Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/480

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474


NOTES AND QUERIES. [ns.ix. JUNE 13,


if there had arisen a leader on the instant many said there would have been scenes worse than the execution itself. This was talked about and kept in mind for thirty years afterward. THQS KATCIJPFB<

DlDO'S PCBCHASE OF LAND (11 S. IX.

47, 353). According to L. R. Vaidya's

  • The Standard Sanskrit -English Dictionary,'

Bombay, 1889, p. 875, Bali, a mighty demon, conquered the gods, who prayed to Vishnu for succour :

" The latter was then born on the earth as Vamana [a Brahman dwarf], and prayed Bali to give him as much earth as he could step over in three steps. This request being granted, Vishnu assumed a mighty form, and covered the earth by the first step, and the heavens by the second. No room being left for the third, Vamana planted his foot on Bali's head and sent him down to Patala [hell]."

In the Minzolcu, No. 4, p. 83, April, 1914, Mr. Y. Ino states the story of Dido's artful purchase of land to have been turned into the following traditions of the Far East during the sixteenth century or later :

" After the first arrival of the Spaniards in Luzon, they were trafficking with the islanders for some time. One day they made a present of gold to the native king, and asked a boon of as much ground as might be covered with the hide of a bull. As soon as this was granted, they cut it up into strips and surrounded a wide tract therewith. In truth the King much disapproved their deed, but he parted with the land because of his fea? lest his reputation might be impaired had he broken his promise. So the Spaniards fortified it, and succeeded in subduing the whole island nine years after, i.e. A.D. 1572." Arai,

  • Sairan Igen,' written in the eighteenth century.

" When the Dutch were stranded on the coast of Formosa they applied to the Japanese then there flourishing for land necessary for their temporary residence. Seeing their entreaty boot- less, they proffered them what amount of gold they would want, and requested as much land as could be covered with a bull's hide. This being accorded them, they cut up the hide into very thin strips, surrounded with them a tract about one mile in circumference, and erected a fortifica- tion on it." Ching Yih-Tsu, ' Ching Ching-Kung Chuen ' (' Life of Coxinga ').

KUMAGUSU MlNAKATA.

Tanabe, Kii, Japan.

CAPT. JAMES WALLER HEWITT (11 S. vii. 165). He is said to have married a widow named Frances Reed (Read, Reid). She is said to have been very beautiful, and to have had her portrait painted by Romney. In a document of 1828, James* Waller Hewitt states that his marriage (no bride's name given,) took place at Liverpool on 22 Dec., 1800 ; but I can find no such entry in any of the Liverpool registers. Their daughter Frances (daughter of James and Frances


Hewitt), was baptized at New Windsor, Berkshire, 11 Dec., 1801. In the document of 1828 J. W. Hewitt mentions three daughters: Frances, born 11 Nov., 1801; Mary Catherine, April, 1803 ; Clarissa, Nov., 1807. It is said there was also a son, James, at school at Glasgow in 1819, who died in the West Indies.

Capt. Hewitt and his wife are said to have ' ' separated. ' ' She went to Ireland, and died at Belfast, and was buried in a cemetery there. It is said that her daughter Clarissa, or Clara, died there also.

James Waller Hewitt was in the Bedford- shire Militia when, at the age of 33, he was appointed a second lieutenant in the First Regiment of Foot.

I should like to know more about his wife, and where he was married.

C. PARTRIDGE, Jun., F.S.A.

Stowmarket, Suffolk.

WALLER'S ' PANEGYRICK ' (US. ix. 327, 414). I am much obliged to C. C. B. for his reply, and must own that in asking the meaning of " the harvest where the Indians mow " I was ignorant of the very early importation of rice, and, as a private friend suggests, of cotton. My difficulty was in- creased by Macaulay's statement ('History of England,' chap, xviii.) that "before the Restoration scarcely one ship from the Thames had ever visited the Delta of the Ganges." He adds that after the Restora- tion the annual value of our imports from that district rose from S,OOOZ. to 300,0002.

B. B.

MTLBOURNE: ZIJM AND GUM (11 S. ix. 391). (3) The second word is probably a mis- print, See ' Otes on Jude,' 1633, p. 206 :

" The Arabiiin did not pitch his tent there, but Ziim lodged there, their houses were full of Ohim ; ostritches dwelt there, and lim did cry in their palaces, and Dragons in their pleasant palaces," The marginal references are ler. 29 and Esa. 13, 20, 21, 22. RICHARD H. THORNTON.

BATTLE OF LOHFELDT (11 S. ix. 410). Can this be a misspelling of Laffeldt, other- wise Lawfeldt, where a battle, called by the French the battle of Val, took place on 2 July, 1747, between the allied British and Austrian armies under the Duke of Cumber- land, and the French under Marshal Saxe ? The loss on both sides was great.

R. E. B.

I think this is included in the Appendix to 'The Historic Note-Book,' by Dr. E. Cobham Brewer (1891), p. 981, though the spelling is not identical. A. C. C.