ii s. x. AUG. 22, mi] NOTES AND QUERIES.
157
as did many other observant persons, saw
the progressive development of animal and
vegetable forms from embryo to adult.
That a general plan exists in living organisms
wa- 1 noted as soon as man began to appre-
ciate his environment. Distinct allusions
to such views can be found in Aristotle and
Au.mistine ; but the oldest allusions are in
Genesis, in which the cosmos is represented
as passing from 'the " independent, in-
coherent homogeneity " by a succession of
developments, " the diapason closing full on
man." The essential community of animal
forms is shown by the fact that they all
have the " nefesh hayah " ("living soul"),
and that when a help meet for Adam (not a
help -meet, as often erroneously expressed)
w,s to be selected, the whole animal world
was passed in review. Surely the basic idea
of ths companionship was the propagation
of the species, and this could not have been
presumed unless there was essential simi-
larity in the nature of the whole animal
creation. The penalty imposed on the
serpent finds interesting application in the
fact that some living serpents show rudi-
ments of a pelvic arch and may be degenerate
quadrupeds. HENRY LEFFMANN.
Philadelphia.
" (11 S. viii. 466; ix. 62).
The English forms in " step " (literally
bereaved, deprived) are a clumsy and '
when applied to parents and brothers and
sisters an etymologically absurd attempt at
differentiating relations. The present ^rigid
distinction between the groups " step- " and
" in-law " is quite modern. Bailey's ' Dic-
tionary,' 1736 edition, gives the definition
of " step-father " as " father-in-law," and so
on. As late as 1837 the second Mrs. Weller
is always referred to as Samuel's " mother-
in-law." Proverbial French, at least, has
an attempt at discriminating "step-mother"
(in a bad sense), e.g., " Maratre est le diable
en at re," which goes back at any rate to the
eighteenth century.
Even in English other relations by marriage are not discriminated ; e.g., " a sister-in- law " may be a brother's wife, a wife's Bister, or a husband's sister ; " a niece-in- law " may be a nephew's wife or a husband's <or wife's) niece. E. M. F.
THROWING A HAT INTO A HOUSE (11 S. viii. 288, 336, 377 ; ix. 136). Agreeing with the writer at p. 288 that a solution has not yet 1 < < n found, I submit the following as possible siiils to that end : (1) Since men first fought behind defensive works, doubtless the ruse
has been used of exposing the head-covering
upon a spear or gun to draw the " fire " of
the enemy, if any such be within eyeshot,
so it would naturally occur to any one to
throw in his hat as a ballon d'essai to see if
the housewife is inimical. (2) The hat
especially represents the father in that fossil-
bed of old British customs, the North
Carolina Mountains ; in an article on the
folk-lore of this region in the Journal of
American Folk-Lore, vol. xx.,at p. 249 is the
direction, " To relieve the pangs of child-
birth, put the hat of the child's father under
the bed." (3) Further in that line is ' Der
Hut als "Symbol,"' &c., in Zentralblatt fii>-
Psychoanalyse,- 1912, iii. 95, which is well
worth personal examination by those in-
terested. ROCKINGHAM.
Boston, Mass.
THE CANDLE (11 S. viii. 502; ix. 173). Perhaps I may be allowed to allude to the custom of " selling by candle " incidentally mentioned by MR. TOM JONES. I have notes of such sales having occurred at Raunds, Northamptonshire (1889); Warton, War- wickshire (1904) ; Broadway, Dorset (1909); Chard, Somerset (1910) ; and Aldermaston, Berkshire (1913).
The following is copied from The Graphic of 29 March, 1873 :
" Garraway s Coffee House, famous for its inoh of candle sales, and for being the first establish- ment where tea was retailed as a drink, was finally closed on Tuesday [25 March] after an existence of 216 years."
See also 4 S. xi. 276, 371 ; 5 S. vi. 288, 435, 523 ; ix. 306 ; xii. 446 ; 8 S. ii. 363 ; v. 106 ; ix. 414 ; 9 S. xi. 188, 353 ; 10 S. ix. 388; 11 S. i. 404.
With reference to the snuffing of candles I may say that I remember the candle- snuffer going round during the service to perform this office at a little Nonconformist chapel in Northamptonshire in the early sixties. JOHN T. PAGE.
"FLEWENGGE": " SPARROWBIT.LS " (11 S. viii. 449, 494). " There were also sparrow bills or sparables," says J. T. F. May I point out that this word, pronounced sparbliss, exists still in Lleyn, S. Carnarvon- shire ? 1 last saw it (in English) in one of the skits on the attempted divorce of Queen Caroline skits of the time, collected. Barm- cloth and roundhouse are two more old survivals, commonly used in Welsh talk to-day. A collection of these remanets might be useful. So might the Welsh, as illustrating the Cornish, totem-terms (applied
