Chapter 2

"Ye gang out ov' a night--ivery night, while ye find nine toads--an' when ye've gitten t' nine toads, ye hang 'em up ov' a string, an' ye make a hole and buries t' toads i't hole--and as 't toads pines away, so 't person pines away 'at you've looked upon wiv a yevil eye, an' they pine and pine away while they die, without ony disease at all!"

I do not know if this is the orthodox creed respecting the mode of gaining the power of the evil eye, but it is at all events a genuine piece of Folk Lore.

The above will corroborate an old story rife in Yorkshire, of an ignorant person, who, being asked if he ever said his prayers, repeated as follows:--

"From witches and wizards and long-tail'd buzzards, And creeping things that run in hedge-bottoms, Good lord, deliver us."

MARGARET GATTY.

Ecclesfield, April 24. 1850.

_Charms._--I beg to represent to the correspondents of the "NOTES AND QUERIES," especially to the clergy and medical men resident in the country, that notices of the superstitious practices still prevalent, or recently prevalent, in different parts of the kingdom, for the cure of diseases, are highly instructive and even valuable, on many accounts. Independently of their archæological {430} interest as illustrations of the mode of thinking and acting of past times, they become really valuable to the philosophical physician, as throwing light on the natural history of diseases. The prescribers and practisers of such "charms," as well as the lookers-on, have all unquestionable evidence of the _efficacy_ of the prescriptions, in a great many cases: that is to say, the diseases for which the charms are prescribed _are cured_; and, according to the mode of reasoning prevalent with prescribers, orthodox and heterodox, they must be cured by them,--_post hoc ergo propter hoc_. Unhappily for the scientific study of diseases, the universal interference of ART _in an active form_ renders it difficult to meet with _pure specimens_ of corporeal maladies; and, consequently, it is often difficult to say whether it is nature or art that must be credited for the event. This is a positive misfortune, in a scientific point of view. Now, as there can be no question as to the non-efficiency of _charms_ in a material or physical point of view (their action through the imagination is a distinct and important subject of inquiry), it follows that every disease getting well in the practice of the charmer, is curable and cured by Nature. A faithful list of such cases could not fail to be most useful to the scientific inquirer, and to the progress of truth; and it is therefore that I am desirous of calling the attention of your correspondents to the subject. As a general rule, it will be found that the diseases in which charms have obtained most fame as curative are those of long duration, not dangerous, yet not at all, or very slightly, benefited by ordinary medicines. In such cases, of course, there is not room for the display of an imaginary agency:--"For," as Crabbe says,--and I hope your medical readers will pardon the irreverence--

"For NATURE then has time to work _her_ way; And doing nothing often has prevailed, When ten physicians have prescribed, and failed."

The notice in your last Number respecting the cure of hooping-cough, is a capital example of what has just been stated; and I doubt not but many of your correspondents could supply numerous prescriptions equally scientific and equally effective. On a future occasion, I will myself furnish you with some; but as I have already trespassed so far on your space, I will conclude by naming a few diseases in which the charmers may be expected to charm most wisely and well. They will all be found to come within the category of the diseases characterised above:--Epilepsy, St. Vitus's Dance (_Chorea_), Hysteria, Toothache, Warts, Ague, Mild Skin-diseases, Tic Douloureux, Jaundice, Asthma, Bleeding from the Nose, St. Anthony's Fire or The Rose (_Erysipelas_), King's Evil (_Scrofula_), Mumps, Rheutmatic Pains, &c., &c.

EMDEE.

April 25. 1850.

_Roasted Mouse._--I have often heard my father say, that when he had the measles, his nurse gave him a roasted mouse to cure him.

SCOTUS.

* * * * *

THE ANGLO-SAXON WORD "UNLAED."

