[Footnote 4: Query whether from these baetyli our ancestors derived the word _beetle_, which denotes a wooden maul or hammer for driving wedges. Its head is about a foot long, flat at each end, and the rest round; so that it nearly resembles a pillow in shape, and the head, together with its handle, would well resemble a stone of similar shape suspended by a cord in the middle. Bailey derives the word in this sense, and as denoting the insect, from Sax. [Bytel]. If a handle was ever put in a baetylus, which was of the form I have suggested, it would form an excellent instrument for driving wedges or the like.] Thirty years ago, the coronation stone in Westminster Abbey stood under a very old chair; and was a bluish irregular block of stone, similar both in colour and shape to stepping-stones in the shallow rivers of the north of England. It is _now_ a very nice hewn block, nicely fitted into the frame under the seat of a renovated chair. It does not look at all like the old stone of former days. Is the geological formation of the present block very difficult to ascertain? H. R. NEE F. * * * * * POLYGAMY. (Vol. ix., p. 246.) In answer to the various Queries of _Stylites_ I have to observe: 1. That the Jews do not at present, in any country, practise polygamy, it being contrary, not to the letter, but to the spirit of the law of Moses, which nevertheless provides for cases where a man has two wives at the same time; the inconvenience of which practice is several times pointed out, and which was also inconsistent with the Levirate law. (See Jahn, s. 151.; and the Mishna, [Hebrew: SDR NSHYM], which designates more wives than one [Hebrew: TSRWT], _trouble, adversaries_.) 2. The practice was, however, allowed expressly to the Jewish kings only, perhaps to the extent of _four_ wives, which is the Rabbinic exposition, and coincides with the Koran. 3. Marriage being a civil contract in most heathen countries, as also amongst the Jews and early Christians, polygamy is not forbidden or allowed on religious grounds. Marriage was included under the general head of covenants, [Hebrew: KTWBWT], in the Mishna. Barbarous nations generally practised polygamy, according to Tacitus (_Germ._ 18.); excepting the Germans, who, like the Greeks and Romans, "were content with a single wife," although some exceptions were found in this respect, _non libidine, sed ob nobilitatem_. 4. Polygamy was not practised amongst the early Christians, who followed the Jews in this matter. 5. Clement of Alexandria (_Stromata_, lib. iii. p. 461., edit. 1629) says: "[Greek: All' ho autos aner kai Kurios, palaia kainizon, ou polugamian eti sunchorei; tote gar apetei ho Theos, hote auxanesthai kai plethunein echren; monogamian de eisagei, dia paidopoiian, kai ten tou oikou kedemonian, eis en boethos edothe he gune]."