Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/89

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9* s. via JULY 27, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


81


the Sanskrit work * Rajataranggini ' of Kah- lana Pandita, by Joghesh Chunder Dutt, Calcutta, 1879, p. 71).

WILLIAM E. A. AXON. Manchester.

CHARLES DARTIQUENAVE, 1664 - 1737. With regard to the parentage of this "epi- cure and humourist," which is discussed in the ' Diet. Nat. Biog.,' vol. xiv. p. 69, it seems worth noticing that in Nichols's 'Hist, and Antiq. of Leicestershire,' vol. iii. part ii. p. 1041, Charles Dartiquenave appears in a pedigree of Gery of Bedfordshire as son of John James Dartiquenave by his marriage with Ann, third daughter of William Gery, of Bush mead Priory. H. C.

'PSEUDODOXIA EPIDEMICA.' A few days ago I came across the fifth edition of Sir Thomas Brown's entertaining work, hidden away on the dark shelves of an old country- house library. I copied the title-page thus :

Pseudodoxia Epidemica

or

Enquiries

Into very many Received Tenents And commonly presumed

Truths By Thomas Brown D r of Physick

5 th Edition London Printed for the Assigns of Edward Dod.


I mention this for two reasons only : first, that the ingenious author of the 'Religio Medici' spelt his name in 1669 "Brown," not "Browne"; and, secondly, because its title varies somewhat from that given in the

  • Encyclopaedia Britannica ' and other works

of reference. RICHARD EDGCUMBE.

" HALSH." This word is in every-day use in various ways. So far as the cotton trade goes it refers to the band of coloured "tie yarn " that encircles the "knot," in addition to the ordinary tie yarn that holds each lea in the knot separately. This is called the ' halsh-band," and when the band is tied the knot is said to be " halshed." The expression "halshed figure 8" is used with regard to another method of knotting. The " halsh " is also in the case of a necktie in the form of a bow, for example that part in the centre that runs in a vertical or slightly oblique direction, embracing the whole bow. A milliner in giving directions for looping this portion will say, "Put a halsh over it." Saddlers also use the word, and possibly it is known in the woollen and worsted industries. The derivation is from haisen, meaning " to embrace." The form used in the heading is that adopted by Halliwell. It is also that in


common use. It is not correct to speak of " halsh " as a provincial word. It is technical and general. One wonders why the ' H.E.D.,' which gives "halse," did not also record " halsh," s. and v., as a main word. In German one finds " Hals=the neck," and at the meet- ing of Jacob and Esau one reads that Esau " ran to meet him and embraced him und fiel ihm um den Hals" ARTHUR MAYALL.

TRANSFER OF LAND BY "CHURCH GIFT."- The following paragraph from the Standard of 12 July explains this custom :

"In the Probate Court yesterday Sir Richard Nicholas Howard, solicitor, of Weymouth, was called on behalf of the defendant^ in an action in which revocation was sought of the will of a farmer and contractor of Portland. Witness was asked about the extent of his dealings with the testator, and whether they had been all of a business character. 'Oh, no,' he said, 'they do so much by "church gift" in Portland.' Sir Richard Howard was re- quested to explain, and he said that people who wished to buy or sell land got a schoolmaster and went into the church, where a sheet of foolscap was drawn up, and that was quite legal. In former days, he said, they used to go to the church and de- clare they had given the land, and that held good, but afterwards, when the Act of Parliament required a deed, they went to the church and put it in writing, as he had stated, and called it a ' church gift.' Mr. Priestley observed that that might be a limit to the conveyances."

DAVID MURRAY.

Glasgow.

WEARING HATS IN CHURCH. (See 6 th S. ii. 57, 314, 455 ; iii. 26, 236, 437, 498 ; iv. 316 ; 7 th S. i. 189, 251, 373, 458 ; ii. 272, 355, 375 ; iii. 31, 134, 258, 375 ; iv. 258.)! do not think it has been pointed out that, at any rate in Ireland, this question was regulated by law. In an Order of Council of 28 November, 1633 (calendared in the appendix to the Twentieth Report of the Deputy -Keeper of Public Re- cords in Ireland, 1888, at p. 121), is a provision as regards Christ Church, Dublin :

" No person to put on his hat until the preacher have read his text ; none but the Lord Deputy and his lady to use curtains before their seats," &c.

O. O. H.

" STINGER." The following extract will in- terest Anglo-Indians. It is from Bonsai's

  • Plague Ship,' in Scribner, January, p. 106 :

" Two ' stingers ' were brought. Now a * stinger,' it should be known (it certainly is known to all who have lived in that land of great thirst which stretches from Shantung to Sumatra), is a noggin of Scotch whiskey, enlivened by much or little, accord- ing to individual taste, of the local buzz- water."

The word, I may add, is probably quite un- connected with the English verb " to sting." I prefer to look upon it as the Malayan