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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. v. FEB. 10, woo.

headed (Gileasbuig Mhurchaidh, G. Eutrom), who is reported to have been, about the middle of this century, a well-known cha- racter in Skye. When he repeated the rime he spoke so fast that no one was able to learn it from him. He is supposed to have lived on the hospitality of the island and West Highlands, and to have gone about telling stories and singing songs, arid he is also supposed to have been half -mad.

Can any other information be given as to Glas Ghairm, and also as to the date when Archibald, son of Murdoch, practised it in Skye? J. J. M. L.

PROVERBS IN HERBERT'S 'JACULA PRU- DENTUM.' Can anyone furnish a satisfactory explanation of the following proverbs from the above list ?

" The wolf knows what the ill beast thinks." " A horse made, and a man to make." The gentle hawk half mans herself." " The German's wit is in his fingers." "After the house is finished, leave it." "Diseases of the eye are to be cured with the

elbow."

" Reckon right, and February hath one-and-

thirty days."

" He that deals in the world needs four sieves." "Count not four, except you have them in a

wallet."

" Were it not for the bone in the leg, all the

world would turn carpenters." " He wrongs not an old man that steals his

supper from him."

"The eye and religion can bear no jesting." " To fine folks a little ill finely wrapt."

C. LAWRENCE FORD, B.A. Bath.

[To " man " a hawk is to tame it. Shakespeare, ' Taming of the Shrew,' IV. i. :

Another way have I to man my haggard.]

"IRISH FEARAGURTHOK." Can any reader tell me the meaning of this term, which occurs several times in the Report of the Parnell Commission ? For example, on p. 67 of the first volume of the reprint from the Times (1888) :

" I say this here to-day, that the man -who will go either to Galway or Mountbellew to pay in his rent to Walter Blake, I say on his way home that he may get what they call the Irish Fearagurthok."

WM. C. RICHARDSON.

DAVIS ARMS. Wanted the arms and crest of Adam Davis, of Grey Lodge, near Brough, co. Westmoreland. K. DAVIS.

Dudley, Northumberland.

" NOSTOC." While snipe shooting in a remote part of Brecorishire I found on the ground a peculiar white jelly-like substance, looking like half-frozen snow. It was cold

and clammy to the touch, and seemed in no way connected with the ground. I showed it to two Welsh farmers who were with me, and they said it fell from the sky, and seemed to think it was caused by shooting stars. I see in Mr. W. G. Smith's book 'Man the Primeval Savage,' p. 57, he men- tions nostoc, supposed by the country people to fall from the stars, as a probable food of primeval man. Can anybody tell me what this substance is, and if the idea that it fell from the sky is a general one amongst the peasantry, and what is its probable origin ? J. W. VAUGHAN.

Bryn-y-Mor, Tenby.

A POKER VIRTUE. What is the meaning and origin the advantage, real or imagined of placing a poker horizontally across the bars, or in front, resting against the top bar of a firegrate? Does it really help to draw the fire, as asserted, or is it some supersti- tious survival 1 J. H. MACMICHAEL.

[The theory that the poker makes any special draught up the chimney seems untenable ; it is likely that originally it was placed in a posi- tion to make a cross with the bars, in order to exorcise the demon supposed to prevent the fire from burning up.]

THE " BOTTLE," ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD. What is known of the " Bottle " in St. Paul's Churchyard as a print publishing house 1 I have an old coloured engraving, after Wike, 18 in. by 12 in., printed there, called 'The Death and the Lay of the Stag.' A MS. note below the engraver's name has been erased, and with it his name. Who were Wike's engravers ; and may I ask for a list of his works? JAMES HAYES.

Ennis.

SIR ANTHONY KECK. I should feel obliged to any of your correspondents who would give me the names of any of this family that emigrated to the United States during the seventeenth or eighteenth century.

J. M. K.

Philadelphia.

'EUGENIE. EMPRESS OF THE FRENCH.' The author of trie book so entitled, lately pub- lished, says nothing of Mile. Montijo's education at a school in England. Can anybody give the particulars 1 D. F. C.

DRAWINGS BY SIR JOHN GILBERT. Sir John Gilbert, R.A., P.R.S.W. (then plain John Gilbert), contributed a series of drawings to the old London Journal. Can you inform me in what years these drawings appeared, and what novels they illustrated? Are the volumes obtainable now 1 R. DUNN.