We have many records of temporary stars that have appeared and then vanished. In the Zend Avesta it is said that Zerdust or Zoroaster, who taught and founded the sect of the Magi, informed his followers that a star should appear at the birth of the Messiah, or the promised and desired one, and that when it appeared they should go and offer gifts, and worship the great It would appear very probable that Zoroaster was a Jew by birth and a disciple of Daniel's, and acquainted with Daniel's prophecy of seventy weeks of years, and with Balaam's prophecy in Numbers. A star in the Eastern nation was a sign of divine dignity. Christ calls himself the bright and morning star (Rev. xxii. 16). See Bishop Horsley on the prophecies of the Cinderford. of this constellation from northern latitudes is to be found in the precession of the equinoxes, or the slight receding westward of the points where the ecliptic or sun's path crosses the equator twice a year. Owing to the greater thickness of the earth at the equator, that part of the earth comes to the equinoctial points a little sooner; consequently the sun appears to recede or go back towards the west, and the North Pole moves every year a little back-one. ward on the circle it describes in the northern sky. This movement being about 50" of a degree yearly, the relative place of the stars in ancient times can be ascertained by it. The North Pole makes this circle in about 25,900 years. The North Polar star of to-day has not always been nor will it continue | to be the Pole star. At the time of the construction of the earliest catalogues of the stars, 120 B.C., it was 12o from the Pole, it is now only 1° 24'; it will continue to approach to within half a degree, and will then recede. At the time of the erection of the great Pyramid of Gizeh, some 4,000 years A FOLK-LORE SOCIETY (5th S. v. 124, 294, 457.) ago, the pole of the heavens was near Alpha-Hailing as I do with great satisfaction the exDraconis. It is a curious fact that of the nine cellent suggestion of your accomplished corresponpyramids, six of the largest had the narrow dent ST. SWITHIN (5th S. v. 124), I must admit entrance passages inclined downwards at such an that I have been greatly disappointed that that angle that the Pole star of that time must have been visible, perhaps in daylight. In about 12,000 readers. As one who suggested upwards of thirty proposal has not elicited greater support from your years the bright star Vega or Alpha Lyrae will become the Pole star. As regards the Star of years ago the advisability of collecting the remains Bethlehem, the star that guided the Wise Men, it they were quite trampled out by the iron horse, of our popular mythology and superstitions before is a matter of history that about 125 years B.C. a and who has never ceased to take an interest in bright star appeared, and gradually increased in the subject, I venture to say that not a day should brilliancy, so as to be seen in the daytime about be lost in organizing such a society. A central the time of our Saviour; it gradually decreased in committee in London, of some half dozen who brightness and disappeared. It was the appear-have made Folk-Lore more or less a study, with ance of this star that induced Hipparchus to draw up his catalogue. It was situated in the constellation Coma or Koma, not far from Virgo. Its great peculiarity would be that its appearance had been predicted some 1,400 years before. From its position it would culminate, or be on the meridian about twelve at night, in the latitude of Jerusalem. R. C. Trench speaks of this star "shining in calm and silent splendour, larger, lovelier, and brighter than any of the host of heaven."-R. C. Trench's Star of the Wise Men. He also quotes from Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, who may have heard of it from those who had seen it. Prudentius is also quoted, "that not even the star of the morning was fairer." He also adds we have many allusions in the ancient Christian writers "to the surpassing brightness of this star," which I conceive, as many ancients and moderns have done, to have been a new star in the heavens. local secretaries in different parts of the country, if backed by a couple of hundred subscribers of a guinea, might collect and print an interesting yearly volume. Judging from what I have seen in some local culties would be not that of collecting, but that of newspapers, one of the committee's greatest diffiselecting what is not already recorded by Brand and his editors, Sir Henry Ellis and Mr. HalliwellPhillipps. This would require to be done with considerable judgment, and with great care, so as not to discourage those who take the trouble to communicate what they believe to be not generally known. Ladies should be specially invited to take part in the work, who, in their kindly ministrations in the cottages of their poorer neighbours, must