With his paper skulls,
Invented a machine
To go against wind and stream;
But he, being an ass,
Couldn't bring it to pass,
And so was asham'd to be seen."

Now this Jonathan Hulls was the great grandfather of a man of the same
name, now residing in Campden; so that if there be any truth in the
tradition, the application of steam power to the propulsion of hulls must
be long prior to the time of _Watts his name!_

Can any reader of NOTES AND QUERIES throw any light on the inventions of
this man Hulls?

NOCAB.

_Mythology of the Stars._--I want (in perfect {24} ignorance whether there
is such a book) a "Mythology of the Stars." Considering how often persons
of sound mind express an enthusiasm for the celestial bodies, and exclaim,
of clear night, that the stars are the poetry of Heaven, it is wonderful
how little most of us know about them. Nine out of ten educated persons
would be quite unable to do more than point out the Great Bear and North
Star.

If there is not, there _ought_ to be, some collection of the nomenclature
and mythological history of the heavens, with a familiar treatise on
astrology ancient and modern. The Chaldeans, Egyptians, Grecians, Arabs,
Celts, and Norsemen, must have had names and stories, whose relation (both
in itself and to one another) would make a very pretty volume either of