that such a character might be found, I sought for it with care and diligence, and I think I may say I have found a character, equally simple and invariable, which, accurately enunciated, amounts to this :-If the lower angle of each nostril be bisected, the imaginary lines bisecting these angles will, in the Catarrhini, rapidly converge below, until they meet in the mesial plane of the lip; whereas, in the Platyrrhini, the same lines will diverge from the mesial plain ;-or, to state the same facts in a general way :-The lower angle of the nostril of an Old world monkey points inward, while that of a New world Monkey points outward. Thus

This, it will be seen, depends, not upon the thickness of the septum, which, as we have remarked, is a variable cha- . racter, but upon its form, which is pyramidal in the Catarrhini, and of a contracted or hour-glass shape in the Platyrrhine group.

Thus, in the typical Catarrhine monkeys (fig. 1) the nostrils are linear, and almost meet in their inferior angles

It will not be necessary, however, to carry the illustration all through the two families, but only that I should show that in those monkeys of both families which most obviously aberrate from the descriptions given by St. Hilaire, the character here given obtains to perfection. Thus, in the genus Colobus, (figs. 5 & 6) in which, though a Catarrhine monkey, the septum is so wide, the inferior angles will be seen to converge rapidly; while in the genus Brachyteles (Eriodes), (fig. 3) although the septum only measures of an inch in width, its peculiar Platyrrhine form causes these lower angles

to diverge from each other. These characters, in fact, I have no doubt, from my observation of the specimens in the British Museum and Jardin des Plantes, are universal, and independent of the size of the septum and of the aspect of the nostrils.

In conclusion, I may remark that, thinking it possible that some writer should have seized upon this character, from whom I might be suspected to have copied it, I searched a great number of works on the Quadrumana, but failed in discovering anything more than this, which is a vignette, or tail-piece, copied from Audibert's beautiful work :

What this means, whether any perception of the character I have endeavoured to set forth, I know not. Audibert gives the diagram with no explanation of it whatever that I was ever able to discover; and I shall therefore leave it, as he has done, without further remark.

POPULAR RHYMES AND PROVERBS CONNECTED

WITH LOCALITIES.

SECOND SERIES.

By A. Craig Gibson, F.S.A., Hon. Curator.

(READ 12TH MARCH, 1863.)

THIS paper is another contribution to a more comprehensive gathering up of the folklore of the country than has been effected hitherto; that of one of the two counties to which the operations of this Society are chiefly dedicated having been treated of very ably and thoroughly, in its Transactions, by Mr. Wilkinson.

In a former essay I gave, and remarked upon severally, a collection of the scraps of rhyme and old bye-sayings that are popular and current in a district immediately south of the Scottish frontier. In this I propose to offer, and again to remark upon and illustrate, a series of similar remains, gathered from a tract immediately north of that line, and forming, prior to the union of the two countries, a portion of what was called the Western Marches; in our own times, the central division of the fair county of Dumfries.

An old English ballad describes the North as the country where "every river gives name to a dale ;" and, in accordance with that pretty constant rule, Dumfriesshire is divided into three Dales or Stewartries, called, after its principal streams, Nithsdale, Annandale and Eskdale, all abounding in natural beauty, famous in story and song, and rich in traditional romance and historic interest. The district from which I glean my materials is that watered by and named after the

river Annan, which rises in a wild and deep recess in the south Highlands, known locally as the "De'il's Beef-tub," and, after a winding and varied course of some forty miles, runs into the Solway Firth near to the ancient royal burgh, also called Annan, passing, on its way, many an ancient fortalice and many a storied field.

The first old rhyme on my list is one in which this river figures, along with some of its neighbours, and of which an imperfect version has been published by Mr. R. Chambers, in his extensive collection of local rhymes.

Much cannot be said for the topographical accuracy of this well-known scrap. The four rivers might have been described more correctly as running out of different sides of the same hill; but, like the real name of the man who in his epitaph had to be called Dunn, to provide a rhyme to the weapon that killed him, such proper description would not meet the requirements of the rhyme-and "monarchs are less impera“tive than rhymes." Three of these rivers, in another equally popular jingle, are represented as running a race to the sea, thus: Tweed ran;

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"Annan wan;

Clyde fell and broke his neck owre Corra Linn."

The metaphorical disaster of Clyde refers to one of the beautiful falls made by that river in its course. The success of Annan is attributable to the Solway being nearer to the starting point than the German Ocean, to which Tweed runs, on the east, or the Atlantic, which receives Clyde, on the west.

Like most mountain-bred streams, Annan is subject to heavy floods; and, though the rich alluvial holms along its borders are now protected by sufficient embankments, those familiar with the natural features of Annandale can readily conceive the disastrous effects of such freshets upon the

unprotected fields, and will recognize the probable truth of the old saying

"When Annan roars o'er bank and brae,

"The Southland farmer's heart is wae."

These ancient relics, besides their popular interest, illustrate the curiously respectful manner in which the Scotch Lowlander, as well as the English Borderer, speaks of his native rivers, indicating them as though they were impersonations of some vague power; rarely prefixing to their names the definite article, as the English in general do in speaking of the Mersey, the Dee, the Severn, and so on, but calling them Tweed, Yarrow, Ettrick, &c.; while the people residing in a district watered by any particular stream, call their district, and even themselves, as well as the river, "The Water," and are so spoken of by their neighbours, occasionally with the name of the river appended—a custom that gives rise to expressions somewhat puzzling to the Southron. Thus, I have heard it said of a large assemblage of country people, that "A' Corrie water was there;" and at a fair I have heard a quarrelsome rustic assert that he "could thrash a' the Water o' Milk," meaning, of course, not the rivers so called (the latter the most lovely of all the fair tributaries of Annan water), but the tracts of country drained by the Corrie and the Milk. Again, at an old-fashioned Scotch wedding it has been said of an active young votaress of Terpsichore-activity being of more account there than grace-that "she capped the Water at dancing" that was, she surpassed all the people living near it.

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There is an old enumerative rhyme on places in the vale of Corrie to this effect

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"There's Corrie-lea, and Corrie-law,

"Corrie-hill and Corrie-ha',

"Corrie-mains, where moudies hork,

"Corrie-common, Corrie kirk."