at is
probably its meaning[4]; at least making it the name of a problem
gets over all difficulty. The allusion is to the flight of Helle,
who turned giddy in taking a flying leap, mounted on a ram, and
fell into the sea;--so weak a head fails in crossing the pons. The
problem was invented by Pythagoras, 'and it hath been called by
barbarous writers of the latter time Dulcarnon,'--_Billingsley_.
This name may have been invented after our author's time. Query
[Greek: dolkarenon]."

If we take the words "Dulcarnon" in this sense, it will help to explain
the passage in the _Troilus and Creseide_.

E.M.B.

_Bishop Barnaby_.--The origin of the term "Bishop Barnaby," as applied
to the Lady-bird, is still unexplained.

I wish to observe, as having some possible connexion with the subject,
that the word "Barnaby" in the seventeenth century appears to have had a
particular political signification.

For instance, I send you a pamphlet (which you are welcome to, if you
will accept of it) called "_The Head of Nile, or the Turnings and
Windings of the Factious since Sixty, in a dialogue between Whigg and
Barnaby_," London, 1681. In this dialog, Whigg, as might be expected, is
the exponent of all manner of abominable opinions, whilst Barnaby is
represented as the supporter of orthodoxy.

Again, in the same year was published Durfey's comedy, "_Sir Barnaby
Whigg_," the union of the two names indicating that the knight's
opinions were entirely regulated by his interest.

Q.D.

P.S. The pamphlet above alluded to affords another instance of the use
of the word "Factotum," at page 41.: "before the Pope had a great house
there, and became Dominus Factotum, Dominus Deus noster Papu."

_Barnacles_.--In _Speculum Mundi, or a Glass representing the Face of
the World_, by John Swan, M.A., 4th edit., 1670, is the following
mention of the Barnacle goose (pp. 243, 244.):--

"In the north parts of _Scotland_, and in the places adjacent,
called _Orchades_, are certain trees found, whereon there groweth a
certain kind of shell-fish, of a white colour, but somewhat tending
to a russet; wherein are contained little living creatures. For in
time of maturity the shells do open, and out of them by little and
little grow those living creatures; which falling into the water
when they drop out of their shells, do become fowls, such as we
call _Barnacles_ or _Brant