Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/15

. vii. JAN. 5, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

had given birth to a devil's imp, exactly like th

portraits of such in popular pictures. This strang

news spread like wildfire to the adjoining villages

and the folk settled it among themselves that th

old woman had been bewitched ('spoilt, 5 as the

term it) thirty years before, and that the uncleai

spirit which possessed her had been driven out a

last, giving way to a course of various treatments

The village elder (Ataman) decided that a forma

protocol on the subject should be drawn up. Th<

old woman was summoned, and upon being ques

tioned she deposed that she had long been ailing

and now, after swallowing a dose of three sorts o

incense in a mixture, she was taken short [incense

is as terrible as holy water to the devil and his

adjuncts], and going out into the backyard she har

a motion, and 'dropped' in this unnatural way

a fetus enclosed in a membrane. This she showec

to her son [above all persons !], a Cossack of the

2nd Reserve. He ripped open the membrane anc

pulled out a little live creature, like an imp or

devil. Not liking the looks of such a ' brother,' he

knocked it on the head and buried it. Women

sent on his indications dug up the newborn devil,

washed it, and brought it to the police station. On

inspection it proved to be a queer-looking little

animal about the size of a bat or 'Fledermaus'

with four paws, a short tail, and a body covered with

greyish hairs. This 'devil' was sealed up in a jar

of spirits of wine and forwarded to the authorities,

along with the protocol, to the Mosdoksky district,

for medical investigation."

I hardly dare to breathe such an idea, but my pity is for the poor little devil, who was scotched before he had had a fair trial. Perhaps in the "Zoo" he might have de- veloped into something of interest.

H. E. M.

ot. Petersburg.

RALEGH'S SIGNATURE. May I add one more to the numerous notes on this subject? There is in this library a copy of Bernardino Rocca's t Discorsi di Guerra ' (4to., Venice, 1582), bear- ing on the title-page the signature W.Ralegh and m the same writing the motto "Medium Medijs." This is another piece of evidence, if any were needed, in favour of Ralegh rather than Raleigh or any other form.

The book also contains the signature of George Carew, and is bound in limp vellum stamped with arms, Or, three lions passant sable, which I am told are the arms of the Carew family.

For Ralegh's name see 7 th S. i. 252, 396, 455 ; x. 102, 345, 491 ; xi. 77, 195.

W. R. B. PEIDEAUX.

Royal College of Physicians, S. W.

A TOPOGRAPHICAL ERROR. It is curious with what persistency the newspapers con- tinue to speak of St. James's Catholic Church, with its adjacent presbytery, as still situate in Spanish Place, whereas the present fine building stands, of course, in George Street, Marylebone. The shell of the former edifice

at the northern corner of Spanish Place for years presented a sorry spectacle. Few can have regretted the final disappearance of the grim old walls. Their site is now occupied by the inevitable block of " mansions," of which there are many in the parish.

CECIL CLARKE. Authors' Club, S.W.

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.

THE GOLD FLORIN. The origin of the gold florin presents a problem on which further light is desirable. G. Villani states that it was first issued in Florence in A.D. 1252, and this seems to be pretty generally accepted. It is accepted, for instance, in Murray's 'Dictionary.' Le Blanc, however (ed. Amst. 1692, p. 147), emphatically asserts that the florins are much more ancient than Villani hought, and quotes, in proof of this, a men- tion of gold florins made in a deed of gift "jO a Conf rerie des Clercs at Pontoise dated MLXVIII. He quotes another authority, too, which, however, is entitled to less weight. Apart from these authorities, there seems to

unmistakable evidence of the early exist- ence of the gold florin in France. De Saulcy's collection of mint documents begins with 1180, and the second of them (vol. i. p. 115) contains instructions in regard to the weight ind standard of some which were then about /o be issued. The presumption is that if any arlier mint documents could be found, lorins would be mentioned in them also. ?hey are described as "florins d'or appelez lorences." That might seem at first sight o connect them with the city of Flo- ence. The word florence, however, is urrently used as applied to a cross with ilies at the end of each limb, such as many arly French coins bear. There is a difficulty n believing that the Florentine money could ave been current throughout Europe, and opied by other states, in the twelfth century r earlier, as it was in the fourteenth, as lorence was then a comparatively un- mportant city even in Italy itself. Borghini, oo ('Discorsi della Moneta Fiorentina,' ol. iii. p. 304), is very emphatic in the pinion that no gold was struck by any talian city before 1252, the striking of gold >eing then regarded as a prerogative of " the reat princes of the world." He thinks, at he same time, that the early Florentine