Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/323

 n s. iv. OCT. 14, mi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

317

According to good authorities, Pope Urban V. was of French or Proven9al extraction, being the son of Grimoard, lord of Grisac in the Gevaudan, which is said to be included in the modern department of Lozere. Larousse places the town of Grimaud in the department of Var. The transliteration of the French Grimoard in Italian would be Grimoaldo, which is the form adopted in Boccardo's ' Enciclopedia Italiana. ' Grimoard and Grimaud are dif- ferent names in modern French, though perhaps they stand in the relation of Jehan to Jean. ' The Encyclopaedia Britannica ' is in accord with Boccardo, but styles the Pontiff also Grimaud de Beauvoir.

N. W. HILL.

New York.

SCISSORS: "PILE" SIDE (11 S. iv. 269). Scissors are stamped on the upper side. The " pile " side is the under side. I quote the following from my * Concise Dictionary,' s.v. pile (2) :

" In the phrase cross and pile (of a coin), answering to the modern ' head and tail,' the pile took its name from the pile or short pillar on which the coin rested when struck ; see Cotgrave, .v. pile."

Of course the coin rested on its under side ; and the cross was stamped on the upper one. WALTER W. SKEAT.

"Pile" is the reverse of the "cross" or face side of a coin. " Cross and pile " was a play with money, as we now say same in French, " Pile ou face." See Du Maurier's ' The Martian,' at p. 156, with an illustration.
 * ' head or tail," in tossing. The word is the

The trade name for the two holes through which the thumb and fingers are put in using a pair of scissors is "the bows."

W. E. BROWNING.

A pair of scissors consists of blades, shanks, and bows. " Bow " is described in the ' N.E.D.,' 11 a, as a ring or hoop of metal, &c., forming a handle.

TOM JONES.

CHARLES ELSTOB (11 S. iv. 210, 257). In J. J. Sheahan's ' History of Buckingham- shire,' p. 813, under Beaconsfield, it is said that there is a mural monument in the chancel to Mrs. Jane Elstob, who died in 1779. As Elstob is a very uncommon name, this person may possibly have been a relative of Charles Elstob. I hope to be able to forward a full copy of the inscription later. L. H. CHAMBERS.

Amersham.

ZADIG OF BABYLON (US. iv. 269). Per- haps INSHRIACH has not seen T. H. Huxley's On the Method of Zadig,' the first essay in that author's ' Science and Hebrew Tradi- tion ' (viz., vol. iv. of Hjuxley's Collected Essays), and also printed in Popular Science Monthly, vol. xvii., and Eclectic Magazine, vol. xcv. This was originally a lecture de- livered in 1880 at the Working Men's College in Great Ormond Street. Huxley playfully remarks in the opening pages of his lecture :

" It is said that he [Zadig] lived at Babylon in the time of King Moabdar ; but the name of Moabdar does not appear in the list of Babylonian sove- reigns brought to light by the patience and the industry of the decipherers of cuneiform inscrip- tions in these later years ; nor indeed am I aware that there is any other authority for his existence than that of the biographer of Zadig, one Arouet de Voltaire, among whose more conspicuous merits strict historical accuracy is perhaps hardly to be reckoned."

Voltaire's story was supposed to have been founded, in part, if not] wholly, upon * The Hermit ' by Thomas Parnell ; but earlier writers than Parnell had used the idea for instance, the French author Bluet d'Arberes in 1604. A chapter in Voltaire's ' Zadig ' bears the heading ' L'Ermite.'

A. L. HUMPHREYS. 187, Piccadilly, W.

The reference is to the famous story of ' Zadig ' by Voltaire, of which there are numerous editions and translations. ' On the Method of Zadig ' is one of Huxley's illuminating lectures which will be found in his ' Science and Culture.'

WILLIAM E. A. AXON.

'Zadig,' of which there is a convenient reprint in Voltaire's * Romans Choisis, ' Paris, Jean Gillequin & Cie (1 fr. 25).

EDWARD BENSLY.

[MB. W. E. BROWNING, M., and S. W. also refer to Voltaire.]

HUNYADI JANOS (11 S. iv. 270). This means John of Hunyad, but Hunyad does not mean " Huns' Town," and the name of the water cannot be rendered as Hungarian or Hunnish John. The spring which is situated within walking distance of Buda- pest, behind St. Gerard's Mount, was no doubt named by the owner after the famous " White Knight " ; another spring bears the name of Francis Joseph, the King of Hungary ; and yet another, that of Eliza- beth, his unfortunate queen. Your New York correspondent himself adduces the instance of the Prince de Conde spring, and there are other examples. There is, e.g., the Rakoczy spring, named after another