A long etymological disquisition may seem a trifling matter; but what a clear insight into historic truth, into the manners, the customs, and the possessions of people of former ages, is sometimes obtained by the accurate definition of even a single word. A pertinent instance will be found in the true etymon of _Brytenwealda_, given by Mr. Kemble in his chapter "On the Growth of the kingly Power." (_Saxons in Engl._ B. II. c. 1.) Upon this consideration I must rest for this somewhat lengthy investigation.

The word UNLAED, as far as we at present know, occurs only five times in Anglo-Saxon; three of which are in the legend of Andreas in the Vercelli MS., which legend was first printed, under the auspices of the Record Commission, by Mr. Thorpe; but the Report to which the poetry of the Vercelli MS. was attached has, for reasons with which I am unacquainted, never been made public. In 1840, James Grimm, "feeling (as Mr. Kemble says) that this was a wrong done to the world of letters at large," published it at Cassell, together with the Legend of Elene, or the Finding of the Cross, with an Introduction and very copious notes. In 1844, it was printed for the Aelfric Society by Mr. Kemble, accompanied by a translation, in which the passages are thus given.--

"Such was the people's peaceless token, the suffering of the _wretched_." l. 57-9.

"When they of _savage spirits_ believed in the might," l. 283-4.

"Ye are _rude_, of poor thoughts."

The fifth instance of the occurrence of the word is in a passage cited by Wanley, Catal. p. 134., {431} from a homily occurring in a MS. in Corpus Christi College, s. 14.:--

"Men ða leoçes can hep re3þ se hal3a se[~s] Io[~hs] þaep re Hael. eode ofen þone bupnan the Ledpoc hatte, on in[=e]n aenne p[.y]ptun. Tha piste se unlaesde iudas se þe hune to deaþe beleaped haefde."

In Grimm's _Elucidations to Andreas_ he thus notices it:--

"Unlaed, miser, improbus, infelix. (A. 142. 744. _Judith_, 134, 43.). A rare adjective never occurring in Beowulf, Coedmon, or the Cod. Exon., and belonging to those which only appear in conjunction with _un_. Thus, also, the Goth. unleds, pauper, miser; and the O.H.G. unlât (Graff, 2. 166.); we nowhere find a lêds, laed, lât, as an antithesis. It must have signified _dives, felix_; and its root is wholly obscure."

In all the Anglo-Saxon examples of unlaed, the sense appears to be _wretched_, _miserable_; in the Gothic it is uniformly _poor_[1]: but _poverty_ and _wretchedness_ are nearly allied. Lêd, or laed, would evidently therefore signify _rich_, and by inference _happy_. Now we have abundant examples of the use of the word ledes in old English; not only for _people_, but for _riches_, _goods_, _movable property_. Lond and lede, or ledes, or lith, frequently occur unequivocally in this latter sense, thus:--

"He was the first of Inglond that gaf God his tithe Of isshue of bestes, of londes, or of _lithe_."

_P. Plouhm_.

"I bed hem bothe lond and _lede_, To have his douhter in worthlie wede, And spouse here with my ring."

_K. of Tars_, 124.

"For to have lond or _lede_, Or _other riches_, so God me spede! Yt ys to muche for me."

_Sir Cleges_, 409.

"Who schall us now geve londes or _lythe_, Hawkys, or houndes, or stedys stithe, As he was wont to do."

_Le B. Florence of Rome_, 841.

"No asked he lond or _lithe_, Bot that maiden bright."

_Sir Tristrem_, xlviii.

In "William and the Werwolf" the cowherd and his wife resolve to leave William

"Al here godis Londes and _ludes_ as ether after her lif dawes."

p. 4

In this poem, _ludes_ and _ledes_ are used indiscriminately, but most frequently in the sense of men, people. Sir Frederick Madden has shown, from the equivalent words in the French original of Robert of Brunne, "that he always uses the word in the meaning of _possessions_, whether consisting of tenements, rents, fees, &c.;" in short, _wealth_.

