Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/511

 n s. iv. DEC. 23, ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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get married when I shall have paid all my debt.' While she was wondering who was really his creditor, he produced a silver platter, piled it up with gold dust, and adorned it with four images of a rat wrought in the four precious sub- stances [i.e., gold, silver, crystal, and sapphire]. This set of ornaments he carried himself into the house of his father's trustee, just when the latter was rehearsing to his own friends the wondrous rumour, ' Know you not that this Rat-Money- Broker is endowed with a great virtue which enables him to turn at pleasure any tiles or stones into gold or jewellery? ' As soon as he was led in by a doorkeeper, he presented the master with those sumptuous articles, and declared he had thus cleared himself from his debt specifying the four artificial rats as equal to the original principal, and the silver platter with gold dust as an equivalent for the interest. With boundless amazement the master observed, ' I have no recollection of my having lent you money on any occasion whatsoever.' Then the Bat-Money- Broker told him all his personal history. Upon learning who was his father, the master said to him, ' Now I know you are the son of my late intimate friend. And why should I accept such a repayment from you ? Contrariwise, I ought to restore to you all that your dead father had entrusted me with for your benefit.' Then he attired his eldest daughter superbly, and wedded her to the Rat-Money-Broker." Fol. 1-6 in the 32nd tome of the Japanese ' Oobaku ' reprint in the seventeenth century of the ' Kan- pan-shwoh Yih-tsi-yu-pu Pi-na-ya,' or a Chinese translation of the ' Mula-sarvasti-vada-nikaya- nidana,' by I-tsing (A.D. 635-713), the distin- guished Buddhist priest, whose travel and study in India occupied the years between 671 and 695.

This Indian story, which we may safely take as the Buddhist original which Clouston sought for in vain, differs from the European and Persian variants in this particular, that it is a rat therein which originates the immense fortune of the Rat- Money-Broker, whereas a cat is made the producer of the great wealth of Whittington or the old widow of Kays. To explain the cause of this remarkable difference, I shall proceed to examine how, in ancient times, the rat or mouse and the cat were regarded by the peoples of distinct faiths in Asia, where doubtless these stories were first formed. KUMAGUSU MINAKATA.

Tanabe, Kii, Japan.

(To be concluded.)

CHRISTMAS AND ITS NAME IN EUROPEAN LANGUAGES. At this gladsome time of the year it may be not out of place nor unwel- come to give a brief synopsis of the various names applied to Christmas in our living European tongues, though not embracing the whole of them.

1. The Dutch call it Kerst-mis, i.e., like Christmas in its origin.

2. In German it is called Weihnachten, i.e., geweihte Nacht, holy night.

3. In Old Norse or Icelandic, Jol, whence Dano-Norwegian and Swedish Jul, i.e., our Yule.

4. In French, Noel (i.e., dies Natalis).

5. In Italian, Roumanian, and Portuguese, Natale, Natal.

6. In Spanish, Navidad (i.e., Nativitas).

7. In Cech or Bohemian, Vanoce (i.e., adopted from Weihnachten).

8. In Serbian, Bozic (i.e., Godly day).

9. In Polish, Narodzenie, Gody (akin to Lat. gaudium ?).

10. In Bulgarian, Razdane (i.e., birth [of Christ]).

11. In Russian, Rozdestvo Christovo (= birth of Christ).

12. In Modern Greek, Christugenna (i.e., birth of Christ).

To return home again to the British Isles :

13. In Cymric or Welsh, Nadolic (i.e., mediaeval Lat. Natalicia).

14. In Erse or Irish and Gaelic, Nod log, Notlaio (i.e., Natalicia). H. KREBS.

PORTRAIT AT HAMPTON COURT. There is at Hampton Court a portrait by Kneller said to represent ' Miss Pitt, afterwards Mrs. Scroop ' (Mr. Law's Catalogue, No. 40), and Mrs. Jerrold, in her book on ' The Fair Ladies of Hampton Court,' has suggested that a mistake has been made in naming it. I think she is right, for in " The Second, Fourth, and Seventh Satyrs of Monsieur Boileau Imitated; . . . 1696," there are some lines (p. 48) ' To a Lady whose Name was formerly Scroup [sic] now Pitts [sic], having seen her Picture in the Gallery at Hampton- Court.' In some commendatory verses prefixed to the volume the lady is referred to as

the Goddess who shall ever live In those fair colours, which your Verses give : Whose Matchless Face, and all perfections shine, Less bright f rom Kneller's Skilful hand, than thine. G. THORN-DRURY.

PORTRAIT FOUND IN AN INDIAN BAZAAR. With reference to the finding in India of a sketch of Napoleon on his death-bed (see ante, p. 284), a distinguished kins- woman of mine tells me of a similar curious find in another Indian bazaar.

Mrs. Craven (nee de la Ferronnays) told her that they had no good portrait of their sister-in-law Alexandrine, because the fashions in her day were so hideous ! But there was a miniature taken of her in fancy dress, and this was unfortunately lost. Many years later Sir Mountstuart Grant Duff