Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/118

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9 th S. I FES. 5, '98.

I feel convinced that the argei, or manni- kins made of reeds, which used to be thrown into the Tiber by the Vestals and Pontifices from the wooden bridges, constituted a reminiscence of human sacrifice. This last, though unhappily prevalent among the Etruscans, at no time seems to have fully commended itself to the Romans, at least in the religious sense, though one or two remarkable exceptions occur.

The ancient triennial Giuoco del Ponte or Mazzascudo, formerly celebrated on the Ponte- mezzo at Pisa, used to claim a Hellenic origin, that city having been founded, it was thought, by Greeks from the neighbourhood of Olym- pia. It is perhaps significant that Pisa marked the north-western angle of Etruria, and that the Arno there divided the Etruscans from the Ligurians, into whose territory, however, they not infrequently carried havoc. But dancing was no part of the giuoco, which was of the nature of a festal combat scientifically and religiously arranged to take place between the men of the two sides of the river,, i.e., those of the Parte di Tramontana, o di S. Maria, and those of the Parte di Mezzo- giorno, o di S. Antonio, * in which as many as four hundred and eighty a side sometimes took part. These haying been selected from the various parishes, in the respective colours of which they were habited, were helmeted t and armed with a long wooden shield. For spectators they had the entire popula- tion of Pisa. For the aristocracy loggie were placed along the embankments, while house- holders of lower degree invited their friends to their roofs and balconies. Whatever of violence was inevitably imported into the contest (and fatal " accidents " were not un- common), the prevailing spirit was one of friendly emulation without political in- gredients. It had more of the character of a university boat-race than of "town and gown." Victory consisted in occupying the enemy's ground. J

With regard to the dancing, it is certain that on almost all solemn occasions in Roman days, whether funereal or festive, the priestly guild of Salii, or leapers, bore important

17 January (St. Anthony's Day), though the date appears to have been subject to considerable uncer- tainty. The selected combatants were respectively bound to attend solemn Mass on the morning of the contest.
 * The game was appointed to take place on

t The helmet was a visored morion. The corslet and armlets were likewise of iron. The gaiters and gauntlets were made of quilted leather, as also was the collar.

t It appears doubtful whether any record of the giuoco at Pisa occurs before the thirteenth century.

part, and performed their evolutionary ments after the manner of certain sects of the Dervishes. It is quite likely that at the inauguration or repairing of the wooden gang- ways or bridges which in early times led to the Janiculum, these Salii formed a feature in the function. But I have not, so far, come upon evidence of a more definitive character. The propitiation of Father Tiber with argei, or straw puppets, seems to have merely con- stituted one more of those playful instances of the attitude observed by Romans towards their divinities that is to say, impudently offering them a make-believe satisfaction :

'They presented to the Sky-lord the heads of onions and poppies in order that he might launch his bolts at these rather than at the heads of real men. The ideas of divine mercy and propitiation were inseparably mixed up with pious fraud." Cf. Mommsen, c. xii. bk. i.

ST. GLAIR BADDELEY.

' IN MEMORIAM,' LIV. (8 th S. xii. 387, 469 ; 9 th S. i. 18). I have to thank both the HON. L. A. TOLLEMACHE and C. C. B. for their kind and full replies to my query about the worm and the moth. I have very carefully con- sidered their explanations, but while I am free to admit that I feel somewhat less confi- dence in my own interpretation, I am not yet fully convinced that it is erroneous. May I be permitted, with much diffidence, as one whose study of Tennyson is as yet in- complete, to express more at large my own view of the passage 1

I have ventured to suppose that in cantos liv.-lvi. the poet is, like his own Mantuan, " majestic in nis sadness at the doubtful doom of human kind," and of human kind only ; that " not one life " and " the living whole " refer solely to the human race ; and that the " worm " and the " moth " are but figures, the cloven worm and the shrivelled moth meta- phorically expressing the broken plans, the crushed lives, and the disappointed aspirations of men ; and the line " Or but subserves another's gain " referring to the ill-remune- rated toil of the labourer for the capitalist, or any way in which one man is simply the tool of another.

In regard to this line, I quite agree with the HON. L. A. TOLLEMACHE that "but" must mean "only," and Jowett's interpretation " without subserving" seems to me impossible. But I differ from him, in taking " another's gain " to mean " the gain of another moth " (in the figurative sense), and not " the gain of other sentient beings." And if " moth " is to be taken literally, I cannot attach any satisfactory meaning to the line.

Let us see what the supposition of "a