163. Will' de fereres. Vairé or and gules, on a bordure sable nine horseshoes reversed argent. (Munsire Will de ferers, lescu verre dor & de gules od la bor. dure de sable od les fer darge't.)

164. Nich' malemeyn. Gules, three dexter hands couped at the wrist, 2 and 1, argent. (Munsire Nich malemeyns, lescu de gules a treis meyns dargent.)

165. Robt de Mu'ford. Bendy of six or and azure, a label gules. (Munsire Robt de Munford, lescu bende dor & dazur a un label de gules.)

166. Will' bardouf. Blank. (Munsire Will bardouf, lescu dazur a treis q'ntefoiles dor.)

WALTER J. WESTON.

(To be continued.)

AN IRISH VERSION OF THE LEGEND OF "WILL-O'-THE-WISP."

I have taken some trouble to try and collect any scattered information about the ignis fatuus known as "Will-o'-the-wisp," but without much success. Perhaps some of the readers of " N. & Q." may be able to enlighten me. In John Inglesant it is called "Kit-of-the-candlestick," a name pointing, perhaps, to some varying form of the received legend, according to which a man called Will is condemned to wander over hill and dale with a lighted wisp of straw fixed on his back, and is doomed, like the Wandering Jew, to perpetual motion until the end of time. An old Irish servant related his version of the legend to me, and I tell it as nearly as possible in his own words.

There was a young fellow once and he got married at eighteen years of age to a young girl of sixteen, and before a year passed over their heads they had a fine young son. Well, Willie (for that was his name) worked away at his trade -he was a blacksmith, you must know-harder than ever. Next year his wife had twins, and soon there was a "tremendous" family around them. One day a man came in, and, said he, "I'm a messenger from heaven, and can grant you three wishes."

Some time after another man comes in, and who should he be but the devil himself!

"Oh!" says Will, "if I had only lots of money to feed and clothe the childer!"

"I can give you money and lands, too," says the devil; "but if I do you must come with me at the end of seven years."

"All right," says Will; "it's a good long time; I'll be ready for you."

At the end of the seven years the devil comes again.

"Come on, now, Willie," says he; "time's up." "All right," says Will; "but wait till I shoe this ass; just blow the bellows for me a bit."

And so he set the devil to blow the bellows, and kept him there for four days. Then the devil ups, and he cries, "Och, murther! let me go, let me go, I say."

No," says Will, "I won't, that's flat."

"Well, then," says the devil, "I'll give you another seven years if you'll let me off this time." So Willie let him go, and away he went.

At the end of the next seven years (fourteen) back he comes, and Will spoke up quite friendly to him, and, says he, "I'll be ready in a minute; but just go to the anvil and hammer that bit of iron for me." Away the devil worked at it, and then he cries, "It 's done now, let me off!"

"No," says Will; "you must stay there, so you must." And he locked the door, took the key, and went off for the night.

Next morning, when he opened the door, the anvil was nearly wore away, and the devil had made quite a hole in the floor, and he looked about the size of a tom-tit, he had sunk so far into the ground.

"Let me go, Will," he says, quite melancholy. "Not a bit of me," says Will.

"Oh!" says the poor devil, "if you do I'll grant you any wish you like, and let you off for another seven years."

"Well," says Will, "I'd like more money."
"You shall have it," says the devil; "but mind

"Well," says Willie, "one thing I'd like 'ud
be when any one comes in I could keep him blow-you 're ready this time seven years."
ing the bellows; for when I ask the lads to blow
for me they stop only a few minutes."

"All right," was the answer; "you shall have that wish, and the power to keep them at whatever you want them to do as long as you like. But you have still two more wishes."

"Another thing I'd like," says Willie, "'ud be the power to prevent Mary taking any little change out of my pocket when I'm drunk; for if I've a sixpence at all she'll take it." So the second wish was granted.

"Now for the third," says the messenger. “Well, I'd like always to have lots of work, for, God help me, it's getting very slack wid me entirely." So that wish was granted, and the messenger disappeared.

"All right," says Will. And so at the end of another seven years (twenty-one) back comes the devil again.

"Come on now, Will," he says; "I'll wait for you no longer."

"All right," says Will. And he went with him quate and aisy till they passed a public-house.

Well, now," says Will, "I'm very dhry, and hell is such a mighty hot place, it 'ud never do to go there thirsty; let's go in and get some porter." "All right," says the devil; "but, mind, I've no change."

"Nor I ayther," says Will; "but such a great fellow as you are can turn yourself into a sixpence, and when they're putting you into the till you can leap out and astonish them."

"Faix! I can do that!" says the devil. So he turned himself into a sixpence; and what did Will do but never spent a halfpenny of him, but claps him into his purse, and he buys the porter with a fourpenny bit of his own. For twenty years the devil remained in Will's purse. Often and often he begged to be let out, but "Whisht! will you," was all the answer he got.

