Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/315

 gtbs.ix.ApRiLi9.i9oa] NOTES AND QUERIES.

307

Times' (April, 1832), after expressing his astonishment at the bulk and weight of Dr. Nares's work, Macaulay writes :

" Such a book might, before the deluge, have been considered as light reading by Hilpa and Shalum. But unhappily the life of man is now threescore years and ten ; and we cannot but think it somewhat unfair in Dr. Nares to demand from us so large a portion of so short an existence." This is curiously like a passage in a letter of Hannah More to the Rev. Daniel Wilson (1822) :

" Had he [Walter Scott] written before the flood, when perhaps there were not, in all, so many books in the world as he alone has introduced into it, all would have been well; he would have been a benefactor to the antediluvian Hilpahs and Zilpahs. A life of 800 years might have allowed of the perusal of the whole of his volumes; a proportionate quantity in each century would have been delight-

Vol. ii. p. 342 (1836).

Hannah More, it may be rioted, has, if her letter is correctly printed, misspelt Hilpa (see Spectator, Nos. 584 and 585) on the analogy otZilpah. EDWARD BENSLY.

The University, Adelaide, South Australia.

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.

" OLIVE " : " OLIVACEOUS." These words are normally applied to a particular shade of green, defined as a dull yellowish green like that of the unripe olive. But since 1600, at least, they have also been freely applied to the complexions of Southern European peoples, and of the natives of various sub- tropical countries, who are certainly not green, but apparently brownish yellow or yellowish brown. A lady in the Guardian, No. 109 (1713), says, "You must know I am a famous olive beauty, "and speaks of "olives and brunettes " as occurring among English- women. Can any explanation be given of this curious application of olive ? It occurs also in French with the adjective olivdtre, as defined and illustrated by the Academic and by Littre. Thus the latter explains olivdtre as "qui est de couleur d'olive," which is further said to be "couleur verdatre, qui tire un peu sur le brun." But the examples given are of human complexions, said to be "les uns blancs, les autres noirs, les autres basanes les autres olivatres," and Buffon is cited to

rhe effect that "les Tunquinois sont d'une couleur un peu olivatre.' But surely the Tonquinese are not green or greenish. Dr. Johnson defines olivaster as " darkly brown, omes in. Whence comes the confusion Between green and brown, and how comes any shade of brown to be termed olive ?
 * awny," but does not say where the olive

J. A. H. MURRAY.

OSORIO FAMILY. Is anything known of e Osorio family ? I am led to believe that the first Osorio was a Portuguese Jew who came over to England in the suite of Cathe- rine of Braganza as her physician. Are any records to be found to prove that such was the case ? The last of the family, I believe, was Abraham, who became a Christian. He resided at Theobalds Road. He was elected a member of the Society of Arts in 1800, was one of the chairmen of accounts in 1807, and died about 1825. P. L. N. F.

TRAVELS IN INDIA. When Lord Auckland was Governor of India, before the Mutiny,

his sister, the Hon. Eden, attending all

his functions and travelling with him, wrote a book on her travels in India. What is the title of her book 1 JOHN TUDOR.

1, Liverpool Lawn, Dover.

[The ' D.N.B.' quotes as an authority for the life of the second Earl of Auckland the 'Journal in India in 1837 and 1838' of his eldest sister, Eleanor ; and in the notice of Emily Eden, a younger sister, mentions her * Portraits of the People and Princes of India,' published in 1844, and ' Up the Country : Letters written to her Sister from the Upper Pro- vinces of India,' but not issued till 1866.]

CASTOR SUGAR. This is now an article of ordinary daily use. Can any of your readers give me the date when it was first brought into use and when the name is first to be found 1 ' H.E.D ' does not help me in this matter. D. M. B.

CABINET CARVED IN PRISON. The lllus- 'trated Neivs of the World of 29 May, 1858, gives a picture of a cabinet dated 1614, and carved by one of the Gordons of Earlston, who was imprisoned for eighteen years in Blackness Castle. In 1858 it was in the possession of Mr. B. W. Train of Greenock, son of Scott's friend Joseph Train. What has become of it? J. M. BULLOCH.

118, Pall Mall.

ALBINO ANIMALS. I shall be grateful for references to the most complete accounts of the alleged worship of white or albino sacred elephants in Siam and elsewhere ; also as to the worship of other white or albino animals, including the sacred white horses,