Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/249

 9* s. in. APRIL i, m] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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)lace nor bookseller's name is given. " The bur parts," says Prof. H. Morley, "were tfterwards arranged into two, as they are icre reprinted, and published together as
 * he ' History of John Bull,' with a few notes

ly the author which sufficiently explain its Irift." The 'Story of the St. Alban's Ghost' s not included in the volume I possess, nor s it mentioned by Prof. Morley. What is it, ind who is the author? JOHN T. CURRY.

FREAKS OF NATURE IN LONDON. A^opos of a recent discussion on the subject of ' freaks " of nature, I copy out from Puttick & Simpson's catalogue of 26 June, 1858, the following list of portraits, &c., of fat and lean people, giants and dwarfs, bearded and horned women, malformations, <fec., who have been exhibited in London from 1698 to 1855. The taste for this kind of " exhibit " is truly morbid, but that it is neither new nor circumscribed in any age is a fact which does not call for any lengthy proof. But the list (which is here given exactly as it is printed in Puttick's catalogue) is interesting :

Thomas and M. A. Adams, the Suffolk prodigies, 1853,

George Alexander, spotted boy, 1810-11. African twins, 1855. American Indians, 1818. loway Indians, 1844. Objibbeway Indians, 1844. Mrs. Armitage.

Amelon, boy without limbs, 1854. Miss Atkins, giantess. Mr. and Mrs. Shaw, dwarfs, 1833 Aztec Liliputians, 1853-55. Bearded woman, 1829-53. Joseph Bihn, Belgian giant, 1838-9. Joseph Borulwlaski, 1782. Boskiemnen, 1845-51. Botomodo Chief, 1822. Edward Bright, fat man. Mathew Buckingham, 1742. Bernard Cavanagh, 1841. Chinese ladies, 1827.

P. Cussack and M. Hibeman, fat children, 1843. African Earthmen, 1853. Esquimaux Indians, 1823. Mrs. Everett and Son, 1780. Freeman, American giant, 1843. Eliz. French, horned woman. S. A. Gallant, 1854. Guiana Indians, 1840. M. Gullia, 1837.

Hairy and mouldy woman, 1720. Halea^ Norfolk giant, 1854. Don Francisco Hidalgo, dwarf. Hahnemam, 1848. T. Inglefield. J. Kleiser, 1718. A. Morietti, 1823. Daniel Lambert. James Lambier, 1826. Lapland giantess, 1851. Harvey Leach, 1829-43. W. Lalkes, 1790,

Louis, French giant, 1826.

Michigan Chief, 1835.

Macdonald, 1854.

Miss Nixon.

Paaf, Dutch dwarf, 1816.

James Poio, dwarf, 1698.

Marietta Rovaii, 1841.

Santiago de los Santos, dwarf, 1834.

Joao Baptista dos Santos, three-legged child.

Scapiglione, the modern Samson.

C. A. Seurat, living skeleton.

Siamese twins, 1829-37.

N. Stocker and J. Hauptmann, 1812-17.

C. S. Stretton, " Tom Thumb."

Swedish giant, 1742.

Swiss dwarf and giantess.

Teresia, Corsican dwarf, 1773.

Twin brothers, 1716.

James Toller, 1816.

Valdisturian.

White-haired ladies, 1855.

P. Williamson.

Zulu Kaffirs, 1853.

W. EGBERTS. Carlton Villa, Klea Avenue, Clapham.

"TRANSPIRE."! have just now received a shop notice of a " first great clearance sale, to transpire annually." Let us hope that the transpiration is to be only annual, and that ordinary work in and for the shop does not transpire on what is called, I believe, the sweating system. But is so absurd a use of the word to come into regular currency 1 Even now Nuttall's 'Dictionary' gives "to happen" as one meaning. Such things do we suffer from the farthing-a-liner.

C. B. MOUNT.

RUSSIAN FOLK-LORE : HIDDEN TREASURES. The Russ of the following is cut from the Peterburgskaya Gazeta of 7/19 Feb. :

"A citizen of Cronstadt, one A. P. Probkoff, residing near St. Petersburg on the high road to Moscow, read in some magazine that in the course of three years a hen's egg can be made to produce a fiery serpent such as shall enrich a man ; the egg has to be worn all the time under his armpit. Mr. Probkoff, wishing to rear a serpent of this useful kind, went and bought a new-laid hen's egg. which he carefully fastened in a bandage under his right arm. He had only worn this hatching apparatus three weeks when he felt something move in it. But, alas ! his hopes were doomed to disappointment. Upon untying the bandage, no fiery treasure-finder flew forth, but a miserable naked little live chicken fell sprawling to the ground. Probkoff woke his wife, and told her the whole story, which put her in such a fright that she jumped out of bed, and squashed the poor innocent with her foot. A. P. Probkoff himself was so alarmed that medical aid had to be called in."

Why the premature appearance of a harm- less chick, in lieu of the preternatural monster expected later, should have caused the man such terror hardly appears. A male Dame Partlet figures in a Russian folk-tale, perhaps adapted from a foreign source. A