Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/504

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. m. JUNE 24,

Chapel ('Fasti Aberd.,' p. Ixii, and Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., vol. xxiii. p. 83), and in one of the windows of the Mitchell Hall in Marischal College (E. A.'s * Description of the Armorial Bearings, &c., in the Mitchell Hall,' Abd., 1896, p. 97). P. J. ANDERSON.

University Library, Aberdeen.

SKELTON'S CIPHERS (9 th S. iii. 386). MR. THORNTON correctly explains the numerical portion of Skelton's puzzle, but dismisses the verbal portion as being " probably nonsense." In the Academy for 1 August, 1896, I gave the interpretation of the whole passage. The four lines of Latin jargon, which are not quoted altogether correctly, are printed in Dyce's edition as follows : Sicculo lutueris est colo buraara Nixphedras uisarum caniuter tuntantes Raterplas Natabrian umsudus itnugenus 18. 10. 2. 11. 19. 4. 13. 3. 3. 1. teualet. In the last line the second 3 is a mistake for 4, the word ciphered being Skeltonida, the " Laureate's " usual way of latinizing his name in the accusative. For the rest, Skel- ton's device consists in reversing the order of syllables in each word, and then adding one or two unmeaning syllables at the end of the word. The four lines, therefore, represent the following hexameters : Sic, velut est Arabum phenix avis unica tantum, Terra Britanna suum genuit Skeltonida vatem.

HENRY BRADLEY.

Clarendon Press, Oxford.

"STOOK" (9 th S. iii. 206, 357, 412, 474). I am sorry that I have been misunderstood ; but let us talk of one thing at a time. I was not speaking of English dialects, but of standard English. And I repeat that the German au does not occur as oo (in cool) in modern standard English. Is there any example to the contrary? Of course this oo often becomes ow (as in cow) in dialects ; hence prov. E. stowk for E. stook is quite regular. In precisely the same way the A.-S. u t as in cii, prov. E. coo, becomes cow in standard English. The more closely phonetic laws are examined, the better the etymology. WALTER W. SKEAT.

HOLY COMMUNION (9 th S. iii. 427). The eating of three blades of grass "in token of the Holy Communion" was a recognized form of military devotion in the Middle Ages. On the eve of battle one knight would make his confession to another, and then partake of this symbolical Communion. It would not, however, be correct to speak of either ceremony as " an efficacious substitute ' for the sacraments of penance and the

Eucharist respectively. The practices do not even amount to sacramentals. They were simply devotions in honour of the Dlessed Eucharist pious and formal expres- sions of the individual's desire to communi- cate sacramentally, had the means been present. It may be, however, that in popular estimation these practices were in some sort considered " substitutes " for the sacraments which were for the time being unobtainable. A parallel may be found in the French folk- rime on the blessed bread received by the whole congregation at a parochial Mass : Pain benit, je te prends ; Si la mort me surprend, Sers-moi de Saint Sacrement. In the latter case, however, the Church's liturgical blessing has invested the rite with the character of a sacramental.

JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS. Town Hall, Cardiff.

"SERVERY" (8 th S. viii. 286 ; 9 th S. iii. 365). $erver?/=service room is in every-day use with architects, and will often be found on the plans of houses published in the building papers. It occurs, for instance, on the plan of Broadwell, Gloucestershire, given in the Builder for 11 February, 1893.

BENJ. WALKER.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &o.

Le Livre des Mille Nuits et une Nuit. Traduction Litterale et Complete du Texte Arabe par le Dr. J. C. Mardrus. Tome Premier. (Paris, La Revue Blanche.)

IT was not to be expected that England should be allowed a monopoly of complete translations of the ' Arabian Nights.' Paris has now, accordingly, sent us, as one of the " Editions de la Revue Blanche" what assumes to be the first complete and faithful translation of the ' Alf Lailah qua Lailah,' or ' Thousand Nights and One Night,' ever given in Europe to the public. This claim is made out by maintaining that the renderings of Payne and Burton, though complete, were issued to a limited number of subscribers, and cannot be said to belong in any full sense to the world, and that the second edition of Burton is expurgated. In the present case it is affirmed the reading is word for word pure, inflexible. The Arab text has simply changed its characters from Arabic to French. A work of this class is obviously intended, in the first instance, for Frenchmen, an aspect with which we need not greatly concern ourselves. It is sufficient for us to show of what use the new rendering may be to English scholarship. There is probably no translation of the ' Arabian Nights 'as we in this country elect to call the stories pleasanter to be read by those familiar with French than that of Galland, with the additions made to it by Cazotte and others, in the "Cabinet des Fees." It contains, however, but a fraction about one-fourth of the