410
NOTES AND QUERIES. LU B. xn. NOV. 20, 1915.
TBEE FOLK-LORE: THE ELDER (11 S.
xii. 361). The elder is both honoured and
dreaded in folk-lore. In one part of North
Germany, and, if my memory is not at fault,
in Denmark also, any one felling a bush
should cajole it by saying, " Elder, let me
have some of thy wood, and when I grow
in the woodland thou shalt have some of
mine." Then the evil results likely to
ensue from cutting it do not follow, and the
wood may be safely used. I have heard
that similar words are sometimes employed
in England, but I never met any one who
cherished the elder superstition. Consult the
back numbers of Folk-Lore and the volumes
of " County Folk-Lore," also published
by the Folk-Lore .Society. They will prob-
ably contain some information.
T. N. N.
I never heard of a tradition that the Cross was made of elder-wood a most unlikely material and, if there be an idea in Hunting- donshire that babies rocked in cradles constructed of it are not long-lived, it may be because the story goes that Judas hanged himself on a tree of the kind.
ST. SWITHIN.
I do not think that there is any tradition that the Cross was made of elder-wood ; but there is a widespread one that Judas hanged himself on that tree, which is quite sufficient to make it unlucky and fatal to babies rocked in cradles made of elder- wood. A. SMYTHE PALMER.
Eastbourne.
Not the Cross, but Judas' s gibbet, was made of elder- wood (Sambucus nigra), hence the early death of babies. Cf. Sir T. Browne's 'Pseud. Ep.,' ii. vi. 101: "Jews eares. .. .about the roots of an elder.... concerneth not the Jews, but Judas .... upon a conceit he hanged on this tree."
H. H. JOHNSON.
"ESSES" (11 S. xii. 380). I suggest that this curious word is .the plural of Ess the letter S. " This paste is good for. . . .Esses " really means, in my opinion, that it is good for decoration in the form of a hook or link in the shape of the letter S, a very useful hook or chain-like decoration or pattern in paste cookery ; an ornament or decoration shaped like esses, single or entwined. Is this too far-fetched ?
ARCHIBALD SPARKE, F.R.S.L.
Bolton.
nit
The Quest and Occupation of Tahiti &?/ Emissaries
of Spain during the Years 1772-1776, told in
Despatches and other Contemporary Documents.
Translated into English and compiled with
Notes and an Introduction by Bolton Glanvill
Corney. Vol. II. (Hakluyt Society.)
THIS volume relates to all the three expeditions made to Tahiti under the auspices of Don Manuel de Amat, Viceroy of Peru. The principal papers connected with the first voyage were given hi Vol. I., but we have now before us the journal of Don Raimundo Bonacorsi, and the interesting record by Fr. Joseph Amich, as well as an Hispano- Tahitian Vocabulary, and a curious schedule of questions supplied to the explorers by the Viceroy for their guidance.
The bulk of the volume is taken up with the records of the second expedition of the Aguila, which set out in September, 1774, and returned to her port of departure, El Callao, in April, 1775, This expedition also was commanded by Don Domingo de Boenechea, who, however, died at Tahiti hi January and was buried there at the foot of the cross which the explorers brought and set up hi front of the mission station, the founda- tion of which was one of the main objects of the enterprise. As missionaries they had with them two Franciscan friars from the College de Propa- ganda Fide of Santa Rosa of Ocopa, a timid, narrow-minded, weakly pair of men, whose foolishness reduced the mission to failure. The quantity of the material for the construction of a mission, together with the stores, the furniture of the oratory, and other requisites, made it neces- sary to charter a second vessel to accompany the frigate as a store-ship, and to this circum- stance we owe the most interesting and the most scientific of the records of the voyage, in the work of Don Jose" de Andia y Varela, the owner and master of the storeship. The two Padres were left on the island for some ten months, and during that time they kept a diary of such remarkable events as happened. The second voyage, then, with its results, is recorded in three main docu- ments : the official journal of the Aguila, signed by Don Thomas Gayangos, the journal of Andia y Varela, and the diary of the Padres. The editor relates a very curious circumstance in the history of Andia y Varela's work. It has received no official recognition of its merits, yet has re- mained the chief authentic source of information for this voyage. It has twice been printed in Spanish, and twice for fifty years at a time been lost sight of, and it has never till now been trans- lated into any other language. The editor is heartily to be congratulated upon being the first to give to the world at large so valuable a document.
The impression the Spanish officers make upon the reader is exceedingly agreeable. Their behaviour towards the natives is uniformly courteous, forbearing, and just, and their methods of tackling the divers problems that arise, whether in navigation or in the handling of affairs, show ability and judgment. A supplementary paper, which gives a comparison between them and the English in regard to the opinion the natives con- ceived of them, says that the punctilio and
