Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/194

 `°‘ "'*""‘“""`~;zf 160 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9°~s.v1.Aw.%.19oo~ were burnt on the cheek before undergoing banish- ment. As a remedy against destitution we find each householder compelled to receive a pauper child into his family. These few sentences may convey an idea of Mr. Watt’s achievement. Popular histories such as the present are indispensable when the records of a city are not published, and are of much general utility even when those are accessible. The volume is enriched with some admirable maps. FoIk~Lore commences with Dr. Gaster’s learned paper entitled ‘ Two Thousand Years of a Charm against the Child-stealing Witchz’ which relates to a. formula that has been traced ‘from the heights of the Carpathian Mountains, through Roumania, the South of Russia, the Plains of the Balkans, as far as old Bylzantium, thence to the cloisters of Syria throug Palestine, and on to the Valley of the Nile. A far-travelled charm indeed, and who knows how far it will travel still?" Yet there is no reason to suppose that it has a wider range than many other spe ls. Thesecond paper of importance is on ‘ Pre-ammistic Religion# and its author goints out that though ghosts and slllmirits are undou tedly “ powers,”sti l it does not fo ow thatall “powers ’ are ghosts and spirits, even if they tend to become so. Amid the vast array of facts relating to the worship of stones (to quote one instance) “there will be found the most divergent ideal representa- tions of their supernatural nature ...... ranging from the v uest semi-conscious belief in their uc iness, onwafds through ammatism, to the distinct ani- mistic conception of them as the home of spirits of the dead or the unborn, or as the image an visible sresence of a god; but ...... underlying all these uctuating interpretations of thoug t there may be discemed a singlle universal feeling, namely, the sense of an awefu ess in them intimately affecting man, and demanding of him the fruits of awel, namely, respect, veneration, propitiation, service. Could the earl conceptions o very young children among civilized' peoples be got at, it woul probably be found that t ey were subject to analogous im- pressions. Peculiarly shaped pebbles, clouds and other things which strike them as unusual and significant appear, in some instances at least, to arouse in their minds a sense of mystery and might long before any knowledge of soul or s}pirit as been instilled into them._ For example, t e writer of these words, while still far too young to pay attention to the notions of mature poop e, or to understand the langueaige in which their ideas were couched, was inclin to feel that remarkable objects meant scmethingl; they _seemed to have a virtue which was none t e less important because ill defined. Miracles, in the modern signiiication of the word, are unknown to the untutored intellect, for to it all things imaginable may easily happen. Yet both savag? and child distinguish between the usual and t e unusual, and theorize over the extraordinary and the unhemnlwh. Ma. Pano? Lnmmzr has issued the latest edition of the Greal Eastern Railway Compania Guide to the Cmllifltfll with abundant illustrations and ma. It is useful to intending visitors to Belgium, Hollhnd, Germany, Switzerland, and Scandinavia. A special chapter is devoted _to some German waterin  The railway guides tolilunstanton and Aldqa urgh are also serviceable. Tas Woodbury Reproduetiommgl Old and Modern Masters has some exquisite rep uctions of master- pieces bg Murillo, Rubens, Reynolds, Turner, illais nstable, Van Dlyick, and other artists. The publishere_are Messrs. yre &. Spottiswoode. THE Harleian _Society has just issued to its members The Visstaftson of Kent in 1619, taken by John Philipot, Rouge Dragon, Marshal and De ut to  Camden Clarenceux. The work, which was due in 1898, and forms vol. xlii. of the Societfs publications, has been imavoidabl dela ed byt e ill health of mueeaiwr, Mr. Robert dovenden, F.s.a COL. Pamsaux has issued a su plement com- pleting his ‘mzemia Biblicgrapli .' Like the previous and very interesting worg which first saw the light in ‘N. & Q.,’ this is limited to fifty co ies. T ese are already valuable, and are likely to become scarce. BERKBHIBE Paaxsn Raoxsrsns.-Arrangements are being made to issue in chapters, in the Berks Archaologncal _Magazme, indices of the names in the above registers, compiled by Mrs. J. Hauten- ville Cope from transcripts made by herself. This ought to be a valuable work of reference for genea- logists, Berks being near London, and having the Bath Road, the main thoroughfare, running through it. Mrs. Hautenville Cope (Miss E. E. Tho ts) is the largest transcriber of parish registers in hngland, a work requiring much experience, labour, and time, t urac »bei. It is h gras acc_ y ng necessary _ ,_per ape, ardly fair to the_ clergy to prmt registers an extenso. A good mdex suggests many missing links to the genealogist, who, on application to the rector, obtains long-searched-for in ormation. Lsussrrn Psnscs Lnxasar will be closed for the usual autumn recess after the 29th inst. It is open daily, Saturdays excepted. gntim ts Gnmsgnuhmts. We must call mecial auentnm to the following notices :- ON all communications must be written the name and address of the sender, not necessarily for pub- lication, but as a guarantee of good faith. WI: cannot undertake to answer queries privately. To secure insertion of communications corre- spondents must observe the following rules. Let each note, query, or reply be written on a separate slip oipaper, with the signature of the writer and such dress as he wishes to appear. When answer- ing queries, or making notes with regard to previous entries in the Eaper, contributors are requested to ut in parent eses, immediately after the exact lieading, the series, volume, and page or pages to which they refer. Correspondents who repeat queries are requested to head the second com- munication “ Duplicate.” A. P. (“ The light that never was on sea or land ”). -Wordsworth’s. Suggested by a picture of Peel NOTICE. Editorial Communications should be addressed to “The Editor of ‘Notes and Queriee”’-Advertise ments and Business Letters to “ The Publisher "- at the Office, Bream’s Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.C. We beg leave to state that we decline to return communications which, for any reason, we do not print; and to this rule we can make no exception. Castle.