Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/299

 9> s. xii. OCT. 10, loos.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

291

the early Christian symbol ix#vs ? I though it first stood, like the figure of a fish, for a symbol of baptism perhaps a cryptic o veiled symbol understood by Christians among themselves. Later, like the IHS or some crucifixes, it was reinterpreted, being rendered as 'I^crovs X/HO-TOS Geov vlos o-om?p and IHS, the abbreviation of IH20Y2, Jesus Hominum Salvator.

If I am right, it throws light on what has, seemed the somewhat far-fetched explanation of baptism in the Church Catechism, " death unto sin," founded on one singl sentence of St. Paul, " Buried with Him in baptism," whereas it seems natural to suppose that water-baptism was chosen to represem the cleansing of the soul from the carna tendency to rebel against loving authority.

T. WILSON. Harpenden.

"CYCLOPAEDIA": "ENCYCLOPEDIA" (9 th S xii. 27, 172). When I wrote the note at the first of these references, I was thinking entirely of prefixing or not prefixing " En " to " Cyclo- paedia." Not only the Oxford, but some smaller ones (e.g., Annandale's ' Modern Cyclopedia' and Fosbroke's 'Encyclopedia of Antiquities '), have substituted e for the diphthong ce. Personally, I think this an improvement, but I must demur to the sug- gestion to drop "all diphthongs." It would look very strange to print " Cesar " or "Atheneum," but no one would now write ^Egypt or ^Ethiopia, tether or asternal. The rule usually followed with ce is to substitute e when it commences a word, and retain the diphthong in any other part of it. The ex- ceptions are rather apparent than real, medieval, for instance (which I think is now usually written thus), being a compound word, one component of which is " aeval," from Lat. cevum, the root word of eternus, formerly ceviternus. But with regard to names of per- sons or places in which we have followed the Latin in representing the Greek ot by ce, that usage seems to take place in all parts of the word, as in CEdipus, Bercea, and it would be a pity to lose all trace of its origin by substi- tuting e for ce as well as for ce. There would also be great risk that CEdipus, if written Edipus, would be sounded in English with a short e. If it were preferred to restore the Greek spelling Ot, that must be done through- out and the word spelt Oidipous. I notice that the revisers have substituted ce for e in Phenicia, as it appears in the Authorized Version of the New Testament (Acts xxi. 2). The words "economy" and "oecumenical" (both derived ultimately from the Greek

of/cos) show that the Latin ce has passed into e in words in common use, but not in those of technical character. W. T. LYNN.

Blackheath.

ASH : PLACE-NAME (9 th S. xii. 106, 211). MR. W. H. DUIGNAN and other readers may be interested in the fact that in the name of a village called Lasham, in Hampshire, lies buried the place-name of Ash, carrying out his suggestion that places named Ash are derived from the Saxon cesc.

1. Anglo-Saxon. uEsc (ash), ham or hame (home), the homestead in the ash-trees.

2. Norman. Esseham (Domesday Book), 1086.

3. Norman, later. 1284 (John de Pontis- sara's Register, Bishop of Winchester 1282- 1304). La-s-ham. It will be seen that the Norman prefix La (the) had been added, the s representing the Esse slurred, and ham retained in full.

4. Modern. Lasham.

FRANK LASHAM.

Not only is there One Ash the late John Bright's house at Rochdale but in Derby- shire there is Monyash. W. C. B.

"RouT" (9 th S. ix. 65, 198, 365). Note from 'An Essay on Gaming, in an Epistle to a Young Nobleman,' London, 1761 :

' Drums, Routs, and Hurricanes are fashionable Names for Card-Assemblies. A Drum is when a Lady has six Tables at play ; a Route, twelve ; and a Hurricane, twenty."

F. JESSEL.

INFANT SAVIOUR AT THE BREAST (9 th S. xii. 29, 115). In reply to MR. SWYNNERTON, [ should think it almost impossible to supply a trustworthy list of representations jf the Virgin with the Child at the breast,

wing to the frequent occurrence of this

symbol in pre-Christian times. I am indebted

bo a friend for the following information,

which may be of interest. His description

)f an image with the babe at the breast now

n his possession is as follows. It is made of

a kind of gypsum of the pre-Mykense period,

and was excavated from one of the primitive

ombs at Eukomi (Salamis) at about the time

1896) when those in the British Museum

vere excavated by means of Miss E. T.

?urner's bequest for that purpose, and the

late approximates to 800 B.C. This image

might represent Venus and Eros, as both

lato and Cicero speak of Eros, or the leayenly Cupid, as the son of Venus and ~upiter ; but it is more likely Mylitta (who vas essentially the same as Aphrodite) and he divine son Tammuz, the Saviour, for, as,