Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/430

 356 NOTES AND QUERIES. to* s. vi. NOV. 3,1900. either their ancient practice of exciting them- selves with hashish, or Indian hemp, on going into battle, or from the name of their founder, Hasan bin Sabbah, a pupil, with (according to the accepted tradition) Hakim Omar al Khayyam, the author of the 'Uu- baiyat,' of the Imam al Muwaffak of Naish- apur. One of Hasan bin Sabbah's descendants established the headquarters of the sect in the Lebanon, where, as previously in the Elburuz. or "Glittering-berg," their here- ditary chief was entitled Shaikh al Jabal (cf. " Gatholonabes " of Mandeville, dwelling in the wonderful "Paradise of Assassins"), loosely translated by the Crusaders "Old Man of the Mountain." The present Aga Khan has travelled through most of the countries of the Ismailians, and on my com- municating to him ME. WILLIAM CROOKE'S note he replied to mo as follows : — "I am glad you referred to me, as I think I can inform you accurately on the matter. Before the public ministry of Muhammad the Arabs called all non-Arab people ajami, that is, foreigners, ng pale of al-Islam the words "./'""' and ajami came to be used, from about the third century A.H., particularly for Persia and the Persians, and because the Persians, who are Aryans and not Semites, alone of the people conquered by the Saracen Arabs, preserved their own language and much of their ancient social customs and religious traditions. To this day throughout al-Islam ajami moans emphatically Persian. Thus Irak-ajami is Persian Irak, and is so called to distinguish it from Irak-arabi, Arabian Irak, i.e., Southern Mesopotamia. No doubt in Southern Arabia the Arabs continue to refer to the Abyssinians, Egyptians, Syrians, and Turks as also ajami ; while as to textile fabrics, silks, chintzes, carpets, &c., and their patterning and colouring, in Marocco, Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli, Egypt, and Turkey and throughout the Levant, ajami, although it includes all such stuffs from Persia and beyond Persia, especially denotates them as Persian." May I be permitted to add here the expres sion of the pleasure with which I, in common with all Anglo-Indians interested in such studies, have learnt that the preparation of a second edition of Sir Henry Yule's ' Glos- sary' (' Hobson-Jobson ') has been entrusted by Mr. John Murray to MB. WILLIAM CROOKE ] GEOKGE BIRDWOOD. "HALF MOON" TAVERN: "THE MAYPOLE" (9"> S. vi. 168, 257).— It may interest your correspondents to know that. in a MS. list of taverns in London and Westminster, itc., 1690-98, in ray possession, six are named as bearing the sign of the "Half Moon," viz., in Fleet Street, Old Bailey, Cheapside, Gracftchurch Street, Bartholomew Lane, and Whitechapel respectively. From another of my MSS., c. 1636-40, it appears that a maypole (together with a pump and a dial pillar, about which were fishmongers' shops, " and was called sometime the round howse ") was in the Strand, "in the midst of the street," just to the west of the row of houses wherein St. Clement's (Danes) Church and churchyard then stood. W. I. R. V. MR. MACMICHAEL suggests that a photo- graph or drawing shoula be obtained of the Strand maypole, which was set up in Wan- stead Park in April, 1718. I judge that this would be impossible, as the site on which it was erected is not oven remembered. Mr. William Tegg, in 'A Sketch of Wanstead Park' (1882), says :— "I have endeavoured to find out in what portion of the Park it stood, but cannot. I can only con- jecture it must have been sold (1822) at the time, the house fell under the auctioneer's hammer." A picture showing "The Maypole in the Strand Restored "accompaniesa mostinterest- ing article, entitled ' A Column of Old May,' in the Illustrated London News of 1 May, 1852. JOHN T. PAGE. West Haddon, Northamptonshire. SILHOUETTES OF CHILDREN (9th S. ii. 307, 353, 396, 436 ; v. 190; vi. 255).—In my col- lections are handbill advertisements of silhouette work half a century earlier than, the one quoted by ME. GREEN. Under date 1781 comes the following :— Likenesses in Profile. W. Clarke Takes the Liberty of acquainting the Ladies and Gentlemen of Newcastle, and Places adjacent, that during his stay in Town he takes the most striking Likenesses in Profile So Low as One Shilling Each. Time of Sitting only Two Minutes. He begs Leave to acquaint the Ladies that they need not be at the Trouble of getting their Hair dress'd, as he finishes the Head in an elegant Man- ner, entirely from his own Fancy; old Shades reduced with Care and Expedition. He also executes Designs in Hair for Lockets, Rings. Pins, Bracelets, &c Ladies and Gentlemen taught the Art of Platting Hair so expeditiously, as to execute it in the moat complete Manner with only six Teachings. Two years later, "Newcastle, Sept. 1,1783," a still more expeditious worker sends out his circular:— Most Striking Likenesses, Taken in one Minute upon an Entire New Plan. J. Miers desires to return his sincere Thanks to the Ladies and Gentlemen of Newcastle, for their Favours conferred upon him, in the Multiplicity of Business he is engaged in, and desires to inform them, that through the Encouragement he has had, and the particular Desire of a Number of Families who had not an Opportunity of Sitting to him last