale, I am inclined to think the whole of the original poem was the work of Mallet. W. F. PRIDEAUX.

" PALO DE COBRA " (9 th S. xii. 288, 374). The natives of the south of India (possibly also the north) and of Ceylon believe that snakes will retire before a staff made of snakewood. The pdo da cobra of the Portuguese is the snakewood of the natives ; by both it was used as a charm ; neither intended any other use of it. The marsh date palm (dwarf) is one of the snakewoods ; but the most popular of all is the fttrychnos colubrina (the naga

musadi

or

mush'ti of the Tamils and the

rannetul of the Singhalese). It is described in the Madras Administrative Gazette as a