Chapter L: M. M. R

_The Devil's Bit._--In the Barnane Mountains, near Templemore, Ireland, there is a large dent or hollow, visible at the distance of twenty miles, and known by the name of the "Devil's Bit."

Can any of your readers assist me in discovering the origins of this singular name? There is a foolish tradition that the Devil was obliged, by one of the saints, to make a road for his Reverence across an extensive bog in the neighbourhood, and so taking a piece of the mountain in his mouth, he strode over the bog and deposited a road behind him!

SING.

_Corpse passing makes a Right of Way._--What is the origin of the supposed custom of land becoming public property, after a funeral has passed over it? An instance of this occurred (I am told) a short time since at Battersea.

R. W. E.

_Nao, a Ship._--Seeing it twice stated in Mr. G. F. Angas's _Australia and New Zealand_, that "in the Celtic dialect of the Welsh, Nao (is) a ship," I am desirous to learn in what author of that language, or in what dictionary or glossary thereof, any such word is to be met with. (See vol. ii., pp. 274. 278.) I doubt, or even disbelieve, the Britons having had _any_ name for a ship, though they had a name for an osier floating basket, covered with raw hides. And when they became familiar with the _navis longa_ of the Romans, they and their Gaelic neighbours adopted the adjective, and not the substantive. But the question of _nao_ is one of fact; and having got the assertion, I want the authority.

A. N.

_William Hone._--I wish to meet with the interesting and touching account of the conversion of William Hone, the compiler of the _Every Day Book_, and should be obliged to any one who would tell me where it is to be found.

E. V.

_Hand giving the Blessing._--What is the origin of holding up the two forefingers and thumb, and pressing down the third and little fingers of the right hand in giving "the blessing," as we see in figures of bishops, &c.? Is it a mystic allusion to the Trinity?

A. A. D.

4. Moray Place, Birkenhead.

_Tinsell, a Meaning of._--I wish to know if this word is still used by the country-people in the midland counties, and on the borders of North Wales, to denote _fire-wood_. In a Report dated in 1620, from a surveyor to the owner of an estate in Wales, near the borders of Shropshire, the following mention of it occurs:

"There is neither wood nor underwood on the said lands, but a few
underwoods in the park of hasell, alders, withie, and thornes, and
such like, which the tenants doe take and use for _Tinsel_ as need
requires."

The working people in Shropshire and Staffordshire still speak of _tining_ a fire (pronounced _teening_). This is but a slight change in the Anglo-Saxon word _tynan_, to light a fire.

S. S. S.

_Arches of Pelaga._--A young sailor, in his passage from Alexandria to Trinadas, mentions a place under this designation. Query, Is there a place correctly so called, or is this one of the misnomers not unfrequent among seamen?