Notes And Queries No 209 October 29 1853 A Medium Of Inter Comm

Chapter 3

Chapter 33,770 wordsPublic domain

_Stone Pillar Worship._--Sir J. E. TENNENT inquires whether any traces of this worship are to be found in Ireland, and refers to a letter from a correspondent of Lord Roden's, which states that the peasantry of the island of Inniskea, off the coast of Mayo, hold in reverence a stone idol called _Neevougi_. This word I cannot find in my Irish dictionary, but it is evidently a diminutive, formed from the word _Eevan_ (Io[.m]ai[.g]), image, or idol: and it is remarkable that the scriptural Hebrew term for idol is identical with the Irish, or nearly so--¤'WN¤ (_Eevan_), derived from a root signifying _negation_, and applied to the vanity of idols, and to the idols themselves.

I saw at Kenmare, in the county of Kerry, in the summer of 1847, a water-worn fragment of clay slate, bearing a rude likeness to the human form, which the peasantry called _Eevan_. Its original location was in or near the old graveyard of Kilmakillogue, and it was regarded with reverence as the image of some saint in "the ould auncient times," as an "ould auncient" native of Tuosist (the lonely place) informed me. In the same immediate neighbourhood is a gullaune (+gallan+), or stone pillar, at which the peasantry used "to give {414} rounds;" also the curious small lakes or tarns, on which the islands were said to move on July 8, St. Quinlan's [Kilian?] Day. (See Smith's _History of Kerry_.)

However, such superstitious usages are fast falling into desuetude; and, whatever may have been the early history of Eevan, it is a sufficient proof of no vestige of stone pillar worship remaining in Tuosist, that, to gratify the whim of a young gentleman, some peasants from the neighbourhood removed this stone fragment by boat to Kenmare the spring of 1846, where it now lies, perched on the summit of a limestone rock in the grounds of the nursery-house.

J. L.

Dublin.

_Idol Worship._--The islands of Inniskea, on the north-west coast of Ireland, are said to be inhabited by a population of about four hundred human beings, who speak the Irish language, and retain among them a trace of that government by chiefs which in former times existed in Ireland. The present chief or king of Inniskea is an intelligent peasant, whose authority is universally acknowledged, and the settlement of all disputes is referred to his decision. Occasionally they have been visited by wandering schoolmasters, but so short and casual have such visits been, that there are not ten individuals who even know the letters of any language. Though nominally Roman Catholics, these islanders have no priest resident among them, and their worship consists in occasional meetings at their chief's house, with visits to a holy well. Here the absence of religion is filled with the open practice of pagan idolatry; for in the south island a stone idol, called in the Irish _Neevougi_, has been from time immemorial religiously preserved and worshipped. This god, in appearance, resembles a thick roll of homespun flannel, which arises from a custom of dedicating a material of their dress to it whenever its aid is sought: this is sewed on by an old woman, its priestess, whose peculiar care it is. They pray to it in time of sickness. It is invoked when a storm is desired to dash some helpless ship upon the coast; and, again, the exercise of its power is solicited in calming the angry waves to admit of fishing.

Such is a brief outline of these islanders and their god; but of the early history of this idol no authentic information has yet been obtained. Can any of your numerous readers furnish an account of it?

WILLIAM BLOOD.

Wicklow.

* * * * *

"BLAGUEUR" AND "BLACKGUARD."

(Vol. vii., p. 77.)

I cannot concur in opinion with SIR EMERSON TENNANT, who thinks he has a right to identify the sense of our low word _blagueur_ with that of your lower one, _blackguard_. I allow that there some slight similitude of pronunciation between the words, but I contend that their sense is perfectly distinct, or, rather, wholly different; as distant, in fact, as is the date of their naturalisation in our respective idioms. Your _blackguard_ had already won a "local habitation and a name" under the reigns of Pope and his immediate predecessor Dryden. Of all living unrespectable characters our own _blagueur_ is the youngest, the most innocent, and the shyest. He is entirely of modern growth. He has but lately emerged from the soldier's barracks, the suttler's shop, and the mess-room. As a prolific tale-teller he amused the leisure hours of superannuated sergeants and half-pay subalterns. Ten or twelve years ago he had not yet made his appearance in plain clothes; he is now creeping and winding his way with slow and sure steps from his old haunts into some first-rate coffee-houses and shabby-genteel drawing-rooms, which Carlyle calls _sham gentility_. He bears on his very brow the newest _flunky-stamp_. The poor young fellow, after all, is no villain; he has no kind of connexion with the horrid rascal SIR EMERSOM TENNENT alludes to--with the _blackguard_. That he is a boaster, a talker, an idiot, a nincompoop; that he scatters "words, words, words," as Polonius did of old; that he is bombastic, wordy, prosy, nonsensical, and a fool, no one will deny. But he is no rogue, though he utters rogueries and drolleries. No one is justified in slandering him.

