In Quérard's _France Littéraire_ (Didot, Paris, 1839), tome x. p. 10., I read the following notice of the author of _Histoire des Sévérambes_:-- "Vairasse (Denis) d'Alais, écrivain français du XVII. Siècle. "---- Grammaire raisonnée et méthodique, contenant en abrégé les principes de cet art et les règles les plus nécessaires de la langue français. Nouv. édit. Paris, D. Mariette, 1702, in-12. "La première édition a paru en 1681. "---- Histoire des Sévérambes (Roman politique) nouv. édit. Amsterdam, Etienne Roger, 1716, 2 vol. in-12. "La première édition parut de 1677 à 1679, en trois vol. in-12. "Cet ouvrage a été réimprimé dans la collection des Voyages imaginaires." _La France Littéraire_ is a compilation of extraordinary labour and research; and, in the absence of more authentic information, I believe we may safely rely on the above statement. The facts, therefore, in so far as they have been brought to light, may be summed up as follows:-- 1. The original work was written in English, was entitled _History of the Sevarites_, and published in 1675. 2. That work suggested the idea of the _Histoire des Sévérambes_, which was published in 1677-9, and in all essential respects may be said to be an original composition. 3. The Captain _Liden_ of one edition, and the Captain _Siden_ of another (from whose memoirs the work is said to have been translated), are one and the same imaginary personage. 4. The author of the _History of the Sevarites_ has not been ascertained; the claims of Vairasse, Algernon Sidney, and Isaac Vossius, being founded on mere conjecture. 5. There seems no reason to doubt that Denis Vairasse d'Alais was the author of _Histoire des Sévérambes_; supported as that opinion is by the testimony of Christian Thomasius, Barbier, and Quérard. HENRY H. BREEN. St. Lucia, June, 1851. SALTING THE DEAD. (Vol. iv., p. 6.) An amusing instance of this custom--perhaps even now, under certain circumstances, prevalent in some parts of England--occurs in Mrs. Bray's _Letters on the Superstitions, &c. of Devonshire_. A traveller while passing over one of the large uninclosed tracts of land near Tavistock, was overtaken by a violent snowstorm, which compelled him to seek a night's shelter from the inhabitants of a lonely cottage on the moor. In the chamber assigned for his repose, he observed a curiously carved oak chest of antique appearance. "He noticed or made some remarks upon it to the old woman who had lighted him up stairs, in order to see that all things in his room might be as comfortable as circumstances would permit for his rest. There was something he thought shy and odd about the manner of the woman when he observed the chest; and after she was gone, he had half a mind to take a peep into it."