Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/14

 r,

NOTES AND QUERIES.

.

be thirteen steps in it, and the object is to dance in such a manner on the boards ot a raised stage as not to touch the crossed broad- sword. JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

Newbournc Rectory, Woodbridge.

AMERICAN OWHOOBAPHT. Americans may

spoil in English as they feel disposed, but one can not but wince at the mess they have made of Mr. John Morley's orthography in his Counselor, marvelous, ofense, mold, center, luster, scepter, manaeuver.
 * Oliver Cromwell.' Here are a few examples :

HERBERT MAXWELL

"DEAL." Having occasion to looktfor this word in the 'H.E.D.,' I was surprised and disappointed to find the following under it

(vol. iii. p. 66, col. 1): M 3. Cnrds t a single

round or game marked by one distribution of

the cards

Surely this exhibits a re-

markable want of technical knowledge in the person responsible for tliis statement, as well as a deficiency in research. I refer to classing this meaning of the term as obsolete. The application of the word deal in its widei sense, as above, is of daily occurrence wher- ever cards are played and English spoken And it is so employed properly. What othei word extant is better or more significant for the purpose ? ]fnnd is frequently substituted but it is not nearly so good a term. Games occur in which there is no "hand " (2) at, all but there is always a " dealing " of some kind and in some games there are several band dealt at different times in the one "deal " (ii.) Hand, besides, is confusing it is applied in so many senses : (1) The part of the limb holding and playing the cards, (2) the card held, (3) the player holding the cards, (4) th play of the cards, and (f>) the direction o right-hand and left-hand. Deal has only th two senses in a card game : (i.) the dealing (ii.) the whole procedure and play connecter with the distribution (as above) ; and if i the description, Are., it be restricted to th larger sense, and dealing to the contractor sense, there will be no misunderstanding (See Cavendish's 'Piquet,' 8th ed., 1802, p. 2 heading.) To give authoritative examples ( its current use, Law fi9 of the present, cor (18fi4) of whist may be referred to, in whicl "should they decide that the deal stanr good," the reference to sense (ii.) is unmi takable ; and likewise in the correspondin Law 84 of the later bridge code (1805 Again, in the revised code of piquet (1881-2 in Law 71 (besides a dozen other simila instances in the same code of laws) : " Th partie is won by the player who makes th highest score in six deals." A player cannp

some other games

was a

most

CUSTOM

IN NORTH-

or hand (4) and deal (i

ANCIENT MARRIAGE

TMBERLAND.-The following custom is still observed at Holy Island (or Lindisfarne) and Hamburgh, and at Kyloe and Belford it only lied out in recent times. After a marriage ervice has been performed, the couple pass out through the churchyard, and the bride

jumped or lifted

over a stone. The

ceremony is believed to confer good luck. The stone is called the "petting stone, and should stand at the entrance to the church- yard but whereas at Bam burgh, though still called the petting stone, it is now a low tool which is placed at that point for the occasion, at St. Mary's, Holy Island, the old petting stone has been moved from the en- trance to a position near the east window of the chancel, and the jumping is performed there. The bride is jumped by two selected male friends. This stone is very ancient, having been the socket of a cross said to have been connected in some way with St. Ethel- wold, the Saxon bishop. The above note has been furnished by a valued friend of mine who knows Holy Island and the Northum- brian coast perhaps as well as any one living. I myself have witnessed this ceremony. I hope that some correspondent of '1ST. & Q.' will be able to give further information on the subject. PHILIP NORMAN.

FOLK-LORE : A DEVIL'S DAM IN A COSSACK STANITZA. On the eve of the twentieth cen- tury it is rather startling to come across stories of contemporary demonology which seem borrowed from mediaeval records. Such, however, is the character of an anecdote quoted by the St. Petersburg Police Gazette of 18 November, O.S., from the Kazbek news- paper, as given below. The details are not very savoury, but the serious student cannot afford to be too squeamish :

" Galiugreva Stanitza (village). On 29 October a rumour got abroad here that a Cossack widow- woman, Koziqyt/.eva by name, seventy years of agQ