Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/319

 II. OCT. 15, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

311

says) " a coinage due to a mistaken notion," it is a perfectly reasonable and a very useful form. Miss Corelli may think "helpmeet" preferable, but it is surely allowable for a reader to question the wisdom of her prefer- ence. As regards the sanction of dictionaries I can say little, not having consulted works of reference on the subject. But, so far as " helpmate " is concerned, it is a grave mis- take to say that it lives by virtue of dictionary recognition and nothing more. On such a slender basis I am not sure that I would have ventured to make any assertion as to the intelligibility of the word. Dogma without adequate evidence is of little avail ; and it is always well to have knowledge before attempting prophecy. Now here is a bald, categorical assertion, to the effect that " helpmate " is only a dictionary word, while readers of poetry are fully aware of its standard value. Wordsworth and Tennyson use it, each in one of his best and most popular poems. The third paragraph of Wordsworth's 'Michael' opens with the lines:

His days had not been passed in singleness. His Helpmate was a comely matron, old Though younger than himself full twenty years ;

while the opening sentence of the fifth para- graph says that the Shepherd "must needs have loved his Helpmate."

In Arthur's famous address in ' Guinevere ' these lines occur :

And all this throve before I wedded thee, Believing, "lo mine helpmate, one to feel My purpose and rejoicing in my joy."

I declare myself able to perceive the intelli- gibility of "helpmate" as used in these passages, and to appreciate Lord Tennyson's appended descriptive phrases. There snould henceforth be no doubt at all as to the authoritative character of this form of the word. Miss Corelli may possibly be entitled to her preference, but the average English reader had better follow Wordsworth and Tennyson. Of course, if any one holds that he finds "helpmeet" in Genesis ii. 18, and asserts that ne will continue to use the phrase that does exist there as a " dear old word," he gives ample demonstration of his own position, and so far as he is concerned there should be an end of the difficulty.

THOMAS BAYNE. Helensburgh, N.B.

As a translation of Genesis ii. 18 neither "helpmeet" nor "helpmate" is correct. In the Hebrew we find not one word, but two, n^lJP- The words literally mean "a help" or " a helper as over against him." "And as things to be compared are set over against

each other, hence, Genesis ii, 18, ' I will make for him a helper corresponding to him,' i. e. t 'his counterpart'" (Gesenius's 'Lexicon,' under *U3).

The Septuagint, while rendering ^^.? KOT" avrov in verse 18, renders it 6'juoios avroi in verse 20. R. M. SPENCE, D.D.

Manse of Arbuthnott.

N.B. "I will make for him a fitting com- panion" would adequately present the old Hebrew words in modern form.

So far as I have observed, the Bible does not give " helpmeet " as one word. We have " help meet for," " it is meet to," " fruits meet for," "not meet to be called." " Help meet," of course, describes the quality of the " help " as suitable, fit, proper, convenient, what is needed, &c. Perhaps the style of the Bible has not been improved by modern writers.

T. HUNTLEY.

29, Tonbridge Street, Leeds.

THE NAME STAMBULOFF (9 th S. ii. 288). A strong accent on one part of a word is, after all, not a general practice, and the reply, especially in the case of Eastern tongues, often is that there are several distinct accentuations on one word ; e.g., A'llahabad. So in Russian ; e.g., G6rtschakow. D.

ST. IDA (9 th S. ii. 207). IGNOKAMUS is mis- taken in assuming a village of this name to exist in Devon. Husenbeth, in his ' Emblems of Saints,' mentions two St. Idas. There was St. Ida (or Witta), a widow, whose death occurred 4 Sept., A.D. 790. In ancient Christian art she is variously depicted. In one representation she is seen filling a tomb chockful of food for the starving poor ; and in another in company with a stag, from whose horns issue flames. Again, illustra- tions exist of her with a raven with a ring in its mouth by her side. In another a dove hovers over her head, and a fifth example shows her carrying the model of a church. The other lady of the same name was St. Ida of Nivelles (A.D. 1231). She is shown pre- senting her tears to our Saviour.

HABKY HEMS.

Fair Park, Exeter.

There is not, I believe, a shred of tradition to identify St. Ide, near Exeter, either with Baring-Gould's Ida (4 Sept.) or with her namesake (15 Jan.) given under Ite in the 'Diet. Christian Biog.' If IGNORAMUS will turn to W. C. Borlase, 'The Age of the Saints' (pp. 132-6, ed. 1893), he will find an ingeni- ously presented suggestion that Ida or Ide is a variant of protean Teilo. That rejected