Notes and Queries, Number 26, April 27, 1850 | Page 5

premising that he judged the Island to be that of Fernando Po.
"E tutta la descrittione de questo Capitano era simile a quella per alcun Scrittore Greci, quale parlande dell' isola delle Gorgone, dicono quella esser un isola in mezzo d'una palude. E conciacosa che havea inteso che li poeti dicevan le Gorgone esser femine terribili, però scrisse che le erano pelose.... Ma a detto pilotto pareva più verisimile di pensare, che havendo Hannone inteso ne'i libri de' poeti come Perseo era stato per ?re a questa isola, e di quivi reportata la testa di Medusa, essendo egli ambitioso di far creder al mondo che lui vi fasse audato per mare; e dar riputation a questo suo viaggio, di esser penetrato fuio dove era stato Perseo; volesse portar due pelli di Gorgone, e dedicarla nel tempio di Ginnone. Il che li fu facil cosa da fare, conciosia cosa che IN TUTTA QUELLA COSTA SI TRUOVINO INFINITE DI QUELLE SIMIE GRANDE, CHE FARENO PERSONE HUMANE, DELLE BABUINE, le pelle delle quali poteva far egli credere ad ogniuno che fussero state di femine."
Gopelin, also, in his _Recherches sur la Géographie des Anciens_, speaking of this part of Hanno's voyage, says:
"Hanno encountered a troop of _Ourang-outangs_, which he took for savages, because these animals walk erect, often having a staff in their hands to support themselves, as well as for attack or defence; and they throw stones when they are pursued. They are the Satyrs and the Argipani with which Pliny says Atlas was peopled. It would be useless to say more on this subject, as it is avowed by all the modern commentators of the Periplus."
The relation we have is evidently only an abridgment or summary made by some Greek, studious of Carthaginian affairs, long subsequent to the time of Hanno; and judging from a passage in Pliny (I. ii. c. 67.), it appears that the ancients were acquainted with other extracts from the original, yet, though its authenticity has been doubted by Strabo and others, there seems to be little reason to question that it is a correct outline of the voyage. That the Carthaginians were oppressors of the people they subjugated may be probable; yet we must not, on such slender grounds as this narration affords, presume that they would wantonly kill and flay human beings to possess themselves of their skins!
S.W. Singer April 10. 1850.
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FOLK LORE.
_Cook-eels._--Forby derives this from _coquille_, in allusion to their being fashioned like an escallop, in which sense he is borne out by Cotgrave, who has "_Pain coquillé_, a fashion of an hard-crusted loafe, somewhat like our stillyard bunne." I have always taken the word to be "coquerells," from {413} the vending of such buns at the barbarous sport of "throwing at the cock" on Shrove Tuesday. The cock is still commonly called a cockerell in E. Anglia. Perhaps Mr. Wodderspoon will say whether the buns of the present day are fashioned in any particular manner, or whether any "the oldest inhabitant" has any recollection of their being differently fashioned or at all impressed. What, too, are the "_stillyard buns_" of Cotgrave? Are they tea-cakes? The apartment in which tea was formerly made was called the _still_-room.
Buriensis.
_Divination by the Bible and Key._--This superstition is very prevalent amongst the peasantry of this and adjoining parishes. When any article is suspected to have been stolen, a Bible is procured, and opened at the 1st chap. of Ruth: the stock of a street-door key is then laid on the 16th verse of the above chapter, and the key is secured in this position by a string, bound tightly round the book. The person who works the charm then places his two middle fingers under the handle of the key, and this keeps the Bible suspended. He then repeats in succession the names of the parties suspected of the theft; repeating at each name a portion of the verse on which the key is placed, commencing, "Whither thou goest, I will go," &c. When the name of the guilty is pronounced, the key turns off the fingers, the Bible falls to the ground, and the guilt of the party is determined. The belief of some the more ignorant of the lower orders in this charm is unbounded. I have seen it practiced in other counties, the key being laid over the 5th verse of the 19th chap. of Proverbs, instead of the 1st chap. of Ruth.
David Stevens. Godalming, April 11. 1850.
[In Brand's Popular Antiquities (ed. Ellis). vol. iii. 188-9, it is stated that the key is placed upon the 50th Psalm.]
_Weather Proverb._--Weather proverbs are among the most curious portions of popular literature. That foul or fair weather is betokened according as the rainbow is seen in the morning or evening, is recorded in the following German