Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/242

 234

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. vn. MARCH 23, 1901.

bye," to signify the meeting again soon, like <iu revoir. It is common not only on the coasts of South America (among the English), but also in South Africa among the English and Dutch, and in London. It is hardly likely that it is traceable to Jewish origin, forming a corruption of the Hebrew word "Selah"(God bless you).

J. H. MACMlCHAEL.

I first became familiar with this valediction at Malta in the seventies. It was then in common use among the Maltese of Valetta, but was by them pronounced "sah-lahng." I at that time took it to be a local form of the Arabic " salaam "; and my surprise was great when, on returning to England in the eighties, I found the phrase prevalent in London. JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS.

Town Hall, Cardiff.

If this expression for good-bye is not short for " So long as we are separated, farewell ! " can it be that it is a corruption of Irish sla<in = health ? Gaelic speakers in Eire-land com- monly salute by saying slaan-leat = health with thee, for farewell. E. S. DODGSON.

QUESTING BEAST (9 th S. vii. 149). STUDENT will know the mention of the "questing beast " in ' Morte d'Arthur,' i. 17, iv. 12, x. 13, and x. 63, Globe Edition. At the third reference occur the words "the glatisant beast that is in English to say the questing beast." At the last reference one finds " the beast Glatisant, which was a wonderful beast, and a great signification, for Merlin prophesied much of that beast." " Glatisant " is the equi- valent of the F. ylapisa-nt, meaning yelping or yapping. From xii. 14 one may infer that the "questing beast" is typical of an unfor- giving or unfriendly spirit ; or, succinctly, of contention. It was only after the Saracen Palamides became reconciled to Tristram that he was christened ; and he had vowed (x. 63) not to be christened until he had "achieved [cf. ad wijwt venire, 'H.E.D.,' s.v. 'Achieve'] the beast Glatisant."

ARTHUR MAYALL.

The "questing beast" is described in 'Morte d'Arthur,' ix. 12. It was called Glatisant, and had a head like a serpent's, a body like a leopard's, a lion's haunches, and the feet of a hare, and in its body there was a noise like that of thirty couple of hounds questing. This beast was the quest of Sir Palamides the Saracen. (J. C. R.

" LE TRECENTE CARICH K " (9 th S. vii. 127).

The schoolboy of 1651 had probably been reading the ' Epistolue Ho-Eliauie.' In book i.

section iv. letter ii. James Howell, in an epistle dated 20 Jan., 1624, and addressed ' To R. Brown, Esq., from London," observes :

"There cannot be a more pregnant proof hereof than those Seeds of Love, which I have long since ,ast into your Breast, which have thriven so well, tnd in that exuberance, that they have been more 'ruitfulto me than that Field in Sicily calld Le recente cariche, The Field of 300 Loads, so call d because it returns the Sower 300 for one yearly; so plentiful hath your Love been to me. This first part of Howell's ' Letters ' appeared n 1645, and was at once popular.

WILLIAM E. A. AXON.

Manchester.

Does this proverbial expression not

erely allude to the immense fertility of Sicily, so reputed among the ancients as
 * ,o cause the island to be called the

granary which could supply the Romans with its superabundant corn and other pro- ducts of a fruitful soil ? As to the specified

trecente cariche," their final source may be, naturally, traced in the Gospel parable of the sower well known to the mind of a schoolboy, who moreover, in this case, must also have been familiar with their meaning in Italian.

H. KREBS.

Oxford.

BYFIELD FAMILY (9 th S. vii. 129). Has your correspondent referred to ' N. & Q.,' 1 st ; S. iii. 303, where, in a note by the Editor, particulars are given of a tract in the British Museum written by the Rev. Adoniram Byfield ; also to 7 th S. xi. 485, where he will find particulars of the will of the Rev. Richard Byfield and that of his son, who bore the same Christian name ? These references may not furnish an answer to his question, but may be of interest to him. EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

In the Stratford-on-Avon register of bap- tisms, printed by the Parish Register Society, I find the following entry : " 16 March 1601/2. Nathanael filius Richardi Bifield vicar."

E. A. FRY.

" SARSON STONES " (9 th S. vii. 149). Here is an instructive paragraph about them from Mr. Edgar Barclay's ' Stonehenge,' pp. 5-6 :

" The outer lintel circle and outer horse-shoe were composed of rocks named ' Sarsens,' brought from the neighbourhood of Avebury, about twenty miles north of Stonehenge, where they occur in large numbers as a singular natural phenomenon, boulders lying deeply embedded in the soil of the chalk downs. To the north-east of the village of Avebury the land is thickly strewn with these boulders, found on the summit and in the hollows of the down ; their appearance, suggesting flocks of grey sheep, has caused them to be named ' Grey