Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/12

 NOTES AND QUERIES. P* B. m J., i*>i.

St. Peter's-in-Thanet.

16ia "Francis Warde for teaching school \n the parish abovesaid without license. "Vol. for 1617-19,

ful. '.S.

On 30 May, 1618, " A marriage license was granted to Francis Warde, of St. Peter's in Thanet, school- master; and Mary Coppin of St. Lawrence in Thanet. To marry at St. Peter's."-Canterbury Marriage Licenses, i. 435. St. Lawrence-in-Thanet (Ramsgate). 1578. "That John Duckettdoth teach^chUdren in our parish without license." Fol. 5, 1577-85.

1612. " Lewis Rogers for teaching in our parish, being neither allowed by the Ordinary, nor having the consent of our Minister and Vicar thereunto, contrary to the Statute in the case provided, whereby both our children are rudely and igno- rantly instructed, and our Minister his small means of maintenance amongst us deducted. We desire he may desist upon pain to answer for his pre- sumption." Fol. 57, 1610-17.

1613. " We present Lewis Rogers of the same parish of St. Lawrence, schoolmaster, for a common ale-house haunter and gamester. "Fol. 109, 1610-17.

1615. " We have one Bartholomew Martingale, a schoolmaster sometime, that hath stood excom- municate a quarter of a year at least." Fol. 216, 1610-17.

Hothfield (Charing Deanery).

1506. "We have a poor man who hath taught a small time who is not licensed. He hath promised to provide a license before the next court day ; if he do not, we will and do present him ; his name is Mr. Thomas. "-Fol. 12.

1597. "That John Gibson's wife teacheth without a license."

On 8 Feb., 1596/7, she appeared in court and stated "that she teacheth none but some few children to knit and sew " (fol. 18, vol. for 1596-1 GOO, Charing Deanery).

Reculver.

1619. " We answer to the 38, James Peircy doth teach without allowance for ought we know and is sometimes of sober conversation."

On 3 November he appeared in the arch- deacon's court and confessed " that his wife by the minister's consent teacheth two or three children their horn -books, but he teacheth none himself" (vol. 1619-21, fol. 11).

ARTHUR HUSSEY. Tankerton-on-Sea, Kent.

THE DAN AIDS. For many years I have been puzzled as to the meaning of the curious myth of the Danaids. I felt sure it must be a nature myth, but what it was I could not conjecture. After I had written my note on 'Nature Myths' (0 th 8. vi. 441), light at last came from an unexpected source. On p. 950 of Roscher's 'Mytnologie* I found an en- graving from an archaic vase now at Munich representing several of the Danaids pouring water into a vessel. This is followed on the

mnora being evident y the source of a strean Hence the Danaids must denote water-carriers or conveyers of water of some kTnd But what? I found that Preller in h s ' Griechische Mythologie,' describes them as " Quellennymphen." Let us first see what IL SSthSC us. We learn that Danaus and Ayptus were brothers, grandsons of Poseidon yP and Libya The Danaids were the fifty daughters of Danaus by different mothers. They were all wedded on the same day to the fifty sons of ^Egyptus, and with one exception they all slew their husbands on the wedding night, each of them being supplied with a weapon for the purpose. The Danaids being represented as water- bringers may be explained as the canals ot the Delta, which at the time of the inunda- tion simultaneously overwhelm the lands which embrace them, which are represented by the sons of ^Egyptus. The Danaid who did not slay her bridegroom would be some canal which does not overflow, such as that which supplies the Fayoum. Thus this seem- ingly repulsive story is not a bloody tragedy, but receives an easy explanation as a nature myth. Another somewhat analogous myth may be briefly referred to, though the ex- planation is not new. The Lapithae who fight with the Centaurs in the mountains of Thessaly wage war by hurling huge frag- ments of rock upon their foes. They may represent the mountain torrents, which bring down vast boulders as they descend to the plains, contending with other streams swifter, but stoneless. ISAAC TAYLOR.

WINE IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH. In that very curious early Christian romance the 'Acts of Xanthippe and Polyxena,' two maidens, Polyxena and Rebecca, after parting with the Apostle Andrew, whilst wandering into the moun- tains meet with an ass-driver, " who seeing them said, ' Ye are not of this country, and, as I see, ye wear not its dress. Command therefore of your servant to eat bread and to receive one piece of silver, that ye may remember your servant when ye buy bread.' And he made haste and took the sacks off his asses and spread them on the ground and made the maidens to sit upon them, and said to them, 'Seeing that the wine which your servant carries is Greek, tell me of what faith ye are, that thus we may taste of it.' Polyxena said, 'We, brother, taste no wine, and are of the God of Paul."'

The ass-driver then tells them that he had been a disciple of Philip the Apostle of Christ, "and seeing how all the thought of his teacher was toward the poor, he had