_Scalping._--Perhaps your correspondent T. J. (Vol. ii., p. 12.) may recollect the allusion to "scalping," in Psalm lxviii. 21.; upon which verse an argument has been based in favour of the supposition, that the aborigines of America are derived from the ten tribes of Israel. J. SANSOM. _Derivation of Penny_ (Vol. i., pp. 384. 411.).--Akerman's _Numismatic Manual_ (p. 228.) has, under the head of "Penny," the following remarks:-- "The penny is next in antiquity. It is first mentioned in the laws of Ina. The term has been derived by various writers from almost every European language; but the conjecture of Wachter, as noticed by Lye, seems the most reasonable. This writer derives it from the Celtic word _pen_, head; the heads of the Saxon princes being stamped on the earliest pennies. The fact of the _testoon_ of later times having been so named, certainly adds weight to the opinion of Wachter." W. G. S. * * * * * Miscellanies. "_By Hook or by Crook_" (Vol. i., p. 405.).--The following extract may, perhaps, by multiplying instances, tend to corroborate the supposed origin of the above saying:-- "Not far from them [Peverell's Crosses], in the parish of Egloshayle, is another moonstone [granite] cross near Mount Charles, called the Prior's Cross, on which is cut the figure of a _hook_ and a _crook_, in memory of the privilege granted by him to the poor of Bodmin, for gathering for fire-boot and house-boot such boughs and branches of such trees in his contiguous wood of Dunmere, as they could reach with a _hook and a crook_ without further damage to the trees. From whence arose the Cornish proverb, _they will have it by hook or by crook_."--Hitchins and Drewe, _Hist. Cornwall_, p. 214. vol. ii. edit. 1824. SELEUCUS. _Burning dead Bodies._--In his remarks on "ashes to ashes," CINIS says (Vol. i., p.22.) that "the burning of the dead does not appear to be in itself an anti-christian ceremony," &c.: he is mistaken, for the early Christians, like the Jews, never burned their dead, but buried them. The catacombs of Rome and Naples, besides those in other places, were especially used for sepulture; and if CINIS wish for proofs, he will find an abundance in Rock's _Hierurgia_, t. ii. p. 802., &c. CEPHAS.