The _blackguard_ is a dirty fellow in every sense of the word--a _gredin_ (a cur), the true translation, by-the-bye, of the word _blackguard_. Voltaire, who dealt largely in Billingsgate, was very fond of the word _gredin_:

"Je semble a trois gredins, dans leur petit cerveau, Que pour etre imprimes et relies en veau," &c.

The word _blagueur_ implies nothing so contemptuous or offensive as the word _blackguard_ does. The emptiness of the person to whom it applies is very harmless. Its etymon _blague_ (bladder, _tobacco-bag_), the pouch, which smoking voluptuaries use to deposit their tobacco, is perfectly symbolic of the inane, bombastic, windy, and long-winded speeches and sayings of the _blagueur_. Every French commercial traveller, buss-tooter, and Parisian jarvy is one. When he deports himself with modesty, and shows a gentlemanly tact in his peculiar avocation, we call him a _craqueur_ (a cracker). "Ancient Pistol" was the king of _blagueurs_; Falstaff, of _craqueurs_. I like our _Baron de Crac_, a native of the land of white-liars and honey-tongued gentlemen (Gascony). The genus _craqueur_ is common here: as it shoots out into a thousand branches, shades, varieties, and modifications, judicial, political, poetical, and so on, it would be {415} quite out of my province to pursue farther the description of _blagueur_-land or _blarney_-land.

P.S.--Excuse my French-English.

PHILARETE CHASLES, Mazarinaeus.

Paris, Palais de l'Institut.

* * * * *

HARMONY OF THE FOUR GOSPELS.

(Vol. viii., p. 316.)

In answer to Z. I may state that the first attempt of this kind is attributed to Tatian. Eusebius, in his _Ecc. Hist._ (quoted in Lardner's _Works_, vol. ii. p. 137. ed. 1788), says, he "composed I know not what--harmony and collection of the gospels, which he called ~dia tessaron~." Eusebius himself composed a celebrated harmony, of which, as of some others in the sixteenth and two following centuries, there is a short account in Michaelis's _Introduction to the New Test._, translated by Bishop Marsh, vol. iii. part I. p. 32. The few works of the same kind written in the early and middle ages are noticed in Horne's _Introduct._, vol. ii. p. 274. About the year 330, Juvencus, a Spaniard, wrote the evangelical history in heroic verse. Of far greater merit were the four books of Augustine, _De Consensu Quatuor Evangeliorum_. After a long interval, Ludolphus the Saxon, a Carthusian monk, published a work which passed through thirty editions in Germany, besides being translated into French and Italian. Some years ago I made out the following list of Harmonies, Diatessarons, and Synoptical tables, published since the Reformation, which may in some measure meet the wish of your correspondent. It is probably incomplete. The dates are those of the first editions.

J. M.

Cranwell, near Bath.

Tatian wrote his ~Euangelion dia ton tessaron~ as early as the year 170. It is no longer extant, but we have some reason for believing that this Harmony had been compiled in an unfriendly spirit (Theodoret, _Haeret. Fabul._, lib. i. c. 20.). Tatian was followed by Ammonius, whose ~Harmonia~ appeared about 230; and in the next century by Eusebius and St. Ambrose, the former entitling his production o~Peri tes ton Euangelion diaphonias~, the latter _Concordia Evangelii Mattaei et Lucae_. But by far the ablest of the ancient writings on this subject is the _De Consensu Evangelistarum_ of St. Augustine. Many authors, such as Porphyry, in his ~Kata Christianon logoi~, had pointed with an air of triumph to the seeming discrepancies in the Evangelic records as an argument subversive of their claim to paramount authority ("Hoc enim solent quasi palmare suae vanitatis objicere, quod ipsi Evangelistae inter seipsos dissentiant."--Lib. i. c. 7.). In writing these objections St. Augustine had to handle nearly all the difficulties which offend the microscopic critics of the present day. His work was urged afresh upon the notice of the biblical scholar by Gerson, chancellor of the University of Paris, who died in 1429. The _Monotessaron, seu unum ex quatuor Evangeliis_ of that gifted writer will be found in Du Pin's edition of his _Works_, iv. 83. sq. Some additional information respecting Harmonies is supplied in Ebrard's _Wissenschaftliche Kritik der evangelischen Geschichte_, pp. 36. sq. Francfurt a. M., 1842.

