Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/130

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[12 S. I. FEB. 12, 1916.

went into family histories very closely "" The bride whose eyes sparkle may be wooed," was one of their maxims (Taanith 24 a). They objected to kissing otherwise than on the forehead or the hand (Rosh Hashana, 25 b). Capping, amputations, and the setting of fractured limbs were all mastered, and detailed directions for them are given in the different sections allocated to these matters.

Among the ancient Hebrews there was but one aristocracy, the aristocracy of the intellect. Here the Rabbi was a monarch absolute, and next in rank stood the cho- cham, a specialist in all manner of diseases, called generally chaloeem, yissurin, and machouveem, maladies of the mind and of the body, which only masters of medicine can diagnose. Next in rank were the rephoim, who combined surgery with medi- cine, and were equally adept in either branch ; next to them stood the umman or rophei umman (surgeon), who invariably attended patients with a retinue (levoyah) of apprentices, and whose advent was usually the signal for an ovation, every one saluting them, and lining up so that they might pass along with the least possible delay (Chulin, 54 b). The assia was the people's doctor with his nostrums already described. Many of these skilled men had extensive " rounds," and earned large fees. They could only settle in poorer quarters of the town, as much for the convenience of their humble clients as for the benefit of the landlords whose estates suffered through the noise caused by the continuous traffic to and from their surgeries. Many of them inherited large practices. Every city had to have a professional man (Sanhedrin, 17 b). Their official position was very high, and their testimony in criminal cases was held to be final (Gittin). Corporal punishment was administered under their sole direction. The Talmud mentions several distinguished medical men by name : Shammai ben Gama- liel ; Yochanon ben Nuri ; Shemuel Yarche- nooee, medical adviser to Rabbi Yehudah Hannassi, on whose behalf he went on a political mission to Antoninus Pius, and while in Rome was successful in rescuing from the dungeons a beautiful Hebrew lad, who ultimately became a mouray houro^o, an eminent scholar, and an ornament to Judaism ; and lastly, Rabbi Chanina, who was a famous physician, being boki Berefuous (Yoma, 49 a), of whom an excellent anecdote is related, proving his fine independence of character and unflinching adhesion to the highest traditions on which the religion of

Israel has been enduringly fostered and inflexibly sustained.

This essay is dedicated to the beloved memory of

my dear Parents, Raphael and Rebecca Breslar.

M. L. R. BRESLAR. Percy House, South Hackney.

RECRUITING FOR AGINCOURT IN 1415. The Prime Minister recently cited, in the House of Commons, two stanzas from an " old ballad," which were singularly apposite to the topic of recruiting, which he was discussing at the time :

Go 'cruit me Cheshire and Lancashire And Derby hills that are so free ; Not a married man nor widow's son No widow's curse shall go with me.

They 'cruited Cheshire and Lancashire, And Derby hills that are so free : Though no married man or no widow's son, They have 'cruited three thousand and three.

I have seen no allusion in the papers to the source of this quotation.

Two versions of this old ballad are to be found in an appendix to Sir Harris Nicolas' s ' History of the Battle of Agiricourt,' pub- lished in 1832. The first consists of fourteen stanzas, and the second of twenty-three. The first is prefaced by a note :

" The following ballad was obligingly communi- ated by Bertram Mitford, of Mitford Castle in Northumberland, Esquire, who wrote it from the dictation of a very aged relative." [n the first version the last line of the first stanza quoted by Mr. Asquith read : For there was a jovial brave company. In the second,

No widow's curse shall go with me vas substituted ; so he blended the two.

WlLLOUGHBY MAYCOCK.

UNUSUAL CHRISTIAN NAMES. As some lave from time to time been placed on record in ' N. & Q.,' it may, perhaps, be nteresting to add a few more (which appear n the second volume of Stebbing Shaw's History of Staffordshire ') :

P. 16. Walter Bassett married Sconsolate h-evill.

P. 38. Granada Brown, relict of Edward Fryth.

P. 70. Eintina (or Encina), daughter of Sir William Ruffus.

P. 70. Geoffrey de Bakepuse and Eneisin lis wife.

P. 100. Edward Croxall married Avarilla Vincent. R. B.