Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/551

 10 s. viii. DEC. 7, loo;.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

457

difficulty here is the precise date of that "" disturbing factor " in Hebrew literature. M. L. R. BRESLAR.

DUCHESSE D'ANGOTJLEME (10 S. viii. 388). Some account of her will be found in ' La Terreur Blanche,' by Ernest Daudet, -and ' Histoire d'Henri V.,' by Alex, de Saint- Albin.

F. E. R. POLLARD-TJRQUHART. Castle Pollard, Westmeath.

WIELAND'S 'AGATHON ' (10 S. viii. 368). An English translation of this work in four 12mo volumes was published in 1773. A copy is in the British Museum, and two copies are in the Dyco Library at South Kensington, in one of which Dyce has written, " This is a verv scarce book."

C. D.

[THE REV. J. WILLCOCK also thanked for reply.]

DRYDEN'S ' ALEXANDER'S FEAST ; : Two READINGS (10 S. viii. 346). In the "Globe Edition " the first passage quoted reads :

A dragon's fiery form belied the god :

Sublime on radiant spires he rode,

When he to fair Olympia pressed :

And while he sought her snowy breast. Then round her slender wrist he curled.

The second has a comma after each of the first four lines. C. C. B.

GERMAN ENCYCLOPAEDIA AND DICTIONARY OF PHRASE AND FABLE (10 S. viii. 389). The most complete and up-to-date German encyclopaedia (profusely illustrated) is the new sixth edition of ' Meyer's Grosses Konversations-Lexikon ' (still in progress : vols. i.-xvii., A S, have appeared since 1902 up to the present year).

The most comprehensive and best German Dictionary of Phrase and Fable is Wander's ' Deutsches Sprichworter-Lexikon,' 5 vols., 1867-80. A shorter and more recent work is F. von Lipperheide's ' Spruch-Worter- buch, oder Sammlung deutscher und frem- der Sinnspriiche ' (Berlin, 1907, pp. 1077).

H. KREBS.

CHRISOM, BAPTISMAL ROBE (10 S. viii. 270, 377). The memorandum " No cude " frequently appears in connexion with christenings in the parish registers of St. Oswald's, Durham, edited by the Rev. A. W. Headlam, and published at Durham in 1891 ; e.g., in 1630, 1632, 1633. I know of no explanation of this, unless it be that & chrisom was called a " cod " or " cude," in ( the sense of " bag," and that the chrisoms were still as a rule presented. J. T. F. Durham.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &o.

Neolithic Dew-Ponds and Cattle- Ways. By Arthur John Hubbard and George Hubbard. Second Edition. (Longmans & Co.)

WE gladly welcome a second edition of this small but important book. The authors, it is evident, have since the appearance of the first edition given further attention to the subject. Though their opinions remain as before, their work is an improve- ment in several respects. Poundbury Camp the cattle station, as the authors hold, of the great encampment known by the name of Maiden Castle was an important earthwork which hitherto had not had the time and thought devoted to it that it well deserved. Now justice has been done both by careful description and the needful illustrative engravings. The writers think that it is a cattle- pen constructed to protect the sheep from the ravages of the wolves which lurked in the low, forest-covered ground below. That this was one, and possibly a chief, reason why the stupendous labour of making such vast trenches and earthworks should have been incurred, may be readily conceded ; but it must be remembered that when these pre- Celtic people, who took such elaborate care to fortify their dwellings and their stock-enclosures upon the Downs, landed in this island (if indeed it was an island in those days), it was not uninhabited by man. There was, undoubtedly, an earlier race whom anthropologists have not as yet identified with an approach to certainty sufficient to satisfy all of us. They, like all early peoples, were clannish, and, we may perhaps assume, would have been as dangerous as the wolves probably, indeed, more so, for they, being human, would learn wisdom from experience far more rapidly than the wolves.

The authors have described the way the sheep went to refresh themselves at the springs below the hills. Whether they learnt to find the way for themselves, or were driven by their masters, seems as yet uncertain perhaps we shall never know ; but as to their tracks we liave no doubt the authors are correct. The low-hill springs were not the only supplies of water. There were dew-ponds above-hill also, but in some seasons these cannot have furnished man and beast with an adequate supply. We have been much pleased by the de- scription of the manner in which dew-ponds were constructed. If the authors are right and we see no reason to question their theory the makers of such ponds must have possessed an amount of intelli- gence and facility in trying experiments which most persons have not hitherto attributed to the men who nourished in flint-implement days. Mistakes must have been made at first, but success was at

present

having heard that traces of similar dew-ponds have been met with on the wolds of Yorkshire. If this be so, they are worthy of careful examination.

Cattle-tracks are dwelt upon, but not, in our opinion, in a sufficiently exhaustive manner. Much might be learnt if the old roads which were in use before stage coaches came into being were arefully examined. The tortuous condition of so many or them has in all probability arisen from
 * he men of early days following the paths made by