Ignis Fatuus (Vol. iv, pp. 147, 200).A few years ago it was a cominon belief, and the notion is now by no means rare among mining people, that deposits of iron ore are often indicated by flickering lights on the surface of the ground over them. There is a tradition, which is probably a century old, that one of the largest bodies of iron ore in this section was discovered in this way. The story goes that a man was riding at night past the place where the mines were afterwards opened and observed these dancing lights; being familiar with the current belief, he dismounted and marked the spot. Soon after, operations were begun which resulted in bringing to the surface thousands of tons of good ore, and these mines are still worked. I cannot, of course, vouch for the truth of this story, but I have it from eye-witnesses that, forty or fifty years ago, similar lights were seen in the vicinity, and since then deposits of ore have been found under where they were seen. These appearances cannot be ascribed to fire-damp, which is unknown in this mine; nor from the nature of the ground to the ordinary causes which produce the ignis fatuus. The ignis fatuus caused by the exhalations rising from low-lying, marshy ground, is of very frequent occurrence in this section. E. G. KEEN.

WARWICK, PA.

Pinder (Vol. iii, pp. 94, 129).—The Benguella name mpindi (not inpindi) seems to become mpandi in the Unyoro country (see Emin Pasha's "Letters," p. 80, of Mrs. Felkin's translation); but the name is there given to the Voandzeia subterranea, a groundnut not at all unlike the common groundnut or pea-nut, and sharing with it the names gooba and gobbe.

LYNN E. LYNTON.

Damnable.-One of the most remarkable instances I know of where this word is used is in the older editions of the "Pilgrim's Progress" of Bunyan. Christian and Hopeful, on their way out of Doubting Castle, find it "damnable hard" to unlock the gate. P. S. B.

PENNSYLVANIA.

To Fire, To Eject (Vol. iv, p. 287).A week after I sent my reference to Shakespeare's 144th sonnet, Prof. Quackenbos of Columbia College, in a lecture, said definitely that our slar phrase "to fire" came from that sonnet. Now "B," from New Brunswick, sends the enclosed to the New York Sun, demolishing Mr. Quackenbos, and incidentally answering my query.

66 SLANG IN SHAKESPEARE.

"TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN: "Sir:-In your Sunday issue for March 16, Prof. Quackenbos quotes as containing an example of modern slang the last two lines of Shakespeare's 144th sonnet: "'Yet this shall I ne'er know but live in doubt, Till my bad angel fire my good one out.'

"Perhaps in citing this passage the professor was in a jocose vein. Shakespeare's 'firing out' was certainly not the same as the firing out of the present day. A person nowadays is said to be fired out of any place when he is hurled therefrom with a force and speed resembling those of a bullet fired from a gun. Shakespeare used the phrase in an entirely different sense, as can be plainly seen by this passage from King Lear, v, 3, 33:

"He that parts us shall bring a brand from heaven. And fire us hence like foxes.'

Lot (Vol. iv, pp. 164, 187, 275).—I do not remember to have seen any mention of the remarkable parallelism between the American colloquial use of the word lot (meaning a crowd, a large number, or large quantity), and the archaic English use of

the word sort in the same sense. Of course, the lot that is cast and sort (Latin sors, sortis) have the same meaning. But Spenser speaks of a sort of grooms, a sort of steers, meaning a group or company. Massinger tells of a sort of rogues; and Chapman uses the word in the same sense. It occurs at least three times in Waller's poems; once in Etherege's "Sir Fopling Flutter," and once in the English Prayer Book, Ps. lxii, 3: "Ye shall be slain, all the sort of you." JOHN L. SMYTHE.

BOSTON, MASS.

