,428
NOTES AND QUERIES. [iis.xn.Nov.27,i9i5.
- Popular Rhymes of Scotland,' pp. 57-9 ;
Gomme, ' Traditional Games,' vol. i. pp. 118, 207, 391 ; vol. ii. p. 146 ; Newell, ' Games and Songs of American Children,' p. 134 ; Abbott, ' Macedonian Folk-Lore, pp. 324-5 ; Holland, ' Rimes et Jeux de TEnfance,' pp. 45, 124 ; Cosquin, k Contes Populaires de Lorraine,' pp. 32, 41 ; Simrock, * Das deutsche Kinderbucb,' pp. 282, 303 ; Nork, ' Der Festkalender,' p. 587.
I may add that I have written a book on ' Nursery Rhymes and Nursery Tales,' a section of which deals exhaustively with these cumulative stories. I hope it may find a publisher soon. HENRY BETT.
York.
GAVELKIND IN ENGLAND (US. xii. 379). Gavelkind in Kent still extensively prevails. In fact, all land in the county is presumed to be of that tenure unless the contrary is proved. I believe I am right when I say that no complete record is yet in existence showing what lands have been " disgavelled ' and what have not. Consequently, I am afraid that much property in Kent is erroneously treated as being subject to the custom.
There is in Lambarde's ' Perambulation of Kent ' a list of such " persons as procured their possessions to be altered from the nature of Gavelkind by Actes of Parliament." As this list contains the names of a number of men who were large landowners, it follows that the lands which have been " disgavelled " are extensive.
As Lambarde in his ' Perambulations ' says :
" It were right worthie the labour to learne the particulars and certeintie, (if it may be) of all such possessions, as these men had, at the times of these seyerall statutes, for that also will be serviceable in time to come."
R. VAUGHAN GOWER. Boughton Colemers, Matfield, Kent.
'THE LADY OF ELCHE ' (11 S. xii. 342, 390). I was, I think, the first person in the British Isles to get news of the rinding of the beautiful ' Lady of Elche.' . Travelling in Munster in the second half of 1897, I got a letter written at Elche from Prof. P. Paris, of Bordeaux, saying that he arrived there during his official archaeological tour in Spain just after it had been dug up, and was arranging for its transport to the Louvre. Spaniards regret, of course, that it was not secured for the Museo Nacional at Madrid. At Elche, a few months later, I heard from the lips of Antonio Galiano, the labourer, how, as he was giving what he meant to be the last stroke with his spade at
the end of his day's work on the field, he hit
some hard object, and led by curiosity
brought out, exactly at set of sun, that
treasure of Iberian art, which had lain there
in safety for perhaps two thousand years.
Senor Ibarra, the principal archaeo legist of
Elche, the friend of Dr. Emil Huebner of
Berlin, gave me a photograph of this romantic
bust which had been taken as soon as the
earth had been cleaned off it, and showed me
the valuable antiquities from that region
collected in his house. When I paid my
first visit to it in the Salle Dieulafoy, I heard
a French savant say in its presence : " II y a
quelque chose de louche dans son regard ! '
Probably, in anticipation of the destructive
forces of the new Goths and Vandals from
beyond the Rhine, the image which has
fascinated so many spectators has been again
placed in a subterranean hiding-place. But
photographs of it can be bought in Paris.
I wrote some Baskish rimes in its honour and submitted them to M. Arnaud Detroyat, the well-known banker and bibliophile of. Bayonne. He demanded a literal rendering in French, and parapnrased it, on the last day of 1901, thus :
Belle Dame d'Elche\ mysterieux probleme ! Be"ni soit le jaloux qui t'enf ouit un jour : Puisqu'apres deux mille ans, dans ta beaute
supreme
Tu renais, et Paris peut t'offrir son amour ! Comme elle, j'en. suis sur, oh Langue Euskarienne En d^pit des rh^teurs qui croient a ton d^clin, Plus jeune que jamais, defiant le destin, Tu ressusciteras, Strange phe"nomene !
These verses were published at the end of my study of the Baskish verb included in the Verhandelingen of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Amsterdam in 1904, of which there was an offprint. E. S. DODGSON.
CAT QUERIES (11 S. xii. 183, 244, 286, 330, 369, 389). The dog's affection for his master is due to the fact that he comes from a type that lives and hunts in a pack, subject to the autocratic control of a strong leader. If a member of such a pack does not obey orders, its life is not likely to be a long one ! Hence the dog's apparent love for his master is merely the inherited instinct of strict obedience or death.
The cat, on the other hand, comes of a type used to a solitary existence, and, though its affection may be intense, its independence can never be eradicated.
Those who make companions of cats know how devoted they are to their masters and to their young the latter not a strong feature in dogs. CHARLES PLATT.
60, Stapleton Road, S.VV.