And so, when Will died he thought to get into heaven; and they wouldn't let him in on account of his rubbins with the devil. He got so unaisy wandering about that at last he kicked at the door of hell with his hobnailed shoes. "Who's there?" asks the old devil. "It's me-Willy, the smith." "Oh! don't let him in," says the old devil; "he's too able for us; he 'll kill us all."

The young devils were rather inclined to open the door, but the old devil would not let them, and told Will to go off and get a sheaf of corn. As soon as he came back with it they clapped it to his back and set fire to it, and there he is wandering about still. But Will-o'-the- wisp had got money enough from the devil to fortune off all his daughters, and he left fine estates to his sons, and they're all raal quality to this day.

C. J. HAMILTON.

[Reference mave made to 5th S. iv. 209, 235; v. 56; x. 405, 499; xi. 55. The good-humoured contempt with which the devil is treated in this Irish legend reminds us strongly of similar treatment in Scandinavian folklore, and this tends to give force to MR. HENSLEIGH WEDGWOOD'S suggestion in our own pages, 5th S. x. 405, that the name Will-o'-the-wisp may be of Scandinavian origin. In the Legends of Iceland, edited by our late correspondent, George E. J. Powell, of Nant Eos, and Eirikr Magnússon, there is a story of the devil's attempt at creation, resulting only in the jelly fish, "which is useless as useless can be," presenting just the same feature as that which we note in the legend here presented to our readers.]

THE SURNAMES TIDD AND TODD.-In the review of Mr. Ferguson's Surnames as a Science, in the Athenæum, July 7, the reviewer says: "Mr. Ferguson does not, as far as we can find, mention Tidd. It is an old Eastern Counties name not yet extinct. A man who bore it was involved in the Cato Street Conspiracy." The surname Tidd is still to be met with in Rutland and its neighbourhood. Mr. William Tidd is a farmer at Cottesmore, Rutland, and Tidd is a cottager at Teigh, Rutland. Miss Tidd is the schoolmistress at Blatherwycke, Northants; Mr. W. Tidd is a linendraper at Loughborough; Mr. John Tidd is a farmer at Dalby Magna, Leicestershire; and in the same county Charles Tidd is a beerhouse-keeper at Belgrave. George H. Tidd is a butcher and innkeeper at Barkestone; and in Leicester itself Mrs. Ann Tidd lets lodgings in Richards Street, Herbert Tidd is a milliner in Welford Road, and Mrs. Mary Ann Tidd is a

milliner in Wellington Street. In Leicester also are three families named Todd, who are hosiers and commercial travellers. John Todd is a Wesleyan Home Missionary at Melton Mowbray. Another John Todd is a farmer at Maxey, Lincolnshire ; and at Duddington, in the same county, Mrs. Todd is a grocer and draper. At Stretton, Rutland, Wm. Todd is postmaster, shoemaker, and parish clerk, and the Stretton registers show that his family have lived in the village for many generations. His son, Edwin Todd, is coachman to C. T. S. Birch-Reynardson, Esq., Holywell Hall, Lincolnshire, having lived with me in the same capacity for some years previously, during which time my housemaid was Elizabeth Tidd, of Teigh. Thus two of my indoor servants were named Tidd and Todd. Some seventeen years ago my four indoor servants were named Plowman, Sheerer, Carter, and Shepherd. CUTHBERT BEDE.

FUNERAL RITES IN COCHIN CHINA.-The following account of superstitions which prevail amongst the natives of Annam, Cochin China, is perhaps worth recording in "N. & Q." It is taken from a recently issued Government report on the trade, commerce, and navigation of Saigon and Cochin China for 1882.

"Funerals. The respect with which the Annamese importance; as i's numerous rites are not written law, treat their deal gives to this ceremony considerable they are easily neglected, to the prejudice of and danger to the family. The ceremony naturally varies according wealth of the mourners. to the position the deceased held in the family, and the The method of determining

death is by means of a flake of cotton, which the least is covered with three leaves, ordinary paper, a red handbreath would move. When death is assured, the visage kerchief covering all. This operation is called dáp mat; and it is an imprecation in general use to wish an enemy so poor that this expense cannot be afforded him. Next, three grains of rice are placed in the mouth of the deceased, three bowls of cooked rice are arranged in half circle about the head, and two candles placed there. From the moment of death a relative is put in charge of the body, to see that no cat passes over it, for it is the years in advance, and are made of valuable woods that Coffins are often ready remain intact for a long while. They may easily cost 401. The laying out is usually done by a stranger. If any member of the family happens to have been born immediately after the deceased he must leave the house, in perfumed water, dressed in its best clothes and a for fear of contagion of death. The body is bathed black turban, nails are cut and deposited about the head. When the various bandages are in order, a favourable hour is awaited, which must not be the hour of birth of any near relative; then the body is placed in the coffin, mother, but at the sides for a son or daughter. Various this is placed in the centre of the house for a father or offerings are exposed and renewed at the usual hours for meals. Three days afterwards the coffin is varnished, to prevent the attacks of white ants. Mourning habits are of unbleached and unhemmed cotton of native manuand a lantern with blue characters hung in front; these facture. Various inscriptions are placed upon the doors, are allowed to remain until they decay, but are not

cat that seeks to steal the soul.

