HERALDIC SHIELD VERSUS HERALDIC LOZENGE (6th S. vii. 187, 418, 475, 496).-Absence during some months from England has delayed my thanks to P. P. for the prompt and courteous withdrawal of remarks made under misapprehension. The queries submitted by me are, I trust, not unworthy the attention of those skilled in heraldry, and if P. P., or any other learned contributor, will favour me with a reply, many of your readers will unite with me in esteeming it an obligation. FUSIL. THEL (6th S. vii. 249, 293; viii. 217).-A friend has pointed out to me (what had escaped my eyes) that "xvj deles" were brought to Hull in the year 1400 in the ship Mary Knyght de Dansk, and are so entered in the contemporary roll printed in Frost's Notices of Hull, 1827, App., p. 6. to 46 66 W. C. B. ADUMBRATE (6th S. viii. 369). The noun adumbration occurs in the first part of the Religio Medici, sect. x.: "Where there is an obscurity too deep for our reason, 'tis good to sit down with a description, periphrasis, or adumbration." The Religio Medici was written by Sir Thomas Browne about the year 1635. Dr. Greenhill, in his glossary the Golden Treasury" edition, remarks: Adumbration, a faint sketch, like that which shadows afford of the bodies which they represent (found also in the Garden of Cyrus, vol. ii. 551, 18, Bohn's edit.)." The Garden of Cyrus was also written by Sir T. Browne. It was published in 1658, fifteen years after the first authorized edition of the Religio Medici (1643). Prof. Skeat gives an earlier instance of the noun from Sir Thomas Elyot's The Gouernour, bk. iii. c. 25 (1531). I. ABRAHAMS. London Institution. OUR CHRISTMAS NUMBER. Will correspondents kindly intending to contribute to our Christmas Number be good enough to forward their communications, headed "Christmas," without delay? Miscellaneous. NOTES ON BOOKS, &c. On the Development and Distribution of Primitive Locks and Keys. By Lieut. - General Pitt - Rivers, F.R.S. (Chatto & Windus.) GENERAL PITT-RIVERS is an unwearied worker in the fields of archæology, At one time we find him exploring Mount Cabourn or some other early encampment; at another, devoting his attention to the evolution of the common objects of domestic life. were to judge of him only by the work before us, we should be led to assume that he had been a locksmith all his life. If we How very little we know of the history of the simplest objects we use is not realized by those who are not in the habit of looking back into the past. For example, Who can tell us when arm-chairs were first used in Eng land for purposes of comfort, not as thrones? We believe that the earliest known instance of the word dates from 1663, yet they must have existed for ages before that. We are in the same position as to the mortar for poundat a very early period, but no one has as yet endeavoured ing and the handmill for grinding. All have originated to work out their history. General Pitt-Rivers has done this for locks and keys in a most thorough manner. His book will, of course, never be popular, for it is hard reading; but it must remain for a long period the standard work on the subject. New evidence may, and we trust will, soon be accumulated; but no discoveries can overthrow the main conclusions of the General's treatise. That all our complex locks have been developed from the simple pin or bar with which the hut of the half-wild man was fastened when he was from home is now certain. In remote places-Scandinavia, Faröe, and the North of Scotland-there are locks still in use by ten plates, which add very much to the usefulness of which clearly show their origin. The book is illustrated the text. Shropshire Folk-lore: a Sheaf of Gleanings. Edited by Charlotte Sophia Burne from the Collections of Georgiana F. Jackson. Part I. (Trübner & Co.) MISS JACKSON's Shropshire Word-Book takes very high rank, if, indeed, as some have affirmed, it be not the very best glossary of a local dialect that modern research has produced. Illness, we are sorry to hear, has prevented Miss Jackson from completing her labours by the publication of the work the first part of which is before us. Her materials have been handed over to her friend Miss Burne, who has proved to be a most careful and accurate editor. Books on folk-lore are, for the most part, not pleasant reading. The one before us is certainly an the local dialect is not used, and a rational system of exception. The stories are told in good English when classification has been followed, so that the reader is not puzzled by being compelled to think of a multitude of things at once. The folk-lore of Shropshire is more interesting than that of many of our other shires. Shropshire lies near enough to Wales to be affected by purely Celtic influences, and, for some reason