Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/113

 11 S. I. FEB. 5, 1910.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

105

43. Edward, s. of Lieut. Wm. Anderson, R.B.A. Corps, ob. 4 Feb., 1809, a. 5.

44. Mr. James Wilson, Master Shipwright H.M. Naval Yard, ob. 16 May, 1809, a. 54.

45. George Green Adam, sen., late Clerk of. the Chequer, H.M. Board of Ordnance, ob. 16 Apr., 1808, a. 47 years, 35 of which he served the Hon. Board.

46. William Patrick, s. of Dep.-Asst. -Com- missary-General Bosseter, ob. 21 Sep., 1811, a. 18 months 5 days.

47. A recumbent stone illegible from dirt.

48. Ditto.

49. Budolph Schultz, s. of B. E. and Harriot Schultz, ob. 24 Sep., 1812, in infancy.

50. Edward Hunt Caulfield, Lieut. H.M.S. Impe"rieuse, who on the 21 Feb., 1808, was mortally wounded in the service of his country and king, a. 24.

Honoured where known, endearing where allied, Much loved he lived, and much lamented died.

Erected by his brother M. S. O'Callaghan Caul- field, Capt. 1st B.V.B.

G. S. PARITY, Lieut. -Col.

18, Hyde Gardens, Eastbourne.

(To be concluded.)

" THE HOLY ZIARET." In The Times of 18 January we are told that the Khedive, robed in white, and bearing a lighted taper, performed the Holy Ziaret, the visitation of the Prophet's tomb at Medina, on Tuesday, evening, 11 January. Zaurat is the proper form, given in the dictionaries, of the tech- nical term in Arabic for the visit of the pilgrim to Muhammad's grave at Medina. The pilgrim to Medina is called zdir, as distinguished from a haft, or pilgrim to Mecca. The two words zaurat and zdir are derived from an Arabic root zdr, to incline toward, repair to, visit, which is cognate with the well-known Hebrew root zur, to be a stranger, visitor, whence zdrim, " strangers ?? (i.e. foreigners), in Psalm liv. 3.

A. L. MAYHEW. 21, Norham Road, Oxford.

" SHABRACK " : ITS ETYMOLOGY. This word belongs to a small group of names connected with cavalry equipment calpack, dolman, sabre, shako, are others which spread from Hungarian into the tongues of Western Europe, but are not all native Hungarian words. Shabrack appears to be Turkish. In Redhouse's ' Turkish Lexicon,' p. 1106, it is given as " Shdbrdq, a horse- cloth." At first sight it looks as if we might sleep soundly in our beds, to borrow a phrase from current politics, and leave this to account for French chabraque, German Schabracke, &c. Unfortunately, beside these forms commencing with sh, there is another set commencing with ch '

(as in " church "), viz., Bohemian chabraka r Hungarian csabrdg, Russian chaprdk, &c. It is impossible to derive these from those with initial sh, so I am driven to regard the alleged Turkish shdbrdq as a loan-word from the French, and to search elsewhere for its etymon. In W anr muncTs Persian grammar, 1898, ydprdq is given as the Turkish for Sattel-zeug. This seems to be what we want. There can be no doubt about ydpraq being a genuine Osmanli term. Its original mean- ing was " leaf, flake,' 1 but it has many secondary senses. The only difficulty is the change of initial y to ch, to which I can at the moment find no parallel ; but there are several cases known in which y changes into had become ch, the simplification to sh was easy and natural. JAS. PLATT, Jun.
 * (janizary, for instance). Once the initial

HOLBEIN'S ' DUCHESS OF MILAN * : A " SPENCER." In The Connoisseur for last July is an elaborate description of Holbein's portrait of the Duchess of Milan by Mr. Maurice W. Brockwell. In the account of the dress worn by the Duchess occurs the following passage :

"Christina wears a black satin gown, and over that a long black spencer lined with yellow sable ; the upper part of her forehead is concealed by a black hood. She wears a small white frill round her neck, and white frills edged with black round her wrists."

I wish to draw attention to the fact that the overdress in this picture is not a spencer, but just the reverse. In ' The Century Dictionary ' is this description of a spencer :

" Named after Earl Spencer, 1782-1845. A man's outer garment or overcoat so short that the skirts of the body-coat worn under it were seen ; a fashion introduced about 1800. 2. A woman's garment introduced a year or two later, and made in direct imitation of the above. It also was short, and formed a kind of over -jacket, reaching a little below the waist."

Any one not knowing the picture well might think that some alteration had been made in it, and that the long and almost flowing robe had been substituted for a spencer. I have known the picture for at least thirty years, and can confidently say that no such alteration has taken place.

E. W. ANDREWS. West Hampstead.

BURNS' s ' DEATH AND DR. HORNBOOK ' : A NEW READING. From a Scottish news- paper one learns that " a transatlantic anthologist " has recently undertaken to expound Burns. The example given of thi& adventurer's method of procedure is so- fresh and entertaining that it seems to merit-