Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/78

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NOTES AlSTD QUERIES, p* s. vm. JULY 20, woi.

so Pharnaces, a personal name. To trace it in Greek myth, the hill is their Ararat, named from \dpva, an ark ; so Larnassus, nt Parnassus ! A. HALL.
 * full "; Hebrew parnas, " ruler, governor ";

FLOWER GAME (9 th S. vii. 329, 397, 474, 511). I am keenly sorry to learn that in my somewhat brusque challenge to K. I should have appeared to him to assume an "aggres- sive tone." I can assure him that nothing was further from my intention, and that I always desire to be ranked amongst the " mildly disposed " contributors to ' N. & Q.'

May I now proceed to enlarge upon the subject at issue ? I was born in the village from which I am now writing not quite half a century ago. Harking back to my child- hood's days, I well recollect my nurse instruct- ing me in the art of linking dandelion chains. Later on I played with children of my own age, and we again and again took part in this simple amusement. I am aware that occa- sionally some of the more knowing ones would hint at the ' undesirable consequences " to which K. alludes, but I do not think that any very great impression was created thereby. Years have passed since then, and still I ob- serve, as I have mentioned, children engaged in the same artless pastime hereabouts. West Haddon is, strictly speaking, exactly eleven miles from Northampton, but we are in close touch with our county town, and I certainly felt no hesitation in appropriating the term "around Northampton." I regret that I am considered outside the radius. I also would plead guiltv to having been for many years a collector of local customs, children's games, folk- lore, <fcc., as various contributions to ' N. & Q.' will testify. I may therefore, perhaps, be allowed to say that not only in this village, but in adjacent villages, and also in War- wickshire, I have observed children engaged in the amusement of making dandelion chains.

JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

It is a pity the first note was headed Flower Game.' This child's pastime was probably practised bv the first children on these islands, and children still pass the time in this pleasing way. We made chains of daisies buttercups, "dandies," daffadown- dillies, haws, cankers, oak-apples, crab-apples, slaws, cob-nuts, and many other things. We decorated pet lambs and each other with these chains, which often were combinations of flowers, stalks, and berries. Buttercups and daisies were first favourites, dandelions being shunned somewhat, because, as K. says, the handling them was supposed to induce " un-

desirable consequences at night." In fact, we ailed dandelions in Derbyshire " pisabeds." THOS. RATCLIFFE. Worksop.

' (9 th S. vii. 507). I was living in Malta in the late seventies when the Indian troops were quartered there, and often heard this air played by an Indian band. I have a perfect recollection of the tune, in a minor key, with a very pretty melody. The Maltese street-boys, who made clever songs, in their vernacular, to fit the best -known military tunes, used to sing to * Takmi ' the following Maltese words, which I am pretty sure have never been printed before :

La Regina tikbi, tikbi, Ghash titlift is-sarbun ; It-tromba it-trombeta, U it-tambur it-tambur.

Literally translated this means : The Queen is crying, is crying, Because she has lost her shoe ; Let the trumpet trump, And let the drum drum.

JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS. Town Hall, Cardiff.

ACERVATION (9 th S. vii. 485). In the account of the laws of Hy wel Dda in Virtue's ' History of Wales,' the enactment W. C. B. apparently refers to is thus given :

" The law of a cat. I. Whoever shall kill a cat that guards a house and a barn of the king, or shall steal it, it is to be held with its head to the ground, and its tail up, the ground being swept, and then clean wheat is to be poured about it, until the tip of its tail is hidden ; and that is its worth. If corn cannot be had, a milch sheep, with her lamb and her wool, is its value. 2. Another cat is four legal pence in value. 3. The teithi [qualities or proper- ties, to be warranted] of a cat are, that it be perfect of ear, perfect of eye, perfect of teeth, perfect of tail, perfect of claw, and without marks of fire ; and that it kill mice well ; and that it shall not devour its kittens ; and that it be not caterwauling every moon."

There are other enactments against the kill- ing of other sorts of cats, but neither in these, nor in any of those referring to the destruction or stealing of other animals, is this curious measure of compensation en- forced, but the value of each is given in money or other animals. Thus a stag is reckoned to be worth an ox, a hind worth a cow, and so forth. C. C. B.

MICHAEL BRUCE AND BURNS (9 th S. vii. 466). MR. A. G. REID credits Michael Bruce with the authorship of the * Ode to the Cuckoo ' and the ' Elegy written in Spring,' which he says are two of the finest lyrics in the English language. Considerable controversy has