Minor Queries.
Smock Marriage in New York.—In a curious old book, entitled The interesting Narrative of the Life of Oulandah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, written by himself, and published in London, by subscription, in 1789, I find the following passage:
"While we lay here (New York, A.D. 1784) a circumstance happened which I thought extremely singular. One day a malefactor was to be executed on a gallows, but with a condition that if any woman, having nothing on but her shift, married the man under the gallows, his life was to be saved. This extraordinary privilege was claimed; a woman presented herself, and the marriage ceremony was performed."—Vol. ii. p. 224.
Perhaps some of your New York correspondents can say whether the annals of that city furnish evidence of so extraordinary an occurrence.
R. Wright.
The broken Astragalus.—Where was the broken astragalus, given by the host to his guest, first used as the symbol of hospitality?
C. H. Howard.
Penardo and Laissa.—Who is the author of a poem (the title-page of which is wanting) called The Historye of Penardo and Laissa, unpaged, in seventeen caputs, with poems recommendatory, by Drummond of Hawthornden and others, small 4to., containing many Scotticisms?
E. D.