OCT 12 1886
SIBRAT

MISCELLANEOUS

NOTES AND QUERIES,

WITH ANSWERS.

Every human being is a center of the universe.”—JAMES L. BASFOrd.

VOL. III.

OCTOBER, 1886.

No. 10.

Date of the Sudbury Fight.

then

This was one of the most memorable events of King Philip's war. Was it the 18th or 21st of April, 1676, that King Philip at the head of his warriors, "met with and swallowed up valiant Capt. Wadsworth," as Col. Church records it. Upon a monument erected about 1852, the old date, "18 April," is retained. About 60 years elapsed before the old monument was erected. Pres. Wadsworth, son of the Captain, furnished the date, probably taking it from a table added to Hubbard's history. Mather, in his Diary, after April 20th, writes: "The next day (that is April 21,) sad tidings came to us" mentions the burning of "a great part of the town "-Sudbury-and the killing of Capt. Wadsworth of Milton, "a prudent and faithful man," and about 50 men, including Lieut. Sharpe and Capt. Brattlebanch. Five or six prisoners were tortured that night. Probably 120 fighting Indians were killed that day. Maj.-Gen. Daniel Gookin's History of the Praying Indians states that "tidings came to Charlestown (that Sudbury was attacked) just at the beginning of the Lecture there"; and that troops were immediately sent to the relief of Sudbury. They found the dead the next day (April 22d).

Under date of "April 21, 1776," Hon Judge Sewell writes in his diary,—" Notabene, Friday, about three in the afternoon, Capt. Wads

worth and Capt. Bracklebank fell. Almost an hundred, since I hear about fifty men slain three miles off Sudbury. Ye sd town burned, garrison houses excepted."

66

Gen. Gookin says the fight was on a lecture day." Reference to Mr. Buddington's "History of the First Church" in Charlestown shows that the regular monthly lectures were held in that town on Friday; and it is found that the 21st of April, 1676, was on Friday. This fully settles the case. The date on the last Wadsworth monument should be corrected. Those who now visit, and those who shall visit this place, and transcribe the inscription, aid in giving currency to, and perpetuating the error. The pilgrim descendants of those who fell, should not, with others, be deceived.

J. Q. A., Natick, R. I. DESCENDANTS OF JUDAS ISCARIOT. It was believed in Pier della Valle's time that the descendants of Judas Iscariot still existed at Corfu, though the person who suffered this imputation stoutly denied the truth of the genealogy. When the ceremony of washing the feet is performed in the Greek Church at Smyrna, the bishop represents Christ, and the twelve apostles are acted by as many priests. He who personates Judas must be paid for it, and such is the feeling of the people that whoever accepts this odious part commonly retains the name of Judas for life.

Judas serves in Brazil for a Guy Fawks to be carried about by the boys, and made the subject of an "auto-da-fe." The Spanish sailors hang him at the yard arm. It is not long since a Spaniard lost his life at Portsmouth, Eng., during the performance of this ceremony, by jumping overboard after the figure. The Armenians, who believe hell and limbo to be the same place, say that Judas, after having betrayed his Lord, resolved to hang himself, because he knew that Christ was to go to limbo and deliver all the souls that he found there, and therefore he thought to get there in time; but the Devil was more cunning than he, and knowing his intent, held him over limbo till the Lord had passed through, and then let him fall into the abyss. Justus.

PUBLIC WORSHIP. The days of the week are set apart for public worship by different nations of the world as follows: Sunday by the Christians, Monday by the Grecians, Tuesday by the Persians, Wednesday by the Assyrians, Thursday by the Egyptians, Friday by the Turks, and Saturday by the Jews.

Jose J. Arrillaga, Jose Arguello, Pio Pico and Jose Castro served ad interim. Peter H. Burnett, Milton S. Latham and Newton Booth resigned. Governor Perkins was the first Governor elected under the new constitution, and the effect of the twentieth section of article xx was to shorten his term one year, so that he held only three years, instead of four. The above list of Governors from the earliest date under the Spanish was furnished the writer by the San Francisco Call Company.

ANCIENT RIDDLES. (Vol. III, pp. 10, 62.) I send you a riddle for I used to hear this in my boyhood days but

publication with others.

do not recall that it has ever been answered:

My body is strange, and subject to change,
With three heads do I often appear;
With two I converse, but one is perverse,
Not endowed with reason or fear.