If, therefore, the word has this sense in old English, we might expect to find it in Anglo-Saxon, and I think it is quite clear that we have it at least in one instance. In the _Ancient Laws and Institutes of England_, vol. i. p. 184., an oath is given, in which the following passage occurs:

"Do spa to lane beo þé he þinum I leat me be minum ne 3ypne le þines ne laedes ne landes ne sac ne socne ne þu mines ne þeapst ne mint ic þe nan þio3."

Mr. Thorpe has not translated the word, nor is it noticed in his Glossary; but I think there can be no doubt that it should be rendered by _goods_, _chattels_, or _wealth_, i.e., movable property.

This will be even more obvious from an extract given by Bishop Nicholson, in the preface to Wilkin's _Leges Saxonicæ_ p. vii. It is part of the oath of a Scotish baron of much later date, and the sense here is unequivocal:--

"I becom zour man my liege king in land, _lith_[2], life and lim, warldly honour, homage, fealty, and leawty, against all that live and die."

Numerous examples are to be found in the M.H. German, of which I will cite a few:

"Ir habt doch zu iuwere hant Beidin _liute_ unde lant."

_Tristr._ 13934.

"Und bevelhet ir _liute_ unde lant."

_Iwein._ 2889. {432}

"Ich teile ir _liute_ unde lant."

_Id._ 7714.

And in the old translation of the _Liber Dialogorum_ of St. Gregory, printed in the cloister of S. Ulrich at Augspurg in 1473:--

"In der Statt waren hoch Türen und schöne Heüser von Silber und Gold, und aller Hand _leüt_, und die Frawen und Man naÿgten im alle."

Lastly, Jo. Morsheim in his _Untreuer Frawen_:--

"Das was mein Herr gar gerne hört, Und ob es _Leut_ und Land bethort."

Now, when we recollect the state of the people in those times, the serf-like vassalage, the _Hörigkeit_ or _Leibeigenthum_, which prevailed, we cannot be surprised that a word which signified _possessions_ should designate also the _people_. It must still, however, be quite uncertain which is the secondary sense.

The root of the word, as Grimm justly remarks, is very obscure; and yet it seems to me that he himself has indirectly pointed it out:--

"Goth. liudan[3] (crescere); O.H.G. liotan (sometimes unorganic, hliotan); O.H.G. liut (populus); A.-S. lëóð; O.N. lióð: Goth. lauths -is (homo), ju33alauths -dis (adolescens); O.H.G. sumar -lota (virgulta palmitis, i.e. qui una æstate creverunt, _Gl. Rhb._ 926'b, Jun. 242.); M.H.G. corrupted into sumer -late (M.S. i. 124'b. 2. 161'a. virga herba). It is doubtful whether ludja (facies), O.H.G. andlutti, is to be reckoned among them."--_Deutsche Gram._ ii. 21. For this last see Diefenbach, _Vergl. Gram. der Goth. Spr._ i. 242.

In his _Erlauterungen zu Elene_, p. 166., Grimm further remarks:--

"The verb is leoðan, leað, luðon (crescere), O.S. lioðan, lôð, luðun. Leluðon (_Cædm._ 93. 28.) is creverunt, pullulant; and 3eloðen (ap. Hickes, p. 135. note) onustus, but rather cretus. Elene, 1227. 3eloðen unðep leápum (cretus sub foliis)."

It has been surmised that LEDE was connected with the O.N. hlÿt[4]--which not only signified _sors, portio_, but _res consistentia_--and the A.-S. hlet, hlyt, lot, portion, inheritance: thus, in the A.-S. Psal. xxx. 18., on hanðum ðinum hlÿt mín, _my heritage is in thy hands_. Notker's version is: Mín lôz ist in dínen handen. I have since found that Kindlinger (_Geschichte der Deutchen Hörigkeit_) has made an attempt to derive it from _Lied, Lit_, which in Dutch, Flemish, and Low German, still signify a _limb_; I think, unsuccessfully.

