394
NOTES AND QUERIES, do s. VIL MAY is, 1007.
"Aldermen of Skinner's Alley" (Dublin);
vide Sir Jonah Barrington's ' Recollections
of his own Times.' To quote his words :
"This most ancient and unparalleled sentiment ran thus :
Orange Toast.
The glorious, pious, and immortal memory of the great and good King William not forgetting Oliver Cromwell, who assisted in redeeming us from Popery, slavery, arbitrary power, brass money, and wooden shoes. May we never want a
Williamite to kick the of a Jacobite ! and a
for the Bishop of Cork ! And he that won't drink this, whether he be priest, bishop, deacon, bellows- blower, gravedigger, or any other of the fraternity of the clergy, may a north wind blow him to the south, and a west wind blow him to the east ! May he have a dark night, a lee shore, a rank storm, and a leaky vessel to carry him over the River Styx ! May the dog Cerberus make a meal of his rump, and Pluto a snuff-box of his skull; and may the Devil jump down his throat with a red-hot harrow, with every pin tear out a gut, and blow him with a dean carcase to hell ! Amen ! "
C. S. H.
HATCHING CHICKENS WITH ARTIFICIAL HEAT (10 S. vii. 149, 218). Howell in his ' Familiar Letters ' (1, No. xxviii., ed. Jacobs) says, writing on 30 May, 1621, from Venice to Sir Robert Mansell :
"It is well known that some Airs make more qualifying Impressions than others; as a Greek told me in Sicily of the Air of Egypt, where there be huge common Furnaces to hatch eggs by the thousands in Camel's Dung ; for during the time of hatching, if the Air happen to come to be overcast, and grow cloudy, it spoils all ; if the Sky continue still, serene and clear, not one Egg in an hundred will miscarry."
There is a description of the Egyptian in- cubators in ' Purchas His Pilgrimes,' 1625, but I have mislaid the reference.
G. L. APPEBSON.
" GULA ATJGUSTI " (10 S. v. 408, 499 ; vi. 15, 72, 135 ; vii. 257, 313). At p. 257 gule is quoted as the first day of a month ; at p. 313 MB. H. H. JOHNSON says the word is the " eve " (not first day) of a feast.
On the authority of the Rev. E. H. Jones, "the Welsh word gwyl properly means 'feast,' and is used in that form when it stands at the beginning of a sentence, and certainly means the feast day. Al yr Wyl means on the feast day. 1 have seen the word gwyl used for the Eve of a least, but I think it is a mistake to do so. The word 'Eve' in Welsh is cyfnos."
The term " Gule of August " occurs four times in the Inq. P.M. of Humphrey de Bohun in 1299. T. S. M.
MB. JOHNSON' s reply is not to the point. If vigilia turned in Wales into gwyl, and became used in the very opposite sense of " feast," can he show how it went over to Rome and
became gula ? It seems easier to suppose
that gwyl in the sense of " feast " is derived
from, or cognate with, the Latin gula. The
cases of Michaelmas Day and St. John's
Day, which he adduces, do not explain
why the term in question should mean the
first day of a month, as alleged by the obso-
lete author whom I mentioned.
EDWABD S. DODSON.
'THE HEBBEW MAIDEN'S ANSWEB TO THE CBUSADEB ' (10 S. vii. 269). Here is the little poem for which MB. J. T. PAGE is seeking :
Christian soldier, must we sever ? Does thy creed our fates divide ? Must we part, and part for ever ?
Shall another be thy bride ? Spirits of my fathers sleeping,
Ye who once in Zion trod, Heav'n's mysterious councils keeping, Tell me of the Christian's God.
Is the cross of Christ the token
Of a saving faith to man ? Can my early vows be broken ?
Spirits answer me, they can ! Mercy! mercy shone around Him,
All the blessed with Him trod. No, we can't be sav'd without Him !
Christian, I believe thy God.
M. E. ACKEBLEY.
[MB. T. H. PARRY'S reply next week.]
SPBING-HEELED JACK (10 S. vii. 206, 256). He was a bugbear into and past the fifties, for at various spots in the Midlands this nimble-heeled gentleman had played his jumping pranks, to the frightening of people out of their wits an easy matter enough with some ; in fact, " Jack " jumped and was seen in the imagination of many folk. About the end of the forties I had, I may say, a wholesome dread of meeting " Jumping Jack," and seeing him bound. About then there was issued from a London house a life of " Spring-heeled Jack." It came out in penny weekly numbers, with high illustrations, some of which were loose double-paged pictures in colours. I think the last issue of this marvel was but four or five years ago.
There was a good deal of interest in the why and wherefore of Jack's jumping, and how he managed his marvellous flights through the air. His jumps were intended to frighten evildoers, and to frustrate their intentions. He was looked upon as a sort of Robin Hood. Various theories were suggested to explain his supposed methods of jumping, the one which found most favour being that underneath the heels of his jack boots were compressed springs, which when released afforded propulsion
