—One of your correspondents from St. Lucia asks why the Island of Martinique was so called. It is from the circumstance of its having been discovered on St. Martin's Day, 1502, by Christopher Columbus.
PHILIP S. KING.
A Regular Mull (Vol. iii., pp. 449. 508.).
—The suggestions of W. E. W. and M. as to the origin of this expression are amusing, and show, however farfetched the derivations, their authors have not gone so far as "Malabar or Deccan." Had either of these gentlemen been from the land of the wise, they would have known that the residents of Bengal, Bombay, and Madras are, in Eastern parlance, designated "Qui Hies," "Ducks," and "Mulls." Madras not hitherto having been so highly favoured by "Kumpanie Jehân," is in a comparatively less advanced stage of civilisation than its sister presidencies. The Qui Hies and Ducks, attributing this to the inertness and want of go-a-headness of the Mulls, hold them (though most unjustly) in cheap estimation; hence they say of a person deficient in skill and cleverness that he is "a regular Mull."
TAPROBANE.
The Pelican as a Symbol of the Saviour (Vol. v., p. 59.).
—In Lord Lindsay's Christian Art, vol. i. xx. xxi., we find, in the text: "God the Son (is symbolised) by a Pelican" (Psalm cii. 6.), to which is added the following note:
"The mediæval interpretation of this symbol is given as follows by Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, Lion King (nephew of the poet), in his MS. Collectanea, preserved in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh:—
"'The Pellican is ane foule in Egipt, of the quhilkis auld men sayis that the litill birdis straikis thair fader in the face with thair wingis, and crabis him quhill (till) he slayis thame. And quhen the moder seis thame slane, scho greitis (weeps) and makis grit dule thre dayis lang, quhill scho streikis hirself in the breist with hir neb (beak), and garris the blude skayle (flow) vpone hir birdis, quhairthrow thai restoir and turnis to lyf agane. Bot sum folkis sayis thai ar clekkit swown and (hatched swooning), lyk as thai war bot (without) life, and that thair fader haillis (heals) thame agane with his blude. And this maner haly kirk beiris witnes, quhair our Lord sayis that he is maid lyk the Pelican.'"
I wish Lord L. had translated "crabis."