Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/54

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

JULY 18 ' im

his leathern apron as a standard, slew the governor appointed by Dahhak, seized the arsenal and the treasure, marched through the provinces, every- where dispersing the troops sent forth against him, and advanced with a powerful army to Rai, the same spot where, twenty centuries later, was fought the battle which gave the Caliphate to Manmn. Before joining the battle, Kawsih proposed the election of a king, and, after himself refusing the crown offered to him by the Persian nobles, finally placed it UIXMI the head of Feridun, a descendant of the Paishdadian dynasty. The tyrant was defeated and taken prisoner, and his skull fractured with the blacksmith's club."

If this is nob very trustworthy as history it is at least interesting as folk-lore.

WILLIAM E. A. AXON.

Manchester.

"CABAL." A distinctly earlier use of the word " cabal," as meaning a secret or private intrigue of a sinister character, than that given in * H.E.D.,' is to be found in the Coke MSS. (Royal Historical Manuscripts Com- mission, Twelfth Report, Appendix, part i. vol. i. p. 400). In "Mr. Fincham's relation read to His Majesty [Charles I.] 27th January, 1G29[30]," the belief was expressed of certain intriguers in France that they would "labour tooth and nail to make a cabal both in Eng land, Scotland, and Ireland, for their parts, as well with the laics as with the priests and Jesuits." ALFRED F. ROBBING.

4 BISCLAVRET.' This singular name is well known as the title of one of the ' Lays ' of Marie de France. We are told in the open- ing lines that this is a Breton word, and that it means " wer wolf." But I can find nowhere any explanation of this form ; and it is quite certain that the word, as it stands, means nothing of the sort.

What is wrong is that the / has found its way into the wrong syllable. Turn flisclavret into JHiscavret or Bliscauret, or turn the Norse form Bi&daret into Jiliscaret, and the etymology is no longer quite hopeless. JHiscar et is formed with the French suffix -et (as 1 suppose) from Jlliscaro, which is not a very great travesty of the Breton bleiz-yaro, which Legonidec translates by " loup-garou." It is easily explained. It is made by substituting Bret, bleiz, a wolf, for F. loup in the compounc Imip-yarou, and that is all. Bleiz is cognate with Welsh blaidd, a wolf ; and r/arou merely the French form of the Middle Higl German werwolf. The sense is partly re duplicated, the literal meaning being * 4 wolf werwolf," as in French.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

LiEUT.-CoL. J. G. SIMCOE. This Englisl officer's 'Military Journal,' second edition New York, 1844, contains some inaccuracies

sstfftz a? ^ p il ? l ST&^?T^

ve yards off; they consisted of thirty men ommanded by Mariner, a refugee from New /ork and well known for his enterprises Nyitn whale-boats." The command of the American )arty was vested in Capt. Moses Guest, of he New Jersey militia. A bibliography ollows :

Poems and Journal ' (Moses Guest), two editions, t i 1 S'^S-4 Memoirs 'of the War,' &c., second edition,

^'cfntennial History of Somerset County, N.J.' A. Messier), Somerville, N.J., 1S78.PP- 102- K 'Annals of Staten Island' (J. J. Clute), New

^Historica^Collections of the State of New Jersey ' Barber and Howe). New York, 1844, 455.

Jersey in" the"Revolutionary War,' Trenton, N.J., American Monthly Magazine, Washington, D.C.,

Tales of our Forefathers,' Albany, N.Y., 1898.

' This enterprise [of Simcoe] was considered by Doth armies among the handsomest exploits of the war. Simcoe executed completely his object, then deemed very important." Lee's ' Memoirs of the War,' &c., second edition, pp. 192-3.

EUGENE F. McPiKE.

Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

BREAKING THE GLASS AT JEWISH WED- DINGS. I have often been asked by Christian friends to account for that dramatic finale to the marriage service in the synagogue when the bridegroom crushes a wineglass under foot. Many fanciful statements have been made, some of them more ingenious than true. My own view of this singular custom may be quite as fanciful as the rest ; how- ever, it clings to the chains of tradition, one of the most hallowed principles (perhaps the most sacred) in Judaism, and can claim kindred in that respect with the modern chdlouth (Sabbath loaves), the types and symbols of the lechem haponeem of the Sanctuary, and with the Sabbath-eve lighting of candles, associated likewise with the neer tamid (perpetual lamp). On these traditional manners of the Hebrews much remains to be written. However, in Bible times it was usual on making a contract or on striking a bargain to kill a beast. The person was then said korath berith (to cut a covenant). The Greeks and Komans were not strangers to this rite, as their idioms 6'pKia re/^vctv and fcedus icere prove. The substantial act was one of " striking a blow," which would