516
NOTES AND QUERIES. [HS.X.DKC. 20,1914.
Eineoii ap Cedifor was ancestor in the fifth
degree of Llewelyn ap Bees ap Grono, who
! the Despenser charter to Neath in
1359. Llewelyn's grandfather Grono was
presumably of the same age sixty-six years
before 1359 as Llewelyn was in that year.
This, then, takes us to circa 1293, between
which date and 1125 is a period of 168 years,
a lapse of time covered in the pedigrees by
only two generations, Cradoc ap Richard (ab
Eineon). Assuming thirty-three years to a
generation, it is evident that five generations
must have intervened between Eineon ap
Cedifor and Grono ap Cradoc.
AP THOMAS.
LEGENDS OF FLYING (11 S. v. 409 ; vi. 291). MR. KTJMAGUSTJ MINAKATA in his ' eply to MR. BRESLAR'S query whether there were any legends of miraculous flights in the literature of the Parsees or Buddhists cited several instances. One of these, sad to say, related how the saint, succumbing to a t mptation of the flesh, lost the power his virtues had previously gained for him. ' Soma, the Washerwoman,' one of the stories in Mr. C. A. Kincaid's 'Deccan Nur- sery Tales ' (just published by Messrs. Mac- nrllan), shows how, on the other hand, the saint, by an act of self-sacrifice, may transfer the miraculous power to another. A little Brahman girl was told that unless she could get Soma to come to her wedding, she would be widowed shortly after marriage. So the girl and her youngest brother set out to seek Soma, and were carried by eagles " across the seven seas." The children " hid all that day, and next morning they got up at dawn, and they swept the courtyard and
neaped the floor with cow-dung And this
they did every day for a whole year."
Eventually Somi learned the reason of their coming, and promised to return with them.
" She went with the two Brahman children to the seashore. The wind was blowing, and the great waves were rolling in, and the foam was splashing over the rocks. But Soma took the boy under one arm and the girl under the other. She jumped far up into the sky and right over the seven seas, and when she got to the opposite
shore she put the children down again As the
bridegroom and bride were throwing rice over each other, the bridegroom fainted. He fell on
the ground and lay there motionless But
Soma, the washerwoman, stepped forward and said, ' It is nothing, do not be afraid.' She took some water in her hand and sprinked it over herself. Now the secret of Soma's power was this :
" She had acquired great merit by observing every Monday the following practices : She would get up early, bathe, dress in silence, make
various gifts to Brahmans, and then walk one
hundred and eight times round a peepul tree.
But now by sprinkling water over herself she had
transferred the whole of her merit to Gunvaiiti.
By this means the little bride had been able to
restore her husband to life, and the wedding
ceremony finished amidst the happiness of all.
Soma then took leave to .go, and started on her
homeward journey. When she reached the sea-
shore, the wind was blowing, and the great waves
came rolling in, and the spray was splashing over
the rocks. But now that she had given away all
her merit to Gunvanti, she had none left by
means of which she could jump across the seven
seas. She sat down forlorn by the bank of a
river. Then she got up, bathed in the water,
and prayed to the god Vishnu. Next she took
one hundred and eight sand-grains in her hand,
and then walked one hundred and eight times
round a peepul tree by the river's edge. Instantly
her powers returned to her, and going back to the
shore, she sprang into the heavens and over the
seven seas, and alighted close to her own door."
Pp. 84-8.
In the first extract given above occurs the word neap, apparently equal " to clean " ; and Mr. Kincaid makes Soma ask the chil- dren, " Why do you sweep my courtyard and neap my floor ? "' This sense of the word is not included in the ' N.E.D.' among the meanings of neap. Is it a dialect word ?
J. B. THORNE.
THE PRONUNCIATION OF " ow " (11 S. x. 455, sub ' Sparrowgrass,' 11 S. x. 411). I should not have ventured on my own authority to suppose that the ow of " spar- rowgrass " was to be compared in sound to the ow of "cowcumber," which it really does not resemble ; but I wished to draw the attention of those who had been discussing how the word " sparrowgrass " was derived from "asparagus" to the fact that certain lexicographers, whose words I quoted, did assert that it was a matter of pronuncia- tion. One of these further enunciated the dictum that the "sound of coiycumber" was an analogous case of mispronunciation. My casual reference to the old pronuncia- tion of the poet Cowper's name as Cooper was, it seems, more germane than I thought at the time, for it is now clear that when the name of the plant was first spelt " cow- cumber" it was pronounced " coocumber," just as " cuckow " was sounded the same as the modern "cuckoo."
I am glad to see a specimen of the same sound of the ow in the word "now," and while I cannot claim so large an acquaint- ance with English literature, whether poetic or otherwise, as would have rendered me independent of the help given by H. K. ST. J. S., I cannot quite think that the word "due" at the end of his second