often come across traces of old world customs and beliefs. Though I have spoken of an annual volume, I would not wait for the completion of a volume, but keep alive interest in the Society by issuing a few sheets from time to time, as sufficient materials of interest had been collected. Success to the Folk-Lore Society! soon AN OLD FOLK-LORIST. as Many of your readers will be obliged to MR. RATCLIFFE for the information contained in his note. Will some of your correspondents in other parts of the country give us the names of papers in their localities that devote a portion of their space to the preservation of folk-lore? I, for example, feel an interest in all that relates to the . county of Gloucester, and have a pretty considerable stock of trifles by me illustrating its bygone customs. Have any of the Gloucester, Cheltenham, or Bristol papers set apart a column for the reception of such matters? I know some of them have done so occasionally. The Bristol Times, for instance, is rich in matters relating to the lesser history of the city. But we want something more than this. We want a portion of our local papers devoted to the preservation of the most humble matters that cast a light on the rapidly changing life of the people. H. BOWER. There may be added to MR. RATCLIFFE's list of provincial newspapers the Nottingham Guardian, Manchester Courier, Worcester Journal, and a Cambridge paper, the name of which I do not remember. J. POTTER BRISCOE. Nottingham. THE REGICIDES, &c. (4th S. x. i.)—It is well known to all readers of Swiss history, and even to perusers of the ordinary guide books, local and general, that two of the so-called regicides are buried in the fine old church of St. Martin, at Vevey, in the Canton de Vaud. But while the names of Bradshaw (sic) and Ludlow are thus rendered familiar, the fact has, till recently, been quite ignored, or rather unknown, that in this same church are the graves and the monuments of two other regicides, viz., Nicolas Love and William Cawley. Some short time ago a stranger visited Vevey, and said that it was traditionally reported in his family that one of his ancestry (a regicide) was buried in the above church of St. Martin. The inquirer's name has escaped, but it was either Love or Cawley. However, he only inquired after one. The church authorities obligingly permitted a search; and after a minute examination, under the boarded floor of a dark niche, a lettered stone was discovered intruding. Of this slab nothing could be made out except Ta and Ar, the evident commencement of two lines. A removal of the pews and the flooring, however, not only brought to light the above protruding stone, but led to the discovery of another monument. In fact, it was placed beyond a doubt that St. Martin's Church was the burial-place not only of Broughton (sic) and Ludlow, but also of Love and Cawley. The Rev. W. P. Prior, the much esteemed British chaplain at Vevey, was immediately on the spot. He was too good an archæologist to JAMES HENRY DIXON, LL.D. THE BASQUES (5th S. v. 330.)-The term "Iberian" is applied to the part of Spain occupied by the Basques, and has also been applied to the whole of Spain. The term is derived from the Iberi, who dwelt on the Iberus or Ebro. According to some writers the Basque language is related to some of the North African languages; others say it is allied to the American languages. Mr. Webster tells us it is one of the purest remains of the Celtic. According to others it is of Tátar origin. It has certainly grammatical affinities with some of the Tátar languages, but I am not aware that it contains a single Tátar word; neither does its vocabulary contain half-a-dozen words that would appear to be related to any of the Celtic languages. More than half the vocabulary may be traced direct to Latin and Greek. A late writer asserts that its surface is strewn with Sanskrit roots. I doubt whether it has any Sanskrit word that it did From the bad carving it is not clear whether the name be Cowley, Cawley, or Gawley. We are therefore obliged to adopt the reading in "N. & Q." ut supra. Between this line and the next the family arms are inserted, but they are too crowded and confused to decipher heraldically. We find for crest a griffin holding a cross in his paws. In the shield are three stags' heads, three griffins' do., and something that resembles a lymdescription. Burke's Armorial may assist. We have it phad. Perhaps some correspondent can give a correct not at hand. not acquire through the Latin or Greek. The Basque cannot be said to belong to any family of languages (Humboldt); to the contrary, there is no philological evidence that the Basques ever occupied any much greater portion of Spain than they do at the present time; nor is there any such evidence of their settlement in Thrace, Italy, Sardinia, or any of the Italian islands. There is no evidence that the Iberi