Notes and Queries, Number 208, October 22, 1853

Infudit."

It was supposed that the dam swallowed this excrescence immediately on the birth of her foal, and that, if prevented doing so, she lost all affection for it.

However, the name Hippomanes was applied to two other things. Theocritus (II. 48.) uses it to signify some herb which incites horses to madness if they eat of it.

And again, Virgil (Geor. III. 280.), Propertius, Tibullus, Ovid, &c., represent it as a certain virus:

"Hippomanes cupidæ stillat ab inguine equæ."

The subject is an unpleasant one, and H. P. is referred for farther information to Pliny, VIII. 42. s. 66., and XXVIII. 11. s. 80.

    H. C. K.

This lump was called Hippomanes; which also more truly designated, according to Virgil, another thing. The following paragraphs from Mr. Keightley's excellent Notes on Virgil's Bucolics and Georgics will fully explain both meanings:

"Hippomanes, horse-rage: the pale yellow fluid which passes from a mare at that season [i. e. when she is horsing] (cf. Tibul. II. 4. 58.), of which the smell (aura, v. 251.) incites the horse.

"Vero nomine. Because the bit of flesh which was said to be on the forehead of the new-born foal, and which the mare was supposed to swallow, was called by the same name (see Æn. IV. 515.); and also a plant in Arcadia (Theocr. II. 48.). With respect to the former Hippomanes, Pliny, who detailed truth and falsehood with equal faith, says (VIII. 42.) that it grows on the foal's forehead; is of the size of a dried fig (carica), and of a black colour; and that if the mare does not swallow it immediately, she will not let the foal suck her. Aristotle (H. A., VIII. 24.) says this is merely an old wives' tale. He mentions, however, the πώλιον, or bit of livid flesh, which we call the foal's bit, and which he says the mare ejects before the foal."—Notes, &c., p. 273. on Georgic. III. 280. ff.

With regard to the plant called Hippomanes, commentators, as may be seen from Kiessling's note on Theocritus, ii. 48., are by no means agreed. Certainly Andrews, in his edition of Freund, is wrong in referring Virgil Georgic. III. 283. to that meaning. The use of legere probably misled.

    E. S. Jackson.

Wardhouse, where was? (Vol. viii., p. 78.).—It probably is the same as Wardoehuus or Vardoehus, a district and town in Norwegian Finmark, on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, inhabited principally by fishermen.

    W. C. Trevelyan.

Wallington.

Divining Rod (Vol. viii., p. 293.).—The inquirer should read the statement made by Dr. Herbert Mayo, in his letters On the Truths contained in Popular Superstitions, 1851, pp. 3-21. To the facts there recorded I may add, that I have heard Mr. Dawson Turner relate that he himself saw the experiment of the divining rod satisfactorily carried out in the hands of Lady Noel Byron; and some account of it is to be found, I believe, in an article by Sir F. Palgrave, in the Quarterly Review.

    μ.

Waugh, Bishop of Carlisle (Vol. viii., p. 271.).—His arms are engraved on a plate dedicated to him by Willis, in his Survey of the Cathedrals of England, 1742, vol. i. p. 284., and appear thus, Argent, on a chevron gules, three besants; but in a MS. collection by the late Canon Rowling of Lichfield, relating to bishops' arms, I find his coat thus given,—Argent, on a chevron engrailed gules, three besants. The variation may have arisen from an error of the engraver. It appears from Willis that Dr. Waugh was a fellow of Queen's College, Oxford; and the entry of his matriculation would no doubt show in what part of England his family resided. He was successively Rector of St. Peter's, Cornhill; Prebendary of Lincoln; Dean of Gloucester; and Bishop of Carlisle; to which latter dignity he was promoted in August, 1723.

    μ.

Pagoda (Vol. v., p. 415.).—The European word pagoda is most probably derived, by transposition of the syllables, from da-go-ba, which is the Pali or Sanscrit name for a Budhist temple. It appears probable that the Portuguese first adopted the word in Ceylon, the modern holy isle of Budhism.

    Ph.

Rangoon.

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