Notes and Queries, Number 37, July 13, 1850 | Page 6

of the Beltein or Midsummer fires in Cornwall, I conclude you will give a place to the following note. On St. John's eve last past, I happened to pass the day at a house situate on an elevated tract in the county of Kilkenny, Ireland; and I shall long remember the beauty of the sight, when, as dusk closed in, fire after fire shot up its clear flame, thickly studding the near plains and distant hills. The evening was calm and still, and the mingled shouts and yells of the representatives of the old fire-worshippers came with a very singular effect on the ear. When a boy, I have often passed through the fire myself on Midsummer eve, and such is still the custom. The higher the flame, the more daring the act is considered: hence there is a sort of emulation amongst the unwitting perpetrators of this Pagan rite. In many places cattle are driven through the fire; and this ceremony is firmly believed to have a powerful effect in preserving them from various harms. I need not say, that amongst the peasantry the fires are now lighted in honour of St John.
X.Y.A.
Kilkenny.
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MINOR NOTES.
_Borrowed Thoughts._--Mr. SINGER (Vol. i., p. 482.) points out the French original from which Goldsmith borrowed his epigram beginning--
"Here lies poor Ned Purdon."
I find, in looking over Swift's works, a more literal version of this than Goldsmith's:--
"Well then, poor G---- lies under ground, So there's an end of honest Jack; So little justice here he found, 'Tis ten to one he'll ne'er come back."
I should like to add two Queries:--Who was the Chevallier de Cailly (or d'Aceilly), the author of the French epigram mentioned by Mr. Singer? And--when did he live?
H.C. DE ST. CROIX
_An Infant Prodigy in 1659._--The following wonderful story is thus related by Archbishop Bramhall (Carte's _Letters_, ii. 208.: Dr. Bramhall to Dr. Earles, Utrecht, Sept. 6-16, 1659):--
"A child was born in London about three months since, with a double tongue, or divided tongue, which the third day after it was born, cried 'a King, a King,' and bid them bring it to the King. The mother of the child saieth it told her of all that happened in England since, and much more which she dare not utter. This my lady of Inchiguin writeth to her aunt, _Me brow van Melliswarde_[4], living in this city, who shewed me the letter. My Lady writeth that she herself was as incredulous as any person, until she both saw and heard it speak herself very lately, as distinctly as she herself could do, and so loud that all the room heard it. That which she heard was this. A gentleman in the company took the child in his arms and gave it money, and asked what it would do with it, to which it answered aloud that it would give it to the King. If my Lady were so foolish to be deceived, or had not been an eye and ear witness herself, I might have disputed it; but giving credit to her, I cannot esteem it less than a miracle. If God be pleased to bestow a blessing upon us, he cannot want means."
It can hardly be doubted that the Archbishop's miracle was a ventriloquist hoax.
CH.
[Footnote 4: The name of the Dutch lady, mis-written for De Vrouw, &c.]
_Allusion in Peter Martyr._--Mr. Prescott, in his History of the Conquest of Mexico vol. i. p. 389. (ed. 8vo. 1843), quotes from Peter Martyr, _De Orbe Novo_, dec. 1. c. l., the words, "Una illis fuit spes salutis, desperasse de salute," applied to the Spanish invaders of Mexico; and he remarks that "it is said with the classic energy of Tacitus." The {102} expression is classical, but is not derived from Tacitus. The allusion is to the verse of Virgil:--
"Una salus victis nullam sperare salutem."
_?n._ ii. 354.
L.
_Hogs not Pigs._--In Cowper's humorous verses, "The yearly Distress, or Tithing-time at Stoke in Essex," one of the grumblers talks
"of pigs that he has lost By maggots at the tail."
Upon this I have to remark that an intelligent grazier assures me that pigs are never subject to the evil here complained of, but that lambs of a year old, otherwise called "hogs" or "hoggets," are often infested by it. It would appear, therefore, that the poet, misled by the ambiguous name, and himself knowing nothing of the matter but by report, attributed to pigs that which happens to the other kind of animal, viz. lambs a year old, which have not yet been shorn.
J. MN.
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QUERIES.
A QUERY AND REPLIES.
_Plaister or Paster--Christian Captives--Members for Calais, &c._--In editing Tyndale's Pathway (_Works_, vol. i. p. 22.), I allowed preceding editors to induce me to print _pastor_, where the oldest authority had paster. As the following part of the