Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/371

 s. viii. NOV. 2, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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horse is attached to the other end of the net, and it is dragged some two or three hundred yards, when it is brought to shore with its miscellaneous catch of dabs, crabs, and small shell-fish. The edible fish are collected and placed in an accompanving cart, the smaller fry are once more consigned to their native element, and a similar process gone through until the Brigg is reached. On Saturday this fishing was practised in the presence of Lord and Lady Amherst, Lord William and Lady Cecil, and several other spectators. The catch was small, owing to frequent mishaps with the trawl net. The greater portion of the fish was subsequently distributed in Hunmanby."

WILLIAM ANDREWS.

Royal Institution, Hull.

"CONQUERING KINGS." The beginning of this hymn, as given in most of our collec- tions, is not very happily expressed. There are many instances of Roman generals and commanders of armies taking a cognomen from victorious wars ; all will remember Scipip Africanus, Scipio Asiaticus, Metellus Numidicus, &c. But I do not think there is a single instance of a king so doing. The hymn is taken from a Latin one, given in Chandler's 'Hymns of the Primitive Church' (1837), the first two lines of which are

Victis sibi cognomina

Sumant Tyranni gentibus,

and Chandler begins his version thus : 'Tis for conquering kings to gain Glory o'er their myriads slain.

Julian states in his ' Dictionary of Hymno- logy ' that he cannot trace the hymn beyond 1736, when it appeared in a Paris breviary. Perhaps the writer had principally in mind for "Tyrannus" the late King Louis XIV., frequently called " the Great."

W. T. LYNN. Blackheath.

" PIACHE" : " PEAIMAN." Neither of these words occurs in any English dictionary, though both must be familiar to the general reader. The Piache, for instance, plays a prominent part in Kingsley's 'Westward Ho !' while his first appearance in English dates back as far as the sixteenth century. "The professours of this secte are called Piaces" says Eden, 1555 (p. 215 of Arber's edition, 1885). We borrowed the term, like alouatte, annotto, and others, from the Tamanac language of Venezuela. Humboldt in his ' Travels ' wrote down psiache as the actual form he heard from natives, but the Spanish authors spell it piache, from Oviedo (1535), who renders it "sacerdote mayor," to the present day.

The synonymous peai-man (plural peai-men) belongs to French and British Guiana. French travellers have for the last three

centuries written itpiaye, but in English the orthography has varied. Harcourt (1613), p. 26, says that the ^peeaios (priests or sooth- sayers) at some special times have conference with the divell." Warren's ' Surinam,' 1667, p. 26, speaks of ** their imposters, or, as they call them, peeies." Peaiman is modern. Andrew Lang, in ' Cock Lane and Common Sense,' uses a verb " to peai" just as Coudreau, the French anthropologist, in his 'Chez nos Indiens,' 1893, chap, vii., employs the verb piayer to translate the Indian piayepoc. He also coins the expression piayeries to de- signate "les ceremonies qu'accomplie le piaye" I venture to hope that these inter- esting and (at any rate, to the folk-lprist and man of science) most useful words will in due course find a place in the 'N.E.D.'

JAS. PLATT, Jun.

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 may be addressed to them direct.

NEW JACOBITE PAPERS. The notice of the Due de la Tremoille in the Athenaeum of 5 October refers to a number of interesting Jacobite papers of the '45 period. Are these new to experts, as is suggested 1 V. R.

CHARLES II. : REBECCA WALLACE. In- formation is sought regarding Rebecca Wallace, an alleged mistress of Charles II. She is alluded to by Dumas, but I can find no mention of her in the usual English works of reference. In a certain church in Kent there is a tablet to a lady, who is thereon described as " orta Carolo Rege." Her family say she was descended from this Rebecca Wallace, and she certainly was not descended from any of the well-known mistresses. What were Rebecca's parentage and history ?

SIGMA TAU.

Hobart.

QUINEY OF CHALCOT. In the list of " Noblemen and Gentlemen, for the most part, having houses, or residence, within this Shire," i.e. Middlesex, which is appended to Norden's 'Speculum Britanniae,' appears the name of " Quynnye of Chalcot, or Chalk- hill." Chalcot is, as most people know, situated within the parish of Hampstead, and it is often supposed that Chalk Farm is named from it. I should be glad to know of any other reference to the family of Quiney having occupied a residence at Chalcot.