Ray, in his _Gloss. Northanymbr._, has "unlead, nomen opprobrii;" but he gives a false derivation: Grose, in his _Provincial Glossary_, "unleed or unlead, a general name for any crawling venomous creature, as a toad, &c. It is sometimes ascribed to a man, and then it denotes a sly wicked fellow, that in a manner creeps to do mischief. See Mr. Nicholson's Catalogue."

In the 2d edition of Mr. Brockett's _Glossary_, we have: "Unletes, displacers or destroyers of the farmer's produce."

This provincial preservation of a word of such rare occurrence in Anglo-Saxon, and of which no example has yet been found in old English, is a remarkable circumstance. The word has evidently signified, like the Gothic, in the first place _poor_; then _wretched_, _miserable_; and hence, perhaps, its opprobrious sense of _mischievous_ or _wicked_.

"In those rude times when wealth or movable property consisted almost entirely of living money, in which debts were contracted and paid, and for which land was given in mortgage or sold; it is quite certain that the serfs were transferred with the land, the lord considering them as so much live-stock, or part of his _chattels_."

A vestige of this feeling with regard to dependants remains in the use of the word _Man_ (which formerly had the same sense as _lede_). We still speak of "a general and his men," and use the expression "our men." But, happily for the masses of mankind, few vestiges of serfdom and slavery, and those in a mitigated form, now virtually exist.

S.W. SINGER.

April 16. 1850.

[Footnote 1: It occurs many times in the Moeso-Gothic version of the Gospels for [Greek: ptochos]. From the Glossaries, it appears that iungalauths is used three times for [Greek: neaniskos], a young man; therefore lauths or lauds would signify simply _man_; and the plural, laudeis, would be _people_. See this established by the analogy of vairths, or O.H.G. virahi, also signifying people. Grimm's _Deutsche Gram._ iii. 472., note. "Es konnte zwar _unlêds_ (pauper) aber auch _unlêths_ heissen."--_D. Gr._ 225.]

[Footnote 2: Sir F. Palgrave has given this extract in the Appendix to his _Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth_, p. ccccvii., where, by an error of the press, or of transcription, the word stands _lich_. It may be as well to remark, that the corresponding word in Latin formulas of the same kind is "catallis," _i.e. chattels_. A passage in Havelok, v. 2515., will clearly demonstrate that _lith_ was at least one kind of _chattel_, and equivalent to _fe_ (fee).

"Thanne he was ded that Sathanas Sket was seysed al that his was, In the King's hand il del, _Lond_ and _lith_, and other _catel_, And the King ful sone it yaf Ubbe in the hond with a fayr staf, And seyde, 'Her ich sayse the In al the _lond_ in al the _fe_.'"]

[Footnote 3: The author of _Tripartita seu de Analogia Linguacum_, under the words "Leute" and "Barn," says:--"Respice Ebr. Id. Ebr. ledah, partus, proles est. Ebr. lad, led, gigno." A remarkable coincidence at least with Grimm's derivation of léôd from the Goth. liudan, crescere.]

[Footnote 4: Thus, Anthon, _Teutschen Landwirthschaft_, Th. i. p. 61.:--"Das Land eines jeden Dorfes, einer jeden Germarkung war wirklich getheilt und, wie es sehr wahrscheinlich, alsdan verlost worden. Daher nannte man dasjenige, was zu einem Grunstüke an Äkern, Wiesen gehörte, ein _Los_ (Sors). Das Burgundische Gesetz redet ausfdrücklich vom Lande das man in _Lose_ erhalten hat (Terra _sortis_ titulo acquisita, Tit. i. § 1.)" Schmeller, in his _Bayrishces Wort. B._ v. _Lud-aigen_, also points to the connection of _Lud_ with hluz-hlut, sors, portio; but he rather inclines to derive it from the Low-Latin, ALLODIUM. It appears to me that the converse of this is most likely to have been the case, and that this very word LEDS or LÆDS is likely to furnish a more satisfactory etymology of ALLODIUM than has hitherto been offered.]

