Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/83

 10 s. VIIL JULY 27, loo:.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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This, I think, is a common impression ; but it is incorrect. Suetonius relates the well- known story of Vespasian in chap, xxiii. of his life of that emperor ; but the words " non olet " are not to be found there. " Sciscitans num odore offenderetur " is the nearest approach to them. Dio Cassius reports the saying in the form ISov, TCKJ/OV, et TI oowiv. The form "non olet" seems to be simply inferred from the em- peror's retort as given by Suetonius and Dio Cassius. Quite rightly, it is not in- cluded in Mr. King's full and accurate collection of classical quotations.

ALEX. LEEPEB. Trinity College, University of Melbourne.

" RETABLE." This is a technical term in ecclesiastical architecture for the altar- shelf, or ledge above the altar, the original meaning of which appears to be a matter of dispute among etymologists. In Webster's dictionary no derivation is offered. It has been assumed by some writers that the word consists of the prefix re- and table. But this can scarcely be accepted as a satis- factory explanation. Dr. Smythe Palmer in his interesting little book, ' Some Curios from a Word-Collector's Cabinet,' sees no difficulty in deriving retable from a hypo- thetical Latin restabilis. How such a word could mean " set up behind " is not very clear. And one would like to ask, How is it possible to equate Spanish retable with the assumed Latin original ? Latin res- remains in Spanish words.

There need be no doubt about the ety- mology of " retable," since we are fortunate enough to find in Ducange the ecclesiastical Latin word which is the source of the modern forms. Ducange has " Retrotabulum, retro- altare, posticum altaris, seu ejus orna- mentum, Gall, retable, alias reirautole." He- table therefore has the same prefix as its synonym reredos. See ' Dictionary of Christian Antiquities ' (s.v. ' Reredos '). In Hatzfeld's French dictionary the Pro- vencal reiretaule is given as the equivalent of the modern French retable. The Sp. retablo stands for *retrotablo, *retatablo ; compare retaguarda, the rear-guard (or rere-ward) of an army. A. L. MAYHEW. Oxford.

" DIABOLO," FBENCH CHILDREN'S GAME. The most popular children's game in France at the present moment is that which bears this name. I understood that it was a Chinese game, but it seems to be a revival perhaps under another name of

a sport which was popular a century ago. As it is sure to find its way to England sooner or later, the following extract from the $cho de Paris of Wednesday, 29 May, seems worthy of a niche in ' N. & Q.' :

"La grande vogue du diabolo ou diable ne date pas, comme on 1'a ecrit souvent, tous ces temps-ci, du XVIIP siecle, mais des premieres annees de la Restauration, de 1812 k 1818. Ce fut alors une veritable rage. On y jouait partout : dans les salons ou Ton fracassait les porcelaines et les bibelots ; dehors, aux Tuileries, aux Champs-Elysees, ou les. dames etaient occupees a faire ronfler le diable. Un prospectus d'un fabricant de jouets d'alors montre les difft^rentes manieres de jouer : ' A la va comme je te pousse ; La Promenade ; 1'Ascension a corde tendue ; Jean s'en va comme il est venu ; Le Grand Equilibre du Croissant ; Le Chevalet ; le Terre a Terre, et enfin le Saut perilleux, qui con- stitue le principal exercice du diabolo.' On faisait alors des diables de tous genres, en bois leger, en metal, meme en cristal ; mais dans ce jeu, comme dit une estampe intitulee 'Le Gout du jour,' ' c'est la fa9on de faire qui fait tout ' :

On joue a ce jeu charmant

Lorsque Ton est aimable.

Vieillard en vain s'y mettant

Envoie tout en murmurant :

Au diable, au diable ! "

W. ROBERTS.

[Our correspondent's anticipation is already ful- filled. The game may be seen in the windows of Messrs. Hamlyn in High Holborn.]

ROBERT OWEN, OF NEW LANARK : HIS FAMILY. At 9 S. vii. 9 MR. W. G. BLACK asked for information of Robert Owen's son Richard, whose existence was ignored by Sir Leslie Stephen in the ' D.N.B.' The following obituary notice of him from The American Journal of Science for May, 1890 (p. 414), will serve as some record of this worthy son of the great philanthropist :

" Prof. Richard Owen died suddenly, at New Harmony, Indiana, on the 31st of March. He was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland, in 1810, and was nearly three years younger than his brother, David Dale Owen, who died about 30 years since. With his father and brother, he came to New Harmony in 1828. He served under General Zachary Taylor, as captain in the Mexican war, during the years 1847-48. In 1849 he joined his brother in the geological survey of Minnesota, and also became Professor of the Natural Sciences at Nashville ; and while there, in 1857, published ' A Key to the Geology of the Globe.' In 1859 he was associated with his brother in the survey of Indiana, the report on which, by him, appeared in 1862, after the death of his brother, and also after his having joined in the Civil War. During the year 1861 he was made lieutenant - colonel of the loth Indiana, Volunteers, and in the autumn of that year colonel of the 60th Regiment. In November of 1865 he resigned his commission as colonel at New Iberia, Louisiana (as stated in vol. xlii. of this Journal, 1866), and having heard of the rock salt deposit of La Petite Anse, 12 miles distant, went and investi- gated it, and made the first report oil it to the