Suant, even and all of a piece.
Stickle, steep.

To skife, kick up one's heels.
To go sloading, thwart a hill,
Since, already.

To suit, court a lady.
Seemth, it seems.

A squat, a bruise.

of the Yorkshire District, afterwards first Bishop
of Beverley, on Tuesday, July 30, 1850, bears the
angelic salutation,-
Ave Maria, Gratia plena,
Dominus Tecum.

Reform Club.

EVERARD GREEN, F.S.A.

much a household word, and any facts on the progress of railways are so generally interesting, that no apology seems necessary for troubling "N. & Q." with a notice of this statement. I think Mr. Verney must be misinformed, for the only line of any importance open in 1833 (except, of course, the Stockton and Darlington) was the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, opened in September, ST. SWITHIN SUPERSTITION.-Here is a Shrop1830; and before 1840 the only other long lines completed were the London and Birminghamshire superstition as to St. Swithin's Day which I (1838), the Grand Junction (1837), the Birming- think deserves recording in your pages. An old ham and Derby (1839), the Newcastle and Carlisle woman, living not far from Shrewsbury thirty (1839), and the Midland Counties from Rugby to years ago, used to gather a quantity of rain-water Nottingham (1839). I doubt, therefore, if Brad- as it fell on this day, and mixed it in the making shaw began to be published much, if at all, before of certain little cakes, which she afterwards dis1843, i. e., ten years later. I possess a copy of tributed among the neighbouring people. These Bradshaw's Railway Companion, dated 1843, cakes were grated by the recipients into their beer which contrasts curiously with the Guide of the or over their food, and were supposed to be a present day; it bears no sign of being a reprint, remedy against bowel complaints. My informant and I suspect it to be the first issue of that tells me that this was always done when rain fell popular series. It contains thirty-three folios of on St. Swithin's Day; but if no rain fell the old letterpress, the time-tables extending across two lady was very much troubled, and predicted all pages; a small map of England and Wales; ten sorts of diseases during the coming year. railway maps on a larger scale; and plans of London, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, and Liverpool. All these maps and plans are well and clearly engraved on copper or steel, and the volume is bound in cloth, the price 1s. The size of the book is 4 by 3 inches, just half that of the contemporary Bradshaw. JOHN RIVINGTON.

Babbacombe, Torquay.

Birmingham.

NEMO.

BENEDICT ARNOLD A MASON.-In treating of the agnomen of "Brother Jonathan" as of Masonic origin in "N. & Q." 1st S. v. 149, W. W., writing from La Valetta, Malta, says, "George Washington, commander-in-chief of the American army in the revolution, was a Mason, as were all the other generals, with the solitary exception of Arnold the traitor, who attempted to deliver West Point, a most important position, into the hands of the enemy." I wish to correct this statement, having

MODERN BELL INSCRIPTIONS AT SHEFFIELD.The following inscriptions, which occur on the ring of eight bells at St. Mary's Church, Sheffield, solemnly blessed by the Right Rev. Robert Gorn-only recently come into possession of the first thwaite, Bishop of Beverley, on the feast of our Lady of Mount Carmel, July 16, 1874, seem worthy of record in "N. & Q.":

1. Salve nobilis Regina,
Regis sponsa Catharina.

2. Purgatos Aulæ

Cæli nos jungito, Paule.
3 Tu, Petre, pulsatus,
Perversos mitiga flatus.
4. O castos matris Domini,
Devotos tuo nomini,
Joseph Alme, per aspera
Salva semper et prospera.
5. Missi de cælis

Habeo nomen Gabrielis.

6. Musa Raphaelis

Sonet auribus Emanuelis.

7. Adjuvat nos Sanctus Michael
Diebus ac noctibus,

Ut nos ponat in bonorum
Sanctorum consortibus.

8. Est mihi collatum

Cordis Jesu nomen amatum.

The angelus bell, blessed by the Right Rev. John Briggs, Bishop of Trachis and Vicar Apostolic

volumes of "N. & Q," and at this late day discovered the error of the writer who made the said statement so far back as Feb. 14, 1852. Benedict Arnold was made a Mason in Hiram Lodge, No. 1 of Free and Accepted Masons, at New Haven, Connecticut, U.S., and signed the bylaws of the lodge April 10, 1765, the said lodge having been instituted Aug. 12, 1750. And W. W. was further mistaken in saying "all the other [American] generals were Masons." There were several others who were not members of the order.

Toledo, Ohio, U.S.

MARSHALL O. WAGGONER.

SPANISH SWORD MAKERS, 1781. It may interest some of the readers of "N. & Q." to know that in Travels through Spain, by John Talbot Dillon, Knight and Baron of the Sacred Roman Empire, 8vo. Dublin, 1781, there is a list of the names of Spanish sword-makers. It is introduced by the following passage:

"As many of the most capital workmen of Toledo, settled in different parts of the kingdom where they quitted that city on the decline of their trade, and supported the reputation of their art; and as their