Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/281

 11 S. I. APR. 2, 1910.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

273

Sounds change in different directions in different dialects. Fortunately, the direction of the development in the O.E. long vowels is so clearly set forth by early phoneticians that we are not called upon to speculate.

P. G. THOMAS. West Hampstead.

BEHEADING IN GERMANY (11 S. i. 149). Presumably the author of ' Robinson Crusoe ' was familiar by report with the skill of the German executioners. The practice of cutting off a felon's head with one sweep from a two-handed sword could not fail, from its superior picturesqueness, to appeal to a man sated with the monotonous English hangings of Defoe's day. Dexterity on the part of the German headsman was fostered by the fact that the office of " Scharfrichter " was, as a rule, hereditary, or could only be exercised by one who had served as " Freiknecht " a master in the craft. A house and piece of land were commonly attached to the post, and it is said to have been customary for the officiat- ing executioner, some days before a function, to entertain his fellow-artists from other districts. The existence of an hereditary caste of this awful character is an obviously romantic theme for literary treatment. In Heine's ' Memoiren ' there is the story of Josepha with the blood -red hair, and how she saw in her grandfather's house a solemn conclave of headsmen and the burial of a sword that had killed its hundredth man. A more recent writer, Wilhelm Raabe, intro- duces the subject in his novelette ' Zum wilden Manne,' showing the mental agony of a young man who comes into this grim inheritance on his father's death.

Executions by the sword certainly took place in Germany in the latter half of last century. I recollect reading an account of one in The Illustrated London News of 1857 or 1858. I have seen it stated that the sword has now given way to the axe or guillotine. EDWARD BENSLY.

Aberystwyth.

Executions in Germany are carried out with slight differences as to the method in each State, but, as a rule and by law, culprits xecuted by a sort of guilloti/ie.

I. M. L.

In 'The Phases of Marcella,' a novel by Capt, Henry dirties, first published in 1909, th.-iv is a description (in chap, xxvii.) of the condemnation in Berlin, only half a dozen years since, of an American doctor, con- victed of murder by poisoning, "to be be-

headed with an axe," and of the consequent execution, ' ' in the square whitewashed courtyard of the prison,' 5 by " old Kraus, the headsman." The date is specifically given, for it is added : " But for the uniforms it might have been a scene in 1 404 instead of 1904." ALFRED F. BOBBINS.

LYNCH LAW (10 S. xi. 445, 515 ; xii. 52, 133, 174, 495 ; 11 S. i. 55, 194). I am sorry that MR. MATTHEWS did not appreciate the point intended to be made by the citation, ante, p. 55, of the two letters from Wirt to Carr of 27 Feb., 1817, and 9 Aug., 1817. The former states where the MS. then was, and also mentions Wirt's desire that Carr should see it, but does not mention Roane at all. The latter states that the MS. has been submitted to Roane and others. The necessary in- ference from these two letters is that the MS. was submitted to Roane between 27 Feb., 1817, and 9 Aug., 1817 ; so that, after allow- ing for the fact that the MS. was at Washing- ton on the earlier date, we have 1 March, 1817, as the earliest possible time when the MS. could have been submitted to Roane, that is to say, at least four months after the murder of Lynchy on 1 Nov., 1816. This would be ample time to allow for the news to travel from Ireland to the United States in 1816-17.

In closing this correspondence I may sum up my theory as follows. It is not im- probable that in its origin the expression " Lynch's Law "merely meant the kind of law which Lynchy received near Ardee, co. Louth, on 1 Nov., 1816, that is, execution before trial. In the same way " to boycott " means to give the kind of treatment which Capt. Boycott received. Too much import- ance must not be placed on the spelling. " Lynchy." The same article in the ' Ann. Reg.' has the misprint " Andee " for Ardee.

M.

"Ljus" (US. i. 209). I have complained before as to the inconsiderateness of querists who confuse a plain question by drawing a red herring across the trail. The real question is about an Armenian word. The red herring is an Icelandic one which does not illustrate it, and the heading of the article actually cites the latter.

It would be much more considerate to ask the straightforward question without ex- pecting me at the same time to show up the confusion. I shall therefore be brief. The Icel. Iju-s has lost an h in the root, and the s is a mere suffix. It does not illustrate, but confuses, the insinuation being that the