of Spain migrated from Iberia in Asia, nor that the two names are etymologically the same. R. S. CHARNOCK. Junior Garrick Club. My classification of Basque is with the Houssa, &c., of Africa, and consequently with the Kolarian of India. Ethnologists have sought and found a southern continuation of area for the Basque skull in North Africa. Those who have not investigated hesitate at finding light and black populations speaking the same language; but even the Aryan family is only a development from the languages of blacks. What in my book on Prehistoric Comparative Philology I have called the Vasco-Kolarian family, is marked by the characteristic of having combative races, but they have never established large civilized states. It is in the sources that I have named that the congeners of the Basque language will be most conveniently found. The Lesghian of the Caucasus is also a member of the family. Thus we have two black and two light groups. The balance of evidence is now tending to the identification of the ancient Leleges, Lycians, &c., with the Lesghian. 32, St. George's Square, S.W. HYDE CLARKE. The Basque language, together with the original languages of America, belongs to the Polysynthetic class of the so-called Allophylian or Turanian family. See Dr. Farrar's Families of Speech, pp. 179, 180 (ed. Lond., 1870). The question how it came to be where it is yet requires an answer. H. F. BOYD. THE TOWNS OF COLON AND CHAGRES, ON THE NORTHERN COAST OF THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA (5th S. v. 457.)-The writer was master (navigating lieutenant) of H.M. ship Hyacinth on this station from 1831 to 1833, and, being of a robust constitution and fond of adventure, was permitted to explore and survey this part of the isthmus at that time. He recommended Point Manzanilla, in Navy Bay, to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty as being well situated for the terminus of a railway across the isthmus; and, heading a party of volunteers, cut down trees and planted gardens where the town of Colon, or Aspinwall, now stands. There was not a hut or habitation of any kind in Navy Bay until 1849, and in 1852 a town had sprung up at this very spot, and a railway completed across to Panama, by American enterprise, over the track surveyed by the writer some twenty years before. Chagres was, and is still, a miserable little unhealthy village of thatched huts, situated at the mouth of the Chagres river, a few miles to the westward of Colon. The writer also fixed tide poles on both sides of the isthmus, and ascertained that the tide at new and full moon rose twenty-three feet at Panama, and only a little over two feet at Chagres and Navy Bay. A copy of my letter to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty on the above interesting explorations, &c., with all particulars, dated Port Royal, Jamaica, 14th Nov., 1831, was published in 1859, and the original is no doubt in the Admiralty archives. It contained also an account of my and on the lakes of Nicaragua, and my important surveys and explorations up the river St. Juan discovery that the east coast of Nicaragua was laid down in longitude nearly a degree (fifty-eight statute miles) wrong in the Admiralty charts, and in all maps and books on geography at that time GEORGE PEACOCK, F.R.G.S. extant. Pioneer of Steam Navigation in the Pacific from 1840 to 1846. Starcross, Devon. "ERYNG":"EGGING" (5th S. v. 448.)-These are pure Anglo-Saxon or Old English words. Erying is the present participle of erian, to plough, which finds its congeners in Goth. aryan; O.G. aran, erran; Gr. apoûv; Lat. ars. Egging is the participle of egean, to harrow, to break the clods, from a radical egi common to the Teutonic dialects, equivalent to Latin horridus, standing on end, bristling, rough. In Archbishop Alfric's vocabulary (tenth century), the ploughman says, " Elce dæg ic sceal erian fulne æcer oththe mare "Every day I have to plough a whole field or more." Egethe was a harrow or rake; egtha was a threshing instrument. These corresponded exactly with Latin tribulum and tribula, both consisting of a wooden frame studded with teeth below; a lighter one for threshing corn, a heavier one for harrowing the ground. When we talk of egging on or goading a man to do some rash thing, we are employing metaphors derived from the agriculture of our remote forefathers. Sandyknowe, Wavertree. J. A. PICTON. The first of these words is fully accounted for by Prof. Max Müller in his Lectures on the Science of Language, First Series, p. 293, et seq. There he shows that the word is an offspring of the root ar, to plough, and quotes Shakspeare :"Make the sea serve them; which they ear and wound With keels." The explanation of the word there given is so full and satisfactory that I cannot do better than refer M. W. to it, without any attempt at an elucidation of my own. I will only add that the word is found in the following passages of the Old Testament -1 Sam. viii. 12; Is. xxx. 24; Deut. xxi. 4; Gen. xlv. 6; Ex. xxxiv. 