Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/537

 9- S.V.JUNE so, i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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tion of these misdeeds. The devoted parishioners were on the watch for the mole at sunrise, and pos- sessed themselves of it. But by what torment punish its crimes? An ordinary death was too easy. The municipal council, after having deliberated a long time to decide whether it should be crushed, burnt, or flayed, concluded, in order to make a memorable example, that it should be buried alive."

Several of the tales chronicled by M. Beauquier are also current in the British islands. Jests of this type are common throughout Europe, and probably they may be found in Asia and Africa. The riddles and facetiae of Scotland and England can be traced in almost identical form as far south as Sicily. During the Middle Ages and earlier, merchants, pilgrims, or other wan- derers, who could help to while away the long hours of a winter's evening, must have been welcome guests. Hence, perhaps, the wide dispersal of certain jokes and folk-tales. It is possible, too, that prisoners of war found their condition alleviated if they were able to render their own outlandish legends and jests into the home-speech of their captors. Is not there a tradition of some man of the sword who was clever enough to save himself from death by propounding a riddle which his enemies could not answer 1

In defence of the wise men of Gotham, it may be said that fish will suffocate in water if so placed that the fluid cannot act properly on the gills ; at least, so I am informed by a student of natural history. P. W. G. M.

"ATLANTIC GREYHOUND" (9 fch S. v. 397). The following cutting from the Glasgow Mail of 28 May gives the answer to A. C. W.'s query :

" When was the Guion liner the Alaska christened ' The greyhound of the Atlantic '? Not at its first voyage, says Mr. Thomas Dykes, an old press hand. In a letter to us he recalls the fact that in 1882 the three great shipbuilding yards Barrow, Dalmuir, and Fairfield had each on hand a new steamer that was to beat the record, at that time held by the Arizona. He was commissioned by Mr. Gordon Bennett to write an article on the subject, and, as an old 'coursing' correspondent, was called upon to name the winner. He interviewed men best qualified to give an opinion, amongst others Mr. G. L. Watson, who plumped for the Fairfield boat as ' likely to prove the greyhound of the Atlantic.' The Alaska, therefore, was named the 'greyhound of the Atlantic' before she was launched. More- over, her best performances, and those in which she earned her title, were long after she had ' ground ' her engines, and not on her first voyage. I may take the present opportunity, adds Mr. Dykes, of correcting an error which has been often repeated, and which I made in an article contri- buted to the Fortnightly Review some fifteen years ago. I stated that Sir (then plain) William Pearce de- clared the voyage would soon be done in four and a half days. This should really have read five and a half

days, but when Mr. Pearce was correcting the proof- sheets for me in the outer lobby of the House of Commons the division bell rang, and it escaped his attention."

JAS. R. MANNERS.

48, Queen Square, Glasgow.

SIR PEREGRINE MAITLAND (9 th S. v. 375). The East India Company's despatch of 20 Feb., 1833, dealing with European participation in native ceremonies, remained for some years practically inoperative. Madras took the lead in remonstrating. A memorial was for- warded through Bishop Corrie in 1836. From it we hear that civil and military servants of the Company had to attend "heathen arid Mahomedan" religious festivals were, indeed, called on, in some cases, to present offerings and do homage to the native deities ; that the services of the pagodas ("impure and de- grading") were under the supervision of the principal European officers, who exercised authority in the smallest details ; and that

" British officers, with the troops of the Govern- ment, are also now employed in firing salutes and in otherwise rendering homage to Mahomedan and idolatrous ceremonies, even on the Sabbath day; and Christians are thus not unfrequently compelled by the authority of Government to desecrate their own most sacred institutions, and to take part in unholy and degrading superstitions."

The memorial was not well received, and the Government letter of 22 Feb., 1837, prac- tically approved of the delay in carrying out the despatch of 1833. On this letter Sir Peregrine Maitland resigned, and was suc- ceeded (December, 1838) by Sir Jasper Nicolls. No doubt the employment of the Government troops to honour native ceremonies was his main reason for withdrawing from the post of Commander-in-Chief. He was lieutenant- general at the time. The 'Dictionary of National Biography' makes no allusion to the cause of Maitland's retirement from the Company's service a serious omission. He was Governor of South Africa from 18 March 1844, to 27 Jan., 1847. Mr. George McCall Theal (' History of South Africa,' chap, xln.) says that he "resigned" his Madras appoint- ment "rather than show respect to an idolatrous custom believed by the Last India Company to be necessary to secure the loyalty of the natives." It may be mentioned that a different state of things had already been set on foot a few months before Maitland s de- parture, A good account of the matter will be found in Kaye's 'Christianity in India. GEORGE MARSHALL. Sefton Park, Liverpool.

Sir Peregrine Maitland, Commander-in- Chief at Madras (1836-8), was certainly not