Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/250

 242

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. VIIL SEPT. 21, 1901.

ignorant of the meaning of this ceremony; but tion of their visitant. At the end of the three days n informed by his sirdars he was angry. He dis- a glorious light appeared before the supplicants. A . .,,, ..n..__ i-ii -i i,~*. u: i company of angels singing praises to rirtrl -av aoon

by nis siraars ne was augiy. J~LO U.IQ- )bdars civilly, telling [them] that his t, good; and dispatching Dalakarten,

was _ CT

when informed b; missed the cho

health was not, r

messengers of his own, with the same plea, he directed them to decoy the nabobs to the city. The Dalakarten accordingly allured them first to Samiyaveram, on the other bank of the Loleroon, then to the vicinity of Trichinopoly, where, alleging that the king was sick in a palanquin within the

amidst the spreading glory, and the whilom demon was received amidst the rejoicing of the heavenly

host, in whose company he took his flight to heaven. G. MARGOLIOUTH.

BORROW IN HUNGARY. So little is known

.. .. .- * . .- - about Borrow's movements in Hungary (1844)

fort, they got the n ^ ^ 8 ^ J ^^{Jall opfhe t]? at t! ie smallest P iece. of information about

his doings in that region must be most wel

llUIllltJ, U11C ivajc* IIC*VA *u. v/uv^v* 1*1 .*,*<. i O". O.

with all the paraphernalia of his dignity, surrounded come to his many admirers. 1 find the tol- by his friends and officers, and seated on his throne, lowing passage relating to him in a book r he] received^ the angry nabobs, chafing a,^ the | entitled 'Hungary in 1851,' and written by

an American, the late Charles L. Brace :

"My companions, as we rode along, related some marvellous stories of a certain English traveller who had been here [near Grosswardein], and of his influence over the gipsies. One of them said that he was walking out with him one day, when they met a poor gipsy woman. The Englishman ad- dressed her in Hungarian, and she answered in the

Padshah's farmana or to them, they pushed aside the persons who stood in their way, and insolently offered to thrust the slipper into the king's hands. Ranga Naicker told them to lay it on the ground; the nobles refused to do so, upon which the Raja, with a loud voice, called for whips and rattans. Thereupon, in some alarm, the nabobs put down

fhTsfipper,' upon which the king coolly placed his I usual disdainful way. He changed his language, foot in it, observing, " How comes it that your however, and spoke a word or two in an unknown Padshah, like a fool, sends me furniture for one tongue. The woman's face lighted up in an instant, foot only? Go back and bring the other slipper." and she replied in the most passionate, eager way,

The exasperated envoys, losing all patience at this, replying angrily, the king ordered them to be driven out of the city. Their troops began hostilities, but the Raja's army routed them, and the Padshah, when he heard of this unexpected occurrence, apprehending that other princes would treat his farmana in the same way, discontinued the de- graded ceremony.'"

THOMAS J. JEAKES. Tower House, New Hampton.

DEMON REPENTANT. The question as to whether devils can be saved is a very old one.

and after some conversation dragged him away almost with her. After this the English gentleman visited a number of their most private gatherings, and was received everywhere as one of them. He did more good among them, all said, than all the laws over them, or the benevolent efforts for them, of the last half century. They described his ap- pearance his tall, lank, muscular form, and men- tioned that he had been much in Spain, and I saw that it must be that most ubiquitous of travellers Mr. Borrow." P. 235.

L. L. K.

WELL AND FOUNTAIN VERSES. An old

Origen, for instance, held that Satan himself gentleman whom I once heard babbling of is capable of redemption, an opinion which bygone times told how he remembered when perhaps does not lack sympathizers even in a boy a well in a neighbour's garden, to which the present day. But be that as it may, well passers-by had free access. The owner readers of ' N. & Q.' may be interested in the had fastened a mug to a post, and, to prevent following curious story which I have lately the vessel from vanishing, he had also fastened read in a Syriac MS. belonging to the British to the post a card on which were these

Museum. I am not aware that it has ever I lines :

thirsty traveller! stay and drink; But leave the mug upon the brink, That other travellers who pass by May quench their thirst as well as I. I only heard the quatrain once, and am not certain of every word, but of the ungram- matical construction in the last linelL am

derful things, thus i VausVng"th"rm~onk7*to~q"uestron I ^ ertein - The narrator, of course, believed

all human. | the llnes to be original, but I doubt it. The

been published :

" A demon once presented himself in the shape of a human being to the custodian of an Eastern monastery, requesting to be admitted as an inmate of that holy institution. The custodian took a fancy to the stranger, and prevailed upon the abbot to grant the request. During his stay at the monastery the demon performed all kinds of won- derful things, thus causing the me *

whether their new associate was at

They at last made bold to address him thus :

. If first is as old as Greece. I think all well and

hr 8 a a m fl a ^ n |rf4^L ft a y e ^ ot -f fi l to H 7 unde .r fountain verses interesting, and doubtless

spirit? irn f o rlVt e \^tVh U ur ar hee 'any ^ "? * wh hav some quaint i An ~ > on.~ A *u__ ^u ., _ tt, .\ uaee an y I inscriptions. THOMAS AULD.

Ion an

.' The demon then told them his true story doing so convinced them of the reality of his

ance and of his desire to be received among,. -, ,

the saved. Upon his request all the monks spent very young babies are frequently referred to

iree days in continuous intercession for the salva- 1 and addressed as " it." The same impersonal

repentance and of his desire to be received^among I "IT." In spite of the protests of mothers, the saved. TT Lf - - J " ' * .,.,.