Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/300

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. XIL OCT. 10, 1903.

all know, there was a temple at Paphos, in Cyprus, dedicated to the Virgin Mylitta, which was the most celebrated in Grecian times. See T. W. Doane's ' Bible Myths fourth edition, and Lundy's 'Monumental Christianity.' An image that bears a striking resemblance to mine was found at Tarentum in A.D. 1774, and, like the Babylonian Mylitta, was of baked clay. It has been suggested that it was an ex voto offering to Juno Lucina, the goddess of marriage and child- birth among the Greeks and Romans. An account is given in Lundy, which is accom- panied by a plate (fig. 95, pp. 215-16). The images are mostly shown with the child in the arms, and not at the breast, and this latter fact induces me to accord an earlier date than 800 B.C., as the Phoenicians were in Cyprus long before that, even in the time of Sargon of Akkad (B.C. 3800), and he wor- shipped the same goddess Istar (Boscawen, 1895, pp. 22-23).
 * Bible and the Monuments,' second edition,

There is a reproduction from De Rossis ' Images of the Nativity ' in Lundy, plate 89, p. 206, which shows the child at the breast, and at p. 229 is the following : " Perhaps the most complete counterpart of this [mosaic in the church of St. Maria of Traste- vere] in paganism is an ancient Hindu sculpture of Bhavani or Parvati." Plate 96, p. 21 7 of the same work, is from Moor's ' Hindu Pantheon," and shows Devaki and Krishna, the Hindu Madonna and Child ; and a por- tion of the same plate is given in Hulme's 'Symbolism in Christian Art,' p. 119, with- out acknowledgment. If we turn to Mont- faucon's * Antiq. Explained,' English edition, 1721, vol. ii. plate 37, fig. 13, we have a picture of Isis and Horus, the babe at the breast; so that to make a list complete it is necessary to exhaust Babylonia, Assyria Egypt, India, and Persia, as well as Europe.

F. M. H. K.

The Wallace collection at Hertford Hous contains two or three pictures of the Virgin with the Child at her breast. J. 11.

The painting of the Blessed Virgin witl the Holy Child at her breast on the vaultec roof of a loculus in the Cemetery of Priscilh is deemed by De Rossi to belong almost to th apostolic age. A photograph of this may b seen among J. H. Parker's * Historical Photo graphs of the Catacombs,' No. viii. Th interpretation that the family group consist of Joseph on the left hand and the Holj Child and His Mother is probably, thoug! not with absolute certainty, the true one See Bottari, * Sculture e Pitture Sagre,' tav

.. . '

Ixxvi. ; ' The Testimony of the Catacombs,' >y the Rev. Wharton B. Marriott, 1870 ; De lossi's 'Imagines Selects Virginis Deiparse ; ,nd Northcote's 'Roma Sotterranea, p. 258, date x. fig. 1. J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.

MALTESE LANGUAGE AND HISTORY (9* S. x. 466 ; xi. 91). The late Rev. M. A. Camillen, D.D., a native of Malta, and for thirty-four years vicar of Lyford, Berks, translated the New Testament and the Book of Common ^rayer into Maltese. Dr. Camillen died this

ear at the ripe age of eighty-seven.

J. B. McGovERN.

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

MIDLAND REGISTERS (9 th S. xii. 209). MID- LANDER does not seem to be aware that there s a Staffordshire Parish Register Society m existence. It has already published several registers, and could, no doubt, do more if it got more subscribers. If MIDLANDER wishes bo subscribe, he should write to the Secre- tary, the Rev. F. J. Wrottesley, Denstone Vicarage, (Jttoxeter. G. S. P.

FARTHINGS (9 th S. xii. 169,238). Dislike to receiving farthings in payment of purchases is not confined to country towns and villages, ! or W. C. L. F. would experience equal difficulty in inducing tradesmen over the greater part of London to accept them in pay- ment. True, there are certain poor districts in South and East London where farthings nave a definite purchasing value, and a Earthings worth of tea, sugar, milk, or bread is easily procurable. But elsewhere in London and its suburbs tradespeople would almost certainly refuse farthings. Quite recently I have seen both omnibus and tram conductors refuse to take farthings in payment of fares from lady passengers, and I have been curious enough to inquire the reason. The reply has been in each case that the cashiers of the omnibus and tram companies refuse to accept farthings from their employees. Drapers frequently sell goods costing odd farthings, but rarely, if ever, give farthings in change, substituting small packets of pins, &c. The reason why it is so difficult to dis- pose of farthings in this way is, I believe, because bankers do not accept them from their customers when the latter are paying money into their accounts.

The behaviour of the "presiding genius" at the post office who refused to take your valued contributor's farthings appears to me inexcusable and inexplicable. The ' Postal Guide,' which is expressly stated to be published "by authority," announces that the price of a single postcard is f d, and of a