Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/301

9»8.VL SEPT. 29, 1900.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 247 one occasion he and a companion were landed on a small island, where, under a cairn of stones, they found the skeleton of an Esquimaux. Having removed the stones, not without considerable labour, they carefully packed up the bones and carried them to the shore. But when the boat arrived to take them off, the sailors, seeing the bones, abso- lutely refused to receive them on board, and to my father's chagrin and regret, he had to leave the specimen behind. Sir Walter Scott had found the same super- stition on the west coast of Scotland in 1814. From the Isle of Egg, he says, " I brought off, in spite of the prejudices of our sailors, a skull," but he adds that the captain attri- buted the subsequent contradictory weather to this fateful deed (Lockhart's ' Life of Scott,' 1845, pp. 286-95). The oelief is an ancient one. Virgil tells us how a dead bodj can pollute a whole fleet: , Praterea jacet exanimum tibi corpus amici, —Heu neseis—totamque incestat funero classem. '^Eneid,' vi. 149-50. Plutarch records that when Cato of Utica was bringing back the ashes of his brother from Thrace into Italy, his friends begged him to put them into a separate ship, but he refused, and out of all the fleet his vessel alone had a perilous passage (Plutarch's 'Lives'; in Latin by Xylander, Francof., 1592, ii. 601 • in English by Tho. North, 1899, vii. 303). I can find but one instance in | N. & Q.' 5th S. i. 166, where a similar thing is quoted from Fuller concerning the body of St. Louis, which " was most miserably tossed a ship cannot abide to be made a nier of." W. C. B. BENWELL BURIAL REGISTER.—I find in the September number of the Church Monthly an interesting article upon Benwell Tower, the residence of the Bisnop of Newcastle, and enclose you a cutting therefrom relating to an old burial register which is not referred to in the ' List of Parish Registers ' recently issued by the Parish Register Society. Perhaps one of your readers may give a reference to its present location, as it may prove useful to some genealogist:— " Originally there was a chapel in the garden, standing between tho house and the Tyne, and while the property belonged to the Shaftoe family this chapel was used as a cnapel-of-ease to St. John's. Newcastle, of which parish Benwell then formed a part, while burials took place in what is now a portion of the lower garden. But this chapel was taken down about a hundred and twenty years ago. and the latest headstone that I can find is dated 1759. Mr. Mackenzie, in his ' History of North- umberland,' published in Iv.'.'i, speaks of a register of burials ending with the year 1812 [sic] having been seen in the possession of a solicitor. I should like to possess, or at least to see, this register; but I doubt its being preserved. 1 cannot ascertain whether the land was ever consecrated, or whether burials took place in it as private property. The Bishop of Newcastle is probably the only bishop on the bench who has gravest-ones in his garden ; but the land where they are found is duly cared for, and laid put, like so many of the London churchyards at this present time, so that there is no manner of desecration, and if it were enclosed consecrated ground it could scarcely fare better." W. J. QADSDEN. THE CHINESE CALENDAR.—We have lately had edicts dated by the Chinese system, of which (l)recordsthe fifteenth day of this moon. 11 July, 1900; (2) the twenty-third day of the sixth moon in the twenty-sixth year of the Government, style of Kwang Hsu, 19 July, 1900. So 15 + 8 = 23, and 11 + 8 = 19, in perfect harmony. The Chinese work by a cycle of sixty years, and 1900 is the thirty- seventh year of the seventy - seventh cycle, dating from about 2720 B.C. ; and the present Emperor has reigned for twenty-six years— in fact, Tsai T'ien ascended in 1875; so the heathen Chinee is good at figures! Their year consists of twelve or thirteen lunar months, having seven intercalations in nine- teen years, like the Jews. The present year would commence about 1 February, so we are now in their eighth moon; but their solar year, like the Hindoos, is cut up into fort- nights, or half-months. Their New Year's Day falls on the new moon after the sun enters Aquarius, and before it reaches Pisces. How is this affected by precession] All years have a name, so Kwang Hsu or Keng Tse— sounds differ—means the " iron mouse." A. HALL. THE STARS AND STRIPES.— "The American flag was designed by General Washington in May, 1776. It had thirteen stripes, seven of red and six of white, and in the upper corner a blue field containing thirteen stars. It was made by Mrs. Betsy Ross, of Philadelphia, but was not adopted by Congress until 14 June, 1777, when the American nag was flung as a new constellation to the world. The stripes nave never increased in number, but the stars, each representing a State, have increased to the number of forty-five. Each of the States in the Union has a flag of its own, em- blazoned with the arms of the State; this flag is carried by the militia or in parades side by side with the National standard." The above appeared in the Sim for 15 August. If true it is worth a corner in ' N. & Q.' S. J. A. F. [See 7th S. vi. 328, 494; 8th S. vi. 124.] SIR WALTER SCOTT AND WAVERLEY ABBEY. —The following extract from the Standard, 25 August, is of so much interest to