your use till such time as you have need thereof."

I could select some exceedingly ludicrous prescriptions (for the book
contains 400 pages), but the most curious unfortunately happen to be the
most indelicate. Besides this, I am afraid the subject is scarcely worthy
of much space in such an important and useful work as "NOTES AND QUERIES."

ALEXANDER ANDREWS.

Abridge, Essex.

_Mice as a Medicine_ (Vol. i., p. 397.).--An old woman lately recommended
an occasional roast mouse as a certain cure for a little boy who wetted his
bed at night. Her own son, she said, had got over this weakness by eating
three roast mice. I am told that the Faculty employ this remedy, and that
it has been prescribed in the Oxford Infirmary.

J.W.H.

_Omens from Birds._--It is said that for a bird to fly into a room, and out
again, by an open window, surely indicates the decease of some inmate. Is
this belief local?

J.W.H.

* * * * *

MODE OF COMPUTING INTEREST.

The mode of computing interest among the ancient Greeks appears to have
been in many respects the same as that now prevailing in India, which has
probably undergone no change from a very remote period. Precisely the same
term, too, is used to denote the rate of interest, namely, [Greek: tokos]
in Greek and _taka_ or _tuka_ in the languages of Western India. [Greek:
Tokoe epidekatoi] in Greek, and _dus take_ in Hindostanee, respectively
denote _ten per cent_. At Athens, the rate of interest might be calculated
either by the month or by the year--each being expressed by different terms
(Boeckh. _Pub. Econ. of Athens_, i. 165.). Precisely the same system
prevails here. _Pono taka_, that is, three quarters of a _taka_, denotes 3/4
per cent. _per month_. _Nau take_, that is, nine _take_, denotes nine per
cent. _per annum_. For the Greek mode of reckoning interest by the month,
see Smith's _Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities_, p. 524. At Athens,
the year, in calculating interest, was reckoned at 360 days (Boeckh, i.
183.). Here also, in all native accounts-current, the year is reckoned at
360 days.

The word [Greek: tokos], as applied to interest, was understood by the
Greeks themselves to be derived from [Greek: tikto], "to produce," _i.e._
money begetting money; the offspring or produce of money lent out. Whether
its identity may not be established with the word in current use for
thousands of years in this country to express precisely t