C. HARDWICK.

St. Catharine's Hall, Cambridge.

Seiler says (_Bibl. Herm._, part II. c. 4. s. 4.) that "The greater part of the works on the harmony of the gospels are quite useless for our times, as their authors mostly proceed on incorrect principles." He refers only to the chief of them, namely:

For other Harmonies, see Mr. Horne's _Bibliog. Index_, p. 128. Heringa considers that the following writers "have brought the four Evangelists into an harmonious arrangement, namely:

Hesz, 1784. | Stronck, 1800. Bergen 1804.| Townsend, 1834.

And especially as to the sufferings and resurrection of Christ:

Voss, 1701. | Michaelis (translated by Duckett, 1827). Iken, 1743. | Cremer, 1795.

T. J. BUCKTON.

Birmingham.

{416} Ammonius, an Egyptian Christian nearly cotemporary with Origen (third century), wrote a Harmony of the four gospels, which is supposed to be one of those still extant in the _Biblioth. Max. Patrum_. But whether the larger Harmony in tom. ii. part 2., or the smaller in tom. iii., is the genuine work is doubted. See a note to p. 97. of Reid's _Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History_, 1 vol. edition: London, Simms and McIntyre, 1848.

CHRIS. ROBERTS.

Bradford, Yorkshire.

* * * * *

SMALL WORDS AND LOW WORDS.

(Vol. ii., pp. 305. 349. 377.; Vol. iii., p. 309.)

A passage in Churchill, and one in Lord John Russell's _Life of Moore_, have lately reminded me of a former Note of mine on this subject. The structure of Churchill's second couplet must surely have been suggested by that of Pope, which formed my original text:

"Conjunction, adverb, preposition, join To add new vigour to the nervous line:-- In monosyllables his thunders roll,-- He, she, it, and, we, ye, they, fright the soul." _Censure on Mossop._

Moore, in his Journals, notes, on the other side of the question, conversation between Rogers, Crowe, and himself, "on the beauty of monosyllabic verses. 'He jests at scars,' &c.; the couplet, 'Sigh on my lip,' &c.; 'Give all thou canst,' &c. &c., and many others, the most vigorous and musical, perhaps, of any." (Lord John Russell's _Moore_, vol. ii. p. 200.)

The frequency of monosyllabic lines in English poetry will hardly be wondered at, however it may be open to such criticisms as Pope's and Churchill's, when it is noted that our language contains, of monosyllables formed by the vowel _a_ alone, considerably more than 500; by the vowel _e_, about 450; by the vowel _i_, nearly 400; by the vowel _o_, rather more than 400; and by the vowel _u_, upwards of 260; a calculation entirely exclusive of the large number of monosyllables formed by diphthongs.

I hardly know whether the following "literary folly" (as "D'Israeli the Elder" would call it, see _Curiosities of Lit._ sub tit.), suggested by dipping into the above monosyllabical statistics, will be thought worthy to occupy a column of "N. & Q." However, it may take its chance as a supplementary Note, without farther preface, under the none, for want of a better, of _Univocalic verses_:

_The Russo-Turkish War._

_A._

Wars harm all ranks, all arts, all crafts appal: At Mars' harsh blast arch, rampart, altar fall! Ah! hard as adamant, a braggart Czar Arms vassal-swarms, and fans a fatal war! Rampant at that bad call, a Vandal-band Harass, and harm, and ransack Wallach-land! A Tartar phalanx Balkan's scarp hath past, And Allah's standard falls, alas! at last.

