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

this Voyage of Hanno,
when read to him, from his own experience." There are, of course,
some erroneous notions in the information of the pilot, and in the
deductions made from it by Ramusio; but the former had the sagacity to
see the truth respecting this Gorgon Island full of hairy men and women.
I will not spoil the _naïveté_ of the narration by attempting a
translation; merely 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 ære 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.
* * * * *
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