* * * * * {433}

BP. COSIN'S MSS.--INDEX TO BAKER'S MSS.

Your correspondent "J. SANSOM" (No. 19. p. 303.) may perhaps find some unpublished remains of Bp. Cosin in Baker's MSS.; from the excellent index to which (Cambridge, 1848, p. 57.) I transcribe the following notices, premising that of the volumes of the MSS. the first twenty-three are in the British Museum, and the remainder in the University Library, (not, as Mr. Carlyle says in a note in, I think, the 3d vol. of his _Letters. &c. of Cromwell_ in the library of Trin. Coll.).

"Cosin, Bp.-- Notes of, in his Common Prayer, edit. 1636, xx. 175. Benefactions to See of Durham, xxx. 377-380. Conference with Abp. of Trebisond, xx. 178. Diary in Paris, 1651, xxxvi. 329. Intended donation for a Senate-House, xxx. 454. Letters to Peter Gunning, principally concerning the authority of the Apocrypha, vi. 174-180. 230-238. Manual of Devotion, xxxvi. 338."

As the editors of the Index to Baker's MSS. invite corrections from those who use the MSS., you will perhaps be willing to print the following additions and corrections, which may be of use in case a new edition of the Index should be required:--

Preface, p. vii. _add_, in _Thoresby Correspondence_, one or two of Baker's _Letters_ have been printed, others have appeared in Nichols's _Literary Anecdotes_.

Index, p. 2. Altars, suppression of, in Ely Diocese, 1550, xxx. 213. Printed in the _British Magazine_, Oct. 1849, p. 401.

P. 5. Babraham, Hullier, Vicar of, burnt for heresy. _Brit. Mag._ Nov. 1849, p. 543.

P. 13. Bucer incepts as Dr. of Divinty, 1549, xxiv. 114. See Dr. Lamb's _Documents from MSS. C.C.C.C._ p. 153.

Appointed to lecture by Edw. VI., 1549, xxx. 370. See Dr. Lamb, p. 152.

Letter of University to Edw., recommending his family to care, x. 396. Dr. Lamb, p. 154.

P. 14. Buckingham, Dr. Eglisham's account of his poisoning James I., xxxii. 149-153. See _Hurl. Misc._

Buckmaster's Letter concerning the King's Divorce, x. 243. This is printed in _Burnet_, vol. iii. lib. 1. collect. No. 16., from a copy sent by Baker, but more fully in Dr. Lamb, p. 23., and in Cooper's _Annals_.

P. 25. Renunciation of the Pope, 1535. See Ant. Harmer, _Specimen_, p. 163.

P. 51. Cowel, Dr., charge against, and defence of his Antisanderus. _Brit. Mag._ Aug. 1849, p. 184.

Cranmer, extract from C.C.C. MS. concerning. _Brit. Mag._ Aug. 1849, p. 169, _seq_.

Cranmer, life of, xxxi. 1-3. _Brit. Mag._ Aug. 1849, p. 165.

P. 57. Convocation, subscribers to the judgment of, xxxi. 9. _British Magazine_, Sept. 1849, p. 317.

P. 68. Ely, Altars, suppression of, 1550, xxx. 213. _Brit. Mag._ Oct. 1849, p. 401.

P. 77. Several of the papers relating to Bishop Fisher will be found in Dr. Hymers' edition of _The Funeral Sermon on Lady Margaret_.

P. 80. Gloucester, Abbey of, &c., a Poem by Malvern, v. 285-7. _Brit. Mag._ xxi. 377.; Caius Coll. MSS. No. 391. art 13.

Goodman, Declaration concerning the articles in his book. Strype's _Annals_, I. i. 184.

