Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/234

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. x. sw. 20, 1902.

the sleepers of Ephesus from their slumber in the cave. At the time he wrote at least one -half of the people, not only in the university, but in Great Britain, were in favour of restoration of the Stuarts, and now Edward VII. is securely seated on the throne amid the acclamations of millions of his sub- jects. Perhaps it may be worth noting that, with the exception of William IV., his present Majesty is the oldest sovereign who has ascended the throne of England. Diu vivat ! JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

[The 'D.N.B.' states that George I. landed at Greenwich 18 Sept., and was crowned on 20 October, though Chambers's ' Encyclopaedia,' s.v. George I., gives the date of arrival at Greenwich as 29 Sep- tember, and that of the coronation as 31 October.]

HUMAN SALIVA. The belief in the efficacy of human saliva in healing disease and avert- ing evil is common to the folk-lore of almost all nations. A friend of mine (Mr. H. T. Johnstone, of Melbourne) has lately drawn my attention to a curious passage in Xeno- phon, ' Memorabilia,' I. ii. 54, where Socrates is represented as saying that a man ejects the saliva from his mouth because it is injurious to keep it within his system. The passage seems worth noting in ' N. & Q.,' as it is apparently unique. I cannot remember meeting with such an idea anywhere else in literature, and it is to some extent incon- sistent with the belief generally prevalent among the Greeks and Romans that saliva had purificatory power. ALEX. LEEPER.

Trinity College, Melbourne University.

AUTHORS' SLIPS. Lord Ronald Gower, in his ' Diaries,' p. 358, writes, under date 1 January, 1899: "A new year, the last but one of the century, has begun." This is accurate enough, but at p. 374 he adds, writing on the last day of the year 1899 : " In a few hours this old century will be numbered with the past." One does not like to be hypercritical, but these two sentiments hardly tally. The old century was only "numbered with the past" when 31 Decem- ber, 1900, was reached. Of course it is only a slip, but in careful writers like Lord Ronald slips are unpardonable. J. B. McGovERN.

St. Stephen's Rectory, C.-on-M., Manchester.

"WAMPUM." I find this word employed in English in three different senses, not clearly distinguished in existing dictionaries.

1. The correct application of it is to the white shell beads of the North American Indians as opposed to the black. It is derived from ^.wompt, the Narragansett word for

white," and ompeag, a generic suffix to

denote a string of money without reference to colour, hence wampumpeag, contracted to wampum. Roger Williams (1643) says, "Their white they call wompam, their black suckan- hock, sucki signifying black."

2. From an early period the settlers made this term do duty for white beads or black indifferently. Thus William Penn, in his ' Letter to the Free Society of Traders ' (1683), speaking of the Delaware Indians, explains that ''their money ...... is made of

the bone of a fish ; the black is with them as gold, the white silver ; they call it all wam- pum" Instances could readily be multiplied of this use (or abuse) of the term.

3. I have occasionally found it erroneously restricted to the black shell money, excluding the white. Thus in Beverly's ' History of Virginia '(1705), p. 58, "The peak is of two sorts, or rather of two colours ...... the wam-

pumpeak at eighteenpence the yard, and the white peak at ninepence."

This and the other examples quoted may be helpful to the editors of the ' N.E.D.'

JAS. PLATT, Jun.

PHILIP THICKNESSE. According to the ' D.N.B.' he was buried in the Protestant cemetery at Boulogne, where a monument was erected to his memory by his widow. The monument, a plain stone slab, bearing a somewhat long epitaph, is now in the Boulogne Museum in the Grande Rue, on the wall of the staircase to the first floor.

L. L. K.

WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct.

EDWARD MOORE : JAMES MOORE. Edward Moore is credited with the authorship of three plays, ' The Foundling,' 'Gil Bias, and ' The Gamester,' as well as ' Soloman's Sere- nata.' In ' The Dramatic Works of Edward Moore' (London, W. Lowndes, &c., 1788, 12mo), 4 Gil Bias,' the second of these, is assigned on the title-page to Mr. Moore. The dedication to the Town which follows is signed James Moore, and is written in words which dis- tinctly claim the authorship. In the 'Bio- graphia Dramatica ' ' Gil Bias ' is ascribed to Edward Moore. Is James Moore a misprint, or was there such a person, and has he any claim to the authorship? Forster in his ' Life of Goldsmith ' confounds Edward Moore with John Moore, author of ' Zeluco.'

URBAN.