As to legs, I have 8, some small and some great,
Yet what will surprise you still more,
You plainly may see, on one side I am three,
On the other side half a half-score.

KING SOLOMON'S PROBLEM.

Some pretend I've a tail, I'm female and male,
And to form me both sexes unite;

I'm smooth, yet I'm rough, I'm tender, yet tough,
I'm fair, oft black, and oft white.

I'm very devout, I'm known all about,
At church once a week I am found;
The markets I visit, now tell me what is it?
Does in such contradictions abound?

J. K. S., Malone, N. Y.

"Around about the Altar and Holy Place are to be three rows of Chambers, and around about the Porch are to be four rows of Chambers, and that there is a certain superficial figure in geometry whose three sides are of true arithmetical proportion, and when squared will produce the exact number of Chambers required, and that there is only one such figure that can solve the question."-Traditions of Freemasonry, by A. T. C. Pierson, p. 163.

32425250. This is supposed to solve the problem; and that the rows consisted of three rows of six chambers each, and four rows of eight chambers each; or, 18+ 32 = = 50.

QUINCY'S COMPARISON. Josiah Quincy, in the course of a speech in Congress, in 1806, on the embargo, used the following language: "Those who introduced it abjured it. They who advocated it did not wish, and scarcely knew, its use; and now that it is said to be extended over us, no man in this nation, who values his reputation, will take his Bible oath that it is in effectual and legal operation.

There is an old riddle on a coffin, which I presume we all learned when we were boys, that is a perfect representation of the origin, progress, and present state of this thing called non-intercouse, as is possible to be conceived:

'There was a man bespoke a thing,

Which when the maker home did bring,

That same maker did refuse it,

The man who spoke for it did not use it,-
And he who had it did not know
Whether he had it, yes or no.'

True it is, that if this non-intercourse shall ever be, in reality, subtended over us, the similitude will fail in a material point. The poor tenant of the coffin is ignorant of his state. But the people of the United States will be literally buried alive in non-intercourse, and realize the grave closing on themselves and on their hopes, with a full and cruel conciousness of all the horrors of their condition.

FRANK, Concord, N. H.

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS.

FOURTH OF MARCH ON SUNDAY. (Vol. III, p. 138.) Do your readers generally know the reason why the 4th of March was chosen as the day of inauguration of the President? It was selected because the 4th of March in every year, commencing from the first inauguration, March 4, 1789, cannot fall on Sunday for at least 300 years. CARLOS F. LAGRANGE. From 1789 to 2089 this event has occurred, and will occur, as follows: 1821, 1849, 1877, 1917, 1945, 1973, 2001, 2029, 2057, and 2085, all of which can be seen at a glance to my Perpetual Calendar. CHAS. MASON, 800, 43d St., Chicago, Ill.

March 4, 1789, was on Wednesday; March 4, 1793, was on Sunday, and it has been on Sunday every 28 years since, or 1821, 1849, and 1877. Four times then, during the history of the United States, the inauguration has been on March 5th, though President Hayes was privately sworn in on the 4th, according to Grant's request, to avoid an interregnum. A. P. SOUTHWICK, Baltimore, Md. THE ROCK-FISH. (Vol. III, p. 76.) William E. Damon, in Ocean World, says: "The rock-fish has a beautiful and graceful form, and curious geometrical markings. On account of certain peculiarities, the unusual shape of its caudal fin, and other points, it was a particular object of scientific interest to the late Prof. Agassiz." Will some one give a more extended description of this fish? What are its geometrical markings, etc.? A. M. A., Natick, R. I.

The Rock-Fish or Wrasse is a genus of fishes of the family Labridae, of the section having cycloid scales, or Cyclolabrida of Müller. They have spiny fins, large thin scales, and an uninterrupted latera! line. The mouth is protrusible, with thick fleshy lips, folded so as to appear double. The teeth on the jaws are simple, in one or more rows; the lower pharyngeal bones are completely fused together, and have broad grinding teeth. The form is somewhat perch-like, with the back more straight. There is a single long dorsal fin, the spines of the anterior portion of which are surmounted by membranous filaments, the posterior portion having short and split rays. The ventral fins are under the pectorals. The colors are generally very brilliant. The species are numerous, abounding in tropical seas, but several of them are found on the coasts of Britain.

They chiefly freshoals, often hidThey feed on crustaceans, molluscs, and ma

quent rocky shores, and are generally seen in small ing under sea-weeds.