P. 89. Henry VII., Letter to Lady Margaret, xix. 262. See Dr. Hymers, as above, p. 160.

P. 91. Henry VIII., Letter to, giving an account of the death of Wyngfield, &c. See Sir H. Ellis, _Ser. III._ No. 134.

P. 94. Humphrey, Bishop, Account, &c., xxxv. 1-19. Rend xxvi. 1-19.

Humphrey, Bishop, Images and Relics, &c., xxx. 133-4. _Brit. Mag._ Sept. 1849, p. 300.

P. 121-2. Lady Margaret. Several of the articles relating to Lady Margaret have been printed by Dr. Hymers (_ut sup_.).

P. 137. Pole Card. Oratio Johannis Stoyks, &c., v. 310-312. Dr. Lamb, p. 177.

P. 143. Redman, Dr., Particulars of, xxxii. 495.--_Brit. Mag._ Oct. 1849, p. 402.

P. 151. Spelman's Proposition concerning the Saxon Lecture, &c. Sir H. Ellis _Letters of Eminent Literary Men_, Camd. Soc. No. 59.

P. 169. Noy's Will, xxxvi. 375., read 379.

Many of the articles relating to Cambridge in the MSS. have been printed by Mr. Cooper in his _Annals of Cambridge_: some relating to Cromwell are to be found in Mr. Carlyle's work; and several, besides those which I have named, are contained in Dr. Lamb's _Documents_.

J.E.B. MAYOR.

Marlborough Coll., March 30.

* * * * *

ARABIC NUMERALS AND CIPHER.

Will you suffer me to add some further remarks on the subject of the Arabic numerals and cipher; as neither the querists nor respondents seem to have duly appreciated the immense importance of the step taken by introducing the use of a cipher. I would commence with observing, that we know of no people tolerably advanced in civilisation, whose system of notation had made such little progress, beyond that of the mere savage, as the Romans. The rudest savages could make upright scratches on the face of a rock, and set them in a row, to signify units; and as the circumstance of having ten fingers has led the people of every nation to give a distinct name to the number ten and its multiples, the savage would have taken but a little step when he invented such a mode of expressing tens as crossing his scratches, thus X. His ideas, however, enlarge, and he makes three scratches, thus [C with square sides], to express 100. Generations of such vagabonds as founded Rome pass away, and at length some one discovers that, by using but half the figure for X, the number 5 may be conjectured to be meant. Another calculator follows {434} up this discovery, and by employing [C with square sides], half the figure used for 100, he expresses 50. At length the rude man procured a better knife, with which he was enabled to give a more graceful form to his [C with square sides], by rounding it into C; then two such, turned different ways, with a distinguishing cut between them, made CD, to express a thousand; and as, by that time, the alphabet was introduced, they recognised the similarity of the form at which they had thus arrived to the first letter of _Mille_, and called it M, or 1000. The half of this DC was adopted by a ready analogy for 500. With that discovery the invention of the Romans stopped, though they had recourse to various awkward expedients for making these forms express somewhat higher numbers. On the other hand, the Hebrews seem to have been provided with an alphabet as soon as they were to constitute a nation; and they were taught to use the successive letters of that alphabet to express the first ten numerals. In this way b and c might denote 2 and 3 just as well as those figures; and numbers might thus be expressed by single letters to the end of the alphabet, but no further. They were taught, however, and the Greeks learnt from them, to use the letters which follow the ninth as indications of so many tens; and those which follow the eighteenth as indicative of hundreds. This process was exceedingly superior to the Roman; but at the end of the alphabet it required supplementary signs. In this way bdecba might have expressed 245321 as concisely as our figures; but if 320 were to be taken from this sum, the removal of the equivalent letters cb would leave bdea, or apparently no more than 2451. The invention of a cipher at once beautifully simplified the notation, and facilitated its indefinite extension. It was then no longer necessary to have one character for units and another for as many tens. The substitution of 00 for cb, so as to write bdeooa, kept the d in its place, and therefore still indicating 40,000. It was thus that 27, 207, and 270 were made distinguishable at once, without needing separate letters for tens and hundreds; and new signs to express millions and their multiples became unnecessary.