Notes and Queries, Number 71, March 8, 1851 | Page 4

you:--
"Snail, snail, shut out your horns; Father and mother are dead: Brother
and sister are in the back yard, Begging for barley bread."
GEO. E. FRERE.
Perhaps it would not be uninteresting to add to the records of the
"Snail-charm" (Vol. iii, p. 132.), that in the south of Ireland, also, the
same charm, with a more fanciful and less threatening burden, was used
amongst us children to win from its reserve the startled and offended
snail. We entreated thus:--
"Shell a muddy, shell a muddy, Put out your horns, For the king's
daughter is Comings to town With a red petticoat and a green gown!"
I fear it is impossible to give a clue as to the meaning of the form of
invocation, or who was the royal visitor, so nationally clothed, for
whose sake the snail was expected to be so gracious.
F. J. H.
Nievie-nick-nack.--A fire-side game, well known in Scotland; described
by Jamieson, Chambers, and (last, though not least) John M^cTaggart.
The following version differs from that given by them:--

"Nievie, nievie, nick, neck, Whilk han will thou tak? Tak the richt, or
tak the wrang, I'll beguile thee if I can."
It is alluded to by Sir W. Scott, St. Ronan's, iii. 102.; Blackwood's
Magazine, August, 1821, p. 37.
Rabelais mentions à la nicnoque as one of the games played by
Guargantua. This is rendered by Urquhart Nivinivinack: Transl., p. 94.
Jamieson (Supp. to Scot. Dict., sub voce) adds:
"The first part of the word seems to be from Neive, {180} the fist being
employed in the game. Shall we view nick as allied to the E. v.
signifying 'to touch luckily'?"
Now, there is no such seeming derivation in the first part of the word.
The Neive, though employed in the game, is not the object addressed. It
is held out to him who is to guess--the conjuror--and it is he who is
addressed, and under a conjuring name. In short (to hazard a wide
conjecture, it may be), he is invoked in the person of NIC NEVILLE
(Neivie Nic), a sorcerer in the days of James VI., who was burnt at St.
Andrew's in 1569. If I am right, a curious testimony is furnished to his
quondam popularity among the common people:
"From that he past to Sanctandrois, where a notable sorceres callit Nic
Neville was condamnit to the death and brynt," &c. &c.--The Historie
and Life of King Jame the Sext, p. 40. Edin. 1825. Bannatyne Club Ed.
J. D. N. N.
* * * * *
RECORDS AT MALTA.
Let me call your attention, as well as that of your readers (for good may
come from both), to an article in the December No. of the
Archæological Journal, 1850, entitled "Notice of Documents preserved
in the Record Office at Malta;" an article which I feel sure ought to be
more publicly known, both for the sake of the reading world at large,

and the high character bestowed upon the present keeper of those
records, M. Luigi Vella, under whose charge they have been brought to
a minute course of investigation. There may be found here many things
worthy of elucidation; many secret treasures, whether for the
archæologist, bibliopole, or herald, that only require your widely
disseminated "brochure" to bring nearer to our own homes and our own
firesides. It is with this view that I venture to express a hope, that a
précis of that article may not be deemed irregular; which point, of
course, I must leave to your good judgment and good taste to decide,
being a very Tyro in archæology, and no book-worm (though I really
love a book), so I know nothing of their points of etiquette. At the same
time I must, in justice to Mr. A. Milward (the writer of the notice, and
to whom I have not the honour of being known), entreat his pardon for
the plagiarism, if such it can be called, having only the common
"reciprocation of ideas" at heart; and remain as ever an humble
follower under Captain Cuttle's standard.
One Corporal WHIP.
PRÉCIS of Documents preserved in Record Office, Malta.
Six volumes of Records, parchment, consisting of Charters from
Sovereigns and Princes, Grants of Land, and other documents
connected with the Order of St. John from its establishment by Pope
Pascal II., whose original bull is perfect.
Two volumes of Papers connected with the Island of Malta before it
came into the possession of the Knights, from year 1397 to beginning
of sixteenth century.
A book of Privileges of the Maltese, compiled about 200 years ago.
Several volumes of original letters from men of note: among whom we
may mention, Viceroys of Sicily, Sovereigns of England. One from the
Pretender, dated 1725, from Rome; three from Charles II., and one