Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/328

 270 . VL o«. e, woo. NOTES AND QUERIES. Dartiquenave, the grandfather, has been identified with Darty and Dartineuf men- tioned in Pope's ' Imitations of Horace'; and it is also stated that his portrait, from a painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller, was en- graved in Nichols's collections. Further details respecting Dartiquenave's parentage, or the reasons assigned for his retreat to the remote parish of Ilderton, will be of service. J. C. HODGSON. Alnwick. GUEVABA. — Can any of your readers kindly give me information about the Spanish surname Guevara, which was, I believe, that of the commander of the Spanish Armada entitled Count of Oftate, or tell me the best course to obtain it 1 H. GUEVABA. MYTHS OF MODERN OBIGIN. — Has any folk-lore or superstition arisen around any modern object, apart, of course, from impos- tures and artificial and profitable fables :' The only example to illustrate my meaning that occurs to me at present is in Sarah Hewett's ' Nummits and Crummits : Devon- shire Customs, Characteristics, and Folk- lore,' 1900, p. 55: "It is unlucky to put umbrellas on a table." That they were novelties in rural districts may be judged from 'Superstitions concerning Modern Objects and Inventions ' (5th S. vi. 202, 313). Surely the nature and origin of the mytho- poeic tendencies of the human mind could best be studied in such of their productions as belong to modern times, so that their his- tories can be traced. For any references on this subject I should be much obliged. CHABLES G. STUART-MENTEATH. 23, Upper Bedford Place, W.C. [Mr. Lang has recently noted an apparent growth of something like modern totems in English villages.] OTTEB HUNTING : CHRISTENING :— " After half an hour a kill was made. A cere tnony of christening was afterwards performed, the blood of the dead otter being sprinkled on a young gent's face and he was presented with a pad. Th< tail was given to a lady from VVoburn Sands, am the head to Mr. Jordan, of Holme Mill, Biggies wade." The above is taken from the Bedfordshir Times, 7 September, under the head o ' Sandy.' Are these old or modern customs and do they obtain always at otter hunts ? M.A.OxoN. 'OROONOKO' IN FRENCH.—Can any reade of 'N. & Q.' tell me when Mrs. Behn's nove was first translated into French? In Pari the other day I came across a little volumi ntitled ' Oronoko, imit^ de 1'Anglois.' This was described as " Nouvelle Edition, revue et prrigee. Par M. De la Place." The pub- isher was Sebastien Jorry, and the title-page s dated 1756. An account of Mrs. Behn's life s given in the preface. The book consists of, very free adaptation of the English version. should be glad to know of any previous •Yrni-!i translations or adaptations of the novel. CHARLES HIATT. [This work, first published in 1745, appears to be he earliest rendering.] DANIEL DEFOE. (9th S. v. 285, 483 ; vL 156, 219.) I SUBMIT that E. L. G.'s essayed correction of Mr. Eyre Crowe's picture purporting to represent Defoe at Temple Bar under- going exposure in the pillory (No. 84 in the catalogue of the recent fine-art exposition at Guildhalj) is, to say the least, hypercritical, ind I am inclined to believe that the artist
 * ias not incurred the censure.

The date of the scene depicted must be one of the three days, Thursday, 29, Friday, 30, or Saturday, 31 July, 1703. Were there, as E. L. G. asserts, " three tall iron spikes with traitors' heads on the top of them sur- mounting Temple Bar at that time ? I can only account for two "tall iron spikes" and one head, even assuming that the metal rods and their ghastly burdens were then actually in situ, which I take the liberty of question- ing. My impression is that the horrible objects nad been previously "disestablished" —conceded to the respective families of the deceased for becoming burial. It may have been that the head and a quarter (perhaps quarters) of Sir William Parkyns, executed on Friday, 3 April, 1696, and a quarter (or the quarters), but not the head, of Sir John Friena, the brewer (his head was set up on Aldgate in the vicinity of the site of the brewery establishment previously carried on by him), the fellow - sufferer of Parkyns, and executed with him and also exposed on Temple Bar, remained so exalted until 1703 and even later, though this I am disposed to doubt, inasmuch as it was never the custom to keep the "quarters" of convict traitors displayed for any length of time. With heads it was otherwise. And it will be observed that Parkyns's head was exposed with his disjecta membra ; but no other head was thus eminently upreared—at all events on Temple Bar—until after Friday, 28 Octo-