21. M. W. will also find abundance of corroborative instances in Tooke's Diversions of Purley, pt. ii. ch. v. About the second word, egging, I have no such definite information. I am inclined to think that it comes from the root ac, to sharpen, from which springs ǎκos, acuere, and eggian, amongst others. Eggian, therefore, would mean "to sharpen," and, by a metaphor, "to stimulate," used of one person urging or egging on another. M. W. will find many instances of this use of the word under "Edge" in Richardson's Dictionary. My suggestion is that this word might mean to apply the edge of the sickle or scythe," and hence be an equivalent for "to reap." This, at any rate, is the signification which one would expect from the context. Let me now subjoin a query of my own. At Rossall School, a box on the ear was always called an egg. What can be the origin of the phrase? W. H., Univ. Dunelm. Erying is earing, or ploughing. See any English dictionary. Egging, qy. edging, trimming the edges of the plots or closes. Earing is ploughing, from arare:— J. T. F. EARLY STAGE SCENERY (5th S. v. 381.)-I do not remember whence I extracted what follows, though I am sure the source was trustworthy: "It has been a question of much literary controversy whether in our ancient theatres there were side or other scenes. The question is involved in so much obscurity that it is difficult to decide upon it. In Shakspeare's the simple expedient of writing the names of the time the want of scenery seems to have been supplied by different places where the scene was laid in the progress of the play on large scrolls, which were disposed in such a manner as to be visible to the audience. tainment at Oxford, in which movable scenes were "In the year 1605, Inigo Jones exhibited an enterused; and he appears to have introduced in the masques at Court several pieces of machinery, with which the public theatres were then unacquainted, as the mechanism of our ancient stage seldom went beyond a painted chair covered by the Dukes of Suffolk and Norfolk reading in or a trap door. When Henry the Eighth is to be dishis study, the scenical direction in the first folio edition of Shakspeare's plays, printed in 1623, is, The king draws the curtain, and sits reading pensively' (ii. 2), for besides the principal curtains that hung in front of the stage, they used others as substitutes for scenes. If a bed-chamber was to be exhibited, no change of scene was mentioned, but the property-man was simply ordered Roman Capitol to be exhibited, two officers entered, to to thrust forth a bed. When the fable required the lay cushions as it were in the Capitol.' On the whole it appears that our ancient theatres in general were only furnished with curtains, which opened in the middle, The oxen and the young asses that ear the ground and were drawn backwards and forwards on an iron shall eat clean provender."-Isaiah xxx. 24. C. F. S. WARRen, M.A. rod, and a single scene composed of tapestry, which was CAPITAL "I" (5th S. v. 348.)- Benjamin Stillingfleet, in his Miscellaneous Trac's relating to Natural History, Husbandry, and Physick: to which is added the Calendar of Flora (third edition, 1775), unless he had occasion to employ the singular pronoun first person as the first word in a sentence, usually wrote it with a small letter-e.g., "This is all i think fit to produce upon this not be surprised that i am so short upon it" copious subject, and i hope the candid reader will (p. 168). "SOFTA" (5th S. v. 485.)-In a letter to the Athenæum of June 17, Dr. Badger proposes the alternative derivation from safy, "a devotee" (which comes from the Greek σódos), or from the Arabic safah, which "signifies any of those who were in the service of the Baitu-llah, or the al-Ka'bah at Mekkah." This, in spite of the irregularity of the plural, he considers to be better than making suftah a corruption of sukhtah, which is, I suppose, the theory which your correspondent MR. MAYHEW approves. Moreover, if suchteh, "burnt up," be the same as sokhta, worn out," referred to in the last paragraph of Dr. Badger's communication, it would seem that two distinct words are here confounded, i.e. sukhta (sokhta) and suktah, the meaning of which is given HORACE VIRGIL (5th S. v. 389.)-The comas "abortive." There appears also to be a differ-panion edition of Virgil referred to in the Horace ence of opinion as to the possibility of kh being of 1749 was published in 1750. The following changed to f, as regards which, not being either description is taken from Valpy's Delphin edition a Turkish or a Persian scholar, I am not competent of Virgil (vol. viii. p. 4497):— to offer an opinion. C. S. JERRAM. Windlesham. 