Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/523

 K)<* s. ii. NOV. 26, i9w.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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was constituted a hieroglyphic of the four duties of a father towards his children." Curious assertions of this kind (when not modern inventions) are derived ultimately from Greek writers who knew nothing of Egyptian, and who cannot be authorities on it, though scientific Egyptology has shown that they occasionally state a truth among scores or errors. When we know that the bulk of the Egyptian writing is for all practical purposes alphabetic, we see that the value attributed to the pelican is impossible. Even the ideographic characters are not used in the perplexing manner suggested. F. W. READ.

I am told by Mr. Boscawen that Dr. Budge is of the opinion that the symbol of the pelican feeding his young came fromEphesus, where the bird was abundant, but that in Egypt it possessed no sacred symbolism. I do not know in what year Eucherius lived, but Timbs, in his ' Things Not Generally Known' (first series, p. 81), says that Eucherius confesses it to be the emblem of Christ, and that Jerome describes the pelican thus restoring her young ones destroyed by serpents, as illustrating the destruction of man by the old serpent, and his restorement by the blood of Christ. There are like relations by Austin and Isidore. See also Alt, ' Die Heiligenbilder,' p. 56, referred to in Smith's 'Diet, of Christian Antiq.,' s.v.
 * Pelican.' J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.

In Ulysses Aldrovandi's 'Ornithologia' (iii. 52) another passage in St. Jerome's works is referred to, thus :

"Minim quod scribit D. Hieronymus Pelicanum cum auos liberos a serpente occisos inuenit, lugere, et se, et latera sua percutere, et excusso sanguine corpora mortuorum reuiuiscere."

Cf. also the full-page woodcut on p. 47 with the inscription " Pelecanum ut pingant pictores" (but there the young ones are alive). L. L. K.

MICHAELMAS CUSTOM (10 th S. ii. 347). Roast goose may, of course, have come to be eaten at Michaelmas simply on its own merits as a seasonable dish, since it has been putting on flesh all through the summer, which, if the bird is put off as a festive dish till Christmas, will by that time run to fat rather than to meat. But at the same time one cannot help thinking that such an ingrained custom became popular because of this rather than in spite of it, owing to the goose at that time suggesting itself as a suitable dish with which the great landlords might entertain their tenants at Martinmas, which was formerly

one of the usual quarter-days, when rents were paid as they now are at Michaelmas. But there is a sacrificial appearance about the sprinkling of a few drops of the blood of the bird on the floor of the rooms of the house, which strongly suggests a transference in early Christian times of some pagan associa- tions with a sacrificial act in connexion with the goose. The story is that St. Martin killed and ate a goose which tormented him, and that thereafter it was thought a fitting custom to sacrifice the bird annually to his memory. St. Martin, however, died from the repast. I do not know the source of this tale. J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.

THE MUSSUK (10 th S. ii. 263, 329, 371). I am sorry that MR. JAMES PLATT should think I am unduly hard upon my fellow-countrymen in saying that they seem to have a difficulty in pronouncing sh before a consonant. His citation of mussCdchee induces me to modify my statement, to the extent of saying that Englishmen appear to find a difficulty in pronouncing a medial shin Arabic or Persian. 1 passed my examinations in Hindustani nearly forty-five years ago and served many years in India, and I never remember to have heard an educated Musulmiin pronounce sh improperly. As regards the initial /*, such words as sh/Mtdn and sheikh have always in my hearing been pronounced properly by high and low alike. The word s/iakar is certainly pronounced sakar by khidmatgars and other uneducated people on the Bombay side of India, but not by the educated. On the Bengal side, as MR. PLATT is, of course, aware, the universal word for sugar is wi/x/ 1 /'. W. F. PRIDEAUX.

HEACHAM PARISH OFFICERS (10 th S. ii. 247, 335, 371). I have referred to my note and think a wider meaning has been placed upon my words by your correspondents than they will strictly bear. I was alluding to the parish officers of Heacham only, as the head ing to my note makes clear.

No doubt a number of parishes still go through the farce of electing pindars where there are no pounds, way- wardens where there are no roads to look after, and con- stables whose duties have fallen into desue- tude. But in a great many localities these offices are recognized as things of the past, and treated accordingly.

Perhaps DR. FORSHAW would kindly give me chapter and verse for MR. PAGE'S state- ment that it is the duty of the parish con- stable to communicate with the coroner in the event of sudden death, and empanel a jury. It is not possible in the country to refer to