56
NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s. v. JAX. 20, 1912.
your correspondents appear to have missed
the name " cran-youck," the local name for
the dulsk or dillisk in Scotland.
When properly dried (with the little shellfish attached) it had a most delightful flavour. It was usually sold in the streets on market days.
The horrible slimy-looking slook, or "slou- kaun " as it was known, was also abundant, but was not so popular as its rival.
J. J. GORHAM, M.D.
BEQUEST or BIBLES : LOED WHARTON (11 S. iv. 449). I have pleasure in inform- ing T. S. that those highly prized Bibles of Lord Wharton's are still given to many young Sunday-school scholars in Yorkshire. If he wishes for any further information,
I would refer him to the Rev. Selby.
Clergy House, Holbeck, Leeds.
The following abstract of Lord Wharton's will may interest other readers of ' N. & Q.' ; it is to be found printed on the fly-leaf of each book :
" ' The memory of the just is blessed.'
Prov. x. 7.
" Philip, Lord Wharton, died February 4th, 1694, aged 83, and by his will left to his Trustees certain estates in Yorkshire, the proceeds of which are to be devoted each year to the distribution of Bibles, and other books.
" This book is given by the direction of the present Trustees. By the terms of the will, the 1st, 15th, 25th, 37th, 101st, 113th, and 145th Psalms should be learnt, if possible, by the re- cipient."
J. W. SCOTT. Leeds.
EAR-PIERCING : BENEFICENT PROPERTIES OF GOLD (11 S. iv. 481). E. H. C.'s interesting observation respecting " the once widespread belief in the beneficent pro- perties of gold " calls for some considera- tion. I have often noticed that when I am in a fine state of physical health my gold "hunter -watch" that is the technical term for one with a double casing of gold reflects it by a high " sheen," and vice versa. I cannot say if the weather or the humidity or dryness of the atmosphere has anything to do with it, as I have not followed the idea up ; but I have observed this peculiarity in the relative degrees of bril- liance in the gold at all periods of the year, so that the effect seems to be personal and subjective only. M. L. R. BRESLAR.
In Lowestoft a few months ago I had a long talk with a Boy Scout, the son of a local fisherman. He mentioned that many of the boys at his school wore earrings. They were mostly sons of fishermen, many of
whom wear these little gold rings, and I said
that I supposed they did it to be like their
fathers. The Scout agreed, but explained
that some boys had their ears pierced for
the sake of their eyes. So this belief in the
efficacy of ear-piercing is still to be found
even in the rising generation.
In ' A Short Description of Carnicobar ' (one of the Nicobar Islands), by Mr. G. Hamilton, printed in ' Dissertations and Miscellaneous Pieces relating to the History and Antiquities, the Arts, Sciences, and Literature of Asia' (Dublin, P. Byrne and W. Jones, 1793), it is said that
the ears of both sexes are pierced when young, and by squeezing into the holes large plugs of wood, or hanging heavy weights of shells, they contrive to render them wide and disagreeable to look at."
Is this merely a perverted idea of ornament ?
G. H. WHITE. St. Cross, Harleston, Norfolk.
DISEASES FROM PLANTS (US. iv. 530). The pollen of many plants causes a fitful catarrh resembling a severe cold in the head. It comes on in abrupt spasms, and often passes away in a few minutes, only to return again with great suddenness. With me, the pollen of primroses produces it slightly, even in mid-winter. The ox-eye daisy, which is a chrysanthemum, causes a decided attack, or rather sets up a series of attacks. Cultivated chrysanthemums and Michaelmas daisies have the same effect. Other blos- soms are bad, but I scarcely know which, as they grow in mixed borders. Flowering grass gives much trouble. A doctor who himself suffers severely from the true hay- asthma, but recovers when the hay season is over, tells me that his disease and what may be termed pollen-catarrh are not the same malady. Y. O. T.
Under this heading maybe mentioned the acorn disease which affects young cattle when acorns are very plentiful. Provers of the plant hemp agrimony have found it produce a " bilious fever." The blackberry is also called scald-berry, because of the eruption, known as " scaldhead," in children who eat the fruit to excess. The ordinary field buttercup is so acrimonious that by merely pulling up the plant at its root and carrying it some little distance in the hand, the palm becomes reddened and inflamed. The stinking camomile, or May-weed, which grows in cornfields, will blister the hand that gathers it. The lesser celandine, and others belonging to the same Ranunculus order, were used by beggars in England to
