Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/201

 II. SEPT. 3, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

193

flore geminato, cowslips two in a hose." I am not aware that this name ever came into popular use. C. C. B.

" Hose-in-hose " is a general and not a local name. It is given to those members of the polyanthus section of Primulacese which show a duplication of the calyx or corolla. In one florist's catalogue I find a "hose-in-hose" polyanthus named Polyanthus duplex; in another it figures as " Primula [polyanthus] elatior hose-in-hose." Primula elatior, accord- ing to Sowerby, is the oxlip or greater cow- slip, the cowslip being Primula veris. In Northumberland the cowslip was formerly called " cow-stropple " or throat ; in Wear- dale that term was applied to the oxlip. MR. HIATT should consult the current part of Profi Wright's ' English Dialect Dictionary,' p. 760, in which he will find the word traced through the shires. RICHARD WELFORD.

Miss Plues ('Rambles in Search of Wild Flowers,' 243) says :

"As the French call the cowslip 'herbe de la paralysie,' I suppose it must have been used as a medicine for that disease ; but from its sedative quality I should imagine it more likely to induce than to cure paralysis."

EDWARD H. MARSHALL.

Hastings.

MEMOIRS OF THE PRINCESS DE LAMBALLE (9 th S. ii. 149). May I again refer M. to the English Historical Review for an answer to his query about the fictitious ' Memoirs ' of this lady? In the number for July, 1895 (pp. 588-91), M. will find some particulars aoout the anonymous " authoress " and an examination of the genuineness of the 'Memoirs.' A. F. P.

In a foot-note to M. you say ' The History of the Rod ' is :i an impudent fabrication." Would it not be fairer to call it "a clever compilation " 1 It was a fraud to palm off the book on the public as by a clergyman "the Rev. Wm. M. Cooper, M.A." when the writer was a layman and a well-known Scotch journalist, the late J. G. Bertram, better known in later days by his ' Harvest of the Sea.' But ' The History of the Rod,' although not reliable in its references, contains a lot of curious facts about the lash and flogging, only otherwise to be picked up by laborious dryasdust reading in long-forgotten volumes. Mr. Bertram was well known in Edinburgh forty years ago, when he conducted the North Briton, and in his closing years was a frequent contributor to the Glasgow newspapers. John Camden Hotten Avas the publisher of 'The History of the Rod.' Query,

Did he know that Codlin, not Short, was the author? J. R. M.

SOME AFRICAN NAMES OFTEN MISPRO- NOUNCED (9 th S. i. 466; ii. 52, 96, 152). If CELER ET AUDAX will refer to my foYmer note on the subject, I think he will see that I stated that Lord Napier of Magdala lengthened the penultimate syllable ; but why he did so, I cannot say. If I remember rightly, some remarks of mine on the subject will be found in the introduction to Mr. (now Sir Clements) Markham's 'History of the Abyssinian Expedition.' As MR. E. H. MAR- SHALL points out, Magdala is the common soldier's pronunciation, of which many similar examples will be found in Burnell and Yule's 'Hobson-Jobson.' The correct spelling, if one wishes to be pedantic, is Maq-dala, wnich in Hebrew characters (for I presume the printer has not an Amharic fount at his dis- posal) would be K?npD- I have seen some- where that the first syllable maq means door in some Galla dialect, and very likely this may be the first constituent of Maqdishu (Magadoxo) on the east coast of Africa. Perhaps MR. PLATT may be able to say whether there is any foundation for this statement.

Another Sudan name which is accented on the first syllable is Atbara, the river whose banks formed the scene of our most recent victory. I have reason to remember this river, for I was nearly drowned in it in 1865, when travelling from Kassala to Kedaref, through my camel losing his footing in a freshet. A friendly Arab (now probably a distinguished officer in the Khalifa's service) seized the camel's nose-ring in time to pre- vent our being carried away. Kedaref (gener- ally, more ^Egyptiaco, pronounced Gedaref) is still, 1 believe, in the Khalifa's hands.

W. F. PRIDEAUX.

45, Pall Mall, S.W.

MORNING (9 th S. ii. 105, 152). Henry son writes, in prologue to 'Moral Fables':

In ane mornyng, betuix midday and nicht, and his reader very naturally asks, " What time of the day does the writer precisely mean ? " Taking the line in connexion with the context, one replies, with little hesitation, that the reference is to some point in the course of the forenoon. Night had gone, and midday was not yet come, but approaching. Partly in a mood of anticipation, and partly for the sake of his rhyme, the poet places himself " betuix midday and nicht." Morning is the disjoining factor in the case, and in estimating the force and character of its