Notes and Queries, Number 74, March 29, 1851 | Page 8

peal, in Vol. i.,
p. 154., of "NOTES AND QUERIES;" but it would at least amount, I
suppose, to consonantia campanarum, a ringing together of bells, as
distinguished from the toll or single stroke on a bell. Horne Tooke says:
"The toll of a bell is its being lifted up (tollere, to raise), which causes
that sound we call its toll."
The poet does not clear the ambiguity and confusion of terms, when he
sings--
"Faintly as tolls the evening chime!"
Peals are not heard in London on Sunday mornings, I believe; but in the
country, at least hereabouts, they are commonly rung as the summons
to church, ending with a few strokes on one bell; and then a smaller
bell than any in the peal (the sanctus bell of old, perhaps, and now
sometimes vulgarly called "Tom Tinkler") announces that divine
service is about to begin.
The object of these remarks is to elicit clearly what is the right way of
ringing the bells of a church on the several occasions of their being
used.
ALFRED GATTY.
Ecclesfield.

* * * * *
MAZER WOOD: GUTTA PERCHA.
In the Musæum Tradescantianum, or a Collection of Rarities preserved
at South Lambeth, near London, by John Tradescant, 1656, I find,
amongst "other variety of rarities," "the plyable Mazer wood, which,
being warmed in water, will work to any form;" and a little farther on,
in the list of "utensils and household stuffe," I also find "Mazer dishes."
In my opinion, it is more than a coincidence that Doctor Montgomery,
who, in 1843, received the gold medal of the Society of Arts for
bringing gutta percha and its useful properties under the notice of that
body, describes it in almost the same words that Tradescant uses when
speaking of the pliable Mazer wood: the Doctor says, "it could be
moulded into any form by merely dipping it into boiling water." It is
worthy of remark that Tradescant, who was the first botanist of his day,
seems to have been uncertain of the true nature of the "Mazer wood,"
for he does not class it with his "gums, rootes, woods;" but, as before
observed, in a heterogeneous collection which he styles "other variety
of rarities." Presuming, as I do, that this Mazer wood was what we now
term gutta percha, the question may be propounded, how could
Tradescant have procured it from its remote locale? The answer is easy.
In another part of the Musæum Tradescantianum may be found a list of
the "benefactors" to the collection; and amongst their names occurs that
of William Curteen, Esq. Now this William Curteen and his father Sir
William, of Flemish Descent, were the most extensive British
merchants of the time, and had not only ships trading to, but also
possessed forts and factories on, some of the islands of the Eastern
Archipelago, the native habitat of the sapotaceous tree that yields the
gutta percha. Curteen was a collector of curiosities himself, and no
doubt his captains and agents were instructed to procure such: in short,
a specimen of gutta percha was just as likely to attract the attention of
an intelligent Englishman at Amboyna in the fifteenth century, as it did
at Singapore in the nineteenth.
If there are still any remains of Tradescant's collection in the
Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, the question, whether the Mazer wood

was gutta percha or not, might be soon set at rest; but it is highly
probable that the men who ordered the relics of the Dodo to be thrown
out, showed but little ceremony to the Mazer wood or dishes.
A curious instance of a word, not very dissimilar to Mazer, may be
found in Eric Red's Saga, part of the Flatö Annals, supposed to be
written in the tenth century, and one of the authorities for the
pre-Columbian discovery of America by the Icelanders. Karlsefne, one
of the heroes of the Saga, while his ship was detained by a contrary
wind in a Norwegian port, was accosted by a German, who wished to
purchase his, Karlsefne's, broom.
"'I will not sell it,' said Karlsefne. 'I will give you half a mark in gold
for it,' said the German man. Karlsefne thought this a good offer, and
thereupon concluded the bargain. The German man went away with the
broom. Karlsefne did not know what wood it was; but it was Mæsur,
which had come from Wineland!"
Perhaps some reader may give an instance of Mazer wood being
mentioned by other writers; or inform me if the word Mazer, in itself,
had any peculiar signification.
W. PINKERTON.
* * * * *
Minor Queries.
Paul Pitcher Night.--Can any of the contributors to "NOTES AND
QUERIES" throw light upon a curious custom, prevalent in some parts
of Cornwall, of throwing broken pitchers,