Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/193

 io* s. v. FEB. 24, 1906.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

157

had solicited and obtained the permission of their superiors to join the regiment of the city." Bk. III. chap. iii.

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

DUTCH EPIPHANY CUSTOM (10 th S. v. 110). Whether the bean custom at Epiphany, which is almost universal on the European continent, be traceable to the Roman Saturnalia, or to the custom among the Romans of casting dice to decide who should be the rex convivii, is perhaps still open to question. It is, how- ever, remarkable that many of the customs peculiar to the Saturnalia bear a noteworthy resemblance to the sports of the Italian Carnival and of our own Christmas. One of the amusements, for instance, in private society, during this festival, was the election of a mock king, at once suggesting a close resemblance to our Twelfth Night ceremony, in which he who finds the bean is proclaimed Feve." The "special kind of bread" made in Holland, in which the bean is hidden, probably had no particular signification further than that special bread or cake was appropriate to the occasion. A writer in The Gentleman's Magazine, quoted by Brand in his 4 Antiquities,' thinks the practice of choosing the king and queen on Twelfth Night owes its origin to the custom among the Romans, which they took from the Greeks, of casting dice who should be the rex convivii, or, as Horace calls him, the arbiter bibendi. Who- ever threw the lucky cast, which they termed Venus or Basilicus, gave laws for the night (Gent. Mag.) vol. xxxiv., December, 1764, p. 599). But this custom was peculiar to convivial meetings following an entertainment given to friends, and not, I think, to any particular part of the Saturn- alia which may have corresponded to Twelfth Night. In the English custom a pea was appropriated to the queen as well as a bean to the king. Concerning the rex convivii at the comissatio see Fuss's ' Roman Antiquities ' (trans. 1840), 464. We have a saying which testifies to the former prevalence of the custom in England, " He has found a bean in the cake," meaning that good fortune attends him, he has drawn a prize in the lottery. And that the king was supposed to be pro tern, one of the Three Kings is evident in the French name for the occasion, the jour des rois, while the French also indicate good luck proverbially by the saying, "II a trouve la feve au gateau."
 * ' King of the Bean "in Prance " Le Roi de

On Twelfth Night in the year 1870 an almost impromptu dinner was got up at the Tuileries, invitations being sent out in the

afternoon to assemble a party of forty. Several of the Prince Imperial's young friends were among the guests, and after dinner the Empress assembled a circle around her to "draw the bean"; a superb specimen of the traditional cake made its appearance, and the bean fell to the share of the Prince Imperial. Was it hazard alone, it was asked, that directed the knife? Again, at a party of Liberal members de la Gauche great fun was had about the bean, a number of joking predictions being made for the deputy to whom the bean should fall. The galette was cut, and the bean, which happened to be in the centre, remained in the dish, its re- publicanism being proclaimed with unanimity of laughter (Queen, 15 January, 1870).

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

SELLING ONESELF TO THE DEVIL (10 th S. v. 29, 78, 115). The following, though nob an answer to the question, is interesting. It is in Bayle's ' Historical and Critical Dictionary,' London, 1710, p. 801, s v. Cayet (Peter Victor Pal ma) :

"Peter Gayer* became such a Reprobate, as

to make a Contract with Satan under the Name of Terrier, Prince of the Subterranean Spirits, and resign'd himself, up to him Body and Soul, on con- dition that he (the Devil) should make him success- ful in his Disputes with the Protestants, and render him Master of the Tongues. This Contract, Sign'd with Blood, was found after his Death, and was seen by divers of the King's Council." Quoted from Theodore Tronchin : his preface upon the Defence of our Versions, 1620.

Bayle gives another quotation to the effect that

" the Devil took Cayet Body and Soul, so that to deceive those who were to bear the Coffin at his Funeral, they were oblig'd to fill it with Stones instead of the Carkass, which the Devil had seiz'd."

This is quoted from Konig's * Bibliotheca/ " upon the Word Cahierus," where it is appa- rently a quotation from Maresius, t. ii.,
 * Contra Tirinum/ p. 434.

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

HETMAN : ATAMAN (10 th S. v. 109). Accord- ing to Vladimir Dai's dictionary of the living Great Russian language (the revised edition of which is still proceeding) Otarnan and Hetman, which are derived from German Hauptmann, are the names of the former leaders of the Cossacks in Malo-Russia or Little Russia. The more usual form of this name, applied to the military captain of the Malo-Russian Cossacks, appears to be Ata- man. Hence the well-known proverbial saying, "Terpi, Kazak ! Ataman budesh"

Cajetus, Cajetanus.
 * Cayet, Gayer, Cahier, Caillette, Cajet, Cayerus,