66 Surely Mr. Martin's derivation of softa from a Persian word suchteh, "burnt up," is very far fetched. Most, if not all, the religious terms used in Turkey are borrowed from the Arabic. Now shophet, plural shophtim, is the Hebrew for a judge. This seems far more probable. E. LEATON BLENKINSOPp. : KIRBY TRIMMER. "1750. Bucolica, Georgica, et Eneis, illustrata, ornata, et accuratissime impressa. Londini, impensis figuris ex antiquis monumentis expressis. Est quidem I. e P. Knapton et Gul. Sandby, 8 maj. 2 voll. cum 58 sine notis; sed illustrata figuris, imagines deorum, heroum, magnorum virorum, vestium, armorum, rituum, aliaque in Virgilio obvia repræsentantibus ex nummis, gemmis, picturis, etc. antiquis sumtis; cum peculiari significatione, unde sumtæ sint, e quibus exemplaribus expressæ, et ad quæ loca Virgilii referantur. Textus interdum a vulgato ad cod. Med. et Vat. rediit in locis, quorum index in fine exhibetur. Præmissa etiam vita per Car. Ruæum." It was also published in 12mo. by the same publishers. H. R. T. TENNYSON'S EARLY PUBLICATIONS (5th S. v. 406.)-Mr. Tennyson published an earlier edition of his poems than that given by T. D. as 1833. Its title is, Poems, chiefly Lyrical (London, Effingham Wilson, 1830). Title and errata 2 leaves, and pp. 154. Some of the poems in this collection were omitted from subsequent editions. H. YOUNG. A very interesting paper on "The Bibliography of Tennyson," which appeared in the Fortnightly Review for October, 1865, contained an analysis of the two publications mentioned by T. D. The paper was by Mr. I. Leicester Warren. J. H. I. OLD COINS (5th S. v. 408.)-Those bearing the legend "Par. cres. tra." were struck in the province of Utrecht (Trajectum), and the others, with "Par. cres. hol.," in the prov. of Holland. That Dutch coins should be found in the Engadine is very natural. From the battle of Morat, the 400th anniversary of which has recently been celebrated with great splendour, the Swiss have ever been ready to sell their blood for pay and booty, and as a consequence their country became inundated with French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese coinage. OUTIS. Risely, Beds. DERIVATION OF COUSIN" (5th S. v. 405.)— Cousin is from the later Latin cosinus, which comes from the classical consobrinus, by a process for which I would refer your correspondent to Brachet's French dictionary, s.v. To derive cousin, as Bailey does, from consanguineus, is to violate more than one common rule of Romance etymology. C. S. JERRAM. COIN (5th S. v. 407.)-The motto and arms described on the reverse are those of the United Provinces of Holland. It is not a sheaf of corn, but a sheaf of arrows the lion bears. Part of the legend may be deciphered thus:-"Belg[ii] "THE CASE IS ALTERED" (5th S. v. 408.)A very good account is given of this public-house motto, for sign it is not, in Hotten's Hist. of Signboards. There are a great many of them, it seems, over the country. He mentions the one at Banbury, and says (p. 460) it was so called because it was built on the site of a mere hovel. There is one between Woodbridge and Ipswich. There is another at Oxford, the incoming landlord of which succeeded to a very easy-going Boniface, who allowed of long scores; his sharp business successor hinted by the change of sign that under the new management "the case was altered." The origin of the phrase is an apocryphal story told of old Plowden, the lawyer, and which will be found in "N. & Q.," Nov. 21, 1857. At Upper Kensal Green this sign exists. C. A. WARD. Mayfair. The Roaring Girle; or, Moll Cut-Purse, by Middleton and Dekkar, 1611, bears a woodcut, presumedly of the heroine, in male attire, with the legend, "My case is alter'd, I must worke for my living." Both the woman and the play would appear to have been popular; doubtless, "Moll" Frith was a favourite sign for the public-houses of the seventeenth century, and the words accompanying her portrait may refer to her having to do open penance on Feb. 11, 1611-12. For further information, see Dodsley's Old Plays, 1825, vol. vi. J. H. I. "HUMBUG" (5th S. v. 83, 332, 416.)—MR. BOWER's note recalls old school-days, and induces me to tell him that the Bright shire, alias that of Gloucester, is not the only place where humbugs are sold. The term is used in many parts of England, and particularly in Yorkshire and Lancashire. A Grassington man, who had made money by manufacturing the sweetmeat, was known in his native village as the humbug man! Humbugs are the same as bulls'-eyes and brandyballs. One Matty (Martha) Preston, better known as Silver-heels, was a vendor of humbugs and toffy at Skipton. She died many years ago, at the great age of 104. She was baptized at Kirkby Malhamdale. Matty was a Gipsy or Potter, and for many years led a sad nomadic life, and was very drunken and dissipated. During her latter days she abandoned the camp life, and settled down in Skipton, where the sale of humbugs, &c., and a small parish |