which we shall not endeavour to explain, the traditions have been better preserved. Witchcraft, ghosts, charms, and spells exist everywhere; but it is with no little pleasure that we come upon a people who still believe in a race of giants. Legends of the wild huntsman class, which mythologists trace back to Woden, are not quite extinct anywhere, but their traces are very faint in the Eastern Counties. though, of course, in a degraded form. In Shropshire they seem to have survived in profusion, The heathen notion of hell, not as a place of eternal torture, such as is described in Pinamonti's Hell opened to Christians, but " merely as a less desirable abode than Valhalla, the Hall of the Chosen," lies at the root of several of the stories recorded here-tales which have their counterparts in Germany, Scandinavia, an, indeed, wherever the Teutonic religious systems had ever a firm hold on the imaginations of the people. Those souls too bad for heaven, but who yet by cunning escape hell, are doomed to wander about for ever, misleading benighted wanderers, under the form of Will-o'-the-wisp. The story how, when the wicked city of Uriconium was overwhelmed by a flood, "the cattle in the stalls knelt in thanksgiving to God that he had not permitted such wickedness to go unpunished," is curious, as showing the fixed belief that in some undefined way the beasts of the field were in the hand of God and showed their allegiance to him. It reminds us of a well-known belief in Nottinghamshire that at midnight on Christmas Eve the horses and oxen fall on their knees in prayer in honour of our blessed Lord's nativity. Fairishes seems to be the old name for fairies at Bridgenorth. Prof. Skeat has appended a note here, The chapter on "Names of Places" is worth special attention. Folk-etymology is still an unworked mine. Folk-Tales of Bengal. By the Rev. Lal Behari Day. (Macmillan & Co.) STUDENTS of folk-lore will prize this collection of Eastern tales. The author, or we should rather say the collector and translator, informs us that they have all been taken down from the lips of persons who were ignorant of English-"they all told the stories in Bengali." The tone of these wild stories differs much from our Western folk-tales, and, as it seems to us, still more widely from the Moslem legends, such as we find them in the Arabian Nights There is, of course, underlying the difference of vesture a unity of design which cannot be mistaken by those whose knowledge of the dream-world in which our forefathers lived, and from which so many of us even now are not entirely freed, is not of the most superficial nature. The Rakshasas, the demon giants who eat whole oxen, and even elephants, but who specially delight in human flesh, are a kindred conception to that of our own somewhat less horrible giant community. The writer believes that they probably are a dim remembrance of the chiefs of the aborigines whom the Aryan conquerors of India overthrew. It is, perhaps, rash to speculate where there is so very little direct evidence. We would, however, suggest whether it may not be that the idea of huge monsters of this sort, who delighted in human flesh, was common to the race when the whole Aryan family was one, and spoke the same tongue. to take this opportunity of remarking upon its continued life and vigour. A pedigree of Mr. Crossley, which is included in the notice, gives it a special interest to the genealogist. MR. EDWARD ARBER, to whom English scholarship is under deepest obligations, has issued the thirteenth list of his new publications. Most appetizing to all lovers of old literature are the series now in progress, consisting of "An English Garner" and "The Scholar's Library." For these books direct application must be made to Mr. Arber, at 1, Montague Street, Birmingham. A BIBLIOTHECA DORSETIENSIS, proposed by our correspondent the Rev. C. H. Mayo, M.A., whose excellent account of the Mayo and Elton Families we noticed in these pages, cannot fail to appeal to the bibliographers and delvers into county history and antiquities among our readers. There should be ample room for a work to rank alongside of the well-known Bibliotheca Cornubiensis of other correspondents of ours. Floreant ambo. The publication is announced by the Librairie Munew work by Count Goblet quardt, Brussels, of a D'Alviella, entitled L'Evolution Religieuse Contemporaine chez les Anglais, les Américains, et les Hindous, the result of the author's personal investigations among each of the races named. MR. WALTER DE GRAY BIRCH will contribute a set of articles on " Ancient English Seals" to the next volume of the Antiquary. Notices to Correspondents. We must call special attention to the following notices: ON all communications must be written the name