Notes and Queries, Number 34, June 22, 1850 | Page 5

Pagan observances, and which the people have adopted without knowing the cause, or being able to assign a reason. Carmelli tells us that it still prevailed in Italy in 1750.[2] It was evidently of long standing in Ovid's time as it had passed then into a proverb among the people; nearly two centuries afterwards Plutarch (Qu?st. Rom. 86.) puts the question: [Greek: Dia ti toi Maiou m��nos ouk agontai gunaikas], which he makes a vain endeavour to answer satisfactorily. He assigns three reasons: first, because May being between April and June, and April being consecrated to Venus, and June to Juno, those deities held propitious to marriage were not to be slighted. The Greeks were not less observant of fitting seasons and the propitiation of the [Greek: gam��lioi theoi]. Secondly, on account of the great expiatory celebration of the Lemuria, when women abstained from the bath and the careful cosmetic decoration of their persons so necessary as a prelude to marriage rites. Thirdly, as some say, because May was the month of old men, Majus a Majoribus, and therefore June, being thought to be the month of the young, Junius a Junioribus, was to be preferred. The Romans, however, held other seasons and days unpropitious to matrimony, as the days in February when the Parentalia were celebrated, &c. June was the favourite month; but no marriage was celebrated without an augury being first consulted and its auspices proved favourable (Val. Max. lib. ii. c. 1.). It would be well if some such superstitions observance among us could serve as a check to ill-advised and ill-timed marriages; and I would certainly advise all prudent females to continue to think that
"The girls are all stark naught that wed in May."
S. W. SINGER.
Mickleham, June 12.
[Footnote 2: Storia di Vari Costumi, t. ii. p. 221.]
"Trash" or "Skriker."--Many hundreds of persons there are in these districts who place implicit credence in the reality of the appearance of a death sign, locally termed trash or skriker. It has the appearance of a large black dog, with long shaggy hair, and, as the natives express it, "eyes as big as saucers." The first name is given to it form the peculiar noise made by its feet when passing along, resembling that of a heavy shoe in a miry road. The second appellation is in allusion to the sound of its voice when heard by those parties who are unable to see the appearance itself. According to the statements of parties who have seen the trash frequently, it makes its appearance to some member of that family from which death will shortly select his victim; and, at other times, to some very intimate acquaintance. Should any one be so courageous as to follow the appearance, it usually makes its retreat with its eyes fronting {53} the pursuer, and either sinks into the earth with a strange noise, or is lost upon the slightest momentary inattention. Many have attempted to strike it with any weapon they had at hand; but although the appearance stood its ground, no material substance could ever be detected. It may be added that "trash" does not confine itself to churchyards, though frequently seen in such localities.
T. T. W.
Burnley.
* * * * *
NOTES ON MILTON.
(Continued from Vol. i., p. 387.)
L'Allegro.
On l. 6. (D.):--
"Where triumphant Darkness hovers With a sable wing, that covers Brooding Horror." Crashaw, Psalm xxiii.
On l. 11. (G.) Drayton has this expression in his Heroical Epistles:--
"Find me out one so young, so fair, so free." King John to Matilda.
and afterwards,--
"Leave that accursed cell; There let black Night and Melancholy dwell."
On l. 24. (G.) Most probably from a couplet in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy:--
"And ever and anon she thinks upon the man, That was so fine, so fair, so blith, so debonaire." P. 3. Sc. 2. p. 603. ed. 1621. 4to.
And in Randolph's Aristippus,--
"A bowle of wine is wondrous boone chere To make one blith, buxome, and deboneere." P. 13. ed. 1630. 4to.
On l. 27. (G.):--
"Manes. Didst thou not find I did quip thee? "Psyllus. No, verily; why, what's a quip? "Manes. We great girders call it a short saying of a sharp wit, with a bitter sense in a sweet word." Alexander and Campaspe, Old Plays, vol. ii. p. 113. ed. 1780.
"Then for your Lordship's Quippes and quick jestes, Why Gesta Romanorum were nothing to them." Sir Gyles Goosecappe, a Com., Sig. G. 2. 4to. 1606.
Crank is used in a different sense by Drayton:--
"Like Chanticleare he crowed crank, And piped full merily." Vol. iv. p. 1402. ed. 1753.
On l. 31. (M.):--
"There dainty Joys laugh at white-headed Caring." Fletcher's Purple Island, C. vi. St. 35.
On l. 42. (G.):--
"The cheerful lark, mounting from early bed, With sweet salutes awakes the drowsy Light; The earth shee left, and up to Heaven is fled: There chants her