Egg Superstitions.-" To hang an egg laid on Ascension day in the roof of a house," says Reginald Scot, in 1584, "preserveth the same from all hurts." Probably this was written with an eye to the "hurts" arising from witchcraft, in connection with which eggs were supposed to possess certain mysterious powers. In North Germany, if you have a desire to see the ladies of the broomstick on May day, their festival, you must take an egg laid on Maundy-Thursday and stand where four roads meet; or else you must go into church on Good Friday, but come out before the blessing. It was formerly quite an article of domestic belief that the shells must be broken after eating eggs, lest the witches should sail out to sea in them; or, as Sir Thomas Browne declared, lest they "should draw or prick their names therein, and venificiously mischief" the person who had partaken of the egg. North Germans, ignoring this side of the question, say,

Break the shells or you will get the ague, and Netherlanders advise you to secure yourself against the attacks of this disagreeable visitor by eating on Easter day a couple of eggs which were laid on Good Friday.

Mr.

Scotch fishers, who may be reckoned among the most superstitious of folks, believe that contrary winds and much vexation of spirit will result of having eggs on board with them, while in the west of England it is considered very unlucky to bring birds' eggs into the house, although they may be hung up with impunity outside. Gregor, in his "Folk-lore of the Northeast of Scotland," gives us some curious particulars concerning chickens and the best methods of securing a satisfactory brood. The hen, it seems, should be set on an odd number of eggs, or the chances are that most, if not all, will be addled-a mournful prospect for the hen wife; also, they must be placed under the mother bird after sunset, or the chickens will be blind. If the woman who performs this office carries the eggs wrapped up in her chemise, the result will be hen birds; if she wears a man's hat, cocks. Furthermore, it is as well for her to repeat a sort of charm, "A' in thegeethir. A' oot thegeethir."

There are many farmers' wives, even in the

present day, who would never dream of allowing eggs to be brought into the house or taken out after dark, this being deemed extremely unlucky. Cuthbert Bede mentions the case of a farmer's wife in Rutland who received a setting of ducks' eggs from a neighbor at 9 o'clock at night. "I cannot imagine how she could have been so foolish," said the good woman, much distressed; and her visitor upon inquiry was told that ducks' eggs brought into a house after sunset would never be hatched. A Lincolnshire superstition declares that if eggs are carried over running water they will be useless for setting purposes; while in Aberdeen there is an idea prevalent among the country folks that should it thunder a short time before chickens are hatched they will die in the shell. The same wiseacres may be credited with the notion that the year the farmer's gudewife presents him with an addition to his family is a bad season for the poultry yard. "Bairns and chuckens," say they, "dinna thrive in ae year." The probable explanation being that the gudewife, taken up with the care of her bairn, has less time to attend to the rearing of the "chuckens."

Beside the divination practiced with the white of an egg, which certainly appears of a vague and unsatisfactory character, another species of fortune telling with eggs is in vogue in Northumberland on the eve of St. Agnes. A maiden desirous of knowing what her future lord is like is enjoined to boil an egg, after having spent the whole day fasting and in silence; then to extract the yolk, fill the cavity with salt, and eat the whole, including the shell. This highly unpalatable supper finished, the heroic maid must walk backward, uttering this invocation to the saint:

Sweet St. Agnes, work thy fast,
If ever I be to marry man,
Or man to marry me,

I hope him this night to see.

If all necessary rites and ceremonies have been duly performed, the girl may confi dently count upon seeing her future husband in her dreams-dreams which, we should presume, as our Yankee friends say, would bear a strong resemblance to night

mare.

Brygge-a-Bragge (Vol. iv, p. 283).– According to Dr. Murray, this phrase can have no connection whatever with "bric-abrac," as he accepts Littré's derivation of the latter phrase from "de bric et de broc❞— "by hook and by crook." Dr. Murray also shows that the words composing the phrase in question were not derived from the French, but more likely from the old Norse tongues, in spite of the fact that Hawes' poetic diction evidences much intimacy with the former language. The Percy Society prints the opening stanza of the 29th chapter of Hawes' Pastime of Pleasure " follows, the phrase being without hyphens:

as

The phrase seems to refer to the haughty, vain and boastful manner in which the foolish dwarf, Evil Report, rode his "little nag. One authority, Earle, would class the entire phrase with Phrasal Adverbs." Refer to his "Philology of the Eng. Lang." p. 426.

