Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/152

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NOTES AND QUERIES. p* s. m. FEB. 25, m

Chancery for pirating many expensive works and violating the law of copyright.

The other day I was reminded of it from seeing in a bookseller's catalogue a copy of vol. i. priced at Is. 6d. It was headed " Dickensiana. Curious and scarce (11841)." This shows that it has gone up in price. It was one of the many publications floated under the pseudonym of Peter Parley. The little periodical extended over at least six volumes. JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

' TOM TIT TOT.' Mr. Clodd, in his recently published work on this folk-tale, cites many facts pointing to the widespread survival of the old superstitions which led people to conceal their names, " often from their friends and always from their foes." I must leave it to others to determine whether a habit very common in this neighbourhood points in the same direction. If you ask a person his name, the answer usually is, " Well, they call me so-and-so." Before I became accustomed to this formula I was often at a loss when it was necessary for me to get a person's name. If I replied, " But is that your name ?" the answer would still be, "Well, that's what they call me."

Mr. Clodd, by the way, quotes an old rhyme in a slightly different form from the one I am familiar with :

What is your name ?

Pudding and tame.

If you ask me again I '11 tell you the same.

We used to say, " Pudding and dame"

C. C. B. Epworth.

["What do they call you?" was, half a century ago, a more familiar query than "What is your name?"]

LORD ELLENBOROUGH ON INDIA AND EGYPT. In an article in the Standard on Mr. Parker's life of Sir Kobert Peel occurs a part of a letter from Lord Ellenborough to Sir Henry Hardinge, in April, 1844, which shows such wonderful foresight as to be actually prophetic ; and I think it is worthy of being put on record in 'N. & Q.' :

" Speaking of what he could do with forty thou- sand men and a good general, he says : ' Does not this excite your ambition ? It would be an operation of two years, which would require the most dex- terous political management, as well as military, but which, well managed, should give us the Punjab, Cashmere, and Peshawur that is, everything within the mountains ; and it should be terminated, in order to secure the whole, by the assumption of the Imperial title by the Queen. Without that there is nothing secure. We must give a national position to the Chiefs of India, who will all be ennobled in their own opinion by becoming the

feudatories of the Empire. There would then be something intelligible in our position here. As it is all is confusion. I think that you will at once see that, supposing this operation of two years to be successfully completed, we have under our foot, whenever the state of Europe may permit us to take it, that country which has ever been the ultimate object of my desires, but of which I hardly dare to whisper the name Egypt. I dread mutiny more than war I dread nothing but mutiny in India.'"

No wonder that the Standard says : " Lord Ellenborough's references to Egypt, the title of Empress, and the danger of mutiny are very remarkable." In a subsequent letter to Sir Henry Hardinge he writes :

" It is impossible for any statesman who carries his views forward a few years not to see that there must be eventually a contest among the European Powers for the possession of Egypt."

Perhaps as remarkable as anything is the fact that it was Lord Beaconsfield who recommended to the Queen the taking the title of Empress, and who secured for Britain the greater part of the shares in the Suez Canal. CHARLOTTE G. BOGER.

Chart Sutton.

THE NAME-SYSTEM ON THE GOLD COAST. It is usual among the Ashantis for a boy to receive two names, the first of which generally indicates the day of the week on which he was born, while the second shows the order of his birth and his position in the family. Thus Quasshi is given to boys born on a Sunday ; Koffi to a boy born on a Friday ; and if he is the ninth child Akon is appended. Quasshi Annan is the fourth child and born on a Sunday. If there are two children in the same family born on Friday, the younger will be called Kpffi Kuma, which means Koffi Junior. Twins have the word dta prefixed. Thus Ata Kuma is the younger of twins. ISAAC TAYLOR.

"HUCHOWN OF THE AWLE KYALE." (See

ante, p. 116.) MR. HEBB asks, "Who was Huchown of the Awle Eyale 1 " If he will consult Henderson's 'Scottish Vernacular Literature,' recently reviewed in your columns, pp. 31 et seq., he will find full information. A. N.

HOLY TRINITY, MINORIES. (See 9 th S. ii. 56, 135.) Holy Trinity, Minories, is now definitely closed, and will, in all probability, be used as a parish room or Sunday school for the united parishes of St. Botolph, Aldgate, and Holy Trinity. On 31 January, Dr. Kinns gave a most interesting account of the church, from its foundation to the present day, to a small party of friends. Those who were not fortunate enough to be