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Notes and Queries, Number 11, January 12, 1850 by Various
page 48 of 62 (77%)

_Ancient Tiles._--Two birds, back to back, with heads turned to each
other, were common on ancient tiles. What are they intended to represent
or to emblemise?

B.


_Pilgrimage of Kings, &c.--Blind Man's Buff--Muffin--Hundred Weight,
&c.--_ 1. Can your readers oblige me with the name of the author and the
date of a work entitled _The Pilgrimage of Kings and Princes_, of which
I possess an imperfect copy--a small quarto? 2. What is the etymology of
the game Blind Man's _Buff?_ I am led to doubt whether that was the old
spelling of it, for in a catalogue now before me I find a quarto work by
Martin Parker, entitled _The Poet's Blind Man's Bough, or Have among you
my Blind Harpers,_ 1641. 3. What is the origin of the word _muffin?_ It
is not in _Johnson's Dictionary._ Perhaps this sort of tea-cake was not
known in his day. 4. By what logic do we call one hundred and _twelve_
pounds merely a hundred weight? 5. I shall feel still more obliged if
your readers can inform me of any works on natural history, particularly
adapted for a literary man to refer to at times when poetical,
mythological, scriptural, and historical associations connected with
animals and plants are in question. I am constantly feeling the want of
a work of the kind to comprehend zoological similes and allusions, and
also notices of customs and superstitions connected with animals, when
reading our old poets and chroniclers. Even the most celebrated
zoological works are of no use to me in such inquiries.

STEPHEN BEAUCHAMP.

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