Notes and Queries, Number 21, March 23, 1850Various
History
Notes and Queries, Number 21, March 23, 1850
Various
Questions and answers -- Periodicals
Since I wrote the above, I have met with a work, by Mr. George
Jones, entitled _The History of Ancient America anterior to the Time
of Columbus_, vol. i.: "The Tyrian Æra." In the second, not yet
published, he promises to give "The Introduction of Christianity into
the Western Hemisphere by the Apostle St. Thomas."
T.I.
_Mistake in Gibbon_.--Those of your readers, who are, like myself,
occasional verifiers of references, will perhaps thank me for pointing
out a false reference, that I have just discovered in one of Gibbon's
notes:
"Capitolinus gives us the particulars of these tumultuary
votes, which were moved by one senator, and repeated, or
rather chanted, by the whole body."--_Hist. August._ p. 52.
See Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_, chap. 4, note {342} under marginal
lemma, "The memory of Commodus declared infamous."
These "tumultuary votes" are recorded, _not_ by Capitolinus, but by
Ælius Lampridius, in his _Life of Commodus_. Vide _Historiæ Augustæ
Scriptores. Ælii Lampridii Commodus Antoninus_, capita 18, 19.
Capitolinus wrote the life of his _immediate_ successor, Pertinax;
hence perhaps the mistake, "Egregio in corpore nævus!" Let those who
wish to know what passion really is, read the tiger-like yells of the
Roman senate in _Lampridius_!
C. Forbes.
Temple, Feb. 27.
_Jew's Harp_.--The late Mr. Douce always maintained that the proper
name of this instrument was the _Jaw's Harp_, and that the Jews had
no special concern with either its invention or its use.
J.H.M.
_Havior_.--The word "havior" is probably of a hybrid character; partly
of Anglo-Saxo, and partly of British origin. If so, the first syllable
is obvious enough, "half" being generally pronounced as if the liquid
were considered an evanescent quantity, "ha'f, heif, hav'," &c., and
"iwrch" is the British word for a roe-buck. Dropping the guttural
termination, therefore, and writing "ior" instead of "iwrch," we
have the significant designation of the animal described by Lord
Braybrooke, whose flesh, like that of the capon, may afford a
convenient variety among the delicacies of the season, if well cooked
according to the recondite mysteries of the gastronomic art.
Hypomagirus.
Trinity College, Oxford, Feb 14.
N.B. "Heifer" has already been explained as "heif-ker, half-cre,"
A.-S., "anner," Br.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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