Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/493

 9<s.m.juNE2V99.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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ver in mourning, and led by a footman. The corpse was adorned with bundles of rosemary, one half stained in blood, and the sword of the deceased with them. Some thousands followed in ranks and files ; all had sea-green and black ribbon tied on their hats and to their breasts ; and the women brought up the rear. At the new churchyard in Westminster some thousands more of the better sort met them, who thought not fit to march through the city. Many looked upon this funeral as an affront to the parliament and army ; others called them Levellers ; but they took no notice of any of them."

I am anxious to know why green was used on this occasion. I know it is sometimes regarded as the colour of martyrs ; but it is not probable that the persons who arranged the procession knew this, or would have been influenced by it if they had been aware of the fact. That rosemary was used at funerals as well as at weddings is well known. Hone in ' The Year - Book ' (p. 20) gives several quotations from our popular poetry illustra- tive of this, among others Herrick's apo- strophe 'To the Rosemary Bush':

Grow for two ends, it matters not at all,

Be't for my bridal or my burial.

Lockier was shot in St. Paul's Churchyard, and I gather, though Whitelock does not dis- tinctly affirm this, that he was buried in the new churchyard at Westminster. Where was it ; and does it still exist, or has it been built over 1 EDWARD PEACOCK.

Dunstan House, Kirton-in-Lindsey.

ERLKING=ELFKING.

"When Mr. Whishaw talks of the 'erlking's myrmidons,' he should remember that the erlking was not introduced into German folk-lore till long after the period of his tale [temp. Catherine the Great]. There never was such a king even in fairy tales ; the name arose from a misreading of ' elf king,' just as the Lorelei was invented by Clemens Bren- tano at the beginning of the century." Athenceum, No. 3731, 29 April, p. 528, in a notice of Mr. F. Whishaw's tale ' Many Ways of Love.'

I shall be glad to be referred to some fuller account of the suggested ghost- word "erlking." WILLIAM GEORGE BLACK.

Glasgow.

[See'H.E.D.'J

WALRUS. Ferdinando Verbesti (1630-88), in his work in Chinese, 'Kwan-yu-wai-ki' (British Museum copy, 15,297 a. 6, fol. 10 a), under the heading ' Marine Animals ' says :

"An animal named loh-sze-ma is about forty feet long, with short legs, and, staying at the bottom of the sea, coimes to the surface very seldom. Its skin is so hard that even a sword cannot pierce it. It has on its forehead horns resembling hooks, with which it hangs itself on a rock, thus sleeping a whole day without the slightest awaking."

Here doubtless the walrus is meant, loh- sze-ma being simply a Chinese rendering of

rosmar, the Norwegian word for the walrus. The principal parts of this description agree with what Glaus Magnus gives (' His- toria de Gentibus Septentrionalibus,' Roma, 1555, p. 757), but not exactly, e.g., the latter author only speaks of the animals as "maximos ac grandes pisces elephantis magnitudine," whereas the former gives its size more pre- cisely, though in more exaggerated dimen- sions.* Can somebody oblige me by telling me from what source Verbesti derived his description? KUMAGUSU MINAKATA.

NIZOLIAN PAPER BOOKS. In Sir Philip Sidney's 'Apologie for Poetry' (Arber's large-paper edition, p. 68) is the following :

"Truly I qquld wish, if at least I might be so bold, to wish in a thing beyond the reach of my capacity, the diligent imitators of Tullie and Demosthenes (most worthy to be imitated) did not so much keep Nizolian Paper -bpokes of their figures and phrases, as by attentive translation (as it were) devoure them whole, and make them wholly theirs." What were Nizolian paper books 1

JAMES HOOPER.

[Refers to Nizolius (1498-1566), Italian professor and philosopher, and his index to Cicero.]

"BRIG o' DREAD." The "brig o' dread" mentioned in the English 'Lyke Wake Dirge ' is known among the Esquimaux and in the Neilgherries, as we learn from Reclus's ' Primitive Folk,' pp. 104, 205. One of the Finnish divination formulas also speaks of the difficult road to the next world :

" A splendid foal, ay, Hiisi's brownest nag, whose hoofs will ne'er rebound on the ice-like path of the atmosphere, on the slippery road of death." Abercromby, ' The Pre- and Proto- Historic Finns,' 1898, vol. ii. p. 153.

The natives of the Pyrenees, too, speak of a " passerelle " narrow as a hair : " He who shall do good will cross it he who shall do evil will not be able" (Melusine, ix. 49-60). In what parts of the world is this conception of the soul's path absolutely unknown 1 According to the Zarathustrians the Cinvat bridge, sharp as a razor, had to be crossed to reach the heaven of Ahura Mazda, and Mohammedans hold a similar view.

G. W.

REFERENCE WANTED. I met the other day with a quotation

Gifts then seem Most precious when the giver we esteem,

ascribed to Shakespeare, with a vague voucher of " Poems." I have searched (by the aid of

nominatur, quinquaginta passum longitudine." 'Historia Animalmm,' lib. iv., 'De Rosmaro.'
 * Gesner says: "Alium esse puto qui rusvaal