(Vol. ii., p. 262. Vol. iii., p. 25.) Your correspondent J. M. G. quotes _Hudibras_, p. i. c. i. l. 147.: "Where truth in person does appear, Like words congeal'd in northern air." Zachary Grey does _not_, in his note, refer to Mandeville, but he says: "See an explication of this passage, and a merry account of words freezing in Nova Zembla, _Tatler,_ No. 254.; and Rabelais' account of the bloody fight of the Arimasphians and Nephelebites upon the confines of the Frozen Sea (vol. iv. c. 56. p. 229., Ozell's edit. 1737). To which Mr. John Done probably refers, in his panegyric upon T. Coryat, and his Crudities: 'It's not that French which made his giants see, Those uncouth islands, where words frozen be, Till by the thaw next year they've voice again." W. B. H. Manchester. J. M. G. quotes Sir John Mandeville for the story of the congealed words falling like hail from the rigging of his ship in the Arctic regions. I do not remember the passage, but there is one almost identical in Rabelais' _Pantagruel_, lib. iv. ch. lv., headed-- "Comment en haulte mer Pantagruel ouit diverses parolles desgelees." In the notes to Bohn's translation it is said: "Rabelais has borrowed these from the _Courtisan_ of Balthasar de Castillon, of which a French translation was printed in 1539, and from the _Apologues_ of Caelius Caleagnnius of Ferrara, published in 1544." W. J. BERNHARD SMITH. Temple. * * * * * BAB AT THE BOWSTER. (Vol. ii., p. 517.) Your correspondent MAC is mistaken when he says that no words are used in the Scottish dance of "Bab at the Bowster:" I have myself "babbed at the Bowster" within the last few years. Upon that occasion the words sung by the company while dancing round the individual bearing the "bowster" were-- "Wha learn'd you to dance, You to dance, you to dance, Wha learn'd you to dance Bab at the bowster brawly?" To which the "bowster-bearer" replies-- "My mither learned me to dance, Me to dance, me to dance, My mither learned me to dance Bab at the bowster brawly." After which, throwing down the "bowster" or cushion before one of the opposite sex, they both kneel upon it, and kiss one another _affectionately_. I never heard any words save the above; but a friend from a neighbouring county (Dumbartonshire) informs me, that with them it is sometimes changed into "Wha gi'ed you the keys to keep, The keys to keep," &c. There are also other variations which I believe I can procure, should they be desired by MAC or others. I should perhaps mention, for the benefit of Southrons, that almost all untravelled Scotchmen in conversation use the verb _to learn_ in place of the verb _to teach_. Y. Glasgow.