Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/146

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[2* S. NO 7., FEB. 16. '56.

The tyrant with his blackguards fled, By flight their guilt confessing,

To beg of France their daily bread, Of Rome a worthless blessing. Then let us sing, &c.

6.

" From all who dare to tyrannise, May Heaven still defend us ; And should another James arise,

Another William send us. May kings like George for ever reign, With highest worth distinguish'd ; But those who. would our annals stain, May they be quite extinguish'd.

Then let us sing, while echoes ring,

The glorious Revolution ; Your voices raise to William's praise, Who sav'd the Constitution."

CLIFFORD S INN DINNER-CUSTOM.

(2 nd S. i. 12. 79.)

Scotland preserved some of the customs of hea- thenism till the last century, and this may be one of a similar character, if not required by the founder as a symbol of possession, as the Duke of Wellington's presentation of a flag to the Queen. The founder might have treasured up this custom from remote antiquity, or he might have insti- tuted it as a symbolical act to arrest the attention of students, and to invite them to its investigation. Ceres, the beau ideal of agriculture, was surnamed &ffffj.o<p6po^ because she first taught mankind the use of laws, which, not being needed, or, if needed, ineffectual, in the nomade state, do not become efficient till Agriculture (Ceres) creates the exi- gency for them. Callimachus, in his hymn to Ceres, says,

" KaAAiop, to? TroXtecrcrtv eaSdra re'(?;tua SiaKf."

" [Let us speak of] the beautiful laws she has given to

our cities."

Cakes, sacred to Ceres, usually terminated the ancient feasts : the rolls may be thrown down at Clifford's Inn as an offering to Ceres legifera, as wine was poured out to Bacchus. " T<Jff<ra Auawcrov yap a KU\ Acfytarpa YaXeVrei." The number three Callimachus especially refers to Ceres :

" TpU /nef 5i) Sie'/37js ' To<reraia S' aevauiv r

v apyvpoivav,

' Trpa<r<Tas ficaiTTOV,

"Thrice you traversed the silver bed of Acheloiis; thrice you crossed each river of the earth ; thrice you re- turned to the centre of Enna, the most charming of islands; thrice you returned to sit by the wells of Calli- chorus (near Eleusis)."

In the last line of this hymn, Ceres is styled TpiAAiore, " thrice adorable." (See the authorities quoted in Esclienbnrg's Manual of Class. Lit., by Fiske, pp. 171. 206., and Bos., Ant. Grate., p. 45.) It will be recollected that Socrates asks the gaoler if he has provided sufficient poison for a libation,

but, finding there was only enough to carry out his sentence of death, he directs Crito to sacrifice a fowl to Esculapius in lieu of such libation (PhaBdo, s.f.). Neglect of the worship of Ceres was one of the charges against Socrates (Esch., p. 170.) : hence it might be inferred that Socrates was opposed to agriculture as well as to law.

T. J. BXJCKTON.

Lichfield.

THE TWO-HEADED EAGLE. (2 nd S. 1. 73.)

The origin of the device of the eagle on national and royal banners may be traced to very early times. It was the ensign of the ancient kings of Persia and of Babylon. The Romans adopted various other figures on their camp standards ; but Marius, B.C. 102, made the eagle alone the ensign of the legions, and confined the other figures to the cohorts. From the Romans the French, under the empire, adopted the eagle.

The emperors of the Western Roman Empire used a black eagle ; those of the East a golden one. The sign of the golden eagle, met with in taverns, is in allusion to the emperors of the East.

Since the time of the Romans, almost every state that has assumed the designation of an empire, has taken the eagle for its ensign : Austria, Russia, Prussia, Poland, and France, all took the eagle.

The two-headed eagle signifies a double empire. The emperors of Austria, who claim to be con- sidered the successors of the Cassars of Rome, use -the double-headed eagle, which is the eagle of the eastern emperors with that of the western, typi- fying the " Holy Roman Empire," of which the emperors of Germany (now merged in the house of Austria) considered themselves as the repre- sentatives. Charlemagne was the first to use it, for when he became master of the whole of the German Empire, he added the second head to the eagle, A.D. 802, to denote that the empires of Rome and Germany were united in him.

As it is among birds the king, and being the emblem of a noble nature, from its strength of wing and eye, and its courage, as also of conscious strength and innate power, the eagle has been universally preferred as the continental emblem of sovereignty.

Of the different eagles of heraldry, the black eagle is considered the most noble, especially when blazoned on a goMen shield. The origin of the Austrian, Polish, and Russian eagle is thus related in A. Barrington's Lectures on Heraldry :

" Varus, the Roman proconsul and governor of Syria, A.r>. 10, being made commander-in-ehief of the legions in Germany, was surprised by the enemy, and his army cut to pieces. The Romans lost two of their standards, a black eagle and a white one. The black eagle was seized