_The Fall of Eve._

_E._

Eve, Eden's Empress, needs defended be; The Serpent greets her when she seeks the tree. Serene she sees the speckled tempter creep; Gentle he seems--perversest schemer deep-- Yet endless pretexts, ever fresh, prefers, Perverts her senses, revels when she errs, Sneers when she weeps, regrets, repents she fell; Then, deep-reveng'd, reseeks the nether hell!

_The Approach of Evening._

_I._

Idling I sit in this mild twilight dim, Whilst birds, in wild swift vigils, circling skim. Light winds in sighing sink, till, rising bright, Night's Virgin Pilgrim swims in vivid light!

_Incontrovertible Facts._

_O._

No monk too good to rob, or cog, or plot. No fool so gross to bolt Scotch collops hot. From Donjon tops no Oroonoko rolls. Logwood, not Lotos, floods Oporto's bowls. Troops of old tosspots oft, to sot, consort. Box tops, not bottoms, schoolboys flog for sport. No cool monsoons blow soft on Oxford dons, Orthodox, jog-trot, book-worm Solomons! Bold Ostrogoths of ghosts no horror show. On London shop fronts no hop-blossoms grow. To crocks of gold no dodo looks for food. On soft cloth footstools no old fox doth brood. Long-storm-tost sloops forlorn work on to port. Rooks do not roost on spoons, nor woodcocks snort, Nor dog on snowdrop or on coltsfoot rolls, Nor common frog concocts long protocols.

_The same subject continued._

_U._

Dull, humdrum murmurs lull, but hubbub stuns. Lucullus snuffs up musk, mundungus shuns. Puss purrs, buds burst, bucks butt, luck turns up trumps; But full cups, hurtful, spur up unjust thumps.

Although I am the veritable K. I. P. B. T. of the former Notes, I sign myself now, in accordance with more recent custom,

HARRY LEROY TEMPLE.

* * * * *

A CHAPTER ON RINGS.

(Vol. vii. _passim._)

The Scriptures prove the use of rings in remote antiquity. In Gen. xli., Joseph has conferred on him the king's ring, an instance more ancient than Prometheus, whom fables call the inventor of the ring. Therefore let those who will hold, with Pliny and his followers, that its use is more recent than Homer. The Greeks seem to have derived the custom of wearing it from the East, and Italy from the Greeks. Juvenal and Persius refer to {417} rings which were worn only on birthdays. Clemens Alexandrinus recommends a limit within which the liberty of engraving upon them should be restrained. He thinks we should not allow an idol, a sword, a bow, or a cup, much less naked human figures; but a dove, a fish, or a ship in full sail, or a lyre, an anchor, or fishermen. By the dove he would denote the Holy Spirit; by the fish, the dinner which Christ prepared for his disciples (John xxi.), or the feeding of thousands (Luke ix.); by a ship, either the Church or human life; by a lyre, harmony; by an anchor, constancy; by fishermen, the apostles or the baptism of children. It is a wonder he did not mention the symbol of the name of Christ (~chi-rho~), the cross which is found on ancient gems, and Noah's ark.

Rings were worn upon the joints and fingers, and hence Clement says a man should not wear a ring upon the joint (_in articulo_), for this is what women do, but upon the little finger, and at its lowest part. He failed to observe the Roman custom of wearing the ring upon the finger of the left hand, which is nearest the heart, and which we therefore term the ring-finger. And Macrobius says, that when a ring fell from the little finger of Avienus' right hand, those who were present asked why he placed it upon the wrong hand and finger, not on those which had been set apart for this use. The reasons which are given for this custom in Macrobius were often laughed at by H. Fabricius ab Aquapendente, viz. that it is stated in anatomical works, that "a certain nerve which rises at the heart proceeds directly to that finger of the left hand which is next the little finger," for nothing of the sort, he said, existed in the human body.

The ring distinguished the free-born from the servile, who, however, sometimes obtained the _jus annuli_, or privilege of the ring. It was used as a seal, a pledge, and a bond. Women, when betrothed, received rings; and the virgin and martyr Agnes, in Ambrose, says, "My Lord Jesus Christ hath espoused me with his ring." Theosebius also, in Photius, says to his wife, "I formerly gave to thee the ring of union, now of temperance, to aid thee in the seemly custody of my house." He advisedly speaks of that _custody_, for the lady of the house in Plautus says,

"Obsignate cellas, referte annulum ad me: Ego huc transeo."

