Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/238

 234

NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. VH. MA*. 22, 1913.

There are some attempts at local colour ; the ladies compete in an archery tournament. I do not know whether this is correct in the reign of Henry IV., but the archery craze had not begun in 1808, so this reference is interesting. It is to be observed that it was considered rather " fast " to compete in the tournament, and Margiana herself did not know how to shoot.

The naming of the characters is curious. Among the ladies are Margiana, Geniveive, Clara, and Arlette ; among the men Harold, Bertram, Etheldred, and Hengist.

Margiana and Geniveive are the daughters of Lord Widdrington, a loving father, but inconstant husband, whose virtuous but neglected wife expires after telling her plaintive tale to her daughters and giving them much good advice. Lord Widdrington has no sons, and his heir is his brother Bertram (the " very fine villain " mentioned by Jane Austen), who lives at Widdrington Tower in Northumberland, as his brother is in attendance at Court. The hero, Etheldred, is Bertram's son.

All the intrigues and counter-intrigues are immensely long-drawn-out and elaborate. The author seems to have had no first-hand knowledge of Northumberland, and Widdring- ton Tower, which was really an ordinary Border hold, becomes an immense edifice of the Udolpho type, with endless corridors and dungeons.

Margiana is twenty years of age, a very prudent young lady, who has had many wealthy suitors, but has refused them all. Her father, although very anxious to see her married, gives her complete freedom of choice. Her cousin Etheldred is proposed by his father ; he loves her, and is in every Way Worthy of her, and she likes him very well, but will not accept him because her emotions are only cousinly. Her father takes part in a rebellion to restore Richard n. and is killed. By his will Margiana is to marry Etheldred within a year, and Bertram transports both Margiana and Geniveive to Widdrington Tower, where at least five sets of prisoners are already immured.

After various adventures Margiana escapes with one faithful servant, but they are set upon by robbers, and the servant flies with the report that Margiana is slain. After a time Etheldred marries Geniveive, who pines away and dies. She has never re- covered her spirits after witnessing a murder, which she dared not reveal. After her death Margiana turns up alive and well, but Etheldred cannot marry her because she

is his deceased wife's sister. In the end, however, one of Bertram's victims reveals the truth, which has been hinted at all along, that Geniveive was changed at birth, and was not really Margiana's sister. Con- sequently all ends happily.

M. H. DODDS,

INSCRIPTION AT WETHERAL (11 S. vii. 169). I should translate " Gratus sum Manu " (seeing that the Words occur beneath " a rough figure which may be a fish ") as " I am grateful to Manu," or " I am grateful, O Manu." Manu anglice literally man is, in Hindu mythology, the proper name of the first man. He was warned of the coming deluge by a fish (often identified with Brahma), which fish afterwards took the anchor of his ark in its mouth and piloted him through the flood. Possibly some eccentric retired Anglo-Indian put up the inscription after being saved from drowning. The fact of the place being the valley of the Eden may well have sug- gested thoughts of the Biblical Eden, and so of Adam and of Manu. If, on the other hand, " Manu " is Latin, it can only be the ablative (or conceivably the dative) of manus, meaning " hand." Manus, neither in this its primary sense nor in any of its secondary significations, seems to suit the context nor to account for the " figure which may be a fish." If the Hindu Manu is really in question, the inscription can, at the outside, be very little older than the beginning of the reign of Queen Victoria, as before about that date the Sanskrit Word would not have been transliterated into its scientific equivalent Manu, but into some such phonetic equivalent as Munoo.

R. JOHNSON WALKER. Little Holland House, Kensington, W.

A fish is the symbol of Christ, and is frequently found in paintings and sculptures of the primitive Church. Having been the first definite Christian emblem, it was entirely discontinued at the beginning of the fifth century.

St. Augustine says: "I.X. 6.Y. 2. is the mystical name of Christ, because He descends alive into the depths of this mortal life, as into the abyss of waters."

An anagrammatic use of the letters form- ing the word " fish " appears to have been the origin of the symbol. A remarkable instance of the use of this symbol is to be seen on the seal of Aberdeen Cathedral, which depicts the Nativity, where, instead of the Infant Saviour, a fish is lying upon the manger. CONSTANCE RUSSELL.