Notes Queries No. 29, Saturday, May 18, 1850 | Page 9

on the Study of the Gospels_, p. 5--22. Lond. 1842.
M.
Oxford.
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With regard to the symbols of the four Evangelists, "JARLZBERG" may consult a Sermon by Boys on the portion of Scripture appointed for the Epistle for Trinity-Sunday. (_Works_, p. 355. Lond. 1622.)
R.G.
[To these Replies we will only add a reference to Mrs. Jameson's interesting and beautiful volume on _Sacred and Legendary Art_, vol. i. p. 98., _et seq._, and the following Latin quatrain:--
"Quatuor h?c Dominum signant animalia Christum, Est Homo nascendo, _Vitulus_que sacer moriendo, Et Leo surgendo, coelos Aquila que petendo; Nec minus hos scribas animalia et ipsa figurant."]
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COMPLEXION.
Complexion is usually (and I think universally) employed to express the _tint of the skin_; and the hair and eyes are spoken of separately when the occasion demands a specific reference to them. "NEMO" (No. 22. p. 352.), moreover, seems to confound the terms "white" and "fair," between the meanings of which there is considerable difference. A white skin is not fair, nor a fair skin white. There is no close approach of one to the other; and indeed we never see a white complexion, except the chalked faces in a Christmas of Easter Pantomime, or in front of Richardson's booth at Greenwich or Charlton Fair. A contemplation of these would tell us what the "human face divine" would become, were we any of us truly _white-skinned_.
The skin diverges in tint from the white, in one direction towards the yellow, and in another towards the red or pink; whilst sometimes we witness a seeming tinge of blue,--characteristic of asphyxia, cholera, or some other disease. We often see a mixture of red and yellow (the yellow predominating) in persons subject to bilious complaints; and not unfrequently a mixture of all three, forming what the painters call a "neutral tint," and which is more commonly called "an olive complexion."
The negro skin is black; that is, it does not separate the sun's light into the elementary colours. When, by the admixture of the coloured races with the negro, we find coloured skins, they always tend to the yellow, as in the various mulatto shades of the West Indies, and especially in the Southern States of America; and the same is true of the "half-castes" of British India, though with a distinct darkness or blackness, which the descendant of the negro does not generally show.
Though I have, in accordance with the usual language of philosophers, spoken of blue as an element in the colour of the skin, I have some doubt whether it be a "true blue" or not. It is quite as likely to arise from a partial participation in the quality of the negro skin--that of absorbing a large portion of the light without any analysis whatever. This may be called darkness.
However, to return to the Query: the term pale is applied to the yellow-tinted skin; _fair_, to the red or pink; _brown_, to the mixture of red and yellow, with either blue or such darkness as above described; _sallow_, to yellow and darkness; and the only close approach to whiteness that we ever see, is in the sick room of the long-suffering fair complexion. In death, this changes to a "blackish grey," a mixture of white and darkness.
The pale complexion indicates a thick, hard, dry skin; the _fair_, a thin and soft one; and all the shades of dark skin render a large amount of ablution essential to health, comfort, or agreeableness to others. If any of your readers should feel curious about the characters of the wearers of these several skins, they must inquire of Lavater and his disciples.
D.V.S.
Home, April 1. 1850.
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BALLAD OF DICK AND THE DEVIL.
Looking over some of your back numbers, I find (No. 11. p. 172.) an inquiry concerning a ballad with this title. I have never met with it in print, but remember some lines picked up in nursery days from an old nurse who was a native of "the dales." These I think have probably formed a part of this composition. The woman's name was curiously enough Martha Kendal; and, in all probability, her forebears had migrated from that place into Yorkshire:--
"Robin a devil he sware a vow. He swore by the _sticks_[2] in hell-- By the yelding that crackles to mak the _low_[3], That warms his _namsack_[4] weel.
"He leaped on his beast, and he rode with heaste, To mak his black oath good; 'Twas the Lord's Day, and the folk did pray And the priest in _can_cel stood.
"The door was wide, and in does he ride, In his clanking gear so gay; A long keen brand he held in his hand, Our Dickon for to slay.
"But Dickon goodhap he was not there, And Robin he rode in vain, And the men got up that were