166
NOTES AND QUERIES, p* s. vn. MARCH 2, 1901.
impression, the personal names ancl dates,
however, being written in : " Knights of the
Moon," on a circled garter or belt, surrounded
by radii, these rays forming an eight-pointed
star similar to that of the Order of the Garter.
In the centre of the circle formed by the belt
above mentioned appears a crescent moon,
Then comes "Instituted Octor. 13, 1781.'
After this follows the name of the "knight" :
"Sir was created Knight of this
Order Novr. 2 d , 1785. Sir John Thompson, President. " The "knights " numbered over 700. I fancy this "Order" was some London club or brotherhood, but as I know nothing about it, and am curious to learn, I shall be much obliged by some light being thrown on the subject unmixed with "moonshine."
AN AMERICAN.
QUEENS MEMBERS OF THE ORDER OF THE GARTER. Truth for February 21st does well to make the following contradiction of the mistake made in most of the papers that Queen Victoria and Queen Alexandra are the only Queens who have been members of the Order of the Garter :
" Queen Alexandra is the first Queen Consort who has worn a blue ribbon, but every Queen of Eng- land, from Mary I. downwards, has been a member of the Order, as a sovereign, on ascending the throne, becomes ip$o facto a Knight of the Garter. William IV. had intended to confer a blue ribbon upon Queen Adelaide, but for some reason or other the idea was abandoned."
N. S. S.
GENERAL BLIGH. (See ante, p. 24.) Neele's engraved plan of the battle of Culloden, which is to be found in Home's 'History of the Kebelliori,' gives the name Bligh cor- rectly enough, but Home himself writes Blyth, and this misspelling has been repeated by several writers.
Thomas Bligh was a cavalry officer who became lieutenant -colonel of the 6th Horse, from which he was promoted to the colonelcy of the 20th Foot in December, 1740. He was raised to the rank of brigadier- general in May, 1745, and was employed for some time in that capacity in the north of England, taking possession of Carlisle at the end of December, when the rebel garrison surrendered to the Duke of Cumberland.
Bligh was removed from the 20th Foot to the 12th Dragoons in April, 1746, was pro- moted to the rank of major-general in 1747, and at the end of that year was removed to the 2nd Irish Horse. This was the old 6th Horse, the regiment in which he had been lieutenant-colonel, originally the 7th Horse, and since 1788 designated the 5th Dragoon Guards. For a long period they were popu-
larly known as the Green Horse, from their
"full green" facings, waistcoats, breeches, and
horse furniture, the trumpeters wearing also
coats of " full green."
In 1754 Bligh was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general, and in 1758 he was en- trusted with the command of an expedition for a descent on the coast of France. The attack on Cherbourg was a success, but that on St. Malo, in September, was a disastrous failure. The retreat ill became the colonel of a regiment whose motto was "Vestigia nulla retrorsum." Bligh was loaded with re- proaches, and in October he was succeeded in the colonelcy by John (afterwards Earl) Waldegrave.
Another misspelling which has been re- peated is the name Burrel, which should be Barrell. W. S.
SARIGUE, ZOOLOGICAL TERM. The pronun- ciation of this zoological term is figured incorrectly in all our dictionaries, viz., as two syllables (sah-reeg) instead of three (sah-ree-gay). The stress should be upon the last syllable (gay}. The etymology presents features of unusual interest. The 'Encyclo- paedic ' and ' Century ' dictionaries merely state that sarigue is from Brazilian sarigueya, but a much fuller account of the word is given by Felix de Azara in the first volume of his 'Historia Natural,' 1802 (xxiv. 236). He shows that the short form, sarigue, is the name of a tribe of Indians in Paraguay, and that the long form, sarigueya, the name of the opossum, means " Xefe de los Sarigues." This is obviously a case of what we now call totemism. On the other hand, it is worth noting that, although from what has been said above it appears that sarigueya, and not sarigue, is the proper name for the animal, yet the oldest Portuguese writers on Brazil invariably use the shorter form. Thus Gan- iayo's 'Historia' (1576) has "Outro genero de animaes ha na terra, a que chamam cerigoes." Similarly, Gabriel Scares in his ' Noticias do Brazil' (1587) has " Serigoe e urn bicho de tamanho de um gato grande." I may add that the editions I use of these two most fascinating works are thos.e published in the third series of the Revista Trimensal of Kio de Janeiro. JAS. PLATT, Jun.
DISRAELI'S LETTERS. (See ante, p. 120.) Two volumes of Disraeli's letters have ap- peared : (1) ' Home Letters in 1830 and 1831,' published in 1885, and (2) 'Correspondence with his Sister,' 1886 (John Murray). The second volume has as motto on its title-page, 'Forti nihil difficile," and it is a valuable
