Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/417

 9B. XL MAY 23, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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tian representations no difference is to be seen between the habitus of the Magi and the priests of Mithra. Now Prof. Dieterich has also found the motif of the invention of the migration of the eastern Magi in the west- ward direction; the growing legend must have been influenced by an event which has given a form to the emotional fantasy of early Christians. This event is the journey of King Tiridates of Armenia to Rome in the year 66 A.D. (Dio Cassius, liber Ixiii. 2-7) to do homage to Nero. That this event made the greatest impression on Nero himself, who dated his eleventh imperatorship thereafter (Maynial, Revue Archeologique, September and October, 1901), on the Romans, and especially on the countries which the magnificent pro- cession of Tiridates with his 3,000 Parthian knights traversed, is verified by old authors. Tiridates said to Nero, "I came to do homage to thee as to Mithra," and Plinius says in his ' Historia Naturalis,' xxx. 10, which was written about the same period as the Evangelium Matthsei : k ' Magus Tiridates ad Neronem venerat et Magos suum ad- duxerat." Dio Cassius and the Greek Testa- ment have the same expression for the homage, Trpo<TKvvr]aris. I can give here only a few points out of the rich and most clear and clever deductions of Prof. Dieterich. That the story of the star is not more than an analogy for the appearance of a legendary star at the deaths of Sarpedon, Karneades, Caesar, and Nerva, or at the birth of Mithra- dates and Augustus (the same as Csesar's), or of the conducting star of ^Eneas and Timo- leon, is demonstrated by the most eminent living scholar in the science of comparative religion, Prof. Usener, of the Bonn Univer- sity, in the Rkeinische Museum, 1900.

DR. MAX MAAS. Munich, Bavaria.

POPE SELF CONDEMNED FOR HERESY (9 th S.

xi. 67, 218). This story is quoted at length in the note on p. 261 of Sir Frederick Pollock's 'First Book of Jurisprudence.' The original source is 'Year-Book of 8 Henry VI.,' p. 20.

A. T.

'THE POETRY OF GEORGE WITHER' (9 th S. xi. 266). A bibliographical list of Wither's works (1588-1667) will be found in the ' Dic- tionary of English Authors,' by R. Farquhar- son Sharp, 1897.

Each series of ' N. & Q.,' excepting the seventh, contains many references to his pub- lications, nine of which may be consulted in the Corporation Library, Guildhall.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

" DOGNOPER" (9 th S. xi. 248, 358). In Hol- land the difficulty of keeping dogs out of churches appears to have been as great as in England. In one of my sketch-books I find a note of a placard attached to the door of an old church, " Honden uyt Gods Tempel." HENRY TAYLOR.

Birklands, Southport.

Two papers treating of this subject ap- peared in Chamber s's Journal for 8 April, 1882, and 4 April, 1885. The first was entitled 'Keeping Order in Church,' and the other ' Dog-whippers and Sluggard-wakers.' Both were anonymous contributions, but the writer in both instances was Mr. J. Potter Briscoe. D'ARCY LEVER.

MAIZE, ITS NATIVE COUNTRY (8 th S. iii. 348 ; iv. 53 ; xi. 466 ; 9 th S. xi. 286, 357). Without going into the question of the native country of maize, it is of some interest to know whence we had the name of it. As regards this, we know perfectly well that the name came neither from Colombia nor from Peru, but is a word of Carib origin, from the island of Hayti. The Haytian name is spelt mahiz or mahis in the ' Cent. Diet.' and in the new Webster ; the spelling maiz is mere Spanish, and Monlau's dictionary derives the Spanish maiz from the Haytian mahiz. Already in 1555 R. Eden's translation of Peter Martyr says of the Caribals or Caribs that " this kynde of grayne they call mai- zium," ed. Arber, p. 67 ; cf. p. 116. At p. 118 we have " the seedes which they of Hispaniola call maizium," cf. p. 159. I have already given these references in my ' Notes on Eng. Etym.,' p. 346. The spelling mahiz is in the index to Oviedo. WALTER W. SKEAT.

SYNAGOGA : CHRONISTA (9 th S. xi. 309). The Passion according to St. Matthew is sung on Palm Sunday, the Passion according to St. Mark on the following Tuesday, the Passion according to St. Luke on the follow- ing Wednesday, and the Passion according to St. John on Good Friday. On all these occasions the words of our Lord are sung in the bass (Christus), the words of Apostles, Jews, and others in the alto (Synagoga), and the Gospel narrative in the tenor (Chronista). Where it is possible these three parts are taken by three deacons of the Passion, other- wise the celebrant sings Christus, the deacon Chronista, and the sub-deacon Synagoga. I suppose Chronista to be a variant of the Low Latin Chronolista, which is itself an abbreviation of Chronologista ; and Synagoga is probably so called because the first words allotted to him in the Missals on each day except Wednesday are those of a gathering