Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/145

 9* S. XL FEB. 14, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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aggrieved at the harmless language of your Exeter correspondent. At all events, Catholics who know MR. HEMS are well aware that he is as far as possible from harbouring any uncharitable prejudices against our com- munion. The facts are all the other way, as I happen to know and am pleased to testify. JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS. Town Hall, Cardiff.

Had I quoted from MR. JOHN A. RANDOLPH'S very inaccurate 'Abbeys around London,' that gentleman might have been justified in accusing me of giving authorities that " can- not be accepted as reliable." Those I have mentioned are amongst the best existing, and the references, so far from being in the least offensive, were perfectly fair. Dr. Jessopp, in his edition of Husenbeth's 'Emblems of Saints,' remarks (p. 154) St. Nicholas is repre- sented by "three children in a tub." My mention of a manuscript illustration, in the Bodleian Library, of St. Nicholas was accom- panied by the accurate remark that therein he is shown near " a small tub in which are three naked youngsters saying their prayers." In the ' Calendar of the Prayer Book ' (1870) we find the actual story thus described (p. 143) :

" Nicholas upon one occasion took up his

abode with a man who was accustomed to steal

little children, and serve up their salted remains to his guests. He set such a dish before St. Nicholas, who at once percewed the crime, and, charging his host with it, went to the tub where the mutilated

remains of the children were kept in brine and

restored them to life."

The same authority adds Nicholas is shown " standing with upraised hand before a tub, whence three naked children are rising up with their hands clasped in prayer."

MR. RANDOLPH has unjustly taken up the role of censor by pretending to find offence where none was meant.

HARRY HEMS.

Fair Park, Exeter.

I can now answer the most important part of my inquiry about the legend of the children murdered and salted in a tub, and brought to life by St. Nicholas. It is to be found in Wace (c. 1180i, quoted by Cahier in ' Carac- terisques des SS.,' Paris, 1867, p. 304, col. 2, and in a sermon by St. Bonaventura (c. 1250), 'Opera,' Romse, 1596, t. iii. p. 242. I have not yet found out who the "Italian author" was who wrote the saint's life in 1645, but that is of no great consequence. J. T. F.

Durham.

THE CORONATION TITLE v. THE ASSUMED TITLE (9 th S. xi. 69). If MR. MACRAE can produce any English coronation service in which the monarch is spoken of otherwise

than by the single Christian name chosen by him or her as a regnal name, his argument may be somewhat advanced. Perhaps when he returns within reach of libraries he will let us know, e.g., whether George III. was called more than George at his coronation. Why should the numeral be used at all in such a religious service ? One might as well deny John Smith's right to the latter name because when he was christened he was only called John. O. O. H.

LEVIATHAN (9 th S. xi. 30). The Nile abounds with large saurians, so the leviathan is read for the crocodile, as emblematic of Egypt, in the Prophets ; just as a bulldog typifies Britain, and a bear serves for Russia. The word is purely Biblical, and is accepted by us, just like brobdingnag for any animal of enormous size ; root luah, " to join." So Levi, personal name, and allied to lab, " to throw "; thus we get librate and levitation. Once introduced for Egypt, the name was applied any way, indefinitely, like our sea-serpent, never seen, but reported supposititiously.

LYSART.

No final conclusion has been reached as to the creature designated, and the word, which is a transliteration of the Hebrew (?) livyathan, and occurs six times in the O.T., appears to admit of different interpretations. Job iii. 8 ("their mourning," A.V.) and Isa. xxvii. 1 (bis) may reflect the chaos-dragon of the Baby- lonian creation-tablets. Ps. Ixxiv. 14 and Job xli. fairly answer to the crocodile. In Ps. civ. 26 some sea monster, perhaps the whale, has been recognized. Robertson Smith ('Semites,' p. 176n., ed. 1894) says, u TheL.

of Scripture is probably a personification

of the waterspout." For a mythological explanation Ps. civ. 26 is intractable see ' Behemoth ' in ' Encyc. Biblica,' and also " crocodile " for Job xli. Dr. Smythe Palmer's ' Babylonian Influence on the Bible ' is a useful survey of this and kindred topics, which MR. AULD has probably consulted.

C. S. WARD.

Wootton St. Lawrence, Basingstoke.

" LUCID INTERVAL " (9 th S. xi. 87). Although this phrase obtained a more extensive appli- cation, it seems likely that it originated in the treatment of the insane in former days. I venture, therefore, to adduce a passage from Celsus which may or may not be found to assist the elucidation. In describing frenzy this old Latin physician refers to the abhor- rence, sometimes of light, sometimes of dark- ness, evinced by the mentally afflicted ; and sensibly advises it best "habere eum, qui