Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/261

 12 S. 1. MAB. 25, 1916.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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At the meeting of the British Association held at Leicester in 1907 Prof. W. Ridgeway delivered a lecture on ' The Origin of the Crescent as a Mohammedan Badge.' in which he advanced the theory that " primitive peoples were in the habit of wearing, as an amulet, claws or tusks of the most powerful and dangerous animals. These in time were placer! base to base, and the crescent form resulted, and the Muhammadans therefore adopted a pre-existing symbol, and the connexion of the crescent with the moon is a later development." Report, p. 649 f.; .Man, vol. vii. p. 144.

W. CROOKE.

Here are jottings which will be helpful to

V COL. N. POWLETT.

The crescent and star

'" were originally the symbol of Diana, the Patroness of Byzantium, and were adopted by the Ottomans as a badge of triumph"

when Constantinople was taken by Ma- homet II. in 1453 (' The Flags of the World,' p. 119).

We must give tradition, under the care of Dr. E. C. Brewer, the credit of saying that

"Philip, the father of Alexander, meeting with great difficulties in the siege of the city of Byzantium, set the workmen to undermine the walls, but a crescent moon discovered the design, which mis- carried: consequently the Byzantines erected a statue to Diana, and the crescent became the symbol of the state."

Dr. Brewer also records a legend to the effect that Sultan Othman saw a vision of a crescent moon which increased its span till its arms stretched from east to west. He adopted that hint of power as his emblem, and took the motto " Donee repleat orbem " {' Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ').

ST. SWITHIN.

According to Hammer, the crescent was first placed by Alaeddin Tekesh of Kho- varesm (the territory between the Oxus and the Caspian Sea), a non- Ottoman ruler (about A.D. 1223), on his flags and tents; but the same device with the sun and the crown of Khosroes figured long before his time on Persian coins as symbols of those rulers' power over the sun and moon (French edition, i. 37). The author, however, does not state when the Ottoman Sultans adopted the crescent for their device and added the star. L. L. K.

1589. Puttenham, ' Eng. Poesie,' ii. 117: " Selim, Emperour of Turkie, gaue for his deuice a croissant or new rnoone, promising to himself increase of glory and enlargement of empire." A. R. BAYLEY.

The assertions referred to by COL. POWLETT will be found in * Haydn's Dictionary of Dates ' and similar books of reference. If COL. POWLETT will consult RawJinson's ' Empires,' and examine especially the pictures of the coins, he will be able to trace the use of these symbols in the turband or head-covering of the sovereigns depicted on them. From which fact it would appear that these symbols of rise and growth were adopted by each successive race of con- querors on the defeat of the previous race. FRANK PENNY.

JOANNA LA LOCA (12 S. i. 128). Joanna, Queen of Castile, called by the Spaniards "la Loca," died at Tordesillas, April 13, 1555, aged 73, and was buried in [close to] the Cathedral of Granada, where is still to be seen her tomb, by the side of that of her husband, who was brought there from Burgos (' Biographie Universelle,' vol. xxi., 1818, sub nom. ' Jeanne, reine de Castille ').

For confirmation of this see Murray's ' Handbook for Travellers in Spain,' by Richard Ford, ninth edition, 1898, pp. 360, 361, where Juana la Loca's monument and coffin, in the Capilla Real, attached to the Cathedral of Granada, are described. A foot- note refers for interesting details of her to ' Cal. of State Papers,' edited by Bergenroth, vol. v., Appendix, London, 1862.

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

SIR CHRISTOPHER CORWEN (12 S. i. 190). The person knighted when Anne Boleyn was crowned must have been Sir Christopher Curwen of Workington, who was Sheriff of Cumberland in 1525 and 1534. His son Thomas was " educated in part " with Henry VIII. when Prince of Wales, and " at the dissolution of abbeys " was granted a lease of " the Abbie of fmrnes for 20 fcy one yeares." See J. F. Curwen' s ' Pedigree of the Family of Curwen,' pp. 34, 35.

JOHN R. MAGRATH. Queen's College, Oxford.

GEORGE INN, BOROUGH (12 S. i. 90, 137, 175, 216). In the appendixes to the Second Report of the Royal Commission on Public Records, vol. ii. part ii. (1914), p. 93, there is a contribution signed by Mr. F. W. X. Fincham, Superintendent of the Literary Search Department at Somerset House. In this article, which deals with certain classes of records in the Probate Registry, he remarks :

" The Deposition Books of the Consistory and Commissary Courts often contain allusions to historical personages. The ' Besponsa Person- alia ' might, I imagine, afford valuable historical