POOR-JOHN (cl. 442). Your correspon-
dent will find a reply to his query in
Shakespeare's Tempest," Act ii., Sc. 2:
"What have we here? a man or a fish?
dead or alive? A fish: he smells like a
fish; a very ancient and fish-like smell: a
kind of not of the newest Poor-john.
The name is also found in Sir J. Har-
rington's writings: "Poor-john and apple-
pies are all our fare."

It is said to have been applied to hake-
fish dried and salted, or as some think, to
the herring.
W. J. HARDING.

SKIPPING: "LA GRANDE CORDE” (cl.
317, 356).-In my boyhood I suffered
from chilblains in my feet the first winter
which I spent at a boarding-school away from
home. I was advised to learn to skip, and
to practise it as cure for and prevention of
chilblains. I did so, and found it most
effectual; and all my life I have never been
without a skipping-rope, and never omitted
to use it if I felt my feet itching; and never
found it fail to produce the desired effect.
I am now in my eighty-third year, and

used it a few times last winter.

Revue de Hollande for July, August and
September, 1916.

ARCHIBALD SPARKE.
(cl. 400).—
Mistakes in N. and Q.' cannot be al-

BAILEY'S DICTIONARY
lowed to go unnoticed. Queed " is not by
the late Richard Harding Davis as sugges-
ted by Mr. Gould, but by Henry Sydnor
Harrison.
A. J. H.
AU
UTHOR WANTED (cl. 443). The lines
(which
are somewhat inaccurately
quoted) are from The Devil's Walk,' by
Southey. The first three stanzas are as
follows:-

From his brimstone bed at break of day
A walking the Devil is gone,

To look at his snug little farm of the World,
And see how his stock went on.
Over the hill and over the dale,
And he went over the plain;

And backward and forward he swish'd his
tail

As a gentleman swishes a cane.

How then was the Devil drest?
Oh, he was in his Sunday's best,
His coat was red and his breeches were blue,
And there was a hole where his tail came
through.

The lines quoted (not quite correctly) are
from 'The Devil's Walk,' by Richard
Porson. The poem is printed in Poet's Wit
and Humour,' selected by W. H. Wills, pp.
179-181. A footnote explains that Professor

Porson wrote it at the house of D
whilst waiting to join in a game of whist.
His host gave him the subject, and this
amusing jeu d'esprit was the result. The foot-
note states that The Devil's Walk,'
additions, has been claimed also for Coleridge
and Southey.
R. W. B.

with

NOTES:- Timon of Athens,' 21-The burial-place of Col. Robert Phaire, the regicide, 23-Some additional notes on the pedigree of Reynolds of Loughscur, 24-Joris Hoefnagel-Newly identified lines by Southey, 26. QUERIES:-London Cemetery Account-booksAmbling-Vincentio Lauriola-Chaff in EgyptGeorge Ongall Esquire, 1586-Tin in CornwallFirst use of stone-coal-Michelangelo's Madonna at Bruges, 27-The Cross-in-hand-Hugh Ronalds -Inscription on brass bowl-Col. Alexander Campbell C.B. and K.H.-Volkow: VolkovGriffith: Bingley-Wilkins Family-P. Jones, engraver, 28-William Evans, engraver-" Stew houses": 'hot houses "-Sir Francis MichelQuotation wanted-Author wanted. 29. REPLIES:-Monsieur Blondin, 29-The Old and New Style, 30-Change of Baptismal Names-The German Legion at Colchester, 31-Gordon's Itinerarium Septentrionale-The Potato in the Seventeenth Century-" Upper Classes": origin of expression-Stephen Popham, 32-Arms for identtification-The United States Geographic Board--The fifth daughter of William the Conqueror-Irish change of name in AmericaWick as a scopril "-Bibliography of the bicycle-William Bromley-A problem of early English history, 33-Christmas as a placename-Family of Forth-Derivation of Surname Mundy, 34- Natural History '-Authors wanted, $35.

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Memorabilia.

THE Egyptian Ministry of Pious Foundations some time ago stirred all the world interested in architecture by starting a competition, open to architects of all nationalities, for designs to reconstruct the mosque of 'Amru at Cairo. This great national monument has remained neglected for close on a hundred years, and no one can wonder if the Government considers it is now time to do something about it. But reconstruction is an enterprise which has often had disastrous results, and a memorial was addressed to the Minister last February signed by the Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of London; the President of the Royal Academy; the Chairman of the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings; the President of the Royal Institute of British Architects; the Chairman of the Ancient Monument Society; the President of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland; and the Secretary of the Congress of Archeological Societies-all persons who know full well what chances of devastation are involved in re-building-setting out something of their experience and begging the Government "to review its decision to permit the reconstruction of the Mosque." The Minister of Pious Foundations, replying in April, said that the competition was now too far advanced to be withdrawn, seeing that more than 500 competitors had entered for it, but promised to take into serious consideration the views set forth in the letters, and to examine the designs sent in in the light of them. As The Times remarks (July 5) it is clear the

Government is too deeply committed to forgo its main intention.

THE Times for July 6 prints a telegram of

the previous day from Sir Arthur Evans in Candia. Sir Arthur says that after a search of twenty-five years the early tombs have now come to light about 500ft. up, on

rocky heights beyond the stream east of the palace. They are of the chamber form with short entrance and passages, predecessors of those later found on the mainland of Greece. All those as yet opened had been re-used; but all contained part of the original relics. They are clearly part of an extensive cemetery. Further, Sir Arthur reports that a colossal work has begun to come out about 100ft. above the stream, with a wall, in one place nearly four yards thick, running into the hillside and turning north, faced with massive blocks. It dates from the foundation of the Palace about 2000 B.C. On July 5, it may be noted Candia was visited by yet another earthquake, which fortunatey did no damage.

AN interesting discovery is reported from Spokane in the State of Washington. Professor Olaf Opsjon (v. The Times, July 7) has made out that an inscription which has long been known on a lava boulder near that place is in Norse runic and records the adventure of certain Vikings in the year

1010 A.D.

inscription, the party consisted of twentyHe says that according to the four men, seven women and a baby; that they were following an old trail and had stopped to camp by a spring; that Indians came up and attacked them; that they put the women and the baby on the top of the rock, and fought round its base; that the woman with the baby was hurled down from the rock, and the other six were taken; that twelve men were killed, and the rest escaped. Of these six came back to the rock later on, buried the dead (whose mound is still visible) and cut the runes. These are said not to have been fully translated as yet and to contain reference to an earlier expedition of the Norsemen. If all this is substantiated Professor Opsjon is to be congratulated on an important find.