Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/491

 JUNE 2*, m] NOTES AND QUERIES.

485

a broad outlining border of white or crea colour, within which was a sort of red shaw pattern, as far as I could make out, and from the intersections of the trefoil's arcs radiatec peacocks' feathers. I think it has alread been pointed out that the dread of peacock feathers which obtains in the " upper suckles is not shared by the peasantry ; but I failec to perceive in what way the bird of Jun could be congruously associated with the de cadent survivals of the Floralia. I had bee worrying my head over the matter, who I went to stay in a country rectory. In th dressing-room allotted to me was a trophy o peacocks' feathers surmounting the rnante piece, whilst the bell-cord was terminated by one of those brazen pendants, of common occurrence on the harness of carthorses which I believe Mr. Elworthy to have showr to have originated as charms against the evi eye. I noticed that, in this particular in stance, the central symbol of the charm wa a heart, and further observed that in severa instances the "eye" of the feather was of a heart shape. From these facts I evolve the following argument and query. The essence of the charm is, apparently, the heart, whicl (as well as the eye-attracting vibration inci dent to equine protections from fascination is common to pendant and feather, and i would, therefore, appear probable that the choice of the feather was due to its displaying the heart-shaped marking, and that it is this which protects the horse from nocuous glances. If this conjecture be correct, it be- comes evident that the superstitious belief as to the attributes of peacocks' feather has bifurcated, and that the divergent lines have tended towards the opposite poles of benefi- cence and malignity ; but I am quite in the dark, with the meagre evidence before me, as to the manner in which this divergence has actually come about, and if some of your erudite correspondents can offer a satisfac- tory explanation it will be very acceptable to me and doubtless to others.

FRANK REDE FOWKE. 24, Victoria Grove, Chelsea.

" APHIKOUMON." The precise origin of the word is involved in obscurity, yet every Hebrew schoolboy knows that of the three Passover cakes 'used on Seder nights the larger segment of the middle one is called by this Aramaic name. It is customary for the master of the house to lay this aside till the termination of the feast, when, prior to say- ing grace and offering the cup of wine to Elijah, he hands each guest a small portion of this biscuit to be eaten. Now in some less

enlightened Jewish households a custom has prevailed from time immemorial of preserv- ing a piece of this cake from year to year. For some talismanic reason, hitherto unex- plained, they hang it in a conspicuous posi- tion over the fireside. Perhaps these simple folk, reasoning by analogy, imagine that Eli j ah, the Jewish Mercury, might be straying by their doors any day and might want to par- take of this aphikoumon, even as he is sup- posed to drink of their wine on Seder nights. Probably it may be the aftermath of some savage custom mentioned by Mr. E. B. Tylor in his article 4 Anthropology ' in the ' Bri- tannica.' He says :

" Russian peasants set out cakes for the ancestral manes on the ledge which supports the holy pic- tures, and make dough ladders to assist the ghosts of the dead to ascend out of their graves and start

on their journey for the future world In like

manner magic still exists in the civilized world as

i survival from savage and barbaric times by

langing up to shrivel mi the smoke an image or other object that similar destruction may fall on the hated person represented by the symbol."

[f it could be shown that this was a custom also among the Russian peasantry in bygone times, then the prayers in the second part of the Seder service would go far to account Jews whose love for their native land is not ntense.
 * or the hanging of the Passover biscuit over
 * he mantelpiece in the gloomy homes of Polish

I might here point to a discrepancy in the article referred to above. Writing of the Jewish-German dialects, Mr. Tylor is made to ay, "Ich hab noch hojom lo geachelt" ("I lave not yet eaten to-day "). In the first )lace this Is not Yiddish at all. Lo, which '. take to be intended for Hebrew, is never used in the patois at all. When a negative is wanted nein or nicht is used. Hojom, which take to be synonymous with hayoum, He- braic for " to-day," would not be understood >y one foreign Jew in a thousand. He would enow the German word heute, pronounced and no other. Therefore the amended eading should be something like this, " Ich lab gar nisht hyte geachelt." Nisht is Yiddish or nicht. M. L. BRESLAR.

Percy House, South Hackney.

" PUTS NOWT UP TO MEAN NOWT." This is a

)erbyshire curiosity in the way in which one vord has two meanings. In the folk-speech

nowt" = nothing, but in the sentence which leads this the second "nowt"= any thing. I lave known "nowt" used in various ways in

Inch a negative is implied or understood.

wo men will have, an argument a dispute and the one who gets the worst of it