258
NOTES AND QUERIES. L io s. XL MAK. 27, im
toe at the moment of rebound from the
turf what is called a half volley in tennis.
Punting in those days was considered
slovenly in matches, and a sign of ineffi-
ciency in the art of drop-kicking ; and I
think the word " punt " implied this
slovenly kind of push.
To punt on the river is to propel a boat with the " point " of a pole ; and hence a boat designed for that mode of progression is called a punt, though any boat might be so propelled. In Norfolk the pole is called a " quant," from the flange, or quannet, with which the pole is shod. Here, too, the point seems to give the name to the implement. Wherrymen on the Broads take to the quant when the wind drops. A. T. M.
"RABBITS" FOR LUCK (10 S. xi. 208). My little daughter has for some time been in the habit of saying " Rabbit " on the first day of each month. The word to be most efficacious must be spoken up the chimney, and be the first word said in the month. I am told that if this is done the performer will receive a present.
JAS. PLATT, Jun.
A. M. will find numerous references to the use of the term " rabbit " as an expletive in ' The English Dialect Dictionary ' ; but its derivation is not given, nor is its adoption as a formula specified in any of the quotations supplied. The employment of the term by children is evidently a survival of the ancient superstitious belief in the efficacy of this or similar expressions as charms to avert evil. W. B. GERISH.
Bishop's Stortford.
THISTLE AND SAINT (10 S. xi. 169). The purple-flowered thistle (Carduus marianus) does not appear to have exactly been the emblem of any particular Saint ; but it was sacred to the Blessed Virgin, and is still known as Our Lady's thistle or Our Lady's milk-silk, from the pale leaves being spotted with white, whence it was an old belief that they became so marked originally by the falling of some drops of the Virgin's milk upon them. Our Lady's thistle, says Gerard in his ' Herbal ' is thought to drive away serpents if it be but hanged about the neck (chap. 477). The Rev. Hilderic Friend, after weighing the pros and cons in his ' Flowers and Flower-Lore,' thinks that the Carduus marianus is the true Scotch thistle (ed. 1884, vol. i. p. 223) ; and it was probably because of its religious associations that t was adopted by the Order of the Thistle,
which was instituted, says Fosbroke, by
Achaius, King of Scotland, in 787, restored
by James V. in 1540, revived by James II.
of England in 1687, and re-established by
Queen Anne, 31 Dec., 1703 (' Encyc. Antiq.').
It is further remarkable that the Order of
Knighthood of the Thistle of Burbon wa&
instituted (1370) in honour of the Virgin
Mary.
In Northern mythology the plant wa& sacred to Thor, its blossom being supposed to receive its bright colour from the lightning, from which it consequently protected the person or building placed under its guardian- ship. J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.
The only thistle dedicated to any saint is, I believe, the Lady's thistle, Carduus marianus, so called because it is fabled to be spotted by the Virgin's milk, but I do not know that it is exactly an emblem of Our Lady. Neither, I suppose, is the Scotch thistle (which some writers take to be the Carduus marianus) an emblem of St. Andrew. St. Barnaby's thistle is not really a thistle, but one of the centaureas. The holy thistle, Carduus benedictus, was so called on account of its supposed properties as a heal-all.
C. C. B.
Surely the thistle is the emblem of St. Andrew of Scotland. See the Order of the Thistle. A. R. BAYLEY.
St. Caroline the Virgin, Dr. Husenbeth mentions in his ' Emblems of Saints ' (1882), is shown in a mediaeval German painting as holding a thistle. The same good autho- rity records that St. Narcissus, the bishop whose feast is kept at Jerusalem upon 29 October, and who suffered martyrdom there in A.D. 216, is represented in an old picture by Weyen as holding a thistle in blossom. He is depicted variously by other ancient authorities. HARRY HEMS.
PHILIP THICKNESSE : AUTOMATON CHESS- PLAYER '(10 S. xi. 189). L. L. K. will find an account of the automaton in ' The Boy's Own Book,' 1830. If he will write to me, I may be able to tell him more that would interest him. H. N. ELLACOMBE.
Bitton Vicarage, Bristol.
HIPPOCRATES AND THE BLACK BABY (10 S. xi. 207). This story is to be found in Wanley's 'Wonders of the Little World,' 1678, p. 96. In the margin there are refer- ences to Pare and " Shenck. ' Obs. Med.' 1. 4, obs. 1, p. 543." G. THORN-DRURY. [Reply from PROF. BENSLY next week.]
