Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 6 1888.djvu/284

276 a song about a fire in Madurápura (Madura, South India) which was quenched by the goddess Pattini with milk. He then pours the fluid from the earthen vessel upon the lighted lamp and extinguishes it. The Sinhalese use the expression "May milk be poured on him [or her]," when desiring to avert from some one an impending calamity, or to counteract a curse or prophecy of evil pronounced against him. The idea of employing milk to quench the fire of an epidemic (typified by the flame of a lamp), and the idea of the deity pouring milk on an individual in order to protect him from malignant influences, appear to be somewhat analogous to the belief that milk alone will extinguish a conflagration kindled by the fire from heaven.—. Colombo Museum, Ceylon, June 30. —Nature, vol. xxxviii. p. 453.

Whistling.—As a whistler of the female sex I must offer a protest against the one and only suggested reason why women are not so frequently heard to indulge in whistling as men, which is given by the writer in your "Notes and Queries" of last issue.

It seems evident to me that the writer in question has never been a little girl with a strong desire to become skilful in the accomplishment, or he (?) would have had vivid and painful recollections of the persistent manner in which all juvenile efforts were quelled. Unless he (?) had been possessed of an unusually free and self-reliant mind, the treatment would probably have had the effect of making him even acquiesce in the general verdict, and in his tender years take it for granted that it was an "unlucky," or "unlady-like," pastime. Perhaps he (?) was never (as I was) at a school where the pupils were fined for indulging in it.

I think that much of the prejudice instilled in youths unconsciously survives in riper years, and prevents so free an indulgence (in the presence of the opposite sex) of the decidedly soothing recreation, as might have taken place under more favourable circumstances. Any inferior excellence in female performances might be attributable to the more advanced age (when nursery and school-room shackles no longer appear indestructible) at which practice begins. I for one have never