and address of the sender, not necessarily for publication, but as a guarantee of good faith. WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately. HISTORICA. The Works of Sydney Smith are published by Messrs. Longman & Co., and are easily accessible in a popular edition, obtainable through any bookseller and visible on most bookstalls. Sydney Smith has written no avowedly humorous works. His humour overflows when he is treating the gravest subjects. New Biographical Dictionary; and the Nouvelle Bisgraphie Universelle of Michaud. G. WINTER-For an account of Eugene Aram see We believe that Mr. Lal Behari Day has learnt English Biographia Britannica, ed. Kippis; Genuine Account of the Trial of Eugene Aram, London, 1759; the Gentle as a foreign tongue. If this be so, he has acquired a man's Magazine and the Annual Register for the same remarkable mastery over our language. There is not a line that might not have come from the pen of a culti-year, 1759; Chalmers's Biographical Dictionary; Rose's vated Englishman. There is reason to believe that the stories given in this interesting volume are only a very meagre sample of what was to be heard in Bengal but a few years ago. The author says that when a little boy he heard hundreds-it would be no exaggeration to say thousands"-of them. Surely all the old story tellers are not yet dead. We hope it may be possible to glean some more, which, if not so amusing as most of these prove to be, will be helpful in building up that science of comparative mythology from which we may hope eventually to derive much information concerning the very remote past. We wish we had been told whether these tales are now understood to be tales only, or whether among certain classes of the natives of India there yet lingers a belief that they may be true history. THE late Mr. James Crossley is the subject of a sympathetic memoir, by Dr. Samuel Crompton, of Cranleigh, in the Palatine Note-Book for October, edited by our valued contributor Mr. J. E. Bailey. It is a long time since we have seen the Note-Book, so we are glad J. MANUEL ("Thence and Whence ").-These forms "From thence" and "from whence," are correct. though employed by many writers, including one or two of position, are wrong. W. T.-We believe that no portrait or bust of Plato showing him with earrings is in existence, and are not, disposed to reopen the subject of men of distinction who have worn those ornaments. F. C. HUNTER BLAIR.-Your contribution shall appear next week. It did not arrive in time for the present issue. NOTICE. Editorial Communications should be addressed to "The Editor of Notes and Queries'"-Advertisements and Business Letters to "The Publisher"-at the Office, 2 Wellington Street, Strand. London, W.C. We beg leave to state that we decline to return com munications which, for any reason, we do not print; and to this rule we can make no exception. ALL THE YEAR ROUND, ENGLISH and FOREIGN LITERATURE, [OLLOWAY'S PILLS.-Nothing preserves the health so well as these alterative Pills in changeable weather, or when our nervous systems are irritable. They act admirably on the stomach, liver, and kidneys, and so thoroughly purify the blood that they are the most efficient remedy for warding off derangements of the stomach, fever, diarrhoea, dysentery, and other maladies, and giving tone and energy to enervated valetudinarians. All who have the natural and laudable desire of maintaining their own and their family's health cannot do better than trust to Holloway's Pills which cool, regulate, and strengthen These purifying Pills are suitable for all ages, seasons, climates, and constitutions, when all other means fail, and are the female's best friend. CHAPMAN & HALL'S PUBLICATIONS. A HISTORY of ART in CHALDÆA and ASSYRIA. By George PERROT and CHARLES CHIPIEZ. Translated by WALTER ARMSTRONG, B.A., Oxon. With 452 Illustrations, The ELEMENTS of POLITICAL ECONOMY. By Emile de LAVELEYE. Translated by ALFRED W. POLLARD, B.A., St. John's College, Oxford. Crown 8vo. [In November. MY GRANDFATHER'S POCKET-BOOK, from 1701 to 1796. By the Rev. HENRY JOHN WALE, M.A., Author of "Sword and Surplice." Demy 8vo. 12s. HISTORY of AUSTRALIA. "History of New Zealand." 3 vols. demy 8vo. By G. W. Rusden, Author of [Next week. The LIFE of RICHARD COBDEN. By John Morley. New Edition. 1 vol. large crown 8vo. 616 pp. 7s. 6d. LACORDAIRE'S CONFERENCES. and Man. New Edition. 1 vol. crown 8vo. 68. Jesus Christ God-God The CHRONICLE of JAMES I., King of Aragon, surnamed the Conqueror. (Written by HIMSELF.) Translated from the Catalan by the late JOHN FORSTER, M.P. for Berwick With an Historical Introduction by Don PASCUAL de GAYANGOS. 2 vols. royal 8vo. 28s. IBERIAN REMINISCENCES. 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