Although I have not found the phrase referred to by any of the leading authorities consulted, it is easy to see that it is made of obsolete material. Brygge is one of the many old ways of spelling bridge (Chaucer spelled it brigge, M. E.), and it might refer to a portion of the harness so called, but it seems more likely to carry the idea of Astride.

A and bragge, taken together, may be considered equivalent to the obsolete adverb bragly, signifying " ostentatiously, nimbly, briskly." The adjective brag (braeg), sometimes spelled bragge, was used as a quasi adverb, in the sense of haughtily or boastfully.

An analysis of the "Pastime of Pleasure" may be found in Warton's "Hist. Eng. Poetry," Vol. iii, though it offers no help. as to the phrases.

Please accept the paper as a clue or suggestion.

HARTFORD, CONN.

W. L.

The Number Seven in the Bible.-On the seventh day God ended His work. On the seventh month Noah's ark touched the ground.

In seven days a dove was sent. Abraham pleaded seven times for Sodom. Jacob mourned seven days for Joseph. Jacob served seven years for Rachel. And yet another seven years more. Jacob pursued a seven days' journey by Laban.

A plenty of seven years and a famine of seven years were foretold in Pharaoh's dream by seven fat and seven lean beasts, and seven ears of full and seven ears of blasted corn.

On the seventh day of the seventh month the children of Israel fasted seven days and remained seven days in their tent.

Every seven days the land rested.

Every seventh day the law was read to the people.

In the destruction of Jericho seven persons bore seven trumpets seven days.

On

the seventh day they surrounded the wall seven times, and at the end of the seventh round, the walls fell.

Solomon was seven years building the temple, and fasted seven days at its dedication.

In the tabernacle were seven lamps.
The golden candlestick had seven

branches.

Vol. V. No. 2.

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American Notes and Queries

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Queries on all matters of general literary and historical interest-folk-lore, the origin of prov. erbs, familiar sayings, popular customs, quotations, etc., the authorship of books, pamphlets, poems, essays, or stories, the meaning of recondite allusions, etc., etc.-are invited from all quarters, and will be answered by editors or contributors. Room is allowed for the discussion of moot questions, and the periodical is thus a valuable medium for intercommunication between literary men and specialists.

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CONTENTS.

NOTES:-Ancient Laws Concerning Shoes, 13-ThimblesNotes on Words, 14.

QUERIES:-Rescue Grass-Weeping Trees-Arthur Kill, 16. REPLIES:-Akond of Swat, 16-Sea Blue Bird, 17.

REFERRED TO CORRESPONDENTS:-No-Ahkoond of Swat-Plafery, 17-The Guerriere-Fush-Chald, 18. COMMUNICATIONS :-The Battle Bell-Creek, 18-CorpKelp-Program-Divides and River Basins-Sunken Islands, 19-The City of Ys-Runcible-Goliards, 20-AltitudesAmbrosia-Land-pike-Larrigan, 21-Deaths of English Sovereigns-The Criminal Eye-Bulldoze-Yop, 22-Throwing the Cups-Llanthony Abbey-Names of Odd Pronunciation, 23-Holtselster, 24.

BOOKS AND PERIODICALS:-The Century-The Arena, 24.

ПОЛЕЅ.

ANCIENT LAWS CONCERNING SHOES.

The Jew who failed to keep a compact of honor was summoned before the authorities, and if he then refused to fulfill his compact, the offended party would loosen his shoe, spit in his face, "and," as Holy Writ says, "his name shall be called in Israel, the house of him that hath his shoe loosed."

To say a man's "in his boots" implies that he is very drunk. It comes from an old Welsh word, "boozi," meaning to be saturated with liquor. But to stand in another's shoes is to claim the honors of another. It has its origin from a custom common among the ancient Northmen, whom if a man adopted a son in order that the youth might lawfully inherit, het

among