Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/383

 9*8. V.MAY 12, i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

375

possible to make the two months' journey in two days, when she will become the bride of another, he is about to throw himself from a rock in despair, and is accosted by a rider on a white steed, who pities him and promises help. Ashik is bidden to mount behind the rider, name his destination, and close his eyes, whereupon he is successively trans- ported to Erzroum, Kars, and Tiflis (the back -stairs method of Charles Kingsley's severely beneficent fairy in 'The Water Babies'). Full of gratitude, Ashik asks for some miraculous sign, as people will not believe that he has travelled from Arzinian to Tiflis in one day. The rider commands him to take a clod of earth from beneath the hoofs of the horse, and, in the presence of the incredulous, to anoint therewith the eyes of a woman who has been blind for seven years. Ashik obeys, and, as he rises, the horse and rider disappear, whereupon he recognizes his patron as Khaderiliaz (St. George). Thus, by the timely help of the saint, the poor musi- cian is enabled to baffle his rival, secure his bride, restore his aged mother to sight, and richly endow his sister on her marriage.

FRANCIS P. MARCHANT. Brixton Hill.

WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers maybe addressed to them direct.

" DELABRATE." My friend Prof. Clifton, of Wadham College, Oxford, tells me that, when he was staying near Crowland, in South Lincolnshire, a few weeks ago, he heard an old peasant woman speak of a cottage which was falling into ruins as "delabrate." We may compare with this word Cotgrave's

"Delabre", unbraced ragged, torn, tattered."

The word "delabrate" is not registered in

land or elsewhere 1 A. L. MAYHEW. Oxford. MIQUELON. Some months ago the Athe- naeum rebuked a writer on Newfoundland for referring to "St. Miquelon." In an article in the very interesting May number of the Contemporary Review this blunder of "St. Miquelon " is repeated by a different pen. Is Miquelon an Indian name, or is there any authority for supposing it to be French and a diminutive for St. Michael 1 D.
 * E.D.D.' Is it in common use about Crow-

TOMB IN BERKELEY CHURCH. Which of the Ladies Berkeley is represented on a tomb in

this church "with a curious headdress

like a long horseshoe quilted in quatrefoils " ? See letter of Horace Walpole to Cole, the antiquary, 15 Aug., 1774. H. T. B.

" CROWDY-MUTTON." In George Wither's ' Christmas Carol ' what is the meaning of the line,

For Crowdy-mutton's come out of France?

F. M. ["Crowdy-mutton " is a name for a fiddler.]

" I 'LL HANG MY HARP ON A WILLOW TREE."-

It will oblige me greatly if any of your readers can say whether the song beginning with

I '11 hang my harp on a willow tree,

I '11 off to the wars again,

was really written by T. H. Bayly or not. There is some idea that this is merely a nom de plume, as the song has been ascribed to the fourteenth Lord Elphin stone, who is supposed to have written it about 1837 when leaving England on appointment to the Governorship of Madras. The original pub- lisher of the song, Mr. D'Almaine, died many years ago, and the present publisher Mr. J Williams, 32, Great Portland Street has no information on the matter. E. B.

SIR PEREGRINE MAITLAND. The Rev. A. R. Pennington, M.A., Canon of Lincoln, in his Gardner, circa 1894), says, p. 14, " Sir Pere- grine Maitland was cashiered because he would not salute the Hindu idol in a grand religious ceremony." Full particulars and authorities asked for.
 * Recollections of Persons and Events ' (Wells

M. MILLETT, Major-General.

Channu, India.

CUTTING BABIES' NAILS. Several people have told my wife that " if you cut the baby's nails he will grow up a thief." It appears that the mother must bite them herself until the child is short-coated. The nurse refused to use the scissors until told she must do so. Is this superstition known 1 S. J. A. F.

ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF BAUDELAIRE. Are there any English translations of the poems of Baudelaire. If so, kindly give par- ticulars. P. J. LUCAS.

[Isolated translations of individual poems may be found in magazines, but no translation of the whole is, so far as we know, in existence.]

RENFRED AS A CHRISTIAN NAME. I have lately come across the Christian name Ren- fred. The owner of it cannot tell me after whom he was so called, or what led to his being so christened. Is anything known of the history of this name ? ARGINE.