Wives generally used the same seals as their husbands: thus Cicero (_Ad Attic._ xi. 9) says, "Pomponia, I believe, has the seals of what is sealed." Sometimes, however, they used their own.

Touching the marriage ring, of what style and material it was, and whether formerly, as now, consecrated by prayers to God. Its pattern appears to have been one which has gone out of use, viz. right hands joined, such as is often observed on ancient coins. Tacitus (_Hist._ i. ll.) calls it absolutely _dextras_, right hands. Among us it was called a faith (_una fede._ Comp. Eng. "Plight my _troth_"), and not without precedent, for on the coins of Vitellius, &c. right hands thus joined bear the motto _Fides_. An esteemed writer (Nider), in his _Formicarium_, mentions a rustic virgin who desired to find a material ring as a token of her espousal "_in signum Christiferae desponsationis_," and found a ring of a white colour, like pure silver, upon which two hands were engraved where it was united. It was formerly customary to bless a crown or a ring by prayers. The form of consecration used by the priest is thus given in ancient liturgies:

"Bene [symbol, cross] die Domine, Annulum istum et coronam istam, ut sicut Annulus circundat digitum hominis, et corona caput, ita gratia Spiritus Sancti circundet sponsum et sponsam, ut videant filios et filias usque tertiam et quartam generationem: qui collaudent nomen viventis atque regnantis in secula seculorum. Amen."

For the crown, see Is. lxii. 1. (E. V. lxi. 10.). The words of Agnes above cited have reference to giving the right hand and a pledge.

These particulars are from the _Symbol. Epist. Liber_ of Laurentius Pignorius, Patar. 1628; where, in Ep. I. and XIX., many other references are to be found.

B. H. C.

* * * * *

ANTICIPATORY USE OF THE CROSS.--RINGING BELLS FOR THE DEAD.

(Vol. viii., pp. 130. 132.)

I trust that the following information may be acceptable to you and the authors of two interesting papers in "N. & Q." (Vol. viii., pp. 130-2.), viz. "Anticipatory Use of the Cross," and "Curious Custom of ringing Bells for the Dead."

When encamped, in 1823 or 1824, near the town (not the cantonment) of Muttra, on the river Jumna, a place of celebrated sanctity as the scene of the last incarnation of Vishnoo, the protective deity or myth of the Hindoos, an Italian gentleman of most polished manners, speaking English correctly and with fluency, was introduced to me. He travelled under the name of Count Venua, and was understood to be the eldest son of the then Prime Minister of Sardinia. The Count explained to me that his favourite pursuit was architecture, and that he preferred buildings of antiquity. I replied, that while breakfast was preparing I could meet his wishes, and led him to a large Hindoo edifice close by (or rather the remains), which a Mogul emperor had partially destroyed and thereby desecrated, the place having since been occasionally used by the townspeople as a cattle-shed, or for rubbish.

The Count, not deterred by heaps of cattle-dung, paced the dimensions, gazed on the solidity of the {418} stone masonry, approved of the construction and shape of the arched roof, pointed out the absence of all ornament excepting a simple moulding or two as architectural lines, and then broke out into enthusiastic admiration. "The most beautiful building! the greatest wonder of the world! Shame on the English government and English gentlemen for secreting such a curiosity! Here is the cross! the basilica carried out with more correctness of order and symmetry than in Italy! The early Christians must have built it! I will take measurements and drawings to lay before the cardinals!"

I was never more surprised, and assured the Count that I was unacquainted with the cathedral buildings of Europe, and I believed English gentlemen generally to be as ignorant as myself. I could not but acknowledge that the local governments had, as it seemed to him, evinced but little sympathy with Hindooism; and that whatever might be European policy in respect to religion, the East India Company might have participated in the desire which prevails in Europe to develop ancient customs, and the reasons of those customs. It might be presumed that we should then have contemplated this specimen of architecture with a knowledge of its original purposes, and the history of its events, had the Governor-General communicated his wish, and with due courtesy and disinterestedness invited the learned persons and scholars at the colleges of Muttra and Benares to assist such inquiries. It is but little the English now know of the Hindoo organisation, and the little they do know is derived from books not tested nor acknowledged by such learned persons.