Notes and Queries, Number 36, July 6, 1850 | Page 9

troop of horse to one of the universities, about the same time that he presented some books to the other.
The sting of the first, if I recollect right, is directed against the university to which the books were sent, the king--
"--right well discerning, How much that loyal body wanted learning."
The reply which this provoked, is an attack on the other university, the innuendo being that the troops were sent there--
"Because that learned body wanted loyalty."
I quote from memory.
Can any of your readers, through the medium of your valuable paper, favour me with the correct version of the epigrams, and with the particular circumstances which gave rise to them?
J. SWANN.
Norwich.
Lammas Day.--Why was the 1st of August called "Lammas Day?" Two definitions are commonly given to the word "Lammas." 1. That it may mean _Loaf-mass_. 2. That it may be a word having some allusion to St. Peter, as the patron of Lambs.
O'Halloran, however, in his _History of Ireland_, favours us with another definition; upon the value of which I should be glad of the opinion of some of your learned contributors. Speaking of Lughaidh, he says:--
"From this prince the month of August was called Lughnas (Lunas), from which the English adopted the name _Lammas_, for the 1st day of August."
J. SANSOM.
_Mother Grey's Apples_.--At the time I was a little girl,--you will not, I am sure, be ungallant enough to inquire when that was, when I tell you I am now a woman,--I remember that the nursery maid, whose duty it was to wait upon myself and sisters, invariably said, if she found us out of temper--"So, so! young ladies, you are in the sulks, eh? Well, sulk away; you'll be like 'Mother Grey's apples,' you'll be sure to come round again." We often inquired, on the return of fine weather, who Mother Grey was, and what were the peculiar circumstances of the apples coming round?--questions, however, which were always evaded. Now, as the servant was a Cambridge girl, and had a brother a _gyp_, or bedmaker, at one of the colleges, besides her uncle keeping the tennis court there, I have often thought there must have been some college legend or tradition in Alma Mater, of Mother Grey and her apples. Will any of your learned correspondents, should it happen to fall within their knowledge, take pity on the natural curiosity of the sex, by furnishing its details?
A.M.
Jewish Music.--What was the precise character of the _Jewish music_, both before and after David? And what variety of musical instruments had the Jews?
J. SANSOM
_The Plant "Haemony_."--Can any of your readers furnish information of, or reference to the plant _Haemony_, mentioned in Milton's _Comus_, l. 638.:--
"--a small unsightly root, But of divine effect,... The leaf was darkish, and had prickles on it, But in another country, as he said, _Bore a bright golden flower, but not in this soil:_ --More medicinal is it than that Moly, That Hermes once to wise Ulysses gave; He called it _Haemony_, and gave it me, And bade me keep it as of sov'reign use 'Gainst all enchantments," &c. &c.
The Moly that Hermes to Ulysses gave, is the wild garlick, [Greek: molu] by some thought the wild rue. (Odyss. b. x. 1. 302.) It is the [Greek: moluza] of Hippocrates, who recommends it to be eaten as an antidote against drunkenness. But of Haemony I have been unable to find any reference among our ordinary medical authorities, Paulus Aeginata, Celsus, Galen, or Dioscorides. A short note of reference would be very instructive to many of the readers of Milton.
J.M. BASHAM.
17. Chester Street, Belgrave Square.
Ventriloquism.--What evidence is there, that ventriloquism was made use of in the ancient oracles? Was the [Greek: pneuma puthonos] (Acts, xvi. 16.) an example of the exercise of this art? Was the Witch of Endor a ventriloquist? or what is meant by the word [Greek: eggastrimuthos] at Isai. xix. 3., in the Septuagint?
"Plutarch informs us," says Rollin (_Ancient History_, vol. i. p. 65.), "that the god did not compose the verses of the oracle. He inflamed the Pythia's imagination, and kindled in her soul that living light which unveiled all futurity to her. The words she uttered in the heat of her enthusiam, having neither method nor connection, and coming only by starts, to use that expression [Greek: eggastrimuthos] from the bottom of her stomach, or rather from her belly, were collected {89} with care by the prophets, who gave them afterwards to the poets to be turned into verse."
If the Pythian priestess was really a ventriloquist, to what extent was she conscious of the deception she practised?
J. SANSOM.
_Statue of French King, Epigram on_.--Can any of your readers inform me who was the author of the following epigram, written on the occasion of an equestrian statue of a French king attended by the Virtues being erected