Behind her in their cottage down by Vazon Bay. So she begged him to let her leave them some slight token by which to remember her. He thought for a moment, and then gave her a bulb, which he told her to plant in the sand above the bay. He then whispered to the mother where to go to find a souvenir of her missing daughter; and when she went, weeping, to the search, she found this bulb, burst into flower, a strange, odourless, beautiful blossom, decked with fairy gold, and without a soul—for what is the scent but the soul of a flower?—a fit emblem of a denizen of fairyland. From that time the flower has been carefully cultivated in this island, the Amaryllis Sarniensis, as it is called, nor will it flourish, however great the care, in any of the other islands; it pines and degenerates when removed from the soil where it was first planted by the elfin lover."—'Guernsey Folk-lore,' edited by Edith F. Carey.
I may add that to this day many families in the island, both gentle and simple, and especially the gentler sex, show traces of their fairy ancestors.
The shipwreck that your Japanese correspondent asks about is lost in legend. It is said that when the bulbs were saved from it they were taken for edible tubers, but some, having been cooked and tasted, were disapproved of, and the whole lot cast on a piece of waste land, where, after a short time, they displayed themselves in all their glory. They are not to be met with wild, but do not receive much attention from gardeners, and flourish best when undisturbed. The soil in which they are grown is light and covered with sand. They are much rarer in the island than they were, and, unfortunately, unscrupulous vendors often sell the Nerine lily, a vastly inferior Amaryllis, for the A. sarniensis.
Pimlico: Eyebright (10 S. x. 401).—Nares's 'Glossary' gives still another quotation for Pimlico, as a sort of ale:—
Or stout March-beer, or Windsor ale,
Or Labour-in-vain (so seldom stale),
Or Pimlico, whose too great sale
Did mar it.
The Labour-in-vain was the sign of a negro washing his face, and was affected by shops as well as inns (Davies's 'Supplementary Glossary'). H. P. L.
In addition to the examples given, I can add Pimlico Hill, in Oxted, Surrey, and a place called Pimlico, as well as a Pimlico Wood, in the parish of Cudham, Kent. These are from a very extensive list of field-names I have compiled at various times from various sources, chiefly the Ordnance maps. Ayeahr.
Regimental Marches (10 S. x. 167, 312, 352, 377).—Although not strictly pertaining to the topic under discussion, the following extract from Tit-Bits of 31 October seems worth including among other replies:—
"A peculiar custom obtains in the 12th Lancers—the playing of the Vesper Hymn, the Spanish Chant, and the Russian National Hymn every night of the year after the 'Last Post' has sounded. It is said that the playing of the Vesper Hymn originated in one of the officers' wives presenting the regiment with a new set of instruments on condition that the hymn was played every night after the 'Last Post.' The playing of the Spanish Chant is declared to be a penance for the sacking of a convent during the Peninsular War. No reason is assigned for the playing of the Russian National Anthem."
I think it must have been about the year 1870 that the 6th Dragoon Guards adopted "I'm ninety-five." My father was about forty-five years of age when I remember his singing the first two lines, as follows:—
I'm ninety-five, I'm ninety-five,
And to keep single I'll contrive.
It must then have been quite a new song.
Has your correspondent consulted the old Book of Regimental Marches in the British Museum?
Dead Animals exposed on Trees and Walls (10 S. x. 149).—From very early days the Chinese seem to have followed this practice with the owl. Their name for it, Kiau, is represented with an ideograph composed of the two letters expressing bird and tree. Hü Shin's 'Shwoh-wan' (about 100 A. D.) explains this as follows:
"Anciently it was a midsummer usage to catch and quarter owls and hang their heads upon trees. Hence now we term the act of hanging a human head kuau-shau, i.e., making an owl of the head. This punishment was inflicted on the bird in consequence of its reputation for an extravagant filial impiety."
According to the 'Yuen-kien-lui-han,' 1703, tom. cdxxvii. fol. 31a,
"during the Han dynasty (b.c. 202–a.d. 219) a part of the Court ceremonies at the season of the summer solstice was to prepare broth from the flesh of owls and to serve it out to all the officers. This is said to have been intended to extirpate these birds. The day is one on which Nature begins to nurture all life on the earth, whereas the owl habitually murders its own mother; so the summer solstice is made an occasion of destroying it."
At times in this part the bodies of moles are gibbeted in farm-yards, but not neces-
